I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in a big field of rye and all. ... Thousands of kids, and nobody big at all, nobody big but me. And I'm standing on the edge of this crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to come and catch them. If they start to fall ... and don't look where they're going. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all.

More at NYTimes.com and npr.org

Country Without a Net
By TRACY KIDDER
NYTimes January 14, 2010
The history of Haiti’s vulnerability to natural disasters is long and complex, but the essence of it seems clear enough.

Haiti’s Angry God
By POOJA BHATIA
NYTimes January 14, 2010
On the earthquake-rubbled streets of Port-au-Prince, survivors weep, pray and ask for redemption.

Partners in Health

Doctors Without Borders

OXFAM of America

World Vision Haiti Earthquake Relief

Google Crisis Response

UPI Daily Briefing on Haiti Earthquake

Jon Stewart's tribute to Bruce: "I am not a music critic. Nor historian, nor archivist. I cannot tell you where Bruce Springsteen falls in the pantheon of the American songbook. I cannot illuminate the context of his work, or its roots in the folk and oral history traditions of our great nations. But I am from New Jersey. So, I can tell you what I believe. And what I believe is that Bob Dylan and James Brown had a baby. Yes! And they abandoned this child, as you can imagine at the time…interracial, same sex relationships being what they were…they abandoned this baby by the side of the road between the exit interchanges 8A and 9 on the Jersey Turnpike…that child was Bruce Springsteen." He continued, "I believe that Bruce Springsteen is an unprecedented combination of lyrical eloquence, musical mastery and sheer unbridled, unadulterated joy. Exuberance in the act of telling stories so familiar, stories that have never been told so well or so uniquely. And I know he’s hating this right now. He’s a modest man, and he doesn’t like sitting there in that little box, with his little suit, wearing a little rainbow dreamcatcher or whatever they have on there…he doesn’t like it. He wishes he had his guitar and that I would shut up, but I will not. He is the Boss…But I didn’t understand his music for a long time, until I began to yearn. Until I began to question the things that I was making and doing in my own life. Until I realized that it wasn’t just about the joyful parade on stage and the theatrics. It was about stories of lives that could be changed. And that the only status that you could fail to achieve is the status quo. The only thing, the only failure in life was not to make the effort to change our station. And it resonated with me because, and I say this truly to him…I would not be here, God knows, not even in this business if it were not for the inspirational words and music of Bruce Springsteen."

From Springsteen at the 32nd Annual Kennedy Center Honors

I came across author Paul Auster's story Auggie Wren's Christmas Story last year and then found that it was incorporated into the film Smoke. I used to use his Story of My Typewriter as a mouse pad, which got me to thinking about Auster again, hence the look at his website. I found there another film of his, Lulu On The Bridge, about a saxophone player.

Here's Paul Auster reading "Auggie Wren's Christmas" on NPR and a trailer for the movie Smoke on YouTube.

'Born to Run' is reborn when Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band rock The Q
This wasn't just a concert. It was a "Born"-again experience.
If witnessing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band pull out all the stops in celebration of what may be their most beloved album didn't reaffirm your faith in the power of rock 'n' roll, nothing would.
The centerpiece of their marathon show Tuesday night at The Q in Cleveland was the 1975 masterpiece "Born to Run," performed from start to finish.
By John Soeder, The Plain Dealer
November 11, 2009, 12:05PM

Setlist at http://www.brucespringsteen.net

Brothers Bloom Childhood Sequence Animatic from rcjohnso on Vimeo.

The Brothers Bloom Opening Sequence

Does the Brain Like E-Books?
NYTimes October 14, 2009

Writing and reading — from newspapers to novels, academic reports to gossip magazines — are migrating ever faster to digital screens, like laptops, Kindles and cellphones. Traditional book publishers are putting out “vooks,” which place videos in electronic text that can be read online or on an iPhone. Others are republishing old books in electronic form. And libraries, responding to demand, are offering more e-books for download.

Is there a difference in the way the brain takes in or absorbs information when it is presented electronically versus on paper? Does the reading experience change, from retention to comprehension, depending on the medium?

See also: The Future of Reading

Libraries and Readers Wade Into Digital Lending

October 9, 1940 - December 8, 1980