Monday, April 30, 2007

Lulu in Göttingen

Pandora's Box will be screened on May 3rd, with live music performed by "Ensemble Werner Küspert," as part of the 2nd Göttingen Silent Film Festival. For more information, please visitwww.stummfilm.info/festival/goettingen/2007/index.html

Saturday, April 28, 2007

RadioLulu in danger

For the last few years, I have paid to have RadioLulu broadcast over the internet. I figured it was a great way for fans of Louise Brooks and the silent film era to hear related music - most of which is rarely broadcast anywhere else. Where else, for example, can one hear the theme song to such Louise Brooks films as Beggars of Life or Prix de Beaute ? To broadcast over the internet via Live365.com, it costs me more than $100.00 per year. Some of that money goes to pay artist royalties. Now, things might change. . . . 

Recently, a ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) - which governs broadcast and internet radio - announced catastrophically high new royalty rates (higher for internet broadcasters than over-the-air broadcasters) as well as a $500 / year minimum per station. Despite the outcry of nearly all webcasters, the CRB denied the request for a rehearing and has proceeded with their ruling.

In response to these new and unfair fees, Representative Jay Inslee (D-WA) introduced the Internet Radio Equality Act (HR 2060). This bill will provide immediate relief from the proposed new rates and can save thousands of Internet radio stations from going off the air, including RadioLulu!

RadioLulu, Live365, and the other members of the SaveNetRadio Coalition fully support this proposal and are working diligently to see it turned into law. The next step is to line up cosponsors for HR 2060, but time is running short.

We ask that you IMMEDIATELY:

CALL your Representative and ask them to cosponsor HR 2060 -- the Internet Radio Equality Act. Click here to find your Representative's number. And, notify others and have them call THEIR Representatives with the same request to cosponsor HR 2060. Without your help, RadioLulu and other stations that play music of the 1920's and 1930's over the internet may cease to exist.

Thank you for your support! And let's keep the music playing.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Speaking of Evolution

Evolution was a controversial topic back in the 1920's - as it still is today (sadly enough). This amusing editorial cartoon plays off to controversy to comment on changes in social behavior.



I came across this cartoon while researching and though I would share it with my hotsy totsy readers.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Quick, quick

Attention New York City fans of Louise Brooks, go see Louise Brooks and the 'New Woman' in Weimar Cinema at the International Center of Photography before it closes on Sunday.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Kevin Brownlow booksigning!

I have just learned that Kevin Brownlow will be signing books following the screening of his restored version of The Iron Mask at the Castro Theater in San Francisco this Saturday afternoon. If you love Louise Brooks, if you love silent film, this is a booksigning not to miss! Copies of Brownlow's classic book on early cinema, The Parade's Gone By, will be for sale in the Castro lobby.

Monday, April 23, 2007

W.C. Fields exhibit

I just received my copy of the Lompoc Picayune-Intelligencer, the official newsletter of the W.C. Fields Fan Club. In it, there is an article about a large W. C. Fields exhibit currently on display at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles. The exhibit - “The Peregrinations & Pettifoggery of W.C. Fields” - runs through Sunday, May 13. Click through to the on-line press release for further information and details about a special May 11th event. Pictures of the exhibit in the newsletter didn't include any images of Louise Brooks (who performed with Fields in the 1925 Ziegfeld Follies, as well as the 1926 film It's the Old Army Game, but I am sure it is well worth checking out for anyone who lives in Southern California.)

Friday, April 20, 2007

Pandora's Box in Minneapolis / St. Paul

Pandora's Box will be shown this coming Tuesday at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. Interestingly, the film will be musically accompanied by students Bri'Ann Wright and Adrian Moravec, who will play their own cabaret-inspired score for the silent film on two grand pianos simultaneously. Are any readers of this blog planning to attend ?

This short article, along with a still from the film, appeared in yesterday's Star Tribune

Art house spotlight: 'Pandora's Box'

German director G.W. Pabst's scandalous, sensual "Pandora's Box" is mostly famous for the devastatingly beautiful Louise Brooks. She indelibly personifies the depravity of Weimar Berlin as Lola, a provocative dancer and irresistible seductress. Neither a vamp nor an innocent, Lola's amoral sexuality unleashes a vortex of lust, gambling, promiscuity, suicide, blackmail, prostitution and murder on those around her. Even in the free-swinging Jazz Age of 1929, the film provoked outrage. Lola chooses her lovers freely (the film contains what is reportedly the first overt lesbian subplot in cinema) and indiscriminately, given that she dies in the arms of Jack the Ripper. The film will be screened Tuesday, musically accompanied by Augsburg College students Bri'Ann Wright and Adrian Moravec. They will play their own cabaret-inspired score for the silent film on two grand pianos simultaneously. (8 p.m. Tuesday, Sateren Auditorium, Augsburg College, at Riverside Av. and 22nd Av. S., Mpls. Free and open to the public.)
COLIN COVERT
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