The Rubdown, Part 1
Posted on | February 17, 2007 at 1:17 pm | 3 Comments
One of the many ways in which I pamper myself is to get a therapeutic massage once a month. (And no, it’s not at an Asian massage parlor, so just get your minds out of the gutters.) My masseuse is the lady who comes into our office at work and does chair massages once a week. When I go to her office for my monthly massage, I usually do either 60 or 90 minutes, depending on how many muscles I’ve disturbed that week. I had my monthly massage yesterday, and did the full 90 minutes, since I slipped on the ice a few weeks ago and messed up my left upper arm and shoulder pretty bad. I actually fell on my left ankle and elbow, but I guess I must’ve pulled a shoulder muscle in the process, since that’s the part that still hurts.
Anyway, I learned a few months ago that Cindy doesn’t care if I bring in my own music to play during the session. She has a vast library of New Age discs suitable for massages, but I get tired of them real fast. Of course you need to have music that is going to be relaxing and not too distracting. The first time, I brought in a Kitaro disc, and the second time a Ryuichi Sakamoto one. Both were all instrumental. However, this time I went with a Bill Nelson disc that is mostly instrumental but does have some vocals in it: The Alchemical Adventures Of Sailor Bill. It gets a little too soundtrack-y/bombastic at times, but over all it worked pretty well. The vocals weren’t too distracting.
So now I need to figure out what to take in the future. I’m thinking of dipping into the Windham Hill catalog, maybe some Liz Story or Alex De Grassi. Or maybe I should get away from the New Age stuff and try something a little harder. Anyone have any good suggestions? (Here’s my CD list.) Also, does anyone else take their own music to a massage, and if so, what do you use?
Latre.
Next: More Weird Medical Problems
Comments
3 Responses to “The Rubdown, Part 1”
February 18th, 2007 @ 12:18 am
de Grassi’s Slow Circle is a genuinely great album, and Turning: Turning Back is almost as good. After that he got into fuzak.
Other candidates:
Tangerine Dream: Phaedra, Rubycon
Klaus Schulze: X
Mike Oldfield: Incantations
Brian Eno: Apollo, The Plateaux of Mirror
Popol Vuh: Hosianna Mantra
Jade Warrior: Kites
Peter Garland: Walk In Beauty
Morton Feldman: Rothko Chapel
February 18th, 2007 @ 2:03 pm
Thanks for the suggestions, Tim!
The only de Grassi I have is Southern Exposure.
Hmmm, I didn’t even think about Oldfield, which is strange since I have most of his albums. Incantations would indeed be a good choice, though it’s a bit long.
I don’t own anything else on your list!
February 18th, 2007 @ 3:42 pm
Almost any of Eno’s “ambient” series works well. I’d say the one or two Fripp CDs with only “Frippertronics” on them would work.