This Austin Powers looking extravagant cocktail bar and restaurant is positioned on Haymarket in the heart of London’s West End.
Complete with carousel bar, lavish Vegas mirrors, stunning monochrome Fibonacci patterned walls and floor, imposing black stallions, giant bird cages, turquoise hand shaped chairs and lashings of fluorescent pink, the exaggerated splendour of The Electric Birdcage creates a magical environment in which to savour a superlative range of innovative cocktails, alongside contemporary Pan Asian cuisine.

It is positioned on the left hand side of the road, as you walk towards Trafalgar Square, before you reach the stylish Haymarket Hotel. 

For more info: www.electricbirdcage.com

Mantra raises bar for new nightspot standards on Second Avenue
When entrepreneur Sean Thomas Rogers, Brian Walter and partners, decided to open up one of their first of several venues, in the thriving uptown bar business, it was apparent to them that local savvy bar hoppers are seeking a downtown, hip style for a much needed uptown location. That’s when the team sought the services of well-known designers, Peter Sibilia and Damien Vizuete, whose previous projects included the Dream Hotel’s Ava Lounge, Eugene, Sugar, and Abaya to name a few.

The space itself features two floors with a large glass frontage to show off the venue. Sibilia believes that everybody these days are on the same page about style. With sleek new condominiums and office buildings, and in a town where Armani suits and Stella McCartney are the high end uniform for New York living, it just makes sense in our visual world that high-style is not confined just to the downtown locales.

 BURLESQUE has become the hottest thing amongst the young cool New Yorkers. Of course legends like Penelope Tuesdae, Murray Hill, Fancy, FrancO, BOB and Charlene Lanzell has been doing this in a underground manner going back to the late 90's at places like Flamingo East and Windows on The World...but now as has happened to most of the alternative nightlife concepts in New York, it has become hip and the survivors have found a way to make a living on what they are good at.

THIS IS BURLESQUE is a bawdy and bodacious burlesque stage show featuring a bevy of beauties, singers, swinging music, with plenty of strip teasing from the ladies and shtick from Mr. Hill. THIS IS BURLESQUE stars legendary host and renowned comedian MURRAY HILL; the Italian Stallionette and reigning Miss Cyclone ANGIE PONTANI; the tapping tornado HELEN PONTANI; the delinquent darling of burlesque, the fastest tassel twirler from east to west PEEKABO POINTE; THE WORLD FAMOUS PONTANI SISTERS, DOLCE DE LECHE; the sultry songstress MELODY SWEETS; and the "voice" SCOTT RAYOW.

A throwback to the boozy days of speak-easies, Tin Pan Alley, and vaudeville, THIS IS BURLESQUE, is inspired by Ann Corio's 1960 Broadway show, THIS WAS BURLESQUE. In the 1930's, Ann Corio was a big star and top attraction performing to sell-out audiences at the famed Minsky's Burlesque. It didn't last long because of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia's mission to clean up the city. He ran burlesque out of town and Minsky's was shut down for good. After she watched the decline of nightclubs and burlesque in the 1960's, Ann Corio decided to mount her own show, THIS WAS BURLESQUE, to keep the burlesque magic alive.

The show is a perfect fit for Corio's plush, sexy upstairs hide-away showroom, where each table feels like VIP. You'll see the sweat on Murray's brow, the fabric of his polyester suits, and be tickled by tassels and fanned by fan dances. A full dinner and cocktail menu is available all night, the lights are low and the champagne is on ice.

for more info: www.corionyc.com 

This cultural mashup of a party celebrates an eclectic mix of cumbia, punk, indie, and electro jams, all sung almost entirely in Spanish. Capitalizing on a Mexican trend of reclaiming the pejorative "naco" — a slang term originally associated with lower-class or crass culture — hosts and resident DJs Amylu Meneses and Marcelo Cunning lure the often-androgynous, always fabulous Latin scenesters and the fashionistas that dig them underground to sweat and dance in Fontana's basement. This week, follow the lead of avant-popists Something in Spanish and don a costume to compete for a prize. 

for more info: nacotheque.com 

Many hours has been spent in Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport over the years. For some reason it seems like KLM always makes sure that if you have a stop in Amsterdam, it needs to be at least 3 hours. Not that they have “coffee shops” in the airport like they have in the city—or actually they do have coffee shops, but they are frenchise places and are about as charming as the next door macdonalds. The bookstores are predictable, with shelves full of porn, fashion and bestseller books. The tourist shops are full of wooden clogs and anything orange, since this is the nations soccer shirt color. There are large areas for internet connections, but it’s very expensive. You have the food choices of any American mall, including full fledged Americans eating big macs and whoppers Ohio styles.
The Bladerunner like voice that with very short breaks rants about people who are late for their departures, saying that the late person is delaying the flight for all the other passengers and that they are in the proccess to throw your lugguage off the flight, unless you run to the gate and catch your bag in mid air somewhere between the plane and the baggage handlers off limit concrete floor. After hearing about 50 of these messages, one imagines these late passangers running around the huge airport, that if you are somewhat not focused you can easily get lost in. But that’s ok. The airport also has a casino, a massage parlor, a meditation center and a full fledged art museum with Dutch masters galore. If you by chance have brought your children, there are also some nice rooms for children to play in. However, the service that really can calm your nerves in this maze of an orange airport is the “comfort seats”. They are leather lounge chairs, pleaced in somewhat quite areas around the airport where one can lay down, put a sweater over ones head and sleep, while you in your dreams are worried if your lugguage will be thrown off your flight by very tall blond flight attendants in orange, speaking firmly into a big megaphone that you must hurry. Hurry up getting a little shut-eye before your next flight to somewhere far far away. Finally, the best detail at the airport of Amsterdam is the little fly that is in-printed into the men's bathroom urinals. First one thinks its just some unpleasant dirt, but then you look closer, and into the other urinals...trying not to look too strange...and you understand it is a small practical joke to keep you on your toes. Its like a smart street art piece by Banksy, exept its made by the producers of the urinals...and who knows, maybe specially designed for Schipol exclusively.