Best new-baby gift ever, from @nybooks.com. You're welcome! shop.nybooks.com/products/i-a...

Not a Paul Thomas Anderson worshiper by any means, but Leonardo DiCaprio in a plaid grandpa bathrobe? Irresistible. On ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER: time.com/7318569/one-...

WGA Statement on ABC’s Decision to Pull Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Note well that this is a rousing call for journalism -- as it was and as it should be.

I think one of the better, more subtle tributes to Robert Redford's life is the string of utterly iconic female co-stars who've come forward to eulogize him; each of them take-no-shit types like Fonda and Streisand, and every one of them without a single bad thing to say. A model for male behavior

He was beautiful, and extraordinary. time.com/7317852/robe...

New Yorkers! Come on, you know you want to see this BIG!

Every day when I read the news my jaw drops to the point where I feel I need to tie it up in a little kerchief Jacob Marley-style, but that nudie Trump sketch & accompanying text is just next-level insanity.

a really wonderfully considered piece from @nymag.com. cultural criticism is the heartbeat of american cultural production and its history. the form gives tangibility to how we remember and how critique brings us to a place of societal betterment…. there is no life worth living without it.

Another insightful piece by @szacharek.bsky.social on a current and seemingly widespread trend undoing, or revising significantly, the old rom-com playbook. time.com/7310400/anti...

Nothing I love more than a cute, bald baby on a plane. (btw, he’s laughing, not crying, and if he did cry once or twice it was not bothersome because sometimes babies just gotta let it out.)

Stressful. Essential. From Venice: Kathryn Bigelow’s A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE time.com/7314253/a-ho...

I wore palazzos to a palazzo, because how many chances does one have?

9/1: Two gems from George Clooney -2005: Good Night & Good Luck (+ D; co-W) - more via @szacharek.bsky.social: www.salon.com/2005/09/23/g... -2010: The American (Corbijn) - marvelous Melvillian drama too cool for the crowd, but Ebert nailed it: www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-...

Please, people, don't ever be this guy. Don't let your kids grow up to be this guy. Don't be friends with this guy. #USOpen.

Grand, but not quite great. From Venice, Guillermo del Toro's FRANKENSTEIN: time.com/7313549/fran...

It's a Luca Guadagnono: from Venice, AFTER THE HUNT: time.com/7313453/afte...

JAY KELLY is a restless, wriggly, not wholly satisfying movie—but Clooney is at his Clooniest, and that's hardly a bad thing. From Venice: time.com/7313115/jay-...

BUGONIA, be gone ya! Not Emma Stone, though. From Venice: time.com/7313036/bugo...

Murano dog on a mission, no time to talk, lady!

Just sunset, no big deal.

Beauty overload at the Fortuny Museum in Venice. One of my favorite places on Earth.

Dad, what kind of sandwich did you toss at ICE during the war?

The missing piece of the equation explaining why so many critic positions are being eliminated is the little AI summaries at the top of Google results, which reduced click-throughs drastically. Once again, a tech company has stolen human labor and monetized it and doesn't care about the impact.

The Devaluation of Expertise (part 157 of ???)

Not that Michael, a terrific film (and theater) critic, would be easy to replace...but the Tribune is outright eliminating the position. Another publication doing its damnedest to gut the tradition and discipline of criticism.

Honored to speak to @markharris.bsky.social for my @thebaltimorebanner.com column about the end of the @apnews.com book review and what it means for the culture. I also mentioned @szacharek.bsky.social 's post about the loss of criticism in general. Enjoy. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/opinion/colu...

Half of the Kiss bros are from Queens like the Dear Leader (different class though). Too bad the Borough's true greats Joey Ramone & Mary Weiss passed before they could get their awards, rather than these oafs.

To all of you doing subscription-canceling today: I had hung onto my WaPo subscription to continue to support the journalists/writers there who are still trying to do good work, but today I decided NO MORE. When I went to the site to cancel... (1/2)

The algorithm has become aware that the phrase “special needs kitten” has a success rate of 100%.

YES to this! There's a lot that's free, and digital subscriptions to publication-of-your-choice are often not bank-breakingly expensive. We'll all take the clicks! Because sadly, they matter.

In light of Vanity Fair's recent idiotic decision, WaPo's offering its veteran critic a buyout, the NYT's "reassigning" three arts writers critics, etc., a lot of us are talking about the public's (and thus publications') lack of interest in criticism. It's part of a larger pattern of a war...

Polar bear sighting, 29th near 7th.

It's profoundly saddening to read that AP will no longer be assigning or running book reviews because readers don't engage with them enough and they take too much effort to plan and assign. People complain about critics as gatekeepers; wait until all that's left is marketing.

It’s clear that none of the trades reporting on this “story” actually read my essay. time.com/7308212/frea...

Like me—and Baz Luhrmann—you may have always believed that Colonel Tom Parker was a user who mostly took advantage of Elvis Presley. With THE COLONEL AND THE KING, (the great) Peter Guralnick convinced me otherwise. time.com/7307618/the-...

I know some of you out there are Silk Scarf People. As the tariffs loom, I thought I'd alert you to a wonderful designer, based in Nice, who makes beautiful silk scarves of excellent quality. Below is one of my faves (in the bandana size). Placing one last order, because...sigh. lechalebleu.fr/en

KING

Project! Just dyed these fisherman sandals a muted olive brown. Forgot to take a “before” pic, but it was the same yellow as pic 3 (with the exact same scuffs in the same places). I loved the original color, just not on me. I’m so happy with the way they turned out—and that I didn’t mess them up!

Happy 15th anniversary of the peak achievement of literary criticism, to all who celebrate

She's got a face that has chosen joy: Pamela Anderson is the best thing in the new NAKED GUN. time.com/7306445/the-...

So how can it still be called the Environmental Protection Agency? Needs to change its name to the Environmental Exploitation Agency.

Happy Birthday, William Powell. He's my guy! And maybe yours.

Mick Jagger's BD Note 2 key films: Performance - Our take: midcenturycinema.org/node/200 Man From Elysian Fields - *Mick's best screen work* more via @szacharek.bsky.social: salon.com/2002/10/08/e... See also Charlie is my Darling, more via @tnyfrontrow.bsky.social: www.newyorker.com/culture/rich...

Shark-alert flag, Bailey Island, Maine. Swimmers and scuba-divers beware!

The granny-plastic-slipcover train. No passengers allowed in the parlor!

There's something in these drawings that's kind of whimsical and free—NOT personality traits I would ever associate with this individual—and it makes you think about how people become what they are, and about what they might have been had the stars aligned differently.

CLUELESS (now turning 30—!) is great. But there are other reasons to sing the praises of its director, Amy Heckerling: time.com/7302138/clue...