Ben Model’s blog

  • Working even harder this year on improving my playing/accompaniment. Last night, as an exercise, I hauled out the DVD of something I’m playing for later this month and ran it on my laptop (mute) and played for it… as wrong as possible. Song title puns, a waltz when people were…

  • On Sunday, October 20th at 7:00, the Emmanuel Presbyterian Church (NYC) is hosting a free evening of silent comedies! Wind down your week – or kick off the one that’s starting – with two solid hours of belly-laugh-inducing classic comedies.  These 1920s films will be presented with live musical scores…

  • I knew it.  I just knew it. I’ve been looking for years for written evidence that silent film actors had to adjust the way they moved to compensate for the speed-up of silent film. It has always appeared to have been the case to me when I’ve slowed down silent…

  • Tomorrow is the premiere of my new web-series, a bi-weekly YouTube release of a rare or lost silent film from my 16mm collection, newly transferred and scored.  For now, these will only be available on YouTube (no DVDs). My first release is a lost 1-reel comedy that was unidentified when…

  • From today’s Newsday: Silent films amass a quiet following January 3, 2012 by JIM MERRITT. Special to Newsday Tonight’s Keaton film is getting a warm reception from about 60 people sitting in a screening room at the Cinema Arts Centre. But, it’s not Michael Keaton or even Diane Keaton scoring…

  • I’ve long been a fan of Ben Ohmart’s “BearManor Media” book publishing outfit, and when I heard about what he had up his sleeve for the imprint about a year ago, I was re-impressed.  After self-publishing a book on The Great Gildersleeve in 2001 he established BearManor, doing for other…

  • Newsday sent a videographer, as well as a reporter and a (still) photographer to last night’s show.  The video piece is up on the Newsday website, and I’m posting/embedding it here.  We show silent film once a month, always on 35mm and always with theatre organ accompaniment.  In 2011 we…

  • I was interviewed by the one and only Joe Franklin for his radio show a week or two ago, and the segment aired today on his weekly segment on “Bloomberg on the Weekend” on WBBR-AM and on Sirius XM radio. Listen to my appearance on the radio with Joe here:http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3523697345-audio-player.swf

  • (scroll down for photos…) Sharing accompaniment duties with Phil Carli at the Fall Cinesation every year is one way I stay fresh as an accompanist. Listening to someone else’s playing – especially someone whose style and philosophy mirrors mine – helps me push the boundaries of my own scoring vocabulary.…

  • I spent a great week in Tromsø, Norway (it’s above the arctic circle, cartographers) last week. I shot video and, while I’m waiting for it to get developed, here’s a radio segment on the “Stumfilmdager” festival (“Silent Film Days”) recorded at one of the senior centers I presented a program…