Journal Archive - June, 2007

tonight "the little death nyc" are playing at the annex here in nyc.
it's a little place, so tickets sold out pretty quickly.
we even have a myspace page up(as we're contemporary).
if you search under music you can find the page.
it's the one with the bauhaus-y eclipse picture.
and there are two very rough songs up there.
by very rough i mean, well, very rough.
but fun.
and gently indicative of what we sound like.
someday we'll make better recordings.
these are just rough demo's.
i hope that some of you were able to get tickets.
ok, see you later.
g'night,
moby

up until a few months ago the insurgency in iraq was called, well, the insurgency.
now the white house and their lap-dog media weasels(aka-the new york times, etc)refer to the iraqii insurgency as 'al qaeda'.
this in spite of the fact the white house itself recently said that only 5% of the insurgency is al qaeda.
i can understand the administration being desperate on this issue(with bush's approval rating at 28%, and less than 20% of americans thinking that the invasion of iraq was a good thing), but it's kind of disgusting that the media are just going along with this blatant obfuscation.
but then again the ny times(with the queen of lazy/irresponsible journalism judity miller)basically just parroted the white house's press releases on wmd's in the run up to the war.
so i guess the real fool in this is me, for expecting an independent press who dont just do the bidding of the inept buffoon's in the white house.
just keep this in mind the next time the media talk about al qaeda in iraq.
as i said, by the white house's own admission al qaeda make up less than 5% of the insurgency in iraq.
the insurgency in iraq is made up of iraqii's who hate us. it's bloody and diabolical, but, for what it's worth, it's home-grown.
the administration would love to present the war in iraq as 'the front line on terror', but it's not.
the war in iraq is just that, a war in iraq, being fought primarily between normal iraqii's and u.s forces.
and the administration and the media do us all a great disservice by misrepresenting what's going on in iraq as being part of some larger plot.
it's a local iraqii tragedy, not some big international al-qaeda driven conspiracy, and the sooner we get our troops out of there the better.
-moby

they're all reasonably bright people, but in order to appeal to the extreme right-wing republican base they have to take their respective intellects behind the shed and do away with them.
just imagine you're john mccain or mitt romney. you're smart. you're successful.
you've accomplished a lot. and then suddenly you have to pretend that you don't believe in evolution. or global warming. or birth control. etc.
i wonder when someone in the gop will stand up and say, 'this is nuts. how has the republican party become the party of people who believe that humans and dinosaurs co-existed?'
in other news, i do actually want to go to the wacky creationist museum.
i hear that they have dioramas of dinosaurs pulling plows for humans.
the good thing about the crazy creationists is that their collective delusions are really entertaining.
i mean, dinosaurs pulling plows?
really?
again, i don't envy a smart republican candidate who has to pander to a base of republican who believe that dinosaurs and humans were pals.
moby

normally i appreciate his movies more than i actually like them, but 'sicko' is different.
it's the best movie he's ever made, and it's his least partisan movie.
please go see it, especially if you or anyone you know has ever had any problems with an hmo or an insurance company.
that's all i have to say.
well, no, actually i have a bit more to say.
in 1996 my mother went to her hmo complaining of persistent respiratory problems.
her hmo put her on antibiotics.
her respiratory problems continued for months and they continued to put her on antibiotics.
as background: my mother quit smoking in the early 90's, but before that she had been a 2 pack a day smoker for over 30 years.
her hmo spent months and months not testing her for lung cancer because the tests were more expensive than antibiotics.
when they finally tested her for cancer they found that she had advanced lung cancer.
she died 9 months later.
the cancer would've been much more responsive to treatment if they'd tested her 4 months earlier when she first showed up complaining of respiratory problems.
but to save money they delayed giving her the tests that quite possibly could've saved her life.
that's all i have to say.
and with that in mind i highly recommend 'sicko', and i sincerely encourage you to see it.
it's great.
thanks,
moby

i was just reading about how the police have broken up an international, uk-based, paedophile ring.
thank goodness.
i'm a pacifist, and i try not to judge, but a part of me would love to see paedophiles encased in concrete and dropped to the bottom of the sea.
childhood sexual abuse really is the most vile of vile crimes.
i wonder about evil.
does evil exist?
were one to make a case for evil i imagine that one would use paedophiles as a prime example.
even jesus the pacifist said, to paraphrase, 'it's better for you that you be cast into the sea with a mill-stone around your neck than that you abuse a child.'
and i wonder about paedophiles, just how broken are they to not see the horror of what they're doing?
i issue a prayer of thanks that there are law enforcement officials pursuing and arresting paedophiles.
sexual abuse is always a vile crime, but against a child it enters the realm of pure, unadulterated evil.
-moby

i was supposed to go on a little hudson river boat trip today, but the trip was cancelled because the boat broke down.
which is ok, it just means i can go back into my studio and work more.
but it reminded me of when i lived in the suburbs and things were always breaking.
cars and lawnmowers and houses and etc.
i think that one of the key differences between suburband/rural living and urban living is that in the city we don't have to spend much time fixing things.
we take taxis, so someone else worries about insurance and maintenance and broken engines and flat tires.
we live in apartments, so someone else worries about boilers and roofs and etc.
we don't have lawns, so there are no lawns to mow or lawnmowers to repair.
and so on.
so, seeing as they don't have much to really worry about, why are urban dwellers so neurotic?
maybe because everyone in the suburbs is emotionally exhausted from fixing and maintaining things and commuting and being stuck in traffic?
perhaps urban dwellers have a bit too much free time to worry about themselves and their existential angst?
i mean, if you live in the suburbs and you spend 3 hours a day in your car and your car needs work and the lawnmower's broken and the house needs a new roof and the driveway needs repaving and the storm windows need to be put in and the leaves need to be raked and etc, well, when do you have time to focus on yourself and your existential dread?
i have to say, although being an urban dweller with a surfeit of time in which to focus on existential angst might have it's downsides, i really don't miss being at the mercy of internal combustion engines that are always breaking down and needing maintenance.
call me an adolescent, but i love the fact that the internal combustion engines in my life(i.e-taxis, subways, etc)are looked after by people other than me.
when i lived in the suburbs and had to take my broken-ass car to the repair place it was always the low point of my day/week/month/life.
because:
a-i had no idea what was wrong
b-i knew that the repair people were taking advantage of my utter ignorance
c-when your car breaks down in the suburbs you're stuck
i love not driving.
i love not mowing lawns.
i love not sitting in traffic.
sorry to be obnoxious and adolescent, but i love new york.
-moby

or, more specifically, sometimes the real media looks disturbingly like the onion.
-moby

pentagon confirms it sought to build a 'gay bomb'

(cbs 5) berkeley a berkeley watchdog organization that tracks military spending said it uncovered a strange u.s. military proposal to create a hormone bomb that could purportedly turn enemy soldiers into homosexuals and make them more interested in sex than fighting.

pentagon officials on friday confirmed to cbs 5 that military leaders had considered, and then subsquently rejected, building the so-called "gay bomb."

edward hammond, of berkeley's sunshine project, had used the freedom of information act to obtain a copy of the proposal from the air force's wright laboratory in dayton, ohio.

as part of a military effort to develop non-lethal weapons, the proposal suggested, "one distasteful but completely non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behavior."

the documents show the air force lab asked for $7.5 million to develop such a chemical weapon.

"the ohio air force lab proposed that a bomb be developed that contained a chemical that would cause enemy soldiers to become gay, and to have their units break down because all their soldiers became irresistably attractive to one another," hammond said after reviewing the documents.

"the notion was that a chemical that would probably be pleasant in the human body in low quantities could be identified, and by virtue of either breathing or having their skin exposed to this chemical, the notion was that soliders would become gay," explained hammond.

the pentagon told cbs 5 that the proposal was made by the air force in 1994.

"the department of defense is committed to identifying, researching and developing non-lethal weapons that will support our men and women in uniform," said a dod spokesperson, who indicated that the "gay bomb" idea was quickly dismissed.

however, hammond said the government records he obtained suggest the military gave the plan much stronger consideration than it has acknowledged.

"the truth of the matter is it would have never come to my attention if it was dismissed at the time it was proposed," he said. "in fact, the pentagon has used it repeatedly and subsequently in an effort to promote non-lethal weapons, and in fact they submitted it to the highest scientific review body in the country for them to consider."

military officials insisted friday to cbs 5 that they are not currently working on any such idea and that the past plan was abandoned.

gay community leaders in california said friday that they found the notion of a "gay bomb" both offensive and almost laughable at the same time.

ok, thanks for answering the vampire question.
it was sort of an unofficial(and egregiously unscientific)poll, but the results are in:

98% of respondents would not choose to be a vampire.
reasons given:
a-immortality seems lonely
b-the sun is nice

2% of respondents would choose to be a vampire.
reasons given:
a-immortality seems excellent
b-vampires seem to be pretty excellent, too

i have to say that i fall into the 2% category.
not sure how i could reconcile vampirism with veganism, though.
my friend conchetta did ask a good question.
basically: what if immortality doesn't involve personal jet packs and unlocking the secrets of dna and food in pill form, but rather involved a blasted, desolate earth with only cockroaches and pigeons for friends?
i guess then you have to learn to love cockroaches and pigeons.
maybe assemble an unholy army of the living dead(who just happen to be cockroaches and pigeons. see, someone should make a zombie movie involving bugs. 'zombie bugs' is a title that springs to mind, for example.
('bug zombies' also could work.)

my brain also does this odd thing where it takes whole words and breaks them into random, disparate parts.
like 'pigeon'.
i read it as 'pig eon'.
'together' becomes 'to get her'.
and so on.
maybe i'm just predisposed to arbitrary compartmentalizing.
i don't know.

ok, back to vampires.
yes, call me crazy, but i think that being a vampire would be fantastic.
thanks for all of your help in my unscientific vampire poll.
and have a nice weekend.
-moby

if a vampire approached you and said:
'with your consent i'll bite you and you'll have immortality but you'll never see the sun again.'
would you say 'ok'?
my answer to follow.
thanks,

moby

the kind people at perez hilton(wait, can an individual be possessed of a group?  i guess so.  one could, for example, say 'the kind people at martha stewart'. ok.  glad we established that)reprinted my 'god hates red states and decimates them with tornadoes and hurricanes' journal entry.
the comments were interesting.
some people took the time to read the article and actually seemed to recognize that i was being mildly satirical and trying to draw attention to the flawed logic used by some(but not all.  ok, most)evangelicals when they say dim-witted things like 'god punished new orleans with katrina'.
other people referred to me as, well, suffice it to say that i don't seem to have a lot of fans among the right wing nutjobs who took the time to write comments on perez hilton without actually taking the time to read what i had written.
fair enough, i guess.
although it does disincline me from writing anything satirical(for really excellent satire you have to go back to the source: A Modest Proposal: For Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick, by Jonathan Swift.  it's excellent, even 275 years after the fact).
maybe i should take a page from my fellow musicians and use the mighty internet for clumsy and endearing self promotion.
like: "HEY TO ALL OUR FANZ!!!  WE LOVE U!!!! OUR NEW SINGLE DROPS ON JUNE 10!!!  CALL YOUR RADIO STATION AND TELL 'EM TO ROCK DAT SH*T!!!  HA!  LOL!!  LOVE U!"
musicians should stick to writing music, right?
leave politics to the politicians and religion to the religious leaders and ideas to the network pundits, because they're all such good stewards of their respective domains, right?
speaking of which, the simpsons 400th episode was excellent.  it still amazes me that the simpsons and family guy can get away with mercilessly skewering fox news and the fox network.
but i digress.
or, do i?
i guess it's hard to digress from a bunch of random tangents.
thanks,
moby

ok, i don't want to be too much of a predictable nerd/geek, but google street view is remarkable.
it's on google maps.
there, that's me being a tech geek for the day.
and , to be clear, i'm not affiliated with google, i just think that this street view function is really cool.
too bad it's not in real time. ah well, someday.
it's may 31st. isn't that something?
i mean, isn't that a significant date?
no?
it's not memorial day but it feels like it should be.
may 1st is mayday, right?
so maybe it's just the last day before june?
i guess that's moderately significant.
and it's f*cking hot in nyc.
not even june and we've already had tons of obscenely hot weather.
which, personally, i like.
but before june?
in other news, gw bush is now a hippy.
in the last week he's:
a-talked about imposing more sanctions on sudan
b-talked about increasing spending on aids in africa
and
c-talked about meeting with other major polluting nations and doing something about global warming

is he listening to phish and smoking humboldt county chronic?
maybe he woke up the other day and said:
'ok, i'm done with the evil phase of my presidency, time for me to be the sunflower-child i know myself to be.'
huh.
and fred thompson, the law&order actor is going to run for president.
in the future i think that only actors will be allowed to run for public office.
ok, back to work.
moby