The First
Septiannual
Bel-Tiburon
El Topo Party!
In 2010 I wanted to do something really special and spontaneous for the Tiburon Art Festival.
One week before the fest, inspired by Alejandro Jodorowsky's book Psychomagic, I decided to watch his classic film El Topo for the first time in many years.
As I watched El Topo again, I couldn't help but notice that there were a number of distinct and highly unusual similarities between the town in the film and our own fair Bel-Tiburon...
And so it was born: The First Septiannual Bel-Tiburon El Topo Party!
Invitations were sent out and announcements were made around town. An emergency congress of the Belvedere-Tiburon Abalone and Absinthe Society was convened...
As the day's activities at the Tiburon Art Festival powered down for the evening, a screen and video player made their appearance in front of Elixir on Tiburon's magical Ark Row. The enchanting smells of absinthe and fresh searing abalone made their way into the cold dark Tiburon evening. A festival crowd was present from the Tiburon Peninsula, other parts of Marin County and the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Bewildered onlookers moved along to more comfortable and expected surroundings, but those who were called stayed for the experience.
El Topo is not for everyone. To the uninitiated, it can be a confusing and violent journey into a mystery that never resolves. The New York Times called El Topo "a secret rite of passage... [a film that] resembles not so much a well-made fiction as a prophetic book." Roger Ebert called it "a picaresque journey past the principal myths and symbols of human culture." Time Out New York called it "a cult object extraordinaire... sensual and unflagging... the last great movie of the 1960s." John Lennon called it his favourite film...
To understand El Topo is to delve into the esoteric, to go on a journey of a developing soul seeking mastery. On that journey one encounters many tests and pitfalls, illusions of the ego and artifacts of the mind. Yet none of that esoteric understanding is really necessary. El Topo teaches us by speaking directly in the symbolic language of the unconscious. For those who were present at Elixir on that evening, El Topo provided a context for a time, for what we were doing and was a singular antidote for our pretensions to art and Marin spirituality.
See you in 2024!
John Mini, M.S.C.M./ L.Ac.
