Dallas, city of bulls...
One of our actors said this about Dallas: "The best thing you can say about Dallas is that it makes Hartford look really good." Dallas was a big ole disappointment for most of us. We had expected cowboys and great Mexican and big hair and crazy line-dancing and great bars and friendly people. What we got was businessmen and scary child cheerleaders and deserted downtown streets that all run the wrong direction and insanely-planned highways and an utter lack of culture or restaurants or night spots.
Once again, we were in a really beautiful theatre -- the AT&T Performing Arts Center, which is brand new, was a beautiful facility. Huge lovely dressing rooms, a monstrous stage (so big that we had to tape paths on the floor for the actor to find their way on and off the stage), beautiful house, friendly staff. The audiences were friendly, if somewhat surprised by our little play. Houses were fairly decent, size-wise, and we got great reviews. So, the theatrical experience was good. But that doesn't excuse Dallas.
So, I will focus on a few fun and quirky parts of Dallas that we, being determined culture-and-fun-seekers, managed to discover and enjoy in spite of the Lone Star State's best attempt to keep us New Yorkers down!
-Our first night there we ventured to a delicious organic, local-food-serving restaurant called Bolsa, and had a lovely dinner of fresh veggies and great seafood (not sure where you get "local" seafood in Dallas, though) and organic meats -- including beef cheek. Yes, here in Texas they don't waste a thing.
-The next night was opening and, surprise surprise, we got a party! I actually dressed up, for once (meaning I wore makeup and a shirt not made out of cotton).
One of our actors said this about Dallas: "The best thing you can say about Dallas is that it makes Hartford look really good." Dallas was a big ole disappointment for most of us. We had expected cowboys and great Mexican and big hair and crazy line-dancing and great bars and friendly people. What we got was businessmen and scary child cheerleaders and deserted downtown streets that all run the wrong direction and insanely-planned highways and an utter lack of culture or restaurants or night spots.
Once again, we were in a really beautiful theatre -- the AT&T Performing Arts Center, which is brand new, was a beautiful facility. Huge lovely dressing rooms, a monstrous stage (so big that we had to tape paths on the floor for the actor to find their way on and off the stage), beautiful house, friendly staff. The audiences were friendly, if somewhat surprised by our little play. Houses were fairly decent, size-wise, and we got great reviews. So, the theatrical experience was good. But that doesn't excuse Dallas.
So, I will focus on a few fun and quirky parts of Dallas that we, being determined culture-and-fun-seekers, managed to discover and enjoy in spite of the Lone Star State's best attempt to keep us New Yorkers down!
-Our first night there we ventured to a delicious organic, local-food-serving restaurant called Bolsa, and had a lovely dinner of fresh veggies and great seafood (not sure where you get "local" seafood in Dallas, though) and organic meats -- including beef cheek. Yes, here in Texas they don't waste a thing.
-The next night was opening and, surprise surprise, we got a party! I actually dressed up, for once (meaning I wore makeup and a shirt not made out of cotton).
-The Texas sunsets and sunrises were really quite something. Here is one as seen from the window of my 737 as we winged to Raleigh.
-Across the street from our hotel was a really neat sculpture of a cattle drive (which I found particularly interesting considering I was in the middle of reading Lonesome Dove when we arrived). It was a huge, beautiful installation -- about 30 "cows," plus three horses with riders, all cascading down a hill and through a stream. Kim and I went out during one of the aforementioned beautiful sunsets and snapped a few shots:
-When I returned from chemo my second week, all of the lovely ladies on the tour had planned a lovely day of massage and fun, capped off by a big dinner at this fantastic barbecue restaurant nearby called Smoke. I had a 1/2-pound of "Pulled Whole Hog," and it was wholly delicious -- even the parts I didn't recognize.
-One of the things we had all wanted to do while we were in Dallas was go line-dancing, so on our last Saturday night, we geared up to do just that. We headed over to Gilley's, a local spot recommended to us as the place to go if one is looking to line-dance. However, when we arrived there was one extremely loud band and about a thousand extremely drunk Texans weaving around a dance-floor -- most definitely NOT in any sort of lines. Apparently Gilley's only does line-dancing in the afternoons; the evenings are for loud bands and drunken weaving. We were bemoaning this and screaming into each other's ears about whether or not we should just leave when I spotted, in a distant corner of the bar, that magical means of entertainment that only Texas does right -- a mechanical bull. Needless to say, I went for a spin. I am happy to report that not only did I not break anything, but I stayed on a full 8 seconds and longer. (It's possible that the cowboy at the controls might have been taking it easy on me because of my bald head and threat to kick his ass if he hurt me, but I doubt it.)
So, while Texas wasn't all that I'd hoped for, I got a massage, saw some beautiful sunsets, ate a pig, and rode a cow. And you can't do that just anywhere.