iPad, Tintin and Fulham

Here is this Sunday’s smorgasbord:

Image courtesy of Apponmyi.com

iPad for Kindergarteners: CNET carried an analysis of how every child in elementary schools in Auburn, Maine is going to receive an iPad. The school superintend for the schools, Tom Morrill, spoke highly of the value of iPad for young children and of the merits of introducing children early on to new media and new tools. He also went on to say that the iPad is “even more important than a book.” Here is something we have been anticipating now for some time – school, education and books are not going to be linked together for ever. While there has been a lot of focus on MacBook’s in colleges, elementary school is where the habits of a new generation is going to start. If you play word association with a kindergartener from Auburn, I wonder what she will say if you say “read.”

 

 

Image courtesy of Forbidden Planet

 

2nd Tintin Movie?: Tintin fans most likely know that Spielberg is directing Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn and that it is due out around Christmas 2011. Now MTV reveals that plans are afoot for a second Tintin movie – Prisoners of the Sun and Anthony Horowitz is on the cards as a writer. Horowitz of the Alex Rider series – a sort of James Bond for kids. Tintin is such an iconic character that I wait with some trepidation for the movie. It is great to hear of future plans but will they get it right?

Michael Jackson and English Football: Yeah, you are not the only one wondering what they have to do with each other! As Time magazine reports,  Fulham FC fans have to put up or shut up about the Jackson statue that adorns the stadium front. Owner Mohammed Al Fayed is unmoved by questions about “Why Michael Jackson” and feels that those who do not appreciate his tastes can become fans of , wait, Chelsea! He told the BBC, “If they don’t understand and don’t believe in things I believe in they can go to [rival soccer team] Chelsea, they can go to anywhere else.”

A Royal Wedding, Old Books and World Cup 2011

Here is this Sunday’s Smorgasbord:

21st Century Royal Wedding: The British royalty has to keep finding ways to establish that they can connect with the common people. In today’s world that means that the royal wedding needs a website!

I also found out that the Queen has a Facebook page, aYouTube channel and a Twitter account. So, for those who want to get the latest info on the wedding preparations, there are ways to feel extremely well informed!

List of Old Favorites: Every now and then somebody does a list of old favorites – books, movies, cars, etc. For a reader it is always fun to see which books made the list. So, I naturally paused when I saw Huff Post’s post titled ‘From Hemingway to Hardy: Favorite Old Books.’ Readers were asked to name books older than 15 years that they would like to read or are reading and the results included Elizabeth Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters and Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow – two books I have added to my to-be-read list. Maybe you will find some that interest you too….

 

Image courtesy of Bleacher Report

India Wins World Cup 2011: The biggest news this weekend in the world that follows cricket was that India beat Sri Lanka in the World Cup 2011 final. For those who are not sure why this matters, there is a fascinating article (warning: it is long) by ESPN’s Wright Thompson about Why You Should Care About Cricket. A month-long series of matches featuring 14 countries ended with India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand in the semi-finals. India beat Pakistan and Sri Lanka beat New Zealand to meet on Saturday for the finals. India won the World Cup after a 28-year wait since its last win. It is interesting to me that the world has accepted that good cricketers, a game seen as quintessentially English, can come from around the world but there is still hesitation in accepting that good English writers can also have names such as Tendulkar and Jayawardane!

 

Theater, Art and a Deceased Obit Writer

Here is this Sunday’s Smorgasbord.

Staging Titus Andronicus: There has been much interest in using digital tools for education and teachers from elementary schools to universities are experimenting with ways to use their students’ technological prowess. The New York Times carried an article about an interesting way that a Bryn Mawr professor is helping her students relate to Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus. The Theatron3 website allows the students to have a very real experience of how the play would have worked in the Globe Theater, where Shakespeare’s works were stages. The palpable reality of the experience makes the play come alive. The Theatron website includes many of the ancient world’s exciting theaters such as the Odeion of Agrippa and the Theatre of Pompey. Take a peek at the Globe here:

Image courtesy of LACMA

Art Lover as Couch Potato: For a while now we have been hearing about museums bringing their collections online. The idea that I can sit at home and tour the best world museums is exhilarating. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art announced recently that it is offering free access to high-resolution images of its extensive collection through its Image Library. So, today I got to sit and browse through a range of images from Ancient Chinese Art to German Expressionism and got to see this haunting 17th century painting by Georges de la Tour called The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame.

 

Taylor Outlives Obit Writer: In one of those stories that falls under “Life’s Little Ironies,’ I read a piece in the Huffington Post that the New York Times obituary writer who drafted the famous actress’ obit died in 2005. It is an accepted, though macabre, practice of major publications to have an obituary prepared for famous people to handle potentially tight deadlines. In this case, the obit writer Mel Gussow got his piece published last week following Elizabeth Taylor’s demise on Wednesday. The obituary was published crediting Gussow as principal writer with “William McDonald and the Associated Press contributed updated reporting.” RIP Gussow and Taylor.