Ben Model’s blog
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I think one of my favorite introductions was at a show I did at the Redford Theater in Detroit in 2017. Organist John Lauter welcomed the audience, and gave them a snapshot of my bio — mentioning I’d come in from NYC, that I played at LoC and MoMA, my…
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Wake Me When It’s Streaming
Several years ago a typical conversation I had at holiday parties when introduced to someone got an upgrade. Up to that point, when introduced to someone, a question they’d ask — “Have you scored anything for DVD?” — became “Do you have anything on YouTube?” I didn’t at the time,…
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Play Me a Movie
The more shows I do the more I meet people with similar stories about their elder relatives. Great-aunts and great-grandmothers or grandmothers who played for movies back in the silent era. The repeats have confirmed what could easily be fuzzy memories conflated over time and retellings, the way the myth…
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Stan & Ollie – and a Horse, and an Orchestra
My favorite Laurel & Hardy shorts are the ones with little or no plot. Don’t ask me why. Films like Busy Bodies, Helpmates, Towed in a Hole and of course The Music Box that are basically Stan and Ollie just being Stan and Ollie. They’re about their relationship and about…
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“Let’s Get Away From It All” — The Slightly Missing Matt Dennis
The name Matt Dennis may not be familiar, but if you’re an Ernie Kovacs fan you may know it. Or maybe not. You’d have be a credits-reader who also paid attention to the details in the back of the “Ernie Kovacs Collection” DVD box sets’ booklets. Who was Matt Dennis?…
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A New Year’s Resolution, Thanks To Akira Kurosawa
I’ve been a fan of Akira Kurosawa’s since the middle of high school. I forget which year it was, but my English lit class had read what my wife and daughter refer to as “the Scottish Play” by Shakespeare. Earlier in the school year when we read “East of Eden”,…
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ep. 31: Scoring Dracula, Playing for Pat & Patachon, Reaching Younger Fans
On this episode, Ben Model talks about creating and performing a live score on theatre organ for the 1931 “Dracula” with Bela Lugosi, shares some insights about programming the “Silent Comedy International” series at MoMA, and discusses why playing at a suburban library is just as important as playing a…
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Home Movie Day Goes Sledding
I’d almost forgotten about the home movie gem I posted a few years ago. Southwest Silents on Twitter @SWSilents has been tweeting a Silent Film Xmas Advent, finding holiday-related silents online and sharing them. They’ve already posted two discoveries that I’d scored and posted to my YouTube channel. One was…
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Is Copyright All Right?
Imagine my surprise walking home from the C train tonight, listening to the newest episode of Seth Godin’s podcast “Akimbo“, and hearing my own voice. Last week, Seth Godin discussed the current status, validity, importance and relevance of copyright on his podcast “Akimbo”. It’s a topic I grapple with myself,…