cindilu2

tap tap tap...  Is this thing on? Howdy y'all!

Nothing? Really?

Sigh.

He was also very, very beautiful...

Lashes!

If you want to know why I love him so, it's in his kiss!

Slideshow

Some of the funny faces from last night. He was very... animated!

Terrific recap, laughn. I'm in awe of your recall. :bowdown:

aikim, congrats on your autograph.

My photoshop skillz are being put to the test with the few decent Ft. Wayne photos I got

A couple pf notes about how the show is still evolving. In laughn's M&G last night (keep an eye out for her recap - she remembers lots of details, and should be writing them up later), Clay was discussing the jazzy medley of his own songs. He told the M&G'ers they dropped "Open Arms" because the crowds didn't give it the same response as they did for his better-known songs, like "Invisible" and "The Way". During the concert, Clay mentioned there was an awkward transition - I think it was from the jazzy medley to the next song. He interrupted the lyrics to proclaim he had just figured out how to fix it, so you Waukegan-ites should get the benefit of that. I like very much how this format allows Clay and the band to nimbly make changes and tweaks from show to show.

Can't wait to hear more deets from laughn. One thing - I thought he said about the transition between the Who's Sorry Now madness and the next song. Either way, it was so cute how he just blurted it out. He's such a boy sometimes! ETA: if he's that sensitive to the crowd reaction then we'll never again get Misty as an encore

I'm sorry we didn't get to chat (again). We pretty much ran from the venue to get on the road home.

If Clay should hire Scarlett for Clack taking, he should absolutely hire luckiest1 for her mad chronicling skillz. I am very glad that I travel with her on most of my Clay adventures. Typing yeah, that is so much easier!!!

1030 kms round trip in a day. Home. Dead. Happy.

But Misty? Srsly????

I'm impatiently waiting for it too, just keeping on refreshing Hope's Youtube!!

LOL. Fortunately there are more Clack gatherers than just Scarlett.

Just in case y'all missed it....

CLAY SANG THE REAL ME TONIGHT!!!!!

Where is the cartwheel-into-heart-attack emotie????

Why, oh why was I not there? I wants it. I neeeeeds it. Precioussssssssssss.

The recaps and clack rewinds of the concerts have been wonderful. Even with the clack shutdown last night, we were able to share in the Charlotte concert. My students started coming before I could post about this blog, but I so appreciate all who contributed.

Today's Carolina On My Mind blog covers Clay's Tried & True hometown concert in Charlotte, NC, with Scarlett's videos/screen caps, the marquee photo (chel4clay), and fan recaps (luckiest1, Brightstar, ncgran4clay, and chel).

Thank you for your comments, tweets, etc. We appreciate your help in getting the Clay blogs past some of the grime at Google!

On to Greenville, SC, and, hopefully, a clack-filled evening!

Caro

Hey Caro! I heard back from my friend and she said 'go for it'. LOL! Then she asked me about his hair. She is SO in the cult!!!

Just got a text from luckiest1 in the PBS M&G. No autographs and a group photo of 10. Dang - luckiestdaughter was at this one with hopes of her first Clay up-close. She said there were more like 200 than 75 people.

She said he was great though - shook hands, asked names. Not much he can do with that many folks. Hopefully they get a great concert experience though! Hehehe, just got another text that reads:

Jerome said 'no squeezing the booty cheeks', and he meant it!! BWAHHHH!! I'm afraid to know what instigated that one!

cindi, I know what you mean about being "all alone." I really do wish I could attend more cellcerts, but it's a time factor for me. OTOH, very cool NJU story.

As for the bolding of the posts -- I don't know what's going on. I thought it was just my computer, because when I went home last night, everything was fine. What system are you on? I'm on Windows XP here, using Firefox. May have to try it with IE to see if there is a difference.

What is really odd is that right now, it looks fine. But then I'll come back and it will be all bold again. I am using Windows 7 and FF here at work, but was the same at home last night on my laptop with XP and FF.

Now I'll hit submit and see if it's all bold again!

The cellcert/participation stuff - guess it is what it is. There were 197 people on the CV thread at one point.

I was there for a while, but it's not much fun to be all alone (tm King Arthur).

Excitement needs to be shared to thrive.

Can you stand a truly 'not just us' story? A little background: I have a friend in Germany that I made through another fandom (not music related) and over the course of our 'getting to know you' emails, I told her a little about my 'other obsession' (Clay) but honestly didn't go OTT or even really explain much about him. I asked first if she was familiar with AI, and she said she knew Kelly C, but that was pretty much it. She hadn't heard of Clay (or Ruben for that matter) at all. So after my excitement over FL and Cleveland, she asked a little more about him and I sent her links to "Where Do I Begin, Love Story Theme"/Love Story, Crying and "Mack The Knife" from Cleveland. She was v complimentary about the vids but didn't really say much more. This morning I got another email from her, in response to something I'd asked her (again, unrelated) and this is what she sent back (edited the unrelated parts). Keep in mind she is just learning English (from the message boards no less!). It really made me smile!

I got some other mails but I didn't looked at them, sorry, I got distracted. Got hungry, made me a sandwich and listened and watched once again to Clay's Love Story Song.. To listen a VT fan video over/by/at the iPad is SURELY not any audio quality time but this doesn't matter at all! The atmosphere can be felt, he is so engaged, so in the song, and I just read now that this has been his opening in Cleveland. OMG, he couldn't top this. Even as I don't know this guy I must say I got tears in my eyes just from watching and listening via iPad.

Wonderful. Absolutely...

Welcome to the cult, honey!

Does anyone know why all the posts appear to be bolded? If you 'edit' then go back out, even if you don't change anything, they revert to normal text.ETA: until you exit and come back - then it's all bold again. *scratches head*

Wow, those are some gorgeous pics (snix).

*vows henceforth to leave her camera in her room*

Last of the Cleveland bunch. The dark background was the hardest to get focus with, but they're worth it just to see his hands.

So, a short sort-of NJU story. Crying contains some of the most beautiful sounds I've ever heard Clay sing - I love it beyond measure. At both my FL concerts, he 'went low' - and I missed out on them. So then last night, all indications were that he was in the zone, musically - he was going for (and reaching) everything. Seriously fantastic vocals. Dare I hope? It was pretty clear leading up to 'my' part that he was going to sing the high parts and I'm just sitting there chanting 'ohh, ohhh, ohhhhhh, he's gonna do it!!' I might have also squeed. Needless to say I got a funny look from the NJU sitting next to me. (A 60+ year old man who was somewhat... confounded.) But ya know, he applauded as hard as I did when it was over ;-)

That is just too funny, cindilu2! I am sending this story to Sally.

ETA: cindilu, I read your post to Sally, and she said, "Ah ha ... When Harry Met Sally!"

luckiest1, headed back up to read your recap. Many thnx to all for sharing!

Caro

Heheheh, it was indeed a Sally-ish moment. Except for I wasn't faking it.

keepingfaith and merrieeeelove your M&G photos. I'll most likely shatter the camera lens should I have one taken at my M&G. luckiest, I'm so glad you had a great M&G. Interesting about "LoveStory". Found some more Clay stuff in emptying the boxes I had shoved stuff from my office into. I could have him autograph the "Ugly Duckling" cd or the European compilation cd he is on.

It was so beautiful yesterday. I wheeled Mr Fear outside on the deck off his room and got several of his trees out of the greenhouse so he could repot and rewire them. Trying to do some heavy duty cleaning as his sister and BIL will be coming here the day I get back from Greenville. Yikes. Three more days and I'm off.

I had a M&G in Knoxville. I was one of the auction winners. I brought the Ugly Duckling CD to have it signed. When Clay first looked at it, he said "What is this?" Said he didn't really remember doing it. He asked me if it played in a computer, but I had to tell him I never played it. He said he didn't have a copy it, so I told him not to sign it, and just to keep it. Jerome said to me, if he wants one, he can find one. If you haven't seen the CD, it's not round. It's in the shape of his head and upper body.

Awww, that was so nice of you!!! Did he keep it in the end?

I know they left me in a little distress.

If anybody would like the biggies of these just let me know. I reduced them because the originals were over a MB each.

So, a short sort-of NJU story. Crying contains some of the most beautiful sounds I've ever heard Clay sing - I love it beyond measure. At both my FL concerts, he 'went low' - and I missed out on them. So then last night, all indications were that he was in the zone, musically - he was going for (and reaching) everything. Seriously fantastic vocals. Dare I hope? It was pretty clear leading up to 'my' part that he was going to sing the high parts and I'm just sitting there chanting 'ohh, ohhh, ohhhhhh, he's gonna do it!!' I might have also squeed. Needless to say I got a funny look from the NJU sitting next to me. (A 60+ year old man who was somewhat... confounded.) But ya know, he applauded as hard as I did when it was over ;-)

This one deserves a post all its own.

Holy Holey Jeans!

This is the first time I've ever had moderate success with photos. Considering how much zoom is on these, I'm pretty happy!!!

Two pretty peeps!

White face, but it's nice to see all of him sometimes.

Feelin' it baybee

Some days I really, really want to be a mic stand.

At some point during the radio talk...

<<love this expression

He be purdy.

Tired of Cleveland pictures yet? I did a little more work on some of mine from last night.

Symphony in Blue & Peach

Awesome! (frustrating, isn't it????)

Opera Clay freakin' blew my mind. Who knew he had that in him?

OMG yes, I forgot about that....

Praying for Clack on that one.

Recap: Best concert ever! I finally found a setting on my camera that was a halfway successful. I was too far back for close ups, but some are postworthy anyway.

Just for you, bottle

Finally, I got a pic of the tug!!

How big?????

I love it when he laughs

He makes me smile so

Thank you for all the birthday wishes! We had a great dinner last night, that ended with a singing, self-described 'Chinese Idol', complete with insane hand gestures. I have never laughed so hard in my life!

And now I just watched IML from Atlanta, and I'm crying.

1 more day!!!!

Heheh, not to get picky, since it was your birthday and all, but he was the 'Mandarin Idol' (extra cute, since the name of the restaurant is the Mandarin as well). Seriously, the funniest. thing. ever! Laughing that hard after a buffet-style all-you-can-eat dinner is not good, y'all. I wish there was video though - YouTube gold, I'm telling ya.

IML-Atlanta is amazing. Only Clay can take you from giggling fool to choked-up mess in five seconds flat. God, I love him.