Your Mother's Not a Virgin!: The Bumpy Life and Times of the Canadian Dropout who changed the Face of American TV!
(by John Barbour)
I'm at page 71, but that's only 10% of it. I like it, but some things are described way too much, and I sorta skim through it.
Not a biography but historical fiction:
I am reading Hilary Mantel's three-book series on Thomas Cromwell. I finished Wolf Hall, and now am about 1/4 of the way through Bring Up The Bodies. The last book is called The Mirror & the Light.
I am enjoying this series very much.
I’m currently re-reading a biography on Isabella of France, wife of Edward II. The story culminating in Edward’s abdication and mysterious death is fascinating and pretty overlooked. Worthy of a movie definitely.
shareI always ask anyone who re-reads.
What have you discovered this time around?
So far a geographical error 😂
The last time I read the book I was a teenager but I’ve since learned more about the subject elsewhere. It really helps when the majority of what we know of a historical figure in that time period is where they were at any given time or when they were born/died. You can make assumptions about what they were actually like as people the more information you get.
Interesting, and thanks for replying back.
Have you ever tried looking for archives of any sort? You would really catch the zeitgeist. Even when it comes to audio, it's the "Fly on the Wall" video... Even The Beatles have one.
I love stand-up, and I've learned a lot more in one hour than a handful of hours in college on politics... I have records that go back to the 1950s, and you can observe the sensibilities of the audience, performer, the references, what people talked about at any given time.. Unlike today when they know everything is going to be uploaded immediately, people back then were a little less self-conscious, which is when you can really catch their true self.
You’re very welcome!
Yes if a subject interests me enough I will gladly seek out any means of learning more about it. As you mentioned, just hearing contemporary music can be a window into another time period and it tells you a lot.
Imagine seeing the faces of people from the 50’s not knowing that their words would be heard decades later by someone using their phone/computer.
Yes, I've thought about that many times. Especially before someone is famous, or maybe on their way to the top. It's cool to chronologically re-trace their steps and see how they navigated. I even love to compare a story they told immediately after an event, and then again decades later.
I also love observing the language, and other norms, but putting into context what it is. I love interviews in general, especially to contrast. I've collected newspapers for years, and it's neat to see what cities emphasize. The things they put on the front page, the local stuff, and even Classifieds and Job Listings, which I'll sometimes adjust to the inflation calculator just to get closer to that period.
I highly recommend newspapers.com and sites like archives.org and openculture.com
Thanks for the links ☺️ I had a quick look and had no knowledge of them until now but they seem like the kind of sites I could easily get hooked on so thank you again!
How do you feel about old interviews from the ‘60’s or ‘70’s interviewing 100+ year olds? It’s as close as we’ll ever get to a time machine I think and utterly fascinating.
I love those interviews... This guy on YouTube (David Hoffman, I think), has a lot of that kinda thing. Interviewing old people at 85 who remember what THEIR grandparents told them about The Civil War, etc..
shareHere's his channel.
https://www.youtube.com/c/DavidHoffman
Thanks ☺️ I really appreciate it. I’ll take a look.
This whole phenomenon of finding a window into the past reminds me somewhat of president John Tyler, who was in office in the 19th century and whose grandson only died a year or so ago (as far as I can remember).
You're very welcome, thanks for checking it out! Maybe a few of us can put our heads together and find more things.
Months ago, I would look for letters sent to people from a hundred years ago, but only found letters written by volunteers during The Spanish Flu, which were also pretty interesting.
I would actually pay money to hear the first few years of phone conversations. I think you would learn a lot more than any history book/doc, which only focuses on the major events most people already know, but at home, life went on, but no one has ventured in that direction.
No biographies currently but...
I'm ordering Norm Macdonald's jokey 'memoir' this weekend, I'm going to miss the hell out of Norm and I'm reading the hell out of his book!!
Howard Stern's Sirius satellite channel 101 in my car played an old interview with Norm today on my drive home from work, I was laughing out loud during the commute...and I've heard the interview many times in repeats!
What an honest, hilarious, humble everyman type guy he was
Great Rodney Dangerfield stories, Behind the scenes at SNL tales when Saturday Night Live was still worth a good goddam, personal stuff, the 'Uncle Terry/Dirty Jonny' joke lol... that was crazy stuff😀
Norm killed it, always
Were a few years away from SNL's 50th anniversary, but it would be nice to have an updated retrospective SNL Dvd and book. When 76 year old Loren Michaels dies I'm sure we will learn more about insider fighting. such as the decision to let Norm go.
shareWe shall see...Maybe.
Some of these 'backstage stories' get
told so many times from different viewpoints who can really say?
I'm reading "Diana: Her True Story--in Her Own Words" by Andrew Morton. Two people who knew her said she was bat sh*t crazy and empathized with Prince Charles so I became curious since I had a high opinion of her.
Yep, she's a mess. She's crying constantly, depressed, throwing up, passing out, suicide attempts and mood swings. First time that I feel sorry for Charles and understand how she manipulated public opinion against him. I just started and it's really good.
Do they talk about her love for the band Supertramp?
shareI doubt it. I didn't see anything in the index and Diana rushes from one topic to the next. It's not in depth.
I plan to read "The Real Diana: The revealing biography of The Princess of Wales" by Lady Colin Campbell. Her book is very detailed and I wanted to compare the two. Diana had chosen Lady C to be her original secret biographer before Morton.
Maybe I'll buy a copy for my mother. She loved Di... Not sure why. My mom isn't rebellious, but that's what I gathered from Di, and don't think her death was an accident. Sounds like The Royal Family didn't want the future king to have a half-brother who is Arab.
I still remember when she died; watching CNN
Diana was a compassionate person, seemed down-to-Earth and showed warmth unlike the rest of the royals.
Your mother may have read the Morton book since it was a huge best seller.
It was Diana's choice not to wear a seat belt which likely killed her.
No one in my family has ever read a book.. I have no idea why my mom loves Diana, she's not very expressive and opinionated. But it could be all the fairy tales of being a princess, especially one who is compassionate and down to earth, which my mother is.
Why not just ask her?
Most people liked Diana including me. She had mental health issues, but I respect how she stood up for herself against the dysfunctional royals and didn't allow Charles to walk all over her.
Yeah, I should. The problem is when she comes over, it's with my dad, and she's never assertive.
I was talking to her on the phone two days ago, and wanted to know how WWII was covered in her school, but she interrupted me with "grocery stuff". I told her to give me a list of things for me to buy them, and she just kinda gets so wrapped up in the domestic stuff.
That's a shame! Maybe one day your mother will want to chat more about it. I used to enjoy hearing about the "Good Old Days" from mine. I was curious because the world she grew up in was so different.
The Diana book is much better than I thought it would be. First 100 pages are autobiographical, then becomes a biography.
I agree, and will probably do that the next time we talk. The previous generation was SO different.
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