Tchaikovsky the Karajan way

Seeing it is new years eve I thought I talk about a box set I had this year.

One character that loomed large in my childhood discovery of classical music was the conductor Herbert von Karajan who rather like André Previn during that era were superstars, always recording and performing and promoted by record companies more than most.

During that period I acquired a number of  his Tchaikovsky recordings on record, listened to more thanks to the municipal library and the radio who'd have show playing recordings and even live concerts.

Recently I bought this 8 cd set that has many of his stereo recordings made for DG of Tchaikovsky's works that included a good number from those I owned but what is so good about this set is the six symphonies have a separate disc each to which overtures and other shorter pieces are added rather than being put together that often leads to two of them being split between cds which is a pain.

The 1972 disc of the Sleeping Beauty and Swan lake ballet suites that original came in their memorable silver foil lp jacket are joined by the 1967 Nutcracker Suite that originally coupled with Serenade For Strings as a single cd. 

Talking of which in this set they don't use that Serenade for Strings but the 1981 digital remake which is odd but it's very similar so the only real difference is improved inner detail.

The final disc has Christian Ferras's 1965 account of the violin concerto which is rather sentimental but one I loved at the time and the 'about-face' 1963 Richter performance of the piano concerto which always gave me the impression pianist and conductor were at odds with each other about how to play this piece.

The re-mastering for cd is completely new unlike some previous cd issues in the past with the sound in the 1812 Overture with the Don Cossack choir sung introduction sounding fuller.
While my tastes have moved on, this set is highly enjoyable for the performances and also for bringing back those childhood memories.

Xmas 2007

It wouldn't be a Christmas for me without my annuals so here's this years set for endless fun for me reading and doing the competitions in while the groan ups talk about stuff that really doesn't interest me.

And here's the other, The Dandy's that my Gran used to buy me copies of the regular comic of as a kid.

Desperate Dan is sat by his fire on the range singing folk songs with his horse.

Jacqueline Wilson is more my kind of authoress writing more for girls that works very well for little sissy gurls like me so this is so so up my alley.

I go out for Christmas lunch with mummy and daddy and siblings after meeting up locally so mummy gets a day off from cooking.

Judy Patrol Leader

The idea of leadership is one that interested me so characters in what I read around that topic always appealed to me.

This is quite an old book - my copy is from nineteen-seventy - and shows it but while not perhaps the best example of Girls fiction is one that does tackle that topic when Judy, who does to an all girls school becomes a leader of the Girl Guides section for the school and tells of her many adventures as Patrol Leader.

That's why although I grew up on more boy based stories I like this because the theme speaks to me and that there are lessons in it I can use.

Chobits

I liked this anime for a long time dealing as it does with technology and that age old question if you could fall in love with a robot in this case a persocom (personal computer in an human looking form) called Chi.

Unfortunately the first dvd set of it got from Ebay I discovered was a fake. It had been made on a computer from a official dvd issue but they had radically reduced the picture quality in an attempt to squeeze 12 episodes on a single sided one layer disc! The discs had inkjet printed labels and no case.

In total the used just three discs for the whole set!!!

Normally a PAL disc can take upt to 6 episodes on a dual layers.

Recently I have replaced it with the US official 4 dvd NTSC set  issued reissued and remastered which looks much better.

This is Chi who is a PersonCom

Christmas and being sissy

Christmas it must be said tends to be very much a time of mixed emotions with the increased amounts of social contact where I get "boy'd", where people just presume utterly the wrong sorts of interests that leads to wildly inappropriate presents.

It's at times like this I look at what a sissy Christmas might be like with offers that have different connotations.

I do sometimes long for fairly safe for work, clean, sissy magazines for inspiration to make more of who I really am so, just maybe there'll be less confusion about that.

Actually a number of real girls did know a bit about me under the hood as it were as a child and they spread it like wild fire which may not of seemed like fun to some but they did give me the space to be more me by not seeing me as boyfriend material.

Perhaps being more open about being sissy in the New Year is what's called for however it comes?

Record buying and me

Today I've been looking though both my pocket notebooks and my published lists on a certain website of all my music purchases so far this year and it's really so amazingly addictive this really is.

There are a lot of reasons why compared to many people I buy so much one being the breadth of my music likes, I don't just care for say one artist or one style and often when I'm into a artist I am also in deep into whole catalogues.

So for instance I have complete 70's and 80's album catalogues by people like David Bowie, Paul McCartney and Abba where many might have perhaps the odd compilation and a favourite studio album.

Another reason I spent so much is because over the years some of the records and especially cd issues of albums were not the best sounding ones, just what either I could find or afford and since joining last year one music site, I have learned a lot about how recordings are put out on record and  cd and critically why it is sometimes I've felt disappointed with how they've sounded.

This had lead me to spend a lot of money on sourcing better replacements both new but increasingly used.

My original buying habits in my teens were more 45 orientated outside of 'evergreens' and albums bought by  family and friends so I've also been discovering the albums or artists where my collections have been historically 45's