Season 1 Gab: SHORTS! on Celebrities, Noorain's Wedding, News, & Vacations

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It's summer, and In Theory brings you shorts we've recorded over the past few months that are just a little bit shorter and little bit sweeter. Perfect for between quick dips in the water at the beach! This week’s shorts are on celeb culture, Noorain's wedding, how we get the news, and our summer vacations. Come on in, the water's fine!

Links to Stuff We Talk About:

CELEBRITIES (and why they matter)

This one is on celebrity culture: why we love to talk about celebrities and how celeb gossip can be meaningful in our lives (even if we never meet Snooki or the Hemsworths ourselves).

On moral dilemmas in reality TV:  

Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture, Ch. 2: “Buying into American Idol: How We are Being Sold on Reality TV.” New York University Press, 2006. Print.

 Hollywood scandals and why celebrity gossip matters:

Anne Helen Peterson, Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinema. Plume, 2014.

Allie Merriam. Let an Academic Explain Why Your Celebrity Obsession Is Perfectly Normal. Buzzfeed. 27 Oct. 2014. 

MOAR Anne Helen Peterson:

Anne Helen Peterson. “Jennifer Lawrence and the History of Cool Girls.” Buzzfeed. 28 Feb. 2014. 

Gossip, or “Rumor” (“compared with whom no other is as swift”!) in Classical literature:  

Virgil, The Aeneid, Book IV:  http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/VirgilAeneidIV.htm#anchor_Toc342021

 

NOORAIN’S WEDDING (reflections 2 years on)

Following up on Episode 5’s discussion of the Wedding Industrial Complex, Noorain talks us through some of the pressures she felt and decisions she made when planning her own South Asian-American wedding.

Abha Bhattarai. Lavish Indian weddings help D.C.-area hotels turn handsome profit. The Washington Post. 13 Feb. 15. 

Shalene Gupta. Big fat Indian weddings get bigger and fatter. Fortune. 8 Aug. 2014. 

And if you're curious about commentary on the class issues associated with weddings in Pakistan, check out this and this. 

 

NEWS (how N&M get theirs)

Maria and Noorain share how they keep up on the news every day: their favorite sources, apps, and thoughts on social media’s role in informing us today.

Noorain’s sources of choice:

NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/

NY Magazine: http://nymag.com/

Maria’s morning news routine:

Hourly News App: http://hourlynewsapp.com/

The Skimm: http://www.theskimm.com/

NPR App: http://www.npr.org/services/mobile/iphone.php

Getting news from social media: 

Pew Study, “How Social Media is Rehaping News” http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/09/24/how-social-media-is-reshaping-news/

 

VACATION CATCH-UP

Noorain and Maria bring each other up to speed on their summer travels, with detours to talk about amusement parks old and new, the importance of taking (and planning!) vacations, and unlimited soda.

“Happiness is ... looking forward to your vacation.“ Science Daily. 19 Feb 2010.  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100218125204.htm

Tanya Mohn. “U.S. The Only Advanced Economy That Does Not Require Employers To Provide Paid Vacation Time, Report Says.” Forbes.com. 13 August 2013. http://www.forbes.com/sites/tanyamohn/2013/08/13/paid-time-off-forget-about-it-a-report-looks-at-how-the-u-s-compares-to-other-countries/

On the West's imagination of the East as an exotic destination:

 Edward Said, Orientalism. Vintage, 1978.

Tivoli Gardens! Disneyland! Lake Compounce! Be a pro like Noorain and get through Disneyland lines faster with MouseWait.