Judgment Day is upon us... it's time for the San Francisco Launch Party for Jesús Ángel García's badbadbad, a transmedia novel about sex, God, rock ‘n’ roll & the social web.
The project is an innovative literary-audio-visual experience that combines a traditional print book, a soundtrack of original songs derived from the narrative & a documentary film based on the novel's themes of fear, hypocrisy, sexual morality, intimacy in e-culture & self-destruction v. redemption.
Party Plan:
- Live nude words (clarification: the words will be naked, not the readers), live music, screening of film clips from badbadbad.
- Special guests include literary artists Tony DuShane (Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk), Lauren Becker (Corium Magazine editor); musicians Odessa Chen (Ballad of Paper Ships) & Peter Rudy (Mud Shack); legendary burlesque dancers (TBA).
- Contests & prizes & an opportunity for audience members to participate in ensemble readings of scenes from badbadbad.
- Limited-edition copies of the novel (plus CDs, DVDs & T-shirts) will be available.
- Donations at the door will help fund the badbadbad summer tour, which is expected to hit 24 cities around the country. For a donation of $10 or more, attendees get to choose one of the following badbadbad thank-you gifts (yes, we're a PBS affiliate): a limited-edition book, a CD soundtrack or a DVD documentary film.
- There will be treats.
Advance Blurbage:
* “badbadbad is a strange, off-trail romp through a Deep South inhabited by Born Again preachers and twisted badbadbad girls. The ghosts of Elmer Gantry and Chester Himes haunt this hip-hop vision of the new South.” - Jonathan Woods, author of Bad Juju
* “Jesús Ángel García has given us a story that not only mimics but answers our manic, semi-virtual lives and the question of how to redeem ourselves: a rollicking, sexy, razor-witted romp with heart.” - Melissa Febos, author of Whip Smart
* “badbadbad is a blasphemous literary adventure. Jesús Ángel García is more than a powerful new voice of our generation; his cult is bent on taking over heaven and earth.” - Tony DuShane, author of Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk
* “Jesús Ángel García successfully merges the pulpy feel of those old-fashioned gas station novels with something as dark and surreal as a David Lynch film.” - Michael Seidlinger, author of The Day We Delay
* “If Philip Roth and Flannery O'Connor had a disinherited love child who worked simultaneously for Jimmy Swaggart and The Advocate, he might grow up to write a novel like Jesús Ángel García’s badbadbad.” - Kyle Minor, author of In the Devil’s Territory
* “An exhilarating and frightening book, badbadbad is about the laying of hands—to heal, to arouse, to end—a weird, funny, fucked-up love letter of love and violence from a Son to a son. Jesús Ángel García’s protagonist was made in the likeness of God, and God is an animal.”
- Lindsay Hunter, author of Daddy’s
Pre-publication Interest:
* The tour itinerary currently includes San Francisco, L.A., San Diego, New York (3 shows!), Chicago (4 shows!), Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Baltimore, DC, Cambridge, Boston, St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, Austin, New Orleans, Atlanta, Nashville, Raleigh, Portland, and Seattle.
* Reviews are expected in prominent literary journals and media outlets, including The Rumpus, Bookslut, Puerto del Sol, Electric Literature, New York Magazine, SFWeekly, Shelf Unbound, decomP magazinE, Red Fez, Emerging Writers' Network, and elsewhere.
* Jesús Ángel García will be a Featured Author at The Nervous Breakdown in July.
Bio:
A writer, musician & filmmaker based in San Francisco, Jesús Ángel García has published fiction in Monkeybicycle, 3:AM Magazine, HTML Giant and other literary venues. His non-fiction has appeared in The Faster Times, Vol. 1 Brooklyn and Electric Literature’s The Outlet, where he will be contributing a tour blog this summer. badbadbad is his first novel.
Synopsis:
When his wife inexplicably flees from home with their infant son, Jesús Ángel García struggles to redefine himself by being of service on both sides of the Southern cultural divide. By day, he works as the humble, God-fearing webmaster for First Church of the Church Before Church. At night, he plays the part of sexual messiah on fallenangels, an online social network for extreme desires. Blinded by righteousness, obsession and identity confusion, Jesús refuses to change his path even as it leads to the greatest of sins.
More information may be found at
http://badbadbad.net -- including a recently posted AWP podcast that combines live readings, songs & film clips into a spectacular audio collage. The site also features links to published stories, previews of the soundtrack, videos of literary performances, a trailer for the "Fear" film, a YouTube playlist (compiled from references in the text) & first reader feedback.
