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unibrowzz · 4 years

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My 2020 reviews

All the cool kids were doing these so now I finally dragged my ass into doing them too lmao.

Albania- Fall from the Sky

A song I swear cursed this whole contest from the moment it won Festivali i Këngës. Like with the shitshow this song caused I just knew the whole year was fucked. With half the fandom whining they didn’t get their first club song of the year to the other half smugly shoving it as their winner despite no other songs being around to compare it to, the whole fiasco just left me knowing that 2020 would end in tears, just hopefully not my own. As for the song, it’s lame. It’s a standard ballad with OBSCENE amounts of autotune, which is weird because the girl can actually sing pretty decently without it, so why they decided to make her sound like a damn computer is beyond me. And WHY did they translate it, haven't the past few years proven that Albania's better off leaving their songs in Albanian?

Armenia- Chains on You

A bootleg Ariana Grande song, and a really shit one at that. The kind of song only people who think being young, gay and mean counts as having a personality would say is good.

Australia- Don’t Break Me

One of the few decent Australian entries (but that REALLY isn’t saying much coming from me, I barely care they’re in the contest by this point) but marred by a horribly untidy performance and lacklustre lyrics. At least it’s not fucking pop-opera, that’s all I can say. I’d rather listen to the sound of my face being dragged down the runway at Heathrow airport than be subjected to another Zero Gravity.

Austria- Alive

One of those pseudo-jazz dance songs, á la Olly Murs or Bruno Mars (I swear there’s a song like this in every recent contest). I mean, it’s good, but it’s just kinda meh since I’m kinda getting tired of this genre rearing its fedora-wearing head every time a new lineup rolls in.

Azerbaijan- Cleopatra

One of the “better” trashy entries this year, comprised of about five different musical genres, six ancient cultures being appropriated and absolutely zero class. Probably sounds at least 50% better when you’re absolutely steaming drunk and face down on the floor in the middle of a gay bar.

Belarus- Da Vidna

Somehow, this song sounds both very unique and original yet trite and average at the same time. I couldn’t decide whether listening to it was a new experience or if I’d heard it a million times before.

Belgium- Release Me

A song which just drones on till it ends. I would say it’s ripping off the song that won last year, but it forgot that having a chorus stops your song from being three minutes of snooze.

Bulgaria- Tears Getting Sober

A typical breathy mumble-girl song, AKA a genre I can’t fucking stand. Really don’t see the hype with this one, the melody is pretty but the vocals are out for lunch and it’s otherwise completely and utterly boring.

Croatia- Divlji Vjetre

One of the token big dramatic ballads you listen to once, enjoy, then forget about until Darius in the Discord server plays it one night whilst you’re hitting up the radio bot with requests. You’ll find that “nice, but forgettable” is a common theme for this year.

Cyprus- Running

Ironically Cyprus didn’t send a crappy Fuego knockoff for 2020, and I say ironically because a crappy Fuego knockoff would’ve actually stood out this year, and I say crappy because honestly Fuego wasn’t even all that great to begin with. "Running” itself is just one of those edgy tortured soul pop songs which, let’s be honest, would have been paired with an impressive performance which would’ve overshadowed how bland it is. Kind of like “You’re the Only One”. Or even Fuego for that matter.

Czech Republic- Kemama

Standard Afro-pop, a genre we don't often see at the contest so I'll let it pass. I feel like this is the kind of song that’s infinitely better live, and that it would’ve been one of those songs that suddenly became a frontrunner after the semi finals, but I guess we’ll never know eh?

Denmark- Yes

The quintessential mid-10s Eurovision song. It's got guitars, happy people, Scandinavian origins… it’s just a typical radio guitar song, nothing special.

Estonia- What Love Is

I mean it's better than La Forza. Granted, the sound of someone pissing directly onto a microphone installed in the bowl of a toilet would sound better than La Forza but still. Going back to this song, it’s just... a standard Eastern-ballad with some very desperate lyrics. It feels kind of outdated, if I’m honest. Like something about this just reeks of 2011.

Finland- Looking Back

Yet another dreary, forgettable ballad. It comes to something when the best song they COULD have sent was a party song which sounded like it was from the mid 90s. At least that song was memorable. That said, this one at least has some decent lyrics. Bravo for that I guess.

France- Mon Alliée

France decides to say “fuck it” to being an underground fan-favourite and takes a leaf out of the UKs book by sending the same rent-a-Swede schlock they’ve been sending since 2015. I’m just confused as to why anyone in their right mind would choose to follow the UKs example but you do you France.

Germany- Violent Thing

A rehash of Sweden's entry from two years ago, but this time sung by Justin Bieber circa 2008. Kind of alright if you can stomach the singer's whiny voice, but otherwise pretty dull and kinda forgettable.

Greece- Superg!rl

Hello fellow kidz, we are hearing you like the girl power? The super heroes? The t3xt $p3ech? We made you song, please give us the votes *dabs*

Georgia- Take me as I Am

I mean… this sure is a choice. This feels like one of those songs that everyone memes on because the lyrics are kinda janky and the singer’s voice (and accent) take a bit of getting used to, but other than that it’s just one of those NQ songs for hipster fans to declare as their unironic winner at a later date. All in all this just feels like the male equivalent of one of those mid-10s fat acceptance women’s songs, only a lot shoutier and this time he has more flaws than not being skinny.

Iceland- Think About Things

A bootleg George Ezra song, performed by a load of disinterested tumblr users in their pyjamas. Because if there’s one thing that sells me on a song, it’s being given the evils by a bunch of nerds who look like they’ll send me death threats for not agreeing with their Pokémon headcanons. To be fair, the song is kind of groovy since it sounds so 70s, but the performance is very off-putting to people who aren’t in the Eurovision loop. And also people who are, because I sure as Hell don’t see the appeal in this myself and this whole performance just feels like Save Your Kisses for Me without the charm. I feel like this would’ve come second or third, definitely with a lot of televotes but either the jury would’ve dragged it down or it wouldn’t have scored enough televotes to win.

Ireland- Story of my Life

A song that’s at LEAST ten years out of date by this point, think like an early Katy Perry, Jessie J or Avril Lavigne song. I’ll forgive it because even though it sounds like it should’ve been entered in 2013 (at the latest), it at least evokes some nostalgic memories of shitty school discos and holiday parks.

Israel- Feker Libi

The female equivalent of the Czech song. Unsurprisingly, people went wild for it when it was released. I guess only women are allowed to sing Afro-pop at this contest. Like with the Czech song, I’ll forgive it since Afro-pop is a cool genre anyway, and even though this is just another club song I can at least see myself dancing to it.

Italy- Fai Rumore

Well, at least my wish of “Italy sends a typical power ballad devoid of anything the mainstream fandom likes” finally came true. It was pretty refreshing to have a year where people weren’t shoving Italy’s entry up my nose left right and centre. In terms of my actual thoughts I can’t deny that the guy has a tremendous voice, but for some reason the song just doesn’t… click with me. I guess I like my male Italian singers a little more gruff and raspy, if you know what I mean. They gotta sound like they smoke at LEAST five packets of cigarettes a day for me to take notice.

Malta- All of my Love

Listen I am 100% rooting for Destiny Chukunyere to win this contest some day but man was this song a disappointment. It feels so… un-special and generic, like it gets the job done and that’s it. It’s not the stand-up-and-belt-it-out soul anthem I’d hoped for, it’s just… there.

Moldova- Prison

All I remember about this song is that it vaguely reminds me of that one Meccano song about the gypsy who makes a deal with the moon or something. And I’ve TRIED to remember more about what it sounds like, trust me.

Latvia- Still Breathing

The one horrible weird song you get every year which overuses strobe effects to the point it comes with an epilepsy warning. Would be bearable if it wasn't for the singer’s insistence that this is actually some feminist masterpiece when it's really just a self-empowerment club song about the singer fingerbanging herself over the fact she writes music.

Lithuania- On Fire

One of the songs everyone thought was going to win at one point, even though it seems like a surefire non-qualifier to me. It’s one of those weird entries, but not the kind of over the top, batshit insane, you’d-have-to-be-drunk-to-enjoy-it weird, the kind of subdued surreal weird. Like this is weed instead of LSD or cocaine weird. Granted my mom, who I consider to be a "typical" Eurofan, actually really liked this song when she saw it in the recaps, so who knows maybe this would have done well with televoters after all.

Netherlands- Grow

I appreciate this song for how artsy and clever it is with its structure, since it starts off acapella and the instrumental builds up with the song until it stops suddenly, symbolising a person’s growth from a child into an adult, and ending suddenly with their death (Geddit? The song’s called “Grow”). But it feels like the kind of song that would be lost on a Eurovision audience. The juries would have taken note, for sure, but the televote… let’s be honest, they’d have been too busy drunk voting for Russia to care about anything else.

North Macedonia- You

Well, it's better than the miserable dirge they sent last year, but given how I'd rather pleasure myself with a steak knife than listen to that song, that really isn't saying much. Going back to “You”, it really just feels like a diet version of Switzerland’s entry from last year, combined with Sweden’s song from 2018. What I’m saying is it’s your average “I’m a man in a club and I want to dance with and probably fuck this hot girl I just met” song, which I a new genre I just made up. You’re welcome.

Norway- Attention

One of those songs you appreciate because it sounds nice and the singer has a good voice, but instantly forget because it’s really not all that interesting. If I sound like I'm repeating myself, welcome to Eurovision 2020.

Poland- Empires

“Rise Like a Phoenix” but sung by a wannabe Adele and not a mascara-wearing Jesus in a dress. Like a lot of other songs on this list, it’s just average across the board, likeable when it’s on, but instantly forgettable as soon as the next song comes on.

Portugal: Medo de Sentir

Pretty, but also similar to their ill-fated 2018 entry, only with a bit more energy and less pink hair. What I’m saying is this would have been another NQ unless the crowd who enjoy subtle ambience music come in to save it like they did with Slovenia's entry last year.

Romania- Alcohol You

See Bulgaria, because this is practically the same song. It’s just as dreary, just as badly sung (if not worse because holy shit this girl sounds like she’s being suffocated), and I suppose you COULD excuse that by saying she’s drunk or hungover… but I don’t want to listen to someone ungracefully mumble into a microphone for three minutes.

Russia- Uno

A classic big camp party song, the kind of song people who haven’t watched Eurovision since 2003 think wins on the regular. I can see why people would like it (especially in this boring year lmao, I applaud Russia for taking the opportunity to loosen their corset and just send a complete mess instead of their usual clinical vote grabs), but it’s just not something I enjoy. It's the song that plays into the misconception that Eurovision is just a clown show for drunk people, like this is just here to be that one flash-in-the-pan meme song that only entertains people who don’t really care about Eurovision until the day before it airs. Kind of like the old ladies they sent in 2012 (remember them?).

San Marino- Freaky!

San Marino, in true Sammarinese fashion, have yet again sent a decade-ambiguous song which sounds like it was either released in 1978 or 2003. I feel like this would have been one of those songs which could have surprised us if it had a really wacky, creative performance (think like Moldova in 2018), but this is San Marino so you know that would never happen.

Serbia- Hasta la Vista

Insert unoriginal joke about a decade wanting their shitty trend back right here. Okay maybe that’s a bit harsh, especially considering how this song is actually, yanno, unique in comparison to the rest of this year. But it still feels weirdly dated, in a way where I can’t decide whether it sounds like it belongs in 1998 or 2018. I suppose girl power ages a song regardless of when it was released.

Slovenia- Voda

Yet another standard Balkan-European power ballad which you appreciate because it’s well sung, but forget the moment it ends because it’s kinda boring. … Does anyone else have a bit of deja vu?

Spain- Universo

For some reason I feel like this song is shilling itself out to someone but I have no idea who. Aside from the horny people voting solely because the singer is moderately attractive even with that wretched Jedward haircut.

Sweden- Move

Imagine soul but… boring.

Switzerland- Répondez Moi

Imagine Arcade but… in French.

United Kingdom- My last Breath

Not the best the UK could have done, but it’s at least a modern offering unlike the residual dregs of the mid-90s that we sent throughout the 2010s. It’s definitely a bit too generic to have done any better than maybe 15th, but hey at least the cancellation means we won’t have to see it not do as well as the BBC thinks it’s entitled to do, prompting a billion clickbait articles about how Brexit somehow affected our performance.

Ukraine- Solovey

At long last we come to something you probably weren't expecting: a song I actually really like. Which is weird because I usually don't care for or don't like whatever Ukraine vomits into the contest, so I was pleasantly surprised to find a song I liked from them in such a weak year. This song isn’t for everyone, it’s white noise singing which is a very acquired taste, but this is honestly the only 2020 song I find myself coming back to over and over. And it’s in Ukrainian too, so you don’t have to put up with their usual mangled English offerings.

#and that conclude's the mods thoughts lmao #eurovision #if this is good i might do this with other years let me know what you think #mod speaks #mod reviews

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lulubette11 · 5 years

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Bianca Sierra played one NWSL season, 2014, with Ali for the Washington Spirit (she was traded to the Boston Breakers and played there for the end of 2014 & 2015 seasons). She and her girlfriend, Stephanie Mayor, both played for the Mexican national team but were treated pretty poorly by the head coach (and much of Mexico) after coming out and announcing their engagement. They both left the national team for a year or so but went back to it once a new coach was in place. They were both playing club soccer together in Norway and then Iceland. Their story made big news after the Rio Olympics I think. Anyway, I’ve always like Bianca (I have a thing for defense, what can I say?) and it was great to see her tweet about Ali Krieger.

#ali krieger #bianca sierra

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cake-writes · 5 years

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Little Lies (Iceland)

Pairing (For This Chapter): Bucky x Reader

Chapter Warnings: Angst, Smut, Dubious Consent, Punishment, Praise Kink, Oral (Giving), Suicide Attempt, 18+

Summary: You went to Bucky when you wanted punishment. He’d be rough with you because he understood your self-loathing, and he’d leave bruises on your hips that wouldn’t go away for a week. You loved it. He didn’t.

You went to Steve when you wanted reassurance. You went to him because he liked to whisper sweet, sweet things into your ear as he made love to you. He’d tell you that you were perfect and amazing and beautiful. Then you’d get your fill, just far too much of it. He cared too much.

It all came to a head when the three of you went on a mission together. You’d done it a hundred times, even during this mess of a situation, and still neither of them was any the wiser. Your little lies always slipped right through the cracks - until one night, they didn’t.

Master List

November 2015

Winter in Iceland was an extraordinarily harsh, biting cold. The bitter chill in the wind sank deep into Bucky’s bones, but he knew it well. He’d acclimated to the freezing weather in Siberia, not to mention the many years he’d spent in cryo, but your small body didn’t handle it nearly as well.

The two of you were inside a small cabin in the mountains with double-glazed windows and a fireplace. One of the locals kept it for travellers and tourists. The two of you were neither, but you’d been given the keys all the same.

Despite the many layers you wore for this mission, you were still shivering from the cold. The moment he went to offer you his jacket, the slightest hint of tenderness, you shot him a look as if to say: Keep your distance, Barnes. Know your place.

He did know his place, and it wasn’t to be gentle with you. It was the opposite. The fact that you wouldn’t even let him help warm you up was evidence enough. You didn’t want any affection from him. You never wanted it. You only wanted to be hurt, punished for reasons he didn’t know.

What Bucky did know was that you hated yourself. If he could relieve you of some of that loathing, even just a fraction – soothe your troubled mind and whatever worries ailed you – then he was more than willing to do that for you. He was willing to do anything for you.

He tended to the fire while you changed out of your wet clothes in the only bedroom. It didn’t matter that there was only one bed. You’d been sleeping together off and on for a few months, now.

You slowly stripped off your soaked clothing, covered in fresh snow, and lay it all out to dry. Inside your duffel bag was a tangled mess of clothing to dig through: your shirts and tac pants and socks and underwear were all mixed up with Bucky’s, but it didn’t matter. You were used to sharing a duffel with him, because it made things just a little easier having one less bag to lug around.

You had your own clothes, but you’d always liked Bucky’s long-sleeved henleys. They were soft and warm and you pulled one on. You didn’t ask. He wouldn’t care. Whatever was his was yours, an unspoken truth that neither of you would ever admit.

You brought the sleeve at your wrist to your nose and inhaled. It smelled just like him, like spice and pine and snow. To you, he smelled like home – a fleeting thought you immediately discarded.

After you pulled on a fresh pair of underwear and some sweatpants and socks, too, you made your way back to the den where a half-full bottle of alcohol sat on the coffee table. Next to it was a single glass, already filled with two fingers of whiskey. Bucky had poured it for you.

He was staring into the fire, lost in thought, slowly rolling his own glass back and forth in between his fingertips. If it was anyone but him, you’d have assumed that he hadn’t heard you arrive, but you knew that he had when his fingers stilled.

“You don’t like it, do you?” you asked softly, sitting down next to him on the sofa. Your thigh brushed against his, and your hand was a gentle comfort on his shoulder, one he leaned into just a little.

When he glanced over at you, about to ask what you meant, the words caught in his throat. He didn’t need to ask. You already knew. You always knew. He hated coming to such cold, frigid places because it reminded him of his past. It reminded him of things he didn’t want to remember. Hydra. Torture. Death.

He didn’t answer. Instead, he took a drag of whiskey.

“This isn’t Siberia,” you reassured him, sliding your hand from his shoulder to the nape of his neck, where your fingers gently smoothed away a few sweaty strands of hair sticking to his skin. “It wasn’t you.”

Bucky slowly took in every single feature on your face – from your forehead, to your perfect brows, to your soft lips – but he focused primarily your eyes, those gorgeous, sparkling eyes that read him like a book. Sometimes, he felt like you knew him better than he did. Other times, he was made well aware that you didn’t.

“I know,” he responded, gently bringing your hand down from his neck so that he could press a kiss to your palm. Your skin was so soft and warm against his chapped lips and it was in that moment that he realized how lost he would be without you.

God, he loved you. Every single part of you. Even the part that used him so easily.

You used him, but he let you. He liked to think that he used you, too, but that was a lie.

When you slowly pulled your hand back to your lap and away from his affection, he knew you’d done it purposely, as if to make the same point you always made.

Know your place.

He wasn’t allowed to get too close, but he did. He always did. You brought his walls down so easily, and then you blamed him for letting them down to begin with. As if he had a choice. As if he had any choice at all not to fall in love with you so much that it threatened to consume him.

When Bucky polished off the rest of the glass, the alcohol burned his tongue and throat – burned away the words he so desperately wanted to say.

The evening came and went. The two of you shared a dinner of military rations, tasteless and bland. He didn’t have much of an appetite. Neither did you. You both forced it down anyway.

While the whiskey took the edge off and you talked with him some, conversation was minimal, just a few short exchanges of words. You asked whether he’d reloaded his rifle and if he was running low on ammo. He had, and he wasn’t, and he casually reminded you to clean your Beretta because that particular model had a habit of jamming in such cold temperatures.

He was, of course, well aware that you knew your way around your weapons and he half-expected you to bristle at the implication that you didn’t. He might have even wanted you to, just a little, because he wanted to know that you could feel something, anything, anything at all.

But you didn’t. You took your handgun apart right there on the coffee table, just for him. You cleaned and polished every piece so thoroughly that by the time you were done, the two of you had finished off the bottle of whiskey.

He went to bed sometime after ten, left you on the sofa, focused intently on the screen of your tablet as you wrote up some mission notes.

He didn’t tell you he was going to bed.

You didn’t bid him goodnight.

Sometime after one, Bucky woke to the sound of silence.

You weren’t in bed with him. He didn’t really expect you to be. You slept together off and on – literally and figuratively – but sometimes you purposely took another bed as if to remind him that it was nothing more than a casual arrangement. You never let him get too close.

This was one of those nights. There wasn’t another bed, but there was a couch in the living room. He’d left you there earlier, and he figured you’d probably fallen asleep there, too.

The only light in the darkness came from the full moon. He made his way from the bedroom back to where he thought you were. It was pointless, really; he knew you’d be nearby, but he still wanted to know that you were still there.

The fire had gone out at some point. You’d told him that you’d tend to it, but you hadn’t.

You weren’t on the sofa. You weren’t in the living room at all.

When he spotted you out on the balcony, the sight chilled him to the bone.

It was a steep drop off the side of the mountain. The valley dipped low into a frozen river, and the tall trees were covered in snow, glistening in the moonlight. While the view would normally be breathtaking, not tonight it wasn’t.

You were leaning over the railing just a little too far.

The only thing you were wearing now was his red henley – no jacket, no sweatpants, no socks or shoes. The way you were leaning over, on your tiptoes, offered him a peek of your black panties, something he normally would have enjoyed but all he felt was dread. There was no doubt in his mind that you must have been freezing, but for some reason the cold didn’t seem to be bothering you at all.

You were more focused on whatever was so interesting out there in the darkness. All he could see was the forest.

The crunch of his boots in the fresh snow made your spine straighten, and you swiftly pulled yourself back. It was almost like he’d caught you just before you did something stupid.

You wouldn’t.

Would you?

“Hey, doll,” he said softly, placing his warm hand on your ice-cold shoulder. You’d been outside for far too long judging by the chill on your skin, but you weren’t shivering like you had been earlier. “Why don’t you come back inside?”

For once, you didn’t argue with him. Instead, he led you back inside in what was a particularly unsettling silence. Your breathing was too steady, too even for what you’d just been doing. The fire was out, but it was still much warmer inside than out and he hoped that it would help bring you back to a normal temperature.

Bucky sat you down on the sofa and wrapped a thick blanket around you.

You didn’t say a word - didn’t want to talk. That much was obvious. He’d seen you upset before, seen how you processed horrors and death plenty of times, but this wasn’t that. It was different. Worse. He didn’t know what had caused it, but it must have been something bad.

He didn’t pry.

You didn’t even notice when he pressed a hot mug of tea into your hands. Only when he helped you bring the brim to your mouth and you instinctively took a sip did you finally realize that it was there. The familiar taste of warm black tea with just a hint of cream and sugar melted on your tongue. He made it just the way you liked.

You didn’t thank him.

Bucky wrapped his arm around your shoulders, and for once, you didn’t pull away. You let him hold you - only for a little while, only until your tea was gone and along with it, your rare moment of weakness.

When you’d had enough, you didn’t say a thing, just shrugged off his arm and went back to your tablet to finish up the rest of your notes. It was almost like you’d just taken a quick tea break.

Bucky took that as a sign to leave you alone again. He didn’t particularly trust you to be by yourself, but he knew that you didn’t want his company anymore. Not tonight.

Right before he went back to bed, he stopped just short of kissing your forehead. His lips just barely ghosted against your skin. You allowed it.

He found it difficult to get back to sleep, but at some point, he managed.

You spent another hour trying to type out a single phrase – ‘mission report’ – but the only thing you could focus on were the horrors of your past.

Half past four, Bucky woke to the feeling of your lips around his cock. A soft groan escaped him from it, at the knowledge that you’d been working downright magic on his body before he’d even woken up. Your perfect mouth was wet and so, so hot, and your tongue slid around him so expertly – let alone the way your perfect hands worked every inch of him. You knew his body so fucking well and it drove him insane.

He took in a sharp breath, his head lulling back as his fingers slid into your hair. He didn’t need to grip hard, or even assert dominance; you just felt so fucking good and he needed to touch you, needed the slightest bit of intimacy in knowing that you were still right there after what he’d witnessed on the balcony.

You pulled back enough to lick every inch of him, and then you took him all the way down your throat which ripped another groan from him. “Jesus, sweetheart—”

You responded with a particularly hard suck that sent him reeling. In his dazed, half-asleep state, he couldn’t hold back anymore and spilled into your mouth, gasping, painting your lips and tongue with hot ropes of his cum.

He looked down at you with half-lidded eyes and watched as you licked up every fucking drop like the goddess you were. And, to him, you were a goddess. He’d happily worship you every day if you’d let him – but you didn’t. Not even when you’d been on the brink of something so dangerous tonight.

As you straddled his hips, he reached up for you, pulled your head down for a kiss. It was sloppy, full of passion and desire and anything he could ever want from you – except the one thing he wanted most.

He rolled the two of you over, then, so that you were on your back, staring up at him with those gorgeous eyes that seemed to see right into his soul. Your hair was sprawled out around your head like a halo, but you were anything but an angel and a few strands of it were caught on your lips. He brushed them away with the pad of his thumb before he leaned in to kiss you again.

With you under him like this, letting him touch every inch of you, he particularly relished in the feeling of your breasts – so soft and perfectly moulded to his hands. His hand slid down your side to pull one of your legs around his waist, and he slid inside you far too easily. You were absolutely soaked for him, slick and hot and wanting.

The moment he was completely inside you, you whined against his mouth. He swallowed the sound as he kissed you gently, leisurely, like the two of you had all the time in the world to experience this. It wasn’t just plain fucking, not this time. He was making love to you – sweet, gentle love like he so desperately needed right now. The bitter cold here was just like Siberia and it brought back memories that only you could make him forget, just like he always did for you.

His hips rocked into yours and you writhed under his body, moaning his name, tangling your fingers in his hair, pulling him down for another kiss, another touch. He whispered into your ear sweet words of praise, told you how good you were for him, how you took him so well and god he needed this, needed you—

And then you shoved him off of you so quickly that it blindsided him. You didn’t have super strength or serum or any other ability other than your brevity of wit. He weighed at least twice as much as you, but your small hands had pushed him away like he was nothing.

To you, he was nothing.

“Don’t do that, Bucky,” you hissed at him in a way that almost made his heart still in his chest.

It was another brutal reminder. Don’t get too close.

Every part of him wanted to cry out in protest. He wanted to be close to you. He wanted to be gentle. He wanted to love you, but you wouldn’t let him.

“Why?” was all he could manage to ask, and even on just that single word his voice still wavered.

“If you won’t fuck me,” you spat, like pure acid, “Then I’ll find someone else to do it. It’ll be easy.”

Those words shattered something inside of him. You didn’t do gentle. He knew that. You never did, and yet you’d been so receptive until he got too close once again, said something stupid, said he needed you like the fool he was. He needed you, but you didn’t need him. You never did. You never would – even when he’d seen you so broken earlier tonight. Even when you were just as broken as him.

He wasn’t proud of the bitter, angry way he reacted to your nasty words. His fingers curled around your hips, and he yanked you up and threw you onto your knees. He hated how easily your skin bruised so easily under his fingertips. He hated how much you loved that it did.

The way he shoved himself inside of you with no warning was brutal and punishing. He wanted to stop at your hiss of pain, but he didn’t. He pushed through it and made you take every thick inch of him because that was what you wanted. You wanted to scream and cry, and he made you do that, too. You begged him to punish you, spank you, ruin you, break you – and he did.

He slapped your ass until it was raw and red and hot tears were streaming down your face. He pulled you back by your hair and bit your neck, your shoulder, left bruises there, too – until he couldn’t bear to hear another sob and he shoved your face down into the pillow. He ordered you to shut your god damn mouth, and you thanked him for it. In between your gasps and sobs and cries, you fucking thanked him.

This was what you wanted. You wanted it rough. You wanted to be punished.

You never told him why.

After you’d come three times from being used so brutally and he’d shamefully filled you to the brim, you left him alone. You made a point to sleep on the sofa that night - not in bed with him.

There was no aftercare.

You didn’t need it, but Bucky did. He desperately needed it, but he knew his place. He couldn’t get too close.

No, instead he felt further from you than ever before.

Master List

#steve rogers x reader x bucky barnes #steve rogers x reader #bucky barnes x reader #little lies

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borisbubbles · 5 years

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Eurovision 2010: 80 - 76

80. Birgit - “Et uus saaks alguse” Estonia 2013

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It is easy to write Birgit’s superhigh ranking off as my pro-Estonia bias, but I actually did NOT like “Et uus saaks alguse” until the semifinal aired. 🤭 You see, 2013 was the first year I followed preselections and i was SMITTEN by the quirky Lõhmus song Birgit beat in EL. You may have heard of “Päästke Noored Hinged”, and if you haven’t educate yourself now and return here once you’re finished. Ready? Okay, let’s continue~

Anyway, Birgit is just... so adorable? So charismatic? Such a soothing, likable presence? Her magical voice and hypnotic swaying was the exact medicine to treat my Paia ptsd. Before I knew it, I was humming the chorus without thinking about it twice, singing a self-made Dutch translation in the shower on a daily basis. In the end, Birgit won me over, which I think you’ll agree, is a stronger phrasing of words than “I fell in love”. A true example of an underrated gem who deserves more love and attention.

After the contest, Birgit gave birth to a healthy son, continued to live a happy life with her family, occasionally cropping up in Eesti Laul as a juror or in a hilarious collab with Tanja. This ending to her arc pleases me almost as much as “Et uus saaks alguse” did, because if there’s any europerson (besides Valentina Monetta and Ieva Zasimauskaite) that I wish all the happiness in the world, it is Birgit Õigemeel.

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79. IVAN - “Help you fly” Belarus - 2016

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If I can fly, then you can flyyyyYYYyyyYYYoyoyoohoyojojkoghkooo

With 330+ of read updates under your belt, it should hardly be a surprise to you that I LOVED “Help you fly” the second I heard it, because is there anything as timeless, as ethereal, as enjoyably dated as 80s electronic ska? NO I DON’T THINK SO. TAAAAAAAAKE OOOOOOOOOOON MEEEEEEEEEEEE However, I don’t think anybody expected IVAN to reveal his true Crazy Person Colours in the months after his selection. 😍 The first inkling came when IVAN insisted “Help you fly”s uplifting message would only be done justice if he did it starkers AND flanked by REAL WOLVES. When the EBU was like “um no wtf you crazy man”, being, you know, the sane boring people we know them to be, IVAN resorted to high-tech CGI to get his ~artistic vision across~

Lol I often joke about the insanity found at Eurovision but IVAN might be insane for real, which... is really damn’ fucking awesome because it turned “Help you fly” in one of the best acid trips of all time, while also remaining a good song on top of that, and also ironic because “leave all the madness behind” is one of the few audible lines. 😂 So let us bask in the glory of this:

and this:

and this

It is often said that the line between genius and insanity is fairly blurred and IVAN is masterfully... avoiding that line by going all in. "Help you fly” is absolutely BONKERS and frankly, I can’t help being impressed. Of course, it is exactly like “Telemóveis” in that whatever underlying message it had has completely flown over the heads of the gobsmacked audience, and arguably IVAN himself <3 Every time an entry dismantles our expectations with mind-blowing awesomeness, it’s a blessing. Thank you IVAN for blessing us <3

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78. The Shin & Mariko - “Three minutes to Earth” Georgia 2014

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MORE BONKERS ENTRIES <3 God, I remember EVERYONE losing their damn’ marbles when “Three minutes to Earth” was announced. NOBODY could make any sense of it whatsoever <3 It’s like... a bizarre amalgamation of different world music traditions without any discernible melody <3 A jam session not from this fucking planet. Of course, this made the vast bulk of the fandom HATE it, However... I was always intrigued and soon fell in love with its disarming avant garde hopelessness <3

Appreciation which bloomed into genuine deep affection once I realized “Three minutes to Earth” is a song about... ALIEN ABDUCTION <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

TOLD FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE ALIENS!!!!!!!!!

Which is... really fucking CLEVER, wtf?

Like, if we assume, hypothetically, that a friendly alien race were find the Voyager and decipher how to use the golden records, a song such as “Three minutes to Earth” could very well be their interpretation of our music, abducting and indoctrinating a few random Georgians to share their message of peace and cooperation, with millions of people worldwide. That.. is conceptually the most ridiculous sentence I’ve ever written on this blog, and worse, I believe every word of it. PISS AND LIGHT EVERYWHEEEEEERE.

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77. Hera Björk - “Je ne sais quoi” Iceland 2010

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When in doubt, always bring the agressive euroschlager, and man, Hera Björk is such a force of camp nature. She provided more fire and buzz than the fucking volcano whose name nobody can pronounce (from memory, the name is “Eyjafjallajökull” ^_^) The Eyjafjallajökull mught have held all of the European airports into a chokehold, but in Eurovision it was HERA who ruled (for a brief moment).

also take a moment to ponder on the fact she looks like Lady Tremaine’s cat.

I mean, “Je ne sais quoi” has ~that special something, something just can’t explain~ just kidding, I can and I shall: "Je ne sais quoi” is shamelessly camp, with a cheesy francophone hook, pinging its status as homo-friendly eurotrash to all the gay people EUROVISION FANS that love shameless campy schlager.

What I like the most however are the explicit references to aggressive love-making. “WHEN I SEE YOU FACE I WANNA FOLLOW MY EMOTIONS” Is this song about Hera getting the d this song is about Hera getting the d isn’t it. (“d” being dick or dildo, you pick the option that wets ur humourwhistle the most.) Well, I am happy! Obese people deserve all the happiness in life. Then again, I am saying this as a man big enough to have a cleavage, so maybe that opinion is a bit bias- OKAY MOVING ON.

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76. Maraaya - “Here for you” Slovenia 2015

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Okay, I will be first to admit that “Here for you” slapped SO MUCH MORE in studio version. Arguably the best song Slovenia have ever sent to Eurovision? Definitely the best between Sebi and Cvet z Juga. And the yes, the live didn’t *entirely* live up to the hype... However, a slightly less good “Here for you” is still fucking awesome? LEGIT CHARTABLE SONG THAT ISN’T BORING <3 AIR VIOLIN REALNESS <3

However, you all know that I LIVE for the small moments of incompetence and weirdness, and Marjetka provides two big ones BY HERSELF: There’s of course the hilarity of the headphones & lace dress, but what I’m getting at is the chronic headbobbing: seriously, is this a tic:

This reminds me of 1968 BorisBubbles fave Claes-Göran Hederström and his incessant lip-licking.

(Most lubricated lips in the herstory of Eurovision 😍)

Of course, Marjetka’s persistent headbobbing also had a hilarious impact on her voice, giving her a stuttering vibrato, as she were cycling over a cobblestone road while singing this song. 😍

After doing Eurovision and showcasing their talent to everyone in Europe, Maraaya went back to Slovenia, becoming their Sven Lõhmus and loyally delivering a slew of trashy semi-chartable shitsongs into EMA every year since, winning with none of them. 😍

#Eurovision #Eurovision Song Contest #Slovenia #Iceland #Georgia #Belarus #Estonia #Birgit Õigemeel #IVAN #Aleksandar Ivanov #Help you fly #Et uus saaks alguse #The Shin #Mariko #Three minutes to Earth #Hera Björk #Je ne sais quoi #Maraaya #Here for you

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sheilatakesabow · 6 years

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Of summer schools and conferences (and cats)

Fucking tumblr won’t let me upload pictures, I swear to god.

Anyway, here’s a brief summary of the 24 days I spent in Iceland (man, I missed being there). I wasn’t there on vacation, so I actually didn’t get to do much and travel around, but Iceland is always a great experience regardless. I went there to participate to a summer school (that lasted 10 days) and to attend the most important international conference in my field of study.

It was pretty tiring since for one reason or another both during the summer school and the conference I left home in the morning and got back in the evening, and I didn’t get to sleep much and do anything beside attending lectures and talks. I also moved from one accommodation to another in between, but at least got to travel the last two days and a half I spent in Iceland after the conference ended. It’s been some pretty intense 20+ days, but I’ve enjoyed my stay there. I’ve heard interesting and stimulating talks and discussions during the conference, and learnt new things at the summer school, where I also had the chance to see first hand some medieval Icelandic manuscripts, which was really great. On top of that I also got to see renowned drunk scholars dancing during the disco time the last day of the conference, which was both awkward and hilarious. Lots of big names and scholars attended the conference, but I was mostly glad to meet again people with whom I had studied in Iceland in 2015/2016.

Beside that, I got to live for two weeks in an apartment with two adorable kitties, Snjólfur and Rodriguez, plus Emil, the intruder cat who lived in the same building and basically squatted in our apartment. ‘Our’ because I was also staying with my two best friends from the programme I took in Iceland and Norway between 2015 and 2017. Our reunion was bittersweet in a way because we would have loved to have more time together.

For the rest I got to enjoy some Icelandic hot pots, see all the kitties roaming free in Reykjavík, and do some shopping/wandering around in the city centre (which pretty much amounted to 2 or 3 times in total since I spent most of my time at the university). One day the conference was held in Reykholt, so we travelled there, and another day I went on a hike to the Glymur waterfall, which was hard as fuck for someone untrained like me. The last two and a half days before leaving the country I spent travelling to the North of Iceland, as far as Akureyri and lake Mývatn. I didn’t get to see all the things I wanted to see because we didn’t have that much time, but it was still a good trip. Landscapes in Iceland are always amazing.

This is getting long so I will cut my scattered thoughts here, since there’s not even much coherence in what I’ve been writing. I was sad to leave Iceland, and I would have loved to stay there more, but I was also missing the Pigos a lot while I was there. Leaving Iceland is always bittersweet for me, and I hope I will manage to go back there soon. I don’t think I could live there permanently, but I always feel the need to go back after a while at the same time.

I would like to post some pictures here, but they’re on my phone and they’re too big for tumblr to upload them, and resizing them all would take a shitload of time... I plan on posting some photos on my Instagram, but that’s private and I’m not comfortable with opening it to everyone. I will try to transfer all the pics I took on my laptop and then resize some of them so that I can post them here on my blog. Considering that earlier tumblr refused to even upload two small pictures I wanted to post, I’m not sure I will be able to share some pics with you at all. We will see I guess, fingers crossed!

#my not life

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pisc1s · 6 years

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My festival experience: Lollapalooza Chile 2018

First of all, I know it’s been literally a month since this fest took place, but I really wanted to write about it and didn’t have time before so, it’s whatever, right? Let’s just pretend it was yesterday!

I know tons of people attend festivals not because of the artists and bands that are gonna be there (or it’s not their main concern at least), but because of the experience, the partying, to hang out with their friends and to have a good time, basically, but I’m not one of them.

I’ve been to Lollapalooza Chile twice, and it has always been about the music. This year, it was mainly about Imagine Dragons and The Killers, two of my absolute favorite bands in the whole wide world.

You know what? Before the festival, I wasn’t even planning on making this post, but as I was leaving Imagine Dragons’ set, I was trying to make sense of all the emotions I was feeling, and thinking of the best way to express them, to express my love for them and my endless gratitude.

So that’s how I came up with this idea: my top 3 bands that I saw at Lollapalooza in Santiago de Chile on March 16th, 17th and 18th.

3. Imagine Dragons

What an iconic bunch of musicians y’all, what an iconic group of legends. I first started listening to Imagine Dragons back in early 2014, and they’ve been amongst my favorite bands ever since. I saw them live in 2015 on the Smoke + Mirrors World Tour, and that was the first concert I ever went to alone. Also, they’re the only band I’ve ever seen more than once. Safe to say they have a pretty special place in my heart.

Now, onto the actual concert experience: that day I arrived at 3pm, ish, and their set was supposed to start at 8:15pm. Therefore, I intended to see other bands in the meantime, but, when I approached the stage Imagine Dragons was going to play at, I realized I had a real shot of being really close to the front, which is THE GOAL, as every fangirl/boy can attest to, so I just stayed there, but I decided to position myself at the side barrier instead, so I could get some shelter from the sun and besides, it was still a good place to be.

Throughout the entire set, I was pushed up against a lot of people I didn’t know, I was sweaty, out of breath and tired, but also the happiest I had been in a while.

Seeing the ever-present smile on Dan’s face and knowing we as an audience made that happen, everyone around me passionately singing every word and filling every small bit of silence with loud screams, it all brought me so much joy.

Even though they barely sang Smoke + Mirrors tracks – my favorite album by them – and sang a lot of their newer stuff – which I must admit, I’m not the biggest fan of – it was the best experience, and I’m eternally grateful to them, for being humble, kind, charitable, loving and so frickin’ talented.

I feel like I can’t even put into words how much I love them and how much they really mean to me but oh well, I tried!

Bonus: Dan passed right by my side and I touched his shoulder, UNFORGETTABLE!

2. Kaleo

I had heard about Kaleo before, because they were openers for The Lumineers (my absolute favorite band), but I wasn’t at all familiar with their music, other than listening to their album a few times before the festival.

I must say, I was greatly surprised! They played at an alternative smaller stage, right in the dust, but oh boy, I think they honestly deserved to be at the main stage. Even if no one knew them, everyone would’ve loved them by the end of their set, just like I did.

I know for a fact a lot of the audience there didn’t know them, but that didn’t stop us from having a hell of a good time! Everyone jumped up and down, not caring about all the dust flying around, and clapped along to every song.

Honestly, Kaleo’s music is AMAZING and I still go back to it today. It makes me so happy knowing they left with a good impression of our country and with a bit of luck, they’ll be back sometime soon. Yet another incredible band to come from Iceland! :-P

For sure check them out if you haven’t!

1. The Killers

Do I even need to explain why The Killers are like, the best thing to ever exist?! (I love being dramatic lol)

I only learned about this band in early 2016, by seeing Brandon Flowers’ set in Lollapalooza, but since then they slowly started becoming one of my absolute favorite bands, so obviously, I was looking forward to seeing them for the first time this year, and they did not disappoint!

Their set was full of classics and iconic anthems, like the popular ‘Read My Mind’ and ‘Mr. Brightside’, that I’m sure most people have heard before, and it also contained two of my favorite songs by them, ‘Run For Cover’ and ‘For Reasons Unknown’, both of which I sang at the top of my lungs, surely annoying everyone around me, but not caring a bit :-P

The only slightly disappointing thing is they didn’t play a lot of songs from their newest album, ‘Wonderful Wonderful’, a masterpiece in my opinion, but they did play all of their most popular and best songs so, no biggie!

Probably my favorite moment was right before ‘Mr. Brightside’, when Brandon went ‘Santiago, we have to go now’, the whole crowd went ‘NOOOOO’, ‘you gotta go back to your lives’, ‘NOOOOOOO’, ‘we have to head to Paraguay’, ‘NOOOOOO’. Truly iconic and to be honest, a big fat mood!

Anyways, that’s the end of it, I don’t know if it was somewhat interesting, hope it was, but thanks for reading if you did!

:-)

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heister · 7 years

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Reykjavik, Rafting, & Golden Circle

well…I didn’t take an early night Sunday. I ended up making some friends at the hostel and we decided to go out; yes there is nightlife in Reykjavik on Sundays. We landed at Kiki, the only queer bar in Reykjavik (which I have affectionately started to call Reyk, even though probably no one says that), where we made some more friends and danced a little. It was pretty low key (there’s not THAT much nightlife on a Sunday!) and I made it back to the hostel in time to stream Game of Thrones. BUT – tragedy – the internet futzed up halfway through and when I tried to get back on, it told me there were too many people using my account. It’s finally happened, friends. I gave out my password too many times. It’s funny because I looked up HBOgo’s policies about number of uses of one login, and they are very vague. So I guess we hit the magic random number. If this happens again, I may have to change the password – I’ll let y’all know if that happens and apologize if that’s the way of it, but a girl’s gotta watch her GOT. I’ll probably just wait until Mondays to watch it anyway, because I’d rather stick it to capitalism and share my (mom’s) account with all my friends but…we’ll see. Oh! And no spoilers here, now or ever.

So I did not have a very good night’s sleep, maybe about 4ish hours, and then it was off to my big rafting adventure! Yes, I went rafting in an arctic river composed entirely of glacier melt. Whoo it was cold! They gave us all special wet suits and shoes which was really helpful. I rented a gopro for the journey and have a butt zillion photos and videos, but the memory chip they gave me doesn’t fit into my computer, so no pics from that for now. It was a lot of fun, but I am so sore now (the next day). It really is a good upper body workout! Oh! And I managed to fall in on the very first rapid. Oy. It was quite exciting…I don’t think I really had time to feel too scared, though I was definitely a little freaked out. But I did everything right and was pulled back into the boat after the rapids were done. I’m sure my butt is bruised but I held on to the boat and kept my feet up, so it could have been a lot scarier than it was. I guess I can say I swam a class 2 rapid! I am grateful to be okay – it was quite the surprise, I was in the boat then all of a sudden I wasn’t! After that it was pretty hard for the rest of the journey to compare, thrills-wise, but believe me, I was glad to have some tranquility. My arm hurt a bit after that, but it went away soon enough. We also stopped at a place where you could jump off a cliff at 5 or 8 m. I chickened out of the 8m and did the 5m one, and ooof, I did not jump right because my body was hurting after that. I think it was the impact of the life jacket moving on my upper torso, it hurt to breathe too deep for the rest of the journey. I was starting to get a little worried, but the pain went away as soon as I took my life jacket off, later. So everything’s okay! But I must say the jump was more scary and painful than fun…I think my phase of jumping off things (see: Central America 2015) may be over; it’s probable that bungee jumping (also CA 2015) actually increased my fear of heights haha.

After rafting, our group did a tour of the Golden Circle. I was so tired and wiped out I almost didn’t even care about everywhere we went. It was hard to pull myself out of the car, I was so tired. But I’m glad I did. We went to Geysir first, which is the geysir all other geysers are named after

It doesn’t gush anymore, just steams. Its neighbor, Strokkur, is much more active, but I didn’t get any good photos. It gushed 3 times in a row right after I walked away – poor timing! Whatever, though, I was there and I remember :)

Then we went to Gullfoss, which means golden waterfall, named for how it looks when the sun hits it a certain way.

It was really beautiful, and we saw a few rainbows! I didn’t have time to go close to the falls, but I was also a little worried about slipping and falling on the slippery rocks, so it’s probably for the better. After my excitement on the rafting trip I think I was a little hypochondriac. On the trail here I realized I didn’t have my drive with the rafting photos and assumed I’d lost it, that it had fallen out of my pocket in a bathroom somewhere. But then I found it back on the bus. Yay!

Our final stop was þingvellir national park, where I’d stopped with the GoT tour earlier. The rest of the group went to the waterfall I’d already seen, but I went to Alþingi (which sounds like how I try to pronounce most Icelandic: “Al-thingy”) which is where the first seat of Icelandic parliament in the 900s (yes, 900s, NOT 1900s) was.

It’s right where the tectonic plates of Europe and North America are coming apart, slowly (about an inch in Iceland every year). I realized that this is what that tunnel from the GoT tour was (the bloody gate one; also used when the wildlings meet the thenns) – it’s the “no man’s land” between continental plates. wild!

Then we went home and I went to sleep, whew!

Today is my last day in Reykjavik and I’m taking it pretty easy. I checked out of my hostel and am at one of my favorite Reyk cafes. Tonight I’m going to the Blue Lagoon – a total tourist trap hot springs but all I’ve heard is that it is a tourist trap AND still worth it. It will be nice to just relax with all my sore muscles from yesterday. After that I’m heading to an airport hostel to rest up before my flight to Berlin early tomorrow morning. I’ll be getting into Berlin around noon tomorrow, and while I’m sad to leave Iceland – I’m rather fond of it – I will NOT miss how freaking expensive it is here! Oy! My hostel in Berlin is 1/3 the price of my hostel here, and it’s so refreshing to return to semi-normal city prices. I’ll be saving a lot in Greece, I hope, but dang, this was an expensive trip. I wouldn’t take it back, but do wish I had planned more. I understand why I didn’t/couldn’t but my recommendation for others is to definitely plan, save, budget, etc. for Iceland. It’s not a great spur-of-the-moment trip, but it is a great trip! I think my favorite parts were the glacier lagoon and rafting. It’s a really beautiful country – even the “mundane” parts of it are gorgeous – and worth coming to see. Just be sure to budget and save in advance. My only regret is that I’ll be saving after the fact to cover some of the costs on this trip. But, yolo, you know?

Well, I think that’s all for now! Catch you in Berlin!

#iceland #reykjavik #gullfoss #geysir #golden circle #rafting #adventure #travel #þingvellir

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rockysoil-blog · 7 years

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July 6th - Traveling to Vegas

My wife Sarah has a separate bank account variously known as the vacation fund, the ski-boat fund, or whatever fun project she has planned next. She deposits money that she deems to be outside the normal everyday living budget, sort of the bluebirds of life: rebates we get from our credit card or our banking co-op, the settlement we got from Volkswagen for Dieselgate (that was a big one), etc. All well and good so far. But she also gets a little creative in her definition of unexpected money. We went on a family vacation to Iceland with her sister Felicity and family, and we booked and paid for all the accommodation upfront. When Felicity pays us back, Sarah’s reasoning is that that bill was already paid long ago, so this is “found money” and can go into the special account. My favorite logical twister was when the car broke down and the mechanic said it would cost a few thousand dollars to fix, which made us pretty bummed. When a few days later it turned out to be a small ($100) problem, she claimed that we had already mentally spent the money to fix the car, so we should pay the $100 and put the difference in her “stash”.

I took a few accounting courses in school, and I don’t think my wife’s logic would get her a passing grade. But despite that, my poker accounting comes straight from the Sarah O’Herron School of Bookkeeping (SOB of course). I tell myself that the only way I will play in the WSOP Main Event, which costs $10,000 just to enter, is to win the money so I feel like it doesn’t really cost anything (the poker term for a chance to win with no chance to lose is “freeroll”) . I play a few events in Maryland during the year and some small stakes tournaments online when I can, all trying to win the $10K I need to justify going out to Vegas to play the world’s biggest and most prestigious poker tournament. But true to my wife’s teachings, I only count my winnings - when I lose, well, that’s just my hobby:) - and I don’t subtract the losses from my total. In 2014, I won enough money to go out and play for the first time; in 2015 I didn’t win enough, but decided to go out a few days early and try to win $ in the preliminary tournaments, a plan which failed spectacularly. 2016 was a very busy year and I didn’t get to play much at all, so I regretfully had to skip it last year. This year I played a $400 entry tournament at Maryland Live in December, finishing 5th out of 320 or so players and earning $8500 (PPC Main Event 5th place). I also entered two $575 tournaments and two $300 tournaments without cashing for any $, but that’s just a hobby, right? I had a good year in the few online tournaments I got to play, so I managed to squeak out $10k in winnings. And the plane flight and hotel bills don’t count either, right Honey? Hon?

Anyway you account for it, I am on the plane heading west to play poker for the next week or two. Life is good.

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gonebethebirds · 4 years

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March 2020 Travel Update!

Traveling is not really an option right now or for the foreseeable future, so why not look back on my trips taken in the last few years, since that’s been a theme of mine anyway.

2020 (2 Trips Taken, Many Trips Canceled or On Hold)

January (1): Home for my birthday. It was a really fun trip actually. Got to see LOTS of friends (Brian, Jimmy, Lauren, Nicole Leclaire, Jessie, Chris Tham) and go to HMB, the city, boat rides, Rickshaw, etc. It was really a “home-run” kind of weekend.

February (0): None!

March (1): Sequoia National Park with Jesse while Carina was on her Bachelorette trip to Napa. Ironically, this is the weekend that things started to get really crazy with COVID. Sequoia was gorgeous though, covered in snow once we got in far enough. For sure one of our most gorgeous NP trips/hikes.

The rest come down to nine trips that are either ticketed, scheduled, or were otherwise supposed to happen, but now we’ll just have to wait and see:

April (2): Big Bear [postponed to July], and New York for work [postponed or canceled].

May (2): Bay Area [for work actually, postponed or canceled] and Caymans in late May [TBD].

June (1): New York for Dan’s wedding [TBD].

July (1): Big Bear, rescheduled from April.

August (1): Bachelor party weekend, likely to San Diego, likely still happening unless things get much worse from here.

September: no travel plans, given our wedding!

October: none

November (1): Honeymoon - details, locations and all plans TBD.

December (1): Likely Massillon, but no plans at this time. Too early.

2019 (12 Trips)

January (1): Chicago with Carina for New Year’s! GOT ENGAGED!!

February (1): New York for work right after Grammys, stayed a couple extra days as Carina was supposed to join but couldn’t due to flight troubles.

March (0)

April (3): Atlanta for LMA, annual Big Bear trip for Jesse’s birthday, then Jesse’s bachelor party trip at the end of the month which was in Zion then Vegas.

May (2): Home at the beginning of the month to visit Dad, then Ensenada last weekend for Jesse and Katie’s wedding!

June (1): Home at the end of the month with Carina, saw lots of friends.

July (1): Singapore and Bali at the end of the month with Carina! First trip to Asia! Amazing!

August (1): Yellowstone at the end of the month with Dad and Carina! The first time for both of them!

September (1): went to the bay for the weekend for Carina’s launch party. Actually had a super nice time in the city and a full day of walking around and exploring. It was a gorgeous day and one for the books.

October( 0): None! But my dad came down to visit which was nice.

November (0): None! Had a lovely, rainy, cold (as it should be) Thanksgiving at home - literally our home, our first time hosting! Carina’s family made it special.

December (1): Massillon for Christmas. We canceled Park City as the ski prices and hotel prices got ridiculous.

2018 (20 Trips)

January (2): Home for New Year’s with Carina, and New York for Grammys (followed immediately by DC)! New York was basically just hours after Kinsley was born!

February (2): DC for work with Doug, and Zion with Jesse, Anu and Akshay!

March (1): Home/SF with Jesse, Katie and Carina for St. Patrick’s Day!

April (2): New Orleans for LMA with Carina! And annual Big Bear trip for Jesse’s birthday.

May (2): Colorado for a video shoot with Sashi and the Caymans with Carina and her family!

June (2): DC for work with Doug (Capitol Crypto) and Home! (Giants game, big barbecue, pride at the park).

July (0):

August (3): Zion round 7 with Jesse (Observation Point), home to help dad after surgery, home again for Nicole’s wedding.

September (1): Albuquerque with Mom just for fun!

October (1): Ohio!! OSU and Massillon with Carina (for Homecoming but also a couple days in Massillon to introduce her).

November (2): Zion round 8, with Jesse and Carina (first Angel’s Landing ascent of 2018 and first for Carina in general). And ICELAND!!! Plus home for a day after Iceland as an extended layover.

December (2): Home for Christmas then Massillon for Christmas! (We had light attendance this past year though).

2017 (22 Trips)

January (2): Home for New Year’s, and Washington, DC for my birthday with Carina!

February (1): Arizona road trip (through Page) with Carina.

March (2): Zion, Arches, and Bryce with Jesse, Katie, and Carina! And Vegas for LMA.

April (3): DC & New York for work, Big Bear round 2 for Jesse’s birthday, and the bay with Carina.

May (3): Vegas for Mother’s Day with Jenn, Brian, and Carina, NY & DC for work (again just a month later), and Denver/ The Rockies with Jesse, Katie, and Carina!

June (2): Pismo Beach with Carina and her friends, then Kings Canyon & Sequoia with Jesse (and we saw a bear).

July (2): Amsterdam & Bruges with Carina (what?!) and Santa Barbara with Jesse and Anu.

August (3): The bay for OSU buds, Jenn & Brian’s announcement, and Giana’s going away party. Then Cabo with Carina, Parthiv and his friends, then the bay again for Mom & Dad’s birthdays.

September (0): None!

October (2): Zion round 5 with Jesse, and upcoming: the bay with Dan & Chrystal.

November (1): Home for Thanksgiving.

December (1): Massillon for Christmas! (No trip home for Christmas? We might have lumped that into the Thanksgiving visit).

2016 (19 Trips)

January (3): Home for New Year’s, Portland with Tina, and Grand Canyon/ Utah with Jesse.

February (0): None!

March (2): Joshua Tree with Jesse, and home.

April (3): Austin for LMA, Big Bear for Jesse’s birthday, and home with Jesse, Katie, and Lexie!

May (1): New York City for work right after Jenn’s wedding!

June (2): Borrego Springs with Carina and Seattle with Carina!

July (2): Scottsdale for the 4th and Yellowstone with Jesse!

August (1): Home with Carina.

September (2): Banff (!!!) with Carina and Homecoming at OSU.

October (1): Home to hang with Dad & Mom post-surgery and injury.

November (1): Zion round 3 with Jesse.

December (1): Massillon! [We did our Christmas in Riverside].

2015 (18 Trips)

I had set out to travel at least once per calendar month.

January (2): Home for New Year’s, and Chicago with Giana, Janelly, & Lauren.

February (1): Colorado with Jesse.

March (1): Bay Area with Lina.

April (1): Arizona (Sedona & GC NP) with Jesse.

May (1): Seattle with Jesse and Dan.

June (1): Zion [Round 1!] with Jesse.

July (2): Rancho Mirage, then Home for a week after M&R/ before MSK.

August (2): Zion Round 2 with Jesse, then the bay for Elyse’s wedding.

September (1): Tennessee with Jesse.

October (2): Homecoming at OSU, then New York City for MSK.

November (2): Boston! And Cabo!

December (2): Home for Christmas and Massillon for Christmas.

0 notes

winterpart3-blog · 5 years

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8 Month’s With a Mamiya Leaf Credo 80

Its been a busy 8 months since I first started shooting with the Mamiya Leaf Credo 80, first impressions were experienced in the USA in August, when a client shoot gave me the opportunity to do a small road trip with fellow explores Shannon and Karen. Since returning to the UK from that trip, I spent a weekend with Gina, Mike and Danny on an adventure up north capturing abandoned buildings all over the North of England. In September I went with Adam, James and Sam to Belgium, popping into Germany briefly. In October I went to France and Luxembourg with Darren, Dursty and Nick and later that month did my first model in an amazing underwater ballroom and my second in November in Lincoln with the theme of the Lady in Black.

Taken by Darren Smith

2015 has been even more busy, my feet haven’t touched the ground, I started the year with a model shoot with Jen Brooke in Belgium, followed by another with Stephanie Warwick in France, then off to Bulgaria, Iceland for two weeks and then Ukraine to visit Chernobyl again in April. This is just the beginning my travel plans for the next couple of years are getting more exciting by the day in 2016 I intend to leave the UK on the 1st January and not come home again till December 1st, traveling around Asia, South America Europe and all over the USA.

Taken by Darren Smith

It’s wonderful to be so busy after spending a few months in 2014 plotting and planning what the next 3 years will hold and choosing the Mamiya Leaf Credo 80 to accompany me on these 3 future book projects is a decision I won’t regret.

Taken by Darren Smith

For me the equipment I use is a tool to create the photos I make, you always need the right tool for a job, I recently made the decision to start using a medium format Mamiya Leaf camera with Credo 80 back, with a huge 80 mega pixel sensor, I made this choice, not because it was one of the most top of the range systems you can buy, but because it was the right tool for the job for me.

Taken by James Kerwin

As my artworks are destined for print and customers buy them at massive sizes, I needed a tool that could produce amazing quality at such size. The quality and dynamic range is something I could not have achieved with my previous SLR.

Taken by Richie Gowen

Using the system at first was a bit of a learning curve, but I knew it would be worth it, my first impressions of the system were back in May when I used it in Israel for a street photography shoot in Jaffa Market. I was instantly taken away by the photos I took that day and knew I had to try out the system again. I’m not going to lie, the camera with digital back and a decent lens is expensive, but it is also the perfect system for any fine art or commercial photographer when prints size goes beyond the realms of the magazine into fine art prints of gigantic preparations and billboard sized client images.

Taken by Gina Soden

The first thing I noticed about using the camera, was how simple it was to use, there is something very basic about the menu system and accessing the settings and photos once taken. It was a little strange at first when an SLR gives you so many options, so many focus points, with the medium format it felt like I was leaning more towards a film camera and the feel of the camera felt very genuine and real. The camera also boast an amazing touch screen back which allows you to scroll through the images and zoom in using touch technology, which is pretty awesome.

What I love most about the system is the detail captured the final RAWS are 10328 x 7760 pixels 300dpi the seniors is 80mp. Unfortunately the detail is completely lost when scaled down to upload to the internet and even worse with social media sites like Facebook destroying the quality of the files. But when printed out at full glory you can truly see how remarkable the detail is, every cm is blissful detail goodness.

I think it is amazing that I can take a crop of a single image and it have the same image size of that as a SLR, but still with incredible detail and dynamic range. A lot of my model work is a model in a setting and for me its all about the setting they are in, therefore sometime the model is quite small in the frame, a problem? Yes when a makeup artist would like close up for their books. But this isn’t a problem as I can take a close up crop of the model and be able to send it at the size of a SLR file to the team members. It’s a very strange thing to be able to edit at 100% of a face that is so small in the actual shot, but still feel like I am retouching a SLR file with the amount of detail at that size.

100% Crop of below photo

I’ve truly put the system through its paces, I must admit as medium format systems are generally suited more to studio situations, I was worried about taking it on my huge amounts of travels to distant lands, carrying it round dirty abandoned buildings, to freezing cold Iceland in the depth of its winter, but I have had no problems, the system is robust and if well looked after it is a work horse. It would be great to get some kind of weather proofing on future models, but I had no problems putting on a rain jacket and it performing well, even at a frozen waterfall in Iceland with water spray from the falls that was freezing my tripod.

The system has a top iso of 800, which for some would be a problem, but again you get a system that suits the job you do, the camera goes does to 35 iso which is a bonus for me shooting in daylight. I use a tripod and long exposures and never go above 100 iso anyway so this is not a problem for me.

MAMIYA 645DF+ SPECS

Taken From the Mamiya Leaf website

Modular 645 AF SLR body

LENSES

Mamiya Digital focal plane lenses Schneider-Kreuznach designed leaf shutter lenses Mamiya 645 AFD lenses Compatible with Hasselblad V lenses

BACKS

Open platform back mount

AUTO FOCUS

TTL phase-difference AF with 3 focus points Focus confirmation in manual mode Infrared AF assists for unfailing focus Auto focus lock for swift AF/ M shift

SHUTTER

1/4000s to 60 minutes Up to 2 fps Shutter speed bracketing

FLASH

Focal plane shutter: Up to 1/125s Leaf shutter lenses: Up to 1/1600s 1st and 2nd curtain flash synchronisation X sync terminal and support for TTL flash

LIGHT METERING

TTL metering (average, spot and auto) Programmable AEL button Exposure compensation: +/- 5EV

MIRROR-UP

Electronically-activated by switch on grip

VIEWFINDER

Fixed prism viewfinder Exchangeable diopter from -5 to +3 LCD panel with full exposure information

FOCUSING SCREEN

Interchangeable focus screens Laser engraved mask for digital back Matte, Grid, Checker, Microprism

SELF-TIMER

Self-timer from 2 to 60 sec

REMOTE

Screw-in cable release on shutter button Terminal for electronic triggering devices

STOP DOWN PREVIEW

Stop down button on front of camera

TRIPOD SOCKET

1/4 inch and 3/8 inch

POWER REQUIREMENTS

Rechargeable Li-Ion battery pack 6 AA batteries (standard or rechargeable) External battery pack – 6 AA batteries External AC adapter

USER CONFIGURATION

3 Custom dial modes for capture settings 36 custom settings Customizable dials and buttons

SIZE

153 x 128x 184 mm, 6 x 5 x 7.2 in (W x H x D)

WEIGHT

1030g (35 oz) without batteries

LEAF CREDO 80 SPECS

CCD size

53.7 x 40.3 mm

Active pixels

10,320 x 7752

Resolution

80 MP

Aspect ratio

4:3

Pixel size

5.2 micron

ISO sensitivity

35-800

Exposure time

1/10,000 – 120 seconds

Full resolution capture rate

0.7 frame/sec

RAW File compression (large)

80 MB

RAW File compression (small)

54 MB

Output image dimensions 300 dpi

300 dpi: 87.4 x 65.6 cm

Output image dimensions 600 dpi

600 dpi: 43.7 x 32.8 cm

Color depth

16 bits (65,536 levels per channel)

Dynamic range

12.5 f-stops

Color management workflow

Range of factory ICC profiles, plus optional ability for users to create their own custom camera profiles

Display

3.2 in, 1.15 MP bright touch LCD with 170 degree viewing angle

Image viewing

Preview up to 6 images on one LCD screen, up to 400% zoom

Onboard tools

Live View on LCD, spirit level, ISO, white balance, histogram, exposure alarms, image rating, 645DF custom functions

Storage

CompactFlash including UDMA 6 and 7

Connectivity

FireWire 800, USB 3.0, USB 2.0

Software

Capture One 6.4 or higher

Battery

2900 mAh rechargeable Li-ion

Operating conditions

0°–40°C (32°–104°F), Humidity: 15%–80% (non-condensing)

Certifications

FCC (A), CE, RoHS

I use Capture One Pro to process my images, before I was using the Credo 80 I would use HDR techniques to combine various images shot at different exposures by tone mapping. But I haven’t had to do this at all using this system, I can pull the shadows and highlights back from a single exposure and create a beautiful image with great dynamic range. Occasionally I will shoot a window at a shorter exposure as there’s no pulling back a totally over exposed window, but I am so happy with the way this software deals with the RAWs captured

I then finish my editing in Photoshop CS6 and its an absolute joy working with such an incredible amount of pixels

I still have my canon 5Diii but I use the Mamiya Leaf now for 80% of what I do, there are still some client job which I need something smaller and that I will be shooting a lot and often hand held in low light situations. Every system has its highs but also its limitations and if I am asked to photograph an event at night and the client wants 400+ shots, then I would shoot on my Canon.

I have truly fallen in love with this system and can’t see myself shooting my fine art photography work with anything again, the quality of images printed is beautiful beyond words and I’m looking forward to how my books will look in a couple of years, printed using this camera.

Some Blogs With Images Shot With the System

Nephthys

Because I Could Not Stop For Death

Exploring in the USA

Chateau Congo – Belgium

Chateau Singes – France

Pennsylvania Prison – USA

Saint Jo’s – UK

New Jersey Hospital – USA

Piscine Crachoir – Belgium

The Ark – UK

Underworld – Distant Lands

Film by Karen Eng Promessa Films

Source: http://www.rebeccabathoryblog.com/review-mamiya-leaf-credo-80/

0 notes

lovelettersyouwroteme-blog · 6 years

Quote

hey i just have a few things that i need to get off my chest. i wanted to reply earlier but i’ve just got a lot on my hands these days and wanted this to be heartfelt and not rushed. so here it goes. if this is it, if this is the end then there are some things you should know. you changed my life. in unimaginable ways. and that i love you so much. for being this person in my life. someone i could always count on. im sorry for every time I’ve caused you pain. for every time I’ve hurt you in any way. im so sorry for every time i messed up. i want you to know how much you really mean to me. so here it goes. thank you for always asking me for that french homework on december 15, 2015. thank you for making me laugh. thank you for always texting me back. thank you for spending your december holiday talking to me. thank you for being honest about my glasses, you were right. thank you for being as interesting as you are. thank you for letting me become your friend. thank you for being as insightful and thoughtful as you are. thank you for giving me new things to learn every day from you. thank you for being so kind and for helping me through whatever problems i was facing regardless of how stupid (glasses) or how important (weekly nervous breakdowns). thank you for always being there for me when i was down. thank you for being a friend that i could always talk to. thank you for putting zero boundaries on our friendship and always being so open and honest - i respect that so much about you. its an incredible quality you have. thank you for always being the intellectual one between us. thank you for telling me things as they were. thank you for watching movies with me when you wanted to watch something. thank you for staying up with me till 7am your time to analyze them. thank you for sending analyses of movies you’ve watched and loved. thank you for creating the goodnight spam trend. I’ve never seen anything like it. thank you for creating the plane spam trend. no boring plane rides took place after that. thank you for trusting me with your thoughts and your ideas. thank you for trusting me with things you’ve never told anyone. thank you for letting me in to your life. thank you for trusting me with being that kind of person in your life. you were always that kind of person in my own life. thank you for showing me your art. thank you for trusting me with the videos you make no matter how much you thought you could improve them. thank you for drawing countless pictures of me, they’ve made me cry - in the best way possible. thank you for telling me about dantom. thank you for never really getting mad at me no matter how annoying i could get. thank you for caring so much about this random girl you met and for changing her life. thank you for helping her become a better person. (thank you for helping her become funnier too.) thank you for always always always being so honest with me. thank you for letting me in on how your days went. thank you for letting me into your past life and your current. thank you for planning how were gonna travel the world together. thank you for that intricate and detailed map. it was incredible. thank you for explaining crazy theories to me. thank you for always analyzing every situation so well. thank you for always helping me double guess, it always helped. thank you for somewhat helping me make decisions. two indecisive people working together ! thank you for always being there for moral support. thank you for being one in a million. thank you for for not giving up in the three days i got mad. im so sorry about that. thank you for bearing with my four month long sc spam. thank you for being someone i could send voice notes or videos of me crying about two very special kittens. thank you for being such a wholesome person in my very crazy life. thank you for making my life more wholesome. transitive property. thank you for being my best friend. three years, every day. thank you for loving emo saleha. for period saleha. every other saleha. thank you for bearing with me crying about how crazy and unfair and artificial this world is. thank you for always helping me come up with escape plans on my down days. norway here i come. (and NOT iceland). thank you for loving the same music as i do - its something we cant control but i just had to thank you for it. thank you for moving to doha. thank you for every second, minute and hour you put into this friendship, into us. thank you for every time you’ve complimented me. thank you for every time you’ve put forth kind words into an appreciation spam and sent it my way. thank you for being so genuine. so so so genuine. thank you for all the stories you’ve told me. thank you for every single good morning. and every single good night. thank you for accepting me for who i am. for being crazy enough to accept me. thank you for our WhatsApp chats, iM chats, facebook and twitter. wild times. thank you for giving me the most comforting friendship. thank you for letting me become a real part of your life. thank you for sticking through these timezones. thank you for making me watch how i met your mother. and letting me become part of that part of you. thank you for sending me those crazy voice notes. all of them. including this one where you’re making goat (or sheep?????) sounds i don’t even know what happened there. thank you for being so understanding. thank you for calling me. checking up on me before my accounting test. thank you for listening to me rant about things. thank you for making me that song you once made me. thank you for every single little thing. thank you thank you thank you. thank you for helping me get more comfortable in my own skin. thank you for showing me new music. you have the better taste in music anyway. thank you for being this incredible person in my life. for giving me reasons to get up every day. thank you for for the cafeteria conversations. thank you for teaching me so much more about Apple, the SAT, and universities. thank you for understanding my hatred for the world. thank you for not understanding that memes were unnecessary. they’re not. instagram and twitter prove it every day. THANK YOU FOR THE SNAPS ON HOW TO MAKE A SANDWICH. cracked me up. thank you for taking a chance on me and not running away when you saw the ugliest parts of me. when you saw the side of me that no one has seen. thank you for not leaving. your four months got excused. i’m sorry again. thank you for making me so happy. thank you for letting me mean something. for telling me the things you’ve told me. thank you for allowing me to listen to you. thank you for talking to me about them. thank you for every time you’ve been there for me. morning evening night you were always there. even when i wasn’t always there for you. thank you for every beautiful message you sent me when i was down. i can only hope i came even a tiny bit close to doing that for you. thank you for lifting my mood up by just texting back. thank you for making this world a better place to be in. thank you for always being yourself around me. thank you for putting in the time. thank you for the cake box, for the spams ill always hold near and dear to my heart, for the songs, the voice notes, the videos. thank you for just giving me a safe space, allowing me to be myself around you. i never had to think twice about what you thought about me because you’ve always been so understanding. thank you for being my everything. thank you for loving me even though i don’t believe i deserve it. thank you for making my life and mind easier place to navigate through. thank you for showing me that unconditional love can and does exist in this world. thank you for letting me be your travel companion. whether it worked out or not. thank you for giving me a chance. thank you for giving me an endless list of memories and conversations to hold on to. no matter what. thank you for giving me the best three years of my life, ever. for being the best person in my life. for showing me that someone so wholesome even exists in our world. you mean so much to me. 100. thank you for writing me 100 reasons why you loved me. heres my turn giving you 100 ways you changed my life.

my last text to you

0 notes

ovojebalkan-story-collectio-blog · 6 years

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Bjorkman’s Empire 16 - Autumn Leaves

It was a year and a half since Björkman's Empire had been taken down by the 2013 Eurovision entrants, and even after all this time, the memory of the Swedish dictator hung over the world, like a black cloud. Things still weren't back to normal, and many were wondering if they ever would be. Many doubted that things would ever be normal again. Sweden's dictatorship had ended, but the British occupation of Sweden was brutal, and Sweden was still under occupation. The Eurovision Song Contest, the event that had acted as a catalyst in so many of those events, was still ongoing. Tonight, Macedonia were choosing their song for the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest. They were going to be the very first country to choose a song this year. Some were wondering if some countries were going to withdraw from the contest, but Macedonia was not going to be one of them. Macedonia didn't typically get good results at the contest, but they wouldn't give up so easily. They would always come back each and every year to participate. They would always turn up every time with another song, no matter what results they got from Europe, they weren't quitters. Macedonia was one of the lucky countries that had come out of the Björkman's Empire incident virtually unscathed. By staying out of most of the issues, they had ensured that the Swedish dictatorship had no real reason to touch them. Sure, Sweden and Macedonia had come very close to war with the Imperija incident, but it was quickly forgotten and Macedonia practically ignored the Swedish dictatorship after it was all over. And now, with Sweden's dictator gone, and the UK out of the world stage, possibly permanently, Macedonia was also one of the few nuclear powers left. Macedonia was in a real position to become a world power. But they didn't take it. They didn't want to take it. They had seen what had become of the other so-called 'world powers' and they didn't want to join them. Iceland, the UK, those countries had been ruined. Macedonia didn't want to end up like them. They were just fine as they are. --- The lights around the stage lit up as the audience went and found their seats. Skopje Fest 2014 would be starting soon. They were choosing their song for 2015 in 2014, but that just meant they had a lot of time to get the performance and the song just right. In the green room, the Skopje Fest entrants were waiting for the show to begin. Previous Eurovision entrants Vlatko Ilievski and Tamara Todevska were entering in the contest. Tamara would be singing by herself, but Vlatko's song was a duet with his friend Risto Samardžiev. They all hoped they would be the ones getting through to the Eurovision Song Contest 2015, but they knew the competition would be tough. Daniel Kajmakoski was the favourite to win the contest. He had won X Factor Adria, one of the biggest music shows in the Balkans, and was even mentored by Serbian Eurovision entrant Željko Joksimović. "Are we all ready?" Vlatko asked, "The show is starting soon." "Yeah, we're ready," Tamara said, looking around the room. But at that moment Daniel realised that someone was missing. "Hey, where is Kaliopi?" Daniel asked, "She's going to be the interval act tonight, isn't she?" "Yeah, she is," Vlatko replied, "Don't worry, I'm sure she's on her way. If not, she has plenty of time before the interval." "Hey, Vlatko, Tamara," Dimitar said, "You really like Eurovision, huh? So much that you both want to go back there. So, have any plans if you win?" "Well, uh..." Vlatko began. He hadn't really thought of that. Tamara didn't look like she'd thought of any plans for Eurovision either. "Now now," Risto grinned, "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Remember, the best performance and the best song should win. We want nothing but the best to go and represent Macedonia in front of Europe, right?" "Right," Tamara said, "We want a qualification this year, no matter who is representing us." "That's right!" Vlatko said, "The most important thing is that Macedonia sends a song that does well, right?" Macedonia didn't usually qualify from the final, but they weren't a country that would quit over poor results. They would always turn up each and every year to try again. And again. And again. Suddenly, a paper ball flew over the contestants and landed by Risto Samardžiev, who picked it up and unfolded it. "Hey, guys!" Risto laughed, "Don't throw things, please! Behave yourselves!" He saw there was a message written on the paper. When he saw it, his smile faded. It read 'Long live Christer Björkman - Long live Björkman's Empire.' "Hey, who wrote this?" Risto asked, as the entrants gathered around to take a look at it. "And more importantly, how can anyone praise Björkman after the things he did?" Dimitar asked. Vlatko didn't say anything. He had been there when Björkman pretended to save the world at Montenegrin music festival 'Sunčane Skale.' For a short while, the whole world had loved Christer Björkman, until his true nature was revealed. He had been worried about the reaction from the public after Björkman's deception was revealed, but he had nothing to worry about. After all, Björkman had tricked the whole world, not just him. And now, Macedonia and Germany had the technology from Björkman's Empire. Meanwhile, Sweden was in ruins. Things were so different now. --- Daniel Kajmakoski was looking for where the paper had come from. "Guys," Daniel said and pointed to an open window in the green room, "I think maybe that piece of paper was thrown in through that window." "That makes sense," Egi said, "But who would write such a thing and why throw it in the Skopje Fest green room?" No one had an answer for that. Suddenly, the door of the green room opened and Kaliopi stepped in. "Hey guys," Kaliopi beamed, "Sorry if I'm late! Is it starting already?" "Not yet," Joce Panov replied. "Ok, what's wrong everyone?" Kaliopi asked, "No one is happy like they usually are before Skopje Fest. Did something happen?" "Look at this," Risto said, handing Kaliopi the unfolded sheet of paper, "This was thrown into the green room." Kaliopi looked at the paper. A pro-Björkman message. "I... I..." Kaliopi didn't know what to say. She had been kidnapped by Christer Björkman back in 2013 and it had only been due to quick thinking by Esma and Lozano that she had been rescued from the Swedish dictator. But still, she didn't want to complain about it, after all, Björkman did far worse to many other people. "Kaliopi knows more about Björkman than most people here," Dimitar said, "In fact, she even met him!" Kaliopi was more than a little annoyed at the cheerful way that Dimitar had said that. Like it was fun, like it was a game. But it hadn't been a game, anyone who had seriously dealt with Björkman's Empire knew that. "I... I don't want to talk about Björkman," Kaliopi said, "He was a bad person who did a lot of bad things. Not only to Macedonia, but to the whole world. I won't waste my time talking or thinking about him anymore. But the Christer Björkmans of the world should know this. That they won't win. Not now, not ever." Some of the entrants applauded Kaliopi. At that moment, the host of the show, Vasil Zafircev, walked into the room. "Ok guys," Vasil said, "It's time to get this party started!" Vasil had immediately noticed that something was wrong. Usually, everyone was pretty happy before Skopje Fest. This was one of the biggest music festivals in Macedonia, so to see everyone looking kind of sad in the green room was rather strange. "Uh... what's wrong everyone?" Vasil asked. "Someone threw a paper ball into the green room," Vlatko said. "A paper ball?" Vasil said, "Why has that made everyone sad?" "Here, here it is," Kaliopi said, and handed the paper over to Vasil. Vasil read it, now it made sense. "Hah... Björkman? Who wrote this?" Vasil asked, looking down at the message, "Anyway, Björkman's Empire is gone, it's been gone for a long time now. You guys shouldn't worry about it. Look, I've got to go and get things ready, ok? The show is starting soon. Try not to worry about it, I'm sure it's nothing." Vasil then left the room to make the final preparations before Skopje Fest could begin. Although at first they tried not to, the entrants were still thinking and talking about that piece of paper that had been thrown in. Who had thrown it? Why here? Why Macedonia? "So, who could it be?" Daniel asked, "Obviously, it can't be Björkman himself, but do you guys think maybe it could be BjörkNet?" "BjörkNet?" Vlatko asked, "What would they be doing here?" BjörkNet was a group that opposed the occupation of Sweden. But their activities had mainly been inside Sweden itself. Outside of one incident at the German national final, they had never done anything in another country before. And no one would have expected them to choose Macedonia for their activities. "I was talking to Lozano yesterday," Daniel continued, "And he said the occupation in Sweden is pretty bad right now, at least in the British and Icelandic sections. BjörkNet are the ones protesting against it." "Well, don't you think they brought it on themselves?" Egi asked, "Think about all the bad things that Björkman's Empire did, especially to the UK and Iceland." "I mean, sure," Daniel said, "Björkman's Empire did a lot of bad things. But I'm sure the ordinary people of Sweden didn't support that. And they're the ones who are suffering right now under the occupation." "That's revenge for you," Joce shrugged, "But still. There's nothing we can do about it." There was something else they were thinking about too, BjörkNet had attacked the German national final for the 2014 contest earlier in the year. Although they didn't want to think it was possible, some were concerned about Skopje Fest being a target of the Swedish organisation. "What if they attack Skopje Fest?" Dimitar asked, "Like they attacked the German national final?" "No," Kaliopi said, "No no, we can't think about things like that. Besides, Macedonia has never been a target for BjörkNet before, I'm sure everything will be fine tonight." At that moment, Vasil ran back into the green room. "Ok everyone," he said, "We can start Skopje Fest now. If you're all still thinking about Björkman, then forget about him for the moment please." "Alright guys," said Lena Zatkoska, who was the first up, "I'm going on now, wish me luck!" "Good luck!" Kaliopi said, waving a Macedonian flag, as the others wished her luck too. --- The performances went by without a problem. MRT was very happy with how Skopje Fest was going. They were aware that they were not only being watched by people in Macedonia, but by Eurovision fans from around the world. And of course, having Kaliopi as the interval act was a very popular choice with Eurovision fans. The contestants sat in the green room, awaiting the final results. The televote and jury votes were all in now. Most of the votes had been counted, there were just a few left to add to the scoreboard. It was clear that the winner would either be Daniel or Tamara, and it looked like Daniel would be the one going to Eurovision. Vasil read off the final few votes. "And the winner," he said, looking at the scoreboard, "Is Daniel Kajmakoski with Lisja Esenski! Congratulations Daniel!" Daniel smiled. He had done it, he was going to get to go to Eurovision. He was going to get up to go and perform his song again, when suddenly, the lights in the green room went out, followed by the ones in the stadium. The entire stadium was in darkness. Suddenly, they heard the door to the green room burst open, and someone running inside. "Don't any of you dare move, or I'll shoot, I swear!" a man's voice yelled. The lights in the green room came back on, revealing a man holding a large gun. No one said anything, no one wanted to say anything. They didn't know who this person was or what he wanted, and they didn't want to know, they just wanted him to leave. Finally, Kaliopi spoke up. "Who are you?" she said. The man walked closer to them. "My name is Måns, Måns Zelmerlöw," the man said, "I am from Sweden, and I'm a member of BjörkNet. That's all you need to know about me. I am here to draw attention to the horrible situation in Sweden. The one that the whole world ignores!" Again, no one said anything. None of the Skopje Fest entrants knew what to say, and they didn't want to risk saying the wrong thing and angering the Swede. "That's right," Måns continued, "It's fine for you to have a Swedish songwriter, but not fine for you to actually do anything about the situation in Sweden." Daniel Kajmakoski looked down and didn't say anything, even though he knew that was directed at him. His song, Lisja Esenski, had a Swede as one of the songwriters, along with Daniel himself. Swedish songwriter Joacim Persson had received political asylum in Macedonia because of the situation in Sweden. People knew that what was happening in Sweden was bad, but no one did anything about it. After all, it wasn't their problem. Macedonia didn't have anything to do with the occupation of Sweden. That was a problem for the UK, Iceland and perhaps Germany to solve. But Germany's section of Sweden had been set free, only the north part of Sweden, which was owned by Britain and Iceland, was still under occupation. The Skopje Fest entrants hadn't expected this. Earlier in the year, BjörkNet had attacked the German national final. Germany had been choosing their song for the 2014 edition of Eurovision when BjörkNet held the entrants hostage in an attempt to free the southern part of Sweden from German occupation. It worked. Even though life under Germany was better than in the Icelandic-British sector, the Swedes still wanted their freedom. They got it. But Macedonia had nothing to do with Sweden's occupation. No one had expected the Macedonian national final to be a target too. Macedonia had never been a target for anything like this before. "Well?" Måns said, sounding annoyed, "Aren't you going to answer me?" "Oh, um..." Daniel hadn't expected that Måns actually wanted an answer. He thought that he was just ranting to himself. "No, you don't have an answer?" Måns yelled, "Of course you don't! Macedonia has a party while Sweden is destroyed!" No one said anything. The entrants could hear that the audience was running out of the arena, and that Vasil was evacuating everyone over the loudspeakers. Måns didn't seem to care. He walked out onto the stage, grabbed the video camera that was filming and walked back into the green room. "MRT," Måns said into the camera, "Keep rolling. I have an important announcement to make on behalf of the Swedish people." The Skopje Fest entrants sat there in silence, hoping that the Macedonian police were on their way. Macedonia had been willing to go to war with Sweden back when Björkman had kidnapped Kaliopi, so they hoped that the government were thinking of a way to get them out safely. But Macedonia had learned to stay out of problems. After the events at Eurovision 2013, Macedonia had stayed out of any and all serious world issues. The Skopje Fest entrants hoped they would make an exception in this case. Meanwhile, Måns was still yelling into the camera. "Macedonia, for too long you have ignored the plight of the Swedish people," Måns continued his rant, "You are a nuclear power, and yet you do nothing about the occupation of Sweden. None of you, none of the countries of the world are doing anything about what is happening in Sweden." Måns was aware that this was not just a broadcast for Macedonia, but that Eurovision fans from around the world were watching. Sweden had been one of the most popular Eurovision countries before the dictatorship. He hoped that the ESC fans would listen to him and his message. But that wasn't what the fans were seeing. Storming in to a place and threatening people wasn't the best way to get your voice heard. Some were reminded of the way Björkman himself had stormed into the 2012 contest and forced a Swedish victory at gunpoint. "And you two," Måns said, "Vlatko and Tamara, you want to return to the Eurovision Song Contest, even after all the bad things caused by that very contest?" Neither Vlatko or Tamara said anything, but they both looked at each other uneasily. "Well?" Måns said, but still, they said nothing. They couldn't think of anything to say that might diffuse the situation. The seconds ticked by in silence. Måns didn't say anything either, he just held the camera closer to himself, and looked like he was trying to adjust it. "Macedonia," Måns said suddenly, "I have some demands!" Indeed, this was the perfect time for him to make some demands. He had all of the Skopje Fest entrants hostage and now he wanted Macedonia to do what he said. Måns read off a list of his demands. First of all, he wanted Macedonia to intervene in the occupation of Sweden, particularly in the worst parts of the British and Icelandic sectors. Secondly, he wanted Macedonia to ensure peace in Sweden. A real, lasting peace. Now, he would wait. He had made his demands, but whether Macedonia would actually agree to any of them was another matter entirely. He told the Macedonian government to post their answer online, so that he could see it. The Skopje Fest entrants thought that now might be a good time to talk their captor out of whatever he might do. "You know," Risto said, "You don't have to do this. It doesn't have to be this way." "It does," Måns said, "It really does. You wouldn't understand." "Don't... don't you have anything else you want to do?" Daniel said, "Besides this?" "I don't know," Måns replied, "I always wanted to go into music. I was thinking about trying for Melodifestivalen, I'd like to be Sweden's Eurovision entrant next year." "That's great," Daniel said, trying to force a smile, "I say you should go for it!" "Maybe, maybe," Måns said, "Sweden is a mess right now. I need to fix that first." --- It wasn't even ten minutes before the reply came back from the Macedonian government. No. No, they would not negotiate with BjörkNet. They posted it loud and clear on all the official Macedonian government websites. Daniel was wondering why they had even bothered replying to him, he was hoping that they would just ignore him and send the police straight to the arena. Were the police even coming? Måns picked up the camera again. He looked very annoyed at his demands being rejected. This wasn't looking good at all. "What is this?" he said, "You're saying no to me? You think this is a game? Do you? Well?" "I- I'm sure there's a mistake," Vlatko said, "I'm sure-" "Be quiet!" Måns yelled, "No, there's no mistake." The entrants were silent as Måns kicked some of the props in the green room over. Måns then turned to the entrants, and grabbed Daniel Kajmakoski's jacket. "Wait!" Daniel said, "What are you doing?" "Now then," Måns pointed his gun at him, "Your Eurovision guy, X Factor guy, whatever he is, you think I won't do it? You think I'm bluffing? Do you?" "No no no!" Daniel yelled, "Please please please! Don't!" This was the scene that was being broadcast to all of Macedonia and across the internet. If Måns hoped to gain any sympathy for the Swedish cause this way, then he had misjudged the situation entirely. Sweden was not going to gain any sympathy this way. Macedonians were furious that a Swedish national was doing this to some of their biggest music stars. At that moment, Kaliopi jumped up from her chair and went to where Måns was. "Don't do it, don't do it," Kaliopi said, trying to calm the situation, "Don't do that. Come on." Risto walked over too. "Hey, you really don't want to do that," Risto added, "If you do this you can't take it back. Ever. Hey, put the gun down, buddy." "He's right, you know," Kaliopi said. Silence. Måns just stood there, still pointing his gun at Daniel and doing nothing. At that moment, a voice was heard over the loudspeaker on the wall. "Macedonia does not negotiate with terrorists," the voice said. "What the hell!" Daniel yelled, "Are you kidding me? Negotiate! Negotiate!" Kaliopi looked down at the ground. Back in 2013 Macedonia had been willing to go to great lengths to rescue her from Björkman, but this time she wasn't sure what was going to happen. Macedonia had learned to stay out of issues, and so they stayed out. Kaliopi and the others just hoped that the Macedonian government were working a solution for this, that this was just a ruse while they came up with a plan to rescue the Skopje Fest participants and get everyone out of that arena safely. Måns looked annoyed by what the voice on the loudspeaker had said. "You really should just agree to my demands," Måns said, looking over to where the loudspeaker was, "Helping Sweden from such a horrible occupation shouldn't even need to be suggested, the entire free world should be helping us. But they don't, because you people just don't care, you care more about this bloody singing competition than you do about what is happening in Sweden, what is happening in my country, to my people." Måns was still pointing his gun at Daniel. "Come on, please," Daniel said, "Don't do this, go back to Sweden, enter in that contest you said you wanted to go in. Maybe you'll even win it, wouldn't that be nice? Come on, please, put it down." Måns sighed. "Alright, I'll give Macedonia one more chance. One more chance to agree with my demands. Agree to my demands and I won't do a thing here tonight," Måns said, looking into the camera that was lying on the floor but still broadcasting everything that was going on. MRT really should have switched the broadcast off, but the word had spread about what was happening and the ratings they were getting for this were bigger than anything else ever shown before in Macedonia. And then the response from the Macedonian government came in again. No. It was another no. Daniel really hoped that they would have just ignored him until the police arrived. But no, they had to reply again. "Wait!" Daniel said, "Wait! Don't!" Måns didn't reply or say anything. The Skopje Fest entrants were pretty close to calling his bluff, that he couldn't do it. Or could he? No one wanted to say anything to Måns but they were getting more and more convinced that he wasn't actually prepared to carry out the threat he said he was going to. This wasn't Björkman's Empire anymore, Christer Björkman was actually prepared to carry out the threats he made. No, this was BjörkNet, an ineffective organisation trying to fight against a world that just didn't care. But still, Macedonia had nothing to do with what was happening in Sweden. Maybe if this had been the UK or Iceland's NF, then maybe he could, but as it stood... no. "That's... that's..." Måns said, "I can't... I..." Compared with the attack against the German national final, this was amateur hour. Måns was unprepared and unwilling to do what he had threatened and it was starting to show. Still, it didn't make the Skopje Fest entrants any less frightened of him. "Don't do it," Risto said, "Put it down, put the gun down." Måns didn't say anything. He could have decided to give the Macedonian government another chance to agree to his demands, but it was obvious that they would just reject them yet again. Carola had made the attack on the German national final look so easy, but Måns was quickly finding out that this was a very difficult game to play indeed. "I... I..." Mans began, before pausing mid-sentence and turning back to the exit. Måns ran out of the door at the back of the green room and into the streets. Most people were at home watching Skopje Fest and watching this situation unfold, and so he was free to flee under the cover of darkness. The contestants sat there as police sirens sounded in the distance. "Well, they're late, but at least they're here," Dimitar said. At that moment, Vasil walked back into the room. "I really don't know what to say," Vasil said, "But thank goodness you're all alright. On behalf of MRT I am so so sorry this has happened." Vasil apologised again and again to the Skopje Fest entrants, as they all sat there in silence. No one really knew what to say. --- It was a little while later, and everyone was preparing to put this entire thing behind them. Daniel was about to leave the arena when he noticed that Dimitar and Egi were looking at a sheet of paper that had the Skopje Fest results on it. "This is a mess," Daniel said, "After everything that happened, you're still thinking about the results of Skopje Fest?" "Why of course," Dimitar said, "I came fourth! That's really good." "That's... well..." Daniel didn't know what to say to that, "Good for you?" "Hey, Daniel!" Risto said, as he and Vlatko walked over to him, "Do you want to come to the pizza parlour with us? All the Skopje Fest entrants are going to go there after we're done here, and Kaliopi is going to be there too! It'll be great, I promise!" Daniel just looked at them, surprised. They were going to casually go and get pizza after what had happened? "Come on," Vlatko smiled, "Who can say no to pizza?" "Yeah, come on," Risto said, "You have to come! Everyone else is going to be there! Come on, please?" "Uh, I..." Daniel wasn't sure he wanted to go and eat pizza so soon after what had just happened, but he figured maybe it would take his mind off things. Besides, this was an invitation, it seemed a little rude to turn it down. "Sure, I'll come. Sounds great, Risto." "Excellent!" Risto grinned, "See you there!" --- It was a few hours later, and the Skopje Fest entrants and Kaliopi were all sitting around a huge table at the local pizza parlour. Daniel sighed. He thought that with Björkman's Empire gone, Eurovision would be a safe event to enter once again. BjörkNet... no one had expected them to show up. "Guys, guys!" Dimitar grinned, looking down at his phone, "Have you guys seen the ratings for Skopje Fest 2014? The most watched show in Macedonia... not just this year, but ever! Wow." "That's amazing!" Joce said, looking very impressed that. But Daniel wasn't impressed with the ratings. "You know they were watching it because of the situation with BjörkNet, right?" Daniel said, "That's the only reason the ratings were so huge. They weren't watching it because of us." "Hey," Dimitar said, "Don't be such a downer. The ratings were great and that's that!" Suddenly, the door of the cafe burst open and three armed police officers rushed into the room. "To any members of BjörkNet in here, come out with your hands up!" one of the police officers said, "You have the right to remain silent! Surrender now or prepare to fight!" "Aaaaah!" Vlatko yelled, diving under the table, "BjörkNet is here? Not again! Not again!" No one else said anything. Only the owner of the pizza parlour, the Skopje Fest entrants and the police officers were in the cafe. "False alarm," said another police officer, "They're not here. Maybe they were here before, but they're not now." "Gee," Vlatko said from under the table, "Well this is embarrassing." "Haha," Risto laughed, "Well, not to worry. It's understandable." One of the police officers walked over to where the entrants were sitting. "You guys were late," Daniel muttered, "Where were you back at Skopje Fest?" "Daniel, please," Kaliopi said, "Don't talk that way, it's not their fault." "Sorry," Daniel said. "Look, we get it, kid," the police officer replied, "I wished we could have gotten there quicker too, if we could have we would have. But look, that guy, he didn't get to do anything. If it had been Christer Björkman instead of BjörkNet, well, I think something bad would have happened. But BjörkNet, they can't do anything." And with that the police officers left. The pizza arrived pretty quickly after that. "Right, ok," Tamara said, "Let's not talk or think about what happened right now. It's pizza time." The others agreed. "Daniel," Kaliopi said, "Good luck at the contest. No matter what result you get in Vienna, remember that Macedonia is proud of you and will always be proud of you. You did great here tonight." "Thank you Kaliopi," Daniel said. "Remember what happened in Malmö, the Christer Björkmans of this world don't win," Kaliopi said, "They never win. They'll never be able to take what we have." "Kaliopi," Tamara laughed, "I agree with you completely, but we agreed not to talk about Björkman or BjörkNet right now, ok? The important thing is that everyone got out safely, agreed?" "Of course," Kaliopi said. So that was that. Macedonia had been the first country to choose their Eurovision song for 2015. It had been an eventful national final, that was for sure, and Macedonia were proud of their star Daniel Kajmakoski. The incident did not help BjörkNet in the slightest, but it did help Macedonia, who hoped that maybe the incident could pull some more votes their way next May. Only time would tell if that would be the case. One thing was certain, and that was that Macedonia would be proud of Daniel no matter what the result was in Vienna.

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touristguidebuzz · 7 years

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Spirit Airlines Wants to Win Back Customers by Being Nicer

Spirit Airlines has long advertised cheap prices with its "bare fare" campaign. But it is changing its messaging to embrace value, and trying to give passengers a better experience. Spirit Airlines

Skift Take: Spirit Airlines spent years angering customers with shoddy customer service. Now it wants those travelers to return, promising they'll find a kinder, gentler airline with an increased emphasis on on-time arrivals. But will they come back, or will they opt for deeply discounted fares from full-service airlines?

— Brian Sumers

When Vietnam War veteran Jerry Meekins learned five years ago he was dying and should not travel, he contacted Spirit Airlines and asked for a refund for an upcoming flight. That’s against the rules — how many passengers don’t know what “non-refundable” means? — but brands often make exceptions to save themselves from public embarrassment.

Not Spirit. Its former CEO, Ben Baldanza, blamed Meekins, who would die four months later, for not buying travel insurance. “This is a country and society where we kind of play by the rules,” Baldanza said in one television interview.

Eventually, Baldanza apologized. But in the decade he led Spirit, until January 2016, Baldanza repeatedly criticized passengers who complained about poor service, late flights, and lost bags. Once, he accidentally replied to a customer’s email by writing, “Let him tell the world how bad we are. He’s never flown us before anyway and will be back when we save him a penny.”

Baldanza had a point. Until 2015, Spirit was in a class of its own. No other airline in the United States could — or would — sell one-way fares for $30 or $40 between major cities. Yes, Spirit charged for carry-on bags, drinks (even water), and advance seat assignments, but people who never thought they could afford airfare had an option, so long as they didn’t mind cramped seats that did not recline. In a cheeky web spot, Spirit advertised itself as a “cheap seat for a cheap ass.”

Passengers tolerated it, and Wall Street loved it. The airline’s stock price increased from about $12 per share on July 1, 2011 to almost $83 on Dec. 1, 2014.

The good times could only last so long. Spirit still makes money, but it’s under pressure from Southwest, American, United, and Delta. Now, in many cases, the Big Four sell discounted seats to match Spirit, meaning “cheap asses” have other options. Plus, Spirit has a new direct competitor: Frontier Airlines, which adopted Spirit’s ultra-low-cost model a couple of years ago, with the tagline “Low Fares Done Right.” Its CEO used to run Spirit’s marketing.

To win (or win back) customers, Spirit’s current CEO, Bob Fornaro, wants to create a kinder airline. It remains obsessively cost-focused, offers little legroom, and still charges for everything — because if it didn’t, it would probably go bust. Passengers paid about $53 in fees for each Spirit segment in the second quarter, only about $7 less than they paid for fares.

But Fornaro, who led AirTran Airways until it merged with Southwest in 2011, wants Spirit to stop angering customers. And when it does make them mad, he’ll apologize.

“We ran a very successful financial business, but we ran a very poor consumer business,” Fornaro said in an interview last week in Las Vegas, where he was speaking at the Boyd Group’s International Aviation Forecast Summit. “For the most part, you can only do that for a short period of time. We almost went out of our way to poke the customer in the eye. And once a business gets more competitive, you can’t do that anymore.”

Some wonder if it’s too late. Perhaps the Big Four finally have an advantage — something legacy European airlines never achieved against upstarts like Ryanair and EasyJet. Others suspect Spirit will be fine, but argue it should merge with Frontier, giving it better scale. Spirit has about 100 airplanes, more than 800 fewer than American, not counting American Eagle.

Spirit is not the only discounter emphasizing service — Frontier and Allegiant Air are also trying to improve — but Spirit may have more work to do than the others.

“The difference was, we didn’t treat customers well,” Lukas Johnson, senior vice president for commericial at Allegiant Air, told Skift. “But Ben was unapologetic about spitting in their face. And you can’t do that.”

Baldanza, who teaches at George Mason University and serves on the board of Wow Air, a Icelandic airline with a similar model, told Skift he does not regret Spirit’s service record. He noted customers agree to terms and conditions before buying tickets.

“When I was the CEO, we held firm to these rules in order to keep fares as low as possible for all,” Baldanza said in an email. “Waiving rules means that those who follow the rules pay for those who don’t. If asking people to follow rules they agreed to before buying is considered ‘spitting in their face,’ that seems completely wrong to me. If you are pulled over for running a red light, are the police ‘spitting in your face’ if you are asking to be let off even though you knew you broke the rules?”

Changing Market Dynamics

Spirit and Baldanza could get away with a lot because the airline had little competition.

For most of Spirit’s surge, American, United, and Delta were all in bankruptcy, emerging from it, or merging with another airline. Because big legacy airlines had high costs and other priorities, they rarely discounted as much as Spirit. And low-cost airlines, including Alaska Airlines and Southwest, had relatively little overlap with Spirit, so they let it grow.

Spirit’s strategy worked. Spirit entered American’s Dallas/Fort Worth hub in 2011, adding flights to many of American’s larger markets, including San Diego, Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, New York LaGuardia, and Orlando.

For about four years, American chose to let its frugal passengers fly Spirit. American might charge a couple of hundred dollars for a one-way fare, while Spirit would want $40. But American, led by its then-new president, Scott Kirby, decided in 2015 to fight for everyone.

American’s strategy diluted its revenue, but the airline succeeded. Spirit remains in Dallas, but it’s no longer growing, with new management preferring cities like New Orleans that lack a dominant airline. Now, Kirby has moved to United, where he’s acting similarly. In July, on Spirit’s second-quarter earnings call, Spirit executives said they saw the most discounting in three United hubs — Newark, Chicago, and Houston.

United even has a new product to sell to price-conscious customers. This year, it followed American and Delta to introduce Basic Economy — a product that roughly mimics Spirit’s unbundled fares.

On all three major airlines, Basic Economy customers cannot choose seats in advance, nor can they change their tickets. They board last, and, if they’re frequent flyers, they’re not eligible for first class upgrades. On American and United, most customers may not bring large carry-on bags. (Southwest also often matches Spirit but gives passengers all the goodies — including two checked bags — for free.)

Even in their worst seats, the Big Four offer about two more inches of legroom, with seats that recline. They also give passengers free drinks and light snacks, and unlike Spirit, often have in-flight entertainment. There’s Wi-Fi too, though passengers pay for it.

“The problem is, customers do not want to fly [an ultra-low-cost carrier] if they can get the same price on a different carrier,” Kirby said at the Las Vegas conference. “As United or anyone else starts to get more price competitive, the business just doesn’t work in my opinion. It’s not because of United or what anyone else is doing to them. It’s because they have created a product that people don’t want to buy.”

A gentler Spirit

Perhaps Basic Economy isn’t beloved by customers either, but it makes United, American, and Delta better competitors, so Spirit is focused on improving its product and softening its image.

Spirit no longer charges military members for bags. And passengers who forget to pay for a carry-on in advance are no longer hit with a punitive $100 fee at the gate. It’s now a more manageable $65 — enough to persuade passengers to pre-pay at a cost of roughly $35 but not so much as to be ridiculous. And when passengers tell Spirit they need to postpone a trip for a medical emergency, the airline works with them.

The old hard-ass routine is over. “That was just part of the way the company wanted to portray itself,” Fornaro said. “It wasn’t necessarily good business. There wasn’t a whole lot of money in it. We just got rid of those things.”

Meanwhile, the airline is emphasizing personal touches. Flight attendants attend service training — something that never happened before. And Spirit recently turned over its Twitter feed to humans. It had been run by an irreverent robot, who shared witty responses but couldn’t help irate customers.

Advertisements evolved, too. Before, Spirit often ran tawdry ones, like one coinciding with delivery of the airline’s 69th plane. “It’s our favorite number – ever since we were 12 and found that magazine under our brother’s bed (the one with the fantastic articles),” the copy read.

Now, when adds a new plane, Spirit is more likely to use it as an opportunity to tell customers it has one of the world’s youngest fleet, a positive message the company rarely communicated before. “It was almost as if they were almost ashamed of saying something nice,” Fornaro said.

On-time performance had also lagged. Spirit is now in the middle of the pack for timely arrivals, after regularly finishing last or near the bottom a few years ago. A few years ago, frugal passengers might have tolerated tardiness for huge savings, but not anymore.

“The company got away with it very nicely, but the world doesn’t stay the same,” Fornaro said. (In his email to Skift, Baldanza said: “I applaud Bob Fornaro for improving Spirit’s operational performance.”)

More changes will come. Wi-Fi, which Spirit hadn’t installed because of its cost, is on its way, since many frugal millennial customers the airline wants to attract demand it. It’ll support video streaming.

Next, the airline will improve its website — Fornaro called navigating it “painful” — and its mobile app. As for why the airline didn’t invest in digital tools sooner, he said, “We were satisfied. Maybe we thought were were living in a world that wouldn’t change that much.”

The emphasis on improvement, Fornaro said, has improved employee morale, which may spur better service. “No one like to be last in every service category,” he said.

One outlier is Spirit’s pilots, who seek a new contract and a major raise. In April, pilots staged an informal work slow down, forcing Spirit to cancel about 850 flights. Spirit obtained a court order requiring pilots to work normally. Things have improved, but the issue still looms. Fornaro said he is hopeful a deal can be reached soon.

Investor Concern

Spirit’s stock is now about $34 per share, less than half its price in December 2014. Analysts generally like the company, but not as much as a couple of years ago.

After Spirit’s second quarter earnings call in July, when executives said other carriers were undercutting them on price, Hunter Keay, an analyst with Wolfe Research, wrote: “In that regard, things may only get worse for [Spirit] unless [it] finds new places to grow.” Keay has said he favors a Frontier merger.

Jamie Baker, an analyst with J.P. Morgan, said in a recent report that Spirit probably must “strike a balance” between competing in big cities and adding flights elsewhere. Baker has also recommended Spirit raise fares, arguing it probably wouldn’t lose customers, since other airlines would increase prices, too.

There’s some question about where Spirit should fly next. Under Baldanza, Spirit was obsessed with adding routes in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Dallas/Fort Worth. But it’s now expanding in markets like New Orleans, Hartford, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore.

Lukas Johnson, of Allegiant, said he suspects Baldanza would still favor big cities — if only to prove a point. He said he wonders if big airlines will be more aggressive since Spirit has shown weakness.

“They drew down Dallas last year with the pressure from American,” Johnson said. “Guess what? Once you pull down when somebody pressures you, it’s going to happen again and again and again and again. To me, that’s different. Ben wouldn’t back down. Right or wrong, he just wouldn’t.”

Spirit has one major advantage: Its costs are considerably lower than the competition. Not including fuel, it costs Spirit about 5.83 cents to carry one passenger one mile, about five cents less than American. That means Spirit can make money more easily at lower fares than other airlines.

In his note, Baker said Spirit’s model is viable.

“We believe the U.S. airline industry will continue to take steps to ensure profitability and continued balance sheet repair,” he said. “We believe that this environment is generally more favorable to the large legacy carriers, but Spirit’s ultra-low-cost business model is compelling in its own right.”

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