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Tchamla Kingdom Festival - Bulgaria July 7-13
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Vess
Started Topics :
6
Posts :
367
Posted : Jul 25, 2006 14:45
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DETOX, Trippy Jonny I'm definitely not friend with the organizers either defending them (for info saw them once end even don't remember how they look)...
Yes no one artist got paid and it is a shame!!
Even the music .. I know how many artists really played psy trance there and they were playing for 1.5/2 hours ... we were disappointed as much as you are, paying flying tickets and being on our own expenses all the time but haven't seen so hard judgment from the ppl who were there rather yours ...
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http://vessart.deviantart.com/
www.triplag.com
www.myspace.com/vess_ |
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TrippyJohnny
Inactive User
Started Topics :
2
Posts :
445
Posted : Jul 25, 2006 14:50
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On 2006-07-25 14:45, Vess wrote:
but haven't seen so hard judgment from the ppl who were there rather yours ...
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maybe because you guys are so hungry to play that you'll do anything incl. paying your own tickets 
Those of us that complain was made a mock of and treated with nothing but arrogance and disrespect from a group of organizers that very clearly never had any intention of doing a prober festival. They just used the international names on the lineup to milk the Bulgarian people. Also We would never pay our own flight tickets and the sooner artists and Dj's stop doing that the sooner festivals will stop taking advantage of artists and dj's and start to treat them fair and with respect which also mean paying them for the work they do. |
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Vess
Started Topics :
6
Posts :
367
Posted : Jul 25, 2006 14:56
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SPK
Started Topics :
0
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55
Posted : Jul 27, 2006 17:28
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On 2006-07-13 22:58, TrippyJohnny wrote:
Lets get the facts on the table here.
The main organiser's name is Ben. I am not sure if he is from Macedonia or Hungary.
Peter the only Bulgarian somewhat involved was not involved in the actual Organizing. He just helped out with some artists contacts.
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Ben is macedonian...
Petar is also macedonian (but his last name is Shevchenko) situated in Sofia/Bulgaria now! |
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UpLifTeR
Started Topics :
0
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32
Posted : Jul 30, 2006 17:26
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Vess...What is your point? Are you trying to say that the "fest" went ok? Are you trying to say that is ok to fuck the people so badly? Are you trying to say that no matter what happened and disregarding all the other thigs that didn't happen there, we must look positive on this event? Are you really trying to say that i must be happy that i was tricked to pay the ticked and go somewhere else insted of tchamla? How many festivals change their first listed place for the party 1 week before the event?
Theese are some questions that i ask you...
Oh...and last year...there was a fest here in BG...just to mention you that...not a big and shiny and with kilometric line ups but the artist and djs who were listed ALL CAME...And even more came to participate at the last moment (like Penta)some of the the other artist were GOA GIL, Chemic-Al,Lev Sobolev and others....
And i agree with detox about the car crash...but if you have to compare it with such an incident let it be the crash from the movie "Final Destination 2" just to get the picture more clear 
I am not saying that the organizers are bad people or something..i want to make you that clear also..I am just saying that this event was not even close to fest of some kind...and if the organizers understood what they did wrong i hope there are some people who will go next time they do a fest...COuse i am not one of them...at least not with a ticket 
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ND
ProSect
Started Topics :
44
Posts :
919
Posted : Jul 30, 2006 23:02
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Funny... After this huge fuck up, people still defend them. Wise commentary from Detox.
Vess, it's not a hippy camp gathering, people should take things seriously, the lack of professionalism in this scene is beyond imagination.
ND
Without Deviation, Progress Is Not Possible.
www.andivision.com
Sound Field / ProSect / Sonify / Radio Mess |
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Vess
Started Topics :
6
Posts :
367
Posted : Jul 31, 2006 09:06
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My point was that no mather who was good and who was bad we made our comfort there as good as we could.. from there and after don't try to blame me and telling me that i said the fest went good.. I didn't say thing like that.. and BTW everything is finished and fighting with ppl like me is waste couse I don't have the power either to give your money back or to turn back the time and make the fest the way it had to be !!!
It's the forums we all can share opinion.. and pls don't try to answer me back couse this case for me is closed ... got realy bored with only bla bla bla .. we all have the experience already and for the next time we'll know that when these ppl are making party means unprofessionalism and fraught..
Respect !!
Boom!!
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http://vessart.deviantart.com/
www.triplag.com
www.myspace.com/vess_ |
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Gyuri
Started Topics :
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Posts :
5
Posted : Jul 31, 2006 14:40
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My name is Gyuri, i am the Hungarian monster from the organizers. I was the one previously writing in this topic under the name 'trikkings', but i decided to use my own name this time, because it is rather personal, i am not only writing in the name of the organizers. I would like to tell you what happened in the previous weeks in the Bulgarian Rodopi Mountains, on the shores of Batak Lake. And the course of events that led there.
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I have lived in Sofia for four years now. I work for a Hungarian publisher as a freelance translator, and until the festival i had a hostel job in Sofia. I could live anywhere in the world, including Hungary, but i am in Bulgaria because i love its mountains and sea, and most of all its people. I, just like the other two organizers, speak fluent Bulgarian, among each other we use the Bulgarian language, and we have numberless Bulgarian friends. My Bulgarian story started seven years ago, it was a love story with a Bulgarian girl, which turned to be a love story with the country. After three years of very frequent visit i decided to move here.
Probably every promoter dreams about making a festival. In the end some try, some don't. My idea to make a festival was born on the ferry back to the mainland from Samothraki, in 2003, chatting with a Bulgarian friend. Being back to Sofia i was more realistic, and began with parties. But, even though i had never flown a plane before, i decided to jump in the cockpit of a glider: i started with a party with Son Kite in a Sofian sport hall. The debut was a double somersault, the Son Kite-guys didn't want to believe that it was the first one i ever made, on the Bulgarian trance-site it was voted for the best party of 2004, with a huge advantage. The financial balance, just like almost all of my, and other Bulgarian parties', was negative, but i paid Sebastian and Marcus, and went on with the parties. On that voting, the third, fourth, and fifth place was mine too. All the artists i announced for these parties showed up and played. It is true, i still owe some of their fee to some of them. But i never hid, i have been in contact with them, and did my best to pay the debts.
I spent the last winter in Hungary, when my Macedonian friends started to organize this festival. Coming back to Sofia i joined them, despite the tight deadline contract that i made in Budapest for translating a book, and despite my own doubts regarding the original location's transport- and other difficulties, and the budget and financing. The idea was very challenging, and with both other organizers i had had harmonic relationship, we had made several parties together.
We did not have money at all in the beginning, my friends thought the festival will finance itself with the presale, but i disagreed, and we looked for and found a financer. It is hard to find someone to give money for a risky project like a festival, without any personal or financial interest. I myself twice managed to break even with a party, on both there was an investor, and this investor brought sponsors. The balance of those parties (the first one was Son Kite's second appearance in Bulgaria) was positive, i also earned some money with them, but the price i paid was too much: the only decoration was three meter high plastic beer bottles around the dancefloor. To the second of these two commercial parties i did not give my promoter name "Headoneast" anymore, just took the job of the organizer, and got paid for it.
After the line up of the festival was done, and before we would have started to buy the plane tickets, in April i went to Hungary, to try to make an agreement with the Hungarian airline company Wizzair, for giving us free plane tickets. I succeeded, with the modest price of placing their a logo on flyers and posters. It was then, while i was in Budapest, that our dear friend, a young English businessman and great music fan, one night forgot to shoot his insuline before going to sleep, and he never woke up again.
This is how we remained without financer and had to make a plan B. The presale money was not enough for almost any plane tickets, and since Wizzair could only support us on limited routes, we decided to try with an other airline that will give us good payment conditions. We got the deal with the other Hungarian company, Malev. The deal was this: we made reservations for the artists, and would have had to pay the ticket only on the day of the departure. This deal of course closed out the possibility of Wizzair's sponsoring, since the two companies are competitions to each other. But with this deal we would have been able to pay the plane tickets with the first festival day's entrance fee income.
I always had doubts about the original location, Tchamla. The place is really beautiful, distant enough from the civilization not to disturb anyone, but to get there is very hard, the only road is a dirt road, in bad condition and it is uphill. It is also too close to the Greek border, the border police might have made us trouble there. But we got the deal for using the land through a friend, for free. This deal was cancelled suddenly, when a guy called us from the neighbouring town: hey boys, i heard you are making a festival on the land i just bought, and you charge 40 Euros for a ticket? Come on, let's speak a little. Ooops... One month before the festival, and we had to look for a new place.
This is how we found Batak Lake, and its Kostandovo Bay, this god-given present of amazing beautiful nature, obviously created for making a trance festival on its shores. Everybody, all the people with long festival-experience unanimously agreed: there is no place in the world better for a festival. And then came rush... awful rush. We had three weeks to get everthing done, starting from zero.
We reached what we reached. And we did think about the transportation difficulties. A lot. For the sound, light and stage technique, all coming from Hungary on a big cargo-truck, we organized a small truck that goes on every kind of terrain. For the bar and restaurant we organized even smaller trucks. But when i explained the generator-operators how bad is the road, they assured me: we go everywhere with our truck, we supply film-makers on all kinds of terrain, don't worry at all! And then they came, stopped 3 kilometers before the Bay and said: there is no way they will go further. And there was no way, for real. It was a built-in generator, on a 20 tons truck, no chance to come closer. This was on 7th of July, Friday, the first day of the festival.
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Gyuri
Started Topics :
0
Posts :
5
Posted : Jul 31, 2006 14:52
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When we planned the budget of the festival, after our financer died, we decided to make everything on our own, in order to reduce the number of tickets to be sold to break even. We would have broken even with approximately 7-800 tickets sold, and the bar and restaurant-income. In Bulgaria we sold about 200 tickets in presale, abroad another 60. While all the Bulgarian distributors were fair and paid us the money, the Serbian distributor, Rasha disappeared with 30 tickets' incoming money, 6-800 Euros, which was very much lacking from the tight budget, we could have bought another 2-3 plane tickets for artists.
The presale money was gone for the preparations, advertising, our own traveling between Sofia and Batak, a few plane tickets, and the sound, light and stage-technique's transportation from Hungary to Bulgaria. Malev-tickets proved to be a bit expensive, so we also reserved plane tickets from other airlines in the last days. We bought tickets for Psychic Om, Gaby, Yotopia, P-Mac and James Monro. This is how far we reached from the presale-money when it finished. As i already said, every single other artist had reservation, the plan was that when we collect the first day's ticket-income, we will drive quickly to Sofia, and pay the plane tickets of all of them. 200 tickets sold on the first day would have covered everything, and on Saturday morning (08.07, the second day of the festival), all artists would have had tickets to Sofia. From another 100 tickets we would have been able to send the advance-fee to those artists that recuired it. This means 300 tickets... this is absolutely not an irrealistic number for being sold at the gates. And we had this number of audience. We had, but we could not collect the entrance fee.
I never liked working with security-firms, these weird mixtures of mafia and police. But sometimes, like on festivals for example, it is a necessary bad thing. We made negotiations with a security-firm, but they insisted to get 50% of the whole fee for a the one-week work in advance. We did not have this money, actually nothing of it. So there was no agreement made, the security never came to work. But they came on the second day of the festival, to take money from us with some made-up stories. This is called recketeering in Bulgaria. We did not have any choice but to pay, otherwise they would have destroyed the festival. And we wanted to start the festival, at any price.
We had made parties without security, not a big deal. Most people are fair, and, especially if they like the party, they pay the admission fee. We walked around, collected the money one by one, they paid, all cool. And we all felt better without those stupid muscle-towers. But that was on parties, not on this festival.
We made some lame attempts to go around and collect the entrance fee on the festival, but without any confidence, because there was no music. So almost everybody refused to pay, and they were right, of course. People have hard time understanding, that that 40 Euros would have made it possible to get another generator easier. In the end, we collected entrance fee from 15 (fifteen!!) people on the field. Instead of the approximately 4-500 that was present without presale-ticket. Just enough to break even, to get all the artists that were promised to play on the festival. I am still sure, most of the people would have paid, if there is party, if there is music on the mainstage.
The generator fucked it all up... the plan was very risky, just like the whole preparation: dancing on a rope. But it would have worked, if the generator can make its way to the Bay. It was a big one, 120 KW, it would have been enough to supply the two stages, and the bars and restaurant. A new one, good one, with relatively low consumption.
So came Friday night... when the festival should have started. And no power-supply, no music. The stage is there, with that fantastic sound, and the generator stands on a huge truck, a few kilometers away. Everybody thinks of a solution. To make the road even with a bulldozer? We checked, it is possible. But it needs 4 days. To move it to the Bay with a Russian everywhere-going truck? Not possible, it is too big. If it's not a built-in one, it could have been moved. The only quick solution is to get another one. Relatively quick. For Saturday. Phonecalls, phonecalls, phonecalls, everywhere where there is big generator, all Friday and Saturday, cinema-studios, tv-stations, everywhere. Nothing available. Saturday night at 10 i was still negotiating in an army-base, on the peak of the nearby mountain. And they had one, and they were willing to give us, with the help of the local mayor (a very nice and helpful person) even for free. But it doesn't work on the frequency we needed.
So came Sunday... When people started to leave... and when we started to realize that maybe we will not have mainstage on this festival. Let's get a small generator, at least. One of the biggest mistakes we made on the festival was that we concentrated so much on getting the big one, to avoid this shame and to start the thing we planned, with the line up as we announced, and we didn't think of starting the party anyhow, even with smaller music. The main stage was built, with that powerful Mackie-Sound, the decoration was standing in front of it, and we saw it wilting... it was sad. In the end, it never worked, never got the electricity to get started.
Then finally, Sunday early evening we got a small generator, and the small stage started. And people jumped in pleasure, tere was happiness on the dancefloor. Until midnight, when the old generator broke down.
On Saturday we got a 100 % promise from Plovdiv, for a 50 KW generator, for Monday morning. Monday morning we called, no more generator, the guy didn't even answer the phone. This was the end of our dreams to fulfill our promises regarding the line up, regarding the festival. The modest income from the bar and restaurant, and from those 15 tickets were gone for the local everyday expences, transport, and the security-guy's funny story.
No money at all in the cashier. A radical and very sad and shameful decision had to be made: to cancel all the foreign djs and live acts. We did not have any other choice. We told those artists who were there that we can't pay them, but they were still kind and played (Yotopia only dj-set, because their plane was soon leaving when we got the newest generator), and i called some of those we booked, informed them about the problems and told them there is no way we can pay, even no money for the plane tickets. It was sad... fucking sad. But the saddest moment for me was Monday morning, seeing the disappointment on the people's faces, when they were walking from the Bay to the village, carriing their big backpacks, that were maybe not even opened.
When the music finally started, without interruption, we announced that we will prolong the party with another 3 days, to finish it Sunday, instead of Thursday, as a modest compensation. And it started... Bulgarians, Macedonians, Turks, Hungarians played, and Psychic Om, and DigitalX, and it was good. Those that stayed there (approximately half of the people, 400), had a good time in the end. Some people were complaining... of course. There was a Greek company demanding their money back, and a Hungarian journalist. I told them the same: at the moment there might be enough money in the bar to give back to you, but if we do, we should give back to everybody else, and it is impossible. Moreover, every Euro counts now, to be able to run the festival, to fill up the generator with gas. The Greeks continued to look at me with a disgust, the Hungarian continued for another two days with the complains, until the third night, when he came and hugged me saying: anyway, thanks that you made one of the best parties i have ever been.
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Gyuri
Started Topics :
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5
Posted : Jul 31, 2006 14:53
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It was a pioneer-camp style of gathering, or a boyscout-camp for those coming from the other side of the world. Or like an easy weekend party, very free, very cool. There was music, good music, good sound (though it was much less powerful than we planned), good mood. People danced, had fun, enjoyed themselves and the gorgeous nature. And there was not many complains... strange is how negative it all looks from forums. On the contrary... people saw the effort we made, at least to finish the festival, we were always around, we talked to them, we explained what is happening. And many-many of them, Bulgarians and foreigners, came to us, and expressed their appreciation. Like that Japanese girl before leaving, crying on my shoulder for ten minutes, repeating: arigato, arigato.
And now it is time express my appreciation. I would like to thank to all who came, to all who took part in the works, to all who played, decorated, juggled, sound-engineered, vj-d, or did anything for this festival. And the local, wonderful people of Batak and Kostandovo.
And i would like to express my deepest apologies to everybody who were disappointed, audience and artists. Also in the name of my friends, Pero and Beni i am saying: sorry. We did everything with the best intention, with all our effort, we sweated blood to realize the festival. The thought of making money on it did not even cross our minds. We just wanted to make a festival, for the sake of the festival itself. To make a festival in Bulgaria, where we live.
We did not want to have more than 1000 people on the festival. When we saw (based on the presale figures) that we are nearing to this number, we stopped advertising it. We knew our own limits... 1000 is enough or a good festival, enough to cover the expences, and it is not too much for us to manage it. Also we did not want to make it commercial. Sometimes, going to festivals, walking on the market area, my stomach turns upside down seeing the prices, seeing some commercials around. When you are on the dancefloor, everybody is brother and sister, shanti-shanti, but when you go out to the bars or restaurants, all starts to smell of money-making. We wanted to make an easy one, cheap one (compared to international prices), cool one, no stress festival. An unusual one. Well, it was, but not as we planned.
This is the true story of the thing that happened instead of Tchamla Kingdom Festival, whoever will say whatever else. It was bad organized, under-financed, rushed and fucked up. Call us amateurs, assholes, or even careless people. But cheaters, criminals?? Come on...
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And the conclusion? Everybody draw their own conclusion.
Mine is this:
With the experience of flying a glider we jumped in the cockpit of a big passenger plane. It was too much for us for the first time, undoubtedly. We made a lot of mistakes, undoubtedly. Not knowing many of the instruments, we lost the way in the sky, got into storm, and it was falling. But we landed it. It was an emergency landing, the plane almost crashed, but in the end it landed. And now, after the shock, we are in the cockpit, observing the control panel. It's interesting, complicated, but with the new experiences, with the mistakes commited by ourselves, it is possible to learn. I don't think anybody is born to be a pilot, a school has to be finished to learn to fly. And this was a good school.
No idea about the line up yet, but some technical questions have been cleared, the generator will definitely reach the place next year. More generators, reserve generators, smaller ones. The audience must be brought in by boats, not to walk so long. We have to involve much more people in the organizing, the three of us is way not enough. We need much-much more time for the preparations. We have to find a way to compensate everyone, artists and audience. The balance of the past festival is minus 8000 Euros. Now comes months of hard work to pay the bills. And a hard work to figure out the secured financing of the next one.
But for sure, next year we are going to make a festival in our chosen country, Bulgaria.
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Redax Mental
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
49
Posts :
759
Posted : Jul 31, 2006 15:02
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aham
regards
REDAX MENTAL InFo page: http://www.freewebs.com/redax
REDAX MENTAL
[ Plutonic Rec., DI.fm ]
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( Plutonic Records - PLUCD001 ) V |
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TrippyJohnny
Inactive User
Started Topics :
2
Posts :
445
Posted : Jul 31, 2006 17:03
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On 2006-07-31 14:53, Gyuri wrote:
But for sure, next year we are going to make a festival in our chosen country, Bulgaria.
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Good luck with that one. I doubt many will trust you next year no matter your fine attempt to make it all look oh so innocent
And I doubt many Bulgarians will ever trust your organisation again and allow you to miscredit their country one more time. And how is it you plan to book the artists the next time round? As far a I know not many international artists will ever work with you now.
I got to laugh about your comment that you only wanted 1000 visitors.. With the original international line-up you would never break even with only 1000 visitors. Please do not insult our intelligense. Evereybody here can do simple mathematics and 1000 visitors would NEVER pay the huge international lineup not to forget the many flights etc. We all now know that the promoted line-up was a petty scam to attract people. |
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liese
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
12
Posts :
17
Posted : Jul 31, 2006 17:15
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hey Gyuri,
good that you posted that statement, i wish you good luck with sorting out all this things and hope that you really learned something
i am sure to get informed here
http//freakplanet.org/liese |
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kalumet
Kalumet
Started Topics :
20
Posts :
252
Posted : Jul 31, 2006 21:26
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On 2006-07-31 17:03, TrippyJohnny wrote:
I got to laugh about your comment that you only wanted 1000 visitors.. With the original international line-up you would never break even with only 1000 visitors. Please do not insult our intelligense. Evereybody here can do simple mathematics and 1000 visitors would NEVER pay the huge international lineup not to forget the many flights etc. |
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If you do simple mathematics, you realize that 1000 people eats and drinks a lot during one week, so if you take the income from the bars and add it to the income of the entrance, you can easily pay the artists.
I bet you spend at least 40 euros for food and drink in one week... do you still think that 80.000 euros is not enough to cover the bills? Especially when most artists play for only a couple of hundreds... think before laughing, not to become ridiculous. |
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sue
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
23
Posts :
261
Posted : Aug 1, 2006 01:04
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On 2006-07-31 21:26, kalumet wrote:
think before laughing, not to become ridiculous.
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