Lady Fleabag: I'm okay with praying to Jesus if its followed by Pantera & Fire

Another recent outing took me and Jamie (and her boyfriend) to the Oregon Bull Riding Championships. Ho-leeee cow. LOVED IT. The whole night is a mashup of concert -- performance -- --tense --dangerous killer cows -- and a handsome trim matching pair of fearless cowboy savior ropers.

I made sure to hang on to my ticket stub for
the coupon on the back.

Jamie and I attend Bull Riding with all the Greyback stable peeps.
You can still rock a western look and look relevant and stylish--
retaining dignity for your age group--
all black, huge conch belt with enormous buckle,
super long narrow black boot cut pants,
western cut yoke black leather jacket from a thrift store
("Made in Paris" the label says) I've had for 15 years--
worn all through the late 90's, early 2000's Sunset Blvd/Rocker/Rainbow years.
Checkout the look on the girl's face in pink behind us.

Or, your outfit can take a terrible turn as you
see on these perhaps 50+ aged ladies. Wait, was that girl in pink
looking at the bullride or these women?

None of my pics or videos came out very well, but let me describe. The place is packed with people dressed in their finest western frippery, lots of camo and hats, out for the big Saturday night-- pounding beers and all riled up. A DJ/announcer begins his patter and they do the National Anthem, then he goes into "Ladies and gentlemen lets bow our heads together in prayer to jesus christ-- that we come out of this safe, that this livestock is safe, and no one gets hurt" on and on--that we're proud to be americans in america, they boo Californians, they are so glad that they're all white (I saw one mexican and one black cowboy-- they stood at the very back to stay out of the line of sight of most of the arena) and praising to the rooftop that all we have is apparently due to the wonderful protection of our lord and savior J. Chrizzle. Blechhhh.

The ONE black dude and ONE vaquero--
I imagine they are discussing the hardships
of living in a 93% white area.
Wayyy out of sight
in the very back corner section

Then, what a shocker and so fucking awesome--the houselights go totally dark and on comes "FUCKING HOSTILE" by Pantera at earsplitting volume as all the competing cowboys come out in a line into the dark arena and a huge line of fire flares up as they walk.

Oregon has Cowboys from Hell

So I go from wanting to puke, to my head almost exploding with joy! That's quite a confusing and startling trip in half a second, let me tell you. From then on, as each cowboy is introduced, they come out of the gate on the bull to their own song-- all good stuff. From Gaga and Marilyn Manson to Journey or the Eagles. I was impressed by the music, not one country song that I remember. David Bowie (Under Pressure), ONE gangsta hip-hop tune, Joan Jett, not bad at all...

Bad video but it gives you the overall vibe.

See the handsome ropers in matching blue.

Bulls have a "bucking strap"

put on them to make them mental....

The two dudes in blue, the "pickup men" ropers, are very trim and slim and matching and I had a big crush on them even though I could barely see their faces--because they saved every cowboy from the killer bulls roping and keeping them from killing anyone-- including--I'm not lying-- one bull that smashed out of the back pen, through the wall of the arena, and escaped out into the parking lot, they had to run out and get it.

GOOD TIMES, GOOD TIMES.

But the Pantera fire, heaven and Jesus reminds me and lets take a moment to

remember our friend lost too soon--