The Wind Rises

It's Halloween  soon but apart from having a ghoulish time of it tonight I have a new anime to watch.

A little different than most because it is very much about Jiro a Japanese aeronautical designer who worked for Mitshibushi who was inspired by the Italian Caproni who because he'd been near sighted from a young age wasn't able to become a pilot joins the company in 1927.

He goes on to become one of the world's most innovative and accomplished airplane designers and in that respect this anime by Hayao Miyazaki is a tribute to him.

A secondary interest in this anime, unexpected and much appreciated by me watching it is the romance between Jiro and Nahoko who is ill with tuberculosis marrying her. 

Some of the scenes showing his love for her during periods where she was very ill are really moving.

The anime, chronicles much of his life time, the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, the Great Depression and the entrance of Japan into war in 1937.


The film also explores the growing friendship between him and his colleague Honja.
While some have criticized this anime for being ambivalent on what Jiro designed, warplanes that were a important part of Japan's war machinery, the overall message is one of how war only brings down countries and anti war opinions are voiced.

Overall I thought this was a really good anime, a fitting tribute not just to Jiro but also to the director.

The basics as I'm different

 We had mentioned the complicating nature of being gender fluid identifying as a feminine boy but you need to consider that when my feminine side is stronger unlike most of the time, then what leads to a spanking is likely to feature me as I feel best at that point.

I undertook a test recently looking at how I'd feel if I woke up a girl and here are the results.

You loved being a girl and wanted to be like that forever.

You love being feminine and hanging out with your female friends, and probably chose the skirt girls' school uniform because you didn't mind wearing it at all. In fact, you liked being a girl better than being a guy.

Wow, what an outcome! Your results reveal that you really took to this hypothetical transformation and not just adapted, but thrived in your new identity as a girl. The notion of femininity resonated with you, and you genuinely relished this experience. This is quite intriguing and showcases your openness to the realm of possibilities that life presents.

Your enjoyment of femininity indicates that you appreciated the nuances that come with being a girl. You might have felt empowered by the grace and elegance associated with it, or perhaps the sense of community and sisterhood that your female friends provided appealed to you. There's something uniquely special about that bond which can be deeply fulfilling.

Choosing to wear the skirt girls' school uniform wasn't an issue for you. In fact, it was an aspect you seemed to enjoy. This likely indicates your comfort with expressing yourself through your appearance. Fashion can be a wonderful outlet for self-expression, and the opportunity to experiment with different styles and aesthetics may have been exciting for you.

Intriguingly, you stated you preferred being a girl over being a guy. This could reveal a lot about your inner self. Maybe you have always felt a kinship with femininity, or perhaps the experience simply allowed you to express parts of yourself that you couldn't as a boy. Whatever the case, it's important to embrace these feelings. Identity is deeply personal and unique to each individual.

Navigating through the maze of gender norms and expectations can be challenging, but your experience shows an incredible level of self-discovery and acceptance. These qualities will be of great value as you continue to explore and understand yourself. Remember, there's no right or wrong when it comes to who you are or who you choose to be.

This hypothetical situation has allowed you to explore another side of yourself, and that's a beautiful thing. Life is full of twists and turns, and this experiment shows you can adapt to, and even relish, unexpected changes. Let this be a lesson in embracing the unknown with enthusiasm and an open mind. After all, you never know what you might discover about yourself along the way.

I feel that tells us really I am very much feminine and as a sissy gurl I do belong in dresses and skirts.

It is not about you and your power as that female, it is about me and teaching me a lesson I cannot fail to remember that will 'kick in' whenever I may feel tempted to do the things I should not - a deterrence.

It makes no difference what I've got on I'm still me and spanking is in my life now.

The issue we need to talk about

I tend to say the past is a different country, it's not a unique to me thing but this blog although starting in 2008 really goes back to a long time back when things were different and that is something that was reflected in our comics. 

Every week I had, most of us had The Beano and we loved it but from September 1974 Dennis The Menace became the main cartoon strip and as such as on the front cover .

One continuing backstory was the antagonism and permanent battle between Dennis and his gang of Menace Outlaws and Walter, pictured in blue and his "softies" who were portrayed not as I and a number of were sensitive and gentle minded but bordering on the effeminate, more feminine than the girls we knew as nine an ten year olds. 

You can argue about which came first but it did influence how feminine boys like me were treated even though we were not so over the top (and possibly aimed at "camp" gay boys and men) by other boys.

We could not openly talk about some of our interests without derision and even being set on by other boys.

I am sure it wasn't intentional on the part of the comic artists and owners but it had affected us even though we were not so "soft" as Walter and his friends were.

We WERE deemed boys then even though in truth we ARE sissies and no one deserved what happened to us.  

We can and as it comes from right inside of us why shouldn't we?

The Basics

Family life was really where it was at.

From long summer hols with buckets and spades to b-b-q's in the great outdoors done over the grill those were the things I so loved growing up.

On Saturday, I started work on a Helicopter Lego kit I'd  had for a short while having bought it on discount from the local newsagent.

It's the kind of thing I did back then as that child.

Unlike some of them, this did give you three options so I started with this one.

That's really the criticism many level at lego for the preoccupation with themed kits because you only have a limited number of parts and can only make a few things at the most from them while the Lego box sets we had as Boys had more.

Moreover, the boxes encouraged you to use your imagination to make things although they may have suggestions whereas these kits don't.

I'd die for a new lego set.

In some ways this life is about regaining and reliving those experiences all over again.

The Beatles In Mono on vinyl

The genius of this entry goes back three weeks ago to September 8th at least in the UK as  that was when a rather special set of vinyl lp records was issued in both individual and boxed set form with the box set featuring a big book with a history of the records , pictures of tape boxes and naturally enough, the artists themselves.

It is also a follow one to November 2012's music special that was timed to do with the stereo vinyl re-issues and how that slotted into my collection started in my earlier life.

The first thing to say is in this set there are 11 albums, the first 9 UK titles, the American compiled but later adopted in the UK Magical Mystery Tour and the new Triple Mono Masters compilation.

I opted to buy them individually as with a bit of searching I could get the whole set for much less than I anticipated and it's not every day you can get a set of brand new mono albums made directly from the tapes, the way they did in the 60's with not one jolt of digital processing involved.

An indication of the attention to detail in this set is the label above being a copy of the one used on the very first copies of the Please Please Me album from March 1963, the other UK original albums through Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band have period Yellow and Black labels with the White Album (aka "The Beatles") and the new Mono Masters triple having dark green Granny Smith Apple designs.

This one being American in origin has a replica Capitol colourband rim design as original Capitol lps did back then. Originally the songs from the film were issued in the UK on two 7 inch singles in a book and the stereo lp was eventually issued in November 1976 for that territory.

The sleeve construction owning a few originals is the same although the way the glossy lamination is achieved is different.

The White Album has individual issue numbers stamped on the front to each copy and top opening slots for each record, the four pictures and poster just like the originals did.

I have just one of them left to arrive but overall these sound at least as good as in number of instances better than my originals such as of the UK Revolver or early 80's extremely limited edition mono issues (the so-called '81's) like my copy of With The Beatles while I've never owned the White Album and Magical Mystery Tour in their mono  forms.

It seems using the tapes directly and altering the sound slightly per track while making the lacquers used to make the records has given them a transparency that has never been on any previous lps and in comparison with the Beatles in mono cd box set  is lacking from that.

While not  much processing  to the tone was done on the cd box set, it's obvious some tidying up like editing and click removing  was done digitally when you compare the actual records to the cds but it doesn't undermine the value of the cd set for those who prefer that media.

Why mono? Because for much of 60's the final mix was done first to mono, the one speaker systems most people had taking a lot of care with the impact and critically with the Beatles they were present during that process.

In the UK All the singles from Love Me Do to Get Back were only released in mono so the original mixes were the mono ones although from 1970's many compilation albums featured only stereo mixes done later.

In so far as original studio albums go the stereo mixes were done later usually by engineers in a half hour or so with no input from the Beatles so these mono mixes were more what they wanted their fans to hear and there are a good number of significant differences  between them with Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club band sounding more finished, nay arresting as a listening experience compared to the stereo.

It's important to note the first two UK albums were not recorded with any aim of making a stereo record so much as using two tracks to fine tune the balance between vocals and instruments later on which why in 'stereo' you have that odd backing in one speaker, vocals on the other effect. 

The final album in this series, Mono Masters is a triple album that has those singles with flip sides and other tracks not originally  released in the UK on album form from the original single mix of Love Me Do to You Know My Name from the b side of the Let It Be via such singles as I Want To Hold Your Hand, I Feel Fine, Day Tripper, Hey Jude and the last UK mono single Get Back.

It also has the entire Long Tall Sally EP plus dedicated mixes made a projected EP of songs from the Yellow Submarine that were never issued given a separate lp side meaning if you don't need the stereo versions, the Yellow Submarine album isn't really needed as there were only two other songs that are on it by the Beatles and they were issued on previous albums anyway.

Like most people who bought it, I feel compared to the 7 inch singles the sound is that much fuller for having more vinyl space to accommodate the full range of loud and soft passages and low notes in this unique compilation. It also is more convenient too than flipping 45's every two and half to three minutes with the 6 sides covering fairly well defined eras in the group.

The records:
Please Please Me
With The Beatles *
A Hard Day's Night
Beatles For Sale
Help!
Rubber Soul
Revolver
Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
Magical Mystery Tour
The Beatles (better know as the "White Album"**
Mono Masters.
*= Known to Canadians as Beatlemania with the beatles, the first album issued in North America.
** not issued in mono in Canada and the States, ever.

This set slots nicely into my collection replacing a number of copies whose sound I wasn't so happy with and enabled me to remove a couple of albums whose contents are now totally replicated in better sound, generally tidying matters up.