Reading Rainbow aired on PBS for 23 years and this week, Levar Burton raised more than 3 million dollars (and counting) to bring it back for the 21st century. As a parent I’m really happy about that. Reading Rainbow was a great series for kids and it will be again. In the age of the…
Your letter from Dumbledore has finally arrived : Free classes at virtual Hogwarts
Open Culture is a great resource for free online courses. They currently have listings for 900 free online courses from top universities and a few hundred free, or very low cost, online courses offering certificates. Today might be their best day yet though – Dan Coleman reports that a virtual Hogwarts has opened its doors,…
‘Family Circus’ meets ‘True Detective’ in ‘Time is a Flat Circus’
This one requires very little explanation but is much too awesome not to share. The Tumblr Time is a Flat Circus combines Family Circus with the unbridled joy and optimism of True Detective‘s Rust Cohle. You’re probably going to want to spend some time browsing it. This comes via Dangerous Minds, who also point to the Nietzsche…
The original Rolling Stone version of ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ is free online
Hunter S. Thompson was an American original and a man in the right place at the right time. At a time when nothing in U.S. politics and very little in the United States was making any sense, Thompson sidestepped the traditional journalists role. He didn’t try to ‘make sense’ of things, he simply chronicled what…
JRR Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf to be published in May
In May, HarperCollins will publish J.R.R. Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf for the first time. Tolkien, best known for the Lord of the Rings, was not principally an author. His books about Middle Earth did not enjoy great success until late in his life. The bulk of the author’s working life was spent as a scholar…
My collection of great articles on the art of writing …
I am one of the millions of people who will write a novel or ten someday when life is a little calmer. What I have at the moment are collections of notes, scenes, character outlines and little bits that fit here and there for about a dozen stories. I do like reading advice on writing…
Doctor Who’s Facebook Lookback Video
The Facebook Lookback thing was really sorta terrible and the “meme” peaked a few days after it started with the Darth Vader Facebook Lookback but this one is pretty cool too, if only as a Doctor Who mashup vid.
The King in Yellow, basis for True Detective is public domain, you can have it for free
The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers has become incredibly popular since True Detective began. For $4.83 Amazon will print a copy and ship it to you. IO9 reports that 1,602 copies have been sold through their Amazon ad alone. That’s a nice little windfall for Amazon and io9. The thing about it is…
The Hemmingway app will make your writing “bold and clear”
Ernest Hemingway was known as a writer who didn’t mince words. The new Hemingway (web and desktop) app was designed to help you find your inner Ernest. So, it’s something of a cross between a spelling and grammar check app and a style guide, if Hemingway wrote it. That, at least, is the idea. According…
Franz Kafka, the video game coming soon
The Franz Kafka video game is exactly what you think / are afraid it might be, a video game based on the writings of Franz Kafka .. so it should be Kafkaesque I suppose. Samantha Grossman at Time says “Good news for fans of alienation and deep inner turmoil: a video game based on the…