It has a name, it has a name!
*Flails arms, watches lightning crackle down the tower, smells hair burning*
And it is called CREATIVE INPUT.
Creative input to expand your horizons and fill your brain with ideas and inspiration.
Creative input to perhaps try something new, something you might not have picked up before.
Creative input that hopefully you’ll love and share with someone else, and they’ll love it too and pass it on, and it will be like some sort of brilliant, magical plague made of words or sounds or pictures.
Because everybody needs a magical plague in their lives, right?
So, this week’s latest reading, watching, listening files from me:
Reading: If you’re after something creepy and unusual, I can heartily recommend The Bird Box by Josh Malerman. I just finished it in the weekend (and officially can blame this book for the reason why I’ve been so knackered this week, it’s a keep-you-up-at-night-to-try-to-finish-it sorta book) – a real pacey story, with a premise that I’d not come across before, it’s a great refreshing piece of horror writing.
Watching: I wasn’t expecting much from this but bloody hell it turned out that Mr Robot is a damn fine watchable series. Not going to say too much because there’s the odd twist and turn, but a great modern take on hacking and corporations, and every now and then went darker than I was expecting (in very much a good way).
Listening: Like a bit of goth-western-cowboy-darkness to liven up your eardrums? Yes? Well you might not go far wrong with Marilyn Manson’s The Pale Emperor. Listening to this on the way home from work every day to blast out the stress and fuzz of the day. And also to pretend to be a cowboy.
So that’s my picks this week, just deciding what to read next at the moment (the to-be-read pile beckons, and threatens to crush me if I take a book from the bottom). Now it’s your turn – what’s been burning creative juices into your eyeballs? What’s been making your heart twist and flesh twitch because you just can’t stop reading it it’s so good?
Share your most recent favourites in the comments or on Twitter.
Because, in the wise words of Number 5: INPUT, MORE INPUT
The Dust Lounge 
2 responses to “Creative Input: The reading, watching, listening files”
I haven’t finished Mr. Robot, but I’ve heard fantastic things about the show not to mention all the awards it’s been raking up (Golden Globes, Critics Choice, etc.)
WATCHING – Subversive, twisted, and completely wrong. That’s the best way I can describe RICK & MORTY, a cartoon that shows us what would have happened if Doc Brown from Back to the Future was a raging alcoholic.
READING – I’m starting the WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE novel and loving it. The podcast is already a favorite. I’m trying to ingest more “weird fiction” because I want to start writing in that space.
LISTENING – Getting back into AMON TOBIN. Love his trip-hop tunes and his albums are still some of the best to listen to while writing. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCbVPlwGMWlYTzFDyt5LUNQ
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I’ve been listening to the Welcome to Night Vale podcast recently and really enjoying it – been meaning to check the book out too so good to hear it lives up to the podcast. Be good to read your weird fiction when you get to it.
Been a while since I’ve listened to Amon Tobin but I really like his Two Fingers sideproject (especially Vengeance Rhythm and the excellent video for it)
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