March Madness is over, and I am little bummed.

K-Dog wrote recently, "To be a sports fan is to come to terms with loss." I was walking around barefoot in the back yard, and thinking of stadiums full of people and thinking of a guy I never got to see play who used to do the same thing in left field, just walk barefoot in the grass and smell it. I intended to revel in spring and warmer weather, but I was thinking of something more specific.

I was thinking about baseball and about basketball. Night and day, right?

Yesterday was opening day, and I was stuck in an office. Just try and stop me from turning on the game, I dare ya. Thankfully no one did, my boss is a baseball fan too. I marvel at cretins who think baseball is "boring" or "too slow". I equate them with people who think chess is "like checkers but with taller pieces." Kevin and I love baseball, it's the reason we got cable.

That said, I was thinking about baseball, and the passing of March into April. I was bucking myself up with it, and the thought of the impending Quest for Lord Stanley's Cup. (Warning: Rabid Hockey fan here) Then, I clicked over to tornadomagnet, and read Kevin's take on being a sports fan. Sports is about losing as much as it is winning, and I know the let down must be worse for the players. I try to think of how great it must feel to hit a homer on Opening Day, of the Astros opening in the park that finally bears their name and not a sponsor's, of skipping school on a Monday to be at opening day, of Hot dogs and beer and the sun on your face and grass as far as white chalk foul line can see.

But, in the back of my head I was also thinking about a handful of good kids. Of a handful of Indiana kids whose season is over. Seniors who won't get to play for their schools anymore, even among the winners. Kids who watched the tourney from home, kids whose hopes and dreams had been far above the rim. So for kids like Jeffries and Fife, like Jason Williams and Juan Dixon, like my own Texas Tech Red Raiders, I hope they can do what I did.

Watch a baseball game, guys. You all earned it.

IT'S WORKING!!!!! Check out the contest section to see the newest winners!

Often, when watching sports, I am astounded by the human ability to TALK FOREVER ABOUT THE BLATANTLY OBVIOUS! Today, it happened again. I am refering, of course, to sports announcers never ending need to inform us of the team of the moments "Keys to Victory". This happens most often on big games, though it seems to pop up more and more every year. "So, Bob, what do the Browns need to do today to win this football game?" "Well Stan, they need to score points. They also need to stop their opponent from scoring points. Now, bear with me because I know this gets tough to follow and you may need a slide rule to figure out my premise here, but essentially, the Browns need to score MORE points than the OTHER TEAM to win."

It happend tonight, as Zuzia, Kevin, Sarah, and I were watching the NCAA Women's Championship game which UConn won handily, finishing off an unbeaten season. (Congrats ladies!). Just before the game, one announcer asked the other what Oklahoma needed to beat Uconn. Seriously, I would have given my right arm for the announcer to say something original.

"Well, Dan, I think what the Sooners really need to be victorious here tonight is just a pinch of Oregano. Not too much, you don't want to overpower your sauce or your transition defense. Just a pinch will do."

Anyone want to know what I did for Easter? To celebrate the resurrection of Christ, I mowed the yard. Well, the back yard, anyway.

Does anyone drink blue martinis anymore? I really think not.

I've been thinking about my contribution. (Apprently, I am not the only one ). How relevant is what I am doing, right now? I was thinking it as I walked back to my truck after my day shift at work. I was going over in my head some of the things my boss has accomplished, like starting as a piano player in a club and owning it in less than two years. Like the fact that he has done so now for twelve years, and this seems to be his "life's work". Like the fact that I am putting a lot of time in lately helping him with his life's work, and wondering about how dedicated to my own I have been lately. That's when something important hit me. It hurt. (just kidding)

What hit me was the way I was using the term in my own mental conversation. I was, in fact, talking to myself. I do that regularly, often out loud and in public. It's the sign of a creative and inteligent mind being too closed up and struggling to get out. That, or a lack of proper medication.
However, I digress.
I was using the term "Life's work". Everyone has been talking about their job lately, or their lack thereof. Mine is slowly but surely consuming more of my time, and this site, as well as my other creative endeavors, have been on hold for about a week. Well, NO LONGER! I am posting everyday, from now on, in at least one section of this site. I will start seeing films again! I will write reviews! I will put my own art into the world, one way or the other. Remember, people, its not about what you do for spending cabbage, it's how you leave your stamp on others and the collective that counts.

It's about the contribution.

It has been said that clothes make the man. Is it true? I'm not sure. I don't think mine make me, I think they reflect me. I get compliments from time to time. I am self-conscious from time to time. I consult with my friend Amy who is a fashion design major at UT form time to time. I read GQ and Esquire and Details, but don't follow them like the Bible or anything. After all that, I can say only one thing for sure about clothes.

It's all about the shoes.

This all ties into a very important key to happiness. In my many years of wandering and study, I have learned a pretty useful lesson. The Tao of Jefe, Simple Things Ensure Happiness. Dr. Pepper. Music. Pez. Lately I have a new one.

Shoes. (I am such a chick.)

They are really cool though. I bought two pairs of Italian bowling shoes recently, one black pair, one brown, and they are like size 91/2 happiness gear. I've been walking on air, no pun intended, ever since. There have been a lot of things in my life lately going the right way, mind you, and it's not like I was walking around under a cloud. The shoes just made it a little better, and that's what it's all about really. Simple things.

Like shoes.

There are times when one puts forth effort and is greatly recognized for it, though they are more rare than they should be. There are also times when one makes an effort to have a little fun, bring a little joy into people's lives and gather things unto himself that make him happy so he may spread said happiness to those he cares for. Unfortunately, YOU PEOLPE ARE NOT PAYING ATTENTION! Therefore, certain of you (by clicking the link, you know who you are) are now on MY LIST. This is a very real list, bad things happen to those who are on it. I'll sick Courtney on ya, if I have to.

Full interactive and music conference and festival reports now appearing on the sxsw link above, cats and kittens. Get 'em while they're HOT!

WARNING!

I am about to write about something that may have you up in arms, demanding my head on a silver platter, or just plain upset with me. I feel it is in Cloudwrangler's best interest to go ahead and say it anyway, for a lot of reasons. I recently told someone important that the only way to approach blogging was to "Write without fear", and I firmly believe it. Also, controversy is good PR. A simple boycott of me could lead to millions of hits on my site, and really it's all about feeding my ego, right? Right.

This morning, while doing laundry in the shadiest laundromat in Austin, I parked next to a Spanish language video rental store, carrying a variety of Mexican films that I had never heard of. On the front door of the shop there was a poster for a "film" called, "El Jefe de la Frontera" It had a rather large Mexican man with a bad goatee, a black cowboy hat, and some sort of assault rifle standing over a rather well bosomed dusky Latin "maiden" and a corpse or two. I was ready to offer the store owner as much as $100 for it, until Kevin dubbed it, and the other films like it also advertised with boobs and guns, a "Taco Western". I could hardly stop laughing, thank goodness I don't drink milk.

Recently, the local news said over 1 million people will be traveling thorugh Austin in March. That number is so insane I can barely get my noodle around it, and my noodle is pretty well developed. (I am talking about my brain, you sicko's) Anyway, that same day while listening to NPR I heard a "writer" named Heather Havrilesky reading an essay she had written about grudgingly becoming a Californian. It was so flat I could have poured syrup on it and eaten it. As a proud Texan, I was struck dumb by a lot of the things that seem quintessentially Austin that this young woman seemed to think were exclusively Californian. Brown Rice. Granola. Eastern philosophy. Granted we're more likely to discuss Buddhist thought over a cold Lone Star than chi tea (whatever the hell that is), but still. Austin is hands down the greatest place on Earth. At least, that's what I thought at the time. Soon, however, I got to thinking about all the places in our great little Nation, er, I mean, State that I have lived and visited, and how wonderful they all can be. I wanted to stomp on her poorly written tripe with one heel of my black pointy toed boots. I wanted to drag her out to West Texas, where the Earth and the Sky are sometimes one and the same, where Wind is a constant and a state of mind, where cactus and pumpjacks live side by side with cattlemen and great beer. Then, we'd be off by helicopter, over where the buffalo roam to where the Cowboys and J.R. Ewing play. Dallas, Texas, whose pretentia may never be in absentia, but was a damn fine place to grow up. Or Houston, the largest city in the Nation, oops did it again, State. Home of the Astros, where men who walk among the stars call when the "have a problem". Mostly, though, I'd bring her here, deep in the heart of Texas, a stones throw from the Alamo, where music and art and technology and love all seem to have come together at the right place in the right time.

Speaking of Austin, check out the SXSW section above for a running acount of the festivities from the festivals preemminent volunteer. That would be me, by the way.

Beware Citizens! Orginization is coming! I am cleaning up my act! It's scary as hell for me too, so stay tuned