keepingfaith

In trying to log in here, I forgot my sign in information and have been looking everywhere. Success!

Apparently if you leave your car in the Macy's Garage after a certain period of time, they lock your car up. And the eHP has to drive you home, which is probably a good thing after 3 bellinis and something called a XXX rated pink martini.

C'est la vie!

You should have stayed at the Hyatt with me.

sheiladownunder and I ended up closing down the Hyatt lounge.

And, the thingie at Birraporetti's was a Heaventini. And it isn't made with XXX, it is, ahem,

X-Rated Liqueor

Grey Goose Vodka

Cointreau

In no particular order.

I felt like I was in heaven.

After uncharacteristically bitching about his hair -- the rooster "monolith" thing -- at CV, and since I was the first person he greeted when he came out for our M&G, I felt obliged to acknowledge the new haircut and said, "Clay, I love your hair." He did his cute face thing and said, "Everybody keeps saying my hair looks great and I just got out of the shower." And merrieeee, next to me, said, "Keep it that way." It looked fantastic up close. And his SKIN! OMG!

And we were so bold last night -- in many ways. It was divine. Note to merrieeee: We did make it happen, didn't we? I don't know what I'd do without you.

Ernie was fantastic too. He was incredulous that of the 131 shows he has done of Innerviews, and all the DVDs that PBS has sold of that series, none has come close to selling as much as Clay's did. merrieeee and I explained it to him. Ernie asked us what it was about Clay that made us all so devoted --- he's seen a lot of celebrities but no one who has fans so loving and dedicated as Clay's. Again, we explained to him ... in detail.

merrieeee and I have stories.

Oh, and Clay told me "It's so nice of you to share" (my red sharpie). And I told HIM, "Thank you for coming" when he left. I'm just remembering bits and pieces now. I can't wait for my picture with his arm around me ... and he signed my copy of Learning to Sing. And he was, as Carol Burnett would intone, ... "squeak, WONNN-derful" -- the whole night was. I'll share more when I can think again and I don't have to pretend to be working.

Hint for the recap: He's never sounded better. Ever.

But first a little crummy photography from my cellphone (I can't wait for the REAL photographers to post because he was GORGEOUS, BABY):

Congratulation luckiest1 and merrieeee! I'm excited for both of you. I didn't win an OFC M&G, never will, but I do have a PBS M&G in Houston, along with just about everyone of us who volunteered on September 8th. As I remember, that's why I volunteered, for a chance to buy a M&G, and then we were gifted with such a unique Clay experience that night. Can't wait to see him perform again on Valentine's Day, six months to the day from the last time I heard him sing live in Biloxi. I've known for a long time, but it's certifiable now, I'll never stop loving Clay's voice --- even if I'm the victim of an intervention and sent to solitary in Clay Aiken Rehab for a long, long time. I'd just hear that voice in my head. There's no cure.

Here's the Houston Symphony email I received today (page 1):

The tickets have been discounted today. But it's not all bleak. I kept reading where people were saying that tickets were available on Row A and B, but I checked today and it's the last seat on Row A and two from the end on Row B. I wouldn't want those seats, because they are bad seats, IMO. The next floor seats available in the Level 2 seating took me to Row R.

Link to Ruben on the Today Show this mornng. Scroll down to the video with Simon's face:

http://www.tvgrapevine.com/index.php/fox/84-chopping-block-2009/10214-american-idol-time-for-simon-to-move-on

Happy 1-1-11 -- and the rest of the year, FCA!

I thought Clay glowed in that big yellow shirt. I thought it worked for him in pretty much every photograph I saw. It may have been a fugly "shirt" but Clay in the shirt made it all better.

YAY aikim on the A! I knew you'd do well in the class!

Did the storms hit you? We had several go through overnight last night, and today, it's, as Winnie-the-Pooh would say, a very blustery day. The temperature is dropping fast too. Finally, in my opinion -- in my mind it shouldn't be almost 80 degrees at the end of October. (Sorry KAndre....) Anyway, yes bc, you'll be getting stuff later today as well!

Topic: Clay once played weatherman. I still love that clip. I think I may have to go watch that again.

Puh-leeze, it's going to hit 90 here today -- and it's blustery, too!

keepingfaith, may I just say that your avatar is the cutest 'photobomb' I've ever seen? You are both adorable.

Awwww, you're so sweet. But, then you're just about the kindest, sweetest person I've ever known, so it's just like you to say something sweet. I will tell you, I think he made us all feel "adorable" that night! We missed YOU!

Back to my music search, it was that Corrina from Ratdog's Evening Moods -- I went to the KPFT.org radio archives and found it! If you want to hear GREAT music, eclectic, sometimes live, sometimes crazy, and always including some Dead and variations thereof in the 2-hour mix, I recommend the Deadbeat radio show on KPFT every Saturday afternoon at 3pm Central. It streams live, and you can download the shows to iTunes, too. There are many great and dedicated music shows on KPFT, but this one with Clay and Sandy (I love that, too!) is my favorite. It's commercial free, but for the next two weeks the shows are in pledge drive so it may not be the best time ... but maybe it will be. I mean, where ELSE can you turn on the radio these days and hear Van Morrison's "Who Drove The Red Sports Car" -- or Widespread Panic's "Sleeping Man" interspersed with "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" from the Dead's Postcards of the Hanging. It's my lifeline when I'm tooling around in the city on Saturday afternoons.

Tonight I watched part of the Concert for George. Every so often I take out that DVD and treat myself to the music of George Harrison. He wrote beautiful songs, songs which can take me back 30,40,almost 50 years and bring back such memories.

Yes, me to. I love to watch Paul, Eric, Dhani, Ringo, Jeff Lynne, Billy Preston, Gary Brooker, Klaus Voormann, and company, make new magic with Something and While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Sam Holland did a great job too on her song. I also love to watch the R&R Hall of Fame edition of Guitar Gently Weeps with Prince. Prince blew my mind on that one. I wonder if Gary Brooker can still sing A Salty Dog, or even White Shade of Pale? What classics were on that stage that night!

ETA: jmh, I have a Dead inquiry for you .... Do you have an opinion on Ratdog's best version of Corrina? I'm looking for one I heard on the radio a couple of weeks ago that was too fine for words. There's one on Evening Moods, but I wonder if you have a recommendation. I LOVE the way Bob Weir sings that song!

The new "Clay Aiken Essential" on iTunes. Pretty damn cool!

"Singer" seems too slim a description to truly cover Clay Aiken's larger-than-life role in American pop culture; Broadway performer, TV personality, tireless activist, all these titles and more are part of his resume, though there's still no getting around that golden voice. American Idol fans may have been the first to find out what his titanic tones could do with Simon & Garfunkel classic "Bridge Over Troubled Water," but the rest of the world caught on quickly, making his version the best-selling single of 2003. The romantic sway of Aiken's smash "The Way" from his debut album proved he could put original material across with just as much emotional punch. And when he lights up the old Johnny Mercer standard "Moon River" - with guitar courtesy of Vince Gill - his place in the lineage of great American pop vocalists becomes blindingly clear. Discover Clay Aiken's multiple musical personalities, from power balladeer to jazzy crooner.

The Basics

Unchained Melody

Invisible

OMWH

Can't Take My Eyes Off You

BOTW

The Way

Without You

You Don't Have to Say You Love Me

Mary, Did You Know

Moon River

My Grown-Up Christmas List

Measure of a Man

Because You Loved Me

The Real Me

Solitaire

Next Steps

A Thousand Days

Lover All Alone

Suspicious Minds

Everything I Do (I Do It For You)

This Is The Night

Crying

I Will Carry You

Something About Us

What Kind Of Fool Am I

Where I Draw The Line

I Survived You

All Is Well

I Want to Know What Love Is

Falling

What Are You Doing New Year's Eve

Anyone hanging around tonight waiting for clack, I URGE you to watch the following YouTube of Fort Worth City Councilman, Joel Burns. This is something every person in this country should watch and has moved me beyond words. I don't know Joel Burns, but I'm so proud of him.

Fantastic show! I just got back to the hotel. Clay came out with Mack the Knife wearing his sharkskin suit--and it seemed a little baggy. Sure enough, he said that when he filmed the PBS special the suit had fit him and then opened it and wrapped one side over the other to show how skinny he was, saying "That anorexia's not bad" (paraphrasing of course as my brain is addled). I was front center right behind Scarlett as I was # 30 in line and made a beeline for the center as soon as I got through the door. Clay was in fine form. I'm sure the videos will be up soon. Let's see. Total Rooster Hair. He said he had done his own hair. This I believe. (LOL). Lavendar tie. White shirt. Striped socks. He took a phone from someone and talked to the woman (Deb) on the phone and found out she lived in Ohio and ragged on her for not coming to the show--snapped the phone shut and then started singing "Who's sorry now?" OMG, the look on his face was priceless (although he sort of whispered to the woman holding the phone later, asking if she'd gotten Deb back--she had.) Let's see, oh yes, he asked (probably not in order here) if anyone had NOT been to one of his shows and this older lady (using the term somewhat loosely) said she was at her first show, but I think she said she listened/watched?? him 4 hours a day on her computer. This should have given him a clue to run. Anyhow, he asked her to come up to the stage, and he came down (LOVELY VIEW) to meet her, and she looked like this sweet little old lady, but OMG, she started grabbing at him and hugging him (she may have even kissed him) and was rubbing her hand up and down his back. Holy crap! THE LOOK ON CLAY'S FACE!!!! I almost had a convulsion from laughing--if you hear a hyena laugh on Scarlett's video--that's probably me. Once he got away from her, he said he'd never been molested on stage before and told the woman she needed to stay off the computer. Then, he said, "Where was Jerome? We're going to have a staff meeting later." Jerome was standing over on the side laughing like the rest of us. I mean, was he going to haul a little old lady off Clay!!!?? Clay said the reason he'd asked about first-timers was because he needed new people to join "the cult." He made a few references to some (maybe all) of us being crazy. LOL. He couldn't remember the order of the songs and borrowed the program outline from one of the band. He said he had some of the lyrics written on the floor and he screwed up one song and sang about how he didn't know the lyrics. He was really funny, have I mentioned that? I noticed some of the band was pretty sober in the beginning, but they were cracking up later, especially the woman. There was a mini-orchestra (violin, viola, cello, horns) as well as two guitarists and Ben and Sean.

Quiana wasn't there--only Casey--so maybe something came up and there was a switch or Quiana didn't go. Oh, yes, Clay was joking at one point and said he wasn't getting paid for the show. He invited one of the younger gals up in front to dance to Eso Beso while he sang. That was pretty funny too. LOTS of fun stuff going on. UM ended the show and if that were the only song he'd sung, it would have been worth the $250.

(Can travel)

Absolutely marvelous review, wanda!

Moon River. I love the little bit of Clair de Lune that Ben plays as an intro.

I missed that one. He didn't intro with Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, same as the CD?

I'm jonesing for the full-blown tour in February!!!!!!! It's gonna be a long, cold, lonely winter.

Hope all our attendees have a marvelous time with my boyfriend tonight! I must say that it is extremely fortunate that I didn't buy a ticket for tonight because I probably would have had to eat it, or at least frame it. Not only is work kicking my ass completely and totally, but my daughter and grandson are coming in from DC, as in "moving home", and my favorite cousin is moving to Eureka Springs and having a big going away party tomorrow, and that's not the half of what I have to do in the next couple of days. I will make some time tonight for the cellcert, even if I have to lie, cheat or steal to do so! But you guys that are there, enjoy it to the hilt!!!!

Tweet Pic...Clay hanging out at Duke Chapel:

http://yfrog.com/jw4gnbj

From Quiet1ne at CH:

I thought the guy in the middle looked like David Hibbard and according the ashleyj @ the OC, David is in the touring company for Billy Elliot which starts in Durham at the end of the month. The guy in the white shirt looks like Andrew Fitch who is also in the touring company and was in Spamalot during Clay's run.

From CV: The guy in the white hat is Patrick Wetzel also of Spamalot and also in the Billy Elliot touring company.

Tall guy is not Andrew Fitch. Andrew lists his height as 6'0". Just heard from my sister who reports that the tall guy in white shirt could very well be the guy she saw with Clay at A Little Night Music. That night she told me that the guy was very tall, taller than Clay, had dark or black hair, and was conservatively dressed. She said it's hard to say definitively that it's the same guy because the picture quality is so poor, so while she couldn't testify in a court of law to it being the same person, she thinks it is.

While there has been speculation as to why Clay was at Duke Chapel yesterday, and we surely don't know, I believe it may have had something to do with a group of guys going to the chapel for a service or even just personal prayers for the gay teens and young men who have committed suicide in recent weeks after being tormented, and especially in light of the fact that yesterday was National Coming Out Day. I read that there were services being held across the country.

Happy Birthday Lin!

It's your birthday, don't work so hard!!!!

Thanks for the good wishes to you all. Here's what I really want for my birthday --

Lucky 13 so far for me:

6 - SRHP (DCAT): Frisco, Houston, Tulsa, Tampa, West Palm Beach, Orlando

5 - SPAM

2 - Timeless: Reno, Biloxi

I have Houston and Grand Prairie to look forward to next year.

ETA: cagney, I checked T&T while I was out buying a new microwave yesterday. Went to 2 Walmarts and one had 6 copies and the other had 12. Went to Target and they had one - probably the same one they had the last time I checked. Best Buy had 2. I planned to stop at Barnes & Noble to get a copy of Woodward's latest and check their T&T stock, but I picked up the book at Wally World for $21, so I passed on B&N. I hit Randall's instead for honey crisps.

This Sen. DeMint is a big nutcase.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) attempted to convince pastors that economic issues are moral issues at the Greater Freedom Rally at a church in Spartanburg, South Carolina yesterday, imploring them to help conservatives retake Congress in November.

In addition to reiterating anti-choice talking points on abortion and backing "traditional marriage," according to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, the senator went further and said if someone is openly homosexual, they shouldn't be teaching in the classroom and he holds the same position on an unmarried woman who's sleeping with her boyfriend -- she shouldn't be in the classroom."

I'm shocked that such as this caliber of human being serves in the United States Senate. What kind of police squad does he want empower to enforce his particularly sick brand of immorality on the world?

On a lighter note, spent time listening to music today -- on the radio -- don't know what I'd do without Pacifica radio. Saturday is music during the day and it is some of the best and most eclectic, always enjoyable and entertaining, and rarely anything I've ever heard before. Anyway, one of the songs I heard today was a kind of folk/bluegrass tune that was a toe-tapper and the lyrics went something like this:

What the world needs now

Is another folk singer

Like I need a hole in my head

What the world needs now

Is another Frank Sinatra

So that I can get you into bed

To be honest, I don't think the world needs another Frank Sinatra. The world never needs another anybody, in my opinion, because there's one enough of everybody, but it may be in dire need of a sexy, romantic singer with a beautiful voice and a hot delivery. I think I know just the man .....

And for something completely different, I bought the biggest, most delicious, perfect in every way, honey crisp apples today. $1.49 a lb. and worth every penny. I'm eating one now -- with peanut butter smeared all over the slices and they are downright decadent.

I was reading an online reprint of the Rolling Stone Magazine interview of President Obama. The interview was conducted by Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner and will be in their October 15th issue. This was in the intro:

I sat down with the president in the Oval Office, flanked by busts of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. The conversation stretched on for nearly an hour and a quarter. The president began by complimenting my multi-colored striped socks. "If I wasn't president," he laughed, "I could wear socks like that."

So Rolling Stone's chief honcho is wearing multi-colored striped socks now? Wonder who started that trend?

Lately I'm am obsessed with the "baby" at the end of "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me." Anybody else?

Oh, honey, you just called my name. I have in my car changer the cd that I burned with the core songs, followed by Who's Sorry Now, then Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, and ending with You Don't Have to Say You Love Me ... because it's all over when Clay intones that soulful "baby" at the end. What could possibly follow that?

From CH:

joycez at CH has an outstanding mp3 of In My Life available for download:

http://www.4shared.com/audio/U72aOoAK/In_My_Life.html

There's also a wonderful montage on YouTube of In My Life with incredible Timeless pictures by Invisible926:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47OxGTvuU2g

And a sendspace you just do not want to miss, I promise:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/r9jsk0

It's a good day for In My Life!

I know I'll never lose affection for this song. I know I'll never lose affection for Clay Aiken.

My Local Walmart Saturday Report:

T&T CD's: 13 in stock

Playlist CD's: 2

T&T DVD's: Sold out (they had 5)

Couchie, I still have a swollen lump where I was bitten. It freaks me out that a spider could have been on my arm and I wouldn't have noticed. My powers of observation aren't what they used to be, but missing a spider on my body is just ridiculous. I did get my epi-pen refilled yesterday.

headoverheels, you just made me feel so good first thing in the morning, I can't even tell you. That was pure sweetness on your part. It's real easy for me to express my feelings and opinions about Clay because I luvzzzzz him so much! Thanks again for making my day!

I think we should put "Touch" back to sleep. I can't even enjoy listening to a song that Clay dislikes so much that he still talks about it. I think Clay does a lot with the song and sings it so well, but I'm with jamar regarding the intro and the faux-Latin vibe. The production didn't match what Clay brought to the song; but, my goodness, he doesn't like it in any way, shape or form.

I was just thinking, most of the boards have names for their members, i.e., Meers at the Clack House and CVers at Clayversity, what are we? We find him here, so are we Finders? Or are we Seekers? Or are we Lickers?

Clay: I turned 30, had a son and a whole bunch of things changed. And now I'm in my 30's and I feel like I'm comfortable with who I am and I am me.

Ernie: Well we're comfortable with who you are too.