A Farewell to Academia, Part 2 (or How I Discovered Stevie Nicks)

I realise I have not blogged in a week. Or more.

So...having just handed in my Penultimate Ever Essay yesterday (it's totally bombed), I am now trying to polish off my Last Ever Essay in time for the awards night at the union tomorrow. Exciting stuff. Just think - years ago I wasn't even sure if I had a definite place at either of the unis I'd applied to. Now I'm about to graduate, crossing my fingers that I might just fluke a low 2:1 rather than a high 2:2, thus making me more employable.

I have applied for another job - this time one that I really want, in a publishing house in Edinburgh. I hope they at least consider me for interview because I've decided publishing - if the novelist thing doesn't work out, which it sure as hell won't at this rate - might just be my niche.

In other news...

Earlier I was listening to the 2-disc anthology by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Basically it's 34 of their best songs from their Shelter / MCA years (including Petty's first solo album, Full Moon Fever) - although I'm gutted that Anything That's Rock n' Roll didn't make the cut. Anyhow - one of the songs that DID make the cut is his duet with Stevie Nicks, Stop Draggin' My Heart Around, from her first solo album Bella Donna. I'd actually initially discovered it because we had TPHB's song Insider on a video compilation, and Nicks sings the harmonies on that. My pa noticed that I really liked that song and dug out the copy of Bella Donna he had on cassette, and spooled through it to Stop Draggin' My Heart Around (track three, I discovered many years later). He played it to me and I remember I liked it - though not as much as Insider.

Years later, Jack Black's film School of Rock - still one of his finest in my opinion - came out, and of course Edge of Seventeen was on the soundtrack. I believe I ended up going to see that film three times during the weekend it was played in Shetland (inadvertently, I promise you) - the third of those times with my pa. He seemed to like it - jokingly suggesting he should incorporate some of Black's character's techniques into the guitar class he taught - and I was prompted to dig out the Bella Donna cassette from the living room. I can remember us driving into Lerwick in the van he had for his then-job and listening to it on the van's tape deck, and him being delighted at remembering how good the album was.

What I'm trying to say is...I wish I could go back to a simpler time.

Another thought:

Kate Moss once said 'Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels.' If that's the case, maybe she should learn to cook?