A man with goals

The polite rebel sits with hands folded at the Baseball Tavern on an eerily quiet evening when the Red Sox are out of town and even the men at the bar speak in hushed tones. Mikey Powell -- lacrosse icon, musician, filmmaker, and T-shirt designer -- is not here not to talk about the sport that has brought him to play attack for the Cannons, Boston's professional lacrosse team (yes, Boston has a professional lacrosse team ). The man who is poised to become the city's next jock-of-the-moment wants to talk about style.

"People expect me to act a certain way," says Powell -- who will play in pro lacrosse's all-star game Sunday at Harvard Stadium -- with a touch of teenage defiance creeping into his voice. "They expect me to dress a certain way. I've always made it clear that I'm going to dress how I'm going to dress. I'm going to act how I'm going to act."

The youngest of three lacrosse - playing brothers from upstate New York, Powell, 24, has made it a point to strip lacrosse of its preppy trappings and drag its Ivy League image into the world of extreme sports. Powell paints his sun-shielding eyeblack in the shape of two triangles that resemble bat wings, and the line of T-shirts that he designs for Milford-based Brine Equipment is entirely variations of his bat-wing logo. The under-eye bat wings are frequently copied by young fans who admire Powell's lacrosse tricks, and his devil-may-care attitude on style.

"My sense of style changes all the time," he says shortly before his band Villains Trust takes the stage at the Baseball Tavern. "A lot of it changes with my hair, believe it or not. Usually I have long hair, and when I have long hair, I tend to dress a little bit like a rock star. When I have shorter hair, I tend to buy more expensive things. Nicer stuff that my parents would look at me and say, 'You look nice.' "

While Powell is still learning about Boston -- he's still living between New York State and Denver, but looking to move to Boston in the near future -- we asked this renaissance jock with the movie-star smile about his Boston favorites, along with his sartorial and cultural influences.

HE'S BOSTON'S ANSWER TO BATMAN: "I made up my logo. It's two wings. I wear eyeblack when I play in big black wings under my eyes. So now every kid who plays lacrosse wears them. [When it comes to his T-shirt line] I tell them what items need to be made, and what I'd like in my line, and they'll go out and source everything. They show me the samples, if I like them, we go ahead and do it. I do 50 to 75 percent of the design work on them. I'll hand them rough sketches of the designs that I'd like to see on the shirts. It's pretty cool."

HE'S A MUSICAL PRODUCT OF THE 1990S: "I play rhythm guitar and sing with my band Villains Trust. We've been compared to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, which is very cool. A lot of people compare my songwriting style to Jack Johnson. You hear a little Dave Matthews here and there. That was the era that I grew up in. I was a huge Dave Matthews fan. My favorite musician of all time is Martin Sexton. I listen to Adam Ezra from the Adam Ezra Group. He's a lacrosse player. He and I get together and write songs."

HE'S ALREADY MAKING THE SCENE HERE: "I'm fortunate. I have a friend Ace [Gershfied] who works with 6 One 7 Productions , so Ace keeps me up to date on what's going on around town. He's had me into District. That's a cool place to eat and hang out. I've been there quite a bit. Late night, when I need some grub, I've been going over to News Cafe."

HE'S AN ACTOR/DIRECTOR TRAPPED IN THE BODY OF A LACROSSE PLAYER: "I always wanted to be an actor growing up. I would always put on shows for my family. When I was 5 years old, my family bought me a video camera for Christmas. I got a tripod, set it up, and did different skits for hours and hours. Now that I have my website ( mikeypowell.com ), it's an opportunity for me to show kids I'm a normal guy with my short films. I can be goofy, too. Kids like to see that. They don't always want to see a professional athlete driving a Cadillac Escalade."

HE'S A JEANS AND T-SHIRTS GUY: "I'm a big T-shirt guy. I don't really care what they look like, it's all about feel for me. I wear a lot of vintage, soft stuff. I like the American Apparel soft shirts. That's what all my T-shirts are printed on. I definitely focus on the feel of T-shirts rather than the look. I'm pretty simple."