Couch Tomato

I find it very amusing that JFL is that poster because she was slammed when she first posted.  People asked her to prove that she was really at the Access Hollywood interview & she posted that he had an orange shirt on.  After Access Hollywood showed the interview posters were arguing that the shirt was red not orange.  Bwah!  I wonder if that was why Clay said who she was.

Bwah. Clay fans never disappoint. I love them, lord knows I do. But.... heee!

Anyway I'd love to see what else she said....

thanks DiamondJake!

uh oh LOL the timing is just sublime!

Let's start the investigations...somebody go get all her posts heee

what the hell did he just say?

Everybody knows the song already!

Sounds like said that his producer was on clayanar on some clayboard LOL...can't wait for clarification. Well I think that's hilarious if true ... I heard LBC..but what board is that... Lecherous Broads? LOL..anyway..can't wait to hear what that was all about.

Jacob hit a really bad note on the end of Rock with you... damn this cellcert is CLEAR..I'm loving this.

OK well it sounds like he might be fair. heee...Go Clay! The boy is ON. Can't wait for the clack...may wait up for this! And I think I'm gonna have some good photos for MY venue update..yay.

Clay seems to be in a good mood tonight!! Hope that MSNBC reporter does him right.

The cellstream is so clear tonight..of course I'm late!

TBAF has a Board of Directors. This is wonderful news. Looks like Clay stuck with people he trusts and who can blame him really. I think these people can be counted on for their discretion. Hopefully the projects in place will go forward. I'm particularly excited about the federal grant.

According to PamelaJ who runs Claymaniacs, the new treasurer is a teacher from Raleigh. So all of these people were there pre-Clay Aiken.

It is my fervent hope that TBAF can go forward in peace. That the fallout from the scandal doesn't extend any further. That people will now step back and let TBAF do its job and reorganize itself and find its footing.

As I said a couple of weeks ago, I will continue to support Clay's foundation. If WFI goes forward I'll be working with it this year. I look forward to getting info from Cherie when she returns from her trip.

Board of Directors

Clay Aiken

Chairman

Diane Bubel

Executive Director

Faye Parker

Secretary

Frances Wilson

Executive Staff

Kristy Barnes

Chief Operating Officer

Debbie Cain

Treasurer

Mailing Address

The Bubel/Aiken Foundation

P.O. Box 90307

Raleigh, North Carolina 27675

email: contactus@thebubelaikenfoundation.org

Another Ben Werner article. His mom is a member of Clayversity.

Don't bet on payola ever going away

Don't bet on payola ever going away

By Ben Wener, The Orange County Register

August 2, 2005

My mother was the first to tell me about the payola scandal --the one involving Sony BMG, New York's crusading attorney general and a $10 million pittance settlement.

You remember my mother the Claymaniac, don't you? That darling fanatic whose nickname at Clayversity, a message board for other Clay Aiken fans, is OCRegMom?

Right. Her.

So if she's bringing this up, I know it's because she's worried about how it has affected Clay. My mother hasn't mentioned an entertainment story in two years that hasn't led to its bearing on Clay's career. You'd think she was reaping dividends on his album sales.

"Why do you care?" I asked. "You don't listen to the radio."

Besides, I told her, payola is an ugly industry given. It may be sidelined for a while, but it will never be fully stopped.

It's a pay-per-play practice in which record labels ply radio station bigwigs with cash and goodies to get tunes more spins, and it has been around since the dawn of AM. Though made illegal in 1960, after the Alan Freed-centered scandals of the `50s, anyone with half a brain should have suspected such hit-brokering and bribery continues to this day.

When Jennifer Lopez, Kelly Clarkson and Lindsay Lohan appeared at this year's Wango Tango bonanza in Anaheim, Calif. -- presented by KIIS-FM, a crown jewel in media giant Clear Channel's empire --do you think they did it just because they love their fans? Well, maybe they did, but their contract-keepers offered those performances so their singles would get increased airplay on the station. How could they not, right? You play the show, you get promoted.

Change the names to Audioslave and Foo Fighters and KROQ, or Snoop Dogg and Power 106, and you get the same equation. It is as pervasive as New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer contends.

But do the many revelations in subpoenaed e-mail really surprise anyone? Given such blatant "playola" at radio festivals and contest giveaways, is it such a leap to imagine program directors accepting laptops and plasma televisions and trips to Las Vegas in exchange for spins during peak hours? Or that record labels have teams of interns posing as callers trying to jack up the number of requests for a song-- which, frankly, seems useless under the circumstances?

Is it really so eye-opening to read statements like this, from a Sony exec: "Please be advised that in this week's Jennifer Lopez Top 40 Spin Increase of 236 we bought 63 spins at a cost of $3,600."

Seems pretty cheap to me.

Look, I long for more altruistic radio, wherein DJs play whatever comes to mind or gets requested. And if I didn't have enough CDs to create something similar via my PC, I'd gladly subscribe to a satellite provider.

But I don't see those outlets as mainstream, for they don't take the pulse of average pop listeners; they cater to niches.

Other stations, however, are cruder about hawking hot new things. For that's what radio is best at: pitching products.

Sometimes it's air purifiers and breakfast burritos. Sometimes it's lawyers and doctors you don't need. And sometimes it's music so lousy you wouldn't listen to it if you were paid to.

Welcome to the terminally corrupted entertainment biz, where award nominations can be had by sending out spiffy DVD sets and gift packages, where collusion among a small number of immensely powerful media conglomerates is gross yet unavoidable, where even a cynical schmo like me gets sent a pecan pie from ZZ Top just because I wrote a fond profile. (I let our copy desk scarf it. We have policies about such things.)

It's a you-scratch-mine-I'll-scratch-yours industry, and like it or not --and I don't--payola will survive this setback and persist indefinitely. As it is, labels can still legally barter with tickets and meals and other nominal bribes.

So all I can do is laugh when Spitzer says stations "are the ones most fundamentally violating the public trust."

What trust?! That we trust the radio will continue to play dreck? That we trust stations to operate fairly? Who is he kidding?

It should be obvious by now that this is a con game built on backroom deals later given face-lifts for public display. All Spitzer did was force Sony BMG to offer up the biggest payola ever ($10 mil to essentially go about its business) and score front-page publicity, in a sham where negativity is almost as golden as praise.

But back to my mother: She sees the violation of trust. "Radio didn't matter to me before at all," she told me. "But radio play equates to placement on the charts, which equals hype and sales. When one is invested in someone's career, that becomes, at the very least, interesting information."

She wants her boy (not me, Clay) to succeed. And I can see how frustrating it would be for fans who have been incessantly requesting songs to realize their effort may have been for naught.

Yet, all that irritation says to me is that superiority is being wielded here: It's annoying for Claymaniacs, for example, to see him merely rest in the Top 10 while others (Kelly, Avril, Jessica, whoever) get greater payola push and score a No. 1 smash. They want their boy to be every bit as huge.

To which I say: Mom, platinum sales and scores of spins are not the measure of a man.

Loved the blog entry. Love the clack. Buzztechie and Skatejoy..WOW, your pictures are stunning. Going back for another look. BT you must feel like ObiWan!!

I've been a fan of Kevin Bacon since he played Tim on Guiding Light!!

How is it that I'm not sick of Invisible yet.

And he snarked on the fans..does he know us or what... "WHAT SHE LOOK LIKE!" BWAH!

uh oh sounds like Angela is sick

Oh the only reason I haven't seen all th clack is that I'm too busy. But every night like the obsessed fool that I am, I download every new peice of clack. I love my download manager. It's all organized just waiting for me to find time to watch. I always watch the stuff everybody is talking about. Tonight..after I finish my Pittsburgh concert page...I've got a couple of hours penciled to look at photos! I can not wait!

Speaking of ipods..mine won't charge for some reason. The battery just seems dead. It's driving me crazy. How long will it take to replace your ipod?

No Jerome? Ah..... Maybe he had another gig? Maybe he set up security ..more adminstrative...thus the credit.

Poor Skate..I'm sure she was looking forward to being frisked once during Jukebox.

Hey diamondake... how did you enjoy the show?

Cynical..got my debit card all ready for you to touch!

gurgle gurgle

somebody cal 9 1........................ah

when did my pumpkin become a MAN! Wow, he looks so good in that first picture. So handsome.

I can't wait to dive into all of your pictures. Yours too Buzzie! And Invisibleson.

What other concerts are ya'll going to?

I'm back! I stayed the full four days and attended all the Toms River concerts. I had a really good time. Great, in fact.

I had one foot out of the Clay fandom and I swear Clay knew it. When he sang That'll Be the Day I felt like he was talking to me:

"Silly woman! You thought you could leave me??? Take this!"

*sigh*

Oh she sounds so sane on this recap. PM me if you know how to transfer an answering message to an mp3. I have some good blackmail material.

Back from the Buffalo "adventure"!  Concert was great (more recap in the recap thread later).  It felt like old home week seeing so many familiar faces.  The new song is fantastic and Suspicious Minds is much better live than on GMA.  It was amazing not to have anyone stop us from taking pictures.  Many photos were snapped and will eventually make their way to the gallery. 

Then just kill me now if Suspicious Minds is better live..cuz I am inordinantly in love with the GMA version.

Clay Aiken fans pine for pins

Clay Aiken fans pine for pins

The objects have become a hot item for the singer's devotees.

By DIANNE AUSTIN

Special to The Orange County Register

In past decades, steady sweethearts showed their devotion by "getting pinned." Now, Claymates are doing it for the same reason, except the object of their affection is "American Idol" runner-up and pop artist Clay Aiken.

Aiken went into hibernation right after his Joyful Noise Christmas tour last year. Now he's on the road with his Jukebox Tour, which began Friday and will run through Sept. 1.

The Clay Nation, buzzing with excitement at Aiken's return to the stage, is showing its appreciation by designing and collecting fan-club cloisonné pins in an amazing variety of shapes and colors.

A large number feature state-based designs. California Clay fans, including many in Orange County, designed an arresting image of the long limbed idol, sitting with knees bent in front of the outline of the Golden State. This faction professes unconditional support for Aiken, who lives in California but who makes no bones about missing his home and a simpler life in Raleigh, N.C.

Irene Williams is a California Clay Fan and an avid pin enthusiast. Williams, an artist and retired teacher from Cypress, will travel to Atlanta; Greensboro, S.C.; Cary, N.C.; and Vienna, Va. to see Aiken in concert four times in two weeks. She has collected 80 of the more than 100 pins available.

Other than state designs, there are message board, Web site, Yahoo group and individual Clay fan insignia pins. Lori McAdam, an artist who has done a number of portraits of the vocalist, has also donated her time to designing one of the pins. Hers will be featured in North Carolina at a preconcert breakfast celebrating the favorite son's return to the stage in his home state.

Jeff York, co-owner of Pin Promotions, a company near Orlando, Fla., that manufactures the Aiken pins, says the trend began in April. That's when Aiken fan Judy Cozine placed an order for a "Clayversity" fan site logo pin. Then orders started pouring in for other Aiken pins, each with a different design and message.

How large were the orders?

"Well, a minimum order is 100 pins," York said. "Soon, the average order I'd get was not less than 1,000 pins. Some orders have been as much as 6,000 at a time."

The pin fixation will be obvious as Aiken's Jukebox Tour gives fans a chance to display their acquisitions. No West Coast venues were booked for the tour, so some Orange County fans plan to fly east for Aiken's vintage-themed tour.

Pat Miller of Cypress, Janet Oliff of Tustin and Betti Young of Orange are among them. Miller, who calls herself a Claymate, will be going to Vienna, Va., and Bethlehem, Pa. Oliff has tickets to Aiken's Michigan venues. And Young, 67, will see Aiken in eight venues in two weeks.

Miller says she'll be wearing all 13 of her pins on a lanyard around her neck. Young has 18 pins that she will take with her in a case. But Oliff, who has collected 96 designs, did it just for the keepsake quality. "I won't be trading," she said. "I just wanted one of every design to keep forever."

Now, all that's left for Aiken to do with his Jukebox Tour is go with the flow.

Williams, the artist and teacher, had an idea for Aiken.

She thinks that at each concert, Aiken should search the audience for that special fan he'd like onstage with him. (He's known for inviting audience members to sing and dance.) And inside the upside down Fedora (a signature accouterment) perched on the edge of the platform, there would be one of every fan pin that exists up to that point. The lucky lady chooses one and presents it to him.

Then Williams suggests this with a twinkle in her eye:

"You guessed it. It makes so much sense. Because all the female Clay fans I know would give anything to say 'I was pinned by Clay Aiken!' "

The funny part is that during IT he couldn't get the words right to save his life..but during NAT...when he was doing a million things, picking a dancer, dancing, leiing folks he could jump in and out of that song with no problem. Now, he is once again screwing up the lyrics.

I don't like Touch but I would have loved it if Clay sang it during this concert... just to shock the hell out of everybody!

Well he messed that mess up! Heee

Is it over..I just got home?