#60: I l.o.v.e. my hawt humanatarianactivistsingersongwriterambassador boyfriend!

[ldyjocelyn]

The thread for the show this evening in CT

Operman is fuuny...and much better looking than Adam Sandler!

[aikim]

Youtube of Clay signing autographs last night...let the speculating begin on the guy in the background:

[jamar1700]

uhhh Jerome?

[keepingfaith]

Very respectable opera singing from Clay! And nice hat, keepingfaith! P.S. Glad to see you changed your mind about your photo with Clay, merrieeee...you look cute together!

What a decision that was. Hat? No hat? I let Desertrose's friend, who I'd never met before, make the decision. I decided whatever she said I'd go with it. She liked the hat. I'm happy about it because Clay and I were a portrait in black and white. At least I think of it that way in my rhapsodic brain-- and that heavenly aura between our heads. I remember it. No fog. I remember his arm around me. I remember looking at his eyes. Damn!

Thanks for looking out for me, 00lsee, or as I think of you, Earth Mother. You know I need a lot of help and you're always right to the rescue. Do you know how appreciated you are? Well, infinitely, by me.

[ldyjocelyn]

Happy birthday Desertrose!

[00lsee]

uhhh Jerome?

I was thinking 'huh?' right up to that last second. heh

keepingfaith....awwwww...thanks.

[bottlecap]

Tired of Cleveland pictures yet? I did a little more work on some of mine from last night.

Symphony in Blue & Peach

[cindilu2]

Tired of Cleveland pictures yet? I did a little more work on some of mine from last night.

Symphony in Blue & Peach

Awesome! (frustrating, isn't it????)

[cindilu2]

This is the first time I've ever had moderate success with photos. Considering how much zoom is on these, I'm pretty happy!!!

Two pretty peeps!

White face, but it's nice to see all of him sometimes.

Feelin' it baybee

Some days I really, really want to be a mic stand.

At some point during the radio talk...

<<love this expression

He be purdy.

[Carolina Clay]

The new Carolina On My Mind blog rewinds the Cleveland Concert with fan recaps, photos by cindilu2, and 4 (about to be 5) videos by Scarlett.

She is currently uploading SM and did one screen cap this morning that I could not leave out. There is a download link for her video/audio files in the Pittsburgh and the Cleveland blogs. As she uploads, you can get new material by refreshing the link(s).

Thank you for supporting the blogs with your comments/visits, retweets, FB posts, etc. It's a good thing tomorrow is "off" because my teaching schedule will probably put the brakes on these one-a-day entries. :smile:

Happy Birthday, Desertrose!

Have a wonderful time in Westbury, concert goers! Have an awesome week, all!

Caro

[cindilu2]

This one deserves a post all its own.

Holy Holey Jeans!

[jamar1700]

I believe the word is "distressed"

[cindilu2]

I know they left me in a little distress.

If anybody would like the biggies of these just let me know. I reduced them because the originals were over a MB each.

So, a short sort-of NJU story. Crying contains some of the most beautiful sounds I've ever heard Clay sing - I love it beyond measure. At both my FL concerts, he 'went low' - and I missed out on them. So then last night, all indications were that he was in the zone, musically - he was going for (and reaching) everything. Seriously fantastic vocals. Dare I hope? It was pretty clear leading up to 'my' part that he was going to sing the high parts and I'm just sitting there chanting 'ohh, ohhh, ohhhhhh, he's gonna do it!!' I might have also squeed. Needless to say I got a funny look from the NJU sitting next to me. (A 60+ year old man who was somewhat... confounded.) But ya know, he applauded as hard as I did when it was over ;-)

[shamrock]

keepingfaith and merrieeeelove your M&G photos. I'll most likely shatter the camera lens should I have one taken at my M&G. luckiest, I'm so glad you had a great M&G. Interesting about "LoveStory". Found some more Clay stuff in emptying the boxes I had shoved stuff from my office into. I could have him autograph the "Ugly Duckling" cd or the European compilation cd he is on.

It was so beautiful yesterday. I wheeled Mr Fear outside on the deck off his room and got several of his trees out of the greenhouse so he could repot and rewire them. Trying to do some heavy duty cleaning as his sister and BIL will be coming here the day I get back from Greenville. Yikes. Three more days and I'm off.

I had a M&G in Knoxville. I was one of the auction winners. I brought the Ugly Duckling CD to have it signed. When Clay first looked at it, he said "What is this?" Said he didn't really remember doing it. He asked me if it played in a computer, but I had to tell him I never played it. He said he didn't have a copy it, so I told him not to sign it, and just to keep it. Jerome said to me, if he wants one, he can find one. If you haven't seen the CD, it's not round. It's in the shape of his head and upper body.

[cindilu2]

keepingfaith and merrieeeelove your M&G photos. I'll most likely shatter the camera lens should I have one taken at my M&G. luckiest, I'm so glad you had a great M&G. Interesting about "LoveStory". Found some more Clay stuff in emptying the boxes I had shoved stuff from my office into. I could have him autograph the "Ugly Duckling" cd or the European compilation cd he is on.

It was so beautiful yesterday. I wheeled Mr Fear outside on the deck off his room and got several of his trees out of the greenhouse so he could repot and rewire them. Trying to do some heavy duty cleaning as his sister and BIL will be coming here the day I get back from Greenville. Yikes. Three more days and I'm off.

I had a M&G in Knoxville. I was one of the auction winners. I brought the Ugly Duckling CD to have it signed. When Clay first looked at it, he said "What is this?" Said he didn't really remember doing it. He asked me if it played in a computer, but I had to tell him I never played it. He said he didn't have a copy it, so I told him not to sign it, and just to keep it. Jerome said to me, if he wants one, he can find one. If you haven't seen the CD, it's not round. It's in the shape of his head and upper body.

Awww, that was so nice of you!!! Did he keep it in the end?

[treenuts]

I believe the word is "distressed"

Yea....I'm "distressed" they're not tighter

[shamrock]

keepingfaith and merrieeeelove your M&G photos. I'll most likely shatter the camera lens should I have one taken at my M&G. luckiest, I'm so glad you had a great M&G. Interesting about "LoveStory". Found some more Clay stuff in emptying the boxes I had shoved stuff from my office into. I could have him autograph the "Ugly Duckling" cd or the European compilation cd he is on.

It was so beautiful yesterday. I wheeled Mr Fear outside on the deck off his room and got several of his trees out of the greenhouse so he could repot and rewire them. Trying to do some heavy duty cleaning as his sister and BIL will be coming here the day I get back from Greenville. Yikes. Three more days and I'm off.

I had a M&G in Knoxville. I was one of the auction winners. I brought the Ugly Duckling CD to have it signed. When Clay first looked at it, he said "What is this?" Said he didn't really remember doing it. He asked me if it played in a computer, but I had to tell him I never played it. He said he didn't have a copy it, so I told him not to sign it, and just to keep it. Jerome said to me, if he wants one, he can find one. If you haven't seen the CD, it's not round. It's in the shape of his head and upper body.

Awww, that was so nice of you!!! Did he keep it in the end?

No, he signed it and gave it back to me.

[bottlecap]

I was probably lucky to the few semi-focused pictures I did last night, as about the third song into the concert, my brand new camera's lens decided to go wonky and refused to retract. I think it saw Clay's pants and went all and got stuck in the extended position. Clay: Like Viagra for Camera Lenses.

[luckiest1]

Ok, long Cleveland recap ahead, feel free to scroll.

cindilu2, Claymatron and I left my place at 7 am on an extremely windy but clear day, and hit the highway towards Port Huron. Unfortunately, there is no ferry that will take us directly south across Lake Erie, so it's about a 5 1/2 hour drive around the lake to get there. We stopped for brekky at a Big Boy, who actually do serve more than hamburgers (although having chicken wings on the breakfast buffet is a bit weird). After gas and a quick drive through Starbucks to feed my addiction, we continued on, and arrived in the city about 12:30 pm. We checked into our hotel, about a block from the venue where we could see Clay's name on the marquee, and decided to head out shopping for a bit. When we opened the door, the hotel manager was standing there. He told us that he was concerned that a group of people in the next room might 'disturb' us after our concert, so he wanted to move us to a different floor. We assured him that if anyone was to disturb anyone after the concert, it would be us disturbing them. LOL. We aren't exactly quiet when we are on an Aiken high. I guess he had a notion that Clay fans are reserved.

We shopped a bit, then had lunch at iHop. The wind was so bad that our mapquest directions to get back to the hotel flew out the car window and disappeared. Thankfully the waitress gave us an even better route to take home. We hung around the hotel room for a while chatting, then got changed, and when I couldn't stand the suspense anymore we headed over to the venue to wait for Jerome. cindilu2 and Claymatron came with me for some much needed moral support. Jerome arrived about 5:30 and started calling names and asking to see photo ID. I got chatting with another first-timer from CV, nekia. We decided to stick together and provide moral support for one another. There was one lady who said that her name had been misprinted on the email as 'Martin' instead of 'Marion' so Jerome took a bit of time to sort that out before we were all ready to go.

Jerome ushered us all in and told us there weren't really any rules, just no pictures at the M&G, although we were free to take pictures etc at the concert, just no flash. Then he left to get Clay and we sat there for a while talking amongst ourselves. A theatre employee came over and seemed angry at us for being in there, she said no one was allowed in there. We explained about Jerome and she said he had neglected to inform management. Thankfully he picked that moment to come back with Clay.

Getting to see Clay the person rather than Clay the performer was unreal. He is so animated, so at ease, so friendly, so open, so generous....we sat in two rows in the theatre and he stood in front of us in an aisle. When he first arrived he shook each of our hands and asked our names. I remembered mine, go figure! Then Mary collected things to sign while people started asking him questions. It was all a bit much at first and I missed a lot of his answers until I got my stuff organized. Some people were just asking the questions while others were raising their hands. I am a 'raise my hand' type, but others kept getting the opporunity. I thought maybe it wasn't meant to be but then he said 'ok one more question' and pointed at me. Thank you Clay. I am not assertive enough to just shout it out. Anyways I asked him how he came up with Love Story as the opening song on this tour. He said that it was considered for the album but didn't make the cut, so that is why he chose it. I told him I loved it and others chimed in to agree. As for the item I gave Mary to have autographed, I took the page out of one of my scrapbooks. Originally I was thinking of something more recent, but last night I realized that this concert was going to be in the same theatre that the 2003 Kissmass concert was in, so it seemed fitting to choose that page. On it, I have pictures of myself and my daughter modeling an Indians jersey (the one someone won in an auction from the AI tour) and I have my tickets and other BAF stuff, as well as some photos of Clay on stage. He looked at it for a minute (probably trying to figure out where to sign) then said that he was sorry but he had to sign on top of something. I said it's ok, just turn it over and there is more room on that side. So he did and signed it a second time. I think my favourite part of the whole thing was the picture. He lined everyone up and then we went up one by one as he motioned us to. It was just so cool to have that invitation to come forward, and he is so welcoming. I said 'hi' (great, eh?) and then while I posed and smiled I asked him if he remember that this was the Kissmas Concert theatre. He said he thought it might be but it seemed so much bigger then! Then I explained that that was why I had him sign that page, and he said "oh, ok, I get it now!" I hope the picture turns out, since I was talking the whole time. LOL.

After everyone's picture was done, someone asked Clay if the stage configuration was going to change at all, because the front row seats had obstructed views, due to the monitors. He went down and had a look and moved a few things around. Then he waved goodbye at us and was gone. Jerome left through a different exit and we all decided that we should show ourselves out. The venue staff told us that we could stay and sit down in our seats if we wanted to, however I still had no ticket so I left and found cindilu2 and Claymatron again. The venue would not allow anyone into the theatre to use the washrooms without a ticket, so we were stuck until our CV contact arrived with ours. She finally got there about 7:10 and we ran in to pee.

We had seats in row J and row G. It was an awesome view, very centred. There were a lot of NJU and men in the audience. I had an older couple on my one side, and Cindy had another on her side. There were 2 guys and 2 girls in their late 20s behind us. One of the guys was very knowledgeable about both Clay and Broadway and was filling his friends in about both. It was cool to listen to him. Later, when Clay mentioned that Matt Metzger was in the house, we wondered if maybe that was him. Then the lights went down and Clay's voice came through the speakers and I was transported into another realm. His voice was perfection all night long. It was really hard to reconcile the larger-than-life performer on the stage with the down-to-earth guy from the M&G. I felt that the show was very tight, not a lot of inside jokes, which was probably a good thing considering the number of NJU in the audience. The applause and cat-calling was very loud between songs, with some partial ovations. It was a very appreciative crowd. The couples beside us weren't quite sure sometimes why we reacted the way we did to certain things (i.e. the shirt tug during Invisible). The opera was a hoot. I didn't know the autotune song but it is funny to hear him through that filter, and he gets such a kick out of doing it. He also gets a real kick out of Quiana's antics. She was really on and energetic, and Clay attributed that to her new blouse.

I can't go song by song but I know that Love Story, Crying, and UM were spectacular. But it wasn't only on the 'frying pan of talent' songs that he impressed me, he has such a range with his voice, he can go from loud, strong notes to soft, beautiful ones in an instant. His voice mesmerizes me. I don't think he messed up many lyrics at all...the only one I can think of was Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You, when he went into the chorus too early and had to correct himself. From all the cellcerts and clack I've seen, I'd say this was the best concert vocally yet. I hope we get mime_fan audio. When the curtain came down after UM, both couples beside us got up to leave, and we told them there were two more songs to come. One couple sat back down, the other continued on their way. Oh well, their loss. I was thrilled with Both Sides Now and In My Life for the encore. I loved his explanations about the cellcerts and how he realizes that they (and clack) do not cause people to stay home from the shows. For the most part, I believe that is true. Clack sells tickets. There is nothing that can replace a live show. He bantered a bit with a woman who said she was from Peru, and she was cellcerting someone in Kansas. After In My Life, he gave a quick sign language thank you and walked off the stage.

After it was over, we headed out quickly to try to get a table at a nearby restaurant, because we were starving. However, it was closed, so we ended up going into a pizza place and taking an absolutely gooey and delicious pizza up to our room, where we looked at all of cindilu2's great pictures and squeeeeed until we were exhausted. We never heard a peep from the room beside us, but if they were in there, I'm sure they heard us.

[Carolina Clay]

So, a short sort-of NJU story. Crying contains some of the most beautiful sounds I've ever heard Clay sing - I love it beyond measure. At both my FL concerts, he 'went low' - and I missed out on them. So then last night, all indications were that he was in the zone, musically - he was going for (and reaching) everything. Seriously fantastic vocals. Dare I hope? It was pretty clear leading up to 'my' part that he was going to sing the high parts and I'm just sitting there chanting 'ohh, ohhh, ohhhhhh, he's gonna do it!!' I might have also squeed. Needless to say I got a funny look from the NJU sitting next to me. (A 60+ year old man who was somewhat... confounded.) But ya know, he applauded as hard as I did when it was over ;-)

That is just too funny, cindilu2! I am sending this story to Sally.

ETA: cindilu, I read your post to Sally, and she said, "Ah ha ... When Harry Met Sally!"

luckiest1, headed back up to read your recap. Many thnx to all for sharing!

Caro

[shortyjill]

cindilu2, LOVE that Holey Jeans pic! woohoo!

I'll be trying for pics in Ft. Wayne, but no guarantees that they'll turn out. LOL But, I'll be traveling with at least one person who knows how to take concert pictures, so I'll probably bug her to fix my camera to a good setting. I want to take some video too, but I don't know what songs yet. Maybe I'll take requests?

[bottlecap]

There were 2 guys and 2 girls in their late 20s behind us. One of the guys was very knowledgeable about both Clay and Broadway and was filling his friends in about both. It was cool to listen to him. Later, when Clay mentioned that Matt Metzger was in the house, we wondered if maybe that was him.

I think it may very well have been Matt. When Clay was looking for Matt, someone in that area yelled and pointed.

And if you had a quiet hotel experience, you really are the luckiest 1. Our hotel room was in the middle of high-school kid central, and the hallway and stairway noise until about 2:00 am was unbelievable.

[ldyjocelyn]

I'm LOVING all the recaps and pictures and such. Sounds like a glorious night last night. And bc, you crack me up with your art work and your Viagra stories.

Is it March 4 yet?

[cindilu2]

So, a short sort-of NJU story. Crying contains some of the most beautiful sounds I've ever heard Clay sing - I love it beyond measure. At both my FL concerts, he 'went low' - and I missed out on them. So then last night, all indications were that he was in the zone, musically - he was going for (and reaching) everything. Seriously fantastic vocals. Dare I hope? It was pretty clear leading up to 'my' part that he was going to sing the high parts and I'm just sitting there chanting 'ohh, ohhh, ohhhhhh, he's gonna do it!!' I might have also squeed. Needless to say I got a funny look from the NJU sitting next to me. (A 60+ year old man who was somewhat... confounded.) But ya know, he applauded as hard as I did when it was over ;-)

That is just too funny, cindilu2! I am sending this story to Sally.

ETA: cindilu, I read your post to Sally, and she said, "Ah ha ... When Harry Met Sally!"

luckiest1, headed back up to read your recap. Many thnx to all for sharing!

Caro

Heheheh, it was indeed a Sally-ish moment. Except for I wasn't faking it.

[FearofH2O]

I'm so happy for you guys. Great recap luckiest. I'll bet I can do fuzzier photos than you bottlecap. I think I'm thrilled when a few of mine turnout okay.