The kids are back in school, the weather has cooled a bit, and there are some hot events going on this week. So come out and support local live entertainment and our local friends~!!!

Country Superstars Tribute
Country Superstars Tribute, a fast-paced, concert style event, features a world-class live five-piece band and some of the biggest names in country music history tribute artists, such as Willie Nelson, Garth Brooks, Tim McGraw, Reba McEntire, Kenny Chesney and more! The Country Superstars Tribute consistently delivers an unforgettable entertainment experience that treats audiences to the sights and sounds of America’s heartland in a manner that country fans have come to expect.

Starting August 31 Tuesday – Saturday 9:30 p.m.

Buy a dinner buffet and show ticket together for just $34.99 plus tax & service fee!

For tickets and information call 866.946.5336 or Book Online.

Click here to view seating chart

Acoustic Wednesday Night @ LVCS
Musicians: VIPette Events invites you to come out to meet, jam and most importantly network with your fellow local singers & musicians.

This event is sponsored by Sam Ash Music & Dr. Duck’s Ax Wax.
Drawings for Freebies…An extra drawing ticket for each guest you bring with you whether they are a musician or not~!!!

Looking for a sub, a sub job, a gig? This is the event to be at. Many talented musicians have been found by gigging bands at our events.

Each performance will be recorded with the new Zoom Q3 Recorder from Sam Ash Music. You may take a copy of your recording home that night for only $5. Upload it to Youtube, Facebook, Myspace to share with friends and fans.

Bring your own Guitar, play/sing your songs and be a star~!!!!

Sign up at 8:30 music starts at 9:00pm – until Midnight

LVCS – Las Vegas Country Saloon
425 Fremont Street at Las Vegas Blvd (Above Hennessey’s)

For additional information, call (702) 556-3558

DJ R.O.B. PRESENTS THE FACEBOOK PARTY LABOR DAY WEEKEND KICKOFF
FRIDAY SEPT. 3RD
Click Link For Full Flyer View:

IF YOU MISSED THE FIRST 2 EVENTS THEY WERE OFF THE HOOKAH -
EVERYBODYS TALKIN ABOUT R.O.B.s FACEBOOK PARTIES

THIS IS A REAL PARTY FOR REAL PEOPLE.

“I want to give back to Las Vegas and the Vegas Facebook community.” – DJ R.O.B.

Facebook is how we stay in touch with old friends and meet new ones. We are all connected so lets take advantage and have ourselves a party.

This is going to be best party of the summer!

Kick off this Labor Day Weekend with great music, drinks specials, and surprises!

Ketel One vodka and drink specials all night.

Prize Giveaways

Hookah Pipes

DJ R.O.B. will be spinning the best of Old School and New Joints, with opening guest DJs and special guest performances.

Beautiful spacious new club, on the strip but away from the crowded hotels and pushy tourists.

The Copa Room Nightclub On The Fabulous Las Vegas Strip
7700 South Las Vegas Blvd. (Las Vegas Blvd & Robindale) Behind The Bootleegger Bistro.

10PM – UNTIL – RSVP “ATTENDING” ON THE FACEBOOK EVENT FOR FREE ENTRY BEFORE 11PM

Do you have a happening Vegas event? Contact us at VIPette@cox.net to have it featured.

So you paid attention to what everyone is saying and you created a Facebook Page for your business. You’ve got your press release links, photos and videos … but no one seems to care. What are you supposed to do now?

You’re on the right track, so congratulate yourself. A lot of small business owners don’t even bother to create a page — they’re simply not “on” Facebook.

But it’s all about where your customers and future customers hang out. And with people spending more than 700 billion minutes per month on this social networking site, it seems pretty apparent that your business needs to be hanging out there too.

Let’s review your Page. Go ahead, pull it up. Your Facebook Page should contain all or most of these:

Links to your blog posts
Links to related articles (whether they’re yours or not)
Videos
Photos
Discussions
This type of content is key in getting people to “Like” your page, and contributes to its overall success. And how do we define success? By getting people to interact and leave comments on your Facebook Page, as well as travel from the page to your company’s website and, of course, buying your product.

Facebook Pages Need Attention

If you neglect your Facebook Pages, they will die. If you use Facebook, you’ve probably stumbled upon a company’s page with no conversations going on and no recent posts. I’m guessing you didn’t click “Like” on that page. An unattended Facebook Page leaves a negative impression of the company — don’t let yours fall by the wayside.

The more you pay attention to your Page, the more positive results you’ll see. Cathy Nguyen, President of LeatherandBags.com, has seen great results from her Facebook Page, but admits she could do more.

“Although I have a Facebook Page, I’m not utilizing it to its fullest potential because of time. I try to update when I can and should probably try to engage more often,” said Nguyen. “Utilizing Twitter, blogs and e-mails has worked, but then again, I’m not doing it frequently.”

People are used to passive marketing. In the old days, you could pay a magazine or billboard company to create an ad for you. Then you sat back and waited for sales to hopefully pour in. But those days are gone. Whether it’s you or someone else at your company, you need to dedicate someone to social media strategy.

Maybe we put the cart before the horse in creating the Page without a clear-cut plan. That’s OK. Let’s develop a plan together. First, decide why you want a Facebook Page. Is it because everyone else is doing it? Or because you understand the value in connecting with customers who spend time socializing on Facebook?

Write down five goals for your Facebook Page. They might be:

Create awareness of our brand on Facebook
Get 10,000 “Likes” by year-end
Have at least 5 comments or shared items each week
Make Facebook one of the top 3 referrers of traffic to our site
Get 2,000 entries to our Facebook contest

Once you have these goals, break down the tasks required to achieve them. If you want 10,000 people to click “Like” on your page, you’re going to have to expand your contacts through your profile. Post your page link on Twitter, your blog, your e-mail and everywhere else. If you want interaction, you need to post insightful and thought-provoking questions and comments. Decide how regularly you need to post (I suggest at least 3 days a week).

Now determine who will handle these tasks. It might be one person or several. If it’s you, post the tasks to your calendar so you don’t forget to do them. In time, updating your Page will become second nature.

Ginger Anderson, who handles the Facebook Page for Scripps Health in San Diego says that when she started handling the page, all it did was push health news. Now the Page offers a mix of news, useful articles and videos that frequently get comments and questions from the 900 plus San Diegans who follow the brand.

“Our intention is to build relationships within the San Diego community (specifically with current patients and employees) and position Scripps as a trusted leader in healthcare,” said Anderson. “We receive the most comments on the posts that are general and applicable to a wider audience as opposed to disease-specific. We try to balance serious health news with fun, general health and wellness related content along with stuff about San Diego life (again, making sure it’s not always about us).”

Practical Tips

Just updating your Page won’t make it fabulous — that will take a little work from you. Here are a few tips to make your page more searchable and appealing.

Title: Some say the title is the most important part, so make sure your title is descriptive of your business and unique on Facebook.
FBML: Facebook Markup Language helps you create a custom landing page for your Facebook presence. If you want to promote a special event or direct attention to a particular product, this is a great way to do it. Don’t run screaming when I say that this code can make your page better. It’s not complicated, but if you don’t want to deal with it, hire someone to help.
Photos and Videos: Don’t underestimate the power of photos and videos. Even if you don’t sell products, you can still add photos to spice up your page. If you’re a dog groomer, take “Before and After” photos of those precious pet makeovers. A realtor can add photos of the houses on the market. A services firm can post pictures from the office to help visitors feel more connected to the staff.

For videos, why not shoot a tutorial on getting the most out of your products? An office tour? There are applications you can install within Facebook that will let you pull photos from places like Flickr. This can save you the trouble of uploading them in two places.

Questions: The jury’s still out on Facebook Questions, a recent addition to the site. But by asking questions through your Page, you can start discussions that will spread beyond just the people who follow your business.
Once you’ve put together your strategy and have worked on it a bit, give it three months. Then analyze your results and decide: Is Facebook helping your business?

Susan Payton is the President of Egg Marketing & Public Relations, an Internet marketing firm.

The Voodoo Cowboys will be rocking MonteLago Village at Lake Las Vegas on Friday, August 20th.
The show begins at 7pm until 10pm.

Bring blankets to lay under the stars and enjoy the rocking country sounds of the #1 rated country band in Las Vegas according to ReverbNation and in the top 100 nationwide.

Parents: This is a family friendly event. We encourage you to bring your kids and the neighbor’s kids too.
Kids: Come early for a chance to meet the band, get autographs, and get your own Voodoo Cowboy’s T-shirt & stickers.

We regret the news that The Las Vegas Country Saloon has decided to close on Monday and Tuesday nights and therefore ending our year long run of the Monday Night Musician’s Jam Network and Tuesday Night BLUES @ The Saloon.

So many talents musicians were able to meet other like minded musicians and professionals at these great invaluable events by musicians for musicians in support of live music here in Las Vegas.

We would like to thank every musician who have taken the stage with us over the last year. In addition, an especially huge thank you to our generous sponsors, Sam Ash Music and Dr. Duck’s Ax Wax.

We are confident that we will find another home for these two great events. Until then, enjoy this recording from the final Monday Night Musician’s Jam Network.

Keep on Rockin’

Air-Conditioning Is Terrible for the Earth — Here’s How to Live Without It

We live in a society that has been built around the idea of energy-intensive cooling. Here are some easy ways you can stay cool and cut your summer energy consumption.

Over the past decade, gains in the general energy efficiency of appliances have been wiped out by our growing reliance on one device in particular: the air conditioner. Just since the mid-1990s, as the U.S. population was growing by less than 15 percent, consumption of electricity to cool the residential, retail and automotive sectors doubled.

If people in India, Brazil and Indonesia used as much air-conditioning per capita as we do (and why not, their climates are hotter than ours), they would consume not only their own electricity supplies but also all of the electricity in Mexico, the United Kingdom and Italy — plus all 60 nations of Africa! The air-conditioning of America’s homes, businesses schools, and vehicles causes the release of greenhouse gases equivalent to 400 million tons of carbon dioxide annually.

But while working on Chapter 1 (pdf) of Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World, I learned that there are still plenty of people who, out of ecological and other concerns, live without air-conditioning — even in the hot heart of the Sunbelt.

Chris George and Dani Moore, for example, kept their windows open and their refrigerator stocked with ice water through the entire summer of 2009 in Tempe, Arizona. I visited them on the second-hottest day of the year, when it was 114 degrees outdoors and 100 in the kitchen.

Sheila and John Stewart have been opening their 1920s-era house in St. Petersburg, Florida to Gulf breezes year-round since 1984; Sheila told a local reporter in 2006 that life in hot, humid Florida without air-conditioning is “a thermostatic thing. Your body gets used to it.”

Meanwhile, we residents of central Kansas are no strangers to triple-digit temperatures. Torrid south winds can ripen our eight million acres of wheat overnight. But my wife Priti and I have lived here for the past 10 years without air-conditioning. Life in Kansas, and before that, in India, has taught us a few ways of adapting to heat.

As I see it, if you want to get some really creative ideas for keeping cool at the height of summer, go to someone who has figured out how to live without air-conditioning on the fringes of Phoenix — the world’s number-one urban heat island — or in the sun-broiled steambath that is southwest Florida.

So I asked John, Sheila, Dani, Chris and Priti to help me come up with a summertime guide to remaining comfortable — or at least of sound mind and body — without air-conditioning.

If you follow any of this advice, it may be out of a desire to reduce your carbon footprint or your utility bill. But we’re betting that as you begin to realize some of the benefits of the non-refrigerated life, you’ll find yourself looking for more opportunities, even excuses, to turn off the air-conditioning. — Stan Cox

The ground rules for online courtesy gelled sometime in the late ’90s: Don’t swear on public forums. Zip large files before sending. AVOID WRITING IN CAPS, AS IT IS RUDE TO CYBERSHOUT.

Today, as we spend more and more hours interacting online (Americans devoted twice as many minutes to social networking and blog-reading in 2009 vs. 2008, according to a Nielsen survey), there are more opportunities than ever for awkwardness, unintentional insult, rejection, creepiness and misunderstanding.

So this week, Stuff Hipsters Hate co-blogger Andrea Bartz and I are taking a break from broad-swath advice spewage and instead playing Emily Post to our friends’ and fans’ real-life netiquette conundrums.

Frenemy territory

“A friend-of-a-friend whom I see in a group setting every month or two just randomly unfriended me on Facebook. I have no idea how I offended him, but now running into him is understandably uncomfortable. Should I just confront him?” –A Good Person, I Swear

We find it hard to believe you’re totally innocent here, AGPIS.

The unfriend is a powerful symbol of cut ties — We know plenty of sworn enemies who’ve steadfastly avoided it, still sending one another token Facebook event invites with fake smiles frozen on their tremblingly spiteful faces.

So if this snip-snip wasn’t preceded by an actual blowout, you’ve got to ask yourself why somebody would want you erased from their feed — do you update every 20 seconds with inane observations? Pen mushy posts on your girlfriend’s wall?

If you’re still coming up short, you could … we dunno … ask him what’s amiss? If this makes you feel all squirmy-like on the inside — revelation! Maybe y’all shouldn’t be FB friends. Dude played FarmVille, anyway.

Word imperfect
“My co-worker sends business e-mails with a staggering number of spelling and grammar errors. It’s at the point where we’re all embarrassed he’s allowed to communicate with the outside world, but no one knows how to tell him. He’s like the guy in the office with terrible breath.” — Mortified By Proxy

Yeah, we hear this happens in fields in which employers value prowess in “math” and “hard sciences” and other such bewildering voodoo.

But unlike the close-talker who reeks of stale onions and rotting corpses, this guy probably knows his writing skills are subpar.

(Side note: This is why you must always, always, without exception, accept gum when offered and shove it into your mouth post-haste. I don’t care if, thanks to a raging case of TMJ, the chewing motion will enflame your jaw and give you the bulbous chipmunk-y appearance of a college freshman who has just had his wisdom teeth yanked. Just assume it’s a hint about your oral hygiene and start masticating.)

Anyway, the good news for you is that you can treat this like a bad breath scenario, with even less subtlety.

Vaguely blame it on the clients who’ve been subjected to his LOLcats-like missives (”They called me all confused, apparently they had misinterpreted something you’d written ’cause there was a typo”) and offer that Altoid — collaborative e-mails from your team (i.e., you write — or skim — the important ones).

Since that’ll create more work for you, ask what else he can take on to re-level the load. Or just eat his soul. Wait, sorry, we were getting corporate America mixed up with hell. Our mistake.

Family values

“My little cousins/conservative aunt/Dad tried to friend me on Facebook. I don’t need them/her/him seeing my drunk shenanigans or my angry status updates, but I get majorly guilt-tripped for rejecting their requests.” — Hipster Who May Or May Not Be Of Legal Drinking Age

This, HWMOMNBOLDA, is a common complaint and the reason many users keep scads of potential friends in Facebook deep-freeze. They’re loath to hit “accept” and ashamed to hit “reject,” thus locking acquaintances in friend-request limbo for all time.

Relatives, gung-ho about these newfangled social networking sites, are probably just excited that you showed up when they asked Facebook to find friends in their address book. (Fully 48 percent of parents merrily friend their hapless kids on Facebook, finds a survey from electronics shopping site Retrevo.)

But stand your ground. If you’ve traditionally limited your profile to your 677 favorite peers, letting in just one out-of-demo friend will throw off your delicate Facebook ecosystem (or just require a lot of freaking detagging).

You could allow them to see your limited profile (so certain portions — i.e., all the snaps of you beer-bonging and then consequently darting around the yard sans pants — just don’t show up when they stalk you). But why bother?

Just mention that you only use Facebook to stay in touch with your good friends (”I’m just not that much of a Facebook person” is an effective lie), and direct them toward better ways to keep abreast of your goings-on: sweet weekly e-mail check-ins or your public Twitter feed, for example.

Relatives just want to feel close to their little angel — no need to let on that you’re currently foaming at the mouth and this close to quitting your job and finally starting that screamo band.

The very talented Michael Wilde wrote and recorded a song about little ole me entitled “Rockstar Booking Agent”. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Rockstar Booking Agent – MIDI Mix
Rockstar Booking Agent
©2010 Cynthia Weber, Michael Wilde

She usually wakes up in the morning wrong side of the bed
Trying to remember where she laid her head
Tough to know where you are when you wake up feeling half past dead
Flip the switch on the computer start the coffee on the run
Load up all them emails get the promo work done
She’s a multi-tasking mama don’t quit till the game is won

Got a big old batch of home-made go-go juice
Gotta get the blood pumping get the typing fingers loose
Another long day still chasing that golden goose
Five hours sleep can drive a woman insane
All that hard work you never hear her complain
When it’s all said and done she got everybody drinking champagne

Cause she’s a rockstar booking agent working this crazy town
Got a bunch of entertainers needing work so they don’t drown
She got 5000 friends on Facebook
Yeah the VIPette’s pretty well known
She’s a rockstar booking agent working this crazy town

Calling all clubs I got a star for you
But voicemail’s all she ever gets to talk to
Still pluggin along makin everybody’s dreams come true
Now the suns on the left coast and it’s sinking fast
Hit the shower throw some clothes on get that foot on the gas
Showtime at 10 and she know it’s gonna be a blast

Cause she’s a rockstar booking agent working this crazy town
Got a bunch of entertainers needing work so they don’t drown
She got 5000 friends on Facebook
Yeah the VIPette’s pretty well known
She’s a rockstar booking agent working this crazy town

Awwww, work it girl! (Lead Break)

She’s a rockstar booking agent working this crazy town
Got a bunch of entertainers needing work so they don’t drown
She got 5000 friends on Facebook
Yeah the VIPette’s pretty well known
She’s a rockstar booking agent working this crazy town

She got the whole damn world on Facebook
They keep the VIPette running around
She’s a rockstar booking agent working this crazy town
(Spoken) Awwww work it, girl… get us all some work!

T-shirts – Get your T-shirts
$10 picked up at a show or $15 shipped within the USA (Sizes S – M – L)
$15 picked up at a show or $20 shipped within the USA (Extended Sizes XL & 2XL)

Select Your Size

Small $15.00 Medium $15.00 Large $15.00 X-Large $20.00 XX-Large $20.00

3″ Sticker Decals available in 3 colors Only $1 each – Get all Three~!!!!

Select Color

White Red Black

Can’t wait for shipping? Check the schedule where you can get your goodies at our next performance

(Click image to view larger)

***Big News***
All three nights are now held in the awesome LVCS on the big stage with the concert sound and lights. Big surprises this week that you do not want to miss. Come out to meet, jam and most importantly network with your fellow local singers & musicians.
Looking for a sub, a sub job, a gig? These are the events to be at each week.
Many talented musicians have been found by gigging bands at these events.

*new* SPECIAL GUEST SPONSORS *new*
Thank you to Sam Ash Music and Dr. Duck’s Ax Wax, our corporate sponsors. There be drawings for freebies for all in attendance.
This will also be broadcast live on the Internet. Tell your friends to watch you on the big stage in Las Vegas. Forward this Link to your friends, family, and fans: http://www.ustream.tv/user/voodoocowboys

Each performance will be recorded with the new Zoom Q3 Recorder from Sam Ash Music.
The Q3 has two condenser mics on-board, engineered in the same X/Y pattern that gives recording pros the best stereo recording possible. Arranged with the right and left mics on the same axis, this design ensures that the mics are always an equal distance from the sound source for perfect localization without phase shifting. The result is a great sounding recording with natural depth and highly accurate stereo imaging.
To play music better, seeing your performance can be almost as important as hearing yourself. With the Q3, you get both capabilities.
You may take a copy of your recording home that night for only $5. Upload it to Youtube, Facebook, Myspace to share with friends and fans.

Out of respect for the musicians, please bring your own Guitar, Bass, Keyboard, or sticks.
We will have the backline, mics, and drums ready for you.

Come early to sign up & guarantee your spot as space is limited. We get a large crowd of very talented Blues, Rock, and Country musicians~!!!!

Sign up as early as 8:30pm – music starting at 9pm until Midnight

Las Vegas Country Saloon
425 Fremont Street at Las Vegas Blvd
(Above Hennessey’s)
This venue is family friendly – Under 21 welcome until Midnight

For additional information, call Cynthia E7 Entertainment (702) 556-3558

What they are saying about the Monday Night Musician’s Jam Network:
“The Monday night Jams with the Voodoo cowboys have been a great a way to make new musical contacts and keep your chops up between bands or gigs. The atmosphere down at the Las Vegas Country Saloon is nothing less than stellar. Great place to hang out and just listen if you don’t feel like playing. Some of Las Vegas’ s best musicians have been playing there. The addition of the Blues Jam night has really opened up the opportunity for everyone have an opportunity to play. Keep up the great music”.
Dan the Mullet, Guitar

“I find myself in awe of the talent, the venue and the people behind the Monday Jam night. It’s a great experience every time and the first place I went when I was looking for a drummer!”
Elliot Szabo, Guitar http://www.elliotszabo.com

What they saying about The Tuesday Night BLUES @ The Saloon:
“I’ve enjoyed your jam sessions very much these last few months. The guys are not only good players they have been very accommodating as well. My band actually found our drummer on one of your jam nights. Unfortunately he was unable to stay in town but he was great while it lasted. Thanks for that. I would recommend the jam to anyone who wants to go play and have some fun”
Bill Tracy, The Smokehouse Band

“I had so much fun at the Blues Jam and it was great meeting so many wonderful musicians. The sound system was fantastic too. Wishing you all the best and hope everybody will show support to this weekly jam.”
Lady “J” Huston, 2009 BMA Awards Winner for “Best Blues Performer” www.msjoyce.com

What they saying about The Wednesday Acoustic Night in the Brass Lounge:
“A great venue for a night of acoustic music… with a nice view of The Fremont Street Experience and some of the best talent Las Vegas has to offer… join us and find out for yourself”
Michael Wilde, Desert Traxx Family of Independent Artists

Here is the videos from the Tuesday Night Blues @ The Saloon which were streamed over the Internet on UStream.tv

The beginning of the night:

Chris Bell jamming with The Boys:

Part 3 of 3:


E7 Entertainment Group
“Keeping the music playing and the sounds of laughter throughout Las Vegas and Southern Nevada