Orphan Black

Orphan Black is a television show on BBC America, and stars Tatiana Maslany as Sarah Manning. Sarah Manning is a young mother who is trying to reconnect with her 7 year-old daughter, Kira. While at the train station, Sarah witnesses a woman commit suicide. Just before the woman walks off the platform, she turns around to face Sarah, and looks exactly like her. In the beginning of her search for answers, Sarah grabs the woman's purse and runs. Sarah soon learns that there are many more people that look just like her, and the conspiracy runs deeper than she ever could have imagined. Unfortunately, the series is not on Netflix, meaning that you will most likely have to purchase the season if you don't already have BBC America on your television. For $15.99 on Amazon, season 1 of Orphan Black is definitely worth the deal. If you're not already hooked, here is the trailer and here is the opening scene.

Ball Park Music

Along with The Colourist, which I recently made a blog post about, I have also been listening to a lot of new artists lately. (Allow me to clarify, by "new," I mean new to me. Some of these artists that I'm about to mention in forthcoming blog posts are fairly new, however others are not and have been around for more than a few years.) One band which I've recently started listening to, is Ball Park Music. Now, I'm fairly sure that everyone already knew about Ball Park Music before I did, and I think I may have even known the name from some vague memory. I didn't get around to listening to them until recently. If you like alternative music, they are great. Founded in 2008, they consist of five members: Sam Cromack, Jennifer Boyce, Paul Furness, Daniel Hanson, and Dean Hanson. Though I can't find where the band originated, I do have better news. Their new album released today, as in, about six hours prior to this blog post. From their new album, Puddinghead, the single "She Only Loves Me When I'm There" is a great song to start with when listening to this band for the first time.

Germany!

Over Spring Break, I traveled to Europe for the first time. I stayed primarily in Germany, but also went to Lichtenstein, Switzerland, and Austria. In short, the trip was super fun and I plan on moving to Germany after graduating high school. The first place in Germany that I went on my trip (other than the airport) was a lovely city named Rothenburg. I suppose you should call it a town, as it is really quite small and one little area that you could travel all the way around multiple times a day. It was a medieval city built around the 1000's and looked sort of like this:

 Actually, it looked exactly like this, these were pictures taken off of my camera. Afterwards, we moved onto Munich, which I loved, but unfortunately did not get pictures of because I was feeling very ill. We went to a market place where they had a large May Pole, which is like a meeting center for everyone (literally this giant pole sticking out of the ground, it is also decorated). We went various other places including Dachau Concentration camp and the Salzburg salt mines in Austria. We literally had pork every night for dinner. It was good pork, though. I have yet to have more pork since returning to the US. The final places that I visited while in Europe were Luzern and Heidelburg. Heidelburg would have been more fun had I been able to spend more than a day there, and I absolutely loved Luzern (Switzerland). I bought 30 euros of chocolate. Everyone made fun of me when I got home but it's barely been a week and most of it is gone. So yeah. I went places. I did things. This kind of post is not regular for my music/book/film related blog, but I don't often get to do things like this. This may turn into a travel blog where I drool over places that I won't be able to see in person for a long time. Have a spiffy day, reader.

Luzern

What I had for dinner in Munich one night.
It was pork. Yum.

Mount Pilatus

Pentatonix

A vocal group known as Pentatonix has recently taken the world by storm and is gaining an increasing amount of recognition and popularity around the globe.Pentatonix is composed of lead vocalists Scott Hoying, Kirstie Maldonado, Mitch Grassi, vocal bass Avi Kaplan, and beatboxer Kevin Olusola. After winning season 3 of NBC's The Sing-Off, Pentatonix has created many original tracks along with pop hits and medley arrangements.
Shortly after winning Th Sing-Off, the members of Pentatonix moved to Los Angeles where they produced and released two EP's, which both debuted in the Billboard's Top 200. They have toured twice through the US, and are currently on their third tour, which is selling out quickly. Pentatonix's new alum - PTX Vol. 2 - will be released on November 5th, 2014. The album has eight new tracks, including three original songs by Pentatonix.

The Colourist

The Colourist is a band formed in early 2013, after meeting in Orange County, California. They currently only have an EP containing 4 songs which were released in late 2013, and began touring with Panic! At The Disco on their current tour, Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die.
Their most popular and first released song Little Games, gained them the majority of the fans that they have today, and their fanbase, although still small, is continuing to grow.
The Colourist is a pop/indie/rock band according to their official website, and starting March 1st, they will begin their own national headlining tour, introducing their new album.
Set to be released on March 25, 2014, The Colourist will release their first full album, titled The Colourist.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Although The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was released in November of last year, I only recently saw it in theaters. As a huge fan of the book series and the first movie, I cannot say that I am displeased. I'm quite happy with how this movie turned out actually, even though there were minor changes in the plot such as Peeta not loosing his leg and Katniss not becoming deaf in one ear. There is also the unnecessary love triangle which is made all too dramatic in the movies. However, this is how the world of cinema always works and you can't expect a movie to be exactly as the book was (it's a bit impossible to please everyone and make the film exactly as everyone envisioned in their minds while reading The Hunger Games). Not only did the plot progress smoothly, but the costumes, makeup, and set were absolutely gorgeous in the film, along with the special effects. I am pleased with the performances of many if not the entire cast. Jennifer Lawerence and Josh Hutcherson did well, as they did in the first film of the Hunger Games. But the characters that I ended up liking the most were the other tributes that went into the 75th Hunger Games with Katniss and Peeta. Jena Malone was especially excellent in playing the character of Johanna Mason, and succeeded in making the character very unique and likable by the audience. Out of 5 stars, I would rate this movie as being somewhere close to a 4.5. It was a very enjoyable movie, but I hardly ever consider any movies that I see perfect, and while this one may have a few minor flaws that mostly just readers of the series would pick out, it is definitely worth watching.

Disney's Frozen

I saw Frozen in theaters on January 19th, and after downloading every song I can find and telling everyone I know to go watch it, I can now resort to the internet. Watch Frozen. It is very good. As a basic overview, Frozen is about the town of Erindale in which two girls live, daughters of the King and Queen. Elsa has a gift, and as she grows older her power becomes harder and harder to contain. Eventually, she sets Erindale into an eternal winter (by accident!), and her powers are discovered by her sister, Ana, along with the rest of Erindale. Elsa flees and Ana leaves Erindale in search of her sister, meeting a reindeer and a man who sells ice for a living along the way.

Not only is the story very interesting and original, the animation is incredible and the original songs by Disney are great sing-alongs. Summary: If you haven't watched Frozen yet, then watch it. Why haven't you already? It's a Disney movie. And if you have, great! It's probably time to make another trip back to the theaters to catch Frozen just one more time before it's available to rent.

Dollhouse - TV Series

Dollhouse, the original TV series by Joss Whedon was aired on Fox for two and a half seasons before it got cancelled. It is a science fiction series that follows the main character, Echo, through her journey and involvement with a company that uses "Dollhouses" and hires out personalities to wealthy clients. After someone has signed up for the program, their memories and personalities get erased and put onto a hard drive. They become known as "dolls" that are in a permanent child-like state and has virtually no personality. When a client needs anything from a romantic engagement to a high-risk criminal job, they go to the company that runs the Dollhouses. They rent the client out a doll, who is programmed with the appropriate personality. After the job is complete, the doll comes back to the Dollhouse, has their memory and personality wiped, and returns to their "sleeping" state. Echo, who is a doll in the Dollhouse, is becoming self-aware. The people who run the dollhouse are frightened by this, as it reminds them of a similar case in the past which had gotten out of control. When the series begins things in the Dollhouse are running smoothly, but quickly picks up as the government and conspirators try to get involved in their affairs. The show itself is filled with a lot of action and cool science fiction-y technology. It is an excellent show to watch and - doesn't take very long to complete the series! (While you can choose to see that as a pro, it really just goes by quickly because there are only over 20 episodes. Boo, Fox.) The trailer (another trailer) along with many explanations for the show can be somewhat confusing, so the best thing to do is to just jump right in! It's not a very hard show to follow - just hard to explain in a three minute clip or in 200 words. Enjoy, the show never became very popular, but everyone who is a Joss Whedon fan will definitely love it! (Also, it's really good science fiction.)