Bioscope digest

The Bioscope is a font of useful information on silent cinema, delving comprehensively into neglected corners while also alert to new developments and events. It's run by Luke McKernan, Moving Image Curator at the British Museum. Having not visited for ages here are some of the things I caught up with today...

> A tasty-looking silents festival in Berlin which kicks off tomorrow; > The extended Metropolis is on at the BFI next month, as well as various archive events as part of the Long Live Film season; >A potted history of football in silent film; >A Muybridge exhibition coming to the Tate in September;

And most excitingly, news of the Strobotop Lightphase Animator, a hand-held optical gizmo which works along the same lines as Jim Le Fevre's Phonotrope. The Strobotop was designed by Rufus Butler Seder - he also created the ingenious Scanimation books - and if I don't restrain myself I'll end up ordering at least 10 as presents.