alamoing

the last sing-along at the original alamo

justin timberlake: rock your body

last night, i danced and sang good-bye to the original alamo on colorado street.

to celebrate the legacy of music, dance parties and awesomeness, henri put together a “mixtape” show that captured the brightest sing-along moments, from moulin rouge (”MY GIFT IS MY SOOOONG”) to michael jackson’s thriller (complete with burlesque zombie dancers), from hedwig and the angry inch (”i put on some MAKE-UP”) to boy bands (”don’t wanna HEAR YOU SAY”). it was, in a word, amazing.

as you’ve probably gathered from this blog, i’ve spent almost every thursday night belting my heart out and dancing in a tiny corner below the screen. i’ve screamed like a school girl for cedar fever (austin’s only boy band), instituted the infamous dance toll with meredith, yelled “demolition man!” when wesley snipes pops up in the “bad” video, smeared on blue eye shadow for ladies of the 80s, flashbacked to junior high during jiggy crunk and driven through an ice storm just to watch britney and justin on the big screen.

even though the sing-alongs will continue in the alamo’s posh new digs at the ritz (ritzy!), the original theater on colorado street is permanently tucked away in my heart. the amount of memories generated within the walls of this building overwhelms me, and i can’t think of the theater without a mental slideshow of friends, of loves, of sweat and laughter and a rousing, raucous chorus of voices.

and so, dear readers, i present to you: the last sing-along at my dear little drafthouse!

here’s the lobby, where i’ve spent countless hours loitering, gossiping and trying to make my way through the crowd to the bathroom.

i met henri for the first time at the base of these steps, when i participated in chemistry 101:

awwww! i know, right? oh you better believe i’m laying on the cheese in this entry!

for his last night hosting in the theater, henri dressed to IMPRESS:

shaZZAM!

there’s the theater, where i’ve literally spent about 30% of my time over the past two years.

not a bad place to live yr life, you know?

kiersten, one of my sing-along ladies, came for the 7:00 show. she was EXCITED!

here’s owen and henri, intro-ing the show and being all fancy pants:

the kitty kitty bang bang burlesque girls were AWESOME thriller dancers. they did a much better job than the time that BNARDT attempted to perform this *extremely* complicated dance… although i have to say, i think BNARDT did it with a little more love.

erica and selina showed up for the 9:45 show, which was a TAD more rowdy (as most 9:45s are). and you can see moody in the back, doing jazz hands! hi moody!

of course, all of the other usual suspects where there, including caitlin, who works with henri on shows, and her bff, christy. or is it christi? eh?!

i know, they’re adorable!

it didn’t take too long before we were out of our seats and on the floor. it’s not a proper singalong unless it dissolves into a dance party, fyi.

henri brought back the *extremely* popular ladies of the 80s encore, 99 red balloons.

you guys, PEOPLE LOVE BALLOONS. it’s a universal truth.

then, things started to get a little CRAY. you can tell by the appearance of sunglasses in the extremely darkened theater.

meep!

what WHAT!

i know. i am the stuff of legends.

owen and his wife jodi totally got crunk with us, too.

they are so in love. totally.

you can always tell that things are getting Out Of Hand when you see an abundance of kissey pictures:

gwen stefani? call me!

michael, henri’s brother, and stephanie, an alamo intern, were also there to GET THEIR DANCE ON!

while some of us may attempt junior high dance moves, selina and erica are straight up GANGSTA:

the crowd was packed with sing-along regulars, and you would not BELIEVE the energy jamming up the room. when journey came on, i really thought the place was gonna explode.

“THOUGH we TOUCHED and WENT our SEPARATE WAAAAYYYSSSS!”

we were so ON FIRE, we could’ve been partying at hyde or pure or that stupid bar that pete wentz opened in NYC. but there’s no place i would’ve rather been than our little alamo dance corner, where we RULE THE SCHOOL. plus, as far as i know, paris hilton has never been to the alamo. whew.

owen and henri even recreated the sword fight in madonna’s “die another day” video, except that they weren’t twins. which is obviously a good thing. can you imagine two henris?

by the time “mo’ money, mo’ problems” came on, the show was OFF THE CHAIN!

seriously, erica makes the best dance faces of anyone i know.

christy looks absolutely soulful… i think the spirit of biggie really spoke to her.

no sing-along is complete without the appearance of swimfans. here’s erica, impersonating one:

during “sweet child of mine,” jasmine (who works at the alamo) jumped on stage and headbanged her PANTS off. which says a lot, cos she was wearing a skirt.

honestly, i have never seen such heartfelt headbanging in all of my life. her hair was a lethal weapon.

this picture captures the spirit of sing-alongs pretty adequately:

the music MOVES you. it really does.

and here’s a good shot of our little corner! sniff! i’ll miss people sweating on me and jostling me with their elbows as the speaker blasts music directly into my ear.

oh yeah, and those purple streamers are from the “purple rain” encore. stunning.

caitlin gave a little shout-out before the encore, which i belieeeeve was justin timberlake? note the effect of dancing on henri’s wardrobe: his tie is backwards, and his jacket has transformed into a brown vest:

as the last song shook the walls of the theater, we bid it a fond farewell by dancing as if our life depended on it. for some people, that means dancing on tables. cos the floor is made of lava, obviously.

to our brazilliant hosts, i say: thank you.

especially to henri, thank you THANK YOU for making an actual show out of music that i dance alone to in front of my mirror in my jim jams. for over two years, i’ve been able to pretend like i was a famous french courtesan, a newsie, a tranny, a swede and, most importantly, a pop star, all while dancing the night away with my friends.

who could ask for more?

see you at the ritz…

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=NhO4s82lolA]

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