Warm playing

 Well Agnes came over Wednesday night and into Thursday but while there was some damage further north such as a tree coming down at Greenbank near Hartford, Cheshire on the Crewe-Chester rail line, it was really a damp squid here with just a bit of a breeze.

Overall this month has been quite pleasant, not quite "Indian Summer" so you've been able to be out in short sleeves and bare legs gently exploring areas, losing sense of time as you become engaged in what is around you.

There are signs that Fall is due if you look closely in the woods and green spaces that thankfully we have around this area as built up as it is even though I saw Ladybirds this week about and his nutkins was spotted about.

On thing that did happen that wasn't expected was the stylus on my record deck met with a disaster where I went to pick the whole cartridge up to change as (you just screw in others) where somehow the plastic protective cap fell off and got caught in a soft towel that resulted in it becoming bent and probably chipped.

Thus the credit card had to come out to buy a replacement which wasn't cheap and then slot it on the cartridge to restore record playing of modern records in great shape while I has a another for older discs not least vintage singles.

R.I.P. Sanriotown.com

My adventures online started in the mid 2000's and one rabbit hole I soon found myself going further down was very much the kawaii so it was not so long before I bumped into Hello Kitty online from many unofficial sites and blogs connected to all things Sanriotown.

What it offered was gaming, all sanrio themed with Chococat and Hello Kitty herself, forums for endless discussion of everything Sanrio and beyond, post cards you could email and even blogging.

It also offered the ability to have your own very kawaii email with a choice of domains so I opted to have a @hellokitty.com email.

It was the ideal place for that younger than my years Littles me to play in a more child-like environment.

Thus there was a finality when on Monday September 18th I had this email.

"Dear SanrioTown Users,

We are writing to inform you about a significant upcoming change regarding your SanrioTown email account (“Your Account”).

After careful consideration and evaluation of our business operations, we regret to inform you that we have decided to cease the operations of SanrioTown. As a result, the SanrioTown website, Your Account and the relevant services that we have been providing to you will no longer be available from November 1, 2023 (“Shutdown Date”).

We understand the significance of email communication in both personal and professional capacities and assure you that this decision has not been taken lightly. Over the years, we have appreciated your loyalty and trust in SanrioTown, and we want to ensure a smooth transition during this period.

Therefore, we encourage you to save the chat history and any essential contacts or information of Your Account. On and after the Shutdown Date, you will no longer be able to access or retrieve any data in Your Account.

To facilitate the transition, we recommend that you take the following steps:

1. Backup Your Data: Please ensure that you back up all the essential emails, contacts, and any other important data in Your Account. This will allow you to retain access to the valuable information of Your Account on and after the Shutdown Date.

2. Choose a New Email Service Provider: To continue receiving and sending emails on and after the Shutdown Date, we encourage you to select an alternative email service provider, such as Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo Mail, among others.

3. Inform Your Contacts: Please notify your contacts about your upcoming email address change to ensure that they can update their records and communications accordingly.

We understand that change can be challenging and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this shutdown may cause you.  Once again, we extend our gratitude for your support and loyalty to SanrioTown over the years. We genuinely value your business and trust that you will find an alternative email service that meets your needs."

For a period there had been issues with the email account being down for months and being locked out too so I had made an account with Gmail but now it seems that playground in the Ether will be no more.

Rather like Tinier Me, Friends Reunited and Experience Project another element of the past sails away to the internet scrapyard.

R.I.P. Sanriotown.com

Who Do You Think You Are!

A couple of days ago it was announced that a special series of speciality super audio cd and vinyl comprising of some 75 Atlantic records groups titles were to be released in limited numbers by Analogue Productions in Kansas, U.S.A.

Of itself that isn't so remarkable as over the years series has been issued covering many artists and  a good number of their Beach Boys and Steely Dan titles were bought here not least because they did bring real improvements in sound quality over previous major label issues that build upon the musical experience for hearing more subtleties in the playing originally captured.

What seems more controversial is an increasing trend to take single lps and cut them at 45 rpm, the speed of singles which often results in making what was a single lp into a double which a typical price of some $60, typical just under twice as much.

Apart from now having four get up from the listening chair to flip over the sides rather than two every ten minutes or so what has to be remembered is a recording was made with a format in mind.

Where a album comprises of relatively short individual songs that fade out to silence, to further split the initial sides is not so difficult so say a twelve song album originally split into two groups of six now becomes four groups of three but what is more difficult is where a track may run over ten minutes which takes us to the heart of this controversy.

Take the progressive rock group Yes's You And I for instance that runs for a whole 33 1/3 lp side around some twenty one minutes, this cannot be cut as one side at 45 rpm which means it gets split up between a whole lp.

The idea is to improve sound at the end of the disc which as the effective distance diminishes can compromise the high notes and tracking which if you own a few of these or perhaps UK 12" single singles that are cut at 45 rpm you'll know just how good it can get .

Finding a natural point to effectively pause the track before resuming on the other side is difficult and may involve fading out and then in rather reminiscent of how songs were split up to fit within the four fixed lengths of Eight Track tapes in the seventies and early eighties.

That has lead some to say whatever the technical merits of 45 rpm cutting of albums are, it really detracts from the listener experience, something I feel does matter and why it is likely I'll stick with the super audio cd issues instead.

The full release schedule:

Charles Mingus / Blues & Roots

AAPA 001-45

$60.00

Genesis / A Trick Of The Tail

AAPA 073-45

$60.00

Les McCann & Eddie Harris / Swiss Movement

AAPA 071-45

$60.00

Boz Scaggs / Boz Scaggs

AAPA 070-45

$60.00

Foreigner / 4

AAPA 069-45

$60.00

Foreigner / Head Games

AAPA 068-45

$60.00

Ray Charles / The Genius After Hours

Mono

AAPA 067-45

$60.00

Ray Charles / The Genius Of Ray Charles

AAPA 066-45

$60.00

Yes / 90125

AAPA 065-45

$60.00

Yes / The Yes Album

AAPA 064-45

$60.00

Milt Jackson & John Coltrane / Bags & Trane

AAPA 063-45

$60.00

John Coltrane / Coltrane Jazz

AAPA 062-45

$60.00

John Coltrane / Ole Coltrane

AAPA 061-45

$60.00

Charles Mingus / The Clown

Mono

AAPA 060-45

$60.00

Charles Mingus / Pithecanthropus Erectus

Mono

AAPA 059-45

$60.00

Bad Company / Desolation Angels

AAPA 058-45

$60.00

Bad Company / Burnin' Sky

AAPA 057-45

$60.00

Dr. John / Dr. John's Gumbo

AAPA 056-45

$60.00

Otis Redding / The Soul Album

AAPA 055-45

$60.00

Peabo Bryson & Roberta Flack / Killing Me Softly

T-Bone Walker / T-Bone Blues

AAPA 053-45

$60.00

Donny Hathaway / Everything Is Everything

AAPA 052-45

$60.00

Donny Hathaway / Donny Hathaway

AAPA 051-45

$60.00

Daryl Hall and John Oates / Abandoned Luncheonette

AAPA 050-45

$60.00

Foreigner / Double Vision

AAPA 049-45

$60.00

Ray Charles / What'd I Say

AAPA 048-45

$60.00

Ray Charles / The Great Ray Charles

AAPA 047-45

$60.00

Dr. John / Gris Gris

AAPA 046-45

$60.00

Willie Nelson / Shotgun Willie

AAPA 045-45

$60.00

Yes / Close To The Edge

AAPA 044-45

$60.00

Genesis / Genesis

AAPA 043-45

$60.00

Genesis / Abacab

AAPA 042-45

$60.00

John Coltrane / Coltrane Plays The Blues

AAPA 041-45

$60.00

John Coltrane / Coltrane's Sound

AAPA 040-45

$60.00

Charles Mingus / Oh Yeah

AAPA 039-45

$60.00

Bad Company / Run With The Pack

AAPA 038-45

$60.00

Bad Company / Straight Shooter

AAPA 037-45

$60.00

Jimi Hendrix Experience/ Otis Redding / Complete & Unbelievable... The Otis Redding Dictionary Of Soul

AAPA 036-45

$60.00

Otis Redding / Otis Blue- Otis Redding Sings Soul

AAPA 035-45

$60.00

The Velvet Underground / Loaded

AAPA 034-45

$60.00

Wilson Pickett / The Exciting Wilson Pickett

AAPA 025-45

$60.00

Buffalo Springfield / Buffalo Springfield Again

AAPA 024-45

$60.00

Buffalo Springfield / Buffalo Springfield

AAPA 023-45

$60.00

Crosby, Stills and Nash / Daylight Again

AAPA 022-45

$60.00

Crosby, Stills and Nash / CSN

AAPA 021-45

$60.00

Dusty Springfield / Dusty In Memphis

AAPA 017-45

$60.00

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young / Deja Vu

AAPA 020-45

$60.00

INXS / Kick

AAPA 032-45

$60.00

Hootie & The Blowfish / Cracked Rear View

AAPA 030-45

$60.00

Stone Temple Pilots / Purple

AAPA 029-45

$60.00

Stone Temple Pilots / Core

AAPA 028-45

$60.00

Genesis / Foxtrot

AAPA 027-45

$60.00

Genesis / Nursery Chryme

AAPA 026-45

$60.00

Yes / Fragile

AAPA 014-45

$60.00

Matchbox Twenty / Yourself Or Someone Like You

AAPA 031-45

$60.00

David Crosby / If I Could Only Remember My Name

AAPA 019-45

$60.00

John Coltrane / Giant Steps

45 RPM 180 Gram Vinyl

AAPA 010-45

$60.00

John Coltrane / My Favorite Things

45 RPM 180 Gram Vinyl

AAPA 011-45

$60.00

Alice Cooper / Welcome To My Nightmare

AAPA 015-45

$60.00

Genesis / The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway

Crosby, Stills and Nash / Crosby, Stills & Nash

AAPA 018-45

$60.00

Phil Collins / Hello I Must Be Going!

AAPA 012-45

$60.00

Bad Company / Bad Company

AAPA 009-45

$60.00

Foreigner / Foreigner

AAPA 008-45

$60.00

Ray Charles / Ray Charles

Mono Version

AAPA 007-45

$60.00

Dr. John / In The Right Place

AAPA 006-45

$60.00

Otis Redding / The Dock Of The Bay

AAPA 005-45

$60.00

John Prine / John Prine

45 RPM 180 Gram

AAPA 004-45

$60.00

Phil Collins / Face Value

AAPA 003-45

$60.00

Genesis / Selling England By The Pound

Catalogue numbers are for the 45 rpm vinyl editions, nearly all will be super audio with CAPA  prefixes.

The shed is here!

The Summer we never had resumed this week with temperatures around 28-29 degrees c rather than the milder stuff of last month with brilliant sunshine  even if as you expect sunset is earlier now so by about 8pm you're needing to put the main light on.

The great Grumpies shed arrived last week and is now fully up with its double doors so his scooter can go in it in winter away from ice and snow.

The electrics are in having ensured the supply to this shed, the old one and the outside wall for mowers are totally separate with the RCD box fitted and a light installed for good even illumination.

The individual sockets will follow once he's decide what is going where but their are totally separate circuits for them which makes dealing with anything like a short easier as he did make in hindsight some mistakes with the old shed wiring that he also put aright.

I believe he's planning a small model railway in it which given the main layout is up in the loft is no bad thing as at least then he'll be able to easily get an hour or two's 'play' without mauling up and down the loft ladder.and dealing with a 45 years plus at times temperamental layout.

The return of the Three Bears

 A bit of a different entry than usual today.

The Three Bears was a long-running British comic strip which appeared in the British comics magazine The Beano.

It first featured in 1959's issue 881 and ran sporadically until 2011 through reprints and several artists.

Basically Ma and Pa Bear and their young son Teddy (later called Ted) were three anthropomorphic bears who lived in a setting loosely based on the American Wild West. They were lazy and gluttonous, and lived in a cave upon a hill. 

Most storylines revolved around their attempts to steal "grub" from the local storekeeper Hank (who often shoots at the Three Bears with his blunderbuss for trying to rob him). 

There was the occasional appearance by the local sheriff, and their rival bear Grizzly Gus (who had a son called Gus's Grizzly)

Oddly enough in this week's Beano they do feature in a story involving Dennis and Gnasher which rather took me by surprise but how many of todays readers really know all about them?