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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)
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"Better than Xanax." - Lessley Andersen, journalist
"Dude, lay off the crack pipe." - Souris Hong-Porretta, gamesmith
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Daily Blah for... Tuesday, July 01, 2003
Mo' Mobs
Some more details on the whole mob thing, and then I'm clocking off for the night.
First of all, it seems there's an appropriate level of confusion over what to name these Dada-ist groups. I've seen "Inexplicable Mobs" and "Flash Mobs." I like the latter. Flash mobs, like flash floods. To the clueless downtown public who witness them, they appear from nowhere, gather for ten or twenty or thirty minutes, do something wacky, then dissolve as quickly as they came, like a force of nature. We seem to be riding the crest of the flash mob wave right now. There's the aforementioned Flash Mob group in New York (photos of the whole Love Rug thing here), which is about to do its third gathering tomorrow in Grand Central, plus one in Minneapolis, and a weird Agent-Smith-from-the-Matrix one in Tokyo.
Secondly, San Francisco's first attempt at a Flash Mob sucked. I showed up at the bar a few minutes early, contrary to instructions, thinking I'd set the "before" scene in journalistic fashion. The quiet before the storm, etc. I sat at the bar and ordered the special, a $2.75 margarita. The guy next to me, doing shots, berated me for getting it frozen rather than on the rocks. The appointed minute came. And went. A geeky-looking couple in pony tails crept in, looking nervous. More followed over the next few minutes. I recognized one person. Eventually we had a grand total of sixteen -- critical mass enough for us to recognize each other, but barely enough to beat the number of regular patrons, let alone pack the place out or start working on our "cocktail chain" shtick. SantaCon this wasn't.
A bold attempt, nevertheless, on the part of Rob Zazueta, the cheery web development guy who set this all up and vowed to keep trying. A few more days, a few more hours, and the network effect may have kicked in. The 4:46pm thing was a little weird, we all agreed -- not the best time to try to get people downtown with bang-up-to-the-minute efficiency. And perhaps next time we could do something a little more imaginative, along the lines of the Love Rug. This, after all, could easily have been a promotion for the Gold Dust Bar and its cheap margaritas. Not that cheap margaritas are a bad thing. The world needs more flash mobs, but it could just as easily do with more cheap margaritas. You think if I keep saying the name of the drink enough times, eventually someone will bring me one? Frozen, please. Not on the rocks.
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