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10.29.7

It’s The Flying Saucer Song! Vintage UFOs

As readers of Trickster’s Realm know, I’m blog obsessed. (I’m in good company, Lesley who writes Grey Matters has several blogs, as does the prolific Nick Redfern.) Well, I’ve done it again, I’ve started another blog: Vintage UFO. And if you visit Vintage UFO you’ll find a video clip of the “Flying Saucer Song.”

I’ve started and erased several blogs, group forums (like Yahoo groups, etc.) and websites over the years. The main reason for erasing them is simple: I move on after realizing the blog or forum etc. is too limited. (Sometimes, in the case of forums, there isn’t much activity, so I turn it over to someone else or get rid of it.) For example, I had a blog for a short time when I started out blogging: UFO Disinfo. But that was too limited and too time consuming. If I wanted to do that specific area of UFO studies justice, I pretty much would have to give up everything else.

When I started Vintage UFO (focusing on items up until roughly 1980) I did it mainly for fun, a somewhat goofy at times diversion from the serious side of UFO studies. Great wacky over the top cover art, B-movies, the Contactees, etc. all great fun and an enjoyable look back.

But I’ve realized that we can also learn from looking back at various aspects of UFOlogy. From the movies to pop culture to fashion, toys, and advertising, flying saucer mania was a big deal for awhile in America, as well as outside this country.

I find I’m having a blast with this, and learning along the way. History is always interesting (or can be) but we need to remember that old saying: “history is written by the winners.” Looking at vintage ufo stuff from a variety of angles provides a bit of insight into multiple aspects of UFOs.

Some insist that the Contactees were nothing more than goofballs and kooks, that Roswell is dead, that sightings in the 1950s were caused by post WWII anxieties. I don’t think so. And while we always need the nuts and bolts of these events, like declassified documents, etc. a look back at other manifestations of the phenomena can give us some insight. It can even give us some tools as we look at contemporary events.

I’m not suggesting we can solve anything, any particular UFO case, by looking back at vintage ufo material. We probably can’t. But is that the issue? We may not ever solve the cases of more current times either. So what? We can still learn, even if we might not ever solve or prove anything. Even if one particular case is solved and/or proved, there remain hundreds that haven't been.

While I take the UFO phenomeana very seriously, there’s nothing wrong with appreciating the lighter side of the phenomena either. And if we can apply some of the gems from the past to the here and now, that’s a bonus.


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