John belushi biography wired
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And the pressure to BE "up" and "on" so much. And by focusing on one man's career, he gives a good sense of how limited the window is for making money, taking advantage of being "hot," and how quickly that might disperse after a few flops or lousy projects. But sometimes the writing threw me: pronouns with no clear subject, often mixing last/first names in lists, so it becomes "John and Aykroyd," odd slang that made the writing unclear, weird punctuation that sometimes puts dialogue in quotations and sometimes does not (maybe that's a direct quotation thing?
And covering for self-doubt, busting through it like he bust through so many other social situations. So in an effort to get some perspective on THAT book and to see what Belushi's real deal was, I picked this up.
It's NOT too mean: it's a meticulous and painstakingly-researched book. Belushi had a kind of reckless, rock-’n’-roll comedic sensibility…a volatile combination of Lou Costello and Vlad the Impaler.”
Time
“Fascinating, in a perverse, National Enquirer kind of way.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer
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But if so, why use the same construction of so-and-so SAID for both?), the division of the book into sections with no clear reason (Part 3 starts almost a "countdown" to Belushi's death, but I can't figure out the break.I spent a lot of time wondering why anyone would waste their time on such a guy who would come in uninvited, break your stuff or eat it or snort it, dominate the conversation, play music so loud and turn it up further if you told him to turn it down, and abruptly leave (or conversely show up hours late). The producers who want to make money and good projects.
I guess I felt sorry for him and understood him more, but I still didn't like him. But I think part was the pervasiveness and the culture of using: SO MANY PEOPLE in the entertainment industry and beyond were doing them. But then there's a big long footnote on Belushi's spending habits (again violating the countdown style) that very clearly suggests the pressure he was under to support his family and hangers-on as well as the tight timeframes for making Hollywood deals while one is "hot." So a lot of the structure and writing I did not care for.
But what a portrait!
The other talent from directors to actors to music folk who want to collaborate and/or have different visions or motives. And all of that uncertainty plays out in the background of all the decisions Belushi made.
WIRED
“Wired is the most smashing drug book ever written…A cautionary tale for our time…Astonishing.”
Liz Smith, New York Daily News
John Belushi was found dead of a drug overdose March 5, 1982, in a seedy hotel bungalow off Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.
And, again, there's a lot of piling up of detail that doesn't always seem to serve a larger purpose, just that he had such detail from his research and put it in. And the ideas and collaboration--drugs are fun and everyone was doing them.
He seemed like a horrible person, even knowing WHY he was like that.
And the people around him who suffered because of him, or had a job because of him. The Blues Brothers is OK, I guess.
I read this book because I read a puff-piece history of the Chateau Marmont, and it specifically criticized this book as being, basically, too mean.
But I think Woodward does a good job of pointing out the guy's complexity. I don't know. I didn't get Bluto, and I didn't really care to see more of Belushi. He had that charisma that lets some people do outlandish things while the rest of the world laps it up or tolerates it at least. Who can describe it?