1999 newsletter
Now that the Xmas rush is over, here's one more. It was an interesting year. In May I got to see President Clinton. He was here to dedicate our new airport and luckily had to re-schedule the visit, since I wouldn't have been able to see him the first time. After his speech, he worked the crowd & I was able to work my way up to the front & then sideways about 40 yards (trailing a secret service man) where I got some great pics & finally got close enough for my arm to be within reach of Clinton's for a handshake. He does love to work the crowd. That same evening, I saw Martin Sheen and Ramsey Clark (LBJ's AG) and got their autographs. After 14 years of living under the flight path of the airport, the neighborhood is very quiet now without the airplanes.
A week later I attended an LBJ symposium on the 60's, which was, in part, a reunion of staff and press from that administration. There were some wonderful LBJ anecdotes. LBJ tried to persuade ex-Guv Pat Brown to accept a government appointment & was buttering him up; Brown wanted to be a Supreme (Court Justice) & thought that's what Lyndon was leading up to; finally LBJ asked him to be the ambassador to Togo; "Where the hell's that?" "Don't know, but there's a Togo room in town, maybe they know." Brown accepted the appointment. I got a photo with Bill Moyers that eve. Thursday I saw Peter Yarrow, Carol Channing, Gregory Peck & Van Cliburn entertain. On Friday Peck sat next to Lady Bird at the historians' session & I got his autograph & a photo. At that session Michael Beschloss remembered writing a letter (when he was 7) to LBJ in '63 suggesting JFK be added to Mt Rushmore. He got a nice reply from the president's secretary (which his playmates didn't believe was real). When he first visited the LBJ Library in 1977, he asked about the letter & 5 minutes later a staff member showed it to him. The famous reply of a congressman was recalled: on being phoned at 4 a.m. by Lyndon & asked if he'd been awake, he answered, "Why no, Mr. President, I was just lying here waiting for you to call."
Renovation on my school finally started in February. It has moved very slowly and often behind schedule. The new 600 wing was finished two weeks ago and four teachers will move in next week. The music building was supposed to be ready by this time, but will probably not be finished until February. I've been gradually preparing for moving out of my room (originally scheduled for this month), cleaning up 19 years of accumulation; throwing out or recycling tons of stuff and finding some forgotten and very useful things. The building's heating/ac was off most of December due to construction and my room was about 60 degrees most mornings. (I went to a play this month where it was about 10 degrees colder than that - a newly converted theater space, which needs to add proper heating once the money is raised).
For the past three years one of my colleagues was a former student from ten years ago. This fall, he transferred to a school nearer to his home & his replacement turned out to be a student I taught 20 years ago!!! I moved to Austin in 1976 in order to be with my girlfriend at that time. We split up in 1980 and when she moved to Seattle I didn't anticipate any further contact. This fall I discovered that one of my students is her niece. Small world.
For years I've wondered how much walking I do at school. This summer I bought a pedometer and was surprised to find I walk about 4 miles on a typical school day. During the fall semester I've walked over 400 miles.
I went to about 30 films at SXSW in March & also saw David Douglas Duncan, the photo-journalist, speak. He was a dear friend of Picasso & the talk turned out to be mostly about Picasso slides; he was the official photographic chronicler of Pablo's works.
In February I was having major allergy problems & (on a friend's recommendation) tried acupuncture (& herbs) to treat it. It was very helpful and I've had 6 treatments since then. We have 2 acupuncture schools in Austin & by chance I met the head of one (at a Trout Fishing in America taping); his clinic is very reasonable & the students do great work. I also had a sty which lasted for several weeks before finally receding.
Other autographs this year include Ernest Borgnine, Larry Niven, Gary Paulsen, (at film festivals: Mary Stuart Masterson, Karen Black, James L Brooks, Robert Altman and Matthew McConaughey) (at the Texas Book Festival: Michael Nesmith, Edward James Olmos, and Scott Turow) Jonathan Kellerman, Doris Kearns Goodwin David Sedaris, Faye Dunaway, John Landis, James Morrow, Horton Foote, and Leon Russell
In the past 30 years I've been involved in two juries before this year. In one I served on a petit jury in a case in which a man unsuccessfully sued Albertson's because a shopping cart hit his car. The other, 3 years ago, concerned an emu ranching lawsuit and I wasn't actually on the jury. This summer I was involved in 4 selections. The first three were for U.S. District Court. One suit alleged police brutality against some kids (hung jury); in the second case the defendant was found guilty of throwing feces & urine at a prison guard. The third was a woman's unsuccessful suit of sexual harassment & sexual discrimination. The final panel was a DWI and the panel included a neighbor (the father of a former student). I didn't serve on any of the juries.
I almost didn't; but finally went to my 35th high school reunion in San Antonio this summer. It was interesting to see some of my classmates, though I know as many of them from reunions as from the one year I spent at Jefferson H.S. I'm glad I went.
The past few years I've taped so many TV programs that I've needed to take a VCR into the repair shop about every 6 months to replace the pinch roller head. This summer I bought a "personal TV," as they are called. Mine is a Tivo and allows me to record up to 31 hours of programs (on a big hard drive). Once a day my unit updates the program listings (for the following 10-14 days) and I can search for a particular program in several ways. I then instruct the unit to record "The Simpsons" or "Citizen Kane" (or whatever) (by name or time or channel) and forget about it. I can watch a "live" program in slow motion or pause it as well, and there's a instant replay at any time. I love my Tivo. I can even watch a program that's being recorded from the beginning as the program is completed. And I can watch anything on the Tivo while it's recording something else.
The past two summers I was an extra in two movies. This summer I answered an ad in the Chronicle for work as a paid extra. The day before I went back to work I got a call asking me to work the next day. I couldn't do it (it would have been a 5 a.m. call!!!) but I did get called again to work all day on a Saturday. I spent the day waiting and they never got to my scene. I was offered another day's work, but turned it down due to school. The movie is "Where the Heart Is." (Natalie Portman and Ashley Judd star). It turns out the casting office liked my photo and want to use me again, when the chance arises. So maybe I'll get some work when Robert Rodriguez shoots his next film early next year.
I saw many movies as usual this year. My favorites include "Book of Stars", "All About My Mother", "American Beauty", "The Matrix", "Lovers on the Bridge," and "Being John Malkovich."
I saw 74 plays and the most memorable include "De Profundis" (performed by Corin Redgrave - followed the next evening by a wonderful lecture by the author's (Oscar Wilde) grandson), "Gross Indecency" (about Wilde's 3 trials), "Ruling Passion," and "Millennium Bug."
I just received a Macintosh G4 which I ordered a at Thanksgiving. My friend Julio helped me fix some problems and it’s great. It's much faster than my Performa and I finally got all my old files transferred to it.
My friend Amy was treated so badly by her supervisor that she's moved to Portland and seems to be doing well there. Sutton now has a boyfriend & I see her (sometimes with him) from time to time. I've renewed my friendship with Kathleen after 10 years and see her occasionally.
Last month, local humor columnist John Kelso made the family Christmas cards from the 50's & 60's the subject of his column. (see the 11/28/99 issue if you missed it)
I've just finished my 202nd book of the year. Some of the best books I read were "Suspects" by David Thompson, "Remnant Population" by Elizabeth Moon, and "Only Begotten Daughter" by James Morrow. "Suspects" is a must for film lovers. Thompson tells stories about characters from many great movies including "Citizen Kane," "Chinatown," "Taxi Driver," "Casablanca", "Maltese Falcon", "Double Indemnity" and many others; all as told by George Bailey ("It's a Wonderful Life"). The Morrow is a blend of Lenny Bruce, Mark Twain, Dante, and Jonathan Swift. "Suspects" was so good that I read it a second time. The Moon book was a total surprise and thoroughly satisfying.
I switched the email lists I run to a web-based carrier (onelist) and it's taken some time to build this list for this Xmas letter (going out to 285 people). I run 3 variations on my joke list, a list of Austin City Limits taping dates, upcoming Austin events, old family Xmas cards. Any of you are welcome to subscribe to any of these and it's very simple to unsubscribe if you decide to. Email if you wish details.
Once again I'm changing e-mail addresses. Update your address books if appropriate. For the second straight year my ISP significantly raised the price and provided inferior service. Last year at this time I couldn't find a web-based email that supported POP. This time I not only found one, but was glad to find one that forwards mail to my ISP. So, capydan@... will be my "permanent" email. My current ISP's email is capy@.... A good rate, and they're backed by Cisco, which makes them seem to be reliable. Either address will work, and I hope I won't have to change ISP again, but if I do, the former address won't have to change. It took me about a minute to change the forwarding address to CORE.
Back in 1972 KEXL-FM, the rock station I listened to in San Antonio hired a hot air balloonist to fly promotional flights for the station. I went to see the first flight & continued to do so & when I consistently arrived at the landing site before the balloonist's chase car, I was asked to drive the chase car. That fall, there was a flight near Floresville. President Nixon was appearing at former Governor John Connelly's ranch while Vice-Presidential candidate Sergeant Shriver was in Floresville for a campaign appearance. On the way back from Floresville, we were listening to KEXL and heard a commercial for Sam Green (he ran very obnoxious real estate commercials every Thursday through Sunday. One Thursday, I phoned the morning DJ, Nick St. John, and suggested to him, "Sam's Here It's Thursday." Nick agreed & re-worded the acronym as "Sure Happy It's Thursday." To make sure everyone got the point, every Thursday he would preface the phrase by reminding everyone what TGIF stood for.) The pilot, Derek Howard, mentioned that Green was as fat as a capybara. Assuming he was jesting, as he often did, I challenged him. He said to look it up. I did, misspelling it, and thus not finding it. The next time I saw him, 3 weeks later, he told me the correct spelling and identifying it as the largest rodent in the world. We then adopted this animal and Derek named his next balloon Capybara, while I created "Capybaras International." Shawn Phillips included a song on his "Furthermore" album with that name, but didn't know how to spell it either, so it is printed on the recording as "Capé Barras." Before I moved to Austin I went to see a capybara at the San Antonio zoo; however, they had died shortly before my visit. Three years ago, after being assured on the phone that they had capybaras, I visited the National Zoo in D.C. with my brother. Wrong. No capybaras. I learned recently that the Austin Zoo has capybaras, which I got to see this week. An attendant got them outside their pen so I could take pictures
Have a great Christmas, New Year, and year 2000.
