late June, 2006
- Poking some fun at age-old weed
By RONALD WILLIAMSON and Cecily Brumley
(Daytona Beach News-Journal June 24, 2006)
Poke. Not jab or prod. Not sack or bag. Not Hawaiian seafood or meddling. Just poke, the plant. The herb. The weed. The purple stalked, spindly plant scattered through gardens and fields, along roadsides, in alleys and vacant lots along the East Coast and halfway to California.
Did you know?
No matter how you spell it, Tony Joe White left an indelible impression on American ears with his top-10 song "Polk Salad Annie" in 1969. The correct spelling is poke sallet.
* White was from the small hamlet of Goodwill in the northeast corner of Louisiana. He also penned "Rainy Night in Georgia," which was made popular by Brooke Benton.
* Another music icon raised in poverty in the South, Elvis Presley, also recorded "Polk Salad Annie."
Most people don't know poke and those who do think it's just a noxious weed. Which it is, but poke has many uses, admirers and a solid place in American culture. Whether it's good or bad depends on perspective, but nearly all descriptions contain a dire warning. "Every part of the plant is HIGHLY TOXIC. Many people have become fatally ill after consumption," says a 2002 Florida Extension Service fact sheet on native plants, which says -- in boldface capital letters -- that the plant should be treated with extreme caution. "Gloves should be worn when handling." Whoa! Who could love a totally toxic plant? ... Elvis Presley sang about it. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings wrote about it. Festivals celebrate it. It's even in the National Arboretum's herbarium. Poke was so useful American colonists introduced it to Europe and it has spread all the way to Russia, the society says. ... Humans eat poke leaves, too. Its toxic properties can be minimized by multiple washings. Poke leaves make "one of the most delicious greens in the world," said Venrick. "When pulling plants in the spring, we would collect the tender, young leaves, boil them for several minutes, add salt, and maybe some pepper, and a little butter. ...
- 2 heads of state pay tribute to The King
By Woody Baird
(Orlando Sentinel / Associated Press June 24, 2006)
Junichiro Koizumi and President Bush can hang around the Jungle Room all they want.
Japan's prime minister can even warble another rendition of "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You," as he did at a birthday party for Bush last year. But there are some things even presidents and prime ministers can't do at Elvis Presley's Graceland. When Koizumi -- a big-time Elvis fan with a Presleylike hairdo -- the president and first lady Laura Bush visit the Presley home Friday, they'll pretty much have the run of the place. But Presley's private bedroom and the adjoining bath where he collapsed and died in 1977 will remain off-limits.
"You can't visit the upstairs at the White House, either," says Jack Soden, chief executive of Elvis Presley Enterprises.
For the most part, Koizumi and the Bushes will see the same Graceland other visitors see, but the tour won't be completely standard fare: It will be led by Presley's only child and heir, daughter Lisa Marie, and her mother, Priscilla. Bush and Koizumi will be the first sitting heads of state to visit Graceland. Presley has been one of Japan's most-popular American entertainers since the 1950s; more than 2,000 Japanese tourists visited Graceland last year.
- Odd odds: Snow at Wimbledon? Bookmaker puts odds at 250-1
(sportsillustrated.cnn.com / AP June 24, 2006)
For those with utterly no interest in how Roger Federer or Maria Sharapova will do at Wimbledon, take heart. Tantalizing possibilities are out there. A bookmaker is giving 8-1 odds there will be no rain during the two weeks of the tournament. Think it will snow? The odds are 250-1. William Hill also is offering odds of 1,000-1 that an Englishwoman will win the singles crown. The bookmaker notes it has taken more bets that Elvis Presley is still alive and that the Loch Ness Monster is real.
- Like Elvis, steakhouse proprietor leaving the building
By Jody Callahan
(Commercial Appeal June 24, 2006)
Sometime, in the next few weeks or months, an offer will be made. Anna Hamilton will accept, and Anna's Steakhouse, an institution in Bartlett, will close for good. Hamilton, who started the restaurant in Collierville in 1990, is putting the building and acre of land at 6963 U.S. 70 up for sale. ...
- MONKEE MAN SLAMS DEAD ICONS
(contactmusic.com June 26, 2006)
MONKEES frontman DAVY JONES has launched astonishing attack on dead rockers KURT COBAIN, JIMI HENDRIX, ELVIS PRESLEY and JANIS JOPLIN, questioning why society worships people who wasted their lives. The 61-year-old I'M A BELIEVER singer insists they wouldn't have been idolised if they were still alive. Jones says, "I don't have a lot of respect for people like Jimi Hendrix, or Kurt Cobain, or Janis Joplin or Elvis Presley, because they all killed themselves in one way or another. "Although I often wonder what they'd be doing now if they were still alive. Would they be these crumbling lookalikes of the same people, greeting people at the entrance of Caesar's Palace?"
- Monkees member revels in present life
By DAVID SCHMEICHEL
(canoe.ca / Winnipeg Sun June 24, 2006)
Davy Jones talks a mile a minute. The former teen idol (who will likely forever be known as "the British one" from TV's The Monkees) is sitting poolside at a Las Vegas hotel, waiting for a ride to sunny San Diego, where he's appearing at a state fair. Over the course of a fast-paced phone conversation, he manages to expound on his obsession with racehorses, his feelings for his former bandmates, his early days as an actor, his disdain for rock 'n' roll overdoses and the fact that Axl Rose totally stole his dance moves. All of this in 10 minutes, tops. Jones, who appears tonight at Club Regent Casino, took part in a recent Monkees reunion (along with castmates Michael Nesmith, Micky Dolenz, and Peter Tork) but says he's not exactly pushing for another kick at the can.
... "I don't have a lot of respect for people like Jimi Hendrix, or Kurt Cobain, or Janis Joplin or Elvis Presley, because they all killed themselves in one way or another," he says. "Although I often wonder what they'd be doing now if they were still alive. Would they be these crumbling lookalikes of the same people, greeting people at the entrance of Caesar's Palace?" ...
- Deal close for D.C. wax museum
(Post-Gazette / Associated Press June 24, 2006)
One of the world's leading entertainment companies is close to reaching a deal to open a Madame Tussauds wax museum in the nation's capital, officials familiar with the talks confirmed. London-based Tussauds Group has been negotiating with a developer for space in the old Woodward & Lothrop department store building downtown. ... A company spokeswoman in London acknowledged that Washington is one of the North American sites being considered for the company's international expansion. The Washington Times first reported last month that Tussauds was in talks with the city. The theme park and attractions operator currently operates wax museums in Amsterdam, London, Las Vegas and New York, where hundreds of wax figures are on display. Others are under development in Hong Kong and Shanghai. The museums feature life-size wax models of historic figures and contemporary celebrities such as Albert Einstein, Elvis Presley and Britney Spears. Guests are encouraged to pose for photographs with the figures. They can also sing or act out scenes with images of their favorite entertainers. ...
- Party Like a Rock Star When Dave Navarro Broadcasts His Indie 103.1 FM Camp Freddy Radio Show Live From Erotica LA
(MARKET WIRE June 24, 2006)
Who's sexy, plays a mean guitar and will be a host at this year's Erotica LA (ELA) show? Dave Navarro (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction and Camp Freddy) will co-host this year's ELA along with Jenna Jameson. There has always been a correlation with rock stars and sex -- going back as far as Elvis Presley and those hips or Mick Jagger and those lips, women have flocked to rock stars for ages. So what is it about musicians that turns women on? Is it the leather, the instruments, or the talented use of both hands that makes everyone wild for rock stars? ... "Come check out Erotica LA. It's going to be porn stars. It's going to be rock music, Camp Freddy radio -- and the legendary Jenna Jameson. It will be mind-blowing," says Navarro. "LA's truly the one place where you're encouraged to express your own individuality. I was born and raised in this crazy city, and understand all that is sexy and so LA." ...
- Saturday celebs: Coveted car turns into roller coaster
(Asbury Park Press / AP June 24, 2006)
Owners of a small museum wanted a piece of Elvis Presley's favorite amusement park ride but ended up instead with the whole thing - a roller coaster called the Zippin Pippin. The Pippin was bought by the Memphis, Tenn., park commission in 1947. Most of the superstructure for its 2,800 feet of track was replaced over the years but it's still billed as one of the oldest wooden roller coasters in the country. The ride was a top attraction at Libertyland, a 30-year-old amusement park Presley often rented for private parties. Libertyland is closing and its rides and concession stands were sold at auction Wednesday.
Robert Reynolds and Stephen Shutts, partners in a traveling museum called the Honky Tonk Hall of Fame & Rock-N-Roll Roadshow, showed up planning to bid on one of the roller coaster cars. Instead, they bought the whole Pippin for $2,500. It went cheap because the sale agreement gives the buyer a month to take it down and haul it away. Reynolds said he had not yet decided what they will do with the Pippin. "There's 30 days to figure it out. . . . The car is all we needed," he said.
- Elvis' favorite amusement park ride sells at auction
(WREG-TV / AP June 24, 2006)
Elvis Presley's favorite amusement park ride has sold at auction in Memphis. The Zippin Pippin roller coaster was a top attraction at Libertyland, an amusement park Presley often rented for private parties. Libertyland is closing and its rides and concession stands were sold at auction yesterday. Robert Reynolds and Stephen Shutts, partners in a traveling museum called the Honky Tonk Hall of Fame and Rock-N-Roll Roadshow, bought the coaster for 25-hundred dollars. The owners have not decided what to do with it.
- Elvis' music lives on in Aussie tour
(Yahoo!7 News June 24, 2006)
Elvis Presley is long dead, but the music of "The King" lives on, not least through his old band. Presley's original band, led by Nashville musical director Joe Guercio, will head Down Under in October for a series of tribute concerts to the late singer. Guercio worked closely with Elvis up until the singer's death at the age of 42 in Memphis in 1977, and even conducted the choir at his funeral.
Elvis Presley In Concert will begin in Adelaide on October 8 before the troupe travels to Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney. "How many people get a chance to come back and work with the same people you did 25 years ago?" said Guercio, speaking from the United States. "It is like a twilight zone but it is really cool." Other original members involved include singers Myrna Smith and Ed Enoch, as well as drummer Ronnie Tutt, pianist Glen Hardin, lead guitar player James Burton and bass player Jerry Scheff. The group have travelled the world together since 1998, performing some of Elvis's greatest hits including Burning Love, That's All Right, Hound Dog, Don't Be Cruel, Love Me Tender and Suspicious Minds.
"The show works because the energy is the same," said Guercio. "It is an Elvis concert live, like he was up there. It is Elvis and his people ... not like a bunch of Elvis impersonators up there." And what of the persistent rumours Elvis didn't die of a heart attack after all, but faked his own death. "Believe me, he is not pushing hamburgers in Wisconsin like everybody says," said Guercio.
"If he were alive he would be on a tropical island somewhere ... but no, he has gone. He is dead because I remember conducting the gospel singers behind his casket, it was a very sad day."
- Tupelo hopes Japan's premier will pay a visit" Elvis has many fans in Far East
([South Mississippi] Sun Herald / ASSOCIATED PRESS June 24, 2006)
TUPELO - Tourism officials here await word on whether Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will visit Elvis Presley's birthplace after he tours the rock star's Graceland estate in Memphis. Tupelo's Convention and Visitors Bureau issued the invitation to Koizumi, who like many people in Japan is a big fan of Presley. Tourism officials said the proposed visit to the northeast Mississippi city would follow Koizumi's June 30 trip to Memphis with President Bush. An appearance by the Japanese prime minister would be a big boost for international tourism promotion in Tupelo, local officials acknowledged. "What we'd like to see from this is more Japanese visitors. That's the whole purpose of it," said CVB executive director Linda Butler Johnson, who says Japan is one of the best-represented countries in foreign visitors to Presley's birthplace. ...
- Tupelo Tourism Officials Invite Koizumi To Elvis Birthplace
(wpmi.com June 23, 2006)
Tourism officials in Tupelo are awaiting word on whether Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will visit Elvis Presley's birthplace. Koizumi is scheduled to tour the rock legend's Graceland estate in Memphis. Tupelo's Convention and Visitors Bureau issued the invitation to Koizumi, who like many people in Japan, is a big fan of the late rock 'n' roll star. Tourism officials said the proposed visit to the northeast Mississippi city would follow Koizumi's June 30th trip to Memphis with President Bush.
Mississippi officials say an appearance by the Japanese prime minister would be a big boost for international tourism promotion in Tupelo.
The Elvis Presley Fan Club in Japan claims to be the largest in Asia with a five-thousand-strong membership. Another two-thousand people or so belong to the recently formed Elvis Presley Society in Japan. Presley was born in Tupelo but moved with his parents in 1948 to Memphis, Tennessee, where he later began his recording career. Presley died in Memphis on August 16th, 1977.
- Domino praised for role in rock
By SCOTT BAUER
(Enquirer / ASSOCIATED PRESS June 23, 2006)
Fats Domino should not be remembered only for surviving Hurricane Katrina. Many people probably didn't even realize that the music legend was still alive until the storm hit and images were beamed across the world of his rescue from his flooded home. That's why "Blue Monday: Fats Domino and the Lost Dawn of Rock 'n' Roll" (Da Capo Press, $26.95), is so important. Rick Coleman's book, which claims to be the first biography of Domino, was 20 years in the making, and the effort shows. "Blue Monday" brings to light the key role Domino played in transforming rhythm and blues into rock 'n' roll. And while he presided over a musical revolution, he broke down racial and societal barriers along the way.
It's not that Domino hasn't gotten his due recognition throughout the years. After all, he was among the first group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But it's others in that group - Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and Little Richard - who seem to have received more public accolades and credit for their contributions to the early days of rock. And it's Presley, Coleman argues, who was anointed "the King" by the white establishment of the day because it couldn't accept a black man, like Domino, as the leader of a musical revolution. But Domino was playing rhythm and blues, basically rock 'n' roll with a different name, for years in New Orleans before it was dubbed with its new name. His 1949 single "The Fat Man" is considered by many to be the first rock record. ...
- 1942-2006: Dick Jensen dead at 64
By Wayne Harada and Derek Paiva
(Honolulu Advertiser June 22, 2006)
Dick Jensen, a well-known figure in the Waikiki and Las Vegas nightlife of the 1960s through the 1980s, died early yesterday morning. He was 64. Nicknamed "The Giant," Jensen was a prime mover of nightclub shows and a favorite of audiences because of his belting voice and imposing physical perormances on stage. He was noted for his glide - a proto-Moonwalk - well before Michael Jackson made it fashionable. His nickname was linked to his 6-foot-plus height but also reflected his outsize talent as a singer-dancer in shows from New York to Las Vegas.
... Last November, Jensen received a star on the Las Vegas Walk of Stars, commemorating his appeal in the gambling capital's showrooms. Longtime friend Engelbert Humperdinck was there to congratulate him. He appeared at several hotels and casinos in Las Vegas over the course of his career, including the Landmark. During his tenure in Vegas, he befriended a panoply of stars, including Sammy Davis Jr., Don Rickles, the Smothers Brothes, Dionne Warick, Jerry Lewis, Tony Bennett, Lena Horne and Joey Bishop. "Growing up with him was always a rollercoaster," said [daughter] Jensen-Oliveira, chuckling. "There was a lot of traveling, and a lot of entertainers and famous people. Normal people in our living roomwere Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. ... That would pretty much be an average day. It was an intertesting life." ...
- Jones shows he hasn't lost magic touch
By Marty Rosen
(Courier-Journal June 22, 2006)
A single four-song segment of Tom Jones' concert Tuesday night at Whitney Hall summed up both the enormous range of his talent and the remarkable breadth of his career. The segment began with "Stoned In Love," a churning dance track he recorded with British trance-rocker Chicane. In case you've missed it, "Stoned In Love" has been perched atop the British charts for weeks this spring, more than 40 years after Jones scored his first top-10 hit with "It's Not Unusual" in 1965.
... In a fast-moving 90-minute set, Jones covered hits such as "What's New, Pussycat?" "Green, Green Grass of Home," "Delilah" and Randy Newman's "You Can Leave Your Hat On." From boogie-woogie to ballads, from cheerful fluff to romantic excess, Jones was in full command of his voice. And though the stage wasn't totally littered with underwear, it was clear that he has not lost his touch with the ladies. Jones teased out choruses of screams simply by pulling the lapel of that purple jacket to the side. Every hip twitch and pelvic thrust elicited enthusiastic cheers, and if his hand happened to get in the way of one of those pelvic thrusts -- well, look out. ...
- Finding family: Online census data is genealogy treasure trove
By Benjamin Pimentel
(San Francisco Chronicle June 22, 2006)
Back in 1930, Tom Hanks' grandfather chased squirrels for a living, Walt Disney lived in an $8,000 Los Angeles home, and Elvis Presley's family didn't own a radio. These are just a few tidbits one can dig up from Ancestry.com, which has compiled an online database of information on 500 million people, culled from every U.S. census record from 1790 to 1930.
The census database -- a smaller and incomplete version of which has been publicly available for years -- has just undergone a major upgrade. Ancestry.com said this week that it has just completed a yearslong project and the genealogy Web site now includes all available information on people who lived in the United States across 140 years. While other companies, such as HeritageQuest Online, and religious organizations, such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have similar databases, Ancestry.com offers a comprehensive and searchable set of census data to consumers with a home computer and an Internet connection. ...
- John Katsilometes talks with a Las Vegas Hilton employee who has fond memories of hanging out with Elvis Presley
By John Katsilometes
(WREG-TV / AP June 22, 2006)
Janie Steele arrived in Las Vegas in 1964, fresh from South Carolina, and went to work as a data processor for the Nevada Test Site. Six years later she was friends with Elvis Presley. In October 1970 Steele moved on to the International (today the Las Vegas Hilton) to work as a "camera girl" in the showroom. These were the young women who photographed anyone visiting the show, and in those days the city's biggest show - which would sell out 837 consecutive times from July 31, 1969, to Dec. 12, 1976 - was Elvis'.
"I first met him one night when a co-worker and I were invited up to his suite on the 30th floor, between shows," Steele said Wednesday afternoon as the statue of Elvis was re-unveiled in a courtyard in front of the Hilton's main lobby. "We all sat down and ate dinner - he had steak, but I don't remember what else. But he was really nice, and we got to go upstairs many times and really got to know all the musicians, and all of his buddies who hung around with him."
Steele joined LV Hilton General Manager and Chief Executive Rudy Prieto in dropping the blue satin sheet that draped the Elvis statue for the unveiling. The bronze figure has been a fixture at the hotel since 1978, but was taken off the property several months ago and stored in a warehouse while renovations were made to the Hilton lobby. It was fitting that Steele represented the Hilton employees; she has been with the company for 36 years and now is a clerk in the accounts receivable department. She is one of those rare casino employees who actually worked with Elvis and is still employed here.
"People forget that he worked so hard - two shows a night, seven nights a week - and we became like a family. That suite was very much like his home, and we respected that," Steele said. "He practiced his karate up there. He would gather everyone around the piano and sing gospel songs. I was not a big Elvis fan when I moved to Las Vegas, but meeting him - wow, it was such an event. He called me 'Little Girl' all the time. That was my nickname." The last time she saw Elvis, Steele recalled, she was concerned about his appearance, but had no idea of his addiction to prescription pills. "He was overweight, but I didn't think much of it. I remember coming up from behind him and putting my arms around him and noticing how much weight he'd gained," she said. "But I never saw him do anything like drink, or anything like that. I just thought he'd gotten heavy. And he had a big bottle of water, Spring Mountain water, and he was the first person I ever saw drink bottled water."
Steele laughed when remembering her sister's reaction to meeting Elvis. "She said, 'Tell me I'm not dreaming, that's really him. Please tell me I'm not dreaming.' She loved Elvis. You know, we all did."
R. Marsh Starks / LAS VEGAS SUN
ELVIS fan Cathy Saladino admires a statue of the entertainer after it was unveiled again in front of the Las Vegas Hilton. The statue was stored away during renovation of the hotel lobby.
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