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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
Friends, Bloggers, Countrymen ... lend your ears to these people. I come not to bury them, but praise them.
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Daily Blah for... Friday, April 29, 2005
The Verdict: Mostly Harmless?
At last, after armies of fanboys and the hip-oise condemned early screenings of the movie for failing to live up to the Douglas Adams legacy, real movie critics -- who don't give a damn about how faithful it is to the book or the radio series -- are starting to weigh in. And so today we have a positive review for Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in the New York Times. This is very encouraging, as I will be forced to see it before long and was preparing myself for a disappointment the size of a planet. Granted, I am very attached to the original TV show, and I'm not sure I will ever feel good about Mos Def as Ford Prefect or Sam Rockwell as Zaphod Beeblebrox. But here's the thing about Hitchhiker's -- it was always evolving. That was the idea. "I see it as an homage to David Deutsch's 'many universes' theory," Adams told me in the one interview I was lucky enough to do with him before his death. The book, the radio series, the TV show, they all go off in different plot directions. The dialogue changes, expands, contracts. The humor evolves. Dogmatic adherence to a single text dissolves. And the fact that you don't necessarily need a Babel Fish to enjoy all the different versions -- yes, even the Disney version -- in their own way ... well, let's just say there's hope for the third most intelligent species on this planet yet.
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