GoElvis.com,

Even international political summits don’t generate as much activity as Elvis Week will on the 20th anniversary of Presley’s death.

You could attend the several conferences in town and run out of time for anything else. Elvis 20/20: Past and Future, a six-day convergence of high and low thinking on the King at the Memphis College of Art, has such notables as National Public Radio commentator Andrei Codrescu, folk artist Howard Finster and St. Paul Sunday host Bill McGlaughlin delivering a lecture called “From Beethoven’s 9th to El Vez.”

Even more scholarly is Elvis: Now and Then - Thoughts About His Life and Our Times, a University of Memphis seminar with Sun Records pioneer Sam Phillips, Presley biographer Peter Guralnick and author Greil Marcus. Then there’s the 10th annual Elvis International Forum and a day of discussions at Humes Junior High (Presley’s former high school).

Authors signing copies of their latest Elvis tomes include Cindy Hazen and Mike Freeman, Memphis Elvis-Style; Frank Coffey, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Elvis; Scotty Moore and Jim Dickerson, That’s Alright, Elvis; Vernon Chadwick, In Search of Elvis; Gilbert Rodman, Elvis after Elvis; and Dr. Robert Mickey Maughon, Elvis is Alive (check with Borders and Bookstar for times).

Take a tour and you can end up at several Presley spots from Graceland and Sun Studio to the Raoul Wallenberg Shell and the Tupelo, Miss., house where Elvis was born.

Reunions abound, including George Klein’s yearly Memphis Mafia gathering and the most spectacular return of all, Elvis in Concert ‘97 - an interactive performance between a filmed Presley and live-action band members.

Memorials play an important part as well. Besides the candlelight vigil at Graceland, there will be several eulogies, most notably an Elvis Presley Memorial Dinner at The Peabody with reflections by Sam and Knox Phillips, D.J. Fontana and others.

RCA Records does a bit of honoring when it presents Presley’s international gold and platinum records to Graceland (they’ll be displayed in the racquetball building), and look for a new Elvis statue to be dedicated on Beale across from the performer’s namesake club.

What would Elvis Week be without an impersonator or two - or two hundred? The best Presley parodies compete nightly at the Images of Elvis, Inc. Impersonator Contest at the Four Points Sheraton, while past winners strut their stuff at the New Daisy Theatre.

If that’s not enough, give the 14th annual Elvis Presley International 5K Run a go. It benefits United Cerebral Palsy and you can work off a jelly doughnut or two.

Mostly, music is in the air. “Good Rockin’ Tonight VIII” at Mud Island assembles the golden cast of Carl Perkins, Ronnie McDowell, Terry Mike Jeffrey, D. J. Fontana and the Jordanaires. Johnny Rivers and Leon Russell put in appearances at Elvis Presley’s Memphis. And a series of Overton Park shows called “All the King’s Men” has El Vez, Billy Lee Riley, Sonny Burgess, the Tennessee Mass Choir, Stephanie Beck and Dr. Ammondt, the Finnish scholar who sings Elvis songs in Latin.

Head spinning? May I recommend pulling up a chair at Java Cabana, where you can absorb the craziness while sipping a Mystery Train.

To reach reporter Bill Ellis, call 529-2517 or E-mail ellis @gomemphis.com