Showing posts with label Memphis Commercial Appeal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Memphis Commercial Appeal. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

50 years ago tonight in #Memphis. What I saw. The night I won't ever forget..."Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." - Martin Luther King, #MLK



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.

ABC News video: ABC News correspondent Tom Jarriel reports LIVE from Memphis, with Bob Young and Peter Jennings reporting from New York.

"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 #McDonalds and 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.
A post shared by Hallandale Beach Blog (@hbbtruth) on


"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.


Monday, August 16, 2010

August 16th, 33 years later -The Day Elvis Died. Jon Pareles was right: "In death as in life, Elvis Presley has something for everybody."

1993 Elvis Presley postal stamp -Watercolor of Elvis by Mark Stutzmamn

This is the song and performance that my friend Shannon and I always loved best, and loved most to sing along to together when she lived in D.C., because, for me at least, it's the secular song of his that's closest to the power of his great gospel performances.

Elvis Presley - An American Trilogy, LIVE, 1973

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xcZCigY3gE



Another
fabulous story by author David Comfort, today, on the relationship between Elvis and his doting mother, Gladys.

TheWrap

Elvis, Gladys & Their Double Doomdate, Aug. 16

By David Comfort

Published: August 15, 2010


In 1934, Vernon Presley, age 18, recalled blacking out at the instant of his son’s conception; then, regaining consciousness, he had seen the night sky thronged with brilliant blue stars. Elvis Aron’s twin brother, Jesse Garon, was stillborn.


The future King’s God-fearing mother, Gladys -- who herself almost died in the delivery -- believed he had inherited Jesse’s soul, and was “the One.”


Years later, Gladys would suffer a miscarriage, making her all the more protective of her only surviving child.


Read the rest of the story at:

http://www.thewrap.com/movies/blog-post/there-goes-my-everything-elvis-gladys-rip-20137

See also:
http://rockandrollbookofthedead.com/
http://www.thewrap.com/


This article has some really great photos, some of which you may never have seen.

Memphis Commercial Appeal

Sweltering heat can't keep Elvis fans from annual vigil

By Christopher Blank
Posted August 16, 2010 at midnight

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/aug/16/always-faithful/


Elvis Presley: Ten of Our Favorite Performances
This Week Marks 33rd Anniversary of the King's Death
August 16, 2010
http://www.cmt.com/news/country-music/1645830/elvis-presley-ten-of-our-favorite-performances.jhtml


If you never saw my previous post mentioning singer
Calle Kristiansson, prepare to be amazed. This gets me every time I see it, because this guy, whom nobody had ever heard
of, just casually walks up to the microphone and belts a home run on the first pitch like it's nothing -perfect.


TV4.se
Calle Kristiansson - Walking in Memphis -
IDOL Sweden 2009, auditions in Malmö

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CESHAeCxV4





Calle Kristiansson Walking in Memphis - XL Live Expressen


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQtKe9qQYH8



See also: http://www.expressen.se/ and
http://www.youtube.com/ExpressenTV


Yohanna -Butterflies and Elvis from her Butterflies and Elvis CD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8XlKt0eSYc



See also: http://www.youtube.com/TEAMYOHANNA
and http://teamyohanna.blogspot.com/
The guys at TY have got some brand new photos of this super-talent up on their blog, so check 'em out!

My previous posts on
Elvis contain lots of helpful hints on discerning why I am the way that
I am, how my personal world-view was shaped and why I write about the topics I do here,
many of which I never see anywhere else, even though there are, as we're constantly being reminded, tens of millions of blogs and websites.


January 8, 2010:

Walking in Memphis on Elvis' 75th birthday: some Swedish and Icelandic treats
to celebrate with

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/walking-in-memphis-on-elvis-75th.html
and
August 15, 2009

Sunday morning at 2 a.m. - Elvis In Memphis on QVC

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/sunday-morning-at-2-am-elvis-in-memphis.html

TCB baby!