SPEND TIME IN A BAR... or restaurant or place with a jukebox and you're bound, at one time or another, to hear a karaoke participant or the speakers near an old record player ring out with the line "wise men say." Is it impossible for you, and anyone within earshot of the singer or jukebox, to not croon the following line? You're likely thinking it now, inside the brainspace that holds the lyrics to every song you've ever known: "Only fools rush in." And you're very likely hearing it one voice, and one voice alone, despite the many karaoke enthusiasts you've heard take it on over the years. It's Mr. Elvis Presley we speak of, a voice and a performer and a legend who stands large, and very much in charge, decades after his passing. His light did not dim, however, but only grew, and it seems to shine brightest in the heart of winter, which just happens to be when The King was born. That light, in honor of his January birthday, will grow extra bright in Palm Springs, a pretty sunshine-laden location, on Saturday, Jan. 9. Yep, that's the day after Mr. Presley's official birthday, but fans are ready to keep the party going at none other than the Honeymoon Hideaway, the desert casa where Elvis and Priscilla retreated to, post-wedding, back in 1967.
BIRTHDAY CAKE... will be served, and tribute artist Chance Tinder will summon The King in all of his hip-flicking, two-toned-shoe'd, high-hair'd glory. There's a "Famous Living Room Concert" in the afternoon, and morning tours going on, too, with the last kicking off at 1 o'clock. Other guests are set to appear, as well as a "(s)pecial guest performance by the Palm Springs Strummers." Someone might even croon "Can't Help Falling in Love" during the event, and you may find yourself singing the words that follow "wise men sayyyyy." Clearly The King still reigns in our minds, and the lyric-filled brainspaces we all possess, and a day to mark his 81st, at a house he once adored, seems like a sequin-sparkly way to start the year. Honest, though: Do you know every Elvis lyric? You just might, just about, if you were to peruse the byways of your memory.
