Brooklyn Bridge at Sunrise -- May 19th, 2026, 8:19 AM

The Ed Sullivan Theater Goes Dark

Stephen Colbert signed off The Late Show last night and now, after 33 years, one of the big 11:30 PM talk shows is gone. I attended a taping of the show back in 2018 and blogged about it at the time.

It's sad to think that all of the talent and energy I saw that day is now gone. Colbert and this show deserved better but the monsters who now run CBS decided, in the most cowardly way possible, to censor him for political reasons.

So it goes.

The Late Show ran for all 33 years from The Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway and 53rd Street. The theater was, in many ways, the first sign of the theater district and the entire Times Square area. When you came upon it you it was like the theater was welcoming you to the cultural heart of NYC -- and America.

I didn't spend a lot of time in the theater district as a kid but I remember that when I was there I would pass The Ed Sullivan Theater which, at the time, had a big black and white marquee. It would announce various taping for various shows -- including the 1980s sitcom Kate & Allie. Often the theater would lie empty and it looked a little run down. It just seemed to sit there -- it's amazing history as the place where Ed Sullivan changed the culture with the Beatles and numerous other artists long in the past.

Then, in 1993, it found its second life.

David Letterman started The Late Show that year and it once again became a massive cultural hub, basically the nerve center for NYC cultural hub. I was in high school at the time and it was really exciting! The theater screamed "New York!" to the rest of America -- and the rest of America loved it. 

And now it's all over.

The Ed Sullivan Theater is once again just sitting there empty. It's gone dark. So far there are apparently now plans to use it for anything again. That would be tragic. It's a beautiful space in the heart of Manhattan and it let it wither would be criminals. But since our country is being run and owned by criminals, I don't hold out hope.

Light a candle for the Ed Sullivan Theater. It needs the love.

NYC: The Movie Theater

Summer in NYC is always busy and wild, lots always going on. But one of the best things is that there are lots of free outdoor movies all over the city that friends and family can enjoy.

The most famous one is the long-running free outdoor movies in Bryant Park: I've seen A Streetcar Named Desire, MASH, and others there since I was in high school.

But there's lots more free outdoor movies around town including in Central Park, Riverside Park, the Intrepid and the other four boroughs. It's a cornucopia of cinematic goodness. 

Here's a list of links to all outdoor movies around NYC this summer. All you need is a blanket and water -- and seeing a movie on the big screen with lots of your fellow New Yorkers is so much better than being alone with a streaming service!

LIRR Strike ... Over!

LIRR Strike!

The first in 30 years ... swaths of Queens and Brooklyn cut off!

Letterman and Colbert Bid "The Late Show" Adieu ... with Wanton Destruction

"Tony" ... Is Coming

The late chef/food writer/TV-travel host, all-around NYC legend and my former neighbor Anthony Bourdain died by suicide in 2018.

But now his life story, specifically, his early years learning to cook in Massachusetts while romancing his first wife Nancy, has been turned into a movie called Tony that will be coming out this summer.

This is strange -- I've never seen a bio-pic about a person, let alone a couple, that I've actually met and been in the apartment of. Nancy still lives in my parents' building and I've run into a few times -- she's a very sweet, friendly lady so I hope this movie does her well. 

I'll be interested to see it!

Please Help!

Gawker, Oligarchs, Nate Jacobs & Newton's Third Law

Recently I was reading a long article about the 10-year "anniversary" of the fall of Gawker -- the early 2000s and 2010s NYC gossip blog that was known for being nasty, funny, and totally no-holds-barred in whom it covered and lampooned (including reporting on Harvey Weinstein's predations long before the rest of the media). As Chatgtp summarizes Gawker's history:

"Gawker.com was a highly influential American gossip and media blog founded in 2002 by Nick Denton. It became known for sharp, sarcastic coverage of media, politics, technology, and celebrity culture, especially focused on New York media insiders and internet culture.

Key things about Gawker:

• It helped define the “blog era” of the 2000s alongside sites like Gizmodo, Jezebel, Deadspin, and Kotaku, which were all part of the larger Gawker Media network.
• The site mixed investigative reporting with aggressive gossip and commentary.
• It became famous — and controversial — for publishing leaked information, embarrassing stories about public figures, and a blunt editorial tone.

The site effectively ended after a major lawsuit involving wrestler Hulk Hogan. In 2012, Gawker published excerpts of a private sex tape involving Hogan. He sued for invasion of privacy and won a $140 million judgment in 2016. The lawsuit was secretly funded by billionaire Peter Thiel, who had longstanding grievances against Gawker after it publicly outed him as gay years earlier.

The verdict forced Gawker Media into bankruptcy, and its assets were sold to Univision. The original Gawker site shut down in 2016."

When it shut down, Nick Denton wrote its last post called "How Things Work" about how wealthy and powerful people can abuse, lie, and destroy -- and get away with it. It's not unconincidental that a few months later Trump was elected president and the reign of the oligarchs -- Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, the Eillisons, and others -- began. And not since the Gilded Age has American government, media, and life been this corrupt and cruel, acting with impunity, treating everyone as either an employee or an enemy, absorbing or ruining everything and everyone in its way. 

Gawker spoke truth to power -- so naturally power destroyed it.

And yet ... Newton's Third Law of Motion still exists: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. You see this in the opposition to Trump: the massive No Kings protests, the election results that are going horribly for his party, the surge of independent media cracking open the truth. 

Monsters and despots are eventually destroyed -- Caligula, Napoleon, Hitler, and countless others. 

I've watching the third season of the HBO show Euphoria. In the first two seasons, the character of Nate Jacobs (playing brilliantly by Jacob Elordi) is everything that's wrong with American men today: his large size, goodlooks, and family's wealthy allows him to abuse men and women, commit crimes (and get away with it) and just generally be an asshole. 

And yet ... karma eventually comes for Nate. Character is fate -- and the horrible Nate has, not shockingly, gotten deeply into debt after conning a gangster out of money. Naturally the gangster comes to collect -- and it comes in the form of beating Nate senseless and cutting off his pinky toe, and on his wedding day no less! No one feels sorry for him -- his years of abuse and impunity towards those weaker than him has lead him to this point ... and now a force more powerful than him is striking back, horrifcally.

One day the monsters ruling out world will be get their commupance -- and they can only hope that they will have all their fingers and toes and limbs at the end of it.

John Sterling RIP

The longtime Voice of the Yankees, John Sterling, has passed away. RIP.