Journal Archive - June, 2008

i think this is a really nice little article.
barack likes 'gimme shelter' and 'maggies farm' and john coltrane.
that's kind of amazing, actually.
a president who likes john coltrane, jay-z, and bob dylan?
moby

WASHINGTON — Bob Dylan. Yo-Yo Ma. Sheryl Crow. Jay-Z. These aren't musical acts in a summer concert series: They're artists featured on Barack Obama's iPod.

"I have pretty eclectic tastes," the Democratic presidential contender said in an interview to be published in Friday's issue of Rolling Stone.

Growing up in the '70s, Obama said, he listened to the Rolling Stones, Elton John and Earth, Wind & Fire. Stevie Wonder is his musical hero from the era. The Stones' "Gimme Shelter" tops his favorites from the band.

The Illinois senator's playlist contains these musicians, along with about 30 songs from Dylan and the singer's "Blood on the Tracks" album. Jazz legends Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Charlie Parker are also in the mix.

"Actually, one of my favorites during the political season is 'Maggie's Farm,'" Obama said of one of Dylan's tracks. "It speaks to me as I listen to some of the political rhetoric."

In the song, Dylan sings about trying be himself, "but everybody wants you to be just like them."

Several musicians on Obama's iPod support his bid for the White House, including Bruce Springsteen. Earlier this month, Dylan told a British newspaper that he believes Obama is redefining politics in the United States and could deliver change to a nation in upheaval.

"I've got to say, having both Dylan and Bruce Springsteen say kind words about you is pretty remarkable," Obama said. "Those guys are icons."

Obama said he hasn't met Springsteen, but the two have talked over the phone.

"Not only do I love Bruce's music, but I just love him as a person," Obama said. "He is a guy who has never lost track of his roots, who knows who he is, who has never put on a front."

And did he address him as the Boss?

"You've got to," the candidate said.

Asked what he thought of rap, Obama said the genre has broken down barriers within the music world, though he's concerned about his daughters _ Malia, 9, and Sasha, 7 _ listening to it.

"I am troubled sometimes by the misogyny and materialism of a lot of rap lyrics," he said, "but I think the genius of the art form has shifted the culture and helped to desegregate music."

ah boy, last night at nublu was so much fun.
nublu is such an oddity. no sign out front, barely working sound system, no stage for the bands, a/c in name only, etc.
but somehow it always seems to work and it always seems to be way too much fun.
and last night was really fun.
now i need to sleep for a week.
or a day.
or two.
the little death show wednesday is sold out, so hopefully i'll see you there if you got tickets.
and thursday i'm dj'ing with the juan mclean at santos(a new venue here in nyc).
i really do love dj'ing at places that are a few blocks from my apartment.
i'm so provincial.
moby

p.s-oh, there are some new and odd pictures up on moby.com under 'visuals'

so apparently the yahoo music set we shot for yahoo is available on yahoo music.
i'm assuming that this means that if you go to yahoo music you can see the show that we
taped for them. it was fun. i haven't seen it(even though i was there, performing), but my friends say it's
good.
but, as we all know, we can never trust our friends.
or can we?
discuss.
in other news: in addition to dj'ing this sunday at nublu with sylvia and her band i'm also
dj'ing with juan(as in 'the')mclean on june 26th here in nyc.
and then lots of other things, dj'ing and live.
but the juan mclean dj set here in nyc should be fun.
i like dj'ing when i can easily walk home afterwards.
ok, see you soon.
moby

so, we know that john mccain voted against legislation that would help
women achieve equal pay for doing the same jobs as men. and we know
that john mccain has promised to overturn roe v. wade. and we know
that john mccain voted against schip(state child health care program).
but did you know that he publicly called his wife a 'cunt'?
yup, classy man.
the exact quote(recorded)-
'at least i don't pile on the make-up like a trollope, you cunt'.
said to his wife.
yes, the same wife who has given tens of millions of dollars to his
campaign and lets him ride around for free on her private jet.
here's a, well, lighter look at the 'cunt' story.
moby

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Euu_DMhsXQo

we all want to leave a legacy, right? it's encoded in our dna that we want to leave something behind after
we shuffle off this mortal coil(i like the idea of shuffling off a mortal coil, kind of like doing a jazz-era dance
that leaves you dead. like 'shuffle off to buffalo', but replace 'buffalo' with 'the land of the dead'). some of us want to leave kids, some of us want to leave art, etc.
i think that we should collectively aspire to leaving behind an english language that includes words
that aren't, at present, real words.
my favorite non-word of the moment is 'supposively'.
is in 'george w bush supposively did A LOT of cocaine in his relative youth.'
it's kind of like an explosive version of 'supposedly'.
see, 'supposedly' is a milque-toast word, based purely on supposition and a lack of commitment.
but 'supposively'(which isn't actually a word. yet.)is the 'yeah, sure' version of 'supposedly'.
example:
'supposedly gw bush did a lot of cocaine.'
see, that's subtle, understated.
but:
'supposively gw bush did a lot of cocaine.'
this is a slam-dunk insinuation, as if to say 'ok, i don't have facts to back up what i'm saying, but everyone
knows i'm right.'
this doesn't quite work in that example, as everyone does, in fact, know that gw bush did a lot of coke
in his youth. right?
this might explain why his brain is so riddled with gigantic holes, like grey texan swiss cheese.
now i think i might've just thrown up a little bit, as the thought of gw bush's head being
filled with pockmarked grey swiss cheese is disgusting, if apt.
any other suggestions of non-words that we can smuggle into the o.e.d?
'chaise lounge'? or is that too obscure and interior decorator-y?
an expression that people use a lot that i really like is 'self depreciating'.
i mean, in actual fact it's 'self deprecating', but 'self depreciating' works, too.
and not that it's a linguistic mis-use, but i really like when people end a sentence by saying 'and things of that nature.'
that's like the said-out-loud equivalent of my lazy, written 'etc'.
as if to say, 'well, i've run out of things to say, not so much because i can't think of anything else to say, but i'm
just feeling like i should stop talking now.'
ok, please let me know if you have any other suggestions for fake words that we can sneak into the o.e.d.
thanks,
moby

just got home from san francisco and seattle.
do you know what seems strange(and forgive me if this sounds like alcoholic-speak)?
ok, here's what seems strange: that in america outside of nyc they stop serving alcohol at 2 a.m(or even 1 a.m in places).
doesn't that seem, well, uncivilized?
most places in the rest of the world they stop serving alcohol when they decide to stop serving alcohol.
to say 'you will not drink another beer after 2 a.m!' seems almost victorian, as if the state is
a stern dickensian governess.
here in nyc they stop serving alcohol at 4 a.m and deli's sell beer 24 hours a day. and nyc is the most
prosperous city in the united states(yes, i'm drawing a connection between drinking until 4 a.m and prosperity.
perhaps it's spurious logic. but, well, i like beer).
nyc has other problems, like the fact that you can't dance in certain venues.
that's also weirdly dickensian and victorian.
but the 'thou shalt not drink beer after 2 a.m' law seems patently absurd.
as if a bunch of prim sunday school teachers collectively said, 'we think you've had enough
fun. and remember life isn't about fun, it's about penance and sackcloth and hairshirts.'
i have a theory about people.
here's my theory:
there are two types of people, swimmers and lifeguards.
swimmers want to jump in the pool and play on the diving board and run around and have fun.
lifeguards want to enforce relatively arbitrary rules and maintain order and the status quo.
swimmers want to go disco dancing and drink cheap beer until the sun comes up.
lifeguards want everyone to go home and take a cold shower and read technical manuals.
i'm not saying that there's no place for rules in our society.
i'm an old punk rocker, but i'm not an anarchist.
i like some rules, as long as they're based on reason and practicality(like 'don't kill your neighbor', 'don't put poison in the water', etc).
but some rules that we regard as sacrosanct are utterly arbitrary('no beer after 2 a.m', 'don't dance in this bar', etc).
how do we fix our victorian american heritage?
how do we change the laws so that honorable bartenders can sell beer after 2 a.m?
massive civil disobedience?
a beer-in?
and don't get me started on the horrifying fact that soldiers are sent to fight and die in iraq at 18 but they can't
have a beer in a bar until they're 21.
we trust our soldiers enough to fly military jets and use automatic weapons but we don't trust them enough to enjoy a can of bud light?
i think that every president of the united states should have a star trek style computer as an advisor.
'computer, evaluate the law that states that new yorkers aren't allowed to dance in certain bars(say this in a james t. kirk halting voice).'
'computer working(say this with an old school computer voice, it's much more entertaining). illogical. does not compute.'
-moby

oh, and rcrdlbl are streaming(and giving away? hopefully, i never know) the holy ghost! remix
of 'i love to move in here'.
the holy ghost!(yes, always with the exclamation mark)remix is really, really good(if you like
disco, which as you might know, i do).
i think this is the link:

http://www.rcrdlbl.com/2008/06/04/exclusive_stream_moby_i_love_to_move_i...

if it's not the right link i'm sure you can go to rcrdlbl.com and find it.

moby

so, yes, i'll be dj'ing at the nublu anniversary party on sunday the 22nd.
it should be fun, as sylvia(from kudu)will be playing with her new band on the same night.
and the nublu guys('guys' being a genderless term, like 'captain')always throw a good party.
oh, i also put the seamus haji remix of 'i love to move in here' up on myspace(and elsewhere).
and, an aside, isn't it funny that hillary clinton(no disrespect, hillary and hillary fans, i'm just making
an observation)speaks
for the middle class and lower middle class when she flies in private planes and has a net worth of around $125,000,000.00?
i guess that's working under a fairly loose definition of 'middle class'.
i mean, by warren buffet standards hillary's downright poor.
nothing against private planes and incredibly high net worth, but it seems like a stretch to call
living in a mansion and having $125,000,000.00 in the bank, 'middle class'.
kind of reminds me of how gw bush was presented as a man of the people even though he owned an oil company, went to yale and harvard,
and spent his holidays sailing yachts in maine.
i guess it's also funny that obama is considered 'elitist', even though he grew up on food stamps and he was living in a chicago slum doing
community outreach work when both john mccain and hillary clinton were living in mansions and flying
in private planes.
seems like the rich politicians try to hide their wealth and the poor politicians try to not make a big deal out of
their relative poverty.
ah well, that's why publicists have jobs.
and, to do a dj recap, hopefully see you in san francisco(twice!)saturday, seattle(once!)sunday, and nyc(once!)on the
22nd.
oh, and l.a(once! ok, i'll stop with the once!, i should've stopped after 'twice!' as it's becoming kind of repetitive)on the 28th.
and then lots of stuff in europe this summer.
time to fly(good old continental, the bonanza bus lines of the skies)to san francisco.
-moby

yo yo yo, whasssup???
jus' wanna let U know whasssup w/ me, ya'll.
i'm gittin' ready to THROW DOWN some joints
on the 1's -n- 2's, aw yeahh!!!!
i know U haterzz all ready to dis.
i'm sorry, i just can't write like that for too long, it makes me feel dirty and disingenuous.
so i'll try to revert back to my everyday mundane waspy parlance.
what i was trying to say, in a contemporary way, was that i'm dj'ing a lot in the next few weeks.
here's the list:
this saturday at the live 105 event near san francisco(at the subsonic tent. yes, i'll only be playing
music audible to blue whales. 'subsonic'. get it? below the range of human hearing? hellooo? is this
thing on? i'll be here all week, try the prime rib and don't forget to tip your wait staff.)
then later saturday night(2 a.m) at mezzanine, in san francisco.
then sunday at showbox in seattle.
then saturday june 28 at the edc festival in l.a.

and that's it for dj'ing for the time being.
at least in june.
although i'm hoping to dj at nublu for their yearly anniversary party. last years was really fun.
and what's the point of running a bar if you can't have a yearly anniversary party?
i love nublu. it's tiny. the soundsystem barely works. they still don't have a sign out front. but i always manage to have way too much fun there.
and apparently hillary's going to announce her support for obama on saturday.
it would be nice if she announced her support for obama at nublu.
politicians should be more surprising.
wouldn't that be great?
if she announced the end of her candidacy in a bar on avenue c at 3 a.m?
come on, hillary, surprise us. we already know that she enjoys the sweet, sweet liquor.
ok, hopefully see you soon.
oh, the little death show at mercury lounge on the 25th is almost sold out.
moby

congratulations to senator obama!
he's now the democratic nominee for president.
finally...
to everyone who's worked on the obama campaign and to everyone who's supported the campaign: congratulations!
obama has run one of the best presidential campaigns in memory.
he's presented himself as steady and bright and dignified and erudite, and i think that he'll make a phenomenal president.
moby

oh, if you live in north america you can now get both 'play' and 'play b-sides' on i-tunes, packaged
together for one low, low, low price($9.99).
i'm not sure how we were able to convince THE MAN to release the 2 albums together for the price
of one, but it seems like a nice thing.
plus they send you a puppy.
moby

does anyone understand why hillary is still in the race?
i mean, really?
she can't win.
i've written about this before.
let me be rational, practical, and democratically blunt: she. cannot. win.
unless the democratic superdelegates ignore the popular vote she can't win.
she's 170 delgates from winning.
barack obama is 40 delegates from winning.
there are only around 100 delegates left to be won.
so why is she still in the race?
honestly, what is she trying to prove?
that she's capable of bankrupting herself and her campaign in the interest of placing second?
her arguments are creepy.
saying that michigan delegates should be seated in full.
does she think that we're dumb?
that we don't know that barack obama's name wasn't on the ballot in michigan?
it's so creepy and undemocratic and, again, creepy.
it's not misogyny.
if she were in the lead obama would've dropped out ages ago.
if barack obama had no chance of winning he would've dropped out 2 months ago.
and we would all be supporting hillary.
it's simple: she lost.
it's just simple arithmetic.
oi vey.
what is she hoping to accomplish?
sowing the 'blue collar voters and old women are racist and won't vote for a black man so the party
should vote for me' seed?
what does that accomplish?
pandering to older voter's baser instincts and fears?
how does that help the democrats in november?
i used to really like hillary, now i'm just baffled by her intransigence, as i can only see it serving selfish and
absurd and arbitrary purposes.
why, again, is she still in the race?
is there a good and rational answer?
moby