Yes, the static methods are callable directly; I’ve added code to the snippets to better indicate the usage.

Regarding resources, I can’t think of a single resource that contains everything you’re going to need to know, but:

• Andre Staltz’s The introduction to Reactive Programming you’ve been missing is worth reading.
• As are Ben Lesh’s Medium articles; in particular RxJS: Don’t Unsubscribe and Hot vs Cold Observables.
• Also, the RxJS 4 documentation is pretty comprehensive — just bear in mind the handful of breaking changes between RxJS 4 and RxJS 5.