30 day song challenge part three

Ok, heres a blog we can all get involved with, contribute to, and most importantly help each other find awesome new music. Here are the days 9 through to 16:

Day 17 - A Song That You Hear Often On The Radio
Day 18 - A Song That You Wish You Heard On The Radio
Day 19 - A Song From Your Favourite Album
Day 20 - A Song That You Listen To When You're Angry
Day 21 - A Song That You Listen To When You're Happy
Day 22 - A Song That You Listen To When You're Sad
Day 23 - A Song That You Want To Play At Your Wedding

Day 17. Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY

I find 9/10 radio stations unlistenable, the inane babble, the endless commercials, promising variety but delivering essentially the same list of songs every day depending on radio genre. I really liked this song when it came out but then every radio station began playing it on the hour, every hour, and that for me took away something from it. Still a great song, but spoilt a bit.

Day 18. Animals As Leaders - Soraya

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=km6F5_6JBuc

Wouldn't this be wonderful? a song breaking the mould of the 3 and half minute standard song structure, 4/4 time signature, 120 bpm, squeaky clean formula. 20 minutes before writing this I heard Sex On Fire By The Kings Of Leon, with the word Sex edited out, WTF! are radio stations really this clean now? Come on, we all know what the word is. Would be wonderful to take the radio rules and break them all. It'll never happen on a big time radio station though, love this band, and have a particular love for instrumental music as you may have guessed.

Day 19. The Beach Boys - I Know Theres An Answer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVIlp5_w4f8

Breaking the rules a bit here with two entries by the Beach Boys, but Pet Sounds is simply my favourite album and won't ever be beaten. Theres not really much else I can say, A masterpiece throughout, this is what perfection sounds like.

Day 20. The Black Mages - Those Who Fight Further

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzFh9GuE0rA

Another Instrumental entry, this is pretty much a music dream for me. Final Fantasy music, done in metal. This has quite a few listens on my itunes, maybe a few more than it should do lol.

Day 21. The Shins - No Way Down

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J34xwZq0qg

From their new album, one of my favourite bands, I love James Mercers ambiguity filled lyrics and had a big smile on my face when I heard this in the latest Spiderman, hopefully they'll start getting the recognition all great bands deserve.

Day 22. John Mayer - Heart Of Life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS8NvoMudy8

Despite acting like a bit of a plank sometimes, theres no denying John Mayer's talent as a musician and a songwriter, the way of weaving a clever lyric without being too sentimental and the tone of guitar in the outro of this is just sublime. Definitely back to his best with his last album.

Day 23. Randy Newman - Feels Like Home

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bcPgotwOaA

Getting a bit ahead of myself here I think the bride might be the one deciding the song, but as far as love songs go this is a very special one. He's like marmite, people love him others hate him, many have done parodies of him. The guy will always be a genius to me. Incomparable.

Stay tuned for the fourth and final part, and comment below with your selection and lets get this shared around.

I'm Richard and you're awesome for reading this.

30 day song challenge part two

Ok, heres a blog we can all get involved with, contribute to, and most importantly help each other find awesome new music. Here are the days 9 through to 16:

Day 9 - A song that (you think) you can dance to
Day 10 - A song that makes you fall asleep
Day 11 - A song from your favourite band
Day 12 - A song from a band you hate
Day 13 - A song that is a guilty pleasure
Day 14 - A song that no one would expect you to love
Day 15 - A song that describes you
Day 16 - A song that you used to love but now hate

And here are my entries:

Day 9. PSY, Gangnam Style

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

A song you can dance too? Well, you can dance to pretty much anything I guess, but I can't remember the lost time one song made over 800 million viewers on youtube look and say, "Dance like you're riding an invisible horse!". The whole worlds been doing it and its wonderful to see. Take it away Sir Psy.........

Day 10. Nobuo Uematsu, Tifa's Theme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hWwMZ8yn_I

Fell asleep to this just last week. This man is my idol, I started writing music of my own after hearing the soundtrack to Final Fantasy 7, video games just wouldn't be the same without him, one day I hope to write something as beautiful as this.

Day 11. Blink 182, Ghost On The Dancefloor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHPsjZ-TFxA

Again like picking a favourite song this is difficult, Elbow and Hit The Lights are two of my favourite bands but I've already picked them for previous days. I'm picking Blink because I listened to them constantly in High School and I'm delighted they are making music again. Neighbourhoods was an absolute triumph for me, particularly after a gap of eights years to the last album, it perfectly recaptured the old style of Blink while pushing forward too.

Day 12. Black Eyed Peas, The Time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwQZQygg3Lk

This could have been pretty much any song by The Black Eyed Peas, but this one stands out above the rest. So incomprehensibly bad, its not even bland like the plodding chord stabs of 'I Gotta Feeling', I've never heard a song with such little flow, everything about it either feels forced, completely un-natural or the sound of four of five songs mashed together put in a blender and seasoned with a sizeable sprinkling of auto-tune. Awful, just awful.

Day 13. Owl City, On A Wing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRAGdCI-QeY

The Fireflies guy, showing he's more than the fireflies guy. I should hate this, the whole washed in auto-tune thing, but I don't, quite the opposite. I've got a lot of time for Adam Young, a hard working bedroom musician who's made the big time and rather than let it change him, he just makes the music he wants to, and this is rather lovely.

Day 14. Neyo, Miss Independent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6M5C-oKw9k

I'll probably never own a record by Ne-yo, but that doesn't mean I don't recognise a great songwriter when I see one. Never heard a modern R n B song like this, with the lyrics speaking of the great respect Neyo has for a woman, its very refreshing to hear. Great Production too, very Michael Jackson style middle eight is very nice.

Day 15. Julia Nunes, Look Out For Yourself

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkGiLLhTBRw

Don't you just love a song you swear was just written for you?. Like they had you in mind? Only a two minute song, but a great message, put yourself first once in a while. Amen Julia! :)

Day 16. Steely Dan, Aja

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWfQTY_K-_o

I love Steely Dan, the complex patterns, the solos, the ambiguity of the lyrics, everything that makes interesting music, the best kind of music!. I decided to do a dissertation on the song Aja, so for 7 months I heard this song over and over and over again until it drove me mad. That was 3 years ago and I still skip it when I listen to Steely Dan now, I'll listen to it again one day.

Stay tuned for part three, and comment below with your selection and lets get this shared around.

I'm Richard and you're awesome for reading this.

Ok, heres a blog we can all get involved with, contribute to, and most importantly help each other find awesome new music. Here are the first eight days:

Day 1 - Your favourite song
Day 2 - Your least favourite song
Day 3 - A song that makes you happy
Day 4 - A song that makes you sad
Day 5 - A song that reminds you of someone
Day 6 - A song that reminds you of somewhere
Day 7 - A song that reminds you of a certain event
Day 8 - A song that you know all the words too.

And here are my entries:

Day 1. The Beach Boys, God Only Knows

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDfH_J4MAUQ

Its difficult out of the millions upon millions of songs out there to pick just one, one song to call your favourite, favourite songs are based upon moods more than anything I feel. But if you're gonna push me for one, its gotta be this, simply the perfect pop song and from my favourite album.

Day 2. Ke$ha, Bla Bla Bla

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi8Otb_AXho

Beiber and Black would be easy and predictable targets for this, they just make bland, inoffensive, uninteresting, lyrically awkward, 120bpm, 4 chord mush. Albeit this is worst kind of pop you can hear on your local radio station as they play the same 8 songs all day long, but there is worse out there. This for example. A song that shows just how low we have sunk, awful behind comprehension obnoxious arrogant garbage from a talentless thing who sounds like she's reading the script from a terrible teen movie through an auto-tuner. I feel dirty typing the song into youtube to find the link, I'm off for a shower.

Day 3. Sigur Ros, Hoppipolla

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNVVX-m-oSw

Ahhhh, thats better. Onwards and upwards and to happy songs. Lots of songs make me smile and make me happy, but it takes a special song to make you smile, happy AND give you goosebumps, but this song does it all. The song from a thousand montages and heres a special live performance on later with Jools Holland (Best thing on the BBC)

Day 4. Tunde Baiyewu - Anaesthetic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37HumDxHiy4

From one half of the Lighthouse Family came a solo album, an album both brilliant and criminally under-rated (you're really gonna get fed of me using that word over these four parts) A song about his mother slowly passing away and his helplessness. I've never been so moved by a song before, the lyrics 'Oluwa shanu mi' at the end of the chorus in Nigerian read 'Lord have mercy on me', Haunting, Bold, Brave and completely brilliant.

Day 5. Hit The Lights. Stay Out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVv8mXDEu8I

Ok lets bring the tone back up again, this song doesn't remind me of one person but lots of people and lots of awesome nights out. Pop punk forever.

Day 6. Train. Hey, Soul Sister

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVpv8-5XWOI

Spent 3 weeks in Florida last year and listened to this song pretty much every day. Holiday of lifetime, can't wait to do it again.

Day 7. Crowded House. Fall At Your Feet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82JZh3VyE2M

The first gig I ever went to, made me want to start playing the guitar, the harmonies the Finn Brothers create are just out of this world.

Day 8. Elbow - Open Arms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embe dded&v=bJV71cW40OQ

"We've got open arms for broken hearts like yours my boy, come home again"

One of the finest British bands to come out of the last 30 years, finally getting the recognition and credit they deserve for creating consistently incredible records, long may it continue and may other great bands find the same.

Stay tuned for part two, and comment below with your selection and lets get this shared around.

I'm Richard and you're awesome for reading this.

For me its hard to remember when Facebook was new, can anyone remember? It was genuinely a very exciting time, ok there were other social networking sites like Bebo, Myspace, etc, but Facebook was a massive step up, communicating with other people became a lot easier compared with other networking sites whose layouts were clunky and messy compared to Facebook. For better or worse It has changed the way we communicate forever and I was on the better side of that 5 years ago, kinda don't feel the same way anymore.

This started September 11th, people wrote standard messages regarding the tragic events 11 years ago but like the past few years, people saw fit to use this day to discuss whether it was a conspiracy or not (like every year) violently arguing over an issue that for most of the people had not affected what-so-ever (FYI this isn't an invitation for you to present your opinion for or against, you couldn't pay me to care what your opinion is). The past few years I've been pissed off by this, but now I'm just tired of it.

The unfortunate thing with the internet is that almost anyone can become an invisible html and hurl random abuse at a celebrity or non-celebrity via twitter or youtube or start an argument or an offensive group on Facebook. There seems to be a celebrity caught up in a row via twitter every day or people being arrested for harassment by using social networking, this really, really depresses me. While we are on the subject of celebrities, the tip of the iceberg is the fake death stories of celebrities that crop up every once in a while, Jackie Chan, Jim Carrey and more recently Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman and Alfonso Ribeiro, have all been targeted by false reports of their deaths. Seriously!?! what messed up mind tries to fake up the death of a beloved actor like that.

I've been writing music for over 15 years now and being a musician on the internet sometimes feels like screaming in space, theres millions others in the same boat all wanting to be heard and wanting the recognition, and the fact that someone can gain instant notoriety for being a jerk just makes me want to stop trying. Speaking of which check out a guy called Eric Bibb, one of my idols, amazing guitarist, songwriter and a wonderful man who in his career has released over 30 albums, the world deserves to know his name, so give him a listen and thank me later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acupXlmu9zI

Back to the point, this is why the internet is all backwards, we give such Facebook groups like 'Cancer is funny because people die' attention (Fortunately that has been deleted now). Give this attention to a person who deserves it instead, DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS! (if you ignore someone long enough they will go away). Unfortunately I'm left to accept that 'trolling' will never be gone as they will claim freedom of speech or some other bullshit. Newsflash here and listen carefully, yes freedom of speech does give right to say what you like, BUT it doesn't give you the right to BE listened to! OR challenged should anyone affected by your words come to harm. We as people are better than this and therefore should act better, this is social networking, SOCIAL networking.

Also this is why I ask, do you remember when Facebook was new and people just, you know, talked and got along?

I'm Richard, and you're awesome for reading this.

Star Wars: LET IT GO ALREADY!!!!!!!!

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...............

etc, etc, etc, you know the rest..............

So last week it was announced Disney had bought Lucasfilm and will release a 7th Star Wars film in 2015, the reaction to this was as you'd expect, angry self entitled fan boys across the land whined for the world to hear. Cries of 'you've raped my childhood' rung out, idiots claiming this is the start of the apocalypse and I've even read people claiming Star Wars had sold out. So as a huge Star Wars nerd myself do I feel like this? do I agree with any of this? absolutely not.

I'm not even going to go into the original series, it was timeless, classic, untouchable. Nothing, I repeat, nothing, is ever going to take that away from it. So heres the cold hard truth, like it or not its George Lucas' franchise, or was as now is the case. The decisions made about it are down to him and his company. You don't like it? Tough shit.

There are thousands upon thousands of franchises out there for you to choose from and you know what? the same damn thing applies to them too!. Men In Black 3 was awful, but like Star Wars (and all types of media for that matter come to think about it) it doesn't take away the fact that the 1st Men In Black is brilliant, one of my favourite sci-fi movies for sure. The Green Lantern was awful but that doesn't take away the fact that the comic books are great. Linkin Park will never make an album on the same level as Hybrid Theory, BUT THEY STILL MADE HYBRID THEORY!!! (I could be here all day, seriously, but your versions of this below).

Ok so lets talk Phantom Menace, This is what annoys me most about Star Wars fans, the fact that they think they own the franchise and constantly rate Phantom Menace as one of the worst films of all time. Not even close, ok I agree Its not a great movie, its average, 2.5 out of 5, a film that looks great, amazing score (Seriously, some of John Williams best work, and thats saying something) gets the action right but messes up in the story and character development and kinda drags in places (Sound familiar to about a hundred or so other movies churned out by Hollywood every year).

Its not even the worse Star Wars movie, Attack Of The Clones is much worse, they actually listened to the cries of these fanboys and tried to please every single one of them to the point where it was just creepy. Like look! that dude looks just like fan favourite Boba Fett, look! Yoda is in a lightsabre fight, look! Jar Jar Binks suddenly has less of a role all of sudden, look! Natalie Portman is dressed in a provocative way just like Princess Leia was, see? we're still Star Wars, oh god, please love us again? Please? LOVE US!!.

So hence the title, let it go already, the Phantom Menace was never meant for the older generation it was meant for the new fans like films 2 and 3 were, like the new Clone Wars TV series, like Star Wars lego, like the new Disney meets Star Wars merchandise, etc, etc. So to address the outcries, no, your childhood has not been 'raped' that expression is beyond stupid, Star Wars sold out a looooooooooong time ago, but hey, heres a golden nugget of knowledge that often gets forgotten, HOW DO YOU THINK THEY KEEP FRANCHISES FUNDED, GOING AND DOING SO WELL?!

Also lets not forget that since Disney took over Marvel, Avengers Assemble has been released, one of the greatest superhero movies of all time. So lets give them a chance as I feel Star Wars is in very good hands, I've no idea what they'll do with a 7th movie, but looking forward to seeing so all the same. In conclusion, and if this hasn't changed your mind, then take Yoda's advice 'Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate' and that right there is the path to the dark side folks.........

I'm Richard, you're awesome for reading this and may the force be with all of you..............

P.s. If you believe Mickey Mouse will star as a Jedi in the movie then you are whats wrong with the world.

I love Nintendo, who doesn't? If you play video games of any sort at some point or another you've probably played a super Mario game. Everyones favourite podgy moustached plumber has the best selling game in video game history and I don't think that'll be changing anytime soon. The guy has been in a near constant state of innovation, branching off into different genres, tweaking fine points in others and becoming one of the best loved video game characters of all time if not 'THE'.

However over the last couple of years, I've had the feeling video games as a general are going through the motions, sequels after sequels, standard sports franchises adding on years for what it is essentially a roster update. E3 shows just don't have the surprise and wow factor of previous years, we know all about the games that are going to be shown before hand. The three different consoles were very different when compared several years ago, now they are very much the same though offering motion control gaming of and recent presentations like the Xbox smartglass left a lot of people unimpressed or just plain confused.

This isn't to say great games aren't coming out, I'm a big RPG and platformers fan myself and i've been spoilt for choice when it comes to both lately, particularly with the wii RPG wise, but none have reached a popularity anywhere near close to suggest a lasting franchise could be built. The surprise hits have come from indie developers, gaining critical acclaim, offering cheaper great games and the respect of the video game industry and fans alike (No easy feat at all!)

So why am I picking on Nintendo? Well I guess its because Playstation and Xbox have a large amount of video game icon protagonists regardless of exclusivity for either side. Nintendo? They'll always have Mario, but Mario needs a hand. The Playstation and Xbox both have a huge couple of months big name games coming out and Xbox alone has Halo4 (Can't Wait!!!)

The formula for Mario I doubt will ever change, he'll always collect coins and stars, jump on goomba's, rescue Princess Peach, and the Kart, Party and sports games will continue to be released too. Time will tell but its highly unlikely he'll be recast as a badass Italian cop seeking redemption and revenge via an FPS genre, will we ever get tired of the same sort of Mario games? I don't know.

I'm not forgetting of course the Zelda and Pokemon franchises, and of course Kid Icarus which made a spectacular comeback after over 20 years since his last release. But its the time in-between these kind of games getting released that NIntendo needs the most help, new franchises, new ideas and new idols. Nintendo is probably in the best position of the 3 companies with the wii being seen as the most family friendly console, the wiiu coming out very soon and the gaming industry is a media that is finally being taken seriously, and deservedly so.

So as my 3DS gathers a little dust on the shelf (another great console, despite the shocking battery life) A final question, how many wii and 3DS games have you bought this year?

I'm Richard, and you're awesome for reading this.

How many of us have a really bad memory of science at school?

Copying textbooks, lighting little light bulbs that would class as a practical?

Of all my subjects at school, science is one of those subjects I remember least fondly with music coming first. I almost stopped doing music in high school because of the way it was taught, how you weren't treated as an individual, again the copying from textbooks, but also because lets face it, 1st year of high school, what kid wants to listen to Mozart/Beethoven for a whole lesson? but no disrespect to either composer as both of their music changed the world and remains as relevant today as it ever has done and will continue to do so.

From an Education perspective, both are similar in a way if you think about it, if you teach someone in a certain way their motivation towards it drastically changes. Its all finding out a core interest, if a kid wants to write a pop song just like his or her favourite artist or band, teachers of the world need to teach this. I left school about 8 years ago so I don't know if this the case now, but if not, it needs to change.

And so brings me onto science. Being one of the key three along with English and Maths it holds an upper hand on music, but like music, there has never been a better time to get kids interested with the wealth of popular culture. We can look at two huge blockbusters that came out this year in the shape of Spiderman and the Avengers and all of the science references in these and other past big blockbusters. I could also include the Big Bang Theory in this, but a lot of the science dialog is fired off a lightning fast pace and is highly advanced stuff a lot of the time as well.

One headline also dominated the news a few weeks ago. The news of Felix Baumgartner falling from over 120,000 feet, falling faster than the speed of sound, breaking the sound barrier, breaking records and landing safely on the ground to rapturous applause. I love news stories like this that breakaway from the usual awful pointless celebrity stories of who's with who, who's breaking up and who's having a breakdown, not to mention the fear-mongering 'broken Britain' crap.

But Its almost all the time a headline makes the news regarding some form of breakthrough in medical science that could potentially save lives and somewhere out there in the future and I believe cures for major diseases will be found one day. But it starts with new generations and future generations and our approach to teaching what matters now, to motivate, to enthuse and inspire.........

I'm Richard, and you're awesome for reading this.

I'm normally known as a pretty positive person and it takes a lot to get me down, but when I rant, I'm unstoppable, so this blog I won't be my normal optimistic self where I try to see the good in any given situation, sorry folks, I've been meaning to pen this down for a while now and when something bothers you as much as censorship does me, a simple facebook status is not enough.

Ok so about 3 months ago, a high school shooting occurred, it wasn't as big news as the tragic events at The Dark Knight screening in Colorado as only a single person was injured and thankfully is now all ok. The attackers home was searched and a CD was found, of metal group Rammstein, so the initial reaction of course is to blame metal music and the bonkers lead singer who is known for sitting in a bath of fire at live shows.

This of course isn't the first time this has happened to a band, its happened to Slipknot before and most famously to Marilyn Manson over the events of the Columbine School shooting. So once again the media had a field day and blamed the social media, just like video games, kids tv shows, wrestling, movies, etc, etc.

Really?? Are we really going to do this dance again?? Urgh.............

Ok, every argument has two sides, I'm willing to hear both. So lets hear censorships side, if Rammstein, The Dark Knight Rises and Marilyn Manson never existed, would the aforementioned events linked to those people have happened? Begrudgingly I have to say yes, its possible.

But hey when I go downstairs in a minute to go get some biscuits and a drink, its possible I'll fall downstairs and break my neck, its possible a burglar will break down my door and try to kill me, anything is possible. But when you say that, is it actually gonna happen? No, I have my biscuits and drink and all of me is still here and still intact, Its possible BUT, not likely.

We can talk possibilities until the cows come home, there is no possible way to predict the next time or the next piece of artistic expression that will link to the next tragic event we never want to happen, lets look at a few more while we're here.

Anders Behring Brevik claimed he likened Call Of Duty Modern Warfare as a 'training simulator'. You could have inserted a thousand different online shooters or any game with a gun here before this and that would be the case.

Shows like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers and the game Mortal Kombat got stick for making kids want to fight. I hate to break this to you parents, KIDS LIKE TO FIGHT! its not something a teenager in a brightly coloured jumpsuit, mutated pizza chugging reptiles or two lowly rendered undistinguishable figherts in disco suits can take the blame for!!

Oh and a word on wrestling, think about it, two large sweaty men, in spandex, play fighting, over a spangly belt. Yeah......... not buying it...........

And as I mentioned Marilyn Manson, lets mention the other Manson, Charles, he claimed to be inspired by a Beatles song (Helter Skelter) So do you seriously think when the guys were recording The White Album Paul McCartney raised the concern, 'ummmm guys, do you worry this song could inspire a man to start a cult for an impending apocalyptic race war?'

It all comes down to extreme minority verses the majority, it wouldn't be fair to take away the certain forms of media we love because of a select few, thats just wrong. I'm sure many people reading this make music or movies, its our own legacy, something that will last forever and we will forever be remembered for, imagine being told you couldn't do that anymore.

But a final note, two to three weeks after this happened, the Mars Rover landed on Mars, it was a wonderful event celebrated the world over. We can do extraordinary things as species by moving forward, so why when something like this happens do we insist on regression?

I'm Richard, and you're awesome for reading this.

Ok now I've got your attention, stop, stop right there, yes you, with your fingers hovering over the keyboard ready to hit caps lock and unleash the fury.

Its not a good movie lets get that clear first of all and thats something we can all agree on. Terrible script, bad acting, the tone is all over the place, lots of it doesn't make sense and overall the decision to change from Tim Burtons dark vision of Batman to Joel Schumachers camp slapstick definitely doesn't help (and is probably where a lot of the hate comes from).

It always seems to crop on peoples top 10 worst of all time lists alongside things like The Room, Troll 2, Bio-dome, The Animated Titanic Movie (I dunno if they're on yours or not, comment below what yours are). But you know what? In light of Christopher Nolan's magnificent Batman trilogy, Its time to forgive it.

Ok, so you're still probably ready to unleash the caps lock fury (Yes Batman should not have a bat credit card or bat nipples) and Mr Freezes 200 or so ice related puns aside hear my out, is it really that bad? really? I don't think so.

The tone maybe all over the place but at least its always trying to be entertaining and move the story forward and it never bores me or offends me on an intellectual level, so in that case its probably a little better in some aspects than other super-hero movies like Green Lantern, Fantastic Four, Steel and Catwoman.

I'm sure you've watched a certain film that can be described as so bad its good, Flash Gordon and Street Fighter are definitely in this category but considered cult classics. I recently watched Dungeons and Dragons for the first time and while that was slaughtered by critics and fans alike, in retrospect now, thats so bad its good (Seriously watch it again and don't try to deny you didn't laugh, maybe for all the wrong reasons but still). So why not Batman and Robin? Ok, maybe not a cult classic but certainly so bad its good worthy.

If nothing else we should be thankful for the impact Batman and Robin has had on popular culture particularly on the internet, it turned certain personalities and websites into overnight sensations overnight whose success still lasts to this day. Comic book movies in general could look a lot different today without it.

And going back to Christopher Nolans fantastic Batman trilogy, maybe sometimes you have to get things wrong to get things right. Thank god they let a man who knows what he's doing take charge. So who knows, in the future, the same thing will happen again and we might even get a good Green Lantern movie........ Ok maybe thats a step too far.............

I'm Richard, and you're awesome for reading this.

P.s. Ironically the year after Dungeons and Dragons came out, its Studio (New Line Cinema) bought out Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring. Yeah.........

Ok, a little experiment for you. Look towards the back of your wardrobe for an item of clothing you haven't worn for a while. Got one? Ok can you remember roughly what year you bought it?

My response, a light blue polo shirt from Topman that I got in 2007 (I think) now lets think to that year, the year was incredibly popular for guitar led indie music and bands that were huge at the time, i.e. The Kooks, The Pigeon Detectives, The Hoosiers, We Are Scientists, etc.

Now how long has it been since you've thought about any of those bands??

Music = Fashion

Regardless of whether you like those bands or not can you think of the last time you heard a song by the Kooks? Or how Emergency by The Pigeon Detectives goes? And can you remember what you were wearing in 2007 without looking at an old photograph?

Music = Fashion

Maybe you still follow these bands heavily and keep up to date with them, but the fact that 5 years ago, these guys were everywhere and now? Its barely noted if they have released a new album or are going on tour like it was 5 years ago, and this as a musician trying to be heard, kinda bothers me.

There are obviously gonna be bands and artists that have created legacies that will last forever, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, etc, etc, and loving this band or artist, will never in this context, go out of style.

But fast forward to today, and its a brutal industry, that seems to have no space for artists that aren't constantly in the spotlight or don't sell enough, see last years X factor winner Matt Cardle and several others before him, Leon Jackson anyone?

For better or worse, music is evolving all the time, I'm not crazy on the latest music trend (dubstep) but I can see why a lot of people like it and I admire the production on a lot of it. But think forward to another 5 years, is anyone going to remember who Skrillex is?

Its impossible to predict the future of music, only that CD sales will continue to fall, piracy is never going to stop and there will always be a tween popstar or group that the internet unites in its hatred of.

And again, there will be indie bands who will continue to be popular no matter what i.e. the Strokes and the Arctic Monkeys and there will always be big underground followings for other bands that just fall under the radar.

Or in fashion term, a good smart suit will always be in style, there will always be that one t-shirt from a music festival you won't stop wearing or that one guy who needs to be told he needs to actually wash that one shirt every so often.

I'm Richard, And you're awesome for reading this.