i chose a theme, found variations on the theme from the world of everyday art, literature, music, film, television, internet, travel, and mashed them together into one post, like separate tracks on a mixtape, see?
track 1: the teaser
" 'I guess I'm just feeling Septemberish,' sighed Chester. 'It's getting towards Autumn now. And it's so pretty up in Connecticut. All the trees change color. The days get very clear - with a little smoke on the horizon from burning leaves. Pumpkins begin to come out.' "
(The Cricket in Times Square)
Sometime during my elementary school year, a teacher read this book out loud to my class. I have loved it every since. (a few Septembers ago, it sparked a ridiculous bunch of posts and comments here and here!)
track 2: notes on a theme
(from this post, September 2007)
"Out of the 365 annual possibilities I have to be astonished that God gave me four children, perhaps the singular most shocking day of the year is The First Day of School. I've discovered that it is not while I am in the middle of the swarm that is my family that I remember to be amazed. But when, each September, they sever the ties of summer and walk away from me -- into the authority of other adult people, into buildings I know nothing about, surrounded by people I've never met -- that solitary moment is when I most feel like a mother."
I have a love/hate feeling about the month of September. If it knew better what it wanted to be, we'd get along much better. Seriously, September: do you want to be cold or hot? shorts or turtlenecks? homework or late-summer campfires in the evening? college football or Yankees barely making it to the playoffs? Get your act together, and I might consider being your friend.
track 3: a poem and a few links
"September" by John Updike
The breezes taste
Of apple peel.
The air is full
Of smells to feel-
Ripe fruit, old footballs,
Burning brush,
New books, erasers,
Chalk, and such.
The bee, his hive,
Well-honeyed hum,
and Mother cuts
Chrysanthemums.
Like plates washed clean
With suds, the days
Are polished with
A morning haze.
*HT: The Poetics of Late Summer at the Search
Also,
- Did you see the post I shared the recipe for our traditional first-day-of-school pumpkin-chip cookies?
- How my friend, Sarah, dealt with the pumpkin shortage (ingenious!)
track 4: Friday Night Lights
What could be more Septemberish than highschool stories of love, despair, friendship, bad behavior and football on the weekend? I actually didn't attend a highschool with a football team, but we played soccer in the autumn and we loved every minute of it. I'm guessing Friday night football would feel the same with the added benefit of stadium bleachers and cheerleaders.
Gorgeous camera work, creative variations on the age-old story of the underdog team making good, and the unique-to-Hollywood themes of fidelity, mutual deference and reality-marriage-romance between husband and wife characters, Coach and Tami, earns this show a big, ol' "art in the everyday" thumbs-up status from me!
track 5: Explosions in the Sky
I heard about this group before I knew about Friday Night Lights, but the fact that they provide the musical score makes everything even better! Here's my favorite tune. Enjoy!
