Jason Toney

Almost Halfway There

"And Everything's full of dreams for reasons" - Butterfly Boucher, A Beautiful Book While I'm listening to everything i've got on my itunes released in 2004 so I can be like the cool kids and do a halfway there music list, here's some short reviews of some of the media that's been in my life lately.

Straight Off The Dome

"Fuckin' punk/ you ain't a leader/ what nobody followed you/ you was never shit/ your mother shoulda swallowed you" - Big L, '98 Freestyle A young Biggie Smalls is on a street corner in Brooklyn. Mr. Wallace is hefty but not quite notoriously big yet. He doesn't even look old enough to drive a car. His button down shirt with the short sleeves needs work but the talent that would make him the pre-eminent east coast MC later on in the nineties is evident. He's spittin' freestyles in a battle. An older cat has challenged him and Biggie is killin' him. The crowd is nodding with every word he spits. The other MC is pacing back and forth trying to figure out how he can come back. Biggie keeps spittin'. The cadence, the rhythm, the energy, the moment is all B.I.G. While he is on this mic at this point in time, he is hip hop. The other rapper knows this. He won't even try to retort, walking away as Biggie continues on. Kevin Fitzgerald's Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme is all about that particular energy that the freestyle, be it a cypher or a battle or headz just droppin' lyrics on the corner, pulls out of people. Whether it's Biggie's street corner in Brooklyn or The Good Life in LA or somewhere in between, the kinetic motion inherent in hip hop is apparent as soon as somebody drops a beat. Following the roots of hip hop from the freestyling baptist preachers to The Last Poets to Kool Herc's Jamaican heritage -- and footage of an early 70s Kool Herc driving around New York in a drop top with two giant speakers in the back is the film's coolest visual - without ever talking down to the audience, Freestyle tells you as much about the people and the power of this culture as Wild Style and Style Wars did 20 years prior and how infectious it is. In fact, Freestyle's showing at The Arclight in Hollywood, infected the usually tragically hip theatre with a lot more hop than it was ready for. The movie started 20 minutes late, people couldn't or wouldn't conform to the assigned seats credo, Malcolm Jamal Warner was left stuck outside the door. It was multicultural like LA's very eclectic hip hop crowd is. A red head turned to her friend as they walked by our aisle and said, "Girl, we best have our seats." Something about that just cracked me up. It was the cherry on the top of this cross-cultural sundae reminding me of my days in college with our hip hop student group, Urban Art Family, discussing Supernatural and whether written rhymes were better than freestyles and sittin' in the radio station that nobody could hear tellin' them blunted DJ cats to play Incarcerated Scarfaces cuz "That shit is the shit." Ah yes, for the fleeting time that Freestyle was on the screen, it made me feel what I have always loved about hip hop. How vibrant, vivid and now it is. Felicious and I had dinner at the cafe afterwards listening as some west coast cats spit west coast freestyles at the reception. We hoped that the cypher would continue long enough for us to join in. Dinner was longer than expected and this wasn't a parking lot near The Good Life so it didn't last. Much like Kevin Fitzgerald's documentary, we were left hungry for more.

A Heretic's Confession

"When it all goes down, baby, all we got is us." - Pete Rock featuring CL Smooth, Appreciate

"As for me: The Lessons I learned from Blind Joe Death made me a kinder person. But only for a little while. My father died; my mother died; my wife died: After each death, I became a more decent person. But it never lasted. After a while, I'd forget how close death really is, how vulnerable we all are, how short a time we have to breathe the air and stand in the light. How foolish it is, under these circumstances, to treat people cruelly or callously, or inattentively. I keep trying to remind myself. An excerpt from Leviticus by Michael Lesy Killing The Buddha

My sin has always been inattentiveness. To everyone in my life, you deserve, require, and should receive more from me. I, on occasion, make a commitment to do more and be more for the people in my life. These are lessons I easily forget. It's June so, of course, I'm fuckin' up. And now I'm here trying to remind myself.

My Baby Fits Me like a Flesh Tuxedo

"You don't have to explain. I understand." - Björk, Come to Me (live) There's a scene in This is Spinal Tap in which Britian's Loudest Band is lost backstage at their own concert unable to find their way to the stage. They can hear the crowd stomping for them overhead. They meet a maintenance man who gives them directions which only succeeds in sending them in circles. It's hilarious. When the world seeks to foil you in the same manner, however, it's fucking awful, in'it? As we caravaned from NoHo to Ho Proper, my instincts told me we should just take the 170 to the 101 and take our chances. If there was traffic, we'd be relatively okay and if there wasn't, well, by george, we'd be at Roscoe's Chicken N' Waffles with plenty of time to clog our arteries on fried wings, buttery grits, and biscuits that melt in your mouth before catching This is Spinal Tap at the Arclight. But doubt creeped in. What if it's really terrible traffic? We might not get to eat at all. So I made a call. We made a decision to take the surface streets and...and fuck. It was bumper to bumper on Ventura Boulevard on both sides while the 101 was free and clear. While Tom Cruise was strolling his lazy ass into Dodger Stadium to hand the Olympic Torch to Janet Evans who, in turn, jogged it over to Vitali Klitshko, we were trapped. I seriously considered hopping the guard rail and flying onto the freeway like my name was Luke Duke. So, unfortunately, no Roscoe's but maybe not so unfortunate because we ended up at my favorite Thai Restaurant, Chan Darae, and the food was divine. Divine can also describe seeing This is Spinal Tap on the big screen. Every seat except one was purchased for the rockumentary by Marti DiBergi (Rob Reiner). There were many revelations that, for some reason, never registered on the telly. The blond mime is Dana Carvey. The mini-stone henge sculptor is Angelica Huston. The songs really do sound wonderful when heard appropriately (i.e. Loud and on the arclight's exceptional dolby surround sound systems). And, "Miming is money." Harry Shearer also provided a lot of new insight. All of the dialogue in the film, except for one scene, was improvised. They shot 80 hours of footage for 82 minutes worth of film. The Writer's Guild wouldn't allow them to credit the entire cast for their "writing" contributions to the film. And, while I wouldn't recommend this, he will do voices from The Simpsons if asked. It was great fun on a Wednesday night. We bought expensive drinks in plastic cups at the reception after and then ended up at Amoeba where I spent 40 more dollars then I was supposed to buying Debut Live, the DeLaMixtape, and a blue lined CD, Syl Johnson's Is it Because I'm Black? I'm going to turn my speakers all the way up to 11 while I listen to my new music. Smell the glove.

Jason Toney

"Don't want to sound full of myself or rude" - Jamie Callum, Frontin' I'm Jason Toney. I was born March 19th, 1975 in Omaha, Nebraska. My mother was 17 at the time. She finished high school a semester early so that she wouldn't have me while in school. I had a full blown afro at a very young age. I would show you pictures but you might die having just seen the cutest thing in the world ever. No, I'm not conceited. I've lived in Omaha, Oxon Hill, Ft. Washington, No. Hollywood, Van Nuys, Las Vegas, Washington D.C., and Canoga Park (although sometimes I say Woodland Hills because it sounds better and it's only 1/2 a block away from being true and sometimes Canoga gets a bad rap. Yeah, so my car got stolen right out of my carport once. It builds character). I went to The George Washington University. I studied Sociology and Creative Writing. I won a NACA award for multicultural programming. I developed a comedy series, planned concerts, ran our Diversity Programming Clearinghouse, was an orientation leader and did a whole lot of other stuff. I never went to class. I spent a lot of time arguing with people in newsgroups and stayed up into the wee hours playing MUDs. Despite what that suggests, I wasn't a nerd or a geek. I met a girl there my freshman year. She, too, was from California. We fell in love and continued that way for just under 6 years. She left me for another guy. Despite all the damn heartache, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I haven't been in love since. Hell, I haven't had a serious relationship since and the break-up was nearly 5 years ago. Despite all my hemming and hawing on this site about my sad state of love affairs, I'm not really beat up about it. I get by quite well on crushes and high quality adult entertainment. I can talk about anything pop culture for hours. I'm a media junkie who buys way too much music, watches too much TV, and sees a lot of movies but doesn't think he sees nearly enough. I really do love music, though. I'm not obsessive about the artists, however. I'm obsessed with the feeling I get from music. My best writing about music comes when I can convey that. When I focus on the feeling and experience of sound, I love what I have to say. I don't think I ever did that when I tried to freelance a little writing about the stuff. There was some internal editor in my head telling me that that wouldn't make good copy for magazines and online sites. I don't know why that is but, for whatever reason, I still feel that way. I'm very comfortable writing here, in this space, and snarking on reality tv for my job. At some point, though, I'm going to have to get serious about being creative and do more. I'm the director of Web Development for this production company. I'd like my title to change to Director of New Media but I'm waiting to fight that battle. I've been here since October of 98. I like it. I get paid pretty okay for what isn't a real job. I could and have been offered more to go work other places but it sounds like real work and I like to shy away from that. I like what we do. I'd just like us to do it even better. My first job out of school was here. I was the Student Affairs executive assistant. I also was the advisor for the school newspaper and essentially taught an intro to journalism class.I hated that gig. Not all colleges are built the same. The students were awesome. The way the school coddled those students drove me bonkers. I try to see as much music live as possible. Living in LA, I try to experience as much cool shit as possible. I spend way more time with my friends than I do with my family but, in truth, I spend most of my time with myself. I'm very observant. It usually takes me a good bit of time before I talk to someone in a social situation. I need time to take them in, figure them out, and catch their vibe. I do not go to church. Despite being baptised, I don't consider myself a Christian. At this point in my life, I'm very unsure about the concepts of spirit and higher power and all of that. I dance at every possible opportunity. I've been told my laugh is distinctive. I've been told I have a great smile. I do both often.

A Venezuelan Journey into Drunkenness

"Hey sexy I'm feeling you, you're lookin' so fly. What's it gonna take to get you to love me?" - Vikter Duplaix, Sensuality In the summer of 2004 in The Year of the Sexy, if you're Thinking, you should be Drinking and so I kicked off the summer months this weekend with way too many, ahem, not nearly enough heavily liquored beverages, lots of discussions with cute young women, and not going to sleep before 4am. So far, it's a success. And as the crowd at The Belly Up in San Diego can attest, the soundtrack for this summer is played by Los Amigos Invisibles. Sexy, Venezuelan dance music with heavy disco and funk roots (think of MAW's Nuyorical Soul album with every track as a 10 minute long play record), it makes you want to create a salsa version of the hustle. I love it when a band sweats on stage more than I am on the dance floor. LAI is energy. Jose Luis Pardo, aka DJ Afro, spun a really nice midtempo set before hand and then wowed us with his adept electric guitar playing. Every time there was a lull between songs, he would break out with a familiar riff. Let's do the theme from Love Boat, Let's play the entirety of Jan Hammer's theme from Miami Vice, let's drop a funk riff here and a soul riff there. And every time, the crowd erupted. I tried to play it cool, early. Standing on the side of the stage, I nodded back and forth watching the crowd get more excited and agitated. About 30 minutes into the hour and 45 minute set, though, the beat had me. I was thinking about the Venezuelan girl I'd met the night before, the way we had danced a little hip hop mixed with a little salsa as Justin's Rock Your Body came out the stereo and talked about life in L.A. and how she should navigate this business now that she is on the verge of blowing up. I was thinking about letting go of the awkwardness I had been feeling all evening. And the hips gyrated. And the feet moved. And the chest bounced. And I was set free. Now if only I could be set free of this gray haze that is clouding up the monday of my mind. Hmmm, that's too much thinking. It must be time to belly up to the bar.

Remind Me of This...

"There's no use changing my mind." - Jazzanova, No Use (In Between)
You're an Etch-a-Sketch!! You're the creative,
artsy type who doesn't need to actually utilize
a single muscle group in order to have fun.
Doesn't matter though, you're still cool.

What childhood toy from the 80s are you?
brought to you by Quizilla ...when I'm complaining tomorrow about not going to the FOX Summer Launch Party on the beach tonight and instead hanging out with some of my peoples on the other side of town at Tantra and The Vermont in Silverlake. I'm not going to the party because why? Because I'm too cool for FOX. I already have plans and won't change them for a way too late invitation. I don't want to see those O.C. nerds anyway. Herbs. Yes. Remind me of this when the pictures are all over wireimage and yahoo tomorrow, please. Or else I'll think I'm a nerd instead of the C-List mover and shaker I like to think I am.

Boys and Girls at the Hotel Cafe

"Let me hold you girl, let me hold you girl" - Kelis, Protect My Heart The Hotel Cafe is not in a hotel and is barely a cafe. Non-descript in a sea of non-descript bars on the strip of Cahuenga Boulevard between Hollywood and Selma, you enter through the back, grab a beer, and find your little section of wall where your view of the stage will be unencumbered. You might also stand outside waiting in line and ask the woman next to you how much the cover is for the night. This might turn into a longer conversation about music and choices in life. You might find out she's a substitute teacher by day/band manager by night with a good head on her shoulders, a cute haircut, and an engaging personality. You might think that her being named after a letter of the alphabet is just the cutest thing you've heard all week. You might exchange information before parting for the show. Yup, you just might.

The Two Zeros

"One day all them bags gone get in your way." - Erykah Badu, Bag Lady Trent loved the list David was making and I'm loving both so I figured I had to chime in. My top 20 albums of the new millenium so far. 20. Since I Left You - The Avalanches (2000/Modular) 19. Justified - Justin Timberlake (2002/JIVE) 18. Another Late Night - Zero 7 (2002/Kinetic) 17. Phrenology - The Roots (2002/MCA) 16. Voodoo - D'Angelo (2000/Virgin) 15. One Beat - Sleater-Kinney (2002/Kill Rock Stars) 14. In Between - Jazzanova (2002/Atlantic) 13. Aaliyah - Aaliyah (2001/Blackground) 12. American IV: The Man Comes Around - Johnny Cash (2002/Universal) 11. One Word Extinguisher - Prefuse 73 (2003/Warp) 10. Vespertine - Bjork (2001/Elektra) 09. The Colored Section - Donnie (2002/Giant Step) 08. Like Water for Chocolate - Common (2000/MCA) 07. Shades of Blue - Madlib (2003/Blue Note) 06. Reflection Eternal - Talib Kweli & DJ Hi-Tek (2000/Priority) 05. Red, Hot + Riot - Various Artists (2002/MCA) 04. AOI: Bionix - De La Soul (2001/Tommy Boy) 03. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below - Outkast (2003/La Face) 02. Simple Things - Zero 7 (2001/Palm Pictures) 01. Mama's Gun - Erykah Badu (2000/Kedar) If I was on a desert island with an ipod filled with the tracks from these albums, I'd be happy for a long time. It pretty well acknowledges my eclectic tastes and includes my favorite artists of the era. The honorable mentions would include Verve Remixed, Duck Season Vol. One, Back To Mine (Tricky), and the Ocean's 11 Soundtrack. I'm surprised, too, because I'm a sucker for good compilation and/or mix/remix albums and I love those 4 but there were some albums that just had to be there. I only considered albums I actually own and because just about all of them are in my itunes, it wasn't as difficult to widdle down as I expected. I'm also surprised neither of Kelis' albums made the list but Wanderland did get close. Zero 7 appears twice, although Another Late Night is a compilation mixed by them and is, easily, the best comp album I have in my collection. Zero 7 is maybe my favorite act of the 2000s.

Distractions

"I don't think you love me. Confusion setting in. I don't think I'll be staying around here anymore." - Zero 7, Passing By Sia took the stage during the second encore for what would be her last song with Zero 7 for the evening on the last night of their North American tour in the beautiful John Anson Ford Ampitheatre. She thanked the band, the crew, and us for making their last show so enjoyable. She also said, "And now everybody kiss each other on the lips. With tongues." And we stood next to each other, two thirds of the way up from the stage on the left hand side, not kissing.