Stoppage Time

Since I’m drawing a blank on what to write about on such a dreary Sunday, I figured I’d share some recent movies, music, and/or entertainment that I’ve encountered:

Band – While on I-Tunes, a suggestion was made to check into a band called K-OS. I’m sure some of you have heard of this rapper/mixer, but being a Philly guy, we don’t have radio stations that expand our music experience (translation – canned reprocessed crap). This is a description of the latest album from the Virgin music website:

Atlantis - Hymns for Disco is k-os most personal album yet, coming off of the near double platinum sales of Joyful Rebellion, k-os takes his music, artistry and message to a new level. With a fine balance of diverse musical sounds, brilliant vocals, and insightful lyrics, he satisfies the longtime "Superstarr P.0" fan yet easily makes the newfound "Crabbuckit" fan feel right at home.

I was so impressed by this, I bought the entire cd – has a very cool mix of 80’s rap sounds, reggae music, some Latin-style guitar stylings, and rock and roll. In one song, he even fuses 50’s Elvis rock with rap … and it works! It is diverse, a more intelligent sound than what Outkast plays, but with the same infectious toe-tappability (is that even a word?). I would recommend having a listen to “Sunday Morning,” as well as “Valhalla.”


Movie – I got a chance to catch that movie “Click” last weekend, starring Adam Sandler … I know, it’s been over a year since it came out, but hey, better late than never. So, anyway, I was expecting a laugh-a-minute comedy, and probably for the first ½ hour, that’s what it was. But, man, did that movie get sad or what? I’m not saying that’s a bad thing – in fact, it probably made the movie better from an artistic standpoint. It’s just not the comedy that it was made out to be … probably more of a rom-com … which, as you may know, I love anyway. Certainly a good flick to catch on a date.


Book - The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, by Malcolm Gladwell … yes, even I read books sometimes. This was recommended by a coworker, and once I picked it up, I couldn’t put it down. It

This is a summary that I “borrowed” from Amazon.com. It sums it up better than I ever could:

The premise of this facile piece of pop sociology has built-in appeal: little changes can have big effects; when small numbers of people start behaving differently, that behavior can ripple outward until a critical mass or "tipping point" is reached, changing the world. Gladwell's thesis that ideas, products, messages and behaviors "spread just like viruses do" remains a metaphor as he follows the growth of "word-of-mouth epidemics" triggered with the help of three pivotal types. These are Connectors, sociable personalities who bring people together; Mavens, who like to pass along knowledge; and Salesmen, adept at persuading the unenlightened. (Paul Revere, for example, was a Maven and a Connector). Gladwell's applications of his "tipping point" concept to current phenomena--such as the drop in violent crime in New York, the rebirth of Hush Puppies suede shoes as a suburban mall favorite, teenage suicide patterns and the efficiency of small work units--may arouse controversy. For example, many parents may be alarmed at his advice on drugs: since teenagers' experimentation with drugs, including cocaine, seldom leads to hardcore use, he contends, "We have to stop fighting this kind of experimentation. We have to accept it and even embrace it." While it offers a smorgasbord of intriguing snippets summarizing research on topics such as conversational patterns, infants' crib talk, judging other people's character, cheating habits in schoolchildren, memory sharing among families or couples, and the dehumanizing effects of prisons, this volume betrays its roots as a series of articles for the New Yorker, where Gladwell is a staff writer: his trendy material feels bloated and insubstantial in book form. Agent, Tina Bennett of Janklow & Nesbit.