Still 10 at 70

It's been an interesting week so far in for getting to understand more around what being me is all about and how that slots into my life.

That's what happens when you find a place that is just about people like you and people share experiences around how you feel about being that eternal child, what you love and how sometimes it can seem a bit lonely navigating that path between actual child and not being functionally grown up.

Not surprisingly the big thing at Chris's has been Beano 4077 which marks Dennis's birthday when 70 years ago this week he was born and like me remains 10 even if the world around him has changed to include smartphones and computers.

For this special edition there's a pull out double sided poster one of which has his family tree and three Dennis birthday story strips on top of an extra eight pages.

This is my new Dennis and Gnasher Fan Club wallet rather than the one I had back in the 1970's which is a little dog eared at the corners but in pretty good shape otherwise.

One difference is the membership card has a credit card style rather than being all paper being in these times as much as it of the the past.

Last Friday Crackerjack series 2 finished with a Golden Awards edition looking at the funniest bits of this last series, expressing the hope a third series in its current incarnation will be made soon .

It was side splitting hilarious then as boy and in its new form just the same  with the boys and girls having fun being on it and watching too.

The world around me may of changed but I and my interests  haven't.

Birthday Edition v1.2

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.

Then there's the plastic used is of a higher standard which distinguished him from the more generic boys soldier figures of the seventies. 

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.

Also I got a 1993 figure dressed as a Snowboarder with seven accessories apart from a original Rocket Launcher.

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.

Although we don't generally talk about music much on this blog compared with the originals I had two whole series of cds, the first of which was by the composer Prokofiev.

The set were a complete set of Violin Sonatas by Beethoven that although they'd come out in 2014 I had missed out upon

I had some money from relatives for when the shops finally reopen and some knitted bedsocks from an elderly neighbour to whom I'm a bit of an acquired grandson in his grey shorts which is an indication of the extent to which the eternal boy I am is increasingly accepted.

The bike and me

It's Friday, not any the day before Saturday I would hasten to add so things will be a little different over the next seven days.

Many children and certainly most of they boys I grew up had bicycles and as it happens only the other day I saw two boys cycling off along the road I was hiking along with their helmets on which certainly wasn't the case in my era.

I didn't simply because I wasn't good on my feet and wasn't able to keep a bike balanced while turning the wheels which was pretty frustrating.

You might of thought a three wheeled cycle would of been worth getting for me but unfortunately that didn't happen, I mean we never even got to try it out as an idea even.

A few years ago while I was away I did get the chance to try it out and although it was difficult for me to get started due to leg muscle weakness, when I did it was just magic.

Somehow I feel I'll be seeing more of what the boy on the left is doing in within a day.😂

Sorting stuff out

 It's Friday, it's not yet 6 o' clock in the evening so no Crackerjack but today's blog is here.

This week I've been sorting through some things such as compact discs I no longer need as I have a fair number of classical ones that go back to when I first started collecting recordings in that form.

Apart from new recordings which I tend to read various online reviews of first before deciding if I need it or not, some older recordings do get repackaged into box sets either based on composer or a conductor's recordings for  particular company that typically take up less room.

It's sometimes the case with older recordings made on tape they may be newly transferred bringing about improvements in the sound quality compared to those early cd editions or have better packaging.

Thus earlier in the week I removed some duplicates to go to a Children's Charity where they can sell them and raise funds.

I went to get on my swing yesterday and after a few minutes I heard a Buzz above me.

It was Bumble Bee half asleep on the canopy just above me who didn't like having his sleep disturbed!

The other thing is I sorted out the transport to go to have my covid vaccination on Saturday as typically the only available slots don't tie in with public transport which as a non driving disabled person isn't very good so I had to book a cab.

A reading road map

While we all await the outcome of talk around how we leave this near enough eleven months and three weeks of Covid restrictions which *may* be in batches of actions based on risk, numbers of cases and so on on I'm more focussed around what from all this I'm taking with me.

For me it's the resumption of those things that helped me with the difficulties around the time I was officially a boy and that today is including reading such as the comics and magazines that not just stimulate my imagination but help by giving me something more suitable to be immersed in, less driven crazy by all the grown up talk around covid in much the same way the terrorism I lived through was made the more bearable for child-like fun in comics and the tv. 

Enid Blyton gets a bad rap with social progressives for every ism and phobia but back then her books provided much the same world we could inhabit escaping everything around us while touching on situations we could learn about learning resilience from. 

You do need older editions with her books as many have bowlderized and almost rewritten to appease people who want to make the world and even its past in their image so not a  few of mine are from the last century and not this.

In that leaving covid behind, books such of hers will be read and re-read because the message of this period  to me has been boyhood is the answer to what I need to enjoy my life and the things that made me happy then.

London Town and Wings

We don't normally talk a lot about music on here but as it's been below freezing I've needed to stay in a little more than usual this week.

The origins of this entry go back quite a number of years when pre internet you found out about new titles being issued either in magazines such as Hifi World or by visiting your local record or cd stores when we had them and relied on word of mouth about any differences between different editions.

London Town issued March 31, 1978 is a album I remember well having been bought it by my parents in that year but I only this week got the correct version of the 1987 compact disc  release that sounds more alive from the 1993.

You see when his albums started to trickle out on cd after Wings Greatest, Tug of War, Pipes of Peace, Give My Regards To Broadway and 1986's Press, they decided to add bonus tracks typically singles not included on the album.

Mull Of Kintyre the 1977 Crimbo single I played in my first year as a teen that year was included in Wings Greatest, the 1978 round up of hits but the rocker that is Girl's School which was it's b side and much played by me was not.

That is what they decided to add to London Town on the cd.

Somehow for most of the original issues a 3:15 edit with a rapid fade got used on the UK edition compared to the 4:34 on the US version which is how long that song plays for.

My original cd copy was like that but the corrected edition is very scarce and can only be spotted by having the MPL Juggling man logo on the disc as in the above picture, the insert and rear cd cover.

Currently this album is deleted from the catalogue and the 1993 edition in an attempt to remove tape hiss sounds 'dead' as is the original US one so I was fortunate to spot a copy and have it shipped from France this week.

I'm delighted with it.

My collection of Paul McCartney and Wings cds goes back several years and a good number come from speciality companies.

Generally there are two types of record companies, those who are large, issue titles to the mainstream generally with little special care about sound quality and sources and those who issue limited runs of titles where they do track down the best sounding sources usually tape of each album and carefully transfer it to record or as with these titles, cd.

Many early cds didn't sound too good through a combination of not being careful over sources like using the actual stereo master tape the recording was mixed to and also the technology that takes analogue sound to digital didn't sound as smooth as the format was and is capable of. 

Its that that lead me to start getting these Gold cds by the now defunct company DCC classics from the early 1990's onward.

Way way back in the 1970's the albums (and 45's) by Paul McCartney first came to my attention and this album Band On The Run was a favourite of mine owning it on the awesomely clunky 8 track form and fittingly this album with its hit 45's such as the title track, Jet and as on this US edition only Helen Wheels was the first I bought.
Apart from having the american extra track which oddly enough I do prefer as with the rest of the series it has a very smooth rich sound while not fooling me to say an lp issue, does at least sound less 'digital' to the ears.  It also has a poster.

Red Rose Speedway, the home of My Love a song that can be considered a 'standard' and also has the reggae based b side to Hi Hi Hi,  C Moon, which inexplicably was left off the mainstream UK cds bonus tracks. It's a song I rather like. 

It came out around the time of the 1973 James Paul McCartney tv special produced by Lew Grade and while my copy is missing the card slip cover as I bought it used, as it was a lot cheaper as many of these discs usually sell for over $100 I'm not complaining about that.

The DCC edition of At The Speed of Sound replaced a much loathed 1989 Capitol cd that masks much detail in the quieter parts in an attempt to eliminate tape hiss. 

This album was the home of the hit singles Let 'Em In and Silly Love Songs as well as enjoyable numbers like Cook Of The House. It was this album Wings toured with on the tour captured on Wings Over America that was re-released a few years ago.

I've a sneaking feeling many of us who around back then had at least heard this album Venus And Mars before, one of the best in the Wings catalogue with it's singles Venus &Mars/Rock Show (the single edit is on Wingspan) and Listen To What The Man Said (single mix again on Wingspan). One issue with this album is some heavy handed compression was locked into the mixdown tapes but although it's not entirely cured what mastering engineer Steve Hoffman did was carefully balance Venus and Mars so it's quieter than the energetic Rock Show that it segue-ways into for better effect. 

Strangely on all the mainstream releases Rock Show is noticeably less loud! It too has the original poster as featured on the lp and three bonus tracks.

I also was able several years ago to get this edition of McCartney, his first solo album  that featured the hit 45 Maybe I'm Amazed and Teddy Boy in addition to  Ram, featuring the 45 Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey and the pro population control song Too Many People  on DCC too.

The DCC discs were designed to show their gold plated cds in a die-cut slipcase to show off their premium status.

Originally released in 1971 and issued on cd in October of 1987 Wild Life had a more home brew album has Love Is Strange and on the cd has both sides of the Mary Had a Little lamb single.

On February 11th 2014 the classic originally triple live lp Wings Over America was re-issued on cd.

Packaged like the other McCartney and Stereo beatles releases has the white band to indicate it's a new remaster done by the same team at Abbey Road although this is on Concord records although since re-signing to Capitol, current copies are on Capitol Records/UMe.

It's a digipak rather than true Mini Lp mores the pity with slots for the discs to scrape and a booklet. I put the discs in japanese rice paper inners that just fitted to ensure they won't get damaged.

Recorded on tour in 1976 was the first time in many years Paul performed his Beatle hits back to back with his solo works with a great band and is one the best live albums issued.
The sound on this is quite a bit better than the original 80's cd version and for the modest price I paid for it well worth the money.

Deciding on a uniform scheme

It's a new month no less as we slowly move out of Winter into Spring, listening to some Ravel on the cd player after being out playing in the park, reviewing my usual attire like you do.

Everyone knows what my muse is although to be fair he never is seen with anything over his jersey so I did start thinking about about what he might wear given most secondary and prep schools normally would have some item.

There's been a trend on with me towards royal blue not unconnected to that apart than thinking that it tends to work well on me.

Then there's these royal blue strip turn over socks too so I started looking at my muse around blazers of all things and the first thing I thought was it would not be a elaborate one, more the sort you might associate with a state comprehensive rather than the sort with piping and that you see certainly in this district for grammar schools.

In a change to what I had indicated for a while, I actual decided to buy myself a royal blue blazer from David Luke's Eco boy's range which would certainly fit well on me of otherwise a fairly traditional design.

With any luck I may be able to wear it the next time I meet up with my friends when this lockdown eases.