nicki503

I am mostly a lurker here but you can put me down for Raleigh. Will be at the Marriott City Center from 3/11 - 3/13! I will be with an Iowa Clay fan mkg1027 but she is not a member of FCA.

This lurker wanted to stop by and wish all of you a Merry Christmas (sad as it is with the loss of Claysmelody/Ashes).

I have some sad news. A friend of mine, who mainly lurked here, sassafras, passed away on November 10. I received an email today from her son. He included a link to a wonderful montage he created of his mom, from her early years right up to the present. Those in Raleigh may remember Cynthia from parties and get togethers. She was a good friend and loved Clay very much. She opened her home to me, my family and friends over the years and I will miss her very much. I am so glad that we had the chance to spend some time with her in October, when we were in town for the gala.

Tribute to Cynthia

Luckiest, I mainly lurk here on FCA but wanted to tell you I am sorry for the loss of your friend. I just watched the montage her son created and you could tell from it that Cynthia had a full, wonderful, very happy life.

I can definitely understand why he would evoke all sorts of feelings in people. I have no idea how much money Michael gave to charity but he did choose to create music and videos that brought awareness to a lot of forgotten people in this country and all corners of the world. As the commercial says -- that kind of influence? Priceless.

I just always go back to why did no one step in when he was obviously sinking further and further into mental illness and drug abuse. I keep hearing the family tried -- but he has long passed the legal intervention stage. I think even trying and failing would have been better than what ultimately happened.

And I in no means see him as just a victim. But I lived with depression from my mom for 5 months and it was the worst thing I ever experienced - more than any of the physical ailments she has ever had. The person you know and love is just not there. And no amount of talking to them will work. You have to take joint drastic actions even if they are looking at you like they want to hurt you LOL. I can't even imagine self hatred and all that fame and legal troubles added to the mix.

Hi Couch Tomato, I don't post here often but do lurk and got the email notification of your thread and wanted to stop by to say I agree with how you feel. I too find it odd at how many are coming out of the woodwork now. I think the coverage is a bit of an overkill.

I wanted to mention, as I am sure you are well aware of, that it's hard to force someone to get help unless they want it. My brother-in-law is a hopeless alcholic and his long-time live in girlfriend often attempts to make the family feel guilty for not helping him even though we have tried & tried to in the past. One time I even thought I would try just writing him a scathing letter telling him that unless he went for the help he needed, he would alienate the entire family with his drinking and resulting mean, mean antics. (He is such a nice guy when sober.) I wanted to try to shock him into seeing what he was doing to his relationships with everyone who loved him. Well, that did not work and neither of them spoke to me for a couple years! Now we are on good terms again, but quite frankly, there is nothing more we can do or try to do to help. He needs to want to help himself first.

That said, I did not hear or see all these people who are now Michael's best friends trying to help Michael. IMO, Michael had few good friends that he seemed to trust and Elizabeth Tayor was one of them. I only want to hear from the celebs who were actually close to him and not those now jumping on the bandwagon.

I thought it quite disgusting that Michael's father pitched his new label and am glad he caught flack from the media for mentining it. Then when asked why he mentioned the label, he said he was asked about it so he answered but yet he was not asked about it by the interviewer. Again, before he said why he answered, he plugged the darn label again. I always felt that father was basically the root of Michael's difficulties.

I am glad someone finally made Brittany Spears get the help she needed and hope she never reverts back to her problematic years. Someone should have intervened with Michael.

liney23' date='Jan 29 2009, 12:18 AM' post='99714'

Caro

Caro... where did you get that song on the little black box... When I Need You. I have never heard it before and thought I had heard every song Clay has ever sung. Can I download it somewhere? I LOVE it! I enjoyed your blog a bunch! Thanks for sharing!

liney, it was on one of the many different versions of the OMWH CDs. My memory fails me as to wheter it was on itunes, or WalMart or whatever but hopefully someone will get the answer to you.

Anyone else planning on watching the big game? Or just the commercials? I used to be that way, until I went crazy for football.

Anyway, I'm rooting for the Cardinals (I just love underdogs!) and I thought I'd see if anyone else likes football--or commercials!

I will be watching and rooting for the Cardinals too, not only because they are underdogs but because the difference between the Cardinals/Eagles game and the Steelers/Ravens game last week was huge for both my husband and me. The Cards & Eagles game was played with class whereas the Steelers/Ravens game was brutal and hard to watch. I never saw so many hemet butts with no penalties (from both sides) in my life. Those two teams were out for blood. (Sorry any Ravens or Steelers fans.) Being from WI and still liking Favre, I would have rather watched the Jets and Cardinals in the big game.

Go Cardinals!

Liney23 & aikim- thank you. Would post more often here but I have a really hard time getting used to linear threads.

Hi smitten & cindilu!

I'm Back!! We have switched from Comcast to AT&T and I am loving it...seems to be much faster!

Kim

Hi all, some of you know me from the CB as I mostly post there. Kim, I am so glad you posted that about AT&T. An AT&T fellow came by this afternoon to tell us we could get that now so soon we will get a 30-day free trial on our PC and TV. We have Charter now. If we like AT&T and its faster, we will switch. May switch anyway as it is much cheaper than Charter.

I wanted to share my new baby. I had to put my other black cat down last January and I so miss her to this day. Meet Scruffy Rose (named to honor Rose and because she has the scruffiest coat). She will be 5 in July! She's not Clay but she is cuddly and adorable.

My departed Rosie -

Am I the only one with this feeling? It may be a result of seeing that someone I used to be very close to started a thread at the OFC --Will you renew if nothing changes, even though there are about 10 threads talking about just that already. I guess you can never have too many.

I was just saying that..that they were starting a thread in each forum, the "men who dont blog and the women that love them" was my idea, and was meant to be snark, because i was trying to find out a name for one to go in "get aquainted"

yeesh, even though it doesnt matter so much to me..I do understand wanting more blogs, and even more content..I dont understand people who are making it so personal..someone even said he must be depressed..he is pulling away...he doesnt care about us..he doesnt need us...

I need a drink, and I dont drink! why do I go there then...I have no idea lol believe me, Ive asked myself that very question.

Hi smitten! Coming out of lurkdom to give you a hug. I was going to at the other board but never got around to it because my PC decided to get slow last night - so her you are - now you won't need to resort to drinking.

I know this is totally useless information, but today I was thinking its cool that Clay and Reed both have four letters in their first name and five letters in their last name.

CLAY AIKEN

REED KELLY

Obviously I think too much. LOL

Coming out of lurkdom to say its called Spamalot Withdrawl Syndrome. LOL!

Also, came over to find the pictures a friend pm'd me about on CB. I thought I may find them here so thank you for the posts of those.

ETA - I did not care for Juniors all that much either except for the fun of seeing other fans there and I liked Sardis' cheesecake much better - it was smoother.

Coming out of lurkdom to say that so far the Spamalo show I will attend (may go to more than one) will be October 8, 8 p.m. Will be in NYC from 10/6 through 10/10. Claylily, am I going to miss meeting you again or will you still be in the citY?

Thanks, Nicki. I think we will be flying into JFK because we have a voucher to use for Jet Blue, and it only services JFK.

You answered so quickly that I didn't get a chance to edit. I accidentally quoted anabear before - LOL!

Luckiest, I flew into Newark and took the bus into NYC. I stayed at the Courtyard by Marriot/Elizabeth which is right near the airport. They have shuttle buses to & from the airport. The folks I went with opted to take a bus into NY but there is a train from the airport into the city too. I know there is a Hilton at the airport but I don't know its cost. I also opted for a room by myself and it was $204 (if I remember correctly). It was a very nice room.

Just ordered 2 of each. I am glad one said "Finding" and the other "Doing" as for the record, for some reason I just associate "Doing" with the SRHPT. Nice pins!

:F_05BL17blowkiss:

I will be attending the following: Waukegan, both Minneapolis shows, and Merrillville!

:xmas07a:

Probably didn't need to see my post quoted, did you? Heh....I'll add you nicki! -- ldyj

Come on, couchie, you know you wanna......

I will be attending with crimsonice, disneykid and cindilu2. I know ldyjocelyn and hubby will be there (because I am holding their tickets hostage, heh). Who else? Where's everyone staying? It would be great if we could get together for dinner beforehand. crimsonice and disneykid both vote for Smokey Bones again, because they say that it has the best ribs they've ever eaten (and it's right across from the venue).

Hi! I don't post to often on FCA but do lurk a bit. I will be in Merrillville as well as Waukegan and both Minneapolis shows! Hubby will be with me for the Waukegan & MN shows but staying home to care for our cats duirng the Merrillville one. So, I and three of my Clay fan friends will be driving down from Madison WI and also will be meeting up with 2 fans from Dayton OH and 1 from Fairfield IA! We are all staying at the Radisson Star Plaza Hotel. We are actually signed up to eat there at 5 p.m. prior to the concert.

Would love to meet some of you from FCA. The three riding down with me and I will be arriving at the hotel around 11 a.m.

Since I am having withdrawls already now that the summer tour is over, I am really glad he is doing a Christmas tour again and that I will be able to go to four shows!

Edited: P.S. Is ldyjocelyn the one who captured the great video of ISY at the Nutter Center in Dayton OH during the Solo Tour? I was there with hubby who had on the shirt Clay read (My wife did not drag me here, I actually like Clay Aken.)

I am not sure where I will be going yet. It all depends on whether Clay will tour in IN; St. Paul, MN; IL or ideally Wisconsin. If not, Columbus is most likely where I will go since I have family in Dayton OH. Keeping fingers crossed for Wisconsin.

2) Merrillville -- he crossed his fingers, first behind his back, and then as he situated the microphone during AIW. After his triumphant finish, he grinned, bowed (messing his hair in the process...yum), and left the stage.

Coming out of lurkdomland, and at Merrillville, he signed "Thank You" to the audience. I was there and you could just feel the energy of the audience pulling for him to make "that" note. I never felt so much magic throughout a song. You really, really could feel it.

I love this thread. Now I know when I want to find a particular thing he did in a concert, I can find it. Off to view Long Island to see him talk to Scarlett!

Yes, we just got home from the show...and did we download the clack? HELL YEAH!!!

We applauded at the end of the clip, just as we did at the show....

It's going to take a LONG time to come down from this show. Amazing night, amazing man.

My cheeks are hurting from smiling...this is one of those incredible times in this fandom...right up there with Wilkes barre...he will probably sing this song better on other nights...but I will never forget this night...when he conquered that song and the whole fandom was behind him and we all cheeered at his triumph.

And guess what...remember what he said in the WALK interveiw...without the hurt or bad times...we don't get these high. THIS guy will never be dull.

I was there and agree the show was just amazing. You could literally feel the audience sending good vibes to Clay during AIW and I knew he felt it. It was almost eery. What an aweseome sight it was to see the audience almost simutaneously jump to their feet immediately to cheer for him. I was holding my hubby's hand so tight and the closer he got to the end of the song the tighter I squeezed. I am surprised he has a hand left! LOL! I have never seen Clay so funny either - he was at his comedic best last night. He appeared so happy and I know it was because he felt our love.

I posted the last part but forgot to log in. Wish would have met some of you who were there. There we tons of fans at the Radisson and we were running around trying to meet anyone we knew.

Thank you so much, Ansamcw, for posting that link to the positive article regarding TBAF. It made my day. The sensationalizing other media conveniently left out the last sentence. I wrote to that Art/Entertainment editor to congratulate them on responsible reporting.

Seriously. I don't trust journalists at all anymore. The girl that sits in the cubicle next to me at work reads Page Six everyday with her morning coffee and the girl next to that reads US magazine and In Touch all the time. And they believe everything they read. I am constantly reminding them how full of crap those things are. I am especially shocked though that a supposedly serious news outlet like MSNBC would be writing libelous things on their website. It's their fault that the twisted version of the story is being spread all over the country because THEY changed it.

Ditto. I do not usually write to the media in response to anything Clay related as I do not think it helps (they just think we are crazed fans). However this fiasco has made my blood boil. I wrote to let MSNBC know that they were irresponsible for not fully investigating the organization prior to printing gossip. I asked that they reverse the trend and do some real investigative reporting for a change and look into the foundation and all the good it has done. I also pointed out that is is a new organization and that start-up expenses always out-weigh the benefits at first. Even the video on the WRAL site totally cut out the last part of the Better Business Bureau's response where she started to say if the trend continued a few years from now, it would be troublsome but that it is not now. The media loves negatives twists. I think they owe the foundation an apology.

I was once married to a musician who was part of a 5 piece extremely successful band. They hated doing interviews with the media because 99% of the time the media totally miquoted any responses to their questions.

I hope there are many BAF signs at the GMA concert next Friday to support the foundation.