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The Cinefamily’s month long tribute to an American art icon reaches it’s finale this Saturday evening as the Dennis Hopper film series appropriately ends with Hopper’s 1971 film The Last Movie. Following the film will be an outdoor after party and a special appearance from Hopper collaborator L.M. Kit Carson. The series of Dennis Hopper films was co-presented by the MOCA and Cinespia.

From the Cinefam:

“Following the massive reverberations of Easy Rider, Dennis Hopper had carte blanche and a $1 million budget to realize the project of his dreams. The result was The Last Movie, a beautifully raw folk symphony of cinematic romanticism — and his most ambitious effort behind the camera. Hopper plays a movie stuntman who’s working on the set of a Peruvian-shot, Hollywood-funded western. Then, he falls in love. Sound simple? It’s not. Initially conceived and edited as a linear narrative, The Last Movie was obsessively retooled by a haunted Hopper for nearly an entire year, and what emerged was an epic, constantly-in-flux fever dream that lobotomized the Godardian ideals of fiction vs. reality, reality vs. reality, form vs. content, and everything between. Rightly eulogized in Europe upon release (and wrongly reviled in the U.S.), this mesmerizing film is both a benchmark and an epitaph for Hollywood’s unhinged hippies and their uncompromising home movies. You may be challenged, but you’ll never be bored by The Last Movie. L.M. Kit Carson (co-director of The American Dreamer), will be here to tell stories of the making of The Last Movie — and join us on our backyard Spanish patio after the film, for the closing reception in honor of our Dennis Hopper retrospective!
Dir. Dennis Hopper, 1971, 35mm, 108 min.”

More Dennis Hopper:

• FRIDAY (July 30): Dennis Hopper in Out of the Blue & White Star @ The Cinefamily
• THURSDAY (July 29): Come As You Are @ PRISM
• SUNDAY (July 25): Dennis Hopper Triple Feature (Blue Velvet, Hoosiers, River’s Edge) & BBQ @ The Cinefamily
• FRIDAY (July 16): Dennis Hopper in Mad Dog Morgan & Kid Blue @ The Cinefamily
• SATURDAY (July 10): Dennis Hopper Double Standard @ MOCA
• FRIDAY (July 9): Easy Rider & The American Dreamer @ The Cinefamily
• SATURDAY (July 3): Cinespia Presents Easy Rider @ The Hollywood Forever Cemetery
• Dennis Hopper Too Cool For Cool School

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As the month long Dennis Hopper film series co-presented by The Cinefamily, the MOCA and Cinespia comes to a close this weekend, the second to last screening features two seldom seen Hopper films in Out Of The Blue (Hopper’s return to directing in 1980) and Roland Klick’s White Star.

Click here for film details and more from The Cinefamily.

More Dennis Hopper:

• THURSDAY (July 29): Come As You Are @ PRISM
• SUNDAY (July 25): Dennis Hopper Triple Feature (Blue Velvet, Hoosiers, River’s Edge) & BBQ @ The Cinefamily
• FRIDAY (July 16): Dennis Hopper in Mad Dog Morgan & Kid Blue @ The Cinefamily
• SATURDAY (July 10): Dennis Hopper Double Standard @ MOCA
• FRIDAY (July 9): Easy Rider & The American Dreamer @ The Cinefamily
• SATURDAY (July 3): Cinespia Presents Easy Rider @ The Hollywood Forever Cemetery
• Dennis Hopper Too Cool For Cool School
  

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The month long Dennis Hopper film series at The Cinefamily continues with an honorable triple feature of Hopper classics in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, David Anspaugh’s Hoosiers and Tim Hunter’s River’s Edge. Co-presented by the MOCA and Cinespia.

Click here for more from The Cinefamily.

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More Dennis Hopper respects paid as the MOCA premieres Dennis Hopper Double Standard, a very special tribute show at the Geffen Contemporary curated by Julian Schnabel featuring Hopper’s paintings, photography and more created from 1961 to present day.

Details and more from MOCA here.

And don’t forget about the month long Dennis Hopper tribute series at The Cinefamily co-presented by MOCA and Cinespia!

From MOCA:

“Join MOCA and the Southern California community for a special tribute to acclaimed actor, film director, and artist Dennis Hopper at the premiere of Dennis Hopper Double Standard. Curated by Julian Schnabel, Dennis Hopper Double Standard is the first American museum survey exhibition to showcase the remarkable body of work Hopper produced in a formidable career spanning over half a century.”

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Every Friday in July The Cinefamily on Fairfax pays tribute to an icon with their Dennis Hopper film series co-presented by the MOCA and Cinespia. The first of the bunch appropriately starts off with the 1969 classic Easy Rider along with The American Dreamer presented by co-director/co-writer L.M. Kit Carson.

Watch The Cinefamily’s video tribute to Dennis Hopper here.

And don’t forget about Dennis Hopper Double Standard opening at MOCA this Saturday!

From  The Cinefam:

“As actor, auteur and artist, Dennis Hopper is the iconic American cinematic rebel of the late 20th century. Honest, intense and boundary-smashing, his presence has enriched and transformed the Hollywood landscape. Over a month-long retrospective of both his most famous and infamous works — along with lesser-known treasures — the Cinefamily, in association with MOCA, celebrates this decades-spanning, wide-ranging career of searing performances and ambitiously idiosyncratic directorial efforts. This series features not only a brand-new restored 35mm print of Out of the Blue, but it also contains the first L.A. screening in ages of The American Dreamer (the impossibly rare vérité portrait of Hopper at the peak of his post-Easy Rider fame), and possibly the very first L.A. screening of Roland Klick’s 1983 post-punk gem White Star in its original uncut version!”

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Too old to go out for a night on the town and check out what the cool kids are up to these days? Got children and can’t make it to the weekend’s nightly openings and events? Yeah, you know who you are. Fortunately for you the MOCA has just what you need as they give back to LA with their (free!) Big Family Day.

From the MOCA:

“Don’t miss Big Family Day, MOCA’s biggest family celebration of the year, featuring entertainment, art-making activities, and student docents from the museum’s Contemporary Art Start program discussing Collection: MOCA’s First Thirty Years. Everyone is welcome!

Special Guests:
826LA
CAD
The GRAMMY Museum® at L.A. Live
Music Center
Room 13 LA
Trudl Zipper Dance Institute at The Colburn School

Live Entertainment:
Quarteto Nuevo
Student Folkloric Dance Performance
Tap Dance Performance
Theater Arts Academy Drama Presentatio”

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With Jeffrey Deitch moving to Los Angeles to become the new director of the MOCA effective June 1st, the ubiquitous Shepard Fairey has been tapped to close out New York’s famed Deitch Projects with his latest show titled, May Day.

His work already known and seen everywhere by just about everyone in the world, Shepard has stepped it up these past few years as he starred in our film Beautiful Losers, helped create a pop art icon with his Obama imagery, is the only street artist to have his work hanging in the Smithsonian, gone to war with the Associated Press and most recently starred in Banksy’s doc Exit Through the Gift Shop (coverage here).

But these days you can find Shepard hitting the streets of New York, and hitting them hard as seen in his piece on the infamous Houston and Bowery Street corner (via the always amazing Arrested Motion). If you’re in the New York area it’s a must that you check out Shepard whether it be at the last Deitch show (which is history in itself) or inevitably on the streets (where his own rich history was created).

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Dancing, fighting, opening, auctioning, speaking, signing, arting. Many a great things happening this weekend, but for me and my Friday the 13th birthday weekend, the best present I can receive would be an exciting Manny Pacquiao victory. Hope you have a fun filled Filipino weekend!

• The weekend begins with a Friday the 13th full of Wonder as New York’s DJ Spinna and Bobbito bring their traveling Stevie Wonder tribute to Hollywood with Wonder-Full LA4 at The Vanguard.

• Giant Robot boldly follows Deth P. Sun’s lead as his melancholy cat-like characters come to LA in his new solo show Please Be Brave at GR2 on Sawtelle.

• Juxtapoz celebrates their 15th year of existence by throwing The Big Payback, a group art show and charity auction held in conjunction with Upper Playground and Power House Project of Detroit at the Factory Place Arts Complex in downtown LA. Proceeds from the auction will support the goal of purchasing five homes and employing local Detroit contractors, electricians, plumbers, and carpenters to perform the renovations. See the pieces by some of the urban art world’s best being auctioned off on Juxtapoz.com and bid on them at Charitybuzz.com.

• The main event of the weekend for fight fans and Filipinos everywhere: Manny Pacquiao fights Miguel Cotto for the Welterweight championship and a record setting seventh title. Nike Sportswear graciously hosts the fight at the Montalbán Theater in Hollywood. RSVP required.

• Spend Sunday with Family, the extraordinarily eclectic bookstore on Fairfax that is, as they host a very special speaking and signing engagement with Spike Jonze to celebrate the release of Heads On & We Shoot a “unique collaboration behind Where the Wild Things Are-the combined work of Maurice Sendak, Spike Jonze, Dave Eggers, and all the cast and crew.”

• And finally a weeks worth of free admission to the MOCA and the Geffen Contemporary as they both open their doors to bring their acclaimed collection of postwar art to the community with complimentary admission during the opening week of Collection: MOCA’s First Thirty Years.

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Oh how I long to be one of the many thousands of lucky nerds in San Diego for Comic-Con (still can’t believe I’ve never been, I fear my dork credibility may be in jeopardy!) Fortunately there are many a happening around Los Angeles to take your mind off all the geeky goodness we’re missing out on.

• With that being said, allow me to start with a few events at Comic-Con for those who made the trek down the 405 freeway:

Artist signings by Mark Ryden, Joe Ledbetter, James Jean, The Pizz, Scott Musgrove, Ron English, and Travis Louie for Last Gasp Publishing.

James Jean (again), David Choe, and David Horvath for Giant Robot.

And a Tim and Eric sighting at their very own con of the awesome variety, appropriately called Awesome Con!

• Wayne White (one of my favorite typographists) and Exene Cervenka fly their way over to the Western Project Gallery in Culver City with their two person show, We Are Not the Jetset.

• Stick around Culver City for a three person show featuring some Heavy Petting with David Burke, Riddles In the Dark with Mia, and Keep It Down with guest artist Sarah Folkman at the Corey Helford Gallery.

• Don’t leave Culver City just yet cause the Scion Installation Space opens up it’s place for the 2009 Vice Magazine Photography Exhibition featuring Jamie Lee Curtis Taete, Maggie Lee, and former Vice photo editor, Tim Barber.

• Cinespia presents The Muppet Movie at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, need I say more?

• Recoup on Sunday and take an Urban Hike through Little Tokyo with the Architecture and Design Museum Los Angeles.

• Spread your wings and fly to the MOCA’s Pacific Design Center on Melrose for an art talk with Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues whose installation Feathered Edge: A New Installation by Ball-Nogues Studio is currently on view and features “over 21 miles of colored strings configured in catenary curves span the gallery space to form a dynamic environment.”

• And finally, end your weekend on a “high” note (yeah, that’s right I said it) with Cheech and Chong’s classic Up in Smoke at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

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Master painter/sculptor/Kanye West inspirer, Takashi Murakami continues his collaborations with Louis Vuitton with the Multicolor Spring Pallete collection. And to commemorate their latest pairing, Murakami has released the trailer for his animated short film entitled Superflat First Love. Premiering April 28th, 2009, Superflat First Love is the follow up to the Superflat Monogram project Murakami created with LV back in 2003. For now you can feast your eyes on the 15 second trailer which doesn’t say too much yet. But like all Murakami’s work, animated or otherwise, be prepared for something bold and beautiful.

More Murakami from his legendary show at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles :

And just for kicks, here’s Murakami’s Inochi, (my favorite robo-alien-horny Japanese kid) :

And don’t forget about Kaikai & KiKi!

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