30 September 2009

Ashley "TreNasty" Albritton

Don't be fooled by outer appearances
R to L: ?, ?, Little Head, TreDubs
Classic TreNasty stee; bsts
Ashley and I met somewhere between fifth and sixth grade. We were both trying out for a club futbol team and ended up being teammates for a year. I have vivid memories of my early friendship with Ashley, AKA AshTre and or TreDubs. Everything that Ashley attempted, he was more than proficient, almost like a young protégée. In fact, we grew up experimenting with similar hobbies and interests and Ashley was always one step ahead of me. It went like this in chronological order, from what I can recall; Futbol; he is left handed and thus left footed when playing futbol, so his left foot skills, as well as his right foot skills, were better than the rest of our team, and me. Books/reading/mind massaging; He had read the entire Lord of the Rings series by the age of 13, and I didn’t start reading for pleasure until the age of 18. Musician; He started playing guitar around 14 and with in a year he and his younger brother were having serious jam sessions. I attempted to join in, but this white boy ain’t got no rhythm. His musical interests now encompass electronic as well as traditional classic guitar. Skateboarding; we started at the same time and he was always learning tricks and mastering them before me. School; he always had better grades, took harder classes, and when it came to college, which we started at the same time, he studied Physics and graduated before I did. Food/Libations/etc.; Ashley is a serious connoisseur. He prefers the best cheeses with good wine, his love for and knowledge of beer is impressive, he drinks dark roast coffees black as the witching hour, and his inquisitiveness and experimentation with his psyche is first researched and then executed in an adept manner.
Please don’t interpret this minute summary of who Tre Nasty is as me competing or comparing myself with him. I’m merely recapping his accomplishments and briefly shedding light on his persona in order to give you, the reader, insight of a man of mystery and extreme mental capacity, who I revere and look up to. AshTre is indeed an omniscient sorcerer among men, a wizard who’s seasoning and wisdom has matured beyond his recorded being. His answers to my questions are briefly blunt, which didn’t surprise me at all. However, in a face-to-face discussion I’m sure he would offer a weathered assessment on an array of topics as long as you could muster enough might to curb your apprehension that might be conjured by his stone-like stare. But once you’ve heard his sporadic bats of laughter, I’m sure you’ll feel at ease.
So go ahead, approach him, but I’m sure by the time you’ve toed the line he has hurdled the mountain peaks and swam in the opaque abyss that embody your subconscious, thus circumnavigating the depths of your soul, as a wizard cloaked in the skin of a modern day man.


Ashley, I’ve spent some serious time in your mother’s kitchen and I’ve enjoyed her cooking as well as your’s. In fact, my lady claims you have produced one of the most memorable potato salads on both sides of the mighty Mississippi’s currents. What is your favorite southern cooked meal, all items included with some form of food explanation and or breakdown?
Fried bass caught fresh that day by either my brother, my momma, dad, grandma, a good friend, or me, caught on a plastic worm from a Florida lake, battered with corn meal and served with grits, baked beans straight out the can, and presented on a thin paper plate; what!?! With iced tea to drink, of course.
Many of your friends refer to you as "mad scientist". I believe this AKA is derived from a bewilderment of your drunken physics sermons, as well as an innocent measurement of your shadowed disposition fueled by whispers in the wind. What types of research have you preformed, personal and or professional, and what are your thoughts on the infamous global meltdown theory.
I’ve been to known to hang around physics labs, running microscopes and imaging at the nano scale. Mycology is my most recent pursuit. I’m on the path to find the Zion essence. And, there is no global meltdown, its climate change. Everyone is afraid of change.
As a friend, I approach you for advice when I can’t seem to get the ol’ gears in motion. If The Man came to me with similar intentions, I would confidently stretch out my crooked arm and point a finger in your direction. With that said if the powers that be approached you asking for guidance, or a way to help planet earth and the human population, what would your proposal consist of?
I would tell them its time to phase out oil and Christianity, and NASCAR. They should then kill themselves. Electric cars and solar/wind/renewable energy is the way forward. The Catholic Church has had control for too long.
Right. Your music collection has no boundaries and holds no repugnance. If you could summon living and dead musicians to perform a live show, which three bands or artists would you select and where would they play?
Medeski, Martin, & Wood, Antibalas, and Weather Report at Spirit of Suwannee amphitheater stage.
As a man well aware of the net force exerted by the earth on objects in its vicinity, the contingency of engine failure, and the clamminess of being locked with in a sardine-like jet liner in flight, you simply hate boarding airplanes and soaring at speeds of over 200 miles per hour, 3,000 feet above the globe’s topography. Thus, you have driven cross country numerous times due to your fear of flight. Please recall one noteworthy story from your expeditions.
2005; Me and Little Head started in Mendocino, CA. Next we were DOB in the redwoods, drinking wine and eating pineapple, tripping too hard to sleep. Thanksgiving was the next day and we headed to Oakland. We feasted on hot dogs and tall boys in true East Bay style. I knew I would live there one day (Oakland). Then we got drunk in LA with Andrew, and Ryan got beat up, if not on the way down, on the way up. We then met Kluvo in Phoenix, painted the town brown. We got tired in Texas. Smoked the last joint on the Florida border, skirted the Tallahassee hustle shuffle and put some money in my pocket.

I’d like to end this with an effortless explanation of how Ashley moves and grooves, a quote of his that makes perfect sense to those willing to listen mindfully; “I’m just putting one foot in front of the other, moving forward”.

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