Puerto Vallarta Information & Events
RETURN OF THE PHANTOM.
by the PVeye
Solomon Rosenheim, following on the successful presentation at Blue Chairs of ‘A Night with the Phantom’, is performing a new, multi-media presentation of The Phantom of the Opera.
The show is called RETURN OF THE PHANTOM and is at the Santa Barbara Theatre on Olas Altas. The Opening night is January 8th at 9 pm and the show will last approximately two hours. It will plays on January 8th, 15th and 29th.
Willie and Lobo return to the River Cafe on January 7,8,9 at 8 pm. If you missed them on New Years here, this is a 2nd, 3rd and 4th chance. They’re good.
Tango Vallarta celebrates the New Year by offering all Vallartenses and visitors an Introduction to Tango on January 7, at 8 pm, at J&B Dancing Club. A mini lesson in Argentina’s major export is included. There is no charge for this event and you do not need a partner. A new series of tango classes begins January 14, same time and place.
Argentine tango is a dance of connection between two dancers and the music, entirely improvised from special tango techniques. The man invites his partner’s response; she accepts and adorns the dance. Over the last 20 years tango has enchanted the world, inspiring thousands of enthusiasts!
J&B Dancing Club is at Francisco M. Ascensio 2043.
MORE INFORMATION:
MEDIA-MEXICO:
Freedom of the Press?
by Diego Cevallos
MEXICO CITY, Jan 7 (IPS) – In the last seven years in Mexico, 35 journalists were killed and six went missing, 84 media workers filed complaints of insults or attacks in 2007, and in the first few days of 2008, the prestigious independent radio commentator Carmen Aristegui, who has often criticised the powers that be, was fired. Given that outlook, many analysts wonder whether the media in Mexico is really as free as the government of conservative President Felipe Calderón claims.
Los Arcos Theater on the Malecon, Sunday, January 6 at 8pm. Free
Dream Science Circus tells an exciting story of imagination and wonder. This multi-media spectacle for all-ages is set in the “laboratory” of an eccentric scientist who has invented a device called the dream machine. This machine extracts dreams from the audience and materializes them on stage using acrobatics, aerial feats, live music and hilarious improvisational theater.
Last night (this is a generic “last night” of course), after leaving a local bar with friends, one of them handed me a flier and lightly suggested that we check out this new club, AA. At first I thought she was doing some type of alcoholic intervention since she’s a bit of purist in some ways, but the flier said, “A Free Beer until Midnite” so I said, “What the hell, lets go.”
You can tell from outside what you’re getting into but I didn’t believe that first impression. I hadn’t seen anything like place this since the mid 80s in San Francisco’s SOMA. I don’t want to date myself here or appear too limited in social experience, but it was like slipping back 30-40 years into a black hole. Maybe there are lots of clubs like this in Vallarta and maybe I just don’t get out enough.
The place is rough. Black everywhere with strobes and pulsating colored lights and techno, heart-driving music. There are large candles on the walls in case of mood changes, I suppose. The seating is unpadded cement so I guess that’s not the intent. The flier says, “Progressive Dance Music, House Techno, Electronica… with DJ CHILL (from Vancouver, BC) and DJ GRAPENUTS (from Seattle).” Behind the bar is Vincent, an amiable fellow.
There’s a shower stage in the middle of this relatively small club and an iron DJ cage and speakers big enough to raise the dead. AA is just off of Olas Altas, around the corner from Apaches at 157 Francisca Rodriguez.
The back emergency exit is one place you definitely wouldn’t want to take your mother, with the architecture and decor out of the old SF days (I apologize again if my references are dated and provincial).
AA is open Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights now from 7 pm until 4 am, but it was dead at 11pm, as all good after-hours clubs should be. It’s set up for high activity. Looks like it’s only a beer bar with Corona and Modelo Negra on tap. TEL: 322 147 6496. No Cover.