#feel like they would get down to some Luke Bryant
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Wally and Eddie dance to Dolly Parton songs together. Eddie also shows Wally some line dancing steps and buys him a pair of cowboy boots as a gift.
#my hcs#deardarling#eddie dear#wally darling#wally x eddie#eddie x wally#feel like they would get down to some Luke Bryant#but it's the 70s so I'm sticking with dolly
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Us, May 3
You can buy a brand new copy of this issue without the mailing label for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks
Cover: Pregnant Meghan Markle: My Baby, My Way
Page 2: Red Carpet -- rufflemania -- Hollywood style stars are tier-ing it up in this flattering design with feminine flair -- Tracee Ellis Ross, Kaitlyn Dever, Margot Robbie, Logan Browning, Nicola Coughlan
Page 3: Lizzo, Maude Apatow, Lucy Boynton, Jessica Alba, Lily Collins
Page 4: Who Wore It Best? Anya Taylor-Joy vs. Isla Fisher vs. Regina King in Stuart Weitzman Nudist sandal
Page 6: Loose Talk -- Shonda Rhimes on the intense backlash she received over Rege-Jean Page's exit from Bridgerton, Kelly Ripa on her most embarrassing interview, Luke Bryan on his mother LeClaire's Instagram fame, Blake Shelton on The Voice's new coach Ariana Grande, Reese Witherspoon joking about wearing bottoms that aren't sweatpants
Page 8: Contents
Page 10: A Final Farewell to Prince Philip, his four children Prince Charles and Princess Anne and Prince Andrew and Prince Edward were among the loved ones who participated in the emotional ceremony, feuding brothers Prince Harry and Prince William (and his wife Duchess Kate) put their differences aside after the intimate service, due to Covid-19 protocols the grieving Queen Elizabeth stayed socially distant from the other 29 people who attended the funeral for her husband of 73 years
Page 11: ACM Awards 2021 -- Maren Morris teamed up with her husband Ryan Hurd and won Female Artist of the Year, Thomas Rhett won Male Artist of the Year, Carrie Underwood took the stage
Page 12: Hot Pics -- Rosie Huntington-Whiteley wore an orange coat during a visit to NYC, John Stamos plays a coach on the TV show Big Shot, Zach Braff goofed around on the set of Cheaper by the Dozen in L.A.
Page 13: Eva Longoria on her trampoline while aboard a yacht in Miami, Howie Mandel arrived to the set of America's Got Talent dressed as a bug in Pasadena
Page 14: Jon Hamm and his rescue dog Splash strolled around the neighborhood in L.A., Heidi Klum in all white in Pasadena, Sara Gilbert and Linda Perry take a stroll in L.A.
Page 15: Eddie Cibrian and LeAnn Rimes held hands after dinner at Il Segreto in L.A., Patrick Dempsey shot a scene for his show Devils in Rome
Page 16: Rachel Brosnahan in a blue dress and carrying a clear umbrella on the set of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in NYC, Lin-Manuel Miranda at the opening of a vaccination center for Broadway workers in Times Square, Trisha Yearwood feeds one of her rescue pups
Page 18: Gen Z Has Spoken -- these celebs are making the young kids proud -- Baggy Jeans -- Hailey Bieber, Tracee Ellis Ross, Bella Hadid
Page 19: Middle Parts -- Busy Philipps, Lizzo, Jennifer Lopez, Kourtney Kardashian, baguette bags -- Dua Lipa, Elsa Hosk, Irina Shayk, Kendall Jenner
Page 20: Seeing Double -- stars bear a striking resemblance to their famous counterparts -- Elizabeth Banks and Chelsea Handler, Emmanuelle Chriqui and Nina Dobrev, Betty Gilpin and Jodie Comer
Page 21: Rob Lowe and Ian Somerhalder, Jaime Pressly and Margot Robbie, Isla Fisher and Amy Adams, Rupert Grint and Ed Sheeran, Kyle Richards and Kacey Musgraves
Page 22: Clueless Crew -- stars are totally buggin' over Cher Horowitz's style in yellow plaid -- Robin Roberts on Good Morning America, Katie Holmes was rollin' with her homie beau Emilio Vitolo Jr. in NYC, Vanessa Hudgens, Dianna Agron
Page 23: Gabrielle Union
Page 24: Stars They're Not Like Us -- Jay Leno took one of his vintage automobiles out for a spin in L.A., Chrissy Teigen and John Legend took a selfie with a fan while grocery shopping in Beverly Hills, Kylie Jenner has custom vending machines
Page 25: Carrie Underwood in her massive walk-in closet, Denzel Washington signs autographs for fans in NYC, Megan Thee Stallion on a private plane, Drake and his bodyguard in Beverly Hills
Page 26: Stars They're Just Like Us -- Sarah Jessica Parker catches a yellow cab after working at her shoe store in NYC, Brad Paisley picked up five pizzas to go in Montecito
Page 27: Kelly Osbourne handed out goods at a drive-thru food distribution event at the Islamic Center of Southern California, HGTV's Egypt Sherrod transformed her closet into a meditation space in Atlanta, in between filming Law & Order: SVU's Mariska Hargitay and Ice-T take a selfie
Page 28: Hollywood Dads -- Scott Porter on parenting his two kids McCoy and Clover
Page 29: Jonathan Tucker on life with twins Hayes and India, parenthood is a lot tougher than Jovi Dufren imagined, Maksim Chmerkovskiy can't wait to show son Shai his work
Page 30: Love Lives -- Rihanna and A$AP Rocky are showing no signs of slowing down -- the pair enjoyed a night out in L.A. hotspot Delilah where they were holding hands and laughing and they're not hiding the fact that they're dating but they just don't want people in their business -- they're a good match and are each other's best friend
Page 31: Justin Bieber and Hailey Bieber may look like the picture-perfect couple, but Justin admits that their first year of marriage wasn't what he expected, saying it was really tough and there was just a lack of trust and he blamed the strain on his own personal struggles and said before he didn't have someone to love or someone to pour into but now, more than two years after exchanging vows with Hailey, he has that
* Kacey Musgraves' romance with Dr. Gerald Onuoha is giving her butterflies -- the pair are so happy they found each other and while Kacey, who split from her husband Ruston Kelly last summer, is trying not to get too ahead of herself, her connection to the Nashville-based doc is off the charts and it's got the potential to go a very long way
* Today's Savannah Guthrie is thankful to have husband Michael Feldman in her life, especially given the demands of her early morning work schedule
Page 32: Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker are getting serious -- all the details on their whirlwind romance
Page 33: Adapting to parenthood has been a breeze for Emma Stone and she's soaking in all the precious moments of being a mom for the first time -- she and husband Dave McCary welcomed their baby daughter in March and Emma is super protective and a very hands-on mom and Dave is also hands-on and helps with their daughter -- thanks to the little one, Emma's marriage with the comedian has also gotten stronger and having a baby has brought them closer in a way they never expected -- Emma is looking forward to getting back to work; she's taken this time off to embrace motherhood and her number one priority is to raise a healthy baby so that's what she's focused on right now
* Britney Spears is setting the record straight -- despite her ongoing conservatorship battle with her dad, Jamie Spears, she is doing totally fine, assuring fans that she's extremely happy and she has a beautiful home, beautiful children and she's taking a break right now because she's enjoying herself -- although the legal drama with her father is heating up, Britney is staying strong and she has this wonderful ability to see the positive even when the odds are against her
* Keeping Up With Us -- production for the Downton Abbey sequel is underway, Mossimo Giannulli is a free man, Chrissy Teigen returned to Twitter 23 days after announcing that she was leaving the platform, Vanessa Bryant remembered her late husband Kobe Bryant on what would have been their 20th wedding anniversary, Helen McCrory lost her battle with cancer at age 52 according to her husband Damian Lewis
Page 34: A Day in My Life -- Whitney Port
Page 35: Colton Underwood is ready to live his truth -- during an interview on Good Morning America, the former Bachelor came out as gay, saying he's run from himself for a long time and he came to terms with his sexuality earlier this year and he's the happiest and healthiest he's ever been -- now that he feels like he can finally breathe, Colton is excited for his next chapter, which fans will get to see on an upcoming reality show with Olympian Gus Kenworthy -- a huge weight has been lifted off of Colton's shoulders and he is looking forward to being his authentic self
Page 36: Moms Tell All -- Happy Mother's Day! From milestones and manners to rules and nanny-bans, celebs and insiders talk about raising kids in Hollywood
Page 37: Bindi Irwin says life at home with her daughter Grace Warrior has been positively blissful and her family with dad Chandler Powell is so full of love, adding that the newborn has already met some of the wildlife at the Australia Zoo where Bindi and Chandler live and work and of course she's seen some crocs and really lit up when she saw them -- while the Aussie conservationist is sad Grace won't get to meet her late dad Steve Irwin, Bindi's brother Robert Irwin and mom Terri Irwin have been by her side constantly and Robert is obsessed with Grace and has been helping out so much and her mom has been the biggest guiding light and she's already taught Bindi so much about being a mother, both in how she raised her and by showing her things day by day and Terri is quite the baby whisperer and she's so great a calming Grace down when she's crying -- first-time father Chandler is also a natural with Grace and he's been the most supportive and involved dad and together, he and Bindi make such a great team -- for now, Bindi, who stars with Chandler in Crikey! It's a Baby!, is hoping Grace will follow in her animal-activist footsteps, saying having three generations of strong women working as conservationists is a dream come true
* Jennifer Garner said teaching your kids is a lifelong job, and certainly values are something you have to show them -- Jennifer, who shares kids Violet, Seraphina and Samuel with ex Ben Affleck, is staying true to her word and has led by example when it comes to things like kindness and patience and she won't let anyone in the house to judge or speak ill of people, and she enforces the same wholesome, traditional values that she was raised with and the kids have been taught to be loving, hardworking and fair -- Jennifer has always taken a kids-come-first approach to parenting, and it shows as they bake together, enjoy movie nights, read books and have very active lives and it's a very healthy, happy household filled with laughter and love
Page 38: Gwen Stefani has her hands full with her sons Kingston, Zuma and Apollo with ex-husband Gavin Rossdale, but she wouldn't want it any other way -- Gwen's a tomboy, so having three boys wasn't daunting for her at all, plus she has fiance Blake Shelton by her side to pitch in with parenting duties and Gwen and the boys have a blast at Blake's ranch in Oklahoma where they enjoy riding their ATVs, and they play baseball and football -- it's not all fun and games, though because Gwen is big on boundaries and manners and she doesn't want to raise Hollywood brats and it's important to her that her sons be gentlemen
* Meghan Markle's pregnancy with Archie was no walk in the park, as she revealed during her bombshell TV interview with husband Prince Harry, the couple had concerns over whether or not the royal family would provide security for their son and claimed there were conversations about his skin color -- but this time around, as Meghan and Harry gear up for baby No. 2 at home in L.A., she's doing everything her way, without the royals and Meghan and Harry feel blessed that they're able to raise their daughter in the U.S. and can live by their own rules and make the decisions they feel are best for their children; having independence is the most important thing for Meghan and she's got free rein to be exactly the kind of mom she wants to be -- her parenting style is really like most mothers out there, and she's been craving pasta and doing yoga two times a day as her due date nears and she keeps a lot of art supplies out to foster creativity and healthy snacks around and she's a devoted mom and wants the best for her kids
Page 39: Kate Hudson has a lot on her plate, so the mom of three, who shares son Ryder with former husband Chris Robinson and son Bingham with ex Matt Bellamy and daughter Rani with boyfriend Danny Fujikawa, knows when to put her foot down as things can get a little overwhelming at times for Kate, but when she says no, it absolutely means no, and the kids respect her very much because of that
* Gigi Hadid, who shares daughter Khai with boyfriend Zayn Malik, wants to spend every waking moment with her precious little girl -- Gigi could easily afford to employ a team of nannies but chooses not to and she prefers to do everything herself and besides, she can't bear to be away from Khai for more than a few hours
* Candace Cameron Bure's three grown kids are flying the coop, but she's still super involved in their lives, despite slowly becoming an empty nester -- the mom of Natasha, Lev, and Maksim with former hockey player Valeri Bure says it's been a very transitional time and she's been trying to help them make decisions they feel good about and it's challenging, but they're figuring it out
Page 40: Oh, Baby! Meghan Markle's due date is just around the corner, and here are all the details
* Bump Brigade -- Halsey, Gal Gadot, Shawn Johnson East
Page 42: 10 Years of the Cambridges -- a look back at Prince William and Duchess Kate Middleton's solid marriage for their anniversary
Page 44: Jennifer Lopez and Alex Rodriguez: What Really Happened -- cheating and lies? The truth behind J.Lo's split from fiance A-Rod
Page 45: Friendliest Exes -- these former couples managed to stay close after going their separate ways -- Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin, Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux, Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr, Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz
Page 48: Gifts for Mother's Day
Page 54: Entertainment -- Ben Barnes on Shadow and Bone
Page 58: Fashion Police -- the most daring Oscars looks -- Bjork, Whoopi Goldberg, Charlize Theron
Page 59: Rachel Weisz, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lady Gaga
Page 60: 25 Things You Don't Know About Me -- Julia Michaels
#tabloid#grain of salt#tabloid toc#tabloidtoc#bindi irwin#chandler powell#grace warrior irwin powell#jennifer garner#gwen stefani#meghan markle#prince harry#kate hudson#gigi hadid#candace cameron bure#the cambridges#prince william#duchess kate#kate middleton#catherine duchess of cambridge#jennifer lopez#alex rodriguez#ben barnes#shadow and bone#general kirigan#fashion police#julia michaels#colton underwood#whitney port#britney spears#emma stone
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Fury From the Deep - Episode Six
Written by - Victor Pemberton Director - Hugh David Producer - Peter Bryant Animation Director - Luke Marcatili, Chloe Grech and Gary Russel Animation Producer - Luke Marcatili, Chloe Grech and Gary Russel
Episode Six
("It's her scream, her particular pattern of sound that does the trick!" - The Doctor about Victoria being the weapon against the weed with her scream to Megan and Harris.)
Likes
- I love, and I mean really love, that a female character screaming is the key to winning the fight. Like, Victoria destroys these things by screaming at them. And though it may be a bit weird and people think young female characters in this show do nothing but...Victoria doesn't scream as much as, say, Susan. At least, it doesn't feel that way.
- The Doctor and his absolute excitement about getting a chance to pilot one of the helicopters. Just...it's new, it's exciting and it's something he would love to do.
- The other pilot, seeing that they got out in the other helicopter comes over and helps the Doctor fly the helicopter and keep them in the air. Nice fellow.
- Megan getting shit done on what little she knows. Nice. I knew I liked this woman.
- Yes, more of the Doctor building gadgets to help save the day. I love when he does that!
- Ooh, Price's chair! He's in a wheelchair! I didn't know that. Nice. I like some disability in people who help save the day.
- Everyone just sitting down and enjoying a nice dinner with each other. It's a nice way to end an adventure, and one the Doctor and his companions really don't get enough of.
- How upset Jamie looks after the Doctor tells him it's up to Victoria to make her own decisions in life and if she wants to stay it is up to her. :(
- Jamie giving Victoria not one but two forehead kisses in goodbye. I love the dynamic between these three so much. This is team as family.
Dislikes
- Uh, Harris, you've been pretty decent this whole story...and now you're turning into a total downer in this last episode. Why? It's like he doesn't want to try to save anyone but the people on the command centre he is in and that's it, screw everyone else, including his wife. Just...wow.
- Umm, can anyone please explain where the Doctor kissing Megan's hands and kind of flirting with her come from? Because that part came out of nowhere! Has he done that with anyone else? I seriously don't remember him getting kissy with anyone. Flirty, yes, kissy, no.
Awesome
- I love the way they animated the killer kelp in this. Just look at that weed move! It looks so awesome, especially when it is huge and covering the ocean and spouting up everywhere.
- Doctor's little toy of his own. Sound laser, nice.
- Oh my god, the amplifiers everyone used on the weed attacking the hub they're in. They look like huge earbuds. Nice going there predicting the future, Doctor Who!
Shitty
- Missing, but thankfully little left is missing, yeees. Only 2 more recon serials to go! Also, this is animated whoo!
- Please why do you have Jamie and Victoria trying to find each other while the Doctor is getting plot relevant info from Robson? It's like we're getting a behind the scenes rescue attempt while getting story at the same time and it's just more people talking over each other.
- Hahaha in several shots while the Doctor is piloting the helicopter, it looks like he yanks the handle right off XD
In Conclusion
It's a nice conclusion. Only about half the episode is the actual fight against the weed. The rest of it is dinner to relax and the Doctor and Jamie's goodbyes to Victoria.
The first half is exciting and full of movement and action, all of it using sound to kill the weed. Nice.
The second half is relaxed, full of laughter and sadness and goodbyes.
Body count - 1. The seaweed. Can you believe there was not one single person who died in this? At all? The only death is the seaweed itself. And Victoria nailed it. I'm putting this as only one, as it seems to be one entity that just grows and spreads and can split.
Fury From the Deep as a Whole
If you are going to watch this one, please do it with these animated episodes. It's watchable and can be fun here with the movement and the animation is nice for the most part.
Don't attempt this one with the recons at all. It doesn't work. I forgot half the characters even existed episode to episode, I couldn't remember character names with the exception of Megan, I could barely understand what was going on at all...yeah, the recons are just bad for this one. This is a total nightmare trying to watch that way and yeah, it put me off wanting to watch it again even here with the animated version.
That wasn't a problem past the first episode though. It's actually a decent story, though not the best. Some episodes are great, some are not. Two episodes I still didn't like, but the rest was definitely watchable.
We also get the lovely goodbye to Victoria. I feel like Victoria gets one of the best goodbyes of any companion with One and Two. It isn't sudden, it is over half an episode, the characters clearly are seen caring for each other. It's a really nice way to end the episode with.
Oh, also I watched the B&W edition of this, as I go for whatever is on the first disc. There is a colour edition available. So, you get your pick with this one.
#Classic Doctor Who#doctor who#Fury From the Deep#episode six#epic rewatch#Second Doctor#Jamie McCrimmon#victoria waterfield#seaweed
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Worry
Word Count: 1,189
Warnings: Mention of physical assault and injuries (including blood).
Author’s Note: I wrote this to try to pull myself out of my writer’s block. It’s not great but at least it’s something
You wait for the car to finish pulling out of the drive and start making its way down your street before approaching the house. You slowly walk up the steps and ring your own doorbell. You can hear Roxy walking quickly toward the door and bite your lip out of habit. The jolt of pain brings you back to yourself and your anxiety goes into overdrive. It’s not that you’re worried about Luke’s reaction really. It’s more that you should have known better. You’re dating and living with a freaking FBI agent and still you’re in this situation.
Before you can work yourself up any more, Luke opens the door. You can see the surprise spreading on his face already, but thankfully he still hasn’t replaced the lightbulb on the porch and can’t get a good look at your own face. “I’ve been trying to call you for an hour. You’re never late. Is everything o--” Luke cuts himself off as you walk into the house and he finally gets a look at you in the light.
“I’m sorry. I--”
“What the hell happened?” Luke asks with shock in his voice. You start to walk away when his gentle but firm hand on your upper arm stops you. Roxy weaves her way between the two of you and you reach over to scratch her ears. You take comfort in the pup’s love while Luke looks over your array of injuries. Your split lip, hurting--and probably bruised--eye, and scraped up cheek aren’t really at the forefront of your mind when you can still feel your pulse in your ankle as you stand in the middle of the doorway.
“Luke,” you say with a sigh, “let me get in the house before the interrogation starts.” Luke’s still staring at you in shock while you close and lock the door and drop your coat on a hook next to it. “Are you okay?” Luke asks seeming to hold back a stream of questions while he follows you into the kitchen.
“I haven’t looked in a mirror so I don’t know how bad it is, but I assume I’ll be fine,” you say while pulling out an ice pack from the freezer. Your sarcasm is normally a healthy part of your relationship with Luke, but he isn’t putting up with it tonight. He grabs the ice pack from you and sits you down at the island without making his usual qip. He also grabs your first aid kit from the cabinet by the sink.
You sit down with a sinking feeling in your stomach and stare at your hands. They look filthy sitting on the clean countertop and remind you of your altercation tonight. Luke moves so he’s standing next to you at the island and he tilts your head up so he can get a better look at your injuries. He gently wipes at your lower lip with his thumb and it comes back covered in your blood. For a second, neither of you say anything. Luke seems upset and your heart is pounding in your chest.
“So, are you going to tell me what happened now?” Luke asks. His voice is soft and full of concern. It feels impossible to start the story, but you know you have to tell him. “I was walking to the subway after I got off work and this guy came out of nowhere. He--”
With a voice you’ve never heard him use before Luke grinds out “someone did this to you?” At that you notice both his clenched jaw and fists. “I thought you were in an accident. I didn’t think some asshole did this to you.” His anger is barely restrained, but you know he’s trying to hold it in so he doesn’t upset you.
“Well, I did fall down at one point,” you try to joke. “I assume that’s where the skinned cheek happened.” You point at the wet spot you feel on your right cheek and Luke’s eyes instantly soften. “Stop trying to turn this into a joke and tell me what happened,” Luke says as he starts pulling out the gauze and antiseptic wipes.
“He came out of nowhere and demanded my purse,” you say, pausing to wince at the feel of the antiseptic on your cheek. “I gave it to him and then he wanted my jewelry. And I know it’s dumb. I know I should have just given it to him, but you gave me that necklace.” Luke continues cleaning your injuries for a second before pulling away.
“All of this for that necklace?” Luke asks with frustration lining his tone. “I can always buy you a new one.” Tears spring to your eyes at this. How can you explain to Luke that you know? That you knew better? But you still did the stupid thing that everyone knows not to do. “I-I’m sorry, Luke. I know better. The girl obsessed with true crime podcasts, the girl dating an FBI agent still did the wrong thing. I’m sorry,” you say before Luke can get a word in. Luke sets down the antiseptic and wipes away your tears. “Hey. Hey. I’m not blaming you for what happened. It just seems so stupid I could have lost you over something replaceable.” He kisses your forehead and wraps his arms around you. “And people don’t think in these situations. They just react. It’s not your fault. It’s an instinct.”
After a moment, Luke goes back to fixing you up as you continue your story. “I called the cops and they took a statement. They took some photos of my injuries too. And then Officer Bryant drove me home. Now I’m here.”
“Why didn’t Officer Bryant call me? I would have come to get you. Why didn’t anyone take care of you at the scene?”
“I told her not to,” you say while finally putting the ice pack on the right side of your face, obscuring your view of Luke’s frown. “I know, Luke. But I didn’t want some random police officer explaining what happened. And I really didn’t want you charging in like a bull when this isn’t a big deal.”
“You come home scraped up after being mugged and it’s not a big deal?” Luke asks as he sits down next to you at the island. You grab his hand with your free one and stare into his eyes. He’s an amazing, sweet man and you feel lucky to have him, but you can’t believe he doesn’t realize the irony of his words. “I’m pretty sure you’ve come home with worse,” you remind him. Luke rolls his eyes at your words. “Okay, when you become an FBI agent I’ll let you come home banged up without freaking out.”
“You do realize this is how I feel when you get home from cases with injuries, right?” you can’t help but ask. “I know it’s part of your job and your job’s part of who you are. But I still worry and I still want to beat up whoever beat you up.”
“Well then, let me worry about you for once,” Luke says.
#criminal minds#luke alvez#luke alvez x reader#criminal minds hc hq#fanfic#fanfiction#criminal minds fanfiction#one shot
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One day, we will all be memories
I feel compelled to write this. It'll probably be messy and sloppy but I felt compelled to put something down that would encapsulate yesterday.
My day began with a family drive to go and get gas; standard garden variety life stuff. As we passed a windy icy road, we came across an overturned SUV with a person inside of it who had been literally on her way to church. After minutes that felt like hours of waiting in January weather for help to arrive, police and medical personnel made their way to the scene. The woman inside the overturned vehicle was fine to my knowledge (or as fine as somebody could be after having their car flip over and wind up on its hood) and thankfully she was cognizant of her sorroundings, coherent about what had had happened and seemed to be okay. What was so awe inspiring was the sort of humanity of others in that moment. My father, a former EMS and just all around "in the heat of the moment do the right thing" guy, got out and went to work helping the person while other onlookers blocked the road, my sister called 911 (as did others), people went to get her family and just put on a tremendous showing of humanity. It was the sort of showing that people may see in a gif or in a sappy youtube video and then move on with their day, perhaps even muttering about how that'll never happen to them or where they live. Sometimes I tend to have that same mentality of not believing but at the end of the day, I truly believe that people in the most dire of times will always show the sort of strength and courageousness that CAN make a difference in our world. Sometimes, painfully enough, it takes the worst in life to bring out the best in us.
Fast forward a bit later on and the Kobe Bryant news hits social media. At the time I was more just hoping for facts and clarity as rumors spread about who had died, what had gone wrong and god knows whatever awful horrendous things that are often associated with tragedies. Sometimes our desire to be right, to be first or to be informed trumps all and our hearts move faster than our brains. We're so hungry for clarity and information that the synapses in our brains shouting for us to stop, assess the information, take it with a grain of salt and understand that patience will always prevail with something like this are washed out by our hurting hearts that take over. As I saw the news articles coming out and watched social media banter rumor and story at one another (from Rick Fox being on the plane to all of Kobe's daughters being on the plane to the eventual full story we now know), I waited and in hindsight, I almost think I waited because I wanted it to all be a lie and a hoax. Even as more and more legitimate sources came out to either confirm or correct the information, I just kept waiting for something else to be said otherwise. I kept waiting to be lied to and for social media to be wrong about everything.
Unfortunately, it was more right than we all wished to bare.
Speaking purely from an impact standpoint, Kobe Bryant's legacy and inspiration are hard to match in the sports world. I tried to come up with a global comparison with Alex and the best he could come up with would be if such a tragedy struck a major soccer star. The point being that Kobe Bryant is something almost incomparable to anything else I've ever experienced. My mother and I talked about Roberto Clemente and how it rocked the world but the world feels so much bigger and interconnected now than when Clemente passed away. It wasn't until later that night upon reflection and seeing the outpouring of love from his on the court detractors to lifelong supporters that it really clicked for me. It just feels wrong. It just feels unfair. It's hard to come up with a loss so powerful and so....wrong. It just feels wrong. Kobe Bryant wasn't an aging great who passed away quietly in his sleep; he was 41 years old with young children. A group of families were traveling to a basketball game when something very tragic happened and robbed a family of their husband, father, daughter and sister. Kobe Bryant will never get to walk his daughters down the aisle, Vanessa Bryant will never get to see her daughter's first WNBA game or her graduating college or discover the cure for cancer or where the winding road of life planned to take her. The most painful and fucked up part of this is that his younger children who came into this world long after the 81 point game vs the Raptors or the two Olympic gold medals or the handful of rings he wore as an NBA champion will have to hear from other people how amazing their father was as an athlete and as a person.
Wrong.
Unfair.
Fucking wrong and unfair.
I always feel like such an asshole that it takes something tragic to stop, breathe and appreciate how blessed I am to even be alive. Sports is my escape and when your escape gets real, it’s always such a system shock. In a day and age where it's easy (and perhaps even trendy) to be numb and nihilistic, I think there's something about athletes going through struggles off the field/court/ice/ring/cage that brings out something humbling in all of us. Kevin Love and DeMar Derozan made people take a second to reconsider the pangs of mental health. Andrew Luck and Luke Kuechly forced us to remember the limitations of the human body. We put athletes on such a pedestal that we forget that they're human beings like us and when we see those flickers of mortality, it's almost as if these amazing people become...well people I guess. Kobe Bryant's death and the death of eight other people is another painful reminder that no matter who you are or how special you may be, life is such a fragile thing. It truly is a blessing and one that often gets taken for granted. It forces us to stop fishing for likes, retweets, favorites and all of this immaterial borderline toxic stupidity and take a second to remember that all of us are not guaranteed a tomorrow. Life is so fleeting and can be taken from you/us at any given time. Kobe Bryant at the end of the day was no different than all of us. The people you like, love, admire or even ones you don't like don't have an expiration date tattooed on their foreheads---they can be here in the morning and gone forever by night time. In life, everybody you know will eventually become memories to you and in turn you to others.
And I guess as I lay here in bed trying to find a good way to sum up my emotions, I can only try to follow up on that with honesty; you WILL become somebody else's memory---so why not be a lasting one? Why not aim to be a good one? Kobe Bryant's impact on life wasn't just as an amazing athlete but as a flawed perfectionist who truly tried to better lives in so many different capacities. He was an inspiration, a hero, a loved villain but most of all? He was an example of how we are all never our best days or our worst days but what we do to improve and better ourselves and others. That's more important than anything else. It made me reconsider if, as I've often said on the DojoTalkPodcast, if I truly live my life like every conversation I have with somebody could be the last one we share and if I truly take that to heart. I literally sat here and thought of all the people and all of the things that irritate me and realized that in the grand scheme of things, those are so small compared to the grander picture of life. Think of someone, think of the things they do that irritate you and then just let it go. My brother playing video games all the time? Who cares. Parents nagging? Let it go. The way some of my friends overreact to everything? Whatever. You stop and think of the things the people you love do that irritates you and then consider that right now two families (and countless others who were impacted by them) would give up every car, every dollar and every piece of jewelry in their house for just another day of those bad habits or silly minor things their sister/mother/father/brother would do that would irritate them. I won’t have you forever and you won’t have me forever so why spend it aggregating ourselves over meaningless nothing? Never go to the grave with a beef you didn't squash and never go to the grave with somebody wondering how you felt about them. Life is truly too short and it's unfair and it will never give you a heads up and a set date for you to go around letting everybody know your appreciation level or that you're sorry or that you forgive them. If tomorrow is considered the first day of the rest of your life; then make the rest of your life one where all you wish to be is somebody else's eventual happy memory.
Chances are you already are.
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Dinoco Eyes Chapter 1
Here is the long-awaited Dinoco Eyes chapter one! Sorry, it took so long, I just didn’t feel confident enough until this version of chapter one. So yeah, enjoy!
Cali Weathers looked at the clock on her phone, it read 7:30 in the morning. She groaned and rolled over, looking at the area in her motorhome where she slept. Cali wasn’t a morning person and didn’t want to get up, but her friends were leaving for breakfast at 8:15, and she was going with them.
“Okay, Cali. You need to get up. Alex, Elliot and the gang are going to breakfast in 45 minutes.” She muttered to herself.
After quite a bit of sighing, she swung her legs over the edge of the bed and got up. She walked out of her “bedroom” area and to the table in the other room. Cali grabbed her duffel bag and set it on her bed, she had showered the night before so she didn’t have to worry about that.
Cali rummaged through her bag looking for an outfit. She finally decided on an old-school Dinoco tee-shirt, light-wash skinny jeans, a black Adidas zip-up hoodie, and some baby blue converse. She tied her hair up in a bun and got dressed; making sure the outfit looked okay before sitting on her bed to do her hair and makeup.
She grabbed her makeup bag and hair stuff out of her duffel bag and got started. She applied some concealer, powder, a bit of blush, mascara, did her brows and put on some lip gloss. Cali then took her long blonde hair down and brushed it; before ultimately putting it into a side braid.
By the time Cali was done her phone clock read 8:05; ten minutes before her friends would be banging on her door. She walked into the bathroom and brushed her teeth. Cali looked at herself in the mirror, baby blue eyes, dirty blonde hair, great figure, no wonder everyone was shocked she didn’t go into modeling.
As if on cue she heard banging on her door. She grabbed her wristlet, slid her phone into her pocket, and ran to the door. “Hey, guys!” She exclaimed to her 4 friends standing there. Alex, Elliot, Ryan, and Danny all stood there; Cali walked down the steps to join them.
Once in Elliot’s Ford F-150 they were off to Denny’s, she was sitting in between Danny and Alex; laughing her head off. Some Luke Bryant was playing softly in the background as they joked around.
“So, Cali. I heard you had 4 full-ride scholarships waiting for ya, why didn’t you take em?” Elliot asked, actually curious as to why she denied going to college.
“Like I said to everyone who asked that, would you rather race for team Dinoco or go to college pursuing a career you don’t even want?”
“Probably team Dinoco, but still. Wait what do you mean a career you don’t want?” Danny asked he, Elliot, and Ryan had gone to school with Cali. What did those scholarships entail?
“I hate reporting because I don’t really like the idea of asking people dumb questions. I don’t want to go to school for 11-13 years for Sports Medicine. I don’t wanna model like everyone says I should. I want to be myself, why is that so hard to understand?!” Cali almost angrily says to her friends.
Nobody says anything, they all know Cali too well, they all know that she wanted to do sports medicine but didn’t want to not be able to see her friends. She didn’t want to be that person asking dumb questions to racers. She most definitely did NOT want to model, despite getting her mother’s amazing genes.
This season was her season, her season to win the Piston Cup, her season to kick everyone else’s asses. Her season to win.
They all knew what California Marie Weathers wanted and that something was to win at Florida tomorrow, and to be the first rookie to ever win at Darlington. California Marie Weathers wanted to be the first female rookie to win the Piston Cup.
#cali weathers#ryan laney jr#danny swervez jr#elliot racelott#alex mcqueen#dinoco eyes#cars#cars au#humanized
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Stylist Shonel Bryant On Battling Breast Cancer, Supporting Your Girls, And Silver Linings
Stylist Shonel Bryant On Battling Breast Cancer, Supporting Your Girls, And Silver Linings
Family
by Sally Tabart
Luke and Shonel at home in Yandoit, Victoria. Photo – Bri Hammond for The Design Files.
Shonel’s impeccable styling skills really shine in her home! Photo – Bri Hammond for The Design Files.
Shonel with her gorgeous kids Smith (7) and Vogue (6). Photo – Bri Hammond for The Design Files.
Luke and Smith hanging out. Photo – Bri Hammond for The Design Files.
A quiet corner of Shonel’s beautiful home. Photo – Bri Hammond for The Design Files.
Shonel with Vogue! Photo – Bri Hammond for The Design Files.
Luke and Vogue with the family dog. Photo – Bri Hammond for The Design Files.
Luke, Smith, Vogue and Shonel. Photo – Bri Hammond for The Design Files.
Shonel’s talent as a stylist is evidenced in her home! Photo – Bri Hammond for The Design Files.
Luke with the kids. Photo – Bri Hammond for The Design Files.
A nice moment between Vogue and Shonel. Photo – Bri Hammond for The Design Files.
Bunk bed kids! Photo – Bri Hammond for The Design Files.
Vogue feeding the chickens. Photo – Bri Hammond for The Design Files.
Shonel and Vogue checking on the chicks. Photo – Bri Hammond for The Design Files.
The family live in beautiful natural surrounds. Photo – Bri Hammond for The Design Files.
Vogue Photo – Bri Hammond for The Design Files.
Shonel Bryant’s successful events styling business, Nomad Styling, came to a grinding halt in 2019 when she was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer. Her kids Smith (7) and Vogue (6) were just six and four years old at the time, and while her gut was telling her to shelter them from it entirely, the family used it as an opportunity to be honest about their feelings, and they pulled through it together. But just over six months after finishing her treatment and getting the all clear, the cancer returned. It was – to put it lightly – the worst.
But despite the many challenges to her mental and physical health, Shonel has fought hard to find her silver lining. She’s done it through carving out her own community through her popular platform Support Your Girls – a place where she and other people experiencing cancer have been able to find others that just get it, especially when they struggle to feel understood in their day-today lives. She also self-produced (along with Robot Army Productions) an incredible nine-part docu-series, Life On Standby, where she recorded some of the most intimate parts of her journey in the hopes that others would feel seen and heard. She is determined to be the success story she couldn’t find when she was looking for it.
Connection and understanding is so important to Shonel. Here, she tells us how she found it.
I read on your website that you lost your mother to stomach cancer. I am so sorry. You mention that that experience changed your life in the best possible way – what do you mean by that?
Losing my mother to stomach cancer was one of the hardest things I’ve gone through and continue to experience. I allowed myself to work through the stages of grief and came out the other side of it with an altered perspective on life, a beautiful one. My mum was a natural teacher, it has felt as though she’s continued teaching me through the afterlife. That truly feels like a gift.
While I still experience grief today, though in a different way, I am forever grateful for the lessons her death has taught me. It really confirmed something that mum used to often say to me: ‘Out of everything bad comes something good’. She really has taught me to find the silver lining. But I’ve taught myself that I need to slow down and feel it all before it begins to fully surface.
What year were you diagnosed with Triple Negative Breast Cancer? And where are you at now in your journey?
I was diagnosed in October 2019. I was 36 and my children were six and four at the time. I had six months of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, which was a challenging time as asking for help is not a natural strength of mine. After great results, I was able to just have a lumpectomy rather than a mastectomy. After radiation on the site I was ‘in the clear’. While that time wasn’t as smooth sailing as I expected emotionally, I was happy and began attempting to get on with my new life.
It was a mere seven months after my treatment ended that I had a routine mammogram/ultrasound where they found I was one of 2% of people where the cancer had spread into a lymph node that was in a very unexpected place. The cancer was back! Due to COVID, we hadn’t even been able to go away and celebrate being ‘cancer free’ yet.
The aggressive nature of this rare type of cancer means that if it comes back, it happens fast and grows very rapidly. Since then, I have had another surgery, more radiation and am now on chemotherapy tablets for six months. I have another four months to go.
How did you tell your kids, and how did they respond?
Despite instinctively wanting to shelter them from it entirely, one thing I was very clear on (while so much of my reality at the time was a blur) was that I did NOT want to instil fear in the children. Cancer to them was merely a word that had no emotional weight. We were quite direct with the kids but focused on the facts.
There were some really fabulous books that helped them visually understand. I also took lots of video footage and photos so I could show them the machines and the hospitals as well. We ensured they knew they could ask us if there was anything more they wanted to know, and we kept that door open while updating them with progress along the way.
We exposed them to our emotions and struggles at times where we could have hidden them. Instead, we used these as opportunities to open up a dialogue around the importance of feeling our emotions and that it’s okay to feel scared or sad.
There were times I cried and they comforted me; they literally took me into their arms like I was the child and told me to ‘Feel it all’ (as I do with them). Even recalling that gets me emotional; these are moments that stick with you for life.
And what about Luke? How did he process it?
I think Luke and I have different views on this. To me, whilst I knew he wasn’t in denial I believe Luke was quite distant with how he processed it. Rather than speaking to me about it, he dealt with it on his own and carried the weight of it himself. This was extremely challenging for me and made me feel isolated. I know this was not his intention at all, however it was my experience and reality at the time.
It’s been one of the most challenging parts of this for me personally, the toll this has taken on our relationship. While these photos may depict us in a happy way, the reality is we have a lot of struggles on the daily we are actively working on. Luke and I have been together for 16 years, this experience has really highlighted our relationship dynamics, which have been completely flipped since my diagnosis. We still very much have happy moments, but cancer has made life more serious temporarily.
Can you tell me a little about Support Your Girls? Why does it exist, and what do you hope to communicate?
I had a successful event styling business called Nomad Styling and was set up to continue doing international weddings in 2019 and then I was diagnosed and shut it down immediately to focus on my healing. In turn, I had no income. While loved ones rallied and raised funds for us, we needed something else so I could just focus on my healing.
I started selling slogan T-shirts that say ‘Support your girls’, meaning your breasts and women. Each T- shirt comes with a ‘self check’ card, informing the recipient how to perform a self check and encouraging them to create a habit of checking on the first of every month.
50% of the proceeds go towards setting up a youth education program that will be rolling out into schools over the years to come on the importance of self checks and knowing their risk factors.
It has become a platform, a community where I share my experience as I navigate the many challenges that people going through cancer can – and will likely – face. It started out as me sharing to help others, and has turned into an incredible community that truly holds me when I am down. I feel so engaged and connected to my followers and am incredibly grateful for their loyalty and support.
I have so many further ideas in the works on how to reach people in more engaging ways, that I really look forward to achieving in the future.
What advice or guidance would you give someone who is going through something similar to what you have been through?
As with most traumas or challenging experiences, often it’s difficult to process and grieve at the same time as it’s too fresh or urgent. Our nervous system tells us it’s not safe to go there, first we have to survive, then we get to step back and comprehend the situation.
Allow all of the emotions to flow through you as they surface. If you get in the way of them and try to numb or suppress them it will only hinder your experience. It may feel better short term, but it will catch up with you.
Allowing that energy to flow in and out of you, the good, the bad and the horrific. It’s extremely uncomfortable yet necessary and helps you process what the hell is happening to you so you can move forward.
What brings you joy, and what are you hopeful for?
It’s truly the small moments on the daily that I now fully drop into and truly feel grateful for. It amplifies the impact they have on my body and it feels incredible. Pure joy to me are things like: the kids jumping into bed in the mornings, the sunshine on my face flickering through the trees, feeling the cool breeze on my skin, deep conversations with loved ones, my feet in the sand at the beach, going to therapy and witnessing my growth. Ah… even thinking about these things brings me joy. There are so many more I could list.
I am so hopeful for clear scans in the future, I have a routine full body PET scan next month and I am both excited and deeply fearful at the same time. The fear can be crippling, but there comes a point where all you can do is surrender.
A candid moment with the family. Photo – Bri Hammond for The Design Files.
FAMILY FAVOURITES
Family activity or outing?
We love going to local markets and exploring all of the small local townships with the kids. Having lived in Geelong most of our lives and relocating just before I was diagnosed, we enjoy learning about the local regions to us. It’s all new and exciting.
Cafe or restaurant?
Pancho café in Daylesford. Alma restaurant in Geelong.
Ideal ‘me time’ activity?
Going to a gallery and being inspired, reading books in the sunshine, chatting to my psychologist and debriefing with a beautiful friend over a delicious meal. What a blissful day.
Sunday ritual?
Making home-made pasta together with the kids, we do it every Sunday where we can. I cherish this time so much and hope that these memories stick with them and they want to bring their own children home and do this together as the years roll by. (Should they wish to have children, of course.)
Weekend getaway?
Going anywhere in our restored vintage caravan creating new memories together is one of our favourite things to do. We need to prioritise it more.
You can find some amazing resources, journal entries, videos and products over at the Support Your Girls website. Follow along with Shonel on Instagram here.
Explore Shonel’s 9-part docu-series, Life on Standby, here.
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Surfer Billy Kemper glimpsed at death after wave slammed him into a rock
New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/surfer-billy-kemper-glimpsed-at-death-after-wave-slammed-him-into-a-rock/
Surfer Billy Kemper glimpsed at death after wave slammed him into a rock
“Knocked me out unconscious. Collapsed my lung. My pelvis was broken down the middle, I had to get my knee reconstructed, the injury-list goes on and on,” adds the 30-year-old surfer as he details the impact on his body. “It was straight up life or death.”
Kemper says there was a brief moment of calm before the impact last year, a period of peace inside the wave, when he couldn’t even tell which way was up. And then, the visceral experience of life’s fragility.
“I was just hyperventilating and blacking out through the pain, you can’t forget pain that much.”
READ: How Romain Grosjean’s family inspired him as he was engulfed by flames
Surfing ‘Jaws’
Kemper says that he never feared the waves: “I was on a surfboard months before I could walk, I was basically, you know, born into the ocean.”
Close to big-wave surfing icon Laird Hamilton, who Kemper refers to as his “Uncle” though they are not blood relations, and growing up on Maui, Hawaii’s second largest island, surfing has always been in Kemper’s blood.
“Part of the culture of being raised in Hawaii and being raised on rock surrounded by ocean is that there’s never a fear.”
While some people might develop their love for a team or a sport by being taken to a game at an early age, Kemper’s equivalent of The Staples Center or the Los Angeles Lakers was geologically sculpted and just a couple of miles away.
The most feared wave in the world, towering at up to 60 feet and known as “Jaws,” because it resembles the mouth of a shark, was practically on his doorstep.
“We would watch it like a kid watching The Lakers,” he said.
Comparing himself to a young fan hoping to get his basketball signed by Kobe Bryant, there Kemper was, with his surfboard, making plans for the rest of his life.
“‘Mom, Dad’,” he’d say, “One day I’m going to surf ‘Jaws.’ And they just laugh at me, like ‘yeah right.'”
He was serious though; now aged 30, Kemper is regarded by many as the best big-wave surfer in the world. According to the World Surf League CEO Erik Logan “he consistently pushes the realm of what is possible in his continuous pursuit to travel to the world in search of the most ferocious storms and biggest waves.”
Among numerous other accolades, Kemper is the 2018 big-wave world champion and a four-time “Jaws” event winner, considered the most prestigious prize in the sport.
He’s an accomplished surfer at every level, but he’s a rare breed of surfers — around a dozen of them — who eschew the speed, precision and creativity of the regular WSL Tour for the blood and thunder of the biggest waves on the planet.
“Billy’s accomplishments as a professional surfer indisputably show he is one of the world’s best big-wave surfers,” adds Logan.
When asked to describe the feeling of standing on top of a mountainous wall of water, Kemper compares it to looking out of the window of an eighth-floor apartment. He struggles to articulate the feeling without using an expletive.
“I don’t know exactly what words I’d put it into that would be good for camera talk,” he smiled. “Just, like, everything in the world is blocked out for that one moment. I’m just literally living in the moment. Proud and present.”
READ: Emily Harrington on her historic El Capitan climb
‘Strike missions’
Kemper was riding a wave of momentum through 2019 and early 2020 when he decided to make his fateful trip to Morocco. It was a trip that ended as it had begun, in a hurry. But the mood on the way out was very different to his palpable excitement and anticipation on arrival.
“It was at the end of my season last year and the Northern Pacific just started to fall apart,” Kemper said. “There just wasn’t the swells I was looking to see.”
For some time, he’d been drawn to the idea of surfing the coast off Morocco in North Africa and it seemed as though the stars were aligning.
“One evening I was looking at all the swells across the world and I see this absurd storm moving through the Atlantic Ocean,” he said.
He immediately contacted his buddies and the World Surf League to see if they’d be interested in tackling the waves and documenting it on film.
“This one just looked monumental,” he enthused, “It looked a lot bigger and stronger than most swells that you see in that ocean.”
Surfers refer to such adventures as “strike missions,” they’re planned at the last minute and the flights are booked with just 24 hours to spare, ensuring that the surf really is going to be worth the effort.
“If the forecast isn’t well and conditions aren’t good then we won’t pull the trigger,” Kemper noted.
In February, the strike team of Kemper, surfers Koa Smith, Luke Davis and filmmaker Arénui Frapwell arrived in Morocco, where they met up with Billy’s friend, the local surfer Gerome Sahyoun.
He knew immediately that the hype was justified
“We surfed a handful of waves up and down the coast and there were probably some of the best waves I’ve ever witnessed in my life. It was truly the trip of a lifetime until the absolute worst happened.”
READ: Oscar-winning director Jimmy Chin on fear, risk and finding the edge
Broken pelvis
Kemper says he has known death but isn’t scared of it. At the age of just eight, he was mourning his brother and his mother died more recently of cancer.
What he does fear, though, is the thought of not seeing his own four children again. As a surfer, he doesn’t fear the water, but he certainly respects it. “I’m by no means a master of the ocean, I always bow to the ocean.”
As his broken body lay floating in the frothing waters off the coast of North Africa, the reality of his new situation rapidly came into focus.
“I knew what I had gotten myself into, I just didn’t know how truly serious it was,” he said. “Anyone who’s ever broken their pelvis in half can relate to this. You’re definitely not just going to walk up the beach.”
Kemper says he owes his life to the friends who immediately rushed to his aid in the water and got him to safety. He was transported to the harbor on a jet ski, where an ambulance was waiting.
Of all the gory details he can recall more than a year after the dramatic event, it seems that this is still one of the rawest: “Even the ambulance ride felt like the worst pain ever. Every speed bump, every bump, the center of your body just opening up and releasing blood.”
“Most people lose half their blood count,” he said, speaking of his pelvis break. “You’re going to need transfusions.” He gestures with his hands to demonstrate his internal wound geysering blood at every bump in the road. “It’s a pain you can’t describe.”
READ: Like ‘falling off the face of the earth,’ says kayaker Dane Jackson
‘Without surfing, I am not Billy’
After a few days in hospital, Kemper and his team realized they were facing more problems. Firstly, how to navigate a journey of more than 13,000 kilometers back to the US for emergency trauma surgery.
“I was in a state where I couldn’t fly on a commercial plane, I couldn’t fly business class,” Kemper said. “With a pelvic break that bad, you can’t leave a stretcher. Any bit of movement, you’re just opening up that break to create more internal bleeding.”
More pressing, however, was the looming Covid-19 crisis, which meant that international borders were being slammed shut all along their escape route home.
Having leaned on his community of family, friends and sponsors to help raise the funds for an emergency medevac flight, they were now in a race against time.
“It was literally just happening on the minute,” he recalled. “It wasn’t even like tomorrow, or this day, it was like ‘Oh no! They shut down. They shut down. They shut down!’ We’re trying to beat them to the punch just to get an entry onto US soil.”
Not only was Kemper desperate to see his family, but he also knew that the best medical care was at home, and it was treatment that was essential if he was ever going to compete on a surfboard again.
When they finally did make it back, Kemper was immediately rushed into trauma surgery by a doctor who’d been specifically researched by his team.
But even then, the road to recovery was a long one; months of grueling rehabilitation and the longest period of his life spent on dry land.
“I’d be pretty surprised if there was an athlete that outdid what I did in the five, six months I was up in California,” Kemper said.
He moved in with “Uncle” Hamilton and his wife Gabrielle Reece, and focused intensely on recovery, physical therapy and training. He details 11-hour days, seven days a week and reflects that the experience was probably a “blessing in disguise.”
“What I learned last summer was probably more knowledge than I ever would have [acquired] without going through this injury,” he said.
“It was beyond anything I thought I’d ever go through and I needed a few months to mentally prepare myself and heal my mind.”
When the time came to climb back onto a surfboard again, Kemper says it felt like a rebirth.
“It was like the first wave of my entire life over again, it brought back the emotions of being a kid. This is why I’ve sacrificed so much; this is why I’ve worked harder than anyone, this is the reason why I belong here,” he said.
“Surfing is who I am. Without surfing, I am not Billy.”
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New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/2020-all-area-boys-golf-meet-the-first-team-sports/
2020 All-Area boys' golf: Meet the first team | Sports
Bismarck-Henning/Rossville-Alvin boys’ golfer Rance Bryant
Provided
Rance Bryant | Bismarck-Henning/Rossville-Alvin
Why he made the first team: The senior transfer from Schlarman made a quick impact on the Blue Devils, leading them to a Class 1A regional title with a seventh-place finish on that stage and finishing the season with a nine-hole stroke average of 38.0.
Why he decided to play golf in high school: “My grandpa taught me to play when I was about 6 years old. I always loved golf, and I wanted to continue playing in high school so I could stay busy in the fall.”
His top highlight of the season: “When I holed out from 74 yards away for birdie. Also, winning conference and regionals as a team. We did a great job picking each other up, and if someone wasn’t doing good, then another person would step up.”
The most challenging part of his season: “I struggled with putting this season. I progressed as the season went on, and I was getting very comfortable with it.”
His favorite event of the season: “The Paris Invite at Eagle Ridge. I played with a great group of guys, and it was an all-around good day.”
What it meant to compete during the pandemic: “Having a season was huge to me because I wanted to play my last year of competitive golf.”
His top career golf accomplishment: “Shooting 1-over par because that was my best score for my high school career, which was very exciting for me because my goal was to shoot 1-over or lower for the season.”
A golf accomplishment on his radar: “I want to get a hole-in-one as well as shoot 5-under par. Hole-in-ones are a very good achievement for anyone, and shooting 5-under par is pretty hard to do, but I don’t feel like that is too far out of my reach.”
Payton Dunahee, Prairie Central, golf, Faces of Fall at the News-Gazette in Champaign on Sunday, August 16, 2020.
Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette
Payton Dunahee | Prairie Central
Why he made the first team: The senior frequently paced a loaded Hawks lineup, turning in top-10 finishes at both his Class 2A regional (seventh) and sectional (ninth) as Prairie Central won a team plaque in the former postseason event. Dunahee carded a nine-hole average of 39.0 in the regular season and 40.0 during his regional and sectional competitions.
Why he decided to play golf in high school: “Because my brother played.”
His top highlight of the season: “Winning conference. My whole family got to watch me win for the first time.”
The most challenging part of his season: “Keeping hope for our season to keep going. Not having state was heartbreaking.”
His favorite event of the season: “Conference. I knew I was going to have everyone coming for me after winning last year.”
What it meant to compete during the pandemic: “It was very positive for me and made life a lot more fun and easier to live during this time.”
His top career golf accomplishment: “Definitely shooting 34 on senior night.”
A golf accomplishment on his radar: “I hope to play Division I golf.”
Schlarman senior Gabe Huddleston surveys the green on the fourth hole at Danville Country Club in Danville during Tuesday’s Class 1A boys’ golf regional. Huddleston was the individual medalist for the third-place Hilltoppers, who finished behind Bismarck-Henning/Rossville-Alvin and St. Thomas More in the team chase. Huddleston’s score of 76 allowed him to advance to the sectional round.
Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette
Gabe Huddleston | Schlarman
Why he made the first team: The senior was consistently dominant for a relatively young group of Hilltoppers that missed sectional advancement by just one stroke. Huddleston qualified individually by winning his Class 1A regional before placing 15th at the subsequent sectional, and he recorded a nine-hole average of 38.4.
Why he decided to play golf in high school: “I love competing and it gave me an opportunity to help build a championship-caliber program with a core group of friends.”
His top highlight of the season: “Getting my first win of my golfing career, at the Vermilion Valley Conference Tournament at Harrison Park — which had seemed to be my Achilles heel, so to speak, for the better part of my high school career.”
The most challenging part of his season: “Adapting to the regulations that were put in place by the IHSA to keep those participating in sports safebecause I had played golf a certain way and to have that abrupt change took some time to get used to.”
His favorite event of the season: “The Vermilion Valley Conference Tournament, not only because it was my first career win but because our team had a chance to three-peat.”
What it meant to compete during the pandemic: “The impact of getting a golf season means a lot, but what means most was that it was done safely.”
His top career golf accomplishment: “It wasn’t winning or even getting to play. This season enabled me to help lead our team and guide the youth of our program in a direction to not only play better golf, but also to teach them key elements that I have learned in a way that can help them in all facets of their lives.”
A golf accomplishment on his radar: “To play golf at the collegiate level. While golf is a great sport and I love the game, I wish to use it as a means to help pay for my education and build real-world relationships to help those around me.”
Provided
Bement boys’ golfer Zach Rogers
Zach Rogers | Bement
Why he made the first team: The senior and All-Area second-team twin brother, Luke, spent their last season as the entirety of the Bulldogs’ team producing even more success. Zach Rogers notched a nine-hole average of 39.0 that included a Class 1A regional medalist honor and a 12th-place showing at his sectional.
Why he decided to play golf in high school: “It was pretty set in stone that my brother and I would play high school golf. I started taking golf seriously in the sixth grade, I believe, so after that it was pretty much a given that I would play in high school.”
His top highlight of the season: “My brother and I placing first and second at regionals. This was something special that I did not expect. I remember the night before, being nervous for me and for him. To play as well as we did … it’s something I’ll never forget.”
What it meant to compete during the pandemic: “The season being held had a positive impact on me and my outlook on the school year. I would have been disappointed if I would have been able to go to school but would not have had a golf season.”
His top career golf accomplishment: “Almost qualifying for the U.S. Junior Amateur last year. This proved to me I had the game to compete beyond the high school realm.”
A golf accomplishment on his radar: “My current goal is to continue building my skill set and seeing where the game takes me. I hope to one day be better than my Uncle Kurt was in his heyday. Some of the readers may know him; he worked at Champaign Country Club for a handful of months this year.”
Monticello boys’ golfer Will Ross, far right, with his family.
Kendra Pence/provided
Will Ross | Monticello
Why he made the first team: The sophomore formed a potent trio with teammates Tanner Buehnerkemper and Matthew Erickson, heading that group with a nine-hole average of 39.9. Ross collected fifth place at his Class 1A regional, in which the Sages took second, and was 34th at his sectional.
Why he decided to play golf in high school: “Since I was in middle school, I’d been looking forward to the chance to play in high school. I looked up to our last state-qualifying team that placed fourth in 2016. It influenced my decision to play high school golf.”
His top highlight of the season: “Our match against Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley. As a team, we were down going into the last three holes on a course most of us had never played before. It was really intense and competitive. Tanner Buehnerkemper and I were encouraging and pushing each other to win each of the last holes. The best part was that we ended up winning, and all of our teammates were cheering for us on the ninth green.”
What it meant to compete during the pandemic: “I was very happy because I knew that we would be competitive as a team this year at every level, so I’m very grateful we had the opportunity to play. It was also nice for our seniors — and for the seniors from other schools. Some are close friends that I play with in tournaments outside of the school season. After seeing them work hard all summer, I’m glad that they didn’t miss out on their final year of high school golf.”
His top career golf accomplishment: “Placing second in conference this season. I wasn’t where I wanted to be during the conference meet last year, and performing well at conference was one of my goals for this season.”
A golf accomplishment on his radar: “I want to qualify for the state tournament and place top five. Playing varsity the past two seasons has allowed me to grow into a leadership role heading into my junior season. I need to improve areas of my game, and I want to be a role model for the kids coming in to keep our program strong and competitive.”
Wade Schacht, Central, golf, Faces of Fall at the News-Gazette in Champaign on Sunday, August 16, 2020.
Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette
Wade Schacht | Champaign Central
Why he made the first team: The sophomore and our Golfer of the Year kept up the tradition previously set by former Maroon three-time Golfer of the Year Justin McCoy, securing the area’s best nine-hole average at 37.7 while offering beyond-his-years leadership to a young roster. Schacht tied for first at his Class 2A regional, taking second in a four-way playoff for the outright title, and took 25th in his sectional.
Why he decided to play golf in high school: “It has always been a dream of mine to represent Central since I started playing tournaments when I was 5.”
His top highlight of the season: “The four-way playoff (for medalist) at regionals. Although I came in second, it was still an incredible experience playing with so many people watching and such high pressure. Also, that putt to extend it was pretty nice.”
The most challenging part of his season: “Staying motivated during long breaks.”
His favorite event of the season: “At Monticello for a dual. I love that course, and I never mind a round in the red. ”
What it meant to compete during the pandemic: “It meant a lot for my mental and physical health, giving me goals and a social outlet.”
His top career golf accomplishment: “Winning the State Farm Youth Classic in 2019 with a score of 69 on the second day.”
A golf accomplishment on his radar: “My only goal left in high school golf is to win state.”
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Fury From the Deep - Episode Three
Written by - Victor Pemberton Director - Hugh David Producer - Peter Bryant Animation Director - Luke Marcatili and Gary Russel Animation Producer - Luke Marcatili and Gary Russel
Episode Three
("It's down there, in the darkness, waiting." - Van Lutyens to Robson and Chief, about a creature being stuck in the pipes.)
Likes
- Pfff, did the Doctor use the sonic screwdriver to put the seaweed in a sandwich bag? Nice use of props there, Doctor XD
- Yes, Doctor, see what effect gas has on weed. Just...I love the language usage in some parts of this episode so much. It's hilarious.
- I feel sorry for poor Dutch guy just trying to do his job, and well, mind you and not one person is listening to him, and when they do it doesn't matter because Robson stops anything he advises because Robson knows more than anyone how this shit works...even though he's not an engineer and Van Lutyens is. I actually find myself liking this guy. When Robson gets out of the picture, he actually manages to get shit done. Now the Hague and London have been contacted, Megan is coming over (yay!) and things can get fixed.
- I like that the killer weed is part of legend from Jamie's time and takes the shape of giant tentacles coming out of the water to attack ships. It looks like the Kraken on Weed. The Weed IS the Kraken XD
- I love Victoria being a lockpick amateur who is good at what she does. This is her second time this serial she has picked the lock of one of these doors. Either they are really flimsy locks, or she should pick it up as a profession XD Victoria the expert cat burglar?
- Yes, bring in Megan! Megan was the one person in this in recons I truly liked. I'm liking more of the cast now in action, thankfully. Let's see if Megan still lands on top?
That last scene with Robson and Maggie was genuinely creepy. Just, wow, kudos to everyone involved in that.
Dislikes
- Do I have to say it any more than I already have? Yes, yes I do. I loathe Robson greatly.
- Jamie, you were told earlier that the seaweed was alive, before molecular movement was found in your wriggling parts. Plants are living too you know?
- Yes, Robson, have a public meltdown and then go drink alone in your room. That will definitely help your case of being in charge. Yep. Wow.
Awesome
- I really like the animation they do in this one for the seaweed. It looks great. Well done to the animation team!
- That last shot of Maggie just walking into the ocean and disappearing from view as she goes under. It was creepy and awesome and yes, I am putting it in both the likes and the awesome categories.
Shitty
- It's missing. Thankfully, again, this whole serial was animated.
- When Robson was sitting on his bed with the glass of...whiskey at a guess, I just wondered if he could hold that glass with how wide it seemed. In some shots, it seemed to be bigger than his hands in any way that would be comfortable to hold. It would hold more alcohol though XD
In Conclusion
So, comms guy is Price, not Pierce. Aaaaah, another name remembered. I also think Chief is called Hess, but I am continuing to call him Chief.
Also, I actually found myself enjoying this episode. Few parts in it were slow and those parts that were worked well. There was a bit of action with everyone now coming out knowing the seaweed is attacking. Victoria may be guessing that her screaming is a deadly weapon and is sick of it, the Doctor is noticing that too.
All up, not enough Maggie, Megan is going to be introduced properly next episode, which makes me happy. Robson is done but will not stay down. Harris is worried and panicky but still put himself in charge and called London to send in more people to help. Good man.
And I like Dutch guy, Van Lutyens. I couldn't even remember he existed episode to episode in the recon. This is a huge and pleasant surprise.
And that last scene was awesome. I love when this show does creepy and pulls it off well.
Body count - 0. I am pretty sure the seaweed is keeping Maggie alive at this point, so I don't think she is dead. I am pretty sure she survives this story.
#Classic Doctor Who#doctor who#Fury From the Deep#episode three#epic rewatch#Second Doctor#Jamie McCrimmon#victoria waterfield#seaweed
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How Phil Jackson is influencing today’s NBA coaches
THREE DAYS HAD passed since Doc Rivers watched the first two episodes of “The Last Dance,” and he couldn’t get the predicament former Chicago Bulls coach Phil Jackson faced during that 1997-98 season out of his head.
“Can you imagine?” Rivers asked on the twice-weekly Zoom call he has been having with his LA Clippers coaching staff since the NBA season was postponed on March 11. “Can you imagine being told before the year that you’re going to get fired?”
As the 10-part docuseries details, the Bulls had just won back-to-back championships, and their fifth championship in seven years, but general manager Jerry Krause had decided that no matter what the team did that season, it was time to rebuild — and Jackson wouldn’t be the head coach.
“Can you imagine having the right mindset to teach?” Rivers lamented. “To get guys to buy into their role and do the right thing? I can’t even imagine the patience and serenity he had to have to be able to do that.”
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Rivers has been thinking about Jackson a lot in recent days. He watched “The Last Dance.” Then he rewatched the battles his Boston Celtics had with Jackson’s Los Angeles Lakers in the 2008 and 2010 NBA Finals, when they re-aired on ESPN last week. And it made him realize he hasn’t connected with the Hall of Fame coach in a while.
“You’re making me want to call him,” Rivers said.
At first glance, Rivers and Jackson would seem to be longtime rivals. But Rivers said they used to talk on the phone and text a fair amount, coach to coach, about all sorts of things. A few years ago, Rivers even invited Jackson to speak at a clinic he was hosting at the Clippers’ practice facility, and Jackson accepted without hesitation.
“We had a good relationship,” Rivers said. “It’s funny, no one has a great one unless you’re in his circle, but we had a good one.”
For a coach of his stature, Jackson’s circle has always seemed relatively small. Only a few of his former players — Steve Kerr and Luke Walton — are current head coaches in the NBA. Most of his coaching contemporaries were too consumed with trying to beat the man who won 11 titles in his 20 years on the bench, to befriend him. Front-office executives were mostly annoyed he thought he would succeed in that type of role, without doing it the way they did.
So when Jackson retired from coaching in 2011, and stepped down after an unsuccessful run as president of the New York Knicks in 2017, there wasn’t a loud chorus singing his praises. If anything, there was a loud chorus airing out three decades of gripes and jealousies.
Those who found him aloof or arrogant while he was on top of the NBA world almost seemed to delight in seeing his triangle offense belittled by analytics wonks and pace-and-space devotees.
Those who ascribed his success to the good fortune of coaching all-time greats like Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, loved to point out how poorly squabbles with Carmelo Anthony and Kristaps Porzingis turned out.
This is a familiar comeuppance for those who have succeeded at the highest level. Those you beat on your way to the top exact their revenge once you’ve been humbled. It was to be expected, and yet Jackson has done little to quiet or combat those who would besmirch his reputation.
He has made few public appearances and given even fewer interviews since he retired to his home in Montana. Even his previously engaging Twitter feed has gone quiet — last posting an article about meditation in June 2018.
And he has politely declined interview requests regarding “The Last Dance,” as he already said quite a bit in a four-hour interview for the project.
But that’s only the public side of things. Because as Rivers and a select group of current NBA coaches have found out, Jackson still has a lot to say about basketball — if the right person is asking the question.
“The man won 11 championships. Do I have that correct?” Rivers said. “Anybody that wins 11 championships should be celebrated every day. But I think because Phil was a loner in a lot of ways, a lot of people felt like he didn’t spend time with other coaches and all that stuff.
“If you asked him, he would, though.”
THERE IS NO secret code word. No special name for the growing group of coaches who have reached out and sought mentoring or advice from Jackson. There’s not even an obvious connection between them.
Rivers knew Jackson from coaching against him and through Tyronn Lue, who’d played for Jackson. Philadelphia 76ers coach Brett Brown was introduced via Luc Longley and Coby Karl, both of whom played for Jackson. Chicago Bulls coach Jim Boylen asked his owner, Jerry Reinsdorf, and Jackson’s former player John Paxson for an introduction. Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse asked Alex McKechnie, his vice president of player health and performance, who’d worked with Jackson in Los Angeles. Lakers coach Frank Vogel got to know him through former Jackson assistant Brian Shaw. Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle just knows everyone as president of the NBA Coaches Association.
The 10-part Michael Jordan documentary “The Last Dance” is here.
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What they all have in common is a desire to learn from the man they consider one of the greatest coaches of all time.
“I’ve always studied and admired his approach,” Vogel said. “I consider him the GOAT of NBA coaches.”
“Phil’s a great example of handling whatever comes his way,” Rivers said. “We all want the calm, and he dealt in the calm very well. But he also dealt with the storms extremely well. He got personalities and people to work together.”
Whatever rivalries Jackson might have had during his coaching career have been quickly cast aside.
“My Spurs world was very competitive with his,” Brown said. “So the opportunity to seek higher counsel was very much appreciated.”
And when coaches get on the phone with Jackson, or go to see him at his home in Montana, he is not always what they pictured.
“There’s this perception of him as the Zen Master,” Boylen said. “No. He’s a basketball junkie. He’s a diehard hooper. That’s what I loved about him.”
There is one thing each coach who has made the effort to get to know Jackson seems to say afterward, however.
The time they spent with him was their time. Whatever they got from that time remains between them.
“I’m not trying to spill the beans on everything we did,” Nurse said. “But it was awesome. It was really awesome.”
NURSE WASN’T SURE what to expect when he reached out to Jackson in the summer of 2018, a few weeks after he was named coach of the Raptors.
He’d studied Jackson for years. As a young coach at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, in the early 1990s, Nurse would often drive to Chicago, buy a standing room-only ticket to watch Jackson’s Bulls, then drive the five hours back to Des Moines after the game. When he coached in England in the late 1990s, Nurse would order Bulls videotapes and study Jackson’s offense — Nurse’s teams ran the triangle then — his rotations, his adjustments, even his sideline demeanor.
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So when McKechnie offered to arrange a meeting with Jackson, Nurse couldn’t resist.
He’d already met with former Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon, Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay and Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney to get advice before embarking on his first NBA head-coaching job. But meeting Jackson would be different. The Zen Master invited him to his house in Montana — for three days.
“I didn’t know if I was going to go out there for a cup of coffee with him and that’s it,” Nurse said. “But I figured if that happened, I’d just take a few days [in Montana] to myself, to relax.”
That cup of coffee turned into a three-day coaching retreat. They drove around in Jackson’s truck, watched film together and broke down plays on a whiteboard.
Nurse couldn’t believe what was happening. He was nerding out with the coach he’d studied and admired for years.
“It was fun, because he was testing my knowledge of basketball a bit, too,” Nurse said. “He’d be telling a story and say, ‘That red-headed kid’ and stop and see if I could fill in the blanks.
“Fortunately I’m enough of a historian — or a geek — to know. So I’d say, ‘Yeah, that was Matt Bonner’ or whatever. And I could tell he liked that.”
Boylen said he even studied before he went to visit Jackson in Montana.
“I think he researches people before they come. Because he knew some stuff about me — like, ‘I know you coach guys hard. … You’re a defensive-minded guy,'” Boylen said. “So I was prepared, too. I had notes, copies of rosters, personnel, coaches he’d hired. I read his books.”
Like Nurse, Boylen had no idea how much time Jackson would spend with him. They had plans for lunch at a local cafe and that’s it.
“I think the place closed at 3, and we left at 5,” he said. “Then we had dinner at this place that closed at 9, and we stayed until 10.”
The next morning he stopped by the bakery and had them make a quiche he could bring over to Jackson’s house for lunch.
“It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done,” Boylen said.
Throughout his two seasons in Chicago, Boylen says he has received frequent texts and emails from Jackson. At one point, Boylen asked him to watch the Bulls and offer critiques and suggestions. Jackson watched a few games, then sent a detailed note breaking down the team’s offense and suggesting some plays from the pinch-post that might unlock things.
“He confirmed some things that I believe in, which made me feel good, because he’s the best coach ever,” Boylen said. “But he also opened my mind up to some things, too.”
Jackson’s not sure what to call the relationships he has built with this group of NBA coaches either. Mentoring isn’t quite the right term. That feels too formal for what’s more like two coaches talking about the game they love.
But the coaches who’ve spent a couple days with Jackson, in Montana or Los Angeles, say it has had a huge effect on them.
“Phil is a longtime trusted friend,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “I talk basketball at length with him two or three times a year. He’s a great resource and has been extremely generous with his time and knowledge to all coaches.”
THE MEETING STARTED at the Ritz-Carlton Marina Del Rey in California, far away from the prying eyes and microphones of the New York City media looking for any sign of whom Jackson was interviewing to be the next Knicks coach.
Vogel had looked up to Jackson for years and had even hired Shaw — one of Jackson’s top assistants with the Lakers — on his staff with the Indiana Pacers.
“Literally, for those two years that I had Brian,” Vogel said, “every decision that came up, I was like, ‘How’d you guys do it in L.A.? What would Phil do here? How did Phil travel with the team? Did he allow people’s guests to come on a plane? What was his morning shootaround routine?'”
But he’d spoken to Jackson only once, for about five minutes when he scouted for the Lakers in 2006, before he flew out to Los Angeles to interview for the Knicks job.
He was nervous but excited.
The interview began at the hotel, then continued to dinner at a small pizza restaurant in Venice that Vogel is still trying to find his way back to. The next morning they had breakfast and spent five to six more hours on a whiteboard.
“We talked about everything,” Vogel said. “From life to our families to coaching, X’s and O’s on the court and offensive systems, whether it’s a triangle or another system, defensive coverages.”
Although he didn’t get the job, it was two days he’ll never forget.
“I was raised in the Bobby Knight era of coaches,” Vogel said. “You know, MF-this. MF-that. And Phil never did that. I just felt like his approach was — and I’m by no means a Zen guy — but the calm mental adjustment is something that I try to always carry with any conflict or any adversity my team faces.
“I always admired that approach, letting guys play in. Not bailing teams with timeouts, letting them play through things, figure things out themselves.”
That calm demeanor under pressure is something that sticks out for Sacramento Kings coach Luke Walton, who played for the Lakers from 2003 to ’11.
“One of the main things that I try to take with me, from what Phil has taught,” Walton said, “is training yourself and your players to always try to be able to stay level-headed throughout and not get too emotionally high or too emotionally low.
“He would talk about The Peaceful Warrior, and say, that’s where you’re at your most dangerous, if you can stay in that area.”
LIKE MOST OF the players on the 1997-98 Bulls who were interviewed for “The Last Dance,” Kerr was sent links to preview the docuseries a few weeks ago.
Thus far, he has resisted the temptation to binge watch. He lived through all the drama, so watching it all again is a bit surreal.
Star forward Scottie Pippen was upset about his contract and missed the first few months of the 1997-98 season to have foot surgery as a sort of protest. Jordan publicly declared he wouldn’t play for any coach but Jackson, who management had already announced wouldn’t be back the following season. Mercurial forward Dennis Rodman wasn’t under contract for the following season either.
At one point, Pippen was so upset with Bulls management, he asked for a trade and vowed not to play for the Bulls again. Somehow Jackson coaxed all of that back together, into another championship run.
“That was my favorite part of the first episodes,” Kerr said. “How Phil connected to Scottie, and made sure Scottie was connected to us as a group by saying, ‘We’re going to sacrifice the early part of the season. But we have to bring him into the fold. He’s one of our guys. We’ve got to back him up on this.’
“No other coach would say what Phil said.”
Jackson often talked to Pippen about his anger during that season. He wanted him to feel safe expressing that to him and hoped the trust he earned would eventually bring Pippen back around to fighting alongside his teammates, rather than against management.
With Rodman, Jackson had to take a different tack.
He brought in Jack Haley to be his de facto handler. He brought in a therapist to talk to him weekly, which often happened at the Taco John’s or some fast food place in the mall. He made a deal with Rodman that he didn’t have to be at the arena an hour and a half before games like the other players — he could show up an hour beforehand — but if he was late he’d be fined. And then he told the rest of the team about the deal he’d made, to make sure they saw it as pragmatism, not favoritism.
“It didn’t bother us,” Kerr said. “It wasn’t like some rookie who thought he was better than everybody else. This was Dennis Rodman. He was a great player but a complex person. And so we understood that Phil had a big job on his hands.”
Kerr also remembers a meeting in which Jackson showed video of Rodman’s acceptance speech when he was named NBA Defensive Player of the Year in 1990 as a member of the Detroit Pistons.
“Dennis was crying during the press conference, talking about how much it meant to him,” Kerr said.
“And the reason Phil showed us that with Dennis sitting there, at least my read, was he wanted us to know even though Dennis was late and then getting kicked out and suspended and whatever. He wanted us to know how much Dennis cared.
“And he wanted Dennis to know that we all cared about him, too.”
KERR HASN’T TALKED to Jackson as much this season as he has in the past. Like Rivers, watching “The Last Dance” has made Kerr want to reach out again.
“I sent him an email this morning,” Kerr said, when reached Saturday afternoon. “I should go check to see if he’s written back yet.”
He doesn’t worry about his old coach’s feelings or whether his reputation has been bruised in recent years.
“I think he’s fine,” Kerr said. “Phil was always so comfortable in his own skin.”
They talked often when Kerr was making the transition from broadcaster to coach in 2014. Over the years, Kerr had kept a book full of his beliefs about basketball and coaching. If he ever led a team, this was the book he wanted to bring to life.
Jackson told him that’s what he had done as a young coach, too: figure out what you believe in, then find a way to translate that to a team.
“We talked a lot about the triangle,” Kerr said. “He had searched for an offense for many years that would tie together with his philosophy.
“I had never heard anybody say something like that before. The triangle was not just an offense to run, it was part of a whole philosophy of teamwork and connectivity. And I totally felt it when I was playing there. I never felt more important as a player than I did in Chicago.”
Kerr wanted to bring that to his team, when he became a head coach. To find a philosophy, a mantra, a system, that made every player on the team feel as important as Jackson had made him feel as a reserve for the Bulls.
“For me,” Kerr said. “That was ‘Strength in Numbers.'”
The night before his first training camp with the Golden State Warriors, he showed his new team a video.
“I had Marv Albert narrate,” Kerr said, laughing at the memory. “I had a lot of movie references, movie clips and humor. All these things that Phil did.”
He wasn’t going to run the triangle, but, “I wanted that same philosophy of everybody being valued, everybody touching the ball. Everybody being empowered. That was so powerful to me as a player. And all that came from Phil.”
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Day 1 Pt III
A Great First Day
It was sweltering outside waiting for the Hertz guy to get our car. Fortunately Tim and I had both changed to Hawaii clothes (tank tops and board shorts of course). And there were palm trees swaying in the slight breeze to Instagram.
Blasting the relieving AC in our rental car, Tim drove us over to Ala Moana (which was 4 minutes away), and we navigated our way through the Friday afternoon masses to Curry House Coco Ichibanya. We did still want to save some of our appetites for Marukame Udon, that world-famous udon noodle house that we went to twice during our honeymoon, so we just ordered a medium-ish bowl of chicken curry to share. Then Tim realized they took cash only, and fumbled around in his wallet for the few dollars he had. He came up a dollar short. The young Asian cashier guy (his face looked a little like Bryant Trinh’s but more round) who was taking our order looked at us sympathetically before saying, “Here, I might have some change.” Then he pulled his own wallet out of his back pocket, took out a dollar, and added it to our payment! Both Tim and I were astonished with his generosity. It pretty much made our day.
We proceeded to devour the curry when it arrived. I don’t know if it was because I was famished, but that was probably some of the best rice + curry I’ve ever tasted.
Since Luke sold us his GoPro Hero 4, we’ve also been trying to find a case and accessories for it here so we can take it surfing and hiking and snorkeling and on other ventures with us. We weren’t really able to find anything nearby Curry House that had GoPro 4 stuff so we headed out. We’ll be back at Ala Moana later.
We checked into the AirBnB apartment that we’re staying in, and it’s pretty much like a nice 2-star hotel without the room service. It’s in a complex called Island Colony right around the corner from our favorite udon shop. They have a really nice pool area with a hot tub, but unfortunately the pool’s under construction. That’s okay, that’s what the beach is for. The view from our room is very building-saturated but you also get a little glimpse of the ocean and you can see the Ala Wai canal easily.
One issue to overcome was the parking situation. If we used the complex’s parking garage, we’d pay $30 a day. Neither Tim nor I was willing to pay that much, so we parked temporarily in a 2-hour parking spot close to the complex, chilled in the room for a couple hours to recuperate, and then headed back out to find a good spot.
According to our online research, if you were extremely lucky you would be able to nab a spot along Ala Wai canal, but the chances of that are pretty low, like getting a spot directly in front of Horton at Biola. We prayed anyway, of course. We then gave it a go and got stuck at the red light to get on Ala Wai Blvd while a line of cars drove by, looking at the long stretch of parallel-parked cars across from us with no open spaces. With low expectations, Tim turned left. Suddenly, right up ahead of us a car’s lights turned on and it pulled away! We had a spot! And an extremely rare, very close one, too.
Praise the Lord. His providence is true to us on vacation and everywhere else. We look back at last year during our honeymoon when we needed dishwashing soap and were going to go buy some, went walking around Hilton Hawaiian Village and found a brand new mini dish soap bottle on the ground smack in front of us. Right after we parked, I took a picture to capture the moment of our amazing spot right by Ala Wai canal. Unfortunately there was a random sad woman also there, who was captured in the photo as well.
We weren’t really hungry for udon yet so we decided to walk around the area (which has a ton of shopping and touristy things and the beach) a bit. I can’t get over how warm it is here. It’s not muggy like SoCal, but still hot and even more humid. The sun shined bright we were walking, and reaffirmed my packing decision that the only long-sleeve that I even brought was my Pixar Piper shirt.
While crossing Kalakaua Ave, I saw two Honolulu Cookie Companys and 3 ABC Stores on the way. They’ve done a lot of new development here, including remodel International Marketplace which is a gorgeous new outdoor mall featuring towering banyan trees, natural-looking ponds and fountains, and flagstone walkways. I was extremely impressed. Tim said it used to look pretty tacky before.
I couldn’t help finding my way to the beach. When we got there, Tim scanned the amount of surfing people in the waves and exclaimed, “It’s a zoo out there!” Yes, Waikiki Beach surfing is way worse and way more crowded than San Onofre. We stood for several moments watching everyone clamor for a ride, and I daydreamed about how we’d be surfing out at Waianae in a few days and there’d probably be nobody else there but us.
We realized that the line was probably getting pretty long at Marukame, so we headed back, and we were right. The line was Disneyland status. I guess that’s the only thing I don’t really enjoy about being in Waikiki/Honolulu, Oahu is that it’s just as densely populated as any other tourist-frequented city.
The wait for Marukame didn’t feel too unbearably long, though, and the food was well-worth it as always. You grab a tray, stand in line and order your noodles, Urban Plates style, then they give you your bowl of noodles and you take your noodles and tray and pick your sides then pay the cashier Fresh Choice style. I ordered cold udon with sweet beef and an egg, and Tim ordered cold udon with sauce, and we both shared some tempura. I was hungry again by the time we got our food and sat down, so everything tasted twice as good.
Pleased with the eats, we headed back to the room, changed into swimsuits and hit up the hot tub and hung out for a bit there, quizzing each other on random geography questions. Tim asked me what the 7 continents were and I had to sit quietly for several minutes making sure my answers were right so that he didn’t make fun of me. When I asked him what the capital of Denmark was, he said, “Bismarck?”
On the way back up to our room from the hot tub, there was a friendly older Korean tourist couple in the elevator with us. They recognized Tim’s cupping marks on his back and chattered to each other about them, then pointed to his biceps muscle, very impressed, and motioned with their hands that they knew he was strong. I grinned to myself and Tim accepted their foreign compliments humbly.
To wind down for the evening, we streamed Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which was a very engaging, surprisingly disturbing film. I enjoyed it because it seemed carry the same relationship to the rest of the Harry Potter series as Rogue One did to Star Wars, even though the story was a bit more confusing.
Altogether an excellent first day on the island!
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*Gender and Rhetoric
In this entry I will examine the critical questions: What gender/sexuality norm is constructed or undone in this artifact, how is it rhetorically done, and/or how does it promote a dominant ideology over a marginalized group or push back against the ideology or gender norms? Is it productive/unproductive (ethical/unethical)?
To investigate these questions, I am exploring Luke Bryan’s song “Country Girl (Shake it for Me)”. This song and the music video that accompanies it, creates the gender norm that women are to dance for country songs and for men by creating that idea through its lyrics about women and the visuals in the music video that accompany the lyrics depicting women in sexualized ways. Overall, it is unproductive by creating a sexualized gender norm towards women.
This song was released in 2011 and is accompanied by a music video that starts off with monologues from a few women about being country, riding their horses to Burger King, and they also talk about their career as dancers. The video itself shows shots of Luke Bryan and his band performing the song inside a studio setting as well as shots of girls dancing in a dance studio, and then eventually joining the band on the studio stage. There are short quotes from the women throughout the video of their testimonies about coming to Los Angeles to become professional dancers.
Gender “norms” have been around just around as long as humankind has been, and quite frankly they are all created by us as a society. Some stereotypical gender norm examples include things like women working in the house, taking care of the children, cooking, cleaning, and doing laundry, while men are seen as the providers, working outside the home to provide food, safety, shelter, and money to the household. Butler takes a look at undoing these norms by exploring how dependent we all are on these norms saying: “the matter is made more complex by the fact that the viability of our individual personhood is fundamentally dependent on these social norms (Butler 2)”. He basically says that without some sort of norms and recognizability as people, we are unable to live our lives, but we must also work to try and undo some of these norms. Butler himself mentions that his works are “efforts to relate the problematics of gender and sexuality to the tasks of persistence and survival.” Basically, he’s saying that there is a certain element to social norms that help keep us alive and relevant, but there are social norms that are not good and can be toxic to individuals within society.
In Luke Bryant’s song Country Girl (Shake It for Me), it reinforces gender stereotypes and society norms towards women as sexual objects with the lyrics and the visuals in their music video. The first line of the song is “hey girl, go on, you know you’ve got everybody looking” which he says in a fairly seductive tone, like that is all she’s there for, to make everyone look at her to be attractive. The lyrics also say “girl I can't wait to watch you do your thing” like that is all she is supposed to do, “her thing”, for an audience. Although the women in the music video are practicing to be dancers as a career, in which case, dancing would be their “thing” to do, however, for the rest of women, that likely isn’t their only purpose or job in life. Many women will do other careers, such as lawyers, doctors, teachers, farmers, electricians, welders, and so on, and not simply to entertain people, specifically men. Luke sings “Shake it for the young bucks sittin’ in the honky tonks” which means that women should shake it for the young men in the bars, and then keeps listing things for women to shake it to; the birds and bees, catfish swimming down deep in the creek, the crickets, critters, and squirrels, the moon, and then finally, shake it for me. This then brings the question, of are you really a country girl, if you don’t shake it, if you don’t dance? Butler says “If I am someone who cannot be without doing, then the conditions of my doing are, in part, the conditions of my existence”(Butler 3). In other words, unless women who enjoy country music, fit the societal norms that this song set, are they not able to be country girls? When I think of a typical country guy figure, I think of someone that is tough and rough, but if I think of a country girl, and I am supposed to think of someone that is just submissive to the roles of country music, and not see them as also rough and tough?
Visually, these women are also objectified in the music video as well throughout the song. The scene is set as these are women that are trying out to be professional dancers, they want to dance as a career. They show visuals of the women putting their makeup on in the dressing rooms and then have clips of them practicing their dancing throughout the music video. However, the visuals they chose to show include clips of the dancers flipping their hair around, shaking their hips around and they make sure to slow down those clips and add a dimension of sexy to them, where the clips of the band are not slowed down or modified to create any more sort of sex appeal. Would the women even be in the music video if they didn’t conform to the the sex appeal of the song? It feels as if they’re only there to compliment the sex appeal of the song and not to fill any other role in the production.The clips also often are zoomed in on the women’s chests in tops that show some skin, their hips as they dance, and their butt, and this was clearly done intentionally, as the clips are only shots of those. However, the guys in the band are dressed up in t-shirts and jeans and they don’t show any clips of their hips or in anything revealing. It seems to me that the women we’re only incorporated in the visuals to add to sex appeal and used the narrative of want-to-be dancers to accompany the blantant sex appeal that is wanted by the song lyrics for the music video.
Luke Bryan’s song is overall unproductive, however it doesn’t seem unethical. There is so much more value to women than just to be shaking it for men, they have so many options for things to do in life, and quite frankly, women don’t owe men anything. This song was designed to be more of a pop song to get women to get to dance to the song, however, the sexual references and the constant lyrics that women are shaking it for someone or something, rather than themselves is unproductive because it creates a reliance that women need someone or something to shake it to to be able to dance. As for being unethical, I specifically thought of the music video itself, because the women in the video are openly trying out to be professional dancers. They did not include women that did not sign up for this, the women are dancing because they want to. The scenes aren’t from random women in the crowd in the concert, or unidentified, this is something that they are doing on their own free will and that they want to do. With the song lyrics themselves, although they might be frowned upon when critiqued lyrically, they don’t have any blatant attacks against women, or even have any curse words in them, therefore I believe the lyrics as a whole are ethical as well.
Janelle Wilson did a study of country music videos and they suggested that the country music industry did offer a space for contemporary female artists to visually openly challenge the traditional confining gender roles that dominate American and country music culture. Although she looked at both men and women artists, a few lines stuck out to me. She says that songs about love as articulated by women, these themes are apt to be less traditional and less desperate and perhaps more assertive and more realistic (Wilson 301). By saying this Wilson suggests that men in country music depict love and women in negative and unrealistic lights and women artists in country music are finally able to start dismantling these social norms of women in country music by creating a more realistic view of women. Wilson goes on to reinforce this point by saying “It would be overly sanguine to suggest that country music has created the liberated woman, but it does seem fair to suggest that country music is an element of popular culture in which we can see women’s resistance to submissive roles.” In other words, it is not news that women have been oppressed and objectified in country music, but that they are actually resisting these roles, through women artists in the industry. As Butler says “terms by which we are recognized as humans are socially articulated and changeable” which is something that women artists in country music.
Work Cited
Bryan, Luke, director. Luke Bryan - Country Girl (Shake It For Me) (Official Music Video). YouTube, 23 May 2011, youtube.com/watch?v=7HX4SfnVlP4.
Butler, J. (2004). “Introduction: Acting in concert.” In Undoing Gender (pp. 1-4). New York. Routledge.
Wilson, Janelle. ETC: A Review of General Semantics. Fall2000, Vol. 57 Issue 3, p290. 14p
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The Hipster's Guide to Classic Country Music
The Hipster's Guide to Classic Country Music
Let’s face it…if your mountain man beard, microbrew fetish, and pipe collection are no longer enough, classic country music can help you get to the next level of hipster (so can a pair of Wrangler jeans). My name is DJ Staci, the Track Star, and I grew up on country music. I lived on a 5-acre llama ranch just outside of Seattle during the grunge era…do you see how there’s a hipster seed in there? I knew I was not your standard redneck when, at 14, my dad’s hunting drew me towards vegetarianism (celebrating 26 meat-free years now). At 18, I pierced my nose and moved to southern California where I could eat tofu, get feminism tattoos, and vote for democrats in a diverse, shame-free environment…but that country music seed definitely grew roots throughout my childhood. In fact, during my 20s, I escaped my days of drinking expensive juice and visiting organic farmer’s markets by honky tonkin’ every week. I would go line dancing at the Brandin’ Iron Saloon in San Bernardino (the biggest & best honky tonk a.k.a. country bar west of Gilley’s…and watch John Travolta & Debra Winger in “Urban Cowboy” if you don’t understand either of those references).
Memes from We Hate Pop Country
Unfortunately, country music withered up and died after the 2000s. After DJing at the world’s largest country music festival (Stagecoach–the country cousin of Coachella), I had to stop listening to country music on the radio. The so-called country you hear on the radio today is known as “pop country” by country music purists (those of us who prefer classic country or “real” country). The artists who “ruined” country music are people like Taylor Swift, Sam Hunt, Florida Georgia Line, Thomas Rhett, & Luke Bryant (and many others). Follow “We Hate Pop Country” on Facebook to learn more.
If you like “Wake Me Up” by Avicii, “Honey I’m Good” by Andy Grammer, “I Will Wait” by Mumford & Sons, “The Country Death Song” by the Violent Femmes, “Easy” by Sheryl Crow, “Wish I Knew You” by the Revivalists, “Wagon Wheel” by Old Crow Medicine Show, or Philip Phillips, classic country will be a great fit. If watching the movie Walk the Line turned you into a Johnny Cash fan, rest assured there is plenty more music like that out there. If you resonate as a defiant outsider or a feminist or a government-hating pothead, classic country music welcomes you with open arms! Classic country is outlaw music–pure and simple. It was created by people who knew they were on the outskirts of mainstream society and unshakingly flipped it the bird à la Johnny Cash at San Quentin (below).
Johnny Cash after photographer Jim Marshall asked him to do a shot for the warden (San Quentin Prison – 1969)
Did you know Loretta Lynn, who sang the feminist anthem “The Pill,” & Jack White from the White Stripes, who also has some killer bluegrass tunes, created an album together? Did you know Johnny Cash has covered songs by Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode? Have you heard Lady Gaga’s country roads version of “Born This Way?” Did you know Beyonce has a kick ass collab with the Dixie Chicks (the girl-power Texas band who was banned from country radio for saying they were ashamed that George Bush is from their home state) called “Daddy Lessons”? Did you know the black lead singer of Hootie & the Blowfish bailed on the band so he could start a solo country music career (country fans know him as Darius Rucker)? Did you know when I DJ classic country parties, I have to ask the client if swear words are OK?
Do I have your attention now? I thought so. Let’s continue 🙂 You’ll love the country artists as much as you love their music–I promise.
Justin Timberlake & Chris Stapleton performing together at the 49th Country Music Association Awards
THE KING OF COUNTRY MUSIC
First, let’s start with the forefather of all country music kick-assery: Hank Williams. Hank signed to MGM Records in 1947 and his twangy anthems changed country music forever. He was famously fired by the Grand Ole Opry in 1952 after one of many no-shows. He lived a turbulent life that his son Hank Jr sings about in his cornerstone song “Family Tradition.” In true rock star style, Hank Sr. died of heart failure brought on by prescription drug abuse and alcoholism in 1953. Hipster-friendly Hank Williams songs include:
I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry
Hey Good Lookin’
Jambalaya (on the Bayou)
Tear in my Beer
Your Cheating Heart
TOP 125 CLASSIC COUNTRY SONGS FOR HIPSTERS
Pour yourself some Popcorn Sutton’s Tennessee White Whiskey (that’s legal moonshine for you city slickers) & get ready for some serious drinkin’ music free of “Friends in Low Places,” “Achy Breaky Heart,” “Boot Scootin’ Boogie,” “Old Town Road,” and “The Git Up.” I’ve includes lots of notes & trivia about the playlist songs because we hipsters can’t just enjoy music in a vacuum…we like to sound like a seasoned expert when putting on a playlist for friends, yes? I’ve included standards as well as a number of “B sides” that will even impress country music enthusiasts…you know the kind of people who still say “Country Western.”
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18 Wheels & a Dozen Roses, Kathy Mattea
9 to 5, Dolly Parton
A Boy Named Sue, Johnny Cash
All My Exes Live in Texas, George Strait
Amarillo by Morning, George Strait
Are You Ready for the Country, Waylon Jennings
Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?, Waylon Jennings (Referring to Hank Williams Sr.)
Back Where I Come From, Kenny Chesney
Bed You Made for Me, Highway 101
Before Country Was Cool, Barbara Mandrell
Born to Boogie, Hank Williams Jr. (Hank Sr’s son)
Chattahoochee, Alan Jackson
Church on Cumberland Road, Shenandoah
Coal Miner’s Daughter, Loretta Lynn (Watch her biographical movie “Coal Miner’s Daughter” staring Sissy Spacek!)
Coat of Many Colors, Dolly Parton
Copenhagen, Chris Le Deux (Yep, chew killed this underground country singer with a cult following. His catchy, hilarious love song to Copenhagen chewing tobacco is like a country version of “Can’t Feel My Face” or “Mary Jane.”)
Copperhead Road, Steve Earle (Listen carefully…After coming home from war, this soldier gives up on the family tradition of making moonshine because he realized when he was in Viet Nam that he could just grow weed instead.)
Country Boy Can Survive, Hank Williams Jr.
Country Club, Travis Tritt
Country Roads, Take Me Home, John Denver (Lucky if I get through this one without tearing up…)
Cowboy Take Me Away, Dixie Chicks
Crazy, Patsy Cline (Sadly, the anthem of Battered Woman’s Syndrome…Patsy was in a violent marriage at the height of her fame. Written by Willie Nelson.)
Cripple Creek, Earl Scruggs & Lester Flatt
Devil Went Down to Georgia, Charlie Daniels Band
Digging Up Bones, Randy Travis
Dixieland Delight, Alabama
Down at the Twist & Shout, Mary-Chapin Carpenter
Dueling Banjos, Roy Clark & Buck Owens
El Paso, Marty Robbins (After writing this song, Marty Robbins was flying over El Paso & had a revelation that he was the cowboy in the song in a past life…so he wrote “El Paso City” about that experience.)
Elvira, Oak Ridge Boys
Elvira, Oak Ridge Boys
Every Little Thing, Carlene Carter (Yep, June Carter’s daughter…she called Johnny Cash “Stepdad.” Roseanne Cash’s “Tennessee Flat Top Box” is also a good one.)
Family Tradition, Hank Williams Jr (A proud nod to his famous father…”Put yourself in my position–if I get stoned and sing all night long, it’s a family tradition.” When you hear this song at a honky tonk, know the customs! When Jr sings, “Why do you drink?” The crowd shouts back “To get drunk!” When Jr sings, “Why do you roll smoke?” The crowd shouts, “To get high!” When he sings, “Why must you act out the songs that you wrote?” The crowd shouts, “To get laid!”)
Fancy, Reba McEntire
Fishin’ in the Dark, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Flowers on the Wall, Statler Brothers
Folsom Prison Blues, Johnny Cash
Fool-Hearted Memory, George Strait (His first of SIXTY #1 hits–the most in country music history! Too many for this list but do check them out.)
Get a Rhythm, Johnny Cash
Guitars & Cadillacs, Dwight Yoakum (One of the few west coasters on the list…from Bakersfield, California — also a vegetarian!)
Have Mercy, Judds (A female country duo–mother & sister to famous actress Ashley Judd!)
Highway Man, The Highwaymen (The Highwaymen are Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, & Kris Kristofferson.)
Hillbilly Rock, Marty Stewart
Honky Tonk Man, Dwight Yoakum
Hooked on an 8-Second Ride, Chris Le Deux (Pronounced “Le Doo”)
Hot Rod Lincoln, Commander Cody
I Ain’t Livin’ Long Like This, Waylon Jennings
I Love a Rainy Night, Eddie Rabbitt
I Think I’ll Just Sit Here & Drink, Merle Haggard
I Walk the Line, Johnny Cash
I’m No Stranger to the Rain, Keith Whitley
If You’re Gonna Play in Texas, Alabama
If You’ve Got the Money, Willie Nelson
If Your Heart Ain’t Busy, Tanya Tucker
It Only Hurts When I Cry, Dwight Yoakum
Jackson, Johnny Cash & June Carter
Jolene, Dolly Parton
Jose Cuervo, Shelly West
Kaw-Liga, Hank Williams Jr. (Hank Sr also does this one.)
Lay You Down, Conway Twitty
Long Time Gone, Dixie Chicks
Louisiana Saturday Night, Mel McDaniel
Luckenbach Texas, Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson
Mama Tried, Merle Haggard
Maybe It Was Memphis, Pam Tillis
Meet Me in Montana, Dan Seals
Midnight Girl in a Sunset Town, Sweethearts of the Rodeo
Mountain Music, Alabama
Mud on the Tires, Brad Paisley
Mule Skinner Blues, Dolly Parton
My Kind of Girl, Colin Raye
Next to You, Shenandoah
No Time to Kill, Clint Black
Nobody Wins, Radney Foster
Norma Jean Riley, Diamond Rio
One Piece at a Time, Johnny Cash
Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line, Waylon Jennings
Orange Blossom Special, Johnny Cash
Pancho & Lefty, Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard
Papa Loved Mama, Garth Brooks
Past the Point of Rescue, Hal Ketchum
Pick-Up Man, Joe Diffie
Play Something Country, Brooks & Dunn
Redneck Girl, Bellamy Brothers (During the corresponding Redneck Girl line dance, when the song says, “A redneck girl got her name on the back of her belt,” dancers shout, “Bullshit! Bullshit! F— you!” When the song says, “She’s got a kiss on her lips for her man and no one else,” dancers repeat, “Bullshit! Bullshit! F— you!” When the song says, “A coyote’s howling out on the prairie,” dancers howl. Finally, the song says, “First comes love, then comes marriage.” After “love,” dancers interject, “Then sex!!!”)
Ring of Fire, Johnny Cash
Rockin’ With the Rhythm, Judds
Rodeo, Garth Brooks
Rough & Ready, Trace Adkins
Saturday Night Special, Conway Twitty (Yes, the same guy they famously poke fun at on “Family Guy”–see below)
Sin Wagon, Dixie Chicks
Smoky Mountain Rain, Ronnie Milsap
Sold, John Michael Montgomery
Some Girls Do, Sawyer Brown
Song of the South, Alabama
Stampede, Chris Le Deux
Stand by Your Man, Tammy Wynette
Straight Tequila Night, John Anderson
Streets of Bakersfield, Dwight Yoakum
Sweet Dreams of You, Patsy Cline
Tempted, Marty Stuart
Tennessee River & a Mountain Man, Alabama
Thank God I’m a Country Boy, John Denver (He’s an outspoken vegan and & rep for P.E.T.A #MeatlessMondays)
That Kind of Girl, Patty Loveless
That’s My Story, Collin Raye
That’s What I Like About You, Trisha Yearwood (She’s married to Garth Brooks & is a celebrity chef with a reality cooking show.)
The Gambler, Kenny Rogers
The Pill, Lorettta Lynn (Also check out her cover of Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Were Made for Walking.”)
The Race Is On, Sawyer Brown (or any of the older versions)
The Thunder Rolls, Garth Brooks
Ticks, Brad Paisley
Tight-Fittin’ Jeans, Conway Twitty
Tonight We Ride, Tom Russell (We played this at my dad’s funeral…definitely a “b side.”)
Tougher Than the Rest, Chris Le Deux
Tulsa Time, Don Williams
Two Feet of Topsoil, Brad Paisley
Walkin’ After Midnight, Patsy Cline (Check out the Cyndi Lauper cover!)
What Was I Thinkin,’ Dierks Bentley
When You Say Nothing At All, Keith Whitley (Alison Krauss’ version might be more popular though…)
Whiskey, If You Were a Woman, Highway 101
Why Not Me, Judds
Wide Open Spaces, Dixie Chicks
Will the Circle Be Unbroken, dozens of versions
Wrong Side of Memphis, Trisha Yearwood
You Ain’t Woman Enough, Loretta Lynn
You Really Had Me Going, Holly Dunn
You’ve Never Been This Far Before, Conway Twitty
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There are a few current country artists with that classic country sound: Chris Stapleton, Brothers Osborn, some Miranda Lambert (try “Gunpowder & Lead” or “Little Red Wagon”), or Cody Jinks.
If you’re afraid country music is too white, straight, or conservative for you, check out Little Big Town’s “Girl Crush,” Maddie & Tae’s “Girl in a Country Song,” the Dixie Chicks’ “Goodbye Earl,” Los Lonely Boys’ “Heaven,” Kacey Musgraves’ “Follow Your Arrow,” Big & Rich’s “Love Train,” Garth Brooks’ “We Shall Be Free,” John Anderson’s “Seminole Wind,” or anything by Charlie Pride, Cowboy Troy, k.d. lang, or Freddie Fender.
If you enjoy a good DJ mix, I’m not the only one doing creative things with country music–check out DeeJay Silver, DJ Sinister’s Country Fried Mix, VDJ JD, DJ Bad Ash, or DJ Hish (who I was on the roster with at the Stagecoach Festival and the Moonshine Miles Festival).
Film enthusiast? In addition to watching Johnny Cash’s biographical Walk the Line, you can also try some of these country cult classics: Coal Miner’s Daughter (about Loretta Lynn), Urban Cowboy (with John Travolta & Debra Winger), Pure Country (starring George Strait), Sweet Dreams (about Patsy Cline), Eight Seconds (with Luke Perry)…as well as anything starring Dolly Parton (like 9 to 5 or Steel Magnolias) or Kris Kristofferson (like A Star Is Born or Blade). Dwight Yoakum has a few famous cameos as well (like Sling Blade or Crank). But the real question is: are they “acting” or just “acting natural”? Once you understand that reference, you officially get a gold star in the hipster country music Olympics!!! (Leave me your thoughts in the comments below.)
If you enjoyed the Hipster’s Guide to Classic Country Music, I urge you to explore bluegrass and folk music. And, yes, I know not every “staple” classic country jam is on the list (again, comment below). I also have my Guitar-Infused Country & Classic Rock Wedding Cocktail Hour Playlist and Ultimate Bluegrass Wedding Cocktail Hour & Dinner Music Playlist you can scope out. Some say “crank it up,” but, around here, we say “Hank it up!” Enjoy your hip classic country tunes!
LISTEN TO THE HIPSTER’S CLASSIC COUNTRY PLAYLIST
Check it out on YouTube or Spotify.
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The Yankees have questions all around their infield heading into the 2018-19 offseason
An Abbreviated Encore [2018 Season Review]
(Getty)
Although the 2018 season had a (very) disappointing ending, it is exciting to look at the Yankees and know they are loaded with young talent for the future. Aaron Judge is a superstar through and through. He’s a top ten player in baseball. Then there’s Luis Severino, Gary Sanchez, Gleyber Torres, and Miguel Andujar. Most teams hope to have two guys like that on their roster. The Yankees have all of them.
And yet, going into the 2018-19 offseason, the Yankees are facing some very real questions all around the infield. As recently as June or July it looked like the Yankees were set long-term around the horn, with a young and productive player at all four infield positions. Now, in October, that isn’t really the case. That isn’t to say the Yankees are in bad shape on the infield, because they’re not, but things are a little up in the air. Let’s take a trip through the infield.
First Base
Since Opening Day 2016 the Yankees have received a .234/.314/.403 (91 wRC+) batting line and +1.9 WAR from their first basemen. Among the 30 teams they rank 26th in AVG, 23rd in OBP, 29th in SLG, 29th in wRC+, and 27th in WAR. Gross. Even with the first base cast of characters combining for 34 home runs (!) in 2018, first base has been wasteland since Mark Teixeira’s last good season in 2015.
Right now, it is fair to wonder whether Luke Voit is legit, whether Greg Bird is salvageable, and whether Miguel Andujar is going to wind up at first base. The Yankees love Bird and I’m certain that if you gave Brian Cashman & Co. a truth serum, they’d say they want Bird to grab the job and run with it next year. I would like that too. Bird has power and patience, at least when healthy, and the Yankees could use another left-handed bat.
“We’ll see how the offseason unfolds, but right now, he grabbed that job, no question about that,” Aaron Boone said of Voit at his end-of-season press conference. “I’m sure there will continue to be competition on all kinds of levels. The one thing with Greg that I never lost is we’ve seen him be an impact player at times in his career … This year, in a lot of ways, was a little bit of a lost season for him.”
Honestly, I feel like nothing that happens with first base this offseason would surprise me. Stick with Voit? I could buy it. At the very least, he has to be given every opportunity to win a roster spot in Spring Training, right? Right. Stick with Bird? I could see that too. Trade for Paul Goldschmidt? Trade for someone else? I could totally see it. Sign Bryce Harper and put him at first? Eh, that’s a stretch. Point is, first base remains unsettled, even after Voit’s late-season showing.
“In some ways, (Bird) never got all the way back physically to, I think, where he’ll be next year,” added Boone. “I think there’s a realistic chance he comes into Spring Training next year, physically in a really good place with a chance of a normal offseason where he gets his body where he wants it. Hopefully the results from that will follow. He’ll have his opportunities. We’ve never lost sight of the fact that when he’s right, can really hit.”
Second Base & Shortstop
Gleyber. (Getty)
These two positions are tied together because Torres is going to play one of them next year. We just don’t know which one. Gleyber’s a stud, man. A 21-year-old kid hitting .271/.340/.480 (120 wRC+) with 24 home runs as a middle infielder thrown into a pennant race as a rookie is awfully impressive. Torres is a stud and I think we’re no more than two years away from him emerging as the Yankees’ best player. Not because Judge will collapse or anything. Just because Torres is that damn good.
The problem here is Didi Gregorius. He had Tommy John surgery yesterday. He’s expected to return sometime next summer but no one really knows when. Could be as early as May or June, or as late as August or September. The Yankees have to proceed as if they won’t have Gregorius next year. Although Tommy John surgery is fairly routine, it is a major surgery, and there could be setbacks or a slower than expected recovery. It happens and the Yankees have to be prepared for it.
Gleyber is a natural shortstop — I thought he looked way smoother at short this season than second base — and his flexibility allows the Yankees to replace Gregorius with either a shortstop or second baseman. I’d prefer adding another shortstop and leaving Torres at second, but, if the market cranks out better options at second base, then Gleyber moves over. The only question then is who is the backup shortstop? You’d have to dedicate a bench spot — only of three bench spots since the eight-man bullpen seems to be here to stay — to a shortstop capable infielder.
We know this much about second base and shortstop: One of these two positions is set. Torres will play one. Cashman said they’ll scour the offseason market for a player at the other position “whether it’s an everyday player or an insurance policy.” In a weird way, Torres is the most “sure thing” among Yankees infielders at the moment, and we don’t even know whether he’s playing second or short next year. We just know he’ll be there. Hmmm.
Third Base
By OPS+, Andujar just had one of the three best seasons by a rookie third baseman in the last 30 years. Kris Bryant (135 OPS+) is kinda out there in his own little world, but Andujar (126 OPS+) is right there with Evan Longoria (127 OPS+). Those are the only three rookie third basemen to best a 125 OPS+ since Kevin Seitzer back in 1987. Andujar had an incredible rookie season.
By WAR, Andujar had only the 16th best season by a rookie third basemen over the last 30 years. His +2.2 WAR puts him alongside guys like Gordon Beckham (+2.1 WAR), Akinora Iwamura (+2.2 WAR), and Garrett Atkins (+2.3 WAR). That’s how much value Andujar gave back with his glove. He had one of the best offensive seasons by a rookie third basemen in three decades and was still run of the mill in terms of overall value.
Miggy Mantle. (Mike Stobe/Getty)
The Yankees told use exactly what they think about Andujar’s defense. They subbed him out in the sixth inning (!) for defense in the postseason. When it mattered most, the Yankees didn’t trust Andujar in the field, and I don’t really blame them. Range is a clear issue, and while Andujar has a strong arm, it plays down because his transfer is slow and his sidearm sling can cause the ball to sail wide of first.
“He made big strides this season. He has the athleticism, he has the hands and the arm strength. Preparation for the pitch and footwork are gonna determine if he becomes that frontline defender at third base. I do believe it is in there,” Boone said. “This winter is important for him as far as that goes. When I got here, there were all kinds of questions. He earned his at-bats with the way he swung the bat, but also by improving as much as he did defensively. Now it’s on all of us (to help him get better).”
For what it’s worth, earlier this week Cashman said during a radio interview that he expects Andujar to be the team’s third baseman next season. Of course he’s going to say that, right? The Yankees could be planning — and already enacting — a position change and they would still say they want Andujar at third base because it allows them to maintain leverage during trade and free agent talks.
I am weirdly ambivalent about Andujar’s defensive home next season. If the Yankees decide to keep him at third base for another season and let him work at it, I’m cool with it. And if the Yankees decide to move him to first base or left field (or DH), I’d be cool with that too. Ryan Braun had a great rookie year overall but was a defensive disaster, so he was moved to left field the next season. Could happen with Andujar!
Maybe this is a fluid situation. The Yankees might be planning to put Andujar at third base next season, but, if a better option comes along (trade for Nolan Arenado?), they’ll move him. Otherwise they’ll stick with it at least until Gregorius returns, then they can reevaluate their infield situation and figure out the best alignment. It could be that whoever replaces Didi plays well enough to stay in the lineup everyday, pushing Andujar somewhere else. We’ll see.
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The good news is the Yankees are not devoid of infield talent. There are worse things in baseball than having Miguel Andujar as your starting third baseman, you know? Torres is a stud. Voit raked this year — maybe he is the Yankees’ Nelson Cruz or Jesus Aguilar? that late bloomer who finds it in his late 20s? — and Bird could still maybe be something. They have to replace Gregorius at least temporarily, for sure. A Didi replacement is a “must have” this winter.
At the same time, Voit may be more Shane Spencer than Cruz or Aguilar, and play his way to Triple-A. Andujar could struggle defensively again. I don’t see how you could count on Bird for anything. The Yankees don’t necessarily have an infield problem. They just have some things to sort out. Is Andujar the long-term answer at third? Is it time to bring in a veteran first baseman to stop the post-Teixeira revolving door? Who steps in for Gregorius? Those are all questions the Yanks will answer this winter.
An Abbreviated Encore [2018 Season Review]
Source: https://bloghyped.com/the-yankees-have-questions-all-around-their-infield-heading-into-the-2018-19-offseason/
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Luke Walton May Not Last with the Lakers
As someone whose lifelong ambience is the sound of a basketball colliding with hardwood, Luke Walton exudes more than enough confidence, wit, and knowledge to succeed as a head coach in the NBA. He can liaise with the most temperamental players, tranquilize media uproars, and implement modern on-court principles in an effective, executable way.
The Los Angeles Lakers have improved under his watch, more than doubling their win total since Byron Scott left; their defense in Walton’s second season was above league average, breaking a four-season streak in which they couldn’t climb out of the bottom five.
But everything changed last week, and it’s only a matter of time before we know if it’s good or bad news for L.A.’s head coach. LeBron James is there now, leading a matured yet young and critically flawed roster that was ostensibly constructed to dethrone the Golden State Warriors immediately (please stop laughing). Walton is LeBron’s seventh head coach, and with that responsibility comes expectations that rival those of the league’s actual championship contenders. It’s a blessing and a curse.
While finding a way for this roster—which is mostly comprised of greatness, misfits, and hype—to have success on the court, Walton must also propitiate a locker room that’s suddenly more experienced, abrasive, pigheaded, lackadaisical, and brilliant than anything he’s seen as a head coach. If the Lakers struggle (which is definitely possible if LeBron doesn’t want to lead the league in minutes as a 34-year-old), Walton will probably be the fall guy. He was not hired by Magic Johnson or Rob Pelinka, two fortunate and delusional decision-makers who don’t have a ton of time on their side. There will be pressure to win right away with a team that was improperly patched together. (The Cleveland Cavaliers needed James’s very best to escape the flimsy Eastern Conference, and now he’s his team’s only All-Star, stuck in a far more competitive bracket.)
The good news for Walton is even if the Lakers don’t look right all season long, there aren’t many experienced, unemployed, highly-impressive coaching candidates who make clear sense in Los Angeles. (In an apocalyptic scenario, it’s possible to see Johnson and Pelinka being (temporarily) comfortable with Walton’s assistant Brian Shaw—as the Cavaliers replaced David Blatt with Tyronn Lue—but this type of mid-season change still feels highly unlikely.)
This forces us to turn to coaches who already have jobs but would kill for the historic chance to be in L.A. with LeBron. But nothing is apparent on that front. Almost every head coach in the NBA is either too successful or deeply rooted where he is to move, or not accomplished enough to be an explicit upgrade over Walton.
That said, one name stands out as far more intriguing than all the others, and he just so happens to already work in the same building. Doc Rivers just signed a two-year extension that makes him head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers through 2021. It’s a solid job in a great market with relatively low expectations and the potential to be great sooner than later thanks to Steve Ballmer’s financial readiness, a suddenly competent front office, and all the cap flexibility they have next summer—two max contracts will be possible.
Rivers says all the right things about overseeing the Clippers rebuild—one that, again, may or may not last very long—but he wouldn’t turn down an opportunity to coach arguably the best player who ever lived, with annual championship contention on the table. And even though Rajon Rondo is only on a one-year deal, all four of his All-Star seasons came under Rivers, who was able to establish a comfortably rocky relationship with the mercurial point guard.
If the Clippers can’t “reboot” and instead have to build from the bottom up, Rivers doesn’t make a ton of sense as a long-term option anyway (at least not when compared to someone like, say, Walton). When he left the Boston Celtics for Los Angeles back in 2013, Rivers had three years and $21 million left on his contract. The Celtics agreed to release him from it after the Clippers shipped over a 2015 first-round pick. A similar arrangement would not be impossible here. Rivers can really coach, is widely respected by players around the league, and wouldn’t flinch under the abnormal pressures that accompany a relentless limelight. To boot, imagine him, Magic, and LeBron entering a pitch meeting next summer and not landing whoever’s on the other side of the table, be it Kevin Durant, Rihanna, Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butler, whoever.
But if Rivers is happy where he is and the Lakers want to move on from Walton, the list of qualified applicants isn’t long. Stan Van Gundy, coming off a disastrous run with the Detroit Pistons in which his own personnel decisions drowned out his shrieks from the sideline, is, in my opinion, the best guy out there. It’d be fascinating to see how the Lakers would play under Van Gundy, an expert who could finally get creative with lineups that didn’t rely on the center position.
How about hiring a retread, like Frank Vogel or Jeff Hornacek? Or making a splash with Villanova’s Jay Wright? Would LeBron have any interest in being led by his former Olympics teammate Jason Kidd? What about Monty Williams, who was just hired as Brett Brown’s lead assistant in Philadelphia?
Whenever the Lakers came up while I was in Las Vegas I liked to ask who would be their next head coach, in the event Walton curdles. My favorite response was Mark Jackson, a Klutch client who was reportedly close to becoming head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers before Lue intercepted the job. That would be…messy.
It’s easy to see Walton working out fine. He’s played with and already coached some of the most talented and infuriating players who ever lived (Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Draymond Green, etc.) He’s seen everything up close, from multiple perspectives. It’s harsh to look at his situation and assume it won’t end well, but the people who hired him are gone. And the new regime hasn’t done him any favors by treating LeBron’s decision as a superficial end game.
If the Lakers don’t live up to (somewhat unreasonable) expectations in LeBron’s first season it won’t be Walton’s fault. But he’s employed by an organization that isn’t known for being rational, and with odds already unfairly stacked against him, there’s a good chance potential successors are already eyeing his seat.
Luke Walton May Not Last with the Lakers syndicated from https://australiahoverboards.wordpress.com
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