the making of...a live homemade music video every week
Friday, December 26, 2008
Happy Birthday Tammy!
For the cake decoration, my sister offers the Limited Edition M&Ms she picked up at M&M World in Florida. They are green mint crisp candies to commemorate Indiana Jones.
The bedtrack is fed into Tammy's right ear from Georgia's iPod shuffle. The wireless mic she sings into is covered by a red Christmas bow.
There's no time. Again. It's Tammy's birthday and I want to take her out to the movies. And Christmas takes it away from her. Every year.
The candles..yeah! Perfect. She'll have her cake and eat it too.
Rush. My heart beats so fast. And. Just for the record, the cake is delicious.
Sweet is Low by Tammy Lin Foreman
experimental oh so gentle you are these things mornings / evenings all afternoon dream of the moon keeps you busy when you get dizzy when your sweet is low your sweet is low
incidental when your mental you are these things am / pm 3.14 dream in 4/4 keeps you busy when you get lazy when your sweet is low your sweet is low your sweet is low
Tammy's cover of "The Girl from Ipanema" first appeared on her self-released cassette The Girl Inside Your Man from 1996.
It's not that easy to play cassettes anymore.
An old friend has been watching the Instant Videos from afar and requested the track. Other requests have come in.
It still comes together each week. Without too much planning, the elements somehow converge.
This project keeps me alive, keeps me going.
If we go through all of Tammy's old songs on all those cassettes we'll have a hundred instant videos in no time.
The Girl from Ipanema
Adapted by Tammy Lin Foreman from the original English lyrics by Norman Gimbel
Tall and tan and young and lovely the girl from Ipanema goes walking And when she passes each one she passes goes ahhh When she walks she's like a samba that swings so cool and sways so gently that when she passes each one she passes goes ahhh Oh, but I watch her so sadly How can I tell her I love her Yes, I would give my heart gladly but each day when she walks to the sea she looks straight ahead not at me Tall and tan and young and lovely the girl from Ipanema goes walking and when she passes I smile but she doesn't see she just doesn't see
Okay. It has been special requested to have the separated tracks from the latest Instant Video to enable audio artists to do remixes... Do it up! And send us the remixes... We'd love to hear them. Thanks for watching!
Don't sweat it sweetheart just go and do your part you can't make it happen with them so go on your own.
You are strong + happy make it quick, make it snappy it don't matter, it don't matter if they don't see coz eventually, eventually it will be and then they'll see.
Don't doubt just wash it out the spout will come about and the full force, full force, full force wash it down the drain of your brain oh the full force, full force, full force watch it down the drain of your brain --
Seven days ago, YouTube changed their viewer size to accommodate the widescreen video trend. November 25 - I marked it; a big day for a YouTube content producer. (There was no warning.) I realized that day that I didn't really have any control over such things and wonder if all of this dependence on free web sites (including this one) will bite me later on, if and when they decide to charge for the service.
Anyway, I actually like the "pillar-boxing" effect on 4x3 shots (as opposed to the "letter-boxing" of the widescreen format) and I think it enhances the compositions of my "old" videos. But the day they changed the screen size on YouTube, I knew I had to figure out a way to fill that whole space somehow for the next Instant Video. And I didn't know how. And it's already time to shoot the next one.
"I didn't choose the song..." says Tammy. "The song chose me." We are tired. It's late in the week. Delays. It's busy. There's no preconceived idea. "Where should I set up?" Anywhere. Let's put up a wallpaper of American dollar bills. Isn't that where you'd find "dead presidents" as in the lyrics to the song?
Let's put up just one. No. That doesn't work. Maybe I'll do something in post. Is that breaking the Instant Video rule? I will keep it one uninterrupted take. That's really the only rule. And I can put the take inside that ten dollar bill. Is that too cheesy?
Tammy styles her scarf like an ascot worn by Alexander Hamilton in the painting by John Trumbull on which the picture on the ten dollar bill is based.
Wikipedia tells me Alexander Hamilton isn't even a dead president. He was the first United States Secretary of the Treasury under George Washington. Hamilton also has the distinction of dying from a gunshot wound he acquired from a duel. Social convention at the time forced him to confront another politician purportedly because of a careless remark Hamilton made at an upstate New York dinner party.
Money by Tammy Lin Foreman
C'mon let's leave I mean why, why should we wait when there are stars in our stride and there is heaven in our gait and love, it loosens our legs and love, it swings out our arms and love, don't matter none coz we are lucky like charms money (money) the reasons slip by me the reasons slip by me
Honey, money don't matter it's just a clatter of coins and when our hands join it ceases to exist I follow my bliss not the green that's in my fist coz cash is just a flash in the hand d'you understand? I don't need pictures of dead presidents to make me happy I'd rather we be free and let love lead our day love, pay our way love, it will stay and money, will come and go money (money) the reasons slip by me the reasons slip by me
dollar signs in your eyes they won't buy me sugar pie I want the pie in the sky I just love you so much the kind that money can't touch still you spend all day making dough to blow and when you get home you gotta get, you gotta go with your card cash, cold cash, money in hand I want to leave this life but you don't understand You think it's all about the way you look You think it's all about your pocketbook
But I don't want your money I just want your honey.
"What about the heart?! We need a heart." Don't worry. It's in there. I made sure.
Lester Alfonso is a filmmaker, writer and video artist whose work has
appeared on CBC's ZeD TV, Nickelodeon Asia, Salon.com and TVOntario. Trying to Be
Some Kind of Hero, his award-winning documentary tracing the footsteps
of his missing grandfather, was the official selection for more than a
dozen film festivals across North America.
His newest film, TWELVE, won the National Film Board of Canada's REEL DIVERSITY contest.
For the cake decoration, my sister offers the Limited Edition M&Ms she picked up at M&M World in Florida. They are green mint crisp candies to commemorate Indiana Jones. 
There's no time. Again. It's Tammy's birthday and I want to take her out to the movies. And Christmas takes it away from her. Every year.
