beryl

Hi! I haven't seen him much lately but I hear him singing over and over "The Blood will never lose its power" right here on this side of the planet (in my headset). Well, I just logged in to say goodbye to each and all of you; you have been really nice to me. If you care to know why, you may read my updated profile and 'About Me' page. Thanks and goodbye again.

I've been watching BGT on the internet. It's much better than AI. I completely agree with the future talk show host CA. If only TV execs see how much his opinions matter to thousands of people, they'll probably get higher ratings than some of the shows about to be axed! Back to SB, she sounded like her idol Elaine Page towards the end. Of course, Barbra Streisand sang it more beautifully than EP but the former Brits sang with more feelings. For those who want to hear another version, there's Memory by Regine Velasquez in YouTube. I'm happy Kris Allen won; I prefer his singing even though I like Adam's voice. As for BGT, my favorites are Greg Pritchard, Julian Smith, and Shaun Smith. I hope the 3 join SB in the finals. May the best and most needy win. And I'm not thinking of Susan because she got global fame already; a contract is sure to come by.

I just came from skimming thousands of pro-, con-, and neutral posts reacting to a published OFC Clay blog. It's getting more comments faster than I could skim even when I jump 4 pages at a time. Someone did question Lindsey Parker for a "copy and paste" article which she then interpreted like a hater or riler. I went to that blog because there are headlines in my web page. Did you see it? 'Aiken rips fellow idol' and other titles. I sure wasted my time. With almost 6-7,000 messages, I couldn't even reach the last page because it had no 'last page' to go to and I never found my posts which were several. And I said it like our VIP did: HE HAS TOO MUCH POWER AND INFLUENCE that people quote, post, read, and react to what he says! Ms Parker has been doing this so her blog gets readers; Clay (and now vs Adam) is a tested formula for her. It seems to me that OFC has a lot of Judases. That Lindsey should follow up her article with Aiken's latest blog if she has any integrity as a blogger.

keepingfaith, I couldn't find the link for the ratings but I think AI owes its highest viewership to Clay Aiken and his millions of fans (then?). 38.1m, the highest belonged to Season 2 where he was in the top 2, and 36.5m, the second highest, happened in season 5 finale where he was a guest performer, wasn't it? I think it was because of the Claymates, Claynadians, Claynation, and Clayasians, right?

Thanks for posting this. I love the way he speaks, he is so comfortable on stage in a non-performance role. Love the way he milks the fact he didn't win and was cut from his HS musical, inspiring for the ones who don't win. ETA: American Idol 8 http://findingclayaiken.invisionzone.com/i...t=0#entry106697 I always felt that there was no point to the Royals, and in many ways, I still do feel that way. However, during the years of Princess Diana, I saw what a difference she made to charities, how her appearance would draw crowds to an event, how at a special dinner costing $1000 a person, people would turn up just to be seen and be able to say they attended a dinner where the Princess of Wales was the guest of honor. So I changed my mind and felt that if that is what it took to get people with lots of money to spend some of it for an important cause, then that was okay with me, it's a means to an end. Like you, I prefer to financially support needy causes closer to home... however, I never let an opportunity go by to plug TBAF because it is a serious and important cause and it is also one of the reasons I have such a high regard for Clay Aiken. CRITICAL TRIVIA: Red Hair Alert!! A health/lifestyle show I was watching revealed that only 2% of the world's population are natural redheads! They also said that redheads have better love-lives . However, they added that due to the 'melting pot', redheads are on the way out, i.e. set to become extinct!!! That gives credence to what I said last time that red-haired people must be extraordinary. They're very very special; and if they belong to an endangered species, they should be loved, cared for, and protected!

Same here, the posey pics are beautiful but 'gayish' and unnatural (with make-up?). I love those stolen shots, especially where he was walking with Mystery Man (seems to me he's a friend or neighbor). He looks very manly, very handsome; those are the best photos for me.

Thanks for that link, some great shots.... Cher.. well I am speechless and Donny Osmond, OMG he is ageless! I've also just watched all Charice's performances on YT (wow she had quite a few) and she looks older and performs with so much confidence. Her voice sounded great but I've heard her in better form. Yeah I know I sound like an anxious auntie but I want so much for her to do well, not just because I've been following her career from the start but also because she is an inspiration to young people everywhere, especially those who start life behind the 8 ball. Didn't like that red in her hair though. LOL the ex-pat contingent from the Philippines sure made themselves heard! Did I say something about red hair? Now, when it's Clay Aiken's hair au naturelle it looks just superb. I've never seen him look better or healthier. Whatever he's been putting in his drinking water... it's working...!! That glorious red hair reminded me of L.M. Montgomery's novel turned TV mini-series Anne of Green Gables, and a sweet teenager who had waist-length curly strawberry gold hair during my Chefoo dorm-school days. Must be for very extraordinary people!

Didn't mean to make anybody sad but I don't know of any motherless child who had a very happy childhood or easy teenage years. It's my way of saying Moms are great; without them, there would be no adorable babies, be no children and grandchildren!! Here's a few lines of my version to the tune of John Lennon's "Imagine". Imagine there's no Faye, and no Jaymes Foster, Imagine there's no Clay, and baby Parker too, oh hu, hu, hu hu...

I thought Clay was very generous in his attitude, too generous as far as I am concerned. After all, he was the child without any power. Ray was the adult in that relationship. While I agree that everyone remembers incidents differently, I don't believe he could have repeatedly had it so wrong with every recount. That book surely would have hurt Brett and Faye in some way, after all, they both loved Ray deeply. I cannot imagine for one moment that Clay would deliberately embellish stories like that, compromising his brother and mother for the sake of book sales. It's one thing to sensationalize say, an event at a prom, but this stuff we are talking about is far too serious to dismiss as unsubstantiated. Would Faye have allowed Clay to say in his book that she told him Ray wasn't capable of loving child that wasn't his own? I hope not. My own relatives were incapable of loving me. I was only 8 with a sibling of twins when my mother died and my father abandoned us. My rich aunt and uncles made me work really hard for my bed, food, school fees, uniform, fare and every thing else. Treated like a slave with little food at irregular hours and allowed to sleep about 4-6 hours, I was ordered to do every chore and job in the big house (laundry, babysitting, janitorial) in the businesses (restaurants, groceries, bakeries) and farms (poultry, piggery, vegetable). My cousins treated me like their servant until I left when I was 17. After decades, my grown-up cousins have forgotten what they did to me but an aunt remembered her meanness and was apologetic. To this day, two of my 5 aunts often tell my nieces the hardship I went through. I have forgiven them all and visit them when I can. The wounds had healed but the scars remained. Some of those who witnessed the abuse and ill-treatment are still alive but we don't talk about the past unless we want to point out some lessons learned such as the Golden Rule, perseverance or patience, gratitude and humility vs pride, and so on. One witness who is now very old saw me last year at the former rich aunt's birthday and reunion. She was surprised or shocked to see me! She hugged me for a long time and was teary-eyed. I knew she remembered. Although a few showed kindness to me at that time when my uncle and aunt were not around, none dared to protect me because they were afraid of the bosses. Yes, it's a miracle I'm still alive, happier than most of my cousins in California, Canada, Australia, Japan and in the Philippines. I thank God for everything. My point is those who did wrong often forget what they did or are blind and too proud to admit it. Those who suffered don't have to and will not want to prove their story. It's too painful to go back for every detail but there is always one or more who can verify the facts in a case like this.

Whew! finished reading, viewing and listening to everything mentioned in all 12 pages. That's how I end the day. I enjoyed all your posts. Now I can go to bed with a smile and hope to see those cute , adorable faces singing beautiful songs in my dreams.

The first time I saw Gone With The Wind, I cried because of the war and I felt it deserved the accolades. Then I saw it on TV twice and stopped raving about it as a great movie. More than a decade ago, I read an article about the real Scarlett O'hara and Rhett Butler. After the war, Rhett became a Methodist minister and in the course of his pastoring, he had to talk to an owner of a brothel who turned out to be Scarlett (Emily Louise something). The result: she closed the brothel and opened an orphanage to which she devoted her remaining life. They didn't go back into each other's arms but they became good friends. Here's my list: Never read nor seen: Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings series Enjoyed reading and watching: John Grisham novels and movie versions , Bourne Identity Preferred: Titanic starring Catherine Zeta Jones Disliked: Titanic with Leonardo diCaprio and Kate Winslet Favorites: Giant, Ben Hur, A Few Good Men, The Sound of Music, Love Story, Sister Act Likes: Old movies with great actors, comedies like The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, Now You See Him Now You Don't, Back To The Future Hated: Cleopatra, The English Patient (Both depressed me.)

Claytonic, I haven't been to Charice's website for sometime now until justclay12 mentioned her name. Today I watched a clip of her singing as a guest in an Italian musical variety show where international singers are invited and another from her own video singing Star Spangled Banner at Dodgers Stadium for the LA game vs SF Giants last April 13. After listening to Charice, I went back to Clay's videos in YouTube. I did that three weeks ago when I compared all AI alumni and other artists who sang SSB. Here I am again, looking at a cute face, hearing a beautiful voice and enjoying it even if it's not a love song he is singing. BTW the one by videoluvr has the most viewed and most comments among Clay's anthem clips. Viewers are still posting comments; the last post was 9 hours ago. We never get enough of Clay, do we? If I understood the FCA philosophy right, I think it also means we may talk about other things, Susan or Charice for awhile but the journey is Clay; the rest are layovers. Still, I hope the artists I named here all succeed because they have different styles, genres, ages, and fans. Scarlett, I'm glad you liked that version. You can also watch a clip from the play itself where Lea performs as Fantine.

I know what you mean. I followed Charice through YouTube in November. I wanted to hear her sing mellow tunes she said she likes to do. But fans want her to sing like those famous singers and she has to please them so there wasn't much variation and I stopped. Then I "discovered" Clay in YouTube and I was really impressed that he can look different each time he has a new hair style AND can sing any song like the original singers but in his unique voice and style. My sister agrees with you too. We watched several videos.

00lsee, I'm so glad you enjoyed it! It must have been fun to see her schoolmate in so many scenes! I enjoyed the TAC (Tenth Anniversary Concert) as a VHS pledge gift from PBS but when the CD came out, the sound was much better than on the tape, eg. Leah was a bit strident on the tape but the blending was more even on the CD. Many of the YouTube clips have been overdubbed from the CD but some haven't, so if you have a choice pick the one with the CD audio. Other good recordings are the OBC (Original Broadway Cast) with Terrence Mann as Javert and the CSR (Complete Symphonic Recording) which features a great international cast and is the only version that records the entire show (on 3 disks). :pickme: Thank you, Lotus! I read quickly and viewed TAC on YouTube. I remembered something about "Leah", and ended up watching Lea Salonga singing "I Dreamed A Dream" in Bryant Park. Small in stature, she interpreted the song amazingly. Honestly, I didn't know what the song was, never heard it until this Susan Boyle sensation. But after listening to Lea sing the whole song, I understood the lyrics and the feelings that should go with it. Found many comments 'Susan brought me here'.