The journey of life

 

The oddest of weeks in lots of ways with more than ones fair share of challenges along the way some things are becoming clearer.

From revisiting the blogs and even sites of the past however much as a person I have changed in that time, time itself can lead you toward staying with things that run their course long before you fully saw the distance from the rear mirror view.

That staying with things can seem to avoid the stresses and strains that to move on has when compared with keeping a door still part open, sometimes you just have to acknowledge in the final analysis that stable horse had bolted ultimately you can only follow through with being true to you.

The past after its last show becomes it because time has moved on.

R.I.P MeatLoaf

 This week we're looking at a legend.

Last Thursday we lost a unique guy.

Born Marvin Lee Aday and later legally known as Michael, the musician died on Thursday with his wife, Deborah Gillespie, by his side.

Rock Singer and actor Meat Loaf has died aged 74 years whose shows were things people looked forward to as they never let up and his operatic gothic rock style of music replete with costumes was in some respects a modern day Wagner for the Rock Generation, telling stories of adolescent life and loves with verve and passion.

Written and composed by Jim Steinman who died last year, Meat Loaf’s 1977 debut album Bat Out of Hell remains one of the biggest-selling albums in history. 

Steinman and Meat Loaf’s 1993 album Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell produced the global hit single I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That). It was his only UK No 1 single, spending seven weeks at the top. 

He completed the Bat Out of Hell trilogy with The Monster Is Loose in 2006. The three albums have sold more than 65m copies worldwide.

He famously stared as  Eddie, an ill-fated delivery boy who sings the song Hot Patootie in the 1975 film make of the stage production The Rocky Horror Picture Show entering on his motorcycle.

All in all he starred in some 50 films including Fight Club, Wayne’s World and Spiceworld the Movie where he played a taxi driver.

Working with how things are

 

I am not unfortunately feeling too well this week so we will side step the loud noise coming from the groan up world (allegedly) of politics simply because I'm not remotely up to it.

Instead I've been propped up in bed surrounded by plushies and teddy bears trying to get through this period where I'm feeling rather dizzy listening to so music from some of collection, most single discs and a few box sets to relax and take my mind away from that and ideally more on the things I love when this is all over.

Equally I have been reading comics and especially reprints of stories from them from the past because they do take me back to places with better memories so it's like a stroll in a meadow, soothing and yet engaging so I focus on other things and ideas, thinking about what might of been at a cliffhanger ending.

Sometimes the stories are of and about adventure and courage in trying situations, making the most of it, learning from your experiences.

It's a time where for me to engaging more with your younger more Pollyannish self really is more use than more adult cynicism and looking for "why me, why now" dealing with what is rather than any notions of being cheated of.

 

Looking back to early 2020

In view of events I'm just going to express a few thoughts around the at times forever change nature of restrictions.

One big problem with making restrictions is everybody's situation is different, some have easy access to open countryside, others are very dependent upon the parks and green spaces and in those early days of 2020 things were highly restrictive.

Here you were challenged if you wanted to go the commercial centre of the district and if your answer was to want to look around you'd be turfed right off the bus by drivers.

Derbyshire police famously arrested a woman  for sitting on a sit while out having a coffee cos she was cold lest others do the same and might get close.

In Wales restrictions were such that parents could not get clothes to fit their children properly because shops were banned from opening even for the most essential items such as damaged or not fitting coats so children went cold.

Everybody lives in different sorts of accommodation from say a two bedroom flat in a high rise block to a mansion via a farm house and the open space such as gardens varies hugely.

Even in this district we have terraces with just a"postage stamp" rear garden to large ones belong to detached properties and my own being a corner plot has a small front, substantial side and medium sized rear gardens.

The restrictions while being based upon the best available advice about spreading covid through shared spaces and taking in social distancing initially two metres were identical regardless of your situation meaning while the letter of the law may of been broken, a good number of us could and did meet more people out of doors than regulations permitted because we felt the understanding given showed no risk to public health where the rules were based on what everyone could do.

For us this was using "common sense" with caution.

We read about things like groups of over a hundred in indoor spaces meeting for weddings because it was custom and equally while some were misguidedly told no one was allowed to attend funerals for partners or immediate families three hundred plus strong funerals did take place in some communities with the police turning a blind eye to it and many of us at that point  could only at best get around 14 to 18 attendees.

I know in this district rules certainly were not followed to the letter in the early months in the spring and summer of 2020 with people buying sheds to make unofficial points to gather for alcohol and chat.

Ill advised for sure but it happened regardless and so across all society rules were bent if not broken some certainly by people who really should of known better given the work they did.

While some do owe us an explanation of just why they did and in certain situations I do feel it was plain wrong, I don't feel it was an Us and Them situation as from where I'm standing plenty of Us did it too.

I feel in hindsight some of those initial restrictions were flawed, stopping things that were good for peoples health where actually there was little risk and the enforcement was all over the place, overzealous in some areas while ineffective and ignored for social order reasons elsewhere. 

Old masters

 

As I type this just a bit before bedtime here it is expected to fall to below one degree C having spent part of the day putting away the physical trappings of Christmas such as the decorations and tree for another year.

The magic that we invoke by our ritual served us well providing a focus on what really mattered avoiding the deafening noise from other things this last year settling in to enjoy the New Year listening to this years New Years Day concert from Vienna.

While in many ways I like to buy new recordings often more generous when it comes to couplings and frequently on the higher quality super audio cd format, the allure of the past can cut in.

Take this 1976 recording originally made in SQ Quadrophonic sound for EMI/Angel during a period the celebrated Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan was under contract to EMI Records.

It's hardly generous at just under forty four minutes  being a straight issue of that lp with nothing added outside of an excellent remastering done in 2017 that improves on the 1990  Angel original cd transfer.

The thing that makes it worth while actually is the playing not just of the orchestra in Richard Strauss's work but that of the soloists Rostropovich on cello and Koch on voila being one of the finest ever recordings of this work.

It really holds your attention until the very end.

Twelve Months on That Boarding School Girl 2021 edition

It is the day before the new year so we're having a bit of a look at things from the last year on this blog

One reason this blog continues to exist is the need to have a space for more middle or even grown up things at times having deliberated at times the need to keep it going with having the littles one.

We normally publish a kind of review but as I have said before this year has been in such a state of flux it's been no sooner than I had a planned and at least partially written blog ready then it's been all change so of necessity it is different than the planned one.

The year has been very much the year of the virus from us feeling towards the end of twenty twenty that the worst of it was with those of us who had been more or less shielding coming out of the woodwork as I visited Sandbach a few  times before we went back into reverse.

It is kind of hard to underestimate how it feels to be think you can be out more, even perhaps staying with friends only to have it dashed in the new year but that's how it was with the Delta variant.

Because of all of that inevitably a fair bit of blog coverage was devoted to the ups and downs this virus and our battle with it.

The one saving grace of the year was the Vaccination program that had got away around December 19th the previous year and was ramped up across the year getting the overwhelming majority of adults vaccinated which although we needed to have second vaccinations and in the last two and bit months boosters to deal with both the inevitable drop in protection over time and the Omicron variant that appears to date to be faster at spreading if less severe.

So far in after a dismal few months in the Winter and Spring we have had less restrictions in England for a longer period than pre March twenty twenty, able with caution to have christmas with families and even celebrate new year because that linkage between cases that are very high and people in hospital have been decimated and some for good measure.

That was a massive achievement.

Vaccination is working although we remain to stay cautious and be sensible about mixing with people especially large groups.

Education got back to class although I remain concerned about the long term developmental and psychological impact of this whole period on children's welfare missing schooling, social learning and mental health it has been bad enough for many adults part from underscoring inequalities.

I did read more comics and listen to music in part to keep the continual dripping of anxiety from covid heavy news reports and speculation under some control, avoiding being a news junkie and spending more time out of doors.

I managed to get to one of our littles meets which helped no end with recovering from the stresses and strains of the last fifteen months and we had a Halloween party too.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed our next meet is able to happen in a few months time.

Christmas day edition 2021

On the ball or not this has been hastily put together by the blog team as a syncropost tm  as we are able to do a bit more than last and so we will have a few visitors today.

Christmas here is very much a repeat of how things were cos I haven't change any so a staple is annuals connected to comics so we have this years Beano Annual which my of caught up with the Spotty as Scotty renaming in the Bash Street Kids or not but will have the two new classmates in.

We don't have a Dandy no more outside of the Summer Special but we do have an all new annual to look forward to.

Recently there has been themed compilations of classic cartoon strips from the Dandy and Beano from the past and this years looks at stories featuring characters doing art and drawing within the comic.

 

 Although I am familiar with the aria's from it I hadn't a copy of the full Madama Butterfly opera by the Italian composer Puccini and in the christmas stocking is a new acclaimed recording and a disc of Woodwind music by Vivaldi.

 Spinning at 33 1/3rd, I had the limited edition Dusty Springfield Atlantic singles set from 1968 thru 1971 on ruby red vinyl that uses the original mono singles mixes.

Also I had the November 24 limited edition 2 lp mono set of the Best Of The Red Bird and Mercury Shangri La's  album with retro disc labels.

I also had some money I can take with me once we are clearer how the start of next year is likely to be.