Time for a Little Culture

One of the things I like about living in Texas is the number of cultures that are present. Many of the smaller towns have a prevalent cultural heritage and they celebrate them with festivals. San Antonio of course has a strong Mexican heritage and celebrates Cinco De Mayo each year in an elaborate fashion. Muenster and Fredericksburg have Octoberfest and German fest each year. You can find great meats and cheeses at both of these places as well as schnitzels and pastries. Near Waco is a small town named West which has West Fest where they celebrate their Czech heritage. They have dancers, music, and of course FOOD! Anyone that's ever been through there knows that you have to stop at the Czech Stop and get kolaches. They're the best in the world.

I really enjoy these events, not that I get to go to them every year. Still, I do like to go once in a while. You can imagine my delight and surprise when I found out that there was going to be a festival within a short drive of where I live. Texas is a BIG state and many of these other festivals constitute a day of driving just to enjoy them. This one was going to be in Dallas!! I wanted to keep with the spirit of the occasion so I went to the local costume shop and rented a traditional costume, complete with Lederhosen and snappy shoes with buckles. When the day came I loaded up the kids and headed to the Oak Lawn area of Dallas for what was being hailed as Sausage Fest!!!

It was an extravagant affair with over the top decorations and costumes, but wasn't the German festival that I had been expecting. It turns out Sausage Fest can be code for something entirely different. I wasn't out of place in my lederhosen and mountain climber outfit. In fact I got many compliments and approving nods for it. They weren't the kind of compliments I wanted my kids to hear and the approving nods were a little creepy as they were accompanied by long leering stares, but you take the bad with the good.

We ended up leaving early since it was not what we had expected, but not before I was called on stage and knighted by the Queen of Sausage Fest and annointed by his royal dancers. Disappointingly I didn't get anything to eat while I was there, but I had lost most of my appetite as my wife and children laughed about the days events on the way home.

One More Thing

For a few months now the one thing that could consistently cheer me up has been the radio advertisement for the Texas Lottery. If you haven't heard it then click here and check it out. The long empty spot is where the voice over would normally be. Tell me this isn't the most infectious cheery song you've ever heard.

I'll Write More Later

Thanks to Gordon Keith for this.

I love you all. I'll write more on Sunday.

Or Monday.

Maybe.

Hoop Dreams

March Madness is upon us and a quick review of my previous posts has concluded that I have never written about my foray into semi-professional basketball with Cyber D and Q. A couple of years back we decided as a cohesive unit to enter the regional Hoop It Up tournament. Cyber D had been working out and Q had been hitting the weight room. I myself am a renowned athlete (if you've ever been to North Texas you've probably heard) so we entered the highest level group figuring it would only be fair.

So it happened on a sweltering (105 degrees!!) Texas summer day we all met up in the West End section of downtown Dallas prepared to dominate the competition. We attracted quite a few looks at registration, but that tends to happen when people are intimidated. After getting checked in we still had some time before out first game so we headed to the Spaghetti Warehouse for some carbs drenched in alfredo sauce to give us energy through out the day. Afterwards Cyber D was still feeling parched so we stopped by Dick's on the way to the playing area. Cyber D fronted for some margaritas and shrimp cocktails. Cyber D does everything better after a few margaritas. Everything.

At 12:15 pm we headed to court #5 to meet our first opponent. We checked in with the officials and locked eyes with our enemy. Introductions were made and went thus:

Douchebag #1: Hey, I'm Phil. This is Tyreke and this is Steve. Pretty hot out here, huh? I hope you hydrated.

Daggs: Don't worry about us miscreant!!! I almost pity you for having to face my wrath on this day! My friends and family call me by name, but in basketball I am widely know as the Earl of Dunkington for my vicious dunks!!! (The recently passed legislation, Truth in Declarative Statements Act of 2009, compels me to disclose that I have been known to throw down some vicious dunks-windmills, 360's, tomahawks, etc-but they have mainly been after jumping off my best friend's bed and slamming on the nerf hoop hanging from his door. In our two man nerf league I am called the Earl of Dunkington by at least half the league)

Q: People call me P.C. for People's Court, because when I preside over the court the verdict is victory!! (much hi-fiving between the three of us) (Once again the Truth in Declarative Statements Act of 2009 requires me to admit that where-as Cyber D and I have called him a "P" and a "C" neither of those stand for the words "People's" or "Court")

Cyber D: And I am called the Horse's Tail, 'cause once I find the range it's nothing but swish, swish, swish. (this is accented by his miming a very limp wristed jump shot repeatedly) (The TDSA of 2009 would have me mention that Q and I have asked Cyber D not to do this at the basketball court numerous times. We have also encouraged a new nick name)

To make a long story short we left the tournament shortly after. We did learn a few things that we did not know before hand.
1) It turns out that a lighter meal would have been better on such a hot day. Three minutes in to the game stomachs were churning. Eight minutes in stomachs were emptied.
2) They don't allow you to bring a bed to jump off of to perform your vicious dunks. There was nothing about that on the website. That was a lot of extra manual labor that was wasted.
3) Costumes do not earn you extra points from the "judges". Q said that he had heard that they would, but they didn't. We had all dressed like our namesakes. Me in a 14th century courtiers costume, Q was wearing a judges robes and powdered wig, Cyber D was in a half of a horse costume. He looked like Pan.

Real quick and fast

I've been sick. I feel better now. Older but better. I haven't seen the Watchmen yet. I did find this video today. I can't wait.

Soccer

The soccer season is back and I am happy. Although we didn't get the result we were looking for in the first game I saw several promising things. Hopefully I can keep the girls from having too many costly brain farts and we can do better from here on out.

I know that I have probably watched more youth soccer than 99% of Americans. I actually enjoy watching it and seeing what level the kids are at. So I post this video knowing that it might only appeal to a very very small segment of people out there. This is a six year old kid in France that is amazing. He does great cutbacks, pullbacks, rainbows, step overs, dekes and more. If you've ever watched your young child playing for a team at this age just be glad he/she didn't face this kids' team.

So I was Thinking and Stuff...

Recently I watched an independent movie that I really enjoyed called The Pirates of the Great Salt Lake. It's about some modern age guys that decide that they were destined to become pirates and so they head off to live by the pirates code. It reminded me of my great and real desire in middle school to become a pirate one day and gave me some good insight to what it probably would have been like. Of course White Rock Lake in Dallas would have had a different dynamic, but otherwise fairly similar I think. Anyway Netflix or Blockbuster this movie. It is genius. It gets a solid A-.


Reminiscing about my plans to one day be a pirate also got me to thinking about other plans that I had in middle school. For example I was fairly sure that I would be driving a motorcycle by now. The motorcycle is by far the coolest vehicle. It has been driven by American heroes like Captain America, Arthur Fonzerelli, Maverick (from Top Gun), Evil Knievel, and Super Dave Osborne. There have plenty of others of course, but I think I made my point. I knew that things could vary and there were other options as well, but a motorcycle seemed much more economical than driving Big Foot or Blue Thunder. Anyway, none of that has come to pass. I guess you could say that the cruel and unexpected twists and turns in my life have been utterly devastating, but I carry on. I just make sure that I let my kids know that nothing they have planned in their lives will ever come true. Except death.

What's Dagromm Listening To???

That's the question I know that is on everyone's mind. Being on the forefront of of the music industry and pop culture like I am you get used to hearing questions like this. People want to know "what is cool" and they know where to find it. Me.

So this is what has been ringing around my ears lately.


The Ting Tings
I've been semi-obsessed with them for a month or more now. I love the way this song builds and I'm crushing on the lead singer.


The Blue Hearts
Rock and roll baby!! This group amps up some punk furiosity and I dig it. And yes furiosity is a word. I just created it. Feel free to spread your own furiosity at your discretion.


Katy Perry
This is my daughter's favorite video right now and so gets played through the Dagromm household quite a bit. I know that many others also love Katy Perry, so I'm just here to tell you that it's ok.