Okay, ten of my favourite things starting with T, courtesy of Miranda Brennan. 1. Tamsin. Obvs. I married her. Tamsin is my best friend as well as my lover, my constant helpmate and the mother of my daugher. We play games all the time, and take joy in each others lives. 2. Tattoos. I have two, both hand-drawn by myself, one reflecting my personal spirituality and one based on a design I kind of liked at the time. I will one day get more. Im always confused by people suggesting Ill regret it in fifty years; frankly, Im looking forward to being a tattooed octegenarian. 3. Taoism. No one spiritual or philosophical code is perfect, but philosophical Taoism (before the evolution of the weird religious form, with the celestial bureaucracy and the alchemy) is a close match for me: a simple, elegant, joyful, ethical, pragmatic philosophy that celebrates the world and everything in it. And the poetry of Laos work, or Chuangs, is breathtaking. 4. Terry Pratchett. Not just as a consistently brilliant writer of comedic fantasy, or as the creator of one of the biggest, richest, most entertaining fantasy worlds going, or as the inspiration for two or three generations of fantasy readers (and writers!), but as a moral and sociological authority who will almost certainly never be recognised in line with his importance precisely *because* he is so noted as a comic author. 5. Tank Girl. As much for Martins prose as Hewletts amazing art. One of the most important contributions to the British comicbook form. Also, Hewlett went on to create the Gorillaz characters and videos, which are badass. 6. JRR Tolkien. It can be hard, these days, to divorce the work from the legacy; the flood of epic quest narratives in which a motley crew of unlikely adventurers quests to find/destroy a macguffin so as to defeat an evil overlord has deadened the intellectual space LotR occupies. But even going back now, it is - leaving aside the ridiculous songs - brilliant. 7. They Might Be Giants. I have pretty nearly every album and have been to see these guys at least half a dozen times. TMBG arent just my favourite band starting with T, theyre pretty much my favourite band ever. Doctor Worm (https://youtube/watch?v=Om7IBJf7-fc)is my power-up. 8. Táin Bó Cúailnge. So basically, yeah yeah, Greek, blahblah transformed into a swan; yeah yeah, Norse, blah blah ship made from dead mens fingernails. Whatever. Irish myth gave us a saga in which 80% of Ireland invaded 20% of Ireland, who promptly all fell over and pulled a muscle, so the kings adopted son _single handedly fought off_ four-fifths of frickin IRELAND for three months _without sleep_ (then his dad takes over for a few hours so he can catch up on sleep). In his battle-frenzy, the dudes legs swap backwards, one eye disappears, and he gets so angry a fountain of blood long, straight, thick as a tall ships mast SPRAYS CONSTANTLY FROM HIS FOREHEAD. This is better than everybody elses myths. 9. Theatre. I was brought up in the theatre in Adelaide; I acted, stagehanded, lit, sounded and directed from adolescence until I left for England. I miss it, really. Should get back to it. 10. Transformers. The toy, the cartoon, and - yes - even the Michael Bay film (the first one; the others are a bag of shit). The aesthetics, the bizarre, convoluted mythology, the stark dualism, the giant frickin robots having hugely destructive battles in built up areas. Whats not to like? Ask me for a letter and you shall have it.
Posted on: Sun, 12 Oct 2014 19:00:12 +0000
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