Two events were happening simultaneously on opposite sides of town, both celebrating the birthday of James Joyce. I had to choose between going to Jack Hirschman’s Readers Cafe at Fort Mason, or join a group plow-through of Finnegans Wake at a friend’s home. I went to Fort Mason, where Hirschman featured Jack and Adelle Foley paying tribute to “Germ’s Choice”.
Joyce’s river in Finnegans Wake morphed into two magma lavas. They flowed side by side in discordant tempos and when they pinged, syllables bounced off in all directions, stinging the listeners, confusing their ears, jamming their computation demanding total surrender to the voices, words, chorus (of two, if you are counting bodies). Then all of a sudden, when their multi-rhythms began to take over the room, they stopped.
The lavas mutated back into the river, Bussoftlhee, mememormee! Till thousendsthee. Lps. The keys to. Given! A way a lone a last a loved along the
Photo by Rhy Tranter.
