And then there was this...


Product Description (via Amazon)

Among the extras included in this collector’s box is previously unseen footage, a feature on the restoration process, an exclusive interview with Jodorowsky, optional director commentary tracks, subtitles, two special CDs of the films’ soundtracks and a separate DVD of the first film ever made by Jodorowsky, La Cravate.

EL TOPO:
-Original theatrical trailer- English V.O.
-2006 on camera interview with Jodorowsky (Language English/English subtitles)
-Photo Gallery/Original script excerpts
-Exclusive interview with Alejandro Jodorowsky

THE HOLY MOUNTAIN
- Deleted scenes with director commentary (Language: Spanish with optional EN, SP, FR & BR PORT subtitles)
- Original theatrical trailer -English V.O
- The Tarot short with director commentary (Language: Spanish with optional EN, SP, FR & BR PORT subtitles)
- Restoration process short (Original Language English)
- Photo Gallery / Original Script excerpts
- Restoration Credits

FANDO Y LIS
-La Constellation Jodorowsky documentary
-Original language French and English Stereo

TWO AUDIO CDS
- El Topo soundtrack
- The Holy Mountain soundtrack

---> Says I: Incredible! Had this a few months now, and the print quality of everything, especially "Holy Mountain" and "El Topo," is stunning. My old bootlegs are permanent coasters. Essential stuff for all weirdnicks who live from the other side of the mirror. The two soundtracks are amazing as well.

Here's an interesting little interview with Yoko Ono, where she discusses her and John Lennon's appreciation for "El Topo."

And this...


Fabulous 2-DVD SPECIAL EDITION (or something)

Official street date on this thing is August 14th. No idea how it will play on smaller screens, but in the theater it made for one of the most singular film experiences of my life, no exaggeration. Truly disturbing and darkly hypnotic every step up that rickety surrealist staircase.

What else?

I loved RESCUE DAWN. Christian Bale, Steve Zahn and Jeremy Davies (channeling a shell-shocked Charles Manson) deliver the performances of their careers. Even more fascinating though is here is a movie, made by a German currently residing in Los Angeles, about a German who considers himself an American through and through, and the guy--Dieter Dengler--just happens to embody all that is good about AMOREICA! What kind of asshole makes an apolitical Vietnam war movie that in the end somehow manages to be pro-American and pro-immigration during "the darkest chapter" (I mean NOW not THEN) in American history? An unpredictable one. We need more Werner Herzogs in this country.

Rest In Peace

AMBER
1992-2007
(on the right with her sister Charlie in younger days). Amber sighed her last breath with a droning purr and soft squinting eyes. Her sister's still kicking, my oldest living feline relation.


INGMAR BERGMAN
1918-2007
This existential Swede was not always the easiest to understand, but his emotional directness is undeniable. I still have fond memories of watching "The Seventh Seal" for the first time alone in a dusty Austin apartment sometime near midnight well over a decade ago.


MICHELANGELO ANTONIONI
1912-2007
Antonioni lived a long time. Supposedly John Fahey decked him one night while they were eating dinner together. I'm not entirely sure if that's true, but it's one of my favorite stories of New America meets Old Europe antagonism. The scene in "Blow Up" when the photographer keeps blowing up the same photo over and over--that still gives me the shivers. The Yardbirds--seen rocking hard in the same film with the Jeff Beck/Jimmy Page twin-guitar-god-front--weren't too shabby either. And hey, "Zabriskie Point" may have sucked big ones, but WOW! Best slow-mo explosion finale EVER.


LEE HAZLEWOOD
1929-2007
The Prince of Debonair. The Maestro of Spoken Intro Cool. The Sultan of Dusted Lounge Boogie. Lee was one of the easiest oddball songwriters to fall for the very first time you heard him. His voice could've come from the Deep South, the Midwest, the West Coast... He seemed to embody America at its most relaxed and casually sedated, but he was never above anything. His response to the complexities of life was always just a few martini swigs away from bitter dejection, while still benefitting from the wisdom of hindsight. I have no idea if he was a swinger or or a socialist or a beat--probably a li'l of all of the above--but he was definitely a singer/songwriter cut from the rarest of cloths. Thanks for the mammories, Mr. Hazlewood.