Tuesday, December 28, 2010

My wit and wisdom

1) Minorities pose the greatest danger to themselves. That's why they never become a majority.
2) If nobody else will listen to you, listen to yourself.
3) Rome wasn't built in a day, but roads that lead to Rome are seldom completed.
4) Fight rebelliousness, not rebellion.
5) If you campaign against something, you strengthen your opposition.
6) The world has no favourites, only those who favour the world.
7) Loneliness is being dead whilst you're still alive.
8) Never feed a fussy child.
9) There are two types of losers: those afraid of losing, and those afraid of winning.
10) Put your mouth where your money is.
11) An adult who hates children has never been a child.
12) Justice cannot prevail with a law that was designed to fail.
13) A child who is father to the man was made a man before he was ready.
14) Life is the price you pay for happiness.
15) When I give money to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask them why they have no money, they call me Satan.
16) Nobody can be bereft of love and romance than a man who is lovable, but not likable.
17) Hate is not the opposite of love, apathy is.
18) If you keep your head on when everybody else is losing theirs, they you've just answered the question.
19) Karma police are the only police who are not prone to corruption.
20) You can never tell computers what to do, they wait for you to do before you can tell.
21) Nudism is the origin of socialism.
22) There was only one anarchist who never hated society, and he was murdered by it.
23) People who delude themselves are free of jealousy.
24) The purpose of everlasting peace is complacency.
25) Worry about nothing before trying to change the world.
26) If losses don't strengthen a man, nothing can.
27) Cynical words destroy trust.
28) A healthy, educated and prosperous society is the government's worst nightmare.
29) A black yuppie is harder to find than a white homeboy.
30) If 98% of society rebelled, the loud minority would become silent.
31) Monogamy is the only thing that will abolish taxes and war.
32) It's the bad things people find interesting, but the good that eventuates from them is never broadcast.
33) The music industry has been dying since record prices went up and copyright laws came into existence.
34) Beauty magazines do not promote low self-esteem, only products which do neither.
35) Nobody escapes heaven by believing in hell.
36) What you want and what you become from it are mutually inclusive.
37) Let not enemies grieve over your death.
38) If two business partners are in constant agreement, one of them is not necessary.
39) When you change music, you change society.
40) A squeaky wheel gets replaced by a new wheel when it gets the oil.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Life Begins At 40

As one of my musical heroes John Lennon once wrote as a song just before he died "Life Begins At 40".

For a number of years I never thought I'd make it this far in life. How do I feel about it? A great sense of freedom and relief, even though I've only been 40 for just under 10 minutes whilst writing this.

Recently when I celebrating my pre-40th birthday celebrations on the 17th, my Dad gave a speech in which he had told the audience that I hadn't had an easy life and if others had faced the same amount of difficulties I had they could easily end up bitter, angry with the world and discouraged.

Having had a rather unhappy adolescent life with me becoming an angry young man in my 20's to being a listless and taciturn person in my 30's, I felt jaded with the world. Having been fucked around by so-called 'born again Christians' and a loony spiritualist woman, drifting from one unsatisfying job to another, and only enjoying brief spats of minor success with my music and photography work I was wondering what else there was to do?

Throughout my 30's I largely sat it out with the world, content to just watch the wheels turn in an industry that had by and large been cold and apathetic towards me whether it be selling music, promoting the next big thing in bands, dj-ing at parties, or playing in a Britpop covers band with my girlfriend. After a while I got burnt out.

Love hadn't exactly been good to me either. My first girlfriend suffered from CFS and was accident prone, and I decided to keep some distance for her to sort herself out. In the interim a friend of a friend had gotten to know her and whisked her off down the aisle. The second girlfriend Julie Hepburn lasted about 4 years until her jealous racist twin sister broke us up. The third girlfriend only went out with me out of sympathy, and yet I met her in the most idyllic of places - her home and was introduced to me by her brother who is one of my closest friends (d-Wizz). That lasted 18 months until she went out with a guy a few years older than me.

Gradually I decided to take another chance with the music by picking up my guitar again, and befriending a new girl callec Caroline Smith who was a psychology student though we've never been romantically involved. In 2007 I became friends with a new crowd of people who knew nothing, nor did I care to tell about my past up until now.

The friendship I struck up with artists like Darren J Ray, Emma Dean, Eleanor Angel, Hot Liquid Sex, Shiraz Tilley and Jimi Beavis (and his former band the 385s) have inspired me to take up songwriting again and rediscover where I was coming from. It feels exciting and liberating, and if/when I mix with the best out there they will be the first on my guest list.

At the same time, a number of other aspects of life have passed me by. Most of my peers including my brother Lee and sister Melissa have all got married and started families of their own whilst I'm still trying to find the right people to work with in order to establish what I want. To me, taking the easy way and the most common way is not always the best way. I'm not like most 40-year-olds. I've got no interest in buying some lush property out near the bush, neither do I intend to play the stock market or invest in gold or chat with the lads about cars, football or cricket in the pub on the weekends.

I've always marched to the beat of a different drum, and that drum has made me and broken me against people. The fact that I do not find the human body to be a shameful or lewd or criminal thing has brought me a lot of fame and infamy at the same time. Being involved with the nudist scene has seen me gain friends and enemies alike, mainly because I tend to put people into a corner to make them look at what they don't like to look at within themselves. And yet I've learned a lot from them, including my reaching out to other societal underdogs like gay/bi/lesbian people and also supporting Paganism without ruining my own Christian leanings (sorta like a spiritual Milky Way!)

So why am I looking forward to an age which many young people dread, scoff and scorn and see as 'old'? Well, it's because I've gained enough insight into the world and now want to manifest that insight into my plans for the next 40 years. It's not going to be an easy task, and indeed it's going to be a long climb up until where I get to where I want to be; whether it be losing weight; finding the right soul-mate; and getting my vision for a more open and transparent world out there. No matter how hard or long the ride is, I won't give up. To quote Bon Jovi "I'll sleep when I'm dead".

To those who have been a support to me in the first trying 40 years of my life and will continue to do so: thanks from the bottom of my heart.

To those who have been hot and cold or pulled me down over my life convictions - espeically the subspecies who feed off the Time-Off forum and those people who've messed me about and still go to church on a Sunday: I hope that your shit comes to life and kisses you! ;-)

Here's to the rest of life until 2050 (or thereabouts, hahahaha!)