FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL 🛫🌍📺📽️🏈. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'
Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan
Just another reason why Americans hate/loathe the U.S. news media of 2021... sheer laziness and an unwillingness to admit that facts that challenge media narrative will NOT be included.
Asking hard questions about the mistakes unacknowledged in Washington Post story re Memphis moving remains of Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, who led the early KKK, and the remains of his his wife.
Forrest being one of the streets here in Hollywood that were changed in 2017 by the Hollywood City Commission.
The remains of early Ku Klux Klan leader and Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest were finally being exhumed from a Memphis park, and the Black woman who led a long battle for the change was there to mark the moment.
But as activist-turned-elected-official Tami Sawyer prepared to address reporters, a man waved a Confederate flag behind her. Pacing back and forth, he called the Memphis city council member a “communist.” Then he started singing “Dixie,” the anthem of the Old South.
The author of the original tweet (of a thread) that appears in a featured Washington Post article by former South Florida reporter Brittany Shammas -Miami New Times and South Florida Sun-Sentinel- that was posted last night at 9:39 p.m. is a Memphis TV reporter named Chris Luther.
Luther added additional information in his tweet thread of Tuesday noting that there were several mistakes in what he'd originally tweeted, and he publicly noted what those corrections were on Tuesday. https://twitter.com/cluther_wmc5/status/1399858172244992004
As of 4:00 pm today, two days later, despite those corrections having been known for more than 24 hours BEFORE the WaPo story ever got posted publicly, Shammas and The Post posted something that they knew or should have known was factually incorrect, and yet they have still NOT made any mention of those corrections.
Corrections which completely change the dynamic of that Luther's tweet, which I think almost any objective person would conclude was included in the WaPo article by Shammas
expressly for the purpose of inflaming readers, not educating or informing them.
Which, to me, is not actually what journalism is supposed to do, as opposed to the purpose served in newspaper or magazine columns, or essays in The New Yorker.
That's a perfect example of why Americans increasingly not only dislike the media, but resent them or loathe them: An unwillingness to publicly admit when they're wrong or have misinformed the public, either intentionally or by accident, because acknowledging it would distract from the media's narrative.
This sort of unprofessional behavior is an epidemic among the South Florida news media, but that's a story for another day.
By the way, some of you newer readers of the blog may not know, despite some previous posts of mine, that I lived in Memphis during the mid-1960's as a young child, and it's where the youngest of my two younger sisters was born.
We were still living in Memphis in April of 1968 when Dr. Martin Luther King was shot, as I've also written about in some detail here previously, as well on Instagram three years ago.
1993 ELVIS PRESLEY STAMP -WATERCOLOR OF ELVIS BY MARK STUTZMAMN
It was in 1960's Memphis specifically, and the Mid-South in general, on my family's weekend (often-interminable) drives all around Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, where I first developed my deep and enduring love and preference for many things: the Mississippi River; rhythm 'n' blues; Al Green; The Andy Griffith Show; Dusty Springfield; Petula Clark; St. Louis Cardinals baseball in the summertime, knowing that their catcher Tim McCarver and his family lived in my apt. complex during the off-season; smoky sweet Memphis-style barbecue ribs; cornbread, and, of course, The King - Elvis.
To a devout Elvis fan like me, who knows just about everything there is to know about him, the good and the bad, the best books ever written on Elvis -by far- are Peter Guralnick's masterful "Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley" and the follow-up, "Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley."
Each is written with honesty and empathy, free of the judgmental cant and analysis that doomed other books that purport to tell the tale.
It was also while living in The Mid-South, that I first became greatly interested in the American Civil War, following a summer day-trip to Shiloh, the site of the bloody April 1862 battle.
It was on that summer day trip when I was seven years old that I had a chance meeting with a VERY old man on the battlefield itself.
A man whose said own father had actually fought in the battle.
Spending a day there is an awesome experience and really puts things into their proper perspective, just as my later trips to Gettysburg, Harper's Ferry, Winchester, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania did as well.
Regular readers of this blog will recall that I've written before that though I was born in San Antonio, I was a seven-year old First Grader growing-up in Memphis when Dr. King was assassinated there.
On the night of April 4, 1968, my family and I went out to our neighborhood McDonald's and when we returned to our apt., I walked into the living room and turned on our black-and-white TV, and within no time, everything in the world changed... see my Instagram post about it below.
CBS News: CBS Evening News anchor Walter Cronkite announces the assassination of Dr. King in Memphis.
"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." - Martin Luther King, Sept. 1962. #MLK
I was a young kid living in #Memphis with my family that April night in 1968 when we returned home from a trip to #McDonaldsand like so many nights before, I raced to the TV set in the living room to beat my two younger sisters to be the one who turned on the TV.
As my parents walked in and settled down on the family couch, to see what was on TV, literally, within one minute, came the Breaking News that Dr. King had been shot elsewhere in the city. And the news only got worse as the night went on as news soon confirmed that Dr. King had died as a result of the assassination attempt, and soon there was widespread looting and violence in Memphis, the very things he had adamantly opposed.
Eventually came the news that the city was under curfew, and sometime before midnight, because my family lived in a new-ish apt. complex that was on the same road as the nearby Armory, my parents and I and many of our neighbors watched in silence from the sidewalk/curb as tanks driven by members of the mobilized National Guard drove towards downtown Memphis, because the city's powers-that-be had decided that this would show the people who was boss.
As my mother tells the story, one of my neighbors remarked on the irony of U.S. Army tanks being used to try to stop violence by Americans who were upset about the murder of a great man who had won the #NobelPeacePrize.
It was the first time I remember ever hearing this strange word: #irony.
We moved to South Florida three months later, my family having had its fill of Memphis, arriving at MIA on a very warm July day via Delta Airlines the day after Larry Csonka signed his first contract with the Dolphins, which was front page news in the Miami Herald, as I could tell when we walked past the old-fashioned-vending machines at the airport.
August 29, 1967 Final 5 minutes The Fugitive, ABC-TV
August 29, 1967 The Fugitive, ABC-TV
Final episode - Epilogue, 151 seconds
"Tuesday September 5th. The Day the Running Stopped." Sublime. THAT is how you write for television and pack a punch! "Tuesday September 5th. The Day the Running Stopped." With these final words, spoken in a voice-over by the inestimable WilliamConrad in the final seconds of the series finale of The Fugitive in 1967, fifty years ago, America got the satisfaction they needed, including where I lived, where it was watched religiously in the new-ish apartment complex when I was growing up in Memphis. And became my very first favorite TV show. (Some of you longtime readers of the blog may recall that was the same upscale complex my family lived at that was also home to then-Cardinals catcher and Memphis native Tim McCarver during the off-season with his wife and kids, one of whom I played with regularly.)
The final episode of The Fugitive gained an astounding 45.9/72 Nielsen rating - roughly 72% of all U.S. TV households were tuned in the episode, a TV ratings record that lasted for 13 years until the mystery of who shot J.R. was resolved on "Dallas" in 1980.
As a beloved music icon begins to leave the stage for good, due to Alzheimer's, we stop and wonder if a more beautiful song could possibly be sung about two such incongruous words? "Wichita Lineman," et al - Glen Campbell's Long Goodbye makes us so very sad and wistful; see him while you can...
Allansmix YouTube Channel video: Glen Campbell Tribute - 45th CMA Awards 2011 on ABC-TV, Bridgestone Arena, Nashville Tennessee, November 9, 2011. Medley: By the Time I Get To Phoenix - Vince Gill, Wichita Lineman - Keith Urban, Galveston - Brad Paisley. https://youtu.be/gTWxvJndGDc
In a career that has spanned five decades, his last concert ever in Los Angeles was held Sunday night, at The Hollywood Bowl, and I'd have given anything to have been there to see that. Do I even need to tell you here that Glen Campbell won't be playing in South Florida?
No, because you come here so often, and you know how things are down here in South Florida and quite naturally, assumed that he wasn't, as well you should, because the closest he'll be coming to a city and region like Miami that thinks it's so important in the larger scheme of things is Panama City.
How do you like those apples, Miami?
Glen Campbell's final tour, ever, and the closest he's coming to me is the part of Florida that's just eastern Alabama -on July 15th. http://glencampbellmusic.com/tour/
If that doesn't say it all...
RockShorts video: Glen Campbell performs three songs on the Mike Douglas Show. September 23, 1965. http://youtu.be/FqRqGGOwDdI
Glen Cambell March 2, 2012 interview on WBUR-FM, Boston
officialglencampbell video: Glen Campbell -"A Better Place" (Official Video) June 14, 2012.From the "Ghost on the Canvas" CD. http://youtu.be/JMh78jF-fMQ
As a young kid growing-up in Memphis when Jimmy Webb's Wichita Lineman came out in 1968, not just a huge hit in the U.S., but an international hit by someone from next-door Arkansas, I personally knew SO many women who cried whenever they heard this song.
"And I need you more than want you..."
officialglencampbell video: Glen Campbell - Wichita Lineman (Live, CBS-TV's "The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour") January 29, 1969. Uploaded March 12, 2009. http://youtu.be/-HFCuBLAjXo
It was only when I asked one of the aunts of the kids I always played with, who frequently visited on weekends, that I learned why that was so, at least in their case, since I just didn't understand it.
One day, remembering that I'd asked her before about that, she had me sit on a swing outside and there, standing beside me, told me that she wanted to answer my question. But that I had to promise to keep it a secret, most especially from her nephew, my friend.
She explained to me that her sister-in-law, my friend's mom, like many other families living in that nice, new apt. complex, and even that particular part of Memphis, had husbands, fathers and uncles who were serving in Vietnam.
I've never forgotten the way that whole scene played out that day, because the woman who told me that also eventually revealed that she'd already lost one brother in Vietnam, and had another brother, my friend's father, still over there.
And that it weighed on all of their minds -all the time.
She told me that was why his mother always seemed so sad and yet so high-strung.
I filed that away in my little kid's mental notebook, so that when my friend's mom would sometimes make a big deal about something relatively minor, be over-dramatic for no particular reason, esp. about his safety, and start crying, I'd know that it was probably more than just the situation that was weighing on her mind.
That it was actually everything else that she was thinking of. And that try as she might to keep it all bottled up inside, so her son wouldn't worry all the time, sometimes, it gets out.
After my family and I moved to South Florida that summer, and eventually found ourselves living in North Miami Beach, I know that one of the very first things that I noticed once school started for me was something that I'm sure most other kids I came to know probably never thought about. All of them had their fathers and older brothers around
Like nearly everyone we met in NMB, they seemed remarkably unaffected and disconnected to what was going on over there, and didn't seem to actually know someone who was directly connected to the war. Especially compared to how it seemed like nearly everyone we knew in Memphis, regardless of race or age, even families like ours that had moved there from somewhere else -for us, from a big military town like San Antonio- knew many guys involved in the conflict in one way or another.
But here, well, not so much.
Make of that what you will, but over the years I've often found myself in social situations where the majority of the group I belonged to, while thinking it was typical, was, in fact, quite atypical, maybe even somewhat elitist. And sometimes, when you get to the heart of it, one of the things that was clear to me was that they didn't know anyone who was directly involved in the most controversial issue of the past fifty years, nobody who had a direct connection to the war.
To them, it was like an abstract idea.
We all saw that that political disconnect very clearly with the rise of Reagan Democrats in 1980 and '84, and it's one of the reasons that the national Democratic Party of today now holds so little favor with such large chunks of this country, especially in The Plains and The South. It's no accident.
WMC-TV, Memphis, TN: Threat of being "Urkeled" keeps students from sagging http://www.wmctv.com/global/category.asp?c=195967&autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=5357200&flvUri=&partnerclipid= Story at:http://www.wmctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=13625348
Don't say you weren't warned: the City of Opa-Locka is set to declare war on saggy pants on Wednesday night, December 8th.
See also: The Racial Undertones of Baggy Pants Laws by Matt Kelley April 14, 2009 04:43 PM (PT0 at http://criminaljustice.change.org/blog/view/the_racial_undertones_of_baggy_pants_laws and http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/OnlyinAmerica/story?id=3519569
1993 Elvis Presley Stamp -Watercolor of Elvis by Mark Stutzmamn
As some of you who've been coming to this blog
for awhile know by now, after my family moved
from San Antonio, where my sister and I were
born and my mother grew-up, my family moved
to Memphis in 1965, where we lived for three
years, and where my youngest sister was born.
We moved to South Florida in July of 1968
just a few weeks after Dr. King was assassinated,
following the horrific aftermath in the city.
It was in Memphis specifically, and the Mid-South in general, on our weekend family drives around Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi -not always so great in an un-air conditioned car with two younger sisters!- where I first developed my
deep and enduring love and preference for many
things that still remain with me to this day: the Mississippi River; rhythm 'n' blues; Al Green; The Andy Griffith Show; Dusty Springfield; Petula Clark; St. Louis Cardinals baseball on the radio in the summertime during their mid-60's
glory era; smoky sweet Memphis-style barbecue ribs;
cornbread, and, of course, The King - Elvis.
To a devout Elvis fan like me, who knows just about everything there is to know about him, the good and the bad, the best books ever written on Elvis -by far- are Peter Guralnick's masterful "Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis
Presley" and the great follow-up, "Careless
Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley."
Each is written with honesty and empathy, free of the judgmental cant and analysis that doomed other books that purport to tell the
tale.
It was also while living in The Mid-South, that I first became greatly interested in the American Civil War, following a summer day-trip to Shiloh, the site of the bloody April 1862 battle.
It was on that summer day-trip that I had
achance encounter with a VERY old man on the battlefield itself. A man whose own father had actually
foughtin the battle -and lived to tell
the tale!
Spending a day there is an awesome and eye-opening experience and really puts things into their proper perspective,
just as my later trips to Gettysburg, Harper's Ferry, Winchester, Fredericksburgand Spotsylvania
did as well, after I moved to the
D.C. area. You'll recall that a few days ago I shared
video with you of Yohanna singing
Don't Save It All For Christmas Day at En Sång För Hemlösa 2009 in
Stockholm and encouraged you all
to watch the entire TV program if
you could, because it was so well done.
Well, on what would be Elvis' 75th
birthday I return to our talented friend
from Iceland and share a song that she
recorded last year called Butterflies
and Elvis.
I'm choosing today to also write for the first
time here -though some of you know from emails- about another young singer whom
I know you all have never heard of before,
but whose talent is so obvious that...
well, the first time I heard him, let's just say
that I was just thunderstruck.
Just like I was the first time I heard
Molly Sandén or Yohanna.
Obvious transcendent talent!
A friend in Europe has seen him on the
Idol Sweden program and she sent me
a video of his audition in Malmö in an
email last year that had the simple words, "Must see!!!" in the subject header.
Wow!Was she ever right!
I'm talking about Calle Kristiansson,
a name you will be hearing a lot more
of in the future, because seeing and hearing
IS certainly believing.
-----
First, the original version of Mark Cohn's song
that you probably first heard sung by Cher.
When the song was incorporated into the
1997 X-Files episode calledThe Post-Modern
Prometheus, it instantly became my favorite
episode. See video of it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CKs8NjusTQ
----
Prepare yourself to be wowed and remember
in the future who first told you about a Swedish
singer named Calle Kristiansson.
Me!
TV4.se Calle Kristiansson - Walking in Memphis -
IDOL Sweden 2009,
auditions in Malmö
See also: http://www.expressen.se/ and http://www.youtube.com/ExpressenTV
-----
Yohanna -Butterflies and Elvis from her Butterflies and ElvisCD
See also:http://www.youtube.com/TEAMYOHANNA and http://teamyohanna.blogspot.com/ plus http://www.myspace.com/yohannamusic
Memphis Commercial Appeal Bitter cold can’t keep these Elvis fans from his birthday party By Michael Lollar
January 8, 2010
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/jan/08/bitter-cold-cant-keep-these-elvis-fans-his-birthda/
1993 Elvis Presley Stamp -Watercolor of Elvis by Mark Stutzmamn
As those of you who come to this spot regularlymay recall, I'm not just a big Elvis fan, but actually livedin Memphis for three years growing-up, before my family moved to South Florida in July of 1968.
It was in Memphis specifically, and the Mid-South in general, on our weekend family drives around Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, where I first developed my deep and enduring love and preference for many things: the Mississippi River; rhythm 'n' blues; Al Green; The Andy Griffith Show; Dusty Springfield; Petula Clark; St. Louis Cardinals baseball on the radio in the summertime during one of their glory eras; smoky sweet Memphis-style barbecue ribs; cornbread, and, of course, The King - Elvis.
To a devout Elvis fan like me, who knows just about everything there is to know about him, the good and the bad, the best books ever written on Elvis -by far- are Peter Guralnick's masterful "Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley" and the great follow-up, "Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley."
Each is written with honesty and empathy, free of the judgmental cant and analysis that doomed other books that purport to tell the tale. It was also while living in The Mid-South, that I first became greatly interested in the American Civil War, following a summer day-trip to Shiloh, the site of the bloody April 1862 battle.
It was on that summer day-trip that I had a chance meeting with a VERY old man on the battlefield itself. A man whose own father had actually fought in the battle -and lived to tell the tale! For more info on Shiloh, see http://www.nps.gov/shil/
Spending a day there is an awesome eye-opening experience and really puts things into their proper perspective, just as my later trips to Gettysburg, Harper's Ferry, Winchester, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania did as well.
Growing-up in South Florida in the late '60's and the '70's, I was always aware of the fact that South Florida lacked many if not most of the sorts of elements that bind a community, or historical sites that can give both kids and adults a very much-needed perspective and reality check on their own life when they are carried away with the weight of their own day-to-day problems, which, frankly, seems much more of a problem here than most places I've lived.
That's why the social significance and centrality of the Miami Dolphins on this community's consciousness can never be properly understood by anyone who didn't actually live here then.
The impromptu community support that caused so many thousands of us to swarm the Eastern Airlines tarmac at MIA to welcome the team back after their amazing 1971 Christmas Day double-overtime playoff victory in Kansas City, remains one the signature moments of the history of South Florida, even if you didn't already know that.
Similarly, the Miami Space Transit Planetarium, under Director Jack Horkeimer, was both so popular and so great not simply because of what it was, per se, but what it represented: one of the very few things that we had down here that was actually top-notch that people could take some pride in.
http://www.miamisci.org/
TCB, baby. ----------------
ELVIS TRIBUTE ON QVC
QVC will be airing a Live Elvis Presley Tribute show to commemorate the 32nd Anniversary of his passing. Among the various items being featured is an exclusive box set that can only be purchased on QVC.
Don’t miss this opportunity to pick up your copy and celebrate The King Of Rock n Roll.
Watch the show live, set your TiVo's, or log onto QVC on August 16th!
Eastern - August 16th, 2:00 AM
Central - August 16th, 1:00 AM
Mountain - August 16th, 12:00 AM
Pacific - August 15th, 11:00 PM
FROM ELVIS IN MEMPHIS: LEGACY EDITION
CELEBRATES 40th ANNIVERSARY OF AMERICAN STUDIOS SESSIONS, 36 TRACKS ACROSS 2 CDs, INCLUDING
10 ORIGINAL MONO SINGLE MASTERS
Elvis Presley's Memphis sessions proved that sometimes you can go home again. It was January 1969, and Elvis had not recorded in his hometown since leaving Sun Records for RCA in 1955. But the renewed focus and ambition sparked by his wildly successful TV comeback special the previous month propelled him back into a Memphis studio, where in just two weeks of sessions he made some of the most memorable and artistically satisfying music of his career.
This burst of inspired creativity resulted in the critically acclaimed album From Elvis In Memphis and its companion Back In Memphis. "Suspicious Minds," "In The Ghetto," "Don't Cry Daddy" and "Kentucky Rain" were among the unforgettable hits that resulted. This 40th anniversary Legacy Edition contains every track from the sessions recorded at American Studios in Memphis in January and February of 1969.
