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The increasingly inaccurately-named blog of journalist and futurist Chris Taylor. Either the most sporadically brilliant amateur blog, the most brilliantly amateur sporadic blog, or the most amateur sporadic brilliance on the Web since 2001.
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Daily Blah FAQ
Who are you?
I'm the newly-appointed Future editor at Business 2.0 and the former San Francisco correspondent for Time Magazine.
Wow, so does this mean everything you write reflects Time Inc's opinion? Or do you perhaps have some sort of standard disclaimer to the effect that it doesn't?
Naturally, the opinions contained in this blog are not those of my employers. In fact, some opinions may be the polar opposite of my employers. Some may be the same, for all I know. Hey, it's not like I ask my employers their opinions about everything in the news, okay? Let's just say that if this were a Venn diagram with one circle marked "my opinions" and the other one marked "my employers' opinions", there would doubtless be some overlap. But neither I nor my employers are able to pinpoint exactly where that overlap is.
What is this Daily Blah thing?
An experiment for a column I wrote about blogging back in December 2001. All these years later, I haven't been able to kick the habit.
Do you write any other blogs, by chance? Could that have something to do with the fact that Daily Blah isn't always Daily?
Yes -- the Future Boy blog for Business 2.0. And yes. If you want true, editorially-mandated daily coverage from me, that's probably the best place to look.
Mister, you talk funny. Are you one of them furrners?
Why yes I am, as it happens. I was born, raised and educated in Great Britain. I've been living in the U.S. since 1996 and identify as British.
I say, old chap, you forgot the "u" in "colour."
No I didn't. I may identify as British, but I am also an American journalist writing for an American audience about mostly American issues. These two different sides of me are a constant source of tension. Nevertheless, Daily Blah will adhere to American English grammar and spelling.
Praise for Daily Blah:
"It is fun to watch the author's navel-gazing joy." - Sunday Times (UK)
"It's really funny and informative." - Dave Eggers, author
"The Blah is becoming a daily destination for me." - Richard Marsh, Playwright
"I like it, and I don't." - Fiona Hogg, Teacher
"Better than Xanax." - Lessley Andersen, journalist
"Dude, lay off the crack pipe." - Souris Hong-Porretta, gamesmith
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Daily Blah for... Wednesday, June 19, 2002
The Rapport on 'Report'
As a committed Philip K. Dick fan, I'm looking forward to Friday's release of the Spielberg spectacular Minority Report almost as much as Thursday night's England-Brazil showdown. And the early buzz is that this is the best translation yet of any Dick story to the screen -- better than Total Recall, better even than Blade Runner. Report is getting a phenomenal 94% fresh rating on Rottentomatoes.com, the only website that matters when it comes to movie reviews. Why? Because it lists and links to all the other movie reviews, decides whether each one constitutes a fresh or a rotten tomato, then adds them all up in a percentage figure. I have found it to be a highly accurate guide to the quality of a film: I'm practically guaranteed a miserable couple of hours if the flick is less than 50% fresh.
Such precognition is never to be entirely relied upon, of course (that being the case in Minority Report's dystopian and timely future Washington D.C., whose residents are arrested for crimes they have not yet committed). Many of the heavyweight reviewers have yet to chime in. And this is Spielberg, after all, who has demonstrated an inclination in recent years to spin gold into sentimental mush: I'm still not sure whether to forgive him for what he did to Kubrick's last pet project, A.I. Tom Cruise, meanwhile, hasn't made a good movie since Magnolia. We'll find out in a few days whether both deserve absolution.
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