“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.”
~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
Kalo mina! Happy October 1st! The first day of fall was September 22, but the weather today feels more like late spring. The sky is a bright, bright blue, the color of parakeet feathers. I walked down to Union Square at lunch today and was tempted to play hookey just so I could sit in the grass and look up at the sky and dream.
September brought routine back to the city, and it was a busy month. A few highlights:
- Attending Greek American Fashion Week and seeing the latest collections by Tatiana Raftis, Angelo Lambrou, Nikki Poulos, and Stratton, with hair by Christo Curlisto
- Seeing Jonathan Collins’ Beat Traveller art exhibit in Paterson with Larry Closs
- Conducting a live interview with Tim Z. Hernandez about his book Manana Means Heaven at the Spanish Harlem bookstore La Casa Azul and getting to meet all the great people who work at the bookstore as well as Tim’s insightful agent
- Reading one of my personal essays about road trips, homelessness, and God as Jason Harrod softly strummed guitar at his album release party
- Retreating to Connecticut for the Scripps TriState alumni book club
- Attending the Brooklyn Book Festival with friends whom I co-lead a monthly writing workshop with and getting to hear Justin Torres read from We the Animals again. He’s brilliant. I’m obsessed
- Watching Into the Wild. I know I’m late to the game on this one, but at least I had read the book by Jon Krakauer before. The film devastated me. It was beautiful and painful and haunting and true, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it for days….
- Brunching with author Isobella Jade
- Hearing Davy Rothbart read from My Heart Is an Idiot. I once wrote that a story of his made me “wonder if Rothbart might be my generation’s Jack Kerouac.” Yep, he’s that good. I was too shy to talk to Davy, but I met his dad and, despite my efforts to become invisible at the mere mention of audience participation, Brett Loudermilk selected me out of the audience to pull a sword out of him. Yes, you read that right
- Reading Kristiana Kahakauwila’s story collection This Is Paradise — this is Literature. I am savoring it
- Discovering H&M Home — whoops! There went all my money!
- Finally getting Internet set up at my new place
- Talked to my sister for the first time since she moved out of New York City
- Imbibing my first pumpkin spice latte of the fall
- Attending A Global Conversation: Why the UN Must Focus on Women’s Leadership
- Oh and launching the e-book edition of Burning Furiously Beautiful: The True Story of Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” with Paul Maher Jr!!!
So yeah, that was my September. What about you? Did you read any good books? See any movies that moved you?
Stephanie Nikolopoulos 