Beneath his homemade jumpsuit and the glinting black of his polyester Elvis Presley wig, Gnarnayarrahe Inmurry Waitairie sweats in the unforgiving Australian heat.
Guitar over one shoulder and his official busking pass on one lapel, he adjusts his sunglasses and tunes his strings as he prepares to shake, rattle and roll like his American idol.
“Aboriginals don’t have an Elvis, so I thought I’d come and be him. I’m Black Elvis,” Waitairie told AFP.
“Elvis can be anyone and call to anyone, because Elvis takes your heart away.”
Waitairie, an indigenous dancer originally from Western Australia’s Yindjibarndi country, has traded his didgeridoo and clapping sticks for polyester and rhinestones to be part of Australia’s biggest Elvis celebration.
As fans in Memphis marked what would have been the 75th birthday of the man known as ‘The King’ of rock ‘n roll, thousands converged on the tiny, drought-parched town of Parkes 300 kilometres (186 miles) west of Sydney for the annual Elvis Festival.
It began almost two decades ago as the dream of Bob and Anne Steel, who ran a retro-themed reception centre called Gracelands and were desperate to liven up the relentless summer months in the farming and mining town.
“We had hoped that a January festival would bring some business to town, and I think everybody’s doing handstands now,” Anne Steel told AFP.
“Most people can see what it’s doing for the economy and, by God, we needed it.”
Home to straight-talking farmers and mining men, it seems an unlikely place for a tribute to the pioneering popstar. The town’s only previous claim to fame was “The Dish” — a radio telescope used by NASA to receive images of the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969.
But the Parkes Elvis Festival has exploded from a humble town carnival with 200 visitors in 1993 to a national event which this year attracted more than 10,000 people and brought in excess of A$5 million (US$4.6 million) to the local economy.
Hundreds packed onto the “Elvis Express” train from Sydney on Friday, adorned in their retro best to kick off the festival weekend with serenades by a tribute artist and dancing in the aisles.
The trademark quiff and jumpsuit are a staple, and rarely is there a gent to be seen without sideburns and a swivel to his hips. Priscillas and Lisa-Maries are also out in full-skirted force, feather boas and wedding veils in tow.
The diehards stake out a street corner to busk, while others try their hardest to impress the lookalike contest judges. There’s an Elvis Idol contest, gospel services and “The King’s Castle”, which hosts the largest collection of Elvis memorabilia in the southern hemisphere.
Waitairie, who has travelled some 600 kilometres to take part, plans to win the street busking crown and renew his wedding vows at the mass “Back to the Altar with Elvis” ceremony in a park.
“Elvis was about love, about peace,” he said. “Since I was 14 I liked that about him.”
White-suited lookalike contestant Graeme Mackaway, who has made the journey to Parkes four times on the “Elvis Express”, said the Main Street parade is always his highlight.
“Every year we come and the crowd gets deeper and deeper and the route seems longer,” said the company director who swing dances and collects antique jukeboxes in his spare time.
In just five days the festival brings in more than one-tenth of the 11,000-person town’s annual tourism revenue, its third-largest earner after agriculture and mining.
Hotel rooms are booked more than a year in advance not just in Parkes, but surrounding towns, and the sportsground, converted into a tent city, is overflowing. Officials say the expanding crowd is getting younger every year.
It may have begun as the brainchild of “two silly people who were Elvis fans”, said Steel, but the festival has become a celebration of 60s rock culture and a coming together of city and country life.
“I have been a fan since I was 11 and I’m now 66, but now you don’t have to be an Elvis fan, there’s something for everyone,” she said.
“The fella who gets dragged here kicking and screaming by his wife is always the first to book for next year.”
Filming for Jiang Wei’s upcoming Chinese film “Let the Bullets Fly” in a town in Taishan, Guangdong, has raised the ire of its residents.
Residents complained that the film crews tore down a cement road often used for public leisure activities and covered it with a layer of red soil.
While they shot the film, residents were denied use of the road. Residents also had to walk around with mud-caked shoes after recent rains turned the soil-covered road into a muddy mess.
The locals also claimed that the noise and lighting from the crew’s night shoots have disrupted their sleep.
When asked about the matter, the film’s head publicist said he had heard about the residents’ complaints but explained that work on the road was necessary for filming and that the layer of soil on the road was merely a temporary inconvenience.
“Director Jiang had fallen in love with the red soil of Yunnan when he was shooting ‘The Sun Also Rises’, so we brought in the soil and put it over the road. However, once filming concludes, we will remove all of it,” he said.
While the locals claim the noise from the shoot is inconveniencing them, the noise from onlookers and the crowded surroundings have reportedly been a nuisance to the crew.
Scenes often had to be re-done multiple times because ringing cell phones, barking dogs, crying children and sometimes even noise from nearby mahjong sessions kept interrupting the shots.
Filming at the town will last for about a month.
“Let the Bullets Fly” features top stars like Chow Yun Fat, Carina Lau, Hu Jun, Chen Kun and Chinese comedian Ge You. It is slated for release in late 2010.
Veteran Hong Kong actor Patrick Tse has revealed that his daughter-in-law, actress Cecilia Cheung, is expecting a boy.
He told reporters on Sunday that he was informed immediately after his son, actor Nicholas Tse, and Cheung found out the gender of their second child.
When asked about his thoughts on Cheung having a second male child, Tse replied that he was “not disappointed in any way” and said that it did not matter because the couple “will continue to have children”.
“I have always doted on Cheung because she is a great person; she always puts her family first and is willing to sacrifice for her family,” he added.
Cheung’s mother-in-law, former actress Deborah Lee, also said that the gender of the baby “did not matter” and that it is more important for both mother and child to stay safe.
Lee has certainly put her money where her mouth is. She has reportedly been preparing Chinese herbal tonics that cost almost HK$10,000 (S$1,800) per dose for Cheung on a regular basis.
Patrick Tse’s revelation ends speculation over the gender of Cheung’s second child since the couple announced last year that they were expecting another child.
The pair have been keeping mum about the gender since the announcement and were only willing to say that they “had done an ultrasound scan but the result is unknown”.
Cheung gave birth to her first child, Lucas, in 2007 and had reportedly suffered two miscarriages prior to her current pregnancy. Her second child is due in May this year.
A three-month, Asia-Pacific search by Hewlett-Packard and Cartoon Network for the best cartoon created online by children has ended with 9-year-old Mohammad Aidy Adham taking home the top prize.
The Malaysian was among six winners selected from more than 700,000 participants across the Asia Pacific region for the inaugural Toon Creator Awards.
The others, Dylan Stehlik (Australia), Shreyas Aiyar (India), Jeslyn Seetoh Hui Yi (Singapore), Jonathan Chu (Taiwan) and Elise Finney (Thailand) were named Individual Country Winners. Each child went home with an HP TouchSmart PC and a Cartoon Network Digital Pack loaded with goodies that include an MP3 player, digital camera, a USB flash drive and an MP3 speaker.
As for Mohammad Aidy Adham, who walked away with extra prizes including an HP notebook and printer, he credited the success to his father.
“I was very surprised and happy to know that I was the grand prize winner of the Toon Creator Awards. My dad inspired and motivated me to join this contest,” said the 9-year-old.
The Toon Creator Awards, an interactive contest where kids create their own animation was held from July 13 to September 30 last year saw more than 700,000 unique users registered and over 151,000 animation entries submitted.
Dennis Mark, Vice President and General Manager, Marketing, Personal Systems Group, HP Asia Pacific and Japan, was impressed with the quality of entries submitted.
“The level of quality and creativity displayed by the winners of this year’s inaugural Toon Creator Awards was outstanding and we firmly believe that each and every one has a bright future ahead of them be it in animation or any other creative field,” he said.
Apart from the individual winners, five schools – St Spyridon College (Australia), Kendriya Vidyalaya No.1 (India), Sekolah Rendah Sri Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Queenstown Primary School (Singapore) and Assumption College (Thailand) – each received three HP TouchSmart PCs for having the most registered entries in their respective country.
“We hope this regional initiative will continue to serve as a community platform to promote self-expression and imagination in a fun and exciting way, encouraging young talent to showcase their creativity through technology,” said Benjamin Grubbs, Regional Director for Turner Entertainment Interactive Media.
