When I was a kid we'd usually take the annual family Christmas picture around Turkey Day. In early December, I would help address the 400-500 envelopes, stamp our return address and add a postage stamp to each one. Once the cards had arrived from the printer, they had to be folded and inserted in the envelopes, which were sorted geographically. It always amazed me that our list was so large. I never anticipated having as large a Christmas list as I do now. A few years ago, it was several dozen, but, thanks largely to "the list" it's up to 350!
The big news this year has to be my retirement after 34 years of teaching. The spring semester continued the fall pattern. For me (as well as several colleagues) it was my worst year. As of January the faculty had already written as many disciplinary referrals as the entire previous year. Because I was assigned to teach math lab (kids who failed the TAKS test the previous year), I had more "problem" kids. This year would have been the same if not worse. After doing the research, I realized that I'd put in enough years to have a decent pension (and was very surprised to learn the two years I worked as a clerk-typist at UT were included in the calculations, giving me credit for 36 years of teaching.) I finished my final year with perfect attendance. The last time I was absent was January of 1981 or 1982. I taught a total of 6147 students. Two of them, Harry Knowles and Wiley Wiggins, are well known in the film biz; several others are also actors whom I've met on sets. Sadly, I also had two who were convicted of murder. Three of my students were connected to the Yogurt Shop murders: one of the victims, one of the four arrested, and the prime witness in the first two trials. I had the good fortune to teach many great students over that time (as well as many who were not as great).
In January I took Gary Chason's Golden Walnut Acting Class (he invited me to take the class after reading last year's Xmas letter!). There were only six students: one writer and five actors. The actor was also a writer, so we ended up shooting three short films; I got to be the lead in two of them, "Fat Chance" and "The Mortician's Girlfriend". When the films were screened, I was named best actor for the former and the latter was picked by the audience as best film. All three (the third is "Foiled") films (as well as "Keep Austin Weird") can be viewed online. Foiled , Morticians Girlfriend , Fat Chance .
I saw the usual 2 to 3 dozen films at SXSW and met Julie Delpy (here for the wonderful "After Sunset"), Kevin Smith and Annabeth Gish.
In May I took a great weekend workshop with Pato Hoffman, The Art of Not Acting. I took two weekend improv workshops (in January and May) with Laurie Guzda, and several during the year with Cindy Wood. Rob Nash taught a workshop in June on solo work (Flying Solo). Also in June I took an amazing intensive workshop from Van Brooks, The Mastery. In the summer I took John Lansch's advanced acting class. On Saturdays starting in July and continuing through October, I took the best acting workshop I've ever had, with Barry Pineo (who will be teaching it at CWLA next year). My acting grew a great deal thanks to hard work and Barry's guidance. I now have seven monologues in my repertoire. In October I enjoyed a workshop with former "General Hospital" star Chad Brannon. I took C.K. McFarland's delightful creativity class in the fall. One weird element about that class was the fact that I was the only male in a class of ten. Really enjoyed the class and there were some great people in all the classes and workshops.
In May I met Neil Stone who asked me to audition for a big budget film of "Also Spoke Zarathustra", which will be shot in New York City, Hawaii, and Australia. It's currently on the back burner. Neil plans to run for city council next year.
My Austin casting list has grown to about 4100; there are 9000 on the five Texas lists, with a grand total of 11,600. I worked on 28 films this year. Three more films I was cast in were postponed or canceled (and I had good parts in all three.) I also got to see (and in some cases get copies) of several films from previous years.
"Keep Austin Weird" was a fun film shot in January in which I drove up to the lead characters and traded them a canister of plutonium for a bunch of pudding. In the summer I was in "Project Teach", which included one of the most exciting scenes both as cinema and as pure fun that I've ever been in. It was a spelling bee with five other "teachers". We shot it twice, with no cuts, shooting an actual contest. We didn't know what words we'd be given, nor how to spell them, since they were "ghetto" words ("bootylicious", "skrilla", "fo shizzle"). I spoke to the director recently and the film is mostly edited and the scene looks great and I'm "all over it." (The film is "Chalk" now out of DVD.)
In August I was in a trailer for the Austin Film Festival competition, "American Gardeners for the 4th Reich" (). I received a DVD of the film less than two weeks later and the footage looked great (though the festival didn't use it). Also in August, I was one of the leads in a short, "Bunny & Clydo." I got to see it in November and it was great.
A third August film was "The King" (William Hurt and Gael Garcia Bernal). This indie feature should be released sometime in 2005. I was a featured extra in a scene with both stars. I talked to them and got an autograph and photo for both. I played a hot, pathetic flower seller as they drove past; I was so convincing that (on take seven) Hurt asked me in great concern, "Are you all right?" Also in August I stepped in at the last minute for a trailer for "Inherited".
In September I drove down to San Antonio for my 40th high school reunion. Someone had brought some great photos from junior high days labeled with folks in my class. (I lived in Kansas City at the time.) It was nice to see a few familiar faces from the distant past. (I was only there one year and it was a class of over 800).
In the fall I worked as a volunteer for the Austin Film Festival (getting to see all the films for free in return). I hope to be one of their screeners next year (I'll find out in the spring). I saw some great films, and met Garry Shandling and Barry Levinson.
In November I had great parts in four UT shorts "The Tao of Telemarketing" , "Stalker", "The President of Friendship" () and "Love Math." I got to see three of them on the weekend of screenings at the end of the semester.
I saw Bill Moyers speak (again) at the LBJ. In November I met some wonderful writers at the Texas Book Festival. I was able to get photos and autographs of Augusten Burroughs (his "Running With Scissors" will be filmed next year - an amazing autobio); S E Hinton ("The Outsiders"), Rod McKuen, Susan Isaacs, and Seymour Hersh (he was the first to report the Abu Ghraib story).
I read 210 books this year (second highest year - the grand total is over 5600) and got to see and meet some great authors. One of my all time favorites, Jasper Fforde (both he and Burroughs were mentioned in last year's letter for their great books) was here in March. I highly recommend his books (just finished his third Thursday Next book: "The Well of Lost Plots" - his originality and creativity are amazing). I also met Christopher Paolini, whose wonderful book "Eragon" (in pre-production) was written when he was 15. Other books I especially enjoyed include "The Dark Side of Camelot" by Seymour Hersh, "Who the Devil Made It" by Peter Bogdanovich (a must if you love film); "The Great Influenza" by John M. Barry, "Language Visible: Unraveling the Mystery of the Alphabet From A To Z" by David Sacks (an incredible and fascinating history of the alphabet) and "Shadow Divers" by Robert Kurson.
Also wonderful was the screenplay "Ex Libris" by my friend John McLean. Its plot shares amazing similarities to some of Jason Fforde's work, but in its own unique way. I'm helping John as he prepares a feature length zombie musical film entitled "Z." He wrote the part of a zombie philosopher for me (only two other roles were written with a specific actor in mind). We'll be filming, hopefully, in about three or four months. Right now we're looking for a composer.
I continue to walk a great deal for my health, and set a personal record of over 2700 miles for the year, including 261 miles in one month and almost 15 miles one day in October. I averaged 7.5 miles for the year (up from 7.2 last year)
In January I got a photo with Darrell Royal (which I still don't have a copy of - maybe next month) at a house concert. Notable musical events include Richie Havens (photo/autograph), John Smith, Mad Agnes, Small Potatoes and David Roth. I got to meet Scottish composer James MacMillan this year. And the ALO's performance of "The Flying Dutchman" was fantastic.
I saw 37 plays this year. The standouts were "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", "Nightswim" (a great play about Dobie, Webb, and Bedicek), "The Conquering Of The North Pole" (in Czech with subtitles - a bizarre and delightfully strange play) and "The Drawer Boy" (one of the best plays I've ever seen - wonderful script, superb acting and directing).
In March I got to see one of my all-time favorite dance groups, Momix. They hadn't performed here since the 80s. I saw two NPR folks, Ira Glass and Cokie Roberts (here promoting her book, "Founding Mothers" – which was OK)
"No Pain No Gain" finally was screened, in Houston, at their film fest, but I was unable to get there for the screening. I finally saw (and got a copy of) "Manhood is Dead", "Bad Jokes", "Derby Kings" (), "Emma's Visit", " Flash Mob Escape" () and "Toaster" I got to see "Gretchen & the Night Danger" and "A Slipping Down Life" (six years after it was filmed).
Looking over other movies I saw this year (that I was NOT in), my "best of" list has a few films that got limited release or that you may never have heard of. They include "Day of the Wacko", "The Five Obstructions", "The Chorus", "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", "Los Angeles Plays Itself", "Sideways", "Case for a Rookie Hangman", "Triplets of Belleville", "Last Man Standing", "Metallica Some Kind of Monster", and "Coach Carter." (just saw a sneak of the latter; it was very inspiring).
I got to meet two big names in film: John Waters (here for a screening) and John Pierson (author of "Spike Mike Slackers & Dykes"- and the man who helped Rick Linklater, Spike Lee et al get their first films distributed - John has moved to Austin - he even saw me in one of my UT films). I've run into him several times this year.
In April Austin had its second annual art car parade (I missed the first one). Great fun.
Finally, in December I got a gig as a Santa. I had several dozen little kiddos, mostly age 3-5 sit on my lap and get their Christmas photo. Lots of fun and earned a few dollars.
