{"id":1564,"date":"2016-01-15T02:48:42","date_gmt":"2016-01-15T02:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/?p=1564"},"modified":"2016-01-15T05:43:57","modified_gmt":"2016-01-15T05:43:57","slug":"channeling-elvis-in-the-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/channeling-elvis-in-the-desert\/","title":{"rendered":"CHANNELING ELVIS–IN THE DESERT"},"content":{"rendered":"

My friend Wendy leads\u00a0The Palm Desert Strummers\u00a0who make beautiful ukulele music near the mid-century modern capital of the world: Palm Springs. Folks drive north, south, east, west from their desert abodes to play with this group. Snowbirds fly in for the winter, escaping the ice and cold of their homelands.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Elvis Honeymoon Hideaway<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last week they did one of the coolest gigs ever. And it has everything to do with Elvis.<\/p>\n

Yes, THAT Elvis. The guy who would have turned eighty-one years old this month. IF he was still around to blow out the candles. Where was the gig?\u00a0The Elvis Honeymoon Hideaway.<\/a><\/p>\n

No kidding.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"desertstrummers\"
The Palm Desert Strummers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Apparently this is where Elvis and his bride Priscilla got \u201cup close and personal.\u201d Baby Lisa Marie was born exactly nine months later. You gotta love math.<\/p>\n

Of course The Palm Desert Strummers play Elvis songs and are joined by an Elvis impersonator. Is it any wonder that Elvis has made more money as a dead person than an alive one? It\u2019s like he\u2019s still here. And in this case looking especially boyish and rosy-cheeked.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\"elvisplaysuke\"There is a reason I am bringing this up. I have my own Elvis story too\u2026<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

I am packing up after a gig at an average retirement home in Los Angeles. There is a kind, portly fellow visiting a friend that day and he stays for the show. Afterwards this man offers to load my gear into the car. He has a warm southern drawl, rich with natural resonance that’s\u00a0sweet like honey. He is what chivalry\u00a0sounds<\/em>\u00a0like\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you do for a living?\u201d I chirp.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an Elvis impersonator.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh really…<\/p>\n

\u201cHow\u2019d you get to be an Elvis impersonator?\u201d That\u2019s a good question, huh. I mean do you wake up one morning and realize you look and sound like\u00a0the guy<\/em>. AND have the marketing chops to book gigs and get paid for singing \u201cHound Dog,\u201d swiveling your hips and flirting with the ladies?<\/p>\n

He tells me that he sang in Elvis\u2019s backup group. This was towards the end of Elvis\u2019s career when the singer was rotund, sick and his vocal chops were chipped away. According to “Mr. Chivalry” some nights Elvis couldn\u2019t even sing. That\u2019s when the backup guys vocalized his part for him.<\/p>\n

So far so good. This story is within the realm of, let\u2019s say,\u00a0possibility<\/em>. But just as he\u2019s leaning into my car trunk to re-arrange the amp, he goes all loopy.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know Elvis is still alive\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cElvis is still alive???\u201d I repeat the words like a parrot who has just been bopped on the head\u00a0by a falling coconut. \u201cElvis is still\u00a0alive<\/em>?\u201d I aaaawk. He tells me\u00a0there are things people don\u2019t know.<\/em>\u00a0Will never know.<\/em>\u00a0This man is very sincere. And serious. I get the impression that, in his opinion, Elvis wanted out of the celebrity life and the only way to do that was to fake his death.<\/p>\n

Gee maybe there are flying saucers too. May I remind you that I did this retirement home gig some fifteen years ago, long after Elvis had left this mortal coil.\u00a0Or so we think<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But I love stories, especially “what if” stories and I begin to construct my own novella about Elvis. And me:<\/p>\n

\"pothos\"<\/em>Free at last now that the world is grieving his death, Elvis is taking on a new identity. Like he\u2019s in a witness protection program or something. He begins a second career working in the garden department of my local Home Depot. This is his new normal. One day I mosey in looking for a houseplant that will survive. In spite of me. And there he is. An older fellow, kind of marshmellowy-looking, receding hairline. He leads me to a perfect pothos hanging in a planter and says \u201chow about this one.\u201d I swear his voice can melt snow.<\/em><\/p>\n

All right. Elvis\u00a0probably<\/em>\u00a0died when Elvis died, but I chew on this story now and then, especially in January when I\u2019m doing Elvis songs in my shows too. Stories can be so captivating. Soothing. They might even compel us to consider the\u00a0impossible<\/em>. Or at least the\u00a0improbable<\/em>. Isn\u2019t there a brush stroke of imagination, magical thinking even, in the stories we tell ourselves? And others?<\/p>\n

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _<\/p>\n

Well here\u2019s another story and I\u2019m sticking to it!<\/p>\n

The Palm Desert Strummers have invited me to do a ukulele workshop in the land of Honeymoon Elvis, Tuesday, January 26, 2016. I did a workshop last year and let me tell you it feels mighty fine to be invited to do another one. Isn\u2019t this something that makes our day? Being invited BACK. Whatever IT is. I\u2019m doing my \u201cLet\u2019s Arrange A Song\u201d class, but with two new songs. The workshop is totally different this year. We\u2019ll play different strums, finger picking patterns and even try a little chord melody. There is something for both beginners and intermediate players.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll also offer private lessons Wednesday morning, Jan 27 in Palm Desert. Maybe I\u2019ll have time to swing by The Elvis Honeymoon Hideaway and marvel, one more time, how the currents of life move us in the most mysterious ways.<\/p>\n

\"P.S.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My friend Wendy leads\u00a0The Palm Desert Strummers\u00a0who make beautiful ukulele music near the mid-century modern capital of the world: Palm Springs. Folks drive north, south, east, west from their desert abodes to play with this group. Snowbirds fly in for the winter, escaping the ice and cold of their homelands. Last week they did one of the coolest gigs ever. And it has everything to do with Elvis. Yes, THAT Elvis. The guy who would have turned eighty-one years old … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentry"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":2,"label":"blog entry"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"Cali Rose","author_link":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/author\/crbauthor\/"},"comment_info":3,"category_info":[{"term_id":2,"name":"blog entry","slug":"blogentry","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":2,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":139,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":2,"category_count":139,"category_description":"","cat_name":"blog entry","category_nicename":"blogentry","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1564"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1575,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1564\/revisions\/1575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}