The good news is there’s still plenty to do; the bad news, though, is the constant, near-monsoon-level rain. Forget cute hair and shoes — there’s no point because they’ll just get ruined. In fact, this Thursday and Friday were all basically a wash, literally. On Friday, after battling with torrential rain and puddles to try to get to the Iceage show at Churchill’s, I waved the white flag and retreated back home. Oh well.

Saturday, the skies were friendlier, and late-night I headed to The Vagabond for their annual '90s Homecoming-themed party. The evening was also the official birthday celebration for two friends, Lauren “Lolo” Reskin of Sweat Records and Nicole Chipi of the Knight Foundation.

Lolo and her team started this annual event a couple years back, when it seemed like more of a costumed event. But with '90s nostalgia in full swing (and saturation), and everybody running around looking like a page from an old issue of Sassy, you could have almost mistaken it for a regular club-kid night out. Still, it’s always a good night to dance to Britpop in one room and Britney in another.

The highlight of the evening came around 2 am, though, when Vagabond regular Adora took the stage for a quick drag performance, flanked by some other friends who all took turns on their own songs. My favorite? The toned, awesomely gender-less person who channeled Manson for a dance to “The Dope Show.”

Sunday was all about the countdown to the Heat game — sure, Miami sports fans are fair-weather as hell, but it’s pretty fun when the whole city gets swept up in the excitement. So where better to get ready for the night than Backyard Boogie at Wood Tavern?

This is one of the best Sunday chill-out parties going. Think something kind of, sort of approaching the famous Do-Over parties from L.A.; a DJ playing funk and soul on actual vinyl 45s and just a good vibe. This is also a great place to come if you don’t have a dog and want to pet other people’s. Plus, there was a free crawfish boil this time around. Afterwards, most people migrated a couple blocks away to Gramps to watch the game, there was no rain, and the Heat won — so all in all, a good Sunday.

If you’re bored and want to get out of the house on Monday, but there’s no special event, there’s always the standby, decade-running roots reggae night on Purdy Lounge on the beach. But once or twice a year, I remember a serious throwback — “adult night” at Superwheels, way out in Kendall. If you’re a Miami local, you grew up going to birthday parties and field trips here, and it’s pretty much the last roller rink anywhere

Anyways, on Mondays, it’s 18-and-over (woo!) but the average age is more 25-plus, and it’s kind of like a retro club night/time warp on wheels. There’s a whole mini scene of people who head there to still jam on wheels to freestyle and electro classics. Seriously, dudes still doing stuff like this:

Plus, I got to roller skate to songs by Egyptian Lover, which got me super excited for his upcoming show this Saturday, June 15, at the Vagabond. If you’re bored on a Monday and don’t mind driving into the suburban wilds, this is an excellent way to burn off some restless energy and hear forgotten disco and bass jams for $12 (or just $10, if you have your own skates!).

While Mondays are kind of bleak for actual nightlife, Tuesdays are actually a great night to go out if you’re not a nine-to-fiver. At Bardot, there's Slap and Tickle, which always features underground dance music for the discerning listener. Ladies’ nights are usually cheesy, but not so at The Electric Pickle’s version of it on Tuesdays, and especially not so at Blackbird Ordinary.

That’s where the infamous Tuesday-night parties from Ricochet moved recently after that Midtown spot closed. Now, at Blackbird, the night still gets packed, with DJ A-Train spinning soul and funk, and assorted other craziness taking place throughout the night. Things start chill with people playing board games and such, but get rowdy (if you want them to) — because all of the fashionable, attractive female patrons here drink for free-99.

Wanna see people get aggro over a game of “cut-throat musical chairs?” This is your party. Just hope you don’t have anywhere early to go on Wednesday morning.

Images by Arielle Castillo

1. Don't worry, here comes the nurse with your meds...

2. Alright! The line-up for the next HOLY SHIP!!! has been announced!

While the two aforementioned possibilities aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, let's lean toward the latter. Now the artists named above would obviously be more than enough entertainment all by themselves, but what if we threw in A-Trak, Dillon Francis, Flume, Mark Ronson, some guy named Skrillex, and DJ sets from Chromeo and Disclosure, and told you that wasn't even close to the full list? Well, it's not just a feverish fantasy, the whole thing is happening from January 9, when the MSC Divina leaves Miami, to January 12, 2014. It's an even bigger boat than the event employed last time, which means more room for partying. You can scope it out in the video below, and while pre-booking unfortunately filled up in mere minutes, waiting lists can sometimes work wonders, so check out all the info at the website.

1.  Scratch drawings are always more fun after a few cocktails hit your lips. Remember that nostalgic coloring activity that was around when we were kids? Where you scratched off a layer of black paint with a paper clip, just to reveal a rainbow of colors underneath? Well, picture a mega-sized wall covered in adult graffiti. And, as grown-ups do, we scribbled and tagged the hell out of that wall, which will eventually benefit a local charity, thanks to Architecture for Humanity. Childhood art projects in the name of philanthropy? Count us in.

2.  An indoor bar with a DJ spinning on top of it is cooler than a bar without a DJ spinning on top of it. After collecting masks from Absolut X brand ambassadors and posing in the photo booth, it didn’t seem like things could get any more fun but they did. As we waited in line for an Absolut Greyhound (though we preferred John Lermayer’s namesake Absolut X creation at his mixology station), beats boomed from the open area above the roof of the center bar. The traveling structure, which has also hit other Absolut X theme parties, boasted none other than local sound seductress Jessica Who?. The fierce DJ curated the amped soundtrack, while everyone got downright tipsy waiting for Bloc Party to take the stage.

3.  Even free drinks taste better as a VIP. With limited breathing room in the cavernous space, the VIP was a much nicer option than cramming the dance floor with everybody else. Not only was there standing room close to the stage and private bathroom access, but the VIP thankfully had two of its own bars to service select movers and shakers. Not to mention, flowing flutes of Absolut Tune, a sparkling wine and vodka-infused concoction that seemed to suit the VIPs, as well as the event.

4.  When in doubt, say ‘yes’ to a masquerade-themed makeover. The Absolut X Makeover Masking center was a huge hit with guys and girls, alike. Offering complimentary extended smoky eyes and incognito facial accents, those who indulged sported a fancier look, while the rest of the crowd just settled with free masks, which were just as awesome – especially if making out with a stranger graced anyone’s agenda.

5.  Apparently, Arrested Development Fever has spread to the UK. A close-up view of Bloc Party’s hour-long raging set from the VIP offered up small details that many in the general sea were not privy to. The best of the batch was when drummer Matt Tong appeared shirtless halfway through. In between songs, Tong stood up, revealing his hilarious getup – a simple pair of super-short jean shorts. We deemed Tong a never-nude, in lieu of the return of the cult series, Arrested Development this month, also pondering, if perhaps, such a ridiculous custom could possibly be somebody’s reality.

Nola Zombi was created last fall when founder Jon Renaudin was looking for a fun and innovative way to raise funds for the Louisiana SPCA and Jefferson Parish SPCA in New Orleans. Being a tremendous fan of AMC's The Walking Dead and immediately recognizing that he wasn't alone with his fandom of zombies, Renaudin came up with the concept of celebrating zombie culture, its deep entrenchment in the historical fabric of New Orleans and raising funds for the SPCAs. After contacting his friend Graham Bosworth and pitching him the idea of hosting zombie pub crawls where the participants dress-up like the undead with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the Louisiana and Jefferson SPCAs, NOLA Zombi pub crawls were born.

It’s not your run of the mill pub crawl with people walking down the street in costumes getting drunk. No, people are getting a little tipsy for a cause. The city is heavily featured as the event takes full advantage of all of the New Orleans' entertainment scene has to offer. To help you be the best zombie you can be, special effects makeup artists are on-site to bring out your best undead look.

“We carefully select the bars and locations for our pub crawls so that people want to come along and help our cause to save animals," says creative director Adam Mitchell. "We are fortunate to have the talents of Illusion Industries' special effects makeup artists on-site providing makeup, prosthetics and all the undead makeup goodness that only one of the world's top special effects companies can provide. No one else in town can compete with the makeup that those folks produce at our pub crawls — their artistic abilities are cinema quality!"

Considering that they just debut their first pub crawl last April, it‘s already a rousing success with the locals. Two more crawls are in the works, with one slated for this June and the other one in October just in time for Halloween.

“Our pub crawl on April 20 was bigger than we could have ever hoped for,” explains Mitchell. "Our official count was 200 zombies. The actual number of attendees was much higher, but we lost count as the crowd grew. People were showing up in droves by the end of the evening after hearing the buzz on their friends' Facebook and Twitter feeds. The pub crawl we're planning for June is still a secret, but I can tell you that it's being planned in our city's most amazing neighborhood renowned for music and thrilling nightlife. It's going to be the event of the Spring!”

And just like fictional undead, NOLA Zombi hopes to branch out to a broader horizon and infect as many people as they can.

“The future of NOLA Zombi is beyond bright," adds Mitchell. We’re always looking at opportunities to take what we do to new places across the Gulf South with a continued mission of being of service to the communities of which we're a part. Everyone can absolutely expect us to continue announcing thrilling zombie filled entertainment events well into 2014. And don't be surprised if you see NOLA Zombi invading other cities along the Gulf!

So look out world, tipsy zombies are on the prowl.

[via Ocean Drive]

Société Perrier wants you to join in on the fun, and  we have two tickets that can be yours with a simple tweet in our direction. Just tweet the following:

I want to win tix to @moullinex at @BardotMiami from @SPerrier_USA: http://sperrier.com/11mRyec #bardotmoullinex

The rules:

• entrants must be 21+
• you must be following @sperrier_USA
• one entry per account
• entries must be from a valid Twitter account
• anyone found using multiple accounts to enter will be ineligible
• winner is responsible for transportation to and from event

The contest ends April 17 at 6pm. Good luck!

All you have to do to enter is tweet:

I want to win @MykkiBlanco tix at @BardotMiami from @sperrier_usa http://sperrier.com/109v54a #MBxSP

The rules:

• entrants must be 21+
• you must be following @sperrier_USA
• one entry per account
• entries must be from a valid Twitter account
• anyone found using multiple accounts to enter will be ineligible
• winner is responsible for transportation to and from event

Contest ends April 10, 2013 at 12 pm EST. Good luck!

Jordan Chadsey @JordanChadsey #edm #love #ultra #miami #umf #selfie

Aileen Quintana @makeupbyaileen friday nights look with #mermaidhair and #purplelips ... #selfie #wmc #ultra

Tatyanna Andrea S @TatyAndreaS #selfie #ultra 2013 it's over now

Storm Trooper 305 @StormTrooper305 Selfie Sunday #dream #redbull #rbguesthouse #hat #wmc #selfie #miumiu

@GinoCampodonico @StaceyReneInk @JosephAQ

Galena Mosovich @galenaPR #umf #selfie #spxmmw for @euniquedeeann #photobomb #nyinthehouse

Eunique DeeAnn @EuniqueDeeann #lastday #ultra #spxmmw @shaynebenowitz

Featured image by Shayne Benowitz

Images by Jipsy

1. The party doesn't stop just because of a little rain. Friday afternoon skies over Miami didn't bode well for the first night of the festival's second weekend. Drizzles started by the afternoon and a mini-deluge got underway just when the festival was set to open. That didn't stop the kids, who still jammed the main entrance, or the music, which thumped on as scheduled.

2. We said this last week, but seriously, when in doubt, head straight to the Carl Cox & Friends stage. Late Friday night, when many other DJs were mostly running through obvious vocal pop, Cadenza head Luciano delivered a bubbly, dubby, hour-and-a-half set of tech-house to a large crowd in the festival's Mega Structure.

3. Some of the titans of EDM seem to be getting sick of the genre they helped commercially crystallize. Case in point: wunderkind Avicii freaked out most of his fans at the main stage on Friday night when he took a turn into... country music! Yes, that came complete with a live band featuring a fiddle player. It did not go over well and so far, we all still have yet to figure out what he was trying to do there.

4. Brostep is probably on its last legs. The "Dropzone" tent on Saturday remained full throughout the day, but the musical selections therein sounded pretty stale. Grinding bassline, knife-sharpening noise, occasional female vocal anthem, rinse, repeat — it all sounded the same, and most of the DJ sets were pretty indistinguishable.

5. Meanwhile, trap has been officially anointed as the Next Big Thing. All the cool kids who were crowding the then-new dubstep arena back in 2010 had migrated this year to the Trapped stage on Saturday. That's where you could hear always-on-trend acts like Craze, Flosstradamus, Nadastrom, and even the currently white-hot Baauer churning out these new, rap-inflected sounds.

6. Deadmau5 refuses to fully cater to his crowd, and we kind of like it. For his main-stage headlining set on Saturday, Joel Zimmerman played only a few of his obvious, happy hits. Instead, he stretched his performance into something longer and moodier, going on a DJ-style series of peaks and valleys. We later heard some fans describe it as "boring" and even "depressing," which means we think the Mau5 is definitely onto something interesting.

7. Really exploring the festival grounds pays off. The Bayfront Stage at the festival was a little hard to find. You'd have to trek directly through the hordes at the main stage, towards the water, to find it all the way at the back of the festival site. It was worth it, though, to catch some of the best relatively underground acts throughout the weekend. On Saturday, that meant techno gods like Kevin Saunderson and Stacey Pullen, and on Saturday, more greats like Scuba and Tiga. Sunday belonged to Lee Foss, Seth Troxler, Art Department, Damian Lazarus, and that whole gang.

8. Major Lazer could probably revive the dead. Sundays at Ultra are usually when energy starts to seriously flag, but not so when Major Lazer — Diplo with frontmen Jillionaire and Walshy Fire — took the life stage. The group's set to a crammed-full amphitheater featured confetti guns, inflatable balloons, twerking dancers. The mash-up musical selection that went through everything from 2 Chainz to classic dancehall to new songs like "Bubble Butt," as well as a cameo appearance by Trini soca star Machel Montano.

9. Vinyl still lives! At that Bayfront Stage, one of the small highlights of the festival came late into Seth Troxler's woozy, robotic set, when he segued into a section of pure acid house on 12-inches. He even waved a few of the record sleeves in the air for the approval and identification of the clued-in crowd of dancers.

10. People are really, really going to miss the Swedish House Mafia. The group's last-ever show formed the headlining set of Sunday night. The crowds assembled made those for the other nights' headliners, Tiësto on Friday and Deadmau5 on Saturday, seem like a picnic. People squished face to back to elbow to bounce in unison to a nonstop, crescendoing set of the group's international mega-hits, capped off with pyrotechnics and fireworks.