Summer Special edition

After all that groan up election stuff on Thursday and the counting bit yesterday let's get back to more agreeable matters shall we?
As we head toward the end of May, we move from Spring into Summer which usually in this country tends to bring warmer weather and lots of Sun, indeed you might remember from last year we kind of over did it with temperatures in the high 20 degrees C range for a long period.
Summer in the UK is marked by the start of school holidays that usually start around the third week of July and run for typically 8 weeks which makes it a highlight of your childhood years and depending on age and in some cases districts marks such milestones as graduating to Juniors or moving on to Secondary schools at 11+ and college/uni at 16 and 18 respectively.
Something else generations of britishers also looked forward to was the publication of unique Summer Specials of their comics that came in full colour on better magazine quality paper with a binding.

They were and are almost like miniature annuals, which are a staple of childhood Christmas's  over here with special cartoon strips, games and things to do in them that you'd pick up before you went off on your summer holidays.
The company D C Thomson are a well known Scottish print media magnet printing magazines, comics and newspapers and two comic titles they are known for is The Beano and The Dandy.
Recently I got my copies of these two Summer Specials.
The Beano is a current comic, read by today's children as well as sizable number of adults who are continuing a enjoyable interest from childhood aimed at both girls and boys  whose cartoon strips have changed by the times with some old ones discontinued for new ones and some changes within the older ones to reflect more the society around today's children.
Thus it features such long established series as Dennis the Menace with his dog, Gnasher, Minnie the Minx, my heroine and the Bash Street Kids set in a working class junior school together with newer ones such as Rubi JJ and Pie Face that feature disabled children and people of colour in an attempt to be more 'inclusive' and all are drawn especially for this years summer special.
It has stickers, games and quizzes too clearly aimed at today's children.
The Dandy's is different because it is no longer published weekly and like the Annual is aimed more at those who remember reading the Dandy as I did as a kid and so has decided to make it a compilation with illustrations of some front covers, of some vintage comic strips featured in past summer annuals.
Reading that does bring back past memories and really childhood nostalgia is where this one is aimed.
Two annuals aimed at different markets all a great summer read.

RIP Grumpy Cat

Internet life is kind of strange with its protocols and manias such as "Rick Rolling" and the intense use of Memes and emoticons that some of us had to get used to in those earlier days before every dog and child had their SmartPhone aka a pocket sized computer that also just makes phone calls.
One famous star from the earlier days of social media where Meme creation was in its infancy was Grumpy Cat aka Tardar Sauce who seemed to have permanent frown who became viral as that word was becoming so too as more and more people got on to the likes of I haz cheezburger and started making Meme's featuring her priceless expression.
To say they were a thing in 2012-13 is an understatement.
The following was on Instagram on Friday.

 There are hundreds of Grumpy Cat memes around some pretty SFW, others maybe not but I thought this one would a good choice to remember her by here on a blog that looks at regression and past childhoods

Many of us can relate to this setting and that thought.
Today an increasing number of schools and colleges are bring in pets to help calm children and students as wll as the opportunity to give and receive unconditional love and affection.
What if yours was like that?

2012-2019 R.I.P. Grumpy Cat.

Classical Music sacd round up part 12

It's a bit of a round up of sorts here with not making  a 'proper' entry around the discs I have recently obtained

 Edward Elgar is an English composer that I first listened to as a young child and started buying recordings of his symphonies cello and violin concertos as they came out in the nineteen eighties on cassette and then in the 90's replacing with the compact disc versions.
I had been looking for a decent modern recording of The Music Makers for a while and this Chandos one on super audio cd from 2016 ticks all the boxes as Andrew Davis really gets into the music in much the same way as the late Vernon Handley whose recording I bought back in the day.

Berlioz was a French composer who again held my attention, this time in my teens that I am slowly building  a collection of beyond the Symphonie Fantastique and this, his musical account of the tale of the Faust with its vocal parts is served will in this recent release in the London Symphony orchestras own recording from the Barbican Hall, London, performed live.

Transcribing works written very much with one instrument in mind for another often causes controversy inviting the question "What is to be gained from it?"  but one thing to bear in mind is a good number of composers did in effect produce other arrangements for other instruments themselves.
Ms Podger herself, a highly regarded Baroque violinist, has carefully done this to get around the restrictions of the violin not having the five strings of the cello and keeping the flow of the pieces.
In the opinion of many of us, she has succeed well here producing transcriptions that hold your attention - indeed she premiered them in concert before recording to much applause - caught in a spacious acoustic well reproduced in super audio cd.

* All the discs are hybrid Super Audio cds that play also on regular cd playing equipment.

May Day edition

After all that talk about going out temperatures got a little lower and we are entering May Day bank holiday over here which means schools shut and public services such as transportation shut down even though events will be taking place across this district and beyond.
Fortunately we've stocked up and I have enough spare minidiscs to continue copying some records onto and if I remember to record a half hour reading on Radio Four, the BBC spoken word channel of a Just William story which might seem odd given it's centred on an eleven year old boys fanciful adventures with much comedy but I loved those stories as a kid.  
They had me in stitches, laughing.

 One thing that will be happening in many communities is traditional Maypole Dancing  for those whose memories include applying polish to your footwear and having to have co-ordinating socks as we wove the ribbons to music forming a cross-cross pattern.
As is almost a tradition on this blog, here's a picture of Year 5 and 6 children this time  from the mainly Girls only Granville prep school performing it in style.