George Benson and Poco

This week I'm looking at a few albums, some I had in July but with being very poorly I never got around to writing about and another that's on just out this week.
Some groups wrote the template of whole genres and one example is The Byrds to which there has been the odd entry on this blog about for forging Country-Rock with the seminal album  the Sweetheart of the Rodeo in 1968.
That lead to an explosion of acts of which one the most famous is of course the Eagles who started out as Linda Ronstadt's backing group but in many ways the template they used comes from another group,forgotten by most.
Poco were formed before the Eagles being part formed of members of Buffalo Springfield upon that bands dissolution such as Richie Furey and Jim Messina, had one soon to Eagle and one Ex Eagle in the line up too and were fairly popular in North America not being off the radio or in our tape player.

 This is a pairing of their 1974 albums Seven which was more hard rock influenced and Cantamos which saw a return to Country-rock

 In 2013 the now defunct label Audio Fidelity issued on super audio cd their debut album which remains a fine example of late sixties country-rock. I originally hadn't picked it up but was able to get a still sealed example without paying the silly money sharks collect from collectors.

 An interesting coupling on regular cd was issued in 2006 of 1971's Delivering album which was recorded at Boston's Music Hall and New York Felt Forum and 1973's Crazy Eyes that features ex Byrd Chris Hillman on guitar.

This 1971 studio album was remastered in 2013 by Vic Anesini and issued on IconClassic via Sony/Bmg.

An interesting guy is George Benson who meanders around jazz-funk and smooth soul whose vocal performances had held in enraptured over the years when I've hear them on radio.

 Like many artists of his longevity he's been on a number of labels and this 1973 release was originally on CTI records and issued on CD4 record and Q8 quadrophonic tape briefly.
This week it's all out again on Super audio cd which I'm pleased about as I love it's proto smooth jazz sound

In 2014 Audio Fidelity re-issued his 1976 Breezin' album complete with a 5.1 multi channel remix on the sacd layer which was one his best albums for Warner Bros which was where he was headed after 1975. The album featured This Masquerade is noted for the lush piano introduction and solo by Jorge Dalto and most of the album is instrumental in nature.
Talking of his Warners Output to which it is generally true to say he's more famous for has been re-issued on regular cd and at least in  Europe can be had on two complementary 5 regular cd sets rather cheaply.

This issued in 2010 contains Breezin';Weekend in L.A.;Give Me The Night;Tenderly and Big Boss Band.
Weekend is a great originally double lp live album that shows off his guitar playing abilities well.
Give Me The Night was produced by Quincy Jones with input too from the late Rod Templeton (Ex Heatwave) and stylistically borrows a bit from Michael Jackson's Off The Wall and later Thriller sets and Quincy's own The Dude for the more vocal soul numbers.
1990's Big Boss Band is a more straightahead big band jazz album.

This five pack issued 2013 contains the following albums:
In Flight;Living Inside Your Love;In Your Eyes;20/20 and Twice The Love covering the 70's through 80's.
As with most sets like this the discs come in single card covers replicating front and rear jacket art and nothing else but on the other hand take up little space and are inexpensive just about £11.99 each per set so is a cheap way of replacing any worn tapes like I had.

A week at the dorm

The weather as this has been a bit all over the place, warmish which would b great for going out without coats if it wasn't for showers and strong winds which it did result in a leak here and the need for a man to come and repair the roof.
I have been continuing with refreshing some items of my uniform although in certain  others areas I'm well stocked adding a  few replacement blouses and a grey jumper to it.

 As most people know I usually look very much like them never happier to be wearing our school dresses although I it might prove interesting if we able to get around to playing  netball as the exercise wouldn't be a bad thing.
Seeing it is early September I have been working my though some past stuff connected with roles and courses and getting out all the stuff for this seasons learning including my geometry set and trusty pencil and ink eraser that goes on the school desks.
I do colour to relax too which does help.

 I also got some new old stock MiniDiscs from around 1998/9 going by the type and the packaging design that I have good photographic memory for as I like using my player/recorder here having redone a few this last week for better sound.

Extraordinary, a important 14 page booklet and two irreplaceable letters went missing with no knowledge of them being picked up  nor of moving from where they were kept and the way in which people just kept circling around, tearing everything apart trying to find them as I asked if it had been at tea time just left me more wound up an' anxious than I'd of just said nothing as I have a lot of issues with anxiety and this kind of in your face disturbance just as you are eating gets to me to the point I no longer want to eat.
Correct that- I just freeze over and shut down emotionally.
This has always been a part of me. It's just unfortunate people don't appear to be able to take account of how how they act leaves me feeling.

A cats eye view

It was a cooler wet return this week as the political sorts were plotting and counter plotting over "Brexit", people on the South Eastern Coast of the States were warned about the upcoming hurricane Florence and I felt a bit under the weather.
That's why I'm doing a photo essay thing this week as I get to normal.

 I really love this picture where the cat appears to take the little girls photograph on the medium format film camera (which is why it's square shaped) looking through the viewfinder.
He's really clever.

 I'm a sucker for anything Hello Kitty and this show time star sequine dress is so cute I'm just dissolving looking at it.

 Things around Hello Kitty and teenage girls can get a a bit more complicated as they look for greater sophistication to match their more mature mindset but this just pulls it off with a mod to the Goth Style

 I don't personally see anything at all wrong with being female and wearing shorts especially where they are cut and even pleated to be so obviously feminine in appeal with plenty of air around the legs and making the most of your hips.
While here they are shown bare legged there's no reason not to team them with longer socks or tights.

Computerized returns

It's September so it's time to be making my way back to the dorm but given it is actually 2018 it's not enough to have ones supply of jotters, pens, geometry set and so on it requires a bit of computing power.

"The Kid" has my Chromebook before she fires off another complaint about 'borrowing' her stuff which leaves me with an old but well put together Dell D620 14 inch laptop which isn't too bad a size and actually has a slightly higher resolution.
As some of may know I'm not exactly a fan of Microsoft for reasons that go back trying to lock me into Internet Explorer, an aversion to MS Office and so on but I do have few things that need Windows specifically Windows 7 to run so it's more a question of keeping it going.
One thing I use this machine for is copying cds to either Free Lossless (Flac) or Mp3 files and there isn't a utility for Chromebooks to do that and I prefer simple lightweight image processing programs while the market has moved into complex boated suites that go into desktop publishing.
It's also easier if you need to sign into different accounts on sites to have two browsers   open on each rather than signing in and out of one so currently this has Chrome which I'm fairly happy with even if it 'phones home' in addition to Pale Moon which in its current form I have had to change because it too unstable to use reliably without becoming unresponsive.

For the first time in ages, I have installed Firefox on it which believe it or not I first installed on an ancient desktop in July 2006 in if I recall right would of been version 2.0.0.2 on it because it just works and indeed that is what I'm blogging in right now.
There was another thing that needed  some attention too. The original power unit was starting to fail producing less power than it needed to work well and the cord from the power unit to the laptop with its 7..3mm plug was losing its insulation

Fortunately because this series of Dell Laptops were very popular you can get replacement power units  so I bought and installed a 19.5 volt 4.62 'heavy duty' unit for it so it runs well and keeps the battery well charged.
Talking of which the one supplied with mine was only running for about ten minutes before giving up plus failed to indicate being 'in' it on the status bar.

 I ordered and fitted a replacement 11.1 volt 5200mAh 58Wh li-on battery for that just slots in on the base which shows up and is fully charged now. 
The capacity is higher than the original but the 90 watt charger is more than capable of providing the charge so it will run for longer from it which is always useful.
So with all that attended to that's me sorted I just have to be good now this term.