mid September, 2005
- Tax shelters aren't rocking anymore
By Andrew Leckey
(Chicago Tribune, September 11 2005)
The warden threw a party in the federal jail,
Accountants lined up and they began to wail,
Those tax shelters pitched were just a fling,
You should've heard those knocked-out bean counters sing:
They're legal, everybody, they're legal!
CPAs in the whole cellblock
Were cryin' to the jailhouse rock.
With apologies to Elvis Presley, accountants and abusive tax shelters are a very familiar song. Most recently, shelters sold to wealthy Americans by KPMG LLP have triggered federal indictments of former employees and a $456 million settlement by the firm. ...
- Despite time, we love Hank like we used to do
By ALLEN BARRA
(Chicago Sun-Times, September 11 2005)
Hank Williams was the last echo of the barbaric yawp from Walt Whitman's America. In just five short years, from 1948 to his death in the back seat of a car on the way to a concert on January 1, 1953, he recorded 66 songs, most of them his own compositions, many of which can still be heard on radio stations almost anywhere in the world. A Nashville songwriter named Harlan Howard summed them up in a nutshell: "Three chords and the truth."
Every American and just about everyone who knows something about America recognizes at least a refrain from "Cold, Cold Heart," "I Can't Help It If I'm Still In Love With You," "Your Cheatin' Heart," "Why Don't You Love Me (Like You Used To Do)?," "Jambalaya," "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," and perhaps a score of other songs whether in versions by Williams himself or Elvis Presley, Nat King Cole, the Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Tony Bennett, James Brown, Linda Ronstadt, the BeeGees and even Lawrence Welk. What other songwriter been covered by Nat King Cole, the Grateful Dead and Lawrence Welk? ...
- JAKE DELHOMME YES HE EATS FRIED CHICKEN, IS STARSTRUCK BY FAITH HILL, AND LIKES JOHN GRISHAM AND ELVIS
By Scott Fowler
(Charlotte Observer, September 11 2005)
The following comments all came from Carolina Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme's recent interview with Observer sports columnist Scott Fowler. ...
Q. You're about to go to an island where you only have one CD and one thing to read. What would it be?
I enjoy John Grisham a lot, but I'd have to go with my horse magazines. I read "The Blood-Horse." I read "Thoroughbred Times." And I love Elvis Presley. I'd take one of his CDs, a greatest hits one. ...
- Elvis Vs. the Beatles
By Monica Parcell of Bon Appetit magazine
(Los Angeles Times, September 11 2005)
Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, the granddaddy of all gastronomes, famously aphorized, "Tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you who you are." Far be it from me to presume to improve on a maxim by the author of "The Physiology of Taste," but my experiences compel me to propose a variation: Tell me what you cook, and I'll tell you who you are. When it comes to the culinary arts, there are cooks and there are bakers, and almost never do the twain meet. Rarely do you find in one person a burning passion for making pastry and pan-frying a steak. Are you Molto Mario or Mrs. Fields? The implications are as definitive as when Uma Thurman told John Travolta in "Pulp Fiction" that Beatles people can like Elvis and Elvis people can like the Beatles, but no one can like both equally. ...
- Witnesses called in Wecht probe
By Glenn May
(Pittsburgh TRIBUNE-REVIEW, September 10 2005)
A former administrative assistant for Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril H. Wecht was one of at least five witnesses to testify Friday before a federal grand jury investigating Wecht's business practices. The testimony by Diana Deep, who helped with Wecht's successful 1996 campaign and last worked for him in August 1998, suggests the FBI is digging deep into the powerful Democratic row officer's past. ... FBI agents in April searched Wecht's office and carted away dozens of boxes containing his private files, including documents on the Kennedy assassination, the death of Elvis Presley and the JonBenet Ramsey slaying. ,,,
- Thousands attend ISU library's Fall Extravaganza
By Ashley Clark
(Indiana Statesman, September 9 2005)
An Elvis Presley impersonator rolled up in a mint green Thunderbird Convertible to greet some of the 3,000 plus students and staff that attended the Library Fall Extravaganza Thursday. Marsha Miller, reference instruction librarian said the attendance at the event kept Cunningham Memorial Library workers busy throughout the day. "This is the largest extravaganza we've had. People are coming in nonstop," Miller said. ...
- Antiques Roadshow Presents Tomorrow's Antiques TV Show
By Company-Issued Press Release
(Auctionbytes, September 9 2005)
It's a blast from the not-so-distant past when Antiques Roadshow presents "Tomorrow's Antiques," a nostalgia-filled special edition celebrating the rockin' 50s, psychedelic 60s, and funky 70s. This vintage collection of Roadshow appraisals proves it's not just 100-year-old antiques that are worth collecting for fun and profit. Assembled from Roadshow's extensive archive, "Tomorrow's Antiques" features such oldies but goodies as: a 1955 Dodgers World Series baseball that could hit $4,000 to $6,000; a portfolio of Ansel Adams' photographs that could see $30,000 to $50,000; a paper Campbell's Soup dress valued at a hearty $1,500; and a costume worn by Elvis Presley, appraised to the tune of $15,000 to $100,000.
- Don't desert us, pleads Deep South
By Jeremy Skidmore
(Telegraph, September 9 2005)
British tourists have been urged not to desert the southern United States as a result of the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and areas of Mississippi. American tourism ofŪcials said Tennessee and Georgia were unaffected by the hurricane, and holidaymakers can still visit parts of Mississippi and Louisiana. ... The Travel Industry Association of America said 260,000 jobs in the Gulf states relied on tourism, with Ŗ25 million being lost every day due to cancellations and passengers unable to take holidays they had already booked. Approximately 70,000 Britons visit Tennessee every year, where the big draws are Memphis, Elvis Presley's home, Graceland, and Nashville, the home of country music. ...
- Bill Mateer to part with his massive collection if items
By Michael Miller
(Pittsburgh LEADER TIMES, September 9 2005)
Maybe you just have to have a toy pink Cadillac just like Elvis had. Or maybe you want an old newspaper from Kittanning from the 1830s. Bill Mateer of Manor Township has them both, and hešs putting them up for sale. ...
- Elvis Car Wash supports Ghana mission
(Dundas Star News, September 9 2005)
See Elvis and get your car washed at the same time on Saturday, Sept. 17 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. see Elvis and get your car washed at the same time. Cost is $5. The Elvis Car Wash at Beverly Tire is part of the Rotary Club of Dundas' ongoing tractor service project in aid of Titian Ministries in Ghana. Several years ago, the club raised funds for a tractor and plough for food cultivation at the Mission. Club members are now raising money for the purchase of a trailer to transport the tractor when it is rented out to nearby farms. ...
- Elvis on Ed Sullivan: The Real Story
By Christine Gibson
(American Heritage
, September 9 2005)
Given that many fans think Elvis is still alive despite his death certificate, highly publicized funeral, and gravestone, it's no surprise that misunderstandings abound about his career. Among those events surrounded by fallacies - perhaps because it strongly affected popular culture as well as Elvis's work - is his legendary first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, 49 years ago today, on September 9, 1956. Books and periodicals mentioning the show, which broke ratings records for the young medium and was one of the first to bring rock 'n' roll to a mass audience, have erroneously reported that Elvis was shown only from the waist up, a triumph of censorship and evidence of the continued prudery of the 1950s. Others, aware of the hoopla surrounding the program, remember it as Elvis's first performance on TV. The truth, as usual, is a little more complicated - and more interesting.
Presley, who had released his first three number-one hits by the time of the show, was already a TV veteran. He had appeared six times on the Dorsey brothers' Stage Show between January and March 1956 and then on The Milton Berle Show on April 3, to increasing, if not yet fevered, press attention. But after his second Berle show, on June 5, members of the press expressed sudden revulsion at what the New York Journal-American called his "primitive physical movement difficult to describe in terms suitable to a family newspaper." The New York Daily News reported that Elvis "gave an exhibition that was suggestive and vulgar, tinged with the kind of animalism that should be confined to dives and bordellos," while the San Francisco Chronicle deemed it "in appalling taste." The reaction was enough to make Steve Allen, who had booked Elvis for his show before the backlash, briefly consider reneging, but in the end, Elvis did appear on his show on July 1, although in strangely tame form. Allen, going comically overboard to avoid scandal, dressed him in top hat, tails, and white gloves. Elvis soldiered on gamely, singing "Hound Dog" to a top-hatand bow-tie-clad basset hound.
Sullivan, never a fan of controversy, had already refused an offer to hire Elvis for $5,000. The famously prickly host had been burned before by rock 'n' roll stars: He vowed to drum Bo Diddley out of television after his 1955 act on the show, when he sang his own hit "Bo Diddley" instead of Sullivan's request, Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons." But Elvis's ratings - his stint on the Allen show had trounced Sullivan - changed his mind. Even as he professed to the press that Elvis was "not my cup of tea," Ed Sullivan had already begun negotiations with Elvis's agent, Colonel Tom Parker. His hesitation cost him heavily, however. He would end up agreeing to shell out $50,000 for three appearances, an unprecedented sum.
Elvis made his Sullivan debut on the show's season premiere, but on the big night neither Sullivan nor Elvis was in the New York studio. Elvis was in Hollywood, filming his first movie, and he sang from the CBS studio there. Sullivan was recovering from an August head-on car collision, and Charles Laughton, the star of Mutiny on the Bounty, filled in for the host, hailing his guest by saying, "Away to Hollywood to meet Elvis Presley."
Elvis, wearing a loud plaid jacket, greeted the audience from a set decorated with stylized guitar shapes. He announced that the show was "probably the greatest honor I have ever had in my life," and then launched into "Don't Be Cruel." The camera stayed above his waist for now, sometimes closing in on his face, sometimes turning to show his backup singers, but something Elvis was doing out of lens range was causing unexplained screams from the audience. After the number was over, he acknowledged the vocal segment of the crowd, saying, "Thank you, ladies." To finish the first segment, he played the title song to his new movie, "Love Me Tender," introducing it as "completely different from anything we've ever done." Nationwide, disk jockeys taped the performance and played the song, which had yet to be released, on their radio shows, increasing pre-release orders to almost a million and pushing forward the single's release date.
Viewers got to see the full Elvis - legs, hips, and all - during the second segment, when he performed the up-tempo Little Richard song "Ready Teddy" and two verses of "Hound Dog." Young rock fans today would doubtless have a hard time understanding what all the scandal was about, as his frenetic swivels and shuffles look chaste compared to the gyrations common on MTV. But Elvis on that night (and his rock star peers in general around the same time) arguably set in motion a trend that continues today. The press was quick to note that the cameras switched to close-up shots whenever he started dancing, in effect censoring him, but the TV audience got to see plenty, and besides, the girls screamed when he grunted, moved his tongue, crossed his eyes, or even stood perfectly still. With Elvis, censorship began to seem irrelevant. As Laughton noted at the end of the hour, "Well, what did someone say? Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast?"
The viewing audience certainly wasn't so offended that it changed the channel. The September 9 Sullivan show reached 82.6 percent of the TV audience, and Steve Allen hadn't even seen fit to offer an alternative; NBC had showed a movie instead. Censorship did enjoy one last gasp during Elvis's third appearance, on January 6, 1957, when Sullivan - or, as some historians believe, a publicity-hungry Parker - did indeed instruct the camera operator to show him only from the waist up, even when he sang the gospel tune "Peace in the Valley." It was the last song he would ever perform on the show. Parker was now demanding $300,000 for future TV engagements, stipulating that a network must also commit to two guest spots and an hour-long special.
Even as he priced his client out of its range, Parker credited the program with the success of "Love Me Tender" and earning Elvis the esteem of American adults for the first time. Historians assert that Elvis's three nights on the Sullivan show helped bridge the gap between the first rock 'n' roll generation and their parents. Whether at the same time his behavior on those shows ultimately caused today's generation gap - that is, whether MTV's rump-shakers should look to Elvis as their earliest role model and parents can blame him for Britney Spears - is still up for debate.
Photo: ELVIS PRESLEY ENTERPRISES, INC
- Tales of Neverland
By Dan Glaister
(Guardian
, September 9 2005)
As Michael Jackson's PR manager, Bob Jones saw it all, from fabricated illnesses to pleas for a knighthood. But it was only when he was fired abruptly after 17 years in the job that he decided to tell his story. ... For 17 years the Motown veteran ran Michael Jackson's public relations, steering him from Bad to Dangerous and beyond, navigating the accusations and allegations that have plagued the past decade of the singer's career, before being unceremoniously dismissed in June last year. Now, in the spirit of the times, Jones has written a book, Michael Jackson: the Man Behind the Mask. ... Despite the sense of grievance, there is still a fierce loyalty to Jackson, or at least to the notion of what Jackson might have been. "Michael's bigger than Elvis Presley. Elvis didn't write any music," he says. "Elvis sang and did what the Colonel [Parker] told him to do. He [ie Jackson] is the biggest thing black that the world has ever known. We were received by kings and queens as a head of state. And then, all of a sudden, allegations." ...
- Cantina doubles as gallery for students
By Joshua Garner
(Roanoke Times, September 9 2005)
Salvador Cerda could never figure out what he wanted to be.
First he was an artist, then a party disc jockey. He thought that he'd make it as a car designer, but decided to become an art teacher instead before moving from California to Virginia about a year ago. His latest project found him taking on the job of business owner and gave him the opportunity to merge all of his skills: He opened Rancho Viejo Cantina -- part night club, part art gallery. The Cantina, which opened in late June, mixes music from the 1970s and '80s with pop culture-inspired oil and acrylic artwork by Cerda and students from Cave Spring High School. ... Though he considers himself more of a designer, Cerda featured 12 of his own works of art in the Cantina, including paintings of rock 'n' roll legend Elvis Presley and pop icon Madonna. He said that he always enjoyed painting celebrities because it challenged him as an artist. ...
- Japan's Sept. 11 National Elections: Parties, Policies Primer
(bloomberg.com, September 9 2005)
Japan's 100 million voters go to the polls on Sept. 11 to elect the nation's 480 lower house lawmakers. ... Koizumi, 63, was born in 1942, the height of World War II, in Kanagawa prefecture southwest of Tokyo. His father, Junya Koizumi, was director-general of Japan's Defense Agency when Koizumi was in his teens. His grandfather, Matajiro Koizumi, was a minister of post and telecommunications. ... Koizumi publishes a weekly online column called ``Lion Heart,'' a reference to his mane-like hairstyle. During his term he has published an album of photographs of himself and released a compilation CD of his favorite Elvis Presley tracks. ...
- 'All Shook Up' for a good cause: Proceeds from Presley tribute will benefit proposed performing arts school
By KRISTIN WILSON
(Chicago Tribune, September 8 2005)
Using the memory and legend of Elvis Presley, organizers of the fourth annual Elvis Lives in Hagerstown Music Festival hope to raise monetary support and awareness to bring forward the next generation of performers and musicians. Proceeds from the Elvis Lives event this Saturday, Sept. 10, will go to support the development of the Barbara Ingram School for the Performing Arts, planned for a building along South Potomac Street. ...
- Teen a top attraction on Elvis impersonators circuit
By Geri Parlin
(La Crosse Tribune, September 8 2005)
The Elvis Explosion is back, and at least 35 Elvi are brushing up on their renditions of "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" and "Hound Dog." How to explain this phenomenon? Ronny Craig, himself an Elvis tribute artist and organizer of the explosion, said it's the magic of Elvis, and everyone wants in on it. When he meets a new tribute artist, he said, "They tell me, 'I sound just like Elvis.'"
One who really does, Craig said, is 17-year-old Kavan. Just one name, thank you very much. If it was good enough for the King, it's good enough for Kavan, a high school senior from Ohio finishing out his senior year with online classes because this Elvis thing just got too big. "This kid has absolutely been sought after," Craig said. "Of the 35 guys that we've got coming, he's the top one."
So what is a hip 17-year-old doing hanging out with all these Elvis tribute artists? C'mon, he was at a Coldplay concert last week and now he's donning the Elvis persona? That's easy to explain, Kavan said. "He was the greatest entertainer of all time. His music and everything he did changed the world."
And, besides, Grandma had him working on the moves and the music when he was just a toddler.
"She would dress me up and go to local impersonator shows. I would dance - I was about 3 or 4. We have the videotape. I try not to watch that too much," he said with a laugh. Even as a little kid, he could feel the King's charisma. "When you're watching him and listening to him, you can feel this energy," Kavan said.
"He was the first to do what he did - the moves, the lyrics. It was really shocking, it was really new. People used to bash him pretty bad. There were riots and everything. It was horrible for him. He was starting out as a new artist and all he was hearing was people bashing him." But that didn't stop the hip shaking or the singing or the charm that reached right off vinyl records and grabbed fans by the ears. Though Elvis has been dead for decades, fans like Kavan keep him alive in their hearts.
"For a long time I tried not to tell anybody I did this," he said, because kids his own age didn't understand. "But once they come to my show, they think it's pretty cool. I'm getting a chance to do what a lot of other kids wouldn't be able to do." He's given up some of his extracurricular activities, such as wrestling, because he couldn't show up to competitions and performances with a black eye or a broken arm. But he's also traveling and performing in a way most 17-year-olds cannot imagine, he said. "There are times where you're not sure why you do this. There are times I just want to be a normal kid and hang out with my friends. But what an opportunity I have. I wouldn't give it up for anything. I don't have any regrets. I pretty much know what I want to do with my future. Not just Elvis per se, but entertaining."
- 'Like hearing Elvis for the first time'
By Peter Culshaw
(Telegraph, September 8 2005)
When the winner of the Mercury Award performed at Tuesday's ceremony, time seemed to stand still. Singing his melancholic Hope There's Someone, a meditation on mortality, the quavering, soulful voice of Antony Hegarty produced one of those rare pop moments that makes the hairs on your neck stand up. For I Am a Bird Now, his band, Antony and the Johnsons, were worthy winners of best album of the year award. ... New York performance artist Laurie Anderson, one of his earliest champions, says "Listening to his voice is like hearing Elvis for the first time: two words and he has broken your heart. When he sings, it is the most exquisite thing you will hear in your life".
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