When trade mag Variety launched on December 16, 1905—120 years ago yesterday—its beat was the popular entertainment of its day: variety shows.

Sure, its branding was a little on the nose, but at least it was accurate. The magazine covered everything from vaudeville to burlesque, circus performers to chanteuses. In short, Variety covered the live arts of its moment—which, in this local cultural moment, feels oddly contemporary. Burlesque shows have proliferated throughout the region; circus arts are roaring back; pop-up spectacles, music and theater of every stripe are undeniably part of our cultural bloodstream. In short, variety—in its live and local forms—is back.

In its early days, Variety magazine cost a nickel. For comparison, this paper is free, which, adjusted for inflation, means you owe us money. Keep it. There’s no need to pay us anything but attention, which we in turn pay forward as pixels and printer’s ink for the heart of our coverage: the arts.

Consider this paper as a kind of modern playbill for a fragmented live-entertainment economy—stitched together like a harlequin coat by talented people creating with whatever space, audience and budget they can assemble. None of it fits neatly into the usual prestige categories but all of it deserves to be seen, documented and taken seriously while we’re lucky to have it.

Taste-making has always been a contact sport between institutions and the street, and the street has a habit of winning eventually. Our local arts don’t need to be embalmed to be validated. They need coverage, context and continuity. That’s our position. That’s our pledge.

As it happens, Variety isn’t the only publication blowing out the candles this week. In a weird temporal twist, another legacy publication—Vogue—first appeared on December 17, 1892, as a weekly society and fashion newspaper—133 years ago today. Though, after an impressively long reign, Boomer-aged editor Anna Wintour passed the reins to a Millennial nepo-baby (skipping Gen X entirely, which somehow is perfectly on brand), we can forgive the fashion rag because it at least got this issue’s cover right. Petaluma High grad Alex Consani is the model adorning Vogue’s current “Best Dressed” issue—proof that, once again, the future shows up locally first. And you, dear readers, have a front row seat.