Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Bloomsday

When I lived in New York City, today (June 16th) was a good day to go to the Symphony Space at what? 95th? and Broadway. Any number of people there, some of them famous, would read from James Joyce's "Ulysses". All day and late into the night.

Other folks used to read sections all night on WBAI it would end around 2 o'clock in the morning with Molly's soliloquy - at 8 sentences long it comprises the last chapter of the book and has exactly two punctuation marks it's about 90 pages long and "...I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes. "

It's not at really that special of a day today, it's kind of an ordinary, regular day.

It's a good day to go for a long walk through and around your own town.

It's a good day to stop at the local pub for a gorgonzola cheese sandwich and a glass of wine.
                                                                      


And it's a good day to howl the eternal yes.


 
 
(above left - young James Joyce)
(above center - Davy Byrnes, a moral pub)
(below - Stephen Colbert as Leo at Symphony Space)


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