Radio Bloomsday 2012

On Saturday, June 16, Radio Bloomsday, Pacifica Radio's annual marathon celebration of James Joyce and his masterpiece, "Ulysses", airs on WBAI/NY (99.5 FM, www.wbai.org), KPFK/LA (90.7, www.kpfk.org) and Santa Barbara (98.7), KPFA/Berkeley (live stream only atwww.kpfa.org) and other Pacifica affiliate stations for seven consecutive hours. From 7pm until the wee hours of the morning, hear artists interpret Joyce.

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With Steven Antonelli, Alec Baldwin, Aaron Beall, Justin Vivian Bond, Marie-Louise Bowe, Janet Coleman, Keith Connolly, Johnny Coughlin, Marion Cowings, Frank Delaney, Paul Dooley, Roma Downey, David Dozer, Michael Elias, Anne Enright, Jim Fletcher, Judy Graubart, Tony Hendra, Michael Laurence, Sondra Lee, John Lithgow, Simon Loekle, Mara McEwen, John Buffalo Mailer, Deb Margolin, Ralph Martin, Paul Muldoon, John O’Callahan, Bob Odenkirk, Jenny O’Hara, Angelica Page, Ailsa Prideaux-Mooney, Bernadette Quigley, Laura Ross, Wallace Shawn, T. Ryder Smith, Amy Stiller, Jerry Stiller, Tony Torn, Nick Ullett, Kate Valk, Fiona Walsh, Jamil Zakkai, and Zeroboy.

Radio Bloomsday is directed and dramaturged by Caraid O'Brien whose two and a half hour live monologue as "Penelope," or Molly Bloom, passionately concludes our show. The FCC requires that this speech which contains explicit sexual thoughts and language, be aired in the "safe harbor" of time,  after 10pm, when adults are anyway impelled to "put down" children. Then, get under the covers and stay tuned.

With special thanks to Larry Josephson and The Radio Foundation, Brian de Shazor and Mark Torres of The Pacifica Radio Archives, and Aaron Beall.  And to Jon Almeleh, Pacifica National Technical Director, Reggie Johnson, Production Engineer, David Dozer, Tony Ryan, and Max Schmid, Program Engineers, and Janet Coleman, Artistic Director. 

Let the countdown begin!

Radio Bloomsday 2012 goes live on Saturday, June 16th at 7pm in New York City on WBAI 99.5 FM and on KPFK 90.7 in Los Angeles.  You can also tune in online at wbai.org.  This years broadcast includes performances by Steven Antonelli, Aaron Beall, Marie-Louise Bowe, Justin Vivian Bond,  Janet Coleman, Keith Connelly, Johnny Coughlin, Marion Cowings, Frank Delaney,  Paul Dooley, Roma Downey, David Dozer, Michael Elias, Jim Fletcher, Judy Graubart, Michael Laurence, Sondra Lee, John Lithgow, Simon Loekle, John Buffalo Mailer,  John O’Callaghan, Bob Odenkirk, Jenny O’Hara, Tony Hendra, Deb Margolin, Ralph Martin, Mara McEwin, Angelica Page, Ailsa Prideaux-Mooney, Paul Muldoon, Laura Ross, Angelica Page, Bernadette Quigley, T. Ryder Smith, Amy Stiller, Jerry Stiller, Tony Torn, Nick Ullett, Kate Valk, Fiona Walsh, Jamil Zakai and Caraid O'Brien performing the complete 2 and a half hour Molly Bloom monologue live from the WBAI studios.  Stay Tuned for more details.

Happy Bloomsday Lovers!

In case, I don't get a chance to write before tonite, the great day is here at last! Listen to us beginning at 7pm EST on WBAI 99.5FM in New York City or online at wbai.org. Los Angelinos can hear us at 7pm their time on KPFK 90.7FM. If you are in New York City, The Hudson Yards Cafe is hosting a listening party at their bar on 10th avenue and 35th Street. All are welcome. The cast members will be hanging out there after they perform and Molly will shuffle in around 3am. Don't be blue mouldy, come listen with us!

One More Day til Bloomsday!

My bed is my office. I am still in my pajamas and my hair looks like a family of New York pigeons lives in it. Before I belt my jammies, thrown on a saucy pair of heels and run out the door to pick up my boy from preschool, I want to tell you how excited am I for the upcoming sonic explosion rushing our way. In addition to the incredible pre-records I have been mentioning all month, we have two dozen live performers throwing down throughout the broadcast.

Two fierce stage veterans Bernadette Quigley and Fiana Toibin open up our program by performing the first pages of the novel. Yes, a female Stephen Dedalus and Buck Mulligan will hit the airways in just over 24 hours. Bernadette has performed the Molly Bloom monologue at Symphony Space and Fiana was recently on Broadway with Vanessa Redgrave in A Long Day's Journey into Night. Irish actor Lawrence Lowry will be reading from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Comedienne Fiona Walsh performs the poetry of Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill. Jim Fletcher, who recently played the title role in the Elevator Repair Service's production of Gatz, performs John Milton. Ludlow street veterans and New York superstars Eco-Trippin's Corey Carthew (pictured above in orange) Faux Real Theater's Mark Greenfield, and Laura Barnett, Todo con Nada's Aaron Beall, Melanie Martinez, Anna Goodman-Herrick, The Treehouse Shaker's Mara McEwin and more perform from the Wandering Rocks episode of the novel. Irish writer Frank Delaney, author of the fantastic podcast Re:Joyce, does a Bloom monologue. Other fantastic live performers include Laura Ross, Barry Foley, Jimmy Reardon, and Routh Chadwick! Tune in LIVE tomorrow Thursday night from 7pm to 2am on WBAI, 99.5FM in NYC and on KPFK in Los Angeles. We will be live blogging the show. Send us notes and emails to radiobloomsday@gmail.com

2 days til Bloomsday!

We are all running around like chickens with our heads cut off here at Radio Bloomsday Central with only 55 hours left until we go live in New York City (LA will hear us on a 2 hour time delay). Yesterday, the superlative Alec Baldwin recorded Tennyson's poem Ulysses which will be our invocation to the gods at the top of the show on Thursday night. It's incredible. We've also received an amazing batch of recordings from the students at Belvedere College in Dublin. Lead by their teacher Louise Curtin, they recorded the complete Nestor episode of the novel which includes the classroom scene as Stephen Dedalus attempts to teach his students the poem Lycidas. Text monster Jim Fletcher then performs that John Milton poem. Belvedere College (pictured above) is of course James Joyce's high school. I was a student at Muckross Park, myself back in 80s with my old friends Louise Butterly and Helen O'Connell.

Colin Middleton, Beau Carley, Cian Buckely rehearse The Nestor episode

at Belvedere College, Dublin for Radio Bloomsday.

Hudson Yards Cafe on 10th avenue and 35th Street in NYC will be broadcasting the entire show. KPFK in Los Angeles will devote 2 hours in the afternoon to our upcoming evening broadcast of Radio Bloomsday. I leave you now with a promo from Alec Baldwin.

Radio Bloomsday Cast List!

Over sixty performers have collaborated with us this year to create the most sonically satisfying Radio Bloomsday ever. Join us on Thursday, June 16th at 7pm to hear (listed in alphabetical order) :

Alec Baldwin, Laura Barnett, Aaron Beall, Shawnee Benton-Gibson, Marie-Louise Bowe, Cian Buckley, Charles Busch, Beau Carley, Corey Carthew, Routh Chadwick Janet Coleman, Art Coyne, Louise Curtin, Michael Corcoran, Naoise Dack, Frank Delaney, Paul Dooley, Roma Downey, David Dozer, Kate Ellis, Anne Enright, Jim Fletcher, Finbar “Barry” Foley, Lucas Grange, Leo Hanna, Ryan Hargadon, Robbie Harris, Anna Goodman-Herrick, Mark Greenfield, Larry Josephson, Garrison Keillor, Owen Killian, Sam Killian, John Lithgow, Lawrence Lowry, Marc Maron, Melanie Martinez, Emer Mayock, Nick McDonell, Michael-David McKernan, Mara McEwin, Colin Middleton, Paul Muldoon, Caraid O’Brien, John O’Callaghan, Jimmy Reardon, Laura Ross, Bob Odenkirk, Nick Roth, Conor Ryan, Wallace Shawn, Marc Singer, T. Ryder Smith, Jerry Stiller, Tarab, Bernadette Quigley, Fiana Toibin, Francesco Turrisi, Kate Valk, Fiona Walsh and Zeroboy!

And of course are amazing production staff and engineers including Nellie Gilles, Robert Auld, Mark Torres, Jon Almehleh, Reggie Johnson, Max Shawn Rhodes, Max Schmid and Daniel Dunne.

3 days until Bloomsday!

We are still working away here at Radio Bloomsday Central, touching up the final rundown for the big show this Thursday night June 16 from 7pm to 2am. Let us know if you are planning any Bloomsday Listening Parties and we will send people your way. The Hudson Yards on 10th Avenue and 35th Street has said they would tune in at the bar. The photo above is of Radio Foundation Producer Larry Josephson (working on his thirtieth Bloomsday), producing staff Nellie Gilles, director Caraid O'Brien and the wonderful actor Jerry Stiller.