Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 267 with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner with the audio player below.

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On this week’s show, the critics discuss the death of Lou Reed, his generation-defining music, and his eternal brand of cool. Next, they turn to the Broadway production of Romeo and Juliet, starring Orlando Bloom and Condola Rashad. One among many Shakespeare revivals in theater and on film this season, the production allows the gabbers to grapple with the merits of this canonical play. Finally, the critics discuss the poetry and artistry of Internet memes—can Twitter be a platform for 21^st-century conceptual art?

Links to some of the things we discussed this week follow:

• Slate’s music critic Carl Wilson on Lou Reed’s legacy
• The Velvet Underground + Nico by the Velvet Underground
• Take No Prisoners by Lou Reed
• Transformer by Lou Reed
• Berlin by Lou Reed
• Rock and Roll Animal by Lou Reed
• Metal Machine Music by Lou Reed
• Yo La Tengo
• Sonic Youth
• REM
• Roxy Music
• Romeo and Juliet at the Richard Rogers Theater
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Julie Taymor
• Richard III and Twelfth Night on Broadway, starring Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry
• Macbeth at Lincoln Center, starring Ethan Hawke
• “The balcony scene” from Franco Zeffirelli’s film version of Romeo and Juliet
• Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing
• West Side Story
• “The Writer as Meme Machine,” Kenneth Goldsmith’s New Yorker blog post
• Moby-Dick in emojis,  edited and compiled by Fred Benenson
• Ulysses in 2-D barcodes, created by Wonder-Tonic.com
• McNugget, a compilation of all tweets referencing “nuggets,” by Chris Alexander
• Kill List, by Joseph Kaplan
• First Surrealist manifesto

Endorsements:

Dana: Aftermath, a new World  War II film by Polish director Wladyslaw Pasikowski

Julia: Shakespeare reading parties (wine, cheese, and inviting Dana recommended)

Steve: In honor of Delmore Schwartz, Lou Reed’s poetic mentor, Schwartz’s short stories In Dreams Begin Responsibilities and Saul Bellow’s Humboldt’s Gift

Outro: “Romeo Had Juliette” by Lou Reed

You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.

This podcast was produced by Sally Herships and engineered by Chris Wade. Our intern is Anna Shechtman.

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