early March, 2006
- 2-D traveler brings world into school
By PAUL RUTHERFORD
(theadvocate.com, March 9 2006)
He has made appearances at the Eiffel Tower, the White House, Elvis Presley's Graceland estate and the space shuttle Discovery.
The creative paper doll, known across the continent as Flat Stanley, is cropping up in parts of Ascension Parish.
Duplessis Primary School kindergarten teacher Kristi Wyble said her students recently created the curious characters and mailed them to several unsuspecting members of the community including Parish President Ronnie Hughes and Sheriff Jeff Wiley. ...
- LOVE ME TIMBER
(Daily Record, March 9 2006)
TREE-VA Las Vegas! Elvis is making a comeback - as a tree. The King's profile was spotted in the branches of an oak in Fairford, Wiltshire. John Edgar, 43, who took the snap, said: "I was driving along and it stuck out like a sore thumb. "I just noticed the bouffant hair and said, 'I recognise that face.'" The Elvis Pres-tree is now attracting fans who are after a glimpse of the King in his leafy glory. Tree expert Simon Toomer said: "The amazing thing is that it has not been pruned to look like that." That shows you - it is
Wild In The Country
A Little Less Conifer-sation
Are Yew Lonesome Tonight?
Love Me Timber
Suspicious Vines
Don't Leaf Me Now
Twelfth Of Nae-fir
A Big Trunk O Love
King Tree-ole
Hound Log
Wooden Heart
- Bike Lubed and Tank Filled, All Shook Up Will Tour in 2006-07
By Kenneth Jones
(Playbill News, March 8 2006)
No casting has been announced. The Broadway design team, including David Rockwell, is expected to be represented. Richard Martini is the tour's producer. All Shook Up has an original book by Joe DiPietro (I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change). He created a tale of a drab 1950s-era American town that comes to life when a handsome stranger - no, not Elvis - comes to town on his motorcycle, bringing a new kind of music in his wake. (Recalling Shakespearean comedies such as A Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelfth Night, there are multiple love stories involved, including a central relationship that has a woman disguised as a man in order to get close to her object of desire. Music has a kind of magic power over the characters.)
Among the Presley tunes heard in the show were "Heartbreak Hotel," "Burning Love," "Love Me Tender," "Can't Help Falling in Love," "Jailhouse Rock," "Blue Suede Shoes," "A Little Less Conversation," "Hound Dog," "Don't Be Cruel" and "All Shook Up." A cast album was released in spring 2005. One of the selling points of the Broadway run was the potent work of music supervisor/arranger Stephen Oremus (Wicked), who flirted with rock, soul, gospel and rockabilly when addressing songs written by many composers and lyricists (Elvis tended to sing the work of other writers). The Broadway cast included Cheyenne Jackson, Jenn Gambatese, Jonathan Hadary, Leah Hocking, Curtis Holbrook, Nikki M. James, John Jellison, Alix Korey, Mark Price and Sharon Wilkins. ...
- Alone Together: Rock reflects the singular in the collective
By Karl Byrn
(Metroactive Music, March 8 2006)
Elvis Presley once reflected, "Sometimes I get lonesome, right in the middle of a crowd." That sensation has defined a duality in rock ever since: in the rock experience, a powerful desire for community expands the music but clashes with a creeping sense of isolation. ... Does rock music still hold a duality that finds greater togetherness at odds with inward solitude? In current rock, the dual impulses for community and isolation are manifest not as opposing threads, but are instead emerging as a single connected thrust. Artists are acting like they want to reach out and retreat at the same time, using larger, busier, more universal sounds in tandem with intimate detail and individuation. ... The booklet in Broken Social Scene has a combined sense of separation and sharing. Rather than lyrics, each song has a strange character drawing and lists sets of instructions about relating to bits of the music, other band members and random emotions. One such instruction tells whoever to "try to make it sound like Bob Seger on acid." That connection is tough, since Seger's music is a hugely generic group-hug, while psychedelics are intensely micropersonal. But this combination just brings rock back to the problem that faced Mr. Presley: the rock experience might make you feel alone in a crowd.
- Nancy Sinatra wants Dad to tell his own story
By Paul Majendie and Emmy Dexel
(reuters.co.uk, March 8 2006)
Frank Sinatra was mocked for his seemingly interminable comebacks. Now cutting-edge technology and the backing of his daughter Nancy mean Ol'Blue Eyes is ready for yet another final curtain, this time from beyond the grave. Almost eight years after the singer's death, Nancy is determined to let her father tell his story in his own words. ... The Sinatra family, keen to avoid the tacky imitators that followed Elvis Presley after his death, took advice from Presley's ex-wife Priscilla on the best way to handle his futuristic retrospective. "Elvis has been gone for so long. They have had a head start on how to do this, this keeping of the flame and the legacy," Nancy said. "Poor Elvis. The real Elvis has been virtually abused in a way over the years. We don't want Frank to become a caricature," said Sinatra who starred alongside Presley in the 1968 racing car movie "Speedway." We would rather have Frank speak for himself which is what is happening with this show. People will get to know him through his music."
- Double the fun at twins festival
(Canberra Chronicle, March 7 2006, p. 11)
Hold off that visit to the optometrist if you happen to see double out at Thoroughbred Park on March 11. That's because about 3000 twins, triplets, quads, quins and their families will be be gathering for Australia's first Twins Plus Festival.
Canberra's own Elvis impersonator Garry Buckley will be performing on the day and will be joined by his twin brother Rick. Also attending will be the Logan twins - David and Greg - from the television show "Big Brother". During the day there will also be a Guinness world record attempt for "Multiples en Masse" for the biggest gathering of twins, triplets, quads and quintuplets. Those wanting to participate in the attempt must bring a birth certificate.
- Elvis impersonators endangered species?
(cmt.com, March 7 2006)
It seems that Robert F.X. Sillerman owns the rights to control Elvis' name and likeness. He is planning a major Elvis presence in Las Vegas and told the New York Times he has not decided the fate of the Elvis Impersonators.
The founder and creator of "Legends in Concert" believes it would be impossible to put a stop to the impersonators. John Stuart said, "You've got 20,000 Elvis impersonators out there. He could never stop all of them. Besides there is First Amendment protection." Years ago, Stuart paid Elvis Presley Enterprises $100,000 for the right to use "Elvis" in his lineup.
Another local impersonator, Steve Connolly, stated that he did 700 shows his first year in Las Vegas. Top impersonators are said to make over $300,000 a year. No way are they going away without a fight.
So if your dream wedding is to be married by "Elvis," then you might want to book your flights and exchange your vows before Sillerman takes the dream away.
- Charlie Hodge, Former Elvis Presley Sideman, Dies
(cmt.com, March 7 2006)
Funeral services will be held Tuesday (March 7) in Decatur, Ala., for Charlie Hodge, a longtime member of Elvis Presley's touring band. Hodge, 71, died Friday (March 3) of cancer at a Knoxville, Tenn., hospital. Presley and Hodge became friends in 1958 when they were serving in the U.S. Army in Germany. After they were discharged, Hodge began working for Presley, appearing in several movies in the '60s and on TV during the legendary 1968 comeback special. From 1969 until Presley's death in 1977, Hodge played rhythm guitar and sang harmony vocals in Presley's touring band. He was best known as Presley's onstage assistant who cued songs and handed him his water and scarves.
- Johnny Cash rocking in his grave
By Kathy McCabe
(Herald-Sun, March 7 2006)
THE Man in Black is close to eclipsing Elvis Presley as the most successful posthumous artist in recording history. Inspired by the award-winning biopic, Walk The Line, a new generation of fans are devouring the Cash legacy, propelling five albums related to the country rock pioneer's work into the ARIA top 40. The Walk The Line soundtrack, featuring Cash songs sung by actor Joaquim Phoenix, is No. 4 on the ARIA album chart and has gone gold. There are four Cash compilations in the charts. It is the first time in ARIA history that one artist has had four albums (five if you count the Walk The Line soundtrack) in the Top 40. ...
- Elvis through the years
(Stamford Adovcate / Baltimore Sun, March 6 2006)
A king is born
Jan. 8, 1935: Elvis Aron Presley is born in a two-room house in Tupelo, Miss. Twin brother Jesse Garon Presley is stillborn.
Start the music
Jan. 8, 1946: Elvis buys his first guitar, for $7.75 (plus 2 percent sales tax), at a Tupelo hadware store
The ascent begins
Jan. 27, 1956: "Heartbreak Hotel" is released, the first of five Elvis singles to reach No. 1 on the Billboard charts that year. Five more would make the Top 20.
Doing his duty
March 24, 1958: Elvis is inducted into the Army by the Memphis, Tenn., draft board. He is discharged from active duty on March 5, 1960.
The royal family
May 1, 1967: Elvis and Priscilla Ann Wagner marry in the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. Their daughter, Lisa Marie, is born nine months to the day later. Elvis and Priscilla would divorce on Oct. 9, 1973.
Doing his duty II
Dec. 21, 1970: Elvis, seeking to be named a "federal agent-at-large" in the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, meets with President Nixon at the White House. He gives the president a Colt .45 pistol as a gift.
His final act
Aug. 16, 1977: Elvis dies in the master suite at Graceland.
Still first class
Jan. 9, 1993: The Elvis postage stamp is released.
- Elvis Presley Festival Will Be Musical Mix
(Herald Sun, March 6 2006)
The eighth Elvis Presley Festival will include a musical mix featuring gospel, hard rockers and tribute artists, organizers said. On June 2, the Main Stage will feature rockabilly trio The Dempseys, followed by country singer Jeff Bates and Travis LeDoyt, who shakes his hips like Elvis. New Orleans rockers Cowboy Mouth will close the opening night. The Main Stage's June 3 lineup includes country artists Chris Cagle and Chely Wright, as well as hard-rocking Saliva. At the Fairpark Stage, the recreation of Elvis' triumphant 1956 homecoming concert will feature a trio of tribute artists, Donny Edwards, Jamie Aaron Kelley and Brandon Bennett. In addition, Kay Bain and The Mornin' Show Band, Sonny Burgess and The Pacers and The Dempseys will perform. On June 4, First United Methodist Church will host The Landmarks and LeDoyt during a gospel show that also will include Elvis' backing vocalists, The Jordanaires. ...
- Charlie Hodge, 71; Former Backup Singer and Guitarist for Elvis
By Phyllis Huffman
(Los Angeles Times, March 6 2006)
Charlie Hodge, 71, formerly a backup singer and guitar player for Elvis Presley, died Friday at a hospital in Knoxville, Tenn. For the last 15 years, Hodge performed in tributes to Presley at Memories Theater in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., with Presley impersonator Lou Vuto. Theater officials said Hodge had been undergoing treatment for lung cancer. Hodge met Presley when they served in the Army. After their service, Hodge worked with Presley and lived at Graceland for 17 years. ...
- Charlie Hodge, longtime Elvis friend, dies at 71
By Holly Hollman
(Decatur Daily, March 5 2006)
Charlie Hodge not only got the audience's attention when he performed on an empty Coke crate. He got the attention of a music legend. Mr. Hodge said that the first time Elvis Presley saw him, he was standing and singing on the crate while performing with The Foggy River Boys in Memphis. The memory always gave Elvis a chuckle, Mr. Hodge said in a 2005 interview with the Web site Elvis Australia. Mr. Hodge, a Decatur native who died Friday at age 71, said he used the crate because he was 5 feet 3 inches tall and the other band members "towered over me." After meeting backstage at that performance, Mr. Hodge didn't see Elvis again until both were in the Army, where they became friends. Elvis hired Mr. Hodge in 1960 as a member of his "Memphis Mafia." Mr. Hodge was the only professional musician and entertainer in that group. Mr. Hodge became a background vocalist and rhythm guitarist for Elvis, known as the man who gave Elvis his water and scarves. He worked with Elvis for 17 years. Not bad for a boy who started out plucking a ukulele on his front porch in Decatur and did comedy routines in school.
Mr. Hodge was with Elvis when he first met his future wife, Priscilla, and was at Graceland when The King died in 1977. After Elvis' death, Mr. Hodge performed at shows dedicated to Elvis, including a March 2005 appearance at Decatur's Princess Theatre Center for the Performing Arts. He also wrote "Elvis 'N Me," which Castle Books published in 1988.
Elvis' bodyguard, Sonny West, said in a DAILY interview that after Elvis' death, he and Mr. Hodge went 27 years without seeing each other. Then they met in Decatur at West's one-man show, "Memories of Elvis." "He walked up, shook my hand, and said, 'It's been too long, Sonny. I'll tell you right now, if he (Elvis) was watching us, he'd want us to get together, because where he's at now, he's nothing but love,' " West recalled. Although Mr. Hodge lived at Graceland, he returned to Decatur to visit his parents' Jackson Street home. ...
- All shook up at home of Elvis
By Julie Bosman
(International Herald Tribune / New York Times, March 5 2006)
Winter is the off-season at Graceland, Elvis Presley's home from 1957 until his death there at 42 in 1977. On a recent weekday, only a few visitors wandered through the home and its 13.8-acre grounds, wearing headphones and listening to a recorded tour guide. In the colonnaded Meditation Garden, a middle-age man in an Elvis T-shirt perched on a bench next to Elvis's grave. Not much has changed at Graceland, a reverentially preserved 21-room Colonial Revival-style home, since Presley's former wife, Priscilla Presley, opened it to the public 24 years ago. Video projectors beam images of a sweaty, singing, hip-swiveling Elvis onto walls. In a racquetball court behind the house, dozens of his gold records, along with various sequined jumpsuits and trophies, are on display. And, of course, there is the Jungle Room, the famous wood-paneled den decorated in animal skins and skulls and green shag carpeting. Revenue at Elvis Presley Enterprises, which operates Graceland, has barely changed in recent years, either. It has been stuck at about $40 million annually since 2000, and money for improving the property has been scarce. That is all about to change. And when the change is over, Graceland may look a lot like Disneyland.
Starting this month, Robert Sillerman, the billionaire media entrepreneur who paid more than $100 million in 2005 for control of Presley's name and likeness - but not his music - plans to overhaul Graceland from a run- down tourist attraction into a sparkling destination resort. The 128-room Heartbreak Hotel, which stands across Elvis Presley Boulevard from Graceland, will be demolished, along with the visitors' center. In their place, Sillerman plans two 400-room hotels, convention space, an entertainment complex, restaurants, shops, an outdoor amphitheater and a spa. Moreover, if Sillerman has his way, Elvis will become a big presence again in Las Vegas, in an interactive museum exhibit and Elvis theme show that Sillerman hopes will attract millions of visitors a year. Tapping Presley's international popularity is next: Sillerman envisions a 15,000-square-foot, or 1,400- square-meter, exhibit that will travel around the world.
And you thought Elvis was dead. "He has sort of been in a holding pattern," said Sillerman, 57. "He has maintained the status as the icon that he is without any thought about his legacy, his legend and how we could take advantage of that." With all the enthusiasm of a new homeowner, Sillerman, wearing cufflinks stamped with an Elvis image, zipped through Graceland on a mission of his own last month, pointing out the things he wants to do once the renovations begin. He wants to expand the museum space, which is cramped. He is irritated by small details, like the jumbled layout of the house tour, which can lead visitors to a dead end. But most important, Sillerman, who made his fortune building and selling a chain of radio stations and then a concert-promotion business, wants to make Graceland a "multiday experience," not the two-hour walk-through that it is now. He wants people to "stay as long as possible" - and, of course, to spend as much as they can. Sillerman says he believes that Elvis Presley Enterprises has not used Presley to his full potential, by a long shot. And now that Sillerman controls 85 percent of the company - Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis's daughter and sole heir, retains 15 percent - he now has power over Presley's name and likeness as well as his house, its grounds and about 65 adjoining acres.
What Sillerman does not have are the rights to the music, which Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, sold back to the singer's record label, RCA, which was later acquired by Sony BMG. Parker and Presley split $5.4 million from the sale but gave up all future royalties - a mistake that Sillerman called "colossal." Still, if the plans materialize, the new Graceland compound will be very different from the one already visited by millions of fans. The small gift shop may be expanded into a retail complex full of Presley memorabilia. CKX, Sillerman's entertainment company, says it has warehouses groaning with 600,000 pieces of Elvisiana, including a barber's chair from Graceland, a jukebox from Presley's home in Palm Springs, California, and movie contracts he signed. ...
- Tupelo's Elvis festival to feature musical mix
(KATC / Associated Press, March 4 2006)
Organizers of the eighth Elvis Presley Festival in Tupelo, Mississippi, have announced a musical mix that will feature gospel, hard rockers and tribute artists. Acts such as Travis LeDoyt, Cowboy Mouth, Chris Cagle and Saliva will take over the Main Stage, while Sonny Burgess and The Pacers, Elvis tribute artists and others will perform on the Fairpark Stage near the city hall. The festival will be June second through June fourth. ...
-
Priscilla keeps some things under the covers
By Trent Dalton
(Brisbane Courier Mail, March 4 2006)
THE rules were established early: Presley will answer no questions about plastic surgery or Michael Jackson, and no photographs will be taken outside the pre-determined parameters. It was madness in the manchester department (before and behind the black dividers) yesterday as "First Lady of Rock 'n' Roll" Priscilla Presley, 60, and creative partner Bruno Schiavo launched her new range of luxury bed linens to an adoring lunchtime crowd at Myer Brisbane City. The one-time wife of Elvis Presley and former mother-in-law of Michael Jackson was all business, preferring to talk textiles and towels over nips and tucks.
After a graciously lengthy session signing autographs (for those who bought something from The Priscilla Presley Collection), Presley was shuffled into a room near the white goods department where two hawk-eyed minders watched her every word as she discussed her ties to Scientology, life without Elvis and what sort of linen was fit for the King. "He certainly liked satin sheets and very quality-driven cottons and silks," said Presley, hiding her eyes under deep brown aviator sunglasses. "We didn't have the choices that we have today, but we certainly made the best of what we had."
Presley's love of fabrics and homewares, she said, began in the home she shared with Elvis during their six-year marriage. "It started at Graceland," she said. "I decorated two of our homes and I haven't stopped. There's a frustrated decorator in me." Despite divorcing Elvis in October 1973, Presley has been the unofficial guardian of his legacy, while working as an actor, author and ambassador for Narconon, a drug rehabilitation program developed by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard which, Presley maintains, could have saved Elvis's life. "We had no programs," she said, discussing the program designed to help addicts kick drugs without the use of medication. "As far as Elvis was concerned, his (addiction) was more prescription because he couldn't sleep.
"I think that's where most people fall into a trap. They don't mean it to be an addiction. We are in an addictive society. I'm appalled at the amount of people on drugs who don't need to be. We are pressured into thinking we need a drug. There's a label for everything. They even have (drugs) for depression. First of all, it's OK to be emotional. It's OK to be sad. It's OK to be a little melancholy. That's how you grow. All of us. We're not allowed to be human beings any more."
Stopping Presley before she got herself into a Scientology mess of Tom Cruise proportions, a minder said there was one question left. So why weren't we allowed to ask questions about plastic surgery and Michael Jackson? "I think it's away from what I'm doing," said Presley, who is tougher than her minders give her credit for. You start getting into all kinds of subjects. I just feel it's not really conducive to what we're doing here. If I open up that door, there's a million other questions." Questions we were not allowed to ask.
|
