mid April 2008
- As Hopkins continues his monologue of self-worship, Calazaghe prepares to do his talking in the ring
(thisislondon.co.uk, April 17, 2008)
Downstairs from the casino suite where Elvis Presley got hitched to Priscilla, Bernard Hopkins launched into his old jailhouse rock routine about how his brutal experiences in prison a generation ago and the stabbings he'd suffered as a delinquent robber meant he'd been to "dark places" which a nice Welsh boy could never comprehend.
... "I've had to listen to three hours of Hopkins saying all this same old stuff," moaned Calzaghe, who didn't even have to endure Hopkins's post-conference oratory when he was comparing himself with both Gandhi and Malcolm X. ...
- Priscilla Presley picked up dancing tips from Elvis
(newkerala.com, April 17, 2008)
The 62-year-old actress, who's presently participating in the Dancing with Stars Season 6 admitted that she picked up a thing or two from watching Elvis perform. "Elvis would be so proud of me, and he would have loved this show. He wasn't a real dancer as such, but he was the most amazing mover," The Sun quoted Priscilla, as saying.
Known for her role in television series 'Dallas' Priscilla also said that she was reluctant to sign on the dance show and seek advice from British former Bond Girl Jane Seymour, who competed on the US show last year aged 56. "I was not ready for training so hard, every single hour of the day. It's taken over my entire life! It's the hardest thing I've ever had to do," she added.
Taking about her flame-coloured hair and 'youthful' looks, she said. "People get so caught up about age but it's just a number! It gets so wearing. I want to show women what you can do, I'm standing up for women! If people can take inspiration from me, that's fantastic," she added.
- As Hopkins continues his monologue of self-worship, Calazaghe prepares to do his talking in the ring
By Wendy Leung
(Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, April 16, 2008)
It doesn't take a lot of acting skills for Adrian Armandariz, 18, to play the role of Elvis Presley. The tall, dark-haired teen with sideburns of a different era bears an uncanny resemblance to the King. When he got on stage to perform "Teddy Bear," some of the girls in the audience swooned. ... The group is putting on a show with a Fabulous '50s theme at 3 p.m. Sunday at Etiwanda Gardens. ...
- Priscilla Sent Packing on Dancing
By Natalie Finn
(eonline.com, April 15, 2008)
The rumba can be rough on everyone, even rock 'n' roll royalty. Priscilla Presley was eliminated from Dancing with the Stars Tuesday, leaving seven celebs to vie for the venerable disco-ball trophy.
Although throughout the competition the 62-year-old actress and former wife of Elvis Presley had poise and grace to spare, it was the perennially perplexing rumba - danced to perfection only twice before in DWTS history - that exposed what she was lacking in technique.
"This has been an incredible experience. ... I learned so much about myself and all the things I could do," the famously private Presley said before leaving the ballroom. But although the competition ended for her, the Naked Gun star had one more trick up her sleeve: To all those fans (and apparently there were quite a few) who couldn't wait to contact Presley after finding out she was running her own psychic hotline, she reminded them that she had revealed that bit of background info on April 1. Therefore ... April Fools! ...
- Tony Stewart to Host SIRIUS NASCAR Radio Show Live From Graceland May 12
Source: SIRIUS Satellite Radio
(biz.yahoo.com / PRNewswire-FirstCall, April 15, 2008)
Tony Stewart Live' will broadcast live from Elvis Presley's Graceland in Memphis, TN
Two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Tony Stewart will host a special broadcast of his weekly SIRIUS NASCAR Radio show Tony Stewart Live from Graceland, the Memphis home of Elvis Presley.
Tony Stewart Live from Graceland will air Monday, May 12 (8:00-10:00 pm ET/7:00-9:00 pm CT) exclusively on SIRIUS NASCAR Radio, channel 128. Stewart and co-host Matt Yocum will host the show in front of a live audience, giving SIRIUS listeners from coast to coast a glimpse into the personal life of the King of Rock 'n' Roll.
Before going on his SIRIUS NASCAR Radio show, Stewart will also perform as a guest DJ live on SIRIUS' Elvis Radio, where he will play a selection of his favorite Elvis songs. Elvis Radio, channel 13, is the world's first and only officially authorized, commercial-free, Elvis all-the-time radio station. Elvis Radio broadcasts live from Graceland, airing music from the early years, the classics, the comebacks, rarities, live tracks and basically everything Elvis ever recorded -- exclusively on SIRIUS.
Elvis fans and NASCAR enthusiasts from around the world will have the opportunity to visit Graceland and hear Stewart host his show live. As part of the show, Stewart, who shares Elvis' love of cars, will talk extensively about the one-of-a-kind collection in the Elvis Presley Automobile Museum, which showcases more than 33 vehicles owned by Elvis including his famous Pink Cadillac, Harley Davidson motorcycles, the red MG he drove in the movie Blue Hawaii and more. ...
- The closest thing to Elvis
By Joe Williams
(stltoday.com, April 14, 2008)
One of my favorite parts of the Elvis Presley legend is his Hollywood period. The King spent most of the ’60s ensconced in his Beverly Hills hideaway with his court jesters, the hometown chums who were known as the Memphis Mafia. They were the witnesses when the King summoned the Beatles for a jam session Heaven knows what else they witnessed–and so does Sonny West, Elvis’ chief bodyguard for 16 years,
Sonny West was the co-author of “Elivs: What Happened?” the tell-all book that was written while Presley was still alive. West said he wrote it to confront Presley about his drug habit. But it was too late to save him.
... West has written a second book called “Elvis: Still Taking Care of Business” to present a more balance picture of his longtime friend. West will be appearing this weekend with one of the best Elvis “tribute artists” around–Tom Christopher and the TCB band. Christopher is an actor and singer whom I saw at the Elvis Week festivities in Memphis last year. Only after I filmed his uncanny recreation of ‘68 comeback special did I learned that Christopher was from St. Louis. His guitarist–and father–is Morgan Hatch, who was the host of “Dialing for Dollars” and “Bowling for Dollars” on St. Louis TV in the ’70s.
So if you want to see the closest thing to Elvis, you can choose from his bodyguard and his lookalike. The shows are at 7 p.m. Friday at the Florrisant Elks Lodge, 16400 New Halls Ferry Road; and 7 p.m. Saturday at Affton Elks Lodge, 6330 Heege Road. Tickets are $25, and some of proceeds go to Elvis’ favorite charity, the St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis. Call 314-223-9391 or visit www.tomchristopherband.com for tickets.
- A fresh look at Elvis
By COLLEEN LONG
(capecodonline.com / Associated Press, April 14, 2008)
Never-before-seen photos have surfaced of Elvis Presley rocking Madison Square Garden in all his jumpsuited glory. The images were taken in 1972 by George Kalinsky, the official photographer of the famed arena, the singer's estate said last week. Kalinsky came across the photos while working on a campaign for a billboard company called "Great Moments in New York."
Now one of them is on display as part of the campaign on a three-story billboard atop the Virgin Megastore in Times Square; it shows The King glancing up, his outstretched arms holding the cape of his glittering jumpsuit.
Kalinsky needed to get permission from Elvis Presley Enterprises, the business arm of the performer's estate, to reproduce Presley's image for the campaign. The estate asked if he had any more photos, and Kalinsky came back with about 40 unpublished images from Elvis' second-night performance at the Garden in 1972, said Kevin Kern, spokesman for Elvis Presley Enterprises.
Kern said a team of archivists well-acquainted with publicized images of Presley were quite impressed with Kalinsky's photos. "What came from their mouths was 'Wow!'" Kern said. "These are very crisp, clear, professional photos of Elvis. It's such a rare find."
The collection will be displayed at Graceland starting Memorial Day weekend as part of "Elvis Jumpsuits: All Access," an exhibit that will also feature more than 50 of Elvis' famous jumpsuits. Kalinsky said he didn't realize at the time that he had so many good shots.
"When I photographed the show, I thought I only had a few good ones," he said. "I just never really looked at the files until recently."
Kalinsky has been the official Garden photographer for more than 40 years. He's also the official photographer of Radio City Music Hall and a special photographer for the New York Mets.
He has photographed scores of celebrities and famous athletes, including Muhammad Ali, Frank Sinatra, Luciano Pavarotti and Pope John Paul II, and his images have appeared in Life, Sports Illustrated, Esquire, Time and Newsweek. Kalinsky's images of Jimi Hendrix and Sinatra are also part of the Times Square billboard campaign.
Back in '72, he went backstage to meet Presley. "He was electrifying in his white jumpsuit, with his cape on," Kalinsky remembered. "He was quite humble, but he had an aura. There are very few people who have triple-X charisma, and Elvis was one."
[ GEORGE KALINKSY] came across 40 long-lost photos of Elvis Presley he'd taken at a 1972 concert.
- Best Bets: Music
(timesdaily.com, April 13, 2008)
A gospel show featuring Jerry Presley, cousin of Elvis Presley, and the J.D. Sumner¹s Stamps Quartet, begins at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Zodiac Theater (Shoals Theatre), downtown Florence. Tickets are $15 in advance and available and Pegasus Music Store, 642 E. Tennessee St., Florence. Tickets at the door are $18. Proceeds will be donated to the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in memory of Elvis Presley. ...
- Shake, rattle and vote
(Pretoria News, found April 13, dated March 5, 2008)
Port Moresby - The late Elvis Presley plans to be a voter at the 2007 national elections in the jungle-clad South Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea - if you believe the nation-s electoral rolls.
In 2006 almost half of Papua New Guinea's 4,9 million registered voters were regarded by the electoral commission as ghost voters and did not exist. The commission has been trying for a year to update voter registration ahead of June 30 elections, but admits voter rolls in remote, rugged highland electorates remain vastly inaccurate.
Electoral Commissioner Andrew Trawen said ghost voters remained a problem with several Elvis Presleys, the United States rocker who died in 1977, registering to vote, alongside a handful of Tom Jones, and a couple of kings and queens. ...
- Bob Dylan Finally Gets His Pulitzer. His What?
By DAVE ITZKOFF
(New York Times, April 13, 2008)
How did it feel? Perhaps you were thrilled Monday when Bob Dylan earned a special award from the Pulitzer board for his "profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power." Or perhaps you were ambivalent, or even uneasy, and fretted that the grizzled troubadour's authenticity was being co-opted by a body known for recognizing journalists, authors and playwrights - an institution that would steal a shot of hipness from its association with the mainstream's most determined outsider?
If you were apprehensive, you were in the good company of Dylan aficionados still grappling with the trickster mystique of the 66-year-old singer-songwriter who see the Pulitzer as another chapter in his complicated history with the establishment, an ongoing dance of distancings and détentes.
The novelist Jonathan Lethem said that he worried about a kind of cultural self-congratulation, meant to burnish the award-givers as much as the recipient. "There¹s almost like this patchwork attempt" to pay Mr. Dylan his proper respect, Mr. Lethem said. "Well, we'll give him the Pulitzer and the Oscar, and an honorary degree from Oxford, and maybe all this stuff adds up to the impulse we have." This particular honor, Mr. Lethem said, "may cast a slightly absurd light" on the award and its bestowers. "It's like giving Elvis Presley a tuxedo: It doesn¹t exactly fit." ...
- Mariah big, but Elvis is still the King
By MARIO TARRADELL
(jsonline.com, April 13, 2008)
Note to Mariah Carey devotees: Stop the boasting.
The news of Carey surpassing the King in No. 1 pop singles broke early this month, when the diva's "Touch My Body" became her 18th chart-topper, giving her one more than Elvis Presley. Everybody needs to take a deep breath, because even the ubiquitous Carey - whose new CD, "E=MC2," hits stores Tuesday - seems to put it all in healthy perspective. "I really can never put myself in the category of people who have not only revolutionized music but also changed the world," she told The Associated Press. "That's a completely different era and time." At least she sounds levelheaded and philosophical. But let's keep three points in mind aimed at helping us understand what is really the not-so-monumental scope of the news:
1. Elvis is dead. His chances of increasing his No. 1 singles count are, well, pretty much zilch. So this isn't a race, folks. One of the competitors can't run anymore.
2. Digital downloads make it much easier to score No. 1 chart singles. In the age of the iPod, a time when singles are the rage much more so than full albums, it's no longer difficult to reach the summit.
Billboard magazine, the industry bible, tabulates digital download points to help send a song up the charts. So any artist with a lofty track record still hot in the 21st century has a shot at racking up the chart-toppers. Whitney Houston, who already has 11 No. 1 pop hits, could surpass Carey if her much-touted upcoming CD proves to be a comeback.
Madonna has 12 of them. If she ever returned to the good graces of radio and the young iPod generation, she could also prove a threat for Carey.
3. This is about popular music, people. It's not about lasting artistic impact.
None of the aforementioned singers, with the remote possible exception of the trend-setting Madonna, will surpass Elvis in sheer creative influence. That man changed the landscape of music. His sound ushered in the rock 'n' roll movement. His image spawned an army of copycats - from swiveling hips to sneering mouths - and impersonators who don the elaborate Elvis regalia in glittering tribute.
There's a reason his music continues to reach a new generation of listeners. Ditto for the Beatles, who have the top spot with 20 No. 1 pop hits. Carey will surely pass them, too. But she can't compete with them artistically, either.
Carey has a great voice. She arrived in 1990, and her success immediately influenced future R&B-pop divas with big pipes. But she didn't create anything new that altered the music pantheon.
- Who else has Elvis treasures?
By Julie Muhlstein
(HeraldNet - Snohomish County's online news source, April 11, 2008)
Rare. Never-before-seen. Wow!
That's how a newly discovered photo of Elvis Presley was described in Thursday's Herald. Reading the Associated Press article over breakfast, and seeing the 1972 image of a caped King of Rock 'n' Roll at Madison Square Garden in New York, I had to laugh.
Then I had to go check. Yep, Elvis was still in the house.
Before leaving for work, I managed to find my prized Presley picture. It was tucked in an envelope of photos of my late father-in-law, David Muhlstein.
In the late 1950s, David Muhlstein was news director for a Dallas radio station, KLIF. There's a mention of him in a book called "Gordon McLendon: The Maverick of Radio." McLendon owned KLIF, and in the early '50s had pioneered the top-40 music format at the Texas station.
All I know about my Presley photograph is second-hand information, stories from my late husband and his mom. Apparently the young Elvis dropped by the radio station one day to promote a new single -- I don't know which one. Found in boxes of my husband's stuff were several Presley 45 rpm records from the 1950s and early '60s. They're marked "not for sale," so they likely came from the radio station.
The picture has no date on it, but I know my father-in-law worked at KLIF in 1958 and 1959, when Presley would have been 23 or 24. Perhaps a publicity shot, the photo shows a dreamy Presley, with the slightest hint of a lip curl, in all his "Hound Dog" glory.
My father-in-law is on the right in the picture, and looks to be waiting for the star to sign an autograph. I don't know who the two men are on the left; both appear to be thrilled by the encounter. All the men are wearing the era's white shirts, skinny ties and big-shouldered jackets.
Whenever I look at it, I wish that photo could come to life. I'd love to hear the banter between the King and the man who died before I met his son.
The wire story touting the newly found 1972 pictures reported they were taken by George Kalinsky, Madison Square Garden's official photographer. He recently found more shots of a Presley performance than he knew he had.
With permission from Elvis Presley Enterprises, part of Presley's estate, one of the photos is now on a billboard in New York's Times Square.
Kalinsky's photos will be displayed at Graceland, the Presley mansion in Memphis, Tenn., over Memorial Day weekend.
Although never seen at Graceland, my photo was displayed for years in a hallway in my late mother-in-law's house in Arcadia, Calif., near Pasadena. It was hung, framed, alongside all the family graduation, wedding and baby pictures. I remember a few heated talks between my husband and his siblings about who'd end up with the Elvis picture. Finally, one sister had copies made for all of them.
When I went to find the picture Thursday, I was half surprised I still had it. Knowing that my 21-year-old musician son has a few kitschy Elvis items, I thought maybe the photo had become part of his collection. Ah, but it's still mine.
Reading about never-before-seen Presley pictures, I wondered if they're really all that rare. If I have Elvis in an envelope, how many others do?
1963's "It Happened at the World's Fair" was set in Seattle. Anybody out there have a Kodak Brownie snapshot of Presley being kicked in the shin by 10-year-old Kurt Russell?
There must be hundreds, even thousands of never-before-seen Presley pictures. The New York discovery is just the thing to flush them out. Seeing that young, cool Elvis, I couldn't resist. I'll go first.
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
Elvis photos? Do you have a snapshot of Elvis Presley? To share it with Herald readers, contact Julie Muhlstein at 425-339-3460 or muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
- ARNOLD: Rickman to be invaded by 'Elvi' once again: Tribute contest set for Saturday in two sessions
By Kevin Carbery
(Jefferson County Journal, April 5, found April 11, 2008)
Hundreds are expected to gather at Rickman Auditorium Saturday to witness a popular competition. The 2008 Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest will take place on the Fox High School campus in Arnold for the second year in a row. It is sponsored by the Arnold Tourism Commission.
"The Elvis fans are certainly diehard fans," Arnold City Councilman Randy Crisler said. "They'll be happy to be here the whole day." While the 2007 regional contest at Rickman was considered a huge success, drawing around 1,300 people, it also lasted longer than expected, running late into the night in one continuous session. In response to that, organizers decided that this time they would break the competition into two rounds, a preliminary in the afternoon and finals in the evening. The first session starts at 1 p.m., with the finals commencing at 6:30 p.m.
"(Contestants) will get about eight minutes to perform two songs in both sessions," explained Gina Sokolich, Arnold's special events coordinator. "There will be 10 finalists in the late show." Sokolich said she had 14 Elvis tribute artists registered to compete as of last week, but expected more to sign up as the contest approached.
She said another change in the way the contest will be conducted is that a live band will support the singers. "We have the EAS Band, instead of using CDs, like last year," she said.
Another feature of this year's contest at Rickman will be the appearance of a number of impersonators of stars other than Elvis, Sokolich said. An Ed Sullivan impersonator will emcee the event and The Rockin' Review will provide a number of other impersonators to open the evening session.
The Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest is unique in that it is sanctioned by Elvis Presley Enterprises. Last year's Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest was the first one ever sanctioned by the Graceland-based organization. Contestants will vie for a $1,000 cash prize at the regional, but the real enticement is that the winner qualifies to compete in the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest semifinals in August at Graceland against champs from other regional competitions. Following that, an overall champion is crowned in the finals at the same event.
Rick Vickers of Salem, Mo., won the Arnold regional last year. Shawn Klush of Pennsylvania was named the winner of the 2007 Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest finals.
\Contestants are judged on such categories as talent, appearance, performance and stage presence, as well as their overall tribute to Elvis.
Arnold officials have learned that anything to do with Elvis Presley gets the attention of a sizable segment of the public. "We're looking at a crowd of, maybe, 800 this year," Sokolich said. "It may be down a little bit, but it will still be a good turnout."
... Tickets are available through Arnold City Hall or Ticketmaster. For ticket or other information about the contest, call 636-296-2100 or visit the city's Web site at www.arnoldmo.org.
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