mid December 2007
- A stamp of approval for Japanese American veterans?
By Teresa Watanabe
(Los Angeles Times, December 21, 2007)
Months after Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government imprisoned Robert Ichikawa behind barbed wire in a desolate World War II internment camp. But the Torrance resident volunteered for the U.S. military anyway. He wanted, he said, to prove his loyalty to his American homeland over his ancestral land of Japan.
More than 30,000 Nisei, or second-generation Japanese Americans, did likewise by volunteering for military service during World War II. Many of them joined the mostly-Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team and 100th Infantry Battalion, whose valor under fire made it among the most highly decorated units in U.S. military history.
Others joined the Military Intelligence Service as interrogators, translators and interpreters, crucial roles credited with shortening the war by as many as two years. About 300 Nisei women served in the Women's Army Corps and Cadet Nurses Corp.
Now, as Japanese American World War II veterans rapidly dwindle in number -- most are in their 80s -- their supporters are pushing for a commemorative postage stamp in their honor. And they have attracted support from an unexpected quarter: the Jewish community. At a Los Angeles news conference Thursday, the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Museum of Tolerance pledged support for the campaign and called on the U.S. Postal Service to approve the proposal when its commemorative-stamp review committee meets next month.
... Novack said, he is a passionate supporter of the stamp campaign. "They have stamps for flowers and animals and Elvis Presley and Superman," Novack said in a phone interview. "But these guys are living Supermen. They did so much despite all of the adversity they faced at home." ...
- CKX Declares December 31st Record Date for Dividend of FX Real Estate and Entertainment Shares
(infobolsa.es / Business Wire, December 21, 2007)
CKX, Inc. (NASDAQ: CKXE) announced today that it had set the record date for the distribution of shares of FX Real Estate and Entertainment Inc. stock to the CKX stockholders as December 31, 2007. Stockholders of CKX will receive, on the date the distribution is made, two shares of common stock of FX Real Estate and Entertainment for every ten shares of common or preferred stock of CKX that they own as of December 31st.
FX Real Estate and Entertainment has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to register the shares to be distributed. The distribution will take place as soon as is commercially practicable after the date on which the registration statement is declared effective by the SEC.
The distribution of shares in FX Real Estate and Entertainment is intended to give CKX stockholders an interest in FXRE s location-based exploitation of CKX s Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali assets pursuant to the terms of FXRE s license agreements with CKX and its subsidiaries. ...
... About CKX, Inc.
CKX, Inc. is engaged in the ownership, development and commercial utilization of entertainment content.
To date, the Company has focused on acquiring globally recognized entertainment content and related assets, including the rights to the name, image and likeness of Elvis Presley, the operations of Graceland, the rights to the name, image and likeness of Muhammad Ali and proprietary rights to the IDOLS television brand, including the American Idol series in the United States and local adaptations of the IDOLS television show format which, collectively, air in over 100 countries around the world. ...
About FX Real Estate and Entertainment
FX Real Estate and Entertainment owns 17.72 contiguous acres of land located at the southeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon Avenue in Las Vegas, Nevada, known as the Park Central Property.
FXRE intends to pursue a hotel, casino, entertainment, retail, commercial and residential development project on the Park Central Property.
FXRE recently entered into license agreements with Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc., an 85%-owned subsidiary of CKX, Inc., and Muhammad Ali Enterprises LLC, an 80%- owned subsidiary of CKX, which allows it to use the intellectual property and certain other assets associated with Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali in the development of its real estate and other entertainment attraction based projects. FXRE currently anticipates that the development of the Park Central Property will involve multiple elements that incorporate the Elvis Presley assets and theming.
In addition, the license agreement with Elvis Presley Enterprises grants FXRE the right to develop, and it currently intends to pursue the development of, one or more hotels as part of the master plan of Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. to redevelop the Graceland property and surrounding areas in Memphis, Tennessee.
In addition to its interest in the Park Central Property, its plans with respect to a Graceland-based hotel ...
- Pop Tarts: Top Ten Celebrity Meltdowns: Who Went Mad and Made a Mess in 2007?
By Hollie McKay
(foxnews.com, December 20, 2007)
Bald beauties, booze and stars behind bars - every year keeps us busy and 2007 was no exception. And while Britney Spears won't be winning any awards for her VMA performance, she does (surprise, surprise) take the gold for the greatest meltdown of the year, topping Pop Tarts' list of Tinseltown's most troubled.
"2007 has probably been the worst year of Britney's life, with so many bizarre behaviors — fights with the paparazzi and her mother, custody battles, binge drinking and car accidents. However, the number one meltdown is the shaving of her head," said Patrick Wanis, a psychologist and celebrity behavior expert who worked with Pop Tarts to compile the Top Ten. "Few people realized how serious this incident was and what it signified. Although in some cultures shaving the head can represent cleansing or letting go of the old self, in Britney's case it was really more about self-mutilation and self-loathing than a spiritual ritual."
But Brit is in close company with her former panty-free party pals Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, who take second and third place respectively.
- SIR CLIFF: 'I WANTED ELVIS TO BE ME'
(contactmusic.com, December 20, 2007)
SIR CLIFF RICHARD has confessed to an embarrassingly strong obsession with ELVIS PRESLEY - which led him to pray the rock 'n' roll pin-up would take over his soul. The veteran crooner admits his passion for the King, who died in 1977 aged 42, ran so deep he would dream of embodying the star. He says, "I didn't just want to be like Elvis - I wanted to be him. "I'd like to have woken up and found that really he was me. That's the kind of fervour I felt about the power of his music."
- Reality TV: Gift guide
By Kara A. Medalis
(post-gazette.com, December 17, 2007)
Happy holidays, Reality TV readers! As a special yuletide treat, I'm offering you my top 10 holiday gifts for reality TV fans.
... [8] Travelocity Roaming Gnome
Take home the trademark mascot of CBS' "The Amazing Race" and pack him in your suitcase before your next travel adventure. The classic gnome in his blue shirt and red cone hat is available, but the Las Vegas (in an Elvis Presley costume), Mexico (complete with a Mexican hat and maracas) and Hawaii (dressed in a grass skirt and lei) versions are pretty festive. The 8-inch gnomes weigh 2.5 pounds each and retail for $24.95. The official, 18-inch Roaming Gnome seen on the show retails for $69.99. Visit cbsstore.com. ...
- Madonna in Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
By AskMen.com Editors
(AskMen.com, December 17, 2007)
Madonna has received a nomination to be added to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, along with John Mellencamp and the Beastie Boys. However, controversy is swirling around Madonna's Hall of Fame nod, as critics question the true definition of "Rock and Roll." In fact, other non-traditional rockers are being nominated as well, including dancing diva Donna Summers and the prolific songwriter/performer Leonard Cohen.
The first inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were honored in January 1986, and included Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and Elvis Presley. However, it's obvious that the scope of the Hall of Fame has since widened considerably.
Join the debate
Should Madonna be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Is she really "rock 'n' roll"? If not, who should be on the nominee list?
- Josh Groban's first-place 'Noel' is on record pace
By Edna Gundersen
( USA TODAY, December 17, 2007)
As sales of his Christmas album snowball into the record books, Josh Groban is shaping up as 2007's biggest gift to the music industry. Noel, released Oct. 9, is No. 1 for the third week straight, tying a record for holiday albums set by Elvis Presley's Elvis' Christmas Album in 1957. ...
- Boxers and Britney form top pet names
(thewest.com.au, December 17, 2007)
Her reputation has nose-dived - but Britney Spears has new popularity in the canine world. She is one of the celebrities Britons are most likely to name their dog after.
... The top ten celebrity-inspired pet names are:
1. Tyson (Mike)
2. Harry (Potter or Prince)
3. Ozzy (Osbourne)
4. Robbie (Williams)
5. Rooney (Wayne)
6. Beckham (David)
7. Paris (Hilton)
8. Elvis (Presley)
9. Jessie (Wallace)
10. Britney (Spears)
- The Early Years of Rock, Later Than Previously Thought
By DANIEL M. GOLD
(New York Times, December 17, 2007)
Any documentary series about the history of rock music that manages to get through its first show without mention of Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly or Chuck Berry, and only a passing reference to the Beatles - well, you have to admire its assertiveness.
And there is a lot of attitude to wade through in "The Seven Ages of Rock," the series that starts Monday night on VH1 Classic and runs through Sunday.
The producer, William Naylor, is a longtime British documentarian with four earlier series on songwriting to his credit, including "Dancing in the Street" (1996), a 10-part look at rock music's evolution. For this revisitation he has sliced a very large pie into subgenres, not so much separate ages as competing categories, everything from art rock to punk, heavy metal to alternative.
The first episode claims to examine "The Birth of Rock," setting 1965 as Year 1. The premise is that a generation of young British musicians who had grown up listening to and covering Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Howlin' Wolf were starting to write their own versions of the blues "delivered with an English twist." So the Rolling Stones, whose first No. 1 hit in Britain was Hooker's "Little Red Rooster" in 1964, sing "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" in 1965; the Who, building its own sound, deliver "Can't Explain." Bob Dylan turns to Britain for inspiration: hearing what the Animals did with his cover of the folk blues "House of the Rising Sun," he goes electric by 1965, with all the cultural reverberations that carries. ...
- Elvis UK release pulled in copyright row
(Yahoo! Music / Reuters / Billboard, December 17, 2007)
British music distributor Cargo Records has pulled the plug on an Elvis Presley release after the singer's label threatened legal action, sources said.
In one of the clearest signs of Sony BMG Music Entertainment's tough policy on enforcing the copyright of its vintage Presley works -- even though some sound recordings have become part of the public domain -- the label pressured Cargo to withdraw "New York: RCA Studio 1: The Complete Sessions." Sony BMG disputed that a handful of outtakes on the album, which was released by Memphis Recording Service, were public domain.
A Cargo executive, who declined to be identified, described a letter from Sony BMG as a "warning." "To save us the risk of legal action, we decided we wouldn't distribute the item," the executive said. But the set is still featured on the Cargo Records Web site, with a Feb. 25, 2008, release date indicated. The CD features such tunes as "Blue Suede Shoes" and "Hound Dog," as well as multiple takes of "Shake Rattle and Roll" and "Lawdy, Miss Clawdy." ...
... Despite furious lobbying from the music industry, the U.K. government recently backed a recommendation that the copyright term for sound recordings should remain at 50 years. In the United States, copyright extends for 70 years after the death of author.
- HISTORY LESSONS: The King Meets Tricky Dick
By Bruce G. Kauffmann
(telegram.com, December 16, 2007)
I have written before that the 1970s was a strange decade - one that featured disco, mood rings, beanbag chairs, leisure suits and the Vietnam War. The sports event of the decade was a tennis match in the Houston Astrodome between a woman, Billie Jean King, and a 55-year-old tennis hustler named Bobby Riggs.
Perhaps this week in 1970, the decade's first year, was the harbinger. For it was on Dec. 21, 1970, that the decade's strangest photo-op took place. Shaking hands and grinning as a photographer took their picture in the Oval Office were the president of the country for much of the 1970s, Richard Nixon (further proof of the decade's strangeness), and the "King of Rock 'n' Roll" himself, Elvis Presley. Nixon is wearing his usual dark suit and forced smile, while Elvis is in his "New Elvis" getup of long hair, longer sideburns, flowery shirt, wide belt and cape. His eyes seem glazed and unfocused.
Which is unsurprising, considering that at the time he already had a long history of drug dependence, including both prescription drugs and those of the illegal variety. When Elvis died in 1977 his autopsy revealed that in his body at the time of death were various amounts of codeine, methaqualone, ethinamate, Valium, Demerol, Meperidine and morphine. Elvis spent a lot of time stoned out of his mind.
Which is ironic, if not amusing, because his visit with Nixon that day was for the purpose of becoming a special drug enforcement agent, complete with DEA badge. Elvis had requested the White House meeting so that he could sign up for Nixon¹s war on drugs, and Nixon, whose many shortcomings did not include a blindness to good public relations, immediately agreed. White House aides later suggested that "special agent" Elvis compose an anti-drug theme song with the possible title, "Get High on Life."
Getting high during his life was certainly an Elvis specialty, at least according to those who knew him best. His ex-wife, Priscilla Presley, says that years of drug abuse made Elvis both impulsive and irrational. Often, for example, if he didn't like what he was watching on television, he would take out a pistol and blow out the screen. An ex-girlfriend, Linda Thompson, says Elvis took so many drugs that he often fell asleep while eating.
Which arguably makes Elvis the poster-boy - entertainment division - for the weirdness that defined the 1970s. Thompson once noted that Elvis liked to wear around his neck an Egyptian ankh, a crucifix and a Star of David. When asked why, he would reply, "Because I don't want to miss heaven on a technicality." The general consensus is that if Elvis did miss out on heaven, it wasn't on a technicality.
- Celebrity pathologist wages bruising battle against fraud charges
By JOE MANDAK
(phillyburbs.com / Associated Press, December 16, 2007)
Celebrity pathologist Cyril Wecht is known as a tough adversary who responds harshly to criticism and as a contrarian who has enjoyed the spotlight ever since he challenged the findings that a lone gunman killed President Kennedy. So it has been no surprise that Wecht is battling federal fraud charges with the same bare-knuckle style, and in the court of public opinion.
Wecht, 76, served two 10-year stints here as the elected county coroner while also consulting on many high-profile cases around the nation, including the deaths of Elvis Presley and JonBenet Ramsey.
Wecht's services remain in demand, so he has much at stake. Most recently, he has consulted on the death of Anna Nicole Smith's son, Daniel; the accidental strangling of a woman at the Phoenix airport; and the reported suicide of the first black mayor of the town of Westlake, La.
He is scheduled to stand trial next month on charges he used county resources and staff to benefit his private practice from 1996 to 2005. His attorneys say the charges are either false or amount to minor infractions, such as the improper use of fax machines. Prosecutors have not put a figure on the amount of the fraud. But they said Wecht's private practice grossed nearly $9 million from 1997 through 2004. Since his 84-count indictment in January, Wecht has waged a bruising legal battle against the charges. ...
- The beauty of maths
By Lisa Jardine
(BBC News, December 14, 2007)
The story of an Indian clerk with an extraordinary talent for mathematics should inspire young people to see the beauty that lies in numbers.
I have been thinking recently about the way in which stories we are told when we are young shape our adult lives. I am reading with great enjoyment a new novel entitled The Indian Clerk, by David Leavitt, based on the life of the early twentieth-century Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.
I picked it up because I have such intense memories of my father telling me Ramanujan's story, at about the time I started secondary school, shortly after I had won a scholarship to a famous girls' school on the strength of my own mathematical promise. I even had a black-and-white photograph of Ramanujan, looking sultry and faintly like Elvis Presley, on the table at home at which I did my homework. ...
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