Here He Is Now, Going to the Upper West Side: Moby the Musician Has Moved

Lower East Side stalwart Moby has outgrown his hipster roots. The diminutive, bald musician and tea entrepreneur, né Richard Melville Hall, recently relocated to the gilded quiet of the Upper West Side, purchasing a spacious two-floor apartment overlooking Central Park. “It’s very grown-up and classy,” gushed one friend who’s been inside. “You would think a hedge-fund manager or some master of the universe from a Tom Wolfe novel lived there, instead of a vegan rock star.”

 “What I like about the Upper West Side … ,” Moby mused via e-mail. “Well, for the most part it’s an honest-to-goodness residential neighborhood. Downtown is still interesting, but living there had become a bit too much like living in a shopping mall for rich Europeans. It might sound odd, but I’d rather be in danger of getting run over by someone pushing a stroller or walking a dog than someone seeing how many Calypso stores they can visit in an afternoon.”

The godfather of techno further explained that the party below Houston now rages a little too hard. “Friday and Saturday nights downtown have become like spring break meets Mardi Gras on steroids,” he wrote. “When and if I do go out, it tends to be on Sundays and Mondays.”