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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... Thursday, January 05, 2006
The io, the itc and the ardrob
Speaking of Chronicles of Narnia, which I really wasn't, I finally saw the film during my week-long excursion to the home country. Like Lord of the Rings, it's the kind of movie event best seen (for nostalgia's sake) with the person who first read it to you. As I told my mother: when they make the CGI epic battle-filled version of House at Pooh Corner, we're buying tickets whether you like it or not.
In the end, I think I liked the first CofN a little more than the first LotR. (Even though I'm the pedantic sort who thinks Magician's Nephew really should have been the first CofN movie -- and while we're on the topic, according to at least one report, Disney has opted to skip the next book in the series, The Horse and his Boy, in favor of the next one with all four of the Earth kids, Prince Caspian.)
The reason I liked it better could have something to do with the fact that it was successfully de-hyped before I saw it by my friend Aaron, who never read CofN as a kid and disliked what he saw, characterizing the overarching battle between Aslan and the White Witch, the forces of summer versus the forces of winter, as "an argument over the thermostat." Indeed, the reviews I've read all seemed to depend for their opinion entirely on whether the critic in question encountered the Lion, Witch and Wardrobe first as a child or adult.
Which seems fitting, since the ability of children to perceive the magic that can transport them between worlds -- and of grownups to ignore it -- is a constant theme in the Narnia series, more so even than the oft-discussed Christian symbolism. In a nice touch, there's a final scene halfway through the credits where Jim Broadbent's professor explains to Lucy that the older you get, the less likely you are to go back through the wardrobe. Most of the adults in the place missed it, having already bolted for the exits.
Probably the only thing I didn't like was the fact that the projectionist had inexplicably cut off the top and the bottom 15 percent or so of the screen. There'd be plenty of shots of Peter, say, in heroic pose and full chainmail regalia, with his head cut off like he was in someone's bad holiday photos. So instead of urging Edmund not to get too close to the White Witch, I found myself urging him not to get too close to the top of the shot. Thank goodness for the shorter characters, like Mr. Tumnus and Mr. Beaver, or the whole movie would have been headless.
"It'll be nice when it's finished," I said afterwards, but my family had no idea what I was talking about. One of them, who shall remain nameless, had noticed the headlessness, but "thought that was just the director's vision." Oh well -- it gives me a good excuse to go back through the wardrobe soon.
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