#i'm going to die with canaria

[runwayrunway]

No. 49 - Discover Airlines

You know, 'Discover Airlines' is kind of what some readers on this blog do when I review an airline they're unfamiliar with. Anyway.

Earlier this week I talked about Eurowings. To be honest, that was me laying the groundwork for another post in response to a new development in Lufthansa's quest to kill Eurowings.

I'm sure some but not all of you are familiar with the fact that Eurowings is incapable of going too long without a subsidiary-of-a-subsidiary. They were probably still feeling quite full from their main course of Germanwings when, in 2021, Lufthansa said it was time for another one.

Yay, new subsidiary! Just one problem.

Well, okay, that doesn't look like all that much of a change. But zoom in a bit closer. That's...yellow. That wasn't in the Eurowings livery at all. A seemingly minor change of logo disguises an actual new livery. Despite this, it hasn't stopped being quite...Eurow, if you know what I mean.

This screenshot contains multitudes. The fact that they haven't even changed the page title from Eurowings Discover. The fact that they call it the new leisure airline of the Lufthansa Group - yes, the only one, and it's new, it just started existing now, cross my heart and hope to die. The generally awkward phrasing even though this isn't my browser trying to translate it from German or something, this is actually the way it's written. Chef's kiss.

Happy to announce it, are you? I'm sure you are.

I'm surprised it took them this long. Honestly, I'm surprised they made another Eurowings to begin with. (Especially since Discover Airlines doesn't seem to be low-cost, given it offers business class. 'Cheaper than Lufthansa' is not the same thing as low-cost.) It's a pretty laughable and pathetic admission of their own failure, but to be honest it was obvious from day one that Eurowings Discover would be short-lived one way or another. Even on the old logo the 'discover' is about twice as large as the 'Eurowings', as if begging you to forget what airline this is. That's a reasonable thing to want people to do, since you'd probably like to not be stranded in Cuba for 60 hours during which you are technically an unauthorized arrival. Only one airline has ever provided that particular experience!

I did mention last time that it's weird Eurowings doesn't use any of that cyan up front, but here's the thing: if you just put it on white it's downright illegible. They may have realized this in their initial design of the livery. They then immediately did it anyway for Eurowings Discover! Some real mind experts on the job here. Anyway, I'm not going to comment on the Eurowings Discover livery because it's just the Eurowings livery with a word added.

Discover Airlines (the former Eurowings Discover) is a long-haul vacation airline, and they'd love to fly you to sunny destinations like Funchal, the Maldives, Corfu...Halifax... Alaska...or Tenerife, or maybe Gran Canaria if you're not feeling Tenerife for some reason. Or Ibiza!

Unfortunately Venga Airways has had its Air Operator's Certificate revoked and the Vengajet is currently in storage.

Discover Airlines' main competitor in this market is another German airline, condor. I said this before and I'll say it again - condor is worth a billion examples of Eurowhite dreck. There's a legitimate sort of fishhook theory where while I prefer a good livery to condor, I strongly prefer condor to an unsatisfyingly average livery despite the fact that I do think their planes are truly poorly designed. Sometimes a good concept just overpowers bad execution. And, to quote a friend of mine's quip about Unfriended (2014), a film with way too many good qualities to be Unfriended (2014), "it sucks but at least it does it well".

Surprisingly given this is the Lufthansa Group, the website actually contains a bit of insight into their creative process. Worryingly, this implies that there is something of a creative process and it's simply had these sorts of results. But let's dive into this and see if they've made any changes that aren't worse. Discover Airlines, like Icelandair, condor, Riyadh Air, and others, have included a page dedicated to the inspiration behind their livery and brand. All upcoming images, unless otherwise specified, are taken from this website.

Let's begin with the color scheme.

This palette is pretty interesting. Blue and yellow isn't unheard of, and blue with a yellow accent is the most common variant of this, but it's still a pretty uncommon color scheme. It helps that they're not common colors for flags, and even the countries that have it in their flags don't use it. Sweden is part of the SAS throuple instead of having its own flag carrier; Air Astana doesn't use yellow; and Palau and Barbados do not have flag carriers. This leaves Ukraine International Airlines as the only flag-derived user of this palette. I don't like yellow on its own, but I actually like it with blue for its distinctiveness. If you pick the right shades it can look pretty nice. Actually...

image: lufthansa bildarchiv

The most prominent user of this palette, in my own mind, is Lufthansa, back when Lufthansa had a livery I actually approved of, which I thought stuck out and which I miss dearly now. We've fallen so far since then, lost so much, but I wonder if this Discover Airlines palette is an intentional nod to the thing we were robbed of. Indeed, they mention at least the blue being an intentional homage:

Despite the distinctive character of the new design, our connection to the core brand Lufthansa is subtly indicated by elements like the dark blue and the wordmark in the Lufthansa font.

...and they're using Lufthansa's proprietary typeface, Helvetica Neuer. Joy.

At least when you make it larger and lighter colored it's not quite as cramped and you can sort of forget it's a hideous font. Something about the all-lowercase styling also cushions the blow by making it look intentional instead of, like I said when discussing Eurowings, not bothering to change from the default font on your word processor.

...well, it also uses the exact same livery layout as modern Lufthansa, that's for sure. Booo. I've gone on a lot about the eponymous Lufthansa Line and how abominably bad it looks on longer planes despite seeming deceptively decent on shorter ones, so let me just show you Discover Airlines's various planes.

Hmm, yeah. You can just see it getting less and less offensive from left to right. This is why this type of livery needs to adapt on different airframes to work, and airlines are so unwilling to do it.

This fuselage layout is so overdone I could probably end the post here, but I'm not going to, because I'm not done with their website. This is where this post actually gets a bit interesting.

Fittingly for an airline, it’s inspired by a view of the horizon. More specifically, by the various lines and color nuances that emerge when the blue of the sky meets the landscape. These “skylines” are the most important design element of our brand and arise from various blue tones as well as a sunny yellow. 

(Why is all the copy on this website so awkwardly written?)

So, this concept...this is really good. I like this. I like something about Discover Airlines. This is a great idea for a leisure airline. And, like condor, a good idea won't spare you my wrath, but in this case, when it's so similar to so many Lufthansa Line liveries it does earn a few points from me. There's not much else to comment on, so you could be fooled for not realizing this, but there's actual lost potential here. It implies the Lufthansa Group is capable of some measure of improvement over time, which is disturbing.

This picture, featuring the deeply generic and sort of frumpy Discover Airlines cabin crew uniforms, represents me giving them a condescending high-five as a teacher might give a student aged in the single digits. Good job, sweetie!

No, seriously. The uniforms are fine to wear to summer brunch but very poor for cabin crew. I think you can buy this off-the-rack from Vineyard Vines. Also, that is the most pre-tied looking scarf I've ever seen.

I do like the use of the colors as well. The circular highlight, which keeps the tail stripes from being as boring as they might be, puts me in mind of the sun, or a lens flare. The balance of light and dark is tasteful, and I love the hint of yellow. My issue really starts and ends at the Lufthansa Line, that ever-present ruiner of liveries.

I think the solution was fairly obvious. And I'll probably do a Project Runway Runway on it, because I think I can make it happen with a mouse and keyboard - it's genuinely that simple. And that's about where the meaning the website offers ends, so that means it's time for my rating.

I find myself conflicted, much as I did with Eurowings. There's definitely enough here that I don't want to give it a D, but at the same time I do. I've given Lufthansa Line liveries grades as high as C+ in extenuating circumstances, and I stand by those, but I don't want to do it for concepts that don't translate to visuals, and I don't want to give it to liveries that I don't think are exceptionally good examples of adding elements which mitigate the archetype's inherent flaws. Given its modern relevance, at this point I despise Lufthansa Line adherents more than the old Deltalikes, and I think I'm going to make it a policy that they're all going to get D+ or below unless they really demonstrate something different. Or unless they only fly really stubby planes that the livery looks okay on, but basically no airline has that excuse. Discover definitely doesn't with their A330s.

But given this tangible improvement, given the visual interest added to the tail, given that they have an actual philosophy this time, is a D+ really fair?

...what am I talking about? I gave Saudia and Eurowings D+ for doing nothing despite actively liking how both of their liveries look. Discover missed the most obvious idea ever in order to toe the Lufthansa Line. They're not special and they're getting no mercy.

D+, for Discover

That's it for today! If I have enough time, I'll fit in a redesign as a bonus post later this week. It doesn't take a genius to know how to make this good. Maybe if they read my reviews, don't send me a cease and desist, and learn from my critiques, in the future the Lufthansa Group can Discover some decent liveries.

[jedivoodoochile]

Pero, ¿quién es Brian May? Su figura dentro de Queen quedó eclipsada por la gigantesca figura de Mercury pero el guitarrista de la formación británica esconde muchos secretos que quizá no conocías.

Un 19 de julio de 1947 nacía en Hampton (Londres, Inglaterra, Reino Unido) Brian Harold May.

Viéndole su actitud, su energía y su manera de moverse sobre el escenario nadie diría que hace años que superó la edad de jubilación. Sigue con su misma melena larga desde que tenía 20 años aunque el gris ha sustituido al negro. La única prueba de que la edad ha pasado por él.

Es astrofísico y escribió sus tesis en las Islas Canarias

Decir que Brian May es un genio, puede quedar musicalmente bien pero es que además siempre destacó en sus estudios licenciándose con 21 años en Física y Astronomía en el Imperial College de Londres.

Después de preparar su tesis doctoral entre 1971 y 1972 en el observatorio Teide del Instituo de Astrofísica de Canarias (en Tenerife), tuvo que dejar de lado su investigación para convertirse en guitarrista de una de las mejores bandas de rock del momento: Queen.

Se sacó el doctorado 37 años después

Si algo puede decirse de Brian May es que es una persona constante. Solo de esa manera se entiende que a comienzos del siglo XXI decidiera retomar sus investigaciones y finalizar una tesis doctoral que entregó en 2007.

El Royal Albert Hall fue el escenario de su graduación en mayo de 2008 y por su condición de estrella y su inteligencia es considerado una eminencia hasta el punto de que fue nombrado Rector honorífico de la Universidad John Moores de Liverpool (la máxima autoridad académica de la ciudad).

Sus éxitos en Queen

Como suele suceder en la gran mayoría de casos, la gente asocia Queen a Freddie Mercury. No vamos a desmerecer en este artículo el genio compositivo del músico tristemente fallecido. Pero lo que quizá no sabías es que buena parte de los éxitos de la banda británica también son de May.

La firma de Brian aparece en I want it all, We will rock you, Now I'm here, Fat bottomed girls, No one but you (Only the good die young), Too much love will kill you, Who wants to live forever, The show must go on, Headlong, Hammer to fall, Save me y Flash, entre otras.

Por cierto, a John Deacon, bajista de Queen, pertenecen canciones como You're my best friend, Spread your wings, Another one bites the dust, I want to break free o Back chat. De Deacon también fue One year of love, canción en la que Brian May es sustituido por Steve Gregory y su saxófono. May siempre se ha negado a participar en esta canción.

Se hizo su propia guitarra

A esto si que le llamamos nosotros empezar desde cero. Como con su guitarra acústica no conseguía el sonido que quería y las guitarras eléctricas no podía permitírselas, Brian May creó su propia guitarra.

Su red special ya es un icono más de Queen con más de 50 años a sus espaldas.

Productor ejecutivo

Si a alguien se debe el éxito de Bohemian Rhapsody en la taquilla, ese es Brian May. El guitarrista de Queen fue quien tuvo la paciencia suficiente para seguir adelante con la cinta cuando Bryan Singer fue expulsado como director.

Era la primera vez que actuaba como productor de un largometraje y la película no pudo salir mejor. Entre sus anécdotas, sus recuerdos y el material audiovisual que tenían entre manos era difícil no conseguir un cocktail de éxito.

[anthonysstupiddailyblog]

Anthony's Stupid Daily Blog (667): Sat 13th Jan 2024

My last full day of sunbathing in Gran Canaria. I'm so happy that I've decided to make this place my home away from home every winter (and Autumn if the summer has been fucking shit) because the bright sunshine and bitchin' waves have excellent healing properties. I managed to finish Let Me Die In His Footsteps and although it was really boring I'm glad that I managed to get through the whole thing in less than two days. I thought about downloading another book onto my phone to read between now and when I get home but it will be difficult to read it here with the sun and I try to avoid reading books on my phone unless the only available physical copy of the book I want to read is selling for a ridiculously expensive price (anything over five pounds is too rich for my taste really) so I'll just listen to music and podcasts for the remainder of the trip to keep me entertained while I try to go from purgatory white to a slightly darker shade of purgatory white. The hotel was putting on a karaoke show this evening and while I point blank refused to take part I still decided to go down and watch. The first person they brought up to join in was a bit of an anomaly. The host asked him where he was from and he giggled then said: “This is the interesting bit. All over the place but originally from Manchester, England”. I don’t know what the fuck that means. How in the name of fuck is that interesting? And how can you be from all over the place? You’re from the place you were born in dude. Everywhere you’ve been after that is not where you are from those are just places that you’ve been. He then went and butchered a song so badly that I decided to go up to my hotel room and if I heard someone who sounded good then I'd go out and watch from my balcony but if they were as bad or worse than this douche then I'd go back inside and continue jumping on the bed. There was one Welsh girl who got up and butchered about four different songs over the course of the evening and I sure as fuck hope I'm not on the same flight as either of these two turnip pricks when I go back home.

[akemilena]

SolidS Unit Song “Omoteura” Series - Ura track 5

PM5:20

Track 4 || Translation index || Track 6

Shiki: Well, from now on we’ll start thinking about the future. There’s less than 2 months left for the next live event, the S.Q.P. From today onwards, we’ll give it our all and fill the contents.

Tsubasa: Oookay.

Dai: Yes.

Rikka: Understood. It’s the first big event we do with QUELL! Everyone, let’s do our best!

Shiki: So, first of all, please take a look at the documents in front of you.

Tsubasa: Hmm… the venue is Ryogoku Kokugikan, right? Ahhh, I’m so excited!!! I’ve seen it on TV before, but I’ve actually never gone to the Kokugikan!!

Rikka: Me too. I wonder how it is.

Shiki: I’ve gone once; I was invited to a live. But it’s the first time I’ll be standing on its stage. It has a special build with low seats, so it wasn’t used too much for events. However, there’s been a chronic shortage of event venues lately, and now it’s being used more often, apparently.

Tsubasa: There it is! The low seats! That… delimited square space? Tatami room? They’re seats like that, right? Like… those seats for cheering during athletic meets! Waah, I want to sit there!!

Rikka: Sit there… I think we’ll be standing on the stage though…

Dai: Kokugikan… I went to watch sumo there once, dragged by some relatives. I don’t really remember how it was, but I sat on the low seats and ate a bento.

Tsubasa: Ohhh, that’s nice, Dai-chan!! Sumo watching, huh? I’ve only watched sumo on TV. Hey, Dai-chan! Let’s wrestle on the stage!!

Dai: Huh? Why do we have to… At any rate, as soon as you get on the stage, you’ll show off a lot and you’ll be busy saying “Hello, Lizz!”

Tsubasa: That’s one thing, this is another! Anyway, it’s obvious I’ll show off on the stage, right? That’s our job after all. Proudly showing off is our worth! I take pride in becoming the ideal man that everyone dreams of.

Dai: The ideal man, huh…

Shiki: Hm. I don’t think the ideal man would say “let’s wrestle on the Kokugikan stage”.

Rikka: You would say it, though.

Shiki: Yes, yes. Hakke yoi! Wait, no.

Tsubasa: *laughs* The Okui Tsubasa from SolidS that the fans know, who shows off and nails it, and the me who is excited like a child for going to the Kokugikan, both are the real me.

Dai & Rikka: *chuckle*

Tsubasa: Oh? What? Dai and Rikka, why are you glancing suggestively at each other?

Rikka: Ehehe~ I just thought we had a similar conversation once.

Tsubasa: Oh… Hmm? Well, it’s fine. So anyway! Dai-chan?

Dai: Hm? What?

Tsubasa: Let’s make it so we can start wrestling somehow!!

Dai: I told you… why do we end up doing that? I’m absolutely against it.

Rikka: For now, we understood reeeeally well Tsubasa is very excited.

Shiki: Good grief. Are you a primary student going on an excursion? Calm down a bit.

Tsubasa: Ehhh, but you know!!! It’s the first live in a while!! And in a huge venue, and with QUELL!! Of course I’ll be super excited!! I love events!!

Dai: We know.

Rikka: Yep, we know.

Tsubasa: Right!! I knew I could trust my comrades.

Shiki: I got it, I got it. But, keep that excitement in reserve for later. Now it’s time for the meeting. Precisely because it’s a big venue, there’s a lot of things we have to decide and do beforehand. And so, let’s start again, from the first page. Let’s go over it quickly.

Tsubasa: Oookay! Let’s give a lot of ideas and make it a great event!

Shiki: I made the set list based on the songs everyone wanted, and the variation considering the overall structure. Any opinions?

Tsubasa: Yeees! Hey, these two songs, don’t they have a similar beginning?

Dai: Do they? I don’t think they’re that similar.

Tsubasa: Eh, really!? For me they’re in the same category… the feeling of the intro is similar.

Dai: I think they’re pretty different.

Tsubasa: Eeehh??

Rikka: If they’re similar or not, sometimes it depends on individual sensations. I do think they might have the same kind of atmosphere though.

Shiki: I bet.

Rikka: Oh. So this means you have something to add? Why did you put them in this order? If there’s any intention, please tell us.

Shiki: Yeah. For me, in the set list as a whole, I had the feeling that “up-tempo, slow tempo, up-tempo again” songs are on alternate for too long.

Rikka: Ahh… I see. So that will become just one pattern in a way too.

Shiki: That’s it. That’s why, so as to break the pattern, I purposely put too songs with a similar tempo in a row.

Tsubasa: Hmm… well, if you have that intention… nnggghhh…

Dai: If you don’t like it that much, how about exchanging it for this song?

Tsubasa: Nnngghh but, if you change one thing, the others will also need adjusting, and it will be a big deal… Wait a moment, I’ll put myself in the shoes of the audience waving their light sticks. The previous song ends… “kyaa, Tsubasa-kun, you’re so cool”, and so the intro for the next song starts playing…

Rikka: That’s a fun way to think about it.

Shiki: Watching it is fun too.

Tsubasa: And the first part ends… and then the chorus…

Shiki: However, standing on the viewpoint of the audience is correct.

Rikka: *chuckles* Right.

Rikka: Hey, Shiki. For this song’s staging, I want to use smoke. I’d like to make it a bit fantasy-like.

Tsubasa: Oh, that’s nice! Then, how about using a stand mic instead of a hand mic?

Rikka: Ah, I also thought about that, but won’t it overlap with QUELL?

Tsubasa: Ahhhh, they had it too…

Shiki: Wants smoke… okay. I’ll tell them there’s the idea of the stand mics too.

Dai: Shiki, I want to use lasers for this song. I want to make it flashy, in accordance to the sound.

Shiki: Got it. Lasers, right?

Tsubasa: Now that I think about it, you made the songs, don’t you have any requests for the staging?

Shiki: Me, huh? I worry about the manufacturing of the song, and the balance of the sound in the day of the live, but I’m not that particular about staging.

Dai: Huh… it’s kind of unexpected.

Shiki: Is it? Well, of course I won’t say I don’t have any at all, but you all seem to have a more detailed image about the live staging and choreography than me. So I’m thinking of leaving it to you. The right person in the right place, they say.

Rikka: Waaah, I’m happy, but that’s a huge responsibility!

Tsubasa: Okay! If it’s come to that, then leave it to me!! I’m on fire now!! So hey, can I start thinking about the entering and leaving the stage part?? Actually, there’s something I want to try…

Shiki: Oh, I see…

Track 4 || Translation index || Track 6

TL notes:

As you probably know, the S.Q.P. actually happened in July. They were dressed like the visuals for their characters, they sang and did Soliradi/Kuberadi. The BD/DVD is out in December and I 100% recommend to buy it!!

Ryogoku Kokugikan is a venue mostly used for sports events such as sumo or boxing, but lately it’s also used for live concerts. It has a central stage so they’re surrounded 360º by the audience. It has a capacity of 11k people which is pretty damn big.

Thanks for reading~

[anthonysstupiddailyblog]

Anthony's Stupid Daily Blog (616): Thu 23rd Nov 2023

Today was the final day before shit gets real at work and we have to start working an extra day at work and an extra hour on all of those days. I'm dreading it because by the end I will want to die and take everyone on the planet with me as punishment for daring to take me away from my extra day tucked up in bed watching YouTube videos. I'm trying to make the positives outweigh the negatives and of course they do because the positives will be that I will have a boatload full of money by the time 2024 rolls around which I can put towards my holidays to Gran Canaria, Greece and Hawaii. Another positive will be that this will be a great opportunity to lose a bit of weight since I will undoubtedly be spending the next six weeks walking up and down the factory floor delivering carts so if I can just suppress my appetite accordingly I could potentially arrive in Gran Canaria with a six pack…well, a two pack maybe, in fact even that's being optimistic...I could potentially lose enough belly fat that I will be able to travel in jeans and not in swimming trunks like the last time. I had another chiro appointment today so back through to Newcastle but luckily there were no train delays this time. Apparently they must have finished cleaning up all the glue that spilled onto the tracks when a truck overturned a month or so ago and rendered every other train unable to be at the station on time because that's the only explanation as to why they were being cancelled. After my session I went into TK Maxx to buy some new trainers but there were none that caught my eye. I did however pick up an amazing white checkered coat for only £29. I'm actually not sure if this is a men's coat or if a woman had just left it in the men's aisle so I may be cross dressing if I wore this but if Sam Smith can go to a red carpet event dressed as Darth Vader's vagina then I think I can get away with wearing a woman's coat.

[anthonysstupiddailyblog]

Anthony's Stupid Daily Blog (603): Fri 10th Nov 2023

I’m thinking about using the money Grandad left me on a holiday to Hawaii (and then maybe another one to New Orleans in 2025). The plan was always to save this money until I was ready to put down a deposit on a house but I think the idea of a single man buying a house on his own sounds like a continuous uphill battle. Say my mortgage was £100,000 and just as I was getting close to paying it off I lost my job and then had to give the house back. That would mean I’d paid nearly £100,000 for a house and didn’t own it. Now that I’ve officially been told that I’ve been made permanent I want to celebrate in an extreme grandiose way. Also I kind of want to get all the travel based items on my bucket list out of the way and Hawaii / New Orleans seem like the most exciting ones on the whole list. Plus there’s always the chance that I might die before I’ve had the chance to spend the damn money or I might tell someone very important at work to go fuck their own mother and end up losing my job and have to use the money to support myself which I don’t want to do. The idea of spending a week learning to surf and sunbathing on the golden beaches of Hawaii sounds like the ultimate holiday to me. I'm not sure when I'll book it but obviously it will have to be in the summer so I will be able to soak up the most sun. I'm already scheduled to go on holiday to Greece with the family next summer too so I'll need to get that paid off first but at least I've already got the money I need for Hawaii ready to go whereas I'll need to do some serious graft to get the necessary money for Greece. I also toyed with the idea of going to Miami for the Royal Rumble too but the more I think about it I will be knackered after all the overtime I'm compelled to do at work and the worst way to recover from that will be a "holiday" where I'm constantly on the move like the LA one. Instead of the Rumble I think I'll probably just go back to Gran Canaria in January.