February 02, 2004

Clay, Moby, and Me

Well, it wasn't quite an Insta-lanche, but this blog had a pretty big jump in traffic last night, due to the fact that someone linked to it from this Clay Aiken discussion board thread. The question being debated in that particular part of the thread was whether or not Clay's starting his own blog would be a net plus in the important matter of trying balance the complementary interests of Aiken versus those of his fans. An Aiken fan, who rather surprisingly (to me) appears to know who I am, has this to say:

as amazing as blogs are in general, and as cool as it is to find Moby and Dr. Frank blogging away, I'd hate to see this become yet another required marketing tool for musicians.

I see what he or she is saying, but in fact I would kind of like to see it become another requirement, if only as a way to gauge the literacy of America's lowest common denominator. Kidding. Kind of. But I do love it when I discover another blogging musician, for whatever reason.

I'll say one thing: Aiken would probably get a different order of comments than I do, if the message board is any indication. Here's one from Claysomesongs:

I actually think Clay will be better off when he has an girlfriend that he dates openly, and hope he makes the decision to do this soon. If he is obviously with a date, surely fans will not feel free to invade his private space.

To which a kind of Nick to Claysomesongs's Spacetoast replies:
How I wish this were true. Unfortunately, it's not, imo...

It's like a parallel universe and we're all wearing little alterna-Spock beards. Your agonizer, if you please...

Posted by Dr. Frank at February 2, 2004 07:23 PM | TrackBack
Comments

i want no part of THAT universe.

Posted by: resident jason at February 2, 2004 07:36 PM

My daughter is a HUGE Clay fan. I just know she's going to be reading that message board and she'll see your name, Frank (mentioned often in this household) and then....WORLDS COLLIDE!

[Sorry, had a George Costanza moment there]

Posted by: michele at February 2, 2004 07:42 PM

Yes indeed, Michele: worlds are colliding. And that's not even considering the Moby aspect of things.

Honestly, though, if you subtracted my G. Costanza moments, I'd have barely any moments left.

Hey I hope you and daughter are feeling better-- though I think mono takes a long time. I used to envy the kids who got to take, like, a whole year off school because of it, though there's a downside, too, as I understand it. All my best wishes, in any case.

Posted by: Dr. Frank at February 2, 2004 08:08 PM

Remember Clay removing the pasties from the Christine Aguilera doll on mtv? Err, that is, what's up with Dr. Frank's new Buck Rogers look, as evinced in the insert to the new cd?

Posted by: spacetoast at February 2, 2004 08:38 PM

Am I enough of a regular to have an evil twin in the parallel universe? Cool! I always kind of thought of myself as a phaser-fodder dude in a red shirt....

Posted by: Nick at February 2, 2004 08:56 PM

Thanks, F.

The downside is I constantly feel like I drank a bottle of NyQuil. The upside is I can finally lay on the couch all day and watch cartoons and read comic books and not feel guilty about it.

Posted by: michele at February 2, 2004 09:00 PM

No, we're wearing the beards in this one. They're the clean-shaven ones. ;)

Posted by: JB at February 2, 2004 10:27 PM

Thank goodness I’m just casual visitor here and not a serious participant. I’d go nuts trying to decide if I should have a beard in this universe or the parallel one. It seems the evil twins usually have the beards, don’t they? Somewhere there is a rulebook explaining exactly who the beard wearers should be. If no such rulebook exists, I nominate spacetoast and Nick to write one. They seem to have the most at stake.

In the meantime (and unrelated to any of this Clay stuff)…has anybody else noticed that ‘Yesterday Rules’ is being filed under ‘MTX’ at Tower Records (San Mateo, anyway)? It (Yesterday Rules) looks so lonely there, far from the rest of the Mr. T Experience catalogue. Then again, at least it doesn’t have to smell the Mr. Bungle and Mr. Mister CDs.

Great show at Slim’s Saturday night. Ted and Bobby J. really compliment Dr. Frank’s artistry. “Fucked Up On Life” and “Alcatraz” were especially well executed. The sound reinforcement at Slim’s was uncharacteristically good. You could actually hear the subtle nuances of Dr. Frank and Ted’s fine guitar playing. One of the better live mixes I’ve heard in quite a long time. Joel’s band kicked some butt, too. He’s a magna cum laude graduate of the Dr. Frank School of Rock (which is a good thing). The Phenomenauts made me smile a few times. The world needs a robot obsessive rockabilly band. Sounds like: Rev Horton Heat and Mark Mothersbaugh having a goof.

Posted by: j. francis at February 3, 2004 01:00 AM

Yeah, I'm seeing it filed under "MTX" in Baltimore ... maybe the next pressings should have a sticker on the shrinkwrap: "File under 'Mr. T Experience.'"

Posted by: Hulka at February 3, 2004 04:20 AM

J. Francis, I think the question of whether or not you're one of the beard guys is only answered by God after you die.

Glad you liked the songs.

Posted by: Dr. Frank at February 3, 2004 06:38 AM

i want eminem to have a blog. or ted nugent!

Posted by: anne at February 3, 2004 08:27 AM

Luckily my children prefer the songs of MTX over a Clay Aiken song anyday...I just may bring them to the Pittsburgh show as well.

Posted by: Becca at February 4, 2004 07:13 PM

/me looks down front of red shirt to confirm gender

Well, either I'm a girl or I'm some poor schmuck who should sue his plastic surgeon and the bar buddies who came up with this bet.

Glad I could cause a small world collision with my link, although you may well have been exposed to more potential fans than you'd expect. Shelved near my one and only Clay Aiken CD: ... And the women who love them, Summerteeth, Speakerboxx/The Love Below, and Rocket to Russia. And I was at a Christmas showcase concert with several women (ranging in age from twenties to fifties) who were there for Clay, but walked out of that hall looking for anything they could get from O.A.R. after catching their set.

Posted by: Mary at February 16, 2004 01:56 AM

Beard or not, whatever. But Aiken's fans are pretty diverse. I like him. But the guy at the record store looked at me kind of funny as I bought Aiken's CD along with Wilco and The Shins. I went to an Aiken concert and he's such a different animal live; it wasn't so much soft pop as soft rock. The friends I went with -- one major U2 nut and the other still continually saying thanks for the return of Prince.

The following weekend I saw Evanesence. Totally different experience, of course. But I had fun at both.

Posted by: Carole at January 1, 2005 05:21 PM
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