Tales of Interest: Rod Stuart Loves the Hamptons Edition

I've been computerless for about a week now... so that's my excuse for a lack of activity (also, I'm working on enlisting some help, so hopefully B won't continue to chicken out on me). But, on the bright side, I'm going to be coming into a fair bit more free time (I think) and I almost guarantee that I'll eventually see a show in Toronto. For now, a couple of links until I polish up my 'Hottest Bands of '08 post'...

• Malcolm Gladwell on 'Late Bloomers', which examines the difference between the genius that just happens (when artist, writers, etc. are young) and those works of genius that take time and happen later in life.
  

• From the Onion: "Breast Cancer Launches WNBA Awareness month"... which reminded me of the episode of the Family Guy where Stewie knocks down the girl in Kindergarten, she starts crying, and Stewie says "... and that's why people don't have any respect for the WNBA". Ahhhhhh, good times.

• A link to David Foster Wallace's article on tennis player Michael Joyce, which was written years ago, but is still awesome.
  

• A post from Allan's blog asking is 'Hip Hop Dead?'. This isn't something I'd normally comment on, but since I'm making my way through a book on the development and evolution of Hip-Hop, I thought I'd weigh in.

1. Hip-Hop came out of Jamaica, and was nurtured and developed in the Bronx by guys like Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaata in basements, parks, and then in the clubs.

2. Both the good and the bad that we see in Hip-Hop is Hip-Hop. Nelson George, I think, once wrote that Hip-Hop is a reflection of America, which is to say that everything we see in Hip-Hop we see (or should see if we're looking) in ourselves. Yes, there is a lot of gang-banging, misogyny, materialism, and other things that we don't like in Hip-Hop, but these things don't just exist in music. So, like in every other aspect of our lives, we have to make choices, and sometimes by seeing and understanding these phenomenon we can change them.

3. I used to be really, really, into Hip-Hop - it was just about all I listened to. Personally, I got tired of gangster rap, and then guys re-acting to gangster rap - talking about how other rappers don't understand what rap is about. I still keep tabs on a few guys that I used to listen to a lot - The Roots, Brother Ali, Little Brother - but really I just find myself getting more and more into guys who make catchy songs with hot beats (see, West, Kanye; Wayne, Lil'). Maybe there's more stuff that I should be hearing, and if that's the case, as always, let me know....