Gladwell validates "The Little Engine That Could."
If spring chicken status has passed you by and you've yet to express your genius, there's still hope for you, according to marketing guru Malcolm Gladwell. In one chapter of his latest book "Outliers," he explores the phenomenon of late bloomers whose stories of exploration and perseverance challenge the romantic notion that genius happens early or not at all.

"On the road to great achievement, the late bloomer will resemble a failure..." Gladwell writes. "Whenever we find a late bloomer, we can't help but wonder how many others like him or her we have thwarted because we prematurely judged their talents."

Tastes like... chicken?
Searching for the next trendy food ingredient à la the Brazilian Acai berry? How 'bout some fainting goat or Makah ozette potatoes or Ojai pixie tangerines? Such ingredients are currently considered endangered species, but enthnobotanist Gary Paul Nabhan is trying to change that status by encouraging consumers to eat what's in short supply.

In his book "Renewing America's Food Traditions," he shares once-popular American recipes in hopes that, by reintroducing the ingredients to our palates, the demand will increase the supply. "If we save a vegetable but we don't save the recipes and the farmers don't benefit because no one eats it, then we haven't done our work," Nabhan told "The New York Times."

Thanks, I Macramé-ed It Myself.
As Generation Y searches for more authentic alternatives to the mass-produced options on offer at malls and superstores, more people are turning to old-school arts and crafts and D.I.Y.-ing it with a new-school aesthetic. One such woman, Faythe Levine, documents the emerging culture in her forthcoming film "Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft and Design."

"Here were these people doing things the hard way, making these amazing things," she told "The New York Times" of her conversion. "It was the incredibly awesome idea that people were taking the time to do this, and that I could do it, too."

Tastes like... chicken? Pt. II
Rock bands, like armies, travel on their stomachs. And after a show, when groups are typically traveling through the night to the next gig, dining options are severely limited. In most states, it means greasy eats at truck stops, Waffle House or Denny's.

Now Denny's is capitalizing on the association with its Rockstar Menu, featuring branded breakfast fare from the likes of Katy Perry, Taking Back Sunday and Hoobastank, and offered between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. The chain also sponsors touring bands, providing free meals and hosting impromptu after-show parties.

Late-night diners can consider themselves either informed or warned. Either way, they should watch out for Kid Rock, who made headlines earlier this year when he was arrested after an early morning brawl with a patron at a Waffle House in Atlanta.

Buying in is the new selling out.
In rock's heyday, it was called selling out to The Man. Nowadays licensing music to advertisers--or creating a branded menu item for a food chain--is one of the best ways to breakthrough as a new artist. In her forthcoming book, "As Heard on TV: Popular Music in Advertising," media analyst Bethany Klein traces the cultural shifts and changes in the music industry that led to advertisers being perceived as "playing hero to the damsel-in-distress of the struggling artist," according to Klein.

Tastes like... chicken? Pt. III
If innovation is, in part, about making brands literally remarkable, marketers can take inspiration from a new generation of headline-grabbing conceptual artists, from Damien Hirst to Banksy to Terence Koh.

Koh's newest show, "Flowers for Baudelaire," features edible art reportedly made of only corn syrup and powdered sugar on plain canvases. "I was just trying to make the simplest paintings possible," he told "New York" magazine.

At the show's New York opening in November, the controversial artist invited guests to lick his paintings. His guests, however, were understandably skittish to take him up on the offer, as Koh is notorious for using bodily fluids as a medium.

"The question is we don't know if it's powdered sugar or crystal meth," art dealer Jeffrey Deitch told "New York," while declaring the work "magical."