Day: April 18, 2012

Categories
Van Halen

Rock on, boys!!

More Van Halen For You

Ever since Van Halen announced its 2012 tour plans earlier this year, fans have been eyeing that last date on the schedule, praying that the band would extend its tour past the June 26 gig in New Orleans.
Today those prayers were answered with the addition of 18 more shows in support of the band’s new album, A Different Kind Of Truth, beginning July 7 in Uncasville, Conn., and running through Aug. 12 in Cincinnati.

Here’s the new stretch. Hopefully, your town is on it..the one I live in is not!

July 7 – Uncasville, Conn., Mohegan Sun Arena
July 9 – Hampton, Va., Hampton Coliseum
July 11 – Philadelphia, Pa., Wells Fargo Center
July 13 – E. Rutherford, N.J., Izod Center
July 15 – Baltimore, Md., 1st Mariner Arena
July 17 – Rochester, N.Y., Blue Cross Arena
July 19 – Detroit, Mich., Joe Louis Arena
July 21 – London, Ontario, John Labatt Centre
July 24 – Toledo, Ohio, Huntington Center
July 26 – Grand Rapids, Mich., Van Andel Arena
July 28 – Cleveland, Ohio, Quicken Loans Arena
July 31 – Fort Wayne, Ind., Allen Co. War Memorial Coliseum
Aug. 2 – Columbus, Ohio, Schottenstein Center
Aug. 4 – Knoxville, Tenn., Thompson-Boling Arena
Aug. 6 – Memphis, Tenn., FedEx Forum
Aug. 8 – Birmingham, Ala., BJCC Arena
Aug. 10 – Greenville, S.C., Bi-Lo Center
Aug. 12 – Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. Bank Arena

Categories
Sports

I might even try to go to a game – or two – this year!!

2012 NFL schedule: Peyton Manning vs. Tom Brady and more great games on the slate

The NFL announced its 2012 schedule Tuesday (April 17). It’s way too extensive to print here, but the NFL has provided this handy week-by-week calendar/graphic that we found quite fun to peruse.

Here are some of the marquee match-ups:

Sunday, Sept. 9: Steelers at Broncos
Peyton Manning had been an Indianapolis Colt it seemed like, well, forever. But now on Sept. 9, he makes his debut as a Denver Bronco after losing the entire 2011 season to injury. The Steelers are known for their high-caliber defense, so it should be one to watch (provided Peyton is healthy and starting under center, of course).

Sunday, Oct. 7: Broncos at Patriots
Tom Brady and Manning have been two the best quarterbacks in the NFL for the past decade. In the 12 times they’ve faced off, Brady has beaten Manning eight of them. And the games are usually close ones. Should be a fun match-up.

Sunday, Oct. 7: Chargers at Saints
QBs Drew Brees and Philip Rivers are former teammates, New Orleans coach Sean Payton is suspended, Chargers coach Norv Turner seems to perennially be on the hot seat – oh, and the last time these QBs faced off, they threw for a combined almost 700 yards. Could be quite the shoot-out.

Sunday, Nov. 25: Packers at Giants
The last time these two teams faced off was in the playoffs in January. And Green Bay, the defending Super Bowl champs at the time, got their butts absolutely handed to them. It will be fun to watch them meet up again.

The Thanksgiving Day slate
Thanksgiving features the Texans at Detroit, which is a much better match-up than it would’ve been even two years ago; Cowboys-Redskins, which is a divisional game; and Patriots at Jets. Let’s just hope that for some reason by then it’s not Tim Tebow starting for New York, since the Patriots were two huge losses for him in 2011.

Categories
Business

That industry died really fast, didn’t it?!

Rogers exits video store business

Rogers has officially bailed on the video store business.

In December, the company announced it was closing 40 per cent of its video shops as it continued to move away from selling and renting physical copies of DVDs, Blu-rays and video games.

The company said at the time that rentals represented a “declining marketplace” but still kept 93 stores stocked with movies and games.

Those remaining stores stopped renting late last week and are now in liquidation mode.

Rogers intends to keep those locations open to serve its other businesses, such as TV and wireless services.

As far back as 2005, Rogers had been signalling that its video business was in decline.

In February, the company reported its video operations lost $23 million in 2011 on revenues of $82 million, which were down 43 per cent from the previous year.

Last year, Blockbuster Canada also decided to close up shop across the country, shutting more than 400 stores.

Categories
News

Tremendous news!!

Police arrest guard, recover Tom Petty guitars

CULVER CITY, Calif. (AP) — It was a heartbreaker for Tom Petty and the band when someone stole five of their precious guitars from a soundstage, but it was music to their ears when police in Southern California announced Tuesday that the instruments had been recovered and a security guard was under arrest.

Police identified the arrested man as Daryl Emmette Washington, 51, of Los Angeles, a private security guard at The Culver Studios lot.

Police Chief Don Pedersen said the break in the case came when the suspect pawned one of the guitars at a Hollywood pawn shop for $250.

“Mr. Petty would have joined us, but he’s preparing for a concert in Denver,” said Pedersen, who described the stolen guitars as collectively worth $100,000.

A message seeking comment from the band’s publicist, Jim Merlis, was not immediately returned.

The instruments were reported stolen last Thursday from The Culver Studios, a sprawling complex of soundstages west of downtown Los Angeles where Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers had been rehearsing for an upcoming tour.

The instruments were Petty’s blond 1967 maple 12-string Rickenbacker and his Gibson SGTVJunior, Mike Campbell’s blue Dusenberg, Ron Blair’s Fender Broadcaster and Scott Thurston’s 1967 Epiphone Sheridan.

On its website, the band offered a “no questions asked” $7,500 reward for information leading to the return of the instruments.

Their return comes as the band prepared to kick off their tour Wednesday in Broomfield, Colo.

The band is known for a string of hit singles, including “American Girl”, “Don’t Do Me Like That” and “Breakdown.”