The Super Bowl might be long gone, but our impressions of the all-new 2013 Lexus GS will continue to be known. The new GS incorporates bold, dynamic styling, precise handling, innovative technology and a spacious interior. After spending time behind the wheel of the new GS in Las Vegas we can tell you with certainty that this is a new beginning for Lexus combined with a rich heritage of building superb luxury vehicles. We even had the chance to learn more about driving the auto cross and took a ride with pro driver Scott Pruett to see how it’s done by the experts.
Believe it when Lexus told us that, “The new GS conveys an enhanced sense of confidence to the driver with a redesigned chassis and a wide, strong stance that inspires and rewards driver participation with crisp and precise handling. Engineers developed a more spacious interior environment while leaving exterior dimensions virtually unchanged to ensure excellent maneuverability. Richly endowed with world-class features and premium details, the new GS is supported by advanced, performance technology that makes it more than just a luxury car.”
All that and the starting price remains the same as the previous model at a base MSRP of $46,900; and for that we applaud Lexus for having their consumers back by holding the price. Technology abounds as GS models equipped with the optional navigation system will also have access to the next-generation Lexus Enform Application Suite, the system that leverages the customers’ mobile phone technology to provide a new level of connectivity and information management. Users can conduct local searches through Bing, or utilize voice-enabled apps to make restaurant reservations through OpenTable, get movie tickets via MovieTickets.com or tap into internet radio, including Pandora or iHeartRadio.
Looks great, drives great and satisfies those who are looking for the most out of life!
Chrysler says It’s Halftime in America in this year’s Super Bowl ad, invoking more images from Detroit where the US auto industry is clearly on the rebound.
In honor of this weekend’s big game, we decided to pay tribute to one of the most indelible football songs, and videos, of all time. Deep breath, everyone, let’s get this all out at once, so we can move on.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
For anyone who wasn’t there, man (spoken like a Woodstock hippie), it’s easy to make fun of “The Super Bowl Shuffle.” Bad rhymes, dated drum tracks, a SAX SOLO (ah, the ’80s), and so on. But think about this track for a second. They recorded this in the middle of the season, well before the Big Game would ever be played. That takes some stones, you know? (And allegedly, some of the players agreed: Dan Hampton opted out of participating on the track.) Can you imagine if the New England Patriots, their AFC opponent, had actually knocked them off? Or worse, they don’t even make it to the Super Bowl? Think about what a PR nightmare that would have been.
But that’s just the thing about the 1985 Bears – they were so good that no one batted an eye at the thought of them recording a song where they declare their dominance over the rest of the league before proving it on the field, and of course, they wound up wiping the floor with the Patriots on Super Bowl Sunday, to a 46-10 score. At the same time, so what? Sure, they won the Super Bowl in 1986. This video, meanwhile, is eternal. Whoops. If only they had known about YouTube back then.
Bonus video: this one didn’t cross our radar until a few years ago, but holy cow. In 1986, the Los Angeles Dodgers decided to do a clip of their own, called “Baseball Boogie,” and there is only one word to describe it: fabulous.
The wait is over. The bold new face of Lexus is here, and it cannot be contained. Watch Lexus’ first-ever Super Bowl commercial, introducing the all-new 2013 GS and a glimpse of what Lexus has in store for 2012. The 30-second commercial features the 2013 GS as it breaks free from containment, illustrating the company’s move in a new design direction for the brand. The spot also hints at the additional new vehicles Lexus will unveil later in the year, which are waiting in the wings for their turn to burst onto the scene.
“The all-new Lexus GS is showcased in this ad because it’s the first model to feature the new look of Lexus and it’s also the first of nine new or updated models we’ll launch this year,” said Brian Smith, Lexus vice president of marketing. “This spot looks very different than anything Lexus has done before and demonstrates to the 50-million-strong Super Bowl audience that 2012 will be a breakthrough year for Lexus.”
The 30-second commercial is scheduled to air at the end of the first quarter of Super Bowl XLVI. An early look at the commercial can be seen today on Lexus social media channels, including Facebook and YouTube. The new GS series will be a touchdown for Lexus and this very cool Super Bowl ad is a great way to start things up!
Super Bowl commercials have to do more than just entertain us. You want to make a point that will stick in everyone’s mind, and Toyota has an interesting approach to promote the “reinvented” Toyota Camry. Check out this extended version of their new Super Bowl ad.
All right, so there is no video to speak of here – all you see is a cover of the single. But we had to highlight this track because it’s AWESOME, a surefire Single of the Year candidate…if we still made lists like that.
The first single from their new album The Church of Rock and Roll, “I Like It” isn’t the biggest sounding Foxy Shazam song ever recorded (though not by much), but it sums up their passions and goals better than pretty much anything they’ve done up to this point. Big, Queen-like harmonies: check. Slightly off-kilter arrangement: check. Swagger: check. Sex: checkmate. Good luck getting that so-simple-it’s-brilliant chorus of “You’ve got the biggest black ass I’ve ever seen / And I like it, I like it” out of your heads between now and Monday morning. The one question is: how on earth are these guys from Cincinnati? They arrested two guys in Cincy for holding hands once.
The big selling point of “Days of Our Lives,” the exhaustive two-hour BBC documentary on epic rock quartet Queen, is the material culled from the band’s very early days and their very last days. There are live performances from Smile, the group guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor formed before Queen, and some video of future singer Fredde Mercury singing “Big Spender.” The later footage, shot on the sets of the last music videos Mercury would perform, his body slowly but surely being ravaged by AIDS, are at once heart-warming and devastating. Mercury was positively gaunt, yet he gathered every ounce of will he could muster to go out fighting.
May and Taylor are wonderfully candid in their interviews, as are fellow managers, producers, roadies, and side men they recruited. (They even brought in Ultravox’s Midge Ure to talk about the band’s legendary performance at Live Aid.) Everyone has good stories to tell, and there are no attempts at revisionist history. If an album didn’t work – say, 1982′s Hot Space – they own up to it, and May is the first to admit that some bad business decisions early on led rendered them financially destitute for years, and it was out of desperation from that that they made A Night at the Opera. Best of all, each album is given an equal amount of coverage, with the exception of the soundtrack to “Flash Gordon,” of which the title track is played but never discussed.
The one unfortunate aspect of “Days of Our Lives” is that bassist John Deacon did not come back to do an interview, so the producers were forced to rely on archive interview footage for half the band. Yes, he’s retired from performing, but this seems like as good an occasion as any to put the Queen hat back on for a day and talk shop. It’s a small quibble, though, because the documentary hits all of the highlights of a truly remarkable career…with one small exception: there is no mention of the “Bohemian Rhapsody” scene from “Wayne’s World.” We would have loved to see them talk about that. (Eagle Vision 2012)
The big selling point of “Days of Our Lives,” the exhaustive two-hour BBC documentary on epic rock quartet Queen, is the material culled from the band’s very early days and their very last days. There are live performances from Smile, the group guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor formed before Queen, and some video of future singer Fredde Mercury singing “Big Spender.” The later footage, shot on the sets of the last music videos Mercury would perform, his body slowly but surely being ravaged by AIDS, are at once heart-warming and devastating. Mercury was positively gaunt, yet he gathered every ounce of will he could muster to go out fighting. 
