A Thousand times ago

 

I wish I could offer people a 100 Day satisfaction guarantee but in 1,000 editions of it since its conception around 2006 I don't think we've made anything much beyond a post replacement guarantee if it gets eaten by Blogger or some aspect or other causes concerns.

We got going in March 2006 when MySpace, Friends Reunited, Tinier Me and Best Stuff were still things and not ancient memories of the early era of Social Media and where over time this blog replaced a limited blogging facility at Friends Reunited.

I did talk About Me with some initial bullet points and actually we ought to renew them.

 * I no longer work because I became too ill to work

* Don't feel old even though the bones do complain cos for me that's been there from childhood and isn't associated with age.

* I do l still like music, reading magazines and websites about artists and recordings although traditional paper magazines have been decimated by social media sites and online only publications.

* Am addicted to cute things even if people of the same bone years tm find that embarrassing.

*Think Anime is the best form of animation, ever

* Feel having a laugh and a joke matters.

* I understood I loved bringing out and using my child-like side and did more around that as it also kept me calm.

It doesn't mean you don't some thousand issues on mean you don't get some who really don't understand that to like resembling more of that eternal girl you doesn't mean you're in any way interested in what is called "Adult stuff". It gives me an ikky feeling in my tummy just associating childhood and that stuff with it.

This blog came before all others so we really got into things around current affairs, pop culture and music  and looks cos that's what interests me and for a period we had followers from a music forum where it was listed as sometimes I'd take a discussion from there to here with my own take on it free from some of the moderation issues the site had which was awkward when you were a moderator there too for a period.

In many ways this still is the case really anyway that these days on here I'm open about that younger girl side although that is mainly kept to its own spot where it doesn't get in way of all else and some of the discourse around topics under that can get heavy going so it's better seperated off even if there's only one me.

Here's to the next 1,000 posts!

Restorations from the past

After that rather yukky week we resume going backwards a bit really to something that tended to be on the turntable whenever I was off school which was quite a bit.

Back then we had a wooden rack on wheels on which the stereo unit tended to live with its turntable and cassette deck and a section on the bottom left left that functioned as a record storage rack area although there was a supplementary one in the dining room.

First move after getting some breakfast was to pull two or three records out to play between anything on the radio of interest such as an hour vintage chart show or a lunchtime classical concert and a favourite was Dvorak's Ninth Symphony.

For me Rafael Kubelik's 1973 recording with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra was the finest ever and I was not alone in that, many still consider it so not that there are some excellent also runs with its iconic picture of the New York skyline with the sadly missed Twin Towers with conductor walking.

That record went several years back with compact discs coming in and having suffered a bit a wear and tear in over thirty years but a week ago it returned.

It was reissued in a special series of remastered and recut for higher fidelity records and now sounds better than ever so I've been playing that this week.
 

jjj

Recovering

 

Tis a rough day here in the dorm so I'm having to stay indoors take lemsips and cough mixture as I have the flu as we sit through the various Party Conferences and continue to digest all those very naughty reverlations about taking super expensive free things wrapped around the Prime Minister and Chancellor.

To think it wasn't long ago they went on about the previous governement doing the same!

When I'm like this, the little side needs looking after so out come the teddies and plushies sos they do help keep my spirits up which helps when you feel your body had been on the end of bruising boxing match and I do tend to read read things I loved apart from playing a bit of music like my Brahms Symphonies on record.

Among the thiongs I love reading are old Guides and Brownies annuals as they do help cheer me up with makes, stories and things that take me back to the past.

Hopefully We'll be feeling bettter next week.

Hello Kitty

It's presently raining rather hard here as I listen to an new recording of Schubert's Piano Sonata's in A major and  B Flat Major on Super Audio cd.

This follows his first in a projected series of Schubert series started late last year that I did buy as I was working through all the craziness of that period, readjusting to life minus Mom.

It just knocks you for six really before we bring into account all the many issues the Grump brings with him which finding ways of coping with did prove somewhat hit and miss with his lack of seeing just where emotionally his performances really take you.

Some spaces are best avoided really.

Helpful comments. inspiration and the like can come from many places and while we don't go into it a lot here some comes more from my other side and stuff like this by Hello Kitty really helps.

That takes us to other things.

Okay, some of you know I have a soft spot for cute stuff but I felt like talking about Hello Kitty which is something of an obsession of mine but anyway here we go.

Hello Kitty is a fictional character first created by the tv program company Sanrio in 1974 and registered in 1976.

As Ms Kitty herself has said a number of times recently, she's not really a cat.

She has a pet cat called Charmmy Kitty that she was presented with by her parents.

Her friends are Cathy (a Rabbit), Fify (a Sheep), Tracy (a Racoon) and Joey (a Mouse).

Charmmy Kitty has more cat like features than Hello Kitty herself and was presented to her by her papa, George White, Mama, Mary White, her sister, Mimi, and her grandparents, Anthony and Margret White.

Hello Kitty is good at backing cookies, making pancakes for friends, Origami, shopping for friends, buying things and playing tennis. Her favourite food is Apple Pie made by her Mom.

Her hobbies include travelling, music, reading, making new friends (one of her favourite words is "Friendship") and having adventures .Sounds like me!

Several Hello Kitty animated series targeted towards young children have been produced. In the animated films made by Sanrio from 1977 to 1985, Hello Kitty has made cameo appearances in them.

The earliest Hello Kitty animated series known was the American-animated (co-produced with Japan) Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theatre, which aired throughout 1987. This show was broadcast in the United States on the Family Channel.

The Japanese anime series Hello Kitty and Friends aired on CBS tv in the States in 1991, and also ran on Toon Disney. Kitty is depicted on the show as a little girl who lives with her mother, father, and twin sister Mimi, who is identical to Kitty but has different coloured clothes and wears her bow under the opposite ear. 13 episodes were produced, using animation produced as early as 1991.

The show Hello Kitty (and pals) have starred in at least one anime series of their own on Japanese tv. Hello Kitty's Paradise ran for 16 episodes between 1993 and 1994. This version was released in English in 2000. This version, like "Hello Kitty and Friends", also aired on Toon Disney.

Also Hello Kitty and friends appeared in Hello Kitty's Animation Theatre, which had Hello Kitty and other Sanrio characters appearing in their versions of different fairy tales. Available in the U.S. From ADV Films (who also own the video/DVD rights to Hello Kitty and Friends & Hello Kitty's Paradise)

The birth of advanced picture taking

Lots things going on here like more talk about those beatles records at various sites and as befits 2024 youtube videos, instagram and all but given much of that is just discussion with speculation we won't be referring to that this week, only more nearer the time.

A bigger thing really was it being around thirty years ago when I started to get more ambitious around photography as much of that was done mainly on a 35mm compact that had a wide angled lens with an so-called "macro facility" which wasn't true macro but more a close up akay for groups of coins by that was about it.

 Although I had borrowed a couple of Dad's cameras including an Olympus OM1n and had picked up cheaply a Russian made Zenith-E finding the ability to change lenses and see more or less exactly where the lens was pointing most useful I was still mainly using that compact I'd picked up in 1989 before I went to college in Surrey, England.

What I picked up and bought was a used Olympus budget model discontinued several years previous which was a small light weight camera, the Olympus Om10 which by design was semi-automatic model for simple picture taking with some control of how sharp things were in front and behind the subject.

You could even preview that!

It did have a useful track that took it a step up, an option to have a manual shutter speed selector that plugged in and that came with the one I had

Getting to grips with that, learning, adding as funds allowed extra lenses, taught me a lot about photography and really altered how I saw taking pictures even if just for my own enjoyment.

That's what I'm marking today even if I have a DSLR and Bridge camera.

The Beatles on Capitol vinyl a second time?

 

The week was one that so far has involved some "could it be's" from Donald Trumps "they're eating your dogs, cats, you pets" rant at immigrants with no evidence which really makes little sense whatever your politics to something else that there are a good number of posts dotted about.

"Not more records!" I hear you cry but briefly a series of web pages and even a eight second teasing video were accessible via Universal Music and Apple's websites that related to six original American Capitol Records albums suggesting these were to be issued again on vinyl, in mono from November 22nd.

It also implied they'd be available individually or as part of a seven lp set that had exclusively the mainly talk based The Beatles Story double lp.

They appear to be issued in period advertising inner sleeves and feature the iconic rainbow rim capitol label design like the originals.

Needless to say the respective pages have been set to private to keep preying eyes out but screen shots were taken so are they actually going to restore these albums deleted in mid 1991 for a limited edition mono only release?

And just where is the much talked about Superdeluxe Rubber Soul featuring a remixed stereo version given we've had half of the album remixed for better stereo since last years three lp/extended two cd 1962-1966 compilation?

We shall see....

Pauses and policies

 

Funny day and next Monday's smaller blog may be delayed possibly with being elsewhere where I had been listening to a bunch of records that although ordered at different times all came on the same day although a couple were notified as being being to be delivered a day before so don't ask me how they jumped the gun with that.

One was brand new - a modern vinyl master of a classic older title that never sounded great with a mixture of studio issues and a misguided attempt to hark back to the days of almost mono "wall of sound" productions that comes over lacking real detail and two UK originals that needed the discs put in decent inners rather than in directly the printed paper ones  with artwork one.

There is talk in Grownup Land about arms sales to the State of Israel following some restrictions introduced Wednesday as it was said they could be used in violation of International Humanitarian Law Tm although some on the left asked "What about other sales to other states?".

They do have a point but the real reason why we sell arms and give export licenses was set out memorably in the Yes Minister episode Ethical Arms Policy to which I'd suggest anyone keen on this topic really out to watch and also do read up on French Arms sales and why the Fifth Republic allowed such sales.

The TL:dr is it keeps your arms industry going, contributes to the Exchequer and frankly if you didn't plenty of others with less scruples would while at least we do have some influence on countries such as Israel who do face constant threats from neighbouring Arab States and indeed Arab/Islamist groups that aren't formally part of nations armies.

Think of  it this way: I  can supply you with *anything* but having bought it you can use it however and for whatever purpose you like be it bombs or anything else.

IBM's card based computing system was the IT system that played a part in  making the Holocaust efficient, farm supplies can be used to make bombs and so one that results in you can tie yourself in knots trying prevent terrible things having to verify each and every one so generally we permit only acting in the most exceptional of cases such as Terrorism.