2009. I started the year blind drunk, amongst thousands of strangers on the shores of a Thai island. Nearly 12 months later, finding what seems to be sobriety and sanity; I’m waking up in a new world and am forced to reflect on the previous chapter of my life.

You reach a cataclysmic point where nearly every major event or turning point in your life seems to come to some magnificent conclusion. Things that happened in yesteryear suddenly find some form of relevance or place in the present and its then you realise these things have helped determine what your future will be.

It’s been a big year for Tha-D.com. A big year for me, personally and professionally. It’s only now that I realise just how important writing was for me, say five years ago. As I meet more and more people who are discovering Tha-D.com’s early entries and adventures for the first time, I find myself retelling stories that I haven’t thought about in years, but undeniably were driving forces behind the whole movement, everything I have become. And after sitting down, sharing a drink and a few minutes conversation with me, you may find I am still the same, angry, frustrated person I was when I first started blogging in 2003, the material is still there, the bitterness towards pop culture’s icons, the media whores, society’s ignorance. “So why the lack of articles? Clearly, you still believe your opinion is not to be fucked with.”

A lot has changed, I guess. This was the year I began to be professionally recognised as a producer. My audio work has appeared on not one, but two bits of Victorian Government material. It’s pretty funny, thinking about it now. Five year ago I bled and bullshitted to leech meagre dollars from Centrelink to survive. Now I own a big screen TV, emblazoned proudly on my wall that I bought with the rewards of a job I did for TAC. Cheers.

It’s also the year I took further steps into voice acting and film production. Six months ago, Cinematix Media was set up and since then, we have been flat out, producing several music videos, documentaries and short films. My role within Cinematix has varied along the way, from key sound engineer and producer, score and original music, film runner, set design and occasional actor. And I picked up an artist or two along the way who I have worked solely with, never forgetting it’s been music production I have wanted to do this entire time. Oh, and working full time as well as the standard social obligations.How is this possible?

The average person sleeps eight hours a day and watches TV for four. I sleep between four and a half to six hours a day and skip on TV all together, leaving me with a minimum of six hours that I am productively awake for over the average person.

Times the amount of days in a year.

6hours (at worst) x 7days x 52weeks = 2184 hours / 24hour increments = 91 days (on average) that I am awake for throughout the year that say, you, are not.

I’d have to be insane to keep this rhythm up for longer than a week. Either that or I’m some kind of cyborg that runs on diesel and Johnny Black.

I don’t regret any of it. What I’ve achieved this year has been nothing short of remarkable. I owe a lot to the help and support of a key group of individuals in my life. With that said, I think 2009 has been the culmination of a lot of hard work and late nights over the past decade. I rarely give myself the credit I deserve but its now that I’m literally in the middle of nowhere with nothing to distract me I’m looking back and remembering the Saturday nights that I’d spend glued to my keyboard or guitar, composing shit that I never thought would be used for anything.

I keep rewriting this next paragraph because I start it with the words “I’ve done a lot this year I regret...” and the truth is I do not regret a second of it. Some shit is just meant to go down. I’ve short-changed myself more often than most and this year was the year of The Big Me. I tore down everything I thought I knew and rebuilt. I know I made the right decisions.

Sometimes life presents you with crossroads and you spend too long lingering, not sure which way to head. Sometimes it’s not crossroads but a T-intersection, a pier, a port, a subway, a teleporter. Either way, eventually you need to move before people start erecting their own buildings, walls and monuments that’ll force you to the sidewalk or immobilise you period. I don’t want people to get it twisted. I haven’t found God, I haven’t started reading new age garbage or shaved every bit of hair off my body and declared Veganism the new way. I’m not preaching anything anyone else should follow. If you have your methods and they work for you, then good luck to you. I’m just reasserting the fact that Tha D never died. He and all his idiosyncrasies, opinions and odours may have changed slightly, but in no way does this mean he’s gone. The flags been planted at the highest point.

This year brought a whole buzz of activity to the world palate. America’s first black president, the economy finding itself the scapegoat for more than it deserved. Michael Jackson. Bea Arthur. Farah Fawcett. Patrick Swayze. And yet Ghost fans kept puffing. Go figure it out. Human ignorance will never cease to amaze me. I’m just not letting it dominate my daily routine like it used to in the past. Swine flu had the world by the balls. I beat it with Dimetapp and Scotch cocktails. The pig disease didn’t hold a candle to the real epidemic that swept the nation; RockStar Syndrome.

RockStar Syndrome; the false sense of achievement, status, importance or multi-threaded popularity an individual feels or pursues through the application of whoring oneself via Instant Messaging and/or Online Networking Systems.

Have you ever gone for lunch or a coffee and sat down at a table next to a group of people and one person notices your presence and immediately begins speaking extremely loudly while sneaking glances in to see if you’re watching them? That’s RockStar Syndrome. People have become obsessed with sharing every second of their lives on the Internet to a few hundred, often thousand strangers via ‘status updates’ and excessive, overbearing posts detailing absolute nothingness in empty belches, simply to be noticed. The status whore on Facebook has RockStar Syndrome. The embellished or incredibly detailed wall posts creating what seems to be an over-active social life and interpersonal experiences are some of the effects of RockStar Syndrome. The pain-staking effort and degree it’s crept to is ridiculous. Mobile phones, laptops, i(insert device), vibrators. All linked up, all ready to distribute one’s current mood, activity, feelings. The sad thing is we all know people like this. You’re probably a carrier yet walk and breathe with the ill too often to come about realising you need treatment. The only vaccine is reality and ironically, it’s what all this ‘real-life’ shit has taken away from people. Amazing.

Rockers and Hippies popped up everywhere. The day glow-stick waving, paracetamol chomping, shoe shuffling metros became Rockers was the day I cut my hair and hung up the axe. Wearing baggy pants and smoking weed doesn’t make you a hippy. Especially not if you feel the urgency to Twit that fact to 400 strangers for acceptance. Woodstock was 30 years ago, I’m sure Jimi watches over you travesties.

The bitch of the situation is that things like Facebook cause several things;

a)      A false sense of relevance

b)      Sloth

Through all this unnecessary overexposure, people get caught up in the wave of electronic recognition and begin to feel as if they have finally achieved the celebrity plateau they have been chasing their entire lives. Here’s a thought: Do you think real celebrities want to be monitored in their private time? Do you think they LIKE being hounded by media, having their day to day’s followed? Movie stars and rock gods want to go to work, do their job and retire to their own devices. Do something great to be noticed. Don’t promote the fact that you have a friend and expect accolades.

I’ve derided the use of things such as MySpace for the people ‘it created’ through excessive usage. Our mythological celebrities became Twits. For the record, before I get a flood of shit in my inbox, YES. I created a FB account under an alias and have a modest group of contacts. Want to know what more I do in my life? If you have to ask then you’re probably not in the know for good reason.

Tha-D.com will undergo a series of changes come the new year. The focus is going to shift entirely. I was aiming to get it under way well before we hit the new decade but I ran out of time. I haven’t had time to dedicate to writing for good reason and I intend on keeping it that way. My music and voice over work is going to the forefront, Cinematix included. So be prepared. Check out the Media Player. I wasn’t kidding when I said “Enjoy it while you can ‘cos I’m not doing this shit for free anymore".

This whole post has come off as another blog which is exactly what it is. I often get asked what it is Tha-D.com does. Tha-D.com is my outlet, my company, my can of mace. 100% paid in full. We make music, we write articles. We cut hair, we record prank calls. We do content writing, we film porn. We print t-shirts, we piss and moan. It is nobody’s image but my own. If it takes the extreme to keep occupied or be satisfied, I’ll do it. It takes extremes to make a big enough impact. No one got anything worthwhile done doing it half assed.

That’s the problem these days. Everyone’s applying the big band-aid to their subconscious, their personal ethics. Click on this link to feed a child in Africa. Join this group to help animal cruelty. Give me a fucken break. It was around this time last year I was in Cambodia and facing the harsh realities of the ‘lighter end’ of the third world. Do you think the wicker basket waving road worker women of Siem Reap give two shits if Tiger Woods stacked his car and slammed a few cocktail waitresses? Australia is by far one of the biggest giving countries in the world but we’re on the big hypocrisy allowing garbage like Tigerman’s affairs to dominate our newspapers. December 2008: While Australia was playing pocket billiards, speculating the direction of a pointed finger over the shooting of a teen by police, Greeks were tearing their country apart in a violent protest for a similar crime. Results.

As it’s probably become apparent, this will be my final write-up, indefinitely. I know I’ve said this in the past and kept contributing but given the lack of activity, I’m sure it’ll be taken with a bit more conviction this time round. I began writing this article just past the beginning of the month while in the air at 20,000 feet. I’ve seen three foreign countries and plan on seeing at least one more by the week’s end. I’ve finished one piece of music, ready for club distribution, began scoring a short film, and all the while holed up in a remote village with an inhabitant count less than 300. Technology’s great. (By the end of the month I’ve shat out one more track and finished scoring the film)
 

When I was 12 years old I came to the decision that I wanted to work in a field where it would enable me to travel whenever I wanted and to wherever I wanted. My passion and drive for music, audio and writing has given me a ticket to that lifestyle and I finally began it, with extreme discretion. Where I am? Buggered if I know. I took a big chance and am simply living another extension of the dream. As negative as people believe me to be, I cannot say I have not had a ball this last year of my life. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed our great city and everything it has to offer as much as I did in 2009. Studio work, film sets, on the job, dance floors, beach runs, late night pancakes, Stallone marathons, jump rope, carousels, garb gatherings. It’s been fun.

I want to thank everyone who has been there for me this year. I appreciate all the love and support you all have shown me, even if at times it seems like we are worlds apart. I could have gone either way this year and without the big push and safety net of you all I know it could have gotten messy. So thank you.

Keep hitting up the Media Player for new snippets of stuff I'm workshopping. Remember, Media Player material is purely for shits and giggles, stuff that hasn't made it off the cutting room floor, guides, demos and so on. 

I started writing this on December 5^th. It is now Christmas Eve and I’m yet again well above cloud level headed west. Home? Who knows. Two feet on the ground, I’m about to touchdown. Here’s to 2010. 

Love, Life & Music. - Tha D