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It's just about time for me to lay to rest the Elvis-and-Michael-in-parallel meme, but for one last post, The Globe and Mail of Toronto does a side-by-side comparison of the two superstars' funerals:

Elvis Presley's sudden death in 1977 at the age of 42 prompted an outpouring of grief the likes of which had never been seen for an American musician. At the time, journalists tried to explain why the star's death had such a profound effect on fans who had never met the King. In 2009, the death of another King shares some similarities - though there are many important differences - with that 32 years earlier.

There is some interesting Elvis lore in this article, such as this passage about Elvis' burial:

Elvis was entombed in a white marble mausoleum at Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis, Tenn., near the grave of his mother. Just 13 days later, a trio of would-be grave robbers was arrested near the crypt. Elvis's father then got permission to move the remains of his son and wife back to Graceland and the pair were buried there on Oct. 2, 1977.

As of this writing, it is still unknown where Michael Jackson will be laid to rest.

Mediabistro.com picks up on Fox News anchor Shepard Smith's comments during today's coverage of the Michael Jackson memorial service, in which the Holly Springs, Miss., native says that a similar event -- Elvis Presley's funeral in August 1977 -- inspired him to go into broadcast journalism:

"It was a hot August day in Memphis, I think it was August 16 of 1977 when Elvis died at 42 years old. And, live television events were relatively new to the nation; and, completely new to Memphis," said Smith around 1:20 this afternoon. "That was the first, to my recollection...it was the first live mini cam that a local television station had ever used in this way. And, it was a fascinating thing to see."

Tim Spanton of British tabloid The Sun does a side-by-side comparison of Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch and Elvis Presley's Graceland (scroll down below main story). At 2,800 acres, Neverland dwarfs the 13.8-acre Graceland estate in Whitehaven. However, Jackson won't be buried on the site, as Elvis is interred at Graceland, the L.A. Times reported Wednesday:

Jackson's family wanted him interred at the Santa Barbara County estate, the site of some of the happiest and saddest times in his life, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had agreed to help clear any state bureaucratic hurdles, a source close to the situation told The Times.

But in the end, the source said, county officials could not find a way to quickly circumvent legal restrictions governing burial at a private residence.

"It's nobody's fault. Everybody in Santa Barbara feels bad about it," the source said.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph of Australia, Tim Blair furthers the Elvis-Michael Jackson-link meme by comparing Jackson's personal physician Dr. Conrad Murray with Elvis' notorious sawbones Dr. George Nichopoulos, aka "Dr. Nick." I can't vouch for the accuracy of all the Elvis lore, but Blair presents it with his usual verve:

At one point the colourful Memphis medico was charged with oversupplying drugs to Presley after a TV investigation discovered that he'd prescribed the singer more than 5300 tablets in the seven months prior to Presley's death. Dr Nick beat the charge. Incredibly, his lawyers were able to show that this huge quantity of drugs actually represented a bid to reduce the amount Presley previously consumed.
The boy from Tupelo, Mississippi, had an appetite for more than just fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

Blair moves on to mention that just as Dr. Nick accompanied Elvis during his late-career stand in Las Vegas, Murray had taken a leave of absence from his practice (which happened to be in Vegas) to be by Michael's side during the looming 50-show run in London. And he includes a helpful rundown of the pharmacopia found in Elvis' system, as well as a list of drugs that Michael is believed to have been taking.

Finally, Blair links to an episode of the hilarious online cartoon Achewood that pretty well sums up the impact of Michael's death on us 30-somethings ...

Mark Milian, who hosts a travel blog on the Los Angeles times Web site, added Memphis as a last-minute stop on his "two-week, music-inspired road trip." As a result, he ended up in town fairly late on a Sunday, which is not the ideal time to get the measure of the place -- for example, he found a lot of restaurants and attractions closed, and left unimpressed with what he found:

Readers hyped it up as a cornerstone of American music, but it felt more like a history class field trip. Then again, I might just be bitter about missing some of the classic barbecue joints.

Kudos to Milian for tweaking the unbearable song "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn:

Just as I was driving into the city on Sunday, the teeth-grinding country ditty "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn started playing on the radio. The song basically references the titles of Elvis songs along with places around Memphis to create an overarching story that doesn't make much sense. For example, Cohn says he "saw the ghost of Elvis on Union Avenue / Followed him up to the gates of Graceland." OK, that's a two-hour walk, dude.

Follow Milian's travels here, and keep up with him on Twitter here.

One of the emerging memes in the wake of Michael Jackson's death last week has been the similarities between his life arc and that of Elvis Presley. Bob Mehr delved into it with a front-page piece in Sunday's editions of The Commercial Appeal. And I've got a stack of articles that touch on the meme, as well. Special thanks to newsroom librarian Rosemary Nelms for sending me more material than I could possibly get through.

Blogging at In From the Cold, Spook86, who says he is a former intelligence agent, compares the initial news coverage of the two superstars' deaths.

(I)n contrast to the media firestorm that ignited with Jackson's arrival at a Los Angeles hospital, initial press accounts of Elvis's passing were almost accidental, more the product of timely tips to the Memphis media, rather than tenacious reporting.

Spook86 quotes extensively from Janice and Neal Gregory's book "When Elvis Died" to trace the timeline of reporting, which will bring back memories for Memphians old enough to remember Aug. 16, 1977.

The post rang a more recent bell for me (I was just 2 months old when Elvis died): Writing in a special section to mark the 20th anniversary of Elvis' death in 1997, former Commercial Appeal editor and publisher Angus MacEachran recalled a reporter telling him, "Angus, there's an 'Elvis is dead' call on line 2."

Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune continues in the same vein, noting that CBS didn't even lead the Aug. 16, 1977, newscast didn't even lead with Elvis' death (a fact that would shape its coverage decisions for decades to come). He also accurately captures the delicate first few hours of the Michael Jackson story, when outlets like ours didn't want to be left behind but didn't want to get caught in a hoax:

Time Warner's TMZ.com and Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co.'s LATimes.com were out front on Jackson's condition, and other outlets -- initially able neither to ignore the dispatches nor corroborate them -- had to tread carefully.

Back on the celebrity angle, British tabloid The Sun catches up with Jackson friend and sometime-Memphian David Gest, who says the stress of preparing for 50 shows in London killed the King of Pop:

"They should have realised doing a concert one day on, one day off, would be tough for any performer, let alone someone who hadn't been on stage for nine years. It was ridiculous. ... "

Some writers are speculating on whether Jackson's Neverland ranch might become a tourist attraction like Elvis' Graceland. The Jackson family did say today that Michael would not be buried at the Santa Barbara playland, but that's beside the point. Here's Sean Hamilton writing in the Sunday Mirror:

And just as Elvis rakes in more now than when he was alive, Michael too will be worth more dead. Even if the family opt not to have Michael buried there, the estate, near Santa Barbara, California, is certain to prove a vast money-spinner for his three children. Although he owed up to pounds 250million, that debt could be quickly wiped out by profits that could rapidly top pounds 300million from opening the estate to the public.

I'll have more on Elvis-Jacko connections throughout the week.

UPDATE: Hamil Harris of The Washington Post happened to be in Memphis when word broke of Michael Jackson's death, and he interviewed Graceland visitors for their perspective on the King of Pop.

The Times-Picayune of New Orleans covered one of this past weekend's much-anticipated double reunion shows featuring influential trash-rock bands The Gories (of Detroit) and The Oblivians (of Memphis). The writer notes a large number of Louisiana license plates in the parking lot of the Hi-Tone ("Lounge"), and breaks down the New Orleans connections to the bands:

In the 80's, Bywater resident Peggy O'Neill was living in her native Detroit, playing in the lean, garage-blues trio the Gories. That band was a major influence on the Oblivians, who would form just a few years later in Memphis. One of their most popular albums was 1997's Play 9 Songs With Mr. Quintron, a scorching, speedy slice of gospel-rock collaboration with the Ninth Ward organist which remains a cult favorite. Though both bands were no more by the turn of the millennium, they both attained legendary status in the rock n'roll underground and in the oddly rarefied world of record collectors.

The article goes on to quote longtime Commercial Appeal contributor Andria Lisle, and to lament the stifling conditions inside the Hi-Tone for the sold-out show (conditions which surely aren't as bad as they used to be when smoking was allowed in the club).

Credit to Motor City Rocks for the link, though the site refers to the Memphis band as "The Oblivious." (Of course, a recent front-page promo in The Commercial Appeal spelled it "Oblivions," so no one's perfect.)

For some nice background and context on The Oblivians (and some live song clips), check out this article at Live from Memphis. Some folks posting on the Goner Records Message Board lament a lack of local media coverage of these shows, but as Commercial Appeal music writer Bob Mehr pointed out on a comments thread over the weekend, this was by design ...

I can't speak for the Flyer obviously, but just for the record, the CA decided not to do a cover story on the Gories/Oblivians reunion -- we did a small show capsule/preview in this week's Go Memphis instead -- at the request of the bands and the club, for the very reason that the show had been sold out for months in advance. Both Eric Oblivian at Goner and Dan at the Hi-Tone felt they would be further deluged with requests and calls about tickets if there was a big spread in the paper.

The Independent newspaper of London heaps acclaim on a new stage play based on Dr. Martin Luther King's last night alive -- April 3, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. "The Mountaintop," by Memphis-born playwright Katori Hall, imagines the interaction between King -- working on the next day's speech after his penultimate address at the Mason Temple during the sanitation workers' strike -- and a fetching motel maid who delivers room service.

It is a relationship that is breathtaking, hilarious and heart-stopping in its exchanges and in its speedy ability to reveal character and pull the audience into the ring. One minute the Pastor and his new friend are beating each other up with rounds of oratory; the next, they're trying out how to look sexy while smoking. We discover, too, that King has stinky feet, wonders whether his moustache looks good on him or not and has an eye for the ladies. We also learn that he is terrified. Terrified that he is about to die, that the attempts on his life will finally get him. Terrified that he hasn't had the chance to fix the world and that he hasn't said goodbye to his wife and children.

Portraying King is David Harewood, a British actor who stars as Nelson Mandela in the upcoming BBC TV drama "Mrs. Mandela." The Independent's reviewer compares Harewood's performance, with "his mighty grip on character," to Forrest Whitaker's Oscar-nominated role as Idi Amin in the 2006 film "The Last King of Scotland." (Paging Steven Spielberg and the producers of the MLK film in development.)

Another review says "The Mountaintop" loses focus and becomes awkward because of a supernatural twist at the end. However, it says Harewood is "quite excellent," and it praises the play for exploring King's human flaws.

The world premiere run of "The Mountaintop" runs through July 4 at Theatre 503 in London.

About the playwright: Hall, a 1999 graduate of Craigmont High and the Raleigh school's first African-American valedictorian, has degrees from Columbia and Harvard and even did a summer internship here at The Commercial Appeal in 2000.

Thomas Bruce Wheeler, a retired postal official from Memphis, knows his way around London, and knows his Sherlock Holmes. The Wichita Eagle talks to Wheeler about his updated Holmes-themed guidebook, "The New 'Finding Sherlock's London,'" which lists more than 300 London sites related to the master detective. The book might come in handy ahead of the expected Christmas release of the new Sherlock Holmes movie starring Robert Downey Jr.

Pictured: Wheeler (left) holds a copy of his book "London Secrets: London Guidebook for the First Time Visitor" during the annual Sherlock Holmes birthday dinner thrown by the Giant Rats of Sumatra at The University Club. The Rats are a Memphis-based Sherlock Holmes fan club, of which Wheeler is a former "First Garrideb," or president.

Jerry Schilling, a former member of the "Memphis Mafia" and past president of the Memphis and Shelby County Music Commission, will be in Naples, Fla., on Saturday to sign copies of his memoir "Me and a Guy Named Elvis." In an interview with The News-Press of Fort Myers, Schilling recounts the story of meeting a 19-year-old Elvis during a pickup football game:

Even back then, there was a superstar quality about Elvis.
"It was like James Dean had just walked out of 'East of Eden,'" recalls Schilling, 67, of West Hollywood Hills, Calif. "And it was kind of magical."

Schilling's appearance coincides with an exhibit called "The Art of Elvis" at the American Royal Arts gallery in Naples.

The story appears to have at least one fact wrong, when it says the show "coincides with what would have been Elvis' 75th birthday this year. The Commercial Appeal's stylebook gives Elvis' date of birth as Jan. 8, 1935, so he wouldn't have been 75 till next year.

In other news of former Elvis associates, Red West continues to receive high praise for his starring performance in the Ramin Bahrani film "Goodbye Solo." Says Jack Garner of the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat-Chronicle:

(W)ith Goodbye Solo, West offers a touching breakthrough performance at 72 that reminds me of how veteran Richard Farnsworth forged a latter-day career as an actor in his 70s with The Grey Fox, The Natural and The Straight Story. For that last film, Farnsworth became, at 79, the oldest nominee ever for an Oscar.