Helloooo, 2026 🎉🎇

Good morning and Happy New Year!

I hope you are safe and well, dear reader, and had a great holidays.

Happy to say I had a really nice break over Christmas seeing my family, hanging with the girls, and spending lots of time with Aly. On New Year's Eve we went to watch the fireworks by the river. It was cold as shit but the prettiness of the fireworks and spending it with the best girl made it totally worth it. Praise be to space heaters!

Back to work tomorrow and me and the girls will be getting back on with PEN-15 this week too.

So what's lined up for this year? Well we're getting straight on with the b-sides album. We're hoping for having that out March or April time?

Then there's the stuff I've been writing for myself. Suze and me got together over Christmas and it's starting to come together. We'll be working on that around PEN-15 activities but it's sounding really interesting so far! I've got an album's worth of stuff and I'm *hoping* to aim for May with that (happy birthday to me!).

Past that, there will likely be PEN-15 album #4 later in the year. We also think it would be good to look at remastering or rerecording some of our earlier stuff at some point, but one step at a time...

For the time being I might still not be blogging on a totally regular basis either. Not in a bad way, but I'm just in a very insular and cosy mode right now and the ADHD has been mostly at rest.

Anyways, I wish you all the best for the year ahead and don't be a stranger!

Ivy x

Ivy's Sunday Ramblings 12/21/25

Some big news on a personal level thaaaaaat Aly and me have stated dating. I know, I know, I absolutely realise and appreciate that on paper it could maybe look really bad that I've taken in a woman in her hour of need only to end up hooking up with her. I'd be raising my eyebrow at that one too, if I'm honest. I get it. However, hand on heart, it was absolutely not like that in the slightest. 

A bit of a recap for those of you at the back. So, not to tell someone else's story, but from my point of view at least I cannot sleep comfortably at night knowing when my friends are going through some bad shit, moreso if said person does not have any family or anyone to really look out for them. No doubt from my wannabe-nun-disposition, I just didn't want her to be stuck in her apartment on her own dealing with everything she's been going through, and that's genuinely the only reason I suggested she come and stay for a while, and come and stay she did.

But yeah, I obviously wasn't going to just throw her the PlayStation controller and fuck off out to get my jollies while she sat in a strange apartment, climbing up the walls from feeling like total crap, so we've spent a lot of time together hanging out and doing things. Aaaand the more time we spent together, the more things started to feel a bit... different? Like, when you realise you're looking into each other's eyes slightly longer than you were the week before? And you're sometimes awkwardly biting the corner of your lip when you talk to each other? Yeah, those kinds of cute, mushy, butterflies in the tummy-type things. So it's all been totally organic with no ulterior motives by either party. Just the serendipity of a couple of gals living with each other who ended up really getting the hots for each other.

Haha I mean, dios mio, when we went to my parents for Thanksgiving, in the kitchen whilst we were taking in dishes, my mom took me aside and said "mija, so how long have you two been together?" and she would NOT believe me when I said we weren't (which we actually weren't). My sister, la perra, also had the most shit-eating smirk looking at us the whole time. I was honestly sat feeling like my eyeballs were going to burn a hole through her stupid, greasy head. But yep, there you have it. At least that's the whole meeting the parents thing preemptively out of the way!

I mean we'd clearly started having feelings for each other but with everything that's been happening and then things taking a turn with Aly needing surgery and then the subsequent recovery we really held off of acting on anything - it would just not have felt appropriate. As things started picking up though, then... yeah, we were finally able to stop dancing around it, and there you go.

Am I oversharing? Probably. Am I being a bit braggy? Abso-fucking-lutely. But honestly, after how emotionally desolating this year has been, I think I've earned that, thank you. I mean, I actually feel happy for the first time in a lonnnng time. And not some kind of manic, or fake BPD illusion of happiness, just... warm, deep down, genuine, happiness. So yes, brag I absolutely shall.

Oh yeah, and PEN-15 also just brought out our Christmas b-side about me being happy everyone leaving me the eff alone at Christmas, huh? Yeah, gonna have to be taking that one back, too. That shows you, you dumb-ass Grincha.

But yeah, Christmas in a few days, and I am extremely happy at the prospect of not waking up staring into the void feeling utterly dead inside! Who'da thunk it?? A full-on Christmas freakin' miracle!

Please know that, wherever you are, you are very much loved, and I am sending much love to all my homies all around the world (Minä ymmärrän sinua, Suomi!). 

From the gayest pair of gals in Detroit,

¡Feliz Navidad! 

(*And full disclosure, this has alllll been shared with consent.)

Ivy's Sunday Ramblings 12/07/25

This week it has mostly been as cold as balls here in Detroit. Thankfully this insufferable cold hasn't impacted band activities as our band room is nice and heated. I know, I know, we're total punk rock sellouts. 

We're still working our way through the b-sides songs and it's all shaping up nicely. We're trying to get as much together as we can before taking a short break before Christmas then getting back on it in the new year.

Past that, there has been no action and adventure as I've been looking after Aly all week after she had her surgery on Monday. The situation doesn't really lend itself to much except rest and recovery, so chilling on the sofa binging box sets for cosiness and/or nostalgia has pretty much been the go to, which is fine. Hopefully things will start easing up some through the coming week but it's one day at a time for now.

Likely that next week will be more of the same so, bar anything that pops in my head, I will likely hold off from blogging if it means just repeating myself.

Stay safe x

Ivy's Sunday Ramblings 11/30/25

Thanksgiving Booglaloo

Ok, so a bit more context to my last mention of Thanksgiving. Being Latinx and the, shall we say, "complications" around this holiday in regards to indigenous peoples of the Americas (ie. good ol' colonialism and genocide, mainly), it's a bit of a weird one for us (us, as in my family). 

We don't do it as a big thing like a lot of Americans obviously do, but still try to at least acknowledge the spirit itself of having a time to get together and be thankful for what we have and each other etc. As such, I went around to my parents for the afternoon to be merry, drink some free booze, and to stuff my face with a free, gigantic (vegan) meal. 

Awww

My mom and dad were there, my sister came around, my brother is working away so couldn't make it, and Aly came with me too. 

Me and my sister not acting like dicks! Behold the sprit of Thaksgiving!

It was a nice time, lots of family stuff and hanging out, me and my sister razzing and being dicks to each other, and my mom rolled out the metaphorical red carpet and pampered Aly, which was really sweet, especially after the total nightmare the past few weeks are being for her.

Suze, Mercedes, and Donna all had good times doing their own respective things too, which also makes me happy.

As the remaining 50% of PEN-15 not left nursing sore heads, the next day myself, Suze, along with Aly went to see Wicked: For Good and I LOVED IT!! No in-depth analysis on this one, I just had a thoroughly gay old time with my gay gal pals. Oh ok, there was one thing where Suze raised the very valid point that if you hadn't seen the Wizard of Oz then the sudden yet vague plot device of a young girl appearing from Kansas would make zero sense... So there is that.

So the week has involved doing lots of things trying to be normal, because sadly things have otherwise not been normal. Long story short, things took a turn and Aly needs surgery tomorrow. Things really seemed to be getting better and I am just fucking heartbroken for her. Will just have to take it as it goes.

Band-wise, still getting all the b-sides songs together and stuff is coming together nicely. Mercedes does lead vocals on one that her and Donna wrote fucking around while we were doing Leave Home earlier this year. It's both ridiculous and a total beast of a downtuned riff monster. It's genuinely fun someone else singing too! 

Aaaaand I may have already mentioned it, but our lil' Christmas single is OUT TOMORROW(!). Hyped for that. Another one where it's been nice to just change gears and be really dumb doing stuff for funsies.

Oh well, I guess today shall mostly be trying to do normal and nice things not thinking about whatever might lay ahead this week. Thoughts and payers, fam x

Ivy's Sunday Ramblings 11/23/25

Thanksgiving is obviously this coming week. Being Mexican, it's something that, for me on a personal level, comes with a lot of baggage and complications. That said, we always spend time together as a family so I'll be going to my parents' for the day to eat, drink, and be merry as fuck. My momma, bless her, has invited Aly (my friend who is staying over) to come, so that's really sweet. Haha, to be fair I don't think she really had a choice as my mom would have come over and essentially abducted her (in the nicest possible way). It will be fun, though, and me and my sister get to be assholes with each other, which remains one of my favourite pastimes.

In another morally and socially complicated and baggage-laden occurrence - Miss Mexico won the Miss Universe pageant, at least!! AND SHE'S A FERNANDEZ!! HAHAHA AND HAS ADHD AND DYSLEXIA!! ¡Muchas felicitaciones Fátima Bosch Fernández y Viva Mexico! 🇲🇽🎉 My stance is that while yes, events like this have originated from a very misogynistic place in the past, I'm all for women reclaiming and transforming them into actual celebrations of womanhood and female empowerment. Plus, who doesn't like getting their make-up done incredible and wearing a big, fucking amazing dress? (Well, apart from Suze). That said, this is the socialist utopia idealist part of my brain thinking. I realise that, despite the progress, there'll still be a lot of unsavoury shit that goes on with something like this, and no doubt a ton of men still with their grubby hands all over it. Still, one small step for women, I guess...

Needed to take Aly to the UCC again last Sunday, Wednesday, and yesterday morning. Bless her, it's been such a shit and borderline terrifying week but hopefully after yesterday we're now a bit more in the clear, though... With all the waiting on Sunday it ended up a late night so I just thought fuck it and booked the week off work. Past the horrible yet necessary medical back and forths, we've otherwise tried to make the most of the week and maintain some semblance of normality, and one day we went to see the new The Running Man. 

I'm... not gonna lie, I found it a bit boring? I think it weirdly ended up showing that the original film being a much less faithful adaptation of the novel actually works in its favour; changing the goal to survive 3 hours resulted in a 90+ minute movie that keeps a non-stop, dramatic pace, whereas this one opting to faithfully do 30 days over 230 minutes felt like it led to a LOT of pacing issues (well, from my ADHD perspective). Plus, there felt like wayyyy too many plot points that were just insanely convenient for convenience's sake (plus Richards' bag of stuff to do his recordings kept randomly disappearing and reappearing too?). And, while it tried to be, I... just didn't find it funny? The lines felt way too forced, and it also felt thematically that it didn't really hit the mark on any attempts at satire and social commentary like the first film had in spades. Josh Brolin was also weirdly likeable (to me) as Killian, instead of being the gigantic asshole in the OG adaptation. And most disappointingly of all, the massive underutilization of Katy O'Brian irked my gayness greatly.

So what DID I like in it? Haha, the porno mag called TITZ, for one. Katy O'Brian (for what screen time she got). Michael Cera very enthusiastically pumping a water gun in THE most disconcerting way was definitely a vibe (though had no idea if the story of his dad dying was supposed to be serious or funny - very Phoebe Cates' dad dying up the chimney in Gremlins). Lee Pace is of course always a delight. And when Bobby T explained to Killian that his contract included a tiny clause that said "FUCK YOU" (I legit snorted at that). Past that... it beat being at work, I guess?

I did read an article too re the Richard Bachman persona Stephen King wrote The Running Man and other novels under, what necessitated that, the resulting mythos that's evolved from that character being fictitious, and now where reality has become intentionally blurred as time has gone on and the character has become part of the expanded King universe. Apparently King even wrote about this duality (in a factional capacity) in The Dark Half after he initially killed Bachman off? It does really fascinate me that characters people write can take on lives of their own and, for all intents, become living, breathing people, with their own identities and ever evolving lives and histories. I wonder if it can also be a slightly painful experience if the author becomes attached to and genuinely cares for the character? There is that saying that there's always a bit of the artist in art, so I suppose there's elements where it could be like a parent - child kind of thing? Hmm.

In PEN-15 world, our Christmas songs drop in just over a week (are you excited?!?) and we're getting on with the b-sides album, hopefully at least start some recording before Christmas. I've been carrying on keeping up with the writing for album #4 and Project Ivy too. It's been fun fucking around with Suze's synths for the latter. Have got some ideas down which are probably terrible as I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm sure Suze will be able to translate them into something more tangible. The change going from writing on guitar is exciting, though (for me). 

What other shit have I been doing that is of no concern to anyone but that I shall prattle on about anyways? 

The watching of Gundam Wing has been progressing nicely. Honestly, to say it was released only a year after G Fighter the step up in animation quality is insane. It looks SO good. The late 80s to maybe mid-late 90s is definitely my favourite period for anime. Maybe it was digital creeping in that changed everything, but for that period there's just such a quality I can't describe but I absolutely love. On the downside, as a result of the iconic opening I am now randomly breaking into singing "JUST. WILD. BEAT. COMMUNICAAAATION.", which is now probably on the verge of giving Aly some kind of nervous twitch. 

Uhhh, not sure about these subs...

We went to see the Detroit tree lighting on Friday. Despite the existential dread of an evening existing within such a gigantic convergence of the general public, the tree and lights were of course super pretty, and it was a good distraction amidst the heavier stuff of the week. However, that Detroit's favourite daughters, yours truly, were not invited to headline the ceremony's musical entertainment is, yet again, an absolute travesty. One day, Detroit! One day! 

Past listening to lots of Hayley Williams, I don't really have any musical musings for this week, so I guess that's that.

Wishing much love to all my gays and theyses this Thanksgiving. If you don't have anyone to spend it with please be kind to yourselves and know that you are loved by four gays in Detroit.

Ives x

Ivy's Sunday Ramblings 11/16/25

Hey, puddin' pops,

Our Christmas songs have been sent to distribution, all artwork is done and physical release is now up for pre-order, and on top of work and attempting real life, mannnnnn, after this week I am TIRED, huns. Feelings of accomplishment are very much welcome but fuck, I could happily jump in my car and drive off into the middle of nowhere for a good few weeks. I've got some vacation days I need to use before the year is out, so I guess at least there's that there for when I need to hit the emergency escape button.

In PEN-15 world, with us taking an unscheduled festive detour we now need to pick up the b-sides stuff again. It shouldn't be too bad as the songs are already written and we've whittled down which ones we're doing, so it should just be a case of recording them. There might be a couple we can use the recordings we already have, but we'll see. As they're pretty much all really dumb I think it will be fun and a lot less pressure(?), though! I'll obviously report in with any deets as we go along. 

As the past week in Detroit has for the most part featured snowing and being wet and cold as shit, when there has been no requirement to be outside I've mostly just stayed at home. But now I have someone staying here, that's worked out ok! 

Me and Aly have just chilled on the sofa lots watching lots of Buffy and other stuff. We did try starting the Interview With The Vampire series but honestly, being vegan I really couldn't abide by the scenes involving animals being killed. I get that Lois lived off of rats and whatnot to avoid killing humans, but the show seemed to revel in the killing of animals and presented it like it was some kind of joke? Yeah, fuck that. 

One thing that was a good time was watching Some Like It Hot. Aly had never seen it but she is now a very happy convert to the sisterhood of absolutely adoring Marilyn Monroe (who, for anyone who doesn't know, was a legit amazing woman and smart and funny as shit, but also had a very sad life [she also possibly suffered with BPD]. If you can, go watch the doc series, Reframed: Marilyn Monroe. 100% recommend).

Aly got me onto watching The Chair Company, which I'd somehow missed - LOVE IT! Always down for something bizarre that makes you feel increasingly detached from reality. Oh em gee, and it has a girl-crush blast from the past Sophia Lillis in it too.

Also finally finished off Mobile Fighter G Gundam and THIS HAND OF MINE IS BURNING RED!!! The second half felt like it dragged at first but was glad it soon ramped up and got super engrossing, and somehow even more and more amazing-ridiculous. The big final battle in space was SO good and then man, that ending... Sekiha Love Love Tenkyoken!!! Pretty sure that is now my absolute *favourite* ending of a Gundam series. Rain was such a great character, too. So glad that she didn't end up either some beautiful but ultimately vapid damsel or an edgy, star-crossed, damaged girl who has to die for the sake of the plot; she was as much a part of the final victory as Domon was. And Allenby, what a queen and a bad-ass too. Past the pacing that I struggled with at the starts of both halves (derp, am ADHD), it was a super fun watch. Next - Gundam Wing! I've somehow managed to never make it through Wing (out of purely scheduling and/or ADHD reasons) but I'm setting it as an end of year mission to finally watch the whole thing. 

Listened to the new Allie X album aaaand... sadly, it didn't really do it for me. Not at all in a bad or critical way and purely from an objective point of view but the style of music on this one just doesn't really resonate with me. I can appreciate all of the arrangements, creativity, everything but yeah, past It's Just Light there wasn't anything that really perked my ears up. I'm slightly sad because I really loved her last, retro, synth-laden album, Girl With No Face, so it may be that deep down I just want MORE synths, please. Maybe it will be a grower? 

After being in a manic, borderline psychotic episode when it originally dropped, I also did finally get on the latest (now complete) Hayley Williams album. On the flip-side to the above, and absolutely LOVE it. Like her other stuff, I really, really dig the totally off kilter vibe of this one. Dunno, possibly in this case because I went in with no expectations? Either way, have had it on pretty much every day's and it's very much been a good one for hiding indoors from the wet and cold nights.

On a final music note; FUCK ME, the new songs coming out from Gluecifer are fire! So a quick 101: via Mercedes' mom's amazing album collection from back in the day, Mercedes and me really got into Turbonegro and that was a launchpad for discovering all these other awesome Scandinavian rock bands who started popping from the start of the millennium. Across this wave of bands there were lots of different musical elements mixed in but a large underlying part was a sort of punk vibe and attitude. Not the kind of punk you *see* with big, dyed mohawks and whatnot, but the kind of punk you FEEL. In the case of Gluecifer, they have, I guess, a rock n roll aesthetic and styling but smashed together with this balls to the wall punk energy. However you wanna describe it, they fucking kick ass! They did disband for a good while, eventually got back together and have been doing shows here and there for the past however many years, but holy shit, they're actually doing some new music. Fuck yeah!

FYI I'm of the camp that trying to dissect and put bands in neat little boxes can be totally pointless. Yes, obviously the big overarching genres or rock, metal, pop, punk, and sub genres of each makes sense, but trying to be almost academic for the sake of labels when a band's music can otherwise be so intangible just feels unnecessary. If you feel it, you feel it!

Shit, with the wild detours I sometimes take in these posts I should really start tagging them or something. I should but, in typical ADHD fashion, will I say that and totally forget and/or never end up doing it as a result of executive function failure? Probably.

Currently Listening To

Allie X - Happiness Is Going To Get You

 

Hayley Williams - Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party

 

 
Gluecifer - Armadas

 

Ivy's Sunday Ramblings 11/09/25

Busy weeks continue to be busy!

All festive recording is in the bag, Suze has mixed and mastered, and yesterday we had a lil' photoshoot. This coming week, once Marie has sent the photos over, it's down to me to get the artwork done. Blaaaaargh! It's cool, we can do it, gonna be worth it! 

Outside of that, I have a new roomie, Aly! I'd been super worried about her after I took to the hospital last week and, long story short, I offered she could come and stay at my place. That way there's someone to look after her, she's not on her own, and I'm being coaxed out of my current default mode of being a curmudgeonly hermit - everyone wins! But yeah, it's been a nice few days having someone here and hanging out, doing stuff. We've been to the Bel Air Cinema to see the new Kimetsu No Yaiba movie too, which was cool.

Around band, entertaining my guest, and work, I've managed to squeeze in some writing here and there. More of whatever the Ivy stuff is, and also some PEN-15 album #4. I don't think there's any danger I'm slipping into being manic again because I feel so tired today. It's not even midday and I'm always genuinely looking forwards to getting back into pyjamas, getting cozy, and having the biggest sleep. Past going out for coffee shortly, it's going to be a lazy Sunday. 

I had seen a lot of reviews raving about the album LUX by ROSÁLIA. I've never heard the girl before but thought ok, I'll bite and... oh man, I honestly don't even have the words. Headphones on, it was just so immersive and like being sat at some big show or performance. I just felt so... overwhelmed? In the absolutely best way but I guess that there's so much going on your brain barely had a second to process what's going on. Once it had finished I genuinely felt kind of drained and just had to sit quietly. Wow. Definitely, absolutely recommend. 

Also, a new Katy Perry song popped up so I gave that a listen and... I actually liked it? Now, I didn't know she had a new song dropping, I hadn't had chance to see if any abusers or other scumbags that a supposed feminist really should not be working with have been involved in it, but on literally just face (ear?) value I was  pleasantly surprised. The lyrics are a bit forced, clunky but overall it was towards being a bop. Despite the trajectory her music and, erm, life choices has taken as of late, I did used to love her stuff when I was a kid when she was all big, grade A, pop bangers and whatnot, and this felt like a bit of a step back towards that style? Who knows, the album might be total horseshit, and I think after all the very weird, increasingly boneheaded, tone-deaf blunders she's insisted on making the past however many years she has a lot of bridges to rebuild, but I guess we'll see. 

Shit, I forgot the new Allie X album was out. That shall have be on my list for this week!

For some reason, for a second there my brain was going to sign off with "live long and prosper". I have no idea. 

Currently Listening To

ROSÁLIA - LUX

Katy Perry - bandaids