FromClaygary

Well, couchie, I hope the conversation has NOT moved along when we went to work, as then I'm going to have to bore you with my opinion, or more accurately...hopes....anyway! See, having to go to work (and drive for 90 minutes to get there) gave me some time to think about it. During that 90 minutes, with my Zen on shuffle, Barbra Streisand came up in the rotation. I don't have tons of Babs on my Zen, but there are a couple of my favorites....and I started thinking about her career. As I'm Methuselah's cousin, I probably remember her from earlier in her career than many of you. I remember her first being on Broadway, then becoming a big star on the "silver screen", in movies that were not musicals, but good movies with good music in them from time to time. She played dramatic roles and humorous roles; she has quite an amazing comedic talent that you may not know about in these later years. So, to eventually get to the point, what I'd love for Clay (always assuming it fits with his wants/needs/desires) is something similar to her career...being known primarily for his voice, but having many opportunities to develop his acting skills in movies fall-down funny and heart-breakingly romantic and sometimes both of the above...having the opportunity to use whatever modicum of fame he achieves from this to feed his soul with deeds good for the earth's children...and, when the time is right, finding the right person to spend the rest of his days with in peace and love and joy. I hope it all comes true. I've always thought he was much more comfortable in NYC too; I'm so happy he has this opportunity to see how it works for him longer term. Cotton, loved your post!! Claygasm, my prayers for a good solution for you and your Dad.

Hey, everybody! It's so good to see all the happy people! :F_05BL17blowkiss: LOVE those anonymous xvids! I'm very happily burning away....scarlett, thanks again for the help making that happen last week. Did I tell you I bought a new HDTV to go with them? lotus, I will PM you some info. I feel like the little dancy-guys tonight... :04:

Lotus, welcome to a fellow Claynadian once again....I always find it fascinating and almost surreal how many people were drawn to Clay at an especially stressful moment in their lives. I would venture to say that it's almost half of us. One of the many things that makes me believe he truly has a purpose in this world. Lotus, I hope you've been able to touch base as well with Anne and some of the other BC Clayfans. Real life Clayfriends are awesome too! Having a schmoopie start to the day today, as I read through the recaps from the (lots!) of fans at the GFI; who all describe him as radiant, joyful, sparkly, effervescent, healthy, glowing. Being busy and engaged and inspired suits him so well, and I'm so thrilled he's there. Thanks again to all the providers of clack and recaps and photographs for those of us who couldn't be there; we appreciate it more than you'll ever know. Cindilu2 I know I've already said how much I love this banner....but would you mind if I mentioned it just one more time? I LOVE!!!! this banner!!

Awwww....LOVE the new banner! I just need to see this one more time.........sigh.... I think this definitely moves into first place as my favorite picture of Clay e-ver. Just....WOW. I'm so pleased as well to see that Bob Ferrone spoke at the GFI....Bob and his wife Jan and their nephew Marty, of whom they are rightly so proud, are friends of mine. Bob will have LOVED being able to speak about him at the Gala, and I'm sure he did a fantastic job. I'm trying to locate my picture of him and Marty, but can't right at the moment....may have been on my dead-last-spring hard drive. I'm so thrilled for them!

Hee, ldyj, you and I had the same thought at the same time!

I'll pray at that altar!! I want to be there SOOOOOOOO bad!! I don't know either, but did he EVER sound like DF!! I thought the same thing exactly...and until I saw the post with the piano player's name, thought perhaps it really was, and he was playing for Clay as well. :04: :00000442: Awesome!! Oh, that was SO great! I'm so sorry I have to work for a living and missed some of it. Praying for audio clack at least. Very cool of him to so nonchalantly say "Hello everybody" to the cellstream :lmaosmiley-1: Those are also wonderful blog entries from the lady from the Palm Beach Post; so nice to see a reporter that "gets" him, and so nice to hear from Dianne reaffirming what we already knew about where his heart is. I have to do this or I'm going to explode: EEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi all! I was just checking to see if someone was bringing the cellstream over....I see luckiest at least is.....eeeeeeehhhhhhhAAaaaaaaaaahhh! Going to catch up now...just got home...10 PAGES???!!!

Very cool! I personally had no idea a portion of these went to BAF....even cooler! (I assume we're talking about the pins...) I can bring over info from CV as well, when I get home which will likely be 6:30-ish EST. If we get a stream, I have a stream subscription as well.

Julia who? And when was this taken? Looks like this year's outfit, but the hair seems long.... DeMato...from AI2....and it was taken last year (ie, 2006) when she came to one of the JNT concerts. Eeee-hah!! Something I actually KNOW for a change! Excuse me while I go quietly celebrate off here in the corner... ETA: Personally, I think she's still after his body...much like the rest of us.

Well, I had fun today! I don't do this often, but I went to spend some gift cards today and get two art pieces framed....and spent WAY too much money! Eeehah! I've had a Zen V Plus 30 gb for about a year now, and I F'LOVE it!! I love it SO much that I've grown kind of worried about losing the sucker on one of my many trips. It is, after all, a $300 2 x 4" piece of equipment and it has my entire music library now stored on it plus many one-of recordings I've done at various concerts. If I lost that sucker I'd have to commit hara-kiri. Soooo...I used my Best Buy $50 gift card and bought this little cutie, which is about 1" x 2" and can be hung from my neck from a lanyard. It records also, and has room for about 500 songs. That'll work for the best of the best for trips, and I can save my 30 gb for safer times. With my $50 gift card (are you getting the picture yet?....) I also bought a new small HDTV with an integrated DVD player for upstairs. Great prices on still! This is certainly the time of year to be buying electronics. And that $50 gift card only cost me $736!! My $100 Michaels gift card (to be used for framing the two art pieces brought back from SE Asia for me by my son) only cost me $276!! Gawd! I sure know why stores LOVE gift cards! :lmaosmiley-1:

Hmmm...interesting! Thanks for answering. I completely agree about the more open and honest Clay lately. I love it, think that as a fan group we have a relationship with "our" artist that many, many people would envy. But I understand why it would make it more difficult to write fiction about this person. And for some, perhaps....easier. I used to use photographs a lot in my multi-media stuff, and now of course can't do that anymore. I've been inspired by Scarlett's colorways concept and will be working more with that theme to do some things this year (hope you don't mind, Scarlett)so I understand how things have to evolve. I think your muse may not have left...he's just lurking in the wings to inspire you in new and creative ways. But probably not as a plumber!

Loooooong catch-up post, sorry!! Too many things I loved last night. LOVE this piece of art. LOVE it. If there had been nothing else on ATDW, it would have been worth producing for Broken Wings. Of course, the fact is...there's also the phrase "feel your body mooo-ooo-ooove" on ATDW. That one went on and on in my Zen for about half an hour last night on MY way home. OMG, you're FEEDING it???!! Or maybe the rehearsal schedule requires him to get up before the crack of noon. Hee. Yup, that's my bet!! Yup, that's the one I loved best too! A-DOR-a-ble!! Can hardly wait for the banner.....and the pins! Love them both! You do an amazing job as a pin artist. Have a question...several people mentioned that they have "lost their muse" in respect to Clay and "fanfic". I think that's interesting. I know I have lost none of my interest in and love for the man since 2003; in fact, likely I am more deeply entrenched in the fandom than I was at that point for numerous reasons. I'm not a fanfic reader; as someone else mentioned, my reading out of necessity and short attention span, needs to be in bits and pieces, and reading on the computer just doesn't work for me. I usually read in bed in the ten minutes or so before I fall asleep with the book in my hand and the light on. Perhaps I should print some of them out and read them that way. But~back to the point~I don't feel like those of you who mentioned it have lost their fandom either. You're here, after all. My muse pulls me toward creating art that has to do with Clay/benefits BAF. I still feel it. So why do you think it is, that the "muse" has left?

luckiest1, I must have headed for bed just as you posted about your week last night. (((((((((((((luckiest1andluckiestsons!!!)))))))))) Crappy that someone wasn't honest enough to return even SOME of the money, but good that he got his cards and ID back. After having mine stolen in Philly last year at the beginning of the SRAHP, I can tell ya that ain't fun to get that all fixed! I still hope that the guy that stole mine, including my airmiles card, is somewhere adding airmiles to it though. Claynation felon? I think it's a hoot! I AM a bit braced for what the sooper-sekrit "motive" that the police won't talk about is, though....

See, there ya go! Offer bow-making lessons, and you're set!

OK, THREE good BWAH's today!! :lmaosmiley-1: This CMSU completely, Scarlett! If you'd tried to do that, I bet you couldn't! :lmaosmiley-1: Listen, I bet he really needs a good laugh right about now! I'm not in Houston, but do wrap regularly at Christmas with two WFI organizations....I do have one suggestion to pass along, something I hear from a lot of people a LOT when I ask them to come out and help....perhaps you wouldn't mind passing it along, clayzedover? Offer lessons before the season on how to wrap. Many people think they don't do it well enough to be paid to do it. In fact, it's really simple to teach someone how to do a good wrap...a 1-hr lesson once or twice would probably do it.

Definitely one of the best blogs ever! It is SO good to come home from work to my two favorite words! Maybe now he needs to sit down and write another song....he wanted to wait until he felt strongly about something!! :lmaosmiley-1: I have every confidence in the world in his abilities...hope he feels the same way! Rohdy, your KCIS update made me all schmoopy too. Thanks so much for spearheading this program; you did a great job! I don't think folks in K'zoo will soon forget the Clay Nation...in a good way.

As he is listed on the site as the entertainment, I think we can pretty much guarantee he'll be at the dinner/auction/entertainment portion. Golfing~I believe he said not. That's the way with the many tournaments I've been involved with as well. The handicap is so you can be properly matched into foursomes or whatever they are putting together. I see absolutely NO reason someone who is a fan and a golfer couldn't be involved, and I'm sure they would welcome that participation.

Crap, I sure hope you are! You're responsible for making sure I get home and not deciding to camp out in the Schubert for the rest of the run! Just ordered my Playbill, thanks to a kind friend in IL. :F_05BL17blowkiss: (They don't ship to Canada) EEEEEEEEHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! ETA: Cindy, it is the same one you will get at the show, but a pristine copy with a protective condom. Hmmm and you are saying that I have the self control to make sure YOU don't camp out? huh??? :pickme: Did someone say camp-out until the end of the run?!!! REI has a sale right now and they've discounted some winter-rated tents. OH OH an enabler (not that I'm surprised heee) whatever are you gonna do FromClaygary? Sounds like I might be camping out in a winter-rated tent!!

And again....what might you have suggested? Oh some popular items like keychains, magnets, posters, tee shirts, and mugs. Kewl! I'm up for it and I have a credit card.

And again....what might you have suggested?

Crap, I sure hope you are! You're responsible for making sure I get home and not deciding to camp out in the Schubert for the rest of the run! Just ordered my Playbill, thanks to a kind friend in IL. :F_05BL17blowkiss: (They don't ship to Canada) EEEEEEEEHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! ETA: Cindy, it is the same one you will get at the show, but a pristine copy with a protective condom.

HAPPY NEW YEAR FCA!!! Hope everyone has a happy, healthy, prosperous and Clay-filled 2008. Me! Meeeeeeee!! Goldarngirl and I are headed there Easter weekend. It's my only opportunity, as I seem to have spent my (limited) vacation time chasing some young man all over the country. Our vacation year goes June - June. No blackeyed peas up here except on the radio, the radio...I plan on spending most of my day working on the various art projects spread all over the table in my studio room.

Oh, sorry, don't know how I gave the impression I thought there weren't....I'm sure there are! In fact, I've met several. I just don't have one and don't want one.

I ditto the "is she happy as she is"...because there is some chance her mother is making her miserable and needs to adjust HER attitude! If Daughter is unhappy...you can't sit back and wait for the "perfect someone" to find YOU. Volunteer at places like Habitat where there's bound to be good men. Noone invited her? Then call another single you know and invite THEM to join YOU for a night of movie/dinner/whatever (and I don't necessarily mean a single MAN...girlfriends are as much or more fun!) Go to a movie by yourself! I've never done that, that someone hasn't struck up a conversation with me. Try a fitness class! Investigate extension classes in something that interests you! In other words, GET OUT THERE! Re the "5 years already"....ah yes, I remember we were discussing this in Merrillville...how at least once with each tour, many of us just have to sit back for a moment and drink it in...and marvel. Look at all these people that just donated $104,204 to UNICEF one week after Christmas...because Clay inspired us to do so. Look at all these people that are sitting in this room, at a preparty that has raised $XXX for the Bubel/Aiken Foundation that Clay started. Look at all these people hugging one another, calling to one another, chatting to one another like the old friends they are....because they've been called to a location by a voice that could not be denied. Look at Meeeeeee in Timbuctoo, USA...here because of him, in a place I never dreamed of going. It is truly amazing, truly wonderful, truly awe-inspiring....for a 29 yr old man from Raleigh, NC to have inspired this devotion, and for it to be going strong 5 years later. It absolutely blows me away. 2008? BRING IT ON!! I CAN HARDLY WAIT!!

$101,233!!!!!!!!!11 OMG, that is just awesome!!...and I'm sure it'll go up a bit more as people get home from work. WAY TO GOOOooooooooo!!!! everyone!!! and Feliz Navidad Chiapas and Tabasco!