#21: "Surprisingly, the ice did not melt."

[christelklein]

Good morning!!!

Happy Birthday Clay!! :fest30:

[Gibby]

Holy cheekbones, Batman!

I can't sleep. T minus 6 hours. IwillnotwatchclackIwillnotwatchclackIwillnotwatchclackIwillnotwatchclackIwillnot

atchclack.

Hee, I see you lurking down there, goldarngirl. WTF are we both doing up? Maybe we should just hit the road now.

ETA that a bunch of us Claynadians are caravaning to Kalamazoo, for anyone who's wondering what the hell I'm blathering on about in the wee hours. LOL. Let's see, two vehicles, with me, cindilu2, disneykid, crimsonice, heartsocean, goldarngirl, and OntarioClayFan. Here's hoping for clear roads and hassle free border crossings. So far, no snow!

I saw you down there too and thought I was seeing things. There is NO WAY luckiest1 could possibly be up at this hour.

ETA and if you think I'm taking the image tags out and getting rid of that image you don't know me very well heee.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I'm so excited for you Claynadians. Have a FANTASTIC time! And safe travels, too. Can't wait for you to come back and tell us what you think of the concert.

[laughn]

:bday: Happy Birthday Clay!!!!

bottlecap and I are coming to party with you tonight! Get ready!!111!!!

:17f71c4d:

[ldyjocelyn]

Good morning everyone! Interesting night last night.....

Oh. My. Guh.

I want toni7babe's job. That women seem to be a full time Clay concert attendee! I swear she's at every damn concert!

Lucky beyotch......

Yep....and there's lots of other ones in the fandom too that I feel the same way. I certainly want to be a permanent Clay Aiken groupie. If only I could get paid in cash for it....

Listened to two radio stations this morning. The top 40 station mentioned Clay's birthday; the local AC station did not. And the AC station is all Christmas music at the moment, and I've yet to hear a song from MCWL played by them. They seem to have a real bug up their butt regarding Clay. OTOH....I need to request. It would help, I'm sure.

To the Kalamazoo attendees -- luckiest1 and cindilu2 and disneykid and goldarngirl and crimsonice and heartsocean and OntarioGal and Scarlett and merrieee and rohdy and laughn and bottlecap and abbeynormal and deweygirl (and everyone else that I'm sure I missed) -- HAVE A FANTASTIC TIME! rohdy, I hope your book drive is a HUGE success.

Finally....Clay...

...because this would be me, dressed exactly like this...

And yeah, I know that would put me on "the list." *g*

Clay -- my wish for you this year is "health, happiness, and hope." Thank you for being in my life.

:F_05BL17blowkiss: playbiller -- I think you are a wise woman.

[ausdon]

I can't get a damn thing done as i keep thinking of Clay doing something freaky. (Whimper) .

Hey Wanda

Still, a little freaky can be fun......What!....just sayin!!

Yay for Couchie !! You go you 'put up with no messin' good thing!!

[gbmifan]

I am loving the pictures from last night. He is gorgeous! I am just reading along this am till I have to get ready to leave for Kalamazoo. Looks like our drive will be fine. Winter storm warning for tomorrow afternoon. Last night I almost had to cancel because my mom was in ER, but she is home and better. I called her this morning, she wants a poster tonight. She has been to two other Christmas concerts and she is going to miss this one. Age is catching up and it would be to long a drive and to late for her. I teased her that if I get her the poster she can finally take down her calender. She loves those pictures and has kept it up.

[jamar1700]

Oooo it's my BF's Birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLAY!

It's all good. The older he gets, the less pervy I seem. Hee.

Well now I only have one Birthday gif saved and I'm afraid I swiped it from playbiller ... but who cares, Right?

---

eta...Godspeed to all our travelers. Have a blast. *muah*

[playbiller]

Safe travels every one! I think half of FCA is on the road.

Inspired by Clay's "caning" in the airport

[jmh123]

I'm sure the first two are stolen from playbiller too (we should just give her the prize!!), and the last one is from the CB, I think:

Anyway, happy birthday Clay and safe travels to all headed for Kalamazoo!!!!!!!!!!

Found two more, little ones, probably from CV??

[playbiller]

Hey! I just steal them from others, Cindilu makes them!

Why don't we just say this?

[Gibby]

[playbiller]

How gorgeous is that picture! gulp

An oddly uninformed mention of Clay in the World Magazine, Christian views. They are talking about the secularism of Christmas.

It's a way of thinking that has been picking up speed for a long time in our culture. Our society, for the most part, decided long ago that it's embarrassing and intrusive to try to drag God into a conversation about education or politics or entertainment or family or economics or art. So it may have been noteworthy—but not especially startling—to see in our local Sunday newspaper a feature titled "Merry Music —Add these 12 Christmas CDs to your holiday collection," and to note that not a single one of the 12 was devoted to the historic "religious" aspects of Christmas. Christmas now instead means Clay Aiken and the Smithereens.

[ldyjocelyn]

Yeah, I think you should just give the award to playbiller. She simply has the BEST emoticons.

New radio interview up here (via Clack Unlimited) from Mix 107.3 in Washington, DC. I just finished listening to it. The one DJ in particular was VERY effusive about Clay being "a singer's singer," and I think Clay really appreciated it. He talked about the show with the readers, mentioned both Pink Armchair's story (waves -- you go girl!) and the lady whose story had her keeping up the lights until May for her son in Afghanistan. He also talked about how sometimes it's hard to get "emotive" about "Bootylicious" or "I'm in Love with a Stripper." Heh. But then, the one DJ said something about seeing Clay do "SexyBack" on YouTube! Double heh. And then Clay came back with "but that was really kind of the joke." Triple heh. They talked about the new album, and Clay wanting to have songs that are for singers, and not too far away from what he did on Idol -- he mentioned how some fans got confused when some of the Idol people released albums that were different from what they did on Idol. He also talked about how record companies frequently want albums NOW while artists want to take their time and get quality. (He didn't talk specifics about himself, from what I heard, and he also didn't talk specifics about RCA either. *g*) I think that's the gist of the entire thing. Get it if you can, it's a good interview.

Also....

A sportswriter from the Poughkeepsie Journal blogs regularly, and he asked on his blog a few days ago for questions from Clay fans, for he was going to get to talk to Clay. Here's what happened:

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Clay Aiken answered YOUR questions!

First off, let me again thank all the “Sean’s Space” readers who submitted questions for me to ask Clay Aiken.

Less than 12 hours after I posted here, asking for Clay’s fans to submit questions for him, I received more than 100 questions e-mailed to me! My inbox runneth over.

They ranged from funny and easy-going to serious … some way too serious. (He’s a singer, remember, not a miracle worker.) They came from here in the Hudson Valley to Singapore to Califrornia to Florida to India to Mississippi ... you wouldn't believe it!

With such diversity to choose from, I tried to pick a cross-section. I had 10 readers’ submissions selected to ask Clay, but when he gave such heart-felt and thoughtful answers (you’ll see with the first one), we just ran out of time and could only to get three of your questions.

Clay was very nice, though, telling me, “I’ll talk as fast as I can to answer them, Sean!” to make sure he got to answer the last two readers’ questions before he was whisked away for another interview.

So, without any further ado, I now present three “Sean’s Space” readers’ questions and Clay Aiken’s answers to each:

Rosemary from Poughkeepsie, NY asked: Does traveling around all the time afford you much of a home life with friends and family?

Clay Aiken: I do. I’d say all told, I probably spend about five months a year at home. I spend time a lot going between Los Angeles and New York. I’d rather be working and doing something. It may be more like a month at home — after a while, I get so bored. Maybe I’m only home for two months and it just feels like five months. This Christmas, we’re going on a field visit for Unicef. It’ll be my first time being away for Christmas; Unicef doesn’t take a break. I won’t be back at my home for five months straight. That’s a bit weird. The last night I was at my home before the tour, I was in my bed and I was like, “This is the last night I’m going to sleep in this bed! I’m not going to see my house for five months!”

Anny from Toronto, Canada asked: Do you ever think about going back into teaching?

Clay Aiken: I think about it, but I don’t know if I ever will.

Khrystah from Toronto, Canada asked: What brand of shampoo & conditioner do you use to get your gorgeous hair so downright “I-wanna-run-my-fingers-thru-it” gorgeous?

Clay Aiken: I have absolutely no idea. I have someone do my hair every night on the road. I couldn’t tell you if I had a gun to my head.

And with that, Clay was off to his next interview. From previous experience, artists on tour usually spend one hour a day to do press interviews on the phone, cramming as many as they can into that hour.

No, I didn't get to ask about the new CD and its producer. Nope, couldn't get to "Spamalot" or living in NYC or if he has been taking piano lessons.

Still, Clay was very giving with his time. I was similarly very appreciative of his generosity, thoughtfully answering both my questions for the upcoming Poughkeepsie Journal story and your questions.

To compare how Taylor Hicks answered some fans' questions I posed to him during an interview back in August, click here.

So here's one final thank-you to all of Clay's fans who submitted questions and, of course, Clay himself for taking the time to answer them! C'mon back here to "Sean's Space" throughout the week for more on Clay's upcoming show here in Poughkeepsie on Dec. 8.

I'm hoping to make it to his Dec. 9 Mohegan Sun show in Connecticut, and if I make it there, look for a review the next day!

Posted by Sean T. McMann at 11:59 PM

The link to this post in his blog is here.

He also mentions that he's going to do a print interview with more interview on December 7. And this guy seems to be a FAN. Love it all.

[muskifest]

Oh.My.God.

That last picture is truly glorious. What a pro. and what a team of pros he keeps around him.

Dayum. CG! Are you as excited about this concert as I am? [/rhetorical question]

Clay, you are too yummy for words.

so why don't you let me show you instead?

[Gibby]

Another one - isn't he gorgeous??

[ldyjocelyn]

Oh my...

Dead. I'm dead.

[Couch Tomato]

Thanks for bringing stuff over. I can see that he may be talking about himself with the record labels wanting stuff now. I think Clay probably did delay ATDW a bit to get those songs done his way, rather than a carbon copy of the originals. But who knows for sure. But very interesting what else he had to say. Wonder what it means for the album. Singer's songs....that seems to be what he's going for. Not exactly sure what it means but I like the sound of it.

Happy Friday.

[merrieeee]

Happy Clay Birthday Day to one and all!

First I have one very important thing to say about last night ......... He was cute perfection!!!!

When I get back I will have to do a loooong post but last night was unbelievable! If you think the photos of him are great.........well in person he is so stunningly handsome it is unreal! The photos do not do him justice. After the show he came out wearing a white sweatshirt and looked just glorious up close...took my breath away.

Waiting for my ride to K'Zoo and I am even more excited to see the show again.

IMO He has more than achieved what he set out to do with this show. At one point he said he hoped it would bring back memories to us! Well one story was about English Xmas memories and I have to tell you I had to choke back tears listening to it. I have not spent Xmas in England in over 35 years and the memories just came flooding in!

I know I am really fangirly....no really I am but I am in awe of this man's talent! He is just so good. After last night I really think he belongs up there with some of the greats!

Something happened between Summer and now. His singing is phenomenal and he just looks different. Can't put my finger on it but it was almost a "that's Clay Aiken" moment.

Well have to finish getting ready. Forgive typos as I'm typing from Perusing One's machine. She was hoping I'd log in as her and get her post count up to..oh lets say 3 *g*

[Couch Tomato]

Merrieeee...you were wonderful on the cellstream last night. You made me smile. And as for PerusingOne...the first stranger I ever slept with in Clay Nation :medium-smiley-048: Love you!!

[farouche]

So, if you don't use a flash will the camera police leave you alone????

Me and my most excellent seat for DC need to know.

Not that my pictures ever turn out like the masters......

I haven't listened to one tiny bit of clack. I can't believe I have been so good.

Not necessarily. I never use flash and I have had occasional venue security issues. Some of it depends on who is around you. In Vegas, someone in my row was using her LCD screen as her viewfinder (which I never do b/c I'd need my reading glasses). That is a real easy target for people looking for cameras, and I think that's how the usher noticed me. Also, if you take video, there is probably a tally light on your camera that blinks red when you are recording. Again, that makes you a target. Although my Canon has a feature for disabling the tally light, it never works. So I try to remember to put some black tape over it.

Re disliking concerts and then changing your mind: I don't think it's indicative of much except changing one's mind and having initial worry out of worry for Clay if that makes sense. For example, I remember those shots of him in a leisure suit sitting on a bean bag before the JBT. Well, that gave me pause and not in a good way. However, it was not indicative of the energy, fun, or sexiness of the actual show.

With the JNT 5, I actually liked the idea of the vignettes before they happened. I thought the show wasn't as effective as it could have been b/c the acting (I'm looking at you, John D.) wasn't always what it could be, sight lines for a lot of audience members were blocked by parts of the set, etc. I wished that some aspects of the realization of that idea had been better. At the same time, he was in sublime voice for that tour and I loved that he had written something and put himself out there. So I went to five and have many fond memories of it.

ETA: Atinal -- are you a member of CV or the CH? There are threads at both of those boards talking about effective camera settings for the cameras most clackgatherers use. The most important ones to be aware of are the light metering settings (so that your light readings are not for the whole frame but for the subject) and the shutter speed.

[Couch Tomato]

I'm giggling just remembering John D's acting. But he could shake a leg though!!

[bottlecap]

I'm walking around my house getting my stuff together to get on the road and I'm already alternatively "eeeee'ing" to myself and exclaiming "Holy Crap!" and pictures like this DO.NOT.HELP!

Oh my...

Dead. I'm dead.

[ldyjocelyn]

bottlecap, I'm marrying that picture this afternoon.

I pretty much agree with farouche's assessment of cameras. Even though my camera is silver, I almost NEVER get caught with it. I NEVER use the LCD as my viewfinder, because I know it draws attention (not to mention that it EATS battery life!). And the only two lights on the camera when I turn the LCD off is a small green on at the top (which I frequently cover over with my finger) and a small red one on the back (which is easily covered by my face).

merrieeeee!!!!!!!!! I wuv you. Just 'cause.

[atinal]

I'm walking around my house getting my stuff together to get on the road and I'm already alternatively "eeeee'ing" to myself and exclaiming "Holy Crap!" and pictures like this DO.NOT.HELP!

Oh my...

Dead. I'm dead.

Dang, in that picture he almost looks like he should have a halo over his head!!!!

Bottle, and anyone else going to tonights show, have a great time, just breathe deep and take it all in.

Farouche, thank you for reminding me about the threads at CV and the CH. I am a member of CV but had forgotten about the AV thread over there. My camera is pretty new for me it is the Canon S3 is, it might as well have been one of those one use cameras. /JK

[farouche]

The eyes in that picture kill me. It's so hard to capture the color when you take pictures.