2010 newsletter
It's hard to believe another year has passed. I had the good fortune this year to be in both a Coen brothers film ("True Grit") and a Robert Rodriguez film ("Spy Kids 4", which opens summer 2011). I'm clearly visible in "True Grit" about twenty minutes into the film. When Mattie enters the courtroom, she has to shove past me. I'm hard to spot in "Spy Kids 4"; I play one of five scientists (in the background) staring at an enormous clock during a TV newscast interview with the chief scientist. (I am visible, very briefly) While working on "True Grit" I discovered that another extra attended Brackenridge H.S. (San Antonio) the year ('68/'69) I taught there, and was even in the band. I was the unofficial Assistant Band Director that year, announcing the band's halftime performances and sitting in on French horn during the early morning before-school rehearsals. I was even the substitute teacher the day of TMEA (getting to conduct the band, an enormous treat - my university band director joked that the only band I'd ever conduct would be a rubber band). It was not surprising that the guy didn't remember me at all (it WAS 41 years ago).
I was in several other films, mostly in a small capacity. I starred in a spec ad for GoDaddy.com () which competed against 200 entries. We came in sixth in the popular voting, which, sadly, was ignored in the awarding of the prize money. We also shot a sequel, () also great.
I had surgery this year as well as two MRIs. My right shoulder had been bothering me for several months. A steroid shot/medications didn't solve the problem, so my doctor ordered a shoulder MRI. After the shoulder specialist examined the MRI, he requested a neck x-ray, followed by a neck MRI, which confirmed his diagnosis: the problem was the neck, not the shoulder. Two vertebrae in my neck were misaligned. I had several weeks of PT and have been continuing the exercises.
In 1975 I had left-inguinal hernia surgery. I scheduled it during spring break, hoping that I'd not miss any school. I believe I was in the hospital about four or five days. I had to take off another week to recover; I was barely able to walk, moving as fast as a geriatric. In the mid-1980s I had right-inguinal hernia surgery; methods had improved so much that I was back in action much more quickly; I may have stayed in the hospital overnight. I discovered this year that the repairs had worn out on both sides. On December 16 I had both sides repaired. The surgeon used a laporascope, making the procedure much quicker and safer. I was on the operating table at 10:30 a.m. and on the way home (thanks to Fred Woody) two hours later. My walking was slowed down somewhat, but I logged 12 miles one week later. The surgery went very well and after two weeks, there was some discoloration around that area, and minimal discomfort.
Otherwise, my health was good. In 2000 I started tracking my walking and logged 2101 miles. Every year since then I've walked greater distances. I was up to 4280 miles this year, which was also the third consecutive one that I walked 300 miles every month, with a record 380 miles this June. I also am using public transport when I can. Last year I avoided driving 73% of the time. This year it's up to 82%. As a result, I only had to fill up the gas tank four times!!!
Once again I was able attend all of John Pearson's fantastic master classes. Highlights were Rob Thomas (a former teacher at Reagan H.S. and the creator of Veronica Mars - I was able to watch all three seasons after I saw him, and it was really a great show), Evan Shapiro (the president of Sundance/IFC), Elizabeth Avellan (producer of Robert Rodriguez's films and his ex-wife), and Spike Jonze (director of "Being John Malkovich").
Once again I attended most of the tapings (in the eighth and final season) of Evan Smith's great interview program, "Texas Monthly Talks" () and got to meet and get autographs and photos with most of the guests. Highlights were Tim Matheson, Sally Ride, Gwen Ifill, Morley Safer, Thomas Haden Church, and Jake Silverstein. The show had been carried by most Texas PBS stations. Evan is no longer with Texas Monthly, so a new show has been created, "Overheard with Evan Smith", () It's being marketed to a national market, not just Texas. I've been to all nine of the shows, so far. My favorites were Michael Pollan, Bill Bradley, Jonathan Alter, and Howard Dean. It's a real treat to be introduced to the guests by Evan after the taping.
The best concert I attended in 2010 was by the State Symphony Capella of Russia. This is a large choral group that performs a capella (no instruments); they were stunning, a rich full sound. The same week I saw the UT Chamber Singers also perform a capella; they were wonderful. They performed the Samuel Barber "Reincarnations", a composition I've loved since college days and was thrilled to finally hear it performed. Also exciting was the Choral Arts performance of the Passio by Arvo Part.
I hadn't seen a PDQ Bach concert since the 1980s, so it was a real treat to see Peter Schickele perform again. He's still in top form in spite of his age (75) and health problems, and his concerts are wonderfully hilarious. This was the fourth time I've seen him perform, but the first time since 1987.
I've been a fan of Tony Barrands and John Roberts for many years (since John Aielli started played their wonderful Christmas songs on KUT), and even encouraged them via email to perform here. Barrands can no longer travel much, but Roberts performed here and was wonderful.
I got to see a wonderful Jon Anderson concert at the Paramount. I attended my 37th Shawn Phillips (the subject of my Master's thesis) concert (). I saw Ed Miller perform for the fifth time ( and ), and saw the extraordinary Indian violinist L. Subramaniam for the third time. It was a rare treat to see Tuvan singing, performed by Alash, and I was able to attend their workshop teaching the basics throat singing; it was fascinating.
The best play I saw this year was "The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later", a superb and very moving follow-up to the original work. "The Understudy: Zaskok, The Unfortunate Premiere Of Cimrman's Play Vlasta" was an hilarious Czech play, which I fear may be the last Cimrman play performed in Austin. I hope that is not the case, but its director was pink-slipped as part of the budget cuts at UT. I'd never seen "The Trip to Bountiful" on stage, and it's a great work. I love Benjamin Britten, so it was a pleasure to see his "Albert Herring" again.
The Capitol Steps performed a delightful show this year. I was also able to see Sarah Silverman, Frank Deford, Sandra Day O'Connor, Spike Lee, John Lithgow, James Baker, and Bruce McGill ("Animal House").
The Body Art Ball () was much better this year, with much more body art this time. (It was also great to see Yvetta Hill again). One of the greatest highlights of the year was the performance of "Botancia" by Momix (in my opinion the best dance company in the world), part of the show is at ). It has to rank as one of the most amazing performances I've EVER seen. I'd seen Momix three times before and they are incredible.
UT celebrated the 50th Anniversary of "The Fantasticks", with several panels. You can see parts of the Harvey Schmidt/Tom Jones (the UT grads who created the show) panel at and . Seven years ago I met Harvey when he was here for his 40th reunion. If you're on Facebook, you can see his scrapbook from that year at .
I attended three McCallum reunions (9th/10th, 20th, and 21st) and got to see about twenty of my former students. I connected with about 265 former students on Facebook in 2010. (I've now re-connected with about 900). I finally located a few students I taught at Brackenridge H.S., including Laura Fierro, one of my best students that year.
I got a great note from T.C. Autry, "When I was in his class in middle school I thought that Dan Eggleston was the weirdest person I would ever meet. Now that I'm older and wiser, I realize that he is actually the coolest person I will ever know. Watch this video. He's the dude with long hair and sweat bands on his wrist. Incredible." ()
I also saw former students at Chandra Morgan's wedding, a beautiful ceremony. I saw more at the Michael Pollan Overheard taping. On a sadder occasion, I saw three of Bobby Pagan's sisters (I taught five members of his family) at a dedication ceremony at Anderson H.S. for a plaque honoring his death from the Afghan war.
Among the autographs I collected this year were Michael Pollan, Scott Westerfeld (I read twelve of his books this year; see him discussing zombies at ), Tom Jones ("The Fantasticks"), Leslie Stahl, Sally Ride, Bob Schieffer, Temple Grandin, Morley Safer, America Ferrera, and Robbie Krieger (The Doors)
I screened "Z: a Zombie Musical" twice in San Marcos (at Wake the Dead Coffee House) and once at UT. I've got a screening scheduled at UT on March 6 in the music building and am working on screenings in San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston.
We had half an inch of snow in February, the most since 1985.
Late in the year I attended my second focus group, a most unusual one. We served as a mock jury to help the lawyers decide whether or not a lawsuit should go forward dealing with a prominent Austin family. It was a fascinating case.
Three times I saw a hot air balloon flying over my neighborhood, and got some nice photos of it. Reminded me of my ballooning days back in the '70s with Derek Howard.
For the fourth consecutive year, I read 365 books. Here's some of the best of them: all four books by Malcolm Gladwell: "Tipping Point", "Blink", "Outliers", "What the Dog Saw & Other Stories" (very highest recommendation. Countless fascinating accounts of many topics, some life-improving, if applied - for example children in kindergarten should be grouped by the months they were born in - you can also hear Gladwell on some of the RadioLab programs, another wonderful discovery. Find it at RadioLab.org or through iTunes); "Confessions of a Mad Playwright" by James Kirkwood (the insane & true story of the author's play which starred Mary Martin & Carol Channing); "The Dream" and "The Golden Willow" by Harry Bernstein (books 2 & 3 of the 100-year-old author's autobiography - he's still alive); "The Promise: The President Obama Year One" by Jonathan Alter (fascinating account of how Obama runs the White House - I met Alter at "Overheard"), "Alex" by Frank Deford (a very moving account of his daughter before her death at age nine, due to cystic fibrosis), "Adventures Among Ants" by Mark Moffett; "Dangerously Funny" by David Bianculli (the Smothers Brothers); "The Last Days of Old Beijing" by Michael Meyer; "The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit" by Lucette Lagnado (a Jewish family is exiled from Egypt and end up in Brooklyn); "The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday" by Neil MacFarquhar (a great title - great pieces on life in the mideast); "It's Our Turn to Eat" by Michela Wrong (life in Kenya - all her books are fantastic); both of Greg Mortenson's wonderful books "Stones Into Schools" and "Three Cups Of Tea" (building girls' schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan); "The Great Deluge" by Douglas Brinkley (Katrina); Aljean Harmetz's "The Making of The Wizard of Oz"; "Six Suspects" and "Q & A" (source of "Slumdog Millionare") by Vikas Swarup (the only fiction books on this list); "The Angler: the Cheney Vice Presidency" by Barton Gellman; "The Sorrows of Empire", "Blowback" and "Nemesis" by Chalmers Johnson (penetrating analyses of the American military - very highly recommended); "Country Driving" and "Oracle Bones" by Peter Hessler (modern life in China, where Hessler has lived for 20 years), "Josh" by Joshua Logan (the autobiography of the great director/writer), "Wonderful Tonight" by Pattie Boyd (autobiography by the wife of George Harrison & (after he wrote "Layla" about her) Eric Clapton); "Emergence" and "Animals Make Us Human" by Temple Grandin; and "Name Above The Title" by Frank Capra (the great film director's autobiography).
It's hard to believe that one of my favorite teachers is still alive, well and active; especially since he taught me back in 1959 or so. But last year I located my French horn teacher, Russ Patterson, and this year I was able to talk to him on the phone (when last year's newsletter fell out of the envelope).
I saw the usual large number of movies. My favorites for the year are "La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet" (a truly wonderful doc by Frederick Wiseman), "King Lear" (the incredible 1971 Russian version - stunning), "Red Chapel" (an unbelievable and hilarious Danish documentary on North Korea), "Temple Grandin" (got to meet Grandin at a screening just before the film started playing on HBO), "The Ghost Writer", "A Thorn in the Heart" (another documentary, this one by Michel Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind") about his family), "Thunder Soul" (a documentary about the Houston high school director who took a troubled school's dance band to the best in the nation), "9500 Liberty" (a documentary on the anti-immigrant law in Virginia, very similar to the law passed in Arizona), "Toy Story 3", "Killing Katzner" (documentary on the Jewish Schindler), "Exporting Raymond" (a documentary on the creation of the Russian version of "Everyone Loves Raymond" - it looked to be a disaster but became the top-rated show in Russia, I'd never seen the show, but am enjoying it now, having seen about half of the shows so far), and "The King's Speech."
I had five photo shoots this year. Bethany Harbaugh's was so great and so much fun that we had a second in December and plan on more in 2011. Christina Childress's was also amazing. Right after Christmas, I shot one with my friend, Linda Lopez, who I hadn't seen in seven years. I got some fantastic photos in all five.
I attended two fantastic workshops with Will Wallace, meeting some great new friends. For the first, Joe Estevan (Martin Sheen's brother) helped teach the workshop, which was extra fun.
I had to replace a lot of items around the house this year: I've got a new washing machine, computer (an iMac with a 27" screen, about twice as big as the old one), a 42" HD TV, a new printer (enabling me, finally, to be able to print directly from my favorite graphics program, TypeStyler), a new Tivo, (which lets me record two programs simultaneously). I finally upgraded from dial-up to DSL (which was lucky, since shortly after that I got the new Tivo, which requires high-speed access). I also have a MagicJack, which allows me to finally (via VOIP) make free long distance phone calls.
It's been a good year for me. I hope that 2011 will be a good one for everyone and that the economy shows major improvements.
