"Northern Exposure" got it right.

All teachers know who I mean. The rest of you do, too. Just from a different perspective. There is the child/student who is different. So different that they could be in that "Sesame Street" segment, "One of these things is not like the others" and the others could all be same age, same gender, same hair color, etc. But this one is different. The other kids are not nice to her/him. They tease, ridicule, humiliate. She/he says strange things, wears strange clothes, talks about strange ideas. Somehow you know you are supposed to be the one person who is kind, accepting, encouraging, but you, too, find it hard to like this person. You want to. You try to. You chastise the others for their behavior. Okay, you have someone (or several) in mind.
She was playing the accordian and singing at open mic night at The Bonanza Bar on Monday night. If you watch the "American Idol" auditions you suddenly understand how so many untalented people try out on that show. It was painful. It was humorous(in that mean kid way) but we all politely applauded each song. Each song full of lyrics telling of strange ideas. Each song full of mistakes and embarassed corrections on the keys.
Then a young man took the mic with his acoustic guitar. He sang some familiar folky type songs, then got into his "original" material. He was better than competent on the guitar, but he got all nasally with his voice. His girlfriend was in the audience singing along softly with every song, harmonizing beautifully in what she thought was a soft voice nobody could hear. I encouraged her to get on stage. So she did. She sang lead and he harmonized beautifully with her. Then him again. Then several of us ganged up on her and convinced her to sing again. So she did.
Then they relinquished the stage to a thirty-something guy who borrowed the kid's guitar and did some blues tunes. Then we discovered he was playing there the following night, alone. Okay, plans for tomorrow.
Then this guy, Jeff Caldwell, started jamming with Rev. Neal Down, the host for the evening, and the reason we were there. The Rev. can really play guitar. Really play.
At some point in the evening somebody came in and said the Northern Lights were on. So we went outside for awhile to see them. Then we went back in and listened to the music some more. At one point I looked around the bar. There was a bartender, two musicians and four of us in the audience. It was after midnight, everybody else had left. The folksy kid left his guitar for Jeff to play. We looked at each other. I said, "I can't believe we are sitting in a bar in Skagway, Alaska listening to two great musicians jamming" and the bar is almost empty. I mean, I know we have been coming up here for three years, but the reality of sitting in a bar in Skagway, Alaska was mindboggling. It is just one of those things we never actually thought we would ever be doing.
"Northern Exposure" got a lot of things right about Alaska and Alaskans. So did "Men in Trees." This place is something else.