Bonus Blog for Bloomsday!

But I would be incredibly remiss if I did not take a moment to wish into the world a Happy Bloomsday!

The events of the delightfully mind-cramping Ulysses take place on the 16th of June 1904, and fans of James Joyce have appropriately staked out this date to celebrate the author's life and work with readings, pub-crawls, parties and the like.

Here in New Orleans, the Bloomsday celebration is tonight at the Irish House. All attendees are invited to read at their pleasure. Some of my fellow denizens of the New Orleans Poetry Brothel will be performing Molly's erotic soliloquy from Ulysses, and it's sure to be a doozy. Nola.com did a short and sweet pre-write-up here if you're interested in more information.

I leave you with the closing lines of Ulysses. Say yes to the world.

I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another… then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.

Louisiana Cajun-Zydeco Music Festival

Aiyee! It's been something of a busy week for me, but I did get the chance to snag a few minutes on Sunday for my first visit to Armstrong Park for the Louisiana Cajun-Zydeco Music Festival.

I parked a few blocks down, and I could hear the music wafting out of the park and through the streets as soon as I got out of my car. Definitely put a little pep in my step for the walk, and set a good tone for the afternoon.

Here's just a few quick snaps from the day:

Cajun waltzing! I proudly texted my mother to inform her I was upholding our heritage by watching tipsy, sun-reddened folk weave around in 3/4 time. To which she responed, "You get out there and DANCE! It's in you, cher." 

After a short but determined bout of hands-on (feets-on?) experimentation, I had to concede that it may not, in fact, be in me. My appreciation for zesty fiddling, accordioning, and washboarding from that point on was limited to mostly keeping my feet on the ground and enthusiastically bob-nodding and swaying.

Also had my first softshell crab poboy. I devoured it in its entirety, which... is how it's supposed to be eaten. Logistically, not the easiest feat standing in a park with a single paper napkin . Snagged this from the Ninja booth, and though I wasn't expecting a sushi restaurant to be the one pushing out softshell crab poboys, I have to say they did a pretty fine job of it. Those dollops of spicy mayo on top made my afternoon.

Lessons and demonstration in basic Cajun two-step dancing. At which I also failed miserably.

"Awberry" would be the most adorable flavor, though.

Finished out the afternoon with some artisan popsicle from Meltdown. Decided on the lime ginger flavor, which won out over the salted caramel by only a narrow margin. That ginger really popped!

And just some good old fashioned mannequin heads on fence spikes to round off my walk to my car. 

Turned out to be quite a beautiful day after some ominous threats of rain. Not a bad way to kick off the week!