Nothing signals the approach of spring than the opening of Spring Training baseball. In honor of another year of America’s pastime, here are some great baseball movies to enjoy.
Bull Durham (1988)
Profane, funny, brilliant. Susan Sarandon, Kevin Costner and Tim Robbins light up the screen as a fading baseball player (Costner) is brought to Durham, NC, to mentor the rising pitcher (Robbins). The dialogue absolutely sparkles.
Eight Men Out (1988)
John Sayles film of the fix of the 1919 World Series is a sober movie, and likely to be a bit boring to non baseball fans. But fans of the game (and history) will love the detail and conviction behind the film making.
Field of Dreams (1989)
Build it and they will come. Iowa farmer Kevin Costner listens to a voice that leads him down a path of madness, frustration, and, ultimately, reconciliation. Few films have ever caused men to cry in a theater as this one. It’s funny, touching and poetic.
Pride of the Yankees (1942)
Gary Cooper plays the great Yankee Lou Gehrig, with equal parts of tragedy and heroism. It is an ‘old fashion’ biopic, but devastatingly effective as we watch the rise to greatness (and fall into illness) of one of the game’s finest.
Bad News Bears (1976)
A drunk Walter Matthau is paid to coach the local kids baseball team, a motley collection of losers and misfits, including tomboy Tatum O’Neal. Riotously funny and non-PC, with a brilliant performance by Matthau.
From above, the Yemanja Resort near the Macaroni Beach on Mustique island, looks absolutely spectacular. Perched on a hill and surrounded by lush green trees, this place seems sprung out of a fairytale.
Yemanjá stands for the Brazilian “Goddess of the Sea” and it is no wonder this exotic place of retreat is given a mystical name. Yemanja Resort is composed of a main villa, a three-bedroom cottage and bunk houses for children. However, the focal point of the entire picturesque retreat is the palapa, with its circular structure and giant vaulted thatch roof, ensuring amazing views in all directions. Brazilian, Mexican and African design touches make the accommodation units diverse and inviting.
Some of the facilities of the resort include three swimming pools built with natural stone, easy beach access to Lime Kiln Bay, four large Kawasaki Mules included for guest use and laptops in the guest houses. Hiking, sailing and golfing are just a few of the outdoor activities you can embark on during your visit. For more information and rates, check out the official website of the resort here.
The 33rd Street Residence in Manhattan Beach – a beachfront city located in southwestern Los Angeles County, California – is an impressive contemporary home overlooking the Pacific Ocean and the beautiful coastline. Designed by the team at Californian studio Rockefeller Partners Architects, the house consists of a carefully studied floor plan enhanced by the smart and elegant display of building materials. The 4,500 square foot modern residential building features a bright and fresh collection of beautifully designed spaces spread over three levels.
Except for the fact that the limited lot offered too little space for the owner’s garden, the narrow 30 x 90 foot envelope was used to its full potential by the architects when designing the floor plan. This stretching of the width, height and depth allows the inhabitant to live a comfortable, relaxed lifestyle and benefit from exceptional views of the Ocean. The ground floor was separated into the children’s room and the parent’s bedroom and bath, with a Zen garden in-between, designed to occupy the center of the space and make up for the lack of outside garden space.
We’re entering a new age in luxury hotel marketing. Top-tier hotels are now using Twitter for concierge services, social geo-locating platforms to unlock free gifts, Facebook for customer service and YouTube to showcase unique properties. They are finding new, large and responsive audiences across the social web. No doubt, luxury travel’s latest destination is online.
Yet who is leading the charge in this recent wave of innovative hotel social media strategies? What are their methods and how are they finding success? In our ongoing series “Luxury Hotels & Social Media,” Pursuitist is interviewing the top luxe hotel leaders (Four Seasons, The Peninsula, Waldorf Astoria and many more) to gain insight into the online strategies of the industry’s elite.
Today’s interview is with Lisa (Tully) Lavian, Director of Marketing for the Trump Hotel Collection.
Q. Why is Social Media important for your company?
A. Trump Hotel Collection provides guests with the latest information via social media platforms. With technology rapidly increasing, social media is a major influence when communicating brand messages and leveraging promotions to generate revenue. The Trump Hotel Collection believes that social media is an ideal medium to communicate a brand’s message that both educates the customer as well as creates an open forum for customer relationships. Additionally through our social channels, we are providing our guests with another layer of customer service that allows us to talk to guests in real time. These types of interactions are very important in showing that our brand is always listening and value our customers’ loyalty.
Q. How many people manage your social media channels & what types of tools do you use?
A. Trump Hotel Collection has a designated team that manages all of our social media forums. Each of our seven properties has a Facebook page and Twitter account as does the brand. Additionally, you can access the brand and each hotel’s Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, FourSquare and Gowalla on our Connect With Us portal on our website, here. Our team actively manages all day-to-day social media operations. Each is tasked with producing daily engaging and original content spoken from an identifiable brand voice. These consistencies are important so no matter where a Trump Hotel Collection customer is navigating the across the web, a consistent and identifiable tone is seen throughout. The Trump Hotel Collection’s most powerful social brand presences can be found on Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. Our Facebook philosophy is to produce a luxury travel publication format focused exclusively on our seven hotel destinations. By regularly publishing content about our unique hotel events, promotional items, local activities and most importantly features and amenities, we work to inspire visits to each of our destinations. The Trump Hotel Collection’s Twitter presence is actively managed as a guest first, promotion second approach. We regularly and consistently interact with guests tweeting about their Trump hotel experiences as we feel strongly it adds another layer of customer support. Along with guest interaction opportunities, the Trump Hotel Collection regularly tweets travel related items so our followers may also value us as a knowledgeable travel resource. Foursquare has become a critical piece of the social sphere as are guests are publicly broadcasting they are at our hotels. From our branded Trump Hotel Collection Foursquare page, we have provided a wide range of Foursquare tips and lists that guide our followers to scenic and noteworthy hotspots around our hotels. During the holiday months, for every Foursquare check-in across all seven hotels, Trump Hotel Collection donated $1 to St. Jude Children’s Hospital. The campaign totaled over 1,500 check-ins and created a unique awareness initiative from the entire collection.
Q. What has been the most effective content to engage users?
A. Recently, we launched a video celebrating Trump International Hotel & Tower New York’s 15th anniversary, which has been a great success on YouTube. Guests also really engage in Facebook promotions. Currently we have a “Live the Trump Lifestyle” sweepstakes valued at $50,000 and the winner will receive a two-night stay in the glamorous Presidential Suite at Trump International Hotel & Tower Toronto, dinner for two at Stock Restaurant & Bar and spa treatments from Quartz Crystal Spa. This promotion is in celebration of the recent opening of Trump Toronto and guests are actively participating, which is very exciting. We feel that the most engaging content is the content that allows your social media audience to connect and share their experiences with our brand. Our followers and fans are our biggest advocates and giving them ways to share their experiences at any opportunity is very important to us. Platforms such as Facebook cater well to featuring photo and video assets as this audience can relate to these items especially if they have stayed at a Trump hotel before. These are the interactions that are key as they start conversations between those that have stayed at a Trump hotel and those that have not, which encourages them to experience our brand. A similar philosophy applies to Twitter but here we focus on joining the conversation rather than starting it like Facebook. Our guests and fans are talking about us and we simply let them know we’re listening too.
Q. What measurable results or successes have you seen due to Social Media?
A. We have seen revenue increase – posting promotions on social media forums has resonated with guests and we have also seen a sizable increase in brand awareness. Social media has allowed us to truly connect with our customers in a whole new way. With the combined efforts from Ivanka Trump‘s far-reaching social following of over a million on Facebook and Twitter, increases social efforts at the property level and continues strengthening the brand. Trump Hotel Collection is reaching our current customers as well as potential customers that we may not have had the opportunity to reach otherwise.
Burberry Prorsum’s Womenswear Autumn/Winter 2012 collection hits the runway in London today, and you can watch it live on Pursuitist.com. The Burberry show starts at 4PM London time, Monday 20 February, 2012. Once it begins, you can watch the Burberry Prorsum Womenswear Autumn/Winter 2012 live stream video directly below – please bookmark this page. Burberry chief creative officer Christopher Bailey is also interacting with fans on Facebook around the collection, demonstrating (yet again) the digital savvy that just won the brand International Retailer of the Year honors.
Via the NYPost: “A black velvet dress that belonged to Whitney Houston and a pair of earrings she wore in “The Bodyguard” will be sold to the highest bidder next month. The singer’s floor-length black dress is valued at $1,000 but likely to collect much more. Same goes for the vest she wore in “The Bodyguard,” listed at $400, and the faux-pearl earrings that start at $600.”
Talk about starting young. A story on ‘babyccinos,’ a trend in which coffee shops are selling decaf cappuccinos to pint-sized tots, is gaining buzz among the caffeinated, hipster-parent crowd.
Babyccinos are made from either steamed milk and foam, or — for the gourmand tot — spiked with a shot of decaf espresso, and were featured in a story published in The Brooklyn Paper this week — a piece which has been picked up by popular food blogs and publications like Gothamist, Eater, Zagat and the Atlantic Wire.
The trend has become particularly popular in Brooklyn, where locals are obsessive when it comes to coffee culture, the author notes, and the culture even has tots turning into mini coffee-clutching consumers with an early taste for java.
The concept first started in Australia, where the term babyccino denotes macchiato-like drinks with a shot of decaf espresso topped with steamed milk and froth, or an entirely hot milk-based drink topped with cinnamon or chocolate powder that’s kid-friendly.
And while doctors say the amount of caffeine is negligible in decaf coffee (the story says that a shot of decaf espresso contains less caffeine than a soda) reaction to the trend has spilled over onto Facebook and Twitter, where readers either defend the trend as harmless — “a way to keep the kids happy so parents can enjoy their coffee in peace” — to dismay — “*sigh* Leave the babies and their yet to be fully developed kidneys and stomachs, alone already.”
Meanwhile, a YouTube video of two 5-year-old hipster mini baristas making espresso went viral last year for their ability to pull a convincing-looking coffee drink complete with heart-shaped foam.
Monica Bellucci has teamed up with Dolce & Gabbana for a limited edition lipstick line designed to reflect a woman’s “state of mind”. After the announcement of Kate Winslet’s charity makeup line for French beauty giant Lancôme last year, Italian star Bellucci is the latest actress to venture into the realm.
Called the Monica Lipstick Collection, the range will comprise six shades costing $32 each and is scheduled to hit stores May 12.
“The idea for the collection was to create different shades, different colours depending on your mood of the day, your state of mind,” the actress told WWD February 17.
“I love all shades in the collection and feel drawn to the different colours, depending on how I feel.”
“We love Monica and have worked with her many times over the past 20 years. Her beauty is timeless. She expresses the Dolce & Gabbana woman perfectly,” said Domenico Dolce.
Stefano Gabbana added: “She is ravishing – a true Italian icon.”
The advertising campaign for the Monica Lipstick Collection was captured by photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, known for their work with the likes of Louis Vuitton, Missoni and Giorgio Armani. Evoking classic Italian cinema, it is set to run in publications across Italy, America, the UK, Russia and the Middle East this May.
Bellucci is also a new face of the Italian fashion house’s beauty collection, joining other Dolce & Gabbana Make Up actress front women Scarlett Johansson and Felicity Jones.
Perched on the lovely Kos island in Greece, Helona Resort combines traditional Greek beauty with the comfort that a five-star hotel can offer. Its hillside location ensures the best possible views of the sea, from a good vantage point. It is no wonder that people say this place was once visited by Hercules- its beauty could make anyone associate it with ancient legends.
Helona Resort is home to an incredible water feast: ponds, lagoons and swimming pools, many of which are private and have the ability to delight and relax their visitors. The accommodation units at Helona consist of seven clusters of two-storey buildings, set amidst lush vegetation.There are also three private villas available for rent, with various facilities and amazing views. Picturesque domes and large verandas pay tribute to the Italian architectural heritage in this particular part of Greece.
Traditional cultural therapies from Asia and Europe are brought together in order to “relax your body, revitalize your mind and renew your spirit “, at the Helona Spa and Wellness Center. Depending on each guest’s needs, spa treatments are customized, so that each experience here will be worth sharing further.
For more information, rates and reservations, contact the staff at Helona Resort here.
The BMW Group has opened the world’s largest showroom for BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and BMW motorcycles in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi Motors, the BMW Group’s long-standing importer for the region, has invested $82 million in the new 35,000-square-metre showroom over its three-year construction.
Located in Umm Al Nar, it offers 172 parking spaces for customers and 120 work bays for BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce vehicles.
The state-of-the-art facility can accommodate the display of 80 new and pre-owned cars, 10 motorcycles, and features a private cinema-style theatre and a F1 simulator. The showroom will also feature a pre-owned cars section and an aftersales and service center. The company claims that the service workshop will be able to work on 120 vehicles simultaneously.
The opening comes after strong performance in the region, with the German carmaker posting a nine percent year-on-year increase in sales in the Middle East in 2011.
Arno Husselmann, General Manager of Abu Dhabi Motors said: “This new facility will not only allow us to match our sales growth with our physical growth, but also underline our ambition to achieve greater results in the coming years as they have been designed with customer requirements and expectations in mind. We have already seen the benefits of this customer-oriented approach as we came out top of the customer service satisfaction index for the entire BMW Group Middle East.”
