Paul McCartney Really Is Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison

By Christian Lipski

I took a class on Ancient Roman history once, and slogged my way through the textbook and its dry recounting of the emperors’ lives. Later I discovered Robert Graves’ historical fiction I, Claudius and suddenly the facts came to life. The personalization of the information made it more real to me, and I actually learned more through that book than my class. Presentation can mean a lot, even when the material is lifeless. This is what director Joel Gilbert puts into effect with his film Paul McCartney Really Is Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison, which gives a living voice to the “Paul is dead” phenomenon.
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Billy Squier, Don’t Say No 30th Anniversary Edition

By Christian Lipski

When there’s a re-release of anything to be reviewed, the question is always there: what am I actually reviewing? Am I revisiting the material, or the re-packaging?

I have a feeling that what I should focus on are the new features, in this case the liner notes, the mastering, and the bonus tracks. But before that I will say there’s a reason Don’t Say No was chosen for reissue, and that’s because the songs are loud and ballsy but also sassy. I didn’t pick up the album for myself for many years after its release in 1981, but by that time I already knew most of the songs by heart. Like Foreigner 4 or Journey’s Escape, it permeated the airwaves that year.
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San Diego Comic-Con Diary, Day Four

By Christian Lipski

Read:
Day One’s Diary
Day Two’s Diary
Day Three’s Diary

And then there was the last day. We eventually got up and packed our bags for checkout, and made our way to the convention floor for our last visit. Since it’s the last day and exhibitors want to ship as little as possible back home, there are rampant sales and many attendees only buy Sunday tickets.

Mile High Comics put their entire stock on sale for 50% off, for example. Independent publishers were willing to make deals, for the most part.The show closes at 5 p.m. as well, so the action in the convention center was tinged with both sadness and anxiety.
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San Diego Comic-Con Diary, Day Three

By Christian Lipski

Read:
Day One’s Diary
Day Two’s Diary

After going to bed sometime after 1 a.,m. the night before (late dinner), Saturday morning was pretty much a wash. I had a press conference for Futurama at 11:30 a.m., so I took off for the convention center. The room was about two-thirds full, and we all shifted about until the event began.

Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, Billy West, Maurice LeMarche, and Lauren Tom filed in to have their pictures taken before ascending the dais. They apologized for the absence of the voice of Bender, John Dimaggio, but it was explained that “Dimaggio” was Italian for “running late.” He did show up presently, and the conference began.
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San Diego Comic-Con 2010 Diary, Day Two

By Christian Lipski

Read:
Day One’s Diary

By the second day I feel much less pressure; I’ve already made a day’s worth of forays into the wilds, and though I haven’t seen nearly all of what there is, I have a good sense of the floor’s layout and content. I also know that it’s nearly useless to try to get into large sessions, since the amount of time you need to devote to the line-waiting is better spent wandering the floor below.
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San Diego Comic-Con 2010 Diary, Day One

By Christian Lipski

Wednesday night was a long night of travel, so we didn’t get to sleep until 1 a.m. Upon rising at seven, I cursed the medium of the sequential image as we struggled to get ready.

We go to the parking garage at 10:30, and walked the mile to the Convention Center. You know you’re getting close when you see the TRON banner start to appear on lampposts, and even a replica of Flynn’s arcade from the movie. The amount of people in costume increased, and so did the amount of people handing out flyers and laminated cards and magazines. These last items tended to create a kind of carpet on the sidewalks that led to the doors of San Diego Comic-Con.
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Sextreme Ball 2010: My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult/Lords Of Acid

By Christian Lipski
Photos by Deborah Lipski

Praga Khan’s girlfriend
tempts the audience

Dante’s, Portland OR
July 14, 2010

Touring together for the first time in 15 years, Lords of Acid and My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult are the main events on the Sextreme Ball 2010 tour, which began in Seattle on July 13. Both bands were part of the techno music movement of the late ’80s/early ’90s, and judging from the first two sold-out shows, both are still popular among the electronica crowd.
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Punks In Portland: Buzzcocks

By Christian Lipski

Berbati’s Pan, Portland OR
June 1, 2010

Even if it’s in print, it’s not always true. The concert ticket said eight o’clock, but once we got to the club, a sign indicated that opening band The Dollyrots would start at nine. Inconsistently, the ticket was right about the door time, so from seven until nine I had plenty of time to take in my surroundings.
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Let’s Get Associated Released For The Killola Army

By Christian Lipski

Dog tags are usually intended to identify the wearer as a member of a branch of the militia, but after March 2010, they’ll also be used to indicate that the wearer’s a fan of L.A. Band Killola. The do-it-yourself band have released their third album on a wearable USB drive in the shape of a dog tag, also including their previous two albums and much more.

The unique packaging is typical of a band who has made a reputation out of doing things their own way. From their beginnings in 2003, they’ve been doing their own recording, producing, and promotion, and have amassed a huge fan base, performing across the country as well as Europe.
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Arranged Marriage, Dearly Beloved

By Christian Lipski

As a rule, kids never like the music their parents listen to. Likewise, there’s an unwritten law that parents must hate their children’s music. It’s important for young people to develop their own identities as people, and for parents to get a taste of what they put their own parents through. That’s what makes the band Arranged Marriage such a unique treat: father Brad Allen has teamed up with his son Scott to write, perform and produce the album Dearly Beloved.
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