Scarlett

Oh my - I haven't been fought over since high school..... But now I'm starting to wonder if my sweet babbooo is really just playing me.....ya know? Just wants to get in to my photobucket.......

Glad to hear the update on your MIL & hope she keeps her spirits up!

Who me? Playing?!! Now, you don't really believe that, do you? (don't answer) Though I must say that your pb is among the best I've ever seen.

I wonder when this interview in the Sun-Sentinel took place. The date is July 6, 2008

Celebrity travel with Clay Aiken

Information about his time in Afghanistan I haven't read before.

He said in the interview that "I think I've had just one day off in the past few months. It's crazy, but in a good way" so I'm assuming that the interview itself took place towards the end of his Spamalot run.

ETA: Yes, there are a few good ones. When I saw the pugilist suggestion I thought it meant that he was going to sing "The Boxer", not be a boxer.

Growl all you want, sweet Scarlett! I ain't afraid of you! I mean, its not like you're a beast so foul, so cruel with great big pointy teeth who will nibble my bum! (We really need a killer rabbit emotion!)

I can be patient. I can wait. I have it on good authority (from many on this board ) that you tend to sleep around!

And then, when you are, um, otherwise engaged, I can swoop in and stake my claim!

Yikes! *blushes furiously and attempts to change the topic* We had fun last night with the continuation of the blow-torch question from last September's chat and the newbies got to add their views. How about some more of that? These were the Q's: (pick any)

1. Your part in the fandom: how has it evolved? Do you consider it a hobby or an addicition? How much time do you spend on your fandom?

2. What would you considered a "blowtorched puppy" -- in other words, what could Clay do that would make you stop being a fan?

3. How do you feel about "shipping Clay?" Why do you feel that way?

4. How does Clay combat the tabloid media?

5. Should Clay be a "superstar?" A "pop star"? An "entertainer?" Or all of the above? Does he really have to choose?

6. How do you feel Clay's voice has evolved over the past 4 years?

Shamelessly posting my answer was to question #5:

In the interests of equality and diversity, why isn't pornstar among the choices?

And didn't couchie say that if we post enough topic suggestions we can have another chat?

ETA: annabear, that's so cute!

ETA: Of course, if that UNICEF BLOG would just appear, it would be more fun...

I'm glad that Couchie and I are tight. Yep, we're buds. Hands off, everyone else!!!

Gibby, hee! Get a room: 得到一个房间

Cotton, :F_05BL17blowkiss:

{{{merrieeee}}}

So happy to hear that your MIL's safe, Iseeme!!! That's the primary thing; and now I'm hoping that her house'll make it too!

But, but, what's this I hear? You have someone waiting in the wings? Shades of 'Sacrificial Love'!

*growls like a bear at CG* Just keep on dreamin'! Nothing's going to come between me and my sweet babbooo! Not even the fact that I'll be with Solo next week in a state that just recently changed the law.... The moment I laid eyes on my sb's ... huge... photobucket tracts of land, I knew we were meant to be.

CM, I concede that you have history and despite my growling at CG above, I'm really not the jealous type. But remember to keep your fingers on Clay's red bow, 'k?

Suits -- when they take over the place everything suddenly revolves around the almighty quarterly sales & profitability report. Long term relationships aren't valued as much as turning in the loot this year. Huge investments introduce a lot of risks that stockholders aren't v. happy about, so just release a lot of ok products at the lowest cost possible and hope that a few of them become hits.

Thanks for the beautimous banner, cindilu!!! :clap:

And thanks again for this, Cotton! MUAH!

ETA:

couchie, will post the picture just to keep begging...

ETAA: Eeeeeeeee, thanks!!!

Ahhh - my sweet babbooo speaks! :F_05BL17blowkiss:

Remember back to Boobgate! The people that were just HORRIFIED that Clay might put his hands on some ladies boobs! Good Lord - did anyone notice that smirky little smile on his face? I thought it was downright hysterical. I remember one person on the Clayboard that brought it up in almost every post for the next 3 months. You would have thought he had killed someone! To some he was a fallen angel. <snip>

p.s. KF - have been trying to find the clip, but I do believe he said he wanted to be married and have kids "some day" on the Ryan Seacrest show.....the same day he said "twins" And I could swear he said it other times but can't remember where.

Hey there, sweet babbooo (almost typed baboob there, hee!) :F_05BL17blowkiss:

I think he talked about having a family on OARS when he and Kelly launched the IT (great pants that day!), the same day as boobgate. Let me go watch (those pants) again just to be sure... Maybe holding "them" made him think of babies!

Boobgate -- that's what struck me as not so Clay. Not the part where he was holding "them" because that's so Clay to me too, but the part where he let the picture get taken and didn't retain control over the memory card.

Please don't hurt the bear...

I guess I'm somewhat mystified as to why people (not from here) think the IIU make him "not the person they thought they knew". When I first heard the news, over the phone from PerusingOne, it immediately struck me as 'that's so Clay' (or my idea of Clay) -- something that was completely unexpected yet so kind and sweet. Maybe that's why it was easy for me to get comfortable with the IIT though I wouldn't be all that disappointed IIU. To me it still boils down to what we each think he is / what we think he would do if someone he cared about wanted to have a baby.

ETA: Thanks bunches, kimiye!!!

I think aikim's question is fair because just a few days ago we had a discussion on whether or not we think we really know Clay and IIRC we pretty much said that we do not know him. So it's rather intriguing to hear the worlds "if he's not <something>".

Annabear!!! You're on a hot streak tonight. I was happy that things had cooled down to 87 degrees around here but now you bumped it up again!!! :F_05BL17blowkiss: as always!!!

ETA: Hi Chardonnay!!!

ETAA: Now it's 82.3 degrees outside, but the monitor is still singed from annabear's post!

See, when people say they think Clay is a niche artist, my mind always mutters, "I'll just bet he is" and automatically goes to all kinds of hot, dark, and naughty places.

What.

LOL! I'm with you there (now scoot over... it's a narrow niche, hee!)

Tulsa pics? My pleasure!

I guess I feel the same way as before:

"If I found out that Clay isn't what we think we know him to be or if he were a Jekyll/Hyde sort, I'd be so intrigued at how he planned and executed this entire production that I'd still be fan. (eg. I wasn't disappointed in lonelygirl15; I wished I had done it first). With Adobe photoshop and premiere, I'm not trustful of anything 2nd hand so I'd have to be standing right there and watching him do something cruel to people who couldn't fight back to call it a blowtorched puppy."

About the criminal part, I'll need to ask - felony? misdemeanor? Illegal in all 50 states?

ETA: *runs to squish Shamrock* Been missing you since our weekend at the Anne Frank's family room.

Sep 07 6250 biggest month ever... must have been when we had an influx of newbies and were buring a thread every six days

I was wondering about this because nothing much was going on, DCAT had just finished and Spam hadn't been announced yet but we had 2 nights of interesting Clay Chat. I remember the question, "What would you considered a "blowtorched puppy?" and this post...

So basically we are only willing to dump Clay if he turns out to be a war criminal or sociopath?

I can see y'all saying, "But he had a really good reason for stealing borrowing the Hope Diamond! It needed to be cleaned or something. And it's not identity theft - hell, we gave him our licenses and credit cards and birth certificates and marriage certificates. He told us he needed them for radio play!"

Based on recent events I guess some people on other boards consider their "blowtorched puppy" to be "if a sleazy media site reported that he had a baby with his best friend via AI or IV"? Or was it "if he appears on CNN wearing a red shirt that looks pink in screencaps?" Since we're still here, I guess those don't qualify as our BT puppies but I wonder, has anyone's definition of a blowtorched puppy changed since then (Sept 2007) and to the newbies, what would you consider to be your "blowtorched puppy"?

Snag it!

Luvya!!!! :F_05BL17blowkiss:

At Scarlett's request, Japanese ADTW

Eeeeeeeee, thanks!!! Luvya too!!! :F_05BL17blowkiss:

keepingfaith, thanks for the Tulsa pictures. Any more coming?

Congrats Ansa!!!

ETA: Awww, for old times sake I checked out the Houston Symphony site and found out that I'm missing this because of our SF trip:

the Houston debut of this comic musical oratorio inspired by the plot of the Monty Python film, Life of Brian. Eric Idle, narrator

Just to complete the pics, I took these of the Chinese MOAM sometime ago. (click for the clearer full images).

Does anyone know if there were any non-US ATDW or OMWH CD's?

Japanese name is Kurei Eikun (the top leftmost vertical black characters):

Can we get word in chinese too? heee who is going to make icons out of this stuff!!

Hee! This is fun. I think WORD is either 说得好 (was right when he said) or with the middle character removed, 说好 (that good!)

Yes, please could we have icons?!!

Yeah, Josh does make some pretty distracting faces when he sings. I usually just listen, too. Maybe he would have benefited from having Simon Cowell insults hurled at him about how he looks when he sings! Heh.

Anyway, that doesn't seem to have discouraged all of the many, many fans who have been to his concerts or bought his music. Probably a lot of his appeal is that he sings in Italian, Spanish and French as well as English.

I guess if Clay releases songs in Korean and Chinese he could have a few billion new fans. Didn't he say at the Omaha Meet 'n Greet that they like sappy songs over there? *squees at Gibby because we met at Omaha*

Okay, this Chinese Clorn is CMSU! I have to go see how to get the Japanese katakana of this expression in writing!

Is this a sign that there'll soon be manga fanfic?

What was I thinking?!! I *have* a Chinese MOAM. Artquest, guess what, your friend was exactly right!!! "Clay" IS 克雷!!!

ETA: Oh, and Aiken is 艾肯

Bablefish says "我愛Clay's 屁股" I will practice as soon as I find some pronunciation!

Per artquest,

I worked on Clay's name with a friend who's a native speaker. <snip> She suggested 克雷 where the first character is "ke" (no particular meaning) and the second character is lei, a surname meaning "thunder." Pronounced 'Ke-lei". Cool, huh?

The character that shows possession is 的 , pronounced "de" with no tone. Butt or arse is: 屁股, pronounced pì gu. Love is 爱, pronounced "ai" (4th tone). So "I love Clay's butt!" is 我爱克雷的屁股. Pronounced: Wo ai ke-lei de pi gu. I think.

Smooches to you both!! :F_05BL17blowkiss:

Now, if only a kind-hearted icon-editor could help us make a new emoticon... (pretty please?)

Okay, I must be suffering from sunstroke. I work all day in 101 degree heat, come home, and FCA is speaking Chinese or something.

My goal is to learn how to say "I love Clay's butt" in Mandarin.

For me, the worst part in the show was the part about the water supply. I had heard about the poor water supply but actually getting visual images of it was something else. We take so much for granted here.

Now the shallow part of me wanted to see more Clay, especially his Somalia trip. And I really want to see a picture of him back in the US just so I can see for myself, at least through a picture, that he is safe and healthy.

The water supply hit me hard too because I've seen those exact scenes and know they exist today. Often, getting the cooperation of the local officials is also a big roadblock for such a simple solution to a critical problem.

I think if he weren't healthy and safe it would hit the news media faster than we could blink. In this respect, the "no news" part is actually "good news".

ldyj - artistic success is important......of course! But who determines if it's an artistic success?

IMO, the artist does -- so if Clay's happy with the CD, it's an artistic success.

And does that necessarily mean it will enhance his career.

Possibly. We don't know how much he learned from Kipper, for example -- so maybe his next CD will have more songs produced by Clay himself. That's one way to enhance his career.

all I'm saying is - artistic success is nice to have but it don't mean diddly squat if no one is buying it. The entertainment business IS a business - and that means they want to make money.

This is true -- it's a business. And yes, Clay wants to make money, I'm sure. But -- Clay's MADE lots of money already. I'm not worried about him running out of money, or RCA running out of money for that matter. Did this album make them enough money for them to continue to keep Clay? We don't know, honestly. And of course, that's assuming the album is considered "dead" -- which I don't think it is.

It's kind of like being the most beautiful girl in the world but no one is asking you out!

And that's when the beautiful girl sometimes decides to work on her brain instead....

Iseeme, Clay makes good music to me, and to you. It's all about personal choices though -- and that's kind of my point. Not everyone is going to like Clay's music. That's fine, to me at least.

IT(and completely)A, ldyjocelyn!!! If it came down to it, would we rather have Clay sing songs that sell millions but make him want to hold his nose everytime he sings them? He loves the album, we love the album, his career will go where he wants it to go. There are choices in life, and why do we assume that Clay's choices are are the same as ours? Critical and commercial success would be a nice addition to personal satisfaction, and appreciation from those for whom the CD was made (see the thank you's on the insert, oh excuse me, the thank you), but unless his loved ones were starving I don't think he's going to do something he doesn't agree with. He knows (more than we) exactly what to do if the only objective were to make money.

And since it's still Independence Day weekend, please indulge (or scroll past) my bit...

Happiness/success... I lived my teenage to early adult years without the freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the privilege to the writ of habeas corpus -- which surprisingly doesn't seem to be very important around here. AFAIK, people are more focused on celebrity gossip than having a chink knocked off from this right, I guess people will start to care when their friends, neighbors and families start disappearing in the middle of the night -- clean running cold water only part of the day (yes, cold only, no hot water), daily rotating brownouts. It think it's awful what people do with the media these days, but the alternative is just too horrible. There's a lot to be thankful for to live in this country this year. It's all about expectations and what we think we deserve or are entitled to. A girl who thinks she's the most beautiful in the whole world would be disappointed if one Saturday night comes to pass when no one asks her out. A girl who doesn't focus on her reflection in a mirror will be content to know that the people who matter care about her.

ETA:

Any tennis fans out there? Rafa Nadal - woooooeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

:PickMe-1: Rafa's always been wonderful at Roland Garros but I'm especially happy that he finally achieved his Wimbledon dream.

YAY!!! Cable's back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's gone again.

It's back. Fingers crossed.

Crap, gone again.

*crossing fingers along with you*

Perma, I could give you English with a Japanese accent lessons if you like?

I want to sit in on the Japanese lessons too!!!

Yes, one year ago tonight we were wrapping things up at Birraporetti's and making our way across the street to Jones Hall for this incredibly photogenic man:

One year ago I was driving through torrential rain from my office down a freeway that already had 3 major exits that blocked off due to flooding. I could barely see the car in front of me as bucketfuls of kept pouring down all 'round. Why oh why did I go to work to save 1 more vacation day?!! But then I finally got to Birra's, popped into the ladies room to change, arrived at the fun, fun, fun party in the middle of dinner and then oh, what a show!!!

Permaswooned and keepingfaith, thanks for the gorgeous pictures of happy times! :F_05BL17blowkiss:

Y'all do know that in Hong Kong they speak mostly Cantonese, right? Or English.

(oh, did I just create a 'sandwich' situation? Pretty soon the people on the weight thread will be blaming me)

go get a sandwich? :lmaosmiley-1:

LOL! You know the stock prices for green ink have gone down considerably lately, I guess there's a huge surplus being created someplace.

Maw'? We're not maw'!... nuqDaq ta' SoH pol yuch! [and what's wrong with you people who don't speak Klingon!!??!?]

Wo shuo de bu hao Klingon. Wo shi Meiguo ren.

(and I hope you've been practicing too Reading is something else, though -- 我穿上不很好讲Klingon。 我是美国人。 )

HA! I can soooo understand that!!! Yay!!1!! (Hi-fives my teacher, Ms. Xiaoyang. This is going in this week's diary.)

Wo ye shi Mei Guo ren. Wo xue xi Zhong Wen, bu Klingon.

我也是一个美国人。我学习中文. 我不学习Klingon.

LOL! Can we practice with you? (And thanks for not pointing out how I missed the placement a bit as quoted -- should have been "Wo Klingon shuo de bu hao")

ETA: Sorry to have missed this earlier, FromClaygary. {{{on your medical costs and the reasons for them}}}. I didn't clean either and laundry? Eeeek, is it the end of the weekend already? Where did it all go?

Maw'? We're not maw'!... nuqDaq ta' SoH pol yuch! [and what's wrong with you people who don't speak Klingon!!??!?]

Wo Klingon shuo de bu hao. Wo shi Meiguo ren.

(and I hope you've been practicing too Reading is something else, though -- 我穿上不很好讲Klingon。 我是美国人。 )