Saturday 29 March 2014

On girlishness

I saw this a few days so and really it's not something I talk about here but it is very much the kind of thing I not just liked when I was younger but still strongly identify with.

There's a awful lot of young girl in me which sometimes shows when I post on sites with an older target audience so it's like how ever the number of times I've gone around the sun, I'm always young and with a child-like mind set. I struggle to keep this part of me separate. 

Sunday 23 March 2014

Magazine

A few days ago a replacent copy of a much loved Heart album arrived.
The first thing to note is that 'sash' on the top left hand corner as it was announced recently by the President of Audio Fidelity that they would no longer be manufacturing 24Kt gold cds anymore a carry over from the days of DCC because of escalating costs and erratic supplies.
To me at least the gold plating was never an issue - it's the actual sound  from the mastering that counted - but I guess the gold plating did suggest 'Gold Standard' for some.
Instead they're using from now on exclusively a disc with a regular cd layer and a high definition super audio cd layer for special players instead.
This album came out in 1978 originally with the consent of Heart who had changed labels but they returned to alter the mix and re-record parts and is a mixture of a few new songs and older unreleased recordings with a few live tracks.
Notwithstanding it's origins, the track Heartless became a   top 30 single and the set does show clearly just how talent they had become covering Without You and I've Got The Music In Me distinctively.
 I originally had the lp and bought the U.S. Capitol XDR tape re-issue in the mid 1980's.
It was issued on cd by Capitol who had acquired the rights to Mushroom Records recordings  in the late 1980's in a so-so transfer with next to no album art but this edition by Steve Hoffman for Audio Fidelity sounds very smooth and is to be much preferred today.


Friday 14 March 2014

R.I.P Tony Benn

Today it was announced the veteran Labour politician and former Member of Parliament Anthony Wedgewood Benn who was born in 1925 died following a period of illness.
Tony very much lived up to the notion of being who you are and saying what you believe both in and out Government, playing  a major role in the 1964-1970 and 1974-1979 Labour governments holding ministerial office, overseeing the transformation of the then GPO, helped form ICL an big computer player from small private concerns, the creation of a peoples bank, Girobank where you could bank at the Post Office and use mail based services, overseeing the outlawing of pirate pop radio and the introduction of its' legal replacement, BBC Radio 1 and supporting Worker Co-operatives.
He also supported the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament which I was a supporter of, played a vocal role in campaigning against the Iraq War. In later years he toured theatres giving packed talks about his life and beliefs and wrote a series of diaries.
Politically he was very much an inspiration to me to get engaged with and in the process. He will be missed by all sides in politics.

Friday 7 March 2014

On relationships

Actually in so far as any relationships go, that's very much where I'm at.
I don't care if you're gay, 'straight' or bi or what your gender history may or may not be, the only thing that matters to me is what you have to offer each other as lovers as a friend of yours and that you'll care for each other. End of.