The Oscars Offer No Surprises this Year for United Leeds Endeavours

The 2012 Academy Awards really offered no surprises on the night this year. Other than Sacha Baron Cohen arriving on the red carpet as his new character The Dictator and covering Ryan Seacrest in powder claiming to be Kim Jong-Il’s ashes that is! United Leeds Endeavours, a direct marketing and sales company in Leeds, looks at the big winners on the night.

When it came down to it, the favourites won this year. The ceremony was a lot more tame than in recent years, no outrageous speeches, no huge snubs. Octavia Spencer, who won Best Supporting Actress, was weepy but United Leeds Endeavours felt only in a touching way.

Silent film The Artist was the big winner of the night taking home 5 awards. They were Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role for Jean Dujardin, Best Director for Michel Hazanavicius, Best Original Score and finally Best Costume Design. Director Hazanavicius got the loudest laugh of the night when he thanked the dog, Uggie, who had a starring role in the film but added, “I don’t think he cares.”

United Leeds Endeavours feels that the only category that was closely contended was Best Actor which the team had thought might go to George Clooney.  Martin Scorcese’s Hugo was also very successful but mainly in the technical areas. It won the Cinematography, Art Direction, Visual Effects, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing categories.

United Leeds Endeavours was delighted to see Meryl Streep win her third Oscar in a illustrious career that has seen her nominated 17 times. She thanked the Academy “for this inexplicably wonderful career.” She added “I look out here and I see my life before my eyes. My old friends, my new friends. This is such a great honour but the thing that counts the most for me is the friendships…Thank you. All of you, departed and here.”

“Meryl is such a class act, she was fantastic in The Iron Lady as she is in all of the roles she plays. It’s so important to have a female role model out there who is so versatile, so elegant and so classy,” said the director of Unique Client Solutions. “We love the awards season as it gives us a chance to catch up on all of the lastest films in the cinema, it’s also fantastic to see all the talent in the movie industry rewarded. It helps that Sacha Baron Cohen is always around to keep things scandalous!”

United Leeds Endeavours Reviews Top Apps of the Week

Are you app-crazy? The team at United Leeds Endeavours are! Here is a run-down of the top apps of the week and why they’re worth having.

United Leeds Endeavours always aim to be ahead of the game and when it comes to technology, and particularly iPads they’ve always got their eye on what is out there. This week they have selected four apps to make your life easier and help you to have some fun.

For the time-strapped businessmen the first app on United Leeds Endeavours list is ‘Clear’. This task-management app is beautiful, clean and simple to look at. You can add to it, reorder and maintain several lists entirely by pinching and swiping your iPhone screen. It isn’t advanced enough for project management but is perfect for keeping on top of your day-to-day tasks and schedule. Cost: £0.69

‘Clik’ is for anyone who uses YouTube a lot. It turns your iPhone or Android into a remote control for the site. There is no additional software or hardware to download and once you’ve linked up your phone you can select and pause videos with ease as well as add them to your favourites. Cost: Free

‘RAVN’ is an event finding app which makes a slideshow of all of the events going on in your area over the coming days and weeks. You can add events to your wish list and the app will start to learn your preferences and interests. The app is great for those who love the music, art and clubbing scene. Cost: Free.

‘WinZip’ for iPhone and Android. United Leeds Endeavours can understand your frustration if you’ve ever had someone sent you across a zip file and you’ve been unable to open it on your phone. With WinZip now you can! It launches directly from your inbox so you’ll be able to view anything anyone sends you on the go. Cost: Free.

Now your busy day is in order you thanks to WinZip and Clear, you can enjoy your free time with RAVN and Clik. United Leeds Endeavours wishes you a productive week.

United Leeds Endeavours Saddened by Death of Whitney Houston

The team at United Leeds Endeavours were saddened to wake on Sunday morning to learn that singing legend Whitney Houston had passed away.

A spokesperson for United Leeds Endeavours said “We are deeply shocked and saddened like the rest of the world at the death of Whitney Houston. She was an incredibly talented musician and a huge star in the UK as well as the rest of the world. We are sure that her music will be enjoyed for generations to come.”

Whitney Houston appears to be the latest in a long line of talented musicians who has passed away before their time in recent years. Leeds-based direct marketing and sales company, United Leeds Endeavours, looks back at the singer’s career and her troubled life.

Houston, who has died at the age of 48, came from a background seeped in music. She was the daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston, the cousin of Dionne Warwick and had Aretha Franklin as her godmother. Whitney grew up in New Jersey and sang in church there before moving onto the New York club scene. She was offered a recording contract at 14 but her mother turned it down insisting that she must finish her schooling first.  A brief, but successful career in modeling was a hiatus on the path to her first record contract at 19.

As a global superstar Whitney was prolific. United Leeds Endeavours learnt that she enjoyed 7 successive number one hits in the US surpassing a record previously held by The Beatles. She also had a successful acting career including The Bodyguard with Kevin Costner, Waiting to Exhale and The Preacher’s Wife. All three produced soundtrack albums featuring her songs but it was in The Bodyguard that her greatest hit, I Will Always Love You, was debuted.

Houston quickly got a reputation for being a diva and being difficult to work with. Her tempestuous marriage to Bobby Brown was littered with accusations of domestic abuse and they divorced in 2007. She also had a very public battle with drugs and alcohol which saw her enter rehab on multiple occasions and severely affected her incredible voice. In an interview in 2002 she said, “The biggest devil is me. I’m either my best friend or my worst enemy.”

Tributes have poured from the industry and United Leeds Endeavours has chosen a few to share. Godmother Aretha Franklin said simply “I just can’t talk about it now…It’s so stunning and unbelievable.” Mariah Carey who frequently sited Houston as her inspiration said “Heartbroken and in tears over the shocking death of my friend, the incomparable Ms Whitney Houston. She will never be forgotten as one of the greatest voices to ever grace the earth.” Simon Cowell summed her up perfectly for United Leeds Endeavours, “She was a legend. These people don’t come around often.”

United Leeds Endeavours Watches Chinese Olympic Celebration in Leeds

United Leeds Endeavours headed to the University of Leeds this weekend for a celebration of the city as it prepares to play host to the Chinese Olympic teams in July.

The 2012 Olympics are fast approaching and United Leeds Endeavours, a direct sales and marketing company based in the city centre, are becoming excited not only about the games themselves but that the city is playing host to over 300 athletes, coaches and support staff from the Chinese Olympic team. This weekend saw a celebration take place at the University of Leeds with Chinese and British sports stars, celebrities and community leaders

Among the stars of show this weekend were former Olympic diving gold medal winner Li Na and one of the rising starts of the Team GB diving team Liu Jiayi. Diving will be among the 11 sports that will be based in Leeds. Other teams include some of China’s strongest sports, fencing, table tennis, taekwondo, women’s handball and women’s hockey.

The show, entitled ‘China in Leeds’, was presented in both Mandarin and English and was an opportunity for athletes and coaches alike to fill in the public on their progress and training. United Leeds Endeavours believes that enticing the Chinese Olympic team to Leeds for their pre-games training is a real coup considering the success of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

A spokesperson for the United Leeds Endeavours commented, ‘The Chinese Olympic team are used to state-of-the-art facilities and are one of the best teams in the world. The fact that they have chosen Leeds as their training base is testament to the incredible facilities and culture of sport that we have in the city.”

Back in summer 2011 when the announcement was made, Leeds council leader Keith Wakefield said, “This is a historic and magnificent achievement for Leeds to have secured arguably the biggest Olympic sporting superpower to base themselves in our city ahead of the London 2012.”

United Leeds Endeavours believes that there is a great sense of pride amongst the residents of Leeds that they will be hosting such a prestigious team. “We know that everyone in the city will be bending over backwards to make our visitors feel welcome. Everyone at United Leeds Endeavours is keeping their fingers crossed that there will be open training sessions that we can go and watch.

The Chinese team is due to arrive in Leeds at the beginning of July.

Grass Flip-Flops in February? Did United Leeds Endeavours Hear Right?!

An Australian footwear company has come up with the bizarre idea of designing flip flops made of fake grass. Novelty item or sales hit? United Leeds Endeavours investigates.

In promotional material for the product it says, “Love the feeling of bare feet on freshly mowed grass? Why not have the feeling anywhere, anytime. Where would you rather be? What would you rather be doing? Close your eyes and you are there!’ Sounds incredible to United Leeds Endeavours but what exactly are they talking about?!

The flip-flops have been designed by an Australian company which has stitched fake turf directly into the soles of the shoes the idea being that the wearer feels they are walking directly on fresh grass. When the team at United Leeds Endeavours read about the product in the morning Metro newspaper, initial laughter gave way to interest. It appears that the footwear has been selling like hotcakes internationally and have appeared on various fashion websites.

For United Leeds Endeavours, a direct marketing and sales company in Leeds, even thinking about flip flops at this time of year brings out a shiver in everyone. However reading about this unusual item brought a smile to everyone’s face on a cold February morning.

Managing director of United Leeds Endeavours believes that much of their popularity comes down to the price. “At only £20 they are pretty cheap so the initial fascination in such a fun product is supported by the fact that they are affordable. They would certainly be a talking point with friends!”

He went on to say, “What a great idea, we would love to have been there at the pitch of this product, Dragon’s Den should have aired this one. Sadly we don’t think anyone at United Leeds Endeavours be wearing these any time soon, it’s pretty cold in February in Leeds…!”

More information about the shoes can be found on the company’s website. Don’t forget to read the advice, don’t mow the grass to avoid damaging the product!”