T-shirt #99: Moby

T-shirt #99: Moby 

Welcome to blog #99. You know what comes next? Never fear faithful reader, I have a special treat (at least I think it's special) selected for T-shirt #100. It's a milestone no matter how you slice it.

Today the blog spends less time on the featured shirt and its subject than on various random thoughts and ideas.



MOBY

In 2002, I saw Moby live and in concert at the Area2 festival.

Playing on the Area2 tour: Blue Man Group,
John Digweed,
Dieselboy,


and DAVID BOWIE.

But I had been listening to Moby since the mid-1990s when a friend of mine (with whom I have since parted ways) gave me mixed tape (yes, cassettes, perhaps you've heard of them) of early Moby (first four albums through Animal Rights). I liked what I heard, especially the ambient stuff. But like most of the world, my Moby fandom did not became hard concrete until the release of Play in 1999. Upon falling in love with Play, and the double issue release with the Play: B Sides in 2000, I officially became a Moby fan and bought everything in his catalogue.

Recently (as in earlier this year), I was struck by a lightning bolt of realization: what has Moby been up to? I believe this hit me around the time that David Bowie announced his new album as Bowie makes me think of Moby. Rightly so, as the former strongly influenced the latter. Soon, I ordered Wait for Me (2009) and Destroyed (2011), which are both becoming my favorite Moby albums. I am listening to Wait for Me as I write this entry, and it's difficult not to list EVERY song in my upcoming Moby favorites list.

Moby would be at that dinner party with Suzanne Vega and Erykah Badu. I will mention here that Margaret Atwood would also be at that dinner party. I do not have a T-shirt showing off my love of Atwood. She is my favorite author, outside genre-specific picks.

Do you sense a future list in the making? I have already made a label for "Dinner Party" to keep these entries sorted to a category. If I had millions of dollars, I would pay these favorite people of mine (and encourage them to donate the money to charity) to attend this dinner party. It would be cool.


Hmmmm, Who else should be there? How big should it be? I must be choosy. Is it really a dinner party if there are over a hundred people? I think I might have to invite ELLIS. I would consider Adrian Tomine, but he wouldn't come (just like he assumed people would not come to his wedding in his little marriage book). But that's two authors, and the original concept was musicians, hence Suzanna Vega, Erykah Badu, and now Moby. Surely, Bowie would be there (or I would invite him), and never fear, I have not forgotten Mr. Bowie. As possibly my favorite musical artist, I am saving him for a special moment (no, not tomorrow).

Moby is another one of those kindred souls. I think we would have been friends had we grown up in the same town (Darien, Connecticut or if he had grown up here in Kalamazoo) or met early in his career. I do not share all of Moby's beliefs or convictions (sorry, buddy, I eat meat, though I do agree with your thoughts on the subject), but I share A LOT of Bowie's ideas. WOW. I meant "Moby's ideas." But I wrote Bowie, and then in editing, I decided to leave it. See how interchangeable they are?

These ideas I mentioned are all well documented in the Moby Wiki if you are interested.

MOBY WIKI

I think MOBY's ideas about Christ and Christ's teachings compared to "cultural Christianity" are very interesting and right on target.

Upon researching for today's blog entry, I realized I had missed Moby's 2008 release Last Night, so my list of favorites is missing that contribution.

As you all know, I like lists. Enjoy. :-)

MY TOP TEN FAVORITE SONGS BY MOBY

1. "Love Theme" - I Like To Score
2. "First Cool Hive" - Everything is Wrong
3. "Sevastopol" - Destroyed
4. "Novio" - I Like To Score
5. "Porcelain" - Play
6. "Dream About Me" - Hotel
7. "Summer" - Play B Sides
8.  "Wait For Me" - Wait for Me
9. "Sunday (The Day Before My Birthday)" - 18
10. "Love Song for My Mom" - Animal Rights

Somewhat cheesy video, but I like some of the images, especially the birds.

Moby - Love Theme

OPTIC NERVE FOLLOW UP

So, yesterday, I am in Fanfare (the local comic book and geeky emporium) and out comes owner Tom Fleming with the statement: "I will have you know that I have heard of Optic Nerve." The blogger is busted. So, partially recanting. I know Fanfare has stocked Optic Nerve. I was chiding and teasing one of Tom's employees, a good friend of mine, via the blog for not having heard of Optic Nerve. But then is he expected to know every indie comic? Hardly.

But I was honored to have someone paying such close attention to my blog. Only hours after posting, I am nailed for comments I made. And you readers should know that I have done nothing but promote and praise Fanfare. I love that place. It's hardly REAL criticism, just a little teasing, and Tom knew that.


IRON MAN THREE

SPOILER ALERTS!! Skip this section if you wish to remain ignorant of the plot elements of Iron Man Three.

After going to Fanfare for the weekly comics, I went to see Iron Man Three before it left town. I caught the last show at the last theater where it was clinging to dear life for some last gasp box office. (This is what Grading Robot does when he finished being Grading Robot).

I had been warned away. Bill Artis of Fanfare had given it an emphatic thumbs down. Others had given it the face of distaste, the screwed tight features of the "that tastes terrible."

My friend and fellow blogger, who I plug often on these pages, the great Charles Skaggs gave it a reasonably favorable review on his blog (and apparently he has time to get to these movies sooner), here:

DAMN GOOD MOVIES: IRON MAN 3.

He ranked it in 15th place among his favorite comic book movies. Avengers holds third place.

I liked it. I was not bothered by the depiction of the Mandarin. I liked the turnabout trick that who we thought was the mastermind was just an actor and the true mastermind was who we thought was a follower. Several parts were dismissed weakly, such as the Maya Hansen's story. But I liked the little kid that was introduced and is now an official "Follower of Stark: FOS," basically president of Mechanic (Tony Stark's) fan club, even though his story was also hastily resolved. I hope there are good deleted scenes on the DVD.

I think Robert Downey, Jr. is a great actor. And though I like Don Cheadle, and though he came up bad ass in this film, I still do not think he is right as Rhodey at least for how he is depicted in the comics. But then, neither was the first guy the franchise hired.

Iron Man 3 is definitely better than Iron Man 2, and in many ways, I liked it better than the first one, which I thought had a lame villain and a hasty resolution.

WEEKLY COMIC BOOK STACK

Here's the weekly comic book stack in order, the feature I started in T-shirt #92.
You can read about the reasoning there if you wish.

A few thoughts: Aquaman has been hitting the top of my stack each month, even after Pelletier assumed the art mantle. I love Pelletier's work, so there was no loss of quality there for me. Justice League wrapped the Shazam! story that has been a back up and runs for the full issue this month, so it moved up in the stack because I love Gary Frank's art and have been loving the re-boot of the story (though I miss Jerry Ordway, and this is further proof that he should be getting work). I have not read all of these issues, but some people may be edified by DC comics taking the top two slots this week. It was a HUGE week. Yikes!


COMIC BOOKS FOR JUNE 26TH

Aquaman #21
Justice League #21
All New X-Men #13
Guardians of the Galaxy #4
Young Avengers #6
X-Men #2
DareDevil #27
Hawkeye #11
Justice League of America  #5
Jupiter's Legacy #2
Nova #5
Flash #21
Captain America #8
Batman-Superman #1
Clone #8
Teen Titans #21
Lazarus #1
Uncanny X-Men #7
Wolverine #5
Catwoman #21
Age of Ultron Book 10 AI
FF #8
Masks #8

Deep stack: Secret Avengers #5, Superman #21, Ultimate X-Men #28, Avengers Arena #11.
NOTE: I really like Avengers Arena, but when the company puts out two issues a month, I may not get the last one read before the next one comes out.

Trade: Fatale #3.

I am reading this in trade, and it's great stuff. It takes will power to not start buying the issues.

That's all for today. Check back tomorrow for the big T-shirt #100!!

- chris tower - 1306.28 - 10:37