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Buyers, Breakfast, Berlin and Bread & Butter - An Inspired Trip
Last Thursday, alarm clocks set at 3am (yes, that's right) us TruffleShuffle buyers, hazily awoke from our slumbers and prepared ourselves for a long day of trade show fun. The destination, Bread & Butter in Berlin. This is where we head for a bi-annual buying trip, a place to meet up with existing suppliers for a chin-wag and view of the new collections for 2011. It's also a fab opportunity to source new ranges and expand our current supplier base as we are always super keen to introduce new exciting brands and product to the site.
Upon arriving at Heathrow, the first thing on our minds was BREKKIE! We needed some serious fuel for the day ahead and some kind of a feast to keep us awake and perky! After checking in, we swiftly made our way to Gordon Ramsay's Plane Food restaurant and one Eggs Norwegian, one full English, one Pancakes with banana, two apple juices and two coffees later we were ready to go!
Taking off at 7.05am, we flew high above the clouds and took in the most stunning sun rise; some more coffees and a little nap later, we had arrived! Set in the amazing old Tempelhof airport, Bread & Butter attracts buyers from all over the world and is a showcase for major brands such as Replay and Superdry as well as smaller up and coming brands.
Our ten favourite uses of the Rolling Stones tongue...
In 1971, John Pasche, a budding young British artist, was commissioned by the Rolling Stones to produce a logo intended to be used as the album artwork for Sticky Fingers. After meeting Mick Jagger for the first time, Pasche was inspired to come up with the now infamous lips and tongue design by the "size of his lips and mouth". Voted in 2008 as the Greatest Band Logo of all time, and widely credited as the first 'rock brand marketing', the iconic design has been celebrated, for better or worse, in some zany ways over the past forty years. We celebrate our favourite here, and now!
Movie Release - The Green Hornet
Yet another retro revival hits our cinema screens this week but although box office forecasters are predicting big things for The Green Hornet, the critics seem to be swatting it from every direction. Uh oh! In advance of our TruffleShuffle outing to see this movie this week, we look at what some of the experts are saying about the Superhero action comedy remake...
The premise of the movie is loosely based on that of the original which centred on the smart and rich newspaper publisher, Britt Reed, who turned masked vigilante with help from his Asian manservant Kato. This time though, the publisher is a bumbling, immature party animal (played by Seth Rogen) who inherits his father's empire and newspaper when he suddenly dies from a bee sting but then doesn't know what to do with it. Kato (played by Jay Chou) meanwhile, is no manservant. He's a mechanical and engineering genius, martial arts warrior, piano-prodigy, weapons expert and coffee-making artiste. Together, they decide to protect the citizens of L.A. by becoming good guys pretending to be bad guys who fight crime without badges and it's all in 3d too!Directed by Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,) it's already managed to flit to the top of the US box office, earning $34 million in this, it's opening weekend. Plenty enough to score the number one spot and to fight off competition from the new Ron Howard/Vince Vaughn combo, The Dilemma.
To be honest - we had pretty high hopes for this one but from the sounds of some of the reviews below, we might just be disappointed! We'll reserve our judgement until we've seen it in action but in the meantime, here's what the experts are saying....
NME - 4 OUT OF 10
The problem with the new film is the titular character himself; Hornet was always a bumbling douchebag compared with DC and Marvelâs sleek elite, and while Roganâs resume means he has the comedy chops to portray such a character, the age the film is being released into means thereâs something heavy footed and dated about the green one's japes â tonally itâs perhaps akin to the aforementioned Nolan casting Adam West in place of Christian Bale.
Despite an impressive cast of players â Michael Gondry behind the camera, Inglourious Basterdsâ Chistoph Waltz the villain in front â the sum of such talents only succeeds in making a film out-of-step with the times; Kick-Ass did comedy sharper, Watchmen more adult, thereâs even gags in The Dark Knight if you scrape off the grime. What The Green Hornet does better than all these films is making superheroes uncool â and thereâs nothing thatâs even a bit super about that.'
This weeks Friday Facebook Competition!
As you may already know, Friday means Facebook Competition day here at Truffle Towers which means we give you lovely lot the chance to win free money to spend on the site! Happy days!
This week, we came across this rather hilarious Barbie inspired pic so we couldn't resist a caption related question!
To enter, all you need to do is give us your best accompanying caption in the comments box on our facebook page. The funnier the better of course! We need your answers before 2pm as usual and the winner will be announced this afternoon.
Get involved on our facebook page here for your chance to win and you can giggle along to all the other entries too!
GOOD LUCK! XOXOX
The Super'est Auction in the World!
Stop what you're doing, pack an overnight bag, and get yourself on the next flight to the US of A...
The American Superhero Museum, based in Indianapolis, housed around 1,000 collectables, artefacts, props and costumes from the Superman and Batman TV shows and movies from the 1950's onwards. In 2008, the museum closed without explanation and a 2010 Court Order has demanded that the memorabilia be auctioned on January 22nd, 2011.
Some of our tips for the highest bids are original Superman costumes worn by George Reeves, Christopher Reeves and Dean Cain. We've seen similar originals selling in a memorabilia shop in Las Vegas for between £25,000 and £50,000. One of Helen Slater's original Supergirl costumes is going under the hammer, as is a replica Batboat and Batmobile - brand new replica Batmobiles are currently selling for £100,000.
So if you've got a few thousand quid burning a hole in your pocket, get yourself to Indianapolis, bid on something fun, and let us know what the cabin crew said when you flew home wearing an original Christopher Reeve £50,000 Superman costume. Alternatively, if you're planning on sailing the Batboat back home, we'll be your First Mate!!
For details of the other items available at the auction, click here. If you fancy a cheaper alternative, pick yourself up a TruffleShuffle Superman Costume and tell everyone it's the real deal, we promise we won't tell a soul!
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Atari classic Missile Command comes to the big screen!
News just in on the 80's grapevine that our friends at Atari have teamed up with 20th Century Fox to turn its classic 80's arcade game Missile Command into a feature film.
If you're not familiar with the cold war arcade classic, it involved protecting a series of vulnerable bases from falling nuclear warheads and apparently Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama, the screenwriters behind the upcoming Flash Gordon remake, have been hired to pen the script.
Have to say - when I think back to the hours spent playing Missile Command back in the day, I don't ever remember thinking this would make a great movie someday but hey, at least there will be plenty of explosions to get our teeth into.
Two more of the company's games, Asteroids and Rollercoaster Tycoon, have also recently been optioned for the big screen which does make you wonder, is Hollywood starting to run out of fresh ideas and if so, is using arcade games with pretty non-existent plot lines as your starting point really the way to go?