What Will It Be Like To Be Together?

Plus: The Grammys, Oscar Noms, and Steven Yeun by Linda Holmes Welcome! It was the week when [the Oscar nominations]( were, as always, a mixed bag. It was the week when [four hours of Justice League]( finally (?) arrived. And it was the week when the Golden Globes [continued to spiral](. Let's get to it. Before We Get Started ... Hey, Look! Pop Culture Happy Hour is almost 11 years old. And now that we're about ready to enter adolescence, we figured it was a great time for a new look. We didn't want to change it too much, didn't want to change it too little, just wanted a spiffy new coat of paint. And so we present to you ... the new logo of Pop Culture Happy Hour, which you'll see rolling out next week. [New PCHH Logo] Opening Argument: What Will It Be Like To Be Together? I don’t know when I’ll be comfortable sitting in a movie theater again, but I think about it a lot. I think about being part of a crowd again, a lot. Other things will happen first: being comfortable around a few people who are vaccinated (once I am), being comfortable shopping calmly (with a mask on), having people in my house again. It's going to be a process. But I think about crowds a lot. It’s easy to focus on how unruly they can be, obviously. Talkers, unwrappers, seat-kickers, toe-steppers — it’s a mess out there at the multiplex. Nevertheless, it’s absolutely bizarre to me when I realize it’s been a year since I was in a room full of people laughing at or applauding for ... anything. At all. Not someone’s retirement at work, not a movie, not live theater, not a Tiny Desk, not a book event. To some extent, I know I expect too much. It's probably not going to be magical or transformative to sit in a theater for a showing of something ordinary, and the first thing I see is statistically likely to be something ordinary unless I go out of my way to make it otherwise. It's probably not going to make me cry to hear a room full of people laugh again, and to be part of it. It's not going to make me cry unless, of course, it does. What I hope is that when I am with people again in a theater, or at an event, or even in a packed living room watching something or playing something with friends, I will note it more actively -- how much I like it, how much I value it. I don't necessarily feel some guilt or regret that I took it for granted that some dude kicked the back of my seat all the way through Guardians of the Galaxy. But when I've been lucky enough, for instance, to watch live theater, I could have been more aware, I think, of the communal experience of it -- even though that, too, has its annoyances and frustrations. I never expected to be able to do A/B testing on whether I preferred being able to enjoy entertainment in rowdy and unpredictable groups, or whether I preferred seeing everything by myself. I never expected to have a chance to spend a year watching everything in a place where I could control the environment, the temperature, the sounds (the dog excepted), the interruptions, the light, the timing. I never expected the monkey's-paw story where I sat in a theater and thought, "I wish I could just watch everything in my living room," and then I spent a year watching everything in my living room. I hope that the next time a group of lunch-drunk ladies shows up at a sparsely attended matinee -- as happened when I saw the 2009 Jeff Bridges film Crazy Heart -- I will ... well, there's no doubt that I will still find their constant talking irritating. But I hope I will also think, "Be happy, lunch-drunks. Enjoy the fact that we are all in this space together. And please don't drive home." --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- We Recommend: As you receive this, the first episode of The Falcon And The Winter Soldier is available on Disney+. We'll be reviewing it soon on the show, so if you check it out this weekend, you'll be ready. I've talked before about John Moe's excellent work as an advocate for destigmatizing depression and issues of mental health in general. I was delighted to find out that the new home for [his new podcast Depresh Mode]( (heh) will be the network Maximum Fun, a place where many of my favorite shows live. It's coming March 29, and I can't wait. I wasn't blown away on a filmmaking level by the Netflix sort-of-documentary Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal, partly because the fact that much of it is made up of reenactments (starring Matthew Modine!) makes me queasy. But I will say it does a solid job, on an informational level, of getting at the ways in which gaming college admissions is a systemic problem that goes well beyond throwing the book at a few rich parents who got caught. What We Did This Week: [Grammys Image]( Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy [Stephen stayed up late Sunday night]( with Cyrena Touros to talk about the unusual Grammys telecast, and specifically how a decent performance show was hampered by the bad habits of the awards themselves. He also [wrote up ten takeaways]( for those of you who did not stay up quite so late. On Monday, [Aisha and I ran down the snubs]( surprises, and pleasant notes among the Oscar nominations. Aisha [chatted with Ailsa Chang]( of All Things Considered about some of the big firsts that came along this year. [I also wrote about them]( if you prefer to get your puzzled and pleased thoughts that way. (My primary response: Mank? Really?) On Wednesday, Aisha and first-time panelist Inkoo Kang (yay!) [talked about several]( of Steven Yeun's great performances for our Essentials series. Thursday's show found Stephen and first-time panelist Laura Sirikul (yay!) [chatting about]( Raya and the Last Dragon. And Friday's show is our big [Snyder cut (of Justice League) discussion]( featuring Glen, J.C. Howard, and -- hey, speaking of Maximum Fun, first-time panelist Jordan Morris (yay!), of, among other things, the podcast Jordan, Jesse, Go! This week in high-profile Tiny Desk Concerts, Stephen [wrote up the appearance]( of a lad by the name of Justin Bieber, who premiered the new song "Peaches." And of course, Stephen was on hand for NPR Music's [New Music Friday](. What's Making Us Happy: Every week on the show, we talk about some other things out in the world that have been giving us joy lately. Here they are: - What's making JC happy: [Marriage or Mortgage]( - What's making Jordan happy: [Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me by Mariko Tamaki]( - What's making Glen happy: [Wolfwalkers]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. --------------------------------------------------------------- What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: [pchh@npr.org](mailto:pchh@npr.org?subject=Newsletter%20Feedback) Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can [sign up here](. Looking for more great content? [Check out all of our newsletter offerings]( — including Music, Books, Daily News and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Pop Culture Happy Hour emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Policy]( [NPR logo]