Thanks

Lots of things have happened to me recently, and nearly all of them have made me realise how extremely lucky I am to have my friends and family. I am always so surprised by how little I appreciate them in everyday life when times like this roll around and I have sudden revelations about how important they are to me.

So far this week my friends have made me cry at least three times with their kindness (make that four) and thoughtfulness towards me and members of my family have made me cry at least twice. Yes, I know what you're thinking; it must be really easy to make me cry and, well, you'd be right. Anyways, this isn't a post about how often I cry, it's a post to say thanks to everyone for all the things they do.

It shouldn't take times like this, or last Easter, to remind me of how great my friends and family are. I know I should appreciate them more and tell them so, but I only ever seem to realise this when times like this come around. So basically guys, this is just me telling you how much I appreciate everything you do for me, especially the little things because they do make the most difference really.

Take last Easter for example (I can't believe it's really been a year), the fact that my school friends phoned me to make sure I was OK rather than just trying to communicate with me via texts meant the World to me at the time - it still does - because they knew it was important to me  (Maria even offered to take me clubbing!) and they love me enough to just phone me and listen while I tried not to cry.

So anyway, this wasn't a whinge about my life. Thank you so much everyone, I've never done anything to deserve you guys and I know I sound like a terrible poem, but I needed to thank you somehow.
So here is a picture:

Soul Band

My favourite people in the entire world (minus one). Except that several of this year's members (Chris, Harry, Harry, Hugo, Asa, Irene) are missing, so pretend they're there too :)

Another fantastic night last night guys, especially the choreography of the trumpets! I am going to miss you so much next year, but I'm sure you'll be glad to see the back of me (especially Jack, who has to put up with my playing at the closest range!!!)

Sporadic Is A Fun Word

I apologise firstly for my sporadic writing-ness of this blog, I have (would you believe) a life outside of the Internet, which (unfortunately) must come first. So I thought I'd update my single, lonely reader on what's going on, which isn't much. So I'm pondering the future.

Basically, because I want to study Law (with German) next year people immediately assume that I want to be a lawyer, possibly in Germany. Which I don't. Not that I'm not considering living in Germany; that actually sounds like fun and I love it there, so it's a possibility. But being a lawyer is something I don't really want to do.

[MASSIVE SIDEBAR: I should explain at this point for people who may not entirely understand. 'Lawyer' is a collective term for 'barristers' (the people who stand up in court and wear the wigs) and 'solicitors' (who are the ones who do the civil cases, such as divorce and spend most of their time on paperwork.) 'Lawyer' is not actually a separate job, however, there is some crossover between the two jobs which count as lawyers: Barristers do obviously have to do some paperwork, and Solicitors can represent people in court if they are asked. But training for either job is almost ten years and neither position is something I would like to do particularly.]

Therefore I think it would be fairer if I left the limited lawyer jobs to the thousands of people who desperately want them.

This then begs the question "What do you want to do then, you weirdo?" And I have to say, to be honest, I don't really know. I would really like to do something with/in German, but I know I may not be able to without working for a Bank (something 18 years of second-hand experience has warned me against.) However, I'd quite like to work for the Government, maybe as an official translator or some such position, or maybe in international relations.

In all honesty, I'd love to be a writer. I love writing (usually screenplays or this blog) and I'd love to be able to spend more time doing it, but I know that writing isn't really a steady career and I wouldn't be able to support myself, let alone a family, on the money I would potentially earn.

So once again, I must live in the real world and not the perfect hypothetical world I've created for myself. I hate being sensible, it ruins everything. Advice?

Square One, Tom Petty

It makes me want to cry, but it also makes me feel sorry for the person in the song. So here are the words.

Had to find some higher ground
Had some fear to get around
You can't say what you don't know
Later on won’t work no more
Last time though I hid my tracks
So well I could not get back
Yeah my way was hard to find
Can't sell your soul for peace of mind

Square one, my slate is clear
Rest your head on me my dear
It took a world of trouble, it took a world of tears
It took a long time to get back here

Try so hard to stand alone
Struggle to see past my nose
Always had more dogs than bones
I could never wear those clothes

It's a dark victory
You won and you are so lost
Told her you were satisfied
But it never came across

Square one, my slate is clear
Rest your head on me my dear
It took a world of trouble, it took a world of tears
It took a long time to get back here

A Rediscovery

So hey, here I am again, just pottering around the contorted crevices of my brain and I've discovered and am now pondering the beautiful music of Tom Petty. I am, of course, already aware of his music; Highway Companion was actually my parents's highway companion for about a year, so every trip we went on, we would listen to it. What's more, he was also a member of The Traveling Wilburys, unquestionably the best supergroup in existence (except perhaps The Rockers, but that is an EPQ-worthy debate.)

First and foremost, Petty's voice is fantastic - it's quite rough and almost vulnerable, which makes the words of his songs so much more powerful to the listener. It's also a very distinctive voice which means that, especially in The Traveling Wilburys, his voice stands out from the likes of Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne, whose voices are both very smooth and refined.

The second thing which makes Tom Petty's work so good are the amazing lyrics. Bob Dylan once called Tom Petty a poet, but he has always denied it. Personally, I agree with Dylan. I mean, look at this, for example:

Tried so hard to stand alone,
Struggled to see past my nose
Always had more dogs than bones;
I could never wear those clothes.

To me, those words (taken from 'Square One', from Highway Companion) are haunting and beautiful. But if you don't like that, how about this?:

So If I come to your door
Let me sleep on your floor,
I'll give you all I have and a little more.

That's the chorus to 'Down South', also from Highway Companion and not only is it some of the best writing for a song that I've ever heard (for me, it's up there with Don McLean's 'Vincent' and 'Mist On A Monday Morning' by Roy Wood) it's also something so wonderfully written that it wouldn't look out of place in an A-Level poetry analysis.

If anyone is interested, or keeping notes, I have also added Square One to my list of music which I would like at my funeral. I've posted link below, so you can see why. Also below is a link to a Web Page about some of the more well-known songs Petty has written. Thanks for reading :)



http://performingsongwriter.com/tom-petty-songs/