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

[shortyjill]

Clay talked to me!!! (sorta). But he ran with the jokes about my top 40 artist!! And I got a hand smack in the bus line! And I got lots and lots of veeeerrrrra niiiice pictures! They'll be up in the coming days!

All I can really say right now is and JEANS!!

I did get to see cindilu2 and luckiest1 briefly. Met up with Ficus (we were actually sitting next to each other for the night). And I met Scarlett, LauraQ, PoisonIvy, Snix and a bunch of others.... it was SUCH a good concert!! I can't wait for Clack!! I actually took video of the auto-tune song and UM. I'm gonna *try* to get those uploaded tonight, and if they work they'll be up at CU tomorrow. If not, look for it by the weekend.

[treenuts]

Thighs Niiiice pics, bc! But why no pics of Clay "standing" and showing off those mighty fine assets of his (full frontal and rear view)

in what appear to be some veeeery promising new jeans?? Eh?

[shortyjill]

Just wanna say videos are uploaded. They should be all fixed and purdy sometime tomorrow. I'll let ya'll know when. *grin* I'm working on weeding out pictures and I should get them tagged in the next couple days. Good god was he to die for tonight!!! I am still majorly in an Aiken Fog so don't ask me to recap just yet.... haha!

Oh and I flipped when he started singing Misty! That's my song!! *sniffle* No, really... my name is Misty!!!

[luckiest1]

We just crossed the border back into Canada...cindilu2, who is driving, has one thing to say...Fucking Misty??????????? Other than that, fantastic concert! Thanks to LauraQ, goldarngirl and Scarlett, we were in pit row B and luckiestdaughter finally got her picture with Clay! Details tomorrow...err, later today.

[shortyjill]

*snort* I see one of us loved it and the other hated it.

I wasn't really going to post any pics tonight but I'm getting to the ones where he was talking...he uses his hands just sooo much! I thought this one was funny (it gets really big if you click on it at the site):

[cindilu2]

1030 kms round trip in a day. Home. Dead. Happy.

But Misty? Srsly????

[bottlecap]

Thighs Niiiice pics, bc! But why no pics of Clay "standing" and showing off those mighty fine assets of his (full frontal and rear view)

in what appear to be some veeeery proming new jeans?? Eh?

'Cause my standing pictures weren't all that clear. But here you go....

Pre-tie removal

Later

[luckiest1]

*snort* I see one of us loved it and the other hated it.

But Misty? Srsly????

Hee, I woudln't say we hated it, but we were all looking at each other with WTF expressions when he went into it in place of Solitaire/Both Sides Now/The Real Me on the 'encore'. It just wasn't what we were expecting (or hoping for!)

cindilu2, I can't believe you posted before you crashed last night. Seriously, I probably slept 3/4 of the way home, and I know luckiestdaughter had a nap the last hour or so. But you were going on only a few hours sleep from the night before! You must be superwoman or something. The things we do (and miles we drive) for Clay!!!

bottlecap, thank you for taking full body shots. I love full body shots.

[aikim]

"Tomorrow; Tomorrow, I Love Ya, Tomorrow!"

1 Day until Clay is Wowing us in Waukegan!

Happy Birthday to all celebrating!

Everyone Have a great day!

Kim

[shortyjill]

*snort* I see one of us loved it and the other hated it.

But Misty? Srsly????

Hee, I woudln't say we hated it, but we were all looking at each other with WTF expressions when he went into it in place of Solitaire/Both Sides Now/The Real Me on the 'encore'. It just wasn't what we were expecting (or hoping for!)

cindilu2, I can't believe you posted before you crashed last night. Seriously, I probably slept 3/4 of the way home, and I know luckiestdaughter had a nap the last hour or so. But you were going on only a few hours sleep from the night before! You must be superwoman or something. The things we do (and miles we drive) for Clay!!!

bottlecap, thank you for taking full body shots. I love full body shots.

Oh I thought it was weird too for him to throw that song in there, but I'm not complaining! Heehee!

It doesn't seem too hard to sleep after a Clay concert....I was easily up till almost 4 just being on a Clay high. I think I got a total of around 3 1/2 - 4 hours sleep. Yeah, you know what I'm doing on the drive home. LOL

[luckiest1]

This recap neeeeeds to come out but I'm supposed to be working.

So yesterday morning, I get up, check my email and the boards, notice some EEEEEEing about the Cincinnati concert, download clack of The Real Me, EEEEEEEEE myself, and email cindilu2 with the subject line 'remind me why we aren't going to Fort Wayne concert tonight???'. She responds with something along the lines of we are poor, we have to work, life sucks, etc. I agree, we commiserate, and then we both head off to work. As I'm leaving the driveway, I get a text message. I stop long enough to read it and it says 'did you mapquest Fort Wayne?'. I replied no, why? I get back 'why not????' And so our crazy, unexpected, insanely spontaneous trip to Indiana started. I ran back in the house to grab my passport and headed to work.

I got to work, and between the two of us we determined:

- it was a 5 1/2 hour drive

- there was no time difference

- the concert started at 7:30, so if we left at noon we could still make it

So the ticket search began. I emailed PBS and got an immediate response that they had two 'pit' seats left if I want them, but I had to act fast as there were others interested. So I called and secured them at will call, and cindilu2 was IMing with people on CV to find another ticket for my daughter (who we still hadn't been able to contact, but we knew she had the day off work). We both made our excuses about having to leave work early (that sounds so much better than 'blatantly lied to our bosses' doesn't it?) Shortly before 10 am and a meeting I was scheduled to attend, it all came together, daughter was on board (as I knew she would be). I tried to look interested in the training session I was attending until they let me go just prior to noon!

We met at cindilu2's place and hit the road, with a quick run through Mickey D's drive through for sustenance. We were all still in the "WTF are we doing, this is insane" mode LOL. We hit some wicked blowing snow between here and the border, but once we got across is was clear sailing, sunshine all the way. TomTom gave us good directions and we arrived at the venue just past 5:30. We hit the box office to pick up our tickets at will call and noticed that the M&G people were all milling around. We went outside to wait for LauraQ, who had our last ticket, and we noticed Scarlett running into the M&G a bit behind schedule. Next thing we know, she runs back outside saying "I need one more person!" So we shoved luckiestdaughter at her and told her 'go, go, go!'. I don't think she knew what was happening but she went.

We waited a few more minutes and they trickled out. luckiestdaughter was just beaming, and launched herself at me and we jumped up and down and EEEEEEed for a few minutes. She was over-the-moon because she got an individual picture, which is what she wasn't able to get in Charlotte. No chance for a tatoo autograph, but that was ok. She got one of the b&w venue advertisements signed instead. She said he looked like Christmas, with his green sweat pant shorts, and a red University of Mass. sweater. She described his hair as a mess, kind of like two horns. She doesn't think he looked in the mirror before he came to the M&G, probably just rolled right out of bed LOL. She said he took her hand in both of his when he asked her name, and she was so mesmerized by the red in his scruffy beard that she almost forgot to answer. She was in seventh heaven, y'all.

So we headed down to a restaurant at the corner and had a bite to eat with goldarngirl and her hubby. She mentioned that she might want to switch tickets with us if her seats were 'too close'. We couldn't imagine such a thing, but sure enough, when we got into the theatre, she was good to her word and generously switched her row B pit seats with out row E non-pit seats. luckiestdaughter was behind us in non-pit row B. I noticed Scarlett in our row in the pit so I thanked her for taking luckiestdaughter into the M&G with her. She said the seat beside her was empty, did I know anyone who wanted it? Hee! luckiestdaughter was there in a flash. So we all got to sit in pit row B. Seriously, how did this all happen? Thank you to everyone who made it possible!

The concert was amazing. Clay was in such a good mood and was so loose we almost wondered if he'd had a glass of wine or something before the show. He started on about how last night, a lady in the 2nd row of the pit had had a seizure, and how he though maybe it was because of his 'animal magnetism'. LMAO. He warned all of us in 2nd row to watch out! We were hooting and hollering at him, it was a great energy and he was soaking it up. He got so far into his explanation of the Clay Aiken medley and then, just out of the blue, said he had to take his tie off because it made him look 3 months pregnant, he'd seen the pictures. It was hilarious.

In the intro to the auto tune he made a reference to having sung "I Kissed A Girl" before and he made a funny face about that. The Who's Sorry Now portion was hysterical. He did some deep knee bends and growly notes in the 'old school funk' and he did some great hip shakes in the 'merenge'. Can't wait to get home tonight and watch that clack again. Really, the whole concert was just fantastic, every song, every bit of banter, I was totally and completely mermerized the whole night. He was right.in.front.of.us. I could see his feet. He wore jeans. I want to be able to do that every night for the rest of my life. I swear. Please?

Ok, I do admit we went to this concert with the hope that he might repeat The Real Me. We knew he might not (especially with his 'this song is now retired' quip) but we still had pretty high hopes. I mean, it's cindilu2's favourite song from OMWH, and my daughter has the lyrics from it tattoed on her leg (no, I'm not kidding). So it's kind of a big deal for us. After UM, he started talking about spontaneity, and how he'd sung this song last night, and we were almost squeeeeing with excitement. And then we heard the intro for Misty, and we all looked at each other like "WTF????" It's not that we dislike Misty, it's just that it totally wasn't expected at that point in the show. I am sure that the woman who requested it in the M&G was thrilled. But it was just a momentary thing. We wouldn't change a minute of the evening we had. Everything just seemed to fall into place for us and it was one of those special concert experiences that you just can't even begin to describe in words. It's almost hard to believe, in the light of day, that it really happened. I mean, here I sit at work as though nothing special happened last night. LOL.

[bottlecap]

A couple pf notes about how the show is still evolving. In laughn's M&G last night (keep an eye out for her recap - she remembers lots of details, and should be writing them up later), Clay was discussing the jazzy medley of his own songs. He told the M&G'ers they dropped "Open Arms" because the crowds didn't give it the same response as they did for his better-known songs, like "Invisible" and "The Way". During the concert, Clay mentioned there was an awkward transition - I think it was from the jazzy medley to the next song. He interrupted the lyrics to proclaim he had just figured out how to fix it, so you Waukegan-ites should get the benefit of that. I like very much how this format allows Clay and the band to nimbly make changes and tweaks from show to show.

[cindilu2]

A couple pf notes about how the show is still evolving. In laughn's M&G last night (keep an eye out for her recap - she remembers lots of details, and should be writing them up later), Clay was discussing the jazzy medley of his own songs. He told the M&G'ers they dropped "Open Arms" because the crowds didn't give it the same response as they did for his better-known songs, like "Invisible" and "The Way". During the concert, Clay mentioned there was an awkward transition - I think it was from the jazzy medley to the next song. He interrupted the lyrics to proclaim he had just figured out how to fix it, so you Waukegan-ites should get the benefit of that. I like very much how this format allows Clay and the band to nimbly make changes and tweaks from show to show.

Can't wait to hear more deets from laughn. One thing - I thought he said about the transition between the Who's Sorry Now madness and the next song. Either way, it was so cute how he just blurted it out. He's such a boy sometimes! ETA: if he's that sensitive to the crowd reaction then we'll never again get Misty as an encore

I'm sorry we didn't get to chat (again). We pretty much ran from the venue to get on the road home.

If Clay should hire Scarlett for Clack taking, he should absolutely hire luckiest1 for her mad chronicling skillz. I am very glad that I travel with her on most of my Clay adventures. Typing yeah, that is so much easier!!!

[bottlecap]

Here's laughn's M&G recap from GCA:

Just home from Ft Wayne but I wanted to post this M&G recap before other things from the concert came flooding into my brain and I lost some thoughts. My brain can only hold so much you know.

We were the last M&G before the show - the OFC peeps and the auction winners - about 9 of us. We had waited through two PBS M&Gs held before ours and held in a different location. They went right, we headed left with Jerome. They checked photo IDs twice. The venue had checked our IDs when we first arrived and gave us our M&G tags. Jerome asked us for our photo IDs once again before he let us pass. We were led down to the pit area and seated by number in the first row of seats. The floor moved under our feet when we were taking our seats but nothing like it did when Jerome walked off to get Clay or when Clay jumped off the stage and took a step later. Made me laugh during the show that he mentioned the floor being held up by strings, lol. The M&G gal sitting next to me had the seat right behind us for the show that evening. I saw her again after the show and she said the floor didn't didn't feel like it was moving at all then, so the weight of a full pit audience must have anchored it better. It was a weird sensation.

Anyhow, Clay walked out on stage and sat in front of us, all sweatshirt and cut off sweats with his t-shirt hem sticking out in back. Looked like my kid dresses. He seemed totally casual with the loveliest smile ever. His hair looked soft and shinny and I thought already styled for the show. Pretty color.

Some time in that immediate rush of adrenaline when you realize you're talking to Clay Aiken and have no idea if he's even wearing shoes, he asked our names and shook our hands and found out where we were all from. The Great White North was represented on both ends of the row. He teased them later about taking over the M&G questions, but they really were not. We were all pretty gabby. He was just doing the regular Aiken tease with folk. Seemed amused by the gal from Michigan City, IN. Said he assumed that was close to Michigan. lol. Where we were from also lead to one of the M&G questions, "When are you going to come to Lansing." He said he thought he had already been there and seemed up for a argument, abet a light one. He really thought he had performed there. Anyhow, he stated again during that conversation that this tour would be it for a bit. He used a cute phrase for that, (for a short amount of time) but right now I can't remember what it was. Sorry.

canuck actually asked my favorite question. She asked why is was that we sometimes hear him speaking with a horse voice but when he sang his voice was beautiful. He spent a great deal of time explaining the process. He rubbed his hands on his neck and said that was where his talking voice came from. He then took his fingers and rubbed from his nose out, under his eyes and said that was where his singing voice came from. There and the area above his eyes as well. (He rubbed his fingers over that upper sinus area too) He said some low notes come from the throat but mostly he sang from the area from his nose up and that he had to consciously had to throw his voice up there when he's singing - well, I guess up or down depending on the song. He said that was why What Kind of Fool Am I was one of his favorites because the notes from that song are all from nose up. I don't know much about music and singing but I'm sure that makes sense to the folks who do. He also said he has never taken vocal lessons and that most performers think they know their voices better than other folk.

Lovely Canadian gal to my left said she had been at Raleigh PBS taping and the sound in that theater had been so rich and wonderful and asked if he (or they) up on stage could hear the difference like that from other performances. He said no, he couldn't hear any of that. He said every venue was different and the same man who did the sound in Raleigh did the sound for this tour. He said he was told (meaning from the sound guy) that the Ft Wayne theater had some bad spots for sound but apparently the sound guy must have fixed them because Clay praised the way Quiana was sounding up on stage during the show. And in case you didn't know, Clay sounded wonderful to.

Same gal asked about the Jazz medley and the changes in the set since the beginning of the tour. He said it just didn't work or feel right at the beginning and that even now they are still playing with it. He said when people respond to hearing The Way and TITN and MOAM he knows they recognize the song as his. He said he did not get that kind of response from Open Arms and he didn't feel people knew that song as his so much so they just decided to remove it from the set. I guess I was pretty impressed that he was gauging audience reactions so closely and that they were still tweaking this far into the tour.

Someone in the middle of the group asked if he still remembered much of his signing. (ASL) They now do that daily in their profession and they still remember watching Clay sign during concerts. He said he only remember some basic commands and words and stressed repeatedly that they need to keep using it so they would lose it.

I couldn't see who asked, canuck or yaknell, about the power outage in Vancouver that happened shortly before he was going to perform there one concert and he said he wasn't aware. He teased about us knowing more of this stuff than he did.

He was asked who 'Team Clay, ' was. He said he didn't know for sure. He figures it represents everyone in the management office, (Clay named everyone) but it wouldn't be a name he would use.

My question was about Sporcle. I asked if he had a Sporcle app for his phone. He stopped and got this funny look on his face and said he had no idea what I was talking about. I told him it was a website for quizzes. His head sort of went up then, (he was signing our items as he was answering some questions) and he said that sounded interesting. I had heard that he loved taking quizzes and I figured that might be fun for him if he didn't know that site existed. The new director at our art museum suggested the staff visit that site now and then to exercise our brains. I didn't tell Clay that. LOL

We all hopped up then and got into line to have our pictures snapped. (more floor movement ) One gal got her picture snapped out of line so we had to stop for a moment and reorganize. They had to make sure our names and seat numbers matched the picture order so we would all get the correct photos. Clay said he told the folks in Cincinnati the night before that they were the only ones who had gone through the process without getting mixed up, so you Cincy M&Gers give yourselves a pat on the back!! Hee.

That was it. We all said good-bye, Clay jumped back on stage and I wished him a good night, and out we walked.

Odds and ends:

While waiting for the two earlier M&G to finish I watched Ben just looking out the venue door standing in the lobby. He was there for a long time and I wondered what he was thinking.

People in the lobby talked to Jerome a bit. He said they don't look out to see what the weather is while traveling. Not unless the bus swerves. LOL. Said he sleeps in the bunks like everyone else. His is just a bit deeper/taller, but no longer than the others. He golfs, but not nearly as good as Felix. He just sort of drops his ball somewhere near Felix's ball and shoots from there.

The OFC/auction M&G ended around 6:40 so he had just an hour to finish getting ready before he hit the stage. We talked for almost half an hour.

Mary was there and took our pictures.

When we walked in we noticed a uniformed police office near the side door, (off duty security?) and someone in our group suggested that our reputations must have proceeded us if they thought tasers were needed.

That's it. Brain dump. If there's something I've forgotten, I don't know it. LOL

I had a wonderful time and I realize very much how lucky I am.

[aikim]

Thank you to my dear friend Sandy (Fearofh20) for getting my post signed..it came in the mail today! At the risk of repeating myself ad naseum, back in 2007 I made a post at the OFC and Clay quoted and replied to it..I have been wanting to get it signed forever. Sandy was gracious enough to ask him to sign it for me during her M&G. The only reason I had asked her to do so was because I knew she had a PBS M&G and OFC M&G...unfortunately, the he did not sign things at the PBS M&G in Charlotte and I figured it may not happen. But she brought it with to her OFC M&G and begged Mary to let her have two things signed and was able to get it done.

So today it came in the mail..she put it in a folder and then between cardboard in the envelope so it wouldn't get wrinkled..it was merely a computer print out.

Just his signature, but I am thrilled that he saw it...Clay, I will never forget the moment when I realized it was my post you had replied to...I was probably fangirly for the first time in my life and I will never forget it. My 15 minutes of fame in the fandom.

to Sandy...you're the best!

Kim

[cindilu2]

Terrific recap, laughn. I'm in awe of your recall. :bowdown:

aikim, congrats on your autograph.

My photoshop skillz are being put to the test with the few decent Ft. Wayne photos I got

[ldyjocelyn]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEE for bc and laughn and luckiest and cindilu and shortyjill and...who else? Hee! Thanks for the great recaps and pictures~

Cool story aikim! Can't wait for you to tell again to me tomorrow in the car as we're heading to see CLAAAAAAAAY!

[shortyjill]

I'm about to do the second sorting of pictures. I might actually get them up to share tonight! Woohoo!

[cindilu2]

Some of the funny faces from last night. He was very... animated!

[cindilu2]

He was also very, very beautiful...

Lashes!

If you want to know why I love him so, it's in his kiss!

Slideshow

[FearofH2O]

thanks Kim. So glad it makes you happy. :thbighug-1:

[cindilu2]

Nothing? Really?

Sigh.

[bottlecap]

Slideshow

treenuts, that rear view of the Fort Wayne jeans you were looking for just might be hidden in cindilu's slideshow...

[ldyjocelyn]

cindi, ya gotta remember.....some of us are packing for our trip to see Clay tomorrow and are just now getting back to the board. Having siad that....niiiiiiiiiiiiice pictures....

I get to see Clay tomorrow night! Will I even be able to sleep tonight?

[Couch Tomato]

cindi, ya gotta remember.....some of us are packing for our trip to see Clay tomorrow and are just now getting back to the board. Having siad that....niiiiiiiiiiiiice pictures....

I get to see Clay tomorrow night! Will I even be able to sleep tonight?

No! ha ha.

For people coming to San Francisco I have made a reservation for the pre-show dinner. I will give details tomorrow night after I go eat there and make sure the food is good! I honestly have no idea how many are coming but I've reserved for 15. If you can RSVP in the thread I can get the real number by Wednesday of next week.