Brandon Burke

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.

That link didn't work for me but I trust you. The Amazon site (or maybe it was Tower) has it listed but still under the 2001 release date, so they may simply have the same one up from years ago. The same one that went OOP. I'm simply dying to get this thing. I bought the other two way back when but blew off M. Hulot simply because I'd seen it so many times, didn't assume it was in danger of going OOP, and was more excited to see the others. Lesson learned. Anyways, thanks. I prefer to buy from my local retailer rather than online. Their prices are the same. I like these guys. And, once shipping is factored in, it's all the same. More importantly......I've got credit there. B) Lastly, I suggest you see this film ASAP. One of my all time faves without question. Who knew that the sound of a kitchen door opening and closing ["thoomp....thoomp.....thoomp...."] could serve as the focal point of a comedy? Brilliant.......

Has anyone bought M. Hulot's Holiday (or even seen it) since it was reissued on the 6th? I've seen Mon Oncle and Playtime on my local shelves but no one seems to have M. Hulot. I'm wondering if it was delayed for some reason or another. Thanks, b.

Listened to some samples of this on tower.com today. I can already tell I'm gonna LOVE it. Thanks for the info.

Coincidentally, Stop Making Sense DVD is the darling of the Hi-Fi expos. Seems like every company making high end a/v gear has one to show during their presentations. 'cause it IS damn good! I'm not interested in whether or not is sounds great on $10,000 theatre systems. $10,000?! Where you been, boy? It takes more than that these days. Way more. Poor and in graduate school, my man. B) Either way, point taken. I hear ya.

Oops. Goofed on that one. I guess I made the assumption that it was a continued narrative simply based on the fact that the added material on the reissue was indeed slipped into various spots within the original order.

Nope, the original release of the Stop Making Sense LP/CD/VHS only had a portion of the entire show. The latest reissue (the one from a couple of years ago) includes several extra songs interspersed (sp?) between the 'orignial' ones. This is to say, placed where they actually ocurred, with respct to the evening's proceedings, instead of tacked on as bonus material at the end.

Coincidentally, Stop Making Sense DVD is the darling of the Hi-Fi expos. Seems like every company making high end a/v gear has one to show during their presentations. 'cause it IS damn good! I'm not interested in whether or not is sounds great on $10,000 theatre systems. I'm sure it probably does but, then again, so do Jerry Bruckheimer movies so that doesn't say anything to me. I simply don't care for the song selection on Stop Maksng Sense. I would rather have heard "Mind", "Cities", "Animals", "Warning Sign", "Born Under Punches", etc.

Well.......it's about damned time. Totally baffling to me why this was never issued on CD before. The two sets isseud on The Name of this Band is... are much better than Stop Making Sense in my opinion. I won't be buying a copy since I have the LP but it's certainly good news for CD buyers.

Yes, the original cover pictured (as an insert) there looks very familiar. We had it at the archive but it never occurued to me to put it on. Oops....

Thanks.

I understand that this is a silly question but can someone please tell me the proper title of this release and who issued it? This is the third time in a month that it has come up in conversation and I'm beginning to get curious. Especially, since Hassan (apparently) played in a style not unlike Elmo Hope. Thanks as always.

I hate to be a stick-in-the-mud but I have a really hard time with these guys. Funny because I rather like King Crimson and specifically the era indicated above (Red, Larks Tounge in Aspic, etc). Come to think of it, those are the only two King Crimson records I like...... Anyways, Tool seems to be going for a dark and brooding "insane asylum" aesthetic that doesn't affect me the way I think it's supposed to. The whole thing seems kind of silly and gives me the impression that they take themselves reeeeally seriously. This is to take nothing away from their competence as musicians, mind you.

Been OOT. But now I'm back (to let you know I can really shake 'em down). Check your PMs. B.

I haven't heard A Second Coming in quite a while but I do enjoy his first one.

Seems to me that it would be nice and cheap for Capitol to license the rights to sought after OOP Blue Note sessions like True Blue, etc over the online iTunes server with very little overhead. Does anyone else see this happening? Why? Why not? As far as I can tell, it's a win/win situation any way you look at it.

You may have also noticed that nearly every hard bop or Blue Note title features Leapin' and Loapin' and True Blue as recommendations. Great records of course but......

This is what I have. I'm not typically a Sony man but this thing is virtually indestructable. The snap-on lid is secure. It's water-proof. And the skip protection is great. I'd pretty much have to go out of my way to make it skip. In fact, it even comes with a hand-strap for jogging, which tell you something right there. Here's the Best Buy link.