Soundscape #26: "This Is Chris In The Morning"

Suggestion: Click on play in the video and wait for it to load before watching. Trust me.

This will take you back: Northern Exposure Theme Song

Chris Stevens, Northern Exposure Season 3 Episode 14.

Northern Exposure has a way of making even the most bizzare circumstances seem natural. In that short segment alone, the show makes the flinging of a piano crucial to one's journey of the self and of life. To put it all in context, Maggie's (whose piano was flung) house was (accidentally) burnt down by her mom who came all the way up to Alaska to tell her that she will be divorcing her father. Chris was disappointed to learn that his idea of flinging a cow through the air for art has already been done in Monty Python. "Repetition," he quotes Andy Warhol, "is the death of Art." While each segment may seem disparate and may not end in a beautifully packaged ending as do most sitcoms nowadays, the show more than adequately depicts life's roughened edges.

Each episode in Northern Exposure, through story-and myth-telling, celebrates life as it is, be it beautiful or ugly and grimy. It never panders nor does it ever condescends. It never pretends life is a breeze but it never makes it harder than it has to be. I'm not embarrased to say that every single episode affects me in a very profound way. Not only does each episode challenge my assumptions, biases and preconceptions, it often brings about a new perspective with which I can see life.

The characters, who go through unconventional and sometimes just downright strange events, often see things in such a myriad of ways that it is never boring to hear them expound on any number of subjects, whether you are familiar with the subject at-hand or not. They are erudite but never pedantic. My favourite is of course, the DJ Chris Stevens, who often muses and philosophises on-air in such a real and honest way that one cannot help but wish for his openness of spirit and mind. The show often depicts the search for life's meaning through books, poetry, history, philosophy, history, music, movies, and even food and wine, but in the end, it concludes that the journey itself, not the meaning, is the most important thing of all. Or as Chris will say, "it's the groping, it's the yearning, it's the moving forward."



Playlist:
1. (0:00) The Wedding Present - I'm From Further North Than You (Buy Take Fountain)
2. (3:28) 18th Dye - Easy (& How We Got There First)
3. (8:17) Teenage Fanclub - Take The Long Way Around (Buy Songs From Northern Britain)
4. (11:41) Bonnie Somerville - Winding Road (Buy Garden State OST)
5. (15:08) The Ladybug Transistor - Going Up North (Icicles) (Buy Argyle Heir)
6. (19:10) Sigur Rós - Agætis Byrjun (Buy Agætis Byrjun)
7. (26:45) Portishead - Roads (Buy Dummy)
8. (31:54) Trespassers William - Different Stars (Buy Different Stars)
9. (36:43) Mazzy Star - Flowers In December (Buy Among My Swan)
10. (41:47) Alexi Murdoch - All My Days (Buy Time Without Consequence)
11. (46:42) Bright Eyes - Road To Joy (Buy I'm Wide Awake It's Morning)