Haven’t had a chance to post since returning from Slapsticon, and am squeezing this post out. There’s lots to report, but this posting of photos taken last week will have to suffice and I’ll post again soon.
Here are (L to R) yours truly, Richard Roberts, Philip Carli and Andrew Simpson posing at the Kohler & Campbell grand piano used at the Spectrum. The piano’s action seemed a bit looser this year (whew!) and held its tuning quite well considering Philip, Andrew and I beat the @#$% out of it accompanying comedy shorts and features for 4 straight days.
Here’s another photo of we accompanists three – L to R Simpson, Carli, Model – plus Chris Daniels on the right. Chris is the festival director for the Bristol Silents’ annual Slapstick shows. Chris was visiting from the U.K., and attended the entire Slapsticon, his first trip to “the states”.
Pictured here are Rob Stone (formerly of UCLA Film & TV Archive, now of L.O.C. in Culpepper), Uli Ruedel (Eastman House), and Steve Massa (Silent Clowns etc etc). Steve and I got word during Slapsticon that a course that Ron Magliozzi, Steve and I proposed to MoMA was given the thumbs-up by the education department and is now slated for Nov/Dec. Click here to see the course listing (scroll down till you see something called “Cruel and Unusual Comedy”).
Here I am with David Kalat, he of AllDay Entertainment fame. David announced officially at Slapsticon that he is releasing a DVD box set called “Becoming Charley Chase” in the coming months. This is the AllDay set I’ve been doing several scores and commentary tracks for over the past few weeks.
Bottom line, the festival was great and I didn’t feel as exhausted as usual. Having a third accompanist made a big difference this year, and I really enjoyed all the great films I got to see and play for.
Ben Model
silent film accompanist
