Brendan Kilty is a fine man, as you will
learn if you read this article from
The Australian.

An excerpt:

“JAMES Joyce devotee Brendan Kilty was so
outraged when he learned wreckers were to
demolished his idol's childhood home in
Dublin that he went to the site expecting to
join a throng of protesters.

"I was the only one there," he said yesterday
as he recalled the 1998 demolition of 2
Millbourne Avenue, Drumcondra. “

The DVD of Sean Walsh's Bloom will be released
in the US this week. For information on getting
a copy:

e: info@ulysses.ie
w: http://www.ulysses.ie

Here’s an interesting article (though
difficult to read due to weird graphics)
about the various versions of Ulysses.
It's called “Haveth Versions Everywhere
or Here Comes Everybody’s Edition of
Ulysses”

Here’s a book I’d love to have:
Joyce in Art: Visual Art Inspired by
James Joyce. The book is a companion
to the exhibition of the same title (at the RHA
in Dublin), curated by the author for 16 June
2004, the centenary of Bloomsday.

It is the first historical account of visual art
inspired by James Joyce and includes works
by Man Ray, Brancusi, Eisenstein, Matisse,
Motherwell, Scully, Beuys, Christo, Bacon,
Hamilton, Cage, le Brocquy, Cooke and others.

Tomorrow is James Joyce Meetup Day
when you can meetup with other local people
interested in discussing the works of the Irish
author, James Joyce. The website lists members
and towns. Apparently the meetups are help
the first Tuesday of every month at 8PM in a
variety of towns in the US and Europe

You can read about a new docmentary entitled
"Following James Joyce ... Dublin to Buffalo" here.

An excerpt:

The film traces the Irish-born author's travels from
Dublin to Paris and to Pola, Croatia; Trieste, Italy;
and Zurich, Switzerland -- all cities where he
made his home at some point. It charts also the
fate of two collections of Joyce's manuscripts,
notebooks, private library, correspondence and
family portraits -- one rescued from wartime
Paris, a second procured from Joyce's friend and
publisher, Sylvia Beach -- as they made their way
to an unlikely final destination: Buffalo.

I may be getting a job in Idaho. The prospect
of relocating has caused me to sell some of
my treasures including many of my James Joyce
books. I’m selling them all together as a lot
which you can view here.
I’ll also be putting up my James Joyce Yearbook
for sale (the book that Buddenbooks is selling for
$800). If you are interested in any of these items
you can contact me at :
noseyflynn@digital-crocus.com

"Why Joyce’s Words are for Nora’s Eyes Only" is
the title of an interesting commentary in the
Observer by Stephanie Merritt. There’s an
excerpt below or you can read the entire thing
here.

"...But I do feel instinctive guilt about wanting to
read the erotic letter written by James Joyce to
Nora Barnacle in 1909 and sold last week at
Sotheby's for £240,800.

It's a hypothetical guilt, since I can't read it;
the anonymous buyer is apparently hobbled
by all manner of clauses regarding publication
or disclosure of its contents, established by
Joyce's grandson, Stephen. He holds copyright
to his works and tried to oppose the sale
because, according to Stephen's wife, these
were private letters which 'have no literary or
historical significance'."

Joyce’s love letter to Nora set a record for
autographed letter sales at Sotheby’s. The
letter sold for 240,800 pounds
($447,298 US) to an anonymous telephone
bidder. I’m dying to know who this person
is and what he will do with it. I’d love to
meet him.

Haven’t found results yet for his spectacles
or his singing medal but will post that info
as soon as I have it.

***JOYCE AUCTION ON THURSDAY***

Just one more lotto jackpot to try before the
Sotheby’s auction of several of James Joyce’s
belonging’s. I got my eye on his spectacles,
or his singing medal, my unemployed eye....
I’ve tried prayer and creative visualization
but so far no change in my economic status.

Also for sale, an important love letter from
Joyce to Nora....maybe:

“A report in Sunday's Observer newspaper 
indicates that the sale of the letter may yet
be blocked by the author's grandson Stephen
Joyce and his wife, Solange, who own
copyright over all Joyce's writings.

Solange Joyce said: "We're not pleased, to
say the least. Those letters are strictly
personal and private, and for a member of
the family. They have no literary or historical
significance."
(from RTE Interactive)

Kit Snedaker has an article in Literary Traveler about James Joyce and Trieste, which she claims
was his favorite city.

You can take a virtual walk of Joyce’s Trieste
here.

According to Cairde Na Gaillimhe of the
Galway Advertiser the Nora Barnacle Bridge
is in a sad state of disrepair:

Cairde has accused the Galway City Council
of failing to maintain the Nora Barnacle
Bridge on the riverwalk by the canal near
Bowling Green, where Nora Barnacle, James
Joyce's wife, grew up.

"Part of this bridge was destroyed by vandals
and thrown in the canal where it has been lying
ever since," according to a Cairde spokesperson.
"Since Galway aspires to be known as a city of
culture, we would request the city restore this
monument to one of its most fabled citizens."

The group has also called for the missing
lights along the riverwalk to be immediately
re-installed and maintained.

In the past week I've received four or
five emails from Shakespeare and Co.
in Paris, not one of which I have been
able to read - something about their
attachments makes them unreadable
( or something about my computer).

It's been frustrating but also fun imagining
what these emails might say.

Worst case scenario - They heard we had
an actress portraying Sylvia Beach at our
Bloomsday Celebration and they have
copyright issues a la Stephen Joyce.

Best case scenario - They've heard
about my great track record as a
former Tower Books employee and want
me to move to Paris and work at their
bookstore.

I'd happily accept, though I would be
just as happy working at the Berkeley
S & Co.

Bloomsday is over. A relief. Things went
better than expected. The three professors
were all interesting, the Men's Choir was
a huge success and the Sirens scene, told
in shadow puppets was creative and funny.
And the "musical" Portrait of the Artist,
disarmingly sincere.

After nine years of Bloomsday
Celebrations I think I'm ready for a break
next year. Though the end result was good,
the process this year was even more
frustrating than usual. I think none of us
enjoyed it.

Hearing all the reports of huge crowds
in Dublin, I quickly came to terms with
missing the JJ Conference. And at the end
of the day was glad to rest my head in
my own bed, my own room, my own
town.

Well, well, well, the big day is here. I find
myself thinking about the bookstore man
at Shakespeare & Co in Berkeley who
introduced himself to me one day after he
caught me perusing the Joyce section of the
store. HE'S at Bloomsday in Dublin today.
I'm here in Chico which is expected to reach
102 degrees today. You can see the forecast
for a beautiful day in Dublin in the sidebar
at the right.

A friend of mine who I thought would be at
Bloomsday today can't make it after all and is
stuck in Sacramento tonight, a place which
has some nice qualities though not much in
the way of culture. He writes about the
General Slocum disaster in his blog.

What does one do when there is no Joycean
place to go on June 16th? Pick up The Good
Book itself, read one of your favorite
passages - (page 27 to start:"ugly and futile:
lean neck and tangled hair"), then make an
offering of gratitude or a prayer of thanks.

Have a lovely day.

Now available: The James Joyce Quiz Book.

Here’s an excerpt from the forward:

“In the following pages you will find a variety of
puzzles and quizzes designed to test your
knowledge of the major works of James Joyce....
There is one crossword for each, as well as
quizzes and word searches that pertain to the
books. Some quizzes are thematic and draw
from all the books: Food, Music, Irish History
and Joyce Miscellany.......

The book is meant to appeal to all levels of Joyce
readers. Some answers will be quite easy, some
will involve some digging, hopefully giving you
a pleasurable excuse to continue to explore the
writings of Joyce.”

The book is $5.00 plus $2.00 domestic shipping
or $3.25 for international shipping. Contact
Labryinth Press at P.O. Box 3834, Chico CA 95927
or you can send me an email if you’d like
additional ordering information:
noseyflynn@digital-crocus.com.

There are tons of Bloomsday articles in the press
this week. Here’s an excerpt from the San
Francisco Chronicle.

The strangest aspect of "Ulysses' " continuing
reputation, however, is not that an impossible
book has ossified in academia, but that it has
won devoted, non-academic fans more akin to
Trekkies than to literary snobs. Irish tourism
officials estimate 50,000 fans will make it to
Dublin this Bloomsday; a new film, "Bloom," with
Stephen Rea playing Joyce's long-suffering hero
Leopold Bloom, is playing in Europe; "Ulysses"
allusions turn up in such unexpected places as a
Dutch dance hit by the singer Amber and the films
of Slacker director Richard Linklater; a new
documentary, "Joyce To the World," gives a look
at Bloomsday celebrations on every continent. It
is June 16, not April 23 (Shakespeare's birthday)
or Feb. 23 (John Keats' death), that has become
the world's de facto literary holiday.

“You wait a century for a recording of every
word of Ulysses and then 54 CDs of James
Joyce's masterpiece come along at once. “

The above from a review of two new unabridged
recordings of Ulysses, which can be found here.

You can find complete information on the 27
hour Naxos version here.

As Bloomsday gets closer I become more
and more pensive. I suppose part of that is
regrets at not being able to attend the
conference in Dublin. The paper I was
supposed to present on Joyce and the
Music of Tin Pan Alley gathers dust on
my bookshelf. I received my JJ Newestlatter
on Saturday but didn't want to read it. Went
to the library for a distraction and ended
up with two Joyce related books in spite of
myself: The James Joyce Murders by
Amanda Cross and Coetzee's "biography"
on Elizabeth Costello, fictional author of The
House on Eccles Street.

Adding to my pensivitivity is the knowledge
that I have barely a chance of purchasing
Joyce's glasses at the Sotheby's auction.
Barely a chance....I guess there's an atom
of hope in me somewhere.

The mystical significance of the number 23:
Responsible for Michael Jordan’s success?
Now influencing David Beckham?
Responsible for Shakespeare’s success?
The reason Bloomsday is held on June 16, 1904?

I think not. This website believes it though.

The men’s choir met for the first time
yesterday and it was the first time this
year that I’ve felt any happiness about
Chico’s upcoming Bloomsday Celebra-
tion. Regardless of how the rest of the
evening goes, the choir will be great! Now
I just need to figure out what they should
wear. I don’t want full naval dress, I’m
not even sure what British sailors in 1904
wore. But we need some sort of unifying
garment: a scarf, a cap, a chambray shirt.
.Hmmm. I’m going to make a trip to the
Army-Navy surplus store this weekend
and see what I can find. Suggestions
welcome.

My obsession with James Joyce’s glasses
continues. I’ve written a poem entitled
Spectacles.

And I’m considering converting to a life of
crime. I’d tried to be good all these years;
Maybe it’s time for a change. I’d do anything
for those glasses.

The upcoming auction at Sotheby’s is making
me nauseous. I want to purchase James Joyce’s
spectacles. I can’t get them out of my head.
I wrote a poem about them last night. The
auction estimate for them is 3,000 – 5,000
pounds. Can I afford that? No!! I’m unem-
ployed but it isn’t an impossible amount like
50,000. I could try to find a lender and promise
interest and timely payments. I could buy lottery
tickets. I’d only have to match four numbers or
so to get 5,000. I could resort to petty crime.
Devise some internet scheme. Write papers
for grad students. Rob a small bank.

There is something so sexy and endearing about
glasses. If you love someone, and they wear
glasses,when they take them off, one is filled
with an enormous sense of desire and tenderness,
a deadly combination. James Joyce’s spectacles.
Oh my.

Love Letter Found

In Ellman’s biography of Joyce he writes "Joyce's
letter of 1 December 1909 has not survived".

That letter has been found “discovered tucked
into a book among an almost painfully personal
collection of relics linked to the author”. The
collection is owned by the family of Stanislaus Joyce.

An article in the Guardian about the find,
does not mention when or if the contents of the
letter will be published. It’s an important letter,
written during Joyce’s visit to Dublin in 1909,
a time of jealousy and insecurity for him, and
one that produced some of the most beautiful
and erotic love letters ever written.

The letter will be auctioned at Sotheby's in July.

Bloomsday meeting tonight. My McHomey, and
main ally, Michael, will not be there. Damn.

Here's what I'm working on for the Men's Choir:

Remember how on Joyce's first night in Trieste,
he left Nora on a park bench and went off to find
lodging - not coming back for many hours?

He had come across a group of British sailors
in the midst of a disagreement with the local
police. Joyce tried to intervene and ended up in
jail with them.

So the Men's Choir will be these sailors,
reminiscing about Joyce and their time together
as cell mates. One of the sailors won't be able
to remember this experience and he will be
reminded that he was with a different ship at the
time, docked in New York, flirting with NY Girls.

Which will lead into the song O, You New York
Girls, Can't You Dance the Polka, a song about
a sailor on shore leave who gets taken by a
prostitute. Joyce referenced this song in
Finnegans Wake.

Joyce's days accurately represent last week for me:

Moanday
Tearsday
Wailsday
Thumpday
Frightday
Shatterday

Saturday actually wasn't so bad. And Thursday
was okay because I missed the Bloomsday
meeting. This Thursday I won't be able to avoid
it so it will be Thumpday for sure.

These meetings are taking the joy out of Joyce.

Here’s an article (excerpt below) about the James
Joyce Ramble. I don’t understand why people do
things like this. What does running have to do
with James Joyce? If James Joyce were ever to
attend such an event he would be sitting on the
sidelines under a large beach umbrella with a
cold glass of chardonnay in his hands, not
jogging. Dedham isn’t the only town to hold a
Joyce run. Spokane does it, so does Seattle and
I imagine other misguided towns.

The James Joyce Ramble:
"Dressed in early 20th-century costume, actors
read from ''The Dead," ''Ulysses," and ''Finnegans
Wake" during the ramble, a 10K race
that combines organizer Martin Hanley's love
for running, Joyce, and acting.

Some actors worried that onlookers were more
interested in the running than the reading. But
participant Kate Carney, 69, managed to get the
full attention of several young children as she read
a passage from 'Finnegans Wake' about two
gossiping wash women cleaning the linen of a
cheating husband."

A very depressing Bloomsday meeting
last Thursday. One member of our
committee wants the entire evening
based on a Joyce party, with Joyce &
friends present and individual episodes
stemming from the party itself.

Another person, our founder, stated that
he feels very uneasy about this idea and
actually has a bad feeling in his stomach
whenever he thinks about it. His concerns
weren't really addressed.

There's more to it than this, but basically
I think there isn't time to do the party idea
unless it is done as a scene unto itself, rather
than being interspersed throughout the
evening.

But, who knows what will happen at this
point.

U of V, Charlottesville held a marathon reading
of Ulysses last weekend. Students and teachers
read for ten minutes each, then passed the
podium on to someone else. Scheduled to last
24 hours, the reading ended up taking 30 hours
instead. Check out the entire article at the
Cavalier Daily.

Obsession

I noticed something today. I often check
the index in Ellman’s Joyce bio to see if
Joyce has been through a similar exper-
ience to my own. Part of that is blog
related – wanting to write about something
I’m currently interested in but relating it
to Joyce. But today I remembered those
WWJD people . “What Would Jesus do?”
Could I be doing the same thing, but with
Joyce? Could I be obsessed?

I searched Google for a quiz titled “Are
you Obsessed” but all the quizzes were
topic specific, e.g. Are you obsessed with…
Clay Aiken, physical appearances, weblog
hits, sex.

Finally I found a Harry Potter quiz that
I thought I might be able to use, tweaking
the questions a bit to fit James Joyce.
Some of them were perfect as is:

10. Do you own more than one copy of
the books? Yes

18. Did you wear a costume? Twice

20. Do you find one of the characters
oddly attractive? Absolutely (Bloom)

21. Have you talked your friends into
reading the books? Yes

92. Do you participate in groups dedicated to
stopping such censorship? Yes

96. Have you ever bought overpriced
merchandise from e-bay? Yes

My score was 40% which qualified me as an
obsessed fan, though to my credit, there
were three higher categories that were more
obsessed than I. And actually, my plan is to
end this blog after Bloomsday this year.

No Bloomsday meeting this week due to several
committee members being out of town. I have
been working on the music. Tentatively plans
include: O, You New York Girls, Can't You
Dance the Polka (for the men's choir), Eileen
Aroon, maybe A Nation Once Again if I can get
my British neighbor with the great voice to do it.

I'm considering the Girls Choir making an ap-
pearance but if we go with the party-for-joyce
theme for the whole night I'm not sure how to
fit them in, at least, not in the way I have
planned.

Dylan had the idea to make the entire evening a
skit of a party for Joyce, featuring himself and his
friends and admirers. I like the idea but it puts a
damper on our usual method of everyone develop-
ing and presenting a separate thing, be it poem,
reading, scene or song. Maybe we could have only
the second half be the Joyce party. Hmmm.

Hope we get things settled soon. Time's a wastin'.

Joyce's letter to Heineman (see entry below)
sold for $59,000 at Christies ...

Joyce Auction Tomorrow

The Quentin Keynes Collection of Books and
Manuscripts will be auctioned off tomorrow
and Thursday by Christies’s of London.
Rueters calls this “One of the most significant
collections of manuscripts, books and draw-
ings relating to James Joyce “…One item that’s
expected to bring in big bucks is an early letter
of Joyce’s. Written on September 23, 1905 to a
W. Heinemann offering up Dubliners for
publication. Heinemann passed.

Joyce wrote in the letter: “The book is not a
collection of tourist impressions but an attempt
to represent certain aspects of the life of one of
the European capitals.”

The auction is expected to be quite pricey. For
thenon-millionaires out there, remember: I still
have a rare copy of the limited edition James
Joyce Yearbook for sale. Buddenbrooks is selling
their copy for $800. I’d take half that.

So our first meeting went well. Held at the lovely
Latimer home over a meal of duck and wild rice,
all were in good spirits and everyone got along fine.

There was a good, if muddled, idea of staging a
scene from Joyce's birthday party in 1922 - also
the day he received his first copy of Ulysses - and
having all our Bloomsday pieces evolve from that
event. It was believed that there was a festive
party on that day. I think it was actually a small
dinner celebration at a restaurant but need to
look into it with Mr. Ellman.

Talk also of doing the opening Martello Tower
scene. We meet again next Thursday.

Our first Bloomsday meeting for 2004 will be
this Wednesday evening. I'm looking forward to
it mostly..... I just hope we can keep things civil
and not let egos get in the way.

I've become less tolerant of egomaniacs
lately.

So, I haven't given a lot of thought yet to
the music. I'd like to do a scene featuring
Croppy Boy interspersed with Bloom's lunch
thoughts but not sure how that would come
across.

I usually use songs from all of Joyce's works
but may stick to Ulysses this year in honor
of the 100th anniversary. I'll decide after
I see what the others on the committee
have in mind.

Sean Walsh, Director of the Irish movie
“Bloom” has begun working with Paragon
Film Group to distribute the film (which
has just been nominated for four Irish
Academy Awards). Paragon is looking to contact
universities, museums and Bloomsday presenters
throughout the US in hopes of getting the film
showed in June 2004. If you or your group is
interested contact Scott Bedno at 818-845-7148.
email : info@paragonfilmgroup.com
You can also contact him through the mail at :
Paragon Film Group, LLC
209 East Alameda, #103
Burbank, CA
91502

There's a link to the Bloom website in
my links section.

HIP-HOP JOYCE

Hip-Hop writer CHZA likens Notorious B.I.G.
to James Joyce in his column. You can find it
at Filter Magazine.

“...one astounding, irrevocable truth: That
Biggie Smalls was the modern, Black rein-
carnation of James Joyce.”

CHZA insightfully sums up Mr. B.I.G. (and
Mr. Joyce) with a Sly and the Family Stone
reference: “He’s everyday people documenting
the everyday struggle”.

I don’t know much about B.I.G., but CHZA
and JAJ are off da chain.

I spoke with a friend from Chico's Bloomsday
committee yesterday. She is working on a script
for the opening scene of Ulysses - the tower
scene - which she thinks would be a good scene
for us to do this year.

I think so too, though the three gentlemen she
has in mind to perform are all in their mid-30s
or above. Stephen was 22 in Ulysses.

We'll have our first Bloomsday meeting later this
month. I vascillate between looking forward to it
and dreading it. The meetings can sometimes get
heated and confrontational due to egos. I hate
that part of it.

Damn the Times. I found a great article I’d like
to link to for you or even read myself but the
Times is subscription only.

The title begins:
Stephen Joyce: Protective grandson who
refuses to ...

The article, which ran on Feb 14, 2004, reads:
... his grandson called a press conference in a
pub in Zurich. While most Joyceans celebrate
the author on June 16 — Bloomsday — Stephen
Joyce insists that ...

You have to register AND PAY MONEY
to read the whole article

Starting to think about Bloomsday 2004 in Chico.
Today I took a look at 2002’s list of song possibilities .

* indicates songs I ended up using

Bloomsday possibilities:

Girls choir: Rings on fingers*-fw or harrigan-fw

Mens choir-mcnamara’s band-fw
i’m a rambling wreck (son of a Gombolier)-fw

Kelly
cruiskeen lawn-u/fw

KB - little brown jug-fw

Kim -sweet rosie o grady *-p/fw

???
ballynure ballad
all around my hat
bonny labouring boy-fw
croppy boy-u
de profundis-fw
dixie-u/fw
for he’s a jolly good fellow-d/dead/fw
goodnight ladies-fw
marble halls-d
o you new york girls, can you dance the polka-fw
molly brannigan - u/fw/j
toot toot tootsie*-fw
turkey in the straw-fw
yes we have no banana- fw

Calico is the name of the cotton which was
sometimes used to tie the wrists of those
who are taken off to mental institutions.

Calico is also the name of a new play written
by Michael Hastings. Currently playing in
London, here’s a brief description from
a ticket selling website

“Calico...

By Michael Hastings,
Directed by Edward Hall

1928 - The Paris apartment of James Joyce and
his family. A world of secret lives and secret
dreams.

A young student named Samuel Beckett arrives
and an unusual love begins.

CALICO is a fictional story inspired by fact. It is
a captivating and exuberant play about a family
in crisis. Scrupulously researched, Calico mixes
sadness and great compassion to explore love
almost to the brink of insanity.”

I have to decide by March 1st if I will be
attending the James Joyce Conference in
Dublin this year. I’m supposed to present
at the conference (New York State of Mind:
James Joyce and the Music of Tin Pan Alley),
something that made me feel quite proud.
But I’m entering my third month of
unemployment and haven’t the funds to
pay for the necessities of life, much less a
week in Dublin. So I’m adjusting to the
fact that unless a miracle happens, I won’t
be going. Just another ripple in my
depression pond.

My current state of mind has led me to
thoughts of Joyce and depression. I think
the worst years for him were his later years
in Zurich. His eyes were getting progress-
ively worse, the reaction to Finnegans Wake
was not what he had hoped and it looked
like Lucia would have to spend the rest of her
days in an institution.

I guess I shouldn’t complain.

Robert Spoo has an interesting theory on Ulysses
copyright in the US: Ulysses lacks a US copyright
and is therefore in the public domain. So while
people in Dublin will be unable to utter words
from Joyce’s works this Bloomsday, Americans
can have at it.

Here’s an excerpt:

Under that law (U.S. copyright law in force
in 1922), Joyce would have had to deposit
a copy of the book at the copyright office
within two months of publication in France,
and then, within another four months, have
the book printed on American soil by a U.S.
printer. Spoo says Joyce did not meet these
requirements, thus relinquishing his novel to
the public domain. It was transformed from a
private monopoly into a public resource, and
the benefits once enjoyed by the creator passed
to the user.

......He points out that in a sworn deposition in
Paris in a case involving an American publisher
who had printed a pirated version of Ulysses
in 1926, Joyce was asked if he had ever tried to
secure an American copyright. Spoo said Joyce
answered under oath that he had not.”

I’ve written about Stephen Joyce and his
greedy ways before in this blog. He’s on
the warpath again, this time in regards
to the big 100th anniversary celebration
planned for Dublin this summer.

Here’s an excerpt from an article
Mondo Sismondo sent me on SJ :

The city has planned a three-month festival
of celebrations costing about £700,000.

Unfortunately, the only living direct
descendant of Joyce has promised to disrupt
the festival by banning any public readings
of his work.

Stephen Joyce, the writer’s grandson, has
informed the Irish government he will sue for
breach of copyright if any recitations take place.
The septuagenarian who lives in Paris, has made
millions of pounds from the proceeds of copy-
right of Joyce’s work and from suing for its
infringement......

The Joyce estate has warned other organisations
planning to use Joyce’s words as part of their
celebrations to tread carefully. These include the
Irish National Library, Irish national television,
RTÉ, and the James Joyce Centre in Dublin.

Happy Valentine’s Day

“....... anyhow its done now once and for all
with all the talk of the world about it people
make its only the first time after that its just
the ordinary do it and think no more about it
why cant you kiss a man without going and
marrying him first you sometimes love to
wildly when you feel that way so nice all over
you you cant help yourself I wish some man
or other would take me sometime when hes
there and kiss me in his arms theres nothing
like a kiss long and hot down to your soul
almost paralyses you .......”

The famous “dark, gaunt house” at
15 Usher’s Island has been rescued
from deterioration just in time for the
100th anniversary of Bloomsday.
Purchased by Joyce fan Brendan Kilty
a few years ago, the four story house
was in major disrepair.

“ The top floor had been torn down to
save its then owners the trouble of
patching up a leaking roof, while the
back wall was bowed to the point of
near collapse.

"We removed two buckets of syringes
from the ground floor alone -- it was
a total squat," said Kilty, who set
about transforming what he considers
one of the world's premier literary
addresses.

Check out the entire article at Reuters.

Have recently discovered Savoy Comics and
their series of Hard Core Horror comics which
include James Joyce as a regular character. He
is described in one review as “mystically affected
sadist James Joyce”. (Surely Joyce was closer to
being a masochist than a sadist...)

I haven’t gotten a good grasp on the Lord
Horror series yet but here’s an excerpt
from a description:

"But the real shit started to fly in 1989,
when Savoy published Dave Britton's
own surreal and picaresque book Lord
Horror, a Burroughsian, Swiftian satire
recounting the exploits of various persons
in the form of distorted caricatures of
actual historical persons such as Cosimo
Matassa (who ran the New Orleans studio
where all the great black Rock'n'Roll
records of the '50s were cut: Little Richard,
Fats Domino, etc.), Hitler, and the
eponymous British wartime traitor 'Lord
Haw Haw'—William Joyce, here embodied
as Lord Horror."

February 2

It’s James Joyce’s Birthday (2/2/82)

It’s also Groundhog Day, St Bridgets Day
and Candlemas.

And the birthday of:

1650 - Nell Gwynne, actress, royal mistress,
1895 - George Halas, American football player, coach,
co-founder of the National Football League,
1901 - Jascha Heifetz, musician,
1905 - Ayn Rand, author,
1923 - James Dickey, poet, author,
1937 - Tom Smothers, comedian,
1942 - Graham Nash, musician
1947 - Farrah Fawcet, actress
1947 - Melanie, singer
1977 - Shakira, singer

Have recently been exploring John Cage’s
connection to James Joyce.

--Can’t afford this: “John Cage Performs
James Joyce”, a VHS going for $150 on
Amazon.com but imagine it would be quite
something to see.

- Missed this in 2002 at Berkeley:
Cage’s “Marcel Duchamp, James Joyce,
Eric Satie: An Alphabet”

- Found the following on the Modern Word
website, an excellent Joyce site:

John Cage (1912-1992)
John Cage was an American composer who
forever changed the face of modern music.
A musical revolutionary, Cage believed,
among other things, that chance played
just as an important role in our life as design,
and that music was to be found everywhere
-- it was all in the ear of the beholder. His
music was iconoclastic, often difficult, always
surprising, and probed the limits of human
imagination and preconceptions.

"The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs" --
(1942) A song adapted from the "Isobel"
passage from Finnegans Wake.

Roaratorio -- (1979) This large and chaotic
work incorporates phrases from Finnegans
Wake into a tapestry of noise, voice, song,
and Irish traditional music.

Writing for the Second Time Through Finnegans
Wake -- (1979) The "libretto" of the above
work, Roaratorio. Spoken by John Cage.

Marcel Duchamp, James Joyce, Eric Satie:
An Alphabet -- (1982) A radio play featuring
James Joyce as a character.

"Nowth Upon Nacht" -- (1984) A song with
lyics directly adapted from Finnegans Wake.

On January 13, 1941, James Joyce died,
following an operation for a perforated
duodenal ulcer. Below are excerpts from
the NY Times obituary, or you can read
the whole thing here if you don’t mind
taking the time to register.

January 13, 1941
OBITUARY
James Joyce Dies; Wrote 'Ulysses'
By THE NEW YORK TIMES

The Associated Press
James Joyce, June 1939
URICH, Switzerland, Monday, Jan 13- James
Joyce, Irish author whose "Ulysses" was the
center of one of the most bitter literary
controversies of modern times, died in a
hospital here early today despite the efforts
of doctors to save him by blood transfusions.
He would have been 59 years old Feb. 2.

Joyce underwent an intestinal operation
Saturday afternoon at the Schwesternhaus
von Rotenkreuz Hospital. For a time he
appeared to be recovering. Only yesterday
his son reported him to have been cheerful
and apparently out of danger.

During the afternoon, however, the writer
suffered a sudden relapse and sank rapidly.
He died at 2:15 A.M. (8:15 P.M., Eastern
Standard time).

His wife and son were at the hospital when
he died..... (note: Nora & Stephen actually
arrived at the hospital after Joyce died.
He died alone.)

.....Was Born in Dublin

The writer was born Feb. 2, 1882, in Dublin,
Ireland, the son of John Stanislaus Joyce
(The Simon Dedalus of "Ulysses" whom Bloom
hears singing in the Ormond bar) and Mary
Murray Joyce. His father supposedly had one
of the finest tenor voices in Ireland. James
Joyce had an equally fine voice.....

Below is a beautiful painting of Joyce by
Pedro Mozsi, a Czech Romany Gypsy
now living and working as a painter and
illustrator in Broome. You can read his
James Joyce story here.

FOR SALE - My copy of A James Joyce Yearbook,
edited and with a foreword by Maria Jolas, Paris
Transition Press 1949. In fine condition with
original glassine wrappers. First edition, limited
to 1000 numbered copies only. Illustrated with
photographs and manuscript facsimiles, errata
slip bound in rear. Currently, another copy of
this book is being offered by Buddenbrooks for
$800.

Hate to let it go but economic circumstances
make it necessary - to a good home only.

Use the email link above to contact me if
interested. Here’s more information, gathered
from the internet:

A James Joyce Yearbook

Scarce, especially with the original publisher's
glassine wrapper. Despite the ambitious title of
"Yearbook," this was the only issue ever
published. Includes Stuart Gilbert's article,
"Sketch of a Scenario of Anna Livia Plurabelle,"
as well as articles such as "Last Meeting with
Joyce" by Heinrich Straumann, "In Memory of
Joyce" by Paul Léon, "Recollections of James
Joyce" by Phillipe Soupault, "The Finn Cycle" by
Clémence Ramnoux, and others.

-----

And more here:
In 1949, Maria Jolas and her Transition
Press published an extraordinary book called
the James Joyce Yearbook. History buffs and
Paris expat enthusiasts instantly acknowledge
the role that "transition" contributed to 20th
Century literature.

Hermione Lee reviews Carol Loeb Schloss’s
new book about Lucia Joyce here.

Here’s an excerpt from this interesting
review - two actually:

“ 'Lucia Joyce': No She Said No” :

“I quote so much because this sort of fervid
glop is served up on many pages. It is a
rhetoric that damages the book's credibility,
making it read more like an exercise in wish
fulfillment than a biography.......

......The best feature of Shloss's book is its
vivid, informed description of these experi-
mental dance groups in 1920's Europe, and
her account of how Lucia came into contact
with modernism and surrealism while her
father was writing the ''Wake.''

I did NOT get this book for Christmas, should
anyone be wondering.

The Punishment Book at Clongowes was
where the Jesuits kept track of all the
pandyings and other punishments meted
out to students. Bruce Bradley, author of
James Joyce’s Schooldays, searched through
Clongowes archives and found the Punishment
Book for the 1880s. Three pandyings of James
Joyce are listed including one on the 14th of
March 1889, when Joyce received four strokes
for the rare offense of “vulgar language”.
Joyce was seven years old.

Christmastime - A good time to cover the dinner
scene in Portrait or The Dead, but I imagine
if you’re reading this blog you know all about
both of those Christmas’s.

So here’s a piece of trivia:
James Joyce met Oliver St John Gogarty
on Dec 24th in 1902.

You can find a photo of Gogarty (aka Buck
Mulligan) here.

My opinion of Gogarty changed after I found out
about his involvement with Michael Collins. More
about this in my July 28th entry.

I found this quote here.

"The only demand I make of my reader," Joyce
once told an interviewer, "is that he should
devote his whole life to reading my works."

sorry for not posting.
down with the flu...
way down

Joyce's Places

Jorn Barger has a wonderful page on all
the places Joyce lived, with a numbered
map and information such as:

“Primary cities: Dublin (1882-1902), Paris
(1902-03), Dublin (1903-04), Pola (1904-05),
Trieste (1905-06), Rome (1906-07), Trieste
(1907-15), Zurich (1915-19), Trieste (1919-20),
Paris (1920-1939), Zurich (1940-41)”

And this generalization:

“- Youth (1882-1904): Ireland, with rare jaunts.
- Impoverished exile (1904-20): centers on
northern Italy
- Wealthy exile (1920-31): centers on northern
France and London
- Depressed exile (1932-41): centers on
Switzerland”

That Jorn Barger; what would we do without him? See
the whole lovely thing here.

In Finnegans Wake, the number 1132 appears
in each chapter in one way or another. In his
“Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake”, Campbell
attributes the use of this number as follows:
the number of the fall is 32 (The law of falling
bodies=32 feet per second); the number 11
represents renewal and redemption.

Later, Campbell changed his mind. While reading
Romans, he came across a verse that epitomized
what he felt Joyce had in mind in Finnegans Wake:
“For God has consigned all men to disobedience,
that he may show his mercy to all”. Campbell
thought - Oh I must write this down, this is
exactly what Joyce was talking about- and write
down “Romans, Chapter 11, verse 32”. Then it hit
him. He subsequently believed that Joyce had this
chapter/verse in mind when he worked 1132 into
Finnegans Wake.

In Berkeley for Thanksgiving, I stopped by
Shakespeare and Co this morning. Lovely
store. The bookseller on duty saw me looking
at the Joyce section and had a few extra
Joyce books lined up for me at the counter
when I went to pay for my purchases. He
also asked me if I’d be in Dublin next June.
Yep, I told him. He’s going too. I think it will
be very crowded week in Dublin. .

It was nice to meet a kindred spirit.
Shakespeare and Company is located on
Telegraph a few blocks from campus.
Kitty-corner to Shakespeare & Co is Cody’s
Books. I highly recommend them both.

The Guardian has a new article out on Sean
Walsh’s film Bl.,m (pronounced Bloom).
There’s an excerpt below or you can check
out the entire article here.

“...The film is faithful to the text but does
not treat it as sacred. Molly's famous closing
and climaxing soliloquy, for example, is
used to open the film and frame the action.
The plot, as much as one exists, remains
largely intact, although there are no scenes
of Bloom at the newspaper office, where he
works as a canvasser for advertisements.
Dialogue is drawn directly from the novel,
and the internal thought processes of the
three central characters are presented as
voiceovers. Walsh says his overriding
intention was to make the film work as a
story, to be at once intelligent and accessible."

Whoops! The NY Times artcle is Members only.
You can try this site for Kenner information
if you don’t want to hassle with the Times.

“Hugh Kenner, the critic, author and professor
of literature regarded as America's foremost
commentator on literary modernism, especially
the work of Ezra Pound and James Joyce, died
yesterday at his home in Athens, Ga. He was 80.”

The above was excerpted from the NY Times.
See the whole article here

I received an email from some anonymous
person who thinks I have money. I don’t,
but some of you might so I am passing this
information on:

“..... the forthcoming auction of the Alfred T.
Cowie Collection of James Joyce books, one
of the most comprehensive Joyce collections
to ever come on to the open market, will take
place on Dec 11th.

Highlights include:

* Pomes Penyeach (1932), one of twenty-
five copies, signed by Joyce
* Portrait of the Artist (1917), 1st UK edition
in the exceptionally rare dust wrapper
* Ulysses, numerous important editions
including 1st Paris and London editions, plus
illustrated editions signed by Joyce and Matisse
* Signed limited editions of Mime of Mick and
the Maggies, Haveth Childers Everywhere, etc.
* Two Essays (1901), fine copy of Joyce's first
printed book....”

More info here .

The first Frenchman to purchase a copy
of Ulysses was Andre Gide. (Actually, by
purchase, I mean fill in an order blank at
Shakespeare and Co to receive a copy of
the book when it arrived. ) The first
American: Ernest Hemingway, one of
Sylvia Beach’s best customers. Later
that same day, Ezra Pound personally
delivered a subscription blank filled in by
W.B. Yeats and put in his order.

Imagine Andre Gide, Ernest Hemingway
and Ezra Pound all coming in your book-
store on the same day. That’s what I call
a good day at work.

Have just started to read “Girls Lean Back
Everywhere” by Edward de Grazia and
have a couple of nice quotes to share
with you. Ezra Pound referred to the last
chapter of Ulysses as “Joyce’s Mollylogue”.

T.S. Eliot agreed with Pound that it was
one of the best things Joyce had ever done
and wondered how anyone could ever write
again “after the immense prodigy of that
last chapter”. Eliot also said, “I wish, for my
sake, that I had not read it.”

John Nolan has a new art exhibit in Dublin.
It’s entitled “Journey Into The Abstract" and
runs until 2004-02-28 at the Westin Hotel
in Dublin.

John Nolan is well known in Ireland for his
portrait of James Joyce which covers the
facade of no. 15 Ushers Island, Dublin City -
The Joyce House.

Here's an interesting comment about Joyce's sense
of Irishness from a 1997 Joyce list entry by Matt B.

"M. G. wrote:

> Joyce himself, however, as I understand it,
>always regarded himself as British.

Matt B responded:
... Joyce was very much anti-British in political outlook.
While his own sense of Irishness has always been a
touchy issue(what with his shouts of Erin go Bragh
after the Brits agreed to partition on one hand
and then his 'let my country die for me' attitude in
dichotomy), but JJ also supported the Sinn Féin
party in its infancy--even anachronistically including
it in CYCLOPS a year before its founding. Of course,
Griffith's anti-semitism and Catholicism would have
forbidden the dealings with a freemason jew like
Bloom, but that's just nitpicking, isn't it. Anyway,
no more time; but JJ was definitely not a man who
considered himself British--of course, like Bloom et
al, he did carry a passport that stated that he was
a member of the Empire on which the unfortunate
yahoos believed the sun never set upon, but
considered the cause of Irish independence from
Brittainia a worthy endeavor--just not the way
Cusack, Pearse, and the rest threw violence into
the mix. .....Slan go fill, "

The past few days have been so eventful that I
haven't read or thought much about James Joyce,
until today and today he's occupied my thoughts
a lot. Thoughts like: "in 13 days I'll be unemployed;
that's not so bad, James Joyce was unemployed
most of his life" and thoughts like "I'll be able to sit
in a cafe and write, despite money worries - just like
James Joyce"

Yes, I'm soon to be completely unemployed. scary.
And tomorrow's my birthday. Damn. I'll have a
better post for you tomorrow.

One good piece of news: the little caterer's down
the street offer a small variety of dinners four
days a week that one can pick up and take home.
This week they are offering Irish Stew. Won't that
make a nice dinner tomorrow night...

The Audio version of Finnegans Wake
is now out. Five hours and twelve
minutes long, the audio book is put
out by Naxos, a company which usually
puts out music cds, making it an
appropriate choice for this undertaking.

The Guardian printed a review of the new
audio book yesterday. Here’s an excerpt:

This is the perfect way, possibly the only
way, of swallowing the Joycean pill pain-
lessly, thanks largely to the exuberance,
the humour, the sheer brilliance of Jim
Norton's reading ...... Forget the plot (there
isn't one), and abandon yourself to the
fluency and sheer musicality of the writing.
To celebrate the centenary of Bloomsday
next year, Norton is reading Ulysses, all 25
hours of it, for Naxos. This is the perfect
aperitif.

The Literary Traveler has a nice article on their site
entitled A Portrait of the Artist in Trieste. Here's
an excerpt:

" 'Where did Joyce live?' I idly asked a clerk in the
tourist office, and suddenly she came to life.
'He lived all over, the clerk said, laughing. Joyce
moved constantly, whenever the rent was due.'
She spoke as though he were a current city
character and handed me a slip of paper with
a phone number. 'Ask this man about him.' "

- - - - -

You may have noticed my posting has become
more sporadic. I place the blame squarely on
my newly expanded job. I think they should enact
labor laws against working 40 hours a week.
Still - if you look at the top of the sidebar to
the right of this blog - you'll notice my empty
Bloomsday or bust fund. As I mentioned earlier,
I'm presenting at Bloomsday 100 in Dublin next
June, that is, if my money saving skills improve.
And that's why I have increased my hours at
work.

I'm hoping that having the amount of savings
posted publically will embarrass me into doing
a better job at socking away $2000 for the trip.

In the Odyssey, Ulysses comes home to his
faithful friend and companion Argos:

"...Soon as he perceived
Long-lost Ulysses nigh, down fell his
ears
Clapped close, and with his tall glad
sign he gave
Of gratulation, impotent to rise,
And to approach his master as of old.
Ulysses, noting him, wiped off a tear
Unmarked.
...Then his destiny released
Old Argus, soon as he had lived to see
Ulysses in the twentieth year restored."

James Joyce, who was afraid of dogs, portrays
a different sort of dog in Ulysses. In the Cyclops
chapter there is a dog in the pub, but it isn't a
friendly relaxed dog as one would expect of a pub
pup. The Dog, named Garryowen, has a personality
similar to the Citizen, who has brought him to
Kiernan's pub. Both the Citizen and Garryowen
dislike Bloom.

Here's a thought-provoking quote which Ellman
attributes to James Joyce, speaking to Stannie in
1904:

"Do you see that man who has just skipped out
of the way of the tram? Consider, if he had been
run over, how significant every act of his would
at once become. I don't mean for the police
inspector. I mean for anybody who knew him.
And his thoughts, for anybody that could know
them. It is my idea of the significance of trivial
things that I want to give the two or three
unfortunate wretches who may eventually read
me."

The deadline for abstracts for the 2004 International
James Joyce Symposium has been extended to Dec
31st, 2003. Go here for more information.

The Oregonian recently wrote a review or a
new book by J.M. Coetzee about Elisabeth Costello
who I have mentioned before in this blog.

"Elizabeth Costello is an elderly Australian author,
sort of a one-hit-wonder famous for her fourth
novel starring Molly Bloom, a character plucked from
James Joyce's "Ulysses." Despite her age, she still
has somewhat of a following; she continues to win
awards and garner invitations to speak. "Elizabeth
Costello" is structured in eight "lessons" - each
chapter organized around a formal address, each
an examination of what happens to this writer when
she must venture out into the world."

I haven't been able to locate Costello's book anywhere.
Anyone out there know of it?

The Christian Science Monitor had a story
yesterday on the difficulties with creating a
democracy in Iraq. The story quotes Ms. Siham
Hittab "who teaches James Joyce at Baghdad
University" !

".... developing the skills to make democracy
work will take time. She compares the process
to working with students on Joyce's famously
impenetrable texts. 'We need time. This is a new
life, and every day we're learning something new.
Frankly, it's easier teaching "Portrait of the Artist"
than getting everyone to understand what we're
doing.'

This past Bloomsday our local men's choir
(The Celtic Knights of the Sea Mens Choir)
sang Toot Toot Tootsie, written by Gus Kahn
in 1922. Toot, toot tootsie has only a quick
reference in FW - a mere stutter, but what
a great song to perform. Here are the lyrics
as they were originally written:

Toot-toot-tootsie goodbye
Little Momma, don't cry
That choo-choo train that takes me
Away from you
Ah woman, no words can make me
Kiss her for me, tootsie, and then
I wished you’d do it again,

Watch for the mail
I ain’t gonna fail
If you don't get a letter
Then you'll know I'm in jail
Tootsie, tootsie goodbye
Honey, Momma, don't cry
Take it, son!
I’m singin’, tootsie, tootsie, goodbye
Honey, please don’t cry
That old choo-choo train that takes me
Away from you, no words can ever make me
Kiss me, tootsie, and then
I wish you’d do it over again

Watch for the mail
Killer won’t gonna fail
If you don't get a letter
Then you'll know I'm in jail
Tootsie, tootsie goodbye
Honey, Baby, don't cry
You better watch for the mail
Jerry Lee won’t fail
Tootsie, tootsie goodbye
Good-lookin’ woman, don't cry
Play your accordion, killer!

About five years ago, we had an interesting
professor from China speak at our local
Bloomsday event. His name was Ay Ping
(pardon my spelling) and he talked about the
difficulties that arose when Ulysses was
translated into Chinese. There were a few
words that the Chinese just didn't have a
translation for; one of these was the word
come - as in to have an orgasm.

Since then I've wondered how the Chinese
discuss things like coming. If anyone knows,
send me an email.

Off to my second week of working 40 hours a week.
All part of my make-enough-money-to-go-to-
Bloomsday100-in-Dublin campaign. In case you
missed my post of a few weeks ago, I have been
asked to present at the conference (Yippee!) .
So I'll be making my posts in the evening from now
on, California time. Wish me luck and perseverence.

Reading up a little on Lucia. I've been wondering
about her dancing career and what to make of
the descriptions I've read most of which make her
sound like a unique dancer, but no one comes
right out and calls her good or bad. There's "vigne
sauvage" (wild vine) and "prétesse primitive"
(primitive something) so I imagine she was creative
and uninhibited. Hope to find out more when I
purchase the new book on Lucia (see sidebar).

I wonder which is worse: having a mentally ill child
or having a drug-abusing child, which makes him
act like he's mentally ill...

Here's a great site for learning more about Lucia
with a biographical timeline.

British Public Shuns James Joyce

The British public recently voted on the greatest works
ever written and apparently, James Joyce isn't up to
snuff.

According to the London Telegraph, "The list of favourite
titles includes works by Charles Dickens, George Orwell
and Charlotte and Emily Bronte, as well as contemporary
authors such as J. K. Rowling and Philip Pullman. Among
those omitted are literary greats including Thomas Hardy
and James Joyce, and foreign novelists such as Gustave
Flaubert and Victor Hugo, whose masterpieces were also
eligible for the list, having been translated into English."

You can read more about it here.

Davy Byrne's Irish Writing Award, was recently
announced. The competition is for is for stories
of up to 5,000 words and is being is being run
in association with the James Joyce Centre and
The Irish Times newspaper.Total prize money on
offer is €25,000, of which €20,000 will go to the
first prize winner.

"‘Davy Byrnes has always been proud of its
association with the most famous Irish novel of
the 20th century. The Davy Byrnes Irish Writing
Award is, for the centenary of Bloomsday, our way
of encouraging new Irish writing,’ said Redmond
Doran of Davy Byrnes."

Yanks need not apply.

You can find more information here.

James Joyce began attending Clongowes
at an extremely young age. It would be
unthinkable these days to send a child off
to boarding school at six years of age, or
as a young Joyce put it on his first day of
school when asked his age “half past six”.

He got advice from both parents upon leaving.
From his mother : Stay away from the rough
boys. From his father: Never peach (tattle) on
another boy. As the youngest boy at the school,
James Joyce was allowed to live in the infirmary
instead of the dormitory so that the nurse,
Nanny Galvin, could look after him.

There must have been a few months of crying
for his mother at night, but his adjustment
period was apparently over within the first six
months.

Happy Birthday Oscar!!

Here’s an excerpt from Ellman’s Joyce
bio regarding OW, pg 283:

“Joyce had been interested in Wilde for a
long time....”. He saw in Wilde “something
of what he was coming to regard as his
own personality, the miserable man who
sings of joy.”

Other related facts:

Joyce wrote an article about Wilde for the
Piccolo della Sera on March 24, 1909.

Joyce read The Portrait of Dorian Gray (in
Italian) in 1906 and complained that Wilde
had veiled the homosexual aspects of the
book.

In 1918, Joyce started a theatre troupe with
Claud Sykes. They chose The Importance of
Being Earnest for their first play. (The play
featured notorious prig Henry Carr who
caused a fuss after the play’s run was over).
At the intermission of a performance when
Joyce was being publicly congratulated,
followed by audience applause, Joyce yelled,
“Hurrah for Ireland! Poor Wilde was Irish and
so am I!”

I'm trying to dig up information on Joyce and Wilde.
I know Joyce was influenced by Wilde but I want details.
Joyce was in his teens when Oscar Wilde was sentenced
to two years hard labor; how could he not be influenced
by him. So I'm off to find out more and will present what
I find out in tomorrow's post (tomorrow is the anniver-
sary of Oscar Wilde's birth).

For now here's a Wilde quote which I'm sure Joyce
appreciated:

"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral
book. Books are well written or badly written. That
is all".

The cover for the first edition of Ulysses was
printed in blue and white, something Joyce
insisted on. The color is a blue with a slight
greenish tinge and white lettering to suggest
both the ocean and the colors of the Greek
flag. I haven’t seen an actual copy, just a
copy of a copy in a rare books catalog.

Bloom’s Soliloquy

So everyone knows about Molly’s soliloquy.
Especially the ending when she remembers an
important afternoon on Howth Head with Bloom.
That’s as it should be. Not as many people know
that Bloom also has strong memories of that day,
found on page 144 of Ulysses and excerpted
below. I remember being so pleased when I first
read this part of Ulysses, that the afternoon on
Howth would have impacted Bloom as strongly
as it did Molly (maybe more).

“.......Ravished over her I lay, full lips full open,
kissed her mouth. Yum. Softly she gave me in
my mouth the seedcake warm and chewed.
Mawkish pulp her mouth had mumbled
sweetsour of her spittle. Joy: I ate it: joy. Young
life, her lips that gave me pouting. Soft warm
sticky gumjelly lips. Flowers her eyes were, take
me, willing eyes.....Screened under ferns she
laughed warmfolded......Wildly I lay on her,
kissed her: eyes, her lips, her stretched neck
beating, woman’s breasts full in her blouse of
nun’s veiling, fat nipples upright. Hot I tongued
her......She kissed me. I was kissed. All yielding
she tossed my hair. Kisses, she kissed me.”

I'm in a pissy-ass mood. Almost quit my job
this morning. I hate working. I hate that I have
to keep this job to make rent and pay for a car
and damn food for my family and dogs. I have no
time for writing and when I do get a little time, I'm
so overwhelmed by all the things I need to do that
I sometimes just sit and do nothing, not even think.
I haven't published anything for months and haven't
worked on my book for weeks. Disgusting

But I can't quit right now. Bloomsday100 registration
is due next month. (Does one have to pay for registra-
tion if they are presenting? Probably yes) And after I
come up with the money for registration I have to save
for going to the conference in June. I figure 1000 for
air fare and 1000 to get me through the 7-10
days there. So far I have saved zip.zero.zello.

But enough about my bad mood. Here's a Joyce tidbit
for you, put together last night when I was in a much
better mood:

Naxos has taken on the Herculean task of
producing an audio recording of the entire
text of Ulysses. Read about it here or check
out the excerpt below:

"...But help is at hand for those afflicted with
guilt at not ploughing through to the ecstatic
end of Molly Bloom's 65-page soliloquy. If they
cannot get round to reading the book they can
now have someone read it to them. Bargain record
label Naxos has recorded Ulysses on 23 CDs, which
will be issued next year in time for the 100th
anniversary of the original "Bloomsday", June 16,
1904. Listening to the set will take about as long
as Leopold Bloom's day."

Christian Crumlish has a well thought
out article on blogging for non-profits
which might be of interest to some of
you. I work at two non-profits: one radio
station and one social service agency,
both of which could benefit from a blog.
Arts organizations should climb on board
the blogging train too. I'd love it if there
was a blog for Bloomsday 100.

Fireland held a sexiest sentence alive
contest and welcomed submissions. They put
together an interesting formula to judge the
sentences that was proven wrong by the
unsexiness of the winning sentence. One
person entered this Joyce sentence from
the Dead:

"His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow
falling faintly through the universe and faintly
falling, like the descent of their last end, upon
all the living and the dead."

A famous sentence, a beautiful sentence, but
sexy? The possibilities in Ulysses are many,
but even sticking to Dubliners one can find
sexier sentences than the Dead entry.

How about this from Araby:

" I had never spoken to her, except for
a few casual words. and yet her name
was like a summons to all my foolish
blood."

Larry Kirwin of Black 47 has a lovely
song on his solo album Kilroy Was Here.
It's called "Molly" and you can download it
here .

Kirwin is a huge Joyce fan and an all
around good guy. But I wish he'd never
visited Joyce's grave.

He details the experience on Black 47's
latest cd Trouble in the Land:

"I met a girl at the Kon Tiki
She was doin' the Mexican rumba
When I told her what was on my mind
She said 'no big deal, here's my number'
So I sat up on the bar of her bike
As she peddled to the cemetery
We drank Schnapps on James Joyce's grave
The next thing I know, the place is goin' insane
Three weeks later they threw me outta jail
But I got laid on James Joyce's grave
I can still feel the bruises
Lord have mercy on me"

Election day in my state and I find my
thoughts turning to becoming an expatriat.
But where to go? Trieste?
Paris ? Zurich? Would James Joyce have
chosen different cities if he had left
Dublin in 2004 instead of 1904? I never
realized what a risky step it was for him to
leave until I considered it myself today. I
don't see how I can leave. No money. But
he had no money and he left
anyway. Brave man.

James Joyce’s Favorite Comic Strip

Well, I suppose if Joyce were to be fond of
a comic strip Krazy kat would be the one he
would be drawn to. Krazy Kat ran from 1913
to the mid 40s. It is viewed as one
of the more poetic and inventive comic strips
ever to be written and featured a tragic love
triangle: Krazy Kat adores the mean spirited
Ignatz Mouse and Offissa Pupp loves Krazy
Kat. Krazy Kat was also admired by Picasso,
Hemingway and Kerouac.

Here’s a sample of the strip from 1922.

In an earlier post I took issue with Ellman’s
statement that Joyce had a weak tenor voice.
I’ve looked into that statement a little more
and believe the source to be James Joyce’s
aunt Mrs. Callanan who told Joyce even as a
child that he was “a weak tenor”.

The statement does not refer to the actual
strength of his tones but instead to his
range limits. After turning twenty, G was the
highest note Joyce could hit comfortably, or
with some work an A flat. (Most tenors can
hit a high C).

Note: Due to extended work hours (taken
on to help fund my trip to Bloomsday 100 in
Dublin) this blog will be switching from daily
posts to five days a week posting (M - F).

That Other Biography

I’m putting on a book sale/benefit this
weekend and have been working on it
all week. One of the books donated is
Herbert Gorman’s James Joyce, which
I already own but have not yet read. I’ve
heard varying opinions on it. Here’s one
from Staley’s Annotated Critical Biography
of James Joyce:

“Although Gorman’s work is not to be
discounted, it remains a biography
written by one loyal to the subject and
dependent upon him for access to
nearly all material...... Gorman had
both the advantages and disadvan-
tages of a close relationship with
Joyce and his book clearly reveals this..
... Gorman’s relationship with Joyce on
occasion was a detriment, for Joyce
actively interfered and at least once
exercised a veto over material to be
included.”

Happy October! I have great news. Great for me,
that is. I have been invited to speak at the
International James Joyce Symposium, aka
Bloomsday 100, next June. My topic of
presentation: New York State of Mind: James
Joyce and the Music of Tin Pan Alley.

I'm thrilled, thrilled I tell you.

Joyce’s Contributions to Physics

James Joyce is responsible for the quark.

Sort of. Actually, Murray Gell-Mann had a lot
to do with it too. Gell-Mann, an American
physicist, was born in 1929. He won the
Nobel Prize in 1969 for his study of sub-
atomic particles. He, along with his associate
George Zweig, was responsible for the quark
theory which hypothesized that quarks are
the smallest particles of matter (quarks
being particles that carry fractional internal
linkelectric charges. Or to be more precise:

“quark (kwôrk, kwärk) noun
Any of a group of hypothetical elementary
particles having electric charges of magnitude
one-third or two-thirds that of the electron,
regarded as constituents of all hadrons.”

Gell-Mann named the quark after a passage in
Finnegans Wake: “Three quarks for Master Mark,
Sure he hasn’t got much of a bark, And sure any
he has it’s beside the mark.”

Gell-Mann wrote of this in a private letter of June
27, 1978, to the editor of the Oxford English
Dictionary, which said that he had actually been
influenced by Joyce's word in naming the particle.

Literary Saloon mentions Tom Stoppard's play
The Coast of Utopia today. They have a nice little
info page on him here.

Stoppard wrote the play Travesties after
he discovered the interesting fact that Lenin,
James Joyce and Tzara all lived in Zurich at
the same time.

I'm not sure where, why, or by whom
but Pirate Day was celebrated a week
or so ago. Someone brought James
Joyce into the festivities as seen here.

Age of Aquarius

I came across James Joyce's Natal Chart
on the internet. They use 6 am as the
time of birth, which is what astrologers
do if they don't have the birthtime. It
supposedly makes the chart less accurate
(ahem). I've looked in several sources and
can't find anything about what time of day
Joyce was born. If any of you know I'd
appreciate your emailing me. Here's a
breakdown of his planets:

Sun in Aquarius
Moon in Leo
Mars in Gemini
Venus in Aquarius
Mercury in Pisces
Jupiter in Taurus
Uranus in Virgo
Saturn in Taurus
Neptune in Taurus

I don't know a lot about astrology
but I believe Aquarius is known as
innovative and Taurus is stubborn.
Pisces is emotional & intuitive. Hmm.
There is a guy at the radio station
who is an astrologer. His show is right
before mine on Wednesdays. I'm going
to show this to him and see what he
thinks. Without telling him that it's
James Joyce. I'll let you know what he
says...