Jason Toney

The Next Episode

"You don't have to call, it's okay, girl, cuz I'm a be alright tonight" - Usher (featuring Ludacris), You Don't Have to Call Remix [buy the album] "I'm representin' for them gangstas all across the world, still...hittin' them corners in them low-lows, girl" Besides being able to hit switches on Sunset Boulevard, all we really needed was for a mushroom cloud of chronic smoke to billow out of car as we hit The Standard Hotel valet area. Felicia is rolling in a white Grand Marquis for the next 4 weeks as her baby gets some body work done. When I sank into her front seat, she turned the key in the ignition and BUH buh buh buh buhbuh... Dre and Nate Dogg let me know it was time for the next episode. It's Friday night and it's near the end of LA's Fashion Week. We're here for the Yana K Fall 2005 lineup. Well, that's not entirely true. We're here for The MVP. When she IMs me, I do whatever she says. That's why she's the M to the P with the V in the middle. She's a playmaker. mvp: I want to invite you to a fa- me: I'm there. Felicia is looking lovely while I'm lookin' hipster 4 life. The triple 5 soul blazer, the dodge dart baseball tee, the two tone leather superstars, sidekick in the inside pocket. I'm learning how to navigate this scene without losing my soul. I'm not the flyest one in the building but I'm the flyest me I can be...and people notice. The right people and that's all that matters. We rush across the mini-red carpet which is hilarious in it's own right. LA must keep the entire mini-red carpet business afloat by itself. Flashes go off as we cross but we don't turn to acknowledge. It's early and the photogs aren't sure if we matter or not so they snap a few just in case. We're poolside. We find a place to sit and get drinks and people watch for the next 30 minutes. Everyone is hot. I want to lick people. I want to put my hand on the small of their backs and sneak a finger into a belt buckle or just inside their low rise jeans right at their hip. I want to nibble on chins. Hov and Red aren't here yet and The MVP is nowhere to be found. I take a lap. There's Shane West and Tara Reid and Courtney Peldon and aHahahahaha. I sidekick the fuggingitup ladies immediately and curse them for not being on instant messenger as I laugh my face off. Hov and Red arrive and Red, looking super fly herself, takes a seat next to us. "Did you see The MVP," I ask immediately. "No, but we'll see her soon enough. She's in the show." Nate Dogg says, "Hold up. Hey-Ay." She's in the show. Well, damn son. Now it's getting good. DJ Morty of Spider Club's 80s Mondays spins some serious tracks and the show begins. Yana K has some hot shit. She's putting hoodies and jackets back on the map for dudes and ladies can rock some polka dots next year. It takes me two times to notice but the glistening lips of Meagan Good are walking the runway as well and she's killing it. Hov said she watched me the whole night and it was the first time she'd seen me totally "guy out." "I could tell which girls you liked," she said. "What gave it away? The clapping, the shaking my head no when it was all just too much, or when I jumped the stage and tackled Meagan and the MVP?" Oh. The MVP. She walks the stage like she dances with me. Attitude. A smile. A rock of the hip. A knowing "I'm cute and smart and perfect and hot and you love me and can't help it" glance here and there. I nearly stood up in my seat. I tried to get pictures but I fumbled on the 1 yard line. All you will get is blur. I would've been set for the rest of the night but the night was just beginning...

Friday Random Ten - Soup For You Edition

"You're the only who really knew me at all" - The Postal Service, Against All Odds Before I take a hatchet to MT and upgrade to fight the trackback spam, let's do a special Saturday Friday Random Ten. Out of 2318 songs, 420 albums, 887 artists and 49 genres... Friday Random Ten 1. The Red - Jaylib - Champion Sound 2. Rabbit Fur Coat - Jenny Lewis - Live, unreleased 3. Electric Relaxation - A Tribe Called Quest - When I Met You 4. Tell Me Something I Don't Know - The Thrills - Let's Bottle Bohemia 5. Wanted Man - Johnny Cash - At San Quentin 6. The Big Guns - Jenny Lewis - Live, unreleased 7. Cherrystones - Eugene McDaniels - Outlaw 8. Pleasure of Love - Tom Tom Club - Ofrenda Summer Mix 9. A Toast to Da Kingz - Doo Wop - Tape Kings 15th Anniversary Mixtape 10. O Caminho - Bebel Gilberto - Bebel Gilberto Since I've had quite a few people ask me about this soup... Here's the recipe:

Mucha Lucha Vavoom

The Mayan Theater October 28th, 2004 Lucha Vavoom! Stories later. Pics now.

Shake Your Rumpa

"Got arrested at the Mardi Gras for jumpin' on a float" - Beastie Boys, Shake Your Rump (Green Mix) [New York State of Mind] I'm still dancing. We hit URB's November Issue Release Party at the Conga Room last night. It was my first time at the house that J.Lo built, err, bought with Jimmy Smits and Paul Rodriguez. It's a great club. I might have to have a party there. A separate room with a stage and a huge dance floor, a second dance floor. A large bar, a smoker's area, bathrooms aplenty and a restaurant downstairs. I was impressed. I was not impressed, however, with Wannabe Dave Meyers and his cigarette bumming and bad dance moves. In fact, nobody seemed to have cigs in the joint. Everyone was trying to bum off of Felicia whose denials got better with each new inquiry. "Sorry, this was my last one...Nope, we actually just bummed these...Oh, sorry, I have cooties and just licked all of these." But back to Wannabe Dave Meyers. Why is he ironic breakdancing right now looking like he's Jackie Chan's body double in Legend of the Drunken Master? Is he trying to challenge? Does he want a Beat Street Breakdown because I am wearing these Superstar Grafs and I do get down like that and El Dopa just dropped that Alicia Keys' You Don't Know My Name Reggae Remix and if I had on my powder blue tracksuit it would already be on. You would have been faced my friend and I ain't even playin'. But El Dopa has been spinnin' for an hour and the dance floor is empty. We are about to search for where the party is really happening but just as soon as we get up Ubiquity's Jamie Strong drops Al B. Sure's Off on Your Own (Girl) and we. must. dance. Everyone on the outer rim of the floor watches as we drop in to the center of the floor. I open with the troop before moving into my serious dance repertoire. There are ladies and fellas nodding to the beat and breaking into a move every once in a while but they won't commit. I come harder and there it is. A girl in the corner can no longer contain herself. She breaks from her friends at her table and inches her way on to the floor gyrating her hips and closing her eyes and letting her head sway. The fellas head to the DJ booth and give Jamie a pound then turn and start dancing. A dark skinned fellow dressed like Pee Wee Herman drags the ladies he's with out and they join in the fan. And Wannabe Dave Meyers is still over here fucking it up. I wish he would step to me so I could school him on the art of poplocking and how to really get down to Erotic City. But not this night. Despite Valida's super hot set and Raul Campos much more engaging spinning on this night than he does on Nocturna during the week (although I'll freely admit that might just be some residual haterade from losing Chocolate City as a nightly show), I did not go toe to toe with any of the pretenders in the crowd. I simply drank shots and vodka like they were water and danced until I couldn't dance no mo'. We left before the gift bags but it was a perfect evening nonetheless. I really don't know what's better than dancing. Maybe sex. But that's just a dance, too, innit? And I'm still dancing.

The Japanese Harvey Keitel

"You will find a way out" - Headset featuring Lady Dragon and Sach, Grasping Claw [xlr8r incite #25] Ryo Ishibashi enters The Grudge about a third of the way in. Adorned in a green trenchcoat, a scowl and a furrowed brow, he called up images of The Wolf in Pulp Fiction and Mr. White and the many other roles as detectives and cops that Harvey Keitel has played in his 4 decades on film. Ishibashi's Detective Nakagawa is measured, even tempered, wise...and tortured. He knows the history of this house and the evil that lies there but he still seeks the truth possibly to avenge the dead and missing detectives that have been lost investigating this place but mostly to soothe his own demons of guilt and inaction that hide just under his steely demeanor. I gotta get to Japan sometime in this lifetime. The Grudge isn't the best horror film. I'm struggling to even write that because after watching the film in the Cinerama dome with the producers, the writer, the director and just about everyone who worked on it and seeing how proud of their baby they are, I don't want to criticize. Really, despite my problems with it, they should be so very proud. It is masterful in it's creation of atmosphere. The score and the sound envelops you in creep. From the moment we sat down, we were jumping in our seats. Nervous laughter leapt out of me at regular intervals. The MVP nearly broke off my arm as she hung on for dear life, hiding her face in her hoody and constantly whispering in my ear, "I have a headache", as I anxiously chuckled and tried to slow down my racing heart. The film just loses steam as we move to the final act. The frights aren't as frightening and the resolution isn't as compelling or horrifying as one would want. The most interesting story is Bill Pullman's and his stalker but we don't get nearly enough of that. I'm also not convinced Sarah Michelle Gellar can command a film. She works this not very believable cutesy voice throughout and it bugs...but maybe that's just my residual Buffy memories at play. Jason Behr does what Jason Behr does: makes slow inquisitive statements, showcases his muscular frame and new moptop do, and watches the ladies swoon. I can't hate on the guy, either. He came to the after party and was very pleasant. I kept my desire to talk about Roswell and how my old crush on Majandra Delfino has turned into a crush on Emilie de Ravin now that she's adorably pregnant on Lost in check. Besides, there was open bar and Doughboys Red Velvet Cake and ghost stories to tell with Hov, MVP, and completely gorgeous women with dorky boyfriends. Apparently The Grudge is doing very well this weekend with the estimates at about 15 mil for last night alone. Good on ya. It's the week before Halloween, kids, go get your scary movie on. Oh, and book a ticket to Japan. Just don't watch video tapes while you're there, mmmkay? Scary movies, y'all!

Friday Saturday Random Ten: Louden Up Now Edition

"It's such a beautiful thing this musical thing" - Blackalicious, Do This My Way [buy the album] A day late but never a dollar short... Out of 2221 songs, 394 albums, 824 artists and 42 genres, I put the iTunes on shuffle and got this... Friday Random Ten 1. Esto Es Lo Que Hay - Los Amigos Invisibles - The Venezuelan Zinga Son, Vol. 1 2. Mistadabolina [Remix] - Del Tha Funky Homosapien - The Best of Del! 3. Get Off My Spaceship Bitch - RJD2 - Who's America? 4. Me and Giuliani Down by the Schoolyard (A True Story) - !!! - Louden Up Now 5. Super Disco Breakin' - Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty 6. Dig On It - Jimmy McGriff - Superfly Soul 7. Freestyle - Juvenile - Tape Kingz 15th Anniversary Mixtape 8. Shake it Baby - Maceo & All The King's Men - Soul Sides: Black Label 9. Reckless - Tilly & The Wall - Wild Like Children 10. Every Time It Rains - Charlotte Martin - 2004 Peace Love Pride Music Sampler

Tech Support

"Where I've been is no longer where I'm at and where I'm goin' is not where I'm stoppin' at." - Mary J. Blige, Where I've Been 1. My TV is overscanning something fierce. I can't read the ESPN scroll and corner titles and such dissapear outside the viewable area. Anybody know a workable fix for this? It didn't start out this way but has progressed over time. I haven't been able to find any good resources online. 2. I got trackback spam this morning. That shit is for the birds. Are we going to need plugins for this now, too. And why must we trackback spam rape and incest sites? No, furry bunny sites that really want to be in the public eye? No classic cartoons for us to fall in love with all over again through spam? Sigh. 3. Cartoon Brew is my current favorite obsessive about one topic blog. Every day there are at least 2 posts/articles that they point to that I'm excited to read. Bonus favorite web thing is Flickr. Like Michelle, it has me thinking about picture taking almost constantly. I went buckwild just this morning with photos for the bookshelf project and uploaded a couple pics that monique took. It's also one of the most enjoyable web based tools to use. Simple, elegant, efficient and always improving, it's so choice. It's like the google of photo tools online - once I started using it, I couldn't imagine using another tool for the same service. They just can't possibly do a better job. 4. Anybody else having trouble signing up with the iTunes affiliate program? For whatever reason, it's not working for me, I can't get past one of the submission clicks. Maybe it just doesn't like Firefox. 5. I've heard rumblings about this book for the past several weeks but it sounded like a boring business efficiency book. After reading about it though from folks whose opinions I trust, I'm thinking about picking it up over the weekend. Doing one of the suggestions in regards to email yesterday completely changed and improved my day so I'm thinking it might be worth a real look. 6. I'm still on some Paper Mario and The Thousand Year Door goodness. Chapter 5, y'all and we be pirates. 7. What color do you think negroplease.com should be for this design's final version? Should I go back to the orange in November or do something else? I think I'll want to launch a new design for the '05 but until then... 8. Angelenos? Talk to me about T-Mobile. How's the phone service around our fair city with them? 9. j. and lynne both asked: How do I have the time to do my movie list? Midnight posting frenzies and red bull, of course. That said, I've been neglecting here, time wastin' and pop culture junkies of late. Work is a beast right now and at the end of the day, I don't want to see a computer that doesn't have a controller attached to it. I also haven't really been reading your sites either. Missing a day or two of bloglines is scary. 500 unread posts! What? Shut up for a minute while some of us catch up.

The Big Post of Flicks: Docs and Subtitles

"We just want to chill and let you party" - The Foreign Exchange, Nic's Groove [buy the album] What I'm finding as I do this Top 100 Films List is that there are genres woefully neglected by me even though I very much enjoy them. I'm floored by the number of Documentaries that I haven't watched as well as the wealth of Foreign Film yet to enter my dvd player (and speaking of which, on Jessica's recommendation, I'm about to purchase one of these babies to replace my old JVC). My netflix queue is growing. These are the very short lists of Documentaries and Foreign Films vying for space on my list.

• When We Were Kings
• Spellbound
• Murder on a Sunday Morning
• Scratch

• Amélie
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• Like Water for Chocolate
• Run Lola Run
• Wasabi

Understand that Wasabi isn't a good movie but I really am a sucker for a Luc Besson movie. Especially one with Jean Reno as the star and where he goes to Japan and everyone in Japan is speaking French. That's ridiculous and I love every minute of it. I think I'm going to make my comedy and horror pools next...which should be interesting.

101/1001: 8 done, 922 days to go

"Can't get away from holding you." - Carol Williams, Can't Get Away (From Your Love) [buy the album] In case you were wondering how I was doing on the 101/1001... 11.See New York in Spring Fall.

Update: This task has been updated because I'm making a trip to NY for the week of Thanksgiving. I might still make it to NY in Spring within this time frame but I'm calling this impending trip as counting!

12.Play Texas Hold 'Em at a casino table in Vegas.

We've had a couple Hold 'Em games locally (I came in just a dollar out of first place the last time I played. With a 10 dollar buy-in, I tripled my money) but I'm going to Vegas in January and it will be on!

17. Write a letter to my federal representative about their record.

Completed sometime in September 2004 when I wrote to my U.S. Rep about how much I appreciated his record on social issues, particularly in the face of the Defense of Marriage Act and Amendments. He sent a follow up letter just last week.

21.Find out who my biological father is.

*crossing fingers* If my mom and I actually find time for lunch in our busy schedules this week then I'll know more.

22.Get A grades on every song on Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix.

As of October 18th, 2004, I have A grades on 4 songs and an AA perfect grade on one song. This is much harder than I expected it to be. I need to put in some more work.

26. Get the Sidekick II when it's released.

I sidekick like crazy and have since I purchased it the day it was released. Don't hate.

27.Get an Apple Cinema Display completed September 6th, 2004. 28.Own every Spike Lee film on DVD.

Update: I'm altering this a bit because it's no longer what I want. I will own every spike lee film that makes my top 100 list and those that were up for consideration. Why purchase films I'd rarely watch?

29.Watch the entirety of Twin Peaks on DVD.

This is proving harder than I thought as well. For some reason, I can't stay focused while watching.

30.Watch all available seasons of Homicide: Life On the Street on DVD.

Season 5 was released. I'm currently on disc 3

37. Fix the toilet paper holder in my bathroom.

Completed on October 17th, 2004. Check the pic.

38. Buy more bookcases.

Completed on October 16th, 2004. Nobody said anything about building them.

44.Define my political ideology completed August 7th, 2004. 54.Save 5 dollars a day.

I'm actually 3 weeks from being 40% of the way there. Fiscal Jason, y'all.

57.Compile a personal top 100 films list.

I'm working seriously on it.

60.Meet someone in person from another city that I first met through blogging.

I did this way back in August 2004 when I met Monique live and in person. We had Roscoe's and laughed.

65.Take pictures of all my friends and family.

Check the flickr.com joint. I'm working on it, boss.

93.Pay all my bills on time for a month

Completed September 2004 and has been continued through October 2004 which is so hot. I find my own fiscal responsibility so sexy.

The Big Post of Flicks - Animated Contenders

"Damn it's setting in now, cuz cartoons are turning into real life." - N*E*R*D, Wonderful Place [buy the album] Cartoon Brew has been talking a lot about the creepiness of CG Humans and I'm in complete nod-your-head agreement. That Polar Express movie just looks screwy. I don't like an animated Tom Hanks staring at me or those freaky kids jumping around on an animated train. I want my animation to be whimsical and wonderful. Animating or anthropomorphizing normally inanimate objects or animals is one thing. Toy Story and A Bug's Life are good times. But the humans are always creepy. That the kid is an important character in Monsters, Inc is probably why I don't enjoy it as much as I should. Anyway, this is as good a time as any to look at the animated films up for consideration on my Big Post of Flicks (in no particular order).

• Princess Mononoke
• A Bug's Life
• Spirited Away
• Tokyo Godfathers
• Lady and the Tramp
• The Secret of Nimh
• Dark Crystal
• Beauty and the Beast
• Toy Story
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit?