Tipping Point
I just finished Malcolm Gladwell's bestseller The Tipping Point. The book is based on a series of essays the top Canadian wrote for The New Yorker.

He was fascinated why some things click and stick becoming part of cultural landscape, while others just fall to the wayside. Gladwell looks at diseases like AIDS (examining its rapid transmission and why), takes on trends like the revival of Hush Puppies as "must have" footwear, and even goes back to the American Revolution to talk about how Paul Revere got the word out.

According to Gladwell, there are three crucial factors for things to become epidemic. They must be contagious, little causes can have big effects, and finally change doesn't happen gradually. It happens with a big bang.

The author makes a good argument for what Pavlovian dogs we've all become. It's frightening how easily things get spread. Hush Puppies came back into style because a group of very hip kids started wearing them to raves. The word traveled fast. It was the same thing with Paul Revere. Revere was an affable guy whom everyone knew and liked. When he road through town they recognized him and they listened. It's just like the old ad used to say, "And she told two friends, and she told two friends and so on and so on ..."

There are parts of the book that feel more like opinion than constructs of solid research. Moreover, I found the book a tad simplistic and quietly bemoaned the lack of really deep penetrating insight and deep history. But isn't that another trend in this day and age? Perhaps Gladwell clued into dumbing down, realizing that if he wanted to sell some books, he'd better aim low. All in all, I'd still give this book a thumbs up. The author's thesis is reasonably strong and ably argued. If nothing else it will have you questioning why you've suddenly just GOT to have high speed internet access? Do we really need it, or we have we all been tipped?

The Tipping Point Website: Take a test to see if you are a "connector."

Ur-Boor
7a*11d and FADO present internationally acclaimed performance artist Rachel Rosenthal at the DuMaurier Theatre Centre in Toronto. This will be Canada's last chance to see the 73-year-old Rosenthal, who plans to retire later this year. Her swan song Ur-Boor, is a solo work where Rosenthal is "selected by lottery to integrate and exorcise boorishness in a world that has reverted to scapegoating. Alone in an orbiting space capsule with a talking computer — an inventive sculptural set created by Canadian artist Guy Laramee — she must, through introspection, rid the world of incivility, rudeness and barbarism."

I wonder why they chose a space capsule? In this increasingly insular world why not a car in the midst of some road rage? Or maybe your tiny airless, windowless cubicle at work? Ur-Boor sounds like an evocative work performed by one of the art form's great modern masters.

Rachel Rosenthal, Ur-Boor
June 29, 8pm
du Maurier Theatre Centre

Fine Tuning
Fans of TV's Black Harbour will want to tune tonight for South of Wawa. The film stars Rebecca Jenkins (Black Harbour's Katherine Hubbard), as a donut shop waitress who dreams of hitting the highway, heading to Toronto to see a rock concert. On Global at 9 pm ET

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