It’s September! The Orange Line doesn’t exist anymore! What to do? Lots, actually.

If you don’t have a car or your bus line leaves much to be desired (here’s to citywide rapid bus transit), now’s the time to learn to ride a bike, assuming you can’t already. I’m going to make that assumption for at least some of you — for I am counted in that number, and refuse to believe I am the only one in this city of 654,776 who did not know how to ride a bicycle.

Once you’ve got your wheels (steadied) you can make your way down to Jamaica Plain for some historical walking tours or a music festival. You can zoom over to Brighton to catch a movie outdoors (one of the last of the summer) or check out a Grammy-nominated band helmed by an increasingly celebrated author.

Point is, once you can get around, the activity slate never seems to let up. I am angry that no one told me riding a bike was this rad. Alas.

JP Music Festival

Saturday, Sept. 10, 12 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Pinebank Baseball Field
Free

It’s a concert lineup featuring the return of beloved local acts and the introduction of some new players. It’s also the festival’s first time back after a two-year hiatus. With the Orange Line shutdown and general lack of parking, you’re going to have to hike or bike (or bus or walk) over to Pinebank Baseball Field to take in seven hours of music, family activity and food truck hopping.

The band members that make up Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys--which is described as a "Dada-esque circus carnival"-- are huddled close together in the forest, the lead vocalist is sitting in a chair, holding a huge pan of scissors as the other band members each hold out one of his long dreadlocks, threatening to cut them off.
The band members that make up Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys, which has been described as a "Dada-esque circus carnival," is one of the bands performing at this year's JP Music Festival.
Jonathan Beckley Jamaica Plain Music Festival

Movie Night at the Notch: 'Jurassic Park'

Monday, Sept. 12, 8 to 10 p.m.
Seating is first come, first served
The Speedway, 525 Western Ave.
Free admission and popcorn

Here’s another JP, but it’s nothing to do with Jamaica Plain (unless you have grand ambitions of embracing your full paleontologist in Franklin Park). No, we are championing "Jurassic Park," the timeless Spielberg adaptation of Michael Crichton’s 1990 novel. Sure, the dinosaurs don’t exactly hold up to our modern understanding of these non-avian reptiles; and yeah, it seems that society is continually ignoring Jeff Goldblum/Ian Malcolm’s cynical warnings about tampering with nature. But what’s the fun dwelling on that?

Bicycle Riding School

Various dates, private and group lessons available
Specific teaching location revealed upon confirmation
$40 per group session; $80 per private session (sliding scale)

The Orange Line has shut down for at least 30 days, which has spelled disaster for thousands of residents who rely on that arterial course for reliable transportation and commuting. I am one of them. I also do not own a car. Moreover, I cannot ride a bike. (See above.) That is changing, because I need, in fact, to be able to get around. If you’re also a grown-up who never learned to ride in those halcyon days of youthful innocence, then you too can seize this opportunity to learn how to cycle with Susan McLucas in Somerville. She offers group or private coaching.

Adult students at the Bicycle Riding School are all wearing bike helmets,. They are outdoors, it appears to be late spring or early summer because they are dressed in lightweight clothes. They squeeze in together to take a group photo, they are all smiling.
Students at the Bicycle Riding School pose for a group selfie.
Susan McLucas Bicycle Riding School

Boston Lyric Opera: 'La Bohème'

Sep. 23-Oct. 2
Emerson Colonial Theatre
Advanced student tickets $25; student rush $20; EBT discount $25 with code "BLOEBT"

Giacomo Puccini’s "La Bohème" might be his most well-known opera — if not one of the most well-known operas period — if only by virtue of how often its performed. It has had a life outside of the opera house, too. Della Reese had a hit with an adaptation of “Musetta’s Waltz” and Jonathan Larson had "Rent." Now the Boston Lyric Opera is offering a fresh take, which, in principle, is a simple one: "La Bohème" backwards. You know how it ends a tragedy about roommates and rent and tuberculosis? This time, that’s how it begins. Tragedy to comedy, in the purest senses of the words.

In this scene from the opera La Boheme, Mimi has succumbed to her long illness. he body lies on an orange, velvet fainting couch. On the floor, to her left, her lover Rodolfo has collapsed on the floor in despair
Rodolfo (Matthew White) despairs as Mimi (Lauren Michelle) succumbs to her illness in this scene from the opera "La Bohème."
Photo by Leigh Webber Boston Lyric Opera and Spoleto

Japanese Breakfast

Sept. 29; doors 7 p.m., show 8 p.m.
Roadrunner (Brighton)
Tickets start at $39.50

Japanese Breakfast frontwoman Michelle Zauner’s 2021 memoir "Crying in H-Mart" passed one full year on The New York Times bestseller list in July. It’s now being adapted into a screenplay, with Zauner doing the adapting. That she’s working in this particular visual medium isn’t surprising, considering she’s the directing force behind many of her band’s visuals. And she’s still on tour, returning to Boston once again (she was at Boston Calling late last spring), to bless our summer-wearied shells with the band’s wonderfully cathartic, somnambulant sound. Doubling the fun is the fact that Zauner is a fan of Yo La Tengo, the band opening for Japanese Breakfast.

this is a close up image of vocalist Michelle Zauner. She is onstage, singing into a microphone, She is bathed in purple light, the background is blue.
Vocalist Michelle Zauner of the band Japanese Breakfast sings during the Day In Day Out Festival in Seattle, Aug. 14 2022.
David Lee Wikimedia Commons

Jamaica Plain Historical Society walking tours

Most Saturdays and some Sundays
Tours begin at various locations
Free

There’s a particular romance about getting to know your home through the enthusiasm of others, and more so when such excursions take place out of the anti-aegis of the cruel summer that has heated us for months. In Jamaica Plain, the neighborhood Historical Society is offering Saturday and Sunday tours, revealing the histories of streets, structures and squares of what was once an old streetcar suburb.

This is an historical black and white photo. Approximately 40 postal workers are gathered outside a post office on Green Street in Jamaica Plain. The workers are all male and are dressed in the customary uniform of the time, a shirt, tie, shirt waist and a hat with a service badge mounted in the middle of the hat.
Workers at the Jamaica Plain Post Office, 71 Green Street, 1920
Boston Public Library Boston Public Library

COASTSWEEP Cleanup

Various days and locations

I’m gonna be real with you: litter is gross. The best way to prevent litter is to simply not throw your trash on the ground or out of your car, lest you be judged by your fellow man (or housing authority, or traffic warden, or any earth-mother deities you recognize). The second best way to prevent litter is far more ick but infinitely more rewarding: join a crew to clean it up. COASTSWEEP organizes teams for coastal cleanup efforts. It’s free to join (this is a volunteer opportunity, after all), and teams are located throughout the Atlantic-facing side of the state, and its islands.