I’m going to Graceland(again)
Posted on | July 6, 2009 | No Comments
I’ve already been to Graceland. My trip to Memphis in college has become a running joke for my friends. After convincing a bunch of friends to get up at 5am to drive to Memphis I ate one meal, at Corky’s, took the Graceland tour, checked into the hotel and promptly became violently ill and couldn’t go out for dinner or eat any additional barbecue. It was a rookie mistake and having eaten just enough barbecue at Germantown Commissary the night before, leesy and I woke up refreshed for our 9am Graceland tour.
I had warned Leesy that Graceland is sort of a letdown. Where Loretta Lynn’s Museum strives for a sort of larger than life drama, Graceland is a pretty small 19th century southern colonial house. It’s not that the inside isn’t occasionally nuts, but even the jungle room could pass for anyone’s awful unrenovated 1970s shag covered living room. There are plenty of gold records and gold jumpsuits but most items are tastefully displayed with very little room left for interpretation. At Graceland Elvis is thin, fun and enormously successful. Fat Elvis does not live at Graceland.
After the tour we headed over to Sun Studios where the tour was given by a young woman wearing a I heart NY tank top. Sun Studio paints itself as the more casual, more rebellious and less obviously successful cousin to Graceland. The entire museum could fit in our apartment and the tour guides make jokes and often make fun of the performers whose pictures line the walls. The best part is that the place feels is less like a shrine and more like a recording studio that I was lucky enough to catch between takes.
I’m writing this from a surprisingly nice Holiday Inn Express in Mount Pleasant Texas. Leesy has driven more than 1000 miles since we started this trip on Friday. We’ll be arriving for a few days in Austin tomorrow and I’ll have pictures and updates then.
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