"Tell me what you really want"

It feels warm already as here on saturday I'm typing this weeks blog up after an week trying to figure out how much of the old routines still applies and those which may need to change which isn't help be contradictory tales hours later.

To be quite honest I really feel like a break a totally swap over of roles to something more limiting but where I can just play and where possible help out a bit totally out of adult roles rather than being deluged with no holds bar medical stuff from dawn to dusk.

Just being more "carefree", playing games and that really the thing and we'll have to see if there's a hope of anything later this year or next remotely like that given how things are going on the communication or lack of front.

This year isn't shaping up well and we're only just over a half way through.
 

kk 

The future of dedicated forums

It's been a long, rather hot week at least here having needed to be out during the week following the Grumps return at the start of last weekend as you notice it being heavy laden with things to carry around and from the bus stop to home.

There has been some discussion of and the state of  "clean" sfw sites for  adults who seem themselves adult but girls and boys on the inside specifically the little girl site Girltalk and I do feel the need to talk about some of that.

I think most of us are aware the social media world today is very different than it was around the two thousands and early twenty ten's when many of us started to explore more of what this thing in us was all about and that today the use of Facebook, Instagram, reddit and Discord is more popular than traditional structures one reason sites like Roses, UK Angels have gone and sites like Pdq never got resurrected.

The other is that we're a niche that isn't always appreciated in the wider trans community that focuses more on adult presentation "passing" rather than with classic little girl dresses, gingham pinafores and short tails and a intentional younger than your years look.

We like to present as people we feel we are on the inside.

Because of concerns around privacy, trolling and the like we've always had this dilemma between keeping away prying eyes from posts and how we attract the attention of like minded persons who may not know we exist and from  that join in.

There are sites that on paper may appear to accommodate more the adult kid but are more aligned to various things commonly seen as kink, not that I'm kink shaming, and for many of us that takes out of that carefree playful place of the adult child.

It also without criticism of peoples personal circumstances and impact of real life events, been one where moderation and a sense of leading from the front has taken a back seat while the one of kind theme of the site just doesn't easily lend itself to regular software updates which can easily cause blackouts.

To me IF we want a site then it isn't simply a question of taking on the mantle of running what we have, we need to establish what the needs of a site today is perhaps having a site for all adult kids and not just those who are or identify as girls but keeping the overall ethos and for us to promote its use.

At the moment far too much is getting lost in never ending streams of comments that easily discussed at length and explored that are often hard to follow (I struggle with it personally) and is arguably to detriment of GT even if the idea of a "back up" as we had in the days of Yahoo Groups should the main site go down has merit.

Now Yearbook Vault 1981

Welcome back to THE VAULT, the bolt on of the New Yearbook series that mixes singles that failed to trouble the top 30 but were really interesting with American hits that didn't do much over here in the U.K. and we're doing this vinyl style.

Part of that's a channelling of those tracks on our Ronco or KTel  albums that sandwiched between the surefire hits they added maybe thinking they'd do better than they did and anyway sometimes they interested us more  and part is music meant mainly vinyl for us back then.

Old rituals bring back memories. 

 It's three lps in one sleeve so as it's a bit thin be careful as it will soon crease or rip but at least the discs are polylined so they're well protected.

 

Time to open this bad boy up!

A year away from their Top 40 debut, record one opens with Simple Minds with ‘Sweat In Bullet’ from their ‘Sons And Fascination’ album and followed by Spandau Ballet with ‘Paint Me Down’ from their second album ‘Diamond’. Heaven 17 are up next with their debut single ‘(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang’, alongside the debut from Eurythmics ‘Never Gonna Cry Again’. 

John Foxx released ‘Europe After The Rain’ as the lead single from ‘The Garden’, and Gary Numan reunited with his former band members, now called Dramatis on the superb ‘Love Needs No Disguise’. Closing the side, Altered Images feature with their debut ‘Dead Pop Stars’, along with the 1978 debut ‘Young Parisians’ from Adam & The Ants – re-released to become a hit in 1981. Flip the LP over to celebrate some of ‘81’s best soul and disco featuring Rick James, Sister Sledge and Chaka Khan, ahead of funk-pop genre melding from Freeez, Shakatak and Level 42 before this first disc closes with reggae artist Sheila Hylton who made the Top 40 with her cover of The Police track ‘The Bed’s Too Big Without You’.

Bruce Springsteen starts record two with the title track from his #2 album ‘The River’ which gave him his first UK Top 40 single, and John Mellencamp – who would have to wait another year for his UK chart debut – with ‘Ain’t Even Done With The Night’, his first Top 20 hit in the US. REO Speedwagon are up next with a track, ‘In Your Letter’ from the years’ biggest-selling album in America Hi Infidelity and a big seller here), and Billy Joel released a live version of ‘Say Goodbye To Hollywood’, giving him a Top 20 hit there. Great singles from Elton John and Joan Armatrading lead to the side finishing with The Alan Parsons Project and another US hit, ‘Time’.

Side B opens with the Pretenders from their second album, and a single ‘Louie Louie’ that got a US, but not a UK release. Pat Benatar led into her ‘Precious Time’ album with ‘Fire And Ice’, and Generation X released ‘Dancing With Myself’, a track that lead singer Billy Idol would revisit in his solo releases. Echo & The Bunnymen, The Teardrop Explodes, and Dexys Midnight Runners all feature ahead of Joe Jackson covering the jazz/blues/swing standard ‘Jumpin’ Jive’, and The Manhattan Transfer – who had a huge US hit with their cover of doo-wop classic ‘Boy From New York City’, which closes the second record.

Record 3 opens with an brilliant run of alt-pop: The Creatures - Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie from Siouxsie And The Banshees - released their debut ‘Mad Eyed Screamer’ along with ‘Primary’, the single from The Cure’s ‘Faith’ album, New Order with ‘Procession’, plus The Psychedelic Furs with ‘Dumb Waiters’. The Clash released the non-album single ‘This Is Radio Clash’, and reggae and new-wave fusion from Scritti Politti with the sublime ‘The “Sweetest Girl” to which we were to more of in later years. The side closes with two chart regulars The Undertones and Squeeze with ‘It’s Going To Happen’ and ‘Is That Love?’ and the final side kicks off with Debbie Harry, as 1981 saw her release her first solo album ‘KooKoo’, and from it here the second single ‘The Jam Was Moving’. Donna Summer released ‘Cold Love’ from her ‘The Wanderer’,( her first for Warners), and Commodores feature with ‘Lady (You Bring Me Up)’. Steve Winwood follows on with ‘While You See A Chance’, and the final three begin with Journey and their rock ballad ‘Who’s Crying Now’, Rush with the epic ‘Tom Sawyer’, and closing the collection, Meat Loaf with the lead single from his album ‘Dead Ringer For Love’, ‘I’m Gonna Love Her For Both Of Us’.

This selection works well bring  a mixture of memories to many of us especially those of us with more ecliptic tastes while sounding more fuller than those old K Tel and Ronco discs did back then.

 

Wish you were here

 

June, traditionally the time of an all day school trip if not a residential usually involving some broadly speaking educational objectives so they will be a field trip with things to find and worksheets to work though either individually in in twos.

There also would be few fun things like some games and a treat such as an ice cream offered if we're good.

With a somewhat hectic week, frankly something like that has its appeal.

It's Summer - Beano Summer Special 2025

We're into June which means we are officially into summer  that for most of us means mentally at least the whole off school summer holiday period and the memories of going away with your family year on year with all the rituals that involved such as getting new summer cloths for playing on the beach or camp to take with you.

 Back then comics as distinct from magazines often of a commercially exploitative nature ruled the roost so when we landed we made a beeline to the newsagent for some reading matter in case of rain and back then most comics also had summer specials in colour with more stories.

Today that's different so really it's the Beano summer special most go for in in 2025 we run very much the notion of everybody going on their holiday in Beanotown in much the same way that industrial areas the town shut down for a fixed period.

Thus the adventures feature all our comic heroes and heroines often working together to get out of situations in one big adventure and we love adventure don't we?

This year's is up to the usual high standard.

Sacd round up - Rachmaninov

Sometimes it takes a short length of time for a whole series of recording to emerge complete and sometimes it can be a matter of years and that's before we hit the dead ends when a conductor dies mid way through.Sometimes in such instances a chosen successor steps in, more often than not it just stops.

Strangely enough we've just finished this three sacd (or HD download) Rachmaninov symphony series with his first, recorded around October last year and issued early this month.

Played by the reinvigorated since 2018 Sinfonia of London orchestra under the direction of the Gateshead, Northern English conductor John Wilson this like all the discs comes with shorter works before moving on the main symphony which is extremely well played, more than match for classic accounts from the 1970's and 80's.

Issued in 2023 but recorded in 2022, we got the second symphony.

It all began with the third symphony but the whole project was delayed by Covid and indeed this was recorded until September 2021 when conditions improved to point people could play close to each other which makes a big difference to sound (and I'd maintain the feel of a performance by taking your clues from each other).

These play on all cd player having a regular cd layer in addition to the super audio cd layer a dedicated player can read for higher quality reproduction.

Kicking it down the yard

The cooler spell returns here after the last ten days or so so we're not flagging - well apart from the consequences of being up to see Austria win Eurovision 2025 although I wasn't viewing so much as I find flashing lights make me very ill - so we'll be tuned in by the time I have written this for this years WSL FA Cup between Chelsea and Manchester United.

Let's say that's what I follow, had been much good on my feet I'd of been down to the park to play just like modern girls in these parts do and that's what I love about today whereas if you'd of asked for a game back in the day you'd of been told "Girls can't play football" which was a nonsense but was all about keeping advantages for boys and men.

Of course it could work the other way and that was wrong too.

If you have the ability and are prepared to put the effort in, why shouldn't you follow what interests you just because someone has sex based issues?

Anyway Chelsea won 3-0! Way to go.

Those missed first time around...

1986 was the year of the National Garden Festival at Etruria not far from here down the A500 "D" Road, it was just over two and half years since the launch of ILR radio here with Signal Radio based in Shelton where before I listened mainly to Beacon Radio based in Tettenhall, Wolverhampton who played more contemporary music than the local BBC station and had specialist shows covering a variety of music.

It was a rather mixed era when came to music formats as I had cubes of records, shelves of tapes and the first few of what was to become a large cd library and there was no real order as to which artists or titles were in any.

Getting anything resembling that was to take years. 

The Pet Shop Boys had come to my attention the year before via a track on a music magazine free flexidisc that featured a track by them and a compilation cassette and by the time I was inclined to buy their first album, Please, I'd gotten a cd player and so what was originally planned as a XDR tm tape purchase  became the cd bought from John Menzies in Newcastle Under Lyme.

Unlike some artists I didn't get the vinyl singles so recently I picked up the original UK lp version so I can play Opportunities, West End Girls and Love Comes Quickly on the much improved vinyl set up.

I did get Actually direct on cd although I had to save up for it as I was a bit short on money at the time but the album art just works better in lp size jackets.

This was the home of It's A Sin, What Have I Done To Deserve This that featured Dusty Springfield and Rent to which I had the Smash Hits posts with lyrics of.

There was a special imported version that had the 12" of Always On My Mind you could get but as didn't get around to it, the regular UK vinyl will suffice and in any event sounds just great.

Although Actually is an all digital recording the vinyl edition does sound fuller on my system to the cd.

Enter May, server down

Another month and we're in late Spring with last week being jolly hot until friday so layers were off, much liquid consumed and windows opened here.

It was an odd week for Fur Affinity as it was down with technical issues and is currently down as they need to reinstall the database and doing that checking everything is as it should be is taking time but is best done properly.

That of course meant no journals with blog links on site and comments, one reason I hung around Discord more than usual apart from concerns about one persons welfare.

 

Discourse around what girls *should* wear especially in regressive/re-enactment  contexts do really try my patience, especially of the "everything should be like it was xx years ago" nature cos there were very good reasons why we progressed as I recall female staff demanding the right to wear trousers at school and to basically do whatever you personally liked rather than saying in effect "Can I do this as a girl?".

So today we wear what we feel comfortable in, we work in fields that match our abilities not gender expectations and play whatever games or take part in sporting endeavours we wish and that's how I approach things personally.

You can understand people not being personally comfortable with some sorts of presentation when may remind them of things best forgotten but as someone whoes worst enemies tended to wear grey skirts and white socks I sometimes wonder if they consider how I might feel when they're being somewhat prescriptive about what to wear.

 Given like most girls today I've embraced change and like football for females it was hardly surprising that in my uniform are big girls sports shorts, designed for females fitting very well.

The world I'm around may be in 2025 even when my head is still in the 70's and 80's but I'm a modern girl at heart with a much fuller notion of what a girl is than some others.

Easter Party 2025

 

No, he wasn't caught on the hop this year just that Easter was a week later when we all got together after arriving on Friday having gotten a taxi and caught the train down so I would be less rushed which also had the benefit of enjoying a fish and part battered chip meal was people talked.

Saturday was the start of events proper and I was up just after six, possibly the earliest cos I go by British Cat Time - when you can see things you get moving - so after the last person arrived we started with an Easter Egg Hunt which the first step was to assemble your basket and having done that I found seven of them hidden all over the place.

We then retired for home made burgers with onion that we ate outside that were most scrumptious .

We then had to throw a bean bag at the rabbit to score points which wasn't my strong point  before the egg and spoon race which you could I was more slow and steady before the outdoor darts which I wasn't too bad at  

Then each time had to retrieve a deck using a pole with chain but it soon transpired the chain was too long and heavy although one person did seem to develop a knack for it.

Then we had Tin Can Alley where one team member managed get a ball through the centre of the tins leaving those around the edges in a perfect inverted V shape and I knocked most of them off which was something!

We were treated to small creme eggs and a gingerbread bunny.

We then enjoyed an enjoyable bring a long a few things buffet  which I had B-B que chicken, pork pie salad and sausage roll before playing Easter bingo  and Family Favourites.

After much talk we got to sleep - for me opposite the fire - just before midnight and I was up for oatcakes and bacon before we went to the local pub for a meal which for me was a turkey roast and sticky toffee treacle pudding.

After that we made our ways home with Debbie kindly providing three of us a lift to the station.

Thanks to Jennifer for organizing the party and everyone contributing to a highly enjoyable event.

Easter week

It's Easter which beyond my staples of reading the Easter Story (you can't have Christmas without Easter theologically) and observance does involve Easter fun and games which you may of done either in your family or with other groups.

 In Girlguiding you can do a lot from egg hunts, making cards and making toys and maybe attending an Easter service.

 These days you can get colourful bags to take to your egg hunts!

There was two eggs here one from Dad and the other from one of adoptive Aunts which as I type this will be hatched and broken into.

White chocolate while a bit sickly doesn't bother me so much with the dreaded headaches and that so I tend to go with that having "lost" many a easter or christmas to that in the past.

Happy Easter
 

Ravel at the piano...

It's a sunny glorious afternoon as I type this with Easter Cards arriving before said bunny arrives later on in the week but apart from setting up the new portable radio something else arrived to keep my mind of the crazy world we're living in.

There are whole sets of the orchestral works of the French composer, Ravel, but not a complete set of his solo piano works including a couple of compositions first discovered in the 1970's but last week a really complete set came out on the Essex, U.K. label Chandos.

This is really well performed on a Yamaha piano with a specialist team to keep it in perfect tune in what is a two cd set priced as a single full price set with excellent high resolution digital recording although the disc is in regular cd format (and also available on HD Download).

Given my soft spot for solo piano works this is very much appreciated.

Plushies at lunch time

After last weekends activity and some follow up stuff like sorting the Outbound ticket for Easter's get together we're taking things a bit steadily and resting the paw after mentioning it to one person this week and combing my dollies hair a bit as they soon get tangled (and that's not as good as the movie!).

One great thing about small plushies is you can indulge your inner little girl side with cuteness without taking up loads of space and the other is they fit well between the sheets when you need something to hug at night.

People have been talking a bit this week about school dinners (din-dins to me) which varied a fair bit as at school one, they were brought part cooked and reheated so fleshy things like fish tended to be a bit dry and we carried them to a table in a community centre.

School number two was a lot better as we had somewhere to sit in school, cleared tables, and generally one or two of us would be given the food in order and then serve the children on tables first on real plates. I liked the fish cakes and semolina pudding and jam.

School three was similar except you ate at tables in a hall and there exceptions for diabetics and certain religious customs  and was first place I encountered Manchester Tart.

I still have cravings for school dinners.

Picnic 2025

 

Well I did get away this weekend although the best laid plans of Mice were rather turned on their heads not by the taxi that was dead on time but by the startling discovery upon arrival at the train station my train, the only valid journey on the ticket, was one hour and 8 minutes delayed that really messed up my arrangements. 

A word with the Avanti West Coast person on platform, approaching from a diplomatic niceties angle than four letter word coated rant secured a result - talking with the guard of of London North Western trains go me accepted on their train, a telephone call to the person due to pick me up from a different station the one I was now on my way to 

I caught a cab to their place, texted them and duely waited. 

This was as well as the original train was cancelled later on!

After a quick  tidying up, we settled down Faggots and Pies before settling down to watch a bit of tv.

Saturday was when it was all going to happen as we'd planned for a leisurely drive to Buckinghamshire but having had breakfast, picked up picnic food such as pies from the local butchers but no sooner than we'd left their we encountered tailback traffic from outer Wolverhampton, through Stourbridge to Pedmore before getting to Hagley and the approach to the M5.

Over forty-five minutes to get just under ten miles!!!

Fortunately a few roadworks and diversions aside  we did arrive on time, actually we got there before the host did.

An enjoyable time was spend talking about various things, the tenth anniversary of the of Lillian our common friend, as we eat and had drinks as Mr Paul, Sammy and few others fly a kite and Dizzy want around chasing toys and meeting other dogs.

It got a bit windy, a good job we erected two windbrakes, but by half three temperatures had started to drop so apart from holding my skirt so it didn't balloon up, we were starting to feel chilly so we said our goodbyes before making our way back for fish cake and chips.

Sunday was affected as it was the start of British Summer Time so all the clocks and my watch needed setting and we lost an hour. 

I was up at just past seven, fixed some breakfast  and made plans to be out to drop me off at Wolverhampton station and undertake a few things of their own.

Thanks Sammy for the event and Jennifer for arrangements.

Restoring the word the way it always was

The past,eh?

What a place to visit from the days of Google+ social media some of us would maintain done right with control over who sees what posts  in groups you create kept apart and a still feature rich Blogger never mind a good choice of active forums.

One thing that bugged me then was limited spell checker language options as most British ones seemed to be based on the Collins dictionary and American ones always used Websters ignoring those britishers who used the OED and Canadians to which neither really work.

Even Microsoft's "Canadian" wasn't that reliable more modified American so if as at the time I was using Firefox as a browser you looked for extensions and one Google+ person in my T circle recommended a great Can-E one.

That lasted a while until the internal gubbins of Firefox underwent major changes and a host of Apps including that were banished.

Well after a long wait at the curb, it's been recompiled for modern Firefox and that has been installed into the Windows machine while I figure out the language options on the Chromebook and reset that so Encyclopedia isn't underlined and auto corrected out of existence as I ride out on new tires.
 

Mid mad march entry

Moving towards the middle of the month and plans are being made for a short trip away at the end of the month while spring is definitely in full effect with lots of things coming up such as catkins and daffodils and small birds such as robins being about.

Interestingly since the week before and the period after Camp I have been getting up a good deal earlier  by at least a good hour which isn't just a matter of things such as bright mornings although at the end of the month that finger turning ritual of setting every clock and watch to Daylight Saving aka British Summer Time Begins where we kid ourselves the night is so much brighter.

It's not a trick I fall for but when official time is altered you can't live as if it hasn't really as transport goes to it - railways being what moved the UK to a standardized time in the first place - and shows on the radio and tv are listed to that too.

No it's something that has been talked about in the context of high school children,  namely the tendency to check before bed and then having taken a device to bed to start waking up around three and rationalize looking around the likes of news sites saying I'll just have a quick look and soon a few hours goes by and maybe you crash to sleep.

Then you wake up quite a bit later as you've hit deep sleep later than you would of so you start the day late having had less sleep.

Given my spoon issues anyway it's not good so I'm keeping the electrics downstairs at night.

Perhaps I need old school parenting?

Birthday edition

 

Well it was my birthday last week so thanks to the EB, GT and LGC Discord group for your kind birthday wishes.

There was some money to pay for some presents such as a triple lp set and a few things coming as there were some delays.

 

I got this five cd  set of albums by the great Jazz player John Coltrane to replace a poor sounding set I have for a good number of years having been brought up on Jazz, playing dads records during school hols.

I did have this recent recording of William Walton's Violin Concerto with the Sinfonia of London conducted by John Wilson which is really well played.

I also had some white chocolate.

Now Yearbook Vault 1980

We last tackled the new now yearbook Vault series in early October when we bought and reviewed the 1984 edition as I felt this by offering American only hits and Bubbling Under UK hits did offer something that would slot in with my original Now 2,3 and 4 and Hits and Hits II compilation albums bought back then.

Well they returned last Friday not with the previous two years but a three lp version of a set devoted to 1980 which is a under represented period with compilations here so looking at the tracklist, I decided to buy this one.
 

 

Record 1 kicks off with established superstars with big U.S, hits: Bruce Springsteen (with ‘Hungry Heart’ from the great The River album), Billy Joel (with ‘You May Be Right’) and Blondie with ‘The Hardest Part’ that was a single in the U.S. but not in the U.K. 

New-wave with a retro feel from The Ramones, The Revillos and The B-52’s lead into singles before the hits came for Echo & The Bunnymen and The Teardrop Explodes.

Fipping over the side for disco-pop from Donna Summer with ‘Sunset People’ and Shalamar with ‘Right In The Socket’ ahead of the fusion of soul & jazz from The Manhattan Transfer, and the superb collaboration between Wilton Felder and Bobby Womack on ‘Inherit The Wind’. 

Jazz influenced pop from Level 42 who we were to hear more from in 1982 leads to chilled soul from Brenda Russell with her timeless track ‘In The Thick Of It’ and finishing with the unmistakable vocals of Joan Armatrading.

Synth-driven pop would become the dominant genre in the charts over 1981 which is featured on Record 2 celebrates some of the formative singles of the genre from Sparks and John Foxx alongside Ultravox, The Human League and Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark who would be among the most successful groups of the next five years. 

More synth-pop from The Buggles and New Musik follows whilst the disc draws to its close with The Tourists with ‘Don’t Say I Told You So’.

Turning over to the second side we open with ‘Dance Stance’ from Dexys Midnight Runners  that was the single that came a few months before ‘Geno’ took them to #1. 

Great guitar pop from Squeeze and XTC leads into The Clash, ahead of reggae and ska from Junior Murvin and The Bodysnatchers, and hugely influential early hip-hop from Kurtis Blow with ‘The Breaks’.

Record 3 begins with the ballad ‘Sartorial Eloquence’ from Elton John followed by more huge musical icons such as Paul Simon (‘Late In The Evening’), Linda Ronstadt (‘Hurt So Bad’) and Carly Simon (‘Jesse’). Robert Palmer, Bill Nelson and The Cars with Touch And Go complete the side with new-wave classics .

Turning the record over over on the flip side shows stellar vocals from Pat Benatar and Journey kick off an explosive line up of 1980’s rock from Saxon, Girlschool, UFO and the debut single from Iron Maiden. Phil Lynott features with his first solo hit ‘Dear Miss Lonely Hearts’, whilst the final word is given to the legendary ZZ Top – they were 4 years away from a U.K. chart single, but ‘Cheap Sunglasses’ hit the U.S. chart in 1980.

 Although we have the Now Yearbook 80 lp, two lps of Extras and a few original complations this brings otherwise missing American favourites and the early singles of acts we were to hear more of in one nice package. Recommended.

LG Winter Camp 2025

It was an odd kind of a week that was running very much on its own alternate time which started with travelling by Transport For Wales trains to Leominster, Herefordshire to be picked up ready to complete the journey to a new venue in the South-west of England.

After a while I got the hang of hearing Welsh and English station names being announced even if they were in England and their welsh versions are seldom used and the journey towards Bristol and the Seven was quite smooth compared to other venues.

Talking of Wales, we went on the Welsh side of the Wye to Tintern Abbey near Chepstow which is a ruin undertaking as can be evidenced from the scaffolding renovation works part structural and part to restore elements lost in previous attempts.

It's pretty big, very much self contained settlement although finding it took a bit of doing as the signing wasn't obvious.

We called in the cafe adjacent to it for a bite to eat as it had been a good while since we'd eaten and I had a "White Monk's Breakfast" which was the local form of the traditional a full bacon and egg "English" fried breakfast that was extremely good.
 

 When we got to the Eleventh Century manor house we were staying at we did explore the extensive grounds there were a lot of snowdrops and daffodils out looking towards the local fields and hills.

 I did mention the time seemed different and it was cos it was CatMas (Christmas) and everything was centred around that so we had a tree that was decorated.

Santa came with presents and a Christmas box on CatMas eve.

There were arts and crafts sessions that included making decorations such as chains, things for the tree such as my CatMas one, making place mats for CatMas dinner and so on that was fun.

We did Home Economics, making Mince pies, decorating Ginger biscuits with seasonal art, cup cakes and even making our very own Pizzas from dough so with a great issue with cheese mine was tomato, turkey and ham.

We held games with a twist on musical chairs, quiz's, landing a jelly object on a CatMas tree target and getting a pin on the top of the donkey. The team I was part of came second in the General Knowledge quiz.
 

Catering was by us and we had a traditional very tasty CatMas Dinner with Christmas pudding  and turkey, ham and salad with chips Boxing day meal. Well we had plenty of turkey and ham so you might as well us it which our parents always did!

On the way we called a cross of gift shop, delicatessen, butchers and restaurant before making our way back to the Midlands which for me meant a stop over at a friends before catching the train back home.

Thanks to Karla and Caroline for organizing  the structure and big chunk of the catering, others who provided party food and a delicious cottage pie and for everyone for making it a super child-like time.

 

Teenbeat: The final version of Second Album

In March of 1979, an album entered my then meagre collection, a birthday present from the local independent store in the northern district of the city whose looks and track selection never really left even in the days when it just was no longer available in any format.

 

The collage style cover, bold coloured title and a great tag line on the rear top of the jacket just screamed Beatlemania as America fell for them in a package that mixed covers, new to america originals and a couple of newly recorded tracks that were to come on a British extended play 7 inch record.

 

My first copy with an Apple label went being replaced in 1986 by a Purple capitol copy as I learned this and the other albums I grew up on were to be replaced by UK versions coming on compact disc too and hurried up being "last chance" copies for posterity.

After a long period where they were ignored as if they never existed they've  been reissued accepted as part of the legacy hence last years issue of the 1964 Capitol Albums in mono, a good number of which were bought.

 I decided to get a near mint  american stereo edition in the short lived 1980's rainbow rim label to go with my Canadian issues of the era probably as good as this record ever sounded, one I've always wanted.

This came this week while I'm away and I'm delighted.

Rabbit holes

 

Rabbit holes? 

How many times does it feel we've been going down them only to find there no way out unless we make a clean break or have what some might call a blinding realization of where they are and how far that is from really where they want to be.

The thought was very much with me for a good few months looking at one blog which much of what had inspired it had gone and to the extent that was enjoyable, perhaps you were stuck down that hole not seeing where you could be instead and it was really crowding out much you could.

Thus I have spent a bit of time reworking it, bring some more light into it, redoing the odd post  apart from altering the direction of recent posts bring it more in line with what I find more interesting and fulfilling.

Next week I'll be away so there will most probably be won't be a post next Monday as there's a lot to do before thinking about writing blogs and  setting to auto publish but rather like CatMas one can catch up later, working a week behind and eventually catch up.

Teenbeat: The return of Off The Wall

This week as I recover from a few marks from the fire, we are going back very much to two years of entries on this blog, 2010 that had an overview of Michael Jackson's career and later in 2022, when we looked at vinyl and specifically his 1982 album Thriller.

 

Michael as a solo artist had solo albums before then, his solo career being guided by Motown initially from just over two years of the Jackson Five recording with Got To Be There and concluding with his forgotten Forever, Michael album of the summer of 1975 of which one track, the re-issued in 1981 One day In My Life is a standout track.

The Jacksons sans Jermaine moved from Motown to Epic Records in 1976 looking for greater control over their output and image reactivating their popularity but Michael was coming of age and wished to present himself to market as an adult.

A lot of effort was spent on building up to what would be his grown up solo debut bringing in session musicians, songwriters like Rod Templeton of the UK's Heatwave and the late Quincey Jones to arrange and produce the sessions.

Off The Wall was its title and off the charts was the reaction to it, bringing in a contemporary mix of soul and funk in a slick fusion in 1979.

Like many I had that record, a U.K. first pressing which contained four classic singles, Rock With You, Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough, She's Out Of My Life, a beautiful ballad and the title track, all of which graced the UK charts from September of 1979 through the Summer of 1980.

The album has been out in most formats somewhere around the World, cassette, 8 track cartridge, compact disc, minidisc and in more recent years digital downloads of various file formats.

In January of this year, it came out in very different form, two records in a deluxe packaging cut at 45 rpm, the speed the majority of British 12 inch singles are cut on very high quality vinyl.
 

You might wonder why you might do that and basically it is it allows for more of the high and especially low notes to be cut as they take up a lot of vinyl space and so are often reduced to fit everything in at the regular 33 1/3rd rpm speed.

Funk music often has a lot of bass but cutting at 45 rpm also improves the clarity of that bass plus it aids high frequencies as we get toward the centre of the disc where they can lose detail or even sound distorted.

Thus for this issue the two original lp sides are split into four and to help the high notes Off The wall is placed on the third disc at the start rather than cramming it at the end of the second side.

All the original lyrics and credits are contained in a booklet.
 

Having obtained my copy, I find it has better detail, smoother but keeping the attack we all loved on tracks like Burn This Disco Out.

In late 2022 Thriller got a special version which was tied into a promotion by Michael Jackson's estate and Sony Music that I did get.

That and probably wanting to keep the price lower I suspect explains why that was cut at 33 1/3rd  on one disc which although I still feel sounds better than any version I'd ever owned having had lp, tape and compact disc, would of benefited from a two disc 45 rpm edition

There are Super Audio cd versions available but having heard the sacd of Off The Wall I would say the vinyl mastering is better overall.

It is possible other solo albums recorded for Epic/Sony Records such as Bad might be released although that was an all digital recording but as anyone who has heard what Mobile Fidelity has done with Dire Straits Brothers In Arms on both vinyl and sacd would say, even early digital recordings can be made to sound fuller and more realistic.

End of month Internet update

 

Well unlike the 2000's  at least my internet isn't dial up and isn't dropping in and out like a round of guests at CatMas although computing is less desk top with separate keyboard, mouse, display and base unit  and more Chromebook which is more me outside of more speciality uses.

More turn on, instant boot up and on with the job.

It's much faster even over Wifi with download speeds of just a smidgen under 52mbps depending on how good your devices wifi set up is and rather less flaky although not using the providers DNS server (BT/EE) and switching to Googles works better which was something I had to do to the new machine as with CatMas rush I forgot that and finding some sites weren't loading quite right.

Don't however try phoning as unless you ring my cellphone as while I can ring you, should I fail and you try ringing back you won't get through as all the protocol stuff since this switchover for the phone hasn't been completed in sixteen days and all you get is messages on the cellphone to say there's still more work to be finalized.

Well, I ain't daft, I already know that.

Thus for when I go away I have enter a number for a unofficial phone (cough cough) that plugs via a socket to modem of its own as I can't be assured this will be fixed in time.