djs111

Heeeee.....Couchie, my boyfriend listened to sports radio all.the.time. One time a sports station in Orlando had an impromptu contest - caller could sing a sports song of their choice, and the hosts would declare the winner. Of a tshirt or passes to a Magic game or something. Anyway. he called in and sang the Mets song - Meet the Mets, meet the Mets, etc. He sounded great. But then someone who said he was a trained vocalist called in and sang the same song, pretty much professionally, so he won. My sweetie was a bit irate, and called the station - they said he had a point about the trained singer stuff, so they sent him a cassette of him singing. This was pre-Clay - if Clay had called in and sung a song, I would have wanted that. too! I have never played the cassette because I am unsure of how it will affect me, but just having it reminds me of the all day sports talk! We had antenna wire contraptions all over the place because it was hard to get the Orlando sports stations in Tampa. I did have a pair of hamsters once. They ran on that squeaky wheel all night, and then one of them sort of ate the other one. Bwahahaha! You are kidding, right? Clay is declared naive whenever he doesn't do what someone thinks he should have done, or unaccountably sticks with his mom and friends after they have been declared unsuitable and perhaps even harmful. I don't think he is the least bit naive. I get out of being picked for a jury by looking quite eager to be on the jury.

Nah. One was entirely absent for most of my life, and my father was a violent man given to insane rages. I am still pissed because he broke all my 45 rpms that he thought were my way of supporting the Black Panthers. Coulda sold them on ebay. I am not a believer in giving parents too much or exclusive credit for good or for bad. Heh, then you gotta give good or bad credit to THEIR parents, and on back, until I guess we can blame everything on Adam and Eve. Or Lucy, or whoever one believes in. Once kids are out and about, they are just as affected by peers, media, etc. I am not saying good parenting isn't wonderful and doesn't provide a excellent start - but sometimes people can good parent like all get out, and their kid turns out badly. That's why I don't like to assign parental blame. Kids just are not that biddable after a point. I believe free will plays a big part. Clay, for example - if his dad was great, then he would get credit for good parenting. His dad and Ray are considered (without having too much info :-)) horrible, and yet here we have Clay Aiken! I suppose then that Clay is a good guy just to prove his parents wrong? That's why it cracks me up when people rag on Faye - is Clay a philanthropist in spite of her, or because of her? That depends entirely on agenda, from what I can see. IMO. Heee....he gets to be entirely self-created! And there were four of us kids - three left now - we all turned out quite amazingly differently. I believe that at some point, free will must kick in. Yes, I assumed you were being a bit flip, because getting a marriage license only requires a small bit of cash and, in most states, dissimilar breeding apparati :-) The whole thing is a crapshoot. Well, except for maybe eHarmony. But I read they toss a lot of people out, so who knows! Yes, and I like the idea of classes and such. But rich people and smart people can be just as terrible. Heeee.....I can remember being very pissy when delivering Christmas presents to needy people and seeing big TVs. Then it occurred to me that big TVs might be all they would ever have - a window to the world. And a friend of mine taught kindergarten and said she could generally pick out the poorer kids - they all showed up knowing the alphabet and colors and numbers, from watching Sesame Street. In color; she said (this was in the 70's) that a lot of more affluent parents prided themselves on not having color TVs, and so the kids had to be caught up with colors. And that it was funny hearing kids imitate The Count. CMSU. I am unashamedly afraid of all rodents with teeth - I was afraid of rabbits long before Monty Python. And any pet which comes with instructions to handle carefully or it will bite? Nope.

ladyj, I did love him a LOT in "Syriana", I thought he deserved more awards for that, but I tried watching newer stuff, and it didn't work for me. Poor George. :-O He was a shambling dunce in Roseanne, they were trying to fix him up with Jackie. "Booker Brooks". I had not realised just how many shows he was in before he got lucky with E/R: Clooney's early TV I have never watched ER. Very bad experience in an ICU, and I never watched any hospital stuff at all from 1999 until House, and I only watch that because I adored Hugh Laurie in Blackadder and as Jeeves. or Wooster. With Stephen Fry. It's fun to watch old Twilight Zones, and see which actors got famous. I don't think Clay is celebrating, I don't think he is filled with foreboding, either. And I don't think he will be a "failure" no matter what he decides to do - teach, record, philanthropy, whatever. Claytonic, both my mother and my father were pretty bad parents. But I sure am glad they were allowed to "breed". That deciding and judging thing is a nasty slippery slope. (Looks down at) merrieeee - have you ever seen The Kumars at No. 42? Brilliant (IMO) British comedy, they send everything up. Stephen Fry was a hoot on that, I also try and catch anything he hosts or appears in. He even makes Graham Norton somewhat watchable.

Yay! I'll buy six!!!!!!! Lilyshine, you may be psychic! I hope it is true, I have gotten quite good at laughing at and then forgetting the angst that accompanies anything Clay does. Who knows, maybe he has the rights to all the stuff he supposedly recorded before Evil Clive whacked him with the covers stick! :-O Actually, I don't think Clive was evil, just stuck in his own lane. It is not like Clay was the only singer to be told to record covers. Ooooh, unless Clive also had been thwarted in his evil desires for Rod Stewart and Barry Manilow, too! I never considered that! Bwah! All I know is, even if Clay never records another CD, that would not make me into a fan or supporter of anyone I don't care for at this time. I don't need to be a fan, this is an anomaly. If, for instance, the only music available to purchase or listen to was Josh Groban - I would merely play my music I already have and save lots of money. Nothing against Groban per se, but it seems some people think Clay fans all need to be a fan of someone, that they will of course all turn to someone else, and I don't think that is true. Or some think that Clay fans are not big fans of other singers out of loyalty. I have been accused of not liking Groban because that would be disloyal to Clay. Nah. Nope. Nuh-uh. I am still buying CDs by people I like.

Yes, this seems to be the case - so I never understood why requesting Clay's songs was considered to blacklist him - I always thought that was just a way to be dismissive of Clay fans. I don't think the suits give a crap about the requesting thing, or consider that some requests are more worthy than others. Couchie said: My feelings exactly. And to me, when Eric Roberts (and Joaquin Phoenix, for that matter) is on the screen I can't look at anyone else, to me they are very compelling. I like Robert Downey too, he just grabbed the brass ring of having his drug use and excesses be forgiven. I have zippo interest in Brad Pitt or, say, George Clooney, they mostly seem like pretty boys. And I never got over Clooney's stint as a clod in Roseanne. Hmmm....acted too well, I guess! :-) Brad did grow on me a bit in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, though - not because of his looks but because it looked like he just might be snarky and actually understand what was funny in his lines. Come to think about it, I never really cared for Downey until he did that Elton John "I want Love" video. Which was after he got out of jail. Yes, Die Hard is a Christmas movie! and it is the movie that brought Alan Rickman to my attention. Yum. Heeee.....I still watch that Texas "In Demand" video from time to time, just to see him tango next to a gas pump. Or whatever he is doing. Another yum. Most change with undefined results is scary, but I think the fans who are celebrating the RCA thing are not just whistling in the dark, they just feel sure that Clay already has stuff in the works. No control over what is going to happen anyway, why not enjoy the speculation? From some of the angst or negativity about his leaving RCA, one would think this was a surprise move that never occurred to Clay or his team at all. And like my real life, I don't waste a lot of time worrying about the very worst scenarios. I sure am not going to worry that Clay's friends and family will desert him or assign possible shallow motives to them. Heh, like Jaymes is going to sue for custody, claiming Clay does not have a current recording contract? Heeee.

Heeeeee.....I'll just give a big old word!!!!! to Scarlett!!!!! Done!!!! The whole thing! LOL!!!!! Yes, it is a beautiful day down here in Sunny Florida, albeit a little bit chilly.

Hey - maybe he is gonna tour with Kelly again!!!!! I like speculation - right up until Clay doesn't do whatever his mommies and manageresses have decided he should do, and then he is pronounced stubborn or dumb or misguided.

tribeca - no, I don't particularly like Jeff. His whining about doing so much more than the other chefs, thus entitling him to more credit even though his dish did not turn out well, was very off-putting. Throughout the series, whenever a chef lets me know that if the judges (or whoever) don't like his food they are common dolts with no palates - I just don't like that chef. And I thought he was sort of arrogant about being back, like he thought they realised he was just too good to be out of the competition. Heeeee.....it is not like I get to vote!!!! Anyway, since his oysters evidently tasted like Sterno, there is (IMO) no reason to think he was "chopped" just to keep Stefan in the finale. One of the things I love about Carla is that she seems genuinely delighted when she wins or even is not cut; with some of the others, it is like Of course! I won, the other chefs' food tastes terrible!!! Looks to me like she has a lot more formal training than she lets on - the guys act like she learned to cook diner food, in a diner, and seem completely dismissive of her. Heh. Someone once asked if I wouldn't want "the best chef" cooking for me - my answer is that "best chef" is sooo subjective, plus I wouldn't want someone in my kitchen, or my restaurant's kitchen, who felt I was inferior if I didn't want to eat barely-cooked sweetbreads with caramelized chicken feet and turnip froth. :-O Richard's almost raw pork belly last year? Bleccccch! Although Richard seemed like a really nice guy. I actually wasn't rooting for anybody this year, but now pretty much everybody annoys me but Carla, and she just seems to radiate happiness. Plus that comment she threw in about her training being classical French, and casually telling Ripert that yeah, she could tell it was a variation of the sauce and adjusted accordingly, cracked me up. I think the guys think she has just been lucky. Add to that the attitude of some of the guys that their food is beyond reproach, and that's that! for me. Hosea is a dog. I don't care about his cooking. TwoP is interesting reading this time - they are pretty much all on the same page regarding Carla.

It looks like it is not so much "all over the net" as it is the same tired passive-aggressive crap that a few blogs have decided to run with. Blogs that are usually crappy to Clay. Heeeee.....they all have "exclusives" that consist of doing a search for Clay on RCA's site and interpreting the findings in what they hope is the worst way possible, in order to stir up Claymates. Yawn. The comments must be very disappointing - 97% are pretty much "Good! RCA SUX!!!!!!". One person wants RCA to drop Kelly, too, because her new song sucks. :-O Remember, they can't get hits any more by saying they have a good source who says Clay is GAY!!!!!!!!! Must be frustrating as hell. We were all supposed to leave the fandom.

EEEEEE!!!111!!!1! for Carla winning the challenge!!!! The Team Europe crap was really off-putting. I wish they both had been cut, but then that would have meant Jeff winning. Dang editing - I was convinced Carla was going to end up at a table surrounded by unopened oysters and little bowls of hot milk, and nothing else. Especially when Tom said she could have steamed the oysters. A cucumber mojito sounds yucky to me, as does a drink that tastes like bell peppers. I don't like sweet drinks or vegetarian drinks. And Hoseaa being lauded for authentic roux and flavor, after Stefan said Hoseaa's gumbo was nasty? Yesssssss! Emeril was really nice.

Nope. I'm 100% with you there - the way he gets into that song is sexy and sends shivers through my spine. It is a gorgeous rendition of a gorgeous song.

I don't like sugar AT ALL, I give my grandson the minimum, and I sweeten his tea with honey. I never put sugar on my son's cereal either, I just don't like the taste. And he did not get to choose! I like my oatmeal and my grits with butter and pepper. Part of my childhood was spent with my Welsh family who put three spoons of sugar in a cup of tea, I think I just got sick of sugar, I don't avoid it because it is not good for me. :-O So I don't have any sugar in my diet to get rid of, it is the fats and carbs. If I stick to a no-carb diet for any length of time I can drop the weight. I recently read that Atkins dieters were amazingly and surprisingly low on the cholesterol scale, too. Last time I had mine checked I was pretty low on the scale.

Last year I started giving my grandson rolled oats for breakfast, and cut out the dry cereal. I make it with 2% milk and zap it in the microwave, then add a bit of sugar and cinnamon. And a teensy sliver of butter, because someone we loved always put butter on his oatmeal, and we still think of him every time we do that. I love the feeling of continuity - "Pop-pop's oatmeal"! (My grandson is almost 14, I also love that he still cares about this). I had noticed that even the big store brand bags of dry cereal - and I never bought the sugary stuff - were gone in a day or two. So now we just have the oatmeal, better for us and for my pocketbook. Heeee....almost 14, six feet tall, 185 pounds. Luckily he loves Caeser salad and veggies almost as much as he loves pizza.

That soup sounds wonderful! Thanks for sharing your recipe! I will try the potato thingy, but I adore butter and cream immoderately. Great touch with the pepper. I'm so lazy nowadays, my only soup "recipe" is to put vanilla in Lobster Bisque. That occasion doesn't happen very often. :-( Madeline Kamman has a newly updated version of her "The Making of a Cook" - it is not recipes so much as an almost scientific explanation of cooking techniques. I felt like I could cook anything I saw on a menu, if only I could afford all the ingredients! Anyway, it is a wonderful book. IMO. Making of a Cook

Hey! I mentioned Clay! Right there, near the end!!!!!! Shouldn't that cat have pointy kitty boots and a riding crop to whack minions with??????

No, I think this review covers how I feel about it - even though I have heard praises sung and hosannas ring out about it, I just really only like to hear Cohen sing his songs. I found him sorta by accident - I was into Judy Collins and Peter Paul and Mary, and knew that someone named Leonard Cohen wrote "Suzanne", but didn't think much more about it, I just loved the song. (IMO Cohen, Dylan, and Willie Nelson are among the finest songwriters ever, it is astonishing how many wonderful songs they have written!) Years and years later I was working in Den Haag, and was shopping in the little shopping center attached to my hotel, and started searching through a bin of CDs. I had never bought a CD before, did not even have a CD player. (Never bought a tape, either, went right from vinyl to CD). I was kinda looking for Golden Earring, but couldn't find anything that had both Radar Love and Twilight Zone on it. They are a Dutch group, dangit! So, I ended up buying The Best of Leonard Cohen out of curiosity, and that was that! Heee....I started playing it that night at a dinner party where the host was really into Jethro Tull. Everybody hated Cohen's voice, and I was enchanted. Anyway, here is a review I had found of that movie..... I'm Your Man review I did see Tom Petty and Don Henley do a decent job on Everybody Knows, on some TV show, but IMO they lost the meaning to the song somewhere in the jamming. They lost the irony somewhere. I bought that Tower of Power tribute CD, and only listened to part of it, once. Heh, I found something on the net about the real "Suzanne" - self-centered unpleasant beeyotch. Sorry I shattered that illusion I had. Promise - this is the last Cohen thing I will mention...but it moved me and I hope someday for someone to use Clay's music like this....this is part of Altman's narrative on the DVD, and is his own words.... Robert Altman and Leonard Cohen I absolutely love how Altman worded that, it can apply to so many things!

Thank you! It is sad that he needs to do this mostly because his money was stolen by his manager. Hmmmm....I need to dig out those CDs, I want to hear Sisters of Mercy (a most perfect song) again. and Hey That's No Way to Say Goodbye. and Famous Blue Raincoat. I always watch McCabe and Mrs. Miller - an astoundingly beautiful and funny and depressing movie (IMO, etc.) - whenever it is on, because Leonard sings three songs in it. Cool for the new CD - usually I hatesssss live stuff on CD, but Leonard is an exception.

ncgurrl said: Now, there is some good all-purpose advice!!!!!!

I have found that I rarely watch any of the drama-type shows I like on network TV any more - I figure I can watch the reruns on A&E or other channels like that......plus (old codger voice) when I was younger, it seems to me that there were 26 or so episodes of a show each year, not just 12 or whatever. Seems like I can catch a re-run a couple of weeks after the first showing sometimes. And I am over that old-fashioned continuity thing :-O. What cracks me up is how some shows tout an "all new" episode - in September, when a season has just started. Never did catch the last season of the Sopranos, but now I can watch that on Sunday nights. There is so much going on that even though I read the TwoP or whatever comments, I will still watch it with fresh eyes. Sorta like going to a Clay concert after listening to a dismissive cellcert commentary. Newsflash - some of those fans hate David Chase as much as some Clay fans hate Clive Davis or Jaymes - IMO silly on both counts. Big Bang Theory still makes me laugh out loud, it is so sweet and funny. Yay! for Leah getting canned (heh) on Top Chef. I am rooting for Carla, even tho I know it is prolly futile. I noticed last week that she is (warning - incoming old saying!!!!) absolutely beautiful without those glasses on (weird shape makes her look pop-eyed, IMO) - and then found out she used to model. My fantasy is that she out-Padmas Padma in the glamour department on the finale, and then whacks Stephan over the head with her frying pan of mad French cooking technique skilz. The feminist in me was getting tired of the Oh we must have two women in the finals comments, they are there as chefs, stop acting like it is gender wars. I disliked Lisa's cockiness just as much as I disliked Hung's or Marcel's. Got sucked back in to Burn Notice - it really is almost a comedy with random (well, okay, continuous) violence. Plus I want my hair to look like Sharon Gless's, after I grow it out all silver for the fourth time.

Absolutely nothing in anyone's life is really something that can be explained away or dismissed or simplified so easily by anyone else. Such a black and white view of anyone else's problems is pretty much always going to be incorrect, dismissive, and assuming that one is absolutely correct and the very pinnacle of what is "right" when really all you can be right about is yourself. Weight issues, Clay issues, parenting issues. I have not noticed any angsting, really, in the discussions about the People Who Can't Let Go - it is something interesting to talk about, is all. And, like Couchie or someone said, this is not CNN. I don't understand the "entitled" label - is there some standard or list of rules that I missed on this subject? I don't lose sleep over this, I find it interesting. When there is stuff here that doesn't interest me I just ignore it. Perhaps a factor here is that this whole not getting over it thing might be closer to home for some people than for others, depending on how long one has been on the boards with this community, and not just something that can have a label slapped on it and dismissed. And a lot us us are, um, "multiple-boardal" - that is actually one of the reasons this board got populated, with people who can and do post elsewhere and are part of more than one community. Kind of interesting, really, the different layers and permutations of what is posted on other boards when filtered through this one. And it is why there is a category for Home Board. This is not my own little opinion saying "oh shut up and don't post about whatever", it is me saying that the "oh shut up and don't post about whatever" doesn't really apply at this particular board, which is why the martyr stuff (not from any particular person, really!) always makes me laugh - not being agreed with is not the same as being "told not to post" or whatever. That applies to a lot more people than just the people with impaired bridge-building abilities! Pretty much anything Clay-related can be posted on this board - BUT then we are going to comment, agree, or disagree on it, there is no "last word" on a subject. There are lots of other boards like that. Heeee.....I am actually a lot more squicked out at the constant need, by some, on other boards, to make every Clay comment into a specifically gay comment, as if Clay has turned his entire wardrobe into rainbow tshirts or something. Clay did not want to be defined by his sexuality, but some of his fans are doing just that - to them he is not a singer who happens to be gay, he is a gay person who happens to be a singer. I swear I could actually hear the construction noise from that particular box to put him in being built. To me, the constant need to stress the gay thing seems just as "off" as whatever is labeled homophobia. But that's just me; I know how to scroll. Claytonic, there is a difference between expressing an opinion and expressing the wish that others would stop posting about things we don't like. You happened to spark a debate, is all - that's what I love about this board! Yep! ANY finger-pointing. Anyways, we are just commenting. We are not dredging up stuff, we are commenting on stuff that is happening right now. With people we "know". On boards we belong to. We are still celebrating Clay (looks at all the pretty pictures)!!!!!! I don't understand - of course you can disagree with anybody, but you should expect to be disagreed with right back. And IMO if people don't speak up and post because they are afraid to be disagreed with, then perhaps they don't understand how boards work!

Lessee - I discovered TwoP before I ever watched AI. I was a Trading Places fan, and loved the sarcasm in the recaps. I watched the first year of AI just for grins, just to see what Simon would say, and thought Justin skeevy and was happy for Kelly, but the day after the show I promptly forgot about all of them. The next season I started watching for grins again, and was smitten with Clay on Wild Card night. I didn't really have anybody to watch with. One day I was reading Trading Spaces recaps and thought Oh! Maybe they have a place for AI here! And that was that, I loved TwoP, figured out how to post without offending, um, Shack (okay, until I posted a perfectly harmless comment about Kelly writing a book :-O) and then migrated to RHT when Twop kicked us out, then to the Clackhouse, then ended up here. I am here for fun and snark. And I have made some very good friends, and have met and traveled with and stayed with some awesomely good people!

Guy calling in to a local DJ said that the only thing live about Springsteen's Super Bowl performance was Springsteen's voice. The guy who was in charge of setting things up said it was ridiculous to think they would have time to set up and test and tune and calibrate the sound. Especially when the weather is iffy and there is no shelter. Also said people pay BIG bucks to go to the Super Bowl, the national anthem is not the reason they pony up, it is an admittedly teensy tiny part of the festivities, and that's why they tape it - it is not a concert. That way they know it will be perfect. Article in local free paper about ticket-raptor and Live Nation wanting to merge - may get a congressional look-see. Evidently they want a big bite of artists' earnings too, and be able to dictate booking and tours. Plus ticket-bitch is brazenly shoving choice seats to the scalpers and getting a cut. I guess the good news is that it would be even less logical than usual to blame Clay personally for his tour schedule. I did see people denounce Cookie's tour schedule disdainfully if it did not stop at a venue near them, so at least Clay is not the only thoughtless greedy lazy singer who ignores his fans. :-O

He did use the catwalk for one of his tours - Not a Tour?

I do think that Clay does not and will not conduct his entire life in service to a P.R. person's plan for Becoming a Pop Star, which it seems most other singers do. Heeeee.......it seems to me he is NOT staying in that lane, he is just living his life and watching the chips fall where they may, and likely is happier for it. This fandom thing is prolly a lot less stressful for me than for some other fans, because I don't project what I want for him onto him, and then get all pissy and declare he is making mistakes when he doesn't do what I think he should do. I just sit here and watch! I am going to quite enjoy the last season of The Sopranos, and I see that some people are STILL nattering on about how the end should have been different! Write yer own show, people!

Last night I watched the BAFTAS - British version of Oscars - on BBCA and switched to CSI Miami and the beginning of the last season of the Sopranos on A&E during most of the acceptance speeches. I did switch to the Grammies a couple of times but just got commercials. And the end of Jennifer Hudson's song, she was awesome! Anyway, Mick Jagger presented an award at the BAFTAs. He was, IMO, more polished and sophisticated than most of the movie people, prolly because he is used to performing in front of live audiences. Anyway, he was pretty funny - Sharon Stone looked incredible, and there are pix of Mick, Robert Downey Jr. and Mickey Rourke partying - what a group of bad boys....Mickey Rourke picked up best actor, that's the second best actor award for him this year. His acceptance speech was a hoot! I love the BAFTAS - a LOT of celebrities show up from all over the world, and they just keep being funny and presenting awards, no painfully contrived entertainment. Topic - I don't see Clay being at the Grammies until he has a hit record, and I don't see Clay changing what he likes to sing just to get on the Grammies. I'm more than fine with that! Besides, I read somewhere else that the real problem is that Clay was stubborn and did not go to Clive's Grammy party years ago, we know this for a FACT, and therefore he will never ever get a Grammy. Blecch and eyeroll here! A long time ago I read a novel about Australia that described the horrific circumstances of being caught out in the bush during a fire storm, it was really frightening. Dunno if it was Thorn Birds or something else, but I never forgot the description.