Where’s the Service?

Posted on April 20, 2012 by bvanrysdam

I’m thinking President Obama isn’t sleeping well lately. It’s not the economy, or the war in Afghanistan, or even Mitt Romney that has him worried; it’s his Secret Service (or lack thereof) that has to be keeping him up at night.

First, there was the prostitution scandal. Agents were in Columbia preparing for the President’s trip when they decided to stiff (insert rim shot here) a working lady on her fee. Now there is Secret Service Agent David Chaney acting like a pre-pubescent teenager posting photos of him allegedly guarding Sara Palin with the comment “I was really checking her out, if you know what I mean?”

Who out there thinks it’s a good idea for a Secret Service Agent to have a Facebook page, and then post pictures from work? Seems like that’s a no-brainer, so how does someone like David Chaney rack up nearly two decades working for what has to be the most scrutinized government agency.

The Secret Service is responsible for protecting the President, but who’s responsible for adding simple common sense to the Secret Service?

Material Girl Flat-Lining on the Charts

Posted on April 12, 2012 by bvanrysdam

Madonna’s newest album release, (why do we still call them albums?) MDNA debuted at Number One on the Billboard Charts. This immediately produced talk of her comeback being a smashing success and would signal a triumphant return, so why, according to Forbes, has MDNA sales have fallen a record 88 percent week-to-week, from 379,000 copies to a mere 46,000?

The answer is actually pretty simple. Madonna packaged the album with ticket sales to her upcoming tour on Ticketmaster. She was basically giving her album away to anyone who bought a ticket. These “sales” were then counted in Billboard’s tally. Once the tour dates sold out, the number of sales stopped.

Now to be fair, she is not the first person to offer this deal. Both Tom Petty and Bon Jovi did this to climb the charts in the past, but you would have thought the Material Girl would be above such trickeration. It’s hard on aging acts to stay relevant. The older audience wants to hear the hits from the past, and the younger generation? Well, they just don’t care.

Madonna will have no trouble selling-out large venues and, no doubt, put on a great show. She’s scheduled to perform 4 nights at Yankee Stadium in September (She plays two nights at Toyota Center in October).

But, will this tour be enough to breathe life into MDNA, or are the days of owning the charts behind her?

Before & After

Posted on April 5, 2012 by bvanrysdam

Had a lot of fun with “Snoop-Dog” today. He had a make-over done and so we posted before and after photos for everyone to check out. We had over 66 like and 10 comments in the 1st hour of it being posted on the Houston SPCA Facebook Wall. You can see more of my posts for them by clicking here.