Plus: Beyoncé, the history of Monopoly, and busting ghosts

View this email online by Linda Holmes Welcome! It was the week when Beyoncé Beyoncé Beyoncé! It was the week when somebody paid a lot of money -- a lot -- for a door. And it was the week when baseball returned, extremely terrible uniforms and all. Let's get to it. Age, change, Godzilla and Aqua Zumba I am proud to be a person whose spin bike at home is not, as the classic joke goes, a thing to hang laundry upon. I like my bike. I like being a weird Peloton person with favorite instructors who hops on there and does regular classes or uses the "Entertainment" feature or does "Lanebreak" (there should be more Lanebreak options, by the way, because Lanebreak is great -- see? I have opinions). But last time I was at the doctor, he basically said, "This is awesome. Also: add more variety." Fast forward to my decision to join a gym and get a trainer, so I can also become a person with opinions about weight machines (the adduction machine is the most inelegant machine I have ever appreciated). And then I thought to myself, "If I'm going to pay for a gym, I'm going to get a lot of use out of it. Like, I'm going to do stuff." Fast forward one more time to me, in the pool, with a bunch of other people, doing Aqua Zumba. What is a photo of Godzilla doing in this story about Aqua Zumba? Read on. Warner Bros. Pictures What, you may wonder, does this have to do with culture, other than that Aqua Zumba included a glorious "Proud Mary" routine in which I desperately tried to get my inner Tina Turner to come out while doing my "rolling on the river" bit with my hands underwater? Well, here's the thing: I am on the older side of the people I see on the weight machines. I am definitely older than almost all the Peloton instructors. But I may have been in the younger half of the people at Aqua Zumba. It provided a refresher in one of the most important skills I work on as a critic: getting over myself. Getting over who I think I am supposed to be, as signaled by what I am participating in and what its associations are. I cheerfully told my friends before Aqua Zumba that I was going to embrace my inner older lady. And I said that because I know, and it is true, that water activity can be a good choice for older people or anybody else who wants to move around without pounding on their knees. And I try not to pound on my knees. I belong at Aqua Zumba! I knew what the demo for the class was likely to be, and indeed, when I got there, I saw three ladies who were probably a bit older than I am, all getting their water shoes on and heading for the pool. And it's a good thing, too, because they were friendly and happy to give me pointers on how the class was going to work. The instructor, standing on the pool deck before class, explained to me that the pool noodles and the pool bells -- these things -- were there for just a couple exercises and I'd know when to pick them up. The rest would be easy. "Mostly we splash around and have fun," she said. "Do you like to splash around and have fun?" I verified that I do like to splash around and have fun. Do not misunderstand: Parts of Aqua Zumba are quite difficult and go significantly beyond this description. My personal favorite part was when she got the class into a circle and had us walk in a counterclockwise circle until (in this fairly small pool) we had a kind of current going, and I was thinking, This is fine, I am great at Aqua Zumba! and then we had to turn around and walk clockwise. I am here to tell you, I said "yikes" out loud, out of my actual mouth. Because now you are fighting the current you just created! And the last thing you want is to be the bottleneck where the circle is piling up behind you. Oh no, I thought. I am going to disrupt Aqua Zumba! I had some of these same feelings when I saw Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire this week. I am not really a Godzilla person. I am not really a "big giant monsters fighting" person. Before the movie started, there was an image up on the screen that showed King Kong with a big robot hand. I turned around to the guys sitting behind me and said, "Did he have a robot fist last time we saw him? Because I don't remember the last movie that well." "No," one of them said. "That's new." (Fortunately, they were very friendly.) Whenever Kong or Godzilla opened his giant mouth and roared, a section of the audience up front would break out into applause. And that's helpful. Even if I don't think I am a monster movie person, I can go to a monster movie and let the people who have experience demonstrate where the pleasures are to be found, just as I did when I got advice about taking your own towel to the pool. And especially when it comes to what I am too old for, or too young for, or not the target demographic for, it's all ... well, it's not fake, but it's exaggerated. Just as you can fit in fine in a class full of older or younger or fitter people, you can be the oldest person you know who loves a book and the youngest person you know who loves a movie. The older you get, the less it matters who else is around and what they're thinking. And that, in truth, is why Aqua Zumba really involved embracing my inner older lady. Newsletter continues after sponsor message We Recommend I can't believe I haven't been doing the history quiz from NPR's Throughline, but you can rest assured I am righting that wrong as we speak. This week's is about Monopoly, and as you'd expect from the Throughline team, it's a step more interesting than your average quiz. You guys, I can't believe it's time for another season of Is It Cake? The world somehow knew I was in need. As a person who loves streaming documentaries, I'm always delighted when I come across a specific call to action that tells people about good ones to watch right now. Here are a few chosen in The New York Times. Listen to the Podcast Sponsor-Free Support your favorite pop culture junkies AND listen without sponsor interruptions with a subscription to Pop Culture Happy Hour+! Learn more and sign up at plus.npr.org/happy. Learn More What We Did This Week Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Columbia Pictures Glen talked to Greta Johnsen and Ronald Young, Jr. about Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. (I agree with them that it's a lot of fun.) Aisha and I had a talk about the disturbing docuseries Quiet On Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, and we gathered some thoughts about how child actors as a group have changed with time (if they have), and how that relates to people like "influencers." Glen talked with Cristina Escobar, Kristen Meinzer and Jeff Yang about the Netflix series 3 Body Problem. I was delighted to be joined by Walter Chaw and Jordan Morris to dive into Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire -- and to debrief with them about the recent Oscar winner Godzilla Minus One. And Stephen joined All Songs Considered to discuss one of his specialties: songs to help you relax. 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: Jordan Morris: Collecting the Simpsons: The Merchandise and Legacy of Our Favorite Nuclear Family Walter Chaw: The Angel of Indian Lake, by Stephen Graham Jones Linda Holmes: The new season of Is It Cake? Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+. Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free episodes. What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: pchh@npr.org 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