these commentators feel like the way the fox olympics broadcasts try to talk about some sport most people dont follow and try to hype up the one american competing and when that athlete doesnt do the best and falls out of medal contention the entire broadcast gets soooo awkward after spending the past week plastering the world with their name and thats kinda the energy some of these commentators are bringing to caitlin clark on that liberty fever broadcast and it just feels like its setting everyone up for failure shes not gonna be candace parker roty and mvp and i worry the level of expectations for cc are like impossible for anyone to meet will people turn on her say shes not that good decide to drop the W which like good riddance but it just sucks to watch let her have growing pains we literally did this with sabrina not that long ago!! feels like a weird gamble to recruit some of the worst types of fans and so much disrespect for literally all other players its driving me nuts
I think the broadcasting team today was the Fever's home broadcasting team. So they'll be covering Clark all year. They should prepare a variety of Fever storylines to really get these fans invested in this underdog team. The goal needs to be turning fans of a college favorite into fans of a WNBA underdog.
I saw someone tweet a picture of Caitlin Clark holding Katie Lou's baby daughter. And it only had a few hundred likes. Only a few hundred! A tweet like that would have thousands of likes if it was posted during Clark's college career.
Iowa fangirls can help fix this by shoving Fever content down everyone's throats. Become obsessed with CC's new teammates the way you were obsessed with her Iowa teammates. Turn Indianapolis into Hollywood
There's talent and potential on this team. Underdog fans get their thrills from seeing that potential unfold
Exclusive In-Depth Interviews: Eric Fortune [cover artist], Aron Wiesenfeld, Andrew Valko, Richard A. Williams.
Articles: Travis Louie, Yoshitoshi Kanemaki, Angela Gram, Michael Bergt, Tina Spratt, Naya Kotko.
Curators Wishlist: Leesa Hickey, Director of Side Gallery in Brisbane, Australia shares what she would like to add to her personal collection.
Path to Creation: Surreal figurative painter Alex Garant takes us through her creation process from conceptualization to completion.
Lookbook: Full page reproductions of Bastien Lecouffe Deharme‘s dark surreal digital paintings.
Quick Q&A: Kristy Moreno, Sofía Bonati, Kremena Chipilova [2nd Prize Winner, RAYMAR Traditional Art Award, 2022 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize], Monica Ikegwu, Sooj Mitton, Laurie Hogin, all respond to the same 4 questions which delve into their artistic practice:
How do you approach the creative process and what is your process like?
What’s one of your biggest regrets as an artist?
What impact has the contemporary art scene had on your work?
How do you engage with your audience and foster a relationship with your fans?
Beautiful Bizarre Artist Directory: Discover exceptional, innovative and skilled artists from around the world with Beautiful Bizarre Artist Directory – the leading platform for connecting with top talent.
Inside this issue: Heidi Taillefer, Andi Soto, Aaron McPolin, Beth Mitchell, Crystal James, Ebony Russell, Ema Shin, Erik Mark Sandberg, Eunpyon, Hannah Flowers, Hiroshi Hayakawa, Karen Remsen, Lesley Thiel, Lindsey Carr, Liz Gridley, Sandra Yagi, Sara Gallagher, Steven Kenny, Swapnil Nevgi, TedsLittleDream, Marcela Bolívar, Rain.
Some of our Favourite Things: We share some of our favourite artisan fashion designers including: Sarah Degeyter, Baka Jewelry, C’est Jeanne, It Spain, Chelsea Jean, Jessica Rowell.
From the court to the sidelines, there will be a strong Australian flavour when the WNBA play-offs begin on Thursday September 14th Australian time.
The top eight finishers in the WNBA regular season split into four best-of-three first-round series with the winners advancing to best-of-five semi-final fixtures. The final two will then do battle over five games for WNBA championship glory.
The Seven Consulting Opals are well represented across playing and coaches ranks.
Cayla George’s Las Vegas Aces finished the regular season top of the ladder with a 34-6 record and now take on eight-seed Chicago featuring Alanna Smith and former Perth Lynx star Marina Mabrey.
Opals head coach Sandy Brondello guided the New York Liberty (32-8) to second seed and they now play the Washington Mystics. Reigning Rachael Sporn medallist and Townsville Fire championship player Tianna Hawkins, who will return to the WNBL this season, is a prime mover for the Mystics.
Opals assistant Paul Goriss is part of the coaching group at Atlanta Dream. The Dream, featuring new Perth WNBL import Aari McDonald and former Townsville player Monique Billings, face the Dallas Wings in a showdown between fourth and fifth-placed teams. New Southside Flyers import Jasmine Dickey is on the Wings roster.
Tokyo Olympian Bec Allen will make her play-offs debut with Connecticut Sun, after crossing from the Liberty in the off-season, who play Minnesota Lynx.
There’s a quartet of familiar faces in the Lynx line-up with Tiffany Mitchell, Lindsay Allen, Bridget Carleton and Rachel Banham all former WNBL imports.
Seattle Storm (Sami Whitcomb, Ezi Magbegor, Jade Melbourne) and Indiana Fever (Kristy Wallace) didn’t reach the play-offs and Whitcomb, Melbourne and Wallace will now return to Australia ahead of WNBL pre-season with their respective teams Townsville, Canberra and Melbourne, while Magbegor will again play in Europe.
Tipping off this Thursday morning AEST, all games are streamed on the WNBA app with selected fixtures on ESPN as below.
ESPN2 Australia
Thursday 10am AEST, Sun vs Lynx (Bec Allen)
Thursday 12pm AEST, Aces vs Sky (Cayla George, Alanna Smith)
How well are you able to recognize similiarities in vocal qualities and speaking patterns between figure skaters of the same MBTI types who are talking about their athletics careers?
Another listening series for falling asleep and helping to cure insomnia
INFJ Karen | Evan | Pascal | Todd
ENFJ Lia | Rachael | Sasha | Anthony | Mervin | Igor
Where have we seen something like her before? Caitlin’s so good the WNBA doesn’t even deserve her or her caliber of talent. She has made her mark and is in a league of her own and no one is close. and did so by not having to win a championship or anything just all around respect from millions for just her talent and charming girl next door marketable personality. She has changed the game forever and did so with high class and not going to one of the Uconn or south carolina or tennessees no one will ever come close. She will have the whole world watch her in the league like they are to her now.
DT, Angel McCoughtry, Kristi Toliver, Maya Moore, Kelsey Mitchell, Sabrina Ionescu, Rhyne Howard, Arike Ogunbowale. We've had volume shooters. We've had big guards. We've had big guard volume shooters.
Caitlin stans love to send these asks saying the WNBA is beneath Caitlin. And the more they send these asks, the more convinced I am that they'll be living in highlight land. Many Caitlin stans won't watch the WNBA. They will just collect Caitlin's pro highlight reels. That's a shame because the league is fun and Caitlin's pro journey will be interesting. But if you only watch highlights, you're not really following all of Caitlin's journey. You're filtering her so you see only what you want to see.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - Governor Kristi Noem has been banned from a second tribal reservation in South Dakota.
On Tuesday, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe voted to ban Noem from its reservation, which means that Noem will no longer be allowed to travel to the tribal land.
In February, Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out banished Noem from the Pine Ridge Reservation after she alleged that the cartels were utilizing reservations to facilitate drug crimes.
Noem stated at a Winner town hall on March 13 that she believes tribal leaders are “personally benefiting” from drug cartels. At a town hall in Mitchell, she said tribal children “don’t have parents who show up and help them,” and tribal members “have a tribal council or a president who focuses on a political agenda more than they care about actually helping somebody’s life look better.”
Christmas was fast approaching; December had finally made its way into the foreground and it was all about the most wonderful time of the year. In the weeks since Adam was born, everyone was busying themselves preparing for the happiest of holidays. Christina cradled Harry in her arms, his wide eyes staring up at the glistening tree.
“Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!” Drake said descending the staircase dressed as Santa Claus.
Christina gasped “my goodness Harry look who it is!” she said “It’s Santa!”
“I heard it's someone’s first Christmas” Drake said as he sat in an armchair near the tree she handed Harry to him as Harry began to cry.
“Aww” everyone said as Christina picked him up “It’s okay sweetie” she said “Sorry daddy” Christina said to him.
“Presents for everyone!” he said reaching into a big red bag.
~*~
“Smile” Kellie's mom said snapping a picture Kellie, Kyle and Kevin all stood in front of their Christmas tree.
“Okay everyone!” Kellie’s dad announced “Now as we do every year we will all pick just one present to open, pick a good one” he said.
“Kate” Jack said approaching her with a very large gift box.
“Oh” she said surprised “Wow” she said laughing.
“Merry Christmas” he said, she took the box and set it down, pulling the lid off and finding a smaller box inside.
“Are you kidding me?” she asked, Jack smiled to himself, she opened that box to find yet another smaller box inside. “Jack” she said laughing inside the last box was a small velvet one. She picked it up and flipped it open to see a pristine diamond ring inside “Oh my god” she said.
“We first met at Christmas remember? Senior year?” he asked “The first moment I saw you I knew that you were the only one I wanted to spend all my Christmases with” he said taking the ring from her. She covered her mouth in surprise “So…Kathryn Grace Mitchell…will you marry me?”
She shook her head emphatically “Yes” she said tearfully “Yes!” she said once more as she threw her arms around him.
Everyone applauded them “To the happy couple!” Ken said raising his drink “Jack welcome to the family” he said “You too” he said to Kevin, Kellie looked at him surprised. “As the father of my grandson, you’re as just a much a part of this family as Jack is” Ken said.
“Wow…uh thank you sir” Kevin said shaking his hand.
“Okay I think you’ve had enough dear” Lynda said taking his drink away.
“I’m not drunk” Ken said “I mean every word…Merry Christmas everyone” he said.
“Hey, sorry I’m late” Kellie’s sister Kristy said entering the house, a young boy following behind her “Everyone, this is Tommy” she said smiling “We have geometry together.”
“Merry Christmas” Tommy said to them.
“Oh god not another one” Ken groaned, he then took his drink back from Lynda and took a big gulp.
~*~
Christmas music played softly inside Vicki’s house as people mingled, she and Emily sat on the couch together. Brian brought a plate of cookies over, setting them on the coffee table and sitting next to Vicki.
“Vicki, sweetheart, I want you to open this it’s from me” Jackie said handing her a present.
“Oh thank you so much, you didn’t have to do that” Vicki said.
“Oh don’t be silly of course I did” Jackie said.
Vicki tore the ribbon off the box and pulled off the lid “It’s a baby book” she said.
“That is so adorable” Emily said.
“This is so great, thank you” Vicki said hugging her.
“You’re welcome sweetie” Jackie said.
“This is perfect” she said flipping through the blank pages just waiting to be filled.
“Honey, this is from me” Lizzie said handing her a small box.
“Oh mom” Vicki said pulling off the wrapping and opening the box. “It’s a baby’s first Christmas ornament” Vicki said pulling it from the bubble wrap “Mom, this is so cute” she said looking at it.
“Is that marker?” Brian asked noticing the year had been changed.
“Okay so I altered it a bit” Lizzie said “I hope you like it” she said.
“Thanks mom” Vicki said, she and Brian looked at each other and kissed softly.
~*~
A light snow fell outside, Nick and Sasha laughed as they entered the diner.
“Well what are you two doing here? It’s Christmas Eve” Marla said.
“Sash was craving your hot chocolate” Nick said as they pulled their coats off and took a seat in a booth.
“Oh honey I know that feeling, coming right up” Marla said to them as she went back into the kitchen.
“Sure your mom doesn’t mind you taking off?” Nick asked her rubbing his hands together for warmth.
“I think my mom understands pregnancy cravings” she said.
“It was really cool of her to get me a gift” Nick said “And your dad and your brothers didn’t want to kill me for once” he said happily.
“I can be pretty persuasive” Sasha said “Plus I am very hormonal and my mom told them that if any of them made me cry there’d be hell to pay” Sasha said happily.
“Here we go, two hot chocolates” Marla said carrying a tray over to the table.
“Thank you” Nick said sliding a mug over to Sasha “What are you still doing here? Don’t you close early on Christmas eve?” he asked her.
“That was the plan but unfortunately our plans were postponed due to weather” Marla said to her.
“Aw I’m sorry” Sasha said.
“Oh don’t worry about it, can I get you anything else? Cookies? Cake? Pie? French fries covered in hot fudge?” Marla asked.
Nick looked at her disgusted “Eww” he said.
“Don’t knock it until you try it” Sasha said to him.
“Enjoy” Marla said to them.
“Thanks Marla” Sasha said to her.
“Wow, look at that” Nick said about the snow coming down outside.
“It’s beautiful isn’t it?” Sasha asked.
“We need some Christmas music” Nick said sliding out of the booth and going to the jukebox, he slipped a quarter inside and pressed a button.
“Have yourself a merry little Christmas…” Frank Sinatra began to croon.
Marla shut the lights off, the sky outside became a light pink, a small Christmas tree in the corner filled the diner with a illustrious glow.
~*~
Melissa held Adam up to the tree to let him look at it “Merry Christmas Adam” Melissa said kissing his cheek.
“Okay everyone dinner is served” Michelle announced, everyone filed inside the dining room, Jessica sat next to Jeremy, Zoey nestled safely in her arms.
AJ sat next to Melissa, Adam cradled snugly in his arms.
They joined hands and her dad started to speak “Dear Lord, we come to you today to thank you for this food and to thank you for letting us celebrate this holiday season with the newest additions to the family.” “My grandson Adam and My granddaughter Zoe” “Amen” they all said ending their prayer “Let’s eat” her dad said before they all dug into a glorious Christmas ham.
~*~
Vicki sat in a chair, a pen in her hand as she scribbled something onto one of the pages of the baby book.
“Whatcha doin' ?” Brian asked crouching down to her.
“Just finished one of your Christmas presents” she said standing up, placing her hand on her back.
“Oh yeah, what’s that?” he asked, she folded the back cover of the book and the pages backward, showing him the page she was writing on. “Full name: Bradley Jason Nickolas Littrell” he read, smiling “I love it” he said.
“Merry Christmas” she said.
“Merry Christmas” he said coming closer to her.
“Oh look at that” she said looking upward, he looked up to see a mistletoe hanging above them.
~*~
“Kellie, sweetheart, I found the book” Lynda said as she cradled Kyle in her arms, they sat snugly together on her couch, her mom handing Kevin a book.
“Oh great this is a classic” he said.
“Want to hear a story?” Kellie asked Kyle.
"Okay bedtime” Christina said taking Harry upstairs.
“Okay...Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house...” Christina started reading.
“...Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse, the stockings were hung by the chimney with care...” Kevin read.
“...In hopes that St. Nicholas would soon be there, the children were nestled all in their beds...” Christina read.
“...While visions of sugarplums danced in their heads...” Kevin read.
“...And mama in kerchief and I in my cap, had just settled down for a long winter's nap...” Christina read.
“...When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter” Kevin read.
“...Away to the window I flew like a flash, tore open the shutters and threw up the sash...” Christina read.
Kyle and Harry were both by this time fast asleep, yet he and Christina finished the story.
“...But I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight...” Christina read.
“...Merry Christmas to all and to all goodnight” they both said before putting the sleeping infants in their cribs.