This year's Oscar nominations have been announced. Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" lead the pack with 11 nominations including one for best picture. Also nominated for best picture was the silent film "The Artist"; the George Clooney film "The Descendants"; the 9/11 drama "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"; the Southern story of domestic workers "The Help"; the romantic fantasy "Midnight in Paris"; the sports blockbuster "Moneyball"; the family chronicle "The Tree of Life"; and the World War I epic "War Horse." 

Here are the Oscar-nominated and Oscar-associated actors, directors, producers, and writers we've had on The Takeaway:

Some might joke that his vocal chords are indeed much older, but celebrated folk legend Bob Dylan turned 70-years-old last year. Recently audio has surfaced from 1966, in which the singer speaks to a good friend during a flight from Nebraska to Colorado about struggling with addiction and contemplating suicide. It's the latest in a long narrative about a truly singular singer whose mysteries are still being revealed. We take a listen to some of the audio in question, and music that made Dylan a force of musical nature.

The Takeaway begins the holiday season with a week-long "Remixing the Holidays" series. All week long, we’ll be talking with musicians, music lovers, writers, and you, our listeners, about the best songs of the season. Jon Solomon, a DJ who hosts an annual 24-hour Christmas show on Princeton University's WPRB gives us his best and worst Christmas music of the year.

When it comes to sales, it's widely known that bookstores, particularly independent ones, face tough competition from online sellers such as Amazon. It looks like the battle lines just got tougher. With their new book app, Amazon is encouraging book store shoppers to scan titles they find intriguing, and see if they can get a better price online. The reward if you find a better price is the chance to earn five percent credit on purchases at Amazon, of course.

"Melancholia" is being called perhaps director Lars von Trier's most commercial work, but that doesn't mean it's not a bit of a downer. Focusing on a pair of sisters contemplating the end of the world — a "rogue planet" named Melancholia is on a collision course with earth — von Trier ponders whether one sister's depression actually makes her better-equipped to deal with existential emergency.

From "Hellraiser" to "Halloween," we are in the middle of scary movie season. To some that's a horror; to us, it's a delight. Movie Date podcast hosts Kristen Meinzer and Rafer Guzman gave us some of their favorite picks, and you did too. Combine those with the favorite options from our hosts, and you've got a set of truly hair-raising titles. Post your scream-inducing flicks here, if you dare. 

It brought in the big bucks, but did "Paranormal Activity 3" actually scare our intrepid movie date podcasters? Well, the review is mixed. Neither really lost any sleep about it, even though Kristen has a long history of being kept up by scary ("The Shining") and non-scary ("The Hulk") movies and TV shows. Unsurprisingly, the podcast turns into a discussion of Kristen and Rafer's favorite scary movies as well as a review of the latest blockbuster. 

Forget about classics — what are the odds for success when you're remaking a film that was cheesy the first time around? Well, depending on who you talk to, cheesy movies can be a good thing, especially if they involve Kevin Bacon. That's why the new version of "Footloose" will be judged with scrutiny. Kristen and Rafer discuss how it stacks up, from the soundtrack to the dance moves. 

It’s the story of a record label that defined hip-hop and impacted the music industry forever. In the 25 years since its founding, Def Jam Recordings has built up an incredible roster of recording artists, influencing all areas of culture, fashion, lifestyle, cinema and art, to become the sound of young America, akin to Motown in the sixties. The first single to be released with a Def Jam Recordings logo was T La Rock & Jazzy Jay's "It's Yours."

Detroit and Berlin both know something about abandoned buildings. After the fall of the wall when the former east opened up, parts of Berlin looked a lot like Detroit today, where scores of buildings stood unclaimed, their purpose unclear. While officials worked on a city’s future, Germans like Dimitri Hegemann, relished in exploring the relics of Berlin’s industrial past. 

"We were very curious...so when I could go in… I was curious like a young boy," he says. "What is this building? Oh, it’s empty? Let’s look inside. And this happened 1,000 times. We just invaded. This was, you must understand, the frame of these days. The atmosphere was burning. It was an amazing situation." 

Chuck Klosterman has his finger on the pulse of contemporary American life. His essays and novels examine not only sports and pop culture, but also what the most popular athletes, music, movies and Internet obsessions say about who Americans are. Klosterman’s new book, "The Visible Man" is a novel about a therapist and her extraordinary patient, a man who claims he’s perfected the art of invisibility.

What makes a great political movie? Suspense? A unique plot line? A surprising reveal? Or...Marisa Tomei? In this weeks' podcast, Rafer and Kristen happen to agree. On what? You'll have to listen to find out, as they discuss the latest political epic with a wide release — and Ryan Gosling's 18,000th movie this year, apparently.  

Detroit has long been called the birthplace of techno, and helped bring house music to a global stage in the 1980s — the kind of impact that still resonates around the world today, in the form of tens of thousands of auditory permutations. Berlin, which gave rise to "The Berlin School" of electronic music in the 1970s, has been equally influential — and is still a pilgrimage destination for DJs and electronic music aficionados from all over the world. So it's no surprise that DJ Rolando, internationally-known techno DJ from Detroit, is also a favorite in Berlin. 

What's your number? No, not your phone number, but the number of sexual partners you've had. Awkward question right? It's also the basis and title for a new Anna Faris movie. But is "What's Your Number" a good idea for a movie? Kristen and Rafer agree on the final judgment, but if you want to know what it is, you'll have to take a listen to this week's movie date podcast. 

In this week's Movie Date podcast, Kristen, Rafer, join a baseball-loving guest in discussing stats movie "Moneyball," starring Brad Pitt. Can a movie about baseball statistics be remotely interesting? Does Kristen's knowledge of the game run deeper than "Bad News Bears"? Does the movie, in the final judgment, satisfy people who aren't number crunchers? To get answers to these questions, you must listen!  

This weekend, a variety of anticipated movies are hitting theaters. "Moneyball," starring Brad Pitt, is a dramatic film based on Michael Lewis's popular 2003 book of the same name. "Dolphin Tale," which stars Morgan Freeman, is a family film based on a true story about an injured bottlenose dolphin. "Abduction" is a thriller about a teenager who discovers that he was kidnapped as a young child. And "Killer Elite" is an action flick with Clive Owen and Robert De Niro.

Since the 1980s, R.E.M. has been a reliable presence on the pop music scene. Songs like "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" and "Losing My Religion" helped define what indie rock would sound like for the next two decades; and for better or for worse, songs like "Everybody Hurts" and "Shiny Happy People" will forever be a part of our alt rock lexicon. Now that they've disbanded, what are we to make of their place in the rock canon?

Weeks after enraging customers by announcing a price hike, Netflix has subscribers up in arms again. Netflix is splitting into two different companies, the DVD mail-rental company announced Sunday. Netflix will now predominantly be a film streaming service, while their offshoot Qwikster will handle mail-delivered DVDs.

The much beloved ABC sitcom "Modern Family" took home five trophies last night at the 63rd annual Emmy awards last night. AMC's "Mad Men" and HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" and "Game of Thrones" were also big winners. The Takeaway's culture producer, Kristen Meinzer watched last night's awards and has her critique on the program.

This week our Movie Date podcasters get a special treat: a visit from "Mad Men" actress Christina Hendricks. Hendricks, who is also in two fall films, including "Drive," talks about approaching the differences between acting for movies and for TV, and about the next season of "Mad Men."