The Reasons Slip by Me

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.



(See Money filling the entire frame on YouTube.)

"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.