artquest

Thank you! I was thinking while driving home this evening that I had read somewhere that there was a rehearsal orchestra. I just couldn't remember where. You've saved me from a sleepless night. :F_05BL17blowkiss:

Real Clay, in his persona as Performing Clay, acknowledges and then dances with Flat Clay. Not only surreal but post-modernist as well. PS: Remind me to never, ever, ride with KAndre. Not that it wouldn't be fun, no siree Bob, but I'm looking forward to grandchildren some day and would like to live that long. Waves. Loved your recap. PPS: Mr. Artquest was thrilled to meet some of the FCA posse. He would wave back too, if I let him near the boards.

Just dropping by to say thanks for all the Pala love. It's appreciated. And how did I miss Muski last night? Hey, chickie, will you be in Indio? I can't seem to find the right words to thank you for sharing your joy in your daughter's accomplishments. You're a terrific mom. It was great to see Couch Tomato again and to finally get to meet Ansa and thank her personally for all the help she gave me during the Summer of Great Pins. Finally, because I'm sure you've all missed my poddish comments while I've been on the road: MANDATE? Yes! STAYING WITH RCA? Sticks fingers in ears and goes yah, yah, yah, I can't hear you. Heh.

I love this! So why am I up at 5:37 AM? 'Coss it's CLAY DAY! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

OK, it's not going to be hot in San Diego. Daytime high 76, low 68. It may be even cooler on the water, where the concert will be. Pala will be 82, low of 61. It'll be close to 80 in Hollywood on Saturday, but still in the low 60s at night. If people want hot, though, Indio and Fantasy Springs will make them happy. Daytime temps should be well over 100 with lows in the 70s. Inside the casino and show room, it'll be really, really cold. Probably no bugs, though!

Cheekbones! Sigh.

I would be fine with that - just need to add "beating you over the head repeatedly with said view". And a lack of appreciation of tiaras. Yeah, that, except I find myself incapable of any kind of coherent reply after looking at the JEANS! OMG, thank you ldyjocelyn and lynninnj.

Oh, man, there's that pod people thing again. Let me propose an expanded definition: Anyone with a closed mind, whether that person thinks everything is going great with Clay or everything is the result of a conspiracy between RCA and assorted villains, is a pod person. Of course this flies in the face of my endless post on the previous page that talks about how people of all kinds really deal with evidence, but if we want to be simpler, this definition works for me. The truth is that closed minds are almost always in the eye of the beholder.

Thinking that anything I might have said would make you want to go back to school? That's the nicest compliment anyone anywhere has ever given me. Thank you so much! All my students know about Clay! In my Abnomal Psych class, he's the example of panic attacks and how they're tied to hypermobility of the joints. In Statistics, I use American Idol and especially Dial Idol to talk about probability. I also have them rate Clay songs to provide data for some elementary analysis. In the senior seminar class I use the trash entertainment blogs and how rumors start to demonstrate principles of cognitive psychology. Everywhere you go, there's Clay! jmh123, you speak wisdom in your entire post. Let me dwell on just one of your points: most of the time we don't like ambiguity. I mean we REALLY don't like ambiguity. The discomfort from that makes us do all kinds of odd manipulations so that we can appear consistent to ourselves and others. Classic example: Knock, knock. Door opens: "M'am, would you put this honkin' big ugly sign for I.M.Politician in your front yard?" "No, you young whippersnapper. Get outta my face." "OK, would you put this tiny, tasteful sign in your yard?" The lady at the door sees herself as a kind person. She realizes she's just been unkind to the stranger, which is out of sync with her self image. So given the option of removing the ambiguity and reasserting herself as a kind person, she says: "Well, yes. You can put that tiny sign in my yard. That's OK." And the young whippersnapper gets exactly what he wanted in the first place. It's called the "Door in the Face" technique. Useful when planning budgets that someone else has to approve . . . Does it come with a tiara? ETA: My example is a way better example of cognitive dissonance than ambiguity. A topic for another time.

I know I'm really behind 'coss I was in Laguna Beach with hubby on Sunday and doing the celcert on Monday, but this? This was one of the most awesomest moments in baseball. First Kirk was in the dugout in street clothes. Then he disappeared. Then he reappeared in uniform. Then he limped to the plate. Could the big man do it? Yesssss! Hee. Is being a Dodger fan worse than being a pod person? On second thought, don't answer that. We all do it, not just "some fans." (Note: long-assed, scholarly, probably boring post ahead on the subject of filters. Scroll at will) It all comes down to how we process information. When people get ambiguous evidence, we believe that the evidence supports our theories or we simply disregard it. We have the latitude to do that because the evidence is, well, ambiguous. That's the " see and hear what we want to see and hear" part. There are lots of examples in the endless discussion of Clive Davis and what really went on in the creation of Clay's sophomore CD. My favorite examples come from the world of parapsychology. The true believers see floating white particles as "spheres" caused by paranormal energies. The skeptics see dust motes. When people get unambiguous evidence, we deal with it differently. If the evidence supports our beliefs, then we say, "Well, yes, of course." When the evidence challenges our beliefs, we don't usually disregard it, plus we can't fit it into our belief system because it's unambiguous, after all. Instead, we challenge it. We nitpick the details or the methodology (in science) or the reasoning or even the reporting skills or credibility of the source. My favorite example of this comes from a textbook in social cognition where the author, after explaining ambiguous and unambiguous evidence in Chapters 1 and 2, spends all of Chapter 10 nitpicking the evidence supporting psychic phenomena. He's a perfect example of his own thesis. With a little effort, one can look past one's own preconceptions and evaluate the evidence by the uses other people make of it.. If you find that both sides of an argument are using the same evidence as support, it's probably ambiguous. If one side accepts the evidence and the other nitpicks, then the evidence is likely to be unambiguous. Ultimately, this is why science works the way it does, trying to get past the logjam that can be caused by ambiguity. We don't need to do that on the message boards, we only need to cheerfully and enthusiastically continue our debates. And by the way, did you see those smokin' hot jeans from last night?

Muski, you must be so proud! Is it too early to start thinking about athletic scholarships to college? That could free up money to spend on Clay tickets!

Artquest hugs YSRN and would love to hang out with her at the Greek Theater.

Hey! As this board's token poddie, I have to say that my only angst at the moment is that I'd like the new CD sooner rather than later, but that I'm willing to wait for what Clay wants to give us. Patiently. Sort of.

I enjoyed treenut's comments (which I agree with) and LMF's response. It's always nice to have a diversity of opinions.

Yes! Thanks for putting this into words. He didn't really get it but was willing to appreciate it for what it was. He was also struck by the enthusiasm of the audience, which he didn't get either, but he was a good sport nevertheless. Spacious means vast in range or generous in scope, which doesn't really fit the paragraph. Could he have meant "specious manner"? Specious means falsely attractive, which this isn't and doesn't fit the tone of the review either. Who knows.

Holy Sh*t! Will you look at those eyelashes! Pretty man.

Muski, check your PMs.

During the JNaT, Jesse was much more reserved. Now he's an integral part of the show, which makes it that much more fun to watch. Spot finally uploaded The Way You Make Me Feel from Tulsa. I've been waiting for this because it was so hysterical to watch on stage. It's at least as funny on video. And the vox. Oh, my goodness, the man was in great voice.

As a wise person once said at TWOP (no, really) regarding Project Runway's Tim Gunn, the sexual orientation of one's celebrity boyfriend matters not. Jesse is hot. Period. As a result, there's a lot of pretty up on that stage, especially when he turns his back to the audience to conduct. Nice shoulders, too. What?

I wonder if Clay will do his own cellcert with his new iPhone. . .

Safe travels to everyone.

I can't wait for the tour to start! I've got a new external hard drive. I've got my video camera in the shop getting the zoom fixed (you can never get too close to Clay Aiken), and I'm shopping for shoes tomorrow. Wheeeeeeee. Set lists? I don't have much of an opinion as I expect I'll love about everything he'll do. That said, I expect something spiritual or religious in tone. I expect some tunes from ATDW, MOAM, and some new stuff - maybe something he and Jaymes are experimenting with for the new CD. My guess for the bit that he and Jesse have worked out will be an American Idol medley. He'll do Invisible, and I expect, crave, and dream that he will sing Lover All Alone. But it's Clay, so I'm easy.

The small iPod screen is so bright and has such a high resolution that I was able to watch 7 hours of Heroes episodes while on a 15 hour plane flight. It eats batteries, though. This little goodie was a godsend.

The Last Unicorn CD arrived yesterday. DD had had a rough evening, so she was doubly delighted to find such a wonderful present waiting for her! However, I haven't been able to remember or track down who found the Amazon.com listing. Whoever you are, MWAH! Artquest scurries off again, this time to iTunes, to listen to these diddies.