Blooming Together? Wow!

Recap: Good Morning, From Here, January 18 – 24

Monday
Last weekend was rich with diverse musical genres, from Cabaret to Bach Cantatas and back to Cabaret. But first, a Grand Opening of a new shop in a section of Vallarta undergoing a rebirth at Los Mercados. Tashara Smith Santana cut the ribbon at the front door of Usawa with her husband on one side, a stack of balloons on the other, and the tiny courtyard with its Cantera-stone fountain was full of family and well-wishers. Champagne flowed like Tash’s tears of joy as hugs enfolded everyone.

The shop is dramatically painted a deep, rich green, a lovely balance to all of Tash’s environmentally-friendly skincare and household products. Proud papa, the great Jamaican-born singer/songwriter, and healer Kassiano was impressed with the look of the store and all of his daughter’s accomplishments. The family and ‘Team Usawa’ posed for photographs. Candles, soap, body scrubs (you can make your own), shampoo, lip balms, and much more are all suitably packaged for gift-giving to yourself or someone special. Look for Usawa (the Swahili word for Balance) at Los Mercados on Aquiles Serdan, just a block up from Intercam and two blocks from the beach. The four young women in this project conceive, make, package, and sell everything in the store. Usawa gives a new meaning to the phrase ‘hands-on’!

Art Vallarta is 12 years old, so, of course, owner Nathalie Herllng had a party with 50 of her fave artists (including Bogie’s vet Doctora Claudia’s best photos) invited to show off their work. Then, she invited the rest of Vallarta over for a look-see. The wine, beer, and tequila flowed FREELY for hours as hundreds of residents and tourists roamed shoulder to shoulder through the warrens of galleries, up spiral staircases, down into the basement, through the theater, and maybe wound up back at the bar for more refreshments. Nathalie’s next shindig is February 14, a fundraiser for Arte Vallarta Museo. See VallartaCalendar.com for details.

I reluctantly left the party for a concert at Act2PV to hear the fantastic Ann Kittredge sing. A full report on that is in a separate article. From Ann, I flew over to our Church of Guadalupe for the 9th annual free classical concert. David Barss, who orchestrated these wonderful events for nearly a decade, was on hand with his piccolo trumpet, guitar, and voice. Monies received – nearly 20,000 pesos from passing the hat, will go towards repairing the dome at the church. Vanessa Amaro, soprano, recreated Bach’s Cantata #51 with Barss. It was electric. Vanessa sang a couple of versions of Ave Maria, plus other sacred music accompanied by concert pianist and Vallarta Symphony Orchestra Conductor Aquiles Morales on the organ. Or electric piano; in this case, the Church’s organ was not functioning. Vallarta’s strolling tenor, Rodolfo, blind from birth, was invited to sing a solo and to join the others in Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah as the finale. Bravo, bravo; I’m already looking forward to next year!

Come back tomorrow and find out how the Gay+Community Center has done its first year, the results of Show # 2 for RISE and Gloria Fiona on the Isla From Here.

Tuesday
I wandered into the Gay+Community Center on Morelos in advance of their Open House and landed a private tour led by fundraiser wunderkind Matt Karimi. The Community Center started a year ago, with a small area, then Vallarta Cowork moved out, and the CC spread their wings and assumed the space. With some anticipated renovation, everyone will have their place, and the organization can better serve the public. The Community Center has changed lives by offering free testing for various sexually transmitted diseases and providing treatments either at the Center or elsewhere. What are their goals for the future? To keep the population healthy and expand the outreach to seniors and ex-pats. And they need volunteers and always need money. Please do if you can do one, the other, or both.

Our Sunday at noon dance class at the International Friendship Club is growing, with teacher Deborah Darr adding new movements or changing the routine just enough to keep us on our tippies. We had three men in our last class, and all that means is everybody is welcome. The 120 peso fee goes straight to aid the yeoman’s work at the IFC.

Coco Cabaret was packed as expected for the Second Show of Auditions to narrow the field from eight contenders to four, advancing to the Grand Finale of So, You Think You Can RISE? on February 23rd at Teatro Vallarta. Richard Lucas (aka Gouda Gabor) hosted the English side of things while irrepressible Sargento translated when necessary.

Judges for this round were choreographer from New York Kimberly LaRue (see her Follies Show at Act2PV), pianist, singer, and realtor for Ryan Donner and Associates, Derek Carkner, entertainer extraordinaire Steven Retchless in drag as Britney Spears (see that tribute show at Coco Cabaret). The dynamic duo Tromba Vetusta, comprised of Alejandra Matus and her partner Dabit Azofeifa, (their two shows Circoncierto and Saturnalia are at Act2PV), presided as one judge/coach.

The finalists are 14-year-old Nicolas Lara, accordionist; F-19 contemporary dance troupe; 12-year-old pianist Natalia and Concheros Vallarta, a folkloric dance group of five young girls and a drummer. They will have a month to prepare something spectacular with their coaches – it will be a helluva competition next month. Get your tickets fast, as this Grand Finale will sell out – for the fourth year in a row!

Leave us not forget where the money from ticket sales go – to support the RISE Shelter for Children. The kids range from infants to 15 years old and may spend years at RISE, where they are fed, clothed, educated, and loved to pieces by the volunteer staff. They need 3.5 million pesos a year. So, again, RISE needs volunteers and money, and even though the children are brought to RISE by a government organization, they receive 100% of their funding from private donations. Help them, please.

ABBA is tonight at Rancho Santiago in Paso Guayabo at 5:30, followed in town by Open Mic with Gouda Gabor at Nacho Daddy at 7:30. See you there and everywhere From Here.

Wednesday
Tribute Tuesday, upriver in Paso Guayabo, starred ABBA and all their greatest hits. Canadians Kimberley Beatty and Kara Promise, each one an international touring tribute artist star, joined together for the first time here in Mexico with this ABBA show. The vocals were pure, fun, and joyous. It was impossible to sit still with the tremendous energy of these two veteran entertainers pouring into the audience.

The dancing horse appeared again and is a scene stealer, to be sure! I watched all the cell phones divert from stage to horse and rider like an orchestrated prompt. The ABBA girls didn’t seem to mind, and at one point, Kara and the horse were in a tentative pas de deux. The horse show is a bonus and worth the price of admission. I can’t wait to see what he does next Tribute Tuesday with The Eagles harmonies! Oh, and do try Chef Hollis’s potato chips. They are handmade and fabulous.

I jumped on the #4 bus and was in my seat by 7:30 for the start of Open Mic at Nacho Daddy. Richard Lucas hosted the show for RISE and left his alter ego, Gouda Gabor, pouting at home. Brilliant pianist Mark Hartman accompanied nearly everyone on the extensive roster, including famous Mexican tenor Enrique de Allende, who will have one performance only this season, his fifth annual Valentine’s Day Gala at Palo Maria. You can get tickets at Cassandra Shaw Jewelers on Basilio Badillo.

Angeloo was his usual adorable 11-year-old self singing Adele; see more of him every Wednesday at 8 pm at La Catrina Cantina; singer Nia precedes him at 6:30 tonight. Patriz and Delilah gave us a taste of their ongoing shows at Act2PV. Gaba Arciniega continues to wonderfully recreate himself vocally and bluesily, accompanied by Aldo Parra Jaime on guitar. A couple of spoken-word entrants, a new guitarist singing his own music, New York City cabaret star Shanna Sharp just flew in from Belgrade and will sing with Natalie Douglas this week at the Casa Karma Red Room. Amy Armstrong stars in Leading Ladies on January 27th at Nacho Daddy and gave us a touch of Cabaret with Money Makes the World Go Around, and there were more. Come Blow Your Horn…Open Mic can be the best show in town; it is certainly never dull with a continuous feed of the finest musicians in the city, and only Lydia Damato knows for sure who will be up next.

Scrabble today at 12:30 at Qulture, then I am meeting up with Mexico City/New York City stand-up comedian Keenan Steiner, who has been missing in action from Vallarta for years. Catch him at Anonimo, on Thursday at 8 pm, From Here.

Thursday
Keenan Steiner and I spent a couple of hours in the sun drinking mango smoothies and catching up on post-COVID goings-on in his life. And laughing. It is what he does: make people laugh. Or tries. When he moved to Mexico City a couple of years ago, and set up stand-up shop in a place loaded with venues devoted to comedy (unlike Puerto Vallarta, which has precisely none), he was in for more than a few surprises. The biggest one was the number of Chilangos who offered to teach him Spanish when he has been fluent his entire adult life.

Keenan and I discussed the anomalies in the sense of humor between the US/Canada and Mexico. They are decidedly different, yet both sides of that coin agree that the OTHER side has an odd sense of humor. So. Keenan learned he couldn’t take his English-language stand-up routine: the New York City Jewish-Italian Gay Man that came out later in life (23), and traveled to Vallarta as a tourist and possible future resident, and simply translate it and hand it over to the Mexico City community.

It’s a bi-coastal, bi-cultural thing, with Vallarta being less evolved, more naive and provincial than the folks in one of the world’s largest cities. The learning curve was bendy, and now Keenan has his feet firmly planted on two borders. He is now officially living in NYC but winter-warm and welcomed here in Vallarta, making friends daily and wondering what to do and where to go next. Whatever direction he takes to share the love, see him tonight at Anomio if you aren’t attending the Blooming Together Gala at Oscar’s. If you are going to the latter, save a dance for me!

Another vegetarian spaghetti on the beach at Langostinos for sunset last evening – a rarity for me; the beach and sunset part, I mean. My company was the lovely classical musician David Boz from Victoria, Canada. We spent much of our conversation going over and over David’s recent classical concert at the Guadalupe church with his fellow costars, tenor Rodolfo, soprano Vanessa Amaro, and pianist Aquiles Morales. David heaped praise upon praise for his beloved musicians who gave him so much that evening last week. Nothing is more enjoyable than having dinner in a state of gratitude, and it’s contagious! Thank you, David, for all the gifts you have bestowed on my adopted city; you are loved.

Mary Porter tells me there are a few tickets left for this Sunday’s Stars with a Heart at Teatro Vallarta – what a selection of superstars gathered together to raise money for the Vallarta School for Girls. See you there, From Here.

Friday
What a glorious night at Oscar’s on the Isla to celebrate another year of work done in the city by the Vallarta Garden Club. Dozens of raffle prizes and silent auction items were donated; I will let you know how much money was raised by this vibrant group when the dust settles. The volunteers deserve gigantic bouquets of thanks for the decorations that took hours to put together under the auspices of Club President Sunny Rossi. After Oscar’s was beautified, the volunteers went home, decorated themselves, and returned early to make sure the cocktail party adjacent to the restaurant went smoothly…and it did, with Mau Jimenez providing entertainment for us on the lawn and for dozens of people on the pedestrian bridge who stopped and likely wondered what kind of party was going on with everyone dressed in bright florals! It was terrific to catch up with old friends and meet new people who were here vacationing and bought tickets to join the festivities.

Where most “tourist towns” in North America, at least, have Parks Departments that take care of beautifying major streets, pruning overgrown trees, watering plantings, building planters, and more, Puerto Vallarta has the Garden Club. Its importance cannot be stressed enough; if you want to get involved with a terrific bunch of people who hail from all over the world, volunteer your time in several ways – weeding, planting, pruning, watering, planning events, etc., or, if getting dirt under your nails doesn’t fly you can donate money, any amount; buy a membership, it’s the only financing the Garden Club receives.

The inside of Oscar’s looked like a fairyland with teeny lights on the tables and overhead with trails of blooms cascading with simple fresh flowers in small vases so we could all see one another across the tables.

Dinner began with the most beautiful salad that tasted as good as it looked; the filet mignon was tender, and the desserts, again beautiful, varied, and tasty, and that salted caramel gelato from Puerto Magico was back doing a repeat from last year’s Gala.

After dinner, Daniel Celis and his Monaco Band had the dance floor packed from the first song and stayed that way until the party was over.

To my new Russian friends and table mates, Alexi and Julia, thanks for the conversation and kind words. The same goes for Jan Dorland and Rob Burton. Thanks for the dance! To Rob Rossi, who is married to Club President Sunny and is the most helpful husband ever, thanks for anchoring our end of the table.

Blooming Together was well-planned, well-executed, and the most fun Gala all round to date. Bravo, and Happy 3rd Anniversary to Brian Bott, From Here!

Author

  • Marcia Blondin

    I am a Canadian expat who has lived in Vallarta for over 30 years. Becoming the editor of Vallarta Mirror is a dream come true, spending my days extolling the virtues of the city I love. An environmentalist in my lifestyle, artistic endeavors, the clothes I wear and the love I share.

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