Current:Home > FinanceWhat's Making Us Happy: A guide to your weekend reading, watching and listening -DollarDynamic
What's Making Us Happy: A guide to your weekend reading, watching and listening
View
Date:2025-04-27 13:38:05
This week we paid homage to an epic summer trifecta, saw new efforts to unionize in Hollywood, and bid farewell to DJ Casper, William Friedkin and Mark Margolis.
Here's what the NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour crew was paying attention to — and what you should check out this weekend.
Burn It Down by Maureen Ryan
I have been reading Burn It Down: Power, Complicity and a Call for Change in Hollywood by Maureen Ryan. It is one of those books that, while you read, you're screaming, you're gasping, you're tearing your hair out. You're running to Reddit to see if you can try to unravel who these anonymous sources are and what project they're talking about. It is just one of those books that you want to talk to everybody about. It is an incredible feat of reporting of how many sources Ryan talked to, how much knowledge she has collected, and how carefully she's thought about a lot of these issues. If you are a lover of media, this is recommended reading. — Cyrena Touros
The film crowdfunding site Seed&Spark
There's a website called Seed&Spark where the mission is to help independent filmmakers create long careers through developing audiences who support them, either financially, or through trading and offering services. The films that are coming out of there are so sweet, and beautiful, and passionate, and weird, and funny. It encouraged me to start going back into filmmaking — I haven't made a film since I graduated from film school. It's been a really incredible experience to watch people succeed, thrive and launch careers that are sustainable through this space. If you're the kind of person who just wants to support films I highly recommend Seed&Spark. — Joelle Monique
"All Over Again" from Brandy Clark's self-titled album
Lately we've been hearing a lot about the culture wars playing out in country music. As someone who's from the South and is a country music fan, I don't want those things to overshadow the amazing musicians who are making just phenomenal country music. What's making me happy in the last couple months is the new album by Brandy Clark. She is one of the most impressive songwriters — she writes for herself and others. She's also queer and her self-titled album, Brandy Clark, is one of my favorites of the year. — Jeffrey Masters
The musical episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
"Subspace Rhapsody" is a musical episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which is streaming on Paramount+. In it, the crew of the Enterprise encounters — wait for it — a strange space anomaly that causes them to burst into song and reveal their most closely held secrets to each other. If you think: Well, that sounds an awful lot like the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode, you're right — and they know it. They acknowledge it several times in the episode with fun little shout outs I won't spoil. It's got a terrific opening number and a grand finale that is corny as hell — but that kind of kind of works, right? They've got several great singers in the cast, including Celia Rose Gooding, who was nominated for a Tony for Jagged Little Pill on Broadway. Most shows wait a bit longer to pull out a stunt like this, but Strange New Worlds has always had a really good sense of humor about itself, and it really pays off here. — Glen Weldon
More recommendations from the Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter
by Linda Holmes
Eric Deggans had a terrific piece this week about brawl memes and folding chairs.
Also from our team at NPR, Bilal Qureshi looked at the billion-dollar summer of Taylor Swift, Barbie and Beyoncé.
I very much like the HBO docuseries Telemarketers, which premieres on Sunday. Focused on the Civic Development Group, a telemarketing outfit that did a lot of those "I'm calling on behalf of injured police officers" calls, it starts out seeming like it's about one thing — the grift of pretending to be representing the police — and ends up being about a bunch of other things. It's also a highly entertaining character portrait of some guys from New Jersey who you just need to watch to fully understand. It will also make you never answer a call again if you don't know who's on the line.
Emma Cline's The Guest is a very buzzy book right now, about a woman who gets kicked out of her rich boyfriend's house and has to figure out how to survive for a few days in the Hamptons with no resources except her ability to weasel into people's lives. I liked it a lot, and it gets its work done economically.
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.
veryGood! (8528)
Related
- Juan Soto praise of Mets' future a tough sight for Yankees, but World Series goal remains
- USC's Bronny James cleared to return to basketball 4 months after cardiac arrest
- GOP Rep. George Santos warns his expulsion from Congress before conviction would set a precedent
- Jill Biden unveils White House ice rink
- Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Triathlon
- See Blue Ivy and Beyoncé's Buzzing Moment at Renaissance Film London Premiere
- Iowa Lottery posted wrong Powerball numbers — but temporary winners get to keep the money
- AP Week in Pictures: Asia
- 'Vanderpump Rules' star DJ James Kennedy arrested on domestic violence charges
- Haslam family refutes allegation from Warren Buffett’s company that it bribed truck stop chain execs
Ranking
- Paula Abdul settles lawsuit with former 'So You Think You Can Dance' co
- Shannen Doherty shares update on stage 4 breast cancer: 'I'm not done with life'
- Stock market today: Asian shares slip after Wall Street ends its best month of ’23 with big gains
- Former Myanmar colonel who once served as information minister gets 10-year prison term for sedition
- Apple iOS 18.2: What to know about top features, including Genmoji, AI updates
- The average long-term US mortgage rate falls to 7.22%, sliding to lowest level since late September
- Shane MacGowan, lead singer of The Pogues and a laureate of booze and beauty, dies at age 65
- Tesla delivers 13 stainless steel Cybertruck pickups as it tries to work out production problems
Recommendation
Opinion: Gianni Infantino, FIFA sell souls and 2034 World Cup for Saudi Arabia's billions
Publishing industry heavy-hitters sue Iowa over state’s new school book-banning law
FedEx worker dies in an accident at the shipping giant’s Memphis hub
Top world leaders will speak at UN climate summit. Global warming, fossil fuels will be high in mind
Highlights from Trump’s interview with Time magazine
Former Myanmar colonel who once served as information minister gets 10-year prison term for sedition
Which NFL teams could jump into playoff picture? Ranking seven outsiders from worst to best
An active 2023 hurricane season comes to a close