Snapshots #322: A Top Ten Demon Songs

Hopefully you weren't possessed by the puzzle of yesterday's Snapshots. If you were, allow me to exorcise those demons...

10. Posh London hotel in Mick's Sugar.

Mick sang about Brown Sugar. The posh hotel is the Savoy.

Savoy Brown - Denim Demon

9. Dan dares to fight them.

Dan Dare fought the Mekon.

The Mekons - Calling All Demons

Or...

The Mekons - Demon Horns

8. Tearful Trout.

An Emotional Fish - That Demon Jive

7. Gets her gun, then puts it in a small enclosure affording privacy for one person at a time.

Annie gets her gun and takes it to a booth.

Annie Booth - Demons

6. The Black Hole, Jackie Brown, Breaking Bad.

Three films / TV shows that featured performances by the American actor Robert Forster. This is his namesake from the Go Betweens...

Robert Forster - Demon Days

5. American parade in black & white, with fluctuating weight bloke (not pictured).

The Macy's Parade goes Gray, with a slim fatboy.

Fatboy Slim featuring Macy Gray - Demons

4. Magnificent mammals.

Super Furry Animals - Demons

3. Poe's first musical group got smuggled aboard.

The band belonging to Edgar Allen Poe gets brought on board.

Edgar Broughton Band - Out, Demons, Out

A Top 40 hit (just!) in 1970.

2. Milk, butter, marzipan.

All can be made from Almonds.

Marc Almond - Demon Lover

1. Our Sat quiz: always here to turn you around.

"Our Sat quiz" was an anagram for...

Suzi Quatro - Daytona Demon

Be a demon and join me again next Saturday...

Positive Songs For Positive Times: Celebrate

Snapshots aside, I've been absent from this blog for some time. Most of you will have guessed the reasons for that... I've made no secret of the fact that the past couple of years have been very difficult in my current job. And the last couple of months have been the worst.

Except for one thing.

I had a job interview a few weeks back. I have to admit, I felt it was a bit of a long shot as although I was right for many aspects of the job spec, there were certain things they were looking for that I couldn't quite evidence. Mostly due to the fact that I've always taught in college, never in a mainstream school. But it was too good an opportunity, so I fought for it.

Opening myself up to this opportunity was a huge risk. Not only because I had to balance all the extra work of applications and interviews at the busiest time in my current job... but also because, if I took the risk, got my hopes up, then failed, I worried it would crush me. 

Even when I got the job, I was scared to talk about it. Worried something would go wrong and the lifeline would be taken away from me. (For example, I needed a new DBS check... I knew I hadn't committed any crimes since the last one... but what if they found something I wasn't even aware of. Like I'd been robbing banks in my sleep or something?) Part of me still worries about that, and will keep worrying all the way till November, when the new job starts. But yesterday I handed in my notice - first time I've ever done that in my life - so it feels official now.

What is my new job? Well, I'll still be teaching, but no longer in an FE College environment. But I won't be teaching in a school either. Instead, I'll be teaching in a hospital for young people who have been taken out of mainstream schooling to receive treatment for mental health needs. It'll just be teaching - none of the managerial stuff that has contributed to my skyrocketing stress levels over the last two years. Proper teacher pay, holidays and benefits, but a much smaller scale operation than the one I've been drowning in, and none of the bullshit. It all seems too good to be true: one more reason I've been scared to write about it here. 

But it feels, at last, like it might be time to celebrate...

Saturday Snapshots #157 - The Answers

 

Welcome back to the quiz that's always the Bridesmaid, never the bride. Still, I hope you all Wiigured out this week's answers... and there were no Cheetahs.

10. First swinging king lacks staple diet.

King Louis was the king of the swingers in The Jungle Book, and this was his voice. King Louis was also an orangutan whose staple diet would be bananas...

Prima would be the first.

Louis Prima - Yes, We Have No Bananas

9. Hellish tippers, 24 hours later.

"Hellish tippers" was an anagram.

Esther Phillips - What A Difference A Day Makes

8. Kayleigh's bloke starts crying again... cheer up, it's party time!

Kayleigh's bloke was Fish.

An Emotional Fish - Celebrate

7. Wait! The Real Thing can't spell Charlie Brown's pal.

The real thing is the real McCoy.

Charlie Brown's pal was Snoopy.

The McCoys - Hang On, Sloopy

6. Throwing homework on the fire long before Morrissey... this lady has a unique way of walking.

Long before Sheila Take A Bow, in which Morrissey entreated us to throw your homework onto the fire, David Bowie gave a similar exhortation in Kooks...

And if the homework brings you down

Then we'll throw it on the fire

And take the car downtown

The Kooks - She Moves In Her Own Way

5. A B C D F J K M N O P Q S U V W X Y Z.

(That may be my favourite clue in the history of Saturday Snapshots.)

What's MISSING from the alphabet above? The letters E G H I L R and T. And if you mix those around a bit, you get THE GIRL.

Everything But The Girl - Missing

4. Pardon self-inflicted wounds in Scotch toun.

Note how I said Scotch toun, not Scottish?

Whiskeytown - Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight

3. The Farun Ningily takes an elevator to the meaning of life. 

Wondering what a Famrun Ningily is? It's Running in the middle of Family. FAM-RUNNING-ILY.

42 was the meaning of life, the universe and everything.

Level 42 - Running In The Family

2. Unhurried hearsay.

Rumer - Slow

1. Candid landscape painter has not lost his faith.

Turner was a landscape painter, to be frank.

I Still Believe Saturday Snapshots will be back next week...