Preparing For Gustav

We are preparing for Hurricane Gustav. There is a mandatory evacuation. After tomorrow I most likely won't have internet access for a few days but plan on leaving a message or two at www.utterz.com/fredclark as long as my cell phone is working.
As I write this (10:08 pm Friday) there are already gas stations here in Houma that are out of gas, Wal-Mart is extremely busy and many shelves are empty.

Frederick's First Day of School

Pics from the 2 year old's first day of school.

Mini Golf

Pictures from our golfing excursion.

New Video Series On Youtube

I've started a new video series-The Fred Clark Realty Show. Episode 1 is now available at www.youtube.com/fredclarktv. You can see me grill, on an exercise bike, hanging with the kids, showing off the Catsupfest plaque (as promised) and inviting a major star to dinner. Meanwhile, Lauren just wants to watch the Olympics! Catch all the fun at youtube.com/fredclarktv!

The New Schoolgirl

Today was Bridget's first day of school. She started pre-K. She was very excited and proud to put on her new uniform. She sang "I'm the new schoolgirl" over and over before it was time to go. I'm glad she has a couple of big sisters to sit with her on the bus.
We were anxious for her to come home after school. I'm not sure what Frederick thought, hanging out with Mom and Dad all day and no sisters to play with. Anyway, when the girls arrived home Bridget told us she had fun at school, she likes her teacher and made some new friends. Looks like she is off to a good start.

Other news: I received a special plaque today. (See my myspace music site blog)

Baseball vs Synchronized Diving

So baseball and softball are being discontinued after these olympics, but we are left with synchronized diving?

Why? Because they don't play baseball in Mozambique, Andorra, or Laos, but 8 people synchronize dive in those places?

How many thousands of baseball players are there in Venezuela, Japan, or The Netherlands Antilles as opposed to synchronized divers?

Bet they have some pretty big stadiums in Bhutan and Lesotho to accomodate the throngs of adoring fans for synchronized diving.

Maybe I am just "too American" to realize that synchronized diving is a more universally recognized sport.

Give me a freakin' break.

PS- The haze over Beijing is not smog, but dust from the Gobi desert brought in by the wind. We shouldn't say Beijing has smog. We might hurt someone's feelings.

Opening Ceremonies and 8th Grade Geography

I watched part of the Olympic opening ceremonies last night. My favorite part is always watching the teams from all the different countries marching into the stadium. I've always been fascinated by other cultures. While watching, I remembered the '76 Olympics, which was held during the summer between my 7th and 8th grade years. I had injured my foot that summer, and had to have a minor surgery, so I spent a few days in the hospital, most of which was watching the Olympics. One of the nurses was a track and field fan, and we found some common ground in a 800 meter runner by the name of Rick Wolhuter. I believe he was the favorite, but alas, he only took the bronze.

After arriving back home, I had to spend some time off my feet. We had a set of Rand McNally atlases, and if memory serves me right, it was a 12 volume set. So, with nothing better to do I memorized every country and it's capital in the whole world.

Every single one.

I'm talking all of them.

Fast forward a few months and I am sitting in my 8th grade geography class at Webster Jr. High, taught by the football coach, Coach Presson. The Coach kind of makes an offhanded remark about the capital of Botswana, thinking nobody would know and I very nonchalantly say "Gaborone". Of course the whole class (20 girls and 7 other boys) looks at me in bewilderment, and the Coach has to actually look it up. "How do you know that?" He asks. I tell him I know all of them. "What do you mean all of them?" and I say "I know every capital of every country in the world" So then he asks me a few more, and of course I get them right. Then one of the girls blurts out "Clark, you are so fruit!" Yeah, whatever. Anyway every day from then on the Coach would ask me the capital of some country. Once he tried to get me on a technicality but it didn't work. He never did stump me.

Unfortunately I have not retained that information over the years. In fact I had to look up the capital of Botswana to write this blog! Chalk it up to old age.

Ironically, I have never traveled outside of the United States.

Bob Newhart

I went to the bookstore the other day. I'm not going to say who it is, but it's not Barnes & Noble or Borders or a cool little independent, but it's the only game in town here in Houma, so it's where I go. I didn't have much cash with me, and wasn't finding anything that was in my price range that looked like anything I wanted to read, then I noticed they had a small used library book section and a Bob Newhart book for $3 caught my eye, so I bought it. Not only is Bob one of the great comedians of all time with 2 of the greatest sitcoms of all time, but he is also a distant relative of mine, and actually somebody I met during my Hollywood summer.
During that summer ('89)my buddy Kelly and I became friends with John Voldstad (the other brother Darryl--a blog for another day). John invited us to a taping of the show. (episode #1 of the last season) We met the whole cast with the exception of Bob. After the show, we were waiting for John while he was getting dressed and saw Mrs. Newhart, so we went over to her and told her we were friends with John, and that, like Bob, we were from Illinois and really wanted to meet him just to say hi. This was right outside his dressing room on the lot where his bronze Mazzeratti was sitting. Mrs. N said "Bob would love to meet you boys"... and she went inside to get him. About a minute later, Bob emerged with his glass of wine. The conversation started out about Illinois, which was kind of funny because Bob is from Oak Park, near Chicago, and we were from Collinsville, near St. Louis--some 300 miles away, and when we told him that, he had a classic Newhart style type deadpan comment about East St. Louis, which at the time was one of the murder and drug capitals of the United States. Anyway, we spent about 10 minutes with him and it was great. I didn't realize it at the time, but we are distant cousins--9th cousin, once removed to be exact--our common ancestor is Christophel Nuehart, born 1599 in Germany. (Yes I am genealogy geek guy!)
Picture is of the book I bought and, as promised, another cowboy hat picture of Frederick.

Hanging with the Fredman

Today I hung out with my good buddy, Fred the 4th. We went to a dollar store and as we were leaving he found some cowboy hats and put one on. Naturally, I had to try one on too, so I bought us each one. Then we went downtown and walked around for a bit before grabbing some lunch at Arby's. We had a good time.

Pic is of us in our new $1 hats. Yes, I know you can't see them real well, but hey, I took the picture. I'll try to have a better one taken of us soon.
fc

PS- I just posted a new blog on my www.myspace.com/fredclarkmusic site entitled Beverly Hillbillies???

First day of school

Today was the first day of school for Colette and Bernadette. Can you believe it?

No Depression

I was sad to hear about the cessation of No Depression Magazine. Named after the Carter Family song covered by Uncle Tupelo on UT's album by the same name, it is my favorite music magazine.
The magazine was the leading source of of the alt-country/americana/roots rock movement. I was buying the magazine early on, and had a subscription for awhile. Most of the time, I bought it off the rack.
It was always fun for me, as I knew or had met many of the artists that graced the pages. Although I never received a review or a mention, I did run a few ads following the Just Another Day release in '97, and it brought me some fans.
Happily, No Depression will carry on as a webzine and publish a couple of books each year. Yes, I will be checking it out, but the mag will be missed.
Pic: Fred No Depression ad, 1997