Courtesy of Gallery 1988

Infinite Bounty by N.C. Winters

​In "Abandoned Menagerie," open at Gallery 1988 through April 7, artist N.C. Winters delves deep into his childhood memory for a series of pieces based on pop culture figures of the 1980s. The Carlsbad-based artist paints characters from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Gremlins, The Muppets, Super Mario Brothers and more in dark, rich colors. One of the show's standout works, though, is an unusual mash-up of Star Wars and My Little Pony. Infinite Bounty depicts a genderbent Boba Fett. The bounty hunter's helmet peeks out of a rose and she is dressed in a red, Victorian-inspired dress with a cluster of My Little Pony figures springing from her lap.

Before you start shouting, "Brony!," it's important to note that Winters is unfamiliar both with the recent series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and the Brony phenomenon. The presence of the candy-colored ponies in this painting is based strictly on his recollections of the original toys. His goal was to connect the sweetness of My Little Pony with the original action-packed Star Wars trilogy.

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​Have you seen that video of the dogs barking the Darth Vader song? Chances are, if you have a pulse and an Internet connection, you have. The viral video is a teaser for a Volkswagen Super Bowl commercial, so yes, that makes it a commercial for a commercial.

It's bold new territory for advertising companies, who now acknowledge what many Super Bowl viewers suspect: The commercials are the best part. To find out more about this viral hit, we spoke with music video and commercial director Keith Schofield. He's the man behind the Duck Sauce human-heads-on-crotches, Wintergreen's "How to Make Meth," Diesel XXX Safe for Work Porn, Fat Boy Slim's Censored Naked party videos and more.

We talked with Keith about the making of the video, dog whisperers, canine erections and the key elements for directors who want to make a video go viral.

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A fully functioning hoverboard...y'know...for the kids

​Local memorabilia-selling powerhouse, Profiles in History did another one of their epic auctions this weekend at the Paley Media Center in Beverly Hills -- and the nerds cleaned house. Again.

Compared to Debbie Reynolds' series of show-stopping auctions this year, this one was a quiet affair...there was a maximum of thirty people (including Profiles' staff) in the room at any one time...at least on Friday...and we're not sure of the internet numbers. All we know is that we wanted to be there to get our hands on something cool and maybe snag a pair of Vincent Price's shoes as an X-Mas present for the classic movie lover in their lives.

While the auction, true to its "Icons of Hollywood" name, included a wide variety of items from all ages, genres, and importance of cinema history -- including some head-scratchers (Gidget Goes to Rome title art? WTF?). There were photos, storyboards, swords, costumes, cars, a few actual space suits, two hoverboards, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Sure, there were some ruby slippers that were in that one movie...and the dress to match...but the most interesting section of the auction auction block, and the most bizarrely completist, was the Back to the Future item block.

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Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. A world record. Thanks to Debbie Reynolds.

​Who knew Debbie Reynolds was the gatekeeper of all things Hollywood? And who knew that Debbie Reynolds had anything to do with Star Wars ? (Okay, okay, aside from the fact that her daughter starred in it... that's coincidental.)

And who knew that anything from Star Wars: Episode IV was even available to collect anymore? I would have thought all the Star Wars geeks... er, enthusiasts in the world had eaten up everything left from the original shoot at this point. Not so, my friends.

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Liz Ohanesian

This is Melvis. He's a robot made with an old Elvis animatronic head.

​Shortly after 2:30 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, a small conference room in the basement of the LAX Marriott filled to the brim. The science fiction fans attending this year's Loscon crowded together in tightly packed seats for a discussion of the life and work of Philip K. Dick led by noted authors Tim Powers (The Anubis Gates) and Jerry Pournelle.

Dick, who died in 1982, is one of the most easily recognizable names in science fiction. His novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was adapted for the big screen as Blade Runner. Films like Total Recall, Minority Report and A Scanner Darkly are also based on his work. But we weren't in this room for a discussion of film. Inside the panel, the focus was literature.

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"Myths, Monsters, and Legends,"the newest show at Rankin L.A., is the obvious product of two good friends completely enjoying themselves -- if the two friends were super famous millionaire artists whose idea of a good time was to dress up a supermodel in enough prosthetic make-up so that she looked like a Wookiee with perfect breasts.

In fact, the collaboration between Rankin, a photographer known primarily for his celebrity portraits, and Damien Hirst, a conceptual artist known for suspending dead animals in formaldehyde, makes perfect sense. Alike in age, working class British backgrounds, artistic education, and, quite frankly, close enough in looks to be related, the two men have experienced a near simultaneous trajectory of success.

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Timothy Norris

Lucha VaVoom

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Our 300-page, 400-item, perfect-for-your-coffee-table Best of L.A. issue is on newsstands today, and it also comes with our very own (and very free) "Best of" app to tell you about all the Best of L.A. locations near wherever you are.

To give you a preview, here are five kick-ass pop culture meccas that every Angeleno should know about.

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Liz Ohanesian

​On the Saturday before the one-hour premiere of season 4 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, we headed to Long Beach's Aquarium of the Pacific for a special screening of the first two episodes, "Water War" and "Gungan Attack." The location may seem odd for a show set in a "galaxy far, far away," but it wasn't, as the Ahsoka and the rest are heading underwater for the start of the season known as "Battle Lines." We won't give away too many details about the episodes, but what happened at Saturday's event is a good indication of what you can expect.

The screening, unlike the actual television broadcast, was show in 4D. As part of the 4D experience, the theater was cold in a misty, windy sort of way. There were times when we were splashed lightly with water and lights flickered to mimic explosions. Outside of the theater, there was an aquarium show that featured divers fighting with lightsabers. If you're a fan of The Clone Wars, you will be in for a treat this week.

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L.J. Williamson

Only imperial stormtroopers are so precise.

​ Is there any venture that can't profit from a Star Wars tie-in, no matter how tenuous the connection?

Despite the goofiness factor of zoo-hosted "educational" talks about topics like the similarities between koalas and ewoks (Um... they're both fictional? No. They both carry spears? Wrong again. They both have fur? Ding ding ding!), nothing stopped excited children and fanboys alike from stacking into long lines, starting at the Zoo Drive offramp, at the L.A. Zoo's Star Wars day to snap photos with even bigger fanboys and girls than themselves, including members of costuming groups 501st Legion and Rebel Legion.

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Tags:

darth vader, ewok, george lucas, han solo, los angeles zoo, princess leia, star wars, Stormtrooper

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced yesterday that James Earl Jones will receive an honorary Oscar this year. For many tinseltown pundits, an honorary Oscar is the equivalent of an over-the-pants-hand-job -- a mere token gesture -- for decades of hard work. While we suppose the honorary Oscar is nothing to sneeze at, shouldn't he, as Peter O'Toole quipped about his own Honorary, "still win the bugger outright?"

We hope so. At least now Mr. Jones is one award shy of the much-coveted EGOT...let's just get him a Grammy and call it a day...jeeze...even Al Gore has a Grammy now.

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