Weekend Review

Friday! This was the night of the East:Meets:West show at Outlaws. I had never been to the venue before, but have to admit it was great for this kind of show. It is the second and third stories of what used to be a dance hall back in the day. I guess most nights of the week, it is a cowboy bar (with strip club on the third floor,) but they occasionally have less-cowboyish performances there. I saw flyers posted for a “Monsters of Rock” night that consisted entirely of cover bands–of course, the original band’s names are what took up most of the space. “AEROSMITH as performed by BlahBlahBlah.” There was also a flyer for Vanilla Ice. I guess Ice is back with a brand new invention. Anyway…. East:Meets:West. I enjoyed myself and had a great time. With a couple of minor exceptions, I liked all of the performances. I understand that some of the bellydance purists were a little put off by the fact that it was promoted as bellydance, but was more of a fusion thing (or, in some cases, a complete departure,) but I don’t know the mechanics of the dance style and am easily amused (especially by fire.) Things I liked (and can currently remember) included:
– two girls dancing, with extremely long hair (okay, clip-on hair extensions), braided together, as a master and mistress (with whips, of course) lorded over them–dancing with their siamese twin like connection, until the guy uses a dagger to separate their hair, proceeding into a dance of loss, etc. You know–telling a story through dance and all that stuff.
– Serpentine dancing with their typical large amounts of fire
– Two fire eaters, a large bald dude and a petite blonde, running around the bar and through the audience–acting like she stole his flaming stick and he’s chasing her to get it back. You you see the fire theme here in my list of likes, right?
– I know there was other stuff, but can’t remember now.

Things I am not sure whether or not I liked (I’m not sure I disliked them, but given the choice again in the future, I’d opt for something else):
– Two girls doing some sort of weird Texan bellydance. They had shiny cowboy hats. One even had a loincloth(?) of Gonzo from the Muppets. Based on the position of the picture and the shape of Gonzo’s nose… nevermind. They concluded with a dance to a lounge version of Baby Got Back.
– The gigantic disco ball in the shape of a cowboy hat on the ceiling. I didn’t notice it for half the show, but once I saw it, I could not un-see it.
– The on-tap beer selection seemed pretty piss-poor and included things like Miller, Bud, Heinekin, and Drop Top Amber. At least they had Drop Top Amber.

Things I didn’t really care for:
– There was a girl toward the beginning with a black veil that had (in my opinion) a poor selection of music and an overdramatic gothy dance with a dagger. Maybe it floats other people’s boats, but I didn’t care for the music and thought the over-seriousness of the performance was a little too corny for me. But then, what do I know? I was the only person, in a vast sea of black, wearing a bright industrial-orange t-shirt.

Saturday! After sleeping in, we went to Bill’s for a pool party. This is the first (and hopefully only) pool party I’ve been to where one of the pool toys was a large rubber fist. It pretty much got avoided until finally Bill threw it away (of course, worried that it would fall out of the can just as trash was being picked up.) I also learned that high-quality stripper poles have bearings in the top and bottom so that the pole itself can spin. I also learned that an improper, but fun, pronunciation of fajita is “fa-jie-ta” (sounds like “vagina.”) It was great fun, with a good group of people, a pool, a BBQ, and a full bar. I discovered that dirty vodka martinis made by a professional mixologist are actually a bit more dirty than I make at home, which is actually quite nice. The party wound down at one point, but spun back up again, so we ended up getting out of there a bit too late to make it over to Feedle’s place (sorry!) We went home and collapsed.

Sunday! After being a bit sore and tired from the previous two days, Sunday was more of a “nesting at home” day. We missed out on a brunch we were invited to and didn’t have the energy to go out to Hillsboro to a coworker’s farm for picking strawberries. We cleaned house and I made summer sausage. Actually, I started curing the meat the previous day, but finished–shaping the meat (using cheesecloth instead of natural or artificial sausage casings) and drying it a bit more at a low heat (the curing deactivates bacteria, but they can come alive again with the right conditions of moisture and heat, whereas the heating after curing ensures they’re dead.) Sunday night the sausages were a little “meh,” but after being in the fridge for the night, they were great on Monday, sliced into discs and put on a salad.

Posted in: Dear Diary Portland

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