Tidbits 6/1

ConcertShots.com - I haven't seen a few of these before... photos from Clay's December 13, 2003 mini-concert at Q-100's Frosty The Showman 2003.

• Entertainment Weekly - bad season finales this year - "Season finales haven't fared too well this year. The lackluster Idol ender couldn't produce even half the brilliance of Clay's surprise appearance last year"
  
• Reuters wire story on the surge in popularity of classical music recently... mentions Clay's Symphonic summer tour which starts next month: "Cincinnati Pops is teaming up with funk icon Bootsy Collins, and 2003 American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken is planning a summer symphony tour."
  
• Entertainment Weekly - article about FOX's So You Think You Can Dance:

  Clogger Brandon Norris — a cross between Clay Aiken, Elliott Yamin, and Kenneth the NBC Page on 30 Rock — shut Nigel up but quick with his Roadrunner-quick feet after the judge prefaced the audition with the warning that they had never put a clogger through before.

• Canada's Globe & Mail (major Canadian newspaper) - Ruben Studdard part of "all-star" cast paying tribute to Ella Fitzgerald in PBS special airing tonight -

  Studdard was an American Idol winner several years back, but never achieved the fame or notoriety of that season's runner-up, Clay Aiken. How Studdard ended up as part of this all-star lineup is a mystery.
  

• Tour mentions:
• Philly Burbs (negative)
• ABC WPVI-TV Philadelphia - "Workers are still putting the finishing touches on Mann Center stage this afternoon, getting ready for the diverse roster of performers who will be here this summer. People as different as Clay Aiken and Smokey Robinson, Lyle Lovett and Wynton Marsalis."
  
• The Desert Sun

• A few blogs about Clay in Vancouver:
• There Was A Man
• Southern Girl