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just found the film i was in on youtube.


The highlight of 2023 was being cast as the star of "In My Brothers Footstep", a short twenty-minute film which was shot over several weekends in the spring by Aidan Alcala (a senior at McCallum H.S.). The film was great and even concluded with a drone shot on the Ann Richards Bridge. Pictures are at . The film is at

January 2024

Hope all is great with you. Happy new year. Here is my annual newsletter for 2023. It's time for the annual review and once again I was surprised at how much I did.

The highlight of 2023 was being cast as the star of "In My Brothers Footstep", a short twenty-minute film which was shot over several weekends in the spring by Aidan Alcala (a senior at McCallum H.S.). The film was great and even concluded with a drone shot on the Ann Richards Bridge. Pictures are at . I hope eventually to have a version online.

In 2022 there was a massive statewide power failure during which my power was off most of one day. In 2023 there was a smaller failure in Austin, but I was without power for 85 HOURS in February. I was very grateful that I don't rely on electricity for heating. Some neighbors stayed elsewhere during that week. In May the city trimmed branches on the power lines on my block, which should reduce the odds of a future power failure.

I had a lot of repair work done on my home. In March, I found a repairman, Juan Medrano, (just a bit older than me) who does great work. My side porch roof needed replacement and he also fixed my front door, kitchen sink problems and my bathtub drain. In May my bedroom ceiling was repaired by a crew Juan supplied. In November he installed a new toilet.

After a three-year pause, starting with the Covid shutdown, "Overheard with Evan Smith" finally resumed in April with Kathy Valentine. There were only four more tapings during the year with Jake Tapper and Martin Baron being especially great. Hopefully there will be a full season's worth in 2024.

In March I saw a very good talk by John Avlon and Chris Whipple, about their books: "The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden's White House" and "Lincoln and the Fight for Peace".

In April I saw a great talk by Natasha Lance Rogoff about her fascinating book "Muppets in Moscow: The Unexpected Crazy True Story of Making Sesame Street in Russia." I also attended a lecture by Susan Ford Bales (President Ford's daughter) and Richard Norton Smith.

In June I saw a great lecture: "Designs on Film: The History of Production Design in the Cinema" at the Ransom Center. The host, Steve Wilson, had just retired after working there many years. I met him decades ago when he helped manage the great Varsity Theater, where I saw many movies.

In October I attended a great lecture on democracy by Heather Cox Richardson. That month I was astonished to see about a dozen vultures in my backyard and discovered they were feasting on a large dead rat.

In November Robert M. Gates, former Secretary of Defense and CIA Director, gave a great talk at the LBJ.

My health was good. In August I got my third Covid booster. As usual I walked a lot and logged 6,203 miles (the most ever), an average of 17.00 miles a day. I had twenty-one twenty-mile days. I walked at least twelve miles every day except one (only eleven that day). I only drove my car thirty-five days and needed to fill up the tank only once. In March my large left toenail went black after I apparently banged it into something. In May the nail finally fell off, but it was only the end of the year when it finally completely grew back. The last few days of the year I had a serious case of the flu.

I saw only six plays; two of them were great. "It's Only a Play" by Terence McNally was great fun as was "Miss Lulu Betts" which had the added feature of a very dear friend, Bethany Harbaugh, as the title character.

As always it was a delight to see some of my former students and I saw an amazing twenty-six during the year. I got to visit with Iris Carson (at an open house), Dria Davis (helping with the financials at the garage I pass by most days), Angela Jordan (at an HEB), and Stacey Johnson (at her new workplace). Shametra McGregor (as a cashier at Target), Travis Johnson (delivered part of my new toilet). Mario Aleman grew up on my block and I found that he'd moved back home. At the funeral of three former students' step-mom, I saw Stephanie, Letitia & Heather Olson. At a memorial service for Colin Myers, I saw his sister Miranda & their uncle Michael Goins. Tammy Watkins came up from San Antonio for her aunt's funeral. At Maribel Camarillo's funeral, I saw Teua & Idalia Ramirez, Maria Torres, Henry Camarillo, & Linda Herrera (part of the best-attended funeral I've ever been at). I saw Desmond Cofer at his mom's funeral. James Crouch (who edited the feature film "The Long Game") was at a screening of that wonderful film. On walks I saw Brandon Williams and Carventtia Cathey as well as Glenn Ross and Shane Martinets (who both live a few blocks away). And Erick Robinson (on a bus).

For several years I've been trying to find more Dobie Middle School yearbooks to post on the Facebook page I created. I was able to get three more this year. When the principal who had helped me was suddenly replaced, the supply from the school was stopped. I now have posted 31 books, about three/fifths of the total. Two books were from Mary Alice Hatchett, who was the math chair while I was there and the other from a woman in Leander; I now have the first 23 yearbooks (1974-96). Sadly, though the new librarian promised to help, she claimed that she can find no books at all. This seems questionable, since I previously borrowed about a dozen of their books.

I got a unique apology letter from someone who was among the assholes who bullied me when I was a tiny eighth grader at Southwest High School in Kansas City. I discovered that he had signed my yearbook "to a little bald-headed guy who can't play the French horn at all." (If you're on Facebook, you can see the entire book at )


At SXSW in addition to the many films I saw, I got to visit with Don Ruisinger, one of my favorite colleagues on the Lamar faculty for many years. Shortly after SXSW I got a unique email, "Hi Dan, my name is Katy Vine and I’m a staff writer at Texas Monthly. I was at a party during SXSW and a few folks were talking about your regular attendance at all kinds of events around town - and more than that, that you’re a fascinating guy. Everything they told me piqued my interest. Do you have a few minutes to talk?"

We scheduled to talk the next day as I walked to AFS Cinema, but then got an email saying something had come up and she had to postpone. There has never been a follow-up, so it looks like it won't happen after all. In connection with this, Will Wallace sent this to Katy, "I remember casting Dan Eggleston in a film I directed called 'Red Wing'. We shot in a small, delightful town called Whitewright, TX. I cast him as a feed store clerk and within mere seconds, it seemed as though he had been a permanent fixture in the store. If I remember correctly, another actor named Glen Powell, who was cast in the role opposite Dan, asked if I was using the actual employee."

Two big purchases this year: a new iMac computer and a new toilet.

I got to see sixteen bands from around Texas at the annual UIL wind ensemble festival.

At the end of the year, I had an unusual job: for eight days looking after a neighbor's two dogs & cat.

I discovered Emile Waldteufel's wonderful music and added an eleven-volume collection of it. Likewise, the great John Field, adding several albums of his music.

I've been a member of the Austin Film Society for many years and have now seen 1323 films at AFS Cinema. This year I saw 294 (including a few shorts collections); more than ever before. I was at AFS 212 days. The only theater where I had seen more movies was the Arbor, which sadly, closed in 2022; I saw1210 movies there.

As always, I saw many movies. Often the best of them were at AFS Cinema

Among the best feature movies I loved are "Radical", "All Quiet on the Western Front", "No Bears", "Children Who Chase Lost Voices", "Tori and Lokita", "Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani", "Anatomy of a Fall", "Landscape with Invisible Hand", "For When You Get Lost" "The Holdovers", "Together" and "Love According to Dalva". Four great features at SXSW: "Upon Entry", "The Long Game", "Subject", and "Kinderland". Some of the best older features I saw again were "North by Northwest", "Chocolat", "Adam's Rib", "Bells are Ringing", "Ikiru", "Raising Arizona", "Carmen Jones", "A Matter of Life & Death", "Ciao Professore", "Close-up" and "Hudsucker Proxy."

The best new documentaries: "First We Bombed New Mexico", "Turn Every Page", "Judy Blume Forever", and "Joan Baez: I Am a Noise." And older documentaries: "Phantom India" (1969), "My Architect: A Son's Journey" (2003)", and "Lillian Gish" (1984). New excellent docs at SXSW: "Confessions of a Good Samaritan", " Is There Anybody Out There?", "The Lady Bird Diaries", "Revival 69: The Concert That Rocked the World", "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret", and "Food & Country."

As always, I read 365 books this year. About fifty-seven were books I found at Little Free Libraries and thirteen were ebooks. Some of those are in the list below. It was a real treat to discover some new authors and find the books they've already written.

Non-Fiction.
Autobiography
One of the best autobiographies I've ever read was Catherine Gildiner's trilogy: "Too Close to the Falls", "After the Falls", and "Coming Ashore." This was followed recently by an incredible book about five of her patients in her practice as a clinical psychologist: "Good Morning, Monster: A Therapist Shares Five Heroic Stories of Emotional Recovery". I contacted her through her website and got a delightful and surprising reply. "Glad to meet someone who has been in the teaching trenches. (Same war different cities!) When people ask me if doing a PhD on Darwin and Freud was onerous, I say not compared to teaching in a ghetto. It is interesting that your name is Eggleston. That was my grandmother’s maiden name. Any relation? She was born in the 1800’s to an Irish Catholic family (full of nuns and priests). Her father was an Indian agent for the Salamanca Indians in Salamanca, New York. She taught math and moved to Buffalo. Probably just a coincidence but you never know." I realized that there could well be a connection, since my parents both grew up in Buffalo, I sent her an1870s photo of my great-grandfather with his nine children, but her granny wasn't there. It seems likely that there's some kind of family connection.

More autobiographies: "Know My Name" (Chanel Miller), "Dinners with Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships" (Nina Totenberg), "Alicia: My Story" (Alicia Appleman-Jurman), "Muppets in Moscow: The Unexpected Crazy True Story of Making Sesame Street in Russia" (Natasha Lance Rogoff – got to meet her), "In Pursuit of Disobedient Women: A Memoir of Love, Rebellion, and Family, Far Away" (Dionne Searcey), "Sometimes Brilliant: The Impossible Adventure of a Spiritual Seeker and Visionary Physician Who Helped Conquer the Worst Disease in History" (Larry Brilliant), "The Impossible First: From Fire to Ice - Crossing Antarctica Alone" (Colin O'Brady)

Biographies
"G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century" (Beverly Gage), "As Thousands Cheer: The Life of Irving Berlin" (Laurence Bergreen), "Norma Shearer" (Gavin Lambert), " Marlene Dietrich" (Maria Riva), "American Pharaoh: Mayor Richard J. Daley - His Battle for Chicago and the Nation" (Adam Cohen), "Madame President: The Extraordinary Journey of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf" (Helene Cooper), "The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics" (Dan Carter)

History
Five books by Adam Hochschild: "American Midnight: Democracy's Forgotten Crisis, 1917-1921", "To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918", " Half the Way Home: A Memoir of Father and Son", "Bury the Chains", and "The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin",

"The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden's White House" (Chris Whipple), "The Fleet That Had to Die" (Richard Hough), "Flyboys: A True Story of Courage" (James Bradley), "A Death in Malta: An Assassination and a Family's Quest for Justice" (Paul Galizia), "First Ladies: The Saga of the Presidents' Wives and Their Power, 1789-1961" (Carl Anthony), " The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021" (Peter Baker & Susan Glasser), "Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe" (Laurence Bergreen), "Weapons of Mass Delusion: How the Republican Party Became an Apocalyptic Cult and Brought America to the Brink" (Robert Draper), "Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington" (Ted Widmer)

"Fame and Obscurity: A Book About New York, a Bridge, and Celebrities on the Edge" and "Unto the Sons" (Gay Talese – his latest came out in 2023 – at age 91), "True Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Investigation of Donald Trump" (Jeffrey Toobin), "The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women" (Kate Moore), "You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live: Ten Weeks in Birmingham That Changed America" (Paul Kix), "Manifesto for a Moral Revolution: Practices to Build a Better World" and "Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World" (Jacqueline Novogratz), "Supreme Inequality: The Supreme Court's Fifty-Year Battle for a More Unjust America" (Adam Cohen) and "Hollywood: The Oral History" (Jeanine Basinger & Sam Wasson)

Fiction
YA fiction
Several books by Stuart Gibbs: "Panda-monium", "Lion Down", "Tyrannosaurus Wrecks", "Bear Bottom", " Spy School Project X", "Whale Done", "Charlie Thorne and the Last Equation", "Charlie Thorne and the Lost City", "Charlie Thorne and the Curse of Cleopatra".

Nine by Jennifer Nielsen: "Words on Fire", the Ascendance series: ("The False Prince", "The Runaway King", "The Shadow Throne", "The Captive Kingdom", "The Shattered Castle") and the Mark of the Thief series ("Mark of the Thief", "Rise of the Wolf", and "Wrath of the Storm").

Four Neal Shusterman books: The Arc of a Scythe series ("Scythe", "Thunderhead", "The Toll", and "Gleanings: Stories from the Arc of a Scythe")

Six Liesl Shurtliff books: the Time Castaways trilogy ("The Mona Lisa Key"," The Obsidian Compass" and "The Forbidden Lock"), "Grump: The (Fairly) True Tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves", "Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin" and "Red: The True Story of Red Riding Hood"

And "The Fight for Midnight" (Dan Solomon), "The Secret Garden" (Frances Burnett), and "Stellarlune" (Shannon Messenger)

Crime:
"Murder Book", "The Bomb Maker", "A Small Town", and "The Left-Handed Twin" (Thomas Perry), "No Plan B" (Lee Child), "I Will Find You" (Harlan Coben), Razorblade Tears" and "My Darkest Prayer" (S A Cosby), "Legacies" (F Paul Wilson), "The Lions of Lucerne" (Brad Thor), "Judas 62" (Charles Cumming), and "Death in the East" (Abir Mukherjee)

And four by C J Box: "Wolf Pack", "Long Range", "Storm Watch", "Bitterroots", and "Treasure State"

Novels
"This Tender Land" (William Krueger)

Cartoon art
"Dick Deadeye: Character drawings from the film 'Dick Deadeye or Duty Undone" by Bill Melendez Productions" (Ronald Searle) (), "Ronald Searle in Le Monde" (Ronald Searle) and "Emett's Domain: Trains, Trams, and Englishmen; the Best of Rowland Emett" (Rowland Emett)

Science Fiction
"Hatch" (Kenneth Oppel) and "Master of Djinn" (P Ejeli Clark)

Historical
"North & South" (John Jakes)

I added some new BBC shows to my collection. I've greatly enjoyed listening to these shows and have many more hours of them to listen to. I continued listening to "Quote Unquote", "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue", "Just a Minute", "The Now Show", "Composer of the Week" and "Dead Ringers". I completed (after several years), to Alistair Cooke's "Letters from America" and I loved listening again to the incredible BBC version of Douglas Adams' great "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". I also discovered a wonderful show which includes John Cleese (of Monty Python) from the 1960s "I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again". Some of these shows can be downloaded at RadioEchoes is home to a wide selection of Old Time Radio (OTR) shows. We offer you 21 Genres of shows, 4,253 Series, for a total of 118,114 Episodes
Hoping that 2024 is a great one.

All previous newsletters are at
/g/DanEgglestonChristmasNewsletter
They date back to 1939, which is before my folks had their 3 sons

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Hope all is great with you. Happy new year. Here is my annual newsletter for 2022. It's time for the annual review and once again I was surprised at how much I did.

One of the highlights of the year was in May when I met Lech Walesa* (see photo) the winner of the 1983 Nobel Peace prize. In 1980 he led Poland's Solidarity movement and was elected president a few years later in Poland's first free election. After he spoke (in Polish) for an hour, he allowed all who wanted to have a photo taken with him. It was a thrill just to see him and the photo was an unexpected bonus. I've seen three others from a distance who won this prize: Jimmy Carter, the Dalai Lama and Mikhael Gorbachev (a bit of his talk at ).

I'd seen Doris Kearns Goodwin three times before and have read eleven of her books, so it was wonderful to see her again. This time she was interviewed by Don Carleton about her amazing life, having helped LBJ write his autobiography, met numerous times with Obama and dined with Queen Elizabeth at Obama's invitation. ()

I read a Pete Souza books two years ago and seeing him speak at the LBJ was another highlight. He was Obama's white house photographer and shot 1.9 million pictures during those eight years. He also was one of President Reagan's photographers. It was a fantastic presentation with lots of his pictures and a few short videos. The library's podcast is at .

Before Peter Baker and Susan Glasser's great presentation on their new book "The Divider" () a familiar-looking old man arrived who was getting lots of attention. I thought he was a Texas politician, but learned it was Dan Rather. I'd seen and spoken to him twice before, many years ago, and did so again this time. He's 91 and his hearing is no longer very good, but he looked great.

It was a relatively slow year for acting roles. I had a role in Melanie Hinostroza's video, "Who Am I" () and spent several days over a few months acting and helping her with it. It should be complete early in 2023. In April I was a religious fanatic in an RTF short, "Godhead." (). It screened in December and my part was small but effective. In October I played a priest in "God, Golf, and Glory". Again, a small part but fun to see at the screening, also in December. I was reacting to a five-year-old girl mini-golf wiz and collecting my successful bet on her. ()

The last day of the year we lost Donise Hardy*, who was a major part of the Austin acting community. I met her about twenty years ago after I started my casting list and she was a good friend. She cast many films and taught classes on acting technique and helped start the Austin Network mixer many years ago.

In August I had a very scary experience. I was waiting for the bus; a man was sitting on the bench with a backpack. I placed my backpack at the other end of the bench. The guy walked away for a while looking at a creek. When the bus finally arrived, I noticed he had moved my backpack next to his. I tried to pick it up but he fought me knocking me to the ground two or three times claiming that the backpack belonged to his buddy (who got off the bus). The bus drove off since I was pulled back by the guy holding my backpack. I finally was able to get it back and pick up my billfold, camera, earbuds, and the fat library book (the only thing inside the backpack) which had all fallen off during the fight. The buddy asked the guy how old he was (the guy didn't answer) and suggested that he had serious mental issues. I then walked to the next bus stop to get away from this crazy asshole. The next bus was late to top it all off. I had bruises on my forehead, elbows and knees, but otherwise was okay. I was able to walk the two miles back from the library with no problem.

Sadly, there were no "Overheard with Evan Smith" tapings; the last one was just before the Covid shutdown in 2020. Evan did have an interview with the mayor of Austin on the day the new studios for PBS Austin opened in August. Tapings are scheduled to resume in 2023 at that new location.

While he was stationed with the Air Force in the South Pacific during World War II my father shot some film of some native women dancing. I found a place () that digitized it at no cost and added it to their online library. See it at . Due to the nudity, you'll have to log in to see it.

Early in the year I was diagnosed with cataracts; a doctor replaced the lens in each eye in April and May. It was a relatively quick surgery that required me to get rides home. After the first one, I had major lower back pain for a few days. That was a lesser problem after the second surgery. After the first surgery I noticed something weird: the world seemed to be much brighter in one eye. The lens that was replaced in each eye was "cloudy"; and the new lens allowed me to see the world without that problem.

Other than the surgery, my health was good. In October I got my second Covid booster. As usual I walked a lot and logged 6,090 miles this year, an average of 16.69 miles a day. I had eleven twenty-mile days. I walked at least ten miles every day (the days of my surgeries were the days were I walked the least, spending a lot of time in bed, logging some distance before the surgery). I only drove my car 33 days and needed to fill up the tank only two times. Luckily the second time was before the big spike in prices.

In May the UIL wind ensemble state festival resumed, after two years of Covid cancellations. It was great to see fifteen bands from around the state perform.

The summer was extremely hot. It was the warmest May-July in Austin ever, two degrees warmer than 2011 and 2018. We had 68 triple digit days (short of the 90 in 2011).

I had new roofing installed in March. In February I had a tree removed that was too close to the house. Other larger purchases included a new microwave oven, a camera, and a Tivo.

I saw nineteen former students this year. For some of them it felt like a variation of a movie title from 1994: "Three funerals and a Wedding". I saw Cynthia, America and Augustine Lopez at their dad's funeral. Denise Shed Warner hosted her dad's funeral; Janet and Joel Burka were at a special memorial at the LBJ Library for their dad (who worked at "Texas Monthly" for many years). I was Michael Zornes' guest at his wedding. I saw Shametra McGregor and Justin Rodriguez at their work place and Cynthia Rodriguez Nieto at her daughter's baby shower. And Angela Jordan, Taurean Hall, Shane Martinets, Andy Brown, Camille Seyler, Raymond Cathey, Kevin van Siriboury, and Brandon Williams as I was walking around town.

For several years I've been trying to find more Dobie Middle School yearbooks to post on the Facebook page I created. I was able to get only two this year. When the principal who had helped me was suddenly replaced, the supply was stopped. I now have posted 28 books, just over half of the total.

I only saw three plays in person this year and sadly none were very memorable.

I was very pleased to add to my library four albums by Stephan Micus as well as four by Sheila Chandra. I also added two Vujicsics albums, Le Mystere de la Voix Bulgare 3 and the musical "Song of Norway" (all of the music was composed by Edvard Grieg - )

I've been a member of the Austin Film Society for many years and have now seen over 1000 films at AFS Cinema. This year I saw 225 (including a few shorts collections); more than ever before. I was at AFS 180 days, never less than 11 days in a month; and in July I was there 24 days. The only theater where I've seen more movies was the Arbor, which sadly, closed in September; I saw1210 movies there.

I uploaded "Real: The Northland Story", a film I had a small role in many years ago
()

I saw 20 films at the Austin Film Festival, and 20 at SXSW (after two years of online versions it was great to see it in person. (SXSW was the first big event canceled by Covid; I already had my film pass, which SXSW allowed access to the online films the previous two years). Some were in my list of favorite films. Feature films were "Apollo 10 ?: A Space Age Childhood", "RRR", "Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio", "The Fabelmans", "Holy Spider" and three older films: "High and Low" (Kurosawa), "Stormy Weather", and "Shall We Dance".

My favorite documentaries include "Have You Heard About Greg" (Alzheimer's), "The Perfect Candidate" (A determined young female Saudi doctor's surprise run for office in the local city elections), "Deep in the Heart" and "American Ocelot" (two fantastic documentaries about wildlife in Texas by the same director), "Horton Foote: The Road to Home", "Claydream" (Claymation pioneer Will Vinton revolutionizes animation in the 1980s and 1990s.), "The Other Fellow" (men who all share the same name: James Bond - three were at the screening), "Shouting Down Midnight" (the Wendy Davis filibuster of 2013 - by chance I talked to its director a couple of days later), "Facing Nolan", "The Pez Outlaw", "Bad Axe", and "Second Chance." (inventor of the bulletproof vest).

One of my favorite TV shows from the 1950s was The Phil Silvers Show (in which he played Sgt. Bilko). It was one of the top rated shows then and won three Emmies for best comedy. After I found season one at the public library (learning that George Kennedy was hired as a military advisor which then led to his acting career and that a very young Dick Van Dyke was in one episode), I'm slowly working my way through the next three seasons. All four seasons are at .

As always, I read 365 books this year. About 40 were books I found at Little Free Libraries and 22 were ebooks. Some of those are in the list below. It was a real treat to discover some new authors and find the books they've already written.

The list of the best in groups.

Nonfiction
Autobiographies: "Educated" (Tara Westover - powerful story of growing up in a extremely fanatically religious family and leaving the toxic atmosphere and eventually earning her PhD at Cambridge), "Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood" (Danny Trejo), "This Is What America Looks Like: My Journey from Refugee to Congresswoman" (Ilhan Omar), "Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom" (Carl Bernstein), "All about Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business" (Mel Brooks), "The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row" (Anthony Hinton), "Coming of Age in Mississippi: The Classic Autobiography of a Young Black Girl in the Rural South" (Anne Moody), "Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer" (Lynne Cox), "Here Comes Trouble" (Michael Moore), "Mama's Bank Account" (Kathryn Forbes - the basis of the play and movie "I Remember Mama"), "Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement" (John Lewis)

Biographies: "Elvis and Gladys" (Elaine Dundy – Presley's early life; Gladys was his mom), "Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray" (Rosalind Rosenberg – bio of an amazing influential woman), "The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King" (Rich Cohen), "Mike Nichols: A Life" (Mark Harris), "Jennie: The Life of the American Beauty Who Became the Toast - and Scandal - of Two Continents, Ruled an Age and Raised a Son - Winston Churchill - Who Shaped History" (Ralph Martin), "Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker's Life" (James Curtis).

Two exceptionally wonderful animal books "Modoc: The True Story of the Greatest Elephant That Ever Lived" and "Zamba: The True Story of the Greatest Lion That Ever Lived" and (Ralph Helfer).

History:
Four great books by A.J. Baime: "The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Ford Motor Company, and Their Epic Quest to Arm an America at War", "The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World", "Dewey Defeats Truman: The 1948 Election and the Battle for America's Soul" and "White Lies: The Double Life of Walter F. White and America’s Darkest Secret."

Two by Malcolm Gladwell "Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know" and "The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War."

"Devil's Candy: The Anatomy of a Hollywood Fiasco" (Julie Salamo), "Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup" (John Carreyrou - and now the subject of the book has been found guilty and convicted), "Naked in Baghdad" (Anne Garrells), "She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement" (Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey - the movie is also great), "The Body" (Bill Bryson)

"Careless Whispers: The Lake Waco Murders" (Carlton Stowers), "Code of Silence: A Federal Judge, a Reluctant Whistleblower, and a Culture of Cover-Ups in Our Nation's Courts" (Lise Olsen), "The Carving of Mount Rushmore" (Rex Smith), "The Comedians: Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels, and the History of American Comedy" (Kliph Nesteroff), "Premonition: A Pandemic Story" (Michael Lewis).

"Hitler: Downfall, 1939-45" (Volker Ullrich), "Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America" (John Barry), "Forget the Alamo: The True Story of the Myth That Made Texas" (Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, Jason Stanford), "Big Cheat: How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family" (David Cay Johnston), "Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America", (Marie Till-Mobley - the author's son Emmett Till), "The Fight of Our Lives: My Time with Zelenskyy, Ukraine's Battle for Democracy, and What It Means for the World" (Iuliia Mendel – she was Zelenskyy's press secretary when he was elected), "Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980" (Rick Perlstein).

Four powerful books by John Pilger: "Freedom Next Time: Resisting the Empire" (removal of natives from the island Diego Garcia), "A Secret Country: The Hidden Australia", "Hidden Agendas", and "The New Rulers of the World"


Fiction
Fantasy
Nine books by John Flanagan: "The Battle of Hackham Heath", "Emperor of Nihon-Ja", "Lost Stories", "Royal Ranger: A New Beginning", "Red Fox Clan", "Duel at Araluen", "The Missing Prince", "Escape from Falaise", "Tournament at Gorlan."

The first eight of Shannon Messenger's "Keeper of the Lost Cities" books (I will read the ninth (published recently) early in 2023). I picked up the first five books at a Little Free Library.

Sarah Kozloff: The Nine Realms series ("A Queen in Hiding", "The Queen of Raiders", "A Broken Queen", "The Cerulean Queen")

Kate O'Hearn: The Titans trilogy ("Titans" "The Missing", "The Fallen Queen"), the rest of the Pegasus series ("The Flame of Olympus", "Pegasus and the Rise of the Titans", "The End of Olympus"), the Valkyrie series ("Valkyrie" and "The Runaway")

"An Ember in the Ashes" (Sabaa Tahir), "A Tale of Sorcery" (Chris Colfer), "Ida and the Unfinished City" (Carolyn Cohagan), " Magyk Septimus Heap" and "SandRider" (Angie Sage), "Constance" (Matthew Fitzsimmons), "Foundryside" (Robert Jackson Bennett), "Gilded" (Marissa Meyer) "Skyhunter", "Steelstriker" and "Rebel" (Marie Lu)

Historical
"The War That Saved My Life" (Kimberly Brubaker Bradley) and three great books by David Ball: "Ironfire" "Empires of Sand", and "China Run"

Crime
Seven by Nick Petrie – his "Peter Ash" books - "The Drifter", "Burning Bright", “Light it Up”, "Tear it Down" "The Wild One", "The Breaker" and "The Runner"

"Point of Impact" and "Black Light" (Bob Lee Swagger books by Stephen Hunter). "Win" and "The Match" (Harlan Coben), "The Dark Hours" (Michael Connelly), Squeeze Me" (Carl Hiaasen), "Better Off Dead" (Lee Child),

Novels
Stuart Gibbs: the first nine "Spy School" books (#10 came out in 2022 - will read it in 2023), the three "Moon Base Alpha" books, and the first three FunJungle books (five more to read in 2023)

"Stranger than Fanfiction" (Chris Colfer), "Worser" (Jennifer Zeigler), "A Wish in the Dark" (Christina Soontornvat), "The War That Saved My Life" and "The War I Finally Won" (both by Kimberly Bradley), and "The Rose Code" (Kate Quinn).

And finally, one of the all-time best cartoon strips, "Pogo" (Walt Kelly), is in the process of publishing a complete collection in twelve volumes. I read the next three volumes of the great comic strip: Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips, Vol. 4 – 6, and "Equal Time for Pogo".

I added some new BBC shows to my collection. I've greatly enjoyed listening to these shows and have many more hours of them to listen to. I continued listening to "Quote Unquote", "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue", "Just a Minute", Alistair Cooke's Letters from America" "The Now Show", "Composer of the Week" and "Dead Ringers".
Hoping that 2022 is a great one and will see an end to the pandemic.

All previous newsletters are at
/g/DanEgglestonChristmasNewsletter

Annual newsletter for 2021

Time for the annual review and once again I was surprised at how much I did during Year Two of the Covid pandemic.

In January we got an inch of snow, the most in Austin since 1985 when we got a four-inch snowfall. This was topped in February when we got a FIVE-inch snowfall (the most since a six-inch day in 1949). We also got 144 CONSECUTIVE HOURS OF FREEZING temperatures (the most ever; in 1983 we went 140 hours). With millions in the state losing power, I was lucky enough to ONLY lose it one day for eighteen hours. Luckily, I have gas heating, not electric, so that was not a problem. The temperature that week dropped to 11 degrees with a wind chill of -3; very, very rare for Austin.

Once again, I was unable to see any concerts in person, but there some great ones online. Chorus Austin had a wonderful one (). I saw Freebo perform twenty years ago. This year he had a gig with David Amram (who I got to see twice in the 1970s). Amram composed for the New York Philharmonic and is a jazz French hornist, and is still strong at age 90. Conspirare had a wonderful and unique madrigal concert with self-accompanied singers . I also added five wonderful King's Singers albums to my music collection.

In October I saw my first in-person play since the lockdown began in March 2020 ("Wonder of the World" - very enjoyable). And in December I saw my first in-person event (Luci Baines Johnson and Stewart McLaurin at the LBJ Library - ). Sadly, due to the pandemic, there were no "Overheard with Evan Smith" tapings. They might have resumed near the end of the year, however, PBS Austin is in the middle of moving to new studios which will be at ACC Highland and reportedly won't resume before late Spring.

Luckily, I was able to see several lectures online. One was with Ben Barnes (Lieutenant Governor 50 years ago.) In March I saw Walter Isaacson () and in May I saw a great talk by Carol Leonnig, whose new book on the secret service ("Zero Fail") made my best of list
. In September I saw the LBJ's fantastic interview with Chris Wallace. ().

In May I was part of a zoom meeting for Pem Day, the Kansas City boys prep school I attended for three years. The headmaster and three staff members talked about the school and showed the massive modifications to the campus in progress. Two of the twelve who took part recognized me: one man from the class of '62 (I was '64) and one woman from Sunset Hill, though I have no idea if I knew her back then. I can't remember knowing many from Sunset at all. The two schools merged years after I left.

In May my block had its water and sewer lines replaced; it only took one week. It's part of a fourteen-month project and some blocks were tied up for two weeks. The busiest street, 51st Street will be replaced in January, 2022, and will likely take three to four weeks.

In July I saw Bita Ghassemi at a gathering for her studio. She was named the top RTF student when she graduated two years ago. She planned to use me in a music video she was preparing, but so far it has not moved beyond planning. In May I saw Nevena Bentz at an exhibit of her art.

For several years I've been trying to find more Dobie Middle School yearbooks to post on the Facebook page I created. Just before shutdown, after four visits to the school, I was promised three books to borrow and scan. AISD shut down on the day I planned to pick them up. The books' conservator delayed pickup until April this year. I hoped to get more after summer vacation, but was only able to get the next three by getting former Dobie students to email the principal. Near the end of the year about a dozen books were reported to be "missing" limiting me to only two books. I suspect I will recruit more former Dobie students to send emails in 2022 to try to help find the "missing" books. I now have posted 26 books, just over half of the total.

As always, I saw a few of my former students: Camille Rey, Bryan Williams, Theron Cook, Mike Robichaux, Rich Tyler, Skye Kopff, and Ana Sanchez. Two of them spotted me as I was walking back from campus. One was helping clean a friend's yard. I had a nice long visit with Camille, who at that time was leading opposition to the legislature's anti-trans bills, which sadly were eventually passed in special sessions. Camille moved to Maryland in order to protect her trans child.

My iMac died and I had to buy a new Mac. I had all my files backed up (twice), so I don't think I lost any files. The new operating system is incompatible with some of my software, a major hassle which required me to update some software and replace others. The data base and one graphics program I'd been using since the 1980s were casualties and are greatly missed. I also bought a new scanner and DVD player (upgrading to blu-ray).

For the second straight year, there was no in-person SXSW film festival. In 2020 it was totally canceled, scheduled just after the shutdown started (the first major "casualty" in Austin of the pandemic). This year there was an online version. All of the best films I saw were documentaries: "Lily Topples the World", "Introducing, Selma Blair" (revealing her diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis in 2018), "Without Getting Killed or Caught" (on the wonderful singer Guy Clark), "Little Girl", "Clerk" (on Kevin Smith), and "In the Same Breath" (on covid, with much footage from Wuhan).

Sadly, I was only able to work on three films this year, in each as an extra. In April it was "Pro Bono Watchman" which was filmed at the zoo near Bastrop. () My dear friend Sheila was the First AD on the project (I lunched with her in February). My scene is at and pictures are at . In October I worked on the mini-series "Love and Death." (about the 1980 Candy Montgomery murder case, ). For that project I had to drive to Kyle for a covid test, there again for a costume fitting and there a third time for a covid test before filming. And in December I was in an RTF project, "The Exhibit." (). I also helped Melanie Hinostroza, a Peruvian singer, prepare a music video that I'll be in early in 2022 ().

On my birthday (July 10) I visited with my brother Ed and his wife, Sandy via Google video for about two hours. I hadn't seen either in several years and it was a great visit. Nice to be able to connect in this way, especially since they have moved to Maine.

In July AFS Cinema re-opened after fifteen months of being closed. I saw sixty-three films there this year, far fewer than in a normal year, but it's great to have this treasured resource available and nearby. In October, they had a Doc Days festival. "The Conductor" is absolutely wonderful (on Marin Alsop, the first woman to conduct a major symphony orchestra). "Writing with Fire" is about a group of a Dalit women who started a newspaper in India. "The Rescue" is about the 13 children saved from a cave in 2018. I knew the author of "All Thirteen" (a wonderful book on the subject) lives in Austin, and I was able to contact her and get her to the screening to introduce the film.

More of the best documentaries I saw this year: "Paper and Glue" (on the French artist, JR), "Final Account" (interviews with people alive during Hitler's Third Reich), "Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It", "My Name is Pauli Murray" (a black gay woman who influenced history in many ways - she became close friends with Eleanor Roosevelt; a paper she wrote was used by Thurgood Marshall in the Brown vs Board of Education case; she co-founded the National Organization of Women; a college at Yale is named for her. I loved her autobiography and a book on her friendship with Eleanor. I suspect her biography will be on next year's list.)

Among the best movies I saw were two great films from India "Maanaadu" ("Groundhog Day" on steroids) and "Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui" (a surprising pro-trans feature). I picked up the book that "12 Mighty Orphans" was based on a few weeks before seeing the movie. Both were great. I discovered that two friends are IN the film and the editor is a former student. "Hourglass Sanatorium" is a unique wild delightful Polish film. ()

In October I was able to attend the Austin Film Festival in person. I've been to every one of this festival since it opened twenty-seven years ago (except 2012, unable to attend because I was recovering from being hit by a car while walking across the street). The best films I saw were two documentaries. "Imad's Childhood" and "The Automat." I remember going to an automat in New York City with my mom when I was a kid.

A short film ("Pleasure") I was in just the week before shutdown is at
. And two related shorts I starred in back in 2010 for a contest are at and . I'm visible in a trailer for "Evinced", a film I was in just two months before shutdown (). When I shared my reality show video (Eye for an Eye) with a friend I was delighted to see it has more than 10,000 views ().

My health has been good. I got the Moderna vaccine shots in April and May and the booster in November. The only side-effect was shoulder pain. I saw my doctor in March, glad to be able to still do so since my health insurance changed carriers (Michelle Markley has been my doctor since 2002). I also had a home checkup in November, which came with a $50 cash card bonus. I walked 6,179 miles, the third year in a row with over 6,000 miles (down 17 miles from last year - but that WAS a leap year). In February I walked 27 miles in one day, a new record. Twelve times I walked at least 20 miles, and never walked less than 11.5 miles. I only drove 39 days, mostly walking or taking the bus. With higher gas prices I was glad I only had to fill the tank twice. My average was 16.93 miles a day

In May the public library allowed us inside, and curbside pickup was no longer needed. Once a week I continued to pick up the New York Times from my friend Shana and books (and sometimes music and/or videos) at the library.

I continued to periodically check Little Free Libraries and twenty-six of the books I read this year were from them, including some in my best of list. I also read forty-two ebooks.

I continued the book-a-day completion pattern again. My best book list this year is longer than usual.

Nonfiction: "Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators" (Ronan Farrow), "Strange Bedfellows: Adventures in the Science, History, and Surprising Secrets of STDs" (Ina Park), "150 Glimpses of the Beatles" (Craig Brown), "Made in China: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the Hidden Cost of America's Cheap Goods" (Amelia Pang), "Alright, Alright, Alright: The Oral History of Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused" (Melissa Maerz), "Why We Sleep" (Matthew Walker).

Autobiographies: "A Mind Unraveled" (Kurt Eichenwald), "Song in a Weary Throat: Memoir of an American Pilgrimage" (Pauli Murray), "Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward" (Valerie Jarrett), "I Married the World" (Elsa Maxwell), "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" (William Kamkwanda), "The Plague and I" and "Anybody Can Do Anything" (Betty Macdonald), "Accused: My Story of Injustice" (Adama Bah)

Biographies: "Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend" (Stephen Davis), "Agent Sonya: Moscow's Most Daring Wartime Spy" (Ben Macintyre), "Marilyn Monroe: The Private Life of a Public Icon" (Charles Casillo)

Historical: "500 Days: Decisions and Deceptions in the Shadow of 9/11" (Kurt Eichenwald), "Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World" (Matthew Goodman), "Twelve Mighty Orphans: The Inspiring True Story of the Mighty Mites Who Ruled Texas Football" (Jim Dent), "Undocumented Americans" (Carla Villavicencio), "The Spymaster of Baghdad: A True Story of Bravery, Family, and Patriotism in the Battle against ISIS" (Margaret Coker), "A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves: One Family and Migration in the 21st Century" (Jason DeParle), "Revolution Song: The Story of America's Founding in Six Remarkable Lives" and " Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America" (Russell Shorto), "Burned: A Story of a Murder and the Crime that Wasn't" and "Murderer with a Badge" (Edward Humes), "Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs" (John Bloom - the story of the Candy Montgomery killing - which "Love and Death" is based on), "Race of the Century: The Heroic True Story of the 1908 New York to Paris Auto Race" (Julie Fenster), "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" (Daniel Brown), "The Tattooist of Auschwitz" (Heather Morris), "Hunting Eichmann: How a Band of Survivors and a Young Spy Agency Chased Down the World's Most Notorious Nazi" (Neal Bascomb)

Politics: "Unrigged: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy" (David Daley), "Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service" and "I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year" (Carol Leonnig), "Mitch, Please!: How Mitch McConnell Sold Out Kentucky (and America, Too)" (Matt Jones), "King Richard: Nixon and Watergate - An American Tragedy" (Michael Dobbs)

It's always a delight to find new authors and I found six this year that made this list, the most ever. I read seven books by Torey Hayden, who was an amazing special ed teacher: "One Child", "Ghost Girl" "Somebody Else's Kids", "Just Another Kid", "Beautiful Child", "The Tiger's Child: What Ever Happened to Sheila?" "Twilight Children: Three Voices No One Heard Until a Therapist Listened".

Fiction. I'd read fifty books by Orson Scott Card, but discovered fifteen more that I hadn't yet read. The best of these: "Children of the Fleet", the Pathfinder trilogy ("Pathfinder", "Ruins", "Visitors"), "Lost and Found", and "Stonefather".

The first five books by Matthew Fitzsimmons (his Gibson Vaughn series) "Debris Line", "Origami Man", "The Short Drop", "Poisonfeather", and "Cold Harbor". He has a new series out in 2021 that I'm looking forward to.

I loved John Flanagan Ranger's Apprentice series and have read the first ten and plan to read the next six in 2022. I also loved all eight books of his related Brotherband series.

Six books from The Land of Stories series by Chris Colfer: ("Land of Stories", "Beyond the Kingdoms", "The Enchantress Returns", "Grimm Warning", "An Author's Odyssey", and "Worlds Collide")

Sixteen books by Brandon Mull: his Fablehaven series ("Fablehaven", "Rise of the Evening Star", "Grip of the Shadow Plague", "Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary", and "Keys to the Demon Prison"); his Beyonders series ("A World Without Heroes", "Seeds of Rebellion" and "Chasing the Prophecy."), his Candy Shop War series ("The Candy Shop War" and "Arcade Catastrophe"), and his Five Kingdoms series: ("Sky Raiders", "The Rogue Knight", Crystal Keepers", "Death Weavers", and "Time Jumpers").

Four books by Patrick Lee: "Signal", "Runner", "Deep Sky" "Dark Site"

And the rest: "Five Fakirs of Faizabad" (P B Kerr), "The Poppy War" (R F Kuang), "The Return of the Vinetropes" (Sherry Ross), "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon" (Grace Lin), "The Constant Rabbit" (Jasper Fforde), "Dog Stories" (James Herriot), "Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life" (Wendy Mass), "The Power of One" (Bryce Courtenay), "The Other Boleyn Girl" (Philippa Gregory), "Catfishing on Catnet" and "Chaos on Catnet" (Naomi Kritzer), "The Cellist" (Daniel Silva), "Fair Warning" and "Law of Innocence" (Michael Connelly), and "The Whisper of the River" (Ferrol Sams)

And finally, one of the all-time best cartoon strips, Pogo (Walt Kelly), is in the process of publishing a complete collection in twelve volumes. I finished the first three and loved them "Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips, Vol. 1: Through the Wild Blue Wonder", "Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips, Vol. 2: Bona Fide Balderdash", "Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Comic Strips, Vol. 3: Evidence to the Contrary"

I added some new BBC shows to my collection (courtesy of John Lucas). I've greatly enjoyed listening to these shows and have many more hours of them to listen to. One new one is Nicholas Parsons' autobiography. Parsons was the chairman of "Just a Minute" from its start in 1967 until his death in late 2019 and hadn't missed a show until 2018 (when he missed four). There were no shows in 2020 due to Covid, but the show resumed in 2021 and had two series. I continued listening to "Quote Unquote", "I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue", "Just a Minute", Alistair Cooke's Letters from America" "The Now Show", and "Dead Ringers".
I discovered two great BBC programs on musicals. One was on Robert Russell Bennett, who I learned had composed the orchestral score for three hundred Broadway musicals by many of the greats. I only knew of him from his great score for the TV show "Victory at Sea." The second was on Yiddish versions of the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. I hope to get CDs of three of the musicals in 2022.

I met Gloria Brown at a teacher workshop in San Antonio on August 22, 1972. I sent many notes to her via campus mail that fall and invited her to join me for the October 13 Shawn Phillips concert. I learned later that she accepted only because she loved Shawn's music so much and her boyfriend did not. He had NOT taken her to see Shawn the previous February, so she had gone alone. The concert was wonderful and I was even able to introduce her to Shawn after the concert. In November she invited me to her apartment to show me her engagement ring, doing it in person, rather than with a note or phone call. I attended the marriage on January 20, but left as soon as the ceremony was over. She only realized that I was there when she saw the wedding pictures.

I had ended communication, but after a while I got a phone call from Gloria and we stayed good friends. She spent a few months overseas while her husband was doing business there and sent some letters. When I got a girlfriend I ended things for a while. I later learned Gloria had received some weird phone calls from her. I moved to Austin to follow that girlfriend and after we broke up, I renewed things with Gloria, who by that time was teaching again and feeling lonely since her husband was too often away. We saw each other a few times and grew very close.

Eventually Gloria got a divorce but after a while, she decided that there was no future in a relationship with me. After that I would mail her these annual newsletters and leave a voice mail on her birthdays. This time when I phoned, her husband returned the call letting me know that she had died May 8 of a heart problem.

Hoping that 2022 is a great one and will see an end to the pandemic.

All previous newsletters are at
/g/DanEgglestonChristmasNewsletter

What a year. I'm so glad 2020 is finally over. It was the strangest year that we all have ever experienced: The year of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Before the shutdown, I was in four films. I was an extra in "Evinced," which was shot at the Capitol in January. I haven't been able to find anything about the film, which as an indie, faces extra challenges in a pandemic.

I was in three sensitivity training videos for Dunkin Donuts, a fun, paid gig. In one scene I played a homeless man acting very belligerently (in order to train servers how to react in such a situation). In a second scene, I was sleeping and the server learned how to wake me and get me to leave the store in order to provide space for other customers. In a third scene I was part of a group of book-lovers (with my face hidden, since I was used so prominently in the other videos.)

I was in three films just before SXSW was scheduled to start in March. "With Pleasure" was shot in the party room at the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar. I was part of an extremely weird scene in which a killer enters, and is dispatched in a strange manner. As with "Evinced" its status appears to be up in the air.

The following weekend I did extra work on a UT film, "Hospice." Two of the actors on "With Pleasure" joined me for a chapel scene. This was very fortunate since there were very few extras. One of the two, Sheila, has become a very dear friend. We were supposed to work on a funeral scene later, but that weekend the Covid shutdown started. They finished filming, but is still being edited.

I play a librarian in the last film: "Run Boy Run" (an ACC student film shot in Leander). It was a total delight. A young man is frantically trying to return a book to me before it is overdue, knowing that the price he will pay is very high. See it at .

In January I attended two funerals for former students' parents. Marnie & Shane Martinets' father started and then ran the food concession at Dart Bowl for fifty years. Marnie was one of my favorite students at Lamar. Lynne Whiteley sat in the row behind me. I didn't see Shane at the funeral but saw him twice later in the year. Bernadette & Michael Buchko's mother's funeral was a week later. Lizette Morgan was at the funeral. It was good to see these and provide comfort for them at a difficult time.

As usual I saw all of the Overheard with Evan Smith tapings, but due to Covid, there were only four. Two were great: Bill Bradley and (a double) Carol Leonnig & Philip Rucker (co-authors of a great book on Trump: "A Very Stable Genius"). Taping stopped in March and I hope they'll be able to resume sometime in 2021. To find out when they will be you can subscribe at /g/UpcomingOverheards.

In June I was cast in a small role in "The Photographer," another UT project. Filming was scheduled to start in the summer, then postponed to autumn, and is currently set for February, 2021.

I had lunch with Erica de la Garza in January. I met her in 2003 on "No Pain No Gain" but hadn't seen her in years, since she'd been living in LA & Houston. In June we had a fantastic bikini photo shoot on the Greenbelt. ()

I saw Carolyn Cohagan at BookPeople in January. She had interviewed my friend Amy Edwards there two months earlier which sparked my interest in her books. I'd read and loved her first two Time Zero books and was able to borrow the final volume from a friend who had won a copy at the book signing.

Bill Bradley delivered an amazing ninety-minute autobiographical speech in February at the LBJ. Bradley was an all-star with the New York Knicks, a U.S. Senator from New Jersey and a candidate for president in 2000. Shortly after that, I saw Bill Broyles deliver a similar speech. Broyles was the first editor of Texas Monthly, an editor at Newsweek for two years, and the script writer of "Apollo 13", "Castaway" and more. He spoke of his method of writing thru telling his autobiography. I told him that his talk reminded me of Bill Bradley's lecture. It turned out that he and Bradley were at Oxford at the same time and have been good friends for fifty years!!!

In 2018 I tracked down ten more Dobie Middle School (where I taught for two years) yearbooks (bringing the total to eighteen). Sadly, the yearbook conservator at Dobie refused to help, which makes it more of a challenge. At the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, I visited the school three times and finally arranged to pick up three books in early March. I planned to pick them up on the Friday before spring break. However, AISD shut down that morning as the pandemic lockdown started. In the fall, when I tried again, I was told by the librarian, who has the books, that I could not get them, due to Covid. I hope to get some in 2021.

In May I saw some beautiful face masks on a friend's Facebook page. I followed the link and contacted the lady who was selling them. I met her and liked them so much that I bought two. They are hand-made in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. ()

I saw lots of movies at the beginning of the year, but much less after that since AFS Cinema closed in March and Regal was open for only six weeks. Highlights: "Sixty-Three Up"(likely the final documentary in a series that followed a group every seven years from the age of seven - the director died in early 2021), "Les Miserables" (the new version), "Just Mercy" (I loved the book and saw the subject, Bryan Stevenson, speak at the LBJ), "The Art of Love: The Story of Michalina Wislocka", "Varda By Agnes" (likely Varda's last film - she died in 2019), "The Woman Who Loves Giraffes", "Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project" and "The Trial of the Chicago 7".

In August I saw the first movie in a theater since March ("Made in Italy"). In September I saw the first film at a Regal theater ("The Personal History of David Copperfield"). There was one other person at the screening. Wonderful film. There haven't been more than three people at any of the movies I've seen under Covid.

Once everything closed down, the end of access to library books worried me a great deal. I've used the UT library for many years, but due to Covid they restricted access to only the UT community. I suspect that will be the case thru the first few months of 2021. The public library was closed until June, including their book drops. It was estimated that 200,000 items were checked out. After finishing the library books that I had on hand, I borrowed a book from my friend Shana, and then discovered the Little Free Libraries (LFL - ) and by the end of the year I had read 112 books that I got their locations. I currently have 23 books on hand. I also completed 27 ebooks, which I was able to access through the public library's website.

In late June, I was felt fatigued and scheduled a Covid test. In order to get one at ARC, I first had to see a doctor. Patients had to check in at the front entrance. Since I don't have a cell, I had to wait until a nurse came to get me. Then we had to wait until a man ahead of us used the elevator (since I was considered a possible-Covid). I forgot to bring my face mask, distracted by the heavy rain, and had only my backup bandana which I keep in the car, so the nurse gave me a face mask. The exam went well. I mentioned that my neighbor had been diagnosed with Covid and that her initial test (the nose method) was negative, but the second test, using a blood sample, was positive. So, they ordered a blood test. Instead to moving to the lab, I had to remain in the exam room and a nurse came up from the lab to draw my blood and then escort me to the front door. When I checked in they had told me that my 9:15 appointment for a cancer skin check might have to be postponed, but luckily that wasn't the case. It was in the adjacent building with no need to wait outside. After checking in, they had all the senior citizens in a separate waiting room. I was in the exam room at 9:00 and examined with a good result, and finished at 9:13. I got the Covid test results the next day and it was negative.

In July I was losing strength in my right hand. I suspected pain in my right shoulder might be a factor. I saw my doctor, Michelle Markley, about it, and she confirmed the weakness and prescribed some meds. For years I've done daily exercises due to past frozen shoulder problems. This time I bought a pair of hand grip exercisers, which I've added to my daily routine. Over time this seemed to have solved the problem. At the end of the year my insurance plan changed carriers and I discovered that Austin Regional Clinic was not included. So after eighteen years of Dr. Markley's excellent care, unfortunately I'll have to find a new doctor.

On my birthday (July 10) I visited via Google video with my brother Ed & his wife, Sandy, for about 75 minutes. I hadn't seen either in several years and it was a great visit. Nice to be able to connect in this way, especially since they have moved to Maine.

A neighbor on my block and three former students were diagnosed with Covid. All four have fully recovered. I suspect there are more friends who've gone thru this miserable experience that I'm not aware of.

When I needed to stock up on groceries I usually planned Little Free Library expeditions, parking at an HEB, and walking thru nearby neighborhoods, logging usually about seven miles, and one time, ten miles. Sometimes I'd find LFL's that were empty or had food instead and sometimes found ones that were not on the LFL registry. I also found over a dozen within walking distance.

One positive element this year, in the absence of being able to attend any concerts at all was discovering some new music. In August there was a series of online a capella concerts: Vox Virtual 2020. The Nairyan Vocal Ensemble was fantastic (). As were Les Itinerantes (), the Olga Vocal Ensemble (), the Ensemble Rustavi (), and Accent ()

A totally amazing online concert was by our local gem,"Conspirare Presents Unity: Songs of Invitation" .

In 2019 I discovered the British choral group Voces8, buying two of their albums. I added five more amazing albums in 2020. And another album, Paul Mealor and Tenebrae's "A Tender Light" is wonderful.

I thought I had all of the great Steeleye Span albums, but discovered one more. I saw them perform in 1973 as the opening act for Jethro Tull and it was an amazing gig, with them entering in minstrel garb, singing a capella. Then I saw them at the Cactus Cafe in 1997, and was able to get autographs after the concert. Jimmie Spheeris is one of my all-time favorite singers and I found another album of his that I'd missed. I saw him open for the Moody Blues in 1979. His sister, Penelope, is a great film director, whom I've met twice.

I had five albums by the King's Singers, so when I sampled their Choral Essays, Vol. 1- The Quiet Heart, I was not surprised by how good it was. But after I bought it, I was blown away but how wonderful and amazing their arrangements and performances are. I soon bought Choral Essays, Vol. 2- Reflections. It is equally great. What most surprised me most was that these are Salvation Army songs.

I've been a fan of the Paul Winter consort for over thirty years and was thrilled to see them perform in 1991 and 1992. I had two albums by his cellist, Eugene Friesen, and now have five more wonderful albums by him. One of those albums was a superb set of Christmas music with Elizabeth Rogers on vocals. I soon found two beautiful albums by her. I also added albums by Consort members: three by Paul Halley and three by Rhonda Larson.

One element which complicated things was the failure of my older CD player to play some CDs that I burned on my computer. I bought another CD player, which worked fine for a few months, but then stopped playing CDs at all. Luckily that player allows me to play music from a flash drive, but it's a hassle to have to copy files to the flash drive each time I want to listen to an album.

At the beginning of the shutdown, I had to enter buses thru the back door. Cap Metro provided free rides thru May. During that time plastic guards were installed to protect drivers and allow riders to board the usual way.

For many years I've picked up copies of the New York Times from my friend Shana (after she and her husband have read them). This year I did so once a week with a trip to the Ruiz branch library on the way home to pick up books there, once the library opened again (in June) for curbside pickup. The libraries remain closed for browsing. There's a limit of seven items you can place on hold, and I use three of those holds for books on high demand. Ruiz allows me to get one extra item each week. Each week I also drop off completed books with Shana that she and Sean can read and then return.

At the beginning of the shutdown, there were long lines in order to get in the HEB when it opened, partly because they changed the hours to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and limited the number of customers in the store. It might take fifteen minutes in line before you could even get in the store. Gradually, plastic guards were installed by the cash registers and for the express check-out (which initially had half of the spots closed to allow for social distancing).

In August I learned that my friend Derek Howard died. I first met him in San Antonio in 1972 when he flew a promotional hot air balloon flight for KEXL-FM. After arriving at his landing a few times before his chase car driver, I took over that job when he was in town. We went to the national hot air balloon races in Iowa during the Watergate hearings. It was a thrill to get to ride in a hot air balloon and once did so at Jeff Davis Middle School while I was teaching there. I often would refer to Derek as my oldest friend, which he objected to. However, "the guy who's been my friend longer than any other" doesn't exactly flow off the tongue. His wife Donna is in the legislature and I learned that Evan Smith was responsible for her initially running for office.

In September I had lunch with Jenny Grow in Leander. Jenny was a great math teacher at Lamar and is now teaching in Leander.

Twenty years ago I got seriously interested in being in films. In June, 2000 I worked as an extra in a mini-budget film, "Pageant." It was very hard to find people to be in the film (in fact my first scene had to be postponed for that reason). During filming I was cast as an extra in "Miss Congeniality" in July. During work on that movie there was a casting call for "The Duo." I had already been gathering names and emails to help finish "Pageant" and I thought, "This would be so much easier by email." I started asking folks if they would like to get casting calls by email. Naturally everyone did. I created a Yahoo group the morning after a sixteen-hour day on set, calling it AustinFilmExtras. I gathered about two hundred emails to add to the list. Two months later I realized that the list was serving much more than work for extras: namely casting and crew calls, headshots, locations, film biz, etc. and renamed it AustinFilmCasting. Later that year I started lists for Dallas and Lubbock. And the following year created lists for Houston and South Texas. In December, 2019 Yahoo reduced support for their lists, no longer allowing messages and other items to be stored online. In October I learned that Yahoo would end its groups pages end in December and I created new casting lists. The Austin list had grown to over 10,000 subscribers, Dallas over 5000, and Houston over 3500. The new lists are off to a great start.

In September I saw a former student, Ruben Cantu, who's now teaching computer at UT. "I have come to the realization that all things conspire in due time and I needed to share my deep appreciation for you. Please know that you’ve made a difference for so many students who fell in love with tech and how to use it for the good of humanity. We just needed that nudge for us to know it was possible. You were that vehicle place in our lives. Thank you."

Also, in September, a former Lamar student, Patricia Toliver, asked me to take photos of her wedding. Due to Covid, the event took place at her home. ()

In December I had what turned out to be a seasonal photo shoot with a dear friend, Linda Lopez. I met her in 2002 on set and we were in four films that year. We had a great photo shoot in 2010 and this one included Christmas elements and was lots of fun. See it at

This year the Fantastic Fest film festival was online and free. There many short films that were enjoyable. One standout film was "Old Man: The Movie."

The Austin Film Festival also went virtual. There were some good films, but nothing that really stands out. It was nice to be able to see most of the films this time. The Austin Polish Film Festival, the Miami Film Festival, and the Austin Jewish Film Festivals also had much content available, much of it free. The Texas Book Festival also went virtual and had some great authors interviewed online.

All of the LBJ Library events switched to online and the Bob Woodward interview was great. ()

My Tivo died and I replaced it with a new one. Luckily just before it did I was able to watch "The Way I See It", a fantastic documentary on photographer Pete Souza and his work with President Obama. My old Tivo could record two programs at the same time. My new one can record six. I had to wait ten days for a tech to connect my Tivo and while he was trying to connect both (so I could watch the programs still on the old one - luckily nothing "essential") the old one died.

About the same time, my TV also was replaced. I realized there was a minor problem with the audio and as a result bought a new one. Curiously I'd had both the Tivo & TV for ten years. I was able to give the TV to one of my great former students, Maria Salazar, and we had a great visit when she picked it up.

Before the lockdown, I saw five plays. "Tiny Beautiful Things" was wonderful. I saw one great play on TV "Ann, One Man Two Guvnors."

As usual, I read 366 books this year.

The top of the list, as usual, are the nonfiction: "What the Eyes Don't See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City" (Mona Hanna-Attisha), "Charged: Overzealous Prosecutors, the Quest for Mercy, and the Fight to Transform Criminal Justice in America " (Emily Bazelon), "Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers" (Andy Greenberg), "Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope" (Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn), "Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom" (Katherine Eban), "There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Africa's Children" (Melissa Fay Greene), "If the Oceans Were Ink: An Unlikely Friendship and a Journey to the Heart of the Quran" (Carla Power), "Vaccinated: One Man's Quest to Defeat the World's Deadliest Diseases" (Paul Offit), "Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers" (Peter Golenbock), "The Eighty-Dollar Champion: Snowman, the Horse That Inspired a Nation" (Elizabeth Letts - there's also a documentary on this - ), "Puck: What Fools These Mortals Be" (Michael Kahn - a collection of cartoons from the 19th century magazine), "Deadly Intentions" (William Stevens - true murder case), "Front Row at The Trump Show" (Jonathan Karl), "Trump and His Generals: The Cost of Chaos" (Peter Bergen), "A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America" (Philip Rucker).

Some great autobiographies: "Until I Say Good-Bye: A Book About Living" (Susan Spencer-Wendel - a moving story of the author's last months, knowing her death was near and spending time joyfully with loved ones), "The Hospital by The River" (Catherine Hamlin), "Shortest Way Home" (Pete Buttigieg), "Favored Daughter: One Woman's Fight to Lead Afghanistan into the Future" (Fawzia Koofi), "Whatever Happened to Baby Peggy?: The Autobiography of Hollywood's Pioneer Child Star" (Diana Cary), "Whistleblower: My Journey to Silicon Valley and Fight for Justice at Uber" (Susan Fowler), "A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School" (Carlotta Walls LaNier - I got to see her a few years ago at the LBJ), "John" (Cynthia Lennon - about her dad), "Toil & Trouble" (Augusten Burroughs), "Off the Radar: A Father's Secret, a Mother's Heroism, and a Son's Quest " (Cyrus Copeland).

Some great biographies: "Earl Campbell: Yards After Contact" (Asher Price), "The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: The Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Impostor" (Mark Seal), "Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story", (J Randy Taraborrelli), "At Home with Muhammad Ali: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Forgiveness (Hana Ali).

And finally, the fiction: "Time Next", "Time Zero" and "Time's Up" (all by Carolyn Cohagan), "Without Merit" (Colleen Hoover), "The Mysterious Benedict Society", "The Secret Keepers", "The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Riddle of Ages" and "The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict" (all four by Trenton Lee Stewart), "Skybreaker", "Airborn", and "The Boundless" (all three by Kenneth Oppel), "The Hate List" (Jennifer Brown), "The Guardians" (John Grisham), the eight Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer, "Without Mercy" (David Hunt), "Cutting for Stone" (Abraham Verghese), "The Paladin Prophecy", "Alliance" and "Rogue" (a trilogy by Mark Frost), "The Green Mile" (Stephen King), "The Hour of the Assassin" (Matthew Quirk), "All American Boys" (Jason Reynolds), "See Me" (Nicholas Sparks), "Pulped" (Timothy Hallinan), "Wolf Brother" (Michelle Paver), "Daemon" (Daniel Suarez), and the first four books of The Adventures of Conrad Stargard (by Leo Frankowski - hope to read the last three in 2021).

As I re-read old newsletters I also found new books to add to my reading list. The public library list is twenty-one pages long. And the UT list (which is on hold) is fifteen pages long.

I added some new BBC shows to my collection (courtesy of John Lucas). I've greatly enjoyed listening to these shows and have many more hours of them to listen to. One new one is Nicholas Parsons' autobiography. Parsons was the chairman of "Just a Minute" from its start in 1967 until his death in late 2019 and hadn't missed a show until 2018 (when he missed four). There were no shows in 2020 due to Covid, but the show resumes in early 2021. I continued listening to "Quote Unquote", "I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue", "Just a Minute", Alistair Cooke's Letters from America" "The Now Show", "Dead Ringers" and "Jean Shepherd". Maybe I'll complete some of these series in 2021. I continued to enjoy the great BBC podcast, "Composer of the Week" (). I'm on the 92nd hour of their 125 episodes on Beethoven.
For its first twenty-two years Kenneth Williams was one of the stars of "Just a Minute." He was a real character. Last year I was able to download a BBC telecast special on his career. He also was in about thirty-two of the "Carry On" movies, (I've seen thirteen). I discovered that Kenneth also starred in a radio program, "Stop Messing About." I was able to download all three seasons. The initial broadcast proclaimed it was the first all-nude radio program. The program is fun and its movie parodies are delightful and I discovered why Kenneth occasionally repeated the title as a comment on "Just a Minute."
I discovered two new podcasts: Al Franken (politics) and The Her Voice Podcast (interviews with film biz folk, co-hosted by my dear friend Blair Bomar)

I continue to walk regularly to help maintain good health. I finished with a new high, 6196 miles for year, an average of 16.88 miles a day. I never worked less than 12.79 miles on any day and logged 550 miles in May, the most ever. Nineteen times I logged twenty miles. I only need to drive 36 days, which is 10%.

All previous newsletters are at
/g/DanEgglestonChristmasNewsletter

Jenny Grow - great math teacher i worked with at Lamar
Marnie Martinets - one of my best students at Lamar
Bernadette Buchko - great student at Lamar
Maria Salazar - great student at Lamar
Erica de la Garza - dear friennd - did a great photo shoot with her
Dan - in Dunkin Donuts Training Video

Another decade has passed and it's time to review my life in 2019. While going over the past year it's enjoyable to discover things that I had completely forgotten about.

I opened the year in January with a delightful role in a music video for the local band Wrongbird, "Leap Year Birthday." (). I portrayed the father of a "little" girl who's celebrating her 6th birthday (at the age of 24). It was a paid gig filmed over two days in Lakeway.

In February, Blair Bomar (a dear friend) was in town filming a short, "My What A Lovely Vase." She needed a large restroom for a location and I was able to hook her up with Ken Rogers, the head of the film program at McCallum High School, where they were able to film.

The following month I was in my fourth film shot at McCallum, written and directed by Emma Lindsey (who happens to be the step-daughter of Beth Sepko, one of Austin's top casting directors). In the film I play a custodian who is killing off students. ()

In April I saw Robert Caro speak on his new book, "Working." I've been a fan of his great books for decades, have read all of his books and loved his latest, a short one (in contrast to his usual books). His first book "The Power Broker: Robert Moses" has 1336 pages, and the publisher had to omit about a million words, since that's all they could fit in one volume. Caro hopes that the omitted sections can eventually be published. I've heard Maria Hinojosa's voice countless times over the past twenty-five years on NPR, so it was a delight to see her talk on campus that month.

In May I did some background work for my friend Bita on "Latecomers" (the film is not finished, since its director's time has been tied up in his move back to the UK). After the filming, I got to see one of my best former students, Lisa Bush, who's now an associate superintendent for middle schools for AISD.

In June I saw several former students at their 30th McCallum reunion: DeSean Roby, Kelly Spain Hensen, Amber Banks, Sherwynn Patton, Scot McCann, Shannon Davis, and Keith Bradley. I'd seen some of them at their 20th reunion. In March I saw Erin Rosales at an art exhibit which included her work. Austin Moore, LeAnn Roberts and Devon Brown were at AFS Cinema (Devon was there for a screening of his film). I ran into Dave Wiginton several times since he works near the Overheard tapings. Lisa Brannan-Blair was at a capitol rally. Yvonne Kinnibrugh was at a UT concert. Lisa Slater, Ryan Clarke and Sato Nishimura were at a pre-game McCallum gathering. Cliff Collier, Samantha Riegler, Tim Riegler and Geoff Zeis were at a post-funeral celebration. Melanie Fetty was at the preview screening of the Ken Burns Country Music film. Denise Ashley saw me at a bus stop. Stephen Layne was at Seaholm. And I saw Dena Kyser, Tanya Sandoval and Shametra McGregor in Elgin when I visited there for Shametra's graduation celebration. Throughout the year I saw Stephanie Acosta several times since she's in the same part of town.

In July was in a short film, Green (), in which I played a PA (production assistant), attending an academy which teaches students how to be PA's. It's an amusing satire and was fun to shoot.

In August I had the most unusual audition of my life. Each of us, in a group of four, was asked to laugh together as a group; nothing more. I got a callback and again we had to laugh in a group but this time also individually. I was cast and later that month we gathered at a Gamestop store in south Austin to film a commercial. I was dressed as a basketball player with a tie-dye shirt and shorts. By the time we finished the scene after multiple takes of laughing my throat was sore. The ad was scheduled to run for six weeks starting in late August and was extended another six weeks (earning me a second paycheck). A friend saw it on a Hulu show, but I only found it, eventually, on the store's twitter account. A friend found the extended 30-second version for me. () and (). The 15-second version found an audience right away and has more likes than all but one of the videos I've uploaded.

In September I was in a brief scene in "Finger." Due to editing complications (adding animation to some sequences), it was not finished at the end of the year. Also, in September AFS hosted the great film director from Mexico, Arturo Ripstein (who worked with Luis Bunuel in 1961), for a screening of his latest film "Bleak Street." I got a photo with him. ().

It was hottest September in Austin ever. The average temperature was 88, which is 8 degrees above normal. It was hotter than June and July with nineteen 100-degree days and ten record highs.

In October I was in a fun scene in the Brian Burns film, "Through a Glass Dimly." I was in a group of three seniors playing checkers. The script called for a chess game, but we could only find a set of checkers, so I helped adjust the script from "checkmate" to "checkermate". The same month I attended a UT master class with Polish film director and screenwriter Agnieszka Holland, one of Poland's most eminent filmmakers. She began her career as an assistant to Andrzej Wajda and is best known for her films "Europa Europa" (1991) and her 2011 drama "In Darkness", which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. (excerpt: ). I also saw a great panel featuring local authors S.C. Gwynne and Stephen Harrigan. I realized I hadn't read some of Gwynne's books (his "Empire of The Summer Moon" was on my best of list for 2012) and this year I really loved his "The Perfect Pass: American Genius and the Reinvention of Football."

In November Susan Rice was on both Overheard and at the LBJ speaking on her new book (which is great). She served under both Clinton & Obama & was the latter's National Security Adviser and Ambassador to the UN. I was able to speak with her and get a photo. The same month I saw Gloria Steinem speak at the LBJ on her new book. Wonderful. I was delighted to see her for the fourth time.

My health was good. I was under the weather for a few days in March, though it may have simply been fatigue after the insane pace of nine days of SXSW. I had a physical exam in April and all was well, although there was a most unusual entry on the report I got: "primary ovarian failure." I walked 6,046 miles, the most ever, with an average of 16.56 miles a day. I discovered that I've walked 65,205 miles since I started keeping track about twenty years ago. This year I avoided driving 91.5% of the time.

I hadn't gotten any new Dobie yearbooks in months and late in the year I located three new ones. I now have added eighteen to the Dobie Facebook page. () I talked to the Dobie principal's secretary before Christmas and hoping she'll help me find many more in 2020.

When I was a little kid growing up in New Jersey in the fifties one of my favorite TV shows was "Hopalong Cassidy". I discovered in 2018 that there were sixty-four Hopalong movies & that the Encore network was showing them. I've now seen fifty-four and hope to see the remaining ten. I also plan to watch the two seasons of the TV show.

I've seen dozens of authors at BookPeople, but it was a treat in November to see a dear friend, Amy Edwards, promoting her new book, "The Trouble with Becoming a Witch." She allowed me to read the book before it was published and I enjoyed it. She was interviewed by Carolyn Cohagan, who has written some great books.

Erica de la Garza, a very dear friend, moved back to Austin at the end of the year and joined me to see a play.

All too often I am not notified about films I was in once they are complete (some are never completed). I discovered a very amusing scene I was in from 2017 in "Lazer Team 2" (). From 2009 I posted a Doritos spec I was in. () (I found some of these as I reviewed old editions of these newsletters, doing so because Yahoo has deleted the copies online). From 2005, "Land of No Return" in which I played God. (). I also discovered a feature film, "The Emeryville Experiments", in which I had a nice, though small role, is online & free. (). When it was first completed I was sent a private link to view, but at that time my internet connection was so slow, that I was only able to watch the first twenty minutes.

I saw 22 plays. The best of them was "The Book of Will."

I attended all of the Overheard with Evan Smith tapings (I've now been to 245 of them). They're always worthwhile. This year the best of them were Timothy Shriver, Stacey Abrams, John Grisham, Ed Zwick, Scott Pelley (), Jose Antonio Vargas, Susan Rice, and Isabella Rossellini.

I saw many movies. It was my most enjoyable SXSW ever, and I've been to every one since the film festival started in 1994. The documentaries I loved at SXSW were "The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley", "I Love You Now Die: The Commonwealth Vs Michelle Carter", "Breakthrough", "Ernie & Joe", "Icarus", "For Sama" and "Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins."

More documentaries during the year that make my "best of" list; "Carmine Street Guitars" (I met the director Ron Mann a few months later & learned that the store had gained two years worth of guitar orders), "The River and the Wall ", "Mike Wallace Is Here", "Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles", "Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice", "That Part Feeling - The Universe of Arvo Part", "The Bleeding Edge" (a fantastic doc on medical tools), "Ken Burns Country Music", "The Ancestral Sin (the story of Israel's "development towns"), "The Raft", "Chasing the Moon", "Fantastic Fungi", "Maiden", and "One Child Nation."

The best feature films: "Above the Clouds", "Where'd You Go, Bernadette", "Noise" (a French film), "The Fall of The American Empire", "The Farewell", "Pom Poko", and "Parasite"

As always, I spent many hours at AFS Cinema. I saw 171 films there; 124 of them were new for me. What a treasure it is.

I didn't go to that many concerts. The Bach Cantata Project had a great one in October, I saw Shawn Phillips for the 42nd time, and the Air Force Band of the West Brass Quintet was a delight. In May I also saw the annual UIL wind ensemble festival with sixteen bands from around the state and in June the great Longhorn Music Camp bands. I also discovered some great music by three composers: Heinrich Schutz, Louise Farrenc, and Eric Whitacre.


As usual I read 365 books. The nonfiction book list is longer: first, autobiographical and biographical books: "Memoirs of an Amnesiac" (Oscar Levant), "A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II" (Sonia Purnell), "Long Haul: A Trucker's Tales of Life on the Road" (Finn Murphy), "Robin" (Dave Itzkoff - Robin Williams), "I Was Looking for a Street" (Charles Willeford), "A Gift of Laughter" (Allan Sherman), "John Wayne: The Life and Legend" (Scott Eyman), "Life, Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes, and Autism" (Ron Suskind - the movie is also great), "The Gorilla and the Bird: A Memoir of Madness and a Mother's Love" (Zack McDermott), "Logical Family" (Armistead Maupin), "My Life with Groucho", "The Secret Life of Bob Hope" and "Red Skelton (all three by Arthur Marx), "Monk of Mokha" (Dave Eggers), "Oriana Fallaci: The Journalist, the Agitator, the Legend" (Cristina De Stefano), "Inseparable: The Original Siamese Twins and Their Rendezvous with American History" (Yunte Huang), "Will Rogers His Life and Times" (Richard Ketchum), "Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas" (Jane Mayer), "Reporter: a Memoir" (Seymour Hersh), "Hank and Jim: The Fifty-Year Friendship of Henry Fonda and James Stewart" (Scott Eyman), "Tibetan Peach Pie" (Tom Robbins), "I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad" (Souad Mekhennet), "Fritz Pollard" (John Carroll), "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" (Sherman Alexie), and "The Wind in My Hair: My Fight for Freedom in Modern Iran" (Masih Alinejad).

More nonfiction: "A Fine Mess: A Global Quest for a Simpler, Fairer, and More Efficient Tax System" (T R Reid), "Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win" and "A Very Expensive Poison: The Definitive Story of the Murder of Litvinenko and Russia's War with the West" (both by Luke Harding), "Present at The Creation" (Upton Bell - NFL History), "It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration is Doing to America" (David Cay Johnston), "Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High" (Melba Beals), "Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right" (Jane Mayer), "Deadly Force: The True Story of How a Badge Can Become a License to Kill" and " Playing with Fire: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics " (both by Lawrence O'Donnell), "Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America " (Gilbert King), "I Can't Breathe" (Matt Taibbi - the death of Eric Garner), "Beneath A Ruthless Sun" and "The Execution of Willie Francis" (both by Gilbert King - Willie Francis was a black man who was executed twice), "Big Chicken: The Incredible Story of How Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed the Way the World Eats" (Maryn McKenna), "The Arc of Justice" (Kevin Boyle (Detroit Housing)), "Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway Revolution" (Todd Purdum), "American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land " (Monica Hesse), "The Perfect Pass: American Genius and the Reinvention of Football" (S.C. Gwynne), "Insane: America's Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness" (Alisa Roth), "The Newcomers: Finding Refuge, Friendship, and Hope in an American Classroom " (Helen Thorpe), "All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid" (Matt Bai),"The Fix: How Nations Survive and Thrive in a World in Decline"(Jonathan Tepperman), "See You Again in Pyongyang: A Journey into Kim Jong Un's North Korea" (Travis Jeppesen)," The Perfect Weapon: How the Cyber Arms Race Set the World Afire"(David Sanger).

In fiction: crime novels: "Crashed", "A Nail Through the Heart", "Breathing Water", "Hot Countries", and "The Fear Artist" (all five by Timothy Hallinan - I read twenty-one books by him this year, these are five of the best), "The Defense" and "The Plea" (both by Steve Cavanagh), "The Late Show" and "Dark Sacred Night" (both by Michael Connelly), "Barely Legal" (Stuart Woods), and "Past Tense" (Lee Child)

The rest of the fiction: "World Without End" and "Column of Fire" (both part of the Kingsbridge trilogy by Ken Follett), "The Taliban Cricket Club" (Timeri Murari), "King Leopold's Ghost" (Adam Hochschild), "The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street" (Karina Glaser), "So You Want to be a Wizard" (Diane Duane), "Last Flag Flying" (Darryl Ponicsan), "How Green was my Valley" (Richard Llewellyn), "Redshirts" (John Scalzi), "Granted" and "Insert Coin To Continue" (both by John David Anderson), "The Apothecary", "The Apprentices", and "The After-room" (a trilogy by Maile Meloy), "Nowhere Boy" and "The Door by the Staircase (both by Katherine Marsh), "Far from the Tree" (Robin Benway), "Wonder" (R J Palacio), "Oblivion" and "Nicropolis" (the final books of the Gatekeepers books, both by Anthony Horowitz), "Winter Sisters" (Robin Oliveira), "The Casket of Time" (Andri Magnason), "Everything Everything" (Nicola Yoon), "Britt-Marie Was Here" and "Us Against You" (both by Fredrik Backman), "Front Desk" (Kelly Yang) and "Nyxia Unleashed" (Scott Reintgen). The grand total is now10,890 books.

I didn't have many large purchases this year. My microwave died in the middle of cooking eggs, but it had lasted a good ten years. I've had iPods since 2002 & loved my iPod nanos since they were so compact and reliable. Apple had discontinued the line and I now have an iPod Touch. It has way too many "features" & although I have it turned off, the voice control occasionally activates, a real nuisance, and it's much larger than the nano. My scanner only lasted three years, but I have a newer model now.

I added some new BBC shows to my collection (courtesy of a friend back east) with works of literature now the focus of the additions. And there is an enormous collection of Shakespeare (with multiple versions of some plays). I've greatly enjoyed listening to these shows and have many more hours of them to listen to. I continued listening to "Quote Unquote", "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue", "Just a Minute", Alistair Cooke's Letters from America", "Dead Ringer," and "Jean Shepherd". One new BBC discovery was the delightful "Fry's English Delight." Maybe I'll complete some of these series in 2020. I also discovered a great podcast on BBC: "Composer of the week" () (which is where I discovered the music of Louise Farrenc).

Late in the year I realized that, since I was born in the forties, 2020 will mark the ninth decade that I have lived in. I hope that 2020 brings good things to all of you who are reading this.

I'm slowly adding xmas family photos & then ones of me, one a day at

Susan Rice - United Nations ambassador from 2009 to 2013 and as the 24th United States national security advisor from 2013 to 2017. and to run the White House Domestic Policy Council for Biden

Robert Caro - great author - of a book on Robert Moses & working on a 5th volume on LBJ

Arturo Ripstein - great Mexican film director

Gloria Steinem - iconic feminist - 3rd time i'd seen her

Lisa Bush - great former student - now head of middle schools for AISD

Tanya Sandoval - great former student

Blair Bomar - dear friend whos an actor iN LA

me in a Gamestop video

2018 Newsletter

Another year in the book. More memorable events. This year I was the initial speaker for a new group, the Austin Entertainment Business Mixer, which meets monthly. I was also the featured guest on a local cable access show, Da Big Daddy G Show (my segment is at ).

I've been sending out annual newsletters since 1992, continuing a family tradition my parents started which they ended in 1988.

I got to see twenty-one of my former students, ten at a McCallum reunion. It was a delight that some were my favorite students Alice Rodriguez, Ashley Doyle Darnell, Heather Murphy, Kristina Acuna, and Kimmy Robinson.

My health is still good. I walked 5864 miles, the most ever. One day I walked 22 miles and never walked less than 12 miles. I only needed to fill the tank on my Honda hybrid twice this year and am averaging 53.6 mpg so far. I avoided driving 96% of the time, either walking or taking the bus (I drove on twenty-six days.)

In 2017 I tracked down five Dobie Middle School (where I taught for two years) yearbooks Sadly, the yearbook sponsor at Dobie refused to help, which makes it more of a challenge. I found ten more in 2018 and there are now fifteen posted on Facebook. I was quite active on Facebook and now have 1989 friends there.

I added some new BBC shows to my collection (courtesy of a friend back east) with works of literature now the focus of the additions. And there is an enormous collection of Shakespeare (with multiple versions of some plays). I've greatly enjoyed listening to these shows and have many more hours of them to listen to. Among the new ones is a collection of many of the wonderful Terry Pratchett Discworld books, the James Herriot books, Robert Sawyer's great "Rollback" and Peter O'Toole's "Loitering with Intent." I continued listening to "Quote Unquote", "I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue", "Just a Minute", "The Navy Lark," Alistair Cooke's Letters from America" and "Jean Shepherd". Maybe I'll complete some of these series in 2019. I also discovered a great podcast on BBC, "Composer of the week" ().

As always, I saw tons of movies. The best feature films were "The Green Book", "A Hard Day's Night", "Mary & The Witch's Flower" (Japanese animated film), "The Hate U Give", "Wolf Children", (another animated Japanese film), "The Favourite," "Eight Hours Don't Make A Day" (Fassbinder's mini-series), "Underground" (Yugoslavian), "Closeup" (Kiarastami), "The Insult" (Lebanon).

The documentaries, as always, were some of the best. They included "My Journey Through French Cinema," "Fierce Love Parents," (a local documentary, in progress, on autism, ), "Brimstone & Glory", "Three Identical Strangers", "Operation Odessa," "Bisbee '17," "Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Photographable", "Science Fair", "Served Like A Girl", "RBG", "Leaning into the Wind: Andy Goldsworthy", "Brimstone & Glory"

AFS Cinema continued to screen the best movies in town and I saw 154 films there this year.

My best acting role during the year was for an ACC film: "Life's Student" (). When I auditioned, I was recognized from a film I was in ("Tovarich Ulyanova") from the previous year that had been shown in class (). I had a great role in a UT production, "Mall Walking Olympics" but sadly my big scene (being propelled faster by flatulence) had to be cut due to time constraints. I was filmed in an episode for the end of season 4 of "Fear the Walking Dead." I played a rabbi in an abandoned temple. There were four other bits with extras filmed that day and mine was the only one filmed inside and not in the heat outdoors. (And I was in a dark suit). Maybe they'll use it in season 5.

I did extra work for a few projects. The Alamo Drafthouse had a theater full of folks for bits that they use in their party screenings. Deanna Wheeler shot a video for her song "Wasted Space" and my dear friend Natali Jones (down from Dallas) helped her make it. I was in a bit for the Waller Creek Conservancy and another for "Some Kind of Peace."

I got to see two films I was in, "Allowable Dreams" and "Fetish." Small roles in both, but too many times I've never gotten to see films I was in.

I added some films I'm in to my YouTube channel. One of the weirdest one was my scene from Fourplay:Tampa. (). A feature film I was in, "The Sauce", was finally released & my scene was enormous fun (). I also posted "Blackpool & Parish", the play I starred in several years ago. .

Austin was lucky enough to have a Stickworks exhibit, which I got to visit.

Early in the year Fred & Callie contacted me about a documentary on the making of the zombie musical (Z: a Zombie Musical) that I helped John McLean produce in 2006-07. We've had a couple of meetings, but the project is still in preliminary stages.

I had two photo shoots this year: a quick one with Caitlin Mack and a longer one with Zira Amunet. Zira was in Austin as a featured extra in "Mall Walking Olympics", and due to time constraints in shooting, turned out to have about as much screen time as I did. She also joined me for the Sean Penn Overheard taping.

The best concerts I attended this year were by Ken Gaines (6th time I've seen him), Chorus Austin, Chaski, and 3 concerts of the Bach Christmas Cantata at UT

I saw 21 plays, three of which were extraordinary: "Doubt", "The Immigrant", and "All My Sons".

As always, I attended all of the "Overheard with Evan Smith" tapings (28 this year – I've now attended 249). The best ones were with Yamiche Alcindor, Bill De Blasio, Sean Penn (his intro is at ) , Cecile Richards (her story about her mom (Ann Richards) is at ), John Kerry, Lawrence O'Donnell, Mary Chapin Carpenter (preshow Q&A ), Jake Tapper, Michael Schmidt, Michael Beschloss, and Jason Reitman. Upcoming tapings will be at .

I survived Austin's "water crisis" which lasted about a week in October. Due to heavy rain, one of the water treatment plant's filtration system was overwhelmed and we had to boil our water before drinking or cooking with it.

I got to see playwright Terrence McNally (I've seen ten of his plays), John Brennan (CIA), Jerry Brown, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Joe Lansdale, and Bob Costas (). I'd read three of Lansdale's books when I re-discovered him and read 30 more this year. I found that his great Hap & Leonard books are now a mini-series on the Sundance channel. I met Julian Castro, who is running for president in 2020.

My friend Ken Johnson died in January and there was a wonderful memorial service for him. I added a few more of his films on YouTube. You can see his plays and films on my playlist (as well as my films) ()

As usual, I read 365 books. Here's a fairly long list of the best of them, starting with non-fiction. First the biographical books: "My Life With Groucho" (Arthur Marx), "The Secret Life Of Bob Hope" (Arthur Marx), "Red Skelton" (Arthur Marx), "A Gift of Laughter" (Allan Sherman), "The Monk Of Mokha" (Dave Eggers), "Fritz Pollard" (John Carroll), "Oriana Fallaci: The Journalist, the Agitator, the Legend" (Christian De Stefano), "John Wayne: The Life and Legend" (Scott Eyman), "Inseparable: The Original Siamese Twins and Their Rendezvous with American History" (Yunte Huang), "Will Rogers His Life & Times" (Richard Ketchum), "Hank & Jim: The Fifty-Year Friendship of Henry Fonda and James Stewart" (Scott Eyman), "Logical Family" (Armistead Maupin), "The Wind in My Hair: My Fight for Freedom in Modern Iran" (Masih Alinejad), "I Was Looking for a Street" (Charles Willeford), "Life Animated" (Ron Suskind), "The Execution of Willie Francis" (Gilbert King), "The Gorilla and the Bird: A Memoir of Madness and a Mother's Love" (Zack McDermott), "Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway Revolution" (Todd Purdum), "Robin" (Dave Itzkoff), "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" (Sherman Alexie), "Reporter: A Memoir" (Seymour Hersh), and "King Leopold's Ghost" (Adam Hochschild)

The rest of the nonfiction books: "A Fine Mess: A Global Quest for a Simpler, Fairer, and More Efficient Tax System" (T.R. Reid), "A Very Expensive Poison: The Definitive Story of the Murder of Litvinenko and Russia's War with the West" (Luke Harding), "Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win" (Luke Harding), "Long Haul: A Trucker's Tales of Life on the Road" (Finn Murphy), "Present at The Creation" (the NFL - Upton Bell), "I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad" (Souad Mekhennet), "See You Again in Pyongyang: A Journey into Kim Jong Un's North Korea" (Travis Jeppesen), "It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration is Doing to America" (David Cay Johnston), "Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High" (Melba Beals), "Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right" (Jane Mayer), "Deadly Force: The True Story of How a Badge Can Become a License to Kill" and "Playing with Fire" (the craziness during 1968) (both by Lawrence O'Donnell), "Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America " (Gilbert King), "I Can't Breathe" (Matt Taibbi), "Beneath A Ruthless Sun" (Gilbert King), "Big Chicken: The Incredible Story of How Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed the Way the World Eats" (Maryn McKenna), "Arc of Justice" (Kevin Boyle), "American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land" (Monica Hesse), "Insane: America's Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness" (Alisa Roth), "Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas" (Jane Mayer), "The Newcomers: Finding Refuge, Friendship, and Hope in an American Classroom " (Helen Thorpe), "All the Truth Is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid" (Matt Bai).

The fiction books: "Front Desk" (Kelly Yang), "Crashed" (Timothy Hallinan), "Barely Legal" (Stuart Woods), "Column of Fire" and "World Without End" (both by Ken Follett), "Tibetan Peach Pie" (Tom Robbins), "How Green Was my Valley" (Richard Llewellyn), "The Late Show" (Michael Connelly), "Last Flag Flying" (Darryl Ponicsan), "Vanderbeekers of 141st Street" (Karina Glaser), "So You Want to be a Wizard" (Diane Duane), "The Taliban Cricket Club" (Timeri Murari), "Nyxia Unleashed" (Scott Reintgen), "Redshirts" (John Scalzi), "Everything Everything" (Nicola Yoon), "Britt-Marie Was Here" (Fredrik Backman), "Us Against You" (Fredrik Backman), and "Far From The Tree" (Robin Benway).

I discovered several albums by musicians whose music I love, but was unaware of their more recent music: Mary Chapin Carpenter (as a result of seeing her on Overheard), the Austin Lounge Lizards, Steve Tilston, Theodore Bikel, and the U.S. Marine band

Hope that 2019 is a good year for all who read this and for me.

Terrence McNally, the legendary playwright
Jake Tapper - the CNN news reporter
Julian Castro Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 2014 to 2017
Ashley Doyle Darnell - one of my all-time fave students
Natali Jones - very dear friend in the acting community
Zira Amunet - another very dear friend, who i met on set
and me as a rabbi in Fear Of The Walking Dead

Katy Tur - NBC news
Jeff Nichols - director of Mud, Loving, Take Shelter
Joaquin Castro - Congressman
Amado Pena - artist. his mural for ACC Highland just completed (in 2020). went to college with him
Danny Greenup - dear friend - met her on Betta in 2009
me as a crab in

2016 newsletter

Another year has passed; it's been a good one for me, (other than the disastrous election results). Perhaps the most notable event was playing a small role in a pilot episode for a Comedy Central show, "Power Couple", which stars former Saturday Night Life comedian Noel Wells. The network has not scheduled an air date for the show yet. The project was the best-paid acting gig I've ever done.

Other acting work included a local TV series, "Professor Isle's Laboratory", in which I play a cafeteria worker (my scene is at ; the copy on Facebook got 700 views in 2 days). In "Fashionista" I played a postman (). I completed my work for "American Zombie" (green screen work) after a year's delay. And I had a fun bit in the RoosterTeeth Series "Million Dollars But" ()

I attended three great acting workshops, two by Will Wallace and one by his wife Sara.

The feature film "Greenbelt", in which I played Leslie is now on Youtube at

Sixteen years ago (while working on Miss Congeniality), I started a yahoo group to post casting calls. This year I was surprised and honored when the Austin Chronicle named me and the group as part of their Best of Austin issue. ()

I saw some notable people this year. Bob Schieffer (CBS) was fantastic. Doug Brinkley spoke on our National Parks (his book on FDR & the parks is fantastic). The LBJ Library had an excellent two-day summit on the Vietnam War in April. Participants included Country Joe McDonald, Peter Yarrow, Peter Arnett, Dan Rather, Tom Hayden, David Maraniss, and Robert Schenkkan. Bryan Stevenson's lecture was one of the highlights of the year as well as the decade. He's an amazing man and I finally read his book, "Just Mercy", which is a must-read.

For many years I've loved Story Corps, (which NPR's Morning Edition carries Friday mornings). So it was a treat to see its creator, Davis Isay. The documentary "Jump Shot" (see below) was actually inspired by a Story Corps broadcast (). Lawrence Wright spoke on "The Terror Years", his latest, and was brilliant and fascinating as always.

I saw some great authors at the Texas Book Festival: Carl Hiassen was very funny, as usual. I've loved five of David Cay Johnston's books; he spoke on his new book, "The Making of Donald Trump" (which likely will be on next year's best of list). Jane Alexander is best-known as an actor, but she spoke on her new book. Clint Hill was an unexpected treat. He was a secret service agent under five presidents and is the agent who leapt onto the back of JFK's limousine in Dallas after the president was shot. I loved Maria Semple's first two books ("Where'd You Go Bernadette" is her best-known title) and am looking forward to reading her latest.

Skip Hollandsworth gave a talk about his book, "Midnight Assassin," which is about the world's first serial killer (in 1885 Austin). Press coverage in 1888 London (while Jack the Ripper terrorized that city) mentioned the Austin killer.

The speaker at the annual Frank Deford (the sports writer) lecture this year was Andrew Zimbalist, an economist. He gave a fascinating lecture on the economics of the Olympic games. In the past fifty years, due to IOC restrictions, only two times has there NOT been massive losses for the host cities.

I saw three of my favorite authors: Lauren Oliver (YA author, I've read 12 of her books), Stuart Woods (I've read 66 of his), and Erik Larson (three of his books have been on my best of list, including "Lethal Passage" this year and "Devil in the White City" and "Dead Wake" in earlier years. I've read seven of his books).

Forty years ago I wrote my master's thesis on Shawn Phillips. Steve Wixon is preparing a documentary on Shawn and in July he sent his son & daughter-in-law to film an interview with me. Digging through my files I found many letters, documents and audiotapes to help them. They converted a tape of Shawn's 1990 concert at the Cactus Cafe () They have interviewed Donovan and it is still a work in progress.

At a screening of "LBJ" (Rob Reiner's new film), I got a photo with Woody Harrelson, who plays the title character. Its director, Rob Reiner, disappeared before I could get one with him.

My health is good. I turned 70 this year and walked 5563 miles, averaging 15.2 miles a day, and walking at least twelve miles every day. That was about 300 miles more than the previous annual high. The first year (2000) in which I used a pedometer, the total was 1653 miles. It went up to 1997 in 2001. I walked more in 2016 than those two years combined.

Jeff Durawa replaced the supports for my carport, repaired my clothesline (after a dead tree fell on top of it), did some roof work, and more work on the bathroom.

Over a period of about two years I was able to track down, scan, and post all sixty of the Lamar yearbooks on Facebook and in April the Lamar PTA had a celebration to honor this. There was a plaque showing me as the "Mayor of Scottietown." The counselor from 1959 to 1971 was present as were several students from the early years. The school gave me a copy of this year's yearbook, which I've added.

I saw about twenty-three former students, three of whom treated me to lunch: Linda Taylor (who I taught in San Antonio 1970/71), Fabi Salas (Lamar), Dianne Patterson (Dobie). I saw one former student, Rachel Dolman, while she was in the hospital and we had a delightful long visit.

I've known Michael Guess for thirty years and taught his step-son at Lamar, so it was great to catch up with him over lunch. Sutton Mooney has been friends for twenty years and was in town for a few weeks (she's a professor at Washington State University); we were able to catch up over lunch; she also was able to join me for the Gloria Steinem taping and the Lawrence Wright book talk.

I had one photo shoot this year, with Loren Ellison, a great one. And I was the subject of a photo shoot, by Kathy Whittaker, allowing me to update my acting headshots. She does great work.

As always, I attended all of the "Overheard with Evan Smith" tapings, well worth seeing. (If you're interested subscribe at /g/UpcomingOverheards). There were twenty-six this year. The best were Gloria Steinem, R L Stine (Goosebumps), Mike Love (Beach Boys), Wendy Davis, Bryan Cranston, Rick Linklater, Ken Burns, Ethan Hawke, Henry Louis Gates, Jefferey Goldberg, and David Farenthold (the reporter who revealed much of the Trump Foundation's unethical practices). You can watch any of these episodes at (these include the post-taping Q&A's, which are not part of the broadcast.)

The best concerts I attended this year were by Atash, Buddy Mondlock (7th time I've seen him – 7th venue), Chaski, Con Moto (a unique concert of a brass quintet using choreographed movement as they performed), Chorus Austin (wonderful concert of highlights from works performed previously) and Conspirare (2 concerts, both magical, and their "Considering Matthew Shepard", composed by Craig Hella Johnson, (their conductor) was one of the best works I've EVER seen performed. It's out on CD and I also have a recording on the concert, (which was broadcast by KMFA.)

As usual, I read 366 books and the grand total is 9815. I hope to pass the 10,000 mark in 2017. The best nonfiction starts with several by Edward Humes. I read his great "Garbology" in 2013 (on my best of list that year) and read ten of his books this year. The best of those are "Monkey Girl", "No Matter How Loud I Shout", "Mississippi Mud", "School Of Dreams", and "Door to Door".

The rest of the nonfiction: "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" (crematory worker - Caitlin Doughty), "Billion Dollar Ball" (College Football & Money – Gilbert Gaul), "Walt Disney" (Neal Gabler), "All Who Go Do Not Return" (Shulem Deen), "Washington's Crossing", (David Hackett Fischer), "Werner Herzog: A Guide For The Perplexed" (Werner Herzog), "Katrina" (Gary Rivlin), "Kill Chain" (Andrew Cockburn), "Of Thee I Sing" (George Kaufman), "A Life of Barbara Stanwyck Steel-True 1907-1940" (Victoria Wilson), "The Verdict" (Nick Stone), "Nicholas Ray" (Patrick McGilligan), "The Last of the President's Men" (Bob Woodward), "Putin Country" (Anne Garrels), "The Girl With Seven Names" (Hyeonseo Lee), "Strength In What Remains" (Tracy Kidder), "Lady Bird" (Jan Jarboe Russell), "Lethal Passage" (Erik Larson), "Even This I Get to Experience" (Norman Lear), "Burning Down The House - The End of Juvenile Prison" (Nell Bernstein), "City of Thorns" (enormous refugee camp in Kenya - Ben Rawlence), "United States of Jihad" (Peter Bergen), "Oregon Trail" (Rinker Buck), "Fear on Trial" (John Henry Faulk), "Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals" (Jane Mayer), "Mission High" (Kristina Rizga), "Original Story By" (Arthur Laurents), "Rosa Parks" (Douglas Brinkley), "Just Mercy" (Bryan Stevenson), "Finding Winnie" (Lindsay Mattick), "Meat Racket" (Tyson Foods - Christopher Leonard), "Indentured" (NCAA - Joe Nocera), "Art Made from Books" (Laura Heyenga), and "American Heiress" (Jeffrey Toobin).

The fiction list this year is much longer than usual, great to say, starting with several by Thomas Perry: "The Runner", "Poison Flower", "String Of Beads", "The Informant", "The Boyfriend", "Silence", and "Forty Thieves".

The rest of the fiction: "The Highway" and "Off The Grid" (both by C J Box), "Zeroes" (Scott Westerfeld), "The English Spy" (Daniel Silva), "Girl Waits with Gun" (Amy Stewart), "Confess" and "November 9" (both by Colleen Hoover), "A Bottle in the Gaza Sea" (Valerie Zenatti), "The Wolves" and "Twelve Days" (both by Alex Berenson), "Make Me" (Lee Child), "The Promise" (Robert Crais), "Sword Of Summer" (Rick Riordan), "One Mississippi" and "Crazy In Alabama" (both by Mark Childress), "Lust & Wonder" (Augusten Burroughs), "The First Order" (Jeff Abbott), "Worst Class Trip Ever" (Dave Barry), "Smoke" (Donald Westlake), "The Lock Artist" (Steve Hamilton) , "The Crossing" (Michael Connelly), "The Girl in the Spider's Web" (David Lagercrantz), and "The Accidental Apprentice" (Vikas Swarup),

The best films I saw were documentaries, as is often the case. The ones I liked the most are "Where To Invade Next" (Michael Moore), "Beaver Trilogy Part 4", "Alive & Kicking" (swing dancing - featuring Evita Arce, a friend), "Richard Linklater: Dream & Destiny", "Learning To See", "Babushkas of Chernobyl", "Armour of Light", "Handicapable" (UT), "Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You" (PBS - Lear was present for the screening) , "Holy Hell", "Life Animated", "Tower" (on the UT Tower shooting of 1966), "Author The J T Leroy Story", "The Pearl Button" (Chile), "My Scientology Movie", "Santoalla", "Original Cast Album Company" (D A Pennebaker), "Into the Inferno", "What Tomorrow Brings" (PBS), "Jump Shot" (a work in progress on the man who created the jump shot in basketball)

My favorite feature films: "All the Way" (Bryan Cranston as LBJ), "Paris Texas", "Hunt for the Wilderpeople" (New Zealand), "Miss Stevens", "Facing Mirrors" (Iran), "Eye in the Sky", "Everybody Wants Some" (Rick Linklater), "Miracle", "The Idol" (Gaza), "Midnight Special", "Two Birds One Stone" (French), "The Innocents" (Polish), "Kubo & The 2 Strings", "Evil" (Sweden), "Our Little Sister" (Japan), "A Bottle in the Gaza Sea" (Israel), "Dekologue" (Poland), "The Handmaiden" (Korean), "Germinal", "The D In David" (animated short - ), "Race" (1936 Olympics), and "Sing".

I added some new BBC shows to my collection (courtesy of my friend back east) with Men from the Ministry, Whacko, Week Ending, Mark Steel, and Garrison Keillor (Prairie Home Companion is carried on the BBC). I've greatly enjoyed listening to these shows and have many more hours of them to listen to. I continued listening to Quote Unquote, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, Just a Minute, and Jean Shepherd. Maybe I'll complete those series this year.

After reading Jack Viertel's great book "The Secret Life of the American Musical" I discovered several Broadway musicals I was unaware of and some newer recordings of shows I already had. I also found new albums by the amazing Stephan Micus and 5 symphonies by the wonderful composer David Maslanka.

I only had to fill the tank on my Honda hybrid once, late in December, and averaged 56.3 miles for that tankful. I'm averaging 53.4 overall, so far.

I saw twenty-three plays; three were exceptional: Silent Sky, The Explorer's Club, and Arden of Faversham.

Hope that 2017 is a good year for all who read this and for me.

Jane Alexander great actor, at the texas book fest
Lauren Oliver great author
Stuart Woods one of my fave authors, i've now read 84 of his books. at this time he was writing 4 books a year
Woody Harrelson wonderful actor
Rachel Dolman one of my fave students, at the time in the hospital
Linda Taylor one of my students from san antonio's jeff davis in 70/71, my 3rd year of teaching
me in prof isle's lab, a fun scene shot at mccallum -
me honored at lamar during its 60th anniversary celebration - Mayor of Scottietown
and the Austin Chronicle's honoring of me

2015 newsletter

Once again, time for the annual newsletter. I got to see some notable people this year: In January, Hall of Famer Hank Aaron spoke at the LBJ Library emphasizing his civil rights work over his baseball achievements. Robert Reich delivered of the best speeches I heard all year (his film "Inequality for All" was one of the best docs in 2013). I'd seen Penelope Spheeris in 1998, but this time I got a photo with her. She was in town screening all three of her The Decline Of Western Civilization documentaries. (Her best-known film is probably Wayne's World).

It was a thrill to see Judy Blume (in June); I've read twenty-two of her books. Her latest ("In the Unlikely Event") is set in her childhood town of Elizabeth New Jersey (where three planes crashed in an eighty-day period in 1951-52). At that time my family lived in Roselle Park (one block from Elizabeth). Five months later Judy replied to an email I sent. I'd seen John Irving ten years ago and he was just as amazing this year (I've read all but his latest book).

I saw several additional authors whose books I've enjoyed including Dave Zirin, Taylor Branch, H. W. Brands, John Burnett, Colleen Hoover, Lemony Snicket, Amy Stewart (one of the best in-store appearances), David Levithan, Lawrence Wright, and Bill Crider (I've been Facebook friends with Bill for eight years and have now read forty-eight of his books (eight this year). It was nice to finally meet him, though I discovered I'd gotten his autograph back in '98).

As usual, I saw all of the Overheard with Evan Smith tapings (21) and they continue to be a great delight. Two of the democratic presidential candidates (Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley) were on the program (both were great). Other highlights were Salman Kahn, Barney Franks, Cokie Roberts, Taylor Branch, and Robert Reich.

I found about five hundred old family photos (mostly taken by my dad) in two file cabinets. In addition, cousin Jim Wiegley found about two hundred and fifty. We digitized them and I've been posting them on Facebook. One album is at and there's a link at each album to the adjacent albums. So far, I've added over eight hundred family photos, with less than one hundred to go.

I saw fifty-nine former students this year. From 1969-1976 I taught at Jeff Davis Middle School in San Antonio. In July I attended a Sam Houston High School reunion in San Antonio. Ten of the students I taught at Davis had indicated they'd attend (via Facebook), so I thought I might see five or six. I saw TWENTY & got photos with all of them. I saw eighteen more at three McCallum reunions in the summer. I met two more at their workplace & had lunch with four. I got to see two of my favorites this year: sisters Myriam and Catherine Perales

I helped another favorite Dawn Mann set up an interview with KLRU which aired a news story about her Dance Another World program, which she pioneered in AISD. The Statesman published an article about it on Christmas (). The program, which has expanded this year to five elementary schools, teaches English through dance to students with limited English-language skills.

Another favorite, Kerry Wallin, treated me to lunch. After I'd found her on Facebook she sent me a wonderful note: "I've always remembered when you taught us how to make moving characters on those old school computers by using math! Mine was the apple falling out of the tree and the squirrel taking it away! Can't remember much from that long ago, but I remember you and that assignment! That was the first time I really enjoyed math, and it was all because of you being the teacher. You really impacted my life and made me feel I could learn and do it! I have never really been that good at math, but you and my 9th grade math teacher really impacted my life and one English teacher in 9th grade also. I struggled a lot in school; later in 11th grade found out I was dyslexic - numbers, letters and comprehension! Just kind of learned to overcome it in some areas and having great teachers helped!" Shortly after we met, Kerry was assigned (in her capacity as a caregiver) to take care of one of those 9th grade teachers.

I hadn't seen my dear friend Sutton for ten years, so we chatted for over two hours at lunch while she was in town for a few weeks this fall, catching up on things, such as her German husband and her daughter.

The best concerts I attended were by Alash (the Tuvan throat singing group), Sangat (an ensemble of UT music school students and students from the National Academy of Performing Arts in Karachi – (earlier this year I got to see Zia Moyehuddin, who founded the school in 2005 at the invitation of President Musharref)), Shawn Phillips (the 40th time I've seen him – he was the subject of my thesis), Michal Korzistka (a brilliant pianist from Poland), and the Book of Goddesses (a dance performance by Chaski & Psophonia).

As usual I read 365 books this year (the grand total is now 9503 – there are now one hundred and seventy-one authors of whom I've read ten or more books). The best novels were "The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared" (also a delightful movie) and "The Girl Who Saved The King of Sweden" (both by Jonas Jonasson), "Afterworlds" (Scott Westerfeld), "Six Years" (Harlan Coben), "The Eye Of Zoltar" (Jasper Fforde), "The Martian Child" (a moving account of the adoption of a troubled child by a single gay man - which actually happened to the author, Dave Gerrold), "Chomp" (Carl Hiaasen), "Me & Earl & The Dying Girl" (also a delightful movie - Jesse Andrews), "The Highway" (one of four books I read by C J Box), "Zeroes" (Scott Westerfeld), "The English Spy" (Daniel Silva), "Sold" (based on the real girls sold into sexual slavery in India - Patricia McCormick) and "Memory" (Donald Westlake – I've now read thirty-nine of his books – I discovered twenty-nine Westlake books I hadn't read, and have read half of those so far)

As usual, the non-fiction list is longer. "The World of Charles Addams" (Charles Addams), "Being Miss America" (Kate Shindle), "China Wakes" (Kristof Nicholas & Sheryl WuDunn), "The Everything Store" (excellent and very disturbing book on Amazon - Brad Stone), "Act Of Congress" (how Dodd Frank was passed - Robert Kaiser), "True American" (post 9/11 shooting spree - Anand Giridharadas), "So Anyway" (John Cleese), "Harpo Speaks" (brilliant autobiography - Harpo Marx), "The Real All Americans" (the great all-Indian football team at Carlisle one hundred years ago - Sally Jenkins), "Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho's House" (Steve Stoliar), "Groucho & Me" (Groucho Marx), "Becoming Richard Pryor" (Scott Saul), "Buddy: The Biography" (Philip Norman), "The Barefoot Lawyer" (a blind human rights protester in China who escaped in spite of impossible conditions - Chen Guangcheng), "By George" (George S. Kaufman - includes his adaptation of HMS Pinafore; excerpts of which are at ), "George S. Kaufman" (Howard Teichmann), "P S Jack Paar" (Jack Paar – the second Tonight show host, before Johnny Carson - I enjoyed all four of his books), "Hi-Ho Steverino" (Steve Allen - the first Tonight show host; I discovered eighteen more of his books this year, which are now on my list), "Without You There Is No Us" (a year teaching children of the North Korean elite - Suki Kim), "A Kim Jong-Il Production" (bio of the megalomanic North Korean leader - Paul Fischer), "North Korea Confidential" (Daniel Tudor & James Pearson), "A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka" (great autobiography - from Ukraine to the U.S., escaping anti-semitism - Lev Golinkin). Two books dealing with the treatment of pigs in the food chain: "The Chain" (Ted Genoways) and "Pig Tales" (Barry Estabrook). "Underground Girls of Kabul" (the need for some Afghan girls to pretend to be boys in that sexist society - Jenny Nordberg), "Dead Wake" (the Lusitania - Erik Larson), "Thieves of State" (Sarah Chayes), "Bad Paper" (debt collectors - Jake Halpern), "Wonder of Wonders" (Fiddler on the Roof - Alisa Solomon), "The Last Train to Crystal City" (WW II internment camp - Jan Jarboe Russell – met her & H.W. Brands took a photo of us), "America's Bitter Pill" (our health care system - Steven Brill), and "Mine Enemy Grows Older" (Alexander King)

I've been listening to the P. G. Wodehouse BBC broadcasts I got in 2014 and have only seventeen hours left (out of about twenty-five days). At the end of the year I downloaded seven hundred and forty-six Jean Shepherd files (best known for the wonderful movie "Christmas Story"); it took ten days to download and another week to process. At twenty-one days, twenty-two hours, I'm sure it'll take well into 2017 to listen to all of them. Late in the year I also started downloading Quote Unquote, which will also take months to listen to (about nine days of programs); the show started in 1976 and is still running. Another program I've been enjoying is I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue (described as the antidote to panel games) eight days, twenty hours of programs to listen to) the show started in 1972 and is still running. I've listened to most of the ten days I got of Jack Benny's radio shows. I finished listening to My Word for the second time & am still working my way through Just a Minute for the second time (plus the new broadcasts - the show is still going strong & its chairman, Nicholas Parsons, now 92, has still never missed a broadcast & the show is in its forty-eighth year.)

I bought my Honda Civic Hybrid in 2002 and was starting to have problems with the hybrid battery, so in June I traded it in on a 2015 model. The new one has a video monitor for both backing up and right turns. I've only had to fill up the tank once so far and it's getting 53 mpg so far. Since I got it in 2011 my iPod nano had been replaced four times when the battery wore out. Apple said they would no longer replace it, so I now have a new nano. It's a little bit larger (sadly, it lacks a clip to attach it to my shirt) and is personalized with my name on the back.

My health was, for the most part, good. I walked 5142 miles (14.09 daily average) not driving 90.1% of the year. I strained my Achilles tendon in May and that slowed me down for a while. I was able to get some physical therapy to solve the problem.

The best of the many films I saw (as usual) were documentaries. It was a true delight to see TWO new ones by Frederick Wiseman (still going strong at age 86 - his 41st documentary is in progress in New York City). Both "National Gallery" (the art gallery in London) and "In Jackson Heights" (a diverse neighborhood in Queens NYC) were superb. "Go Grandriders" (a group of men, mostly in their 80s, who rode around the Philippines on motor bikes), "A Fuller Life" (film director Sam Fuller), "Life Itself" (Roger Ebert), "A Path Appears" (based on the book which was on my best of list last year ), "Going Clear" (based on Lawrence Wright's brilliant expose of Scientology), "Limited Partnership" (a fascinating doc on a gay couple who were married in the '70s), "Salt of The Earth" (Wim Wenders' take on Sebastiao Salgado's wonderful photos), "Twinsters" (identical Korean twins, separated at birth, unaware of each other's existence, adopted in France and the U.S., finally meet), and "Invasion" (on the Panama invasion to capture Noriega)

The feature films I enjoyed the most were Shaun the Sheep Movie, Quaker Oaths (a local indie), Donkey Skin (a 1972 Jacques Demy), Paddington, Ned Rifle (Hal Hartley completing his Henry Fool trilogy which started in 1998), Wild Tales (Argentina) The Burglars (France 1972), Run Boy Run (a very moving true story about Polish Jewish boy who survived several years during World War II pretending to be Catholic), Once In A Lifetime (another moving true story about a teacher who took a class of dropouts to win a national competition).

Ken Johnson tried again to film The Waiting Room, but sadly, the problems proved insurmountable. My scenes were filmed (I played God), but just before we were ready to shoot an actor dropped out. I attended two great acting workshops (Jamie Gallagher and Will Wallace). I believed I would have had a role in Will's feature film, Traffic; however, Austin had rain during most of May and June (it's been one of the wettest years in Austin history, almost twice the normal amount) and the Austin scenes were shot and cast in California instead. I had good roles in American Zombie, Emeryville, Street Stories (which now has eight episodes), and The Amazing Martin Landawer. Greenbelt is now online, so you can see me as Leslie & the whole film at
. My casting list (), which I started in 2000, now has over 10,000 subscribers.

I was cast in Professor Isle's Laboratory (Lawrence Wright helped record my scene to help me learn my lines) in the summer () and Girls Drinking in Inappropriate Places in April. The former starts shooting in January and the latter, hopefully sometime in 2016.

Because of all the rain, the flat part of my roof at the back of my home was weakened and Jeff Durawa added a section of tin roofing to protect it. Unfortunately, just before he was finished, we had a heavy rain, which caused a leak and a hole in the ceiling.

Of the twenty-eight plays I saw, more than usual were great ones: The Mountaintop, The Graduate (great to see a staged version of the film), The Philadelphia Story (ditto), The Importance of Being Earnest, When The Rain Stops Falling, Love Valour Compassion, The Norwegians, and I'm Not Rappaport (the third time I've seen it with the same two lead actors, previously in 1989 and 1998; this time they were much closer to the age of their characters).

In 2014 I scanned the twenty-four yearbooks from my years teaching at Lamar Middle School. After the Lamar librarian contacted me by email (after she joined my casting list) I was able to borrow and scan the thirty-two yearbooks from the school library. This year I was able to track down copies of the four missing books: in Denver, Brenham, Houston, and near Thorndale (which I was able to borrow at the 55th McCallum reunion. Of the two dozen attending, thirteen were at Lamar that year: 1956/57). There will be a special event at Lamar this year to celebrate its 60th year. All the albums are on Facebook ()

Penelope Spheeris, great director. Wayne’s World, and the 3 Decline Of Western Civilization films are her best-known works. her brother Jimmie, was one of my fave singers
Myriam Perales was one of my fave students
Catherine Perales is Myriam's sister
Dawn Mann was also a great student
Kerry Wallin another great student
and me as god in filming of The Waiting Room

It was an especially good year for me as an actor with several paid gigs and some excellent roles. I had four paid gigs in January; an extra in a Verizon spot, a diner in the reality show "Mystery Diners", and as an extra in Jason Reitman's film "Men, Women & Children". (The "bad waitress" on "Mystery Diners" turned out to be Ali Meier, a friend who I hadn't recognized. She was my doctor on the Reitman film.) I also had a great lead role in the "Ticket Out of the Game" episode of "Street Stories". Seven episodes of that series are complete and I am also in the seventh, "Intersection," shot later in the year. Episode eight will be filmed early in 2015 with more planned. I discovered that Brian Burns, the director, is the father of Angela Burns, whose film "Betta" I was in several years ago. ()

I was an optometrist in "Not Right Eye" filmed in a real eye doctor's office (view it at ). I played Schmuyle in an episode of "Pictures at an Exhibition" (based on the Mussorgsky composition) and a motel clerk for the indie Hollywood feature "Hot Air." I was an extra in a Bob Byington project and was delighted to see a dear friend, Blair Bomar, who has moved to LA.

I was in a Longhorn Network spot featuring UT's Heisman winner Ricky Williams which can be seen at .

I reprised my role of Leslie in "CriminAL"; played a 90-year-old member of the Board of a stock broker's firm in "The Sauce" (), and played the future version of the lead in "On Time" (by use of a magic time-travelling watch). I also had my second voice-over, recording about 170 thermostat commands.

In July, we finished shooting my role in "Dawn" (my second Deb Abbott film, which was started in 2013). I received the DVD at the end of the year and it's great. She plans to enter it in film festivals, so it won't be online for a while. (). My final film of the year was a short film by Ken Johnson, "The Waiting Room," in which I'm God. After several hours of rehearsal and two cast changes, three days before shooting one actor was pulled out by her parents (too much time rehearsing and not enough time doing her home-school homework). My part was mostly voice-over until I'm revealed at the end (like the man behind the curtain in "The Wizard of Oz"). We filmed my scene but, sadly, Ken told me the film will not be completed.

I attended all twenty-four tapings of "Overheard with Evan Smith". Highlights include Rick Linklater (whose "Boyhood" is racking up awards and rave reviews), Lawrence Wright (a friend and always wonderful), Bob Woodward, James Ellroy (one of the all-time best), Nicholas Kristof (whose books are highly recommended - see my list below) Katha Politt, Jeffrey Tambor (another gem). You can view any of these at . If you're interested in attending future tapings, subscribe to /g/UpcomingOverheards.

I had three photo sessions this year, and all resulted in lots of fun and great photos: Julie Cude Eaton, Patricia Eakin, and Karen Jager.

Once again, for the eighth consecutive year, I read 365 books (the grand total is 9105. The best nonfiction books: A Path Appears (inspirational - Nicholas Kristof / Sheryl WuDunn), Half The Sky (about the mistreatment of women – just started an earlier book by these two which is going to be on next year's list - Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn), The Real North Korea (amazing account of what life is like there - Andrei Lankov), Manson (met the author, who also used to be a middle school teacher in Austin - Jeff Guinn), More Harm Than Good (Alan Zelicoff), Ninety Percent Of Everything (that we buy is sent by ship - Rose George), No Ordinary Time (FDR & Eleanor - Doris Kearns Goodwin), Drama High (should be required reading by all drama teachers - Michael Sokolove), The Good Nurse (ironic title – about a nurse who killed - Charles Graeber), People Who Eat Darkness (another murderer, this one in Japan - Richard Parry), Red Market: On the Trail of the World's Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers (Scott Carney), Musical Stages (Richard Rodgers), Cronkite (Douglas Brinkley), Short Strange Life Of Herschel Grynszpan (Grynszpan's action was the Nazi's excuse for Kristallnacht - Jonathan Kirsch), Harlot By The Side Of The Road (tales censored from the Bible - Jonathan Kirsch), Johnny Cash (Robert Hilburn), Song Of Spiderman (Glen Berger), The Death Of Santini (Pat Conroy), The Longest Trip Home (John Grogan), On Saudi Arabia (Karen House), No Good Men Among The Living (the war in Afghanistan from an Afghan viewpoint - Anand Gopal)

The best fiction books: Cress (the third in her wonderful series, to be completed early 2015 - Marissa Meyer), Tesla's Attic (Neal Shusterman), Slammed (Colleen Hoover), Matched (Ally Condie), Prodigy (Marie Lu), Afterworlds (Scott Westerfeld), Inkdeath (Cornelia Funke), Wise Men (Stuart Nadler). I also discovered nineteen Stuart Woods books I hadn't read, bringing the total for him up to fifty-nine.

Art/photography books: Beatles Now & Then (Harry Benson), The Beatles: In The Beginning (Harry Benson), Pens & Needles (David Levine), The World Of Charles Addams (Charles Addams) and 3 books by Tomi Ungerer: Schnipp Schnapp, Otto: the Autobiography of a Teddy Bear, and Tomi A Childhood Under The Nazis (his autobiography; he grew up in Alsace and tells of life there after the Nazis took over.) There's a great Fresh Air interview at .

I saw some amazing films. The Return (Russian), The Past (Iran), Nono the Zigzag Kid (Dutch), The Lunchbox (India), Peace Officer, Sweet Dreams (Rwanda), Mood Indigo, Omar, Austeria (Polish), Abuse Of Weakness (French), The Coffin Maker, (Filipino)

The best of the documentaries Finding Vivian Maier (an amazing account of the tens of thousands of her photos, unknown during her lifetime, now in art galleries), Supermensch, All America High Revisited, Ukraine Is Not A Brothel, The Square (Egypt), Tim's Vermeer (showing how Vermeer achieved his highly detailed work), Overnighters, CitizenFour (Snowden), Fed Up, and Mentor (great film on bullying – several students in Mentor, Ohio were driven to suicide by the bullies without any consequence).

I saw some wonderful concerts. The best were Buddy Mondlock (for the 6th time), Ken Gaines (5th time), Los Texmaniacs, Shawn Phillips (39th time), Stribrnanka (from the Czech Republic), and Conspirare's performance of Gnostic Passion.

Just before the end of the year I received a ton of BBC podcasts which I'm sure will take more than a year to listen to: 78 hours of P G Wodehouse, 76 hours of Terry Pratchett, 92 hours of the Goon Show (a major influence on Monty Python), and 87 hours of shows by individual members of the Goons. Peter Sellers got his start in show biz as a Goon. There are also 26 episodes of the Telegoons (video excerpts from the Goon Show using puppets to illustrate the voices). I discovered transcripts of some of the Goon Shows at PCL as well as other books by Goon Spike Milligan (his best-titled book: Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall). I'm working my way again through the "Just a Minute" shows (406 hours), as well as "You Bet Your Life" (98 hours) and "My Word." (190 hours) They're great fun and there were 22 new broadcasts of Just a Minute in 2014 with the next series being taped now – the chairman is now 91 years old.

In December 2013 I was informed the proposed settlement for my 2012 accident (I was hit by an SUV while I was crossing the street) was blocked by a hospital bill. I turned the matter over to USAA and recently got a check. After paying Medicare about $600, the settlement was still about five times greater than the offer. Ironically, after USAA had sent Medicare that amount, I was billed for a $40 late payment (which they refunded).

My health was good with only one minor problem this year. I somehow banged up one large toenail, which turned black and eventually fell off. At my physical my doctor said it was healing well and she wasn't concerned.

For the second straight time I walked at least 400 miles every month, never less than 10.8 miles on a day (always a challenge during SXSW and the Austin Film Festival). For the second time I walked over 5000 miles: final total, a record 5312 miles. I avoided driving 95% of the time. As a result I only needed to fill the tank once.

Will Wallace had another one of his wonderful workshops, which are always a treat.

I saw twenty-five plays. Standouts were "Venus In Fur", "Brudermord or Hamlet, Prince of Denmark." (which included puppets) and Henry IV Part 2 (performed live by the Royal Shakespeare Company and shown at a movie theater).

I had more renovations on my house: new bathroom lights and new fencing on the side of the house.

I saw twenty-one former students this year, including two from Davis Middle School (San Antonio) where I taught for seven years in the early '70s. For several years I'd been on the lookout for photos I took during a hot air balloon flight that started at Davis. I was never able to find any prints of the flight, but by chance I came across several hundred slides and realized that this was what I'd been looking for. I scanned the two yearbooks from when I taught at Dobie Middle School and the twenty-four from Lamar Middle School and added them to the Facebook pages I created for those schools. At Davis we didn't have a yearbook until after I left, so the forty photos I found are a great addition to the Davis page and enabled me to connect with several students I taught back then. Initially I scanned some slides at UT, (with help from my friend Arie Guerra, a lead in "On Time" as well as "Street Stories"). However, I had to borrow a slide projector and screen from Derek Howard to process the rest. Derek was the balloon pilot for that flight as well as several more, including one at the National Balloon Races in Indianola, Iowa in 1974. Enroute I rode in a motor home belonging to another balloonist, David Evans, and remember listening to the Watergate hearings during the trip. In addition to slides of several of Derek's balloon flights (I became his chase car driver after arriving before his driver on some of his flights), I found dozens of family photos, including some from 1948 and many in the '60s and '70s. I'm slowly adding these to my Facebook page. I was surprised to realize that I had 173 adds on Facebook from former students. I also realized that I now have 400 followers on Facebook, most likely due to the many editorial cartoons and pictures I post daily.

My old iMac died and I love my new, very fast 27" iMac. I also replaced my little iPod. Sadly, I was informed by Apple that this would be the final time they would replace it.

I was lucky enough to attend one session of the Civil Rights Summit held at the LBJ Library this year. My session featured David Robinson (Spurs) and Maria Shriver and followed President Obama's keynote speech (while waiting in line we could see I-35 traffic stopped until the Obama motorcade arrived.) Three former presidents also spoke at the Summit.

I saw ZM, a new zombie musical (by the team that created "Urinetown") performed at UT. It's likely headed for Broadway. The plot was ridiculous. The music was OK, but I honestly believe that the plot and music from "Z: a Zombie Musical" that I co-produced seven years ago were better.

I didn't get many autographs this year, but two that I got were notable: Bob Woodward and Nicolas Cage. Other notables I saw were Neal Shusterman (I've read 29 of his books), Alicia Silverstone, Mary Roach (another amazing author), Doug Brinkley (a friend and author of several best ofs), Michael Morton (the innocent man who spent 25 years in prison), three of the Little Rock nine (the students who integrated Little Rock's High School in 1957), Marion Winik (author and friend; delighted to discover 3 new e-books of hers I hadn't read) and Bob Hinkle (his book "Call Me Lucky" is great; you can see his talk at and )

In October I attended my 50th reunion. Our band president, Jack Johnson, arranged three tables for us band folk. There was a turnout of about 170 class members (of the 831 who graduated and 1000 in the class).

I hope all of you have a great 2015.

Bob Woodward, the great reporter, part of the team that covered Watergate
Shawn Phillips - great singer, subject of my master's thesis
Ricky Williams - winner of the Heisman when he played at UT
Nicolas Cage - the great actor
Michael Morton - an innocent man who spent 25 years in prison
Hal Hartley - the great film director
Blair Bomar - a dear friend i met 9 years earlier & is now doing great work as an actor in LA
and me in a film

Back in the 1980s, in the early days of the Austin Film Society, its founder Rick Linklater (before he became a filmmaker) noticed me at AFS screenings and once told me, "You're the guy who goes to all the foreign films." One of the highlights of 2013 for me was the opportunity to get to be IN a foreign film, a Danish one, no less. The film, "The Idealist", is scheduled to open in Copenhagen next fall. I was in two scenes: one shot in Bastrop and another at the UT library in Battle Hall (representing the National Archives). The film had the most relaxed set I've ever seen for a paid film (and the pay was double the normal local rate). The 1st Assistant Director was the husband of Sandy Segura Alcala, a wonderful former student. Their son was one of the PA's for the film.

Back in 2006 Deb Abbott wrote a short film ("Mommyhood" ) with a role written for me. She finally wrote another, "Dawn", with another role for me (I get to die in this one -). She has some additional filming of my scenes that will be shot in 2014.

"Greenbelt" was completed (and it's great) with one final scene (as the Austin icon, Leslie) for me. () I was an extra in Jon Favreau's "Chef". And I had a small role in "Time Will Pass" (an excellent ACC film: ).

I rarely do live theater, because of the enormous time required for rehearsals. But when a play is written for me, that changes the equation. In 2005 I was in a Dave Miller play ("Dear Mr. President"). In the years that followed he occasionally told me that he planned to write a play in which I would portray Osama bin Laden's spokesman. Late in 2012, he finally started writing it. He had planned to complete it during Christmas, but didn't finish until early January, a week before the performance. The play, "9/11- the Al Qaeda Press Conference" was part of Fronterafest. I was able, barely, to memorize the final half of the play in the final week. The play ran twenty-two minutes and I have 99% of the dialogue!! Two friends, Lisa del Dotto and Nicole Franco, joined the cast as reporters, with one line each, and Nicole's friend Veronika Riha, dressed in full burqa, was my "assistant". The performance went well and a member of the audience shot a video of it for me. (.)

I attended all thirty tapings of "Overheard with Evan Smith". Highlights were Reza Aslan, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Tony Hale, Tony Kushner, John Sayles, Nancy Pelosi, Sonia Sotomayor (wonderful), Amy Tan, Neil deGrasse Tyson (one of the best ever). If you're interested in attending future tapings, subscribe at /g/UpcomingOverheards.

Notable people I saw this year: Lalo Alcaraz (cartoonist), Dave Zirin (sports writer), Condeleeza Rice, Joaquin and Julian Castro, Jessica Alba, Junot Diaz, Klaled Hosseini ("The Kite Runner"), Karl Rove, Susan Sarandon, and Edward James Olmos.

I got some great autographs this year: Christopher Durang (I've seen 20 productions of his plays. "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You" is his best-known work.), Chloe Sevigny, Catherine Keener (for years one of my favorite actors), Marissa Meyer, P.J. Hoover, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Elaine May.

I had four photo sessions this year, and all resulted in lots of fun and great photos: Jordan Strassner, Bethany Harbaugh (our third session), Caitlin Mack, and Stephanie Acosta. Stephanie's was unique because her young son was present and wanted to get in as many pictures as possible (ironic, since Stephanie noted that he often hides when she tries to take pictures of him).

Once again, for the seventh consecutive year, I read 365 books (the grand total is 8749. I should reach 9K in 2014). The best nonfiction books: "The Death & Life Of The American School System" by Diane Ravitch, "Voluntary Madness" by Norah Vincent (her time in three loony bins), "Paul On Mazursky" by Sam Wasson, "Tomatoland " by Barry Estabrook, "Hello Goodbye Hello" by Craig Brown (unusual anecdotes on various celebrities), "Parting The Waters" by Taylor Branch (civil rights), "Learning To Live Out Loud" by Piper Laurie, "Garbology" by Edward Humes, "Wrecking Crew" by Kent Hartman (the backup musicians for tons of hit songs in the '60s & '70s), "Joe DiMaggio A Hero's Life" and "What It Takes" (the latter is on the '88 presidential campaign. Both by Richard Ben Cramer), "Free Lunch", "Perfectly Legal", and "The Fine Print" (all three by David Cay Johnston - his books are very highly recommended), "Man Without A Face: The Unlikely Rise Of Vladimir Putin" by Masha Gessen, "The American Way of Eating" by Tracie McMillan, "My First Movie" by Stephen Lowenstein (interviews with 20 great filmmakers), "Round Ireland With A Fridge" (Tony made a drunken bet that he could hitchhike around Ireland with a fridge in a month. Then he tried to actually achieve it), "One Hit Wonderland", and "Playing The Moldovans At Tennis" (all three by Tony Hawks - who I discovered via Just a Minute), "The Dangerous Animals Club" by Stephen Tobolowsky, "TheAnti-Romantic Child" by Priscilla Gilman (about her autistic son), "Marilyn: The Passion & The Paradox" by Lois Banner, "Going Clear" by Lawrence Wright (superb work on scientology), "Gulp" by Mary Roach, "One Summer: America 1927" by Bill Bryson, "Triple Agent" by Joby Warrick (about the Lebanese who killed several CIA agents in Afghanistan by means of suicide bomb), "Kill Anything That Moves" by Nick Turse (the truth about the Vietnam War) , "Heads in Beds" by Jacob Tomsky (the hotel industry).

And the best fiction: "Cinder", Marissa Meyer's sequel to "Scarlet"; all of Alex Berenson's books, which feature his character, John Wells. And all of P.J. Hoover's YA books.

I saw lots of movies, as always. The best feature films: "Captain Phillips", "For My Father" (an Israeli film), "Fruitvale Station", "Enough Said", "Instructions Not Included", "Wadjda", "Dallas Buyers Club", "Philomena", "Short Term 12", "After Midnight" and "Twelve Years A Slave"

The best documentary films: "The Network" (about an Afghan radio/TV network), "Before You Know It" (about 3 gay senior citizen - directed by my friend PJ Ravel), "Chasing Ice" (climate change is made real by means of still photographs recording glacier changes over extended time), "Bert Stern: Original Madman" (ad man, photographer (including Marilyn's final photo sessions)), "Blackfish" (the truth about the SeaWorld parks), "To Be and To Have" (a French teacher in a one room school), "Inequality For All" (Robert Reich), "Sole Survivor" (four who were the only survivor of a plane crash), "At Berkeley" (the latest documentary from the legendary Frederick Wiseman - it airs on PBS in January. Wiseman is 84 and working on his next film!! I discovered that the public library had about two dozen of his films that I hadn't seen. I've really been enjoying seeing more of his work. So far, the favorite of these new ones is "Blind" (about a Blind School in Alabama). Sadly, before I was able to watch all of them, five were withdrawn from the collection).

I was finally able to complete listening to all of my BBC "Just a Minute" shows (about 850, counting the TV shows). The show broadcasts a new series in February 2014 (listen to it at
). The program is in its 47th year; Nicholas Parson, the host, is still going strong at age 90 (he just made the Queen's list); he's never missed a broadcast (). I also finished listening to 254 Burns and Allen shows from the '30s through 1950 (George Burns and Gracie Allen) (). A recent addition, which I'm really enjoying are BBC versions of stories of Roald Dahl and most of the works of Charles Dickens. And thoroughly have been enjoying "Dead Ringers." The "Just a Minute" shows are so great that I've started listening to them a second time, as well as "You Bet Your Life" and "My Word." I suspect it'll take many months to finish this, since my source keeps adding new shows to my collection.

By the beginning of 2013 I had almost completely recovered from the October 2012 accident, but was still feeling pain in my right leg's hamstring and lower calf. My doctor authorized PT and with the help of a great physical therapist, the problem was solved after a few weeks. In December I received a settlement offer of $30,000 for the accident, but then discovered that the payment could not proceed until a $69,000 hospital bill was settled. Apparently, first the auto insurance is tapped for costs, then the health insurance company, and last of all, Medicare. Hopefully all this can be sorted out early in 2014, but the process seems to move at a glacial pace.

I had a colonoscopy and got a positive report. Late in the year I discovered that I had developed a case of tinnitus (ringing in the ears), which I suspect will be an intermittent problem for the rest of my life.

For the first time I walked at least 400 miles every month and never less than 10.6 miles on a day (always a challenge during SXSW and the Austin Film Festival). For the first time I walked over 5000 miles: final total 5202 miles. I was able to avoid driving 96% of the time. As a result I only needed to fill the tank once.

I attended two of the wonderful Will Wallace Workshops this year, always both helpful and great fun.

I saw thirty-two plays this year. Standouts were "Noises Off", "Spoiler Alert This Is How My Life Ends", and "Single Black Female".

I had major renovations done to my house. The contractor I hired, Jeff Durawa, was someone I taught thirty-three years ago. He replaced my kitchen floor, replaced my clothesline, repaired my back fence, installed a new shower and bathroom ceiling, found me a new stove, and painted the bathroom and kitchen. He should finish the job early in 2014.

The subject of my master's thesis, Shawn Phillips, returned to Austin for the first time in three years, still going strong at age 70. His wife's parents recently passed on, so he plans to move back to the U.S. from South Africa in 2014.

I saw over forty former students this year. I met Kristen Carrillo while she was on campus for a workshop. Kristan Rivers was visiting from Shanghai. Ian McDowell was selling his art while we were filming a scene for "Greenbelt". Ada Scarborough was in "Chef" with me. Erica Hendrix was at a UT screening of a film her son was in. Joshua Robertson was on the crew picking up my trash. Tiffanie Alexander had a going away party; Shawn Bode, Rick Alexander, and Jason Nobles were there. I attended the 20th McCallum reunion and saw Chris Garrett, John Bradford, Angie Rojas, Josh Adkinson, Alexia Raven, and Lori Scott. I crossed paths by chance with Austin Lane, Justin Sadowski, Yvonne Kimmons, Johnny Plair, Arthur Graves, Clarence Wilson, and Alan Leifeste. I helped Allison Daniel Hay make a copy of a video of her offspring. Stephanie Acosta joined me for the 10th reunion screening of School of Rock (which included a Q&A with Jack Black and all but one of the "class" members). I lunched with Jessica Briseno and Teua Ramirez. I met Mike Hartman to advise him on acting. Mary Voorhees Meehan and Jennifer Nash had an art exhibit where I saw them, their art and Tricia Voorhees Burnight, Sara Facundo, Amy Hyman, and Genevieve Guinn. Adrienne Overton used her DJing skills at her sister's store; her brother Volma was there. I saw Albert McGee at the bookstore where he works (curiously, across the street from Lamar Middle School). And at the McCallum 10th reunion I saw Rachel Richey, Mynor Alvarado, Jared Mink, Tiffanie Alexander, and Tasha Siebenaler.

I hope all of you have a great 2014