5 Best: Buddy Movies

One of cinema’s most enjoyable and durable genres, the buddy movie has given us some of the most memorable and outrageous characters. Gentry pay tribute to the greatest friendships on the silver screen.

Get around

With Al Gore breathing down your neck and the hot, sticky public transport receding further from appeal, there’s no better way to get around the city than on your bike. It keeps you fit, makes you the envy of all those ‘Everybody Hurts‘ traffic prisoners and it’s probably the best form of voyeuristic urban appreciation available. There’s a bicycle out there for everyone, even you.

This Week – Gentry Style

This week Gentry recommend Christopher Nolan’s ponderous but stylish The Dark Knight, the highly anticipated debut album from The Black Ghosts and the superb exhibition at The Hayward Gallery, ‘Psycho Buildings’.

Music for Summer Days and Nights

It’s all about the heat – or at least we hope it will be. But should a summer soundtrack cool the fevered brow during baking hot city commutes; or stir one to love and passion on foreign beaches; or provide a fitting background to a lazy picnic by a babbling brook or al fresco suppers as the day (hopefully) cools?
It is May-June releases that have traditionally provided the pop soundtrack for our summers. One of the first was Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues” in 1958; and ten years later The Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Summer in the City” perfectly captured Manhattan’s scorching summers. This year the talk is that Mariah Carey’s “E=MC2″ is going to be the album of summer ‘08 – but we’ll have to wait for next year to see whether we remember this year as Mariah’s year. Gentry has plumped for the tried and tested and this eclectic mix of rock, pop, classical, RnB and jazz aims to keep you both cool and hot as the weather dictates.

Gentry Travel: Perfect Pontremoli

Tuscany still has its secrets and the small hill city of Pontremoli seems to exist only as a whisper. An hours drive from either Parma or La Spezia, Pontremoli (which translates as “Trembling Bridge”) is one of the most beautiful outposts of the vast and splendorous Massa-Carrara region.

Five Poing Escape plan: Reduce Your Carbon Footprint in South Tyrol

Gentrystyle always enjoys the New York Magazine’s five point escape plan, and having just completed this trip to the Italy, we urge you to take a well earned break…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where to Stay?

Experience total isolation at Vigilius Mountain Resort (from $412), a carbon-neutral, mountaintop hotel accessible only by cable car. Sustainable-architecture star Matteo Thun designed the 41 minimalist larch-and-slate rooms and eschewed TVs for terraces with panoramic views. Borrow a mountain bike from the lobby and take the nearby trails through the Dolomites.

Thun also created Pergola Residence (from $248), which melds into its surroundings with a heather-covered roof and patios camouflaged by pergola. The twelve rooms each have a state-of-the-art kitchen and are steps from the center of the picture-perfect village of Lagundo.  Reconnect with civilization at the full-service Steigenberger (from $205), in the city of Merano. The hotel boasts its own spa, indoor-outdoor pools, whirlpool, sauna, in addition to an underground tunnel to the adjoining Thermal Baths. Book a suite for a balcony view of the surrounding mountains.

Gentry Summmer reads

Whether you’re spending your holiday on the sandy beaches of Forte dei Marmi, in a summer house in Norway, on a boat along the Dalmatian coast, or just hanging out for a long weekend at the Tresanton…we have choice books for all destinations. Summer reading presents two options – read all those newly released and over-hyped paperbacks from the autumn/winter season before (no!) or pick up and read or re-read the world’s great books (yes!). In no particular order, here are 11 favourites that will be making into our travel bag. (Note: The 1960s feature heavily here, as does America, for reasons we can’t explain.)

Can we be serious? (Part Three.)

Gary Burns takes a look at Wimbledon and British tennis past, present and future and asks if we can host the finest Grand Slam why can’t we win it?

Tennis style: Wowing Wimbledon

Roger Federer has raised the fashion stakes for men’s tennis. His swish cardigan is probably the only garment that could ever adequately express his on-court elegance. But Roger’s flamboyance isn’t an isolated thrust, tennis has a long history of style and flair. Gentry takes a look back at some of the lawn icons who have ruffled our fashion feathers.

Can we be serious? (Part Two.)

Gary Burns takes a look at Wimbledon and British tennis past, present and future and asks if we can host the finest Grand Slam why can’t we win it?