This is a picture I took of DIIV when I saw them in Brooklyn in Fall 2019.
One of my favorite bands by far is called DIIV. They are originally from Brooklyn, but moved to Los Angeles once their music career took off. I have seen them twice in concert-once in Brooklyn and once in Jersey City (and one of the times I had a concussion). My boyfriend was the one who told me about DIIV, as he has been into them for a long time. They can be classified as shoegaze/indie rock, and use some insane reverb on their songs. They used to post on SoundCloud, but once they became popular they began posting on Spotify/ITunes. Here is one of my favorite songs by them that they said they used to play in the basements of houses all the time before their career took off, Doused.
Pangolins are a strange mammal that live in Africa & Asia. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, I had heard about how pangolins are endangered in the world. While I am not sure they are the animal to blame for the novel coronavirus (hopefully scientists will learn more about the origin of the virus in the coming months), they are adorable animals who suffer from poaching across the world from us. It makes me very sad to think that someone would want to kill this poor, endangered animal for its meat and scales. I understand that in some cultures this may been seen as normal and socially acceptable because they are used for “healing,” however I cannot understand how people continue to kill endangered animals such as the pangolin. I am not sure how they can justify the potential eradication of a species just to satisfy their needs. Here is another cute picture of a pangolin:
You can donate to save the pangolins from extinction here, at the Pangolin Crisis Fund.
The hit Netflix show, Tiger Kings, has been the show that everyone has been watching and talking about while in self isolation. I watch the show a few weeks ago, and honestly, it was much crazier than I was expecting. Here is the trailer for the show.
***CONTAINS SPOILERS***
After watching the show, I think that Joe Exotic did burn down his own alligator exhibit because the filmmaker had footage in there that Joe Exotic do not want the world to see. I also think that the death of Carole Baskin’s husband was very suspicious and that the police did not fully or thoroughly investigate. While I am not sure that she did kill her husband, I think the case needs to be reopened.
Finally, here is a podcast review of the show if you would like to hear a critical review of it.
You can watch Tiger kings on Netflix by following this link.
I have been growing cacti and succulents since I was a child and was obsessed with cacti. I currently have many plants, and it can be difficult to know exactly how to care for them. They all have different sunlight, watering, and temperature needs. One of my current favorite plants is my succulent. This is a picture of it.
Here is a video discussing mistakes people make in caring for cacti/succulents. I knew that one of the most common mistakes in owning cacti or succulents is overwatering them, however I never knew that you are only supposed to repot them from March to September. Apparently, if you repot them in October to February, their roots will not develop properly in their new pot causing them to die.
If you want to buy your own succulent or cactus, you can go to your local nursery or home improvement store. You can also now shop for them online on Amazon.
Today I am wearing my Canada shirt that I bought while in Ontario last summer. This is a link to a shirt that is similar to mine, as I do not see the website selling my shirt anymore. When I visited Canada, I thought it was a pretty cool place and would like to go back. I visited Niagara Falls and Niagara on the lake with my boyfriend and his family. Here are some pictures of that:
Canada truly is a quality place. Looking at these pictures is making me want to visit again. Here is their national anthem, O Canada.
While staying self isolated, it has been intensely difficult to not go stir crazy. Before I broke my elbow, I was doing yoga via the app Down Dog in the morning because it helps my mental health and is also a good, fresh way to start the day. Since breaking my elbow, this is not been possible though. Now, I am simply doing a lot of homework (mostly for my Spanish Capping), watching trashy YouTube videos, cooking interesting things, playing with the cat a lot, listening to music, and watching a lot of TikToks.
Here is an example of a YouTube series from TLC UK that I started watching:
Here is one of my new favorite recipes that I have already made multiple times while in self isolation:
This is one of my favorite artists (who also posts music on iTunes/Spotify, but started on BandCamp and still has demos on Soundcloud that are not available on other sites) who I have seen perform live in central park I enjoy listening to:
This scene in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari starts with one of the town’s police spying on Dr. Caligari and Cesare at their trailer during the night. The town police believe that Cesare might be behind the murders in the town, so they want to see that he is not out at night when the murders are being committed. The policeman sees both of them there, however it is later revealed that the Cesare in the trailer is a stuffed doll. Cesare has actually snuck out and gone to murder Jane. He sneaks up the side of her house, and climbs in through the window. Then, standing next to her bed while she sleeps, she decides to kidnap rather than murder her. He then runs away with her in his arms.
There are a variety of editing techniques that help this abduction scene to be suspenseful and scary. First, the orchestral accompaniment helps create fear in viewer and make the viewer follow along with what is happening. The music matches what the actors are doing in the scene, creating harmony between the visual and the audio. For example, when the camera shows Jane sleeping in her bed, the music becomes higher pitched and creepier letting the viewer know that something bad is going to happen. When Cesare grabs Jane and they begin fighting, the music starts going all over the place and crazy to add to their fight. Overall, in this scene especially, the orchestral accompaniment to the film helps direct the viewer to what emotions the director wants them to feel while watching the film.
Another way in which the editing techniques help to enhance this scene is through the cuts between takes. There are jump cuts between one camera angle to be next to help show things occurring in a certain order and ultimately help the viewer follow along with what is happening. Similarly, when the scenes change from the policeman at the trailer to Cesare at Jane’s house, the camera fade out to black and then opens back up again from a small circle surrounded by black showing us Jane’s face that eventually opens up to show us the whole scene. This also helps add to the viewer following along with what is happening, and adding suspense and a polished feeling to the movie. Finally, the way in which the camera zooms in on certain actors faces leads the viewer to focus on specific actors and follow along in the scene, also making it more dramatic.
Although this movie is a silent movie created in the early 1900s, the director used a variety of editing techniques available during this time to add emotion and drama to the movie. These techniques included an orchestral accompaniment, cuts between scenes, and camera focusing on certain actors.
For my movie review, I watched The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari) directed by Robert Wiene. This movie is a black & white silent horror film from 1919. In five acts it tells the story of Dr. Caligari and his spectacle, Cesare, who murders people at the fairs they travel to. This movie is considered to be one of the best in the film expressionist movement, and was the first film in the German expressionist movement.
In my opinion, this film is very well done. I enjoyed the use of the sets painted in an expressionist style, and thought that the black and white only added to the movie. The director used sets for all the houses, carnival rides, buildings, and background. They made the movie appear creepier and scarier than it would have with real houses, carnival rides, buildings, and backgrounds. At times there were color overlays (such as rose or yellow) on scenes, which added to the emotion of the scenes. The cuts between scenes were either jump cuts or black screens. For some of the black screens, they would zoom in on a certain person’s face with the rest of the screen being black, or they would make it like someone opening their eye and blinking. This also helped add to the horror aspect of the movie and make it more interesting and put together. The orchestral accompaniment suited the film, and only added suspense to the horror theme. The music seemed to match what the actors were doing, which helped keep the viewer engaged in a movie with no verbal dialogue. I liked the slides added with the words that the actors were supposed to be saying in the scenes.
The plot of the movie was clear, however it left the viewer concerned and wondering what would happen next. There were purposeful parts of the movie, such as someone else being accused for Cesare’s murders, to mislead the viewer into believing something else. At the end of the movie, the viewer learns that Dr. Caligari is actually the director of the local insane asylum. This made me question and understand everything that I had watched before this point in the movie, and also was slightly confusing.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed watching The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and would recommend this movie to others. It may not, however, appeal to people who do not enjoy or cannot appreciate silent horror movies.
This alpaca is named Alfie is owned by a couple in Australia who run an Instagram account for him. He has over 500K followers (including me), and has had many news stories written on him. I think he’s super cute and would love to pet him but he is across the world.
I watched this video from Mike Russell in order to better understand Adobe Audition. He goes more in depth into the settings and how to record your voice in the program, and also gives tips and tricks to use it. I found this video super helpful, as Adobe Audition was slightly confusing as there are so may parts to it. He also went more in depth on multitrack, which was helpful for me when editing my sounds.
The Most Interesting Blog Ever 