kate wagner
@katewagner.wehwalt.net
Unheil-bringer. architecture critic @thenation.com, sportswriter @escapecollective.bsky.social. creator of https://late-review.com, derailleur.net, mcmansionhell.com.
she/her
she/her
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kate wagner
@katewagner.wehwalt.net
· May 28
The Götterdämmerung of It All!
Kate Wagner's radical reinterpretation of Richard Wagner's "Ring" cycle from the political left.
van-magazine.com
I wrote a radical (full) guide to Wagner’s ring cycle for @vanmusicmag.bsky.social van-magazine.com/mag/wagner-r...
Reposted by kate wagner
i wrote about why i am obsessed with going to the eye doctor api.omarshehata.me/substack-pro...
ways of not seeing
i am obsessed with the eye doctor
api.omarshehata.me
November 10, 2025 at 2:14 PM
i wrote about why i am obsessed with going to the eye doctor api.omarshehata.me/substack-pro...
Reposted by kate wagner
I LOVED this piece on the optometrist by Kate and all the eye-based allegories. It got me thinking about Ruskin's 'innocent eye' and furore it subsequently incited in the art history world. Or the eye in Un Chien Andalou, a scene from a 1929 film that I still believe to be the apex of body horror.
i wrote about why i am obsessed with going to the eye doctor api.omarshehata.me/substack-pro...
ways of not seeing
i am obsessed with the eye doctor
api.omarshehata.me
November 10, 2025 at 2:51 PM
I LOVED this piece on the optometrist by Kate and all the eye-based allegories. It got me thinking about Ruskin's 'innocent eye' and furore it subsequently incited in the art history world. Or the eye in Un Chien Andalou, a scene from a 1929 film that I still believe to be the apex of body horror.
i wrote about why i am obsessed with going to the eye doctor api.omarshehata.me/substack-pro...
ways of not seeing
i am obsessed with the eye doctor
api.omarshehata.me
November 10, 2025 at 2:14 PM
i wrote about why i am obsessed with going to the eye doctor api.omarshehata.me/substack-pro...
bad time to need lots of healthcare
November 10, 2025 at 12:36 AM
bad time to need lots of healthcare
going to get back into basketball this winter...does anyone know how to watch bulls games online if you're in chicago. i don't want to pay for youtube tv
November 10, 2025 at 12:29 AM
going to get back into basketball this winter...does anyone know how to watch bulls games online if you're in chicago. i don't want to pay for youtube tv
This is so good!!!!!
i wrote about the old wieboldt's department store on milwaukee in wicker park—fire, labor strife, leveraged buyouts, and the idiotic urban renewal plan that leveled much of the surroundings for a 600+ car parking lot and a jewel osco in the early 1980s
www.postcard-past.com/wieboldts-de...
www.postcard-past.com/wieboldts-de...
Wieboldt's Department Store, Chicago
The rise and fall of the multilingual, multi-ethnic department store of Chicago’s white working class.
www.postcard-past.com
November 9, 2025 at 11:31 PM
This is so good!!!!!
Reposted by kate wagner
i wrote about the old wieboldt's department store on milwaukee in wicker park—fire, labor strife, leveraged buyouts, and the idiotic urban renewal plan that leveled much of the surroundings for a 600+ car parking lot and a jewel osco in the early 1980s
www.postcard-past.com/wieboldts-de...
www.postcard-past.com/wieboldts-de...
Wieboldt's Department Store, Chicago
The rise and fall of the multilingual, multi-ethnic department store of Chicago’s white working class.
www.postcard-past.com
November 8, 2025 at 4:39 PM
i wrote about the old wieboldt's department store on milwaukee in wicker park—fire, labor strife, leveraged buyouts, and the idiotic urban renewal plan that leveled much of the surroundings for a 600+ car parking lot and a jewel osco in the early 1980s
www.postcard-past.com/wieboldts-de...
www.postcard-past.com/wieboldts-de...
huge news for the worst architects you know
Wild. They are figuring out how to store electricity in ... concrete.
Concrete “battery” developed at MIT now packs 10 times the power
New concrete and carbon black supercapacitors with optimized electrolytes have 10 times the energy storage of previous designs and can be incorporated into a wide range of architectural forms.
news.mit.edu
November 9, 2025 at 8:16 PM
huge news for the worst architects you know
the thing about substack is if you publish an essay on sunday nobody will read it bc it's email
November 9, 2025 at 6:23 PM
the thing about substack is if you publish an essay on sunday nobody will read it bc it's email
i am in a strange liminal recovery space where i've started to be able to write with some competency and yet my ability to read is still utter dogshit. my optometrist is convinced this is an eye problem. you wouldn't believe what turns out to be eye problems, he says
November 9, 2025 at 4:57 PM
i am in a strange liminal recovery space where i've started to be able to write with some competency and yet my ability to read is still utter dogshit. my optometrist is convinced this is an eye problem. you wouldn't believe what turns out to be eye problems, he says
Six inches of snow?????
November 9, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Six inches of snow?????
Reposted by kate wagner
Here it is, my 249th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below in comments, please share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️
blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...
blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...
#ScholarSunday Thread 249 (11/9/25) – Black and White and Read All Over
Here it is, my 249th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below in comments, please share as widely as...
blackwhiteandread.com
November 9, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Here it is, my 249th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Add more below in comments, please share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️
blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...
blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...
the brain is so fascinating because I have had brain injury insomnia for the last 9 months and then a few weeks ago it literally went away. Like I go to sleep at 10:30pm every night like clockwork
November 9, 2025 at 3:05 AM
the brain is so fascinating because I have had brain injury insomnia for the last 9 months and then a few weeks ago it literally went away. Like I go to sleep at 10:30pm every night like clockwork
this happened to me during the pandemic and we did wages for housework (i was the wages he was the housework)
“Sometimes I’m like, What if this is it, and I’ll be supporting us for the rest of our lives?” As long-term unemployment hits a high, women share what it’s been like to hold down the fort while their husbands struggle for months (or years) to find work.
‘I Wish There Was a Support Group for Spouses of Unemployed People’
What it’s like to be the sole breadwinner — not by choice — when your partner is long-term unemployed.
www.thecut.com
November 8, 2025 at 6:04 PM
this happened to me during the pandemic and we did wages for housework (i was the wages he was the housework)
Reposted by kate wagner
I've noticed that there isn't much talk here about the current internecine war that is unfolding on the right, spearheaded in large part by Nick Fuentes, Tucker Carlson, and Candace Owens after the assassination of Charlie Kirk. I know this shit is insane and feels bad. But this is a mistake (1/)
November 8, 2025 at 12:59 AM
I've noticed that there isn't much talk here about the current internecine war that is unfolding on the right, spearheaded in large part by Nick Fuentes, Tucker Carlson, and Candace Owens after the assassination of Charlie Kirk. I know this shit is insane and feels bad. But this is a mistake (1/)
my optometrist is convinced that my neurological problems are a conspiracy of my eyes. it would be so sick if that were true. i hope ur right dr tom
November 8, 2025 at 5:35 PM
my optometrist is convinced that my neurological problems are a conspiracy of my eyes. it would be so sick if that were true. i hope ur right dr tom
crisis averted my insurance came thru
If I did a McMansion Hell livestream to raise money for my vision therapy would that be gauche
November 8, 2025 at 5:32 PM
crisis averted my insurance came thru
my dude is firing the wrong people
November 8, 2025 at 5:11 PM
my dude is firing the wrong people
today!!
chicago heads! tomorrow I'm doing a @nyreviewofarch.bsky.social panel with venerated Marxist scholar Doug Spencer about writing about architecture and the weird capitalist juncture we're in now
chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/program/nyra...
chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/program/nyra...
NYRA Criticism Panel
The Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) is a non-profit organization dedicated to convening the world to explore innovative ideas and bring people together to collectively imagine and shape the future...
chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org
November 8, 2025 at 3:06 PM
today!!
ever since writing that piece i have been experiencing (mostly on x) what i can only describe as health anxiety denialism
November 8, 2025 at 2:57 PM
ever since writing that piece i have been experiencing (mostly on x) what i can only describe as health anxiety denialism
Reposted by kate wagner
in honor of the reopening of the met breuer, sotheby's, its new tenant, let me write the introductory text on brutalism and its many afterlives www.sothebys.com/en/articles/...
How Brutalism Became Both a Utopian Dream and a Dystopian Meme
Brutalism, an architectural movement associated with state power and science fiction, is perpetually misunderstood – yet it has left an indelible imprint on popular culture.
www.sothebys.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:59 PM
in honor of the reopening of the met breuer, sotheby's, its new tenant, let me write the introductory text on brutalism and its many afterlives www.sothebys.com/en/articles/...
in honor of the reopening of the met breuer, sotheby's, its new tenant, let me write the introductory text on brutalism and its many afterlives www.sothebys.com/en/articles/...
How Brutalism Became Both a Utopian Dream and a Dystopian Meme
Brutalism, an architectural movement associated with state power and science fiction, is perpetually misunderstood – yet it has left an indelible imprint on popular culture.
www.sothebys.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:59 PM
in honor of the reopening of the met breuer, sotheby's, its new tenant, let me write the introductory text on brutalism and its many afterlives www.sothebys.com/en/articles/...
Wotan had convergence insufficiency
Nah. It’s that or a Wotan eyepatch.
November 7, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Wotan had convergence insufficiency
Reposted by kate wagner
When @katewagner.wehwalt.net recently dubbed Trump's Oval Office aesthetic as "Regional Car Dealership Rococo" she was devastatingly correct.
www.patreon.com/posts/mcmans...
www.patreon.com/posts/mcmans...
November 7, 2025 at 5:58 PM
When @katewagner.wehwalt.net recently dubbed Trump's Oval Office aesthetic as "Regional Car Dealership Rococo" she was devastatingly correct.
www.patreon.com/posts/mcmans...
www.patreon.com/posts/mcmans...
Reposted by kate wagner
