djs111

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! for the tour!!!!!!!!!!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! for the tour!!!!!!!!!!

So far, I most likely have Atlanta and Palm Beach on my plate, and hopefully the Biltmore!!!!!

Can't wait to see what the other venues are!!!!!

(Oh, the reason I can use so many !!!!!!!! is because other places have turned theirs back in - I don't even have to try and stretch them out like this: !!!111!1!!!11111!! - there's LOTS to go 'round!!!!!)

Hey, Ms. Couch Tomato - I wasn't eeee-ing to the Beatles EVER, I was more of a Stones girl, but the White Album is a very mixed bag, some songs quite self-indulgent, others are great.

Now that I think about it, I would pay to hear and see Clay sing Rocky Raccoon (my favorite on the album).

I found this article about iTunes yesterday.....may be old news to some, but does explain how iTunes picks and chooses what to "push" - and.....drum roll.......Yes! YES! YES!......

Clive is responsible for EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!

Haha! Just kidding!

Secrets of the iTunes home page

Posted Mar 11th 2007 4:00PM by Erica Sadun

Filed under: iTS

If you visit the iTunes store on a regular basis, you'll know that the

iTunes home page is jam packed with shiny happy banners. These ads highlight

just a few dozen of the songs, albums, TV shows, and movies available to

iTunes shoppers. And to have a product blessed by front-page placement is

practically a guaranteed jump in sales. An album featured on the iTunes home

page may sell five times more copies in a week than it will in a month

without that promotion according to a recent Wall Street Journal Online

article by Nick Wingfield and Ethan Smith. So who gets on the front page and

how?

It's not what you'd expect. According to the article, Apple doesn't sell

their promotional spots to recording companies outright. Instead, they trade

visibility for exclusive song access, discount pricing and access to stars

for things like interviews and celebrity playlists. There's a lot of

back-room dealing going on with lots of shiny happy money at stake but

there's also simple passionate music-love. If Apple's team loves you and

loves your music, new unknown musicians can get a huge boost through the

iTunes store.

And here is the illuminating article that is referred to:

Music's New Gatekeeper (WSJ)

Um, lessee, which emoticon will properly portray the horror and suspicion that some feel towards iTunes....... :3:

I figure a lot of people had fun within the contest parameters - but I also figure that perhaps a very few people didn't really read or comprehend the part that said "wait for the rules". (Or maybe didn't think the rules applied to them, or maybe they thought they could read Clay's mind and thus "know" the rules?) It seemed to me that once a few days had passed with no rules or whatever, the contest was not real, because Clay knows how "enthusiastic and creative" his fans are!

I am thinking that yeah, it was blowing off steam, and personally, I think that some of the things that got worked on may have had more to do with the creators' agendas than with Clay's tabloid problems.

I don't believe he really likes truly nasty or intrusive crap made up or projected on to his friends and family, and I would have been surprised if he had further encouraged stuff like that from his own fans. Especially stuff that would most certainly be cut and pasted elsewhere.

Prolly several cans of worms there. I think the rantlet served its purpose very well, though!

Got picked up by the media, and kept some fans busy and occupied for a bit, and I bet there are all kinds of funny creations out there, ready to be shared!

He made his point.

JMO and all that!

I am looking forward to seeing some of the creations; maybe we can have a thread for them??????

Yes, House was a rerun. But I lurved it anyways.

Lots of funny this day, and may I mention that I am eternally grateful for the fact that "snark" sounds so much kindlier and fuzzier than "sarcasm". Sniff!

And maybe I am alone at the FCA, but it always makes me giggle to see that everybody here is some form or degree of "member". Members waving and smiling all over the place.

I hope that anyone who has created a "scandal" that is too cerebral for us ordinary folks to understand will also post a simple explanation, so we can appreciate the thing!

New House just started - for some reason it is on tonight and not tomorrow night.

Sounds like fun to see some of the photo-shop thingies - and I assume no one was nutty enough to make an R-rated one for an OFC contest!

OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You guys have COMPLETELY missed the super sekrit message - Clay used VEGETABLES!!!!!!

I have spent the day discussing the deep inner meaning of the vegetable emoticons with a board of esteemed marketing and public relations people.

By "marketing and public relations people" I mean "my Siamese cats, Maggie and Jane".

By "board" I mean "bored".

Anyway, Maggie and Jane are pretty smart - they get waited on hand and foot, for free, and are for the most part too stuck-up to even say thanks.

Sooooooo.....after a long discussion - by "discussion" I mean that I talked to them about the various pronouncements and theories, and in return they either kept their eyes closed, kept their eyes open, or slowly and kinda haughtily blinked - we arrived at several equally pointless SWAGs.

(One or two "theories" made them saunter over to their litter box and do whatever it is they do in there, very noisily, with much scratching and pawing; I left those theories out).

Since we did come up with several theories, they insisted that I list them all, so as not to seem all-knowing about something that is both insignificant and unknowable.

A. While signing things, Clay has found the lists of diet suggestions and commands and such that fans have sent him over the years, exclaimed "My goodness! I did NOT know that vegetables were good for me! This changes everything!" and he used the gamboling carrots and such to signal that he now understands and obeys.

B. He has been approached by many purveyors of fine foods with pleas to endorse peas. And rutabagas. And turnips. Because even though many foods in any grocery store would actually KILL him, and that seems a bad thing to mention to consumers, the produce departments of the nation are hoping that he can get the Claymates to run out and buy up all those fresh vegetables, especially the hard-to-move kinda cabbage-y smelling ones.

Clay hated to turn anyone down, and he does care about our health, so he gets about a million bucks for each two-steppin' green pepper and such - the money comes out of a pool put together by a consortium of grocers.

No, not THAT kind of pool, silly! What are you thinking?

C. Clay accidently clicked on a "Get millions of emoticons for FREE! We only ask that you let us load your P.C. with nasty marketing cookies!" pop-up, and the veggie emoticons made him laugh, so he used them before he ran marketing-cookie-deleting software on his machine.

Coulda been penguins, coulda been eyeballs, just a random thing.

D. Clay is laughing his fine ass off, watching people debate the meaning of the emoticons. He prolly won a bet.

There you have it! Or not!

(Disclaimer - no vegetables were boiled, minced, diced, mashed, or otherwise harmed during the writing of this post, and no endorsement, positive or negative, can be inferred, either. So there.)

(Note that I am a SUBTLE Claymate - just ONE emoticon.)

I would say that my favorites of Lucinda's CDs are Car Wheels On A Gravel Road and Essence.

Some of the songs are brilliant - Are You Down?, I Envy the Wind - porniest porn - Lake Charles.

And then a couple of earlier CDs.

But I will always buy one of whatever she records.

Watched AI rewind a little bit ago - Christina Christian sang something completely pitchy, and the judges lapped it up - weird.

Kelly did sound great.

Ooooh - one of my favorites - Lucinda! And I lurve her without knowing much of anything about her. I just buy her CDs.

Funny thing, Lucinda has cred out the wazoo - singer, songwriter, etc. etc. etc. - but I found an article once that explained how some of her fans were highly PISSED OFF because Lucinda had not personally suffered and been in agony as much as her songs would lead one to believe.

Kinda creepy of them, really.

Her manager or someone like that explained that she is an artist, not a reality show.

(well, that is my boiled down version of what he said).

Reminds me of someone else, somehow.

I'd like to hear Clay sing Blue, another one of her great songs.

For some reason, that quote from one of the disgruntled AIers popped into my head this morning - it was "I'm Clay Aiken, hear me roar!" - and was not meant as a compliment.

I don't think Clay is roaring, but I think he has made an astoundingly impressive and varied use of his time and opportunities so far!

Not gonna be delusionally pompous and say I know what Clay wants to do with his life - I just think he seems happily and busily making the most of every chance he gets.

That's why I don't think he needs any of the personal management that some are advocating - seems like all the "plans" that I have read start from the faulty premise that someone knows exactly what Clay wants to do (or should want to do), and proceeds from there, and then when his actions don't coincide with the "plan", he is deemed to have "made a mistake" - all from a faulty starting premise! I guess it whiles away the time, though.

I see he has kept proper nutrition in mind when using emoticons - all those veggies!

I would like to add a song to the list we are making for the concert - Time of The Season - no chance in hell, but just thinking about Clay wailing and growling through that is, um, nice.

I was watching a PBS fundraiser yesterday, they were showing clips of Broadway singers performing with the Boston Pops. One woman was introduced (the original Marion the librarian, evidently) and the person speaking said she was the consummate singer; she sings in service of the song, not herself. I am starting to appreciate that the singers on Broadway just really really love to SING - there are so many good singers, they don't need pro-tools, they just go out and sing well every night.

Kristin Chenoweth performed a song from Candide and was amazing!

Sniff! No Florida rumors yet! A weekend in Texas sounds good....

Two tours! And am I bad to hope one is a Christmas tour?

The irony is, if Clay blogged tomorrow and just said he hopes we will all support Idol Gives Back, I bet all the questioning would stop and the same people who hate AI and are sure this project is a sham will be jumping on the bandwagon. That is hypocrisy,

See, I guess I don't read the boards much because while I see questioning AI's motives, I don't see any determination to boycott anything. My impression is that people feel that the project is a real good one, but that A.I's feelings are a sham. Two seperate issues.

I know it is for me......although if I contribute, I will just do that, I do not like to feel coerced into voting - and that is what this feels like to me.

There is no one on the show that really interests me enough to pick up the phone for, and I am not gonna do that just to contribute money. And I still think Simon and Ryan are jerks, but that has absolutely nothing to do with my feelings about AI. Or even much about Clay.

Besides, people just need to donate - wanting me, for instance, to say nice things about A.I., too, is just not gonna happen. I do hope they raise lots of money, but I dont have to give them a kiss!

Hmmm, Diva, does your psychic need to see someone in person to give a hint about job prospects?

I took my grandson to see 300 today - interesting movie, What'shisname is a nice big hunk - but very disconcerting to hear him sound just like Sean Connery. The villian, Xerxes, was certainly interesting - haven't seen so much makeup on a guy since I watched To Wong Foo.

He was sort of like The Rock in drag.

I never got the impression that people were not going to contribute to the charity effort because of Simon - I just read a lot of opinions that this seems like cynical jumping on the bandwagon, is all. Being cynical about it does not affect the outcome in any way, shape, or form, IMO.

I do see this as an individual decision, though, and not something that "Clay fans" need to contribute to as a group.

And I guess I am in that group of people who don't hate A.I. so much as don't really give a rat's ass about it, and I have always found it bizarre when people in real life (and on the boards) insist that I must of course be watching and voting and caring deeply because I am a Clay fan.

Yep, glad they found him - but the show is not on my must-see-TV list, at all - except for laughs.

Which is the ONLY reason why I watched the first season. And the ONLY reason I started watching the second season.

I have not voted since Clay, except for Scott Savol. The entire selection process seems flawed, what with hearing that good singers didn't make the cut because they were in the line where producers were picking bad audition folks.

Heh - what will they do next year? It is almost like they know that having just the contestants is not interesting enough to get the viewers.

I hesitate to bring this up, but I am still upset and disappointed that Bush did not mention Clay in the (Sad) State of the Union Speech.

Just think how many ATDW's could have been sold.

(Lurking hatahs, that is snark.)

playbiller, only a couple of those predictions were filed under "whines" - it was more a stream-of-consciousness list.

zip code and ebay not whines.

And I wish I had sent something too. No need to take offense.

Bear in mind that this board is the only one where I read the main thread.

But I will try and be more timely.

First,

DO NOT POST THIS IMAGE ON THE OFC. PLEASE. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.

Bwahahaha!

Now that I have had a good laugh, I will adjust my sparkly Turban For Seeing The Future (okay, it is an old towel sprayed with glitter) and take a few gulps of my stash of Future Diviner Whine, no, wait, Wine (that's what it says on the box, right above the cute little plastic spigot thingy) and I will predict the future as pertains to the news that Clay is signing things:

- by the end of next week, Clay will need his own zip code, due to the volume of articles sent to him for signing

- by the end of next week, the Clay Aiken articles for sale category on ebay will have sextupled.

- "Why is Clay signing things for people when he should be recording a new rockin' CD?"

- "If Clay has all the free time, why doesn't he blog?????"

- "Shit! Why didn't I send him something to sign!"

- Hmmmm....now he will have some addresses to go with some names!

- Why is he just now doing this, when he could have hired someone to do it years ago?!

There's more, but I don't have enough Diviner Wine to get through them!

Really really really looking forward to the concerts - and quite frankly, my dears, I don't give a damn what he is gonna sing, I just love to watch him sing.

Psssst! Has anyone noticed if any of the usual up-front peeps are eschewing the next concerts because they don't like Clay's music? If so, tres' cool, because maybe I can sit closer. If I am allowed.

ivy, the latest seems tooo convenient, and really just an excuse to get the boards to air the whole mess. Which is what they want.

I am hoping people just ignore it.

A lot of people won't believe it anyway, even if true, because (as we have seen) they have their own agenda.

Oh, yes, ma'am, we were good!

Um, yeppers! Really well-behaved!

You don't even need to go back and catch up! Really!

"Exemplary" is pretty much the word for us!

Except for that playbiller person.

So sorry you had to cut the trip short, and even sorrier that your mom is not feeling well.

I just think Clay looks gorgeous, and so happy!

I admit I am immoderately fond of the words "toofies" and "teefies", but I'll be darned if I know why!

Hmmmm, I remember when I first got contact lenses, eleventy years ago, and ALL my relatives declared that I was Just Conceited, and who did I think I was, etc.

People really do sometimes hate it when ya climb out of your box - and it looks like there are so many different boxes, even if some of the builders are in denial.

I beg yer pardon.

I am only a fame-whore (or, as I like to say, Access-To-Clay Prostitute) if I am from another board.

Now, I need to continue working on my latest invention - The Deely Bobber Search and Destroy Kit - it is really just a cheap pair of binoculars and a big stick, but if I tastefully bling 'em up (use the phrase "faux silver leaf" instead of "sprayed them suckers with shiny paint"), I can sell 'em on eBay and retire to Clay Fan Acres.

I also volunteer to tell Clay to stop selling those tacky tshirts with his FACE on them, immediately!

So the value of my stash will go up and I can sell those on eBay, too!

if I could even pass the physical in the first place!

Well, CRAP! Another physical! - I already got a form letter saying that I needn't come in to take the desired fan demographic exam, because I have already flunked, and why waste time.

Hey, here's an idea - why don't we design t-shirts like the ones that are screenprinted to make ya look like a babe in a bikini - only have a picture of a smart'n'sexy'n'savvy'n'sophisticated Officially Sanctioned Clay Fan body on there - and then Playbiller could use the money from her retirement scheme, uh, plan! to fund Lifestyle Lifts for the truly desirable-fan-format-deficient folks.

They have EZ payment plans, too, so there is just NO EXCUSE for going to a concert and sitting near the stage, or, even worse, talking to Clay or a media-type person, looking like your decrepit old self.

None.

Heh - you delusional people who think you can get sekrit signals from Clay by inspecting his socks or scarves or degree of eye-sparkle-issitude (I heard it was one of Raleigh's wittle doggy hairs under his contact lens) - the real signals are sent by noting which fingers Clay wears his rings on.

I know the code, but I can't tell y'all or I would have to kill y'all.

Weird, but I am mostly watching the Oscars tonight to see what Gore says, if anything.

that might be better for a talk show...but might not fit a rockstar profile...Kelly did do Candies...and Carrie had some sneakers...so why shouldn't Clay be a socks spokesperson.

or these:

Clay could fake everybody out (and make PETA eat their words, ha!) by wearing these:

As for what socks Clay should wear....I think either none at all, or else toe socks.

Um, toe socks may be a bit problematic....maybe he can have some special-ordered, because I doubt these would fit:

(Sorry about the size, I resized them in photobucket, but it didn't matter)

Divayenta, I hope your husband is home, safe, soon.

Since I have declared today is Official Post-Prostitute Day (um, just for ME, so watch it!), allow me laugh out loud at Bottlecap, and to giggle at playbiller - and then thwack! play upside the head if "modelling Clay" is a pun. And I think it is.

Ya know, more people should submit entries, because Clay may even now be considering dismissing his entire team, and hiring his very own PSPO from this very thread.

Anyway, since Clay is maybe trying to fix his physical features that bother him (i.e. his teeth), he may want to address the appearance of his rather large and distinctive feet next. Might I suggest these concealing camo socks? "Where are they? I can't see them!"

bottlecap, Bwah!

And I think you represent the best kind of Clay fan - you are a fan of Clay!

Ansa - we can't just let Clay pick out his own socks - what are you thinking?

I think he really does need his own personal sock picker-outer, or PSPO for brevity's (and spelling's) sake.

I mean, we can't trust him, or his mom, or any of his friends or stylists to pick out his socks, ya know.

Isn't done.

Not right.

I strongly suspect that the unmatched socks were deliberately provided to Clay by RCA and Roger.

Psssst! (Looks around nervously) Is the boss gone?

Warning - snark ahead, scroll if ya forgot how that works!

I was thinking that, even though we here at FCA are prolly not smart'n'savvy enuf to have a poll which will absolutely certainly affect Clay's future plans, becoss he prolly doesn't HAVE any, ya know, we should have a little question of the day ourselves.

I would ask the mods if it is okay to do so, but haha! she is off being buffed and brushed and polished and massaged and being made splendiferous - we'll be lucky if she even comes back! so here goes.......

What kind of socks do you think Clay should wear in order to attract, and keep, that desirable 18 to 29 year old demographic?

What kind of socks do you think Clay should slowly and lovingly pull on to his elegantly looooong footage-class-appendices in order to reel in that other desired clump of fans - the older - but not in their dotage, for goodness sakes! - smart'n'savvy'n'sexy well-seasoned wimmen?

Think carefully, and I want to see exactly how the socks you choose work into a comprehensive marketing plan, if at all possible.

Of course, with the right socks, I personally feel he can fire everybody! Success and adoration will be his!

Well, even more of it!

Stripey socks? Solids? Adorned with little chickens or hearts or firetrucks? or SpongeBob?

Little crosses? Dollar signs?

Cotton? Polyester?

Silk? (A turn-off for moi, I don't want to see hairs poking through, they always make me think of the Joe Namath commercial, if Joe had not shaved first)

Gold Toe? Ralph Lauren? Should he dress those amazing tootsies to impress? or to show his solidarity with his more common fans, who prolly buy their socks at WalMart right after a smiley-face price break?

How about those shapeless sock thingies that you get in the First Class ditty bag on an airplane? I LOVE those! And everyone will know for sure he flies in style!

And how long should those socks be? Knee-high? over-the-calf? crew? ankle-huggers?

And don't forget to specify what color! We may finally be able to suss out what his favorite color is - or maybe he will cleverly trick us! Bet it is one or the other!

We will know right away if he pays attention, because I betcha he will be wearing socks at his next public appearance! It will be a sign!

And, to borrow and slightly amend that old plea from Festivus, we can holler "Clay! Turn around and pull up your pants!!!!!"

OOOPS!! (Looks down to see who is currently signed in) Yikes! The boss! Busted!

Oh, what a great picture!

No content to this post, just Thanks! to all, for the pretties!

well, I uploaded the pictures to the google picture thingy, and linked to them from there - I thought I was so clever, but I guess not.

I love those Tyra pictures - she is so beautiful, and Clay is so handsome....