Houston Press Announced Fan Art Contest Winner, Posts Clay Interview

Following on the heels of yesterday's interview with the Houston Chronicle, the Houston Press has announced the winner of their Clay Aiken fan art contest and posted their own interview with Clay. Congratulations to Shelia Hancock who agreed to donate her prize - 2 concert tickets - to an non-profit organization called Sunshine Kids. Her winning entry is shown above.

The Houston Press' interview is posted as a podcast on their website. The 15 podcast interview is split into two parts, which you can listen to from the Houston Press website. A cap is also available for download at SendSpace if you wish to download the interview to your computer instead.

Houston Press Podcast With Clay, Art Contest Winner Announcement In The Works

The Houston Press Newspaper has some exciting things in the works for Clay fans. You might remember CDD articles about the Houston Press from a couple of months ago concerning an "Aching For Aiken" article, a Clay fan art contest, and a concert ticket giveaway to a deserving child. Well, how do you like the sound of adding a Clay interview podcast to that list of Houston Press items?

I've been keeping in touch with Olivia from the Houston Press off and on the last couple of months. She's the one who planned the Clay art contest for people to enter and then the prize was going to be to give tickets to a deserving child to go see Clay in honor of the winner.

Recently they had a nice big ad in their paper about Clay performing with the Houston Symphony, so I emailed her and thanked her for this ad and then asked about the art contest.

She emailed me back just a few minutes later, and here is what she said in her email:

"I am talking to Clay on the phone right now!
Let me get off the phone and I'll e-mail you the info."

I emailed her back and said:

"What! You're talking to Clay! Whoa! Well, give him my number and tell him to call me!! LOL!"

Well, when she wrote back, she said that she had a 15 minute interview with Clay (and he told her he was in his pajamas! LOL! Are we surprised?!) and the interview is going to be put online as a podcast for us to listen to!!! She said that we are gonna love it too. She also knows what the surprise project he's had Jesse working on, but she wouldn't tell me. But she said that Clay is really excited about it.

The other neat thing is that she does have two concert tickets, a gift card to Outback Steakhouse, to make it be "dinner and a show.", and a Houston Press t-shirt to give to a deserving child. She said that they wanted a deserving kid to get the tickets.

I called Sunshine Kids for her and if it all works out a child from there (cancer kids) and an adult will go to Clay's concert. She told Clay about the art contest and the child going to the concert. Not sure what he said about that yet. I guess the podcast will tell us!

Speaking of the art contest, the winner should be announced on Monday. The drawing will run in the newspaper (provided they get permission from the artist) on Thursday.

We will let you know just as soon as the link to the podcast is available and the winner's name is announced. A 15 minute podcast interview with Clay...now this is something to look forward to!

Houston Press Showcases Talented Claymates' Art Work

The Houston Press made a call earlier this week for Clay Aiken fan art. Boy, did the Clay nation ever respond! The Houston Press will award the winner 2 tickets to Clay's July 6 Houston concert, but will have the option of donating them to a foundation like the Make A Wish foundation.

Go to the Houston Press' website to see all the entries thus far.

You have until the end of this month to submit your art piece. More details are available at the link above.

Houston Press to Give Away Tickets to Concert

The Houston Press has announced that they have two orchestra level seats for Clay's July 6 concert at Jones Hall. To enter, submit a photo of a piece of original fan art to Olivia.Alvarez@HoustonPress.com. The full details are listed at the Houston Press website.

The Houston Symphony has most kindly donated two tickets to the Clay Aiken show coming up later this summer as the prize for our Clay Aiken art contest. Two orchestra seats. Since most fans already have their tickets, we're hoping the winner will allow us to donate the tickets to a charity, maybe to the Make a Wish Foundation or something similar. (We haven't figured all that out yet.)

Houston Press "Aching For Aiken" Article A Must Read

Houston continues not to disappoint with its advertising of Clay's concert, first with a great article in The Houston Chronicle, and now with an even better one in The Houston Press. With the picture from the cover of The Rolling Stone, the article starts out,

American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken is coming to Houston for a show with Houston’s own Symphony Orchestra (HSO). The show isn’t until July but ticket sales went crazy on Monday when the Symphony held a pre-sale limited to Symphony subscribers and Clay Aiken fan club members. Today tickets were made available to the general public and while sales have slowed some, they are still steady. Chances are Aiken’s show will be sold-out, a rarety for HSO. The only other shows that have sold out this season are Yo-Yo Ma and the Chieftains.

The Houston Symphony also has their own comments in the article, saying that they like to present "a wide spectrum of repertoire...to a broad and diverse audience."

In addition, the Symphony spokesman says that those artists who appear with them "have invested substantially large sums of money to have symphony arrangements of their material written so they can perform their shows with symphony orchestras all across the country.” This should be the show of the century! The Houston Symphony is a world renowned orchestra, and backing Clay up, this concert will be spectacular.

You can leave your own comments at the end of the article. If you are inclined to do so, leave a positive comment to encourage those who read it to come to the performance.