March 03 - From 1956 to 2019

The latest book in Paul Belard's massive undertaking to archivally record Elvis' life and career in essentially visual (pictures) format has been released. The title "Elvis March 1956". Two other books are nearing completion.

Mini-review from the Elvis Information Network:
Another day-by-day account of a month in Elvis’ life. This time author-researcher Belard details (essentially in photos) what Elvis did in March 1956, a very busy and important month in his career. The month featured three appearances by Elvis on television, three performances on the Louisiana Hayride, and a mid-month tour of Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky and Washington D.C. Late in March 1956 Elvis also flew to Los Angeles for his first screen test and on his return home to Memphis he moved home from 1414 Getwell to 1034 Audoban Drive.

The myriad of photos (a mix of candids and professionally captured) are mostly in black and white with a number of color images including the ‘colorized’ image of Elvis on motorcycle used for the May 1956 issue of "The Enthusiast" and color images of Elvis during his television appearances.

The book also features a variety of interesting archival material/reproductions and each day is introduced with text setting the scene. Most of the images are of good quality, a few reflect their age and are included due to their historical importance/rarity.

From Elvis in Memphis Experience

Forget VR headsets, the next frontier for immersive storytelling may be your headphones, thanks to a new spatial audio platform that New York-based Vrai Pictures is set to unveil at SXSW next month. Traverse, as the platform is called, allows users to map their surroundings with the help of mobile augmented reality (AR) technology, and then explore immersive audio experiences in their own living rooms.

One of the first experiences to be powered by the new platform is called “From Elvis in Memphis.” It allows users to experience the music of the King of Rock and Roll by walking through a physical space, with Traverse’s app making it spatially sound like they’re in the studio with Elvis himself.

“In the middle of a performance, you can walk right up to him. You can also walk up to any of the other band members,” said Vrai Pictures founder Jessica Brillhart. “The music suddenly shows a dimensionality that was always there but couldn’t be experienced. It just needed the creative insight, the right platform, the tools, and the technology to be realized.”

Vrai Pictures developed Traverse in partnership with the New York-based creative technology studio Superbright, and cooperated with Antfood, a creative audio studio based in New York, on the two audio experiences.

Brillhart told Variety during a recent interview that her company is already working with other artists on immersive audio experiences to be released on Traverse in the future. “We want to work with all sorts of people,” she said. “The end goal is to have a platform for anyone to use.”

(Source: Elvis Information Network / Variety)