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2016 newsletter

Another year has passed; it's been a good one for me, (other than the disastrous election results). Perhaps the most notable event was playing a small role in a pilot episode for a Comedy Central show, "Power Couple", which stars former Saturday Night Life comedian Noel Wells. The network has not scheduled an air date for the show yet. The project was the best-paid acting gig I've ever done.

Other acting work included a local TV series, "Professor Isle's Laboratory", in which I play a cafeteria worker (my scene is at ; the copy on Facebook got 700 views in 2 days). In "Fashionista" I played a postman (). I completed my work for "American Zombie" (green screen work) after a year's delay. And I had a fun bit in the RoosterTeeth Series "Million Dollars But" ()

I attended three great acting workshops, two by Will Wallace and one by his wife Sara.

The feature film "Greenbelt", in which I played Leslie is now on Youtube at

Sixteen years ago (while working on Miss Congeniality), I started a yahoo group to post casting calls. This year I was surprised and honored when the Austin Chronicle named me and the group as part of their Best of Austin issue. ()

I saw some notable people this year. Bob Schieffer (CBS) was fantastic. Doug Brinkley spoke on our National Parks (his book on FDR & the parks is fantastic). The LBJ Library had an excellent two-day summit on the Vietnam War in April. Participants included Country Joe McDonald, Peter Yarrow, Peter Arnett, Dan Rather, Tom Hayden, David Maraniss, and Robert Schenkkan. Bryan Stevenson's lecture was one of the highlights of the year as well as the decade. He's an amazing man and I finally read his book, "Just Mercy", which is a must-read.

For many years I've loved Story Corps, (which NPR's Morning Edition carries Friday mornings). So it was a treat to see its creator, Davis Isay. The documentary "Jump Shot" (see below) was actually inspired by a Story Corps broadcast (). Lawrence Wright spoke on "The Terror Years", his latest, and was brilliant and fascinating as always.

I saw some great authors at the Texas Book Festival: Carl Hiassen was very funny, as usual. I've loved five of David Cay Johnston's books; he spoke on his new book, "The Making of Donald Trump" (which likely will be on next year's best of list). Jane Alexander is best-known as an actor, but she spoke on her new book. Clint Hill was an unexpected treat. He was a secret service agent under five presidents and is the agent who leapt onto the back of JFK's limousine in Dallas after the president was shot. I loved Maria Semple's first two books ("Where'd You Go Bernadette" is her best-known title) and am looking forward to reading her latest.

Skip Hollandsworth gave a talk about his book, "Midnight Assassin," which is about the world's first serial killer (in 1885 Austin). Press coverage in 1888 London (while Jack the Ripper terrorized that city) mentioned the Austin killer.

The speaker at the annual Frank Deford (the sports writer) lecture this year was Andrew Zimbalist, an economist. He gave a fascinating lecture on the economics of the Olympic games. In the past fifty years, due to IOC restrictions, only two times has there NOT been massive losses for the host cities.

I saw three of my favorite authors: Lauren Oliver (YA author, I've read 12 of her books), Stuart Woods (I've read 66 of his), and Erik Larson (three of his books have been on my best of list, including "Lethal Passage" this year and "Devil in the White City" and "Dead Wake" in earlier years. I've read seven of his books).

Forty years ago I wrote my master's thesis on Shawn Phillips. Steve Wixon is preparing a documentary on Shawn and in July he sent his son & daughter-in-law to film an interview with me. Digging through my files I found many letters, documents and audiotapes to help them. They converted a tape of Shawn's 1990 concert at the Cactus Cafe () They have interviewed Donovan and it is still a work in progress.

At a screening of "LBJ" (Rob Reiner's new film), I got a photo with Woody Harrelson, who plays the title character. Its director, Rob Reiner, disappeared before I could get one with him.

My health is good. I turned 70 this year and walked 5563 miles, averaging 15.2 miles a day, and walking at least twelve miles every day. That was about 300 miles more than the previous annual high. The first year (2000) in which I used a pedometer, the total was 1653 miles. It went up to 1997 in 2001. I walked more in 2016 than those two years combined.

Jeff Durawa replaced the supports for my carport, repaired my clothesline (after a dead tree fell on top of it), did some roof work, and more work on the bathroom.

Over a period of about two years I was able to track down, scan, and post all sixty of the Lamar yearbooks on Facebook and in April the Lamar PTA had a celebration to honor this. There was a plaque showing me as the "Mayor of Scottietown." The counselor from 1959 to 1971 was present as were several students from the early years. The school gave me a copy of this year's yearbook, which I've added.

I saw about twenty-three former students, three of whom treated me to lunch: Linda Taylor (who I taught in San Antonio 1970/71), Fabi Salas (Lamar), Dianne Patterson (Dobie). I saw one former student, Rachel Dolman, while she was in the hospital and we had a delightful long visit.

I've known Michael Guess for thirty years and taught his step-son at Lamar, so it was great to catch up with him over lunch. Sutton Mooney has been friends for twenty years and was in town for a few weeks (she's a professor at Washington State University); we were able to catch up over lunch; she also was able to join me for the Gloria Steinem taping and the Lawrence Wright book talk.

I had one photo shoot this year, with Loren Ellison, a great one. And I was the subject of a photo shoot, by Kathy Whittaker, allowing me to update my acting headshots. She does great work.

As always, I attended all of the "Overheard with Evan Smith" tapings, well worth seeing. (If you're interested subscribe at /g/UpcomingOverheards). There were twenty-six this year. The best were Gloria Steinem, R L Stine (Goosebumps), Mike Love (Beach Boys), Wendy Davis, Bryan Cranston, Rick Linklater, Ken Burns, Ethan Hawke, Henry Louis Gates, Jefferey Goldberg, and David Farenthold (the reporter who revealed much of the Trump Foundation's unethical practices). You can watch any of these episodes at (these include the post-taping Q&A's, which are not part of the broadcast.)

The best concerts I attended this year were by Atash, Buddy Mondlock (7th time I've seen him – 7th venue), Chaski, Con Moto (a unique concert of a brass quintet using choreographed movement as they performed), Chorus Austin (wonderful concert of highlights from works performed previously) and Conspirare (2 concerts, both magical, and their "Considering Matthew Shepard", composed by Craig Hella Johnson, (their conductor) was one of the best works I've EVER seen performed. It's out on CD and I also have a recording on the concert, (which was broadcast by KMFA.)

As usual, I read 366 books and the grand total is 9815. I hope to pass the 10,000 mark in 2017. The best nonfiction starts with several by Edward Humes. I read his great "Garbology" in 2013 (on my best of list that year) and read ten of his books this year. The best of those are "Monkey Girl", "No Matter How Loud I Shout", "Mississippi Mud", "School Of Dreams", and "Door to Door".

The rest of the nonfiction: "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" (crematory worker - Caitlin Doughty), "Billion Dollar Ball" (College Football & Money – Gilbert Gaul), "Walt Disney" (Neal Gabler), "All Who Go Do Not Return" (Shulem Deen), "Washington's Crossing", (David Hackett Fischer), "Werner Herzog: A Guide For The Perplexed" (Werner Herzog), "Katrina" (Gary Rivlin), "Kill Chain" (Andrew Cockburn), "Of Thee I Sing" (George Kaufman), "A Life of Barbara Stanwyck Steel-True 1907-1940" (Victoria Wilson), "The Verdict" (Nick Stone), "Nicholas Ray" (Patrick McGilligan), "The Last of the President's Men" (Bob Woodward), "Putin Country" (Anne Garrels), "The Girl With Seven Names" (Hyeonseo Lee), "Strength In What Remains" (Tracy Kidder), "Lady Bird" (Jan Jarboe Russell), "Lethal Passage" (Erik Larson), "Even This I Get to Experience" (Norman Lear), "Burning Down The House - The End of Juvenile Prison" (Nell Bernstein), "City of Thorns" (enormous refugee camp in Kenya - Ben Rawlence), "United States of Jihad" (Peter Bergen), "Oregon Trail" (Rinker Buck), "Fear on Trial" (John Henry Faulk), "Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals" (Jane Mayer), "Mission High" (Kristina Rizga), "Original Story By" (Arthur Laurents), "Rosa Parks" (Douglas Brinkley), "Just Mercy" (Bryan Stevenson), "Finding Winnie" (Lindsay Mattick), "Meat Racket" (Tyson Foods - Christopher Leonard), "Indentured" (NCAA - Joe Nocera), "Art Made from Books" (Laura Heyenga), and "American Heiress" (Jeffrey Toobin).

The fiction list this year is much longer than usual, great to say, starting with several by Thomas Perry: "The Runner", "Poison Flower", "String Of Beads", "The Informant", "The Boyfriend", "Silence", and "Forty Thieves".

The rest of the fiction: "The Highway" and "Off The Grid" (both by C J Box), "Zeroes" (Scott Westerfeld), "The English Spy" (Daniel Silva), "Girl Waits with Gun" (Amy Stewart), "Confess" and "November 9" (both by Colleen Hoover), "A Bottle in the Gaza Sea" (Valerie Zenatti), "The Wolves" and "Twelve Days" (both by Alex Berenson), "Make Me" (Lee Child), "The Promise" (Robert Crais), "Sword Of Summer" (Rick Riordan), "One Mississippi" and "Crazy In Alabama" (both by Mark Childress), "Lust & Wonder" (Augusten Burroughs), "The First Order" (Jeff Abbott), "Worst Class Trip Ever" (Dave Barry), "Smoke" (Donald Westlake), "The Lock Artist" (Steve Hamilton) , "The Crossing" (Michael Connelly), "The Girl in the Spider's Web" (David Lagercrantz), and "The Accidental Apprentice" (Vikas Swarup),

The best films I saw were documentaries, as is often the case. The ones I liked the most are "Where To Invade Next" (Michael Moore), "Beaver Trilogy Part 4", "Alive & Kicking" (swing dancing - featuring Evita Arce, a friend), "Richard Linklater: Dream & Destiny", "Learning To See", "Babushkas of Chernobyl", "Armour of Light", "Handicapable" (UT), "Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You" (PBS - Lear was present for the screening) , "Holy Hell", "Life Animated", "Tower" (on the UT Tower shooting of 1966), "Author The J T Leroy Story", "The Pearl Button" (Chile), "My Scientology Movie", "Santoalla", "Original Cast Album Company" (D A Pennebaker), "Into the Inferno", "What Tomorrow Brings" (PBS), "Jump Shot" (a work in progress on the man who created the jump shot in basketball)

My favorite feature films: "All the Way" (Bryan Cranston as LBJ), "Paris Texas", "Hunt for the Wilderpeople" (New Zealand), "Miss Stevens", "Facing Mirrors" (Iran), "Eye in the Sky", "Everybody Wants Some" (Rick Linklater), "Miracle", "The Idol" (Gaza), "Midnight Special", "Two Birds One Stone" (French), "The Innocents" (Polish), "Kubo & The 2 Strings", "Evil" (Sweden), "Our Little Sister" (Japan), "A Bottle in the Gaza Sea" (Israel), "Dekologue" (Poland), "The Handmaiden" (Korean), "Germinal", "The D In David" (animated short - ), "Race" (1936 Olympics), and "Sing".

I added some new BBC shows to my collection (courtesy of my friend back east) with Men from the Ministry, Whacko, Week Ending, Mark Steel, and Garrison Keillor (Prairie Home Companion is carried on the BBC). I've greatly enjoyed listening to these shows and have many more hours of them to listen to. I continued listening to Quote Unquote, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, Just a Minute, and Jean Shepherd. Maybe I'll complete those series this year.

After reading Jack Viertel's great book "The Secret Life of the American Musical" I discovered several Broadway musicals I was unaware of and some newer recordings of shows I already had. I also found new albums by the amazing Stephan Micus and 5 symphonies by the wonderful composer David Maslanka.

I only had to fill the tank on my Honda hybrid once, late in December, and averaged 56.3 miles for that tankful. I'm averaging 53.4 overall, so far.

I saw twenty-three plays; three were exceptional: Silent Sky, The Explorer's Club, and Arden of Faversham.

Hope that 2017 is a good year for all who read this and for me.