Mix Tapes

In the battle for falsetto-heavy lust-cyborg supremacy on the Billboard charts this week, we have may have an unexpected victor. No, we're not talking about One Direction, whose second studio album, "Take Me Home," is a lock to claim the top spot this week. The gloomy R&B project The Weeknd, helmed by singer Abel Tesfaye, appears to be a sleeper pick for the No. 2 slot with "Trilogy. " The album, a physical compilation of the group's three free mixtapes from 2011 and some bonus material, is expected to move around 100,000 units in its first week for XO/Republic.

Dear Karen: How do I reasonably compensate myself during start-up? Answer: Talk to your accountant or attorney about salary strategies and their tax implications. If you skip paydays, you are depriving your business of the basic tax deduction of owner compensation, said Bill Zimmerman, a consultant for Hartford Financial Services Group. "If you can, set up a token salary for yourself. Review this figure periodically and raise it as you can," Zimmerman said.

COMEDY "The Christmas Conspiracy!" Explore your inner Scrooge by attending the Upright Citizens Brigade's performance of "The Christmas Conspiracy!" It'll be a night of funny people acting as experts, scholars and intellectuals who reveal why Christmas is the greatest conspiracy of all time. The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre , 5919 Franklin Ave., L.A. 8 p.m. $5. (323) 908-8702; losangeles.ucbtheatre.com . MOVIES Cinefamily's Winter Solstice Nevermind Christmas, Hanukkah and Festivus ?

The house is rocking, but the stage is empty on a Saturday night at the Dome. Hundreds of excited eyes and death-grip fists aim the other way, at a booth that hangs high above the floor at this Hollywood Boulevard hot spot. That's where Keoki, a slight man who wears spiked wristbands and enough silver to start his own pawnshop, plays his music. The girls screech and the guys lose their heads in his sound. But he's no Elvis. He's the deejay.

Now that he's produced chart-topping, critically acclaimed rap music, DJ U-Neek is betting that he can sell it too--in his own independent record store. Recently, he opened a shop called Music Zone and is optimistically billing it "the Hottest Record Store in South-Central."

Chip Kelly likes to shave time. He's the kind of guy who seeks the quickest route to work and probably could have already edited four words out of this story. "Gone With the Wind," under Kelly's direction, might have won the Academy Award for best film short. "It would have been really fast," Kelly joked Monday in his office. "Get right to Atlanta, burn the buildings and yell 'time!'" The objective is getting Oregon to play football as fast as its second-year coach talks, and he's already machine-gum Kelly.