Latest news with #TheCatch
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Did Panini use Jets Malachi Corley's goal line fumble as his rookie card?
EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY - OCTOBER 31: Malachi Corley #14 of the New York Jets drops the ball prior to entering the end zone during the second quarter against the Houston Texans at MetLife Stadium on October 31, 2024 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by) What would you do if the most embarrassing moment of your life wound up immortalized on your rookie card? That's exactly what might have happened to Malachi Corley, raising the question of whether a cringe-worthy image can still be iconic. What makes an iconic card? For many, it's being able to tie the image on the card to a specific play or game. A great example is Odell Beckham Jr's 2015 Topps Chrome card featuring 'The Catch'. (Buy on eBay) . Advertisement Corley's rookie issue, however, may feature his notorious end-zone fumble, one of 2024's most squirm-inducing highlights. If you need a reminder, here's the replay (and a brutal Twitter jab) that went viral. This week, We the Hobby dropped an Instagram Reel suggesting the fumble might actually appear on Corley's Phoenix rookie card: Will this discovery increase the value of his rookie card? Stranger things have certainly happened and collectors do love a card with a story. Whether it becomes a sought-after oddity or simply a quirky footnote, it's proof that context can be as valuable as on-field performance. Advertisement
Los Angeles Times
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Jewel Thais-Williams, founder of beloved Black queer nightclub Jewel's Catch One, dies at 86
Jewel Thais-Williams, the founder of the pioneering Black lesbian and queer nightclub Jewel's Catch One in Los Angeles, has died. She was 86. Thais-Williams' death was confirmed by KTLA and by several friends and employees of the club. No cause of death was immediately available. For decades, the Mid-City nightclub — known to regulars as The Catch — was L.A.'s hallowed sanctuary for Black queer women, and a welcoming dance floor for trans, gay and musically adventurous revelers. Artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Madonna and Whitney Houston sashayed down Catch One's winding halls, while the indomitable Thais-Williams fended off police harassment and led care programs during the height of the AIDS crisis. The Catch was singularly important to the development of Black and queer nightlife in L.A., and belongs beside New York's Paradise Garage and Chicago's Warehouse in any account of the most important nightclubs in America. 'It was a community, it was family,' Thais-Williams told The Times in a 2018 interview. 'To be honest myself, I was pretty much a loner too. I always had the fears of coming out, or my family finding out. I found myself there.' Thais-Williams, born in Indiana in 1939, opened Jewel's Catch One in 1973. She didn't have ambitions to open a generationally important nightclub, just a more resilient business than her previous dress shop. However, her experience as a Black woman shunned at other local gay clubs bolstered her resolve to make the Catch welcoming for those left out of the scene in L.A. 'I didn't come into this business with the idea of it becoming a community center,' she said in 1992. 'It started before AIDS and the riots and all that. I got the first sense of the business being more than just a bar and having an obligation to the community years ago when Black gays were carded — requiring several pieces of ID — to get into white clubs. I went to bat for them, though I would love to have them come to my place every night. 'The idea is to have the freedom to go where you want to without being harassed. The predominantly male, white gay community has its set of prejudices. It's better now, but it still exists.' Jewel's Catch One became a kind of West Coast Studio 54, with disco-era visionaries like Donna Summer, Chaka Khan, Sylvester, Rick James and Evelyn 'Champagne' King performing to packed rooms. Celebrities like Sharon Stone and Whoopi Goldberg attended the parties, glad for wild nights out away from the paparazzi in Hollywood. Thais-Williams 'opened the door for so many people,' said Nigl '14k,' the Catch's manager, doorperson and limo driver for 27 years up until its sale in 2015. 'A lot of people that felt not wanted in West Hollywood had nowhere to go. But people found out who she was and put word out. She was a great friend and a shrewd businessperson who allowed people to just be themselves.' The club's many rooms allowed for a range of nightlife — strip shows, card games and jazz piano sets alongside DJ and live band performances [along with Alcoholics Anonymous meetings]. The boisterous, accepting atmosphere for Black queer partiers contrasted with the constant surveillance, regulation and harassment outside of it. 'There was a restriction on same sex dancing, women couldn't tend bar unless they owned it,' Thais-Williams said in 2018. 'The police were arresting people for anything remotely homosexual. We had them coming in with guns pretending to be looking for someone in a white T-shirt just so they could walk around.' A fire in 1985 claimed much of the venue's top floor, closing it for two years. Thais-Williams suspected that gentrifiers had their eye on her building. 'It's very important not to give up our institutions — places of business that have been around for years,' she said. 'Having a business that people can see can offer them some incentive to do it for themselves. I'm determined to win, and if I do fail or move on, I want my business to go to Black people who have the same interest that I have to maintain an economic presence in this community.' Thais-Williams' AIDS activism was crucial during the bleakest eras of the disease, which ravaged queer communities of color. She co-founded the Minority AIDS Project and served on the board of the AIDS Project Los Angeles, which provided HIV/AIDS care, prevention programs and public policy initiatives. With her partner, Rue, she co-founded Rue's House, one of the first dedicated housing facilities in the U.S. for women living with HIV. The facility later became a sober-living home. In 2001, Thais-Williams founded the Village Health Foundation, a healthcare and education organization focused on chronic diseases that affected the Black community. 'Jewel is a true symbol of leadership within our community,' said Marquita Thomas, a Christopher Street West board member who selected Thais-Williams to lead the city's Pride parade in 2018. 'Her tireless efforts have positively affected the lives of countless LGBTQ minorities, [and her] dedication to bettering our community is truly inspiring.' After decades in nightlife, facing dwindling crowds and high overhead for a huge venue, in 2015 Thais-Williams sold the venue to nightlife entrepreneur Mitch Edelson, who continues to host rock and dance nights in the club, now known as Catch One. (Edelson said the club is planning a memorial for Thais-Williams.) 'People in general don't have appreciation anymore for their own institutions,' Thais-Williams told The Times in 2015. 'All we want is something that's shiny because our attention span is only going to last for one season and then you want to go somewhere else. The younger kids went to school and associated with both the straight people and non-Blacks, so they feel free to go to those spots. The whole gay scene as it relates to nightclubs has changed — a lot.' After the sale, the importance of the club came into sharper focus. A 2018 Netflix documentary, produced by Ava DuVernay's company Array, highlighted The Catch's impact on Los Angeles nightlife, and the broader music scene of the era. When Thais-Williams sold it, the Catch was the last Black-owned queer nightclub in the city. In 2019, the square outside of Jewel's Catch One was officially named for Thais-Williams. 'With Jewel's Catch One, she built a home for young, black queer people who were often isolated and shut out at their own homes, and in doing so, changed the lives of so many' said then-City Council President Herb Wesson at the ceremony. 'Jewel is more than deserving to be the first Black lesbian woman with a dedicated square in the city of Los Angeles for this and so many other reasons.' L.A.'s queer nightlife scene is still reeling from the impact of the pandemic, broader economic forces and changing tastes among young queer audiences. Still, Thais-Williams' vision and perseverance to create and sustain a home for her community will resonate for generations to come. 'Multiple generations of Black queer joy, safety, and community exist today because of Jewel Thais-Williams,' said Jasmyne Cannick, organizer of South L.A. Pride. 'She didn't just open doors — she held them open long enough for all of us to walk through, including this Gen-X Black lesbian. There's a whole generation of younger Black queer folks out here in L.A. living their best life, not even realizing they're walking through doors Jewel built from the ground up.' 'Long before Pride had corporate sponsors and hashtags, Jewel was out here creating space for us to gather, dance, organize, heal, and simply exist,' Cannick continued. 'We owe her more than we could ever repay.' Thais-Williams is survived by her wife and partner for 40 years, Rue.
Times
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Yrsa Daley-Ward on Stormzy, Beyoncé, and her new novel, The Catch
'IYA! Y'ORITE?' booms a friendly Lancashire accent when I log on to a video call with the author and 'Instagram poet' Yrsa Daley-Ward, who is sitting waiting with luminous skin, glossy lips and a smile so big and bright that it beams through the is talking from a hotel room in Washington, where she's promoting her debut novel, The Catch. Released on Thursday, it's a mysterious, dark tale of twin sisters Clara and Dempsey, whose familial bond is severed in childhood when their mother, Serene, vanishes into the Thames. The book already has a starry backing — in the UK it's being published by Merky Books, an imprint launched by the rapper Stormzy.'Stormzy is awesome,' Daley-Ward says, smiling. 'I haven't spoken to him for a while but he's incredible. So when Merky wanted to publish my book, I jumped at the chance.'Daley-Ward is already a publishing success — it was her 2014 poetry collection, Bone, that first grabbed Stormzy's attention and in 2018 she released The Terrible, her searingly honest memoir, which went on to win the PEN Ackerley prize the following year. • 80 best books to take on holiday this summer — chosen by the experts How did Stormzy discover her? He 'just out of the blue one day' sent Daley-Ward a photo of himself holding a copy of Bone — 'the really old vintage edition that I knocked together and was selling on Etsy and Amazon', she says. 'I was like, 'Oh my God, the work is travelling!' ' At the time Daley-Ward was travelling the world performing live readings of her poetry and had begun posting snippets of her work on Instagram. Even if you're not a poetry fan, you may have scrolled past her words at some point, usually displayed in a small, subtle typewriter font, cut down to a few sentences and repurposed as a motivational quote, often shared by somebody going through a break-up or experiencing grief. • Read more book reviews and interviews — and see what's top of the Sunday Times Bestsellers List Though poetry books have increased in popularity in recent years, with sales predominantly driven by younger readers and social media, Daley-Ward doesn't take too kindly to being called 'an Instagram poet'. 'There's an idea that I started on Instagram, but I was writing and performing at festivals for years before that,' she says. However, she does see social media as 'a wonderful tool' because 'it got the work to people who might've never picked up a poetry book. They see it on a little square and think, 'Oh, I feel this thing too.' ' Bone was a huge success. Stormzy publicly described the poems as 'honest, unflinching and unforgettable' and hailed Daley-Ward as 'one of Britain's best writers'. Her memoir caught attention too, with Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine describing it as 'like holding the truth in your hands'. Then in 2020 Daley-Ward was asked to be a collaborator on Beyoncé's film Black Is King with two days' notice. 'I got a mysterious call and they asked if I wanted to do it,' Daley-Ward says. 'I said, sure, and then there I was. It's definitely the thing in my bio that people ask most about.' She is tight-lipped on the details, but says that working with Beyoncé 'was such a collaborative space and an incredible experience. I don't know many people who aren't a Beyoncé fan. Just being there was an honour. It shows that when you concentrate on something, stick to it and believe in it, then it will take you to those places.' • Yrsa Daley-Ward: the extraordinary life of the model poet of Instagram Daley-Ward grew up in Chorley, a market town in Lancashire, and now lives in LA. This contrast is one she explores in The Terrible, a detailed account of an unsettled childhood, spanning everything from discovering that the man who raised her wasn't her biological father to being sent, aged seven, to live with her strict grandparents for four years. This stood her 'in good stead because the way my grandparents ran the house was regimented', she says, before adding, 'not that I'd recommend that … but it made me extremely organised.' Aged 16, Daley-Ward ran away with an older man and later became engaged to somebody else before breaking it off. She then moved to South Africa where she worked as a model, though 'certainly not a super successful one'. Now 36, she doesn't regret any of her past: 'I don't judge earlier versions of myself and you shouldn't allow anyone else to, either.' But there is one significant moment in her life that inspired her novel. Her mother died when Daley-Ward was 22, and questions of motherlessness and motherhood are a big theme throughout the book. 'To this day I'll see someone in the street that looks like my mum and I get such an intense longing,' she says. 'But it's also love — grief is love, so it's not necessarily a negative thing. It's all the things mixed together.' Despite poems and a memoir coming first, fiction was always Daley-Ward's intention. 'The only reason why these other things came first is because I had a lot of personal stories in the way before I was able to dream and imagine enough to write this,' she says. She is ready for people to assume that The Catch is autobiographical because 'the perception of women is that we always want to divulge', she says. 'Inevitably that happens to an extent, because it's what you know. But fiction gives you the opportunity to be quite wild — these characters behave in ways that I would never, so it's a fun experiment.' Despite having the likes of Stormzy, Beyoncé and the Italian fashion house Valentino on her list of collaborators, Daley-Ward doesn't do parties these days, opting instead to 'read books and go on long walks — that's living it up for me', she says. She visits Lancashire regularly to see her brother and his children and describes its 'nature, space and deep quiet' as being 'an excellent backdrop for dreaming and for making up stories. Going back there is really interesting and very layered, but it's lovely,' she explains. 'Lancashire is a huge part of me, you can hear it in my voice, it will never go anywhere. It's my beginning.' The Catch by Yrsa Daley-Ward (Cornerstone £16.99). To order a copy go to Free UK standard P&P on orders over £25. Special discount available for Times+ members
New York Times
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Risky, Reality-Bending Thriller You Need This Summer
THE CATCH, by Yrsa Daley-Ward Here's a dilemma. Despite its mind-bending premise, I don't actually want to talk to you about what happens in 'The Catch,' Yrsa Daley-Ward's first novel after a poetry collection ('Bone') and two nonfiction projects ('The Terrible' and 'The How'). I want to talk about how it happens. 'The Catch' follows semi-estranged twin sisters, Clara and Dempsey. When they were infants, their mother, Serene, vanished, presumed to have drowned in the Thames. As a result, both sisters were adopted, but by different families. Clara was adopted first, by a wealthy family who said that she 'appeared special right from the beginning,' but they left behind Dempsey, who was 'wheezing and small.' Dempsey was adopted a year later by a councilor. Now adults in their 30s, the same age as their mother when she disappeared, the two have a strained relationship. Clara's a spiraling but newly famous author launching a big book; Dempsey does clerical work and data entry. Then Clara glimpses a woman who looks just like Serene. 'She is my mother,' Clara says, believing her to be Serene, come back. 'My very own mother.' Dempsey, however, sees this figure as a con woman out to manipulate her famous but disturbed sister. It gets weirder. This discovered Serene has not aged a day in the years she has been gone. Furthermore, the events that unfold in the sisters' lives after Serene's reappearance are the same events and language found in the writing that Serene left after her death as well as the same language and writing that appears in Clara's blockbuster book, 'Evidence,' large sections of which appear in 'The Catch' itself. That's the what of the novel. The how, though, is where the book reveals itself to be a rich and risky text. Daley-Ward uses a full complement of textures to weave this book. The surreal drips into the moments of assumed sobriety, shifting the world around us as we read. To unfurl the story, she reaches for dark comedy, for drama, for poetry, for the absurd. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
USA Today
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
15 books you should read this summer: Most anticipated releases for 2025's hottest months
15 books you should read this summer: Most anticipated releases for 2025's hottest months Show Caption Hide Caption Where to find free audiobooks Audiobooks can be an easy way to consume books anytime of the day. Here are some easy ways to find good books and free ways to listen. How's that 2025 reading goal coming along? We're nearly halfway through the year, and the book world is buzzing with new releases. We've seen scathing tech tell-alls (see: 'Careless People' by Sarah Wynn Williams), new releases from beloved authors like Suzanne Collins and Joan Didion, BookTok favorites return and some books that make us feel a little more hopeful about the world. Not to mention the celebrity memoirs that keep us talking about our favorite stars. Now it's time to look ahead at which summer reads to pack in our tote bags and audiobooks to queue up on road trips. Most anticipated books of summer 2025 From seaside romances to nonfiction survival stories to twisty crime dramas, here are the books USA TODAY is most excited for in summer 2025. Titles are listed in order of anticipated publication date. 'Atmosphere' by Taylor Jenkins Reid (June 3) 'Atmosphere' is a love story set against the backdrop of NASA's space shuttle program in the 1980s. Quietly ambitious Joan Goodwin has been looking up at the stars for as long as she can remember, but her life is firmly rooted on the ground. But when she's accepted into a selective trainee class, she finds both her dreams, unlikely friends and unexpected passion. 'Atmosphere' is a character study brimming with heart, both quietly lyrical and an action-packed nail-biter. 'A Family Matter' by Claire Lynch (June 3) This stunning debut novel is told in two timelines. In 1982, Dawn is a young mother adjusting to her new life when neighbor Hazel upends everything she thought she knew and desired. The buried consequences are revealed decades later by her grown daughter. 'A Family Matter' is based on real custody cases in the UK, where, in the 1980s, the majority of lesbian moms lost custody of their children. It's a fast-paced, quickly consuming read that interrogates what happens when we follow rules designed to oppress rather than protect. 'The Dry Season' by Melissa Febos (June 3) 'Girlhood' author Febos chronicles her year of celibacy and romantic abstinence in this memoir. In 'The Dry Season,' Febos undergoes a period of transformation and pleasure where she defines life on her own terms outside of romantic pursuits, also weaving through narratives of purposefully solitary women throughout history. 'Flashlight' by Susan Choi (June 3) Choi's latest follows one family fractured by tragedy. When Louisa is 10 years old, she and her father walk on the beach. When she wakes up, barely alive, she is alone. 'Flashlight' weaves the ripple effects of his disappearance as well as the family's complicated dynamic, shared memories and secrets. 'The Catch' by Yrsa Daley-Ward (June 3) In 'The Catch,' twin sisters Clara and Dempsey live severed lives, adopted into different families after their mother's disappearance. Clara lives with a wealthy couple and has become a glitzy celebrity author. Dempsey was sent to live with a distant city counselor and grew up to work in data entry, confined to her apartment computer. But when Clara sees a woman who looks just like their mother, it'll send the sisters crashing together to uncover the past. 'Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil' by V.E. Schwab (June 10) From the bestselling author of 'The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue' comes a sweeping lesbian vampire story sure to knock you off your feet. It follows three young women from distinct periods – 1500s Spain, 1800s London and Boston in 2019 – weaving through centuries and each other's lives with a deep hunger for love, rage, revenge and freedom. 'Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil' is a gory, character-driven masterpiece. 'King of Ashes' by S. A. Cosby (June 10) A Southern crime drama to the tune of 'The Godfather,' 'King of Ashes' follows three siblings in the aftermath of an accident that leaves their father in a coma – except it might not be an accident. Youngest brother Dante is reckless and indebted to dangerous criminals. Eldest son Roman, a finance whiz, is determined to save him. And their sister, Neveah, tries to uncover the mystery of their mother's disappearance while also holding the family business together. 'With a Vengeance' by Riley Sager (June 10) Sager's latest thriller is about a woman on a quest for retribution – Anna Matheson has lured the six people responsible for her family's downfall to a luxury train, where she intends to confront them, get them to confess and deliver them to the authorities when the train stops. But after one of the passengers is murdered, she realizes she isn't the only one with a revenge plot. 'Don't Let Him In' by Lisa Jewell (June 24) This thriller follows three women drawn together by one man. There's Nina Swann, remarried to a seemingly perfect man after her husband's death. Her daughter, Ash, thinks he's too good to be true. And then there's Martha, a florist living in a nearby town, irked by her husband's frequent, days-long disappearances. As Ash begins to dig into her stepfather's past, the women collide and realize they should've obeyed the warnings they heard long ago: Don't let him in. 'These Summer Storms' by Sarah MacLean (July 8) Bestselling historical romance author MacLean is going contemporary with 'These Summer Storms,' which follows a woman returning to her family's private island after her father's shocking death. But instead of leaving quietly like she intends, Alice is swept into a game with her estranged family because of her father's last wishes, which stipulate the family must spend one week together and complete an assigned task to receive the inheritance. 'A Marriage at Sea' by Sophie Elmhirst (July 8) This is nonfiction that reads like fiction – the best kind. 'A Marriage at Sea' seamlessly brings readers alongside Maurice and Maralyn Bailey's journey to sea, giving an intimate look at the weeks they spent stranded on a tiny life raft after a shipwreck. Elmhirst's retelling is a triumph, second only to the seemingly impossible feat of Maurice and Maralyn themselves. You won't be able to put it down. 'The View from Lake Como' by Adriana Trigiani (July 8) In 'The View from Lake Como,' a recently divorced woman moves back in with her parents and becomes the family handmaiden. After the family suffers an unexpected, shocking loss, Jess questions those she thought she trusted most and escapes to Italy in search of the truth behind her family history. 'Love is a War Song' by Danica Nava (July 22) If you love hyper-contemporary stories or couldn't get enough of 'Hannah Montana: The Movie,' this summer romance novel is for you. 'Love is a War Song' follows disgraced Native American pop star Avery, who is sent to live with her estranged grandmother after she's canceled for an offensive photoshoot. There, she meets grumpy ranch hand Lucas, who can't stand what Avery represents. But when the ranch's future is in jeopardy, they'll have to put their differences aside to save it. 'People Like Us' by Jason Mott (Aug. 5) From the author of the National Book Award-winning 'Hell of a Book,' 'People Like Us' follows two Black authors, one of whom is traveling the world after winning a major prize and the other who is giving a speech at a school that's been through a shooting. As the two authors intersect, they share loss and longing, humor and love and try to find peace in a world of gun violence. 'Katabasis' by R.F. Kuang (Aug. 26) The author of 'The Poppy War' and 'Yellowface' returns with a dark academia fantasy described as Dante's 'Inferno' meets Susanna Clarke's 'Piranesi.' In 'Katabasis,' two graduate students must put their rivalry aside as they make the life-threatening journey to hell to save their professor's soul. Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY's Books Reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram, subscribe to our weekly Books newsletter or tell her what you're reading at cmulroy@
