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Akira The Don
Akira The Don
Artist, DJ, WaveLord. πŸ’¦πŸŒŠ Creating the soundtrack of your life.
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Displaying posts with tag Mexico.Reset Filter
Akira The Don
Public post

What's Possible In a Month? or How I Accidentally Started CrossFit And Learned To Hang On To My Lunch

π”šπ”₯π”žπ”±'𝔰 π”“π”¬π”°π”°π”¦π”Ÿπ”©π”’ ℑ𝔫 π”ž 𝔐𝔬𝔫𝔱π”₯? 𝔬𝔯 β„Œπ”¬π”΄ β„‘ π”„π” π” π”¦π”‘π”’π”«π”±π”žπ”©π”©π”Ά π”–π”±π”žπ”―π”±π”’π”‘ ℭ𝔯𝔬𝔰𝔰𝔉𝔦𝔱 𝔄𝔫𝔑 π”π”’π”žπ”―π”«π”’π”‘ 𝔗𝔬 β„Œπ”žπ”«π”€ 𝔒𝔫 𝔗𝔬 𝔐𝔢 𝔏𝔲𝔫𝔠π”₯

Just over a month ago I had no idea what CrossFit was, but the coffee shop I frequent here in Playa del Carmen is next door to a gym, and there’s only so long you can sit there sipping fine beverages watching people grunt and sweat themselves into a state of euphoria before you have to join in.

I thought I’d get a personal trainer and learn how to do deadlifts or something. So I wandered in, and spoke to a gentleman with a not dissimilar mode of follical arrangement to my own - bleached on top, dark beard plus classic strong-man twirled mustachios - and he didn’t speak much English, and I spoke less Spanish, but regardless, we discovered we were both DJs, and we arranged for me to attend a CrossFit class the next day, and I’ve been going 5 days a week without fail ever since.

Like I said, I had no idea what CrossFit WAS. Turns out not actually exercise at all, but instead a live simulation of an hour long extreme fight or flight episode. And so on my first day I managed to get through maybe two thirds of it before having to run outside and stop myself from vomiting all over the place. β€œWell,” I thought β€œnow I know what CrossFit is”. And I came back the next day, and paced myself a little better, and managed to make it all the way to the end without having to run outside and decorate the calle with my insides.

I’ve mentioned before that one thing that amazes is me is that, after weeks and weeks of bafflingly elaborate fight or flight simulations, our instructor Jago never seemed to repeat himself once. Each day was a new surprise, and I have remained in a state of constant shock, awe, delight and mild terror to this very day. Indeed, this very day, halfway through week 5, was the first day I think something was repeated.Β 

Jago is away right now. So another of the gym’s instructors,Β  friendly bearded muscle-man Alan, is having his jolly way with us, which is a little different, and often comes to a crescendo with us engaging in something quite physically extreme whilst Eric Prydz’ OPUS blasts through the gym. This is a song I am used to hearing at midnight, maybe on New Year’s Eve, perhaps in one of my own DJ sets, and whist I was used to being sweaty when I heard it previously, these days I am practically liquid, and I now thoroughly associate it with transcending my mentally-imposed physical limitations.

Today was no exception in that regard - we started with 75 sit ups, worked up to 5 sets of weight-increasing 5 rep deadlifts (which I had never done before and fucking LOVED)… and then came something I’D SEEN BEFORE. Right back at the beginning, Jago had had us do these medicine ball-lobbing squat exercises - squat, launch the ball the wall as high and hard as one can, catch the ball as one depends into another squat, repeat. 10 of those, then 10 burpees, then 20 of those, 10 burpees, 30 of those etc all the way to 50. Last time I did that, I got up to 20, then had to go outside and hang on to my lunch for dear life.

Today, I fucking smashed right through it. Grinning like a mad person the whole time. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t EASY - there was plenty of arguing with the Inner Bitch, plenty of pushing through that Governor, that 40%, to the Other Side, where all the extra energy is stashed... But I didn’t have to go outside and be sick.Β 

I SMASHED RIGHT THROUGH IT.Β 

And afterwards, I realized why I’d been grinning so hard.Β 

After doing this 5 days a week for a month, showing up, not knowing what I was supposed to do, or how to do it even when I was told... but always paying attention, and doing my best...Β 

...after showing up 5 days a week for over month, a thing that I simply COULD NOT DO… 

I now could do.

That’s it.

That’s all it takes.

Will.

Effort.

Humility.

Consistency.

In one month, I went from nearly throwing up after 40 minutes, to smashing through the thing that had seemed utterly impossible to me.

What’s possible in another month?

What’s possible in a year?

I am awash with joy and gratitude to have the opportunity to find out.
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Akira The Don
Public post

Making Amazing Albums In Air B&Bs Is Entirely Possible

π”π”žπ”¨π”¦π”«π”€ 𝔄π”ͺπ”žπ”·π”¦π”«π”€ π”„π”©π”Ÿπ”²π”ͺ𝔰 ℑ𝔫 𝔄𝔦𝔯 𝔅&𝔅𝔰 ℑ𝔰 π”ˆπ”«π”±π”¦π”―π”’π”©π”Ά π”“π”¬π”°π”°π”¦π”Ÿπ”©π”’

Buenos dias from Playa Del Carmen!

Good news!

I finished the new album on Tuesday at 3:30 am.

AT LAST!
Β 
It has been an Homerian undertaking indeed, as it's the first full album I've recorded since leaving my studio in Texas. I started working on this album in our first Air BnB in Cancun, and finished it in the far more salubrious surroundings of our second, here in Playa Del Carmen, where I am blessed with functioning internet, and excellent coffee!!
Β 
Making albums in AirBnBs is harder than making albums in fully equipped studios, for many reasons. I don't have studio monitors, so instead I work in headphones, and my laptop cannot handle anything close to the level of musical complexity my super computer back in the studio can manage. All in all, things are taking me 5 to 10 times as long to do in this set up than they would in the studio, and there are a lot of things I simply CANNOT DO...
Β 
The good thing, as always, is that limitation breeds innovation, and I've developed some new techniques to counteract some of these issues, which have lead to some amazing new music that simply would not have existed in any other scenario.
Β 
Indeed, that I can make music here AT ALL is a bloody miracle. And that it's ended up being some of the best music I've ever made is a testament to the power of Hyper-productivity X Zone-inhabitation X Bloody-minded-refusal-to-give-up-ever-no-matter-the-circumstance.
Β 
It astonishes me every day what can be accomplished here in the future, and I am giddy with gratitude... that is when I'm not cursing at the laptop for not being able to handle my Spectorian levels of ambition at all times. I oscillate wildly between these two places, and that seems to be about right to me.
Β 
We have come so far, but we have so much further to go. The things we are gonna see in our lifetime will transcend Arthurian notions of the scope of Magic.Β 
Β 
Β‘QuΓ© tiempo para estar vivo!
Β 
Β‘Ama a ti y a tu familia!

AKIRAΒ 

Don Studios Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, July 2021
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Akira The Don
Public post

An Actual Fish Out of Actual Water, And Other Adventures In Mexican CrossFit

CrossFit was really something last night. My tolerance has definitely increased substantially - I didn’t feel like vomiting once! I think I might have sweated more than I have ever sweated in my life and at one point I was just straight lying on the floor in a small lake of sweat, flapping my legs about in a vain attempt to achieve the particular exercise we were on, and my blessed instructor noted with interest that I looked like an actual fish out of actual water, which was pretty funny, and I sort of gurgled, β€œPESCADO! AGUA!” at him, as those were two words from his sentence I knew in Spanish, and I was borderline tripping out from the extremity of the situation.

He’s incredibly supportive and motivating, this fellow. He fists bumps me and calls me β€œmayte”, because I’m British, and he likes the UK, and he makes sure to check in on me regularly. I think he’s genuinely fascinated that I am so uneducated in matters physical, yet so enthusiastic. I really must be quite the sight, in the context of a room full of what mostly look like characters from fantasy novels about people who ride dragons and use swords as toothpicks. And I am very happy about that. I am grateful and excited to be here.

At one point in the proceedings, we we're doing some ALL OUT GO FUCKING MENTAL thing on the power bikes, with two minute rests, and he came over and told me how everything is all in the mind, and how next time I was going unlock 110%, like he was some angelic Mexican David Goggins, and by fucking jove he was right, that next round I dug deeper than I knew existed, and racked up the requisite calories in half the time of the previous attempt, and after that I could barely walk, so it was a good job the next exercise involved lying down, and it was a bad job it involved doing some mental sideways scissor sit up thing that absolutely fucking wrecked me, to the point of pure transcendent hilarity - have you ever been so physically past your limit and in such agony and simultaneously overwhelmed with joy to have been pushing yourself into such a place that you just straight up laugh your ass off like a crazy person, as the sweat pours off your face like a small waterfall?

Then, clap clap, and it's over. I am destroyed, and deeply grateful for it being over, yet somehow bereft. I have a big grin on my face the whole way home. β€œΒ‘Hola perro!” I say to the stray dogs as I pass. So many dogs in Mexico. Wandering, free.

A few hours later, I am full of energy, and can’t wait to get back after it. It’s 11pm now, and I’m working on the new album. Working on a laptop that keeps crapping out in an AirB&B without any speakers is frustrating when you’d gotten used to a supercomputer and a sound-treated studio, but like the physical thing, you just have to push through to the other side, and when you get there it’s glorious. I bop my head happily. Mosquitoes nibble at my ankles. I decide not to be annoyed by them. They are tiny and they will die soon. I have so much more life to live. And life is good.
https://youtu.be/t0bp4eVEiCw
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Akira The Don

A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM (MP3 Download)

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Akira The Don
Public post

Teach them early
What you learned late
🌊 

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Akira The Don
Public post

π”‡π”žπ”Ά 𝔉𝔬𝔲𝔯 𝔬𝔣 π”π”’π”΅π”¦π” π”žπ”« ℭ𝔯𝔬𝔰𝔰𝔉𝔦𝔱

It is really quite the bloody thing how utterly delightful and supportive everyone here is, particularly considering my Mexican is Unit 1 DuoLingo level (Maxed out purple everything but still), and my CrossFit is below high school level. If they speak English, they ask me how I’m doing and congratulate me on not being dead on the floor in a wet pile, and if they don’t speak English they smile and fist bump me.Β 

I am by far the least experienced and skilled in the the entire building, but literally no one has done anything to make me feel bad about it. To be fair, I’m not sure they COULD, as I am very comfortable with the truth of my position within it all, and just very excited and grateful to be here, at this stage in my life were I think I’m finally mentally ready to actively aim at mastering my own physicality.

I spent the past 7 years working through a number of mental issues that had been holding me back, or down, or somewhere other than the place I wanted to be - borderline psychotic-abusive self talk, my entirely terrible relationship with money, alcohol and other such dependencies, decades of socialist indoctrination, all that. I’ve done very well with all those afflictions, thought there’s aways work to be done, vigilance must be maintained strictly and aggressively, as the old demons will pop back out at the first sing of weakness… and now, it is time to get this race car cracking before it’s time to dash the fucker off the proverbial cliff.

Anyway, today they had us doing a shit-ton of presses and pushups and pullups and run around the blocks and swangs and presses and hold weights in the air whilst lying on ones back with feet in the air which fucking STINGS, holy cow, I was not expecting that, and I was literally laughing out loud after about half an hour of this when I could literally no longer press 20 (twenty) flipping pounds above my head as my arms were shaking so bad and had decided to refuse to communicate with my brain in some horrified act of rebellion against the host.

Did some stretching at the end which was shocking delightful, for the first time ever… I noticed myself saying β€œooooh that’s NICE” out loud in a sort of out of body fashion at the end as I was tripping out hard from the activity times heat times lunacy of it all I seemed to be floating above my body somehow.

Very cool. Back to the crib to chill with familia and work on music. Back at it tomorrow. Lucky mud.
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