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.

The last days of the Summer Vacation play out

A matter of a couple of weekdays before school resumes so you might as well enjoy the weather and perish the thought the sun before the long slog and sorting things to take with you although school supplies are a certainty as is today a mobile phone of some description as much as I recall the red or later grey phone boxes and the pay phone in our boarding school for phoning home once a week.

I'd never say I was or even today am anything like a great artist, but I do like to draw a bit when I'm physically up to it and the ability to take a few reference pictures on your phone and work with them at hand certainly saves waiting a day or to get your prints back and painting at home.

Unexpected things that happened this week included the stylus suspension sagging that works with the cartridge in my stereo's turntable so I needed to order up another which don't come cheap and fit that while I wait on a audiophile lp to come in the post.

Something else that was ordered but has arrived is this Japanese promotional single with a four sided promotional postcard cover for Yesterday Hero, the Vander/Young composition back on this copy by Rock 'N' Roller where the U.S and Canadian had My Lisa as the b side

Strangely enough here in the U.K. we didn't get this as a single in 1976 only the non album Love Me Like I Love You and cover of Dusty Springfield's I Only Want To Be With You  that peaked at numbers 4 and 8 respectively in the U.K. singles charts.

The Skater's Waltz

 Some aspects of your life are influenced by your disabilities and how they run across your childhood and for me using a wheelchair some of the time did influence those things you remember and wheelchair dancing was one thing I did every week 

That could factor into other things such as school plays and performances for Christmas's of which apart from the difficulties of learning your lines when you're dyslexic  but I had to dance in my wheelchair to Waldtuefel's Skater's Waltz during it in front of everyone which was nerve-wracking  but fun.

There are of course many recordings of that work but this was the one I had and still have bought as kid used but in lovely condition that has many of his waltzes played by a shorter selection from the Philharmonia Orchestra in the mid 1950's originally issued in mono only and this stereo edition dates from April 1965.

The playing fully realizes the sweeping movement leaving one in awe.