ClayManiacs

Gazing at the past, looking to the future
By DATEBOOK STAFF
December 30, 2004
Music

August - That mammoth beast of summer entertainment, the Iowa State Fair, celebrates its 150th anniversary with both nice guys (Clay Aiken) and scoundrels (Kid Rock). Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson play ball together at Sec Taylor Stadium - oops, Principal Park. Metallica roars in front of a light crowd at Hilton Coliseum in Ames. Lucinda Williams is emotionally overwhelmed onstage and cuts short her gig at Simon Estes Amphitheater.

'04 Web searchers tried to keep abreast of Janet
By Inside Track
Thursday, December 30, 2004

Janet Jackson's boob-baring antics at Superbowl XXXVIII was the most popular Internet search of 2004, Sky News reports.
 
     The now-legendary ``wardrobe malfunction'' sparked over 60 times as many searches than for celebutante Paris Hilton's debut do-it-yourself porn video, which copped the second most-searched-for spot, according to Internet search engine Lycos.
 
     ``One wardrobe malfunction from Janet and the Web world was turned upside down,'' said a Lycos spokesman.
 
     Even former boybander Justin Timberlake, who was Jackson's partner in crime, received 40 times more searches that day than he normally does!
 
     Surprisingly - and unrelated to nipple jewelry and sex tapes - squeaky clean ``American Idol'' runner-up Clay Aiken, photographed often in his W.W.J.D. bracelet, landed in the third spot for the most requested search.
 
     Which just goes to show ya that there's something for everyone on the World Wide Web!

2004 was active year for area entertainment

By NICK ROGERS
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

High prices, lower temperatures: Four Illinois State Fair Grandstand concerts had a top price of $30. Those included Clay Aiken's Aug. 13 concert, at which a meet-and-greet with Springfield fans fell through. They later were driven to a tour stop in Rockford via limousine to meet the star.

Quickie:
You don't have to live on an island. Build a bridge. Land is not as far as you think.

Overview:
You're due for an extremely productive day, but be sure you save some energy for tonight's festivities. All those new admirers haven't been hanging around you for nothing, after all. And you can't win if you don't play!

Daily Extended Forecast:
Difficult financial questions are likely to crop up today and make you sit up and think. Your immediate reaction will be to cut back drastically and resolve to forego even some of your most cherished indulgences. But a long-term solution and a workable way out of this dilemma require a more balanced approach. Frugality and fun do not have to be mutually exclusive.

Daily Flirt:
Revel in your recent winning streak, but keep it all in perspective. True, your can't-miss luck has been astounding, but what's more important is sharing your wealth and good fortune.

Daily Couples:
A cheerful face usually matches a cheerful heart -- at least in your case. Make sure your sweetie's face truly matches their mood.

Daily Singles:
If love is a flight to Paris, Tahiti or wherever your dream destination is, you just got upgraded to first class. The generosity you put out is coming right back at you -- yay!

Daily Career and Finance:
Office rumors come and go, but you're more than capable of staying above it all. Nothing touches you -- especially gossip. This is how people get ahead.

New Years resolutions that anyone could adopt--it! style!
Date published: 12/30/2004

This year, it! brings you the finest New Year's resolutions stardom can afford.

We have written resolutions for celebrities (famous and infamous) as well as for one another on the it! staff--and we hope they will be fulfilled.

Let's roll.

For it! writer Nancy Belle:

In 2005, I hope our dear Nancy can realize that Clay Aiken looks, sings and acts like something unfit to mention in such a fine magazine. Hopefully she can 180 her love for Clay's music, and use his existence in the way that I do as relief of constipation.

Also, I hope she realizes that "American Idol" will be going off the air very soon. And if it doesn't, then I will blow up Hollywood and eat Ryan Seacrest and his family.

Have a nice new year.

Move on, please

A few of the people and things that we want to see become history along with 2004
Clay Aiken — Aside from his song lyrics being downright creepy (If I was invisible/Then I could just watch you in your room), his fans are so rabid and … well … fanatical, it's a tiny bit obnoxious. When Clay's fans started dubbing themselves “Claymates,” we knew it was time for him to take a quick break from the limelight.

A critic weighs in, reluctantly

Malcolm X Abram offers his gratuitous best of/worst of list for this year in music

Best/worst fan responses to something I wrote.

Responses from fans tend to follow the age demographics for the artist. In other words, Avril Lavigne fans who feel compelled to respond are often young and their comments/complaints fit the approximate age rage (``Dude! You're too old to know what punk is! Avril Rocks!).

But Clay Aiken fans throw that concept out the window since his devotees go both ways (ba-dump-bump). Their devotion from the angriest little 8-year-old to the most enthralled 80-year-old is deep and can be a bit scary, and some of them are just plain out there.

Clay Aiken is going to change the music industry? Nope. I must be a sex-crazed pervert because I mention that the crowd squealed with delight when he placed his bony pelvis in proximity to the ample buttocks of one of his background singers? Get a grip.

Good Morning, Susy!!

Will he be singing to you tonight, too??? :music :music

Might as well dream big!!  :dust

Dear Dr. Bombay: I have a problem with a song that keeps popping up when I click on something. This song is driving me nuts. It also plays when I go offline and shut down or turn on the computer. What is it?

-- Name That Tune

Dear Name: I think somebody is goofing with your head, because it sounds like your Windows sound scheme has been totally messed up.

You can tell Windows to play whatever audio file you want for almost any action you take. Go into the Control Panel, open up "Sounds and Audio Devices," then click on the Sounds tab to see what I mean. Every program event listed there with a speaker icon next to it has had some sound or another associated with it. To change the sound (or dump it), open the Sounds drop-down list and either pick a different audio file or change the setting to "None." That little square button with the arrow pointing right allows you to preview the sound.

How did your sounds get changed? You can always blame spyware or viruses, but my chief suspect is the last guy you ticked off. Hmmmm, I wonder how the guys in the marketing department would like to hear Clay Aiken every time they touch a mouse button. . .

Sure, there are a few artists who still feel it's their duty to party on all days that end in "y." Sum 41 and Avril Lavigne are two of them, though their Canadian citizenship doesn't bode well for the hell-raising quotient in the States. But as American rock threatens with all of the untamed fury of a Clay Aiken concert, British quartet the Libertines have dutifully picked up the slack. The band's exploits over the past year, which include onstage fallouts, myriad stints in rehab, no-shows and riots, make even Courtney Love's antics seem tame by comparison.

• Female Vocalist of the Year: Jasmine Trias. OK, she may have been pitchy as the competition ensued, but she did what no other here has done: endure the put-downs from Simon Cowell to finish third. What she does, as her first post-"Idol" venture, will set the tone and timbre of her future: Sizzle or fizzle? Can she sashay into Tamyra Gray and Clay Aiken territory? Better yet, can Hawai'i fans rekindle the support, to bypass Fantasia Barrino's less-than-spectacular CD debut?

Clay: a true winner
Was the gentleman who did the review of Clay Aiken's Christmas concert at the same concert that I attended (Dec. 23)? "Shaky ground" hardly describes the true winner of "American Idol." His talent is so impressive and finding something wrong with his concert was truly a Simon Cowell statement. Despite being the "loser" of "American Idol," none of the winners or other contestants have every stood out like Clay Aiken.

Kathy Nega
Apollo

Merry Christmas With Love - Over one million sold in 6 weeks - Congratulations Clay!

• Clay Aiken. Pure evil. He could be Osama in disguise. Even if not, he should definitely be living in a cave that no one can find.