Special Updates Next Week

     I'm going to take part in an art challenge from Twitter next week, in which each day will feature a different art (story in my case) around a theme.  In this case, it's Edeleth week, featuring the lesbian couple Edelgard Von Hresvelg and Byleth Eisner from Fire Emblem; Three Houses.  Friends Petra Macneary, Dorothea Arnault, Annette Dominic, Samus Aran, Princess Zelda and Rise Kujikawa will make appearances, as well (the last three from other video games).  Each day was a free day, so I made up my own themes;

-Fodlan

-Smash Bros.

-Beach

-FEH

-Hot Springs

-Halloween

-Persona/Blazblue Crosstag Battle crossover

These will also be shared on Twitter in the hopes of being retweeted by the Edeleth Week account.

9/24/2021 Music and General Update

     Hi, all.  The laptop has not yet been taken in, so I thought I'd share what's happened in music releases last week and is known to happen tonight.  

    Sam Smith's duet with Summer Walker was released last week and the sample sounds Heavenly, I'm actually waiting to listen to it tonight.  Tori Kelly is also on the Dear Evan Hansen Soundtrack as well and her song will be released tonight.  

Miley Cyrus and Lil Nas X's duet was great, one of the best pop songs this year, and tonight, I'll find out if his other collaborations are just as good or better.  

Enuff Z'nuff also released the first single for their Beatles tribute album, which will also include songs from John and Paul's solo careers; the first single was actually a cover of John's "Cold Turkey," which was also covered in 2015 by the Hollywood Vampires, a group focused around Alice Cooper, Joe Perry and Johnny Depp, made due to Alice Cooper appearing in the "Dark Shadows" movie directed by Tim Burton.  

Styx also released an EP with a good live version of "Miss America," one of my favorites of their 70s incarnation not sung by Tommy Shaw and I think this is the best rendition sung by Lawrence Gowan.  

The Beatles also released four more tracks from their upcoming "Let It Be Super Deluxe," featuring outtakes of "Get Back" and "One after 909" as well as an alternate mix of "I Me Mine" by Glyn Johns and the album version of "Across the Universe," one of my favorite calming songs, and I bet a lot of other people feel the same way.

Ringo Starr's second EP of the year is to be released tonight, I am personally curious if the first single of this one had as much of an all-starr cast as "Here's To The Nights" did.  (Yes, that typo was intentional)

Solar, my favorite K-Pop singer, also released a single presumably attached to a movie.  She is a singer in the girl group MAMAMOO and sometimes she records on her own.  She has a lovely voice and I would love it if her group (and her in particular) got the same exposure in the West BLACKPINK has had.

Top 5 Favorite Video Games by System

 I decided to add more of my unique perspective to my online presence.  I don't have anything for the Game Boy, Game Boy Color or Game Boy Advance yet because I don't remember many of the games I played other than the frustrating licensed Jurassic Park and Godzilla games, the Pokémon games, a Mickey Mouse game, Super Mario Land 2, Wario Land and Godzilla; Domination which could make a top 5 between them, but not a top 5 for each.  I have either beaten these games, played these games a lot or watched my brother play them, and they were all fun.

SNES:

1.)    Super Mario RPG; Legend of the Seven Stars

2.)    Super Mario World

3.)    Super Mario Kart

4.)    Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball

5.)    Final Fantasy IV

 

Gamecube:

1.)    Super Smash Bros. Melee

2.)    Godzilla; Destroy All Monsters Melee

3.)    Soul Calibur II

4.)    Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

5.)    Metroid Prime

Wii:

1.)    Super Smash Bros. Brawl

2.)    Super Paper Mario

3.)    The Beatles; Rock Band

4.)    Rock Band 3

5.)    Naruto Shippuden; Clash of Ninja Revolution III

3DS:

1.)    Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS

2.)    Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth

3.)    Lego Batman 2

4.)    Resident Evil; Revelations

5.)    Fire Emblem; Fates Birthright

Switch:

1.)    Fire Emblem; Three Houses

2.)    Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

3.)    Fairy Tail

4.)    Blazblue; Crosstag Battle

5.)    Persona 5 Strikers

Music Highlights of the next Month

     I am optimistic that I will soon be in contact with the warranty people at Costco and will get my laptop sent in to get fixed.  As such, I decided to prepare Music Highlights for the next month, through to the 15th of October, since I don't know when I'll be getting it back.

September 17th: There is a Larkin Poe Live album, Lil Nas X releases his first full-length album, which includes duets with Doja Cat, Elton John and Miley Cyrus (and interestingly, 12 years ago on this day, (ie 9/16/2009), I saw her with Metro Station opening in the Tacoma Dome).  There's also a Melissa Etheridge album.  Highlights from previous week include an Ozzy and Lemmy mashup of their versions of “Hellraiser,” Eddie Vedder’s Single “Long Way,” which sounded like a 1970s Eagles or Lynyrd Skynyrd track, Green Day’s Version of “Rock and Roll All Nite,” Inglorious’ versions of “Queen of the Night,” “I Hate Myself For Loving You,” “Fighter,” “Uninvited” and “Bring Me To Life” (which featured Jeff Scott Soto doing the rap parts) and The Hu’s version of “Through the Never.”

September 24th: Ringo Starr’s second EP of the year will be released, Carrie Underwood is re-releasing last year’s My Gift Christmas album with two new tracks and the Dear Evan Hansen Soundtrack drops with Sam Smith singing a duet with Summer Walker.  Also, a live BabyMetal album drops on 9/29, possibly our last BabyMetal release for a while.

October 1st: Brandi Carlile’s new album "In These Silent Days" drops, KK Downing releases the first album of his new project KK’s Priest, Tune in With Chewie & GameChops release an album called “Samus and Chill,” like GameChops earlier “Zelda and Chill” 2 albums, it likely contains remixed, relaxing versions of game soundtrack music.

October 8th: Vanilla Ninja (all girls rock band?), Jeff Scott Soto (duets album), Gus G (Greek guitarist who used to work for Ozzy Osbourne) and Hiromi (Japanese pianist) all release albums.

October 15th: Judas Priest releases a 50-year celebration album with possibly newly released live versions of classic songs, The Beatles release the Super Deluxe version of Let it Be (includes Glyn Johns mix and two discs of outtakes and jams), Tom Morello’s new album of collaborations is released and the first Alcatrazz album with Doogie White singing is released.  Also, I go to my first out-of-town concert since BabyMetal (with The Hu opening for them) on 10/16/2019 by going to Seattle’s Neptune Theater to see The Dead Daisies with Glenn Hughes on bass/lead vocals, Doug Aldrich on lead guitar, David Lowy on rhythm guitar and Tommy Clufetos on drums.  Songs I'm looking forward to include "Righteous Days," "Like No Other," "Bustle and Flow," "Fortunate Son (A Creedence cover)," "Mistreated (A Deep Purple cover)" and Burn (Another Deep Purple cover)."

Music Update for 9/10/2021 and General Update

     I shared my last post on Twitter and Agape liked it, so that was pretty cool!  Unfortunately, my online presence is soon going to be muted for some time as my laptop's fan has been making an annoying buzzing sound since May and we've tried everything tech support has suggested, so it's now time to send it in and get the hardware fixed.  What I don't like about this is that I have no idea how long this will take or even when exactly it will start, as the warranty people haven't called yet.

    Tonight, there are a couple of exciting releases I'm looking forward to, The Metallica Blacklist and Inglorious' album Heroine.  The Metallica Blacklist is a four-CD album featuring various artists covering songs from Metallica's 1991 "Black Album," which contained "Enter Sandman" and "Nothing Else Matters."  This is the project responsible for Rina Sawayama's cover of "Enter Sandman" and Miley Cyrus' cover of "Nothing Else Matters," which will also be released on Elton John's "Lockdown Sessions" album in October.  I've also bought two other tracks from The Metallica Blacklist, "Sad But True" by St. Vincent and "Nothing Else Matters" by Phoebe Bridgers.  The one I'm really looking forward to tonight is "Through the Never" by Mongolian Throat-Singing Metal Band The Hu.

    Inglorious' Heroine is a covers album of songs by women artists, they have released singles of covers by Miley Cyrus, Heart and Avril Lavigne.  The album itself will also have covers from Joan Jett, Halestorm, Evanescence, Alanis Morrissette and Tina Turner, so it sounds like a great experience.  I listened to some samples on iTunes and I am really looking forward to this.

    Saturday is going to be a hard day for a lot of us, including myself, as it will be the 20th anniversary of the day Middle Eastern terrorists killed 3,000 American lives, which fueled two decades of hatred of Islam and war.  Recently, the war came to an end, with us watching as the violent government that permitted this terrorist group to exist reclaimed government power in Afghanistan.  However, it is clear that our attempt to remake Afghanistan was too costly in terms of money and lives, and I stand by Biden's decision that we shouldn't have countless rows in Arlington National Cemetery over a country that wasn't willing to take care of itself.  Honestly, in these last two decades, especially in the last 11 years, a stronger threat to freedom has emerged at home, the people who do not tolerate the voices of racial or orientation-based minorities, the people who think God and Jesus should be exclusively Republican, the people who have brought fascist rhetoric to this country, and with it, hate crimes of violence.  We should remember September 11th, but we shouldn't get so caught up in it we forget that Islamic people are our neighbors.  We should have a military, but not get so obsessed with it that we want to kill in the name of 'murca.  Let us take the first step forward on this day and take a step forward every day. 

My Church Warmup Playlist

     In this time of distancing and watching services on YouTube, I get up early and listen to these songs before the service starts to get my mind in the right mood, quiet outside noise and get focused on God and justice.

Church Warmup playlist (iTunes)

 

1.)    Turn Your Eyes-Vicky Beeching

2.)    After Forever-Black Sabbath

3.)    You Say-Lauren Daigle

4.)    Yesterday, Today and Forever-Vicky Beeching

5.)    Great is Thy Faithfulness-Carrie Underwood Cece Winans

6.)    Face of God-Billy Ray Cyrus

7.)    Jesus, Take The Wheel-Carrie Underwood

8.)    I Love You This Much-Billy Ray Cyrus

9.)    Simple Man-Lynyrd Skynyrd

10.) Joy Invincible-Switchfoot

11.) Amazing Grace-Good Shepherd Collective feat. Liz Vice

12.) The Wonder of the Cross-Vicky Beeching

13.) Just As I Am-Billy Ray Cyrus

14.) Call to Worship-Vicky Beeching

15.) Stand Still-Billy Ray Cyrus

16.) Prepare Ye (The Way of the Lord)-Godspell Cast

17.) Under the Bridge-Agape

18.) Meant To Live-Switchfoot

19.) Guardians-Judas Priest

20.) Rising From Ruins-Judas Priest

21.) Hallelujah-Deep Purple

22.) Mask of the Great Deceiver-Kerry Livgren feat. Ronnie James Dio

23.) Holy for Tonight-Ozzy Osbourne

24.) My Arms-Ledger

25.) Day by Day-Godspell Cast

26.) The Other Side-Billy Ray Cyrus

27.) How Great Thou Art-Carrie Underwood

28.) Amazing Grace-Billy Ray Cyrus

29.) Captivated-Vicky Beeching

30.) Just As I Am-Carrie Underwood

31.) 35 These-Agape

32.) Completely-Ledger

33.) How Great Thou Art-Elvis Presley

34.) Amazing Grace-Elvis Presley

35.) God only Knows-for KING and COUNTY, Dolly Parton

36.) Beautiful City-Godspell Cast

37.) This Is Home-Switchfoot

38.) The Hope of Jesus-Hope Darst

39.) Softly and Tenderly-Carrie Underwood

40.) Amazing Grace-Carrie Underwood

41.) We’re Gonna Be Alright-Switchfoot

42.) You’re the One I Want-Switchfoot

43.) Song for Matthew-Agape

44.) Enough Outro-Agape

 

I hope some of you are able to do something similar, because right now feels like a constant barrage from the forces of darkness to make us lose our Faith in God.  Peace be with you.

9/3/2021 Music Releases

     Last week Billy Ray Cyrus released a Bluegrass Gospel song with his brother and his sister-in-law (or possibly sister, he hasn't revealed much about his siblings before), The Beatles released the first tracks from the Let it Be Deluxe Edition, Rina Sawayama released her awesome cover of "Enter Sandman" and Elton John announced an album of recordings made in lock down.  Each sound great or are something I'm looking forward to.

 

    As for this week, we have a new album from Iron Maiden, a new soundtrack for a movie called Cinderella with Idina Menzel on it and another tribute album from Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones, who are apparently proceeding without Charlie Watts.  I don't know how it feels with him gone or ZZ Top proceeding without Dusty Hill, both feel irreplaceable in their bands.  Regardless, I'm looking forward to the new releases this week.