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Junior gets lukewarm reception at Madison Square Garden.
Bulls, Cowboys, Fire, Fireworks, David Bowie, Louis Vuitton, and Donald Trump Jr. Take the Garden
JANUARY 8, 2018 4:07 PM
by COREY SEYMOUR
The Professional Bull Riders tour kicked off its 25th anniversary season last week with its 12th visit to Madison Square Garden—and while there was plenty of everything you might expect from such a red-meat, (usually) red-state spectacle—hats, boots, and buckles were well-represented; U.S. Customs and Border Protection provided the color guard (and staffed a number of recruiting stations in the hallways of the Garden); and, right after a scantily clad troupe of Monster Energy girls strutted their cropped tops across the dirt-filled floor of the arena, which had been partially lit on fire while M-80 explosions scared the living daylights out of unsuspecting New Yorkers up for a bit of a cowboy lark, the crowd was asked to remove their hats for the invocation, during which the master of ceremonies asked God to bless and keep the bull riders, the bulls, and the servicemen laying their lives on the line so that we may continue to enjoy the freedoms that make America great. A few minutes later, the presence of Donald Trump Jr. and his children is announced to the crowd—which gave the fleece-clad presidential progeny a decidedly muted reception, with polite applause, mixed with muffled boos.
....
When it comes to the riders themselves, though, things start to get gloriously weird. For every J. B. Mauney—a Marlboro Red–smoking John Wayne type who rarely sees inside a gym but completed his 500th career ride last week (only two others in the history of PBR competition have ridden a bull for eight seconds more than 500 times) with 13 anchors and a screw holding his shoulder together after a bad ride last year that tore ligaments and tendons right off his bone)—there’s a Jess Lockwood, the 20-year-old Justin Bieber look-alike (and reigning world champion) who, after last year’s Garden competition, while all the other cowboys were heading out to the bars, took his girlfriend to a candy store. Or a Shane Proctor, a Washington native, sporting handmade, custom-designed Louis Vuitton chaps made by a friend, who did surgery on an LV garment bag to procure the material. (Though Proctor himself often designs and sews his own chaps and sometimes makes them for other riders—his mother taught him to sew when he was 10 and, being a natural competitor, he tested his stitching in sewing contests.) “I’m a little more out there than most guys,” Proctor says. “I also think I might be the only rider out here who even knows what Louis Vuitton is. They’re my New York chaps.”
JANUARY 8, 2018 4:07 PM
by COREY SEYMOUR
The Professional Bull Riders tour kicked off its 25th anniversary season last week with its 12th visit to Madison Square Garden—and while there was plenty of everything you might expect from such a red-meat, (usually) red-state spectacle—hats, boots, and buckles were well-represented; U.S. Customs and Border Protection provided the color guard (and staffed a number of recruiting stations in the hallways of the Garden); and, right after a scantily clad troupe of Monster Energy girls strutted their cropped tops across the dirt-filled floor of the arena, which had been partially lit on fire while M-80 explosions scared the living daylights out of unsuspecting New Yorkers up for a bit of a cowboy lark, the crowd was asked to remove their hats for the invocation, during which the master of ceremonies asked God to bless and keep the bull riders, the bulls, and the servicemen laying their lives on the line so that we may continue to enjoy the freedoms that make America great. A few minutes later, the presence of Donald Trump Jr. and his children is announced to the crowd—which gave the fleece-clad presidential progeny a decidedly muted reception, with polite applause, mixed with muffled boos.
....
When it comes to the riders themselves, though, things start to get gloriously weird. For every J. B. Mauney—a Marlboro Red–smoking John Wayne type who rarely sees inside a gym but completed his 500th career ride last week (only two others in the history of PBR competition have ridden a bull for eight seconds more than 500 times) with 13 anchors and a screw holding his shoulder together after a bad ride last year that tore ligaments and tendons right off his bone)—there’s a Jess Lockwood, the 20-year-old Justin Bieber look-alike (and reigning world champion) who, after last year’s Garden competition, while all the other cowboys were heading out to the bars, took his girlfriend to a candy store. Or a Shane Proctor, a Washington native, sporting handmade, custom-designed Louis Vuitton chaps made by a friend, who did surgery on an LV garment bag to procure the material. (Though Proctor himself often designs and sews his own chaps and sometimes makes them for other riders—his mother taught him to sew when he was 10 and, being a natural competitor, he tested his stitching in sewing contests.) “I’m a little more out there than most guys,” Proctor says. “I also think I might be the only rider out here who even knows what Louis Vuitton is. They’re my New York chaps.”
