Month: July 2007

Our hometown minor league baseball enterprise has announced a most inventive promotion. The first 1,500 fans through the AutoZone Park turnstiles August 10 will receive a Marvel Comics comic book with the Incredible Hulk, Superman, Iron Man, Rockey the Redbird, and, not least, ‘Birds outfielder Rick Ankiel.

“Baseball and comic books – the perfect partners; boys and girls, for generations, have spent hours reading comic books and passing countless summer hours playing baseball,” Redbirds President/GM Dave Chase says. “Today’s children are watching super heroes on movie screens, but the heart and soul of the big screen version is the paper and ink of comic books. Triple-A Baseball would be hard pressed to find a more perfect partner.”

The smart asses at deadspin.com have already gotten hold of the news, and the blog’s cast of commenters is having a field day. Examples:

“Watch as Rink Ankiel defeats robots above 20 feet tall with the single pitch of a baseball!”

“When battling Rick Ankiel, the only way to avoid defeat is by standing in the strike zone.”

AP: The thousands of Elvis Presley fans descending on Memphis for the 30th anniversary of his death August 16 won’t see much sign of it, but plans are moving along for big-time changes at Graceland.

Managers of Presley’s famous home want to overhaul its tourist complex — with a new visitors center bigger than a football field, a convention hotel, and high-tech museum displays that can give a new, digital life to the King himself.

All it will take to bring about those wonders is $250 million or so; the total reorganization of CKX Inc., the New York-based company that controls all things Elvis; and a publicly supported facelift for Graceland’s struggling neighborhood.

The obstacles are far from small, but the people behind the plans, led by CKX Chairman Robert F.X. Sillerman, have a history of putting together big deals and making money for investors.

Sillerman, a multimillionaire dealer in media and entertainment assets, took over Graceland in 2005 when he bought the rights to Elvis’ name and image from daughter Lisa Marie, Presley’s sole heir.

When Presley died, his finances were in sad shape. Led by Priscilla Presley, the estate formed Elvis Presley Enterprises, opened Graceland to the public and solidified the legal rights to make money on Elvis’ name and image.

Last year, Graceland made $27 million, and the overall Elvis business brings in more than $40 million a year. That made him the second-highest grossing dead celebrity in 2006, behind only Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, according to Forbes.

More here.

Elvis “tribute artists” from all over the country will vie for the title “Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist of 2007” this month in Memphis.

In the finals competition, set to take place during Elvis Week, winners of preliminary rounds in far-off places from around the globe will be flown into Memphis to battle for the supreme title.

And the winner gets more just a hunka hunka burnin’ love from devoted Elvis fans. The title comes with $5,000 cash, a $5,000 Graceland shopping spree, a jumpsuit valued at $3,000, a championship belt, a Sun Records recording session in Nashville, and a contract to perform on the first-ever Elvis Tribute Cruise.

For more information, check out Elvis’ website.

WKNO is premiering a new documentary that takes a look into the journey of 14 Stax Music Academy students and a group of faculty members as they embark on the first ever Stax Music Academy Summer Tour.

One of the highlights of the tour featured the young musicians opening the festivities for the 19th annual Porretta Soul Festival in Porretta Terme, Italy.
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The Stax Music Academy: From Soulsville to Italy, a WKNO production, premieres Thursday, August 2 at 8:00 p.m. on WKNO/Channel 10.

As part of the Stax Music Academy, a non-profit organization that provides primarily at-risk inner-city youths with the training and technology to make music, these students, as well as many others, are learning to utilize their talents to recreate the sound that made Stax Records famous decades ago.

The film is part of a two-night celebration of Stax on WKNO. On Wednesday, August 1, WKNO will premiere Great Performances: Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story. This program, which will air at 8:00 p.m., details the story behind the legendary label that launched a whos who of soul music greats: Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, the Staple Singers, Isaac Hayes, Eddie Floyd, Carla and Rufus Thomas, Albert King and Booker T. and the MGs, to name a just a few.

Garden & Gun magazine (no, we’re not making that up) has chosen Memphis as its “City Portrait” for the Fall 2007 issue, set for newsstands August 28th.

According to a press release, the magazine’s third issue, called The “Mighty Mississippi”, will “highlight Memphis’ famous music, world-class barbeque, and renowned entertainment venues. In addition, the magazine will delve deeper into the culture and history of Memphis, and will take a look at its place in the South today.”

“Memphis represents the Mighty Mississippi region in its history and also in its plans for the future,” said Rebecca Darwin, publisher. “The city is known as a cultural keystone not only throughout the South, but around the world. It’s more than just blues and barbeque — and I think this issue will really illustrate that.”

Memphis is the third city to be highlighted in the new magazine’s “City Portrait.” Asheville, North Carolina, was featured in its premiere issue, and Mobile, Alabama, was featured in its Summer issue.

For more, check out Garden & Gun‘s groovy website.

“I’ll probably embarrass him, but I just need to do it, Eric,’ King said, lifting his red plastic cup of water. ‘I’ve been around the world. I’ve met kings and queens. But I’ve never met a better man, a more gracious man — my friend Eric Clapton. May I live forever,’ added King, 81. ‘But may you live forever and a day. Because I don’t want to be here if you’re not around.’ The crowd roared its approval.”

Rolling Stone online has the details on last weekend’s Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago, in which Eric Clapton led a trouple of guitar legends including Jimmy Vaughn, Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck, and Robbie Robertson among many others.

But, as might be expected, Memphis’ own B.B. stole the show.

The foul words on TV’s Jerry Springer won’t be bleeped out when the show comes to Memphis. In fact, they’ll be sung.

Jerry Springer: The Opera will premiere August 10 at Playhouse on the Square, located at 51 South Cooper.

The theater’s website describes the musical’s plot: “As people confess to an assortment of infidelities and guilty secrets, the television host eventually finds himself in a hell of his own making and is called upon to effect a reconciliation between the two ultimate adversaries — Satan and Jesus.”

The show, which will run through September 9th, is the winner of the 2004 Olivier Award for Best Musical. For reservations and ticket information, call 726-4656.

Respect Yourself: The Stax Story debuts on PBS stations nationwide on Wednesday.

The film traces the history of the legendary record label from its founding by the fiddle-playing bank employee Jim Stewart to its heydey as the premier soul label in the 1970s and through the bankruptcy in 1975 and relaunch in 2006.

The film, written by local filmmaker and author Robert Gordon, includes interviews with Stewart, Mavis Staples, Al Bell, and many others.

For more information on Respect Yourself, go here.

The airs locally at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, August 1st.