Compelling Conversations blog

Recently, Eric Roth, the author of Compelling Conversations, mentioned my book, The Creative Classroom on his blog. Here's what he had to say:

The Creative Classroom: Teaching Language Outside the Box, by Hall Houston, contains dozens of bite-sized exercises to spark authentic language and creative discourse, This slim book, published by Lynx, should especially appeal to ESL students with a background or interest in engineering, science, and the arts.

http://compellingconversations.com/blog/?p=121

Thanks for the kind words, Eric!

I've moved

As you might have noticed, I'm no longer working in Hong Kong. I'm now a full-time English instructor in Taoyuan, Taiwan. Hope to add posts more frequently now.

Scientific American Mind article on creativity

The latest issue of Scientific American Mind contains an article titled "How to Unleash Your Creativity." This article features a discussion between several experts on creative thinking, including Julia Cameron and Robert Epstein. You can read the article here:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=how-to-unleash-your-creativity

Scientific American is also presenting an extended version of this discussion as an audiobook:

http://www.amazon.com/Brainstorm-Using-Science-Maximum-Creativity/dp/1427204411/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213156596&sr=1-1

The audiobook also contains other Scientific American Mind articles on creativity.

Inspiring Creativity

Brian David Phillips, a professor in Taiwan, recently did a presentation on creativity at the Taipei First Girls High School. Here you can read more about the presentation and see a short clip:

http://briandavidphillips.typepad.com/brian/2008/04/inspiring-creat.html

Sir Ken Robinson talks on creativity

Sir Ken Robinson gives an excellent talk on creativity and education:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/66

Henry Fool

It's been about 10 years since Henry Fool, my all-time favorite film, was released. I saw it in Austin, Texas with a friend I knew from graduate school. I had seen other Hal Hartley films, but this one made the strongest impression on me. I even bought the book which contains the script and read it many times. Here's the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DqwXyN9q84

Also, here's Sony Pictures' webpage for the film:

http://www.sonypictures.com/classics/henryfool/index.html

You might also want to know that there was a sequel:

http://www.faygrimfilm.com/

I liked it but not nearly as much as Henry Fool. See the DVD extras for more about the cult following behind Henry Fool, as well as Hartley's plans to make more sequels.

I'd personally like to see a "My Dinner with Andre" style conversation with Henry Fool and Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt's character in Fight Club).