Interesting history of the birth of the Academy Award-winning movie starring Liz Taylor and Richard Burton (the biggest stars in the world at the timeInteresting history of the birth of the Academy Award-winning movie starring Liz Taylor and Richard Burton (the biggest stars in the world at the time - imagine Brad and Angelina on steroids), from Edward Albee's conception and the play to Liz winning the Oscar for her role as Martha, to other movies that were inspired by the play/movie....more
This wasn't quite what I expected based on the title and description. I'd thought it would be very analytical—burrowing into what made some people famThis wasn't quite what I expected based on the title and description. I'd thought it would be very analytical—burrowing into what made some people famous and others (equally as talented and hardworking) get nowhere. While it SORT OF was that, there was no real teeth in the analysis, just the author asking rhetorical questions like "Would the Beatles have become famous if they hadn't met Brian Epstein?" Anyone can ask questions like that. Everyone knows that fame is achieved only with high levels of luck and riding the zeitgeist, but the author didn't really delve into this in any kind of hardcore way. (I would also like to chastise the editor who allowed the word "terrific" to be in the text dozens of times.)
Still, it was a somewhat entertaining read. I just reviewed How to Become Famous by Cass R. Sunstein. #HowtoBecomeFamous #NetGalley Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest opinion....more
One of the most detailed books I've ever read about the bizarro mixture of brilliance, stupidity, and crazy that goes into making movies. It's honestlOne of the most detailed books I've ever read about the bizarro mixture of brilliance, stupidity, and crazy that goes into making movies. It's honestly astonishing that any good movies ever get made at all. The author does a mind-blowing job of getting into every detail on the set of an 80s movie based on a mostly-forgotten 80s bestseller called Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe. Perhaps the novel was satirical enough to not come across as racist, but the movie (which I viewed recently) certainly does. I don't know in what world the law would conspire to put a rich, white innocent man in prison for political purposes, but it isn't this world.
Anyway, the book somehow manages to get into the minds of everyone who worked on the movie—and I mean really get into their minds. Somehow the author knows that when director Brian de Palma stood up and clapped at a dinner for director David Lean, he only did so to annoy his ex-girlfriend? Is this something the director actually TOLD the author? It's unclear. And who would admit that?
But this was written before MeToo so you get to hear the reptilian Hollywood execs calling Melanie Griffith (in her early 30s) "fat" and an "old bag" (oh yeah, Kim Cattrall, also in her early 30s, is an old bag too). They obsess about the tiny wrinkles around Melanie's eyes. You get to hear the female exec tell the male execs to "hire a teenage boy if that is what you want." (The males all wanted to hire 19-year-old Uma Thurman and go on and on and on about, despite her being totally wrong and far too young for the part of the mistress of a middle-aged Tom Hanks, whose wrinkles and fat no one comments on.)
Seriously, these guys are revolving. I bet now they will all whine about what feminists they are...
The book often gets too detailed (I didn't need to hear every thought that every grip had) but it also has some fascinating ones such as the background of Bruce Willis' stand-in.
I'd love to know how the author got all her info... I'm guessing because she was female, none of these guys even noticed her as she hung around taking notes on their sexism and inanity....more
John Hughes movies have lately rather undeservedly been recast to be offensive, but what hasn't? Even Molly Ringwald took her shots at him post-MeToo.John Hughes movies have lately rather undeservedly been recast to be offensive, but what hasn't? Even Molly Ringwald took her shots at him post-MeToo. Luckily this book was written in 2010 before Wokeism infected everything. Does every single tiny thing in his movies hold up under today's cultural norms? Of course not. But much does. Even the deeply dragged character of Long Duk Dong, the Korean exchange student in Sixteen Candles, is recast here as how we saw it at the time—farcical. The actor who played him plainly states that he basically invented the character, and also copied his accent from a friend of his. These days, even an exchange student who has been in the country for a few days is apparently supposed to speak perfect English.
Pretty much all of the relevant actors here are interviewed, not only Ringwald (who here says she had a massive crush on Hughes, probably something she would not admit these days) but Judd Nelson, Matthew Broderick, Lea Thompson, Mary Stuart Masterson, Anthony Michael Hall, and on and on... Back then, you could talk about people's good and less-than-good sides without getting reamed by social media, so we hear about Hughes' many shades. Comments that now wouldn't dare be uttered (such as Hall professing that he thought the much older married Hughes may have had a "thing" for the teen Ringwald) are here mentioned casually, because this was a time when you were allowed to speak to your mind. Even Mia Sara talks about how she repeatedly "threw herself" at Broderick on the set of Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
The phenomenon of "The Brat Pack" is also delved into. It's interesting how this moniker devastated its members (Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, etc) at the time but now they seem to embrace it. (McCarthy even named his memoir "Brat." )
It's all very entertaining and enlightening. Must reading if you're a Gen Xer or fan of Hughes movies....more
Blondie's album Parallel Lines was one of the first (if not THE first) albums I received as a kid and I wore it out on my little turntable so I was exBlondie's album Parallel Lines was one of the first (if not THE first) albums I received as a kid and I wore it out on my little turntable so I was excited to be approved for this ARC. Unlike a lot of popular bands/musicians at the time, Blondie has only grown in stature and legend since its chart topping run in the late 70s, early 80s. It is often credited with having the first number one song to feature rap.
Chris Stein was a founding member and his long-term girlfriend was none other than lead singer/icon Debbie Harry. (If you're a Debbie fan please check out her amazing memoir, Face.) It's absolutely astonishing to me that Chris, drug-addled as he was most of the time, has such a sharp memory for his entire life, starting with his childhood in Brooklyn (I had no idea I live about 5 minutes from where Chris Stein grew up on Coney Island Ave! Hi neighbor!) and ending with his post-Blondie/present life.
The most interesting part for me was Chris and the band's poverty-filled grind living in the enormous, rat-filled lofts of 70s downtown NYC - lofts that now sell in the millions. It's a real snapshot of old school NYC with its burgeoning punk scene, composed of CBGB bands like The Ramones, Television, Patti Smith and Blondie. Blondie was considered the "joke" band- it has a sexy blonde girl lead singer and its songs were more ballad-y and accessible. It would go on to be the most popular group. The times are so tough that Debbie is r*ped by an intruder to their loft while Chris is tied up in another room. They are repeatedly robbed. People overdose and die. Their cats kill huge rats. All stuff that would have sent most people running back to the burbs and who could blame them? (A moment of silence for poor kitty Sunday Man, who disappears from Debbie's sister's house. I was worried about the 3 cats the entire book).
Sadly, like most bands, bad business decisions and drugs conspired to rob these creatives of their money and Chris Stein ended up basically broke (though I'm assuming he's not now? Hard to tell.)
Occasionally the book veers into continual name dropping (X came over, then Y dropped by, then Z said hello, and I ran into A on the street... etc) and I did not recognize the majority of the names. So I found myself skipping over various portions.
If you love Blondie, music, or the 70s NYC punk/New Wave scene, this memoir is required reading. I just reviewed Under a Rock by Chris Stein. #NetGalley
Thank you Chris Stein, NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review....more
While the book focuses in on the Blues Brothers, the blues tribute band headed up by John Belushi and Dan Akroyd at their apex of SNL fame in the lateWhile the book focuses in on the Blues Brothers, the blues tribute band headed up by John Belushi and Dan Akroyd at their apex of SNL fame in the late 70s—it spawned a hit album and movie that introduced legions of suburban SNL fans to R&B—it's also a good primer on the histories of both comedians as well as their time at SNL, and the genesis of SNL, as well as other comedy troupes, especially the places where SNL poached most of its talent: Chicago's Second City and National Lampoon's hit radio show.
I'm pretty sure that something similar—two white guys singing black R&B songs and getting a record/movie deal out of it—wouldn't happen today. It would be considered "cultural appropriation" by the younger generation, in which one is apparently only allowed to cover or have influences by artists of the same skin color. Never mind that R&B is a meld of blues, country, and even folk songs of the very white Scots/Brits/Irish. These days, everything is parsed by skin tone, and god forbid you "go out of your lane." Whatever that means.
Belushi and Akroyd were aware of the racism inherent in their being able to score a movie deal with black music—and aware of the charge of appropriation that was leveled even back then, when they started the gig as the warm-up band on SNL—and they appropriately stocked the movie with genuine R&B legends. Many of them were brought back from obscurity and had their careers revived and made a lot of money.
It's also a nice delve into the "opposites attract" friendship of Dan and John. John's vices would eventually kill him prematurely, and Dan would go onto even greater success with Ghostbusters and other movies that showcased his odd humor.
This was definitely a "smart alecky white guy gets the babes" time period, showcased also in the massive hit Animal House, and if that isn't your kind of thing, then steer clear. But if you have fond memories of early SNL, or you just like reading about Hollywood and clever, drugged-up celebrities (count me the later), then definitely pick this up.
I subtract a star for the forced-sounding wokeism that occasionally pokes through the pages. The most egregious being the author/publisher not even daring to say the "N word" (am I allowed to write that?) though it is simply quoting a famous sketch written by a black man, Richard Pryor. Such are these times.
I just reviewed The Blues Brothers by Daniel de Visé. #TheBluesBrothers #NetGalley. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review....more
You have to search real hard for the things in here that make the book worth a listen/read. There are four chapters of apologies, explanations, justifYou have to search real hard for the things in here that make the book worth a listen/read. There are four chapters of apologies, explanations, justifications, exhortations, and pretty much everything but decluttering ideas until we finally get to them. By that time, I was frustrated. The book needed some serious decluttering. Like most declutterers, the author got a book deal because of a "viral blog" and I suspect everything that needed to be said was in that blog, and now she needed to pad the rest of the book. Additionally, another author who shouldn't be reading her own material (voice is like an angry Valley Girl).
There's a lot of good stuff here though not necessarily that different from other habit-formation and habit-breaking books I've read. Unfortunately, iThere's a lot of good stuff here though not necessarily that different from other habit-formation and habit-breaking books I've read. Unfortunately, it focuses too much on developing habits that can lead you to fame and riches and for some reason Clear is constantly fillering the book with the rises of famous people like Olympian Michael Phelps and comedians like Chris Rock and Steve Martin. Tying his book in with these celebrities simply by going on about them seems a sly attempt to insinuate that these rich and famous types are following some specific habit regimen that Clear invented. They do not. In fact, he didn't even interview any of these people and selected them out of the blue. Every comedian does what Rock and Martin did—practice for many many years honing their skills. Every Olympian does the same. Why on earth were they dropped into a book about habits? (The LA Lakers portion was particularly unnecessary and had zilch to do with habits.) Most of us reading this book don't intend to become famous but simply want to get up earlier or clean the house more or stop biting our nails or something equally as attainable.
At the end it becomes semi-clear why Clear (lol) is constantly name-dropping. He speaks at Fortune 500 company retreats and the like and I am sure gets paid heftily for it—so he's got to make it seem like he has some inside knowledge on how to become a huge success.
I really would have preferred if he would have just stuck with what the book was supposed to be about—how to form and break habits—and left out all the fame and riches stuff....more
This is more like a 3.5. As I adore stories about and from musicians, and I love reading about the creative process, I expected this to be a home run.This is more like a 3.5. As I adore stories about and from musicians, and I love reading about the creative process, I expected this to be a home run. However, many if not most of the musicians couldn't really articulate in any meaningful way how they'd managed to write a legendary anthem. Not every creative person can successfully articulate this kind of mysterious process, and the author seemed to choose a lot of musicians who couldn't. Add in that all of these songs were written years, often decades, ago, and while the songwriters were under the influence of various chemicals. Or they dashed off the song as one of many they had written at the time and that song, for whatever reason, happened to catch fire.
In other words, the stories of how these anthems came to be were usually not very compelling. And some of the egos here are so enormous it was hard to read—the songwriter basically just going on and on and on about how famous and wonderful they are. This might be true but it doesn't make for riveting reading. Out of all the anthems, the only story I can clearly remember is Grace Slick's and how she wrote White Rabbit. She admits she essentially cribbed the beat from Ravel's Bolero and the lyrics from Alice in Wonderland. She then compares the mounting rhythm of the song to sex. Probably the entire book should have just been Grace Slick talking.
Still, others may feel very differently and love this. Thank you to #NetGalley, Steve Baltin, and the publisher for an Arc in exchange for an honest review. #AnthemsWeLove...more
An amusing and irreverent look at comedy writer Alan Zweibel's life of writing for not only classic TV like SNL but forgotten failures like Good SportAn amusing and irreverent look at comedy writer Alan Zweibel's life of writing for not only classic TV like SNL but forgotten failures like Good Sports (Ryan and Farrah... anyone? Bueller?). Zweibel has a nice way of being funny without being cruel and even though occasionally it's very clear he can't stand certain people he worked with (such as the aforementioned Ryan O'Neal and Farrah Fawcett) he manages to keep his dishing not too dirty.
The second half was less interesting for me as it descended into extended A-kissing a la "my brilliant friend Billy Crystal.... my immensely talented pal Larry David... etc." I know that Zweibel's entire career hinges on more famous comedians liking him but it got to be a bit much. Then there's that terrible screenplay that closes the book about an old geezer (with dementia no less) who falls in love with a much younger manic pixie dream girl... and who returns his feelings! And they sleep together! If MUST do this overused and gag-worthy premise at least cast Richard Gere or Alain Delon NOT Billy Crystal. Alan seems to have no clue why every actress they approached turned this sexist turd down.
This was a very engrossing biography of an author I'm ashamed to say I'd never heard of before - Barbara Pym, sort of a Jane Austen of the 60s and 70sThis was a very engrossing biography of an author I'm ashamed to say I'd never heard of before - Barbara Pym, sort of a Jane Austen of the 60s and 70s, with witty and deceptively complex books mostly centered on women, their home lives, their loves, their heartbreaks.
I admit I almost DNF'd because, in the beginning, I simply was not a fan of the author. At Oxford, she seemingly did little else but chase after men who did not want her other than to use her for sex and make her miserable. She did this over and over and over... then, we get to that whole startling period where she was enamored of Nazi Germany and even fell in love with a Nazi officer. I mean, nothing was making me like the woman. But I persisted...
I began to feel differently about her with the start of WW2 (and her realization that Nazis were not good people) and her taking her writing more seriously. Unfortunately, she was never really able to shake the habit of falling deeply in love with unsuitable men—as she got older, it was primarily gay men.
The biographer does a great job of getting the reader interested in Pym's novels, which have had a resurgence in popularity. For decades, she was considered stale and out-of-date as stories geared towards macho white men became all the rage (Ian Fleming, etc.) I now have quite a TBR of her novels I want to read and am really hoping they are in e-versions!
I hack off a star because for much of the book I was utterly confused as to whether she was being published or not. The author described book after book - their plots, characters, details - so I assumed they were being published but if so couldn't understand why there was no information on how it happened. I had to Google to find out many of her books were published in the late 70s.
If you like to read about authors (I do) or you're a Pym fan, this is a must-read.
Thank you to #NetGalley, Paula Byrne, and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review....more
I'd so been looking forward to this and was thrilled when I was accepted for an ARC, but ultimately came away somewhat disappoiThis is more like a 3.5
I'd so been looking forward to this and was thrilled when I was accepted for an ARC, but ultimately came away somewhat disappointed. I'm an enormous Cheers fan and Burrows directed almost all of the episodes. But even a cursory reading of Cheers articles meant I knew everything that Burrows said about the show. There were no surprises. In fact, the entire book read as if it was ghostwritten by someone who interviewed Burrows maybe once or twice but otherwise used Google and handed in a long book report. That doesn't mean the book isn't interesting if you are into directing, TV, or the specific shows - Taxi, Cheers, Friends, Frasier, etc - that Burrows had a hand in, I was just hoping for more.
Thank you #NetGalley #JamesBurrows and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review....more
Excellent biography of the making of the film The Godfather and includes most of the creation of the Mario Puzo novel as well. Some great films seem tExcellent biography of the making of the film The Godfather and includes most of the creation of the Mario Puzo novel as well. Some great films seem to seamlessly fall together and its cast talks about its creation being one happy occasion after another (The Princess Bride comes to mind) but The Godfather was the stark opposite. The studio chiefs and director Francis Ford Coppolla were completely at odds, and he had to fight tooth and nail for everything from the cast he wanted to the score he wanted. Often movies made that way are doomed, so the fact that this one turned out to be so well made, and still stands the test of time as an excellent, artistic as well as commercial film, is astonishing.
Anyone interested in movies or the creative process should pick up this book....more
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