Cleaning up the clutter on comics

In October of 2019 I wrote a bit about comics aimed at children looking at the variety of them compared to those when I was (in law) a boy.

One of things I remarked on was the shift towards magazine style publications even for the youngest and the decline in the traditional children's comic although afterwards I wrote about the newer Phoenix comic which I get which is a modern take on the same.

The other thing was the problem of so many being festooned with cheap plastic tack on each issue that not only does it make the more grown up issue of racking them effectively so children can easily find the comic or magazine they want but also the sheer waste.

It appeared to me that the magazines were in a battle over not the quality and features of their publication but more for the most free plastic tat which rather got my goat as one publication Kickabout that was an excellent soccer magazine for under twelves with essay style writing had gone under while Kick loaded with tons of plastic freebees and little serious writing was the most popular outside of MOTD which as a bit more constrained having links to the BBC.

Anyway a ten year old girl called Skye in North Wales started a campaign against this waste being a keen junior environmental supporter writing letters and has got the supermarket Waitrose to ban after a eight week period any publications that have plastic items with a short life span and cannot be easily be recycled.

Waitrose is urging publishers to replace "pointless plastic" with sustainable alternatives.

Much of the fee gifts are pointless as most children of the right age groups have access to safety scissors, slime, can buy their own sweets (Kick often put candy on the covers that had nothing to do with football) and all of that takes money way from what could be spent on producing better content.

I for one are pleased about her campaign and Waitrose's reaction to it as it will concentrate the minds of people like Kennedy Publishing to tackle the problem rather than saying our a magazines are popular because todays children are environmentally aware. 

A little Prokofiev

This week were are looking at music and just one composer.

Sergei Prokofiev was a Russian Soviet composer, pianist and conductor who was born in April 1891 and died in March of 1953. As the creator of acknowledged masterpieces across numerous music genres, he is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century.

I only had a couple of discs that contained any music by him bought in the early 1990's so for my birthday I had my eye on a fairy recent complete set of his symphonies.

I had the first in a landmark 1955 stereo recording which I loved and the Bergen Symphony Orchestra based Norway has over the years grown a reputation for excellent performances.

Strangely enough there are two versions of his Fourth symphony and this uses the composers own preference rather than the then Soviet leader Stalin's.

I had the Seventh as part of that pioneering stereo recording originally made for EMI Records in the UK.

The Fifth symphony is widely regarded as his finest and here is coupled with the orchestral gem the Scythian Suite.

The second but last symphony equally is joined by two desirable orchestral suites The Love of Two Oranges which I had one recording of and the Lieutenant Kijé suite.

Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64, is a ballet by Sergei Prokofiev that is based upon William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. 

To round off the four discs containing his symphonies I picked up this recent recording by the London Symphony Orchestra by the popular conductor Valery Gergiev recorded at London's Barbican Centre.

All the discs are Hybrid super audio cds with surround sound options that play in regular players too 

The return of Action Man

When you think of what Birthdays are a number of thoughts may enter your head one being the marking of another year in your life, typically with cards and a cake, the affirmation of a landmark age such as on becoming a teen at Thirteen, adulthood at Eighteen and so on.

When if you are like me, Age Dysphoric, everything around birthdays remains very much as it was in your boyhood and that does create tensions when people are not seeing you for being that eternal boy or girls whose interests while being added to over the passage of time are basically the same, cos emotionally and for some developmentally too you remain the same.

This year was a rebirthday if you like in that a central character of my ten year old's life who lasted to age fifteen returned in style.

Action Man was my main plaything secondary to Lego and both very much vehicles for my imaginary play and expression of concepts not being the kind of boy who is happy to act out or respond to someone else's ideas even if I loved to play with other boys.

I have mentioned a bit about Action Man on here before and I'm not inclined to repeat myself several times but this was one I had  this year which had me and my original action man had continued our adventures into the eighties we may of got to.

He's a Arctic Snowboarder and actually came out in 1993 so some of the classic features and a little of fine movements of the mid 1970's version I had were gone, he was mainly the same although the whole War Games for Boys controversy by some child experts and feminists had lead to a toning down of the whole "Commando" approach with links into WW2 and a broader role.

He came with seven accessories such as his snow board, goggles, gun and megaphone 

On the other hand he was the the one I had with "eagle eyes" with his rifle partially repaired because the rubberized hands famed for realistic grip either harden, brake off and otherwise decay which is sad.

His cap badge is a reproduction and the scarf was hand made

This is the official Action Man Grenade launcher that I also bought for him (and me) from the same era with just a little wear but as I don't do 'adult' collector mentality playing with my toys which is what they were made for, hey I don't care!

At an emotional level as with both the return of lego and the return to cub values, his return into my life in different ways means a lot because it is tied in with those memories of playing aware via the newspapers and Newsround of what was going on in the wider adult world but in a safe world exploring your imagination and perhaps reflecting on it too.

Action Man, you have been a long time returning but you'll be treasured as part of my life.

Birthday edition

Something happened on Saturday and it doesn't easily fit the blogging schedules but can anyone guess what it might be?

Hmm thanks to that nasty virus this year unlike last year by a hairs breath organized events of the sort that normally would mark birthdays are out as much as I'd just love to have a party or even a birthday meal out.

You might recall something came at Christmas back into my life but this year the main present is even closer to home.

This is a original 1970's Action Man of the sort I actually had unlike the new ones you can buy from places like Amazon and when they are re-opened toy shops.

The moulds and construction is more flexible in the original which as boys when we posed them in the imaginary play we had was useful for more realism compared to the newer one.

There are more flexible joints along the arms, wrists, legs and ankle so he can be posed better and the plastic is of a higher standard.

The Achilles heal of the original unlike those from even the late 80's and 90's is the hands that were rubberized, prone to perishing or breaking off and on this one the hands have been carefully replaced as part of the restoration by new ones.

Toys are meant to played with so for me it's a must that you have functioning hands rather than the collector only original parts mentality, the badge is a replica and the scarf is handknitted  but all else is original as Palitoy supplied it.

I had a number of classical cds which I will talk about later on on this blog, some money for when the shops open hopefully mid April from relatives I can buy myself books with apart from cards.

Having back something whose removal including a massive collection of accessories was a long running sore given it was played with at the time is just great.

Thoughts on St. David's Day

It is March 1st which is St. David's Day which was always marked at school together with all the Patron Saints of the British Isles.

When you stop and think about it there is more going on in peoples lives than perhaps the headline stuff we see such as a persons job, what they may materially possess or perhaps the air the cultivate around themselves.

For tens of centuries man has been asking fundamental questions about what he is really there for, what is his purpose are we just about ourselves or is it we are part of a transmitted chain that takes the next generation on a journey to discover themselves?

For that matter have we from our earliest days as young boys to right now  actually got as far as to say we really understand what makes us who we are-what actually matters to us?

To me having had a number of close brushes with death and some major health issues over the years it is less about what I want from people but more what about what I can do for others that in its turn repays me by what I get from that and how that causes me to grow as that person.

It's being the difference.