Fans of Elvis Presley will celebrate what would have been his 70th birthday on Saturday with a roster of activities at his Graceland home, a string of movie reruns on cable television and shows by Elvis impersonators in nightclubs around the country.
Presley, whose trademark quiff was recently voted the most famous haircut in history, died suddenly at 42 in 1977. Although some of his diehard fans still believe that his death was an elaborate hoax by rock'n'roll revolutionary to allow him to escape the glare of constant public attention, most Elvis followers have long accepted his death.
Hundreds, if not thousands, were expected to turn up at the gates of Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, for a candlelit vigil paying homage to the star.
Other events planned around Memphis included a cake cutting and Elvis Day proclamation by local officials; tours of the Elvis Automobile Museum; a memorial hockey game and distribution of limited-edition Elvis Presley Commemorative Hockey Pucks and a birthday dance at a local hotel.
Talk is likely to center on the recent sale of the Elvis estate by the daughter of "The King," Lisa Marie Presley, to sports entrepreneur F.X. Sillerman for US$100 million.
Sillerman said he believes that despite the string of posthumous hits, Elvis' brand is dramatically underused and he plans an aggressive strategy to yield even more international hits from Presley's library of music.
Fans will also wonder what Elvis would have been like had he lived. A Memphis paper asked its readers what Elvis would be doing were he alive and got some surprising answers. Some said he would be appearing in Viagra or Cadillac commercials. Others believed he would still be pulling in the crowds with a long stint in Las Vegas or acting as an ageing tough guy in a Quentin Tarantino movie.
"Just imagine -- Elvis at 70," wrote the TV columnist in Newsday. "White suede shoes. Heartbreak hospital. A little more conversation, a little less action."
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
China has built a land-based prototype nuclear reactor for a large surface warship, in the clearest sign yet Beijing is advancing toward producing the nation’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, according to a new analysis of satellite imagery and Chinese government documents provided to The Associated Press. There have long been rumors that China is planning to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, but the research by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California is the first to confirm it is working on a nuclear-powered propulsion system for a carrier-sized surface warship. Why is China’s pursuit of nuclear-powered carriers significant? China’s navy is already
‘SIGNS OF ESCALATION’: Russian forces have been aiming to capture Ukraine’s eastern Donbas province and have been capturing new villages as they move toward Pokrovsk Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi on Saturday said that Ukraine faced increasing difficulties in its fight against Moscow’s invasion as Russian forces advance and North Korean troops prepare to join the Kremlin’s campaign. Syrskyi, relating comments he made to a top US general, said outnumbered Ukrainian forces faced Russian attacks in key sectors of the more than two-and-a-half-year-old war with Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a nightly address said that Ukraine’s military command was focused on defending around the town of Kurakhove — a target of Russia’s advances along with Pokrovsk, a logistical hub to the north. He decried strikes
RSS