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.

Cute stuff for this Feminine Gurl

Sometimes in this life you can get a bit disappointed that people just give you what they think you need just on the basis of your sex and not what you actually like had they taken the trouble to really know you.

That said Mummy excelled herself this week with a couple of unexpected gifts for me

Cute bunny furry slippers for keeping me warm during the winter months.

And some cute kitty socks too

Miss Maisie Bunny who is truly adorable went with me too when I visited some friends earlier on in the month.

This is the stuff I love.

Am I still young enough for it?

Some elements of being little and having major development issues that really run on from the failure to develop fully as a child is most presumptions such as you have in as far as most older children and adults break the rules understand them and because you can reason, seeing things coming can take a more consequences  arising from your actions approach such as warnings, fines and if you break serious laws even prison.

The problem in being how I am is you don't have the same control, the same ability to foresee what is wrong with what you are doing, you cannot follow long explanations and may even struggle with short ones getting them muddled up.

That system set up  for people can doesn't work for you because you don't have those abilities and you are in a load of ways pretty much like a younger child as teachers who tried reasoning with me at 16+ found out I don't have and see things from the way even an older teen does. Concepts such as "Self respect" just aren't in there.

Thus to be blunt you DO need to treat me as a younger child of my own era.

Thus the answer you need to give me is just that, I AM still young enough to be spanked because that gets the message over in an unambiguous way that you are displeased with me and by doing so the discomfort will register so much I will associate it with the activity and so discourage me from ever doing it again.

It works much better to take me over a lap for an old fashioned childhood spanking, nothing complex, nothing really more in adult content settings, just the spanking I'd of had as that ten year old back then.

This works much better for me.

Feminine LSG playtime?

 

Rugged play was always my thing and to be honest in the littles world it's an element within the notion of being littles schools that appeals more to me than the obsession over certain other elements like having whole past uniforms rather than uniforms based on what we would of had and the whish of c.p.

For me the whole point of such an experience is to be entirely within the mindset of that feminine little sissy for me a ten year old Prep school  child not say doing his maths and english but also to have playtimes and bottles of milk with a straw.

It's about the games we'd play together, the camaraderie really. 

In other words it should feel like were are in that time and space all over again acting on the impulses of that ten year old in real time and less like we're playing at it while the grown ups apply the rules of the day to us as if it was back then and we were in their class just as incidents can and did happen.

A day trip out for a little sissy

I decided on Saturday September 6th to spend the day away and leaving our Town our driver decided to go via the Rail centre that is Crewe, the delights of the market town of Nantwich and the tranquil Bunbury near to the Shropshire Union Canal.

Enroute it looked rather dull especially over the Halkyn Mountains with a shower too but as you can see it was actually very sunny at this place. I think its overall feel is just that actually and it was heaving with people.

Got where this is yet? Okay it's Llandudno, North Wales about 15 miles from Colwyn Bay and as it happened just as I arrived boats were out taking people out to see the Great Orme and here is one with would be passengers.

That was taken before I went for a coffee, went to W H Smiths for my magazines  and visited a surviving HMV music store armed with a voucher and walking out with some cds that effectively cost me nothing.

There are many ways of getting around but the most intriguing is this road train that goes from East to West Shore with it's colourful livery. I wonder if it has a steam engine to power it?

Talking of power, we must of had some as Mummy and I won two prizes each on the bus raffle with a box of chocolate Fudge and a diary for me and wasn't it some co-incidence,eh?

A more conventional way is this special tourist bus. I just love the seaside, something that's a constant with me from my boyhood as we spent summers on the coast.

I had fish and chips for lunch out before strolling along the Promenade, just relaxing as you do between fighting the Seagulls off and running around in my shorts and cute ankle socks.

Mummy and I decided to visit some clothes and gift shops which was fun and then decided to go for tea and some cake in the afternoon where I had a really big slice of a lemon and cream cake which was delicious to tide me over until we returned a couple of hours later.

The return trip to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Recently a new series of editions of the classic Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album by Elton John came out in variety of formats.

Many people feel it has the highest proportion of his finest songs on a single album and they include Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting, Bennie and The Jets, Candle in the Wind  apart from the title track.

I already own the MFSL gold cd which was the first to put it on a single disc which is widely regarded as the best digital format release of it.

One reason I'm interested in is the extras rather than the remastered original album which include remakes by today's artists like Ed Sheeran and The Band Perry to whom I like but also such extras as demo versions, a 5.1 surround sound mix on dvd and the whole of the Hammersmith Odeon concert  from that year which the BBC broadcast.

This is something I'm looking forward to getting.