{"id":8105,"date":"2021-08-11T00:08:36","date_gmt":"2021-08-11T04:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/?p=8105"},"modified":"2021-08-11T09:53:54","modified_gmt":"2021-08-11T13:53:54","slug":"dog-days-are-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.conviviobookworks.com\/blog\/dog-days-are-over\/","title":{"rendered":"Dog Days are Over"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the best things about summer, if you ask me, is that it comes with an automatic soundtrack\u2013\u2013it does in my head, at least. It has its beginnings with Kate Bush dancing through my head and singing “The Sensual World” on Bloomsday, June 14, and soon progresses to Felix Mendelssohn’s music for Shakespeare’s\u00a0A Midsummer Night’s Dream<\/em> on St. John’s Eve and St. John’s Day (June 23 & 24). On the Fourth of July the song by the same name by X pops into my head, along with John Philip Sousa and the bit of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture<\/em> that includes the cannon. And then any number of old Shaker spirituals come to me on the Sixth of August as we celebrate the Arrival of the Shakers in America.<\/p>\n

And now, on August 11, Sirius, the Dog Star, ends its annual period of rising and setting with the sun. This heliacal rising and setting has been going on since the Third of July. The Ancient Greeks, watchers of the sky and namers of the constellations, observed this and deduced that Sirius, shining as brightly as it does, was amplifying and contributing to the heat of the sun, making these days the hottest of the year. We know now that Sirius has nothing to do with that heat, but legends have long legs, don’t they?<\/p>\n

What does this have to do with summer soundtracks, then? Well, in London in the summer of 1998, a woman named Florence Welch rode her bicycle each day past an enormous illuminated sculpture installed at London’s South Bank. The sculpture, an arc of giant illuminated perspex and aluminum letters, was by Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone. It’s message: Dog Days are Over<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Florence Welch would go on to form a band called Florence + the Machine, and eventually they would record a song called, you guessed it: Dog Days are Over<\/em>. You probably know it. The song was inspired by the sculpture. Florence is quoted as saying, “It’s a reference to the dog star, Sirius. When it was closest to the Earth, all the animals would get languid and sleepy. When it moved away, they’d wake up.” She may not have the details quite right, but she’s got the gist of the matter… and I rather like the vision of sentient beings being languid and sleepy for 40 days or so each summer, then suddenly awakening.<\/p>\n

All to say that this is how Dog Days are Over<\/em>\u00a0by Florence + the Machine fits into the soundtrack of summer that lives in my head. I share it with you each year around this time… and now you know why. I picture happiness hitting me like a train on a track and I picture those very blue women beside me as I sing the song each summer. One of those blue women reminds me of our cat Haden’s veterinarian… and then I picture Dr. Irma Morales as a back up singer for Florence Welch, clapping her hands: one-two\/three.<\/p>\n