Ben Model’s blog

  • I was a guest on the “Citywide” radio program on WNYU (89.1 FM and on wnyu.org) tonight. Well, actually we pre-recorded the half-hour show last week. The show is hosted by Lucas Green, currently an NYU student who I met in March when I played and spoke at Prof. Antonia…

  • I was a guest on the Leonard Lopate show today, along with Harriet Fields (W.C. Fields’ granddaughter). Listen to the segment, below, embedded here from the WNYC/Lopate website. http://beta.wnyc.org/media/audioplayer/red_progress_player_no_pop.swf(function(){var s=function(){__flash__removeCallback=function(i,n){if(i)i[n]=null;};window.setTimeout(s,10);};s();})();

  • Here is my latest videoblog, (hopefully) the first in a series of near-daily blog postings I’m hoping to do this month, since I’ll be accompanying one or two shows every day. I discuss preparing for a show of W.C. Fields in So’s Your Old Man (1926) at the Library for…

  • I will be rawther busy in June. Here is the schedule for the repeat-showings of nearly all the silent film programs in Charles Silver’s Auteurist History of Film series. It’s going to be a blast revisiting all these, and in three weeks of daily screenings of silent film. This go-round,…

  • Have just gotten the “OK” to announce my performance on Fri May 7 accompanying “The Complete ‘Metropolis’” at the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntingotn, NY (that’s on Long Island, folks). This is the new restoration with 25 minutes of lost footage restored. The C.A.C. is doing a one-week run of…

  • Day one of Cinefest 30 has gone well. Played for a pair of features from the late ‘teens this morning – Life’s Harmony (dir Frank Borzage) and The Wild Girl (with Eva Tanguay) – and just played for Charley Chase in The Sting of Stings. I’d played for it (same…

  • A new episode of “Meet Me At The Corner” was posted today on meetmeatthecorner.org, a well-traveled educational website of virtual field trips. The episode is about silent film and its music, and I was the guest in the piece. We shot this last fall, when the Colorado-based producer, Donna Guthrie,…

  • I know, I know, I haven’t posted any video here in a few weeks. To keep you happy, here is a 1929 Mack Sennett short co-starring Carole Lombard that I just uploaded to YouTube. It has a score by Lee Erwin, which he performed and recorded on his ersatz theatre…

  • Here’s episode 3, in which I talk about preparing for and accompanying F.W. Murnau’s “The Last Laugh” on two consecutive days. The theme song (seen briefly at the beginning) was actually shot at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, where I was guest speaker/artist (third time!) at Larry Burke and Larry…

  • Here is the latest episode of my video blog. I talk about accompanying Alice Guy Blaché films and the challenges of playing for nickelodeon-era films, about working with Parallel Exit, and some other tidbits. Enjoy! [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prQ6ceftEZc&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999&border=1]