Keith Henderson has been doing his “Illusions of the King” Elvis show for 26 years. I saw him first as the young Elvis not long after he started. Keith has a great voice and great family support over the long haul; his grandmother makes his elaborate costumes and his mother adds the stud work, his daughter sings a great soprano.
He also has a great band. Any band with Will McFarlane as lead guitar is going to be good.
As I listened to Keith hold a verrrrrry long note on “Rags to Riches,” I was reminded that Sam Phillips of Sun Records had latched onto Elvis when he was looking for a young white boy who could sing and sound like the great black artists that were hitting on the R&B charts. Now, according to Henderson, the number of Elvis-sounding acts and Elvis tributes has grown at such a rate that if the grown continues apace 1 out of every 4 persons in the world will be doing Elvis tributes by 2020.
Archive for June, 2005Speech professor Joan Aitken has collected and annotated many links, added personal and professional insights and generally created a strong picture of the Affair de Bryan LeBeau. Included are ethics statements, solutions proposed and suggested as consequence including the laughable idea of having LeBeau teach an ethics course. She provides some notes on the salary situation as well. All this at her personal site.
Jun
18
2005
WUNC blogPosted by Paul in Alumni and other friends, General, Information Commons, News of News, Virtual CommunitiesTerry Maguire has been blogging away about and for WUNC at http://wunc.blogspot.com/. Terry covers WUNC inside stories, backgrounds of WUNC contributors and asks questions that need answers from “Anyone offended by WUNC using a pop up window to hawk the need for contributions?” to the station’s take on the proposed cuts in federal funds for PBS and NPR. “Anonymous UMKC employee” posts a comment here that tells us that Dean Bryan LeBeau has been placed on administrative leave at reduced salary. UMKC is operating under the guidance of an interim chancellor and the school is wisely waiting for the new chancellor to evaluate the status of LeBeau.
Sally and I will be going up to Chicago next weekend. Getting there in time to go to the openning of Wired’s Nextfest on Thursday out on Navy Pier. Going to see some Frank Lloyd Wright homes and buildings. Visiting the Art Institute, etc. We’ll be staying at the Talbott Hotel on Delaware. A note from Cathy Marshall reminds me to look up the biography of occultist/rocket scientist/sci-fi inspirer John Whitsides Parson – Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons by George Pendle. Not entirely unrelated: June 21 is World Hike Naked Day according to several sources including the local press. Jeff Vanke writes of his TurnItIn.com experience using the Le Beau speech at the History News Network. TurnItIn found both West and Russell borrowings AND turned it in to UMKC who immediately contacted Vanke to ask how he managed to get a copy. Since UMKC has removed the speech from the net. Google cache of course is still good as I explain below in an earlier post. I’m not sure for how much longer though. But for historical purposes, many of us have kept copies to use in class when we discuss plagiarism. When I was travelling in Russia with PR Prof Larry Lamb, I would hear him tell classes over and over that the best PR plan is not to duck, hide, or deny. But to own the problem immediately, take proper responsibility, consider the image of your brand in the circumstances and do more than is required, and never to destroy evidence that people have already seen. You only look more guilty.
Jun
16
2005
Libraries regain privacy from PATRIOT ActPosted by Paul in General, Information CommonsIf the House has its way, the PATRIOT Act provisions dealing the library and bookstore records will be rolled back, reports CNN. [some thoughts after I absorb some of this]
Jun
15
2005
LeBeau and UMKC – into the Memory Hole?Posted by Paul in Alumni and other friends, General, PlagiarismThe first mark of the realization of guilt (on a bigger scale) is the removal of evidence. UMKC and LeBeau are cleaning up their act by dropping the evidence of his misdeeds and possible others from the net. Feel free to capture history via the Way Back Machine (thanks again Brewster for coming up with this. and thanks Google for Google cache). In one profile of LeBeau, he is called “one hell of a PR man.” Now we see other sides. Several of my collegues graduated from Mizzou aka the University of Missouri. It’s located in Columbia, MO. They’ve asked me to let you know that UMKC is not Mizzou.
Jun
15
2005
Hog Day approaches – The True QPosted by Paul in Alumni and other friends, Amusements, General
The center piece of the Day is still eatin’ pig. That’s the best. As the Hog Day site describes:
Jun
15
2005
Admitting/denying/decrying plagiarismPosted by Paul in Alumni and other friends, General, PlagiarismWhile the AP and other stories are calling Bryan LeBeau’s letter on HistoryNetwork and consequent interviews an admission of guilt, it is only half so. Yes, he admits copying, but only quotes — as in “I don’t recall where I got Cornel’s quotes. As they were just quotes, I suspect he was quoted somewhere, and I clipped them.” Not exactly random quotes. See for yourself. West here. LeBeau here.
But this is not tragic. Sadly, it is pathetic. To quote Cornel West (or to quote LeBeau as he quotes West without acknowledgement):
Jun
14
2005
MO Dean denies plagiarism, but…Posted by Paul in Alumni and other friends, General, PlagiarismSounding a lot like former Boston University Dean H. Joachim Maître as he denied his obvious plagiarism of a commencement speech in 1991, Dean Bryan LeBeau posts a denial/appology on the History News Network. But wait there’s more (and in cases like this unfortunately there usually is). An alert reader of Eric Muller’s IsThatLegal.org notices that the small part of the LeBeau speech claimed to be original was lifted from a 1995 speech by Russell Baker in 1995. Baker then LeBeau then West. Will Bryan LeBeau join the other famous historian plagiarists? Will he like Joachim Maître claim: Stay tuned for more. In the meantime, St Louis Today (St Louis Post-Dispatch) covers the evolving story this way: Thanks to Barbara Semonche of the Park Library for reminding me of Maître.
Jun
14
2005
Press on MO PlagiarismPosted by Paul in Alumni and other friends, General, Information Commons, PlagiarismThe Bryan Lebeau/Cornel West plagiarism story uncovered by Sally Greene and expounded on by Eric Muller has moved from the Chronicle of Higher Education to the Kansas City Star and the St Louis Post-Dispatch.
Jun
13
2005
Ethics of Plagiarism – Missouri stylePosted by Paul in Alumni and other friends, General, Information Commons, PlagiarismSally Greene googled up a coincidence or out right theft when looking for a phrase from Hegel. The result was what seems to be a Dean and History Prof in Missouri taking and whitening up a speech by Cornel West and presenting it as his own — then publishing it in his newsletter and on the web. The Chronicle of Higher Education has the story in print (and unfortunately behind the bars of their subscription login), but Sally tells a good bit of the tale and Eric Muller has more to say as he asks if Dean Bryan LeBeau will be held to the same standards as the ones to which he holds his own students. All three have links to the speeches and some strong opinions on the matter.
Jun
12
2005
BBQ is a three letter wordPosted by Paul in Alumni and other friends, Amusements, GeneralAnd those letters are P-I-G (although H-O-G is also acceptable). Never is BBQ a verb. That’s final. No debate. My Texan brother-in-law sends me a link (not to be confused with Hot Links which are grilled sausages sold under the name barbecue in parts of Texas) about some poor deluded folks in Athens, TX. The secret to their non-pig, non-hickory-smoked burnt brisket “the right amount of black pepper and brown sugar.” The right amount of those ingredients is none, you misguided poor chillin! When I was nearly held over in DFW on Friday night, I decided that even in my panic about travel, I would try to eat some food from Dickie’s BBQ Shack at the Food Court in honor of my Texan in-laws and of my friend Betty Adcock who flew in Texas food the other weekend to a party that I had to miss. The meal was no meal. They had no coleslaw. They did not offer pig. They did offer turkey, hot links or brisket. The brisket which Texans seem to prefer and which I had on a white bread bun was dry as shoe leather. Even though it had burnt edges, it was edible once drowned in a sauce made of corn starch, sugar and catchup. No greens of any kind were available. I now understand cause of the stern and firm looks on the faces of the native Texans in the airport. You understand that the smirk of George Bush is not so much a smirk as a look of, well, constipation. We are heroes but not achievers exactly as far as Computerworld is concerned. Still they did a very nice article on ibiblio as a finalist. Pauline has nothing on me. I missed the storms that kept John Reuning overnight in Philly on Monday by deciding to leave DC early. But that turned out to be a teaser. Coming back to RDU from Denver was payback for the easy trip I had on Monday.
Jun
10
2005
JCDL: Panel: Tick, Tock – Google as LibraryPosted by Paul in Alumni and other friends, General, JCDLBecause of flight times, this will be the last session that I get to attend. Panel: Tick, Tock – Google as Library includes Richard Luce, Clifford Lynch, Barbara Quint and moderator Jim Williams [Dean of Libraries at UColorado-Boulder]. With luck I’ll get a seat with decent wireless access.
Richard Luce from Los Alamos’ Library Without Walls and a NISO fellow. Cliff Lynch. Google is a word that is obcessing everyone for whatever reason. The Google digitization project has captured public imagination in a broad way. He will talk more broadly about mass digitization projects mentioning others like Brewster’s — err Internet Archive’s. Mass digitization was underway before Google stepped in and will be after [whenever after might be]. Has our Network failed to deliver on promises? Can we share and provide access to the world’s knowledge (as we promised back in the day)? Brings up copyright and business model disruption issues. Alludes to Deanna’s keynote (see earlier in this blog. International dimension delights Cliff. Folks claimed that the Net collections would be English only (makes joke about non-English holdings at US institutions). France started a competition to digitize more stuff to head off Englishers. Books are no longer the definitive part of our intellectual materials. Multimedia, audio, video, photos, etc are taking on new importance as those archives come online. Barbara Quint on by phone. This panel is named from her article, Tick Tock. Research libraries spend 15 billion $$$ per year [for what?] After Harvard etc, where will Google go? It will sell access to smaller libraries. Google may spend 1 billion to digitize, but they can make 15 billion on that investments. Cliff and Rich respond. |











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