August 29 - UCLA Extension catalogue instructor bio

Checking out the new courses in the latest UCLA Extension catalogue, came across Instructor Laurie Foos biography stating she wrote a book called Before Elvis There Was Nothing.

August 29 - CMT'S Greatest City Songs - 3 Mentions

In the CMT Special 20 Greatest City Songs Elvis shows up three times: 1) as an Elvis impersonator in Faith Ills' Let's Go to Vegas video, 2) As a fact about Memphis regarding Pam Tillis's Memphis song and 3) As some sort of RCA selling statistic fact in the Charlie Pride section.

August 28 - Toby Keith concert review

In a review from The Patriot-News entitled "Keith makes it good to be bad, Raunchy songs neatly balance flag-waving," there is a surprising reference:

Keith closed the set with two defiant, in-your-face songs -- the poppy shuffle of "How Do You Like Me Now" (in which his voice closely resembled Elvis') and the raw, boisterous blast of "A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action," which had many of the ecstatic women in the audience singing along.

August 28 - Brooks & Dunn Homecoming CMT special

In the new CMT special Brooks & Dunn Homecoming, Ronnie's mom mentions Elvis as the reason Ronnie's country music career didn't take off and Kix mentions Elvis performing at Shreveport's Louisiana Hayride (and there's a quick shot of the Elvis statue at the location).

August 27 - CAMP CMT promo

Had to watch the season finale of the Warren Bros. show on CMT on tape and accidentally left the commercials playing, where I saw a promo for upcoming programs on "Camp CMT" including Elvis Presley in Jailhouse Rock.

August 26 - Elvis impersonators on Henry Rollins' IFC show?

Caught the very end of Henry Rollins film show on IFCwhere he was reviewing the new Bill Murray movie. Stayed thru the credits where there was a listing of Elvis impersonators. Didn't see the part with the Elvis impersonators, but am quite curious as to what that may be!

August 26 - Patrick Swayze Update in Entertainment Weekly

This week's Entertainment Weekly cover story catches up with 90's era celebs. Patrick Swayze comes thru with an unexpected Elvis mention:Even before Ghost became 1990's No. 1 film — and a VHS tape we actually paid $99.95 for a year later — crystal-ballers were telling Patrick Swayze that spirits were watching over him. ''There's always been these psychics saying, 'Elvis is watching over Patrick Swayze. Elvis is trying to save Swayze from himself,''' the actor with the second-most-famous pair of swiveling hips explains from the California homestead he nicknamed Rancho Bizarro. ''I still get psychics calling me saying, 'Don't give up, Patrick. You're meant for big things — and it's in some level of ministry.'''

August 25 - Nixon photo on Gawker

In a post entitled You Too Can Be a Federal Agent at large, Gawker used the photo of Elvis & Nixon when Elvis got his DEA badge.

August 24 - Hal Ketchum lyrics

Watching VH1 Country, saw an old Hal Ketchum video for Small Town Saturday night, which starts with the lyric "There's an old Elvis movie on the marquee sign..."

August 24 - Cigarette case display at Aron's

Buying the Cowboy Troy CD at Arons, noticed while waiting in line a locked display case featuring cigarette cases -- one with the Beatles and the other with Elvis.

August 23 - Eminem song lyrics

Heard Eminem's "Without Me," which twice mentions Elvis.

August 22 - Springsteen Article

From the Chicago Tribune: ROCK 'N' ROLL REFLECTIONS
The long run with Springsteen
Bruce is The Boss of the road and our dreams

By Louis P. Masur, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of American Institutions and Values at Trinity College
Published August 21, 2005

Thirty years ago, Bruce Springsteen's album "Born to Run" thundered onto the American scene to remarkable reviews. Greil Marcus of Rolling Stone declared "You've never heard anything like this before, but you understand it instantly, because this music ... is what rock 'n' roll is supposed to sound like."

In The New York Times, John Rockwell praised the songs as "poetry that attains universality. ... You owe it to yourself to buy this record." Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times would later observe that "`Born to Run' breathed with the same kind of discovery that made Elvis Presley's `Sun Sessions' and Bob Dylan's `Highway 61 Revisited' the two most important American rock albums before it."

The album immediately elevated Springsteen to a cultural icon, and he was hailed as the savior of rock 'n' roll. That October, he appeared on the covers of Time and Newsweek during the same week, and his image--laughing, scruffy, guitar pointed ever upward--perfectly reinforced the message of his music: Life is a continuous journey in search of salvation and love.
On the album cover, a smile lights up Springsteen's face as he leans on his saxophonist Clarence Clemons, whose image carries over to the back. Attached to his guitar strap is an Elvis Presley fan club pin. Springsteen once observed that Presley freed our bodies and Dylan freed our minds. For my generation, Springsteen freed our souls.

I turned 18 in 1975, when Presley was a Vegas lounge act, and the rock revolution ushered in by Dylan's appearance at the Newport Folk Festival and the recording of "Like a Rolling Stone" was a decade in the past. Bruce belonged to us; we were part of the legend from the start. No more older siblings bragging that they saw the Beatles at Shea Stadium or attended Woodstock. I first heard Bruce in 1973, and I followed him and the band to clubs and small theaters, where I soaked in long sets that left me feeling exhilarated.

"Born to Run" gave voice to my dreams of escape and search for meaning. Of course, taking to the road to find yourself is a classic American theme. Bruce and Clarence on the cover are part of a cultural history that includes Herman Melville's Ishmael and Queequeg at sea or Mark Twain's Huck and Jim lighting out for the territory. But each generation conducts its search in its own way and out of its own imperatives.

Mine was something of a post-heroic generation, too young to have participated fully in the cultural rebellions of the 1950s and the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s, yet socialized and politicized by those impulses and seeking direction. Richard Nixon resigned, the Vietnam War ended, and I ached to get away from home. Somehow, national and personal malaise mixed.

In the opening track, "Thunder Road," Springsteen sings "So you're scared and you're thinking that maybe we ain't that young anymore." The line was written by a 24-year-old, and it resonated among teens who feared what all youth fear: boredom, emptiness, meaninglessness. Redemption and love were to be found out on the road, away from "a town full of losers." "Climb in," the narrator insists, "I'm pulling out of here to win."

The song "Born to Run" opened the second side of the album. In this day of single downloads and sideless CDs, it is worth remembering that the best albums of the 1960s and 1970s had movement and drama: We listened to all the cuts and thought about the sequence. Those first few notes invite us on a journey to "get out while we're young" from a town that is "a death trap," "a suicide rap." Suburban comfort and social conformity sapped the soul. "Tramps like us, baby we were born to run," Springsteen declares. The chugging guitar and pounding bass lead us away.

He is striking the same cultural chords as any number of artists: Walt Whitman, Charlie Chaplin, Woody Guthrie and Jack Kerouac, to name a few. But Springsteen has made the highway and the American dream his own. The recording, which took three months in the studio to get pitch perfect, still sounds immediate and vital. Asked recently to identify the one song that embodies his ideals, Springsteen named "Born to Run."

If "Thunder Road" and "Born to Run" offer promises of escape, others songs are less hopeful. Springsteen understands that tragedy stands alongside triumph as a central riff in American culture. On "Backstreets," the summer is "infested," and the characters are "filled with defeat." In "Jungleland," "the street's on fire in a real death waltz," and "lonely-hearted lovers struggle in dark corners."

The themes of love and heroism are reprised throughout, in the poetic words and the soaring arrangements. Those themes re-emerged with new poignancy on Sept. 11, and Springsteen was struck by the references to his work in the Times' "Portraits of Grief." After the service for one victim, mourners sang "Thunder Road" and remembered their friend who "taught us all a lesson in unconditional love." I wonder how many of my generation have left instructions, as I have, for Springsteen to be played at their funeral services.

We may not find everlasting love, and we may turn out not to be heroes. Each of us is "a scared and lonely rider" seeking connection.

"Born to Run" ponders whether somewhere out there "love is wild, ... love is real" and if we keep searching we may eventually "get to that place where we really want to go and we'll walk in the sun." Until then--and pump your fist as you shout it--baby we were born to run.

August 22 - Elvis granddaughter article in USA Today

USA Today has an article about Lisa Marie's model daughter:

Elvis' granddaughter, in the house
By Donna Freydkin, USA TODAY
Riley Keough is not your average 16-year-old.
In 2004: Riley Keough, granddaughter of the late Elvis Presley, got all dolled up in Dolce & Gabbana for Milan's fashion week.
By Patrick Hertzog, Getty Images via AFP

Other teens might earn summer cash by folding T-shirts at the Gap. Elvis Presley's granddaughter, meanwhile, is the face of Christian Dior's Miss Dior Chérie perfume. The scent, which was launched this summer and retails for $65 and $85 at Saks Fifth Avenue, counts Julia Stiles, Emmy Rossum and Marcia Cross among its fans.

And it has Riley's face on the poster. Seeing her face staring back at her in magazines is "a little weird, but it's cool, too," Riley says..

The teenager is a veteran in front of the camera. She appeared in a Vogue cover with her mom, Lisa Marie, and grandmother, Priscilla Presley, last August and has ad campaigns for David Yurman and Dior fashion under her belt.

For now, Riley says, she's just enjoying the ride and not making future plans — including following her family's musical legacy (dad Danny Keough — pronounced KEE-o — is also a musician) by releasing her own album.

She says, "I was lucky. I got this amazing opportunity so young, but I have lots of things I want to try and want to pursue, and I guess, lots of things yet to learn."

She already has mastered the catwalk, making her runway debut for designers Dolce & Gabbana in Milan in February 2004.

A month earlier, she had hooked up with Dior.

"I remember my mom said they wanted me to do the campaign," Riley says. "They invited me to come and see the couture show, in January 2004, and then we shot the first campaign right after."

That's the only reference allowed to Lisa Marie, who is eschewing attention because she wants the spotlight squarely on her daughter.

When she's not modeling, Riley says, she keeps it simple: "During the week, I don't really wear makeup. On the weekends or going out, I wear some mascara and lip gloss, but I keep it fairly natural."

Her earliest makeup memory?

"Probably when I was 11. My friends and I were into lip glosses, the kind you buy in the drugstore. I went through a phase when I would go a little crazy with the pressed powder."

August 21 - two pages in a novel

On page 25, a scene set at a wedding, the couple have Elvis's "Can't Help Falling In Love" as their first dance song, and then other characters talk about Elvis and weddings for two pages!

August 20 - Paperback back cover description

Flipping thru the paperbacks at the Beverly Hills Library, came across a fun paperback entitled She Woke Up Married. Here's the description from the back of the book:

Paris James has come to Las Vegas to take the sting off turning the dreaded "Three-O." But one glass of bubbly leads to another -- and when the redhead wakes up the next morning, she finds to her astonishment she's in bed with ... Elvis! The good news is it's the young, sexy Elvis. The bad news is there's a diamond ring on her finger. Sometime during the evening she actually married The King of Rock 'n' Roll! Well, what happened in Vegas better stay in Vegas, right?

August 20 - Pretty Woman rough draft

Reading a rough draft of Pretty Woman, came across this dialogue on p. 100:: EDWARD
Vivian. I'm paying you to be
you. Be you.
(a beat)
Have you? Ever been in love with
anyone?

VIVIAN
You mean, besides Elvis?

Did this make it into the final movie?

August 19 - Country Weekly article & ad

Country Weekly makes sure Elvis lives every week. This week's issue arrived today with a full page ad for some sort of "illuminating stained glass panaorama measuring 2 Feet Wide!" showing artist renditions of Elvis in his gold lame suit (2). his early 50's Hollywood look (2), his 68 Special black leather (1 - center), and two 70's era concert poses wearing the blue peacock jumpsuit (interesting choice instead of the more common place Aloha suit!). -$135!

Plus a full page article on Ronnie McDowell, who sings like Elvis, entitled King-Size Career.

August 19 - Steve Jones mention on Indie 103.1 6PM Rebroadcast

Missed who Steve Jones was talking to on his show Jonsey's Jukebox on the rebroadcast at 6:00 tonight, but I think he said it was a guitarist who worked with Roxy Music. Anyway, he asked the guy if he liked the old stuff, "Not like Elvis, but the ..."

August 18 - Fools Rush In Press Kit

Rearching Romantic Comedies at the Academy Library, got the press kit for Fools Rush In -- which begins with a quote from Elvis -- the lyrics that contain the phrase Fools Rush In.

August 18 - Elvis Presley Passed Here book

Killing time at the Academy of Motion Pictures library, checking out the new books on the new books shelf, the very first book was Elvis Presley Passed Here, a book about famous pop culture landmarks.