The Wombles

This week I'm going back in time.

Well none of us of a certain age can forget the Wombles, ecological warriors and cute cuddly creatures from the 1970's and as a child I looked forward to watching every episode, never mind their music.

Here's a link to the online Museum:

Tidy Bag - The Online Wombles Museum

This also has links to various currently available merchandise.
There is a excellent two DVD box set in recycled cardboard featuring all 60 original episodes in order which I recently purchased.

School uniformed life

This kind of uniform with blazer over shirt, tie and shorts was very much a part of my own experience as a child because this was what boys generally wore to school. You cannot help but notice it just doesn't compliment their appearances but it looks very smart as well as defining you a school boy while in the way the girls look smart in their skirts..

Older boys tended to wear long trousers and ankle socks from the 1970's onwards and girls today who are older wear opaque tights rather than knee socks.

I would not deny for one moment I would of liked to of had the option of wearing a grey box cut pinafore dress, matching socks and a blazer as my feminine gurl self but it wasn't to be.

Of course any part of being a school child included shared interests of which a big one is comics and for me it was the British Comic, the Beano with it's adventures that we shared especially in my boarding school.

Recently it has been celebrating its 70th anniversary with a special soft back magazine edition that I bought back in July and this exhibition.

Magical girl make overs

It's a time in the year that triggers off my age dysphoria  cos on the inside I am and feel like a ten year old and I expect to be going back to school with replaced uniform and stationery.

It's always been like this to be honest.

I do love anime heaps not least magical girl ones.

Magical girl (Japanese: 魔法少女, Hepburn: mahō shōjo) is a subgenre of Japanese fantasy media (including anime, manga, light novels, and live-action media) centred around young girls who possess magical abilities, which they typically use through an ideal alter ego into which they can transform.

In the 1990s, Sailor Moon introduced the concept of a "transforming heroine" who fights against forces of evil, a synthesis of elements from tokusatsu hero shows that became a staple for magical girl series that followed. 

On the more serious side of things imagine one day you were strolling along  having had some serious doubts about your life and this conversation started.

The thing with me is you couldn't turn me into a magical girl because I am a biological boy who is happy with being one even though I do have feminine gender traits.

You could encourage me to express them by encouraging me to gender present in them by wearing skirted attire or when I'm feeling more like that schoolboy changing my short trousers for a pinafore dress or pleated skirt.

That's what sissy gurls like me need in a society that takes issue with gender fluidity.

Nancy at St. Brides

This month I am going to write a bit about a book which taps into part of me but was even when I was growing up was seen as part of a series that were more in the past more what we'd be handed down or bought second hand. This copy is the 2002 Girls Gone By paperback reprint.

 Nancy at St. Brides is the second in this series but in a lot of ways the first proper book in that this is where the main character Nancy makes here appearance as a relatively unschooled 14 year old dispatched to St.Brides  with instructions to be kept an eye on being very ahem spirited which soon shows in the dares she was only too willing to perform and caught out by the Sixth form prefects.

You could say she was impressionable which I was too at this age and this is the the story of her first unhappy term as she gets to grips with school structures, rules and consequences.

It's an enjoyable read not just for her spirit but also how working at channelling her interests starts to pay off.

Bach

Bach is a composer I'm slowly making my way through in building up a sizable selection  of his compositions and recently I bought this 96/24bit transfer of the 1980 recording of the Goldberg Variations and the 1976 Italian Concerto for Harpsichord performed by Trevor Pinnock who normally conducts.

I love this account of Bach's Cello Sonatas that originally came out in 1985

This account of the Brandenburg Concertos originally came out to great acclaim in 1992 on EMI Eminence but four years ago was reissued by Classics For Pleasure in a slim double cd form.

 This is the later 1991 re-issue of the recording by violinists Anne-Sophie Mutter and Salvatore Accardo with the English Chamber Orchestra made in 1983 I bought on phase on of replacing my records and tapes with cds.

Bach wrote rather a lot for the organ and so at some point you are wanting a recording of his Organ works such as the Toccata and Fugue and this a re-release of a two cd set originally issued in 1992/3 by Peter Hurford a distinguished organist fits the bill.