Getting set to go

I don't know if we'll see this outside of the entrance to GHS on Friday but there is always something approaching the feel of camaraderie whenever we are together having fun together and yes if you hadn't worked it out I do look rather more like the girl of far left even if I'd happily lose a couple of inches in height.
You see unless you have actually spent time as a little or middle then as much as I'm of fan of online groups and clubs you are missing that face to face interaction with other age regressors being in effect children together playing with the spontaneity that brings, recreating that time and space when that was all that mattered.
Everybody's 'day' is bound to be different, we played with differing things, watch different things on tv and with the exception of "Smartphone culture", the thing is they have more in common with each other than you might think. That means however 'old' in terms of birth certificate age  you might be you're all around the same level which makes sense as childhood and from that childhood revisited is a space a person from a level of social, emotional, physical and intellectual development resides and that is how it is with me.
Being in with others is what I love the most and where I'll be this weekend.

Jo's October catch up post

It's been a busy week here at Jo's where after some work on my Tumblr I do appear to getting rather more the followers I did want so am ditching those I didn't and have been organizing myself for the upcoming littles bonfire and Halloween party cos as I've said before, I lives the life.
It's what keeps this blog real!

I rather suspect Jodie Foster was better at keeping that ball in the air than the metaphorical one  I do although I love that uniform of hers.
Another thing happening here is I actually got seeing it's the start of the cold season a new pair of super warm girls slippers.

They are lined inside with a fleecy material while the outside is wool with bow details to match my school socks cos you can never have enough bows as a girl, indeed I do need is some in my hair!!!

Following on from last weeks post here's a picture of schoolgirl wearing shorts as part of her uniform just to show you can and still you're a...girl for all that.

Tomboy Jo

There's an age-old adage, "There's more than one way to skin a cat" and that is very true when it comes into many aspects connected with age regression and the life that goes with it so I usually counsel an acceptance that there's no one magically right way to go about it.
This is especially true on the little/middle girl side where sometimes it might seem we're all frilly dresses with lashings of lace but there was a girl, very famous one who was a heroine of mine who went a whole 180 degrees the other way

 "George" from the Famous Five series actually was Georgina a girl who was very much a Tomboy, taking the lead and liking to wear less feminine girls attire to the point she did wear schoolboys shorts (although most modern versions remove this essential aspect of the storylines).
You could say she was rebelling about gender roles  and what was seen as suitable attire for girls and actually there is a fair bit of her in me that does wear shorts that aren't super pink and with curvy piping outside of my love of dresses.

I do wear the above navy tailored 'boys' shorts with my girls attire as that girl which is at times more practical and yet also does tie in with liking to present as a middle/little

l also have this black pair bought from a famous school wear supplier in the UK who does stock them in wide range of sizes. They do look very smart on me with nothing looking  too tight and the side pockets are helpful.
They aren't the sort of traditional grey lined shorts of yore having more in common with longer cargo type shorts but being more formal and made from stain resistant teflon like most school skirts and trousers are.
This while not necessary pleasing traditionalists who want them al a Angus Young this does mean it is possible to wear them amongst the 'muggles' with socks that don't scream out 'adult schoolchild' on the prowl as indeed I do in my neighbourhood with no one batting an eyelid.
This Saturday for instance I wore them with my Hello Kitty long sleeve t shirt and white frilly ankle socks outdoors walking as it was fairly warm for time of year which is pretty Tomboy.

Fall 2017

It won't be that long before the clocks go back, the last weekend in this month if I remember it right and no matter where you are in the UK, something is happening all around you that's pretty magical.

Playtime for me involves time out of doors, no not sitting in the garden with the Chromebook, actually going a bit further and without the all pervasive internet, walking, throwing sticks in the woods and fields here.

It's the fall and the more your outside the more you'll see although for many years I loved observing it on the inter-urban commute to work through the bus windows, wherever I work if possible I'd go into parks and gardens not just for peace and quiet but to watch it all change.

Depending on the species, the rate of which the leaves change colour and even fall off varies which used to intrigue me as a child making my way to Church around harvest time where the pavements glistened in the low sun carpeted by leaves.

Sometimes things get a bit nutty and it isn't Zee Zee's fault although his relations have something to with it as around now, you'll see the squirrels about gathering nuts to bury them and below it appears they've arranged everything that naturally fell making a  beautiful natural collage 

It's great to be out, eyes peeled to everything happening in nature.

R.I.P Tom Petty

It was announced late Monday night UK time, that Tom Petty, one of America's greatest songwriters and singers had died on what had been a pretty dark day for the Las Vegas shooting with its 59+ dead and the violence in Catalonia by Spanish Police in response to an illegal poll.
This was the formal announcement as issued on the day:

On this blog we have reviewed some of his albums not least his final one, 2016's Mudcrutch2 that surprised and enthralled us as someone who was sixty-six years still had the vitality to pull off as much as 2014's Hypnotic Eye did with its social and political observations did two years before.
Tom goes way back to '76/7 with me with the release of "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers" a 30 odd minute much needed straightahead roots rock that garnered attention in New Wave's spiritual home, Great Britain, which presented the opportunity to develop the live act and then 'sell back' to the States that bought You're Gonna Get it and its 45's I Need To Know and Listen To Her Heart.
If I was to pick just one of his albums outside of 1994's Greatest Hits, I'd pick Damn The Torpedos, his 1979 release which in so many ways encapsulated his simple but effective way of reducing down complex ideas to the most commercial while not losing the 'message'.
The best known examples from that album  are "Refugee", "Don't Do Me Like That" and "Here Comes My Girl", all hit 45's.
Tom was a member of the Travelin' Wilbury's a 'super group' with former beatle George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan and Jeff Lynne of England's Electric Light Orchestra that blended the talents into a very much 'Americana' feel best exemplified by the mainly Canadian band, The Band but being contemporary too selling well beyond each members own audience.
It is hard to put across what Tom meant to us: At a human level he was very genuine, reflective, free from the ego grabbing "me,me,me" that the so many in the music business have. 
Musically he straddled that gap between so-called 'Classic Rock' and 'Indie Alternative' in a way another of my music loves, Bruce Springsteen never quite pulled off  even if he did do the long epic song well.
'Refugee' was a song whose theme spoke to me as a disabled person battling not be defined by events, unable or unwilling to move on.
Writing this has been emotionally exhausting cos Tom meant so much almost on a par with David Bowie.
Rest In Peace, Tom.

Classical sacd round up part two

It's almost the end of the month so I thought I'd post an update on my collection of classical music Super Audio cds which all can be played on regular cd players too.

 
One thing you have to recognize is because the format is so much capable of more natural sound doesn't mean you'll ditch any or all your existing recordings as there always two elements involved: the performance and the sound.

 
Ever since the days of the lp record that elusive balance of the two is what as collectors of recordings we've looking for and there exists from those early mono taped performances from the early nineteen-fifties to the turn of this decade many excellent performances that may not be on sacd and some where for technical reasons they may be little point in issuing them.

 
This said there are increasing numbers of  excellent recordings from the analogue tape era being freshly mastered and new recordings critically acclaimed so you may be able to 'upgrade' which is where we start.

For a good while I had been looking for a great fairly modern recording of Bartok's ground breaking Concerto For Orchestra which I remember well as a handed down Mercury mono lp record when I was in my early teens where I spied this.

 
It's reissue of the original Quadraphonic (surround sound) lps from the Deutsche Grammophon catalogue of the nineteen-seventies that only got issued in Japan but whose stereo mixes were issued in North America and Europe that were much admired.

 Arriving only toward the end of last week is a acclaimed recording of Schubert's String Quintet in C Major D 956 from 2011 by the much loved Tokyo String Quartet who have performed in North America and Europe.

Schubert's "The Trout" quintet has been a favourite of mine for a long while and recently I bought this excellent modern recording which will go with my regular cd sets of string quartets and symphonies by him.

This one can be filed under 'filling a hole' as in the years of building my classical music collection I hadn't gotten around to getting a complete set of Beethoven's String Quartets and this set of recordings from 2005 through 2008 is one of the best recorded.
I was able to get this 8 sacd set in stone mint condition used for half the regular price which made it quite bargain.

Mozart and I got back a long time, to the period I often borrowed pre-recorded tapes from the municipal library and most of my Mozart colection goes back to around 1991 on cd buying the many discs in the Mozart Masterpieces set.

 
Included in that was the debut recording of a then 14 year old Anne-Sophie Mutter with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra with its then larger than life conductor, Herbert von Karajan of the 3rd and 5th Violin Concertos to which I had added two slightly later recordings on EMI by her of numbers 1, 2 and 4.

 
This set recorded in 2011 by PentaTone records is widely regarded as one of the finest coming with the very best sound available and even features a dvd where you see Julia rehearsing.