Alisson Gothz Sao Paulo Reports: Introducing Torture Garden
Torture Garden comes to Latin America for the first time this January; they’ll be doing two parties at the end of the month: January 27 in Sao Paulo and January 28 in Rio. And if everything goes right, this could lead into a monthly event.
In Sao Paulo the party will be hosted at Blue Space, one of the most legendaries gay clubs in town.
Sao Paulo is watching a new wave of burlesque and fetish performers attracting a young crowd looking for something cool. In several parties and even cabarets tattooed girls wearing vintage lingerie and pasties are dominating the spotlights.
Amongst the Brazilian artists performing at TG Sao Paulo you’ll find Giselle Kenj, a master in Egyptian arts and culture who uses her knowledge to perform the most amazing shows in clubs around the country.
Her fellow mate, Thot, a real albino snake, enchants the audience in every move she makes. She’s like a modern age Cleopatra. Also, Victor Piercing, who’s also been known as one of the most famous performers in Brazil.
His works are provocative, sexy, playing with androgyny and S/M imaginary, sometimes looking like a sexy cyberpunk, and others like a goth unicorn.
His electric chainsaw routine is a trademark of Sao Paulo’s effervescent nightlife.
The tickets can be bought online at http://www.torturegardenbrazil.com.
Alisson Gothz’ Sao Paulo Reports: Happy Birthday David Bowie
Click on the picture to buy Aladdin Sane
Alisson Gothz: ”Do you know that awesome feeling when you hear a song and you get chills down your spine? I get that in every Bowie song, even with his most underrated works.
He is – to say the least – my biggest inspiration, the one who shaped me for life. I grew up listening to him and probably will have “Heroes” playing on my funeral. My mother’s still not sure if I’m a boy or a girl, and all I know is that I like dancing and I look divine.
I’ve found him through my teen idol (Boy George), who’s also one of his biggest fans, and “Aladdin Sane” was one of the first records I ever bought with my own money – despite the fact that by then it was already more than 10 years old.
I’m glad to see that, even though “The Man Who Fell To Earth is now relaxing in his Golden Years” and living a modest life out of the limelight, his works and his influences are widely recognised and celebrated by everyone.”
Click for more Alisson
Alisson Gothz’ Sao Paulo Reports: Turning Japanese
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Sao Paulo has the biggest Japanese community in the world living outside Japan. The first Japanese immigrants came here more than 100 years ago and, after living and working as farmers in the countryside, they chose the centrally located neighborhood called “Liberdade” (“freedom”, in Portuguese) as a home away from home.
The neighborhood has been for decades a very popular tourist spot, with streets all decorated with Japanese sculptures and gardens, but now it seems that it’s time Liberdade rejuvenates itself and maybe steal the spotlight from some more famous neighborhoods like Baixo Augusta or Barra Funda.
One of the first spots to be adopted by intrepid clubbers was the karaoke bar inside Choperia Liberdade. In the olden days, the place was a traditional pub for the Japanese community to enjoy a fun weekend, but then it got discovered by accident and soon became a place for a more ‘alternative’ crowd to hang out during the week. As it always happens, it was a great place to be before it got too popular.
The square in front of the main subway station attracts a very young crowd every Saturday and Sunday, big anime/manga fans who also dare to dress up in very fashionable outfits – it’s not rare to spot a “gothic lolita” or a “punk rocker in a bear costume” parading amongst them. At the main avenue, will find the most interesting gift shops ever – places where you can shop for all kinds of crazy things, from plastic Buddha statues to real ninja swords. And also, of course, amazing Asian food markets.
Once located at the famous Rua Augusta, the art gallery Mezzanino has now moved to Liberdade and may soon turn its quiet street into a new place for alternative arts. The gallery is specialized in photography and Modern Art, and features both established and new artists on its cast (me included!).
But the main new attraction is Cine Joia. The place was one of the first cinemas in town, and used to show Japanese movies for the local community. After being closed for years, the venue got in the hands of Facundo Guerra – the King Midas of Sao Paulo’s nightlife and owner of several clubs like Vegas and Lions - who got together with DJ Andre Juliani and music journalist Lucio Ribeiro to turn the place into the coolest concert house ever.
The new Cine Joia had its world debut last Thursday with a DJ set by James Murphy (former LCD Soundsystem) and will start its glorious journey with a concert by Ladytron this week.
The arrival of these new places will shake things around and maybe we’ll be seeing new clubs opening there in a few months. Liberdade is the best proof of how culturally diverse (and cool) Sao Paulo is. Or as the people who live there would say; “tanoshii!!”.
Moving to Berlin (Duo): Pet Duo (interview)
Pet Duo: click for more
Six Berlin residents; Pet Duo, Axel Bartsch, Ralf Gutterslut, Steffa Superheilig, Patrick DSP & Snuff Crew, chatted to Skrufff last week about their experiences moving to the German capital. See below for Brazilian techno heroes Pet Duo’s comments in full.
To read the full feature: click HERE
Alisson Gothz’ Sao Paulo Reports: Mandatory DJ Diplomas For All
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The Brazilian Committee for Education, Culture and Sports has just approved a bill that regulates the activities of DJs and producers. This bill will make it mandatory for a DJ to have a professional certificate in order to perform in public places, clubs and events. To get the certificate, the artist must have concluded a professional course in a DJ school.
With this certificate in hands, DJs and producers will be able to get a professional registry at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. This bill also determines that the work load for a DJ must be six daily hours and/or 30 weekly hours.
This bill, however, doesn’t apply for foreign DJs and producers who come to Brazil to perform – as long as they don’t stay in the country for more than 60 days. Also, every public or private event with international DJs must have at least 70% of their line-up filled with local professionals.
Although sounding extremely beneficial, not all DJs are totally happy with this new law for a number of different reasons. For instance, they complain that DJ courses in Brazil are still very expensive and not available outside big cities like Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro. Also, it’s not very clear what DJs who have been performing for decades will have to do to get this certificate – should even they get back to school?
At the same time, most people see this as a great opportunity to stop the current wave of “celebrities pretending to be DJs” that is growing fast in the country, taking jobs from real DJs and, most of the times, ruining the image of their profession.
The bill is needs to be voted by the Committee of Social Affairs and the Chamber of Government before it becomes a law. Let’s see what happens!
Alisson Gothz’ Sao Paulo Report; Madame Satan Returns
(Video: Tranny show @ Nostromondo 1994)
One of Sao Paulo’s most celebrated and important clubs of all times will soon be re-launched with very a promising atmosphere. After being shut down for many years, the old historical building, hidden in a corner of a gloomy street and which was once a slaughterhouse may soon become a meeting place again for clubbers and art freaks galore.
10 Years of Skrufff: Hans Peter Kuenzler Interviews Jonty Skrufff
Live at the Roxy, Prague, Czech Republic, 2007
As well as writing a bestselling Michael Jackson biography and another book about Michael Jackson fans, Hans Peter Kuenzler is a leading London ‘stringer’ or foreign correspondent/ music journalist, writing about music and the arts for print media and radio in Switzerland, Germany, UK and other countries.
Hans asked Jonty Skrufff a typically imaginative and indeed tough bunch of questions recently for a feature he was doing about dream jobs.
Hans Peter (click for more)
http://www.hanspeterkuenzler.com
Hans Peter Kuenzler: Was being a DJ a dream job for you before you started?
Jonty Skrufff; “Actually, no I’d never considered it and was totally happy being a clubber/ journalist until a sequence of serendipitous events transformed my life in the summer of 2004 (involving, variously, Exit festival, Serbian podium dancing girls, Ibiza, statuesque models, Judge Jules, London’s (then) hipster club du jour Golf Sale, the much missed Alex Silverfish (RIP) and S Express’ Mark Moore.) Not necessarily in that order.”
1st night nerves at London's 333 Club
Hans Peter Kuenzler: Did it become a dream job once you had become one?
Jonty Skrufff; “From the very first moment, yes, I was totally, irrevocably hooked. It was at London’s 333 on a Sunday night, Alex Silverfish was DJing, with a shaking hand I picked up the stylus (in those days DJs still played vinyl) and put it at the beginning Of Justice’s Never Be Alone (still then an obscure Gigolo release). The opening chords rang out, the crowd roared and that was it. I ROCKED it. OH MY GOD!”
Hans Peter Kuenzler: Why did you change from being a journalist to being a DJ?
Jonty Skrufff; “I refer to my last answer; OH MY GOD! Though actually I remain a journalist- the two roles have a fantastic synergy.”
Live at Buddah Club, Mauritius (February 2011)
The State of Sao Paulo Night-life; Is Pop Killing the Club Scene?
Magal, Renato Cohen, Camilo Rocha, Benjamin Ferreira, Alisson Gothz, Eduardo Corelli
D-edge's Main dance floor
“While our generation took ten years to be able to distinguish house from techno, the next generation that is starting to go out at night has a completely pop background. And today’s pop music is just like mainstream electronic music”. Facundo Guerra (Vegas, Volt, Lions).
Speaking to leading Sao Paulo media figure Claudia Assef recently, nightlife entrepreneur Facundo Guerra, 37, sparked a firestorm of debate when he suggested underground club culture- and international DJs – were no longer viable in the city. Rival club promoter Renato Ratier, who months earlier doubled the size of his landmark club D-Edge, disagreed, though Facundo, a partner in seminal underground nightspot Vegas and new pop centred nightspot Lions was firm.
“Today, if you do not play pop on the dance floor people leave,” he insisted.
“At Lions recently I saw a scene that shocked me: Mau Mau, a DJ we all love, started spinning after Roque Castro, who had just played an extremely pop orientated set. Guess what happened? Mau Mau cleared the floor, something I had never seen in my life!”
Mau Mau (one of Brazil’s most popular and critically acclaimed DJs, overseas as well as at home) was understandably furious and denied Facundo’s claim categorically though given that I’ve just arrived in Sao Paulo for what will be my seventh mini-DJ tour, the tale provokes a touch of concern for me. Not least because both my first and last gigs from five take place at Facundo’s newest club: Lions . . .
Bar de Netao revellers (DJ Jeronimo & friend)
Claudia Wonder: Sao Paulo’s First Queen Of Club Culture (R.I.P.) (interview)
Claudia Wonder
Brazilian civil rights campaigner and transsexual performance artist Claudia Wonder started her nightlife career in Sao Paolo in 1975, performing alongside iconic Brazilian drag queens including Andrea May, Thelma Lipp and Brenda Lee.
Running round Sao Paulo’s then tiny after-hours gay scene, she routinely faced arrest from the police controlled by Brazil’s then notoriously brutal military dictatorship and became an ardent activist in the campaign that lead to democracy in 1985.
Also championing gay rights and later on, HIV and AIDS awareness issues, she became a national celebrity around the same time when she fronted Brazilian punk band Dirty Trick. In Sao Paulo meanwhile, she became even more infamous for her show ‘The Vomit of Myth’, which she regularly staged at the Madam Satan club, stripping off naked in a bathtub full of blood.
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Moving to Europe in 1989 (where she worked as a cabaret artist and make-up stylist) she came back to Sao Paulo in 1999, returning to music in 2007 to record on a number of electro albums. She also became a columnist for GQ magazine the same year and in 2008 was the subject of a documentary “My friend Claudia’ directed by filmmaker Dácio Pinheiro.
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My Friend Claudia
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Continuing to fight for gay rights and AIDS issues, Claudia died of an AIDS related illness of November 26, aged 55. She chatted to Jonty Skrufff and Benjamin Ferreira several months before, in her flat in the centre of Sao Paulo close to Avenue Paulista (Benjamin acted as a translator).
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world AIDS day (december 1) click for more
