an attempt to document a 'perfect' connection string for MySQL.

settings.py

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
        'OPTIONS':{
            "init_command": "SET storage_engine=INNODB, collation_connection='utf8_unicode_ci', sql_mode='TRADITIONAL', NAMES 'utf8';",
        },
    },
}