The one thing that never ever ever let me down.

The Dialysis Diaries. Episode eleven.

I'm not back on dialysis. Everything is working. But I do have another op to undergo - finally -to remove the hi-flow cannula squiddy in my arm. It's had me taken to hospital, twice, in an ambulance because of the additional and unnecessary strain it puts on my heart - which is another thing that hasn't let me down.

The other is my music. I no longer do advertising, in fact despite the major deadly health issues i've dealt with, living without that junk in my life has been a pleasure. I feel sorry for those of you my age who still endure the humiliation and rejection attempting to score a brief these days. I'd rather slash my wrists. Your 'new' reinvented brands are predictable, unexciting, utterly invisible and dishonest. What a pile of HR driven, woke, awkwardly inclusive, worthless garbage advertising truly is (or rather, has become). HR - now there's a self-serving pack of nobodies who get cranked up on some marxist leftist crusade as they walk into corporate boardrooms and lobby governments (who deserve everything they get) and bleat on about "being on the right side of history..." uuurrrgghh... please... just. go. away.

And that's why we have music. Well some of us do. Music is anti-HR

Music has zero to do with climate change hysteria, 'genocide' hysteria, electric car hysteria, migrant hysteria, gender identity bs, and all the other fear-mongering moral superiority hysteria that fuels our day to day media-fed misery. No wonder there is an epidemic of obesity (yep, you are fat, you eat shit as a way to make your miserable, angry little life happier), you pay a million dollars for a three hundred thousand dollar house - great investment... yadda yadda yadda. But worse of all you 'support Palestine' without any knowledge of Palestine, or the history of the Middle East - and dim-wittedly sheep-like become anti-Jewish because you think that's supporting Palestine. Yep. I heart Israel. I despise Hammas, the PLO and the death cult that is the 'government' of Iran. After October 7, I for one want the rubble to bounce in Gaza.

So there.

People don't listen to music any more. They certainly don't sing. The may 'like' Taylor Swift or Pink (uuuurrrggh) but could not name ten bands or acts that have had number one albums, or hits. They don't do art either. They think a printed poster of whales or dolphins or the middle aged mum in lingerie, in their Harvey Norman catalogue styled living room is art. It's not art, it's decore. And really cheap and cringey decore too. Let them live with it.

I'm not bitter or twisted, i'm usually too lit for that, but I live in a country (Australia) that has a terrible self-inflicted, chronic case of self-loathing. And I'm made to feel that I am to accept that. I'm allowed to be sick of it and say something about it. I'm a patriot. And I won't accept any of this re-inventing our history - in a million years. Things like Inclusion and Diversity don't mean shit to me. Net zero is a lie. And Tesla's look like Noddy's car. Wind power and Solar energy is a lie. Give me coal and nukes and leave the lights on - and my 800w bass amps. That's what I think.

I dread to think what I would be like without music in my bones. It let's me flex my soul. It keeps me from being brain-dead, thinking about complex chord arrangements. It keeps me skinny. It gives me things to spend my money on. It gives me confidence and a self-esteem that borders on ego-maniacal. It makes me laugh. It makes me cry. It makes me human. It keeps me alive. It connects this skinny white boy with his spirit. And drives home to me that I really don't need anyone else - for anything. Except other musos to play with of course. My own little Muscle Shoals.

I'm 62. I look 42. At a constant 60kg I can wear anything I like- and I can get away with it. I eat lots of super crispy bacon, kfc popcorn chicken when i'm with my kids, I drink big fat creamy iced lattes, icy cold BigM chocolate milk and pure orange juice and lots of Pureau water. That's it.

So. Given the mess and bs all round me, I am happy to report I have left Canberra - quite possibly the most dull, nasty, peer-poking city inhabited by a sad collective of woke marxists anywhere - outside of San Francisco. I have never felt more isolated in my life than the last 12 months I spent there. A festering self-important out of touch depressing place. Equally appalling people. You can clearly see why our country is the mess that it is - right there. I've moved back to sunny Coffs. Where people actually say G'day and even smile and where my doctors are. Real doctors - not the ring-ins masquerading in the ACT health system - which I used once - and was painfully once too many.

Close to the Gold Coast where I can pick up backline bass or axe work in the resident bands that play seven nights a week in all those five star hotels and casinos to the rich Japanese and Chinese tourists. I'm happy doing that. And that big fat rolling thunder coming out of that skinny little white guy's bass stack, that will be me - anonymous but with some good eyeball value... drink up, kick back and forget all the crap out there and just let me sink something pure and good into your poor tired soul.

If you can still find it... now, if you can't, try this one on for size -

Light in the Distance - Elles Bailey

These are weary bones I carry

All I once was has gone before

Time to sleep in?endless?dreaming

Alight the boat?for distant shores

But for now hold?my hand

As I leave for the promised land

Cuz there's a light in the distance

It calls me home

And I’m not afraid

This broken body

Is ready oh for its soul to roam

These scars tell their tale, but not the whole story

Moments of pain, but a lifetime of glory

So remember my face from years gone by

And when you close your eyes, I'll still be with you by your side

Oh dream of the days when we were young

As I fade with the setting sun

Cuz there's a light in the distance

It calls me home

And I’m not afraid

This broken body

Is ready oh for its soul to roam

Doesn't time fly when you're having fun

In the blink of an eye it's gone, oh it's gone, yeah it's gone

You'll know that light in the distance

It's called me home...

................... Selah ........