🎬 new podcast ep., December round-up

Happy solstice (belated)!

Yesterday was the shortest day of the year. Which reminds me of something Ernie Kovacs used to have on title cards at the beginning of his TV shows:

Remember that Kovacs book I'm involved with that I might have mentioned some months back? There have been a handful of delays on it, but it's looking like Ernie in Kovacsland is back on track to get published. What Josh Mills and I are hearing from publisher Fantagraphics is that the book will be out in March or April.

Score recordings:

Looks like 2023 is going to be a good year for Tom Mix and his fans! I've spent this week recording scores for two Tom Mix features, newly restored by MoMA. Outlaws of Red River (1927) and The Best Bad Man (1925) will be available for streaming in January on MoMA's Virtual Cinema. The streams are available to MoMA members only, unfortunately; I don't know of any plans for these to be released on Blu-ray/DVD.

What else I've scored during December are a half-dozen Vitagraph comedy shorts. These are for a Kino Lorber/Library of Congress set that will be out at some point next year.

3 Organs, No Waiting:

Kerr Lockhart and I have managed to squeeze out one more episode of The Silent Film Music Podcast before the end of the year. Episode 54 is now available from my website and on loads of podcast platforms. You'll hear performance clips from my shows at Ocean Grove Camp Mtg Assoc (on a huge orchestral pipe organ), the Everett Theatre (a Baldwin electric organ), and at Ursinus College (Austin pipe organ). I talk about the creativity and challenges of having to get acclimated to and then perform on a variety of instruments, among other topics.

Going Hollywood:

I've been booked to play at the TCM Classic Film Festival next year! The festival will be held April 13-16 in Hollywood, and this will be my 4th time accompanying a silent film at the TCMFF. I'll be premiering a new score for Clash of the Wolves (1926) starring Rin-Tin-Tin. One of the fest's themes this time around is a celebration of Warner Bros' 100th anniversary. In the early 1920s, Rin-Tin-Tin was their biggest star (honest!).

SCWP episode 88:

The Silent Comedy Watch Party marches on into the new year! Dates aren't set but we are continuing to do a new live-streamed show every month. You can pretty much count on it being the 2nd or 3rd Sunday. One thing Steve and I are looking forward to in 2023 is the fact that the 1927 Laurel & Hardy shorts enter the public domain on January 1st. We'll be making up for not being able to program L&H on the show, believe me. I'll have more news in my next email.

What will we do in March for the SCWP's 3rd (!) anniversary show? Who knows?

Happy Holidays!
Thank you for being on my email list, for attending my shows and my live-streams, supporting my Kickstarter, buying Undercrank Prods DVDs and Blu-rays and any other ways you and I may have had a chance to interact – by email or in-person. I wish you all the best for a happy and healthy holiday season and New Year!

Best wishes,

Ben

And now, the links!

Listen to the brand-new 54th episode of my podcast.
MoMA's Virtual Cinema page for the two Tom Mix films
Film listings and more for the TCM Classic Film Festival
Pick up Steve Massa's new book Lame Brains and Lunatics 2: More Good, Bad and Forgotten of Silent Comedy

Here are three photos taken in Hilton Head, SC. Mana and I travelled there last week to see our daughter Molly in a production of the musical "A Christmas Story" at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina.

The pics are of: the airport runway, the pool deck at the hotel, and the entrance to the Arts Center.

Back in NYC, here's a photo I took yesterday afternoon, in front of the restaurant Hi Life on Amsterdam Ave.

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