Late November 2002
Lisa Marie news: [ Lisa Watch ]
- Lies, damned lies and the internet
(Guardian Unlimited, November 30, 2002)
By Mark Lawson
We were far too eager to believe this week's Beckham rumour. ... we've become used to the little shifts in the atmosphere which hint at an impending scandal. Last Friday, the newsagent warned me to come in early on the following Sunday to be sure of the usual order, and a journalist friend insisted that David Beckham would soon have lost the England captaincy and his reputation for saintliness. ... His absence from the Manchester United team and the publicity circuit for the past 10 days or so was due, innuendo suggested, to a personal crisis which now had him closeted with lawyers and spin doctors. ... our natural instinct is to assume that any tittle-tattle about a celebrity is true ... With incredulity an increasingly lost art, it requires a certain self-confidence to go on holding the line that the earth really is round and that Elvis Presley isn't in an underground recording studio somewhere.
- Founder of Chuy's restaurant lays out plans for S.A. market
By Tricia Lynn Silva
(San Antonio Business Journal, November 29, 2002)
The city's newest Elvis shrine will open its doors the beginning of next month. Yes, I'm talking about the new Chuy's-Comida Deluxe, which is set to open at the former On The Border site in the Northwoods Shopping Center. "We should be open Dec. 10," says Chuy's co-founder Mike Young. "We're going at a fast pace." ... The new Chuy's will incorporate a new design feature: a three-story-tall palapa - or what looks like a thatched-roof, beach structure. But other characteristic design touches of the chain will not be lost - such as the multi-colored tile floor and the Elvis shrine. ... The Elvis shrine, all started 21 years ago, when Young and his partner John Zapp, were looking for ways to spruce up their first restaurant at Barton Springs Road. "We literally had $20 left in the decorating budget," Young recalls. "We saw this guy at the corner of Lamar and Barton Springs who was selling big, velvet-covered pictures - one of Elvis; one of Stevie Wonder.
And we bought both." While both still hang at the Barton Springs restaurant, it is the Elvis picture that has captured the most attention."People just started sending us their Elvis stuff - most of the memorabilia we have (at our restaurants) is simply from people bringing it to us," Young says. "He's become our patron saint. "But the one of poor Stevie Wonder was completely ignored," Young adds. "I like Stevie Wonder; but he just doesn't get any action."
- El Vez Celebrates Mex-mas With Dave Foley and Mike Myers
(chartattack, November 28, 2002)
El Vez, the Mexican Elvis, is doing another one of his legendary Xmas (or, as he likes to call it, Mex-mas) tours. Unfortunately, there's only two Canadian dates (both in Toronto), but this might be one you want to travel for, as El Vez promises that he won't do another holiday tour until at least 2004. So get on it, hombre! El Vez is touring in support of his new album, Sno-Way Jose (the yuks just don't stop), a special holiday release that has El Vez doing songs like "Little Drummer Boy," "The Dreydel Song," "Blue Christmas" and his Mex-mas staple "Brown Christmas." The disc will only be available at El Vez shows and through his very entertaining website.
- Celebrity Coroner Fights for Position
By MIKE CRISSEY
(Yahoo! News / Associated Press, November 28, 2002)
Cyril Wecht is perhaps the nation's most prominent coroner, having consulted on cases ranging from the Kennedy assassinations to Elvis' death to the murder of Chandra Levy. Now, a petition drive is calling for his office to be replaced with an appointed medical examiner. Wecht is firing back and believes his office should remain elected and independent.
- 'ELVIS LIVES' ON NBC
(Akron Beacon Journal , November 28, 2002)
Music stars tell tales, sing songs of The King. Elvis Lives airs at 10 tonight on NBC. The special will feature stories of Elvis Presley from entertainers such as Bono, Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews, Britney Spears and Chuck D. Contemporary artists will also perform Presley hits.
- Big hunk o' love opens Elvis gates to charity
By DENISE A. RAYMO
(PressRepublican.com, November 27, 2002)
Richard Mongeon combined a talent for welding, a giving heart and his admiration for Elvis Presley, to raise money for sick children and their families. It took him 10 months to make a half-scale replica of the gates of Graceland, now on display at the McDonald's Restaurant in Malone. The 4-by-10-foot gates here are made out of mild steel and are half the size of the 8-by-20-foot set that stands outside 3734 Elvis Presley Boulevard in Memphis. ... "He was a big giver and contributor to charity," Mongeon said of the king of rock 'n' roll. "And it was a challenge to duplicate his gates." ... Mongeon, who is the welding instructor at Bare Hill Correctional Facility, said his gates are not an exact match. "I went a step farther; it's not just a copy," he said, explaining that he incorporated the cape that the silhouetted Elvis is wearing with the gate's side braces. The original gates have random musical notes on them, but Mongeon arranged his notes so they would be part of "My Way," the Paul Anka song that became a standard for Elvis, Frank Sinatra and others.
- Tape of New York jam session with Jamaica's Bob Marley to be auctioned at Christie's
By HOWARD CAMPBELL
(Yahoo! News / Associated Press, November 26, 2002)
Christie's will sell one of Bob Marley's taped jam sessions next month at the New York City auction house Dec. 26, a spokeswoman for the company said. The tape is owned by musician Jimmy Norman, whom the then-unknown Marley met while on a visit to New York in early 1968. Eight songs they played together in Norman's Bronx apartment are on the audio tape. ... Christie's will auction the tape along with other memorabilia such as items bearing the signatures of the Beatles, and clothing worn by Elvis Presley in the movies Double Trouble and Speedway, she said.
- A guitar god's legacy
By Jim Abbott
(Yahoo! News, November 26, 2002)
In the same way that it's impossible to imagine an old Elvis, it's jarring to realize that Jimi Hendrix would have turned 60 this week. Live from Oakland, CA. The world's seminal rock guitarist is frozen in time, clad in paisley and leather, on his knees coaxing fire from his instrument and changing rock forever. He's still the ultimate guitar hero in a modern era that hasn't produced many. ... Though Hendrix's career was cut short at 27 by his overdose in 1970, the guitarist who would have turned 60 on Wednesday left an astonishing legacy.
- ENDQUOTE
By Richard Johnson
(Yahoo! News, November 25, 2002)
"I REMEMBER going and seeing him once and there were about six girls waiting. These were all young starlets. I saw three of them go in. They went in for about 15 minutes and then I was invited in. I said, 'Elvis, are you having sex with these girls?' He said, 'Yeah.' I said, 'How do you do that?' He said, 'It's easy, they're all different.' " - Dennis Hopper on NBC's "Elvis Lives!" special, airing on Thanksgiving.
- ARE YOU LOATHSOME TONIGHT? Angry Noel: Liam thinks he's Elvis
(Playlouder, November 25, 2002)
Noel Gallagher is fed up with Liam again, and reckons the cocky singer thinks he's Elvis Presley. He told an Italian paper, "As far as the other guys from Oasis and me think, he's no longer one of us. "We haven't spoken for weeks. I can't be bothered to deal with the ego of someone who thinks he's a big star".
- Elvis clones keeping up appearances
(ninemsn.com / Associated Press, November 25, 2002)
Elvis impersonators can continue swiveling their hips and quivering their lips, after Graceland reversed its earlier decision to sever its support of festivals featuring clones of the King. ... [as below]
- Elvis impersonator festivals get Graceland go-ahead after all
(Ananova, November 25, 2002)
Festivals featuring Elvis Presley impersonators can continue after Graceland decided to change its mind and support such events. ... [as below]
- Graceland reverses decision to bow out of impersonator festivals
(nj.com / Associated Press, November 24, 2002)
Elvis impersonators can continue swiveling their hips and quivering their lips, after Graceland reversed its earlier decision to sever its support of festivals featuring clones of the King. Elvis Presley Enterprises, the business arm of the multi-million-dollar Presley estate, decided in October to no longer associate with festivals using Elvis impersonators. But the estate gave back its backing after receiving about 30 letters from festival organizers and fans who were all shook up. "From reading these, we said, 'Let's forget about the hassles. This is something, frankly, we need to support,"' said Jack Soden, chief executive officer of EPE. Most Elvis impersonators do "heartfelt" tributes to Elvis, said Soden. "But we've all seen pictures of people who just should not have gone outdoors in outfits like that." Soden said the idea for the policy change came from some festivals "becoming more about Elvis impersonators than Elvis." But most impersonators would disagree. "Everything I'm doing is just to pay tribute to him," said David Lee, a major contender on the festival circuit. "Graceland disliking tribute artists is something I've never understood."
- Trust: Don't Get 'All Shook Up'
By Aaron Sadler
(Times Record, November 22, 2002)
The Fort Chaffee Public Trust eased a few suspicious minds Thursday by vowing never to sell to private investors the barbershop where Elvis Presley got his military haircut.
The trust unanimously rejected a Fort Smith man's $1,000 bid for the old barbershop. The decision was a relief to Fort Smith teacher Jan Honeycutt, whose Beard Elementary School students have been working since 1996 to make the now-empty barbershop a tourist attraction. Students and former students of Honeycutt's economics classes have fought to save the barbershop after one of her classes learned the building was scheduled for demolition six years ago.
- New York Museums Try to Protect Sept. 11 Artifacts
By Martha Graybow
(Yahoo! News / Reuters, November 22, 2002)
Some of the simplest artifacts salvaged from the ruins of the World Trade Center are the most powerful: a set of keys coated in pulverized debris, a mangled window blind or a shop's display of neatly folded jeans and sweaters blanketed in dust. But these and other Sept. 11-related items are presenting a complex challenge to museums. How can they be conserved -- ash, debris, toxic chemicals and all -- when typically museums try to clean up artifacts and make them look like new? ... The preservation efforts have been emotionally wrenching for curators, who stepped into action almost immediately after the Twin Towers were leveled in hijacked airplane attacks that killed thousands of people. ... For advice on how to care for some of these items, Weinstein said, the historical society has consulted with experts at sites such as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, the Oklahoma City National Memorial and even Graceland, the home of rock 'n' roll legend Elvis Presley, where visitors frequently leave offerings.
- 'Elvis Lives' through Chris Isaak and NBC
By Kate O'Hare
(Zap2it.com, November 21, 2002)
On a recent cold and rainy Saturyday evening at the KTLA studios on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, singer/actor Chris Isaak sits down to talk about the man who, for him, started it all. Isaak has just finished shooting the promos for an NBC special called "Elvis Lives", airing at 10 pm ET on Thanksgiving Day, Nov 28. The set is reminiscent of the bare, square stage used by Elvis Presley in his 1968 TV special, "Elvis: One Night With You", and so is the black-leather suit Isaak is wearing. ... I like Elvis," he says. " There's a little bit of his sound, maybe, in what I do. I've been on different shows where people have done Elvis songs, like this Elvis special. This is not to rag anybody, because I include myself in this, but 20 different people, and we all sang an Elvis song. It's an interesting statement to say about a guy, these are all today's top, biggest stars, and each picked the song they thought they did best, and I don't think any of us did as good as Elvis. You just don't improve on what he did."
- Elvis is in the house!
By Stephen Green
(Cricket Online, November 21, 2002)
As Nasser Hussain sat contemplating the Ashes series last week, the God of English cricket came to him & said "smile - things could be worse". So Nasser smiled & lo things did get worse! Ashley Giles with a broken wrist & John Crawley with a badly bruised hip are the latest in an ever lengthening list of casualties in the test squad. With casualties rising by the day almost, rumour has it the English team are having a role call each morning, to confirm just who is still left standing. ... The depth of despair felt in the U.K. regarding the current ashes tour was summed up perfectly by a M.C.C. member who wrote to the Times last week. The member said that over the years he had learnt the hard way that bookies were seldom wrong. With this in mind he was devastated to find that the odds of the England cricket team winning the current Ashes series 1-4, had slipped following the Gabba test, to 500-1. His indignation was fuelled further by the fact that the only bet offering similar odds on display at his bookies was that for Elvis being found alive & well! My money's on Elvis.
- Blue Ribbon To Produce Sequel To `Family of Man'
Source: Blue Ribbon International, Inc.
(Yahoo! Finance / Business Wire, November 21, 2002)
Blue Ribbon International, Inc., New York, NY, has announced the start of production of "The Human Experience(TM)," a sequel to "The Family of Man," a photographic monograph on the universality of man that sold million of copies. ... In addition to "The Family of Man," Mr. Levy has published hundreds of MACO publications, including books by renowned authors from James Beard and Bishop Fulton J. Sheen to Bennett Cerf. Mr. Levy also published numerous magazines, including the MACO "Budget" series, the MACO "Sports" series, Modern Hi-Fi, and specials memorial editions commemorating the lives of Elvis Presley, John Lennon and Bing Crosby, among other celebrated personalities.
- Elvisfest can let it shake again
By Neal Rubin
(Detroit News, November 20, 2002)
Elvis blinked, and the Michigan Elvisfest will go on -- complete with impersonators, rhinestones and its good name. Elvis Presley Enterprises, guardian of all things Elvis, decreed two weeks ago that every Elvis celebration must either dispense with imitation Elvises or stop using Elvis' name and likeness. That left Ypsilanti's Elvisfest caught between a hound dog and a fire hydrant. There's not much point to an Elvis festival without Elvises, and "Michigan Deceased Rock Singer from Tupelo Festival" takes too long to say. Then, Tuesday morning, Elvisfest director Tracy Briggs awoke to an e-mail from EPE declaring it had changed its corporate mind and would "license all festivals once again. Every now and again, the little guy comes out ... well, I won't say 'on top,' because they came out on top as much as we did," Briggs says generously. But the pleas and arguments from affected Elvis festivals -- along with heaps of bad publicity -- won the day. Briggs says she pointed out that without supervision from Graceland, cheesy festivals could run rampant across the landscape. There also was the whole incongruity of EPE putting the squeeze on nonprofit civic celebrations in the name of someone who used to give Cadillacs to virtual strangers.
- BMG to Revamp Its Royalty Accounting
By Derek Caney
(Reuters, November 20, 2002)
BMG Entertainment, the record label home of Britney Spears, Elvis Presley and Outkast, said on Wednesday it will simplify the way it accounts for royalty payments to artists, although the actual amount of royalties will not increase.
- Jackson's balcony 'Thriller' latest tabloid fodder
(CNN, November 20, 2002)
Michael Jackson calls himself the "King of Pop, " but his often strange public behavior has earned him less flattering nicknames, such as "Wacko Jacko," and made him a tabloid favorite. His latest headline-grabbing stunt came Tuesday, when he dangled his son over a fourth floor balcony of hotel in Berlin, Germany, while a crowd of shocked fans watched below. Jackson later apologized, saying he had made a "terrible mistake," but not before video of the incident was broadcast repeatedly all over the world. ... Jackson's marriage to Elvis' daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, was considered so strange that they were asked on national television if they had ever had sex. "Yes, yes, yes," Presley replied. The marriage did not last, and neither did his second marriage to Debbie Rowe, the mother of two of his children. Little is known about his third child, except that the toddler's name is Prince Michael.
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