Albuquerque CAN be interesting
Aug. 21st, 2005 12:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
billeylerThis weekend was the grand re-opening of Sidewinder's Ranch (yes, we can now call it that officially). Too tired on Friday to go out for that part of the grand opening, but we did opt to hit Saturday night, since Mark Weigle was the headliner.
A friend of ours from Amarillo was in town for the weekend, Harry. Salt-of-the-earth gay man, looks every inch a 50 year old cowboy, born and raised on a Ranch. Neither he nor (until recently) Danny had heard of Mark Weigle.
I had seen him perform a few years back in a pass-through at a friend's house; he had a small concert for 10 of us, and we gave him appropriate tips and kudos, and OMG those BLUE EYES. My oh my, do I swoon for that.
So, we get all duded up for the evening, and hit our favorite Vietnamese restaurant on the way over, May Cafe. LOVE the cold vermicelli dishes. Yum! We go the the Ranch about 8:45 to get a good place to park. Found a good table near the wall, but soon abandoned it when Dominic sat at the next table over puffing one of those huge putrid stogies he favors. So we got a nice close-up table just in front of the stage area.
The 9:00 show started at 9:45, of course after a crowd appeared. Lots and lots of faces from the old days of a friendlier, livelier Ranch, before the old management decided to alienate everyone.
The warm-up act was one of the bartenders there, who is actually the asst. manager, Brandon Dillon. If you close your eyes and visualize who he sounds like singing, it's a cross between Wynonna and Patsy Cline. He's THAT good. And campy, so I immediately thought he'll make a great MC for our variety show next year. (put on things-to-do' list.
Mark W is very social. VERY. He has quite a fan club here, too (including me). I was expecting him to sit on the stage on a barstool, strumming his guitar and singing ballads from his "older days..." But actually he didn't have a guitar at all, and sang very lively covers of some great songs and a number of his FILTHY FUN songs from his new album "Soul Sex." He made some sexy comments in my direction as he was interacting with the audience.
Somehow, he tapped me to dance with him in the breaks several times. He seems to like bearish-moustached guys with cowboy hats. :-) He's quite a cuddly dancer, and good at it, so we were able to talk quite a bit, unlike most of my students who are concentrating so hard on 'slow slow quick quick' that any random thought would make them stumble and fall.
Turns out after I mentioned I call square dancing, that he knows a lot of square dancers, including![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
otterpop58. I told him I'd be SURE to say hello to Andy from him. He mentioned that he was supposed to sing at the convention in Santa Clara, but ahem ahem, a certain ex of Andy's never got back to him about that. (of course, whole story about that not known, so all comments reserved). Anyway, I was pretty flattered that he asked me to dance. Three times! I don't think I drooled too much on his shoulder. He's a little guy like abqdan so he's just the right size for comfortable dancing for me.
Oh yes, and Danny and I danced a lot together, too! :-)
Danny mentioned to him that I had some of his other CDs (we bought "Soul Sex" last night), so Mark put clever autographs on some of his old album sleeves and gave them to us. Oh, baby! I was 1/2 afraid that he was going to write something really sexual like David Sedaris did several months back, but no, it was really sweet.
During the 2nd set he did (it was 11pm by then) he made some comment about seeing several guys there that he had seen earlier in the bookstore, but I thought he was making some witty joke, since it tied in with his song. Little did I know...
Anyway, we made our departure, tired and happy, but sadly smoke-sodden about midnight, saying bye to all these old acquaintances along the way. The place was packed, and guys were trying to jockey badly out of too cramped parking in the back of the place. Scary. Came home and immediately stripped down, threw the toxic clothing in the hamper and showered...whew.
So, as Harry was leaving today to head back to Amarillo, I told him I hoped he had some adventures to take back home with him from Albuquerque. THEN he coyly commented that before he had come home from shopping yesterday, he stopping in at one of the bookstores on Central, and and and.... yes, he HAD seen Mark Weigle there! That dog! LOL
So Harry went back to Amarillo today with adventures in his memory...
A friend of ours from Amarillo was in town for the weekend, Harry. Salt-of-the-earth gay man, looks every inch a 50 year old cowboy, born and raised on a Ranch. Neither he nor (until recently) Danny had heard of Mark Weigle.
I had seen him perform a few years back in a pass-through at a friend's house; he had a small concert for 10 of us, and we gave him appropriate tips and kudos, and OMG those BLUE EYES. My oh my, do I swoon for that.
So, we get all duded up for the evening, and hit our favorite Vietnamese restaurant on the way over, May Cafe. LOVE the cold vermicelli dishes. Yum! We go the the Ranch about 8:45 to get a good place to park. Found a good table near the wall, but soon abandoned it when Dominic sat at the next table over puffing one of those huge putrid stogies he favors. So we got a nice close-up table just in front of the stage area.
The 9:00 show started at 9:45, of course after a crowd appeared. Lots and lots of faces from the old days of a friendlier, livelier Ranch, before the old management decided to alienate everyone.
The warm-up act was one of the bartenders there, who is actually the asst. manager, Brandon Dillon. If you close your eyes and visualize who he sounds like singing, it's a cross between Wynonna and Patsy Cline. He's THAT good. And campy, so I immediately thought he'll make a great MC for our variety show next year. (put on things-to-do' list.
Mark W is very social. VERY. He has quite a fan club here, too (including me). I was expecting him to sit on the stage on a barstool, strumming his guitar and singing ballads from his "older days..." But actually he didn't have a guitar at all, and sang very lively covers of some great songs and a number of his FILTHY FUN songs from his new album "Soul Sex." He made some sexy comments in my direction as he was interacting with the audience.
Somehow, he tapped me to dance with him in the breaks several times. He seems to like bearish-moustached guys with cowboy hats. :-) He's quite a cuddly dancer, and good at it, so we were able to talk quite a bit, unlike most of my students who are concentrating so hard on 'slow slow quick quick' that any random thought would make them stumble and fall.
Turns out after I mentioned I call square dancing, that he knows a lot of square dancers, including
otterpop58. I told him I'd be SURE to say hello to Andy from him. He mentioned that he was supposed to sing at the convention in Santa Clara, but ahem ahem, a certain ex of Andy's never got back to him about that. (of course, whole story about that not known, so all comments reserved). Anyway, I was pretty flattered that he asked me to dance. Three times! I don't think I drooled too much on his shoulder. He's a little guy like abqdan so he's just the right size for comfortable dancing for me.Oh yes, and Danny and I danced a lot together, too! :-)
Danny mentioned to him that I had some of his other CDs (we bought "Soul Sex" last night), so Mark put clever autographs on some of his old album sleeves and gave them to us. Oh, baby! I was 1/2 afraid that he was going to write something really sexual like David Sedaris did several months back, but no, it was really sweet.
During the 2nd set he did (it was 11pm by then) he made some comment about seeing several guys there that he had seen earlier in the bookstore, but I thought he was making some witty joke, since it tied in with his song. Little did I know...
Anyway, we made our departure, tired and happy, but sadly smoke-sodden about midnight, saying bye to all these old acquaintances along the way. The place was packed, and guys were trying to jockey badly out of too cramped parking in the back of the place. Scary. Came home and immediately stripped down, threw the toxic clothing in the hamper and showered...whew.
So, as Harry was leaving today to head back to Amarillo, I told him I hoped he had some adventures to take back home with him from Albuquerque. THEN he coyly commented that before he had come home from shopping yesterday, he stopping in at one of the bookstores on Central, and and and.... yes, he HAD seen Mark Weigle there! That dog! LOL
So Harry went back to Amarillo today with adventures in his memory...
