Little time away

 I was away for a few days with some friends I only met face to face last year so here is a few notes about that.

I travelled to one friend who kindly gave me a lift with them to the property we would be staying in with extensive grounds.

One of my friends brought a train set which kind of puzzled me as a number were girls and train sets generally don't go together with them but it proved to be quite interesting in that it is a Fairy based set a bit like this with Fairies, Trees and a Station and the Engine and Coaches in painted in girlie colours rather than the more boy sort especially the hobby sort like those by Hornby and the like. 

The track was made from wood with grooves in that you pushed the train along by hand.

I found myself actually enjoying  playing with trains sat cross legged on the floor , making hooting noises and yes having the odd crash as that little sissy gurl!

Perhaps this was just what I needed to work through my emotions.

A member of our little group had been rather poorly for a period and on the Friday evening I heard noises. 

Waking up the next morning I like the rest of the girls found a present which when unwrapped turned out to be a Tatty Teddy blue nose friend with mine being a "Peanuts" model.

Apart from being a really lovely gesture, this plushie didn't just talk, it conversed to others in the series when correctly set up, in an awfully cute way, talking of  having adventures, playing together and being best friends.

To me it seemed to sum up the whole feel of being together as girls and boys sharing and playing together

I spent a bit of time talking about dollies as a few of us had brought our dolls or that bit of our collections we could carry in our cases with us, learning  about them and why they mattered to their owners.

Among the many games I played Scrabble, Frustration (and boy wasn't it just!), Pool (well kind of!) and Tetris which was fun although with my amazingly bad co-ordination and memory it's not my strong point.

One thing I did enjoy which takes me back a bit to actual childhood was playing with guns that fire plastic pellets out with some of the 'younger' ones because many of the girls I played with were tomboys and we did these things while the boys were well out of doors, in the woods.

Just being out as a sissy gurl in hur jumper and skirt for several days with other littles was just magical.

A trio of releases

You may remember back in August  my post about the DCC Gold Paul McCartney cds I got and how a certain album was being re-released at the time. Well finally it's here!

Packaged like the other McCartney and Stereo beatles releases has the white band to indicate it's a new remaster done by the same team at Abbey Road although this is on Concord records not Capitol/EMI.

It's a digipak rather than true Mini Lp mores the pity with slots for the discs to scrape and a booklet in 1976 was the first time in many years Paul performed his Beatle hits back to back with his solo works with a great band and is one the best live albums issued.

The sound on this is quite a bit better than the original 80's cd version and for the modest price I paid for it well worth the money. 

Moving on, the 50's thru the 70's were for many the heyday of Soul - no not that  R&B as in Rap and [insert word] stuff they try to pass off as "Black Music" today but rootsy soul delivered with conviction (rather than having one!) from folks straight out of Gospel singing.

One of the finest examples you can ever hope to hear of that is the recordings of Aretha Franklin during her long period  at Atlantic.

A few weeks ago Mobile Fidelity Inc of Illinois re-issued this stereo compilation of hers from 1969 with a good number of her early hits from when she left Columbia who didn't really know how to use her abilities.

Because of that, it does miss a few gems of hers from the early 70's however in the opinion of many this Super Audio cd that is also playable on regular cd players, has the best ever sounding stereo versions of these early recordings such as Respect, Chain Of Fools and I say A Little Prayer that simply as a soul fan I have to say you really need to hear.

Strongly recommended. Also note the Rhino "Queen Of Soul" 4 cd box set can be had cheaply featuring many mono versions and much of her output to 1976.

Summer '83 for me is wrapped up with seeing Flashdance, the movie several times and an infatuation with the songs featured.

I've had this 12 single since it first came out but there's a pressing fault actually several such as  being off centre, a pressed mark at the end of the track and so on.

Finally I've gotten a replacement copy!
In my opinion this was one of last truly great 12" remixes  totally transforming the song.

That was the original Chromedioxide pre-recorded tape of the soundtrack album I bought back then that sounded pretty amazing for a tape back then that by the late 80's had gotten worn out so I bought the cd version that remains one of the best sounding early cds.

You'll notice how the image from the lp inner is includes on the credits side of the 'J' card.

I did get recently a mint copy of the UK vinyl release which sounds absolutely superb.

More dolls for this adult little gurl

Hey, hey folks this week I'm talking about a couple  of friends who've recently come into my life after requiring a new home.

They're a reward for moving along in letting my feminine boyishness out as in this recent picture I'm wearing white girls knee socks with pretty bows on.

First up is Millie who as you can see is a  magnificent 8 inch 'vintage' rag doll in her sailor uniform including woollen bloomers in pretty good shape.

In addition to that one here is her rehomed friend, Amy

Okay for feminine boys of certain chronological age  this means something because she is one of the Holly Hobbie characters popularized in the works of Denise Holly Ulinskas, an American children's story writer.

The cat-loving, rag dress-wearing little girl in a giant bonnet and licensed to Knickerbocker Toys who popularized these rag dolls in the mid 1970's. 

Amy is an original  and had to be resewed carefully during her previous life but otherwise is in good rather than exceptional shape.

Be that as it may, these were the dolls my female friends played and now I have Amy to play with when I'm dressed in skirts.

Gurl-O-Matic experiences

 The Gurl-O-Matic experience always starts from somewhere.

It may be that comes from trying and feeling a need to emulate a older teenage girl or a young woman but with me a larger chunk was more wrapped around being and still feeling more a younger child.

For me it was more wrapped in being like but not a girl typically in junior school or possibly the first year of her high school years dressed in pretty skirts and dresses, playing with dollies, playing games with your friends

It took in a loss of any emerging teenage responsibilities and even more that of anything approaching adult status, certainly not been seen as an equal and where grown ups could just come along, take a hold and spank you.

Your biggest fear was ridicule by peers and assertive encouragement and a treat helped you cross that line and BE A GURL.

The Beatles: The U.S. Albums

On January 20th, commemorating the 50th  anniversary of the Beatles first visit to the States, Apple arranged through Capitol Records for a special set of albums released for the US market specifically to be issued in both boxed and for a limited period separate editions as well as on iTunes. They contain both mono and stereo versions of each album.

As you can see they come in the collector popular Mini LP style mimicking the feel of a vinyl album with card jackets, replica inner sleeves and like their Japanese counterparts, have a plastic sleeve to keep the cd free from scratches with the entire packaged disc in a resealable archive see through plastic wallet. 

In America because royalties were charged per track rather than per album it was normal for their lps to have 11 or 12 tracks compared to typically 14 on British releases plus in the states albums always featured the hit single(s) whereas in Britain they didn't.

This needless to say is why these albums, the ones I grew up with on record, are different than the now standardized British ones and so for many North Americans are the albums we cherish as quirky as they were.

Eight of these albums were reissued in a set of cheesy boxes in 2004 and 2006 with thin card covers the sort British people would associate with newspaper giveaways or some of us remember ISP's giving out with the first set being quite blurry too. I wrote about these sets at the time.

The recordings used were sent over from Great Britain usually using the same final mixes for mono or stereo as the UK releases although when tracks were sent early due to requests from Capitol for an upcoming album, sometimes different versions were sent from the one decided upon for the UK.

These were copied altering the sound, adding echo and in some instances making fake stereo versions from mono tapes and then used on the lps, a process which while giving it a unique sound nonetheless caused some loss of quality compared to the tapes Capitol received.

The earlier box sets used these modified tapes throughout  with the mastering engineer just trying to get them as good sounding as the material he had would allow.

This album, a favourite of mine in this set, is a good example of that with two incredibly bad fake stereo songs in the middle of quite reasonable stereo with one unique mix and on the older cd it's that you hear on the stereo portion and some of mono tracks are not actual mono mixes just the stereo combined into mono.

The new version removes the fake stereo replacing it with true stereo mixes one of which had been available since 1966(!), keeps the echoey  mono US single version and uses the UK mixes for everything that's not unique.

It's this that has proven controversial with some fans who wanted an exact replica in sound of their lps but speaking personally having bought this version, I'm delighted with it as it approaches what I consider a 'audiophile' remastering, going back to originals, removing the  sonic grime to reveal more of the music making never mind the uprated packaging.

The four previously unreleased on cd albums are the A Hard day's Night movie soundtrack with instrumentals from the film originally issued on United Artists, Yesterday and Today, the US Revolver album I had which only had 11 tracks and the stereo only Hey Jude compilation of February 1970 featured then unreleased stereo versions of a good number of  Beatles singles.

I was going to buy the Box set complete with the mainly talk The Beatles Story bonus album but I didn't, this was sadly connected to another, less defensible aspect of how this project was handled by Apple.

Way back in the mid 1980's as plans were drawn up to release on compact disc the Beatles catalogue, Sir George Martin  was allowed to remix two UK albums (Help! and Rubber Soul) from the four track session tapes.

Discovering Abbey Road studios echo chamber used on a number of tracks was out of use, he used digitally generated delay to attempt to get the same sound. Unfortunately it sound more like a karaoke type echo especially when he over did it on Dizzy Miss Lizzie and Drive My Car. Personally I can't stand them being 'too modern'.

These versions were themselves remastered in 2009 for the stereo set although the original 1965 stereo mixes were put on the mono cd set as bonuses.

Coming back to 2014, Apple have decided to use these stereo  remakes for the tracks from those two UK albums featured in four of the albums in this box set  (Beatles VI, Help Soundtrack, Rubber Soul and Yesterday and Today) where the previous 2006 box that had the first three with the 1965 stereo mixes on.

Personally, owing the the previous set, I really object to paying £146 for three albums whose stereo portions deviate from that which was issued not just in North America but even in the UK up to 1987.

I decided to rebuy the first four (Meet The Beatles, Second Album, Something New and Beatles '65) as the sound on at least the first two wasn't so clean,Second Album had an excessive amount of echo added to it and get the four previously unissued ones even with the stereo portion of Yesterday and Today being compromised with only 5 original mixes for the otherwise unavailable mono version.

As for the others, if I can come by cheap copies I may get them and switch the discs over as there's nothing on the jackets to tie them to any specific cd because I adore the packaging.

To  summarize my thoughts on this set, I really liked the idea of it as quite a bit of thought had gone into the packaging and even a great booklet for the boxed edition, almost equalling the acclaimed Beatles in Mono box but feel the sound side of it was compromised for a number of the discs needlessly in the stereo portions by insisting on not using the original UK mixes sent at the time and loved by most fans.

I'd give the set 7 out of 10 on balance .

More Beatles Mini lps:
At the start of the year I'd acquired some unofficial mini lps of albums put out in the 1970's that had been retired with aim of buying this set adding these to them.

1976's 28 track Rock and Roll Music compilation, a double lp on a single cd although it lacks the gatefold of the original is well printed.It uses the untouched UK versions of the tracks unlike the Capitol edition.

1977's Love Songs compilation which comprises of 25 songs with a love theme, lacking the gatefold but this section is part of a four page insert.
It's always been a favourite of mine being a comforting listen at boarding school running for about an hour.

1977's Live album of recordings from August 1964 and 1965 at the Hollywood Bowl that Apple refuse to release presented in full gatefold form reproducing the rear essay by Sir George Martin clearly with original lp styled photo inner sleeve.

The audio on these pressed cds (they're not cheap home made jobs) is actually very good matching that of the lps reproduced on a high quality vinyl system and come with Japanese notes and full English lyrics. 

If you need them, these discs are good value.

Think Pink!

 

The Pink Panther was a long running cartoon series I loved as boy, watching avidly on tv, collecting memorabilia and stationery of even to the point in 1980 of having as a boy in mid teens a Pink Panther calendar.  

It's not the only kewl thing by the Pink Panther although I own a dvd set of classic animated episodes.

Take these cute ankle socks that I'd just love to wear with a short skirt and t shirt on.

What it is

 I've been writing this blog for some six years now seeing a couple of computers and umpteen light bulbs changed and in around a month I'll be away with friends just being that eternal boy that I am, the way I am. 

Everybody is different, I'm all for being inclusive but for me this is about being a feminine boy, able to do, feel and present as I feel.

It was not about trying to act or dress in a way that impersonates in a respectful way a female, while remaining a male nor was it about expressing by way of gender expression a sense of being a female in the "wrong" body in the way a transsexual would.

Thus for me there is no need to be curvaceous, to appear to have a bust, to create a waist that emphasizes your hips because I am a sissy and I present as a little sissy gurl, very much flat chested.

That's the thing: Being a sissy isn't a synonym for being a "cross-dresser" as those people have understandable tried over the years to find more respectful terms for them but instead it is the direct opposite of being a tom boy.

 Even if dress like him, I would be carrying those feminine but boy past traits with me because they are in my head, have been ever since I was a little boy mixed in with bits that are more stereotypically boyish.

That is the thing people like my friends need to understand.