Harvest season conjures visions of workers busy in the fields reaping summer’s rewards under vibrant blue autumn skies. Then production begins and festivities soon follow—eating, drinking and celebrating until the first frosty breeze pushes us into the cold winter. It is carpe diem season.

September is just around the corner, and the classical music season in Western New York is about to shift into high gear. Here is a rundown of some of the season highlights through the end of December.

This year’s fall literary programming has a distinctly global cast. A quick glance at the autumn events calendar reveals readings by writers from Turkey, Chile, Morocco, England, and even a few from the good old U.S. of A. Writers of all shapes and sizes, from wannabes to Nobel Prize winners will grace Buffalo’s literary stages this fall. Here’s a quick preview.

Here’s just a small handful of picks for what is going to be another fine concert season in Western New York.

Every two years Buffalo hosts the multi-gallery, city-wide group art exhibition that is easily the largest and most extravagant show in the area. Originally titled In Western New York, the event has since expanded far beyond to include Southern Ontario and even parts of Ohio. Beyond attracting a Toronto audience and attention from that city’s metropolitan art critics. Beyond being by far the biggest art happening in this city. And way, way beyond the trappings of traditional art and traditional openings and exhibitions.

There’s much more happening this season in galleries than the Beyond/In exhibition. Almost all area galleries have a significant show or series planned from now until end of the year. In November the Albright-Knox will house The Panza Collection: An Experience of Color and Light, an exhibition from the collection of the Count Giuseppe Panza di Biumo, a doctor and octogenarian whose philosophical interest in visual elements has led to a remarkable body of work. The Burchfield-Penney will continue its Life in the Arts series with the work of Gloria Banning on display during the months of September and October, followed by A Life in the Arts: Shawn Greenberg in November and December. RedFISH Art Studio will host an international traveling exhibition and benefit for the world’s homeless with the October opening of Gimme Shelter: A Benefit For Global Homelessness. Rochester’s George Eastman House is always worth the trip and will reward those who make it with two unusual exhibits opening in mid-September: Lucha Libre! Masked Mexican Wrestlers depicts the ritualistic Mexican free-form sport with a series of photographs from 1940 to the present, and Male and Female: Gender Performed in Photographs, an exhibition from the Eastman House collection.

For this special issue, rather than reviewing a restaurant, I’m just going to talk about food. Autumn is upon us, and in Buffalo especially, that means that the advent of cold-weather comfort food. We have a ridiculous wealth of excellent restaurants here, but sometimes it’s better not to fight the weather, and to stay home and eat soups and casseroles and baked goods and, in general, untrendy things like your mom used to make.

Last Tuesday, the Buffalo Film Seminars commenced its 15th series at the Market Arcade Film & Arts Center with a screening of Charlie Chaplin’s 1931 masterpiece, City Lights. The screening began the same way they all have since the series began in January 2000: with an introduction by University at Buffalo professors Diane Christian and Bruce Jackson, who also lead a conversation about the film afterward. The audience comprises 40-odd students enrolled in Christian and Jackson’s class, and a couple hundred more who come to see terrific films on a big screen and to talk about what makes them great.