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

The next Degenerates will be on September 18th at Hiro Ballroom in New York City. Special guest details to follow - keep an eye on the degenerates website for more details:

http://degenerates-nyc.com

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

great remixes from dusty kid and diskokaine among other have taken disco lies to the top of the dmc buzz chart:

"Dusty Kid remix is outstanding and deserves an Oscar! also bangers from Jacques Renault and Diskoraine."

Check out mobys ilike page to check out all the mixes:
http://ilike.com/artist/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.

Moby's full live session is going out on XFM Scotland next Thursday (14th) on Jim Gellatly's show between 7PM and 10PM:

For more information visit: http://www.xfmscotland.co.uk/Article.asp?id=159592

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

we have 100 sets of 4 tickets to give away for moby's only remaining live:remixed show in the uk this year!

for your chance to be there with three of your friends fill out the form here:

http://www.moby.com/humanrace

for more information on human race visit the website

moby will be playing at weekend in berlin on 7th Aug. alongside him on the bill are german based dj / producers loco dice and Tobi Neumann.

http://www.week-end-berlin.de/news/show/29

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

you can now see moby's live session for 'morning becomes eclectic' recorded at Malibu Performing arts center today:

those of you who couldn't make it to see moby's live:remixed set at global gathering will have a chance to catch it on channel 4's global gathering special on Sunday night / Monday morning at 12.25am GMT.

Moby will be releasing 'Last Night' favorite 'Disco Lies' as the next UK single to be taken from 'Last Night' on the 15th September.

The single comes with a huge remix package courtesy of Freemasons, Spencer & Hill, Eddie Thoneick, Diskokaine, Jacques Renault and The Dusty Kid and the amazing vocals of New york diva Shayna Steele

Moby discusses the inspiration behind 'Disco Lies':

“I remember going to San Francisco in the early 90s and hearing some DJs like Marc Farina, the dance scene here in NYC was very aggressive. It was either older, softer House music or very aggressive Rave music and you went to San Francisco and it was much more disco inspired and a bit softer and it reminded me of being out in night clubs in Manhattan in the early to mid 80s, where you had this genuine underground dance scene that no-one outside of Lower Manhattan had any interest in, and so the song Disco Lies, I wanted it slightly to be reminiscent of Paradise Garage with Larry Levan or Tony Humphreys, who used to play at this club called Zanzibar out in Newark, so with these cold electronic elements, but with a very Impassioned diva vocal on top.”

You can check out all the the remixes on Moby's iLike page here: http://ilike.com/artist/Moby/songs

There is also an old school rave mix from Wolfgang on the MySpace player: http://www.myspace.com/moby

flying to nyc from the uk again.
when i was growing up we were very poor, so air travel was something
that happened maybe every 5 years or so, and only then when one
of my grandparents was paying.
growing up in connecticut i remember having a relatively wealthy girlfriend when i was 19. she
flew back and forth to france and california a lot, and i remember being
sorely envious of the fact that she flew on planes at least 2 or 3 times a year, which seemed like obscene excess to me at the time.
i was picking her up at the airport one time and i was amazed
that it was 5pm and she was in new york, but that earlier in the day she'd
been in paris.
it seemed like a magic trick, and even though i understood the idea and logistics of international
jet travel i was still kind of baffled by the fact that someone could start the day
on one continent and finish the day on a completely different continent.
it almost seemed like a form of alchemy, turning humans into sub-atomic particles and shuttling them across thousands of miles during the same 12 hour period.
and now i'm a jaded world traveller.
i'm ashamed to say that(the jaded part), but it's true. and i'm not looking for sympathy or understanding, for
who in their right mind would extend sympathy to a guy who travels around the world
and gets to play music?
if i worked at arby's cleaning the grease traps i'd be looking for sympathy.
but i'm not deserving of sympathy, nor am i looking for it.
i'm just commenting on how odd it is that when i was growing up i saw international travel
and airports and hotels and airplanes and other languages and other countries as being
inherently and unspeakably glamorous.
sort of like when homer wins a trip for the family to any of the 48 states. marge doesn't
want to go, and homer says, basically, 'i want to watch the news on a different channel,
i'm tired of foot long sandwiches, i want to eat hoagies and subs and heroes. why won't
you let me live, marge?'
that's sort of how i felt when i was growing up, that channel 2 news in connecticut was mundane, but channel 6 news
in sacramento was glamorous. or to watch tv news in the uk? or france? unspeakably glamorous,
almost terrifyingly glamorous.
i remember my first trip to france(my first trip to europe). it was 1987 and my girlfriend at the time
and i were going to live in paris for the summer.
i was excited for about a year beforehand. i got a bunch of french stickers and put them on
common things around the house('fenetre', 'toillette', etc). and when we finally got to paris
i had panic attacks because everything was so different and so foreign and i had never left
the united states and i was convinced that i would be found out as a hayseed/rube/hick from the u.s and a. i remember seeing the champs-elysees the morning we arrived
and i couldn't believe how foreign and ancient and terrifying it seemed.
once the panic abated the champs-elysees no longer seemed foreign and ancient and terrifying, but
at first it was the embodiement of everything i hadn't grown up with, not to mention everything that seemed wealthier and more sophisticated and older and deeper and more interesting than anything i'd ever had access to.
the champs-elysees(and all of paris) seemed like the worlds most sophisticated club, and i was just some dirty pissant american there to sully it with my ignorant provincialism.
the irony in all of this was that i spent a lot of my childhood in manhattan in the 70's and 80's.
and manhattan in the 70's and 80's was truly dangerous and truly terrifying. but the danger
and terror of manhattan were familiar entities, whereas the newness and foreignness
of france(or the uk, or germany, my 2nd and 3rd trips out of the country)were terrifying in
their unfamiliarity.
and now i'm a jaded world traveller. maybe 'jaded' is the wrong word. i still love
certain things about travelling. i'm still in awe when i see paris in the morning, at how beautiful
it is.
i'm still amazed when i look up at edinburgh castle and arthur's seat.
i'm still amazed by gigantic mountains and thunderstorms from 35,000 feet and dinosaur sized bats in australia and the hermitage and rome and etc and etc.
travel can still stun me with it's beauty, but rarely with it's foreign-ness.
and now you're wondering, if you've read this far, what i'm leading to.
and i'm sorry to disappoint you, but i'm not leading to anything.
i'm just commenting(to myself, at this point, i'm guessing)on how strange it is to be a fairly
jaded world-traveller who once was a terrified, provincial, and poverty stricken kid from connecticut.
it's a weird dichotomy, and i still haven't made sense of it, even after 18 years of fairly constant
travel.
ok, that's it. time to go be a jaded traveller and drink o.j and read a f. paul wilson book and watch '30 rock' while flying past reykjavik.
thanks for listening.
moby

just heading to edinburgh now, to dj at the liquid rooms.
and then, in theory, i'm heading back to nyc for 2 days before
going to california to perform at the kcrw event.
i'm flying back to nyc on sunday and i'm hoping that barack will
invite me to fly on his plane.
well, no, i'm not hoping that, as i haven't met obama and it might
be a bit awkward to say, 'we haven't actually met, but can i fly on your plane from london
to the states and we could eat cashews and play gin rummy?'
last night at global gathering was great, thanks to everyone who was there.
and the night before at sankey's in manchester was insane.
rammed and hot and sweaty and everyone going mental.
i'm still not sure why the sound system stopped working for 10 minutes, probably
because it was so hot.
ok, off to the airport now.
hopefully see you soon,
moby

here's a caveat, this journal entry is going to be sort of bourgeoisie.
caveat 2: i still don't know how to spell 'bourgeoisie'.
it's about hotels.
and what they do right and what they do wrong.
i'm writing this because:
a-i stay in a lot of hotels
b-i have insomnia and i'm bored
c-i'm hoping that some hoteliers will read this and make nicer hotels for me to stay in.

ok, here goes:

a-the rooms should be quiet. really quiet. painfully quiet. thick windows and curtains
that keep out all sound. if you want noise you go outside and stand in traffic.

b-the rooms should be able to be made pitch black. not sort of dark, but pitch black. if you want
light you open the curtains. you want to sleep you close them and it's pitch
black. not to state the obvious, but hotel rooms are for sleeping.

c-internet. i know, i'm a whiney yuppie, but hotels should have easy to access
internet. and give it away for free. paying $10 for internet just seems petty.

d-smell. hotel rooms shouldn't smell of anything. not smoke. not hooker perfume.
not dead cats. nothing.

e-pillows. goldilocks pillows. not too soft, not too firm, just normal. and maybe even
a few options to choose from. and no designer pillows that are weird. sleep should
never involve the words 'designer', 'modern', 'cutting edge', or 'avant-garde'.
no one want's a cutting edge, avant garde sleep experience.

f-sheets. no one apart from old dusty grandmothers likes tucked in sheets. tucked in sheets are what they use in hospitals to keep sick people from falling on the floor.
an untucked duvet/comforter works just fine and is normal and good.

g-do not disturb. do not disturb should mean 'do not fucking disturb me or i will throw
a fucking brick at your head and the police will not put me in jail because they know that if you disturb someone who is sleeping they are legally allowed to throw a brick at your head.'
this goes for the phone and the door. there is never a single reason that the front desk
should call a hotel guest unless the hotel is on fire or there is the sound of people
having sex with goats coming from within the room.

h-movies. i know, a bit esoteric, but they have this fantastic new technology that converts
information into binary code. it even works for movies, and it allows people to store hundreds
of movies on one, cheap storage device. this storage device can then be accessed by bored
hotel guests who will happily pay obscene amounts of money to stave off the soul
crushing despair and loneliness that comes from frequent travel.

i-heat and air-conditioning. it cuts both ways. it gets cold in san diego sometimes and sometimes
it even gets hot in aberdeen. every hotel room should have hot and cold running heat and cooling, even if you're 5 minutes from the equator or the arctic circle. and, not to be too demanding, but
the heat and a/c should actually work. if they don't work i'm allowed to throw a small brick
at someone. again, that's the law.

j-modern. some modern is ok. and some modern is like being trapped in an i-pod that doubles
as an insane asylum. contemporary is nice as long as it works and is comfortable. but if you've built a hotel that consists of cold, hard floors and molded plastic furniture and a color scheme of: off-white and nothing else, you should probably be put in prison for crimes against humanity and your stupid
modern hotel should be burned to the ground, like frankensteins castle.
nothing wrong with some nice design, but it should be comfortable and nice, not cold
and soul destroying. too many hotels have been built that are the hotel equivalent of a trendy magazine. again, sleep should never be trendy or cutting edge. you can close a magazine, you actually have to sleep in a hotel.

k-complicated. don't make the systems complicated. light switches should turn the lights on and off.
the remote control should turn the tv on and off. the air conditioning should have 2 things: temperature and fan speed. don't get clever. no one likes clever when they're trying to sleep.
no one is impressed with your remote control that turns on the hot water and lowers the blinds and controls the heating and calls the front desk and makes disco monkeys drop out of the ceiling.
ok, i'd be impressed with the disco monkeys, but everything else should be simple. in other words: don't reinvent the wheel. there's nothing wrong with a good old fashioned light switch.

l-the mini bar should have a ton of things in it. liquor, water, juice, condoms, food, sunglasses,
ear plugs, candles, etc. the more the better. make a mini-closet and fill it with everything a traveller could ever want.

m-i-pod players in every room are great. thank you for including them. but don't make
them too loud cos all of a sudden you're trying to sleep, and the attorney and his new lady
friend are having a coke and tequila party next door at 5 a.m and listening to the new raconteurs
record and you're trying to sleep and you're reaching for your bag of bricks because surely it must
be legal to throw a brick at a loud, coked up attorney at 5 a.m who is interrupting your sleep.

n-and the usual. give me a desk and a chair. give me lights in normal places. give me a couch.
give me carpeting(wood floors at home are nice, in hotels they're cold and creepy).
just give me normal, nice stuff that will keep the wolves of travel despair at the door just long
enough for me to finally get some sleep and go home.

ok, thanks for indulging my 6 a.m insomniac hotel rant.
moby

ah(or, ach), it's been a busy couple of days.
yesterday in glasgow was really fun.
acoustic show, record signing, dj'ing at subclub.
and today we(joy and i)did a very fun and messy and chaotic acoustic
show at ruby's in manchester.
and tomorrow is another acoustic show and 2 dj events.
oh, the dj gig at sankey's is a bit on the late side.
they open at 9, but i think i go on around 12:30 or so.
and at global gathering i think i go on around 12:30 or so.
and, for consistency, at the liquid rooms saturday night i think i go on around
12:30 or so.
i love doing acoustic shows with joy, as she's really talented and she
also doesn't mind that we invent songs on the spot and do songs
that we haven't rehearsed.
i also like that i'll have email exchanges with my managers along
the likes of 'are we doing the show with joy?'
'yes, we're doing it with joy.'
nice double meaning.
ok, see you soon.
moby