Author: Ben Model

  • Cruel & Unusual: shows #1 – #4

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    Ben Model

    Our first four Cruel and Unusual Comedy shows at MoMA have gone extremely well. We’ve had great houses – I’d guestimate 200+ people, and lots of new (and younger!) faces – at every program. Eileen Bowser came to our first show, and will be guest speaker at our last show on June 1st. It’s the…

  • Village Voice article on “Cruel and Unusual Comedy”

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    Ben Model

  • Leonard Lopate on WNYC

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    Ben Model

    May 19 – Steve and I were on the Leonard Lopate Show this afternoon. This was my third time on the show; I’d been on (solo) in 2006 for the MoMA Arbuckle series, and in 2007 as sidekick to Jessica Rosner plugging Kino’s Reel Baseball DVD (which she produced). I had a great time, and…

  • WFMU radio interview

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    Ben Model

    May 18 — Steve Massa and I were on WFMU tonight for a full hour on “The Speakeasy with Dorian“, hosted by Dorian Devins and co-hosted by Bruce Bennett. Bruce is a great film writer who I reconnected with in 2000 when he wrote a profile on me and Stuart Oderman for TimeOut New York…

  • Au Bonheur Des Dames – 2nd performance (w/audio)

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    Ben Model

    May 16 (Sat) – Had two great shows of “Museum Trip” in Brooklyn with Parallel Exit, and then got a second crack at Duvivier’s “Au Bonheur de Dames” at MoMA. Made some improvements in the Duvivier score second time around in terms of underscoring choices, wanting to make it play better this time and having…

  • Au Bonheur Des Dames (1930) – dir Julien Duvivier

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    Ben Model

    I’ve now played for all four of the Julien Duvivier films in the series at MoMA, with two repeats to come. So far my favorite is La Vie miraculeuse de Therese Martin, perhaps because its storyline is much more simple than the other 3 pictures. All of them have stunning visuals, very nice cinematography and…

  • Edgar Jones in “Border River” (1919)

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    Ben Model

    I have just scored and uploaded to YouTube a 16mm print I picked up on eBay a year (or so) ago, called Border River (1919) starring and directed by Edgar Jones, who made dozens of films — mainly westerns — throughout the teens and early twenties. There are no FIAF holdings on this title, and…

  • Radio City Music Hall Wurlitzer (again)

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    Ben Model
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    May 6 – I was back at Radio City Music Hall for some practice time on the Wurlitzer today, in prep for next week’s SVA graduation. Turns out I won’t be using the organ at the ceremony — nothing to do with RCMH, it’s just that the sample recordings I’d sent in didn’t quite fit…

  • “Poil de carotte” at MoMA (2nd show)

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    Ben Model

    May 4, 2009 – played for “Poil de carotte” again at MoMA this afternoon, without incident. Score went better (for me, anyhoo) as expected. Recorded blogcast and my score, as I did yesterday (see below). Here’s a chance to see how when I play for the same film twice in two consecutive days the score…

  • Poil de carrotte

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    Ben Model

    May 3, 2009 – played for Poil de carotte (“Carrot Top”), the 1925 silent directed by Julien Duvivier. I recorded my blog entry as a blogcast/podcast on my digital recorder while walking home from MoMA after the show (so that’s why I sound a little out of breath), rather than come home and do a…