You still have about 15 hours to drop in on a marathon 30-hour reading of Ulysses at the Petworth Citizen and enjoy a coffee, a whiskey, or a bite with other Joyce fans on the 111th anniversary of the day Leopold Bloom wandered around Dublin. Who knows what other Ulysses fans you might run into?
Photo by Eve Arnold, from openculture.com.
| |
|
If you're looking for a literary way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day this weekend, Scena Theatre is staging readings of three plays by William Butler Yates on Sunday. Purgatory, At the Hawk's Well, and The Death of Cuchulain will be read at the H Street Playhouse at 7 pm. Tickets are $20. I've always liked Yeats, even if this photo, on a poster of Irish writers at Moran's, always reminded me of Dan Akroyd.
Now that I've low-browed Yeats, let me offer one of his best known poems:
The Second Coming
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
| |
|
In honor of Bloomsday, here's a photo (taken in 1999) of Davy Byrnes pub, Duke Street, Dublin, where on June 16, 1904, Leopold Bloom
entered Davy Byrne's. Moral pub. He doesn't chat. Stands a drink now and then. But in leapyear once in four. Cashed a cheque for me once.
(Quoted from the full text of Ulysses, at Project Gutenberg, which you can read online for free when you're, you know, bored at work.)
| |
|
This weekend is your last chance to see "TruthBeauty: Pictorialism and the Photograph as Art, 1845–1945," at the Phillips Collection in Dupont Circle. The exhibit closes this Sunday, January 9. The above photograph, "The Street -- Design for a Poster" by Alfred Stieglitz, seemed eerily familiar to me, as if I had been on the street when the photo was taken in 1896. On closer inspection, I realized a detail of the photo was used for the cover of Caleb Carr's 1995 novel, "The Alienist."
If you don't make it to the exhibit, you can visit the following weekend for the kick-off of the Phillips Collection's 90th anniversary celebration:
Free Weekend Open House (January 15 and 16)
The Phillips Collection kicks off the 90 Years of New anniversary year with a free weekend of activities, featuring the grand reopening of the newly renovated Phillips house, birthday cakes from some of D.C.'s finest pastry chefs, the opening of the Anniversary Reading Room, the debut of Howard Hodgkin's spectacular 20-foot-long etchings, As Time Goes By, and more. Fast-paced "relay tours" offer a choice of ten-minute talks at each of 90 works of art. Visitors may also enjoy a new "things to do in 90 minutes" self-guided tour or the Phillips's recently launched mobile app. Admission is free all weekend; the Sunday Concert has a discounted admission of $8.
| |
|
This is ridiculously late notice on my part, but if you're in NY (or taking the train up tomorrow morning with me) it's not too late to see three talented Irish writers read from their work at NYU's Glucksman Ireland House, tomorrow night (December 2) at 7 p.m. I've raved often about Claire Kilroy's books, including her latest, All Names Have Been Changed, about a group studying creative writing at Trinity College in the '80s. I absolutely loved Paul Murray's quirky and hilarious first novel, An Evening of Long Goodbyes, and I'm looking forward to three hours of uninterrupted Amtrak time to find out what happens at the Hallowe'en Hop at Seabrook College in his new novel, Skippy Dies, which has been long listed for the Man Booker Prize. Kevin Barry's debut book of short stories, There Are Little Kingdoms, received the 2007 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. I haven't read Barry's book yet, but that makes the event more fun. It's like tapas.
You can reserve a spot by calling 212-998-3950 (option 3) or emailing [email protected]. Those who aren't members of Ireland House can give a $10 donation at the door.
| |
|
Tomorrow's a good day to take the Metro to work --Solas Nua is handing out 10,000 free Irish books. You can find out at which Metro stations you'll have the luck of the Irish at Solas Nua's website. Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Photo from www.solasnua.org.
| |
|
Solas Nua, the Washington-based Irish arts organization, is holding their first Irish writers festival starting this Thursday, March 11, through Monday, March 15. Claire Kilroy, above, author of Tenderwire, All Names Have Been Changed, and All Summer, will appear Saturday, March 13, at 4 pm at the Mount Vernon Square Busboys & Poets. The only thing better than reading Claire's books is hearing her read from them. The full schedule is set out below; all events are free. What a great way to kick of St. Patrick's Week (why limit it to a day?).
Venues:
The Goethe Institut, 812 7th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001Photo from solasnua.org.
| |
|
It's been 105 years since Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom walked all over Dublin. You can follow in their footsteps tonight at a reading of Ulysses at Mackey's Pub in DC, starting at 6. The description at about.com says the event is sponsored by the Harvard Club of Washington DC and American Independent Writers, and promises:
Consider yourself warned. If you can't take the raucous assaults, you can take in the abbreviated version of Ulysses I wrote about a couple of years ago.
| |
|
Perhaps the only writer I've blogged about more often than Sebastian Barry is Claire Kilroy. Claire's new book, All Names Have Been Changed was released today -- but only in Europe. Here's the description from amazon:
My sister, mysterywriter, attended Trinity College with Claire, where they both received M. Phils in creative writing. No word yet on whether mysterywriter figures in the new book; I'll keep my eyes peeled for a mysterious American student with a keen eye for detail and a penchant for Irishmen in finance.
Catherine Heaney gave the book a rave review in the Irish Times, stating that "All Names Have Been Changed marks out Claire Kilroy as a novelist growing in confidence and hitting her artistic stride – gifted, original and more than capable of stepping up to the plate of literary tradition she so brilliantly portrays." An article in the Irish Tribune says:
I did not know Claire is friends with who I can only assume is Paul "An Evening of Long Goodbyes" Murray. I would be shy of him if I went to get my book signed by him. Note to self: Write a post about An Evening of Long Goodbyes. And note second degree of separation (or is that first?).
Those of us who live in the U.S. can't buy Claire's novel at this time, but if you live in Belfast or London (you know who you are!) check it out at your local bookstore, or order it from amazon.co.uk. And if you own an American publishing house: take note!
By the way, when I looked up All Names on amazon.co.uk for the link I provided above, it listed five books that customers also bought, including Sebastian Barry's The Secret Scripture. It's always nice to see a certain consistency in your literary taste.
| |
|
One of my very favorite authors is speaking tomorrow night at Politics & Prose. Sebastian Barry will read from his latest novel, The Secret Scripture, Monday, May 4, at 7 pm. I've written about him so many times in this space I should create a Sebastian Barry category. But I won't be there. I have Italian class tomorrow night. If it weren't at the opposite end of town I'd pull a Happy Days/Three's Company move where I bounce from one to the other, and wind up asking "do you expect Eneas McNulty to appear in any more novels?" at Casa Italiana and shouting out "pasta fazool!" at P&P.
I am sick about this.
Then again, maybe I should head up to New York to see him with mysterywriter at NYU's Ireland House on Tuesday at 7.
| |
|
Recent Comments