The Culture Gabfest, "Busby Berkeley Dreams" Edition
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In this week's Culture Gabfest, our critics Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner discuss the 82nd Academy Awards, the terrible signs at New York's Penn Station and Julia Turner's signs series on Slate, and whether the National Enquirer should be in the running for a Pulitzer Prize.
Here are some links to the things we discussed this week:
Slate's critique of this year's Oscar fashions.
Dana Stevens and Troy Patterson's dialogue about the show.
A roundup of Slate's complete 2010 Oscar coverage.
The entire list of nominees and winners for the 82nd Academy Awards.
Jodie Foster's poised acceptance speech at the 61st Academy Awards.
Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin on Saturday Night Live debating who is the better host.
Julia Turner's Slate series on signs, including pieces on why signs are better now than they've ever been; why the signs in Penn Station are so confusing; how smarter signs could make London easier to navigate; and the international war over the exit sign.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs.
The New York Times tips its hat to the National Enquirer.
The celebrity gossip Web site TMZ.
The Culture Gabfest weekly endorsements:
Dana's pick: The Web site Rap Genius.
Julia's pick: The Live Culture Gabfest in New York, on May 17, 2010. Ticketing details to come.
Stephen's picks: Yves Smith's new book ECONned: How Unenlightened Self Interest Undermined Democracy and Corrupted Capitalism and the new Magnetic Fields Song "You Must Be Out of Your Mind."
You can e-mail us at culturefest@slate.com.
Posted on March 10 by Jesse Baker at 1:07 p.m.
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