Must See: Fête Paradiso

Went to Fête Paradiso this weekend at Governors Island. It's a traveling Parisian festival with vintage carnival rides and carousel that are from late 19th and early 20th century. It is really a great way to spend a day with family or friends - enjoying the rides while getting nostalgia.

One of the biggest attraction is the bike carousel
the 19th century carousel is one of the only two built in the world.

20th century Music-Hall Ball Guzzler. See anyone familiar?

Beethoven?

Mascot?

Definitely a Must See in New York City!

More Pictures: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjH7E8Bc 

Fête Paradiso is open every weekend until September 29. The festival is at Governors Island. For more info - http://www.feteparadiso.com/

2013 New York International Auto Show

2013 New York International Auto Show, a set on Flickr.

Amazing show featuring a wide array of sedans, sports cars, suvs and evs

Shogun at District 36

Shogun came to New York City and played an amazing set at District 36! His set was amazing with a great mix of tunes from Space Odyssey, Skyfire and Save Me to Sanctuary, Use Somebody, Miss You Paradise and Angel's Love

John Chamberlain: Choices

John Chamberlain: Choices

Guggenheim Museum

View Exhibition Site

Restaurant Review: Pio Pio

604 Tenth Ave (between 43rd & 44th street)
New York, NY
(212) 459 - 2929


Peruvian dishes
Price: $4 - $30
Dine In
Take Out (selected branches)

I went to the city for an event and my friends asked me if I want to go with them to Pio Pio for dinner. They were surprised that I haven't been to Pio Pio and it surely wasn't a disappointment.

Pio Pio is a Peruvian themed restaurant that started in 1994 in Rego Park, Queens and has since branched out to other parts of New York City and surrounding islands. It has branches can be found in Jackson Heights, Queens; Mott Haven in the Bronx; and Four branches in New York City - Upper West Side (Amsterdam Ave), Hell's Kitchen (Tenth Ave), Murray Hill (East 34st)  and Upper East Side (First Ave).

We got their pretty late (10:30pm) and luckily the kitchen was still open. Once you open the two big glass doors, you are greeted by marble top that has the menu. Being so late, I didn't think that any hostess would be around - I might be wrong as well, maybe there are no hostess at all. Anyway, as you walked in, you will be greeted by the place's long bar with marble top and nice wooden bar stools on one side and a couple of bar tables on the other Browsing around, I could see they have a great variety of liquors. Once you walk all the way to the back and down the stairs, you almost feel like you are in a different world. The walls were branch-like making you feel like you are in a wooden place. There is ample seating with most tables can seat 2 and 4 people. There is also enough sitting for larger groups especially on the farther side with padded bench-like sitting that could accommodate at least 20 people.

Looking at the menu, the dishes are either mostly chicken or seafood. We ended up ordering the Matador Combo which is a whole well-marinated rotisserie chicken - chopped into fourths, rice and beans, tostones (sliced plantains), avocado salad, salchipapa and a giant pile of fries topped with sliced hot dogs. Surprisingly, the service was quick, the wait time between ordering and the order coming out of the kitchen was fairly short. Again, this could be different if you came in during lunch and/or dinner time. I would say that the combo can feed 2 - 3 people. The chicken was juicy and sumptuous. Rice and beans were delicious. The tostones were crisp. The avocado salad was fresh and the salchipapa has just the right kick on it. The sliced hot dogs were bit salty but the fries were crisp and not soggy.

The price is fairly reasonable with price ranging from $4.00 appetizers to $30.00 main dishes. The Matador Combo cost us $30.00 but was split between 5 people. And all of us were fairly full after the late dinner.

Overall, I would say that this is a nice place to meet up with friends or even a nice place to meet up with a date. I would definitely go back to this place again - maybe even try the other branches to see if they all have the same food standards.

Pio Pio's website

Pio Pio's facebook page

BT - Pacha

First gig of the year - BT dropped by Pacha for a short (less than 2 hours) but an amazing set. He started off with Tomahawk and had a great selection of house and trance music such as Turbulence with some of classic tunes such as The Emergency, Every Other Way and closing with Flaming June. The Godfather of EDM sure still know how to rock the crowd

Markus Schulz at Pacha

Markus Schulz came back to New York City for another edition of his Global DJ Broadcast World Tour. And he surely didn't disappoint churning tunes for five hours right inside Pacha New York City.

I got to Pacha and the crowd was already being treated to some progressive trance with Zack Roth and Jason Jollins manning the decks together. Both DJs surely pumped the crowd up with thumping beats.

Then Markus took over the decks at 1AM and started with the tune Katowice under his alias Dakota and part of this new album Thought Become Things II. He would end up playing a couple more of Dakota tunes such as Sleepwalkers, Koolhaus, Capetown, and of course Sinners. He played Sinners twice, playing the original first then the remix later. Other tunes he played were:

• Skytech - Sirens
• Beat Service - Outsider
• Zombie Nation - Kernkraft 400 (Chris Schweizer Bootleg Mix)
• Arnej pres. 8 Wonders - X (Space Rockerz Remix)
• Artento Divini pres. DTC vs. Delerium - Lift Off Silence (Markus Schulz Mashup)
• Mario Hammer ft.Asheni - Life Before the Earthquake
• Sander van Doorn vs. Afrojack & R3hab - Koko Prutata (First State Mashup / Markus Schulz Edit)
• Armin van Buuren ft Christian Burns - This Light Between Us (Markus Schulz Big Room Reconstruction)
• Markus Schulz - The New World (Super8 & Tab Remix)
• Markus Schulz & Justine Suissa vs. Tomcraft & Jerome Isma-Ae - Perception in the Redlight District (Markus Schulz Mashup)
• Who.Is - Cryptanalysis
• Skytech - Sirens
• Klauss Goulart - Turbulence

He then closed with his remix of Rank 1's Breathing. My feet was hurting and my calf muscles sore - it just mean I had a great time dancing all night long.

And I even got a pic with him 

Dance Parade NYC 2011

Amazing diversity as seen to different dance styles...

Gareth Emery at Pacha

Gareth Emery

Gareth Emery finally made it to Pacha New York City last friday, May 13, 2011, 13 months after Mount Eyjafjallajökull exploded and its volcanic ashes halt all air flights in Europe, and he surely rocked the place out.

Gareth Emery

His three-hour set was a great mix of progressive and melodic trance couple with house tunes. He came in at 1 AM (Jason Jollins opened and closed that night) and open with an intro edit of his tune Arrival with Brute Force. He played tunes from his Northern Lights album and Northern Lights Re-Lit album as well as other DJs and some mashups and remixes. Some of the tunes he played were:

Ferry Corsten - Feel It Above and Beyond ft. Richard Bedford - Sun and Moon (Club Mix) Nadia Ali - Rapture (Gareth Emery Remix) John O'Callaghan ft. Betsie Larkin - Save This Moment (Gareth Emery Remix) OceanLab vs. Gareth Emery - On A Metropolis Day (Myon & Shane 54 Mashup) Ferry Corsten - Punk (Arty's Rock N Rolla Remix) Zombie Nation - Kernkraft 400 (Chris Schweizer Bootleg) Marc Simz - Forbidden City (Heatbeat Rapture Mashup) Steve Angello & Faithless - Knas Insomnia 2011 (East & Young Mashup) Lange & Andy Moor & Komytea & Tiesto - Lethal Stadium Four (Gareth Emery Re-Edit)  Diddy Dirty Money - Coming Home (Dirty South Remix)

Gareth Emery ft. Brute Force - Arrival (Ashley Wallbridge Intro Edit)* Gareth Emery ft. Activa - All Is Now Gareth Emery ft. Roxanne Emery - Too Dark Tonight Gareth Emery ft. Lucy Saunders - Fight the Sunrise Gareth Emery ft. Lucy  Saunders - Sanctuary** Gareth Emery - Global (Jordan Suckley Remix) Garreth Emery - Exposure Gareth Emery vs. Markus Schulz ft. Jennifer Rene - Citadel vs. Not The Same (Armin Van Buuren MashUp)  Gareth Emery vs. Motorcycle - As The Exposure Comes (Gareth Emery Mashup) Gareth Emery (ft. Mark Frisch) - Into The Light Pendulum vs. Rank 1 vs. Nic Chagall vs. Wippenberg - The 100 Islands (Triarchy Edit) Andain - Beautiful Things

*Opening Tune **Closing tune

And he closed with his tune Sanctuary with vocals from Lucy Saunders. Just an amazing set, I have never dance this much for awhile and I could surely tell because it was a rough walking back to Grand Central Terminal to catch the train back home.

Above and Beyond at Best Buy Theater

Above and Beyond came to New York for their Group Therapy Tour and played at Best Buy Theater. Opening the night was Zack Roth with his mellow beats before Jaytech took the stage and got the crowd pumped up for Above and Beyond. A&B came out and open with a very mellow tune. Paavo and Jono started playing anjunabeat tunes such as Mat Zo's Superman and Ad Brown ft. Kerry Leva - Memorial (Maor Levi Club Mix) coupled with some other tracks such as Tiesto & Mark Knight's Beautiful World as well as their new and old tunes such as Breaking Ties, and their new single Thing Called Love.  The sad part was Jono had to leave because he wasn't feeling good so Paavo took over the next two hours and he surely had a mixed of tunes from Mat Zo & Arty's Rebound, Ferry Corsten's Punk (Arty Rock N Rolla Remix), Kyau and Albert's Be There For You (Mat Zo Remix), Super8 & Tab ft. Julie Thompson - My Enemy (Club Mix) and of course Sun and Moon. Paavo even dropped a classic - Paul van Dyk's Nothing But You. Paavo then closed out with their tune Sun In Your Eyes before coming back out and doing an encore. And surprisingly, I knew which tune it was before it was played - Above and Beyond pres. Oceanlab & Gareth Emery - "On A Good Day (Metropolis)"

Ferry Corsten at Best Buy Theater

Ferry Corsten was at Best Buy Theater on April 2, 2011 and his set was amazing. I had a chance to meet him before his set and he is a cool guy. He answered everyone's questions and even share a laugh or two with us. Afterwhich, I had a chance to watch his 4-hour set at the VIP area where Ferry dropped new and old tunes. He came out as Hardwell was ending his set with Cliff Coenraad's Oh!Mega (Bootyshakin Remix) and started off with Kyau and Albert's On My Way, Sander van Doorn's Koko and his new tune Feel It. His set was a great mix of vocal, progressive and uplifting tracks. He played Gareth Emery's Citadel (Super8 & Tab Remix), Markus Schulz ft. Jennifer Rene's Not the Same, Amuri ft. Melissa Loretta's Unconditional Love, Leon Bolier's Capetown, Sunny Lax's PUMA (Mat Zo Remix) and Yuri Kane ft. Melissa Loretta's Daylight (DJ Feel Remix) mixing it with his own tunes such as Once, Fire, Beautiful, Minack (tune he collaborated with Armin van Buuren) and Brain Box. He also had Betsie Larkin come out and sang Made Of Love live which was amazing. And for his encore, he played Radio Crush.

Cosmic Gate

Cosmic Gate, the German duo of Nic Chagall (Claus Terhoeven) and DJ Bossi (Stefan Bossems), visited New York City last Friday, January 21, and definitely got the crowd dancing throughout their three and a half hour set.  The duo played at the legendary Pacha Nightclub and the dance floor was just packed from the start.

Nic and Bossi aka Cosmic Gate at Pacha

Cosmic Gate played a good mixture of house, vocal and progressive trance tunes. They open their set with Aruna with Mark Eteson's Let Go (Nic Chagall's Remix) and sure got the crowd pumped. They also played tunes from the current album "Back 2 the Future - the classics from 1999-2003 remixed" such as Back To Earth (Jochen Miller Remix), Fire Wire (Back 2 The Future Remix), Melt To The Ocean (John O'Callaghan Main Room Remix) and Exploration of Space. They also played some tunes such as Oceanlab's On a Good Day, Ilo's Rapture, Vincent de Moor's Fly Away (Cosmic Gate Remix), Susana's Frozen (Nic Chagall Remix), Ferry Corsten's Made of Love as well as their own tunes such as F.A.V, Analog Feel and Barra. For the grand finale, the duo drop Oceanlab's Sirens Of The Sea (Cosmic Gate Vocal Mix).

Cosmic Gate at Pacha

This surely is one of the best sets that I have attended. The place wasn't as packed which allows me to enjoy their set all night long.

Cosmic Gate: website | Myspace | Facebook
Twitter: @RealCosmicGate