Marshall McLuhan/Finnegans Wake Reading Club by Gerry Fialka
Marshall McLuhan/Finnegans Wake Reading Club (aka Venice Wake) celebrates our longevity and the 2023–2024 press coverage with a special event. Details included here, followed by links to the all the newspaper, radio, tv stories. AND MUCH MORE ESSENTIAL INFO. James Joyce was born Feb 2, 1882. Let them eat Wake!
For Immediate Release
Contact: Peter Coogan, 310–963–4880 text-1st
E-mail: peter.coogan@gmail.com
Book club founder Gerry Fialka: pfsuzy@aol.com
28-Year Book Club Conquers Literary Everest
Gains National Attention
Press Event: Reunion Party is Set for Friday, February 2, 2024, Venice, CA, on the birthday of James Joyce
Jan. 12, 2024 — (Venice Beach, CA) For many, reading Finnegan’s Wake would be a daunting undertaking. But after 28 years of perseverance, Marshall McLuhan/Finnegans Wake Reading Club (a.k.a Venice Wake) in Venice Beach has finally reached the last page of James Joyce’s infamous and widely considered unreadable novel. It took 28 years to read a novel that Joyce took 17 years to write!
Location:
Venice — Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library
501 S. Venice Blvd. Venice, CA 90291
https://www.lapl.org/branches/venice
We invite you to celebrate community & literature evoked by this line written by James Joyce from Finnegans Wake (p.154): “Let me be Los Angeles.”
The book group will begin again on Friday, February 2, at 1:00 P.M., Photo opportunity:
Book club founder Gerry Fialka (Wikipedia) will read aloud the last and first lines of “Finnegans Wake” Restarting the book where he began his book club 28 years ago beginning mid-sentence:
“ riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend
of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to
Howth Castle and Environs.”
Available for Reporters/Editors:
Photos and press-ready still images= https://laughtears.com/hi-res-pics.html
Archival Video Footage of the ‘Finnegan Wake’ book club in action on YouTube (Courtesy of book-club member Duncan Echleson):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o_s2m-oUlE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa-xa8fLy2Y&t=28s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM5lOcpzLQM&t=19s
To learn more about the Marshall McLuhan/Finnegans Wake Reading Club (a.k.a Venice Wake), visit https://LaughTears.com/McLuhanWake.html
“Fialka brings his distinctive approach. My phone interview with him lasted one hour and eight minutes, and its zigs, zags, and sheer velocity were unmatched in my nearly 20-year journalism career. Was I writing about Finnegans Wake, or was I suddenly inside it?” — Lois Beckett, The Guardian 11–12–23 https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/12/california-venice-book-club-finngeans-wake-28-years
Marshall McLuhan/Finnegans Wake Reading Club is an independent, unaffiliated public-service literary group. Not a part of the LAPL.org. Free admission.
Book-club founder Gerry Fialka available for interviews on request at pfsuzy@aol.com
Recent NEWS articles about the Venice Wake’s record-setting 28-year read-a-thon:
The Guardian (Sunday edition, called The Observer)
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/12/california-venice-book-club-finngeans-wake-28-years
The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/11/16/finnegans-wake-book-club-california/
and
https://finwakeatx.blogspot.com/2023/11/guardian-observer-celebrates-galaxy-of.html
and
https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/book-club-reading-james-joyce-finnegans-wake-30-years
and NEW YORK TIMES
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/07/books/finnegans-wake-james-joyce-venice-book-club.html
and RADIO:
https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/greater-la/venice-book-club-humperdinck-indigenous/finnegans-wake
and
and
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/finnegans-wake-book-club-1.7028252
and TV:
CBS Evening News and more https://www.youtube.com/@gfa1930/videos
Worldwide news coverage, too:
Pretoria https://maroelamedia.co.za/vreemdhede/boekklub-lees-28-jaar-lank-aan-een-boek/
Mandarin 第一本就選中「天書」WorldJournal.com/wj/story/122986/7516835
Munich, Süddeutsche Zeitung https://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/james-joyce-finnegans-wake-buchclub-lesen-1.6302605
Berliner-Zeitung https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/panorama/james-joyce-finnegans-wake-buchklub-liest-28-jahre-an-einem-buch-und-faengt-jetzt-wieder-von-vorn-an-li.2159346
Estadão, São Paulo, Brasil: https://digital.estadao.com.br/article/282303914871638
Stockholm, Sweden: Bokklubben läste https://omni.se/bokklubben-laste-varldens-svaraste-bok-i-28-ar/a/0Q618E
LondonTimes theTimes.co.uk/article/book-club-takes-28-years-to-read-james-joyces-finnegans-wake-vfzvlgcm5
Miami en Español https://www.infobae.com/leamos/2023/11/18/en-1995-empezaron-a-leer-una-novela-de-james-joyce-en-grupo-acaban-de-terminar/
Watch two short Gerry Fialka films about Joyce:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ52cqJ-gEo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGwLiUYY4mk&t=50s
FINNEGANS WAKE references:
Fweet = http://www.fweet.org/
https://johngordonfinnegan.weebly.com/book-i
https://peterchrisp.blogspot.com/
https://finwakeatx.blogspot.com/
https://twitter.com/johnstonglenn
https://mcluhansnewsciences.com/mcluhan/2022/01/end-beginning-of-fw/
http://fwannotated.blogspot.com/
http://fwakeorigins.blogspot.com/
http://www.finnegansweb.com/wiki/index.php/TOC
https://www.edizionianicia.it/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Impaginato_JOYCE-23.pdf#page=159
ALSO = Thursdays upcoming (dates tba) Ulysses Venice Reading Group at 5pm PDT rsvp for link
contact is DUNCAN duncanechelson@gmail.com
ck his youtube channel = https://www.youtube.com/@duncanechelson9746/streams
Thank you, Gerry Fialka http://laughtears.com/
SHRINK talks WAKE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaeYUm06in0&t=719s
Must JJ read: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2022/01/13/dubliners-anne-enright/
https://www.villagevoice.com/2022/01/28/the-difficult-odyssey-of-james-joyces-ulysses/
Roy Benjamin book = https://www.academia.edu/42973863/Bewilderness_James_Joyce_and_the_National_Parks
Peter Q= https://finwakeatx.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-portal.html
Joyce & Art https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/2116306/177365_jia.pdf
Wake Reading https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc1yER0y0yY
Simon Prentis book and video ON LANGUAGE https://youtu.be/AKdRlt6YL30
Finnegans Wake on BBC Radio = https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p07dkv3p
+++ Join in CARL JUNG Reading Group every MONDAY at 5:30pm pacific
Carl Jung believed the metaphorical language of alchemy could give us insight into human experience. Learn to understand Jung’s concepts and relates alchemical processes to passages from literature, works of art, case studies and dreams, many of which can be directly related to themes in Finnegans Wake. RSVP to sherrietatum11@yahoo.com
++++GERRY’s ZOOM SALONS: Join our online discussions every Monday, Tuesday & Wed, at 1:30pm (pacific, for 40 minutes). And occasional Saturdays we go from 1 to 2:30pm. LZS (Laughtears Zoomin’ Salons) probes the hidden psychic effects of human inventions and how they shape behaviour. Arts, literature, film, activism, new media, poetry, funk, jazz, avant-garde, new media, performance art, politics, cosmic wisdom, jokes and more. Flip the pandemic lockdown into infodemic & pundemic look ups!
Check out Fialka’s book of interviews with a foreword by David James
Strange Questions: Experimental Film as Conversation http://laughtears.com/strange-questions.html
Tune in, Watch out and Drop In to Gerry Fialka’s Interview podcasts (WITH MANY JAMES JOYCE & McLUHAN people) on two different channels:
Rob Grant channel https://www.youtube.com/@improbablywrongabouteveryt6781/streams
Clinton Ignatov channel https://www.youtube.com/@ConcernedNetizen/streams
Fialka has interviewed many James JOYCE PEOPLE- John Bishop, Catherine Flynn, Sam Slote, Derek Pyle, Peter Quadrino, Glenn Johnston, Roy Benjamin, Richard Gerber, Peter Chrisp, Eric McLuhan, Bill Cliett, Colm O’Shea, Andrew Gibson, Gregory Erickson, Decio Slomp, Cynthia Olson, Justyna Kosmulska and many Joyceans.
Fialka interviewed McLuhan -MEDIA people like Mark Stahlman, Lawrence Krauss, Eric McLuhan, Derrick de Kerckhove, Mark Deuze, Janine Marchessault, Tom Cooper, Doug Rushkoff, Bill Kuhns, Marshall Soules, Andrew Chrystall, Bernadette Bowen, Andrew McLuhan, B.W. Powe, Clinton Ignatov, Adeena Karasick, Lance Strate, Corey Anton. Wilson Oliveira, R. Bruce Elder, Mary Jane Shoultz, Paul Levinson, and A. Leo Reilly. . .
ALSO:
McFinn series Dates TBA from 5 to 7, https://pfsuzy.medium.com/mcfinn-salon-by-germy-folkywayz-3fdb7399c201
and Venice-FINNEGANS WAKE every first Tues at 6
and ULYSSES Thursdays TBA at 5
and LAWS OF MEDIA — McLuhan book every WED at 8:45AM PDT
and https://www.sweny.ie/ HAVE LOTS of great reading clubs
and New York Wake group = wakewatchers@googlegroups.com and ellisjudd@gmail.com
and Austin TX Wake group = peterquadrino@hotmail.com
*** MUST MUST READING-Finnegans Wake Pantheon — PETER QUADRINO
https://finwakeatx.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-pantheon-of-finnegans-woke-or-why.html
UPCOMING Laughtears.com Live events and Zoom events — rsvp Gerry Fialka pfsuzy@aol.com for links & info
NOTE: some of these facebook events links are from 2023, the descriptions is basically the same,
the ACTUAL Date is in this following list for 2024:
***Saturday, Jan 20, 2024–21st Annual VENICE FILM FEST https://www.facebook.com/events/1016800559392725/
***Saturday, Jan 27, 2024–14th annual POETRY OF VENICE PHOTOGRAPHY
https://www.facebook.com/events/900765211426278/
***EVERY FIRST TUESDAY of EVERY MONTH is Marshall McLuhan-FINNEGANS WAKE Reading Club (aka VeniceWake Reading Club — James Joyce https://laughtears.com/McLuhanWake.html — Tuesday, Jan 2, 2024 is page 5
*** Feb 2, 2024 — ReJoyce James Joyce Birthday & Reading Club Reunion at 1pm at Venice Public Library, free cake!
*** Sunday, March 24, 2024 at 11:30am Gerry Fialka presents the interactive salon CAN ART STOP WAR? at the KickstART Gallery for the Greater Farmington Film Fest (GFFF) https://www.gffilmfest.com/films More: https://pfsuzy.medium.com/thanks-for-your-dedication-to-art-film-and-activism-2050966f9546
***March 26–31, 2024 Gerry Fialka on Super8MM panel on March29 at 62nd Ann Arbor Film Festival https://www.aafilmfest.org/
GF in book Frank Uhle book https://www.cinemaannarbor.com/
***April 14, 2024 at Venice West Suzy Williams & Gerry Fialka — Venice Beats III
https://www.facebook.com/events/7399017806789722/
Venice music, poetry, art, fun history . . .
Pull My Daisy -Suzy sings Jack Keroauc& Allen Ginsburg = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwZHNx5qWIY
GF’s Venice BeachHead Beats article: https://thevenicebeachhead.com/2022/09/02/our-story-by-gerry-fialka/
Venice West Tour VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9vsPk1iSts
*** Sat, May 25, 2024 https://www.facebook.com/events/1313610749340160/
It’s All Write Ma — Zimmy Zoomin’ Could it be RobbMe Zimmer as Noel Coward? and/or: “I don’t like propaganda in the theater unless it is disguised so brilliantly that the audience mistakes it for entertainment.” When asked “Are you a poet?” Bob responded “I’m a trapeze artist.” Bob says: “Don’t ever tell anyone everything you know.” and ““I didn’t create Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan has always been here.” “Are you going to play yourself?” Bob: “No, I am gonna play my mother.” TANGLED Up in EVERYawareNESS.
*** Sat, July 15, 2024 The 17th ANNUAL LIT SHOW with SUZY WILLIAMS & BRAD KAY is a LIVE EVENT at Beyond Baroque, 7pm
https://www.facebook.com/events/7889216867771468/
*** SUNDAY, Oct 20, 2024, 6pm-live music, 7pm-films at Beyond Baroque -
An Evening of Music Films with Mark Cantor: “I’ve Just Gotta See It But It Ain’t On YouTube Blues”
https://www.facebook.com/events/1085379399144737/
*** Sun, Nov 17, 2024 PXL THIS 34 Toy Camera Film Festival https://www.facebook.com/events/204689762710343/
PXL THIS 33 Toy Camera Film Festival https://www.facebook.com/events/850945209382236/
PXL THIS 30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n37t6IFU5jQ&t=3811s and
PXL THIS 31 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOnxqgFnMrU&t=5230s
PXL THIS 32 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFcMoSC7idY&t=1325s
The annual toy camera film festival features Pixelvision — Fisher Price PXL200. PXL THIS, one of the oldest film festivals in LA, celebrates visionary moving image artists from seminal experimental filmmakers to 10-years-olds to homeless to professionals. Lo-Fi Hi-Jinx
We welcome your reactions to Fialka & Bartram’s funk song MMF by BSP
(same song on two youtube videos, one with still photo and one with an experimental film)
1= MMF by BSP still photo version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqLG0k84bwA&t=0s
2= MMF by BSP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0StWuiBqnQ
film version with strobe effect, viewer discretion
I AM GRATEFUL for all your input.
“…I say let the poets run the country, we’ll be better off with books and pens, instead of the misery of weapons…let the poets run the country who speak from the heart…we will have a country filled with rhymes and justice if for once, we let the poets run the country.” — Quique Aviles https://pfsuzy.medium.com/thanks-for-your-dedication-to-art-film-and-activism-2050966f9546
Norman Klein in this film https://danielrsmall.com/Future-Continuous
talks about Bauderlaire, and (at the 2:50 point ) says “If you try to make a statement long, deep, and rich, it will age very fast. if you try and only own the day you’re talking, it will last forever.”
“I have been forced to observe that most of the effects of any innovation occur before the actual innovation itself. In a word, a vortex of effects tends, in time, to become the innovation.” Marshall McLuhan 1971 letter to Muriel Bradbrook
