Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Thomas @thomaslstrickland.bsky.social · 35m

Or she could just endorse @grahamformaine.bsky.social instead…

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 1h

Breaking News: Janet Mills, the Democratic governor of Maine, is running for Senate, aiming to unseat Senator Susan Collins, a Republican.

Gov. Janet Mills of Maine to Run for Senate, Aiming at Senator Susan Collins

A two-term Democratic governor, Ms. Mills called herself “battle tested” in an interview. But she faces a Democratic primary before she can challenge the Republican incumbent.

nyti.ms

Reposted by Thomas

Helena Fitzgerald @hellafitzgerald.bsky.social · 2h

It’s bizarre to me that this is considered an unpopular opinion among people who claim to “love books.” like, what exactly are you doing with them? all my books are dog eared, coffee-stained, etc, and it’s hard for me to understand objecting to that unless you think of books only as decoration

Nick Pettigrew @nick-pettigrew.bsky.social · 16h

The veneration of Books As Objects misses the point entirely. If you're reading a book, turn the corners down, break the spine, spill soup on it. It's your book, go nuts. A pristine, unread book is a tragedy in a way that a beloved, much-read book that looks like the dog's been at it could never be.

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 23h

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

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Thomas @thomaslstrickland.bsky.social · 50m

“Most people, after all, aren’t looking to kill or be killed; most people just want to know how to build communities that can defend themselves.”

@davidklion.bsky.social on the durable resistance of OBAA’s Sensei Sergio in @newrepublic.com

How One Battle After Another Imagines an Armed Left

The rebels in Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie resemble the Weather Underground less than the right’s conspiratorial image of “antifa supersoldiers.”

newrepublic.com

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Thomas @thomaslstrickland.bsky.social · 8h

Maybe we all cling to del Toro’s Sensei saying “A few small beers” because we want to stay in that almost saint-like presence a little longer, and to believe that someone like Sensei Sergio St Carlos is out there, calmly and determinedly doing what is undeniably God’s work and going unnoticed.📽️

A ★★★★★ review of One Battle After Another (2025)

Let’s just talk for a moment about the actual beauty of Benicio del Toro’s performance in One Battle After Another, from his first appearance in the film, a close shot on his beatific face, to his las...

boxd.it

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Helena Fitzgerald @hellafitzgerald.bsky.social · 15h

it’s good when novels are huge and long and even occasionally boring, it’s fundamentally a durational form

Rachel Feder @rachelfeder.bsky.social · 23h

Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat

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Thomas @thomaslstrickland.bsky.social · 1d

Well okay, Diane, if you insist.

Thomas @thomaslstrickland.bsky.social · 2d

The listed writer and director of Love and Death (1975) is one thing, but Diane Keaton is another entirely. This film belongs to her without question.

For her, it’s a comedic masterwork, particularly an early seduction scene involving a (rented) piano. 📽️

A ★★★½ review of Love and Death (1975)

Diane Keaton is positively sparkling in Love and Death, effortlessly funny, owning every scene she’s in, and such a welcome sight to behold when the movie comes back to her. The rest of the film play...

boxd.it

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Thomas @thomaslstrickland.bsky.social · 2d

Battlefield Earth (2000) is so hideous a cinematic experience that even 25 years later I regret the 119 minutes I spent in that screening.

And yet…

Bright Wall/Dark Room @bwdr.bsky.social · 2d

One thing AI is good for is reminding people how even the very worst movie they’ve ever seen is better than AI “movies”

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Reposted by Thomas

ProPublica @propublica.org · 2d

We’re looking for anonymized photos of prescription bottles to help us determine where those drugs were made.

Here’s a quick guide to sending in your label securely ⤵️

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Thomas @thomaslstrickland.bsky.social · 2d

Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue (1997) is a heralded masterpiece of anime, and while you can see — clearly, visually, structurally — why, you can’t help feeling like something is horribly wrong. Given the psychodrama plot, that’s the point, the film does what it set out to do, but it doesn’t stop there.📽️

A ★★★ review of Perfect Blue (1997)

A film can be innovative and groundbreaking while it’s also incredibly uncomfortable to watch. This is just a given and always has been. Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue is a heralded masterpiece of anime, ...

boxd.it

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Helena Fitzgerald @hellafitzgerald.bsky.social · 2d

I endorse this with my whole heart and I also think, at least for this one weekend, we can all agree that Love & Death and Interiors (and, sure, Annie Hall) are Diane Keaton movies and you can watch them bc what’s brilliant about those movies, which is a lot, is overwhelmingly bc of her

Alexandra Heller-Nicholas @horrornonna.com · 2d

HOW THE FUCK IS DIANE KEATON DEAD BUT THAT OLD BITCH WOODY ALLEN STILL ALIVE???

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Reposted by Thomas

Helena Fitzgerald @hellafitzgerald.bsky.social · 2d

I’m visiting my mom and it’s 10:30pm here which means the only way available to me to watch Reds is on my phone which I guess means I’m gonna watch Reds on my phone at 10:30pm, now

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Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 2d

There are so many Diane Keaton performances to remember, but a lot of people haven't seen Reds, and A) my God, see it, it is a masterpiece and B) her performance as Louise Bryant is one of the bravest, toughest, least sympathy-courting pieces of work by an American actress in the last 50 years.

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Moira Donegan @moiradonegan.bsky.social · 2d

Should have been Woody Allen.

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Thomas @thomaslstrickland.bsky.social · 2d

Diane Keaton, photographed by Peter Basch, 1968

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Thomas @thomaslstrickland.bsky.social · 2d

New York City in mid-October.
Where it’s a perfectly cool fall day outside and a disgustingly humid summer day on the subway.

Thomas @thomaslstrickland.bsky.social · 4d

“This is a prize given to a cause which the United States has very much supported over the years.”

Meaning, you know, democracy.

Reuters @reuters.com · 4d

BREAKING: Venezuela's Maria Corina Machado wins the Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 reut.rs/42uh3Aw

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Thomas @thomaslstrickland.bsky.social · 4d

“A brave and committed champion of peace who keeps the flame of democracy burning during a growing darkness.”

Sounds like a great choice.

Venezuelan politician María Corina Machado wins Nobel peace prize

Leader of country’s opposition receives award after scrutiny surrounding committee and comments by Donald Trump

www.theguardian.com

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Thomas @thomaslstrickland.bsky.social · 4d

Visually, not much happens. Bergman’s Brink of Life (1958) isn’t a cinematographer’s showpiece. The writing is more honest than it is profound. But it feels like a story that wants to be told because these kinds of stories are happening in wards just like these all the time. In 1958 and in 2025.📽️

A ★★★½ review of Brink of Life (1958)

I’d been avoiding this one. Sounded too sad, too bleak, too dreadful. But there it was, the last of the 1950s era Bergmans on Criterion, and I needed to check it off my imaginary list. Turns out… it’...

boxd.it

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Thomas @thomaslstrickland.bsky.social · 4d

These are all variants on the same dude from marginally different timelines.

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Thomas @thomaslstrickland.bsky.social · 4d

There is no universe in which I would ever want to find myself on AG James’s bad side at all, much less even further on her bad side than I very much already was.

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 4d

The Attorney General of New York was just indicted by our tinpot dictator

Letitia James criminally charged in Trump’s latest effort to punish rivals

Prosecutor who sought charges was installed amid Trump frustrations with pace of investigations against rivals

www.theguardian.com

Thomas @thomaslstrickland.bsky.social · 4d

“The public criticizing an author or a piece of writing is not the same as local and federal governments passing laws to ban books by queer authors and authors of color.”

Maris Kreizman @maris.bsky.social · 4d

I wrote about how the road to fascism is paved with false equivalencies. lithub.com/the-real-thr...

The Real Threat to Free Speech in America is From the Right, Not the Left—Stop Pretending Otherwise

The road to fascism is paved with false equivalencies. For years we’ve been told that the censorious Left is a serious threat to free speech. If Simon & Schuster cancels one book because the pu…

lithub.com

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Thomas @thomaslstrickland.bsky.social · 5d

Summer Interlude (1951) feels like Bergman’s first attempt at what would later become Summer With Monika, ✨and it’s occasionally unbearably embarrassing to watch the young lovers at the center of this memory play drama falling entirely in love not just with each other but with love itself, and yet…📽️

A ★★★½ review of Summer Interlude (1951)

Ingmar Bergman’s Black Swan, Summer Interlude feels like a first attempt at what would later become Summer With Monika, and because it’s early and because Bergman is still figuring out what works and ...

boxd.it

Thomas @thomaslstrickland.bsky.social · 5d

Lafayette, Georgia.

18 miles south of my hometown, and if you’re a local, it’s luh-FETT.

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 5d

What’s the word where you’re from that, when pronounced exactly as it looks, identifies a tourist immediately?

Thomas @thomaslstrickland.bsky.social · 5d

The angry goose meme, two panels

top panel:
WHICH FASCISTS WAS WEIMAR
ERA ANTIFA
FIGHTING IN 1932?

bottom panel:
WHICH FASCISTS, MOTHERFUCKER?I

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