Life | Meet Da Bunnies!

Hello.

Well, we have had some new additions to our family, and no, it’s not a baby!

My sister and brother-in-law have started their own little rabbit farm.

I don’t really know how it got started, but one day at the end of February, they came home from a day of doing errands and brought home a bunny from Rural King. During this time, they have a series of farm animals for sale there. They have baby chickens, ducks, birds, bunnies, and sometimes piglets. The only time I’ve been there, my mom and I spent too much time at the baby chicken station. They were SO adorable but we knew it would be a lost cause bringing them home because our cats would definitely make a meal out of them! .

Before I continue, I have to mention that we do know if they are short or long haired rabbits, nor do they know the exact breeds either! I think we should just be happy that we know each is a boy or a girl instead! My sister has never taken care off rabbits before. I’m not so sure about Brandon, but they’re making the most of it though.

Hopsin

This was the first rabbit they bought, as you can see Hopsin looks like she could be a long hair bunny, but honestly she only has this in patches along her body. All around her face is short except for the very top, so she has a “woke up like this” look to her everytime of the day, but I think it gives her more personality.

The first time she came over, we kind of trapped her in my room but she must’ve like it because she never stomped the floor very much! She definitely loved my bed though, at one point after she was finished exploring every inch of my bed, she found a comfortable spot and just kicked her back legs out and laid down and we were all in love after that!

After that, my mom was a little afraid she would get too relax and pee on my bed so Blondie put her on the floor and she was back to sniffing everything in my room. She decided that lying underneath my wheelchair was the best place ever! In her defense, it is next to my closet and kind of dark in that corner so she obviously felt safe in that little space to the point where she did the same thing when she was on my bed, and just went flat on the cool floor. If we knew she wouldn’t chew on any cords or go under the door of my actual closet and get lost in there, we would have just let her stay over there for a while. She looked so content and sweet over there, it was sad when my sister decided to go back home!

I watch a lot of different vet shows on the National Geographic WILD channel, so I have learned quite a few things about rabbits in general. One thing that I remembered the most was that rabbits are very social, and they like to be in pairs, so it wasn’t too long before they went and got a buddy for Hopsin–actually, they didn’t even last a day! They came home with DaBaby.

Bunz

I tried to warn you when I said they had started giving them rap names! 

When one became two, Nolan was beginning to get really interested in them. He has only been around cats and dogs, so rabbits are relatively new to him, but he seemed to form some kind of bond with Bunz. The reason why the name was changed to this, is because they are not looking to breed any of their rabbits, but wasn’t sure what sex this one was at the time so it was automatically named “DaBaby” but once they found out it was a girl, she ended up as “Bunz” . I don’t really know the significance behind it so I apologize for that!  

Bunz is absolutely adorable! Hopsin being black and white like their cat Samuel, Bunz is an entirely color to any of their animals in their house. Bunz is all shades of brown with a little bit of pink in her ears. Before bunny #5, she was the tiniest of the pack and I thought it was perfect for Nolan. He loves to give them their breakfast and thinks they eat cute and interesting! I have seen try to eat his crackers like them in the last three visits so he has been watching quite a bit but honestly it’s so sweet that as long as he doesn’t get choked, I think we’ll be okay about it.

If you didn’t know Blondie is attractive to animals. She is the main reason why Bootsie wasn’t able to leave our back yard when she first came around, our dad had told her to keep working with her to become comfortable with people, but after her dog Sydney died, nobody could bear to break her away from Bootsie so we ended up keeping her and thus, she started birthing liters and liters of kittens before we finally had to stop it and got all of the cats fixed. Funnily enough, now that she lives on the corner of our block, Bootsie now lives over there, underneath this bench that she dressed bottom part with cushions and a large blanket to shield them away from the cold. Oscar, Bear-Bear and Tavis all live over there and only come back when the humans come over to visit us!

Thumper & Chance 

Now, there was a reason why I mentioned about the story of Bootsie, because my sister can’t really be trusted to go on solo missions when animals, especially ones that are on sale, because if they look sweet or injured – like in this case, because she will come home with more than one species. I have to say, she’s done this before because one time we came home with 2 sets of hamsters in a number of four years! This should have been our warning that no animal is safe because she will bring it home!

So, this is Thumper and Chance the RapHare. I don’t know exactly know how they came up with Thumper, other than maybe watching Bambi recently but Brandon definitely named Chance (the bigger one!) after the actual rapper. One of the things that is both sad and special about these guys are, she got them for the fact that they were injured. You might be able to tell in the photo, as they each look like they have missing fur around their noses. As you might’ve noticed, these are both boys and don’t worry, they have their own cage. They live next door to the sorority house, so hopefully no baby bunnies anytime soon!

These guys were actually the first ones that I got to meet, because just after coming home, they came right over so I could see them. They enjoyed exploring the living room and kitchen. What we didn’t expect them to do was hang out around our fan in the kitchen. They seriously just sat in front of it and chilled out for a bit. Our dog ChiChi was curious about these guys but for the most part, didn’t mind them as much!

Trixie

I almost forgot about this one. My sister just randomly came home with her. We thought that after getting the boys, that they were done, but I know my sister too well – she has a soft spot for anything left behind and with Bunz, Trixie and Letti (as you’ll meet soon!) were all the last bunnies in the container at the store.  

This bunny is named Trixie, but I’m not too sure how she came up with that name but I wonder if our cat Tavis had inspired it as he is also black and white too! Tavis is also one of the quietest love bug out of the entire pride, and I haven’t heard too much about Trixie so I’m thinking her demeanor might be close to him. 

Personally, I think she is my favorite as she is mostly white with a tiny bit of black. She reminds me of their cat Samuel as he is all white with a few black shapes around his whole body, but Trixie is definitely smaller compared to Samuel! I think it’s far to say all of the rabbits are smaller than Samuel, because he is like a monster with a huge body and a small head!

Unfortunately, that’s all I can say about her right now. She seems to be a very chill bunny compared to all of the others, but the next one is somewhat similar too, which is how I was able to completely skip Trixie in the process!

Letti Lou

She took what our parents use to say to us ALL THE TIME when we were growing up, and that was, “when you move out of the house, you can own as many animals as you want.” It wasn’t until she took another solo trip that I begin to hear the voices of my parents saying that exact statement in my head over and over again. A part of me had to laugh because she came home with Miss Letti Lou. This one is actually smaller compared to the rest of the herd. I vaguely remember Blondie saying that she was around 8 weeks, but we’re not too sure though. She does really good with her sisters, so that’s all that matters!

Letti is the second bunny to not be inspired by a rapper, according to my sister, she named her after the character Letty from the Fast & Furious franchise. My poor sister hasn’t watched the entire series but remembers when our Uncle David took us to see the newest film at the time, and it had to been when Letty was found and Dom went to get her back, so my mind is saying Fast Five is the exact movie, but there have been so many that I’ve sort of lost track but I think I’m right though! Anyways, Letti Lou is by far the smallest and the color of her fur is the same tone as what Blondie’s hair use to be back in school, so I find it odd that she found a bunny like her in some way!

Axel & Onyx

And finally, we have hit the last two rabbits (at least we’re hoping so!) and for a few days, my dad didn’t know about these guys! For a good three weeks he only thought they had four bunnies, but Blondie and Brandon haven’t taken loads of pictures so for the most part he hasn’t seen them. I have a feeling that once this post goes up, he’ll find out all about them. 

Now this photo was taken a few days after they got them so they’ve probably put on some weight since they came home. I think Onyx is the on the left, as he is a lot darker to his brother. Axel has some brown tones in him but he is very spunky and unafraid of the cats. Blondie sent a video on Facebook to show Axel roaming around the living room and when Em called for him, he came back but first had to sniff–or at least try to!–Samuel and this seemed to spook him enough that Samuel went flying into the kitchen with Axel on his heels and what was so hilarious by it was the fact that Axel couldn’t stop, even after trying to spread his front paws out and that still didn’t help him all that much at first, but thankfully, he did figure out how to stop, but the whole thing was so cute and funny that I can’t get it out of my mind!

The rest of their household seems to mind the rabbits okay. The cats are a little unsure, especially when they are out of their cages, but for the most part the cats can tolerate them. Chipper, however, he is desperately looking for a playmate I guess and doesn’t quite understand why the new kids on the block can’t rough house with him. He is curious about them and loves to hang out by their cages, he is a very protective big brother to the cats, Nolan and now the bunnies! So far, everybody is getting along and loves to cuddle with everybody, including me! Dad doesn’t really care for them all that much but I think he’s fine with it, if he doesn’t have to necessarily have to do anything with them…

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Have you taken care of rabbits before? If you have, how many did you have and what were their names? Do you have any advice for them or any other people wanting to take care of a bunny full time?

Music Monday | Tommee Profitt

Hello!

For my last post for this series, I will be talking about Tommee Profitt. A music producer, composer and songwriter that I’ve been keeping up with since probably the end of 2017. I still don’t really know how I found him in the first place; I do remember I was on Spotify, but the connection between the two is still a little foggy. Anyways, it happened and it’s been incredible journey so far!

What a lot of people don’t understand is that, everything is connected in some form or another. Everything happens for a reason.

To me, there really isn’t a big jump between symphonic metal and cinematic/trailer music. I think there are a lot of similiarities between the two of them, epesically when it comes to writing the concept. The lyrics are easy to read and can be filled of different emotions. They both encourage the use of choir and big orchestra elements depending on the mood of the song itself.

Now as I say “trailer” music, I don’t necessarily mean Hans Zimmer, Alan Silverstri, etc. Nowadays, composers like Tommee and vocalists you have probably never heard of yet somehow they are (mostly) all located in Nashville are creating these gorgeous songs for various promos and they are becoming the new generation of what is cinematic music. Lately, the world has started to see the genius of Tommee’s work, which is really awesome! Two years ago, Tommee teamed up with a long time contributor Fleurie to do a tribute album for the final season of “Game Of Thrones”. I previously listened to the soundtrack that was put together Travis Scott, Ellie Goulding, Hallie x Chloe, etc. However, this one was worthy to be part of the score I thought because it was so beautiful with Fleurie’s dreamy vocals and fierce compositions behind her in the music.

You may not know this, but last year he worked with Christian rapper NF on his album The Search. I think the two of them have worked together before this release, but I’m not too sure about it. I feel like I can judge what feels and sounds like something Tommee would create, but in the last two cinematic compilations, he is starting to expeiment with other genres like country and a little bit of rock, which is great but sometimes I have issues with figuring out what Tommee has produced for him or not. There are other artists he tends to work with a lot, and they are Sam Tinnesz, Ruelle and Jung Youth. If you haven’t heard of anybody featured in this post, you should definitely give everybody a listen, trust me, you’ll end up loving something among the people I’ve included in here.

Have you heard of Tommee Profitt’s work? If you have, list that person or any others below in the comments for me! Do you have a favorite track too?

Music Monday | Kevin Churko

From early 2009 to late 2014, I knew of five producers in the metal scene. The first was Rick Rubin, second was Flood, who worked with Thirty Seconds To Mars, James Michael, he is the lead vocalist of Sixx:A.M. with Nikki Sixx and DJ Ashba but has produced several albums for other bands, Kevin – which I’ll explain more in a minute, and Joost van der Beork. Spoiler alert: he will be discussed in next month’s theme!

I came across Kevin Chucko in either 2011 or 2014; I know this is a big gap of time, but these were the years that my new love of music became very prominent. As I was into the genre for close to six years straight. I really made myself pay attention to various music producers just like I had in the hip hop world in my younger years.

I was actually introduced to Kevin Churko after the nu metal band Papa Roach worked with James Michael on their album “The Connection” in 2012. If you didn’t know, this is actually fairly common in music. Everyone, whether they are just a singer or in a band with more than the standard five members, can work with various people in the album making process. They are not just limited to a set and have to make it work that way. You could look at this as like playing the children’s game “duck, duck, goose” but I think it’s a smart thing to do and I feel like I played the same game in the very beginning of figuring out what I loved about the headbanging and mosh pittin’ lifestyle too.

Sometimes acts will in fact devote their time with only one composer, engineer, songwriter and producer for their work if the chemistry is there, but in order to keep things interesting and build a relationship, you can grow out of your comfort zone and do something new. Kevin Chucko has worked with prominently rock bands. He’s based in Las Vegas and shockingly not all bands want to have fun on the Strip. For most musicians, they make the choice to stay at home and work via online or relocating to wherever their record company sends them to, which is usually where their producer lives.

The first band that I fell in love with in 2009 was female fronted was In This Moment. Since they released their album “Blood” in 2012, they have exclusively worked with Kevin. Personally, it is my ultimate favorite but I think their newest “Mother” has cemented into a stable second place. While I tend to stop following bands in between albums, ITM has been in the same bag as other bands like Linkin Park and Within Temptation where I am always looking at my trustee sources so I don’t miss out on anything they release in the future.

Kevin has also worked with heavy metal band Five Finger Death Punch on their album “American Capitalist” which I think came out the same time but I’m really not for sure!Now, for anyone who doesn’t know, this was my first and most beloved album by FFDP and it was also with this collection of songs that I found out that I could enjoy the harsher style of male voices in rock ‘n roll, thanks to Chester Bennington! A year or two later, after working with James Michael, Papa Roach started going to Kevin Churko and he has produced their music since probably 2014 and even though I have only really heard the singles from the last three albums, I usually love anything they put out to the fans.

A couple of things I learned while writing this post were: I have been spelling his name wrong, so I had to change the banner and everything else, so if you notice any misspellings throughout this post, I am so sorry! The next one is he has alongside another producer that was on my original list – Mutt Lange. My mom actually suggested him but once I decided on doing this as a miniseries, he was cut out of the lineup but I thought this was interesting (but odd) to include here. And lastly, Kevin’s son Kane Churko is also a producer, and generally works with the same acts but has done a few remixes here and there too!

Have you listened to anything produced by Kevin Churko? If you have, what are your favorite(s)?

 

Music Monday | Diddy

Hello!

We are in another month: June. Hope everyone has been enjoying your summer so far! If you have missed out on what the special meaning of this blog series, you can check it out here. Back in April, I started off with the big dogs: Dr. Dre and Rick Rubin. And then last month, I talked about the influence both Timbaland and Missy Elliott had on me in the late 90’s and early 00’s.

The last two months were kind of easy to sort out because I’ve known who I wanted to talk about, but once I started working on my June content, my mind went blank. I knew I wanted to discuss my love of Scott Storch, but I had no idea to pair him up with originally, until it hit me of another producer who was at the heart of my teenage years too.

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Although my mom enjoys The Notorious B.I.G. now, I actually don’t remember anything by him or Diddy when I was child, so I’m basing this post on what I loved during my pre-teenage years.

In 2002, before MTV was probably in the early days of creating Jersey Shore, they still had music on their minds. TRL was still well and kicking – I even think both Carson Daly and Vanessa Lachey (nee Miliano) were still hosting the show too! The time was new for everybody, even the music competition shows. American Idol would have been on their second or third season around this time, and thanks to the success of AI, Diddy worked with MTV to create something similar, titling it “Making The Band”. Some of you might remember the show; I remember seeing the promos while TRL went on commercial breaks but I didn’t actually watch it until 2004.

I loved when Diddy decided on creating the ultimate all girl group for his label Bad Boy Records. I still remember (vaguely) of the first season and finding Aubrey O’Day and Aundrea Fimbres, but he wasn’t ready to build a group with the girls on that season, so they came back for a second shot and both Aubrey, Aundrea were joined with Shannon Bex, Dawn Richard, and D. Woods. By the time, they released their first album, I had never listened to a whole album all the way through before, so the fact I can do this for this and Welcome To The Dollhouse was an absolute shock but a very good sign or so I thought. I loved Danity Kane and still do, but my favorite was always Aundrea and since she really never came back to the group over the last few years, I haven’t been as excited as I was in the beginning.

While Diddy was seemingly busy creating one group, he actually went back to MTV with the intentions to make an all male group too! I did watch that season and the finale shocked me, because after the creation of what we know as Day26, absolutely nobody figured he would give Donnie Klang a solo contract! Unfortunately, neither Day26 or Donnie really broke out on their own like DK. I think they each had one decent album release and everything was over.

At the beginning of the year, I heard that the series was coming back but since the COVOID-19 mess, I hadn’t heard anything else about it. Honestly, the only thing I can say about it is, not everything should be rebooted. Back then, there were only two or three music shows whereas now, there are so many to literally drive a person go a bit nutty! I think one of the main differences it worked back then was because, if you wanted to watch something on TV, you had to watch it that night or else you were screwed unless they showed it over the weekend as an encore. Now, we rely on our DVRs and would rather wait until the season is over and binge a large collection at a time.

I really don’t think I’d watch the new reboot, that is, if it ever gets off the ground! I think I’d try it – watch the pilot and see if that magic is still there inside of me. Honestly, it will take a lot of twists and turns in just that hour premiere to capture my full attention to keep coming back for more each week.

Do you remember the ‘Making The Band’ show? What are your thoughts on the prospect of it coming back to TV? 

 

Music Monday | Missy Elliott

Howdy!

When I was thinking about doing the series, I know I wanted to keep it diverse, not because my love of music is all of the place, but it is very important to say that there are women music producers out there. In fact, I decided to talk about two of them that I knew were important to my life and musical journey. However, if you know and love of any other women producers out there, please tell me about them in the comments. I would love to learn more about why you adore them, and of course check out their music too!

A couple of years ago, Missy Elliott was awarded by MTV’s VMAs (Video Music Awards) with the Lifetime Achievement award. Back when MTV did play hours and hours (boy, do I miss those days!) of music videos, you probably saw one or if you were really lucky two Missy Elliott videos within 20-30 minutes of each other. I’d say from 1998 to 2004 is when she was just creating all kinds of stuff. A lot of them included dancing, but she was very known for her crazy antics and style in those days. They all looked fun every single time they appeared on your television screen. I’m sad to say I haven’t seen any of her previous videos, but remembering her others, I know she would continue going down that way for as long as she is allowed.

Missy is most known for her songs and friendship with Timbaland and Aaliyah, but I think it’s important to say that she has worked with all kinds of acts throughout the years! In 2004, when the R&B artist Ciara appeared, especially after watching her first music video for “Goodies” you probably hoped that she’d work with Missy one day. Dancing played a big part in the two artists, but it also just seemed like a great combination because Ciara has that same soft voice that Aaliyah was known for–even though nobody could ever be as good as her–you still hoped that they would work together. So, by the time “1, 2, Step” came out on the radio, it was like the music gods were really hearing our prayers and then it happened again in 2004 with Missy’s track “Lose Control” with Fatman Scoop. It was an awesome sequel to the story of these two big female singers.

Since we’re on the subject of girl power, I think we should discuss the remake of Patti LaBelle’s “Lady Marmalade” of the film Moulin Rouge in early 2002. Instead of having one singer do the entire song, she produced and worked with four powerhouses of the popular genres of that time. You had the R&B artist Mya to start off and then we move on to Pink, who at the time was a mixture of pop-R&B at the time. Brooklyn’s own Queen rapper Lil’ Kim lended a nice section and gave the song an added flare, and finally Christina Aguilera graced us at the end. I still think this is where she began weaning herself out of the cookie cutter bubblegum pop music. The song itself went on to win lots of awards but I think a lot of people either don’t know and/or forget that Missy Elliott was a huge part of making this happen. I mean, think of it as like the first time The Avengers assembled. Yes, I just did that and I’m not even sorry about it either!

Are you a fan of Missy Elliott? Do you have a favorite music video from over the years? Is there any other artists that you think she should consider working or maybe not collaborating with next? Please give me your thoughts about that down in the comments.