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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)
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Daily Blah for... Friday, March 17, 2006
A Is For Alan
I can't wait to see the movie version of V for Vendetta, despite the fact that the creator of the chilling dystopian comic book behind it -- Alan Moore, my favorite author in any medium -- has publically disowned the film.
I love Moore to death and I will go to the ends of the Earth to read anything he ever writes. In this case, however, I think he's being (understandably) a prima donna about his work. In this interview just published on the ComicCon website, he outlines his grievances -- a lot of perceived snubs and slights on the part of DC and Warner Brothers. The producer of the movie mistakenly thought Moore had approved the script, and said so in an interview. It sounds like he was in earnest, and he later apologized. But for Moore, who never leaves Northampton, this has become the basis for a grudge against the entire Hollywood system. His peeve with the movie itself is that where he intended the book to be a battle between anarchism and fascism, the movie is more a metaphor for liberals rebelling against neoconservatives. I understand the distinction, Alan, but so what? Given the times we live in, you can hardly blame the Wachowski brothers for moving the political goalposts. Every work of art is a product of its times, and it's not 1981 any more. I wouldn't be surprised if the Wachowskis were trying to influence and incense the apolitical members of their audiences, would you? It's certainly what I'd do, handed a project like this.
Besides, we desperately need a good movie based on a work by Alan Moore, and the sparkling reviews of V suggest we may finally have it. When I'm trying to explain who he is to people at cocktail parties who don't know comics, I first bring up Watchmen and Promethea as his finest works, then, when I get nothing but blank stares, I say "From Hell -- which they made into a really bad Johnny Depp movie, did you see that? And League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which they made into a really bad Sean Connery movie; did you see that?" At this point I get rather pitying looks, looks that say "well, the movie was based on a comic book, what do you expect?" Smashing that stereotype would be exactly the kind of anarchism we need.
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