#53: God, I love that man. He rocks my socks.

[luckiest1]

I'm home, finally. Didja miss me? I survived the dirt, the mosquitos, the kid and the dog, but just barely. Thank God I have 2 days with no work to do laundry, put shit away, go grocery shopping, and generally get this place looking like a functioning household. Next year, someone remind me of this before I get the bright idea to go camping again.

Happy Birthday annabear! :thbighug-1: Hope it was a good one.

I'll never understand the angst at not getting what one wants when one has absoluteley no control over it. JMO :Beating_A_Dead_Horse_by_livius:

Well said. It's how I feel as well. So cool to come home to more OFC answers! I look forward to next week and whatever it has to bring.

Speaking of pictures... August's calendar...

Whaddyamean 'do I miss him?'

Various versions here

Wheeeeee, thanks! *right click, set as desktop*

[Clayzy]

Happy B-day Annabear!

Just wanted to say that I'm gonna be gone to MI until Friday, don't know if/when I'll have 'net access.

[treenuts]

Great blog, Caro!!

I love this! JanWhatever just posted this by lady4clay

http://clayaikentheidealidol.com/There-Rea...Clay-Aiken.html -

There Really is Only One Clay Aiken

by lady4clay

The more concerts I see featuring other entertainers, the more I miss and appreciate Clay's unique talents.

In the last two weeks I have seen a couple of concerts. The first was in a small venue. It was a husband and wife team called Montana Skies. The wife is a fantastic cello player ( both regular and electric cello), the husband plays guitar. They write most of their music, but mix in standards, as well. I have played cello in the past, and my granddaughter is taking lessons currently, so I thought it would be nice for her to see a live performance. They are very accomplished musicians, we enjoyed the performance, but I left missing that spark that always happens whenever I see Clay. There was no WOW factor.

The next concert was a 5 hour show featuring Willie Nelson, John Melencamp, and Bob Dylan. I took granddaughter #2 and really enjoyed the show.

Willie Nelson is still amazing at the age of 76. He sang and played non stop for almost 2 hours. His voice was strong, guitar playing excellent. It was impressive and I think he sounded better than he did when I saw him last which was probably 20 years ago. He received a good audience response, but nothing like the response at a Clay concert.

John Melencamp was next. He also performed for over an hour, did some older songs, and introduced a new beautiful song he had just recorded. I've always liked him and he puts on a great, energetic show. The audience response to him was probably the most animated. My granddaughter, who had never heard him before, and knew none of the songs, said she really liked him.

Last in the lineup was Bob Dylan. He is 68. I have always liked him. I know he isn't everyone's cup of tea, but he is a phenomenal writer and , I believe, one of the best poets of our generation. What can you say about him? Most either love him of hate him ( sound familar?). It was fun seeing him live. My granddaughter, being an old soul, loves Bob Dylan and was very excited to see him . He also received a good crowd response, although some people did leave during the performance.

If you've hung on this long, the real reason for this post is to compare these concerts to a Clay concert.

--- As you might have figured out by now, I am a huge fan of live music and have always attended many different genres of music. I have never seen the crowd respond the way they do to Clay. I have never loved a concert the way I love seeing Clay perform live, whether it was a Christmas show, a regular tour, or a Broadway show. There is an energy in his shows that is extremely rare. It's not that I don't enjoy the others, but a Clay event has an intensity that , as least for me, has never been equaled. I don't know what that "IT" factor is. These other are performers are talented, but I don't feel like a part of me goes with them , when they leave the stage. I don't start wondering when I can see them again. I don't feel like I've been to heaven and back.

My conclusion is that Clay has a very special, extremely rare gift. Perhaps it is his ability to connect with the audience, to pull you in and for that short time to make you live in the moment and abandon all your cares. For that short time you become one with the experience. It is a mind- altering experience and when you walk out that door, you are a happier person.

No wonder we want to be in that presence again.

*sigh*

[FearofH2O]

Have a great trip Clazy. Hopefully we will hear from Clay again before you get back. As someone (CHA) said "You can't get enought Clay Aiken."

Thanks for bringing that over treenuts, I have to agree with her.

[FromClaygary]

How difficult would it be to add a tagged picture library to the FCA media archive so that 20 years from now, people will be able to bring up the "snowflake" picture instantly?

(sorry merrieeee -- it was just an example!)

You know Scarlett that's a great idea. I had thought at one point that it would be great to have a zip folder of the pics that have been posted per venue/event/etc. I suggested it at one point (not at FCA) but it never flew. Of course this is purely selfish and lazy on my part, it would save me a lot of right clicking, BUT I think too, it would give a back up to the photogs (like we do the videographers) just one more safe place to have this history stored.

I think that's a wonderful idea!! I'm more than happy to contribute my few crappy screen door pics LOL!

Glad you had a good trip, luckiest1

ETA: OR even my STAGE door pics!!

[Carolina Clay]

Thanks for the link to your BP-inspired blog, Caro! As beautiful as ever!!!

Many thnx, Scarlett and treenuts!

For cindilu2, here is a comment from the OFC version of the blog:

Jesus Christ you are gonna kill some claymates with those photos of Clay!! Especially if you keep posting ones like the first one. God I LOVE stubble on him. I am going to check my blood pressure and temperature now!!

Take your meds before you drop by!

Caro

--------------

Carolina On My Mind

[preden]

I'm home, finally. Didja miss me? I survived the dirt, the mosquitos, the kid and the dog, but just barely. Thank God I have 2 days with no work to do laundry, put shit away, go grocery shopping, and generally get this place looking like a functioning household. Next year, someone remind me of this before I get the bright idea to go camping again.

Happy Birthday annabear! :thbighug-1: Hope it was a good one.

I'll never understand the angst at not getting what one wants when one has absoluteley no control over it. JMO :Beating_A_Dead_Horse_by_livius:

Well said. It's how I feel as well. So cool to come home to more OFC answers! I look forward to next week and whatever it has to bring.

Speaking of pictures... August's calendar...

Whaddyamean 'do I miss him?'

Various versions here

Wheeeeee, thanks! *right click, set as desktop*

Welcome back! totally love hotel life instead of camping hahaha!!!

[aikim]

6...er..7...uh...8 Days until Yet!

76 Days until The BAF Gala!

Everyone have a great day!

Kim

[aikim]

OMG! I think I mentioned that when I was cleaning my room last week I found a roll of film that had never been developed.

Well picked up the pictures this morning and guess what was on that roll...pictures from the JBT in Indianapolis!

No pictures of Clay but I do have pictures of the stage and bus!!!

Also pictures outside of the hotel of Momof3boys, Jamar, Bookworm, LoveofmyLife and PoisonIvy.

I would love to post them, but only if the above board members are okay with that. Let me know.

As soon as I can figure out how, I will post the pictures of the bus and the stage...will have to scan them into my computer.

Oh yeah, there were also pictures of my daughter's graduation from High School.

Hey, I have my priorities in order...clack first!

Kim

[aikim]

Stage of the JBT Indiapolis and the bus!

[Scarlett]

Running late for services again (but will stay within the speed limit this time)... Just wanted to say thanks to all who responded about the picture archive.

Question for the librarians here because we need a way to classify pictures so that they will be easy to find. In ways do you think people will want to search a picture archive? How would people want to see these sorted? What questions would people want this archive to answer? Are ratings of pictures important? Color of clothes? Type of clothes (casual, formal, very casual, etc)?

ETA: Just wanted to clarify,

The question people will be asking is "Where's the picture where/from/when ... " (why else would they be searching a picture archive?) but it's the "where/from/when ..." part that is important, eg. from the JBT in Cleveland? Where he wore a white belt? All pictures with rivets? The good-n-plenty outfit? The Charlotte stage "hump", the one merrieeee detests?

Thanks in advance!

ETAA: Oh no, I'm not going to make it (again)...

[aikim]

There was actually one picture of Clay on my roll of film, but it is very dark...don't know if it could be lightened up?

[gbmifan]

Akim at least you tried for some pictures. I was so far back, in the last row, at Clio I did not take any.

Just got back from a 40 mile ride, hitting the jacuzzi, and then have to work the Buick Open. Should be a very big day since Tiger was in the lead starting today. If the rumors are true and this is our last golf open it will be really sad. They have run it here for 51 years. The whole community pitches in and volunteers. The High School alone, with parking cars, makes between $40,000 and $50,000 for their athletic and club teams. It takes an unbelievable amount of people to make it run smoothly.

[aikim]

Clay's online at the OFC!

[FromClaygary]

Love the pictures, Kim, keep em coming! I was there, along with me myb and codmag but we were on the other side of the stage from you. Remember how hot it was??!!

Met lots of people there, had my first experience with a duplicitous Clayfan, which just shocked me (thought ALL Clayfans were honest )....and had a WON-derful time!!

Scarlett, good idea to involve the librarians! I'm SO not a librarian, but can help when that's required.

[aikim]

The easiest way I can think of cataloguing the pictures is:

Tour/Event

Venue

Photographer

Then have each photographer catagorize their own pictures...so you would click on Scarlett's name and then a list would come up of the pictures for that venue,,,of course if you are looking for a specific picture you would need to know who took, where, etc.

Don't know if this helps...I am sure others will have better ideas!

Kim

[claylove]

I'm not a librarian, but some of my friends have called me OCD about how my clack is organized Oh wait... maybe its a compliment!

Basically I have everything sorted by date. On my photo hard drive I have categories like:

2003

2004

2005

etc

Then inside each folder there are other folders naming the date. Here are some examples of my folders from 2009:

01-18-2009 Clay and Ruben at Lucky 32

01-22-2009 GFI

03-08-2009 JFK

03-22-2009 Reed's After Party

03-28-2009 GLAAD Awards

04-08-2009 ANTM

04-14-2009 30 Rock

04-14-2009 Clay and Diane Sawyer at Peninsula

04-21-2009 FEC Awards

04-25-2009 Clay in Beverly Hills

04-26-2009 Clay and Parker

05-03-2009 Clay Shopping

05-03-2009 Parker at lunch with Jaymes

Well you get the idea. Inside each folder are the various photos I have saved. For concerts I do a similar thing. When the tour dates are announced I make a folder inside the year for that tour, then I make subfolders with the date and name of the venue. Then photos for each venue are saved. I usually also have a misc folder inside each tour folder for photos that I cannot determine the exact venue for.

At times I may run across things that I do not have the dates for, especially with pre-AI photos so in those cases I have used some more general descriptions such as baby pics, teen pics, etc.

By the way, my video clack is organized in this same basic way too. But I can always find things

I know this is for general hard drive storage and you will probably be using something like Coppermine for this project but thought it was worth sharing my system anyway in case anyone was interested.

[FromClaygary]

I've just posted New information re our Post-Gala Breakfast in the thread HERE

I think we found a great solution! Many thanks to claylove and jmh123 for their assistance and suggestions....we found a restaurant that actually WANTS to work with us!

I'm not a librarian, but some of my friends have called me OCD about how my clack is organized Oh wait... maybe its a compliment!

I know this is for general hard drive storage and you will probably be using something like Coppermine for this project but thought it was worth sharing my system anyway in case anyone was interested.

It is!! ......and I've done mine that way too.

[bottlecap]

One picture resource I use from time to time is Clay Pic City.

Fountaindawg also has a pretty extensive photo archive at Clay Aiken Kids, primarily sorted by events within the past six years.

[Scarlett]

Thanks for all the ideas!!! The nice thing about digital cataloging (as opposed to physical cards) is that we can catalog by many methods all at once.

The way we store things physically does not have to be the way they will viewed -- I know this is the way the vaults work right now but that's because we did not put additional indexing on the clips. (Another project is to create the same categories for videos and just use links to the real vaults -- eg. an aggregated web page with all the clips from CH/CV/CU listed by date for instance, or by hair color if we so choose)

So, please keep the ideas coming! It doesn't have to be just one.

[claylove]

I've just posted New information re our Post-Gala Breakfast in the thread HERE

I think we found a great solution! Many thanks to claylove and jmh123 for their assistance and suggestions....we found a restaurant that actually WANTS to work with us!

Great news!!! Love the video too what a bonus!

Just wanted to throw out there for anyone who will have trouble walking the four blocks from the hotel to the restaurant, there is a parking deck less than one block from the restaurant and its free on the weekends as well as some nearby street parking. This may also be an option for people who have rented cars and need to drive to the airport after the brunch.

[ldyjocelyn]

Librarian checking in...

I think that the important part of this photo organization project will be in the tagging. As some said, some will come in looking for a particular venue, or date. But, then, as Scarlett said -- some are going to ask "which JBT venue was it where Clay wore glasses?" So, we'd need a tag for "glasses." I also think we'd need to come up with some sort of tagging mechanism for his clothes -- "suit," "cargo_shorts," "mandals," things like that. It's not really a controlled vocabulary, per se, but if we can come up with some uniform terms for outfits, that would work the best.

Photobucket has the ability to create tags when you upload, and I don't think there is any limit to the number of tags per picture.

Scarlett, does that help? The question would be who would be willing to oversee the tagging project of this. I am willing to help, but I think it will take two or three people to work on this.

[lilyshine]

The most important thing about classifying photos is to think "database" and not "flat file". It doesn't matter what the photo is called or where it is put as long as it is tagged in lots of different ways. That's the beauty of databases. There's no "shelf arrangement." You don't have to decide on just one or two attributes to use as access points.

My suggestion would be just to go for it. If while you are looking at the photo and something jumps out at you, tag it. It is easier if you work from a set vocabulary of tags so you don't have several terms that mean the same thing eg smile, laugh, smirk, chuckle. It just makes it a bit simpler to search.

[ldyjocelyn]

Well, duh. How could I forget terms like "grin" and "smile"! But yeah, lilyshine totally has the right idea. Lots of tags, but no so many to be overwhelming either.

[Scarlett]

ldyj, yes, the dimensions (types of tags and their values) are the most important parts.

One way to think about it is as a spreadsheet with

Column A: a link to the actual piece of clack

Column B: Date the picture was taken or date of the event

Column C: City where it was held

Column D: State where it was held

Column E: Country where it was held

Colunn F: Event name (eg. so that we can find all the AI appearances)

Column G: Network (eg. so that we can find all the ones from ABC or CBS -- if this is relevant to us)

Column G: Song that was being sung

Column H: Event Sponsor or Coordinator (eg. Unicef )

Column I: Song he was singing, if any (eg. so that we could find all versions of a particular song)

Column J: Other performers (this is a link to another multi-level spreadsheet because we want

the people searchable individually so that we can find the time

he sang with Ruben or was in a group performance with Julia)

Column K: Glasses (y/n)

Column L: Stubble (y/n)

Column M: Sideburns (y/n)

Column L: Footwear (Boots, sandals, none, .... --- the values we predefine are important)

Column M: Shirt color type (solid/striped/plaid/other)

Column M: Shirt color type subgroup

(if solid red/blue/brown/etc, if striped, stripe pattern 1-500,

if plaid, plaid pattern 1-500)

Column N: Sleeve length (long sleeves, short sleeves, no sleeves -- do we have one?)

Column O: Approximate number of layers

Column P: Hair color

Column Q: Hair length (someone who specializes in hair needs to name the categories)

Column S: Hair style nickname

Column T: Outfit nickname

...

Column ZZZ:

These are just samples -- I don't know what the final list will be but the column headings

and the allowed values are the important parts.

We're limited by the effort and energy we can put into the classification system.

Is a column worth updating for every piece of clack? Each column or dimension needs

dedicated people to maintain it and keep it up to date.

As long as we have persons who will commit to a category, regardless of weight or significance

-- eg. any volunteers for Column Z: tongue (y/n -- or better yet amount shown: tippy tippy tip,

tippy tip, tip, a small bit, oh about half, quite a lot, see the tonsils!)

So, we need people to suggest "column headings", discrete values for them, and we need volunteers

to classify "columns" . Please don't feel constrained by the use of "columns" -- this is

just a way to illustrate what we want. The "columns" for co-performers, for instance, will not

be a simple column.