"Blog housekeeping" and The Shaggs -- Perhaps one of the most notorious bands and albums ever made.

 

Greetings, welcome back. 

Here you will find an interesting moment in the history of rock and pop music, but first an update on the state of this blog and my so-called writing career, and then a bit on the nature of doing history in the year 2020. I recently finished a book, I think it's my sixth so far, and it's on Donald Trump. If you have not heard of him, Donald Trump was a man who was born into money and enjoyed appearing on television and in the press. He did some television and some cameos in movies. Sort of a "Hollywood Squares" kind of guy, but sort of, mostly after "Hollywood Squares" went off the air. (If you don't know what "Hollywood Squares" was google it or leave a comment below.) At one point in his career, in what may have been the world's biggest publicity stunt gone awry, he ran for president and much to the surprise of many, got himself elected. And the rest, as they say, is history. 

And, while in my opinion, he's doing a terrible job as President, he is doing a good job of manipulating a large segment of the population. And my book discusses how, exactly, he manipulates them. 

Buy "Scams from the Great Beyond --The Presidential Edition" here.

If you are interested, and even if you are not, aside from the many blog posts here, I have another blog that I do not use as much that discusses things other than history. You can find it here: http://peterhuston.blogspot.com/  It basically discusses things other than history. If you liked the recent Donald Trump posts, there are a few others over there too. And I have created a Goodreads author's page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/339311.Peter_Huston  The Amazon,com authors page is coming as soon as they and I straighten out some confusion over some paperwork issues. They tell me this should happen tomorrow. 

So that's it about me, at the moment. 

Second, my thoughts on the state of doing history in the year 2020. For the record, I believe that one of the reasons we now have such an unusual president (if nothing else, he is the first president we have had who has never served in the military or public office) is due to changes in society and the flow of information caused by the internet. And this changes history too. 

When doing history, arguably, the primary factors are the amount and type of sources. And the internet information explosion has often resulted in a huge deluge of sources available, literally, at the touch of a few fingers on the nearest linked in computer keyboard. Which changes the way we do history for many subjects. Often, instead of going to great trouble to obtain sources, any sources, one now finds oneself with an overwhelming number of sources and a need to sort them for research value. And one needs to sort them, and weigh and analyze them, often before determining how to use them. 

And sometimes one finds a subject that looks really cool, and you decide you want to dig into it, learn as much as you can, hoping to share it with others, only to discover that all the research has already been done before. 

And thus it is with the Shaggs  .  ,  , 

Such an interesting story, alas, it's all been told before. 

 So, here we have a primary source: 

You can listen to it, and if you hear just a little bit, you should be intrigued. If you hear the whole thing, well, congratulations to you. You've accomplished something many people find difficult. Either way, you will probably be wondering what it is and where it come from and how it came to be.

And if you are wondering where the above album came from, the answer is available in the video below. 

Of if you prefer you can go to the follow sources: 

NPR news: https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2017/02/17/515775669/the-best-or-worst-band-of-all-time-is-back  

Lester Bangs, the famous rock critic, wrote about them: http://www.keyofz.com/vvoice.htm 

The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1999/09/27/meet-the-shaggs

Rolling Stone: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/shaggs-dot-wiggin-reflects-on-divisive-philosophy-of-the-world-album-115348/ 

Or you can watch this video: 

And that's kind of how research is done, at least on some projects, in the year 2020. 

To do it right, one should dig in, try to find more verification of fundamental facts. Perhaps something I will do later. 

Finally, my books . . . 

Yeah, I've written books. Please check them out and see if they interest you.

  

Not my book, but if you buy it here, you support this blog: