Pleasure

The biggest pleasure for me, right now, is not having to do anything, at all. On holiday from university, finished all shopping, tidied up the flat. Nothing left to do, but enjoy my days, until January.

The biggest pleasure in my life?

Hmmm.

3 months ago, I would have said getting into a trance while grooving behind my drumset while fully mic'ed up, so that I literally feel my bassdrum stomping right through my stomach. It's an amazing feeling to lay down a powerfull funky groove on a great sounding kit

It's hard to describe how great it feels...


However... today... 3 months after the birth of my son... I'ld have to say, seeing that little dude smile and cuddling him.
Drums come in in a close second though... ;-)

DogmaHunter said:

The biggest pleasure in my life?

Hmmm.

3 months ago, I would have said getting into a trance while grooving behind my drumset while fully mic'ed up, so that I literally feel my bassdrum stomping right through my stomach. It's an amazing feeling to lay down a powerfull funky groove on a great sounding kit

It's hard to describe how great it feels...


However... today... 3 months after the birth of my son... I'ld have to say, seeing that little dude smile and cuddling him.
Drums come in in a close second though... ;-)

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What until HE starts playing the drums!

Armoured said:

What until HE starts playing the drums!

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Luckily... daddy has a soundproof room where he can make all the noise he wants!!

With earplugs, off course ;-)

Stanfordella said:

Your peacock pin.



That's awesome. I wish my family did something like this because it looks so fun. It's probably educational as well.

Your daughter has such a beautiful bone structure. I love her eyes. She's cute now but she's going to be very striking when she grows up.

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My wife found that pin in a funny little dress shop in a small country town. I have looked in antique shops, jewellery shops and online, and never found another one like it. I love it, and it seems to be unique.

And mediaeval re-enactment is a lot of fun, and educational if you put in the time. Sometimes it's called "experimental archaeology", even. In fact, I have a story of a minor discovery I made which is promulgating its way through academia slowly, if you want to be bored about my pet subject sometime.

I think my daughter is cute, but I'm a dad, so I'm biased. A lot of people comment that she'll be a looker when she grows up, so here's hoping.

She's also very, very cheeky

DogmaHunter said:

The biggest pleasure in my life?

Hmmm.

3 months ago, I would have said getting into a trance while grooving behind my drumset while fully mic'ed up, so that I literally feel my bassdrum stomping right through my stomach. It's an amazing feeling to lay down a powerfull funky groove on a great sounding kit

It's hard to describe how great it feels...


However... today... 3 months after the birth of my son... I'ld have to say, seeing that little dude smile and cuddling him.
Drums come in in a close second though... ;-)

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Who's your favorite drummer?

Stanfordella said:

I was just delighting in the simple pleasures of driving in the rain, which is a rarity in Los Angeles. I love how all the traffic lights are reflected on the wet pavement, and ordinary streets suddenly have the colors of a Chagall painting. I've only driven a handful of times since June, and just once before in the rain, so even though this probably seems so ordinary to other people it was actually exhilarating to me. An awesome car + the rain + Arcade Fire on the stereo = blissfest. I'm home now watching it rain on the pool and having a cookie butter latte while my Golden Retriever is napping beside me. It's not a thrilling Saturday night, but I'm content. I'm going to write a song.

Anyway. So I was thinking a little about pleasure from philosophical and spiritual perspectives. What do you think about Aristotle's views on pleasure? http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-ethics/#Ple

Or this quote by Anaïs Nin about how experiencing a pleasure can awaken some to the awareness of the deficiency of it in their lives, and how they've been emotionally hibernating rather than carpe diem'ing?

You live like this, sheltered, in a delicate world, and you believe you are living. Then you read a book… or you take a trip… and you discover that you are not living, that you are hibernating. The symptoms of hibernating are easily detectable: first, restlessness. The second symptom (when hibernating becomes dangerous and might degenerate into death): absence of pleasure. That is all. It appears like an innocuous illness. Monotony, boredom, death. Millions live like this (or die like this) without knowing it. They work in offices. They drive a car. They picnic with their families. They raise children. And then some shock treatment takes place, a person, a book, a song, and it awakens them and saves them from death. Some never awaken.”

What are some of the pleasures in your life? What are some pleasures you want to experience?

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A very elderly man told me if all his bodily functions worked well that day, it was a good day. Some truth to that isn't there.

I want the pleasure to live to see my wife and me have our 50th anniversary. that's 46 months away. I am in very poor health. I asked the Lord to grant my prayer. Perhaps Jesus will return before then. What a wonderful day that will be for either of thses to happen first.

Ana the Ist said:

Who's your favorite drummer?

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Hmm. I find this question to be close to impossible to answer.
I could say a name today, but I'ld probably say a different name if you ask me the same question tomorrow. Or even just later today

So I'll give a list of a few drummers for which I'ld wait in line for hours to see them do a clinic (= a public demonstration / free lesson, oftenly under the pretext of 'promotion/advertisement' for the brand of drums the person plays). In no particular order.

1. Terry Bozzio. Used to play with Frank Zappa and has done an impressive amount of studio sessions. These days, he tours by himself with what I suppose is the biggest drumkit known to mankind. It's melodically tuned and the stuff he does on that is just......inhuman and physically impossible



2. Bernard Purdie. One of the most recorded funk drummers of all time. Name a funk record for the 70's and there's a really good chance that he's the one who did the studio recording. He even has a beat named after him, called the "Purdie shuffle". He's very funny as well

3. Vinnie Colaiuta, Dave Weckl and Steve Gadd. All extremely amazing players. Especially Vinnie... another one of those guys that does things that can only be described as "physically impossible", lol. Here's a nice clip from drummerworld where they are sharing a solo with eachother:

I like music, meditation too. Dance rivals relativity and quantum mechanics, but not faith.

DAnce is a bit like psychology in that it can unearth ones tensions and worries as a social being. Dancing alone is good to me, a form of exercise and expression, but imagining being in a crowd for me is worrying - the self is exposed, people can react badly etc.

I dont get crowd behavious much, I dont "get" just going with the flow and following others patterns (everyone -hands up for the DJ, chants at a sports events etc... the more I try to blend in the more awkward and absurd I feel). On the other extreme there are others who "lose themselves" in a crowd, and annihilate self consciouness by copying and fitting in.

Its like I cant really "be myself" unless alone, in dance mode, which is sad in a sense. But theres exquisiteness, and uniquencess, which you dont really find in crowd behavior.

Some of my moves involve a lot of co-ordination skills (to me anyway, withing my capacity) like drawing a 5 pointed star with one index finger, and another upside down, simultaneously, with the other hands finger. Just try it. Whilst bopping about etc. Crowds, well... they sadly just dont do that kind of thing!

One of my fave tunes recently discovered:

Leonora Jakupi - I harruar

When you have to do it every day, driving in the rain quickly loses its lustre!

Oafman said:

When you have to do it every day, driving in the rain quickly loses its lustre!

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“And as he drove on, the rainclouds dragged down the sky after him, for, though he did not know it, Rob McKenna was a Rain God. All he knew was that his working days were miserable and he had a succession of lousy holidays. All the clouds knew was that they loved him and wanted to be near him, to cherish him, and to water him.”
Douglas Adams, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett: definite sources of pleasure (and wisdom) for me.

Chris

Stanfordella said:

My brother's girlfriend's grandmother who just broke her hip (she's in her late 60s and very active) in an accident recently was telling us how delightful it felt to be able to take a shower by herself...That's obviously not a pleasure that is to be sought, and it's a departure from her nature state without impediment. Those were pleasures worth her having, but only in undesirable circumstances.

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This is right, but it is not a total divide
A variety of pleasures can require serious investment in less-than-pleasurable activities in order to perform or encounter them.
Physical training and learning and practising skills are two obvious ones where you have often have to be lucky if these are pleasurable too.
(Hours spent falling off windsurfers offers itself from my memory.)
But making oneself ill in order to later experience the pleasure of getting better... I think everyone would agree is a wrong "set-up" or preparation for pleasure.

" Watching (indoor) rowers stumbling away from their machines after a race is reminiscent of an episode of The Walking Dead. Eyes look hollow, and their skin takes on a ghostly pallor. Rowers retching in the bathroom—or in trash cans if they’re not quick enough—is a common sight." ... But they've been to their pleasure, one presumes.

Chris.

Armoured said:

Image... Hawk on hand.
QFT

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I cannot resist. It's going to be a guilty or wicked pleasure, but an inescapable quotation is welling up in my mind. A later post has just reinforced it.

Chris.

farout said:

A very elderly man told me if all his bodily functions worked well that day, it was a good day. Some truth to that isn't there.

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Terry Pratchett's writing is forcing itself up from memory into my conscious mind.

Some hardy nomadic horsemen are playing host to Cohen the Barbarian, the Discworld's greatest (and oldest) hero.

"The barbarian chieftain said: ‘What then are the greatest things that a man may find in life?’ This is the sort of thing you’re supposed to say to maintain steppecred in barbarian circles.

The man on his right thoughtfully drank his cocktail of mare’s milk and snowcat blood, and spoke thus: ‘The crisp horizon of the steppe, the wind in your hair, a fresh horse under you.’

The man on his left said: ‘The cry of the white eagle in the heights, the fall of snow in the forest, a true arrow in your bow.’

The chieftain nodded, and said: ‘Surely it is the sight of your enemy slain, the humiliation of his tribe and the lamentation of his women.’

There was a general murmur of whiskery approval at this outrageous display.

Then the chieftain turned respectfully to his guest, a small figure carefully warming his chilblains by the fire, and said: ‘But our guest, whose name is legend, must tell us truly: what is it that a man may call the greatest things in life?’

The guest thought long and hard and then said, with deliberation: ‘Hot water, good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper.’"

From The Light Fantastic.

Me and pleasure.
I can do without it. I know, because there have been times that I've had to. I don't weigh that as having merit or honour or being anything to aim for as in some sort of odd spiritual discipline.

And nowadays a fair bit of pleasure does come just from such times when I'm free from pain and exhaustion.
But I try to budget some deliberate pleasure of fun into a day, if its possible. A few minutes losing myself into a tiny piece of railway modelling work, often problem solving.
A little piece of brain exercise, done at a sustainable pace.

And putting smiles on other people's faces, perhaps especially that, now it's getting difficult.
(for practical reasons, not mood ones.)

Having severe CFS is rather like being dead, but without any of the advantages.
At least when you're dead you don't have to keep explaining your condition to people, half of whom then don't believe you.

At least when you're dead you don't encounter social disapproval for "not joining in"

At least when you're dead the stiffness passes off after a while...

Chris

Oafman said:

When you have to do it every day, driving in the rain quickly loses its lustre!

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The rain Stanfordella was driving in was also fairly light. Driving in the rain is a lot different when the drops are coming gently to Earth than in a heavy driving storm where the drops are more like a sheet and even with wipers going full speed you can't really see almost half the time and the wind is moving the car from side to side.

And of course when the rain is that heavy there are no rainbows or sun to be found.

keith99 said:

a heavy driving storm where the drops are more like a sheet and even with wipers going full speed you can't really see almost half the time

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Been there, done that.
Slow down, and risk someone who hasn't smashing into the back of you;
or don't, and risk running into the back of someone who has?

There's no pleasure there.

Chris

Chris B said:

Been there, done that.
Slow down, and risk someone who hasn't smashing into the back of you;
or don't, and risk running into the back of someone who has?

There's no pleasure there.

Chris

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The instance I remember with that that really scared me was not rain, but fog. It was going into Yosemite and I was driving uncomfortably fast to keep the tail lights of the car ahead of me in sight. I did not want to slow because if I di I would risk getting hit from behind. Constantly on alert to slow or even slam on the brakes if the lights disappeared , especially if it was with sound, loud crashing sound.

Technically there is pleasure if you make it to somewhere warm and safe. Major pleasure, but not the kind one seeks!

Armoured said:

A loving family that support you in your goal to look like a total badapse...

Having a daughter who is gunning for your crown...

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Another SCA family?
For me, powder, mountain tops that I've climbed or hiked to the top of, long runs, playing with the symphony, hugs from the kids.