Rhythmism.com

i got back from WMC this morning. i think i haven't even reached the recovery phase quite yet - i may or may not still be drunk from last night.

I had a great conference. i never write these review threads really, but i wound up posting a lot of pics to WMC mobilism, so i figured i'd compile them all in one place at least. heh.

Highlights of the trip, party-wise would have to be the Dirtybird party @ Beach Plaza, the AM Only party on the terrace of nocturnal, (Richie behaved himself this time), and Sunday School for Degenerates.

Best sets - Steve Bug + Mr C @ Sunday School. jesus. At one point I had one foot out the door (sorry sai and coll!), and decided there was no way in hell i could leave. good call - Mr C was really impressive. masterful set imo.

other highlights of the week include $4 happy hour frosty drinks @ the Penguin, it raining any time i even got close to a beach, and the fact that we stayed an extra night at our hotel, and got transferred to a suite with a jacuzzi. woot! props to daver and dale for orchestrating 'the master plan' and gaining access to said suite. heh.

here's some of the cracker pics i took this week:

back porch of the Sagamore (thanks lisa, jen and john!)


the 2 cases of V2 vodka. i drank enough of this stuff to kill a small animal i think.


DT @ the Shelbourne, from the 3 speaker high terrace:


tam, and, erm, Ali:


eileen m and i @ the dirtybird party @ beach plaza:


the back of Hulk Hogan's head leaving the Marlin - we saw him hanging out there for a while. Was cooler than seeing Diddy there last year. heh.


doki's pic of karen. heh:


breakfast on the beach with doki and karen:


hec's big time!


the best $8 beer i ever had. (think it was more like $12 with tip and "lunch fee". eesh)


miss chief sent us an awesome care package. it would have been better if she mailed herself to miami instead. in her absence, we sent these afloat all over miami:


and they wound up other places too:


we found this walking to dinner. self explanatory. hehe.


daveraver's "before" picture at the am only party @ nocturnal:

leks playing at the Sullivan Room party @ sin:


funny, and great idea:


sunday school for degenerates:

My conference started with the most amazing sandwich ever and ended with a jacuzzi party. Still collecting my braincells as to what happened in between and will review tomorrow ... but I must admit that was one of the most amazing times I ever had and even more than the parties, it was the people that made it so.

Agreed on all counts. Definitely a fun first go at the spring time clusterfuck. Had a brilliant group of people to chill with and they definitely made it a good time. Coll, Joel, Sai, Dale, Leks, Elisa and Karen are the perfect party crew. Had so much fun with you kids.

I actually got some sun!

mwahahahahahahaha!







j/k. glad y'all had a good time.

was so happy and surprised to hear from you guys so much, but thank you!!! kept me nicely entertained all weekend... clearly, you all had a fabulous time!!! can't wait to hear more stories, and so happy to have you all back home...

a far better time than i had here in NYC... sick... ALL WEEKEND!!!!

More reviews!!!


JACUZZI PARTY!


Acccccck!!

just rolled into Queens to see my parents. i'm beat! good conference this year. thanks to all of you who ventured through the rain to support our party on Saturday night. we had a blast and we love you for the support. i have a small supply of pics (& 1 damn good video of Doki). will post tomorrow when i am alert.

missed you NYC. see you guys soon!

oh, Miguel Migs was INCREDIBLE Friday night at Shine. just INCREDIBLE!!!!!

It's slowly coming together now. I remember.....the Alamo?

No, that can't be right...

Let's see, the GF and I stayed with friends downtown. Hot tub, plasma TV, and nearby grocery store saved our lives more than once. As a result, we stayed mostly at the downtown parties, venturing into South Beach only a couple of times.


BEST VENUE:
Karu/Y Ultralounge
Holy crap. Clean, classy, and neverending. $25 million dollar investment and worth every penny. Two waterfalls, a tatched roof bar, a garden, a dozen cabañas with yummy pillows and sofas. Just pure class. Think LeSouk times a hundred thousand. But it wasn't just the money invested, it was the thought put into this club. Free massages. An outdoor grille & chef making beef sandwiches, chicken sandwiches, & hot dogs (why don't more clubs do this?). The bouncers were everywhere but never intrusive, always on the go. And, get this, they actually LOWERED their drink prices for the conference...a large cup of ice water was $1. Thank you, thank you, thank you.


BEST/MOST SURPRISING ACT:
Tie: Tiga & Malente
Uh....why did I assume that because of his releases, Tiga was a slow chugging electro DJ? Holy crap. By his second or third song, he was bringing the madness. Monsterously intelligent driving techno. Think peak time Twilo. I swear it was that good.

Malente (who?) is this German electro DJ who perfectly transistioned the outdoor terrace vibe at Pawn Shop between the Aquabooty party & Sunday School for Degenerates. Smart, goofy electro that playfully straddles the line between tweeking and rocking. It takes balls to play that kind of music. You have to trust that the crowd will follow...and boy did we ever! Also special props for letting people dance on stage. That is a party.


BEST RESTAURANT
Novecento
Again, downtown. Gorgeous Argentinian place that plays (on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, & Saturdays) the best tech house/prog/techno. The DJ is also Argentinian and he was dropping the same bombs that I heard at conference, but at a steakhouse. Also, the food was relatively cheap. A 14-oz steak with chimichurri and fries for $21. Don't know if the one in Soho is this good, but I highly recommend the one on Brickell.


BEST IRONY
Loving the rain
So apparently the weather was lovely in New York this weekend. But Miami was cloudy and rainy for most of last week. Sunday was finally the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. Since we were staying on the 21st floor of a luxury condo, we were afforded glorious views of the weather from our patio. We could see exactly where the sheets of rain began, undulated, cascaded, and ended. Frickin' cool. Also, you could always spot the druggies at an outdoor event. They were the only ones who, when it started to rain, ran out from under cover and INTO the rain while everyone else was diving out. Priceless.


BEST TRACK
No idea. I know what I liked and I can hum the melodies, but I never went up to ask DJs anything and I got and lost promos like crazy. I would love to hear what other people's favorite tracks are.


Now, the worsts:

WORST VENUE
Probably a lot of them, but the most heinous way to blow your money was Area 51. I went to the Ultra-afterparty to support Gaby and everything that could have gone wrong, did. Within the first five minutes. They opened about an hour late (due to an earlier power outage). The DJ guestlists were fucked. The presale willcall list was fucked. The manager was rude and unnaccomadating (to everyone including the DJs). The staff was incredibly touchy feely. The rooms were dirty and messy (by one stage, in the corner of the dancefloor was a ladder, an extension cord, and a bunch of thick, golden streamers...possibly decorations from a previous party?). The ATM was broke. Just a mess. It was formerly a club called Metropolis that opened and closed within about six months. Enough said.


WORST ACT
Some Latin American folk rock band that played at the Aquabooty party. Perfect for SXSW, not so much the WMC.


WORST TYPE OF PEOPLE
People who insist on talking to you though they are unintelligible.
Think Keith Richards with bullets in his mouth. Actually, talked to Keith at Pawn Shop and I understood him just fine. Think asshole schmucks with drugs in their system.


SECOND WORST TYPE OF PEOPLE
People who are so whacked out that they are ungrateful when you help them.
Some nasty girls at Sunday School were cold. A nice fellow (not in our party) loans one girl his Armani windbreaker. She and her friend disappear into a corner and vomit onto his jacket (actually into her hand covering her mouth and into his jacket). What does she do next? She takes off the jacket and ditches it behind a speaker. We only witnessed the second half of that story. The guy about three hours later is getting a drink and spots his jacket. He's delighted since it's his favorite jacket. It hurt my soul to have to give him the bad news. I really wanted to give him drugs instead. You just can't be nice to some people. Fuckin' amateurs.


CLEAR SIGN THAT THE CONFERENCE IS PASSÉ
Fuck that. Every year, same shit. The conference is too commercial, expensive, touristy, cheesy, dirty, over, done, overdone. Whatever. It's Miami, for fuck's sake! Listen, for a moment, screw the parties. Miami is still hilarious. It's a zoo filled with the most exotic of the most exotic species, people. Sitting on Ocean drive on the weekends is better than laughing gas. I saw about three new flourescent colors that I've never seen before. Botox, fake body parts, napkins for bathing wear, thongs. And that's just the men! You gotta love it. If not, kill yourself. You have no soul. And anyway, isn't about the music? Everybody, from DJs on down to laypeople, heard the most amazing music. So there.

What are other people's faves, raves, and boos?

See you next year.

Musically, this was the best wmc i've ever been to. Even better than Ibiza and that really says something.

AM Only @ Nocturnal was amazing!!!! One of the best parties i've ever been to!!! Richie Hawtin & Magda tagteaming, Loco Dice & Steve Bug tagteaming, Misstress Barbara, and Bad Boy Bill all blew it up especially, but everybody i saw brought their A game. Me and Jorge were dancing around that terrace from midnight till noon.

Sunday School was a close 2nd with Steve Bug throwing down the set of the conference....the crowd was literally eating outta his hand. Jesse Rose, Adam Beyer, Pig and Dan, and the ridiculously twisted beats of Adultnapper must be mentioned also.

Runner's up: Sasha & Digweed's precision/all pro Mansion set that did not miss a beat, every track was a bomb and the super sexy funky/progressive electro house of Desyn Masiello last night at the Victor Hotel.

But every party was great...Howells, Proton, SVD, Sully for an hour, the Beatport pool friday and what little time i was able to make it to the Beach Plaza. Missing DirtyBird is my only regret of the whole time i was there, sorry Boo. But i mostly enjoyed seeing my old friends, making new ones, and alot of crazy times with my boyz and girlz.

Minimal techno was definetly the star of the show at WMC, i just couldn't believe how sexy and fun to dance to minimal can be. And when its done right live, it sounds amazing. I gotta say though that WMC this year was especially great personally because i met a lil angel from nyc at am only and we spent the rest of the conference together.

More later, time to chill and unpack.

Well....I can't believe it's all over.

Our flight is in a couple of hours and tomorrow it's back to reality, but what a week it was in Miami!!!!

Although the weather was quite challenging, this was one of our best years that we've done parties yet.

We were at the Beach Plaza pretty much non-stop from Tuesday morning until Sunday night and it was a wild time. Parties upstairs and downstairs, tons of great DJs, we met so many new people and reconnected with old friends, got some wonderful goodies, and had a fantastic time. Thanks to all the NYC peeps who represented and came out to hang with us - it was great to see you all there and we're so glad you guys had a good time at the Beach Plaza.

More to come soon...I have to finish packing now

Worst conference I have ever been to...but that still makes it an amazing time.

The Good:

1)Mike and Begona(No clue how to put the tilde over the "n" sorry!)

2)The Rooftop parties at the Beach Plaza

3)Claude Von Stroke aka the Kubiak from Parker Lewis Can't Lose.

4)Bookashade - *live*...COULD be the new Underworld...if we get some vocals up in that piece...

5)Jamie Lewis - Nice guy...great melodies/basslines.

6)718 Sessions...teaching the rest of the conference what love and real music is.


The Bad:

1)The rain - pretty much every day party was delayed/shutdown early/cancelled because of it. It also made it tough to find time to spend on the beach.

2)My Girlfriend getting bronchitis on tuesday and staying in bed at the hotel til sunday afternoon.

3)Miami before and after the conference crowd is there.

4)That person getting shot right by the Walgreens on Lincoln.

OH and I forgot to mention:

The Bad #5 - The ABSOLUTELY unprofessional preparation for WMC caliber parties by PEARL. Most clubs brought in extra sound just for the week...I think Pearl went with what they had...but made sure that it was all broken before they used it. The sound at the Hi Tek Soul party was the worst I have ever heard at a 'professional' club. I felt horrible for Derrick May trying to get excitement out of crowd who was listening to his music at a volume level equal to a cell phone on speaker.

not to sound like a cornball but i had a really great time just being with my man the whole time....

only hit up 2 or 3 of the parties i planned on going to, slept ALL day saturday into sunday, fell off the wagon so hard the first night i arrived they wouldnt let me into my hotel room unescorted, hung out with a whole different crew who were totally awesome, and all in all took it pretty easy this time around.

highlights- loco&steve bug @ bed with a fine group of friends.one of the best times ive had. plus, it was TRRRRIPPPPPPPYYYYYYYYY

lowlights- smashing my foot repeatedly into a door in the mirror-trap condo.

(the not)biggest rip off- $40 for 2 pina coladas on the beach @ the ritz carlton (bmc and davey is right, worth every penny actully)

....and no matter where i was...HAWTIN was there. like everywhere... he mustve cloned himself a few times...

holy shit, this was my best wmc yet. the music just blew me away, i loved my hotel, got to see and party with all my friends, it was completely drama-free and i got COLOR

the AMAZING

OM - Karu is a beautiful venue, as dr. mario mentioned, and the party was just insane. it was the first thing i hit when i arrived thurs. night and the perfect way to start my vacation. reminded me of nikki beach and was just beautiful; the perfect place for an OM party, just as good as opium garden a few years ago. colette sang and mark farina blew me away. special thanks to brad & friends for the tables and i'm so glad down deep came and represented

dinner w/ beth on espanola way - the mexican place - was just delicious and i'm glad to have gotten a nice meal in

SANDER ON THE TERRACE - in true regina form, i tear up when i think about this party there are few words to describe this experience other than amazing. best set i heard all conference and that's saying a lot. so many friends, so many smiles. stayed til 1pm and could have probably stayed all day

and to the amazing hot and super nice guys that greased the bouncer for yosra and i to get in after drama at the door!! jeff & joel, they were a blast!

SOS - blew me away. demi, omid and desyn are not only fantastic djs but humble, nice guys.

Degenerates party - everyone reconviened and enjoyed themselves throroughly. i really loved the music and while a few of the boys dropped out, the girls just danced and danced and sat in the sunshine.

the beginning of desyn at the hotel victor - this party was great while it was on the roof.

spending so much time with all my friends. it's invaluable to me.


THE GOOD

Radio 1 - free for me b/c i was staying at the surfcomber. didn't stay long, but the music was really good while i was there.

Beatport at the National - Magda especially was really great, it just rained a bit too much to stay in the sun for most of the party.

The Beach Plaza - Mike & Begona did an amazing job, unfortunately it rained and rained on friday still a great venue and where i saw a bunch of people.

The Disappointing

Zabiela & Fanculli at the Fifth - and the venue in general, didn't love it or them. the set went nowhere, dropped bombs in the middle for no reason, it just didn't make sense. only party i picked incorrectly, just a lot of noise. but saw brandie's friends and had a blast w/ them.

Having to move Desyn from the rooftop of Hotel Victor to downstairs, the power going out twice.

The Terrible

Space - it's criminal. waited over 2 hours to get up to the terrace with people pushing & shoving the whole way. thank goodness again for the boys we met b/c the only way to get in after a while was to pay the bouncer, and we had already paid $60 for the ticket. thank goodness the experience was worth it - i'd do it again for a sander terrace set.

American Airlines - fuck you for delaying me 2.5 hrs EACH way, missing the dirtybird party and a really great day in Sobe on Monday.

my camera went missing the last night booooo. hope others got some great shots.


So that's my review in a nutshell. despite some of the bad, i have nothing but happiness and a huge grin when i think about this WMC. i couldn't stop dancing the whole time and i still hear the music in my head. it gives me chills.

great to see everyone in the sunshine. i hope everyone had as much fun as i did.

oh ps - thanks to mike & kevin for checking up on me always love hanging with you two

*gasp*

Do NOT trash talk the world's greatest pina coladas.

I couldn't disagree with you more. The package deal of the greatest piña coladas in the universe, the view, and the respite from the madness of SoBe is worth every dime.



Thanks for the ride from Pawn Shop Thursday night. I haven't listened to Swedish death metal like that in a long time.

Some highlights for me:

Audiofly X at the Proton Radio party = sick gnashed minimal and tech had the crowd going nuts in the little dark back room. They were closely followed by excellent sets from neil quigley and spooky at this party.

Loco Dice and Gaiser at the M_nus showcase at pawn shop = having the full force of the Integral sound system in the main room at pawn shop with the nasty beats of loco dice and gaiser led a really amazing time. Hawtin was great too but these two just floored everyone who walked in the door.

Desyn and Demi on the Tikki Boat = 150 people on a boat that had a beach for a roof complete with sand and grass and beds. beautiful weather after we pulled out of the dock and we even got out before the sasha and digweed boat cruise (which was supposedly ridiculous as well). excellent summery sunset tunes from the two of em, but demi had everyone constantly going.

Lee Burridge at BED = will never miss Lee at Bed at miami ever. just amazing music all over the map from start to finish and it wasn't too crowded either which made for great dancing space. everything from DT "Bottom Heavy" to some nasty audion and the like.

Sunday School = Bill Patrick twisting the back room like no other even though lee was a no show for the tag team. dark futuristic evil techno that scared the room. and then konrad black pulled out more of the same. Terrace was good and steve bug (especially dropping "Wet") was by far the highlight out there. but i still feel like the spontaneity and the insanity of last year was missing. all the sets just seemed really tame and given how amazing the Integral sound was, i wanted to see them push it further. instead everything seemed very midset/midtempo minimal/tech house without many of the tracks going really wild. still a good time nonetheless. oh, and anja schneider sucked. even though her records were melting or something. back room had a fair share of problems too as magda almost tossed her laptop due to issues with mixer or the tables or something. seemed to really be pissing off everyone who played back there. anyways, stayed til 5pm or so after a full saturday and friday out. ouch. they need to start ordering pizza to sunday school.

time for sleep. til thursday.

Wednesday night: Dubfire Global Underground party @Mynt Lounge, great music, great crowd, wealthy people ordering $500 bottle by dozens, 4 girls making out with eachoter...

Thursday early evening: amazing Cielo pool party @Raleigh hotel with amazing sets by Behrouz and Tedd Patterson. Everyone danced barefoot on the sand.
Thursday night: Masters at Work / Murk for the Sony Erickson tennis event.
It was fun! Open bar! Not very crowded but was great to hear Louie & Kenny playing old MAW records.
Thursday later / Friday: Tenaglia Techno marathon @Twilo. Best club in the world! Of course, lots of techno, lots of industry people, and DT making a ridiculous lip synching of "i would like a hamburger" from the Pink Panther movie

Friday night: sleep then back to Twilo for Calderone's Evolve. Got there at 5am and the fire marshals did not let us in before 5.45am! And it was not even packed inside. My friend had to pay $80 for a ticket! Great great music, Victor was having fun behind the mixer, overlaying acapellas here and there. Typical Jersey crowd and K addicts...

Saturday night: dinner @Cafeteria then sleep

Sunday all day: DT classics @Twilo. Mad fun!

Sunday night: a quick look @Cameo for the Murk party. But too tired to enjoy it.

I brought apples to Sunday School. Best move ever.

And we ordered pizza to a Giant Hotel party. Another quality move.

Highlights:

• Favorite parties: Dirtybird at Beach Plaza and Sunday School
• Favorite set: Steve Bug at Sunday School
• Most consumed non-beer drink: Strawberry Daquiris (6)
• Best pool party: The last-night private jacuzzi party in our hotel suite
• Number of sunglasses given away or lost: 3
• Party MVP: karennyc
• Best meal: The Burger King sausage, egg and cheese busquit AND chicken fries I shoved in my face at 10AM at Miami airport before my flight back
• High point of the trip: Hulk Hogan spotting at the Marlin
• Low point of the trip: My DC-10 fan breaking (but I still love you, Letigre!)
• Best quote: "Where the hell is my K?!?!"
• Best text message ever: I'm in the corner waiting for you

And this picture pretty much sums up the kind of time I had at my first WMC:

It was probably better I didn't have it, nothing was working on me by the time I left Sunday School, there was just nothing left in there to mess up.

And a big time to you for suggesting the pool party. That was hilarious, even if it was scalding, my bad.

nonono... youre totally right, i mean, youre ABSOLUTELY RIGHT...



but when dude said $40 i almost choked on it..

and no prob, ralphs my BOY!

this is possibly the funniest moment of my conference. i'm still laughing about it. thanks sai for figuring it all out.

Two more adds:

Billy Patrick is a bad muddah...
his back room zombie house set was nothing short of frightening, in the most positively exhilirating way. I was daring my Miami homies to go into the back room. They would all come back out onto the terrace with a spooked look on their faces. Too funny.


Also, anyone who was lucky enough to attend the Scion Ben Watt/Kruder & Dorfmeister party will attest to the sheer ridiculousness of it. Free everything. Gourmet food. Top line champagne. In a penthouse. My friend bummed a cigarette from a guy named Peter...double take..."you're Peter Kruder!"..."Yes." Tracey Thorn just chillin. Apparently, it was invite only. But my friends were like the fourth people in line and they didn't check any list. Sick, sick, sick.

That's one of the parties I'm pissed I missed. And hearing that review makes it sting even more. And it wasn't invite only ... you just had to sign up at the special website.

me too. we had all intentions of going, too.

boo.

Yep yep...i couldn't get the boyz to go. They instead waited around for stuff and wanted to hit wet willies. Its tough to motivate others
sometimes.

woooooooo mvp!!!!


return text: "what are you wearing"


you guys were the best group to hang out with
that was the most fun week ever ever ever

you were a great addition to our room. so many laughs. i almost forgot about our last day, our only meal together w the whole room. we went to le omelette and not only were they out of everything, but our waitress was comical - she poured orange juice in our filled water glasses w/ lemon, brought out things she said they didn't have, and gave out a plethora of croissants. maybe she had partied too much as well

Sleepy and Boo consistently have the best range of DJs. The roof deck at the Beach Plaza had the best tunes. I was particularly impressed by Claude Von Stroke and DJ Collette.