Kim Priore

and no, we did NOT know that the Southern Republican Leadership Conference was meeting in town this same weekend, and NO we did not cause any trouble.  unless you count toasting to “hillary 08″ loudly as trouble.  cuz we did that a couple times.

Most importantly, I can report that the Newsies made their much-anticipated return to the kareoke stage at the Rock-n-Roll cafe, directly across the street from Graceland.  This location had been discovered by the intrepid scouts in our group, the early arrivers of Friday afternoon, who were immediately drawn in by the leopard-print tablecloths, which as everyone knows are the sign of a fine establishment.  Also fried dill pickle spears were on the menu, and really, how can you go wrong?  The newsies took to the stage following the Elvis impersonator whose floorshow is the early part of the evening’s entertainment. While we didn’t pay the cover to get in for the whole show, we were there for the end, which included a rendition of ‘peace in the valley’ which may have been reverent if it weren’t following a bunch of viagra jokes, and then,  the grand finale, the patriotic medley – and i use the term loosely because it started out with ‘dixie’ and then into the battle hymn of the republic, and you gotta picture it, the guy’s in full vegas style white jumpsuit, and he’s finishing big with ‘his truuuuth iiiiiis maaarching on!’ and the american flag unfurls behind him while smoke billows up from the stage. The Newsies were collectively plotzing at this point.  I mean, FANTASTIC. before the patriotic medley he went on this whole patriotic schpeel, something about veterans, and the republicans being in town (which got a big cheer) and jaime was like, i think now’s a good time for you to be like, hey i go to harvard, and just see what happens. to which shan’s response was, yeah i think naomi should be like, i’m a new york jew and i work in the media! hilarious.

So anyways tough act to follow, but we managed. Thanks in large part to the owner who kept sending us rounds of beer. So i paid for my first one, and that was it, the whole evening cost a whopping $3.50. When we first got there we were disappointed that we could only get beer and not mixed drinks, but by the end we figured we were pretty fortunate that it wasn’t rounds of shots the owner was sending.  Anyways shan and I did Midnight Train to Georgia, of course, the group did several, of course – among them, “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman” – a shout-out to Gennifer Flowers, “New York New York” (with all of us doing a kick line behind Naomi while she sang lead, Liza style), “Son of a Preacher Man”, and, for our grand finale, “Angel of the Morning.” (there’s a story behind that from school).  anyways. but also, unbenownst to me, my friends put my name in for a song and they called my name and i didn’t know what it was until i got up there, and it was Fancy!!! and apparently i had just enough beer to rise to the occasion, because i brought the frickin HOUSE down. it was fabulous.  particularly with the line, ‘i mighta been born just plain white trash, but fancy was my name!’  ahhhh reba.

All in all, a highly successful evening of ‘music’, involving some pretty colorful local color.  we also enjoyed our stay at the Days Inn Graceland, and managed to hit every Elvis gift shop along Elvis Presley Blvd.  And the Graceland Outlet.  and let me just tell you, there are very few things that you can’t get with elvis’s face on them.  we did the Graceland tour, as well as the National Civil Rights Museum, which is built around the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. King was assasinated.  Very powerful.