Tell me a story

I know what you're saying, another blog update so soon? Believe it. Two epic events happened today that made me feel the necessity to write a blog post, and they were both album releases.

First off, the new album "Swoon" by the Silversun Pickups came out today. Like I said in my last blog post, it's been up on MTV's "The Leak" for a week or so now, so I've already heard it, but it's just that amazing. The second album that came out wasn't even scheduled to come out until April 28, but apparently Great Northern decided to release their album on iTunes two weeks early! This one is entitled "Remind Me Where the Light Is", and is a great follow-up to their first album "Trading Twilight for Daylight". Personally, I prefer their previous effort, but the new album is great as well! So far my favorites off the album are "Story", "Houses", and "Mountain".

I've also been listening to a few bands a bit that people have suggested I listen to. One of them is Jupiter Sunrise, a nice mellow band that Ms. Tara Klaus pointed me in the direction of. I'm a sucker for female singers. There are a few more that I can't remember the names of at the moment, but needless to say, Tara and I introduce each other to new music all the time.

So I said my last blog entry would be a quick one and it actually ended up being fairly long, but this one really will be short. Now just wait for the next exciting installment of "Slowly the Pen Touches Paper"!

They looked around the forest

So I'm again long overdue for a blog entry. It's a good thing I have Tara to remind me to post on here, or I might post even less!

This will be a quick entry, but I have to start by saying that I finally just saw Slumdog Millionaire. Amazing movie, everyone must see it. I must admit that I have yet to see any of the other movies that were nominated for Best Picture (I don't see a lot of movies), but in my eyes Slumdog was worthy of the title. I do not remember what the commercials were like for this movie, but according to some people I have talked to it was marketed as a musical. If you haven't seen it yet, it isn't a musical. Whether you're glad or disappointed by that, it is a great movie. Please see it. I will get on seeing the other nominated films right away.

I did happen to see Observe & Report last night (feels weird saying that after just saying that I don't see movies often) and it was a decent movie. Obviously it's not up to par with Slumdog, comedies are never Best Picture material, but my friends and I enjoyed many laughs throughout. If you can think of something inappropriate, it's most likely in the movie, so if you are not one for nudity, language, violence, racism, etc., I would not recommend this movie to you. Near the end of the movie there's even a lengthy scene of a man... exposing himself, so beware. I do love Seth Rogen though, so I enjoyed this movie greatly.

After the movie, we had to wait around to pick up some others while their movie finished, and their movie still had a good 45 minutes left, so we drove around outside the mall we had seen Observe & Report in, and saw that a carnival was in the parking lot. This carnival comes every once in a while, but we had never been, so we parked and took a look around. I'm not one for carnival rides, but I was eventually coaxed into riding the Kamikaze. I was unsure at first, but it turned out to be fun. Still, getting spun around in large circles at high velocity upside-down is not my thing.

The new album by the Silversun Pickups, entitled "Swoon", comes out Tuesday. You can already listen to it on the section of MTV's website titled the Leak, so search on Google for "mtv the leak" if you'd like to listen to it, and I definitely suggest that you do. One of my friends has already called it the album of the year. I'm looking forward to owning a copy myself on Tuesday.

Other than that, not much else has been happening recently. Music-wise I've been listening to a lot of Midlake and Sigur Ros. I am currently playing through F.E.A.R. 2 again on my Xbox 360. I love getting scared and I think this iteration of F.E.A.R. was a commendable effort, although the multiplayer fell a bit short. I've also been playing some Rock Band 2 and just finished replaying Mirror's Edge. Mirror's Edge was one of my favorite new games of last year, second only to Dead Space, and I can't wait for the sequels to both of them.

With that, I'll end this blog entry. Now go out and see Slumdog Millionaire if you haven't!

The final cut

So I watched the full near 7 hour long Coheed and Cambria box set of their Neverender concerts. To say the least, it was epic. Coheed and Cambria has four albums currently (they happen to be working on a fifth, which is actually a prequel, at the moment), and over the course of four nights, they performed all of the albums in sequential order. Not only does it include the four concert nights on DVD, but it also includes a documentary DVD.  As my friend who watched the box set with me and I are huge Coheed fans, watching every song that they have ever released, most of which we had never seen live, was amazing. The documentary was great as well. I learned a lot about the origins of the band and small bits of information that I did not know before. Overall it was a great experience, and well worth the high price tag I payed for it. I even got a signed certificate of authentification, and my name is in the included book as one of the first 3000 people who ordered it!

Tonight's episode of "Castle" was entertaining. I'm still afraid that the premise of the show will get repetitive, but I guess this is how all of the crime shows work, right? Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic are great working together.

I still have not seen "I Love You, Man," which disappoints me. I just haven't gotten around to it. I usually only have a chance to see movies on weekends, and I was with friends doing other things the whole weekend. "Observe and Report" comes out April 10, and I am looking forward to seeing that when it comes out (Seth Rogan is hilarious), and I'm considering seeing "Fast and Furious," which comes out this Friday, as well. I've only ever seen the first movie in the series of these action movies starring Vin Diesel before, but apparently this is a re-envisioning of the series of some sort, and plus, Vin is a great guy. Actor and game designer? Awesome.

I'm currently watching Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. I haven't been watching every episode recently, but I'm still enjoying the show. Bill Hader is on tonight's show, can't wait for that. Another of my favorite comedic actors. Also, Glasvegas is on tonight's show! Amazing band, I hope they play their song "Geraldine."

Edit: They did.

No sunlight

Well, I've already broken my promise to myself in that I haven't posted in over a week. I blame it on two very addictive video games: Street Fighter 4 and Pokemon Platinum.

I know, who plays Pokemon anymore? My friends and I do. Platinum just got released this past Sunday, and these games are too addictive. I won't go into any details, because if you've played a Pokemon game before they're all very similar, and this iteration is very similar to the previous Diamond and Pearl, but I'm having tons of fun with it so far.

Street Fighter 4 is a totally different game. I've never played a Street Fighter game before, except for a short stint with Street Fighter 2, but I picked up the fourth on the day it was released and it is great. I started off playing Cammy, but now have moved on to Akuma. He is a beast. I play online as much as I can, but mainly I only get to play with friends at parties. I've managed to get a few into playing it, as well as one who has played almost every other Street Fighter game and loves SF4 so far. I would only recommend it if you are big into fighting games however. As with most other fighting games (excluding Super Smash Bros.), this is hard to get into unless you already enjoy fighting games, as you cannot win by simply button-mashing. It requires you to take the time to learn combinations of moves for whichever character you choose to play, and requires the knowledge of when to use them and how to use them. Basically, it takes a lot of practice.

Outside of the recent video games I've been playing... I ordered my ticket to the Death Cab for Cutie/Ra Ra Riot show in Austin on May 1st. Can't wait for that. Also, on Monday, my Coheed and Cambria Neverender "Children of the Fence" box set came in. I've been holding myself back from watching it as a friend and I are watching it together tomorrow, all 7 hours in a row. It will be epic. I'll hopefully post an update on how that was soon. I've been listening to a lot of Rilo Kiley lately, "Portions for Foxes" is a great song.

One more time

Ever since I first watched the web phenomenon known as Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog, I have been huge fans of Felicia Day and Nathan Fillion (I had already been a fan of Neil Patrick Harris... I mean, who isn't?). I had seen Nathan in the movie Serenity, but did not pick up on how great he was until Dr. Horrible. If you have not seen Dr. Horrible yet, I urge you to watch it. It is a three part webseries that spans around 43 minutes. If you search the internet, you should be able to find it somewhere easily enough.

When I heard that Nathan was getting his own television show, "Castle," I was excited. I watched the series premiere last week and enjoyed it enough to keep watching. Mr. Fillion is a funny guy. The second episode was yesterday, and in my opinion it was even better than the first. Nathan's character is named Rick Castle, hence the title of the show, and in both episodes I have found him entertaining. However, I found his mother, who makes brief appearances throughout the show, annoying in the first episode. In the second, she seemed much more likable, and the relationship between Castle, his mother, and his daughter, was fleshed out more. Also, the pairing of Castle and the cop he is following, played by Stana Katic, works very well. So far "Castle" has proven itself exciting and entertaining enough to keep me watching. If you have not checked it out, I encourage you to. It is on every Monday night at 9 PM CST, on ABC.

Felicia Day is a topic for another time. She's basically my celebrity crush, and I try to watch everything that she ever appears in now.

Fun fact: If you didn't already know, Daft Punk is scoring the soundtrack to the upcoming movie Tron 2.0. This makes me very excited! Tron 2.0's expected release is 2011 currently, however.

Slowly the pen touches paper

Warning, long introductory post incoming.

I have been toying around with the idea of a blog for a while now, unsure of the prospect. I've had an account here on Blogger since the beginning of the year, originally drawn to it by the fact that the front-man of my favorite band, Coheed and Cambria, had started posting entries here (you can find Claudio's blog at myshittalkingmachine.blogspot.com), but could not find the drive to begin my own.

First off, who was going to read it? I had no friends with accounts on Blogger, and I knew of only one blog that I was interested in. Second, was I prepared to tie myself down to my own blog, because if I did create one I would feel obligated to post here at least periodically to satisfy my belief that I had a reason in having my own blog.

Well, the first condition was crossed off when I found out that a friend named Tara (you can find her blog at taragentry.blogspot.com), who I had recently met, had her own blog here. She was the one who brought me back to considering creating this. I crossed off the second condition when I decided that I could hold myself to posting a new entry at least once a week, that couldn't be too hard could it? I won't guarantee that I do keep to that promise, but I can try my hardest!

So that's how I came to the conclusion that I could contentedly create "Slowly the Pen Touches Paper." Any big Coheed and Cambria fan out there will know that the title comes from the beginning of their song "The Light & The Glass," which happens to be my favorite of theirs. I thought it fit well with what I was doing here, although ironically, I'm not using a pen.

Before I started this first entry, I was wondering what I could talk about, and although this post is already growing long enough, I thought I would just give whoever happens to read this an update on what I have been doing, and what I will hopefully be doing soon.

I'm a student in my senior year of high school, and spring break has just started. I'm glad I have this break, but I know senioritis will just be even worse when I return to school. Only two and a half months left. I will be attending the University of Texas in Austin come Fall of this year.

I enjoy many things, ranging from movies to video games (okay that's not that large of a range), but my main interest is music. I love all genres of music, excluding rap and country. My current favorite bands as of now are previously mentioned Coheed and Cambria, and Eisley. I have also just discovered a band by the name of Ruby Coast who I am really getting into. By the way, discovering a new amazing band is one of the most exciting experiences I can have, so if you have a band that I need to check out, post it in a comment. I may or may not have already discovered them, and I'll try to get back to you on whether or not I enjoyed them.

Let's see, what else. I just attended a concert with Tokyo Police Club, Ra Ra Riot, and Ruby Coast. I went for TPC and Ra Ra Riot, but this is the concert where I first heard Ruby Coast. I proceeded to buy their EP "Projectable Collections" after the show. Not too long before that, in February, I was at a Flogging Molly concert. I live in Texas, and hopefully in April I will be driving up to Baylor to see Eisley perform a few songs off of their upcoming album, and I will also be driving up to Austin on May 1 to see Death Cab for Cutie and Ra Ra Riot. One of my biggest disappointments is that I missed Coheed and Cambria's Neverender series of shows in which they played all four of their albums in succession at four different venues, located in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and London. Not one near Texas. However, they filmed the shows, and a DVD/CD boxset is being released on March 23, eight days from now. I've had one pre-ordered since December, when they first announced it, so I can't wait for that.

Anyways, I believe I've rambled on long enough. As you can tell, this blog will most likely be mainly about my music interests. If that sounds exciting to you, please keep coming back.

"Slowly the pen touches paper, in the guidance of the words that you write. Memories roll in; of the things you once did and who you had shared them with." -"The Light & The Glass," by Coheed and Cambria