Now is the Time

We start off with a glimmer of an idea: a whim. It is unclear what will end up happening. All I know is that I want to finally take the Instant Video outside for a walk. Maybe even do that after dinner. We can take the kids to the park and maybe they can play while we shoot the next video...

Tammy suggests that it can just be a straight up song with no looper needed. She's got a song in mind. She says she can plug her electric guitar right into the battery-powered Edirol R-09 audio recorder that fits nicely in the side pocket of her black jacket.

She suggests I use a wireless lav for her vocals and just marry the two parts of the audio in the editing. I say, "Okay. But where are we gonna go?"

"There's Beavermead Park. There's downtown." Our eldest daughter Sunny is almost twelve years old. She hears all this and says "You're going to film this in public?"

Tammy and I promise the kids that there will be reward for good behavior later at home after the shoot. "Let's go to Beavermead..." I tell Sunny that she can be in charge of the digital camera and take the production stills. She agrees.

On the way to the park, we start thinking about how to include this week's heart in the video. What about that temporary tattoo? Hmmm...

"Is there a place somewhere in Peterborough with a heart?" We are silent in the car for a while thinking about this. For this particular concept we need a location with a heart built-in. "Doesn't TCBY have a heart in their logo? What about the Heart & Stroke foundation? A greeting card store?"

"What about the cemetery?" Tammy says "What if there's a heart on a tombstone? The cemetery fits the theme of the song really well."

"You guys are going to film the video in a cemetery!" Sunny exclaims. "OMG. I'm so embarrassed."

I'd done some filming at a cemetery nearby. We get there and we drive around slowly. Tammy puts the girls to work. "Keep an eye out for hearts!"

Nothing. Nope. Nada. No hearts. And we're losing the light.

"There!" says Georgia from the backseat. "Where?" Tammy stops the car. She backs up a little bit. There it is. Unmistakable. So now, I say to myself, we got to fit this in somehow.

Sunny manages to take one picture and the camera's batteries die instantly. I won't find out until later what she took a picture of.

I want a picture of my two girls but I don't have a way to take it right now. I imprint a mental image into my head. It ends up looking like a Norman Rockwell painting he forgot to paint. Two girls amongst the tombstones. It's called "Waiting for their Parents to Finish Filming the Video."

We have a family TV night planned for when we get back home with chips, pretzels, orange juice and the season finale of Amazing Race. I can't wait. Let's get going. It's getting dark. And the bugs are starting to come out.



No Time Like the Present
by Tammy Lin Foreman

no, no, no, no time like the present
makin' it known
no, no, no, no time like the present
feelin' full blown
somethin' in me
somethin' in me
smiles alone
somethin' in this heart of mine
saying go go go go go oh!

hoo hoo wah oh...

notice, notice how it bends
the way way way way high high high above
the rainbow ends and i say
no! time like the present
makin' it known
we won't be here forever
blue, blue
into the blue
blue, blue

hoo hoo wah wah oh...