[Tokolosh]

 

This is a must have!!

Celebrated internationally for more than 30 years, and recently screened as part of the "Day for Night" program at the 2006 Whitney Biennial, Ira Cohen's legendary 1968 film The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda is finally available as a fully restored and mastered director's cut DVD.

DVD FEATURES
* High-quality transfer from the original 16mm film, with color correction supervised by the director

* The legendary soundtrack, newly remastered by Tim Barnes, featuring The Universal Mutant Repertory Company (Loren Standlee, Ziska Baum, Angus MacLise, Raja Samayana, Tony Conrad, Henry Flynt and Jackson MacLow)

* Two new, never-before-released alternative soundtracks to "Invasion" by Sunburned Hand of the Man and Acid Mothers Temple SWR (Tsuyama Altsushi, Yoshida Tatsuya and Kawabata Makoto)

* 16-page commemorative booklet featuring mylar photography and poetry by Ira Cohen and Angus MacLise, and critical texts by Ian Macfadyen and Allan Graubard

* "Brain Damage," a new film directed by Ira Cohen and produced by BASTET created from never-before-seen original 16mm outtakes, featuring a new soundtrack composed by Will Swofford with the Expanded Instrument System

* "From The Mylar Chamber," an original slideshow of 60 mylar photographs with soundtrack by Angus MacLise and original poetry by Ira Cohen.

* Director's Commentary track by Ira Cohen

ABOUT "INVASION"...
"Long, Strange Trip for a Hypnotic Film": New York Times on the making of the film and DVD

"Underground film maker, poet, photographer and multimedia shaman Ira Cohen has finally realised his 1968 masterpiece on DVD."--Edwin Pouncey in The Wire (Sept. 2006)

J. Hoberman in the Mar. 16, 2006 Village Voice: "Part 'Dr. Strange,' part 'Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome,' ['The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda' is] so High '60s that you emerge from its 20-minute vision perched full-lotus on a cloud of incense, chatting with a white rabbit and smoking a banana.... 'Invasion' is a languidly opiated costume ball in which an assortment of masked and painted bohos, some sporting outsize elf ears, loll about a candlelit, Mylar-lined set, blowing soap bubbles and nibbling majoon. ...In lieu of action, Cohen uses all manner of superimposition and prismatic image-splitting; his big effect, however, is the deliquescent Mylar reflection. What saves 'Invasion' from preciosity is the vague menace of Angus MacLise's improvised pan-piping, tabla-tapping, creature-yipping score. Although this masterpiece of Tibetan-Moroccan-Druidic trance music was reissued on CD several years ago, it truly blossoms in conjunction with the exotic smorgasbord served at Cohen's psychedelicatessen."

Ira Cohen: "It was in 1968, the year before Woodstock, between the giant bottle of liquid mercury Tony Conrad found in a doorway on 42nd St. and the Mylar chamber, we experienced a shared voyage conceived in three parts: The Opium Dream, Shaman and Heavenly Blue Mylar Pavilions, an alchemical journey born of out common consciousness -- culminating in the akashic bindu drop swirling in the sky's reflected azure. No minimalism here, but a maximalist adventure . . ."

http://www.arthurmag.com/store/dvds.php

[porkmarras]

I'll sure get that.

[sonicl]

There's an article on Ira Cohen in the September issue of The Wire, and a clip from The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda at their website HERE

[Bunbury]

i watched some of this last night, it was amazing.
and perfect for the type that dabbles in mild hallucinogens.


anyone a fan of his poetry?

 

[king_buzzo]

Anyways, ^Mahmoud Mokhtar is this really annoying kid in this school, He was sitting next to the guy who posted that^^^and he saw him registering. It was kinda funny

[Bunbury]

 

"preview" on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOWWhPzkwL8

[jon boy]

sunburned performed to it in berlin and it was amazing!

[cryptowonderdruginvogue]

 

[!@#$%!]

i tried buying this off the arthur site and it was sold out.

then arthur went under and i foresee no reissues.

i think in cases like this piracy is not a crime but an ethical duty, right?

[floatingslowly]

I don't know....anything with the words "thunderbolt pagoda" in it MUST be crap.

right?

[floatingslowly]

one of these days, I'm going to be murdered in my sleep after attempting to be hatefully funny***.





*** funny = funny to me.

[floatingslowly]

I was mostly talking to myself.

my motivations were purely satanic, and involved an attempt to make savage colonic not feel like he's a rockstar 'n stuff.

it was bad form, I know that now.

"so long, and thanks for all the fish".

[floatingslowly]

Originally Posted by Nefeli

although am more of a hotpinkpurple person meself, gotta to admit that red looks sooo good with the blue from this screem am at the moment.

yeah, it makes my eyebulbs freak out.

Originally Posted by Nefeli

satanic=unknown word to my system.

although I'm made of metal, I have horns and a tail.

Originally Posted by Nefeli

savagie likes to eat fish?

if by "eat" you mean "shove up his butt / poop into glass", then yes.

Originally Posted by Nefeli

ew.

4 SRSLY.

Originally Posted by Nefeli

am gonna go steal some proper food, ciao.

it's not illegal if you don't get caught.

[nicfit]

uh, we have the white stripes on the board, heh?

[floatingslowly]

Originally Posted by nicfit

uh, we have the white stripes on the board, heh?

in case you are wondering, that's NOT ME in that video.

[Savage Clone]

I am impervious to your slings and arrows.