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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... Thursday, July 08, 2004
Best. Superhero movie. Ever.
Am I the only moviegoer in the world who doesn't think Spider Man 2 was all that hot? Sure, it had a nice collection of laughs, mature moral quandaries and CGI sequences, and I won't be demanding my $9 back any time soon. But that hardly makes it "the most effective superhero movie ever", as even Wired News -- normally reliably cynical when it comes to mass entertainment -- has dubbed it.
Perhaps I would have felt differently if I hadn't already read all the reviews I could get my hands on. I can't help myself; pre-movie, I'm a review-o-holic. P is the exact opposite: whisper the tiniest detail of a movie in advance and she starts drowning you out with very loud singing. If you're the same way and haven't seen the movie yet, it's probably best that you skip the rest of this entry. Either that, or begin chanting "la la la" ... now.
Anyway, the Spidey review that most intrigued me came from A O Scott in the NYT. This is because Scott took his eight-year-old son along for some objective analysis. Most of it was cool, said the lad, but the one bit he really, really didn't like was where Peter Parker tossed his costume in the trash. "He can't do that," he insisted. "He can't give up being Spider Man."
I knew exactly what he was talking about. My mind went back to when I was his age and held equally rigid views on superhero job security. It was when I saw Superman 2, which as we all now know was the Empire Strikes Back of the Christopher Reeves quartet. And without seeming like an old fogey, I wanted to say to the Scott kid: you think Spidey bagging his web-wear is tough to stomach? Try watching Supes turn in his cape at the Fortress of Solitude and electing to become human (and for what? For Lois Lane! For a girl!).
There followed a sequence in which the Man of Steel is stripped down to his very skeleton and rebuilt as a vulnerable mortal. Later he is assaulted in a bar, and bleeds. The sight was so hideous to my young eyes that not even his later (somewhat implausible) reaquisition of his powers could make up for it. I left the theater utterly inconsolable, my father no doubt wishing he could get his two pounds back. Had he been a movie reviewer, I don't think he would have gotten any coherent analysis out of me that day.
So naturally, I found the Parker-gives-up scene (what, he just puts his costume in a trash can? That's all?) terribly tame by comparison. And as good an actor as Alfred Molina is, there's no way his Doc Ock can touch Terence Stamp as General Zod, resplendently evil in the world's most casual black PVC outfit. Tell the truth, I don't get the Ock character -- why did he have to attach those arms to his back in the first place? Wouldn't robot arms operated by remote joystick have had the same effect? Sorry, Spider fans: even at the movies, Supes still rules.
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