#VAULTER Magazine

[vaultermagazine]

Vaulter Club 2022 State Recap for Vaulter Club

Vaulter Club 2022 State Recap for Vaulter Club

2022 Vaulter Club California State Recap The starting heights were 14’7″ for the boys and 11’11” for the girls. Madison Negro takes the award stand for the first time with Vaulter Club and Murrieta Valley! The California State Championships is a highly anticipated two-day competition that brings together the best girls and boys athletes from across the state. After a series of rigorous qualifying…

[qnewsau]

Tom Daley models jumper he's been knitting at Paris Olympics

New Post has been published on https://qnews.com.au/tom-daley-models-jumper-hes-been-knitting-at-paris-olympics/

Tom Daley models jumper he's been knitting at Paris Olympics

Tom Daley isn’t just an Olympic champion. The gay British diver is also a talented knitter.

When he hasn’t been up on the board going for medals at Paris, Tom Daley has spent his downtime in the stands with his needles and wool.

The Olympics aren’t even finished yet but Tom has revealed that he’s already finished knitting his latest creation – a special Paris Olympics commemorative jumper.

Tom’s jumper is in the shades of red, white, and blue to match both Tom’s UK flag and the Paris flag, with the intricate Eiffel Tower Paris 2024 logo across the front.

Tom knitted his initials “TD” on one sleeve and the number 5 on the other to represent the Olympians’s fifth time competing in the Olympics.

He showed off his work – which you can see more on Tom’s separate knitting Instagram account – in new videos on social media.

@tomdaley I FINISHED MY SWEATER! What do you thunk? @Made With Love ♬ original sound – Tom Daley

@tomdaley THE MAKING OF MY SWEATER #paris2024 #olympics @Made With Love ♬ Summer Vibes – GRLN

  View this post on Instagram

  A post shared by Made With Love (@madewithlovebytomdaley)

Tom Daley won silver medal at Paris Olympics

Last week, Tom Daley and his British diving partner Noah Williams won silver in the men’s synchronised dive at the Paris Olympics.

His first silver medal is his fifth, completing Tom’s set alongside his three bronze and the gold medal he picked up in Tokyo.

After winning gold, Tom took a long break from the sport.

But the British star said he returned for one reason – to impress his six-year-old son Robbie.

“Robbie was like, ‘Papa, I want to see you dive in the Olympics’. And that was that,” Tom told BBC Sport last week.

“When your kid asks you to do something, you do it.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tom Daley (@tomdaley)

Tom Daley’s husband Dustin Lance Black and their two sons Robbie and Phoenix cheered Tom on at the Paris Aquatics Centre.

“Doing it in front of my son who asked me to come back is so special. He’s six years old now and I think he might remember some of this,” Tom told BBC Sport.

“I now have [medals] of every colour, I’ve completed the set.”

More on Paris Olympics:

Retiring Aussie rugby star Sharni Smale wore her rainbow headgear at Olympics

Olympic pole vaulter’s bulge costs him a medal in Paris

Olympic opening ceremony queens sue after online abuse

Olympian Robbie Manson makes more from OnlyFans than sport

For the latest LGBTIQA+ Sister Girl and Brother Boy news, entertainment, community stories in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Check out our latest magazines or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

[calamariknight]

Every Succession episode ever, ranked from worst to best

Need to procastrinate so I'll do the thing when I rank the episodes from television show nobody watches and nobody will ever see that posts so just let's go

also every episode here is good mind you 39. s03e06 "What It Takes" -- honestly cannot remember this episode at all

38. s01e03 "Lifeboats" -- this episode challenged my will to watch Succession a little, but Logan put on a sock so

37. s04e04 "Honeymoon States" -- ok, at this point it's clear i'm just going by how much I remember what happened + considering which episode came just before it, it being more calm episode hurts a lot harder

36. s03e04 "Lion in the Meadow" -- two 4th episodes in a row, hope it does not become a trend (I have nothing to say about this episode)

35. s01e04 "Sad Sack Wasp Trap" -- sure hope 4th episode of 2nd season is better than the others (it is)

34. s02e02 "Vaulter" -- noooo Lawrence Yee

33. s03e02 "Mass in Time of War" -- honestly season 3 isn't all that great now I think about it

32. s03e01 "Secession" -- yup, I was right

31. s02e01 "The Summer Palace" -- at least better season opener than Secession + Napoleon dick

30. s03e03 "The Disruption" -- this is the last meh season 3 episode, I promise

29. s02e05 "Tern Haven" -- so long story short, I was inspired to make this list after seeing some magazine claiming it to be the greatest Succesion episode and like, no. Still good tho

28. s01e02 ""Shit Show at the Fuck Factory"" -- Roman/Shiv fight scene is the top 10 anime fights

27. s01e07 "Prague" -- oh, but it does introduce Tabitha

26. s04e06 "Living+" -- I need to start dropping season 4 eventually, and aside from Honeymoon States, this one is the least entertaining (tho Karl is great once again)

25. s01e09 "Pre-Nuptial" -- this is mostly setup for the finale, but it does introduce Lady Caroline, so yeah, number 25 it gets

24.s01e01 "Celebration" -- yeah, this show really is too consistently great to make a ranking list, like, great pilot didn't even made it to the top half of the list, what a world we live in.

23. s02e07 "Return" -- ok, I have like, 7 episodes of season 2 left, but I want to put most of them in the top 10. This season is just too good

22. s03e08 "Chiantishire" -- hello again season 3. This episode has same problems as another pre-wedding episode from season 1, but it has that one Logan/Kendall scene

21. s01e05 "I Went to Market" -- Evan makes his grand debut. Oh yeah, rest of the cast is also in this episode

20. s04e01 "The Munsters" -- Best season opener solely due to Logan's talk about death

19. s01e07 "Austerlitz" -- we're getting into "great episodes" territory, starting with first major fight between Logan and his kids

18. s02e06 "Argestes" -- this ending scene made a lot of mfs wet (I am mfs)

17. s04e02 "Rehearsal" -- the fact that this is the last time Shiv, Kendall and Logan talk...

16. s04e10 "With Open Eyes" -- imma be real, I didn't enjoy Succesion finale as much as I've probably should. It's still great and rather satisfying considering how messy the plot was by the end of the series

15. s04e07 "Tailgate Party" -- oh this Tom/Shiv scene is everything we could've wanted as a climax to their relationship

14. s01e06 "Which Side Are You On?" -- vote of no confidence scene is so fucking chills man

13. s02e03 "Hunting" -- HUNT! HUNT! HUNT!

12. s03e05 "Retired Janitors of Idaho" -- Roman told president to blow him, absolute legend

11. s01e10 "Nobody Is Ever Missing" -- great finale to a decent season, especially noteworthy is the final scene and how it pararells with the season 2 finale.

10. s03e07 "Too Much Birthday" -- we still don't know whether or not Roman kept his mom's gigantic vagina

9. s02e08 "Dundee" -- *inhales* L TO THE OG

8. s04e08 "America Decides" -- there is definitely some political commentary in this but I'm not American so it kind of flies over my head huh

7. s04e06 "Kill List" -- If Kieran Culkin won't get that fucking Emmy...

6. s04e09 "Church and State" -- Now this is how you make a funeral

5. s02e09 "DC" -- you can't make a tomlette (s02e10) without breaking some Greggs (this episode). Also Laird, Karl, and Roman is such a great team-up that it makes me wish we would get an entire season of their shenanigans

4. s03e09 "This Is Not for Tears" -- see? I told you season 3 has some heat after all (I've never told you that, but I tell you now).

3. s02e04 "Safe Room" -- easily best episode from comedic standpoint. Between Roman training, Attack Child, Mo's eulogy and so much more this is absolutely amazing hour of television. But don't let that distract you from the fact that Roman Roy was interested in politics at a very young age.

2. s02e10 "This Is Not for Tears" -- best season finale by a long margin. With great wrapping up of characters arc this season, memorable moments like Tom eating the chicken, and culminating with shocking twist and one of the best shots in TV history that sends me chills down the spine every time. Absolute gem of television.

1. s04e03 "Connor's Wedding" -- yeah this is the best one

[saleintothe90s]

244. Big List of Favorite Commercials part 15.

(part 14) (entire series)

AT&T - Streamlining Business {featuring The World Trade Center in NY} (1996)

This isn't a favorite commercial, more of an awkward commercial. I understand that the 1996 Olympics were in Atlanta, but why footage of New York City and a pole vaulter vaulting over the World Trade Center? What's that gotta do with Atlanta? I mean there is a scene in the commercial that almost looks exactly like 9/11.

1984 Canada Dry "Holiday Spirit party starter" TV Commercial

These creepy doll mannequins, I love them! They look like they're made of pantyhose or something.

Butterball Turkey - Thanksgiving Commercial 1985

They had such little faith in Marion.

1986 Panasonic Wet Dry Shavers "Hairy, moms coming to dinner" TV Commercial

"Just because she thinks you're a bum, doesn't mean you have to look like one...", I mean, he slept through an electric shave, that seems pretty "sleeps all day like a bum" to me.

1988 - Jonny Cat

I mean, a baby tuxedo kitten!

WPIX 11 - TV Station Promo - 1987 - Cheers Theme

The three stressed out people (so wait, the dad left the baby right after getting home? Or is that is spouse next to him?) trying to convincingly interact with a "green screened" in Sam Malone is hilarious.

80s Commercial | NBC promos | Al Roker | Willard Scott | Don Pardo | 1984 & 1985

Okay, New Yorkers, help me out here, was "Live at Five" a news broadcast or like, a tv magazine show? Or both? Who doesn't love a baby Al Roker?

TBS - Family Matters Promo - 1995

The description from the uploader says it all:

One of the most horrible, wonderful things you'll ever watch.

1983 Kmart After Christmas Sale Commercial

Ohhh snap, this commercial predicted the future of Kmart.

Zales Jewelers 80s Christmas Commercial (1986)

I want every single piece of jewelry in this commercial.

Facebook | Etsy | Retail History Blog | Twitter | YouTube Playlist | Random Post | Ko-fi donation | instagram @thelastvcr​ | tik tok @ saleintothe90s

[wainwrightjakobshammerlock]

HAIII HOW ABOUUTT ✨️🎯❤️✂️ AND 🧠 forrrr Galileusz, Lazarus and Sir Windward ? :3

Galileusz:

✨️ First name is the Polish spelling of the Italian name Galileo, meaning "Galiliean, from Galiliee". Also belonged to a famous astronomer. Picked it because it sounded cool and also because I can absolutely see this guy looking at stars to idk convert a date from 30 yrs ago from Eden time to Pandoran time. Middle name (Béla) is from Hungarian. It could mean either "white" or "guts, bowel". It's also the name of four Hungarian kings. Picked it because I wanted some sort of weird ish middle name starting with B (or more accurately my brain wanted it; OCs often just. Come into my brain somewhat fully formed and demand VIBES) and this one sounded coolio. Surname (Monroe) is Scottish, meaning "from the Mouth of the Roe". It was also the surname of an American president who pioneered the eponymous doctrine of isolationism. Fitting for this guy since he does not like being disturbed in his work lol.

🎯 Calculations (sometimes he does it too fast and eats minuses or changes a 5 to a 6. beats himself up over it. this is definitely not me projecting.), speed typing, and oddly enough origami. He's got these massive fancy ahh origami constructions strewn about his office (and if somehow you got him to chill you'd absolutely get 10000 expertly constructed paper planes thrown at you).

��️ Marsh explicitly calling him a friend for the first time. (Gal doesn't really have many friends, both in and out of work.)

✂️ Worst memory? What worst memory? Everything's fine. He totally didn't have anything excised or erased maybe. No he doesn't know anything about that planet that starts with G. Everything is in order.

🧠 first proper cisgender man jakobs employee oc (technically Poirot was first but he's just an au). took me long enough. unfortunately he is also bisexual /SILLY

Lazarus:

✨️ I'm ngl I was thinking of The Binding of Isaac video game at the time. Only later did I realize "wow zir adoption into the family coincides with the restoration of the manor and general resurgence of the jakobs corporation. just like that bible guy who died and got resurrected. and also it keeps with the jakobs corp's biblical symbolism theme".

🎯 stealing Nothing specific. Ze's a jack of all trades master of none. Even if we're talking skilltree wise I'd imagine ze'd be equally good at mobbing and at bossing. But probably a bit more at bossing.

❤️ It's a competition between finding zir first magazine there in the dump and being found by this strange probably corporate but incognito aka LOADED guy then realizing he's really cool actually (the guy was Alistair Hammerlock hunting the Sovian Basilisk btw he just wanted someone who'd guide him through the sewers since he's not used to hunting in the concrete jungle).

✂️ NOT zir parents dying despite what you might think (ze doesn't remember that at all; it was very long ago and confusing and shit). Honestly all the worst moments in zir life happened so early they're in a haze for the most part. This includes the starvation and illness and all that. It physically hurts to recall it.

🧠 MY FIRST ACTUAL BORDERLANDS OC THEEEEE SCIMBO SCUNKY THEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE SILLY EVER. WAINLOCK FANKID. HUNT VAULTER. FUNKY EVER FOR FUCKING REAL E

Windward

✨️ I forgor </3 It's kinda sad bc his name doesn't really fit the aesthetic of Athame much anymore? Like. That place is basically Persian/Sarmatian Steampunk Magic Vaguely British Interdimensionally Connected Warsaw/Gdynia and "Sir Robert Windward" just sounds mid. (He was the first guy in that oc verse; back then it was just SUPER British and shit.) It's not even strange like Poirot's surname. But I can't just rename him so I like to think it's a "translation convention" (aka Triadic transliteration; just like Athame is actually written as Adzameh in the proper local language) of some much cooler Athamian name idk. And/or that he has a more appropriate middle name like Parvuz (invented but appropriate for the style I'm going for) or Mehr (modern Persian form of Mithra) or smth like that.

🎯 Mf just wants to consolidate his parents' quasi-legal contract empire. And when I mean consolidate I mean CONSOLIDATE they let his ass onto the city council despite his family being considered "noble" only a generation ago (Athame is quasi-oligarchic; used to be a monarchy then elective monarchy then oligarchy and now it sort of has elections and shit but not really it's got the council which essentially has authoritarian rule. It's a bit of a mess very roughly inspired by Sanation era Poland. Because I'm cringe). Also raise an adoptive heir to said empire because he is NOT getting pregnant.

❤️ Transition day. Like of course gender euphoria is cool but have you ever gotten it all at once? That or maybe the day he had his first cigar. Or piece of sugar candy.

✂️ His mother's death. She was killed by the Conspiracy (AKA the Silent Conspiracy, an organization led by Yaldab'axas, one of the Old Gods, which is exactly what it says; a conspiracy effort to snuff out the Great Engine. He doesn't know it was them) in an exceptionally brutal spir-fueled (i.e. magical; spir is magical energy in TTP) manner right in front of his eyes. His father spent the rest of his life studying and trying to uncover the Conspiracy, which led to many (though not all) of their ventures being sold. It's also the reason why Rosa wants his gay ass tower, it's chock full of records on the Conspiracy, and homegirl is DETERMINED to find and kill all these fuckers.

🧠 He's everything to me. He's my problematic fave. He's transgender. He's a manwhore. Both he and his family have committed innumerable warcrimes AND regular crimes. He's pansexual and polyamorous. Both his gender and sexuality are tied into his story but not for the reasons you think. He's canonically a DILF. He's a wizard. He's a failguy. He's immensely successful. He's a homewrecker. He's a businessman. He's a hedonist. He has soggy naturals. He's masculine in the way an orphan generating Victorian coal baron is masculine. He's in Borderlands also for some reason. He's never had a proper loving romantic relationship. He's got a moustache that covers his face. Et cetera.

[aslan-jade-okumura]

Olympics but Banana Fish where Ash is attending as a journalist for Max and Jessica's magazine for an Olympics spread. He meets Eiji Okumura, Japan's pole vaulter and resident baby face, and the rest is historyyyyy

[succ-season-4-when]

E6 really got me feeling some kind of way.

I don’t think the writers intended to leave this impression with this episode, but this kinda just hit me.

Anyway, this is gonna be a long one.

At the start of S1, Ken was more hurt than angry as Logan listed reason after reason why he wasn’t fit for the CEO position (yet), even when he waited his whole life for this moment: picked the major for it, went to one of the best schools in the country for it, worked under his dad for years and years and years and years…

All that, and he still lended Logan a hand so he wouldn’t fall flat on his face at the RECNY ball, only shut the door when Roman came to see him after the no-confidence vote, and felt the need to defend Shiv over Logan’s typical verbal abuse at Austerlitz when he was high as a kite; even the hostile takeover was a well-priced offer that Logan had to consider selling WR for.

Ken worked for Logan as an intern and went to his company straight out of school, and how old was he in S1 E1? 38, 39? He was set up to be the successor, and yet the shareholders hated him; he kept upping his bid on Vaulter even when Lawrence trash talked him on his addiction issues; he angled for tech in WR and genuinely likes people who work in tech, and yet the Roy name and the Roy money made sure everyone in that circle hated him and what he metaphorically stood for.

This is a guy who cleaned up the mess he made trashing the bathroom in a brief breakdown despite knowing that the house has live-in maids looking after it.

And after everything Lawrence’s said to him, he still wanted to help Vaulter get back on its feet when the founder bullshitted him on their stats and was burning through WR’s money.

That was his ideal back then: to be able to invest in a tech startup / company you like and to stick by them through thick and thin because you really do believe in them.

And so he’s spent most of his adult life playing second fiddle to an old man in a company known for legacy media and political propaganda (plus parks and cruises), not being taken seriously by anybody at all: he’s a shadow of Logan Roy, only known to the public via his addiction issues on tabloid magazines or his incompetence relative to Logan.

For all he knew, he deserved the CEO title at least—otherwise, what did he spend his life doing?

And this is where it gets interesting: less than 24 hours after he delivered the bear hug letter, he drove under influence and his passenger grabbed the wheel and swerved them into a river.

That accident pretty much drove the point home: to him, his career was worth more than somebody else’s life; it actually might be worth more than his own life to him at this point (again, I don’t see the writers implying this anywhere in recent episodes, it’s just a very unfortunate position he’s placed himself in).

As Naomi quoted in S2 E5, "[m]ine honor is my life; both grow in one. Take honor from me, and my life is done."

(If anyone's read Richard II, please share your thoughts on this.)

So, excuse my lengthy summary on Kendall’s life story, but here’s where I finally understood why someone like Kendall could think it’s a story about comeuppance and getting what you deserve: it’s easier to cast Logan as the villain than to admit that your entire life was based on a lie he entertained, and that maybe your dad never loved you at all (and you spent most of your life pretending otherwise).

You can’t romanticize a bitter old man abusing his children any more than you can defeat him.

The power struggle, the money, the competition…Logan was the person who made it life or death for Ken, and is trying his best to do the same for Shiv.

At a certain point, Ken knew what he was willing to do; I wonder if Logan’ll get Shiv there as well.

I’m not going through the same analysis for Shiv’s life in S1 and S2 (that’s a separate post entirely), but I’ve to write about her relationship with Logan.

Something Shiv and Ken both knew good and well was that Roman could not possibly be the successor, so when Ken seemed like he was out of the picture in S2 E1, Shiv accepted Logan’s CEO offer.

After all, she sees Kendall as a “busted flush” and had seen him unfit as the successor back in S1 E2 (although her opinion of him probably solidified some time even before that).

Shiv and Ken also thought that Logan loved them the best he could: that despite everything, he wanted them around, wanted to love them the only way he knew how, that they were special to him in their own way, “pinky” and “number one boy”.

And isn’t it true in some ways, if Logan thought about giving them the title, if Logan asked Shiv’s opinion on Rhea, if Logan still considered Kendall even after his stint in rehab…when Lady Caroline’s the other parent, it’s very hard to distinguish the kind of attention that is love from the kind that isn’t.

Logan’s particular brand of charm doesn’t help this either: when he plays the father role well, his children often forgive him for whatever wrongs he’s committed prior.

They all thought he loved them because they were his children, but as Kendall found out, he loved them because they acquiesced and rolled over for him, because he could hold their mistakes over their heads when they couldn’t do the same to him; he loves them only when he wields power over them.

In other words, Logan loves his children like Uncle Noah loved him and Ewan.

Just because he didn’t abuse them as badly as Noah did to him and Ewan doesn’t mean his love was unconditional; which is to say, it wasn’t real.

Kendall saw this firsthand, and Logan’s words touting him as “a good kid” in S3 E4 was just adding insult to injury.

If he accepted Logan’s deal in S3 E1 or in S3 E2, that’s no doubt all he’ll be, and if he comes this far and fails, then he’s nobody at all.

For Shiv though, she’s had no reason to believe Logan doesn’t love her: she’s been out of his sphere of influence her entire career and Logan’s been the one compromising.

His threats never hurt because he was never in the position to threaten her, and when his tactics didn’t work out, he still had to play nice to her at family events.

It was respect she earned, and she thinks it’s worth more than love to someone like Logan.

Kendall was forced to challenge him while Shiv knows she can challenge him from the start because she’s spent most of her life doing it.

That’s why what happens in S2 and S3 truly did hurt her: if Logan’s trust and attention were so easily earned, how can she guarantee that the offer he made was real? Hell, what makes her so different from Rhea and Kerry?

At the end of the day, does she want to bet her future on her current position as one of his underlings? She’s where Kendall was, and it’s starting to wear her patience thin.

But, despite everything, this is where her intelligence does come through: with no experience in business, she’s handled an executive position well, and Logan treats her like he treated Roman and Kendall, which is to say that he’s playing her as he considers her competence—she’s secured her executive role in the company, but it also might be all that she ever is.

It’s starting to become obvious that Logan needs to die for one of them to succeed him—will we see patricide some time in the future?

[jashasedai]

Sometimes I think about how easy it is to meet people everyday who might be famous for something in a circle you aren't familiar with.

The guy in line behind you at the store might be the rockstar of the magazine photo editing world. The woman who is a regular at the same restaurant as you are might own the world's largest dog book store(a bookstore that sells books about dogs, not books for dogs.) There might be a five time world champion pole vaulter buying window cleaner in the aisle next to you.

There are tons of celebrities that are only celebrities to people in their field. And the rest of us would never recognize them.

I'm sure every single day there's a lot of people who see the Motorsports stars walking down the street and think, "Young man, no one special." And never look at him twice.

[yespoetry]

Fargo Tbakhi: Dream In Which I Am Married to Ethan Hawke

benediction, with lines from bruce springsteen

 everything dies, baby/ that’s a fact/ but maybe/ you’ll be an alien/ now/ some kind of beauty queen/ a splendored thing many/ hands would lose their fingers to caress/ yeah, buzz your hair/ call it a new day/ a collection of many things, splendored/ with sequins/ from the dollar store/ you know, now, you’ll be ninety-five cents at the dollar store/ grubby, weighing heavy in the pocket/ so close, but never enough/ oh little one, i hope you’ll be alright/ i hope you know you’ll jingle, anyway/ everything that dies/ someday comes back/ so/ promise me, little many mine, we won’t outlive/ the splendorthings/ that grow from the dirt/ or between the legs/ or within the chest cavity/ or between the teeth/ no, if we’ll die/ let’s die all at once and call it/ the end of every thing/ oh, i hope/ you know/ i’ll still love you in the morning/ my splendor, my many, my thing/ when you close your eyes i know you’ll see ocean/ let it lull you to sleep/ i hope you know you’ll dream of elevators/ plummeting/ always unsure if they’re going down/ or, somehow, up/ i’ll be waiting for you once you find out, baby/ i’ll be home, sitting cross-legged/ here in the mirror/ put your makeup on/ fix your hair up pretty/ meet me tonight/ somewhere/ we won’t look back/ an elevator rocketing upwards/ the doors sliding open/ the seawater, flooding in

 dream in which i am married to ethan hawke

 at an hour of the morning my friends would be impressed by-

say, 8:00, maybe even 7:30-

my eyelids drift open.

the garage doors of the face, dream-ethan called them

once, the pads of his fingertips teaching the lilies of my eyes

a tap dance. dream-ethan’s fingers are fred astaire and i’m

ginger-

no, i’m his shoes- no, the stairs he’s dancing

down- oh, forget it,

           i’m the rhythm he’s dancing to. i’m the violins. and

the shoes. and the stairs. and ginger,

i’d always wanted to be ginger but i never

had the feet for it, the grace, the whiteness-

but in the dream,

            there is no whiteness, so i can be as much ginger

rogers as i want,

 every inch the ball gown, the confidence- backwards,

in heels.  in the dream where i’m married to ethan hawke,

no one owns anything: not land, or clothes,

or dvd copies of dead poets society.

the world’s got no borders. all my shoes fit.

i know just what to say and

what language to say it in, my tongue agile as a pole vaulter,

                                                launching its way into dream-ethan’s

earlobe in a perfect arc. it reaches a zenith and comes down like an

ICBM- 

my tongue can do the splits in this dream,

without tearing one language or another. my tongue

licks arabic and english both, unravels dream-ethan

with its fluent oscillation.

in the dream, i get out of bed, look at my body

                                    and i like it. (this is a miracle

i cannot overstate. this is lazarus, and wine, and the

laughter of infants. this is nuclear fission.) i touch my

face in the mirror and feel

that it is just a face- not a child on a poster,

not a most wanted. only a dollop of godliness,

wanted just the right amount.

and in this moment i love the tips of dream-ethan’s fingers more

than i have ever loved anything else.

 i love dream-ethan

with a bigness in which i am a

universe and he is entropy-

baby, you’ll be the death of me. darling,

you could not exist

                                    without my body to break down,

your restless feet dancing up and down my walls-

royal, sending me kisses           

on disintegrating letterhead. oh, 

this message will certainly destruct, but it won’t be of

its own volition this time-  

wait, wrong ethan.

i tell him you are a horse, ethan (in the dream i call him ethan,

not dream-ethan. he is real as

fungus. he sweats and i stop to lap it up,

lovingly, knowing it means he can

exert himself. dreams cannot

exert themselves)

                                and i am also a horse. i love you like a horse loves

another horse: without metaphors or language.

with hooves and wild breathing.

remember this:

the way i moved,

those lips i found here, the way i asked

for forgiveness

     when i’d tickle your feet- the way i’d trim your beard-

i could die here,

just here, hairs dripping spit-like from

those miracles you swear are only lips

(i know they’re

more than flesh, baby. in the dream you can’t hide it.

 no, in the dream (the one where i’m married to ethan hawke)

everything is more than

flesh: my eyeballs are coal pieces. all the yards of my

skin? givenchy gowns. my heart a bubble of soap, suspended,

floating in air

until it finally can’t resist the tension and decides to explode

(about as long as a kiss with you,

dream-ethan. about as long as the life of a mayfly)).

and yes, every second of this is fantasia,

but i just don’t seem to care anymore.

i dream so i can move at all tomorrow morning.

i dream because in the dream, i do not look away from ethan hawke

to check my phone for the latest death toll.

in the dream i’ve got a family i can speak to.

in the dream i inherited nothing but this jawline, this mustache.

i dream because in the dream you love me, and that love

does not get followed home by a lurching, muscled

golem, with a tongue that wraps itself too tightly

around the body. 

i dream to love the body.

i dream so i can wake up

smiling-)

 i wake up smiling,

the sunlight streaming in,

then rivering,

then lakeing: a

placidness. a calm.

i glide to the kitchen. i make dream-ethan hawke

a cup of arabic coffee, which he sips at the table

while i read him a poem.

that’s lovely, darling, dream-ethan hawke tells me, kisses me on the

forehead.

and in the dream, a river surges through me and does

not split me

in two.

i collapse like a candy wrapper, drawn tighter than a drum,

moments away from springing back

to life.

i sink into the sunlight,

floating on my back in a lake

made of warmth.

   Fargo Tbakhi (he/him) is a bi, Palestinian-american performer and writer in phoenix, arizona. his work has been published in Maudlin House, Ghost City Review, and Cotton Xenomorph, and is forthcoming from The Ellis Review, Crab Fat Magazine and Cosmonauts Avenue. he tweets @youknowfargo.

[triscribe]

Praxit and Hydrus /because I love those children

You are a very persistent person, my friend. Alright, a jump to the Voltron fandom it is!

Full Name: Praxit Kogane; Hydrus KoganeGender and Sexuality: Both male; Praxit is Bi with no flirting skills to speak of, whereas Hydrus is Ace and can’t seem to meet a new person without dropping a pick-up line or three (we blame that one on his papa Lance).Pronouns: He/him for eachEthnicity/Species: Full-blooded Galra, these are gonna be some Tol and Beefy Boys when they eventually finish growingBirthplace and Birthdate: Exact place of birth unknown, they were found hidden in an alleyway dumpster on a planet still re-settling from its liberation by the Voltron Coalition; it should be noted this happened quite a few years ahead of the current date, but in an AU timeline that diverged from canon back in Season 2 territoryGuilty Pleasures: Praxit has quite a lot of fun in ripping up Earth magazines and making collages and poems out of the pieces, but he doesn’t like letting people know about it ‘cause he doesn’t want to hand more ammunition to those who want to paint all Galra as destructive monsters. Hydrus, while a much more open person than his twin, also hides his own hobby: knitting. He’s not all that good, usually messing up any complicated patterns, and so sticks to making place mats, shawls, and the occasional oddly-shaped beanie hat.Phobias: While neither is particularly claustrophobic, if you shut either into a small space with strong smells of decomposition, they. Will. Lose. It. Coming out of the following panic requires the other twin, Lance, Keith, or Cosmo. Preferably more than one.What They Would Be Famous For: Praxit could easily go for the Space Olympics as a pole vaulter, but he’s much too crowd-shy to want the publicity. Plus, y’know, most of the galaxy still dislikes/hates/desires to obliterate any Galra they see. Hydrus, meanwhile, is quite the animal whisperer, and very much wants his own pet to go with Cosmo and the herd of Kalteneckers.What They Would Get Arrested For: Galra-prejudice aside? Hydrus would do something stupid (like get into a bar fight), Praxit would try to get him out of trouble (by going out the second floor window), and both would only wind up in even worse trouble (such as accidentally crashing into the home of the city’s mayor during a private party), just in time for the local cops to arrive. They’d much rather deal with the locals than their family, though - Keith and Uncle Shiro having matching “I’m Disappointed” faces while Lance and Aunt Allura trade off the lecturing.OC You Ship Them With: No one at the moment - they’re still babies in my head, it’s gonna be a while before they grow up and get to that point.OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Probably Igney, Uncle Hunk and Aunt Shay’s stone-child, who would be m o r t i f i e d by the above shenanigans if she were involved. No lectures necessary afterwards, she’d squash them both.Favorite Movie/Book Genre: Praxit is the reader, and he really loves books about survival stories, like Hatchet and Julie of the Wolves. Hydrus would rather wait for the film adaptations, though his tastes run more towards action and adventure, especially in high fantasy settings, like Lord of the Rings.Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: They both Hate It when the bad guy dies of something that could be construed as coincidence, liking falling from an unstable ledge, as opposed to being killed by the hero in proper combat.Talents and/or Powers: They are the ultimate package of being Cute and Fluffy while also possessing Ridiculous Amounts of Strength and Stamina.Why Someone Might Love Them: At heart, they’re both very sweet boys; neither one hesitates to show affection in private or to aggressively defend their family from threats. Why Someone Might Hate Them: Aside from their species, people might not like the twins because they’ll never let a snide word about the Blade of Marmora get by without delivering a punch in return - they adore Krolia and respect Kolivan far too much to let anyone even so much as attempt to belittle their organization.How They Change: They grow up, going from quiet, clingy boys to independent individuals with the universe open before them.Why You Love Them: Praxit and Hydrus were very first Voltron OCs I ever made, specifically for my OTP Klance, and I’ll always have a little spot reserved for them in my heart.

Thanks for the ask, Chika! Hope you like all the details I shared ;)

[vaultermagazine]

Jump into the Festive Spirit: The 2023 Vaulter Magazine Candy Cane Meet – A Pole Vault Christmas Extravaganza

All Aboard for the 2023 Vaulter Magazine Big Red Barn Candy Cane Meet: Farewell to our Menifee Training Facility! REGISTER HERE “All Aboard for the 2023 Vaulter Magazine Big Red Barn Candy Cane Meet: Farewell to our Menifee Training Facility! As the year comes to a close, we invite you to be part of our last and most spectacular event at the current Vaulter Magazine training facility in…

[qnewsau]

Tom Daley knitted his Olympic diving partner a ‘c**k sock’

New Post has been published on https://qnews.com.au/tom-daley-knitted-his-olympic-diving-partner-a-ck-sock/

Tom Daley knitted his Olympic diving partner a ‘c**k sock’

In an interview on Tom Daley’s YouTube channel, which has resurfaced as a result of the pair’s silver medal- winning performance at the Paris Olympics, the diver and knitting enthusiast revealed that he made Noah Williams a “c**k sock”.

“It was your 21st birthday and we were in the middle of Budapest,” Daley said “and I was like, ‘What am I going to get him for his birthday? You know what, I’ve got yarn, I’ve got a crochet hook, and I’m gonna make him a c**k sock.’”

The 30-year-old then stated that he knew what size to make the sock because he goes by “the one-size-fits-most rule”.

“Are you surprised that I’ve actually worn it a few times?” Williams then asked his diving partner.

“No, I’m not,” Daley responded. “I think you actually posted a photo on your OnlyFans of you in your c–k sock. It’s nice that they’re used. Most of the time people use it as, like, a little novelty thing that never actually gets used. So, yeah, at least it’s used.”

Tom Daley has become a knitting enthusiast over the past few years, and even started his own seperate Instagram account to share his creations.

Earlier this week, he share a special Paris Olympics commemorative jumper that he had knitted before the games.

The jumper is in the shades of red, white, and blue to match both Tom’s UK flag and the Paris flag, with the intricate Eiffel Tower Paris 2024 logo across the front.

His initials “TD”  are on one sleeve and the number 5 on the other, to represent the diver’s fifth Olympics.

More on the Paris Olympics:

Olympic pole vaulter’s huge bulge costs him a medal in Paris

Retiring Aussie rugby star Sharni Smale wore her rainbow headgear at Olympics

Olympic opening ceremony drag queens sue after online abuse

Tom Daley busts big myth about his bed in Olympic Village

Olympian Robbie Manson makes more from OnlyFans than sport

For the latest LGBTIQA+ Sister Girl and Brother Boy news, entertainment, community stories in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Check out our latest magazines or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

[supermodelsofficial]

Happy birthday @nadjaauermann ♥️ Nadja Auermann (born 19 March 1971) is a German supermodel and actress. Fashion designer Valentino once commented on her physical resemblance to Marlene Dietrich. A New York Times fashion columnist, Guy Trebay, wrote of her "ice maiden visage and pole vaulter's legs". She once held the record for being the model with the longest legs in the world in the Guinness Book of Records. #supermodel #nadjaauermann #fashion #fashionmodel #editorials #magazines #runaway #catwalk #beauty #icon #legend #90s #model https://www.instagram.com/p/CMkclIjAdYY/?igshid=sexc2xvlaa0q

[tafphoto]

Tray Oates @Olen_Iii_Oate @Rollin_Olen @SamfordXcTf @AzPva @MidWesternMeats 18’1” 5.51m #PoleVault #棒高跳び 2020 Vaulter Magazine @VaulterMagazine @VaulterClub Stars and Stripes Big Red Barn Meet #BigRedBarnMeet 6 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 10 @TaFphoto 26 Jun 2020 #Tokyo2021 #東京2020 #Tokyo2020 #RoadToTokyo2020 #RoadToTokyo #陸上競技 #@usatf #USATF #IAAF @NcaaTrackField #NcaaTrackAndField #NCAA #RunnerGirl #RunningGirl #Fitspo #Running #Fitspiration #Runner #Athlete #Runners #InstaRunners #Track #RunnersOfInstagram #InstaRunner #RunnersCommunity #TrackAndField #Athletics #Athletic #Athletes  (at Sun City Ca 92585) https://www.instagram.com/p/CCN1spUptWw/?igshid=1kq7io2vh5cyi

[jaymysterio]

Because it will be “kinja’d”...

There is a version of the story of this company in which idealistic journalists, unconcerned with profit, are posed against ruthless business-doers, concerned about profit above all else. That would be a convenient story, pitching me and my colleagues and friends as people who just care too much about The Truth to yield before the gale-force winds of Capitalism, but it wouldn’t be a true one.

The real and less romantic story is this: The journalists at Deadspin and its sister sites, like most journalists I know, are eager to do work that makes money; we are even willing to compromise for it, knowing that our jobs and futures rest on it. An ever-growing number of media owners, meanwhile, are so exceedingly unwilling to reckon with the particulars of their own business that they refuse to accept our eagerness to help them make money. They’re speaking a language no one else does, proud of their own inability not just to not fail, but to not understand the terms on which they’re failing. The tragedy of digital media isn’t that it’s run by ruthless, profiteering guys in ill-fitting suits; it’s that the people posing as the experts know less about how to make money than their employees, to whom they won’t listen.

“It’s still a killer business,” Kendall Roy tells his father Logan in the latest episode of Succession, in which Logan debates whether to pull the plug on Vaulter, a digital media company run by the family business. “The platform, the brands, ethos and culture are leading edge, and in my view, it’s fixable. All they need is adults in the room.”

It seems likely that a similar conversation played out earlier this year in the Back Bay offices of Great Hill Partners, the private-equity firm that now owns the company where I am on the payroll until the end of today. The managing partners—all of them men, white, and members of the one percent—agreed to buy this company at a steep discount, and to bring in another white male one percenter as co-owner and CEO. This company had a good platform and strong brands; all they needed to do was hire a few people who could make it profitable. All they needed was adults in the room.

It seems likely that variations on this conversation played out earlier this year in the Thousand Oaks, California, offices of SAGE Publishing, and in the New York offices of First Look Media, and in the Folsom, California, offices of e.Republic. In those three cases, as in the fictional case of Vaulter, the adults in the room decided the magazines they published—Pacific Standard, Topic, and Governing, respectively—could not be saved. It seems likely that similar conversations play out constantly in the New York offices of Alden Global Capital, the purely evil hedge fund that has eliminated two out of every three jobs at the 100 newspapers it runs.

A metastasizing swath of media is controlled by private-equity vultures and capricious billionaires and other people who genuinely believe that they are rich because they are smart and that they are smart because they are rich, and that anyone less rich is by definition less smart. They know what they know, and they don’t need to know anything else.

Since Great Hill Partners bought this company in April, the CEO and his newly hired C-suite have gone to great lengths to show they are the adults here, and that the employees of this company who preceded them are children in desperate need of parenting. They have attempted to institute a dress code and rules about the hours during which employees must be sitting at their desks. They have attempted to intimidate reporters out of reporting true stories about the dysfunction they have created. They have told experienced product managers that quality-assurance testing and other widely accepted best practices are unnecessary because their years of experience are better substitutes. They have driven out several senior managers—most of them women, myself included—by undermining us and condescending to us at every turn.

Of course, the employees who built the company Great Hill bought are not children, and they don’t need parenting. I know this not because they are my friends and some of the smartest people I know (though they are), but because Gawker Media has always been a successful company.

Gawker Media is dead, of course. But it’s not dead because it failed; it’s dead because it was murdered by a vindictive billionaire and there existed no legal infrastructure to protect it. When Gawker was murdered in a terrifying blow to freedom of the press, a shocking number of other journalists said the site deserved it: They should have had more decorum, should have been less rude, should have placated the right people instead of making fun of them. What those journalists didn’t say, and what they still don’t say, was that Gawker made journalism better through inspiring new publications and through pushing the legacy ones to be more interesting. They don’t say that Gawker unionizing made conditions better across the industry. And they don’t say that the company’s websites were consistently profitable and beloved by readers, that the business model—publish stories that people wanted to read, supported by advertising—worked exactly as it was intended to.

Among the people Great Hill Partners has fired and driven out of the company and treated like children are people who have been responsible for creating and sustaining a successful digital media business for over a decade. Even after Univision bought Gawker Media (sans Gawker) and renamed it Gizmodo Media Group, and even after the company was saddled with debt from numerous failed Univision ventures, the core business model kept working. The entire reason I wanted to work here was that the sites kept putting out best-in-class journalism through crisis after crisis. I have no doubt they will do the same now.

Jim Spanfeller, the CEO of this company, meanwhile, is best known for growing Forbes.com in the mid-2000s, around the time this website was born. While he was not responsible for the “contributor network” that made Forbes a journalistic laughingstock, he set the stage by demanding increased output at all costs (up to 5,000 stories a day by the end of his tenure). The clickbait and SEO plays and sleazy monetization schemes rejected by Gawker Media were the entire point. Content mills The Active Times and The Daily Meal, which Spanfeller launched and later sold to the Tribune Company at a trivial price, ran the same playbook, and many of his ideas for growing revenue at this company (implementing slideshows to juice pageviews, clogging story pages with ever-more programmatic ads at the expense of user experience) were taken straight from that era—more than a decade ago, or approximately an eon in internet time. The only idealistic belief at Gawker Media was that a journalistic enterprise could make money without scamming people; the guiding principle at Forbes and sites of its ilk was that scams are good as long as they make money.

The question I hear the most about the owners of this company is “Why did they buy a bunch of publications they seem to hate?” I and my colleagues have asked Spanfeller only slightly more diplomatic variants of that question on several occasions. The answer he has given is that the publications didn’t cost him much and that he liked their high traffic numbers. The unstated, fuller version seems to be that he believed he could simply turn up the traffic (and thus turn a profit), as if adjusting a faucet, not by investing in quality journalism but by tricking people into clicking on more pages. While pageviews are no longer seen as a key performance indicator at most digital publications—time spent on the site is increasingly thought to be a more valuable metric—Spanfeller has focused on pageviews above all else. In his first meeting with editorial leaders, he said he expected us to double pageviews. Several weeks later, without acknowledging a change, he mentioned that the expectation is in fact to quadruple them. Four months in, the vision for getting there seems less clear than ever.

This company’s websites already have larger readerships than most of their competitors, and much more loyal ones. Yet Vox and Vice and BuzzFeed are, on paper anyway, worth billions between them; this company recently sold for a tiny fraction of that. Those companies’ path to those valuations (which are obviously inflated, but that’s not the same as not “real”) was not through scammy advertising on scammy SEO plays, but through investing in sales reps and creative revenue ideas and good stories that people wanted to read. Great Hill Partners is correct that an opportunity for huge profit exists here, too, but they want a quick cash-out rather than the growth that comes from a well-run business. This makes no sense on its own terms—who gets into media to turn a fast buck?—but more than that betrays a curious lack of greed. Who would squeeze publications to save thousands of dollars here and there when hundreds of millions are on the table?

What has in any event been made exceedingly clear is that the owners’ vision involves narrowing the scope of Deadspin’s coverage. During my first real conversation with Spanfeller, he told me he didn’t understand why the site covered other media companies. During my first real conversation with Spanfeller’s hand-picked editorial director, Paul Maidment (another Forbes veteran), he said he didn’t understand why we covered politics. My responses—that we cover those things because our readers like them, a thesis that is supported by traffic figures—have failed to make an impact. In a meeting with the Deadspin staff earlier this week, Maidment said the “stick to sports” edict comes from Great Hill leadership, but that he would “double-check the numbers.” “If the data changes, my views change,” he told my colleagues.

The data has in fact stayed quite consistent. Posts on The Concourse, Deadspin’s vertical dedicated to politics and culture and other topics that are not sports, outperform posts on the main site by slightly more than two to one.

My colleagues and I know that most Deadspin readers do not want the site to stick to sports. I know this because I have 18 months of experience running the site and 12-ish years of experience reading it, and because I work with people who have seven or eight or nine years’ experience writing and editing for it. We know this because we read the comments. We know this because readers make obvious every day what they most like to read, and because our traffic numbers are large and growing, and because I have tunneled obsessively into the details of those traffic numbers for the past year and a half. The politics, media, and lifestyle stories will not stop, because my colleagues are committed to giving readers what they want despite any bureaucratic obstacles, and to doing it with enviable levels of intelligence, humor, and integrity.

The numbers apparently do not matter to my ostensibly numbers-obsessed bosses, for reasons I can’t quite understand. When I have told them that the data show that non-sports content brings more traffic and more revenue opportunities, I have been ignored. When I have told them that the data show that readers prefer publications with a distinctive point of view, that Deadspin succeeds precisely because it doesn’t try to be all things to all people, I have been told that being all things to all people is in fact exactly the way to grow pageviews. The reason my colleagues are not going to suddenly start sticking to sports is not about editorial purity, it’s about the opportunity to grow the audience and make more money for Great Hill Partners. But the adults in the room know that we’re wrong, despite all evidence, because they just know.

The richest men in digital media sometimes show they are not the adults in the room in the pettiest ways. The beginning of the end of my time here came when Spanfeller, my boss’s boss, threw a tantrum in an email to the entire company over a story our staff was reporting on his hiring practices, management style, and threats to editorial independence. He accused us of biased journalism based on the fact that we had sent an early draft to our media lawyer, which is standard journalistic practice. He accused me and a 26-year-old reporter who works for me—a wildly talented reporter who has as much integrity as anyone I’ve ever worked with—of trying to “shame and discredit others in our community” by reporting a story. When another colleague suggested in an all-staff meeting that his email was itself an attempt to publicly shame and discredit his employees, he doubled down, saying he is a transparent guy who says what he thinks. The story—which was damning only in that it was a true recitation of facts—was published anyway, not because our bosses “allowed” it to be, but because Gawker Media journalists are not and will never be intimidated by bullying.

After I submitted my resignation, explaining that the ongoing undermining from my bosses made it impossible for me to continue to succeed in my job, and that I believed I was putting my staff at risk by staying, the CEO threw a tinier tantrum. When I passed Spanfeller in the office a week after I put in notice, he let out a cruel barking laugh, as if he was disgusted to be in my presence. I said “you can speak to me, you know,” and he responded in a tone familiar to anyone who was ever bullied in middle school. “I don’t want to,” he sneered.

This man is not the adult in the room at the former Gawker Media, just as Kendall Roy was not the adult in the room at Vaulter and Alden Global Capital executives are not the adult in the room at any of the 100 newspapers they are destroying. Sending a copied-and-pasted company handbook, issuing vague edicts about becoming sites for “enthusiasts,” and making inexplicable changes for the sake of making changes are the professional equivalent of a small boy dressing up in his father’s suit: He is role-playing, deluding himself but no one else.

The editors and writers and video producers and artists and sales reps and product managers and so on—the people who made this a successful company while also making it the best place I can imagine working—are its actual leaders, and the reason that, despite it all, these websites will continue writing things the rest of us want to read. But none of those people are the richest person here, which means they will keep succeeding despite—not because of—the man who is. He doesn’t know what they know; he doesn’t have to know. No one like him does.

[compassionlotion]

Lindsay Adler — Chromat Vaulter Bustier and Halo Collar for Hint Fashion Magazine Styled by Lisa Smith Craig (at New York, New York)