Late April 2003
Also in the news: Lisa Marie Presley on Lisa Watch
- DNA could help unlock origins of Melungeons
ByKathleen McGowan
(signonsandiego.com / DISCOVER MAGAZINE, April 30, 2003)
Brent Kennedy's 19th-century ancestors stare out from his photo albums with dark eyes, high cheekbones, olive skin and thick black hair, a genetic riddle waiting to be solved. Elvis Presley, Ava Gardner and Abraham Lincoln may be among his kin, yet the members of this tribe have never fitted properly into American racial categories. Depending on the census taker or tax man, they were classified as white, free persons of color, or mulatto.
Kennedy calls himself a Melungeon, but no one knows exactly what that means. There are perhaps as many as 200,000 Melungeons in the United States today, all descended from a mysterious colony of olive-skinned people who lived for centuries in the foothills of the Appalachians. Some say the Melungeons can be traced back to Portuguese sailors, shipwrecked in the 16th century, or to colonial-era Turkish silk workers. Others point to Gypsies, to Sir Francis Drake's lost colony of Roanoke, or to the ancient Phoenicians.
A key to the mystery, Kennedy believes, lies in DNA analysis. Three years ago, he and the other leaders of the Melungeon Heritage Association enlisted the help of Kevin Jones, a biologist at the University of Virginia's College at Wise, and began rounding up genetic samples from local families. Now, in Kingsport, Tenn., at the fourth Melungeon reunion, the results of the study were about to be revealed. Brent Kennedy and his people were finally going to find out what they were made of. Genetic analysis seems to promise a final answer to the bottomless question of identity, a straightforward explanation of our species' hundreds of thousands of years of wandering the globe.
By the early 1980s molecular biologists began to realize that the mutations that our genomes have accumulated over the millenniums can be read like a ledger. Most of the time, the 3 billion nucleotides in the human genome reproduce just fine. Occasionally, though, one of the nucleotide base pairs that make up the molecule gets switched, or a short stretch of genetic code is duplicated.
Figuring out who is related to whom, scientists have realized, is just a matter of comparing these mutations. People with recent ancestors in common will have many of the same mutations. Distant relatives will share fewer of them. Molecular anthropologists look at two sections of the genome passed directly from parent to child. In men, that's the Y chromosome, which every father gives to his son. In women, it's mitochondrial DNA, small loops of genetic material tucked away in the mitochondria of most cells.
Anthropologists now isolate the Y chromosome DNA or mitrochondrial DNA from the rest of the cellular gunk and feed the purified DNA into a machine. They then read out the nucleotide sequence of A's, C's, T's and G's and compare the pattern of mutations with those in various public genetic databases. These patterns are known as haplotypes, and sets of similar haplotypes are organized into haplogroups. A haplo-group tells where a given line came from on a global scale (sub-Saharan Africa versus eastern Asia, for example). Often a haplotype will point toward a more specific geography, like Japan or southern India.
Genetic analysis is good at showing which living populations are most closely related. But going back in history to figure out more precise relationships requires mind-bending math. When Kennedy approached scholars with his questions, they couldn't be bothered. So Kennedy did his own research. His book, "The Melungeons: The Resurrection of a Proud People," is part memoir, part manifesto. In 1998 Kennedy's research took a more urgent tone. After struggling for most of his life with inexplicable fevers, he was finally diagnosed with a hereditary disease. Familial Mediterranean fever, as it's known, causes intermittent high temperatures and crippling stomach pains. It's common among Syrians and Turks - and the Melungeons of Tennessee and Virginia.
Thanks to the drug colchicine, Kennedy was eventually able to keep the disease at bay. But the experience left him convinced that he must have Mediterranean roots. Why else would a white boy of Scotch-Irish ancestry have this genetic disorder?
A DNA study offered the best hope for an answer. Myriad results After looking at 120 mitochondian DNA samples and about 30 Y chromosomes with the help of geneticist Mark Thomas of University College London, Jones concluded that the Melungeons are mostly Eurasian, a catchall category spanning people from Scandinavia to the Middle East.
They are also a little bit black and a little bit American Indian. Among the mitochondial DNA haplo-types Jones examined, four were unusual. They matched only one of the 20,000 sequences in the global database, from an Indian group called the Siddhi that may have originated in North Africa and given rise to Europe's Roma, or Gypsies. A few other Melungeons had a haplotype common to Syrians and Turks but not unknown in northern Europe.
Among the Y chromosomes, a few were completely inexplicable. When Jones searched a database of European populations at University College London, the samples matched none of the 4,500 entries.
As for Kennedy's familial Mediterranean fever, it remained a mystery. Although some patterns definitely were similar to ones found in Turkey, there was no proof of either Portuguese or Turkish ancestry in the Melungeon DNA.
The study as a whole offered proof that multiracial ancestry is commonplace. And it delivered a particularly cruel message to Kennedy: That his deeply cherished sense of himself and his community might never be proved, and the origins of the rare genetic disease that nearly killed him might never be known.
What did it all mean? "Whatever you want it to," Jones told the audience. "If you were hoping for a DNA sequence that says you're Melungeon, forget it."
- Line starts early for music royalty
[3rd item : Elton v. Elvis]
By Tom Perry
(Green Bay Press-Gazette, April 29, 2003)
[Canada] So you picked up a velvet painting of Elvis for $20, had Appraisals by Al slap a $2,000 value on it and donated it to the Our Lady of Broken Windows charity auction. Well, there's an increasing chance that jig will be up. According to an April survey by market researcher NFO CFgroup, just 17 per cent of Canadians are worried their income-tax return might get audited this year. They should. Canada Customs and Revenue Agency is finishing a three-year hiring program that includes an extra 5,000 auditors, investigators, client service reps and collectors.
With Wednesday's midnight deadline for filing personal returns, you could be on the verge of setting off sirens and red flags in those bustling tax-centre offices. "It's pretty obvious that CCRA has changed its approach the last few years," said Glen Thompson, tax partner with Meyers, Norris, Penny in Edmonton. "They tend to do a lot more spot checks of specific items than they do full-scale audits of people. They'll pick an individual item on somebody's tax return and query that and demand support for it."
- Why your tax return could be audited
By Ray Turchansky
(CanWest News Service / Edmonton Journal, April 27, 2003)
[Canada] So you picked up a velvet painting of Elvis for $20, had Appraisals by Al slap a $2,000 value on it and donated it to the Our Lady of Broken Windows charity auction. Well, there's an increasing chance that jig will be up. According to an April survey by market researcher NFO CFgroup, just 17 per cent of Canadians are worried their income-tax return might get audited this year. They should. Canada Customs and Revenue Agency is finishing a three-year hiring program that includes an extra 5,000 auditors, investigators, client service reps and collectors.
With Wednesday's midnight deadline for filing personal returns, you could be on the verge of setting off sirens and red flags in those bustling tax-centre offices. "It's pretty obvious that CCRA has changed its approach the last few years," said Glen Thompson, tax partner with Meyers, Norris, Penny in Edmonton. "They tend to do a lot more spot checks of specific items than they do full-scale audits of people. They'll pick an individual item on somebody's tax return and query that and demand support for it."
- Dutch buying Minnesota dairy farms find unexpected backlash
By Joy Powell
(Star Tribune, April 27, 2003)
... Rob Tibosch is one of dozens of Dutch investors who are moving to the Upper Midwest to take over dairy farms left empty by American farmers. Surrounding states are wooing the Dutch. Minnesota law shuts them out. Thirty years ago, amid fears that foreigners would buy up farmland, Minnesota legislators passed a law prohibiting foreigners with E-2 investment visas from owning farmland. The E-2 visas require a substantial investment in a U.S. enterprise, such as stores, restaurants and other businesses. Now many officials, bankers and others want the law changed to include farmland.
... The purchase fulfilled a dream for Tibosch, who had longed to own a dairy farm since he started sweeping floors and feeding calves on a neighbor's farm at age 11. The son of teachers, Tibosch worked on dairy farms in Indiana and Ohio owned by Dutch immigrants before buying his own. Having an American farm is not only an economic adventure, but a cultural one. It puts him in the land of his idol, Elvis Presley, whose image gazes from a foot-tall picture on the rear window of Tibosch's pickup and populates the Tibosch farmhouse in various guises, including a figurine atop the phone. Every time someone calls, the miniature Elvis dances and sings, "You ain't nothin' but a hound dog." ...
- 'Joseph' cast shows remarkable talent
By Jim Protsman
(Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter, April 26, 2003)
The weaving of great songs into the bright fabric of a much-treasured Old Testament story has made the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice musical, "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," one of the biggest grossing and most entertaining musicals of our time.
The remarkable thing about the Capitol Civic Centre's production is that it brings to the Lakeshore all the costume and scenery glamour of a splashy Broadway production, with singing that rises to the level of a professional production. The show opened last night for a three-day run and tickets are going fast. ... One of the of the show¹s most delightful surprises comes when the Pharaoh of Egypt steps down from his elevated throne to tell Joseph, known for his dream interpretations, about a dream that has been puzzling him. He does an Elvis impersonation (Elvis, of course, was known as "the King"). ...
- Jazz Fest turns New Orleans into citywide musical bonanza
By CAIN BURDEAU
(Gainesville Sun / Associated Press, April 26, 2003)
Lost track of Elvis Presley's guitar man, Scotty Moore? Remember Barbara Lynn's swampy soul? Along with Bob Dylan and LL Cool J, obscure but legendary musicians like Moore and Lynn will grace stages in New Orleans during the 10-day extravaganza of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Jazz Fest is the premier event, drawing about 500,000 music lovers. ... History will be in the making at the Stomp. Some of the former band members of Elvis Presley and Howlin Wolf will reunite. Also scheduled: A jam session between Lazy Lester, "the last surviving member of the first generation swamp blues fraternity," and Warren Storm, "the Godfather of swamp pop," organizers said. "These are the guys The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, the Led Zeppelins look to. This is what they grew up listening to, these are the people they wanted to be, these are the building blocks of rock 'n' roll," said one of the organizers who gave his name only as Dr. Ike. He said the Stomp was organized by an anonymous group calling themselves the Mystic Knights of Mau Mau, echoing the spirit of secret Mardi Gras clubs.
- No words can describe mime's performance
By Carol Haynes
(Jonesboro Sun , April 26, 2003)
Elvis was in the building Friday afternoon at the Nettleton Performing Arts Center. The 10-member Mine Team of the Baddour Center in Senatobia, Miss., entertained Nettleton fourth-graders with an Elvis impersonator, dancing, music, skits and more. The Baddour Center is a residential facility for adults with disabilities. Approximately 170 residents live and work at the 120-acre campus, about 25 miles south of Memphis. ... Aaron Tornquist, an avid Elvis Presley fan, is the group's Elvis impersonator. His act was performed in mime. ... Members of the Mime Team practice an hour each week and perform at several Baddour Center events and at a churches and schools.
- Art in Las Vegas: Does High Culture Clash with Neon?
By Timothy Pratt
(ABC News / Christian Science Monitor, April 25, 2003)
When the Guggenheim opened not just one but two museums in Las Vegas, there was talk of the city landing on the fine arts map. Picasso would take his place beside pirates and volcanoes among the regular fixtures on the Strip. But now, a year and a half later, the Guggenheim has backtracked on its $30 million project (the most costly attempt ever made to show art on the 2.7-mile Strip). It shuttered the larger museum, which housed the exhibition "The Art of the Motorcycle," and gave no indication it would reopen at a later date. True, the smaller Guggenheim space remains open, and it's not unusual for museums, or wings of museums, to shut down between exhibitions. But this closing happened in a "fragile little cultural community," as local art critic Dave Hickey calls Las Vegas. Such fragility persists despite the city drawing 38 million visitors per year.
And so the question persists: Is there a place for world-class art and culture in Las Vegas, the home of Elvis imitators, free drinks, and strip clubs? The answer may lie beyond the Guggenheim. Although the world-famous name has drawn plenty of media buzz, other fine arts ventures have been launched in recent years on the Strip. They've also encountered challenges, but they've passed some milestones, too.
... "The East Coast, as well as other parts of the world, have this fantasy of what Las Vegas is - a sort of vulgarian's ball," says Marc Glimcher, chairman of the gallery at the Bellagio hotel. "But the truth is, a man on the street in Las Vegas sees Cézanne's name on a billboard, and he will pay to see it." ...
- Students plan abuse shelter benefit at Joyo
By TRISTIAN NICHOLS
(journalstar.com, April 25, 2003)
Lincoln's Friendship Home, a shelter for battered women, will benefit from the efforts of two Lincoln Northeast High School students who have organized a charity show at the Joyo Theater. Seniors Miranda Chrastil and Holly Edstrom arranged the musical show, which will be presented Sunday from 6-9 p.m. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. with the arrival of Elvis impersonator Bill Chrastil in a '57 Chevy limousine. Bill Chrastil will start the show with songs from Elvis' early period. Following that will be performances by a three-piece alternative band, the Lincoln Southeast Swing Choir and Jimmy Mack, a local cover musician. Chrastil will close the show with songs from Elvis' later years. ...
- BACK TO THE SWINGING 50'S
By TRISTIAN NICHOLS
(Evening Herald /This is Devon: Western Morning News, April 25, 2003)
Rock 'n' roll fanatic Marcus Weetman is so stuck in the 1950s that he wants to recreate the decade. The enthusiastic disc jockey wasn't even born when musicians like Billy Fury and Bill Haley and The Comets were at the peak of their careers - but that hasn't stopped him from loving the era.
Marcus wants to set up his very own rock 'n' roll club in Plymouth.
By day the 41-year-old is a caretaker at Southway Primary School, but by night Marcus is the jive-loving character in charge of the popular Rollin' Rock Record Hop touring disco. Between 1977 and 1995, Marcus ran The Rollin' Rock Record Hop travelling club in Exeter. During those 18 years he toured the country playing jive music to thousands of people at venues, including the Hammersmith Palais, in London. On one occasion Marcus - who lives in Camels Head - even played in front the legendary rockabilly singer Billy Fury, in Great Yarmouth.
Marcus said it was his own fondness for jive, and the era famous for the likes of Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry and Elvis, that led to him setting up his 50s discos again. He moved to Plymouth just over five years ago, and began playing modern day hits at birthday parties, weddings and other private events. However, having been asked on many occasions to play more vintage rock and roll music, Marcus has put his CDs to one side and is now spinning the wheels of steel once more. "I have no doubt that a real rock and roll club would go down a storm in Plymouth," said Marcus who also ran the South West branch of the Elvis Presley fan club in 1977. ...
- Somebody has Elvis the mule all shook up: Nose was knocked off of fund-raising statue
By SUE McCLURE
(Tennessean, April 24, 2003)
Elvis is in the building, but he has a bad headache. Sometime last week, Elvis - a fancily clad mule painted to resemble the King - was on display on the Maury County Courthouse lawn with other mules decorated as part of a fund-raising project for The King's Daughters School, a school for developmentally delayed students. A passer-by noticed that the king looked like he had gotten into a fight. ''Somebody knocked his nose off,'' said Shauna Bryant, director of development for the school. ''But I've got him here in my office,'' Bryant said. ''And I've got the nose. ''Elvis is no stranger to plastic surgery, so we'll get him fixed up and back out on display in no time,'' she added. Elvis' sponsor, local insurance agent Roger Witherow, who paid $1,000 to have the king painted and put on display, said the incident was no big deal. ''I bet it was one of his fans getting too excited,'' he said. ''I don't think Elvis got into any fight.'' Once Elvis is repaired, he'll rejoin the polyurethane herd on the courthouse lawn through May 4, and then each mule will mosey off to stand in front of its respective sponsor's business. ''We've got to move them soon because they're killing the grass up there around the courthouse,'' Bryant said.
- Win Elvis Tickets
(Dotmusic.com, April 23, 2003)
[Great Britain] -- The King is dead, long live the King's concert career. After taking the record for the most No.1 singles recently, it appears Elvis is as popular as ever and we've got a ticket giveaway to make your jailhouse rock. On June 1, London Arena plays host to Elvis - The Concert 2003 where the music of Elvis is brought back to life via the magic of modern technology. We've got a pair of VIP tickets to win to the show - all you need to do is answer the simple question below.
Who remixed 'A Little Less Conversation'?
- A - Junkie XL
- B - Junkie AB
- C - Junkie XXX
Text ELVIS followed by a space then A, B, or C to 83149. ...
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