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 All this week, Moby will be covering the Democratic National Convention exclusively for Blender.com.
(FILED 2:30 pm Mountain Time)
Blog 5, written with thumbs.
So last night (yes, that's the name of my new 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/MoveOn.org 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 L.A. who until recently had been sleeping in his car. When Laura from MoveOn.org 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. The show was/is great, thanks to Shep Fairey and Laura from MoveOn.
I left before the party started and apparently it 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-hop DJs 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 DJs 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 2 a.m. It’s uncivilized, barbaric, even. 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? It’s 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 wait in line and I'm pretty sure they won't have green beer at the enormo-dome.
You can see my dilemma.
RELATED POSTS/LINKS
Moby Does the DNC: Late-Night Tuesday: Booze, Karaoke, and Angry Wrestling
Moby ("Our Dumb Musician in Denver") Does the DNC: Fried Bananas, Hippies, and Celebrities Everywhere
Moby Does the DNC: Rich Politicians: YES. Angel Dust: NO.
Moby Does the DNC: John McCain, Cocaine, and Hookers
White House DJ Battle: McCain and Obama Reveal Their Top 10 Songs |
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 She & Him
"Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?"
Director: Ace Norton
The physical similarities between "I Kissed a Girl" upstart Katy Perry and Almost Famous actress/She & Him singer Zooey Deschanel — particularly their equally huge and expressive eyeballs — are
striking. But considering Perry is a shameless pop-rock spark plug
gunning for the mainstream and Deschanel is a part-time indie-rocker
gunning for music credibility, it's unlikely they'd ever be in the same
room together, right? Well, apparently not — both were featured
on MTV's new back-to-basics show FNMTV last week, causing much confusion for casual viewers (sample comment for the She & Him video on MTV's site: "She looks like Zooey Deschanel ... kinda creepy"). And both impressed in their own ways; while Perry exploited her own coquettishness during her live performance, Deschanel
subverted her natural appeal with the help of some grotesque animation
in the video for "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?" In the clip, Deschanel
dresses up in cutesy dresses and winks at the camera only to be
decapitated and stepped on (literally) over and over again. Katy Perry,
whose disappointingly unimaginative video for "Kissed a Girl" is
clearly beneath her, should take note. And now we wait for the Katy-Zooey She & Her album ... 
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 << Lovable actress-singer Zooey Deschanel
will try to blow all of the goodwill she earned through her recent
album with a role in the apparently terrible new M. Night Shyamalan movie, The Happening. [Pop Candy]
+ Considering how much of a wuss Common is on his records, he's sure starring in a lot of no-nonsense action movies ... [NME]
+ Neil Young is now a spider. [The Daily Swarm]
+ Fraggle Rock is coming back in feature length movie form! If this doesn't call for an embed of the Fraggle Rock theme ... [PopWatch] |
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 She & Him
Webster Hall, New York City
Photos: Dese'Rae L. Stage
As we craned our neck to catch a glimpse of actress-singer Zooey Deschanel inside a packed Webster Hall on Tuesday night, we couldn't
help but think, "How many people would be here if these songs weren't
being sung by the big sister from Almost Famous?" But while the
disarming hyphenate's celebrity is an important and obvious draw, her
new album with singer-songwriter M. Ward is a lackadaisical pleasure
even without the doe-eyed visuals. As if Deschanel didn't look precious enough in her Southern belle vintage dress, the fact that she couldn't speak in between songs due to illness only added to the show's palpable "aww!" factor.
The quasi-mime act had an odd side effect — as she
sang while tentatively shaking her tambourine, beaming randomly and standing stark still
during the gig, Deschanel came off like a foreign naif coming to the big city for the first time. This, of course, made She & Him's homespun, country-tinged tunes even more endearing. Her singing voice isn't a technical marvel, but she made the most of it, adding some subtle actorly inflections to help differentiate the sad songs from the bittersweet ones. But Zooey
didn't play into her star status on Tuesday with grand gestures; when she broke out a couple short hops to emphasize a particularly hearty groove at one point, the crowd went bonkers. For Deschanel, more is less on stage, too. (Watch the entire show in semi-decent quality on YouTube.)
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 WHO: She & Him
WHAT: "This Is Not A Test"
WHY: Confession: We haven't heard ScarJo's album of Tom Waits covers yet. Even so, we feel comfortable granting Zooey Deschanel the title of Irresistible Actress Turned Convincing Indie Music Star this year. Her folky, country, girl group-y album with M. Ward is better than it has any right to be — part heartbreaking, part bubbly and all charming. And the moonlighter keeps her actorly tics to a minimum while Ward surrounds her with echoing back-up vocals and lively, lived-in instrumentation. On this song, Deschanel even shows off her goofball side as she takes a brief mouth-trumpet solo near the end. And now, if you'll excuse us, we're going to watch All the Real Girls again.
WHERE: Listen to the track here.
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