# 63: Clay Aiken for President!

[shortyjill]

Woohoo!!!! One of the BEST things I've read in a while!! This should go for gbmifan too!

[FearofH2O]

Someone called a venue in Raleigh and they said they were working on it. So it looks like four stops so far.

[Desertrose]

Heh. Now he's getting a bit pissy!

Never mind. You'll get what you get, and that will be it. Done.

I know for many this is frustrating the hell out of them, and I totally understand that, because I sure would like to know if I should plan on a concert or not. But at the same time -- I don't follow the conversations between Clay and his followers all that much, so I'm guessing he's had a few too many people "tell" him what to do, and so he tweets this. I have to admit I chuckled at this tweet.

I did not see any tweets telling Clay what to do. Most tweets were asking him what he wanted his fans to do to help so they could do it. A lot of the tweets told him of the venues that fans had already contacted. All of the tweets I saw were wanting to help him but they did not know what to make of the line up of states that he posted. It was not clear, very confusing as to what he meant. Lots of guessing going on as to what he wanted fans to do.

My guess is that he wanted us to do something, but did not feel comfortable putting it out there for non fans or haters to see, so he was somehow hinting what he wanted, but his message was not getting through to us, and he got frustrated. If it was contacting venues and requesting his tour, fans tweeted him that they would do that.

[aikim]

I think the fans have a tendency to over think Clay's tweets and read too much into them..the one yesterday...taken at face value..without looking for hidden meanings was pretty clear...Ignore my last tweet...we've booked the tour.. Some of the theories I have read of what Clay meant are just mind boggling.

Kim

[gbmifan]

Home from work and saw the Tweet. Yes!!! Michigan is a go. I love that man.

[ldyjocelyn]

Wish I cld send these storms we keep gettingEVERY NIGHT 2 the Midwest! They need the rain, and Im tired of my crap DirecTv going out nightly

Thanks Clay! I wish that would happen too, as we need the rain badly!

[merrieeee]

All I can say is the Opening Ceremony was bloody brilliant!

Oh and Clay the dancers were all volunteers not professionals!

I loved it! Fortunately I had lilyshine to give me some commentary that was actually useful, as opposed to the drivel of the network commentators. There was a lot of national symbolism that you also, merrieeee, understood, I'm sure--not the least of which was about what I kept calling "the hill". Anything you are in the mood to share here about the symbolism would be most interesting to me. I loved the national health segment and some of those doctors and nurses could really dance! Bean was hilarious--I usually don't laugh at him, but I laughed my face off. And I loved the segment with the Queen and James Bond. I think she's beautiful and such an amazing person. I was very impressed with the choices regarding the cauldron and the lighting of the torch, and also the choices of flag bearers. They did a fantastic job of conveying the meaning of the Olympic movement.

For me that was the main reason I just could not get into the opening ceremonies..way too much symbolism for me and unless you really know your English history, I think a lot of people would be lost. It just did not keep my attention. I did enjoy the "Queen's" entrance..that was pretty funny. For me..I watch the ceremonies for the parade of nations..that to me is the most enjoyable. It seems like each host country tries to outdo the previous host country and sometimes it is just overkill.

Kimf

If the commentators had been on the top of their game they should have explained the symbolism. For example; Unless you knew who Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a lot of the Industrial Revolution section would have not been understood. I thought the coverage by NBC stank! They cut out some things that they didn't think people would understand. There was a brilliant intro done by Benedict Cumberbatch (swa-oon) that was not shown here!

I dislike Bob Costas intently and that's all I'm going to say about that......and as for Seacrest interviewing people.....yuck!

Did you know those were the Queen's Corgis! She was asked if she wanted stunt doubles for them and she said no!

[Couch Tomato]

I agree about the commentators Merrieee. It's like they didn't know what was going on so a lot of the audience didn't. I'll admit we were perplexed a lot of the time. There were some amazing moments though and my favorite part is always the parade of nations.

I hate the non live coverage. You have to basically ignore everything all day so you don't know what the hell happened. I was so pissed to see the swimming result before it aired. The drama is part of the fun. And I'd rather see more sports and less "human interest" coverage. And I turn the channel every time Seacrest comes on. I'm just sick of him. And since he's doing the emotional moment segments I don't feel like I'm missing anything by turning.

I don't particularly care for Costas or the coverage and the whole "you are a loser if you don't win gold" attitude or the focus on a few select athletes.. Nobody is invincible and all records are made to be broken. I also hated that I was watching NBC and they came and told a result on the archery and then showed just the last shot to win. I did go back and watch it online and that is something that should have been shown. I don't know why we have to watch every heat of swimming or every round of beach volley ball but can't see a fascinating archery match.

I guess I'm going to have to study the schedule and just tape everything I want to see live and just watch the dvr. And of course ignore all news, facebook, espn, etc for the next two weeks.

[shortyjill]

Or do what I do and surround yourself by those who don't watch or follow Olympics. (if you want to smack me, feel free, I might deserve it lol)

I guess I don't understand the fuss about the bad commentary or the NBC hate. Maybe it's because I ignored the commentary going on and just listened to my own thoughts for most of it. The cameras at least were objective and we still saw (almost) everything. I still enjoyed them and thought London did a really good job.

I had the thought today...and this kinda goes along with Couchie's complaint of missing certain events... I know the Olympics are an NBC exclusive, but these cable companies have stations galore dedicated as alternative stations for sports. Look at all the "season pass" channels for the NBA and NHL. We have Dish Network and they have at least a couple dozen alternative sports channels that are never used! Why can't they negotiate a deal so they can use some of those stations to air the full amount of one event? That way if you only want to watch swimming or archery or volleyball or whatever it is, you can watch it?

I'm sure there's a thousand snags involved, and a monopoly is probably one...but still.. it makes no sense to me.... heck they could even put together an exclusive deal with Comcast since NBC is owned by them (or is it the other way around?). And that might even entice true Olympic fanatics to switch services...

[FearofH2O]

Only watched about 15 minutes of the Olympics so far. Went to Tai Chi yesterday and did okay so my back is getting better. We backed a delicious key lime chiffon pie in the afternoon before we started our cleaning up the driveway thing. Pavers are coming Tuesday. Next job is to clean up our garage.

I guess we will be getting the concert dates at any time. I wonder if we can get seats at the OFC like we did for some of the other tours? Only a little over 4 months before the PA date so they better get moving.

[aikim]

NBC's Coverage..too many commercials, too much Ryan and not enough actual sporting events. I also turn the channel when Ryan is on. My husband who has never watched American Idol and barely knows who Ryan is even asked me what he had to do with sports.

83 Days until the Gala!:

:Happy Birthday to all celebrating!

Everyone have a great day!

Kim

[ldyjocelyn]

couchie, I read this article a few days ago and thought about its implications within the Clay fandom. And now, with your rant about the Olympics and spoilers, I thought of it again. I'm curious to see what you think of it. I'm posting it here, because you have to be a subscriber to read the full article. It's from Time magazine this week:

Monday, Jul. 30, 2012

The End Is Near

By James Poniewozik

I had my first movie spoiled for me when I was about 7 years old, by a Peanuts comic strip. Linus is watching Citizen Kane on TV; his sister Lucy says she's seen it 10 times. (Precocious kids, those Van Pelts.) Linus says this is his first. Lucy: "'Rosebud' was his sled." Linus: "AAUGH!!"

Oh--spoiler alert. Time was, there were relatively few dangers for having the endings of stories blown for you: an indiscreet newspaper review, a vintage comic strip, your crabby sister. Today unwanted plot bombs lurk like muggers in an alley. Blog headlines. Twitter updates. Facebook posts. That sudden "CAN U BELIEVE JOSHUA VOTED OFF IDOL" text from your cousin.

Along with cyberterrorism and malware, spoilers are the great fear of the Internet age, the result of technological changes that push in two directions. Thanks to DVDs, DVRs, Netflix and the like, people can wait to watch until tomorrow night or next year. At the same time, social media let opening-night viewers react as soon as the credits roll. The plot twists of the British series Downton Abbey are right there on Wikipedia long before you can watch them here in the colonies. For the spoiler-sensitive, this is truly the age of AAUGH!!

But it shouldn't be. I could never unread that Peanuts comic, but when I watched Kane years later, I realized that there were about a million things in it that were more important than what little Charles Foster Kane called his damn sled. If Linus kept the TV on, I'm betting he watched a sweeping, insightful movie about ambition, about hubris, about getting everything and finding that it's not nearly enough--all of which is accentuated, not ruined, by knowing what Kane's last word referred to.

As a critic, I'm exposed to beyond-the-threshold levels of spoilerage as a job hazard. But even as a casual fan, I've never been bothered by knowing ahead of time that--plot points bleeped to protect the hypersensitive--Vader was Luke's

, that Snape turned out to be

and Dumbledore gets

or that The Sixth Sense's Bruce Willis was a

the whole time. A spoiler is at worst an irritation. At best, it's a liberation--from obsessing about the least important part of a story.

This summer, NBC is airing perhaps the most spoiler-vulnerable event in TV, the Olympics, and it looks like the network has come to agree with me. Well, kind of. In the past, NBC has kept most of its Games footage locked down, saving events for tape delay in prime time. The simple reason: the more people who saw the events live--or heard the results during the day--the fewer who would tune in to watch those expensive prime-time ads.

This year, that's all changed. NBC says it will air every last swim, jump and shot put live, either online or on its sister cable channels. If you want to wait for its slick nighttime production, you're welcome to, but between news reports and the Facebook and Twitter updates from your friends live-streaming beach volleyball, it will require an Olympian effort not to have the events spoiled.

NBC is not making this change out of some high-minded principle. Like any network, it needs to find ways to make online video work as a business. It realizes that results are going to leak and tweeters are going to tweet, no matter what it does. But most important, TV networks have been finding that spoilers actually boost ratings for live events, from awards shows to tennis matches: as East Coasters spill the results, buzz builds, and West Coast ratings actually go up.

It's a paradox of the spoiler culture, and not the only one. Audiences today are both more spoiler-paranoid and spoiler-obsessed. On the one hand, entire fan sites exist for the sole purpose of leaking photos from movie shoots and copies of scripts. On the other, fans cry bloody spoilerage over picayune details like what year a season of Mad Men is set in. (Spoiler alert: sometime in the '60s.) The push-pull of temptation and TMI is so great that critic Dan Kois once codified a spoiler statute of limitations across genres. (Unmarked spoilers for a movie: O.K. the Monday after it opens. For a reality show? The second it's over.)

And it turns out, even if you think a spoiler has ruined a story for you, it likely did just the opposite. In 2011 researchers at the University of California, San Diego, had undergraduates read a dozen classic short stories, including Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," which has one of the most famous twist endings in literature. One group of students read a spoiler beforehand; the other didn't. In 11 of 12 cases, the "spoiled" readers enjoyed the stories more.

That doesn't surprise me. A spoiler may be rude and unwelcome, but it also frees you from focusing on what and lets you pay attention to how and why. Fixating on spoilers and plot twists trains you to scour narratives for clues instead of character. It turns stories into Rubik's Cubes: Figure out the solution and they're done.

But despite the sugar rush that a shocking "reveal" offers--and from Inception to Lost, pop culture today is reveal-crazy--that's not what lingers from a good story. It's Luke leaving his ruined farm on Tatooine and seeking his destiny in Star Wars; Carrie Mathison chasing her demons in Homeland; Don Draper distilling heartbreak into an ad-campaign pitch on Mad Men. What finally mattered about The Sopranos was not the surprise ending but what it meant, what Tony deserved and how we responded to everything that came before it. Any story that can be ruined by giving away the ending wasn't worth your time in the first place. Does anyone refuse to see Romeo and Juliet again because we know they

themselves?

True, not all spoilers are created equal. For the results of a competition I care about--say, Top Chef, which is my Olympics--I'll stick my fingers in my ears and scream "La la la la!" as loud as anyone. And sure, if you call up a friend out of the blue, it won't kill you to say, "Whoa, did you just see The Walking Dead?" before you start blabbing.

But I also realize that the world is not going to stop while I catch up with it. If avoiding spoilers matters that much to you, of course, by all means stream that 200-m backstroke online, watch that episode of Breaking Bad now, pony up for an opening-weekend movie ticket. But if you can't or won't, don't expect Facebook, the news industry and your office watercooler to fall silent for you. The Olympics are news, and TV, movies and books are part of a cultural conversation, one that ultimately matters as much or more in our lives than what goes on in the stories themselves.

More important, it would be a shame to cut yourself off from that conversation by locking yourself in a cone of silence. Spoilers and twists aren't that important in the long run. Because--spoiler alert--you're not going to live forever, and what makes your life worthwhile, like any other story, is how you get through it and the people with whom you talk about it.

shortyjill, my Comcast DID allow two extra channels on the cable box of Olympics -- one strictly for soccer and the other for...I can't remember at the moment. So that means (for me at least) 6 different channels airing a portion of the Olympics at some time during the day (NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, Bravo and those two special channels). And if you subscribe to ANY service like Comcast or Dish, you can go to nbcolympics.com, sign up and watch what you want live. They have EVERYTHING.

I too didn't much like the two commentators for the Opening Ceremonies., but I felt I could easily tune them out. Shrug.

And I'm going to go out on a limb here -- I actually don't mind Seacrest. I watched one of his human interest interviews, and he actually asked pretty good questions, much better than some of the other interviewers (like Matt Lauer -- what happened to him? He used to be good, now he's just very bleh...) He's gotta be doing something right, because he really has turned into the Dick Clark for the next generation. If you don't like him, that's fine, but at least for the Olympic venue, he's OK. (Idol -- different matter...)

ETA: just checked my newspaper, and I have access to 8 channels carrying the Olympics. Telemundo is carrying stuff, plus there's something called the NBC Sports Channel. The other special channel is for nothing but basketball.

[shortyjill]

I know you can stream, but it's a pain to me. I'll watch stuff on my computer but I'm actually not a big fan of it (unless it's clack! lol). If I can watch something on my TV over having to watch it online, I'd rather do that. Besides.... do they really think a casual watcher like me is going to get up at 5am to watch an event live? I know when I found that out I said uhhhhh nope. Never mind.

NBC Sports is the one station we don't get that I wish we did. It's one package up I think. But of course, it's the station that's airing equestrian, which is one the few events I wanted to see. I think the only one I'm interested in watching right now is water polo, there's a girl from Ann Arbor who is goalie for the team. I always like to watch and cheer on the locals.

ETA: I will say that's good of Comcast to have a couple extra channels for the more watched sports.

[Couch Tomato]

Interesting article and it's so true. Spoilers come from you at all angles so they are very hard to avoid. Some shows I don't mind spoilers. Others I just don't want to know. For the Olympics I don't want to know all the results before I watch. So I've decided to just DVR everything live and watch my tapes. Avoid the NBC spoilery coverage as much as possible. They at least used to say "we're about to give results if you want to leave the room." That has gone out the window. I have access to live coverage online and I went looking yesterday to watch gymnastics coverage and the 400 men's competition but both were blacked out. It just said concluded with no opportunity to watch. Every other sports you could still watch a tape of the live feed. Not sure what that is about but the women gymnastics is available today live. But I don't see it on ANY of the multiple tv channels that carry the olympics. I guess that is their money ball and they want to force you to watch NBC primetime. But NBC's spotty coverage of gymnastics was horrible last night. When I watch, I want to see the competition, not just the Americans. Or they'll show you a gold medal contender of another country if they fall or something.

Back in the early day I couldn't get enough of multiple boards. Now, i just am not interested in filling the down times with anything. I just want to know when there is something firmed up.

[luckiest1]

I just got back from an internet-less weekend in Collingwood for the annual Elvis festival. I had my iPhone, of course, but the only time I had wifi was in Starbuck's and in one restaurant during dinner. Between Elvis events, we watched the Olympics. There are a few channels here to pick from, so if you don't like what's on one, you check the other. We do get live coverage, and then they just start repeating things once the events are over (because of the time difference). I really enjoyed the opening ceremonies...the Queen, James Bond, and the corgis was hilarious, as was Mr. Bean and the Chariots of Fire sequence. I was patiently waiting for Sir Paul right until the end! But he was tweeting from backstage so I knew I hadn't missed him, LOL. I thought he looked pretty good (as he has been looking a little haggard lately IMO) and I love that he did his usual "just the men, now just the ladies" bit in Hey Jude at the Olympics, no less!

The freaking vocal few fans always ruin it for the majority, don't they? When I saw Clay's tweet, I knew without even looking what was going on. But I'm pumped to hear about a Michigan concert, since it's the closest state to me. I fully intend to buy probably more tickets than I will be able to use, since any road travel from here in December is going to be weather permitting. We had very little snow last year, so what are the odds we'll have another winter like that again?

[merrieeee]

For those interested here is the media guide for the Opening Cermonies of the Olympic Games:

http://www.london2012.com/mm/Document/Documents/Publications/01/30/43/40/OPENINGCEREMONYGUIDE_English.pdf

[Couch Tomato]

Thanks Merriee. I was reading around today and learned that NBC edited out certain parts of the opening ceremonies... e.g. the tribute to victims of terrorism. Instead of showing it, they went to a Ryan Seacrest interview of Michael Phelps. Yeah, we really needed to see that.

[luckiest1]

Thanks so much merrieeee, this is just what I've been looking for. I have the opening ceremonies PVRed so I can rewatch again once I read through and get the significance of everything that passed me by. My son Stuart and I are planning a trip to London, Liverpool, and possibly Edinburgh as well next year, to commemorate my big 5-0. It's always been my lifetime dream to get to the UK so this is really getting me excited! BTW, for those who remember him, today is Stuart's 21st birthday. How time flies, right?!

[aikim]

82 Days until the Gala!:

:Happy Birthday to all celebrating!

Everyone have a great day!

Kim

[jmh123]

Thanks so much merrieeee, this is just what I've been looking for. I have the opening ceremonies PVRed so I can rewatch again once I read through and get the significance of everything that passed me by. My son Stuart and I are planning a trip to London, Liverpool, and possibly Edinburgh as well next year, to commemorate my big 5-0. It's always been my lifetime dream to get to the UK so this is really getting me excited! BTW, for those who remember him, today is Stuart's 21st birthday. How time flies, right?!

Thanks merrieeee! I can't wait to read this!

I met Stuart at Spamalot and it does not seem like that long ago! I cannot believe he is 21 already. I know for certain that I am only a year or two older than I was then. I have to say that you have some terrific kids. You must be very proud of them all.

Here's one for Stuart -

[FearofH2O]

Happy Birthday to Stuart, I hope he has a wonderful Birthday today.

[ldyjocelyn]

Happy birthday Stuart! :04:

It seems like we've grown up with him, doesn't it? While I've never met him -- luckiest, you have a good one there. (Heck, all of your kids are!)

merrieee, that informational packet was very interesting. Thanks for posting it.

[aikim]

Woke up to rain this morning...we sure could use it, but it will probably be steamy outside later as we are expecting 90 degree temps. Felt so bad for the men's gymnastic team last night...looks like the pressure got to them. A shame they took the silver away from the Brits but glad they got a medal.

81 Days until the Gala!:

Happy Birthday to all celebrating!

Everyone have a great day!

Kim

[luckiest1]

Thanks for all the birthday wishes for Stuart. We celebrated by taking him out for lunch to an upscale hamburger joint that he was interested in visiting (it was featured on our Food Network). I posted pictures on Facebook for anyone who is interested. He sure towers over me now!

I got my Luhr's Centre tickets in the mail already. Woo hoo! Now we just need the rest of the dates to be announced.... :eusa_whistle:

[aikim]

Amazon has changed the record label for TNT and Steadfast from Decca to Verve!

Sean and Ben have a baby boy, Allister..they have posted pictures on Facebook!

Kim