Okey-dokey...just seeing how this works.

Um.

Suddenly, I'm speechless. Or textless, perhaps.

Hmmm.

I probably shoulda thought of something cogent and inspirational to say, just in case this test is successful.

Well, one thing I can say is that I'm also on Facebook now, so I guess if you want to track me down there just plug in my name.

Also, I like burritos. I mean, they're the perfect food!




***

All right...here we go; I thought of something to write.

Contrary to the placeholder mini-bio above (that I should probably get around to replacing at some point, maybe when I think of something pithy), I wasn't actually born in Tennessee, nor have I slaughtered any ursine beasties, the only truth in that statement being that Tennessee IS pretty green. I actually originated WAY further south, so deep a southern position that if you keep going you run into lots of ice and penguins (I'm originally from New Zealand), and I now live in a place that's decidedly not too verdant: Las Vegas, Nevada. Just to add to the confusion, I spent most of my previous years gearing up toward what became a promising career in marine biology and related fields, all of this handily proving that (a) Elvis is not just everywhere but is FROM everywhere, and (b) you never know where your path will lead, geographically and most definitely otherwise.

I'm currently working as an Elvis impersonator ('tribute artist,' if you prefer) in Las Vegas and, well, basically any other place to which anybody might want to fly me. I started in this rather unique line of work, basically unintentionally (the proverbial cosmic accident), here in Vegas in 2005 and along the way I've done a lot of various types of promo work, weddings, corporate and private parties, special occasions (bridal showers, anniversaries, birthdays, wedding receptions, etc), conventions, photographic modeling and, of course, straight-out concerts and other events at which I sang on a stage. I've got my own sound gear, lots of costumes, and am willing, able, and ready to get down to business with some serious Elvis work. It's too much fun to not want to do, once you've been bitten. Hard work, but still good stuff.

Lately I've been fortunate enough to start meeting more people involved in this and similar work -- including a lot of Elvises -- and it's refreshing and very gratifying to meet people who're talented, who appreciate what their peers do, and who support one another. I'm a serious fan of Elvis, first and foremost, going back to my youth, so it's important to me that I do the best I can to respect the man's legacy and try to suggest as best I might just how he was as a performer; it's been a nice surprise to find that there are more of my fellow Elvis performers out there with the same attitude and guiding principles than I had ever before suspected. It's through meeting some of these people, after I finally decided to take the plunge and try my hand at Elvis contests (three of them in the summer of 2010), that I forsook my significant reluctance to sign up with Facebook and, in the process, discovered this enclave of tribute artists and their appreciators. It's good to know them and it's good to be here, where a good number of my new Elvis friends and acquaintances happen to be members.

Life is pretty good.