Brandon Burke

I totally agree.

I tend to think of CDs as surrogates for nice LP copies. This is to say: yes. I will not hesitate to replace a CD with a decent vinyl copy.

Good point. I didn't mean to give the impression that I fork over for Mitsuis at home. I would if it were some important stuff that I wanted to archive (like Lon mentioned above). For everyday home use I buy Memorex CD-Rs at Target.

Mitsui Golds are the accepted standard for the storage of digital media (music, text, etc) on disc. Most archives and audio preservation labs use them.

I sure hope they do. Two things: 1. The (US) DVD was a Criterion in the first place. 2. They already said on their website that the Tati reissues would be straight reissues of the earlier copies. This is not a problem as Hulot includes the celebrated short Jour de Fete as well as other stuff. And the transfers are great.

I hate to be a stick-in-the-mud but I'm becoming increasingly wary of vinyl reissues by the day. I used to think that people who worried about whether or not it was from an analog source simply needed another hobby but....they're right. As it turns out, a vinyl repressing mastered by digital means results in a CD on vinyl. You're still at the mercy of samples-per-second. It's not the real thing. I don't give a damn what medium it's pressed on. It's just a series of snapshots of the original analog feed. NOTE: I've not seen the reissue vinyl of this particular release yet. It might be pressed from an analog master but I doubt it. Either way, the whole 180gm thing is a sham. Why bother, if it's just a CD pressed on vinyl. I don't mean to neglect the fact that Psychocandy--a great record!--is due for a better mastering job on CD or otherwise. That record got me through junior high!

I completely agree. GOLDMINE lists a mono copy of Jackie McLean Destination Out at all of $30 so we can conclude that they're way off. (And that's the most recent edition.) I bought one to catalog value for my insurance and ended up throwing it away in a matter of days.

I've been checking at Tower everyday (since it's on my route back to the bus stop) and they got it in sometime in the last three or four days. They hadn't had it prior to that. It didn't occur to me to check for the other two. Anyways, it's definately out. I done seed it m'self....

I forgot that the Smithsonian did that. So, I'm curious about the liners because there realy are no "original" liner notes. The ones on the LP are aren't terribly informative and there is no mention of personnel whatsoever. (By the way, Percy Heath is on it as well.) This begs the question, does Smithsomian/Folkways produce altogether new liner notes for (as yet) unreleased titles, just in case they get issued? I don't get it......

I realize that this thing has come up several times as a topic of discussion but I just finished burning off the LP for a buddy of mine and........damn it's good. Wow.

You'd be surprised how many people use this method. I'm certainly not endorsing it but I should point out that most folks don't simply dunk records in dishwater like it were a plate. For better or worse, they usually bother to keep water off of the label. Either way......

The Thrilla in Vanilla.

We had band practice during halftime. So I missed it as well. Either way, I'm certain that we would have either changed the channel or turned off the TV to go play croquet. I'm offended, more than anything else, by the amount of people who bothered to watch a damned Super Bowl halftime show in the first place. What a nightmare.....

I brought this up on another thread. Seems to me that making OOP catalog titles available through iTunes would be a very low-overhead way to make some cash.

The first volume (the black one) was the first box set I ever owned. It's brilliant.....obviously. The second (the blue one) is also great. By the time you get to the third, things had changed a bit. This is not to slight the quality of the tunes but if you're expecting what most folks understand to be the "Stax sound" you might be disapointed. Vol. 3 does have a great version of 'Starting All Over Again", though. Wait a minute......you only asked about Vol. 2. Yeah, it's great and that seems like a good price. I mean, hell, there's what nice CDs in there......? When I bought Vol. 1 new, however many years ago, I think it was just under $100. Can't speak to the current used market value. Do a "completed items" search on eBay and see what it goes for on there.

Here's a link to the ARSClist archives. I included both a link to December 2003 (a particularly busy one for cleaning solution talk) and the general page. ARSClist archives (December 2003) ARSClist archive index

The use of any alchohol whatsoever has been a hot topic on the Assoc for Recorded Sound Collections listserv for years. Many people are against the practice as it can be potentially harmful to PVC (the primary component in vinyl records).

I just saw Playtime like two days ago. It was definately reissued. Believe me. I pay attention to these things. Hi Brandon, It's very odd. I just looked at the Criterion New Release page, and Playtime is not listed, but Hulot's Holiday & Mon Oncle are listed. Playtime is also not listed under Coming Soon. I also just looked at Amazon, and the only copies of Playtime available are used copies of the original Criterion DVD - cheapest price is $75. My guess is that various copies of the previous DVD edition are being sold as used, because everyone is expecting that Criterion will soon be releasing the new version. Some could be in mint condition, as I think people bought up copies when Criterion announced that it would be going OOP, to sell later. Also, it is possible that that was an original release that has simply never sold. Hmmmm..... You're right. All I can say it that my local shop had "just sold one the other day" according to the guy at the counter. They had several copies of Mon Oncle sitting out and when I asked him if they had any Hulots he said it wasn't showing up in thier system but that indeed that had just sold a copy of Playtime. What does all of this mean? I have no idea.

Tati's big deal (esp. with the Hulot character) is man's realtionship with technology and modernism. Take Mon Oncle for example. You've got Hulot's apartment juxtaposed by the ultra-modern house his sister(?) lives in. You'll notice that there is an entirely different musical soundtrack for each environment. And this is to say nothing of the hideous sound that that fountain makes. The irony, of course, being that the purpose of a fountain is to beautify. Playtime's commentary on modernism is more pronounced and rather obvious. M. Hulot's Holiday--I should have started with this one--is focussed less on modernism and more on simple things like doors, folding chairs, automobiles and such. (Which, in their own way, are technology as well and I think Tati sought to point this out.) Check out this essay on Hulot's Holiday. It sums up Tati's aesthetic rather well. Yeah, I got all that, an dI get Ebert's points as well. Do I lose whatever credibility I have left if mention that I even see the huge influence that Tati had on the visual element of Jeryy Lewis' better directorial work? (maybe my friend ws right about the "French" thing) I get the "theory" of it all but I just haven't connected w/Tati. I guess this is one of those things where I'm doomed to be on the outside looking in. The recipe for an enjoyable evening: Get a bottle of red wine--I recommend the French rhone PERRIN both for its complexity and its affordability--sit back, and appreciete life through Tati's lens. Don't expect knee-slapping hilarity. That's not the point. Tati presents the comedy of 'the everyday'. You'll notice that his camera angles don't show any preference to the main character. In fact, despite Hulot, there are no main characters in any Tatil Hulot film. Just a seemingly random presentation of folks coping with technology. Don't forget: the Hulot character was never meant to understand that he was being funny. He has no idea that he's being filmed. He's just going about his business. It's almost documentary-like...... In my mind, that's the best way to go about absorbing the world that is Tati.

I just saw Playtime like two days ago. It was definately reissued. Believe me. I pay attention to these things.

So our department just got Panther the other day. I loaded it on my (audio) workstation and have subsequently lost some PT sessions. I can't figure out what happened. Somehow many of my 'audio files' have become diviorced from their corresponding sessions and when my Mac tries to "find them automatically" it is not successful. Other times, I have tried to drag 'audio files' into their appropriate folders and I get the same result. Has anyone else had this problem?

Tati's big deal (esp. with the Hulot character) is man's realtionship with technology and modernism. Take Mon Oncle for example. You've got Hulot's apartment juxtaposed by the ultra-modern house his sister(?) lives in. You'll notice that there is an entirely different musical soundtrack for each environment. And this is to say nothing of the hideous sound that that fountain makes. The irony, of course, being that the purpose of a fountain is to beautify. Playtime's commentary on modernism is more pronounced and rather obvious. M. Hulot's Holiday--I should have started with this one--is focussed less on modernism and more on simple things like doors, folding chairs, automobiles and such. (Which, in their own way, are technology as well and I think Tati sought to point this out.) Check out this essay on Hulot's Holiday. It sums up Tati's aesthetic rather well.

Yup, that's pretty much what I would have said. It's similar to the way I feel when I watch A Shot in the Dark or Dr. Strangelove. I seldom laugh out loud at those films either but would still call them brilliant and hilarious all the same.

I agree. Never owned any of his records but I think he's quite good. You should check out his interview on FRESH AIR. It's among the archived segments on their site so do a search. It's a good one and, if I remember right, he plays a song or two. If you like him I also suggest the FRESH AIR interview with Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields. They both have a quasi-Broadway thing going on. 69 Love Songs by the Magnetic Fields is an all-time fave.

My favorite band to emerge in the last four/five years is easliy The Clientele. Like the others mentioned, they have a "retro" sound as well but The Clientele goes more for a dreamy/psychedelic thing, which I can relate to much more than macho rock posturing. I especially adore their production style. In headphones, one can hear the vocal mic being potted up and down while everything else is muffled and hazy. Very true to the era and, more importantly, completely lacking in irony. I've heard quite enough of ironic music, thank you.... A Tower link w/ samples. The AMG page is unusually informative as well. Unfortunately, they have restructured their site so I can't include the link.