Monday, February 15, 2010

A Letter to Tammy

No. I think you need to do this song and not the other one. Why?

Well. I think the song goes better with what I'm doing here, flipping recipe cards. What are you doing? You won't even let me read what you have!

Tammy, I say, I don't want you to read this until you see the video. This is my video Valentine's to you. Okay.

I don't tell Tammy that it's actually based on a letter I wrote her twelve years ago on Valentine's Day. The presentation was elaborate. There were sixteen heart-shaped pages inside a heart-shaped basket filled with pink confetti. What a romantic! *groan* And this museum artifact is just sitting here on my desk right now. It's hard to even believe it myself...

I pick up the basket to examine it while Tammy rehearses one of her songs. I sift through the heart-shaped notes and read through them. Suddenly, it hits me when I get to a page with a scribbled word at the bottom, awkward and out-of-place. It's a message from the past.

Just one word: video. It's a single word non-sequitur scribbled with a seemingly automatic hand at the bottom of the page. What? I have to use this somehow. That's the only way I can interpret it. Hmmm... Valentine's Day is really about writing. So maybe do the first hand-written Instant Video? That's how the brain train went choo choo!

So, instantly, I was there with the Sharpie inking the cards. This reminds me of Bob Dylan in Subterranean Homesick Blues with the cue cards in the alley way. I'm tired but I can do this. And only this. Tammy will score it live. I'll need to pan up to her playing at the end for the reveal. Ready? Let's do it in one take. What are you going to sing? Tammy, please. Just make it up. But not too many words, okay? Let's go!



My Heart
by Tammy Lin Foreman

My heart
is full of love for you
Don't you know
you're everything to me?

2 Comments:

Anonymous robin said...

wow, that's beautiful.

February 15, 2010 at 4:05 PM  
Blogger Lester Alfonso said...

Thanks Robin. ...means a lot. :)

February 15, 2010 at 5:07 PM  

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