I'm describing my big Bloomsday Halifax project by writing up what I did for each episode. In this entry, I'm covering Episode 11 of "Ulysses": "Sirens".
Sirens takes place at The Ormond a bar and restaurant right on the Liffy river in downtown Dublin. As fits the name, this episode is built around the idea of music. The text is full of sound effects and references to music hall songs, and the text itself even cycles through narrative threads in a sort of counterpoint. Attractive barmaids stand in for the mythical temptresses, distracting patrons by musically snapping their garters. Stephen Dedalus' father Simon and some friends play piano and sing songs in a back room. Meanwhile Bloom glumly eats a steak and kidney pie, pondering that his wife and Blazes Boylan are probably consummating their affair at that very moment.
As music is the key theme in this episode, my first thought was to have this take place at The Carleton, a fabled Halifax music venue in one of the oldest buildings in the city. If I was the kind of person who was good at wrangling performance talent and organizing events, I could have maybe set up some kind of live music variety show at the Carleton, but I'm not that kind of person and I wouldn't have even known where to start. Maybe in a future Bloomsday. Also, more importantly they don't open until 4pm on Sunday, which would have it closed for a lot of the time people might be doing Bloomsday. Finally, I didn't really have any connections there, even just to put on a playlist.
Thankfully, there was a place that was open all day, would also be featuring live music, and which I knew much better: The Old Triangle.
The Old Triangle is the other notable Irish pub in downtown Halifax, besides Durty Nellys. The Old Triangle is so Irish that not only is it named after a Brendan Behan poem, but it's also the local Irish consulate. Obviously something Bloomsday related was going to be happening here!
I used to share an office right upstairs from the Old Triangle. My mailbox is in the post office right next door. Their "curry chips" are a favourite with my developer lunch colleagues. The Triangle frequently has a very tantalizing buck-a-shuck oyster happy hour on weekday afternoons. So yes, I have plenty reasons to go there even in normal times; but last fall when I decided to re-read Ulysses to prepare for Bloomsday, I decided that it would be appropriate to do so at the Triangle accompanied by a properly poured Guinness (or, depending on the day or how long the chapter was, Guinness 0.0%).
I was originally shy to broach the subject of Bloomsday to the staff, but once I finally did they were on board immediately. It turned out they were already going to have live "trad" music on Sunday afternoon, so that problem was solved. I remembered that their menu used to have steak and kidney pie, just like Bloom eats in the episode, but they admitted to me that it's difficult to reliably source kidney these days, besides not many people having a taste for it anymore. They do have a steak and mushroom pie, which is almost as authentic, not to mention more palatable.
I also sent them a design for their "malt printer" which can put any grey-scale image onto the foamy top of a well-poured Guinness. Instead of having to create a physical item to collect, I could have the Bloomsday spirit happen right on your beverage!
(It's a bit hard to see from the glare but it's a picture of a bowler hat. More experiments will need to be done to ensure the printing works better for next year's Bloomsday. It's tough work, but such is the cost of creation.)
The Triangle didn't end up having any special Bloomsday events on the Sunday, besides the appropriate menu items and the live music, which were happening anyhow. In fact, the more thoroughly on-theme Bloomsday event at the Triangle happened the day before, on Saturday the 15th. I had been contacted by Ann Cumann, the Irish Society of Nova Scotia to give a talk about this Bloomsday project upstairs in the Triangle's "An Seanchai" space.
(The general decor and the tin ceiling feel very appropriately 1904, though the LCD digital projector breaks the spell somewhat)
My talk was sandwiched between a trad fiddler and a fellow singing "Molly Malone" and songs about 1916 and the like, both really great. I had to confess that unlike what my name might suggest I'm not particularly Irish, but the audience seemed to like the talk, and enjoyed looking at the various printed objects I brought with me.
On Bloomsday itself, my time at the library had given me an appetite, so I enjoyed the live music from the crowded bar while partaking of the thematically-appropriate meat pie, accompanied by a Guinness and a heavily annotated early 90s edition of Ulysses from my undergrad days.
On my way in, I passed a big group of cruise ship tourists looking at the menu out front, and managed to convince them to come in. When they asked me what I was doing there with a backpack full of books and a preoccupied expression, I considered trying to quickly explain Bloomsday to a bunch of retirees from Cleveland–but I just said "well it's sort of an art thing. Anyhow, try the curry chips!" They found me a while later and told me that they did indeed enjoy the curry chips.
For the episode's background picture, I did a quick image search on the internet for a stylish light-haired young woman from the 1900s who could be a stand-in for one of the Siren-like barmaids, and found this friendly-looking Norwegian lady, whom I put into the downstairs bar of the Triangle.
