(no subject)

[inahandbasket]

Rituals.
Not something I often go in for. It's really just not my thing.

I have a few exceptions though, and one of those is this song. "Halcyon and on and on," by Orbital. Youtube link in case you don't know it.

It's the first song I play on any new computer, MP3 player, stereo, speakers, etc.

It's also my re-centering song. Incredibly stressful day (once every couple months type crazy)? I listen to it as a mental break when I'm leaving work, usually in the car or once I've gotten home. Momentous life change? First song I put on in my 'new life.' First song I put on for myself after I got married, first song I play after accepting a new job, will likely be the first song I play for a child should I have one some day.

Or in today's case, "holy fuck the first phase of that project is finally over and I didn't get fired."
I can feel the stress leaching out of every pore on my body, floating away like so much dust unsettling in a film running backwards.

Centering.
Restorative.
Calming.
That's my ritual. What's yours?

Comments

[krues8dr.livejournal.com]

Where's the "like" button on this thing?

[inahandbasket]

ctrl+D

[oceanic.livejournal.com]

I was just going to have you tell him about the mixtape you made for me in high school with that song repeated on a whole side.

[muffyjo]

I'm with you on the rituals, nothing definitive. Sometimes I make them up to help settle things.

But I've done a helluva lot of moving and traveling in my life and I do seem to have certain rituals around that. For instance...

I know I've moved in to a place after I've made my bed, found my towel and had my first drink from the fridge.

Whenever the plane lands in Puerto Rico, everyone claps (it's true, not sure why but it's TRUE). I join in, it feels celebratory like the vacation has finally arrived. (I go there every Christmas to visit mom)

[oceanic.livejournal.com]

I remember that feeling, though I don't reach for rituals as much anymore. Lightning Crashes is the only music I made sacred, and it's much more about helping me cope with grief. Though I suspect in a lifetime of music being a holy thing, my idea of what elevates a song to actually sacred is a bit more intense than the average bear.

Otherwise there are things I do, and places I go, to feel more spiritual/calm/safe, but I don't do them at a certain repeated time.

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough my exposure to that song was the soundtrack to the Mortal Kombat movie. Yeeeeah. I thought it was awesome though, much like most of the music on that soundtrack, actually.

My one music ritual is that new cars get to have the Moby James Bond theme played in them. :)

[dpolicar]

Weekday mornings I go for a "walk around the block" with muffyjo. Gets me up and moving and turns on my social self and gives me a whole slice of personal life before I get to work.

Every morning (well, except for those mornings when I don't wake up before muffyjo rings my dog) I do a light exercise routine. This is a tradition I started in rehab, and have modified and carried forward since; these days it comprises a modified Sun Salutation, a set of situps, a set of pushups, and a thing I don't know the name for where I stand with one foot way in front of me and one foot way behind and raise/lower my back knee to the ground. (And sometimes some shoulderstands, because I still get a kick out of being able to do shoulderstands.)

Pretty much the first thing I do when I come home from work is take my dog out for a brief walk. She is ecstatic to see me, which lightens my mood tremendously, and it lets me shake off the metaphorical dust of the road.

But... hm. You seem to be more asking about event-based rituals than about recurring rituals.

List-making has become a somewhat ritual act for me. One I've been really resistant about engaging in, these last several weeks.

[jimmi-obadger.livejournal.com]

First pause i get at work (or around break time in the winter) i step outside and look up and say good morning to the sun. It makes me feel better about being up before dawn. It lets me know that the world is in fact continuing to turn, something i appreciate now and genuinely need in February.

Niice

[drwex]

That's a great tune and I love the rituals you've built around it.

I don't have many lasting music rituals, probably because my musical tastes keep changing. I do have this thing for playing certain tunes at near ear-splitting volumes whenever they come on.

I did, however, insist that Dark Side of the Moon be both the first CD I owned and the first CD I played. That was less ritual than paying tribute, I think.

I'll have to think on it more, but I don't think I have any such rituals, even non-musical.

(Oh, and SOMEwhere, maybe even on a disk I still own, there's an awesome live version of this track that is about 12-15 minutes long iirc.)

Re: Niice

[inahandbasket]

Nice.
There's a bunch of live and remixed versions floating around, the most famous being the one where they sample in "Heaven is a place on earth" in the middle of it, that the one you're thinking of?

Re: Niice

[drwex]

Yes, in fact that's precisely it. I'd forgotten that sample was mixed in but that's the one I'm thinking about.