March 22, 2004

• It may just be cynicism. Couldn't one easily do this kind of thing without following the "suggestions" of someone who calls himself the Leader? Seems vaguely cult of personality. Join me, not join us. Not that join us wouldn't be disturbing for other reasons. OTOH, it doesn't look like they have a nemesis/corrupter/destroyer figure yet. Some entity who seeks to ruin Friday fun for everyone. I call dibs.
• I suppose being in a group means that you get peer pressure to continue doing it week after week. Doing it alone means that there's no outside influence to encourage you when your motivation runs low/out. Still, much as I applaud the actions, as you say, his motivations are rather suspect (cult of personality).
• Danny Wallace, along with his friend Dave Gorman, are comedians, who come up with some stunt, carry it out for a while, and then write a book about it. The most famous thing they did (and the funniest) was Are you Dave Gorman?, where Dave Gorman tried to meet as many other people as possible called Dave Gorman. That was excellent and very funny (and fascinating in that odd way, where coincidences and similarities in names should be meaningless, but aren't, for some reason).
• He says it began as a whim, an accident. Reading his (rather entertaining and witty) story, I find it hard to believe he has any alterior motives. His sole request from members is a passport photo - the kind you could get from a machine for $4. It seems more like something out of Amelie than Rosemary's Baby. He has published a book about it, but wouldn't you? I think he started something, didn't know what to do with it, thought wouldn't it be nice if everyone was nice to one another once in a while, and a lot of people agreed. His "leaderness" is part of the joke, as he appears to write the website himself. I've had high priestess friends, and been a prophet myself (knew the god personally), so this is not much of a stretch. I think it is a good idea.
• The Australian cover of his book looks best. The UK and US covers, which have different designs but use the same photo, seem too much like some smarmy celebrity book - the Aussie cover is more earnest and optimistic looking.
• The British one used to have the same cover as the Australina one, jb. They must have had a redesign. Maybe no one wants to read about a cult leader wearing a parka.
• Certainly, my friend Kate had a certain beatific glow about her in the pub on Friday, having just spent the best part of an hour handing daffodils out to people in Leicester Square in an attempt to cheer them up. Upon questioning her as to why she had a load of daffodils with her, and why she kept on trying to give them to us, she told us a lot more about the cult. It sounded really very cool, especially the large group events. I'm considering joining. I have now upgraded Danny Wallace from "the bloke out of Dave Gorman who isn't Dave Gorman" to "Danny Wallace". (I suspect the cult of personality thing is just his attempt to emerge from Gorman's shadow a little.)
• I find it a bit disturbing that hundreds joined before he even formulated what he wanted to do. But yes, if it really is so simple as do-a-good-deed-on-Friday, I would be tempted to join.
• I suspect that the hundreds who joined were probably people who were already Dave Gorman fans - most of his projects gathered together communities of people in some way, and they probably transferred to Danny without too much concern, or indeed thought.
• (To clarify: I know that the Loot ad just said "Join Me", no mention of Danny or Dave. But it's not beyond the realms of possibility - ie, quite likely - that Gorman fans may have been tipped off. Perhaps Dave's new project was to convinve Danny that he was, in fact, a cult leader... Having said that, if I'd seen the ad, I'd probably have joined him like a shot.)
• it's a sad statement of our times when we need an organised group to tell us to ritualise kindness to others. but if it works....
• I want to start a cult where, every Friday, every member commits one act of senseless, unspeakable evil to one other person. Join me!
• "Practice random violence and senseless acts of cruelty"
• You know, if I want to commit a random act of niceness every Friday, I can do it without joining a cult.
• Meh. It's actually hard enough to refrain from commiting acts of self-loathing everyday... *whimper*
• self-abuse it is! C'moooooon Friday! I just wanted to get that in before frogs did
• If you want all of the above, have kids.