Shovel Brotha Ep3.

Footsteps and keys could be heard jingling behind the metal door. "I hear ya talkin' to someone down there.  What cha done gone stir crazy?  I'll fix ya alright." A fat sweaty pale skinned man with suspenders, suede shoes, and a shotgun on his shoulder swings the door open with a CLANG.  He flips a switch and the room buzzes with a blue fluorescent light.  The pale man's gold and ruby ring shines in the light.  The ring whispers to him in a sinister voice, "Don't be fooled -- someone's in here with the girl."  A pile of dirt sits on the concrete floor in the corner of the dank basement.

"You ain't the first one to come up in here try'na take what's mine.  I can smell ya stench blacky -- witcha frankincense and Myrrh.  Come on out heah!  I might just bury you instead of feeding you to my dogs."

Shovel Brotha shows himself.  Immediately the man in suspenders swings his shotgun in a downward arc taking aim, and fires.  Shovel brother does a roll-out under the gunfire and breaks the mans knee with his shoulder as he grabs hold of his leg and brings him to the ground.  He then kicks his leg over the man's body and hits his chin shattering his teeth.

"Poppa! You alright!?" Two twenty something year old men scream down the stairway.
Shovel Brotha scrambles to snatch the mans double barrel shotgun just in time to fire at one of them running into the basement firing a pistol.  The shotgun hits the young man sending him flying into the basement wall, cracking his head open on impact.

The other man who is large as a bear screams "Cletus! Poppa!"

The ruby ring yells at the boy.  "No time to grieve Bobby.  Give me your body."  The ring slices through the pale man's finger and places itself on Bobby's pinky.  Bobby's eyes start to glow red.  His eyelashes singe from the heat coming from them.  "This woman's spirit belongs to me.  She is the hope of black women everywhere.  She stays here.  You can't have her!"

[Shovel Brotha theme song plays]

Possessed the with the evil power of the ruby ring the Bear-like Bobby speeds at Shovel Brotha with a devastating reverse punch, sending him hurdling across the room.  Shovel Brotha slaps his forearms to the ground to stop his tumble and does an Ibuki breath.

The woman screams "Watch out!"

Shovel Brotha esquivas a vicious left hook and returns it with an Armada spinning kick.   The kick brings the possessed Bobby's head careening to the floor leaving a crack in the cement.  Bobby gets under Shovel Brotha's legs and jumps up slamming him into the ceiling.  On the way down Shovel Brotha  snakes his legs around Bobby's shoulder, chest, and neck -- and breaks Bobby's arm as he straightens his body into a fierce arm bar.
With the power of the ring Bobby seems to not feel the pain of a broken arm.  He swings around like a helicopter and throws Shovel Brotha into a wall.

Meanwhile, the old man crawls over to the dead body of his son Cletus to grab the pistol from his clammy hand.

The woman calls to Shovel Brotha, "Dig deep and use the Axe Spirit and Chi within you!"

Shovel Brotha yells "KiiiiiAAAAAAh!" as he pushes off of the wall with his feet and Superman punches through Bobby's face.  The pale man fires three times in fear.  All three shots miss as Shovel Brotha esquivas and gingas toward him.  There are no more bullets.  Shovel Brotha crushes the other knee of the pale man with a brutal elephant stomp.

The ruby ring flies back to the fat pale man's bloody hand.   "We won't let you get away with this.  We will hunt you down!"  Shovel Brotha picks up the empty double barrel shotgun and smashes the ruby within the ring with the butt of the gun.  With the destruction of the ring the old man chokes to death on his blood and broken teeth.

The woman tells Shovel Brotha to free her with the keys that are attached to the man's belt.   He frees her and they crawl out of the basement and into the sunlight.

Tracking Hotter Than Too Many Degrees and Doin It Sans Jimmy Love

The week before tracking and the night before tracking I got in touch with the writer of Doin' It (Jimmy Love) and the co-writer of Hotter Than Too Many Degrees.  These are awesome songs and I would love to consider them for capstone options.  Throughout the week I worked on building up the bass lines and guitar for the song.  I played my Ibanez Stratocaster and my Washburn steel string acoustic to layer the guitar.  I did that in my project studio.   When I arrived at the SSL studio.  I had time re-track my bass line and also get some snare and kick samples for the song Doin' It.  I used a d6 on the kick, and a SM57 for the snare an inch up and an inch in.  I plugged my bass in to the API 512 Pre with a roll off pad activated and then patched it into channel 25 of the SSL.  The bass was awesome and boomy.  I really liked the sound.  I had also checked out a Mesa Boogie Amplifier and speaker.  I was also fortunate enough to get to use a Gibson Les Paul Supra Deluxe electric guitar to track with for Hotter Than Too Many Degrees.  I miked the top Right cone of the Mesa speaker with an SM57.  The sound cut right through the track just how I wanted it to and made the song sound HOTTTT!  For vocals I had a mid-side technique set up with the NU87 for mid and a MXL2010 as my sides.  I also set up a little booth made of gobos.  I was all prepared for my singer to arrive at 1pm.  Unfortunately he did not show.  I decided to still use the time to record my own version of Hotter Than too Many Degrees.  The vocals turned out very rich.  I am really impressed by the sound quality of the NU87. 

Magic is Alive!! Great Tracking with Danielle Carter in SSL

This week I was able to get my singer Danielle Carter to sing on Magic is Alive.  We did several takes.  We used a Neumann U87 in cardioid.  I kept doing the takes over and over until I could feel her notes in the sweet spot of  my spine.  Then we did a take with 2 MXL2010's in Blumlein, then we did some takes with a R121 to bring out brightness and warmth in her voice..  I also recorded some Kick samples with a D6 and some snare samples with a SM57. 

 

Overall this was a GREAT Experience!!! I can't wait to mix.

Shovel Brotha Ep.2

After returning home to his backyard Carl knew that something had to be done.    The Angels were speaking.  It would be blaspheme to not do something.  He took the shovel and he dug into the neighborhood with all his heart.  His arms became dislocated from all of  the shoveling.  In his pain he thought of all of those who were in pain under the will of fiendish people.  Then there was a vision accompanied by a scream that invaded his mind.

Instantly the shovel fused to his hand and yanked his dislocated shoulders back into place while pulling him straight up into the air high above the city. The vision of Saint Peter flew in front of him comforting him.  Inspiring him. The blade of the shovel fused to Carl's face as if it were a mask. 

The Angel of Metal consumed and guided him in a blitz of fire through the air and down at an angle straight through a lawn and dirt into a cemented basement. After the dust and dirt and cement cleared he saw a beautiful twenty-something yr. old  brown skinned woman with curly hair.  She was barely clothed, and very thin. 

Carl thought
she may be confused: instead there was a certain light in her eyes.  She knew this was going to happen somehow.  She knew someone would be coming for her.  She was riding faith.  Her body and spirit were resonating with the tone of the Angels,  as the Saints consoled Her.

Shovel Brotha

Ep1. A Shovel  in Pleasant Place

  

 Spring time was about and the skies were much warmer than previous weeks.  The Birds chirped the new rhythms of the season down in Pleasant Place. Some people call it the hood.  Carl called it home.  The red brick roads were still freshly crumbled from the snows of the winter that might actually still be here.  The weather is so unpredictable, unless you are writing the Farmer’s Almanac.  Carl felt it would be the perfect day to get some gardening gear stored up.  The frost might still be here so he thought he might start to turn over some dirt for pre-planting.   The store was within walking distance right down the street.  On his walk to the local convenience store Carl saw two young petite teenage girls running down the street and screaming for help. Police cars sped by in a hurry, and paid no mind to the girls.

 Carl asked the teenagers what they were running and screaming for and they said, "This creepy guy was tryin' to grab us.  We don't see him no more though. That was crazy!"  They continued talking to each other down the street huffing for air. 

Carl walked to the corner that the girls had just came sprinting from.  He thought he might see some rough looking man there, but he saw nothing and continued on to the store.  On the way over he picked a leaf off of a tree and rolled it between his fingers and sniffed them.  His finger was died chlorophyll green leaf oil. 

 Carl wasn't sure if they would have what he needed at the corner store, but it was the nearest place so why not try.  The store had nothing for gardening except a few seeds and a pointed construction shovel.  Carl thought no need to waste a trip so he bought the seeds and the shovel.  When asked if he wanted a receipt he said no and put the seeds in his pocket.  The shovel was slightly heavy so he adjusted his grip and held the shovel at a point closer to its center of gravity. 

Carl walked out of the store. He clinked the head of the shovel on the cement.  The shovel left a tiny divet in the walkway, but who would care.  There was a large group of guys blocking the path he would be heading -- nobody paid Carl any mind though.  The air was filled with a skunky pine smell. 

A plain clothed police officer drove by in a hurry and almost ran over Mrs. Beverly a matriarch of the community.    A teenage boy told the cop to watch out.  The officer responded by threating to arrest the teenage boy Lester by taser.  Carl pulled out his phone and recorded it.  Eventually the officer let Lester go after several older gentlemen asked the cop to forget about it. 

Carl walked again upon the corner the petite teenage girls were running from.  He wondered if the police knew or even cared about the creepy guy in the neighborhood.  The shovel in his hand gave Carl a sense of invincibility.  People moved out of the way as he passed by them.   The head of the shovel shined, and the tip was very sharp.  The shaft was sturdy.  The only drawback was that the handle was plastic.  This shovel was meant to dig through things with Carl and turn over the earth. Shield and spear all in one.

 "I hope nobody thinks I'm taking out the garbage for a hit squad," Carl thought to himself.

Carl returned home with his shovel and seeds.  He put the seeds away in the house to be germinated, and then went to work outside. 

Crunch, Crunch, Crunch, Ding, Ding, Crunch.  Carl was stepping on that shovel and turning over that dirt and rock.  The more he cracked rocks and turned over dirt he started to feel some sort of way about how the police could threaten to arrest a teenage boy but do nothing about the creepy grabber.  He thought, "Maybe the police aren't out here to protect our neighborhood.  What are they out here for!  A lot of girls have gone missing in Pleasant Place already.  Something has to be done."

Carl dug one more time and from nowhere the ground split and gave him the biggest jolt of electricity he had ever felt.

He lied there on the ground while breathing the oxidized Spring air.  An opalescent figure waves and looks Carl straight in the eye, points at the shovel.  Carl received the words "Let’s turn over this land."  Every square inch of Pleasant Place flashes before his eyes for the tiniest largest bit of a moment.

Carl listened to the rhythms of the birds, as he walked down the brick roads of his home town Pleasant Place with shovel in hand.  

Left Those Suckas Behind (At The Edge of the Universe)

Here is a link to the song that accompanies the poem

http://wesleywashington.bandcamp.com/track/left-them-suckas-behind-at-the-edge-of-the-universe

At the Edge of the Universe
I left those suckas behind
and the Passwords Mine.
I left Right on time.

At the Edge of the Universe
had us workin in the mines
Nearly took my life
No not this time
Alright!

da da da da dum da dah
Hmph!

Guard keeper 909 Umph!
Make ya walk 'dat line
Or get whipped and tied
Tried to beat me blind
No not this time.

I slipped to the side....
Chains heavy and all
Disarmed the Beast from radio and key
Defeated all who tried to stop me

At the Edge of the Universe
In the Vela Sail
Had us minin in the jail
Light years from here

At the Edge of the Universe
Got me workin all night
Ya gotta walk that line
Be Right on time

If time exists...

Broke through the walls Hmph!
I saw that psychic to
He said this is what you do
Meditate and see your way trough
When you see Glieses Second Revolution
That is the time
Take off into space
Take Flight!

Went into meditation OHMMM
It was half passed three
Light was left behind
as the galaxies melted through me

If I could breath this air
I would
but I
don't want to
I don't need to
The space was so profound
couldn't hear a sound
Countless dots zipped by
Light irrellevent
We coastin passed the speed of light
Moving to the beat
Cause it rebeats and it's
neva gonna stop it
Keep it Karmically groovin
catch that plane and keep on doing

At the Eeeeeedge of the Youuuuniverse Yeah!
At the Eeeeeedge of the Universe

At the Edge of the Universe
I left those suckas behind
Left right on time
Alright!

A Box of Almonds

   John recieved a basket of almonds last week.  He didn't have a nutcracker so he tried to use his hands to crack the nuts one by one.  If a tiny squirrel could do it surely could he.  After heavy breathing, straining, and then relaxing, eventually John opened one almond and his eyes lit up as he ate one with delight.  Over the days his grip got stronger and soon could crack an almond open as surely as he could snap his fingers. 
  
   At gatherings he would show friends his new "trick".  Eventually he recieved a call from a renowned sci-fi and fiction writer/producer.  He was calling to test his special skill.  John became suspicious of the writer/producer Brian Kee. Why the interest?  Was he being catalogued.   It was odd.  Brian Kee would call him up every day and night at all hours to get his test done.  The stress of declining the offer over and over again was getting to John.  An early 6am morning call from Kee led John to crush the phone with his grip in frustration .  At this point John decided that all of this harrassment has to stop.  John talked to his close friends about what they thought that he should do, and what might be going on.  In the mean time John became bored with almonds -- though he still ate them to pass time and for protein.

   Right now his main focus is school.  He is running late.  Literally running.  He jumps over fences, bushes, stairways, and vehicles.  He concentrates on his breathing and does algorithms in his head for the pressing exam in the coming class.  Time slows down for him as John's feet roll like wheels over the terrain. Time almost reverses as John runs to class alongside Mayan Foot Messengers pushing the pace.  John raises his wrist to the ID scanning door and is let into the Electricity Floor of the School.

   The Electricity Lab door is ajar and class is in session.  The teacher hands out the test and just as soon as John recieves the test, he hands it back completed and with confidence.  Professor. Lendguy whispers to John as he grades his paper.  "How have your quantum genetics experiments been going? Next time try something a little more difficult. Coal to diamond?"
  John chuckled to himself and wondered what the Professor was talking about. "Coal to diamond?"
He was now interested in building electricity and current from his body.  He saw a You Tube video online about it while looking up electric eel properties in humans. If another person can do it surely he could to.  
   John leisurly heads home taking his time and feeling the wind on his face as he walks and meditates.  John believes he is completely aware of his surroundings and the environment until out of nowhere Brian Kee is right there in front of him.