Ethic Soup

Dennis Hopper Still Hangs in his Venice Neighborhood: A Memorial Mural Goes Up

Dennis Hopper Mural in Venice, CA, by Artists Madsteez and MAR

 

The most recent news featuring the late Dennis Hopper is a memorial mural in Venice, CA., where he was a neighborhood fixture. Two local artists, Madsteez and MAR, recently completed a mural to commemorate Hopper in the beach community.

A MEMORIAL COLLABORATION

Madsteez, who had  previously painted a Hopper portrait, pictured below, agreed to the collaborative project suggested by MAR as an homage to Hopper's legacy as a long time, loved resident in Venice.

"We heard 1,000's of comments while painting this piece but the one that means the most was when an older gentleman walked up and matter-of-factly said, 'It's about time,' " reports the LAist. You can view a video of the mural being painted on the Madsteez website. 

 

A Poem for Elizabeth Taylor's Passing

 

At the funeral of Elizabeth Taylor, her friend, actor Colin Farrell read   from Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem, "The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo," which includes the lines "Give beauty back, beauty, beauty, beauty, back to God, beauty's self and beauty's giver."

In this poem, Hopkins echoed the Bible verse that every hair of our head is numbered. Matthew 10:30 says "And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows."

An English Jesuit priest, Hopkins (1844-1889) was renowned for his creative use of language and rhythm. For example, this passionate phrase: "Or a jaunting vaunting vaulting assaulting trumpet telling."

In the New York Review of Books, Brad Leithauser said: "Of the English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins it might be said that he's difficult only if you try to understand him. A reader might reasonably choose not to."

I agreed with him on my first reading of the poem, read silently to myself. And then I found an absolutely wonderful tape of Richard Burton -- the man Elizabeth Taylor married twice -- reading the poem. His reading was brilliant, breathtaking. And I understood, and was moved.

Death Takes Elizabeth Taylor: "Beauty Back, Beauty, Beauty, Beauty, Back to God"

 

AND SO IT BEGINS...the legend Elizabeth Taylor, whom many claim was one of the most beautiful women in the world, died just two weeks ago. Now, as the world says goodbye, the greedy buggers begin cashing-in on her death. Not that many didn't use her great beauty to make money before, but now it's a whole new game. 'Hot damn. Let's make some money. She's dead now.'

They forget, or don't want to acknowledge: you can't take it with you -- not your beauty, not your money.

BEAUTY'S SYMBOL FOR MILLIONS

Now, just days after Taylor's death, arrangements have been made by financier Steve Jones to auction-off his Andy Warhol portrait of Elizabeth Taylor. The 1963 silkscreen picture "Liz #5 "(pictured above), will be auctioned at Phillips de Pury in New York on May 12. It's expected to fetch $20 million to $30 million, according to the Financial Times.

Another Warhol portrait of Taylor, "The Men in Her Life," from 1962, stunned dealers when it was sold, at the same auction house, for $63.4 million last year. 

His Last Request: Dennis Hopper is Buried in Indian Burial Mound of Rocks

Dennis Hopper was buried yesterday. His grave, pictured above, is a mound of rocks and stone -- Hopper's final resting place, not the usual for a Hollywood star, a legend.

But it's believed that this was Hopper's final request, to rest in an American Indian-style burial mound, in the Jesus Nazareno Cemetery in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico. Hopper lived in Ranchos de Taos for 12 years.

It's a very unassuming grave for a man who for years lived large and whose behavior was often outrageously attention-getting.

His coffin is also humble, a simple wood coffin.

The actor's son, Henry Lee Hopper, pictured below with his dad, drew tears from many attending the funeral service, which included Jack Nicholson and Val Kilmer, as he read from Walt Whitman's collection of poems, Leaves Of Grass.

Following the service, at the chapel of the historic San Francisco de Asis church,the casket was taken away in a funeral procession, when the rumbles of half a dozen motorcycles could be heard in the distance -- in memory of his performance in the classic film Easy Rider.

In tribute to Dennis Hopper, we include some of Walt Whitman's poetry below, following the portrait of Dennis Hopper and his son Henry Lee Hopper by artist Jack R. Smith.