Elvismancer Fact Finding Mission

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A couple weeks ago I realized that I had a an upcoming Friday off work and that I live 3 hours away from Memphis, so I decided that if Elvismancer was in the editors’ hands by that Thursday, I would celebrate with a trip to Graceland. There were a few sections still unwritten when the time came, but they were all “extras”–I wanted to add more spells, artifacts, dumb tables, and that kind of stuff. The missing stuff not being there didn’t affect the flow of the book and the editors could skip them and circle back without missing any needed information. I decided that was close enough.

I got to Memphis between 1 and 2pm on Friday afternoon. Since Graceland closes at 4pm and most online sources recommended 3-4 hours if you plan to see everything, I decided that I’d wait until Saturday for the main event. From what I remembered from browsing around Google Maps, the Brooks Museum of Art was the closest spot I wanted to visit to where I was coming into town, so I started there. The next stop (after some good Catfish and amazing dirty rice at a place called Chef Tam’s) was Sun Studios. The Sun tour inspired a new artifact for the book, Mr. Phillips’ Microphone. On Saturday I went straight to Graceland when I got up and stayed until about 4:30. I had a vague plan to go to Beale Street that night, but by the time I got back to the hotel I was exhausted and decided to save that for my next trip to Memphis. Sunday I went to the Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel and the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. Here are some photos I took on the trip.

The Brooks is an art museum in the South, so obviously they had a Thomas Hart Benton, and this one has a nice Hobomancer vibe.

The coolest thing at the Brooks was this tiny Bosch (it’s about the size of a comic book).

The coolest and most unexpected exhibit at the Sun tour was that they had Dewey Phillips’ (no relation) DJ Booth set up on the second floor. One of those turntables played “That’s Alright” the first time it was ever broadcast.

The Million Dollar Quartet picture is placed so that Cash in the picture is roughly over the same spot of wall he was leaning against when the picture was taken.

I know that millions of other people have taken this exact picture, but this one’s mine.

I never take photos of my food, but had to document my deep fried peanut butter and banana sandwich (just in case the coroner needed it). It was good. I don’t think I’ll start frying them up myself, but I wouldn’t turn one down.

I got a photo of the pink Cadillac, too, but purple’s a little more my style.

There’s an archives section of the museum with just storage boxes in most of the cases with a few items pulled on a few shelves without any information tags or context. Some of them don’t need them.

I really wish they’d stacked the chairs somewhere else.

They’ve cut a hallway with glass partitions through the two rooms that King’s party stayed in. The window with the open curtains is at then end of it so there’s just a pane of glass and a few feet between you and the spot where he fell. It’s fucking weird.

I didn’t take a lot of photos at the Lorraine; It’s not really that kind of museum. This seemed kind of important, though.

I mean, it shouldn’t be surprising to see a Blues Brother road case beside the Booker T & the MGs one, but I was not expecting it.

Steve Cropper’s guitar and Duck Dunn’s bass. This was my biggest “I’m not worthy” moment on the whole trip.

Insect Isaac Hayes probably isn’t going in Elvismancer, but I’m using it somewhere.

There’s a lot of stuff in Memphis I didn’t have time to see, so I’ll definitely be going back, especially now that I’ve internalized the fact that it’s totally within driving range for a 3-day weekend. In the meantime, Elvismancer is in the hands of the editors except for a few little bits that I should finish this weekend. I’m still waiting on a few pieces of art, but plan on getting the layout started this week.

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Elvismancer Fact Finding Mission

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