Scarlett

Got home v. late, but I peeked at the interesting discussions during the last 3 innings. I ::heart:: y'all!!!

gbmifan, Yay for the good news!

laughn, glad you now have the wmv version and Thank you! to the special someone who helped! :F_05BL17blowkiss:

FromClaygary, a team TAR between the eHP and the London folks?!! You're on!!! (I *so* wish; we'd have the bestest fun ever!!!)

{{{Gibby}}} Will be sending you prayers and good thoughts on Thursday!

annabear, how about meeting up on July 20?

It was great to hear that the fires were contained!

Talk show - yes, definitely!

TRM -- he sang wonderfully but it's not my favorite song. I once connected to these lyrics (well the idea behind them since the song wasn't written yet), completely, fully, even vehemently. It was my biggest argument with my Mom. But now, looking back, I think she was right. If there's a chance to give strength and joy to even a dozen people...

ETA: Need to get some sleep, my multiple edits look weirder than the original. Nite-nite, y'all!!!

ETAA: {{{claytonic}}} too! Carpal Tunnel would be agony for me, because I wouldn't be able to do the things I love! Hang in there! Like play, I should be v. v. thankful!

ETYAA: And {{{Tijala}}} Sorry, I almost didn't see your post!

Hi! Just wanted to say good morning and thanks to cindilu2 for the gorgeous banner! I'll be at an Astros game tonight, so while you're all partying, have a drink for me, 'k? (Or I may try to sneak in and read what's going on!)

ps. laughn, my usual converter didn't work - so I'd have to download another. But since I won't be in til late...

If there's anyone who can do an XviD to wmv conversion, would you pls PM laughn or bottle? Thanks so much!

FromClaygary, how about a team-based TAR? :F_05BL17blowkiss:

Thanks for all the pretty pictures!!! Claymatron, I finally saw yours and it was definitely worth the wait! Iseeme and annabear, you always come up with the most scrumptious ones!

:thbighug-1: {{{ldj}}} Hope your knee feels better soon. Loved your picture of the castle too!

G'nite y'all! Be careful out there!!!

{{{gbmifan}}}

LonelyNoMore, I'm very glad to meet you!!! I was just curious since I forgot to send word to my other friend that I'd posted her video. Hope you enjoy it here. As you can see we're a bit rowdy, but a lot of fun!!! :F_05BL17blowkiss:

jmh, here's an idea. How about you, me and djs getting jobs with Google Shanghai? or Microsoft Beijing?

ETA: Cotton, I'm still so envious about Godspell! I'm just glad I know someone who saw it! Never been to Scotland, but did you try the spa in the Black Forest (Baden-baden, I think?)

Eeeeeee! Pretty pictures!!!

annabear, those are more lethal than the drinks you served earlier!!!

Wait!

I wanna go to Europe!!!

Oh yes, Cotton, definitely!!!

And my sweet babooo too! (I see you [tm:you] down there -- I think babooo is usually spelled with 2 o's, but for you I'll use 3)

LonelyNoMore, are you my LonelyNoMore44? Because if you are, I just posted a couple of your clips last night -- surprise! and welcome!

ETA: I should have said up there! Thx for the pix!

ETAA: Couchie, KAndre and I are swinging by the North Pole. Wanna come?

Not caught up yet but wanted to greet all the newbies!!

djs and jmh, I would be the most miserable person if I win a trip for 4 to Europe ...

... because I would be so torn between taking you and the eHP!!! (why don't you join us instead and save me the trouble?)

ETA: Annabear, do you have my virgin Cuba Libre?

ETAA: Oh, there it is in the background!!!

I may be alone at FCA, says djs111 quite dramatically, but freshly-made mayonnaise is the thing to trail one's french fries through, before biting down, gently.....the faintly lemony, somewhat buttery creaminess, with just a wisp of garlic, goes perfectly with the crispy outer layer of a perfect french fry......when one bites down, the flavors and contrasts are heavenly!

Seriously, when I worked in Holland, we all loved frites with freshly made mayonnaise - yeah, we could get fries at McDonald's, but those heathens who wanted ketchup had to pay extra!

Not much is as good as a big plate of Belgian fries, cooked twice, with a bowl of mayo and an ice cold big beer. Make that a pitcher of beer, come to think of it.

*waves arm frantically* You're not alone!!! I do both the red stuff and mayonnaise but I want to add this to your perfect meal in Belgium:

Belgian steak (Texans will disown me but I think theirs is a teeny bit better prepared), mussels in white wine and perhaps some Leonidas or Neuhaus to close (I think Godiva's too pricey for the same stuff)!

All the the West Point show banter clips for me -- I think there were 5 or 6 of them?!! (Fear, aside from the Swiss flag people who had no medical training whatsoever, there was the lady who won a contest doing the hardest thing -- writing her name & address, and at least 3 or 4 others.)

ldy, that must have been close to the place that sold nothing but Mac 'n Cheese (Smac?)-- lots of types, but we ended up picking American.

The man could NOT have been clearer in his message and yet not 15 minutes later some of the usual suspects were saying he was forced to blog that, he didn't really know what was going on, he was willing to settle for mediocre publicity and on and on and on.....again because what he said is NOT what they wanted to hear from him.

Even if the blog subject had been "STFU, <insert name>" the person(s) concerned wouldn't have listened anyway!

Nitey-nite, y'all!

Thanks, Iseeme, CG & DR!

At last, all the Syracuse files (for tonight) are finally done! Whew!

Hee, CG!!!

On another topic, I haven't been venturing out from FCA much because hey, my time on the boards is fun time and I know where I can get mine! However, I only just found out today while talking to people over the phone that it's pretty bad out there. I'm generally unaware of this because the people I hang with are the easy ones -- if there's a concert we'll go, if there's stuff to buy we will but anything else is too much work and unless we're getting paid to do it, we're not going to budge. However, there are people out there who are neither famewhores nor troublemakers nor trolls nor constant worrywarts, but are not having an easy time processing the current news or non-news (IIT, IIU, and all that). Is there something we can or should do? Or should I forget it and just enjoy what we have here?

Here's mine - named after Clay! Is name is WALDO!

All I know about cats is that they seem to find me tasty (according to KAndre).

As for naming friends, I stayed over at a friend's house last weekend and I now know exactly what to do to make her rush out the front door in whatever she happened to be wearing (or not) at the time and run down the street yelling at the top of her lungs, "Aiken, Aiken, come back!!!" Of course I won't actually do this since I plan to stay with her again in the future but it's a nice thought. BTW, Aiken is a full-grown dobermann.

{{{merrieeee}}} I miss her too!

I added the Merrillville mp4 to this folder.

The Syracuse LAA mp4 is here, though I think the real value of the Syracuse vid was the HD stubble & beads of sweat (can't believe I'm saying this) shots which won't translate well into mp4.

I'm also uploading the BYLM+Banter from Syracuse (since it was on the same tape) and that will run for about 20 mins for both the XviD and the mp4. I'll update this post when I see that things are done. BTW, it's the banter part that's good on this clip; for BYLM, we wer too close to the stage so at times he'd disappear and other times we'd only get the waist-down shots. (course there are people who would appreciate those!) --> DONE!

For now, only the Merrillville folder and the LAA files from Syracuse are complete. I'll update when Syracuse BYLM is done.

ETA: All the files in the Merrillville and Syracuse folders are complete.

Before we leave LAA, I need to make my confession. Even when ATDW was released and it was the iTunes bonus track I've always skimmed it as a song (Yes, I'm strange), watching videos only if the visuals were particularly good. I filmed it all last summer because I knew it was important to a LOT of people and so I was extra careful with the song when I was holding the camera. When it became a track of OMWH, it was an unspoken "skip" for me and my best bud, ie. whoever was in the passenger seat hits the button to move to the next song. I've been having trouble lately because GOG has been growing on me and I'd like to play GOG, FIEKY and OMWH continuously but LAA is smack in the middle and I'm too lazy to burn a special disk; and besides it won't be as good as the actual CD (or so I tell myself).

Well, today, was my LAA road to Damascus moment. I had to sort out the last year or so of tapes because I was looking for laughn's clip and while her clip was rendering I was idly flipping through the summer bunch and found Syracuse. I had watched the YouTube from vzubie because everyone was posting about it so I was curious about what we had. LonelyNoMore44 had the camera that night and we were on the opposite side of the stage from vzubie so it was mostly his neck and the side of his head (he was facing the cello on the other side), but this was the first time that I really listened to the words. And LAA finally got to me... (!) I knew I had to render it but I couldn't watch it again so here are the files -- I will also send them to CH/CU but there were some issues with creating an AIW mpeg last night so I don't know how soon these'll get on the clack alerts. Meanwhile here are the mp3 and xvid. If anyone can view XviD's, please let me know if this (and last night's AIW are ok); if they're fine I'll make mp4's of all the files so that those who are waiting on the small wmv's can view them as well. Thanks in advance! :F_05BL17blowkiss:

laughn, your file is uploading -- give it about 10 min -- and then it'll be here as an mp3 and XviD. I added a bit of the previous song so that you'll have a snippet of Clay.

ETA: Done!

Oh, and while out shopping today I got my first batch of Ranier cherries!!! Wheeeeee! Could never have enough since Solo introduced me to them in Philly last year. Now why did I talk the eHP out of our July trip to Seattle? We could have been rolling in Ranier cherries....

whimper..... OMG I LOVE Rainier cherries!! All we ever see here are the Bings....

Is there any way to send you some? By coincidence, it was on the day of that Syracuse LAA that I first tasted them. Too much back to back yumminess for one day?!!

Scarlett - there's a "Feta cheese place"?? That's oddly intriguing...

Word to the wise: Never tell Scarlett to pick up some Feta cheese to go with the Gyros for lunch. Most of us would go to the local Krogers and pick up some stuff in a plastic tub.........not Scarlett she goes to a Middle Eastern shop and brings us about 2lbs of cheese still in brine.......real feta cheese!! Boy was it good.

:F_05BL17blowkiss: merrieeee and annabear, you know what I paid for that giant hunk of cheese (no not him, the feta)? All of $3.50. Kroger would've charged me $3.50 for that stuff-in-a-tub too but it would break down to 50 cents for packaging, $1.00 for shipping, $1.00 for marketing (because we reallly want to give those marketing experts our money), 75 cents profit for the store, and 25 cents for the play-doh-tasting stuff in the plastic tub. I paid $3.50 for 1 lb of real feta and got to pick from 12 different kinds. They even let me taste several -- just like in a Marble Slab or Cold Stone Creamery only with cheese. You know it was gooood. Yum!

Oh, and while out shopping today I got my first batch of Ranier cherries!!! Wheeeeee! Could never have enough since Solo introduced me to them in Philly last year. Now why did I talk the eHP out of our July trip to Seattle? We could have been rolling in Ranier cherries....

oh yes, I remember - because KAndre and PerusingOne hate the cold, and Solo and merrieeee hate water, and what do you get a lot of in the PNW? Beautiful scenery and cold water. *sniff* I would have enjoyed it anyway, while munching bushels of cherries.

OH OH OH - I applied for 2 part time jobs yesterday! The first, and the one I want, is with the Amador Flower Farm - a very upscale nursery and gift shop. They hold claim to being the largest distributor of day lilies in the world and have something like 17 acres planted with over 1000 varieties. It's a really, really neat place. The other (hello henhouse, meet fox) is in a winery tasting room. Both would be great fun but the nursery job would be better and probably more hours.

Iseeme, the perfect background music for (hello henhouse, meet fox) - "Hello Little Girl". Good luck on the job hunt!

My classical music education mainly came from another source.

"Be very quiet. I'm hunting wabbits."

LOL! Broadway came to life for me via Les Miseranimals (YouTube) with "Camembert" hunting "Runt ValRunt". Rita the cat's part is sung by Bernadette Peters.

scarlet! Wish you could take a walk down by the river, too. I have to tell you, though, that some of the critters down here might scare a city girl!!!

After the bats and bugs last summer, I think I've seen them all. Or have I?

Just wishing everyone a good morning before heading out into 83 degree weather. Whew! But I need supplies, and as the eHP knows I don't just pop into the nearest store to get everything at once. (merrieeee, I think I'll go back to the Feta cheese place!)

Laughn, glad you read my post as I plan to run it when I get back.

00lsee, have you watched "Risky Business" lately?

Cotton, wanted to walk to the river w/ you.

to everyone who needs them!!!

I gave up on quoting all the 50 or so posts I tried this morning, but just wanted to say thanks to everyone who had the patience to scan through songs for their top 3 (or 5 or 10 or 100). Nice to re-discover old favorites that had been tucked away for some time.

Fear, I have "fond" memories of Guantanamera. It was the song my cousins attempted to teach me guitar on (bec. it only had a handful of chords), messed it up anyway, tried "Jamaica Farewell" because it had 3 very easy ones (is it A, D, Em?), gave up on that one too and finally resigned myself to not ever playing.

Iseeme, hadn't listened to "We're All Alone" in forever! I used to play it everyday. Thanks for bringing it back.

claytonic, thanks for bringing up Imagine. Let's be the John Lennon sub-group in FCA?

FromClaygary, what beautiful bracelets!!! I found some Japanese beads at a good price at the IQF last year. Perhaps you can plan a visit this time?

That was hard. I reserve the right to come back in ten minutes and change them all.

Yay for your boat/ship coming in! Yes, anyone could change them -- that was the trick. Name a set of 3 and then 15 minutes later name 3 again.

Still fulfills the part about "and the number of the counting shall be..... 3"

Will NEVER understand why Buble and Groban are acceptable but Aiken isn't! One of life's mysterys.

My theories - Buble and Groban are pretty much bland and boring.

Buble and Groban pretty much stay in their safe predictable boxes.

Buble and Groban likely never get asked the questions which bring the snapped responses.

Buble and Groban would prolly have to PAY to become controversial.

ITA and I have more on this, but will post it separately. Soooo... when can we visit Scarlett-2? /jk

All is Well, Merrillville 2006 version -- chills. That was an amazing night.

Too bad KAndre never heard it....

Ok, I think I've teased her enough... Here's the mp3 and the xvid. Didn't take out the red lightning because that's what the stage looked like that night. I can "fix" it if it bothers folk. This was the first thing I rendered in along time and it took forever because my computer was set up all wrong, I had to change a video card, reload some drivers and filters.

Laughn, you're next -- at what part of the show did you read your story in Cleveland, ie. which songs were sung before and after? Thx!

Clay:

My Grown-up Christmas List from GMA

Unchained Melody - Toledo/Foster Gala

When Doves Cry - Miami

Told you I was a dirty rotten cover lover!! Honorable mention to Perfect Day, Lover All Alone, I Can't Make You Love Me, Suspicious Minds, I Know How the River Feels, Rosanna, the whole album OMWH, Everything You Go Away, Broken Wings, and more more more!!!!

Oooh, can I be a dirty cover lover with you?!!

Favourite Clay songs:

If you don't know my by now - I hope we get to hear that one in concert sometime!

As long as we're here - Love the message in that song. Love the celtic sound and I still get emotional when I play it.

Oh Holy night - 'waves' to Luckiest1 !

Non Clay songs:

Hallelujah - KD Lang,

The Boxer - Simon and Garfunkel

Boys of Summer- Don Henley

I've really enjoyed reading everyone's responses!

heinz, I think I could match you 5 out of 6 on any given day. And I've really enjoyed everyone's responses too!

and

ALWAYS

Amazing Grace!

Hoping to hear that from someone!

ETA: Ooooooo - this was my 1,000th post! Next one takes me from managing Clay's person to "Executive Producer"... a title that now carries with it a whole new meaning... IIT, IIU, AATJ, etc.

Congratulations!!! Keep up the er, production!

Also *waves* to Jazzgirl!

*waves* to jazzgirl too!

I'll go against the tide and say..if I could be 13 again heee...I'd do it in a hot minute even without knowing what I know now... I think I prefer my decade of growing up though. It's amazing the difference... 5 year olds can work a computer like it's nothing... hell my 8 year old nephew can worked the darn TV/all the extra shit you need these days just to run a TV better than I can. That a change.

*high-fives Couchie* Yes, 13 was fun for me too!

Permaswooned, thanks so much for the YouTubes!!! I'm enjoying all the links and stories. We've sat together on quite a few of these, haven't wee? I think I always ended up right in front of your family.

Muski, I hope things are going well with Carrie!

laljeterfan, If I don't already match your 6, I will soon! Those were some nice YouTubes; Thanks for the links!

I have always heard RUN TO ME as a song about a man falling in love with a woman in or recovering from an abusive relationship. I may be alone in that. I have loved it from the first snippet. Remember those 5 snippets?!

I hate he didn't keep singing that one. Right? He took it out of the show. I think it was a difficult range to do routinely, IIRC.

Cotton, I think he sang it at all the NAT "full shows" and some IT. Love the way that song showcases his range!

ETA: I uploadedthe Merrillville files to CH/CU vault before posting so if you need the small/large wmv's they should be up "soon".

Thanks for all the pics... I really should go render some stuff. Maybe I'll find something to contribute... tty'alll in a bit...

Does anyone know when that picture with Jesse was taken? I don't remember that he sat on the piano...

Ooooh, those are great. More, please?!!! Thanks, Iseeme!

It's never too early to smut -- besides, it's probably midnight for ausdon and claytonic!

Leon: Do you hear that?

Ninotchka: It's twelve o'clock.

Leon: It's midnight. Look at the clock. One hand has met the other hand. They kiss. Isn't that wonderful?

Ninotchka: That's the way a clock works. What's wonderful about it?

I just attempted to quote most of the posts for the last 24 hours and invision kicked me out.

I'm going to try to recover that post but meanwhile, good morning to everyone!!! Thanks for all the glorious links and wallpapers -- I never change mine but it's great to see all the new pretty ones! :F_05BL17blowkiss:

ETA: Oooh, Page 69. I can't waste this!! How about some appropriate pictures from those of you with the large photobucket accounts, pretty please?!! *bats eyelashes*

How in the world did I forget "All is Well"??!!!

I'm enjoying all the links to songs -- thanks! :F_05BL17blowkiss:

No one has mentioned the lovely "I know, I know" part in Grace of God yet. He kills on those 4 words.

I love this part too.

I ::heart:: those 4 words too!

For the list, I know I want OMWH and YWT as my first 2.

As for the 3rd, I'm tempted to add any really loooong medley just for the length (Classics or 60's or 90's or 00's or CITH Jazzy or CITH IBHFCetc or IT Acoustic or NAT JT) in order to cheat on the "3, no more, no less" part but TITN seems to be more deserving. Aaaargh!

OK, I need to make up for that post...

I took a short break and listened to OMWH with "fresh ears" today and my new top 3 songs are OMWH, FIEKY and GOG. My previous top 3 were Ashes, Falling and SL. I was completely into Ashes before but I think it was only because I burned out on listening to OMWH between the time the single and the album were released.

Anyone care for a 3-on-3 game? If you could only take a very teensy mp3 player with you on a v. long trip (think Mars or Space Station), and you could put 6 songs on it: 3 Clay Aiken songs and 3 non-Clay ones, which would you pick?

(KAndre is complaining, "why can't I sneak in a flash drive?" -- because it's really asking for your top 3 Clay Aiken songs and your top 3 non-Clay Aiken songs, is why)

ETA: omg, I killed the board!

ETAA: Thanks for the rescue, annabear. Yes, it is tough to pick a Top 3. Especially while KAndre is reading the Chinese visa application rules, inserting her usual colorful commentary. this is going to be a fun trip!!!

ETAA: Ansa, you called KAndre on that just in time. She was already plotting multiple ways to get around the 3, no more, no less part while you were posting.

Cool, merrieeee! I can't wait to see the video of the eHP belly dancing on youtube!!

Sorry to disappoint but with my sense of rhythm (eg. I still mess up the clapping to Deep in The Heart of Texas half the time) my part will end up like this.