Blog.

2012 is back. I think I will probably start blogging again soon.

If you care:

- i am going to england soon
-we have a new cat-friend named boots
-billy likes to drink milk
- i did a new mix:

ADHD in HD - A D. J Sparls (Progressionless) Hack Mix. by JSparls

With Love,

Jamie

1111111111111111111 - A CSparl's Special...

There are many definitions. Here is a good one.

Today I remember my Uncle’s brother, Donald MacPherson, a Hong Kong survivor. Donald was a member of the Canadian Army 78th Battalion "Winnipeg Grenadiers <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Winnipeg_Grenadiers> ". He arrived in Hong Kong Nov 16, 1941. The city was attacked by Japan on Dec 8th (6 hours after Pearl Harbour had been hit) and a horrific two week battle ensued. On Christmas morning, he was huddled in a trench with his good friend and brother-in-law Wilf Barrett, when they were hit by mortar fire. Wilf was killed instantly. Later that day, the city fell to the Japanese. Donald spent the next two years in Hong Kong POW Camps, the first 6 months at North Point, followed by the next 18 months at the Sham Shui Po camp in Kowloon. He was forced to sleep on bare concrete floors (which caused huge and often infected sores all over his body) and he ate nothing but a steady diet of rotting, wormy rice. He witnessed pathetic sights like hundreds of men fighting to near death for a few cookies thrown into camp by the local Chinese…while the guards stood by and laughed.
In his first year his weight fell from 170 to 103 lbs. He was 21 years old.

In 1943 he was taken to Japan aboard a small ship, where along with 500 other prisoners he was locked in the ship’s hold in stifling heat and humidity. To make matters worse, the seas were rough. They had no latrine and were forced to wallow in their own vomit, urine and excrement. There were no bunks, no room to lie down, and they had to sleep sitting or squatting. They were given only 2 buckets of rice per day. The trip took 20 days and they were brought 'topside' only twice, simply to be hosed down and to have the corpses removed from amongst them. When they were on deck, the Japanese guards would taunt them by opening red cross food parcels, (intended for the prisoners) and would proceed to bayonet the tinned food, suck out the gravy and toss the remains overboard. This odyssey ended at the Oeyama POW camp, which by all accounts was an absolute hell-hole. For the next 2 years he laboured in the coal and nickel mines, 14 hrs. a day, 7 days a week. The entire time he suffered from severe starvation, beriberi, pellagra, dysentery and diarrhea. The beriberi caused his feet to swell up like balloons, and he was forced to continue working while enduring excruciating pain. The camp itself was no better than a pig sty. The well was crawling with maggots and the drinking water was abhorrent. Throughout this ordeal he suffered frequent, random, and often severe beatings, and always for no apparent reason. in 1942 he had already started to lose his eyesight (due to malnutrition) and by the wars end he was legally blind. When liberation came in 1945 his weight was well under 100 lbs. Food from American planes was dropped into the camp by parachute. His stomach was so shriveled up that when he ate, he instantly threw up. Nonetheless, he and ate and threw up and ate and threw up for days. He was eventually taken to Yokahma for delousing and debriefing. There he was awed by the sound of women’s voices, something he had not heard in 4 years. It was here he met and shook hands with General Douglas MacArthur. He was put on a ship called the HYDE and days later transferred to the battleship INDIANA. Due to health concerns he was again transferred to a hospital ship called the RESCUE and was eventually taken to San Francisco where he boarded a train bound for Canada. Through each stage of his return, he delighted in the kindness and royal treatment he received from the Americans.

After returning to Canada he recalls going to the grocery store where he stood in line and listened to people gripe about the shortage of coffee, sugar and other staples. He had little sympathy for their complaints.
He eventually married and raised 3 beautiful daughters, and despite his sight impairment, he took up curling and golf and went on to live a full and active life.
The reason he survived?
In his words: “Just a personal determination to survive and return home”

BUMP IT UP.

Dear Blog,

I am running the Thetis 4 x 5km Relay on Friday. Would you please provide me with a 20minuteish ADD pump up mix to make it so the rest of my team doesn't embarrass me for my complete lack of running skills??

Kindest Regards,

Jamie


Dear Jamie,

Click Here.

Best of luck,

-Blog

PS - there are no swears.

Essential

The Essential Mix has probably been my most favorite radio show for the last 10+ years. There is something about getting a 2 hour session of music that seems to fit well with biking; trying to make a 4-6 hour playlist of 2-7 minute tracks takes way tooooo long. A couple of essential mixes take only moments to select... and after every Friday, there is a new one to check out. After over a decade of listening to these mixes over the internet (FM doesn't go intercontinental yet,) I have been enjoying tuning in live here in the UK. A few days ago, I decided I would rank and review my favorite editions.

These are not necessarily my favorite artists... but favorite compilations. Since this is a Bike Blog, and I am a turbo bike nerd, I am going to give these sets a rating of: Endurance, Speed, and/or Recovery.


10 Pete Tong, 20 Year Anniversary, April 9 2011 Endurance / Recovery
One Word Description: Timeless. This set is mixed my the man who has been exposed to two decades of electronic music. Sick mixes, awesome flow. A Lot of "classics." ""required because a classic in electronic music is at MOST 20 years old.


9 Boy 8 Bit, May 15 2010 Endurance / Recovery
One Word Description: Interesting. This one is a bit different and is super electric. Lots of Groovy melodies in weird synths. Totally a great mix done by one of the dirtiest looking dj's in the business.

8 Armin Van Buuren December 24, 2006 Endurance
One Word Description: Eternity (trance always has stupid themes that try to be abstract and meaningful... I think this would be best explained in an excel function: =if(person=>HIGH AS FUCK; eternity = deep and meaningful). I am not really a big fan of Armin, but this set took place in an era in which there was some bangin' trance tunes. And a 3rd version of Communication? Probably the Sickest Bass Drop teaser of all time. This set has a nice progression and is perfect for some long exercise.

7 Steve Aoki, August 2nd, 2008 Speed
One Word Description: Stoked. Probably the best intro track of any essential mix followed by 2 hours of super hard pump up jams. If you have trouble getting motivated to do some exercise... listen to the first 10 minutes of this. Plus if you are offended by swearing... all the raunchy tracks have nice clean censor edits!

6 Gabriel and Dresden May 7th, 2006 Endurance / Recovery
One Word Description: Flow. This mix came around the release of their self titled album; an album I still hold as the best production of electronic works ever. I really love the songs in this mix, but G and D LOOOVVVVEEEE long simple mixes. Kick Drum loop for 3 minutes inbetween the meat of the tracks. I am such a critic.

5 DAFT PUNK December 30, 1997 Endurance
One word Description: Iconic. This set has said to have been influential on so many artists. It's the first signs of electronic music merging with hip-hop. Super quick simple mixes in to super songs. It reminds me of night riding in Sooke By myself... Weird.

5 The Twelves December 19 Speed / Endurace
One Word Description: Catchy. I can still remember how stoked I was when I listened to this one. It is done live... which is cool, and it has sooo many popular songs redone in a way that I have never heard. It is fast moving, for the ADD mind, and does not disappoint. If you are unsure of electronic music, I would start here.
Favorite Moment / Mix: Where did Block Rockin' Beat Come from? Sick.

4 Cold Cut January 29, 2006 Endurance
One Word Description: Unique. There are a ton of different Genres thrown into this one... yet it is very flowing and smooth. I think they were going for a bit of a political theme... and aren't big fans of George W. I would say the dominant genre is hip-hop; but not like 50 cent hip hop... People do rap outside the common mainstream template (What am I drinking? What Club am I going to? What Kind of Car am I Driving? More specifics... Rim Size and other aftermarket upgrades... Am I VIP? How many girls am I Dancing with? How Good Looking are they? Will I get them home? and so on.) There is none of that here. Just Quality.
Favorite Moment / Mix: They take the remixed instrumental version of Lou Reed, done by A Tribe Called Quest, and re-apply the Lou Reed Acapella. Class.

3 MSTRKRFT May 24, 2008 Speed
One Word Description: On. This is the most amped up, stoked, hard as fuck, 2 hour piece I have ever heard. There are pretty much no lulls... this set is a regular in my warm-ups. If you want to get the endorphins flowing. Load this up.
Favorite Moment / Mix: Phantom Part 2 and Da Funk together as 1? This is the kind of achievement I will spend my life striving for.

2 Krafty Kuts February 27, 2005 Speed / Endurance
One Word Description: Professional. This is a true DJ's set. The mixes are amazing and the track selection is extremely fitting. This is hardly a collection of songs with smooth transitions, rather a musical experience on its own. It is very evident that Mr. Krafty Kuts is very much in control of his decks; if you listen carefully you can hear some non-abrasive scratching as well as cueing and other forms of vinyl manipulation. There is a variety of music in this one, but the dominant genere is breaks. It is an upbeat set which always leaves me smiling.
Favorite Moment / Mix: Full metal jacket sample in a 2 live crew remix. Mesoo Howny ...??? its funny and groovy!

1 Justice June 10, 2007 Endurance / Recovery
One Word Description: Diverse. This is the most played in my library. It is a collection of 70+ completely unrelated, unlinked and different songs mixed quickly and cleanly over 2 hours. It is not an electronic set, yet contains so much electronic music. I expected it to be like their album "cross," and at times it was... but at times it was pink floyd? or hall and oats? or the buggles? I mean... making a mix that can have so many unalike songs work takes skills... One minute a 60s tune is banging and the next it sounds like a computer is going to explode... awesome.
Favorite Moment / Mix: The second last track is the Climax of this set, a very dark and intense classical song from Fantasia. The darkness builds and builds until it releases into Joni Michell - California. It brings a tear to my eye; two french hard electro producers ending their essential mix with an original song from a Saskatchewan mind.

I just thoroughly reviewed 10 essential mixes; My ray bans and skinny jeans are affecting my brain.

This weekend I start the tour of Britain. Thor who?

Jamie

Back with Beats

A few months later I am back. With some musical treats.

1. I was asked to do a 5-6min intro deal for Canadian MTB nats... this is what came up with:


DL Here.

2. Summmmmertimes?? Scope this one out. It is a bit all over the place. But meh.


DL Here.

NExt week Cascade. Fly fly fly bike fly fly.

A lot of swears and stuff. Whoop!! tough stuff.

Xxxx OOOXXXXOXOXOXOOXOXOXXOOX

JJJamie

Riding Bikes

Yesterday I did a bike race. It was sort of like a provincial/state championship. Our team, being an English professional team, sent 5 men to contest the ENGLISH East Midlands Championship. Our roster consisted of 2 Americans, a Dutchman, frenchman and a maple syrup gargling beaver teaser.

The whole team rode really hard. And then PHil rode really, really, really hard. And then I rode hard for about 75meters to win.

Dave Clarke (2nd Place) was as strong as 5 or 6 guys, so it was lucky that most of our team resides within this region.

Whole Team Riding Hard

Me Riding Hard for about 75 m

Chezs' BDAY with the Raleigh Crew

I spot a lurker

The best picture ever. These little gaffers were on the course cheering us on! They were given team cards for every rider... but i am sure it wasn't hard to pick their favorite.

Eddie didn't believe that i could probably drink 2 of those filled with coffee in one morning

1 Englishman, 3 British cycling medals!

And a closing thought:

what is the deal with british people and titles? I mean seriously... duke, dutchess, count, countess, earl, baron, puff, etc.

From now on I shall refer to myself as the Count of Tickleberryton.

Bloggggggggggggggggggggggerific

S T U P I D

Short
Tasteless
Unpredictable
Posts
I
Deliver

SMART goal Fail. Stupid Goal Suceed.

Since my last post I have done some fun bike races, hosted one of the nicest ladies around and become excellent friends with the neighborhood stray cat!

Here are some pictures!

Chillen in Hillingdon Crit while Parnes and Phil rolled the breakaway hard.

22 days with no real training... Coming off injury. National A race. 2nd pwace? Solid.

Doone hame Scotland. Trying to bring something back for yellow jersey MC. It looks like I am staying nice and relaxed.

Rollin the front all day long.

Suffering

another shot of me biking.

Raleigh still going full-frontal.

Recovery Beer with excelllent company!

I am not so good at chewing and thinking. Typically I like to do one or the other.

Matlock. Castle. Blue Skies. Lell. Awesome!

Bonding!

Neo Hipster nerd wannabe!! (best looking neo-hipster nerd wannabe ive ever seen!)

This lane started at the end of prayer street.

Tourists!

Here is a picture of me eating dinner. Still shammed.

Another BFF shot!

Whoooooop! QOL is high!

A special big ups to RB for riding his bike over some mountains really fast yesterday.

OUT

Jamie