I used to complain that there were no cool bars or lounges in São Paulo, but I take that back after this past weekend. On Saturday night I went to Sonique for a friend's birthday, and it is everything I have been asking for in São Paulo: a place with impeccable design and great music that I can go to with friends for a drink or two after dinner at 11ish, and be done by 2. If you live in a city like New York, that may seem like the norm, but much of São Paulo's traditional bar culture revolves around draft beer and appetizers on a sidewalk bar in the late afternoon, and the city's nightlife is all about big clubs which you should not even attempt to go to before at least 1 am. Sonique may just be the antidote for that.

Opened since February (don't even ask me why I had not been there yet), Sonique was designed by the much hyped French-Brazilian architects Triptyque, and its decor alone would be worth a trip there. The crowd is mixed, 40% straight 60% gay, and pretty cute. And btw, a new gay party will take over the space on Sunday afternoons starting August 9.

Sonique is located at Rua Bela Cintra, 461.

Picture blatantly stolen from Duda Bairros' Flickr.

• The Sartorialist's Scott Schuman is in São Paulo to shoot the upcoming ad campaign for luxury mall Cidade Jardim. He will be photographing people at the mall today and tomorrow to collect images for the campaign. Schuman also said in an interview yesterday that he would like to find a Brazilian love affair like Madonna and Marc Jacobs did.
• Seu Jorge and Bebel Gilberto have been confirmed as musical attractions for Fashion Rocks in Rio.
• Adam or Kris: who will be the next American Idol?
• Lady GaGa performed LoveGame at the Dancing With The Stars season finale last night.
• Cintia Dicker hits the beach on Vogue Italia.
• Isabeli Fontana could be fined for tax evasion in Brazil. Her lawyer declared that her taxes have already been paid in the United States.
• Adriana Lima is confirmed for the fall Givenchy ad campaign.
• Rio de Janeiro's Governor Sérgio Cabral has asked police and military officers to come out of the closet during Gay Pride.
• The NYT looks at the rebirth of Brazilian cuisine in São Paulo. One restaurant not included on the NYT list which I highly recommend is Mani. It serves the best organic food with Brazilian flair in the city.
• Speedo break: soccer player Roger on vacation in Rio.
• Model Bernardo Velasco by Fabio Pamplona.
• Discovering South America's great outdoors.
• Ten clips from Madonna's Sticky & Sweet Tour hit the web.

• Antibodies: the biggest retrospective of the work of Fernando and Humberto Campana opened on Saturday at the Vitra Design Museum in Rhein, Germany.
• Designer Amir Slama is leaving Rosa Chá, and Alexandre Herchcovitch has been hired to step in as the new creative director for the label. Seriously, this is like hiring Roberto Cavalli to do Jil Sander.
• Osklen developed two bags for MoMA's Destination: Brazil. Over 70 other Brazilian designer pieces will be available at the museum's store throughout July.
• Catherine McNeil talks to JD Ferguson about not wanting to leave Brazil. Now we all know she is also one of the girls cast for the 2010 Pirelli calendar shot in Bahia by Terry Richardson.
• Inez and Vinoodh photographed La Zimmermann for the fall Jean Paul Gaultier campaign.
• Martha Penz is the latest model to go platinum.
• Alessandra Ambrósio, Flavia de Oliveira, and Gracie Carvalho in a new Victoria's Secret commercial.
• Cariocas.
• A month-long bar food festival in Belo Horizonte.
• Darth Vader in a frock? The Cut dissects Anna Wintour's twelve-minute 60 Minutes segment.

• Here is the much anticipated Gisele cover of the summer swimsuit issue of V, photographed by Mario Testino (who just so happens to be shooting in Rio this week).
• A list of the designers who did splurge on a table for Monday's Costume Institute Gala, and their guests.
• Preview the Met's Model As Muse exhibition.
• Stalking Jesus Luz in New York.
• Calvin Klein's Francisco Costa shares pictures from his trip to Salvador last month with The Moment.
• Ricky Martin as Marlon Brando.
• Watch Stallone in action during the filming of The Expendables in Rio.
• Big Brother Brazil contestant Ton shirtless on the runway in Fortaleza.
• Actor Cauã Reymond is officially off the market: he proposed to gf Grazi Massafera at a recent trip to her hometown.
• The first case of swine flu in South America was diagnosed today in Peru. 36 people are currently in observation in Brazil.

It sounds like a joke, but it isn't. You can now actually rent a friend for a day in São Paulo for about R$160 (or approximately USD$75) thanks to the recently launched Amigos de Aluguel (or Friends For Rent).

According to the website, you can rent one of the four currently available friends to go grocery shopping with you, to catch a movie, have dinner, or even travel abroad. Whereas in other more old fashioned services, the rental fee also included hot sex or a massage with release, Amigos de Aluguel is strictly a non-sexual service for lonely people in a big city like São Paulo who are looking for company to go clubbing or shopping at the mall. I guess it is sort of like hiring a therapist without an actual background in psychology to take on the road with you.

Via Blog do Ripardo.

The Guardian has put together a list of the top 10 beaches in Brazil, and the #1 slot is surprisingly occupied by Alter do Chão in the northern state of Pará. Known as the Caribbean of the Amazon, Alter do Chão is a small fishermen village which is transformed into sandy beaches from August to January when the water level is down.

Also on The Guardian's list are Fernando de Noronha, Lagoinha in Florianópolis, and Arpoador in Rio. Click here for a slideshow.