The London production of Avenue Q – the modest little musical that beat out Wicked for the Best Musical Tony Award in its debut season on Broadway – was one of only two musicals in the Sunday Times Online’s list of “The Best Theatre of the Decade”:

A kind of Sesame Street for adults, this dotty, silly and frequently very rude musical concerns a New York neighbourhood inhabited by such characters as Lucy the Slut and Kate Monster. Years on, you will still remember the lyrics to “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist” and picture two life-size puppets going at it on a kitchen table.

It ranked 15th out of the 20 shows listed – another nod to this great little piece by Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx and Jeff Whitty!

Thinking about worst things like worst schools, worst things that happen to people, worst people, worst things and people and things that happen to people in and because of schools.

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Also thinking about what it is to read for diction and sentences and pacing. Thinking sometimes there needs to be that and then something else sometimes. This something is something that makes the diction and pacing and sentences ring themselves and estranged and special; that keeps them from getting pulled back into the bad-prosaic glut of their plots or subject matter.

More and more I am wanting sentences to add up as mass instead of movement. This is something I am finding in Robert Lopez right now. Because I am reading Robert Lopez right now and finding this, it is making me more aware of my desire for it. This is also making my days a little better than they would otherwise be.

What other books do this? I think Kathy Acker does this and this is why her books have magic logic. I think Diane Williams does this. That some books accrete mass as much as meaning or as a kind of meaning is how they have magic logic I think. I am not sure what magic logic is yet but it is real because you can tell.

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(This is a thylacine. They are my favorites. I’m not sure of favorite what, but they are.)

The Zeros reunited: Hector Penalosa, Robert Lopez, Javier Escovedo and Baba Chenelle.

It was a perfect meeting of punk minds on Monday night at Maxwell’s in Hoboken when contemporary punk rockers The Choke opened a set for The Zeros, a band from the first wave of original LA punk that’s on a reunion tour.

Javier Escovedo onstage at Maxwell's.

Between the two bands, the packed room got two solid sets of high-energy punk, with the opening act paying homage to the headliners by playing their new take on totally old-school ideas.

It was hard to believe that The Zeros hit the scene more than 30 years ago. All four — Javier Escovedo, Hector Penalosa, Robert Lopez and Baba Chenelle — were high school students in Chula Vista, Calif., when they started in 1976. Although they’re often referred to as the Mexican Ramones, they didn’t know anything about those NYC punk rockers when they got their start.

Javier comes from a rock family, and played with his brother Alejandro Escovedo in The True Believers, while Robert has developed an international career as El Vez, The Mexican Elvis (an act that, as I learned at The Zeros set, is heavily influenced by Robert’s high school experience).

Robert Lopez, aka El Vez

Click through to the jump for more photos from Maxwell’s and more on The Zeros.

For more on The Zeros, check out this interview with Javier, and this Los Angeles Times article.

Zeros bass player Hector Penalosa and drummer Baba Chenelle.

The Choke’s lead singer, Cameron Eve, had it all, from the controlled-scream vocals to the complete uninhibited stage presence. I wasn’t familiar with this Brooklyn-based quartet, but am glad to have discovered them. They put on an amazing set that crammed at least a dozen pure punk originals into barely 30 minutes.

The Choke's singer Cameron Eve threatened to launch off the stage.

Friday April 24, 9 pm
Bar Nine
807 Ninth Avenue, between 53rd and 54th Streets
C, E to 50th Street

A $15 cover includes a copy of the latest issue, featuring work from: Daryl Scroggins, Ronald Hobbs, Jody Barton, Greg Mulcahy, Erich Hintze, Scott Garson, Christopher Kennedy, Jesse Ball, Daniel Grandbois, Cooper Renner, Michael Hemmingson, Darby Larson, Karl Taro Greenfeld, Christine Schutt, Ken Sparling, Robert Lopez, S.G. Miller, Atticus Lish, Michael Leone, Kim Chinquee, Anthony Luebbert, Rachel Sherman, Jason Snyder, Justin Taylor, Jessica Anya Blau, and an interview with Diane Williams by Kevin Sampsell.

10 pm: Doppelganger
Doppelganger is a rock & roll duo from the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Through the most basic instrumentation, they write primal music with memorable hooks.

Born out of frustration with the local NYC music scene’s lack of energy in the spring of 2008, Ryan Oh-No (vox, drums) and R. Francis (guitar, vox) started writing music, drawing influence from a variety of genres: early rock & roll, garage, surf and shoegaze. But it was mainly the energy of the punk scene that they both grew up with that permeates their style. It was decided not to take on additional members as they found that the limitations of being a duo lead to a different approach to songwriting and arrangement that enhanced their creativity.
www.myspace.com/doppelgangerisyourfriend

11 pm: Demonlover
Demonlover formed in 2008 when Billy Jones, James Buonatuono and Sean Maffucci joined together, tired of the same old rock n’ roll music/scene, as an experiment to make music without the preconditions of the “two guitars, bass and drums” stereotype.  While not denying any genre as an influence, Demonlover is focused on constantly looking outwards, towards new directions in sound through hazy borders of objectivity, while at the same time bringing the listener in with dark introspective lyrics, Anatolian guitar sounds seemingly flowing from the Bosporus, catchy eastern and pseudo-pop melodic synthesizer progressions, and rhythmic elements sometimes reminiscent of Raï, Baile Funk and Pygmée style syncopations.

Jones and Buonotuono, formerly in Other Passengers, released a handful of records with the UK label SIC including: Is It Nothing To You, All Those Who Pass You By? and We Are All.  Jones also performs solo as AppleDeaf, a one-man testament to how far the solo act genre can push past its own limitations.  Maffucci previously played guitar in Am Radio, later renamed Icewater Scandal, whose well-revered debut record was recorded and produced by Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo.  After Icewater Scandal’s disbandment, Maffucci released Janisary Music (s/t) on Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace! label and turned his ears to engineering and producing records at his Junkyard recording studio, mainly for The Social Registry label.  There he engineered/mixed/produced records for many bands, including Growing, Psychic Ills, Jeffrey Lewis, Harvey Milk, Kid Congo Powers (of Cramps, Gun Club fame), Bear In Heaven, and Gang Gang Dance’s critically acclaimed albums God’s Money and St. Dymphna.
www.myspace.com/demonlovernyc

12 am: The Choke
NYC’s punk ‘n’ roll darlings The Choke filter the influences of Motown, soul, and garage rock through the attack of anthemic punk. Since its debut in 2005, the band has performed for large audiences throughout New York and London, performed an intense live set on DJ Terre T’s infamous garage-rock show Cherry Blossom Clinic on WFMU 91.1 FM, and twice hosted the Exploding Punk Inevitable! Revue, a weekly residency at the ultra-hip and intimate Slipper Room in the Lower East Side featuring burlesque girls and circus freaks, and culminating with The Choke performing a blistering punk rock set.

The band has also appeared at a special NYC Animal Rescue Benefit opening for Beastie Boys and Debbie Harry, toured with the legendary Buzzcocks, completed two UK Tours, playing major academy venues throughout England and Scotland, and flooring various crowds filled with garage-mod rockers and the UK’s punk aristocracy. Three U.S. tours of the Midwest have yielded more press, attention and fans of The Choke’s high-intensity music and performances, most recently DJ Rodney Bingenheimer, who played their “Face For The Radio” on his influential show Rodney on the ROQ, on KROQ 106.7 FM in L.A.
www.the-choke.com

We believe in the power and urgency of the story and the story’s ability to describe and illuminate the interior and exterior landscape: we believe in the power of narrative and its ability to make life more astonishingly alive.
www.nytyrant.com

Segunda vez que eu falo sobre Avenida Q aqui, mas quem se importa? É o máximo mesmo, e ainda irei falar mais vezes com certeza (até mesmo que foi graças a ele que esse blog nasceu).

Pois bem, existe um documentário chamado “ShowBussiness: the Road to Broadway” que mostra como funciona o processo de 4 musicais na Broadway, do início de tudo até o fim, e vemos isso baseado em Avenida Q, Caroline or Change, Wicked e Taboo. Como é um documentário importado, acredito que praticamente ninguém assistiu, então eu cortei só as partes relacionadas a Avenida Q para postar aqui. E novamente, como é importado, não vem com legenda, mas como o intuito é divulgar pra quem nem sabe do que se trata o Avenida Q, eu legendei e deu um trabalho básico, mas compensou e espero que gostem.

1ª parte: conheça os compositores, o autor, de onde veio a concepção do espetáculo, o que os críticos esperavam e o grande dia da estréia.

2ª parte:  veja o que os críticos acharam do musical após a estréia, a gravação do cd, o dia em que anunciaram os indicados ao Tony e tudo que antecedeu a grande noite do Tony Awards 2004.

3ª parte: enfim, o grande dia do Tony Awards 2004. Onde para surpresa de todos, Avenida Q ganha o prêmio de melhor libreto, melhor trilha e melhor musical.

Agradecimento a Dani que me indicou o programa pra colocar a legenda e a Carol e o Leo que me ajudaram com algumas palavrinhas que eu não conseguia entender. Divirtam-se!  ah, pra quem puder adquirir o documentário inteiro, é muito interessante e vale a pena cada minuto. Mas claro, infelizmente só pra quem tem inglês fluente.

Ever wish that you could have your own words spoken on a Broadway stage, night after night, 8 shows a week? Well, now you can.

Playbill.com gave us the good news this week::

For five-and-a-half years now, the Broadway musical Avenue Q has ended each show with the song, “For Now,” that states, “George Bush!” is only “for now.” … But now, Bush really is going. He’s not “for now.” He’s history. So the show is holding a contest. It is inviting all and sundry to enter “their suggestion for a new person (not necessarily a political figure), place, thing, event, fad, etc. to be considered as a substitute for the soon-to-be-outdated reference to ‘George Bush’ in the musical’s finale.”

The winner will be announced Jan. 15, 2009, and the new lyric will be performed in Broadway’s Avenue Q at the Golden Theatre beginning Jan. 20, 2009, the day Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States.

The contest began Dec. 22 and runs through Jan. 12, 2009. To enter visit www.avenueq.com.

The winning entry will be selected by a panel that comprises Q creators Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx and Jeff Whitty and the show’s producers.”

Sounds like fun! So head on over to Avenueq.com, and you might just see your words in the spotlight!

~Mel <3

More information here:

Obviously…he didn’t. Why? Country First? Just a slogan to John McCain.

WHAT: CUP & PEN PRESENTS CALAMARI PRESS
WHERE: THINK COFFEE, 248 MERCER AND 3RD ST.
WHEN: WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12TH, 2007 8pm-10pm
FREE AS A BIRD!

Cup and Pen puts Calamari Press back under the looking machine and pulls up the rorschachian images presented by their language-driven magazine sleepingfish. New Pages lit review claims “This is a journal where the swish of the cat’s tail might be appreciated for it metonymical qualities before the cat suddenly leaps off the balcony and into a cloud.”

Readings by Alexandra Chasin, Robert Lopez and Eva Talmadge are prescribed by those who care and want to see you reconnect with your inner beautymaker. Emceed by Rebecca Alvarez with as much love as is musterable.

Think Coffee is located at 248 Mercer Street and 3rd Street in New York City. BY SUBWAY: Take the BDFV to Broadway/Lafayette, the 6 to Bleecker, or the NRW to Prince Street

Los que me conocen un poco saben que me pirran los musicales. Se que a mucha gente este género les parece un tostón pero que quereis que os diga… cada uno tiene sus perversiones. El caso es que os voy a recomendar un musical un tanto peculiar. Se llama Avenue Q y ganó el premio Tony (los Oscars de Broadway) al mejor musical en 2004. Sus creadores son Robert Lopez y Jeff Marx.

Lo llamativo de este espectáculo es que está protagonizado por inocentes marionetas. Eso si, la inocencia se acaba en cuanto empiezan a cantar. Temás como “The internet is for porn” o “Everyone is a little bit racist”, os pueden dar una idea de por donde van los tiros. A modo de detalle, os diré que el cartel del musical en Nueva York prometía “Full Puppet Nudity”.

Es realmente divertido ver como los autores de esta obra le han dado la vuelta a todo un mito catódico de la talla de Barrio Sesamo. Y como muestra, un botón. Os dejo un video con un par de canciones, con pitido de censura incluido. Que lo disfruteis.