Jason Toney

The Saturday: How I Do It

"Recognize that this game can be hard." - The Alchemist, Hold You Down

I could listen to KRS-One talk about MCing all day. People debate this all the time and I assume it is generally agreed upon but it needs to be said: KRS is the embodiment of the MC. His voice, his energy, his command of whatever conversation he is a part of whether it's on stage or in the alley or at the kitchen table, his vibe just screams MC. If there's anything to get from The MC: Why We Do It it's that. The hour and twenty minute doc wastes some time, in my opinion, going through the history of hip hop before really delving into the nuances of it all. The debates between artists, through interview, about the difference between MCing and rapping are intriguing; the discussion of the idea of keeping it real and the current trends in hip hop and why they exist are insightful with varied outlooks giving weight to the idea that hip hop has splintered and subgenre-d enough where there might be room for all.

There isn't much in the way of new ground here and, outside of MC Lyte, the female MC is missing even when the discussion turns towards mysoginy. Interesting in that conversation, though, is Too $hort's open struggle with how his rhymes might effect the world. He clearly hasn't made peace with it yet despite his attempts at explaining what he does and who he is. Also of interest? Talib Kweli's frank discussion of what he feels are his shortcomings as an MC, Q-Tip's quiet philosopher in contrast to KRS's all-knowing teacher styles, and the literal breaking down of rhymes by MCs and why they are amazing.

Slightly less impressive was a 5 year old retrospective on Spike Lee from The AFI Director Series. It was a little jarring to see Ossie Davis as the first speaker in the piece but his view of the director is probably the strongest in the hour. Maybe my problem with the doc is that it is 5 years old and two of my top five Spike films have come since then, Bamboozled and The 25th Hour. I'm of the opinion that The 25th Hour, while not Spike's most important film, is his best film, just edging out Malcolm X. Wesley Snipes's candor about the problems he sees in Jungle Fever (he doesn't think Spike did enough relationship scenes to show why these characters care about each other) are something to think about though.

I've got She Hate Me tonight as well but it's time to go out. Tomorrow for that. And for some reason, I've been thinking about He Got Game lately too and feel like it deserves another shot.

See, Ray Allen's resurgence with the Sonics this year is worth somethin'.

One to Ten (Plus Some More)

"If you wanna know the truth you better hang out on the corner" - Common, The Corner (Last Poet Reprise)

Life has been on lock the past few weeks but as I make this Saturday my day of rest (at least until the night time comes) I'm going to finally put out this j. brotherlove meme that I've wanted to do since the day he posted it.

Simple, really: make a playlist that features songs that go up from numeral one through ten.

1. All Hands on the Bad One - Sleater-Kinney
2. Two Hearts in 3/4 Time - The Avalanches
3. Three S's - The Avett Brothers
4. Four Minutes and Counting - Tre Hardson
5. Three Six Five - Skam
6. Big Six - Judge Dredd
7. Seven Days - Mary J. Blige
8. Eight for Eight - Lee Perry & The Upsetters
9. 9x9 - 4hero
10. Ten Ton Take - The Brand New Heavies

Other number songs in heavy consideration for the list? One Day by Björk, One Beer by MF Doom, One Beat by Sleater-Kinney, and Three Cool Chicks by The 5,6,7,8's.

52 Books in 52 Weeks: The Dark Tower

Saw through the hole in your head but you couldn't have been dead because you stood up in bed and said 'I wasn't waving goodbye, I was saying hello.'" - Elf Power, Felt Good to Burn

The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower by Stephen King (Grant). It's done. The journey. The story. The long road to the Dark Tower. It took me a month to finish the book which puts quite a dent in my time to finish the 48 books I still have left to read to accomplish my goal. Was it worth it? I don't know. I can't say that I was satisfied with the ending but I also can't say that I was dissapointed either. I just feel weary. Honestly, by the end I was less interested in whether or not Roland would reach his Tower than I was with hearing more of Ted Brautigan and his band of Breakers or the Tet Corporation and all they had done since John Cullum met Eddie and Roland and found himself on the path of the Beam.

I want to return to the Calla. I want to know more about Dandelo and Patrick Danville. After thousands of pages and 15 years, I still want to know more about the world of Ka and Gan and The Bear Shardik and The Turtle Maturin. But, I'm also just so very tired of this world. I don't know if I have it in me to read all the related works or to go back and read Insomnia again or take another crack at Black House (although I suspect I'll be cracking open Hearts of Atlantis and The Regulators in the near future because of how very much I enjoyed those stories).

I think I have had enough time with Roland's Ka-Tet, though. I don't need any more from Eddie and Jake and Susannah and Oy. I've made my peace with them. In this final book, I've finally come around to Susannah/Odetta/Detta and the complexities of the character;I finally understand both the simplicity and the tragedy of Jake Chambers; and, Eddie, Eddie Dean of New York, the character who I walked with most in this tale, I make peace with how his journey ends as well.

It is entirely possible that it took me so long to read The Dark Tower because I didn't want it to end. I dreaded it actually. Dreaded the death that would come. Dreaded the arduous path. Dreaded saying goodbye.

But after I finish reading The Road to The Dark Tower, I will do just that.

Friday Saturday Random Ten - Change is Gonna Come Edition

"Break another little piece of my heart now, baby" - Erma Franklin, Piece of My Heart

Busy. A little broken. Messy. A lot scattered. Inspired. A little hungry.

After a week in which I helped make television (coming soon), dealt with friend drama (some of my own and some tangential), realized just how important it is for me to learn Spanish, got my fingers completely wrapped around another site (announcement coming soon), drank far too much and slept too little, I sit here on a Saturday afternoon -- day one of what will hopefully be a long life with the South Beach Diet -- attempting to catch up on the world around me and on these crazy internets. And reflect. And consider my actions. And make peace with who I am. Even if that means I break off a another little piece of my heart now, baby.

Out of 531 songs on my iPod mini, we've got ourselves a

Friday Random Ten

1. Greatest Mistake - Handsome Boy Modeling School
2. Beautiful Beats - Q and Not U
3. Since I Fell For You - Laura Lee
4. You Are the Light - Jens Lenkman
5. Ann Disaster - Ben Kweller
6. The Sun - Ghostace Killah
7. Rock the Casbah - The Clash
8. Do It - Beastie Boys
9. Big Business - Jadakiss (with Ron Isley)
10. Lose My Breath - Destiny's Child

Most listened to tracks on my iTunes this week (according to audioscrobbler):

1. Q And Not U - Collect the Diamonds
2. Handsome Boy Modeling School - Holy Calamity (Bear Witness II) (Featuring DJ Shadow & DJ Quest)
3. Average White Band - Pick Up The Pieces
4. Kool & The Gang - Summer Madness
5. The Foreign Exchange - Brave New World
6. Death Cab For Cutie - We Laugh Indoors
7. Common - The Light
8. Amerie - One Thing
9. Zero 7 - Milton at Midnight
10. Handsome Boy Modeling School - I've Been Thinking

Friday Random Ten: Sunshine Day Edition

"Be true to yourself, you'll be better off" - Mr. Hermano, Free as the Morning Sun

It is a gorgeous day in LA and after a great night's sleep (I followed LifeHacker's advice and fell asleep with my iPod buds in my ears and downtempo tracks playing softly), a recommitment to organization and planning and focus and, despite recent added responsibilities and complications in my world, I'm feeling free as the morning sun.

So, out of 64 songs on my iTunes with "sun" somewhere in the title of the song, we've got ourselves a very special

Friday Random Ten

1. Sunshine - Antoinque
2. Steal My Sunshine - Len
3. Sunday - Sia
4. Into the Sun - Weekend Players
5. The Sun - The New Sector Movement
6. Sun Will Shine - Keisha G.
7. Staring at the Sun - TV on the Radio
8. El Dorado Sunrise (Super Chicken) - Cee-Lo
9. Sunshine to the Rain - Miri-Ben Ari
10. Ibadan Sunrise - Wale Oyejide

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Bonus Edition

"It's all personal." - Jean Grae, Style Wars featuring Block McCloud

Powers, Vol. 5:  Anarchy by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Avon Oeming (Image Comics). I'm in a debate with myself about whether or not a trade paperback can count towards my 52 in 52. I don't think so. Just because it's collected in card stock and has an ISBN number doesn't mean it's the equivalent of the Art Spiegelman book I'm also reading at this time or even of the other true graphic novels that come out. In the end, it's just a bunch of comics that follow one story arc put together for those of us too late or too lazy to keep up. I'm not dissing comic books at all. I love them and I'm annoyed that I didn't make it into the shop today to pick up my weekly goodies but Bendis and Oeming just aren't going to win this one.

Really, this is just a distraction and a reason to update while I slowly make it through The Dark Tower. I'm savoring it. I've been in it for a week and I'm only about a third of the way in. I've been reading passages over again as we go. Feeling the tug of the end of the journey is not really pleasant at this point. I don't want to be done with Eddie and Roland and Jake and Susannah and Oy. I'm desperate to know what Cullum and Carver and Deepneau do to go toe to toe with the Sombra Corporation and North Central Positronics but as they say, only fools rush in. So we'll let this be a slow burn by candlelight. 10 or 15 or 20 pages every night. Maybe a burst of 50 or so when the getting has just gotten too good but never more. At least not now.

To feel accomplished this weekend in one of the few moments I had to myself, though, I turned to Bendis's hard-boiled detective comic where non-powered police officers investigate the murders of the super. I'm a fan of Bendis, particularly his work in the Ultimate section of Marvel's comic universe. His run on the first story arc of Ultimate Fantastic Four has made what I had thought of as a bland super-hero group into something interesting (although Warren Ellis's two subsequent story arcs have essentially blown the origin story out of the water. Ellis is amazing but you know that, right?). This, however, is my first time with Powers and for some reason I decided to start midstream. That doesn't seem to matter much, though, because while there is this larger storyline going on, this is like a self contained episode. Maybe that's what I like about Bendis in general; his ability to treat comic stories like tv seasons. His characters always exist in a complete world where the passage of time feels real and where you innately understand that there are other things going on in this world beyond what you see in the inked and colored panel.

Enough of me yammering on about the power of comic book writing trying to convince myself to put this on the list. It stays off but a good read nonetheless.  I'm going to have to start at the beginning with Who Killed Retro Girl?. Powers doesn't pass the smell test of literature. Not quite yet. The test will be when Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men (which is Joss at his best and has absolutely amazing artwork) enters my house as a trade paperback. What will my argument be then?

And will I have even gotten halfway through The Dark Tower by then?