So I am heading to Venice to see some art at the Biennale and I asked a critic friend who’d just returned what I should see, and he said, “Oh, the Vatican City pavilion is cool” and then started telling me about it and now I need you all to read about it www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/05/07/s...

I don’t totally believe in this but when I was in college I would stay up super late trying to debug code or whatever and then finally go to sleep at 3am and then I’d wake up at 7am and know exactly what the answer was, so, idk

In the last few weeks I’ve had at least three conversations with people who thought the whole conceit of THE COMEBACK from the start was that every season would take place ten years apart, which would indeed have been such a great idea hahaha

How’s That? www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/a...

As I spent most of yesterday grading, I was unaware that a conversation that took place in a corner of a party at my own house had launched a minor war on Bluesky over the weekend, but I am not totally surprised

The Comeback came to an end, and @alissawilkinson.bsky.social and I need to know that we're being heard [giftie] www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/a...

I will be in Milan for a couple nights and Venice for a few in a couple weeks, and if you have a fav place for me to Eat or Drink Things, please send them to me

Canvas sucks but have you used Brightspace? It feels like a child could hack it

Is it just me or are there like ten times as many docs at Cannes as usual this year?

Absolutely delightful movie alert: www.nytimes.com/2026/05/07/m...

What I didn’t get into this story that I think about all the time (especially when I’m rewatching Sex and the City) is that I got into New York at the very, very tail end of whatever the 90s was, and the OG Devil Wears Prada takes place in that world too

My fav thing about the KA$H story is I was instantly annoyed it was Woodford (that bottle is unmistakable) and thus something good; my second fav thing is that this is buried deep in the article

Meta’s algorithm suggesting myself to me now

I wrote about watching THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA the year after college and watching it now, and how the lessons have changed. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/06/m...

Baby’s first lobby digital front page spotting

I wrote about watching THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA the year after college and watching it now, and how the lessons have changed. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/06/m...

These guys have their infamous STOP HIRING HUMANS ad placed directly outside my window at work but last month they “hired” the Wolf of Wall Street as a VP of Sales, or rather made ads pretending they did, which for this company seems to be the same thing. Their main thing seems to be making ads

The thing is that there are probably some ways to do this but having worked in higher ed for … well, a long time now … I am fairly certain I could sit down and write out the story of how this is gonna go

The Vatican released a historic report today criticizing conversion therapy and featuring gay Catholic testimony. It proposes a new methodology for addressing controversial issues, calling for listening and relationships. Read my report: religionnews.com/2026/05/05/v...

I had been eyeing a particular bag for months, it went on sale (which never happens), I bought it, it came and I took it out and it did not spark joy and I have already packaged the return, and in the past I probably would have tried to talk myself into it so I have either grown Mature or Finicky

Hannah Natanson’s reporting anchored a package of articles from The Washington Post that won a Pulitzer on Monday, four months after the FBI seized her devices.

I wish I could enjoy the advent of warm weather without trying not to appear to have contracted covid or something to my neighbors on the subway (holy pollen count Batman)

Also freaking THRILLED to see LIBERATION win the Pulitzer, and not only because when we got up to applaud at the conclusion of it I said, well, congrats Bess on your Pulitzer

I am delighted to see my pal @vinsoncunningham.bsky.social be a Pulitzer finalist again for criticism; he is just about the best around and I make a point of teaching his work every chance I get. Will be even more delighted when he wins.

the gates of hell shall not prevail against etc etc

I feel like the “Devil Wears Prada 1.0 wants us to believe Anne Hathaway is ugly” posts slightly miss the point of that movie. We’re not supposed to believe she’s ugly; we’re supposed to believe that she is dressed in a manner that the fashion world considers dowdy and embarrassing

A small funny thing about all of this is production wrapped on THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 before any of this was announced www.nytimes.com/2026/05/04/s...

I have made this (with baby broccoli and chicken broth) and it is DELISH cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020...

Steve can hang

Now that people are seeing the movie I hope they are enjoying this bit

This is sort of meaningless but I realized last night that with this year, I officially have been teaching for as many years as I was in school, from kindergarten till I finished undergrad, which makes me feel about a zillion years old

If you want to succeed as an artist, relationships matter just as much as the work. Thank you to independent curator Brian Beccafico (aka @arthemort.bsky.social) and Heft gallery director Adam Berninger for sitting down with our students this week to discuss their work as curators.

Here’s my video about it from a year ago, if you’re curious: youtu.be/DBcBiSEGSdk?...

I have been very cranky very loudly at two outlets over many years about the way the Academy handles the Best International Feature Oscar (one of the more geopolitically consequential awards!) and I am happy to see the new rules thread the needle in ways that had not occurred to me

PSA that if you pre-order my paperback, out June 23, from either of two indie bookstores in NYC, I'll sign the copy before it gets to you. Order from Books are Magic (Brooklyn): www.booksaremagic.net/item/KbKT8pc... Or The Strand (Manhattan): www.strandbooks.com/we-tell-ours...

This is regarding Animal Farm and I’ve been surprised how many lazy reviews I read blaming the film’s script/ideology/production on them when they didn’t even get involved till half a minute ago

I cannot even fathom how this one happened www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/m...

I cannot even fathom how this one happened www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/m...

The best thing about the new DEVIL WEARS PRADA is probably the billionaire it mercilessly trashes, but that’s all I can say about that for now …

Last night at a gala honoring George Clooney, the man himself told a few stories, including this one, and it's one of those things that you just sort of will never forget.

Portland, OR area friends: I've been alerted to this BANGER of a Frederick Wiseman event that you'd be insane to miss: www.nwdoc.org/wiseman44/

Dying to read this but have no doubt it is worth your notice

Just like to be clear, the meta-joke of JAY KELLY is that — as I say in my review — Clooney is a man of many friends and beloved of his devoted wife, who everyone acknowledges he married leagues above him

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this biography of #Sondheim but it does contain this rather spectacular example of fact-checking at its finest

Attending a George Clooney tribute does not feel entirely unlike going to JAY KELLY in 4DX

I did *get* a bunch of emails about That Movie over the weekend, but the ones that disagreed with me all said, to a one, "Why can't we just enjoy a movie and not think about what's wrong with it?" Which, you know, nobody's telling you you can't. That choice is entirely on you.

As I say, the craziest part (besides revisiting the fact that Leonard Bernstein was a stone-cold fox — I didn’t say that part) is that it first premiered in 2021 but feels like it was made for a world where the Kennedy Center is being shut down and federal support for the arts is being gutted

New doc “Bernstein’s Wall” focuses on “Bernstein’s advocacy for antiwar causes, the civil rights movement, human rights & world peace. We hear him speak repeatedly about his belief that artists are natural dissenters because freedom is essential to artistic expression.” @alissawilkinson.bsky.social

"I'm an adult. I can do what I want. I need a break from Zoom meetings and 'circling back'. I need a big-ass slice of perfectly moist vanilla cake with rainbow sprinkles inside slathered with vanilla frosting."

NEW YORK FRIENDS: Robb Moss's "The Bend in the River" (the third film in the trilogy that includes "Riverdogs" and "The Same River Twice") is playing First Look at MoMI on Sunday. It's so, so good. Go see it. movingimage.org/event/the-be...