The Dandy Summer Special 2017

In what is it's 80th birthday even if sadly not in regular weekly publication, The Dandy launched its summer special since it's regular return in 2014 with all our favourites headed up by Desperate Dan and his famous Cow Pie.

I'm so looking forward to reading that this summer.

Guilty Secrets - The Moody Blues on Mp3

It's sometimes said things are "guilty secrets" things in which the perceived wisdom around a topic holds them to be so embarrassing to admit to liking them that you'd never admit to in company even though you actual do.

What is called "Progressive Rock" is one as here you can talk about the guitar playing abilities of say Richie Blackmore of Deep Purple fame or Rick Wakeman of Yes's organ playing, no one would put in a good word for the Birmingham  based Moody Blues rich at times orchestrated scores and poetic readings in their recordings.

This was an album I remember clearly buying in March of 1980 with a slightly different cover which was the home of the single (although that was a different mono mix) and Tuesday Afternoon that I liked which was as well as my History teacher Mr Garner loved the Moody's often talking about them.

I did buy the 45 in December 1979 which had the non album track, Cities on it and I bought a few years back the Mp3 download of an expanded re-issue of it that just happens to contain that track.

This was one I borrowed numerous times from the Public Library the home of Ride My See-Saw and bought last year on Mp3 download. The track Om is almost hypnotic.

Seeing this was on offer last weekend on download I treated myself to the Mp3 download of this classic album part inspired by the Nasa spacewalk in 1969 and home to the single Watching and waiting, very much a mediation on space travel and childhood.

It was a favourite of that teacher and having listened to a few times, I can see why.

Getting back on track

 

The last year has been a rough period in my life, battling with both physical and mental welfare issues, sometimes even struggling to get a post out cos I couldn't just get started but really in order to move on, you need to look back.

This thing didn't start with the blog back in 2006, or with my time on Friends Reunited or Experience Project, it really started in my earliest years when you start figuring out roles and what roles get you rewards and what gets the put downs.

In my case it was different cos I didn't feel like  a boy when it came to social roles and expectations but I didn't hanker for being female, experiencing the kind of dysphoria that transexuals often do.

What I am, rather than what I'm not really is my strength because that is ultimately what makes me and what however difficult it has been I've always fought to accepted as.

The heady mix of satin, bows and frills with uber sweet femininity coupled with my placid even submissive nature made me the most natural sissy gurl you ever knew, just happy to be hurself whither I'm running more on the Little Side or not.

It's beyond a look even if that's a signature one, being sissy is a way of life and the very best for me.

The Bruce Springsteen Albums Collection

Sometimes after a while you finally get it together with a plan  and in order to make some sense of how it applies in this instance,  it's necessary to look at the history of Bruce Springsteen's music here as part of it because it was the early 80's that I  started to buy his albums out right starting originally with the pre-recorded tapes of Born To Run, The River and Born In The USA and then as my record playing equipment improved lp records of Darkness On The Edge Of Town and Tunnel Of Love.

By the time he'd released the misunderstood  Human Touch and Lucky Town albums in early 1992 that I bought on cd, I had decided to standardize on cd and replace my worn tapes at the same time.

Those cds were assembled mainly from tapes in the late 1980's and those editions until three years despite upgrades on the packaging still had that source which was thin and indistinct.

That is where this seven cd set comes in because a new process (Plangent) to restore unclear recordings  and pitch imperfections was used on the actual master tapes has been used throughout  plus they have been issued in mini lp  form.

This simply means they come in card sleeves that replicate the original lps so on Greetings from Astbury Park, N.J, it has a postcard folded over the jacket and Born To Run has a gatefold sleeve together with replica inner sleeves to house the cd(s) which where appropriate have specific art and the inserts.

Other nice touches to the set are reproductions of the lp labels on the discs themselves which does build on the tactileness of the whole set.

Having listened to the set extensively, they do sound a lot better with the first two albums (Greetings from Astbury, N.J and The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle) much clearer and even the at times glary mess sonically that is The River is tamed with a number of tracks gaining better depth, more clearer sense of individual instruments and heck even some bass which is nice as that album is a all time favourite of mine for the song writing. 

As well the much played - over played on radio at the time - Born In The U.S.A.  has better defined bass and more shimmer on the cymbals especially on tracks such as Darlington County.

Original this set was a bit expensive on release November 17th  2014 and the booklet that comes with it isn't really needed being just reproductions of posters, reviews and photographs rather than a history of Bruce and these albums so I was on the edge over buying.

Fortunately I was able track it down to just under  £30 delivered which certainly fitted my budget for replacing all seven. Recommended.

 Albums Featured:
Greetings From Astbury, New Jersey (1973)
The Wild, The Innocent and E Street  Shuffle (Nov 1973)
Born To Run (1975)
Darkness On The Edge Of Town (1978)
The River (Nov 1980)
Nebraska (Sept 1982)
Born In The U.S.A. (June 1984)

Essential later albums:
Tunnel Of Love
Human Touch
Lucky Town
These three albums mark the more domestic and personal side of Bruce Springsteen's writing reflecting on his life and the birth of his child.

The Ghost Of Tom Joad
Centred around the Steinbeck character Tom Joad he  explores the hardships of mid nineties Mid West and also of Mexico, this marked the return to very acoustic, folk feel set after the electric density of much of Born In The U.S.A.

Minnie the Mix and Leo Baxendale

Today it was announced that Leo Baxendale, cartoonist at the Beano comic creator of Minnie The Minnie had died.

The Beano was something of institution, a handed down traditional rite of Britishers and for some from British families overseas too for its mixture of comics whose situations were truly only in your imaginations and some such as The Bash Street Kids and my heroine Minnie The Minx based upon our times at school and at home capturing just what it was our lives more more like as school children especially in the pre-internet era.

Minnie was very much the tomboy, not one for endless playing with toys and dolls but at the centre of all physical activities being very much the equal of any boy when it came to her strength, resourcefulness and daring-do being the Tam-o shantered and skirted equivalent of Dennis the Menace and just like him, running rings around Mom and Dad.

Here's a more recent strip, showing just how she plays pranks on girls the equal of what any boy would do.

Of course as in real life her pranks and at times outright naughtiness would catch up with her especially in pre 1990's editions as the authority figures in her life would discipline her.

This was something we'd all empathize with in an era would we'd get the same in our own lives and this interconnection between the lives we led and its portrayal in books, comics and other media was very strong which is why the death of the creator of big chunk of childhood leisure time is so keenly missed.
R.I.P Leo.

 Every Thursday come rain or shine there was one thing that British schoolchildren looked forward to and even though it is online only today, it is the same and that is the children's comic, the Beano that mirrored chunks of your world with stories about home and school life together with stories from far away lands.

This is a good example as any of a pre 1990's edition with Dennis the arch menace, his dog, Gnasher up to no good with 'soppy' Walter not that Dennis and his chums didn't get their come-comeuppance by "the powers that be" which you could say was the message although we all laughed at them.

This comic had a team of cartoonists of which one instrumental member Leo Baxendale died on Thursday April 27th, drew the Bash Street Kids and Minnie The Minx who remain even very popular characters.

The earliest of ideas

 

The earliest memory of when I realized I liked to be a boy as people said I was in a skirt was around the age of eight when I'd try sneaking the odd one one when nobody was around much as I wanted to see for myself just how it felt .

This is more how I'd of to dressed outside of school in that era, with a grey skirt and pastel top and tights to play to my hearts content.

Those were toys I played with then.

I resolved five years ago to do so on a daily basis because it was me and I felt I was beginning to understand the real me.

I am proud to be what I am.

Time together or time alone?

 Modern life is certainly very different  compared to that some of us can recall having had one form of entertainment cease to work properly and require replacement this week in this post done exclusively on the Chromebook.

I think one of the big factors has been that increasingly we are living separate lives even when we say we're living together say as partners  or with our families, often in isolation in not just our own mental space but actually increasingly our own physical ones.

It's by no means uncommon to hear of families may text members about either meal times although increasingly that's no longer shared or to have snacks fixed for them ready as they emerge briefly to return in minutes.

When I was growing up the television was seen by some as threat to their way of life, taking away from things people did together such as playing games or just talking to each other with us becoming just passive consumers of that coloured tube in the corner of the room.

People didn't anticipate we'd talk about what we were seeing to each other, on the subway or at school or work so in some way you can look at it as a 'golden era' like that family in the picture, that's how we lived including for some of us the wonders of colour that was like going to the movies, 'cept it came to you as huddled around it.

Today though we consume our YouTube, NetFlix an co wherever we happen to be and you may be watching that as someone's chatting away or playing a game which is really cool but as people we need some US time as well as ME time to catch up with each other, talk about what we've seen and done, maybe gain some perspective too.

I think it matters for all of us to try to get our modern lives into some kind of balance, sharing time with each other as well as with watching or keeping up with our friends online. Don't you?