How’s it going, group?
So I took a few walks across campus recently. Felt and found myself concentrating on lines before me. I tried to capture them. In some way shape or form, I saw them. I don’t know if anyone will want to agree with me. That is why I find art and photography so very interesting. My curiosity and mental placement inside the works of Edward Hopper is something I can’t explain. I don’t want to. But I can point to his work in my classroom and pass along a few anecdotes. That is what have here today with some of these photos I suppose. Enjoy or don’t. That is in the eye of the beholder.
If you know North like I do, you are familiar with the old gym, locker room, and weight room.
You old Uncle Dan can remember when all the surface in this photo was gravel. The closest door was the home football locker room. The next one up was for the visitng team and was the NH girls locker room as well. Two opposing teams this close together was not a great idea. Not surprising. North did not start playing varsity football until 1978. We made a serious run of good time from 1979 to 1982. NH Football’s support then moved to Seymour with my friend Bob Mahan. It would take 30 years for football to find its way again to North in earnest. In 2012 it was realized, finally, that football can be successful and you can play good basketball too. Brownstown has done it for years. Some things take time. Some things never change.
A new tennis court was installed this year and it is very nice. Coach Bart Bigham deserves this too. He is a great coach and example for student-athletes of any sport.
Benches on both sides of the court. Nice.
The gravel road above “THE HILL” at North Harrison’s Football Stadium. I like the BLUE paint it received this year.
Lines of bleachers.
Okay, riddle me this, Batman.
The following pictures show an East side goalpost that is “leaning” a little to the right. Taken along the line of the West side goalpost.
Then, and I will grant you that it is tilted a bit…but look at the recovery the far post makes below.
My art teaching friends David Shiner or Jerry Brown could probably add some insight where I cannot. Still, it is an interesting photo.
The Band got a great new sign with nice lines. They did a fantastic job this year during football season. I told them so heading to the locker room at halftime during one of our football games. Their dedication to their craft is an inspiration to anyone looking to see what hard work can do.
An empty guidance office getting a new makeover. Thirty years on, it is time. Good for Mrs. Eckart. I spent some time in that room.
Talk about lines! Wow. Many stories are here. The play, A Christmas Scarol, was a great time earlier this month. I was delighted to be a part of it. The cast and crew did a great job pulling this off and I sincerely thank them.
These evergreens act as a sanctuary of sorts. They may be the most beautiful things on the North Harrison campus. Simply a breath of fresh air every time I look at them. Away from a coast, is there a more compelling sound than a stiff wind rushing through pine trees? I don’t think so.
From the Meijer parking lot a couple days ago. Cargo planes were coming in like crazy to Louisville’s Standiford Field. This one doesn’t even have a paint job yet. At first glance, this photo looked to me like a plane that was flying toward Ultraman…the ancient TV show. This thing doe not look real to me.
Then this one came along with its paint job.
Those are some mighty big planes.
Smile, Justin! This ain’t 1969! In those days, The Moodies’ admit now, they looked a bit too serious for their own good. It worked out, didn’t it?
During the worst days of the current pandemic, Justin Hayward, God Bless him, put a video/music series called Tuesday Afternoons with Justin Hayward. Released on Tuesdays, as the name suggests along with the reference to one of The Moody Blues’ classic tunes that Hayward wrote called…Tuesday Afternoon.
This week Justin released 9 songs, rather deep-cuttish, from Moodies, Blue Jays, and solo material that he featured on this series. As the photo above suggests, it was offered as an audio file only. 10 bucks. The man is still working!
With that, I transferred them over to a few CDs I “burned” as the term goes. Today I will be going over to see my parents and deliver one to them. They enjoy The Moody Blues too. They saw The Moody Blues four times and went to Justin’s solo show in Lexington in 2017.
Look out for those parallel lines. Ironically, as I types these last words, I am listening to John Lodge’s Live from Birmingham (England) CD. John, The Moodies’ bass player and singer, is singing the soung Nervous. The song mentions straight lines, parallel lines.
I am so waiting for his new live album to make its way my doorstep on CD and vinyl.
I gave my Dad John’s Live at Birmingham double LP for Christmas. He opened it and was so proud of it. Dad loves vinyl. If you remember it like I do, you know why.
I can still remember my Dad looking at me after The Moody Blues’ concert at The Louisville Palace in late March 2016. The man who had Bo Diddley play his prom in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1959, looked at me and said, “That is best show I have ever seen.” I can still hear his voice.
My dear wife, Carrie, and I had tickets to see John with Yes and Asia and Carl Palmer when they played near Buffalo in 2019 in Lewiston. We were head back to Indiana from New Hampshire and found one delay after another one the drive to Niagra Falls. I was so disappointed.
The first time I met John was in 1994 in Birmingham, Alabama. And in 2012 he was next me before the show at The Murat n Indianapolis…below.
From The Moodies last show at Red Rocks in 2011. So glad we were there.
I hope to catch a John Lodge show one day.
Today as I was walking on the school campus, I was listening to John’s Birmingham concert. I was taken aback by the tightness of the sound. His song “Isn’t Life Strange” got better treatment than I ever heard in concert with the Moodies. My apologies, but as my website suggests…I speak the rights.
Danny Johnson
