There are no Martello Towers here, but there are so many other ways you could celebrate Bloomsday today. You could eat a gorgonzola cheese sandwich. (I only recommend the accompanying glass of burgundy if you are not driving and not returning to work.) You could go to a funeral. (Although that seems sad.) You could eat a grilled kidney. (Although that seems disgusting.) You could go to the library. (A better idea.) You could take out an ad in the newspaper. (Best idea of all!)
You could blaze through James Joyce's "Ulysses" (which this day, June 16, honors--the day Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus criss-crossed Dublin) in comic-book form, which would allow you to keep up, in a casual sort of way, while your more literary friends are chatting. (And would help you understand all the references above.) Here's a good one.
You could listen to a recording of James Joyce reading from "Ulysses":
And tonight, you could head over to the University Club, 420 Summit Av., St. Paul, for the monthly Carol Connolly readings, which wind up tonight for the season. (The series will resume in September.) Tonight's reading has a vaguely Irish tinge to it, in honor of the occasion. Music (violinist Mary Scallen and flutist Jim Miler) begins at 7 p.m., with the readings to follow. Here's the lineup:
DAN SULLIVAN has written for the Red Wing Republican Eagle, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Minneapolis Tribune,The New York Times,The Los Angeles Times.
MADELON SPRENGNETHER poet, memoirist and literary critic. Her most recent books are Great River Road: Memoir and Memory and Near Solstice: Prose Poems.
FRANKLIN KNOLL, poet, served 10 years in the Minnesota House and Senate and 18 years as a trial judge in Hennepin County.His poems have twice been selected for inclusion in the Crossings At Carnegie Poet-Artist Collaboration.
EMILIE BUCHWALD taught writing poetry at the Loft in its early years. Her poems and stories have been published in Harper's, The American Scholar, Harper's Bazaar, The Kenyon Review, The Great River Review, and many other places. She was the co-founder/co-publisher of Milkweed Editions and is now publisher of the children's picture book press,The Gryphon Press.
JAMES CRNKOVICH specializes in social documentary.
MOLLY CULLIGAN, poet and actor, has been showcased in five one woman perfomances around the country and In Ireland. One was based on the work of the great poet Meridel LeSueur, another on the work of James Stephens.
