86 - No Place

This song is a real gut wrencher for me.

It comes from that wonderful show, Lost.  This particular song comes from the end of Season 4, which is one of my favorite seasons.  I won't spoil it in case you have yet to watch the show, but it is beyond perfect for the moments it is played over.  And like many great musical moments from that show, it's done with no dialogue, because the music carries the emotion of the scene.  I get misty when ever I see that scene or listen to the song.

And not just because of the show.

Two years ago, after deciding I was going to leave Illinois I had a good long conversation with my friend Steve.  He was the first person I spoke the words out loud to about moving.  It was New Years Eve, and we were planning the nights activities for the Bin.

After that conversation at Wendy's, I got in my car and started up my iPod.  And this is the song that greeted me...

Song 86
        "There's No Place Like Home" from Lost Season 4, by Michael Giacchino

I'm not ashamed to say I was full on weeping by the time the track was over.  Deciding to leave Plainfield/Joliet was a thing.  There had been so much healing for me there, wonderful friendships, and a good bit of growth, emotionally, spiritually, financially.  It was knowing that I would be saying so-long to a lot of amazing people who still continue to impact my life today.  I so want to list your names but it would fill up this post and my mind not being fully awake would probably miss someone.  Like Eddie.

This song takes me to that moment, and the day we loaded up the moving truck, and pulled out of Joliet.  It would have been a far more difficult task if not for my friend Jess traveling with me.

Also, there is a whole odd connection in my mind to my life and the show Lost.  You can read about that over here.  So this song pulls very strongly at me.

The reason it's here on this list, is well, I just plain like it.  The soft piano at the beginning and gentle swells into the strings are very Autumnal.  It's forlorn, but hopeful and beautiful.  It carries sadness and delight.  The end is just a new beginning that hasn't taken root yet.

All that, and I just have to add, Home is not a specific location.  At least not for me.  They say home is where your heart is, well, then I have homes all over the world.  And I love visiting every one of them.  Some I haven't even been to.   Yet.

grace, peace + hope
-Jesse

11 - They Won't Dare Bring Our Names Up Again

The Concept:  Feature a song a day for every day of the most magnificent season of Autumn.  The songs are ones that capture the thoughts/ideas/images/feelings of the season for me. 

It's my "Autumnal Playlist" if you will.

This is another song from Chuck.  Well, it was from the artist first, but I heard it on Chuck.  It's played over a brutally heart breaking scene.  Surprisingly, I don't only associate this song with that scene.  Probably because it was just a bit of the song.  Saw the episode for the first time over Memorial Day weekend this year.  From Chuck - Season Five.

This tune, like many on this list, have mellow beginnings an build to something bigger and more driving.

Song 11/Day11

Today's Song:  "She Tows the Line," by Crooked Fingers on the album, Breaks in the Armor.
The only thing I don't like about this song, is the spelling of the title, and therefor miss use of the idiom.  I'm sure it was intentional.  But it bugs me.  However, the change in the spelling of Toe to Tow, works powerfully with the scene in Chuck that the song is used in.

Why I picked it?  This song takes me to the coast of New England in the Fall.  Now, I've never really been there, but I've seen enough pictures/movies/shows etc that I get an idea.  When listening to this song I feel the drumming of the steel grey/blue waves on the beach.  The white sand and dying tall grasses at the crest of the hill leading down to the shore.  There is a playful sarcasm carried through it.

I imagine a group of friends at a beach house, exploring the shoreline by day, having fun and laughing.  While night falls they light up a bonfire on the beach and have hot dogs and S'mores and all that campfirey goodness.

I guess that's what this song makes me want to do.  Anyone up for it?

The lyrics feel a bit ambiguous to me.  They seem to have significance to the singer, but it kinda feels like he's giving directions and using landmarks that out-of-towners wouldn't know.  But I still like it.  Especially these:

see it so clear in her eyes
she won't be bringing it up again
so she rises and goes
so they'd never know
that she even came here at all

Enjoy the tune.  I've not gotten around to exploring more from the artist...but would like to someday.  Perhaps when I go on that trip to New England shores in the Fall.

"She Tows the Line," by Crooked Fingers.  Toe or Tow the line.  There is a difference!

-Jesse