coconut woman (september girl)

(these pictures are from the past couple weeks or so -- most during my bookcase project, which explains the high Cherry Ames/Peggy Lane ratio.)

I have been trying to figure out the best way to continue celebrating summer even after the artificial season ender of Labor Day Weekend. (Today calypso music and Big Star have been effective.) I get that it is back to school and in a lot of practical ways summer is over. HOWEVER, (I do love me a good however), the earth is still tipped in the summer direction for the northern hemisphere! Summer's not really over until September 23rd and the autumnal equinox. Take that, local sad-sack-labor-day-end-of-summer apologist-newscaster! Oh, who cares? I'm taking summery September since Portland is always cheated out of a summery June.

So far, this month has been pretty good: I finally have a date for an interview (which I technically found out in August, but the hooray of it is still upon me) and I started Project Color-Coordinate Bookshelf which has brought me MUCH HAPPINESS. Well, the one big bookshelf has been pretty fun. The others, where size is a big part of why the books are where they are, have been slightly less fun -- but the project is enjoyable nevertheless. It's like a party on the shelves! Strange bedfellows, as a friend remarked. Personally, I love it. I think my big hesitation at doing this before was that I thought it would make it impossible to find anything, but I realized I look AT my bookshelves every single day, and I look FOR something on them much less often -- and it's not like my previous system was comprehensible outside my own brain anyway. Plus, things are getting a much needed dusting. (it is possible that my desire for practical order is being met at the library, so I am free to get crazy on my own shelves. Alternatively, it is possible that I don't have that much desire for practical order.) If I've learned one thing, it's that I really need to stop buying Penguin Classics from the 50's-60's at estate sales. On the other hand, I must find more of the Fernand Hazan Petite Encyclopédie de l'Art books, for they are adorable! (Oooh, speaking of groovy book covers, I currently have wallpaper #3 from here (go to downloads) as my desktop. via How About Orange)

There is a downside, and that downside is that straightening all these books has made me realize that something must be done with my out of control art supplies. (did I come across a book titled Something Must Be Done With Your Out of Control Art Supplies? No, but that would be funny.) The supplies are encroaching! It starts with paper items. Since books are made of paper, I think it's okay to shove other paper on the shelf -- which is fine for a while, but quickly degenerates to the mess I find myself looking at today. I suspect that if the earth opened up and swallowed half of this non-book stuff I would be secretly relieved. Anyway, it's a good project too, although it won't be as fun as the shelves. I suppose it's the sloggy, responsible part of September, but slogging that must be done. (my concession to the eventual IN ONE MONTH arrival of fall.)

Okay, now for some fun links since it seems like a summery-type thing to do, and as everyone knows summer goes on for weeks and weeks yet:

+++I love this post at La Coquette about watching Godard's Breathless for the first time. Not only did I also recently watch Breathless for the first time, but I, too, grew up in Florida reading magazines at the 7-11! (except in my town it was the Stop & Go.) I don't speak French or have exciting Parisian adventures (much to my sorrow), but Coquette does and she writes about them with wit and flair.

+++Posie goes to the Oregon State Fair. I love the state fair (although I haven't been in a while), and I love this blog. I'm so happy she's writing and photographing a craft book, but I also wish that she were writing a novel or a collection of stories so I could read more, more, more. What I especially love about this post (aside from the pictures and the goat hilarity) is the part about the horse arena. When I was there several years ago, I had a really strong reaction to that building -- it has such an atmosphere. It was freaky; I swore that if I closed my eyes and thought really hard, I would open them up and it would be 1919. (this MAY HAVE BEEN right after I read Time and Again by Jack Finney, but even so!) Oh! this post also reminds me of the time the National Square Dance Convention was in Portland; it was glorious and completely surreal. There were giant poofy skirts EVERYWHERE, like the city was poised for some huge civic musical.

+++Answer Girl has returned from her August hiatus with a new blog format. This year's daily posts will focus on books she's kept for a long time. I enjoy this blog very much, and not just because she sometimes posts pictures of her dog, Dizzy. (I am a Dizzy fan.)