The Culture Gabfest, "Toast to the Douchebags" Edition
Listen to Slate's show about the VMAs, Machete, and the rest of week in culture.
Posted Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010, at 11:08 AM
Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 104 with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens and Julia Turner by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:
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In this week's Culture Gabfest, our critics Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner are joined by Slate's Jody Rosen to discuss Kanye West's VMA face-off with Taylor Swift. They also assess the new Robert Rodriguez film Machete and Craigslist's decision to pull its adult services ads.
Here are some links to the things we discussed this week:
Watch Kanye's and Taylor Swift's performances at this year's Video Music Awards here.
Kanye apologizes to Taylor Swift on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.
Kanye's Twitter feed.
The official Web site for Robert Rodriguez's latest film, Machete.
Zombie film star extraordinaire and makeup artist Tom Savini's Wikipedia page.
Thoughts from a former Craigslist sex worker in the Huffington Post.
The Culture Gabfest weekly endorsements:
Dana's pick: The Room by Tommy Wiseau and the Harper's article "Cinema Crudite" by Tom Bissell.
Julia's pick: Taylor Swift's new single "Mine."
Steve's pick: Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl and read by Eric Idle.
Watch June and Dana's video endorsement:
Outro: Taylor Swift's "Mine"
Rule No. 1 for Female Academics: Don’t Have a Baby
Sesame Street Creates a Muppet Whose Dad Is in Jail. Way Too Many Kids Relate.
Here's What It Looks Like When a Technology Actually Dies
Stephen Metcalf is Slate's critic at large. He is working on a book about the 1980s.
Jody Rosen is Slate's music critic. He can be reached at slatemusic@gmail.com.
Dana Stevens is Slate's movie critic. Email her at slatemovies@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter.
Julia Turner is Slate's deputy editor and a regular on Slate's Culture Gabfest podcast.
You can email her at juliaslateturner at gmail.com or follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/juliaturner.
Illustration by Robert Neubecker.