February 2007 Archives

Hi everybody. Today, I would like to talk about thin-slicing. Thin slicing is the basic theme behind a book called "Blink" and you shoud read it.

I usually don't care for lots of psychology talk, but this is one of the few books that featured experiments that sounded interesting and had solid, real-world applications.

That author, Malcom Gladwell, has also written the "Tipping Point" which dealt with the world around us, Blink deals switches it, fo real, and deals with understanding ourselves. Through numerous examples Gladwell shows that we should truly trust our first instinct. One especially revealing experiment uses autistic people against normal people, illustrating just how important interpreting facial expressions can be. You see, one of the main differences between us and autistic folks is that they cannot read faces and expressions, the book illustrates this point by having normals and autistics watching a movie, monitoring the eye movements of both througout basically showing how important the unspoken word is. Fascinating, me thinks.

I guess this book hits home with yours truly because I always get bogged down by too much thought about people, places and things. But my worries over nouns is silly, trust your gut y'all it will deliver you.

P.S. - Props to my man Guillermo Del Toro for taking home three Oscar's - I told you, this movie is the isht.

I am feeling soulful today, let's hear India Irie's homage to Stevie Wonder "Wonderful" and the lovely Jill Scott's "Family Reunion" ahhh yeah.

Well. I am a bit disappointed in the lack of response to the serendipity post. I guess my readership is down and my advertising is nil, so that is to be expected. Anyway, onwards and upwards, me thinks.

Today, I would like to steal a bit of my fellow eLarceny blogger, Dr. Bone. I recently had the opportunity to see "Children of Men." Of all the visions of the future movie audiences have been treated to over the past few years, the world of Children of Men may be the most frightening and effective.

Directed by Alfonso Cauron (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), and set in 2027 London, the film takes place at a time when the planet is in the grip of an infertility crisis. Societies worldwide have collapsed after no children have been born in almost two decades, and the survivors of the ensuing wars, atrocities and civil breakdowns flee to Britain, which still functions under a harsh regime.

Clive Owen (Closer, Sin City) plays Theo, a former activist now working as a paper-pusher in the Ministry of Energy and downing a large amount of Scotch to get him through the day. Amen.

He walks to work past terrorist bombings, cages filled with illegal immigrants rounded up by riot police, and piles of garbage littering the London streets. When an old flame and revolutionary, played by Julianne Moore, appears with a request that he use his governmental connections to help her move a refugee girl across the country, he agrees on the basis he be compensated. When he discovers that the girl (Kee, played by Claire-Hope Ashitey) is pregnant, his mission takes on new dimensions.

As a thriller, the film is blisteringly intense and incredibly effective. From the bomb blast that caps off the opening credits to the frenzied urban warfare sequences that dominate the film's closing thirty minutes, the film does lag in spots, but its commentary on current events is poignant and worthwhile.

How about some more breakbeats? Here's "Bra" by Cymande and "Get Out My Life Woman" by Lee Dorsey.