Heated Rivalry_ TV series

Smash hit Heated Rivalry offers 'reprieve' for LGBTQ+ community, creates conversation among hockey fans.

By Shireen Ahmed · CBC Sports · January 10, 2026

Two men sit down for a press conference. Both are wearing black blazers with white dress shirts underneath. Behind them is a series of logos. A screenshot from Heated Rivalry, a TV series based on Halifax author Rachel Reid’s novel of the same name that follows the love affair between two professional hockey players.

To say it has scored in unprecedented ways would be an understatement. Last week, my friend and colleague, Dr. Amira Rose Davis and I were chatting and she said “I can not believe you haven’t watched it yet!” Admittedly, I was behind on this riveting series.

According to Amira, it’s the perfect “Canadian hockey story” and automatically she thought of me. She and Dr. Jessica Luther even did a special segment on the show for our podcast.

But my interest is not only around this compelling series — shot, produced and created in Canada with Canadian talent — that is based on a book series by Haligonian Rachel Reid. Heated Rivalry follows the love story of two gay hockey professional players, Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, on fictional NHL teams who hide their affair because of, well, hockey. I am fixated on the discussions in the media around it, and the progress.

The Canadian streaming sensation Heated Rivalry — which centres on a gay romance between two professional hockey players — has been a big hit with viewers, who have ranked it among the highest-rated episodes of all time on IMDB. Jacob Tierny, who wrote and directed Heated Rivalry, is no stranger to Canadian media. Despite the reaction to the series, men’s hockey remains as plain and unprogressive as usual. It is not a bastion of inclusion and diversity.

Over two years ago, the NHL banned Pride Tape then unbanned it. It was handled so poorly that even players decided to act against the policy that was meant to regulate theme nights. It reminds us that although there may be communities and players who care about the cause, the boardrooms and decision makers are not rooted in justice in sport, but rather swayed by reputation and powerful opinion.

Sure there are movements and organizations that seek to change this, but on the whole, men’s hockey is not a delicious space of uniqueness.

At the moment, there are no out players in the NHL. Is it because hockey may not be an environment where sport feels safe for those who refuse to conform? Can you really be your true self when there is no actual example of someone in professional men’s hockey being successful after coming out? According to reports, the NHL is the only pro league that has not yet had a former or active player come out.

Meanwhile, Heated Rivalry has become Crave TV’s most-watched original series ever. It has also become quite a fodder for discussion in traditional hockey spaces. The popular hockey podcast Empty Netters, hosted by two white, straight, male and former junior players, have not only done reaction videos to every episode, it has delved into plots, characters and deeper meaning within the show.

Last month, the Montreal Canadiens showed the trailer during a game. And the Boston Bruins even made reference to it in a social media caption after a charged game against the Habs. 

One might consider this a win-win situation. Gay hockey plots in mainstream media?! 

But could it be argued that those jumping on the Heated Rivalry bandwagon may not be as culture-altering as we have hoped? There are certainly new fans coming from the show interested in hockey, which is the backdrop of the show. 

I spoke with Harrison Browne, the first professional trans hockey player — now actor and author — about the show and the intentionality of the fandom.

Browne, who has a role in the series, admits that he didn’t expect the show to be the global pop culture phenomenon it has become.

“The resurgence of [positive] attention to trans people in sports has been exciting,” he told me during a phone call. “The amount of love has been on par with [or more] than I got when I came out.”

Exposing audiences to untraditional stories

He says it has been a "cool shift" to see himself in a queer hockey story in a way that he can be recognized but also be helpful to others in the wider community. Tierny selected him for the role because he is a great actor not because he’s great at hockey.

Browne says that exposing new fans to a story they may not see in a traditional hockey space has benefits. And he admitted that his following on social media has doubled and gotten him a lot of attention, hopefully leading to more opportunities.

But I can’t help but feel like hockey players and individuals with power ought to do more.

Soon on Movistar+

Paintings by Andrew Fullwood

The FedEx Van, Mulberry Street, Little Italy, New York City, 2021

Noon, Downtown Street Corner, Manhattan, 2020

BARE_nude dance

Our society is losing the space of freedom. The tendency in the world is right-wing, neo-liberal, and people are more controlled. We have less liberty even if we think we have more. The last territory where we can be ourselves and where we can have full freedom is our own body. "BARE" documentary focuses on male nudity in modern dance. The story follows a well-known Belgian choreographer Thierry Smits through a process of building his new creation with a group of eleven male dancers performing bare naked. 

Directed by Alexandr Vinogradov. 60 min.

Dancers: Linton Aberle, Ruben Brown, Davide Guarino, Michal Adam Goral, Gustavo Monteiro, Oskari Nyyssölä, Emeric Rabot, Nelson Reguera Perez, Eduard Turull, Duarte Valadares, and Paolo Yao.

More information:http://baremovie.com/

Cambridge Dictionary names parasocial Word of the Year 2025

By BECCI KNOWLES, 18th November 2025

The year was marked by interest in the one-sided parasocial relationships that people form with celebrities, influencers and AI chatbots.   

 Several AI-related words were added or updated in the Cambridge Dictionary this year, including, ‘slop’, as parts of the internet became awash with low-quality AI-generated content.  

 New entrants to the Cambridge Dictionary included ‘skibidi’, ‘delulu’ and ‘tradwife’. 

 But it’s ‘parasocial’ that took the Cambridge Dictionary Word of the Year crown.  

 When Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce announced their engagement, many fans felt a deep connection to the singer and American footballer, even though most had never met them.  

Millions of fans related to Taylor Swift’s confessional lyrics about dating, heartbreak and desire, leading to what psychologists describe as “parasocial” bonds with stars.  

 Lily Allen’s ‘breakup album’ West End Girl leant into parasocial interest in her love life.  

 The spontaneity, imperfection and confessional nature of podcast hosts have been said to replace real friends and to catalyse parasocial relationships. 

The emergence of parasocial relationships with AI bots saw people treat ChatGPT as a confidant, friend or even romantic partner. These led to emotionally meaningful – and in some cases troubling – connections for users, and concerns about the consequences.  

The term dates back to 1956, when University of Chicago sociologists Donald Horton and Richard Wohl observed television viewers engaged in “para-social” relationships with on-screen personalities, resembling those they formed with “real” family and friends. They noted how the rapidly expanding medium of television brought the faces of actors directly into viewers’ homes, making them fixtures in people’s lives. 

 In 2025, the “chronically online” developed unreciprocated parasocial relationships with YouTubers and influencers who they feel they know, becoming invested in all the twists and turns of their personal lives.  

 The global mania around The Summer I Turned Pretty finale saw fans dissecting every romantic relationship in the show on TikTok and Instagram, as they encamped into “Team Conrad” or “Team Jeremiah”.   

 As streamer IShowSpeed blocked an obsessive fan as his “number 1 parasocial”, the Cambridge Dictionary experienced another surge in lookups for the word.   

When Chappell Roan called out some fans’ “creepy behaviour” last year, psychologists noted the resurgence of “parasocial relationships”.   

Colin McIntosh of the Cambridge Dictionary said: “Parasocial captures the 2025 zeitgeist. It’s a great example of how language changes.  

“What was once a specialist academic term has become mainstream.  

“Millions of people are engaged in parasocial relationships; many more are simply intrigued by their rise.    

 “The data reflects that, with the Cambridge Dictionary website seeing spikes in lookups for ‘parasocial’.  

 “The language around parasocial phenomena is evolving fast, as technology, society and culture shift and mutate, from celebrities to chatbots, parasocial trends are fascinating for those who are interested in the development of language.” 

Matthew Ellman, an English teaching expert at Cambridge University Press & Assessment, commented: “Learning a new language is all about engaging more closely with the world around you, and our latest Word of the Year is a great example of how English enables learners to do that.  

“Even before they encounter this word, many learners of English will relate to, and be able to recognise, the relevance of parasocial to contemporary life. 

That should be what happens in every English lesson: learners recognising the relevance of English to their lives and lived experience and seeing the potential for it to help them engage with the world more broadly and deeply.” 

Simone Schnall, professor of experimental social psychology at the University of Cambridge, said: “Parasocial is an inspired choice for Word of the Year. The rise of parasocial relationships has redefined fandom, celebrity and, with AI, how ordinary people interact online.  

“We’ve entered an age where many people form unhealthy and intense parasocial relationships with influencers. This leads to a sense that people ‘know’ those they form parasocial bonds with, can trust them and even to extreme forms of loyalty. Yet it’s completely one sided.  

 “As trust in mainstream and traditional media breaks down, people turn to individual personalities as authorities, and – when they spend many hours consuming their content – develop parasocial bonds, treating them more like close friends, family or cult leaders. When an influencer has so many followers, people assume they are trustworthy.  

“There’s a more traditional and healthy manifestation of fandom as people develop parasocial ties with stars like Taylor Swift who are exceptionally good at what they do, but this can also lead to obsessive interpretations of lyrics and intense online discussions about their meanings and what they mean for fans, as well as Swift herself.   

“Parasocial trends take on a new dimension as many people treat AI tools like ChatGPT as ‘friends’, offering positive affirmations, or as a proxy for therapy. This is an illusion of a relationship and group think, and we know young people can be susceptible for this.” 

In-Between_short film

 

For the Love of Nature

By WALDEMAR JANUSZCZAK

The Sunday Times Magazine, 3 August 2025

    People really love this artist — so why does the art world ignore a great Briton? Andy Goldsworthy is imaginative, inventive, poetic, hard-working, big-hearted and brave. He has been making art for 50 years. Nature loves him, people who have seen his work in books love him, people who go to his exhibitions love him, I love him, my wife loves him, and so do my kids. But for reasons we need to go into, the art establishment does not. Indeed, it ignores him.

    He has never been nominated for the Turner prize. He has never received an MBE or an OBE, let alone been knighted or damed like the Gromleys, Kapoors or Emins. He has never had a show at the Tate or the Hayward. No one has asked him to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale. For 50 years Goldsworthy has been making art that touches the heart and delights the eyes. But the art establishment can't see it. Why?

    One reason is that his work is centred on landscape, and the art establishment, these days, is an urban beast. Sheep don't fret about their identities. Trees don't remember the empire. Farmers don't express themselves with their clothing as relentlessly asLeigh Bowery did, night after night, club after club, in the posthumous show he had recently at Tate Modern.

    Another problem is the delightful nature of Goldsworthy's art: that it is so easy to love. The gorgeous patterns he finds in autumn leaves, the magical moments he creates with nature's simplest materials, the ecstatic understanding he has of the joy of colour are not neurotic enough to appeal to the art world's tastes. It sees itself as a complex ally of the ego, not a joyous buddy of the id. It hungers for difficulty, rigour, unpleasure.

    So my advice to the commissars of the art establishment, to Tate directors and Serpentine curators, is to get yourselves to Edinburgh and visit Andy Goldsworthy: Fifty years at the Royal Scottish Academy. It's a look at the whole of his lengthy career, but also a statement show that seems determined to stamp out the rumour that he's a softie. The real Andy Goldsworthy ➖hardcore, thoughtful, mysterious➖ is being encouraged to emerge.

    It begins spectacularly with a long and shaggy sheepskin rug running down the centre of the posh stairs that welcome us to the Royal Scottish Academy (see picture below).  Infused with the stony rigour of the Scottish Enlightenment, carved out of local granite, the posh stairs speak of privilege and rank, politeness and empire. Goldsworthy's rug, meanwhile, ascending shaggily step by step, speaks of muddy fields and the dirty bottom of sheep. Two worlds colliding, and societal sparks are flying. (Click on link above to see a gallery of the exhibited pieces.)

    The attack continues with the next sight, a filigree of delicate lines stretching between the portentous Doric columns that loom over the entrance. What is it? A silk hanging? A beaded embroidery? As you get closer, you finally recognise it: barbed wire. From many fields and with many patinas. For the first time in its unpleasant history, the vicious outdoor fencing has been woven by an industrious spider into a curtain of fragile beauty.

    Like nature itself, the show keeps switching moods. Gravestones, a lumpy gallery full of rocks that appear to have emerged beneath the floor, like the biblical prophecy about the resurrection of the dead at the End of Days, is doomy and gothic. It's made out of stones dug up in the cemeteries of Dumfries and Galloway.

    But Sheep Paintings, two panels of cosmic swirlings with a perfect circle at their centre, feels druidically mystical, like that installation with the setting sun at Tate Modern by Olafur Eliasson. Goldswothy's solar discs were actually created by the muddy feet of sheep feeding around a perfectly circular food trough.

    In  his student days Goldsworthy worked on a farm, where he learnet a respect for labour and inherited an appreciation for the seasons. Despite their many moods, his installations are invariably centred on a simple piece of geometry: a circle, a square, a line. Oak Passage seems, from its first angle, to be an impenetrable tangle of branches. But, as you walk round, you see that its centre is dissected by a miraculously straight path. Man and nature are doing their thing in evident harmony.

    Most readers will know Goldsworthy's work from the sumptuous photography books he produced in the 1990s. They were popular and are, I suspect, the chief reason the art world took against him: it dislikes crowd-pleasers. Some of those images are on show here as well ➖a mysterious zigzag in the earth created with feathers of a heron; a bottomless hole in a tree fashioned from autumn leaves.  

    Rather than shinning glossily in a coffee table book, they hang cooly on the gallery walls, part of a thoughtful photographic encapsulation in their production is easier to note. They remain beautiful ➖what a nose he has for the intensity of nature's colours➖ but their ambition to record a fleeting moment is much more evident. The job of this gorgeous photography is to record a natural performance that would otherwise be lost.

    All through the event there's a feeling that the artist is trying to right some wrongs. Here, finally, the truth is being projected that he is, at heart, a minimalist: a lover of geometry's simplest order. But where most minimalists are urbanites, searching for industrial precision with industrial materials, he's a rural minimalist who finds order and simplicity in nature. If it's not there, he inserts it into the chaos.

    And like all great landscape artists ➖and he is certainly one of those➖ he's bringing the outdoors indoors. It's a traditional British ambition. It deserves far greater recognition that it has hitherto received.⦿

Boots_series

A current Netflix tv series review by Josh from joshatthemovies.com

Inspired by memoir The Pink Marine by Greg Cope White, Netflix’s 90s-era dramedy, Boots, takes aim at the homophobic realities of being a Marine during that decade. Gay people, openly serving in the U.S. military, was not legalised until 2011, well after some of the unfortunate events that take place during this compelling series.

Undeniably, The Pink Marine is a better title and thankfully carries over as the name of the debut episode.

Closeted eighteen-year-old Cameron (Miles Heizer, 13 Reasons Why) enlists as a Marine, becoming our window into a world of toxic masculinity, intense tests of physical and emotional endurance, and ultimately, the bonds formed through forced camaraderie.

Some viewers may be disappointed that the queer struggles materialise as more internal than external in Cameron’s specific viewpoint. But make no mistake—Boots is a very gay, very emotional series with an excellent ensemble cast to anchor its intensity.

Presenting a critical analysis on the Marine lifestyle, 90’s time-capsule Boots houses a layered performance from Miles Heizer and moving queer subtext...

[Josh’s full review]: https://joshatthemovies.com/2025/10/09/tv-review-boots/

Trailer: https://youtu.be/2mjN2f5tu2s?si=IBp_uLE6aYZXkoPy

Available on Netflix and on ororo.tv

smartphone-free childhood

jonathanhaidt

 

@smartphonefreechildhoodus made this great Public Service Announcement about what happens when we give kids smartphones and social media.

We overprotect kids in the real world and underprotect them online. Research shows early or unlimited access to social media can lead to:
😟 Increased anxiety and depression
🌙 Disrupted sleep
⏳ Fragmented attention span
🚫 Exposure to harmful content
🤝 Underdeveloped social skills

Childhood should be about learning, friendships, and play — not spent scrolling.

Let’s change our social norms together! Delay smartphones and social media. Implement #belltobell #phonefreeschools. Give kids more independence, free play, and responsibility in the real world. #thefournorms

I hope you'll follow @smartphonefreechildhoodus and check out their great resources (links in their bio).

If you repost this reel to your own account, please acknowledge @smartphonefreechildhoodus and the creators:

Written and directed by @timmasonchicago
Creative agency: @fearlessmortals
Production company: @tessa.films

#smartphones #socialmedia #smartphonefreechildhood #theanxiousgeneration #psa #letschangethenorm

Love is Love

Intentaron borrarnos

Pero seguimos aquí

Seguimos siendo queer

Seguimos siendo nosotros

Después de todos los nombres que nos llamaron

Todas las mentiras que nos dijeron

Todas las lágrimas que hemos llorado 

Pero ahora no les tenemos miedo 

Hemos sentido lo que es sujetar su mano 

Conocemos el calor de estar en sus brazos 

Hemos vivido una vida de “te quieros”

Ojalá poder volver atrás y enseñarle a ese chico aterrorizado 

quién somos ahora

Decirle que hemos vivido nuestra verdad

Ojalá poder decirle que se sienta orgulloso de quién es 

porque sabemos la verdad

Hemos vivido esa verdad:

El amor es el amor.

Esteban Jiménez, a Rising Cello Star

His musical vision, full of elegance and sensitivity, always ready to excite, has recently led him to be the second Spanish musician since 1997 to be Laureate in the prestigious Witold Lutoslawski International Competition in Warsaw, where he also obtained the Special Jury Prize for the best interpretation of a work by said composer and Special Prize granted by the Polish Society of Authors and Composers.

Initially a student of Richard Eade's (Soloist at the Seville Royal Symphony Orchestra), and Iagoba Fanlo's (Real C.S.M. Aragón), he has expanded his training in different masterclasses with teachers such as Frans Helmerson, Sung-Won Yang, Johannes Moser or Norbert Anger.

As for his record, he has been awarded first prizes in the 17th International Violoncello Competition in Portugal, the first International Valencia Cello Competition, the Paderewski International Cello Competition or the Slava International Cello Competition, and has been a finalist in others, such as the Llanes 20th International Violoncello Competition or the 7th David Popper International Cello Competition.

His debut as a soloist took place at the age of 11 with the Seville Philharmonia Orchestra, in the León Auditorium, performing the Kódaly Sonata. He has performed on the most important stages in Madrid, such as the Juan March Foundation or the National Auditorium and recently with the Warsaw Philharmonic under the baton of Marek Mos.

He has been part of the prestigious Barenboim-Said Foundation and is currently completing his training at the Katarina Gurska Higher Music Center in Madrid with professors Karolina Styczen and Michal Dmochowski, where he enjoys an Honor Scholarship for his foundation.