Mastodon Feed: Posts

pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

These biographical sketches are short, but they don't shy away from nuance - Belushi's parents, for example, are simultaneously painted as loving and also reckless and self-involved. De Visé gives the lion's share of attention to Belushi, but he doesn't stint on detail about Aykroyd, strongly implying that "Danny" is on the spectrum, with a deep collection of "special interests" and a deep discomfort with eye contact that accounts for habit of wearing sunglasses.

16/

pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

De Visé devotes the first third of the book to snappy, revealing biographies of Belushi and Aykroyd, who grew up in very different milieux, and were of very different temperaments, but who both found their way into comedy just as the tradition of Borscht Belt comics and variety shows were giving way to a younger, weirder kind of comedy, a mixture of Monty Python, National Lampoon and improv.

15/

pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

Instead, I found myself utterly engrossed in a brilliantly told, brilliantly researched tale that left me with a much deeper understanding of - and appreciation for - the cultural phenomenon that I was (and am) swept up in.

14/

pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

So I bought a copy off the receiving table, straight out of the box, and I've finally gotten around to reading it, and holy *moly* is it fascinating! I confess that in the months since I brought it home and stuck it on the TBR shelf, I'd mostly forgotten why I'd picked it up and had started to view it as a book full of production trivia, and when I picked it up this week, it was with an eye to skimming it quickly before putting it out at the curb in my Little Free Library.

13/

pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

And no one could escape some of the more salacious details of Belushi's death, though I absorbed most of what I knew via one of the greatest short stories I've ever read, Bradley Denton's "Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Comedians," about Belushi and Lenny Bruce leading a revolt in Comedian Hell:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FCalvin%5FCoolidge%5FHome%5Ffor%5FDead%5FComedians

12/

pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

I knew a little, of course - my friends and I used to trade the information that Aykroyd came from a family of famous Ontario Tories the same way we would have gossiped had his father been a famous serial-killer.

11/

pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

When I put on a Memphis Slim album, it doesn't occur to me that the reason that music is on my hard-drive has something to do with that worn-out VHS cassette in my parents' living room in the 1980s.

Standing there at the counter at Diesel Books for an hour, sneaking peeks at the back cover of de Visé's book, set me to considering exactly how this weird and remarkable phenomenon came to be.

10/

pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

It's not an overstatement to say that The Blues Brothers altered my life, changing the music I listened to and the way I understood the musical ancestry of everything that went into my ears. Indeed, the effects that The Blues Brothers had on my life are so pervasive that I effectively stopped noticing them.

9/

pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

Within a few hops, I'd found my way to Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee and thence to the immortal James Cotton:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl4IcMlrJwM

I started skipping Rocky Horror to see the house band at Chicago's on Queen Street, and from there found my way to the weekend jams at Grossman's:

https://torontobluessociety.com/venue/grossmans-tavern-2/

8/

pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

By the time I was 20, I'd amassed a vast collection of used records, tapes and CDs featuring Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker, Aretha Franklin, Willy Mabon, The Chips, Floyd Dixon and more. Soon, I was leaping from one artist to others. I found an incredible Pop Staples/Steve Cropper/Albert King collaboration "Jammed Together":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sarzs8VRSg

7/

pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

But beyond the movie, I was taken with the Blues Brothers' *music*. I didn't know much about blues, boogie woogie and other roots music before the Blues Brothers came into my life. The combination of the Blues Brothers movie and its sound-track sent me on a treasure hunt for music by the band, its musical guests, and the artists whose song they covered.

6/

pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

The Blues Brothers is sunk so deep into my psyche that I don't know that I ever questioned *why* they were so embedded. I don't know if I can even say when I first saw the movie. Certainly, my friend-group was *very* into the movie, and my best friend and I went as Jake and Elwood on multiple Hallowe'ens at the Rocky Horror Picture Show at Toronto's Roxy Theatre, until it became such a cliche for us that we felt the need to mix it up and dress up at *zombie* Jake and Elwood.

5/

pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

Like many people of my generation, I grew up with The Blues Brothers. I taped the movie off of TV when I was about 14 and literally wore the tape out in the next four years, re-watching and re-re-watching the movies on that tape - Animal House, The Blues Brothers and Spinal Tap - so many times that I can still just about recite those movies verbatim, more than 30 years later.

4/

pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

By the time the line was cleared, there was no question that I was going to buy this book, even though it wasn't formally for sale for a couple days (the bookstore staff were kind enough to make an exception for me, not least because I promised them that I wouldn't get a chance to read it for quite some time as I flitted from city to city on the rest of the tour).

3/

pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

It was on the receiving table I sat next to as I signed books after a book-tour reading, and I snuck peeks at the back cover while I chatted with the long line of attendees.

2/

pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow") wrote:

I picked up Daniel de Visé's *The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic* at LA's Diesel Books:

https://danieldevise.com/product/the-blues-brothers-an-epic-friendship-the-rise-of-improv-and-the-making-of-an-american-film-classic

--

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/06/21/1060-west-addison#the-new-oldsmobiles-are-in-early-this-year

1/

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
jedi@bolha.us ("Thiago, chamado Jedi") wrote:

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
mcnado@mstdn.social ("McNadoMD") wrote:

FYI, if you buy Chiquita bananas right now, you’re crossing a picket line. The unionized workers at a plant in panama went on strike, and they fired them.

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
ploum@mamot.fr wrote:

Did you know that there’s a premium version of Whatsapp which :

- Has no advertising
- Has no mandatory AI integration
- Has no tracking and does not gather your personnal data
- Has increased privacy and stronger encryption
- Is exclusive and allows you to chat with other premium members

Best of all ? It is currently free to join!

Go now to your app store and install it before it is too late!

It is called "Signal"

https://ploum.net/2025-05-23-chats-digital-clutter.html

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
ada_ada_ada@helvede.net ("Ada Ada Ada") wrote:

The AI market crash will affect millions, if not billions, of people across the globe through our pension funds and other investments. @pluralistic briefly outlines here what went down after the dotcom bubble burst:

"The bubble was terrible. VCs and scammers scooped up billions from pension funds and other institutional investors and wasted it on obviously doomed startups."

pzmyers@freethought.online ("pzmyers 🕷") wrote:

Queer Morris is having a party this afternoon

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/06/21/celebrate-today/

fribbledom ("muesli") wrote:

God nods. "Okay. You want the Stillness. Total peace. Soul off-grid."

I blink. "Wait, that’s an option? Why don’t you lead with that?"

"Marketing," they say. "Reincarnation gets better engagement."

I laugh. "Yeah, I’m good. No more side quests." They raise their mug. "To finishing the game early."

Light washes over me. I fade, finally free. No rebirth. No chaos. No emails. Just... blessed silence.

[3/3]

denschub@schub.social ("Dennis Schubert") wrote:

als bahn-nerd find ich formsignale ja super, aber als infrastruktur-nerd will ich immer ein bisschen heulen. c’mon, deutschland…

fribbledom ("muesli") wrote:

I lay it all out: climate collapse, billionaires LARPing as space cowboys, influencers selling moon water, rent’s a joke, AI's making playlists that understand me better than my ex.

God winces. "I gave you opposable thumbs and empathy. How did you mess it up this bad?" I shrug. "We tried capitalism." God sighs. "Again?"

"Alright, what do you want instead? Goat in the Alps? Small-town librarian? IKEA pencil?" I shake my head.

"No more loops. I want out."

[2/3]

fribbledom ("muesli") wrote:

I died choking on a carrot - final proof healthy living is a scam. I wake up in a glowing lobby that smells like eucalyptus and unresolved emotions.

In walks God, looking more like a tired barista than a thunder-wielding deity: hoodie, sandals, coffee mug that says "#1 Creator." They give me a kind smile. "Hey" they say, "Ready to reincarnate?"

I squint. "Back there? You seen Earth lately?"

God shrugs. "I check in sometimes." "Well" I say, "you really should’ve read the comments."

[1/3]

Boosted by jwz:
dnalounge@sfba.social ("DNA Lounge") wrote:

Drink Special @ Cowboy Carter Beyoncé Tribute: GLORIOUS ROCKET EXPLOSION - Cazadores Reposado Tequila, Soda, Splash of Tequila, Lime.

Attachments:

• gifv: 34e16471219e4bcf.mp4

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
oldcoder@dansu.org ("OldCoder") wrote:

@mastodon has commented as follows:

"We've heard your feedback on the Terms of Service updates for mastodon.social and mastodon.online, and we're pausing the implementation date (previously announced to users via email as 1st July 2025) so we can take further advice and make improvements."

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
drrimmer@aus.social ("Matthew Rimmer") wrote:

@pluralistic Reading this practical medical care story, I was reminded that there is a significant component of the Australian community (particularly men) who avoid seeing a doctor https://ahaclinics.com.au/2023/07/24/demystifying-a-visit-to-the-doctor/

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
zenhob@butts.team ("Zack") wrote:

God, this bubble burst is going to be so brutal

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
hmorrell@openbiblio.social ("HarveyMorrell") wrote:

@OrionKidder @pluralistic I love that the Martin Hench books are working their way from most current to the past.