The question I am asked most often at show Q&A’s, social situations and in press interviews is one I still don’t know how to answer. “Do you have a favorite film that you like to accompany?” After 38 years of… Read More »My Favorite Silent Film to Accompany Is…
Buster Keaton, along with Larry Semon, made the best use of taking different shots at different cranking speeds within a scene. This part of the Silent Film language was available and used by everyone in the silent era. Since the… Read More »Undercranking Study: Buster Keaton Trails a Suspect
I think it might be useful that DVD authoring be taught in film schools and film preservation programs. Not to everybody, and not as a requirement. But it would be a useful elective to offer, or as a sub-section of… Read More »Author! Author!
The year is winding down and I wanted to take a moment to thank you for reading my blog during the past several months. I’ve gotten a lot out of blogging, and found that what I’d heard about blogging from… Read More »Thanks for Reading My Blog in 2019
If a venue and I are looking at a December date, I get asked the same thing other film accompanists get asked. Is there a good Christmas silent movie we can show? It’s easy to program to the calendar with… Read More »There Ain’t No “Santa Claus” Silent Film
The pause between songs on a record album or CD is usually four or five seconds. I don’t know how this was determined back in the early days of long playing records, but it is just enough time to mentally… Read More »Four Seconds
Marion Davies’ 1923 Historical Rom-Com-Drama is Now Avaiable in a New DVD When Marion Davies’ own collection of nitrate 35mm prints of her films came to the Library of Congress in the 1950s, she couldn’t possibly have predicted that her… Read More »“Little Old New York” Released on DVD
On Wednesday, Nov 20 at 7pm, there will be a presentation at MoMA about Arthur Kleiner, silent film accompanist. It’s a name classic film fans aren’t familiar with, but he was “the sound of the silents” at the museum for… Read More »Arthur Kleiner – Mid-Century Silent Film Pianist
I first saw one of the “Mishaps of Musty Suffer” at the annual, now-defunct Slapsticon festival. I assumed it was another obscure comedy shorts series no one knew about. I found out later that some of these had aired on… Read More »Bob Hoskins and “Musty Suffer”
I make mistakes during shows, and usually I’m the only one who notices. As an artist, often that’s all I come away with from a performance. On Tuesday I used the “toy counter” on the virtual Wurlitzer I often accompany… Read More »When a Whistle Isn’t a Whistle