Jason Toney

The Two Zeros: The Best Television of The Decade - Six Feet Under

"Just like the prodigal son, I've returned." - House of Pain, Jump Around (Pete Rock Remix)

I've seen a few best of TV lists for the decade and they name all the right shows—The Wire, Chappelle's Show,  Battlestar Galactica, The Daily Show, LOST, Buffy, Arrested Development, The Sopranos, etc.—but I haven't seen much talk of Six Feet Under, which, in my mind, is on par with The Wire as the best written, most impactful show ever.

I'm not going to dig into the nuances of the show other than to say that much like most of the TV I liked this decade, Six Feet Under had a multicultural cast full of well developed, well drawn characters whose purpose wasn't to highlight race or focus on racial issues but to reflect the reality of the worlds in which they existed. A funeral home in Pasadena, California run by a family that is fully engaged in Southern California isn't going to have to go in search of diversity. It lives where they live and those people of all hues and backgrounds would go to them to bury their loved ones. That's one of the trends I hope continues into the next decade: television shows where we all exist together and not just crashing into each other but collaborating, laughing, and loving. That's the world I live in.

Why I really love the show, though, is this: I have always been terribly afraid of my own mortality and the potential deaths of those around me. Halfway through this decade, a friend committed suicide and I didn't understand it. Couldn't wrap my head around it. That lack of clarity threatened to consume me but a scene from a television show gave me perspective. I've faced the death of loved ones since then and I always go back to the sentiment of the ghost of a dead father talking to his son about death and life.

The very dead Nate, Sr: You're missing the point. 

David: There is no point. That's the point. Isn't it? 

Nate, Sr: Don't give me this phony existential bullshit. I expect better from you. The point's right in front of your face. 

David: Well, I'm sorry but I don't see it. 

Nate, Sr: You're not even grateful are you? 

David: Grateful? For the worst fucking experience of my life? 

Nate, Sr: You hang on to your pain like it means something, like it's worth something. Well, let me tell you: it's not worth shit. Let it go. (Nate, Sr. looks toward the sky) Infinite possibilities and all he can do is whine. 

David: And what am I supposed to do? 

Nate, Sr: What do you think? You can do anything, you lucky bastard, you're alive! What's a little pain compared to that? 

David: It can't be so simple. 

Nate, Sr: What if it is?

Infinite possibilities simply because I'm alive and not six feet under. I dare you to find television that tells you something better than that.

The Two Zeros: The Best Albums of 2009 (a list)

"Got to be there in the morning." - Michael Jackson, Got to Be There (Single Verson)

Now that we've gotten this out of the way, here's a list of the best releases from 2009:

1. The Hazards of Love by The Decemberists
2. Rules by The Whitest Boy Alive
3. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix by Phoenix
4. So Far Gone by Drake
5. Manners by Passion Pit
6. The Blueprint³ by Jay-Z
7. Incredibad by The Lonely Island
8. LP by Discovery
9. Rayguns Are Not Just The Future by The Bird and The Bee
10. A Mouthful by The Dø*

Notable 2008 releases that found shine in 2009 - The Rhumb Line by Ra Ra Riot, Friendly Fires by Friendly Fires, Sam Sparro by Sam Sparro, and Leave It All Behind by The Foreign Exchange

If there's a trend for me in 2009 it's in how electronic and low key I liked my music. That's about all I can say at this point. Writing The Two Zeros has proven to me that I don't really know what mattered so close to when it happened.

Ask me what I thought about this year 12 months from now.

*Apparently this is a 2008 release but eMusic tagged it as 2009 so I'm sticking with that because I don't want to find another record to put up here.

The Two Zeros: The Best Music of 2009 - Michael Jackson

"My life will never be the same." - Michael Jackson, You Rock My World

Let's just be for real. There was no music that was released in 2009 that compares to the music of Michael Jackson. If anything positive came from his death on June 25^th, it was the opportunity to renew a relationship with his catalog. My goodness.

I found songs I either hadn't heard or had long forgotten like Maria (You Were The Only One) and We've Got A Good Thing Going. I checked out what he'd been doing since the release of HIStory--which marks the point when me and his music parted ways--and found it still worthy.

So, as I spent the weekend thinking about  what I would talk about as mattering this year, it's him. For all my life, I've danced to him, mimicked his moves, memorized his lyrics, and smiled. MJ, the artist, makes me smile.

I suspect I'll continue to dance with him for the rest of my days.

The Two Zeros: The Best Movies of the Decade

After spending an hour or so with Flickchart, here's what I've come up with. Potentially more detail on some of these choices later.

1. The Dark Knight (2008)
2. Almost Famous (2000)
3. Training Day (2001)
4. Children of Men (2007)
5. Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)
6. The Prestige (2006)
7. Spirited Away (2001)
8. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
9. Memento (2001)
10. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
11. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
12. Wall-E (2008)
13. Up (2009)
14. Inside Man (2006)
15. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
16. Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
17. Best in Show (2001)
18. Signs (2002)
19. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
20. Sin City (2005)

Other movies of note for their pure repeatability or memorableness (regardless of quality): The Bourne Identity, Ocean's Eleven, The Matrix Reloaded, The Departed, Minority Report, Amelie, Little Miss Sunshine, Star Trek, Brick, Pitch Black, 25th Hour, Kung Fu Hustle, and 28 Days Later.

My least favorite movie of the decade that everybody seemed to love? Wedding Crashers followed closely by Meet the Parents and Borat.

The Two Zeros: Artists of the Decade - Ghostface

"This is architect music." - Ghostface Killah, The Champ

There are 120 songs either by or featuring Ghostface Killah in my library. They are all from this decade.

Who knew that Ghostface would emerge from the Wu as the main event? Raekwon may have put out one of the finest hip hop albums ever—and we all know that Raekwon's collaboration with Ghostface is part of the reason that Only Built 4 Cuban Lynx is a classic—but it's Tony Stark whose music career has gone well beyond the long tail of that crew from the land of Shaolin.

In my mind, 2000s Supreme Clientele is nearly as significant as Raekwon's joint. CherChez La Ghost is a brilliant piece of work surrounded by stellar tracks. Ghost then spent the rest of the decade turning phrases not quite like any other. Each album feels like a true collection of songs strung together to tell a new tale. He's always exploring a specific theme or themes. He's always exploring, searching for new soundscapes where he can still be the Iron Man. He's never blown up or crossed over but is so iconic that he's one of the guests at Jay-Z's Madison Square Garden supposed swan song. He's appeared twice on 30 Rock. He's got his own action figure.

He'll also murder the track on every guest spot, every mix tape, every mash up. He's obviously an elder statesman in the rap game now but you'd never know it. He's always sure footed. He's still fresh and interesting. He's loved by headz and indie hipster kids alike. No small feat.

One could argue that hip hop faced an identity crisis in the 2000s but not Ghostdeini. Whether he's rhyming about the perils of the drug game or singing poetry to a lady to get her up out them panties, he's always Pretty Toney. 

The Two Zeros: Songs of the Decade - They Live In The Sky

They Live In The Sky by William Orbit  
Download now or listen on posterous

10 They Live In The Sky.mp3 (7376 KB)

I'm collecting my thoughts about 2006, which may be the highlight year, musically, of the last ten years but let's take some time out to celebrate this song. It came up first on shuffle on my best of 2006 playlist and it was a reminder of how great it is as a track. I featured it on one of the best mix CDs I made (which I don't think I still have the playlist or a version of).

William Orbit's They Live in the Sky features ethereal vocals from Annette and Paulette Morris and feels like...I don't know. Like the warmth of the womb or laying flat on your back and staring up at clouds. Like bare feet in warm sand or day dreaming in a quiet park on a breezy Spring day.

Everybody knows I'm all about believing in what's possible. This sounds like that looks in my head.

Posted via email from The Pensieve

The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2008 - Of All The Things

"It feels good to have that kindred soul." - Jazzanova, Let Me Show Ya

Jazzanova's Of All The Things was a late entry to my 2008 collection and that seems appropriate. 2008 was all about big changes in the last part of the year. Much like the single most significant event of those 365 days, as soon as I was in it, I knew it was right.

Not just right, practically perfect. Of All The Things wound it's way around my heart with the first notes of Look What You're Doing to Me and hasn't let up since. While Zero 7's Simple Things (and other releases throughout the decade) always filled me with hope and possibility, representing my dreams and longings about love and life and the person I wanted to be, Of All The Things connects with me about what is.

Since Labor Day weekend of 2008, what is and what has been is she + me. José James sings out on Little Bird, "Of all the things I found in life, no moment's better than this. Of all the things I've ever known, nothing prepared me for your kiss."

Pause.

No, seriously, pause. Just writing that requires me to take a moment and reflect. I have spent most of this decade unlucky in love and yet, here I am, feeling nothing but warmth and passion about this woman. The moment she stepped off the plane, I knew it was right. I didn't believe it. Hell, we spent that first night watching ferrets on PBS and not touching. I could barely look at her. I thought direct eye contact might reveal cracks in the facade. That if I showed her the real me, she'd see the frailty of my heart. The uncertainty beneath my smile. That if I dared to face her, it would all turn out to be a wonderful but cruel dream.

I got over it.

We've repeated that initial moment, meeting at terminal five at LAX here, or the main concourse of Hartsfield there (and elsewhere across this country) as often as we can since then and each time I'm filled with some emotion that is conveyed by Jazzanova's latest release. Whether I'm waiting at the base of that escalator swaying back and forth wondering if she knows I'm planning to keep rockin' her eternally or on those days, which are too often, when we aren't in the same city and Phonte rhymes about how it's so hard to be alone, so hard to be so far from home. You see, while I may be sitting in this place that I pay rent on, I know that home is where ever she is.

Dial a cliché. Melle and I had this heated conversation about this album at Vermont about a month after I'd had it. She wanted innovative. I argued it was inspired. There's no denying that this is a straight ahead soul recording. There are no flights of fancy or deep exploration into the outer reaches of nu-jazz or whatever's hot in smoky European clubs these days. What it is is honest. And earnest. Sometimes the soul just wants to celebrate life and love in terms we know and understand. Everything's complicated but sometimes there's a simple truth -- love is.

Of all the things I thought I'd learn about life at the dawn of the 21st century, I never expected this.

The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2007 - Cross

"Let's get drunk and freaky fried." - Justice, The Party (feat. Uffie)

It occurred to me as I went through my 2007 library of sound that there hasn't been all that much that's come out in the last 3 years that has made me want to get up to get down. I don't know if it's me and my age or reality but most of the music I've listened to in the last 3rd of this decade is, while not melancholy by any stretch of the imagination, a little more introspective. More headnod and less bombast. More measured and mature, less footloose and fancy-free.

Then there's this. Cross by Justice is an American Apparel ad come to life. It's Vice Magazine in three dimensions. It's sex and drugs and skinny jeans and beards and smelly boys and wild-eyed girls who spend too much time in the bathroom. It's sweat and flashing lights and giant speakers booming. It's the downfall of Lindsay Lohan. It's last night's party.

It makes me want to dance. D.A.N.C.E. And in a world where me shaking my ass doesn't happen nearly as much as it used to, that is cause for celebration.

The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2006 - Veneer

"Who remains after everything has been washed away?" - José González, Remains

 

 At the end of 2006, I didn't decide. I made two lists and went with it. MwM suggested I do the same today. I even asked the question on Tumblr. No one suggested José González's Veneer as the appropriate selection but that's my answer and I'm sticking to it.

Here's why: At some point in 2006, probably late July or Early August, there was a road trip. About 20 or so hours in total. The Martini and I had planned it -- a whirlwind trip to Santa Cruz for some Pink Godzilla Sushi and back. In a last minute decision to make it extra awesome and to get her out of her doldrums, we kidnapped Red. The contents of the trip don't matter as much as what I remember about our drive home.

We were sort of lost in the middle of our state in the dark on roads that felt familiar but weren't exactly and Mr. González's guitar and warbly voice played as our soundtrack. The mood was spooky and unsettled but comfortable. After a year of a lot of change—there was death, the end of some friendships, the end of a job, the quitting of another, a temporary move, a time back home with the folks, a new place (my current place), a new job (when I joined the Mouse), an impending trip around the world for one of us and the spectre of another school year teaching for another of us—yeah, after a whole lot of flux, here was what I was sure of: the two people in the car with me.

So, as we drove through that darkness searching for our way home and José González sang out "catch sun light and you'll be alright," I knew it was true.

I had my chosen sisters with me.

We arrived back in Los Angeles just a few minutes before the sun would rise. Crosses a little less heavy on our shoulders. We'd made it through some things together.

Three years later, I think we still do.

And that's why Veneer is the best Album of 2006.

The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2005 - Be

"Never looking back or too far in front of me. The present is a gift and I just want to be." - Common, Be (intro)

Common's Be may, in fact, be my album of the decade (although that's not decided yet). Clocking in at less than 45 minutes, Common gives us 11 songs (one of which isn't even finished, The Food gaining it's placement because people loved the performance of it so much on The Chappelle Show) with no weak notes. Sure, there's Go which feels a bit incongruous after the driving power and weight of The Corner but it reflects the duality of the world that Common's living in. Let's recognize the realities of our inner cities, of the struggles of our people in America in 2005, but let's also understand this: love exists. We are loving people and the future can be bright if we take care of each other and believe in ourselves.

And while that may be some corny ass shit, let me say this: YES! A million times, yes. The hip hop aesthetic and, by extension, popular black culture had spent so much time dissecting and judging "realness" and, far too often, many of us had been convicted of having too much heart. Common was one of them. His previous album, Electric Circus—which I confess that I too struggle with—had garnered him labels like "soft" and "whipped." Heads thought that a relationship with Erykah Badu had led him astray into some flower power type ish.

Be is a response to those charges. And while it is a return to more accessible soul-tinged production from Kanye West and J Dilla, it's also an admonishment of those who thought he had become, to be blunt, less "n*gga". In the midst of these sensitive love songs and street narratives, Common says on Chi-City, "You can't fake being a soldier."

Right? Because, ultimately, in the Court of The Real, this is what people are saying. Iz you real or iz you fake? And "Realness" had become about staying in the gutter, never looking out, never seeing true joy, only seeing escape and success through the prism of stereotypical hood dreams of sports and entertainment. Of Scarface and John Gotti mafia makeovers. New Jack Hustlers always outside the system saying "Fuck the Man" while extolling the virtues of capitalism and consumerism never realizing that they'd been hoodwinked into thinking the color they should be suspect of is white when, really, at the dawn of the 21st century, we all needed to be worried about the false power of green.

And yet, here's Common, talking about empowerment and self-improvement and being better. About being who we are, whatever that is. About going for our dreams. Getting beyond our constraints, real or imagined. About taking control.

My favorite television show of this decade (and maybe of all time) is The Wire, in part, because it pulls back the curtain on what has become of The American Dream and because it speaks to how many of us felt in Bush's United States—depressed and defeated. Common's The Corner, which I confess to putting on repeat often during 2005, speaks exactly to this reality. But, Be ends with It's Your World, Pts. 1 and 2. Bilal sings the hook on Part 1 while Common's Dad continues his role of giving closing thoughts on his albums in Part 2. I've listened to these eight minutes and thirty-five seconds well over a hundred times, often beginning my days with this mantra of positivity and possibility since this album joined my collection. I also end every personal email with one key quote as my signature—it's placement not changing in at least three years. It conveys what I hope for in my life and in the lives of all those I care for.

Be the author of your own horoscope.

Yes. A million times: yes.