Dan Friedman
(He/Him)
From Leeds he/him. Drinks whisky. Reads books. Writes culture. At times funny. @danfriedmanme on platforms Ebook bit.ly/shout2change
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Articles by Dan Friedman
Carrying the Jewish flag
I first learned about Sir Frank Lowy at the Australian Museum in Sydney. Alongside an opalised plesiosaur skeleton and a 19th-century rug made of 75 platypus skins, there was a brief account of a Czech Holocaust survivor who went on to become Australia’s richest man. It was a bizarre way to discover that the origins of the ubiquitous Westfield shopping malls lay in the Levi family from the tiny pre-War Jewish community of Fiľakovo on the Hungarian/Slovakian border.
Roy Lichtenstein was far more than just a copyist, Roy Lichtenstein was far more than just a copyist
Installation view of ‘Roy Lichtenstein: Like New’ at the Whitney Museum of American Art. World’s Fair Mural (Girl in Window),1963/2026 (Recreation by Alex Da Corte studio) Photo by Filip Wolak By Dan Friedman October 14, 2026 It’s easy to understand why the new Roy Lichtenstein exhibit at the Whitney Museum foregrounds the issue of copying, even to the extent of embracing it. Lichtenstein was — as his “Image Duplicator” from 1963 (included prominently here) shows — a constant and avowed copier.
BFG Podcast #316: Boomer Hollywood Twilight
Is this the twilight of Boomer Hollywood? The three movies Neal Pollack and Stephen Garrett discuss on the podcast this week might point toward yes. First, they discuss the most OK Boomer movie of the year, Aaron Sorkin’s laughable The Social Reckoning, his panicked response over Facebook content moderation debates from six years ago.
Book and Film Globe
Neal and Stephen chat about Aaron Sorkin, Tom Cruise, Robert Pattinson and more
From one Australian deli, he built a shopping empire. His parents taught him what to do with its riches.
Frank Lowy in 2014. Photo by Fairfax Media via Getty Images By Dan Friedman September 28, 2026 I first learned about Sir Frank Lowy at the Australian Museum in Sydney. Alongside an opalized plesiosaur skeleton and a 19th-century rug made of 75 platypus skins, there was a brief account of a Czechoslovakian Holocaust survivor who went on to become Australia’s richest man.
LensVLM: Selective Context Expansion for Compressed Visual Representation of Text
Abstract Vision-Language Models can process text as rendered images, but accuracy degrades with compression; LensVLM addresses this by scanning compressed images and selectively expanding relevant parts through learned tools, maintaining high accuracy even at high compression ratios. Vision Language Models (VLMs) offer the exciting possibility of processing text as rendered images, bypassing the need for tokenizing the text into long token sequences.
‘Exit Party’ Provides Parties but Surprisingly Little Exit
The two dystopian futures for the United States of America that Emily St. John Mandel presents in her new novel Exit Party are somehow the least spectacular parts of her book. In a successful attempt to avoid the overdramatic, St. John Mandel concentrates on developing her characters and following them across the parallel worlds as their achievements and connections spread.
Book and Film Globe
Emily St. John Mandel is back with a novel of parallel worlds
A Warrior in a Blade Arrives To Confuse a Monk
If you have read any of T. Kingfisher’s World of the White Rat series, you will enjoy Daggerbound, the delightful new novel from the prolific pen of Ursula Vernon. T. Kingfisher is, improbably for such a playful alias, the name Vernon uses to write fiction that is more “grown up” than the multiple award-winning YA books that she writes under her own name (most notably the Dragonbreath series).
Book and Film Globe
‘Daggerbound’ extends the cast of charming characters in the World of the White Rat
How WeatherBug reduced storage costs by 80% using Amazon S3 Storage Lens and Kiro CLI
WeatherBug is the third largest weather intelligence company in the US, delivering real-time forecasts, radar, lightning alerts, and interactive maps to over 10 million users. As their data footprint has grown across hundreds of Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) buckets in a multi-account AWS environment, their storage costs rose steadily with no clear visibility into what was driving spend.
It’s Not Far From the Thousand Year Reich to ‘The Infinite State,’ But Gabriel Is New
I feel about science-fiction dictatorships much as Leo Tolstoy felt about happy families: they’re all alike. What distinguishes one fictional authoritarian state from another isn’t how it terrorizes its citizens, it’s the form the resistance takes shape. The Infinite State By Richard Swan Tor; 416 pages Totalitarian futures feels eerily familiar: from the Galactic Empire (Star Wars), to Oceania (1984), or the Terran Federation (Starship Troopers).
Book and Film Globe
Richard Swan’s new novel follows a new democracy setting up in the shadow of an oppressive interstellar empire
Eran los Messi y Ronaldo de su tiempo. Y sus propios compatriotas los asesinaron
El Mundial ha terminado. Cristiano Ronaldo, el mismísimo CR7, jugó de forma improbable y arrogante su sexto torneo a la edad de 41 años. A los medios les encanta: la rivalidad entre Lionel Messi y Ronaldo continúa. Ronaldo sigue jugando con lágrimas y rabia, batiendo récords y negándose a envejecer simplemente e irse a casa. Pero David Bolchover, autor de Digging Deep: Unearthing the Stories of Eleven Murdered Jewish Footballing Greats, se encuentra pensando en otro hombre de 41 años: Jozsef Braun.
As For-Profit Companies Battle Over ICE Contracts, Immigrants Are Caught in the Middle
This story is a collaboration between Mother Jones, POGO Investigates, and the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University. William Walters is fighting to hang on to a massive government contract.
‘The Hawk’ Scores a Triple Bogey
Will Ferrell’s new Netflix comedy The Hawk about a washed-up golfing great should be the latest in his harmless series of films about sports-adjacent characters who are wrong in every way except having undeniably good hearts. Yes, Lonnie “The Hawk” Hawkins — the “greatest golfer in the world” as the title song has it — is an egotistical, deluded, self-sabotaging disgusting human being, but at least he is capable of apologizing, and he just wants everybody to love everyone else.
Louis CK Gets ‘Ridiculous’ and Grumpy
Louis C.K. opens his new Netflix special Ridiculous by explaining that he went for an AIDS test — not because he’d had sex at all recently, but because he needed some good news. It’s a classic C.K. opener: bleak, unexpected, perfectly constructed. The first thing you notice, though, is how much he’s aged. That’s partly because it’s been nine years since his last Netflix special, Louis C.K. 2017. Back then, he was still one of America’s defining comedians.
Book and Film Globe
First Netflix special for 9 years is entertaining but limited
They were the Messis and Ronaldos of their time. And their fellow countrymen murdered them.
Did you know that only 2% of Forward readers donate to support our nonprofit newsroom? That 2% make it possible for millions to read the Forward without a paywall or subscription — removing any barriers to the full and fair Jewish story. But while the Forward is free to read, it isn’t free to produce. Big stories — like deep dives into the antisemitism data, political scoops or reporting trips to college campuses — take months of research and fact-checking.
Trump Is Losing His War On Algae
Like the Strait of Hormuz, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has exposed the limits of American power: President Donald Trump is also losing his war against algae. In the face of thriving algal blooms and peeling “American flag blue” paint, the National Park Service on Monday began draining the pool for repairs. A contractor performing the work told E&E News that those repairs would not be done by July 4.
Trump Administration Tells Federal Employees to Wear “Freedom” Pins—Or Else
The Trump administration is ordering National Park Service employees to wear pins promoting Freedom 250, a semi-private group that the president has used to turn celebrations of the country’s 250th anniversary into what critics call a partisan party for himself. Several NPS employees told me that they were even threatened with professional reprimands if they refused to don the lapel pins at events celebrating the Declaration of Independence.
At the dawn of the World Cup, the story of the Jews who helped bring soccer to America
General view of footballs during training, Soccer Football, FIFA World Cup 2026, United States Training, Great Park Sports Complex, Irvine, California, U.S., June 8, 2026. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters/Kirby Lee (REUTERS/via SNO Sites/KIRBY LEE) This story was originally published in the Forward. Click here to get the Forward’s free email newsletters delivered to your inbox.
Pilgrims and Holy Wars at the World Cup
With five billion fans, soccer is less the world’s favorite sport than its largest religion, and the FIFA World Cup Finals (which begins on June 11 across North America) its ultimate pilgrimage. Strip away the theology, and the structural resemblance is hard to miss.
At the Dawn of the World Cup, the Story of the Jews Who Helped Bring Soccer to America
We’ve all heard of Lionel Messi, but what about Eddy Hamel, Jeff Agoos and Alan Rothenberg? This article originally appeared on The Forward. When the North American FIFA World Cup starts in Mexico City on June 11, the story will largely be told through the familiar lenses of Lionel Messi, the geography of the 48 participants and three hosts, and — because 75% of the games will be played there — the continuing rise of soccer in the United States.
At the dawn of the World Cup, the story of the Jews who helped bring soccer to America
Hello, fellow Forward reader! I’m Joel Brown, a Forward reader and supporter for more than 15 years, and currently the chair of the board of directors. I’m an avid Forward reader because it ticks so many of my essential boxes: excellent journalism, Jewish focus and diverse viewpoints. In today’s political climate, what I most appreciate is the Forward’s independence — made possible by the generosity of its membership. The Forward is committed to bringing you unbiased, nuanced Jewish news.
Questlove’s Earth, Wind & Fire Doc Shows the Glory and the Grit
There aren’t many bands who would have Stevie Wonder, Barack and Michelle Obama, Flea, and Lionel Richie all singing their praises in a documentary. In fact, Earth, Wind & Fire might be the only one, which is rather fitting, considering the eclectic, even syncretic nature of their sound, and their pan-genre multiracial crossover appeal.
Book and Film Globe
With opening night documentaries–and screening shut-outs–Sundance is as vital and aggravating as ever
Book and Film Globe
Turns out the celestial soul supermen were mortals after all
The Beautiful Game’s Crisis of Faith
There are no time-outs in soccer, but in the thirteenth minute of Manchester City’s recent English Premier League match at Leeds United, a number of players ran to the sideline and had a bite to eat while their manager, Pep Guardiola, discussed with them how to wrest control of the game. The Leeds fans booed what they believed was an attempt to break up play and get illegal coaching.
No Place for Anything, Least of all, Soccer
For thousands of years Inuit fisherman have lived and hunted from the edges of Greenland. It’s an island larger than Europe, stuck between Canada and Europe on the way up to the Arctic. A slab of inhospitable rock covered with an ice sheet for most of the year, it can barely support life — as various Norse settlements have found to their cost over the millennia.
Book and Film Globe
A new documentary about football in Greenland provokes thoughts about sport and politics
Documentaries, Biopics, and Other Promotional Material
In Marty, Life Is Short, the Lawrence Kasdan documentary about Martin Short that recently arrived on Netflix, Jiminy Glick is asked whether he had heard that they were making a documentary. “Well they’re making a documentary about everyone. Literally every human being that existed.” It certainly seems that way. In the first half of this year alone we’ve seen documentaries about Short, Greg Allman, Patrick Spikes (did he steal Buzzy from Disney), Amanda Knox, and Melania Trump.
Book and Film Globe
How far are fact-based movies just access journalism in cinematic form?
What a Slugfest! Baby Yoda and Mando are Back
I grew up with Star Wars. I saw the first movie aka Episode IV in the cinema at a friend’s 8th birthday party. With varying levels of anticipation, I’ve watched pretty much every live action canon production since. So, after nearly half a century of The Force, I’m not coming to the new Lucasfilm production with crazy expectations.
Lucasfilm productions
The Latest Star Wars Blockbuster Comes With Rows of Hutts
I Wish ‘Rooster’ Would Never End
Apparently, I’m a sucker for whatever show creator Bill Lawrence does. I love Scrubs and thought, for the most part, the 2026 revival of JD and Turk in the halls of Sacred Heart was a welcome return, even if I found the writing thin at points. But Lawrence’s Rooster, which just wrapped up on HBO Max, is where he got it completely right.
Book and Film Globe
Steve Carell and Bill Lawrence are my dream team
Il sogno fallito dei Mondiali di calcio
A riprova dello stato disastroso in cui versa il mondo e dell’ambizione da capogiro del nuovo volume di Simon Kuper, World cup fever: a footballing journey in nine tournaments (Febbre da Mondiali: un viaggio calcistico in nove tornei), dopo aver letto questo libro mi sono sentito fisicamente male.
Tony nominee Mark Rosenblatt’s ‘Giant’ journey began with Menachem Begin
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief. And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over.
Was ‘Ronaldinho: The One and Only’?
As we exit the Lionel Messi-Cristiano Ronaldo era of global soccer, it’s easy to forget that before their decade and a half rivalry, a clutch of players had a claim to be the world’s greatest footballer. The most thrilling of those was Ronaldhinho Gaúcho (Ronaldo de Assis Moreira) — the bucktoothed boy from Porto Alegre, Brazil.
paraguay prison scandal
Mini-series about the Brazilian soccer star is designed to whet our World Cup whistle
Convicted MAGA Fraudster Should Get 30 Years in Prison, Prosecutors Say
On July 4, 2020, Guo Wengui stood next to Steve Bannon on a bobbing boat in New York Harbor, with the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop, to announce the launch of the “New Federal State of China.” Guo—a supposed billionaire Chinese dissident who claimed to know secrets of corruption among China’s leaders—had amassed a large, ardent following among that country’s diaspora. The new organization was wildly ambitious.
‘Animal Farm’ Gets the Super Mario Bros. Treatment
Angel Studios is the somewhat notorious film distribution studio from Utah that burst onto the scene in 2023 with Sound of Freedom, which made a simple “good guy takes on sex traffickers” plot controversial by using it as a vehicle for bizarre right-wing conspiracy theories and misleading depictions of human trafficking. Last year they dipped their toes into religiously themed animated films like The King of Kings and David.
Book and Film Globe
‘As We See It’ represents people on the spectrum, but it’s not very funny, and kind of insulting
Book and Film Globe
‘Let There Be Carnage’ brings a light touch to a dark franchise
Plastic is Shrinking America’s Dicks
Plastic is everywhere; Courtesy Netflix Mass audiences of film and television shows seem constitutionally incapable of understanding systemic problems. In the face of a deep-pocketed and politically entrenched petrochemical industry, the numerous documentaries about Rise St. James and Louisiana’s Cancer Alley (from Story of Stuff, from Mutual Aid Media, from DOC NYC documentarians) have had little discernible effect on the constant production of toxins that are poisoning that region.
Book and Film Globe
‘The Plastic Detox’ tries to move the needle using shock tactics and reality TV tropes
Ben Lerner’s tale of three hotels is a lyrical novel of loss and human potential
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The Sci Fi Short Story That Rocked Wall Street
There’s a long history of dystopian science fiction in English and an arguably more significant lineage of economic or political essays that explore possible future outcomes. Whether we’re thinking H.G Wells, John Wyndham, or Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” writers, politicians or clergy have been thinking about what might be around the corner.
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