Today's post is "Just Another Way to Die"!

So, my blog post today is twofold, half being my normal day to day, and the second half consisting of my full play-by-play of the newest Bond title track.

So, my day started off without my alarm ringing. My mom had to wake me up (which she wasn't too happy about). But I got up, ate breakfast (left over pancake from yesterday... rewarmed pancakes never as good as new). I got dressed, packed my backpack, and headed out the door (wow that sounds like Zabumafoo(sp?)...). I walked to the bus stop, which I saw Steve and Steph at. They sat in the van and waited for the bus... pussies... Anyways, the bus took me to school, I got on a computer, made sure I didn't have any homework to do, then went to Physics and kept up my tradition of using energy drinks to stay alive. This weeks was a No Fear Motherload. I didn't say what flavor it was, they just called it Motherload. It tasted kinda like kiwi grapefruit (neither of which were ingredients). I liked it. It tasted pretty good, and because it tasted like a caffinated grapefruit, so it was a real kick in the face. So, I did stay awake today. Then I sat around reading, or surfing the internet, until my math class started. My math class was really boring. I should have paid attention because it was a review for my thurs. test. I did however get a sketch to a drawing I'm really looking forward to finishing. I also got myself excited about scanning a lot more of my art and posting them in a few sites across the lollernet. Then I went home. At home I listened to music ate (Chinese food -,-), and got ready for work. Work was actually pretty busy tonight, it was crazy. I've only got about another hour left to work, so I expect it to be pretty slow, and I can get a chance to finish everything I have to get done. Then I'm gonna walk home, eat (again, I get it, I'm a fat man... actually I've lost a lot of weight since school started... crazy), take a shower, then go to sleep.

Now, I had listened to this song once a few weeks ago, but it was while I was hanging out with friends, so I didn't get to pay much attention to it. Then one day in between classes, I watched the video on Youtube. I watched again today and I figured I should put in my two cents about it. First off, the song is titled "Another Way to Die", it'll be the intro to the newest Bond movie Quantum of Solace, and is sung by Jack White of the White Stripes, and Alicia Keys. I've been told that Jack actually wrote the song, but I've never confirmed it, it sounds believable enough to me. Anyways, my initial reaction to this pair up was like 'cool, I love it when two polar opposites from the music industry make a song together. It melds genres cultures and lives. Korn does a lot of stuff with rappers, and it always turns out amazing'. Well, it turns out these two talents are not as different as I had once assumed. True, they're listed under different genres, and they go about two different ways to produce their own style, but they way their voices moved together really showed a close relation. Apparently both of them wanted to work together before because of a mutual musical respect. I liked to hear that because I find it awesome when musicians of this stature enjoy each others work, even though after every collaboration, the artists will say how much they love the other. I'm willing to suspend my logic and just believe this one... Hearing these two people singing together was like hearing two of the same tone at one time, one being the smooth and polished version while the other is raw and gritty (I'm sure you can tell which is which). I enjoyed this contrast even more because it could be taken further to represent Bond himself. He is the raw gritty action hero, but can pull it all off with impeccably smooth style. Plus, the instruments were spot one. Jack with his guitar, Alicia and her piano. Now, I'm a sucker for the piano, so this just set the bar far above average. The lyrics were great. The chorus alone just made it seem like on of those kind of spy tag lines. And if the lyrics aren't quite enough to get in your head, I guarantee you, that melody will start bouncing around up there for awhile. One last not about the actual song: the duel towards the end. Jack screeching his guitar while Alicia harmonizes and almost fights back. It's like a musical argument and it just keeps rising and rising until it can't hold it's own weight, and as soon as it breaks, you get kicked back right into the song. As for the video, I liked it... but it didn't seem like anything special. People singing and playing instruments with a digital background with quirky (and increasingly overused) graphic design elements fly around. Don't get me wrong, it was a nice, well made video, but it was nothing new (but I did really enjoy the desert backdrop... it just seemed badass that they'd be singing at night in a desert). Although both of them have said they wanted to work together for a while now, they really didn't seem to acknowledge the other in the video... I mean there were times, but for the most part, their chemistry just seemed bland. I did however like how the two of them started playing with their instruments and such at the end, before Daniel Craig comes over that dune looking like a well dressed bat out of Hell... with a gun... A really big gun... Here's the video if you haven't seen it. If I've got more than one reader here (Hi Kiwi), tell me what you think.