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# 68: The Absurdly Charming Clay Aiken

ldyjocelyn

By ldyjocelyn
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FearofH2O Chairman

FearofH2O

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Happy birthday Clay. Its also Mr Fear's birthday. We had a small party with son, dil and granddaughter. I gave him an air ipad, refurbished of course. He is still using his first generation ipad . Should be an improvement.

Loved the Christmas video.

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merrieeee Baby Sitter

merrieeee

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From Clay' Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/clayaiken/?fref=nf

"...among the nearly 800,000 refugees [America has] accepted since 9/11, not one has been convicted of—or has even been arrested for—plotting a terror attack in this country. ... Why do refugees have such a clean record? Because they have to go through an elaborate process: screening by U.N. evaluators, “biometric and biographic checks,” consultations with U.S. counterterrorism agencies, and an in-person interview with the Department of Homeland Security. On average, the process takes about a year and a half—or, in the case of Syrian refugees, abouT two years

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ldyjocelyn Campaign Manager

ldyjocelyn

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Clay posted an article on his public FB page over night:

"...among the nearly 800,000 refugees [America has] accepted since 9/11, not one has been convicted of—or has even been arrested for—plotting a terror attack in this country. ... Why do refugees have such a clean record? Because they have to go through an elaborate process: screening by U.N. evaluators, “biometric and biographic checks,” consultations with U.S. counterterrorism agencies, and an in-person interview with the Department of Homeland Security. On average, the process takes about a year and a half—or, in the case of Syrian refugees, about two years.

http://www.slate.com...h_carolina.html

merrieeee -- JINX!

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ldyjocelyn Campaign Manager

ldyjocelyn

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Report of Sunday's activities from artquest, reprinted with permission:

I'm bolding this because I have some trouble reading some of the red fonts. Doesn't mean I'm shouting. Well, except to say a big THANK YOU for all the nice comments. Without the encouragement of everyone here, I wouldn't have gone. And if I hadn't gone, I would have missed a really fun day.

On to the red report:

Here's what was involved: Fly into Los Angeles, get to the hotel, convince them to give me my room for the day, get to the parade, get my seat, see Clay, get Clack, watch the parade, and get back to the airport in time for my 11:00 PM flight. None of this could have happened without everything ticking along like clockwork. And it did.

My cabbie, Armen the Wonderful, got me from LAX to my hotel in Hollywood in 20 minutes flat, giving me wildly unreasonable expectations on how long it would take to get back. Got checked in, begged for a very late checkout and got it. Got some sleep and then started fiddling with the camera. And decided I could either Periscope OR take video with the camera but couldn't handle both. Since it looked like one of the TV stations would stream, I thought I would go with Periscope. Then I learned that there would be no live stream. Bummer. Best leave that decision for later. And then read here that there was a bomb scare. Oy. However, there was nothing on the news, so I went ahead with my plans.

I walked down to the parade area and then spent 40 minutes looking for the line to the grandstands. Took forever. However, the crowd was very good natured and so were all (ALL) the police. A very visible presence. And one that was very welcomed. Tons of people stopped officers to get their pictures taken with them! Also bomb sniffing dogs went by the grandstands several times. Good doggies.

My seat was exactly between the two identical stages. They set it up that way so that they could smoothly and quickly segue through the various acts. First on the left stage and then on the right while the left got reset, and so on. In the middle was a big jumbotron showing the raw feed from the concert and then TV production, which was about 100 feet to the left. I figured Clay would be on "next to closing", so I saved my battery. That's too bad because I missed India.Arie, who was so good. When you all watch this on TV in December, don't miss her performance.

Eventually the American Idols string started, and I began to Periscope with whoever that singer was (she was good - didn't get her name) and kept it running. When Ruben came on, I thought I would try the camera, too. I had the iPhone on a little 30" tripod sitting on the bench next to me. I could hold the pole part with my left hand and move the phone with my right. I tried to hold the phone only with my left and use my right hand to hold the camera. I couldn’t keep it steady, so in a move of sheer desperation, I sat the camera on top of the phone on top of the tripod. The flimsy, plastic tripod. The phone would begin to tilt, and the camera frame would begin to drift down, cropping off Clay's head. As a result, you'll see a fair amount of movement in the video. But the image quality itself is good, so Yay!

Clay was extremely well received when he walked out. Better than anyone else. And you can see all the cameras and phones taking pictures and video while he sang. He sang so beautifully and then exited without a flourish. Like a postman, he came, delivered the goods, and left. And an excellent round of applause followed. All in all, a brief but vivid encounter. I was glad to be there for it.

Thus endeth the Clay part.

The parade then started, as did the live feed from the parade hosts, Eric Estrada (former star of CHiPs) and some blonde woman I didn't know. She was always aware of the camera. Him, not so much. And he was kind of a beat behind everything, his timing really off, and there were long moments while we watched him squinting at the teleprompter, waiting to say something. There was a group of California Highway Patrol Officers in the parade, on their bikes, making a splendid show with all the lights blinking and such. The leader shouted up to Estrada that they had an empty bike for him. The man had his jacket off and was heading for the street before the blonde stopped him. I don't know whether he was kidding or not. Anyway, we on the grandstand had a number of very funny moments watching these two trying to be professional.

I LOVED the parade. I hadn't seen a live parade since Permaswooned and I and some other fans huddled in the cold to see Clay at the 2005 Rose Parade. I just let out my inner child and had a blast. Loved the huge balloons, loved the high school marching bands, loved the Chinese dancers, loved all the Korean acts, and especially loved all the beautiful horses.

I had been watching the clock closely. With the delay in the start of the parade, I was worried about getting to the airport in time for my flight. I finally slipped out of the grandstand, walked across the street, and crept out past the barriers. However, I had to go around the block to get back to my hotel, back past some of those flop houses I remembered from the night we all spent on Hollywood Blvd to see Clay on Ryan Seacrest's show, back in the day. As I hurried along Franklin, past the Magic Castle, I saw what looked like a large dark trash bag in the center of the sidewalk. "Please let this not be a person who needs my help," I begged. Alas, it was a person, curled up on the pavement. I asked him if he needed help. And he unrolled himself, and stood up, a huge man who looked a lot like the Planner Parenthood shooter. Gulp. "NO!" he shouted. "I don't need help. I need a cigarette. Do you have a cigarette?" "No", I replied thankfully and hurried on. Good 'ole Hollywood.

When I got to the hotel, there was Armen the Wonderful, waiting for me. And a good thing he's wonderful, because the 13-mile trip to the airport took an hour and a half, the last mile in totally gridlocked traffic. He found holes in lanes that didn't exist, and aced out two HumVees and a bus. I made it on time and made it home. Phew!

And was so happy about everything!

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merrieeee Baby Sitter

merrieeee

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So sad!

@clayaiken: This is getting ridiculous. No... it's past that point. https://t.co/tlTjc9tuv7

@clayaiken: Taking bets: Who will be the first #GOP candidate to skirt the issue of #gun control when addressing today's #massshooting in California?

@clayaiken: Official in CA "don't know if it's a terrorist incident" 14 dead in a mass shooting=TERRORISM! Why does it matter what religion they were?

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ldyjocelyn Campaign Manager

ldyjocelyn

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It is sad, isn't it.

My school was having their first "active shooter" training as the whole thing in California was going on. Sobering. When will people realize that selling AK-47's isn't a good idea?

On a different note: the National Inclusion Project is at 92% of their goal, with two days remaining! If you haven't donated, please consider doing so. It's a worthwhile cause, and if they reach their goal, we get a new Clay song!

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ninna721 personal manager

ninna721

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Oklahoma City was over 20 years ago, with Columbine then in 99. Haven't learned anything in all this time, although Oklahoma City wasn't guns. 3 multiple shootings in three different places on the same day. There just aren't words for this.

29 hours til the deadline.

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ninna721 personal manager

ninna721

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Listening to Clay's Christmas music. O Holy Night still gives me chills up and down my spine

Love the new song. Donations still coming in at NIP, think it's till 4 EST so a few more hours. Clay is still in California.

Love Santa and Clay

Clay%20and%20Santa%202_zpsnwnr8npv.jpeg

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