Friday, April 17, 2009

"Bad News Gospel" and "Men in Uniform"

Est Paris Theater presented Men in Uniform by Antonio Garza and Bad News Gospel by Lari Lucien, Michael Merino and Perry Leopard on April 16 at the Ogresse: 4 rue des Prairies, Paris 20.

en français plus bas

Men in Uniform by Antonio Garza: In a one-person show, Antonio Garza, an American of Mexican heritage living in New Orleans, relives his post-9/11 experiences: from hilariously nerve-racking interrogations by customs agents and confrontations with overly enthusiastic flight attendants to detentions and an arrest by US Border Patrol agents. Men in Uniform was previously seen at the inaugural New Orleans Fringe theater festival.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/42/76317336_dae16e1554_m.jpgBad News Gospel, a short musical play by Est Paris Theater: Two gospel-singing preachers (Lari Lucien and Perry Leopard) who could be straight out of Flannery O'Connor's "Wise Blood" wait for judgment and debate whether it's better to be tormented with fire or with brimstone.







et en français

Est Paris Theater a presenté Men in Uniform par Antonio Garza et Bad News Gospel par Lari Lucien, Michael Merino et Perry Leopard le 16 avril à l'Ogresse : 4 rue des Prairies, Paris 20.

Men in Uniform par Antonio Garza: Antonio Garza, américain avec des origines mexicaines, raconte ses déboires avec les hommes en uniforme - les agents de douane et immigration surtout : des histoires drôles et révélatrices de l'Amérique de l'après-11 septembre. Men in Uniform a fait parti du premier festival de théâtre New Orleans Fringe.

Bad News Gospel une courte comédie-musicale par l'Est Paris Theater: Deux prêcheurs (Lari Lucien et Perry Leopard) qui pourraient être sortis du roman "La sagesse dans le sang" de Flannery O'Connor chantent du gospel et attendent le jugement dernier en débattant si c'est mieux d'être tourmenter avec le feu ou avec le soufre.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Gram Parson and the Louvins

There's an excellent post on the Onion's sister site AV Club that discusses two of the musical inspirations for Bad News Gospel: Gram Parsons and the Louvin brothers:

Sweetheart Of The Rodeo is a masterpiece, but it would have been even more masterpiecey had Parsons been allowed to sing lead on more of the songs. McGuinn has said that his vocals on Sweetheart Of The Rodeo were little more than a parody of Parsons’ original versions. Parsons approached country from a place of deep reverence, but McGuinn treats the songs with a certain academic detachment. This proves ruinous on a woefully misguided cover of The Louvin Brothers’ “The Christian Life,” where McGuinn adopts a Dippety Dog cartoon drawl that coats the song’s deeply personal endorsement of faith at the cost of worldly pleasure in smug irony. McGuinn seems to be making fun of the Louvin Brothers, which you just don’t do. You don’t fuck with them, for they have a scary, take-no-prisoners, smite-humanity-just-to-prove-a-point deity behind them.