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A belated R.I.P. goes out to the mad man of film, Dennis Hopper who unfortunately passed away on Saturday after a long bout with prostate cancer. Whether he was onscreen as a motorcycle riding hippie (Easy Rider), a burned out soldier in Vietnam (Apocalypse Now), a gas-huffing psycopath (Blue Velvet), or a protective dad enjoying his last Chesterfield (True Romance), it was near impossible to not pay attention to Mr. Hopper.

Hopper enjoyed life to the fullest as a self described “compulsive creator”, occupying time as an actor, writer, director and accomplished photographer. Dennis Hopper was a true artist in every sense of the word (read the LA Times piece on Hopper’s photography here).

Below is a video of the legend in 2008 as he lightheartedly recounts his days with fellow Ferris Gallery artists from the art doc Cool School during a panel discussion with artists from our own doc Beautiful Losers. (A few months after the following presentation we were fortunate enough to be bestowed the CineVegas Documentary Jury Award from Mr. Hopper himself at an afternoon awards luncheon in Las Vegas.)

Thanks to the incredible Mr. Lim for the Vimeo reminder.

above: Dennis Hopper by Andy Warhol

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See the deliciousness that was last weekends 1st LA Street Food Fest at their newly created Flickr page. Yeah it’s true, many people were pissed because of the (up to) two hour waits in lines at some of the more popular trucks and many more were pissed that they didn’t even get a chance to step inside the event (capacity was quickly reached). But if you and your friends were savvy enough to understand the concept of “divide and conquer”, have ever been to Coachella, or waited in line for beer at Dodger Stadium then you knew what to do and what to expect. All in all it was a fun and sun filled Saturday afternoon eating, sharing and walking with thousands of fellow hungry Angelinos. Congratulations to Sonja and Shawna for their tasty success, LA is looking forward to a 2nd helping of the Street Food Fest (hopefully) soon.

Click to read what the LA Times and Huffington Post had to say.

And click here or images below to see more (all photos taken from LA Times or LA Street Food Fest Flickr pool).

Ludo Fried Chicken

Komodo Tacos

Dogzilla

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Tonight the friendly folk of Flux present a unique audio/visual exploration of love as The Decemberists perform their brand of music synchronized with specially created animations and visuals in Here Come The Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized at UCLA’s Royce Hall. Read the LA Times write up here and more from Flux here.

From the Fluxers:

“On October 19, The Decemberists will unveil Here Come The Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized, a special project that takes their ambitious and acclaimed song cycle to new heights for it’s final American performance at UCLA’s Royce Hall in Los Angeles. This unique live experience will feature The Decemberists in collaboration with four filmmakers—Guilherme Marcondes, Julia Pott, Peter Sluszka and Santa Maria—each of whom have created animation to accompany a section of the music. Presented in association with Flux, the event will also be a benefit for The GRAMMY Foundation’s Grammy In The Schools music education programs for high school students.”

Here Come The Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized Trailer from The Decemberists on Vimeo.

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Over the course of the past five years, Spike Jonze has brought together his (un)usual crew of frequent collaborators, friends old and new, and a kid named Sonny in bringing the Wild Things to life. Meet some of them here from VBS.tv’s Art Talk series:

• Production designer and Spike’s right hand man, K.K. Barrett (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Lost in Translation).

• “Orphan Sonny of Los Angeles”, creature designer Sonny Gerasimowicz (read how Karen O turned Spike onto Sonny from the LA Times online here and see Sonny like you’ve never seen him before in the Spike Nieves zine here).

In his designs for “Wild Thing” creatures such as Carol, above, Sonny Gerasimonwicz was told to show personalities rather than copy Maurice Sendak’s style. (via the LA Times)

• Music video veteran and one of my editing heroes, film editor Eric Zumbrunnen (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation). Click photo below to view Eric’s segment on VBS.tv.

• And finally costume designer Casey Storm (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Zodiac). Click photo below to view Casey’s segment on VBS.tv.

Where the Wild Things Are related to more content:

• Wild Things Week Starts in a Vice
• A Tribute to Maurice Sendak
• What the Wild Things Sound Like
• Where the Wild Things Become Banners
• Where the Wild Things Are covered by the New York Times
• New Wild Things imagery, music, and interviews
• Where the Wild Things (Titles) are Made by McFetridge
• Where the Wild Things Are Featured in a Featurette

• Where the Wild Things Love You So

• Kubrick and Geoff McFetridge meet the Wild Things

• New Wild Things theatrical poster
  

• Where the Wild Things Are theatrical trailer and photo gallery

• One sheet poster and theatrical trailer info

• Wild Things skateboards and shoes

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With over 122,000 acres burnt to the ground and counting, poor air quality traveling as far as Colorado, and only 5% of the fire contained with a full containment date still weeks away (September 15th), the Los Angeles Station fire continues to burn down the Angeles National Forest and it’s surrounding areas. Yet, somehow, the fires have also created extraordinary images as documented by the LA Times photographers who have kept a keen eye open as the fire fight rages on.

Click here or the images below to see more amazing photos from latimes.com.

And here’s an additional shot photographed from space of the ever growing Station fires via NASA’s Earth Observatory website:

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