Monday, October 21, 2013

PI Update: Can This Mall In Las Vegas Give Us Insight Into Disney Springs?

This is Fashion Show Mall in Las Vegas.  It's very much a traditional shopping mall found anywhere in the country and world.  People come "loaded" to Vegas, ready to spend and this mall and many of the smaller malls located in casinos are there to let visitors do just that.  That's what Disney hopes too for Disney Springs.  I was pretty impressed with Fashion Show during my visit this past week and was particularly impressed by the handful of unique European clothing stores located there that are new to the United States.  New to the U.S. market and obviously interested in expanding, these would be the kind of offerings that could be going into Disney Springs. Here are some of the names spotted that I recall:

TOPSHOP/TOPMAN* :  This London-based chain of trendy clothes only has 4 shops in the United States so it would thus be a perfect fit for DS. And get this; they've hooked up with Nordstrom to open small shops within Nordstrom stores nationally, including the store in Tampa. But the Nordstrom store in Orlando is not getting a TopShop. Wonder why.

FRENCH CONNECTION: Despite the name, this is a British chain and they're getting back into the U.S market.  Two stores in Vegas and now one down in South Beach.  The Brits used to snap up their FCUK t-shirts at the outlet mall here but that closed a few years ago.  "The Springs" would be a bonanza for them! 

DESIGUAL: This Barcelona-based chain of trendy, colorful and relatively expensive clothes only has about 10 stores in the United States including several in the Miami area.  They're opening an outlet store soon at Sawgrass Mills.  Orlando would thus be a perfect for them!

MANGO: This Barcelona chain of nicer moderate-priced clothing used to have some stores in the U.S. operating under the MNG brand name, including one at Florida Mall.  Not sure if anyone recognized the brand with that name though.  I believe they still have Mango areas within some JC. Penney stores.  They have a Mango store inside Orlando International Airport, obviously targeting travelers.  What a perfect place Disney Springs would be too!

SUPERDRY* : I always thought this was a Japanese brand because their clothing is covered by Japanese graphics but it's a British brand.  With just 12 stores in the U.S. including one in South Beach, this would be ideally suited for a place like DS.

Stores above marked with a * were listed on the mysterious leaked logoboard.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Club Report: Thee Grotto

Thee Grotto, the nondescript club located on a tiny street behind the tall Bank of America building.
Doing a fundraiser for the recently passed-away Timdog Wagner aka DJ Xenon.  Upon my arrival, DJ Circle K on the controls.....
With commentary from MC Collaborator!
And the legendary DJ AK1200 taking over around 1am!
Pretty good crowd on hand for the event!
Love the club's black walls and floors!
The music, Drum & Bass.
AK1200 driving another girl into a frenzy, lol!
Sneaker wedges!
Spotted partying in the corner: DJ Matrix (NLP) and Ira Mazor.
AK1200 played at EDC-Orlando the first two years but so far has not been announced for this year.  Hopefully that gets rectified!
And as VJ Og Wolf worked the lighting, a good time was had by all!

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Club Report: The Light (Las Vegas)

Final night in Las Vegas!  Wednesday night at Lavo was good; Thursday night at Tao was better.  But Friday night at The Light in the Mandalay Bay Casino was the best!
Arrived to find resident DJ Killer on the decks playing House and a few Breaks!
My fashionably late arrival around midnight found the club jammed with people dancing all over the place!
Just an incredible amount of energy in the room!
My "Mans Week" group were enjoying themselves!
You can never go wrong with Go Go girls!
Incredible lighting throughout the venue!
One of several shows put on by the staff.
Another acrobatic show.  I can honestly say that I've now found a club better than Mannequins!
At 1AM DJ Armand van Helden (USA) took over and continued with mostly House & Progressive House music!
The Light stayed packed!
Van Helden collaborates with DJ A-Trak under the DJ duo name "Duck Sauce".
And he played their two biggest tracks, "Barbara Streisand" and "Big Bad Wolf"!
No Hip Hop!  The peeps want Techno!
And a good time was had by all!

Friday, October 18, 2013

EDC Announces Lineup!

With just 3 weeks remaining until Electric Daisy Carnival - Orlando rolls into town, Insomniac finally released the DJ lineup for the event!  Overall it looks really good.  This is the third edition of EDC to play here and for the first time Tiësto is not playing.  But that's not necessarily bad because otherwise things get stale.  The first year they released DJ names in two phases but last year only one phase.  So this may be it.  If anyone else gets added, we'll let you know.

There's a lot to get excited for!  Superstar DJ Kaskade will be playing Orlando for the first time ever.  There are few DJ's hotter right now than Calvin Harris and he's back. Porter Robinson is returning.  The first two years of EDC had zero Swedish DJ's; this year they have the superfun DJ duo Dada Life!  We have a Russian (Arty) and a Slovenian (UMEK) for the first time.  Sadly, I only see two female DJ's (Cassy & Francesca Lombardo) and I don't see anyone local this year.  Only 2-day passes are available this year but with EDM bigger than ever, this is likely to be a sell-out; Friday-Saturday November 8-9.  Order here.

United States  ƱZ
United States  12th PLANET
United States  3LAU
Spain  ART DEPARTMENT
Russian Federation  ARTY
Germany  ATB
United States  BRILLZ
United Kingdom  CALVIN HARRIS
United States  CANDYLAND
Germany  CASSY
France  CEDRIC GERVAIS
Germany  COSMIC GATE
United Kingdom  DAMIAN LAZARUS
Sweden  DADA LIFE
Netherlands  DASH BERLIN
United States  DAVID STEVEN  JUST ADDED
Germany  DENIZ KOYU
Canada  EXCISION
United Kingdom  FRANCESCA LOMBARDO
United Kingdom  GARETH EMERY
United States  GAYSER
United States  HENRY KRINKLE
United Kingdom  JAMIE JONES
United Kingdom  JOHN DIGWEED
United States  KASKADE
United States  KILL THE NOISE
United States  KREWELLA
United States  LUMINOX
France  MADEON
France  MARTIN SOLVEIG
United States  MIMOSA
United States  MOSKA
United States  NADASTROM
United States  Netherlands NEW WORLD PUNX (Markus Schulz & Ferry Corsten)
Spain  PACO OSUNA    JUST ADDED
United States  PORTER ROBINSON
United States  PSOGNAR
Netherlands  R3HAB
United Kingdom  RICHIE HAWTIN
United States  SALVA
United States  SEVEN LIONS
Netherlands  SHOWTEK
Slovenia  UMEK
United States  VALENTINO KHAN
Canada  ZEDS DEAD