DOWNLOAD ROBINSON CRUSOE – PART 6

Crusoe continues to offer the reader his journal entries, describing how he brought supplies from off the shipwreck. He battles sickness and finds a way to speed his recovery. He begins to read a copy of the Bible that he finds in one of his chests. This [...]

Artist Camille Rose Garcia has illustrated a new version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I’d read her book instead of seeing the Tim Burton film. He’s really just the most obnoxiously untalented movie-maker.  He is mistakenly called a ‘dark’ director.  He is not.  Actually, he is as moronically cheerful and sunshiny as Walt [...]

From Russian animation studio Toonbox comes this marvelous animation based on a poem by Sasha Svirsky. I don’t understand a word of it but I love the sound of it. I really must find the woman who does the voice-over.  She is just magnificent and totally fearless.  The drawings are fascinating.  The rhythm is catchy.  [...]

This is British artist Banksy sneaking out at night to deface a wall that has a security camera. It think in general that it’s a pretty neat idea to deface, destroy, disable, or demolish any wall that has a security camera. This artist is unidentified because he probably likes it that way, makes [...]

This 2008 film was written, produced and directed by Javier Chillon of Madrid, Spain.  The director of photography was Luis Fuentes.  Artistic direction by Ángel Boyano.  In the fifties, a Soviet cosmonaut chimpanzee crash-lands in West Germany.  Within weeks, a deadly virus has spread across the country and confounds all the scientific experts.  The film [...]

DOWNLOAD PINOCCHIO – CHAPTER 3
Per l’Italia! For playing in the living room!
This is one of the great gifts from Italy to the children of the world. Carlo Collodi’s 1883 masterpiece, The Adventures of Pinocchio, is the story of the wooden marionette who desperately wants to be a real boy. His adventures are [...]

DOWNLOAD PINOCCHIO – CHAPTER 2
Per l’Italia! For playing in the living room!
This is one of the great gifts from Italy to the children of the world. Carlo Collodi’s 1883 masterpiece, The Adventures of Pinocchio, is the story of the wooden marionette who desperately wants to be a real boy. His adventures are [...]

I sat down with my Kindle e-reader on Saturday morning to read the Los Angeles Times.  There was an article about an L.A. used bookstore called Iliad Books.  Sounded nice.  So I went.  What should I find but a section of books about books and publishing.  There was a copy of The Nature of the [...]

Popular Science magazine has put its entire 137-year history of issues online for free.  In partnership with Google, the magazine is offering a search tool that will allow you to read anything it ever published.  Here’s an example of a publisher who actually knows what it is doing in the 21st century.  There are very [...]

The Love Police in the U.K. went to the Tower of London with their cameras and a megaphone to utilize their right to free speech. The guards at the Tower objected and called the London police. What you see in the video is the leader of the Love Police group speaking very intelligently [...]

DOWNLOAD PINOCCHIO – CHAPTER 1
Per l’Italia!  For playing in the living room!
This is one of the great gifts from Italy to the children of the world.  Carlo Collodi’s 1883 masterpiece, The Adventures of Pinocchio, is the story of the wooden marionette who desperately wants to be a real boy.  His adventures are full of mischief, [...]

DOWNLOAD ROBINSON CRUSOE – PART 5
Crusoe explains how he made his own tools and built his home on the island. He begins to show us his journal entries which track each day’s activities. He goes hunting and, much to his surprise, begins to use agriculture. All his mental efforts are bent toward [...]

Oscar Sharp made this beautiful short film in London. It stars Jethro Skinner as Ben, the ‘board guy.’ The performance is endearing and full of intelligent energy. The film was shot in HD by Anthony Gurner. I love the way the people have all these colors in their clothes and then [...]

Head is an Argentinian animation by Matias Vigliano and Dante Zaballa.  Lots of things going on at the same time.

California is hurting financially and so its muscular governor and legislature have cut $17 billion over the past two years. College students are outraged and are demonstrating and taking over school buildings. Classes are overcrowded. Libraries are disappearing. People are angry and wonder why corporations are getting tax breaks while public education suffers.  I would [...]

DOWNLOAD ROBINSON CRUSOE – PART 4
Crusoe experiences a terrifying shipwreck and is the only survivor. His struggle for food, water, and a place to sleep begin. No matter what situation Crusoe finds himself in, he never stops thinking.
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Read by Alessandro Cima
Illustration by NC Wyeth [...]

DOWNLOAD ROBINSON CRUSOE – PART 3

In this section of the novel, Crusoe continues making good on his escape. He then makes a series of fateful decisions as he tries to get on his feet and make a life for himself.
Defoe begins to get into the slavery issue and how it plays the major [...]

DOWNLOAD ROBINSON CRUSOE – PART 2
Crusoe learns more of what it means to be a seaman. He is captured off the west coast of Africa and made a slave.
In this section of the novel we get into Defoe’s treatment of the issues of slavery and race. Reading the early parts of the novel, [...]

DOWNLOAD ROBINSON CRUSOE – PART 1
This novel written by Daniel Defoe in 1719 is considered to mark the beginning of English novel-writing. It is one of the greatest books ever written and will completely enthrall readers and listeners alike. If you have only seen movies from the book, you are in for [...]