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#5 (plus #6 & #7) - "Well....the weather outside is frightful...but the man is so delightful..."


Ansamcw

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Could someone please clue me in to the clack that has Ethel saying "It's all good. It's all good", etc?

shoot...now I have to watch it again to pinpoint the exact time...the things i do for people...sigh

oh shoot now you are making me all schmoopie cos I cannot just watch the beginning...

:D

you tube of all is well

its at 23 seconds...just when everyone settles down..Ethel says its all good...then he smiles gives her a sidelong glance and she repeats its all good and he starts the song with a smile on his face.

And get this. Alex had been up in her room doing homework, cleaning in order to be able to go bowling with her friend. She just came down and sat down at the computer to check bus schedules. And I'm sitting here typing away on my laptop.

Then...out of nowhere...I hear her sweet voice singing...

"As hard as love can be....it's harder still it seems...."

I stopped typing and said..."Where'd that song come from." (BUSTED! ;) ) She didn't take her eyes off the computer screen and just said, "Well, DUH..from you. You made it...!"

"ME? I haven't played that song in forever!"

"Yes you have! "

"No I haven't, Alex. I've been playing Christmas music." I give her one of these... B)

She gets mad and says, "Well, you got it stuck in my brain then. GOD!" But she's having a hard time hiding her grin.

"Uh..huh. Sure."

She finally looks at me and says, "I was NOT playing that song."

"Uh huh..sure..." ;) "It is a pretty song though."

"Whatever...just.."

"He wrote that one, you know."

"Mom...stop...OKAY! Geezzzz." :rolleyes:

HEEE! He'll get you if you give him half a chance. ^_^

something similar happened with my Taylor when I was constantly listening to ATDW...I can't remember what song got stuck in her head but it was more than one. She was not pleased...heh

oops I see bottle has answered the Ethel question...oh well...

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You know, something struck me as I was wallowing happy as a pig in shit in all the clack.

I know why I don't care if DAUGHTRY!! outsells Clay or if Taylor outsells him or if Fantasia wins a grammy or if Carrie is the country world's darling etc, etc. Its because none of them can do what Clay does. Can you imagine any of them even daring to tackle AIW? Can you imagine any of them handling the glory that is Emmanuel? Can you imagine, no matter how nice their voices may (or may not) be any of them putting the subtle nuances and emotion Clay does on MGUCL? Can you imagine any of them going from singing a holy holy song to doing a great stand up comedian act without missing a beat?

I think not.

Clay can do it all. We have all seen him pop/rock out. We have seen him sing jazzy. We have heard him wail and we have heard him sing practically in a whisper. And we have seen him entertain with his wit and his humor. We have heard his voice reach out to his God, and we have heard his voice reach out to our girlie parts. I cannot imagine anyone - not from AI, not from anywhere - being able to do so much.

We really are very lucky to have found this man and to have him in our lives. No matter how crappy RL may be at times, his voice always manages to take you to a better place, a happy place, a peaceful place and yes, sometimes - ok often - and orgasmic place.

How did we get so lucky?

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We really are very lucky to have found this man and to have him in our lives. No matter how crappy RL may be at times, his voice always manages to take you to a better place, a happy place, a peaceful place and yes, sometimes - ok often - and orgasmic place.
Yes, we are; yes, it does.

How did we get so lucky?
Because, to quote Heather Locklear..."We're worth it." B)

Hubby's plane is landing ! :P Yeay! Mr. Muski's coming home! :dancingpickle:

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AWWWW claygasm...we must've done something good...

the thing is ...its not just the glory and the versatility of the voice...that is phenomenal and unique in the pop wolrd today...but the strength of his charisma and personality...check out this montage created by GBB...

Best of Merillville...singer or comedian

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First question: how do you get the salt on the rim of the Ensure can? :blink:

Second question: how much do I have to pay KAndre to keep writing good stuff? Because she writes good stuff, y'all.

I'm still brain dead from the weekend, but I wanted to pop in and say that I'm back, and spent a wonderful brunch with HeidiHo, atinal and her friend Judy today. We talked so much about Clay, our jobs, Clay, our hobbies, Clay, the concert, Clay, the fans, Clay, the hair, and Clay. I will try to write a coherant recap soon, very soon (Clay's definition). But in the mean time, TAR will be on soon, and then I need to watch (or rewatch) the clack from last night. NEED. AIW is a compulsion.

And I must give a special shout out to my concert buddy luckiest1, her daughter, her daughter's friend, and goldarngirl. I had a wonderful time getting to know all of you, and sharing the joy that is Clay Aiken.

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I'm working my way through the Waukegan Clack and I have to make a couple of comments before I forget. jojoct's MGUCL - Clay's singing the line about "packages and bows" at a nice angle to the audience, and I'm admiring, um, package and assage, and he turns around and almost glares into the camera. Oops, busted. :unsure: Sowwy. ;)

Second, I am mesmerized by the veins on the back of Clay's hand in the close-up shots. Lawd have mercy. I'm going back in to finish Waukegan, and maybe I better start drinkin' before I tackle Merrillville. :juul:ldyjocelyn, can you whip me up an Ensure daiquiri?

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Bringing my recap over from CH:

Well, I'm back. I have not read one word on the boards yet, so I have no idea what has been discussed already, but I just wanted to give some general impressions of the Merrillville concert while it is still fresh in my mind.

I didn't attend Waukegan, and I didn't watch any clack either, although I had listened to the cellcert. So when my party of 4 arrived in Merrillville after an 8 hour trip (with 2 unsucessful Walmart stops), we were kind of surprised that people were upset about the night before, and "the note". Heck, other than the one note at the end of AIW, I'd thought it was a pretty darn fantastic cellcert, myself. I will have to go back and watch the Waukegan clack when I get a minute.

Anyways, we met up with ldyjocelyn & HeidiHo at the hotel. We had a great time getting to know each other and devirginizing my daughter with the Tyra clack. Thankfully ldyjocelyn had managed to get her hands on a few extra AIW for us after all. We headed over to Smokey Bones for dinner, and then all piled into Heidi's rental vehicle to make use of the VIP parking pass (woo hoo! since it was freaking cold out). We went to check our coats and said hello to various meers in the lobby, including the lovely and now infamous geekette of the signed iPod. *g* Our seats were row H which turned out to be about 15th row from the stage, on the centre aisle. Absolutely fantastic viewpoint, because I could get a close up on the expressions using my binoculars, but a pretty much unobstructed full-body view without them. I have a bit of a foot fetish, so I spent a lot of time watching those huge shoes slip sliding away on the stage....I sure hope someone captured them on film, because I just loved watching them. Yeah, I know I'm weird.

I was just in 7th heaven for the whole show. To be in the presence of the Aiken after a year was almost overwhelming. I've never seen him more comfortable and chatty! He was truly amazing, and his vocals were just gorgeous. The hair is very different than I expected.....almost looks flat ironed, it is so straight, but it shines and falls just so....I loved it. Kudos to cousin Jamie if she indeed is doing the styling.

I'm not going to go into detail of every song and bit of banter, since it seems we will have full clack of everything (YES!) but the most memorable part of the show (aside from every single second of the banter) was, of course, AIW. In fact, everything from OCOCE on really just blew me away. The standing O after OCOCE was very spontaneous and cool, and Clay looked quite surprised when he turned around and saw us all on our feet. ldyjocelyn and I grabbed onto each other during DSIAFCD in anticipation of the glory note, and then we just leaped out of our seats and started screaming when he hit it. It was truly magical. During AIW, he showed such amazing focus and concentration on making each note just perfect. When he went up for that final note, the place exploded. What a moment! What an accomplishment it was, for him. I was truly honoured to be there to witness it.

As much as I loved the concert, probably the most moving moment, for me, was being able to give Windtalker a bearhug following AIW. I am so glad she was there to be a part of it all. Huge thanks to beagle3 for coming to get me. {{{Windtalker}}}

Afterwards, we hung around talking to all sorts of people. Too many to remember to mention (and I'd hate to leave anybody out) but "hey!" to y'all....you know who you are. And then back to the hotel and fresh clack....some of which is on the two video cameras we had brought with us, shot by my daughter (aka crimsonice) and her friend (aka disneykid). Hopefully we will figure out how to get it off the cameras and onto the boards soon, thanks to help from the 4th member of our party, the lurking goldarngirl. We had a surprise visit from another lurker, atinal and her friend, who brought us some gorgeous Christmas ornaments....thank you!

This morning we stopped at the gas station directly across the road from the venue, in the hopes of finding a local paper with a review of the concert. A very nice lady there was helping me to look through every available paper (there were a lot!) and she asked who had played the venue the night before. I told her Clay Aiken. She said "CLAY??????" and clutched her heart. "I voted for him." Hee. She admitted she'd heard him a few times on the radio but had not bought any of his CDs. I told her to hang on just a minute, whipped out to the car, and grabbed my copy of ATDW. She was very excited (and strangely not surprised) when I handed it to her. We never found a review, but when I left she was clutching that CD to her heart. *g*

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I'm adding my recap here too, although it's also in the Merrillville thread...

___

The weekend from hell…and then heaven…

My trip was scheduled to start Friday afternoon, after working at my job for a morning. Fat chance. Work up that morning to over a foot of snow on the ground. There was no way for me to get to work, let alone Waukegan. Therefore, most of the day was spent posting on message boards, trying to get sympathy for my situation. It mostly worked. ;-) I also spent time making phone calls to HeidiHo and the Pink Posse confirming my not being there.

So, I listened to the cellcert that night. Thought I might try to stay unspoiled for this show considering the situation, but couldn’t do it. I listened, enthralled…and then my heart broke for him at the end of the show. I’m positive he was giving 200%; it’s just that about 50% of that didn’t quite fire on all cylinders. But I still enjoyed the entire show profusely, and I’m glad I listened – it made me all the more excited the next day.

Anyway, I get up the next morning…the sun is shining…the road out of our house still isn’t plowed, but I can see that people have made it through. After a final check of the road conditions on the web, I headed out. My first hour and half was slower than I’d planned, but once I got to the Chicagoland area, I was speeding as much as the people who live there. *g* Arrived at the hotel with plenty of time to spare. I soon met up with Heidi. We watched clack, and then went out for munchies. By the time we got back luckiest1 and crew had arrived. More clack to watch, and then Smokey Bones for dinner. We went early, and we were glad we did, because we got seated immediately. As we were leaving I got a call from atinal – she and her friend were just being seated! We exchanged room numbers, and then had plenty of time to get ready afterwards. Next step: gussying up! And then, all 6 of us piled into Heidi’s big assed SUV and drove a half block to get to the show. Hey – she had VIP parking!

I saw way too many people to mention before the show. Many, many people were thankful to see me, and I was touched by the number of Clay fans who said “we were thinking of you yesterday.” Such a sweet bunch of people. MUAH!

Then, the first act. The orchestra was a lot of fun, and the conductor told really bad jokes. I enjoyed the music though, especially the piece that combined “Stars and Stripes Forever” and “Jingle Bells.”

Um, who was the second act again? Oh yeah…the hawt smokin’ mad who makes my heart flutter with his hair and his package and his humor and his voice. He was on fire the entire evening. CW and SR were light – so light they almost flew away. MDYK was a gorgeous rendition vocally – but the Aiken Random Lyric Generator kicked in immediately, and I had to laugh at that. MGUCL took my breath away, especially when he hit the high note at the end.

Banter – he had me laughing so hard so many times. His snark on the Ripa thing is razor sharp. The snarking he does toward us, the fans, is more gentle, IMO…but I thought it all rather true as well. He knows that the fandom is masters of making more fans out of first time concert goers! (BTW, Clay – you forgot that we usually get PIN numbers out of people before they leave our clutches…) From my seat in the 15th row, I couldn’t get a lot out of some of the banter, due to low visibility and old-age hearing. But still, I laughed and laughed and laughed…because it was Clay.

DSIAFCD was the beginning of me getting a panic attack. Oh dear, how is this going to work this evening? luckiest1 and I held on to each other for dear life, beginning at the bridge of the song…and when he nailed the note, we cheered. The whole place erupted. I started to breathe a BIT easier…but I knew what was coming.

When he came out with his crossed fingers, that broke the ice for a bit, at least for me. He also knew that most of the audience was on pins and needles as much as he was, and so I think the verbal reassurances from the audience (I personally love Ethel at the moment) helped calm him. He knew we’d love him, regardless. I watched the entire performance through binoculars, with my crossed fingers holding the binocs. I was enthralled watching him FOCUS – he was in another world with this performance. At the end – he hit “the note” with such power and force that I was simply blown away. I’ve only cried two times with Clay’s singing – I just don’t normally get that experience from his singing. The Merrillville AIW brought sobs from me. The emotions in that room were palpable. He breathed a sigh of relief, gave Jesse his cue to finish, gave that great goofy look, took a HUGE bow, pushed his beautiful hair back, signed “thank you” and was gone.

As we were trying to come down from that emotional high, beagle3 from the CH came and got luckiest1 and I. Windtalker from the CH had suffered a terrible family tragedy a few weeks ago, and wasn’t going to go to the show. Her son convinced her to attend, however…and her premiere of AIW was this performance. Tears, more tears…and lots of hugs and more tears. What a sweet woman.

Back to the hotel, for message boards, finding pictures, kicking ourselves for not going to the bus afterwards, watching AIW 50 gazillion times, beer, and a lot of good talk with friends. Our hotel was away from the intensity of the clack parties afterwards, but as much as I missed hanging out with old friends and meeting new ones, I really think I just needed to settle down in my own way, with some quiet. Oh, and AIW from the show being blasted. Heidi and I said goodbye to luckiest1 and her family/friends that night, for they had to leave early the next morning….

…but Heidi and I had brunch with atinal and her friend, where we talked about the show and so much more.

In conclusion…while the weekend started out terribly, it had an incredible high point in the middle of it, thanks to Clay. I will never ever EVER forget that experience.

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I'm adding my recap here too, although it's also in the Merrillville thread...

and the FCA concert pages as well... heee. Thanks LdyJ.

Thanks for bringing your review over Luckiest1. What a night! It was special sitting in my own house.

Play I downloaded and watched it all!

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Hmmm. I still have 30GB left on my hard drive. The way things are going, that may not be enough to get to the end of this tour! :blink:

As much as I am loving the clack, the hair is driving me crazy - and not in a good way. Now, I do have to say the color is lovely and it looks very soft and shiney, but its so flat and it really emphasizes his receding hair line. If he's not going to do bangs, it really needs more height like here... th_ama06-22f.jpg or here th_TyraCap2.jpg or more in his face like here th_unicefsf-13.jpg.

The way his hair has been on this tour thus far looks like hat head! Maybe he has been wearing that bucket hat a bit too much!

Of course, in pictures like this one, it really doesn't matter. B)

th_114601083-L.jpg

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The Clyra link - chapter 4

Thanks for putting all the hair in one post CG. After having just spent hours looking at photos from Merrillville I have to say I'm not apposed to the hair there. heee. I actually like it second best after Unicef..nothing beats those..he looks scrumptious on those pictures. Maybe the wind blowing had something to do with it. Who wants to follow him around with a wind machine. Any volunteers.

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and the FCA concert pages as well... heee. Thanks LdyJ.

I hate to appear dumb sometimes (maybe I should put on glasses? Wait, I already wear glasses...), but where on FCA are the concert pages for the symphony appearances? Maybe I need some more coffee this morning, but I'm looking all over the FCA page proper, and can't find where my recap is at. Yes, I like to see where I'm published...sometimes I need an ego boost, OK? *g*

claygasm, I have to admit that seeing pictures of the latest hair made me a little like "huh?" But seeing it live and in person really changes the perspective. I think for me it isn't quite as flattering from the front as it is from the back -- the long hair way over his collar really turned me on.

muski, loving the story.

There was a post yesterday from KAndre that I want to comment on today, but I need more coffee and time first.....

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Claygasm, so much word to your hair post. If they are going to keep the length, I'd rather see it swooshed back a bit with some texture in it instead of flat-ironed straight down. I just don't like how it looks on the right side. Oh, well, maybe it'll look different tonight. YMMV, and all that.
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Hi!

Back from Merrillville.....didnt get to meet most of who I wanted to...and we were even at Smokey Bones too....what time were you all there? I said we all need nametags with screennames.....I am sure many I was seeing as I walked around, looked around, were people I wanted to meet....

There are so many great recaps, I fear I cant add anything new...

I sat leaning forward each time he sang. Watching, listening intently. Wanting to take it all in, make it a part of me forever! It struck me that he has a richness to his voice that I have never heard before! It was incredible....

and All is Well? I am thankful I was once again there to witness one of the great moments in Clay 'history'! WOW!!! I will never be able to listen to that the same again!

When we were on our way home, that song came on, and I had to grab the kleenex....as now...just thinking about it...the tears are running.

This concert was a gift to Kayla and I. One I will never ever forget.

It was all...

INCREDIBLE!

ETA: we did go to the buses. In the words of my 14 year old daughter..he looked HOT!

Edited by rcknrllmom
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You know, something struck me as I was wallowing happy as a pig in shit in all the clack.

I know why I don't care if DAUGHTRY!! outsells Clay or if Taylor outsells him or if Fantasia wins a grammy or if Carrie is the country world's darling etc, etc. Its because none of them can do what Clay does. Can you imagine any of them even daring to tackle AIW? Can you imagine any of them handling the glory that is Emmanuel? Can you imagine, no matter how nice their voices may (or may not) be any of them putting the subtle nuances and emotion Clay does on MGUCL? Can you imagine any of them going from singing a holy holy song to doing a great stand up comedian act without missing a beat?

I think not.

Clay can do it all. We have all seen him pop/rock out. We have seen him sing jazzy. We have heard him wail and we have heard him sing practically in a whisper. And we have seen him entertain with his wit and his humor. We have heard his voice reach out to his God, and we have heard his voice reach out to our girlie parts. I cannot imagine anyone - not from AI, not from anywhere - being able to do so much.

We really are very lucky to have found this man and to have him in our lives. No matter how crappy RL may be at times, his voice always manages to take you to a better place, a happy place, a peaceful place and yes, sometimes - ok often - and orgasmic place.

How did we get so lucky?

I loved this all.... I am thankful we did get so lucky....My daughter made a comment while we were there that she wondered what we would be doing if CLay hadnt come into our lives? She said it sure would be boring! so true!

and oh, can you just keep posting..I LOVE your avi....it makes me smile and cry both! god, what a moment!!

oh forgot to tell you....our ride home took a long long time....In case you dont believe in guardian angels..here is what happened to us. From Merrillville to Mason City is at least a 7 hour drive, maybe more. We noticed in Illinois on our way back there is not a lot of places to get gas off the Interstate. The mileage meter in the Jimmy said 43 miles until we needed gas....so our driver was looking while watching that. Suddenly she says, I have to get off the interstate...I notice the concern on her face...we are at an exit. Take that, manage to get off the ramp and pull over just before a busy turn. There are 4 of us from Mason City, the other girl we brought says....there is my mom's back yard right there! She calls her, and her stepfather comes and gets her, gets us gas and we go. It took a bit and it was a dangerous place to be parked...and btw, not one person stopped to help. ANYHOW...do you realize how incredible it was in all of the 7 hour trip to run out of gas literally TWO BLOCKS from her mom's house?!

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and the FCA concert pages as well... heee. Thanks LdyJ.

I hate to appear dumb sometimes (maybe I should put on glasses? Wait, I already wear glasses...), but where on FCA are the concert pages for the symphony appearances? Maybe I need some more coffee this morning, but I'm looking all over the FCA page proper, and can't find where my recap is at. Yes, I like to see where I'm published...sometimes I need an ego boost, OK? *g*

claygasm, I have to admit that seeing pictures of the latest hair made me a little like "huh?" But seeing it live and in person really changes the perspective. I think for me it isn't quite as flattering from the front as it is from the back -- the long hair way over his collar really turned me on.

muski, loving the story.

There was a post yesterday from KAndre that I want to comment on today, but I need more coffee and time first.....

Its not up yet...we just finished Waukegan and Merillville late last night...I think Angela and I were trying to race to finsihs it...heh

but I will be putting up the links in the front page and giving you guys the links too.

will come back and post some more after I take care of that.

EEEEEEEE rcknrllmom...glad you an Kayla got to see him in the buses...I saw the short video of it and there were so many people...a big contrast to Waukegan that only had about 20 people.

glad you guys had a great experience.

eta: just read the post abouve me and you are right...you ahd a guardian angel watching over you...glad everything went great...

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