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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.
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Daily Blah for... Tuesday, December 14, 2004
The Candy Man Can. Or Can He?
So I just got through watching the 1971 "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" movie all the way through for the first time. As a kid, I determined once and for all to boycott it -- I'm a big fan of the book, with which they took significant liberties (Charlie isn't blond! Or American! His dad isn't dead!) -- not to mention my hatred of musicals. Well, that was then. Now I see the movie and its cheesy songs for what they are: frozen moments from a more hopeful, if naive era, when a great global change seemed imminent, when we shot for the moon, when the candy man didn't automatically appear like a child molester and it didn't seem laughable to invite children to change the world through "pure imagination." (And what, as Elvis Costello might have sung, is so funny about peace, love and pure imagination?) Plus I never knew until I saw the credits that the late, great Roald Dahl wrote the screenplay as well as the book. That's like the royal seal of approval for all those liberties.
That was then indeed. Now we've got the threat of a new Tim Burton version, due in June, with Johnny Depp taking the part that clung to Gene Wilder like an everlasting gobstopper. Check out the trailer here. Go through it slowly enough -- it's one of those annoyingly quick cut teaser trailers that forces you to pause and inch forward frame by frame -- and what you'll notice is how disappointingly similar everything seems to the 1971 version. Same costumes in the TV scene, same psychadelic chocolate factory dreamscape -- gussied up digitally, of course, but basically the same vision. There are a few amendations, but they don't bode well. The Wonka song that plays over the trailer is enough to make me shudder. And in a misguided attempt to pay homage to that naive era, Burton appears to have turned the Oompa-Loompas into Beatles. Let's face it, after Planet of the Apes, he doesn't have the greatest track record with remakes. I love Depp's mimickry -- his Hunter Thompson was a thing of beauty -- but his Wonka seems off somehow: cold, shallow, vacant. And what's with the prosthetic teeth?
Could be worse, I suppose. At least Charlie isn't blond this time.
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