Original Versions: Now It Can Be Told!

By Christian Lipski

Anyone who has spent any time listening to the radio or watching movies will know that we have entered the Era of the Cover. Bands are starting out by covering old popular songs—no songwriting effort needed. Hollywood has run out of ideas and is pillaging concepts from old movies, TV, toys, video games, theme park rides, etc. The thing is, this has been happening for a long time, though not at the incredible rate it is now. A lot of the songs you love were originally recorded by other artists! Now it can be told!!
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Top Ten Holiday Tunes: By Christian Lipski

To me, “Christmas Song” means a song that is about the holiday. I’m not sure what crazed goon chose “My Favorite Things” to include on the Christmas radio station, but I can’t abide by it. That also excludes songs from Christmas specials that are not about the holiday. Like “We’re A Couple Of Misfits” from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer—it’s not about the holiday. Your interpretation may vary, and that’s good.
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From The Daily Cal To The New Yorker: Q&A With Shannon Wheeler of Too Much Coffee Man

Interviewed by Christian Lipski

I first encountered Shannon Wheeler’s work when we were undergraduates at UC Berkeley and he drew a strip called Tooth & Justice in the school paper, The Daily Californian. He’s best known now for the character Too Much Coffee Man, who became Wheeler’s voice for social commentary and satire.

The TMCM comic series earned an Eisner award in 1995. Wheeler’s current home, Portland Oregon, saw the premiere of the Too Much Coffee Man opera in 2006 (and its extended “refill” in 2008). Wheeler also created Postage Stamp Funnies for The Onion’s print edition, and is publishing his cartoons in The New Yorker.
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The Reality Of Time Travel: Cal Band Alumni Day

By Christian Lipski

General Douglas MacArthur said, “Old soldiers never die; they merely fade away.” Some former Band members can’t even fade away. For them there is Alumni Band Day.
—from The Pride of California: A Cal Band Centennial Celebration

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Star Wars: The Story Of Ben Kenobi

By Christian Lipski

My pride has had terrible consequences for the galaxy.
—Obi-Wan Kenobi, Return of the Jedi

The Star Wars saga was designed by George Lucas to have the two comical droids, C-3PO and R2-D2, act as consistent observers through the years that make up the tale. Having a constant thread run through the movies gives the audience a known framework through which to consider the story. The saga also depicts a story of good versus evil, the Empire against the Republic. Perhaps most famously, it’s the story of Darth Vader’s rise and eventual defeat by his son Luke Skywalker.

But there’s another story thread running through the six movies that gets overlooked, and that’s the journey of Ben Kenobi, which in some ways is equally as epic as any of the others.
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Electric Six “Rocks Ass” At Dante’s

Dick Valentine

By Christian Lipski
Photos by Deborah Lipski

Dante’s, Portland OR
November 13, 2009
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Unclear On The Concept: A Brief History Of The Concept Album

By Christian Lipski

I’m sure it’s not just me, but whenever I start to write a non-fiction article about X, I always want to start with “Webster’s Dictionary defines X as. . . ” I’m sure it’s the lazy high school student in me, but in this case, it’s rather pointless to try to define the term “concept album,” because the definitions are so broad. My first response would be “um, an album made up of songs that contain a common theme,” and that’s an acceptable definition. What’s a “theme”? An album of songs that all start with the letter A would be a theme, and would therefore be a concept album. It’s a weak definition, but there are so many different ways to create such an album, it all turns out OK in the end.
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My Problem With Halloween

It’s nearly Halloween, the night when ghosts and ghouls prowl the darkness, when witches and vampire bats scour the sky for victims to spook, and when I reach for a good book to read.
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Moon: Does Sam Bell Dream Of Electric Sheep?

By Christian Lipski

SPOILER ALERT: I saw the movie, and am going to refer to specific things that happen in it. If you are looking for an article that will let you know if you should go see this film, here it is:

Yes. Go see it.

The rest of this article will be about my impressions of the movie and its major topics.
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Electric Six, KILL

By Christian Lipski

“You can’t run away from your legs, because that’s what you’re trying to run away from them with!”
—unknown SubGenius

In “Waste Of Time And Money,” the second track on the new Electric Six album KILL, Dick Valentine sings: Take this back to where we started. It’s not possible to avoid your origins forever; eventually you’re going to have to accept that your beginnings are part of what makes you unique, and embrace them. Or in Electric Six’s case, you just plug them in and dance along with them.
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