Daily Rituals of artists and writers, Rectify, and camp on the Slate Culture Gabfest.

Slate’s Culture Gabfest on Artists’ Daily Rituals, Rectify, and Camp

Slate’s Culture Gabfest on Artists’ Daily Rituals, Rectify, and Camp

Slate's weekly roundtable.
April 24 2013 10:26 AM

The Culture Gabfest: A Rhythm of Liquids Edition

Slate's podcast about the daily rituals of artists and writers, the Sundance Channel’s series Rectify, and the camp aesthetic.

The Culture Gabfest has moved! Find new episodes here.

Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 240 with Mason Currey, Bryan Lowder, Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and June Thomas with the audio player below.

And join the lively conversation on the Culturefest Facebook page here

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The Culture Gabfest is on the radio! Gabfest Radio combines Slate’s Culture and Political Gabfests in one show—listen on Saturdays at 7 a.m. and Sundays at 6 p.m. on WNYC’s AM820.

On this week’s episode, author Mason Currey sits in to talk about his new book on the daily routines of creative people and how the coffee vs. booze dialectic played out among the artists and writers he profiles. The Gabfesters then discuss Rectify, the new series from the Sundance Channel about a man released from prison after 19 years on death row. Does the show’s flouting of narrative convention and its lack of the usual trinkety TV thrills make up for some of its heavy-handedness? Finally, Slate culture editorial assistant Bryan Lowder returns to the Culturefest to discuss his Slate series about the camp aesthetic. Our critics ponder the distinction between camp and campy and the oft-blurred line between camp and kitsch.  

Here are links to some of the things we discussed this week:

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Endorsements:

Dana: Buster Keaton’s 1920 short One Week, a masterpiece of American cinema and an allegory about love and marriage with jaw-dropping stunts.

June: “Writing in the Dark: Confessions of a Literary Night Owl,” Kathryn Schulz’s 2012 essay for New York about doing her best writing in the middle of the night, which inspired June to wonder if it’s possible to live an upside-down life.

Stephen: New York’s interview with the founding editor of the New York Review of Books: “In Conversation With Robert Silvers.”

Outro: “9 to 5” by Dolly Parton

You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.

This podcast was produced by Julia Furlan. Our intern is Sally Tamarkin.

Follow us on Twitter. And please Like the Culture Gabfest on Facebook.

Stephen Metcalf is Slate’s critic at large. He is working on a book about the 1980s.

Dana Stevens is Slate’s movie critic.

June Thomas is managing producer of Slate podcasts.