Well, That Sucked.

I had a much closer look at that weekend than I expected. Completely forgetting that their is no Major League Baseball team other than the Braves near most Southeastern states, I was able to view the majority of all games on Fox and their Sports South affiliate.

In no way did the weekend suck, as we were able to make a 6-minute film in 48 hours with my girlfriend's brother in Alabama. The only thing that sucked was the Mets' circumstances witnessed. We flew in to Nashville Friday afternoon, were picked up by said brother and driven to Numynd Studios to receive the packet needed to complete the 48-Hour Film Race. In the movie, there had to be a blender, a gym teacher named Fritz or Frieda, and the line, "We need to get going." The genre assigned was, "Film De Femme," a genre they invented.  We then drove 2 hours to the Space Capital of the Nation, Huntsville, AL. Brainstorming as we rode, we attempted to come up with an idea before we got home. I really wanted to go with the killer blender who keeps showing up wherever a strong female lead goes (cancha see it?) The ideas were flowing from everyone as the Orange and Blue got started with their 2nd half in ATL. Having to make a film with the Mets a lot closer than I expected them to be was a great test of my willpower to keep my composure. In retrospect, I'm happy to have endured that. Yeah, I could have saved myself some grief by avoiding contact and concentrating fully on the film, but my fandom wouldn’t allow it. Let recap the weekend:

 

• The MLB Radio App was not working, and according to Twitter, other people were having the same problem. I followed the first moments of Game 1 from mostly Tweets and Gamecast. As I read of the happenings, the scoreboard froze on Josh Thole's strike 1 call in the 2nd. I couldn't understand why it wasn't updating until I went to Twitter and saw reports of the power going out at the Ted. It finally turned on as we were halfway to 'Bama. The Mets came storming back until they decided to come to a stand still with the bases loaded and none out in the 5th. Uncharacteristic of a team we've come to expect more from. While there are plenty of spots to point at as to where the Mets lost this game, that moment was single-handedly the spot where they definitively weren't going to win. I watched the rest at their house before we pre-produced till 3 in the morning. Once we thought we had an idea we could all agree with (“We’ve got killer blender…I’m just sayin’…) we went to sleep until the crack of 9 to begin production on our 48-hour film. 

• We woke up the next morning and readied the equipment into the car. Other cast and crew members arrived, and we ventured out into the hills of Alabama, looking for cliff-like scenery in an Monte Sano State Park. There were possible thunderstorms rolling in around mid-afternoon, so it was important to get the exteriors done before then. We were finished there by 2:30 or so, Central Time, and headed down to get some interior shots. We arrived just in time for the game to be on in the background while we filmed. All around the house we shot until it was time for a “fiancé and his friends” scene in the living room. As Bobby Parnell blew it, I sat there as one of the fiancé's “friends.” Talk about keeping composure while filming a movie (we ended up scraping that scene for a “fiancé and his friends leaving the house to go party” scene. I bet I look real pissed in the living room dailies.) After filming till around 10, we loaded the footage onto the computer. It took about an hour, so we watched the comedy of Tom Wilson. Apparently, Biff’s a comedian. Pretty funny. Check it out on Netflix.  Afterwards, I looked for some royalty-free music we could use from the collection of Kevin MacLeod (nice variety if you're ever looking for some tight, free music.) Once we had all the footage up there, we did the basic framework of the editing before going to sleep around 2.

• We woke up rather early to edit, sitting around the computer before her brother went to church at 9. He arrived back at 12:30 and joined the river mid-stream. At 1:30, I naturally turned the TV on so I could periodically check the game from the editing room. Turned out I could see 25% of the TV screen from the room. In that 25% view was CB Bucknor’s strike zone and the damage thereafter. Truthfully, the large lead and the disappointment that followed allowed me to go more than 1 pitch in between checking up on The Burning in Atlanta. We finished up around 4:45 (with not one frame of a killer blender) and got everything ready to hop in the car back to Nashville. The movie needed to be in the hands of the studio by 7:30. We got there around 7:12. Able to relax, we ventured to a restaurant called Cock of the Walk, a place that boasted on the outside they have the best fried catfish in the world. I haven’t had that much catfish in my life so I can’t say whether it’s the best, but it’s some darn good catfish alright (it's also got a giant chair.) We left for Huntsville around 9, arriving back at 11:15. Closing in on our exit, we started having a 90’s sing-along featuring The President of the United States of America, Chumbawamba, and Blues Travelers. Hadn’t heard some of those songs in a long, long time. We passed out almost immediately when we got to the house, as our flight took off at 6:45 AM to…(sigh)…Atlanta.

Now back in New York after a fun, exciting and adventurous weekend, it’s as if the scheduling Gods knew we would have trouble with the Braves after the break and gave us this perfect off-day to recollect ourselves. When I first got home, I tuned into SNY and saw the newest Mets Weekly. It was the one right after the break and had a lot of highlights of all the good times in the 1st half. Not a bad sight after such bad baseball. I still feel this team is different than all the other Mets teams that sputter in the 2nd half. No way am I ready to start panicking. Sound the Alarm? Yeah, sure. But I believe in Terry Collins’ ability to get these players in the right frame of mind to make a run. I don’t believe the starting pitching will be as bad as it has been. Though it might not be as good as it was. This team, however, as they showed in the 1st half and even at points this weekend, will battle. They just need to get on the good foot.

LET'S. GO. METS. 

(Bring Matt Harvey up. Let him finish this year’s development in the Big Leagues.)

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