Lá Bhloom

Around the corner from Bloggy Manor sits the site of the final bricks and mortar incarnation of Bloomsday Books. Though the venerable institution lives on, on-line, the walk-in Bloomsday experience is no more. One of my favorite parts of that experience was the annual Bloomsday celebration that Tom and Nancy would hold there every June commemorating the wanderings around Dublin of James Joyce's renowned character Leopold Bloom in the novel Ulysses. Friends of Bloomsday the day and of Bloomsday the book store would gather, some in costume to eat drink, take turns in a marathon reading of the book and perform a play found in the novel's interior. Sadly, with the closing of the retail location of the shop, those days are gone.

Only they're not.

This coming Monday evening, June 16th the party is relocated to Raglan Road Irish Restaurant and Pub downtown in Kansas City's Power and Light district. It'll all be there -the acting, the drinking, the music- just like the old days at Bloomsday Books. Add Raglan's great Irish food and prizes for the best Bloomsday costumes (the story takes place in 1904. Dress appropriately), and you've got the day taken to whole new level. I'll be there, dressed as one of the lesser known characters in the book, Leopold's culchie cousin Bloggy Bloom. If you recognize me, be sure to say hello.

Raglan Road is at the corner of 14th and Grand across from the Sprint Center. 816-994-9700.