really feeling the lack of people like me irl. most of my friends are cis girls or fem enbies who just. don't get it. the few trans guys i DO know have very supportive families (one of them has been on t for years). like. what am i supposed to do with this. what am i supposed to do with my incredibly queerphobic parents and inability to cut my hair even though it kills me to look in the mirror and forced dress-wearing that makes me feel like shit all day.

A to Z BeChloe

Z is for ZODIAC

Prompt from RJRMovieFan: Chloe reads her horoscope, and it's so good she sets out on an adventurous day to see if it can be made true. She drags Beca along but doesn't tell Beca what the horoscope was. (Full prompt is listed at the end of the story).

Chloe sat at the kitchen counter sipping her coffee and reading the local paper. As she has done every morning since she was fourteen, she checked her horoscope. Chloe's smile widened as she read what her horoscope had in store for her that day.

"What's got you all smiley, Red?" Stacie asked as she walked into the kitchen.

"Just reading my horoscope for the day," Chloe said laying the paper on the counter.

"Let me see mine," Stacie said and grabbed the paper. She found the horoscope and read hers. "Mine always suck."

"I think it's all in how you look at things," Chloe said.

"Really?" She stops and reads Chloe's horoscope. "Yours is interesting." Stacie's face lights up. "Oh, my God. Are you going to do something to make your horoscope come true?"

"Do you know if Beca was up yet?" Chloe asked.

"You so are!" Stacie squealed. "And, yes. I heard some noise upstairs, so I think she's up."

"Good," Chloe said and hopped off the stool and headed out of the kitchen.

"Go get her, Chlo!" Stacie said with a laugh.

Chloe threw her a smile and a wink before making her way upstairs. She stopped at the door leading to the attic bedroom and took a deep breath. She knocked and heard a quiet 'come in.' She opened the door and went up the stairs.

"Hey," Chloe said as she got to the top of the stairs. "I'm glad you're up early."

"Oh, hey, Chlo," Beca said. "And you are probably the only one who is glad I'm up early. Why is that? Why are you glad I'm up early?"

"Whatever plans you have for today, cancel them," Chloe said with authority. "I am declaring this Chloe and Beca's Best Friends Day, and you and I are going to spend the day together, just the two of us."

"All day?"

"Yes, all day," Chloe said. "I promise you will not regret it."

"Isn't that the way most horror movies start?" Beca asked. "One friend asks another to do something and says you won't regret it and the next thing you know they're being chased by an ax-wielding madman."

"Stop it," Chloe said with a laugh. "With the Bellas, studying, and your internship, we haven't had any real time for just the two of us. Come on, Becs. I'll start by buying you breakfast at your favorite diner."

"The one with the buttermilk pancakes I like?"

"That's the one," Chloe said with a big smile. "What do you say?"

"I say, let's go," Beca said with a smile of her own.

Chloe led Beca downstairs and to the kitchen. She stopped inside the door until everyone turned toward them. Chloe did a mental roll call and was satisfied that all the girls were there.

"Good, I'm glad you're all here," Chloe said. "We're putting you all on notice. Beca and I are going to be out all day, and you are not to bother us for any reason."

"Any reason?" Fat Amy asked.

"Like if the house is on fire," Beca said. "Or someone loses a limb, call us. Otherwise, don't. Got it?"

"Don't worry, Chloe," Stacie said. "I'll keep an eye on them. You two just enjoy your day."

"Thank you, Stacie," Chloe said with a big smile.

"Okay, losers," Beca said. "Listen to Stacie and try not to burn the house down."

There was a round of okays and got it. Chloe smiled and grabbed Beca's hand. Beca let Chloe lead her out to the redhead's car.

~zZz~ ~zZz~ ~zZz~

"I'll have the tall stack of the buttermilk pancakes," Beca told the waitress. "With hash browns and coffee. Thank you."

"How would you like your eggs?" the waitress asked.

"No eggs," Beca said.

"And for you?" the waitress asked looking at Chloe.

"I'll have the egg white vegetable omelet," Chloe ordered. "With hash browns and, um, hot tea."

"Got it," the waitress said and left the table.

"So, what else do you have in store for us for Chloe and Beca's Best Friends Day?"

"Well, you got to choose where we had breakfast," Chloe said. "So, I get to choose our lunch spot."

"Okay," Beca said. "But what about the time in between?"

Chloe's smile grew wide as she looked at Beca. "Two words: Laser Tag."

"Oh, sweetie, why?" Beca asked.

"Because it's fun," Chloe said.

"Maybe for you," Beca said. "You're way too competitive and get too much of a thrill out of shooting me. I think you secretly want to kill me."

"Like I said, it's so much fun," Chloe said.

"Again, maybe for you," Beca retorted.

"Come on, Becs. Please?" Chloe pulled out the famous Chloe Beale pout, and Beca was helpless to resist.

"Fine," Beca said. "But, I get to choose what we do this afternoon."

"I know I'm going to regret it," Chloe said. "But, okay. You can pick this afternoon's activity."

Beca just smiled, and Chloe looked a little anxious.

~zZz~ ~zZz~ ~zZz~

After breakfast, Chloe drove to the sports entertainment complex where they would be playing laser tag. She and Beca got suited up and were given their laser guns. Beca was on the Red team, while Chloe was on the Blue. They met their teammates and got ready to start their game.

As soon as they entered the 'battleground,' Beca went low and hid behind some boulders. Chloe rushed forward and found herself behind a wall. Chloe saw Beca's head pop up from her hiding place behind the boulders. She looked around and saw a hidden route so she could sneak up behind Beca.

Chloe waited, knowing Beca would pop up again. As soon as she saw that Beca was in the same place as before, she made her move. She had managed to make her way to within five feet of Beca before Beca was on the move.

Chloe continued to follow Beca until she could get a clear shot at her. She watched as Beca turned a corner and she hurriedly ran to the corner and raced around it, shouting "Aha!" expecting to see Beca standing there. Only Beca wasn't there. Chloe looked around and found Beca standing about two feet to her left, looking at her with a smug smile.

"Well, well, well," Beca said pointing her laser gun at Chloe. "What have we here? It's the ever elusive Chloe Beale."

"You'd better hurry and get it over with, Mitchell," Chloe said looking defeated.

"Oh, no, no, no," Beca said, taking two steps toward Chloe. "I am going to savor this moment. It will be the first time that I, Beca Effin' Mitchell, will have gotten the drop on you. I wonder if I should make it fast and painless, or slow and agonizing."

Beca tilted her head as if thinking about how she was going to tag Chloe.

"Think what you will, Beca," Chloe said. "But don't count me out yet. You should have shot me the minute you had the chance."

Beca let out a small laugh. "It's cute how you actually think you are going to get out of me shooting you. I have the upper hand here. I have the gun pointed at you. I have you cornered. I am about to have a win over you. And, what do you have?"

Chloe gave her a beaming smile and looked at her. "Backup!"

Suddenly, the light on Beca's vest lights up. She had been tagged.

"Fuck! How?" Beca asked with a shocked look on her face.

"Thanks, Joe," Chloe called out to her teammate.

Beca's head snapped up to see a guy behind a boulder to Chloe's right. She had been so focused on Chloe; she never saw the other guy.

"No, problem," the guy who shot Beca said as he ran off.

Chloe smugly walked over to Beca. She looked at Beca's vest and smiled. She reached her hand up and patted Beca's cheek. "Beca, Beca Beca. It's cute how you actually thought you could get the upper hand on me. Now, I'll see you after I've helped my team win this thing."

Chloe gave Beca a quick kiss on the cheek and hurried off in the direction her teammate Joe went. Beca sighed and made her way out of the game. She was sitting at a table in the waiting area when Chloe came rushing over.

"That was so much fun," Chloe said as she sat opposite Beca. "Even if I wasn't the one who actually tagged you, it was quite exhilarating watching that smug smile get wiped off your face."

"Yeah, whatever," Beca said and pushed a bottle of water over to Chloe.

"Thanks," Chloe said taking the water. "So, are you hungry yet? Because I've worked up a little bit of an appetite."

"I could eat," Beca said with a shrug.

"Great," Chloe said and stood up. "There's a really good pizza place near here. I thought we could grab a slice before we do whatever it is you want to do this afternoon. I don't want to eat a big lunch because we're going somewhere special for dinner."

"Somewhere special?" Beca asked. "And where might this somewhere special be?"

"You'll see," Chloe said. "First, we have to get through lunch and whatever activity you have planned for us."

"Fine," Beca said and stood and followed Chloe out to the car.

~zZz~ ~zZz~ ~zZz~

"This pizza is really good," Beca said as she swallowed her last bite. "Why haven't you told me about this place before?"

"I don't know," Chloe said with a shrug. "It's kind of like my secret place, you know? A place with good pizza and no Bellas around."

"I get it," Beca said. "I love the girls, but sometimes it is nice to be away from them. Thanks for all this. Today has been fun. And I promise not to snitch on 'your' place to the girls. Although, you may find me here every so often."

"That's fine," Chloe said with a smile. "I think I'll survive if I come here and find you already here sometimes."

"If you're lucky, I might just invite you to come with me," Beca said and smiled. "So, what do you want to do this afternoon?"

"I thought you said you were choosing," Chloe said.

"I was, but what I had in mind is boring compared to laser tag."

"I'm sure it's not as boring as you're making it out to be."

"I need to, um. I can't believe I'm saying this. I need to go shopping. I have to find something nice to wear to my dad's faculty party, and I thought we could go shopping, and you could help me find something."

Chloe sat there unblinking for a moment.

"Chlo? You okay?"

"You," Chloe said pointing at Beca. "Want me," she said pointing back at herself. "To go shopping with you?" Again pointing at Beca.

"Um, yeah," Beca said slowly.

Chloe suddenly let out an excited squeal and jumped up and hugged Beca. "I'd love to go shopping with you."

"Great," Beca deadpanned.

Chloe pulled out of the hug and swatted Beca on the arm. "Oh, hush you. Are you done? I'm done. Let's go; we're burning daylight." Chloe let out another little squeal. "I can't believe you actually asked me to go shopping with you!"

"Oh, God! What did I just do to myself?" Beca whined as Chloe grabbed her hand and led her out of the pizza place.

~zZz~ ~zZz~ ~zZz~

"So, it's dressy but not formal?" Chloe asked as she unbuckled her seat belt.

"Yeah," Beca responded as she got out of the car. She looked at Chloe across the roof and said, "My dad probably wants me to wear a dress. So, something that isn't too 'slutty' like when we're going to a club. Something more reserved and refined for a proper college faculty party."

"That's good," Chloe said as they walked across the parking lot to the mall entrance. "Gives me a lot to work with."

Beca let out a breath and shook her head. She really should have just done this on her own, but she didn't want to end the time she was spending with Chloe just yet.

"I want something in dark blue or black," Beca said.

"I guessed that already," Chloe mumbled as she looked around the mall. "Let's go this way," she said as she took Beca's hand. "There are more shops to check out."

Beca smiled and let Chloe lead her to wherever she wanted to go. Chloe pulled her into one store, and they started looking around.

Beca was just following Chloe and not paying much attention until something caught her eye. She smiled and walked over to look at a dress. She held it up as Chloe approached her.

"What about this one?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Beca, that's a plaid dress. It's cute, but you'll probably see two of the professors wearing that same dress. Do you really want to look like one of them?"

"Ew! God no!" Beca put the dress back on the rack with a grimace.

~zZz~ ~zZz~ ~zZz~

"Try this one, this one, and this one," Chloe said handing the dresses to Beca over the dressing room door. "And let me see when you have one on."

Beca sighed. They had been at this for almost three hours. She never spends more than an hour in the mall and that hour included grabbing something to eat at the food court. Chloe dragged her in and out of countless dress shops, and Beca decided that she was buying one of these three dresses no matter what.

With a soft sigh, Beca hangs the three dresses on the back of the door and takes off her shoes, pants, and shirt. She grabs the first dress, which is just your basic 'little black dress' and puts it on.

"Hmm, not too bad," Beca said before opening the door to show Chloe.

Chloe looks up, and Beca looks good. "Not bad," Chloe said. "But let's see the other two before we decide."

Beca tried on the second dress and Chloe didn't like it. So, she put on the third dress and looked at herself in the mirror.

"Oh, my God," Beca whispered. "This looks...amazing."

She turned this way and that, checking out the dress from all angles. She smiled and opened the dressing room door to show Chloe.

Chloe was looking down at her phone when Beca stepped out. Beca stood directly in front of Chloe and cleared her throat.

Chloe looked up and back down and immediately back up again. Her breath caught in her throat.

"Wow!" is all Chloe could say as she gave Beca the once-over several times.

The dress was nothing spectacular just hanging on a hanger, but when you put it on Beca Mitchell, it became a whole new animal.

The dress was blue and had sequins that sparkled in the light. It was sleeveless and hit mid-thigh on Beca. It also hugged Beca's curves like it was made for her.

Chloe was staring at Beca's chest because the dress was a bit low cut and showed off a bit more than Chloe was expecting.

Beca used her hand to close Chloe's mouth and laughed. "From your reaction, I take it you like this dress."

Chloe just nodded. She didn't trust her voice to speak.

"I guess this is the one, then," Beca said before going back into the dressing room.

Chloe swallowed and fanned her flushed face with her hand. "Oh, my God," she whispered.

~zZz~ ~zZz~ ~zZz~

After finding the perfect dress, Chloe decided Beca needed some new shoes to wear with it. Beca balked but went along with it. Chloe found the perfect pair and they were finally ready to leave.

The two friends were chatting when Chloe stopped and put her hand on Beca's so she would stop as well.

"What?" Beca asked.

"Shh, just listen."

Beca listened, and her eyes were as wide as Chloe's smile.

"Are you serious?" Beca asked with her mouth agape.

"Must be kismet," Chloe said and starting humming along. She pulled out her phone and pulled up her Instagram. When it came up, she started talking to her phone. "Can you hear that? The song in the background? I'm out shopping with Beca, and this song just started playing. This is the song that I heard Beca singing when I made her audition for the Bellas. And now, three years later, we're both still Bellas, and we are listening to the song that started it all."

Chloe held her phone so that Beca was in the shot. "Say something, Becs."

"Really," Beca deadpanned. "Can you believe this right now? They decide to play Titanium right as we're leaving. Unbelievable."

Chloe took over and said, "We have to go now because we have special dinner plans and we still have to go home and change. I'm sure I'll be chatting with you all later. Byeeee!"

"You were serious?" Beca asked. "About the dinner plans, I mean."

"Yes," Chloe said. "I told you this was going to an all-day affair."

~zZz~ ~zZz~ ~zZz~

The two friends arrive back at the Bellas house. "You should wear your new outfit," Chloe said as they entered the house. "That way, you'll feel more comfortable in it at your dad's faculty party."

"As much as I hate to admit it," Beca said. "You're right. What time do we need to leave?"

"We have a little over an hour before we have to go," Chloe said.

"Okay," Beca said. "I'm going to shower and get ready."

"Hey, Chlo?" Stacie called from the living room.

"I'll come and get you when I'm ready," Chloe told Beca as she turned toward the living room.

Beca went upstairs, and Chloe entered the living room to find Stacie sitting on the sofa. Chloe sat next to her.

"What's up, Stace?"

"I just wanted to know how your day was going," Stacie said.

"It's been pretty great," Chloe said with a big smile.

"Have you told her yet?"

"Oh," Chloe said. "Um, I'm not sure about telling her now."

"What?!" Stacie sat up straight and looked at Chloe. "Why not?"

"I'm, um, I'm scared," Chloe said. "What if she doesn't really feel the same way about me?"

"Chlo," Stacie said and took Chloe by the shoulders. "She does. Trust me. We all can see it."

Chloe just looked down and didn't say anything.

"Did you read Beca's horoscope this morning?" Stacie asked.

"No," Chloe said quietly.

Stacie held the newspaper in front of her and read, "Something you have been waiting for will fall into your lap today. I think you are the something she's been waiting for."

"Does it really say that?" Chloe asked as she looked at the paper in Stacie's hand.

"Here, read it for yourself," Stacie said and handed Chloe the paper.

Chloe took it and read it. She smiled.

"I think it's time one of you picked up your tits and made it official," Stacie said.

"You're right," Chloe said.

Chloe jumped up and ran out of the living room and up the stairs. She continued until she was at Beca's door. She knocked lightly and opened the door. She hurried up the steps to find Beca standing next to her bed wrapped in a towel.

"Everything okay, Chlo?" Beca asked.

"Yes," Chloe said and took a step toward Beca.

"Watch out for the-"

Chloe tripped over some shoes and fell into Beca. Beca grabbed her to keep her from falling, and she ended up sitting on her bed with Chloe in her lap. The two looked at each other in surprise.

"Are you okay?" Beca asked.

"I'm, uh, I'm fine," Chloe said. She smiled when she realized she was sitting on Beca's lap. "I, uh, I'm-"

Chloe couldn't form a complete sentence. She could only stare into Beca's eyes.

"Chlo?" Beca asked quietly.

Chloe put her hand on Beca's cheek and waited. Beca did not pull away, so Chloe moved in slowly and joined their lips. Beca let out a tiny moan and pulled Chloe closer to her. The kiss was sweet and left both girls feeling giddy.

Beca pulled out of the kiss and giggled. "Sorry, sorry," Beca said. "I just can't believe we kissed."

"I'm sorry," Chloe said. "I thought you wanted it."

"I did," Beca said. "I've just been thinking all day that I wanted to kiss you."

"Really?" Chloe asked. "I've been thinking it about for a while. And when I read my horoscope this morning, I decided that today was the day I was going to do something about it." Chloe took a deep breath. "I have to tell you something. I'm in love with you."

Beca's eyes widened, and she looked at Chloe's face to see if she was joking. "You are?"

"Yes, I am," Chloe said.

"I'm in love with you, too," Beca said with a big smile. Beca leaned in and kissed Chloe again. She pulled back and looked at Chloe. "Wait. What exactly did your horoscope say?"

"That today was the day I would feel my true love's kiss," Chloe said.

"So, why did we do all that other stuff?" Beca asked. "We could have started with this."

"I just wanted to have a perfect day with my true love before we kissed," Chloe said blushing slightly.

"Huh," Beca said. "I wonder what mine said?"

"It said, something you have been waiting for will fall into your lap today," Chloe said. "I checked yours, too."

Beca looked down at Chloe sitting in her lap and laughed. "Well, I guess both our horoscopes came true today."

Chloe smiled and pulled Beca into a deep kiss. They pulled apart, and Chloe laid her forehead against Beca's.

"I need to start checking my horoscope more often," Beca said. "We could have been doing this months ago."

Full prompt: Chloe reads her horoscope, and it's so good she sets out on an adventurous day to see if it can be made true. She drags Beca along but doesn't tell Beca what the horoscope was. In the end, it said she would feel true loves kiss, which she tells Beca after they kissed. Beca asks why they did all the other stuff, and Chloe tells her, she just wanted to have a perfect day with her true love.

"Everything changed in architecture" after 9/11 attacks says Daniel Libeskind

The terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center helped the public understand the importance of architecture, says the architect who masterplanned the rebuilding at Ground Zero as part of our 9/11 anniversary series.

Speaking to Dezeen in an exclusive interview, Polish-American architect Daniel Libeskind said that "everything changed in architecture" after the tragedy.

Prior to the attacks, he said, urban planning was largely done without public input. However, the attack on the Twin Towers revealed that big architectural projects "belong to citizens".

The Ground Zero site (above) was masterplanned by Daniel Libeskind (top). This photo is by Hufton + Crow

"I think that the impact [of 9/11] was on the whole world," he told Dezeen. "Everything changed in architecture after that. People were no longer willing to do it as before."

"It had an impact in the sense that people understood that big projects are not only for private development, they belong to citizens," he explained. "I think it gave people a sense that architecture is important."

On 11 September 2001, Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial aircraft. Two were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, claiming 2,753 lives.

Another plane hit the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, while the fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. The overall death toll of the four coordinated attacks was 2,996.

One World Trade Center by SOM was erected as part of the rebuilding. The photo is by Hufton + Crow

Two years after the attack, Libeskind won a competition to masterplan the 16-acre World Trade Center site.

His framework included a memorial and a museum to the tragedy, a transport hub plus a cluster of towers including a central "Freedom Tower" with the symbolic height of 1,776 feet, representing the year of America's independence.

However, Libeskind's Freedom Tower design was never built and instead One World Trade Center by SOM rose in its place.

Public participation became "much more important"

Libeskind attributes the fact that there was a design competition at all was due to public demand.

"There was no original competition at all for Ground Zero," he explained. "It was a port authority call for good ideas that they could use," he said, referring to the body that owns the World Trade Center site.

"It was the public that demanded what they saw, and luckily, [my idea] was the one that was in the eye of the public," he continued.

"The public said 'we want this project'...so the port authority was, in a way, forced by the public to implement something that originally was not part of their agenda."

Libeskind's original masterplan created a semi-circle of towers around a memorial

Libeskind said that this "showed the power of the public in determining the future of their cities".

"Planning is not a private business," he added. "It should be determined by a democratic voice of all the different interests, which includes developers and agents, the people, you know, all sorts of different constituencies."

"New York is about tall buildings"

Following the attacks, Libeskind said that some people thought that tall buildings would no longer be built in the city and that Lower Manhattan would fall into a state of decline.

"The mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, just wanted low buildings," recalled Libeskind.

"People said nobody will ever come back to downtown, companies will move to New Jersey, they'll move to Connecticut," he continued, "people don't want to be there anymore."

However, Libeskind felt differently, saying that "New York is about tall buildings" and "always has been".

He compared the aftermath of 9/11 to the coronavirus pandemic, which some people predict will lead to the demise of dense cities and office working.

"Today with a pandemic, people say the same thing," Libeskind said. "People will not work with offices anymore." But he believes that "people will always come" back to cities.

Site "belongs to all of us"

Reflecting on his work on the Ground Zero masterplan, Libeskind likened its challenges to designing a whole American city.

While reintroducing office skyscrapers and adding valuable real estate to the site, he decided to dedicate half of the land to public space to create a neighbourhood accessible to everyone, rather than to just office workers.

"My main goal in the masterplan was, first of all, to create a civic space, not to just be concerned with private investment, but to create a significant memorial, which brings people going to the site in an open social way," he said.

"This was a commercial site where every square inch is worth a lot of money," he explained. "But I felt that somehow it's not a piece of real estate anymore."

"It's something that belongs to all of us," he said.

A visual of 5 World Trade Center at Ground Zero, courtesy of KPF

The Ground Zero masterplan is yet to reach completion, with KPF's 5 World Trade Center next in line to break ground. However, Libeskind believes it has already achieved his aims.

Recalling the day that Ground Zero reopened to families of victims, he said: "I still remember the words people said to me: 'Thank you, you delivered what you promised'".

"After 20 years, it's not finished," he continued, "but it's pretty much what was intended to be and how lucky to have been part of this process."

Read on for an edited transcript of the interview.

Lizzie Crook: Could you reflect on your experience of working on the Ground Zero masterplan and tell me a little bit about how you approached the project?

Daniel Libeskind: Well, it was a very intense process, you know, which had so many participants. The city, the agency, the developers, the general public. It was an all-consuming process. And the only way one could do it was through a democratic process. It was not always difficult, it wasn't always easy.

It had its ups and downs, but it was always meaningful, and always... I had to be really passionate to stick to it, because the challenges were immense. Challenges were complex. So what can I say? Humbled to think of the scale of the project, but it was to pursue the work and try to work in the spirit of openness and that's what I did.

Lizzie Crook: So what were your main goals for the masterplan?

Daniel Libeskind: Well, my main goal in the masterplan was, first of all, to create a civic space, not to just be concerned with private investment, but to create a significant memorial, which brings people going to the site in an open social way. And to create as much public space as possible, which would then permit people to see the memorial as something that is crucial to the memory of the city.

But also to balance the needs of the development of over 10 million square feet of office density, with culture, and with pedestrian pleasures, and to balance memory, and the future in a very unique way.

So that was really the goal. And of course, to meet that incredible programme, which is almost like building a downtown or a whole American city, within 16 acres. But remember that, out of that 16-acre site, there are eight acres of public space, which is what my goal was. To create that sense that this is for New York, this is for people, and not only for people lucky enough to work with those offices.

Lizzie Crook: How did you prevent the site from becoming a sad space and instead make a vibrant neighbourhood?

Daniel Libeskind: It's a balance. You don't want to make New York into a sad city. You don't want to create something that is just mostly shadows and darkness. What you want to do is to create a public and social space, which speaks about the event but in a positive way.

And of course, to do that I went all the way down to the bedrock, the slurry wall, which supports the site and created a sense that this is not a two-dimensional space, that this is really a fully three-dimensional space where you can reach the place of tragedy, but also the place where you can see the rising of the foundations of New York, which still really support that site with the slurry wall.

And of course, to balance the streets, the big buildings that have hundreds of thousands of people working. There is no retail fronting the memorial. You have more quiet streets. And then of course on the other side, you have the noisy shopping streets of New York. So again on many different levels to create a composition, which stays true to what the spirit of New York is, which is a spirit of resilience, and the spirit of joy. That is, we are now in different life of this really spectacular new developmental memorial site.

Lizzie Crook: Do you think the Ground Zero masterplan has achieved its aims?

Daniel Libeskind: It definitely has achieved its aims because life has returned. After six o'clock, Wall Street was just a dark area, there was no retail there, no people living there. It was dead at night. The plaza of the Twin Towers was closed because it was too windy to walk through it.

So I created a sense of a neighbourhood by creating this composition of buildings, which are also symbolic elements, you know, the 1776-feet-tall tower number one, the fact that the buildings stood in a sort of stood in a spiral movement within the grid of New York that echos the torch of Liberty.

The fact that I brought water to the site, you know, the waterfalls, in order to really bring nature in to screen the busy streets and noise of downtown New York. Of course, exposing the slurry wall, which is no small achievement, to make people understand where they are, that this is the bedrock, this is where we are stood and where it stands still. Those are all the kind of elements.

The only anecdote that I can tell you is that when I came to the site, with all the finalist architects, many great architects, and we were on top of one of the skyscrapers next door, and somebody said, does anybody want to go to the site? I said, yes. I was the only one because we could see the site much better from a high rise office building. But I walked down there with my partner and wife Nina.

And really, my life changed as I walked down that route, 75 feet below the streets of New York. And when I touched the slurry wall, I realised really what the site was about, it wasn't about just nice buildings and traffic and all those important planning ideas, it was about deep memory.

I actually called my office, which was still in Berlin at the time, and I said, forget everything we've done, just put it in the garbage. Already a lot of models, drawings, simulations, and animations, you know, working with many experts on this project, I said, forget it.

Throw it out. It's not about that. It's about not building where the Twin Towers stood. Making it all really part of the public space of New York. And I'm really impressed how in a democratic process, this came to fruition. You know, nobody declared the site a sacred site. This was a commercial site where every square inch is worth a lot of money. But I felt that somehow it's not a piece of real estate anymore.

It's something that belongs to all of us. I was to work in a democracy, as fraught as it was, it was very fraught with many battles to fight, but I am really a great advocate and believer in democracy. I don't buy projects that are just from the top down but involve all sorts of interests. And I think it just shows that democracy does work.

Lizzie Crook: Reflecting on the event of 9/11 itself, how would you describe its impact on architecture in the US?

Daniel Libeskind: It had a huge impact in many ways. Number one, it had an impact in the sense that people understood that big projects are not only for private development, they belong to citizens. You know, I don't know what you know, the story, but the original, there was no original competition at all for Ground Zero.

It was a port authority call for good ideas that they could use, right. But it was the public that demanded what they saw, and luckily [my idea] was the one that was in the eye of the public. The public said 'we want this project' that's what we want. We don't want a typical port authority collage of ideas.

We want a project that has all these elements, symbolic elements, the great social public space, the grand memorial, the underground and so on. And so the port authority was, in a way, forced by the public to implement something that originally was not part of their agenda. So first of all, the competition showed the power of the public in determining the future of their cities. It also meant that subsequently, people in New York, were far more sensitive to what they could build, and how high should it be, and how can it respond to the context where people are living. So public participation became, I think, much, much more important than before.

Remember that Twin Towers were built without any public input, they were just sort of there. It was another era. So and also, I think it gave people a sense that architecture is important, that it is not business as usual. But architecture should have some ambition. Public space should have an ambition, it should not be just left to your technocrats and bureaucrats to determine the shape of the city.

By the way, I think the impact was on the whole world. Everything changed in architecture after that. People were no longer willing to do it as before. And I think that was sort of one of the focal points that this competition gave to the world that that architecture is important. Planning is not a private business, it should be determined by a democratic voice of all the different interests, which includes developers and agents, the people, you know, all sorts of different constituencies.

Of course, I started with their families by beginning with those who perished. I didn't start with the building, I started by speaking to people, the fathers and mothers, husbands and brothers, you know, that's what moved me. It was about people. And I think that's changed the idea that memories are important, that memory is not just an add on. But memory is a critical space in a city that must be preserved. Because without memory we would be built to a kind of amnesia.

Lizzie Crook: What was it like to speak to the families?

Daniel Libeskind: Oh my God. That was really very sad. As I said, I didn't start by going and measuring, you know, how many subway lines are necessary to go through the site, although that was part of my project, how to bring them together, and the train terminal and what to do with traffic, and how to bring the streets back.

I started with people and I spoke to them and I became friends with a number of people who lost loved ones. And I understood that this pain and this suffering is also part of the site because it happened on this ground in New York, in Manhattan. And I thought that the most important thing would be to bring the space back to focus in a positive sense, in terms of doing something that means something not just in terms of quantities or profits, but in terms of how people would feel.

And I'll never forget, a couple of people came over to me, he lost a son who was a fireman, one of the firefighters, and she lost her daughter who was a flight attendant on one of the aeroplanes. And they showed me a drawing that they had. I'll never forget the drawing, they unfolded a drawing, and I did not know what it was, it just had 1000s of little dots on it. Really, I didn't know what it was. And it was where body parts were on the site, literally hundreds of thousands.

From that time on, I realised I'm not going to treat the site... this is a site that in my mind is a spiritual sacred site, it cannot be just treated like any other site. And you cannot just build the buildings where they used to be. But I understood that. And I followed many of the families, and I was in contact with them throughout the process. And yeah, that really changed my part of it because it could have been any one of us. Who would have been in that building, either working there or delivering something or cleaning the floors or whatever. One could have been one of those 3000 people or so.

Lizzie Crook: Was there ever a feeling that 9/11 could have been the end of tall buildings?

Daniel Libeskind: Oh, yes. You know, the mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, just wanted low buildings. Forget it, you know, New York is a city of towers, it always has been, you know. People said after that attack, I remember, because our offices are right there, right, at the site. People said nobody will ever come back to downtown, companies will move to New Jersey, they'll move to Connecticut.

People don't want to be there anymore. It's that place. But no, it's New York, it's the spirit of New York, New York is about tall buildings. And by the way, New York has the luxury to build tall buildings. Because you know, it's a high-density city with transportation that brings people to work and to play, you know, all around.

By the way, today with a pandemic, people say the same thing. People will not work with offices anymore. Everybody will be home, it'd be remote working. But no, there's no doubt in my mind that New York, like all great cities, has its own traditions. And, you know, it's a kind of capital of the imagination and creativity and that's where people will always come and will do work and be there. Yeah, not for me, that's, you know, the suburban house with a lawn is going to replace the great powers of New York.

Lizzie Crook: How would you say 9/11 impacted skyscraper design?

Daniel Libeskind: Well, you know, one of my responsibilities [for the masterplan] was to write some new parameters for high rise buildings, to make them ecological, to introduce green technology to make sure that they minimise the carbon footprint. So it's not just the aesthetics of buildings, but really the sustainability of buildings, that is part of the buildings at Ground Zero.

And of course, that's a really huge step in a city like New York, to realise that these buildings can no longer be built, like in the old times, you know, wasteful of energy, they have to be smart buildings, they have to really be responsive to the crisis of ecology that we're going through. And we cannot afford to build buildings, like before. So that's a really, very, very much a part of it.

And by the way, you know, just as an added bonus, my parents were basically factory workers, and my father was a printer, right next to the site. And I always thought to myself, what could my parents get from this rebuilding? They never would be in those office towers. You know, they'd be on the subways, they'd be on the streets trying to work and feed their kids.

And I said, what can I give them? I can give them a sense of New York is beautiful, there is an open space or trees, there's water, there are beautiful vistas of the Hudson and the city. Council facilities, a cultural centre being built, there's a beautiful station to go to. So yes, even the symbolic elements. And of course, the northern corner has not yet been built, because it's tower number two. But I thought it would be simple to resonate with people like my parents who were just regular New Yorkers. That was part of how I thought about the site.

Lizzie Crook: Why do you think it is that people still want to build and live and work in skyscrapers?

Daniel Libeskind: Well, first of all, you know, if you don't want to consume more and more land, and keep building, out and out and out and reinforcing cars, you know, fossil fuels and so on, you have to build densely. That's why cities originated. Cities originated because people want to be together.

Everybody wants to be there to share, and improve themselves, get a better job, or learn something new. That's why people flock to cities, it's creativity. Cities have been carved, not by coincidence. The cities are probably the greatest inventions of humanity because people realise that being together, gives you something that you can never get by being, you know, in a monastery alone, somewhere far away.

So, because of that, and because of sustainability, we cannot consume land by building low buildings and eating up what's leftover of the nature we already managed to destroy. It's such a clear way. So it's a necessity. But also there's a magic to tall buildings, beyond the necessity, there is a sort of primordial sense of joy of being able to dominate the city or from a higher perspective.

Le Corbusier thought that the best floor to live on, buildings should not be really higher than the seventh floor because, you know, you're supposed to live on the streets. You're not in the sky. By the way, I live on the seventh floor! But the truth is that when you're in a high rise in a skyscraper, it's just so liberating in many ways. You're so... again, the mythology of being high, and the necessity of building high density, which means tall buildings. It's not about to disappear. We're not about to go backwards and you know live in three-storey houses, two-storey houses.

Lizzie Crook: What do you think architecture's role is in providing closure for victims and the families of victims of such tragic events such as 9/11?

Daniel Libeskind: Well, I think there's no doubt that architecture has a healing role. To build a beautiful space, a place where you can come to, which is a spiritual place, even in just a regular, you know, piece of the city.

But it's a spiritual space when you enter that space, you hear the waterfalls, you see that the buildings, that the great office towers really are far away from you, so that you're in the light, and not in the shadow of the towers, the towers are really of the periphery and form a horizon through which you can also the beauty of New York.

I think that provides a sense of place that, you know, you might not feel the sadness for people who lost loved ones, or the sadness of the attack that killed almost 3000 people, but you feel that there is a sense of integrity, a sense of reality, in the space, and the sense that the space speaks with its own voice.

And by the way, I don't know whether you noticed when Pope Francis came to New York, some years ago, to give his address to all religions, he chose the slurry wall, underground of the museum, to give his ecumenical message. He could have chosen Times Square, St. Patrick's Cathedral or Central Park. But I think the pope understood that this wall speaks through a world about threats, and also about liberties, about freedoms. And I think that was a very moving, moving moment when I was there.

Lizzie Crook: Are you still in touch at all with the families of the victims, or have you ever heard how they have received the site and what it means to them?

Daniel Libeskind: I can tell you that when Ground Zero first opened, when it was completed, it was completed, tower number one and so on. They invited only the families, not the public, and I was there. And so many people came to me, you know, I was anonymous, I was just walking, because they knew me from you know, pictures or they knew who I was, to thank me.

And I still remember the words people said to me: 'thank you, you delivered what you promised. What you said actually happened'. And so of course, you know, I'm a New Yorker, I live and work right next to the site like many people from that era. And I'm glad you know, before the pandemic, this is one of the most visited sites, over 20 million people come through here.

So it's one of the most visited sites, even by New Yorkers. Many people that I met said to me, you know, I live in Brooklyn, or I live uptown, and they never wanted to come back to the site, because it's such a terrible memory. And now that I came to it, it's so great. I feel so much better when I came back to it. So even sometimes New Yorkers were traumatised not to come back to the site. But people have flocked back.

And it's really, I think, a space that is attractive, that has a lot of segments of the city and of memory and also the future, because before we got set, there is all the construction, we are now building tower number five, a residential building, which is fantastic because I always thought that the programme did not contain housing.

But I always thought that that's the kind of site would be that people would live there. And so now, the fifth tower is a beautiful tower that will be also affordable, much of it will be affordable housing, which is so important. So, yeah, this is, of course, it's a site that is evolving, it's not yet finished. After 20 years, it's not finished, but it's pretty much what was intended to be and how lucky to have been part of this process.

Lizzie Crook: What does the success of the site say about the resilience of New York and New Yorkers?

Daniel Libeskind: Well, I think this place, prior to the catastrophe and prior to rebuilding, you know, lower Manhattan was not exactly a cool place to be in. It was, you know, dark skyscrapers after six.

And now, it's really one of the most exciting neighbourhoods, you know, a lot of new housing has been built. Hotels, a lot of retail, schools, a lot of people have moved to the site, a lot of great office buildings have been transformed to residential towers. So it's really, you know, it's now in a new neighbourhood, lower Manhattan is like, one of the coolest, if not the coolest neighbourhood in all of New York, for the next 30 years. So it's really, more than building skyscrapers and more than just building facilities, it's creating a space that could act as a magnet for people to live there. And, of course, by coincidence that people want to live there because there is a sense of a centre of social space that will only increase the time. I'm so lucky to live there.

Lizzie Crook: What were your main lessons or final reflections from working on this project?

Daniel Libeskind: Well, in my view, I always thought there were so many cynics and sceptics about this project. You know, they said, oh, it's gonna be all compromise, and it's all this and it's all that.

But in the end, you know, I am not impressed by the mega projects made by totalitarians. I'm impressed by what a democracy can accomplish with its kind of intense discussion, its disagreements, its strong opinions. And of course, there's no city that has stronger opinions than New York, you know these rough sort of voices. And yet in the end, the fact that this project is so much... the project that I drew the beginning, my first drawing, my intent, that the fact it was to navigate through these complex waters of a democracy shows that first of all democracy is not easy.

But it shows that democracy is the only system worth working in. And that's really my reflection because it's real, you know, what is built in the democratic spirit becomes real. The Twin Towers were never that real because they were a Robert Moses kind of planning, where nobody really participated.

The highways that were built around New York by Robert Moses, but this is something that sort of reinforced my belief that, however difficult the process was, and it was, and however many, you know, conflicts that were at the end, you know, it delivered something, which I'm very proud of, and I think the developers are proud of it.

People who are working there are proud of it, the people who suffered, the loss of their families are proud of it. People who just come by it, who are now living there, you know, it's become a part of the city. I mean, that's really, the greatest indication of working certainly could become part of a true reality and not sort of something artificial.

9/11 anniversary

This article is part of Dezeen's 9/11 anniversary series marking the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

The portrait of Libeskind is by Stefan Ruiz.

The post "Everything changed in architecture" after 9/11 attacks says Daniel Libeskind appeared first on Dezeen.

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Professional Practice Blog Week 2

PRICING: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

To provide context, Louise wrote and read out a dummy email request from a company for an artist to provide an illustration to market a new building in Belfast; it made it clear that a number of artists would be approached.

Louise explained this is usual practice, so email responses needed to give careful consideration to the brief and to pricing.

Task

In small groups of 2 or 3, we had 20 minutes to work out a suitable response to the request, including questions about the job and details of pricing. It was hard as we were working without much information, so we had to research the company, clarify the brief and think about the process of costing a project, which was a completely new area of experience for most of us. Louise gave us individual advice about what we needed to consider and explained how to decode the email in order to ask the right questions e.g. how the art work might actually be used as this was not made clear in the initial email.

She gave us a useful analogy to demonstrate how we need to cover all possible angles before moving forward with a theme.

Outcome

I felt a bit panicked about the task as it was outside my comfort zone, but Louise was really reassuring and explained to us that the exercise was all about being supported, not judged – to ‘fill in the gaps in people’s knowledge’ not to write a ‘perfect email’. This helped me to feel more confident. We looked again at the brief and tried to put ourselves in the role of illustrator; we realized there were things which needed to be confirmed such as the measurements of the piece required, where it was going to be placed and for how long, whether any other use was going to be made of the image…..so we bullet pointed these.

We weren’t sure whether money should be raised at this early stage.

When the task was completed, we then shared these emails on a board. One person from each group had to explain what was on the paper and one person had to write down a summary of the points ‘a club secretary’. Louise went through the points and explained what worked well and what needed more thought e.g. perhaps don’t talk about projected earnings before you have got the job! It was useful to hear others’ viewpoints and to hear Louise’s explanations about why particular points would be better raised later in the process – e.g. colour schemes.

Summary below of important details omitted, which we should have raised as questions in our email response:

Detailed specification – exact measurements/dimensions/content of piece?

Usage of the work - where/how it will be reproduced e.g. postcards (free to public?). Why layering? Animation intention? Copyright?

 Exact timescale?

Nature of (hotel) space? Visuals required. Wallpaper – where is it going?

Target audience? Breadth of market?

This was really useful as a general guideline about what to look for if approached by an artistic director and could be applied later on to a real-life scenario. I also learnt more key points from Louise’s verbal feedback about email responses to potential clients:

Prioritise information in emails – try to write points down in order of importance.

Questions should help you to decide on pricing so bear this in mind.

 ‘Decode the email’. e.g. in this case, the request for a 50 word artist summary shows the client/response required was high end.

Research your client.

Remember the aim of an email is to secure the job. Tone should be friendly/direct.

Louise handed out a summary sheet, good for going over and expanding points raised through the task, giving us more pointers to keep safe for future reference. Further key points I learnt that an illustrator should always consider when deciding on pricing:

Do you retain copyright or is it a buy out – partial or one time? A full buy out means you lose ownership.

Usage is important. Is your work going to be used for a seat cover, mural, magazine? Money increases if use is complex or in multiple locations.

Where is your work visible and for how long? Ask about ‘territories’ – local or global? Bigger audience means more money for client, so artist should be paid more.

Terms of payment should be made later on in the process.

Payment normally 30 days after project. May differ if long timeframe, so you might need to ask for payments to be split to cover rough and final stages as you have to eat!

Price according to your desire for job.

Exposure is important but be careful about giving ‘free’ work unless it is going to be of benefit to you.

Mark-ups happen. Agencies usually take commission, so push price upwards to cover this.

All of these points were completely new to me and so valuable to have them made clearly and logically. It suddenly brought the outside world inside, which was frightening and exciting at the same time. 

Until now we have been drawing, painting and printing in a very secure little bubble! Louise has burst this, but in a good way, giving us a look into the future ahead and guidance to help us find our way through the tricky bits.

Finally  - today a project was set: Pop-up shop/event

Before Xmas Louise asked the group to organise a pop-up shop/event where we would all have a presence. We had to find a venue either in the uni – such as the Atrium space, or outside the uni, through personal contacts - and produce work for that – zines, prints, cards. We were told we could use existing work and put it into saleable format. 

Louise asked us to elect 4 or 5 key people for roles – research, money, manning pop up etc. and set up meetings. There was some argument about groupings as people wanted smaller groups and Louise said we could be flexible, but it might make organisation more difficult. Everybody was to produce at least one piece of work – maybe in a zine. Costs would be funded by the uni.

Outcome.

I had a meeting with my small group and we decided to create a Facebook group for communication. Although we did get as far as creating  the group, it sort of fizzled out and we ended up being caught up in our other projects. I did complete a sketch of our puppy asleep in readiness for the show as I thought it might be a popular Xmas gift if scanned and copied onto card as pets (and labs especially) are so popular; however, I didn’t get to use it.

I think the idea of a big group with some key organisers to whom we submitted work would have been more effective and manageable. As I am not good at pushing myself forward, I waited for the others to push the project forward and when it didn’t happen, I wasn’t sure what to do next. 

I have learnt several things from this experience:

         Be brave and challenge my comfort zone

         Be proactive, don’t wait for others to lead

         Be self-reliant  

         Make sure clear structures are in place for any project, with a  series            of  meetings put in place in advance from the very start of the project          to competition. 

Careful planning will ensure the project reaches the end point…….After our first meeting, we needed to set definite dates for the following meetings in order to fulfil our aims.

Big Dog Little Dog

I recently submitted an article to a website devoted to deconstructing masculinity. While the editing is still ongoing it prompted me to write another piece that is slightly lighter and more sarcastic lets say. I do believe the conversation is important and it was illuminating to rediscover masculinity through disseminating it.

Many aspects of masculinity tend to run deep and by silent admission are enforced. The prickly part of it also is that men are so afraid of vulnerability that the upward rush of ego is an immediate and impenetrable first line of defense. However, like many things today, battles are fought with words and from our security blanket of technologically enhanced introversion we can disseminate, prod and poke at these clunky ideologies.

Big-dogging is essentially an overt flaunt of one’s masculinity done to achieve noticeable effect, basically; throwing one’s weight around. I first discovered this term when hearing about my friend’s brother who had an interesting method of dealing with the drunken exploits of a peer. This individual after so many drinks would become naked at some stage in the evening and cause distress for all. After pleading with him my friends brother resorted to ‘big-dogging’ which in this case meant punching him as hard as he could in the penis. He cowered, lost wind, went blue, got dressed and calmed right down. His behavior was thereafter amended for the better.

Wow I thought, what an incredibly elegant solution. Thinking back over the years of torment serving alcohol to the upper-middle-white-male-baby-booming-we-don’t-have-a-class-structure-Australian, I could have really incorporated this tactic. Oh, you do have an impressive car Mr. Man, would you like me to lesson your self-importance with a swift punch on the nose? Scathing fever dreams like this are spawned from the same place as big-dogging and taps into the masculine urges that really hold us back. But since discovering it and reflecting, I have seen it pop up and play out in interesting ways.

It is present in little moments. Disgruntled customer diverts his path to encroach on the space of a young and nonchalant staff person. Well done, got him! Two behemoths with impossibly splayed arms make sure we can’t pass them in the hall. Woah, showed us! Oh, you want me to decipher a series of monotonal grunts? Sure, I’d love to! These are some examples of surface behaviors that quietly enforce a sort of social superiority. Look out for them they’re quite amusing. What is more interesting and complex is the role of the third party in this man spectrum, that is the little dog.

The little dog, and I offer this title with only the slightest malice for reasons I will soon disclose, is the antipode to the big dog. They admire the big dog, support him, celebrate him, make excuses for him and through their learned helplessness empower him. However, they sport very few or none of his traits, being either the brutish confidence, the pure ego or the muscularity that sub-serves the aforementioned. What they instead project other than obsequiousness is an admiration that maintains a hierarchy. Why am I taking aim at the little dog? Because I feel betrayed. For long I thought they were my ilk, more empathetic, sensitive, social awkward, prone to fits of anxiety rather than rage. What I have noticed though is an invitation out of the club along with definite shots fired. The little dog has cunning.

For the sake of context, I will include a brief overview of myself. I’m 6,1, not that that matters, I’m 88 kilos, who cares, and I too lift on the weights, without barking. By no means does this put me in the league of the big dog but it does make me noticeable enough for a subversive form of targeting. The first time I noticed this was in a supplement store in Sydney. Having discovered my High School sebaceous over activity and my own general under activity was due to an allergy to dairy, I have since steered clear. Poor me. At the time alternatives are not what they are now and I had to resort to a sinful plant based powder dubiously dubbed ‘soy protein’. Bad news if you’re a man. Cue Theo. In assisting me with my purchase he thrust on the breaks with an “ohhhh sooooy, tsssss”. Offering me his insight into the subject he asked, “have you been gaining weight in any strange areas?” hands motion in circles around his hips. Following this, “have you had a hard time losing weight from any strange areas”, hands motions in circles around his chest. I was shocked.

Immediately the slumbering big dog in me was summoned as I was instantly incensed, this little prick thinks I’m chemically castrating myself! All I could offer was “nah man”. Smooth. What that was replacing was an impending diatribe including a full dress down of this 5.5ft, red headed shop assistant called Theo! I mean doesn’t that trifecta automatically guarantee a lifetime of politeness. No one called Theo should be dispensing judgements. No one. I calmed down and stopped listening to the base inclinations of the temperamental big dog lurking in my subconscious. I’m better than that. I’m in control. Theo is short for Theodore and that’s just adorable.

-Clears throat- “I thought the phytoestrogens from soy are mitigated by the consumption of cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower, which I eat”. Ok great, an eloquent response that’s politely defensive and reflective of some semblance of knowledge. But then Theo played his hand. “My friend bodybuilder Joe, Mr. This of that competition and Mr. That of this competition, well he’s allergic to dairy and eats these capsules of powdered broccoli fart which house the antiestrogenic power of a thousand suns”. At least that’s how I remember it going.

Now what happened here. After stewing on this I began to see a philosophy play out. By calling forth the admirable traits of an invisible Adonis he developed a comparison between that person and myself. Of course, not being a bodybuilder and eating soy means that I am diminished in this comparison whereby Theo and his affiliate both receive a nice little boost. The result was me purchasing my Eunuch powder and leaving with my tail between my legs toward a future of love handles and man-boobs. Theo big-dogged me! By proxy! That is their trick! Watch.

Since then I have seen this trait reemerge with me again the target. I have a young coworker who is really into training and hence has a preoccupation with ‘size’. Now, we share an interest and he isn’t aware of this but he quite resembles my younger self. Unfortunately, despite all his sinewy I just happen to edge him out with ‘size’. Who cares. Let’s be friends. Instead this is how an innocuous enough conversation about a soccer will play out. “Had an argument with this guy right, bout your size but a bit bigger, you know maybe an inch bigger arms and you know… ‘has traps’”. Ok great, like me yeah? It wasn’t until the end I discovered the hulk to which he was referring was of Tongan heritage. Oh, like me, (breadstick thin and just as white) except nothing like me. Then why bloody start with me as a reference point!? Subliminal big-dogging is why! He just had to work in a narrative that diminishes poor Nate.

Another example is an older college who despite having an esteemed running background just so happens to be a little short. Hence, he has a preoccupation with ‘height’. One way he gets around this is by standing as close as he can to you and talking up into your face, yeah right in the bubble. The other? You guessed it, parading around an array of non-present bigger dogs. “My nephew, he’s a runner, probably a bit taller than you Nathan”. “You know Sam who only works here in the holidays? be taller than you right?”. Or the best one is that I just get asked weekly, “how tall are you Nathan?”. Tall enough. Just write it down please. Now I don’t go flaunting the centimeters I’ve accrued around, nor do I advertise my feats of anything anywhere. In most instances, I’m praying for a rainy day to justifiably curl up in the comfort of some nice house-depression. But that’s the thing about masculinity, not surprisingly, its penetrative and it finds you.

For the most palpable display of this interplay one must survey the dogs objectively, in the wild, meaning the gym. The big dog is in his element here, he is the guy who seems to either be always in shape or constantly improving. He just embodies his intention. He wants, he does, he is the thing he’s doing. The little dog, often in groups of two to four, seem always to be in a state of trying or talking about where they want to end up. What this does is fuel an adoration for the guy who’s already there. The big dog. They flock to him, shake hands, soak up his advice, admire his physique while he looks away and just through this association alone receive an elevated sense of self. It does however have a downside.

I would caution little dogs not to spend too much time in that role because I think it fosters a damaging mindset. I ran into a friend I hadn’t seen for years who is also into fitness and despite being a little guy he used to gleefully extoll his myriad of virtues. Now this is a jump of about 8 years and the change I witnessed was staggering. He had replaced braggadocio with excuses, like he was cultivating them with an accompanying sense of pride. Think I’m being too hard? He drew a correlation between a painting falling on his head and needing stitches to why his legs aren’t where he wants them to be. I’m thinking man, it doesn’t matter. Go to the gym because its healthy. I will never be Rambo. That red headband would look ridiculous on my balding dome. Whatever. I just don’t think would should donate our self-esteem away so willingly.

What’s more there is another trend that we all must be cautious not to perpetuate, which little dogs do to the big, “oh, he’s just being a guy”. This is perhaps the worst lie we tells ourselves and the worst demonstration of complicity we enact. And I get it, it’s a fear thing. He’s being stubborn, that’s a guy thing. No, he’s being ignorant and that’s a bad thing. He doesn’t want to talk about it, that’s a guy thing. No, he’s suppressing emotions that will show in his behaviors, and that’s an immaturity thing. Oh, he just gets angry sometimes, that’s a guy thing. Ok, how does he healthfully channel that anger if at all? Oh, he yells at his wife sometimes, that’s just a guy thing, right? Hello? Anyone? See where this is going?

I no longer believe that these behaviors deserve the free pass they get just because males convey a sense of threat. I may have had an amusing look at the little dog but I was serious when I said they uphold a ‘hierarchy’. Perhaps it is some Australian Tall Poppy mechanism to give a sneaky little swipe where deemed necessary. But let’s face facts, no one is correcting the big dog and their toxic masculinity. Instead I have people reminding me that there are people out there who are taller than me. For real. Someone who is so mediocre they are socially benign. Like a house pant, in a forest.

I just wanted to plant a flag here and say it’s not ok, ‘just being a guy’ can no longer be an excuse for what can be such pernicious behaviors. We are part of a great game now, communication is to the point where perspectives of old can be plucked of the shelf, have the dust blown off them and be reexamined. And that’s terrific. Whether is from a scientific or sociological perspective every ideology deserves scrutiny for it to survive today. That is both an admission that masculinity is an ideology and secondly a question that asks if something can’t withstand critique, why then should we endorse it? It deserves conversation. Let’s stay in touch. Woof.

Thursday, 17th of november 2005

I see a lot of news and gossip articles about the Hills these days. A lot of Information Technology venture corporations occupy the Hills, such as Livedoor, Rakuten, and Cybird.

Younger celebrity entrepreneurs and businessmen began calling this place "the Hills" after they brought all the success to this area. If I remember correctly, though, there was some disagreement a couple of years ago when they completed and opened Roppongi Hills. The faction headed by the Mori Building had pushed the name Roppon-jin.

Roppon-jin isn't particularly cool, but I'm not excited about "the Hills" either.

Anyhow, I don't like the impression of the Hills given by the mass media. They say: "Everyone drives a luxury imported car! They live in high-class apartments! They wear hot, brand-name accessories! They stuff themselves at top notch restaurants!"

The press's excessive competition for more sensational stories resulted in a misconceived stereotype about the Hills. KojiPro's offices sit in the middle of Roppongi Hills. We look like the stereotype too if you go by the gossip's claims.

HIDEOBLOG readers understand that we don't fit the mold of the "celebrity entrepreneurs of the Hills." We're more like Nippon's salary-men. We catch the train during morning rush hour; we love eating from a fast food menu; and we kick back with a drink after a hard day's work.

I don't like the name "Information Technology industries." Whenever people hear the name they think, "Oh, they don't really do anything," or "They never create any new information."

Innovative pioneers flourished during the twentieth century, and I understand that their time has passed in the twenty-first century. Still, I want to create for a living. That's why I deliberately call our industry the "Entertainment Technology industry."

I'm not a Hills celebrity. I'm a workingman at the Hills, along with my HIDEOBLOG. I suppose that my dreams bear similarities with notorious, celebrity aspirations though.

I went to the restaurant Umaya in Nishi Azabu for the first time in a long while. I had the chef's daily special, Shabu-shabu.

I don't like raw eggs very much, but I took one anyway so I could record it in HIDEOBLOG. I've never eaten one of Umaya's free sample raw eggs before. This sort of thing has happened more frequently since I started HIDEOBLOG. Thanks to HIDEOBLOG, I've been able to enjoy foods that I never enjoyed before.

I borrowed Miyuki Nakajima's album Tensei and listened to it. As usual, it rocks!

I like the eighth track, Inochi-no-relay. Its lyrics coincide perfectly with the MGS saga's theme: "What should we pass on to future generations?"

We have finally settled on the location for December's ultimate OOOO Training. I'm glad that we found a place in time. We had initially planned to hold it at Nasu's Training Institute. Wild monkeys and bears roam the area in December though, so they wouldn't let us. There would have been too much snow this time of year anyway.

Toyopy and Colonel had looked for good location, but they couldn't find anything. They made slow progress. I'm really glad that we found our place, even moreso because it's 150,000 square meters large. That's three times the size of an 18-hole golf course.

It sounds awesome. I'm looking forward to training. I'll need to take care and not get lost though, since the site is so large.

Shin-chan and Toyopy just returned with their newly purchased equipment. They went to the ever-helpful Phantom Higashi Kurume Shop. They looked pretty proud of themselves; they had gotten some rare, hard-to-find shirts.

Toyopy's explanation was too technical for me to follow, so I can't describe it here. I'll let Toyopy explain it directly:

1: Multicam Combat Shirt.

I just bought what I could find this time, since the exact size that I ordered hasn't arrived yet. Crye Associates collaborated with the U.S. Army to develop this shirt. It has what we call a Multicam Combat Camouflage Pattern.

It isn't officially used by any army, but it's still really popular. It's an all-in-one camouflage pattern designed to work in desert, jungle, and urban environments. The pattern is pretty complex, and it uses a lot of colors. They engineered the pattern specifically for its multifunction use, so you won't find many designs like it among common fatigues.

The sleeves and the collar bear similarities to normal fatigues, but they made the torso from state-of-the-art fibers that quickly absorb and dry sweat. (It has this feature in case we wear body armor over the Multicam Combat Shirt.) The elbows are well-padded too.

2: Oakley Factory Pilot Gloves.

Even Mr. Zakiyama down at the Phantom recommended these. Oakley makes sunglasses and outdoor supplies, and these are a pair of their motorcycle gloves. They're made out of carbon and Kevlar.

These have become really hot among military equipment enthusiasts, ever since everyone saw footage of special-ops units wearing them. Lots of soldiers these days use high-quality outdoor and sports supplies sold directly to the public.

3: Converse Stealth Assault Boots.

Converse developed these assault boots. The company is most famous for their line of basketball shoes.

These boots use a side-zipper. They're perfect for me, really, since I love boots even though I hate to lace them. The ankle and toe segments are quite soft, so they feel more like a pair of sneakers rather than boots.

U.S. East coast military surplus shops frequented by Navy SEALS carry them.

So that's the word from Toyopy.

I liked the Converse Assault Boots too, so I ordered a black pair. I'll wear them with the camouflage pants I got at Estnation.

The writer Mr. Gakuto Mikumo came to my office in the early evening. We ate supper together in Nishi Azabu at the restaurant Sabakuro. Mr. Ryogo Narita (a light novelist and one of Mr. Mikumo's gaming buddies) also joined us. We shared three delightful hours.

About five years ago I read the book M. G. H. Rakuen-no-kyozo. It had won the first Japanese Sci-Fi Rookie of the Year Award.

The story opens with the discovery of a smashed up corpse inside a zero-gravity space station. Why is a crushed corpse in a zero-gravity environment? How was the crime committed? Where is the murderer?

It's a sci-fi mystery thriller set inside a closed space station in the near future. The novel was the perfect marriage of Isaac Asimov's novel The Caves of Steel and James Patrick Hogan's novel Inherit the Stars.

The novel interested me, and I got excited. I became curious about Mr. Mikumo.

That was my first experience reading one of his novels. I read Kaitei-misshitu right away after that, followed by a novel adaptation of The Rumblefish.

I have a habit (well, a selfishness, really) of wanting to meet writers whose work I admire. So I used a connection to set up several interviews and dinner meetings, but plans always fell through because of tough schedules. I invited him to contribute an article for a booklet included with the limited edition of Anubis, and even then I didn't have a chance to meet him personally.

After five years, I finally met Mr. Mikumo in person and had a chance to talk with him. He really is a good person. No one who dreams of outer space is bad.

I felt the alcohol hitting me a bit, so I decided to head over to my little hideout in Nishi Azabu. I met up with Okamura and Kenichiro without heading back to the office.

My hideout's usual bartender speaks the Kansai dialect. I had wanted to listen to his speech and ease my thoughts a bit. Unfortunately, he had to tend bar in an affiliated pub tonight, so I couldn't see him.

Stores opened their doors to Beaujolais Nouveau today.

I heard that only the Japanese become so excited over a release party for wine. I wanted to drink some of the wine before the day ended.

Tomorrow the wine will flow in the Beaujolais Nouveau's home country, France. I should have bought some when I ran across it at noon.

According to the news, Japan has imported the largest amount of wine this year than at any other time in history.

I had missed out on the Beaujolais, so I drank a couple of sidecars to make up for it.

Dec. 5, 2018: Columns

Proud son of C.O. Lovette…

Pete Lovette giving a brief

biography of his father

By KEN WELBORN

Record Publisher

I attended the dedication ceremony for the C.O. Lovette Highway at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church on Friday, Nov. 30.  The centerpiece of the ceremony was remarks by Lovette’s son, Pete.

Anyone in attendance had to be taken not only by his words, but also by the look in his eyes and the tone of his voice as he respectfully spoke about the father and mother he very much loved and respected.  Clearly, Pete Lovette was honored and thankful to be their son, and to have the opportunity to speak about them on this special day.

What follows are some excerpts from his presentation:

“We are here to honor Mr. C.O. Lovette, whose daily life and work sought to honor his family and neighbors. The naming of this part of Highway 16 for our father, C.O. Lovette, is a proud moment for all of us who knew and loved our father and for our future generations.

“As I began to prepare my remarks for this occasion, I discovered a writing by our mother (Ruth Bumgarner Lovette) who wrote some important facts about our father’s history.  I will share a portion of her writing. ‘...because a young man did not want to work by a time clock, an industry was born which far exceeded our own, or anyone’s expectations.’”

Charlie Odell Lovette was born in 1900 in a “little cabin beside the Yadkin River,” Pete continued. “He was in about the middle of 14 children in his family. He quit school at the age of 16 and went to Winston-Salem and worked in the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco factory for a while.”

Lovette later farmed for a time and had his first experiences at buying and selling produce.  After spending some time in the coal mines of West Virginia, he decided to come home and go back to school at age 21.

“At this time, he started courting a girl in the community, Ruth Bumgarner, a granddaughter of G.A. Nichols, with whom he was staying,” Pete said. “This courtship lasted over two years.  C.O. was never one to make snap decisions.”

In February of 1924, before the school term was over, he began dreaming of going into the poultry business.  He contacted storekeepers to see if they would be interested in selling their produce on a regular weekly schedule. With capital of $100 he purchased a Ford truck chassis.  This began the buying and selling that later became Lovette Poultry Company.

Pete went on to tell that the following May, in 1924, he married Ruth Bumgarner. They set up housekeeping in the Pleasant Home community in a little log cabin belonging to Ruth’s grandparents. Shortly there after, they bought a small farm in the same area. There they reared their family of six sons and one daughter. They all were involved in the poultry business.

Their first child, Charles Fred, was born in 1925 and became the dynamic leader of Holly Farms Poultry Industries, which became the largest poultry company in the world.

Bonnie, for many years, was the leader of Human Resources at Holly Farms.

Rex was the leader of live production.

Pete was the leader in the administration division.

Billy Wade was the manager of three plant complexes.

Blake was unique in his leadership in building a complete complex in Temperanceville, Va.

Gene Allen was head of the Center Texas Division.

“I was always proud of seeing my father work,” Pete said. “He built his first broiler house in 1928. At age 7 he put me in as one of the caretakers.”

Mr. Lovette was known for hard work, making a profit ethically, staying ahead of the competition, knowing what could be sold for a profit, and for his integrity — his word could be trusted.

   “Another example of the importance of integrity was a practice he used quite often with his suppliers in Wilkes and nearby counties,” Pete said. “If he was able to sell one of their products at a better than expected profit, then, at the time of his next week’s purchase from that supplier, he would return a portion of that added profit as a bonus payment. This was a practice he used quite often and gave him great respect by his suppliers.”

As a result of these traits used in his business accomplishments, he, at one time, owned four farms and tracts of timber. He also built a shopping center in the heart of Millers Creek. His Christian faith was his highest priority and he was, for many years, a member of the Pleasant Home Baptist Church and is buried in its cemetery.

C.O. Lovette is a member of the N.C. Poultry Hall of Fame in Raleigh and became a member of the Wilkes County Agriculture Hall of Fame on Friday night. 

“Today he has the honor of having N.C. Hwy 16 commencing at U.S. 421 and N.C. 16 and ending at Millers Creek named in his honor,” Pete said. “A plaque commemorates this occasion. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak about our father.”

And thank you Pete Lovette, for sharing this glimpse into your most remarkable family.

 From Missiles to Menorah

By EARL COX

Special to The Record

 On Sunday evening, Dec. 2, the people of Sderot, Israel - a town located less than one mile from the Gaza border – gathered to light the first candle of the town’s menorah to commemorate the first day of Chanukah (also spelled Hanukkah).  Jews around the world celebrate this holiday which marks the time when the Maccabean Jews regained control of Jerusalem and rededicated the Second Temple.  What makes the candle lighting in Sderot worth mentioning is the fact that it is symbolic of how the Jewish spirit looks for ways to turn tragedy into triumph. 

 The people of Sderot live under the constant threat of incoming rockets from Hamas terrorists in Gaza.  Literally thousands of rockets have been launched by the Palestinians into this small Israeli farming community.  It’s an understatement to say that living under the constant threat of terror is challenging and stressful.  Imagine that it’s 3 a.m., and the Red Alert siren blares out a warning that rockets are incoming.  Being so close to the Gaza border, people have only 15 seconds or less to reach the safety of a bomb shelter.  How do you get your entire family, small children, babies and the elderly and handicapped, out of bed and into a bomb shelter in only seconds?  This scenario could occur at any moment day or night yet the citizens of Sderot refuse to live in fear, despair or defeat.  In fact, they have literally turned the darkness into light.  The town’s menorah was crafted by artisans in the community and it’s made from Kassam rockets which landed and exploded in Sderot. This stands as a testimony to the resilience of the Jewish people. The evil that was meant harm, kill and destroy innocent Israelis has instead been turned into a symbol of the light of the Torah. They have turned ‘swords into plowshares.’ The citizens of Sderot have become a symbol for bravery, determination and courage which are so characteristic of most all Israelis. While the rockets may blacken the sky, they cannot darken the Jewish spirit which has figured out a way to turn the evil of terror into a source of light and where there is light there can be no darkness. 

 As we enter this holiday season whereby we sing songs about peace on earth and goodwill towards men, let’s remember our Jewish brothers and sisters in the land of Israel – a people and a place which are both very special in God’s sight.  God says we are to pray for the ‘peace of Jerusalem.’ ��May we be ever faithful to do so not only this month but each and every day throughout the year. All Christians have a responsibility to Israel and the Jewish people.  After all, Jesus was a Jew and we can’t love Him if we don’t embrace His family. So as we prepare to celebrate the season when God’s Light came into the world, let us also remember our Jewish brothers and sisters as they fulfill their destiny of being a light unto the nations. 

A big hello to all reading this, and I hope you’re having a good week so far!

I am very excited to write my first ever travel blog post, and that too about the very enchanting Kauai. Our vacation was in lieu of a long due vacation for my husband and I. It was also very special to us, because our one-year wedding anniversary was a few days earlier on November 27. It felt like a celebration for us to vacation in a blissful, warm island outside this rainy city we call home.

Kauai is one of the eight major islands in Hawaii, and is known fondly as ‘The Garden Island’. It truly stands for what it is called, as it is lush with green beauty and the deep blue Pacific Ocean. And one more unique fact to Kauai is the number of roosters and hens that populate the island-they are everywhere!

PLANNING BEFOREHAND

We planned our vacation details mid-October, so that we had a few days to settle on our accommodation and activities. While looking for flight tickets, I did check the price ranges on Google Flights to figure out when was a good time to fly out. Comparing a few dates in December, we decided on the first week because the flight tickets were quite affordable and the weather was also good in Kauai then.

We also booked a car rental service online in October, because the best way to move around in the island is to drive by yourself to places. We partook the service of ‘Avis’ car rentals, who are located within the airport complex. You can choose from car model options, and we settled for an economy model because we didn’t have too much of luggage. We were taken by shuttle to the company’s store, filled out details and then we were handed our car keys for the next few days.

When it came to accommodation, we booked our 8-nights-9-days long vacation stay at ‘Aston Islander On The Beach’, which was about 15 minutes away from the airport. My husband arranged our vacation stay at the resort through AirBnB, where the prices for the resort rooms had more discounts.

We had also paid and booked two activities beforehand through hawaiidiscount.com, which were kayaking and a dinner cruise respectively. We decided to explore more activity options after we landed in Kauai, and there’s more on that as you read on.

AND SO, THE VACATION BEGAN!

TRAVEL- We departed from Seattle on December 2 and reached Lihue Airport in Kauai roughly 6 hours later, with an hour’s layover in between at the San Francisco Airport. We flew with United Airlines, and the flight experience overall was fairly pleasant. For travel within the island, we drove around in our rental car. We did not see any taxis anywhere, and almost all tourists were seen opting for rental cars.

OUR RESORT- Our stay at ‘Aston Islander On The Beach’ was very comfortable, since we could explore many places in opposite directions without much travel hassle. The resort was well maintained, and our room had a pool and ocean view from the balcony. There is a food and shopping complex called ‘Coconut Marketplace’ right outside our resort- we were sorted. Our lunch and coffee visits were super convenient after tiring trips outside, thanks to two awesome places right outside the resort called ‘IMUA Coffee Roasters’ and ‘Sleeping Giant Grill’.

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    MISCELLANEOUS SHOPPING- There was a Safeway about 0.6 miles from our resort, where we did go often to buy small miscellaneous food items and some medicine. We bought snacks to munch on the way, because it was not the easiest to get food in the afternoon post lunch. We also did buy medicine for sea-sickness (Dramamine), since I am very prone to motion sickness.

CLOTHES & ACCESSORIES TO CARRY- The weather was quite warm and in the 70 degree range when we visited. And so, we carried a lot of summer clothes to Kauai- think shorts, swimsuits, tank tops, and knee length dresses. Keep your SPF in hand at all times, a mosquito repellent cream, some light makeup and jewelry to enhance your beachy, natural aura in Kauai.

I carried a pair of sandals for general sightseeing, flip flops for the beach and my sports shoes for physical activities. My husband carried a pair of flip flops for casual days out, and his hiking shoes for rough and tough activities. In luggage terms, we carried two carry-on bags, one large tote and one backpack.

FOOD & RESTAURANTS- We are vegetarian, but had no dearth of options while eating out. We ate breakfast almost every day at the local restaurants, offering pancakes, waffles, omelets, toast and coffee as signature dishes. Lunch and dinner would vary day-to-day, but we did try a lot of restaurants and dishes in that one week span. Here are my restaurant recommendations in Kauai, other than the usual Subway and Starbucks-

Sleeping Giant Grill

Verde

IMUA Coffee Roasters

Kountry Kitchen

Ono Family Restaurant

Shivalik Indian Cuisine

Street Burger

Monico’s Taquerio

Bangkok Beach Grill & Bar

Bobby V’s Italian Restaurant

Pho Kauai

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PLACES & ACTIVITIES IN KAUAI- Kauai is a small island with a size of 552 square miles, meaning we were literally and figuratively driving in circles. From our resort, we had travel on two opposing directions majorly. The places we explored were mostly a lot of beaches in Kauai, quite naturally.

But the interesting point to note was that while there was the sea on one side of the road, there were green carpets of grass and looming mountains on the other side.

There we were in between on the road, driving amidst the coastal scenery unfurling around us. The air was fresh and heady, the winds were pleasant, the weather was warm- we were soaking in nature’s beauty, like human sponges.

There are places to visit other than the plentiful beach parks, with the grounding element being ‘all out nature’s extravaganza’. Here are the places we visited and the activities we enjoyed doing in Kauai.

1) Queen’s Bath

We visited this tide pool on the island of Kauai a day after our arrival, and drove to Princeville to do so. Queen’s Bath is described as a sink hole surrounded by igneous rocks. The first thing to do is find a parking spot here, because it is not easy at all in the limited space allotted. We luckily got ours after circling around the neighborhood one time, and then we decided to do a short walk to the tide pool. But, not everything turned out as we expected.

Firstly, the whole walking path was marshy and swamped with wet, sinking mud due to the previous week’s rains. Secondly, my choice of attire for that day was clearly not appropriate for the activity (the activity that followed is another story altogether). After attempting twice to walk through the swamp, I gave up and my husband decided to hike instead to Queen’s Bath.

Once he was back, he told me that I made a good decision not hiking to the tide pool with him. It was dangerous and slippery due to the track conditions, and I would have been down and dirty in the most un-sexy way ever. But he did click some pictures down there, which you can see below.

We then proceeded to do the next activity, that is the hardest hike I’ve done till today.

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2) Hanakapiai Falls

God do I want to smack my own head silly for taking a hike here, while WEARING A DRESS of all things. But you know what, I did this terrifying but awesome hike in that black calf-length jersey number and I live to tell the tale. My husband even told me many times that he was amazed by how I managed to do a tough hike in a dress. Gal Gadot, looks like you’ve got competition. *lol, who am I kidding*

All the blabbering aside, the shorter hike was 3.6 miles roundtrip atop a mountain’s curving paths. The full hike would be 8.2 miles, which I can’t even begin to comprehend doing, ever. As we climbed up the mountain and went into even swampier, dirtier and breath-catching territory, we chanced upon beautiful sea cliff views. The ocean was so blue, the wind was soothing and cool and the dense trees framed the whole area beautifully. There were even views of green hills rolling around us, all so picturesque.

The terrain was rocky, very muddy and very dirty; our shoes were almost destroyed at the end of it. I held onto rocks for support while crossing tiny waterfalls and marshy ponds, and questioned myself umpteen times for doing this hike to the beachy falls-that-were-promised at the end of it.

We did not make it to the beach at the very end, because there was a large waterfall running in between. And the only way I could have crossed it without flashing everyone was by being carried by my husband, Bahubali-style.

Bahubali-style carrying, and my husband would be in the hospital if the above situation happened.

But on a serious note, there were some astounding views to contend with. And I will show you them below.

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3) Maniniholo Dry Caves

This was a duck-in and duck-out stop on the way to Hanakapiai Falls, with very little to see. But it does look intriguing from the outside, with the come-hither grunginess. On the inside, there is nothing but a short walk on sand inside the dim caverns of the cave. There are some odd weeds growing here and there, but that’s all there is to it.

On the plus side, I did get a cool twin-me shot suggested by my husband!

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4) Wailua River & Secret Falls

The next day, we went on a supremely cool kayaking and hiking expedition in Wailua River State Park. We first congregated with our fellow explorers and our guide, Thomas. He made good conversation with the both of us, talking to us about Kauai, politics and his journalist experiences.

This was my first time kayaking, and it was truly an amazing experience. We rowed the length and breadth of two miles to and two miles fro, with sunny skies and dancing trees around the river. After the kayaking, we did a short one mile hike to Secret Falls. This falls can only be reached by foot, and we hiked through the forest to get there. We had a simple but delicious lunch of a vegetable sandwich, pineapples and cake slices right by the gushing waterfall.

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5) Spouting Horn

In the evening, we visited Spouting Horn in Poipu, made up of a formation of rocks  blowing out a strong gush of ocean water every few seconds. We watched the sunset, and then headed back to our resort to retire for the day.

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6) National Tropical Botanical Garden

The next day, we headed to National Tropical Botanical Garden in the south shore of Kauai for a relaxing day ahead. It was a 2.5 hour tour through the artistic architecture called Allerton Garden, created by John and Robert Allerton. This place is famous for having movies such as ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘Pirates of the Carribean’ shot here.

But there was more to the garden than its famous movie leanings- its beautiful flora bursting within its expanses. There were breadfruit trees, elephant leaf trees, bamboo trees, Moreton bay fig trees, mother-in-law’s tongue plants (I swear I’m not making it up) and many more. There are open-aired rooms/garden spaces which were used for hosting parties by the Allertons, a hunter’s resting spot with a statue of goddess Diana, and bronze mermaid statues with a water path that can slow down your heart beat to 55 bpm in 10 minutes. We were also given a background of the interesting history behind NTBG and Allerton Garden, as well as about the flora. It was truly a calming experience, but the ticket costs are pricey for this relaxed stroll through the garden.

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7) Opaeka’a Falls

Yet again, we made a quick visit to Opaeka’a Falls in the evening and saw the 151-foot waterfalls cascading from million-years-old volcanic eruptions. There is no network reception here, so do take any important calls before you are set to visit here.

8) Kilauea Lighthouse

December 6 dawned bright on us, and we drove to the much-clamored Kilauea Lighthouse in the morning. It is atop the edge of a cliff near the sea, and the views are gorgeous from here. We paid an entry fee of $5 each via cash (no card payment here) and walked around the lighthouse. We could hear the ocean singing and crashing on the jagged rocks, and the salty breeze playing with my hair. There is a tour of the lighthouse, but we didn’t opt for it. We just kicked back and let the sea take over us.

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9) Waimea Canyon Lookout

To be fair, the lookout is only a small attraction next to the Waimea Canyon State Park. But my toes were hurting a lot during the trip, and I was unable to walk even up and down the stairs without wincing in pain. So we skipped the hike, and instead took a lot of photos of the red-hued curvy, majestic mountains stretching as far as the eye could see.

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10) Ocean Raft & Snorkel-Napali Coast

We went for a 5-hour ocean rafting and snorkeling expedition at Napali Coast on December 7. Early in the morning, both of us and fellow explorers sat on the raft and set sail into the blazing blue ocean. The wind was cold and whipping my hair, but boy did I enjoy it! We were surrounded by stretches of blue ocean, riding the waves and looking at the faraway rocky formations that could not be reached by land or even ocean.

We stopped for snorkeling, but I do not know how to swim. So with the guidance of the lifeguard, I did get into the Pacific ocean and move around a little bit. I donned my snorkeling glasses and looked into the deep water below. I saw coral reefs and fishes in the calm, mysterious ocean depths. Unfortunately, we forgot to take our camera underwater to take pictures. 😦 But the memories, they swim in my head.

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11) Kauai Hindu Monastery

In the heart of Kauai, the last place we expected to find was a Hindu temple. But our souls were truly happy after visiting the Kauai Hindu Monastery in Kapaa on December 8. This is a Saivite temple, dedicated to the worship of Lord Shiva and principles of Saivism. The guru at the temple whom we even saw sitting inside, is Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami.

At the entrance, there was a short history of the temple and some sarongs to tie for those wearing short clothes before entering the temple. There was a statue of Lord Ganesha, Lord Murugan sitting inside his banyan abode and a beautiful shrine for Lord Shiva and other deities. There was a pool to wash the feet before and after entering the temples, and beautiful flowers blooming everywhere. We felt like we were transported back home in India, so authentic was the temple.

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12) Napali Coast Dinner Cruise

We boarded Capt Andy’s cruise boat in the afternoon, which set forth for a 4 hour Napali Coast sail. We whipped through the blue ocean, soaking up the warm sea breeze and clicking pictures. The dinner was served at around 5 PM, which comprised of a tasty salad, bread, a vegan patty, another vegetarian side dish and cheesecake. We didn’t eat much, because we were afraid we might throw up fast if we did that. But the food was tasty in itself, and we were even offered extras to take home if we wanted to. Since I took Dramamine before the cruise, I didn’t have motion sickness and it was a smooth sail. 🙂

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13) A Few Short Visits

We did stop by a few more places for a few minutes, which the pictures would just about explain better.

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14) Cycling Around Town

A day before our departure, we hired two cycles for the day at $10 per person. We drove around the resort, covering many beaches on the way. It was truly enjoyable, and I got a good bit of workout in there as well. Cycling is a common tourist activity in Kauai, I guess, because I saw many others of all age groups doing the same.

Before we knew it, we had cycled 11.5 miles in and around our resort! Here are a few memories we captured while cycling around Kauai’s shores.

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TRAVEL TIPS IN KAUAI

These are travel tips I would suggest based on personal experience:

1. Carry some cash in hand, up to $100. This might save you time from going to an ATM and then back again to the tourist spot or cafe.

2. Carry sea sickness medicine from your hometown/city, or buy it later in Kauai. But don’t scrimp on this step, because it really comes in handy if you’re going snorkeling or cruise tours.

3. Restaurants close by 3 PM for lunch, and traveling around doesn’t always ensure you get lunch on time. So buy some snacks from a local supermarket in Kauai. There is a Walmart near Lihue Airport, and a Safeway close to Aston Islander resort. There are also local, small stores where you can pick up small nibbles on the go.

4. Wear sunscreen at all times, even in the evening. My face has tanned unevenly, with a darker forehead and nose bridge as a result of inadequate sun protection.

5. PLEASE carry a mosquito repellent cream. My arms and legs were covered with mosquito bites, that are still taking their time to completely fade away.

6. Hiking shoes, hiking shoes aaaand hiking shoes. Don’t wear tennis shoes or trainers while going on a hike, because you might end up injuring your toes like I did. The hiking trails are rougher in Kauai than in the city, and hiking shoes will do you complete justice.

_______________________________________________________________

I hope this post was enjoyable and informative to read, because I really enjoyed writing it for y’all. Have you visited or would you consider visiting Kauai or any other island in Hawaii? Do you have any awesome places to suggest for the next vacation? Do let me know in the comments section below. 🙂

Until next time, see you!

  Vacation Story & A Travel Guide To Kauai. A big hello to all reading this, and I hope you're having a good week so far!

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Channel Shock: The Future of Travel Distribution

Skift Take: The global distribution systems aren't going anywhere. Innovation, however, is happening in the margins of the travel distribution marketplace, with airlines seeking to regain control of their destiny.

— Andrew Sheivachman

It’s our fifth birthday this week. Click on the logo for more big stories.

The travel industry is always fixated on what’s new and sexy.

Whether it’s booking a hotel using Amazon Alexa, or checking your Priceline booking from your Apple Watch, we tend to focus on incremental improvements to how consumers book and experience their travel. Yet, the main system that sits underneath the snazzy interfaces, which actually connects hotels and airlines with online booking sites and travel agents, has its roots in a handful companies originally founded by U.S. and European airlines.

If you’re not deeply entrenched in the fields of travel distribution and technology, you may not know that the same type of technology has been used since the 1960s to handle transactions between travel providers like airlines and the companies that purchase travel for travelers.

After general aviation began to surge following World War II, orders for air tickets were placed by phone. Digital tools were developed to automate how airlines track and sell their inventory beginning in the 1960s.

These systems, commonly known as the global distribution systems (GDS), have done much to determine the shape of the global travel marketplace and continue to shape it to this day.

This technology completely transformed how people traveled beginning in the late 1970s, once travel agent terminals were rolled out to allow direct access to these systems; travel agents could place remote bookings from their offices, streamlining the booking process as global air travel began to expand.

Things have changed in the last two decades. As the Internet democratized travel booking, allowing consumers to search online, travel agents have been marginalized when it comes to leisure travel in the U.S. Travel agents still play a stronger role in other parts of the world. But online travel agencies and travel management companies still place bookings using GDS platforms, since they offer the most comprehensive collection of travel inventory across the globe.

Likewise, most travel providers need to remain part of a global distribution system for consumers and business travelers to easily find and book their products.

Today, four companies dominate the travel distribution landscape: Amadeus, Travelport, China’s TravelSky, and Sabre, the original company to develop this technology when it was a division of American Airlines.

Could this change one day? Do new technologies, like direct connections between airlines and travel agencies or consumers, pose a threat to the dominant role played by global distribution system providers in the travel ecosystem?

Skift spoke to executives at the world’s largest travel distribution technology companies about how they are moving forward in the marketplace, along with leaders at smaller technology companies providing solutions for areas where global distribution system technology has lagged.

History of global distribution systems

In the beginning, airlines developed their own technology to inventory and sell their flights. The Semi Automated Business Research Environment, Sabre for short, entered operation in 1963 for American Airlines through a partnership with IBM. The system essentially created a digital database of flights that could be reserved by phone.

In 1976, Sabre debuted terminals designed for travel agents to remotely access airline reservation databases without needing to call in. This helped revolutionize the ability of travel agents to shop for flights and empowered them to further expand their role as an intermediary in the travel industry.

Travel agents could search the database for flights meeting their clients’ needs, and book them remotely. While complicated, using unintuitive symbols and nomenclature, these systems became commonplace around the U.S. and Europe. Many of these seemingly arcane formats and scripts are still used today.

“Every airline decided to have their own reservation system but imagine from the point of view of a consumer or even a travel agency, if you just wanted to do a comparison, that comparison was very cumbersome,” said Decius Valmorbida, senior vice president of travel channels at Amadeus. “So from a resources point of view, you have similar competitors, similar airlines that have infrastructure in parallel. So the creation of the GDS was to solve this issue which is with a single infrastructure, you can serve multiple airlines and therefore that brings the cost advantage and a cost efficiency to the industry so that’s good. It brings tremendous benefits to travelers and travel agencies because it provides easy comparison and an environment that is tailored for the consumer to make their choices.”

Sabre itself was spun off from American Airlines in 2000 into a public company, then acquired by a private equity group in 2007, only to go public once more in 2014.

Travelport got its start as United Airlines’ Apollo and Galileo systems in the early 1970s, essentially a competitor of Sabre, and evolved over time into a full-fledged travel technology company that became independent in 2006.

Amadeus was founded in 1987 by a group of European airlines including Air France and Lufthansa, creating a European challenger to the U.S. distribution systems and it went public in late 1999.

The three major global distribution systems — Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport — are all public companies today.

Regulation in both the U.S. and Europe for a time played a major role in positioning these systems as something of, however flawed, an impartial marketplace in an ecosystem that is increasingly defined by competition and complexity.

Beginning in 1984, U.S. global distribution systems were highly regulated, the result of a growing global travel industry and the effects of the major players that sold travel products also controlling the systems for distributing them.

This led to the distribution companies listing products by preferred partners at the top of search results, causing travel agents to book fares for clients that appeared superior but often were not.

The U.S. Department of Transportation effectively deregulated the global distribution systems in 2004; now that the companies had been separated from the airlines which had founded them, less strict regulation was necessary to ensure a competitive travel selling marketplace.

“Any display bias by the systems would not be comparable to the practice of grocery stores selling preferential shelf positions to their suppliers,” states the deregulation ruling in the 2004 Federal Register. “Unlike the grocery store shelf, which the shopper sees and can easily scan, the traveler never sees the system display used by a travel agent, and systems can create display bias that obscures the service alternatives to a much greater extent than the shelf position used by grocery store suppliers. Airlines would be willing to buy bias because it would be effective, and its effectiveness means it is likely that a significant number of consumers will be booked on inferior services when other services would better meet their needs.”

In the end, rules prohibiting display bias were removed. Since the bulk of airlines were using the global distribution systems to sell their tickets, a rule against bias had become unnecessary in the view of the U.S. government. Since these systems now had content from virtually all the major airlines, the search results basically spoke for themselves and there was no need to essentially trick agents into booking less attractive flights. This ruling created the landscape that exists today.

However, agencies still can bias their own displays to favor preferred partners. Travel agents book with bias, usually depending on airlines they have preferred agreements with that end up earning them override payments if they reach a certain level of volume each year.

Concerns were raised once again in 2011 about display bias, but bias in the GDS was seen by the government as less pernicious than similar behavior conducted by online travel agencies in an attempt to present consumers with certain flights they receive money to promote above more suitable flights.

New rules for the global distribution systems were not adopted following the warning from the Department of Transportation, but guidance was given on the type of competitive behavior it would like to see in the marketplace.

In the end, consumers and travel companies ended up with three giant companies controlling the majority of how air tickets are listed and sold.

“I think of it a lot like an advertising network basically,” said Wade Jones, president of Sabre Travel Network. “We’re the connective tissue between the buyers and sellers. I will say oftentimes people will want to diminish the value of the GDS but there’s so much more to it because in the beginning it was pretty simple…

“The other thing, when people are provocative around saying things like, ‘It’s just a pipe. You don’t actually have any customers, the agencies have the customers and the corporate. You don’t actually have any inventory because that comes from the suppliers.’ I think we’re in good company because you look at the likes of Uber, which is the largest transportation company in the world and they don’t own any cars. Airbnb is the same thing, largest hospitality company and they don’t own any properties. Facebook’s the largest media company in the world and they don’t create any of their own content.”

Today, the race is on to crack the Asia-Pacific market, which has been strongly resistant to the influence of these companies. In 2015, Sabre acquired leading Singapore-based global distribution system Abacus, which was created by a consortium of Asian airlines for much the same reason as the original U.S. global distribution systems.

China, the world’s fastest growing travel market, relaxed restrictions on foreign travel distribution companies entering the market five years ago. It had forced its travel agents to use TravelSky, a China-based global distribution system, and Travelport was one of the first North American companies to partner with TravelSky. Africa is another hotbed of investment as its countries become more connected by air travel.

Current Landscape

Today, three main players still dominate the North American and European global travel distribution system landscape: Amadeus, Sabre, and Travelport. Amadeus is the largest player in the travel agent air booking market, with a self-reported 43.5 percent market share in Q1 2017, followed closely by Sabre’s 36.3 percent.

They also offer travel technology services like airline information technology products, travel agent interfaces for connecting to their global distribution system network, and revenue management tools for hotels and airlines to help price and merchandize their products.

These three companies make the bulk of their money off air bookings; in particular, they earn huge margins by charging license fees, service fees, and transaction fees for bookings and access to their networks. Hotel bookings comprise a small portion of their booking business, about 10 percent, due to the complexity and fragmentation in the global hotel distribution marketplace.

Air Bookings 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 Amadeus 535,000,000 505,000,000 467,000,000 443,000,000 417,000,000 Sabre 445,050,000 384,309,000 321,962,000 314,275,000 326,175,000

Non-Air Bookings 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 Amadeus 60,000,000 61,000,000 59,000,000 59,000,000 61,000,000 Sabre 60,421,000 58,414,000 54,122,000 53,503,000 53,669,000

Business for the global distribution system companies is a mixed bag so far In 2017. Despite facing headwinds, particularly due to the uncertain state of travel in Europe, Amadeus grew revenue and profit in the first half of 2017. The company is working on a reservation system solution for InterContinental Hotels Group, which is set to launch later this year, and slightly grew its share of the overall air booking market.

Sabre, under new CEO Sean Menke, slashed 900 jobs last week in an attempt to tighten its belt and focus on its most profitable products, while European bookings were weak in 2017 following Alitalia and Air Berlin’s recent financial problems.

Travelport experienced a slight growth in revenue year-over-year in the second quarter of 2017, and re-signed Delta Air Lines to its platform in a move that bodes well for the rest of the year.

The key piece to the continued dominance of global distribution systems is the cost they charge per transaction. Fees for an air booking are usually between 2 and 4 percent of a ticket, and about 20 percent for a hotel booking. Business models differ from company to company for travel providers, travel agents, reservation systems, and other areas.

In other words, for a percentage of a booking’s price, an airline receives access to a global network of travel sellers ranging from travel agents to online travel agencies. Airlines also pay for software-as-a-service access along with other fees for implementing system access and consulting on various issues. The bookings made through these systems tend to be more complex, and expensive, than simple flights a consumer can book for themselves online, granting a higher fee to the global distribution sytem than a mere flight would.

These fees, argue the global distribution system companies, represent a sum much lower than it would take to build a new distribution system or perform the marketing needed to encourage the bulk of travelers to book directly on an airline website. While ostensibly a small percentage for airlines to pay, it adds up when a billion seats are being booked each year, and includes other payments for access to the systems and other services.

Sabre lays out this dynamic from its perspective in the 2013 S-1 filing it made before it went public for the second time.

“Travel suppliers incur a booking fee which is, on average, only approximately two percent of the value of the booking by using the GDS,” states the filing. “Therefore, the revenue generated through the GDS leads to a return on investment that is attractive compared to the incremental cost, in part because many of the tickets sold on the GDS platform are more expensive long-haul and business travel tickets (particularly those originating outside the home country of the airline) as well as tickets with additional booking complexity (e.g., multiple airline itineraries). These platforms also offer a particularly cost-effective means of accessing markets where a travel supplier’s brand is less recognized by using local travel agencies to reach end consumers.”

In the last decade-plus, the airlines seemingly blew their chance to break away from the global distribution systems. American Airlines first experimented with direct-connect technology in the mid-2000s, allowing online booking sites and some travel management companies to access American’s inventory, and now almost every airline has an API available for direct searching and booking.

It’s complex technically to actually search for a fare using a global distribution system; fare data has to be loaded into a database maintained by ATPCO and SITA while scheduling data is located in another system, OAG. And the system has to finally check with the airlines themselves to see if a seat is available. It can take awhile so airlines can’t update fare prices as often as they would like. There are dozens of other systems and solutions out there that allow airlines to manage this complexity.

Yet, a widespread shift away from global distribution system bookings never happened — despite years of prognostications that the end was drawing near.

“GDS fees paid by airlines were over $7 billion last year and global inducements to agents were over $3 billion dollars,” said Al Lenza, a veteran airline industry consultant. “All the $3 billion flows through back to the travel agents and corporate accounts, and there is no interest in participating in a reduction of that $3 billion.

“Whenever Farelogix is doing a direct connect or Concur has a new technology, the first thing that the intermediaries do is say that it’s inefficient and that’s gonna raise [an airline’s] costs. But Sabre is nothing more than 400 direct connects. The real reason is the $3 billion dollars. [Agencies] don’t want to give it up and the GDS in essence provides a protection for those revenue streams by holding a gun to the airline. The gun is: If you try to pull out because you don’t like the pricing, the revenue disappears if you’re not in the GDS, and especially if you are an airline that has always been in the GDS.”

There’s also the matter of so-called full-content agreements, in which an airline agrees to place all fares available through other channels on the global distribution systems, as well. Airlines don’t like this, because it affects their ability to market and merchandise, but often have to play ball to receive better terms from a global distribution system provider.

While there’s been a dramatic shift in how consumers book travel in recent years, the global distribution system providers are still growing their top lines.

Net Revenue in Millions Revenue 2016 Revenue 2015 Revenue 2014 Amadeus $5,259.9 $4,601.3 $4,019.3 Sabre $3,373.4 $2,960.9 $2,631.4 Travelport $2,351.4 $2,221 $2,148.2

Amadeus has perhaps focused the most on the airline information technology space, hoping to broaden its product offerings and stay relevant as a travel technology company beyond its stature as a global distribution system provider. Its early 2016 acquisition of Navitaire, which provides merchandising and reservations services aimed at low-cost carriers, shows this commitment, while the other global distribution system companies have also introduced more robust airline IT capabilities in recent years.

Payments also comprise a growth area, along with dashboards for travel agencies that incorporate rich content.

Non-Distribution Revenue in Millions 2016 2015 2014 Amadeus  $1,820.3  $1,381.7  $1,132.4 Sabre $1,019.3 $872.1 Travelport $120.9 $125.9 $117.5

“What we see is growing interest and usage of single-use virtual cards,” said Jason Clarke, senior vice president and managing director of agency commerce for Travelport. “We see that will continue to grow as we look out, certainly in the next few years. I think there’ll be more opportunity in the payment spaces as we move forward with different economic models and different content models that are naturally out there too.”

Corporate travel plays a major role in the ecosystem. Travel management companies receive a fee for placing bookings through a global distribution system. Airlines pay the global distribution systems for bookings and also give large override payments to the travel management companies based on the volume of flights they sell. In this model, every player is incentivized to continue to use the global distribution systems  — except the airlines.

There is also the matter of disruption from relatively new industry players, ranging from online travel agencies to metasearch sites and even Google or Facebook.

“If the GDS fits from a technology point of view, do we have newer technology available in the market that could do a better job than the GDS?” asked Valmorbida “Do you need an intermediary at all? Do you still need that aggregation role and why an aggregation role is really needed? Maybe there are more modern ways of doing that. These are the questions the marketplace is raising and these are the questions that I believe we have answers for. We’re still quite optimistic that there’s a bright future because the very essence of why we’re here continues to exist.”

Relatively new travel agent desktops like Sabre Red, which sidestep the arcane language of traditional global distribution screens by using a graphical user interface, also show how important simplifying these tools are to younger travel agents who might balk at using symbols and text commands to search and book flights as older agents age out of the workforce.

Recent consumer trends bear out how the wider travel ecosystem will continue to shift in coming years. Just 11 percent of the U.S. travelers polled for MMGY Global’s 2017 Portrait of American Travelers used a travel agent in 2017, down from 15 percent in 2016. More than half of travelers are booking their air travel directly through an airline’s website or mobile app, while a third do so through an online travel agency.

The report also found that four in 10 U.S. travelers consider search engine results when making reservations.

“Google is beginning to dominate the travel planning process with 40 percent of travelers telling us they are using the search engine, making it the most popular website for Americans’ travel planning,” said Steve Cohen, vice president of insights at MMGY Global. “It’s especially popular among millennials, including millennial families, couples and singles. Google’s predictive capabilities have made it an integral part of nearly every stage of the planning process.”

Based on consumer behavior, therefore, disintermediation could be the wave of the future. A recent report from the London School of Economics and Amadeus posits how these trends will affect the world’s major air carriers.

“While direct distribution can be effective for [full-service carriers] with strong brands in home markets, reaching consumers in international markets requires global networks provided either by GDSs and travel agents or by gatekeepers and metasearchers,” reads the report. “Big brand airlines could expand global direct sales in collaboration with gatekeepers such as Google and Facebook by paying higher fees for advertising and traffic acquisition. However, the power of the airlines to negotiate will decrease as the search control of gatekeepers increases. At the same time, smaller [full-service carriers] will need to rely on the transparent comparisons provided by GDSs to compete effectively.”

Backlash Against Global Distribution Systems

European airlines over the last few years have perhaps been most active in exploring distribution models outside the global distribution systems. Lufthansa placed a surcharge (about $16) on global distribution system transactions made by travel agencies in 2015 in an attempt to shift bookings to other channels. British Airways added a similar fee (about $11 per leg of a trip) earlier this year on bookings made through Sabre, Amadeus, or Travelport. These airlines are, for the most part, looking to reduce their distribution costs.

“Once an airline is passing along a GDS surcharge, then all of a sudden if the GDS raises the airline’s prices the cost goes up [for flyers too],” said Lenza. “It’s easier to be in the system than confront and battle to the death and be in the system [anyway]. You’re better off paying more. You hope that the market keeps you as you build tools to be efficient for people to behave, Clearly Lufthansa moved a little faster than they needed to, but it seems they’re gaining ground on interfacing with third parties.”

There’s also the matter of disputes between certain airlines and the global distribution systems. The evidence in a lawsuit leveled by US Airways against Sabre shows that different airlines pay different transaction fees, based on other aspects of their contracts with the global distribution system. Reporting on the trial by The Company Dime showed that airlines like Southwest Airlines paid close to $2 less than Continental Airlines (now United) or US Airways (now American) did in 2010.

Southwest Airlines, which has pursued mostly a direct strategy to consumers over the years, chose to provide Sabre with a low ability to be booked, causing many travel agents to book Southwest flights directly online or through workarounds, and recently moved to Amadeus’ Altéa platform for both domestic and international reservations.

Other information contained in the court documents shows that online travel agencies and travel management companies often rely on one global distribution system for the majority of their bookings, showing the market-shaping ability and staying power of the agreements between these companies.

It’s no wonder some airlines have considered ways to wrangle better terms from the global distribution systems or have tried to move away from them to save on costs.

Hotels represent a small portion of distribution revenue for the distribution system companies, about 10 percent. There are many challenges in the hotel market for the global distribution systems, particularly the fragmentation of independent hotels and small chains, and the costs they impose on a booking, around 20 percent compared to two percent for air bookings.

Part of this is simply the difference in business models between airlines and hotels; airlines want each plane full, whereas a successful hotel has 60 or 65 percent of its rooms sold each night. This has ramifications for merchandising through a channel with transaction fees. Hotels also have different target markets; a 12-room lodge doesn’t need the distribution access that a 300-room business hotel does.

At the same time, this fragmentation poses a problem to travel agents, since it can be hard to find hotels in areas your client may be traveling to.

“Content is king, and if you look at the online travel agents that we’re working with, they’re very diverse and they have a massive range of hotels that they all connect to,” said Jason Lewis-Purcell, vice president of GDS for Siteminder, which provides transaction and revenue management solutions to hotels. “The GDS suffers [compared to online travel agencies] because it doesn’t have a variety of content. It is really mainly four star-plus hotels that are on there. If you look at the travel management company market, the big guys like American Express and Carlson Wagonlit, their clients are usually quite high-end so they can service them. But when you come to these consortia markets where it is independent agents coming together, and it is really important that they don’t lose clients, they need to be able to find that client accommodations along with their airfare. And that is where they suffer because they can’t find accommodation on the GDS in every single destination that they need to.”

There are plenty of startups working to develop new solutions to the distribution problem areas, trying to ease the pain often created by the reliance on global distribution systems. We’ll take a look at some of them later in this story.

Supplier Shock

Perhaps the most significant dynamic for travel companies selling products through the global distribution systems is whether the costs they pay for selling on the channel are worth it. For most airlines, it is. Others, particularly many low-cost carriers, sell directly or through direct-connects with online travel agencies to avoid these costs.

Complicating this is the importance of revenue management and add-ons to airlines and hotel companies.

The airline industry has been lurching forward towards adopting the International Air Transport Association’s New Distribution Capability paradigm for years, which essentially simplifies transactions between different members of the ecosystem by using XML coding language and allows for selling ancillary products like seat upgrades.

Yet, because airlines don’t have to use this technology, individual airlines have adopted it at a different pace. The rise of merchandising and ancillary products, however, has coincided with the adoption of this relatively new IATA standard. Traditional global distribution systems haven’t previously allowed for much customization in this area, being hampered by limitations in their fare basis code systems.

Today, they do offer new technology to enable this kind of customization and revenue management, but there is wide disagreement about how nimble this technology is.

“What I found in joining Sabre was that there was a lot of friction between the suppliers of travel and the GDS,” said Sabre’s Jones. “I thought it was really important for us to be reduce that friction and a really important part of that was making sure that we could present our supplier partners’ brands and their products and good and services in a consistent way so that we can talk to them about optimizing their marketing across all channels. You’re having then a distribution discussion versus a direct or an indirect.

“I do think that the lack of capability of the GDS probably drove suppliers to try to shift their customer acquisition to the direct channel. So as we build out our capabilities and have a reasonable cost of distribution, combined with the fact that the traveler that is acquired through the indirect channel tends to travel more frequently and buy higher priced tickets. Once you solve for that grand experience in the indirect channel, I think you can reduce friction with the suppliers and that’s been a really important component of our product landscape and our roadmap.”

The emergence of branded fares and ancillaries has led the global distribution system companies to play catch up when compared to what airlines can offer through their websites or call centers. This has perhaps led to another opening in the marketplace akin to the mid-2000s.

Airlines are hesitant, however, to pay a global distribution system a cut of each ancillary transaction like they do for bookings; it makes little sense to subject this new revenue stream to the same model that has held them back with respect to merchandising fares. It also allows more advanced and comprehensive marketing and merchandising, based on the data each airline has, if these components are sold through direct channels.

There are also multiple tiers to the New Distribution Capability standard; while most airlines have implemented some aspects from level one, there are three levels of certification available to airlines and travel sellers. Only a handful of companies offer full level three capability.

One of the challenges with the standard is that while it represents a new one for airline transactions, using XML, airlines aren’t required to implement any or all of them. This has led to some airlines, like American Airlines, leading the way on integration, while others have lagged behind for a variety of reasons.

“[It was a mistake for GDSs to] not embrace the concept of NDC early,” said Jim Davidson, CEO of Farelogix, which helps facilitate connections between travel sellers and airlines. “By the time NDC was introduced to the market, it was clear that the existing airline connectivity to the GDSs would not scale or accommodate airline demand for differentiation. Again, the GDSs dug in hard early to fight any change in distribution technology and connectivity, which over time will cost the GDSs significantly as they are either bypassed or made less relevant by new commercial and distribution models. They could have championed this and managed its development, rather than losing total control of it.”

A Different Path

American Airlines announced in June that it had received New Distribution Capability level three certification, allowing it to operate with the same level of complexity when merchandizing through global distribution system channels as offerings received on its direct channel. This is big for corporate travel, allowing the airline to sell ancillaries and bundles through corporate booking tools. None of the big three distribution companies, however, offer New Distribution Capability level three capabilities (Sabre remains level one).

A little-known element of American Airlines’ strategy could be the most consequential moving forward. Some 20 years ago, airlines stopped paying commissions to travel agencies on air tickets. This thoroughly disrupted the travel agency community, and it still has never really recovered; many agencies have moved to a service fee-based model instead of relying solely on commissions or overrides, but the damage helped essentially gut the industry in the U.S.

Under American Airlines’ new distribution program, however, agencies placing a booking directly or through an intermediary using New Distribution Capability level three will receive a $2 payment per segment. This nominally represents the return of a commission model to agency air sales.

The goal is not only to incentivize agencies to use the technology standard, but to help spur innovation in the space. Agencies can give a piece of the commission to their technology provider, giving an incentive to smaller companies that they wouldn’t normally receive in the distribution space. If other airlines follow American Airlines and eventually offer a similar commission, innovation and disruption could follow.

“The reality is the airline industry doesn’t move very quickly when it comes to distribution,” said an airline distribution executive. “Let’s imagine American Airlines is not the last carrier to go down this path and some others decide they want to offer an financial incentive. This is something that could be potentially problematic for the GDSs. The GDSs charge a flat fee for every booking and pay a different amount to travel agents.

“For the vast majority of small or medium size agencies, this is an opportunity to earn something whereas they don’t earn something today. A lot of the incentives for big agencies are not there for small and medium agencies, so they will become a target. Small or medium agencies start taking up these offers, and GDSs lose the ability to cross subsidize bookings.”

A widespread return to airlines incentivizing agencies for bookings instead of just commission overrides could hit harshly against the bottom line of global distribution system companies; if less money comes in from airlines using the global distribution system platform, there will be less money to spend to encourage travel management companies to place bookings through distribution systems, potentially shrinking booking volume in the process.

Global distribution system executives say that despite the apparent battle between direct and indirect channels, airlines will eventually adopt an approach of offering the same products across all channels, much like in traditional retailing.

“We feel that with a process of maturity, airlines will come to realize that being on every channel and having a price transparency across channels is the best option,” said Amadeus’ Valmorbida. “We have seen other customers who applied channel discrimination in the past understand that trying to influence the behavior of consumers is a costly exercise and sometimes a fruitless exercise, because customers have a lot of choice…

“That’s the typical behavior we see in retail or in other industries as well. The fashion industry, telecom industry, consumer goods industry, we see a number of players where you end up pricing a PC, a phone, and mobile phone the same price across every channel even though you know that different channels have different costs but it’s the best way to achieve a broad range of distribution and going for your operational efficiency.”

With their dominant position in the marketplace, however, it of course benefits the distribution systems to have airlines adopt an omni-channel approach. Buying complex airfares, also, isn’t the same as buying a gallon of milk (whole, skim, or one percent?) from the supermarket or a pair of socks from Amazon. These travel products aren’t just commodities you can get anywhere, but experiences for consumers or business travelers.

A big part of the missed opportunities for the global distribution systems involves the shopping process. When booking on an airline site, for instance, the consumer is often given images and a better idea of what to expect onboard. While GDSs have caught up by creating new travel agent interfaces with this kind of rich content, it’s still hard to expect airlines to place their faith in a channel that not only increases cost of sale but allows them less continuity in the marketing process.

“GDSs are investing a lot of time, money and development effort to merchandise travel better but the most obvious gap that I see is around flight shopping,” said Jonathan Savitch, senior vice president of business development for Routehappy, which provides rich content to airlines. “It’s still a pretty opaque shopping experience, compared to shopping for hotels, for example. In that case, I get a pretty solid understanding of the amenities, quality and product experience. But for flights you don’t know what you bought until you board—long after the ticket transaction. It’s especially frustrating because everyone has caught on to the pricing game—there’s usually only a few dollars difference among the major carriers—but we’re still at the early efforts of merchandising the products rather than just the price. I think most shoppers would pay something to be more comfortable, eat better, or enjoy Wi-Fi and entertainment.”

Future Disruption

Despite the preeminence of Amadeus, Sabre, and Travelport, there is room for new players in the travel distribution space to emerge.

The big problems for these upstarts, however, include access to travel content that the global distribution systems already have through deals and long-term relationships with airlines and hotel chains.

The areas that travel distribution giants have struggled in, particularly airline merchandising and hotel content, are being disrupted by small companies making smart investments in areas of the travel ecosystem that have undergone change in recent years. Not that the global distribution companies haven’t made major strides in the area.

“What keeps me awake at night is that this is an evolving model all the time, and the need to aggregate new content in a faster and a more simple way, is one of those challenges the industry has,” said Travelport’s Clarke. “As content becomes more and more fragmented, you have to continue to aggregate. We’ve got a 40 year history of aggregating complex global content. I see that getting more complex as we go forward. Our task is, how do we do that at scale, at speed, to make sure that we provide relevant consumer choice? In the intermediary channel, you have sort of an unbiased, unfettered access tool of that disparate content that’s out now. It’s not a simple task.

“Content is a minimum. It’s the relevance of the content, it’s the speed that you provide it at, and it’s the full and richness of that content, including these things such as ancillaries and imageries and the ability to consume and buy that content, is actually sort of where it’s moved. I may be proved wrong, it’s just how I feel.”

From the travel agency and online booking site perspective, however, there is a sense that the global distribution system companies can’t be relied on to create technology solutions that would disrupt their own place as intermediary of choice.

“I predict there will be a tipping point – which I think we are close to – where travel agencies will begin to take more control over their technology decisions and begin to incorporate more aggregation technology, which will become more readily available as more airlines support a direct model,” said Farelogix’s Davidson. “The GDSs want to protect their market position and revenue model at all cost. That is clear based on what has been revealed in the lawsuits and trials.”

The technology behind blockchain could also one day redefine how travel companies market and sell their products.

If you keep hearing the term “blockchain,” but still don’t really know what it is or does, no shame—this video is for you. http://pic.twitter.com/t6VMVMapJY

— MIT Tech Review (@techreview) July 24, 2017

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Winding Tree, one effort to develop a blockchain ledger for travel selling, posits that a decentralized marketplace will be beneficial to almost every industry player, from travel providers to consumers, except for the global distribution system companies.

“A lot of people are asking me whether the online booking sites or GDSs have to go, and the answer is no,” said Maksim Izmaylov, a founder of Winding Tree who previously founded hotel technology company Roomstorm. “They don’t have to. What has to go is the rent-seeking business models, the abuse of power that they’re exercising and that they are able to exercise today. The path between the ability to exercise monopolistic power, and actually doing that, is very, very short.

“If someone has the power to make millions and billions of dollars, I guess it’s just human nature: people will do it. Maybe it’s not a single person in those companies that is responsible for that, but the whole company somehow, just naturally it’s going to happen. The GDSs and booking sites, and all those middle men, they don’t have to go… [but] If you remove that very easy source of revenue, of course they will innovate.”

Blockchain technology may seem complicated, but its core features are simple. In this case, travel providers and sellers can access the platform with tokens that can be acquired from Winding Tree, which allows them to list inventory and place transactions on the group’s blockchain ledger. They’ll be able to sell products for nearly free, instead of having to pay a GDS for access to their database or to facilitate a transaction like they do today.

Those transactions will be secure, due to the technology of blockchain, which hashes data, and the thousands of computers around the world which would carry a copy of the ledger.

“All those [distribution] problems we can now solve with a few simple rules,” said Izmaylov. “The idea is behind bringing the blockchain technology to the travel industry, and we’re solving problems like network inefficiencies. Blockchains, fundamentally, allow us to reduce the cost of networking, and the cost of audit, because we have a completely transparent ledger. At the same time, we’ll lower the barrier for entry for new entrants, therefore, [eliminating] one of the problems today in the travel industry: we cannot innovate.”

He gives the example of a fledgling travel booking startup trying to break into the industry which can’t because it needs to negotiate for access to a global distribution system to access content and pricing information. The cost of accessing the system can kill a startup that isn’t well-capitalized. There’s also the matter of industry politics, important for getting access to global distribution system content; too disruptive a concept, and your company may be denied access.

A blockchain-based platform would eliminate this challenge, allowing travel companies to list their products and sell them on a platform offering a lower distribution cost than a traditional GDS, and anyone can buy the tokens needed to participate in the marketplace.

“What we’re replacing here is not just the technology,” said Izmaylov. “It’s not just to decentralize the marketplace. What we’re proposing is a change in the governance model. Today, for example, we have a bunch of different players. We have IATA. We have, of course, Sabre and Amadeus, which were created by a group of airlines. The fundamental problem with those organizations is they can innovate once a year or in the case of IATA, for example, once in five years. It just doesn’t make any sense. That’s why the industry is 10 years behind, and that’s why I’m saying that the whole system has grind to a halt.

“We need to radically change and rethink how we innovate. We need to decrease the feedback time between what customers, travelers, or businesses around the world actually need, and what anyone who can produce good software can deliver. That’s what we’re changing here, so with Winding Tree the idea is that one part of that platform is the actual marketplace, where suppliers of travel can create their inventory, can sell their inventory to travel agents, which could be a mom and pop shop, or a website, or an iPhone app. Doesn’t matter. It’s just a set of APIs.”

Winding Tree itself is looking to set up as a Switzerland-based non-profit, and is planning its initial token sale later this year. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ruled that tokens in the blockchain ecosystem should be treated as securities, which may complicate the group’s effort in the U.S.

This approach, in its current form, faces other challenges. If many travel companies don’t use the platform, it won’t have enough relevant content to be an effective alternative to a global distribution system. There is also a question of governance; since the companies and individuals who use the platform will have a say in how it is run, corporate or political interests could shape its development.

There is also the possibility of the global distribution system companies or another travel company creating a private blockchain. Instead of being able to buy tokens and use the system which is distributed across public networks and governed by a public group, a company could use the technology and only allow access to its internal teams and selected partners. This could theoretically allow these companies to move away from wider global distribution system distribution by offering a lower cost of distribution to select clients, akin to a direct connect.

Webjet has already developed this technology for internal use, according to a report from Coindesk, and other larger players are also working on new systems using this technology.

Next-Gen Distribution

The utility of blockchain in travel distribution has yet to be proven, but there are other startups doing innovative things that could move towards the mainstream.

Some companies ease the process of connecting a travel provider’s system to the global distribution system; Farelogix is probably the most successful of this subset. Others, like Routehappy, provide more advanced revenue management and marketing tools to airlines.

New booking sites are also popping up powered by direct connections with airlines, and are poised to provide airlines with the ability to sell and market their products with more flexibility. With the travel industry booming, and the global economy growing, travel providers are now able to experiment with new channels in ways they might not be willing to during a downturn.

Berlin-based Flyiin represents a new way for airlines to sell flights. By connecting with airline APIs, the service will allow consumers to search flights from multiple airlines and add-ons using an intuitive interface. Users can specify up front what types of flights and what kinds of ancillaries they want, and have the full cost rolled up into their search results.

The service is really a messaging platform at heart, instead of a search platform; it crunches airline fare information on the back-end and aggregates messages from airline APIs into easily digestible results for consumers.

“Ten years ago, on behalf of Amadeus, a colleague of mine and I made a tour of 24 airlines around the globe,” said Stéphane Pingaud, co-founder of Flyiin and a former Amadeus distribution executive. “The whole point of that tour was to see how the GDS should evolve in the future to better meet the needs of partners. What came out of this is what this product is trying to address, that concept of marketplace. It’s just now it was technically possible because of the airline wanting to have a direct interaction with consumer and travel agent, and to market the fares in a way that isn’t a commodity.

“They want a lot of data, because the airline gets the search request directly, and can use it to get real-time behavior on whats going on: what kind of product are [flyers] attaching to which destination, for instance. It’s totally impossible through the GDS. It’s all been very clear to me that the GDS will never be bypassed as a channel, because the value is no longer so much in the tech prowess of their platform but more about their reach and numbers of points of sale.”

The site will launch a beta version later this year for users in Europe, but still hasn’t sorted out its exact business model. The thinking is that allowing airlines more control over their offerings and bringing them higher-yielding customers, in a marketplace with rich content and  without booking fees, will be extremely attractive to airlines, leading them to support the channel.

“It makes sense they pay a price for [GDS] reach,” said Pingaud. “What pisses off clients is that if you are paying a price that keeps rising and your channel doesn’t actually improve. You’re subsidizing a market share game across the GDS. If the GDSs were to do something like us and reinvent the way your airline product is being marketed to travel agents, the airlines will be delighted. The problem is to do this you have to be bold and build a system from scratch.”

There are other areas besides flights that have drawn interest from innovative companies. Peakwork, which provides dynamic packaging tools, caches data from travel provider APIs to provide a more refined way for booking sites to construct packages and for consumers to search for attractive package deals. It’s also a channel for tour operators to avoid paying large fees to the global distribution systems for distribution.

Peakwork partners with the distribution systems to provide some flight content for its clients, which include major tour operators like TUI, and has partnered with online booking sites to produce more intelligent packages. Packaged travel is one area which the global distribution systems aren’t well-equipped to handle due to the nature of their search and booking technology where different trip elements are siloed. They’ve also launched a trial with Google to provide flight and hotel package metasearch in the UK and Germany.

“The markets are much more fragmented and there are many more players disrupting the GDS space,” said Annika Kessel, senior vice president of global business and managing director of Peakwork. “The one key factor is where younger companies will say that GDSs are big legacy systems who made their business model off low look-to-book ratios and that has to change. Search has to be flexible. You can basically send an open search to the API without getting the departure or origin, and I think GDSs with their decades of systems with increasing complexity are not able to deliver the best results.”

The need for dynamic packaging also speaks to a broader trend in the global travel market; while the North American traveler isn’t used to buying travel packages, other regions around the world have embraced packages, with half of UK trips, for example, being booked as packages. This sort of wider global focus is something that is hasn’t been adopted by North American travel companies.

“The U.S. understands packages differently than a European customer or an Asian customer,” said Kessel. “European customers are more used to buying packages and living in an environment where packages are constantly advertised. The trend is that the market is only slightly increasing, but in Asia-Pacific with heavy growth of travel demand, that’s where packages are at a very pivotal point and there will come a lot of growth. We believe the package market size is around $300 billion and the overall travel market is $1.2 trillion.”

There’s also the reality that exploring partnerships with companies like Google and Facebook, which already command a huge presence in travel inspiration and search, is the wave of the future, even if Google has held back from a full push into selling travel because of its lucrative business selling advertising to travel companies.

“What we see is that now there is a very large consolidation happening [in travel distribution], like the Kayak-Momondo deal,” said Kessel. “When it comes to these big media companies, they can’t be seen as an enemy. It’s important for [travel companies] to get into the channels that will dominate more and more of the ecosystem. All the media houses are so good as a marketing engine, but they need [travel companies] at the shortest possible value chain by placing the products directly into their marketplace.”

An Unclear Future

It’s unclear what exactly the future holds for the global distribution system companies, but new technology certainly will guide the evolution of the travel distribution ecosystem. As New Distribution Capability adoption continues to grow for airlines, smaller players will likely have more of an opportunity to create innovative solutions that may not involve the distribution incumbents.

“Everyone wants to be fast like Amazon but there are lots of reasons even Amazon doesn’t sell flights,” said Routehappy’s Savitch. “I think two things need to happen in parallel. First, GDS tools need to continue to improve. Sabre’s new Red workspace is a good example of better merchandising and those kinds of richer platforms can’t come to market soon enough. Second, incentives need to better align. American Airlines’ recent NDC announcement is a good example and I think it’s one the industry will build on.”

There’s also the specter of search and social networking companies, with their direct access to consumers, making a stronger push into selling travel. The idea of playing ball with yet another intermediary, even if they charge a fee for access much lower than that of the distribution systems, is not yet an attractive choice for travel companies when they can continue to push consumers to their direct channels.

“What role are Google, Facebook, and TripAdvisor going to play?” asked Lenza. “Are they less scary than the current players that exist out there? There’s been engagement with these guys in many dimensions, trying to get them to be friendly with the industry and support direct initiatives rather than become another intermediary. No one can predict how they will play this, but Google is a huge threat.”

Representatives of each of the big three global distribution system companies said their goal moving forward is to work with industry partners to make sure everyone’s goals are aligned, something that has been missing in the last decade as airlines have pursued consumer-direct strategies.

But if Facebook is suddenly willing to open up its user base of more than one billion people around the world to travel companies in a more comprehensive way, expect many to jump on board.

“I think if we’re not sober about the amount of competitive activity in the travel space, it would be naïve,” said Sabre’s Jones. “We think a lot about emerging technologies and disrupters to the GDS. People have predicted the demise of the GDS for a very long time. But I will say that what gives me some comfort is that the role that GDS plays in aggregating in the number of hoteliers, travel companies, cruise lines, etc. I think that’s going to continue to be an important role for aggregation and technology companies that have the ability to do that and become more flexible which is, obviously, our area of focus.

“We need to apply some retailing principles, some merchandising principles that apply to all kinds of markets, not just the travel market. So how do we help advance the travel market to be able to retail and merchandise products, not be an improvement over the old products in travel, but to be consistent with what customers expect across all types of merchandising and retailing platforms, whether that be Amazon, Alibaba, Airbnb, and others.”

Yet, companies like Airbnb or Uber didn’t exist 10 years ago. The pace of transformational change in travel, enabled by technology, has sped up. Global distribution system companies, however, are well-positioned to remain relevant to the travel marketplace in years to come.

There’s also the prospect of some sort of transformative change, whether using blockchain technology or some other unheralded solution that could remove friction from the marketplace and drive down costs for travel companies. And what about the effect these kinds of solutions could have on consumers and travel agents, empowering them to make more well-informed travel purchases with the ability to make changes to their bookings as they see fit?

Companies around the world are creating innovative solutions to the problems in the global travel distribution marketplace. It’s only a matter of time until they hit the mainstream.