Late April 2001
-
Isaak rocks the Big Isle
By Tim Ryan
(Honolulu Star-Bulletin, April 30, 2001
Musician-actor Chris Isaak and his band Silvertone gave a private performance for about130 lucky Showtime contest winners and network executives at Outrigger Waikoloa Friday night Isaak, the youngest of three brothers, says he was a music fan from a very early age. After attending the University of the Pacific, he spent a year in Japan, studying, working part time at a movie studio and doing some amateur boxing. He didn't really consider a career in music until he was 20 and living in Tokyo. Inspired by Elvis Presley's Sun sessions, Isaak decided to try his hand at singing.
-
Hooray for Hulawood: Hawaii's a longtime movie star
By Burl Burlingame
(Honolulu Star-Bulletin, April 27, 2001
Although it's difficult to estimate the effect of Hollywood's popular films and movies on Hawaii -- except on Robert Cazimero's wardrobe -- the inverse is certainly true. A Hawaiian song won an Oscar. A couple of Hawaiian film buffs were asked for insight on the films and songs featured in the "Hulawood" fund-raiser. Comment on "Blue Hawaii": "Paramount made both "Waikiki Wedding" which introduced the song "Blue Hawaii" and the film "Blue Hawaii", so they had no trouble getting the rights to the song." ... "The two movies even shared the same plot. But the main thing about 'Blue Hawaii' -- which was Elvis' most-popular film -- was that it locked him into the role of the nice guy instead of a rock 'n' roll rebel." ... "One of the cool things about 'Blue Hawaii' is that Elvis goes everywhere, and we see how Honolulu has changed in the last 40 years".
-
Von Brana does Elvis his way
By John Berger
(Honolulu Star-Bulletin, April 27, 2001
Jonathan Von Brana is Elvis Presley during a Navatek I dinner cruise. He hits the stage in a tight black jump suit with gold accents and a golden eagle design across the back, a broad belt, and a gargantuan buckle. He opens with a medley of "That's All Right" and "C.C. Rider" and has the crowd on the Navatek I cheering. Elvis impressionists don't come any better than Von Brana. His set list includes "Are You Lonesome Tonight" and "Suspicious Minds" and the title songs from several of Elvis' biggest movies, songs he'll also perform tonight during "Hulawood," the $175 per person Hawaii Theatre benefit that is also a tribute to the films that helped put Hawaiian music on the map. In the past, Von Brana had to follow producers' concept of Elvis. On Navatek he's been free to do more of the songs from the films Elvis made here: "Blue Hawaii," "Girls! Girls! Girls!" and "Paradise, Hawaiian Style." He'll be singing "Blue Hawaii" and "Rock-A-Hula Baby" at "Hulawood" tonight.
-
10 great places to enjoy historic trees
(USA Today, Page 3D, April 27, 2001
Jeffrey Meyer, author of the new "America's Famous and Historic Trees: From George Washington's Tulip Poplar to Elvis Presley's Pin Oak" (Houghton Mifflin, $30) shares with USA TODAY his picks for US trees to visit. About the Elvis Presley pin oaks at Graceland, he says: ''Lining the driveway to Graceland are towering pin oak trees. Elvis must have loved trees, because he used to stand under them, just enjoying them. He also used them as a natural buffer between himself and his fans here at Graceland. The oak trees completely overpower the house.''
-
John Wilkinson out of hospital
(John Wilkinson website, April 22, 2001, also reported in Elvis News)
John Wilkinson was allowed to return home Friday 13th April after 3 months in hospital and a rehabilitation center. He's now able to walk again and do some stairs. John has expressed his appreciation through his website to thank each and everyone who helped making the healing easier while he was in hospital by sending so many postcards from all over the world.
-
Sisters' deaths a mystery
By NEIL STEINBERG
(Chicago Sun Times, April 22, 2001)
A sad tale of the Grimes sisters (Patricia, 12, Barbara, 15) who disappeared in December 1956 after going to see Elvis' movie "All Shook Up" and were later found murdered when the snow melted. At the time, missing teenage girls often turned up at Memphis where they hung around Elvis' house hoping to catch a glimpse of him. While the hunt was still on, Elvis himself, at the request of the police, made a statement telling them to go home: "If you are good Presley fans, you'll go home and ease your mother's worries".
-
LEADING LADIES IN NEW LIGHT
By MEGAN TURNER
(New York Post, April 21, 2001)
A new coffee-table book, "Hollywood Moms," features some of Tinseltown's biggest stars in a supporting role - that of mother or daughter. Photographer Joyce Ostin, who is married to DreamWorks Records exec Michael Ostin, called on her Hollywood connections to assemble 50 candid pix of actresses, directors and performers. There's k.d. lang with her mother Audrey; Faith Hill and her two little girls; Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley; Goldie Hawn and Kate Hudson; Tea Leoni and her daughter Madeleine "West" Duchovny. "I captured all the women in intimate settings," Ostin says. "It's a very unglamorous way in which I took them - it's more about the emotions between the mothers and daughters, rather than just photos of glamorous movie stars." A breast cancer survivor, Ostin will donate 100 percent of the proceeds from the book - excerpts of which appear in this month's InStyle magazine - to breast cancer research.
-
Serving up some zydeco
By Gene Downs
(Savannah Morning News, April 20, 2001)
C.J. Chenier will headline the Saturday night session of the two-day Roundhouse Blues & Barbecue Festival, which will kick off this evening at 6 p.m. at the Roundhouse Railroad Museum. Chenier and the band released their Alligator Records debut "Too Much Fun" in 1995, and a follow-up titled "The Big Squeeze" was released last year. Like his father, Chenier was never a straight-ahead zydeco musician. He played with various 'garage bands" after high school, and the influences of jazz, funk, R&B and pop are still evident in his music. ('The Big Squeeze" includes a cover of Elvis Presley's hit "Teddy Bear.")
-
Concert Preview: Hawksley Workman
By Sandra Sperounes
(Edmonton Journal, April 20, 2001)
Steamy Striptease builds the buzz for Toronto musician at the Sidetrack Cafe. Hawksley Workman is on the verge of becoming Canada's next Casanova with his new steamy rock single, Striptease. His first single, Striptease, a '70's fuzz-romp, is even heating up The Bear's usually tame playlist. "When people ask me about that song, I sometimes think I should fake it and say, 'Oh. It's about simplifying your life. Ha ha ha,' " says Workman. "But it's about when the door is closed, you've got the candles lit, you've got your favourite oldies station playing Elvis Presley and you want to be teased by your lover. That's all crazy stuff and I'm totally into it."
-
Net Works
By DAVID COLKER
(Los Angeles Times, April 19, 2001)
Artists look to the Internet for subject matter, grabbing pictures, sounds and live feeds off the Web. The most traditional of the Internet-based pieces in "010101" - at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art through July 8 - are by Rebeca Bollinger. "I'm interested in the specific patterns created by databases and online searches," said Bollinger, who lives in the Bay Area. Her works for "010101" are derived from online searches, but this time she chose to represent them with small colored-pencil drawings. Her search on "people communicating" produced several images of people at computers or on cell phones. "Important documents" unearthed a group that included the Declaration of Independence and a letter from Elvis Presley. And "need" generated images of a sports car, a tropical beach scene and Jesus.
-
Bettmann Archive: Buried Treasure of the Century
By Sarah Boxer
(Excite news / Reuters, April 17, 2001)
The Bettmann archive, the quirky cache of pictures that Otto Bettmann sneaked out of Nazi Germany in two steamer trunks in 1935 and then built into an enormous collection of historical importance, will be sunk 220 feet down in a limestone mine 60 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, where it will be far from the reach of historians. The archive, which has more than 10 million photographs, is a visual history of the 20th century. Since 1995 it has belonged to Corbis, the private company of Microsoft's chairman, Bill Gates. The pictures are being scanned for conservation purposes. The images scanned first were those deemed most valuable, both culturally and commercially. Pictures of Kennedys, Rockefellers, Roosevelts of images from the Depression, the two world wars and the Vietnam War have been scanned. As have 20th century icons: Einstein sticking out his tongue, Rosa Parks on the bus, Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock, Orson Welles doing his "War of the Worlds" broadcast and anything with Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth or Martin Luther King Jr. in it.
-
India bids tearful farewell to tech guru Mehta
By Y.P. Rajesh
(Excite news / Reuters, April 15, 2001)
India bid an emotional farewell to tech evangelist Dewang Mehta at his funeral on Sunday and captains of the country's tech sector said it would be tough to replace the charismatic lobbyist. The 38-year-old Mehta, president of industry body the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), died of a massive heart attack on Thursday in his Sydney hotel room, while on a networking trip to Australia. The bespectacled Mehta, who sported Elvis Presley-type sideburns, was a qualified chartered accountant with deep interest in computer programming.
-
ONE OF THE KING'S MEN
By MARC TOPKIN
(St Petersburg Times, April 15, 2001)
Reliever Rusty Meacham grew up in Florida and usually favors country music, especially songs by his buddy Kenny Chesney, but his true love is Elvis Presley music. He is such a big fan that he has a huge collection of Presley memorabilia at home, including books, records, posters and, of course, those kitschy clocks with those legs that shake. Such a big fan that he vividly remembers being 9 years old and waiting in line all night with his mother to see Presley in concert, and still recalls how bad he felt when Presley died a few months later. Such a big fan that when he played in Memphis in 1998 he made a beeline to tour Graceland the first chance he got. Such a big fan that any time an Elvis song is played on a ballpark PA system he'll stop what he's doing and take off his cap "just to pay tribute." (And such a loyal fan he was in mid salute one day this spring when he realized it was another artist singing and disgustedly replaced his cap.) "I just love him," Meacham said. In some ballparks, they play Jailhouse Rock when Meacham comes into a game. Here are his five all-time favorite Presley songs: 1 Don't Cry Daddy; 2 Suspicious Minds; 3 Return to Sender; 4 Hurt; 5 In the Ghetto.
|
|
