Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Lisa Hirsch

@lisairontongue.bsky.social

1.9K followers 1.1K following 3.9K posts

Music writer (SF Classical Voice, SF Chronicle, Opera). Blogs at irontongue.blogspot.com. Alto, martial artist. Former tech writer. Music, books, politics, food, public health. Cis, queer, Jewish. I instablock men who follow only women's accounts.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Lisa Hirsch @lisairontongue.bsky.social · Apr 12

My posts are roughly 40% classical music and opera; 40% leftist politics; 20% books / food / cat photos / architecture / other stuff.

1 12

Lisa Hirsch @lisairontongue.bsky.social · 13h

Maybe! I've only seen it once.

Lisa Hirsch @lisairontongue.bsky.social · 13h

Oh, I love the book!

Lisa Hirsch @lisairontongue.bsky.social · 13h

It's got beautiful music, so yeah.

Lisa Hirsch @lisairontongue.bsky.social · 13h

In retrospect, I thought M-D had too much men at sea, not enough obsession, which I sorta say.

1 2

Lisa Hirsch @lisairontongue.bsky.social · 13h

Huh, looking back, I liked the libretto for M-D more than I thought. (Also, I recently saw Dead Man Walking again and realized I had been VERY WRONG in what I said about it. It's a terrific opera.)

irontongue.blogspot.com/2012/10/thar...

4 2

Lisa Hirsch @lisairontongue.bsky.social · 13h

I don't know who the ideal librettist is to write a libretto for K&C, but I was....not thrilled with the Moby-Dick libretto, an even thornier and more idiosyncratic novel. (I think the only way to adapt M-D is with a six to ten hour experimental opera. There's SO MUCH THERE.)

2 2

Lisa Hirsch @lisairontongue.bsky.social · 13h

Oh yes!

1 1

Reposted by Lisa Hirsch

Mrs. Betty Bowers @mrsbettybowers.bsky.social · 14h

Of all the many, many questions Pamela Jo Bondi refused to answer today, the most incendiary was about whether she's seen photos of Donald Trump with unclothed underage girls. It is so damning that she couldn't just say, "No."

Adam Parkhomenko @adamparkhomenko.bsky.social · 23h

This is not going well for Pam Bondi

130 840 2.6K

Lisa Hirsch @lisairontongue.bsky.social · 13h

(Probably won't see because it's 2500 miles away and there's no HD broadcast. I'd go if I were on the East Coast.)

1 2

Lisa Hirsch @lisairontongue.bsky.social · 14h

Media roundup of an opera I probably won't see, "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," music by Mason Bates, libretto by Gene Scheer.

irontongue.blogspot.com/2025/10/kava...

1 9

Reposted by Lisa Hirsch

Racheline Maltese @racheline.bsky.social · 16h

Whatever that praying means for you, get it done. That includes scientifically cheering for her wellbeing. Don’t fuss about it, just make good thoughts for a good woman.

rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 17h

listen. when dolly parton’s sister says it’s time for us all to be prayer warriors for dolly. you fucking pray for dolly

2 180 540

Reposted by Lisa Hirsch

Lincoln Square @lincolnsquare.media · 15h

Such actions fundamentally betray American values. Terrorizing communities to push political beliefs and agendas is, by definition, terrorism. Share if you agree.

13 70 160

Lisa Hirsch @lisairontongue.bsky.social · 14h

There are wonderful Ethiopian places in the east bay - are you still here?

Lisa Hirsch @lisairontongue.bsky.social · 14h

I would have done the same.

Reposted by Lisa Hirsch

Seth Abramson @sethabramson.bsky.social · 19h

The subhed here is a master class in corporate journalism rewarding malfeasance via semantics

Bondi didn't valiantly fend something off, she refused to answer legitimate questions before Congress because the answers would be horrifying and politically inconvenient

And that's a profile in cowardice

370 1.5K 4.6K

Reposted by Lisa Hirsch

Nancy Jane Moore @nancyjane.bsky.social · 18h

And this is one of many reasons why no one should take this man seriously as a presidential candidate. He's doing ok at some useful fighting back, but that's mostly the performative stuff, which is all he's good at.

LGBTQ Nation @lgbtqnation.com · 20h

Gavin Newsom vetoes gender education bill, declines to sign other trans protections - buff.ly/MTUAV85

1 2 3

Lisa Hirsch @lisairontongue.bsky.social · 20h

Oh good!!!

Lisa Hirsch @lisairontongue.bsky.social · 20h

Oh noooooo.

Reposted by Lisa Hirsch

Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 1d

One thing about American's widespread distrust and disapproval of the Supreme Court is that mainstream news coverage mostly doesn't dwell on stuff like standing, so people don't even begin to grasp how rigged the Court truly is www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...

Supreme Court Live Updates: Justices Seem Set to Rule Against Colorado’s Ban on Conversion Therapy

www.nytimes.com

23 220 1K

Reposted by Lisa Hirsch

TPM @talkingpointsmemo.com · 23h

The Supreme Court's conservatives advanced the right's greater project of discrediting experts Tuesday, feigning that there is no medical consensus against conversion therapy.

The Medical Science Is Always ‘Uncertain’ When It Pushes Against Supreme Court’s Bias

If you came into Tuesday’s oral argument over Colorado’s conversion therapy ban...

talkingpointsmemo.com

13 54 130

Reposted by Lisa Hirsch

Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 2d

Judge Diane Goodstein crossed the Trump administration last month. Yesterday, her home burned, her husband was injured and it's being investigated for arson.

www.postandcourier.com/news/crime/s...

Judge blocks South Carolina from giving DOJ millions of voters' data
Sep. 3, 2025

130 2.7K 5.2K

Reposted by Lisa Hirsch

jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 2d

perhaps the biggest story TFPever ran was a catastrophically shoddy argument that George Floyd ackshully died of an overdose. When confronted with irrefutable evidence that the piece was simply wrong, Weiss didn’t take it down, she asked her critic, @radleybalko.bsky.social, to come on a podcast.

max tani @maxtani.bsky.social · 2d

David Ellison’s note to staff on Paramount’s acquisition of the Free Press

180 2.1K 9.4K

Lisa Hirsch @lisairontongue.bsky.social · 1d

Oh I have known this for years, introduced to me by @drlaz.bsky.social. I mean.... somehow I feel that she and Eve Tushnet should get a room, except that Tushnet, a lesbian raised in a secular Jewish family, became a conservative celibate Catholic.

Lisa Hirsch @lisairontongue.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah for WHAT?

Lisa Hirsch @lisairontongue.bsky.social · 1d

Oh noooooo. And people who clean up crime scenes are $$$$.