Monday Mashups: Taking Movie Screenings to New Heights

Amazon Prime Video's recent promotions for its movies and television shows have including the headline-grabbing Maisel Day in Los Angeles and the interactive Museum of Modern Love in New York.

According to BizBash, its latest endeavor continues the out-of-the-box streak: The brand is currently hosting a high-flying nationwide tour to promote The Aeronauts, an upcoming feature film that follows an 1862 gas balloon that broke the world flight altitude record. The drama, starring Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, hits theaters tomorrow and will be released on Prime Video on December 20.

The tour, dubbed "The Aeronauts' Incredible Journey," is free and open to the public. The events kicked off in Los Angeles November 23 to 24 before traveling to San Francisco on November 26 and Phoenix on November 30. It will also make stops in Atlanta, Orlando, and Austin this month before returning to Los Angeles in late December.

In that spirit, Amazon decided to immerse fans in the film by creating a sprawling Victorian fair set in the year 1862. The weekend-long Los Angeles edition filled the Rose Bowl Stadium with more than 50 costumed performers, and guests could take hot air balloon rides in a balloon modeled after the one in the film. The balloon, created and operated by SkyCab Balloon Promotions, could accommodate four people at a time, and rides took place every six to seven minutes for eight hours a day.

In addition, the experience included on-theme food and games, plus a fortune teller, cartoonists, and even a hypnotist billed as being able to help attendees conquer their fear of heights. More than 100 staff members were deployed on-site to keep the ambitious experience going.

And speaking of ambitious: The Los Angeles event and the nationwide tour also include a screening of The Aeronauts projected on the side of a hot air balloon, in what organizers call "the world's first Fly-In Theater." Amazon worked with CSM Live on the project, which took 18 months to produce. A flexible LED screen with more than 76,000 pixels wrapped 360 degrees around the balloon, allowing the screen to be viewed from all directions even in daylight conditions. Amazon wanted to screen the film in such a large-scale format to showcase its scope and technical feats.

Due to the logistical feats, locations for the tour were carefully considered. Because of the hot air balloon rides, cities were predominately chosen based on historical climate information.When you’re ballooning, wind is everything. But part of the goal, was to make guests—many of whom arrived dressed in Victorian garb—forget they were even at an event.

Quite the immersive event! Get inspired and devour the details of an epic experience unlike any other thanks to The Aeronauts amazing movie screening!

Holiday Happenings at Bone Up Brewing

We can certainly agree -- holiday shopping is best done with a beer in hand! So we're here to share that Bone Up Brewing will be featuring some of their favorite local businesses in their taproom during the month of December. Loads of great gift ideas and BUBco merch will be on sale so come on out, enjoy a beer, and grab gifts for everyone on your list (and maybe even treat yourself)!

12/13-12/15 - Drink and Draw
Support local art and grab a print from Bone Up's Monday Mosh Monsters exhibit or get your hands on their new BUBco coloring books! Deep Cuts Deli & Brewery will be serving dinner on 12/13, and they'll have Speakeasy Donuts and Boston HotChix in the taproom on 12/14. Yum!

Bottle Release: Skeleton Key (tequila barrel aged imperial Key Lime)

12/20-12/22 - Sweet Heat
Top Shelf Cookies will have holiday cookie platters and treats available for pickup, and Bone Up is running a sale on their line of BUBco-exclusive Alex's Ugly Sauce bottles for the hot sauce lover in your life! While you're there, relax with a beer and play some old school Nintendo courtesy of Wicked Retro Night (12/20) or swing through to grab food from The Bacon Truck (12/21)!

Bottle Release: Elmo (barrel aged stout)

And because Bone Up isn't above some of their own shameless holiday self promotion...they've got a full spread of holiday merch (and bottles, lots of fancy bottles!) for the beer lovers in your life including:

• Hoodies, thermals, flannels
• Beanies
• Gift cards
• Barrel aged/limited release bottles

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Get to Bone Up this weekend and devour the details of all your holiday shopping...and beer of course. See you there!

Wedding Wednesdays: Tips to Booking Your Hotel Room as a Wedding Guest

As a wedding guest, you're spending money on lots of things—usually transportation, attire and a gift—but navigating the hotel room booking can sometimes be confusing and costly if you don't figure out your plans early on. Here are The Knot's top tips to make sure you can get the most bang for your buck and have a great weekend celebrating with your friends or family.

Book your hotel room early.
As soon as you see the hotel block information provided on the couple's wedding website or in the wedding invitation, it's smart to book right then. In most cases, the couple will have chosen a few hotels to accommodate every budget, and the hotels will be located close to the wedding ceremony and reception areas—and hopefully near an area with restaurants and things to do too. They'll start filling up quickly, so you don't want your only option to be the most expensive room, or a room with twin beds when you'll be with your significant other.

However, when the couple reserved the room blocks, the hotels either took a percentage off each room with a certain number of rooms booked, gave them a free room but didn't discount any guest rooms, or just allowed them to reserve the rooms in advance and didn't offer any discount at all. So if you do some research and see other hotels in the area with a better rate, it's fine to book there too. You just may miss out on pickups and drop-offs if the couple hired shuttles to transport guests staying at their choice hotels to and from the wedding (which also means you'll have to foot the bill on a late-night ride when the wedding's over, or may miss out on any impromptu hotel after-parties or brunches).

Look around for other lodging.
Like it's stated above, there's no rule that says you have to stay at the suggested hotels. If you know the area well and there's someplace else you'd rather stay (and know how to get around easily) or have family in the area you can stay with, feel free to make other lodging plans. You can also opt for a rental home with friends if your group would rather pool money—get a huge house for the weekend that accommodates everyone and make a vacation out of it.

See if you can get an additional discount.
Some hotel blocks won't let you use any credit card points or discounts from travel websites or AAA alongside a room block discount—but others do, so it's worth a try. If you go this route, The Knot recommends calling the front desk directly instead of using a toll-free reservations number to save yourself any miscommunication issues. Customer service reps may never have been to the hotel you're calling about, and may not have the best insight into room block booking policies.

By utilizing The Knot's tips, you're sure to save! Don't delay, devour the details of booking the right room for you today!