Mid November 2004
- Hard Rock Ready to Rock Times Square
By Stephen Schaefer
(Yahoo! Finance / BUSINESS WIRE, November 17, 2004)
Times Square will be rocking in 2005! In one of the most significant strategic moves in its 33-year history, Hard Rock Cafe International today announced its New York Cafe is relocating to the heart of Times Square at 1501 Broadway, on the corner of 43rd Street - the former site of the historic Paramount Theater, where many music legends appeared, including Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and the Beatles. ...
- Elvis Presley Blue Christmas Cabernet Sauvignon Brings Elvis Home for the Holidays; Graceland Cellars Releases Special Edition Label
By Paul Andersen
(BUSINESS WIRE, November 16, 2004)
Holiday celebrations will rock this year with the introduction of Elvis Presley Graceland Cellars' Blue Christmas 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon. As a special edition limited to sales during the holidays, only 4000 cases of Blue Christmas Napa Valley Cabernet were produced to commemorate Elvis' most popular Christmas song. The wine sells for a suggested retail price of $16.99-17.99 and is available at retail outlets in 36 states through 42 distributors.
Tasting Notes
Lush and ripe with black currant, plums, and black cherry, Blue Christmas 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon has a wonderful core of fruit. It is well balanced with complex tannins and yearlong oak aging. A light mineral component complements the dark fruits, leather, vanilla and char. Age-worthy if choosing to lay it down through 2010, it also drinks well now.
About Graceland Cellars
Signature Wines bottled the first vintage of Elvis Presley Graceland Cellars wines in 2003. Launched as a tribute to the King of Rock and Roll, Graceland Cellars is committed to producing the finest California varietal wines possible for wine lovers and fans of Elvis Presley. Graceland Cellars Signature Wines maintains an exclusive relationship with Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE), the exclusive holder of all rights to Elvis' image and properties, including Graceland in Memphis, TN. ...
- Soup can man span planned
By Dan Majors
(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 16, 2004)
Though Pittsburgh's Seventh Street Bridge isn't decked out in Campbell's Soup cans or processed portraits of Marilyn Monroe or Elvis Presley, it does lead Downtown visitors to the place that houses those artistic treasures -- The Andy Warhol Museum. So today, Allegheny County Council members will consider a resolution to rename it the Andy Warhol Bridge since the museum "brings much notoriety and pride to [the county] and this region and should be recognized in a more public manner." ...
- An eclectic trio celebrates the blues
By Paul Andersen
(u.presstelegram.com, November 14, 2004)
... "Celebrating the Blues," a revue featuring Dr. John, Charlie Musselwhite and Shemekia Copeland and backed by Dr. John's New Orleans-based band, finds the three principals having a ball on the road. The tour touches down at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center on the Cal State Long Beach campus Tuesday night. ... Migrating to Memphis as a teenager from his native Mississippi, Musselwhite was soon hanging with the likes of Elvis Presley and Furry Lewis while mastering both the guitar and harmonica. Eventually finding his way to Chicago, where he initially sought factory work, the young musician continued his blues apprenticeship under the tutelage of Wolf, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and numerous other blues legends in the many blues clubs on the city's south side. By 1966, Musselwhite had formed his own band and recorded his first album for Vanguard Records, "Stand Back!" He hasn't punched a factory timecard since. ...
- Creating a national family album using digital technologies
(Yomiuri Shimbun, November 14, 2004)
Six Elvis Presley impersonators, clad in white from head to toe, gyrate on a balcony as unseen runners pass by during the annual San Francisco Bay to Breakers 12-kilometer race. Sidewalk artists bring darkened asphalt to life with colorful chalk drawings in San Jose, Calif. And immigrant field workers brace the dawn chill to begin working in the onion fields of California's Imperial Valley. ... What these pictures, and thousands more, have in common is that they are part of an extraordinary effort to illuminate a view of the United States that is rarely seen by people peering into the country through conventional media portholes such as Hollywood, consumer advertising, or the satellite news networks. Initiated by project directors Rick Smolan and David Elliot Cohen following the incidents of September 2001, the idea was to capture and preserve the diversity of the American experience over the course of a single ordinary week: 24 hours, 7 days. And now the results of this effort are available as a set of 51 books, published by DK (Dorling Kindersley), with one book for each of the 50 U.S. states, together with the original national book released a year earlier, entitled "America 24/7." ... You can take a look at some of the images online through the America 24/7 online gallery at www.america24-7.com/gallery.
- Biz bits
By wire services
(St Petersburg Times, November 14, 2004)
Celebrities often lend their names to product endorsements, but Inc. magazine profiles celebrities with demonstrated business acumen. Since 1992, former pro basketball star Magic Johnson has built a commercial empire worth an estimated $700-million by bringing retail developments to distressed urban areas. Johnson is followed on the Inc. list by hip-hop star Sean Combs, who has moved into fashion and restaurants. Actor Paul Newman was No. 3 with his food brand. Some celebrities even make tons of money from the Great Beyond, Forbes says. Elvis Presley died in 1977, but in the past year, Elvis Presley Enterprises "pulled in a hip-shaking $40-million" in Elvis merchandise sales. Comic strip characters Peanuts and friends continued to make $35-million for the estate of their deceased creator, Charles Schulz. ...
- Tribute acts thrive on boomer nostalgia
By NIZ PROSKOCIL
(OMAHA WORLD-HERALD, November 14, 2004)
They're only make-believe, but music fans love them. Tribute artists - singers and bands that imitate the sights and sounds of the original acts - have become a lucrative business, attracting fans from nostalgic baby boomers to young people who weren't around to experience the real deal. At a concert last summer during Taste of Omaha, Beatles tribute band Rubber Soul performed for 15,000 fans. ... The group is among the many tribute bands that perform at clubs, casino bars and outdoor festivals. But some tribute groups, including the Australian Pink Floyd, have such a large and high-tech audio-visual production that their shows are staged in arenas. ...
"All this may be commercially viable but kind of scary at the same time," said rock historian Richard Aquila of Penn State University at Erie. "Just think, sometime in the future there may very well be a Britney Spears tribute artist, as if the first time round wasn't enough." Aquila said the tribute-artist phenomenon has its roots in the 1950s, when singers began mimicking Elvis Presley's sound and style. The trend gained momentum after the Beatles arrived in the United States in 1964, with numerous bands copying their look and sound. "The nostalgia craze of the early 1970s, powered by early '50s tribute groups like Sha Na Na, institutionalized the tribute band in rock 'n' roll," Aquila said. "The commercial success of the many Elvis imitators that sprang up after Presley's death guaranteed that the tribute artist, like rock 'n' roll, was here to stay." ...
- Work is woman's burning love: Oakland lampshade guru and Elvis fanatic, laid off after 48 years, seeking another job
By Angela Hill
(Oakland Tribune, November 14, 2004)
RECENTLY laid off because of company downsizing, clutching a glowing letter of recommendation in her hand, Olive Gonzales of Oakland finds herself venturing forth into the job market. She's not sure what she'll do. She's got a solid work history and her whole life ahead of her. After all, she's only 85. Not retired, mind you. Not fired, by a long shot. But laid off. Just a couple of weeks ago along with nearly 30 other employees at the Foss Lampshade Studios in East Oakland. Gonzales had worked a full-time job on the production line, applying delicate trim and detail work on the custom-made shades for 48 years. "Yes, I guess most people have retired by now, but I like to work," said the tiny dollop of a woman. She lives in a meticulously kept apartment in Oakland's Laurel district, with an Elvis collection (that borders on a shrine) in her bedroom. ...
- FROM BOY TO MEN
(Sunday Herald, November 13, 2004)
U2 have been recording artists for longer than Elvis. They've sold 125 million records and their influence extends beyond pop to politics. Earlier this year their latest album was nicked. But, says Adrian Deevoy, all's well that ends well for the world's biggest band celebrating 25 years of holy rock'n'roll. ... There is a certain joy in watching U2 reunite [in the south of France]. Even if they have seen each other the previous evening, they greet like old friends after a long war. They neither hug nor gush, but there is a touching warmth as they salute the other members of their band. A band, lest we forget, whose career has now exceeded that of even Elvis Presley. "What?: Bono says, always on the sniff for a new sound bite. "U2 have been together longer than Elvis? That's brilliant! Can I use it?" ...
- Retro Glamour Girl Dulcie Younger is Supported by Deke Dickerson on Debut Album, "Kitty, Kitty...GROWL!"
(Yahoo! News / PRWeb, November 13, 2004)
"Femme Fatale" is a thing of the past for rockabilly singer/songwriter Dulcie Younger --- literally. Like a young Elizabeth Taylor, Miss Younger keeps her hair in tight curls, her lips painted red, and the neckline on her vintage dresses daringly low. Younger announces the release of her debut CD album, "Kitty, Kitty ... GROWL!", which features rockabilly guitar legend Deke Dickerson. Rockabilly --- a blend of country, rhythm-and-blues, and jazz first popularized in the 1950s by Elvis Presley --- is an underground music scene on the rise. There are only a handful of women nationally who perform rockabilly, and even fewer who write their own music. Dulcie Younger not only writes and performs her own songs, but she"s created an image for herself based on the glamour of 1950s Hollywood starlets. As a child, Younger's father was an amateur record collector. He occasionally took her on buying trips, and it was through these that she discovered classic singers --- Peggy Lee, Elvis Presley, Connie Francis. She became interested in vintage fashion, but quickly found that her unique style was too sophisticated for her high school peer group. As her isolation grew, she turned to writing music as a creative release. ...
- Tabloids never fail to shock
By Lynda Hollenbeck
(Benton Courier, November 7, found November 13, 2004)
I have a rule, only broken once that I recall, never to purchase one of those scandal sheets they sell in the grocery stores. In spite of that policy, when I'm in the checkout lane, I feel drawn to peruse them, particularly if I'm there for an extended time. It's sort of a sickness, but I'd be bored otherwise and I don't handle doing nothing well. On Friday ... my eyes were drawn to the rack that bears these "news" accounts. ... Here's the big headline I saw on a cover: "Marilyn Monroe found alive! The subhead stated: "She's living with 34 cats and a retired plumber - in Cleveland!" The cover shows a small photo of a young Marilyn in The Dress. You know the one I mean. The halter-top, white one she wore in "The Seven Year Itch." The one that was used for the famous wind-blown skirt scene in the movie, then reprinted millions of times since. To the side of the young MM photo is one purported to be the Marilyn of today, who's said to be a 78-year-old, white-haired woman - BUT, I should note, one who still wears off-the-shoulder, form-fitting dresses, it would appear. (Once a babe, always a babe, I guess.) ...
Here's what I learned:
Marilyn still talks in her trademark breathless, baby-girl voice.
She asked Bobby Kennedy to help her disappear.
She now has three adopted children and six grandchildren and no regrets about dropping out of sight.
Her derriere is now larger than Shelley Winters'.
She had a sizzling romance with Elvis Presley a year after his death. She met him at a Reno club for "dead celebrities" and the two hit it off. She called him her "teddy bear" because he had put on a lot of weight. (I can't imagine why the account didn't describe him as a hunk-a, hunk-a burnin' love, but it didn't.) ...
- EA to buy Cherry Lane Music?
(p2pnet.net, November 13, 2004)
Electronic Arts is the latest company wanting to get into the corporate music business. "EA looks set to raise eyebrows across the wider entertainment sector, with a swoop for a record label on the cards," says MCV, continuing that it understands EA is in the, "final stages of securing a deal to acquire US-based independent publisher Cherry Lane Music, with senior music industry sources revealing that the games giant will pick up the company 'lock, stock and barrel'. An official announcement is expected within the week." An announcement could be made as soon as Monday, but it won't involve an acquisition, p2pnet has been told. In the meanwhile, Cherry Lane artists include The Black Eyed Peas, John Denver, Tom Paxton and Elvis Presley. ...
- Governor makes his pitch in Japan: Film star appeal helps sell trade message
By Peter Rowe
(SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE / Associated Press, November 13, 2004)
TOKYO - Arnold Schwarzenegger has never met his match. Rival bodybuilders blocking his quest for a Mr. Universe title? Girly men. Predators from outer space? Terminators from the future? Hasta la vista, baby. Democratic legislators pushing tax hikes? Losers. While touring two upscale Tokyo grocery stores yesterday, though, the governor's delegation to promote trade and tourism encountered what may be his most wily and tenacious opponent yet: The dreaded Iranian fig. ... The governor's 60-person delegation capped its five-day visit to Tokyo today with a Hollywood-style rally in the city's raucous and glitzy Roppongi district. Throughout the trip, whether consulting with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, hobnobbing with the president of Toyota or charming the Japanese press corps, Schwarzenegger used his celebrity to woo skittish consumers and tourists. ... Then a celebrity impersonator, dressed in the Terminator's leather gear, roared onto the outdoor stage aboard a Harley-Davidson. The audience cheered. The impersonator disappeared. The curtain parted and Shuwa-can, as Schwarzenegger is known, took the stage to thunderous applause.
... Japan remains under Schwarzenegger's spell. He was mobbed by autograph seekers, including - or so it was reported - the prime minister during their meeting yesterday. (The governor, knowing Koizumi is a big Elvis Presley fan, gave the prime minister a rare movie poster of the King.) ...
- There's a guy works down the chip shop swears he's Elvis ...
BY PAUL BURTON
(Weston Mercury, November 12, 2004)
The king of rock and sole - Elvis - is alive and well, earning his living serving fish and chips. Elvis Morton, who works at The Cliffs restaurant in Cliff Street, Cheddar, says he is used to customers singing the famous lyric from Kirsty MacColl's 1980s hit. 'There's a guy works down the chip shop swears he's Elvis' is regularly sung by customers. But the 30-year-old, who started work at The Cliffs three months ago, is more at home with battering fish than belting out hits. Elvis, of Chichester Way, Worle, said: "A lot of customers have been known to sing me the song and I've got used to it now. "In fact, on Elvis Presley's birthday many of the customers were thoughtful enough to bring in cards for me. "My mum is a big fan of Elvis and decided to name me after him."
- "Category 6" will not blow you away
By Kay McFadden
(Seattle Times, November 12, 2004)
Miniseries rules are irrefutable. No "Diff'rent Strokes" reunion specials. No dueling biopics of Hitler, Elvis or Jesus Christ. And no disaster epics featuring cities destroyed earlier in the year by another network. The last law explains why CBS' "Category 6: Day of Destruction," airing 9 p.m. Sunday and 8 p.m. Wednesday, cuts a path of ruin not seen since last week's Democratic debacle. Starting in Las Vegas, an accumulation of tornadoes, cyclones and hurricanes hopscotches across the map for a quick touchdown in St. Louis and a left-turn rendezvous in Chicago. ...
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