Monday, April 29, 2013

Speaking of quirky...

...which we weren’t, but I decided to change subjects...

One of my pleasures back during the 1990s was watching the series Northern Exposure on the telly.

Call me crazy, but I really liked it.

It was low-key.

It was funny.

It was a dramedy (a portmanteau word meaning “drama and comedy”) but it had no laugh track (I hate laugh tracks).

Best of all, it was quirky.

Here, in two parts, is the pilot episode that launched the series:

Northern Exposure Pilot - Part 1 (18:01)

Northern Exposure Pilot = Part 2 (22:46)

Did I mention it was quirky?

Perhaps Northern Exposure is not your cup of tea. So sue me.

I like things that are offbeat, not run-of-the-mill. Movies such as Big Fish and The Purple Rose of Cairo and Raising Arizona and Harold and Maude and television series such as My So-Called Life and Thirtysomething and Twin Peaks and one whose name I can’t remember about a family that owned a funeral parlor (British, parlour)*, that’s what I like.

It’s the same thing when it comes to music.

[Editor's note. While happening to re-read this post at random on September 3, 2017, it suddenly occurred to me that the one whose name I couldn't remember was Six Feet Under. The human brain is a marvelous thing. --RWP]

I don’t want to hear Doris Day sing “Que Sera Sera” (2:26), I want to hear Pink Martini sing “Que Sera Sera” (3:55).

Sometimes I want to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” (6:03), and sometimes I want to hear Michael W. Smith sing “Breathe” (6:32).

Sometimes I want to hear “Revelation Song” (4:58) more than anything else in the world.

Yes, I do.

But I never, ever, want to hear anything by the Rolling Stones or Lionel Richie or Meat Loaf or Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga or....

The list goes on and on.

Quirky, huh?

4 comments:

  1. A HUGE favorite of mine back then. Thought it was as funny as they get.

    Thanks for the clips!

    Rgds,

    Reamus

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, my! Your list of what you DON'T want to hear made me laugh out loud! So loud that I startled the cat.

    I enjoyed Northern Exposure and have occasionally seen Rob Morrow in other TV productions -- not as enjoyable, IMHO.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Reamus and Pat (the Arkansas stamper), that makes three of us who liked Northern Exposure. All for one and one for all!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I finally had a few minutes to watch the Northern Exposure episode. I'd forgotten all about it; it was fun to see again!

    On the other hand, I, for one, saw The Purple Rose of Cairo once, and then never again. Quirky, yes, but too depressing. :)

    ReplyDelete

<b>Always true to you, darlin’, in my fashion</b>

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