Doing anything special to commemorate the King's passing?

My wife and I bought "Blue Hawaii" on DVD, and are going to watch it tonight. Are you doing anything special this week related to Elvis?

I never think much about Elvis, except to recount to friends that I actually saw him perform live around '73 at the Anaheim Convention Center. I was 10 and we sat in the nose-bleeds. Good show: Jumpsuits, rhinestones, horn section, 2001 intro, the whole bit.

I have an old family copy of "Elvis - Live at the International Hotel" sitting next to my stereo, totally by coincidence, and I've listened to it a couple times in the last few days, simply in a quest to hear something I haven't played to death recently. I'm always astounded by his amazing voice when I haven't heard him for a while.

Makes me think I have to get some EP on CD someday. Just wouldn't be the same for me, though. I know where all the vinyl scratches and clicks are in every song on my records and I like it that way.

And yes, I like Public Enemy, too. :)

Tiki-bot

"In the future, everyone will have 15 minutes of privacy"

[ Edited by: Tiki-bot on 2002-08-15 15:36 ]

Are you kidding? I grew up 'Elvis'-My mom is the #1 Elvis Fan (at least in Fishkill, NY.) She even confided to my ex-wife that she married my Dad because he looked like 'The King'!

A number of years ago I had the good fortune to work on restoring the 'Great American' costume on display in Vegas. To let ya'll in on a little secret-it was nasty and cheap (though flashy at a distance). The 'rhinestones' were not even glass but plastic!

I'm sure when the King put it on though, his aura transformed it into the wonderful,elegant garment we remember...

My dad was a huge E fan when younger and had his pile of Elvis 78's crushed by his evil headmaster at school.

He finally got to see him at Elvis's 2nd to last concert. He said it was a disgrace....Elvis just mumbled and used up about 200 towels to wipe all the sweat off his face. A sad end.

Back to Tiki; there must be photos of Elvis in a Tiki bar out there!? They were made for the guy! Anyone seen any?

Trader Woody

no photos that I'm aware of, but South London Pacific tiki bar is having an Elvis Weekender to commemorate the great man, including such luminaries as Dutch Elvis, Criminal Elvis and Midget Elvis. Can't make it, though, which is a bit of a downer.

Criminal Elvis?!! Wonderful!
Is he a white collar criminal? Boom boom!

I've just found out that BBC 1 in the UK is showing "Aloha from Hawaii" sometime after 11:00pm, so that's how I'll be paying homage.

Trader Woody

[ Edited by: Trader Woody on 2002-08-16 06:15 ]

We've been trying to come up with our plan. A wonderful act, King Size, is doing their annual tribute tonight in Atlanta. But we just can't make the drive after work. We wanted to go see our favorite Lou Vuto and Charlie Hodge, but we waited too late and they are sold out. Sunday they do a 2-3 set, I think it's Aloha from Hawaii they do. Maybe the Come Back Special.

So last night we watched Dean's DVD as warm up and Aloha. That's the first I've seen it. I like Lou's version better. Livelier.

I've worn a pompadour every day this week and my Elvis shirt today to work.

I want to find some karaoke this weekend. Sing a little E.

I actually snuck a little Elvis on my broadcast. Beyond The Reef is E and Charlie playing around. It's very beautiful.

I really got into Elvis when I was about 18 years old. My parents were never into Elvis so I never heard it around the house. My parents were from the era but were into Doo – Wop and Motown. But anyway, I first started getting into Elvis not for the music but for the whole fiasco surrounding him. One summer our local mall had the Jimmy Velvet Travelling Museum come pay a visit. I wandered around looking at all the Elvis canceled checks, rings, sunglasses, they even had a couple Caddy’s but what really caught my attention were the people. The people wearing the t-shirts, buying all the junk that was for sale, posing for pictures with the Cadillacs in front of the Dollar Store, the real Elvis fans. Later that evening, they had Mike El, a local Elvis impersonator performing and armed with our video camera we were there front and center. Mike had a full back-up band and when they broke into 2001/C.C. Rider the crowd erupted like E himself had emerged on stage in the Food Court of the Harford Mall. We watched a bit of the show but found the camera lingered longer on the audience than on the stage. Women were crying when Mike El sang “I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You” – not just tearing up but sobbing uncontrollably. My friends and I were in awe. We spent a good three years checking the local papers for Mike El appearances and we went to every one! We saw him at the mall 2 other times, at a car show and probably the best appearance was on a flatbed truck in a K-Mart parking lot. We bought the t-shirts, envied the women who got autographed scarves from Mike while on stage, bought the 45 single he recorded in Nashville, got his autograph on every newspaper ad and even got a glossy 8X10 autographed. But, it didn’t stop there. We wrote a little write-up for a movie we wanted to make (on video) and started combing the thrift stores for jumpsuits that we could transform into a Mike El costume. Our movie got made shooting different scenes whenever we got a chance – improvising dialogue – making it up as we went along. The story was about 2 Elvis impersonators – our hero Mike El, the genuine nice guy and his competitor Little Elvis – the evil corrupt impersonator. But when I was editing the video, listening to tapes of Elvis music for a couple music montages I realized that it wasn’t too bad. I actually started listening to the tapes in my car and I still do. It was kind of weird that I got into the real thing via the imitation. I think in honor of Elvis this weekend I’ll listen to his music and throw in the Mike El VHS tape – it makes for some real entertaining viewing.

:drink:

I am going to Vegas to commerate the 25th anniversary of Elvis's disappearance.
By the way, are there any Tiki places in VEGAS?

(just kidding about the Tiki/Vegas question)

Viva Las Vegas in the DVD

Always late on reading these postings...sorry.

But hey, Wal Mart had all those old Elvis VHS tapes for like $4.88. Every damn one (Even Charro!) except Blue Hawaii. I was rather pissed. But I'm still looking.

Naturally, I'd rather get it on DVD, but for under $5, you just can't pass up the King.

By the way, when E! (Entertainment Television) did their "Top Elvis" thing, the only room they focused on in Graceland WAS his tiki room. Someone refered to it as "tacky" on camera. Luckily for them I was not in that crowd because we'd have to give him a lesson on the "artistic" value of that room.

They may replay that stuff...I don't know. They played it 3 or 4 times over the weekend that I know of. (And just ask my wife, each time I had to check out the tiki room part!)

Thank you...Thank you very much...
:sheckymug:

I watched my "Blue Hawaii" DVD on the anniversary. It's still in the machine. You can watch it over & over. I love the vintage Hawaiian locales, the great songs which just keep coming, & all the inuendos. It's how I like to remember Elvis - in the Exotica era.

Back to Tiki; there must be photos of Elvis in a Tiki bar out there!? They were made for the guy! Anyone seen any?

Trader Woody

Not a photo, but I've got a Elvis Blue Hawaii action figure, complete with uke, longboard, lei and minature movie poster. I can't get him to pose right with the uke.

Here it is:
http://www.mcphee.com/bigindex/current/M5788.html

The best tiki bar is the one that's within stumbling distance of your bed.
The Humuhumu Room

[ Edited by: Humuhumu on 2002-08-28 09:07 ]

To commemorate the passing of 'The King' I made myself a peanut butter, banana, and bacon sandwich, had a large order of fries, a milkshake, some Doritos, mashed potatoes, potato salad, beef jerky, jelly beans, chocolate chip cookies, scrambled eggs, 3 hot dogs (with relish, kraut, and mustard), an apple pie, a pineapple upsidedown cake, some uppers, some downers, and some Rolaids. Then for lunch I had ...

Did you know Elvis passed while passing on the commode? (small wonder!)

I love my mamma!

'Elvis has left the bathroom'

I celebrated by skating a clean compulsory program, then I nailed a difficult triple-Axel, triple-toe jump, and a beautiful quadruple-toe-double-toe jump combination, and landed eight clean triples. All dressed in a skin-tight lycra gladiator costume.

No, Wait. That was how I celebrated Elvis Stojko's birthday. Never mind.

Sabu