KAndre

Takes a minute out from primping for her reunion with her favorite celebrity boy-toy... Check the PM thread peeps! I've got the heels, the hair, the makeup, various parts have been buffed and waxed (too late, TMI! Ha ha!) and am looking forward to some SERIOUS oral talent tonight...even willing to share him a teensy bit. Seven years of freakishly fun tours...and yes, he's still the one.

Yay Clay! What can I say...I'm easy.

Well, if y'all really want to be accompanied by someone leaking out of every orifice in her head and running a 102 fever...and if you have a little red wagon to drag my butt along in because I've only managed to make it from my bed to the living room computer, my indoor thermometer says 94 degrees and I still feel cold, and I sound like I have a 12-pack a day habit...

KAndre skips in merrily... My surgery's been canceled for next week! Yay! Of course it's canceled because I'm anemic as hell (9.2! Woo! I also started running a fever and coughing up a lung; but I don't care! No snipping in my nose!) Lots and lots of iron supplements in my future - and the new surgery date will have to be after my concert!

PerusingOne has wandered on home... I've surrendered to my doctor's whining and will have my nasal surgery on 2/2... and simply stoppped worrying about Clay's career months, hell, years ago...he still sings pretty and I still listen.

Waves madly at all those surrounding by something I hear is called "snow"... I had to look up "The Closer" on Wiki...Lord, Clay and I could never watch TV together...

Eh, I know I'm alone in my dislike of the arrangement of UM (and it is more that crescendo than anything else) but he does sing the hell out of it. And as for the dead audiences, it's been like that for the last several tours, and I honestly don't think Clay can get that to change - I see it as one reason Ruben kept pushing the crowd to participate during the summer because in general past the first three rows, it's just subdued. The few people who do clap or stand or obviously react tend to stick out like sore thumbs. Suspicious Minds for example, of all the songs that's a clap-along, only a few people will start, then it will fade out, and then people just sit and stare again. My nonClay venues have people moving to the music, obviously, even if they never stand up. It's to the point I don't expect high energy from the audience during songs, just during the banter, but that's just a Clay crowd.

I guess when I say a "dead: audience means that although there was plenty of applause, and standing afterward during the singing I'm used to an audience reacting to the music while it's going on, finger snapping, heads bobbing, toes tapping, bodies swaying - and besides me and merrieeee, it doesn't seem to happen. Sitting unmoving through the song just strikes me as dead, no matter the applause afterward. Maybe it's just different concert experiences.

My Lord, that man puts on a show! I'll give y'all more of my recap about me later (merrieeee was glad, glad I missed my flight (which I admit to looking for someone, anyone else to blame but have been unsuccessful. Dammit.) The concert: (Disclaimer - this is not my favorite of his albums or shows - just not my kind of music, and I think it encourages the deadness of the Clay audience. But he has enough talent that I will go and see the type of music that I don't care for a couple of times!) Y'all know the eHP - unless necessary, we aren't getting in a line at 7 am unless they're giving away free money. So we show up at 6:35, the doors are open and people are pouring in. I, merrieeee and PerusingOne, get seats along the far right wall, only one seat away from the stage. And I can see just about everything except for Pink as she's doing the intro - but I can see the paper she's reading from, so it's good. The curtain opens up, and I can see Clay, who is already on stage, striding toward the mic. He is wearing the sharkskin suit I hated in Raleigh (I see where he's trying to go with that, but it doesn't work for him, that 40's/early 50's style suit is better on a stocky body - Clay is lean with a little bit of an ass so the baggy fit pants tapering to the ankles and the length of the suit make him look pear-shaped.) He says he did his hair himself - I believe him. He pulled the front inch of his hair straight up and out - it's more of a front fan than rooster. If he ever comtemplated a hair dressing career, all I've got to say is don't quit your day job, Clay. He starts out with You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, has a complete brain fart, sings in perfect key, "I don't know the words", never missing a beat. Finishes up the song with what suspiciously sounds to me like the same lines, comments he doesn't even remember the order the songs go in, asks for copies of the song order, rejects Ben's for being too messy and take one of the string guy's copy, puts it on the floor with the lyric sheets he's not actually reading either, and rolls into the next song, Besso something and gets someone from the front to get up on stage and dance. She tries to dance with him but he say the Raleigh show had real dancers filling in this part and he didn't have anything else. So she dances something Latinish until she comes to the end of her Latin repetoire and then does some robot, a little running man. It is HILARIOUS. He makes her do a shimmy in front of him then sits her back down. He's a little hoarse but generally works his way around it - and is in an incredibly sarcastic mode - lord, I love that man. He noticed a woman on the phone, asked if she was finished with her call, got the phone from her, talked smack to the woman on the phone (you're only in Ohio?!? Why are you here?!?!) and shocked the shit out of the entire audience by snapping the phone closed, smirked at us, mocked our OMG faces and rolled into Who's Sorry Now and commented that the timing was perfect. I don't think I've ever loved him more. And the old lady that he was under the mistaken impression that he was going to have a sweet moment with... she got him, she got him GOOD. He asked for people who had never seen him live before, clearly looking for someone who maybe saw the PBS special and decided to come to the show. When he first started talking to her and she mentioned she watched him for hours every day on the computer, something should have given him a hint. He gets them to bring her up front, he climbs down the stage (complaining about his back) and the minute he gets close enough to him, she latches on to him like a leech. The look on his face was priceless! She starts telling him stuff and he tries to interrupt by saying , "Look, apparently there's a magazine you need to read..." and he couldn't get loose from her. I swear, it threw him off for at least 5 minutes. And the audience was in hysterics. He sang beautifully, even the stuff that doesn't thrill me. But one of the ones that did thrill me was Breaking Up Was Hard To Do - that was beyond gorgeous. The best performance was probably Unchained Melody. Another disclaimer - I hate this arrangement. Hate it so much. To me, it'ws like taking the Mona Lisa and painting her on black velvet. But he sings the fuck out of it, and I can't think of another artist that could do this arrangement justice.

My kind of town...Chicago is! I am leaving nice fall weather (mid 80's, just like it's supposed to be) to freeze my ass off in Chicago. Mid 60's? Mid 50's?!??! I'm gonna die. Die dead. So I expect Clay to warm me right up. I'm thinking about bring dollars to stuff in his pants for requests...

Happy birthday, KF! Number of times I've seen Clay...dear lord...it is more than 50... Oh geez, you want me to really count? I honestly can't remember them all... 2003: 1 AI Tour 2004: AMAs 2 IT concerts (Grand Prairie, Las Vegas) 2 NAT concerts (somewhere in North Dakota, Grand Prairie) 2 JNT concerts (Atlanta, DC) 2005: 6 JBT concerts (New England, 2 in Atlantic City) 4 JNT concerts (Atlanta, Pensacola, Clearwater, Melbourne) 2006: 3 JNAT concerts (West Point, Long Island, Red Bank) 2007: 8 DCAT/SRHP concerts (Frisco, Houston, Tulsa, Newark, Ashville, Pala, Los Angeles, Indio) 4 CITH concerts (Twice in Mineapolis, Indiana, Illinois) 2008: Lots of Spamalot shows 2009: 1 Gala 2010: 1 Raleigh PBS taping 4 Timeless concerts (Jacksonville, Melbourne, Clearwater & Snoqualmie) 1 Chicago (Two weeks) Every Kimmel show.

pets the eHP fondly...and no, I'm not collecting DNA samples!

Son of a bitch! I am TRYING to record the freakin' thing and my TV card won't pull in channel 8! I can see merrieeee and Scarlett and kf! And a really hairy Clay! In my bedroom! but not on my computer! Damn it all to hell! Why does their digital signal suck so much!!!! Made my pledge - though I don't think I was speaking with anyone I knew and it wasn't Clay either, 'cause I sorta know him - and I told the volunteer I could see one of my friends behind the talking lady, then they put the camera on merrieeee! I waved, but she didn't wave back...

First of all, I had no idea that the lead singer of the Foundations was black or English (but then again, I knew the songs, just had no idea in the hell who sung them). Clay's hair? I still can't say any more than "typical white boy hair". He almost always looks like nine tenths of the non-baldies running around here. Of course, he can look like Snowflake hair and this: and this: All the freaking time, and I would be perfectly happy. What can I say, I'm easy. I admit, I prefer livelier concert experiences, and have come to accept that those will be the exception rather than the rule at Clay's concerts. And the closer I get, the happier I generally am. Hmph. I have a party to go to. Free overpriced "ordurves" and "cocktails". Don't feel like getting up and dressed. But it's free stuff. Decisions, decisions...

Of course, I am quite willing to forcibly shave other people's heads...I'm just sayin'... Man, this was a GREAT weekend!

O...M...G... The Quarter in the Big Easy on a kicking Friday night. Two wild and crazy women (I personally did my best to keep them nice and civilized but a struggle it was - I stayed my normal introverted self, but there was alcohol, loud music, wild dancing, good food, sweaty men...what could I do?) and I had a good time. We have GOT to hit this again! And I get to close out with my boyfriend and his adorable buddy tonight? My summer of 49 is rocking so hard!

high fives kf!

pats kf fondly...as she frowns at all the dings in her door... Less that two weeks before we party in Biloxi! As for that person's review in the OC Register, he's a scorpion straight from the fable. I would no more look at anything he wrote without a jaundiced eye than I would anything from any abuser. The "niceness" doesn't make up for the slaps he merrily threw around before. He showed his true ass to someone he claimed to love and a bunch of people he knew nothing about in the most childish, unprofessional manner I've seen in a long time.

Thank you for the shiny birthday wishes! Clay and Ruben gave me mine early. But the concert last night finally fulfilled my expectations - not because of the artists (because Clay has always brought it for me) - but the audience did it's part of the bargain - show the love instead of sitting welded to your seat. I've been to too many Clay concerts where Clay was rockin' and the audience acted like if they bopped their head to the music, it would cause Armaggedon. And Lord, you can tell when Clay and Ruben have a good audience - it lights a fire under them (and in Clay's case literally - someone should have told the boy - small lighter flames don't burn your fingers as you wave!). The show is scripted, but of the shows I've seen, it's a very loose script - I wouldn't call it "polished", but oddly professional in a really good way - it's like they have a outline and they fill in the blanks on the fly - of the three nights, Ruben told a different account of his childhood and exposure to Marvin Gaye, Clay is giving us various bits and pieces of when he and Ruben met, and Clay has an equal on stage with him, in talent and cleverness and naughtiness. I really think Clay has told Ruben for years about the crazy that is his fandom, and each night he points out the specialness - videographers on the front row on Saturday, binoculars on the 2nd row on Sunday, the wives and their friends with the better seats on Monday, and Ruben is rolling right along (on the binoculars, Ruben was making them "3-D" and Clay made sure he clipped his nose hairs. C/R are more obviously incorporating the band in the opening hijinks - they steal each other lines, leave segments out because they get totally distracted and crack each other up. They are both making a serious run for James Brown's vacant title, "Hardest Working Man in Show Business", and I love it. See you boys in Washington! And I have LOTS and LOTS of punctuation in this one!

OMFG! This concert kicked ass!

Jacksonville: I hadn't had time to do anything but skim the boards, so I was very pseudo-virginal for this show. The eHP and Florida auxillary had freakin' incredible seats, second row, and a certain audiophile made it perfectly clear up front that I and PerusingOne had to be way, WAY away from her as our melodic trickle of laughter might be a titch distracting. Just a titch. The lights dimmed, and we began quivering in excitement...and this HUGE basso-profundo voice (with an occcasional squeak) rolls over us, very Star Wars-esque, proclaiming that THE GREATEST ENTERTAINERS OF ALL TIME COMPETED IN 2003 AND NOW HERE'S THE NO-HOLDS BARRED REMATCH AND NEITHER RANDY NOR SIMON CAN SAVE THEM NOW and Solo and I just fell out shrieking with laughter because over-the-top doesn't begin to describe it and the curtain was stuttering up and you could see legs scuttling back and forth across the stage, a blue spot came down, and Ruben comes strolling out in a gorgeous suit, in gorgeous voice, dimpling at the audience, warbling "Flying Without Wings" and then there's a burst of cheers and here comes Clay, smirking at us and Ruben, and Dear Lord, I forgot how much TITN actually showcases the simple, effortless beauty of his voice, then Clay and Ruben mock battled in a mash-up, running around the stage, Clay sitting on Ruben, Ruben dumping him on the floor, the entire audience shrieking madly. They riff on 60's artists and Clay does "Suspicious Minds" and OMG he is freaking gorgeous voice, but I realize Quiana is missing. Blondie is a good singer, but there's a little missing without Quiana. Ruben strolls back out with some Sam Cooke and then the three of them rolled into the medley, with just stupid good harmonies and lead changing and freaking fun, and the banter, and Ruben is just as quick on his mental feet as Clay and the two of them make each just raise their game, and they make THE CUTEST COUPLE IN THE ENTIRE, OMG!!11!11! The banter about how Elvis stole from Big Mama Thornton and Clay made that seque into the bootlegging on the front row, which totally through Ruben off (I honestly believe this is his first exposure to the specialness that is the Clay fandom). Clay and Ruben both bring a sensibility of overall entertainment to the concert experience - I've said it before, Clay's fan are really not the liveliest bunch...I've been to too many shows (even before the orchestral ones) that no matter how lively the music, the majority of the fans just sit and stare or very occasionally, stand and stare, with a few pockets of dancing. People are clearly enjoying it and they applaude EVERYTHING, but in general, the physical interaction isn't there. Ruben makes the audience get up and DO something. Clay provides eye-candy and something to watch all the time, and makes the competition fun. Clay will talk to you, Ruben will touch you. It's a fucking hysterical show. I liked everything about about - especially the sermon in the middle. I remember the little brouhaha in the fandom over "You Were There" and people were upset that Clay brought a little church to a secular concert - well, now Clay and Ruben brought a WHOLE LOTTA CHURCH, some preachin', some testifyin', some faith "healing" (frankly, by the end of the tour, I expect Quiana will be passing around a collection plate). It is funny and good and light-hearted and sheer entertainment.

Ahem, Mandy is the pinnacle, the pinnacle I say, of musical expression. Minor correction to the set list: Ruben's Marvin tribute starts with Mercy Me but ends with What's Going On My God, this concert series is fun. And Ruben is very friendly. We are at Tasapios's house that she doesn't seem to have a key to the front door, but went through the back and let us in. The cats recognized her, so I am reassured that she actually lives here. I really will do more tomorrow.

OK, I need some delightful minion to move this wherever it is needs to go if it needs to go somewhere. Concerts virgins who don't want to turn into sluts, avert your eyes! Knowing I have an early flight Saturday, I go out on a date Thursday to prove I am still "with it" and "kicking". I am taken to Track 21 - which involves shooting teenage girls in LazerTag (they mainly stand around and scream and so make easy targets) and high speed go-karting. The next morning, shoulders and hips were mainly nonfunctional. I did my Gumby-walk for most of Friday, and decide to go to bed at 8 pm, get up at 3 am, pack, feed, water and fix the litter box, wash and dry some clothes to wear, look up where I'm going, check the boards, and leave in plenty of time for a 7:20am flight. After repeatedly assaulting the alarm clock, I get up at 5 am, say "oh shit", and start desperately scrabbling. By 6 am, the cats are fed, watered, and delittered, I've thrown dryer-hot underwear into my carryon, and I've printed my boarding pass. I figure I'll take no more than 5, yes, I said 5 to get the gist of what happened in Ashville, because technically I have a 40 minute drive from my apartment to the airport parking lot. I look up from watching Talk Stoop for the second time and my clock says, "6:30". Oops. I run out the door, toss the garbage bag in the trunk, my suitcase in the passenger seat and hit the gas. Am at the airport parking at 6:50, having obeyed all traffic laws in spirit. I make googly eyes at the parking lot driver who takes me straight to the terminal (he reassured me that other buses would pick up those people he passed), skitter across traffic into the terminal, down the blue carpet, through security and am at the gate at 7:08, which is twelve whole minutes before the plane takes off! They hadn't even shut the door! Of course they gate checked me and I left my sweater in my suitcase and froze my ass off for two hours, but that's beside the point. Waved at merrieeee about 6 rows back (her hair is cute anyhoo!) and off we went into the wild blue yonder. Landed. Sat on the tarmac for 20 freakin' minutes. They finally let us out the tin can they had us trapped in, we actually answered the phone when Kimiye and Tasapio called. Then PerusingOne plane landed, we picked up her suitcase, then we picked her up, and we wandered outside the terminal to look for Kimiye and Tasapio and we asked each other what we should be looking for and merrieeee said, "Well, how about that woman wildly waving her arms at us" which turned out to be Tasapio once I hugged her because I couldn't see since my glassed were immediately covered in fog. We managed to wedge ourselves in Kimiye's car and gave merrieeee several illicit thrills searching under her butt for various bits of seat belt since Kimiye assured us she wouldn't take the fall for seat belt noncompliance for us and went to locate 1) food and 2) a Best Buy. We took a picture of some sort of SuperBall stuck to a Best Buy sign because Kimiye apparently has artistic sensibilities and notices stuff like that. After driving across the fairly psychotic freeway system that is Jacksonville and I-95, we find our hotel and the normal temperature people (me and PO) were in one room, which we offered to share but oddly enough, everyone else went into the freezing cold room. At one point, we all wore the same dress and took pictures of ourselves in it, but I ended up wearing it to the concert. Off we went, allowing Kimiye to lead because the rest of us hadn't actually paid any attention to where we were going because we know Kimiye is reponsible, and there is no point in having more than one responsible person in any party we are involved in. Even though Kimiye tried to park in a garage that said it was "FULL" even though it was clearly empty. We walk around the corner and sit across the street from the theater, which was sort of faux Art deco with a great big neon sign that DID NOT HAVE THE TIME ON IT at the MOMENT I asked (even though it appeared about 2 seconds later). Being experienced concert hos, we wait until the crowds clear, hit the potties, then hit our seats , 2nd row center. Heading to Clearwater now - will give more recap later.

Screw luck, I want a guarantee! You lyric people are so picky...needs, wants, loves, acquires restraining orders...it all scans! (of course, I'm not really sure what scanning entails, but I'm sure it does) comtemplates the fact that apparently luckiest1 has some sort of people fetish or addition beyond the Claymeister...

[Dean Martin, I think?]Everybody needs somebody...sometimes....DM,It Everybody's gonna be on the " 'somebody' is not doing/reacting/thinking the way I would" bandwagon sometimes. I think I was/am one of the somebodies because I never actually cared one way or another about Reed, Sweater Girl, Jamie and all the various and sundry people/animals/plants people have hooked Clay up with. Like Fear, I don't really have that much interest in whom my child or anyone (including myself) is dating - I will work on caring when it's really important to him (my child, that is. Will probably never care about who's Clay's dating unless it's moi [and yes, I live in delusion land occasionally. What?] and if it is me, I'm afraid I will just periodically post "Neener neener neener" on every board in existence.) I am simply not a people person. Don't really understand all you person people, but accept you in your weird and wonderful way. I believe I voted on the Facebook thingie. Man, I hate Facebook.