Miami Winter Music Conference

The Miami Winter Music Conference starts tomorrow, March 25th to the 29th, and it's one of the biggest events for electronica in the world. With it's vast schedule of events, parties and club nights it brings a huge international crowd to Miami every year, to dance to top-shelf DJs and hear the latest in club music. A bit more about it from their site:

"Winter Music Conference, in its 23rd year, is regarded as the singular networking event in the dance music industry, attracting professionals from over 62 different countries. With its high concentration of top international artists, DJs and industry professionals, WMC permeates the international press and is thereby one of the most publicized events in the business. Every aspect of the industry is represented including the top technological innovators, artists, DJs, producers, radio and video programmers, retailers, distributors, audio manufacturers and many more. There are countless reasons why people from all over the world return year after year for this event, the most outstanding one being that there is nothing else in the world like it."

Manekineko - Cool Sushi Place in Rio

This past Thursday I returned to one of my favorite Japanese restaurants in Rio, Manekineko, at Casa Shopping in Barra da Tijuca. I had been to this location once before earlier this year and had been dreaming of returning there ever since. Manekineko has four locations in Rio but the one in Barra is still the best looking one. It's located inside Casa Shopping, a high-end design center, on a cozy indoors/outdoors corner. The courtyard's red lacquer tables are set amidst very tall palm trees and exotic ferns, in a Japanese-meets-the-Tropics style garden. Sheer floor-to-ceiling white curtains shield you from the rest of the mall, making it very intimate and charming. They also have a brand-new adjacent restaurant/bar/club called Gloss, that has a live DJ on the weekends, and is supposed to be very hip & happening with the younger crowd now. One of Manekineko's trademarks are the geisha wigs motifs that decorate all their locations to a very cool effect. Another thing that caught my eyes was their sexy men's room decor, with a topless Carla Bruni-looking model standing above the urinals. Inside the private stalls there is another naked beauty stamped on the inside of the door.

This place gets my vote for excellent service, that is a rare thing in Rio, and for it's delicious food.

Carlos Tufvesson @ Veja Rio

The new issue of Veja Rio features a small article about Brazilian designer Carlos Tufvesson. He will be showing his new Summer 2008 collection - this coming Wednesday - at The Week nightclub in Rio. This is his first fashion show in the city after a three-year hiatus and 700 hand-picked guests will be feted while previewing his new fashions. There will even be a new drink, specially created for the occasion, named after him by a local liquor company. The presentation will include 14 models - in installation style - showcasing the pop-art spirit of the new collection, that was inspired by street graffiti and artist Roy Lichtestein.

A few days ago I had mentioned, here in Little-Pumpkins, about this upcoming article. The post was about the graffiti mural that had just been done in front of his atelier in Ipanema when I happened to walk by. Told you so!

Siouxsie's New Album - Mantaray

High-Priestess of Punk Siouxsie Sioux has a brand new album, Mantaray, coming out on October 02. This is Siouxsie's first solo album though she had participated in many individual projects before, away from The Banshees and The Creatures. Recently she contributed on Basement Jaxx's album Kish Kash, with the title song, as singer and composer. She is considered one of the most influential singers of her era, with an unique singing style and looks to match.

Siouxsie brings back many great memories of the mid 80's when I was dancing to her songs at Crepusculo de Cubatao, in Rio, wrapped in dark clothing and believing I was soooo cool.

You can listen to song samples and get pre-order info at Amazon.

Her new single "Into a Swan" promo video is also here for you:

Ultra Nate @ The Week Rio

The Baltimore-native singer Ultra Nate will be performing at Rio de Janeiro's new mega club The Week tomorrow night, Saturday September 01. She will be singing tracks from her 5Th album "Grime, Silk & Thunder". Her new single "Automatic" is a cover from the 1984 Pointer Sisters dance smash hit. The original song reached #5 in the Billboard charts by the way. Ultra is known for her huge dance-floor classics like "Free", "Found a Cure", "Joy" and "Desire", and anyone that has been to a decent club in the 16 years will recognize them within the first accords.

To watch the steamy homoerotic promo video (that you won't see at your local MTV), with a cameo of a very Leigh Bowery-looking being, click here.