Jason Toney

In Case You Missed It...

"Have a good time." - Kleeer, Tonight's The Night (Good Time)

The best stuff from wow & flutter last week...

• Tiger's Cheating Heart
• Two Moms vs. Ten Wives
• Power Girl's Boob Window
• Walking With A Panther
• The Iron Man 2 poster featuring War Machine

And according to Friendfeed, the best of the rest of my online life...

• This I Believe
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
• Steven Seagal Lawman is from New Orleans
• Steven Seagal Lawman's absurd zen master focus
• and, in case you didn't know, I'm the chairman of the board, chief of affections

And, speaking of New Orleans, The Saints just came from behind on those sad Redskins. #whodat

In Case You Missed It...

The best stuff from wow & flutter last week...

• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
• "I pity the fool who don't like turkey..."
• Animated Map of US Unemployment
• A Special Kind of Happy
• Deadspin on the Tiger Woods "Accident"

And According to Friendfeed, the best of the rest of my online life...

• More Tiger and Elin
• The infamous Scrabble game
• My too full belly
• Artist of the decade: Beyonce
• Pictures from Greensboro

Thanksgiving and Tiger Woods dominate. Enjoy.

In Case You Missed It...

The best stuff from wow & flutter last week...

• News of an Umami Truck
  
• Race, Criminal Background, and Unemployment
  
• Style in the Noughties
  
• Planetary/Batman
  
• Not Invented Here Celebrates Diversity
• Walt Disney vs. The News Industry
  

And According to Friendfeed, the best of the rest of my online life...

• My debate between parking or riding.
• My top 5 artists of the previous week.
• Last Sunday's movie watching sparked a convo about Medicine for Melancholy.
• A comment of mine on one of Tiffany's series of 00s posts.

Enjoy.

The Annual Blog Relaunch

Reset.

I feel like this has become an annual occurrence ever since I closed up shop on the original blog in 2006.

The truth is, I never stop blogging. I've just become disaggregated over time. I've posted all over the place. On vox, on friendfeed, on tumblr, on posterous, on facebook, via google reader, on twitter. Oh g-d, the twitter.

This is an attempt at a bit of bringing it all back together. I now, primarily, post in two places. Tumblr for what's been deemed mini-blogging and here for more essay type writing. Almost all my writing of the last 7 years is archived here. There are also links in the sidebar to the rest.

I have domain brand management issues so jasontoney.com won't redirect here for awhile but, for now, this is home.

Let's see if it sticks.

Friday Random Ten: Common Ground Edition

"Hot damn. Whatcha name, love? Where you came from?" - Mos Def, Ms. Fat Booty

I actually did this yesterday but haven't had the chance to post until today so here we go

Friday Random Ten

1. Just as Long as We're in Love - Terry Callier
2. Soon to Be Large - Charizma & Peanut Butter Wolf
3. Looking For You - Vikter Duplaix
4. This Means War!! (featuring Ozzy Osbourne) - Busta Rhymes
5. Spit Again (featuring Dawn Penn) - Cocoa Brovas
6. '98 Freestyle - Big L
7. Rap Promoter - A Tribe Called Quest
8. The Come Up - Ms. Jade
9. Signs (with Charlie Wilson & Justin Timberlake) - Snoop Dogg
10. Shadowboxer - Fiona Apple

new to my iTunes this week? Stevie Wonder's Innervisions + Fiona Apple's O Sailor/Parting Gift Single + the three most recent sumosonic sampler discs (the hip hop one being particularly good) + replacements for some worn out CDs: Jay-Z's Vol. 2 - Hard Knock Life and Mary J. Blige's My Life

Friday Saturday Random Ten: The Questions Edition

You know the deal.

Out of 7802 songs in my iTunes, we've got ourselves a

Friday Random Ten

1. Morning Song - Zero 7
2. Ghetto Children - Kelis
3. Space Slut - Funkaho
4. Forever - Bing Ji Ling
5. Wu Tang Cream Team Line Up - Wu Tang Clan
6. Breakaway - Basement Jaxx
7. Freestyle (with The Flipmode Squad) - Busta Rhymes
8. Three S's - The Avett Brothers
9. Show Business - A Tribe Called Quest
10. Rollout (My Business) - Ludacris

My Sense of Humor

 

the Wit (78% dark, 30% spontaneous, 16% vulgar)

your humor style: CLEAN | COMPLEX | DARK You like things edgy, subtle, and smart. I guess that means you're probably an intellectual, but don't take that to mean pretentious. You realize 'dumb' can be witty--after all isn't that the Simpsons' philosophy?--but rudeness for its own sake, 'gross-out' humor and most other things found in a fraternity leave you totally flat. I  guess you just have a more cerebral approach than most. You have the perfect mindset for a joke writer or staff  writer. Your sense of humor takes the most thought to appreciate, but it's also the best, in my opinion. PEOPLE LIKE YOU: Jon Stewart - Woody Allen - Ricky Gervais AND FINALLY -- after you rate my test with a sweet, sweet '5' -- you must take this test next: The Genghis Khan Genetic Fitness Test. It's not mine, but it rocks.

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on dark You scored higher than 0% on spontaneous You scored higher than 0% on vulgar

Link: The 3 Variable Funny Test written by jason_bateman on OkCupid Free Online Dating

Sunday Random Ten: Long Weekend Edition

"So connected to you." - The Foreign Exchange, Title Theme Remix

Its been a long time since I've random tenned it so why don't we do 15? I've been reading Found for the last 90 minutes or so and this is what has come out of my iPod Mini.

Out of 528 songs, here's a

Sunday Random Ten Fifteen

1. What's Your Fantasy (featuring Shawnna) - Ludacris
2. Conducted Rhythms - Beat Conductor
3. Pra Manha - Da Lata
4. Night Light - Sleater-Kinney
5. Undercover Life - Groove Collective
6. If It Isn't Love - New Edition
7. The Way She Dances - N*E*R*D
8. California Dreamin' - Jose Feliciano
9. Why? (Remix w/ Styles P., Common and Nas) - Jadakiss
10. Mandrake - MF Doom
11. Don't Get Lost in Heaven - Gorillaz
12. Fire, Fire - M.I.A.
13. Jumpers - Sleater-Kinney
14. Ghost Ship in a Storm - Jim O'Rourke
15. Spectacular Views - Rilo Kiley

To M.I.A. - U.R.A.Q.T.

"Lady, I don't question love as long as you answer." - Camp Lo, Gotcha

So, of course after Michelle and I eulogized blogging (at least in the personal diary style sense we've come to do it) earlier today, I'm going to actually post.

No good reason other than to tell you that I love M.I.A. and her backup singer Dina. Like straight up Groupie Luv.

I want to follow them around from city to city and dry hump the stage. I want to get the two of them in a menagerie.

I don't even care that Diplo is her boyfriend. Hombre can watch while we get down get down.

"Pull up the people. Pull up the poor!"

I haven't done that mid-year music meme that Todd started last month (partly because I don't like to do my 10 after 6 until 6 months have actually passed) but tops on the list is Arular. I really love The Emancipation of Mimi and when Demon Dayz and Be drop next week I'm sure those will go near the head of the class but Arular is leaps and bounds ahead of everything else in 2005.

By like miles. It's political, powerful, danceable, energetic, and truly global music. Seeing M.I.A. twice in the last three weeks, I'm just kind of...I don't know. I want to go to bed with a 12 inch of U.R.A.Q.T. under my pillow.

Diplo samples the Sanford & Son theme and Redd Foxx saying "You Big Dummy!" on the joint. While M.I.A. says "Is your dad a dealer cuz you're dope to me." Come on now.

Really?

She's off the thermostat. When she lets her backbone slip during live performances, all the while smiling her bright white smile, well...just damn.

M.I.A. be mine.

Sleep Deprived Reviews

"I ain't Hov, I just know what I know." - Freeway, Flipside (featuring Peedi Crack)

I'm so yawning at the screen right now.

The Emancipation of Mimi, Mariah Carey. It's like that, y'all. It's like that, y'all. It's like th-th-th-that y'all. Just get it. I'm recommending the iTunes version with two bonus remixes of It's like That (one of which features Fat Joe whose two current singles might even make me cop his album). It is just a solid, solid, contemporary R&B album with some particularly special moments. Stay the Night is the best song on the album, hands down, but I'm also digging Shake It Off and Fly Like a Bird. If Nelly had stayed home instead of lacing a track with weak vocal stylings, it might be a perfect album for a post-Glitter Mariah. Even with that one misstep, Emancipation moves to the head of the class in what has been an underwhelming year for me for albums so far in 2005. It makes me anxious for a lot of the other hip hop tinged albums that have had promising lead singles. Common, Gorillaz, Mary J. Blige, I'm just sayin', step your game up. Mariah's on fiya.

Side note: I can still remember the days of Mariah releasing two versions of tracks for urban and pop radio (and I know lots of artists did it in the mid nineties but Fantasy was maybe the most egregious) and am so glad that isn't the case anymore.

Fade To Black, Jay-Z. The best parts of Fade to Black are the studio sessions. The different producers on the album are such characters (but DJ Quik and 9th Wonder, where ya at?): Rick Rubin the grizzled veteran who has Mike D working on Tibetan Freedom tracks upstairs while S-Dot is getting his hard rock grimy on in the basement; Just Blaze getting clowned for his video game jones; Kanye West's youthful exuberance and vision; Pharell's infinite coolness. My favorite moment though is Jigga and Timbaland in Miami. Timbo throws a few beats at Jay while Jay softly chides him, "He ain't got that bounce." Timbo plays a hot beat and tries to sell Hov on it. It will eventually become Potion for Ludacris but it isn't hot enough for The Black Album. Then Timbaland hits a button. Oooh whee. Jay's head starts nodding. His lips start moving. The wheels in his head start turning. Dirt Off Your Shoulder is born. That's some magical shit.

The concert footage is good too and probably the finest Rap show to ever happen but R. Kelly's appearance was unfortunate and a reminder that the two went out just a year after this "retirement" show and that Jay has performed several times since then. He and Beyonce kill it, though. Mary J. kills it. That Madison Square Garden crowd kills it. It is a showcase of why and how we can still love hip hop in the 21st century.

Left of the Dial, HBO Documentaries. I used to think Randi Rhodes was grating on Air America. Her voice is screechy and she has so very little patience for alternative viewpoints. As I spent the few weeks getting acclimated to the station in it's brief time before the long hiatus in LA during it's launch last year, I just couldn't get with her program. After watching the documentary, I kind of love her. I love her self-doubt and her desire to be recognized for what she had already accomplished and being able to step back from her a little bit and see where it all comes from, I get it now. Somebody has to be the unwavering screaming voice of liberal and progressive sensibilities and Randi does an wonderfully infuriating job of it.

What else I love about Left of the Dial is how it's showcase of the startup of the radio station showcases the liberal idealism and optimism that I hope most people on the left have. They are trusting that things are happening the way they are supposed to. They believe strongly that they will succeed. In the face of incredible setbacks, they spring into some inspired action that puts the station in even more homes a year later than they ever expected.

That makes me smile and makes me proud of those people trying to hold the banner for the political battles I think are important.

That said, I still can't really deal with Janeane on the Majority Report.