AIKEN NEWS NETWORK DEC 3 & 4

[clayMaine-iac]

Have a Wickedly Fun Weekend everyone!!

Reminder:

E-mail from the Early Show:
To Whom It May Concern:
 
The Early Show would like to invite Clay Aiken fans to join us on the Plaza Monday 12-5-05 in conjunction with Clay's appearance on the show.  We are located at 59th and 5th in NYC, near FAO Shwartz.  All interested groups would need to contact our audience coordination department to confirm their attendence and would need to arrive on the day of filming at 7:30am.  We are on-air live at 8:00am and 8:30am. 
 
Please let me know whatever you might need from us, here are some additional features we can provide.
 
·  A chance to be on live, national television and to meet our weatherman, Dave Price
·  FREE studio tour after the show
·  FREE Dunkin Donuts coffee and donuts
·  FREE transportation on the Grayline CBS Fun Bus from Times Square (47th & Broadway) to the show
·  Posterboard and markers to make signs
·  A tape of the show sent to your home after you return from New York
 
Many thanks for your consideration.
 
Sincerely,

Blaise Gomez
Assistant Audience Coordinator
CBS "Early Show"
W. 212-975-2890
C. 845-800-6222
Email:
"Gomez, Blaise" <GomezB@cbsnews.com>

CLAYREPORT

[clayMaine-iac]

Aiken promises an adventurous show
Friday, December 2, 2005
By TIMOTHY FINN
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS   

WHO: Clay Aiken.

WHAT: Holiday music.

WHEN: 8 tonight through Sunday.
 
WHERE: Beacon Theater, 2124 Broadway, Manhattan; (212) 496-7070.
HOW MUCH: $55 to $88.50.

Like Perry Como and Andy Williams before him, pop vocalist Clay Aiken is using the Christmas season as a reason to perform his favorite holiday music. And as he did last year, Aiken is exercising his jollies for "Jingle Bells" and other holiday standards in a nationwide musical revue. This year, however, he's giving the show a twist.

His Joyful Noise Tour isn't just a Christmas carol recital. Instead, he has written a script and hired actors and actresses to star in skits that loosely tie the songs together. Intrigued or confused? He explained the concept in a recent phone interview.

Q. What will people see when they go to this show?

Last year we did a typical Christmas tour with a full orchestra and some singers. This year I wanted to do something different and more adventurous. So we decided to forgo the orchestra and hire a group of actors and actresses to follow a story line that kind of brings the songs together and gives them some extra meaning.

Q. How does this show fit into any long-term career plans you have? Are you positioning yourself to be something of a pop singer like Andy Williams?

I really don't want to pigeonhole myself as any one thing. I mean, I didn't expect to be a singer; I expected to be a teacher. I didn't plan to be a performer and to do something like this for a career. It happened because I was open to it, we got lucky and we worked hard and we had success. I don't have any five- or 10-year plan, because I want to be open to all possibilities. I don't want to pin myself down. It could all end in two or four or 20 years, but if it does I don't want to look back and think I should have done something but I didn't because I was so focused on something else.

Q. You say none of this was planned or expected. How has everything that has happened over the past two years changed you?

I've matured and learned what to expect in the Hollywood climate. I knew nothing when I came out here. I've learned how to handle myself. I used to be a horrible businessman, but I've learned a lot about that, too. Mostly I've learned to stand my ground.

Q. Without pinning yourself down, what can you tell your fans about your next studio album?

I know for certain there will be one next year. My executive producer is Jaymes Foster-Levy, who was a judge on the "Popstar" show, the precursor to "American Idol." She was the mean one [laughs], but she's been great. We've been taking our time, trying to pick the best songs. 

BERGEN.COM
JOURNALNEWS

[clayMaine-iac]

A wonderful group of people have been helping the beaders this year! In 2005, Clay Aiken - the famous American Idol star - visited Uganda in his role as Unicef Ambassador to Uganda.

When this led his fans to Beadforlife they started signing up for Beadwear parties, holding them at Clay's Pre-Concert parties across the US and Canada. These have been a huge success, and have raised not only people's awareness of the situation in Uganda, but also have provided thousands of dollars into the beader's community.

We recently received this note from Donna Feliciano (a local Boulder resident and our liaison to the Clay Aiken fan community). It was written by one of the organizers of a Pre - Concert Beadwear Party:

"Sorry , but I gotta type this out.

I got my Bead for Life box yesterday. Found it on the porch this morning (oops!). I put it in the back of the Explorer and said I'd open it at work. Now I wish I would have opened it at home.

When I opened the box I let out a little gasp. As I pulled the beads of the necklaces into my hands, I could only stare. Tears started rolling down my cheeks. You can FEEL the love in these beads. You can feel the hope, the pain, the faith in what they could stand for for these women. You can see the tender loving care they put into each and every bead. Not just each necklace, bracelet or anklet as a whole, but each individual bead.

Love. Care. Patience. Hope. Dreams.

What we're doing with Bead for Life goes beyond pre-concert Clay parties and just doing a "good thing". I fully fully believe that now. This is a gift to us, a gift to be able to share in something so....profound. Please, please, PLEASE don't miss out on what these beads have to offer. Please make sure you stop by the table at your concerts and concert parties. You'll be changed. You will. Even if you just look at them, touch them, admire them...don't miss out.

You won't ever be sorry."

Thanks so much Donna and all the Clay Aiken's fans! We love him too!

BEADFORLIFE.COM/CLAYFANS

[clayMaine-iac]

More performances added to DHT’s ‘Aladdin Jr.’
(snip)
The success of "Aladdin" was followed by two made-for-video sequels, a Disney stage version that included a new song for Jasmine, a Disney "Special Edition" DVD with Clay Aiken singing a song for Aladdin's mother, a special-edition soundtrack featuring another song that was not included in the original movie, and now "Aladdin Jr."

STARBULLETIN

[clayMaine-iac]

For the typically hard-charging WRZX, the Ohio-based quintet O.A.R. represents a change of pace. Two Decembers ago, the playful and rootsy O.A.R. appeared with Clay Aiken on a WNOU-FM (93.1) "Santa Slam" bill. This fall, O.A.R. is touring to promote its "Stories of a Stranger" album.

INDYSTAR

[clayMaine-iac]

New York, December 2, 2005 – “You can probably tell from my accent that I’m not from around here”, Clay Aiken told kids at a New York City elementary school on Friday. The UNICEF Ambassador showed off a “school-in-a-box”, a kit containing materials for students, screened a short video of his visit to tsunami-ravaged regions, and he explained the plight of Ugandan children forced into the military. Challenging the kids, Clay asked if anyone knew how many countries there are in the world. “Thirteen?” one guessed. Aiken said that there are more countries than that, but didn’t actually know how many; he had to ask one of the teachers.

The whole visit lasted about forty minutes, and then he immediately left the Greenwich Village building, without signing autographs.

PANMEDIA

[clayMaine-iac]

CLAY AIKEN spreads the holiday cheer
The “American Idol” fave talks to Fly about the most wonderful time of the year
by Jeff Royer
 
When Fly Magazine tracked down “American Idol” alum Clay Aiken in late November, the spunky singer was one week into his annual Joyful Noise holiday tour.

Maybe it was all the eggnog, or maybe it was the fact that he’d been sitting on his butt all day doing interviews, but Aiken had more energy than a toddler with a sugar rush. He giggled, he bounced, he talked at about a thousand words a minute. In other words, even after selling millions of albums and becoming one of America’s biggest pop stars, it appears that Clay Aiken is still the same lovable goof we first met three years ago. There’s something strangely comforting about that.

Fly took the opportunity to pick the animated Aiken’s brain about his holiday tour, his pet goat, and what it’s like to be the world’s least likely sex symbol.

Fly Magazine: So, by this point in your career, have you gotten used to the lifestyle that comes with being a pop star?

Clay Aiken: Strangely enough, yes. It’s not something I ever thought I would get used to. When I first started doing it, it was like, “Oh wow! An interview! A signing! Yay!” Now an interview or signing is like, “Oh, god …” [laughs]

FM: [laughs] Well, let me ask you the same question you’ve been getting all day then: What can we expect out of the Joyful Noise Tour?

CA: We did the Joyful Noise Tour last year. We did a full-orchestra run with a 30-piece orchestra onstage and sang the songs from the Merry Christmas With Love album.

I didn’t want to do the same thing that every other artist who does a Christmas tour does. During the holiday season you can pretty much pick any day in most cities and go see some artist’s Christmas concert. [laughs] So I was trying to figure out a way to make it different, to maybe string all of these songs together with some type of dialogue, or figure out a way to make the stories connect. It changed from me talking to having someone else do it, to having characters do it, to having specific characters doing it. It became a storyline, really.

FM: Do you feel like you’re able to wrap your head around everything that’s happened to you so far?

CA: Yeah. It took a while. I don’t ever want to get to a point where I can wrap my head around it all. If I ever get to that point, I think it’s time to quit. Every day there is something new and different and there’s something exciting.

There are plenty of times I could stop and say, “Wow, look at what I’m doing now!” I could stop right now and think, “This is completely different,” even though I have done 55 interviews today. [laughs] It’s still something I wasn’t doing in North Carolina two years ago. I have to be thankful for it. It becomes a little more routine and you become accustomed to it, I’m sure like any job. When I was a teacher, the first time I did it was much harder than the third and fourth times. This is kind of the same way.

FM: Another thing that’s changed is that you’ve become this full-on sex symbol for a lot of people!

CA: That part scares me! I haven’t wrapped my head around that. [laughs] That just frightens me. I’m worried about America’s taste! [laughs] That’s probably something I’m not ever going to quite get. It’s flattering, so I won’t complain, but I’m baffled.

FM: In a position like yours, everybody’s so interested in your personal life. Suddenly I’m reading things about you, everything from stories about your childhood petsto speculation on your sexual orientation and everything in between. Does that weird you out?

CA: It’s tough. At the very beginning of the process, it’s quite a shock. You don’t understand why people are asking these things. I had a goat – who cares? And I didn’t tell anybody that. There are times that I look on the internet or read a message board and they’ll know things about me that I didn’t know. [laughs] “I never told anybody that! How did they find out?” So at first it’s a shock. And then later on it’s not as shocking but still upsetting. And then after a while, it’s just like having a gnat in your nose. You just want to kill it. [laughs] It becomes unfortunately a negative part of what you do, and you need to kind of live with it. But if you could get up your nose and kill it, you would do it. [laughs] It’s not so easy sometimes.

FM: You’re almost becoming as known for your humanitarian work as you are for your music. Why is that so important to you?

CA: I kind of came into this not necessarily wanting to or knowing how to be a celebrity or whatnot. I mean, I was a teacher! And I made a promise to myself as I did it. “If I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna try to be something other than self-serving.” I think that every single person who’s in this industry and who’s a celebrity and making money off the public – I make my money directly from the public – has the responsibility to pay them back in some way. I think each person in my position is a role model whether they want to be or not. Somewhere out there are kids who look up to you. And some people take that seriously, and some people don’t. To me, I don’t understand why people don’t take it seriously.

UNICEF does amazing work. I thought I was a worldly person, and then I started working with them and realized I don’t know as much of my world as I need to. And if I don’t know as much about my world as I need to, then many, many, many people don’t. So I’m thrilled to be in a position to be able to talk about it. And so I’m gonna.

FM: Do you think about the kind of things you still want to achieve in your career?

CA: Everything that’s happened so far has been because I’ve kind of been available to opportunities. I don’t like to set plans. It’s kind of a strange thing to hear come out of a teacher’s mouth, but I don’t like to set goals because I think when you set specific goals you end up losing sight of other opportunities. I had the goal of wanting to be a teacher. I wanted to continue being in education for a long time. Had I made that a hard, fast goal, then I would not have had the opportunity to do this now.

We do want to have an album out in the first half of next year, and then we want to make sure we can go out on the road again at some point. But other than that, I kind of just let what happens happen. Let go and let God.

FM: So if somebody wants to put you on another TV show and make you the world’s most famous dancer or something, you can do that next!

CA: [laughs] I said I’d be open to opportunities and I’ll take a look at them, but just because I’m looking doesn’t mean I’ll do ’em!

Clay will spread the holiday cheer at the Tweeter Center, Philly, on December 11.
 

FLYMAGAZINE

[grammaof6]

That part scares me! I haven’t wrapped my head around that. [laughs] That just frightens me. I’m worried about America’s taste! [laughs] That’s probably something I’m not ever going to quite get. It’s flattering, so I won’t complain, but I’m baffled.

it’s just like having a gnat in your nose. You just want to kill it. [laughs] It becomes unfortunately a negative part of what you do, and you need to kind of live with it. But if you could get up your nose and kill it, you would do it

The man can turn a phrase, can't he?

[Her]

FREE Dunkin Donuts coffee and donuts

  they need free Krispy Kremes! 

Morning M.B. and Gramma...

[Pamela]

OFC Confirms TV Appearances

12/02/05 / More Clay TV Appearances!
Clay will be making special appearances on the following TV shows:

December 5 Entertainment Tonight
December 9 Good Morning America

Pending breaking news, it’s possible the Entertainment Tonight story could get bumped back a day to run on Decmeber 6th. Be sure to tune in and check your local listings for exact show times and channels.

Dates are on the calendar!  Be sure to check the calendar daily for all the latest appearance info! 

[Moonshot]

PANMEDIA

When I first glanced at that I thought "Pamnadia has her own site now!"

Then I looked at it again and realized it was just a news site. I was somewhat disappointed!

[Pamela]

PANMEDIA

When I first glanced at that I thought "Pamnadia has her own site now!"

Then I looked at it again and realized it was just a news site. I was somewhat disappointed!

HA!  I hope it's not too crazy to say that I thought the same thing for a minute.   

[Pamela]

Thanks to Heather for finding this....CM charm.... I don't know much about these bracelets but I've seen them and they are cool.  Is that a good price?  I have no idea! 

Cute though. 

[Pamela]

NY POST Online Edition

HEAR THIS
By MAXINE SHEN
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
December 4, 2005 -- IN CONCERT

Clay Aiken, he of the frosted highlights, sings his heart out at Beacon Theatre tonight.

NY Post Online

He sure does.  See you at the cellcert tonight....!

[Pamela]

CLAYMANIA
"Idol" Star's Tour Buoyed by Old Ladies
by Deborah Starr Seibel

Don't be surprised if you see a lifesized cardboard cutout of Clay Aiken being toted around the streets of NY this weekend. American Idol's most famous runner-up is preparing for Sunday's third and final night of the NY leg of his Joyful Noise Christmas Tour at the Beacon Theater. And his fans, famed for their over the top enthusiasm, will be ready to celebrate at the before and after-the-show parties that typically surround Aiken's touring schedule.

In Los Angeles for example, near the start of the 35 city tour in early November, the cardboard cutout, known as Flat Clay, stood in the corner of Hollywood's Hamburger Hamlet. As Flat Clay looked on some 4 dozen women ages 18-65, enjoyed burgers and party favors that included chocolates wrapped in Aiken's picture. These fans, many of whom met over the internet, leave home and often their home states to share ALL THINGS CLAY before the concerts. Flat Clay for example, has made appearances on the East Coast, the Dakotas, even Hawaii.

"He folds up", explains Zelda Gilbert, 60 from Sherman Oaks CA, the prop's owner.

Gilbert, a psychology professor at Woodbury University in Burbank, is fairly typical of the Aiken fans who put on a show almost as entertaining as Aiken himself when he comes to town. Populating websites such as The Clay Connection, ClayDream Believers, The Clack House, and The Claymates, these fans could have just bought his records and called it a day. But, talk to them and you get the feeling they think they created him.

"I'm surprised at myself", says Barbara Allen, 64 an interior designer from LaJolla, CA. "Because I've never done this before and I think I'm a little past havng a mid-life crisis. But I was really unhappy with what I was seing and hearing in pop culture. In my view it was not about the music anymore, it was about how sensational they could become, how vulgar, rather than offering a God-given talent".

To Allen and Gilbert and many more Aiken's talent has filled a big void and they are determined to keep the flame alive. Says Gilbert, "It's like being a Deadhead but with clean urine samples."

NY Post

This is the same writer who wrote the "Hollywood's rotting insides" article for TV Guide, and a previous NY Post article about the Jukebox tour and upcoming CD that was fairly complimentary.  She attended a pre-concert party in LA prior to the Joyful Noise show there.

[ChrisieD]

Thanks to Heather for finding this....CM charm.... I don't know much about these bracelets but I've seen them and they are cool.  Is that a good price?  I have no idea! 

Cute though. 

I bought one of these months ago for Mrs.C and myself.  !!