Awesome Los Angeles

The Cure’s original drummer Lol Tolhurst, Siouxsie & the Banshees’ drummer Budgie, and producer Jacknife Lee teamed up and have an album on the way. The rhythmic title track, Los Angeles, just dropped and features vocals by LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy. Stream the single or pre-order the album now. Video by John Liwag. (Thanks, Christian!)

NASS took archival footage from Los Angeles and used digital restoration tech to sharpen, brighten, remove noise, increase frame rate, and add faux colorization. It’s a wonderful time capsule of life in a different era, from how people dressed to the cars they drove to how retailers marketed their wares. The footage comes from the Prelinger Archives.

As of today, it’s been 37 years since Back to the Future premiered. Movie fan and world traveler Matthias Schwarzer headed to Los Angeles, California, on a mission to find some of the movie’s original filming locations and see how they have changed over the years. We love how the McFly’s house looks pretty much the same.

Photographer Joerg Daiber has taken us on some eye-opening journeys around the globe. Now take a virtual vacation a little closer to home with this time-lapse, tilt-shift, aerial footage of the City of Angels. Ravel’s Boléro serves as the perfect musical accompaniment to the bustle of the big city.

Combining time-lapse, hyper-lapse, and some more experimental post-production techniques, FilmSpektakel takes us on a fast-paced trip to Southern California. They captured over 155,000 photos and spent 64 days editing the footage to produce the short film you see here. Learn more about the production at Time Lapse Magazine.

As if the pandemic isn’t scary enough, paranormal fans will soon be able to enter the Upside Down at Stranger Things: The Drive-Into Experience. In October 2020, Downtown L.A. will become 1985 Hawkins, Indiana for a trippy one-hour road trip (in your own car for safe distancing) through the Starcourt Mall, Russian Labs, and more.

In Japanese art, there’s a process called Kintsugi, a mending method which uses a mix of resin and gold powder to repair objects, accentuating the repair, rather than hiding it. Paying tribute to this tradition, artist Victor Solomon renovated a South L.A. basketball court using a similar method to fill in cracks in the court.

It seems as if every year, the number of backyard fireworks displays on July 4th increases exponentially, and in 2020, things have been truly insane. Using aerial footage captured by KTLA’s Sky5 chopper, editor Mike Dent turned Los Angeles into a scene right out of Blade Runner. The only thing missing is the Tyrell Corporation HQ.

The basement beneath L.A.’s Petersen Automotive Museum holds one of the world’s greatest private collections: a treasure trove of 250+ iconic and rare cars, trucks, and motorcycles that few visitors ever see. For the first time, you can sign up for free (donations welcome) 60-minute live-stream tours of their exclusive vault.

Driving around Los Angeles, it’s nearly impossible to miss the many diners, car washes, and other buildings with their kitschy and angular retro-futurist looks. Cheddar explains the origins of so-called “Googie” architecture, and why it became so popular.

Gareth Smith & Jenny Lee’s enchanting video observes Los Angeles from a new perspective. Watch in awe as dancer-choreographer Jason Chong appears to dance across the city’s overhead power lines. Now before you go calling the power company, the illusion was done using VFX trickery by Smith and Theo Alexopoulos.

Motocross freeriders Robbie Maddison and Tyler Bereman avoid Los Angeles traffic by hopping onto their dirt bikes, and heading off of the freeway, popping wheelies through the city, and pulling impressive stunts through its iconic viaducts. The apex being an epic 46-foot jump into the L.A. River from the 1st Street Bridge.

Photographer Chris Pritchard’s vibrant time-lapse film takes us inside of one of the world’s busiest airports. If you’ve ever traveled through Los Angeles International, you know it’s a sort of organized chaos that moves an incredible 63 million people per year through its terminals and gates. Looks amazing in 4K if your display supports it.

The New Yorker traveled to the West coast to put together this clip, which does its best to compare the exact locations shot in 1940s stock footage of Los Angeles to the same places in modern times. Progress is great, but it’s kind of sad to see how little remains.

BeyondSlowMotion’s beautiful camerawork makes freerunner Daniel Illabaca look like he’s truly weightless as he runs, jumps, hurdles and dangles his way through the streets, alleyways and bridges of Los Angeles.

Photographer Gavin Heffernan’s time-lapse film offers a frenetic look at life at night in Los Angeles. We especially love the bright lights and motion in the driving sequences, whether viewed from inside of a car or high above the roads below.