Jason Toney

Give It To Me

"Feel free to hate cuz i ain't tryin-a be your mate" - Dizzee Rascal, Fix Up, Look Sharp (Boy in Da Corner) I want my RSStv!
Unmediated has some interesting suggestions for using RSS and blog tools with television based content. I still haven't gotten on the bittorrent bandwagon (I don't really enjoy watching video on my computer...but maybe I'm old school) but providing customizable RSS feeds of important content (like programming schedules, press releases and news articles, but also for us in the reality biz, info about casting calls and the like) could be very useful. I'm still not convinced that video on demand services, especially through your PC, is important in the tv model, yet. At least not until people start buying media centers en masse and start using them more fully. I want my Smart Phone!
So, I don't like having to carry around a PDA, a phone and a digital camera as three separate units. My current phone's screen is too small to really make web browsing (outside of sports scores and quick news items) useful. I'd love to be able to get my email while mobile. I really dig the sidekick from T-Mobile and I know everyone loves the Treo 600 but is it the coolest choice? What can people tell me about the i500? Is it a good choice? Is the price point too high? Are there other options I should be considering? I want my iMix!
Despite itunes not finding an update yesterday through it's supposed handy dandy integrated update tool, I got 4.5 (mostly because George made some iMixes and I thought that was so awesome that I had to figure it out). IMixing turns the itunes music store and software from a great digital music player and library into a game for audiophiles like myself. Not having gotten into the radio.blog revolution, I'm much more inclined to create a playlist on my own computer (especially one that I can work through and sort dynamically) and showcase it on itunes for all to see with a brief description. Or provide a link for it through this site. Or send it via email, etc. etc. I'd love it more if there was more functionality. Better searching tools specific to the imix area would help (How about every mix with a pixies track on it? Or every mix in a given genre). Speaking of genres, I'd love to be able to give more tagging to my mixes. And I'd love to be able to comment (outside of the boring rating system) on someone's playlist. Why can't I give props to someone with rockin' good music taste? I'd also like more options when publishing. Say I have a best of 2003 playlist that has over a 100 songs in it (which I do). Why do I need to create a separate playlist if I only want to publish a random sampling of that playlist or a playlist that's a CD in length or size? My sidebar of playlists is going to get very long and cluttered. The same could be said for party shuffle. I'd like to be able to select a genre or certain artists right in the options menu there rather than having to create a separate playlists. Also, itunes, since you have the BPM tag, why not provide some under the hood functionality that can actually determine that for me? I could be such a better itunes DJ if you gave me that help. I'm demanding, my itunes girlfriend, because I love yo so much. I want my Music Festival!
Coachella is about 43 hours away and I'm so excited. Even with Wilco and Tom Yorke likely not being there it should be ridiculous. Conspiracy theorists think Beck might take to the main stage Saturday night after Radiohead (which seems especially more likely with his friends, The Flaming Lips, also in town set to rock on Sunday. They could do an eclectic set for the grown ups while the kiddies go watch Phantom Planet. Either way, I'm not freaking out too bad by the scheduled times. I think I can see just about everyone I want to see. No VIP this year (so sad) but I plan on taking lots of pics. I'm predicting that the buzz band after the weekend's over will be The Killers. Here's a random sampling of the Coachella artists I have on my itunes: The Coachella 2004 iMix.

Breezy Ain't Easy

�Did your mind write a check that your soul can�t cash?� � MeShel Ndegeocello & Yerba Buena, Gentleman (Red, Hot + Riot) Breezy ain�t easy. Especially in this hotbox known as the San Fernando Valley on this Spring day. It currently feels like 103 degrees outside. That�s about what it feels on my inside as well. Breezy ain�t easy. You cultivate this attitude, this persona, where you roll with whatever comes, that you take what the world gives you. You�re never too up or too down. You excel at making everyone around you feel alright. It�s cool, baby. Be easy. Check me, I�m breezy so it must be all good. As Chaka Khan said, It ain�t all good. Sometimes my heart is heavy in my chest. The weight of my emotion is building up. My rib cage is constricting. My forehead is warm. It�s not from the weather. It ain�t easy being breezy when what you really want to do is scream. Let it out. Be loud. Say what�s really going on. But that�s not you. It might be who you want to be right now but maybe it�s not who you want to be tomorrow. Could you live with being that rash? Could you take what comes with that? Breezy ain�t easy. When you�re brimming with passion and life and joy and pain. When it�s the hottest damn day of this young year and you�re thinking about Do the Right Thing. You�d really like to get into a fight or maybe dance the night away. Something, anything, to take what�s growing and put it somewhere. It�s not easy being breezy but somebody�s gotta be the cool breeze on a hot ass day. And, like it or not, that welcome, comfortable, unexpected gust of air is you. You just hope everyone knows that this is harder than it looks.

When It All Falls Down

"You put my feet back on the ground. Did you know you brought me around? You were sweet and you were sound. See I had shrunk yet still you wore me around. And 'round and 'round" - Zero 7, Somersault (When it Falls)

I bought Zero 7's second disc, When It Falls, the day it hit record stores. I had been so enamored with everything Zero 7 (Simple Things, Simple Things Remixes, Another Late Night, their live performances) that it was a given. What Sam Hardaker and Henry Binns do with music is mind-blowing. The ample use of strings and bass lines paired with the silky voices they find to use on record is something special. It's soulful classical music that you can dance to, get high on, and make love by. So, it was a shock to me that I listened to the new CD a few times, never all the way through, and then put it away, moving on to other things. My ears weren't impressed. My first instinct was that the new music wasn't all that new. The songs sounded like they filled much of the same space as Simple Things. It was pretty music but nothing earth-shattering. I didn't find myself telling everyone who would listen that they needed Sia and Mozes and the boys from the UK in their lives. Sometimes first impressions are wrong. I've been listening to the album non-stop for a little over a week now. It started simply enough. Home was playing on the radio and for a good half of the song, I was shocked. Who is singing this, I thought? Why don't I own this? Its so wonderful. By the end of the track, though, I realized I did own it and, in fact, was ignoring it. So, I popped it into the boomin' system in my car and found myself being taken away. Somersault is my song of the moment. Featuring Sia, my vocal Venus, over a lush, beautiful track. Zero 7 performs an ode to the whimsy of, well, simple things. Sia sings about the wonderful, unrecognized nice things that the object of her affection does. She dotes: You talk to loners, you ask how's your week You give love to all and give love to me You're obsessed with hiding the sticks and stones When I feel the unknown You feel like home, you feel like home Yeah. I'm in that space right now. The rest of the album isn't want for excellent singing. Mozes gives his strongest performances yet put to wax and the arrival of Ms. Tina Dico is greatly appreciated. Sophie Barker is lovely on In Time and there are some lovely instrumental moments throughout. It is lacking a little edge, though. Where Destiny and In the Waiting Line made Simple Things a truly special recording, When It Falls seems like it's just middle ground between the auspicious debut and what these downbeat kings can truly do. Lucky for me, then, that I've rediscovered it now when I'm lost in that same kind of abyss. Yay me.

Signs

"You're the prince to my ballerina. You'll feed all the people's parkin' meters. You encourage the eating of ice cream. You would somersault in sand with me." - Zero 7, Somersault (When It Falls) He stood on the rooftop staring at the sky. Every once in a while, he would side arm a pebble into the night. �Did you see that shooting star,� he asked as she came up behind him. �Yeah,� she said softly. �That could be our shooting star,� he said, a little nave hope still in his voice. �We could name it and everything.� �What would we name it,� she asked. �I don't know,� he said as he put his arm around her shoulder. �Like Optimus Prime or Snarf. Maybe Rio or Synergy. Like from Jem.� �We could call it The Misfit,� she suggested. �But, you know, it wouldn't be our star. Why would we want a shooting star, anyway? It's such a fleeting thing. A streak across the sky that doesn't even last 5 seconds.� �Yeah, but it's magical. It's white hot. It's passion.� �No,� she pulled her arm out from under his and pointed. �See that glowing neon sign out there in the distance? That sign has been there as long as I've lived here. As long as I've known you. I think that's our sign.� �What's it say,� he asked. �That's not important. What's important is that it's always there. It's comfortable. It's sure. It's steady. It's us. I don't want to lose that sign. I don't want to lose what we've always had. Do you get what I'm saying?� �What's the sign say,� he pressed. She sighed, �Live Nude Girls. All Nude. Live Nude.� �As opposed to dead nude girls?� �Yes, I suppose.� She paused, �I'm trying to be serious here.� He smirked and said, �So am I.� She tossed a pebble off the rooftop. He chucked his in the same fashion, mimicking her. He hoped she would notice. Hoped she would think it cute. She didn't react at all. �So what you're saying is,� he said, �is that I should really start dating strippers.� She chuckled and wrapped her arm around his waist, �Yes, I hear Cherry Apples is in the market for a new man. I've always said what you need more of are free table dances.� They stood for a moment staring into space. No shooting stars came. �I love you,� she said. �I love you, too,� he said. If only that were enough.

Change Clothes and Go

"You can do whatever you want/whatever you like/it's your own life" - De La Soul, U Can Do (Life) (AOI: Mosaic Thump) Pardon the Interruption but I'm Jason and I predicted that Michelle and her blog body shop would rock a new design and hit it out of the park. You know what I want, people. Gimme some dap! Well, give her some dap because, I mean, seriously. This is on point to the fullest. I'm not issuing press releases and things about the changes and additions because I'm tired from dancing my face off in a hot ass club last night, it's raining outside, and I really should be babysitting my dotcom kids as they get our new cast of young ones, just off of road adventures in parts unknown, to do promotional type stuff. So, just enjoy. And adjust your levels accordingly. If in doubt, turn up the bass. note: comments are down for the moment. I'm working on it. update: comments are back in black so show me your hit 'em up style and tell me how this is a good look.

The Book Meme

"Cuz I be kickin' the real, while they be losing the race trying to chase the mass appeal" - Gang Starr, Mass Appeal (Full Clip: A Decade of Gang Starr) First, a meme found via George (who is currently suited and booted on his site if you've only been reading the rss feed of late): 1.Grab the nearest book. 2.Open the book to page 23. 3.Find the fifth sentence. 4.Post the text of the sentence on your blog. "That is all very well, none of us can get away from it." From, My Soul's High Song: The Collected Writings of Countee Cullen. Also, from George was this New Yorker piece about Boondocks creator, Aaron McGruder. Did you know the root of the term Boondocks is in tagalog?

its true that poc everywhere ask him to draw in a representation of them. in line to get him to scrawl an illegible signature on our border's bought "boondock's treasuries", my friend gary asked him if he knew where the term, boondocks, originally came from. he said, no and gary proceeded to skool him on the tagalog origins of the term, "bundok," meaning, "mountain", which connoted far remote areas of the philippines, such as the ifugao and cordillera regions, which today still remains as the rural areas of the islands. "the expression developed among american military serving in the philippines." he even hooked him up with the golden website, boondocksnet.com. mcgruder looked at him with disinterest, nodded his head unempathically while gary asked him to draw in a filipino into the strip. dammit, its the only way to give propers. markmarcelo in agreement...

Frontin': The Outro

"I'm ready to bet it all/ unless you don't care at all/ but you know I want you/ you should stop frontin' babe" - The Neptunes (featuring Jay-Z & Beck), Frontin' (DJ Reset Mix) (Reset Music) We sat in the Beauty Bar, my arm around her waist. "I'm cockblockin'," I said. "That's fine," she said. "Are you two a couple," a strange girl asked. "No, but we pretend to be," I said. I patted my pretender's thigh. "No, this," the strange girl said as she pointed at the two of us, "is just too cute to not be for real." "Look at her," she said to me. "She'd totally be into it. If you let her know, she'd be down." I chuckled. "Look at him," she said to her. "He's playing it cool but if you were willing, he'd totally be down." Strangers ain't never lie. "It'd be weird," we protested. "Our friends would freak out...we just coul--" "No," strange girl interjected. "This, this makes beautiful babies. Y'all need to stop bullshitting." I turned to my pretender and said, "Our kids would be gorgeous." "They so would be." We laughed. I shook hands with strange girl and then we walked off, holding hands, arm in arm. Were we still pretending?

Ain't we lucky we got em? Good Times

"You love me, especially different, every time. You keep me on my feet, happy, excited by..." - Jill Scott, He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat) (Who is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds)

So, in this entry, Lynne says in the comments:

i'm feeling a lot of black bourgeoise up in here. but maybe i'm reading incorrectly. anyway, those kids do act out. but maybe that's why they were put on television in the first place. it's like on the news, when they go into the black neighborhood to report on something, and they always pick someone who can't complete a sentence to ask questions of. it's that kind of putting a lock on the stereotypes to keep folks in their place or in check. oddly enough, i can stomach MTBII. b/c there are a lot of kids like that out there. kids with limited education and a dream of being a rapper. this show is just exploiting that. ok...off my soap box now...

and then in this month's XLR8R, they received this letter:

In your year-end issue there was a section of "Bests and Worsts" of 2003 where King Britt stated that one of the worst things about 2003 was Southern rap. He follows this by using African-American Southern vernacular as an example of something that is hindering the progress that black people have made. I know his views are not those of XLR8R, so it ain't really about y'all, but it is about how white supremacy and Eurocentric values have a lot of uppity, bougie black folks making snide comments about a culture they don't understand, despite being black themselves King Britt does not have to like SOuthern rap! But he does have to respect the fact that a lot of black people who do not come from Philadelphia don't speak like him. This does not set black people back, especially if that is the way that they learned to talk from their family and community! I read a lot of these "alternative" magazines 'cause I'm into the music they promte. It never fails that an artist or writer in some backwards way shows that they don't come from the same ethnicity, culture or class as I do. Maybe their parties and concerts are not filled with 24-year-old African American males from East Oakland, but y'all gotta know that you do have readers that are from the ghetto. They see some of the ways that black culture is being ridiculed through masked racism...So next time Britt's boosie ass (that's East Oakland for wack) writes something, he should think about how this language is not his black peoples' original language. Peace, Whiz

So, my question is, as black folks, is it a requirement of cultural criticism that we must first give respect to all actions, styles, and trends before criticizing it? Do I have to say, "I love my southern black peoples and the way they talk" before saying "Damn this crunk shit is so wack!" That "Bourgie" term stings because it suggests, to me, that someone has lost touch with what's really going on in the black community. It's a class dis in the same way that "ghetto", in the way that I hear it, is a class dis. Are both terms acceptable? Is neither? And what does it say about how black folks think about themselves? Anyway, King Britt responds:

Most Southern Rap is very derogatory. I am from the streets of Southwest Philly. There is nothing uppity about me, and I know that certain language is used to communicate and it stays in our community as a code, so to speak. This dates back to slave days. But when you are selling millions of records, you have a responsibility to our people and history to represent yourself in a positive way. That means no degrading of women and showing our people in a positive light instead of emphasizing material things like rims, money, jewelry and alcohol. We have too many young black boys and girls who fall into the cycle of emaulating the bullshit they see in videos. It's not just Southern rap videos, but I chose that as an example because I haven't seen any positive ones...If you can touch that many people, say something! Don't perpetuate the Amos and Andy stereotype-change it!

Yeah. So, I was watching MTB2 last night and as they go into the studio to record again, they are talking about guns and killing with regularity. When was the last time they rolled like that? And then I was watching MTV this morning and T.I.'s Rubberband Man came on which showcased his selling records like it was a drug dealer. But T.I. today invests in construction and his company rebuilds houses in the community. Why isn't he rapping about that? So, yeah. What King Britt said.

March Faves

"Girl, I only wanna be down with you, cuz you've got somethin' that I have to get with." - The Neptunes (w/ Jay-Z and Beck), Frontin (DJ Reset Remix) My March 2004 Mix. 1. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (Neptunes) - Daft Punk - Daft Club

This is a very "move somethin'" style mix as I'm antsy for some extended dancing in my life. This re-working of my favorite track off the Discovery album makes it a completely different and just as enjoyable 5 minute workout. Pharrell's additional verse is pretty nice, too.

2. Bistro - Madvillian - Madvilliany

A quick break, just like at a club rockin' a hot DJ set, for MF Doom and Madlib to announce what's about to come..."where we offer you the finest of the finer things, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year."

3. She Wants to Move (remix featuring Common, Mos Def, De La Soul & Q-Tip) - N*E*R*D - White Label (Unreleased¹)

Posdnuous kills his verse which is probably all you need to know about why I love this track but there's more. All the guests are in the pocket² and running roughshod on what is an excellent rock track. And, again, Pharrell is better on this then he is on the original track.

4. Wanna B Where U R (Thisizzaluvsong) (Soundtrack Version) - Floetry & Mos Def - Barbershop 2 - Back in Business

I just like the way Floetry says "Jamaica" at the top of the song.

5. Spanish Joint - D'Angelo - Voodoo

I was thinking about how all those Neo-Soul cats from the end of the nineties and early double-zeros (Bilal, Jill Scott, et. al) hadn't come out with new joints in a minute and from Joint I got Spanish Joint and, damn, this is still my favorite D'Angelo track. It just slightly edges the Lady remix with AZ.

6. Dust - Van Hunt - Van Hunt

If you're still sleeping on VH, I ain't got nothin' for ya.

7. Splash Waterfalls - Ludacris - Chicken-N-Beer

I fought it for a long time but early in the month, at Lazy-Girl's birthday party, this track bumped a couple times through the night and I was hooked. I still am.

8. Eye (Featuring Stacy Epps) - Madvillian - Madvilliany

Madlib knows how to make song.

9. I'll Be Around (Featuring Timbaland) - Cee-Lo - Cee-Lo Green is the Soul Machine

Still my favorite album of 2004 (although Zero 7's When it Falls is really starting to grow on me) and the beginning of the dance break in my mix. Work your back out.

10. Tush (Featuring Missy Elliott) - Ghostface Killah - Tush (Promo Single)

The most listened to track in my itunes library. 39 rotations. It's the hottest song of the year.

11. Toxic - Britney Spears - In the Zone

Shut up. You like it too. That guitar riff during the break kills you.

12. Down Here in Hell - Van Hunt - Van Hunt

It's lush and gorgeous and makes me sing out loud.

13. My Kind of People (featuring Jazze Pha & Menta Malone) - Cee-Lo - Cee-Lo Green is the Soul Machine

It's a soul record disguised as a hip hop track. Jazze Pha is the new Nate Dogg. He makes every song better.

14. Same Thing? - Osunlade featuring Maiya James - Horizons

Osunlade never makes a bad song and this is one of the finest moments on a really fine Marques Wyatt Mix. Which reminds me that I really need to roll into DEEP one of these Sunday nights.

15. Finally Woken - Jem - Finally Woken

This is maybe the least stable entry on this mix. It doesn't exactly fit but I love Jem and her album and wanted something here. It's an okay way to lead to the end.

16. Venus - AIR - Talkie Walkie

AIR has made every one of my mixes this year and the trend continues. Just beautiful beautiful stuff.

17. Strange Ways - Madvillian - Madvilliany

The right quirky moment for the end of a quirky month.

I've done a couple random 20 lists. You can check them here and here.