...or keep the preorders if you aren't concerned about special features, like myself. Unless they're only including dub tracks on the HVE versions, there's no reason I'm going to wait to spend $10-$15 more for these.

Aren't some new Criterions supposed to be announced today?

Hence the use of the word "might". I'm sure most criterion collectors would like to know this information.

Nobody has mentioned it so I will. Best . . . DVD. . . cover-art. . . EVER!

Holy fuck, is that Sean Phillips that did that art? I love that guys work, it's so cool that he did the art for this.

And what a phenomenal movie, I've only seen it once years ago. I will be buying the shit out of this.

Criterion is known for their fanciful transfers and superlative extras, why are they just putting out the film and nothing else? "The Red Balloon" is a childhood classic of mine, but why with Criterions' reputation are they just putting out the movie with a great, new transfer and nothing else? it seems like to make a quick buck and i would have thought that is everything Criterion is not.

scott1598, you can find the answer here:
http://www.criterion.com/blog/2008_0...36867574673418

well, that was a good read and the author really nicely put the reasons, but seemed to say a lot of big words for what i read as a money grab. he did say there were SE's of Red Ballon and the other for the Fall, right? so to put them out to this "broader" audience with just the movie at 34 minutes and another on the way is not what i thought Criterion was about.

Does anyone know where I can find the song "Dressed In Black" from "Blast of Silence" without the voiceover or the crowd noises? Was there ever a studio release of it? I think it's by Dean Sheldon, but I couldn't find much information.

Kory, I did some checking and it doesn't appear that a soundtrack was ever released for Blast of Silence, and Sheldon never appeared in another film or recorded an actual album (that I could find info on, at least).

I really liked his songs, too. :)

Dean Sheldon was one of the performers at the NYC Ethnologic Dance Center, a Broadway sideman, and part of a pre-existing combo that Allen Baron found to use in that sequence (shot at the Village Gate but also a Brooklyn bar). It's a great performance, and it's a shame that Baron never shares any further info about Sheldon or the songs on the R2 commentary, other than to say it was Sheldon's first time on camera. Like Cosmic Bus said, there hasn't been a release of the songs in Blast of Silence or of Meyer Kupferman's score. I believe Sheldon continued performing as a singer in various NYC venues into the '60s, but I don't know what eventually became of him.

What a wonderfully off kilter song...here's a clip from of the track from the film, plus a little bit more about the elusive Mr. Shelton:

No SEs as of yet, but a White Mane/ Red Balloon double feature is being released this Tuesday, list price is $19.99, $13.99 from Amazon.