Nah they were just tourists out for a good time, and it was pretty crowded, and I was "invisible". Heh. Anyway, they were attracting the attention of all the bar girls, as you can see in the first picture. In fact, a couple of bar girls chased after them as they rode off. So you can imagine they could care less about me.
Dodging the highlights is to bring out the bright areas, then you need to burn the shadows to bring back the dark areas. It's one of the best ways to selectively increase contrast in a picture. Yes, you do lose the details in the highlights and shadows, but the increased contrast allows you to make out the image better. Notice that the grain is definitely more, though.