Christmas 2013

It's Christmas which for me means it one that is back in the past even if its Twenty thirteen which means we have comic annuals from the past in them such as the Beano.

It is the 75th anniversary of both the Beano and Dandy this year which is a mighty long time in history of comics and in the Beano remains many of the characters I loved such as Dennis the menace, Minnie the mix, Roger the dodger and of course the Bash Street Kids.

The Dandy ceased regular weekly publication this time last year but had a Summer Special this year which was a pleasant surprise.

This years annual leads off with Desperate Dan on the front but includes favourites such as Keyhole Kate who's always nosy, looking into other peoples business and the great Korky the cat.

My copy has a poster included.

Also included was Diamond, a new hardback novel by Jacqueline Wilson continuing the Hetty Feather story. I like her books loads.

Mummy bought me a new and very feminine pink pair of pull on fur lined slippers and some cute socks.  By the way that bell is old and loud!

I also had this Hello Kitty hand towel and face cloth set for when I go away with friends.

The trouble with being a sissy gurl tends to be less the boy stuff you get but the lack of anything feminine even when people know you are so things like gloves end up being converted to smaller girls gloves that do fit and ditto the socks as my feet are child sized and not man sized.

So while I'd rather that kind of stuff didn't happen, there's no point obsessing over it as you can deal with and anyway not everyone is fortunate to receive presents at all.

Doing the Little Sissy Schoolgurl thing

The World of the School for Adult School Boys and Girls too I might add is not one some are familiar with so perhaps it is hardly surprising that ill informed comments abound when it come to light in the popular press one is operating in town or city.

The School offers a place for adult littles to be returned to the classroom experience of their actual youth such as the coat hooks in the cloakroom not not a million miles removed from those in my first school which I remember quite vividly and obviously uniforms.

The area around presentation in so far as it goes with me could be either way although it must be said most who run such places are very much traditionalist only bending for "special gurls" which isn't really inline with education in the last twenty or so years.

Back then I didn't have this option which I do love  but it would need to be as a little sissy gurl with all the names and pronouns and not some pretend girl thing.

This "boy" in strict uniform, being more strict than my actual junior school but he attends and needs to wear at least a kind of uniform that marks him out as a "boy" and from that point takes away most adult presumptions so he's very much back to being a school boy in class under a teacher.

One way you can tell is the cut of his shorts are quite short, clearly  to make him look more juvenile. 

If I was to present in shorts, then they'd need to be at least this length if not a tadge shorter approximating those i did wear back then

The more usual approach is a traditional more Prep school uniform such as the above which may well include a cap or for gurls straw hat which as state school junior I didn't have and there is old school revolving chalkboard in which the teacher for the day would put his or her work on.

The "Boys" or "Girls" normally would sit at a desk again most likely to be wooden one, taking work down into their exercise book to do or into a jotter again as anybody educated in the 60's, 70's and 80's would recall.

Miss or Mr would be just that, no "Lindsey is my Teacher" stuff as old school manners and formality is in and enforced.

Elton John: Rocket Man

Getting set for Christmas now so here's a small piece of value coming to you shortly, to paraphrase an old Jefferson Airplane song!

Like a good many people, my interest in Elton John came about in the early 1970's where I owned the UK lp versions of both his Greatest Hits albums, borrowing other titles periodically from the library.

In the intervening years I slowly built up a collection of what I consider to be albums from his classic period plus a few from the early 1980's on compact disc being a mixture of early 80's American MCA discs and a few European DJM issues of the same era as the "Classic Sound" titles issued in 1996 that  to me sounded too loud and bright plus the MCA issue of Greatest Hits II with the song, Levon, a fine track included.

Recently I acquired a few specialty releases that sound amazing that I wish to talk about.

This disc issued in 1994 by the now defunct DCC label followed the US MCA edition track order but added Candle In The Wind which featured on the UK version at the end, has a great selection of Elton's earliest songs in possible their best sounding versions. Bennie And The Jets sounds just like you're in a concert.

Volume II was to been issued by DCC but an eleventh hour licensing issue between Dick James Music and MCA  put an end to that after the test discs were made, which was a great shame.

Issued at the beginning of this year by Audio Fidelity, this edition of Rock Of The Westies originally released November 1975 and  the Home of Island Girl, Grow Some Funk Of Your Own and Dan Dare, is the best version on cd of this title with a wide dynamic range.

Strangely enough this disc originally in late 1989 by Mobile Sound Labs Inc of Illinois was the first edition with the whole double album on a single cd.  

In the opinion of many it remains the best sounding version on cd and being the home of Candle In The Wind, Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting, and Bennie and The Jets plus many other memorable songs. 

My copy is a slightly later US pressed UDII one.

In 1983 this compilation one of three with the title Love Songs  was issued with a cd issued very shortly afterward in those halcyon cd days by Rocket Records in the UK.

As the title suggests this is a collection of love songs drawn from the  Rocket era catalogue so it takes in the albums from 1976's Blue Moves up to 1982's Jump Up and is a very good summary of this era although it misses of  Part Time Love originally on the 1978 A Single Man album for we get most of the 45's and choice album cuts. 

Although this is an early regular cd, it seems some effort was taken to find good sounding analogue tapes leaving it with a lush presence in the midband, great for making the most of Elton's vocals.

I've transferred these discs to my iTunes library for portable listening.

Moving ahead through cubbing

As time went on my balancing of feminine and masculine  things started to move through to other areas of being me.

We talked at the very beginning around not being immersed in the World of boys and  how rough play which lies at the core of boyhood play was discouraged even though when I did breakaway and  allowed boys to play very physically with me and I even played like that with them, I really liked it.

That was another sign that at the core I had aggression even if I could do more gentle play such as playing house or with dollies which I longed to do but that era was hard on you if you did as a more feminine gurl who the world thought was a boy.

Another area of that passivity was discouraging exploration as even though there was no reason for me not to had been enrolled into Cubs and actually I helped my brothers in their scouting behind the scenes, my parents did not enrol me.

While obviously one could not join junior scouting officially today, I decided to follow the spirit, principals and the sorts of activities I would of done back then so I started to learn many of the skills through practise that as that sissy gurl back then I'd of learned and to go out being physical, exploring the natural world around me.

As one of the core parts of regression in its very early days was that, finding and secretly wearing my younger brothers uniform as he'd left by that point it made more sense and I also established a uniform.

The awkwardness of the gender gap within the scouting movement then and some present issues aside such as longing for a more feminine style of uniform at least in the form I can relive is something I can change to get the best balance for a gurl who wanted and loved the scouting ethos.

This helped a lot in both shifting the negativity I had toward myself moving from being very risk averse to learning to work with risk handling it to take care of myself and to let my sense of adventure out.

By engaging with that it I was on the way to becoming a confident thoughtful feminine gurl who accepted their more sissy traits. 

Advent 2013

As we're slowly getting toward Christmas and slowly being the operative word  having been without the internet for over 48 hours (rant) my mind drifts back to how we always used to count it down.

That's right the Advent Calendar, and that's mine for this year, ready to be put up on living room wall and being with milk chocolate, also consumed!

Guessed you'd of thought it just had to feature that cat!!!

I'm so into kawaii!

Maintaining The Connection

You have things for such a while they become very much a part of your life to the point you could not bear to be without them.

For instance, I had the same mobile phone a Nokia 3410 for over ten years, two employers and a good many vacations after getting tired of relying on callboxes to phone friends from and the lines that would form from each in a Summer's evening when away.

Well, the battery started to lose its ability to store the power that would not of been bad other than Nokia seemingly no longer make the battery having discontinued the phone itself  and the third party makers in China replacement models are of so-so quality at best.

I'm currently with Vodafone whose network has a very good reliable coverage, something in this area can't be relied upon by others such as Orange, and didn't feel like having to change my mobile phone number but needed a replacement, not least for when I'm out on daytrips and the like quickly.

Because of my hands I do need something fairly robust and with my co-ordination I'm prone to falling over so models with thin glass screens aren't so good. 

As I don't need the Internet, I bought this, the Samsung E1200 which could be had for little more than the cost of a replacement battery which is simple to use with a very tactile keypad and very long battery life not just when making calls but also when in standby.

It was sold as unlocked to any one network and comes without your providers SIM card so you have to physically remove it  from your old phone to the new one, where after a moment it works like a treat.

The phone holds it charge well which will be useful for things like being away on hols or littles gatherings as not having to pack a charger does save space.

Needless to say it has had a Hello Kitty sticker applied to the back and a protective HK phone sock is coming to keep it in!

Being out and Winter hillwalking tips

 

For me Scouting and the Outdoor Life is a big part of the whole littles experience because it was that as hard and physically demanding as it was that I both enjoyed and taught me real resilience.

Some of kindest things people did for me back the was to make things harder for me by having to follow what every other child did and learn to pick myself up and carry on rather than protecting me from consequences.

I played games, camped, went hiking in forests and learned to love nature. 

Much of this is coming back into my LSG life now.

*Some winter hillwalking tips learned from experience

1. Have a permit and permission - check your route for this in advance

2. Know people’s experience, ability and limits to make it achievable

We're all different when it comes to experience, stamina and abilities and those of us with disabilities need to have then taken into account.

3. Follow any provided kit lists

Guidance on what you need is often available and in brownies and girl guides you'll be given it

4. Check the weather before you go

5. Wear bright colours to be visible

Dark colours merge at a distance into the landscape so if your jacket isn't bright do wear reflective material on you such as rucksacks so you can be spotted.

6. Clothing to keep you warm and the importance of layers

There are three layers, base, intermediate such as a fleece and outer such as rainproof jacket and keep extras on you.

7. Know your gear and its limitations so you use the most appropriate for the conditions.

Not all outdoor gear is made for every task

8. Start earlier in the morning to get home when it’s light

9. Take a paper map and compass, then practice reading it mobile phone signals can go apart from finding your battery is flat.

10. Tell someone where you’re going and how long you expect to be

11. Stay hydrated and take emergency rations

Because you expect to be out a few hours doesn't mean you shouldn't allow for any kind of emergency and all of this will fit in your rucksack.

12. Light up the way and keep a torch or in some situations a headlamp on you

13. Go with someone else or a group

Apart from the company extra bods are a back up for advance or even getting help in an emergency

14. Always know what to do in an emergency on any hillwalking activity

Basking in the glow of reality

It's been a funny month with the weather although I went out quite a bit exploring and taking a few pictures for posterity and since this blog has started I have made a few entries over the year about how being a feminine gurl on the inside shows in how I dress and my interests. 

Here in the Autumn with the soft warm glow I'm out in a garden dressed in a junior school jumper under which there is a polo shirt, gym knickers, white girls over the knee socks and pleated grey junior school skirt and finally slip on shoes.

I'm still working through the legacy issues as they affect scouting and me not least for Cubbery being the route I could of taken back then but longing for something a bit less masculine in it's form not least uniform as I just feel some much better in skirts.

I feel every inch a jane girl now.

Billy Joel, the piano man part IV

Like me we're going on back this week in time to 1981, when I was still in high school a little older but feeling still 12 to when I first heard this album.

I was just starting to come out a fog following the death from a sudden illness of a very close school friend who also really interested in music so among the many memorable release of that year, this one comes to mind.

Coming after the new wave inspired Glass Houses album, this was a live album of songs some of which were on his first two albums and a few others not previously recorded. 

Lesser artists might of called this "Greatest Hits Live" but Billy being Billy gave it a proper and meaningful title "Songs in the attic" because it comprised of songs he thought the original recordings didn't do justice to such as Captain Jack or had literally been in his attic untouched and unrecorded.

Unlike the majority of live albums too, this yielded two top 40 hits "Say Goodbye To Hollywood" and "She's Got A Way" aided by the fact Billy had a great great live band backing him and his piano playing being caught well by the recording equipment, something this disc re-issue (on vinyl and regular cd with super audio cd layer for suitable players) really does justice too.

The specialty record  company Mobile Fidelity have recent reissued it as part of their program of very high quality reissues licensed from Sony Music of his back catalogue.

As at the time I only had the European cassette to have an excellent cd version packaged like a lp couldn't be nicer and a pleasant reminder of those days gone by.

All I truly need

 

That surprisingly enough is just about the only kind of life beyond that of being schoolgurl albeit one with my quirks I really get anything from and prefer to relive these days as that adult but child self.

For me adventure, excitement, learning new skills and conquering fears mixed in with close friendship and above all fun is what love and feel I have more the need for and what I feel in the months and years ahead I'm better devoting time into making that happen.

If you could put me back there I'd be as happy as Larry or perhaps Lisa.

Out In The Woods

Fall at least in my area is almost coming to an end with the leaves having changed colour dropping on to the wood like a vast carpet of vivid colour so I thought I'd share with you this week this picture of Wild Berries taken in my local woodland.

As well, the acorns are falling which is great news for Squirrels, but not so good if you get several underneath of your feet  which happened to me on Tuesday when I was out walking!

For me that's the joy of being a Brownie in spirit, exploring, taking in the fresh air as you have fun learning and maybe earning a badge or two.

Stevie Nicks, Partridge Family, Crosby Stills, Nash & Young and Stevie Wonder round up

We having a bit of a musical round up on the blog this week.

We're back to 1981 a year  I still can recall  pretty well and the members of the band Fleetwood Mac were on a break after touring in support of the Tusk album and Stevie Nicks issued a well regarded album that had a lot of input from Tom Petty and to which he duetted on the hit "I Will Run To You"

Move forward to 1983, another pivotal year in my life, and in August I heard the first single that came from the just released  follow up album, The Wild Heart on the radio. 

Entitled Stand Back, it announced to the world that in that year where the English synthesizer new wave bands dominated,  she could compete with a sound that borrowed elements of it and yet keep the feel that makes her solo work so compelling, the space for her singing to transmit her emotions clearly. 

This was followed in October with the second 45 If Anyone Falls one the songs that continues to remind of the Fall of '83 even now.

It remains a favourite album of mine from when I bought the West German Chrome cassette version back in the day that sounded better than many pre-recorded cassettes just a year or two before.

One problem in the cd era for Stevie Nicks fans was the cd versions sounded thin, lacking bass and very bright, so much so for both albums that many Americans believe there is no good cd version of either album. 

However they are wrong as in 1990, EMI UK took over the UK rights and mastered this themselves to a much higher standard. It's simply that they've never encountered the discs that I obtained recently that I'm pleased to finally hear in digital form these albums. They sound really good.

Going back a decade further this time to when I was most definitely in single digits (too bad about not having ringlets at de time!) one thing I can recall is rushing on over to a family friend to see this TV show where they song nice songs and David Cassidy was super awesome looking.

I had been looking for a cd of the hits from the show such as "I Think I Love You"a big hit from 1971 for a while now and recently Sony/Bmg issued this 14 track Playlist set which can be gotten quite cheaply (like £5.09 shipped).

It features Breaking Up Is Hard To Do remixed to a more modern stereo spread for the first time where on previous cds it was mono only.

It wasn't long after the introduction of cds that box sets started to emerge following on from those of the lp era covering typically a genre or whole artists career and a number of truly worthwhile releases came out from the late 1980's up to the mid 90's.

The common factor between these, the good and the sort you though "and just who is this for?" ones was the large boxes typically 14 x14 inches and equally large booklets as well as mouth-watering price tags.

Over the years some had become out of print as new titles and others repackaged in simpler typically cd sized packages with reduced prices reflecting both the period of time that had elapsed from issuing and that often they were not re-mastered which isn't necessary a bad thing given many how many contemporary poorly remastered cds have been put out.

Over the years Warner Bros have been re-issuing a number and example of which I wrote about in the Rod Stewart entry a few years back and this is  one of two recently re-issued.

What this box set originally issued in 1991 comprises of  selections from all the studio albums Crosby, Stills, Nash (and Young) issued including a number of alternative mixes and versions  plus a selection from their respective solo albums, so giving you a wide appreciation of their talent that if you chose to investigate it from scratch would set you back rather a lot. 

You see how the talents blended and equally what each themselves all having a group past prior to C, S, N, (and Y) brought to the table. Although mastered back in 1991 by Joe Gastwirt prior to the individual albums being remastered in 1994, the sound remains very clear with good dynamics. 

I should point out Audio Fidelity have done specialty remasters of the First CSN album and CSN (1977).

The booklet is substantially the same but rejigged to fit the cd case with a short history of the artists and track by track narration. 

It would either make a good bookend to a collection of CSN individual albums or serve well as a inspired selection of their output where their music and vision was apart of our lives. 

For approx £18 for four cds I'd highly recommend it.

As several of you know I do love Motown and a few years back Audio Fidelity issued this speciality Gold cd of the classic Talking Book album by Stevie Wonder plus a few others.

To recap a number of his albums were first issues in the halycon days of cd by Motown under BMG in Europe, then reissued in 1992 by Polygram and finally remastered in 2000 thru Universal.

Unfortunately most of these year 2000 titles are shrill, bright and very loud sounding you could tell even with the stores stereo system playing them but the 'classic' 1972-1976 albums in the 1992 series really could be better so I'm replacing them with these specialty gold remasters done by Kevin Gray using more modern devices to convert the sounds from the analogue tapes to digital.

Talking Book is the the home to "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life" hit 45.

1972's Music Of My Mind was the disc that bought Stevie's use of the Arp synthesizer to our attention way back then featuring the hit single Superwoman.
My 1992 version sounds poor.

1973's Innervisions is in my opinion one soul album you just got to own featuring "Living For The City", "Higher Ground" and "He's Misstra Know-It-All" covering such topics as false religion, racial discrimination and mans relationship with his spiritual side.

Let it not be said Stevie took the white mans dollar and failed to address issues affecting African-Americans cos on this as with several albums he does bemoaning the failure of the political system on "You Haven't Done Nothin'" and "It Ain't No Use". 

All Stevie did was avoid the excesses of political sloganizing that ultimately dates his contemporaries  lyrics.

I feel this is the most improved disc of the set.

In 1976 he issued a double lp plus 4 track 7" EP entitled Songs In The Key of Life" where talks about everything he feels is important in the lyrics. This album included the smash hit tribute to jazz performer Duke Ellington, Sir Duke, I Wish and As although isn't She Lovely was a "radio hit" and a hit when recorded by England's David Parton in the UK and Europe.

The original cd split the bonus tracks across the two cds but in 2000 the reissue that otherwise was very poor not helped by playing a Dolby A tape without it sounding very bright and compressed at least put the EP tracks at the end of disc 2.

For this 2011 Audio Fidelity release they kept to that disc running order with much improved sound.

Here's my brief series comments:

Having done a comparison with my older cd I'd say the major improvements are in the timbre of percussion smoother with more snap revealing greater fine detail and vocals.

Innervision is probably the next best thing to the rare and very expensive Mobile Fidelity cd issue from the early 90's that accidentally did use the master tape.

To summarize it builds on the original adding more subtitles within the limits of having to use a copy tape because Stevie does not give any record company any master tapes including Motown and for that reason is to be preferred although I am sure with the actual masters the results would be more noticeable.

I also picked up the 1985 mastered Love Songs 20 Classic Hits cd on Motown which offers a selection of his 60's output in much better sound than the 1998 Greatest Hits and Greatest Hits Vol:2 re-issues although it misses out Fingertips Pt2, Work Out Stevie Work Out and Travellin' Man

What is an adult?

 

This upcoming week, I'll be off on an adventure and so need to get myself prepared for it in the next few days so I'll have a little less spare time for blogging and that although I'm looking forward to it.

Looking around the internet as you do, I saw this captioned image  - as you'll know I don't generally do captions - but in a way it gets to the heart of the matter. 

We'd all agree she's physically a grown up by appearance but what of the things she does, the things that make her happy? Sat here, I'm thinking she could easily of been like me in my late teens and twenties, looking sophisticated but wanting to play games, running around clutching her teddy.

And that's really the thing, this idea that everything you do once your chronological age gets past 14 if you're lucky something funny happens to how you're expected to behave, like everything is meant to purposeful, serious and unless you're a parent or grandparent and get the chance to relive your childhood with children you can't be seen do anything that's not.

You're a groan up!

Really it's so silly and actually detrimental to our own well-being emotionally (something that is increasingly being recognized by experts in the field)  that we need to say no to it.

Be responsible where it matters but don't jettison what makes you happy in the process.

Performances

 Although opportunities were limited I did enjoy acting taking part in school and community plays although having dyslexia and a poor memory presented its own challenges when it came to learning my lines and keeping up with the whole performance coming on, doing my bit and then exiting the stage.

One thing I did do and enjoy was wheelchair dancing and in connection with one years school play play I danced to the Skaters Waltz on stage which felt super cool!

From Up On Poppy Hill

Today I talk about a dvd that was issued on September 23rd in the UK.

Called From Up On Poppy Hill, this anime stage play by Hayao Miyazaki and lovingly directed by his son, Goro, is a coming of age romance set in Yokohama, Japan in 1963, just 18 years after the end of World War Two and the establishment of modern day Japan.

Set in the ramshackle club house of their high school , it charts the romance of Umi and Shun as they join forces to save it from demolition for a new sports facility for the (then) upcoming 1964 Tokyo Olympics. 

The musical score is jazz based and features Sukiyaki the World conquering  1963 Japanese song that had a cover version by Kenny Ball's trad jazz  band in the UK.

The animation as is usually the case from this studio, Studio Ghilbi, is unapologetically old school cell drawn and all the better for it allowing you to concentrate on the story.
Strongly recommended. 

Revisiting and getting younger

We did make a bit of a reference to whole topic of games attire as some peoples idea of gender neutrality basically amounts to taking masculine stuff and adding "for girls too" which does nothing for us.

Jane Girls like me all feel better wearing traditional  wrap around games skirts loving the air and freedom of movement a skirt gives you.

I've gotten a new Green pleated school skirt and a matching netball skirt with the pleats at the side and rear plus matching gym knickers.

Earlier this month I was away visiting a favourite seaside resort Llandudno in North Wales where apart from just relaxing I found myself very much in the mindset of that young gurl interacting with all around hur.

I decided to go over to the Punch And Judy show that I loved as a ten year old and found myself being pulled back in with the children.

"Judy!' screamed all the children and me as Mr Punch pictured on the left of the puppet show goes to attack her baby as she lives it to get Mr Punch's dinner that comprised of Sausages. Mr Punch gets his just deserts later on in the performance for assaulting Judy and PC Plod. It's enough to say he won't repeat the offence again.

We all loved the performance of this traditional and decisively non politically correct seaside children's entertainment.

It's amazing just how much of a child I really am.

Age Fluidity

 

 The subject of ones age as a little came up at one site where it appeared the notion people having just single fixed age as a little appears to be doing the rounds.

Let me say from the outset, there is nothing at all wrong with having just a single little age say 10 years if this is the age you feel when you are in a little (or Middle) Headspace but this is by no means the only situation. 

For a good number of us, we do vary a little having a 'Upper age limit' which is as old as we can feel and a lower point we may regress further back to in certain situations, getting a little 'silly' at times. This is when you think about it, is little different to that of actual children who can go back a few years especially at periods of great stress. 

I would like anyone who does find their 'age' is fluid to understand this is quite normal and certainly doesn't make you less of a little.

Although I hover around the 10 to 12 bit most of the time I go go back to around 8 or 9 or even younger sometimes and my littlest little would really like to be dressed rather like this.

Putting me in younger girls skirt uniform or print dress makes more sense when we're clearly at our youngest.

A feminine schoolgurl.

Crossed wires and a gradual realization

Although we saw on the last entry that physically I was showing signs of maturing developing a personal sense of sexuality, it was also the case in good many other ways I hadn't and indeed a childhood accident at fourteen caused significant brain damage had pretty much locked me in at the upper juniors.

After passing some examinations I left school which was where a number of these issues started to take their toll not fitting in to systems that either worked with a disabilities but having regular development for Employment nor seeming on the surface to have the needs of someone less bright to be considered for specialist prevision such as Day Centres where activities such as arts and crafts and days out would be arranged.

Between the sheets and between the gaps I started to get to what we'd call today Age Regression although in an age where the modern internet hadn't yet been born and much confusion between infantilism and age regression existed even amongst professionals who deal with human behaviour and that was more a sissy gurl form.

As time went by, the modern internet emerged that was a breakthough where bulletin boards and websites devoted to being more like a child or dressing more like one formed.

Many though did not seem to cater to my needs as not being a pure crossdresser or a transexual  and those sissy sites I saw were more into the sissification trope of a boy dressed in a uber frilly satin form seemingly enjoying being humilated in lots of ways including sexually which for me wasn't what it was about as much as I am very much a sissy gurl.

It was not that my feminine side had gone to sleep not wishing to act on them or still wear a dress or skirt, I just didn't care for such extreme effeminate behaviour and sexualized lifestyle.

Sometimes you might of found a splinter group that appeared to bypass this mixing of past childhood with sexualization and I started to spend more time with them but they were more crossdressing being obessesed with changing their little girl dresses every half hour or so and soon things would be different.

Put into dresses and gym knickers, being inspected it seemed kind of okay at first as a vehicle for just being little with others but I began to question it when it was that a distantly anti male attitude would show as those who were Tg would drone on about being the female they wanted to be, wanting to be uber frilly girlies  or wanting surgery while all I could think about was just how much I actually loved being a sissy gurl but a non sexual one.

Then there was the shift in the Tg movement from being mainly around transexuality with acceptance of transvestism - altering gender by presentation on just a temporary basis - to being more around alternate gender forms and removing women and women's spaces for these.

Much of that made no sense to me as if you did feel you were female then you'd become one and from that point on function in society as one integrating into womanhood so going around removing girls and womens own spaces and even the word girls and women really pushed me to consider if just going along for the ride with them was the thing.

I decided to experiment a bit with them taking elements of how I originally saw age regression and me just to see how there version and how that might be really sat with me.

Wings gold

The origins of this entry go back quite a number of years when pre internet you found out about new titles being issued either in magazines such as Hifi World or by visiting your local record or cd stores when we had them(!).

Generally there are two types of record companies, those who are large, issue titles to the mainstream generally with little special care about sound quality and sources and those who issue limited runs of titles where they do track down the best sounding copies of each album and carefully transfer it to record or as with these titles, cd.

Many early cds didn't sound too good through a combination of not being careful over sources and also the technology that takes analogue sound to digital didn't sound as smooth as the format was and is capable of. 

Its that that lead me to start getting these Gold cds by the now defunct company DCC classics from the early 1990's onward.

Way way back in the 1970's the albums (and 45's) by Paul McCartney first came to my attention and this album Band On The Run was a favourite of mine owning it on the awesomely clunky 8 track form and fittingly this album with it's hit 45's such as the title track, Jet and as on this  US edition only Helen Wheels was the first I bought.

Apart from having the U.S. extra track which oddly enough I do prefer as with the rest of the series it has a very smooth rich sound while not fooling me to say an lp issue, does at least sound less 'digital' to the ears.

It also has a poster.

Arriving soon to me is Red Rose Speedway, the home of My Love a song that can be considered a 'standard' which will be a bit smoother than my 1987 UK edition and also has the reggae based b side to Hi Hi Hi,  C Moon, which inexplicably was left off the mainstream UK cds bonus tracks. It's a song I rather like. 

My copy will be missing the card slip cover but as it was a lot cheaper as many of these discs usually sell for over $100 I'm not complaining about that.

At The Speed of Sound should be with me by the time this entry goes live replacing a much loathed 1989 Capitol cd that masks much detail in the quieter parts in an attempt to eliminate tape hiss. 

This album was the home of the hit singles Let 'Em In and Silly Love Songs as well as enjoyable numbers like Cook Of The House. It was this album Wings toured with on the tour captured on Wings Over America recently re-issued.

I've a sneaking feeling many of us who around back then had at least heard this album Venus And Mars before, one of the best in the Wings catalogue with it's singles Venus &Mars/Rock Show (the single edit is on Wingspan) and Listen To What The Man Said (single mix again on Wingspan). 

One issue with this album is some heavy handed compression was locked into the mixdown tapes but although it's not entirely cured what mastering engineer Steve Hoffman did was carefully balance Venus and Mars so it's quieter than the energetic Rock Show that it segue-ways into for better effect. 

Strangely on all the mainstream releases Rock Show is noticeably less loud! It too has the original poster as featured on the lp and three bonus tracks.

I also was recently able to add McCartney, his first solo album  that featured the hit 45 Maybe I'm Amazed and Teddy Boy in addition to  Ram, featuring the 45 Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey and the pro population song Too Many People  on DCC too.