|
|
Add one part satire to two parts sincerity. Sprinkle on a couple of rants. Stir liberally.
RSS feed coming soon!
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.
If it's called Daily Blah, how come you don't ... hey, wait, you're writing every day!
See? Told you I'd try harder.
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
Friends, Bloggers, Countrymen ... lend your ears to these people. I come not to bury them, but praise them.
Arik
Bill
Dan
Cole
Emily B
Emily G
Helena
Jee
Jewelz
Kaila
Kathryn
Mac
Robin
Slim
Souris
Mr. West
My TIME articles
All magazine articles (subscription required for older stories)
Online column index
|
|
|
|
|
Daily Blah for... Sunday, November 16, 2003
The Universe of Cool, the Universe of Outrage
Thank you, Dan. I think I'm in seat 24E. Could you hold my popcorn for a second?
Seriously, welcome to the Daily Blah. Welcome to the Blah stage two, in which I'm hoping to employ the fine wit of my most plugged-in friends for more extensive reportage. Well, it's that or I'm just too damnably lazy to write every day and I need more eager participants to create an echo chamber. Either way, call it Blah a la BoingBoing, the web's premiere bloggy destination, written by the delightful Cory Doctrow and some fellow intimidatingly smart minds.
What will be the basis of this reportage? Anything in the universe of cool. And anything in the universe of outrage. I want Daily Blah to be a place where people come to get excited or angry about the world, but never unmoved. Our writers will be prospectors looking for nuggets of gold: tiny yet pivotal news items that affect the nature of things. We will face the onrushing future with smiles of greeting and a quizical eyebrow. We will not be afraid to wonder out loud. We might point gleefully to the latest gadget or social network, or skewer them with satire. Perhaps both at the same time. We might take a piece of news small enough that it didn't make many front pages (say, Wesley Clark's recent hints that he would support a flag-burning amendment) and tie it to other developments (Howard Dean announcing his intent to appeal to guys with Confederate flags in their trucks), leaving instinctive conclusions (are the mainstream Democratic candidates tilting to the right, or do they just want to look like they are?) hanging in the air like colorful helium balloons.
We will link shamelessly. We will offer ideas freely. We will build coalitions of ideas. We will give shout-outs. (Nice article on TiVo addiction, Elinor!) From out of the global babble, we will cherry-pick choice quotes. We will walk up to you at the cocktail party of life with a tray full of nouvelle cuisine-like news, presented as amuse bouche, and wash it down for you with the champagne of writing styles -- brief, bubbly, witty and weighty. And would you like a napkin, m'am?
We will bring you, in short, the Daily Blah.
Now with 20% more self-advertizing.
|
|
|
|
