Journal Archive - September, 2006

what now?
i had a small show in my living room for some friends of mine who are members of the 4th estate.
or 5th estate.
whichever estate makes words that people read and, ideally, change the world for better(and/or more entertaining).
it was kind of an awkward show, for there was no p.a and no stage and no microphones, just my friends luci and amelia and i sitting in my living room, playing and singing.
hopefully it wasn't too uncomfortable for the 14 people in attendance.
ostensibly it was done to promote the upcoming greatest hits, but the truth is that i really and selfishly just love to play music.
i know that sounds like a bad rocker cliche, but it is true.
and now it's raining again(no pun intended, it really is raining again).
new york was fantastic tonight, dark and windy and stormy and perfect.
as an aside, i'm so ill informed these days. i get my news once a week when i read the economist, and that's about it(i occasionally look at the cover of the new york times in the deli, as well).
it's a good change from my former news addiction. i was reading online news 20 times
a day. that's unhealthy, i believe.
it's really raining now. it's fantastic.
ok, i know i havent' really said much of anything here.
that's what happens when i take the road of egregious ill informed-ness.
there's 'ness' again. as a suffix and lake monster.
g'night.
moby

is ness a word?
as in the loch?
ok, here's random ness:

1-on the spanish and mexican and central and south-american 'moby best of' cd there'll be a version of 'slipping away' that i recently did with amaral(who, i must say, sings about 400 times better than i do). my vocals are in spanish. si.

2-on the french and european(some countries)version of 'moby best of' there's 'slipping away' with mylene farmer. mylene is fantastic and she took her last name from frances farmer, which makes her even more fantastic. i believe that this is already being played on french(and other countries?)radio. which is nice.

3-dial soap...seriously, i had to wash my hands 10 more times with dr bronners soap in order to make my hands not smell like dial soap. again, i'm not picking fights with dial inc, but that dial soap smell makes me queasy. hell is a room with wasps who smell like dial soap. wasps the bug. not wasps the people(aka-my people. aka-white anglo saxon protestants. aka-when/if i have children it cannot be with a white anglo saxon protestant or else our children will be inbred. just fyi. i need to make babies with someone from a different genetic line in order to keep the gene pool healthy and interesting).

4-time to eat dinner.

5-good night.
moby

a-i really don't like the smell of dial soap. i was in a bookstore yesterday and i accidentally washed my hands with dial soap and then my hands smelled of dial for 12 hours. gross. i'm not trying to pick a fight with the good people at dial soap, inc. but dial soap smells weird and i don't like it.

b-i went to a fundraiser for amend.org. what a great organization with a great precept. the #1 cause of death for kids in the developing world between the ages of 4 and 21? injury. not illness. not malaria or aids. injury, and usually car accidents.
amend.org is smart. give kids reflectors and they're less likely to get hit by cars. spend 20 cents on a reflector as opposed to hundreds of dollars on medical care. it's smart.

c-my email fast has become an email diet. i'm restricting myself. my original idea was to get rid of:
phone, email, internet, etc, and just sit on my front stoop for an hour a day. it seemed like such a civilized idea. if you wanted to talk to me you could just meet me on my stoop. it ultimately seemed to be a bit too impractical.

d-it's time for sleep.

e-good night.

moby

Tue Sep 26, 2006

CHICAGO, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Ice cream maker Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc. said on Tuesday it would gradually move to using eggs from chickens that are not housed in cages.

The decision was made after meetings this year with the Humane Society of the United States, it said.

Because it will take time to line up suppliers of these eggs, the company said, the transition will be phased in over four years.

"Earlier this year, the Humane Society of the United States brought to our attention issues related to the treatment of egg-laying hens," Rob Michalak, the company's director of social mission, said in a statement.

"We received substantive input from a variety of experts and resources, all of which helped us to arrive at our decision."

The Humane Society says housing chickens in cages prevents them from behaving naturally.

"Approximately 95 percent of eggs sold in the United States come from birds confined in barren battery cages," the Humane Society said in a statement. "So intensively confined, the birds can never engage in many important natural behaviors, including nesting, perching, and walking,"

Terrorism Has Spread Since U.S. Invasion, National Intelligence Estimate Finds
 CBS News Interactive: Postwar Iraq
(CBS News) The U.S. invasion of Iraq has heightened the threat of terrorism and increased the number of terrorist groups, according to a new report compiled by U.S. intelligence agencies since the Iraq war started.

The report, the classified National Intelligence Estimate, "says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse," one American intelligence official told The New York Times.

Completed in April, the intelligence estimate reflects the views of 16 different spy agencies within the U.S. government. Instead of weakening Islamic radicalism, the report titled "Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States," says the jihad ideology has spread worldwide since the Iraq war.

The report ends by saying the radical Islamic movement has expanded from a core of al Qaeda operatives and related groups and now includes a class of "self-generating" cells inspired by al Qaeda’s leadership, yet has no direct connection with Osama tbin Laden or his top officers, The New York Times reported.

read more:
http://cbs5.com/topstories/topstories_story_267103153.html:

hi,
I’m going to be playing a small show at tonic in new york city on tuesday october 17.  it’s going to be a a pre-record release show for my new record “GO-The Very Best of Moby”.  I wanted to give you the first chance to get tickets. we're going to play a set with the band, then I’ll be dj’ing the rest of the night.  you can go here to buy tickets before anyone else:
http://ticketing.concertmaps.com/moby/.  
hope to see you there.  oh, and tonic is at 107 norfolk street on the lower east side.
and, oh, there are only 100 tickets available, so you might want to buy them sooner rather than
later.
thanks!
moby

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

someone put the alternative 'ny ny' video up on youtube.
i think it's funny.
my friend reverend jen made it, with her chihuaha, rev jen jr.
moby

so tonight i went to see 'american hardcore'.
a documentary about the hardcore scene in america in the early 80's.
it made me nostalgic.
the hardcore scene in the early 80's was amazing.
it was new and genuine and authentic.
it was remarkable.
and at the afterparty i played 'sex bomb' with flipper.
to set the record straight, i sang with flipper for 2 nights in 1982 or 1983.
at pogo's in bridgeport, ct, and at trinity college in hartford, ct.
i don't 100% remember.
and they don't 100% remember.
but we all agree that it happened, contrary to the way it's presented in the movie.
and tonight i played bass during 'sex bomb', which arbitrarily became a ct hardcore anthem.
every ct hardcore band played 'sex bomb' at the end of their set.
cia, reflex from pain, vatican commando's, etc.
we all ended our sets with 'sex bomb'.
much in the same way that dc bands ended their sets with '12xu'.
the good old days.
ok, that's all.
g'night.
moby

i've lapsed a couple of times for work, etc.
i'm an apostate.
which is a hard word to pronounce.
it's not healthy to spend 4 hours a day on-line, is it?
doesn't it do odd things to our brains?
doesn't it establish a weird and arbitrary and quick pacing that corrupts that natural happy neurochemical homeostasis that our brains long for?
or maybe it's just fun.
i don't know.
i'll let you know how the experiment progresses.
for one you can expect fewer political updates, because i won't be looking at the news 15 times a day.
if something important happens will you tell me?
they should start a 'slow news' website.
updated every few days, only with important stuff.
like: 'breaking news: summer is drawing to a slow close in the western hemisphere. only 4 days until the autumn solstice'.
they have 'slow food', why not 'slow news'?
ok, time to go eat uptown.
it's sunday and there's a distinct smell of garbage coming in through my windows.
that's not so pleasant.
moby

this might sound odd...
but until january 1, 2007, i won't be online.
i'm taking a break.
i receive between 200 - 400 emails a day.
and i spend way too much time on-line reading news, etc.
so, for the next 3 months i'll be taking an internet/email break.
i'll still be sending in blogs/journals, but via snail-mail to my management.
so i'll still be here.
just slower.
i guess that's all.
i promise that on january 1, 2007(even if i'm hungover)i'll send you an update/journal
letting you know how 3 months without email/internet have been.
have a good time.
we might make some big changes to moby.com.
some really interesting changes.
soon.
-moby

here are some words that you can't really use in a sentence because
they're very odd to pronounce:

aerie(or eyrie. neither is(or are) easy to pronounce and have anyone understand you)

paean(a nice word. impossible to use in a sentence and be understood)

hegemony(it can be pronounced either way. really)

more(like the eel, not like the extra potatoes)

practicable(a good word. no one, alas, uses it. which is ironic.)

ok, that's it.
i just woke up from a nap and i was thinking about these odd words
when i woke up.
yes, that's how my brain works, when it's not worrying.
i can worry about anything. i envy stoners and surfers and slackers and people
who are congenitally incapable of worry.
some other pointless pedantic comments that you can use to annoy your
friends, much as i use them to annoy mine:

a-it's 'chaise longue', not 'chaise lounge'

b-it's 'self deprecating', not 'self depreciating'(really. i've heard 'self depreciating' a lot
lately. to say 'i'm not very good at crossword puzzles' is self deprecating. to say 'i slept
with that bartender at tgi fridays' or is self depreciating.)

ok, that's it, i'll stop.
i should probably not write my blog(i still wince when i use the word 'blog'). maybe i'll
just stop using it. it's a disgusting word.
'journal'. what's wrong with 'journal'?
'blog', aka 'web log', is like something that gets stuck in your toilet or something that
is removed through manual disempactment by a health-care professional.
how many children are being named 'stewart' after 'stewie'?
he's the best person on television.
it's too bad he's not a real person.
i particularly loved the family guy line the other night:
'like the texan woman who held her baby underwater until it got brain damage. barbara bush.'
it's a golden age for american tv.
-moby

this is very important, please read!
-moby

H. Con. Res. __________

Expressing the Sense of Congress that the President should immediately replace the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

September 13, 2006

Mr. Murtha introduced the following resolution, which was referred to the committee on___________

Whereas ----

After 9/11, the United States government had unprecedented support from international allies as well as the American people for military action against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan

The initial phase of the war in Afghanistan was successful in dismantling al Qaeda operations, removing the Taliban authority which was harboring al Qaeda, and allowing for the Afghani people to establish a representative government

The Secretary of Defense imposed a cap on the number of ground forces in Afghanistan prior to the war in Iraq

The Bush administration concluded in April 2002 that Osama bin Laden was in Tora Bora, Afghanistan during the battle for Tora Bora in December of 2001 and that the failure to commit the sufficient number of ground forces directly resulted in the failure to capture him

A resurgence of Taliban influence and violence is now occurring in Afghanistan

In the months prior to the war in Iraq, The Secretary of Defense repeatedly and forcefully asserted to Congress and the American people that there was no question that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that they were a threat to the United States, which is now known to be false

The Secretary of Defense rejected estimates from top military commanders regarding the troop strength that would be required to secure Iraq, failed to anticipate the level of violent opposition among Iraqis to US occupation, and publicly doubted the war in Iraq would take [longer than] six months

The Secretary of Defense expressly forbade his staff to develop a plan for post-war Iraq and threatened to fire anyone who raised the issue

The Secretary of Defense failed to ensure that US troops had adequate protective gear for their mission at the start of the Iraq war, including a shortage of 40,000 protective body armor units, radio frequency jammers to thwart remote detonation of improvised explosive devices, and up-armored high mobility multi-purpose wheeled vehicles (HMMWVs)

Failure of the Secretary of Defense to anticipate the troop strength needed to secure Iraq or to develop a post-war plan resulted in foreign fighters entering the country who have incited attacks against US soldiers and fomented sectarian violence, the latter of which has precipitated a civil war between Sunni and Shia Iraqis

The Secretary of Defense asserted at the start of the Iraq war that Iraqi oil production would pay for the war yet US expenditures in Iraq now exceed $8 billion per month and Iraqi oil production is still below prewar levels

The Secretary of Defense failed to provide the necessary training, supervision, personnel and guidelines for the management of prisoners and detainees which directly led to the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, severely undermining US efforts to win hearts and minds of the Iraqi people critical to securing Iraq

The Secretary of Defense has failed to address the flagging readiness of US ground forces, in particular the US Army, whose preparedness for war has eroded to levels not witnessed by our country in decades, thus hindering the ability of the US to respond to other potential threats to national security

US armed forces cannot sustain the current operational tempo in Iraq and a large percentage of US troops have done over three tours in Iraq

With 130,000 troops, key measures of success in Iraq have not been met and in some cases are worsening, including: the level of employment; the level of oil production; the level of electricity production; the training of Iraqi security forces; and the number of violent incidents, which have increased from an average of 400 per week before the establishment of an interim Iraqi government in the spring of 2004 to almost 800 per week this year

The Secretary of Defense has failed to ensure adequate accounting of billions of dollars of expenditures of the Coalition Provisional Authority

At the time of the introduction of this resolution, 2,672 US service members have died in Iraq and 337 have died in Afghanistan, exceeding the number of people who died on 9/11; in addition, over 20,000 US service members have been wounded

Terrorism incidents around the world have increased since the US entered Iraq

A survey of 116 top national security experts indicates that eighty-seven percent of them believe the Iraq war has had a negative impact on the war on terrorism while ninety three percent of them believe that the war in Afghanistan has had a positive impact on the war on terrorism

Democrats and Republicans are united against terrorism; Democrats and Republicans are united for a strong military; Democrats and Republicans are united for a strong America

Therefore, be it resolved that --------

It is the sense of the Congress that, for the good of the country, the United States of America must restore credibility both at home and abroad and that the first step toward restoring that credibility must be to demonstrate accountability for the mistakes that have been made in prosecuting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq by immediately effecting the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and replacing him with someone capable of leading the nation's military in a strategy to resolve our deployment in Iraq, prevent regression in Afghanistan, reconstitute our military readiness, and refocus on the threats to national security posed by diffuse and proliferating terrorist cells as well as belligerent states.

__________________________________

JOHN P. MURTHA

Member of Congress

i don't dj very often, but i will be dj'ing on september 22nd at the ultra
festival here in nyc.
i will invariably be put to shame by the other dj's who actually know what they're
doing(digweed, soulwax, etc), but it should be fun nonetheless.
the info should be here:

https://www.ultranewyork.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1...

if you're coming from out of town give yourself a chance to be a tourist and walk around central park.
nice things in central park: belvedere castle, bow bridge, and, well, everything about central park is nice. take a picture of yourself on the bow bridge with the san remo in the background. you'll look timeless and elegant, even if you're wearing all-weather raver gear with glowsticks and a pacifier.
-moby

so, yesterday was my birthday. i'm 27 years old.
my how the time flies.
yesterday was also 9-11, the 5 year anniversary of the biggest terrorist attack on u.s soil.
well, unless you count the war of 1812.
but that was like 500 years ago, or something, before there was cnn.
so, on a more serious note, ahem, how is the cause of grief and mourning served by cnn replaying the footage from 9-11, 2001?
how does the endless barage of media pay honor to the innocents who lost their lives on september 11th?
couldn't we as a nation agree to a quieter and perhaps more dignified and altogether more subtle day of remembrance?
i know, as long as the media outlets have countless hours of 9-11 footage they'll never for a second consider a quiet and dignified day of remembrance.
it's their lifeblood to pick the scabs of tragedy so long as people are willing to pay attention.
so maybe we should all stop paying attention to the 9-11 annual media frenzy and just mourn and remember in our own way?
maybe 9-11 should be a day of quiet, contemplative remembrance and mourning, and maybe on 9-11 we should all refrain from newspapers and the endless re-played footage of the planes flying into the twin towers?
maybe the media will give us dignified coverage and rememberance if that's what we ask for and respond to?
i, for one, as a human being, an american, and a new yorker, am not in any way served by once again seeing the footage of the planes flying into the twin towers. i lived through it once, i don't need to be gratuitously reminded of what happened, as every time i look at the sky from my roof i see a giant hole where the world trade center used to be.
to be blunt, i'm tired of the media and the administration milking tragedy for their own transparent purposes.
we know what happened. we remember what happened. leave us alone to mourn and remember in peace.
moby

dear president bush,
stay out of new york.
you don't like us and we don't like you.
90% of us voted for john kerry in the last election. we don't trust you, and we believe, based on your record, that you've been a terrible president.
you're supposed to come to new york city today.
you're not welcome here.
you only come to new york city when you need to bolster your poll numbers.
you came here after 9-11 even though you ignored warnings of terrorist attacks and cut funding to anti-terrorist programs.
you came here for the rnc convention even though your policies have made america less safe.
you are not welcome in nyc.
go back to texas where you can cut wood for the tv cameras.
or go back to washington d.c where you can watch dick cheney run the country.
you are a liar.
you are inept.
you are probably the worst president that the united states has ever had to endure.
you are not welcome in nyc.
we are not your cheap whore, to use whenever your poll numbers are in the toilet.
we are not your crappy prop, to use when you're worried that you might have to deal with the consequences of your failed policies.
you suck, and we don't want you here.
everything you've done has gone wrong. you are in the pocket of the oil and defense industries, and the poor idiots on the religious right actually sometimes believe that you care about them and their agenda.
you only believe in issues that will keep your corporate backers happy.
you are an awful, inept, corrupt, and tragically incompetent president.
and i'm sorry that you've chosen to come to new york city on 9-11.
we didn't vote for you and we're not in any way happy that you're here.
go home, gw, and let us just get on with living our lives in the city that was attacked
due to your pre 9-11 ineptitude and incomptetence.
-moby

ok, here's some music news.
as some of you might know, i'm putting out a 'best of' this fall.
it's being released at the end of october/beginning of november, and it will be slightly different in different countries.
here are some differences:
a-in most countries it will come with a bonus dvd that contains a little moby documentary and every video i've ever made, but in north america it will come with a bonus cd containing a bunch of the full-length remixes that were made for 'play', '18', & 'hotel'.

b-in most of the world it will have 'new york, new york' as a bonus track, but in some european countries it will have 'slipping away'(with mylene farmer) as a bonus track, as well as 'new york, new york'. and in some spanish speaking countries it will have 'slipping away' as a bonus track featuring a fantastic spanish artist who i'm not allowed to name yet...

c-'new york, new york' is a fun and frivolous disco song that i recorded with debbie harry.
it's a song about degeneracy and debauchery in new york city, and i'm incredibly honored and happy to have debbie harry doing the vocals. in recording it i kind of wanted it to sound like abba meets the pet shop boys...like i said, it's a fun disco song.

d-'slipping away' with mylene farmer... i first met mylene at teany and we became friends and, simply, thought that this would be a really nice song to do together. it was my favorite song from 'hotel', and i'm glad that it's going to get a new life with mylene's beautiful vocals.

e-there's a new 2006 version of 'go' that will be appearing on some of the 'best of' tracklistings. at present i don't know which ones, sorry...

f-the north american 'best of' will have a live version of 'feeling so real', whereas the rest of the world will have the original 'everything is wrong' version.

g-i'm sorry i don't have more information on the spanish artist who will be singing on 'slipping away'...when i'm allowed to say more i promise i'll say more.

ok, i hope that's not too confusing.

thanks,
moby

some fun and good-natured right wingers have criticized me for criticizing the war effort in iraq.
i've routinely said that anyone familiar with iraqii history would/should've known that an invasion of iraq was bound to be a disaster.
george bush senior wisely knew this, that's why he refrained from overthrowing iraq in the early 90's.
who else might have known this in the early 90's?
who might've said:

“for us to get American military personnel involved in a civil war inside Iraq would literally be a quagmire”

john kerry?
hillary clinton?
ned lamont?

why...who could've said such a thing?
oh, that's right, it was dick cheney, in 1991.
looks like some people in the administration weren't always blithering idiots.
maybe at some point during the 1991-2001 period dick cheney was practicing auto-erotic asphyxiation and cut of the supply of oxygen to his tiny brain?
what happened to squeeze the intelligence and common sense out of 1991 dick cheney and replace it with ignorance and hubris in 2001 dick cheney?
really, what happened?
oh well.
fun times at the white house.
moby

it's been almost 5 years since the terrorists flew planes into the twin towers. and, as was true on the first four 9-11 anniversaries, journalists are writing 'state of nyc post 9-11' stories in almost every newspaper on the planet.
one thing that i realized a long time ago is that drama makes for a good story, and the lack
of drama is rarely newsworthy.
with that in mind, no one's going to write a 'well, 5 years after 9-11, and nyc seems to be fine' story, cos
that's just not very exciting or dramatic.
but i'm here to say: 5 years after 9-11, and nyc is fine.
the first few months were very rough, with the constant smoke in the air and the military and national guard at every corner and the huge pile of smoldering rubble where the twin towers had been, but new york actually got back to normal pretty quickly.
so, speaking presumptuously for my fellow new yorkers, thank you for your concern but we're doing fine.
come visit us and come and look at the wtc construction site and come get drunk on the lower east side and maybe walk through central park and visit the cloisters, but you don't need to walk on eggshells around us regarding 9-11 because we're all doing relatively well(although it would've been nice to have been told by the epa that the immediate post 9-11 air was filled with carcinogens and toxins, but that's another matter altogether).
the terrible irony of 9-11 is that it's ended up hurting the rest of the world much more than it ended up hurting nyc.
without 9-11 the u.s never would've invaded iraq(irag, as we need to remind ourselves, had nothing to do with 9-11). so as the rest of the world has had to deal with the foul foreign policy quagmire that is iraq, nyc has gotten back to normal.
thanks for your concern, and come visit nyc(if you don't mind spending $400 or more a night for a decent hotel room and $10 for a bottle of beer), but don't worry about us, we're doing fine, thanks.
moby

the lead headline in most of the nations newspapers today is that the senate released detailed information stating that iraq had no involvement with al-qaeda, that saddam hussein actually rebuffed overtures from bin laden and al-qaeda, and that the administration lied when it said that iraq had been involved in 9-11 and al-qaeda.
this is big news, and very bad for the administration.
it's big news, so it's the lead story in most of the nations newspapers and web-sites.
on the fox news website, of course, it's nowhere to be found.
it's not even that fox news have reported this and downplayed it, they've just chosen not to report it at all.
ironic that this mouthpiece of america routinely uses stalinist techniques to suppress news that it doesn't like.
you'd think that if the right-wing in america really were confident in their agenda and message that they'd be less inclined to lying(this asinine abc 9-11 falsehood docudrama)and news suppression(fox news ignoring news that they deem inconvenient).
-moby

from moveon:

In a little over 48 hours, ABC will air a five-hour "docudrama" on the 9/11 attacks. The movie was written and produced by a right-wing activist who fabricated key scenes to blame Democrats and defend Republicans.1 It's so partisan that even Rush Limbaugh was surprised ABC decided to air it.2 And an FBI agent who was brought in to consult on the docudrama quit because, he said, "they were making things up."3

Public outrage is mounting across the country, and Variety reports that ABC is now "mulling the idea of yanking the mini altogether."4 But we only have a little time to act. We'll start delivering this petition to ABC headquarters tomorrow at noon and continue as more signatures come in. So we're looking for 200,000 signatures TODAY.

Can you sign? Click here:
http://pol.moveon.org/abcdoc?id=8706-722724-jygS7Q1rw0C47ZfJaxw39w&t=4

Then please pass on this message to folks you know who can help.

The Path to 9/11 appears to be part of a coordinated push—including speeches by President Bush and millions of dollars in advertising—to exploit the five-year anniversary of 9/11 for political gain. That's not acceptable from anyone—especially not a news organization like ABC.

It's not just that ABC's movie is slanted. Big parts of it are simply untrue. The producer himself even admitted to simply improvising a key scene which depicts the Clinton administration letting bin Laden go when they had him in their sights—a complete fabrication.5 Last night, the movie's star, Harvey Keitel, said "It turned out not all the facts were correct."6

It's really pretty simple: ABC shouldn't have any role in the political exploitation of 9/11. But this docudrama is designed to do just that—spreading a false message to millions of viewers across the country.

Sign the petition to tell ABC not to air partisan propaganda on 9/11. Click here:

http://pol.moveon.org/abcdoc?id=8706-722724-jygS7Q1rw0C47ZfJaxw39w&t=5

Thank you for all you do.

–Nita, Eli, Carrie, Joan, Jennifer and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Friday, September 8th, 2006