martinlivings | It's only words...

In this meme

eneit gave me five words that remind her of me.

Reply to this meme by yelling (or any other form of writing) "Words!" and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Then post them in your LJ and explain what they mean to you.

Radiohead

I was a late fan of Radiohead, and I still don't actually love all of their work, but nonetheless I hold it all in great admiration. Before I met my partner, I owned OK Computer and knew the song "Creep" from Triple J, but that was about it. She, on the other hand, owned all of their albums and loved them. So I was exposed to the majority of their work in that way.

I love the fact that they're genuine artists, rather than just churning out cookie-cutter pop songs for the radio. Their albums are soundscapes, every note and nuance carefully crafted. There's so much going on in them that it's just mindblowing. Even their latest album, In Rainbows, was amazing, even though it was the equivalent of playing "Three Blind Mice" on a Stradivarius, or Leonardo Da Vinci doing a fingerpainting.

While we were in the UK, we got to see them live at the V Festival in Weston Park in Staffordshire, one of the most amazing and overwhelming days of my life. Around a hundred thousand people turned up, more people than I've ever seen in one place at one time. Their set was the last of the day, and it was simply stunning.

Possibly the greatest band in the world today, though personally I still prefer Elbow.

Perth

Ah, my home town. Until 2006, it was the only place I'd ever lived. And, like all home towns, I have a love/hate relationship with it, especially after coming back from London. I think it's probably the best place on Earth to raise a family. It's fairly clean and quiet and safe, with great parks and beaches and everything a family could want. But, considering Izz and I never intend to have children, it's starting to feel like a bad fit for us. We need a DINK city. Which is why we'll probably end up back in London, which is probably the worst place in the world to raise a family!

Glasgow

Perth, but with funny accents. ;) Seriously, we got such a Perth-vibe off Glasgow when we went there for Eastercon in 2006 that it was a little bit creepy. Walking along the Buchanan Street Mall was very reminiscent of Hay or Murray Streets in Perth. It was the weirdest thing.

More here...

AHWA

I'm not enormously involved with the Australian Horror Writers Association, but I'll be renewing my membership today, coincidentally. I've done some mentoring for them, and helped judge one of their short story competitions (shh, that's meant to be a secret!), but really, I'm not deep into it like many of my colleagues. Nonetheless, I think it's an essential and amazing organisation, which is doing massive amounts of good for dark fiction writing in this country. Having the AHWA there, with their news resource Horrorscope, the ongoing e-magazine Midnight Echo, and about a jillion other initiatives on the go at any given moment, is fantastic, and I'm very proud to be a member.

Cartoons

This one threw me. I mean, cartoons? I guess the closest I come to that is my loose association with one of the greatest collaborative (and copyright-infringing) web-comics of all time, "Skeletor and Hordak: Partners In Crime". I think I did some of the best writing I've ever done in my life in those damn comics. A lot of them still make me giggle. And, weirdly, the first one I ever did is probably still my favourite: