99% Rise up to End Indentured Servitude by 1% & Reclaim "Unalienable right to Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness"

Hi guys, Winchinchala AKA Charlie here, thank you for coming by. I had an exchange on Facebook with a person who posted an article ,

Attention Protesters, you are Probably part of the 1% 

 This article really got under my skin, especially the line about the Jaguar, a used Jaguar and how "only in American can a person in these straits be seen as impoverished," though the Jag purchaser is living on $300 per week unemployment after having gone belly up on $300,00. It's true that "context" accounts for much as the article author writes.  I can appreciate an intellectual exercise of looking at the big picture as much as the next person, but think it is best done in hindsight. Done in the middle of a crisis, such an exercise tends to undermine and minimize the situation and offers no steps toward solutions. I make no claim to know everything, and I do not enjoy arguing, but I am a proud survivor of the 50's & 60's who views the incredible accomplishments of those decades with a happy heart. Oh how we sang and marched and sat-in and insisted on Civil Rights for minorities and women, a higher minimum wage, health care for the elderly and bringing our troops out of freakin' Vietnam! (People were not terribly nice to the troops once they returned though :-(  ) I am proud to be an American and to live in a country which invites social change because as they say, "THE ONLY THING THAT IS CONSTANT IS CHANGE."  Once again the average citizen, like you and me, well certainly me, is  rising up. This time it is the Occupy Movement-- and Hey OM is not a shabby anachronism at all.  We, back in the day, got what we wanted, and OM will too. 

(Someone does have to come up with a plan to present and I am confident s/he will.)

My first response to the article Attention Protesters, you are Probably part of the 1%  was deleted.  The article was reposted, and quoted "---"it turns out that place of birth explains more than 60 percent of variability in global incomes." Then the FB Friend writes, “And there are few better places to be born than America -- even if you end up poor by American standards. If there is inequality in opportunity, those born in America are the ones with the unfair advantage." Uh oh, MISSING THE POINT. 

Study, work and volunteering have allowed me to see how more than 20 countries run, and I can not argue that there is any better place to be born that American, especially as a woman and a minority.  I can argue with the logic of the article and give a comment--can't I? So...

I believe, the unfair advantage is given to the 1%  the financial institutions—banks, insurance companies, etc.  who receive preferential treatment by the government which does their bidding. Yes, I refer to the700 billion which ballooned into 857 Billion dollars specifically "$470billion and disbursed $387 billion," mostly to hundreds of banks and later to A.I.G., the car industry,  Chrysler General Motors and the G.M. financing company.

Also the government insists on giving breaks to those who take jobs out of the United States. Remember what Obama said when he was campaigning? 

Obama, Nov. 3, 2007: When I am president, I will end the tax giveaways to companies that ship our jobs overseas, and I will put the money in the pockets of working Americans, and seniors, and homeowners who deserve a break.

But : Companies with overseas subsidiaries can keep their income untaxed by the IRS if they don’t transfer that revenue back to the U.S. 

Credit card companies were found so abusive that Congress had to pass a law in 2009 prohibiting their dishonorable and exploitative practices such as arbitrarily raising interest; changing the due date, so a person is late;  not that it stopped them from dreaming up new ones.  They had recently tried to  impose a fee for using your cash!  Because the billions of dollars they make from the other is not enough.

If, Heaven for fend, a person has lost her job,  house and car and becomes destitute,  s/he is supposed to continue to repay a student loan. Students on average are indebted to the tune of 28G when they graduate. That would not be so awful if they had better hopes of finding a job. It's a ridiculous Catch 22 because a person has to borrow larger amounts of money lately to get the 4-year education, but it may be  impossible to pay it back, and yet without it, one can not get a decent paying job.

What has happened, as I see it is, the 1%'s company policies have created a system of infinite indentured servitude for survival in this society.  The 1% dictates who is eligible for medical insurance, what procedures and medicines they will cover which has allowed women and children to die.  Of course one has to ask why a procedure costs a million dollars or a band-aid $50.00.

The “American Dream” is, in effect, being denied. In the 30’s historian and Pulitzer Prize winning author James Adams defined that right which came about after the Depression as such-"life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement regardless of social class or circumstances of birth.”

 Children, families, invalids, veterans, individuals most of whom worked very hard to pay for an education, pay for the copious gas needed to drive the average 40 miles a day to work and milk for their families, to  pay for a home--  can lose them in the blink of an eye. 40% of all homeless are families, and in some cases, they are families who are working!

"Unfair advantage," Really? The "National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty states that approximately 3.5 million people, 1.35 million of them children, are likely to experience homelessness in a given year and that number has been increasing at a steady rate for reasons 

 If one seriously considers the author’s faulty logic, then only 40% of the people would be out “Occupying” not 99% and –though I spent my youth in the Netherlands, I am flattered that you think America has an “unfair advantage,” as if any such thing exists in life—The Legatum Institute, an independent policy, advisory and advocacy organisation which researches and promotes the principles that drive the creation of global prosperity and the expansion of human liberty, theUnited States ranks as a lowly 9th on a list of 20 of countries with an “unfairadvantage” as you call it. Of course, every human who is generous in spirit would like to see every person with equal opportunities, but true egalitarianism, meaning a society,  which pools their efforts and shared the rewards of those efforts fairly equally disappeared with hunter-gatherer communities—well unless we take into consideration Communism which, to the best of my knowledge did not work out that well. This is our country. If it has veered off course, we have citizens who know how to stand up. We have a Constitution that says we can speak out. And we will fix it.

Those are my thoughts--

I welcome comments which inform, enlighten or add to mine.  

PEACE AND LOVE, 

Winchinchala AKA Charlie

Winter in Boston: Life is a Cabernet, a Petrus, a Shiraz and... (VIDEO)

Photo of wine at the M-Lounge by Winchinchala

After the bright lights and excitement of the holidays and the big First Night Celebration in the streets of Boston, this old town heads inside to continues the winter festivities.

Boston in January has become the month to ward off the winter chill and doldrums by sampling  what the vineyards of the world are offering. The Boston Wine Festival and the Boston Wine Expos hold wine-tasting events. It may not be as raucous and sexy a time as was portrayed in the California wine-country blockbuster SIDEWAYS, but there will not be any broken noses either. Yankees are a little tamer.

The longest-running wine and food event is not in California long known for its wines; it is 3000 miles away on the East coast in Boston. Last night at the Boston Harbor Hotel Chef Daniel Bruce launched the 22^ndyear of his now famous event.  He pairs his sumptuous dinners with the appropriate wines which adds a truly delectable learning aspect to the tasting. It runs straight through the winter to April.
In a couple of weeks on January 22 and 23, the Boston Wine Expo will kick off their 20^thwine event which is billed as “one of the biggest in the country.”  Guest celebrity chefs are Ming Tsai, Jasper White and Todd English and accommodations are available at the Boston Seaport Hotel.

Events aside, there are many truly fine establishments with stellar wine lists which attract local oenophiles; too many to list in full here. However during a man-on-the-street survey over a period of a week, three places came out on top. First up? The Four-star rated M Bar and Lounge at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Boston with a vast and beautifully displayed wine cellar.  Manager Ari Bialikamien took time out of his busy day to explain that it features everything from wines for $9.00 per glass to Château Pétrus $9,600.00 per bottle. At the magnificently designed bar, expert advice regarding proper pairing of wine with their New England fare is available from one of the expert barkeeps such as Guillaume, from Paris France.

Second is Troquet which offers 500 wines, 47 of which are available by the glass. In addition to being well-known about town, seasoned critic Jaqueline Church writes of Chris Campbell’s spot, ““This may be the most comprehensive and welcoming introduction to wines in the city. Not only are conventional pairings suggested, but even the most knowledgeable or jaded oenophile will be enticed to try an unexpected pairing, and will be delighted.”

Third, from the man-on-the-street survey, only by reason of its size is No. 9 Park. Barbara Lynch’s flagship restaurant earns very high praise. It is known as “one of the not-so-numerous restaurants in town where the wine is as much a part of the experience as the food.” They too have selection which is overseen by wine director, Cat Silirie with bottles from $29 to a majestic 2001 Comte de Vogue Bonnes Mares ($875).

The new Chinese Château Lafite Rothschild was not listed on Cartes du Vin, but perhaps it can be found on one of Boston’s plethora of other restaurants and pubs. One thing is certain, it is a warm and mirthful place in winter.

L-Street Brownies’ New Year’s dip cleanses Carson Beach racist past (VIDEO)

City Hall Plaza, Boston:  "The Soiling of Old Glory."

 Stanley Forman, April 5, 1976

"He tried to kill me with an American flag."

For more than 100 years Carson Beach has been the site of the New Year’s Day dip into the icy Atlantic. Not so long ago, Carson Beach was patrolled by police, so that non-white residents could enjoy the water without threat of physical violence.  An attitude of horrific, self-righteous racial prejudice was alive and well in Boston, as in much of the United States in the 1960’s, 70’s and beyond. It was institutionalized and ubiquitous, and it fueled the fires of Civil Rights for African-Americans, Latinos and eventually Native Indians.

Prejudice even rexisted in education of all places. The Boston School Committee was accused of racism through their specific policies.  “The committee refused to do simple acts that might have reduced racial imbalance, such as redistricting or locating new schools on the borders of neighborhoods.”  This writes historian, Ronald P. Formiso writes in his BOSTON AGAINST BUSING: RACE, CLASS AND ETHNICITY IN THE 1960’S AND 70”S . And on Boston's City Hall Plaza April 5, 1976, the Pulitzer prize-winning “Photograph That Shocked America” was taken by Stanley J. Forman. The man being assaulted ironically and unbelievably with the American flag, in that photo, for no other reason that the color of his skin, is Ted Landmark, who holds a law degree and a PhD and who is the President of the B President of the Boston Architectural College.

Carson Beach comes up repeatedly. Those sandy beaches were once one of the many battlegrounds where the warriors of racism faced off.  In 1975, after a few blacks had gone to enjoy the beach, they were attacked not by an organized gang as was reported, but by the "gang" of other beach-goers. One of the African-Americans was hospitalized. In protest a thousand blacks drove to the beach for a peaceful “wade-in” The Coast Guard boats patrolled offshore, and onshore they were accompanied by eight hundred uniformed police officers. The cameras rolled.

The year prior at a news conference, then Boston Mayor Kevin White, was asked if Carson Beach was "presently open to everyone. White did not answer the question. And Susan Moir a (white South Boston resident) brings up that her son is white; “…he gets insulted at Carson Beach because he has dark skin. (Be reminded, all non-whites were "colored," and subject to discrimination as much at that time.) Moir adds that she has "brought African American children to the beach," with her; that "the children have been hassled by white beachgoers. Moyer says that non-white people cannot use the beach.”
BLACK ENTERPRISE in February 1984, wrote of Boston that “It has been called the Athens of American and the Hub of the Universe. Yet probably no other major city so isolates its minority population from the mainstream of social activities ad does Boston, whether it is at Carson Beach, Fenway Park the Boston Garden, the symphony or the museums. ‘You name it and there is a kind of disengagement,’” explains Hubert Jones dean of Boston University’s School of Social Work.”
FBI agent Tom Larnard claims the experience of racism in Boston encouraged him choose his career path. “…racial tensions were extremely high in Boston: “I would read the newspaper accounts of riots on Carson Beach and the Orange Line.”

In 1988 when Mayor Flynn wanted to integrate the Old Colony public housing project in South Boston, trouble was promised. “Around the corner, 22-year-old Ann Marie Good sat in an open window of a first-floor apartment and pointed toward a strip of red paint across the top of a nearby building.”It used to say `niggers go home,' “she said.”If they move in, it's going to be war."
This year, 2011 on January 1, 2011, Carson Beach, Boston was covered with those fearless and fearful but not of one another. They were afraid of the bone-chilling rush to which they were about to subject themselves as part of the New Year’s Day plunge.  As over the past decade, the L Street Brownies had an Irish band and those who accompanied them into the ocean.  They were as always, all ages.  This year there were other races. There were a couple of African Americans, though to be fair it must be noted that this “tradition” is not that popular with the African American community.  Additionally, there were others. The video below depicts Brazilian journalist, Amelia Andrade, taking her first New Year’s dip on Carson Beach.  Perhaps at long last, Boston is living up to its names as the Athens of American and the Hub of the Universe.

Iranian Royal family faces 'another' suicide. (VIDEO Tribute 05/01/2011)

The then, Shah of Iran, Empress Farah and son Alireza

The last Shah of Iran was married three times in an effort to gain a male heir. All of the wives were "fit to be queens," young, well-educated, amazingly beautiful, but it was the last who was able to give him what he wanted.

The woman who became Empress Farah Diba is the daughter of Sohrab Diba, Capt., Imperial Iranian Army, and his wife, Faredeh Gothbimarried Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Shah of Iran in 1959 and became Shabanu (Empress.) Together, they had four children. Cyrus Reza Pahlavi, Reza (born 30 October 1960); Farahnaz , (born 12 March 1963); Ali Reza, (28 April 1966 – 4 January 2011) and Leila Pahlavi ( 27 March 1970 – 10 June 2001).

Now the two youngest have fallen victim to depression and suicide. Prince Ali Reza Pahlavi of Iran shot himself to death at his Boston home yesterday just a couple of months shy of his 45 birthday. In addition to being the second son and third child of this troubled royal family, he was a well-liked man and an advocate for democracy and human rights. He is survived by his mother,Empress Farah Pahlavi, his over brother Reza, his sister Farahnaz, and his half sister, Shanaz.

The following brief message is on rezapahlavi.org -

"It is with immense grief that we would like to inform our compatriots of the passing away of Prince Alireza Pahlavi.
Like millions of young Iranians, he too was deeply disturbed by all the ills fallen upon his beloved homeland, as well as carrying the burden of losing a father and a sister in his young life.
Although he struggled for years to overcome his sorrow, he finally succumbed, and during the night of the 4th of January 2011, in his Boston residence, took his own life, plunging his family and friends into great sorrow.
Once again, we are joined with mothers, father and relatives of so many victims of these dark times for our country.
Reza Pahlavi, Farah Pahlavi, Farahnaz Pahlavi, Yasmine Pahlavi, Noor Pahlavi, Iman Pahlavi and Farah Pahlavi."

Prince Ali Reza Pahlavi for whom a photo gallery is on display, was once considered one of the world's mos eligible princes. He completed his undergraduate education at Princeton, where he studied music and ethnomusicology and earned a master's in ancient Iranian studies from Columbia University. He was also working on a Ph.D. from Harvard in ancient Iranian studies and philology.
Tragically, his sister his Leila (age 31) committed suicide by an overdose of prescription drugs in 2001 in London.

These two deaths came after that of the Shah himself, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Though an absolute monarch, he was quite popular and the preeminent leader of the Middle East at that time.  He led the “White Revolution” in Iran, extended suffrage to women. In face upon his marriage to Farah, he named her “Empress Regent” which made it clear that if he died before their son’s 21^stbirthday, she would be the ruler of Iran, an unprecedented move in the Middle East at that time, and perhaps now. That never came to be, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi died of non-Hodgkins lymphoma in Egyptian exile on July 27^th, 1980.

We offer our deepest Condolences to Empress Farah Diba andthe entire Pahlavi for the loss of your beloved son, 

Prince Alireza Pahlavi. R.I.P

NOTICE: "Empress" Farah Diba has asked that it be known that she does not have a facebook page, or myspace or any other page which is her except: http://www.farahpahlavi.org/

Special thanks to film director, Farhad Zamani for his kind consultation.

Oscars: Boston’s Mark Wahlberg up for another

The Fighter premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on December 6, 2010 in Hollywood

Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Since 1903, there have been well over 600 films made in Massachusetts, and they star many of our local thespians and filmmakers.  The have brought home or been nominated for a whopping 164 Oscars.  In the past 5 years, cinematographer Robert Richardson, of Cape Cod won for THE AVIATOR and was nominated for INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS [sic]; animator Andrew Stanton won one for Best Animated Feature WALLEE, also nominated for Best Screenplay written for the screen.

Those which have received well-deserved nods from the Oscar buzz committee are THE SOCIAL NETWORK and THE BLACK SWAN.  “Bringing sexy back,” Justin Timberlake portrays Napster co-founder Sean Parker, and he could win. The switch from songster to actor worked for Eminem who won an Oscar for “"Lose Yourself" in his film 8 MILE. For THE BLACK SWAN, director Darren Aronofsky and actress Natalie Portman have both received high praise.

Right up there with them is one of our hometown boys Mark Wahlberg who was born in Dorchester and attended what was then Copley Square High School on Newbury Street.  While he did not rank as highly as Eminem or Timberlake on the charts, he too crossed over from music to film. He was an original member of the boy band New Kids on the Block, NKOB but was, according to sources, more of a bad boy. And that he was racking up quite a rap sheet.

Nevertheless, Penny Marshall gave him a chance, and he proved he could act in RENAISSANCE MAN.  That army recruit is so different from who Mark is. Then he proved himself again in BASKETBALL DIARIES with Leonardo DiCaprio before taking ons  BOOGIE NIGHTS (1997), THREE KINGS (1999), THE PERFECT STORM (2000), PLANET OF THE APES (2001), THE ITALIAN JOB(2003), I HEART HUCKABEES (2004), FOUR BROTHERS(2005).  He has turned down several roles, the most controversial being BROKE BACK MOUNTAIN.

This has unfairly cast a shadow of homophobia over the handsome actor. Even though he claims the decision was rooted in the advice of his priest Father Flavin and his own intense Catholic beliefs, many are quick to point out his personal life which includes children out of wedlock and his performance in BOOGIE NIGHTS in which he plays a character whose behavior is also contrary to the teachings of the church.  However other actors have reported another reason he gave as an answer to turning down a part, namely,  he “got a little creeped out." Not every actor can play every role; that is a reality of the craft. Perhaps he would not play a murderer either.

However, his choices always seem to be perfect for him. After working with Martin Scorsese, and his close friend Leonardo Dicaprio again on, THE DEPARTED (2006), he was nominated for an Oscar.   INVINCIBLE (2006) and SHOOTER (2007) followed.

Last year, after a lot of hard work, came THE FIGHTER. It has already won 5 awards, but not been nominated for the BAFTA. Some say if the film wins the BAFTA, it will lose the Oscar as did happen in 2008 with the amazing film THE WRESTLER

THE FIGHTER received positive press as soon as it hit the theatres. Of his performance, The LA times writes that his “rock-solid performance is the film's irreplaceable anchor.” There has also been comment that perhaps Christian Bale has proven himself Oscar-worthy as well as the director David O. Russell with whom Mark worked on THREE KINGS and apparently got along with contrary to George Clooney.

There are many reasons to think that despite his challenging beginnings, Mark may have produced and acted in an Oscar winner, THE FIGHTER.

Tribute to Prince AliReza

Prince Alireza Pahlavi of Boston, son of the former Shah of Iran and “Empress” Farah Pahlavi, committed suicide a week ago in Boston.  There have been candlelight vigils in remembrance held around the world. Much to the shock of many, there was a video tribute to the prince in Tehran. One man suggested, his death would go unnoticed there. It did not. How could it?  He is after all, a citizen born of that land. If the international outpouring of grief for this man’s life is any gauge Alireza was an admired and well-respected, well-loved man around the globe.  He always had been. A high school classmate, Liza Barrett, told AOL News. “‘He was sort of an enigma.’ She remembers that ‘he was a good square dancer,’ and that he ‘clearly carried himself like upper crust.’"

Obviously, he did not want for possessions, prestige or education. He began his studies at Mt Greylock Regional High School in Williamstown, Massachusetts went on to take a BA in Physics from Princeton, his Masters in Iranian Studies from Columbia University in 1992, and sometime before his death, according to his mother’s webpage, he was engaged in ancient Iranian studies and philology at Harvard University.

Since the news was announced on January 4th a very wide range of speculation regarding why this relatively young man, who appeared to have everything, took his own life.

“Patriotism,” is what one Iranian blogger “Sebastian” suggests. “Many ask how a prince could be so weak. But they remain inattentive to the burden of a disappointed prince. His education was based on patriotism. I am pretty sure that [patriotism] is the basis of the Pahlavis' view. For them losing their homeland is far more difficult than for other émigrés. They lost a country that didn’t become more prosperous and they couldn’t do anything against the ruin of their country. Being wealthy and politically influential also didn’t help them. Studying at Harvard living in a nice house, and traveling to here and there is not enough when you can’t perform what is expected from you.”

 Dave Thier of the British paper, The Daily Beast pens in: “Alireza Pahlavi: The Lonely Life of an Exiled Prince,” that his death is but another tragic event in the tragic history of the Pahlavi family.  Stephen Kinzer of the same paper seems to be of the same mind as Mr. Their, and he writes: The suicide of the shah's son is the latest tragedy for a dynasty drenched in blood.

His aunt, Princess Ashraf (1919-), the shah's twin sister had also been dealt a difficult hand. Her grandson Cyrus Pahlavi has had a film documenting those cards, THE SHADOW OF THE SHAH in production for a couple of years. On a website, supposedly hers, she “"Three decades ago French journalists named me "La Panthère Noire" (The Black Panther) and I must admit that I rather like that name, and that, in some respects, it suits me. Like the panther, my nature is turbulent, rebellious, self-confident it claims, is dedicated to the Loving Memory of my dear Son Prince Chahriar [sic] who gave his life for Iran.” In fact, it was just one month ago that his death was commemorated in France.  Her grandson is making a film about her. (The French do seem to enjoy the Iranian Royal women.)Despite having lost him to an assassination, and having suffered through depressions, addictions, three failed marriages and her brother’s exile, she "continues to continue," as Simon and Garfunkel wrote.
A long-standing personal history of depression is the culprit in Time Magazine’s article’s “Iran Reacts to Suicide of the Shah's Son,” Abbas Milani, director of Iranian studies at Stanford University and the author of a new book on the Shah, noted a family record of depressive behavior. "Sadly," Milani wrote in an e-mail, "the Shah did have a propensity for depression. In nearly every major profile of him prepared by the CIA, or British and American embassies, there is some allusion to this brooding, melancholy tendency. One report calls him 'Hamlet-like.' The other side of this tendency was the Shah's love of speed, fast cars, and flying. The sad young man [who] killed himself apparently shared both qualities."

Maboud Zabetian, a friend from the Prince’s Williamstown school days states "He lived a tragic life, he had a tormented and tortured soul, but he was a good guy. He was just somebody who got cards dealt the wrong way."

Prince Alizeza Pahlavi certainly had more than the average person’s share of dark misfortune with which to deal.  Everyone has had the experience of moving and making new friends. Imagine never being able to contact your past. Imagine your humiliated father dying in a foreign country when you are a proud young man of 12 or thirteen.  Perhaps you would grow even closer to your family, a sibling. Imagine, that she is overwhelmed with grief, and faraway from you in a lonely hotel room, takes her own life.  At the time of his younger sister’s suicide, Alireza was engaged to a beautiful woman, Sarah Tabatabai on whom he leaned.  A friend close to the shah's family told The Daily Beast. "She was his connection to life, art, and Iran, and she was very close to the queen.” Imagine losing that person as well. (Writer’s note: It was reported that Prince Alirezah’s fiancée died in a scuba-diving accident and that he never quite recovered from that. Other than one source, that was not substantiated.)

On Legacy.com, Fardia Pars who claims to have been “close to” the prince declares “Alireza's style even in taking his life was militaristic in nature, reflecting his royal background. ‘Like an army commander, he shot himself. He was a very disciplined man.’” Yet Fardia Pars was not there that night.  No one was but Alireza. علیرضا و خدا میداند چه رخ داده است. Only he knows the real reason that allowed his academic hands to raise a cold hard gun to his own head. Suicide is a mysterious reaction that humans have more than 1,000,000 times each and every day. In order to accomplish self-murder, a person has to be in the darkest of dark places where there flickers not even the faintest light or hope or whisper of one coming tomorrow.

All told, no matter what money, education, level of privilege or politics that Alireza had, his life was indeed sad.  It was long ago determined that humans are electromagnetically charged creatures with incredibly sensitive brains. Their chemical balance is dependent on good diet and harmonious lives in much that same way that our stomachs are.  Prolonged life circumstances which a person perceives as extreme stress, emotional upset in particular with no apparent hope of change or improvement can and do precipitate depression and suicidal thoughts. Only a precious few make it to the front pages of the world’s media to remind us to look out for our brothers. Iran has done that. In this dark hour, they too mourn for the family deposed and exiled and now missing one more member, Alireza Pahlavi.
To see where the next memorials are, go to the Official Facebook Page:

Elvis: Alive and well in Europe (VIDEO en français et en anglais)

Elvis Presley, the undefeated King of Rock n Roll, gyrated across many venues in his career, but none in Europe.  That is not to say he had not been in Europe.  Everyone knows he was drafted/ joined the US Army in March of 1958 and was posted to Germany. In fact a monument was erected in Bad Nauheim, Germany commemorating just those two years.

 “He lived in an off-base residence with his father, grandfather and some friends from Memphis.”   Tommy Steele, a friend of The King’s claimed in an interview to the Daily Mail that when he was discharged from the military in 1960, he met him at Prestwick Airport in Scotland.  All he would report is that "What actually happened many years ago is something secret and memorable. “ What is not at all secret is his well-documented trip to Paris France in 1959, where he stayed at the Prince de Galles Hotel. In his formal army attire, he publically conquered the lips and more of the Moulin Rouge showgirls and anonymous others.

The book entitled ELVIS À PARIS, full of glossy black and white photographs sold out. It was written by the Parisian fan club president Jean-Marie Pouzenc who owns “Elvis is My Happiness, La Boutique” in Paris which is hosting a birthday celebration today, January 8, 2011.  9 Rue Notre Dame des Victoires75002 Paris. Get Directions 01 49 27 08 43.The Prince de Galles hotel asked that it be reissued for the 30th anniversary of his death in 2007, et Monsieur Pouzenc obliged.

There is no question that Elvis still enjoys superstar status in Europe, some speculate by reason of the fact that he never performed anywhere there.  According to an article in The New York Times, in 2007, the icon and his music have built “fan clubs of 4,500 members in France and 1,600 in Germany and memberships is almost 3000 for the Netherlands group. There is enough passion in the Netherlands that Elvis's record company, Sony BMG,” which in 2007 released a CD titled "The Dutch Collection," with a selection chosen by fans, who voted from a list of 150 songs.” A reissue of Elvis's "Hunk O Hunk O’ Burning 'Love" hit No. 12 on the BBC's Top 40 singles chart in England...”

There may very well be more Elvis impersonators in Europe than in Las Vegas. The debate over which period of Elvis’ career rages on in Europe just as it does in the United States: '50s, '60s or comeback Elvis of the Vegas days.  A couple of years ago, Peter Verbruggen, president of the Elvis Matters fan clubin the Netherlands theorized to the Herald Tribune that “The Americans prefer music from the Elvis of the '50s whereas the European fans, especially in Germany, prefer the concert Elvis of the '70s."  An absence of scientific data to support this claim cast a bit of doubt on the statement.  However if later Elvis is preferred it may be because his sunglasses and white jump suit make imitating Vegas Elvis much easier.  Just  two days ago, there was a huge Elvis impersonators faceoff, the “European Elvis Championships” which begins in Birmingham, England then travels to Amsterdam and Munich.  The top European Elvis will then secure a place at the International Elvis Tribute Artist Contest in Memphis.
Today on what would have been Elvis’ 76^thbirthday, it is clear that even though his body has left the building, his sweet-devilishspirit still beats strongly within the hearts of his fans.<BR>