Greatest Physical Pleasure

[rhubarbodendron]

lying in a meadow, still warm from the sun, in one of these velvety blue summer nights

simply listening to rain

Especially rain on a tin roof or on your umbrella when everything else is quiet.

have you ever listened to snowing? When it's perfectly quiet you can hear that the snow flakes make a hissing sound when they fall.

If we're doing smells too I have two: freshly cut grass and a hot soldering iron!

and apple blossoms! Bestest scent in the whole world!!

 

[Emher]

-The way your bed feels when you first wake up, especially if you don't have to get up.

Goooooooodssss yessssssss. I always take quite a while to fall aslepp, but when I wake up in the morning I just do not want to get up out of that warm, comfy, soft bed. I just want to lay in it and listen to the sounds of my apartment building.

^The most recent flight I took from Seattle to NYC, the plane's lavatories stopped working about an hour in. Mind you, this is a six hour flight. The crew asked passengers not to go, except in case of emergency, and to know that if they did go, the toilets wouldn't flush. Well, you can imagine how many full bladders there were when we got to JFK. We taxied to the gate and you could feel the tension (not just in your bowels). Just as they were about to open the plane door the power failed, and we were stuck for another 5 minutes while they tried to get it back on. I'll tell you, I've never seen a plane empty so fast in my life.

Damn. Now that is a pretty good definition of torture.

Being surrounded by the thrum of the bass and tweet of the treble when listening to a favorite piece of music.
One of my personal favorites is from the Thomas Newman "Wall-E" soundtrack, "Eve".

Dude, I already loved you, but I had no idea you where a fellow Thomas Newman fan. Great stuff

The first hot shower of the morning.

That, and cuddling my dog.

Would like to modify that a bit since I only shower in the morning during weekends with my current line of work. I'd say the shower after work and I can finally wash off the filth and wash away the work day.

Dog bit however, right on. Love petting my little guy





Wait a minute...

A tiny bite in the neck

Nails delicately rubbing my back (my back is one huge erogenous area)

I get shivers just thinking of those. But don't those count as sexual though?

Listening to the rain on the roof or window.

...

A hug that lasts and lasts.

Yes. And yes.




Okay a few of my own:

-Driving on a curvy road, turning a corner, feeling the Gs try and bend you out of the seat, shifting perfectly when you come around the corner around the corner and slamming down the accelerator, shooting you forward onto the road. Gives me a feeling that I can only describe as tingling.

-The sense of pleasure I get when seeing an exquisitely made cut or perfectly framed image in a motion picture.

-Kneading the sandy stuff out of my eyes in the morning when I get up.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

hopping into a puddle, with bare feet, after a rainstorm in summer (lol yes, at almost 50 I still do it - it's just so much fun!)

 

[Amaris]

Being surrounded by the thrum of the bass and tweet of the treble when listening to a favorite piece of music.
One of my personal favorites is from the Thomas Newman "Wall-E" soundtrack, "Eve".

Dude, I already loved you, but I had no idea you where a fellow Thomas Newman fan. Great stuff

Oh, my. I think "Thomas Newman fan" may not be adequate in describing how much I love that man.

Seriously, no other musical composer gets as close to my heart as Thomas Newman's work. When I listen to his music, I feel it as if it were my own, we think so much alike thematically. It was Thomas Newman who inspired me to pursue music. The man is nothing short of brilliant, and it shows in all of his work, and while he's well known, I also think he's vastly underappreciated.

 

[O'Dib]

Feeling Dear Wife snuggle next to me, wrapping her arms and legs around me when I'm nearly asleep...

What, really?

Going out to the balcony for a post-coital smoke on a cool night in nothing but boxers and sweat.

Drinking hot black coffee outside on a hellish sunny day.

Recognizing the first riff of your favorite song by any given band at their concert.

Peeling an old scab.

 

[cooleddie74]

Being surrounded by the thrum of the bass and tweet of the treble when listening to a favorite piece of music.
One of my personal favorites is from the Thomas Newman "Wall-E" soundtrack, "Eve".

Dude, I already loved you, but I had no idea you where a fellow Thomas Newman fan. Great stuff

Oh, my. I think "Thomas Newman fan" may not be adequate in describing how much I love that man.

Seriously, no other musical composer gets as close to my heart as Thomas Newman's work. When I listen to his music, I feel it as if it were my own, we think so much alike thematically. It was Thomas Newman who inspired me to pursue music. The man is nothing short of brilliant, and it shows in all of his work, and while he's well known, I also think he's vastly underappreciated.

I feel the same way about John Williams and Alan Silvestri. I'm not a musician but their work during the course of my life has given me a greater love of and appreciation for music than any other writers or composers with the arguable exceptions of the Beatles and classical musicians.

 

[Emher]

Williams for certain. I think Silvestri doesn't get enough love. I loved his bombastic score for "Beowulf", and yet it's very overlooked.

 

[Santaman]

As for physical feelings, the few painless seconds when waking up just before consciousness connects itself to my nerve centre, must say that sometimes I get scared of it as well, I'm used to pain, if its suddenly absent I nearly panic.

As for music, Brian Eno's An Ending (Ascent) at 4am on a summer night.

Emotionally, there are two women in my life who are very special to me, I don't see them often so a hug from one of them always makes my hairs stand up and I choke up a little.

 

[Colonel Green]

Ear swabbing.

 

[Holdfast]

Ear swabbing.

In the same vein...

- finally "popping" your ears if they've been blocked with water for a while.
- finally getting something gritty/itchy out of your eye.
- finally getting that annoying raspberry pip out from a crevice in your molar with the tip of your tongue.

... it's the little things in life...

 

[thestrangequark]

^So many of these great pleasures are the relief of discomfort, pain, or annoyance. I guess it's not surprising, but interesting nonetheless.

 

[Holdfast]

Yeah, it's kind of why I'm Epicurean, and a big believer in the concept of ataraxia as the highest form of happiness/pleasure, but that's a whole long story and I have to pop out for a bit. Talk about me while I'm gone, instead.

 

[thestrangequark]

I've never been big on philosophy so I read the Wikipedia article, thusly, my question is sure to be naive: but isn't there an inherent flaw there? How can one enjoy the pleasure of alleviating pain without the pain? How can I enjoy watching someone make a fool of himself without suffering the fool? And since the pleasure felt from the relief of pain or annoyance is likely to be proportionate to the intensity of suffering, does that mean that one can only achieve the greatest pleasure after suffering the most? I know some in the BDSM community and in religious communities who feel that way, but I don't think I do!

 

[Amaris]

Dude, I already loved you, but I had no idea you where a fellow Thomas Newman fan. Great stuff

Oh, my. I think "Thomas Newman fan" may not be adequate in describing how much I love that man.

Seriously, no other musical composer gets as close to my heart as Thomas Newman's work. When I listen to his music, I feel it as if it were my own, we think so much alike thematically. It was Thomas Newman who inspired me to pursue music. The man is nothing short of brilliant, and it shows in all of his work, and while he's well known, I also think he's vastly underappreciated.

I feel the same way about John Williams and Alan Silvestri. I'm not a musician but their work during the course of my life has given me a greater love of and appreciation for music than any other writers or composers with the arguable exceptions of the Beatles and classical musicians.

Williams for certain. I think Silvestri doesn't get enough love. I loved his bombastic score for "Beowulf", and yet it's very overlooked.

Replying to the both of you: Yes, John Williams "is the man", and Alan Silvestri is grossly underappreciated. Quite frankly, Alan Silvestri will always be among my favorite cinematic composers due to his amazing work on BTTF. He's done incredible work outside of that, but I mean, ye gods, that theme is perfect.

Just my two cents on that one.

 

[cooleddie74]

Silvestri's work on Forrest Gump and Cast Away also rank high on my list of my favorite of his compositions. Even when the film itself doesn't live up to expectations and you didn't really care all that much for the story Silvestri's main scores and incidental music can usually redeem the movie to a large extent...at least in my opinion they do.

 

[RevdKathy]

I've never been big on philosophy so I read the Wikipedia article, thusly, my question is sure to be naive: but isn't there an inherent flaw there? How can one enjoy the pleasure of alleviating pain without the pain? How can I enjoy watching someone make a fool of himself without suffering the fool? And since the pleasure felt from the relief of pain or annoyance is likely to be proportionate to the intensity of suffering, does that mean that one can only achieve the greatest pleasure after suffering the most? I know some in the BDSM community and in religious communities who feel that way, but I don't think I do!

From The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran:

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that hold your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

 

[Emher]

Silvestri's work on Forrest Gump and Cast Away also rank high on my list of my favorite of his compositions. Even when the film itself doesn't live up to expectations and you didn't really care all that much for the story Silvestri's main scores and incidental music can usually redeem the movie to a large extent...at least in my opinion they do.

I'm still sort of miffed that I haven't been able ti find the score CDs for Forrest Gump. I know they exist, but it's seemingly impossible to get hold of them.

Before we derail the thread with composer discussion I will just add that there are certainly a lot of composers whose work I absolutely love. I don't even think there's a chance of me being happy with an attempt at such a list because I will forget someone. I will say that lately I've been playing a lot off the Guild Wars 2 beta events leading up the release in a few days and the work on the score for that game by Jeremy Soule is fantastic. Have a listen to a few examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rWkzpMoY5s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmlpNl8GwBY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm1HRk4jTS4&feature=plcp


So I'd like to add the sensation of physical pleasure that a musical piece sometimes gives me. It depends on the piece in itself, but to allow myself to just listen and sink into the music...that's a great feeling.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

in the current weather (heat wave over Europe) my greatest physical pleasure is leaning against the cool metal elevator door.