ldyjocelyn

I forgot to mention this earlier -- EEEEEE for VWP! I've met her a few times, and remember her as a fan of Star Trek as well as a fan of Clay. I also remember meeting her -- and asking her when she was going to finish that beautiful smut story! I don't think she ever did, though. Wah. aikim is probably going to shoot me....but GO PHILLIES!!! *g* Ooooh, look at the thread title poll. We might have to have a run-off election. But there's still time!

If you're interested, I posted my choices for the best of BYLM in the DCAT thread. Whew! No sporking for me! I've seen KAndre's spork, and it's HUGE!!! Wonder if Clay's is that big?

Because You Loved Me This was interesting to rate. Clay had problems, IMO, both with voice and lyrics, during some of the early shows, although he got more consistent in her performance as the tour went along. Then, the later shows, there was a major crowd noise problem – “gotta get out the glowsticks!” Also, this seemed to be a good song for audience members to sing along – understandable, since many feel it’s a love song to him as much as it can be considered his love song to US. But unfortunately, it also affected the clack! However, before I even started listening, I pretty much knew what show I was going to pick as number one – Orlando. I’m a sentimentalist, and his banter and performance seemed so heartfelt to me. This is also one show where he played with the phrasing a bit during the song, which I personally liked. My pick for this show (and my top pick) is 070819_Orlando_ThankYou&BYLM_spotlightlover. Pretty good overall sound, and while there is crowd noise during the first verse, it’s tolerable. If you’re like me, someone who loves to hear him talk, I’d leave the banter. Choice number two is 070810_Cary_BYLM_LauraQ. The sound on this clip is incredibly crisp, and there isn’t much crowd noise either. IMO there is one or two rough notes from Clay, though. If you’re NOT a sentimentalist, I would probably suggest this as my first choice. Choice number three is 070728_Newark_BYLM_Scarlett. The sound seems a little dull/bassy to me, but NO crowd noise in this one. There’s also no banter to clip, but it’s got the complete song. One runner-up, because it’s a fun performance without silliness: 070817_Tampa_BYLM-SlowandEasy&Scarlett. Two other honorable mentions for totally silly reasons are 070725_Gilford_BYLM_LonelyNoMore44 (where “the bugs” get as much credit at the end as Q, A, Jesse, Sean and the orchestra), and 070818_WPB_BYLM_jtgranny (where Clay adlibs “except for that one night” after the line “never let me fall.”) The sound quality on these three clips is passable, but it depends on taste whether you want silly or not! WOOHOO!!!! I got done before couchie!!! No sporking for me!!!

:F_05BL17blowkiss: cindilu2 for the new avatar....I've loved almost ALL his looks on Leno (except for that hideous Christmas outfit, I'm sorry but I always thought a blue jacket and brown plaid pants do NOT go together....), so this is a good one for me for a bit.... New thread title poll is at the top of the page... Off to prevent being sporked....couchie, I definitely resemble your earlier remark, but I don't think you have to worry this time. BTW, my leg is still in a shambles today. I've got a brace on both my knee and my ankle, and there are times when I can barely walk. I think a day of just resting will be good for me.

Oh sure, rub it in. Listen, I'm down to my final 14. For me, this is a major accomplishment to be this far along before the deadline. I just hope I can make a final decision -- when it gets to this point, it gets really, really hard for me to make a decision!

Eva indicated it would be hosted around 9:00 this evening. Cool! Thanks! I should probably just cancel my DVRing then, because I'm not going to get this until tomorrow evening live for me. And duh! It took me FOREVER to figure out what AIR was! *g* Hee! I'm down to one more venue, and then whittling down from my top 15 or so. I'm pretty sure what one of my top BYLM will be, just for sentimental reasons (I think I had it pegged before I even began the project), but there have been some other fantastic ones too. I'm not getting sporked, I don't think...or I hope. Hopefully will have the time to finish the project tomorrow night....

Back from the zoo, and then the playground. I was with my husband, my niece, and her three children (ages 8, 5, and 16 months). What a great age to go to the zoo, especially a fairly small zoo. It took us 2 hours to tour the entire place. They were enthralled, stopping at every exhibit...but 2 hours was also their limit. Then McDonald's for lunch (Filet of Fish for me, plus I didn't eat all my fries -- YAY me!), and then the playground. This is where I got into trouble -- I was walking on a balance beam, doing a pretty good job, when a gust of wind got me, and I ended up jumping down about a foot. Bad idea -- it hurt my knee, one that I have trouble on and off with. So, now I'm home, with my laptop, and some ice on my knee. I'm very disappointed in the Clay Nation at the moment -- I was expecting the clack to be here already.... It sounds like this is gonna be fun. I didn't watch the early auditions either (I really don't like the audition process of any of these types of shows, period), so hearing Clay talk over them should be fun.

We need these on the new page. *digs a hole with front paws and buries them for later pickup* I set the DVR last night for AI Rewind, although around here, baseball games will very likely postpone each and every instance of it shows *waves at AIKim*. I really don't know why I set the DVR though -- might as well just wait for the vault. I'll have to try and remember to watch, though....but I'm going to the zoo today, so this might be a moot point. I'd never heard of "jinx" until I got on the Clay boards. The one that always keeps popping back on to me was "you owe me a Coke." Seriously cute. I also loved their tour of Hollywood, with the footprints of Johnny Depp and the picture of Godzilla's star on the Walk of Fame. I wondered where you got your new avatar. He's so beautiful... Ah, but dontcha know he'll turn around and look 30 in just a second? Besides, I'm 12 anyway. Exactly! He looks his age, and then he doesn't, and then he does again. It's amazing, and thrilling, to watch those transformations. This is me too, duckyvee! No matter what he says, scripted or not, Clay is speaking, and that's pretty darn good by me. As I said, off to the zoo today, with my niece and her three kids. We only have a small zoo here, so I might not be gone the entire day.....

Compared to this picture (uncropped), it looks to be the same.... As for "boards and blogs that must not be named" -- I understand a need to vent about that kind of stuff here. And yet, in a way, I think by talking about it here...hard to explain....but it just adds on to the whole component, you know? The best thing to do, and what Clay has suggested many times, is to just ignore. I know that can be difficult, especially when it arrives in our mailboxes every day, or a friend "helpfully" sends you the latest rumors. But it really is all we can do, and part of that, for me, is going to try my best not to talk about those boards any more. Frankly, they're not worth the effort. (Will I succeed? Probably not. But I sure as hell can try...) jumpingjacks, I can understand the whole "almost driven out of the fandom" thing too. I will never ever leave being a fan of Clay -- but there are so many things inside the fandom that I just don't understand, they make me pull my hair out. And these things were infiltrating every.single.board practically, which made it really hard to ignore. But eventually, I found my place in this fandom, one that is smart, funny, and simply fun. Oh, and LOVES Clay Aiken a whole damn lot. Favorite tour moment -- you can ask YSRN. She'll tell you. Oh, OK -- I'll post the link as well.... Second favorite tour moment -- whenever he laughs. OK, that's cheating I know, but it works for me.

There's a link at the bottom of the Clack Unlimited main page (www.clackunlimited.com) saying "Are we missing anything? Email Us" and the "email us" is a link. They should probably use that to inquire further. *waves at bottlecap* *asks, "has anyone seen georgiaclay lately?"*

Scarlett! It's really all about perspective, isn't it? Also, that is a fantastic idea of "us" thinking about the future for Clay in that way. He truly is working on being around for a good long while, simply by doing what he needs to do (working on albums, touring, and his charity work), and ignoring the crap. I really think his method will work, too, in keeping himself around. JBT -- I loved it! JNT2005 -- I loved it! JNT 2006 -- I loved it! DCAT -- I loved it! You can "Shift-F2" for the rest of the concerts as well from me, and I'm positive I'll be like that for every tour Clay does in the next 20 years! AI Rewind -- I can't imagine them NOT asking Clay either. And I think it says a LOT that he is doing something for it -- if he truly didn't want to be associated with the show, he would have simply said "no thank you" to this request, IMO. Unless he's really hurting for money. (Yeah, right....) I think he sees this as a good way to refresh people's brains about who he was/is, and also a bit like his high school reunion. "Memories...light the corners of my mind...."

:F_05BL17blowkiss: zena! I'm glad you're posting around here....and I hope you stay a long while....

Have we seen this yet? Chickensoup.com If you go to the website above, and click on the banner, it says "Including stories from Clay Aiken, Jordin Sparks, Carrie Underwood, Ruben Studdard, Blake Lewis, Melida Doolittle, and other top 10 Idols from every season." It also says that there will be podcasts with interviews from "the top Idol winners," plus a chance to win tickets to the AI8 Finale. This is different from the "Chicken Soup for Special Needs," which benefits the BAF. Amazon order link

Hey lilyshine! Nice to see you singular again! *g* I've only seen bits and pieces as well, but I seem to remember Dunkelman (who hosted and narrated last year) did a LOT of voice-overs as introductions. Also, I seem to remember that we never saw the interviewer once. I don't think I even HEARD the interviewer. Now, of course, that may change due to the "characters" involved this season (HA HA). I guess I keep telling myself that it could just be Clay doing voice-overs for a reason: to keep expectations realistic. If he DOES do more than voice-overs, I'll be doing backflips with the rest of you. If it is just voice-overs though, I'll be "OK, that's cool. I like hearing Clay speak...." I have a real problem with the expectations that some fans bring to the table, and I always try to keep some realism around me. I talked to my husband about DVRing AI Rewind; then he's going to show me how to transfer the stuff onto a DVD. Cool -- I get to learn new technology!

Rereading that blog entry a few times, it sounds to me that we'll hear more of Clay than we will see him. "Narrated by Clay." VERSUS. "Hosted by Ruben." I'm going to guess that he's going to be doing scripted stuff, as voice-overs. I personally don't expect him to be doing the "interviews" although I could be wrong. I have been before, you know. But I still will EEEEEEEEEEEEEE for seeing this and having Clay on my TEEVEE!!!!! I too wanna know what's causing the angst over at the OFC (without of course going over there myself...that place is skeery). I, like CG, thought the party would have been going on full blast by now, so I'm sort of surprised that a war has broken out instead. (Oh wait, this is the Clay fandom I'm talking about, otherwise known as "drama drama drama." Nevermind...)

I won't stone you for that at all, because I had the same thought. It's really hard to say whether Clay and he became good friends or not, IMO, but they did have a working relationship and that sometimes turns into friendship. Totally agree with playbiller that just because Clay's probably going to get a new publicist, it doesn't mean that Clay will automatically get someone better (or worse, for that matter). That's what always bugged me about the "he needs to jump ship from RCA" arguments too, because there really was no guarantee that things would be better at a different label. Anyway, most of this ventures into "Clay's business dealings" territory, and I just have no real interest in that. Or, I should say, I used to think it interesting, but more than a few fans ruined it for me. (Did I mention that one the other night in the chat with the question about how our fandom has changed? Because that's a biggie for me...)

:lmaosmiley-1:

Hmmmm....let's travel back in time....say, to one year ago today.... What was Clay doing on that day? Why, signing CD's, of course! (And rather cutely, I might add...) Jimmy decides to pay a little visit (notice Jerome hovering in the background)... Then, for some reason, Clay needed to get his leg shaved... And then...he sang... OMG, he's hawt! Yeah, I think I can like having my own gallery around here...