The Fiesta Continues in Puerto Vallarta
Scrabble at Qulture today at 12:30, then at 4 pm, the PuRR Project kicks off their bingo fundraisers for the season at Nacho Daddy. Concert #5 of the Fiesta de Cabaret begins at 7 pm in the Casa Karma Red Room featuring Perry Ojeda. That’s my schedule for today; find me – I am still collecting birthday hugs!
Jerry Jones of Out & About Puerto Vallarta magazine hosted another Gay Mixer last night, filling Canto – on Lazaro Cardenas and spilling into an impromptu pop-up street garden outside the table-less restaurant. Co-owner Henry Ho manned the door, greeting everyone as they shouldered their way through the stand-up crowd to the bar. Henry’s husband and business partner, Jeremy Reigel, met everyone inside. The Mixers are an excellent opportunity to showcase a venue’s food, atmosphere, staff, and cocktail pizzazz. They have been enormously successful, and I look forward to the eye candy (Jet De La Isla, this means you!) every ten days or so!
Patrice and I made our way to Act2PV to Ovations Piano Bar for a drink before the Fourth Concert in the Fiesta de Cabaret got underway in the Casa Karma Red Room. Tracy Stark leapt in at the last minute to accompany Sue Matsuki on piano as Mark Hartman urgently tended to a family emergency.
Tracy and Sue spend a great deal of time together doing shows in NYC; their mutual respect was clear and abundant.
Matsuki paid homage to various musical genres that shaped her future as a performer and teacher. The stories of her big biker and harmonica-playing dad were hilarious, as were her renditions of nursery rhymes he taught her with a bluesy twist, which she shared with us just like she did with her kindergarten class years ago. She brought the house down with a song about a half-frozen snake being saved, complete with a silken hand puppet that assured Sue a stand-up (or sit-down) career in comedy if she ever tires of singing for a living! The applause and laughter were thunderous!
Thanks to Mark Hartman for bringing this Fiesta de Cabaret to Mexico and us. What an invaluable learning experience for the students and an ongoing treat for the audience. The Fiesta closes on Saturday, the 16th.
The last stop of the night plunked us down with Nikki at Nacho Daddy for Gouda Gabor’s Opening Night of Open Mic. It’s the second season Gouda has hosted the cornucopia of talent that drifted over with the closing of Incanto.
The audience was full of familiar faces – the stage, too, with a couple of newbies that caught everyone’s attention. We listened to Derek Carkner on piano with singers Sargento, Angeloo, Sea Byrne, Gabe Arciniega, Miana Melendez, and the newbies – a wonderful guitarist and two soloists. I hope they will all be back next week. Go early, people, have dinner and/or drinks, or you won’t get a seat.