The Culture Gabfest “Watch Out for the Dildo” Edition
Slate’s Culture Gabfest on Alfonso Cuarón’s new film Gravity, Masters of Sex, and “coolness” in 2013.
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On this week’s show, the critics discuss Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón’s new 3-D film, starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock as astronauts adrift in space. Visually dazzling, the film’s cinematography uncannily captures the experience of weightlessness. Next, the critics turn to the new Showtime drama Masters of Sex about William Masters and Virginia Johnson, two pioneering researchers in the field of human sexuality in the 1950s. And finally, with the help of Carl Wilson, Slate’s music critic, the gabbers discuss the concept of “coolness,” posing the question that befuddles middle schoolers and pop stars alike: What does it mean to be “cool” in 2013?
Links to some of the things we discussed this week follow:
- Dana’s review of Gravity on Slate
- Y Tu Mamá También
- Children of Men
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- Batman & Robin
- Speed
- Showtime’s Masters of Sex
- Thomas Maier’s 2013 biography Masters of Sex
- Mad Men
- The L Word
- Carl Wilson’s introduction to Slate’s series on “coolness”
- Norman Mailer’s 1957 essay “The White Negro”
- Kanye West’s Twitter feud with Jimmy Kimmel
- Chronicles, Bob Dylan’s autobiography
Endorsements:
Dana: Alfonso Cuarón’s 1995 film adaptation of A Little Princess.
Julia: Planet Money’s episode 489 on the nonsensical difficulty of wiring money.
Carl: Daniel Mendelsohn’s essay on Newyorker.com, “ ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’ and the Government Shutdown.”
Steve: Portuguese singer Amália Rodrigues.
Outro: “Cool” from the musical West Side Story, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.
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