Pop Culture Happy Hour: 'Top Five' And The Art Of The Mixtape

NPR

This week's show brings our pal Audie Cornish into the studio for a conversation about Chris Rock's comedy Top Five. We get into the balance of industry satire and romance, the particular variety of raunchy comedy the film favors, and how his deft handling of the agony of junkets contrasts with the actually impressive round of interviews Rock has done surrounding the film.

And then, partly in support of a great project from our friends at NPR Music, we talk about mix tapes. Stephen is an enthusiastic maker of mixes, and we chat about how they communicate emotion, how they are erroneously assumed to communicate emotion, and whether it's counterproductive to put them on shuffle.

As always, we close the show with what's making us happy this week. Stephen is happy about a couple of new albums, including one that abruptly appeared after being anticipated for more than a decade. Glen is happy about a 1977 Christmas special he would like you to know is a real thing. Audie is happy about a couple of albums as well, including this one and this one. And I am happy about a video that cheered me during a couple of weeks packed with goodbyes.

Find us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter: me, Stephen, Glen, Audie, producer Jessica, and our pal Mike.