A kind of reintroduction

Believe it or not we have made just over a thousand and fifty entries, been in existence for well over a decade and still you see fresh people coming to it before you consider it is possible others may of left.

I had been thinking for a bit and actually a kind of reintroduction post is necessary not just because of the length of time we've been around but also for a host of reasons opportunities to formally and informally through say play have been restricted for a good two and half years and some will continue beyond.

This is unapologetically a blog for littles, people who regress either for short period or like some of us involuntary regress to some extent all of the time and those who may be in their lives.

With no implied criticism this blog only looks at and is about more things that would be seen as "child safe" or otherwise safe for work and has been from day one excepting the past is what it is and in talking about that, some things that may be less in favour today may be lightly referenced. The past is the past.

What unites people is what we bond over, a love of childhood, the one you had or for some more the chance for a better one that has us in it and others who are prepared to join in spirit.

Your dollies, teddy bears, toys, comics and yes your imagination are the things we need and the things we share that makes for that reenactment of the past in the present this life at its best has.

Your grown up side may have views on groan up topics but as they never came into play back in the playground then, we certainly don't need them now.

We just played and if someone was being a bit mean, then we said just that, no "isms", "ists" just treat others the way you'd like to be treated. 

That's how it works here and anyway did you say you were a child? Leave that to groan ups!

The vantage point here is more from a feminine angle but one that is wider than that of some peoples pasts however personally they may like being that person cos being you is only for you and what anyone else may be is...different. Different is okay.

Today we recognize some people have a stronger sense having a duality of feminine and masculine traits and interests even of others may not, that you may not from a purely gender point of view see yourself as entirely one or the other.

I can and shockingly do switch or move by degrees at times by interests and by dress as do a fair number of people today but you remain one person.

This blog not surprisingly accepts people who are non-binary or see themselves as gender fluid supporting the rights of all of us to be ourselves as we are and feels this shouldn't get in way of playing with others.

 

It is shocking to consider how people were judged in the past even from their earliest days but are we prepared to accept people for how they are even if that may not be you personally?

This blog doesn't believe in demanding personal endorsement  but believes in the acceptance of difference, seeing the person beyond how they may present or how you may live your life, respecting that. Being inclusive is being accepting of difference.  No one has to "get it".

Life has interests as briefly mentioned and some of those are to be found within this blog, such as nature, music and reading although that is impacted by real life limits is more junior fiction than anything written specifically for an adult audience, comics and plushies.

I don't do regular pieces on fashion although sometime things around more littles wear such as play clothes or uniform do appear as I feel a post coming on.

Welcome to the World of Joanne_chan!

Teenbeat Summer Special 2022

 

Here at Kitty Towers we have had a new all woolen dolly resplendent in an Alice Dress to play with that's rather pretty.

The genius of this entry goes back to October of 2011 when this series within the blog started and overtime we moved away two cd sets to either specialty cds or box sets and so it was a hands worth of albums arrived to go with that compilation.

Covering from Prisoner In Disguise, Hasten Down The Wind,Simple Dreams with songs such as It's So Easy, Living In The U.S.A. and Mad Love you prime whole albums of her evergreen 70's recordings collected in a slim box.

This set is the first five Chaka Khan albums that show her exploration of soul and Funk that take in classy hits such as  I'm Every Woman and 1984's I Feel For You which apart from the title track featured the hit This Is My Night.

For the modest prices these set that have front and rear album art on card covers are well worth it for it.

Musical thoughts

It is extremely hot here as I sit typing this out.

I have been working through replacing a few cds from one of those Five Original Albums box sets I picked up around the middle of the last decade by Cheap Trick as I found them a bit loud sounding as much as the bonus tracks are handy.

Instead I tracked down the original UK cd issue of In Color  and Heaven Tonight which was part of the Sony Music low price Collectors Edition series of 1992/3 part distributed by Pickwick Group and the original US cd version of Dream Police which featured the single Voices which I still have on vinyl.

It emerged last Friday on the SuperDeluxeEditions website devoted to reissued and compilations that the popular NOW Yearbook series which sees 4 cds in card or book based packaging with a Extra 3 cd set coming out a month or so after and a selection on 3 lps is going back in time to 1979 in September.

That is interesting because it does allow for comprehensive year based collections potentially for much if not all of the 1970's because we've only had themed based compilations such as those around Glam Rock, Disco or New Wave that gather a number of popular tracks which are not in any year order or generic 70's  population and as anyone who lived through that decade knows there's a big span between Dana and say Xray Specs and the Buzzcocks.

I find year based collections useful because they do tend take you back to a narrow period with the memories associated with in way those catch all decade compilations don't providing a more comprehensive feel of that year in sound.

We'll see how that pans out and how they deal with artists in disgrace who had big hits soon enough.

 

Summer starts edition

 

It's summer in the world of the Pan Cultural Nekomini so you might well be about seeing places and things you've not seen before or engaging with people, buying little souvenirs  for people or engaging in your passion for post cards which is something I did from an early age.

I find the messages on those sent most interesting.

Ahead of it's time like so many of the classic stories from the likes of Jinty which were equal of the very best boys comics, The Best of Cat Girl is a classic tail (or should that be tale?) from the late 1960's  reprinted superhero series originally in the Sally comic just for catgirls like me, getting on the case.

You see Cathy Carter is not your average teen. She can jump further, fight longer and climb higher than anyone she knows - with the aid of a magic suit, she is Cat Girl! Facing off in glamorous, globetrotting adventures against supervillains and master criminals, Cathy often finds the hardest fight comes from her bumbling detective father, who doesn't believe Cathy can fend for herself.

It was rebooted for the 2020 Jinty&Misty Summer special in modern full colour for one whole strip and that's reprinted in here although yes I did buy that summer special.

I just have different take on girl than some but it's still a take just the same.

It's the uncoolest thing to admit, worse than saying you loved Abba in the mid 80's but I grew up listening to country music (Britishers habitually add the & Western bit) an Hank Williams was on those artists I listened to.

This recent set has all the major songs enhanced by the wonders of modern technology and made into highly convincing stereo versions rather than those reverb heavy where not redubbed after the event attempts to modernize the sound.

It just sounds fine with the enhancements in regular cd playing here.

A tribute to Bernard Cribbins 1928-2022

 On Thursday it was announced Bernard Cribbins died who was major part of our childhood.

Born in Oldham, Lancashire he got into acting at the age of fourteen, then like many was called up during WW2 in the parachute regiment before resuming.

I'm going to ignore the grown up acting he did and leap to one of several comedy records he recorded for EMI produced by the legend that was Sir George Martin whose UK Label Parlophone had dance band music and comedy before an infectious Liverpool foursome called Beatles kickstarted the British Invasion.

That gem, looking at the never ending work that started from one task was released in June in Canada under Paul White's reign who also put out the Beatles way before Dave Dexter did in the States.

In Britain, this was one of the staples of the children's requests show Junior Choice for many years.

Doctor Who is a BBC TV series that is a global sensation with a long history that was popular with children and he took part twice in it.

With the Daleks in 1964

With David Tennant.

The Wombles were superstars in the 1970's and returned in more recent years and he provided the all the voices for the 1973/5 series by Elisabeth Berrisford.

They were filmed by Filmfair in stop motion by Ivor Wood and Barry Leith who gave us many more favourite cartoons.

In Britain, he was a staple of that much missed BBC show Jackanory where across several days leading actors and actresses read stories with vocalization to children.

Here he is as one of the actors tackling J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit in 1976.

He tackled the whole of Jane Aiken's Mortimer's tales and actually he appeared more than a hundred times, the most appearances on that show ever.

There is something quite magical to just being sat listening to a story being read with no big visual effects as you create that world in your head and for many of us he was part of that.

None of us can forget that classic children's film The Railway Children from 1970 where he played Albert Perks, a modest station porter in the North of England filmed on the Keighley and Worth Valley preserved steam railway in Yorkshire.

It is out on Blu Ray and well worth seeing.

Bernard was everywhere and someone whose performances played a big part in our lives so we'll miss him as he reminds us of our lives not least our childhoods.