The tenderest of Tenderloins…

You have heard the song title and subsequent references for said title many times. I’m Back in the Saddle Again.

Well…the weather is cooperating and I am back on the back porch again this beautiful and reasonably cool Saturday morning.  This is quite the juxtaposition from where we have been the past week or more when it has been intensely hot and even more-so humid.  Like many of you, my pipes can’t take that recipe too well.  Translation:  I have breathing difficulties within the confines of a weather pattern that will run me indoors in a hurry.  I don’t like that.  I like being outside when I type my speaks!  Just like many miss the sound of a banging clanging typewriter when they write, I enjoy hearing the occasional bird or jet that is losing altitude as it takes the west to east pattern over my head to Louisville’s Standiford Field.  Squirrels in the walnut trees scurry and yammer a bit, like only they can.  Throw in the crickets and the tree frogs and you have quite the natural symphony that one can’t get when relying on piped in clean cool air to sustain and preserve one’s ability to breath clearly.

Translation:  Man I’m glad to be on the back porch again!

Last weekend my dear wife, Carrie, and I stopped at an eatery in North Vernon, Indiana just on the east end of town as we were heading west on Highway 50.  Grateful Grubb was the name of the place.

Now understand what I am about to suggest is something I would not suggest you eat on a daily basis.

Some of us were not blessed with a genetic code that allows us to eat what we want, when we want, and as much as we want without serious repercussions.  I am one of those people.  I am proud to say that going on more than two years now, the is much less mass of me than there was.  I lost a considerable amount of weight and I have been able to find my way without finding it on me again.

I can look real hard at 5 or 6 doughnuts and that alone will make me have to loosen the belt on my pants.  If I smell them for any considerable amount of time, I might as well sit down and rest for a few minutes.

Grateful Grubb in North Vernon was one of those days I threw caution to the country road.  We were on a Highway that runs from Ocean City, Maryland to San Francisco.  I felt I owed it to the spirit of sea to shining sea…it was time for a tenderloin!

The tenderloin sandwich is indigenous to Indiana, so I have heard.  You won’t find it (at least I have not found it) on the menu in North Carolina or Texas or Mississippi or Colorado or Hawaii or Maine…but I think you may find it in Wisconsin and Illinois.

There is a considerable German-Dutch population in Indiana and much of the Midwest and the tenderloin may just be an American way of saying  Wiener Schnitzel…Austrian in origin and enjoyed by many around its borders in Europe.

The tenderloin is a pork cutlet that in most cases is pounded and pounded some more until it is about a quarter inch thick and breaded and fried.  They are usually placed on a small bun (in the places I have ordered them) and one must fold the tenderloin a few times just to get it within the confines of the bun.  I warn you against such a practice.

My tenderloin eating experience…and I consider myself well-versed… has led me to the practice of tearing off the pieces that hang over the bun.  I set these pieces aside and look around the table for the nearest bottle of ketchup.  After acquiring the ketchup, I proceed to place a handsome amount of the tomato delight on my plate and I use my fingers, as I think the Lord intended, to take loose tenderloin pieces and dip them in the ketchup before placing them properly in my chewing factory.  Enjoy.

Grateful Grubb in North Vernon had all the great expectations of a good tenderloin experience…but…oh my…their tenderloin was indeed truly tender.  It was a half-inch thick and was not tough at all.  It was moist, juicy, and bordering on the tenderloin unheard of “fluffy”.  Wow.  It was the best tenderloin I have ever had.  The service in the Grateful Grubb was impeccable and right now my waistline is glad the Grateful Grubb is over 80 miles from our house.  Otherwise their tenderloin supply would be in considerable danger and so would I.

TENDER

 

It is not often that I am compelled to photograph a sandwich.  This time, I just knew I was headed for greatness thanks the good folks at Grateful Grubb.

Speaking and eating the rights.

Danny Johnson

 

College Football Predictions Week #2

So it went so-so for a first week of predicting football games for the first week of the season.  There were some very competitive games.  In this age of playing tougher competition in order to make your way into the so-called play-off at the end of the season, we are seeing some tougher match-ups earlier than usual.

My hat goes off to Wisconsin for trying to beat LSU in the early going.  Georgia played Clemson last week.  Neither was a skating match for the other.

The team I made such a blow-off prediction about with regard to being so wonderful, South Carolina, made me feel pretty silly.  I am sure a few of you enjoyed that.

Week 2 speaktherights.com College Football Picks are  as follows:

Ole Miss beat Vandy….the Reb D was most a thing to behold in week one

Kentucky will beat Ohio….the Wildcats will best the Bobcats

Michigan State will beat Oregon….the marquee game features Sparty still looking for respect

North Carolina will beat San Diego State

Texas beats  BYU

Notre Dame will beat Michigan

Western Kentucky will beat Illinois

Iowa will beat ball State

Marshall will beat Rhode Island…like a drum

Virginia Tech will beat Ohio State…I dreamed a dream of time gone by…..

Season record 8 wins 2 losses.

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The Marshall Thundering Herd play their home opener Saturday.

 

Speak the rights.

Danny Johnson

 

 

 

Optimism

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When I look at his picture I think about optimism.  What we have here is the sun coming up on the Atlantic Ocean to greet a brand new day.  That just sounds and feels good.

There is a great phenomena that goes on each and every morning as I drive to work.  On my 54 mile drive to work I go from the dark of the early morning to the sun showing itself and bringing forth the light of a brand new day.  That is a reason for optimism.

Have a great day!

And…speak the rights.

Danny Johnson

Music is Calling (I’m on my way, Jefferson!)

Fifteen years ago I stepped in front of a microphone at a recording studio in Louisville, Kentucky to record a song that I had written.  Just me and a guitar that I played badly at best and a song I enjoyed singing in the confines of my home music room with no one around to listen and…perish the thought…try to tell me what I was doing wrong.  I didn’t know if it was right, wrong, or indifferent.  I just wanted to sing my song.

So began a friendship between me and Jeff Carpenter, owner and engineer of Al Fresco’s Place Recording Studio.  Jeff handled me with kid gloves.  I suppose he realized he had such little raw material to work with at the time that he was best served just to let me be.  It worked out.

This many years later, I am ready for it to work out again.  The last time I recorded proper was a great session that produced six worthy numbers two years ago.

Let me back up.

In 2001 I recorded a collection of 14 of my own songs.  We called it Leap of Faith  because for me it was just that.  One day, when I am ready to hold forth on such a subject, I will report here how it came to be that I turned to playing the guitar and writing songs at the age of thirty.  I needed it.  Just ask Carrie, my dear wife.  Thank God I figured it out.

Over the course of recording sessions in 2004 and a renewal in 2006, I finished 14 more songs.  We called this one The Best Thing You Did Yesterday.  One of those songs was called She’s Gone with the Wind.  This is a hit song.  I can say I wrote a hit song.  No…it has not been recorded by anyone famous.  It has not received acclaim or radio airplay.  But…everyone that has ever heard that song, even some folks I don’t think really like me, have been thrown for the best when they heard it.  It still sounds very good.  I never tire of listening to it.  I can’t say that about many of the songs I have written and recorded.

Jeff Carpenter has been at the controls of every song I have ever recorded.  He is a Louisville Music Scene Institution.  All he wants is to make good music and be respected for doing it.  He has an ear that is true to what a song needs and a diplomatic streak that can talk the most umbrage seeking rock and roll wannabe into agreeing that, yes, Jeff (I call him Jefferson) is spot on with his assessment.

There is something so very special about being in the throes of a recording session.  It is like we are inside a little cocoon.  Nothing else is heard.  Nothing else is seen.  Nothing else finds its way between us and the music until our sensibility and better judgement has left us only to call time and live to record another day.  I think the word organic may actually fit here.  And I hate the misuse of that term.

I wrote a post here about Tim Krekel and how he helped me to make The Best Thing You Did Yesterday what it was.  Tim died in 2009.

When I went back to the studio in 2012, I knew I didn’t have Tim to fall back on as far as being on our side of the glass.  Jefferson did and does more than anyone could ask for on his side of the glass, as he is taking care of the sound and arrangements.  But…on my side of the glass…while I was working with guys I liked and respected… my safety net (Tim) was gone.  I had to grow up.  It was the most satisfying recording for me as an artist.  I was helping drive the sound this time. My guitar came alive and held its own.  I know…it may sound silly.  Yes….I did write all the songs (words and music).  Still, in the past I just handed them over and said okay, what can we do with this?

I have the itch again.  I want to call Jefferson and get some recording going.

The song I am hanging my biscuits on is a song I wrote for my dear wife, Carrie.

The Way I Wanna Go

Alongside the wintertime                                                                                                         There’s a laughter in the air

That still flows…not sure where it goes

But I know that we were there

We spoke of dreams we could share                                                                                     Through the highs and very lows…never sure how it will go

But as long just as long as you’re no more

Than an arm’s length away from me

Just as long as I can reach out

And pull you close to me

Well I know…that’s the way I wanna go

As the shadows grow longer

On the Eastern side of the ground

And the ocean that’s in front of me

Never ceases to bring me down

We’ll walk along this sand again

Not needing to say a word or make a sound                                                                         There’s a sweet roar in the air that follows us                                                                         Wherever we are bound

And I hope and I pray and I pray and I hope

As I place my arm around your shoulder

With you it feels like I am getting younger

As I am growing older

And I know….that’s the way I wanna go

Yes I know…that’s the way I wanna go

Speaking and singing the rights…

Danny Johnson

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College Football Predictions Week #1

Well…8 out of 10 ain’t bad.

The University of Louisville team shocked me last night.  There were very impressive.  I thought they would lose.

I also thought South Carolina would beat Texas A&M on the way to a magical season.  There are 11 more regular season games to produce.  I hope they find a way.

More picks for Week # 2 of the College Football Season later in the week at speaktherights.com

 

 

A Great Holiday

Did you get the grill out today?  I did.  I suppose it is a bit of a Labor Day Holiday tradition.  If it is not raining, I am going to get the grill out.

It was a mixed grill.  Garden Burgers….yes they are healthy and I really do enjoy them…were among the fare.  I also cooked four chicken breasts.  I grilled some hot dogs too.  Not to be lost in all the meat, a few small sweet peppers found a way to be seared on the hot iron lines.

Additionally to augment the rest of the meal, my dear wife, Carrie, creamed some cauliflower and she also prepped some honey-glazed carrots.

The unofficial end to summer…that is what I have heard Labor Day called a couple of times these past couple of days.  It should be referenced as such.  It feels like summer is turning the corner to walk away from us until it decides to come back around again in 2015.

Have a good week.

And don’t forget to speak the rights.

Danny Johnson

 

 

Herd Victory #1 MU 42 Miami OH 27

As Carrie and I were nearing home from watching the Marshall Thundering Herd beat the Miami Redhawks by a score of 42 to 27, I found myself turning my head sideways  when I ascertained that the expectations of the Herd may be a bit too lofty.  The rabid Herd fan base that came out en masse to Yager Stadium on the campus of the Miami Redhawks was expecting the Herd to blow away their competition.  After all, the Redhawks finished without a victory in 2013.  The Herd played them last year to a 14-14 half and a 52-14 final.

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Yesterday the halftime score was 28 to 3 in favor of the Herd and the Herdkabobs in attendance figured their team was just getting warmed up.

What happened was the Miami team got warmed up at halftime.  They came out and outscored the Herd 24-14 in the second half.  It got to 35-27 and the Herd fans were starting to swallow their snuff.

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Still…they won.  But with the kind of optimism that has preceded this season, the expectation was to score 60 and hold the other team to minimal points.

Herd fans are yearning for glory.  They love to love their Herd…when things are going good.  If they lose a game, someone will have a website out there ready to fire Coach Doc Holliday.  Things are just that crazy in college football.  Herd fans are not a patient lot.

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Lets get back to the problem:  Too much publicity before the first snap of the season.  Magazines and other media have made the Herd the team from the lower tiered conference that will get the chance to make  one of the BIG bowl games.  It is a complicated system that I don’t want to get into right now.  Yes, they have Rakeem Cato and a Heisman campaign for him.  Yes, they have a soft schedule we highlighted here on this sight.  Yes, they have a storied past we will never discount in terms of significance.  All that and, hey…the media has to talk about somebody.  This just happens to be the Herd’s year for that kind of spotlight.

If they stay healthy,  they should win them all.  They will be the favorite in all their games.  That is a tough spot to be in.  Not many teams win all their games, regardless of their competition.

In the end for me and my dear wife, Carrie, we just like to watch them play.  We have a team to root for and that helps.  The interest factor goes up when you care.

That we can have these speaks is a reason to celebrate.  Football season is here.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

 

 

Days of Passed Back to the Future

Mother Nature stepped in last night and gave us yet another memory to revisit as we went both backward and forward in a musical event that meshed days gone by and words and music to  live by that are filled with love, hope, and optimism for the future.

The Moody Blues played to a sold-out… you couldn’t put someone else in the venue with a shoe-horn…crowd.

As usual The Moodies did not disappoint.

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Here is Justin Hayward and John Lodge working out the final details of the last song of the first set…  The Story in Your Eyes.

As soon as this song was finished and it was announced that the band would take their customary 20 minute repose before finishing the second half of the show, an official from the The Fraze Pavilion stepped onstage and told us all to clear the amphitheater.  There was lightning  near and we needed to take cover.  We did just that.

My dear wife, Carrie, and I found shelter without having to resort to walking to our car.

In the midst of the mass of humanity we were “subjected” to in these close quarters,  we were relegated to confusion, slight aggravation, and a hint of agony.

Carrie and I could see each other.  She was on one side of a room and I was on the other.  We made eye contact frequently and I so missed having her by my side for the time we stood there…dry…thankfully…but listening to dialogue that came out of rejected episodes of Seinfeld or some other show I could not stand and have failed to make it through a complete episode of.

Some guy knew he was the Earth’s gift to women and must have been hard of hearing because he was filling all of us in on his ways of wooing women.  He was not being nasty mind you.  He was just annoying.  Just know this…the guys around him were laughing at him…they were not taking notes.

One guy standing behind me was downright loud as he felt compelled to shout into his cell phone as if that was really going to make his voice project that much louder than if he would have moved the cell phone closer to his mouth-part.

When Carrie and I finally got together after we were given the all clear to return to our seats for the second half of the show…which I thought may have been in doubt…we were very glad to see each other as usual.  She had her stories about the characters around her and I had my stories about the characters around me and we both decided we could have done without either experience.  But guess what?  It will be there to reflect on….and as a reference point to further appreciate each other all the more.

It was mid-June 1992 when I saw The Moody Blues at Deer Creek just northeast of Indianapolis when a bad cloud came up and wreaked havoc on the show that was a double-bill with our guys and Chicago.  The Moodies were supposed to play first that night.  I was ready for the band to hit the stage and suddenly their roadies broke down their equipment and set up Chicago to play instead.

Ironically, as Chicago…the group…was playing in place of the Moodies, the Moodies were on a grounded plane in Chicago…the city… trying to get to Indy.  They finally showed up.  Man it was late. I will never forget the clap of thunder that punctuated the final note of Nights in White Satin.  The weather got worse in a hurry and the boys ended the show two songs shy of their ordinary finish.  I drove home on I-65 South that night/morning and I have said this before, but I have never typed it.  I drove home that night on I-65 in a fierce storm.  I did not see another headlight going north or south from the Franklin exit down to the Henryville exit.  That was rock and roll!  The natural light show I saw that night was better than anything I ever saw from Pink Floyd.

It was good to see The Moody Blues last night.  More so, it was even better to HEAR them last night.  A live performance is special.  The Moody Blues know that.  That is why they are still at it…I think that is a case of…speaking the rights.

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Danny Johnson

Go Herd!

College Football Week #1 Picks…and other notes.

So I have been challenged.  I will answer said challenge.  Yes, I enjoy talking about and referencing college football.  I like it much more than pro ball.  I will even answer the bell and make a habit of making predictions each week on speaktherights.com as the college football season rolls on.

I can’t pick’em all.  So I will give my prediction on ten games a week that interest for whatever reason.  So be it.

Ole Miss will beat Boise State…there is too much to lose here for the Rebels to lose.

Bama will beat West Virginia…yes, Brother Tim, I do believe the Tide is a good team.

Kentucky will beat Tennessee-Martin….because they better.

South Carolina will beat Texas A&M …and everybody else.  They will be champs.

Miami (Fl) will beat Louisville…Florida State won the national championship last year…more                                                          than enough to motivate Miami  to beat ACC newcomers.

Indiana will beat Indiana State…if Coach Wilson wants to come back to work Monday.

Mississippi State will beat Southern Miss

LSU will beat Wisconsin

Auburn will beat Arkansas

Marshall will beat Miami of Ohio…the Year of the Herd will begin.

I am so delighted that my friend Jerry Brown will be coaching for the Brownstown Central Braves this Saturday as they take on the Charlestown Pirates at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.  The game is tentatively scheduled for a 2:40 PM kickoff.  I wish I could be there.

Jerry’s son, Clay, is the quarterback of the Braves, he’ll be able to say he played quarterback on the same field Peyton Manning played on.   Clay is a senior this year.  The Braves should be pretty tough.  They were 12-1 last year with a fraction of the number of seniors they have this year.

My dear wife, Carrie, and I will be in Oxford, Ohio watching the Thundering Herd of Marshall play on Saturday.  They play the Miami of Ohio Redhawks Saturday afternoon.  A report will be forthcoming.

More than anything, I hope all the guys out there playing will do so without the incident of injury.  Nothing can deflate the optimism and quality air out of a team like a devastating injury.  Still, it happens each year.  Just ask Ohio State.  They lost their starting quarterback to injury this week.

Man.  I will be so glad when it cools off.  Carrie warned me it would get hot in August.  Remember those cool days in July?  I do.  I miss them.  I used to write these posts on a comfortable screened-in back porch.  My pipes can’t take the heat and humidity.  If I go out to write on the porch right now, I would probably have a hard time breathing and would not have a very good time.

The cooler weather will certainly be here soon.  I am so looking forward to it.  Let the leaves fall where they may.

Until then we will find a way to continue to….speak the rights.

Danny Johnson

 

A Little Bit of This…A Little Bit of That

You may have heard of Minnesota Fats, Indiana Jones, Carolina Steve,  The Florida Boys, Texas Pete.  They have nothing on Alabama Tim.

Alabama Tim is a Crimson Tide football fan and he needs help.  His is a bit delusional about how good his team is this year.  I would say the Tide would have a better chance if Tim was their offensive coordinator.  The offensive coordinator is problematic for the Tide this year and many Tide fans can already admit it.  Not so for Alabama Tim.  Please think about him this season.  It won’t be easy on Brother Tim this year.

There are too too too many little deer running around my environ to make me un-nervous.  I am already nervous.  This fall when they are a little bigger and hanging out with their older cousins and moms and dads, the majority of them will be attempting to make contact with my vehicle as I drive down the road.  I can feel it.  I have felt this way before.  It works that way.  To date I have hit five deer that have caused significant destruction to the vehicles I have hit them with.  My head will be on a swivel soon enough as I drive down the road.

In less than 48 hours I will be sitting here watching the Ole Miss Rebels play the Boise State Broncos in a game played in Atlanta, Georgia.  Nothing left to say about that.  Bring it on.

I wrote a post early in the speaktherights.com history of posts about a wonderful lady that made a huge impact on my life during a most impressionable time.  Vallerie King was a youth pastor at the church I attended as she was going to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  I hope she reads this.  I can report to all of you that I remember the date of her graduation…it was December 20, 1985.  I was not there.  I regret that.  At the church I now attend, we recently were blessed with a new pastor.  Her name is Pastor Jill.  The pastor she replaced was Pastor Jack.  Anyway, I have no problem with having a female pastor.  I am sure that there are some in the world of faith that probably don’t share this belief.  So be it.  They can go somewhere else….to church, that is.  Pastor Jill’s delivery so reminds me of listening to Vallerie when I was a teenager.  She is that good.  Our church is blessed to have her.

Education in this country is nothing like I was prepared for.  When I was in college to learn how to teach we were engrossed with teaching methodology…which has come in handy over the years.  We also…twenty years ago…spent quality time talking about diversity and multiculturalism and learning styles that have actually helped many of us take a thing called differentiated instruction by the horns and make progress with it.  What we were not prepared for is the T-Square political mentality that is driving kids off a contrived do this…do that…pass this test…and you too will become this…wooden plank that is not based on learning styles and diversity…or what kids want to do with their lives.  Politicians have only been able to screw this up because the kids aren’t old enough to vote.  Answer me this.  I hear all these stats about how low our test scores are compared to other countries.  If this is the case, then why are so many foreign students coming to America to go the college?

Right now I need some help.  Nothing a bag of low-fat Jollytime Kettle Corn and a diet ginger ale can’t take care of.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

Speaking the rights.

Reunion Biddles Moodies Marshall 326

I think Justin Hayward and John Lodge would agree with me.

Danny Johnson