A Pillow and a Wooden Spoon

This head cold is a bother. Just looking down hurts my head. But the show must go on, right? I'm using anything I can get my hands on to get the Instant Video done.

My friend J. takes rectangular slabs of mirror and duct-tapes them together facing each other to make simple kaleidoscopes. J. is a stained-glass artist with scraps of mirror lying around. She helps me make this.

The idea is to avoid putting special effects on the video after the shoot. We built this lens attachment to shoot with straightaway. This is where my head was at a few years ago when I was commissioned to create the video backdrop for a choreography of Chau (martial art) for three dancers. I thought I had it.

Using only straight cuts (no dissolves) and manually speeding up the image with an old VCR and other "manual" effects, I created Rubies under a rigorous set of self-imposed editing restrictions. Tammy's Salutations came out of that process and the same rules applied.

That's the back-story on the lenses while I tell myself: everything I need is right here, under my nose, waiting for me to discover. Those old kaleidoscopes are just inside this old box. Keep it simple and hand-held. Spit and shoe polish on a shoestring budget. Use an old idea. Use a darn pillow and a wooden spoon! It's like making Dogme 95 style music videos. It's just a matter of committing to a concept on-the-spot right from the get go. I imagine it's like bungee jumping.

That's what it's like. Picking up the camera and ready, set, go, go, go.

Rock and roll it a bit. Why not? It's the time and place, after all.



Is it Alright?
by Tammy Lin Foreman

Tonight
I am wonderin'
is it alright?
to sit tight
and not
paint the town
bright

RED

Everything is something to be ashamed of
...if you look at it that way.

So I'll change my mind
leave it behind
let it all go
until tomorrow
and when tomorrow comes
I will pack up my drums
and my angels

And move on
I'll move on
until the next dawn
'til there's no wrong
and then

I'll unpack my drums
and beat...
a rhythm
beat...
a rhythm

I wanna
hear...
the rhythm
I wanna hear, clear,
clear
the rhythm

Move on move on
'til dawn
move on move on
no wrong

and when tomorrow comes
I will unpack my drum
and beat a rhythm...

Everything's something to be ashamed of
...if you look at it that way.