Christine Spehar | ChinaShop

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Los Angeles Mike the Poet Revives Los Angeles One Step at a Time

July 2, 2009 - 9:50 am

What does it mean to live in Los Angeles? Is it fake tans, celebrities and lattes on Sunset Blvd? Is it bumper-to-bumper traffic and smog on the 405 freeway? Is it urban sprawl and high rises and population density? Sure, it’s all of those things, but to Mike Sonksen, AKA Mike the Poet, it’s so much more. Mike loves LA. He loves it so much, in fact, that his recently published collection of poems and his debut spoken-word album both bear the title, I Am Alive in Los Angeles. And as he guides me through downtown LA on one of his urban walking tours, spitting rhymes filled with little-known tidbits and historical anecdotes about our fair city, I realize there’s a big difference between living in LA and being alive in LA, in all of its hot, crowded, gritty glory.

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Music Love Me or Hate Me…

by Christine Spehar

June 24, 2009 - 12:00 pm

I’ve decided I need to develop a Lady Sovereign complex. That’s right, you heard me, and if you don’t like it, then f*ck you!

Wow, that was easier than I thought. It turns out being loud, opinionated and a tad on the boastful side isn’t that hard. Doing it while rapping and while somehow maintaining a level of adorableness that makes you want to eat a bowl of rainbow sherbet just for the hell of it, however, is another story. But Lady Sovereign can pull it off no problem, which is why she’s got the record label and the fans and the rad silver Nike hightops, not me. Go figure.

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Music Tipper: Tweaking Knobs and Then Some

by Christine Spehar

June 23, 2009 - 8:35 am

Call me jaded, but these days it seems like you can’t swing a glow stick without hitting another DJ or producer (and if you did, would that be a bad thing?). It’s hard to know who’s really talented and who’s just remixing somebody else’s songs or recycling ready-made sound samples taken from the latest music software package. But while that debate will rage on in music circles everywhere (ok, maybe not everywhere, but it does seem like a pretty popular topic of conversation), there’s no denying that electronic music is here to stay and that it is one of the defining sounds of this generation.

Why the rant? Because I just saw some really good electronic music that reminded me of why I fell in love with it in the first place. Finally. Tipper, the British breaks producer who headlined at the Echoplex, has been an influential presence in the electronic music scene for over 12 years and is one beat maker I can get down to. (Oh and believe me, I did. You should have been there.)

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Music Chester French: If Pee Wee Herman Had a Cute Younger Brother…

by Christine Spehar

June 22, 2009 - 8:26 am

Nerd rock is back. Actually, I don’t know if it was ever gone, or if it ever existed in the first place, but suffice to say it’s here now in the form of Chester French. Formed by two Harvard freshmen in 2003 and named for the American sculptor who built the Lincoln Memorial, the nerdyness extends not only to their roots, but also to the duo’s stage presence. Take their recent show at Hollywood’s El Rey Theater, opening for Lady Sovereign, for instance. Front man D.A. Wallach bounds on stage in ill-fitting red trousers (you know, the kind of pants your grandma would suggest you wear on your first day school), a somewhat dingy white t-shirt and a mop of unruly strawberry blonde hair. Guitarist Maxwell Drummey is a skinny white kid with a backwards haircut, sunglasses that engulf his face and a skirt.

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Music Long Live Other Lives

by Christine Spehar

May 28, 2009 - 9:20 am

You know that floaty, nostalgic feeling you get when you wake up from a dream you don’t quite remember and you inexplicably miss your childhood dog, your kindergarten teacher, your mom’s pancakes or some other such non sequitur to your current life? (Admit it, you know exactly what I’m talking about.) Well, if those types of dreams had soundtracks, Other Lives would be the band to write them. Ethereal, orchestral, lush—all words that come to mind as I watch Other Lives perform at the famous KCRW studios in Santa Monica, CA during their slot on Morning Becomes Eclectic (Mon–Fri, 9am—12pm). This is not typically how I’d think to describe anything from Stillwater, Oklahoma, but for these scraggily haired, doe-eyed twenty-somethings, it fits.

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Event Great Minds Drink Alike

by Christine Spehar

April 29, 2009 - 10:56 pm

It’s Thursday night (or rather, early Friday morning) at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival. The gates are not yet open to the public, but a certain unnamed corporation just might have had its beer tent infiltrated. A certain group of artists and crew just may have tapped a few kegs, hijacked a few speakers and run a few cables to form their own private dance party in an otherwise empty 50-foot dome at 2am. Keg stands may have been involved, along with a pretty significant amount of general debauchery. All of these things may (or may not) have happened, but then again, that’s just what’s to be expected when you unleash a bunch of artists who like to work hard and play harder in the hot desert within spitting distance of a tent full of beer. Lots of beer.
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Event Coachella: Just Say Yes

by Christine Spehar and Fever Dragon

April 29, 2009 - 7:56 am

My advice for enjoying Coachella? Embrace sleep deprivation and heat stroke: there’s so much to do and see at this music and arts festival in Indio, CA, you won’t want to bother resting, and it’s so hot you won’t be able to sleep much past 9am anyway. (Plus when you combine the two, they add up to a wonderfully loopy and perfectly free high, if you’re into that sort of thing.) I suppose you could go the easy route and stay in a hotel, but then you’d be denying yourself some of the precious and hilarious bonding moments that transpire when you go a little bit feral (i.e.: shower like I did, with a hose!), and surround yourself with people who are able to laugh at anything, most importantly themselves.

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Event Fire in the Sky at Coachella 2009

by Christine Spehar

April 29, 2009 - 7:52 am

If Doc Brown from Back to the Future and Claus Oldenburg had a lovechild, he might have turned out something like Syd Klinge: part mad scientist, part groundbreaking large-scale installation artist, a gentle soul with a razor-sharp edge and just enough crazy to make things really interesting. Klinge is the artist behind the world’s largest pair of Tesla coils, two 16-foot-tall transformer circuits that can generate an estimated 5 million volts of electricity between them. The coils, called Cauac in honor of the Mayan god of lightning, have been one of the highlights of the visual art lineup at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, CA for eight years. But seeing Cauac in action, with its eerily beautiful and deafeningly loud arcs of electricity dancing in the sky like fireworks on steroids, is only icing on the proverbial cake of life experiences. Even better in my book was getting to help Klinge’s crew with the installation of the coils, though “help” should be loosely defined here as, “taking orders when possible and otherwise standing around wishing I had paid more attention in science class.”

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Event The Do Lab: Where the Party Gets Done Right

by Christine Spehar

April 27, 2009 - 10:52 pm

The founders of the Do Lab believe in art as experience. And judging by the packed-in crowd screaming in the scorching afternoon sun, begging to be sprayed with water by obliging Do Lab crew, they also believe in wet t-shirt contests. “We’ve been doing Coachella for five years,” says Jesse Fleming, co-founder of the LA-based art collective, which is responsible for one of the Coachella’s hallmark installations, complete with its own music lineup and performance act, Lucent Dossier. “The second year was when we realized that people out here want water—bad—and it’s one of the main things that’s made our installation as popular as it is.” Read the full story →

Event Welcome to Wonderland

by Christine Spehar

April 26, 2009 - 9:37 pm

Right up there near the top of my list of coolest jobs ever, along with Sesame Street character (don’t ask) and professional skydiver is Phil Blaine’s title: Art Curator for Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Careening around festival grounds in his golf cart a few days before the gates open to the public, surrounded by gigantic stages and sculptures, he looks something like the mayor of Alice’s Wonderland. Would that make him The Caterpillar? The Queen of Hearts? But I digress…

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