The Culture Gabfest: We Saw You’re a Boob Edition
Slate's podcast about the 2013 Academy Awards, the “Harlem Shake” Internet meme, and the HBO series Enlightened.
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On this week’s episode, the Gabfesters are joined by Slate music critic Jody Rosen to discuss the 2013 Academy Awards. They consider the career trajectory of Ben Affleck, canned acceptance speeches, the alleged sexism of Seth MacFarlane’s opening number, and the overall gestalt of the broadcast. They then discuss “Harlem Shake” in its current iteration as an Internet meme as well as its origins as a dance popularized in the early 2000’s by P. Diddy and his Bad Boy Records crew. They also consider the relationship between online popularity and chart success. Finally, our critics are joined by Slate Brow Beat editor David Haglund to talk about the HBO series Enlightened, and how its lead character Amy Jellicoe breaks the alpha male anti-hero mold.
Here are links to some of the things we discussed this week:
- The 2013 Academy Awards.
- Movies directed by Ben Affleck, The Town and Gone Baby Gone.
- Slate’s “Let’s Talk Oscars” series by Dana Stevens, Troy Patterson, and Dan Kois.
- Alyssa Rosenberg on Ben Affleck’s Best Picture acceptance speech.
- The acceptance speeches of Anne Hathaway (for Best Supporting Actress) and Daniel Day-Lewis (for Best Actor).
- Economy of Prestige: Prizes, Awards, and the Circulation of Cultural Value, the book that provides a cultural history of awards and prizes.
- Forrest Wickman for Slate on Anne Hathaway hate.
- Movies starring Anne Hathaway: The Devil Wears Prada and Rachel Getting Married.
- Seth MacFarlane’s Oscars opening number “We Saw Your Boobs.”
- The Atlantic Wire on Michelle Obama’s appearance at the Oscars.
- Amy Davidson for The New Yorker online on “Seth MacFarlane and the Oscars’ Ugly, Hostile, Sexist Night.”
- “Harlem Shake” by Baauer.
- Aisha Harris for Slate on “Harlem Shake” and the video of Harlem residents reacting to the meme.
- Ann Powers for NPR’s the Record on the origins of the Harlem Shake dance.
- One of the music videos that mainstreamed the Harlem Shake dance, “Let’s Get It,” by G. Dep featuring P. Diddy.
- Jody Rosen and Chris Molanphy for Slate on the relationship between YouTube sensations and Billboard chart position.
- Chris Molanphy in the Village Voice on black music on and off the pop charts.
- “25 Best 'Harlem Shake' Videos (So Far).”
- David Haglund for Slate on why everyone should be watching Enlightened.
- School of Rock, The Good Girl, and Chuck & Buck, movies written by Enlightened creator Mike White.
- Todd Haynes, Miguel Arteta, Jonathan Demme, Nicole Holofcener, who have all directed episodes of Enlightened.
- Marc Maron’s interview with Mike White on Maron’s podcast, WTF with Marc Maron.
Endorsements:
Dana’s pick: 2013’s Oscar-nominated short films.
David’s pick: The soul singer Bettye Swann, who languishes in unjust obscurity, particularly her songs “Make Me Yours” and “Then You Can Tell me Goodbye.”
Stephen’s pick: The video “The Evolution of Mom Dancing” with Jimmy Fallon and Michelle Obama. Even if you’ve seen it 10 million times, watch it again.
Outro: “Make Me Yours” by Bettye Swann
You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.
This podcast was produced by Julia Furlan. Our intern is Sally Tamarkin.
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