WHAT'S MOCHA?
Mocha (or Mokha) is a port city in Yemen. It’s the source of the Mocha variety of arabica coffee bean, which is often combined with beans from Indonesia, creating the Mocha Java blend.
Caffé mocha is an espresso-based drink with cocoa powder or chocolate syrup added. It’s given rise to mocaccino, and various other coffee-chocolate concoctions.
Mocha Dick was a real-life, aggressive white sperm whale, that was one of the inspirations for Melville’s Moby Dick. He was usually encountered off the coast of a small Chilean island, Isla Mocha (pronounced with a Spanish “ch”).
Mocha Dick – the movie -- plays on the names of the coffee and the whale. Mocha is pronounced with a “k” sound.
QUEEQUEG: What’s with the name? Mocha Dick? Seriously?
ISHMAEL: ‘Twould be a tough sell in the flyby zone.
When exactly did “dick” assume its present meaning? In Melville’s day, it was just a nickname for Richard. In the 20th century, the phrase “to dick around” arose, but it merely referred to wasting time. Even in the days of Tricky Dick Nixon, the meaning was more Richard-like than not. Somehow, in the following 50 or so years, with a boost from Dick Cheney, it reached its current form.
Being huge fans of Melville, we naturally use it in the Melvillean sense.
Dylan's rambling speech on musical and literary influences. His discourse on Moby Dick starts at around 6:25 minutes in. Some of this is apparently lifted, almost verbatim, from the SparkNotes. But, hey, that's in the Melvillean tradition of lifting, borrowing, referencing and homage-ing. A tradition that Mocha Dick proudly upholds, with references, both subtle and in-your-face, to Pynchon, James Bond and more!