Clay Aiken Fans Stay Busy

SEE YOU SOON -- Can we make that "real soon," sir? - Graphic by Amazing_CA, photo by BigAppleforClay.

Clean Houses + New Montages

In Place of a Summer Tour

While Clay Aiken most likely is enjoying a much-deserved vacation, his fans are staying busy, even productive. Many proclaim their houses cleaner than ever, and new CA montages are popping up at YouTube daily.

All, however, would gladly trade the spare time for a tour. Each 2007 summer concert is commemorated in grand style throughout Clay Cyberspace with photos, videos, and memorable recaps on its anniversary.

New montages feature songs from Clay's CD On My Way Here and incorporate a variety of themes like the upcoming Beijing Olympics and fond recollections of the past five years.

A very popular series searches for Clay in some of his known favorite "hangouts" -- Krispy Kreme establishments, McDonalds, Benihana, and a certain Smithfield barbeque restaurant.

A thorough listing of OMWH montages appears in the July 14 blog below: Aiken Fans 'Use Their Voice'. Here are some new ones to sample.

Graphic by Cindilu2 links to "The Real Me" montage.

Cindilu2's design with photos by KarenEh links to The Real Me by LovesClaysVoice, which highlights in videos and still photos Clay's performances and charity work since American Idol 2.

You can download the montage with this Sendspace: The Real Me.

For fans of the hit TV show "Lost," LCV's latest montage combines Clay singing Something About Us from OMWH with scenes of Jack and Kate. A Sendspace download is provided here.

Photo by Clayzthe1 links to "The Most of Our Time."

Yollie950's montage, The Most of Our Time, opens with Barry Manilow's song, "I Am Your Child," and transitions into "The Real Me" and "As Long As We're Here" from OMWH.

Download The Most of Our Time with this Sendspace file. The photo shows Clay dancing with his mother, Faye Parker, at a Joyful Noise concert in Norfolk.

Amazing_CA's graphic links to the "The Search Begins."

The Clay Channel is conducting a search for Singerman. In addition to The Search Begins, be sure to watch The Search for Clay Continues, and The Search for Clay, Part 3.

A fourth "search" plan is already in the works.

Famous Raleigh AI tour concert photo links to "Falling."

SueRue incorporates a variety of special effects with images from Clay's tour concerts, "Spamalot," TV appearances, and TBAF in her new montage set to Falling from OMWH.

The linking photo is the famous scene of Clay's hometown welcome at the AI2 Raleigh tour concert. Save your own copy of Falling with this Sendspace file.

Clay listens to Wildcard critique on American Idol 2.

'Standing Before a Star'

In Clay's Audition, Nygel Lythgoe and Ken Warwick, executive producers of American Idol, discuss his AI2 journey. Posted at YouTube by Billandsherri, the clip includes Clay's audition and Wildcard performance, "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me."

Fans will appreciate the comments:

It would be fair to say that Clay is a perfect representation of "Don't judge a book by its cover'"

What happened week after week, America began to accept this character, not just because he was changing his look, but because that voice was superb.

When he sang "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me," you knew you were standing in front of a star.

Add Sunday's positive quote from Simon Cowell in Scott D. Pierce's Deseret News article, American Idol Auditioners Face Heavy Odds:

I honestly think (Season 2 runner-up) Clay Aiken has changed this competition forever. It's becoming incredibly personality led now," Cowell said — explaining Season 5 winner Taylor Hicks.

Eric Ogden photo enhanced by Sally

OMWH Hitting Asian Airwaves

Fans continue to report that On My Way Here is receiving air play in several Asian countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea, and Singapore.

According to Snowluv4 of Clayversity, "OMWH" was played during a preview for the next "Never Ending Story," MBC's weekly documentary with in-depth interviews of celebrities, sports stars, and normal people. Next week's show is about Jackie Chan.

MBC has featured "OMWH" in three documentaries and one Olympic broadcast commercial. Here is a Sendspace download of the Jackie Chan preview.

Also at CV, Clayworthy posted that she heard "OMWH" while at a hair salon during the 6 p.m. rush hour Friday. The Singapore shop owner keeps her radio dial on Malaysia 99.1 FM.

Awesome!

'Spamalot' graphic by Cindilu2

Broadway Yearbook Now on Pre-Order

PlaybillStore.com is offering an exclusive 34% discount and early delivery date to fans who pre-order the new 2007 - 2008 Playbill Broadway Yearbook by Thursday, Aug. 14. The yearbook will be available at select bookstores nationwide on Sept. 2.

List price for the 528-page hardcover yearbook is $35. The discounted offer at Playbill is $22.95.

The fourth edition of the popular annual Playbill Broadway Yearbook features a chapter for each of the 70 shows that ran on Broadway between June 2007 and May 2008. The long-running and new shows of the season are all there.

In addition to headshots of every actor who appeared in Playbill, the book includes photos of producers, writers, designers, stage managers, musicians and even stagehands. Milestone events such as opening night curtain calls and cast parties are also recorded.

For more information, see Playbill Broadway Yearbook.

AOL Sessions interview screen cap by ClayIzzaQT

Fans Stream AOL, Yahoo Videos

Unfortunately, OMWH songs are no longer available at AOL Music. However, fans can still stream the five

AOL Sessions video performances of "Ashes," "Everything I Don't Need," "Where I Draw the Line," "On My Way Here," and "Something About Us."

Other streaming sites include the OMWH video at Yahoo Music! and Clay's My Space for "OMWH," "EIDN," and "Ashes" tracks.

Party Planner Extraordinaire

My niece has got to be one of the best surprise party planners around. In June, she and her sister successfully surprised their parents with a 40th wedding anniversary celebration that included family and friends from several states representing their college years to the present.

This weekend she is at it again, arranging a surprise birthday party for her husband in his native Nebraska. In addition to my nephew's parents, four sisters and their families, Carolinians flying in include the party planner, the couple's two children, and his in-laws, my sister and BIL.

Key to the plan was a boss who agreed to send the engineer to Nebraska to meet with a "bogus" potential client this weekend. While en route to Omaha, boss man planned to call his employee with news that the client would be unable to meet with him until Monday and to go visit his parents.

Birthday Shindig Stays on Track

There were problems getting through, so the boss tossed that duty back to my niece, who relayed the message. As he had been all week, my nephew was hard at work on his computer preparing for the meeting when his wife called with the news.

In fact, he is so particular about details that he kept office personnel hopping gathering every possible chart, graph, and bit of information he might need for this weekend's presentation.

Following his wife's phone call Thursday, nephew closed his laptop and kicked up his heels for a visit with his sister and her family in Omaha. Friday he drove the three hours to his parents' home.

Carolina Contingent Arrives

Within an hour, the Carolina crowd landed at the Omaha airport, spent the night with the same sister, and headed to Hastings where there promises to be one heckuva surprise shindig Saturday night.

Kudos to the party planner and the amenable boss man! There's no telling how much ribbing the staff has in store for birthday guy when he returns, however.

Happy Birthday, Nephew!

Below is a clickable of ACA's lead graphic:

Have a wonderful weekend, Clay Nation! SEE YOU SOON, Clay!

Caro

RELATED TAGS: Clay Aiken, On My Way Here, montage, I Am Your Child, The Real Me, As Long As We're Here, Everything I Don't Need, Where I Draw the Line, Ashes, Falling, Something About Us, AOL Sessions, Yahoo Music, American Idol, Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me, MBC-TV South Korea, Malaysia 99.1 FM, Playbill Broadway Yearbook, Official Fan Club, Clay Nation