Elvis Blue Christmas

Event leaves Elvis fans all shook up

BUNNELL -- It wasn't Honolulu, but there were plenty of hula lulus at the Elvis luau.

Droves of Elvis fans -- that is, fans of Randy "Elvis" Filippi, who performs every Saturday night at the Black Cloud -- swayed their grass-skirt clad hips to songs made popular by the movie "Blue Hawaii," and other favorites.

Six-year-old Raeann Trujillo was one of the youngest lei-laden lulus, and pleased to have an occasion to show off her new bathing suit.

"It's fun to dance on the dance floor," the Bunnell girl said.

She's not the only one to think so.

Jackie Kern and Joe Lengyel regularly travel from St. Augustine for the dancing.

"This is the first time we've been to his luau, but he does a good Valentine's show and a good Christmas show," Lengyel said.

Kern added, "We really like to dance and this is a good place for it. It's a very nice atmosphere, and, of course, the music is really good."

For this show, there was more than just music. There were costume and limbo contests, as well as a conga line to "Viva Las Vegas."

Lee Keller, a 26-year-old Palm Coast volunteer firefighter, leaves his white parrot sunglasses home most weeks that he brings his mother out for an Elvis fix.

"I love Elvis," said his mother, Mary Keller. "(Filippi) does a great job." Filippi, a full-time Elvis tribute artist from Palm Coast, was runner up out of 19 contestants at the 2008 Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest held at Destination Daytona.

"He usually plays 'You Are Always on My Mind' because he knows I like it," Mary Keller said. "My tension just goes away when I'm here."

Linda Corbett, and nine other 1962 classmates of St. Augustine High School, come to see Filippi perform every few weeks and wouldn't have missed the luau.

"We love it," she said. "He's so natural. He's the best kept secret."

But with her sister also in attendance -- Diana Feldman, who hails from North Carolina and travels the country to watch The King's many tribute performers -- the cat may be out of the bag.

"He sounds just like him," Feldman said. "He's got the older Elvis voice."

She has seen a total of 30 tribute artists this summer at Ultimate Elvis competitions at Myrtle Beach, S.C. and Cherokee, N.C.

The dance floor was filled nearly to capacity for fan favorites "Blue Suede Shoes," "Sweet Caroline," "Can't Help Falling in Love," and "Return to Sender."

Everyone helps out with Filippi's signature last song, a re-write of Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby," possibly showing more of himself than the singer he pays tribute to. Young and old alike respond to him and the song belting out "Ice Ice Elvis" when he holds the microphone in their direction.

Sequencing Voices/Lyrics - Do It Yourself Christmas

Wizards in Winter, TSO - DONE! Decorations, Bob Rivers - In Progress Christmas Bells, Carousels and Time, TSO - DONE! Queen of the Winter Night, TSO Carol of the Bells, The Nylons Jingle Bells Techno, DJ Christmas (Full version) A Mad Russian's Christmas, TSO Carol of the Bells, Mannheim Jingle Bells, Mannheim Los Peces en el Rio, Mannheim Blue Christmas, Elvis - DONE! Layout finalized: 14673 lights, 4760 watts, 4 dedicated 20 Amp circuits I did it with a coro Elvis and penguins that I built last year with LOR. It was a 64 channels display. I slowed the music and put a mark every time I wanted the mouth to open and locse or the had with the microphone to move. It did take a little time but it worked ok. I have converted it to vix this year and will copy paste the timings to a sequence this year and expand it to my new channel count. (272). If you want the sequence I can send it to you to look at. Just PM the email if interested. Whenever trying to match voices (or instruments for that fact too), I always use the waveform add-in to help see where hard notes are. I then will slow the music down to make sure I'm in the right spot if it's not obvious on the waveform. Voices can be tricky because it's not just on or off. There is a lot variation to the light intensity. I try to match the pitch or volume with the light intensity. If ind myself really fading in and out a bunch when trying to do voices. For a quick and dirty go at it, try doing quick fade-outs on all of the syllables. Start at the beginning of a word and if the fade isn't done yet, just paste the new fade at the point where it's needed.

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