cactus

last night i caressed dan dority's cowboy boot. yes, i did. only for a second, but how could you not, as it was made of ostrich and lizard? and, besides, he said it was ok.

which is to say, coiledsoul and i met the actor w. earl brown in the HOB foundation room last night after the frank black show. (which included an awesome solo-acoustic set by frank at the beginning, featuring several of my favorite pixies tunes. also he played a lot of covers and some older solo stuff with the band, so it was an offbeat evening ... as befits the artist formerly known as black francis.) we were sitting on a plush velvet couch, enjoying our drinks, and the people next to us left. so this guy in a flowered cowboy shirt and a big turquoise medallion, lookin' real fermilyer, comes up and asks if he and his friends can sit there. we're all, sure. CS leans over all casual like and whispers to me who it is. i'm all, cool!

we chatted a bit about frank black and the pixies and texas and blah blah blah. they soon discovered their mutual love of steve earle, who is a pal of mr. brown's. then it was off to the races with talking about this artist and that, and soon enough w. e. was shyly saying, "i dunno if you know of a show called 'deadwood,' but ..." and we're like, hell yeah! and then he tells us many entertaining stories, including one about steve earle almost making it onto the show, but for a scheduling conflict.

so our new friend then indicated that some of his companions were pals of his from a band he's in called the sacred cowboys, who play at the knit about once a month and also have a gig opening for david allen coe at the key club next month. so we wrote down that info (yay for me for bringing my pen).

and, oh yeah. the cowboy boots. well, CS was wearin' her cowboy boots, as girls from texas do, and brown was wearin' some too, as he is originally from kentucky. we were admiring the dark-red-and-cream two-tone work on his boot. he told us where he got them. the right one was right there in front of my face, and i reached out my hand without even thinking (cuz ... drunk). i put a fingertip on it and then drew back. i looked at him. "is it ok if i touch it?" he nodded. "go ahead." so i traced the texture of the two different skins, the line of the seam where they were joined. gorgeous. then i pulled my hand away, lest it take god knows what sort of liberties (with the boots, people -- the boots). "nice," i said. he smiled.

we chatted a while more, and then the actor's friend, who is the drummer for frank black, came out and they all trundled off to see him. CS and i went to the restroom and then tripped off back to the car. we couldn't wait to get back to my place and tell 00soul all about it.