I know...it's tempting...

When I'm not blogging, or when I'm not putting videos on YouTube, I'm still writing movie-and-TV scripts. And nine years into my second wind as a writer, I'm still plugging away...even at a time when artificial intelligence has made tremendous strides.

AI has been able to do more things for people than it could even two years ago. And one of those things is...it can, with just the right prompts, write an entire television script or a screenplay.

Yes...it's tempting to go to ChatGPT or Gemini or some other source and have it turn out a script.

And I'm not going to go there.

Now...I actually feel more comfortable feeding a screenplay of mine (or my one teleplay) through a site like https://screenplayiq.com or https://ScriptReader.ai and getting back an analysis. Last year, I started turning to ScreenplayIQ and ScriptReader out of curiosity...and to get one perspective or two as to whether I'm on the right track in this journey I'm on.

Of the 31 scripts I've written (or revised from my first try at screenwriting...the 1980-1994 period), all but three have earned at least one "recommend" from ScriptReader.

The other three picked up "considers" across the board.

I don't mind using the pitch trailers I get from ScreenplayIQ...and, in fact, I've been able to upload them to YouTube. (They don't look too bad...even with those little or not-so-little quirks.)

Both sites have helped me make better written pitches: ScriptReader and ScreenplayIQ shine at identifying script themes, script moods, and character arcs.

That all said...there's still absolutely NOTHING like the TV-and-movie-script evaluations (paid or not) you can get from flesh-and-blood human beings. The AI evaluations help...but the final word comes from scripthousing sites like Stage 32 and Script Revolution.

If anything I've ever written resonates with people on Script Rev and/or Stage 32, I'm happy.

And if you've ever read any script I've written...thanks so very much for putting my stuff to the test.

Take a good, good look...

That's right...take a good, good look at these photos...photos of some of Big Media's biggest powers at the top.

Netflix founder Reed Hastings...

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav...

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts...

Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish...

Disney CEO Bob Iger...

Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch...

Yes, I'm going to ruffle a bunch of feathers for saying this...but I'm going to say it:

If it weren't for (let's face it) corporate greed and for complacency at the top (in other words, the studios' tremendous reliance on movie franchises, movie remakes, and TV reboots), the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists wouldn't be out on strike. It's the first time since 1960 that both unions shut down.

Not all actors are wealthy. Matter of fact, the average California actor earned $27.73 per hour in 2022, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. And movie-TV performers aren't paid full-time year-'round. And, per a 7-17-2023 post on cnn.com on why the writers and performers are picketing, 12.7% of all SAG-AFTRA members make an annual salary of $26,470...the minimum amount that qualifies an entertainer for health insurance.

160,000 SAG-AFTRA members...11,000 people in the WGA.

I still think that there's more than enough money out there to satisfy all sides in the matter. How about you?

The strike must continue

The Writers Guild of America began its current strike on Tuesday, 5-2-2023...after a three-year contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers ended. Weeks of negotiations fell through because the AMPTP failed to come up with a pact that would satisfy the 11,500 WGA members. WGA leaders sought to gain increased compensation for TV-and-movie writers, guaranteed duration of employment for writers who get gigs in the industry, better residuals, and (of course!) the assurance that human writers wouldn't get replaced by artificial intelligence. Streaming has become a major factor since the previous WGA strike. Because of streaming, residuals for writers have become less frequent...and smaller, too. We've now got minirooms (with only a few writers instead of the usual seven or more), shorter seasons for TV series, and no rerun residuals for countless series. The money's there to give WGA writers what they want. Writers would've gained an extra $429 million per year had AMPTP leaders come through for the folks who cook up scripts. Instead, AMPTP bigwigs offered an annual increase of $86 million. Some people have questioned the WGA's decision to shut it down. One of them's even on the creatives' platform I joined in January 2019. If you've questioned the first writers' shutdown since 2007-08, think about this: Shows like "This Is Us" and "Abbott Elementary" wouldn't have come on the air if somebody hadn't thought them up...and movies such as "Avatar" and "Tar" came about because someone wrote a script. And why shouldn't writers be compensated decently for what they come up with? They've got bills to pay, too.

It's No Longer a Secret Anymore!

The 2012 Ragtime to Riches Festival turned out to be the most successful one yet.

And it couldn't have happened if Nora and Mark Hulse (the husband-and-wife duo also known as Ragtime Razzmatazz- she plays piano, he plays banjo) hadn't brought their considerable talents to Omaha's First Central Congregational United Church of Christ.

The success of 7-8-2012 also wouldn't have come if Nick Holle hadn't brought the movie he and Michael Zimmer codirected, "The Entertainers," to R to R 8.0.

On top of all that, this year's event wouldn't have succeeded without the 38 people who came to savor the workshop, the documentary about Illinois' World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest and Festival, and the two R to R concerts. Because of the fans' enthusiasm for ragtime and old-time piano, the Great Plains Ragtime Society raised $380.

But the whole thing started out slowly...and I was really nervous about that, even with more publicity about the festival than before and the added attraction of a documentary, part of which was filmed here in the Big O.

Last year, we sold just ten tickets to the R to R get-together (the first one-day Ragtime to Riches Festival ever; this started out as a three-day event before we had to shed Fridays in 2009).

And by the time Nora and Mark got well into their workshop at this year's festival, only six people had paid to take in the festivities. (A camera operator from one of the local TV stations came by and taped footage...only to leave a few minutes later.)

But by 2:45 PM (Central time), more and more old-time piano fans (and people who were curious about the existence of a ragtime event in Huskerland) started to trickle into First Central's Memorial Hall.

Fifteen minutes later, the Hulses shifted from talking about the banjo's place in America's early pop music scene (and sprinkling the workshop with a spotlight on some of the 500 women who'd written at least one rag apiece) to giving the first of two R to R concerts for 2012.

And Mark and Nora put on a real humdinger! 

The Lawrence, KS couple started it all out with "A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight," then turned to a composition written by one of those 500 women, "The Missouri Girl March." They then strung together "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," "The Band Played On," and "The Sidewalks of New York" before mastering "Dill Pickles," "A Spanish Serenade," and Ed Claypoole's "Ragging the Scale."

It was reminiscent of when our piano-and-banjo duo did their thing at the old Shakey's Pizza Parlor in Columbia, MO during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

And it was FUN!

Nora and Mark pulled out one of their Shakey's showstoppers, "Hava Nagila," following that up with "The Piano Roll Blues" and Dick Hyman's "Ragtime Razzmatazz-" the piece that gave the duo their nickname.

And then a photographer from another local TV station (Fox affiliate KPTM) came in to get footage...and stayed long enough to seek an interview: "Who's the organizer?"

I raised my left hand and the photographer- Eric- motioned me into the hallway to take part in that interview...while more people kept coming into the church to dig the festival.

That did it.

By the time the workshop presenters ended their concert with BOTH "Maple Leaf Rag" and "The Stars and Stripes Forever," every seat in Memorial Hall was filled...in anticipation of "The Entertainers."

I wasn't sure how the film would go over when put in front of Omahans' eyes. It'd already passed five tests since its unveiling on 4-20-2012 (in Madison, WI)...but how would Nick Holle's and Michael Zimmer's presentation do in a city where one of the movie's six main subjects lives?

The documentary went over fine! 

The film actually rolled at 4:30 PM so that technical glitches could be ironed out. Once the movie came to an end 93 minutes later, a Q-and-A session ensued...and it lasted longer and was livelier than the Peoria counterpart. (Nick fielded most of the questions.)

After dinner, it was time for one more concert...and that one got started at 7:08 PM.

I wanted to take a page out of Burns Davis' book and build my own show around a theme...and it stemmed from a missed opportunity to use such a theme on 4-15-2012, when the Great Plains Ragtime Society held a meeting at Omaha's Hollywood Candy/Fairmont Antiques store (at 1209 Jackson St.).

That April weekend marked the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic (you know, the ship that was supposedly too big to sink). And I had a chance to do some of the songs that were popular in 1912.

Well, almost three months later, I went ahead and played ten of 1912's most popular cuts...starting with 1911's final Number One song, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart." ("Sweetheart," recorded by the Peerless Quartet, was the top song in the land for seven weeks...as was the recording that knocked it off the top of the charts, Harry MacDonough's "Down by the Old Mill Stream.")

After doing those two songs, I went ahead with "Oh, You Beautiful Doll" and 1912's most successful song, "Moonlight Bay." (When the American Quartet- probably the New Kids on the Block of their day- cut "Moonlight Bay," they took it to Number One and kept it there for eight weeks.)

I stuck in "Alexander's Ragtime Band" because Charles Prince's Orchestra tried the tune on for size in 1912...but had nowhere near the success Arthur Collins and Byron Harlan did with the song the previous year. (That duo's recording of Irving Berlin's first real songwriting triumph enjoyed a ten-week run at the top of the charts!)

It was then time for a couple of actual rags: Imogene Giles' "Red Peppers" and the Brandon Walsh-Charles Straight number, "Mockingbird Rag."

All this time, I'd sneaked in information about some of 1912's biggest news events. For instance, I told the audience- the biggest one I'd ever played for at an R to R Festival- that New Mexico became a state of the US during "Sweetheart's" chart run...and that "Beautiful Doll" peaked at Number One eleven days before Arizona got in...and that the Girl Scouts of America were founded while "Moonlight Bay" was on the charts...and that Charles Prince's ork's version of "Alexander's" was on the charts at the time the Titanic fell into the Atlantic Ocean.

More of that to come, with three more tunes: "Ragtime Cowboy Joe," Bob Roberts' smash (tops for six weeks) that came out as William Howard Taft sent US troops to Nicaragua over a debt that country owe America and some European lands; "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee," another number that spent six weeks on top (by the Heidelberg Quintet, which was actually the American Quartet Plus One) while the Boston Red Sox were stopping the then New York Giants in the World Series; and "The Ragtime Soldier Man," one of Irving's lesser-known tunes and one that I wanted to send out to today's members of this country's military.

What a time everybody had at this year's Ragtime to Riches!

Finally, the club has a bank account (and now, I can tell people who want to contribute financially to GPRS that they can make their checks out to the club...and I can really mean it).

More important than that, the sky's the limit for Great Plains and for its signature event.

Thanks, Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue, for removing R to R from the area's list of secrets.

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!

If it weren't for "The Entertainers," I wouldn't have been able to make it to Peoria, IL for the 2012 World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest and Festival. (That's right; this event- which dates back to 1975- has a new title, adding the "and Festival" this year.)

It all started when Nick Holle (one of the documentary's codirectors) gave me a call early in May and said: "Jim, how'd you like to come to Peoria?"

Result: The opportunity I didn't expect to get for this year.

It'd been three years since I last made the trip to Central Illinois. Since then, I'd gotten a bankruptcy discharge, gone exclusively to my debit card (no more credit cards!!), and fought to get all my bills paid up...especially my car note. I figured, in fact, that I'd have to wait until 2014 to do the kind of traveling I used to.

But then...the first documentary about Ted Lemen's claim to fame broke. (And so did increased overtime opportunities at the plastics factory I work at when I'm not writing a blog or getting involved in old-time piano.)

And so...after not being able to hit a metropolitan area other than Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue during 2011, I've been on the road three times this year. (And all three excursions were in rental cars!)

The trip to baseball great Jim Thome's birth city this past Memorial Day weekend was the best as far as renting a car was concerned: Enterprise let me use a 2011 Hyundai Accent that had (ta da!) a satellite radio.

No AM or FM for me, what with Sirius XM's 40s on 4, 50s on 5, 60s on 6, 70s on 7, 80s on 8, 90s on 9, and Motown on 49 channels to make it a really groovin' trip. (After all, Sirius gives you a lot of the tunes FM-AM chiefs refuse to put back on the air. For instance, I got to hear Larry Williams' 1957 hit "Bony Moronie" as I was coming out of Iowa City, IA. And when I pulled into the parking garage attached to Peoria's Sheraton Four Points Hotel, XM played Ral Donner's 1961 biggie "You Don't Know What You've Got." We're talking about two jams Omaha's AM and FM stations have forgotten about!)

Didn't get into Peoria until about 7:30 PM on 5-25-2012...an hour before "The Entertainers" (the complete film, that is) got its first real Peoria screening.

This time, I was coming to Richard Pryor's birth city as a contest spectator, not a contestant. And Nick's and fellow codirector Michael Zimmer's offer enabled, for the first time, all six of the documentary's main subjects- Adam Swanson, "Perfessor" Bill Edwards, Ethan Uslan, Faye Ballard, Four Arrows, and me- to join with movie fans and old-time piano fans to check out a screening of "The Entertainers." In the same venue at the same time.

Felt nervous about how the movie would go over with people who'd spent one Memorial Day weekend after another checking out OTPP and lending the contest/festival legendary support.

Film festival fans had twice rated "The Entertainers" tops in the documentary field...but how would people who've traveled to Peoria (and/or previous OTPP sites Decatur, IL and Monticello, IL) dig a film celebrating the music that ultimately served as the springboard to "Goody Goody" as well as to "Bony Moronie" and "You Don't Know What You've Got," et al? 

THEY ATE IT UP!!

About two hours after the screening wrapped up, another personal point of apprehension completely exploded. That's because Raymond Schwarzkopf (a first-time OTPP judge in 2009 who'd been invited back for 2010 as well as for 2012) was one of the spectators who not only enjoyed the movie...but also liked me in it.

The showing was three years to the day after I first talked to Raymond at OTPP Weekend's final event (the Red, White, and Blue Brunch) to introduce myself...only to get brushed off with a warning to "keep practicing."

I spent the next three years wanting to get even with him...to the point of not wanting to play for him ever again. 

Well, this time, Raymond and I had a really good conversation. Even told him about the humiliation I felt due to his two-word message of 5-25-2009. 

And this time, he encouraged me not to give up on old-time piano.

Speaking of old-time piano...next time I post, I'm going to get to the business end of OTPP. (I'm talking about the actual competition.)

Stay tuned!

Checkmate!

The weekend after I traveled to Des Moines (to see my younger brother, younger sister in law, and nephew) and to Madison (to check out the 2012 Wisconsin Film Festival), I made it to the Twin Cities...for this year's Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival.

That's right...the area that gave us James Arness and Peter Graves (to say nothing of Prince) became the second one to officially see "The Entertainers," that documentary about the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest (an event that's coming up next weekend).

The Minneapolis-St. Paul get-together has been taking place every year since the early 1980s (if not the late 1970s); this year's version ran from 4-12-2012 and finished up on 5-3-2012. The organizers treated moviegoers from everywhere to 300 films...and, as was the case at Madison's Wisconsin Film Festival, the Twin Cities fare ran the gamut from full-length features all the way to shorts.

70 of the 300 movies shown in Minnesota's biggest metro area were documentaries.

And all the motion pictures presented at the Gopher State festival were run at Minneapolis' St. Anthony Main Theater, overlooking the banks of the Mississippi River.

Festival organizers scheduled "The Entertainers" for 9:20 PM on Saturday, 4-28-2012...as well as for 3:30 PM the next day.

And both sets of audiences ate it up...as well as the live music "Perfessor" Bill Edwards, Ethan Uslan, and I were able to provide after each showing of the film.

In fact, the audiences liked "The Entertainers" so much that they voted it the International Film Festival's best documentary.

Meanwhile, I was eating up my stay in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

It's a great, great place to walk around in...especially the underground walkways situated around and through downtown Minneapolis. With the walkways, you get a climate-controlled environment where, in winter, you don't have to worry so much about freezing your hind end off (and don't have to worry about facing the same demise as a Popsicle in the summer months).

The restaurants in the MSP area are no slouches, either. Just like in Madison, they have Qdobe restaurants...and I had a chance to eat late-night tacos again as a result.

The last place I ate at in Minny offers a $12 burger. (And let me tell you, that burger DOES have an act!)

So does the hotel they put us up in. It used to be the local Milwaukee Road train station, but now it's the Renaissance Depot Hotel. They did a great, great job transforming this historic station into a hotel...and it's got so much Milwaukee Road memorabilia it'll make your head swim. (Oops...I mean it'll make your wheels turn!)

Speaking of act...now comes the next one in this journey.

The question isn't "Will it play in Peoria?" (After all, "The Entertainers" will be shown there on 5-25-2012 at 8:00 PM; the free showing will be one of the events at the OTPP Contest itself. And the contest will take place in a new venue: The Sheraton Four Points Hotel.)

The real question is: "How will they like it in Peoria?"

I'm going to the city that gave Richard Pryor to the world...and when I get the answers, I'll sure enough let you know.

I'm Jim Boston, and thanks for reading this blog!

This Madison's No Slob at All

After four years of preparation, planning, filming, promoting, and everything else that comes with trying to put a movie together, it's here!

The very first documentary about Illinois' World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest, "The Entertainers," debuted on Friday, 4-20-2012, at 9:30 PM at the Chazen Museum of Art, on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

And the audience really enjoyed it.

The next day, at 1:30 PM, the film was shown again...this time at the school's UW Cinematheque.

And it was a hit all over again!  

The two screenings were part of the thirteenth annual Wisconsin Film Festival, a five-day event where 150 movies of all kinds- feature-length films, shorts, you name it- were showcased all over the UW-Madison campus.

"The Entertainers" struck such a chord with moviegoers at the WFF that they voted the production as the best documentary at this year's fest. (Michael Zimmer's and Nick Holle's baby bested 39 other documentaries.)

Four of the movie's performers- "Perfessor" Bill Edwards, Ethan Uslan, Faye Ballard, and I- came to Wisconsin's capital city to help promote the 93-minute effort.

And man, we had a ball!  

When Faye, Bill, Nick, Ethan, Michael, and I weren't watching the film, answering audience questions about "The Entertainers," or appearing on TV, radio, and/or the Web to talk about the movie, we ate.

And ate. 

AND ATE!!

One of the places we ate at was a sushi restaurant in downtown Madison; it was the first time I'd ever dined at a Japanese eatery.

And I've got to tell you: I'm GOING to learn to love sushi.

I've read where Omaha has more restaurants per capita than any other city here in the United States, but Madison sure gives the Big O a run for its money.

What's more, M-Town gives New York City and Las Vegas a run for their money, too, when it comes to energy...especially on the weekends. (It's one more place where you can get a burrito and/or a pizza at 2:00 AM.)

And it's a great, great place for a film festival.

All I've got to say now is: "Thanks, Madison, for your excellent support of the Wisconsin Film Festival...and for 'The Entertainers!'"

If "The Entertainers" gets to play in your town, and you love old-time piano, just RUN to that venue.

You'll be glad you did! (Hope to see you there!)

Coming Soon...to a Theater (or Some Other Venue) Near You!

Been waiting almost three years to type this out...and here it is:

The first-ever documentary about the World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest, "The Entertainers," is about to make its debut.

It's going to happen at the Wisconsin Film Festival, an event held from 4-18-2012 to 4-22-2012 in Madison.

And yep, I'm on my way to Wisconsin's capital city.

Nick Holle's and Michael Zimmer's (they're the movie's codirectors) project gets two showings- each at a different festival venue: Friday, 4-20-2012 at 9:30 PM and Saturday, 4-21-2012 at 1:30 PM.

Afterwards, Mike and Nick (who did the bulk of the filming in 2009 and 2010...after shooting "The Entertainers'" trailer at the 2008 OTPP Contest) will aim to get the documentary shown not only at different film festivals nationwide, but also at various ragtime festivals throughout the United States.

And one of those ragtime festivals will be here in Omaha.

So if you don't get a chance to come to the Wisconsin Film Festival or to this year's World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest (5-25-2012 to 5-28-2012 at Peoria's Five Points by Sheraton Hotel), maybe you'll be coming to Omaha for the Ragtime to Riches Festival (7-8-2012 at First Central Congregational United Church of Christ)...and if you're in the Big O that day, you're in for a real treat.

Had a ball getting involved in said documentary...and I hope you'll have a ball seeing the movie, wherever and whenever it's shown in your town.

Oh, by the way...R to R's showing of "The Entertainers" will take place at 4:15 PM, right after Nora and Mark Hulse play.

It's Everything They Said It Is...and More

I finally got a chance to see a movie that could very well net some hardware a week from tomorrow...one of last year's best-loved theatrical movies, "The Help."

Got to see it this afternoon because of this afternoon's second annual Black History Movie and Potluck get-together at Omaha's Clair Memorial United Methodist Church...and, let me tell you, "The Help" is everything the critics (and a lot of other moviegoers) said it is.

And more.

In this movie, set in 1963-64 and based on Kathryn Stockett's novel (a book I haven't read yet), recent University of Mississippi grad Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan (Emma Stone) returned to her home town of Jackson, MS wanting to be a journalist. First gig she got was with the city's paper, The Journal. And Skeeter ended up writing an advice column centering on how to be a better domestic.

Next thing you knew, Skeeter started kicking around the idea of a book telling what a maid's life was like in mid-1960s Mississippi...from the maid's point of view. (Remember: The Magnolia State's laws wouldn't allow anything like that back then.)

At first, only two maids- Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson (Viola Davis and fellow Oscar nominee Octavia Spencer)- were willing to open up to Skeeter. (And for Minny and Aibileen to even open up like this was playing with a raging fire in America's hotbed of hatred and intolerance and racism.)

All through the movie (all 140 minutes of it), I kept thinking about the four remaining Republican challengers for the party's 2012 presidential nomination and how the teachers of hatred in those four men's lives were working to mold those candidates at the very moment in which "The Help" was set.

And all I could do was cringe at the thought.

Hilly Holbrook (played by Bryce Dallas Howard) really made me cringe; so did the cronies she hung around with as they helped to keep racism alive in Jackson. And Skeeter's mom (Allison Janney of West Wing fame) made me cringe, too...especially when she clammed up every time Skeeter asked about the maid (Cicely Tyson as Constantine) who raised our recent Ole Miss grad.

I even cringed when Minny was offered a domestic's job for the rest of her life by her employers, Celia and Johnny Foote.

Minny was the first maid Celia (Jessica Chastain) ever hired...and, the way I took Celia, she was under a ton of pressure to hire a maid. It was...well, Expected. But all through the movie, Minny, among other things, showed Celia how to cook. (And guess who was there when Celia gave birth?)

Let me tell you, I cheered for BOTH Aibileen and Skeeter...and I also liked it when other maids finally decided to contribute stories to the book Eugenia was trying to put together.

One message I thought "The Help" kept shouting out was one about courage.

It takes courage to speak up when people are constantly trying to fit you into one social straitjacket after another. It also takes courage to listen to people who've been forced into those social straitjackets.

The result of that speaking up (as well as of that listening) feels empowering.

And that's the biggest lesson "The Help" can teach us...especially at a time when this country's Republicans would like nothing better than to take America back to 1612...let alone 1912 or 1963.

When "The Help" came out, some reviewers took a look at its predominantly female cast and immediately labeled it a "chick flick." (And yep, the offending journalists made a huge mistake in doing so.)

At a time when Willard Romney runs around saying his birth city (Detroit, MI) should go bankrupt and has repeatedly said that America's auto industry- the very profession that enabled his father George (a 1968 presidential hopeful and, later, HUD secretary) to put food on the table- should crash and burn; at a time when Newton Gingrich keeps questioning inner-city children's work ethic; at a time when Rick Santorum still questions Barack Obama's religion, among other things; and at a time when Ron Paul and his son Rand want to see the private sector go back to discriminating against people on the basis of skin color, we need to take a look at the time in which a movie like "The Help" was set and say, loud and clear: "NEVER AGAIN!"

A Whole New World

A couple of months ago, the staff at Film Streams at the Ruth Sokolof Theater (1340 Mike Fahey St., Omaha, NE 68102) asked me about doing something I've never, ever undertaken in my life:

Cue a silent movie.

It's all part of the theater's upcoming silent film festival, a cycle that begins on 10-4-2011 at 7:00 PM. Each movie in the series (the series ends on 12-15-2011) will feature live musical accompaniment from a different performer or group of performers...and the music will run the gamut from hard rock to ragtime.

Well, they're letting me go up to bat on 12-15-2011. At 7:00 PM that evening, I'm playing alongside one of Buster Keaton's best movies, the 1926 classic "The General."

I'm in another club around here, the River City Theatre Organ Society, and one of its earliest activities happened in 1986. It took place at the Orpheum Theater, and it was "Those Were the Days." One of its components was a showing of "The General," and Jack Moelmann- later the president of the American Theatre Organ Society- cued the film at the theater's Mighty Wurlitzer.

That showing was what I remembered when Film Streams chief Rachel Jacobson asked me about doing a silent movie.

Film Streams has the piano, all right; it's an 1899 Steinway upright that had, for a long time in its life, been used at Boys Town. I ended up finding the instrument a couple of years ago at the former Renier's Pianos and Keyboards (then located at 49th and Dodge Sts.).

Renier's had the old upright in the store's basement, and I ended up paying $50 for the instrument itself and $50 for moving the piano.

And it all started because I wanted to donate an old piano to a local venue (such as a coffeehouse)...so that area performers Adam Swanson (2008, 2009, and 2010 Regular Division titleholder at Illinois' World Championship Old-Time Piano Playing Contest as well as the event's 2003, 2004, and 2006 Junior Division champ) and Marty Mincer (he won the contest's Regular Division crown in 1990 and 1993) could get more opportunities to play around here.

As things turned out, no local coffeehouses or restaurants were interested in taking in an old piano. (They kept saying they had no room for a piano...not even an 1899 Steinway upright.)

But Film Streams had room...plenty of room.

Rachel, Casey, Maggie, and the rest of the Film Streams staff have been nice enough to let me come in and get practice on the old Steinway at least once a week. (Well, a piano isn't just a prop or just a piece of furniture!)

Today, I went to http://www.youtube.com/ and saw "The General" in its entirety (for the first time since I saw the film at the Orpheum); a week earlier, I went to that Website and was able to check out 65% of the movie...and only because I ran out of time.

Last week, though, I started working out my own take on that Buster Keaton classic (in spite of the fact that at least two original scores have been written in support of "The General"). And I went off to Film Streams to make sure I can cover "The General's" length- 78 minutes.

And this morning, I finished up figuring out how I want to accompany the film, then went off to practice at another rehearsal spot, Pella Lutheran Church (at 41st and Harney Sts.), with its 1909 Behr Bros. upright. (Practice today went very well...okay, I really felt comfortable.)

I'm really looking forward to cuing "The General" with 16 days left in 2011...and I hope you can come to see one, all, or any number of films in Streams' upcoming silents showcase. If you're already a member of Film Streams, tickets are $8 each; if not, they cost you $12.

And if you'd like more information, call 402 933-0259 and/or visit http://www.filmstreams.org/.

I'm Jim Boston, and thanks for reading this blog!