It’s a story about radical empathy, really.

An observation (born of much, much experience): Many people don’t know the difference between political journalism and PR. And, frankly, they want PR. By the same token, they don’t know the difference between arts criticism and PR. And, frankly, they want PR. An immature society.

this is how humid it is in NYC: I just passed a group of 8 or 9 year olds complaining loudly about the humidity.

Pete Townshend singing "I'm One" tonight at the Hollywood Bowl. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Yesterday, when I bought a bottle of wine, the cashier asked apologetically what year I was born. “It’s okay,” I said. “It was a good year. Better than this one.” “You got me with that,” she said, and it was today before I realized she didn’t charge me for the grapes I was getting. Solidarity?

A few pictures of protesters on Hollywood Boulevard today in support of Jimmy Kimmel.

Re Kimmel, it's important that Disney has left itself an out--it is a "suspension," not a cancellation or firing. What happens in the next two days--reaction within the company but also in the press, in the industry, in Washington, among consumers, and on social media--may affect how this plays out.

I would watch an entire play performed by Bobby Cannavale's hands. Expressive instruments, those.

Absolutely wild, the natural wonders people fly over on planes without ever noticing because they never put their window shades up. Sometimes what’s outside is way more interesting than what’s on a screen.

On Charles Ludlam’s “Galas: A Modern Tragedy,” revived on Little Island. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/t...

Redford's life was long, as was his career, which began on Broadway and in NY-based TV 65 years ago. But when I woke up to the news of his loss, I gasped. It felt like a face had fallen from Mount Rushmore--although if anyone had tried to carve him into a mountainside, he'd have led the protest.

today's national voter registration day. CHECK YOUR VOTER REGISTRATION STATUS. if you've moved and you've been procrastinating updating your registration, do it now. there are people who would absolutely love it if you don't make sure you're registered. go ahead and ruin their day.

Some personal news: I've been fired from the Washington Post in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting. Thread incoming. substack.com/@karenattiah...

Tonight on Fox News: a modest proposal, but unironical

I wrote a thing. As someone who survived the 1970s and kept the receipts.

Etiquette starts with the simple acknowledgment that other people exist. https://gothamist.com/arts-entertainment/10-etiquette-rules-to-not-be-the-worst-in-new-york-city

Independent journalism is the lifeblood of the Chicago Reader. That work has never been more important. The Reader needs a new Editor in Chief who can meet this moment and lead the publication into its next chapter. Think that's you? Apply before Sept 30. https://bit.ly/4n0IFW2

I love play readings. “True West” last night at the Cherry Lane reminded me why. Michael Shannon’s profoundly weird and very funny Lee had no need of a full production, but, man, was it tempting to think about one.

This! Also a great reported profile can provide real insight and pleasure but that takes time, even scarcer than money

And there are plenty of great Q&As and terrible reviews! But in a relentlessly gate-kept and stage-managed culture sphere, where stars recycle the same 5 focus-grouped talking points for each of their kazillion 10-minute interviews, criticism has a better chance of communicating original thoughts.

I also need to echo @judyberman.bsky.social that cultural criticism has way more potential to be unique and engage readers than yet another canned celeb Q&A. Sorry, feeling cranky tonight

This very entertaining Hamptons pulse-check by Jacob Bernstein is getting lots of attention right now, but to me the most arresting detail is a chef making special vegan chicken nuggets for the not-actually-vegan NYC mayor. Children’s menu, was it? www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/s...

Look at the moon.

“Crowd dissent on broadcasts is not a breakdown of civic order. It is its expression.”

Final performance for “Cabaret” on Broadway now Sept. 21. Go see Marisha Wallace as Sally Bowles while you can. She is superb.

“People may imagine the colours extracted from flowers will be muted compared with synthetic dyes, but [head textile artist Liz] Honeybone said this could not be further from the truth and she has been able to create neon greens and yellows. ‘Our forefathers were drowning in colour. They loved it.’”

When an artwork or an idea or a dynamic from the past resurges into relevance, that doesn’t mean it’s prescient about our time. Probably it just means humans are repeating old patterns again.

It can't be said too often: The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is one of the very good things in life, and the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive is invaluable. Cherishable wonders, both.

I'm looking for pitches for @MotherJones' print culture section, Mixed Media! These are ~2,000-word essays that combine reporting, cultural criticism, historical research, and/or personal narrative. More details in our pitch guidelines here: www.motherjones.com/contribute/w...

Incredibly enticing theater is slated for stages all over the country this fall — with Chicago, D.C. and Southern California looking particularly strong. A sampling. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/t...

Theater this fall on NYC stages is overflowing with riches. A sampling of what’s coming up. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/t...

Fantastic film series at BAM through Thursday: "First As Tragedy, Then As Farce: Anti-Fascist Comedies." I'd never seen Ernst Lubitsch's "To Be or Not to Be" (1942), but I remedied that tonight. Messages from the past — jokes, courage, heartbreak.

I am so not an urge-a-podcast-on-you person, which is why it’s taken me until the end of Season 1 to urge on you Podyssey — Alex Andreou’s brilliantly entertaining illumination of ancient Greek myths and tales. His voice is so mellifluous it’s its own enchantment. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

Communal Activities Are Fun and Necessary, Actually

I’m at a music festival where an older woman is on her daughter’s shoulders in the mosh pit and honestly this is what the suffragettes tied themselves to railings for

FYI Walgreens currently has Covid vaccine appointments available (at least in NYC) starting in early September and they are asking you to bring a prescription

We have big news! The Chicago Reader is joining Noisy Creek, a media company that’s working to bolster alternative weeklies. This national network includes The Stranger in Seattle and the Portland Mercury in Portland, Oregon. Read the full statement at: chicagoreader.com/followthereader

Some days I feel so acutely *why* I love “W1A.”

On Tshidi Manye, who is hanging up her magnificent baboon shoes after 25 years as Rafiki in “The Lion King.” (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/t...

usually at some point i'm pacing back and forth in my housing, speaking sentences out loud to see if they flow off the tongue the right way

Beautiful moon.

Hi I think there's been some mistake, I specifically asked *not* to live in interesting times

If you haven’t seen the West End star Marisha Wallace as Sally Bowles in “Cabaret” on Broadway, go, go, go — especially if Sally’s always annoyed you. Wallace is *astonishing*. And offstage, she’s living a new kind of American dream. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/t...

A wisp of a crescent moon, hanging there in the sky for us to look at, up and away from all this.

So scary, please send help

I met Ozzie Rodriguez in the La Mama archive when I was a nervous grad student w/ no confidence in my research. He was a kind & generous presence among the filing cabinets: a radical archivist & passionate historian of an institution he helped to build & to preserve.💔 www.nytimes.com/2025/08/24/t...

Slideshow of today in Washington DC, and how it looks when a terrorizing government scares people away. By me, no paywall: fallows.substack.com/p/a-summer-a...

if you're not from or have never been to new york i cannot stress enough how normal the subway is 99% of the time. kids take it to school. everyone is basically chill. you learn to be in proximity with harmless weirdos or minor irritations pretty quick. for all its issues it's an incredible thing

“Scar let the hyenas take over the Pridelands.”

On “Twelfth Night” at the Delacorte. (gift link) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/t...