PI Update: Demolition Big Duh Moment

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One of our Save Pleasure Island roving reporters was out on the Island today to get some daytime shots of the demolition taking place since its difficult to see with the night shots. The demolition was only supposed to take a few days to complete but apparently it is now on hold because they had a Big Duh moment. Allegedly demolition planners forgot to account for those Harley Davidson signs that are connected to the very light bridge towers that they're tearing down! Island sources are saying that management now has to figure out how the Harley Davidson store can keep the signage its entitled to before they can proceed any further! OMG, if this is true, how could something so basic have been overlooked? (No further work has been completed outside Mannequins either.)

SIN at HOB

Tonight is Service Industry Night at House of Blues and the guest DJ will be Richie Rich. While he normally spins hip hop and other urban beats at his Saturday night residency at Tabu, he promised Save PI readers House music when he plays at HOB. Admission is free for anyone in any service industry; simply bring your business card or pay stub to prove you work for a living! HOB is in Downtown Disney West Side.

Monday update: I've heard that the DJ David Guetta concert scheduled for next Tuesday, December 1st at Roxy has been cancelled. No details yet.

Club Reports: CityWalk

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I haven't reported lately about Thursday nights at CityWalk. Thursday night is 80's Night at The Groove and on the recent Thursdays that I've been there the crowds have been rather light to moderate. I don't think interest is slipping, it's just off-season right now so the tourists are not there to mix in with the locals. To attack that they tried something different last night....the live band Switch performed on the stage playing a large assortment of 80's spread across three 30-minute sets. In between sets, former 8TRAX DJ Doc spun requests and his own selections. There was a decent crowd on hand; the band no doubt drew some of its own followers. It's way too early to judge whether having a live band one Thursday each month is going to be worth the expense. It was interesting though; it seemed different people danced to the band than danced when the DJ was playing. Will be interesting to see the turnout next Thursday...Thanksgiving.

Thursday night is Ladies Night at Latin Quarter featuring renowned DJ Leony of Sirius/XM Radio. Thursday's are usually crowded here but it never quite got that way last night. Me thinks the Latin Night at nearby Blue Martini has drawn away some of LQ's crowd. It wasn't empty, just not packed. The dance floor did get packed when Leony put on his mini-House music sets.

The most densely populated club (per square foot) last night was Red Coconut. DJ G-Clef of Celebrate Tonight fame had the floor crowded after the Herb Williams Band ended for the night.

Club Reports: Junction City, Kansas

I am really NOT going to give you a club report from Junction City, Kansas, lol!! My travels happened to take me there yesterday and I just happened to run into the hottest club in town. (Click on photo to enlarge.) So if you're ever there, now you know!

Live band Switch is playing tonight for 80's Night at The Groove. I'll have a report tomorrow on how things worked out with a live band on the stage.

Renewed rumors from PI that RRBC is to come down next.

PI Update: Demolition Begins

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It didn't take long for demolition to begin after the fences were installed yesterday. I was out on the island this evening and took these shots. Above we see the demolition of the former PI Live DJ booth atop Sosa Cigars. Island sources told me the entire light bridge and towers are coming down. Sources also say that Sosa is not going to have to close or move elsewhere during construction. Also, contrary to rumors, they are not getting an upstairs smokers patio but instead will have a ground-level patio with tables and chairs wrapping around their building.

Meanwhile work also began today on the demolition of the stairs/fire escape outside Mannequins. They've started with the canopy on the forward stairs that led to the 2nd Floor. Presumably, once done they will move to the rear stairs that led to the 3rd Floor.

PI Update

REPORTING & PHOTOGRAPHY BY SAVE PI REPORTER THOMMY
As previously reported here on the Blog, Disney obtained a county permit to demolish the stairs outside Mannequins Dance Palace. Earlier today a barrier wall was placed around the club so that the demolition can begin. The club is not coming down, just the outside stairs.

Construction (or more precisely deconstruction) has begun on the former PI Live booth. Window coverings have been removed and passersby can see the now- gutted booth. As you know, PI Live moved over to the booth atop Laffers Cantina at the time Celebrate Tonight began. Rumors are that the old location will be used as a smoking & drinking patio for the Sosa Cigar bar. There are new signs by RRBC pointing the way to West Side. The bottom photo is taken by the stairs down to the PI Live Bar and you can see Motion in the background but unfortunately no detail of the demolition itself due to the darkness. I am in snowy Kansas this evening but will get more photos upon my return!

On September 21st this Blog posted a picture of the Funmeister which is located behind Sosa's and in front of Motion. I did not mention that on the opposite side of the Funmeister his eyebrow had been broken. That is now fixed. The broken glass has been replaced or reset. Why would they do that instead of just taking the entire Funmeister down?

Another Weekend, Another Cruise

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I haven't reported on any clubs on cruise ships since January because I haven't been out on any. But this past weekend I got to experience Norwegian Jewel out of Miami. The ship has 2 night clubs, Spinnaker which played Latin and Fyzz which was used for karaoke. With the beautiful evening weather on this cruise parties were held by the main pool both nights featuring DJ Mitch (WL) . The famous White Hot Party was held on the pool deck, not in the pool itself. The place stayed packed from 10pm to 2am and featured mostly Motion/Groove-style music (Top 40) and a lot of Disco. As I was on the edge of the pool, it was interesting trying to do the Cupid Shuffle and not fall in! And as for that 4th picture above, I'm not even going to try to explain that! Best thing about this ship? The buffet was open until 2am!! As for partying, ok but I've had better.

PI Update

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The Harley Davidson t-shirt store on Pleasure Island is definitely not moving to the West Side because as you can see, the rumored space is now occupied by Little Missmatched. Over in Motion, the DJ booth is gone again and the venue was rearranged for some other event. Motion continues to be used for various group meetings.

Evening look at the many booths in Downtown Disney (including Pleasure Island) for this weekend's Festival of the Masters. That's all for now....always stay tuned for the latest PI news!

Club Reports: Freeport, Bahamas

My favorite clubs Sultan's Tent and Tipsy Turtle are long gone but there is still night life for tourists in Freeport. The newest is Club Cove located in the Isle of Capri Casino in Lucaya. Friday nights features hits of the 70's, 80's & 90's while Saturday nights is more 70's Disco. As you can see, no cover charge.

The Prop Club is located on the beach behind the Our Lucaya Radisson resort and is set in an aircraft hanger themed building. A casual restaurant by day, they feature Bahamian or Caribbean bands and a DJ after 10pm. A lot of top 40 and hip hop mixed with afro-centric Caribbean sounds.

Freeport, Bahamas does carry a bad enough rep that several cruise lines and even AirTran refer to it by the island name (Grand Bahama Island) rather than the city name Freeport. But the last really big negative event was the closure of the sprawling Crowne Plaza Resort (formerly Bahamas Princess Resort) first by labor strife and then by back-to-back hurricanes. Those events took place a long time ago now so strides are slowly being made to improve the place. I can tell you that Grand Bahama offers several advantages over Nassau. For one, it's cheaper to get to because it's off shore of West Palm Beach rather than south of Miami. Flights are cheaper and there even a daily ferry service for less than $50 return which lets you visit just for the day or in a combination ferry/hotel package. (www.discoverycruiseline.com) Where Nassau is urban and congested, GBI is suburban or rural. I think a 2 night stay is the most you'd want to do and if nightlife is on your list, make sure those 2 nights are Friday/Saturday.

Club Report: HOB & DJ Deadmau5

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I've called those in their 20's the hip hop generation because it seems that's all they listen to. I've had my doubts about techno surviving much longer in the face of the radio domination of hip hop. But those doubts were pretty much quashed last night when an impossibly crowded House of Blues at Downtown Disney West Side hosted DJ Deadmau5 (CDN). Nearly everyone in attendance was under 30 yet I've never seen more glow sticks, glow bracelets, glow necklaces and glow pacifiers in one place since the late 90's! Dancing pretty much had to be done in place facing one direction with little opportunity for turning around. If you weren't on the main floor before this began you weren't getting there.

I personally like House music with vocals but very few of Deadmau5' selections fit that. This was mostly Hard House. But WOW, he put it together. The lighting towers on the stage were awesome and really added to the experience. It was a good hour into the set before I even recognized a song (Daft Punk's Harder Better Faster Stronger) but he also played at least 3 of his own hits and those songs generated the most cheering.

The Mouse moves on to Fort Lauderdale and Miami tonight and tomorrow night. If you're down that way, this is really a worthwhile DJ experience! If gimmicks like a mouse head brings younger fans to techno/house, so be it.

DJ Paul van Dyk Coming To Tampa

Well he's not coming to Orlando but he's coming close! The #5 DJ in the world (per that DJMag poll) is Paul van Dyk (D) and he's coming to The Ritz in Ybor City/Tampa on Friday, November 27th. Go to the IWantTickets website for pricing.

Deadmau5 vs Mickey Mouse

Which Mouse can you expect to see in Downtown Disney this week? Well it won't be the one with a tail. Canadian DJ Deadmau5 (pronounced Dead Mouse) plays House of Blues this Thursday night. He's the only DJ that performs wearing a mouse head.......that I'm aware of! It's all techno, baby!! Coming off 2008/2009 Dance hits Move For Me, I Remember and Ghosts'n'Stuff. I'll give a report on Friday.

Rockin' At 40,000

With the holiday season coming again, many of you may be planning travel. Do you ever select your airline based on in-flight entertainment? Many airlines have upgraded their options. International flights now just about always have seatback video with tremendous entertainment options. Domestically the airlines have been slow overall to upgrade and it seems that it's the low fare carriers that have done the most. Song, a unit of Delta and Ted, a unit of United really created the competition in this category but unfortunately both have been absorbed back into their mother airlines. But if you're looking for good music domestically, keep in mind that JetBlue, AirTran and United all offer XM Satellite Radio options. On my recent trip to MSP on the merged Northwest/Delta they did not have that but their regular audio offerings included a channel called Delta's Party In the Sky. Songs in the September rotation included Dave Aude' dance remixes of Lovegame and Love Struck, David Guetta's Love Takes Over and BEP's Boom Boom Pow, among others. Great channel. Happy travels!

PI Update

A new store called Little Missmatched is coming to DTD West Side and is to be located in the spot vacated by Starabilias. The store carries trendy (but mismatched) things for girls. What's intriguing about this news is that it was rumored that the Harley Davidson store on Pleasure Island was moving into that spot. So maybe Harley isn't moving after all. So bring on that Harley Davidson Cafe into the Mannequins building! At least use that space for something! Update: Little Missmatched is now open.

Sources says construction crews have been at work inside Comedy Warehouse, apparently dismantling the stage. They have also been painting. Hmmm. You don't normally paint things that are going to be demolished. So this could be sign that something is coming.

The famous DJ booth is back in place on the stage at Motion.

Clubs on Ships vs Clubs on Land

Furthering that discussion that was taking place over in the Comments section of last Friday's entry, we have to wonder why Disney feels it's ok to have an Adults Only nightclub section on their new cruise ship yet doesn't feel it's ok to have an Adults Only nightclub section on Pleasure Island. PI was closed under the theory that they needed to be more family friendly. They felt that night clubs were inconsistent with that. OK, then how is it that their newest ship is going to have The District, an Adults Only zone of lounges and clubs? Isn't THAT inconsistent?

Swedish Invasion!

We've long had Volvo and Saab around here. IKEA moved into Orlando a couple years ago and H&M moved in a couple weeks ago. Electrolux has come on strong in the past year. In the music world we've long had ABBA and more recently Ace of Base. The Swedish House Mafia of Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso churns out dance hits. Axwell remixes are famous. Eric Prydz played Tabu a year ago.

Well the #1 Dance song in America last week was from another Swede: Agnes. Expect to see a lot more of her in the coming years. (Who IS that annoying woman in the bathroom with Agnes? Call Security!)

Reminder: Orlando Club List

Orlandoclublist.blogspot.com has been redesigned and now has club listings based on your favorite clubs at Pleasure Island. Check it out!

Club Report: Halloween at The Groove

Well I imagine night clubs everywhere were pretty crowded for Halloween last night. Such was the case with The Groove at CityWalk. As with last year, only about 25% of the patrons were in costume but it didn't matter with the level of craziness on the dance floor. The costume of choice for many was the naughty school girl look The ones near me acted like they needed to be paddled! Universal (& Disney) never take advantage of Daylight Savings Time ending as it did early this morning in North America. At 2am they closed. Most downtown venues take advantage of this because at 2am it's suddenly 1am again and they can continue to serve.


HOB Service Industry Night

Here's the DJ lineup for November for those of you attending Sunday Night SIN at HOB:

11/01: DJ Sandy & DJ James Anthony & Dave Awesome
11/08: DJ Sandy & DJ Shaolin
11/15: DJ Sandy & DJ Ben Ross
11/22: DJ Sandy & DJ Richie Rich
11/29: DJ Sandy

Richie Rich has promised us House when he plays at HOB. My expectation based on past experience is James Anthony will be Hip Hop. And Ben Ross....if this is the Ben Ross from Deutschland, then it ought to be techno. JUST ADDED: DJ Shaolin (House,Breaks,Electro)