#I could attend all the Eurovision events live

[groenendaelfic]

Faroe Gone Final Chapter Sneak Peak

So there's still lots of editing I need to do before I can post the whole thing, but with tomorrow looming I thought I'd share something "happy" and "cheerful" to distract y'all.

Have fun reading the beginning of the final chapter and hope you enjoy! 😇

Simon doesn't know if it's the sudden fog, his tears, or the fact that all he wants to do is be a fool and turn back around again—the first one, definitely the first one—but he drives back to Tórshavn at almost a snail's pace.

It doesn't matter. He has well over a day until the ferry makes its return journey to Denmark and nothing else to do except go over his time with Wilhelm again and again, replaying the good times and the pleasurable times and wondering if he could have said or done anything to change the outcome of his journey—other than realizing that all of his feelings were mere nostalgic illusion and fantasy, which of course turned out to not be the case.

Quite the opposite. Real Wilhelm was so much more than what Simon made him out to be in his head. There's so much he's missed. So much he doesn't know yet and which he desperately wants to find out.

It hurts, and yet there's nothing else Simon can do, no other choice which wouldn't hurt more sooner or later.

No. Simon tried. He did the best he could and that is enough. It has to be enough.

Simon had to leave while he still could.

The road ahead of him is empty, no one else in sight. No people, no cars, no sheep. Nothing except the wet, cold fog swallowing up everything and a rushing noise in his ears which might be the wind or the ocean or Simon himself.

Simon blinks away another tear and keeps driving, turning up the heat and hoping it will help.

It doesn't.

On the next island he passes a camper van. It's parked, and Simon thinks he can make out a brave tourist trying to take a picture, but he isn't sure. It's not as if there's much to see except an endless wall of grayish white.

Maybe that's the fascination.

Wilhelm told him that there are thirty-seven words for fog in the Faroese language, and while Simon laughed and told him to stop kidding, he's sure he's already experienced half of them, and it's only been two days.

Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but contemplating the uselessness of taking pictures of fog is a lot more bearable than lingering on the fact that he'll never get to be with Wilhelm again, never feel that satisfied ache in his muscles, not like this, and really how long can a grown man cry before he's all out of tears?

Pretty long he guesses.

Simon once stopped Ayub's baby daughter from attempting a daring escape on all fours, and Simon swears she was crying forever. Not that he blames her.

Crying is cathartic if it's anything, but if she could produce that many tears because of nothing more than a foiled plan to explore the stairway, then how many will Simon be able to shed before he's all wrung out? He’s a lot taller than her after all and guaranteed to not forget the reason for his tears even after being presented with some candy.

Simon doesn't want to know.

Simon wants to keep driving through this fog forever, because all that's waiting for him at its end is the mundanity of his never-changing life and a scandal revealing the Crown Prince to have been the victim of underage revenge porn thanks to his second cousin and presumed successor, and that is guaranteed to make it worse, to drag Simon’s name back into public awareness.

He should probably call home and warn his mom, warn Sara, but facing them will be torture of an entirely different kind, and also the investigative journalist they chose is a good one, one bound to build a case and not blindly believe her sources before going public, so there is still time.

Not too much though, as there is an impending deadline if the Royal Court and the Prime Minister are to be believed, or at least Simon would really prefer news of August’s deeds to overshadow him being taken into the line of succession.

Not that he’s so naive as to think a mere article can do more than delay the proceedings at best—although one can always hope—and ideally the journalist and whoever else gets a say in choosing the right time will see it the same way, but all of that is still more than half a week away, so why burden his family before he absolutely has to?

No, he's not going to call home yet, but maybe he should reserve a room before he gets back to the capital.

He decides to do it the old fashioned way and pulls over at the next opportunity. A viewpoint, or so he presumes the sign a few meters away from him would tell him if only it was clear enough to see.

He wipes at his cheeks and opens his phone. There are plenty of options for him to stay at. Small, privately owned places, holiday homes with kitchens and living rooms, quaint little hotels doing their best to sell their Nordic, rustic charm to tourists wealthy enough to make it there, and of course a camping ground, because unlike Sweden, the Faroe Islands don't allow one to set up camp anywhere else.

Simon doesn't choose any of them. He wants a warm but bland room, boring and inoffensive and as likely to be in Tórshavn as on the other side of the world.

Something as far from Wilhelm's colorful and most definitely handmade and expensive wooden furniture as he can get, and so he books himself a room at the first—and only—international hotel chain he can find, something he'd never do otherwise, and pretends that he's looking forward to it. The hotel has a fitness center after all and well over a hundred rooms. Simon is almost going to feel like back home in Uppsala.

Not.

He sighs and makes sure he received a confirmation for his booking, before he throws his phone onto the passenger seat and sighs again.

Somehow, magically, or rather because he's on a windy archipelago in the middle of nowhere, the fog is starting to clear. He can see a few meters of grass now, and then a cliff, and below it the cold, dark ocean pretending at being calm.

Simon wants the fog back, but when has he ever gotten what he wanted, and by the time he's back on the road he swears he can see a tiny patch of blue sky up ahead.

The hotel is on the outskirts of town and exactly as impersonal as Simon hoped it would be. He isn't hungry, and so he goes straight to his room and falls face first into bed.

The sheets are white and the pillows are white and they smell bland and clean and inoffensive, nothing at all like Wilhelm, and why would they?

Simon hates them. Simon also hates the hotel, but it's not as if he's in the mood for sightseeing, and as he isn't willing to take a shower yet—what? He's alone, no one's going to smell him, and isn't that the entire problem?—all that's left to do is turn on the TV, because he's for sure not touching his phone again any time soon.

Not when that would mean having it confirmed with every passing minute that he was a fool to leave Wilhelm his number. Wilhelm isn't going to call, but Simon would rather live in denial for as long as he can.

The TV does not greet him with an info screen as Simon expected, but an English speaking news channel, the volume turned up way too loudly, and Simon turns it off again as fast as he can.

Wallowing in self pity it is then.

Unfortunately Simon's usual answer to bouts of self-pity—angrily jerking off to thoughts of Wilhelm—is not an option right now, because Wilhelm is the entire reason for his misery, and so he grudgingly reaches for his phone after all and starts up a game which would work much better on a computer screen.

He's just about to finish off the newest boss, when a text message pops up.

If I do it, it reads. Then can we

The sentence stops halfway through, and Simon almost has a heart attack.

The delay in his reaction is enough for him to be killed instead, but it's not as if Simon notices.

Wilhelm. It has to be Wilhelm.

He taps the message, and while that makes it larger, it doesn't change the words.

He almost calls Wilhelm back right away, because Wilhelm is swaying, is reconsidering, and Simon wants that, he wants it so bad, to have Wilhelm back in his arms and his life, but also Simon already told Wilhelm that he can't be the only reason Wilhelm returns, that this is a life changing decision if there was ever any, and that Wilhelm needs to make it for himself and not for a hope of them maybe working out, and so he doesn't.

Instead he waits an excruciating minute and then another, just in case Wilhelm wants to add something or pressed send too soon, but no further message follows.

Simon curses and swears and kicks up his feet, because now he has hope again and that is great, but also torture. He doesn't want Wilhelm to get the wrong impression, doesn't want him to think that Simon wouldn't be willing to pick right up where they left off if he could—in the bedroom that is, not when it comes to fighting—and maybe they could also go on a date which has been nineteen years in coming.

Simon wants that. Simon really wants that. How can he not, now that he's had a taste, has spent time with Wilhelm, just Wilhelm, has had breakfast with him and done chores with him and played with his dog. Simon wants Wilhelm back, now more so than ever.

Simon knows he's an idiot, thinking of romance and dating when he just left the love of his life behind, and even if he hadn't, a returning Wilhelm would have much different things on his mind. He'd have to. He'd have no other choice. Things like his dying mother and the throne and the public reacting to his return after ten years in exile.

Wilhelm wouldn't have time for Simon, no matter how much Wilhelm would want him. Not for weeks and not for months. Simon would have to sneak into an assortment of palaces with the eyes of the entire nation on nothing but them if he wanted any time with Wilhelm at all, and Simon wouldn't want that. Simon doesn't want secrecy and sneaking and lies. Not that'd even be an option, what with the press and curious bystanders everywhere.

There is another option of course. The only one Wilhelm would ever consider coming back for. The one which at first glance sounds perfect because it means being with Wilhelm and standing by his side. It would also mean giving up everything else in Simon's life though, but what has he really got to lose? Why stop being foolish now?

Wilhelm told Simon that he's it for him. Wilhelm loves him. Simon's already traveled across an ocean. What's one tiny text message compared to that? Why can't he be selfish just this once and fuck the risk and the idiocy and the fear of what will be in one year? In five? In ten?

It all might end in disaster, but it might also not, and why should he be miserable if there's even the slightest chance at some fleeting happiness. After all it's not as if the email Wilhelm sent isn't bound to upend Simon's life anyway, and it's not as if Wilhelm is actually going to come.

Simon wants to be happy.

Simon wants to be happy and now there's a chance for it and so why not take it? He's done stupider things before, like coming here in the first place, so he might as well go all the way.

He doesn't text Wilhelm a yes, doesn't make any promises. He texts one word and one word alone, followed by a number, the name of the hotel and his room number, and maybe that's the biggest promise of all.

He doesn't regret it. He couldn't stay, not without making his inevitable departure even worse, but now he's done his part and the ball is in Wilhelm's court, all the balls are, and Simon is here and waiting.

For a ferry. For Wilhelm. For the life they could have had.

Fuck.

#it was editing this #or throwing myself a pity party #because for the first time ever #I could attend all the Eurovision events live #with nothing stopping me except my own morals and conscious #so clearly I'm boycotting it all #and that's the easy choice #no pity party for me #hello editing #I'm not saying Simon is staying at the Hilton Garden Inn #but I'm also not not saying that #yes Faroe Gone will have a happy ending #faroe gone #young royals #young royals fic #fic snippet #wilmon #fic update

[ladyyatexel]

I am really not shaped for the dating app thing, I think. I don't mean literally, I guess, since several boring people just message me stuff like, "you are so beautiful" or whatever (I ignore these, because they have obviously ignored everything but my photos) but I just feel like this is the incorrect way to do things for me. I love that I can quickly filter out people who smoke, think astrology is real, or have/want children, but otherwise I think I just feel a bit like shrink wrapped hamburger up for sale. This is the asexuality talking, I think.

I am also, uh, afraid of all these straight cis dudes. I was like yeah, I'm open to dating anyone, but I haven't had a dude date since college and they all seem so eager to get me to restaurants and send a lot of "good morning, how are you" messages and I would just rather hear something fun than a stock message. Why are you angling for a restaurant where we are stuck waiting rather than a coffee shop snack where we can both bail if the other person is weird? Is this a tactic? Are you chaining me in place for two hours?

I think also maybe these dudes did not read the part of the profile where I said basically, 'do not think you will be the special one to make me un-asexual,I like being this way.' I'm wary of all their intentions and worried and weirded out that they pursue so much even in a capacity this limited.

I think about sharing my living space with someone else permanently and it makes me feel like I will be trapped and then buzzed down like a tree in the way of power lines.

I can't imagine sharing my fandom stuff with a person I didn't meet through it. And it is not like it's a requirement to do so, but the one guy was so casual about the way he said that Gallifrey One looked like fun and he would totally go even though he isn't a fan. I was just sitting there like no, I'm not searching for someone to go to my favorite event of the year with me? This is super important to me and I take it really seriously? Gallifrey One and Eurovision are events where I'm like do not schedule anything you want me to attend on those weekends, because I will choose those every time.

Maybe it's because the fandom stuff has been a source of ridicule from other people in the past maybe it's because there's a lot of self-expression and exploration in the stuff I do with all of my little fictional people and the few times people have gotten close it has felt invasive I don't know. I'm sure people I could trust with it and who would not be dicks about it exist but because I can't imagine them, it is hard to operate as though they do?

I've been sustaining myself on imaginary worlds since I was like six and it has definitely kept me actually alive multiple times and like I don't know maybe I have doubts about replacing all of my inner worlds with an outside person? Not that they would be a total replacement but they would take up some of the bandwidth allotted for that if that makes sense? Maybe I would be getting what is currently supplied to me through my own self-sustained neurons firing would show up as another person instead and I would have to lose something??

I want to be someone's most important person, I think? And I think I would like to have that important person also? But I don't think I've seen anything in real life in the shape that I would want it in. I keep having to reiterate that I'm not poly and don't want to be anyone's asexual Keychain on their 'real' relationship.

I know I have a demiromantic thing going on too so maybe that's why this all feels so bad. "Good morning how are you" feels fucking weird from some rando I don't know, but if I had the ability to have romantic feelings as typically installed then maybe I would enjoy that. I might like it from someone I felt romantic things at. I would like it from someone I thought was creative and artistically skilled, I think.

I signed up for this sort of preemptively, like, oh when I get my spine back, I'm going to try to People, because I didn't think anyone would want to bother trying to accommodate a stranger with a cane who still can't get very far.

Which also scares me now that I've said it that way. Do they know I can't run??

Yet another edition of 'you probably should have typed this up on livejournal' but here we are.

[escinsight]

Why Benidorm Paid So I Could Attend Benidorm Fest

Why Benidorm Paid So I Could Attend Benidorm Fest

I’ve been covering Eurovision in all its different ways, shapes and forms for ESC Insight for a little more than a decade. In that time I’ve had the privilege to attend about a dozen Eurovision or Junior Eurovision events and 20 National Finals (I’m quite lucky to live walking distance from the one in Solna). Whether it be Reykjavik or Ventspils there have been delegations eager to help my needs…

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#arena #azerbaijan #baku #benidorm #benidorm fest #eurovision #rtve #strategy #tickets #tourism #valencia #Visit Benidorm

[airi-p4]

Love in the sky

I wrote this for the @lovebugs-and-snakecharmers LBSC Sprint challenge - Meet cute week event and, once again, I got carried away and broke all the rules. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Prompt: Sitting next to each other on the plane.

Summary: Marinette is going to NY on an international flight for the first time. What she doesn’t know is that the one seated next to her is the popular new band Kitty Section’s guitarist: Luka Couffaine.

Thank you @livrever for checking it for me 💙

AO3

______________________________________

Marinette rushed through the aisle of the plane. She couldn’t believe she almost missed it! her first international trip to the US! Stupid alarm! Of course she was tired. She was so nervous she couldn’t sleep all night… until 5AM… and the plane departed at 10AM… and obviously she had to oversleep. *sigh*

Running, tripping and spinning on her feet, she finally searched for her seat. 38B - aisle seat. Her pink polka dotted suitcase was heavy, but thanks to the cabin attendant she could finally put it inside the overhead bin, while her backpack rested under the seat in front of her. All set, she let her weight fall on the seat at last and let out a deep breath as she fastened her seatbelt.

The doors of the plane closed, and the PA message started: Welcome on board… Security instructions… Marinette wasn’t listening. Her legs were uncontrollably shaking, and her fingers were fidgeting with the laces of her hoodie.

Those nerves and stress couldn’t be healthy.

She examined her surroundings, and, next to her, someone was sleeping. Someone, who appeared to be a young man, with a sleeping eye mask and a face mask on, messy blue hair showing under a knit hat and a blanket covering his body. Overall, it didn't give much more information about her plane's seat neighbor. Not wanting to wake him up, she focused on the rest of the passengers instead. Why were all of them so quiet when she felt her heart could burst out of her chest anytime?

The plane started its runaway and Marinette closed her eyes tightly when it raised from the lane. Once in the air, she started breathing again, but her heart was still beating fast.

"First time on a plane?" a masculine voice beside her asked.

She turned to her side, and looked at the person seated next to her. His eye mask was over his head now, and she could see his blue eyes clearly, while his blue bangs partly covered his eyebrows.

“Y- yes!” she squeaked.

“You’re making me nervous too. Calm down, it’s going to be ok” he assured.

“I- I know!" She said, but her body wasn’t obeying. “I’m sorry...”

The young man sighed. “Look, I’ve been on a plane many times. It’s safe. Why don’t you try to sleep? It’s going to be a long flight.”

“I- I can’t! I’m too nervous! I’ve never traveled alone before, plus my career depends on this trip! I can’t stay calm!”

“Why don’t you try listening to some music, then? It always helps me relax” the young man offered her a sympathetic look.

“Music…?” she blinked. ‘It could work’.

She plugged the earphones and put them in her ears. Then, she scrolled through the music programs on the touch screen in front of her. Classical music? For some reason, it only made it worse. Country music? Not her style. XY? Hell, no. Her eyes stopped at the name of a fairly new band: “Kitty Section”. She played the video called: “Kitty Section's Paris Live Concert”.

“Good choice” the man next to her said when the title started showing on the screen.

Marinette had heard about the band called Kitty Section. They had featured in most of her favorite magazines after they won Eurovision several months ago, but she wasn't familiar with their music. In less than a minute, she was hooked and forgot completely about her surroundings or her nerves.

“Wow!” she mumbled, mesmerized, and the man next to her let out a snicker.

The music was amazing- the rock vibes, their stage presence, the vocalists’ cuteness and high ranged voice, the accurate and insane drums, the gorgeous purple haired bassist… all of them sounded incredible. But the guitarist… the blue haired guitarist was extraordinary- unbelievably good. Not only talented, but also powerful, charismatic and incredibly handsome.

“They’re good, huh?” The man beside her commented and she nodded. She could tell he was smiling under his face mask. She nodded in agreement.

“I had never heard them properly before but damn- they are incredible” Marinette answered, and he laughed. Her fingers tapped rhythmically, following the beat of the song.  “But…" she continued, observing. "I think they could do better. There’s a margin of improvement,” she said with judging eyes.

“Oh, really? How?” The blue-eyed man asked, curious, resting his elbow on the arm rest to get a closer look.

“The costumes,” Marinette pointed out. Then, she reached her backpack under her feet and took out a sketchbook and a pen and started drawing. “The outfits could be improved if they added this, and this” she signaled. “And this-” She kept scribbling while the blue-haired man observed and listened to her suggestions. “And ta-da! Wouldn’t they look even better if they were like this?” She proudly showed him her designs, only to realize she was being embarrassing towards a stranger. “Ah, sorry- I got carried away…” She apologized. But the man took the sketchbook in his hands.

“Let me see,” he said, and she saw how his eyes examined every detail of her drawings. She gulped nervously. It felt like her skills were being tested. But the man took his face mask off and smiled. “Wow, that’s impressive. Fresh, charismatic, unique- and perfectly according to the band's style. I love them" he returned her the sketchbook. "You’re very talented. Are you famous? Do you take commissions?” He asked, and she looked at him speechless.

“I- I’m still a no-one… Is it really impressive?” She looked at him and blushed at the compliment.

“Yes, I think so. What would you do with this outfit?” He asked, showing him a photo of the same band on his smartphone. Her inspiration overflowed as she kept drawing and explaining her ideas. They kept discussing costumes and visual aspects of the band and chatted comfortably for a long time.

"I think Rose should go with something more… daring, bolder. She looks innocent but she's fierce inside. Of course, cuteness is her main trait, so I think she should combine both" she explained, coloring her design with colored pencils. "I think something like this would be perfect for her" she showed him her sketchbook and he was impressed. “As for Juleka-” She continued, turning to a blank page. “She’s so beautiful. I wish she didn’t cover her face so much, even if the mystery look is really attractive too…" She stopped drawing for a moment to admire the bassist on the screen. "Gosh- She's so gorgeous! I wish I was that beautiful” she commented.

“I think you’re even more beautiful than her, you know?” The blue-haired man casually said, and she shyly blushed with a 'no way' frantic arms movements. “What about the guitarist?” he asked, raising an eyebrow with a smug smile.

“Luka Couffaine? OH LORD SHOW MERCY- Have you seen him? And his eyeliner? It should be ILLEGAL to be this HOT” She said, convinced.

“Hmmm… So you like him, huh?” He teased, his smile widening.

“Who doesn’t, really?” She shrugged. “He’s literally the SEXIEST man alive. His eye contact with the camera could kill! Oh, and whenever he gets shirtless on stage or photoshoots? GOD- I almost get a nosebleed EVERY FREAKING TIME! He's TOO DAMN HOT" She fanned herself at the image. "Don’t you agree?" She asked and he blinked twice. "You like him too, right? You have so many photos of them in your phone! I bet he’s making you question your sexuality too, like he does with all my friends! How could anyone resist those blue eyes and his manly features, his soft looking blue hair and- his tattoos..." She looked away from her seat neighbor's blue piercing eyes, and focused at the smartphone screen again, to a close-up photo of Kitty Section’s guitarist. "How did you get these close-up casual photos...?” she asked, and then she noticed the tattoo on his neck. She looked back and forth at the man seated next to her and the one in the picture. ‘It couldn't be, right…?’ And at that moment, when he had a knowing smile on his face- one she knew too well-, she realized who he was seated next to on the plane. Her eyes opened as big as plates and she overheated. He was smirking amusingly at her reaction. “You- You- You are-? Lu-Lu-Luk- It can’t be…”

He nodded to confirm her suspicions and her jaw fell to the floor. “Hi. I think I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Luka. But I think you already know that. It’s nice to meet you.” He chuckled, straightening his hand for a handshake.

“Oh God, kill me now...” She mumbled, sinking on the table. Luka snickered.

“What’s your name?”

“Ma-Ma-Marinette… I mean- Marinette!” She felt his eyes on her and panicked. “Excuse me- I- I need a moment... This- This is too much- Oh My God...” She stood up and rushed to the end of the plane, not without tripping twice on her way there.

________________________

While Marinette was gone, the two ladies in front of Luka and Marinette’s seats turned to Luka. “Having fun?” They smirked, knowingly. He was chuckling, having real trouble to keep his laugh from escaping.

“Oh, God, Yes. This is so much fun." He wiped the tears that were forming on his eyes. "I think I’ve found our potential new costume designer” he continued laughing under his nose.

“Only that? I think there’s more...” Juleka smirked, and Rose giggled in agreement by her side. He couldn't deny it: his sister was totally right.

Behind Luka's seat, Kitty Section's drummer, Ivan and his girlfriend Mylene had been enjoying the show the blue-eyed pair had been giving. It was definitely more entertaining than any movie. It would have been perfect if they had popcorn to accompany their fortunate first row seats to the hilarious show. They also approved Marinette's designs.

Luka took the chance Marinette wasn't there to freely stand up, go talk to their managers and stretch his legs for a bit.

_________________________

Back at the end of the plane, Marinette drank some juice and moved to the bathroom. She was panicking in front of the mirror, talking to herself.

“OH. MY. GOD. I’m seated next to Luka Couffaine! For at least… 5 hours more!? And I just called him hot! And- And- he said I’m beautiful and talented! And- Oh my God, he asked me for commissions, right? This can’t be real- I-" her feet wiggled uncontrollably and she let out a long squeak. "Ahh… Calm down, Marinette! He’s human- A sexy human, but still human! He’s famous but very friendly, kind and nice. And fun! It’s going to be alright. Just- Avoid his eyes. That’s it. It’s dangerous. Don’t fall in love. You’re not a teenager anymore, you’re over that stage, right? Only a few hours more. You can do it. I CAN DO IT!” She convinced herself with a confident nod and returned to her seat, only to find Luka was gone.

She looked for him from her seat, at her surroundings, but he was nowhere to be found. She sighed in both relief and sadness as she seated.

For some reason, she was missing him. Which was stupid, considering they had just met! But his company was certainly enjoyable... And, moreover, it was FUN. More than she ever remembered having. And not only because she was passionate about fashion or music. It had to do with his aura, his personality, his gentle manners- just... Luka.

“Don’t worry, he’ll be back in a moment” A voice said from in front of her. “My brother is stupid, but he’s a decent person. Treat him well” The purple haired lady winked, beside a petit blond lady.

“Jul-!” She covered her mouth with her hands to stop herself from yelling her name. “And Rose-!?” 'Oh, no! They might have heard what I said too!' She panicked again and the ladies giggled amused.

“Ignore my sister and her girlfriend” Luka returned, and her face flustered when she noticed how tall and well built he was (not that she didn't know that, but it hit differently in first person). “Can I get back to my seat?” He politely asked, pointing at the window seat.

“Ah-! Yes! Of course!” She stood up so suddenly she tripped and fell on Luka’s chest. She immediately moved away in embarrassment, falling back instead, and Luka had to hold her again to avoid her imminent fall. “I’m sorry!”

“Are you ok?” He asked in concern, and she shyly nodded. Luka reluctantly let go of her and returned to his seat and Marinette settled back to hers.

Wait- Was that a blush on his face?

“Here” Luka offered her an envelope. “I don’t know what your plans in NY are but, here’s a VIP pass to our concert next Sunday. There’s also our contact card inside. I want you to consider the idea of working for us. Your costumes are impressive. We discussed it, and we want you in our team” Marinette had no words- totally speechless. Could she be this lucky? “What do you say?” Luka asked with a hopeful tender smile that made her weak.

“I- I’ll think about it. And- Oh God- I’ll totally be there for your concert” She blushed and Luka smiled kindly at her. Suddenly, she started searching inside her backpack, and took out a business card she offered him. “This is my contact. I- I have a fashion event next Monday. I would love you to come, if you can make it. Send me an email and I’ll get you some passes”

“Wow! That's impressive. I'll try to make it. Thank you, Marinette”

Marinette could hear her heart beating faster. No looking in his eyes, dammit. They kept talking for a while, enjoying their time together until they fell asleep out of exhaustion, Marinette’s head resting on Luka’s shoulder. He woke up earlier than her, but didn’t have the heart to wake her up until lunchtime. She looked like she really needed that rest.

When he left half of his lunch untouched, Marinette scolded him. “You have to eat! You’re too thin! Those abs and arms need consistency! Proteins!” She pointed at a photo of him shirtless and flustered again in embarrassment in realization. “Ah-”

Gosh- it really was fun, Luka thought, chucking. It was hard not to laugh out loud. Everything flowed so naturally it was unbelievable.

Damn. He didn’t want the plane to ever land.

“Marinette” he called, during their coffee time, and she looked back at him, redness still on her cheeks. “The plane will land soon but- Even if you don’t accept our offer… Is it possible for us to meet again? Out of business? Like this?”

Marinette flustered at his implications. “Do- Do you mean-?”

“A date. Would you go on a date with me, Marinette? Or just as friends, if you prefer. I like you, and I don’t think I’ve ever had this much fun with anyone else” He took Marinette’s pen and one of his ‘Kitty Section’ contact cards and wrote something behind it. “These are my personal telephone number and email. We'll be in NY until Friday next week. It would make me very happy if you contact me, whenever you prefer, anytime” He said, securing the card in her hands.

Marinette blushed, looked at the card with glowing eyes, and then at his honest loving stare. Was it even possible that the man everyone was gushing about was asking her out? But this had nothing to do with his stage persona. Luka was someone she more than enjoyed spending time with. Naturally, quietly, assuring… She had no doubts about her answer.  

“I want to meet you again, too” she stated, and wrote her personal number under his wristband. “I’m free on Wednesday” she shyly smiled, and his smile widened.

“Wednesday is it, then. I'll manage to find the time. Just for you." He smiled happily and only then she realized how deep she had fallen.

Ah- she hadn't wanted to fall in love. What a way to fail her own determination… But she couldn't complain, not at all.

And he felt the same way.

Luka and Marinette's hands locked together, and they lost themselves in each other’s eyes, smiling at each other.

“Why don’t you kiss her already, dumbass?” Juleka called, and Marinette blushed. “He won’t kiss you if you don’t give him proper permission, you know? He’s very considerate despite his looks. Tell him already”

“Jules… Why don’t you mind your business and make out with Rose instead?” He shushed his sister and Rose giggled, embracing Juleka. Luka returned his attention to Marinette. “Sorry about that”

“It’s ok… I-” She started, looking at his thin lips. “Will you kiss me if I want to? Because I think I do...”

“You do?” he asked, and she shyly nodded and he smiled softly, making her heart flutter.

She closed her eyes and he leaned closer to give her a sweet kiss on her cheek. She pouted a little, in disappointment, but he told her that, if she really wanted to kiss him, that would be the perfect excuse to meet him again and make it more special, like a beautiful lady like her deserved. Marinette understood his reasoning and agreed with it, despite the slight disappointment she felt she would have to wait a few days to get the chance to kiss him. Nevertheless, both of them happily smiled while their fingers remained interlaced, chatting and enjoying their time together the rest of the flight, until the plane landed and they had to unavoidably say their farewells.

“Thank you for everything, Luka. I forgot how scared I was of planes thanks to you and- I’ll see you soon?”

“I really hope so. I still owe you something, right?" He winked and she blushed happily. Luka gave her a final discreet and quick kiss on her knuckles. "Gosh- I miss you already...” He added, and Marinette felt the urge to cry. She dropped her bag to hold him in a needed embrace. He gladly reciprocated her gesture. Despite neither wanting to separate, they forced themselves to. "I hope I see you soon, Marinette"

"Me too, Luka…" she wiped her tears and waved, as the band started walking away.

When the arrivals doors opened and all the camera flashes blinded her, she understood why Kitty Section members always wore sunglasses in airports. They were more popular than she could have expected. She understood why he had refused to kiss her outside of the plane, but he still saluted her before disappearing in the multitude of fans and paparazzis.

On the other side, Sabrina, Audrey Bourgeois’ assistant, waited for her. She had almost forgotten about her own business. But now, she found the motivation she had lacked. If she was willing to be with Luka, she had to become the best. She wanted to make a name of herself, more than ever. And her meeting with Luka certainly boosted her confidence.

Unexpectedly, her trip to NY had already become one of her most memorable experiences yet. And it had just started! She couldn't wait to spend the rest of the week in the city.

#my fic #airipyon #airip4 #lbsc sprint fic #lbsc sprint fic challenge #LBSC sprint challenge #lukanette fic #Pro LukaMari #endgame lukanette #nevermind the title- i'm super bad at them #I kinda want to write part 2 #but I don't need more WIPs ;v; #I need to finish them instead Dammit XD

[veeagainsttheday]

These are fun! Thanks to @direwolf-summer for the tag!

1. Favorite song at the moment

At this very moment? Yikes that's a big question. It's #pride and I'm a basic ass wlw so I've been listening to a ton of Janelle Monae, Perfume Genius, Frank Ocean, Hayley Kiyoko, Charli XCX, Christine and the Queens, Kehlani, etc... but if I had to pick a single song it would be Holly Humberstone - The Walls Are Way Too Thin

2. A song you associate with your favorite ship

I, again, am a basic ass lady who has a whole playlist of Wolfstar songs, and it is genuinely tough for me to choose a good one so you are getting blessed with a few here...

Wolfstar Angst: Perfume Genius - Just Like Love, Frank Ocean - Swim Good, Car Seat Headrest - Twin Fantasy (Those Boys), Islands - Becoming the Gunship, Future Islands - Ran, Bastille - Flaws, St Vincent - New York

Wolfstar Depressing Angst like oh my god this is the saddest song ever made: Phosphorescent - Song for Zola

Runners up for that category: Villagers - Memoir, Banks - Before I Ever Met You

Wolfstar as middle aged dads to Harry: Rufus Wainwright - Montauk

Wolfstar Fuck The War They Are In Love: Rag'n'Bone Man - Skin, Tasha the Amazon - Watch It Burn

3. A song that could be about you

Belle and Sebastian - Another Sunny Day

4. A song you think is overrated

I think if a single person enjoys a song, then it is bringing happiness into the world, and I can't hate on it. That being said, I had a college radio show for several years so I kept my eye on what was popular in indie world and there were a few artists that I just could NOT figure out the appeal who would consistently top best of lists - the one that is coming to mind immediately is Lana del Rey, but there are a few in that vein of being indie darlings and I love all their peers but just don't get that particular something about them.

5. A song that reminds you of a good memory

Alexander Rybak - Fairytale: this won Eurovision in 2009 with a record breaking number of points and went on to soundtrack my entire summer. I lived in remote northwestern Iceland that summer and attended an event called the Ögur Ball that was an all night party on a farm with a live local cover band. This song was so popular at that time that they played it THREE TIMES IN A ROW and the crowd wanted more so they also played it to end the night.

6. The last song you listened to

The Specials - Nelson Mandela (I was considering it for the song that reminds you of a good memory entry)

7. A song that makes you laugh

The Lonely Island ft. Michael Bolton - Jack Sparrow

8. A song you want your mutuals to listen to

Jenny Hval - Ashes to Ashes

Tagging some people I'd like to get to know better @wanderingbandurria, @justtoarguewithyou, @feminerdist, @kobayboshi, @andreyahalms, @holyprimadonna

#music #wolfstar music

[quadraphonictypewriter]

An article from the June 1975 edition of Yugoslavia’s Dzuboks [Jukebox] magazine. The first four pages of the article talks about the Deep Purple concert there on March 16, 1975 in Belgrade, and also mentions the second Yugoslavian concert in Zagreb, and the press conference beforehand. The last two are an interview with Jon Lord.

Below the cut is the complete transcript of the article (which I got by typing the whole thing out and doing a translate-and-refine process).

Setlist of the Belgrade concert

THE ARTICLE:

Rock business knocked on our door • No more old and new "Deep Purple": it's just Richie, Jon, David, Glenn and lan • Surrounded by the irresistible pressure of a powerful sound

Five of Mercedes' limousines drove away on Tuesday, March 18, in the early afternoon, selected the members of Deep Purple to the Zagreb airport, from there they move on to Scandinavia (some joked, "Eurovision Song Contest"), and thus ended the beginning of their European tour, and the entire course of the Yugoslavian tour. Two cities, 12,000 people at concerts, big money circulation… the rock business has knocked on our door as well. 

The predecessor of the band, whose exact number we could not find out (but there were over two dozen people), was in Belgrade as early as Friday to prepare the ground for the arrival of the stars. A day later, in the morning, the sports hall, "Pionir", began to take on the appearance of an exhibition hall - electronic equipment: from huge trucks, metal structures moved slowly to the stage, and on Sunday evening they rumbled so that your face cramps into a painful grimace.

The equipment, of course, needs its own attendants: there were so many that an uninformed passerby would surely think that every sound box was in the hands of some man.

But one should not exaggerate: the bulky guys in t-shirts with the inscription, “Deep Purple European Tour 1975," among whom the uninitiated tried to find the familiar faces of the musicians, are earning their bread honestly. It is a routine team so far in the service of many world groups, for which the foreplay of a rock concert means routine, while for the spectators in Belgrade everything looked quite spectacular.

HAPPY PRESS CONFERENCE

Our first meeting with Deep Purple took place on Saturday night, at the Hotel Yugoslavia, under the patronage of Jugoton. The Zagreb record company sold just over 100,000 copies of the album in Yugoslavia, so it decided to present the band with gold plates as a token of gratitude, at a special prepared press conference. Instead of the agreed 8 PM, the boys arrived two hours later: by that time, not all members were allegedly at the hotel. Some colleagues, however, had already sniffed out guitarist Blackmore, which later proved to be a successful catch, as the gloomy guy Ritchie didn't attend the press conference at all and completely distanced himself from the crowd forming around his colleagues.

While a large number of media representatives patiently waited for the conference to begin, many became bored and left. At 10 PM, David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes, and Ian Paice arrive. They sit behind the plush-covered table and look around the room, with the photographer pit and journalists looking at them with interest. At the very moment we begin to ask questions, Jon Lord appears to welcome applause. In the Deep Purple quintet, he seems to be the most familiar phenomenon.

UNIQUE DEEP PURPLE

During the conversation, Jon Lord often mentioned the names of Hughes and Coverdale, still considered newcomers to the group: “We have been together for about twenty months, actually two years, and we can't call them newcomers anymore. They are an integral part of Deep Purple. The change in lineup came naturally, as, after all, in all the periods of our career, all the ups and downs were natural. I doubt we ever did anything hastily. In that sense, Glenn and David come as an expected sequence of developments, events in our career." 

"I guess we brought fresh blood to the group," Hughes interjects. "Like when charging a discharged battery. No more old and new; Deep Purple: it's just Ritchie, Jon, David, Glenn, and Ian!" 

Jon Lord: “Seven years is a long period in this business. Whoever endures becomes an institution, and that implies the fact that you are domesticated everywhere. However, we cannot allow ourselves to constantly repeat things that have already been done. It would bore me, and the audience as well! At the same time, if we do things that we enjoy as creators, our audience will also enjoy it. 

Success is a beautiful thing, but when it comes, the challenge disappears. With the arrival of Glenn and David, this desire to challenge with new achievements has returned to us and now I want to keep it…”

On the other side of the table, where Paice and Coverdale sit, the conversation unfolds in all directions. The members also mention too many (unimportant) things for us to follow. The conference has long since lost its atmosphere of formality. In fact, everyone is having fun as best they can, especially since the hall is now mostly filled with people who are neither journalists nor musicians: there are staff from the escort team, girls, observers, the organizer…. Five plates of sweets, arranged on a stand behind the table at which the conversation takes place, are moved to the other end of the hall to be handed out as a show for photo-reporters. Eventually, the foursome receive commemorative plaques, but instead of Blackmore, the fifth copy comes into the hands of the group’s personal manager.

A PIONEERING ROCK CONCERT

Belgrade's Pionir venue was allegedly not filled to the last seat, although the atmosphere in the hall has given the impression of a sold-out audience. Kragujevac's Smak has just done its task of warming up the audience, and now there is a break that, in fact, should not have happened, but in such circumstances, the audience should be given the opportunity to get excited while waiting for the stars.

They are located in a safe area, in the hallway below the stands, which are a bit shaky. Judging by the sounds coming from the locker rooms, the men are obviously having a good time, and I hear Jon Lord playing some kind of boogie-woogie on the electric piano. Only one photo-reporter manages to reach them: he ignores the ban from the corpulent bodyguard.

Then, at the invitation of the so-called "stage manager", Deep Purple leaves the room behind the escort, as he makes his way to the stage with a bit of unnecessary nervousness. In the almost complete darkness, no one notices them taking their places behind their instruments. It is only when the spotlights flash, as the group moves into “Burn” that it roars terribly and excitement overflows the masses. In the fog that covers the stage, David Coverdale plays with the microphone stand, Paice changes the sides of his drum set, and Hughes jumps around joining Coverdale as two voices. My first impression seems to be to move away from the incredible pressure of a powerful sound. 

Everyone around me seems to be experiencing the same torture of "Heavy Metal!"

LORD: HEAVY METAL - A FICTIONAL TERM

And while the band begins "Stormbringer,” the second song of the set, it only amplifies the intensity of the sound and I remember Lord's statement from 24 hours ago: “I don't even know roughly what it means, heavy metal. The term was coined in the American press, and if you ask any English or American musician, everyone will tell you they don't know what it means. I don't like that label, in fact, I don't much like it. I understand that “heavy metal” means noisy music that hits you here, there, everywhere. But I always called it rock and roll. "Led Zeppelin," they were always just a rock band, we were always just a rock band."

But, in practice, when a man who is only at a distance of ten centimeters has to shout in your ear to be understood, such a statement does not seem at all convincing. Although Lord is partly right when he says, "The idea of a rock band, I suppose, is to affect the masses, but not on an intellectual, but on an emotional level."

That's just about the point of a "Deep Purple" concert. It provided an opportunity for an authentic experience of a rock event. You can listen to how much you like a live rock band, but there is an invisible line between the unacceptability of music that leaves you at a distance and the seemingly same stage event that you automatically get involved in, whether the process is due to simply belonging to a gathered audience, shouting, or trying to escape. 

Deep Purple, meanwhile, goes from song to song from the albums Stormbringer and Burn. When you take a closer look at them individually, perhaps the most interesting is the withdrawn Blackmore, who prefers to play rather than present. He is a good, and more importantly, convincing guitarist, although he often uses effects of which, however, the most spectacular, i.e. breaking the instrument, he did not have the honor to present. At one point it seemed to me that he was ready for it too, but he wasn’t - or he simply refrained.

And Paice impresses with surety. Deep Purple in general are great instrumentalists, no doubt about it. Only, they do not perform a type of music that exhibits instrumental skills, so you become aware of this skill only with such direct contact. On the other hand, they are not a typical show-group, and keep their stage effects to the level of the standard mood of rock performers.

ZAGREB - AND GOODBYE

The Purple concert lasts approximately two hours. If in the first part the program remains more or less easily recognizable, over time it takes on a freer form of rock jam-session, with occasional solos by Lord, Paice and Blackmore. Hughes leads the conversation, Coverdale supports the temperament of the hall, as if he wants to give the audience signs to stay in an equally frenetic mood until the end.

In Belgrade, and especially under the roof of the great Zagreb sports hall, the audience, by the way, should not be encouraged to be in a good mood. And that the mixed enjoyment of the audience at the front of the stage should not take on a dimension of excess, the ready family of Purple's bodyguards, who will intervene only in extremely dangerous situations, are also worried.

I doubt that the Zagreb concert was significantly different from the Belgrade one, except that I gained an interesting experience, i.e. that the loudspeaker was louder in areas further away from the stage than directly in front of it. The function of this equipment seems to have been exhausted in maintaining the volume intensity, while the effort to tint the sound spectrum has shifted into the background. No wonder, then, that tinnitus has become an infection that will - if nothing else - remain the most memorable memory of this occasion.

Dražen Vrdoljak

Darko Glavan talks to Jon Lord, organist of the group “Deep Purple,” which recently visited Belgrade and Zagreb, showing us what a concert of real "hard rock" masters looks like.

The Deep Purple concert was one of the rare opportunities to feel the ritual of a real rock concert in Zagreb. The Deep Purple rockers, routine masters of "hard rock" have shown an excellent knowledge of the mechanics of arousing rock fans, consciously choosing the marginal area between music and stylized stage effects. The emphasis on movement and visual spectacle to some extent limited the members of the ensemble in more fully expressing the art of mastering instruments, which was expressed only in shorter instrumental sections.

The successful concert of Deep Purple argues two theses that I have been advocating for a long time.

The first of them, which could be seen without the performance of Deep Purple, is the expressed need of the domestic audience for performances of top world rock groups and their willingness to spontaneously, without any inhibitions, join as equal participants in such events. Deep Purple's performance confirmed that a significant section of rock music primarily relies on multimedia effects, in which one of the essential aspects of a creative act is an event in which the audience participates at the instigation of the performers. Such manifestations should not be seen as some kind of music or perhaps "applied" or "instructed" music, but as a special form of artistic activity that requires specific models of critical approach.

Before the performance, Deep Purple held a press conference at the Hotel Yugoslavia in Belgrade, where they were presented with commemorative plates handed to them by "Jugoton" for the 100,000 albums sold in Yugoslavia. On that occasion, we spoke with Jon Lord, the unofficial boss of Deep Purple. The author of the text, Drazen Vrdoljak, also took part in the discussion

ONLY ROCK AND ROLL - OTHER NAMES DO NOT FIT

Youth Weekly - Many critics term your style commitment as heavy metal music. Do you agree with such classifications and did you consciously initiate such a style of rock music?

Jon Lord - Let's face it, it's not a term we accept, or like... We actually hate it... I don't even have a rough idea of what the label "heavy metal" should mean... We've always been a rock band, “Led Zeppelin” have always been a rock band. I want to devalue that term, because I don't like it... it was invented by an American journalist, but I don't know a musician who could explain its exact meaning. I guess it’s kind of synonymous with the noise that haunts you here, there, everywhere. But we call it rock and roll, I've always called it rock and roll..

Youth Weekly - So the main goal of your ensemble was the creation of original excitement, early rock and roll, in the conditions of a more developed electro-acoustic technology?

Jon Lord - Yes ... it's rock music. It affects the masses on a level that is not intellectual but emotional. It's not just for our band - that's the essence of all rock bands.

Youth Weekly - The album Deep Purple in Rock is the biggest success of your career. How do you rate it today?

Jon Lord - That album matured in the band members for about two years ... it was a very significant album, it definitely established the band. Honestly, although I run the risk of sounding immodest, overpowering, I think Deep Purple In Rock is a masterpiece within the framework of rock. I think we said a lot about rock at the time and with that album.

Youth Weekly - On your first albums you performed many successful versions of songs by various composers, such as Donovan’s "Lalena", "Help" by Lennon and McCartney, "Hey Joe" and "River Deep, Mountain High," not to mention the first hits like "Hush" and “Kentucky Woman." Is it possible to include another such song in your repertoire even today?

Jon Lord - If you want to record someone else's song, then you have to add a new dimension to it, elaborate it musically in terms of your own taste and expression ... if that doesn't work for you, then it's better to record your own material.

Youth Weekly - So, at the moment, there is no more pronounced possibility to edit a composition by another author?

Jon Lord - In fact ... on the new album we will include another song ... I can't remember exactly which song it was, it was Ritchie's idea ... but it's not certain because if we don't succeed in properly performing a song, we would rather use our own. Take the Beatles for example .... their songs are very difficult to perform; after their performance you get the impression that they got the most out of it.

THE ROLE OF ROCK CRITICISM

Youth Weekly - What kind of music do you listen to in your free time?

Jon Lord - Diverse music, everything I can hear ... if you are an architect by profession then you are always trying to find out how your competitors build houses, if you are a musician then you have to constantly monitor how other musicians play music .... that is, after all, your job. Music is not heavenly, ethereal, it is something earthly just like building houses. Music is a craft in which you constantly have to improve and that is why it is very important to respect the work of other musicians.

Youth Weekly - Could you single out a few favorites?

Jon Lord - There are many of them, but most often it is not a specific soloist, composer or ensemble, but usually a few songs from a single album .... I rarely like a complete album, I usually single out something that later possibly affects my work ... .I like, for example, some numbers of Yes, and Led Zeppelin... but I don't have a favorite band. But, let's say, if I say I don't like a certain album, it doesn't automatically mean I think it's bad. This mistake is often made by critics - they attack an album because they didn't like it and thus declare it a loser and a failure. They should be more careful and thoughtful in such articles.

Youth Weekly - We in Yugoslavia have taken a large part of our knowledge about rock music from the English or American rock press. What is your attitude towards rock criticism?

Jon Lord - I'm not against criticism ... but there are many critics I can't trust anymore. I'm not saying this because of possible bad reviews from my group or my solo projects - I knew a lot of honest groups, which created and played great music and which were ruined due to the negative evaluations of some critics. The critic has one advantage over the musician: he cannot be answered to at once. This bothers me because when I see an article in the newspaper that I do not agree with, all I have to do is write a protest, but the moment it is published - the essence of the discussion loses its meaning and relevance. Led Zeppelin are one of the world's leading rock bands. But for concerts on their American tour, which is just underway, they regularly get bad reviews, even though every ticket is sold out for their performance ... They work hard every night, play for a long time, and can't see the meaning of the critics' negative attitude. But there are also people I still trust, for example, Chris Welch from Melody Maker.

Youth Weekly - How do you think a critic should act?

Jon Lord - You should comment, express constructively and honestly your personal opinion instead of presenting your views to the audience as an undeniable fact; it is not a fact, it is only a judgement.

I AM NOT A MUSIC MACHINE BUT A MUSICIAN

Youth Weekly - In addition to working within Deep Purple, you have realized several independent projects. Why did you decide on such appearances?

Jon Lord - As a member of a group, I have been working professionally for a little over seven years. There is a danger that we will turn into an institution, and the institution implies that you are established at all levels, while I am constantly striving for new challenges. This, after all, made us change our line-up at one point - but now we have to avoid the mistakes we made in the past, and that makes us not feel overconfident about ourselves. Personally, I do not like everything to flow easily, I am ready to face difficulties. You can’t play forever what you played yesterday. You would get bored, and if you get bored, the audience gets bored too. You try to surprise the audience, you try to surprise yourself if possible, and I think it is. If you are excited about what you are playing, you will also excite the audience. I don’t think music has ever stepped forward if not experimented. So, one has to experiment. A conscious dream that my experiments are not vital to the musical life of the world, but for me personally they are, and unfortunately, people are not currently given the opportunity for that, which I will certainly accept

Youth Weekly - What does your latest album Stormbringer mean to you?

Jon Lord - Stormbringer was recorded last summer in Munich. It is our second album with bassist Glenn Hughes and singer David Coverdale. The songs are close to what we have always wanted to play, a bit softer and more moderate than our characteristic sound. After Burn we got closer, so we were more relaxed. I think, after Machine Head, it’s our most successful album.

Youth Weekly - Plans for the future?

Jon Lord - The next album will be a bit more rocking, we will start recording it on April 10, again in Munich. This year we will perform a little less and play mostly in countries we haven't visited so far - in South America, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. We are preparing for an English tour, but this year we are not planning a tour of the USA ... we need a vacation, we don’t want to be musical machines rather than musicians.

Darko Glavan

Recording: Vican Vicanović

#deep purple #jon lord #ian paice #david coverdale #glenn hughes #ritchie blackmore #deep purple mk iii #interview #article #kelly.txt

[bicommunitynews]

Each year we publish a roundup of bi events at the end of December. Naturally this one will be a little less packed than usual. Nonetheless wishing you a very different and better year ahead! At the start of the year very few of us realised what might be ahead as the COVID-19 virus was still thought to be far away and most likely confined to a corner of China. So for those first ten weeks or so of 2020 things were happening as normal. So it was at the start of January when Layla Moran became the first UK MP to come out as pansexual. Courts compensated a worker who had been told to pretend to be gay rather than bi in the workplace and returned confiscated medals to an ex serviceman. Northern Ireland started to consult on same-sex marriage while we learned women are more likely to divorce one another than men. There was good news on HIV figures and from the European Court declaring that government inaction on LGBTphobic hate was no longer acceptable. And the Welsh Government declared it would go a step further than merely repealing Section 28 with active work to ensure children are making informed choices on sex and relationships. In February Bi Pride got a mention in the House, while LGBT History Month saw many more bi-related talks than usual. Overseas Switzerland voted to recognise LGBT hate crimes. There were bis on TV in Doctors and I Am Not OK With This as well as a new season of Atypical to look forward to. And new research showed peculiar findings about bi people and skin cancer.

With the pandemic seeing the start of lockdown in the UK during March events started to be cancelled like Birmingham BiFest and BiFest Wales. As Prides started to fall like dominoes, Eurovision announced its first ever rollover winner. In the USA a St Patrick’s Day parade barred a beauty pageant winner from marching on account of her bisexuality. We had more bi representation on TV in Love Is Blind’s demonstration of double-standards over bisexuality, BBC polyamory drama Trigonometry, and Batwoman. The House of Commons held its first ever debate on LBT women’s health while Canada declared its intention to outlaw so-called “gay cure” so-called “therapy”. And new figures showed more people identifying as bi in the UK than ever.

In April many of us were starting to get used to life indoors and wondering how much a loo roll could fetch on eBay there were sobering thoughts about how the lockdown meant a lot of bi and LGBT people were now trapped in unsafe situations. The USA responded by relaxing its limitations on bi and gay men donating blood with Australia contemplating the same shift. The first LGBT club closure of the pandemic was announced in Brighton. On TV we had a raft of fresh bi viewing with the return of Flack, Killing Eve and Harley Quinn. But the big bi drama of the month was away from TV as BiNetUSA abruptly tried to claim copyright over the public domain bisexual flag.

Most LGBT magazines stopped publishing for the time being due to the pandemic but we took the decision to keep BCN coming out as one little strand of bi life we could keep fairly normal, so our April edition was the second of six in 2020.

Staying indoors gave people some time to organise and so in May there were online campaigns about the blood donation ban and conversion therapy. Being indoors also meant people could virtually visit museums worldwide. New research showed bi men were the most closeted group across Europe.

As the Black Lives Matter movement drew headlines worldwide in June dating app Grindr dropped its race filter. One of those “how did that take so long?” moments. There was a big victory in the US Supreme Court, while over here a new faux LGB equality campaign group came out against same-sex marriage, for anyone who hadn’t already realised they weren’t on the side of any queer folks. The BBC nonetheless carried on quoting them as if they were a serious human rights campaign. The annual Bi Book Awards winners were announced, though without (for now) the usual glamorous awards event. The Grammys got their tongue tied online. In good news, Gabon decriminalised sex between women and between men and Scotland opened up civil partnerships to any couple regardless of gender. BiCon had a bumpy month with two organising teams quitting in the space of a week.

In July we had more happy news from abroad as Montenegro recognised same-sex civil partnerships and South Africa changed its rules on how marriage ceremonies are conducted. It was less good elsewhere as the budget for PrEP was cut in the UK and in Poland the presidential election came down to a knife-edge before going the wrong way. We learned bis have worse experiences of crime than other people and the GLAAD annual review of film releases noted cinema was getting Whiter and gayer, with no bi male representation in major film releases.

We are used to a host of Prides in August so it was a hot summer with so much less to do every Saturday! However some ran online and BiCon happened in a very slimmed-down online form. The run-up to Bi Visibility Day began with more Town Halls deciding to fly the bi flag. New US research showed bi youth experience of bullying.

It’s Bi Visibility Day, Bi Week and Bi Month in September and among the delights was improvements in dictionary definitions. Northern Ireland inched further forward on equality while the UK courts rules that the Equality Act includes nonbinary people. Coming-out guide Getting Bi came out for the Kindle. In the USA we saw the first research on how the COVID-19 pandemic was hitting the LGBT communities while here Stonewall had research on how many bis are out to their families – not many.

In October we learned there would be a biopic of former US Congresswoman Katie Hill. Netflix dropped GLOW. In good news for millions the Pope made a small shift toward a better attitude to LGBT lives on the part of the Catholic Church. And in bad news here, a BBC which was veering increasingly far from balanced and responsible reporting of LGBT issues warned staff they should not attend Pride events even in their own time and private lives.

All eyes were on the USA in November as Donald Trump lost by a huge margin in the election there – albeit not as wide a margin as many opinion polls had predicted. Biden won with over 80 million votes in the end – more than any previous candidate. Biden’s speech missed out the “B”. Europe considered its next five year plan on LGBT work without the UK, and in Poland there were symbolic protests against the hateful “LGBT free zone” populists. We all realised we had been too distracted by COVID to notice that the LGBT inclusion work in schools that had started under the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition had been quietly dropped by the new minister for Women and Equalities.

Most important, COVID vaccines started to be approved. After a very hard year, change was at last in sight.

In December the three month ban on blood donation for bi and gay men and their partners was completely rewritten – for better and for worse – though the new rules don’t come in until a few months into 2021. Kyrsten Sinema rocked a great wig and coat in Washington. There was divine justice as a homophobic MEP got caught breaking COVID rules at a gay party. And Switzerland – whose good news on hate crime kicked the year off – decided to let same-sex couples marry. And so ILGA’s annual world map of LGBT rights showed a ripple of changes. And our fifth edition of the pandemic landed on subscriber doormats, more or less in time for Christmas.

That was 2020. To our most sincere delight, it is in the past. Here’s to a very different year ahead.

#2020 #year in review #2020 in bisexual

[hollyand-writes]

Quarantine Q&A

I was tagged by the lovely @gremlinquisitor ❤️ Sorry it took me so long to get round to doing this!

Tagging: anyone who feels up to it -- like Erin said in her own post, take care of yourself first, and if you don’t feel like you can talk about this, then please don’t try to force it. ❤️

Are you staying home from work or school?

My husband and I have both been working from home since mid-March. I was already pretty much working from home before that anyway (been doing it for about a decade), so I was used to it and therefore don’t feel my life has changed dramatically. We’re really lucky that our jobs can be done 100% from home -- March and April were really busy months for both of us work-wise, so I think that helped us both cope and feel useful. 

In a weird way, lockdown didn’t/doesn’t upset or stress me out? I think it’s because I had a head start on worrying about the pandemic back in January: I have family in China/HK/SE Asia and I was really, really worried about them for a bit. I follow a few Chinese-language social media accounts of people based in China / East Asia and what was coming out of there was really, really bad -- sometimes worse than what was being reported in Western media -- and people over there were so angry and terrified for months before anyone in the West started worrying about it, I think. 

So, by the time the pandemic hit the UK and lockdown was announced, I think I was just relieved that finally there was something I could “do” about what was going on in the world, if that made sense??? I’d been reading these first-hand anonymous accounts “on the ground” in Chinese for two months by that point, so I felt like I kind of knew what to expect physically and emotionally. (My family and family-friends out there are all fine as far as I know, btw.)

If you’re staying home, who’s with you?

My husband. 9 weeks into lockdown and we’re still very much enjoying having each other around! He misses his colleagues, but he doesn’t miss his commute. We have the odd Zoom party and catch up with his family on FaceTime (it’s weird how it took a pandemic for us to think of video-calling them instead of phoning them), but yeah, he’s been great lockdown company and I love having him home! I don’t want him to go back to work LMAO! 

We work in the same room, but tend to be very good at focusing on our work during the work day, so we don’t really distract each other and give each other space when needed (mentally rather than physically, though; we live in a tiny flat with only like 3 rooms so it’s hard to give each other physical space). We play endless games of Civ6 against the other during breaks from work.

Are you a homebody?

Before 2020? No, not at all. But after lockdown started? I’ve been discovering the delights of just chilling at home with my husband, being busy and in-demand at work, writing, reading books, teaching myself Photoshop (working through an online course LMAO) and playing Civ. 

Also I’ve been really happy about all the money I’m saving from not going out and not buying anything apart from food and books LMAO! 

I’ve not really felt very talkative this year; and after lockdown started, that even extended to many of my real-life friends -- I’ve just felt happy staying at home and not talking to anyone except my husband, for some reason. (As an aside -- sorry to all of you on Tumblr and Discord for not chatting so much -- it’s not personal, it’s just whatever phase I’m going through, both IRL and online!) I’m not depressed or anything, I don’t think -- just happy doing my own thing for a bit.

An event that you were looking forward to that got cancelled.

The one that I was most gutted about was the Euro 2020 football tournament (soccer to you Americans of course) -- I had tickets to go to the final in July. But the organisers said they’ll hold the tournament next year and tickets will be valid, so I don’t feel so bad about it now. 

I miss the gym the most, I think. Everything else has kind of sorted itself out (even cancelled events), but the gym / working-out thing hasn’t. I started doing some home workouts with resistance bands at first, but I’ve fallen out of the habit of that somewhat -- it’s just not the same as having an actual barbell in your hands.

I was also meant to go on holiday to Greece with friends (12 of us) but that’s been cancelled. Funnily enough, when lockdown was announced in the UK I was secretly relieved, because I had a lot of social events lined up and my social life had been so busy up to that point that I was starting to get rather overwhelmed with it all. Turns out I’m an extrovert with a strong introvert streak.

What movies have you watched recently? What shows are you watching?

Hmmmm.... not really so much movies, I think. Aside from Frozen 2 (again). We’re currently working our way more through the 1994 BBC TV series of the classic novel Middlemarch (because I’ve been reading it), but we tend to play Civ, or read, or bake/cook, rather than watch TV.

What music are you listening to?

Gosh, loads, haha! The Frozen 2 soundtrack. Ibiza clubland tunes (to remind me of good times, LOL). Listened to old Eurovision tracks over the weekend (to get me in the spirit, even if Eurovision 2020 was cancelled). Attended virtual concerts that my friends in music bands have been holding. Pretty much everything you can imagine, whenever the mood strikes. Today I was listening to Suede’s Singles.

What are you reading?

Right now I’m reading “Middlemarch” by George Eliot; I’ve been getting through lots of books since February, both fiction and non-fiction.

That said, I’ve not really felt like reading fanfic much -- stopped reading Dragon Age fanfiction in December or January (and completely fell out of the fandom for a while, too) so I’m really behind on every longfic I was following. I’m only just starting to catch up on it all, in May, although I don’t see myself being in fandom/online that much. I’ll get to all your fics eventually! I’m just slow 😄

What are you doing for self-care?

Lots of things, and I think they’re helping because I’ve been coping OK so far (sorry this list is so long!): 

Staying offline -- especially off Tumblr and Discord and Twitter -- more often, which has really helped me get work done (sorry I’ve not been around much, though) and finally getting around to doing all those projects I didn’t have time to do / wasn’t home often enough to do is helping, especially when I can see progress being made 

Weekly therapy sessions -- started these last year when my brother got very seriously ill; the therapy sessions have now moved online via video-call rather than face-to-face and in-person, but I’m still keeping up with them through the pandemic. I haven’t felt like I need it, tbh, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to keep having therapy just in case...

Being grateful for how lucky I am -- I’m still alive and well for now, as are my loved ones, my husband and I are still in jobs / earning money, and things could be a lot worse; for example, at least I’m still able to go for walks in the park: my brother is officially a “vulnerable category” person who has to stay completely indoors and self-isolate for 12 weeks, even though he’s in remission; he can’t even go to the shops to get food

Working -- it’s been really nice sometimes to keep busy. The nature of my work means that unfortunately I can’t completely switch off from the news, so I tend to look at less of the bad and sad news and consume more the “how does the pandemic affect my specific specialism or field” news -- I find that limiting my news consumption is helping

Husband and I go for a walk in the park in the sunshine once a day (it’s been warm and sunny in London ever since lockdown started in March) for like 45 minutes a day. We have a really lovely park and I’ve taken lots of nice nature photos, and have discovered parts of the park and our neighbourhood that we didn’t know before, which has been very exciting 😁

We’ve been cooking and baking a lot more because we’re not commuting, and we’ve got time to cook ourselves nicer / healthier meals, and experimenting with baking puddings and cakes.

Taking multivitamins and fish oil every day, with boosters for Vitamin D3 and magnesium -- I actually think the latter has helped me sleep better and helped with motivation this year, but who knows LOL

FaceTime with husband’s family -- I actually think this lockdown has improved the quality of our relationships there, and they’ve been really happy to chat to us more often than usual

Just... not pushing myself on anything: usually I’m a really chatty and sociable person, but this year I’ve been far less chatty and just not felt so sociable, and just enjoyed being away from people to read and write or whatever. My one and only goal in 2020 is to survive it -- literally, given that there’s a pandemic on, LOL. Anything else is a bonus.

#stuff about me #long post #personal

[btsybrkr]

2020 Vision: What To Expect From The Next Decade (By Someone Who Has No Idea, Obviously.)

Happy New Year, all!! I had planned to do a little run-down last week of everything that happened in the 2010s, but instead succumbed to the existential struggle that comes with the week that follows Christmas Day, in which your time becomes largely swallowed up by asking yourself ‘what day is it?’ and ‘at what point am I supposed to stop living on a diet of alcohol and Quality Street?’. It’s festive purgatory, and you’re literally powerless to do anything other than sleep, eat, and moan that the shops are still playing Christmas music. That’s my excuse, anyway.

So, instead, I thought we’d say a collective “cinnabit, lad” to 2019 and a collective “what is UP, dude?” to the Roaring 20s 2.0, the only sequel that humanity has waited a whole 100 years for. Apart from Avatar 2, which I imagine will come out at some point in the 3020s.  What do we know so far about what the 2020s have in store for us? Obviously, not a lot, but as someone who successfully predicted the outcome of the last election, and the UK’s last four Eurovision losses - two things which I’m sure absolutely nobody ever saw coming - I thought I’d give out my own valuable speculation. Here’s what the 2020s might look like, according to me.

Politics

Let’s get it out of the way - we’re in a terrible state. At this point, every important issue is so divisive, that the nation is divided over everything, including whether we’re actually divided or not. Do I think we’ll become any less divided in the coming years, in a United Kingdom where the conversation is so often dominated by things we can absolutely never seem to agree on? Yes. We will have no choice. Why? 

All-out war.

Yes, I said it. In 2021, there will be all-out war. With America, probably. I don’t know why. Maybe Trump will get into an argument with Boris Johnson over who can manage to effortlessly look the most like a Viz caricature of themselves - they both already do somehow, I’m just saying they might disagree on which one of them is the best at it. Could be that, or possibly a more serious cause, to do with nuclear weapons or something, but I’d rather not think about that, because it’s not as funny as the Viz thing. And it’s more likely. So, we’ll pretend for now that we’re on the verge of the first pantomime, slapstick war the world has ever seen.

Anyway, while Trump and Johnson are beefing up a storm - picture Punch and Judy, except the puppets are in suits and have thinning, bright yellow hair - previously all-encompassing issues like Brexit will fall by the wayside, until Boris Johnson eventually decides to hand his notice in to focus on more important things, like beating Trump with a wooden spoon and chasing after the dog that stole all his sausages. After this, we’ll all come together to realise that if actual elected officials can’t do the job, then maybe we, the people, deserve our chance to test our political metal. Obviously, we can’t let just anybody have a go, but at the end of the year, Cosmopolitan magazine puts the traditional democratic process at number one on its ‘Leave It In 2021’ list, so we have absolutely no choice but to come up with something else, which brings me to...

Television And Film

2022 will start with a bang, with the debut of Simon Cowell’s new talent show format, So You Think You Can Be The Prime Minister?, hosted of course by Ant and Dec, with the aftershow on ITV2 being hosted by Jeremy Paxman. Contestants will line up in huge crowds to give judges Russell Brand, Susanna Reid, and, of course, Jesus S. Cowell himself (forgot to mention, Simon Cowell has been elected as the new Christ in this completely non-hypothetical universe, alright?) their opinions on hot political topics such as Brexit, the NHS, and, of course, whether a Jaffa Cake can really be classed as a biscuit or not. Each episode, contestants will take part in a live debate, themed around a different issue with every passing week. The two least popular contestants after the weekly phone vote will go head-to-head giving their own rendition of Running The World by Jarvis Cocker, with the worst performer being eliminated. I know a sing-off isn’t exactly relevant in a politics programme, but it’s Saturday night primetime so it’s still got to be at least somewhat entertaining, yeah?

Love Island will be back, of course - and not just with a Summer and Winter edition, but with an additional Spring and Autumn one for the 2024 schedule! This will be a win-win situation for the series producers, and for its viewers, as by 2027, ITV will run out of attractive under-35s to appear on the show, and members of the public will begin getting called up to appear - like with jury duty, except that ITV pay for you to have extensive cosmetic surgery first, so that you’re aesthetically pleasing enough for people to want to tune in, and so that you can maintain a successful career selling Bootea on Instagram afterwards. 

Films will also go through a renaissance in the 2020s, as the Hollywood big boys come to a conclusion that everything has just become a little too… blockbuster. To remedy this, they make the joint decision that, 100 years on, we should take ourselves back to the silent film era, which will surely create hundreds of jobs for mute people, therefore solving Hollywood’s problems with a lack of diversity in film. It’ll also give well-known TikTok creators a chance to make the leap into mainstream entertainment, as they’ll have spent so long lip-synching over the years that they’ll now be more qualified to star in these new golden age pictures than actual trained actors. Obviously, that sounds absolutely beyond comprehension, but look at Count Orlok in 1922’s Nosferatu. See his slender limbs, blank stare, gothic dress sense - in a way, he’s the original e-boy, and there’s plenty of them out there on TikTok now that could play the titular vampire just as well in a 100th anniversary remake, just with less neck-biting and more lip-biting. Trust me, it’ll be a hit.

Technology

Throughout the 2010s, there’s been a lot of talk about everyone spending too much time on their bloody phones, so, in 2024, Apple will try to combat this issue when they unveil perhaps their most innovative product to date - the iPhone XZ+, a phone which exists solely in the mind of its users. Not in a Black Mirror, chip-inside-your-brain sort of way, either. It is literally imaginary. It’s a phone that, instead of being a phone, is actually just the concept of a phone. Yes, for the small cost of £1,500 and six units of your own soul, you, too, can block the rest of the world out. How amazing is that? No more wasting hours of your day keeping in touch with friends and family. No more accessing a wealth of information, wherever you are, with a quick Google. No more blocking out the sound of cackling pre-teens on the bus by putting in your earphones and listening to music. These things are bad and must be stopped, before we become an entire species of communicating, bopping, learning zombies.

I think those must be bad things anyway, since you can rarely go a few seconds scrolling through social media without stumbling across a ‘woke’ meme about how the use of smartphones is destroying us, one notification at a time - memes which I’m absolutely sure were created and posted from a book or a potato or something. Otherwise they’d just be hypocritical, wouldn’t they?

Anyway, the iPhone XZ+. It’s the only thing you need inside your head this decade. Apart from a very real ever-growing sense of fear and doom, which you can get for free.

Sport

The next decade will see the Olympics and Paralympics take place in 2020, 2024 and 2028, as well as the Winter equivalents to both in 2022 and 2026. You’d think we’d be all Olympic-ed out with that, but in the absence of anything else that gets people feeling remotely patriotic in a purely nice way, the world will decide to come together to throw scaled-down, low-budget Olympic games in all the off-years this decade. 

Summer 2021 will see the start of the first ever Not-The-Actual-Olympics. Marked by a glamourous opening ceremony in a field in Loughborough, the opening will feature a series of performances from stars such as H from Steps, and will be attended by some people who aren’t the royal family, but really do look like them. Taking place over the 10-week long games will be thumb wars, arm wrestling, staring contests, and an exciting event in which competitors try to eat the most HobNobs they possibly can without the help of a glass of water to combat the extreme dry-mouth they end up with. It might sound underwhelming now, but if there turns out to be any truth in the other predictions I’ve made here, it might be just what you need to restore your faith in the everyday.

Happy New Year, Everyone

In all seriousness - not that the rest of this isn’t serious, because it is, and is definitely all going to happen - whatever the coming years bring, it’s important to remember that we have to take the good with the bad, to look after ourselves and each other, and to enjoy each day as much as we possibly can, even during the bits of life that leave us feeling a little less Gangnam Style than we did way back in 2012. Thanks, everyone, for reading my blog. I’ll be back again in a week or so to talk absolute arse about something else. Until then, I hope you all had a great 2019, and have an even better start to 2020. Cheers!

[cyabae]

TOP-10 Naruto Eurovision Characters

No one asked for it, but this is what the world needs right now. I’m going to list top-10 characters who would perform well in Eurovision. And to the person who’s asking: “Is this post cursed?” - no, it’s blessed with sparkling vibes, love, love, peace, peace. ♡

10. TSUNADE

Look, I know, I know… When you think about burning pianos and sparkling outfits, Tsunade isn’t the first person who comes to mind. However, you can bet that she’s the one who found some extra money to support the broadcast, made sure that the safety standards were met and bought some champagne (out of her own pocket) for the Raikage to convince him that Kumo doesn’t fall apart even if it shows this glitter feast to its citizens. Probably made all the confetti herself, yes, the whole stadium of it ‘cause everyone else was too distracted. Sure, she passed out 15 minutes before the show began but she’s the one who’s behind of it all and therefore should win. But since we want more sparkles, we’ll give her 1 point.

9. SHISUI

Every good song contest needs a ballad. Fear not, Shisui is the right man for the job! His beautiful sad red eyes will capture your chakra and make you sob like no tomorrow as he begins to sing a song about blindly falling into a swirling abyss. No one knows whether his best friend is able to save the day. It’s possible that Shisui’s early demise was in vain. That’s depressing, people conclude, as Shisui smiles softly for one last time. A tragic death is something that everyone can relate to – we’ve all been there. However, the jury is kinda awkward ‘cause there are speculations that this song has Danzō references, 2 points but in our hearts, the ballad boy is the true winner of the night.

8. DEIDARA

Oh, wow, the atmosphere got kinda sad after those heartbreaking melodies. It’s time to lift up the mood with a big, big BOOM! Deidara will steal the show with his self-made clay bombs. The rumor has it that someone else was going to take care of the fireworks before our favorite pyrotechnic took the matters into his own hands (quite literally). His high-quality standards were too much to chew for the art director. Deidara’s performance will absolutely bombard you with fleeting beauty of explosions and 2007 nostalgia, 3 points!

7. KISAME

Ballads and groovy rock hits are essential. However, there’s a beautiful middle ground to be found between the two. Enter the sharkman Kisame! There’s something so chill about him that it puts the audience in a good mood. When he steps on the stage, you can almost feel a light sea breeze and hear a distant cry of seagulls. And oh boy, what do we have here? A Samehada? That’s so wicked, just like those geysers that extinguish the fire from the previous performance, possibly saving dozens of lives. Wherever Kisame goes, good luck follows. Except for that one time in Kumo. This unfortunate occurrence doesn’t require any attention right now. This night is all about peace and love, all that morbid talk about sharknados can wait. 4 points.

6. MADARA

Go big or go home! It’s Madara’s turn. He’s prepared for his moment of glory for decades and won’t be afraid to spice up things with some meteor showers and hundreds of copies of himself. Those clones may seem invisible but they’re conjuring meteor showers, too. We may never know whether the lord First himself is impressed. He probably is. At least the rest of the world is in awe. Technically, Madara is banned from the event due to multiple violations of the rules, but even the jury is too amazed to care. They want to acknowledge the persistent work and grand him 5 points before anyone realizes that banned performances are banned.

5. GAI

The Green Beast of Konoha is about to hit the stage. He was absolutely made for quality content like this. His jumpsuit has been a song contest classic ever since the dawn of time, not to mention that this dance-friendly outfit allows him to move smoothly. The dress is a killer, youthful like a lunchbox. Gai’s presence sets every piano in the world on fire, and you can bet that those flames are also emerald green. 6 points.

4. JUUBI

Once you think you’ve seen it all, it’s Juubi’s turn! The jury thinks that a gigantic chakra monster isn’t an appropriate singer but whatever. Their killjoy attitudes won’t stop people from loving the roars of their very favorite annihilator. Magnificent! Bravo! 7 poäng!

3. RIN

Pheww, what a show! Hearts are racing. A good old ballad will cure our chest pains. Now, let’s hear about that one time when Rin needed to get an assisted suicide. Naturally, everything went horribly wrong and now she’s doomed to watch over her friend from afar, thinking to herself that this wasn’t what she signed up for. Her only joy in life is knowing that once a year, there’s this one day of peace. Even her idiot friends seem to respect that. But it’s a small console given that she’s still kinda dead and now everyone thinks that she’s super against the Infinite Tsukuyomi whilst all she ever wanted to do was to start a revolution along with her best friends. Her story is the greatest tragedy of all times, 8 points.

2. KAKASHI

Looks like the next performer doesn’t believe in glitter. Kakashi is dressed in his standard jōnin outfit. He has 5 of them just in case. Sometimes he can muster enough motivation to do laundry, and that’s a little miracle. Laundry days are the good days. Life’s treated him roughly. Still, this man took over when Tsunade passed out and personally prevented 900 deaths behind the scenes. He doesn’t want any credit for it, he just did what had to be done. The strength of this man is his sense of duty. It’s unbreakable. When the world is falling apart, Kakashi is your last hope. He isn’t kidding around, and if he must attend to this madness, he will do it. One could argue that Kakashi isn’t very wholesome, but something about him pleases everyone. The jury loves him, Konoha council loves him and the opposing side of those state marionettes loves him. After all, he’s becoming Tsunade’s successor but no one has asked their Sharingan back, just saying… Love for Kakashi is universal. 10 points for love’s sake.

1. OBITO

A good song contest is made out of ballads, quirky outfits and meteor showers. With that being said, you can’t have a real show without the walking, talking shitpost. When Tobi takes over, the whole world will gasp. Some think that the kitsch lollipop mask is too much and rightfully so, whilst the others think it’s ingenious. They are right in their own way. Tobi is a good boy and a fashion icon. You know who else is both of those things? Obito! He’s prolly not impressed by the concept of the competition. He doesn’t think that mere individuals should represent the prisons that are their nations. But he’s here. It’s time to put an end to this misery and let the world rest in peace. No more pain, no more suffering. The jury tries to protest. That’s their problem. Obito will create a new world, a better one. Admit it, this plan is THE BEST, and no bans and boycotts can prevent Obito from giving the world a… Good. Fucking. Show. Sure, the plan wasn’t his idea, but he did all the hard work – and therefore he’s the winner. LONG LIVE FREEDOM, 12 POINTS!

#eurovision #esc #eurovision 2019 #esc 2019 #naruto #tsunade #shisui #deidara #kisame #madara #gai #juubi #rin #kakashi #obito #toetally not a shitpost #meta

[eurosong]

Good afternoon, folks, and welcome to today’s Eurovision statistical map. Tomorrow, we see the final pre-party of the year taking place in Moscow -  oddly without the home representative present - so I found it the perfect opportunity to look at this year’s ESC contestants and their attendance (or not) of the year’s preliminary events.

In theory, appearing at pre-parties seems like a win-win: it allows the artists to practise performing their song in front of large crowds, to connect with fans, to promote the song in other countries - and the fans, most of whom cannot make it to Israel, to get to meet the artists. Of last year’s top 10, 7 had attended pre-parties, and most of them had been to two or more. In the year before that, only 2 of the top 10 (Portugal and Australia - one for health reasons, the other for geography) didn’t attend pre-parties and most attended 2 or more. One cannot help but wonder if 2018 most prolific countries, who attended 5 of the 6 pre-parties last year - Czechia’s Mikolas Jozef, who got his country’s best result to date, and Moldova’s Doredos, who confounded predictions of non-qualification to grab another top 10 result for their country - were boosted partially by their promotion across Europe.

And yet, we cannot discount the fact that sometimes, pre-party appearances can do more damage than good if an artist is not quite ready for the stage and the scrutiny that comes with it. If a performance doesn’t live up to the hype, a section of fans can be rather unforgiving, despite the fact that the sound and resources available in the preliminary event locations will be nowhere near what we’ll see in the semi-finals. Cyprus, Italy and Estonia gave all pre-parties the bum steer last year and still did very well, as did Portugal in 2017 - and we also cannot forget that, in 2017, Czechia’s Martina Bárta and Poland’s Kasia Moś were the most prolific travellers and neither did too well. 

This year, we see 7 countries in total sitting out all pre-parties. Other than Cyprus, sitting out for the second year in a row, none of the countries missed out last year. In Malta’s case, they withdrew from pre-parties in order to “practice more” for the ESC performance - which is kind of like saying that you can’t go to the gym because you have to exercise. With regards to the other countries, I have no idea what they think they’ll gain from staying at home - in Russia’s case, not even participating in their home nation’s pre-party. Perhaps they don’t want to risk damaging the hype, but the hype for the likes of Macedonia is low and could conceivably only be improved by pre-party performances.

On the other side of the coin, Czechia are up at the joint top for the most prolific pre-party attendees for the 3rd year in a row. Credit where credit is due - they’re really putting in the effort. The UK and Spain were one of the biggest travellers last year and do so again. Denmark attended half the shows, but miss just one this time, whilst Norway didn’t do any prelims in 2018 and have made up for it in big style by going to all but one - and being the only foreign act from this year’s ESC to show up in poor, overlooked Riga.

I am really intrigued to see whether the promotion and travel miles will pay off for these countries and whether we’ll see another top 10 dominated by songs from entrants who did the pre-party circuit. A full data table about who attended what is available below!

#eurovision #esc 2019 #maps #eurovision song contest #pre-parties #eurovision 2019 #statistics

[borisbubbles]

02. MOLDOVA

DoReDoS - “My lucky day” 10th place

I have written far too much and for far too long about Eurovision that it can still be considered a healthy pasttime, yet I’ve completely missed the love triangle vibe of this wonderful Banality Anthem?

Funnily, it was the very SovBottiness which caused “My Lucky Day” to shine, that also obscured its lol-potential in the first place. While both the song AND the country it was performed for both scream “hilarious trainwreck in the making”, most of us (I am not just speaking for myself here... right?) weren’t really expecting anything great.

All I did expect were a few neurotic *offscreen* meltdowns, because I couldn’t (and to this day still can’t?) wrap my head around how DoReDoS function as cohesive group. The best way I can think of to describe this is that DoReDoS, partially due to their hyperprofessionalism and partially because of the language barrier came off as Pod People, which was a lovely sight, I’m sure you’ll agree <3 From Marina swanning in and out of interviews as if she was just a intern  who go lost at a high-end business drink + buffet, to Eugeniu and Sergiu sulking in the background avoiding eyecontact with the press people because they don’t speak a lick of English <3  However the only immediate payoff was a mere “Well the staging will be funny ;D” and I was like “lol sure, Jan” all the same. Then came... the dénouement:

The staging was *actually* funny, who knew! DoReDoS came out of NOWHERE from being an act nobody even considered a serious qualifier to the #1 Favourite of nearly EVERYONE in the Press Centre during rehearsals <3 I can’t think of a single bigger whiplash? (maybe Robertoad, but even then it took me until the 2013 vote tally to appreciate the absurdity of Frenglish + VAGINA DANCERS + his always carrying with himself a wee stuffed elephant = permanently hunkering down on the left hand side of the scoreboard somehow <3 ) 

How did DoReDoS achieve success? Well, they simply acted out their song’s by Moldovan standards ridiculous and oversexualized message of a middle-aged woman ensnaring two witless loverboys in a bout of hormone-driven nymphomania in the most literal way possible <333333 BLESS <3

You can take “BLESS” literally btw because turns out that DoReDoS are like... superreligious nuts as in the “we demand to attend church before every performance and flat out refuse to sing if God doesn’t speak to me” type of religious nuts <3333

I dunno why I find that factoid hysterical, but Lord I do. Just the *idea* of anyone (let alone these three “individuals”) visiting an Orthodox Basilica on a daily basis and like, kissing the gilded Bible and kneeling at the plaster effygies to pray for an exquisite performance of what is a polyandrist ménage à trois style dork dance that openly celebrates bigamy and includes live groping  in front of a millions of people worldwide at the world’s greatest gay reclamation event is...  the stuff Kafka wrote novels about and I mean, guys... I’m only human.

The prayers WERE answered though because the performance is as close to perfection as I like my entries to get. Don’t get me wrong though. DoReDoS were perfect... in their imperfections. The acting during “My Lucky Day” was godawful and cheesier than a raclette fondue on New Year’s Eve and that is precisely what made it RealFantastic. The Dr Seuss-like rhyming, the utter lack of subtlety, the overacting, it all contributed to an act that was just silly enough to maintain its the light-hearted farmer’s farce /fait divers status. Even B-material like Sergiu singing the chorus in an audibly off-key falsetto, forcing Marina and Eugeniu to drown out his yelps so the performance doesn’t fall apart is sustainably funny to me <3

Yet at the same time, “My Lucky Day” is not silly enough to be just shoved aside as a joke act. DoReDoS were *perfectly* cast as the Glam Cougress and her hapless boytoy subjects. Thank God (um, literally?) they went the humourous route. Any difference in performers, approach or staging and “My Lucky Day” falls apart. After years of getting, meticulous, precise, *perfect* ex-Soviet entries, where any form of sentiment is banned, we finally evolve into a world where they have to mime extreme emotion to the point where it circles back into unironic hilarity.

For all the mockery I’ve made for DoReDos though, I also have great respect for them as performers. Moldova as a country doesn’t have much in the way of funding, let alone songwriters they can afford (the only reason F***pp K*****ff bothered with Moldova is because he literally didn’t have anywhere else he could go to) and it’s an uphill battle EVERY year to find an act that fits within their modest budget. In any situation, Moldova are a perpetual underdog.

So while the Senneks of this world burned away their ESC equivalent of White Privilege on an entire Loire Valley worth of wine, DoReDoS rehearsed on a virtually daily basis. I really can’t stress how much respect I have for their work. They HUSTLED hard and got it right.

They EASILY could’ve been Number One Together on this ranking, but God had other plans when He decided to gatecrash during Ieva’s semifinal performance (she could feel His metaphysical presence Ieva wouldn’t lie to me!), so  DoReDoS will be forever Number Two Together and Make the People’s Hindu Princess’ Dream Come True as a BorisBubbles #1 fave. LABIRIDADADARAM DADADARAM DADADARAM

And then there was only One.... We ALL know which one it is, but don’t worry, by the time you’ll have read this entry, I will already have written and queued Ieva’s entry as well. The finale of my 2018 ranking is coming... very, VERY soon :)

#Eurovision #Eurovision 2018 #Eurovision Song Contest #Moldova #DoReDoS #My Lucky Day

[sole-cuore-amore-e-droga]

Tel Aviv 2019: Straight outta Spain to Eurovision with whole lotta fun

Dare I say Operación Triunfo is a little bit of... a Choice?

I mean, you got yourself a format that a bunch of young-aged/teen/late-teen aged droolies follow for the drama more than the music, at least that’s what I suppose it is because it’s one of those singing reality shows where you’re oh so very welcome to follow the lives of all the 20-somethings that were unfortunate to sign the contract of the show, not being able to read all the fine-prints in the contract and later regretting not doing so because things like Eurovision. In Israel. But more on that later.

But this is Espain, and this is the sad state of television that is today - if they like your shitty talent show with 24/7 followship of the contestants, and if they watch that, and if they eat that with a spoonful, chances are you’re going to prolong its post-mortem revival state in order to maaaaaybe attract a new audience and acquire a new shippable couple people will vote “a Eurovisión”. Even if your last couple sucked. And even managed to break up unceremoniously sometime before the 2019 show’s Eurovision final <3 god bless them for finally breaking the chain and breaking the hearts of thousands who were ‘dying’ for the ship. It was never EVER meant to last.

So is it a no surprise that Operación went thriving for another year? Certaintly at least it’s no joy to bear with another amount of subpar desperates from every other corner of Spain, but only because Spain deserves a better NF format. I mean, with these other NF formats we can at least have a variety of artists with their own (or composed by others) songs, and it doesn’t matter an inch whether the public’s big fave gets rigged out to me - as long as it’s just a NF I can get easily over with, it’s all fine to me! And of course OT is also fine for me, it’s just that people are begging for it to get axed for some reason. Maybe because of all the ships?

I don’t want to put too much more thought of what happened in the reality show other than the Eurovision Gala, BUT I seemed to notice something rather crazy. You see, at first we had Natalia (or was it Alba Reche or Sabela even?) heavily speculated as the winner pre-show, but in the end the OT glory was all handed to some Dutch-born boy of Nigerian origin named... Famous. Not shitting you, it is his name. But what’s the saddest part about this? Famous CLEARLY wanted it all to himself just because of Eurovision being included in the contract. Yet his only victory in life is being the best among the rest of these stars that were watched over 24/7. Unfortunately, Mr. Oberogo couldn’t make this out to be in his favour in the Eurovision-special gala, to which the “triunfitos” can attend if they have songs chosen for them in the lineup, and yes he was admitted, but then he was given a SUCH DISAPPOINTING SONG EHMERGERD!!!!!!!! :’(

(lol calm yer ladyhormones, “No puedo mas” wasn’t THAT bad, it’s just that given Famous did songs like “Nobody but You” (yes THAT one) on the show, you’d expect something contemporary soulful, not just blatant radio filler that could have easily been an EYD reject?)

So how did it all happen that the girls were rooted for to win OT, but in the end the one that wanted Eurovision the most won? And how come the one that wanted the Eurovision the most was given a song that paled in comparison to that one song that was performed by someone who was blatantly against going to ESC because “nuuuuu Israel stop hurting Palestine” and that one being favoured to win? AND HOW COME ONE OF THE BIGGEST SHOW’S VILLAINS GOT HANDED ABSOLUTE SLAYAGE OF THE SONGS?? Honestly it’s for the best if Spain is just there to subdue everyone’s expectations, just like they did when choosing Manel (be it because of a corrupt juror or whatever). They did it every single turn of the time this year during OT’s run.

And of course I’ll forever love them for that, as the end result was AN ABSOLUTE FUCKING FIESTA BANGER. Courtesy of Miki (Núñez).

Ngl, the first thing I went in for about “La venda” before listening to it was through this first impression tweet on Miki’s ‘eliminated’ song from the selection, “El equilibrio”:

BITCH HOW WAS SHE NOT READY TO SEE THAT COMING AT HER.

Granted, the sudden start of happy sounds rushing right at me was a little startling, but I was able to cope with it and jam to the song in the end.

I completely adore this one, it’s so powerfully joyful with all its instruments and the Spanish language, the interesting turn of events in lyrics, the incredibly easy probability to sing along to this (LO QUE EEEEERE! LO QUE ERE ERE E!), the authenticity, the cultural roots (tbqh Eurovision countries should be welcome to embrace their culture rather than stray further away from it! also this is why more native languages other than English are encouraged)... mmm-mmm.

And like I said, for some reason Miki was seen as a grand villain to the show, and even if I didn’t follow OT all that much, I was constantly questioning why, and after seeing him eliminated I only wanted to know if people in Espain were rejoicing about it. The against-agenda turned up onto him again when he happened to have the most songs in the internet selection bunch handed to him (THREE!!! Two solo tracks and a duet.), but nothing there was to worry, as instead other favourites were discovered, therefore Miki ended up in the dust for a while. Up until something happened that got him a big surge of votes at the end. Go figure.

Despite all this, I think it’s the right direction for Spain songwise! Me gusta mucho, and not only personally, but also objectively, honestly. Miki’s got a right enough good song for the nation and provided the revamp doesn’t make it crash and burn (yes, the good friend of a Eurovision song - the revamp! It’s happening), it’s safe to say that Spain can stand a chance. Not win, for now, but stand a chance. Yes.

Before I repeat myself some more I’d probably have to add this part for no reason as it came from my Twitter review for “La venda” this time, as I heard songs 1 day before the NF as when I expected the NF to go on Saturday but it was on a Sunday:

BITCH HOW WAS I WRONG. Well mostly thanks to the fact the fanwank-ess of OT ESC Gala actively asked to direct her votes to Miki’s song (Monika Marija teas amirite), but still, WRONG!

Now that I finally composed my thoughts I guess, let’s all go and read the below verdict I’m putting this up for:

Approval factor: I’m giving this a big fat SÍ!

Follow-up factor: Of course I like it way better than “Tu canciYAWN”, there’s no doubt in it :) and after Almaia’s romance advertisement they’re doing a great job by coming back to their great Spanish roots of music, honestly. And it’s better that way than forcing a ship onto a Eurovision 2018 ship, so yeah

Big 5 factor: As of this time Spain lowkey fizzled out with everyone now that a big wave of other faves arised, BUT I don’t think that Spain’s drowning in misery this year, not at all! With right kind of energy of the staging and uplift Spain can totally woo them televoters this time around, making them “lo que ere” their worries away to the sunset. And this is a positive thing - as if juries decide to drown this sometimes and televoters don’t, it will still soar somewhere up high enough in top 15.

NATIONAL FINAL BONUS

Now, I don’t quite think this year’s OT was quite as memetic as I expected, but we still have had some pre-NF gems, just like this:

• “THEN POLKA”. That one moment was also brought up to her on her OT Eurovision Gala postcard.

• and this one contestant’s gloriously accidental butt-shot

Though we did have a handful of these kind of moments on the Gala itself (and surrounding it), such as:

• NF’s biggest favourite to win songwise not even trying. Yes, there are those NF winners which underperform but only because they don’t seem to know better, but did you know that there are THOSE like María Villar who decide against it? Basically, she was one of those opposing against the situation in Israel with Palestine, so out of protest towards all this, she voluntarily went against doing Eurovision in a nation like this by encouraging her fans to vote for Miki the night before and sacrificing any slightest grains of trying with her performance - by barely dancing on stage and not outselling anything vocally. And it worked to some extent, as she came SECOND only, and shortly after Miki won, she spoke out loud that she was satisfied to not have become the victor (I mean she just thanked everyone for not voting her to ESC lol). But you know what, for situations like these I really do love ESC NFs - where everything predictable is upturned by some sort of events like these. I mean, I like "Muérdeme", it’s catchy, Latino-appealing enough (for those whores thirsty for Luis Fonsi and similar fucks who sing in Spanish on English songs these days), has a cool breakdown and what not, but it would just probably bring back another disappointing result from Eurovision much to fans’ dismay, especially if the Tel Aviv (oh wait sorry... for Maria’s case this would have probably been Limassol or Vienna) edition was to bring many bops for this time around that are BIGGER and BETTER than this one. It’s just happening that it’s unfortunate to be Spain...

• Yet again, putting Famous up on here, but of course he was disappointed to not get that win. I know I’m not the right person to judge considering I’m WHOLE THREE DAYS YOUNGER than him, but I’d still tell him he only had RTVE to blame for giving him THAT in the end and putting him through online voting rounds... and speaking of:

• Like I mentioned before several times, there was an online voting round for to pick-pocket the songs that sounded the best out of the demo-ic snippets of a minute or less. Its top 3 was of course dominated by ladies and their own bangers/just likeable enough songs, with poor Famous being 4th in it (and the top 3 is a must on there to be automatically admitted to the show without any higher-ups shuffling the other competitors ‘round later on and toying with their fates). I liked the complete final cut of the Gala for the most part, but boy did they miss out some, like this male laidback-acoustic pop bop “Sale”, courtesy of Damion Frost. I can at least forgive the loss of “El equilibrio”, but this? Nah siree. And yeah I know this whole shtick is a tire, but I like some of it, and I saw a worse track from the same shtick collection qualifying through higher-ups and that’s NOT boding well with me.

(yes of course Manel happened but still)

• Miki joining the glorious wall of epic NF victory reactions with his O face of total cartooney awkwardness <3

• and Eleni Foureira being able to rock a trashbag as a dress during her guest performance of both “Fuego” and her ‘new’ ‘smash’ hit in partially more Spanish than “Fuego” was - “Tómame”. Granted the juxtapose transition was a little too jarring, but hey - 2 songs for a price of 1. Go get them Spanish audience people acknowledging your pop art Elli <3 (also her chitchat with the ESC Gala host about what do you need to do good in Eurovision <3)

At this point I’m too not fucked to remember more of them but I’m really sure I missed a lot of the OT lulziness that happened before the Gala, during and after it (such as Natalia (who also sang one song in the NF with Miki himself) not wanting ESC but still trying better than Maria). I don’t want to be reminded of them, as my review’s as long as it is. But I’m sure someone else remembers, so I’ll let them judge.

#eurovision 2019 #tel aviv 2019 reviews #spain 2019 #miki núñez #la venda #spain

[upthenorthmountain]

Only Love: Anna

A new story, in two parts! Modern AU, rated T for language.

Part One: Anna

For a long time he was just - there, at the periphery. Anna had worked with Jessica a couple of years ago, and they’d stayed friends after she’d left, and now Jessica was engaged to (and living with) Sven, and they liked to socialise and invite people over for parties and dinner and to play board games and watch bad films, so over time their friends became Anna’s friends.

It was weeks before she spoke to him, besides asking him to pass the salt or apologising when she trod on his toe while walking past the sofa. Weeks before they had an actual conversation. But before that, she’d been - aware of him. Felt his gaze on the back of her neck sometimes. Found herself watching his hands when he opened a bottle of beer or moved a game piece. There was something there, something almost magnetic, and the more time she spent near him the stronger it became.

“Is Kris seeing anyone?” she said to Jessica, super-casually, in the kitchen at their Eurovision party.

“Why?” Jessica said. “D’you like him?”

“No, I’m just - making conversation…”

Jessica looked at her, amused, then said. “Yes, sorry, he’s a girlfriend.”

“Who has?” asked Sven, leaning past them to reach the corkscrew.

“Kristoff. Has a girlfriend.”

Sven gave Anna the same look Jessica just had, then said “Oh, yeah, what’s-her-face.”

“You don’t know your best friend’s girlfriend’s name?” Anna said, trying to make a joke to cover her embarrassment.

“Oh, he knows it,” Jessica said, “It’s Maria. He just pretends he doesn’t because he doesn’t like her. It’s very childish,” she added to Sven, who just grinned at her and went back through to the living room.

“Why doesn’t he like her?”

“I don’t know. He thinks she’s a bit of a drama queen. I wouldn’t have thought he was your type,” she continued. “Kris.”

“I’m not saying he is,” Anna said quickly.

“You usually go for the smooth talkers.”

“I guess. Have I met his girlfriend?”

“Possibly not? She doesn’t come here often, she doesn’t like Sven much either. She’s indifferent to me, as far as I know. She’s Italian, long black hair, busty, wings her eyeliner.”

“I wouldn’t have thought that was his type. Kris’s.”

“Well, apparently it is. They’ve been together a couple of years, on and off.”

-----

The next week they went to the pub quiz. Sven, and Jessica, and Anna, and Katie, and Tim, and Kristoff.

“No Maria tonight?” Anna said to him as they sat down, unable to stop herself.

“Not her thing,” was all Kristoff said.

Kristoff turned out to be very well-read. Sven was better at the sports questions, and Anna was good at music, and Jessica knew all the celebrity news; Katie was pretty good at current events, and Tim knew plenty about history, but Kristoff was definitely a reader. He was calmly confident when he knew an answer, and wouldn’t let Sven - who had declared himself Team Captain and commandeered the answer sheet - write for him. Anna had told herself not to sit next to him but instead she had ended up opposite, and couldn’t help constantly catching his eye. Each time he would smile, and she would try not to blush.

He wasn’t even that good-looking! He had okay eyes, and a reasonable smile, but his hair was scruffy and he had a big nose and Jessica was right, normally she liked charming men, men who made an effort. Not someone in a plain blue t-shirt and jeans with a hole in the knee - not ripped jeans, jeans with an actual hole - who mainly sat back and listened to everyone else talk.

When he did speak, though, it was always something worth saying.

He touched her shoulder when he asked what she wanted to drink. Because he could do that, he had a girlfriend, so no one would read anything into it, he was just trying to get her attention.

Nevertheless, her heart thrilled to it - he touched me - and then she felt ridiculous and silly but she couldn’t help it. She was beyond being able to help any of it.

-----

The next week at the pub quiz Anna was, by some miracle, a few minutes early, and the only other person there was Kristoff, sat at a table by himself with a pint of beer and his phone. Anna almost hesitated to join him, then told herself off and sat down as naturally as she could.

And he said “Oh, hi, Anna,” and they talked, although she was so cherishing the fact that she had him all to herself that later she couldn’t remember what she’d said. And then after a few minutes Sven and Jess arrived, and a couple of other people, and she had to move up, and throughout the evening her knee would occasionally touch Kristoff’s - she didn’t do it on purpose, of course not, but sometimes it would happen. The evening passed far too quickly.

She’d never seen herself as the pining type. If you wanted something, you went and got it. But age had brought with it enough maturity to recognise that sometimes it was worse to rush in. And there were some things you just couldn’t have, anyway, and another’s woman’s man was one of them.

She did finally meet - or at least see - Maria at Jessica’s birthday party. It was a house party, and very well-attended. Anna only managed to say a quick ‘Hi’ to Kristoff as she passed him in the hall, but she saw him many times, always with Maria holding his arm or hanging round his neck or dragging him along by the hand. He seemed happy enough.

-----

It was a couple of weeks later, during an early summer barbecue, that Jessica cornered her.

“So, Anna,” Jessica said. “I was wondering about something. I don’t think I’ve ever known you be single this long before! Is that deliberate? Or have you run out of men?”

“I’m not that bad.”

“No, seriously, is everything okay?”

“Yes! Yes, I guess.” Anna hesitated. “It’s just,” she said. “I like this guy…”

“Oooh, I knew it!”

“...and he has a girlfriend, so.”

“Serious girlfriend?”

“I think so, yeah.”

“Aw, bugger. Bad luck.”

“Exactly.” Anna sighed, then squared her shoulders. “So, either I wait for them to break up then throw myself at him in my usual fashion, or I wait until I’ve got over myself and find someone else to throw myself at. I’ll be fine, it’s just, you know. Not great, at the moment.”

Jessica squeezed her arm sympathetically. “Is it someone I know?” she said.

Anna bit her lip. Jessica smiled. “You know, it’s funny,” she said. “I thought you liked - but he’s single. So it’s not him. Oh! I know what I’m going to do!”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to throw a dinner party and invite all my single friends and pair you all up -”

“Jess -”

“Oh, just for fun! It’ll be a laugh. Go on, say you will. I’ll find you someone nice.”

“- okay, fine. Whatever.”

-----

The last person she expected to see at Jessica’s singleton-dinner-party was Kristoff. But there he was, in the kitchen, opening a bottle of wine.

He smiled when he saw her. “Hi, Anna.” She felt herself start to blush, and quickly accepted a glass.

“Hi,” she said. “I thought -”

“Thought what?” He wasn’t looking at her, was lining up clean glasses.

“I thought this was a singles event. You know. Jessica kept talking about how she was pairing up all her friends.”

Kristoff looked confused. “I’m single,” he said. “Did you think I was still with Maria?”

“Um. Yes?”

“Well, I’m not.” He pulled a face. “So I got enlisted, as a spare man, which is very flattering.”

“So you’re - unchaperoned.”

“Mmm.”

“Maybe you’ll get into mischief.”

He smiled at her again then, a warm smile that made her stomach flutter. “Maybe I will.”

I thought you liked - but he’s single. Oh, oh, oh. Thank you, Jessica. Suddenly this evening was looking up, very very up.

“Food!” Jessica announced from the dining room. “Everyone come in here - right, Kris, you’re here next to Sue - and Ranj, you’re with Anna - aaaand Alison and Tim over here.” She beamed, pleased with herself, and Anna’s mood evaporated. She wasn’t being set up with Kristoff. She was being set up with this man, who was probably perfectly nice, but she didn’t care, she wanted to stamp her foot and say but I want that one.

Kristoff was sitting down where he’d been put, and introducing himself to this Sue woman. Anna hesitated, standing in the doorway, until Ranj pulled out her chair and raised his eyebrows at her. Right. Okay. Yes.

-----

After the meal, Tim offered very swiftly to walk Alison home, and the two of them left together. Everyone else had another drink, then Sue left, then Ranj, and by dint of a certain amount of lingering Anna managed to be left with just her hosts and Kristoff.

“So?” Jessica said cheerfully, as they all sat down with another drink. “How was my matchmaking? Are you going to give her a call, Kris?”

Kristoff sighed. “Jess, she’s a perfectly nice woman but you know I only came to make up the numbers. Because you needed another man and Sven said ‘call Kristoff, he finally gave Maria the heave-ho.’ I’m not looking to start anything new right now.”

“She liked you,” Jessica said.

“And I did not say you’d given M the heave-ho,” Sven added. “I said you’d kicked her to the kerb.”

Kristoff rolled his eyes. “She was perfectly nice but I’m not looking for a girlfriend right now,” he repeated. “Give me a chance to sort my head out.”

“How long ago did you break up?” Anna asked.

“Fortnight or so.”

“That’s ages,” said Sven. “Go on, make Jess feel useful, take her friend out.” Kristoff drank his beer, his jaw set.

“Alison and Tim seemed to hit it off,” Anna said quickly.

“They did,” Jessica said. “So that worked out. How about you and Ranj? What did you think?”

Anna hesitated. “He was…”

“You don’t have to be polite,” Sven said. “He’s a friend of a friend. Tell us what you really think.”

Anna looked at Jessica, who nodded.

“He was - fine,” Anna said. “But there’s a line, you know, between charming and smarmy. And he kept crossing it.”

“Fair enough,” Jess said.

“And he kept mentioning about how he was a doctor and he did a lot of private work, which is code for money, isn’t it,” Anna said. “And he said it a few times, which was a bit - obnoxious.”

Jessica nodded. “Fair enough,” she said again. “You can’t win ‘em all.”

“You let her off pretty easy,” Kristoff complained. Jessica finished her drink.

“Well, I didn’t have high hopes for Anna,” she said. “Because Anna is madly in love with someone, but she won’t tell me who.”

Anna froze, her glass halfway to her lips.

“Alright, you’ve had enough,” Sven said, taking Jessica’s glass away. “Sorry, Anna.”

“It’s okay,” Anna muttered. Her whole body felt blazing hot. She could feel Kristoff’s eyes on her, and when she glanced at him - she just couldn’t help herself - he was giving her a long, appraising look.

“I’m sorry, Anna,” Jessica said. “You know what, I’m just going to - check something in the kitchen. Sven, could you help me, please.” She left, and after a second Sven followed her, looking confused.

Anna finished her drink, and put her empty glass down on the coffee table. The clink briefly broke the silence, but then, for once in her life, Anna couldn’t think of anything to say. Her heart was racing.

Kristoff cleared his throat. “Anna,” he said, his voice gentle and low. She looked up at him, and there was something in his eyes that made her shiver; a warmth, a question.

And she didn’t really know what to do with that. All she knew, all she was good at, was acting and pushing through, doing something unequivocal and definite and working out how wise it had been afterwards; and alcohol, of course, helped there.

So she stood, and she walked over to him, and she took his glass and put it down on the coffee table, and then she climbed into his lap and said “You and me, then - how about it?”

Kristoff looked at her, looking a little shocked. Anna looked up at him through her eyelashes, and pushed out her chest, and tried to kiss him - but he leant back, then put his hands on her hips - but only to lift her up and set her back down on her feet.

“I don’t think so,” he said.

“What?”

“I don’t think so, Anna.”

She took a step backwards and stumbled against the coffee table. The empty glasses fell over, and at the sound Jessica and Sven came back to the doorway.

“I’m going to go,” Anna said.

“What?”

“I’m going to go,” she repeated. “Home. Thank-you-I-had-a-lovely-evening-” and she quickly gathered her bag and her coat.

“Everything okay? Wait, I’m sure Kris will walk you -”

“I’m fine, it’s not far - bye -” and she was out the door.

Anna was wobblier than she’d expected in her heels, so after a hundred yards she wrenched them off and carried them. She knew her face was bright red and her eyes were stinging with humiliation. Why had she, how had she, oh god. Oh god.

“Anna! Anna, wait.” It was Sven, and he was jogging up to her. “You okay? What happened?”

“Nothing - I - I think I’ve had a bit too much to drink. Need to get home…”

She kept walking, and he fell into step beside her.

“If it were a different man we’d left you in the room with I’d worry he’d done something inappropriate,” he said.

Anna squeezed her eyes against tears. “Not that,” she managed to say.

“I know. I mean, if it was, just say, and he’s dead to me.”

“I appreciate it...but no. My fault. Had too much to drink. You didn’t need to come after me.”

Sven said nothing, just reached out and put his hand on her arm for a moment to direct her around a lamppost.

“My fault. I’m such an idiot,” Anna muttered to herself.

They walked in silence for a moment, then just as they reached her door, Sven said “Look, Kris is a decent guy. I’m sure whatever happened, it’s already forgotten.”

Anna just nodded, said “Thanks,” and went inside.

-----

She’d thought she’d felt bad when he’d been unobtainable. But now - she’d never been rejected so firmly, so completely, so politely. I don’t think so. There was nothing to do but cry herself to sleep, then lie in her bed all morning feeling sorry for herself, then scrub her face clean while crying in the shower, then lie on the sofa all afternoon crying into the cushions.

His smile, in the kitchen at the start of the evening. She’d let herself believe in it, load it with significance when it was just a smile for a friend. An acquaintance. Someone who kept turning up at the same social events as he did so he had to be polite. And she’d made a fool of herself, a complete and utter fool, and now he probably thought she was ridiculous and she’d never be able to look him in the eye again. No more smiles. She didn’t deserve them.

#only love #kristanna #fanfic #fanfiction #modern au

[aaronmaurer]

Movies I Liked in 2020

Every year I reflect on the pop culture I enjoyed and put it in some sort of order.

Discussing film in 2020 is almost nonsensical. Theatres were shut down in most places for most of the year, shuffling release schedules and availability of titles in various markets, further fracturing an already-fragmented landscape. I personally love the movie-going experience – the darkened atmosphere, the massive screen, the ability to escape the outside world for a couple hours in the company of a room of strangers. Man, do I miss all of that. Yet I am exceedingly grateful to the creators and media conglomerates that decided to release some of their projects to streaming services and “virtual cinemas” during this unprecedented year. (Despite Wonder Woman 1984’s flaws, wow, was it nice to have a new action blockbuster to watch over the holidays.)

I toyed with breaking out stage/theatre projects separately, but at the end of the day, had those played on the big screen they would have still been considered, so I decided to keep everything together. This year more than ever I make no claims to comprehensiveness, and it seems even more futile than usual to rank these films, so here are 15 of my favorite films of 2020 listed in alphabetical order. How I wish I could have experienced these all on the big screen.

American Utopia (available on HBO)

Spike Lee’s film of the Broadway engagement of David Byrne’s American Utopia is right up there with Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense, the gold standard of concert films (and I’m not even much of a Talking Heads/Byrne fan!). The brilliance of this tour-turned-Broadway show is the elimination of any stationary equipment – Byrne and his band, utilizing mobile instruments, perform choreographed movement to the songs (a mix of Byrne solo material and Talking Heads classics) on an otherwise bare stage. The arrangements of the songs themselves are warm and life-affirming, something we all needed more of in 2020.

An American Pickle (available on HBOMax)

This quirky comedy from writer Simon Rich stars Seth Rogan in dual roles as an immigrant in the early 1900s transplanted to modern day New York and his last remaining descendant. I wasn’t expecting much from the premise but found it to be a surprisingly resonant story about family and legacy with salient observations about modern conveniences and appreciating small pleasures. Rogan himself is really great in this, creating two very distinct and believable characters that in an alternate reality might be up for awards consideration.

Black Is King (available on Disney+)

Beyonce’s latest visual album has its origins in her Lion King role, but the material transcends that misbegotten remake (despite the occasional out-of-place audio clips sprinkled throughout). The visuals here are stunning, from the costumes and makeup to the set design and choreography, all in celebration of Black excellence and beauty.

Emma. (available on HBO, VOD and Blu-ray)

One of the last films I saw in theatres this spring was the latest treatment of Jane Austen’s Emma from director Autumn de Wilde. Similar to Little Women last year, I had no prior experience with the source material, never having read the novel or seen any prior adaptations (outside of Clueless, if you count that), but I found it absolutely delightful. The cast is terrific, including Anya Taylor-Joy in a role completely different than her other big turn this year in The Queen’s Gambit, and the production design & direction are impeccably sumptuous, creating the type of escapism that came to mean all-the-more as the year wore on.

First Cow (available on Showtime, VOD and Blu-ray)

Kelly Reichardt’s latest film is a moving meditation on unexpected friendship, ideas of masculinity and economic inequality set against the backdrop of 1800s Oregon Country. Poetic but not ponderous, First Cow is one of the most humane and empathetic portraits of man and nature I experienced in 2020.

Hamilton (available on Disney+)

Already a big of Lin Manual-Miranda’s race-bent musical about founding father Alexander Hamilton, I was still awed by this document of the original Broadway production. Director Tommy Kail adeptly films his own stage direction while capturing intimate moments through closeups and vantages that are unavailable to the live audience. And while I personally may have preferred Lin to sing more than sob through some of his Act II songs, the whole cast is phenomenal, especially Leslie Odom Jr, Renée Elise Goldsberry and MVP Daveed Diggs whose energy and charisma are palpable in his dual role as Lafayette/Jefferson.

Just Mercy (available on HBO, VOD and Blu-ray)

Although technically a 2019 film, Just Mercy didn’t receive wide release until 2020 so I’m including it here. The adaptation of lawyer Bryan Stevenson’s memoir about his fight for death row inmates is a powerful story of the ongoing fight for justice and rarely falls into “based on a true story”/biopic clichés. Michael Jordan brings dignity and righteousness to the role of Stephenson and Jamie Foxx is excellent as the wrongfully incarcerated Walter McMillian.

Kajillionaire (available on VOD)

The story of an insular family of grifters, Kajillionaire explores what it’s like to exist in a bubble and reconcile that with a growing understanding of the wider world. Evan Rachel Wood engenders immense empathy with her portrayal of the family’s daughter who has been raised without any real physical affection or affirmation and Gina Rodriguez exudes light and charisma as a woman who comes into their orbit and changes everything.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (available on Netflix)

Adapted from August Wilson’s play of the same name, this film contains a powerhouse performance from Viola Davis as the titular blues singer but belongs to the magnetic Chadwick Boseman in his final role. As Levee, a brash young songwriter and musician, Boseman fully realizes a portrait of a talented and demeaned Black man in America, trapped by circumstance and his own feelings of helplessness. It’s beautiful and gut-wrenching to behold, and makes his passing all the more tragic as we can only imagine the great performances that we’ll never get to see.

Mank (available on Netflix)

Mank, a biopic about Golden Age Hollywood screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, may be director David Fincher’s most conventional film yet, however that takes nothing away from the charm of its engaging storytelling and performances. As “Mank” works – or rather drunkenly procrastinates – on the screenplay for Citizen Kane, we get flashbacks of his relationships with William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies, which will provide the basis for his script’s thinly veiled characters.

Small Axe (available on Amazon Prime)

A series of five separate films from director Steve McQueen, the Small Axe series is linked by its exploration of the West Indian community in London. Exploring topics including the justice system, educational disparity and the unifying & life-affirming power of music, these films are each powerful and moving on their own but add up to a rich and beautiful tapestry of the complexities of immigrant life.

Soul (available on Disney+)

Soul is in many ways a spiritual successor (pun intended) to Inside Out, my all-time favorite Pixar film, envisioning life after death (or is that life before life?) as a strange and delightfully stylized realm where new souls prepare to be born. The audience surrogate to this world is a frustrated jazz musician who finds himself incapacitated the day of his big break. The stunningly rendered film is another example of the studio – and co-director Pete Docter – at its heart-rending best with lovely observations about passion, mentorship and being present to life’s small pleasures.

The Vast of Night (available on Amazon Prime)

An indie sci-fi flick set in 1950s New Mexico from first-time director Andrew Patterson, The Vast of Night pays homage to the likes of The Twilight Zone better than the current reboot of that show does. This surprisingly compelling movie creates a tangible sense of time and place and utilizes innovative shots and blocking to deliver something unique and artful, while still delivering on its genre promises.

What the Constitution Means to Me (available on Amazon Prime)

The final live communal event I attended before everything locked down last spring was the touring production of this Heidi Schreck play, and boy, was it a moving way to say a temporary goodbye to live theatre (even if I didn’t quite know it at the time). Later in the year, Amazon gifted us with a record of Schreck’s Broadway run, which loses nothing of its impact or immediacy. Using her personal history of debate contests at American Legion Halls as an entry point, Schreck explores how the Constitution has been used (and not used) to impact the rights of women (and other marginalized groups) throughout America’s history. Brilliant, heart-breaking and inspiring art.

Wolfwalkers (available on AppleTV+)

The latest wonder from director Tomm Moore (The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea) completes his trilogy of films inspired by Irish mythology. The topics this time are the Wolfwalkers, an Irish variation of the Werewolf legend, and the clash of urbanization with the natural world. Vividly rendered in gorgeous traditional animation, this is one of the most visually splendid things I saw all year.

Bonus! Honorable Mentions:

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (Netflix)

Feels Good Man (VOD)

Palm Springs (hulu)

Sound of Metal (Amazon Prime)

Tenet (VOD, Blu-ray)

#film

[akkurates]

All from 1 - 100 :)

Hiya! Thanks for the ask and your curiosity :) I decided not to answer all of them ‘cause I actually shouldn’t be on Tumblr right now woops.. Anyways here you go!

1. What’s your middle name, and doyou like it?

Maria :) I love it because it wasmy grandma’s name and it reminds me of her!

2. are you artistic?

Not really, except for writing.

4. What is your life goal?

To make career, see a lot of placesof the world and have a nice little family.

5. Do you have any experiences witha famous person?

Yep. A few Dutch celebrities, likeTim Douwsma (I actually held his hand lol) I also met one of my favourite F1drivers, Nico Hülkenberg. They are both sweethearts. I also met Robin S. (youknow, the ‘show me love’ lady).

6. Do you play any sports?

Nope, I’m too lazy for that lmao

7. What’s your worst fear?

Spiders and the thoughtof someone breaking into my house makes me feel hella uncomfortable.

8. Who’s your biggest inspiration?

My mom ♥

14. Do you care about your followercount?

Nope. I love all my followers :)

16. Have you ever kissed someone ofyour same gender?

No (not yet)

17. Do you have any pets?

I have a dog, Max ♥

18. Are you religious?

I was baptised, but that’s aboutit. Let’s just say that I believe there is 'something’, but I don’t believe inGod.

19. Are you a people person?

Yes, but I also really appreciatemy alone time.

21. What is one of your bad habits?

Where do I start lol? I tend toroll my eyes a lot and I get pissed off and stressed easily. And I am alsoreally, really impatient.

23. What would you name yourchildren?

I would name my boy“Nico” and for girls I really like Eiza and Mia, but I’m not sure ifI would call my own kids that.

24. Who’s your celebrity crush?

Wilmer Valderrama and WilliamMoseley.

25. What’s your best subject?

Spanish and German.

26. Dogs or cats?

Dogs for sure!

27. most used social media besidestumblr?

Instagram.

33. Can you swim?

Yes, I have a diploma.

34. What would you do in the eventof an apocolypse?

I’d like to think I’d be a badasskiller lady but who am I kidding. I would probably die within a day.

37. What’s your favourite colour?

Purple.

38. What country are you from/doyou live in?

The Netherlands.

39. Favourite singer?

Bruno Mars, The Overslept, MadisonBeer, Zara Larsson, Dua Lipa, Waylon. I also really love Chris Brown’s music.

42. Favourite song right now?

Outlaw In ‘Em by Waylon (DutchEurovision 2018 song!) and Caribbean Queen by Billy Ocean.

45. Have you ever shot a gun?

No, but I would really love to trythis one day.

47. Are you a horror girl?

Not really.

53. Is there anything you do thatyou can’t remember ever not doing?

I always hum and sing pretty mucheverywhere. I have been doing this since I was three or so.

54. Have you ever dyed your hair?

Yes, but just a shade of blondelighter than my natural hair colour. Nothing too spectacular.

55. What colour are your eyes?

Honestly, I have no idea. Blue/green/greyish.

61. What’s your favourite class?

This block we had a class called “InterculturalCommunication” and I really loved it because I like the subject and the teacherwas really passionate about it.

62. List all the tv shows you arewatching.

The 100, Vikings, Riverdale,Narcos, Las Chicas del Cable, Shadowhunters, Orange is the new Black,Temptation Island, Married at first sight, That 70’s Show and Pretty LittleLiars.

64. What was the last movie yousaw? Opinion?

Crocodile Dundee. I loved it.

73. Would you break the law to savea loved one?

Absolutely.

77. What did you want to be whenyou were a kid?

A whole lot. Princess, veterinarian,doctor, flight attendant, singer, actress – you name it.

83. How would you spend a billiondollars?

I would buy some houses all overthe world, get a shitload of cars, travel literally anywhere, buy a luxuriousaf boat and only do fun things.

84. If you could time travel, wouldyou go to the past or the future?

I would definitely go to the past.

88. Do you believe in life afterdeath

I am not sure. I hope there isthough.

90. What’s your fondest childhoodmemory?

Any memory with my grandma tbh ♥

97. Would you want to choose thesex and appearance of your offspring?

No, definitely not.

#coolkidsrecreating #answer #me