Thursday, August 28, 2008

The Ultimate Bar Guide for a BVI Yacht Charter

What is a Caribbean Vacation without a few cocktails and some adventure? While cruising on a BVI Yacht Charter offers some of the finest luxuries any vacation can offer, it never hurts to go ashore for some mingling with locals and a little libation. Here is a list of some of some of the best beach bars in the British Virgin Islands. Land HO!!!

ANEGADA

If you're swimming at Loblolly Bay, base yourself close to The Big Bamboo. Great lunches and a large outdoor bar just steps from the beach. Anegada Reef Hotel, Restaurant and Bar is the closest bar to the dock. This friendly establishment is popular, has a casual atmosphere, and has the freshest lobster that is to die for! Neptune's Treasure is a serene restaurant and bar further down n the beach. On weekends the bar becomes lively with music and an influx of Tortola residents looking for a weekend escape.

BEEF ISLAND

Trellis Bay

The Last Resort has been synonymous with live entertainment since the beginning of yacht chartering. Enjoy great food and live entertainment. On the south shore of the bay, there is quite an assortment of local shops, artist studios, bars and restaurants. The monthly Trellis Bay Full Moon party is anticipated all year long. Two large 'fireballs' are lit while locals dance the night away.

COOPER ISLAND

Cooper Island Beach Club is a popular restaurant and bar are obeautiful Manchioneel Beach. The island is an ideal anchorage spot to stop and have a drink while you watch the sun set over The Drake Channel.

JOST VAN DYKE

White Bay The Soggy Dollar Bar is famous for its 'Painkillers', which were actually first invented here. The original recipe is a secret family recipe. Great Harbor Foxy's Tamarind Bar has certainly changed from the early 70's. Charter vacationers used to listen to true calypso while eating lobster with all of the locals at one long table. It has grown enormously. All kinds of talented local bands and musicians play here. The music and dancing can go on late into the night. Besides the bar and restaurant, there is also a large gift shop with a wide variety of local items, including CDs and the obligatory Foxy's T-shirt. Be sure to bring something personal you can tack to the ceiling, anything from Business cards to hats and even underwear is acceptable. This place is for those who are easily offended , but most people at least stop in and have a drink.

Little Jost Van Dyke 'Foxy's Taboo' restaurant and bar is the new 'in' place. You are more likely to meet Foxy here than at his original bar. Moorings are available, but this can be a rough spot in unsettled weather.

MARINA CAY

Now owned by Pussers, this famous island resort has a bar at the very top of the island, offering great sunset views and live music some nights.

NORMAN ISLAND

The infamous Willie T is an all out party destination with plenty of drinking and wild antics. Expect the unexpected. Not recommended for children or the faint hearted! Pirates Bight offers a more relaxed way to watch the sunset, but also has music, dancing and a very popular Happy Hour with every exotic frozen drink you can imagine.

TORTOLA

At Cane Garden Bay, Quito Rhymer is an extremely popular local musician who can be found performing at his bar/restaurant, 'Quito's Gazebo'. Further down the beach, Al Henley's Big Banana Paradise Club, Rhymers Beach Bar, Stanley's Welcome Bar and Myett's Garden and Grill all offer meals, drinks and live music on selected nights that can be heard from your anchorage spot out onto the water. 'The Pub', below the Fort Burt Hotel, was the original bar in Road Town in The 60's and 70's and is a lively hot spot today. There are bars at Village Cay Marina, Mariner Inn, Pussers waterfront and many other locations in town, but these can hardly be considered beach bars, although many people visit them when embarking and disembarking from their Caribbean Yacht Charter.

VIRGIN GORDA

Spanish Town

The Bath and Turtle Pub often has live music and dancing.

The Baths

Poor Man's Bar is the ultimate watering hole to relax after snorkeling.

North Sound

Leverick Bay has a beach barbecue every Friday, with live music and entertainment. The Sand Box is a casual bar and restaurant offering lunch and dinner. The Bitter End is a large resort with shops, water sport facilities, restaurant and an English pub, but they often also have live music and entertainment. Saba Rock is an excellent restaurant and bar located on a tiny island. Enjoy the popular 2-4-1 Happy Hour, while watching a fabulous sunset over The Sound.

West End/Sopers Hole

Pussers Landing & Company Store has two restaurants and a variety of shops, but it also has a popular bar. Here's a hint, when you order your first 'Pussers Pain Killer', ask for a card. After visiting three different Pussers bars (and having a painkiller at each) you will get a Pussers Triangle Pennant you can fly from your boat - or hang at home!

While most vacationers like to enjoy the comforts of their luxury yacht charter, a true Caribbean Yacht Charter isn't complete until you stop for a cocktail at a few of the best spots in the British Virgin Islands. You never know what you'll see or who you willl meet, but you'll be sure to have some tales to tell at your own watering hole back home for years to come.

80s dance music

Taking "iPod Culture" into Clubs as Well as Cyberspace: Jonny Rocket Interviewed by The G-Man

Already making plenty of noise in the marketplace is a new concept called Playlist, which exists both as a club and as an online music competition (see www.ipod-dj.com for details on how to enter and what you can win).

Playlist is attracting attention for several reasons. First, as a part of what some are calling "iPod Culture," Playlist is helping disseminate music to a wide audience. And second, many of us just love the Warholian idea of a bunch of people showing up at a club to be a DJ for 15 minutes of fame.

So far, the Playlist club is only in London, but you can expect them to go global soon because this concept takes social networking and marries it to a party context. And who doesn't like a nice loud party?

Briefly, here's the rundown on the two forms of this new phenomenon:

BRICK-AND-MORTAR PLAYLIST.

You arrive with your favorite 15-minutes of music on an iPod or other digital music player, sign-up (first come, first served) and you play your songs through the club's sound system.

Or you sign up to be a judge of the quarter-hour sets. The best DJs win extra set time and prizes.

Or you just drop by the club and dance.

CYBERSPACE PLAYLIST.

Anyone can register at the Web site and send a 15-minute playlist for judging. Again, there are prizes for the best set. Playlist does not yet feature streaming, downloading or Internet radio broadcasts, but you can bet that these are coming soon.

A BEHIND-THE-SCENES CHAT.

I spoke with Playlist's co-creator, Jonny "Rocket" Evans, who is excited by the unpredictability of his new venture. "What will happen at Playlist? That's just it. We don't know what will happen." Evans is happy to let the audience take control. "We can't say what the music will be, except that it will be diverse. We think it'll appeal to people with broad musical taste, a sense of humor and the desire to have fun. We also think we'll attract artists and musicians, who will want to explore the creative potential of the whole idea."

Evans sees the Playlist concept as inevitable. "I think music is about to enter a new boom time. It's going to be very interesting, because digital downloads (legal and peer-to-peer) have reinvigorated interest in music, and I think the most recent US album sales and downloads figures from SoundScan show this. This also encourages a sense of diversity in the music-loving audience. We think this is going to mean people want the unexpected. And this is why we think the Playlist idea is an idea that reflects its time."

The current consolidation of major media across the globe is somewhat counter-balanced by the Playlist concept. As Evans notes, "In the case of radio, for example, commercial radio playlists are designed to appeal to a particular demographic, which musician and music tsar Feargal Sharkey describes as 'Teenage girls,' as this group statistically buys the most music. And that's not good for music. We think we live at a point in time when digital diversity will propel music sales beyond anything ever seen before. And we really, really like the idea of harnessing a personal technology such as the iPod in a way that transforms it into a collective, social activity such as Playlist."

CHANGING TIMES.

There is a philosophical element in the way Evans describes the culture surrounding Playlist. "Music is at once a deeply personal activity and a deeply social activity, both for players and listeners. I think music is tribal glue. And it's a truism, isn't it, that whenever music marries new technology it sees economic benefit that is good for companies, artists and all involved in the entertainment ecosystem," he states, pointing to the sales figures of firms involved in sheet music, juke boxes, 33rpm vinyl, and clubs, not to mention CDs.

"Playlist is all about the music, not the genre," Evans says. As their manifesto states: "The principle is simple: if you want to share your music, just turn up, sign in and play out. If you want to judge other people's music, turn up, sign up and speak out. If you simply want to party, just turn up, tune in, dance it out."

In the planning stages for months, Playlist is now launching down the block and in cyberspace near you. Everyone can participate, and everyone can be a DJ, at least fifteen minutes at a time.

Web: www.ipod-dj.com

# # #

Scott G is president of G-Man Music & Radical Radio. His music is on commercials for Verizon Wireless, Goodrich, Monaco Motor Coaches, BAE Systems and more. A creative director of the National Association of Record Industry Professionals (NARIP) and a member of The Recording Academy (NARAS), he writes about music for MusicDish.com and the Immedia Wire Service. The G-Man's albums are released by Delvian Records and are on Apple's iTunes. He can be reached via http://www.gmanmusic.com.

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Staying Power - The Bars And Restaurants That Stand The Test Of Time

Here today, gone tomorrow, bars have a reputation for short-term success. But a few have the ability to ride the times and keep on top of the game.

Ten years ago, I was sitting in The Groucho Club one late summers evening discussing with a now well known haute couture designer, the new wave of drinking culture that was enveloping the capital, arguing that London really had never been so exciting. Up until that point, drinks were very much a secondary element of the overall experience wine was simply white or red, beer came only in a pint glass and vodka was whatever paint-stripper the barman chose to pour. But in the nineties, we were on the cusp of a cocktail movement. New-world wines were making the Chardonnay and Shiraz as commonplace as the Bordeaux, while new conceptual drinks like Red Bull were seriously shaking up the market, broadening peoples drinking landscape and challenging us to think about drinking as more of a lifestyle. Slowly, what was behind the bar appeared to be taking over the focus of the night. People were whispering rumours of late night bars that were open into the wee hours, where glamourous glitterati rubbed hips with the international jet-set over Manhattans and Martinis. They, along with The Groucho, were the places everyone wanted to be seen and their popularity seemed untouchable to all but the most cynical.

Of course, everything has a lifespan, we cynically agreed: fashion is dead in a season, and a fashionable bar well you wouldnt want to bet the house on it would you? We both concluded that fashions simply cant last and those bars, which today were the subject of snaking queues, would quickly turn to yesterdays news as would the drinks that were being quaffed within. Of course, in most cases we werent far wrong. Mondo, Saint, Titanic, Riki Tik... all have fallen by the wayside having once been celebrity favourites of their day. Many others have turned from exclusive A-list excellence to godawful tourist tat. The Gin Sling became the Sea Breeze became the Bramble became the Vanilla Mojito

But its not all doom and gloom. Today, another ten years hence, I am back in the same leather couch of the same Groucho, and ordering from the menu a Red Bull, a drink whose ability to transcend fads and trends seems to symbolise the aspirations of nightlife culture. It has history and heritage and has attained almost timeless appeal. Fashionable works for a while, but every owner, manager and promoter hopes and strives for one thing ultimately and that is to be the next classic. Because the classics, while small in number, exist on a plain far superior to fashion. Dotted amongst the sprawling community of one-off wonders that populate the bar world, a few classics really have stood the test of time, riding the cyclical waves to achieve immortal credibility. The Groucho is one of those timeless classics. Through the years it has always been at the top of its game, its members list comprising the same names that populate the pages of the celebrity press together with the successful and powerful in the world of media.

Nowadays, octogenarian founder members sit comfortably alongside young achievers and its long-term future would appear to be set in stone. Embassy is another long-time winner or more to the point, its ever-present Rock n Roll proprietor, Mark Fuller, who ran the original Embassy twenty years ago with equal success. This most recent incarnation of one of Londons most famous clubs, now with a fine dining restaurant that counts among the capitals very best, and glitzy nightclub in the basement, is a rare constant in the oscillating world of the fashionable. Another face that has always been associated with bar and club supremacy is Jake Panayiotou who ran original celebrity hot-spot, Browns for a decade before moving on in its hay-day. His last few years at the helm of the Wellington Club in Knightsbridge have seen the age-old members club climb to yet new heights. But its not only members clubs that can battle through the ages unscathed. Music-led venues such as Medicine Bar in Islington, Bar Rumba, The Cross, Bar Vinyl and The End have all proved their mettle, while the likes of Hanover Grand, The Gardening Club and Iceni have collapsed into the annuls of hip history.

So, what is it that sets the one-hit-wonders apart from the immortals? What makes a classic? Three characteristics seem to pump through the veins of all the long-term winners.

Quality, choice and adaptability, says Cas, The Grouchos pre-eminent bar manager, as he deftly shakes up cocktails from behind the bar. You have to offer a quality experience in the drinks, the music, the food and the people. You must give customers what they want and you have to adapt to the times. Subtly underlining the point, my Red Bull silently arrives at the table on its own tray, dressed with a single, perfectly folded napkin.

Can staying power really be so simple to achieve? With twenty years of success behind The Groucho, the club is quite an authority on the subject, but it was Darwin who concluded that the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting to their environment. Sounds pretty familiar to me and, lets face it, you cant argue with Darwin.

HERE TO STAY

Our selection of bars that we think will still be doing it in ten years time

MAYFAIR: Embassy

An all-round club for the all-round socialite, Embassy offers food on a par with Michelin starred restaurants, drinks that are as good as any great cocktail bar, a basement club and a guestlist that could double as a whos who of London.

COVENT GARDEN: The End & AKA

One of the capitals most respected dance music venues, with Mr C behind its success. Music is always ahead of its time and drinks are a world away from most dance music venues.

KNIGHTSBRIDGE: Wellington Club

With over 100 years of history, The Wellington has been reborn as an exclusive hangout for the citys hippest. Lounge bar and club rolled into one and popular with the paps and the press alike.

WEST: Woodys

On the banks of Londons longest canal, Woodys has become accepted as the members bar for the music industry. Three floors of food drink and dance with a collection of the best music and cocktail mixologists in the country.

ISLINGTON: Medicine Bar

It was the bar that put Islington on the credible map. One of the original DJ bars that has been made a home to the clubbing community of the 1990s.

CAMDEN: Bar Vinyl

Reputedly the first DJ bar in London, Bar Vinyl combines a record shop with the only bar in Camden really worth its salt. The bar is minuscule, but the offering is enormous and the future is vast.

SHOREDITCH: Home

One of the originators of the Shoreditch movement, Home made its mark before all of the others and continues to hold its own. It has moved from a scraggly basement bar to a slick, but funky cocktail bar and restaurant and continues to define the times.

SOHO: The Groucho

A favourite media hangout, The Groucho is like a party in your own front room with the kind of people that anybody would eat their own right arm to have turn up at their party. Now with a more modern bar on the first floor to complement the leather and wood ground floor classic, it is a members bar that suits all and bound to see in another twenty year term.

HOXTON: Zigfrid

A newcomer to the Hoxton set, Zigfrid is most likely to be here in ten years. Brainchild of leading bar designer, Paul Daly, it appeals to the more creative Hoxtonians and since the district is a hotbed of creativity, its proving pretty popular.

FITZROVIA: Social

A collaboration between bar gurus The Breakfast Group and music gurus, Heavenly Social, this backstreet concrete bunker of a bar offers some of the best DJ-led and live music about. Now with sister venues in Islington and Nottingham, Social is destined for a big future.

Jeremy Mascarenhas has been editorial director of the seminal London Bar Guide magazine http://www.londonbarguide.com for 10 years. He is also global editor of The World Bar Guide, an online guide to the best bars in the world http://www.worldbarguide.com, publisher of The Big Directory (a bar industry bible) and a freelance drinks marketing consultant. He has worked with most of the leading drinks groups including Red Bull, Mot Hennessy, Diageo, Brown Foreman, Budweiser, Asahi, Tiger Beer and Grand Marnier. Through his publishing company Scene It, as well as the London Bar Guide, he has published guides to Sherry, UK nightlife, cocktails, Japanese restaurants, the much lauded London Restaurant Guide and much more besides.

music on so you think you can dance

Music Review of Spirit Healing Chants by Sophia

It wasn't long after I first fell in love with the Mount Shasta area that I discovered Sophia's Hidden Waters/ Sacred Ground CD. Her stunningly pure, sensuously hypnotic vocals carved a window into my heart, a window which remains open to this day. Sophia is able to put more heart and soul into her voice than all but a few singers I've ever heard. But more than just having technical chops, Sophia evokes the sublime passion of the Goddess. Listening to Sophia is like listening to an angel, one who is able to bridge the apparent divide between this world and that of pure, loving Spirit. Her entire discography, including Emergence, Return, Chakra Healing Chants and more, is well worth collecting.

The musicians on Spirit Healing Chants are truly an amazing group of stars in their own right. Gifted singer-songwriter Michael Stillwater plays guitar and adds his inimitable voice to " Heart of the Mother/I am One," while Raphael contributes keyboards. Along the way, Fantuzzi gifts us with invocations and vocals on "Universal Lover," and Donnie Regalmuto offers keyboards, vocals, percussion and programming throughout. Additional artists contribute violin, bass, percussion, flutes, sax and more.

Other chants on Spirit Healing Chants that Sophia and crew do more than justice to include " Blessed are the Peacemakers," " Shakti," " Keepers of the Garden/We are the Ones" and the delightfully jazz-tinged " Celebrate this Day."

An exquisite accompaniment to tantra and other yoga practices, active meditation or massage, Spirit Healing Chants artfully and passionately celebrates the Divine in all of manifest creation. Be sure to give Sophia's new CD your undivided attention. Your heart will love you for it.

Steve Ryals has been writing music reviews since 1994, and to date has published more than 1200. Steve specializes in World Beat, Native American, New Age, Meditation, Contemporary Instrumental, Chanting, Devotional Singing, and more. He currently writes two music reviews every month as part of his Drunk with Wonder Newsletter. To sign up for his FREE newsletter go to http://www.drunkwithwonder.com

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'Antidotes' by Foals - Album Review

For all the ubiquity of post-punk inspired bands flooding the mainstream over recent years, the amount of truly innovative music they have collectively produced has been disappointing by comparison. It's not difficult to see why; the original class of 78-82 set the bar high and bequeathed one of the most astonishingly imaginative musical legacies ever - a lavish cross-pollination that embraced punk, disco, dub reggae, funk, glam and krautrock to often dizzying extremes. And while some of these acts (Talking Heads, Wire) have become touchstones for a generation of indie kids, other key players (Associates, Magazine) have proved simply too rich to rob - talents so 'out there' as to defy influence.

It's a willingness to experiment, both musically and technologically, that's been missing of late. All the aforementioned artists broke new ground in the studio and, in their own ways, redefined what the pop single could be - mental but magnificent, yet still within detection of the Smash Hits radar. Certainly, the likes of Franz Ferdinand and Maximo Park have produced top-notch material in recent years but, worryingly, little new ground has been broken and the 30-year-old model remains the blueprint.

Thank flip, then, for Foals and their wonderful new album, Antidotes. Ostensibly, given their youth, NME-darling status and oft-mentioned Skins appearance, it would be easy to dismiss this Oxford bunch as yet more spiky-guitar-driven, jerky vocal, Gang of Four wannabes. Not so. Foals have ambition by the truckload and, while their influences are clearly apparent, they've applied them in new and unpredictable ways. And finally, thrillingly, over a decade after Oasis single-handedly kicked the cack out of musical progression, here's a guitar band that's clearly in love with the studio, electronics and the notion of stretching possibility.

The singles Cassius and Balloons are perfectly formed pop confections that, like with all the best albums, only scratch the surface of the whole. African-influenced guitars abound but it's the concise drive and restrained neurosis that strikes, as well as the arresting use of saxophone (think Mirror In The Bathroom rather than Baker Street). The album's true heart lies deeper, however, and the tension is released throughout Antidotes at several key moments, so when everyone stops to admire the beautiful view they've created, - the heart-rending chorus of Red Sock Pugie; the gentle ascent of Big, Big Love (vaguely reminiscent of Unforgettable Fire-era U2) - it's exhilarating.

At last, the noughties have their own Fear of Music, Chairs Missing or Fourth Drawer Down - a record driven by an impulse to create something new, where musical dexterity is of secondary importance to the idea, but still retaining one foot on the dance floor. Yes, that good.

http://www.whatswinning.com

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Everything Comes Handy With Detailed Wedding Checklist

Organizing a wedding party is not a child's play unless you create a detailed wedding checklist. The complexities related to the various events involved in wedding preparations are really mind-boggling. To be able to cover all the important aspects of the day, you need to have a detailed version of the original wedding checklist. At times, while you note down something, you don't think about the minute issues related to it. These little things can later have negative impact on your efforts. So your list would need to cover all major and minor points related to the marriage.

When The Going Gets Tough

A detailed list means that it contains something extra that normally you won't consider remembering. By extra, we mean planning for what that is hardly expected, planning for emergencies. As we all agree, a crisis can happen at any point of time, be it on the day of your first interview or even your D-day. And when it comes to your very special day, nothing to compromise about, agree? So, it better to consider these things as early as you prepare your pre wedding list. it is advisable for the bride as well the groom to prepare an emergency kit for themselves that comprises of everything that you think might be needed at any point of time. The bridal kit shall contain all the essentials meant for tip to toe that include comb, a pair of scissors, moist tissues, safety pins, a mouth-freshener, emergency pads and a mini sewing kit. The kit for groom shall have a deodorant, mouth-freshener, wallet, marriage license, and a spare camera. Apart from these, a medical kit shall also be kept ready with aids for general medical emergencies like headache, stomachache, body ache, flu, nausea, bruise and minor cuts. These kits shall be kept handy with the maids following you.

Know What Is Larger Than Life

There are petty things that play big roles in certain phases of life. Often we skip out of these areas and later realize their vitality. To keep a hold of these things, you need to do the framing of all the events in your detailed wedding list, that are likely to take place on the day and that too in order. This would help you maintain a smooth flow of all the events, without breaking the continuity. For example, music plays an evitable job in any auspicious function and when it comes to music, dance can't be left behind. It's a small thought but can be magical for any party. So, along with good music you can also arrange a dance floor for the purpose.

In your marriage-planning checklist, you can also mention about the gifts or what you say 'tokens of love' for your loved ones present in the wedding. The boundless joy of the people can reach beyond your estimation. Though it might consume lot of time but it's really worth working on detailed wedding checklist.

Organizing a wedding party is not a child's play unless you create a detailed wedding checklist. To read more information visit weddings-marriages.

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