Believe me, I understand: it's kinda scary to put yourself out there with the likes of Jim Spath, Jon Reed, Thorsten Franz, and all the others who do such a great job at creating videos for SCN. However, last year my submission was awarded one of the SCNotties, for Worst Production Values, if memory serves me. I told myself I had to try to do better this year, especially after receiving the gift of a Flip HD camera. No more grainy images from my old camera; I knew I had to try.
I thought about last year's video, taken by my husband in our garden with our dachshund Peg, and decided to do something completely different this time. When I learned of a special event at an upcoming Houston Astros game, I decided that was it. I bought a ticket and made my plans.
The special event was a post-game attempt at a Guinness book world record for group harmonica playing. So after work on Friday night, I packed up my camera, the tripod I bought this summer, and my harmonica, and I made my way downtown to Minute Maid Park. The first take was really not too bad, except that I was nearly out of the frame throughout, and the ending was especially disappointing. Time for take 2.

The second take was much better; it wasn't perfect, but it was good enough, and it was starting to get noisy at the ball park, so I decided that it was a wrap. The baseball game itself was not particularly memorable; after the score was tied, sending it into extra innings, the Astros managed once again to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Oh well, better luck next time. Finally it was time for the big harmonica ensemble event.

After watching the video, I decided to spare y'all the torture of the five minutes of thousands of amateur harmonica players, hooting interminably into the night. The leaders did their best, and while the ensemble will never make a Carnegie Hall debut, it was a lot of fun, and the Friday Night Fireworks show that followed was festive.

The only thing left to do today, other than the video editing, was take care of one small oops: after the second recording, my glasses fell out of my purse and the supposed indestructible titanium frames broke in two. My optician could only shake his head, order a new frame, and patch me up with tape.

Oh well, it was just a minor mishap in the name of art. Or something, Anyway, I did it, and you can, too.