Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Claire Willett

@clairewillett.bsky.social

46K followers 1.1K following 19K posts

Chaos Muppet. Raconteuse. The internet’s gay Catholic aunt. Covering arts philanthropy at orartswatch.org. Writing books and plays at clairewillettwrites.com. Mentoring lefty grantwriters at tinyurl.com/8thHousePDX. I wish ill upon JK Rowling.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · Jul 24

here’s your Claire World freshman orientation:

1. gay shit
2. Catholic shit
3. Star Trek
4. Watergate
5. morally ambiguous female characters over forty
6. Billy Joel
7. fuck TERFs

welcome, please send these people some money

chuffed.org/project/1133...

The Refaat Alareer Camp - by The Sameer Project

The Sameer Project, a mutual aid organization led by three Palestinians in the diaspora, are the proud directors and funders of a tent encampment in Central Gaza that provides shelter and specialized ...

chuffed.org

23 23 250

Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 9h

to everyone’s credit, the director was like “stick her number on a post-it note over your phone and then just don’t pick up”

she would call down the staff list until she hooked a live one and he was like “none of you are paid enough to deal with her, just leave her to me”

Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 9h

she was SO MEAN

she was like demanding to speak to the director and said she would have me fired for my disrespect

I burst into tears the second I hung up and everyone came running out of their offices like “oh god did Claire just get Marian???”

it was like ….. I think my third day there

1 12

Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 12h

the most From Oregon™️ I’ve ever felt was when I was an intern at Manhattan Theatre Club staffing the donor desk. I was booking house seats for this lady and she LOST HER WHOLE SHIT when I politely asked if she could spell her last name

she probably didn’t hear that very often, since it was Javits 💀

1 1 130

Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 12h

she goes to a different school though you guys don’t know her

Bobby Silverman @robertsilverman.bsky.social · 21h

Bondi claiming they arrested [checks notes] "the girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa" has me in stitches

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 21h

Bondi: "Bondi: "Just like we did with cartels, we are going to take the same approach, President Trump, with antifa -- destroy the entire organization from top to bottom. We are going to take them apart."

45 390

Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 12h

this really is what I imagine life in New York is like

David Mack @davidmackau.bsky.social · 14h

just met a woman at a party & asked her what she did for work. could barely understand her because she was so soft spoken & had an accent so i just nodded a bunch.

“she’s in culture,” her friend said.

i finally realised that i was talking to
ANNA DELVEY

I ASKED ANNA DELVEY WHAT SHE DID FOR WORK

2 9 180

Reposted by Claire Willett

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 1d

doomscroll break

31 880 2.2K

Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 12h

Diana the OG SuperBat shipper

Reposted by Claire Willett

Chris 🎃 DevPods.gg gamedev community @chrisdeleon.bsky.social · 17h

Portland protestor frog costume: What are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge pepper balls?

Morpheus from Matrix movie: No, Frog. I'm trying to tell you that when you're ready, you won't have to.

70 3.7K 13K

Reposted by Claire Willett

Soraya Nadia McDonald @sorayanadiamcdonald.com · 12h

It was supposed to be Armenia but State wasn't allowed to admit Dear Leader got his A-nations confused so now Eric's just several time zones over looking like Boo Boo The Fool

mr pussy @mrpussy.xyz · 1d

when you say "Albany" wrong once and just roll with it and then you're in too deep

kos data: 🇺🇸🇦🇱 NYC Mayor Eric Adams is traveling to Albania for an official visit, one week after dropping his reelection bid.

(Via: NBC New York)

6 5 74

Reposted by Claire Willett

G. Willow Wilson @gwillow.me · 22h

The world is not ready for post-Keith Urban Nicole Kidman

Vulture @vulture.com · 22h

Nicole Kidman can’t stop, won’t stop making new projects: She’s had eight come out in the past two years, with six more on the way. ‘Why stop? You’ll have to tie me down, tie me up!’

Nicole Kidman Says You’ll Have to “Tie Me Up” to Stop Her From Working

Nicole Kidman can’t stop, won’t stop making new projects: She’s had eight come out in the past two years, with six more on the way. ‘Why stop? You’ll have to tie me down, tie me up!’

www.vulture.com

11 14 180

Reposted by Claire Willett

Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 17h

he's going to come after you either way, so you might as well act with integrity

39 1K 5K

Reposted by Claire Willett

Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 17h

incredibly, bleakly funny that trump is going after christopher wray, who spent his entire tenure at the fbi with his head down desperately trying to avoid trump's attention and did nothing to protect the bureau from trump's attacks www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Other prosecutors are investigating former CIA director John Brennan, another prominent Trump critic, and former FBI director Christopher Wray, who was originally appointed by Trump but enraged conservatives who came to believe he had wielded the bureau’s powers against them. Former officials have received subpoenas in recent days in the Wray inquiry, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

42 720 3.5K

Reposted by Claire Willett

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 13h

This headline is sexy af

Free Parking 🚘 @free-parking.bsky.social · 16h

This is exactly what we need. This is it.

"New York City Council member Chi Ossé, a close ally of Zohran Mamdani, is privately discussing a run against House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.)"

Scoop: Mamdani ally weighs challenging Hakeem Jeffries

Just talking about a potential campaign could drive a further wedge between Mamdani — the democratic socialist in line to be New York's next mayor — and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.)

www.axios.com

16 74 650

Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 14h

well I met a cute gay artist in the UK on Tumblr about ten years ago and things kind of spiraled from there

1 1 160

Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 15h

met my girlfriend of six years on Tumblr

1 17

Reposted by Claire Willett

Nate Wolff @natewolff.bsky.social · 16h

Lots of options but let's go classic on this one and say that time we shitposted so hard they put it in a peer reviewed journal and then that issue won a prize 🐳

17 110

Reposted by Claire Willett

Jill Blake @biscuitkitten.bsky.social · 15h

“the girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa”

Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund in Casablanca

140 1.4K 7.1K

Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 15h

ME TOO

I wish more Broadway shows were streaming

Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 15h

you have a higher opinion than I do of the kind of person who describes “Broadway” as if it’s a genre

I was immediately like “okay this is a ‘Cats’ person who wandered into this by mistake”

1 28

Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 15h

a strong case could also be made that if you were confused by why Bill and Ted would cast themselves in WAITING FOR GODOT, you might also not fully understand Bill and Ted

Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 15h

a strong case could be made that in fact, by selecting this play for themselves to star in, Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter have demonstrated that they understand WAITING FOR GODOT better than anyone else alive

3 34 270

Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 15h

1 7 110

Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 16h

this is very very funny, but I think my favorite part is the implication that Keanu Reeves got suckered into saying yes to a bad play

Lux Alptraum @luxalptraum.com · 20h

TFW you paid $1400 to see Beckett’s most famous work without knowing anything about it

One Star Review of Waiting for Godot on Broadway
I recently attended Waiting for Godot on Broadway and spent over $1,400 for two Row C seats (103 and 104). I'm a longtime admirer of Broadway productions and even hold a season pass for Shea's Performing Arts Theatre, so I came in with genuine enthusiasm and high expectations. Unfortunately, this show was unlike anything ! have ever experienced —and not in a good way.
What I encountered was not the artistry, music, or emotional storytelling I usually associate with Broadway, but instead what felt like an endless cycle of nonsensical conversation between characters who seemed trapped in their own madness. I tried-truly tried-to find meaning, symbolism, or even a thread of emotional resonance. I stayed through the first half hoping the second would offer clarity. But by intermission, it was clear: this was a waste of both time and money.
Keanu Reeves is an actor I respect greatly, but I cannot fathom why he would agree to participate in such a disjointed, inaccessible production. His talent was lost in a performance that defied reason rather than provoked insight.
To anyone considering attending: unless you are drawn to highly abstract, nearly incomprehensible theater, I strongly caution you against this show. For the average, educated, thoughtful theatergoer, it is far more frustrating than fulfilling. In my opinion, this was the single most disappointing Broadway experience I've ever had - an unfortunate waste of money and, more importantly, of time.

5 47 390

Reposted by Claire Willett

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 16h

Bray is a historian at Rutgers who received death threats after landing on Turning Points USA's Professor Watchlist. As a result, he announced he was moving to Europe. And then this happened.

This kind of harassment and abuse of scholars is Charlie Kirk's legacy and it's only getting worse.

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 17h

“Someone” cancelled my family’s flight out of the country at the last second.

We got our boarding passes. We checked our bags. Went through security. Then at our gate our reservation ‘disappeared.’

120 2.9K 7.7K

Reposted by Claire Willett

Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Podcast @gonebabygone.bsky.social · 16h

I know identifying hypocrisy doesn’t do anything but American evangelicalism really is just rules for everyone outside the tent, vibes for everyone inside

1 6 68