I'm in Kevin Bacon's new music video. Here's the video. The story is below:

www.youtube.com/watch

Early this year, in this very Tribe, we were discussing how YouTube has begun either pulling our videos down or taking the sound out of them claiming that we are infringing on the copyright of music companies by playing music we own, dancing to it and sharing our dances with our friends. (I still think it qualifies as "Fair Use" but I won't go there again.) Since then I've been trying to use the music of people who share their music freely. I prefer music of friends who are musicians or people who are sharing their music freely on their websites or MySpace pages or music that is simply not copyrighted. On the very day this conversation was taking place, my friend Betty called and told me that Kevin Bacon was giving away a song on his website (turns out he has a band with his brother Michael, called Tha Bacon Brothers) and was asking people to dance to it in their living room, shoot some video and post it on his youtube page. She said he and his brother were going to select from the entries and make a video for their new song. The timing couldn't have been more perfect ... except for one thing. It was the last day to submit a video! It was Valentine's Day and I had a hoop performance, for which I was already dressed, so I figured, "What the hell?" I downloaded the song, listened to it once, shot a short video, started it uploading to YouTube and left for my performance. And I forgot all about it.

This was that dance (not one of my best but, again, I didn't really know the song):
www.youtube.com/watch

Weeks later, I got a message from someone on Youtube. They said, "Have you seen that video of Kevin Bacon watching your dance video? It's on his page." and I was like, "Whuh!?!" I went to the page and, sure enough, over his shoulder, there I am -- dancing in my living room.

Me watching Kevin Bacon watching me was one of the most surreal experiences I've ever had in my life. In the video, I was wearing my flamenco dress for the performance I'd had and it's funny to hear them speculate about whether or not I'm Spanish (which, technically, I am. I was born on a Naval base in Rota, Spain, though I didn't grow up there.) Kevin even says, "I never thought hula hoops would come back." Hahahaha! That cracks me up.

That video is here and I am at about :25 seconds into it (it makes me blush even now):
www.youtube.com/watch

Then, in April, they announced that 10 people were selected to be in a new video they were making for the song -- and I was one of them. That video is here and they announce me about 1:30 into it.
www.youtube.com/watch

You'll notice they give a shout out to "The Dirty Leprechauns". Well, funny thing, after I saw the video of them watching my video, my friends and I were having a costume party (The Dirty Leprechaun Party) at Thunder's house and we decided to make another video! Someone had told me that the submission date was extended (though apparently it wasn't) so I figured, "Why not?" I delight in our weirdness and we were dressed in these ridiculous outfits anyway and I thought it would be fun. And, again, it was. That crazy video is here:
www.youtube.com/watch

I love when his brother Michael says, "That was pretty crazy." Yes. Yes, it was. And I love that they give a shout out to The Dirty Leprechauns. (I'm tagging you all in here!)

So that was April and months and months passed and, again, I'd pretty much forgotten all about the video they'd planned to make ... and then ... bum bum bum! Tonight I got an email announcing the new video was done. Eeeeek!!!!!

Here is the final product: www.youtube.com/watch

Trippy. So I think that makes me, like, one degree of separation from Kevin Bacon, right? I mean, me watching him watch me ... that's some crazy stuff. I am still tripping out over it.

Thank you Michael and Kevin for putting me in your video, for sharing your music freely and for co-creating art with people around the world. I love that!