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

Winter time gurl

We're heading well into winter and there are events and things which really are tied into the little side of sissy gurl me.

Around this time of year we start to have parties, especially Christmas parties which can have themes so being made up as say a Cow Girl, letting our imaginations run wild enacting a story that's evolving as you play appeals as much as games like sticking the tail on the donkey and musical chairs.

It's the time of year you might feel working on the Gurl side of me needs a bit of a push so you'd encourage me wear party or cocktail dresses with soft flowing materials to really push out the feminine side with matching knickers

Being winter the leaves are falling so why wouldn't you want to gather up leaves and dance around them outside in warmish dress as they all fall around you?

Rolled Gold and Styx Equinox with Crystal Ball

This week we're looking at two cds I recently bought.

 

This came out a year back and I recently picked up a copy used.

It's the 1975 and 1976 Styx albums - the first two for A&M Records - after changing from Wooden Nickel. Featuring Lorelie, Suite Madam Blue and Crystal Ball this twofer remastered by Andrew Thompson at Sound Performance sounds great and can be recommended.
Catalogue number: BGOCD 724

What comes around goes around, eh?

That was my first thought when I heard of the release of yet another Rolling Stones CD recently.

The original CD's were issued in Europe around 1984/7 and because of licensing issues were replaced by the US mastered (and somewhat inferior sounding) issues in 1995.

Then in 2002 it was announced that the were to re-mastered using new DSD techniques for the Super Audio CD (SACD).

In total 22 discs which included the US versions of the Big Hits and Thru' The Past, Darlkly compilations, Hot Rocks and Hot Rocks 2 Double compilations and the London Years ( All the singles and B sides on three discs).

And that's how everybody thought their Decca era output on CD was going to stay, so why issue this?

This album on LP and Tape was issued in 1975 and proved to be exceptionally popular because in one package it had the main singles and important album tracks, providing a good way into the bands 60's recordings.

In the CD age however this compilation is a surprisingly good choice.

First off, one problem with the US inspired Hot Rocks and Hot Rocks 2 sets is the material is scatted in no particular order across four CD's and in the case of Hot Rocks 2 not even in chronological order.

Some of the tracks on Hot Rocks 2 are only really there because the original US LP's such as After-Math missed off tracks from the UK issues that never found their way onto other US 'albums'. That's why 'What To Do' ends up on disc two.

Equally if one was to consider the individual Big Hits and Thru' The Past Darkly discs these use US versions that miss off UK hit singles.

The re-introduction of Rolled Gold solves this problem at a stroke as it features all the UK singles issued from 1963 thru 1969 plus the US singles. It has notable tracks like 'Carol', 'Lady Jane', 'Yesterday's Papers' and 'Gimme Shelter'.

The tracks run in near chronological order so you can sense the musical development of the group from those early R&B sessions to what is the template for much of todays Indie rock.

It is little appreciated outside of Stones fanatics circles but there was a major problem in the last otherwise good re-mastered series.

On 'Ruby Tuesday' somehow they pulled the 'wrong' tapes and got a copy which misses off the multi-tracked vocals and some instrumentation and that is on all the compilations re-issued plus the Flowers album.

This issue puts it right not without some controversy as seemingly they 'cloned' the right version from the older CD! Never mind the sound is quite acceptable although had they used an actual tape it could have made to sound better.

'Time Is On My Side' is the UK version in stereo whilst 'Mothers Little Helper' uses the mono version issued on single in the US.

In a strange move they've added two recordings from 1971, 'Brown Sugar' and 'Wild Horses' to the compilation.

So at long last we have a decent Decca era CD compilation and a low price too. There also is a inexpensive 4 Lp version available from HMV and eil.com in the UK.

Strongly recommended