matgb | Icons, interests and some rambles they've inspired

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Icons, interests and some rambles they've inspired

OK, just got in, and rather than do my usual friends list read then attempt to update, if I update first I might actually get an entry in tonight, n'est ce pas? Anyway, a meme from

frightened that I've always liked the look of before anyway:

explain three icons and three interests. Comment and I'll demand explanations for yours.

She gave me:

Interests: "china miéville"; "george r. r. martin"; "steph swainston".

Icons: "Anarchist Fineas"; "Categories" (Captain Jack quote?); "Temptation".

And, well, I should've known someone would ask about dear old Fineas. Anyway, interests first. Curious that she choe the three authors, but not too hard to explain.

China Miéville

I wrote a brief review of his first novel when I first read it in 2005, I was aready a fan, having been told in no uncertain terms by Vince to buy Perdido Street Station in the departure lounge of Manchester Airport when we were waiting for our flight to CA. China describes his writing as New Weird, which has also been described as Magical Realism or similar. Essentially, fantasy novels, but set in a 'realistic' world, with an internal logic that makes sense and in which magic, if it exists, is used as a tool in the economy, not as some faffy mystical art. Perdido Street blends crime thriller with horror and fantasy, and has a lot of politics thrown in (China is slightly to the left of, well, most of humanity, having stood for election for the Socialist Alliance at one point). I was hooked then, and while at times the politics can be a little too much to take, I really like his work; really must get around to finishing reading his short story collection Looking for Jake, Reports of certain events in London is a simply awesome short story written in the form of letters discovered. There's an interview with him at

strangehorizons and I'm pretty sure I linked to the

crookedtimber seminar on him when they did it. Another great resource is usually the Library Thing profile, but I can't actually get there as I type this :-(

Edit (before posting even), any idea how hard it is to write a post with lots of well researched links when your wireless craps out every five minutes? Yeah, this is fun. The above paragraph? 40 minutes it's taken me to get this far. The connection has been mostly fine for ages, but today? *kicks PC* Please to be imagining there are more links in the above (and below), because there was meant to be.

Steph Swainston

I've, um, mentioned her a few times before, and I set up

steph_swainston as well. Another in the magical realism school, but her books are shorter, with less revolutionary politics, more fight scenes and lots of drug taking. I really like the well realised Castle world, and she can tell stories well. I also reviewed them in the post linked above in the China section. And I'm hoping to attend a booksigning arranged by

chrisdolley in which both she and Jon Courtenay Grimwood will be attending next month^[1]; I've met Jon before (it's why I started reading his books -

paulatpingu leant me Pashazade), but Steph is a bigger draw, currently, anyway.

George R.R. Martin

Um, yeah,

grrm. I resisted picking up the Songs of Ice and Fire books for ages; oh no, I thought, another fantasy epic, been there, done that, where are the space ships. Then Duncan and

granjero made me play the Game of Thrones board game. Um, yeah. I'm a board game geek, I love board games, I especially love strategy board games, I have loads, and really need to get a group together to play them more often. So when I describe a game as "best board game ever", that means it's good ok? So, having played the game, a lot, and lost, mostly, as Lannister (because, you know, Duncan and Chris are a little better than the rest of the goddamned planet at that sort of game), I thought I could at least try the books. Um, yeah. I tried the first one. Next day I bought the rest of those printed. They are, simply, great books, fantasy, yes, but you could ignore those elements completely and read them into as an alternate background knights in armour series. All the dragons died out years ago y'see, magic is dead, no one believes in it any more. Plus, lead characters that act as the readers eye view have this wonderful tendency to die at random moments, quite unexpectedly at times. If you like traditional fantasy, try him if you're not already. If you don't, but like a bit of action/adventure that reads like it's got real actual shades of grey people in it, then give him a go; I'm rereading in a dip in and out style the first book at the moment, and it's still damned good.

Now, those next two paragraphs? Half an hour. With many many kicks. I'm going to save a draft and reboot the machine. FFS.

Icons

Fineas, my almost perpetual default. I used an earlier version of this image when I first set up LJ, and he's been my default icon pretty much everywhere for years now. I also have him in various artworks as my category icons for posts, I keep meaning to do a few more but never actually do. He's a character in the Doomtown CCG, which I'm, techinically, in charge of currently as it's a dead game and I'm appointed Shriff by the players council. But it's a really dead game. Zombie cowboys, a mining town in the ruins of a California that's sunk into the sea, mad scientists, railroad barons; what's not to love? Fineas himself is a Belgian anarchist with a tendency to fly his blimp over mining corporation holdings and drop bombs on them, but he has a sideline as a mad scientist who builds robots and ray guns. In 1867. A game I'll always love, even if it's unlikely to every get reprinted, it was too expensive to produce (they went for very high quality printing), too adult a theme and a fairly steep learning curve. Ah well, still got hte cards, can still play it.

paulatpingu,

mapp and

shakalooloo also use Doomtwon based icons on occasions as well.

Lorna asks if it's a Captain Jack quote. Yup, it is. Torchwood, the show that should've been great, but failed. Take a decent franchise, some interesting characters, a great concept and some damn attractive actors (well, except the guy who plays Owen), give it an after watershed timeslot and proceed to fuck it up completely. Nice one Rusty. Why do I use it? Well, partially, it's a great quote. But mostly it's because, like a fair few people on my friends list, I hate categories (

innerbrat [2] wrote a great article about categories last year in which she declared she's not 'bi', she's a Gynophallophile - made sense to me then and now). When people ask me, I tend to reply with "I'm 95% straight", because people seem to want labels. Am I 'straight'? Or have I simply not yet met a man I found attractive enough to want to go to bed with? I don't know. Jennie and I are trying to sort out the parameters on our relationship. We're not 'polyamorous', we love each other, we just think sex needn't be about love, exclusivity seems pointless. But people want to know, they want labels, they want to slot people into categories, black/white, straight/queer, with us/against us. No thanks, not for me. I'm me, I'm not a number, deal.

I like icons that portray a meaning fairly obviously, it means they can't be misread, and they can help add meaning and depth to a post or comment. I dislike adverts all over LJ (obligatory plug for both

no_lj_ads and

lj2wordpress), but think the idea of a community paid for by a film promotions company that interacts with fans in a good way could be cool.

mydarkestsecret was very well done, and appealed directly to a big LJ demographic. A good way to raise revenue for the site, without being plastered with dodgy flash ads for dubious products. Plus, y'know, cute girl in werewolf movie, what's not to love? OK, I nver got around to going to seeing the film, but whoever said I was perfect?

[1]Thursday, June 7th with a mass signing at Waterstones Piccadilly (5:30pm - 7pm) with Steph Swainston, myself, John Lambshead, Andrew Dennis, Steve Savile, Eric Brown, David Devereux, Jon Courtenay Grimwood and Robert Holdstock.

tyrell is also planning to be there,

jantshira /

faeriecween? I know you both like Steph, pretty sure you liked Jon as well but I forget.

[2] Who, let's face it, should be on everyone's friends list, just because, ok? Plus, she looked damn hot in the outfit she wore to Sin City Friday night, which is an added bonus in a friend I always think. Don't believe me? Reflections and Opinion. Go read. Plus, did I mention the dinosaurs? Yeah, she plays with dino bones for a living.

ETA: TWO HOURS this post took to get online and edited for my little tags not being closed errors. Two hours. Gah!

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OK, I should do this meme.

When I've stopped going "OMG", but still. Yes.

Which bit pray tell? Observing that you write well, or that on hearing my description of your outfit/skirt, Jennie's reaction was to tell me off for not getting picture?

You could of course just be talking about the length of the damn post. I'll get back to you on what oyu've got to do, my connection is spotty and I'm trying to kill some tabs.

OK, interests: acpathntdwatgodw (because, um, WTF?), porn movie plots and looking down ladies' tops (just because, OK?)

Icons: susan, disapproval, red riding hood

Partially because I know most of your icons already cos either I've asked or you've said somewhere or it's obvious.

You get to play with dinosaur bones? Wow, I saw your NHM tag, but was too shy to ask about it.

You're shy about me? That's a thing you shouldn't be.

(and Mat thinks I'm a good writer. Shows what he knows.)

Yeah, I'm a PhD student at the NHM. Dinosaurs is nice.

Androphile sounds like you'll only sleep with Brent Spiner

* dies laughing *

I think, out of the neologisms that came up in That Post and the comments thereto, I like phallerast best. I think I can definitely declare myself a phallerast, amongst other things.

but whoever said I was perfect?

Uh, that would have been me, I think.

* hands around the sick bags *

Yup, quality comments, and I'm still rereading some of them, don't think I'd gone back there after I commented. But yeah, phallerast does describe you rather well methinks.

phallerast does describe you rather well methinks

Do let me know when I can book tickets for my favourite one to come and visit... ;)

And if THAT took you two hours, you NEED a new net connection. Or rather, I need you to get one so I can have my fix...

Tell me about it. It gets better later in the evening, but tonight has been particularly bad.

Didn't get time to speak to boss (not true, I had time, he didn't, he's done a 6 day week every week I've been there and is swamped, will try tomorrow afternoon, need to ask him some Qs anyway.

Meh, interests: intellectual snobbery, smashing up caravans and flimsy moral standards (because I like posts where your friends end up talking filth, they're fun).

Icons: JamesJamesMorrisonMorrisonWGDupree, Sci-fi - X Files CSM & Pen Porn

I shall poke you mercilessly so you don't forget. I've just spent silly amounts on bedlinen, so I'm no longer made of money. On the plus side, you'll have new bed AND new sheets to road test...

* goes to make post *

how great is your Slope Icon ?

So, regarding GRRM, how 'generic heroic fantasy' are they, if that makes any sense? The reason why I ask is I'm tempted to give them a try, but I don't get on very well with uber-Campbellian-heroic-fantasy.

I tried to read 'The Well of the Unicorn' last year and gave up after about 40 pages ... I just didn't feel any urge to pick it up again, which is unusual for me with books. If I've started, I'll ususally finish! (It's also why I found the LoTR trilogy quite an uphill struggle, when I read them back in 1998.)

How generic heroic are they? They're not, that's why I love them. One of the main characters in the first few books is a crippled dwarf, and the basic plot, well, involves twincest and rebellion. Very shades of gray, and yes, I tend to not get well with the OTT heroic stuff either.

Anyway... Interests: cryptozoology, medieval warfare (lots of that in the books) & kuiper disc objects

Icons: Um, yeah, I know the face icon, but I doubt others do, pluto and the spiral

Aaaah, meme - hadn't even noticed that! Anyway, by way of answers; cryptozoology because we all need a holiday from reality every now and then; medieval warfare a vague interest that emerged from reading too many fantasy novels/doing too much fantasy art and developing a complex about getting things 'right'; Kuiper disc objects because they're entertainingly weird. (Somewhere between planets and gigantic cometary nuclei.)

The icons? The face cos it amused me, the others because they looked pretty (sort of). And I like having the 'map' of Pluto because not many people will recognise it!

I read a *LOT* of fantasy, and I never got through the Well of the Unicorn. It took me 5 tries, and even then I skimmed to the end. And I like other stuff the author has done.

GRRM on the other hand had me excusing myself from prior commitments to read the next chapter. Book one is astonishingly good, and violent, and ruthless.
Mainly ruthless.

I'm glad it's not just me with Well of the Unicorn! When a book gets the better of me, I feel like I've failed somehow!

I'd volunteer, but I've only got five icons. (they're all fairly obvious I suppose.) I'm hapy to be tagged by anyone here, or anywhere else to be honest.

Interests: macro photography, tour de france, cephalopods

Icons: Dave, Marvin, FSM (because you've done the other three)

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<a href"http://davegodfrey.livejournal.com/36481.html#cutid1">replied over here actually.</a>

Ooh, do me.

* snerk *

K, sorry for delay, friends page was ?skip=120 by the time I'd finished, I think I need to cut some stuff.

Interests: deleting the internet, not thinking, drexciya

Icons: elephant, Bond, Sonic

Doomtown sounds like my kind of game, at least by genre.

It's damn good, and combat is determined by a poker hand, and you can stack your deck as part of construction. So very cool.

Anyway, interests: article 23, paco the elder god, dark future

Icons: Stomping kitten, Captain Future, Gargoyle

Cool!

Article 23 was a line of tshirts with really offensive slogans

raggedy_man and

sesquipedality used to run on cafepress. I think I need to clean out my interests at one point.

Paco: see my earlier post today

Dark Future: as a genre, Cyberpunk things, games like SLA Industries, Shadowrun etc.

Stomping Kitten: was a flash animation (on somethingawful or b3ta or similar) as video to Laibach's "Tanz mit Laibach" and some kind soul made it into an icon for me.

Captain Future: A title image from one of Edmond Hamilton's pulp novels. I loved the 70's anime TV series as a kid (was/is really big in Germany and France but hardly known in the UK) and discovered the originals a few years ago. My collection is almost complete (mostly as PDF but I have a few original prints from the 40s, too). The writing is poor and the pseudo science is abysmal but it's Pulp, it's supposed to be that way.

Gargoyle: is a detail from a fountain in Manchester (near City Hall). I think I wanted to use it as "vomit" icon but then found the one with the cat.

GRRM has an LJ! I've heard very good thing about the board game, but the first book is in my top 10 for fantasy epics. That's how you do it.

Perdido Street Station blew me away. So powerfully nauseating and grim.

Steph S... well, I'll buy anything she cares to write :)

I'd sign up to Scott Lynch's LJ, but I'd just be sick that he's so young and talented. Bah.

Yup. Will be linking this in a bit, but:
http://www.kqed.org/arts/writersblock/episode.jsp?id=15087

I think the thing with Lynch is practice and work; he wrote a hella lot, and put it all online, and built up a following. Yes, he's good, but not that good, and he actually put in the effort, which is cool.

Anyway, as I forgot to change hte meme wording, I get to demand stuff from you, it ways so up there.

Interests: taoism, more bad sci-fi, celtic mythology. Because you have so many to choose from.

Icons: London Calling, playnaked, herne. Because most of them I know already or are self-explanatory. And there's a small chance that the guy in the herne costume might be my former (arsehole) uncle, who was an extra.

Advantage was that I first learned to shoot a bow using stuff he'd nicked from the set.

Because you have so many to choose from.
I really need to update those interests. I set them up about 5 years ago...

Taoism.
Hurrah! I read the Tao Te Ching at Uni, agreed with it completely, think the world needs a lot more of it in general. I’ve done big Taoism write-ups on my LJ before (links available if you want!) but basically if the TTC was pushed as much as the Bible, the world would be a much, much happier place. It’s actually difficult to put into words why I like it so much, but I suspect that’s the point. My main philosophy might have moved on a bit, but I’ll always collect any new edition of the books that I come across, especially the TTC, Chuang Tzu and Lieh Tzu.

More bad sci-fi
I watch a lot of bad movies, and read a lot of books. Many of both of those would fall under the category of “bad sci-fi”. So many, in fact, that I need a second tag for it. In a similar way to how I’ll watch films with titles like “Ninja Terminator”, bad sci-fi has an allure all of it’s own. The enthusiastic but terrible novels, the no-budget 70’s tv-movies…
I accept that much of what I think is *good* sci-fi is seen by everyone else as dreck. Also, that much of the public lump fantasy and sci-fi together (heresy!) Thus, some of this tag describes perfectly good films and books in both genres that are nevertheless shunned by an ungrateful public.

Celtic Mythology
Less an interest, more a religion. Well, some of it. Well, a lazy neopagan interpretation of some of it.
The problem I’m finding now is that (having had demanding teachers) when I find other groups using research I consider to be rubbish and basing a spiritual practice around it, I get condescending.
Always had an interest in European mythology and folklore, and Irish solely because of half my ancestry (before it got cool to be ‘Celtic’ in neopagan circles). Am only just now working this more into my actual practice though, after several years. (If I’m going to be getting the Morrigan’s attention for any reason, I’d prefer to be speaking good Irish first.)

Icons: London Calling
Grabbed it after the London Bombings post went big, when I wanted an icon to talk about the city. Kept it on because it’s handy for saying “I’m from the UK!” when posting on UK things in US communities.

Playnaked
What’s not to love? If I could afford the gigantic Calvin and Hobbes box set, I’d get it. I stole this one partly for the sense of fun it shows, and partly because I actually have very few hang-ups about playing naked. This is one icon that’s been getting a lot of use recently, but it’s mainly to celebrate the fact we’re all monkeys who should stop being so hung up on the way every one of us got here, or the main drive (along with eating and breathing) most of us will feel.

Herne.
Your uncle might have been in the Herne costume? *not worthy*
Yes, it’s Robin of Sherwood. It’s also Herne/Cernunnos/The Stag Antlered God, who’s getting rather popular these days. Kip Carpenter always says “Oooh yes, I’m very interested in folklore and legends…” Rubbish. He’s done more to make paganism acceptable and non-threatening than any ten political-feminist ranters. He turned the forest into a mystical place onscreen, showed a group of pagans passing a cup around and happily celebrating (without killing babies or anything), and made this outline of a looming stag-headed figure into a recognisable image. Even then I mainly stuck to RoS icons of the cast, since I don’t take the show seriously, but occasionally this is a nice one for the pagan LJs.
I don’t confuse RoS and ‘the deity used by some to symbolise the male aspects of nature’, but it’s a nice image and ethos.
And yes, I’m a sad fanboy of the series solely for it’s own sake (mainly the comedy value) and had a go at longbows last year next to Phil Rose and others. The conventions are still going strong with a LOT of the cast turning up, and the writers etc.

Ooh. Can you ask me?

I know a good half of my icons were from you in the first place, but meh.

Interests: acoustic guitar, dmitri shostakovich (partially because my brain refuses to remind me what he wrote, despite having studied and liked him), ralph vaughan williams (because my music teacher was Gerald Vaughan Williams, a nephew IIRC).

Icons: Default, Pirates are cooler than ninjas (so not true), Coffee (because I'd like to know why you like it - I had no idea you'd taken it)

Interests:

Acoustic guitar

I have been playing guitar properly since my last year at uni (2005). Although along the line my Dad tried to buy me a cheap classical guitar when I was 7, I never took to it until quite recently. The reason this is my greatest interest and the only instrument I play now is down to the epiphany I had when I heard the artists Michael Hedges (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29CMRsWlDt0) and Preston Reed (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NdUL-AkfkQ). They demonstrated that there was a near infinite number of techniques and musical possibilities with an often understated instrument. You know, it would make me very happy if you had a look at those videos.

Dmitri Shostakovich

If you studied him you probably know that he was the main scapegoat in the arts under Stalin's regime. His music was attacked for not being optimistic or patriotic enough, but his reply to this was the clever 5th symphony which managed to ridicule whilst sounding apparently OK. As he died in 1975 he also wrote a fair bit of film music too. Sorry, that description sounds terrible. It's been a while since I've had to write essays on him. My high point of piano was when I played his 2nd piano concerto with the uni orchestra. It's an enjoyable piece worth listening to.

Ralph Vaughan Williams

He is probably my most influental composer and has the style of music that I'd most like to draw upon when I get good enough to compose for the guitar. At a time when British classical music was in the doldrums he was partly responsible for reviving it. I mentioned in one meme that fell upon deaf ears that his popular piece 'The Lark Ascending' for solo violin and orchestra is my most favourite classical work of all time and is like a signature tune to me. It must have been cool to have known a relative of Vaughan Williams.

Icons:

Default

What is there to say? It's me innit? I told you it was based around Peter Gabriel's 3rd album cover, but nearly everyone just thinks it's plain odd that it is a bit blurred. Gah. I need a new icon of myself...

Pirates are cooler than ninjas

I don't remember where I found this. Probably on some icon website. I wouldn't have gone for one that looked any more credible and serious as I like the naive cartoony style of it. I have no proof that ninjas have any value although I used to read White Ninja, but that's different.

Coffee

I do read QC every day but I liked the icon before I knew it was to do with it. I guess I thought I could do with another tiredness icon and the fact that Jeff Jacques probably thought of it on the spur of the moment adds to the enjoyment factor. If you're asking why I like coffee itself, I guess it's because it has a more complex taste than tea. I gladly drink both but now that I'm in full time employment it tends to be tea more often.

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Icons, interests and some rambles they've inspired

China Miéville

Steph Swainston

George R.R. Martin

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