January 1, 2008
It always amazes me how much I've accomplished each year when it's time to compose this report. I am hoping, against odds, to get "Z: a Zombie Musical" a theatrical run here in Austin. The theater manager sounded hopeful when I spoke to him last week. In September we held a second benefit concert for Z and raised some more money to help pay off the $3100 it cost to recover the film. We spent over $500 trying to get Z into film festivals and were turned down repeatedly. We finally got an invitation from the Providence Zombie Film Festival. (We hadn't even applied; they had heard about our film from a friend of a friend). We screened in late October and Z sold out. "Generally, the crowd got into Z as they seemed very interested to experience a zombie musical. The Festival organizers - all four of us - are more than satisfied with screening Z." I submitted to a few film festivals that didn't charge and was accepted by the WT Os Film Festival in Os, Norway in November. They wrote, "The film was one of our biggest audience successes, and I overheard people talking about it for days (now, a few girls left it half way through, but then again, it certainly isn't everyone's cup of tea, so...). It was recommended by one of the festival managers in a newspaper interview prior to the screening,"
I received some great feedback about my role from Cambofest noting, that "Professor Zombie number is very funny! Would be great if entire movie was of caliber of Professor Zombie segment."
I hope that we can get the DVD version of Z out in 2008. The May 4, 2007 issue of the "Austin Chronicle" included a feature story about me written by Joe O'Connell ()
I teamed with John McLean to produce a great short film, "How to Succeed in Film Festivals...Without Really Trying," which John wrote after we didn't get in SXSW. You can view it at . The trailers for Z are at Just Z It , Bloodweiser , Blood Be Gone .
Paid film work, sadly, is rather rare. Early in the year, I was twice a paid extra for "Friday Night Lights", as well as for a feature film set in the 1930s, "Kings of the Evening." This fall I was in six student films at UT. One was a scene from Spike Lee's "25th Hour" that required several hours of rehearsal and a performance in front of the class before it was filmed. The best of my UT films was "Stalled." . I almost got to be in a spec commercial (i.e., shot in hopes of it being sold) for Emerald Nuts (which has run ads in the super bowl). I was cast in it, but the producer didn't have enough money to shoot both the ad he was in town for as well as the spec; he promised me that I'd be in the ad if he ever does shoot it.
A feature film I was in three years ago, "Chalk", got a theatrical release in several cities (courtesy of Morgan Spurlock ("Supersize Me")). It was played an extra three weeks here due to great box office and is a great film (and now is available on DVD ). Numerous strangers have recognized me from my memorable appearance in this wonderful film.
Early in the year I helped John in pre-production for our next big project: "Ex Libris." John wrote most of the business plan, but was side-tracked by the need to earn money; he's been writing and working full-time on the staff of Esther's Follies the past few months. I found a professional writer (Bill Crider - I've read 31 of this books) to read John's novel. He loved it. Michael Moorcock used to work with John at Origin; when I noted that John wasn't sure Mike would remember him, Michael commented, "What does he think I am, a goldfish? Of course I remember him." Michael read the beginning, but his schedule hasn't allowed him to finish it yet. I submitted to a publisher, who rejected it and found a local publisher, who won't look at it 'till John finishes it (it's about 95% finished). If you'd like to read it, let me know; it's a wonderful read.
I was able to attend another of Laurie Guzda's wonderful improvisation workshops, and two of Will Wallace's acting workshops. In December, shortly before the second, I was contacted by Will about a film he was producing in Wisconsin. He hoped to cast me for a small role in that film. Unfortunately the director already had someone else in mind. (I learned later that that actor was not very good.)
On May 2, my step-mom Thelma died (age 85) after lingering for two years. My brother Ed, and Sandy (his wife) flew down from Maryland for the funeral (in San Antonio). The services were lovely and it was nice to see Thelma's family. I hadn't seen Ed & Sandy in five years, so it was great to spend with them the next day in Austin.
I saw some fantastic concerts during the year: Eliza Gilkyson, Ken Gaines, Mad Agnes, John Smith, Alash (throat singers from Mongolia), the UT Gamelan ensemble, David Massengill (here at my suggestion), the Carnatica Brothers, Jan Seides (a magical concert inside Longhorn Caverns), Cheryl Wheeler, Conspirare (wonderful choral music of Tarik O'Regan, whom I got to meet), and The Roches.
I saw some great shows this year: the road versions of "Big River" and "The Lion King" were amazing. Austin had the U.S. premiere of the excellent Phillip Glass opera, "Waiting for The Barbarians". The annual Jara Cimrman play: "Plum Tree A Dramatic Amnesiacon" was, as always, a delight. Two other standout plays were "Moonlight and Magnolias" and "Inherit the Wind."
I was able to attend more of John Pierson's fantastic Master classes at UT; the best were with Joe Dante and Chris Smith.
I got to see (and in most cases talk to and get autographs) from David Lynch, Bob Woodward & Carl Bernstein (who presented two Watergate panels; Carl returned for the Texas Book Festival; I recently finished his excellent book on Hillary, ("A Woman in Charge"), Maria Shriver (who introduced a great film about her dad, "American Idealist: Life Of Sargeant Shriver"), Bill Bradley (who seems to be regularly in the company of the head of the LBJ Library), Joseph Califano, Jeffrey Toobin (I read two great books of his this year: "Run Of His Life: The People Vs O J Simpson" and "The Nine: Inside The Supreme Court"), Marlee Matlin, A.C. Jacobs (I loved his "The Know-It-All"), Jim Lehrer, Tim Weiner (who gave an excellent talk about the CIA, I just finished his book: "Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA" - highly recommended), Shirley Maclaine, Jasper Fforde (my favorite author, this is the third time I've gotten to see him - he's hilarious in person. I finished two of his wonderful books ("The Fourth Bear" and "First Among Sequels") this year and listened to most of his books this year), Gabe Kaplan, and Michael Beschloss.
They say a book a day keeps boredom away & I read 365 books this year (grand total is now 6500). Here are some (more) of the best: "The Emperors of Chocolate" (Joel Brenner – the story of Hershey's and of M&M's), "Bill Graham Presents" (Bill Graham), "Adam Worth: The Napoleon of Crime" (Ben Macintyre), "The Real Animal House" (Jeff Miller), "Isaac's Storm" (Eric Larson - the 1900 Galveston hurricane), "Yokohama Burning" (Joshua Hammer - the 1923 earthquake), "Ava Gardner: Love Is Nothing" (Lee Server), "Oh The Glory Of It All" (Sean Wilsey), "The Kite Runner" (Khaled Hosseini), "Unfinished Business" (John Houseman), "As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised As A Girl" (John Colapinto), "Gerald Durrell" (Douglas Botting - Durrell is one of my favorite authors), "James Herriot" (Graham Lord), "The Pythons: Autobiography" (Monty Python), "The Night Watch" (David Phillips - the uncle of the subject of my master's thesis, Shawn Phillips – David was a high ranking member of the CIA)
I saw dozens of films. The best of which were "The Lives of Others", "Steal A Pencil For Me" (documentary on survivors of Auschwitz – two of whom were at the screening), "Run Granny Run" (doc on a lady who ran for the U.S. Senate in her nineties - she was present too), "Manufacturing Dissent" (great doc on Michael Moore), "Mafioso" (an amazing 1962 film), "Away From Her", "Stardust", "Bolinao 52", "Kabluey" (shot locally, I hope it is released in 2008), and "No Country For Old Men".
My right shoulder was bothering me early in the year. My acupuncturist suggested trying a chiropractor; my insurance covered 20 treatments with one. I enjoyed it and it seemed to help, but not enough. My doctor ordered an MRI (my first). I was stuck in the machine 30 minutes. It was a very unpleasant experience. The diagnosis was adhesive capulitis (frozen shoulder). I had the same problem years ago with my other shoulder. For three months I worked with a physical therapist (only a mile from here, walking distance) twice a week; gradually the shoulder has gotten stronger and is now mostly healed.
I walked 3563 miles this year, a new personal high. The average was 9.76 miles a day; I had two sixteen-mile days!!! I was able to avoid driving my car 179 days this year (49%!!) (using the bus and/or walking). I only needed to fill up my gas tank 8 times in 2007. Moreover I was able to average 52.8 mpg with my hybrid, a real bonus with the price of gas hitting $3.
My cousin Janice Wiegley has been working on family genealogy and I realized that I could scan the tons of materials my dad gave me years ago. I've sent her dozens of documents and photos and have found some real treasures.
I made a lasting friend at the Mastery, Nevena Bentz. I also became a closer friend with Pa Ti Dixon, whom I discovered, lives a couple blocks away.
I found a few former students on MySpace, and one, Lucy Tinoco, visited last week while in town from Colorado for the holidays. Lauren Howard (the niece of my oldest friend, Derek Howard (whose wife Donna, is now in the legislature)) found me on MySpace recently. She was one of my all-time favorite and best students and we plan to meet for lunch this week.
I had a few invitations to join Facebook, but declined them until I got one from Dan Parsons. I have found it to have a much better interface than MySpace and have found many friends there as well as over 100 former students.
Have a wonderful 2008.a
