Walk A Mile In My Shoes

A Day In Hand reveal "The Tao of Elvis" and issue the Elvis Challenge (28th November)

Elvis as gay superhero. A Day In Hand is an organisation that encourages gay people (and straight sympathisers) to walk hand in hand with pride. Since homophobic attacks have seen a 14% increase in Britain since April and ‘gay’ has become a ubiquitous and seemingly acceptable term of abuse, A Day In Hand isn’t really the preaching-to-the-converted mission you might think.

This Saturday, 28th November, we are urged to listen to Elvis’s version of Joe South’s Walk A Mile In My Shoes and walk a mile hand in hand with someone of the same sex, bearing in mind the lyrics:

"Walk a mile in my shoes

Just walk a mile in my shoes

Before you abuse, criticize and accuse

Then walk a mile in my shoes"

A Day In Hand’s Tami Twarog describes her Elvis revelation:
When I drove across country to move to California I visited Graceland. Many of Elvis's favorite expressions were posted around the museum. One was “Don’t criticize what you don’t understand, son. You never walked in that man’s shoes.”

The expression stuck. I thought it is the perfect universal action towards peace. The first critical step in understanding another human being was to put yourself in their place. I bought an Elvis CD at Graceland and the song "Walk a Mile in my Shoes" escorted me for the rest of my drive across the USA.

Regarding A Day in Hand, I thought "What is the real goal?" Stop homophobia. Create understanding. We don't have to convert the LGBT community, or their friends. It's the stubborn bigots who need to come around. How do we do that? Pride parades? Maybe. That's good for us ... for visibility in the community. But will it make those who are homophobic come around? Probably not.

I once again thought of that Elvis quote. Maybe if they were to walk a mile in another man's (girl’s or trans’) shoes they would understand the plight and stigma that still permeates society today. Understand that for our gay brothers & sisters the simple act of holding hands can be a traumatic and even dangerous experience. Even to those who support the gay community, you can't really understand what it's like to live as a gay person until you walk a mile in there shoes. And so the Day in Hand Elvis challenge was born. Plus, says Tami, I love fat Elvis.

Gay Elvis is a multifaceted version. Not just sequins and tight trousers, no, but also embodying some kind of butch machismo (for some) while being the sympathetic comfort figure for others. Camp Elvis, butch Elvis, gay Elvis, lesbian Elvis. Here Elvis is a bridge to understanding, a dispenser of wisdom. More of this later.

For now, come Saturday, Walk A Mile In My Shoes!

Thanks: David Watkins and Tami Twarog of A Day In Hand, http://www.adayinhand.com/; and thanks Stan

Pictures: http://www.adayinhand.com/

Who Are You? (Who Am I?)

We are all Elvis now: 8th November

“Was Elvis Irish?” asked Mary Ellen Sweeney in web magazine BellaOnline (the Voice of Women), “With his blue-black hair and bedroom eyes, he could have passed for ‘Black Irish’ any day of the week” she continues. Sweeney cites the migration of Irish men and the difficulties of Ireland’s 20^th-century past as the reason that Elvis had such an impact on ‘yearning’ Irish hearts. I don’t think it’s just Ireland – I think that yearning is an important part of his continued success. Elvis seems to fill a hole. Elvis is comfort.

Orla meets me off the bus from Bundoran in Galway. We stop for a Guinness but I’m too hungover and have tea instead. The shop across from the pub is called Wooden Heart. It sells wooden toys. I’m starting to see Elvis everywhere. Walking down the street I see a poster for a chubby Vegas Elvis coming to Galway in late November. In the bar where we eat, Love Me Tender is playing.

In episode 4 of the first series of Father Ted, ‘The Competition’, Fathers Dougal, Ted and Jack win the annual priests’ lookalike contest as ‘the Three Ages of Elvis’ (against Father Dick Byrne’s hilariously disturbing ‘Diana Ross and two of the Supremes’). Ted says, “We are all Elvis now, that’s the problem.” Sweeney may have been writing rhetorically but Elvis genealogists answered her anyway. The Presleys seem to trace their ancestry back to Paisley in Scotland, coming to America in 1745, but then there’s some Irish, more Scots, Norman French, high-class English, Jewish and lest we forget, Cherokee. We are all Elvis now.

Thanks: Orla

Picture: homepage.eircom.net/~cubs/tedpic.htm

Donegality (part 2): Hard Knocks

13.35. Café Ceylon, Main Street, Bundoran. Elvis is eating a cheeseburger. Kraig Parker is sitting back in a western-style jacket – rodeo Elvis from Tickle Me – and aviator sunglasses. He’s given up on the mountain of chips. A man I take to be his Colonel Parker is praising Red Alert, the backing band. Kraig is reputed to earn up to $3 million a year as one of the world’s top ETAs. He started in 1995 after busting out some Elvis at an office party, then came 3^rd in a local competition and got himself an agent. He’s a graphic designer by trade but now travels the world as an Elvis headliner. He’s a little shorter and a little meatier than Elvis but last night when he played a little set between the Brit Elvises, it was clear that he’s in another class. There’s Elvis charisma, the moves are perfect and an Elvisian introspection – something about it not being him that’s funny, but us. He has a touch of the cool remove, unfathomable Elvis that is there in the performances and interviews. He’s a bit of a talismanic figure for the British and Irish Elvis conventions. I look at the Irish Sun newspaper to stop myself staring at him. Jedward have survived on the X-factor, Elvis quiffs and all. 

Other than Kraig smoking his cigar as he strolls down the main drag, there’s not much Elvisness in Bundoran today. Kraig Parker seems to be the only Elvis braving the changeable weather. The landord of Teac Sean Rua says that they usually have traditional music but they’d booked a local Elvis for the festival. He’ll be on again tonight – it seems to go down well. I drink a Jameson's then a Guinness to make the hotel drinks more palatable. Up at the Great Northern, the warm up is well underway for the All Ireland Final. Last year’s winner, Ciaran ‘Eireann Elvis’ Houlihan, is delivering a barnstorming set including an American Trilogy duet with a young guy with Downs Syndrome (the Downs Syndrome Society is the chosen beneficiary of this and the Porthcawl festival). Then the judges – a judgemental looking lot that I must investigate further – take their seats front right of the stage and the show begins.

First up is Patrick Byrne who does a good, humourful Elvis. He’s tall and has presence in That’s The Way It Is gear. It’s a good start. The next two aren’t so good: Martin McCluskey doesn’t entirely cut it as GI Elvis and I chat with some home-town friends of Glasgow’s Johnny Lee Memphis (more later). Then Daniel Kirwin. He’s in a wheelchair and stays on the dancefloor, in front of the stage. Now, Elvis was never in a wheelchair so far as I know, but as soon as Kirwin opens his mouth, the dancefloor fills. He has a terrific rich Elvisy voice and he’s got good tunes. The crowd love him. He distributes a few yellow lei to the girls and leaves a happy crowd to thumping applause. The next two are also fairly forgettable (could be they’re too Vegasy for me to remember them) and I say to Glasgow Bernie that it’s got to be Kirwin but his money’s on Byrne. But there’s one more to go, and a lithe, slim Elvis in gold lame jacket and black trousers, with an acoustic guitar bounds onto the stage. He goes straight into the classic rock ‘n’ roll hits and embodies young movies Elvis on rhythm guitar. The dancers are back and it’s clear who the winner is. This is Tom Gilson, a 39-year old bookbinder who, according to the Irish Times, sings Love Me Tender to his wife at night. There are a few in the audience who wouldn’t mind that and he’s signing autographs as soon as he comes off. The judges results are in, victory indeed for Tom (Paddy Power had him a 6/1 contender). Byrne (11/10) is second. All six do a photo call and then Tom is on for a victory set. He goes forward to represent Ireland in the Elvis Tribute Artiste World Cup, in Cardiff on July 4^th.

I chat to a few folk. All but one say that they’re here for their partner. She/he loves Elvis so they came with. One woman who’s come from Porthcawl with her mother (because her own daughter, who usually does the accompanying can’t make it) says that mother thinks the Irish crowd are a bit raucous. Porthcawl is much more serious she says. I say that my perception is the Porthcawl crowd are the rowdiest. Away from home syndrome we agree. But Pat from Letterkenny has an Elvis tattoo. He’s happy to admit how much he loves the King. He looks close to tears when he talks about how Elvis is so strong in his household. He gives me a couple of DVDs I haven’t seen. We agree we’ll meet again at the World Cup in Cardiff.

There’s great craic tonight – much more lively than last night and much more of a home crowd. People have travelled to be here and it makes for a great event. Peter Phillips – the entrepreneur behind both this and Porthcawl, and also Tedfest, the annual Father Ted convention held on the Aran Islands – is greeted as a friend and is clearly a bit overwhelmed by his creation. But it’s interesting – he’s not representative of the crowd. He’s a historian and a writer and seems very English of a certain class. He stands out against a fairly earthy and homogenous crowd. I would say that difference stands out here generally, but difference of a certain kind – this is a kind crowd with a deep humanity judging by the importance of charity to the proceedings. But there’s also connoisseurship. People who love Elvis know the wheat from the chaff. Donegality is a word coined by CS Lewis ("to Donegal for its Donegality"), reclaimed by author Michael Ward to "denote the spiritual essence or quiddity [...] of a story [...] its peculiar atmosphere or quality; its pervasive and purposed integral tone or flavour; its tacit spirit" (from the A-Team Blog). There is a warm quality to the Donegality of Elvis tonight. 

Thanks: Orla 

Pictures: Kraig Parker, Bundoran; Tom Gilson; Pat's tat. All: Pen77

Hail Mary, full of Graceland

Donegality (part 1): Miracle of the Rosary

Knock, West of Ireland International Airport, the week after an apparition of the Virgin Mary had been forecast in Knock Village. ‘A Boyle woman said she saw the sun change colour’ said the barman in the airport bar, ‘as long as they don’t bring the circus here.’ I sipped my coffee, waited for my Elvisiate host for the weekend, Orla, and felt like I’d come home. 

In 2002 the Irish paper, Sunday People, wrote of Bundoran (Bun Dobhráin) that it was like ‘the back streets of Las Vegas only with cheaper hookers’. It has an element of surfer cool these days but off-season seaside is off-season seaside with quiet streets, raincoats, sad arcades flashing for attention, bookies and pubs doing the best business, while the recession means the town-limits extend for miles with empty and half-built holiday home housing estates. Where else would you hold the Irish Elvis festival?

Rocking up in Donegal’s Vegas on a dark, rainy November night, Elvisness didn’t look too abundant – cold, wet, no sign of the King – but a pub, Teac Sean Rua, had a little sign outside saying ‘Elvis here tonite’, and Orla stopped looking at me as if I’d invented it. We warmed up in a restaurant where the proprietor told us how big the festival had been last year – it’s first – with Elvises playing each other in a full-costume football match under sunny skies, the streets awash with a parade of Elvii instead of rain. He said if his daughter managed to get him a costume he’d wear it tomorrow.

The Great Northern Hotel, host of Las Bundoran, is a former railway, now golf-hotel that overlooks the Atlantic. Friday night was international masters night with Juan ‘He may be Elvis, but he still wants his mam to make his costumes (South Wales Echo)’ Lozano, Dean ‘The Official Best Welsh Elvis 2009’ Mack, Steve ‘The Rockin' Reverend’ Caprice, Mike ‘Thatcham man gets Elvis accolade (Newbury Today)’ Nova, Ben ‘Best Gold Lamé Jacket 2007’ Portsmouth and Marc ‘Forty-year-old gas meter reader (Glamorgan Gazette)’ George, all backed by Britain’s top Elvis tribute band Red Alert and Porthcawl’s splendid backing duo Mills & Boon. I’ll come back to them individually at a later date – suffice to say they are some of Britain’s top ETAs, having between them won the Porthcawl prize several times, and scored well in international events. Personally, I go for Mike Nova, but maybe because he got the young Elvis slot – the movie music and some earlier rock ‘n’ roll. The audience  comprised (foretold by the Porthcawl bus parked outside) a strong Welsh contingent - familiar with Elvis convention etiquette. This was my first time at such an event so wasn’t sure how to play it. We sat at tables around a dancefloor at the head of which the Elvises performed on a low stage. Popular songs got dancers onto the floor; people filmed and photographed. A little ritual of winning a scarf from Elvis was in play: a woman approaches the stage, Elvis beckons her foreword, puts a scarf around her neck and kisses her and when one brave woman went, more would follow, so Elvis wears a number of scarves around his neck. The woman opposite us was from Dublin, she comes for her daughter she says, her daughter loves Elvis. They go to the hotel on the Red Cow Roundabout (a notorious accident hot-spot) to see all the Elvises that come, organised by the Irish fanclub. Her daughter returned from the Elvis tat stalls in the foyer with a tie printed with Elvis images. Ben Portsmouth’s own Colonel Parker came around, distributing Ben’s ‘Taking Care of Elvis’ stickers and little Elvis pendants. ‘Ben’s got some good scarves’, he said, 'You've got to be quick to get them.' Ritual. How anthropological. I thought I’d better initiate myself if this is part of living Elvisly. I was elbowed out of the way by some more demanding Welsh ladies, but got my scarf eventually. It came with a kiss from Ben Portsmouth. The noise, the competition, the demand, Ben’s costume (he was Comeback Special acoustic), the women, the manliness of sweat and leather, lends it flustering excitement. It could almost be the real thing. Almost. 

We’d had enough of Vegas Elvis (except for Mike Nova and Ben Portsmouth all of them were That’s The Way It Is gaudy in jumpsuits) by the time Marc George came on all blue and spangly. I knew American Trilogy was coming and I’ll put my cards on the table – I hate it. On the way back we stopped into Teac Sean Rua where a red jumpsuited young guy was singing karaoke Proud Mary to a rollin’ rollin’ home crowd.

Thanks: Elvisiate Orla

Picture: www.lasbundoran.com/elvis_irish_festival.php?Action=Home &amp

Mike Nova by Pen77

Long Black Limousine (part 1): Dia de los Muertos

November 1st Todos Los Santos/All Saints Day

At the British Museum in London. Latin madness including mariachi musicians, Mexican food, papier mâché altar offerings, dancing skeletons, crystal skulls...

In the shop, little retablo boxes were doing a roaring trade. Tiny boxes of clay, wood and papier mâché with little models inside them - domestic scenes, religious scenes, historical scenes. Retablo boxes arrived in South America from Spain as small portable wooden religious altars used to instruct. They took on a new form: florally decorated boxes with animated figures inside that incorporated indigenous beliefs but also reflected local, everyday life, and a more diverse view of death. In amongst the little collection in the Museum shop, the King. Elvis as the incomprehensible, veneratable dead. Elvis católico. Snake-hipped Elvis in the skeleton dance.

Elvis' death and the material and beliefs that have become attached to it is going to be a recurrent theme I think.    Thanks: Freeo.  
Picture: http://tinyurl.com/Elvis-Retablo