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why did Elvis make such a terrible movie as “speedway”?

AN­OTHER DAY, AN­OTHER QUES­TION ON QUORA about Elvis that needed an­swering. The ques­tion was, “I watched Speedway today. Why did Elvis make such a ter­rible movie?” More than forty years after his death, that re­mains a dif­fi­cult ques­tion to an­swer. Most people—even fans that should know better—blame the Colonel. [Read more] “why did Elvis make such a terrible movie as “speedway”?”

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an unrevealing review of baz luhrman’s ambitious new biopic of elvis

IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR TROUBLE, you’ve come to the wrong place. If you’re looking for trouble, don’t look in my face or keep reading. This is a rel­a­tively brief and rather un­re­vealing re­view of a rel­a­tively long and com­plex movie that tells you little about the events or ef­fects in the movie—hence, no spoilers. [Read more] “an unrevealing review of baz luhrman’s ambitious new biopic of elvis”

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a double tap of elvis’ pink cadillac in zombieland

ELVIS AS A MYTHIC FIGURE has played a part in many Hol­ly­wood movies since his death in 1977. Most of these movies treat the man and the myth with re­spect, humor, and even irony. I am not re­fer­ring to movies where a Presley track is used as part of the back­ground music but where the “essence” of the Elvis myth/legend is in­te­gral to the plot. [Read more] “a double tap of elvis’ pink cadillac in zombieland”

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something private about elvis presley the man

FORTY-TWO IS TODAY’S NUMBER. Forty-two years ago, Elvis Presley died at the age of 42. There will be fit­ting trib­utes to his mu­sical and cul­tural legacy all over the in­ternet, all around the planet, all through the weekend. Lawdy Miss Clawdy, but there should be lots of his music being played every­where you go. [Read more] “something private about elvis presley the man”

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when elvis was a top-secret agent for the cia

I HAVE BEEN DIS­TRACTED OF LATE, working on my pub­li­ca­tion on Medium, Tell It Like It Was. I have also been spending a lot of time working on the in­ternal work­ings of my web­sites. I re­placed a few plu­gins and jet­ti­soned a few others. When you call up this one you may no­tice that it loads a hell of a lot faster than it ever has. [Read more] “when elvis was a top-secret agent for the cia”

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elvis can sweat it out but we cannot burn mick jagger!

SHINE A LIGHT is a doc­u­men­tary movie about the Rolling Stones di­rected by Martin Scorsese, and we were watching it for the second time. Like the first time, we bor­rowed the DVD from the li­brary and watched it with a late dinner. In the first few min­utes of the film, some­thing caught my at­ten­tion in a way it hadn’t the first time and sud­denly I was thinking about Elvis.  [Read more] “elvis can sweat it out but we cannot burn mick jagger!”

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from burbank to graceland to facebook

WELL, BLESS MY SOUL, what’s wrong with me? As a writer (someone who writes), I’ve been itchin’ like a man on a fuzzy tree for some time, hence my com­pul­sive posting in my three blogs. I have posted 800,000 words in just three years on my three sites: Neal Umphred Dot Com, Rather Rare Records, and Elvis – A Touch Of Gold. [Read more] “from burbank to graceland to facebook”

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got a lot o’ livin’ to do (to make it fun it takes two)

THERE IS A MEM­O­RABLE SCENE in the 2006 movie Little Miss Sun­shine that takes place in the family Volk­swagen van. The grand­fa­ther gives some unasked-for ‘life ad­vice’ to his grandson. I won’t re­peat the ad­vice; see the movie. But it’s great ad­vice about how to make it fun it takes two (of course it’s coarse). [Read more] “got a lot o’ livin’ to do (to make it fun it takes two)”