January 08, 2007
72 v. 42
Elvis would have been 72 today. I'll be 42 eight days from today. I alway liked Elvis. He seemed like a nice southern boy to me. I've actually had a conversation with Yvonne Craig about that very thing back when I was doing the comic book convention circuit in the 90's. Yvonne was in "It Happened at the World's Fair" and as the lead in "Kissin' Cousins" with Elvis. She said that he was one of the most polite and charming southern gentlemen she had ever met. He seemed a little lost in her opinion. Too many people telling him what to do. The pastor at the church I went to in Orange County said the same thing pretty much. He used to hang with Elvis back in the day.
I always wondered what would have happened if Elvis hadn't died in 1977? Would he be mentoring Eminem and Justin Timberlake? Or K-Fed? Would he have ended up as just another washed up Vegas performer? Actually started making movies he wanted to make? I like to think he would have had the Memphis Mafia open a can of whoop ass on Michael Jackson? But maybe that's just the romantic in me. Maybe even tour with Rat Pack when Dino died. Who knows? It boggles the mind.
I also have theory that there is a quantum reality where Elvis's twin brother Jessie didn't die but never got famous like Elvis and became his evil twin. Or maybe that's a story I want to write or animate?
I joke, but I actually love Elvis. He seemed like a nice guy that the world ended up getting the better of or he ended up getting the better of himself, rather. I feel like that sometimes as well. I can relate.
Unlike Elvis I've gotten a much later start in life. Oh sure, I've been a professional artist for (oh hamburgers! make me do math now) 25 years now. In many ways I get to do what I like to do on semi daily basis. That is important. It's important to me at any rate.
I'm starting class again today. I'm now a sophomore in college with 4.0 GPA (don't brag you still have to take math, Shawn) mostly because MCTC appears to have lost my transcripts from the 80's or I would be a junior.
Early success didn't seem to be in the cards for me. I'm sure I would ended up dead on the crapper too had that happened. Or maybe I'm just measuring success wrong? I'm successful in ways that very few people see or acknowledge. Including myself most days.
I'm getting there though. It always seems to start with myself.
At any rate, Happy 72nd E.