Journal Archive - August, 2008

ok, i'm sorry, i just can't stop...
heading out to dj in london, but i have to share this pearl of wisdom from
john mccain's wife, cindy.
when asked about sarah palin's foreign policy experience
cindy mccain talked about how alaska is sort of close to russia...
so, by republican logic, sarah palin must have foreign policy experience because her state
is only some hundreds of miles from a remote, sparsely inhabited part of russia(never mind
that alaska is actually around 10,000 miles from moscow...).
so proximity = experience?
ok, so:
i live a few blocks from a mosque, does that mean i understand islam?
and, oh, they go deep sea fishing in the atlantic ocean, and new york
is on the atlantic ocean, so that means i understand deep sea fishing?
how exciting, see all you have to do is be SORT OF NEAR something to understand it.
this means that kids don't actually have to GO to school, they just need to live
sort of near to a school and they'll be educated through proximity.
eesh.
moby

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVOKR81QCe4

not to be too obsessed about mccain choosing sarah palin for his vp, but here are some quotes

from republicans and conservative newspapers in her home state, alaska.

for what it's worth, these quotes are coming from people who actually like her...

"She's not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?" said Lyda Green, the president of the State Senate, a Republican from Palin's hometown of Wasilla.

"Most people would acknowledge that, regardless of her charm and good intentions, Palin is not ready for the top job. "

Daily news-miner in fairbanks

"It's stunning that someone with so little national and international experience might be heartbeat away from the presidency."

Anchorage Daily news

ok, i can't help myself.
here's john mccain talking about his running mate to people magazine:

Sen. McCain, of all the candidates you considered, what drew you to her?
JOHN: Obviously, I found her to be very intelligent and very well-versed on the issues. But I think the important thing was that she's a reformer. She's taken on special interests since she ran for the PTA and the city council. The courage, I guess, is what most impressed me.

ha ha ha.
she's qualified to be president because she's battled the special interests at an alaskan pta meeting?
whoa.
i mean we all know how vicious those alaskan pta meetings can be. it takes a candidate of true merit and courage to battle special
interests at a small town pta meeting.
one minute you're arguing with the lunch-lady lobby about the cost of school lunches and the next minute you're across
the table from russian president medvedev talking about strategic arms limitation treaties.
are they for real?
from membership on the city council of an alaskan town with a population of 5,000 to vice president of the united states?
mind boggling.
can anyone take them seriously at this point?
moby

ok, just heading to uk now.
one last political observation:
the day that obama gave his speech in denver last week was the anniversary of martin luther king's 'i have a dream' speech.
and next thursday when john mccain plans on giving his speech in minneapolis will be the anniversary of the introduction of
the edsel.
the edsel, in case you're unaware, was the least successful big automobile launch in the history
of the automotive industry.
it's basically synonymous with failure.
ok, enough about politics for the time being. hopefully see you in london or toronto.
have a nice weekend.
moby

i think this is blog 42.
the truth is that i have no idea.
right now i'm at jfk getting ready to fly to england for the last show of my summer euro-tour, which will
be at wembley stadium with pendulum and carl craig on sunday, come by if you're in london.
i'm writing this last convention blog(even though the convention is over and i'm far from denver)because
the nice people at blender asked me to write a 'wrap up' blog about the convention.
so, to wrap up, politics are:
1-like sausages, less appealing when you know how they're created
2-like sports for people who don't really care about sports(like me and my effete, nerdy, limousine-liberal friends)
3-like an old hooker, more attractive when you're looking from a distance(and/or drunk).
i've always been politically obsessed. i was raised by politically obsessed family members, and i grew up playing
in hardcore punk bands, where a big part of the hardcore ethos/credo was political engagement.
another big part of the hardcore ethos/credo was being loud and confrontational, which has pretty much only
gotten me into trouble since i left the hardcore scene. eh, whatever, i'd probably be annoying even if i wasn't
loud and confrontational. i'd just be quietly annoying.
i love politics. well, i love politics as long as i don't actually spend too much time with politicians or
their underlings. politics is fun from a distance, and it's great conversation fodder when you're drinking beer in a shitty bar and you don't
want to talk about sports.
but if you've ever spent time around the lower echelons of the political hierarchy you learn pretty quickly that politics
isn't/aren't exactly glamorous.
less glamorous than the music business, even, and that's saying something, as the music business is about
as glamorous as a foot.
and not even a sexy foot, more like an accountants foot on day 3 of his vacation hiking through the adirondacks.
i had fun in denver. i saw some wacky left and right-wing protesters(i'm still trying to decide if it's healthy to be so angry about
issues that are utterly beyond your control), i ate at this great restaurant called 'watercourse'(with fantastic
art depicting herbivorous bunnies going on a killing spree, and a giant buffalo sharing a tiny canteen with a squirrel), i saw
some great art at the shep fairey gallery event, i saw some more wacky protesters(now i'm trying to find out if the anti-bird
porn movement is real, or just the work of someone funny like tom sachs), and i got to dj, which i love.
i also watched a bunch of genuinely moving speeches, and i realized that the democrats have more politico-rock-stars than the republicans.
at the dnc convention you had ted kennedy and bill clinton and hillary clinton and barack obama and a ton of relatively
young and smart and optimistic people.
at the rnc convention they're going to have cross-dressing rudy giuliani and only-kept-alive-by-the-blood-of-baby-ducks dick
cheney and gw bush and...who?
dark days for the republicans.
plus it looks like new orleans is about to get hit with another hurricane, right as the republican convention is getting underway.
and plus john mccain's vp nominee is a novice who lists 'ordering chinese food' as the bulk of her foreign policy experience.
it almost makes you feel sorry for the republicans. well, it would make you feel sorry for the republicans if they weren't a bunch of fear-mongering lunatics who are primarily interested in making
sure that every child in america learns that dinosaurs and humans co-existed 5,000 years ago and that embryonic stem-cells are best
respected by being thrown into dumpsters.
ok, time to go to the uk.
thanks for reading my inane convention blogs.
and, as always, i think that 'blog' is a disgusting word.
thanks
moby

Blog 5, written with thumbs.
So last night(yes, that's the name of my last record, shameless plug. And blender gave it a terrible review, but here I am blogging for them. I must be a masochist. At least the blogging pays well. Wait, it pays nothing? I'm an idiot)I went to the shep fairey/move on event and, at the risk of being un-ironic and not even slightly cynical, the art was great. My favorite piece had been done by a 71 year old artist from la who up until recently had been sleeping in his car. When laura from moveon called him to say that his piece was one of 3 winners he said, 'what?' She then said it again, 'your piece is one of the 3 winners', to which he replied, 'I think you have the wrong number.". Eventually she was able to convince him that he won.
I think he's happy.
But the show was/is great, thanks to shep fairey and laura from moveon.
I left to go dj before the party started and apparently the party was a big crowded drunken fun clusterfuck.
I'm sorry I missed it.
Zooey deschanel and death cab for cutie and a bunch of other people played an acoustic set at midnight that was, apparently, both good and inaudible, unless you were 3 inches from the stage.
Note to aspiring acoustic performers: playing an acoustic set in between hip-hip dj's to 1,000 drunks at midnight might not be the best idea.
Acoustic sets are great in living rooms and hushed concert venues, but less so at a huge party in between hip-hop dj's in a room full of manic drunks.
After leaving the shep fairey party I went to the church where I dj'ed until they kicked me out.
I still don't understand bars/clubs that have to close at 2am.
Its uncivilized, barbaric, even.
I've said it before, in america you can buy automatic weapons and fight and die in foreign lands but in most places you can't but a beer at 2:05 a.m?
Its like we live in a victorian nanny state.
But the 1500 people at the church(interesting mix of ravers, club kids, delegates, journalists, politicians, etc)seemed to be having a good time until the house lights came up.
The best moments of the night were the breakdown in 'anthem' by miles dyson, and an ac slater track whose name I can't remember.
Oh, the church is a church. An old church, now a nice club.
I felt a bit like gregory peck in the moby dick movie, suspended 30 feet above the crowd in my little disco pulpit.
Ironic, as gregory peck was playing ahab in the movie, bent on killing moby dick.
My self-loathing hasn't quite reached the point where I want to kill myself with a harpoon. Operative word being 'quite'. Thus the vague irony.
Today everyone's trecking out to the local enormo-dome to hear barry o give his victory speech.
I might trek out, as well, or I might opt to be a sissy and watch his speech on tv in the comfort of my hotel, or possibly in the weird irish pub around the corner('green beer all year round!', who can resist?).
I know, what sort of jerk has the chance to be up close and see history in the making and instead chooses to sit in a hotel room or weird irish bar watching history on tv?
Well, me, possibly.
See, to get to the enormo-dome you have to take a shuttle bus and waiti in line and I'm pretty sure they won't have green beer at the enormo-dome.
You see my dilemma.
Ok, my thumbs are starting to get crampy.
More later from denver.
Moby

blog 4 from denver.
ok, blog? i've said it before, but 'blog' is probably the least attractive word in the english language.
like 'blech' meets 'clog'. and doesn't 'blogging' sound like some weird dutch fetish practice
involving cheese? maybe there's a section on craig's list, 'd&d free bbw into blogging and
other cheese-play. must send picture.'
but i digress. the people in the pepsi
center just gave bill clinton the biggest rockstar reception i've ever been witness to.
it was like he was bono mixed with the pope mixed with jenna jameson mixed with a guy driving an ice cream truck on the hottest day of summer. these palpable waves of love flowing from the delegates
to president clinton, and he seemed happy but vaguely annoyed that his devoted crowd
wouldn't sit down and let him speak. and his speech was spot on, pointing out that after 8 years of running/ruining the country
the gop probably don't deserve another 4 more years, and he also very clearly endorsed obama.
nice.
hillary and bill both gave great speeches, thus cementing their respective places in the
dem firmament(at least judging by the reaction of the people in the pepsi center).
earlier in the day i went to an event at brown's palace(which sounds like some weird berlin
club for shit fetishists, but is actually the fancy hotel in denver where the big-wig politicians
are all staying)and i spent some time watching the political machine while drinking coffee(yes, i used
to own a tea shop but i love coffee. i often joke that i like my coffee like i like my women, cold and bitter. ha ha. it's a joke. i don't really like cold and bitter coffee).
the lobby at brown's palace of scat fetishists was filled with, well, lobbyists. how fitting. people from the tory party in the uk
were there watching the american political process up close, and everyone else was either
a friend of obama or a kennedy or a lobbyist or a fundraiser or a friend of a fundraiser or a movie star or a politician. i don't know what pheromones
are released when professional politicos meet up to eat fried bananas and drink coke, but the
brown palace lobby was rife with them. 'them' being the pheromones. i guess that's the sound
the king of egypt made when he was stinky: pheromones. sorry. that was a terrible pun. mea culpa.
so if you're in denver and you want to watch politicians and their acolytes in non-stop-party-machine action then you should go to the lobby of the brown palace hotel and eat fried bananas with them.
really, for some reason they were all eating fried bananas.
one of the strange things about the convention is the disparity between the actual convention
and how it's being covered on tv. friends of mine are writing to me about images on tv of
contentious demonstrations and taser-wielding police and unrest and etc.
the truth is that denver's kind of peaceful. but i guess that peaceful denver doesn't
exactly make for good tv coverage, whereas a couple of hippies getting tasered makes
for good ratings.
there are cops and security guards everywhere, but more often than not they just look bored, standing
around wondering whether the skinny white kid in the 'iowans for obama' t-shirt is a potential terrorist.
no, he's probably just a kid from iowa in an ill-fitting t-shirt.
lots of cops. lots of security. and they all seem bored. which might explain why they're jumping
at the chance to taser hippies and wrestle ladies to the ground for not having security badges.
to make my blogging(what a disgusting word) more interesting i should probably write about some celebrity sightings since i've been here, but celebrity name-dropping
makes me uncomfortable. how about this: there are celebrities here in denver and they're
really famous and interesting and they have great lives and get free clothes and have way more
fun than the rest of us can even conceive of and when they're not attending political conventions
they're having phenomenal orgies on their private planes that are also yachts made out of
a new type of alloy that makes gold and platinum look like old dirt.
yes, celebrities are here. hanging out. eating fried bananas. hosting events. being celebrities.
i'm sure that more respectable journalists are happily documenting the movements of celebrities
in denver, whereas i write about angel dust and cheese fetishists and bad puns.
that's why i'm not a professional journalist.
i'm just a dumb musician with a computer and an internet connection and too much time on his
hands.
ok, i'm getting long-winded. and i have to head out to a shep fairey/moveon party where
death cab for cutie and clap your hands say yeah and a bunch of other people are supposed to be playing. it should be fun. a crowded clusterfuck. but a fun clusterfuck. and shep fairey is awesome.
and then, later, i'm dj'ing a dnc/obama fundraiser at the church, where i'll stand on stage and
play other people's records and take credit for them.
i'll write more later, and i'll try not to be such a verbose windbag.
operative word being 'try'.
thanks,
moby

the dnc convention is, simply, spring break for democrats.
denver in august is like cancun in march, minus senor frogs and wet t-shirt contests.
people come here to drink. and drink. and when they're done
drinking they network for a little while. and then they start drinking
again.
it's a convention lubricated by sweet, sweet liquor, the cause and solution
to all of life's problems(to quote homer).(simpson).
the speeches have been great. well, the ones that i've seen.
the governor of montana's speech was like an awesome late night infomercial
for democratic policy initiatives.
and hillary's speech was just great. she clearly endorsed obama, and clearly
stated that for the democrats to win in november they need to unite
behind obama. that was nice. although her orange pant suit was odd.
it looked vaguely like something a japanese traffic cop would wear in a beastie
boys video.
but back to the liquor...
we were just stuck in a traffic jam on a side street at 1 in the morning because
people were running across the street going from bar to club to karaoke bar
to bar to club. more power to them. go to denver. have fun. talk politics. get drunk.
have sex with a stranger in a seedy hotel room. i mean, why not? should politics solely exist in a platonic, rarefied, patrician
environment? or should politics at times involve beer and bad hotel sex for government employees
and lobbyists?
even the most noble and well-intentioned democrats need to have bad beer-fueled hotel
sex every now and then, right?
i do think that the high altitude(5,280 feet above sea level, at least that's what the sign
on the highway said)is making convention-goers a bit crazier than usual.
high altitudes apparently enhance the effects of alcohol and make people drunk(or, to employ
contemporary parlance, crunk).
so, people are running around crunk. again, good for them.
an aside: the security at the convention is fucking nuts. a friend of mine(a petite
blonde woman who works for a progressive organization)was wrestled to the ground
by 6 cops/security-people because she had left her credentials in her hotel room.
maybe the cops in denver should lay off the caffeine/meth/diet-pills/sugar-cereals while they're
working the convention?
when my friend said, truthfully and innocently, 'i left my credentials in my hotel room' the cops
yelled, 'shut up and keep your hands where we can see them!'
er, i appreciate the need for heightened security, but i don't know if it takes 6 storm-troopers
to wrestle a petite blonde democrat to the ground to find out that she left her convention
pass in her hotel room.
ok, more tomorrow from spring break 2008, go crazy denver time.
moby

while i'm in denver i agreed to blog about my time here for blender.
and, being lazy, i thought i'd just copy my blender blog and post it here, as well.
here's blog 2(i can't find blog 1).
moby

just got to denver. i remember the last time i was in denver i ended up smoking
angel dust in the basement of a house party with some local kids.
it gave me the most intense hallucinations of my life. not fun mushroom-style
hallucinations, but insane 'i've just smoked synthetic animal tranquilizer' style hallucinations.
i guess that it's probably not such a bad idea to avoid smoking synthetic
animal tranquilizers while i'm in denver this time.
otherwise i might find myself on the roof of the hotel convinced that space aliens are talking
to me via the pentagon and that the pentagon is actually a giant lizard farm and that
my skin is actually made out of tiny magnets.
for instance.
in other news, denver's nice.
ok, politics. do you know about the puma's? it's an acronym that stands for 'party unity
my ass', and the puma's are, for the most part, disgruntled former hillary supporters
who are now claiming to be mccain supporters.
personally i think they've been mccain supporters all along, but what do i know.
i mean, is someone really going to vote for a candidate(john mccain) who believes the exact
opposite of what their chosen candidate(hillary clinton) believes just because their chosen
candidate(again: hillary clinton) didn't win the nomination?
i doubt it, unless they're really cranky from smoking synthetic animal tranquilizers
with homeboys in the basement of some house in denver and you don't even remember
how you ended up in the house but you're not in a hurry to smoke angel dust ever again, thank you.
speaking of john mccain, last night on jay leno he responded to a question about
his multiple houses(he apparently is so rich that he doesn't know how many houses
he owns)by talking about his time as a prisoner of war.
yes, senator mccain, we all know that you were a prisoner of war and it was awful.
you have our respect.
but using your experiences in vietnam 40 years ago as an excuse to not answer uncomfortable questions is pretty fucking lame, mr straight talker.
answer the question. your 2nd wife inherited buckets of money and is loaded and she bought you, roughly, around 800 or so houses.
you're like a pimp, so maybe you should take some pride in the fact that you're a civil servant
with a government paycheck and your wife is loaded and she lets you ride around on her private
planes and she buys you houses and $700 pairs of shoes.
you're a kept man with a cool job and 3,000 houses, you should revel in your good fortune.
ok, time to go to soundcheck, as i'm doing an acoustic fundraiser tonight.
soundchecks for acoustic shows are really difficult. you plug in your acoustic guitar and speak
into the microphone and the whole soundcheck lasts about 45 seconds and then it's done.
oh, before i go, mark warner is giving tonights keynote speech. i like mark warner. i like rich politicians like mark warner and mayor bloomberg, because they pay for their own campaigns and don't
have to do favors for the special interest groups who normally pay for political campaigns.
and mark warner's smart. i hope he wins his senate seat.
talk to you later,
moby

in big political news today, daddy yankee endorsed john mccain today and appeared with senator
mccain at a campaign stop.
daddy yankee's biggest hit was 'gasolina', which i actually quite liked(even though i heard it literally every 30 seconds
when i was in latin america a couple of years ago).
but do you think that john mccain and his advisers know that 'gasolina' is slang for cocaine(aka-booger sugar, aka-bolivian
marching powder, aka-blow, aka-racket, aka-gasolina, oh, oops, that's right, that's the name of the song)?
i wonder if daddy yankee will be invited to perform 'gasolina' at the white house if john mccain wins?
that would be funny. i'm sure gw bush would be into it, as i think he did his fair share of coke back in the disco era.
nothing against daddy yankee(as i said, 'gasolina' was a very infectious hit song), but it is vaguely ironic(ok, replace 'vaguely' with 'very')that john mccain
is reaching out to the religious right while also appearing with a musician who wrote a song about
doing obscene amounts of cocaine.
politics makes strange bedfellows.
and in other strange bedfellows news it turns out that patriotic country & western star toby keith is a supporter of barack obama.
huh.
ok, off to denver.
moby

it's list time again.
the lazy man's form of compartmentalized thought.
comfort for virgo's(all that order and none of the mess).
and etc.
ok,

a-joe biden. yup, it makes sense. catholic guy from pennsylvania, good foreign policy experience, straight-talking(sometimes
too much)democrat. makes sense. not exactly jump-up-and-down inspiring, but a logical choice.

b-montauk. montauk is beautiful, although last night's show(s) was(were)weird. the acoustic show was nice, even though
half of the crowd were drinking and talking, even while laura was singing sweet, pretty songs. acoustic shows don't work
all that well when people are talking. dj sets and rock shows work with a loud, talkative audience, as you can just turn up and be louder
than the talkers. but it's hard to crank up the acoustic guitar and drown out people who would rather drink tequila martini's and
talk about the ftse.
and dj'ing was interesting. i felt more like a wedding dj than an electronic dance music dj, but it was still fun. and the surf lodge
is really nice. very calm and tranquil and pretty.
i especially enjoyed playing 'common people', as the median yearly income of the crowd last night was probably in the 7 figures.

c-denver. i'm off to denver tomorrow. ah boy, it should be an interesting few days. a hundred thousand random democrats/actors/musicians/media-people/hookers/delegates/nominees/protesters/etc descending on nice, relatively quiet denver. maybe the elevation will slow
people down a little bit. i've never been to a political convention before(not counting the republican convention in 2004, when
the republicans showed up in nyc to bask in the 'glory' of 9-11, even if said 'basking' involved them huddled in their hotel
rooms, afraid to actually set foot in nyc). i'm dj'ing in denver on wednesday night at the church. hopefully see you there.

d-then after denver i'm off to the uk for the last european show of the tour at wembley stadium with carl craig and pendulum.
i like pendulum, and i hear they put on a great live show. and i'm looking forward to hearing carl craig(who i've known since 1990...
ah boy, i'm old). wembley stadium seems like a fitting place at which to end the european touring we've been doing all summer.
i've never played wembley stadium before. i hear it's big.

e-other live/dj things coming up: sunday september 7th dj'ing at v fest in toronto. thursday september 18th dj'ing at hiro
for another 'degenerates', with some really great guests(i can't say who at the moment). and saturday september 20th another
fun little death show at mercury lounge.
see, touring is slowly winding down. which is good. i like playing live and dj'ing, but the travel really starts to get tiring.
but no one likes a whiney(aka-whingey, for anyone in the uk)musician.

f-is that the end of the list? i think so. thanks for reading, and hopefully see you soon.

moby

next week i'm going to colorado to dj at a fundraiser and hang out in denver and do one of two things, either:
a-lament the fact that obama is losing his lead in the polls by not standing up to the gop
slander machine.
or
b-enjoy the fact that obama is finally standing up to the gop slander machine.

we(as in 'we non-republicans')need to go after the republicans.
they're sitting ducks.
they've had 8 years, and in 8 years they've managed to fuck up just about everything they've
touched.
even now john mccain talks about how we're 'winning' in iraq.
we're 'winning'?
his definition of 'winning' is a strange one, i guess he means 'winning' in that fewer
u.s soldiers are being killed.
it's great that fewer u.s troops are dying, but that's not 'winning'.
'winning' would be american troops coming home because the iraqii government and military
are capable of looking after their own country, and there's no sign that either of those
institutions are even close to being able to run things on their own.
as i've said before, i hope the democrats don't lose this one they way they lost 2000 and 2004.
the economy blows, and john mccain doesn't have a decent plan to fix it(in fact he and his
party have had 8 years in which to decimate the economy, and now he wants to fix it? it's like
asking a wife-beater to give counseling to his spouse).
all john mccain does is stand on hotel ballroom stages and complain about obama. mccain doesn't
really offer any solutions to the problems that his party has created over the last 8 years, he just
stands around sounding like grampa simpson complaining about young people and their
denim jeans and their pizza pies and electric guitars.
and could john mccain please shut up about 'pursuing bin laden to the gates of hell'?
he and his party had 8 years to pursue bin laden, and bin laden is still at large.
the u.s troops were closing in on bin laden when mccain and bush pulled them out
of afghanistan and pakistan and sent them to iraq.
do we really need more tough-talk from ineffectual gop leaders? the gop are famous
for idiotic tough talk, like gw bush saying 'bring it on' to the terrorists. well, the terrorists
did what bush asked and they 'brought it on', killing tens of thousands of u.s troops
and iraqii and afghani civilians in the process.
tough talk from republican leaders is equal parts dangerous and idiotic.
if mccain is so serious about pursuing bin laden to the 'gates of hell' why doesn't he borrow his second
wife's private plane, fly to afghanistan, and start looking for bin laden?
and can't someone in the media ask mccain if he's referring to the literal or figurative gates of hell
when he talks about his pursuit of bin laden?
or maybe obama could bring this up?
the gop have had 8 years to run the country and they blew it. and if we democrats can't work up the nerve to remind
the country that the gop are ideologically bankrupt and utterly inept, then we don't deserve to win.
it should be an interesting convention.
i really hope someone in the democrat party has the balls to actually ridicule mccain and his republican cohorts.
i just want someone at the convention, ideally obama, to say, 'john mccain and the republicans talk tough, but they've
had 8 years to find bin laden and they blew it. john mccain and the republicans have made america
weak and vulnerable. they've made america weak economically, and they've squandered our great military
on a war that never should have started. they've had 8 years and they've done a terrible job running the country.
it's time for change.'
here's hoping, although based on past performances i imagine democratic speeches will be more like, 'the middle
class in america deserve a pro-rated tax credit that will offset some of the burdens imposed by the inequities
of the marketplace. as democrats we promise to keep the middle class in america average and in the middle.'
come on democrats, stand up and take on mccain and his inept and corrupt party.
it's so simple, they had their 8 years and they blew it.
in 1980 ronald reagan defeated jimmy carter by asking america 'are you better off than you were 4 years ago?'
can't obama just ask the same thing, but maybe phrase it, 'we've had 8 years of john mccain and republican rule, and are we as a country better off than we were 8 years ago?'
-moby

just a couple of months until the election.
and i know this might sound dull, but what if the discussion in the run-up to the election
was about issues and not about slander?
for example, let's dispel a few myths:
barack obama is not a muslim(not that there's anything wrong with islam, but obama is a christian).
barack obama is not a socialist(not that there's anything wrong with being a socialist, but obama is a capitalist).
barack obama is not inexperienced(as a candidate he's had more time in d.c than did: abraham lincoln, john f. kennedy, bill clinton,
ronald reagan, etc).
there are differences between the candidates, and people should vote based
on which candidate they believe has the best ideas for how the country should be run.
it would be a tragedy for the u.s and the world if the election were decided based on deceit(like
saying that obama is a muslim), name calling(yes, obama's middle name is 'hussein', i'm not sure
how that's a valid election year issue), or racism(yes, obama's father was black, again, not exactly
germaine criteria for choosing a candidate).

if you're an american who believes that the last 8 years of gw bush and republican rule have been good for
the country, then you should probably vote for john mccain, as john mccain is a life-long republican and
he's voted with gw bush and the republicans 90% of the time in the last 8 years.

if you're an american who believes that the last 8 years of gw bush and republican
rule have been bad for the country, then you should probably vote for barack obama, as barack obama
is a life-long democrat and he's voted with the democrats 96% of the time while he's been in the senate.

it's not rocket science, really. not to state the obvious, but you pick the candidate with whom you agree and who you
think will do the best job leading the country.
moby

I'm in the airport en route to quebec city and watching cnn.
Or wwn.
When did cnn become the weekly world news?
Latest headlines(I'm not making this up)-
'Dog swallows fork'
And
'Bigfoot or big fake?'

Cnn?
Russia invading georgia.
Presidential election cycle.
War in afghanistan.
Climate change.
And....'Bigfoot or big fake?'
Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of fake news, but cnn?
Ah well, good luck to them.
The next time there's a huge global disaster we'll be able to choose between cnn and mad tv for news coverage.
Maybe people involved in serious news stories could spice things up a bit to appeal to the tabloid mentality?
Like if condi rice wants us to pay attention to georgia(country, not state)maybe she could bring paris hilton with her on her next state department trip?
Or paris hilton and bigfoot?
We truly are a nation of geniuses.
I still hold out hope that canada will adopt the blue states.
Moby

i just got back from:
dj'ing in berlin
performing at sms
dj'ing at virgin festival in baltimore.
and now i'm headed out to drink beer with my old friend fancy(of 'fannypack' & 'cameltoe' fame).
dj'ing at weekend in berlin was insane. it was so hot and the record players stopped working, but in the end
it was a great night.
and the sms festival was really fun(and luckily not raining).
and dj'ing at virgin fest in baltimore was great, too.
virgin fest was odd, very eclectic, for as i was dj'ing in the dance tent bob dylan was playing
on the main stage.
i wonder if at some point in between songs he stopped heard the electro in the distance and wished that he was jumping up and down
to techno in the dance tent.
like, 'i could play 'all along the watchtower' or i could do some tequila shots and take my shirt off and dance
with glowsticks in the dance tent'.
i dunno, maybe he'd have more fun jumping up and down in the dance tent for 10 minutes?
don't get me wrong, bob dylan's songs are great(well, most of them), but maybe it'd be a nice change of pace for him if
he put down his guitar, ran over to the dance tent, jumped up and down with sweaty ravers for 10 minutes,
then ran back to the main stage and played 'maggie's farm'(which just happens to be barack obama's favorite
bob dylan song, apparently).
just a thought.
thanks to everyone who came to weekend or sms festival or the dance tent at v fest in baltimore.
time to drink beer with fancy.
moby

p.s-yes, his name is 'fancy'. see, he had a mouse named 'fancy' in college and people just started calling
him and his mouse by the same name. it makes perfect sense if you know fancy.

oh no. for the third time, oh no.
it's 2008, right?
or is it? maybe it's 2000?
or 2004?
my confusion is based on the fact that the republicans are doing it again. they're using the same smear and attack
strategy on barack obama that they used on john kerry and that they used
on al gore.
and we, the democrats are doing...nothing?
sitting back and taking it like we always do?
sitting back and being the sissies that we always are?
in 2000 they slandered al gore as saying he invented the internet and was an elitist.
and he fought back how?
oh, that's right, he didn't.
and in 2004 they slandered john kerry by questioning his military service.
and he fought back how?
oh, that's right, he didn't.
and now they're slandering obama in a hundred insidious and incorrect ways
and he's fighting back how?
oh, that's right, he isn't.
if a bully kicks you in the shins once you should be prepared if he comes
to kick you in the shins again, right?
well, this is the third time that the gop are kicking us in the shins and we still
don't have shin-guards and we still haven't learned how to fight back.
that makes it our fault.
yes, in a perfect world the gop wouldn't be a bunch of lying sacks of shit, willing to spread scurrilous
lies and rumors, but, well, they are.
and we know they are.
and as distasteful as their methods might be, they usually end up winning.
and we're, once again, unprepared.
they're kicking us in the shins and all we're doing is quietly lamenting the fact that they're
kicking us in the shin.
dear senator obama: FIGHT BACK.
you're battling a dimwit who doesn't know the difference between sunni and shi'ite,
who still refers to countries that ceased to exist in 1993(czechoslovakia), and who believes
that iraq and pakistan share a border.
he's a media darling(appearing on 24, saturday night live, and the late night talk shows
more times than anyone can count).
and he's a staunch republican who deviates from the gop norm maybe .01% of the time.
so: FIGHT BACK.
we, the rank and file democrats, are tired of being sissies.
we're tired of the high road.
the high road would be great if it didn't lead us to defeat every 2 or 4 years.
the high road would be great if it helped us win.
guess what, it doesn't.
the republicans drag us into the mire and start beating the shit out of us and all we do is say,
'wouldn't it be nice if we weren't getting the shit beaten out of us in the mud?'
fight back and keep fighting until the gop are cowering in a corner.
we are better than them. we are smarter than them. we are younger than them.
and our ideas are better than theirs(stem cell research vs. creationism? we win).
we know how to win, it's almost as if we choose not to, somehow finding defeat
more comfortable and familiar and patrician than victory.
let's take the high road after we've won, ok?
in the meantime: FIGHT.
you don't bring a knife to a gun fight, and you don't bring decency to a fight with a republican(at least not if you want to win).
this might be a strange analogy for a vegan to use, but if you want to make an omelet
you have to break a couple of eggs.
start breaking some eggs.
moby

here's an update on upcoming releases and live and dj dates.
it comes from my management so it's comprehensive, i think.
thanks
moby

- ooh yeah video competition winner is matteo bernardini!:
http://vimeo.com/oohyeah

- disco lies released in the uk on the 15th september. remixes from: freemasons (with new video), spencer and hill, dusty kid, diskokane, eddie thoneick. all remixes available to listen to on ilike 'featured songs':
http://ilike.com/artist/Moby/songs

- last live:remixed show in UK for 2008 at wembley stadium with pendulum and carl craig Sunday, Aug 31. we have 100 sets of 4 tickets for the performance to give away to fans:
http://www.moby.com/humanrace

- KCRW session now live To watch:
http://www.moby.com/news/2008-08-01/moby-live-kcrw.html

Events:

Thursday, Aug 7
Weekend - dj set
Berlin, Germany

Friday, Aug 8
Bleilochtalsperre - live:remixed
Saalberg, Germany

Sunday, Aug 10
Virgin Mobile Festival - dj set
Baltimore, Maryland

Friday, Aug 15
Baies de Beauport - dj set
Quebec, Quebec

Saturday, Aug 23
Surf Lodge - acoustic show and dj set
Montauk, New York

Wednesday, Aug 27
The Church - dj set
Denver, Colorado

Sunday, Aug 31
Wembley Stadium - live:remixed
Middlesex, United Kingdom

Sunday, Sep 7
V Festival - dj set
Toronto, Ontario

Thanks for coming to the kcrw show on thursday night.
I had such a good time, and its really rare to be able to play such a completely eclectic set.
And thanks to nic harcourt and everyone at kcrw.
It was really fun.
Now I'm sitting in lax, getting ready to fly to chicago.
I'm reading u.s news and world report(which is usually a hardcore right wing news magazine)because the have a bunch of articles about 'the future'. And I'm a nerd and I like articles about 'the future'.
One quote that surprised me, bearing in mind the u.s news and world report is right-wing, 'it would make sense for the whole world to become vegetarian: a plant based diet is more healthful, more economical, and more environmentally benign.'
Huh, I agree, of course, but I didn't expect to find such a rational statement of support for vegetarianims in right wing us news and world report.
Again, huh.
Ok, off to chicago now while styx is playing on the starbucks stereo system. Good ole styx.
Have a good weekend,
Moby