Eventful Weekend

Tomorrow is Bloomsday, the ridiculous ersatz holiday marking the day on which James Joyce's Ulysses is set. In spite of its absurdity , I do tend to mark it in some fashion more years than not. Usually not more than rereading a favorite passage or having a Guinness in the pub, sometimes I listen to Molly's soliloquy on the radio if it's on. This year Bloomsday falls on Shabbos and I've been pushing myself to be more social on Shabbos, so I'm hosting a Bloomsday lunch. Irish stew and some other recipes from the James Joyce cookbook, Guinness* and Jameson available for those who partake. It was a little limiting to try to find the recipes that were actually kosher, heh.

Mr. Deasy halted, breathing hard and swallowing his breath.

"- I just wanted to say," he said. "Ireland, they say, has the honour of being the only country which never persecuted the jews. Do you know that? No. And do you know why?"

He frowned sternly on the bright air.

"- Why sir?" Stephen asked, beginning to smile.

"- Because she never let them in," Mr. Deasy said solemnly.

A coughball of laughter leaped from his throat dragging after it a rattling chain of phlegm."

There's something really gratifying as a literature nerd about the existence of Bloomsday... It's a (more or less) socially acceptable holiday to just completely geek out over a book. I embrace it as much as possible. I'm looking forward to my Bloomsday lunch even though none of my guests have ever read the damned book. Maybe I will make converts.


*I was taught something valuable my junior year in college by a literature professor: Ulysses makes a lot more sense if you're drinking Guinness will reading it. That was my secret weapon to make it through Circe.


Today also marks the beginning of Vidukon, of which I am a supporting member for the first time. I'm looking forward to checking in on vidshows via the virtual con. As a supporting member, I got to submit a vid from my back catalog to their Vidder's Choice Show, and decided to go full-on troll. So tonight the attending members of Vidukon get to watch "You Suffer", my Hurtigruten Minutt for Minutt vid. Which is all of three seconds long. I hope that many people are pimped into Scandinavian slow television by it. Warning: Might Lead to Mixed Dancing is also playing as part of a vidshow on dance vids. I'm honored by that.


This weekend also marks the premiere's deadline for Vividcon. I submitted my premiere several weeks ago, so I am not frantic about that, but I started a second, short possible premiere that if I finish I will submit as my second choice- not guaranteed to play because of time, but it'd be a fun addition to the con. I'm nearly finished, and I will have thirdblindmouse over on Sunday for last minute vidding session before the deadline.