I am grateful to share my interest gifts of creation, beauty, artistry and sound. Below are some projects, travels or otherwise interesting things I come across that help me identify with our other humans and nature. I share these because life is rad.

The Texas Playboys – The Texas Playboys is a social and pleasure sandlot baseball team formed in 2006 in Austin, Texas by Coach Jack Sanders, John Mascarenhas, Robert Gay, Dave Mead, and David Modigliani to name a few. What started out as an effort to field a team to play the New Bern Tigers of Alabama, spread into a national movement for the love of informal unstructured baseball in homage to and in honor of the history of U.S. baseball barnstorming across the country. The Texas Playboys games in Austin are listed on the schedule below at the Longtime Sandlot & Event facility.

Downs Field – Forklift Danceworks Evangelist – Forklift Dance works is an amazing dance and performance art company led by Allison Orr. Forklift presented “Play ball Downs Field” as a tribute to the Negro Leagues and Downs Field’s historic role in fostering baseball in Austin, Texas. I was honored to escort Willie Wells’s daughter to the event and increase engagement with this historic Austin gem.

Painting – I decided to learn better techniques and enrolled in the Contemporary Art Museum Austin classes at Laguna Gloria with Claire Gaston. This creative outlet helped remap my brain in tremendously positive ways. I never intended this to be more than a hobby, but I have enjoyed creating Art in the Deep Dugout during the Texas Playboys games. These paintings are donating to fundraising raffles to many worthy causes. I always drop in on Art Museums and galleries in various towns I visit, and I always visit the Menil Collection when in Houston for inspiration. Please click here to view various exhibitions – I always take photos to peruse later. Contemporary Art Museum Photos

A tribute to the late David Berman and homage to Chris Kysor album cover for the Silver Jews album American Water with a baseball and memorial flowers added.

Music – I am an amateur guitar player, and that might even be a stretch, but I enjoy collecting vintage gear, and I am a certified audiophile. I try to stop at record stores when I travel, and I always look for that barn or garage find. I love the sound of tube amps and restored a 1950s Dynaco ST-70 with the help of tubes4hifi.com and highly recommend the Zu Audio Dirty Weekend Speakers or Vintage Klipsch speakers if you are interested in buying albums – check out my Discogs collection and reach out.