Evan Agee: Live from Richmond Indiana

Since I was a kid I’ve always been amazed by the Penn Station here in Richmond. It has always been a reminder of the stature Richmond once had in this country. I’ve always wondered what it looks like inside and how busy it must have been back when it was still in use. In high school I had dreams of renovating the building and turning it into an upscale restaurant with dim lighting and candle-lit tables. That’s why I was so excited when I found David Kohrman’s blog.

David is a photography student and “Urban Explorationist” who travels around taking pictures of old, decaying buildings. He was brought to my attention by a co-worker so I checked out his photos from his recent trip to Richmond to photograph the Pennsylvania Station. He took some amazing photos that reveal the beauty the station once had. Now it’s nothing more than a coffin despite the appearance on the outside.

I highly suggest you check out all of the photos he took, they’re amazing.

I don’t have very many clear memories from elementary school. Most of my time was spent writing love letters to the girls I had crushes on, who usually then proceed to show the note to all of her friends as they laughed at me. Not the best of times as you can probably tell. There is one memory however that sticks out clearly in my memory still today.

When I was young I had this violet-colored hooded sweatshirt and as proof of my poor judgment I decided to wear it to school one day. I wasn’t feeling very well (some sort of stomach problem I believe) and I wanted to be comfortable and warm. I sat there most of the day at my desk feeling horrible and wishing I could just go home. Finally, after I had eaten lunch (probably pizza, corn and applesauce typical school lunch fare of the day) I had reached my limit, and it was time to go to the nurse’s office and go home.

I was on my way down the hall and it started. I started thinking about vomiting… That was it, I had just signed a sure-vomit guarantee. I started walking faster, looking into each of the classrooms as I passed them. I had a couple close calls but I was able to hold back the chunks for a while, but only for a while. Finally, I stopped in front of one of the classrooms and just let it go. Man was there a huge puddle. It seemed like the diameter of a football field to my little eyes, but it was probably 3 or 4 feet in diameter and it was spreading quickly. I stood there looking in horror.

I made my way to the bathroom so I could clean myself up and try and regroup before going back to class. I stood there looking into the bathroom mirror, which I was barely tall enough to see myself in, afraid to go back out there. I could just imagine everyone in the school standing in the hallway looking at my massive puddle of vomit and pointing at me “HE DID IT�?. So, I waited…

About five minutes later I worked up the nerve to walk back out into the hallway and make my way back to my classroom. I walked down the hallway by the bathrooms and as I got close to turning the corner that would put me back in the hallway where the incident happened I started to get nervous. As I turned the corner I saw that the hallway was still pretty much empty, only a single janitor stood working his mop in the vicinity of where I had blown chunks. Oh no, I had to walk past the janitor and he would know that it was me because I was the only person that wasn’t in class like I should have been.

I did some quick thinking and as I passed him I said the first thing that came to my mind “Yuck, who did that?�? He looked at me and stopped moving his mop for a second and then he went back to work. I continued to my class, it was finally over with. I got back into the classroom and walked toward my desk. I could feel everyone looking at me, but why? They didn’t know about the puke, nobody knew but the janitor and I doubt that he would tell anyone. I sat down and that’s when I looked down at my violet-colored hooded sweatshirt, the front of which was still covered in the remnants of “the incident�?.

I was never a good student until I got into college. I was held back one year in elementary school, I barely made it through middle school and I was at about the 50% mark in my high school class. I never quite understood why it was so important to do well in school until I had already graduated.

I had the habit of procrastinating whenever I had any length of time to finish a project. I got very good at doing as little work as I could at the last minute to get a passing grade. So, when I got to my 7th grade English class one day and found out that a report was do that I hadn’t written I panicked.

The report/speech combination was supposed to be about ancient Egypt and was supposed to include a prop of some kind. Not only had I not written the report and prepared my speech but I also didn’t have a prop, what was I going to do?

Back in those days I was a big fan of Metallica. I was the kid that wore a Metallica t-shirt to school every day of the week. If I remember right I had about 18 of their shirts total at that time. One of the things I used to do was wrap my drumsticks so they looked exactly like the drum sticks that Metallica’s drummer used. The bottom of the sticks were wrapped in teal sports tape and the top and bottom of the teal tape was capped with a strip of white sports tape. I would carry a bundle of these sticks around in my backpack with me all day from class to class. Luckily this day I had my sticks with me.

I sat, listening to everyone give their speech getting more and more scared as it got closer to me. I though over and over in my head what I was going to say when I stood up, hoping I could hide the fact that this was the first time I had ever thought about it. Finally the time came. The details of what I said are all but gone, but you can bet that it wasn’t anything of substance or value.

What I do remember is at the end I unwrapped the sticky piece of white sports tape and help it up. “This is my prop, it’s an authentic piece of linen from a mummy in Egypt�?. I looked at my teacher and I could tell that she wasn’t buying it. “Where did you get that from, Evan?�?. I tried to think as quickly as I could, she hadn’t asked any of the other students where they got their props from, why is she asking me? “Uh, my aunt and uncle are archeologists and they’re currently working on a dig in Egypt�?. She nodded, still giving me a look that let me know she was on to me. It didn’t matter though, it was over and I was able to sit back down. I could feel my face filling back up with blood and I was sure that she could see my heart beating in my face as I sat down.

I’m pretty sure that I failed that project. Even though she didn’t try to prove that the “linen�? wasn’t authentic, the content of the speech alone wasn’t worth a D-.

Things have been a little hectic lately. From family health problems to projects there has been a little of everything going on over the last few months. So, when the opportunity came to have a little fun (in the form of buying and selling things on eBay) I jumped at the opportunity.

I wrote earlier about how I sold a lot of items on ebay so I could purchase some recording equipment. I haven’t had as much time as I had hoped to record but I know I will be getting a lot of time in once I’ve finished a few personal projects up. I also decided to take a risk and sell the Ibanez SRX705 bass that I bought last year in hopes of getting something that is a little cheaper but better suited to the style of music I want to write. I ended up getting an SX SJB-57 which is a Fender Jazz Bass copy that is very popular amongst bass players. These basses are well known for being extremely cheap but so simlar to their Fender counterparts that they can be modified, with very little money, to be BETTER than a Fender. I purchased a few upgrade parts for the bass and can’t wait to get to work. I’ll probably post some how-tos once I get started. Photos coming soon!

I also just found out that my wonderful wife Kristen has purchased a present for me which I will receive next month… a Martin DM acoustic guitar! It’s pretty much my dream acoustic guitar and she went and bought it for me as a gift. Isn’t she great??!?!?!?

I watched the Academy Awards this year and was very surprised at how the awards ended up being distributed. I was sure that the critical hit Brokeback Mountain would win all of the awards it was up for. I was wrong. It only won a couple of awards and the top honor of best picture went to one of my all-time favorites Crash. Good for them!

Things are busy right now but hopefully it won’t stay that way for long. I’ve been taking a break from photography as well which I haven’t enjoyed. Hopefully when it gets a little nicer outside I’ll be able to take more of my weekend road trips. I hope.