Author: Marcia Blondin

Marieann Meringolo had her opening night at Act2PV‘s Casa Karma Red Room. She brought all of her music with her from New York, handed the charts to pianist Mark Hartman, took a rehearsal and launched into their first collaboration. Marieann doesn’t like to perform without her musical director of 25 years, however, Mark and Marieann…

Happy Spring, everybody! And, because I live in paradise, I can no longer say things like, “It’s been a long, long, lonely winter,” having it be light at 7 in the morning is fantastic. For the first few days, remembering gardening in Canada, I want to sink my hands into still-chilly dirt and plant something…

Weird. I woke up this morning, and my face was aching, cheeks to be exact. It took me a minute to remember laughing my a~~ off for 90 minutes last night at Nacho Daddy. The event was called Match That Snatch, a wicked blending of two TV game shows, The Match Game, which surfaced in…

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to all the Irish and Wannabees today; wear something green and, “May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you’re dead.” And that’s mercifully it for my Gaelic! It was a busy weekend in Vallarta, starting with Rick and Monica Miller’s fabulous pop-up, kinda pot-luck party, their…

And poof! It’s the weekend again, and we are halfway through another month in 2025. Spring arrives next week, and with it, tons of young, lively Spring Breakers expected to inject over 5k USD each into our economy. Seems like a great deal of money for a student. I had all kinds of plans yesterday,…

I saw a post from Hedwig herself – aka Jordon Carnegie – that their last show at The Palm Cabaret and Bar will be March 30. If you have not seen Hedwig and the Angry Inch, get thee hence in a hurry. It is one of the most brilliant performances ever in Vallarta. I spent…

With the exception of a few solo concerts by first violinist Edmund Bagnall, it has been six long years since Well-Strung has performed in Vallarta. Judging from the reaction of the packed house at the 5 pm matinee yesterday at The Palm Cabaret, they have been sorely missed. And not just their heart-stirring music –…

Ash Wednesday yesterday, the start of Lent that will end with Semana Santa and Easter, which means we have 40 days of so-called High Season left. By the Sunday following Easter Sunday, the touristic doors slam shut; everybody goes home to their other lives, leaving us empty sidewalks and beaches. Oh, and bank accounts. I…

Yesterday started with the great tianguis in Coapinole, Sharon and I wandered and dug through piles of clothing and came out the other end with three choice pieces each: sum total spent, 180 pesos between us! We also stocked up on beautiful veggies for about half the price of “in-town.” From there we went to…

I had mango smoothies yesterday afternoon at the Vallarta Factory with my new friend Jamie Brickhouse. His recent appearance at the theater at Art Vallarta has caused quite a stir in our community, with fingers reaching out to various powers that be to find space for him later this season to come back and tell…

One of my favorite days every month is the First Saturday Fiesta at Arte Vallarta Museo. The enormous courtyard was full of people eating, drinking wine, listening to the live jazz trio, and catching up with like-minded people they hadn’t seen anywhere else for a month. The fantastic David Jones exhibition, Line and Color, continues…

On this day, in 1991, 34 years ago, I got on a plane in Vancouver, two suitcases containing my life stored onboard, and flew to Puerto Vallarta to be reunited with the soul that I left here in 1986 after my first bewitching visit. That block of five years was the longest of my life.…

Open Mic at Nacho Daddy this week held a few surprises, including having Nick Dorado filling Gouda Gabor’s enormous shoes as host for the evening. His lovely voice has been missed in Vallarta, and it was terrific to have him back home from Chicago at last. Another beautiful surprise was seeing and hearing Patsy Meyer…

A lot of people journeyed up the Cuale River yesterday afternoon to Rancho Santiago to feast on Hollis’s barbequed ribs and the music of Fleetwood Mac. It was a warm, sunny day, and I arrived early, thanks to Hollis picking me up while I was waiting at a bus stop on Lazaro Cardenas. I caught…

Teatro Vallarta’s lobby was all abuzz last Sunday evening, before the start of the RISE Grand Finale, with head paparazzi Josef Kandoll Wepplo snapping away, making all of us look better than we really do. Folks crowded the bar and the conversation levels were excited and loud. Towering over us all was the coach for…

ART VallARTa on Pilitas was again the center of attention as Jamie Brickhouse presented his one-man show Dangerous When Wet – Booze, Sex, and My Mother to a sold-out rapt audience. Jamie’s monologue, nearly 90 minutes of a one-sided conversation, is based on his book by the same name. It was published after his mother’s…

The Grand Finale for the So, You Think You Can RISE? talent competition is this Sunday at Teatro Vallarta at 7 pm. It has become, in four years, one of the most important events of the season. Not just to raise money for the RISE Children’s Shelter but also to galvanize our entertainment community. I…

We had a good crowd at Qulture yesterday for our weekly Scrabble games. Everyone is welcome to come and play, and we would appreciate any turntable game boards you are no longer using. No worries if tiles are missing; we have a bag full of replacement letters. Thanks in advance! I went last night to…

The Beach Boys Tribute Tuesday out at Rancho Santiago last evening filled everyone with nostalgia for the old days when the most important thing in a young guy’s life was his hot car and the women wistfully recalling bikini days on hot summer weekends by some body of water. I got there early enough to…

Levi Kreis’s exuberant return to Vallarta and The Palm Cabaret and Bar necessitated adding chairs to accommodate the number of people clamoring to see him as quickly as possible on Opening Night (he does have a few more shows). To exclaim that he is such a great entertainer, I would have to become more evangelical…