October 22: The Wild Thing

Spike Jonze (Adam Spiegel), director of the films Being John Malkovitch, Adaptation, and Where the Wild Things Are, was born on this date in Rockville, Maryland in 1969. Jonze helped created the youth culture magazines Homeboy and Dirt while in high school, and made his mark as a video artist creating skateboard videos, advertisements, and music videos (with Bjork, the Beastie Boys, Weezer and others). MTV’s television series Jackass and Jackass: The Movie are also his brainchildren. Jonze has several alter egos, including “Richard Koufey,” the leader of the Torrance Community Dance Group, an urban troupe that performs in public spaces.

“I don’t want to differentiate between ‘this is work that I’m getting paid for’ and ‘this is work that I’m not getting paid for.’ It’s all the same.” —Spike Jonze

Michael Grier, one of the dancers, describes the making of Spike Jonze’s video for Fatboy Slim’s “Praise You” (includes footage of the live performance by the Torrance Community Dance Group at the MTV Video Music Awards):