The First Shall Be Made Last: David Bowie’s Let’s Dance

By Christian Lipski

I have to begin with the obvious by marveling at how long it’s been since Let’s Dance was released, simply because twenty-five years? It’s insane. I was fifteen and didn’t know anything about anything. When I taped Let’s Dance from a record I checked out from the library, I didn’t even know much about David Bowie at the time. I had heard “Changes” on the radio before, and probably other songs, but always on the fringe of my attention. 1983 was Bowie’s year to shine. Let’s look at the album in order, and I’ll see what each track dredges up.
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Top Five David Bowie Looks

By Christian Lipski

Ah, the chameleon. He’s been so many people over the years. Here are my favorites!

1. Ziggy Pirate
This is the very end of the Ziggy period, and Bowie has streamlined and cleaned up the look. No more astral circle on his forehead; no bare feet or knitted leotards. Just straight up glam pirate. See the “Rebel Rebel” video here.

(astral disc, bare feet, knitted leotard)

2. Hunky Dory
Pre-Ziggy, but not pre-glam, as this was total cinematic glamour. Sometimes compared to Lauren Bacall, this Bowie was on the back of the Hunky Dory album. This also includes the period when he wore the infamous “man’s dresses” and “came out” to the press.

If you can find the David Bowie Black Book from 1984, there’s a fantastic picture of him standing in front of his house in a man’s dress. I never should have sold that book.

Original cover for
The Man Who Sold The World

3. Screamin’ Lord Byron

The troubled, reclusive rock star character from the short film Jazzin’ For Blue Jean. That shadowed makeup still looks cool, and the frosted highlights look like actual frosting.

4. Jareth from Labyrinth
Of course, the Goblin King. Tina Turner wig, sculpted eyebrows, and Romantic attire. Plus, of course, the tights that caused the founding of the David Bowie’s Area website. When I was in Tokyo last year, there were tons of kids sporting this exact look. It’s lacy goth.

5. Sphinx
An experiment that did not go very far. In a photo shoot with Brian Ward in 1971, Bowie tried some different directions. Indeed. Brian Ward also shot the Ziggy Stardust album cover.

And a bonus, the worst look: “Be My Wife” video
1977, Paris. Unplucked eyebrows, slight trace of a moustache. . . just about the least-groomed he’s ever been. Is he trying for this particular reaction from me? Check out the video.

With added teeth!

I Am In Here: A David Foster Wallace Obsession

By Christian Lipski

It’s kind of fitting to be discussing obsession and David Foster Wallace, since obsession plays a large part in a number of his works. He’s got an amazing way of describing exactly how it feels to be obsessed with something or someone, and while I may not be clinically (or more importantly, legally) obsessed with DFW (as he is often abbreviated), I do feel the need to collect all of his books and both read them and read about them [1].
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The Beach Boys: Concert Abstinence is Not the Answer

By Christian Lipski

It seems odd now, considering my current obsession with music, that my first concert would be a band I didn’t know very well. I wasn’t very heavily into music In 1983 when my mom asked if I’d like to go see the Beach Boys at the Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey. I will say that as a kid I really took to the surf/car songs I heard on K-Tel TV commercials, and my first LP was Jan & Dean (a re-release, in case you think I am 75 years old), but it never really became a habit. As a result, my reaction was a mild assent.
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The Expert

By Christian Lipski

A while back, my wife and I went to see Enuff Z’Nuff at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. That sounds like an strange and exotic location to see a band, but it’s actually just a 250-person-capacity bar in a small town in Orange County. Appearances can be deceiving.
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Is It A Guilty Pleasure If You Don’t Feel Guilty?

By Christian Lipski

These two don’t look
like they feel guilty at all.

The “pleasure” part of a guilty pleasure is easy enough to pin down—you’re doing something that pleases you. That doesn’t mean that it makes you feel happy, as sad things can be pleasurable; it’s just that you enjoy the experience. The “guilty” aspect is harder to define, as the guilt involved is subjective. In general, a guilty pleasure can be thought of as habitual indulgence in something that you feel has no redeeming qualities but still pleases you. I include “habitual” because there seems to be a need for the person to return to the experience more often than would be assumed based on the “value” of the object. For example, chocolate has little nutritional value, but it tastes good. Having chocolate once in a while as dessert wouldn’t necessarily represent a guilty pleasure, but having a candy bar or two every day from a secret stash might.
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The Death of the Mix

By Christian Lipski

Photo © Richard Jones

I used to make mix tapes all the time when I was growing up. I liked the idea of creating a single object or concept by combining existing songs, like making a quilt or a collage. When I was done, the tape was to be taken as a cohesive whole, not as individual tracks; that was the ultimate goal.

When recordable CDs became affordable, I was excited to begin a new phase in mix-making. CDs were more durable than cassettes after all, and computer software would allow you to assemble mixes even more efficiently than before. Or so I thought. It’s true that sound-editing programs provide the ability to make creative, cleaner-sounding mixes, but the flip side is that now there are too many possibilities, and that has killed the mix for me.
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Top Ten Lists of 2007

The staff at Popshifter share the lists of the Top Ten Things that kicked our asses this year.
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“DEVO SUCKS—DIE”

By Christian Lipski

Can you really cut someone in half with a shotgun? I mean, would the blast (assuming both barrels) really sever all the bone and muscle and those other bits all at once, or would it at best just put a wet, meaty hole in your midsection only big enough to push a lunchbox through?
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