How Many Hearts?

Midway through rehearsal, Tammy gets fed up with Defibrillator. "I can't do this song!" she declares.

Jump-start my heart.

Clear!

That's what the emergency medics say on TV just before they apply the slick cold metal of the defibrillator to a patient whose heart has stopped. That's what that machine is called.

Not "a device to stop us from lying..." as heard in the song Tammy is rehearsing, ie. to De-fib... Ha, ha. But a machine to "restart the heart when it is dying..."

Then, she starts singing a different song called Shocker.

This shocks me! Like a defibrillator. Shocker, it turns out, is just more fun...more alive! Whumph! Like a lubricated metal shock to my ticker.

Whoo!

It's close to ten o'clock. We won't finish until 3 am.

This is our intimate process of creation. It is like lovemaking. And this kind of foreplay is shared with the whole household when the video is in production...

Just because it's a labour of love doesn't mean it's always easy. Every week, I'm painfully aware of the artistic challenge I've set up for myself. It's just because I wanted to put my money were my mouth is. Always. And come up with 101 ways to shoot Tammy's live music videos.

And every week, I trust that something will happen without much planning. And I go with the flow.

I did know ahead of time that Valentine's day would a special day for Instant Videos since we've used the heart shape as a kind of mascot icon with our continuing to discreetly place hearts in every video we upload for the ardent players out there of the I Spy a Heart game... Feb. 14th 2009 also marks the 6th anniversary of Original Plastic the website.

I want to do something special. And my brain jumps to the conclusion that we need the most hearts we've ever had or ever will for this Valentine's edition. How about a contest? How many hearts are there in Instant Video #20? The first one to tell us the answer correctly by any means of communication by the next video gets a limited edition Instant Videos DVD of Season One signed by Tammy.

Wow. A love song called Defibrillator! Tammy, you rock.



Defibrillator
by Tammy Lin Foreman

Half of me
waiting
the rest
debating

defibrillator
defibrillator

Restart my heart.

To look into the eyes of you
is one and one,
one?
or is it two?

Thought it was a device
to stop us from lying
Really a machine that
restarts a heart
when it is dying

It means the same damn
thing to me
I won't live with a lie
will I die lonely?

oh

I've settled for less
now I'm asking for more

If you will be mine
I will be your...

defibrillator.

If you will be mine
I will be yours

Fair, kind and true
with every part
tell me the truth

Restart my heart.