OK, let's start with a teeny rant about blogs that TIME YOU OUT so you lose everything you were writing...grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Now, to recapitulate (here the rant gets BIGGER!):

When the surf gets a bit high on the boards, this gal takes to the blog (usually to vent, as you MAY have noticed previously, based on content) :)

Well, surf is up up UP over this Insider thing. One board in particular has been 'relentlessly negative' about everything Clay over the past few months. Oh, they enjoyed the tour - lots of them went and met and went to multiple concerts and had a great time. But about anything and everything else? Oy! Pick pick pick snipe snipe snipe. Plenty of 'I hope you don't think I'm a bad fan, but [insert despairing post about what Clay is wearing, doing, thinking, eating, breathing, etc. etc. etc. here]'- oh, and they hate his hair, too.

Well no, I don't think they're bad fans. I don't think being a fan means you have to like/agree with everything an artist is saying or doing. But when it seems as though you don't like ANYTHING an artist is saying or doing (or wearing, LOL) over a matter of months - then no I don't think you're a bad fan. I just don't think you're really a 'fan' at all, since the word does rather imply LIKING the artist, by definition...

I don't 'buy' the thought that if you care about/have feelings about an artist, you're a fan. I have feelings about many artists - poor old Ozzie Osbourne for one - that could not even remotely be included in the definition of 'fan'. Negative feelings, as in, they make me sick. Tee-hee. And I don't much respect a 'fan' that acts as though they are anything but, because they personally don't understand why an artist is doing this or that thing or pursuing this or that direction!

I sometimes have a vision of a bank of TV screens stretching off for miles in every direction. On each screen, Clay's life and career are playing out DIFFERENTLY. Each represents the way a 'know-it-all' fan thinks Clay should think, act, dress, express himself, sing, etc. And we won't know until they're all 'over', which one he should have listened to. (Because the one thing these negative posters do seem to agree on is that he certainly shouldn't listen to himself!!)

Well, I could go on, but it's late and I spent my eloquence on the FIRST rant that I lost. Still, since the occasion seemed to me to call for doggerel, I re-created my own modest effort (please be sure to read it with great angst, drama and hand-wringing)

Oh Clay, what are you doing In this trashy tabloid gig? Fashion Week was bad enough But this is infra dig! UNICEF and Larry King Were better bets by far (You only should do classy things I'LL tell you which those are...)

And oh, about that wardrobe That you really shouldn't wear And while we're talking image, Let's re-think the hair... Back in 2003, clay, You were such a 'breath of air' I want that feeling back again! (I say this 'cause I CARE...)

Now, Get thee to a studio! You must focus now, and plan Get better songs than that dreck we heard, And get that CD in the can! You surely can do better than That 'Measure of a Man' (I want you to be what I WANT you to be - 'Cause I'm your BIGGEST FAN!!!!!!!)

LOL - just my own humble opinions, YMMV (and if it varies GREATLY, you have my express permission to label yourself NOT a fan of me and exit my blog. Just please don't express yourself in post after post about how you dislike my hair, my sweater, my songs I previewed, my first CD, my hair, my trashy show, my interview, my frivolous Fashion Week appearance, my hair...)

Me, I don't particularly care for the Insider gig either, nor am I a fan of this latest hairstyle with the side part. But you won't find me posting ad nauseam about it with no leavening of positive material. Why? Well, mostly because I'm a FAN... (which means, I believe, that I LIKE something about the dude!)

Now, it's time for me to sally forth to the boards again, equilibrium much restored by this rant. I need to see what is the latest on this October 25th CD! May reasonableness, sanity and common sense prevail...

:)