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.