Would You Kindly Read This Blog*

Heyoooo!

So how was this fine November been treating you? Time continues its stately march on, doesn't it? I'm sure I'll barely even notice when the new year appears and the whole progression of months begins anew. These last two months of the year always seem to exist within their own reality. As I know I've mentioned many times, these two months are essentially being treated as hardcore song writing action. But, well, I've got a confession: I've got writer's block. Its rather frustrating to stare at a blank sheet of paper for hours, writing something, crossing it out, starting over and over. I won't bore you with all the mundane details of it but as I'm sure you know, its more than just writing words. Its rhymes and cadences and syllables and all sorts of fun stuff like that one top trying to make a coherent vision present itself in a fresh way. I tend to disregard the coherent part of that last sentence but I'm trying to push myself in a different direction that's less esoteric and bit more rooted in real life images and situations. Though naturally not all songs will be that way but seeing as the song I'm poorly attempting to write lyrics for is our faux country rock song, I don't really picture poetic lyrics about sleeping in frozen seas going with that feel very well :P I do have a first verse for it though. It didn't turn out as great as I was hoping but there's still time to tweak. Its that chorus though that's just killing me. Trying to sum up the message of the song in a few simple lines while making it work within the progression of the song's story regardless of whether its the beginning of the song or after the first verse or if its the last lines of the song. Its tough. Somehow I always make it happen but its rough getting there sometimes. And sometimes, its easy. Oh what glorious times those are . . .

Moving along! Some of you may recall me making various mentions of doing a top 100 cds of the decade list. Well I've been giving it a lot of thought and obviously I want to be a very through and objective (ish) list and its gonna be a lot harder than I thought it would be to create this list. I mean, I can't even decide which Hey Mercedes cd I like better between the two full lengths so how am I gonna rank them amongst all the other cds out there in the world? I mean I'm sure given enough time I could certainly get a pretty solid list together but I'll definitely have to have several drafts of the list as I fine tune it to perfection . . . I've toyed with making the list in alphabetical or chronological order but that's just not as fun as having a countdown, ya know? Go big or go home, right? So let's go big. At least I know the top 2 spots. I just gotta get the other 98 in order. Or well, I gotta get the other 98 picked first actually then I can go about arranging them.

We haven't talked about Batman in quite a while you know and I figured since I'm rocking my Batman & Robin shirt, today would be a lovely time to mention the dynamic duo again. I'm pretty pumped about the release of Batman & Robin #6 this coming Wednesday. That silly Grant gave us quite a tease at the end of #5 with the first introduction of the Flamingo, a villain that rides a pink motorcycle and wears all pink. Sound a little silly and not that intimidating? Well he also cuts people's faces off and eats them. A little more intimidating now maybe? Besides though, Grant may create some odd characters and storylines but he's yet to let me down so I have the utmost faith in him. I'm really curious though whether he's leading us down a path that will lead to the future seen in Batman #666 or whether that was a sort of special one off issue, not a glimpse at a possible future. I'm hoping its where he's leading us cause I've gotta say, that issue was all sorts of badass!! Our good (ish) friend Tony Daniel is now writing (just plain) Batman now. You may recall he did the art for Batman RIP last year with Grant and then wrote and illustrated Battle for the Cowl earlier this year. Well, as far as I was concerned, Battle for the Cowl blew so I was a bit upset that he was gonna be taking over the main book (there are several Batman comics out there such as "Batman," "Batman & Robin," "Detective Comics," "Red Robin," etc) but his first issue was actually rather good and I must admit, I might have to change my mind of him as a writer (he's obviously a quite talented artist!). Here's hoping his next issue, which arrives next week, holds up to the standard he set with his first issue. And before we leave comics behind for the week, it bears noting that Blackest Night is freaking incredible. Insanely freaking incredible.

While the rest of the video game world is a buzz about the release of Modern Warfare 2 this coming Tuesday (or Monday at midnight if you've got it pre-ordered [and don't forget, Gamestop is still accepting pre-orders!]), I'm still more than content with my Borderlands action. While it probably isn't for everyone, it was practically made for me! Though, I will admit, those trailers they've been showing for MW2 do look rather enticing . . . I may end up recounting my Call of Duty ban, but that's still a bit of a long shot. I'd rather play Uncharted 2 thank you very much!

What do ya say we wrap this blog up for the week. I think I've bored you enough with my tales of writer's block and comic book nerd action. Tune in next when I probably talk about the same things! ; ) Wait. Was there a movie coming out that was gonna be awesome? Hmm. I dunno. Oh well. See ya'll next week!

Steve!

*If you caught that reference, you're awesome . . . and then would you kindly leave a comment.

Hello world!

Do you recall how last week I mentioned how quickly this year has progressed? Well here's further example of that: We just played our last show of the year last night. Sad. It was a good show to go out on though I must admit. A classic Pensive show if you will. It was lovely getting to go back up to Long Beach for the first time in about two years and see a lot of familiar faces that we haven't seen in ages! And a couple familiar faces that we hadn't seen in days! And I know right now you're wondering why it was the last Pensive show of the year when there's still 1/6th a year left. Well, it really comes down to a few things and those few things are known as "holidays." These "holidays" generally get in the way of any sort of productive touring for a band at our level. Instead, we here at Pensive choose the "hibernation" option. Much like bears, we retreat away and sleep away the winter months underground. Except, unlike bears, well, we don't actually sleep any more than usual and we don't spend much, if any, time underground. So I guess its really nothing like hibernation but its just fun to say that it is. Instead of sleep, the "holiday" months shall be used to lock ourselves away into the studio, writing, writing, writing new songs till the spring thaw when normal touring activity can resume. Right about now, we're sitting on around 10-12 new songs and hopefully by the "new year" that will have doubled. Approximately. And again, no, we do not have plans for a new record at this point. This can keep you occupied for now. As I have promised a couple times before, you will be among the first to know when there actually are plans. I have high hopes for this new batch of songs. We might even be stretching ourselves a bit too wide in our sounds. Heck, one of our newest sounds like a strange mix between NFG and country. How does that work?! Oh but it does. Somehow. Not sure how that would sound sandwiched between our Mars Volta/Aerosmith song and our Thrice/Opeth song but it might sit nicely next to that dancey pop song we have : )

As you probably know, one of the greatest holidays in existence is coming up in a matter of days. That's right, Halloween is nearly upon us! And you know what that means don't you?! Well yes, I guess another Saw movie is coming out but really, who cares any more? Saw III was the last one I saw and I have since decided to boycott any further movies. I would much rather spend my hard earned money on a quality horror movie. Other than Paranormal Activity though, are there actually any good ones out? Perhaps it shall just have to be a Blockbuster holiday. I'll have to spend the majority of the next week compiling a rock solid list of horror movies to experience next Saturday. I'm thinking I might dress up as the same thing I did last year: boy with broken ankle. I've still got my walking cast-boot and crutches! Or I could do what I did the year before: a white version of Samuel L. Jackson from Pulp Fiction. I also contemplated dressing up as a REAL vampire (aka one that doesn't sparkle) by the name of Lestat but I don't really wanna go find a frilly shirt and a long blond wig . . . But who knows. I change my mind a lot. I'll give you a full report next weekend. And while I haven't even started making my movies list yet, you can rest assured that The Shining shall be on it!

Today was a very sad day. Brett Favre and the Vikings lost. I'm sure you don't really care but dammit I do!! :tear: And on such terrible luck too. A touchdown called back by a bad call by the refs! (tripping? are you kidding me?!) A fumble and an interception both returned for touchdowns? Maybe Brett just needed to get the losing out of his system now. At least the Chargers didn't suffer a terrible loss against Kansas City. We won? Wow. Its almost a shock when we don't lose. And we even scored touchdowns instead of fieldgoals? Incredible! The Angels just lost to the Yankees but eh, its just Baseball . . .

And in personal news: I finally cut my hospital bracelets off on the one year anniversary of the epic broken ankle. My wrist felt naked at first but now I feel free. Hooray! I also did end up getting Borderlands at midnight last Monday/Tuesday and have spent a great many fun filled nights with it. What's it like? Well imagine if Fallout 3 could be played as an actual shooter. There ya go pretty much. And plus, its way epic. And unlike Fallout, the level cap is 50 instead of 20 so thats a lot more gaming! Though, there has since been a DLC expansion pack that ups that level cap to 30 so I'll have to invest in that once I've gotten as much out of Borderlands as I can. Oh, and if you happen to have it and have it on PS3 we should do Co-Op together sometime. It could be fun. My PSN id is: JanuaryEmbers19. Oh, and while on the subject of video games and personal news, it looks like after a nearly 4 year break, I shall be returning to GameStop for the "holiday" months! Ok, ok, its not actually 100% for sure yet but I do have help on the inside so we'll see.

"Don't Ever Tell Locke What He Can't Do"

Bonjour!

Its odd. It literally just this very second hit me how late into the year it is. I mean, the middle of October isn't terribly late but very soon it shall be the next year. The years seem to be going much faster as of late. Perhaps its only in hindsight that we can truly appreciate the passage of time. In an exciting little bit of personal news, this Friday shall mark the one year anniversary of my legendary broken ankle which means I shall finally cut myself free from my hospital bracelets. I'm sure you're wondering why I still have them on considering I've been out of the hospital for quite a good long while now. Well, it essentially comes down to me keeping them on as a reminder of how tenuous our ties to this life are. How split seconds and change everything. I was rather lucky to have gotten out of my little spill with just a broken ankle actually. As anyone who actually saw me fall, its a miracle that I didn't crack my head open on the concrete. That's why I say our ties are so fragile. I think a year is enough to keep that sentiment in me for a good long while. You should try to keep it in mind too . . .

What a bummer of a kick off paragraph. Well things ain't exactly looking for this next little bit. Though I suppose this a much more different flavor of tragic: After 2 and a half of years of (mostly) faithful service, my beloved little iPod has finally bit the dust. We shall attempt surgery tomorrow at the Apple Store but I don't exactly have much faith in those "Geniuses" that work there. Alas. Oh well. That iPod was full anyway. I guess that's what happens when you try to cram the entire series of Friends on an iPod! Ya know, I can't even count how many times I've seen the entire series all the way through and yet it never gets old for me. I think that means I'm officially obsessed, doesn't it? Its a fun obsession. You should try it out sometime. You can thank me later ; )

In some music related news, I took a fun little trip up North this past Wednesday for a little musical adventure. My dear Moneen were playing a little show in Anaheim with Eisley and Say Anything and since at the time I bought tickets, there was no San Diego show, I couldn't pass up a chance to finally see Moneen!! So how was it you ask? Well it was as wonderful and chaotic and fun as I could hope for! Though, a mere 30 minutes was no where near enough to satiated my desire for awesomeness. Its ok though, I met them after the show, got them to sign a Lost poster I got at Comic Con (if you know anything about Moneen, that won't seem that odd to you . . . ) and then talked about Lost and how they need to start watching FlashForward (and so do you!) All in all, very much worth a trip up there. Plus, it was at the House of Blues in Downtown Disney so what's not to love about that?! [P.S. And you can bet I'll be at the San Diego show too!]

What else is new in the world of Pensive? Well, if you live in or near Long Beach you're probably pretty mad at as for not coming to visit you for about two years now. Well don't worry, that shall be changing come Saturday so if you've been waiting for us to return, you best get ready for we shall be rocking DiPiazza's like its 2005! Get there early and eat some of the best pizza you shall ever have with us!! However, despite some earlier claims of my own to the contrary, that will indeed be our final show of the year barring extraordinary circumstances. Fear not though for we are like a pack of bears. We hibernate in the winter so we can come back and be extra ferocious in the new year!! Plus, by hibernate I really me hide away, grow beards (or perhaps singular for Julio isn't much into facial hair), and write some totally killer songs. Oh, and as always, work on secretive things. Essentially, pull a Pinky & The Brain and work on taking over the world one set of ears at a time.

If you recall from the last blog, I mentioned that good ol' Toys R Us was rocking a "Buy 2, Get 1 Free" sale. Sadly, I was unable to take advantage of said sale. Yes, I know, it is a tragedy. Were you perhaps luckier? I might have gone for it if my Toys R Us hadn't been sold out of Uncharted 2 and had Demon's Souls but they were sold out of Uncharted 2 and I guess Demon's Souls is too much of a niche title to be stocked by a toy store. Alas. My money was much better spent getting my Moneen shirt at the show anyway. Not that it was the price of 2 video games but you get the point. Anyway, I believe that just about wraps things up for this week. Tune in next week when I tell you all about the fantastic last Pensive show of the year! Oh, and yes, in case you're wondering, I shall be picking up Borderlands at Midnight tomorrow ; )

The Smoke Monster

This Conversation is Over

Hello hello!

How is everyone doing this fine Sunday? I'm doing quite nicely thanks for asking. I believe I shall start off this week with some quick news bulletin type things. Ish. Not really but work with me here, ok? First off, do you live in San Diego? Do you know about our "Fan Appreciation" Bonfire on this coming Friday the 9th? Well if you didn't know you do now! Its being sponsored by our amazing Street Team but you don't have to be a Street Team member to stop by. Its open to absolutely any and every Pensive fan that wants to come. Its going to be at Ocean Beach. Here's a flyer for it. Oh, and in case you're not quite sure where that is, well, here's a good place to park (though, of course, if you know the area, you can choose to park anywhere you'd like), and if you look at that map and scroll a bit south of that parking lot (not too far mind you) you'll see a long, thin, line of rocks going out into the sea. Yeah, thats pretty much right where we'll be. Right above where it says "Ocean Beach Park" on the little Google Maps map . . . Ok? We good? Any more questions? Well if you do have more questions either ask us (if the question is pertaining to say directions) or our Street Team captain Kayla (if the question is related to the specifics of the bonfire such as bringing food and other such things [you can reach Kayla by sending a message to "Strictly Pensive" which is our top friend. Thats our Street Team's page in case you didn't know])

Alright, now that we've got that all cleared up, what else might there be to talk about? Oh! Here we go. Somehow I was unaware of this up until about a week ago, but our good friend, Mr. Chuck Palahniuk has a new book. Its called Pygmy. Now, I can't say that I suggest it just yet considering it just arrived in the mail yesterday (heck yes using B&N gift cards online!) but I have faith in good ol' Chuckie P. Though, his last book, Snuff, was a bit out there. Even for him. Certainly not for the faint of heart. If you've always been curious about "that guy that wrote Fight Club," well, I'd say you should either start right there or with say Survivor or Choke. Ease your way in a bit before you dive into the really weird stuff like Diary or Snuff. I also recently purchased a mini collection of Michael Crichton books on eBay so hopefully those will arrive soon. Seem like a random purchase? Yeah, it is a little bit I guess. How shall I explain this . . . Well, as you probably don't know, I like to fancy myself as a bit of an author. No, I've never actually written anything longer than like a 10 page short story, but if I weren't a musician, I'd quite likely be trying to earn my living writing silly little stories. One story idea I have came to me in a dream and I've been tweeking it for months now and just the other day I was wasting time on the internet and came to realize that "Sphere" by Michael Crichton has a rather similar story arc to my idea so I figured I should try to get that book considering that, A.) I'll probably enjoy it greatly, and B.) I gotta do my research so if I were to ever actually write this story that it wouldn't be a straight up rip-off. Now, oddly enough, I was unable to actually find Sphere at any B&N, nor anywhere online other than eBay. The cheapest option available to me just happened to be a little mini collection of Michael Crichton hardcovers so thats what I went with. Sure, I've already got Jurassic Park in hardcover but my copy of The Lost World is woefully old and beat up and missing the dust jacket so I figure, heck, why not! 6 books for $10? Sign me up! And . . . that's about the end of my pointless story : )

Oh!!!! I've been sitting here for a couple minutes wondering what else to talk about. I should I bore you by telling you about Goozex.com, where I've recently traded off a bunch of video games I don't play for ones I will, or maybe talk about writing songs or something else potentially Pensive related but nothing seemed quite right. I had this nagging feeling that I did in fact actually have something worth talking about but that it had slipped through my fingers . . . Well, it had but I found it again! Are you ready, are you ready?! We're gonna talk about movies. Scary movies. In particular, one scary movie. Goes by the name Paranormal Activity. Heard of it? Its new. Still doing that silly only showing in select cities and theaters thing. Well anyway, there were a total of 2 showings of it here in San Diego over the weekend and I happened to be at one of them. Thankfully I got my tickets the day before since they sold out. And not only did the sell out but they sold out so quickly they moved it from being in just one theater into two for that midnight showing! I got there an hour in advance and pretty much every seat in both theaters was already full. So yeah, this movie has a ton of hype around it. Oh, before I go any further, check out the trailer on its official website. Now that you know what its about let me just go ahead and tell you that yes, it is scary. Maybe not the scariest movie ever, but its on the list for sure. The ending is pretty damn chilling and I did not see that coming at all. There's just an almost constant, edge of your seat tension wondering what will happen next. Especially when its night time. As you can probably tell from the trailer, its a very low budget film but that helps it come off as so believable. Especially when the weird things happen. The special effects are quite impressive and I really can't figure out how they did some of that stuff. I mean, if it was a big budget Hollywood movie, it would make sense but with what they were working with and in many of the cases, a static camera angle, its just crazy. So anyway, chances are high it might not be playing near you but maybe it'll go into even wider release next weekend. If it is playing anywhere near you, YOU MUST SEE THIS MOVIE!!! Seriously. Buy tickets in advance and get there early.

I think that's gonna wrap things up this week folks. I hope you had a lovely time with our weekly visit. Check back next week where I'll talk a lot about random things. Maybe I'll even through in some cd reviews of Moneen, AFI, or Paramore. We'll see. Goodbye for now.

Jack's Smirking Revenge

Hello hello!!

How has everybody been the past 6 days? I'm getting closer and closer to getting these blogs in on time. Maybe next week I'll make it before the next week begins. Or maybe not. Since we've got two shows next weekend. At Fleet Week. At a car race. On Coranado. That's pretty sweet if you ask me. In fact, we better get down to work so we can totally rock those shows. Eh, don't worry, we'll practice when I finish my blog. People can wait on me this time around. While on the subject of people waiting on me, I've decided its time for you all to stop waiting. If you've been reading the past couples weeks, you should know that I have a little suprise waiting up my sleeve and I think its finally time to play my hand. Its not gonna knock your socks off or nothing so don't get too excited. Do you play guitar? Then this is for you. We often get messages or comments asking for tabs to our songs so I finally took the time to write them all out. And not like those crappy ones you can find on the internet that are in Courier, I'm talking real quality tabs with measures and quaters notes and all that awesome stuff. I've got all of Artifacts done and ready to go so now I've just gotta export them as a PDF and get Web Boy Sean to stick them up on the website. But I'm not stopping there seeing as I'm pretty much done with Yesterday Fades Away and I figure I might as well do all of Something About The Stars as well. So, bottom line, if you've ever wondered how to play our songs, here's your best chance to learn! : )

Let's keep talking about music for a bit longer. As another continuation from last week, you may remember me talking about new cds coming out. Well, sadly, my special edition Moneen cd/dvd has yet to arrive from Canada but its ok, I can be patient. In the mean time, I have plenty other forms of musical entertainment including new Muse, Every Time I Die, and A Fine Frenzy. Oh, and being the good little Thrice fan I am, I picked up a physical copy of Beggars and got my bonus tracks including the song "Answered" which was a B-Side from the Beggars sessions and if it had made the real cd would have been far and away my favorite song on the cd. So yet again, just like they did with "Flags of Dawn," Thrice sometimes just doesn't know which songs of their's are that extra bit of amazing. Oh well, its cool. The new Muse cd is epic beauty rolled into awesomeness spinkled with fantastic . . . sprinkles? Sure, that works. Not quite the baroque masterpiece that was Absolution but totally worth a purchase. Every Time I Die also did not disappoint though I think I liked the fun loving ETID from The Big Dirty as opposed to the dark and depressing ETID from The New Junk Aesthetic but just cause its not as tongue-in-cheek don't mean it doesn't rock. Hell, it probably rocks harder. We'll see what I think in a few weeks. Oh, and A Fine Frenzy? If that name doesn't ring a bell, look her here on myspace. Might not be your cup of tea, but I dig it. The coming weeks will also be bringing us AFI and Paramore so we'll see what else September has in store for us.