Latest news with #Blair
Time Out
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
This deeply influential early Disney artist has an exhibition of her work on display in San Francisco
Picture 'It's a Small World': its distinctive, zany design with different-sized block panels, evocations of monuments from all over the globe, a happy-faced clock, doors that open to show childlike figures, exuberant golden flags that fly in all directions regardless of the actual wind—and that's just the outside of the iconic Disneyland ride. Inside, animated dolls represent different countries (in a way that may not always ring as respectful today, but is dead-on reminiscent of the 1960s) in fantastical environments of busy design, bright color and enthusiasm. That look? It's thanks to one of Walt Disney's favorite artists, Mary Blair—and an exhibition of her work is currently on display in San Francisco's Walt Disney Family Museum. For those unfamiliar, that's 'Disney family' museum, not Disney 'family museum'—Walt's daughter Diane lived in nearby Napa Valley and donated her family's photographs and materials to create the collection. The museum's in the Presidio, a former military outpost that dates back to the Civil War, and provides a fascinating look into Disney's personal life. As for the exhibit, 'Mary Blair: Mid-Century Magic' runs through September 7 and contains nearly 150 artworks—watercolors, drawings, collages and ceramics—and historical photographs. Blair was also the guiding influence behind the look of the early animated feature films Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953), and visual development paintings in the exhibition really dazzle. For instance, this opaque watercolor on paperboard of Cinderella's pumpkin coach racing against the clock to get home before midnight ingeniously illustrates the idea of speed and panic, seen in the slant of the carriage, the horses almost pulling against each other, and the landscape depicted as a block of tumultuous blue. According to the exhibit's wall text, 'Walt was known to challenge artists to bring Mary's influence into the films,' and did her the honor of hanging two of her paintings (on display at the exhibit in their original frames) in his Los Angeles home. At the museum, the tilework at the bottom of the staircase reminds us of Blair's incredible use of color and shape. A display of Blair's cupboard with a green drawer, holding her inks, watercolor palettes and brushes, sits right under a photograph of her at her desk working with the same cupboard behind her. A pair of her cat-eye glasses are there, too. It's easy to feel close to this artist and her genius at this exhibition. Can't make it to this show? Walt Disney World travelers can see her 90-foot-tall mural in Disney's Contemporary Resort, which depicts the Grand Canyon and the American Southwest. That 1971 A-frame hotel is one in which the monorail travels through the resort's tower. And, of course, you can float through 'It's a Small World' at five different Disney parks around the globe.
Newsweek
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
PGA Tour Vet Goes Unrecognized In 'Undercover' Club Fitting At Golf Store
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The 3M Open was heating up at TPC Twin Cities entering Day 3. Thorbjørn Olesen led the pack with a score of 14-under-par, while Jake Knapp started the day just one stroke behind him. However, amid all the score discussions, arguably the week's most viral moment came outside the ropes, away from the course even, at Golf Galaxy store in Blaine, Minnesota. PGA Tour pro Zac Blair shares hilarious incident Zac Blair, who got into the 3M Open field as a late alternate on Wednesday, posted a hilarious video to Instagram that's quickly become a fan favorite. With the course closed due to storms on Wednesday, Blair headed to Golf Galaxy for a casual club fitting, but as an "undercover". He got dressed in sweats, a blue T-shirt and let the staff treat him like any weekend golfer. OAKMONT, PENNSYLVANIA - JUNE 12: Zac Blair of the United States hits a tee shot on the 10th hole during the first round of the 125th U.S. OPEN at Oakmont Country Club on June 12,... OAKMONT, PENNSYLVANIA - JUNE 12: Zac Blair of the United States hits a tee shot on the 10th hole during the first round of the 125th U.S. OPEN at Oakmont Country Club on June 12, 2025 in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. (Photo by) More Getty Images Nic, the fitter, helped Blair but had no idea he was working with a Tour pro who's earned nearly $8 million in career prize money. When Blair requested a Titleist driver, Nic told him to "get his shoulders loose" and hit a few shots so they could measure his clubhead speed. The 34-year-old, enjoying the moment, agreed, swung a few pro shots and acted along. At one point, Blair's friend, who was recording the whole incident, asked Nic to guess the Tour pro's handicap. "I'll say probably one ... a regular one," Nic replied as shown in the video posted on Blair's Instagram handle. "I'm a 2.5 so," he added. "So you think he's better than you?" the friend questioned further. "Umm no," Nic replied with confidence. The moment was pure comedy. Blair is known as one of the shortest hitters on Tour. After a few swings, Nic fitted him with a driver that Blair later used to shoot a bogey-free 64 in Round 1 and 72 on Day 2 at the 3M Open. That was a good enough score to make the cut and head into the weekend at 6-under. Blair's Instagram caption made it clear the video wasn't meant to mock anyone. In fact, he praised Nic's knowledge and fitting skills. "Pt. 2 had to head back to golf galaxy and scoop that driver @nicholasurban1988 got me fitted in! Thanks again for putting up with us and pumped to have him out watching at the 3m this week!" he captioned his next post by sharing a video of meeting the fitter again and thanking him. This isn't Blair's first brush with a club-fitting incident The Salt Lake City, Utah, native faced a similar situation in Canada two years ago when his driver broke down mid-round. At that time, all the equipment trucks had left the tournament, and he had to scramble to find a replacement, again, without being recognized. The 34-year-old turned pro in 2014 and played college golf at BYU. Though he's still chasing his first PGA Tour win, he's had notable finishes, including a T4 at Zurich Classic last year, T2 at the 2023 Travelers Championship. He also made headlines during U.S. Open week last month with a 120-yard putt at Oakmont that went viral. As of this week, Blair entered the weekend round at TPC Twin 8 shots behind the leader. More Golf: Still not 100% Charley Hull Admits 'Scary' Collapse at Evian Impacting Play
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
ABC sounds alarm over Gaza famine, saying its Palestinian freelancers now too weak to work
The Palestinian journalists and videographers working with Australia's national broadcaster to bring us the stories from inside Gaza are hungry and weak, the ABC's Middle East correspondent Matthew Doran said this week. One colleague 'does not have the strength to hold a camera any more', has lost 34kg and can hardly talk on the phone, Doran wrote. 'And it could seriously impact how we can tell the broader story of the Gaza war.' The scenes of aid seekers scrambling for food, babies lying silently in hospital beds and Palestinians protesting against Hamas for prolonging the war would be impossible without these Palestinian freelancers, Doran warned. The ABC correspondent was among some of the world's biggest news outlets, including BBC News, Agence France-Presse (AFP), the Associated Press and Reuters who said they were 'desperately concerned' about the journalists in Gaza after widespread warnings of mass starvation. With Israel denying international reporters access to Gaza, most of the world's news outlets rely on Palestinian freelancers to inform the world, but hunger and lack of clean water is making them ill and exhausted, with some telling agencies they are too weak to work. 'One of the biggest and most important stories in the world … will soon be more difficult to tell, as our colleagues struggle to help us tell it,' Doran said. Doran's online analysis was accompanied by several broadcast reports on starvation on the 7pm bulletin across the week. 'The ABC has worked with a variety of independent journalists in Gaza over the past two years, but in recent weeks that has become increasingly difficult as displacement and starvation make it harder for journalists in Gaza,' a spokesperson for ABC News told Weekly Beast. Sign up to get Guardian Australia's weekly media diary as a free newsletter Meanwhile, the Murdoch campaign to denigrate if not privatise the ABC – 'a massive government-funded monstrosity' – continues apace. According to Daily Telegraph columnist and blogger Tim Blair, an Australia without the ABC is 'beautiful' and we should follow the US administration's lead and defund public media. In May, Trump issued an executive order blocking NPR and PBS from receiving taxpayer funds through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). This week, federal lawmakers voted in support of the plan to claw back $1.1bn from the CPB, the umbrella organisation that helps fund both NPR and the non-commercial TV network PBS. 'Donald Trump's modern and visionary US government is now preparing to slash some $1.7bn from public media funding,' Blair wrote. 'That's an ABC-and-a-half delightfully subtracted from taxpayer outlay. 'Think of all the money we'd save, and all the economic, cultural and emotional energy we could direct instead towards the positive and productive. 'Also, think of all the ABC presenters who'd suddenly be able to reach much larger audiences just by shouting on public transport.' Blair's view is not shared by the majority of Australians, who consistently rate the ABC's impartial coverage of local, national and global affairs as the country's most trusted news source. The ABC news website is number one on the monthly Ipsos news rankings, with an audience of 13 million. The Daily Telegraph meanwhile comes in at 17, with 3 million. (Guardian Australia is sixth with 7.3 million.) And this week, the ABC was celebrating 15 years of the ABC News channel, which is Australia's most watched news channel. Another ABC critic, Gerard Henderson, is using his new platform on Murdoch's Sky News Australia to continue his decades-long criticism of Aunty. His campaign began in his tedious Media Watch Dog column in 1988 as a newsletter mailed out by the Sydney Institute. The rightwing thinktank run by Henderson publishes his lengthy screed each week online, and for more than a decade it was republished by The Australian each Friday. The Australian stopped carrying Henderson's Media Watch Dog column late last year, but Hendo found refuge on the website of Sky News. His new home also gave him access to Sky's media program where he appears to variously 'slam' ABC Insiders, 'question' why the ABC didn't cover Pete Hegseth's Pentagon press conference or 'torch' the ABC 'for continually promoting the Teals even after the election'. These videos are then published by The Australian. The Oz continues to carry his opinion column, which the paper picked up after the Sydney Morning Herald dropped it. Victoria's deputy premier, Ben Carroll, was highly critical of the Daily Mail for publishing a claim on Tuesday that a child at a centre where alleged childcare paedophile Joshua Dale Brown worked had tested positive for an STD. At a press conference Carroll said the story was not true and the Department of Health had asked the publication to take it down. 'It is highly insensitive to families, and it is completely untrue,' Carroll said. 'From what we have advised, there is no child that has been tested positively for an STD. This must be horrifically traumatic for all families and parents involved in this, and we do hope that the author behind it makes contact with the Department of Health and gets their facts straight.' The editor of the Daily Mail, Felicity Hetherington, did not comply with the request and the story remains online. 'As the article states, it is based on information provided by sources close to the investigation,' she told Weekly Beast. 'The article will be also updated to include Mr Carroll's comments.' The lead paragraph of the story was amended to include the word 'reportedly' and the headline includes the deputy premier's denial. 'A child who attended a daycare centre where a worker was subsequently charged with more than 70 child sex offences has reportedly been infected with a sexually transmitted disease,' the new version says. Influencer and fitness model Tammy Hembrow, 31, is a staple in the Daily Mail, where her outfits, relationships and workout routines provide near-daily fodder. So when the Daily Mail reported this week that Hembrow's 'very revealing outfit' of 'a tiny silk crop top and matching skirt set by Arcina Ori' was worn to the Australian Financial Review magazine's 30th anniversary at the Sydney Opera House, we sat up and noticed. The first edition of AFR magazine, in 1995, carried a cover story about how Australian dynasties preserved wealth, and not much has changed. The anniversary edition features a gold-foiled cover with its gatefold partner Rolex. A celebration dinner at the Opera House's Bennelong restaurant, sponsored by Range Rover which ferried some guests to the venue, was attended by everyone from Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull and ABC chair Kim Williams to business leaders Robin Khuda of AirTrunk, Morgan Stanley chief executive Richard Stanley and the managing partner of Gilbert + Tobin, Danny Gilbert. It turns out we should not have been surprised Hembrow was a guest. She held her own among the finance crowd, many of whom were members of the Rich List, Young Rich List and the Power List from the AFR. In 2022, Hembrow's then $38m fortune saw her appear on the magazine's Young Rich List for the first time. She used social media to build businesses including fitness app Tammy Fit and clothing brand Saski Collection. The latest rich list has her fortune at $56m. Former ABC News Breakfast host Michael Rowland has paid tribute to his colleague Peter Ryan OAM, who died on Friday aged 64 from metastatic thyroid cancer. We told you in June that Ryan, the ABC's senior business correspondent and a 45-year veteran of journalism, was retiring. 'When I last saw him in hospital a few weeks ago, Peter was full of old stories and good cheer, despite his health challenges, Rowland said. 'An avowed Beatles tragic, he gave me no shortage of tips and fun facts as I was heading off on a visit to Liverpool. It was an afternoon I will always treasure.' Ryan leaves behind his wife, Mary Cotter, and daughter Charlotte. Your reaction to a viral video published by the Nine Entertainment youth outlet Pedestrian TV probably depends on your age. At a press junket for the movie The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Pedestrian reporter Rebekah Manibog casually asked one of the movie's stars, Vanessa Kirby, the following question: 'But jumping right into you, Vanessa, you've kind of become a social media icon for your forcefield, snatched, cunty fierceness face.' Shock and confusion crossed Kirby's face as she interrupted Manibog's question with: 'Oh, oh my god, I don't know if that's a good thing.' This article includes content provided by TikTok. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. Her co-star, Pedro Pascal, saved the interaction by jumping in to explain the slang, which is apparently so common in queer and internet culture, the reporter felt comfortable throwing it into an interview. 'Cunty-face just means fierce, fabulous, beautiful, strong, it's good, it's good, I promise,' Pascal said.
USA Today
5 days ago
- Automotive
- USA Today
PGA Tour pro Zac Blair goes 'undercover' for driver fitting at golf shop ahead of 3M Open
BLAINE, Minn. – PGA Tour pro Zac Blair has the swing speed and spin characteristics of the average 1 handicap. That's according to a Golf Galaxy fitter in the greater Minneapolis area. Blair, 34, got in to the 2025 3M Open field off the alternate list on Wednesday afternoon when Anders Albertson withdrew. But the course and practice facilities were closed early in the afternoon due to a storm that hit TPC Twin Cities. So, Blair did what any diehard golfer would do — he drove to a nearby golf shop and scheduled a driver fitting so he could hit balls on a simulator. He wound up at a Golf Galaxy and had someone video the encounter with a staffer. He played his college golf at BYU and entered the week ranked No. 300 in the Official World Golf Ranking. It hasn't been the best season for Blair, who has just one top-25 finish on Tour and has missed the cut at more than half his starts. He's still winless on Tour, losing in a playoff last July at the Isco Championship. Going to a golf store to hit balls feels very on brand for Blair, who has sought out the best courses in the world during his travels and created The Buck Club, a course he dreamed of building in his native Utah before ultimately teaming with Kye Goalby to build The Tree Farm in South Carolina. But he is way better than a 1 handicap and surely could school the club fitter, who didn't recognize Blair in a T-shirt and sweatpants, and near the end of the video suggests he's the better golfer between the two. You can watch the video here.
CBS News
5 days ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Texas lawmakers launch redistricting hearings amid political and community concerns
Texas lawmakers kicked off the first of several hearings on redistricting Thursday in Austin, with more scheduled for Houston and Arlington in the coming days. The effort to redraw the congressional boundaries could have major consequences on local, state and national politics. "All eyes are on Texas right now," said Michael Li, a redistricting expert at New York University's Brennan Center for Justice. When Gov. Greg Abbott called this special session, he said the current congressional maps needed to be changed because of constitutional concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice. The DOJ sent a letter to the governor earlier this month, saying four of the state's Democratic-controlled districts, including District 33 – which covers parents of Tarrant and Dallas counties and is currently represented by Marc Veasey, are illegal because of racial gerrymandering. However, Democrats believe that's not the real reason for the unusual mid-decade redistricting effort. Texas Republicans are facing pressure from President Donald Trump to help maintain the GOP's control of the U.S House. "It is very unprecedented that you would have the president of the United States step in in this way and sort of command a redrawing the map," Li said. Republicans currently have 25 of the 38 congressional seats in Texas. Mr. Trump has said he wants five more ahead of next year's midterm elections. The Republican-dominated state legislature finalized the existing maps just four years ago, in 2021, after the release of the 2020 census data. "It's very unusual for a party that they got exactly what it wanted in redistricting, go back and redo the maps, potentially to make them better for them, but also potentially creating a lot of risk that it backfires on them," said Li. He believes what Texas Republicans are doing is a "brazen power play" that will lead to a legal fight. "It's very hard to get more Republican seats in Texas without aggressively targeting the power of communities of color who last year provided 100% of the growth, and about 98% of the growth since the 2020 census," said Li. The president and CEO of the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce, Harrison Blair, has been fielding calls from business owners who are worried about the consequences of redistricting. "They're telling me right now they don't want to be redistricted," Blaid said. "It would be like driving a new freeway or a train track through the middle of an existing community. It harms the businesses. It harms our ability to have a voice." Blair is encouraging members to send letters, attend the public hearings on this issue, or call their state lawmakers. "Texas marches to the beat of its own drum," said Blair. "But right now it seems like the president is running what's happening in Texas in this special session out of DC. So it's disconcerting to say the least." State lawmakers haven't release any proposed maps yet, so it's not clear which districts could be impacted. "The problem is when you're redrawing the lines in one place, it's very hard to do so without affecting surrounding communities," said Veronikah Warms, the voting rights policy attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project. "It can have a ripple effect that goes out through the entire state." In this case, it could change who represents you in Congress and what policies they advocate for. "So I would encourage you, to tell lawmakers about it," Warms said. "Tell them not to put you in with a community that does not have the same interests and priorities and values that you do because otherwise your representation in crafting federal law is going to be not what it should be. It won't be fair." Saturday, July 26 in Houston Monday, July 28 in Arlington All testimony in person will be limited to two minutes per witness, and the duration of the public testimony portion of hearing will be limited to five hours. Texas residents who wish to electronically submit comments related to congressional redistricting without testifying in person can do so until the hearing is adjourned by clicking here.
