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# 64: A super smart, caring, determined, classy, easy-going, and genuinely good, likeable guy


ldyjocelyn

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From katforclay at CB:

Just want to give you an update:

As of today, 4 tickets were donated to the ARC of Detroit. They were thrilled to receive them and would be happy to place more if any are available.

Also, we have received approximately $675.00 in donations. Any donation ($5.00 or more) can be put towards a ticket to help brighten someone's life.

Thanks to everyone for all your support throughout the years.

The Way We Make A Difference Team

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Bringing this over from katforclay at cb. There was a problem with one of the email addresses listed for TWWMAD on the original announcement. Please use the following addresses for donations to TWWMAD:

Just to make sure the correct email address are:

tix.twwmad.org@gmail.com - for ticket donations

Paypal: twwmad.org@gmail.com

Sorry if there was any confusion.

If you have tried to contact us without a response please try again. We apologize !

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:GM_FCA:

6 Days until the JNT12! :yahoo:

Happy Birthday to all celebrating!

Everyone have a great day!

Kim

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Kareneh -- Happy Birthday! We miss you and your world traveling stories!

couchie, you can always use Clack Unlimited to get the interviews. I'd contact the CH (probably geekette would be your best bet) to see if you have a valid vault key.

The other two interviews from Sirius XM are up now. I'm listening to the one from the rap channel. Sway (from MTV) is the interviewer, and it's really a good interview.

I just checked my link to CV cellcerts, and it's not working. Can anyone tell me if they aren't doing anything at the moment and I should check later, or if I should be worried? I've posted in their trouble thread too...

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Kareneh -- Happy Birthday! We miss you and your world traveling stories!

couchie, you can always use Clack Unlimited to get the interviews. I'd contact the CH (probably geekette would be your best bet) to see if you have a valid vault key.

The other two interviews from Sirius XM are up now. I'm listening to the one from the rap channel. Sway (from MTV) is the interviewer, and it's really a good interview.

I just checked my link to CV cellcerts, and it's not working. Can anyone tell me if they aren't doing anything at the moment and I should check later, or if I should be worried? I've posted in their trouble thread too...

Best thing to do would be to contact caperkeeper over there..she is in charge of cellcerts.

:GM_FCA:

6 Days until the JNT12! :yahoo:

Happy Birthday to all celebrating!

Everyone have a great day!

Kim

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Thanks for the birthday wishes! Had a great day.....here in Baku. Yep,I'm back in Azerbaijan again. In a couple of weeks I'll be heading back to Canada for Christmas and New Years, but can't wait to take a quick trip into the States for a couple of concerts. I'll be at Stamford and Shippensburg with my mom and my aunt. Is anyone from here going to any of those?

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TWWMAD UPDATE

Amid the ongoing relief efforts associated with Hurricane Sandy, stories emerge of victims and volunteers that tug at the heartstrings. One is about a teenager on Staten Island who carefully collected all the photographs found in her neighborhood. She found them under bushes, in trees, in mud. Friends joined her effort. The photos were carefully cleaned, then posted on peg boards in front of her garage. She posted signs telling people where to review the pictures and many were returned to their owners. It was a simple act of kindness that helped people reconnect with their memories and know that others understood and cared.

Likewise, those of us at The Way We Make A Difference realize Clay's concert schedule includes the Atlantic City, Staten Island and Stamford, areas heavily impacted by the storm. We would like to help make a difference in our small way and try to bring just a few hours of joy to those who are in so much distress, as well as those who have helped them.

If you agree, we will accept donations that are specifically earmarked for these concerts. This does not exclude other concerts -- we are simply offering the opportunity to those of you who would like to do something specific for the areas hardest hit by the storm.

TWWMAD welcomes all donations!

If you would like to make a monetary contribution or if you have an extra ticket or two to donate, we would be most grateful to have them! Please remember, no donation is too small. And if you would like your donations earmarked for the concerts in the areas affected by Hurricane Sandy, please just let us know when donating.

For anyone not familiar with our project, TWWMAD promotes inclusion by offering a chance for people with and without disabilities to share in the excitement of seeing Clay in concert.

The address to use for Paypal donations is twwmad.org@gmail.com

If you have tickets to donate please contact us at tix.twwmad.org@gmail.com

Thanks in advance for helping us to make a difference, one concert ticket at a time!

ETA: Am reposting this with corrected address for ticket donations. If you tried to contact TWWMAD and didn't get a response please try again...we have learned that some emails were either not received or were kicked back to senders. The concerts are starting but there is still time to donate.

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Thanks for keeping us up-to-date on this clayzedover! It's such a cool project...

ticketsarasota.com

Clay Aiken Makes "Joyful Noise" in Sarasota

Clay Aiken makes ‘Joyful Noise’ in Sarasota

By Gerry Galipault, Herald-Tribune

/ Monday, November 19, 2012

aiken-480x319.jpg

If you think the Christmas blitz comes earlier every year — heck, Target launched its first holiday ad before Halloween — that’s nothing to Clay Aiken.

He gets into the spirit in September.

There’s a reason for that: He has been preparing for his third Christmas-themed tour, “Joyful Noise,” which opens Friday in West Palm Beach and crosses the state to Sarasota’s Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall the next day.

“My neighbors must think I’m crazy,” he says over the phone. “I blast Christmas music really loud, I’m dancing around the house and singing all these songs. But it’s just me getting ready for this tour.

“At least this tour starts after Thanksgiving,” he says with a laugh.

The 33-year-old singer, who was the runner-up in the second season of “American Idol,” says he hasn’t done a Christmas tour since 2007, so he had to refamiliarize himself with the standards.

“Christmas can be tough,” he says, “because the songs don’t change that much over the years. Everyone’s heard them before. Many of the ones I’ve chosen come from my Christmas album (2004’s million-selling ‘Merry Christmas With Love’).

“But this time around, I decided to change it up and go back to the basics. This show will be a lot more simple, no more dancers, with an orchestra.”

Instead of bringing an orchestra with him from town to town, he uses local musicians at each tour stop. For Sarasota, he’ll have a 20-piece orchestra behind him.

“It’s a huge undertaking,” Aiken says. “For me, I stress out over all the details before we go on the road. The orchestras usually learn the show in one afternoon. Little things can go wrong, but I don’t notice them because that’s how good they are. These musicians are true professionals and they’re always prepared.

“By the time the first day comes around, I’m not worried anymore, but everyone else around me is stressed out. Funny how that works.”

Aiken’s parents divorced when he was just a year old, so Christmas was a two-day event in his native Raleigh, N.C.

“We would go to my father’s house on Christmas Eve,” he says, “and then my mother’s on Christmas. So it was two days of presents — that part was cool.”

Now that he’s a father — his son, Parker, is now 4 — the holiday is even more of family affair. But Parker won’t be joining him on this tour.

“Can you imagine a 4-year-old being cooped up on a tour bus?” he says, laughing. “It might be cool for him for about a week, but then he would get bored — and how do you entertain a 4-year-old going from town to town?”

Since finishing second behind Ruben Studdard on “American Idol” in 2003, Aiken has had a satisfying career. His debut album, “Measure of a Man,” sold more than 2 million copies, and “Merry Christmas With Love” was the biggest-selling holiday album of 2004.

He doesn’t garner the huge album sales of “Idol” winners Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, but he has a large, devoted following — they’re called “Claymates.”

“They’re wonderful,” he says. “Who could ask for anything more?”

His post-“Idol” résumé is impressive: He has guest-starred on “Scrubs,” “Drop Dead Diva” and “30 Rock.” He finished second to Arsenio Hall on the fifth season of “The Celebrity Apprentice.” And he made his Broadway debut as the not-so-brave Sir Robin in the Tony Award-winning musical “Monty Python’s Spamalot” in 2008-09.

He’s also passionate about the many causes he supports, such as the National Inclusion Project, which he co-founded in 2003. It promotes the inclusion of children with disabilities in activities with their non-disabled peers.

“I’ve been blessed with a great career, and I’m very happy with everything I’ve done so far,” he says, “so anything I can do to help others, I’ll do it. It’s important to me.”

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:GM_FCA:

3 Days until the JNT12! :yahoo:

Happy Birthday to all celebrating!

Everyone have a great day!

Kim

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Two new articles!

sarasotamagazine.com

7 Questions with Clay Aiken

Seven Questions with Clay Aiken

November 20th, 2012

By Megan McDonald

The former American Idol star brings his Joyful Noise 2012 tour to the Van Wezel on Nov. 24.

You probably recognize Clay Aiken from his stint on American Idol almost a decade ago; though Aiken was the runner-up to season two’s Ruben Studdard, he quickly developed an intensely dedicated legion of fans known as “Claymates.” And Idol was only the beginning for Aiken; since the show, his career has taken off: He’s released several albums, authored a memoir and starred in Broadway’s hit Monty Python’s Spamalot.

This Saturday, November 24, Aiken visits Sarasota and the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall as part of his Joyful Noise 2012 tour; we spoke with him by phone.

What can concert-goers expect from this tour?

Lots of Christmas cheer! It’s a reincarnation of a show we’ve done several times, but we try to vary things quite a bit from year to year. We’ve done a show that’s just me and the band, but we’ve also gone all the way with dancers and villagers and snow falling in the theater. This falls somewhere in between; for this tour we’ve got a full orchestra. I think there’s something about French horns that makes it feel like Christmas.

What’s your favorite song to perform?

It changes all the time, but O Come, O Come Emmanuel is one that I used to sing in church all the time growing up, but for this show we put a different spin on it. I think it’s the prettiest. And we do a song called Don’t Save It All for Christmas Day that stays in the same spot every year no matter what year it is; I think that one puts the cherry on top of the holiday cheer.

What do you think of Sarasota?

We’ve been to Sarasota on many of the tours I’ve done, so this isn’t our first time here. And the entire Florida Gulf Coast is gorgeous. That said, it’s always very interesting to me to do a Christmas show and be wearing shorts all day. It’s a shock to the system, but it’s nice.

How do you look back on your American Idol days—fondly? Glad they’re over?

Well, I look back with binoculars, since it’s been almost 10 years! In many ways Idol was like high school—you need your education, and if I hadn’t finished high school, I wouldn’t have been able to get a job or really do any of this. But I certainly don’t go back to my high school football games.

However, Idol opened a door for me that I never would have been able to open on my own, and I’ve said before that if I could do that show for the rest of my life—without having to worry about getting cut—I would.

Does it bother you when people like me ask you about American Idol after so long?

[Laughs.] No comment!

What’s in the near future for you after this tour—are you looking into doing any more Broadway?

I loved [doing Monty Python’s Spamalot on Broadway], and I would do it again in a heartbeat—it was easily one of the most fun things I’ve ever done. I’d want it to be a show where I could sing, though. But I think the reason we’ve been able to stick around as long as we have—and I say “we” because I don’t do very much of this all by myself—is because we’ve stayed open to all different possibilities. Almost everything that I’ve had the opportunity to do has been something that’s come my way rather than me seeking it out.

What’s your favorite part of the job?

What’s that quote—if you pick a job you love, you never have to work a day in your life? There aren’t many people who can say that they get paid to do their hobby. Singing was always going to be a hobby for me; I never intended to get paid to do it as my job.

________

tampabay.com

Clay Aiken Talks Christmas Songs, Reality Success, Enthusiastic Fans and Donald Trump

Clay Aiken talks Christmas songs, reality success, enthusiastic fans and Donald Trump

You think your holidays are hectic? Try spending the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas on the road, playing 20 concerts in cities stretching from West Palm Beach to Anaheim. Then see how much shopping you get done.

“God bless Amazon, is all I can say,” laughs Clay Aiken, who this weekend will kick off his fifth holiday tour, his first since 2007. “It’s saved my life quite a bit.”

Ever since Aiken placed second on American Idol’s second season in 2003, holiday music, and his semi-annual tours to support it, have been a big part of his career. His 2004 album Merry Christmas With Love has sold more than 1.4 million copies, and with each tour, he adds new songs to his repertoire. And while his ever-passionate fan base of “Claymates” has turned out for every phase of his career — solo pop artist, Broadway star (Monty Python’s Spamalot), TV gigs ranging from 30 Rock to Celebrity Apprentice — he says the traditional sound and setting of his Christmas tours is “always where I’ve been the most comfortable.”

“I’ve had people who’ve worked for me since the beginning come up to me for the past few years and said, 'Why aren’t we doing a Christmas show? It doesn’t feel like Christmas unless we’re doing a Christmas tour,’” Aiken said.

Aiken’s holiday tour will hit Clearwater’s Capitol Theatre on Sunday. (Click here for details and tickets.) Calling from New York, Aiken talked about Christmas songs, reality competitions and whether Donald Trump is a bully. Here are excerpts.

I have to admit, I’m a little nervous about interviewing you, because your fans are some of the most fiercely, vocally protective of almost any artist recording today.

Oh, what are you trying to say? Are you going to be mean?

I was afraid that if I ask one wrong question, I’d get hate-commented right off the Internet.

Oh, you will! They’ll tear you up, and I’ll tell ’em to! (laughs)

Do you feel your fans are overly defensive of you?

They can be, can’t they? Yeah. And how do you get upset about something like that? You can’t. You can’t be upset about someone for being supportive. But sometimes I think to myself, “I’m 34 years old now. I’m a big boy. I can handle it.” Sometimes I feel like I have a million moms. (laughs)

Is a holiday tour more financially successful for you than a regular tour, or is it about the same?

It depends. At some point, a lot of the overhead’s taken care of. The songs do change from year to year, but it cuts down a little bit on rehearsal time. It’s not really that much different, but I think the reason we continue to do it is it’s kind of become a tradition. It doesn’t feel like Christmas unless I’m doing this show. So we have cranked it back up.

How many sweaters do you pack for a tour like this?

(laughs) A whole bunch. This year, though, is a no-sweater tour. It’s a suit tour. But we’ve done a few. It’s about four suitcases’ worth.

Is your setlist mostly culled from Merry Christmas With Love or (2006 holiday EP) All Is Well? Or do you come up with new songs every year?

I comes primarily from those two projects, but we don’t want to do the same show every year, so we’ll always change the setlist at least a little bit. We’ll throw in one or two different songs and try to keep it fresh. Especially some of the traditional ones, like Silent Night and the Christmas standards, we’ll try to put into different medleys or present them in a different way every year. But if people come because they like Merry Christmas With Love, they’ll get that, and they’ll get All Is Well.

What’s your process for picking a new Christmas song?

Sometimes if I know I’m doing a Christmas tour, I’ll start listening to Christmas songs in May or June. (laughs) Either it’ll be a song that I just like and connect with and really want to sing, or in 2005, we did actually a play, a full production with actors and dancers and a storyline, so I found songs that were in the storyline. I’m not a real big fan of Christmas songs that sound like pop songs. You’ve got people that put out Christmas albums and it clearly sounds like they have just taken a pop song and put some sleigh bells in the production. I steer clear of those.

Is there a Christmas skin that just gets under your skin, that you just can’t stand hearing?

If anything, it’s some of the traditional Jingle Bell-type songs, when they’re just done in the traditional Jingle Bell-type way. We do those songs, because they’re popular for a reason, but we also try our best to do them in a different way. We’ll mix them together with another traditional song, or we’ll try to mash it up somehow.

Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmastime? Nothing?

It’s not in the show. I don’t dislike it. It’s not one that has caught my attention, necessarily.

I’m amazed that you start listening to Christmas music in May. Being a holiday performer, like Trans-Siberian Orchestra or Mannheim Steamroller — that’s a year-round thing, right?

This year it’s only been a little bit different, because I hadn’t done the Christmas tour for several years, so it took a little bit longer to get the engines warmed up again. In 2004, it was a yearlong thing, because I put an album out. We did a Christmas tour in 2004 and a special on TV, and in 2005, we decided to do this huge production with dancers and actors and everything. In 2006, we put out All Is Well, 2007 we changed the tour up. When you’re singing a Christmas song, if you don’t change it up a little bit, it ends up getting stale. The goal is not to do the same show every year.

(Recent albums) Tried and True and Steadfast are both big band-style albums. I’ve heard more than one person say that the trend of artists releasing albums of big-band pop standards is maybe getting a little stale. So I ask you: Why do you think there’s life left in it?

I certainly agree there was a trend for a while of people putting out that type of album and reinventing themselves in some way. But you couldn’t make that argument for Michael Buble. That is naturally who he is. That is who he sounds like. For me, the reason we did it was because it really has been always sort of my vein. Tried and True was not really a big band album. We happened to have a band involved, but it was really songs from the ’50s and ’60s, kind of that old soul-type crooner thing. That’s kind of my wheelhouse. So it wasn’t trying to be part of the trend for me.

I think you’re probably right. If Justin Bieber were to put out a big band album next year — granted, it would sell gangbusters, because it’s Justin Bieber. But it would be more of a gimmick. Whereas for us, it wasn’t trying to be a gimmick. It was trying to let me put my voice where it naturally fits.

Does that artistic space still feel natural to you?

It does. That’s part of the reason that Christmas feels so natural to me. Back in 2003, when I was putting out Measure of a Man, and we were struggling — well, we weren’t struggling, but the label was struggling — with trying to get me to dress this way or dress that way, or sing this way or sing that way, I said to Clive Davis, “I’m never going to be Justin Timberlake. That’s not who I am, that’s not what I sound like, that’s not how I dress, there’s none of that.” So the Christmas album was an opportunity for me to be me, and to sing and sound like me. That sound, that traditional Christmas vibe, that tried and true vibe, is always where I’ve been the most comfortable.

You’ve been pretty active in social causes since Idol, certainly in the last few years. We’re a couple of weeks past Election Day at this point. What was your biggest takeaway from Election 2012?

I’ll tell you what it was: I don’t want to be living in a swing state anymore. I’ve lived my entire life in North Carolina, and we’ve never been a swing state. I was in New York during the election in 2008, doing Broadway, and never saw a political ad. This year, oh my god, I feel so sorry for Florida. All the time! Three Romney commercials in a row, followed by four Obama commercials! My takeaway is, I’m tired of politics.

One of the causes you’ve lent your name to is GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network), and one of their missions is to eliminate bullying. You’re in unique position to answer this, which is something I heard a lot during the campaign: Is Donald Trump a bully?

Oh, gosh. It’s hard to answer that, knowing him. To me, he has become sort of like an uncle who you really wish would be quiet when you’re around strangers. He’s somebody that I know to be a gracious and kind person, and I like him as a person. But then I get home, and he’s spouting all this nonsense. I really did feel sad when I got back from taping Apprentice, and he got on TV and started talking about politics, because I grew to know him as someone who’s very generous and gracious and approachable. He really is a nice guy. I watched him do political stuff, and I’m like, (in cringing voice) “Oh my god, please just shut up! You’re making people hate you in a way that you don’t deserve to be hated!” So is he a bully? He certainly wasn’t to me.

Do you watch any televised talent competitions on TV?

I don’t. I feel like once you know how the sausage is made, you don’t really want to eat it.

Do you think that winning, or not winning a TV talent show requires a different skill set today than it did a decade ago?

Oh, wow. I do know that winning doesn’t mean the same thing it did years ago. Even being on it doesn’t mean the same as it did years ago, because the market is so saturated. I mean, can you tell me who won X Factor last year?

Oh, no.

Okay. I think nowadays, people go on these shows thinking they know how to win —thinking they know what a pop star looks like, thinking they know how to perform. They need to sing this way in order to be successful. I think what made Idol so big and so entertaining in the first, second and third years was that none of us went on with any preconceived notions as to how successful we were going to be afterwards, or what a pop star looked like or sounded like or anything. It was all very organic, and I don’t think it’s very organic anymore.

-- Jay Cridlin, tbt*

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From notacanuck at CC. Via CV

QUOTE

Posted Today, 07:30 PM

From Facebook

Ray Caddell

Sitting in my office looking through the arrangements for the Clay Aiken Joyful Noise Tour. My 22 piece orchestra and Clay at The Avalon Theatre in Easton, Md. December 12. Tickets are still available, and I promise an absolutely glorious orchestra including live horns, live strings, lots of live percussion, live rhythm section. Get it? Live. Many national acts travel today with very scaled down bands augmented by recorded tracks. We'll be there live folks with the very best musicians from Charlottesville to Rehoboth Beach. My buddy Dave Schiff is putting this group together with me, and we promise nothing but top shelf muscians. Oh yeah, Clay Aiken will be there too:)

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:GM_FCA:

2 Days until the JNT12! :yahoo:

Happy Birthday to all celebrating!

Everyone have a great day!

Kim

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