Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Happy Bloomsday!

Just a wee post, cannot say much, except to wish all a happy Bloomsday. Hoist a glass of yer favorite beverage and read some Joyce aloud.

3 comments:

Roderick Robinson said...

Just back from the Languedoc where the temperatures reduced the potable options to rosé and Leffe blonde, a superb Belgian beer. I didn't read it aloud but I did take Ulysses with me and I now realise that - willy nilly - I was immersing myself in its luxuries on Bloomsday. A veritable epiphany. Thanks for the reminder. On the long drive back the weather was cooler and I symbolically finished off the holiday after dinner with 1973 armagnacs all round. I'm sure the the Dedalus/Bloom duo would have approved.

Relucent Reader said...

Timing is all: watched a snippet (never seen all of it) of Master and Commander: Far Side of the World. Thought of you and your namesake. Did not know Billy Boyd played him, I guess coxswains can be slight, if they are efficient.
Tried reading one of O'Brian's titles, could not get into it. I enjoyed the Hornblower series when I was a Midshipman's age; as soon as my just ordered "Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea" arrives ( princely sum of $7.98 for a $41.00 new book, my Yankee side comin' out), I'll make another run on the series.
Never have been to France, would love to some time, tho the Missus is less enthusiastic about the prospect. In this land of 3.2 beer, Belgian beer is a treat: I am allowed 1 alcoholic drink, and enjoy a good beer. I take notes on your wine suggestions, as I know nothing of wine;I do enjoy a glass of the liquid sunshine.
Some passages in Ulysses lend themselves to reading aloud, and at least in Boston it was a bit of a tradition on The Day.I once recommended to one of my booktalkers to try reading Chapter 7 of Kidnapped (not much dialect for Americans to trip over) aloud to a class; I was a big fan of reading aloud when I had the breath. Used to do it weekly for my captive audience at the Juvenile detention center.
Glad to have you back, missed your poems and prose.

Roderick Robinson said...

Wow! There's so much important stuff in your comment that I am having to shelve my proposed post and devote a replacement entirely to answering the points you raise. You may even compel me to exceed my self-imposed 300-word limit. But first I must clean the inside of the car, mucked up by that same dipstick-interested grandson during the two 800-mile journeys that bracketed the holiday.