The LAT reports today that Murakami, the "Japanese Warhol" and low-culture recycler who was received like a rock star at last year's MOCA retrospective, is leasing 9,000 square feet on N. Highland Ave. for his West Coast outpost. He and about 30 employees will commence blowing your mind with variations on Murakami's celebrated cheer-mutants KaiKai and Kiki, who will reportedly receive a feature-length treatment as the artist's housewarming gift to himself:

"Animation and film have always been among my greatest influences, ever since I first saw Star Wars and Hayao Miyazaki's films," Murakami said in a statement. "This studio represents a great step in the evolution of Kaikai Kiki and gives me a closer proximity to the community of artists with whom I hope to collaborate as I continue my explorations of animated and live-action film."

Got it, tipsters? When you see that inevitable Craigslist ad anonymously soliciting interns for "Massive Scatological Adventures in Watermelon-Husbandry," it's just Murakami. Send the link our way anyway; he's a neighbor worth keeping tabs on.

• Murakami animation studio coming to L.A. [LAT]

New York City Opera has commissioned Charles Wuorinen to compose an opera based on Annie Proulx's short story "Brokeback Mountain," which was adapted into the 2005 film.

Slated to premiere in the 2013 spring season, the work will be Pulitzer-winning composer Wuorinen's second commission for City Opera, following the 2004 premiere of "Haroun and the Sea of Stories," based on the Salman Rushdie novel.

While five years seems practically an eternity to wait for Jack Twist's angelic tenor and Ennis del Mar's more dominant baritone to serenade us with such masterful arias as, "You Know I Ain't Queer (Me Neither)," "You Need to Shut Your Slop-Bucket Mouths, You Hear Me?," and "Up On Brokeback Mountain," we'd remind you that great art is always a time-consuming process. It will all be worth it when we're finally seated in the audience on the night of the work's world premiere, experiencing the full fury of a 300-person choir singing the "Carmina Burana"-esque climax accompanying Ennis's fateful first "taking" of Jack in their hillside pup-tent.

• 'Brokeback Mountain' takes to stage [Variety]