Victoria’s Secret Angels Erin Heatherton and Lindsay Ellingson, along with model Toni Garrn, were at the store in New York City yesterday to celebrate the spring season and discuss the brand’s dreamy new collections — the Dream Angels push-up bra and the Love is Heavenly floral fragrance. Check out some sexy photos from the event.
Before crossovers, minivans, SUVs, and “lifestyle utility vehicles” entered the marketplace, U.S. roads were full of full-size sedans. These cars offered average American families size, comfort and presence that no one else in the world could experience. But like dinosaurs, fedoras and cheap coffee, this segment went extinct as gas prices rose, the products became worse and different segments replaced them. But now, this uniquely American segment is seeing a revival, with the Hyundai Azera leading the charge.
The Azera is not new to our shores, but until now has always occupied an odd spot in the lineup. In fact, with a revised Sonata, it was on the verge of extinction. But for 2012, the Azera is all new. New looks, more power and all for around 30k. What you’re witnessing is not only a new car, but also one of the first entries in a revitalized category.
Exterior
Big cars need to be distinctive on the outside. You should be able to see them coming from two miles away on the highway because of their presence and size. The Azera is certainly an attractive car, but not in the traditional big car way. The Azera continues Hyundai’s “fluidic sculpture” design theme seen in the Sonata and Elantra, but has been toned down compared with its smaller siblings.
Gone are the deep creases along its flank, like the Sonata, and the overly stylized headlights. In turn, the Azera is more subdued, refined and upscale. This can be seen in its arching rear taillights that span the entire rear, or the slightly upraised haunches. But presence is added by chrome detailing and upscale design cues, such as the jeweled headlamps.
The car looks expensive, but so do many in its segment. Cars such as the Taurus and LaCrosse, and especially the 300C, have also brought styling into the full-size segment. With this in mind, the Azera loses a bit of that full-size presence on the road. That being said, it brings Hyundai’s design language into a new class segment and looks good doing it.
Interior
Interior space and design is the killer app of full-size sedans. They must not only provide space and comfort for occupants, but also a sense of design that takes advantage of the size these cars offer. The interior of the Azera lives up to this tradition. The Y-shaped dash welcomes occupants much like that in the Sonata, but immediately apparent is the new found shoulder, head and legroom. It’s not much larger than the Sonata, but the overall result is comforting – just enough to be accommodating, but not so big to make you feel like you are wearing an ill-fitting suit.
The car is also well equipped with a host of standard features that are optional in much more expensive vehicles. For instance, niceties such as navigation, heated front and rear seats, and a navigation system are all standard. And for $4,000, you can add an Infinity sound system, HIDs, panoramic sunroof and a few other premium touches.
The fit and finish is snug and upscale, with soft touch plastics where most of the touch points are and small panel gaps all around. Detailing, though, is one downside. For example: the fake carbon fiber trim that spans the length of the dashboard. This trim piece undersells the air of luxury that this car has and looks gimmicky. Wood would be a much better fit for the image that this car exudes. Some people enjoy the look of carbon fiber, but wood should at least be an option. Styling niggles aside, the interior showcases the value that Hyundai continues to offer by bringing a dearth of technology and convenience pieces to the table standard, and raising the bar that much higher for not much more money.
Although it’s still a staple of the business world, the BlackBerry has fallen pretty far behind the iPhone and Android devices with most other consumers, prompting the team at RIM to demonstrate that they’re not as far out of touch as it might seem. Enter the Challenge Council Project, a new campaign led by Amir Blumenfeld and Streeter Seidell of College Humor (along with a mix of celebrities, bloggers and BlackBerry lovers across the country) with one mission in mind: to turn misconceptions on their ear and prove that the BlackBerry brand has the goods to make believers out of everyone.
For the next three months, Streeter and Amir will be presenting a series of funny videos designed to highlight a core feature of the latest BlackBerry smartphones. In addition to cameos by special guests like Dax Shepard and LMFAO’s Sky Blue, each webisode will also feature a challenge designed to let the online community experience what the new BlackBerry line-up is capable of. Participants can upload their content entries to the site where the Challenge Council will determine the winners, with prizes ranging from event tickets to cool trips for you and your friends. The first challenge is already underway and will be accepting submissions until April 18th, so be sure to visit the official Challenge Council Project website on the following dates for details on the remaining challenges.
Challenge 2: 04/26/2012
Challenge 3: 05/10/2012
Challenge 4: 05/24/2012
Challenge 5: 06/07/2012
We were sent the new BlackBerry Bold 9900 to check out some of the latest features that RIM has implemented, but despite some noteworthy improvements – including the BBM Music app, a faster processor and one of the better physical keyboards on the smartphone market – unless you were a BlackBerry user before, chances are pretty slim that the Bold 9900 will change your mind. Though I did like how easy it was to navigate through the system menus using the ultra-responsive trackpad, it only made the touchscreen display seem that much more useless. At a size of only 2.8 inches, browsing websites is practically futile, while those with fat fingers are likely to run into some trouble pressing the intended icon.
With that said, however, RIM shouldn’t be too concerned about competing with the likes of Apple and Android, because although the Bold 9900 lacks a large screen, a decent web browser and a comparable app store (among other things), it’s still a great tool for businessmen who just want a reliable email/messaging device without all the fuss. That may not sound like a glowing endorsement, but as a longtime iPhone user, it’s hard to see any advantage to using a BlackBerry when it’s so limited by what it can do.
Nevertheless, we know that there are a lot of BlackBerry fans out there who swear by the device, which is why Bullz-Eye is giving one lucky reader their very own BlackBerry Bold 9900 so that you can experience some of these new features for yourself and partake in the Challenge Community Project. Click here to enter for your chance to win. The contest ends on May 9th and the winner will be notified via email.
NOTE: We received this BlackBerry 9900 from Research In Motion, but the opinion is 100% our own.
I was born on April 15, which means that, most years, when my birthday doesn’t fall on an Easter Sunday it falls on the United States anti-holiday that is income tax day. Being an ides of April baby also means that each and every year I am also reminded of the sinking of the Titantic and the death of Abraham Lincoln.
This year, we all get until 4/17 to turn in our taxes. However, as Saturday becomes Sunday 4/15, I’ll be at the Turner Classic Movies festival in Hollywood where I’ll have a choice between an actual movie about the sinking of the Titanic (1958’s “A Night to Remember”) or I can contemplate my mortality via an avant gardish science fiction movie in which character actor John Randolph has a mid-life crisis and becomes Rock Hudson. (That’s John Frankenheimer’s 1966 “Seconds.”) Movies are about escape, you know.
All of which is a long-winded and self-indulgent way to get to this week’s cocktail, named for a day most of us agree is far worse luck than a Friday the 13th like today but which most of us agree is necessary in some form. Thus, the cocktail classic represents the healthy orange sweet of it — the roads, bridges, schools, fire and police protection we get in return for our taxes — and the bitters of actually paying them. If you note a strong similarity to another drink covered here, you aren’t hallucinating. Believe it or not, Income Tax is both the bitter and the better of the two.
Income Tax
2 ounces gin
1 ounce orange juice (fresh squeezed, for sure)
1/2 ounce dry vermouth
1/2 ounce sweet vermouth
1-3 dashes aromatic bitters
1 orange slice (optional garnish, but since you’re squeezing the orange already…)
As with the Bronx, people are over the map on proportions, and I certainly encourage readers to experiment to their heart’s content with more or less sweet and dry vermouth, OJ, and gin. Nevertheless, especially with the addition of bitters, I found this easy to remember and straight forward version was actually quite the best.
A few notes on ingredients. I’m using Tanqueray (94.6 proof) right now, though I’m sure this will work as well with most other high proof gins such as Bombay Dry or Beefeater. With an 80 proof gin like Gordon’s, it might be a bit sweeter which can either be a good or bad thing. I tried making my Income Tax using both traditional Angostura bitters as well as Fee Brother’s aromatic bitters and it came out fine with both.
I even ran out of my usual Noilly Pratt sweet vermouth — which for some reason Bev-Mo in Orange County, CA has stopped carrying, darn them — and went to an inferior brand that I had sitting around. Still very nice. Like tax day itself, this drink can be attacked but it will never be killed. Would that that were true for the folks on the Titanic and, of course, Old Abe. Fortunately, the magic of cinema can take care of that.
Click here to listen to Guns ‘n’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion on Spotify
So, you might have heard about this – Axl Rose is asking the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to leave him out when it comes to inducting the band into the Hall in Cleveland Saturday night. And to be fair, we can see both sides of this. The Rock Hall wants to honor one of the most unique and ferocious rock bands to come from a very stale period in rock history (whatever you do, don’t call them hair metal, because they’re not), and they should. The problem is that as far as Axl is concerned, he has a band, and Slash, Duff, Steven and Izzy aren’t in it. Never mind simmering tensions between Rose and various former members of Guns ‘n’ Roses; to attend the ceremony would be akin to stepping out on his current band mates, which is the last thing Axl wants to do at this point. So bowing out in this manner makes sense.
Having said that, it’s silly for him to dismiss the fact that, naming rights aside (it’s my band, I decide who’s a member of Guns ‘n’ Roses, blah blah blah), it was the combination of those five guys that made history. Guns ‘n’ Roses is not, nor ever was, the Golden Palominos, where Axl can just pick and choose people with whom to collaborate from album to album. They were a band, and like it or not, they were at their best when Axl had Duff, Izzy and Slash flanking him. It’s great that he wants to continue to do great things as Guns ‘n’ Roses, but he’d be wise to remember what got him here.
Given the open hostility between Rose and some of his old mates, it seemed fitting to go with “Estranged” here, since he is just that. Happy Friday, everyone. Try to avoid ending up estranged from the people you love, if you can.
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