A somethings extra post

Today is August Bank Holiday here in England so I will most likely be out for a part of the day taking in the sun in a orange t shirt and my Blue short 90's style "dolfin" running/p.e shorts looking pretty much as I did then which wasn't far removed from how I was in my teens.

The nineties were in this country the decade that brought multichannel television in for the masses and with it a plethora of children's channels of various sorts.

You need to remember that for the years before while networks such as the BBC and ITV did have children's programs they had to vie for time slots on BBC 1, 2 and the regional ITV affiliate ATV/Central here in the Midlands.

In the BBC's instance too there was a strong bias toward inhouse British centred programming for the understandable aim of having programs that reflect British culture, values and our form of English so not only were we restricted to weekend mornings and mid afternoons during the week, we didn't see many series either.

Cartoon Network coming in the early 1990's initially on Satellite was a godsend because it mixed re-runs of Warner Bros Loony Tunes and the Flintstones with new content all day every day that coincided with my increased inclination to watch the kind of tv I loved as a boy and was increasingly living more this life out cutting back on the excesses of adult life that weren't working for me.

As with Nicklodeon's rugrats they were a gateway into re-examining the past as much as having a more child-like life even if then I was balancing it with working.

It was a period that was to move me forward into the past.

Classical Music on sacd 21 - Beethoven and his opera

We last touched this series in May so we're probably overdue an entry here.

Proms season returned late July after last years were very much affected by Covid-19 to the point of not just performers socially distancing but even with no actual audience present which wasn't really the coming together to enjoy the music we so love.

Thursday August 19th saw a performance of many operatic arias and overtures some of which I was familiar with such as Bizet's Carmen and others less so.

One I have more recently getting familiar with is Beethoven's Fidelio which compositionally is flawed - a chunk of spoken dialogue that's dry being one  but has some great 'songs'.

Just in time I bought this recent recording that plays in regular stereo cd and in stereo or multichannel super audio cd for better sound which was a lot better engineered than a performace I tried first that helped appreciate it.

The Pink Floyd on super audio cd

 For some of us the Pink Floyd album The Dark Side of the Moon was one of those pivotal albums that as we went beyond more simplistic pop tunes usually in the form of 45's (aka "Singles") we explored usually with some support by older siblings to more deeper lyrical concerns and musicianship not that I didn't love (and still love) my Mud and Bay City Rollers 45's.

Sooner or later you move from hearing it a few times back then from tape via an older brothers record to buying yourself the whole package and this album was such a thing being in a gatefold sleeve with lyrics, two posters and stickers.

The album explores the nature of the human condition specifically loneliness and mental illness using what were start of the art tape and electronic instrument techniques of the early 1970's.

It was decided to issue it in the Super Audio CD format  in the form of one disc with a regular stereo cd layer and a Super Audio cd (sacd) layer for both stereo and an improved form of surround sound called 5.1 often used for movies with a special remix being done for that version.

Actually the first attempt to do this was in 2003 but the regular cd layer was made more "squashed" for some strange reason and of course bypassed the 2011 remastering of the entire stereo output by the Pink Floyd most of which offered significant improvements.

This cd prepared in 2019 but only issued late July 2021 thanks to band internal politics puts that 2011 regular cd version that sounds much better with the stereo and 5.1 surround sound mix on a single disc.

One reason for liking this newer version is it comes on a book in a slipcase form which allows for the posters and album art to be better displayed than a regular cd insert including the lyrics.

That's much better and does match the earlier issue of Wish You Were Here.

The back of the book looks a bit like this with the titles, inversion prism and credit information and overall is pretty good while the cd sounds really good on both regular and super audio cd players.

In December 30th 2018 Wish You Were Here got re-issued in this form by Analogue Productions of Kansas, U.S.A. which is a personal favourite I was keen on getting on sacd as my cd goes back to 1985!

This is the front of Digipak which is neither the UK or North American front cover  which is pretty understated.

 When you go to turn it over, on the inside left pocket you have a full set of postcards originally issued with the lp scaled down included which played on the title "Wish you were here" from the days people would send a postcard home with that phrase on it

 At the rear we have song writing and publishing credits and on the right a tray where the disc normally fits and which thankfully the teeth are tight so it doesn't fall out.

 Here is the actual disc itself made in Germany and one change that has happened since 2011 is the ownership of their recordings has moved from EMI Records to their own label Pink Floyd Records that are distributed in the UK and Europe by the Parlophone division of Warner Bros and the US by Sony/Columbia.

 This is the rear of the digipak which indicates it has both a regular cd layer for normal cd playing equipment and the higher definition Super Audio layer.

That layer houses both the regular stereo mix and a 5.1 multichannel mix  where the lp and tape had a quadraphonic mix originally issued in limited numbers.

Much of this album thematically looks at the life of a rock group part influenced by the damage to band originator Syd Barratt, also at the corporate music business on how it stifles and controls art, mocking record company executives in Have a Cigar who say how great they are but ask "And which one's Pink?" showing their ignorance that there's no performer called Pink in this band before trying to get them to change material to the latest fashion so they can sell more even if it's not what the band was formed for. 

Really all that matters to them is the profit not the idea of artistic and musical integrity and maximizing that is really what meeting the band was about.

Personally I feel this new version on the stereo Super Audio cd layer remastered by James Guthrie has more depth and springs forth from ones loudspeakers  more than any other version and so while it was expensive is nonetheless worth getting.

I would love to see at least Animals and The Wall get this deluxe packaging and higher quality sound treatment.

Comic milestones

The weekend starting with Friday wasn't exactly good here with heavy persistant showers and much wind which is no good for going out and kicking a ball about so it was rather more a question of finding other things to do.

These days Comics such as the Beano do go beyond the old trilogy of weekly, summer special and annual and have been producing quiz books and the odd story book of which this was the latest published in July.

This is an illustrated story that looks at the the fate of Bash Street School where everyone in Beano town we know goes to and an attempt by the Mayor, Walter's Daddy to shut it down and make every one go a boring academy with uniforms and rules.

Without giving the end away it looks at the underhand way the grown ups try to make it fail an inspection and the many tricks and pranks played by the pupils to save their school.

Good childlike fun with lots of laughs.

The last week in July marked the 500th edition of The Phoenix which has been going since early January 2012 which is a all new comic unburdoned with the past what does extremely well with new exciting stories and a more modern graphic style.

Few modern comics have made that many issues, neither the renewed Eagle or the adult Viz in the same time so it is quite an achievement given the difficulties of the magazine and comic sector in the UK.

Personally I love reading it every weekend.

Little fun time

 

Yip, that feeling when you come in pretty shattered as I've been away for a few days exploring more of which will be on the other blog this week even though it was rather showery.

I love being that Little Boy and it really suits me aesthetically apart from the age dysphoric vantage point

I like the countryside a lot and here you have the elements I like such as different grasses, dry stone walls and wild flowers growing in the cleaner air and so I explored it slowly even if it was raining cats and dogs with views such as that of Morecombe Bay in the distance.

I saw many bees, moths and butterflies about.

You might recall me on about Action Man around Christmas Time, well I took my 1993 Ski Instructor one with me to play with with a few games which was as well given the weather complete with his googles