Happy Elvisday!

Above: Gladys, Elvis (with distinctive lip positioning already in place), and Vernon 1937

It is January 8, the birthday of the King of Rock and Roll and yours truly, who is also an advocate of making this day a national, yea, a world holiday.

"Elvis was a major hero of mine. I was actually stupid enough to believe that having the same birthday as him actually meant something"-David Bowie

TCB: Things to do on this day....


Contemplate the life and work of Elvis Aaron Presley.
Listen to his music.
Sing along with the music.
Shake your hips.
Make girls scream because of your sexual magnetism.
Watch Blue Hawaii, or any other Elvis movie.

Blue Hawaii, the most esoteric of the Elvis films

Talk like Elvis.
Read my blog.

"Only thing worse than watching a bad movie is being in one"-Elvis Presley

"The first time that I appeared on stage, it scared me to death. I really didn’t know what all the yelling was about. I didn’t realize that my body was moving. It’s a natural thing to me. So to the manager backstage I said ‘What’d I do? What’d I do?’ And he said "Whatever it is, go back and do it again’." -Elvis Presley, 1972

"His kind of music is deplorable, a rancid smelling aphrodisiac...It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people."-Frank Sinatra on Elvis ca 1950's

Enlightened Religion Around The World

"Why are the Christians claiming Allah?" asks businessman Rahim Ismail, 47, his face contorted in rage and disbelief. He shakes his head and raises his voice while waiting for a taxi along Jalan Tun Razak, a main thoroughfare in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital. "Everybody in the world knows Allah is the Muslim God and belong to Muslims. I cannot understand why the Christians want to claim Allah as their god," Rahim says as passers-by, mostly Muslims, gather around and nod in agreement.
The reason for their anger is a recent judgment by Malaysia's High Court that the word 'Allah' is not exclusive to Muslims. Judge Lau Bee Lan ruled that others, including Catholics who had been prohibited by the Home Ministry from using the word in their publications since 2007, can now use the term. She also rescinded the prohibition order freeing the Malay language-edition of the Catholic monthly The Herald to use Allah to denote the Christian god. After widespread protests, however, the judge granted a stay order on Jan. 7. The same day the government appealed to the higher Court of Appeal to overturn the ruling. The anger seemingly turned violent late Thursday night after masked men on motorcycles firebombed three churches in the city, gutting the ground floor of the Metro Tabernacle Church located in a commercial building in the Desa Melawati suburb of the capital.- The REST at Time.com January 8, 2010

I am amazed at the silly actions of all involved.
Why are Muslims upset at Christians using an old term for god that predates Muhammed?
Maybe the Christians cynically think they can suck in a few Muslims into their churches this way.
Islam is the dominant religion of Indonesia.
As for the Muslims, they only make me shake my head.
Do they really think they worship a different god?
Do they think the Christians' god (granted it is a complicated triune god) is apart from theirs? Why aren't they flattered that the Christians are coming around?
I continue to believe that it might be better for all involved if we adopted a social etiquette of keeping religion to ourselves, as difficult as that may be.
Didn't Jesus pronounce a much violated injunction against flaunting prayier in public? (Matthew 6:5-6:6)
Why not treat religious activities like masturbation?
Most everyone does it.
Most keep their activities in this area to themselves.
Whenever I get the urge to burn down a place of worship,
I just listen to Elvis and I'm sure to lose interest.