Breaking News: Construction Walls Surround Rock'n'Roll Beach Club & Motion

They were visible as soon as I crossed the #2 Bridge from the main parking lot onto Pleasure Island. There were construction walls up next to Rock'n'Roll Beach Club! One of our readers yesterday posted in the Comments section of the Blog that the walls were imminent. He was right; the walls went up early today! The view above is from the PI water taxi stop looking inland with RRBC to the left.

Continuing inland, this is the view across from PI Live Bar looking towards Sosa Cigars. Pleasure Island sources say PI Live Bar's days are numbered. It's certainly not in any of the concept art pieces released.

Very reminesent of the Berlin Wall, the PI Wall left a small sliver of patio space on the side of Sosa Cigars but took away all their rear patio space.

Say goodbye forever to Rock'n'Roll Beach Club.

A walkway between Sosa Cigars and Raglan Road allows bathroom access but club Motion is now completely cut off from pedestrians.

When you gotta go, you gotta go. Bathroom access.

A broader evening view from Paradiso 37 looking down Hill Street towards the PI Wall. If you're local and don't already have PI photos, you might want to stop by this weekend. The end of these two dance clubs is very, very near!

Black Lake Village Will Not Be PI 2.0

Shortly after Pleasure Island closed there were several rumors circulating that Disney was secretly building a Pleasure Island 2.0 somewhere else on property. It would have been a wonderful surprise to PI fans and all adult Disney guests. One rumor referred to something being developed just beyond the Coronado Springs Resort. Of course anyone in the know recognized that as the still-doomed Flamingo Crossings development. A different rumor referred to something along US 192 near the Osceola County line. Nothing ever became of that rumor and my drive along that highway produced no hints of construction.

Until now. Disney has filed plans with Orange County for some sort of development along US 192 (Florida State Road 530) to be called Black Lake Village. Deciphering the 156 page plan, the best I can come up with to describe it is as a quality shopping center similar to Crossroads. But this is not PI 2.0.  There are many prohibited uses and unfortunately as you can see in the snippet above, Rule 1.47.3 prevents bars and night clubs. So we'll have to continue to dream!

Concert Report: Tiësto at UCF Arena

Last Friday November 19th, the number three DJ in the world Tiësto (NL) brought his Kaleidoscope World Tour back to Orlando, packing-in UCF Arena. This was his second show at UCF, having played there October 16, 2009. Prior shows were at Hard Rock Live in 2008 and House of Blues in 2007. Local DJ Jimmy Joslin opened followed by DJ Gina Turner. Trance is very much alive.

Club Reports: Bliss, Vintage & Independent Bar

The decorative star overlooking the corner of Orange & Central Avenues can only mean that it's holiday season again. Clubbing downtown got off to a slow start last night with most of the places I passed by or visited being relatively empty before midnight.

Began the night at Bliss Ultra Lounge with some refreshing selections off the Dollar Menu. DJ Mickey Bono (Beat Thrillerz, RadioDanz, Vain) got people moving on the floor to Dance music and then turned over the tables to DJ Chad Andrew's more pure House music. Miami Edition DJ's Keith Christopher and Ed Whitty were to play later but I had places to go & people to see so I did not stick around for them! As is typical here, the girls look pretty in dresses while guys are slobs in jeans.

Over at Vintage Lounge DJ Dominick Morrison (Mannequins, EPCOT) had a few people dancing in various spots to his mix of Dance and Top 40 but most people were spending the time drinking and socializing.  I will be among the masses this year at his New Years Eve extravaganza outside China in EPCOT!

Up in the rafters at Independent Bar, DJ Indie John plays 80's Old Wave hits on Saturday nights to an always packed venue. Most of the "regulars" were there including a number of people I knew from Mannequins. Always a fun group and fascinating for people-watching, the music is full of memories and a completely different mix from what is played at 80's Night at The Groove. So no new territory covered last night but sometimes you gotta stick with the familiar!

PI Update: Gloomy Island

With another cold front pushing through Orlando today, the sky had that gloomy winter overcast to it. So naturally what better place to spend such a gloomy day than gloomy Pleasure Island! Above at Celebration Plaza, the Purple Stage has added a regular platform. Not sure if this is just for the holidays or whether it's semi-permanent.

At club Motion, the ancient television monitors that were on both sides of the main doors have finally been pulled out of their window display cases.

Inside Motion, the result of internal demolition has led to lots of debris. Notice all the construction wall panels stacked up. The end is near!

Rock'n'Roll Beach Club awaits a similar fate however it was long-ago stripped of anything of value.

The Lily Pad area has a new look but that small area of construction remains surrounded.

The new and improved #1 Bridge is open for business.

Looking southeast over the frontier into Marketplace, one sees the soon to expand Lego store and World of Disney doing a brisk business. Indeed, parking was pretty jammed this afternoon as many Thanksgiving visitors stocked up on holiday gift items.

Club Reports: CityWalk (Thanksgiving Night)

I didn't find anything exciting at the midnight sales at the outlet mall last night so I decided to check out the action at CityWalk. Overall, it wasn't too exciting either. Latin Quarter had the largest crowd of any of the clubs out there.

Latin Quarter DJ Leony with the promotions director Sue from Rumba 100.3 which sponsors the Thursday night Ladies Night at LQ. You can hear awesome House music sets from Leony tonight at Midnight Eastern time on BPM (Sirius 36/XM81) and Saturday night at 8pm ET on RadioDanz.com.

Bob Marley's had a few people dancing in there.

There was also a small crowd in Red Coconut Club for DJ G-Clef. He'll be spinning tonight at Atlantic Dance Hall too.

Close to dead was 80's Night at The Groove with DJ King.

Congratulations to Rich who tied the knot this past Saturday!

Margaritaville didn't even bother.

But Rising Star had a line at times with a decent number of patrons looking on. Overall, it was not much of a night for partying so I went back to the outlet mall!

Club Report: Tabu (AAHZ Encore)

Last's years 20th anniversary AAHZ Reunion was so awesome that this year they did an AAHZ Encore!

Back where he belongs, DJ Dave Cannalte (Mannequins) working the boards for the huge early crowd.

Looking through the haze, the place was packed from the beginning.

Stage dancer showing off her secrets!

The seamless switchover from Dave Cannalte to Kimball Collins.

Mannequins!

Mannequins!

DJ Kimball Collins on the decks.

Mannequins!

It was crowded everywhere.

DJ Smilin' Dan (Independent Bar) with Dana (Stella Luca Salon).

DJ Baby Anne with Cannalte. He's cute too.

3am came way too soon and when it was time to go home, the crowd left peacefully.

The general consensus is that there is a huge demand for music like this and it has to happen more than once or twice a year. I reported on the special techno night they had at CityWalk on Labor Day weekend which was similarly packed. The Tiësto concert last week packed UCF Arena to the rafters. Someone needs to deliver this to us!