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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"

You can e-mail us at culturefest@slate.com.

Posted on Sept. 15 by Jesse Baker at 11:09 a.m.

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