Elvis-spotting

When I travel abroad, I always look for signs of Elvis. And this past week, during my vacation in Helsinki, was no exception.

After spotting the "Kismet" chocolate bar and passing a restaurant called "Memphis" I found my first real trace of Elvis at a newsstand. Although I don't understand a word of Finnish, a picture of Elvis from his '68 Comeback Special on the cover of a music magazine called "Rytmi" caught my eye.

Inside was a total of 16 pages devoted to Elvis, apparently in connection with the 30th anniversary. The articles seemed to be about the Las Vegas years, Elvis sights in Memphis, the fan club in Finland and collecting Elvis. There was also some other stuff I really couldn't figure out (for example, an article titled "Elvis Suomessa"), but the magazine made for a fine souvenir.

In the record shops I visited there were the usual CDs and DVDs with Elvis, together with a Finnish effort, a double CD with Elvis songs from the 50's. Not very interesting, but nice to see that our man was well represented.

By the way, one record store had the American edition of the "Walk A Mile in my Shoes" box set, which includes the sheet of stamps depicting Elvis record covers from the 70's. Why this sheet wasn't included in the European edition, as was the case with the 50's and 60's box sets, is one of those little Elvis mysteries I probably never will be able to figure out.

I was tempted to buy it, but 82 euros for those stamps seemed a little to much. I had the same dilemma in Santiago in Chile a few years ago, but that time I choose to spend my money on another box set instead, the "Behind Closed Doors" 4 LP bootleg. But that's another story...