"Thank yuh, thank yuh very much..."
It's called
Third Thursday in Summerville.
Stores downtown stay open later, vendors set up stands, entertainment is provided and a sense of community is fostered.
Some members of my Photography Group proposed a Sidewalk Photo Walk last Thursday.
I showed up because I heard Elvis would be there.
As I walked up Short Central (by the city parking garage) I heard
"Love Me Tender" booming out loud and clear.
The King was there. It sounded like Elvis and the sideburns looked right.
Well, the belt buckle would help some younger folks identify the singer who was 42 when he died August 16, 1977.
I chatted with "Elvis" Larry Wiley, Director of Clinical Services for Floyd Brace, when he took a break from his karaoke machine and microphone.
"As an Elvis fan and impersonator, I was impressed by an excellent tribute performer in Las Vegas," Larry told me.
He said he congratulated the man and mentioned he was with an orthotics and prosthetics company in South Carolina.
The Vegas Elvis stated he had lost both legs and was proudly standing there as testimony that people are not handicapped by a loss of limbs.
Later, eating chicken parm on the front patio of
Alessandras, others in the group told me more about Larry and his family.
He was well-known in the community as a good guy who performs as Elvis at hospital, Senior Centers and nursing homes.
"His wife made that outfit," I was told.
I believe the
Photo Group will make Third Thursday - and Second Sunday downtown on King Street - a standing invitation to grab your camera and come out and join the fun.
(Click on the photos for more details.)
As we finished dinner, I saw Larry carrying speakers to his truck.
I shouted
"Elvis has left the building."
He smiled and waved.
Labels: CP., Elvis, Floyd Brace, impersonator, Larry L. Wiley, Love Me Tender, Second Sunday, Summerville Third Thursday, tribute performer
Keep your camera handy....
My local
photography group meets on the 2nd Wednesday of the month.
That was last night.
There was a light rain falling in North Charleston when I came out from
Bella Napoli, the Italian eatery where we meet and eat.
Just before I turned on the wipers, I took a few shots.
Yes, I usually have my small
Canon S90 camera with me.
Duh, especially when I'm among 22 members with large SLRs in huge backpacks.
One of the members, Thomas, had even adapted one of his old old film camera lenses so it fit on his modern digital camera.
Driving down Rivers Avenue I stopped at a place that surprised me with a
"blast from the past."Yep, the ever-popular painting of
Elvis on a black velvet background.
Well, it was pretty popular at flea markets a few years ago.
Had not seen one recently so I raised my camera to capture the moment.
So, do you know where this hangs? Did you take a picture when you saw it?
Movie theaters have clever - and quite involved - cardboard cutouts that portray images from upcoming movies.
This was the Johnny Depp-voiced animated film called
RANGO.
Some have a ribbon or tape barrier to keep you back. And, I'm not sure if theaters really want you bringing in your camera.
They worry about people creating a "pirated" video copy.
My intentions are rather simple: capture the moment in the lobby and maybe post the picture on my blog.
Oh..wait, that's funny..
"pirate" a film with Johnny Depp after his 4th outing as
Captain Jack Sparrow.
(Per usual, click on the photo - twice - to see larger images. The shot of Cap't Sparrow was lifted from the internet so it doesn't get any larger.
There, that credited my source for his picture.)
You really should not leave your SLR at home.
Labels: black velvet painting, blast from the past, Canon S90, Captain Sparrow, Elvis, Johnny Depp, pirate film copies, SLR, watching TV with The Simpsons
400th BLOG. Yikes.
Moments in time.
My
400th posting on my blog.
Marked by a "1970s time travel" experience.
Yes. That is
James Taylor in concert in Columbia a few days ago. Still in fine voice.
His
Sweet Baby James album came out in 1970 with the intensely personal song
"Fire & Rain."He sang the title song as well as
"Fire" and
"Carolina On My Mind" but not
"Steam Roller."
His "Special Guest" on the stage was his son Ben Taylor.
Singing, playing and banter was good from his barefoot boy.
The 63-year old dad broke his left leg skiing last week and quipped he was doing fine
"thanks to some great chemistry." Ben added
"Guess we should stop saying 'break a leg.'"There were wooden stools on stage but both stood up to play and sing as well.
Earlier in the day I stopped at the Columbia Museum of Art.
Enjoyed 2 hours of time tumbling through the 60s, 70s and 80s.
No picture-taking was allowed inside but here's the poster out front with Punk stars
The Ramones.
This classic shot captured a moment at Eric's Club in Liverpool,1977.
Get over to Columbia before this goes away.
The Beatles, Janis Joplin, baby-faced Keith Richardson and The Stones, Elvis, Jimi Hendrix setting his guitar on fire, Kurt Cobain...all these and more were caught in front of these cameras.
Richard Avedon on his 1961 shot of the
Everly Brothers:
"A portrait is not a likeness....but an opinion."Outrageous album covers were being imagined and created long before
Photoshop.
Officials in Morocco were reluctant to allow placing actual giant inflated red balloons along the top of sand dunes at dawn but that was the vision of the album designer.
The funniest part of this looking back experience was using my
Smartphone and
GPS guidance system to find these places.
(Click images for detail. Koger Center for the Arts was aggressive enforcing no cameras..but only on the front row! Flashes going off all around the hall and my little non-flash camera acted as a magnet.
Easy-to-get-to rules enforcement.)
Labels: Ben Taylor, Bob Gruen, Columbia Museum of Art, Elvis, Fire and Rain, GPS, James Taylor, Janis, Jimi Henrdrix, Koger Center For The Arts, Richard Avedon, Smartphone, Sweet Baby James, The Ramones
Not Always What It Seems To Be ......
Hey, I didn't realize the
Domino Effect was a visible concept in downtown Philadelphia.
They are "falling over" next to City Hall in the
Thomas Paine Plaza but the locals naturally call it
Domino Plaza.
There also are giant game pieces from Checkers, Chess, Sorry and Bingo.
They all are bolted down to prevent theft.
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While I was touring the fantastic
Newseum in Washington, DC, I noticed quite a few colorful cardboard cutouts as part of a
Salute To Elvis.
Since I paid $19.49 to get in, I was sure they wouldn't mind me posing with one.
Elvis is on the right.
The place is 7-stories high, sits right on Pennsylvania Avenue and has a display of 150 Pulitizer Prize photographs from 1942 - 2007.
Over at the Smithsonian Museum, I saw two cameras marked "Antiques." I had used both in my career.
At the train station in Baltimore, I saw another reminder that
"the times they are a changin'"I knew that cell phones had knocked out wrist watches so should not have been surprised to see shrinking pay phones. Soon the sign above will drop the "s" and just say Telephone.
*Click TWICE on photos to see a larger image. And, check out the highlighted 360 degree virtual reality tour of the Plaza in Philly. Thanks.
Labels: cardboard cutouts, Checkers, Chess, Dominos, Elvis, pay phone, Pulitizer Prize photos, Sorry tokens
She's Armed ..... and Legged!
Amy, my older daughter out in California, is a sworn police officer.
She has been serving and protecting the San Francisco Bay area for 8 years and wears a badge and has a Glock in her holster.
But long, long ago, before the
Police Academy , she began as a stand-up comic, armed only with a microphone.
Today, somehow, she manages to keep both careers going.
In addition to finely-tuned and clever funny routines that have her crowds in stitches, she has developed quite a few characters over the years. Some REALLY strange ones.
Her energetic later years
"Elvis" performance redefines
impersonator.
And Helga, the Eastern Europe/Russian ballet dancer who pushes a motorcycle on stage, is quite engaging and has a different accented humor.
But I am still laughing at San Diego club owners who hired her in 1983 when she was only 17 and already drawing a crowd.
They did not have a clue of the irony when they booked her ...and billed her... as
Boyd Where Prohibited.
Labels: ballerina, Bay Area, Eastern Europe, Elvis, Glock, Helga, motorcycle, Police Academy, police officer, prohibited, Russian, San Diego clubs
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