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.

The Needs Of Littles

I'll begin this entry by first of all thanking all those who have read and followed this blog.

As one unfortunate side of  being me is I have migraines frequently, this is being typed in advance as I sense one come on and I'll polish it after being out of commission for a few days.

That takes me to the start of this piece which is that many littles, me included, need a sense of routine around our lives in order to feel secure emotionally being neither lost in world that might appear to be quite random or worrying be that the worry of not knowing what'll happen next or the worry of strange situations and people.

Actually most people do have set routines that they feel the need to complete usually around say eating routines such as getting up and having a round of toast and coffee not thanking you for changing it, but can deal with re-ordering events reasonably well which if you've ever been stuck in an airline terminal for hours you'll understand. 

It's just rather more intense for a good number of us. The world is out of control and we can't stand it! 

For me such things as colouring, school work, playing and so on all help to keep me calm.

Routine does almost invariable lead us into structure and while it's generally agreed most folks need some structure -changing the day structure around as people who work night shifts do creates issues - generally speaking for most adults they can create their own structures, for a number of us we're lost without one being in place, knowing such things as who is doing what, what are we exactly to do and who is in charge that for some of us is critical because we respond better for being in situations where effectively we're told we're now going to do this now rather than being relied upon to somehow read the unspoken signs.

It's hardly surprising therefore that for a number of us we miss greatly the structure of school to the point whereby we may role play it and that's indicative of  a need I feel.

Positive reinforcement comes in to as I suspect for a whole host of reasons: a number of  us have issues around self esteem, feeling less than confident in our abilities needing that  encouragement, that we're fine, what we're doing is okay turning out fine and as people we're good. 

Fortunately I get a lot of that in the workplace that helps when I'm battling with insecurities and can see if I was in relationship I'd need 'grooming' taking you back to that "That's a good gurl stage".

To me these are among some of needs we have and are critical to be meet for our well-being  for me personally coming to terms with them has been a great help rather than just denying their existence

Diana!

 Comics have always interested me from childhood and girls comics were the "forbidden fruit" for more feminine boys such as sissies like me so whenever I had the chance to read them secretly I did even if they may of been a good few years old in with stuff for table top sales deemed surplus to requirements by a girl or her parents.

Diana was a high quality tabloid sized girls' comic published by D.C. Thomson and was very successful.

 A slick 24 page glossy comic with 16 of its pages in full colour at a time when most comics were on newsprint with black and white interiors. 

This is Diana, No.149, dated 25th December 1965, published on the 18th December of that year which has  classy high quality seasonal cover.

Unfortunately, the stories inside the comic don't have a Christmas theme, but they do feature excellent artwork. Here's the penultimate episode of sci-fi strip The Pink Peril

 

This edition featured a chapter of a serialised adaptation of Ivanhoe showing the quality of the story telling and drawing abilities this title had.

Most girls comics had a higher proportion of "makes" with arts and crafts compared with boys comics and so this edition had some festive ones. 

Like most British comics there was a 1965 Annual rather like the Beano had one that had 128 full colour pages and cost 8/6d.

Interestingly D C Thomson in an advertisement that their Dennis The Menace annual was aimed specifically at boys unlike the main Beano one.

This looks to me to be fine comic aimed at Junior Girls and those in the first few years of High School I'd of love to had read at the time.

The conflict starts

As we have seen so far in while I was quite happy being a boy albeit with a few unstereotypical interests and like looking very like a boy to the point I preferred to stay in grey shorts rather than  the longs high school required when not sneaking on skirts, there was a problem emerging around how my gender needs as male and a teen boy who would at least legally become a man were being met.

They were not being met which badly effected my self confidence and in a number ways I was being pushed toward a female as norm mindset by people who were supposed to look after me without any help in expressing my increased awareness of being a sissy in a world we didn't officially have a space in.

The other thing was that in all honest I remained a child.

The only thing I was was born a boy albeit one with feminine interests and a penchant for wanting to wear skirts and dresses that were more that of girls rather than being a growing up girl on the cusp of becoming an adult female aka a Woman.

I just preferred to be a sissy gurl rather than an adult man or woman.

Comic celebrations

For most of this blog I've looked more at more the presentational side of being a feminine boy but being him involves connections to other things that connect to people and comics was one where many of mine were fairly regular comics that most boys read.

For a good number of us, our sense of being young is in part at least connected with our actual childhoods and the routines we had back then and for me at least it was the arrival of comics which in the case of this British one came out on a Thursday.

That's right, the Beano which first came out in 1938 apparently although during World War II, it was reduced to fortnightly to save paper which was in short supply.

This is special kind of a magazine with a softbook binding issued July 24th featuring a background capsule on all the main cartoon strips the comic run and the first strips of each that for me included such favourites as Minnie The Minx, Lord Snooty, Biffo the Bear, Dennis with Gnasher and the school series the Bash Street Kids that was close in some ways to my first school with its' Victorian building. Dennis has only been regularly on the front page from September 1974 taking over from Biffo.

Included in it is four glassy art prints which just adds to the enjoyment of this special issue although I often get the new regular copies and there is a celebratory featured  special issue of the regular comic that I hate to say really doesn't work as part of the appeal is the constant old style art and traditional storylines carefully made just slightly in tune with our times for younger audiences. 

That childhood runs on how I live now.

2013 Dandy summer special

It's Summer when as boys our minds were set to school hols and the seaside holidays we would be taken on and all the rituals that go with it.

It seems a bit sad but this is billed as the Last Ever dandy summer special following the discontinuing last December of the print edition of the regular comic which ended in style with special edition.

We bought this with our bucks and spades and postcards to send to our mates at the start of every holiday on the Welsh coast which as Midlanders was super convenient for us to read, doing the quizzes and search words.

We'll just have to hope and pray we do actually see another in 2014.

My trip to Whitby

A few days ago , I was out on a trip out as in a hundred odd miles out and also out as with my blue t shirt , black shorts and grey socks with naturally a travel bag.   
In my world I'm always out as me.

We were going some 312 Miles round trip from where I live to Whitby in North Yorkshire, England  which is a old Port and seaside resort although you have a long walk to get to the beach. Our route involved travelling along the M6, changing to the M62 Trans-Pennine motorway and then getting on the A64 in North Yorkshire a little South of York.

The traffic was really bad travelling along the A64 just south of York along the Scarborough road for miles.

The scenery along stretches of this route took us over Saddleworth Moors in Lancashire, a very hilly area with sheep farms even though it's near to the Towns of Oldham and Rochdale and also well into the North Yorks National Park where much purple Heather and horses was spotted. They were beautiful at this time of year.

Because we were really late arriving the first step had to be fix food fast as I was starting to space out -the perils of running short on spoons - so I called in at Trenchers fish and  chip restaurant on New Quay Road, Whitby for fried plaice, English chips and several drinks of tea with brown sugar while I took some tablets.

It won awards in 2011 and 12 and upon tasting my late lunch, it is not hard to see why for the fish caught on the day  by fishing line was most tasty and the chips had a good not greasy taste to them.

Time was running short as because of drive hours issue with the driver we needed to be back at bus for 17:00 hrs I only had the chance to look at a couple of charity stores briefly before getting something to eat as we wouldn't be stopping off on the return trip.

That's the Bridge that links the harbour to the old town where many of the shops are  to be found in small streets, some cobbled. As befits a Port, there were places selling fresh fish!

Whitby Harbour. As you can see it was  very sunny day with quite as number of boats moored.

I had to use the 105mm moderate telephoto of this camera to capture this and carefully crop it later. Thankfully the more megapixels your image has, the better the result even if you use only a small proportion of the original image.

Kerrera caught my attention  while moored with its bold colours and flags

Finally an overview of the harbour.

It was a interesting day out even though it had taken rather a lot out of me physically as I hadn't been in the North East of England ever. One just wishes to had the time to see more of Whitby.