Listening to: Jay Z's Holy Grail featuring Justin Timberlake

Warning: The song contains explicit lyrics.  Parental Guidance is advised.

Fresh off the success of their monster hit collaboration "Suit and Tie" Jay-Z and JT brings us "Holy Grail"from Jay-Z's album entitled Magna Carta... Holy Grail.  The song contains a sampling of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and also references Kurt Cobain in the lyrics.

While many has mixed feelings about the song, I personally like it for JT's smooth vocals and the cool beat.  Listening to the first part with just the piano really is very cool.  It then drops the beat after the first chorus and just before Jay Z starts to say "uh" for about a hundred or so times in the song I guess.

Instead of the whole lyrics let me just place the chorus here for you guys to appreciate:

And baby, it's amazing I'm in this maze with you
I just can't crack your code
One day you screaming you love me loud
The next day you're so cold
One day you're here, one day you're there, one day you care
You're so unfair, sipping from your cup 'til it runneth over, Holy Grail

Listening To: "Latch" By Disclosure Featuring Sam Smith

This song by the British duo Disclosure has been hitting the charts in the Philippines for a few couple of weeks even though it was released more than 10 months ago in the UK.  As the lead single in their album "Settle" this song has a great beat that's makes you sway while listening to it.

But what is more amazing is the acoustic version done by the song's writer and featured artist Sam Smith.  As I have been hearing Disclosure's version of Latch for quite some time now it was a welcome surprise to hear this version.




The acoustic version makes you listen and just focus on it's awesome lyrics:

You lift my heart up when the rest of me is down
You, you enchant me even when you're not around
If there are boundaries, I will try to knock them down
I’m latching on, babe, now I know what I have found

I feel we're close enough
I wanna lock in your love
I feel we’re close enough
Could I lock in your love

Now I got you in my space
I won’t let go of you
Got you shackled in my embrace
I’m latching on to you

Now I got you in my space
I won’t let go of you
Got you shackled in my embrace
I’m latching on to you

I’m so encaptured, got me wrapped up in your touch
Feel so enamored, hold me tight within your clutch
How do you do it, you got me losing every breath
What did you give me to make my heart beat out my chest

I feel we're close enough
I wanna lock in your love
I think we’re close enough
Could I lock in your love, baby?
I feel we’re close enough
I wanna lock in your love
I think we’re close enough
Could I lock in your love, baby?

Now I got you in my space
I won’t let go of you
Got you shackled in my embrace
I’m latching on to you

Now I got you in my space
I won’t let go of you
Got you shackled in my embrace
I’m latching on to you
Latching on to you
I won’t let go of you
Latching on to you
I won’t let go of you

Listening to: Maroon 5's Love Somebody

Maroon 5 - Love Somebody from Jeff Dotson on Vimeo.


Still off from Maroon 5's album "Overexposed" the song "Love Somebody" is considerably more of a dance track.  Proof that the album is really something worth buying over iTunes.  The video catches my attention too as it is very interesting how they shot this one which used a lot of blue paint!

For faster loading see the official video on You Tube.  Here is the link: Maroon 5 - Love Somebody

And of course those killer lyrics are here:

I know your insides are feeling so hollow
And it's a hard pill for you to swallow, yeah
But if I fall for you, I'll never recover
If I fall for you, I'll never be the same

I really wanna love somebody
I really wanna dance the night away
I know we're only half way there
But you can take me all the way, you can take me all the way

I really wanna touch somebody
I think about you every single day
I know we're only half way there
But you can take me all the way, you can take me all the way

You're such a hard act for me to follow
Love me today, don't leave me tomorrow, yeah
But if I fall for you, I'll never recover
If I fall for you, I'll never be the same

I really wanna love somebody
I really wanna dance the night away
I know we're only half way there
But you can take me all the way, you can take me all the way

I really wanna touch somebody
I think about you every single day
I know we're only half way there
But you can take me all the way, you can take me all the way
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

I don't know where to start, I'm just a little lost
I wanna feel like we never gonna ever stop
I don't know what to do, I'm right in front of you
Asking you to stay, you should stay, stay with me tonight, yeah

I really wanna love somebody
I really wanna dance the night away
I know we're only half way there
But you can take me all the way, you can take me all the way

I really wanna touch somebody
I think about you every single day
I know we're only half way there
But you can take me all the way, you can take me all the way
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh

You can take me all the way, you can take me all the way, yeah.

Listening To: Jason Mraz's The Woman I Love

The latest song from Jason Mraz's album entitled LOVE is a Four Letter Word.  The song is about a man pouring out his heart about the state of his relationship with his partner but in the end the narrator is resolved to make the relationship work.

In the music video, real tweets were flashed based on a Twitter contest that was conducted for the release of the single.  The contest asks followers to answer the question "What does The Woman I Love mean to you tweeting it to Mraz with the hashtag #MrazingTheVideo.  Here is a video from the man himself announcing the Twitter contest



As usual, I love posting the lyrics of songs I like to sing along to so here it is:

Maybe I annoy you with my choices
Well, you annoy me sometimes too with your voice
But that ain't enough for me
To move out and move on
I'm just gonna love you like the woman I love

We don't have to hurry
You can take as long as you want
I'm holdin' steady
And my heart's at home
With my hand behind you
I will catch you if you fall
I'm just gonna love you like the woman I love

Sometimes the world can make you feel
You're not welcome anymore
And you beat yourself up
You let yourself get mad
And in those times when you stop lovin'
The woman I adore
You can relax
Because, babe, I got your back
Mm, I got you

I don't wish to change you
You've got it under control
You wake up each day different
Another reason for me to keep holdin' on
I'm not attached to any way you're showing up
I'm just gonna love you like the woman I love
Yeah I'm gonna love you, oh, yeah
I'm gonna love you
You're the woman I love

Listening to: Bruno Mars' Treasure

Another great song from Bruno Mars entitled Treasure still from the album Unorthodox Jukebox.  The song has that Motown-feel into it that if it's the first time you hear it you would swear it's a 70's disco song.  Also, you can sense some MJ influence into this song.  Try muting the video and play MJ's Rock With You and you will see that the choreography they have on the video fits :)  I can't wait to see the official video which would come out soon.  A true Bruno Mars fan will simply treasure the song Treasure.

You can catch the official video from here:
Bruno Mars - Treasure [Official Music Video]

Listening To: Passion Pit's Carried Away

Passion Pit - Carried Away from BREWER on Vimeo.

Here's a neat song and video from Massachusetts Indie band Passion Pit.  Out of their album Gossamer, the song Carried Away has this catchy pop tune to it reminiscent of a 70's dance song.  But what I really like about the song is the concept of its video which features the lovely Sophia Bush.  It shows Sophia and Passion Pit lead singer Michael Angelakos as a couple with a constant love-hate relationship.  In the end, the hurtful words that they have said to each other and have been kept overwhelmed them.

On this topic I have tweeted the following a few weeks ago:

Words are very powerful. They can hurt, heal, push back or pull someone closer. One must learn how to use them carefully. #Ronaldo'sMusings

and I found this picture on Facebook a few days ago:

The Mongolian text in the picture means "weigh one's words."

So moral of the song/video: be careful with your words as they may haunt you someday.

It Takes An Iron Man... And A Woman!

*WARNING* Severe nosebleed may occur in reading this geeky movie review from a comic book fan boy.

I just watched the third and probably final installment of a great movie series.  No, I was not talking about the John Lloyd Cruz and Sarah G movie but of Iron Man. So after that blockbuster movie The Avengers one would think how can it still keep up with the momentum? Well the answer is yes it is still that good though there are still hits and misses.  I honestly believe that The Avengers was actually an Iron Man movie as the others were not given the same screen time (except for Black widow of course but then since it was Scarlett Johansson who would complain right?)  But if you have an ensemble of "Superfriends" (pun intended) then you would certainly choose who to feature best in the movie.  And they have chosen the biggest box office draw among the franchise which is Iron Man.

Now back to Iron Man 3, I will try my best not put any spoilers here but I think one of the best things that the writers did was to prominently feature Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) in the movie.  No longer the "damsel in distress" type of character as in the earlier movies and comic book she basically... well, kicked ass.  But no, we won't see the Pepper Potts in a specially made Iron Man suit called Rescue in this movie (or would we? Well that's for you to find out by watching it.)  Pepper Potts really needed to come out from her shell as it has been asking for in the first two movies and in The Avengers where it seems to be more of a cameo.  However, in this movie Pepper is hot (literally! oops let that one slipped.)

Other good thing in this movie are the insertion of portions of Extremis story arc and the Iron Patriot makes an appearance.  However, Iron Patriot would not worn by Norman Osborn (aka the Green Goblin) in this movie but by Col James Rhodes.

But if you are a comic book purist you would not like how The Mandarin was portrayed here.  He looks like a cross between a popular terrorist and Austin Powers.  But he was portrayed by Gandhi himself Sir Ben Kingsley so 3 stars out of 5.  Another thing is that Nick Fury and SHIELD is not in this movie so I hope it doesn't jinx it in some way as this is the first time Fury is not shown even by name in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Although the Avengers was heavily referenced in the movie it doesn't really show a real continuity with how the Avengers ended (example, no Thanos reference as shown in the end credits so I guess it would have to wait until the Guardians of the Galaxy film then.)  Speaking of the Guardians, the 2013 comic book version also includes Iron Man as a member so it would be interesting if they would do the cross over in the film version.

All in all, I still would say that this is a great movie.  I do hope that they still do another movie if not then Iron Man should still be part of Avengers 2 and not to be replaced by the Iron Patriot as what reports are saying.  If they do that then better replace Captain America with Bucky Barnes (the Winter Soldier, yup spoiler alert you now know the probable storyline arc of Captain America 2.)

BTW, I also got a free poster for it watching on the first day :)