It's Death Week!

Or as more polite people prefer to call it, "Elvis Week." I realize this is horrendously off-topic, not so much of the blog itself (as this is precisely the kind of shit I'm talking about when it comes to overpopulation) but definitely in terms of the insightful and surprisingly serious discussions surrounding U.S. and foreign politics of late...in the comments sections. God knows I'm not the one who starts the intelligent conversations around here.

Regardless! Right now we are in that one week period when all the world's Elvis fans descend upon The King's hometown (M-town) and cap off the week by parading by his grave (located within the grounds of Graceland) with candles on the anniversary of his death (a ritual formally referred to as "The Candlelight Vigil"). For anyone who hasn't heard of this/thinks I'm joking, see accompanying picture. That is real, people. It happens every year. According to the Canadians, 50,000 people make the annual pilgrimage, but really, what do the Canadians know?

Every year my mom says we're going to go to the Vigil, just to see what it's like, but every year we find an excuse not to. Usually, you have to stand in line almost all night and the weirdness factor is off the charts. One of my mom's friends went a few years back. She doesn't like to talk about it. Last year, I had a friend in town and we talked about going. We didn't. I'm afraid it's going to have to wait until I become friends with a die-hard Elvis fan, which probably means never.

So, I say to the world, there are far too many Elvis fans out there who are willing to travel great distances to participate in a strange and cult-like ritual in commeration of The King's death. Notice I put a qualifier on that. The world needs more fans, just fewer weird ones. But my hometown pride does take over at times like these and so I thought I should point out that if you aren't in Memphis this week, you're missing out on some serious pop culture. Elvis Aaron (Aron, for you tombstone sticklers) Presley, rest in peace.

OK. I'm done. Now we can go back to arguing about politics.