The Fall

I'm trying to enjoy this fall. Certainly, I try to enjoy every season (though I'm not always successful, ask my wife Catharine about the person known as "Summer John"), but I have a particular reason to try to enjoy my time right now. A certain monkey is mostly off my back. On October 6th, I defended my dissertation. The title I settled on is "'Rock and Roll Never Forgets': Memory, History, and Performance in the Tribute Band Scene." I'll have other occasions to talk about it here.

But happy as I am to be done with my dissertation, working on the final edits made me miss late summer. Literally, I have no idea what really happened in the world in months of August and September. There was my wedding anniversary on August 29th. And the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. I remember both of those. The rest of the time, I was secluded at the 61C coffee shop in Squirrel Hill, type, type, typing on my dissertation. The end result seemed to please my committee, and I'm actually fairly happy with the work, too. Now that I'm working on the last proofreading, I can turn a little bit of my attention to other concerns.

So. The fall. It's been a pretty beautiful one in Pittsburgh. The leaves are starting to turn, and there's a nice chill in the air. The seasons, when I'm not obsessed with my dissertation, exert a pretty strong pull on me. For starters, there are certain foods that I really start to crave. In the fall, those include:

Bacon
Maple Syrup
French Toast/Pancakes
Soups and Stews, with good bread
Pumpkin Pie
Whisk(e)y
Brown Ales (not pumpkin ales,which I actually think are disgusting)

We made a great bean stew last week, which we've been working our way through the help of bread from our excellent local bakery, Allegro Hearth. I made French toast on Sunday morning. I'm excited to make pumpkin pie, though I may have to eat it all myself, because Catharine doesn't like pumpkin pie (sacrilege, I know). Anyway, that shouldn't be a problem, since pumpkin is one of my hands-down favorite foods.

My musical tastes change a little bit in the fall, too. And I'm actually going to make an effort to listen to music for pleasure, as opposed to just for "work." I've got some catching up to do. There are new albums from Ryan Adams and Wilco that I haven't heard yet. And Bjork's record just came out, too, though it seems like I've been hearing about how awesome and wide-ranging the record is for about the last three years. Currently, I'm listening to Dierks Bentley's bluegrass album, Up on the Ridge.

A couple of short music thoughts to finish up. Adele's 21 is going to win about a million Grammys. Kind of amazing to see an artist with such a wide-ranging appeal. And if "Pumped-Up Kicks" wins any Grammys, I'm going to be very upset. The song is fine, but that's the point. It's just fine. It's a little stupid ditty (admittedly one about a school shooting). I have no idea how this tune became wildly popular. I think the more time I spend studying contemporary popular music, the less I understand. I guess that means I'm not done yet.