Christmas 2010

It's Christmas here which is why posts are a bit off the usual schedule

For as long as I remember Annuals have figured in my Christmas's with these two being up with being the longest from boyhood adding something to the weekly comic experience which normally include a Christmas  week special.

In my LB life it is the same and for the same reasons, they have same connection, making me happy because it's just about the boy within.

I like the anime Ben 10 Alien Force which is an adventure series shown on tv and had this years annual.

 
I did have some money which will put toward some cds in the near future be the classical or pop and a book token.

Seasonal Greetings

It's fast approaching Christmas here where apart from reading the Nativity story I'm going to busy with writing my Christmas Cards, visiting our friends and generally preparing for Christmas Day itself so I'll be taking a break here on My Middles Life until the New Year.

My blog is like us unapologetically Junior minded steeped in life and likes of being a Junior even if by our age we are older than our years and that is and was what we're about our child-like innocence.

So with all that I'd like to wish you a very happy Christmas and New Year.

Now That's What I Call Music

Yes back in late 1983 this classic series of compilations started as I remember well seeing the ads on TV and in the record stores -remember them? with the bold idea of making good on the promise of earlier chart based compilations by labels such as Ronco and KTel by having less tracks, the full versions of songs (no more crude edits) and a nice short blurb about each track.

The blurbs are that good I keep going back to from for a background reminder!

As intimated I actually bought a good many of these during the 1980's for the simple reason they had all the chart songs I liked and what was more the sound quality was extremely good for the most part. If an album had more than four songs I liked it was often cheaper to by these albums for anything other than the artists I personally collected such Duran Duran where you'd want the picture sleeves and non album b sides.

You see in the 1980's a lot happened not least in how we listened to music starting with the lp record going through a period where the cassette was the hip thing and finally to where we're at today, the compact disc and in all this change sometimes it was hard to know what version to buy.

In the main I bought the lp versions having a decent phonograph based system by 1983 but by 1986 was spending quite a bit of time using cassette Walkman players and 'Brixton briefcases' aka portable stereo radio cassette recorders, so I did get Now 8 originally on pre-recorded cassette and had Now 3 on tape too as it was a freebie with a Walkman I bought.

Equally the arrival of Now '86 a special cd only compilation did result in me putting off getting Now7 on lp or tape and I bought Now 9 which was a single cd because it was felt a double like the lp version was too expensive for the usual buyers meaning it missed several important tracks and Now 10 which was a double cd (the first).

Unfortunately the 'perfect sound forever' cd wasn't as my copies of Now '86 and Now 9 are very hard to play and with having a few of the original lps a bit the worse for wear, I'm replacing these cds and a couple of albums that are noisy
.
The Collection thus far:
Now 1
Issued 28 November 1983
The one that started it all off, it contained no less than 11 no 1 singles and almost all are memorable and issued on cassette and lp which I bought and countless thousands all did. 

It also had information on the missing chart hits.

This was released on cd eventually to mark 25 years of NOW being established.

Now2
Issued April 7 1984
Titled in roman numerals (II) the cover was plainer but it contains many of the best songs from the end of 1983 and early 1984 by the likes of Slade, Duran Duran, Rolling stones, Fiction Factory, Frankie goes to Hollywood and Queen.
My copy was very noisy with a slight skip on Radio Gaga and a scratch that runs thru the first four tracks on side two with a big skip on Undercover of the Night.

I scored a mint copy for only £2 plus mailing!

Now3
Issued August 11 1984
This album launched the era of the Pig thanks to Danish Bacon which dominated the next few issues being on the front cover. I originally bought this on tape it had yet another mix of Two Tribes not otherwise on the 45 and have just gotten a acceptable play copy of it on album.

Now4
Issued December 8 1984 and the very first NOW to have CD issue - a single one - that outside the London area you just didn't see so I got the lp. This album has a special mix of Paul McCartney's No More Lonely Nights that didn't appear on vinyl!

Now5. I had this on vinyl but lost it! Too bad as it had the last classic Duran Duran single and Marillion's Kayleigh in it's single mix amongst others.I just got a good play copy of this very cheaply. There is a tiny scratch just at the start of side two but otherwise it is as new playing wise.

Now6
Issued December 7th 1985 and I brought this new that Christmas, this took in songs by Arcadia, Midge Ure and Fergal Sharkey. Can anyone forget Baltimora's Tarzan Boy with that jungle call?

Now7
Issued August 23 1986 .
This one I missed out on as only just over an handful of the songs featured in cd only NOW '86 album that's a whole lot of missing hits such as Owen Paul's Your My Favourite Waste Of Time, Pete Wylie's Sinful and the original 1985 mix of Opportunities by the Pet Shop Boys rather than that of the actual chart single!
hidden unlisted on side three at the end is 'hidden track' Queens A Kind Of Magic.

NOW '86. This was a cd only compilation a cross between Now7 with 5 songs from Now8 being the first NOW to have West End Girls on it but the cd ceased being playable several years back and I'm only left with a copy on MiniDisc although I still have the case and inserts.
I recently got a replacement copy.

Now8
Issued December 6 1986
That was the second Now album I had on cassette but when the tape got damaged I picked up okay copy of the record version that I've been able to replace for a mint one.. There was a 18 track single cd version of it issued at the time with the reason for being a single cd because cds were very expensive compared to records back then and it was felt the average NOW buyer wouldn't stump up over £20 for 2 cd set. Some of the slack was taken up on cd by Now '86.

Now9
Issued April 4 1987
From the year of the Yuppie with padded shoulders, braces, mobile phone like a brick with a big antenna sticking out and Harry Enfield's Loadsa money character, this one sold more on cd than the others did.

Perhaps with the chart being a bit lame at the time the short playing time of the cd was more acceptable and with cds going more mainstream people wanted the singles on cd and this was good way of doing it.

I have the cd bought new but am looking for a replacement as the disc is deteriorating due a pressing problem although I have made a back up copy.

I managed to get a copy in really good condition apart from on Monday for a very cheap price from the person I got the better Now 2 copy from. There was promotional sweatshirt offer on an enclosed leaflet in the lp.

Just needed a two step clean to remove fingerprints and airborne dust. 

What surprised me is the LP seems to have been mastered separately and sounds fuller than the cd version and has 15 tracks missed of the cd although that only managed 61 minutes out of possible 74 back then. As we're talking about missing songs by acts like Erasure, Bon Jovi A-ha etc it's crazy as there was room on the cd.

Now10
issued December 5 1987 - The first NOW to go to 2 cds and at a discounted price too I got this on cd.

Stylistically House Music was coming on and featured on the second disc.

I recently got a copy of the lp version for comparison.

Now11

issued April 2 1988
Somewhat typically I drifted back to vinyl as most of the artists I like who issued singles during this period I already had the cds of and I was dropping off buying 45's so this was the cheaper option for pop and house music.

Now12

Issued July 23 1988 The Summer of 'Acid House' captured with some classic pop .

Now13

issued December 3 1988. The charts were starting to be dominated by manufactured pop and dance music although there were good number of stone cold classics.

Now14

Issued April 1 1989
The last new Now album I bought on lp as i was moving toward cd centred listening at the time making an edited version for replay on my Aiwa cassette walkman I used back then.

Now15

Issued August 26 1989 I remember making the cassette edit on a TDK AR 100 minute tape for my walkman but I did later pick up the lp version that saw Queen and Transvision Vamp star with the first hit by pioneering outfit SoulIISoul.

Now16 

issued December 2 1989 Debbie changed her name to Deborah Harry and had a hit with I Want That Man while Stevie Nicks had a Room On Fire although much of the second disc was club sounds which were less my thing.

Don't mention Jive Bunny either!

Now17

Issued May 5 1990
By this point I was losing interest in chart music as had drifted mainly toward 'club' sounds such as House, Madchester and HipHop so this was the last album I bought new.

Now 18 Dec 1990

I bought this used later on as it a number of hits I hadn't otherwise got.

Now 19 April 1991

I originally borrowed this on on cd from the library and taped a selection mainly for the 'club' hits but got the used cd recently.

Now 20 Dec 1991

This was the point most chart music went off the radar with me with more and more hip-hop and grunge creeping in.

Smash Hits - Now that's what I call 80's
Issued August 1987
I originally had the cassette but that got mangled and was left with a copy on cassette a friend had copied from the lp before I got mine which I transferred to MiniDisc. Unfortunately the only machine that could play this tape right lacks the type of noise reduction he used back then so on the quiet parts the high notes are raised together with any crackles. I recently go the cd version but this misses off the Summer '81 #1 smash hits One Day In Your Life by the late Michael Jackson for some strange reason.

Now -The Christmas Album 

 A compilation of 18 songs with a Christmas theme such as I wish It would be Christmas everyday, Thank God it's Christmas, Last Christmas and Do they know it's Christmas time that came out on lp, cassette in November 1985 as a single album.

In 1986 it was issued on cd in time for Christmas with two songs missing and that's the version I own.

Now - The Decade 

1989

A selection of hits from 1980 to 1989 on two cds.

Now 1985 (Millennium series) - bought the 1999 2 cd set as it had most of hits from 1985 and being missing NOW5 it was a reasonable stop gap.

Updated by Chris 2014/23

Time for a story

Today I'm thinking  back to the Christmas's of the pas, you Little Saint Nick and all that plus the presents I'd of wanted to have been given.

I loved reading although it's something I'm not even now particularly good at and so I's of gotten a  few books.

 

Now that's more the kind of book, a collection of short stories you can just dip into whenever you have a few minutes spare and as it happens I have a copy of this because although when I was a bit older and we were moving about Mummy tossed aside stuff including books she thought I grew out of, this one came with me in the big toybox no doubt wrapped in wallpaper that we were expected to put over to protect our books so no one knew what it was!

The front cover makes me so happy with its carefree images of junior life running around with t shirt and shorts on although I only briefly had a dog and well you don't run around with your cat on a lead now do you?

Also back then we weren't big on 'Brands' with their logo's spluttered on garments like some walking advertising hoarding.

Jennings was always big with me from Juniors to first to forth form of High School as a border being very much of Prep school age and this is a copy I've had for a long time and actually I got this used being the 1957 edition.

It all starts with Jennings Aunt Angela gives him the Christmas Present of a diary to record his thoughts and adventures in which the takes to school to board with thinking he'd be having adventures and goes through the business of having it confiscated, using a fancy code that only makes the everyday ramblings of a schoolboy look like a Eastern Bloc spy.

Then the passion of Natural History takes over leading to excavating a site believed to be roman and finding a wheel which Darbishire and Jennings feel is from 55BC whose attempt to get to school for their "museum" leads to much mirth not least the eventual realization this is anything but Roman when they try to get into a real museum.  

This story is a hoot of schoolboy experiences and dare I say it the leap to logic only we'd make.

Crossing the road

Illustrations often have a lot to say about the time they were made and this is from the Ladybird Readers series of my era.

Before pelican and other automatic crossings were put in as the car grew in popularity often a Policeman would see you crossed over safely by stopping the traffic and every boy was raised to see him as a friend in case of need, respecting his authority.

The boy is dressed as I was a classic grey v neck jumper, shorts and socks with banded turnover tops with a school cap which we never had while his sister wears a skirt and blouse because she's a girl and that's what they do.

Both wear sandals because they are better for goring feet.

The Doobie Brothers vinyl collection

This week I'm delving into part of the record collection that's been a bit by bit expansion over the decades.

The strength of the Doobie Brothers music is the variety of styles that run into each on any one album from county, folk, r&b and rock and the musicianship which while not "showy" has touches that bring you back into playing their albums.

The first album by them I bought was 1976's The Best Of which gives you eleven well chosen selections from their recond album to what was their most current with new member Michael Mcdonald on vocals.

I bought this in late 1984 as a "prime cut" mid price reissue from Replay Records here in the northern district of the city.

As was increasingly the case then releases were being internationally sourced as record production consolidated so my edition was the West German distributed through much of western Europe.

In 1981 it was decided to issue a second volume drawn from the later more soulful Michael Mcdonald era and as I hadn't any of those albums I did get around to buying this in March 1991 where surprisingly the record was still on catalogue.

This volume features such classics as What A Fool Believes and Echoes Of Love.

Much of my interest in their music came from borrowing this album numerous times from the local library although the tape they had was an old rather mushy sounding one and I originally got this around the time I got The Best Of.

Recently I bought the specialist Speakers Corner reissue made in Germany which restored the original gatefold sleeve and was cut by Kevin Grey sounding better than ever with wider dynamics and better depth in the sound stage.

For this issue they brought back the classic "Burbank" label although first issues had a plain avacardo green label.

This 2007 reissue does it full justice.

Rewind to the past

Going back in time I recently re-watched this "Arrival From Cybertron" VHS tape of the 80's series Transformers which as was the norm then was edited from the original episodes to make up a 1hour 4 minute full length tape version.One of key features of the show was each character could transform at the critical moment adding unpredictability to the scene.
Although the tape showed obvious signs of wear it played well enough and sure was fun.

Up on the dvd player today and probably for next week and a half is this Trigun which my best friend raved over so I thought I'd a get a copy.

In essence, set in the distant future on a desert planet, the anime follows Vash The Stampede who has a $60,000,000,000 reward on his head for destroying numerous towns, although he is yet to end a human life.

Card Games

Hi folks!

How many of us can remember and for that matter still have playing cards from our pasts?

I sure have!

Some of my earliest memories of playing cards were of playing with Gran, who's sadly passed away several years back, such games as Snap during school break up or when my folks had to deal with groan up stuff and granny had to look after me.

I didn't have much to do with Grampa cos he was a bit crotchety and he couldn't understand my English.

At school recess we also payed card games but from the Top Trump range where from one themed pack you'd choose one subject and whoever got the most  of some criteria or other won the round and you'd begin again.

Actually when was having big problems my school friends took me to a store to buy some to help me re-intergrate with the group.

I stil have those cards and several others I've collected down the years such as these cards from the Fox TV series The Simpsons from around 1990 that came in a set of 88 cards.

The have cartoons on the front and questions on rear to ask your friends about all the characters in the show.

Enjoy.

Bonfire night edition

Seeing we are approaching Guy Fawkes Night, one tradition in many ways dying out is of boys and girls making a replica of Guy to which we hawk around our local streets shouting "Penny for the Guy" at any adults.

We did for two reason, one we loved making something connected with our history and the other was it helped eek out our pocket money as we approached Christmas.

Ravel Orchestral Music

 

Ravel's orchestral music has always had  place in my life from Bolero to the Mother Goose suite and when cds first came out I bought a single cd in Dg's Galleria series from 1987 that had the recordings of Seiji Osawa's set with the Boston Symphony Orchestra  that included Un Bal and Bolero but it didn't sound so good.

I really loved that three lp set from 1974 and recently I bought this newly remastered two cd set that holds all the lp set did on two discs that fit as many now do in a single cd size case.

While the notes are a little basic in this set, the sound is now most vivid allowing the beauty of this set I loved to be heard in a digital form.

Are children growing up to soon?

This was an article around children's development that I feel is important having been concerned in some of my 'adult' roles looking into children's development and child protection.

 Reproduced from the Ashlands Daily Tidings
By John Darling
For the Tidings
 Posted: 9:20 AM February 16, 2010

With high heels, low-cut tops and mini-skirts — whose glamor is heavily promoted on television — pre-teens are getting pushed into the "sexy little girl syndrome" that ill-prepares them for workable intimate relationships later in life, says Amy Lang, a sex educator and Ashland native.

Lang will give a talk for parents and sign her books, "The Ask ANYTHING Journal" and "Birds + Bees + YOUR Kids — A Guide to Sharing Your Beliefs About Sexuality, Love and Relationships," at 7 p.m. Thursday at Bloomsbury Books, 290 E. Main St.
Lang, the daughter of Southern Oregon University emeritus biology professor Frank Lang, gives presentations called "Too Sexy, Too Soon" that help parents clarify their values around love and sexuality. 

That clarity can help them guide daughters as young as 8, 9 and 10 who are picking up values from TV and movies that are way beyond their maturity level, she says.

For more information: see www.birdsandbeesandkids.com

"Girls are exposed to so much more information now," Lang says in a phone interview from Seattle, where she lives. "They're dressing like teens "¦ in low-rider jeans and in much more grown-up clothes than at any time in the past. It's sending messages that are way beyond their years."

Lang, a graduate of University of Washington with a master's degree from Bastyr University in Seattle, helps parents find the courage and the words to set limits for young girls through constant repetition of practical cues.

"It's understandable why parents don't want to talk to their kids about sex," she says. "They don't know what to say. They're afraid to bring it up. They feel school will handle it or they'll learn it from friends and books — but they're giving them permission to have sex."

As a result, kids are missing out on being children and don't get to be themselves, she says. "They're concerned that they look 'hot' but they're only 8 or 10 and they don't know what it means."

Another reason parents hold back on candor about sexual norms, Lang says, is they're concerned their kids won't fit in socially.

One strategy to overcome this is working with girls to find and wear clothes that are hip, stylish, attractive, but not inappropriate.

"You might have to dig deeper to find them and there might be some battles," says Lang, "but it helps overcome the message from TV that being sexy is not a big deal and if you hook up with someone and have a wild makeout session or have sex, it's superficial, without intimacy."

While acknowledging that shouting and laying down laws may not do the job, Lang says parents can achieve results with steady messages from the family about what healthy relationships look like.

"Parenting is hard no matter what, but you can make healthier choices," she says. "We can't expect the culture to handle the education of our children about relationships. The media culture is intent on getting us to buy stuff — and it does it with sex. Sex sells."

The parents' job, she says, is to keep participating with teachable moments, to comment about what's on TV, to say "that dress is too adult on that girl" and to lay down understandable rules, such as "no cleavage in middle school."

While girls may seem to insist on watching shows with explicit content on high school kids, it's producing anxiety in the young ones who don't grasp the social skills needed to manage late teen relationships, she says.

Sex education starts in the fifth grade in most states, but it's not allowed to teach values; that must come from the parents and must be reinforced "until they beg you to please stop. We need to ignore their discomfort," Lang says.

"The best antidote is to keep making little comments, like 'what would you do if you got pregnant or got HIV and how would that impact your college plans?'"

Keeping warm

One form of activity I do a lot of is walking to aid my mental alertness and maintain my physical abilities which are limited and I could easily lose if I did not.

This time of year it starts to go cold as we enter Winter which can easily deter me from continuing so I recently got this set of boys hat, glove and scarf to keep me lovely and warm as I didfit actual teen boy sized hats and gloves.

Grey is a great colour for a boy like me.

Disability Ettiquette and me.

I've never made a post quite on this topic before in my life but as I'm poorly at the minute typing this with one paw before more rest I thought I would.

The way you treat a person with disabilities can leave those who are not themselves disabled  unsure, some in the disabled community disagree strongly and yes for LG people like me there are other usually unseen factors. 

Hardly surprising then some take the line of least resistance and say nothing and yet others are at the "Does he take sugar "stage talking straight to the nearest adult near the disabled person completely ignoring them.

A few general pointers:
Talk straight to the person not being afraid to ask how they are. The time to be talking to another is when it is clear the other person isn't understanding you.Offer to write a note of the any main points if it's something the person may need to do.

A person in a wheelchair is a wheelchair user. It's how they get about like you may use your legs and so aren't 'confined'  or 'bound' to it. The limitations in getting about happen generally through the actions of non-disabled people through the barriers they without thinking put up such as making it difficult to enter a building by putting in stairs or using very narrow aisle, not fitting loop hearing systems for the deaf or making prevision for a person to help those with limited sight and so on or even attitudinal ones like thinking nobody disabled comes so why bother considering their needs (maybe that's why they don't!)?

Of course disabled people aren't angels but as you're not, you already know that as they're just like you really!

How much to do for someone or what can I assume?
So-called health professionals, carers and disabled people argue all day about this but I'd sidestep the coffee at the conference chat and just ask if there's anything they'd like some help with (Don't say "Are you alright" cos most feel so uncomfortable about not been seen to cope that they'll say yes even when they do need help).

Assumptions? dangerous game between "Don't patronize me, I'm an adult" from a wheelchair user with an IQ around 100+ and those who for developmental reasons may look all of 50 but are very much like much younger children and as such are extremely vulnerable.

Personally I'd ask for things like ability carrying hot liquids, meals etc accepting a decline unless I know the person well enough not to leaving most other things to them but say for "this activity everybody will be reading or writing-is there anything with this you'd like some help with" because somethings like difficulty in reading aren't obvious and may be unrelated to a physical disability.

LB's and disability ettiquette.
This isn't something you'll find discussed at some 'respectable' conference as most of us who are involved around 'age regression' communities have a better take on the link between chronological age and differing mind ages -that we have often two one 'adult' and one younger and oscillate between the two than most including the learned professionals.


My own take on it is it's reasonable to say when it comes to how to deal with illness or injury, the person is feeling it at their child like age and for a few possibly that developmental level too. 

The absolutes are you cannot breach legal rights over-riding them as developmental issues such as ability to understand a situation are covered thru exemptions under Mental Heath, so you can't take them against their will to a hospital cos' 'they're only a child really' unless it fits under the exemptions. This is because the groan ups use chronological age as the basis for your legal rights.

This does not mean you may give consent to be taken in advance or for other agreed measures if you're being cranky.
For 'unwell' childlike works - They're poorly, it's a good idea to remind about what they can do to help manage it, do offer sympathy (back to grazed knees) and so on.


What works for me (the 101 of managing me in RL or online)
Background: My hands got injured at work 16 years ago and they become inflamed at the tendons very easily that results in an inability to use them.  I seldom write with a pen.

I'm unsteady on my feet, have cerebral palsy and dyslexia affecting maths, reading,spelling audible processing disorder and short-term memory.

This side of me is 'at 10'.

What keeps me going when I'm poorly is my spirit - my LB spirit to be exact - so it's one of the most important things you need to keep up.

It's appropriate to suggest I rest even on occasions insisting I do because it's the child like sense of missing out that can keep me from resting. Something like "Please be a good boy, switch off your computer and rest if you're poorly" is fine.  I won't snap at you. Honest!

Nobody should feel bad for adding the suggestion I change if not already into my LB attire when resting because it will 'turn on' the LB spirit more in me, it helps a lot and I NEED to get better.

There's a difference between what is known at the intellectual level and what is felt building up in to your heart and spirit - the engine that keeps you going emotionally.

In real life hugs work wonders as does giving me a spanking when I can't stop being naughty. Online it's harder but you can express 'hugs' and affirm the power of my LB Spirit to keep me going which oddly enough helps if I'm feeling down. 

The trouble with down is it has a downward spiral and it helps to talk me back up the top.

You may need to talk me round to see a doctor cos I get scared of different places and can't remember names well and that can put a block on me thinking about it.

A New Dawn

At high school we did Scottish Country dancing but never highland dancing as pictured  above  where the dancer is in Menzies dress.

Personally I would have no issue with presenting in an actual Kilt, dress shirt and blazer as a LB or even for that matter in the more mainstream men's world as it is a male garment.

The more I have thought about it, the more I have come to the conclusion that I wish to come to a better understanding of how my 'Little Boy' side works, how I can engage with it constructively while handling my adult responsibilities that arise from the chronological side of my so-called age.

I believe the only way I may achieve this is through dialog with like minded people not that will say 'you do this, this and this' but more I'll be able to take in synthesize and construct a way that will work for me.

The Mole Years

One thing that I'm finding myself coming back to is as awkward as it has been for me to deal with is my interests are that of child because I'm an adult little boy and they remain as they were from childhood.

One area where this is particularly apparent is in my tastes in literature that remain around 10 though 14. 

One series of books I enjoyed during my chronological childhood was Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole series which by pure fluke in diary form connect very much with my recollections of that era as a boy in the fifth and sixth forms.

It's a funny and at time sad story of unrequited love for his girlfriend Pandora, an account of his burgeoning intellectual development including his observations on life, attempts at deep meaningful poetry as well as running social commentary on England in the early 1980's.

It was produced  for tv in 1985 been shown on the ITV network of commercial tv stations.

The Growing Pains covers the period  from 1982 to the UK General Election in 1983, documenting the launch of Breakfast TV and the increasing distance between him and Pandora.

By this point our hero also discovers the need to shave as most of us boys did back then.

For me this is book about modern boyhood that is so relatable for being set in my own boyhood era.

Michael Jackson: Hello There

My childhood overlapped very much with the childhood of an artist who belong to a group many of our year followed and re-emerged in my mid teens raising the bar of soul and r&b music contributing hugely to its soundtrack.

In 2009 the specialty arm of Universal Music Group, Hip-O that do direct orders issued this unusual 3 cd set that actually is a coffee table book with enclosed music covering the early Motown era solo recordings Michael Jackson made.

What makes this desirable isn't just the lovely photos and the write up about his time at Motown as good as that is its the fact you get 6 solo albums of which two are currently unavailable anywhere in the world and the original versions of the tracks that came out in 1984 on the Farewell My Summer Love 1984 album in overdubbed form for the very first time.

There are contained across the cds a good many of his early solo hits  such as Ben, Got To Be There, With a Child's Heart, Morning Glow (a personal favourite owning the original '45), We're Almost There and One Day In Your Life, the last two coming from the 'forgotten' Dear Michael album of 1975 (and 'One Day' was a UK #1 single in 1981). The albums do hold up well despite their years as examples of quality 70's soul.

Amazon UK are currently offering this for less than £10 which is very little for a stash of great material.

Michael in death as in his life remains a mixture of contradictions, intensively successful and yet seeming, lonesome with few true friends, impressively innovative for a period  but failing to respond to the rapid changes in black music from the late 80's onward.

For what it is worth, I feel he had an awful lot of the little boy very much in him which can be evidenced by his many animals that he bought as pets and most famously in the Neverland ranch that became his base and to which he sought to share with others in ways that from an 'adult' prospective may have seemed naive and at best easily misunderstood, ultimately caused him more harm.

The same naivety I feel lay behind the row about the initial lyrics for some of the songs on his Dangerous album of 1991 where he was trying to cop a pose without considering it's impact on the wider audience (and his was a much wider one that any Hip-hop artist). He just didn't see the problem with certain words.

He was at times a flawed adult little boy.

This said I feel in the time since his death many have gotten over the 'Wacko Jacko' tag applied since the mid '90's and have rediscovered his very real abilities.

In some respects he never really 'grew up' being a kid-adult not having anything that resembled a regular childhood and suffered from a abusive father.

Recommended listening:
Jackson Five GOLD UK Motown and Soulsation (1995) US Motown box set - The band he was big part of in the beginning.
M Jackson Anthology Motown (1995) - a condensed history of Michael at Motown that sounds marvellous.
Off The Wall (1979) - The solo album that set the standard
Thriller - One of the if not THE biggest selling album in History it broke new ground mixing rock with Funk.
Bad - The last really innovative album by him.

Schoolboy transport

Waiting on a school trip to get through Southwark tube station, London, you might think you're all grown up but you're not really, you're still very much a boy subject to the rules and regulations of the grown ups.

In an era where many boys of their age in state schools had gone to long trousers, they most of stood out.

Haydn- The Creation

 

Almost autumn term  so I can relax until next month of course reading back issues of The Dandy comic library, those A5 sized longer comics to my hearts content.

One thing I love to do to relax as well is listen to music  and recently I bought this two disc set as it was on offer of the whole of Haydn's The Creation which is stunning apart from being a milestone in modern classical music.

It is technically a Super Audio cd designed to offer better than cd reproduction on a special player but this has a regular cd layer for players like my own too which makes sense which the orchestra owned lable Lso Live use for all their most recent titles.

Out in the summer

Here the boys are out on an excursion with what looks like other boys of school on the grass in the background with their unusual red turnover long socks on rather than black or grey which the norm.

Also it appears the oldest boys shorts are longer in the inside leg length to the youngest which personally I feel is more befitting someone of his age.

Kilts for school?

Boys do look pretty good in kilts as the boys in this co-ed school in Scotland who have the kilt as part of the school uniform.

Perhaps this should be an option elsewhere in the UK?

Lucky Star & Air

I've been watching between work, reading blogs, websites and listening to more music the following two animes:-

I'll be finished watching this one by Saturday.

Issued by Bandai in the States in their budget Anime Legends series, it hasn't seen a R2 issue although Beez have expressed a bit of interest in putting it out.

It's in part a examination of high school recollections that must of us can easily identify with coupled with a great parody of the whole otaku take on life, that neverending dash to be be first with the new manga, collecting points at the store, cosplay, obsessing over RPG's that you play overnight when you're meant to be sleeping.

Much of that is shown through Konata the anime and video game obsessed character who is older than the other three schoolgirls who can put so much into that devising grand plans to get around the comic cons and yet completely mess up with exam revision and homework.  

On the other hand Kagami is the shy, more seriously mined who has a younger sister Tsukasa who is very much the sweet but ultimately air headed one.  

For moe appeal it's Miyuki, the cute bespectacled friend with an almost encyclopedic memory for the key facts of all subjects

Heck every episode ends with the Lucky Channel segments of hyper presenters and the shows characters doing karaoke style singing to songs from tv shows and animes, all of which served with loads of side-splitting humour and uber-cuteness.

I mean they even reference Haruhi for crying out loud!!!

Here's Lucky Star's very own otaku herself, Konata.

Now this is the opposite and strongly recommended for Kanon and Clannad fans and is issued in Funimations S.A.V.E budget series.The story arcs revolve around Yukito Kunisaki and three girls all of whom are connected.

Air is the sad tale of Misuzu a child who is ill, desperately lonely and abandoned by her real Mom, She takes a shine to Yukito,a travelling children's entertainer with only the clothes on his back as possessions who lifts her spirits and we witness her aunt Haruko who in the end quite movingly makes that step from being an Aunt to being her Mom just as sadly she has only a couple of days left to live.

The day after being taken in by Misuzu and Haruko, Yukito meets a girl named Kano Kirishima and a stray dog named Potato; Kano and Misuzu go to the same high school. Later that day, Yukito meets a third girl named Minagi Tohno, Misuzu's classmate, and her friend Michiru.

Kano and Minagi like Misuzu, both have strange personalities connected with mysterious pasts. Before long, a legend of "one thousand summers" begins to unfold where the mysteries of the past are framed primarily by the relationship between Yukito and Misuzu. 

Misuzu's offer of food and shelter to the destitute and close to starving Yukito causes the lifes of both to change as they grow ever closer sharing dreams of a life lived beyond the clouds. 

It is obviously that what drives Yukito chasing the story of "The Girl in the Sky". Not knowing when or if he will find her he clings on for hope. His need to find her is so strong and the answers floating in the breeze unfold as the story progresses.

The story arc comes in three parts; Dream (episodes one through seven), Summer (episodes eight and nine), and Air (episodes ten through twelve), with the recap episode (episode thirteen) following. As ADV didn't licence the recap episode for North America originally this dvd misses it off but it's no great loss.

We see hope in the face of adversity, trust even when badly let down and preparedness to do your very best even if it may not be enough.
 
The dvd adds the Air in summer OVA's issued separately in Japan on disc three.

My Plushies

Today I thought I'd write about something I once mentioned at Friends Reunited five years ago but never wrote about before.

When I was living in the Greater London Area, I used to travel out a lot across and just beyond the City and on one Saturday morning in the spring I was in the Covent Garden area, a favourite part of central London of mine where I came by this:

Aww she's cute, very fluffy and and a hand puppet being made by hand and I just had to have her, walking across the area clutching her tightly afterward. This was well before I had any idea of what being a little even was!!!

Well I used to take her to work - as this is the internet and a public site I won't say where - but the job was super important for children's welfare over here and every lunch time I'd put on an impromptu puppet show. 

We called it Peaches the Panda show and it was ever so funny. At all other times she was on my desk and I'd start playing with her as people drifted about the office.

Shortly afterward I got another fluffy thing but this was more a Plushie I named Spikey cos he's an Hedgehog.

I found them a few days ago as I was sorting out my closet so I give them a bit of clean and fluffing up and their back out on display.