To be an animal is to be……
wild
uncensored
unhinged
raw
fearless

When she texted that she was two blocks away from my apartment, I was none of these things.

Yet, fifteen minutes later, I was writhing on my Victorian couch to the music she created.
It was captured for all on her iPhone.

And I was an animal.

How do I get into my animal state?

By knowing that I am not promised any of my days.
By knowing that even if I’m lucky enough to live to be 90 something, this will all go by in the blink of an eye.
By knowing that what I have is this moment.

So let’s get animal.

And when I closed my eyes and calmed the eff down, it was the music that transported me to that state.
It’s my favorite way to escape.

And she’s one of my favorite people to escape to…..  Kim Boekbinder “The Impossible Girl”.

She’s taught me to be fierce, to be fearless, to push forth in my dreams with wild abandon.

She’s an example of all of that.

She rallied up 18 friends to film….her own version of Warhol’s Factory: a daring and darling creative bunch of artstars.  These were the people I moved to New York City to know in my wildest dreams….

Armed with her iPhone and a Metrocard, she ran from apartment to apartment throughout New York City. She made plans with some and surprised others. She got clips from friends in Australia, in New Orleans, and in San Francisco and then she put us all together.

I haven’t danced in front of a camera held by a friend since I was 12 and was lip synching to Siouxsie and the Banshees and Berlin. And here I was, in my Brooklyn apartment, at 1am, with Kim and her iPhone.

I was kind of terrified.

Suppose I looked dumb? Suppose I looked completely awkward?
I did. I assure you. I was cardboard stiff for the first five minutes. 
But then that whole “fuck it” thing came in to play. Who cares? I’m happy to just be a part of it. I’m happy I get to do this. I shook off my nerves by breaking into laughter with Kim. And then Niney made an appearance in the video to see what the hell we were lying on the floor laughing about….(psst…3:04).

Dancing around with wild abandon in my living room made me feel high. It brought me out of a funk.

What would it do for you?

Because I want to dare you……

Do you want to be an animal?

Kim says: “Post a video of yourself as a “video response” in the comments on the youtube page here. If I get enough responses I’ll make a whole second music video with you in it!

I’ll choose three of you at random to get signed CDs and love letters from me (shipped anywhere in the Galaxy.)

Shoot with iPhone, or camera, or laptop – whatever you’ve got! I used the ‘Cinepro’ iPhone app on the ‘Detroit’ filter setting. But do whatever is easiest and fun, film yourself, your friends, your pets, your shadow, whatever comes out when you listen to the song – I wanna see it!”

You can download Animal for free here.

Or get the whole album for just 5 bucks here.

I’m excited to see your video responses. Maybe it will get me over my fear of doing video completely and push me to do a vlog for you next week. If at least 20 people enter, I’ll list winners next Tuesday with a vlog. CHALLENGE.

Being an Animal…

RAWR.
Vv