Jason Toney

Quick Bits

"Is there a secret place that you won't reveal?" - Nuspirit Helsinki, Honest

1. I love that song up there (and have for a good year now). I also love Hollaback Girl by Gwen Stefani (probably because it wasn't til she performed it on SNL that I knew it was her rhyming on the track. I literally watched for about 30 seconds thinking "why is she covering this joint and who is it by?"). That's some fresh sounding Neptunes work.
2. This site is almost completely optimized for mobile devices (i.e. entries come first, there's no wonky scripting necessary for the site to load properly, the design isn't structured around images). I need to fix the categories pages so that they follow the same conventions and then tackle the 101 in 1001 but when I drop this puppy in my sidekick it loads like lightning and looks de-lovely.
3. I'm trying out Yahoo 360. Holla at me if you want an invite.
4. There is no four.
5. There, also, is no spoon.

52 Books in 52 Weeks: The Plot Against America

"I solemnly swear to change my approach" - Jay-Z, Allure

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth (Houghton Mifflin). Honestly, I was expecting a little more. You put a swastika on the cover of your novel and I want a little more strum und drang. I wanted big stories of political duplicity and eye-opening adventures into the dark heart of America (or the light). I wanted an assassination attempt. What I got was an interesting tale of a family attempting to deal when they fear their country has turned against them. It works. It just didn't blow me away.

There are limitations with presenting this complicated story through the eyes of a nine year old. As a reader, I want to go places this young boy just isn't able to go. We don't get to follow his angry cousin Alvin's adventures into the war or his older brother Sandy's trek to the midwest. We only get snippets of this larger world in which Charles Lindbergh is President and a friend of Germany during the 2nd World War. We get sidetracked by stories of sneaking around on the bus and of the odd boy who lives in the apartment beneath his family's own. Then by the time we get to the end, when America truly goes haywire, we get treated to it through this newsreel style that does little to engage us in the ways this Jewish family crumbling and clinging together has. It falls flat to me. It winds up too tidy. There is redemption that rings false. There is this fictionalized America that, despite its flirtation with the Third Reich, comes through on the other side looking not much different.

I wanted more. The story is well written and often quite compelling but if you're going to go this far, go all the way. Give me a world that resembles ours but is truly, noticeably, definably different than our own history. The Plot Against America just doesn't come through on that promise.

Meh. Mildly recommended.

Friday Random Ten: Wrapped Up In Books Edition

"Why do we got to go through this? I'm sick of the BS." - Amerie - Man Up (featuring Nas)

Y'all know how we do. Out of 588 songs, we've got ourselves a

Friday Random Ten

1. Silver & Gold - Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros
2. Move On Up (Eric Krupper Vocal Mix) - Curtis Mayfield
3. 2nd Childhood - Nas
4. Don't Say - Jon B.
5. Soon (Jazzy Jeff Mix) - Jazzanova
6. Blame It On the Tetons - Modest Mouse
7. When the President Talks to God - Bright Eyes
8. Freedom (Radio Edit) - Oba Funke
9. Dirty Harry - Gorillaz
10. Whatever (Gabriel Rene Remix) - Jill Scott

Molly's Post SXSW Questions

"Can't understand the words of half of the stuff I'm saying" - Phoenix, Everything is Everything

Molly asks. I'll answer. Seemingly we can't get enough of sxsw.

• Which was the most memorable panel you attended?
  • Where are the Women in Web Design? was incredibly useful for me as was Building a Community Blog and the Decentralized Social Networks talk because danah boyd wowed me.
• The most memorable keynote?
  • The only keynote I attended was Zeldman.
• Do you think that SXSW is more a social or content-oriented event?
  • More social with the potential for better content talk.
• What would you like to see more of at SXSW?
  • More breakout sessions after panels to get into the nuts and bolts of things that were discussed.
• What would you like to see less of at SXSW?
  • It's my first time. I want to see more of everything.
• How would you describe your experience overall?
  • Fantastic.
• What will you remember about the food and drink you had while in Austin?
  • That I ate too much and drank far too little.
• Do you have a “best moment” or two (or ten) that will stay with you forever?
  • Participating in the Blogging While Black panel. Getting my "-ist" on with the other "-ist" kids. Meeting everyone. That MJ wasn't the first woman to kiss me at SXSW. Serious conversations about the adult film industry with Halcyon and Tassy.

Hodgepodge

"They ain't got a chance, they ain't got a chance" - Gorrilaz, Dirty Harry

As Eric of eWorld notes, Sean at blogging.la made a dig at LAist the other day. Caryn of art.blogging.la does it too (and probably rightfully so in her case. We don't have a good arts editor right now so our local art coverage comes from a novice perspective). Fishbowl LA gave us a little dig a while ago as well. As editor, I don't mind. I like that we are kind of the Los Angeles Spirit Squad. I like that we look at the city with kind of wide eyed exuberance. If the LA livejournal community is any indication, there are a lot of folks for which that kind of "discovering or re-discovering Los Angeles" perspective is useful. I'd love it if we had a little more serious news about the city on the site but LA Voice and LA Observed both do a great job of that. I'm hopeful that our content continues to skew towards the neighborhood stories, the lifestyle stories, and that our contributor base expands to include communities that nobody is covering. For a blog about Los Angeles, we're woefully lacking in Latino/a coverage and we don't have much content for folks south of the 10. I'd really like to have cheerleaders for them as well. And, I like the royal "we" we use on the site...so there.

There's a 101 in 1001 update. Finally. 6 more crossed off the list. I'm nearly  20% done. That isn't terrible but I need to get on it.

I'm rooting for Mariah Carey's new album. I don't even know why.

Decemberists. Maximo Park. Bloc Party. The Futureheads. Amos Lee. Eisley. Rachael Sage. All heavy in rotation post-SXSW.

The Perceptionists have made  an excellent hip hop album. Cop it when it drops.

The Shield is still amazing. Deadwood is still brilliant. Cold Case is still underappreciated.

Amazing Race 7, though, is weak sauce...but it looks more promising next week.

Anybody using upcoming.org? Is it a little stalker friendly to have your events list on the internet for all to see?

Oh and the technorati rel tag thing is the awesome.

Why Negro Please?

"Is it too late to tell you that I don't mind?" - The Decemberists, I Don't Mind

Lynne asked us "Where did your blog name come from?" or something to that effect during our panel at SXSW and Michael of cruftbox thought it was a great question for every blog. I agree.

What's in a url?

My first blog (and all of the entries are part of this blog) was on blogger. I believe it was jtfunkytown.blogspot.com and it was called "Better Left Unsaid...". I knew early into starting blogging that I was going to need my own domain name but I thought it was going to be a place where I would post a lot of fiction. My mom was a fan of the phrase "Negro?! Please" with appropriate facial expressions and inflections and I just loved the phrase. I love the word negro and I wish we would use it more. So, in March of 2002, I bought it.

At the time, I believe Aaron of Uppity-Negro.com and I were the only two people with blogs with "negro" in the title. Initially, it illicited really strong reactions. People would link here just so that they could reference the url in a post. I'd get emails asking why my site name was so "aggressive" or get told that the site was banned from someone's office computer because their cyber-protection tools considered "negro" a questionable term.

I didn't make lives much easier when I had a hanging "tar baby" as my logo or when I switched to a skin based on Spike Lee's film Bamboozled.

I actually miss the hangman. My current minimalist design might actually benefit from bringing that puppy back.

Anyway, there wasn't a lot of thought into the name. I never imagined how strongly it would resonate with the people that would eventually become the readers of the site. Since the move to typepad, I've had several people beg me not to give up the original "negroplease.com" because they appreciate it so.

Me give up this domain?

Negro?!

Please.

Hairy and 30

Hairy and 30
Posted by: misterjt.

I'm checking out buzznet since I met one of the founders of the company at sxsw. I'll be using it as my mo-blog spot from now on I think.

And, now that I'm a big boy, I figured everyone could see my unshaven 30 year old face.

I also figure that flickr being bought by a corporate giant is a good a time as any to try out the other photo sites.

Friday Sunday Random Ten - Hack-A-Lung Edition

"I love life, man, ya know, life is beautiful. It's just the shit inside it that's fucked up." - De La Soul, The Grind Date

This is the last day I will be sick. It has to be. I'm so over it.

Out of 612 songs on my iPod mini, which has yet to be updated since I've been home, we've got ourselves a

Friday Random Ten

1. German Test Drive - Spymob
2. Only You (Bad Boy Remix w/ The Notorious B.I.G.) - 112
3. She Don't Have to Know - John Legend
4. Finally Woken - Jem
5. Number One - John Legend
6. Kata Rokkar - Björk
7. Get Him Back - Fiona Apple
8. 2nd Childhood - Nas
9. Portions for Foxes (Live - KCRW) - Rilo Kiley
10. Hold On - Sarah McLachlan

No Audioscrobbler stats this week as Audioscrobbler is having serious tech issues right now. They can't currently process the number of submissions at anywhere near a rate that makes the service useful. Hopefully that'll change but I'm not currently holding my breath.

SXSW Eavesdropping: Gay Enough

"You don't need to emerge from nothing" - Fischerspooner, Emerge

Michelle is annoyed at a conversation kottke overheard so I decided to amuse her with a conversation I listened in on in Austin as well.

This was heard as Sleater-Kinney set up for their amazing and amazingly too short show to close the night at Emo's on the first night of the music festival.

Girl 1 (after kissing girl 2): you're so cute.

Girl 2: then why do you keep laughing?

Girl 1: because I want to make out with you...but I'm not gay.

Girl 2: you're not?

Girl 1: not gay...but gay enough.

Girl 2: gay enough?

Girl 1: we can be makeout sluts but no sex.

Girl 2: you do realize you kissed me first right?

Girl 1: you're so cute.

SXSW: Allergies and Other Challenges

"All around me are familiar faces, worn out places, worn out faces." - Gary Jules, Mad World

These allergies are truly kicking my ass today. It is the last night of interactive and there is a party but all I'd like to do is go to sleep. I have to stay up though. Music folks are arriving and I'm going to finally make it to a film festival movie - Scratch: All The Way Live.

I attended two panels today both of which are related to one aspect of my job that, unfortunately for me, takes up more of my time than I would like it to. The managing of a social network (in this case, a message board) and how to deal with Spam, Trolls, and Stalkers. The first has to do with issues of privacy that we all need to be aware of online. You do not live in a vacuum. You cannot be anonymous if you post something on the internet. As soon as someone links to it or reads it and can parse who the author is and announce who you are to the world, you're no longer anonymous. This is important. What you share in places like friendster, orkut, or a message board or mailing list puts it into a space that you have no control over. If you announce where you live, that you're going on vacation, and that you just bought a new plasma screen TV to some kind of public online social network, you've given a house thief everything he or she needs to know.

I wish my board members would think about that. It is one thing to share and talk about the issues in your life in an abstract sense, in a way that doesn't get into the specifics of who you are. It is also one thing to share intimate details of your life with people that you have an expectation of trust with. It is quite another to broadcast it to the world in a message board post that everyone can read.

I have less anonymity on the message boards we maintain than I would like because I shared more information than I should have well over a year ago (a case of too much transparency from the administrators of a tool) and because my name appears in the credits. Fans of this particular show and the boards we run visit here, send me emails to my personal account, and attempt to contact me through messaging tools...all of which are far too close for comfort. I have this public presentation of myself at this site but I need to be able to separate the access that people have to me as a professional and as a private person with a public personal site.

Wow, that last sentence is convuluted.