It’s been a rough week for a lot of us, with at least two mass shootings and continued signs of corruption, misogyny and homophobia from Right-Wing Politicians, desiring to make our electoral process null and void, while one of my favorite DCEU actresses was unceremoniously dismissed from her role because a lot of people believe the popular actor/musician who beat her was actually abused by her. It continues to show me that a lot of White Americans are a lost cause, claiming God but knowing nothing of what he wants, using His name as an excuse to punish minorities. Honestly, I expect the Good Lord to smite this country to keep its malevolence in check.
Thankfully, we still have music in these dark days. Switchfoot released the song “Interrobang,” a lost track from their last album, a great example of their work. Brianna Knickerbocker’s cover of “Dead Girl” as Hu Tao was also good, and Def Leppard turned in another great single from their album, scheduled for release tonight. Carrie Underwood had a good Country song with “She Don’t Know,” Black Stone Cherry’s live version of “Alive” was great and Rina Sawayama turned in a great Pop song with “This Hell.” Idina Menzel had a great duet version of “We’ve Got Tonight” with Charles Kelley and Iconic’s new single, “Fast as You Can,” may have the best guitar work yet this year.
This week, Def Leppard releases their new album, as stated above. Based on the singles, it will be a fun, hard-rocking album with Allison Krauss as a guest star. Michael Schenker is also releasing an album with bassist Bob Daisley on one track (also with drums by Bobbi Rondinelli) and Brian Tichy drumming on others. The other major release is a box set by Suzi Quatro, a hard-rocking woman who has covered Little Richard and Neil Young.
As for me personally, I’ve blown up a lot this week. I have been so mad at Politics, the actress trial and the Mariners losing because it all feels like nothing I do matters; someone is punishing me like a paddle ball. I keep feeling the absolute worst is going to happen, destroying people’s lives and ruining their dreams. I feel the people who care about me and who have helped me are going to die soon, murdered by a catastrophically unjust society that only protects the wealthy, straight, white males, who don’t care about me in the slightest, I’m just a number of a political and spiritual enemy to them. And so many seem to be going along with it without question. Some days, I think the good parts of my life are over for good.
