┻━┻︵╰(‵□′)╯︵┻━┻

alles zu seiner zeit (college has rendered me useless)

[henryclervals]

Masterpost of Free Romantic Literature & Theory (European) (Gothic Literature)

British Romanticism

Songs of Innocence & Songs of Experience by William Blake Poems and Songs of Robert Burns Don Juan & Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage by Baron George Gordon Byron Collected Poetry of Lord Byron The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge Lyrical Ballads, With a Few Other Poems by Coleridge and Wordsworth Collected Poetry by John Keats Ivanhoe; Waverly & The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott The Complete Poetical Works by Percy Bysshe Shelley

French Romanticism

The Count of Monte Cristo; The Three Musketeers & The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas One of Cleopatra’s Nights and Other Fantastic Romances by Théophile Gautier Notre Dame de Paris & Les Misérables by Victor Hugo Collected Prose and Essays of Victor Hugo Poems by Victor Hugo Carmen by Prosper Mérimée The Red and the Black by Stendhal Cinq Mars by Alfred de Vigny

German Romanticism

Were I a Little Bird; The Mountaineer; As Many as Sand-grains in the Sea; The Swiss Deserter; The Tailor in Hell & The Reaper by Ludwig Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano The Broken Ring by Joseph von Eichendorff Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Collected Poetry by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Fairytales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm The Prose Writings of Heinrich Heine by Heinrich Heine Hegel’s Philosophy of Mind by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel The Golden Pot; The Sandman & The Devil’s Elixir by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann Undine (Selections) by Friedrich Baron de la Motte-Fouqué Henry of Ofterdingen: A Romance by Novalis The Iron Idol by Jakob Schaffner The Robbers & Mary Stuart: A Tragedy by Friedrich Schiller Tales from the “Phantasus,” etc. by Ludwig Tieck

Polish Romanticism

Moja Beatrice by Zygmunt Krasiński Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz Anhelli by Juliusz Słowacki

Russian Romanticism

A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Iurevich Lermontov Poems by Alexander Pushkin Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin Collected Works of Alexander Pushkin Collected Poetry by Fyodor Tyutchev Poems by Vasily Zhukovsky

Spanish Romanticism

Cantares gallegos by Rosalía de Castro El Estudiante de Salamanca and Other Selections by José de Espronceda The Cid Campeador: A Historical Romance by Antonio de Trueba

Historical Theory and Background 

Literary and Philosophical Essays: French, German and Italian The French Revolution of 1789 by John S. C. Abbott Rousseau and Romanticism by Irving Babbitt A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century by Henry A. Beers Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature - The Romantic School in Germany by Georg Brandes On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism by T. S. Eliot The Destiny of Man by Johann Gottlieb Fichte The Faust Legend from Marlowe to Goethe by Kuno Francke The Hero of Esthonia and Other Studies in the Romantic Literature by W. F. Kirby Romantic Ireland by M. F. Mansfield and Blanche McManus The Diary of Dr. John William Polidori, 1816, Relating to Byron, Shelley, etc. Romance: Two Lectures by Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau A Defence of Poetry and Other Essays by Percy Bysshe Shelley On Liberty by John Stuart Mill The Legend of Sir Lancelot du Lac by Jessie L. Weston

Academic Theory

Introduction: Replicating Bodies in Nineteenth-Century Science and Culture by Will Abberley Walter Scott’s works perception by his russian contemporaries by O. G. Anossova Theories of Space and the Nineteenth-Century Novel by Isobel Armstrong The Romantic subject as an absolutely autonomous individual by  Miljana Cunta Russian-German Connections in the Editing Practice in the Mid-19th Century: Vasiliy Zhukovsky and Justinus Kerner by Natalia Egorovna Nikonova and Maria Vladimirovna Dubenko Fichte as a Post-Kantian Philosopher and His Political Theory: A Return to Romanticism by Özgür Olgun Erden Negotiating boundaries: Encyclopédie, romanticism, and the construction of science by Marcelo Fetz Wandering Motive and Its Appeal on Reluctantly Wandering Franz Schubert by  Dragana Jeremić-Molnar The Caucasian Motif in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s ‘House of the Dead’ in the Light of the Polemic with Lermontov by Xuyang Mi The Core of Romanticism by Monika Milosavljević Romantic worldview as a narcissistic construct’by Branko Mitrović Topographic Transmissions and How To Talk About Them: The Case of the Southern Spa in Nineteenth-Century Russian Fiction by Benjamin Morgan Lermontov’s Romanticism and Jena School by Liudmila G. Shakirova The Self in a Crystal Sphere: Juliusz Słowacki’s Concept of the Subject (in his works from the 1830) by Marek Stanisz The Many Faces of Nature: An Ecocritical Reading of the Concepts of Wilderness and the Sublime in John Keats’ Selected Poems by Morteza Emamgholi Tabar Malakshah & Behzad Pourqarib

[crimsonite]

5 German films to watch (that aren’t dark and gritty or Lola rennt)

1. Honig im Kopf

(lit.: Honey in the head)

The story of a girl and her grandfather, who has Alzheimer. The film follows the whole family coming to terms and dealing with the illness. Starring Germany’s Til Schweiger, who’s otherwise known to make kind of silly rom-coms with weird titles that nobody really likes (at least I haven’t met anyone yet). Bittersweet and sad at times, yes, but also doesn’t paint the story in too dramatic colours and always keeps a bit of the light-hearted atmosphere through out the film. Everyone was going nuts when it came out though, guess it was kind of the surprise of Til Schweiger doing something that was actually good?? I don’t know. Just watch the film, don’t ponder too much about it.

2. Bibi Blocksberg und das Geheimnis der blauen Eulen

(lit.: Bibi Blocksberg and the secret of the blue owls)

My childhood. I’m not kidding. Bibi Blocksberg is a popular German children’s character - she’s like, what, maybe 11 years old? Anyway, she’s a witch and her mum’s one too, her father’s named Bernard, her mum, who’s also a witch by the way, is named Barbara (because of ALLITERATION) and she has a broom called “mashed potates”. That’s kinda all you need to know to start. So I rewatched the trailer now, and I cringed a little bit at how 2004  it is, but it’s glorious. I don’t remember much of the plot to be honest, just that Bibi is … at a summer school and there’s a labyrinth under the school, which is where the secret of the blue owls is hidden. Bibi and her friend Elea, whose parents died in a car accident when she was young and who now uses a wheelchair, are determined to find out more, but the evil witch Rabia (whom Bibi more or less successfully banned to the Devil’s Moor in the first movie) is back and already plotting for revenge. Is it a kid’s movie? Yes. Should you watch it anyway? YES.

3. Systemfehler - Wenn Inge Tanzt

(lit.: Systemfehler (name of the band) - When Inge Dances)

Dude. I’ve never watched this movie, but I heard it’s really fricking funny. A mix of Germany’s adaption of Camp Rock, Rock It! (I’ve linked the trailer but that doesn’t mean you should go watch it honestly don’t do that to yourself) and the actually really funny Groupies bleiben nicht zum Frühstück (lit.: Groupies don’t stay for breakfeast), that didn’t make this list for the simple reason that “6 German films to watch” would break the tradition of using either 3, 5 or 10 for these kind of posts. And who am I to anger the langblr ancestors?

Anyway ABOUT THE MOVIE. So Max is the singer of a small band called “Systemfehler”, which he founded with his friends. Recently they’ve landed a surprisingly big hit with a song making fun of their more eco-friendly activist classmate Inge, which…the name alone. Any German will understand. It’s no Kevin, but … just don’t call your child Inge if you want it to make friends on the Pausenhof. The song, called “Wenn Inge Tanzt”, blows up so much that manager Dan Biermann offers them to be the opening act of the band Madsen (they’re moderately big Germany, trust me). But oh no! Their guitarrist Joscha breaks both of his hands! Just when it seems their dream of fame will only remain a dream, Inge offers to replace Joscha, under one condition…that they won’t play “Wenn Inge Tanzt” at the concert. Genuinely funny! I haven’t watched it but I definitely want to!!

4. Rubinrot   (English Trailer)/(German Trailer)

(lit.: Ruby Red)

I think this is the only film here with an English dub (not going to comment on the quality here, or the fact that they all have American accents even though the film CLEARLY takes place in the uk…beggars can’t be choosers).

It’s a fantasy film, based on the YA Novel by Kerstin Gier, which was an internation success and I think it even made it on the NY Times bestseller list (correct me if I’m wrong).

Gwendolyn Shepherd never felt like she was anything special, because even though she lives in midst of her big family in a posh mansion in Mayfair, as far as she can remember all attention has been on her cousin Charlotte. You see, Charlotte is the Ruby, last in a line of 12 people (each with pretentiously assigned symbolic gemstones) that possess the gift of time-traveling, spanning through out history. All of Gwen’s family is part of the Lodge, an underground club made up of England’s upper ten thousand dedicaded to protecting the secret, who have been training and preparing Charlotte and her time-traveling partner aka Mysterious Arrogant Hottie aka Gideon De Villiers aka Kotzbrocken all their lifes. But in the days before Charlotte’s first time jump, Gwen’s stomach does some weird things and instead of the school cafeteria, she finds herself back in 1823.

What is she supposed to do? Tell the Lodge that their century-old calculations are wrong? Face the blistering wrath of her aunt and cousin? Learn how to dance the minuette? All that plus one thing: Under no, NO circumstances fall for handsome-but-devilishly-arrogant Gideon de Villiers. Which turns out to be harder than it seems.

This is 2011-you’s day dream, jokes aside. A posh mansion in London with a quirky family? Check. A secret society of time-travelers? Check. Doing adventerous stuff in a ball gown with an arrogant hottie that would drop everything for you in 0.2 seconds? CHECK.

(btw if you’re about to shit all over them bc you’re ~edgy and ~cooler than the rest of us, fricking FIGHT ME 12 year olds deserve all the cheesy time traveling heroine stabbing bad guys in ball gown fantasies they can get)

I WORSHIPPED these books and I wish the film had done them justice, because even though clearly written for 10-15 year olds, they’re funny and full of original ideas and plot twists. Unfortunately, they fell victim to the Percy Jackson Phenomenon, where in comparison with the book the film is an abyss of badness, but sufficiently entertaining when viewed as a stand-alone. If you’re into fantasy and you had a long day in school/at work and just want to get some daily target language input without having to think too much about plot deepness, this exactly what you’re searching for.

5. Fack Ju Göhte

(lit.: well…kind of self-explanatory.Goethe is a very famous German poet, if you didn’t know. Smart guy.)

(If you’re a beginner you maybe shouldn’t start with this film. The characters talk very fast, use incorrect grammar, slang and all in all it’s not very easy to understand).

You knew it was coming. You knew it. @ German person that clicked on this list, curious, whispering to themselves “but will she mention … that film??”. Yes. Yes, I will. This list could not be complete without this film. My life and the lifes of thousands of other German students would not be complete without this film.

Okay, let me explain. You can argue with me all you want, but right here is a work of immensiously contemporary importance in the German society, arguably the peak of German cinema. Everyone has seen it at least twice. Kindergarten children repeat the punchlines one to another. Make the mistake to say the name “Chantall” out loud in a classroom full of 7th graders and you’ll be greeted with a chorus of delighted “HEUL LEISER”‘s.

I could write a the whole plot out here and go into a deep analysis of how this film criticises the German education system and in particular its neglection of everyone who comes from a lower social class or the place and role of turkish immigrants in society and what problems they face, but. Imma be honest. That film is first and foremost fricking hilarious.

It’s an ex-bank robber called Zeki Müler who ends up as a substitute teacher on accident, assigned to now teach the “Problemklasse” (usually the class with the worst reputation, made up of kids that don’t study and find joy in disrupting class (in this case all clichées of the German lower classes) of the school. Throw in a bag of money that’s buried under the gym, a doomed reenactment of Romeo and Juliet, a paintball gun and an overly correct teacher prone to hysterics that can’t seem to mind her own business and you got yourself a movie that Germany won’t forget so quickly.

(the title is a pun - an intentional misspelling of F*ck You, Goethe since the name of the school where the film takes place is the Goethe Gesamtschule).

A colourful, goofy, exagerated portrayal of school in Germany. All teachers show it in the last class before summer holidays. Iconic. If you want to immidiately get on the good side of a German teen, drop a few references. Just- watch it.

So, I hoped you all liked this collection of films and I could help you out a bit. Who knows, I think I might make a post about popular German YA literature. You see, these are the things that help me enourmosly when learning a new language - pop cultur, wether it is recent or a bit older. Often it shows the spirit of a country and you’ll always have something to talk about with native speakers!

[gofod-alle-rymd]

LazyTown in different languages

Inspired by @malteseboy​ ‘s Peppa Pig in different languages

LazyTown, meme show supreme, is a good show to use for practice! The show has been dubbed into nearly 32 languages, according to the Wikipedia, so there should be something for everyone. It is faster than Peppa Pig and I’d recommend it mostly to people at B1/B2 level, but it can be good just to let the language wash over you for the immersion. It’s use of songs are quite nice breaks between dialogue too. There is also generally a lot of it free on YouTube, which is nice 

The for Icelandic learners there are also the original stage plays 

Arabic

Czech

Danish

Dutch

Finnish

French

German

Hungarian

Icelandic

Italian

Korean

Norwegian

Polish

Portuguese

Romanian

Russian

Serbian

Slovenian

Spanish

Swedish

Other shows

Miraculous Ladybug

Charlie and Lola

Little Princess

[languagetrash]

Learning French vs Learning German

Reading French: a lot of words look like English, fairly straightforward, no casualties yet

Reading German: …where’s the verb gone? because i on sunday with my friend shopping went…

German tenses: wow look at these tenses that are easy to distinguish between

French tenses: is that the future, conditional, or imperfect???

German spelling: not massively difficult

French spelling: HAHAHAHA

German pronunication: things are said how they’re spelt, better master CH and R though

French pronunication: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Listening to German: as long as Hochdeutsch is spoken, all is good

Listening to French: what did i do to deserve this

Speaking German: did i send my verb to the end??? did i even say the verb??? oops i said k instead of ch

Speaking French: honestly why did i learn ALL these endings

French prepositions: not brilliant, not the end of the world

German prepositions: oh just kill me now

Telling people you’re learning French: “But it’s so easy and boring!”

Telling people you’re learning German: “But it sounds so violent!”

French grammar: WHY

German grammar: WHY (x6)

[ipablo6-blog]

language learning made easy

I’ve summarized professor  Alexander Arguelles’ video, because I think this is crucial for language learning. 

There is no magic trick that will help you become fluent in 1 month, but there are very effective approaches to learning a new language and if you combine them, you will surely become fluent.

If you’re learning a new language, the most important thing you need to consider is – what type of language learner are you? 

1. If you:

have a more deductive approach, which means that you’re better at listening to and observing the language first and learning through that, rather than starting with plain grammar points from a textbook

have a fair degree of intuition

like to observe a phenomenon

feel somewhat comfortable with ambiguity for a while, until things become clear

are someone who can feel comfortable being corrected when they realize they were wrong, rather than getting confused and frustrated because they went down an initial path that turned out not to be correct (so you actually learn from being corrected and you don’t get confused by it)

then, these manuals are best suited for you: the Assimil Language Series, the Linguaphone Series, the Cortina Methods.

2. If you:

have a desire to have things explained to you beforehand in a nice and clear way

have a logical and analytical mind (which is usually the product of education in general)

have a need for a systematic approach (basically if you’re most comfortable with a book which is going to introduce the grammar according to an agreed set of methods or an organized plan)

then, you should try out some of these manuals: the Hugo Series, the Made Simple Series, the Teach Yourself Series, the Buske Series. 

3. PAY ATTENTION TO PATTERNS!!!

the most important part are the patterns of a language

no matter what type of language learner you are, I think it’s really clever to incorporate this method into you learning. 

a language is actually made up of patterns which constantly repeat themselves and that is THE KEY TO FLUENCY

repeating the patterns over and over again, until they become natural, until you no longer have to conjugate the verbs in your head before speaking

when you become really good with patterns, your sentences will come out naturally, and patterns are what will get you to fluency

I’ve provided the links, where you will find a review of the books, so that you can have an idea of what they look like. You can find most of these on amazon.

There is also an amazing blog on here, which provides free books, and I think that you can find half of these series for free there.  @lovelybluepanda

[kj-likes-dogs]

We need to tell high school students more about what college is like. Most generally don’t know, other than dorms and dining halls and frat parties like what they see in movies. I, for one, had no idea what college was like, just that I was expected to attend and that it would be necessary for a career (it’s not necessary, just helpful depending on what you want to do).

I just told a high school history class all the awesome classes I’ve taken–like my Austin Powers/British espionage class, my 1900s Fashion History class, my Wicked the Book/Musical communications class, my invented languages class [linguistics regarding Elvish, Klingon, and more]. They lost their shit!

Because a lot of them assume it’s just taking *another* world history class, *another* plain old math class, when really they’re more focused and specific and sometimes even fun.

A lot of them thought they took the same classes every day, and were so pumped to hear that you generally take a class twice a week (more if it’s math or languages, in my experience) and you could have days where you have 6 hours between classes. They also were psyched to learn that a lot of classes don’t have daily work, just readings and essays every once in awhile (once again, depending on subject) and then a midterm and final.

They just ?? had no idea. And we should really change that.

[teachinginreallife]

When students go too far

[koalaschaf]

Liebe deine Sprache (x) 

🇩🇪 🇦🇹

[thatswhywelovegermany]

Bag Bin

Please put used protective recycled polyethylene pull-over bags for the rear window wiper here!

Thanks!

[jackherkness]

Aber was ist mit den Frontscheibenwischerrecyclingpolyethylenschutzüberziehtüten?

[langernameohnebedeutung]

Die kommen natürlich in den  Frontscheibenwischerrecyclingpolyethylenschutzüberziehtütentütenkübel. 

[thecollectibles]

Art by Tian Xiang

[collegemode]

Okay, so you’ve been called smart all your life. As a kid, you were one of the smartest in your class. Maybe you could read at a much higher level than your peers, or you could fly through multiplication drills like they were nothing. Then, you get to high school and suddenly you’re surrounded by lots of people who were ‘gifted kids’. None of what made you ‘special’ seems all that important now. Your work is actually challenging, and it’s actually requiring effort.

If you’re experiencing this, just know that so many students have gone through the same thing. Maybe it happens in high school, maybe college. But a lot of us who were considered gifted as kids suddenly run into this and it challenges our entire identity. It can be paralyzing, but it’s 100% possible to overcome it and succeed! I’ve compiled a few tips for ex-gifted kids dealing with impostor syndrome and self-doubt. I’m not a therapist, psychologist, or any sort of education expert. I’m just speaking to my own experiences, and I welcome any input from others who have insight into this as well!

1. Understand that working hard does not mean you aren’t intelligent. If something doesn’t come naturally to you, that’s not a reason to give up. Believing that people can do things “just because they were born with a talent for it” is only going to hurt you. It’s not true! People may have natural aptitudes for things, but hard work is involved even for the smartest or most talented people. You are capable of learning anything, and you don’t have to be “good at it” right away to do so.

2. Comparison will kill you. You are your only competition. Focusing on how you rank with other students, and comparing yourself to your classmates is going to exhaust you. By focusing on others, you can’t put your full energy into focusing on your work and yourself. You belong. Even if you struggle with your work, you belong. Focus on your own self-improvement and doing your best.

3. Don’t focus on the goal, focus on your current actions. If you’re always thinking about the future, and about whether you’ll get into that school or that program or win that award or get that scholarship, you’re not using that time to get work done. Don’t worry about college applications, just do your homework. Focus on what you are doing now to reach your goals so you can apply to schools with confidence later.

4. Your grades may not reflect intelligence, but they do reflect work ethic. Don’t let others convince you that grades mean nothing. They sure as hell mean a lot to colleges, and thinking that you should “reject the current education system” is not going to harm anyone but yourself. If you don’t feel like you’re learning anything in your high school classes, that’s all the more reason to want to get into a university that will challenge you. If you put effort into your work, it will not let you down. Your hard work will be reflected on your transcript. Don’t lose focus.

5. Talk to someone. Let people know if you’re struggling. It can be hard to feel like you aren’t allowed to identify as “smart” or to feel pressure to constantly compete and improve. I went to a highly competitive high school that pushed kids to cope in dangerous ways. This is not healthy and not okay. If you’re feeling overwhelmed you need to find healthy coping mechanisms. Speak with someone you trust and don’t let yourself spiral. Don’t try to self medicate. Your well being is always more important than your grades. Period.

6. Enjoy yourself. School may seem like hell, and you may feel like it will never end and you’ll always be stressed and worried. But high school is only four years, and you can do things during that time that you probably won’t ever again. Take advantage of things that seem fun, even if people think they’re nerdy or weird. Try and remind yourself that you’re lucky to have your education and you have the power to do great things with it. Don’t lose sight of your own ability and your bright future!

[steampunktendencies]

A remarkable Jacobean re-emergence after 200 years of yellowing varnish Courtesy Philip Mould

[beyoursledgehammer]

PAINT RESTORATION OF MESMERIZING

[eliciaforever-deactivated201906]

I saw this on Twitter. He’s using acetone, but a cellulose ether has been added to make it into a gel (probably Klucel—this entire gel mixture is sometimes just called Klucel by restorers, but Klucel is specifically the stuff that makes the gel). 

Normally, acetone is too volatile for restoration, but when it’s a gel, it becomes very stable and a) stays on top of the porous surface of the painting, and b) won’t evaporate. So it can eat up the varnish.

It looks scary, but acetone has no effect on oils, and jelly acetone is even less interactive with the surface of the paint or canvas.

[ooh-sluggie]

Will someone PLEASE clean the mona lisa

[dracofidus-deactivated20200523]

For those who are wondering, they cleaned a copy of the Mona Lisa made by one of Da Vinchi’s students, and here’s a side by side comparison:

CLEAN THE FUCKING MONA LISA.

[elliotputyourbootsbackon]

A couple problems with cleaning the Mona Lisa:

The Mona Lisa is a glazed painting.

A Direct Painting is one in which the artist mixes a large amount of paint of the correct value and shade the first time, and applies it to the painting. A Glazed Painting is a painting in which an underpainting is painted, generally in shades of gray or brown, and a allowed to dry, before layers of very thin glaze - a mixture of a tiny bit of pigment and a lot of oil - is applied to the surface.  Some artists, such as Leonardo, choose to work this way because it provides an incredible sense of light and illumination (look at how the real Mona Lisa seems to glow).

The Mona Lisa is an incredible work of glazed painting, but that makes it fragile, so fragile that many conservators don’t want to work on it because it’s extremely difficult and a conservation effort go wrong for many many reasons. One of the reasons it could go wrong is that the glazes and the varnish layers are actually a very similar chemical composition, and a conservator could accidentally strip off layers of glaze while removing the varnish. 

In fact, in 1809 during its first restoration when they stripped off the varnish, they also stripped off some of the top paint layers, which has caused the painting to look more washed out than Leonardo painted it. 

The Mona Lisa also has a frankly ridiculous amount of glaze layers on it, as Leonardo considered it incomplete up until he died, He actually took it with him when he left Italy (fleeing charges of homosexuality), meaning it never even got to the family who had commissioned it, and instead constantly altered it, trying to get it just a touch more perfect every time. That makes it really fragile, with countless layers of very thin paint, many of which have cracked, warped, flaked, or discolored. It’s not just the top layer, its layers and layers of glazing throughout the painting that have slowly discolored or been damaged over time.

Speaking of damage, look at the cracking. That’s called craquelure; it happens with many painting’s (even ones that aren’t painted with this technique) because the paint shrinks as it dries, or the surface it’s painted on warps.  Notice that the other painting has very little of it, even though it’s almost the same age.

The reason the Mona Lisa has so much craquelure is because Leonardo was highly experimental, almost to the point of it being his biggest flaw. There were established painting techniques, and then there were Leonardo’s painting techniques.  The established painting techniques were created in order to insure longevity and quality, but Leonardo didn’t stick to any of them. This has made his work a ticking time bomb of deterioration. 

Don’t believe me, check it out:

This is how most people think The Last Supper looks

But this is actually a copy done by Andrea Solari in 1520.

The actual Last Supper looks like this:

The Last Supper has been painstakingly and teadiously restored, with conservators sometimes working on sections as small as 4 cm a day. To get to it you’ve got to walk through a series of airlocks (AIRLOCKS!?!?!) and they only allow 15 people at a time because the moisture from your breath and your skin particles will damage it. Despite all of the precautions and restoration, it still looks like that.

This is because Leonardo painted the last supper using highly experimental methods. He didn’t use the traditional wet-into-wet method that fresco painters used, and insead painted onto the dry plaster on the wall, meaning the paint did not chemically adhere.  Before he even died the painting had already begun to flake. It’s a miracle it’s still there at all.

They’ve done what restoration they can on The Last Supper because the painting will absolutely disappear if they don’t. The Mona Lisa, which is delicate, but much more stable, doesn’t need the same kind of attention. And, like many of his works, is just too delicate to touch, and the risk of doing irreparable damage to it is far too high. The Mona Lisa is insured for something like 800 million dollars, and that’s a lot of money to be ruined by one wrong brush stroke. (fun fact: the most expensive painting ever sold was also a Leonardo, the Salvator Mundi, and it went for 450 million dollars.)

Furthermore, there are probably only 20 or so authenticated Leonardo paintings in the whole world. If you look through the list, most of them aren’t even fully done by him, are disputed, or aren’t even finished.  It’s simply too difficult and too risky to restore the Mona Lisa, one of Leonardo’s only finished and mostly intact works, when there’s hardly any more of his paintings to fall back on.

Now the painting you see in the video above is 200 years old, not 600 years old, and I assure you, the conservators decided the risk to restore it was minimal (after extensive research, paint testing, x-raying, gamma radiation, etc.) and that the work they were doing was worth the risk based on the painting’s value.

Conservators make the decision all the time about how much they can do for a painting, because really, they have the ability to completely strip a painting of all varnish and glazes and just repaint the whole thing (which happens to a lot of badly damaged paintings, especially when there’s no way to save them - one of the very small museums in my area recently deaccessioned a Monet because it was barely original, and no one wants to look at a Monet that’s only 20% Monet’s work) - but doing that to the Mona Lisa, removing the artist’s hand from the most famous piece of artwork in history? Hell No.

(also, I’m not a conservator but I’ll be applying to a conservation grad program sometime next year, so sorry if any of my info is at all inaccurate) 

[tabby-dragon]

I found this really interesting, thanks for sharing.

[shygaladriel]

That makes me feel better about it being so dirty.

[otto-wood]

July 3, 2019

[tombliboos]

Italian anime openings are probably the most underrated key aspect of Italian culture. Even people who study Italian language and culture at university don’t know anything about Italian anime openings. How do I explain to foreigners that very few things bring Italians together: food, the World Cup and Italian anime openings.

[tombliboos]

This probably needs a better explanation: Italy is the Western country with the highest distribution of Japanese anime series, which have shaped the childhood of Italians since the 1970s. Italian anime openings are unique because they’re actually original songs purposefully composed for each anime that ever aired on television, and they used to be sung by the same two singers every single time. Sometimes they do concerts where they sing Italian anime openings, and you can find plenty of grown ass people who still remember the lyrics after all this time.

[draconetthedragon-deactivated20]

Any examples?

[tombliboos]

Pokémon 2nd opening (actual masterpiece)

Pokémon 1st opening (not as good as the second but this is THE opening)

Dragon Ball Z

Card Captor Sakura

The Secret of Blue Water

Jeanie (lyrics are amazing)

The Rose of Versailles

Gundam Wing

Digimon

Sailor Moon

Heidi

[langsandlit]

OMG. May I add…

1. Mila e Shiro

2. Ti voglio bene, Denver

3. Memole dolce Memole

4. È quasi magia Johnny

5. Rossana

Occhi di gatto

Il mistero della pietra azzurra

Pollon

Kiss me Licia

Cristina D’Avena, a goddess.

[acharacterwithoutastory]

I can’t link right now but what about Detective Conan??

[two-nipples-maybe-more]

Detective Conan (1st and 2nd version)

Also this is blatant Lady Oscar erasure

[thebritishteapot]

EXCUSE ME YOU FORGOT THE BEST ONE YET: SLAYERS

[quiiescenza]

I can’t believe you forgot the Dragon Ball ones

[mazzytwi]

Tumblr Resources to Get You Through the School Year!

Hi guys!! Thank you all so much for your support!!! Happy 250 (EDIT: I SPENT A DAY ON THIS AND NOW IM PAST 300) and hope you all have a great start to the month! The community is more welcoming with all of you - I haven’t faced negativity from anyone at all. None of these are my posts - but they’ve helped me out a lot. With that said - let’s get started:

For bujos/planners:

This is one of my side blogs, and has tons of inspiration for weekly and monthly spreads, as well as a few aesthetic ideas and how to start one. I update this constantly.

How to start a studyblr - Studyblrs with creative fields

Lighting (for photos)

Study spreads

Planning your month

Printables (the same as some used down there but in a different category):

Weekly printable

To - do printable

Cornell Notes printable

Back to school printables

Daily Planner  @theorganisedstudent

Weekly Planner II @theorganisedstudent

Essay Planner @theorganisedstudent

Assignment Planner @theorganisedstudent

Assignment Tracker

Novel Notes

Plot Diagrams

Correction Sheets

Grid & lined paper

Weekly schedule for studying

Printables masterpost

Exam printable & how to use it

2018 Calender set (by my QUEEN @emmastudies)

For students:

Exams & Studying:

Exam revision guide

How to beat different types of procrastination

How to deal with a crappy teacher (this has to do with studying ig)

Study tips!! (its a masterpost)

Exam Printable & How to Use it

Exam & Homework tips

Coping with hell i mean exams i mean hell

A cool studying outline to try

This is my favorite thing and it’s when to use certain remembering techniques

Correction Sheets

Memorization tips for different learners

Weekly study schedule

More sites to use in normal studying routines

How to study smarter and not harder

Study smarter II

Exam printable & how to use it

Self discipline 

Study methods

Hoe tips for school and studying

Studying masterpoint

Tips and tricks to studying

Study tip - so easy

How to stay organized to study

Note - Taking:

Lecture notes

How i set up flash cards (these are nice to study from but be determined to finish setting them up)

Nifty highlighting idea (this post is so old)

Highlighting idea that i actually use

How to take Cornell Notes

Cornell style notes printable (gridded)

Notebook paper (grid & lined)

Tips for pretty notes!!

How to take notes

Notes for different classes

Life, man & general school stuff:

Back - to -school guide

Things I learned as a college freshman

Get ORGANIZED

Textbooks are expensive so here’s some free ones…

Tips for working students that sound extra but may work for u ily don’t overwork urselves

Masterpost for motivation and stuff

Get ur life together again bc haha i stay organized for like a day anyway

School supplies that u should have just to stay minimal

Grad school tips

Organization masterpost

Productive afterschool routine

30 websites to kill boredom

Back to school masterpost

Get confident in presentations

Overcome procrastination

Succeeding in school masterpost

For bad days 

For bad days II

A GOOD MASTERPOST for getting ur life together 

General school tips 

Free online courses

GOOD POWERPOINT TIPS

Sites to learns stuff

More learning stuff sites

Dealing with a trashy class

Study resources masterpost

Summer Productivity

Summer life tips

PLEASE READ THIS THIS IS SUCH AN IMPORTANT MASTERPOST 

Honest guide to college 

University tips

SCHOOL MINDSET

What to do on Sundays

Back to school masterpost

Useful things for going back to school

How to clean your house

Cute self care tips!

More self care tips

Plant care tips!

English:

A handy list of words to fit into ur essays

How to write an article like a journalist

Words to replace over-used words

ESSAY STRUCTURE IDEA this is in bold so u losers don’t miss this bc it’s not just for English u nerds

Get gucci while reading and be an active reader

Get gud reading them academic articles amigo

Words to replace “the author or whatever shows…” bc that is baby writing and i accidentally used that on an essay and i failed so

Novel notes

Plot Diagrams

Reading Lists

Literary techniques (what themes, personifications, metaphors are etc)

Discussing in English

How to top a literature class

Literature class masterpost

Strong/weak verbs

More essay tips!!

MLA format - a how to

ESSAY GRADER.

How to avoid essay cliches

Chemistry (I’m taking chem so i have a few resources aha)

Da terms on exam papers

Chemistry resources masterpost

Cute periodic tables

Study chapters

History/Social Studies

How to write a history paper

AP world history powerpoints masterpost

Math 

General tips

Resources

Understanding math masterpost

Test Prep

PSAT I

PSAT II

ACT tips!

100 words for the SATs (start studying early!!)

Thank you so much for the support! I couldn’t have done it without all of you. A simple reblog or like will help others see these tips, and will be very appreciated. I hope these links work - feel free to message me with questions and other links!! A possible part 2 might come out at the end of august, and one for languages!!!

[starfieldcanvas]

hey les mis fandom!

friendly reminder that feuilly loves origami and always has exactly seven fuchsia paper cranes in his pocket for good luck  (｡◡‿◡｡)

friendly reminder that marius speaks german and flatly refuses to order coffee in any other language (｡◕‿◕｡)

friendly reminder that grantaire was actually a three-headed dragon the entire time and everyone was just too polite to mention it  (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ 

friendly reminder that it’s really irritating when y'all use this format to “remind” me of things that aren’t actually canon  ( ಠ _ ಠ )

[luciphe-r]

what do YOU MEAN NOT CANON

???( ಠ _ ಠ )???

[starfieldcanvas]

screw it, complaint retracted, this is glorious

[somalang]

langblr problems

•watching YouTubers speak your target language and you’re jealous of their ‘fluency’

•debating if you should learn a Romance language or Germanic

•changing your phone to your target language and getting weird looks from people when they see your home screen

•debating if you should learn German or Dutch

•debating if you should learn Swedish or Norwegian

•debating if you should learn Italian or Spanish or Portuguese

•talking to yourself in your target language

•you’re able to understand your target language in a written form but when somebody speaks it, you’re like🤔🔫

•fangirling when you find somebody who speaks your target language

•having to deal with people who think that you’re ‘fluent’ in your target language but all you can do is introduce yourself

[self-excellence]

GUIDE TO:

FIX YOUR SLEEPING SCHEDULE (1-2 months)

Try to wake up earlier every day. Like 5 - 10 min earlier than the day before. Until you wake up any time before 8am or so…

If you struggle with waking up & snooze button is you bff:

Put your alarm clock as far away from the bed as possible.

Drink a glass of water right after you wake up.

Pour another glass of water on yourself right after you wake up.

Prepare some coffee the night before, leave it by your bedside, drink it after you wake up.

Have your blinds/curtains open, so that it’s bright after you wake up.

Try to go to bed 5-10 min earlier than the night before.

Track how many hours of sleep you’re getting. Aim to get at least 7h per day or 49h per week. 

Increase your sleeping hours incrementally. Aim to get at least 1h of sleep more than the previous week. For example, if this week you slept for 41hrs, aim to get an extra hour of sleep next week, so it’s 42h.Once you get enough hours of sleep and wake up early-ish.

Try to keep your sleeping schedule consistent. It is really important to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day.  Even if it’s weekend. Or even if that means, you getting less than 7hrs of sleep that day. I’d say waking up at the same time everyday is the most important step, which will help you the most with fixing your sleeping schedule.

START EATING HEALTHY (1-2 months)

This step really depends from person to person, but firstly I suggest you take some blood tests to see if you have any deficiencies, etc. Especially, if you struggle with cravings.  

Try intermittent fasting, if you struggle with binge eating or overeating. As it will help you to learn to listen to your body better: when it’s hungry, when it’s full, etc. It’s really simple, there are many methods of Intermittent fasting, but I’d suggest 16/8 for the beginners. (Google it for more info)

DRINK ALL THE WATER. Again, if you’re not drinking enough water, try to level up your water game incrementally. Download some water tracking app on your phone to help you. Drinking water will make you more energetic, increase your metabolism, and decrease you appetite (among many more benefits).

Track what you eating. I would really suggest tracking your meals for around a month. Because, most of the time people have no idea that what they’re eating is unhealthy. Again, download an app to your phone for that.

Make your own meals once in a while. Not only this will save you money, but it’ll help you to see what’s really going into your body.

Eat less meat and more veggies/fruits. Go to your local market and buy some veggies/fruits, you have never tried before. I’m sure you’ll find your new favs. Eat/buy less meat. Not only it’s good for the environment, but it is good for you, too. Get a veggie burger instead of the beef one, etc.

Cut dairy. Find your new favourite milk substitute. Advice: Oat milk is really good with the tea and oatmeal/porridge; hazelnut milk is amazing on it’s own; cashew milk goes well with cereals.

Learn more about nutrition in general. It will help you to make better food choices and it will make eating healthy much easier in general, because once you understand all the chemistry behind the food and what it does to your body, you kinda don’t want to make yourself feel worse. Here are some free resources: - Human nutrition course from Alison.com - Crash course Metabolism&Nutrition: Part 1 and Part 2 - The Health Nerd’s YouTube Playlist about nutrition - What I’ve Learnt YouTube Playlist - Human nutrition course from Alison.com - Crash course Metabolism&Nutrition: Part 1 and Part 2 - The Health Nerd’s YouTube Playlist about nutrition - What I’ve Learnt YouTube Playlist

GET PHYSICALLY FIT (2-6 months)

Define your goals. Do you want to lose weight, do you want to get stronger, gain weight, be able to climb stairs without losing breath, run 5k?

Remember - you’re half-way through. Being physically fit has a lot to do with what you put into your body. So, if you fulfilled the previous step of eating healthy - you are half way through!

Make a plan. A Reasonable plan. Be honest with yourself.

Start small. Like, 5 min exercise in the morning. Or doing 10 sit ups per day. Don’t do anything overwhelming, like running 5k everyday if you haven’t run for the past 5 years.

Make sure that you kinda like what you’re doing. If you absolutely hate running - don’t do it. Hate doing sit ups in the morning? Try some yoga instead.

Explore until you find what you like. You don’t have to go to gym to get fit, especially if you hate it. Find a type of exercise, which you actually like. Maybe it’s dancing or hiking, taking your dog for a walk. Sign up for several trial lessons of various sport clubs. Ditch ‘em if you have them until you find something that you love. Stick with that.

Do the small changes in your everyday life. Stairs>Escalator, Walk>Drive, Do some squats while brushing your teeth, switch from regular desk to standing desk, etc…  Find ways to incorporate being active into your everyday life

Track your effort instead of your progress. You cannot really control your progress that much (especially if your goal was to lose weight). However, you can always control your effort. So track it instead. This will leave you more motivated. As you will be able to see that you can do more and more everyday. Whereas, if you tracked your progress, you may not always get the result you hoped for, which might demotivate you and make you upset, wanting to quit.

BEAT DEPRESSION

Do the previous 3 steps and you’re half way through.

See a therapist/doctor. Depression is an illness, requiring medical treatment. So, get it. Remember: there is absolutely no fucking shame in having a mental illness.

Get some extra support. Talk to your friends or family. Or maybe someone on the internet.

Write it out. If you don’t want to talk - write down your thoughts. It can be just as helpful. It’ll help you to understand yourself better, see problems in your thinking, etc.

Distract yourself from yourself. Get someone/something to take care of, so that you can, for a moment, stop thinking about yourself and focus on something else. E.g, get a plant, or a dog, or a fish.

Self-care day. Dedicate at least one day per week for self-care. Take yourself out, either to a museum or some fancy cafe, do some stuff you like, whatever your hobbies are, do some physical self care: bath, face mask, manicure, etc., listen to some nice music, watch a film…..

STOP PROCRASTINATION

Celebrate your victories instead of mourning over your loses.So the only thing you’ve done today was write one sentence for your 20 page essay? Amazing! Buy yourself a candy for that!! I mean, you could’ve done nothing, but you didn’t - you wrote that one sentence and that’s worth celebrating.

Do it for only 2 minutes. If there’s an important thing you’ve been putting off for a while, tell yourself that you will only spend 2 minutes on doing it. If after 2 minutes you don’t want to do it anymore, great, stop it. However, after 2min. you actually might want to do more. No pressure either way.

Track your productivity. Track how much time you’ve been productive that day. Try to increase that time by a little bit every day.

Always forgive yourself. So, it’s been a week and you’ve done nothing? Don’t sweat it. Let it go. Blaming yourself will bring you absolutely nothing. Nothing good will come out of your negativity on yourself. So stop it. Forgive yourself and start again. And again, if you need to. Never stop trying. Always pick yourself after you fall. Beating procrastination and increasing your discipline is a skill. And all skills can be build on. There is nothing in you stopping you from changing. Remember that.

LEARN HOW TO DO TAXES (1h - 1 day)

Go to google.com.

Type in: “How to do taxes *the name of the country you’re living in*”

Read the results.

GET MENTALLY STRONG ENOUGH TO MAKE PHONE CALLS

Remember that just as with beating procrastination, making phone calls is a skill. And, again, skills can be learnt.

Get a new SIM card.

Top it up.

Dial some random numbers and pretend to be a salesman, selling whatever you like.. E.g., trying to sell broadband, cable tv, trying to get people to donate for some charity… Or whatever really… Me and some friends used to pretend we’re selling kittens or wood logs. Alternatively, you can pretend that you dialed a wrong person and talk about whatever, e.g. “Hey, Jess!! You wont believe what I saw today!! *start telling a made-up story*…”

If you get uncomfortable - just drop the call. No consequences whatsoever.

Repeat until you build up your game and your phone-call anxiety starts to diminish.

SLAY THOSE BITCHES Congratulations, now you’re ready to take over the world! Got get ‘em!!

[jeiasacads]

YO SIGNAL BOOST