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"  In 1983, I spent a year in Austin, filming Blood Simple with the Coen brothers. For a Jewish kid from Washington Heights, New York, that was an exotic locale.  From the day I arrived in Texas until the present, I have embraced all things Cowboy. This is particularly distressing to Sweetie (the wife), since she grew up outside of Fort Worth and has made it her business to disentangle herself from almost all things Cowboy. Except for the occasional pair of fluorescent Nikes, you&amp;#039;ll never see my feet bound by anything other than cowboy boots. They&amp;#039;re comfortable, they make you an inch taller, and they embrace affectation. I have a dozen pairs, from Lucchese, Billy Martin, and the Bounty Hunter of Telluride, Colorado (the same place that makes my cowboy hats). I&amp;#039;ve got boots made of boa, distressed sheep (the boot maker&amp;#039;s description, not mine), leather, and ostrich. The most indestructible ones I own are made of stingray. I also have a pair of Vibram-soled kickers for the big winter snows. Here&amp;#039;s how to make a statement in cowboy boots: Focus on the lower half of the boot. It&amp;#039;s a shame and a temptation to have cool cactuses and longhorns fashioned out of fur on the upper half. You find yourself wondering if you can tuck your pants inside the boot. You can&amp;#039;t. So let your boots make a statement where they can be seen. My advice for your first pair of boots is to go with the textured pearlescent stingray. They&amp;#039;re distinctive, and they make an excellent conversation piece. I&amp;#039;ve owned three pairs of Billy Martin stingrays (black, blue, and green) for close to 20 years. With the exception of replacing soles and heels, they haven&amp;#039;t been pampered at all, not even a shine. (You don&amp;#039;t shine stingray; it&amp;#039;s part of the appeal.) The front end of the Billy Martins comes to a point a good half inch beyond the end of the sole -- very similar to a Formula One race car. One warning about the rays: You really need to fit them perfectly. The skin is so tough that they can&amp;#039;t be stretched. I can&amp;#039;t tell you how many compliments I&amp;#039;ve received walking around town, wearing my white cowboy hat, pinstripe Etro suit, and a pair of distressed-sheep-and-boa boots (pictured). Well, maybe not so much compliments as comments. Embracing your inner cowboy is not for sissies. Barry Sonnenfeld is the director of Get Shorty and Men in Black and the producer of Pushing Daisies on ABC. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/cars/a4246/digital-man-0308/>