#60: I l.o.v.e. my hawt humanatarianactivistsingersongwriterambassador boyfriend!

[aikim]

8 Days until Clay will be wowing us in Waukegan!

May 10, 2011- Clay announced another tour. Since his fans have such diverse tastes, he will do an all request tour. Unfortunately Ben quit, saying " No way". Details to be announced later.

One million years or until hell freezes over (which ever comes first) until Clay gets his body tattooed with all the states he has toured in (do we then get to sign our names in our particular state?)

September 18, 2015 -- Clay hosts a one-night only benefit singing the entire catalog of the Beatles. He has to stop on the middle of "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" when the stage is rushed with fans saying "Sure!"

Happy Birthday to all celebrating!

Everyone have a great day!

Kim

[ldyjocelyn]

news-sentinel.com (Fort Wayne, IN)

Clay Aiken Sings with Classic Style

Full text in news section, yadda, yadda, yadda... ETA: except I can't get the text to copy correctly, without a lot of extra HTML. Great...

OTOH, there's a link to audio of the interview with him.

Great recaps luckiest1. Love Jerome like crazy, and it sounds like it was a great show last night too.

[bottlecap]

So, no grabbing per Jerome, but what about licking?

So much of the CLAY AIKEN EXPERIENCE revolves around travel adventures, doesn’t it? Great recaps, luckiest1!

[Carolina Clay]

The recaps and clack rewinds of the concerts have been wonderful. Even with the clack shutdown last night, we were able to share in the Charlotte concert. My students started coming before I could post about this blog, but I so appreciate all who contributed.

Today's Carolina On My Mind blog covers Clay's Tried & True hometown concert in Charlotte, NC, with Scarlett's videos/screen caps, the marquee photo (chel4clay), and fan recaps (luckiest1, Brightstar, ncgran4clay, and chel).

Thank you for your comments, tweets, etc. We appreciate your help in getting the Clay blogs past some of the grime at Google!

On to Greenville, SC, and, hopefully, a clack-filled evening!

Caro

[cindilu2]

The recaps and clack rewinds of the concerts have been wonderful. Even with the clack shutdown last night, we were able to share in the Charlotte concert. My students started coming before I could post about this blog, but I so appreciate all who contributed.

Today's Carolina On My Mind blog covers Clay's Tried & True hometown concert in Charlotte, NC, with Scarlett's videos/screen caps, the marquee photo (chel4clay), and fan recaps (luckiest1, Brightstar, ncgran4clay, and chel).

Thank you for your comments, tweets, etc. We appreciate your help in getting the Clay blogs past some of the grime at Google!

On to Greenville, SC, and, hopefully, a clack-filled evening!

Caro

Hey Caro! I heard back from my friend and she said 'go for it'. LOL! Then she asked me about his hair. She is SO in the cult!!!

[shortyjill]

So, I need an unbiased opinion.. I want to bring something with me to my concert to get signed just in case Clay comes out to the buses after. I had picked out one of the OFC membership package photos and the OMWH CD booklet, but then I recently remembered Clay answered one of my questions a long time ago back on the OFC. Now I'm torn.... I've heard he'll sign whatever's in front of him, and I have never gotten anything signed by Clay before. Should I take all 3 on the off-chance he might sign things, and give each of the 2 friends I'm going with one of the items, or should I just try to get my printed-off answer signed?

Strangely enough, my question he answered is brought up every night in the fan appreciation banter about cellcerts/streams... lol

[luckiest1]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEe best seats of life tonight!!!!! We had row B, which were true 5th row, but we didn't realize that the pit was the first 3 rows and then there was a barrier. Row A was only in the centre, then row B extended out to the sides, where we sat. However, there was a kind of cat walk on either side of the stage (anyone who was in Syracuse might remember a similar set up), so when he came to that area they were 1st row! And he did!

I loved this concert. It seemed looser than last night maybe....no Faye in the audience, maybe that was the difference. Maybe because there was no clack down. Or maybe it was my perspective. I have no idea. But it was awesome. The first time he came over was during OMWH. Then when he wanted Top 40 radio names I started pointing at luckiestdaughter, and he noticed and came right over and asked her who. She is so shy, she was not happy with me but she said "Pink" and Clay said "oh she's very good". That made her v.v. happy. Then during BMUB he came back to us (I'm talking like a foot in front of our faces with those shoes LOL) and he made funny eyes at her again. It was awesome. One time he was over on the other side cat walk and they were shouting and he said 'you guys are drunk, I'm going back over to the sane side' or something like that. He came to our side for WSN suggestions and took them from the second row. So another close up. Since we've never, ever had true front row seats you can imagine how thrilled we were. What a nice surprise, after last night's M&G fiasco.

Seeing Crying and UM that close (from 5th row) was amazing. And then no curtain, he just grabbed the stool and started into BSN (which was gorgeous, beautiful change ups). I was almost in tears. Then the phone and camera banter which was freaking hysterical! I hope Scarlett isn't too mad at everyone for outing her to him. Ha ha ha it was quite the thing. And poor Lisa on the phone didnt' know she was being broadcast to the whole theatre. But I wasn't complaining about how many times he said 'Lisa'.

Tomorrow we are going to head to the ocean and then drive back to Raleigh along the coast. Today we toured UNC Charlotte. We are having a lot of fun. It's nice not to be so rushed. Will do today's travel recap tomorrow morning.

[ldyjocelyn]

luckiest! That's got to be thrilling, to have him directly in front of you. Cannot wait for the full recap!

shortyjill, my opinion is for you to take what you feel you would treasure the most. If it were me, I'd stick with the printed out answer, as it is easy to carry, and can then be easily framed. But as I said, that's me.

[aikim]

7 Days until Clay will be wowing us in Waukegan!

May 10, 2011- Clay announced another tour. Since his fans have such diverse tastes, he will do an all request tour. Unfortunately Ben quit, saying " No way". Details to be announced later.

One million years or until hell freezes over (which ever comes first) until Clay gets his body tattooed with all the states he has toured in (do we then get to sign our names in our particular state?)

September 18, 2015 -- Clay hosts a one-night only benefit singing the entire catalog of the Beatles. He has to stop on the middle of "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" when the stage is rushed with fans saying "Sure!"

Happy Birthday to all celebrating!

Everyone have a great day!

Kim

[ldyjocelyn]

From walkiki at the CH.

Greenville News

Review: Aiken Gives Classics Their Due

There are few souls in this wide world who can pull off Joni Mitchell and the Righteous Brothers back-to-back. Clay Aiken proved he was one of them Thursday night at the Peace Center.

It was a simply presented show featuring little more than Aiken, a handful of talented musicians and soulful backup singer Quiana Parler, but it was more than enough to highlight the "American Idol" alum's startlingly powerful voice.

Aiken, who is touring following the release of his new album "Tried and True," sang mostly songs from that album – the well-traveled and much beloved classic love songs of the '50s and '60s.

Thanks to Aiken's respectful and yet personal treatment of long-cherished songs, including the finale featuring The Beatles' "In My Life," no one left the show without humming a new favorite old song.

As a nod to the fans who have followed his pop career for years, he also offered a slightly odd medley of some of his better-known songs, including "Measure of a Man" and "Invisible," arranged to sound more like the jazzy classics of the rest of the show.

But it was those classics, like Andy Williams' "Love Story," Johnny Mathis' "Misty" and the aforementioned "Both Sides Now" and "Unchained Melody" that allowed Aiken to really shine, showing off his range and impressive vocal power, much to the audience's delight and amazement.

Upbeat selections like "Suspicious Minds" (Elvis Presley) and "Build Me Up Buttercup" (The Foundations) livened up the show, as did Aiken's lighthearted banter and occasional antics.

An Auto-Tune stunt gave Aiken a comedic soapbox from which to lambaste contemporary pop music for its dearth of talented singers. And renditions of Connie Francis' melancholy hit "Who's Sorry Now" in funk, Celtic and marching styles reaped plenty of laughs.

By Amy Clarke • Staff writer • Published: February 25. 2011 2:00AM

[bottlecap]

luckiest1, I'm glad you guys had such an awesome time! So, when are the other Carolina-concertgoing FCA-ers going to check and EEEEEEE! with us?

shortyjill, I would be inclined to pick something unique and one-of-a-kind for Clay to sign, so I'd go with your Q&A also.

[ldyjocelyn]

If you haven't noticed, I've been adding news articles to the News thread left and right. Many of them aren't being brought here to the main thread, partially because of my laziness. *g* Anyway, there are a couple of new articles there -- take a gander!

[KAndre]

OK, I'm alive...but my living room computer is dead.

Dammit.

I think I forgot to tell y'all, but everything was a go for my nasal surgery Wednesday...and I'm home and feeling a titch sorry for myself.

Because my big computer won't work!

So what have y'all been doing with my boyfriend while I've been away?

[shortyjill]

ladyj and bottlecap thanks for the input. I'm leaning towards taking my question too. If it gets signed I was thinking I could frame it in one of those floating frames... they're neat and I don't have any yet. LOL

[bottlecap]

So what have y'all been doing with my boyfriend while I've been away?

Nothing.

What did you hear?

They're lying, whatever they said.

We didn't do it, whatever it was. It must have been somebody who looked like us, because we have an alibi for the time that it happened. We swear. :29:

Look! Over there! Clay has a new sweater!

[shortyjill]

It's not so much the sweater for me as the cuffs sticking out from them.

Also...is it too early to start mourning the jeans? sigh

[merrieeee]

So what have y'all been doing with my boyfriend while I've been away

What goes on in..........stays in........

Though I have run out of popcorn!

[keepingfaith]

So what have y'all been doing with my boyfriend while I've been away

What goes on in..........stays in........

Though I have run out of popcorn!

Damn! Just when I needed something warm and salty. What to do ... what to do ...

[shortyjill]

Video of last night when Clay talked to Scarlett and the fan dedication... I'm in love with one!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLkzUrXMpCc

[Couch Tomato]

Lucky Awesome review! Fifth row is just about perfect. I've had first row once and I'm thrilled that I did. It was a totally different type of experience. Well March is almost here and I can't wait. My mom will miss the show though. She's going to visit her other child in Oceanside on the 9th. I guess I'll have an extra ticket if anyone needs one. Have no idea where they are. Still waiting for them.

Bottle! LOL. You're so funny. I'm sure whatever I've heard about you and Clay is a big fat lie heee.

KAndre - take it easy girl.

[FearofH2O]

I am way too tired to do a recap. I think luckiest covered it all. I was in the moo & great in Charlotte. I went with mumm fums who lives pretty close to my home. Our group was # 15. I got in the front of our group as Clay shook hands and asked our names. It appeared that he missed my friend as he went along the front row ansd she was in the back. I said "Clay you missed her" and pointed. I repeated it as he didn't seem to be going back to her. He came up to me and slammed his hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eye saying " I've done a few of these before."

I loved the Charlotte show. I had a great seat and terrific view of Clay.

I had my OFC meet and greet in Greenville the next day. There was about four of us from the OFC and four from ebay. Someone actually didn't show up. Clay came out looking about 16, in a Rutgers sweat shirt and jeans. He looked quite blond including his eyelashes and stubble. Lots of freckles. He asked us to tell him our names and where we were from. I almost forgot where I lived. How embarassing. I asked him about a political career. He elaborated that he liked the job but could not do the shmoozing and asking for money. He did say we would be hearing a lot about the school board in the fall. Someone asked if he would run for the school board. H elaughed and said he didn't have the time. in response to another question, he said he would go on Broadway if asked and if he liked the part. Mentioned again that he had a few things on the burner. He also said we would not see him perform (singing) again this year.

We took individual pictures or Mary took them. We will get them tomorrow, after the tour or sometime according to Clay.

Another great show that evening. Another night at a bar after the show. Next day I came home to company who will not be leaving until Sunday. Made dinner cleaned up and did I say I was beat?

[keepingfaith]

Lucky Awesome review! Fifth row is just about perfect. I've had first row once and I'm thrilled that I did. It was a totally different type of experience. Well March is almost here and I can't wait. My mom will miss the show though. She's going to visit her other child in Oceanside on the 9th. I guess I'll have an extra ticket if anyone needs one. Have no idea where they are. Still waiting for them.

Bottle! LOL. You're so funny. I'm sure whatever I've heard about you and Clay is a big fat lie heee.

KAndre - take it easy girl.

I would so be there for that ticket, if the airfare was anywhere near reasonable instead of being in the thousand dollar area. Bummer!

[aikim]

6 Days until Clay will be wowing us in Waukegan!

May 10, 2011- Clay announced another tour. Since his fans have such diverse tastes, he will do an all request tour. Unfortunately Ben quit, saying " No way". Details to be announced later.

One million years or until hell freezes over (which ever comes first) until Clay gets his body tattooed with all the states he has toured in (do we then get to sign our names in our particular state?)

September 18, 2015 -- Clay hosts a one-night only benefit singing the entire catalog of the Beatles. He has to stop on the middle of "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" when the stage is rushed with fans saying "Sure!"

Happy Birthday to all celebrating!

Everyone have a great day!

Kim

[luckiest1]

Ok here we go, recap of day 2 of the trek across the Carolinas!

I actually slept in until after 8 am on Thursday morning, which is a good 3 hours later than usual. I think it was a combination of the lack of sleep and the lack of dogs on the bed that did it. luckiestdaughter was up early, suffering from a head cold, and said she had to check I was still breathing. After a quick continental breakfast at the hotel we programmed the GPS for UNC Charlotte and hit the campus. It is gorgeous! We parked and wandered around, up and down hills and staircases...we sure got our workout for the day. We finally broke down and asked where the bookstore was, and were advised it was in the Student Union building along with the Starbucks. wheeeeee! It was not so much of a Barnes and Noble as it was a UNC Charlotte clothing shop. Just what we wanted! We tried on many hoodies and came away with some good deals, and my soy chai latte that made me v.v. happy. It was trying to rain but it never really succeeded, as we walked back to the Cone lot to retrieve our car. Then it was around the corner to the Jack In The Box for lunch. luckiestdaughter had it once in Texas and was excited to try it again. I was excited that they had side salads, fish sandwiches and egg rolls on the menu. Wow, that is wide variety! Of course, it's mainly a hamburger joint. Then we hit the road to Greenville, SC.

We soon realized that there were two things about SC we didn't know....they are crazy about peaches, and they don't clean the litter off their highways. Seriously, when Clay later exclaimed from the stage that he was impressed with the cleanliness of the state, we just looked at each other and both said 'he obviously slept on the bus'. LOL Anyways, I couldn't resist stopping at a few of the places offering all variety of peach preserves and other interesting items. luckiestdaughter was thrilled with the postcard selection. I ended up with peach butter, and another mug. How the heck we will get all things on the plane home, I still don't know.

We knew we were deep in the south when a car passed us with a license plate frame that said 'in case of rapture, this car will be unmanned'. That's a bit of scary thought if you ponder it. we managed to get a picture, and after we finished laughing and making jokes about it, we figured we were safe, and our vehicle would never be unmanned.

The GPS tried to take us away from our designated hotel but we ignored it and found it ourselves. After a quick shower we headed out for some light shopping (really nice area on Main Street), more Bi-Lo cookies, and then to the Olive Garden for dinner. Little did we realize that the venue was actually right there on Main Street, until we reprogrammed and went back where we were. When we were allowed into the theatre, we were stunned by the configuration of the stage. There were 3 rows in the pit, AA-CC, then a solid barrier. Then row A was just in the centre of the venue, behind said barrier, and row B stretched the full way across from side to side. The stage jutted out on each side, to within 2 or 3 feet of row B. So there were maybe 4 seats on row B that were, in effect, front row. Ours were among them. I kept my expectations low, saying 'clay probably won't use this area of the stage'. However, luckiestdaughter was quite sure he would. And she was right! During the Clay Aiken medley (OMWH in particular), he stood directly in front of us. I mean, we could have reached out and touched his shoes. His pants had a fine pin stripe to them, I noticed. And as has been noted, no laces in the shoes. I may have went all fangirly for a few seconds, then I composed myself and just grinned like a total idiot the rest of the night.

Since we'd been listening to Top 40 radio most of our drive (when the FM transmitter would not allow us to listen to the iPod), I was quite determined that when that section of the show came up, luckiestdaughter was going to talk to Clay about it. It seemed like our location just emphasized how good of an opportunity this would be. She, however, was having no part of this. If you've met her, you might think she is fairly outgoing, but in reality, she's super shy. So she was not a happy camper when I, in my fangirly mode, started pointing to her and making motions for Clay to come over. Ha ha, who is this person and where did luckiest1 go? After he spoke to another Toronto area fan about Justin Bieber (he told her he didn't believe she really listened to him) he came over and looked right straight down at luckiestdaughter and asked her who she listened to? She managed to say 'Pink' and I held my breath hoping he wouldn't diss Pink....because that might be a deal breaker....but he said 'Pink? Oh she's very good!' Yay! And of course, you know now that a Justin Bieber song was chosen to be sung that night, much to the other Canadian's delight. It was so funny watching Clay imitate the Bieber right in front of us, and it reminded me so much of the way he used to prowl the catwalk on the IT and reach out to the girls in the crowd. I wonder if he even realized it.

During BMUB he came back to us again and looked down at luckiestdaughter and made some funny eyes at her. It was great! Our view of him when he was centre stage was still really great, and he chose to put his stool towards our side of the stage for all the slow songs. We also were lucky enough to have a face on view of him during Crying...it's quite amazing how effortless he makes those high notes seem! UM was beautiful, and he hit a lovely pure note early on in the song that really struck me hard. Of course, the airplane note was as good as always. He didn't do his usual intro into the song (where he says thanks for coming, good night) so I wondered if he'd done away with the 'pretentious' (in his words) encore, and he had. No curtain came down, he just dragged his stool back to the usual spot and talked a bit about BSN being his indulgent song of the tour because it had, in his opinion, the best lyrics ever written. I died a little bit with the gorgeous change ups he did as he sang it. And then he was into the hilarious banter prior to IML, including the audience completely outing Scarlett to him, and him taking the phone from a lady in the pit, and talking to her daughter, named 'Lisa'. Lisa was home with the kids and the dogs. Ha ha ha ha that made me laugh so hard, and I want to make that my new ring tone if I can rip it from the audio.

I usually cry when he leaves the stage at my last concert of a tour, but this time I was grinning. Not sure why, since I don't know when I'll see him again, but it was just such a great concert experience for us, it was so good to go out on a high.

We quickly headed back to the hotel so luckiestdaughter could catch Private Practice, and I got online and EEEEEEEEEEE'd over chat with cindilu2 and couchie. Thanks, ladies! I really needed that outlet!

[luckiest1]

Day 3 - SC and beyond!

Friday we got up, ate an uninspiring breakfast in the hotel lobby, and went in search of Starbucks and drugs. Both were found at a nearby mall. We had done a quick online search for somewhere in Myrtle Beach to stop for lunch, so we put that address in the GPS and hit the highway. The forecast was for rain, however the sun continued to shine for the entire drive across the state. We were pretty darned excited when the external temperature reading on the car's dash reach 70 degrees. We stopped in Florence for gas and snacks (luckiestdaughter did a walk up chik-Fil-A, rationalizing it because we didn't have to enter the premises) and I decided to change into a more appropriate beach-type outfit. I mean, you can't come to the Carolinas without your flip flops, right? OK, so it was a tad windy out, but that never stopped me before. We were bound and determined that we were putting our feet in the Atlantic. We ignored the GPS and continued forward on 501 to the centre of Myrtle Beach, and the ocean front area. Along the way we saw some pretty hilarious signs, one being the Gay Dolphin gift shop. We tried GPSing that but it wouldn't give us any directions. We saw Jesus dressed in lavender, with his arms outstreched outside the psychic reading centre. Thorny's was challenging us to eat an 80 oz steak. And we briefly considered detouring to go to Dirty Dicks to get some crabs. But we spotted the Gay Dolphin and the ocean and we were in seventh heaven. No parking fees at this off-season time of year, yay! So we jumped out of the car and high tailed it to the boardwalk, where everyone but us was in coats. Seriously? It was 72 degrees by this point! The wind was high and the waves were crashing. It's so thrilling to see the ocean, because we see it so rarely. We took our shoes off and ran in, and ran back out just as quickly. It was COOOOOLD! We took lots of pictures. Then we took our sandy feet into the Gay Dolphin and perused the interesting variety of items for sale.

There's not much more you could want from a gift shop, that's for sure. Eventually, we exited with more postcards, and went back to the car. luckiestdaughter tried to convince me to go on some horrific bungee jumping-type ride, complete with rainbow coloured towers, but I declined. So we got back in the car and the GPS again tried to take us away from our pre-programmed destination ("Dick's Last Resort"). It was advertised as the place your mother told you about, heavy on sarcasm. Ha ha ha that was an understatement. The waitstaff are rude beyond compare. They throw things at you, they insult you, and they make you wear durrrrty sloganed hats. Perhaps this was where Clay had that condom hat shot taken? There was a table of people across from us, from Ohio. One guy had a toque on. The waiter called it a 'toboggan'. I think maybe that's a brand name, kind of like how we call tissues 'Kleenex'. In any case, it's funny. The other waiter knew one table was from Ohio and one from Canada. He pegged the toboggan wearer as the Canadian. He was surprised that we weren't from NC I think. Lindsay had her NC Tar Heels hat on, and I was dressed for the beach. He was also surprised that we didn't like hockey. Stereo-typical much? LOL. We told him we liked baseball and the Blue Jays. He kept calling me Grandma. One table ordered dessert. The waiter asked if everyone like magic tricks. Then he got 3 spoons, licked one, shuffled them, and put them on the table. Told them to enjoy their dessert. Ewwwwwwww!

We managed to get ourselves out of there without injury and headed for Wilmington NC. The sun was just setting by the time we got there. We found Wrightsville Beach and hit the pier. Most stuff was still closed for the season, it looked like. We at least got to pee and buy more postcards. There were many surfers in wetsuits and fishermen coming out for the evening. Interesting practice. We hit Starbuck's on our way out of town, and then it was a pretty boring drive in the dark to Raleigh. All in all, a really fun day, with a lot of driving. Sure, we could have done it in less time, but what fun would that have been?

We checked into our hotel on Glenwood Ave (my favourite street in the world) and called our friends in Wilson. The plan is to hang out with them tomorrow, before heading home v.v. early Sunday morning.