This week, we lost a lot of greats: A deeply principled and charismatic country singer, songwriter and movie star, a veteran of TV and film who created many indelible roles, and, far too soon, a beloved, Tony-winning Broadway performer.
Here's what NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour crew was paying attention to — and what you should check out this weekend.
Hearts of Darkness
As I have been sorting through and enjoying the critical discourse on Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis, I have gone back to the fantastic 1991 documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. This goes back to the time when Coppola was making Apocalypse Now and had already started to conceive of Megalopolis. The connections between these two runaway productions abound. This is as good a film as has ever been made about the chaos of making an ambitious film. It is rich, complex and unvarnished. It doesn't try to rehabilitate anyone's reputation or forgive them for their excesses of the time. It's just a just a really fantastic, thorough documentary. — Chris Klimek
Interview with the Vampire
Interview with the Vampire it is an adaptation of Anne Rice's horror novel. But instead of the lead character being a slave owner who spends a lot of time on his plantation eating his slaves — which is a really vile part of the book to try to get through — on the show he's Black and it's New Orleans and he is trying to get a nice place for his family, but also he's closeted and dealing with that. The writing is gorgeous. You will love spending time in New Orleans in this show. The queerness is not hinted at — it is not subtle in any way, shape or form. Romance readers: What more do you want? There are so many of you. Please watch the show. — Joelle Monique
David Mitchell's audiobooks
The British actor, writer, comedian David Mitchell is half of the comedy team Mitchell and Webb who did Peep Show and That Mitchell and Webb Look. Mitchell is also a staple of UK panel shows like Would I Lie to You? His whole vibe is uptight, repressed, self-conscious snob who worries very much about being perceived as an uptight, repressed, self-conscious snob. I've been listening to his audiobooks lately: Unruly is about British monarchs through the ages, about which he is very savagely funny. And Back Story is a memoir from 2012, in which he kind of roams around London and tells stories of his life and career that are sparked by the places he passes. He's funny, he's witty, he's very, very fussy. And he is so consumed by the very British fear of any kind of social embarrassment that as I'm listening to him, he makes me feel like I'm doing OK in comparison. — Glen Weldon
More recommendations from the Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter
by Glen Weldon
Muffin Time is a very dumb, very silly card game where you play a series of very dumb, very silly cards against your friends. The idea is to collect exactly 10 cards in your hand – no more, no less. As soon as you do, you shout “It’s Muffin Time!” to warn the other players that your win is imminent. They, of course, may be holding cards that can force you to discard or draw many cards at once, prolonging the game. Other cards can be laid as traps, and played only once someone around the table does something specific like checks the rules, or complains about someone taking too long, or sneezes. The game rewards sneakiness, like the time I idly asked a friend I was playing with where she got her necklace, causing her to “recall an event from over a year ago” and thus discard three cards. HA! The fool! Like I would ever manifest sincere interest in another person! HA HA HA HA HA!
“Lights Camera Action” is Kylie Minogue’s latest club banger, and attention must be paid, even if you do not find yourself, as I do, firmly and comfortably ensconced within the cohort of middle-aged queer men determined to shake Americans out of their willful, soporific Kylie ignorance. What’s the song about, you ask? Five things, basically. 1. Telling someone who is currently in the nightclub that you’re about to join them at the nightclub (“I’m two seconds away/I’m right around the corner now”). 2. Informing said someone what you look like, so they can hold the door of the nightclub open for you (“I got shades on my face and I’m looking/Like Lagerfelds in Vogue”). 3. Noting that the music in this particular nightclub is being played at a high volume (“Tuning in, tuning out/All I want is the noise”). 4. Inquiring if they agree with you on this last point (“Tell me, can you feel it?”). 5. Lights, camera, action – that’s it (“Lights, camera action/That’s it”). Which is to say, it’s about Kylie.
I mentioned this week’s shocking death of Broadway performer Gavin Creel up top, but that doesn’t capture the full scope of what we’ve lost. To get a sense of that, type his name into the social media platform of your choice to see his fellow performers celebrating his life and talent by posting clip after clip after clip. I started on YouTube, where this 2016 duet with Aaron Tveit was the first thing to pop up. But then I let the algorithm send me down a Gavin Creel rabbit hole, and I urge you to do the same.
Beth Novey adapted the Pop Culture Happy Hour segment "What's Making Us Happy" for the Web. If you like these suggestions, consider signing up for our newsletter to get recommendations every week. And listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
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