Thursday, September 14, 2006

If he had known Clay...

Hello everyone,

This has been a sad 24 hours in my city. A lonely, paranoid and violent 25-year old young man entered a college in my city yesterday and gunned down students. One young woman died and many others are in critical condition, some on life support. A true tragedy.

My thoughts turn to Clay at this time, strangely enough. But perhaps it is not so odd, considering what a ray of sunshine Clay is: optimistic, full of love and hope for life and those around him. That deranged young man yesterday - who was killed by local police officers within minutes of their arrival on the scene* - truly needed someone like Clay in his life: another young man with such a different outlook on life, to be a model of hope... He needed love.

I cry today for the young woman who died, her family and loved ones. I pray for those still in the hospital, their family members and friends who are in such anguish. I feel great sadness for the depths of despair in which that young man must have lived, as well as for his parents and family members who must now grieve his loss - as well as what might have been. I wish for a non-violent society, in which all children and young people would be loved, would feel included, part of the world around them, with a constructive purpose to their lives.

I wish for a society with more beautiful people like Clay, beacons of love and hope in a world which for too many, contains nothing but darkness, suffering and pain.

As we celebrate Clay's new CD release next Tuesday, I will be paying tribute especially to OMC's inspirational spirit, and I will try to be more and more like him - in honour of those who have died, and those who are suffering yet in the hospital, or quietly in their homes, from the trauma of this horrendous experience...

Hug your children and other young ones around you today.

In peace,

-- ClayKat

* at the time I wrote this post yesterday, this was the information available. We later learned that although a police officer shot the perpetrator in the arm, the young man actually took his own life, turning one of his weapons on himself. - ClayKat, Friday, September 15th, 2006

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Monday, September 04, 2006

Going to an ATDW release party?

Hello Clay fans,

Well it's the month of September and the final countdown begins! If you look in the banner of my blog you will see a counter (I know, I know - it's black on navy blue, hard to see... I couldn't change the default colour...). There are only 15 days left until the release of Clay's upcoming third album : A Thousand Different Ways (ATDW)! Goddesses, please give this broad lots of energy that week, because I have an incredible week leading up to September 19th! Lots of amazing events (non-Clay-related), then on Tuesday, September 19th: an ATDW release party, where I will be joining Clay fans in my city as we get our CDs and party together, celebrating the incredible young man and talent that is Clay Aiken! I hope you will join us - or some group of Clay fans somewhere around the world, gathering on that day to share our admiration for Clay.

Are you looking for information as to where a party might be held in your area? Check out the Clay Aiken CD Release Parties Planning Board and you will likely find what you are looking for. If not - set up a party in your town and let people know about it on the CD release party planning board!

As we wait for the next two weeks to go by, we have the great fortune to have access to some 30-second snippets of all 14 songs on ATDW, thanks to the quick thinking of our friends at Clay's Daily Double, who downloaded the partial tracks when they were (temporarily) available online. They have since been removed, perhaps because we Claymates crashed the source system with our download requests!

Check out the songs by going to this page on Clay's Daily Double. Another item to check out, in celebration of ATDW: a montage by Clay fan "Brandilyne" called ATDW Snippets... not a montage...: a beautiful montage of recent Clay photos, done to the song snippets from ATDW. Watch it here:

The video is on YouTube, a great source of clack: search for Clay Aiken videos on YouTube to find many more.

Enjoy! See you on September 19th!

-- ClayKat

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