Tidbits 7/26

Great photo of Clay performing in Chautauqua, NY last week at the Chautauqua Institution website.

• Associated Content - ha! This is just too funny... spoof of PETA "targeting" bug swatting Clay Aiken (he was very annoyed with those pesky things at the concert last night in Gilford):

  The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals took aim at pop superstar Clay Aiken today, after Aiken viciously killed various flying insects during an outdoor concert in Gilford, NH on Wednesday. According to witnesses at the scene, Aiken swatted, slapped and smashed several bugs, with no thought for the feelings of the bugs or the crowd.
  
  "It was the most heartless thing I've ever seen," said former fan Brenda Levy. "I thought he was just wonderful, but seeing him squash those mosquitoes changed my mind. I'm organizing a CD burning. All bug lovers need to let him know we won't stand for this."
  
  Said a representative for PETA, "Aiken's callous disregard for other creatures continues to shock and outrage. Today it's mosquitoes, tomorrow it could be roaches. Who knows where his brutality will end? It wasn't so long ago that we called attention to his history of cat violence." Aiken has previously been the target of PETA's wrath for anti-cat sentiments. "Now his behavior has escalated to the mass murder of innocent flying insects. We will be picketing his next concert and are going to court to gain control of his dogs."
  
  It was the latest in a series of public relations nightmares for Aiken, who has been accused of starving children, violating child labor laws and spreading athlete's foot fungus on commercial airline flights.
  
  When contacted for comment Aiken said "Don't you people have anything better to print?"
  Author's Note: This is satire. No representatives for Aiken or PETA were contacted for this spoof.
  

• Raleigh Chronicle - at last... a media outlet willing to set the record staight about the "plane incident" -

  Some Clay Aiken fans are crying foul about a news report earlier this month that said their favorite singer had gotten into a fight on an airline flight and they say that the media has left out an important detail.
  
  It was reported on July 7th that on a flight that ended at the Tulsa, Oklahoma airport, Aiken got into an argument with a female passenger.
  
  However, fans are saying that Aiken has been maligned unfairly in the media over the airborne incident.
  
  According to one reader, an earlier report that they say was later edited said that "Apparently, a former 'American Idol' contestant was asleep in his seat and a woman roused him to get him to move his foot, Johnson [of the airport] confirmed. An argument then followed."
  
  However, later Associated Press reports do not contain that important piece of the story Clay Aiken fans say and it was sent out on the wire in the edited form.
  
  The fans seem to be upset that it's not being reported that evidently, the woman woke up Clay and initiated the incident. Some fans believe that the important detail was omitted just to make the story more sensational.

• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - music industry Q & A -

  Q.On oldies stations, Neil Sedaka deservedly remains one of the most played artists. What are some of his songs that became hits for other people?
  
  "Solitaire" (Carpenters, Clay Aiken);
  

• Columbus Alive - Chris Daughtry with a small Clay mention -

  Davis, of course, is the head of RCA Records and one of music's legendary executives. He's had huge success in signing other Idol alumni, including Kelly Clarkson and Clay Aiken. He recognized that the groundswell of support for Daughtry— and the publicity that surrounded his departure from Idol—made the singer a hot commodity.

• MountainX - this guy wants us to explain all Claymania to him...

  I don’t understand why Clay Aiken is perhaps the most popular of all the American Idol runners up. I also don’t understand why, to join his fan club, I have to shell out $25 and look at a picture of him in which he seems to have been drugged and flung against a wall. Someone out there gets it, though: the attraction to this waifish crooner.
  
  Explain it to me, please.
  

• Concert listings:
• Tampa Bay Observer
• Philly Burbs (N.J. concert)
• Bradenton Herald
• Augusta Chronicle
• HotelsByCity.net - Waukegan, IL Christmas date
• Genesee Theatre - event listing for Clay's Waukegan show
  

• There Was A Man - Clay brings down the house in Columbus