Today I want to talk to you about the health benefits of the funk.
Well, I have plenty of tried and true comforters: sometimes it is the heat pad, and when that feels wrong, it is the ice pack. Some days I go back and forth between the two, or put the heat pad on my neck and ice pack on my face.
But my favorite comfort measure is a mix CD that a friend made for me, called "Space-Robot Mind-Jacuzzi."
You see, this friend and I talk about music a lot, and for Christmas he made me a mix called, of all things, "Mix 2012." Great stuff on there, but it turns out there is magic in it too. One day I was listening to it in the car on the way to work, and before I knew it, a stretch of the songs had me transported to la-la land, ready to get off at the wrong exit, skip work, and head off into the mountains on a vision quest.
I snapped out of it and realized I was dealing with powerful stuff. How had this happened? Usually my commute just leaves me pissed off and tense--certainly not blissed out and transfixed.
Before my politeness could overcome me, I wrote to him and begged him for a migraine mix. I explained that I had made a mix of my own, but it had more of a tone of humor and desire to forestall the migraine--you know, preventative medicine. But more recently I had been listening to Dr. George Clinton, who advocates a dose of funk for what ails you.
Perhaps you are familiar with his prescription? "Good evening," he begins. "Do not attempt to adjust your radio. We have taken control so as to bring you this special show." About a minute into the song, he says: "Now this is what I want y'all to do. If you've got faults, defects, or shortcomings, you know, like arthritis, rheumatism, or migraines, whatever part of your body it is, I want you lay it on your radio. Let the vibes flow through. Funk not only moves, it can remove. Dig? The desired effect is what you get when you improve your interplanetary funksmanship."
So I wrote to my mixmaster friend and explained that my funksmanship was lacking, and could he send me some good medicine?
He came through for me.
"Space-Robot Mind-Jacuzzi" is not about headaches, and it is not purely funk. What it is, though, is a auditory happy place, where I can submerge myself and let the vibes counteract that horrible cortical spreading depression. I put it on my iPod--softly--and slip into its soothing water. The combo of robot and jacuzzi is key--the mechanical and the aquatic, waves of various kinds, doin' it to you in your earhole. For someone who does not himself suffer migraines, my mixmaster friend hit it right on.
I loved the mix from the beginning, but as I have listened to it over time, it has become my favorite migraine comfort measure. I do not listen to it at any other time, so its waters remain pristinely associated with migraine comfort. Well all right!
National Migraine Awareness Month is initiated by the National Headache Foundation. The Blogger's Challenge is initiated by www.FightingHeadacheDisorders.com.
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