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Moby Filmography
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Moby: Music career
Arguably most famous among his peers for the track "Go," a progressive track using the string line from "Laura Palmer's Theme" from the TV show Twin Peaks, Moby is also well known for the singles "Next is the E," "South Side" with
Gwen Stefani, and "We Are All Made of Stars." Moby has released singles under the names
Voodoo Child, Barracuda, UHF, The Brotherhood, DJ Cake, Lopez, and Brainstorm/Mindstorm.
Several of his songs have also found their way into major motion pictures, most notably the ambient piece "God Moving Over the Face of the Waters," which was featured in the 1995 motion picture Heat
. Most recently, his song "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?" was used in the climax of the documentary film Peaceable Kingdom. Indeed, in 1997 Moby released a compilation of tracks used in and inspired by the cinema called I Like to Score.
Moby plays keyboard, guitar, and bass guitar, and expresses mild irritation at the assumption that everything on his newer albums is a sample. He used to be in a punk band the Vatican Commandos, but abandoned punk in 1989 for electronic music.
His first album for Elektra Records was Everything Is Wrong, which earned early critical praise and minor notoriety. He followed that up with a hard rock/electronic album called Animal Rights in 1996. In 1997, he released I Like to Score, a collection of music included in movies. Among those tracks was an updated version of the James Bond theme. However, both
Animal Rights and I Like to Score were commercially unsuccessful and Moby and Elektra parted company.
After a decade's worth of music, Moby's breakthrough album was 1999's Play. Mainstream reviewers raved about his talents on the album (released on the much smaller V2 Records) though some early fans were let down. The album has 18 tracks on it and was the first album in history to have all of its tracks commercially licensed: "Porcelain," for instance, appeared on a TV commercial for Bailey's Irish Cream and Nordstrom; "Find My Baby" was on a commercial for American Express featuring golfer Tiger Woods. The album's tracks eventually were accepted in various radio formats, but because of
Play's extensive licensing, the album could have been financially successful even without radio play. In addition to fame garnered through its licensing,
Play is also notable for its extensive sampling of old blues recordings conducted by Alan Lomax. In a 2005 posting on his web site, Moby theorized that his eagerness to license his music is a result of "growing up in poverty."
http://www.moby.com/cms/viewdiary.asp?Diary_ID=2186&ViewType=Current
In 2001, Moby founded the . It was a popular touring rock festival that featured an eclectic range of musical genres . A second tour was organized for the following year.
In 2001 Moby also earned the ire of
Eminem after calling his music misogynist and homophobic;
Eminem later satirized Moby in "Without Me," calling him a "fag" and questioning his relevance with the claim, "Nobody listens to techno!" The two were in a confrontation at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards, though Moby expresses respect for
Eminem's musical talents.
In 2002, Moby briefly had a television show on MTV, Señor Moby's House of Music, which focused mostly on more obscure electronic music.
As of June 2004, Moby, a vegan non-denominational Christian and self-proclaimed simpleton (for his often sincere and idealistic political assessments), lives in New York City's Little Italy, where he's lived for a decade in a small apartment in a five-story building across the street from
David Bowie. He owns a small restaurant and coffee shop called TeaNY, where he occasionally waits tables.
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Political Quotes >>
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Latest Film News
Latest news on Moby
NewsNov. 20, 1820: One Whale Exacts His Revenge
1820: The whaling ship Essex is rammed and sunk by a sperm whale 2,000 miles off the west coast of South America. The ordeal of the crew inspires Herman Melville's classic, Moby Dick.
The Essex was an aging vessel from Nantucket, which at the time possessed the largest whaling fleet in the world. The three-masted ship was 87 feet long and weighed 238 tons. She was captained by George Pollard Jr., at 28 already an experienced whaler.
By November 1820 the Essex had been at sea for over a year (three years out was not uncommon), surviving an early knockdown in an Atlantic squall and a rough passage around Cape Horn. Once the ship reached the fertile Pacific whaling grounds, however, things began looking up.
If the risks of whaling were many, the rewards could be great. Whale oil was prized as a lighting fuel. A successful voyage could make a captain wealthy, and meant a good payday for the crew as well. The Essex had taken its share of whales and on Nov. 20 appeared ready to take a few more when a pod was sighted off the starboard beam.
The ship's three remaining whaleboats ? one had been destroyed by a whale's flukes during an earlier hunt ? were dispatched for the kill. As the harpooning began, First Mate Owen Chase, commanding one of the whaleboats, looked back and saw a large sperm whale, which he estimated at 85 feet, approaching the Essex.
As he watched helplessly, the whale propelled itself into the ship with great force. Some crewmen on board were knocked off their feet by the collision, and Chase watched in disbelief as the whale drew back and rammed the ship again. This time the Essex was holed below the waterline, and doomed.
The crew organized what provisions they could and two days later abandoned ship aboard the three whaleboats. Twenty men left the Essex. Eight would ultimately survive the harrowing ordeal that played out over the next three months.
Fearing the "cannibalistic savages" of the South Seas islands (the irony of that reasoning will become apparent momentarily), Pollard decided to head for the more distant coastlines of Chile or Peru, first heading south to catch the expected favorable winds.
The winds, it turned out, weren't favorable at all, but Pollard was determined to reach South America. Eventually the three boats became separated from one another. One vanished and was never heard from again. The other two, one commanded by Pollard and the other by Chase, thrashed against the elements, and as the provisions dwindled and ran out, men began to die.
The first to go were given proper burials at sea, but as food ran out and the survivors on both boats became delirious from hunger, they turned to cannibalism. In Pollard's boat, straws were drawn to see who of the remaining four would be sacrificed so that the other three might survive. Pollard's young cousin, Owen Coffin, drew short straw. He was shot and eaten.
Only two men on that boat, Pollard and Charles Ramsdell, were alive when they were rescued by the whaling ship Dauphin after 95 days in an open boat. Chase and the survivors of his boat were picked up after 90 days. Three other men, who had chosen to remain on a small island shortly after the ordeal began, were also rescued.
What is known of the details of the ship's ill-fated voyage rests largely on Chase's memoir. He could offer no reason why the whale should attack the ship. But another young Nantucket whaleman, Herman Melville, drew his own conclusions. Moby Dick was a very, very smart whale.
Source: BBC
Published: Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT - Source: Wired.Com - Read the article
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