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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.