#calder finals 2019

[gordiemeow]

LUCAS RAYMOND/MORITZ SEIDER (2353) PRIMER

Mo Seider is already well loved on hockeyblr, but most folks here don't seem to know about his cute, codependent relationship friendship with his teammate Lucas Raymond... like, look at the above GIF, then look me in the eyes and tell me you can't already see how adorable they are together. So because I feel like they’re underrated but have great shipping potential, I decided to write a ship primer!

I'm going to give some info about Lucas and Mo individually first, then I'll dive into why they make a good pairing... Feel free to read or skip whichever sections you'd like, since this is a pretty long post. Oh, and (as best as possible) I'll be linking to my sources, plus a few easter eggs! 😉

Moritz "Mo"/"Seids" Seider

If he already looks familiar to you, it might be because Mo was the 2022 Calder Trophy winner. In the 2021-22 season, he led all NHL rookies in assists (43), power-play points (21), and average time on ice (23:03) in addition to being one of only 3 NHL rookies to play all 82 games (Lucas being one of the other three). Oh, and before he ever reached the NHL, he won the DEL cup in Germany with Adler Mannheim in 2019 and made it to the SHL finals in Sweden with Rögle BK in 2021, both of which he still happily talks about.

Mo is known for his confidence, optimism, and "infectious personality." He plays and practices hard (look up any of his highlight clips) and is fairly humble when talking with the media. Although, his teammates are all quick to point out that he brings a lot of positivity, fun, and goofiness—in addition to a “big bod,” according to Lucas—to the locker room. Completely unsurprisingly, Mo loves chirping his teammates as well as his opponents (... and also his family). He doesn't overthink or worry about things, and he absolutely doesn't let himself get worked up—to the extent that he completely refuses to drop the gloves (like, at all).

Birthday: April 6th, 2001 (♈︎)

Draft: 2019, 6th overall (to Detroit)

Jersey #: 53 (because of Herbie the Lovebug*)

Nationality: German 🇩🇪

Hometown: Erfurt, Germany

Height: 6’4” / 193cm

Teams: Detroit Red Wings (NHL, 2021-Present), Rögle BK (SHL, 2020-21), Grand Rapids Griffins (AHL, 2019-20), Adler Mannheim (DEL, 2017-19)

Position: Defence

Shoots: Right

*personal headcanon: Lucas would definitely call him lovebug as a pet name

A big part of Mo's appeal off the ice is his childish joy about damn near everything. His favourite breakfast foods are Eggo waffles and Nutella, which makes it not at all surprising that he kept a tub of candy in his locker when he played in Sweden... He just has an enormous sweet tooth. He's also said (more than once) that if he weren't a hockey player, he'd be an Uber driver, of all things (honestly? I feel like the Wings media team should jump on that as a video opportunity... but what do I know...), although he's also admitted he would have been happy to be a pro-biker. And, adorably, he's incredibly ticklish.

As far as media goes, Mo has owned up to the fact that he watches the bachelor (even though Larkin says that he doesn't watch much TV—you'd think Dylan would embrace someone else on the team watching shitty reality TV?). He also has Generic Hockey Boy™ taste in music (rap, hip hop, and a bit of country—all lots of fun, but predictable), but is, some what more surprisingly, constantly dancing and singing (and singing even more... and even more... and there's still more singing later on in this post........). He also enjoys playing video games, especially Formula 1.

Also, Mo talks quite a bit with the other German players in the NHL, who he calls "the boys." He's especially close with Leon Draisaitl, who acts as a bit of a mentor toward him and Tim Stützle... although Leon happily, publicly chirps Mo (and vice-versa!).

It's also worth delving into Mo’s fashion sense just a bit. He loves Lululemon (in spite of him shitting on "expensive brands" in one of the above breakfast break graphics... we're obviously in different tax brackets...), and Lucas has unhesitatingly said that Mo is well dressed—“Mo has actually a great shoe game… he has a LOT of shoes.” Also, his teammates chirp him about how vain he is about his hair (he's always touching it, even with a hat on). Bizarrely, Mo has said he gets compared to Harry Styles, looks-wise (by who, Mo? who would tell you that???), and oh yeah—tangentially related, but it's in that same link—apparently his hands are "bigger than you may think."

Mo fell in love with hockey shortly after learning to skate. He got a flyer inviting him and his kindergarten classmates to come skate with the local team, which was a "beautiful moment" for him. After that, hockey was his passion—he loved watching the local, semi-professional team, and wanted to play for them as a kid (he ended up exceeding his dream, though, of course).

Speaking of which, Mo is very close with his family. His parents quit their jobs when he was 14 so he could pursue hockey in Mannheim, in spite of their initial hesitations about the sport because they associated it with fighting—not that they ultimately needed to worry since Mo won't fight! They even ended up buying themselves a hockey ABCs book when they realised he was well and truly head over heels for the sport. His dad, Kay, is particularly enthusiastic, especially when he's with the other Wings' dads. Meanwhile, his mom, Sabine, definitely babies him a little bit, and even decorated his apartment for him. He has a brother Marius, who's 10 years older and played a lot of sports growing up too (although not hockey), and Mo looked up to him quite a bit.

Aside from Lucas, Mo is closest with Joe Veleno, a Quebec native who had his first full year with the Wings during Lucas and Mo's first year. Joe played (and lived) with Mo in Grand Rapids during the '19-20 season before COVID brought things to a halt, and the two have stayed friends ever since. They had a show together during the '21-22 season called the MoJoe show, where they goofed off, chirped each other, sang "Take Me Home, Country Roads" (see, more singing! still more to come, though...), answered silly questions (such as "what would your perfect date be?"), and had Mo try apple cider. I don't want to spoil everything, though... definitely watch the show for yourself—the episodes aren't very long and it's super cute! (Also, there are episodes where Lucas guest hosts that you should absolutely watch. I'll discuss those a little bit in the relationship section of the primer.)

Lucas “Razor”/"Ray"/"Ray-Ray" Raymond

Lucas has been a strong first line winger, playing (and gelling) well with Wings captain Dylan Larkin. And as mentioned before, he was one of three NHL rookies to play all 82 games in the 2021-22 season. He got his first hat trick just six games into his career, and he was also one of the early forerunners for the 2022 Calder, although he did ultimately hit a little bit of a slump. Oh, and he was the first Wings rookie since Nicklas Lidstrom to score more than 50 points. (Not to mention, prior to all that he was on the first Swedish U18 IIHF team to win gold, and scored a hatty in the gold medal match.)

Lucas is not-so-secretly as soft as a marshmallow (although his thighs certainly aren't), much as he might try to put on a tough face with the media. He may be a bit less funny/outgoing in interviews than Mo, but he's great at chirping and is well liked by all of his teammates. Also, according to Mo, he's "always good for a joke—doesn’t take himself too seriously.” He can also be very earnest, and has admitted he wanted to go to Detroit more than any other team, in large part due to the Wings' Swedish legacy.

He's a "solution driven player," and is stubborn and competitive ("in everything," according to his mother), and is maybe prone to overthinking things, especially after a loss. "I just hate to lose. Hate it. Even in just a friendly game of poker with my dad. When we play cards in the evening, and he’s really good at cards, he eventually lets me win so that I can go to bed. I could never stop playing without a win," Lucas has said. All that aside, he is generally a very happy, positive person, especially with the people he's close to.

Birthday: March 28th, 2002 (♈︎)

Draft: 2020, 4th overall (to Detroit)

Jersey #: 23

Nationality: Swedish 🇸🇪

Hometown: Gothenburg, Sweden

Height: 5’11” / 180cm

Teams: Detroit Red Wings (NHL, 2021-Present), Frölunda HC (SHL, 2018-21)

Position: Left Wing

Shoots: Right

Off the ice, Lucas really enjoys golf (please click that link), although he's definitely more talented at juggling. He was tasked with learning how to juggle by a coach when he played for Frölunda, and he took to it pretty quickly... although he's not the only one on the team who can! (And both Lucas and Mo are pretty talented at puck juggling.) He's also totally a nap-lover, anytime anywhere. And, maybe most adorably, he really deeply loves romantic movies—“I don’t think Lucas wants me to tell this,” his brother Hugo has said, “but he loves romantic films with a great ending… Every night, we try to find a movie, a romantic movie, with a great ending. And if it doesn’t have a great ending, we watch a new one.”

Adorably, Lucas sometimes writes articles in Swedish for nhl.com/sv (five so far: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]). In these articles he talks about everything from his play to his teammates, his distaste for Swedish Christmas food aside from meatballs (way to be an Ikea stereotype, Lucas), him always packing snuff for away game trips (snuff is a Thing™ with hockey players, especially Scandinavians), his love of Swedish pizza, and him going to NBA games semi-regularly... Oh, and he signs off each blog post with "ha det gött," an informal way of saying goodbye that translates to "have a good one."

In spite of Mo being the more obviously vain one of the two, Lucas apparently spends a lot more time getting ready in the morning, and Mo has said they share an interest in fashion. Unlike Mo, Lucas tragically rarely shows off his curls, instead preferring to keep a backwards baseball cap on off ice almost always (hence there not being all that many good pictures of him without one on). But, again like Mo, he does enjoy singing (if a tad bit less enthusiastically than Mo), and has the same stereotypical Hockey Boy taste in music.

Growing up, Lucas played a really wide variety of sports, from swimming to gymnastics to golf to soccer (which he might have gone pro in if he didn't love hockey so much) to hockey, as well as wind-surfing, water-skiing, and skiing... his parents just encouraged him to do what made him happy, and constantly practising and pushing himself was what made him happiest. He basically had a constant drive to be better and do more.

Lucas is even bigger on family than Mo is—in fact, he frequently called home his first year (Mo has teased him about it). He has a lot of fond memories with his dad, Jean, who coached Lucas in soccer growing up and played floor hockey with Lucas and his brother (Lucas liked to play goalie), and also took Lucas to visit his family in France (according to that same article, Lucas apparently spoke French fluently as a kid). He's especially close with his mom, Cecilia, though. The two of them are similarly (freakishly) competitive and athletic, even among their already athletic family. Cecilia actually made the Swedish national team in squash as a teenager, and she's a personal trainer and dietician now... so she made sure to emphasize the importance of a proper diet and having fun while working hard to Lucas while he was growing up. (Lucas is still fairly strict about his diet, although his mom does say in that article that he hates vegetables.) Lucas has also always been pretty close with his older brother Hugo, who plays professional hockey in Sweden’s Division 3 league—the two of them grew up playing street hockey and soccer together, in spite of their two-and-a-half year age difference.

And lastly here, I have no real excuse for including the above photo of Lucas with recent Wings rookie Jonatan Berggren, it just makes me giggle because they both look incredibly dorky. My fake excuse though is that I figured I should mention Lucas's friendships with the other Swedes on the team, including another recent Wings rookie, Elmer Söderblom, who's from the same town as him.

Raymond/Seider (2353)

So now you're wondering—what makes the two of them so good together? (Especially since they both claim they wouldn't want to be stuck on a deserted island together.)

Lucas and Mo have insane chemistry—look, they even clap in time together! (That's weak evidence, I know... but bear with me here...) They basically instantly clicked—as Lucas put it, "It was really nice to have each other in the beginning... Everything was new for both of us, both in the same position, so to have each other to kind of talk to and just... it was not even that much about hockey often, it was just about other things and life ... It was really nice." Although, they quickly clicked on the ice too, in spite of playing different positions—Mo has said that "it’s easy giving [Lucas] the puck, and you know, like, either you get it back or something good will happen," and Lucas has said (in that same video) that Mo is a "complete defender" and that "it's easy to play with him."

Their instant connection before even hitting the ice makes a lot of sense since, as mentioned before, they have overlapping tastes in music and fashion, among so many other things... And both are frequently described as mature and unusually clean for being young men (although Mo claims to be the messier of the two). They're also similarly competitive, but are both fairly joyful and laugh easily (see the first GIF of the post for proof, or even the first video of this section). And they hang out all the time—either at each other's apartments, or by going out to the movies together or, occasionally, NBA games (see above picture).

Also, if Mo and Lucas frequently, publicly hanging out didn't make it clear already, they totally live in each other's pockets. They played most of their first two seasons together—aside from when Lucas had a lower body injury in February of 2023—and have been practically inseparable the whole time, starting with their first training camp.

Lucas stayed at Mo's apartment during camp and the start of the 21-22 season, when it wasn't clear yet if he was going to stay up for the whole season. He didn't actually want to move out of Mo's place—he mostly did because they wouldn't have enough room for everyone if both of their families were visiting at the same time (🥺). But Lucas has said that they still, "... live close to each other and spend a lot of time with each other. It was great for both of us to work through the same things [our first] season."

(It also sounds like they might have been/might be road roommates, based on vague comments in a few videos? But I can't find a definitive source on that. Still wanted to mention it, though!)

Hilariously, Lucas never bothered to figure out Mo’s TV remote while living with him, so he’d just crash on his couch right when they got back from practice and then waited for Mo to come out to the living room to turn it on and pick a channel. He also would make Mo chauffeur him to practice until he got a licence and car.

Also when they were living together (because there are so many good stories that came out of that), they would go out and play catch with a mini American football. Mo really loved that football, so when they were playing with it one day, Lucas threw it up onto a different apartment's balcony to mess with him a little bit. Kids were playing with it the next day though, so they didn't want to ask for it back... but they were ultimately gifted another one by fans during pre-game warm-ups.

Their rookie year brought them together in mutual suffering too, beyond just the Wings' losing record. On one of their earliest road trips, they took one of the first elevators up when they got to the hotel, but neither of them had realised that elevators are supposed to be taken in order of seniority, veteran players going first... Lesson learned though (after some chirping and likely some fines), and they both "are waiting very patiently" for the later elevators now. Also, when they first played in Vegas, they were the only underage players on the team, so they didn't get to go out and have fun like the rest of the guys... they just had to hang out together, instead.

They also regularly hosted Swedish fikas* together during their first season, inviting the older guys and their families over for coffee and snacks. This is kind of surprising (and cute) considering that Lucas can't cook pretty much at all and Mo has only recently gotten better at it. This past season, though, they started cooking dinner together sometimes as their own "tradition" (does Mo do most of the cooking, I wonder?).

*fika = a kind of coffee, snack, and conversation break , which is deeply engrained/treasured in Swedish culture 🇸🇪

There's been a strong, ongoing narrative with these two since they joined the team. Not only were they pretty much instant best friends, they also frequently talk about each other in interviews, including their pre-game interviews before their mutual 100th game ([1] [2]). They scored their first points (assists) in the same game too—their very first one with the Wings (at home, no less)! Oh, and Lucas scored his 100th career point on Mo's birthday (against Buffalo, April 6th, 2023)—could that be anything other than fate? 🤷‍♀️

They're also constantly chirping one another in the Wings' social media videos, including the promo video for Lucas's bobblehead night (see above GIFs for the best bit). And just in general, they frequently mention one another when answering questions for the Wings' TikTok account... it's sickeningly sweet.

Speaking of cute social media videos, here are the two episodes of the MoJoe show where Lucas is a guest host. The episodes are totally adorable and chirp-filled, and even if you don't intend to watch the whole series, you should at least watch these two episodes just to admire how terrible these two fools are at keeping a straight-face around one another. (And to cringe at how neither of them can sing on pitch... I told you guys there would be even more singing... 😂)

When asked for three words to describe each other, Mo said Lucas, "needs a nap" because he takes a nap immediately after practice, then doesn’t reappear until dinner, and Lucas said Mo is, "funny, smart actually—sometimes—and very driven." (Lucas, that’s technically more than three words??? 🤔)

And because this post is self-indulgence at its finest, I wanted to round things off with my personal favourite dorky quotes from Lucas and Mo about one another…

"I mean, both of us are very young, but the maturity that Mo plays with, I think that's probably his biggest strength." -Lucas (said very seriously, although he smiled a bit afterwards because Mo giggled in embarrassment and said "Stop...")

"I think especially for me, I just enjoy being around [Lucas], and yeah, he's putting a smile on my face." -Mo (said with a soft smile)

2353 is still very much a rarepair, but it's worth shipping! 🥰

Obligatory RPF Disclaimer: Clearly these two are not and will never be together in real life. This primer presents carefully curated, publicly available information that does not attempt to give a full or intrusive look into either of these players' lives. This is so that people looking to read/write this pairing can build a better mental picture of characters loosely based on real people.

[allisonreadsandcreates93]

I have officially completed the Crave series by Tracy Wolff. Crave is a six book series that started in 2020 and when I didn’t have anything to do that year in April of 2020 I discovered the first book on book pages from Facebook and recommendations from TikTok before permanently deleting my TikTok account for safety reasons in my orbit back in December 2022, (RIP Allison’s TikTok 07/2019-12/2022) I got every book every time it came out besides Amazon giving me book 2 as a gift for reviewing books I ordered from the past. Incase your wondering what Crave series is about, it is Twilight meets Harry Potter and it has supernatural such as Vampires, Witches, Dragons, Werewolves, and Gargoyles that attend a boarding school. Here is the list order of each book I like from 1st-6th and the book number:

1st. Covet book 3

2nd. Cherish book 6

3rd. Court book 4

4th. Crush book 2

5th. Charm book 5

6th. Crave book 1

All Instant 5 stars rating which rarely happens for me to have all books with 5 star ratings.

Crave series is based on Grace’s point of view who is a Gargoyle.

I cannot wait for the spin off based on Remy’s side of the story who we meet in Covet book 3 and is a Warlock. I am excited we get to finally read a Warlocks point of view and the last time I read a book that has a famous Warlock I like in it is Magnus from the Shadowhunters chronicles by Cassandra Clare and I love love love Warlocks.

In the crave series the boarding school is called Katmere Academy and in the upcoming spin off will be based on the Calder Academy.

Spin off of Crave series “Sweet Vengeance” releases January 2024

[butterflyintochains]

Her Sanctum

TW: angst, self-esteem issues, mentions of cheating, social media trolls.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One of the perks about growing up living in a manor house passed down the family is growing up knowing where to hide. Joanna has three hiding spots on the Blackwood Estate: a small room off the library, a nook in what was the servants' hall in the 1930s, and, her favourite, The Cove. A small clearing in the grove of trees just beyond the gardens. It's easy enough to find, she closes the back door behind herself, and makes her way down the slab path, where a retaining wall a century and three quarters old sits. She expertly climbs and vaults it, and follows the well worn dirt path to her spot. It's a grey November day in 2019, and she is just so... tired. The Cove welcomes her into its safety, still decked out from her childhood, when she, her girl friends, sisters, and female cousins would play fairies and princes against her male friends, brothers, and male cousins. The bench swing, the throne of The Cove, still in perfect condition from when Grandpa James put it up. Still crowned Fairy Queen from the last time they played, she sits down on it. The flower crown is long withered, but she doesn't dare crunch it up.

Realistically, she knows she shouldn't let the comments of some faceless strangers online get to her, but, they do. It took her almost a year to rebuild herself after Brandon cheated on her, and she's still delicate now. And, maybe they're right? Maybe Elias does deserve someone better? Maybe he should find a model or influencer to date instead? Maybe she's too tall, or not blonde enough, or too intense for a hockey player? The football player certainly thought as much, didn't he? She'd heal, right? She's done it once, she can do it again. Joanna listens to the nature around her, the birds, the breeze in the trees, the small animals roaming around, the swing creaking as she rocks. She's loved being out here alone since she can remember, especially at night. A small squirrel hops around, looking at her as if they're kindred spirits. ''I'm sorry, friend, I don't have anything this time.'' It chirps, and moves along.

A cracking noise from her left alerts her. Maybe her mom? Kate? Tessa? It's neither, it's Elias. ''Sweetheart, how did you find me?'' She asks him. Elias smiles, and says. ''I asked your mom, alskling. Room on that swing for two?'' Joanna nods, and moves aside to let him sit with her.

They sit together in a comfortable silence, but with the thing bothering Joanna hanging in the cold air like something malignant. Elias finally asks her, after what must be five minutes. ''What's been going on, alskling? And, don't say 'nothing' because I know you. It's okay, I'm your boyfriend, you can tell me.''

Joanna rubs her gloved hands together, and says. ''Have you seen social media lately? There's a lot of people who really want you to be with someone else.'' She pulls up the screenshots on her phone, the same screenshots she's been crying over for two weeks now, and hands it to him. ''I'm too intense, not good looking enough. You'd be better with someone more traditional, I'm a social climber, a distraction. I've tried to block them all, but there's just too much.''

Elias scrolls through the litany of messages from strangers, his heart shattering at every single one of them. His blood boils, he wants to hunt every single one of these idiots down. This is his girlfriend they're insulting, he wouldn't have won the Calder without her. ''Joanna, this is...''

Joanna sniffles. ''Maybe they're right, maybe you'd be better off with someone else, someone who will fall in line with the other hockey ladies?''

Elias gently cups her perfect face, drying her beautiful emerald eyes with his thumbs, he says to her. ''I don't want that, Anna. I don't want someone who falls in line, I want this, I want us, I want you. You are the best thing that's ever happened to me. You are: beautiful, ambitious, intelligent, loyal, and special. I love you, all of you.'' Joanna, still in tears, says. ''I love you too, so much it hurts, I just... after him, I can't help but feel like I don't deserve this. I love what we have, I never knew I could love someone like this again.''

Elias promises her. ''I'm not him, alskling, I'd never do to you what he did. That was on him, not you. He didn't deserve you. You gave him three years, he repayed you with abuse.''

Joanna places her hands on his chest, calming down a bit more. ''Promise me?'' Elias nods, kissing her forehead. ''With every goal I score.'' He brings her in for a kiss, his kiss is her assurance, he's not going anywhere, neither is she.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They take some time together in The Cove, relaxing on the swing. Elias deletes the evil screenshots, and asks his girlfriend. ''What is this place? Your mom said you spend a lot of time here.'' Joanna smiles, and says. ''We call it 'The Cove'. Myself, my siblings, cousins, and friends would play games here as kids, the girls would be fairies, the boys were our princes. This swing was the throne, only the Fairy Queen and her Prince could sit here.''

Elias asks her, winding some of her caramel hair around his fingers. ''Where you ever Fairy Queen?''

Joanna nods, smiling back on the memories she made here. ''Yeah, I was the fairy of plants, and this,'' She carefully picks up the withered wreath. ''was the crown, it's long dead, but was made of my mom's flowers.'' She looks up at him, and asks. ''Any similar memories from your childhood, sweetheart?''

Elias thinks for a bit, and says. ''My dad used to take me, Emil, and our friends down to the lake in Agne every summer. We'd play 'Jaws' he'd let us all swim, and come to tag us. If we got caught, we'd become sharks, and have to help him hunt the others. Last left, won the game.'' Joanna laughs, she instantly liked Torbjorn and Irene when they met back in January. The mental image of Torbjorn trying to wrangle his sons and their friends is quite funny to her. ''Did you ever win?''

Elias nods, and kisses her head. ''Yeah, it helps being a small kid.'' Joanna hums, and adds. ''Also helps being a stubborn kid.''

It starts getting darker, So, grudgingly, Joanna stands up. ''We should get inside, once it gets dark there's no light out here.'' Elias nods, and rises. They walk down the path hand in hand, and climb the wall. Once at the backdoor, they head inside. Victoria Blackwood engulfs her second daughter in a massive hug. ''My darling girl, you had me worried, are you okay?''

Joanna nods, squeezing her boyfriend's hand. ''I am now.'' Her mom says. ''Good, because dinner is ready.''

They head up to Joanna's room to ditch their shoes, coats, and gloves. Then, they join Joanna's parents and younger sister at the table. ''Anna, alskling, do you want me to put a tweet out for you?'' Joanna ponders it, she hates asking for help like this, but this is her boyfriend. ''If you don't mind, sweetheart.''

Elias says, finishing eating. ''Got it.''

He tweets as they snuggle after dinner. He lets her see it before it's published. It's not angry, but assertive.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

@_eliaspettersson: tweeted 14th november 2019.

Just dropping in to say one simple thing. Any harassment of my girlfriend, any rude comments about her, anything negative said about her. Affects an innocent 20 year old woman, she's human, she's the best thing that's ever happened to me. Without her, there's no me. You are no true Canucks fan if you disrespect the girlfriend of their first center. End of story.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He asks her. ''How does that sound?'' Joanna reads it over, they've always had such similar tone in text, something weird to her at first. ''Sounds great.'' He hits send, and shuts his phone off to be able to properly wrap his arms around her. ''I hope I can have what you two do one day.'' Katherine says.

Joanna assures her little sister, the real romantic of the family. ''You will, I'm sure of it, sis. Bit of advice, though, don't go searching, it'll find you. Elias and I found each other. Searching is how you end up like I did before Elias.''

Elias comments, playing with his girlfriend's hair. ''And no one deserves that.''

Joanna hopes her sister heeds this advice, because every girl needs a guy like Elias, or one similar, because she's got the real deal all to herself. Still so surreal to her, but, she'd never give this up for anything.

[cjp-film]

48 Hour Film Challenge

On the 13th - 15th of October 2023, I was asked to help out some friends with the Glasgow 48hr film challenge. They were in need of a production designer, and since I had been showing interest and wanted to develop my production design skills further, I agreed.

I was working alongside my friends at Shermer Productions, Alana, Casper and Kushal. The idea of the challenge is to make a film from scratch in only two days, using an assigned genre, character, prop and line. We were assigned:

Genre: Comedy/ Spy

Character: Ali Silver, Life coach

Prop: A lemon

Line: ‘Here’s Tae Us’

The story that the group decided on followed the spy Ali Silver seeking out information on some wanted criminals. My job as production designer was to create a top secret FBI document which contained information on the wanted criminals. As I only had the morning before the shoot to source this, it was a bit of a rush. I had to create 7 pages of document, take photos of my ‘criminals’ (each a member of the crew), and print it out. I am terrible with technology so had a nightmare figuring out the printer at the post office. I did, however manage to find a brown filing envelope which I could use as the folder. I secured the pages together with paper clips, and put a big ‘classified’ sticker on the cover. Once I had finally finished this prop, I dropped it off to them on set, where I found the crew freezing cold at Harrison Park. Then I returned to create the poster!

The poster was really fun to create. I used the software ‘procreate’ which I have been using since 2019. I knew from the start I wanted the poster to have a pop art style, and began playing around with some images I took of lemons. I like experimenting with the features that procreate offers, such as using ‘halftone’ and different blend modes. It really was very experimental, but I liked how it was looking so far. I was messing around with colours, layers, shapes and shadows, but it wasn’t until I was choosing a font when I realised that the lemon was only a really minor part of the film. The two characters meet when a bag of lemons falls to the ground. The crew seemed to be fine with this however, as the lemons indicate their meeting - a butterfly effect kind of thing. The font was tricky to find, I wanted one that was like a newspaper print, but matched the spy theme and the pop art theme. When I finally settled on one, I added the cast and crew names, as well as the title ‘Auld Acquaintance’ and the tagline ‘Read between the lines’.

The final film!!! Very well done to everyone involved.

CAST: Stuart Gray - Jack Sherlock @jack_sherlock Ali Silver - Lorna Calder @lornacalder Schemey Dan - Josh Knowles @joshknowles__

CREW: Director - Casper Galbraith @casgalbraithfilm @shermer_productions Producer - Alana Robertson @robertson_media @shermer_productions Writer - Joseph Olanklokun @joseph.olans 1st AD - Esther Elbornova @esther_elbornova DoP - Kushal Dhingra @kushaldhingra_films @shermer_productions Editor - Krisztián Kajtár @krisztiankajtar03 Production Designer - Catherine Paterson @cjpsmedia Production Assistant - Hannah Comrie @hannahcomriex

[kakaewtriple]

Nhl 2004 rebuilt 2017vseasons 1980

#Nhl 2004 rebuilt 2017vseasons 1980 professional#

In his 23 seasons as head coach in the AHL, all within the Sharks org, Sommer has compiled a 788- 679-48-159 (W-L-T-OTL/SOL) record in the regular season and has reached the postseason 13 times, including a Conference Finals berth in 2017, the first of his career. 11, 2019 as an associate coach, the Oakland native returned to AHL in 2020-21, his 23rd season at the helm of the Sharks’ top affiliate, and his 25th overall within the organization. Prior to joining San Jose, Will spent six years in the Minnesota North Stars organization in various capacities.Īfter joining the Sharks’ coaching staff on Dec. In addition, he developed the Sharks computer scouting program that pioneered the advent of scouting programs now used throughout the NHL. Without his coordinating efforts, the team would not have drafted 2001 Calder Memorial Trophy winner Evgeni Nabokov in 1994. Will is an integral part of the team’s draft-day strategy. native also works with director of scouting Tim Burke in the development and implementation of draft prospect testing, draft table operations and computer scouting analysis. A member of the Sharks organization since the franchise’s inception in July 1990, he has also previously served as assistant to the general manager and scouting coordinator. Prior to his current roles, Will served as the team’s director of hockey operations from 2004-2011. His expert analysis of economic trends in the NHL has led to the Sharks acquisition and retention of several key veteran players over his time with the club.

#Nhl 2004 rebuilt 2017vseasons 1980 professional#

Will, 53, also works with the organization’s professional scouts and management team in player research for expansion, waivers, free agency and trades. One of his most important duties involves the tracking, analyzing and projecting of the team’s player payroll relative to the current and future National Hockey League salary cap to give the team the financial flexibility to ice a championship-caliber team each season. It also has allowed for greater interaction and observation from San Jose’s development coaches. The move west eliminated the need to fly players across the United States in the event of recalls and reassignments and added valuable practice time. The Barracuda became a part of the AHL’s new Pacific Division, sharing SAP Center with their NHL parent club. In an effort to strengthen the organization’s player development system and program, the Sharks relocated their American Hockey League affiliate to San Jose for the 2015-16 season. In addition, as general manager of the San Jose Barracuda, he oversees all the hockey operations for the Sharks American Hockey League affiliate, including player evaluation, player contracts, and player recall and reassignments. He’s the lead coordinator and planner for the Sharks training camp scouting meetings and scouting conference calls each season. In San Jose, Will works closely with general manager Doug Wilson on all daily departmental functions and his primary responsibilities include contract research and negotiations, scouting operations, fiscal planning, salary cap analysis and hockey administration. Joe Will begins his 10th season as assistant general manager for the San Jose Sharks and his eighth as general manager of the Sharks’ American Hockey League affiliate (Worcester Sharks and San Jose Barracuda).

[calitonki]

Nhl 20 faceoffs

#NHL 20 FACEOFFS PRO#

But it strikes me that if faceoffs really are a key to winning and losing in hockey, it’s on special teams that they must be so telling, and I’ll look at that in my next post. Article contentĪgain, I’m no math guy, so maybe faceoff losses being one factor in five of six per cent of goals scored is significant. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt.With the Sharks, Wiseman, alongside fellow assistant Scott Gordon, will also work with the team’s forwards, assist with the power play and help with pre-scouting opponents, Quinn said. With Edmonton, Wiseman focused on the team’s offensive strategies, working with the team’s forwards with an additional focus on face-offs. Tippett was replaced by Jay Woodcroft in February and Wiseman remained on the Oilers staff before he and the team parted ways in June. Wiseman was an assistant coach at Michigan from 2011 to 2019 before he received his first NHL coaching job, as he joined the Edmonton Oilers under former coach Dave Tippett. Wiseman became an assistant with the Houston Aeros of the AHL in 2010-11, helping the team reach the Calder Cup Final. He was the Dallas Stars’ video coach in 2002-03 and began his coaching career as an assistant at Princeton University for the 2003-04 season.

#NHL 20 FACEOFFS PRO#

Wiseman played pro hockey from 1994 to 2000, including three games with the Toronto Maple Leafs in December 1996. Wiseman played at Michigan from 1990 to 1994 and was a 12th-round draft choice of the New York Rangers in 1991. In my situation, I knew what the truth was, the facts were presented to the court, and in the end, I was declared innocent and found not guilty.” “You never want to be placed in that position, but I understand that the authorities must take accusations like that extremely seriously, as do I. “In the early 1990s, I was falsely accused of sexual assault,” Wiseman’s statement said. The Sharks also noted, via a statement attributed to Grier, that Wiseman “was completely transparent with us from the start” and relayed a statement from Wiseman proclaiming the accusations were false. In this instance, based on the results of the legal process following the accusation in the mid-1990s, in addition to our own additional diligence and fact-finding, we felt comfortable with the results that came back.” (This news organization became aware of the matter after that call.)Īsked later if the Sharks knew about the case, a team representative relayed the following statement from general manager Mike Grier: “The Sharks organization takes accusations of this nature extremely seriously and the type of behavior described would not be tolerated. Wiseman and Sharks head coach David Quinn were not asked about the case during their media availability Friday morning. Wiseman was a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Michigan at the time of the alleged assault. Per the Chicago Tribune, the alleged incident was first reported to police in April 1993, and charges were filed later that year. Wiseman, then a forward with the IHL’s Chicago Wolves, and another man were tried on two counts of sexual assault after an alleged 1991 incident with a then-15-year-old girl. Wiseman, now 51, was acquitted in a 1996 trial, but reports of the case surfaced shortly after the Islanders announced his hiring in July. There has been speculation that sexual assault charges Wiseman faced in the 1990s factored in his departure from the Islanders.

[brockymcginn]

My dumb brain this entire Checkers/Wolves series when Shaya says "McGinn"

[bi-nerds]

AHL Playoffs - 8th June 2019 - Calder Cup Champions

[a-dose-of-harold]

Once in a Lifetime: Chapter 21

Once in a Lifetime: A Harry Styles AU Imagine Series

HELLLOOOO EVERYONE I AM FINALLY BACK! I am an adult now but I finally found some inspiration to finish this damn series! My writing style has changed since 2019! I hope you enjoy it. Will start writing the next chapter soon!

[masterlist]

Chapter 21: Life is Just Funny Sometimes

Cosmic Love (7Lions Remix) by Florence and the Machines

September 2020 (Present Time)

Your POV

I heard a steady beeping noise as I began waking up. I felt warmth on my right hand as I slowly stirred. I realized I wasn’t home and was in fact in a hospital bed. The last thing I remember was being at Zayn’s art show and now… I’m here. My head was killing me.

I turned to my right to see Harry was asleep in a chair next to me. He looked so uncomfortable since his head was in my bed and he was laying bent over.

To my left was Eleanor on the couch, sound asleep and comfortable. Then there was Liam, sleeping on the recliner in front of my bed. I looked around the room, I realized I was in a private suite in one of units at where I work. I noticed there were flowers everywhere, and balloons. I saw the sun peaking through the windows. Damn, how long was I out for?

I saw the bed remote next to my left side and slowly hit the up arrow so the head of bed sat me up and Harry’s eyes flew open.

“Y/N? You’re awake!” Harry said and Eleanor and Liam immediately woke up.

Liam sighed, then nodded at me as he left the room, probably went to get the attending was on my case. Eleanor was at my side holding my left hand with relief and tears in her eyes.

“How are you feeling?” She whispered moving the hair out of my face.

“What happened?” I asked as I rubbed my eyes, I felt the IV in the left hand and noticed I was getting fluids.

Harry’s eyes were full of regret and worry, “One minute you were standing and the next you were passing out, Louis and Niall caught you… and we called an ambulance. You didn’t wake up for almost 12 hours.” He looked at his watch, I just realized he was still in his clothes from last night.

“I don’t know what happened…” Eleanor said, “I had them run every test known to man kind but they won’t tell us anything because we aren’t immediate family.”

I chucked, “of course you did, I’m sure I am fine. Just probably stressed out and dehydrated.” I smiled at both of them.

The attending came in holding my chart, with an exhausted looking Liam following behind him and I immediately recognized that it was Dr. Oppenheimer, head neurologist. Fuck.

“Good morning Dr. your L/N, how is your head feeling?” He asked.

“I’m feeling ok, just exhausted.” I smiled at him. “Thank you for taking the time for being on my case.”

“Wouldn’t have let anyone else,” he nodded at me. We knew each other from meetings, had spoken from time to time on cases since one of his specialties was brain tumors.

“I would like to speak to Dr. you Y/N, please.” As he looked around the room.

I nodded at everyone with a pleading look to please respect my privacy. Harry gave me a quick kiss on the hand, and they all stood up and shuffled out of the room. Eleanor looked worried because she also knew who he was, and I am pretty sure Liam looked him up as soon as he took my case.

Dr. Oppenheimer closed the door behind him and walked over to my bed. He did a quick exam and he began his questions.

“Dr. Calder and Dr. Payne said you been having headaches and migraines lately?” He asked but more like stated.

“Yeah a few months now. I figured it stress from work and not eating properly.” I rubbed my forehead.

Dr. Oppenheimer had a look in his eyes and I knew it wasn’t going to be good news, he is one of the most intelligent doctors I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with, and he is also very frank and direct, which I appreciated.

“Dr.-“ he started.

“Please just call me Y/N, and whatever it is just tell it to me straight.” I nodded.

“Very well, Y/N, we ran every test that Dr. Calder asked for. And it seems as if you have a glioblastoma. I’m shocked that headaches have been your only symptoms until now.”

I felt my stomach drop. Everything I knew about glioclastomas raced through my mind. They are very fast growing, dangerous, survival rate is less than 55% depending on the size and depending on how long I’ve had it…

“How long do I have?” I held my hand up, wanting to see my chart.

Dr. Oppenheimer pulled open the computer that was in the room and showed me the result of the scans.

Fan-fucking-tactic.

Dr. Oppenheimer looked at me with sad eyes, “Y/N, if we start treatment, you could live longer than 5 years. If you don’t, I would say 12-15 months at most.”

As a doctor, I have given news like this to my patients and their families thousands of times. However, not once, I would never think I would be on the receiving end.

“Have you told anyone?” I looked up at him.

“Absolutely not, neither of your friend nor your boyfriend was granted access to know your information. But now that you’re awake-“ he began.

“Let’s keep it that way. I don’t want anyone to know or have access. Please.” I begged. It was pathetic.

He nodded, “Doctor-patient confidentiality. However, I could get you started on treatments right away. I would like to personally oversee your case.”

I looked at the scans. I looked at his notes. I had a slim chance of surviving if going into surgery. I had a better chance with chemo, but I don’t even know if I even want to go through chemo.

“Do you think I can let you know by next week? I would just really like to get out of here and go home.” I said.

“You are going to need to make a decision soon.” He said directly, “you know how glioblastomas are.”

I nodded, the worry of everyone knowing this set in a wave of anxiety. I didn’t want them to have to go through knowing this about me. “I’ll tell them I have been dehydrated, stressed, not eating healthy. Thank you for telling me doctor. I appreciate you wanting to be on my team.”

“Please, call me Steven. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I would like an answer by next week. We need to either treat this or….” He trailed off.

“I know, I will.” I nodded.

“We can discharge you by the end of the day if you can walk. I’ll have the interns assist you.” He stood up and shook my hand. He took my chart back and logged out of the computer and left the room.

Harry, Liam and Eleanor rushed in. And I immediately put on my brave face.

“What did he say?” They asked in unison.

“That I passed out because I was over working myself, stressed out, not eating a healthy diet, labs were off. So we both chalked it to lack of sleep and too much work and no relaxing. He said I can be discharged by end of the day if I can walk.” I smiled at them and shrugged.

Relief took over Harry’s face as he grabbed my hand and kissed the palm of it.

Eleanor and Liam knew I was bullshitting, they could tell I didn’t want to worry Harry. But they knew I would tell them when I was ready. Eleanor was making a fist with her hand, she knew it wouldn’t be good news if Dr. Oppenheimer was on my case.

They respected my decision to share what I wanted and Liam told me he would get the discharge started.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Harry’s POV

I updated Niall and rest of the gang in our new group chat that we created since Y/N’s admission, letting them know she would be ok. She slept for a few more hours until a doctor and her nurse came to her room and took her for a walk to make sure she was able to leave.

When she finally got discharged from the hospital, I made Y/N rest while I wanted to cook her a meal. I was so relieved to hear it wasn’t anything serious, I told her as I was driving us back to her condo AND that I would be cooking healthy meals for her from now on and making sure she rests enough.

She just laughed and said she is an adult and can take care of herself.

I helped her into the shower since that was the first thing she wanted to do then I ran to the grocery store to shop and stock up her refrigerator full of food for the week.

As I was browsing through the grocery store I kept thinking to myself how lucky I was to have her back in my life and that I want to spend the rest of my life with her... We already lost ten years together and honestly, I didn’t want to lose any more time.

I texted Naill asking him for suggestion on jewelers in the diamond district.

- Naill: Mate, are you serious? You’re going to propose to Y/N?

- Me: Well I just decided today. So I am going to start planning it. Wanna help?

- Naill: fuck yeah, count me in.

I smiled to myself, life has a funny way of bringing back what’s meant for you. And I knew with everything I had in me, that she has always been the one.

- - - - - - - - -

Your POV

As I stood in the shower, letting the hot water run all over my body, I saw the scar where my IV was placed and the conversation with Dr. Oppenheimer replayed in my head. The images of my glioblastoma was ingrained in my memory. The look on Harry’s face when I told him it wasn’t serious.

Everything I knew about glioblastomas was going through my mind. Remembering what it was like for my patients going through chemo that I diagnosed them with. Some surviving and many didn’t.

I began to sob quietly in the shower. I thought about my parents, my friends, my beautiful patients…. and then finally, my relationship. I just got Harry back and then life decided to throw this curveball at me.

Dr. Oppenheimer had emailed me different therapies we could try and course of actions we could take, while we were on the drive home but I didn’t want to risk Harry seeing anything so I had to wait until I was alone. I know Dr. Oppenheimer was adamant for me to try, he didn’t want me to give up despite me know the prognosis (outcome) wasn’t going to be great.

I slipped out of the shower and dried off. I was a little relieved that Harry was still not back from grocery shopping so I pulled out my MacBook and began researching everything Dr. Oppenheimer sent me.

I thought about chemo. It was the best option. But god, chemo is rough. Just watching my patients go through it made me incredibly sad, I didn’t want to go through that too. Kids are just fighters and I was being stubborn. I also knew I was being selfish by withholding this information from everyone but… I love them all too much to burden them with this information.

I knew they would all do everything in their power to help me but I didn’t want their lives to be on pause for me. No way. I know they would, but I didn’t want them to sacrifice anything for me.

I heard the door to my condo open and I closed out all the tabs and erased my history. Harry was smiling when he came into my room to see me sitting in bed, to him I was resting. Internally, I was figuring out what to do from here on out.

“Hey, feeling any better love?” He took a seat next to me as I closed my laptop.

I nodded, “Yeah, just catching up on some work emails.”

Harry frowned, he brush my damp hair back behind my ear, “You need to take a break. Let’s go in a trip. Somewhere relaxing. What about the beach?”

I took his hand in mine, “We just got back from London not too long ago babe.”

“Doctor’s orders, rest and relax!” He kissed my forehead.

I asked Steven to keep the information between us and my boss, I didn’t want the entire staff knowing about me, and I asked my chart be locked with a passcode since I worked at that very hospital. Even though people could get fired for even opening my chart, I didn’t want to risk it. I didn’t need rumors to be spread, which I am already sure it started. I already sent an email to my lawyer to draft up NDAs and that I needed to meet with her soon to update some information. Steven insisted that I take time off. My boss Nancy, was wonderful and more than willing to accommodate since we recently hired another attending and the new interns were finally getting he hang of things. She insisted that I take two weeks off to rest and make a decision.

“Where should we go?“ I smiled up at Harry and a huge grin spread across his face, his dimples deepening and melting my heart.

As Harry cooked dinner for us, I sat on the couch and we discussed different places we could go.

“Let’s go to California and visit my parents.” I suggested.

Harry stopped what he was doing and looked at me wide eyes, “Really?” He sounded surprised, “Wow, I haven’t seen your parents in ages… what if they still disapprove of me?”

I stood up and walked over to his side, “Harry, we are adults now, it doesn’t matter what they think. But I would really like them to know about us, about you. About how serious we are. You’re a successful, famous baker now. My mom would definitely approve. Also, my dad isn’t the same man you knew 10 years ago.”

Harry wrapped his arms around me and kissed me tenderly, as if I was fragile, “Let’s go to California then.”

- - - - - - -

Liam’s POV

I knew Y/N was lying at the hospital. Which means whatever is going on with her was serious. When Harry and Y/N took off to California to visit her parents, I knew something was wrong. Eleanor and I have been texting non-stop, trying to figure out why the hell she hasn’t told us the truth. Eleanor has asked her several times but Y/N keeps saying she’s okay. Eleanor told me about Dr. Oppenheimer and his speciality but I told Eleanor he was probably just treating her as a favor since they were colleagues. We both racked each other’s brains with all the things that could cause her headaches, migraines, and passing out. There was so little information and too many diagnoses to narrow anything down. It literally could be anything. I didn’t want to assume the worst but I know Eleanor was.

Eleanor tried to get information from Dr. Oppenheimer the next time she went to work but he just told her what we tell everyone else, “I’m sorry but that’s doctor/patient confidentiality Dr. Calder, you should know better.” She was furious but she knew he was right, and so did I.

Sophia was worried sick about Y/N when she passed out. She was crying left and right for those 12 hours. I called her when Y/N woke up and was talking to the doctor, she bursted into tears over the phone, relieved to hear that she was awake. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I knew something was wrong.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Your POV

October 2020 (Present Time)

Before Harry and I decided to fly to San Diego, I had FaceTimed my parents to let them know I was visiting and wanted them to meet my new boyfriend.

They were both so sad to find out that Zayn and I broke up. And then the way they reacted when I said I had a new boyfriend was ridiculous.

- Dad: Wow, you wasted no time huh? Who is the lucky fellow?

- Mom: Did you cheat on Zayn with him? He was so good to you! Why did you have to hurt him? Zayn was perfect!

I think she was actually crying.

- Me: Mom! Stop! Dad, please tell her to stop. I am an adult!

I could see my dad patting her on the back telling her that I am an adult I can do whatever I want.

- Me: Thank you. Anyways, our flight gets in tomorrow around 2pm s-

- Mom: TOMORROW? Oh goodness I have to get our guest room ready, I have to clean! I have to grocery shop!

She dramatically jumped up and out of the frame as my dad chuckled and shook his head.

- Dad: send me your flight info, I can’t wait to see you. Missed you bud.

- Me: I miss you too dad.

I waved at my camera and ended the call. I began crying for my parents as they would one day have to say their goodbyes to their only child. It was breaking my heart.

I sighed as I finished up packing for our week long trip.

I was scared to make a decision because if I started chemo, it could buy me more time but I would have to stop working and I would constantly be sick and weak… I love my job. Hah, how funny, an oncologist gets cancer. Life is just funny sometimes.

If I didn’t start chemo, I would possibly have another year to live. But I know once my symptoms worsens it would be hard to hide the truth. I would start to forget things, vomit randomly, my personality could change, I’ll have seizures, I’ll eventually have difficulty walking or talking…. Possible hallucinations.

God damn it, why did it have to be a glioblastoma? It’s the most aggressive brain tumor and there’s no damn cure.

I began to cry. I didn’t understand why this was happening to me… I wasn’t even 30 yet. I haven’t been able to get married… have kids… I sinked down to the floor next to my bed and just cried. I cried for my family, my friends, my love… and I cried for all the things I will never experience or have.

San Diego

Harry was extremely nervous as we were walking off the plane and into he baggage claim. He knew my parents would be there waiting to greet us. I laced my hand into his and gave him a gentle squeeze, assuring him that everything will be okay.

As soon as we passed through the exit doors, my mom and dad were standing right in front with flowers. My parents faces when they realized my boyfriend was no other than my child hood best friend, Harry Styles, was priceless. They were almost speechless.

“Harry… oh my goodness you are a grown man now!” My mom exclaimed as she pulled him in for a hug.

My father was quiet, I couldn’t quite understand what was going through his mind. He was thinking hard and long about something as my mom was asking Harry all the questions.

Harry turned to my father and stuck out his hand, “It’s really good to see you again sir.”

My father immediately shook his hand, “It’s good to see you too Harry.” They both looked at each other as if they were silently communicating. As if my dad was apologizing how rude he was to Harry all those years ago.

Harry’s POV

I was surprised to see how receptive Y/N father’s was about me being back in her life. The last time we spoke was over 10 years ago when he asked me to break up with her. He looked at me with both appreciative and apologetic eyes as we shook hands, knowing that because of what I did, she achieved her dreams.

When we arrived at her parents beautiful two story beach front home, her mom insisted on the grand tour, while her father started up the grill to begin making dinner with Y/N.

A few hours later, we were outside on their back porch with the most beautiful ocean view, sun setting and dinner freshly cooked. Her parents made enough food to feed a family of 10 when it was just the four of us.

“Harry! I just realized that you are the same Harry that was on the Food Network this year!” Her mother exclaimed.

Harry chucked, “Yes ma’am, I finally became a baker.”

Her father looked at me and nodded, “Food network? That’s impressive.”

Her mother continued to ask question about what happened when they left Holmes Chapel, curious about where I went to school, how I came to be famous.

As I was giving them a quick version about my story, getting a full ride scholarship to my dream school, trying culinary programs, going from France, to Chicago, then New York since my best friend’s investment business head quarters was there and how he believed that my bakery would take off in Manhattan. Her father and mother exchanged several looks between each other, some of approval and some I couldn’t read.

“Well, I am very happy that you two found each other again. I really just want my little girl to be happy.” Her father smiled at her.

“Dad, I am not little anymore,” she pursed her lips.

“You will always be to me.” He placed his hand over his heart and smiled.

I was in complete shock at all the words her father was saying and his personality. He was hardly sweet and affection when we were younger. This is a completely different man than the one 10 years ago who didn’t approve of me and told me if I didn’t break it off with Y/N, he would cut her off.

Throughout dinner, her mom asked me non stop questions about my career, occasionally her father would say something. Her mom faintly asked about my bakery and said she has been dying to try my cupcakes. Apparently their friends visited New York recently and had tried them and they wouldn’t stop talking about my cupcakes for weeks. I promised her I would make them for her while I am here. She was ecstatic. Finally her father asked us how we found each other again, I let Y/N talk since I was sure she wanted them to only know certain details.

After dinner, Y/N was feeling really tired so she decided to turn in early. I told her I would join her after I helped her parents cleaned up.

When her father and I were finally alone, he said something to me that I would never forget, “Harry, I will forever be grateful to you for the decision I forced you to make all those years ago. I apologize for how I went about it… but you have to understand I thought I was doing what was best for my daughter at the time. I know it was harsh on my end but all I wanted was for Y/N to pursue her dreams and not lose sight of that. But now, I am genuinely happy you both found each other again and whether you believe how archaic it may be, I approve of yours and Y/N’s relationship.” He looked at me with sincerity. “She’s my only little girl, and I just want her to have everything she deserves.”

“I understand where you were coming from. I would have hated myself if she gave up her dreams for me as well. Thank you for your approval, and although we have only been together for a few months now… I hope I have your blessing in marrying her one day.” I responded, as I watched his reaction to the last bit.

Her father smiled at me, and nodded his head, “I can see how much you both love each other, so yes, you have my blessing.”

Wow. Life is just funny sometimes.

- - - - - - - - - -

Hope you like it,

x3 M

[writemarcus]

Gingold Theatrical Group to Present SPEAKERS' CORNER New Play Development Workshops

Featuring: Karma Sutra Chai Tea Latte, Vigil-Aunties, There Goes The Neighborhood, and Howl From Up High.

by Chloe Rabinowitz May. 18, 2022  

Gingold Theatrical Group, now in its 17th Season, is continuing its new play development with the Plays-In-Progress AEA-approved Showcases of this year's SPEAKER'S CORNER Writers Group. This season, writers Aeneas Sagar Hemphill, Divya Mangwani, Marcus Scott and Mallory Jane Weiss are developing works in response to prompts from the revolutionary activist humanitarian writings and precepts of George Bernard Shaw. These Actors Equity Association approved 29-hour workshops culminate with a presentation as an opportunity for each playwright to assess where they are with their work and to determine the next steps to be taken. These invitation-only presentations will take place at ART-NY Studios (520 8th Avenue). Space for each final presentation is extremely limited and reservations must be made, so to request the opportunity to attend any of these events please email info@gingoldgroup.org This year's showcases will be:

Howl From Up High

by Mallory Jane Weiss, Directed by Lily Riopelle Thursday May 19th at 6pm Purva Bedi, Tori Ernst, Jacqueline Guillen, Sarah Rose Kearns, Adam Langdon, Collin McConnell; Assistant Director, Margaret Lee

Vigil-Aunties

by Divya Mangwani, Directed by Arpita Mukherjee Friday May 20th at 7pm Anya Banerji, Aadya Bedi, Sayali Niranjan Bramhe, Rahoul Roy, Mahima Saigal, Salma Shaw, and Rita Wolf; Assistant Director, Sara Vishnev

There Goes The Neighborhood

by Marcus Scott, Directed by Dev Bondarin Friday June 3rd at 7pm Phillip Burke, Shavanna Calder, Anthony Goss, Ashley Jossell, Olivia Kinter, Monique Robinson, David Rowen, Cliff Sellers; Stage Manager Elliot J. Cohen.

Karma Sutra Chai Tea Latte

by Aeneas Hemphill, Directed by Arpita Mukherjee, Monday June 6th at 2pm Shawn, Jain, Sean Devare, Salma Shaw, Khyati Sehgal, Mahima Saigal; Stage Manager Elliot J. Cohen

"Among the many programs we've developed over the last 17 years, developing new plays with the intent to produce and publish, has always been the most ambitious dream of all of us at Gingold. While we continue to produce our annual full off-Broadway productions of plays by George Bernard Shaw, we plan to add at least one new play to our schedule to share with our devoted patrons," said David Staller. Named after the corner of London's Hyde Park where George Bernard Shaw and other political speakers have delivered speeches since 1855, GTG's SPEAKERS' CORNER brings together six to ten writers each year who will spend the year exploring a specific Shaw play and writing individual new plays in response to that text and Shaw's forward thinking humanitarian ideals. Speakers' Corner members meet bi-monthly, and GTG will host showings of the works that Speakers' Corner develops at the end of the season. The group's members were identified through an open application process under the guidance of Becker, GTG Artistic Director David Staller, and this season's Speakers' Corner Readers and Advisory Committee: Ilana Becker, Stephen Brown-Fried, Ralph B. Peña, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Sharon Washington, along with Speakers' Corne alumni Hank Kim, and Lorenzo Roberts.

WRITERS:

Aeneas Sagar Hemphill (he/him) is an Indian-American playwright and screenwriter based in NYC and DC. Weaving through many genres, his work builds new worlds to illuminate our own, investigating the ghosts that haunt our lives and communities with passion, pathos, and humor. He was a 2019 Resident Artist with Monson Arts Center and 2017-2018 Playlab fellow at Pipeline Theatre, as well as semi-finalist for the 2019 Princess Grace Award, semi-finalist for the 2019 Mabou Mines Resident Artist Program, and finalist for the 2017 Many Voices Fellowship. His plays include: Black Hollow (Argo Collective, Dreamscape Theatre), The Troll King (Pipeline), Childhood Songs (Monson Arts), The Republic of Janet & Arthur (Amios), The Red Balloon (Noor Theatre), A Stitch Here or There (DarkHorse Dramatists, Slingshot Theatre), A Horse and a Housecat (Slingshot Theatre). MFA Playwriting, Columbia University. Divya Mangwani is a writer and theatre artist from Pune, India, based in New York. She examines the absurdities of the social, political and mythical. Her work focuses on global identity and belonging. Divya was the founder and Artistic Director of Moonbeam Factory Theatre, where she wrote, directed, and produced plays in India, Singapore and Glasgow. In New York, she has developed work with UNICEF, Soho Rep, New York Theatre Workshop, Gingold Theatrical Group, Rattlestick Theatre, Mabou Mines, Hypokrit Theatre, The Flea, Project Y, Pipeline Theatre, Rising Sun, and Governors Island. Divya is a recent fellow of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab and the Gingold Theatrical Group Speakers Corner and was a NYTW 2050 Artistic Fellow, Hypokrit Theatre Tamasha playwright, Project Y Writers Group and Playlab fellow at Pipeline Theatre. Divya has also worked as a journalist and editor at The Times of India, ESPN, Crisis Response Journal, and Daily News & Analysis. Marcus Scott is a dramatist & journalist. Selected work includes Tumbleweed (finalist for the 2017 Bay Area Playwrights Festival; semifinalist for the 2022 Eugene O'Neill Theater Center National Playwrights Conference, the 2022 Blue Ink Playwriting Award & the 2017 New Dramatists Princess Grace Fellowship Award), Sibling Rivalries (finalist for the 2021 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference; semi-finalist for the 2022 Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival, the 2021 Blue Ink Playwriting Award & the 2021 New Dramatists Princess Grace Fellowship Award) and Cherry Bomb (recipient of the 2017 Drama League First Stage Artist-In-Residence). He was commissioned by Heartbeat Opera to adapt Beethoven's Fidelio (Librettist/Co-writer; The Met Museum; NY Times Critic's Pick). Recently developed at Gingold Theatrical Group (Speaker's Corner), Zoetic Stage (Finstrom Festival Of New Work), Queens Theatre (New American Voices series) and The Road Theatre Company's Under Construction 3 Playwrights Group and Cohort 2 of the Southern Black Playwrights Lab at the Mojoaa Performing Arts Company. Scott is a 2021 NYSAF Founders' Award finalist and a 2021 Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award semi-finalist. His articles appeared in Architectural Digest, Time Out New York, American Theatre Magazine, Playbill, Elle, Out, Essence, The Brooklyn Rail, among others. MFA: GMTWP, NYU Tisch. Mallory Jane Weiss's plays include Big Black Sunhats (The O'Neill National Playwrights Conference 2022; Clubbed Thumb Biennial Commission finalist 2020), Lights Out and Away We Go (Clubbed Thumb reading June 2022), The Page Turners (The O'Neill National Playwrights Conference finalist 2021), Pony Up (Princess Grace Finalist 2019; SPACE on Ryder Farm semi-finalist 2020), Howl From Up High (in development with Gingold Theatrical Group), Evermore Unrest (Red Bull Short New Play Festival 2020), Dave and Julia are stuck in a tree (Playing on Air's James Stevenson Prize 2020), and Losing You, Which Is Enough (workshop readings at The Lark and Cherry Lane Theatre). She is a member of Clubbed Thumb's Early Career Writers' Group (2021-2022), The COOP's Clusterf**k vol. 2 (2021), Gingold Theatrical Group's Speakers Corner, and Fresh Ground Pepper's BRB Retreat (2019). Mallory earned her B.A. from Harvard University and her M.F.A. in playwriting from The New School. She also works as a Senior Writer for Ethena, where she creates harassment-prevention training in the form of short-form articles, graphic novels, audio plays, and more. In addition to Speakers' Corner, GTG's on-going play development also includes PRESS CUTTINGS, which, in recognition of Shaw's career as a theatre critic, supports the development of new plays written by theatre journalists. Press Cuttings has commissioned new plays by Jeremy McCarter, Robert Simonson, and David Cote, and, in June of 2017, presented an AEA workshop of David Cote's Otherland directed by May Adrales. This fall, GTG returned to live, in person performance with the acclaimed revival of Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession starring Robert Cuccioli, David Lee Huynh, Alvin Keith, Nicole King, Raphael Nash Thompson, and Tony® Award winner Karen Ziemba as Mrs. Warren, which recently completed its acclaimed Off-Broadway engagement at Theatre Row, directed by David Staller. Terry Teachout, reviewing Mrs. Warren's Profession in The Wall Street Journal, declared "Mr. Staller, who knows everything there is to know about Shaw, has not only staged the play but edited the text with his accustomed skill. All the more reason, then, to praise David Staller, the artistic director of Project Shaw, a long-running series of semi-staged concert readings of the playwright's 60-odd shows. In addition to Project Shaw, Mr. Staller's Gingold Theatrical Group presented fully staged small-scale off-Broadway versions of Heartbreak House in 2018 and Caesar and Cleopatra in 2019, and now they're doing Mrs. Warren's Profession. The production is completely satisfying... Sprinkled with tart, school-of-Wilde epigrams ('There are no secrets better kept than the secrets everybody guesses') and overflowing with glittering talk, it's a foolproof vehicle for six accomplished actors and a director who, like Mr. Staller, knows better than to let the play become a static chat-fest. Instead, he keeps the actors moving and the pace brisk, and the results are immensely pleasurable." GINGOLD THEATRICAL GROUP creates theater that supports human rights, freedom of speech, and individual liberty using the work of George Bernard Shaw as our guide. All of GTG's programs are inspired by Shaw's humanitarian values. Through full productions, staged readings, new play development, and inner-city educational programs, GTG brings Shavian precepts to audiences and artists across New York, encouraging individuals to breathe Shaw's humanist ideals into their contributions for the future. Shaw created plays to inspire peaceful discussion and activism and that is what GTG aims to accomplish. GTG's past productions include Man and Superman (2012), You Never Can Tell (2013), Major Barbara (2014), Widowers' Houses (2016), Heartbreak House (2018), and Caesar & Cleopatra (2019). Founded in 2006 by David Staller, GTG has carved a permanent niche for the work of George Bernard Shaw within the social and cultural life of New York City, and, through the Project Shaw reading series, made history in 2009 as the first company ever to present performances of every one of Shaw's 65 plays (including full-length works, one-acts and sketches). GTG brings together performers, critics, students, academics and the general public with the opportunity to explore and perform theatrical work inspired by the humanitarian and activist values that Shaw championed. All comedies, these plays boldly exhibit the insight, wit, passion and all-encompassing socio-political focus that distinguished Shaw as one of the most inventive and incisive writers of all time. Through performances, symposiums, new play development, and outreach, as well as through our discussion groups and partnerships with schools including SUNY Stony Brook, Regis, the De La Salle Academy, and The Broome Street Academy, GTG has helped spark a renewed interest in Shaw across the country, and a bold interest in theater as activism. Young people are particularly inspired by Shaw's invocation to challenge the strictures society imposes, to embrace the power of the individual, to make bold personal choices and to take responsibility for these choices. GTG's new play development lab, Speakers' Corner, created to support playwrights inspired by Shaw's ideals, is now in its second cycle. Through monthly prompts and feedback, writers develop work inspired by or in response to a specific Shaw text. Plays developed through Speakers' Corner will be nurtured in workshops and readings with the expectation that GTG will publish or produce them. GTG encourages all people to rejoice in the possibilities of the future. All of GTG's programming is designed to inspire lively discussion and peaceful activism with issues related to human rights, the freedom of speech, and individual liberty. This was the purpose behind all of Shaw's work and why GTG chose him as the guide toward helping create a more tolerant and inclusive world through the exploration of the Arts. For more information about the Workshops or any of Gingold Theatrical Group's projects, please call 212-355-7823, email info@gingoldgroup.org, or visit online at www.gingoldgroup.org.

[bqstqnbruin]

See you soon

So the Cale blurb turned out differently than I anticipated once I started writing but like, whatever, I think you’ll like this better. It’s also like a three page google doc, so I’m not sure if this counts as a blurb or not, but oh well.  

Warning that there’s mentions of quaratine (indirectly) since this takes place the night of the NHL awards.

Flashbacks are in italics.

I hope you like it!

_________________

“And the winner of the 2019-2020 Calder Memorial Trophy is,” the announcer says, you glued to the TV as you prayed you would hear his name, “Cale Makar!”

You start screaming to your parents that Cale won, jumping up and down as your boyfriend’s face appeared on your TV screen for him to talk about how happy and honored he was that he won the award for the league’s best rookie. As soon as the awards were done, you had planned to Facetime with each other, and now there was even more reason to celebrate. 

You wish you were there with him; he was home in Calgary and you were back in Springfield, Massachusetts, home from school because of the pandemic, 9 hours away from him by plane, on the other side of the continent. “Tell him congrats for us, sweetie,” your mom tells you, kissing your cheek before you head off to your room to call Cale.

As soon as his face appears on your computer screen, rosey cheeks and all, your heart skipped a beat. You had been videochatting as much as you could, but with him playing in the bubble in Edmonton, the calls were much less frequent than either of you had wanted them to be.

“Hey, baby,” he says, in a soft, kind voice. 

“Hey veggie boy,” you call him the nickname you had been calling him since you met. 

Everytime you see him, you can’t help but think about that night you met. 

You were at a party in the Southwest area of UMass during your freshman year, not really wanting to be there, but dragged out by your roommate and the other guys and girls on your floor in one of the Orchard Hill dorms. Not a big party person, you were off to the side, nursing the drink your roommate forced in your hands upon arrival, watching the scene of drunk college students unfold around you. 

“Not much of a party person, either?” you hear someone ask you, taking your attention away from the two girls owning two guys in a game of beer pong. You look to see Cale Makar, the freshman on the hockey team everyone was excited for. Hockey East was arguably one of the biggest and best college hockey conferences, at least in your opinion, and hearing someone like Cale had committed to your school was exciting. You thought you would see him play on the ice; UMass had thirty thousand undergraduate students, what were the chances of meeting him?

“Nah, not really. It’s more fun to watch.” You introduce yourselves, trying to play it cool on the boy you were already forming a crush on. You spent the night thinking up the backstories of the people around you. Whoever came up with the most absurd one would buy breakfast off campus the next morning. 

“Y/N?” you hear Cale ask, bringing you out of your memory and back to reality. “Are you alright? You look upset.”

Looking at your own face on the screen, you hadn’t realized the smile that was on your face when he first picked up was gone, tears starting to form in your eyes. “Yeah, I’m just thinking.”

“About what?”

“The night we met. How far you’ve come,” you tell him, “How far away you are.” 

His smile fades away as well, sadness covering his face, practically forcing the tears down your cheeks. You hated that you were making him sad, especially since he just won an award. “I miss you so much,” he whispers, sounding like he was choking back a sob as well.

“I miss you, too,” you manage to let out. “But, hey, babe, you won the fucking Calder! I’m so proud of you. You deserved it.” 

A small smile returns to his face. “Thanks, baby. Did you hear me thanking you?”

You chuckle, wiping the tears from your cheeks. “I was too busy screaming to pay attention,” you admit. “The Avs have already posted a video, so I’ll watch it when we’re off.”

You two spend hours catching up on life since the last time you talked to each other a week ago. You had just started your senior year at school, counting down the days before you could graduate and move to Denver to be with Cale, like you had been talking about the last three years. 

The night Cale came back from the Frozen Four game in Buffalo was heartbreaking. It was one of the first nights he didn’t want to talk about hockey, coming to your room and getting into your bed without saying a word to you or any of your suitemates. You had seen him after a tough loss before, but he was never like this. It was never them getting shut out in the national championship. 

“Colorado wants me to start playing with them in the rest of their playoff run,” he finally says, running his hands through your hair as you try to concentrate on the readings you had to do for your class the next morning.

You were used to him travelling for games, but that was with him living in Massachusetts, not in Colorado. “Oh,” you let out, not sure what else to say. “When are you going to join them?”

“I sign the contract tomorrow, and they have a game the next day.” 

You sit up, pulling yourself off his chest to look at him, “Tomorrow?”

He doesn’t look at you, fidgeting with your sheets instead. “Yeah. I want to go, but,” he stops looking up at you and taking your face in his hands. He runs the pads of his thumbs on your cheeks, you reaching up to touch his hands, “I don’t want to leave you.”

“Cale, you have to. If they want you, this is your dream. I’ll be fine.” 

“Yeah, but will I be?” he asks, a small laugh escaping his lips. “I love you,” he says, pulling you in for a kiss. It was soft, sweet, you could tell he felt bad about leaving you. It was the possibility of being your last kiss for who knows only how long that made him kiss you with urgency.

When he finally pulls away, he keeps his forehead pressed against yours. “I’ll still see you when you play in Boston; it’s only two hours away. And, we can call, we can text, or snapchat, or Facetime; we have each other in our pockets at all times,” you try to reassure him, wiping the tears from his cheeks. 

“When you graduate, will you move to Denver, or wherever I’m playing?”

“You think we’ll still be together by then? That’s two more years.”

“I hope so. I don’t plan on stopping loving you.”

“Hey, Cale,” you ask him after sitting there just working, him watching you in the background like he used to when you were still at school together, “Will I like Denver? When I move out there?”

A smile forms on his face at the idea of you two finally being together again. “Yeah. You’ll love it. I do, at least. But it’ll be even better when you’re there. I can’t believe I haven’t been able to see you since May,” he says, looking off to the side as if to not let you see him cry. 

“I know,” you swallow another bout of tears coming on, “But, hey, I’ll be moving out there in June. That’ll go by so fast,” you tell him, excited at the prospect of seeing him in person again. 

“You promise?”

“I mean, I can’t control how you perceive time,” you joke, smiling at the sight of him throwing his head back in laughter. “But I have to watch some video lectures for class, so I’ve gotta go. I’ll see you soon?”

“Tomorrow?” he asks, excited by your nodding in agreement. “I love you. I’ll see you soon.” 

[mitchbeck]

PRE-GAME REPORT: HARTFORD WOLF PACK AIM FOR REBOUND IN GAME FOUR VS. PROVIDENCE BRUINS

By: Alex Thomas, Hartford Wolf Pack HARTFORD, CT – The Hartford Wolf Pack will look to bounce back following their first loss of the 2023 Calder Cup Playoffs tonight when they host the Providence Bruins in Game Four of their Atlantic Division Semifinals series. The Wolf Pack lead the series 2-1. Puck drop is set for 7:00 p.m., and coverage is available on both AHLTV and Mixlr. Tale of The Tape: The Wolf Pack and Bruins met ten times during the 2022-23 season, with Hartford winning the series 6-4. Both teams collected points in seven of the ten meetings, with the Wolf Pack going 6-3-1-0 and the Bruins posting a record of 4-3-3-0. However, the Wolf Pack won each of the final three regular season meetings and extended the winning streak to five games after victories in Games One and Two. In Game Three, however, the Bruins found their way back into the win column with a 6-3 decision that kept their season alive. Justin Brazeau jammed a rebound 15:54 into the game on the powerplay, giving the Bruins a lead they would never lose. Oskar Steen made it 2-0 with just .2 seconds left in the stanza, tipping a shot home for his first career Calder Cup Playoff goal. Luke Toporowski made it 3-0 14:03 into the second period, snapping home his second goal of the playoffs. Zac Jones got Hartford on the board at 19:35 with a four-on-three powerplay goal, while Tim Gettinger struck 2:18 into the third period with a shorthanded marker to make it a 3-2 game. Jack Ahcan buried a breakaway goal at 5:58, however, restoring the two-goal lead. It would also stand as the game-winner. Lauri Pajuniemi tipped home a goal at 13:34, but the Bruins cemented the win with empty-net goals from Brazeau and Vinni Lettieri in the final 92 seconds. The series now stands at 2-1 in favor of Hartford. The Wolf Pack will advance to the Atlantic Division Finals with a victory tonight. Wolf Pack Outlook: The Wolf Pack had their four-game winning streak in the Calder Cup Playoffs and five-game winning streak against the Bruins broken on Wednesday night. The loss also snapped a six-game winning streak for the club at the XL Center. Gettinger's shorthanded marker on Wednesday night was the 20th shorthanded goal in Wolf Pack playoff history. He is the 14th player to record a shorthanded goal in the playoffs in club history. Anton Blidh finished the night with one assist and a +1 rating. His playoff +/- of +10 leads the 2023 Calder Cup Playoffs and is tied for sixth in Wolf Pack history for all-time playoff +/-. Ty Emberson is also a +10 during the 2023 Calder Cup Playoffs, tied with Blidh for the league lead and sixth all-time in club history. Tanner Fritz leads the club in playoff scoring with seven points (1 g, 6 a) through five games. Pajuniemi, meanwhile, paces the club in goals with three. Bruins Outlook: The Atlantic Division champion Bruins snapped a six-game losing streak in the Calder Cup Playoffs on Wednesday night. It was the club's first playoff win since a 4-2 victory on April 21st, 2019, against the Charlotte Checkers. Ahcan's game-winning goal on Wednesday night was the first goal of his Calder Cup Playoff career. Four of the five Bruins to score goals during the 2023 Calder Cup Playoffs scored their first career playoff goals. In addition to, Ahcan, Brazeau, Toporowski, and Steen have all scored their first goals in the Calder Cup Playoffs. Brazeau leads the Bruins in scoring with three points (2 g, 1 a) through three games. He and Toporowski are tied for the team lead in goals with two during these playoffs. Game Information: WATCH: AHLTV LISTEN: Mixlr Play-by-play voice of the Wolf Pack, Alex Thomas, will have 'Wolf Pack Pregame' starting live at 6:45 p.m. on both AHLTV and Mixlr. Should the Wolf Pack win tonight, the club will advance to the Atlantic Division Final. A Bruins victory, however, will force a Game Five. Game Five, if necessary, will occur at the Amica Mutual Pavilion on Sunday, May 7th, at 7:05 p.m. For playoff ticket information, please visit HERE. ABOUT THE HARTFORD WOLF PACK: The Hartford Wolf Pack has been a premier franchise in the American Hockey League since the team's inception in 1997. The Wolf Pack is the top player-development affiliate of the NHL's New York Rangers and plays at the XL Center. The Wolf Pack has been home to some of the Rangers' newest faces, including Igor Shesterkin, Filip Chytil, and Ryan Lindgren. Follow the Wolf Pack on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. HARTFORD WOLF PACK HOME Read the full article

[l2fmpnathan]

Research VICTOR VASARELY

evasively was born in Pecks and grew up in Postmen (now Pisani, Slovakia) and Budapest, where, in 1925, he took up medical studies at Eotvos Loran University.

In 1927, he abandoned medicine to learn traditional academic painting at the private Pasolini-Volkmann Academy. In 1928/1929, he enrolled at Sandor Bortnick’s private art school called Muhly (lit. "Workshop", in existence until 1938), then widely recognized as Budapest's center of Bauhaus studies.

Cash-strapped, the muhly could not offer all that the Bauhaus offered. Instead, it concentrated on applied graphic art and typographical design.

 In 1929, he painted his Blue Study and Green Study.

In 1930, he married his fellow student Claire Spinner (1908–1990).

Together they had two sons, Andre and Jean-Pierre.

Jean-Pierre was also an artist and used the professional name 'Viral'.

In Budapest, he worked for a ball-bearings company in accounting and designing advertising posters.

Vasa rely became a graphic designer and a poster artist during the 1930s combining patterns and organic images with each other.

  Outdoor Vasarely artwork at the church of Palos in Pecks

Vasarely left Hungary and settled in Paris in 1930.

He worked as a graphic artist and as a creative consultant at the advertising agencies Havas, Draeger, and Defames (1930–1935).

His interactions with other artists during this time were limited.

He thought of opening an institution modelled after Sandor Bortnick’s muhly and developed some teaching material for it.

Having lived mostly in cheap hotels, he settled in 1942/1944 in Saint-Care in the Lot department. After the Second World War, he opened an atelier in Arcelia, a suburb about 10 kilometers from the center of Paris (in the Val-de-Marne department of the Île-de-France).

In 1961, he finally settled in Anent-sur-Marne (in the Seine-et-Marne department).

 Vasarely eventually went on to produce art and sculpture using optical illusion.

Over the next three decades, Vasarely developed his style of geometric abstract art, working in various materials but using a minimal number of forms and colors:

 1929–1944: Early graphics: Vasarely experimented with textural effects, perspective, shadow and light.

His early graphic period resulted in works such as Zebras (1937), Chess Board (1935), and Girl-power (1934).

1944–1947: Les Fusses Routes – On the wrong track: During this period, Vasarely experimented with cubistic, futuristic, expressionistic, symbolistic and surrealistic paintings without developing a unique style.

Afterwards, he said he was on the wrong track.

He exhibited his works in the gallery of Denise René (1946) and the gallery René Bertheau (1947).

Writing the introduction to the catalogue, Jacques Prévert placed Vasarely among the surrealists.

Prévert creates the term imaginaries (images + noir, black) to describe the paintings.

Self Portrait (1941) and The Blind Man (1946) are associated with this period.

1947–1951: Developing geometric abstract art (optical art): Finally, Vasarely found his own style.

The overlapping developments are named after their geographical heritage.

Defer refers to the works influenced by the white tiled walls of the Paris Defer – Rocher au metro station.

Ellipsoid pebbles and shells found during a vacation in 1947 at the Breton coast at Belle Île inspired him to the Belles-Isles works.

Since 1948, Vasarely usually spent his summer months in Gourdes in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur.

There, the cubic houses led him to the composition of the group of works labelled Gourdes/Cristal.

He worked on the problem of empty and filled spaces on a flat surface as well as the stereoscopic view.

 Tribute to Malevich (1954), Ciudad Universitario de Caracas

1951–1955: Kinetic images, black-white photography’s: From his Gourdes works he developed his kinematic images, superimposed acrylic glass panes create dynamic, moving impressions depending on the viewpoint.

In the black-white period he combined the frames into a single pane by transposing photography’s in two colors.

Tribute to Malevich, a ceramic wall picture of 100 m2 (1,100 sq ft) adorns the University of Caracas, Venezuela which he co-designed in 1954 with the architect Carlos Raúl Villanueva, is a major work of this period.

Kinetic art flourished and works by Vasarely, Calder, Duchamp, Man Ray, Soto, Tonguely were exhibited at the Denise René gallery under the title Le Movement (the motion).

Vasarely published his Yellow Manifest.

Building on the research of constructivist and Bauhaus pioneers, he postulated that visual kinetics (plastique cinétique) relied on the perception of the viewer who is considered the sole creator, playing with optical illusions.

 Supernovae (1959–61) in Tate Modern

1955–1965: Folklore planetaries, permutations, and serial art: On 2 March 1959, Vasarely patented his method of unites plastique’s.

Permutations of geometric forms are cut out of a colored square and rearranged.

He worked with a strictly defined palette of colors and forms (three reds, three greens, three blues, two violets, two yellows, black, white, gray; three circles, two squares, two rhomboids, two long rectangles, one triangle, two dissected circles, six ellipses) which he later enlarged and numbered.

Out of this plastic alphabet, he started serial art, an endless permutation of forms and colors worked out by his assistants.

(The creative process is produced by standardized tools and impersonal actors which questions the uniqueness of a work of art.)

In 1963, Vasarely presented his palette to the public under the name of Folklore planetaries.

1965–: Homage à hexagon, Vega: The Tribute to the hexagon series consists of endless transformations of indentations and relief adding color variations, creating a perpetual mobile of optical illusion.

In 1965 Vasarely was included in the Museum of Modern Art exhibition The Responsive Eye, created under the direction of William C. Seitz.

His Vega series plays with spherical swelling grids creating an optical illusion of volume.

 Kedzie-Ga, 1970, Screen-print in colors, Edition of 250, 50.8 cm × 50.8 cm (20.0 in × 20.0 in)

In October 1967, designer Will Burton invited Vasarely to make a presentation to Burton’s Vision '67 conference, held at New York University.

On 5 June 1970, Vasarely opened his first dedicated museum with over 500 works in a renaissance palace in Gourdes (closed in 1996).

A second major undertaking was the Foundation Vasarely in Aix-en-Provence, a museum housed in a distinct structure specially designed by Vasarely.

It was inaugurated in 1976 by French president Georges Pompidou, two years after his death.

Sadly, the museum is now in a state of disrepair, several of the pieces on display have been damaged by water leaking from the ceiling.

Also, in 1976 his large kinematic object Georges Pompidou was installed in the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Vasarely Museum located at his birthplace in Pecks, Hungary, was established with a large donation of works by Vasarely.

In the same decade, he took a stab at industrial design with a 500-piece run of the upscale Suomi tableware by Timo Sarajevan that Vasarely decorated for the German Rosenthal porcelain maker's Studio Linnie.

In 1982, 154 specially created serigraphs were taken into space by the cosmonaut Jean-Loup Chrétien on board the French-Soviet spacecraft Salyut 7 and later sold for the benefit of UNESCO.

In 1987, the second Hungarian Vasarely museum was established in Zach Palace in Budapest with more than 400 works.

 He died age 90 in Paris on 15 March 1997.

A new Vasarely exhibit was mounted in Paris at Muse end Herbed in 2012.

 In 2019, a temporary exhibition of Vasarely's work entitled Le Partage des Forms was displayed in the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

1970–1996: Vasarely Museum in the Saint-Firmin Palace in Gourdes, Vaucluse, France (closed in 1996)

1976: Foundation Vasarely, Aix-en-Provence, France

1976: Vasarely Museum, Pecks, Hungary

1987: Vasarely Museum, Zach Palace, Buda, Budapest, Hungary

[stainedglassgardens]

Watched in May

A Russian Youth (Мальчик русский) Sicario Fedora LoveTrue The Platform Water Lilies (Naissance des pieuvres) The Assistant The Half of It Tomboy The Last Man on Earth Beanpole (Дылда) Mommy The Fall Girlhood (Bande de filles) Carnival of Souls Marguerite & Julien Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Portrait de la jeune fille en feu) This Magnificent Cake! (Ce Magnifique Gâteau!) Romantic Comedy Transnistra Eraserhhead The Farewell Emma. Late Night Charlie's Angels Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) The Ancestors Came Suicide by Sunlight Anthropocene: The Human Epoch A Perfect 14 Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist Free Radicals Aniara Vivarium La Pointe-Courte Diary of a Pregnant Woman (L'Opéra-Mouffe) Salut les Cubains Uncle Yanco (Oncle Yanco) GUO4 Atlantiques Sitara: Let Girls Dream Lions Love (Lions Love... And Lies) Živan Makes a Punk Festival (Živan pravi pank festival) Plastic and Glass The So-Called Caryatids (Les Dites Cariatides) The Octopus (La Pieuvre) Hyas and Stenorhynchus (Hyas et sténorinques, crustacés marins) Sea Urchins (Les Oursins) Bernard-L'Hermite (Bernard-l'Ermite) The Sea Horse (L'Hippocampe ou "cheval marin") Voyage to the Sky (Voyage dans le ciel) Le Vampire Freshwater Assassins (Assassins d'eau douce) How Some Jellyfish Are Born (Comment naissent des méduses) Shrimp Stories (Histoires de crevettes) The Love Life of the Octopus (Les Amours de la pieuvre) Acera, or The Witches' Dance (Acera, ou le Bal des Sorcières) Pigeons of the Square (Les Pigeons du square) The Slumber Party Massacre Jane B. par Agnès V. The Cranes Are Flying (Летят журавли) Crystal Swan (Хрусталь) Take Me Somewhere Nice Microhabitat ( 소공녀) The Unforeseen

Did not finish

Swiss Army Man (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, 2016) Braid (Mitzi Peirone, 2018) A Secret Love (Chris Bolan, 2020) Calder's 1927 Great Circus (Le Grand Cirque Calder 1927, Jean Painlevé, 1955)

Did not like

Sicario (Denis Villeneuve, 2015) The Platform (Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, 2019) The Half of It (Alice Wu, 2020) Sitara: Let Girls Dream (Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, 2019)

I could take them or leave them

Fedora (Billy Wilder, 1978) LoveTrue (Alma Har'el, 2016) This Magnificent Cake! (Ce Magnifique Gâteau!, Emma De Swaef & Marc James Roels, 2018) Romantic Comedy (Elizabeth Sankey, 2019) Eraserhhead (David Lynch, 1977) Late Night (Nisha Ganatra, 2019) Charlie's Angels (Elizabeth Banks, 2019) Free Radicals (Len Lye, 1958) Aniara (Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja, 2018) Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (Cathy Yan, 2020) The Ancestors Came (Cecile Emeke, 2017) GUO4 (Peter Strickland, 2019) Živan Makes a Punk Festival (Živan pravi pank festival, Ognjen Glavonić, 2014) The Unforeseen (Laura Dunn, 2007)

Films I enjoyed

A Russian Youth (Мальчик русский, Alexander Zolotukhin, 2019): Went into this with the single aim of improving my Russian. Loved the back-and-forth between “the story” and the orchestra playing the score to said story. The “story” itself is also tragically moving

Water Lilies (Naissance des pieuvres), Tomboy, Girlhood (Bande de filles) and Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Portrait de la jeune fille en feu) (Céline Sciamma, 2007, 2011, 2014, 2019): I saw all four of Céline Sciamma’s films practically in a row! I liked all of them, don’t think I prefer one over another. And I recognise she’s a talented filmmaker, even though she’ll probably never be a favourite

The Last Man on Earth (Ubaldo Ragona and Sidney Salkow, 1964): A good... vampire-zombie film... that is worth sticking with even though you might find it too ordinary at first

Beanpole (Дылда, Kantemir Balagov, 2019): This story is fucked up! I liked it up to a certain extent, but I suspect it was mainly because of the historical and geographical setting. If you like post-WW2 Russia and this is the film for you

Mommy (Xavier Dolan, 2014): The portrayal of the titular mother hit a bit too close to home... This was my first Xavier Dolan film and I was not disappointed. Only drawback: Céline Dion’s song “On ne change pas” has been stuck in my head ever since

The Fall (Jonathan Glazer, 2020): It was... good? From the publicity it received on Mubi, I thought this was going to be a feature film, so yeah, I was disappointed, I loved Sexy Beast and Under the Skin so much

The Farewell (Lulu Wang, 2019): I really liked it, I think this didn’t get nearly enough praise -- but I was expecting something life-changing when I “only” found this very good

Emma. (Autumn de Wilde, 2020): This adaptation felt like Autumn de Wilde really, really wanted her film to be shown in as many classrooms as possible. It was enjoyable! I liked her additions to the book, and I appreciate the challenge she took up

Suicide by Sunlight (Nikyatu Jusu, 2019): A good short vampire film about Black vampires who are protected from daylight by their melanin

Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (Edward Burtynsky, Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, 2018): Stunning visuals, sobering message. Somewhere between Koyaanisqatsi and Unser Täglich Brot in tone

A Perfect 14 (Giovanna Morales Vargas, 2018): This, by necessity, doesn’t cover everything on the subject of plus-size models, and practically speaking I didn’t learn anything -- but it’s well-made, and the personal stories of the main interviewees make a good, contrasted portrait

Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist (Lorna Tucker, 2018): I came out of this feeling as if Vivienne Westwood wasn’t that interesting of a person, which I’m sure wasn’t the director’s intention... still, it was informative enough

Plastic and Glass (Tessa Joosse, 2009): A short somewhat-documentary about a choir in a recycling facility. Good music

The Slumber Party Massacre (Amy Holden Jones, 1982): Finally saw this! Very surprised to learn this was written by Rita Mae Brown. It was good as far as slashers go and of course, it is nice to watch something from that era that is not appallingly sexist

The Cranes Are Flying (Летят журавли, Mikhail Kalatozov, 1957): I guess I had to read about this afterwards in order to see how unusual it was for the time it was made. While I watched it I enjoyed the way it was filmed but the story left me indifferent, and I thought it lacked subtlety

Crystal Swan (Хрусталь, Darya Zhuk, 2018): A very aesthetically pleasing story set in 1990s Belarus, about a young woman who wants to emigrate to Chicago for the love of house music... the story will keep taking you unexpected places from there. The costumes are perfect, the soundtrack is interesting. It does feel a little as if it were made for export, and I thought it relied quite heavily on stereotypes about Slavs

Take Me Somewhere Nice (Ena Sendijarević, 2019): This coming-of-age road movie about a Bosnian girl who was raised in the Netherlands and comes back to visit her father in hospital has everything... drugs, violence, death, even cute dogs. The pastel palette makes it very satisfying

Microhabitat ( 소공녀, Jeon Go-woon, 2017): This film about a woman with a minimum-wage job who would rather leave her flat than quit smoking and drinking whisky just spoke to me

La Pointe-Courte, Diary of a Pregnant Woman (L'Opéra-Mouffe), Salut les Cubains, Uncle Yanco (Oncle Yanco), Lions Love (Lions Love... And Lies), The So-Called Caryatids (Les Dites Cariatides), Jane B. par Agnès V. (Agnès Varda, 1955, 1958, 1964, 1967, 1969, 1984, 1988): I decided to watch all of Agnès Varda’s films that are on Mubi France and that I haven’t seen already, in chronological order. This feels a bit like a chore sometimes, but I find it rewarding. It’s strange to think that even a few years ago hers was a name I’d heard a few times but that didn’t mean anything to me. And I know I can be merciless when it comes to French cinema. Anyway... I like what I’ve seen so far (the above plus Cléo and Vagabond), I like that someone can just pick up her film camera and make a short about caryatids... generally speaking I like Varda’s approach to film that makes it seem more accessible to people like me. I don’t think all of her films are particularly good, but I like that she made all of them. I never did particularly like Cléo, and I didn’t particularly like La Pointe-Courte in spite of the fact that it was shot very close to where I’m from. Of the above, my fave was probably Lions Love, even though (or because?) it doesn’t very much feel like a Varda film. Uncle Yanco is a close second. I’ve got three feature films left now

Films I loved

The Assistant (Kitty Green, 2019): Unfortunately enough, this reminded me of an internship I did a few years ago... I found it uncomfortably realistic, and thus very good. Julia Garner is perfect, as usual

Carnival of Souls (Herk Harvey, 1962): I watched this because it is a classic, expecting it to be over-the-top and not nearly as scary as I found it... a very good surprise

Marguerite & Julien (Valérie Donzelli, 2015): It’s hard to talk about this in a way that will make people want to see it without making me sound like a huge weirdo but here goes. It’s a story about a brother and sister who are madly in love with each other. It takes place in a fantasy past and is told like a fairytale. If you think it’s impossible to turn this premise into a good film please watch this

Transnistra (Anna Eborn, 2019): With this film I discovered the existence of the tiny unrecognised state named Transnistria... I also discovered Alla Pugacheva, who is part of a great nostalgic Russian soundtrack with Kino amongst others. The story is one of those documentaries about youth that punches you right in the gut. Definitely recommended

Vivarium (Lorcan Finnegan, 2019): This is the type of what, for lack of a better term, I call “minimal science fiction” that I really enjoy. I’ve thought about it a lot since then. I don’t know why people generally didn’t seem to like it. I thought the premise was terrifying and nightmarish, and the actual film effectively claustrophobic. Plu:s Imogen Poots

Atlantiques (Mati Diop, 2009): This is the short, not the feature film of the same name. I’ve heard a lot about Mati Diop and I saw this the second it became available on Mubi France -- and I didn’t regret it. Can’t wait to see Atlantiques, long form

The Octopus (La Pieuvre), Hyas and Stenorhynchus (Hyas et sténorinques, crustacés marins), Sea Urchins (Les Oursins), Bernard-L'Hermite (Bernard-l'Ermite), The Sea Horse (L'Hippocampe ou "cheval marin"), Voyage to the Sky (Voyage dans le ciel), Le Vampire, Freshwater Assassins (Assassins d'eau douce), How Some Jellyfish Are Born (Comment naissent des méduses), Shrimp Stories (Histoires de crevettes), The Love Life of the Octopus (Les Amours de la pieuvre), Acera, or The Witches' Dance (Acera, ou le Bal des Sorcières), Pigeons of the Square (Les Pigeons du square) (Jean Painlevé, 1928, 1929, 1929, 1930, 1934, 1937, 1945, 1947; Jean Painlevé and Geneviève Hamon, 1960, 1964, 1965, 1972; Jean Painlevé, 1982): I didn’t know who Jean Painlevé was before I decided to watch The Octopus. As it turns out, I am a sucker for well-made nature documentaries, and since all of these are short films, I ended up watching them all, in order of release, over the course of one afternoon. It’s a little bit crazy that these were getting made as early as the 1920s, and I can’t imagine what it would have been like to see them in theatres nearly a hundred years ago. Anyway these are all good, although I wasn’t expecting the vivisection that seems to have been par for the course in the early days

*

Yes, I really did watch 65 films in May. It becomes a little less impressive considering a fair amount of those were shorts, but still. Unemployment!

I have access to Outbuster now in addition to Mubi and Netflix, this time through my boyfriend’s account. It’s a French thing I think, and very cheap, but I’ve only just tried it with Microhabitat. Of course it was the Mubi Library thing that just completely sent me over the edge, and I want to watch all the things.

In June I hope to finish Agnès Varda’s filmography on Mubi and maybe watch some more Tarkovsky!

[newworldofsports]

A Fan’s Favorites

Every sport fan has their favorite things: teams, moments, celebrations, players etc. But not every fan has similar favorites, specifically when it comes to players. Every fan has a favorite athlete, while some even have one, or several, in each and every sport. Many even have favorite athletes of all time.

There are many reasons why fans are attracted to certain athletes. Fans usually love their best players on their favorite team, but also tend to follow and root for players on other teams as well. Perhaps one athlete plays the same position or sport as them, or their character, charisma, or knack of winning draws them even more fandom.

As a lifelong Boston sports fan, the large majority of my favorite athletes have worn Boston across their chest. However, there are several players who have never called Boston home that I have watched and rooted for. So, who are they? Let’s find out:

Cale Makar, Defenseman, Colorado Avalanche

The University of Massachusetts hockey team never really caught my eye, until one night I visited my brother on campus and attended a game. It didn’t appear as the team caught the rest of the campuses’ eye either, as we walked right up the front row of the rink.

But watching the game, one thing certainly did catch my eye: the freshman defensemen from Calgary, Cale Makar. Makar was clearly a step above everyone else on the ice – skating past and deking around opposing defenders with ease, while showing off his strong puck moving abilities. I was immediately drawn to his game.

Standing at just 5-foot-11, 187 lbs., many questioned Cale Makar’s ability to anchor a defensive blue line – especially when the Colorado Avalanche drafted him fourth overall back in 2017. However, after playing just over 100 career games, Makar has quickly put those doubts to rest.

After winning the Hobey Baker Award as the top men's player in NCAA ice hockey, Makar put on the skates for his first career NHL game just three days later. He wasted no time proving he belonged, scoring the eventual game winning goal against the Calgary Flames in Game 3 of the Western Conference First Round.

The goal was just a sign of things to come, as Makar has quickly taken the league by storm with his elite skating and offensive game. Despite missing time due to injury is rookie season, Makar won the Calder Trophy, awarded to the league’s top rookie, after scoring 50 points in 57 games. He went on to score 15 points in 15 Stanley Cup playoff games before the Avalanche lost to the eventual Western Conference champions.

So far in his sophomore season, the word slump wouldn’t dare be used to describe Makar. The 22-year old has continued his torrid pace, leading all NHL defenseman in points per game played (1.0), and being a key figure on the league leading Colorado Avalanche.

The former UMass Minuteman has proved to not only be one of the best defenseman in the game, but one of the league’s best players in just two short years.

Tom Brady, Quarterback, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

This may be a small stretch, as the all-time great dawned a New England jersey for the last 20 years before moving down South to Tampa Bay. But, even a change of scenery at age 43 couldn’t slow down TB12.

In his first year with the Bucs, Brady led them to a Super Bowl victory over the Kansas City Chiefs – winning his seventh Super Bowl trophy.

Brady’s rise to success has not been like many others. A sixth-round draft pick back in 1999, he was given an opportunity to start after the Patriots lost their starting quarterback, Drew Bledsoe, to an injury in 2000. As Brady took over, he led the Patriots to a Super Bowl 36 victory over the Los Angeles Rams, which was just the start.

Just a few years later in 2004, Brady led the Patriots to a second straight, and third total, Super Bowl championship. After ten more years of domination but falling up short, Brady finally secured his fourth Lombardi trophy after completing one of his heralded fourth-quarter comebacks against the Seattle Seahawks. Two years after, he capped off an improbable 28-3 comeback against the Atlanta Falcons for his fifth Super Bowl victory, while securing a sixth championship just two years after that against the same team he won his first against, the Los Angeles Rams.

Now with seven rings, Brady has gone from a scrawny sixth-round pick to one of the greatest football players to ever live. While he may not be the most athletic or fastest player on the field, his competitive drive, leadership, and football IQ has allowed him to overcome his deficiencies.

As a lifelong Patriot fan, Brady has spoiled us. Watching him run out of the tunnel and deliver a massive fist pump followed by a “Let’s Go” still sends goosebumps up my arm. During any game where New England found themselves in a hole, no matter what size, it never felt like an issue with TB12 back in the pocket.

Tom Brady has defined the words consistency and winner throughout his career and there are no signs of him slowing down.

Luis Robert, Outfielder, Chicago White Sox

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon at McCoy Stadium in 2019 as the PawSox were preparing to take on the Charlotte Knights. However, there was an unusual buzz in the air for a Triple-A baseball game. The reason? Luis Robert was in town.

Robert, a centerfielder from Cuba, signed a minor-league deal with the Chicago White Sox in 2017 that included over $20 million in guaranteed money. At the time, the 20-year old was known for his power and elite speed, as many pegged him to be MLB’s next superstar.

Robert worked his way through Chicago’s minor leagues quickly, also quickly moving up the top MLB prospect lists. After torching the minor-league opposition in 2019, including a 30-home run and 30 stolen base season, Robert made his last stop in the minors before reaching the big leagues, where he finally caught my eye.

It was there that he traveled with the Knights up to Pawtucket to face off with the PawSox. After camping out during the game in center field and exchanging several head nods with Robert, I finally met him after the game before he left on the team bus.

There was quite the crowd around the No. 3 overall prospect in baseball, but he made sure to stop and sign my freshly bought baseball, which is still displayed in my room and brings back special memories.

Since that day, Robert collected an assortment of minor league awards and made his way to the big leagues as baseball’s No. 3 overall prospect. Before he even appeared in a game, Robert signed a six-year, $50 million contact, setting the record for the largest contract in history for a player with no service time.

When he did finally take the field, Robert showed off what scouts saw in him at 20 years old. His power was clear from the jump, leading all MLB rookies in RBIs (31) and tying the home run lead (11). His speed and defensive abilities were immediately some of the best in the league, as he was awarded an AL Rawlings Gold Glove.

Robert finished second Jackie Robinson American League Rookie of the Year voting, but proved he is an elite player in the MLB and has a chance to be long time star.