A Packed House With Plenty of Heart
Enrique de Allende has a pile of talented friends! Pass it on! Happy Birthday, Enrique; your party at Coco Cabaret sure made a lot of people happy. I don’t think there was an empty chair in the house at 5 o’clock yesterday afternoon.
Gouda Gabor hosted the festivities, and Derek Carkner provided gorgeous accompaniment on piano for all but one or two numbers.
The show kicked off with the reunion of Al (Mimi) Ramirez and just-back-in-town Fernando Gonzalez, who has been living in Canada, and their fiery flamenco guitars. Enrique joined in eventually. All I can say about that is: Gipsy Kings, who? Wowza!
Enrique sang with his comadre, longtime friend and collaborator in so many birthday parties and concerts over the years, Kim Kuzma, who looked absolutely stunning onstage; she is the godmother to Enrique’s son.
Mister Lady Zen, who also lives in San Miguel de Allende, had fun onstage with Enrique. (Zen’s show ”The Intimate” is tonight at Coco Cabaret at 5 pm.) Luis Villanueva and Kevin Anthony each shared a song with the birthday boy, as did Roy Cruz and Diego Guerrero.
It was a lovely afternoon and early evening filled with love and good intentions.
”She, He, Him” debuts this Saturday (tomorrow!) at Nacho Daddy at 7:30. She is Amy Armstrong; He is the wildly and creatively funny Sargento Dan; and, Him is award-winning pianist from New York City, Mark Hartman. I have a feeling this show is one you could go to every week and be thoroughly entertained, even if the playlist stays the same. Three very different senses of humor and all very funny in their own way, but to have all three of them onstage at the same time? It’ll be a miracle if any songs get sung at all.
Winter starts this Sunday afternoon at 3:03 in Vallarta, with the celebration of the season lasting until March 20. Are you doing anything special to welcome Winter?
Christmas fun continues on Monday, again with Gouda Gabor and guests at Nacho Daddy, and I wish I could get back to The Palm Cabaret on Christmas Eve for the Sinatra and Buble concert, as Nacho Granados and Armando Chakam will be adding a few seasonal tunes to their repertoire. I have Scrabble at Qulture and Colina Spay and Neuter Clinic bingo eating up that Wednesday until 6 pm.
I have only eight more posts in the Vallarta Mirror before the end of the year and two more Rearview Mirrors before both wrap on the 31st of December. You will still be able to continue to read ‘From Here’ at VallartaCalendar.com, Around Town, if I have a show to review or something else to say; I have not worked out all the logistics yet, which makes it fun again, and that’s the whole point, right?
Take care of our tourists who are returning to Vallarta in droves. If you see them at a corner, a little bewildered by why the street numbers don’t necessarily go in order or even retain their names, give them a hand and welcome them to Mexico, From Here.
