Is your favorite chunky sweater on? Have you also failed to resist the urge to buy pumpkin spice-everything? It's fall, nerds! The Recess staff wrote about the pieces of culture we associate most with this beautiful, breezy and occasionally spooky season.
Halloween movies
I adore Halloween movies! I have a whole line up of my favorite spooky season movies — “Hocus Pocus,” “Casper the Friendly Ghost,” “Mickey’s House of Halloween” and “The Addams Family,” to name a few. This is my first fall (and my first Halloween) away from home, which means I will not be able to curl up on my couch late at night with a mug of hot chocolate and gobble up childhood favorites like a pillowcase full of trick-or-treat candy. I look forward to taking some homework breaks this month to relax in my single dorm room with my maple-scented wallflower and watch some spooky movies! — Tess Redman, contributing writer
“Fantastic Mr. Fox” (2009)
This time of year, I always end up watching Wes Anderson’s "Fantastic Mr. Fox" (2009), an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1970 classic. Its tale of thievery and rescue that never gets old, and the mix of puppets and stop-motion animation feels comically odd yet still impressive to this day. In the depths of my nine-year-old brain, I somehow tied fall to the movie’s foxes and apple cider, and since then I haven’t let the season pass without watching Mr. Fox’s clever and fun wickedness unfold. — Kerry Rork, campus arts editor
Joanna Newsom, “Divers” (2015)
Like a matchstick burning brightest before it sputters and dies, fall colors are nature’s final battle cry before grayscales descend. “Divers,” like fall, seems to contain something of death while celebrating the cycle of history, knowing that one day the leaves will reemerge. I listened to this album on car rides to school during the fall of my freshman year of high school. Newsom’s alien whimsy, her ornate folk arrangements of harps and harpsichords and flutes, harvested glee out of tough transitions — from summer to winter and from one stage of my life to the mysterious next. — Stephen Atkinson, culture editor
Miles Davis, “Kind of Blue” (1959)
It may be a tad cliche, but when the weather gets colder and the leaves turn from green to their brilliant hues, I always like to listen to jazz music. One of the greatest jazz albums of all time, Miles Davis's "Kind of Blue," evokes the precise feelings of joy and melancholy that I associate with fall. Davis's monumental innovations in jazz come together to create a moody and emotional album that makes me want to curl up beside a fire and wear an excessive amount of flannel. — Ben Smith, staff writer
Chicken noodle soup
I've eaten so much chicken noodle soup over the past few weeks that it's turned into a personality trait — the chef at the WaDuke's restaurant knows me exclusively as "chicken noodle girl." The combination of mid-semester (and mid-pandemic) malaise, cold weather and the holidays being right around the corner has left me missing the warmth of my native Florida. While chicken noodle soup can't exactly fix all of that, it has been bringing me great comfort. In these unprecedented times, I'll take what I can get. — Tessa Delgo, local arts editor
Maggie Rogers
We should all listen to Maggie Rogers every day of every season, but her invigorating, genre hopping music makes her the perfect fall companion — the commander-in-leaf, if you will (sorry). A Maggie Rogers autumn consists of flawlessly windblown hair, racing across Abele quad to catch the C1 at sunset and that bubbly feeling you get seeing all that bread laid out at Marketplace fall festival. Personal recommendations include "Retrograde," "Say It" and Maggie's cover of Taylor Swift's "Tim McGraw." Enjoy with a side of anticipation for her rumored sophomore album! — Megan Liu, outreach & recruitment chair
SNL political sketches
If there's anything to look forward to during election season, it's a parodied version of the partisan — and this year, particularly juvenile — presidential debates. Watching Trump and Biden go head-to-head is entertaining in itself, but watching Alec Baldwin and Jim Carrey do it is much less stressful (and less time-consuming). I'm tired of YouTube ads and spam calls and texts, but never tired of the products of New York on Saturday nights. — Skyler Graham, culture editor
Fall candles
My favorite piece of fall culture is actually a scent. I have a candle at home which, although not explicitly pumpkin spice-scented, has a warm smell and always reminds me of fall. Lighting this candle immediately makes me feel cozy! — Meredith Cohen, staff writer
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