Learning from the past

 

Every day starts out pretty much as any other for most of us unless we're planning on going somewhere special we follow routines feeling confident that today will be like yesterday and no doubt tomorrow with a change here or there but otherwise of itself uneventful.

So it's hardly a surprise we become accustomed to the idea that everything will remain 'just so' which to be honest is one thing I sure loved when I was younger, the whole certainty with its sense of well-being from repeating that pattern week after week.

Every so often though, something comes along and knocks it over. You feel lost if not numb and bewildered too as it seemed to going along so well.

It is okay to feel that way, sad things happen, we hurt and a good number of us are hurting right now. 

I can't speak for all of you but things often seem to go in cycles and my last lot of cycles have seen me  do different things, learn and improve on skills that I've struggled with, form new and more helpful friendships and understand more about myself and others too.

All those things can and are helping me deal with this because they've given not only ears to listen and understand how I may feel but also the strength to carry on when I just feel like lying there crying (and I know that feeling so well).

You know, those we miss so much would never of wanted us to stay like that forever and you might imagine this friendly nudge coming out urging you on, reminding you can start again, even if we find it hard.

Personally, I feel it's helpful to think about those things that I have reason to be thankful for over the years from the situations that just appeared from nowhere and to which I had no real plan for. 

Just thinking about it, my life has changed quite a lot in the last ten years for the better and much of that isn't down to some super medical recovery on my part but more because I've been working on dealing with more how it's handed out to me, making the most of it smiling even through some of the Meh moments.

It is easy to get into a cycle of beating yourself up when things aren't going to plan, thinking we are useless (been there and done it) or feeling guilty over things that maybe we didn't have that much of a say over but I'm going to try to get on with life the best I can from now on.

That's a much of lesson from my childhood that I can use today and maybe it's of some use to you.

Taking advantage of the opportunity

 

Sissies like me may be an anomaly but it is our individual traits that makes us the person we are, that we are selves and not just a uniform mass, as if we'd been all cloned. 

It may be lockdown but that's a good time to read about female movements some of our closest friends belong to and why it mattered to them at that time as much as I was more for Cubs.

It's also a time to read the girls comics I never got around to because of the gender bias and even bullying that happened when I grew up because I wanted to read them too being drawn to them.

There's no reason why I shouldn't use this period to have a better childhood if it helps and I think it will.

Changed situations

The year is shaping up into something rather different than we were expecting even in February of this year where we just have been unable to travel more than a few miles out of our district centres with few buses and trains running.

This means of course that being able to see each other unless you were able to use Zoom and the like wasn't possible so social contact is less and with lots of people you find you don't take the same trouble to dress when you won't be seeing friends around.

It maybe as well given few clothes shops are open as only "essential" businesses can open and even they have restrictions like wearing masks, fewer people in at any one time and more difficulties with returns least we pick up the virus on garments.

To me the best thing to do us try to use whatever options we have to spend time away from large numbers out doors and dress as feminine as we can at home when we can't to keep our spirits up.

Comic memories

 We're looking back at the past this time.

You all know I loved the Dandy and looked forward to the Summer Specials and this was one I had back in 1972 which I recently bought a new copy in pretty decent condition given we ready them cover to cover several times over that featured many of my favourite characters and cartoon strip series.

The essential Winker Watson featured wrangling out of things and as befitted that era Form Master Creepy had his cane out at Greytowers awaiting Boodle and in another strip no less than three canings are featured in one story!

That was so relatable to our generation

Every year D C Thomson do a compilation of past strips from the Beano and Dandy and this one from 2007 was all from the 1970's where they like Tiger were essential boy comic reading.

Re-reading this brought back a lot of memories not least where they tied into the current affairs of the day such as space missions and the advent of Punk. 

Now That's What I Call Music CD Part 2

Well the last time we looked at this series was in November when we remarked about how long it had been for the original NOW albums to be freshly minted as cds for modern generations and a few issues with them.

Now 5 came out in August 1985 a good while after Now 4 which I remember well buying the lp on the day but was delayed until May 8th this year on cd thanks to that goddam Covid-19 virus slowing everything up.

 One thing to do is compare and contrast with the original cover.

The first thing you'll note is that top cover tag line "Thirty Top Ten Hits - Double Album" isn't there but was on three of the four previous cd issues in this series.

The one that wasn't of course was NOW 3 as that one had two tracks removed as you might recall

Curious cos I'm a Neko of course I looked at the tracklisting per cd and notice there are only 14 tracks on the first cd which you'd know can only indicate one thing as 14+15 can only result in 29 when I was last in school.

Anyway look just to the right of the Number Five above Marillion for a clue.

Sure enough even in this scan you can see how the first disc had 15 tracks and the on that is missing happens to be This Is Not America by David Bowie with the Pat Metheny Group not his biggest hit but a notable one sandwiched between Slave To Love and Don't You (Forget about me).

Why it isn't there I have no idea as I know as a Bowie fan it made his 2007 Best of 1980-1987 cd compilation cos I bought it and that's like thirteen years ago.

Perhaps the co artists have a do not use on various artist albums clause in a contract???


So first off we have an issue from the start and they don't even address it by saying "We regret being unable to bring you  This Is Not America by David Bowie with the Pat Metheny Group featured on the original lp/mc because ..." leaving people under the impression this is how the album was which is misleading.

As a Now album this was less hit laden than the previous four for two reasons, the first being two other groups of record company's had issued similar hits compilations only months before such as the CBS/BMG records Hits 2 that had hits by Paul Young, Foreigner and ZZ Top and  their own excursion into compilations of hit 12" dance mixes.

 Five 12" Singles per side of two lps. Wow!

That said while it's low in chart toppers what does contain are key tracks such as Don't You from the Breakfast Club film soundtrack, A View To a Kill from that years Bond movie, Walls Come Tumbling Down, the last biggie of the Paul Weller vehicle The Style Council , Walking On Sunshine  plus some fine soul and dance tracks like Feel So Real by Steve Arrington and the unforgettable Magic Touch by Loose Ends.

It was a teen essential purchase in that year but as I said the tracks that would of made an excellent volume or two were being spread too thin to give the kind of overview we'd of loved but the MCA/Chrysalis Out Now series soon folded strengthening subsequent Now albums and the Hits series.

When it comes to versions as I expected a number of the original edited or remixed ones appear to be lost and have been replaced.
  
For instance tracks by Scritti Politti, Stephen ‘Tin Tin’ Duffy, Paul Young, Marillion, Bryan Ferry, Sister Sledge, Simply Red all appear on the CD in longer ‘album’ versions and not the 7” mixes included on the original.


By way of contrast ‘Cherish’ by Kool & The Gang is featured on the CD in a shorter version than the original release.To conclude I would say it is flawed cd version of a desirable Now album, enjoyable for the tracks selected even if the version differences may irritate those of us who know our records inside out but the bigger loss is This Is Not America which is a great reflective Bowie performance.

Summer comic fun

It is that time of year some of us look forward, the recreation of a ritual we observed as boys religiously and don't tell me rituals don't play a part on LG life as I haven't met one that didn't try to recreate a few.

The Dandy Summer Special is special for different reasons than we had as boys in that it is the only print edition of the comic we get since closure in December 2012  where as for most of us before then it was the bigger more colourful edition that had quizzes and the like counterpart to the weekly edition.

The Summer Special is aimed more at those of us who remember it as it was rather than being more like its stablemate The Beano very much in the present and so for most of the current period we've been treated to reprints from the older Summer Specials, albeit those we loved to revisit. 

This years is a bit different in that the compilers have gone to pick a selection over a set of twenty years starting from 1940's making their way through 1960's, 1980's and the 2000's in chronological order.

This means we start to see such legends as Keyhole Kate, Korky the cat, Desperate Dan and Corporal Clott which was discontinued in the comic July 25, 1970 plus Owen Goal from the 80's as they emerged which compared with the Beano makes for a more retro, regressive, reliving the past feel when you read it as inevitably you recall those days.

For that feeling I would say the Dandy Summer Special is better.

What is great about this years is we have some newly drawn strips of Postman Prat originally drawn by Lew Stringer from October 30, 2010 by the man himself that survived the misstep that was DandyXtreme in 2007 to October 2010 when they tried to add Viz style "attitude" to push sales in a fortnightly form plus new Winker Watson for 2020.

The new strips are funny, not departing from the world those characters come from but showing where they would of been in a regular comic so Winker Watson remains in Greytowers in the third form but he can use a computer and printer while being the Blazer and Shorts clad boy whose wanglers we loved in much the same way the modern prep school mixes modern technology and the old (and true) ways.

Do yourself a favour and get a copy!

The Skorting of Tammy

What becomes established as your defaults often goes back a long time to the point sometimes you will see generational differences as most of any one period do and often kept to the things they grew up with.

Some defaults are to do with gender during the period you grew up which would include, playgroup, school and outside social activities because you were instructed to wear specific items.

For me as a boy there was no way around of it, when playing games or taking structured physical education (P.E) class you HAD to wear shorts as that was a hard rule so my default remained top, suitable socks and footwear plus shorts and if you'd look through my stuff now you spot it.

The thing is although I'm a boy by sex and have no inclinations toward transexuality, I also remain a feminine, rather sissy one who while seeing why shorts are used by girls as well as boys for playing football wasn't really that keen on wearing them for all games occasions.

Back in the nineteen seventies girls wore wrap around short skirts for games but that's changing for something newer, the Skort.

The Skort while being a bit more accepted in North America tended to be looked down on in the UK comprises of shortish skirt with thin shorts built in that often you pull on to your waist.

One basic advantage is that when we are playing we bend and twist which does make it possible with with a conventional games skirt to see your knickers which is embarrassing especially as you get more self aware.

Even through traditional gym knickers don't show much they still show but they don't with skorts.

For me an advantage is self image: there are times I long to see a hemline on my body which the skirted layer provides while smoothing the lines rather two holes with legs popping out. 

That's the kind of side view and what as a feminine boy I'd like to present as when I am playing.

It's no longer the nineteen seventies and it is time my defaults changed both as girls own have and also as sissies like me are now more recognized and I too move on toward what is me at the core.

By years end Tammy will have been skorted for all games outside of football as my new default appearing with a skirted look feeling more feminine as he exercises and takes part in team sports.

My friends may not get this straight away but it's time I did what is right for me.