Another Sold-Out Show With Effie Passero

I have a very cool week planned in my head, AND it’s also on paper, so I won’t jinx a thing by telling you about it beforehand. That way, you’ll have a couple of interesting things to read with coffee heading into October, or it’ll be completely different. Let’s move on!

If you are a venue that offers entertainment and wants sell-out houses every single performance, put Francesca Bavaro, aka Effie Passero, on the roster, and it’s a done deal. When she’s home, here with us in Vallarta, she has time for a single show that sells out within a day, and she will do a second one if her time allows.

Francesca has been touring with Postmodern Jukebox all over the world for the past two years and is often gone for months at a time (five months last tour!). In October, she will ‘do’ Carnegie Hall. More on that next week. A lot of people from here are planning to attend that performance; our entertainment ties with New York City are getting tighter and tighter.

Last Friday at Casita & Garden, a fundraiser for the Gay+Community Center filled the space to bursting so we could welcome our brilliant singer home. The weather caught her off-guard; she is usually away from Vallarta this time of year, so she was unprepared to be bathed in sweat. She laughed it off and ran through her repertoire, doing what she loves the best, accompanying herself on the piano with ease and a martini or two. On tour, she is backed by an orchestra and doesn’t get a chance to play often.

And, she is going to be making her first album early next year. So, 18 months or so, from now, the world will sing “You Make Me Simply Happy” and “Driftwood” as they commute to work.

On Saturday morning, I saw my herbalist Ricardo at his artisan Naturally Mazcal Market on the Isla Cuale to pick up the usual goodies that keep me alive and kicking. I mentioned a bothersome knee that had nearly healed from some inexplicable injury, and he gave me some things to try. The spray is fabulous! Within minutes, the pain was gone, and the next day, my mobility was 50% improved. I continue to get better, so if you are bothered by joint pain and don’t like smelling like a jar of arnica, get over and see Ricardo on Saturday; it is yet another miracle from my fourth-generation Mexican Medicine Man.

Join me at Casa Karma tomorrow night for Andrew Sands’s first solo show with David Duvall accompanying on piano; it’s been a long time coming.