The McCluskey Blog

Elvis Week

You may not know it, but this week is Elvis Week. This Thursday, it will be 30 years to the day since the King passed away whilst sitting on his 'throne'.

The week is billed by the organisers as the largest celebration of all things Elvis in history. Online, at Graceland and around the world, projects that celebrate Elvis's legacy are being planned. Millions of Elvis fans will attend events and, of course, purchase a huge amount of memorabilia and merchandise.

Graceland is now statistically the second most visited private residence in the United States, behind only the White House. The Graceland grounds include a museum containing many Elvis artifacts, like some of his famous Vegas jumpsuits, awards, gold records, the Lisa Marie jetliner, and Elvis's extensive car collection. One of the most impressive displays is the trophy room off the main house, displaying Elvis's huge collection of gold and platinum records and other awards, stage costumes, photographs and more.

Plans have been announced to turn Graceland into an international tourist destination on a par with the Disney or Universal theme parks, sprucing up the mansion and doubling the 600,000 annual visitors. A new hotel is a possibility, or an expansion to the nearby Heartbreak Hotel.

The Telegraph has some good coverage of the 30th anniversary, as does the Times which features its view of the 50 greatest Elvis songs - with videos.

And finally, for those of you with nothing better to do - my favourite 5 Elvis links.

One, two, three, four, five.

Tour de France; other gems

The Tour de France pushes off from central London in a few weeks. I always take an interest in the Tour, in fact it influenced my holiday choice last year - I pedalled (most of the way) from Bordeaux to Nice. This year I'm keen to recreate the two opening stages of the race, in London and south-east England. Once again it's possible to follow the precise route via a Google Earth mash-up, so no excuses for taking any short cuts.

I posted a story last year looking at what I speculated might be the next Google Earth (the story got an unbelievable 7,500 hits). This article outlines some other viewpoints, including a merger of Second Life / Google Earth type technology.

Speaking of Second Life, STA travel claims to be the first travel company to have a base there. It outlines some of the very best places to 'visit' in Second Life, including museums and even Mayan temple ruins.

I can only tell you about the next link if you give me a special handshake. That's because it's a link to the Masonic Traveller, a blog on travel just for masons. A real holy grail of travel sites. Now I'm not sure if this is strictly a travel site, or just a journey through the concept of masonry. Certainly a journey like no other, anyway...

And finally, next time you're in Burlingame, California, be sure to visit the World's Largest Pez Dispenser at the Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia. It's truly enormous. Presumably it also distributes the world's largest Pez? Lumme....does anyone else know of any completely random museums?

Mark Webber Challenge, Tasmania

This weekend sees the start of the Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge, a gruelling six-day adventure race combining cross-country trekking, mountain biking, road cycling and kayaking. The event will be held in Tasmania between 5 - 10 November.

12 four-person teams – made up of corporate executives, celebrities and sports stars – will compete alongside Australian Formula One star Mark Webber. The race will cover about 600kms and take in some of Tasmania’s most beautiful locations, including the iconic Cradle Mountain National Park and the world heritage-listed area in and around Strahan on the State’s rugged West Coast.

British rower Olympic dual gold medalist James Cracknell, Australian ironman and multi-sport athlete Guy Andrews, and Tasmanian Adventure racer Matt Dalziel will join Webber's team.

Round-the-world record breaking female solo sailor, Dee Caffari will also be taking part, plus Australian Olympic gold medal cyclist Brett Aitken and world champion cyclist, Shane Kelly.

Behind the Challenge is a charity initiative run by the newly formed Mark Webber Challenge Foundation, an umbrella organisation that supports charities that help Australian children suffering from life-threatening illness. The event will raise funds for the Cancer Council of Tasmania’s Cancer Plus programme and TLC for Kids.

The Challenge kicks off on Sunday, November 5 at 9am from the Country Club, Launceston, and finishes at Wrest Point in Hobart on Friday, November 10.

New York Marathon

It’s the New York City Marathon this weekend. The annual marathon, established in 1970, features an estimated 30,000 runners and more than two million spectators.

The route begins on the Staten Island side of the Verazano Narrows Bridge, takes in all five boroughs of the city (Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan), and ends in Central Park.

As well as demonstrating the route and where all the hills are, this great virtual simulation of the route enables you to enter times and then watch an animation of a simulated ‘race’ between participants in last year's marathon. There’s also an interactive, mile-by-mile tour.

One of the classiest audio slideshows you’ll see has been put together by Magnum Photos to commemorate the event.

Photo Library - Tourism Whistler

Take a look at the photo album on the sidebar on the right of the page. We took an early look forward to winter with Tourism Whistler and partners with an exclusive media reception at the Absolut Ice Bar.

Journalists got in the mood for the start of the ski season by joining them to hear about all the latest news from Whistler, the largest ski and snowboard resort in North America.