Jason Toney

VOTD: Right Where You Are

Amp Fiddler - Right Where You Are

For anyone new to Amp Fiddler, he is the former keyboard player with the legendary Parliament / Funkadelic and his own music mixes up soul, jazz, funk and hip hop.

This new single is named Right Where You Are and is a soulful number taken from the album Afro Strut.

- AngryApe, 08.11.06

speakeasy: My Mama Says...

There are few things more thrilling than having a new house or an empty room to decorate. Our imaginations soar as we consider the many possibilities. In the same way, our lives offer us the opportunity to express ourselves within various contexts, to ask ourselves questions about what we want to see as we move through our days and how we want things to flow. Some people do this instinctively, moving through the various environments they inhabit and shifting the energy with their presence. These people have a knack for decorating life. This can be as simple as the way they dress, the way they speak, or the fact that they always bring a bouquet of wildflowers when they come for a visit.

 As we move through the world, we make a statement, whether we intend to or not. We shift the energy one way when we enter a room dressed elegantly and simply, and another when we show up in bright, cheerful colors and a floppy hat. One is not better than the other. It is simply a question of the mood we wish to create. What we wear is just one choice we can focus on. The way we speak to people, or touch them, shifts the energy more profoundly than almost anything else. The words we speak and the tone in which we say them are the music we choose to play in the world that is our home. Some of us fill the space with passionate arias, others with healing hymns. Again, one is not better than the other. We are all called to contribute.

 Just as we consciously create an environment within our homes, we can consciously choose to decorate life itself with our particular energy. Ideally, in doing so, we express our deeper selves, so that the adornments we add to the world make it more meaningful, more beautiful, and as welcoming as a beloved home.

- Decorating Life: Viewing the World as Our Home by Phyllis S. Toney via email, 03.07.07

VOTD: Deep House, Chapter 1

Deep House : Chapter 1

While last.fm is going to be adding video tracking to the scrobbler soon, I've been using yahoo pipes for the first time to create a feed of youtube videos of music I've been listening to. Last night, on the way home a little Lisa Shaw and Aya creeped in and Pipes spit out this.

How hot are they?

"Let me inside, all day all night (inside)"

links: Nets and Twits

There's still more to talk about about SxSW but, for now, let's link to some things we've discussed before:

I love twitter, but this is some nerdy shit:

Interest in the messaging service Twitter is clearly on the rise (see this Wall Street Journal article if you’re not already familiar with it), and while most people are figuring out how to use Twitter for its intended purpose–social networking–I’d like to share a few notes on my more prosaic experiment of using it as part of my home automation system.

- Twittering Your Home by Gordon Mayer,  O'Reilly MacDevCenter Blog,  03.16.17

That we're not playing by the same rules (like these) is why I like namespaces/content places like VOX:

I won’t engage with persons that post inflammatory off-topic messages. I alone am responsible for wasting my time. Besides, I could be encouraging the continued posting of said comments.

-NETIQUETTE (jt. - although, damn, can't we turn the caps lock off?), Dead Men Don't Rape, 02.17.07

bigots!

bigots!, originally uploaded by megpi.

I'm very easily amused.

speakeasy: "Courtship" Blogging

Women's magazines such as Redbook and Glamour are not ghettoized or marginalized. They get tons of money to endorse their product and image. And perhaps they are pushed into the realm of women-only consumption, but quite frankly, I am not working to push that type of feminine aesthetic. One of the main reasons they get the money they do, and explicitly feminist publications don't is because, the latter feed into patriarchal ideas of how women should look, act, think and feel.

- Musings on the "Courtship" Blogger by Samhita Mukhopadhyay, feministing.com, 03.14.07

@home: And it...

Feels Like Home (Featuring Me'shell Ndgeocello)

Basement Jaxx

@elsewhere: RKB isn't mad at me!

And I welcome more serious, thoughtful feedback of the kind Jason's giving. And guy dating bloggers, I would love to read more of those. I was really interested in the idea behind Girlfriend 07 and I think the idea Cory brought up about guys not having as much free public space to "be guys" (not his words, but mine) is very true. So thank you, Jason, for coming to the panel and I hope provoking some discussion about the topics discussed there.

- Yes, I play Ms. Pac Man, Lusty Lady, 03.13.07

one line: sex and computational tech

Along with creating interfaces he has also helped design a sex toy charmingly titled the virtual hole and the virtual stick.

@sxsw: Do You Blog on the First Date?

I am fiending for Samhita's discussion of this panel as this, Rachel Kramer Bussel's wonderful participation notwithstanding, was both the worst and most enjoyable panel experience I had as an audience member at SXSW.

The scene: Room 10AB on the third floor of the convention center, 5 women (all white), all claiming to be bloggers (I think I'd only put RKB in that category), all paid sex columnists (again, RKB's experience puts her on a different playing field), all not very connected to this wired/interactive world and me sitting next to a fuming poorly compensated brown feminist whose head nearly exploded with each panelist comment. About halfway through the panel, I couldn't even look at Sam. I would just put my hand out and whisper, "Be easy" and try my best to stifle my guffaws and chortles.

Now let me preface this by saying that I have no quarrel with the concept. There is a long history of sex being an important part of SXSW. My first year here, I spent a good amount of time at parties with Halcyon and Tassy. The Sex and Computational Technology panel the day before was one of the most academic experiences I've ever had. I also see value in hearing from bloggers who are paid for their craft and am quite curious about how relationship dynamics get played out when you throw our online identities into the mix. In fact, I've been thinking a lot about that as a couple I know has been dealing quite publicly with a tough time in their relationship. I've also seen blog nerds here talk about how they met online via blogs and are married now or in a committed relationship.

Hell, I'm pretty sure MJ and Jason's wedding will be liveblogged or twittered.

The problem here is that this was a nuts and bolts conversation about how traditional media sex writers are navigating their traditional media forays into the digital space. RKB snuck in an anecdote or two about same sex relationships but this was an entirely white hetero, traditional relationship kind of situation with people not talking very much about "interactive" issues. There was the bold and inaccurate statement that men aren't blogging about dating and sex (and when did those two words become synonymous?) which completely ignores gay bloggers (I can name 5 gay bloggers [of color] off the top of my head who have very publicly talked life and love...in fact, with sexuality as a key identity factor for them in their online spaces, those topics are maybe the crux of their blogs), spiritual bloggers (for whom romantic love, sex, etc. are significant factors in their faith based lives and online identities), teens who might have entirely online romantic relationships in spaces like myspace, facebook and livejournal, and on and on.

To put it plainly, I was mortified.

And I didn't even go into the panel looking for that kind of commentary but for it to be so blatantly unacknowledged and innacurately portrayed blew my mind.

I wanted more discussion of relationship dynamics in the online world. I've written occasionally about relationship stuff (both in the courtship and erotic senses) over the years and I know of situations where people have battled online about their love. Is this helpful or harmful? Are there any thoughts about how the online world effects intimacy? Does writing about sex and love online change the power dynamics in a relationship? If you're a better writer than your blog love partner, do you win more arguments, get resented, unfairly have an advantage? Does online writing about sex and relationships allow for more cross-cultural understanding in inter-(pick your term) relationships?

Discussions of editorial battles, statements like "women are bitches" and generalizations about this creature known as man earn you no kudos here. Let's get deeper.

Please.

Before Sam's head explodes.