Bloomsday

Friday is Bloomsday, the anniversary of Leopold Bloom's oddyssey through the streets of Dublin celebrated in James Joyce's Ulysses. The book was set in 1904, so that makes this the 102nd anniversary. In case you don't want to reread the whole book to mark the date (and perhaps can't quite remember all the details), the BBC put up this helpful chapter-by-chapter summary a couple of years ago for the centenary. (The book itself, which is both officially and casually referred to as the greatest novel of the twentieth century--and although Proust could give it a run for its money, there's almost no argument that it's not the century's greatest English-language novel, even if Tolkien did top one poll--was published in 1922). I was also going to link to a clever minicomic adaptation David Lasky put together a while back, because I'm certain somebody had it online during the 100th anniversary (unless it was a whole other mini- or webcomic adaptation), but after quite some time of searching, I could only come up with this excerpt on Lasky's own site.

If you're in Chicago, you can commemorate the occasion at the Rattlin’ of the Joists at the Irish American Heritage Center, which will not only include readings of Ulysses but also performances and music from Joyce's life and other works. If you want to stick just to Ulysses, you can visit the Red Lion Pub (who seem to have allowed their domain name to lapse). If you're more the stay-at-home type, listen to Kate Bush's "The Sensual World." Of course, you could always rip it to your iPod and wander around Chicago all day thinking impure thoughts about Leopold Bloom's wife.

But if you want to somehow do something to note the day without delving into Ulysses (or James Joyce) itself, Irish American News also lists a Friday performance of Diner Tales by Tim Joyce at the Raven Theatre. I don't know whether or not the playwright is any relation to the author or not, so be sure to ask him if you see him at the performance. Or, if you'd rather avoid the novel, as well as all things Irish in the first place, the Irish American News listing also features a listing for a performance of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs. No, I don't know why.