nibble & noted: fall is calling
Dispatches from the in-between: meals, music, musings
Windchills have crept in, the Wuthering Heights trailer is brooding in the background, and singles everywhere are panic-texting their exes before cuffing season—so yes, fall has officially arrived.
If you’re after a guide wrapped in cashmere clichés, this isn’t it. Change is messy (so my therapist insists), and with every dropped leaf and shortened day, we’re all quietly searching for the thing that might keep us warm a little longer.
Don’t get me wrong: I am a fall enthusiast. I thrive on layers, lattes, and longing in all its romantic forms. So I’ve gathered a personal harvest of songs, meals, and musings that bottle that in-between feeling, equal parts yearning and comfort, reflection and indulgence.
(pan to Carrie Bradshaw ca.2004) “As the universe reminds us that nothing lasts forever, I couldn’t help but wonder, can we ever love something enough to let it go?”
Not my best Sex and the City opener, but don’t hate the girl that took a chance!
Bites:
If fall is about seeking warmth, then food is its most reliable love language. I’m a soup-stan and I’m not beneath ordering corporate coffee’s latest version of pumpkin whatever, but these are the dishes and drinks that have actually carried me through the season of change, heartbreaks, and hangovers.
spicy vodka pasta alla Alessio
we all recall the Milanese chef I slipped a signed sugar packet to for this recipe. I might’ve blocked Allessio’s number, but this pasta can call me any day.
Coffee Mafia’s Dirty Hippie with whole milk
I learned to sneak out of the house, drive a car, kiss a boy, and survive high school all with a dirty hippie in hand. If you can’t make it to Auburn (@me), you can make do by ordering a chai latte + an extra shot, preferably shared around a table of your most cherished gal pals.
Goose’s cheese krispies
AB’s Pecan Pie “from the kitchen of mom & bruce”
Musings:
Fall is for overthinking. For digging through old poems, rewatching comfort shows, and pretending every drafty walk home is a metaphor. These are the words and moments I return to when the air gets crisp and the heart gets restless.
“Here I Am”, Songs from Under the River, Anis Mojgani
Everyone I’ve ever loved has, at some point, been gifted this book of poems. I first heard Anis during my pre-teen camp days, and this one in particular still catapults me back into the sweet, aching mess of adolescence.
Why is 2+2 always equal to 5? Where do people go when they die? What made the beauty of the moon— the beauty of the sea? Did that beauty make you? Did that beauty make me? Will it make me something?
Will I be something?
Am I something?
And the answer comes.
You already are.
You aways were.
And you still have time to be.No Reservations, S5 E16, Thailand
My forever muse, my eternal comfort watch. In this episode, describing his first trip to Thailand, Bourdain says: “I remember the moment I first realized I'd been living my whole life in black and white. It was like discovering a color I never knew existed before. A whole new crayon box full of colors, that was it for me.”
Silver Springs 1997 Warner Bros Studio Performance
I feel like this needs no explanation, but for those that did not have to suffer through their father explaining Fleetwood Mac’s love triangle in detail… Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were high-school sweethearts turned creative partners whose romance burned hot and then spectacularly fell apart. Even after their breakup, they had to keep performing love songs they’d written for and about each other, often glaring or aching across the stage.
Music:
The fall playlist is well underway, but these are the tracks currently soundtracking my subway spirals and Sunday scaries:
Chicago, Sufjan Stevens
The first song added to every fall lineup, no exceptions. If you don’t feel like running away from home in a wool coat when this plays, check your pulse.
fallingforyou, the 1975
Taylor, I get it. I have ruined my life for lesser men than Matty Healy, and they certainly did not write this song for me.
“I’m caught on your coat again / You said, ‘Oh no, it’s fine’ / I read between the lines and touched your leg again (again)”
Stop This Train, John Mayer
Speaking of men that’ll ruin your life, you can’t have a yearner playlist without John Mayer. I don’t make the rules.
Hello It’s Me, Todd Rundgren
Say what you will about And Just Like That, but if you didn’t feel something watching Big and Carrie share one last dance to this song, martini in hand, twirling around their Park Ave apartment before Big unceremoniously drops dead… then I really can’t help you.
Château Lobby #4, Father John Misty
Everyone has memories of their college sweethearts that they’d rather forget. But for me, skipping class to stay tangled up and toasty for just a little longer—this song playing in the background, cup of poorly brewed Keurig coffee in hand— is not one of them.
“First time you let me stay the night despite your own rules / You took off early to go cheat your way through film school / You left a note in your perfect script: ‘Stay as long as you want’ / And I haven’t left your bed since.”
‘Tis the season for butter and broth, men who ruin your life, and playlists that make you romanticize all of it anyway.
xx, B