Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Carl Wilson

Emissary Of Night | ليلى @diplomatofnight.com · 14h

Fascinating report just released by DropSite which reveals that David Frum, while working on a profile of an Israeli ambassador to the United Nations for the Atlantic, was also shadow-writing speeches for that same ambassador.

David Frum, Douglas Murray Secretly Drafted Speeches for Israeli Ambassador

Leaked emails from former Israeli UN Ambassador Ron Prosor show David Frum, Douglas Murray offering to write his speeches and a CNN producer fundraising for Israel’s Iron Dome during Israel’s 2014 war

www.dropsitenews.com

40 350 1.2K

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 14h

He had some better moments sure

1 2

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 14h

It’s very weird to try to adjudicate a “fight” like this by claiming Frank Sinatra made bad music. Just say he was an asshole. (Also he didn’t fight his own fights, had Mafia goons do it for him.)

2 3

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 1d

Oh, I missed this the first time around! It's so great that you wrote about this scene.

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 1d

One last reminder: Tonight!

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 5d

I'm part of this event Tuesday (Oct 7) celebrating Jeff Weiss's new book WAITING FOR BRITNEY SPEARS, a memoir reckoning with his part in the L.A. gossip press in the 00s. It's at the Annex Hotel, 296 Brunswick, Toronto - panel starts at 7:30, followed by some live Britney covers! Please join us!

A poster for the Waiting for Britney Spears event Tues Oct 7 in Toronto at the Annex Hotel, doors at 6 pm, panel at 7:30 pm, featuring author Jeff Weiss in conversation with Natalie Harmsen (CBC) and Carl Wilson (Slate) - all three are pictured. Presented by Lore and Outtaline. $10

1 3

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 1d

Toronto! This is tomorrow (Tues) - the panel starts at 7:30 pm. Don't miss, Jeff's book is a blast, carrying you across four lanes of half-stoned 2000s nostalgia/loathing and ethical complicity at 105 mph with the stereo blasting and long-lens cameras flashing

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 5d

I'm part of this event Tuesday (Oct 7) celebrating Jeff Weiss's new book WAITING FOR BRITNEY SPEARS, a memoir reckoning with his part in the L.A. gossip press in the 00s. It's at the Annex Hotel, 296 Brunswick, Toronto - panel starts at 7:30, followed by some live Britney covers! Please join us!

4

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 1d

The 1D connection is a great one, tho, since Swift's link with Harry was such a big catalyst to fans combing her lyrics for "clues" - no doubt partly driven by mutual fans who were already doing so with their songs.

2

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 1d

Never claimed there was a Taylor Swift Year Zero. She was named after James Taylor, and confessional song goes back at least to that cohort of singer-songwriters (esp Joni). Fan frenzies of speculation over personal lives go back further. I just think Swift defined a particular current inflection.

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 2d

I'm so very glad you did! Fantastic. (Except that plodding Lumineers bit.)

1

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 2d

Yes, cultural turns almost always would have happened anyway. It's still a big deal to the be the figure they hinge on. Ofc personal narrative was always *part of celebrity, but hip hop changed how it was used in music, then came the internet, & then Taylor mainstreamed it as a dominant mode. imho

1 1

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 2d

For sure, she's huge in different ways to different people, which is the only way someone can be *this huge, all added up. But she's made parasociality and personal narrative an unconventionally big part of the music and marketing, so much so that it changed the norms in pop music.

1 3

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 2d

The writer/lawyer overlap is *huge for fairly obvious reasons - I say as the child of a lawyer and a librarian. But my dad actually actively discouraged me from going to law school, because he thought it smothered his own creativity.

1 4

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 2d

I talked about Taylor turning Shakespearean tragic heroines into Disney princesses in my Showgirl review - @lindsayzoladz.bsky.social takes that much further with this great plunge (heh) into Ophelia's place in pop culture. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/04/a...

In Taylor’s Version, Ophelia Has a Fairy-Tale Ending

www.nytimes.com

1 4

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 2d

I guess part of the question is what percentage of Taylor Swift fans are very-online - given that the main fans are tweens to early 30s, I would say *lots.

1 6

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 2d

Also the Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl announcement ... I think there are a few more.

2

Reposted by Carl Wilson

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 5d

I'm part of this event Tuesday (Oct 7) celebrating Jeff Weiss's new book WAITING FOR BRITNEY SPEARS, a memoir reckoning with his part in the L.A. gossip press in the 00s. It's at the Annex Hotel, 296 Brunswick, Toronto - panel starts at 7:30, followed by some live Britney covers! Please join us!

2 9

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 4d

www.theguardian.com/music/2025/o...

Taylor Swift’s Charli xcx hit job misses the point – and underscores her tedious obsession with conflict | Laura Snapes

Sixteen months after Charli used Brat to air her anxieties about Swift, the US star’s graceless response is a missed opportunity for growth – and betrays her vengeful side

www.theguardian.com

1 6

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 4d

In the most blinkered songs, even as people are actually being persecuted by govt for speech & thoughts, Swift spars in her gilded gloves with phantom oppressors in defunct terms like "Cancelled!" (As Laura Snapes put it: "the potatoes, they are so, so tiny.") slate.com/culture/2025...

Taylor Swift’s New Album Is a Masterpiece of Cringe

The Life of a Showgirl plays best when you hardly listen to it at all.

slate.com

3 2 24

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 4d

So this is basically seizing tax dollars from the public in these cities and refusing to provide the services they are legislated to pay for. The effective equivalent of taxation without representation. Which I think someone said was tyranny.

Philip Gourevitch @pgourevitch.bsky.social · 5d

That money was “put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting,” Vought said.

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Trump Administration Withholds $2.1 Billion of Federal Funds From Chicago

The administration has been freezing funds for projects in Democratic-led cities and states during the government shutdown.

www.wsj.com

10

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 5d

Yes, please.

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 5d

Jane Fonda and hundreds of members of the entertainment industry have revived the Committee for the First Amendment, a free-expression group that was originally formed by Hollywood stars including her father, Henry Fonda, during the McCarthy era.

Jane Fonda Revives Her Father’s McCarthy-Era Free Speech Group

The actress joined Spike Lee, Billie Eilish, Pedro Pascal and others in reviving the Committee for the First Amendment, a group that her father, Henry Fonda, was a member of in the 1940s.

nyti.ms

5

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 5d

A loud sigh of lamentation: Rest in Pandemonium to Nobuo Kubota of CCMC, great Toronto artist of sound and vision, 1932-2025.

From a recent exhibition at MOCA Toronto, a work of Nobuo Kubota's showing three rows of three pictures of his grey-haired face, pink and half-transparent, with his mouth in various positions and expressions of sound-making.

1 3

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 5d

I didn't know the Revue was doing this and I'm kinda glad I didn't find out until I'd become aware of everything else I had to do this wknd, because I wouldn't have been able to resist. Watching the last ep of The Return live at the Revue in 2017 is on my short list of peak Toronto experiences.

1

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 5d

I endorse this plan!

1

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 5d

Now on @slate.com: Swift repeats a whole lot of familiar steps on Showgirl, to diminishing returns in a world on fire. But the Martin/Shellback sheen glows if you don't try to look too close. Taylor, please take five, and put a million $ in the swear jar. slate.com/culture/2025...

Taylor Swift’s New Album Sees the Superstar at Her Most Triumphant—and Her Most Cringe

The Life of a Showgirl plays best when you hardly listen to it at all.

slate.com

1 2 11

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 5d

I lol'd

Maia @maiamindel.bsky.social · 5d

Taylor Swift Is Doing A New Album The Right Way - By Ezra Klein

1 1 18