Wow! Paul Simon's new album

Preview it here until April 12. I plugged myself into this, started listening to "Getting Ready for Christmas Day," and immediately put in my pre-order. Something tells me this is going to be in heavy rotation on the old iPod.

Charles Lamb

I have a crossword puzzle solver's knowledge of Charles Lamb: I know that he wrote essays under the name Elia, and that those four letters are very useful for puzzle creators. After that, I know nothing, so I was intrigued by this short piece that made me want to learn more about the man and, I admit, finally read him. 'Tragic domestic circumstances bound Charles to his sister Mary, with whom he lived "in a sort of double singleness", after she stabbed their mother to death in a fit of madness. Contrasting his tastes in reading with those of his sister, who "must have a story – well, ill, or indifferently told", Lamb confides that "out-of-the-way humours and opinion – heads with some diverting twist in them – the oddities of authorship please me most".' More... This article is British, but Lamb is easily acquired in the US.

Teaching with an iPad

At the risk of appearing to be a shameless Apple fanboy, I have to pass along this article on teaching with ebooks on an iPad. Teachers who don't use the tools of the day probably do their students a disservice. While conservatism has its benefits, taking advantage of technology is not a bad idea. And as this teacher reports: 'My iPad has been indispensable. When I read fiction that is non-work related, I prefer a more straightforward reading experience. But with teaching, the more interactive iPad has been so helpful to me. I can customize my teaching materials, display them and annotate them in ways that help my students learn better and help me manage all the administrative details involved in helping them do so.' More...

Roberta Gambarini

Speaking of jazz, NPR is kind enough to provide an entry of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz featuring Roberta Gambarini, one of my favorites that you might enjoy. The show is online. Check it out.

Got jazz?

In our search to expand from books, we've found some interesting sites. If you're a jazz fan, you'll enjoy this one, from NPR.

The War Horse

The play The War Horse boasts a phenomenal puppet of a horse, and this TED video discusses theatrical puppetry in general and then presents that amazing horse in action. (Via.)

Books into movies

This is a classic subject, the comparison of what happens to a book when it's turned into a movie. In general, the results seem to be either unsatisfactory or totally different. Jonathan Coe's essay on the subject may be long, but its detail makes it very interesting. 'The question Truffaut specifically put to [Hitchcock] was whether he would ever consider making a screen adaptation of a great novel such as Crime and Punishment. To which the director answered: "Well, I shall never do that, precisely because Crime and Punishment is somebody else's achievement. And even if I did, it probably wouldn't be any good." "Why not?" Truffaut asked. "Well, in Dostoevsky's novel there are many, many words and all of them have a function." "You mean that theoretically," Truffaut prompted, "a masterpiece is something that has already found its perfection of form, its definitive form." "Exactly," Hitchcock answered.' More...