Well, Endless Summer Vacation was released last week and I've heard the whole album. It lacks the chill nature of Younger Now, the hot bite of Plastic Hearts and the nostalgia plus drive of Attention Live, but it's still good for me, with good songs like Flowers, Thousand Miles with Brandi Carlile, Muddy Feet with Sia, Violet Chemistry, Wonder Woman (dedicated to her late Grandma) and Flowers (demo). I would put it and the newly released live tracks from 1973 and 1992 by Trapeze as my favorites so far of this quarter. I can only say "so far" because BabyMetal is releasing a new album on March 24th and they have the potential to outshine both.
If you were confused by my last entry, the point was I spent years believing a man who only listened to music on an approved list and thought there should be limits on empathy would help me grow spiritually. Since then, I worry when listening to Heavy Metal or Modern Pop or do something pro-LGBTQ+ in my apartment someone's going to come in and say "That's not what a Christian should do, God is watching you, get right with Him, vote for his chosen politicians or you risk your name being erased from the Book of Life." This is why I have such trouble with Twitter. You have wonderful people there who are good and just and life-giving, like Tara Platt, Abby Trott, Jeannie Tirado, Laura Post, Yuri Lowenthal, Laura Bailey, Sarah McKnight, David Coverdale, Joel Hoekstra, Agape and several bishops and pastors. But it seems for every one of them, there's ten right-wing radicals who want Biden and Harris' blood and ten left-wing radicals who seem convinced America is a lost cause, white Americans are the spawn of Satan and the only solution is to force white Americans to a reservation South of the Mason-Dixon line and East of the Appalachians. Hopelessness and Anger permeates much of the website and I just want to focus on the good, put out stuff more positive and hopeful than their world is giving me. Edelgard, Byleth and Annette make me believe it is possible to create a more hopeful world, as do their voice actors and the interactions I've had with them. I just worry that someday I will lose access to those interactions, then be faced with hopelessness and these demons of the past I have not conquered. I get paranoid talking about pop music or lesbians in video games and other media there, that some Trump fanatic is going to tear me apart verbally, and I'm back to 10 years ago, scared of this person trying to rip my joys from me, trying to make me something I'm not so aggressively that I cannot respond or think clearly, only feel fear. Edelgard and Byleth helped me face that fear head-on, Annette rooting for us and reminding us what we were doing was important and would last centuries. That's why they're my top 3 game characters, they lead me to inner peace, as do the women who play them.
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