youknow-forkids.com Forums

Every year I plan on going to this and every year I just miss it because something comes up. So this year I really planned it out and of course I had to do something on the same day.

But I swear next year, I'll be there for sure... I hope...

I would LOVE to go to one of these events but I'm in the UK so, unless I fdancied spending a LOT of money, there's not much chance of it happening.

Paul, you might get lucky. The Lebowski Fest guys seem to do 1 out-of-town Fest every year, in addition to the one in Kentucky. If they can go to LA and Vegas, they might get around to Britain sooner or later. The hardest part will probably be finding a bowling alley, no?

Juan AKA Mark

No we have bowling alleys here too. In fact I'm not half bad myself, my best score is a 187 which is OK I think...

Certainly better than mine. I struggle to hit triple digits. It's sad, really. And I'm not even weighed down by white russians or oat sodas at the time -- I just suck at it.

Maybe if I bowled more than twice every three years I'd improve. Sounds like a lot of work though. Too much of my energy goes into, you know, driving around and the occasional acid flashback.

Mark AKA Juan

Tickets for this year's Fest in Kentucky just went on sale. And I'm finally -- FINALLY -- going.

http://lebowskifest.com/7thannual.asp

The guests this year are Liam (of course), plus Brian Posehn (Mr. Show, well-known Achiever and general fanboy) and Mike Doughty (Soul Coughing).

First on the schedule this evening was the world premiere of The Achievers Story, a film by Eddie Chung, who was present and introduced the film.

The audience was apparently much larger than expected (the seats went in no time, and many many many people had to stand at the back of the room), and very receptive to the movie. It's about an hour long, and a very loving tribute to the slightly bent love all The Achievers have for The Big Lebowski. The film received a standing ovation at the end.

Then, we had an opening party, with Pleaseeasaur, a multimedia comedy/music act (which left me personally cold, though many others seemed to enjoy it -- maybe because I just wasn't high?) and Brian Posehn came on and performed his often-raunchy comedy for about 45 minutes.

Jim "Liam" Hoosier came out and showed us his belly-shaking victory twist. Finally, we watched the movie. The audience, it seems, knew every line, and most of them even knew the proper timing and intonation. I was lucky enough to sit in front of a couple who had never seen the movie before and, as everyone else was so vocal, they felt free to laugh and exclaim as the film's mysteries were revealed. Their shock at Donnie's death was truly heartfelt.

I'll try to come back tomorrow and post a report on the Garden Party and Bowling Party. (If anyone out there is going, look for me: I'll be dressed as Brother Seamus, the Irish monk.)

Mark AKA Juan

Wow, that day was packed.

The Garden Party was a lot of fun (though it was HOT), with plenty of games (Fling The Marmot, Ringer Toss, Malibu Mug Throw, and of course the local specialty with the completely innocent name of Cornhole). There were a lot of bands, started off with Snow Monster, a brother-sister band consisting of two children under eight years old and a parent on a laptop. The day was crowned with Mike "Soul Coughing" Doughty, as he brought his mostly acoustic folk-rock troubador-style act to a loving crowd. Then, though he was scheduled to play after the bowling had already started ("The world does not stop and start at your convenience, you miserable piece of shit"), Chef Duff from Ace of Cakes played with his band.

The party moved into the bowling alley, which was packed -- it had sold out weeks ago. The costumes were all over. I saw The Beaver Picture, This Aggression Will Not Stand, and She's Gotta Feed The Monkey. Plus of course, lots of Dudes and Maudes and Walters and Jesuses, plus a Stranger or two, and even unseen characters like Burkhalter the fuck from scheduling and The Knutsens.

Jeff "The Dude" Dowd was there, of course, and Jim "Liam" Hoosier was all over the place, rolling a frame on every one of the 52 lanes in order. Duff brought out a massive specialty cake (in the shape of a severed toe, flavored with white russians), and then he and his TV crew rolled a few games as well.

The official website will be posting all the costume pictures, and even a picture of the toe cake, so direct your web browser over to http://lebowskifest.com/.

My brother and I shared a lane with two other groups of two guys, and though I'm a terrible bowler (not to mention it's hard to bowl in a monk's robe) I had an absolute blast. It can be hard to travel (there were Achievers from Manchester, UK, Iceland, and even Belgium) but it's certainly worth making the trip one of these years.

I'll be posting a few things to my music blog soon -- I'll be back to post a link when that happens.

Mark AKA Juan

Sounds an absolute blast!

I'll have to go one year- and since some guys made it from Manchester (I'm in Liverpool 25 miles away) I really have no excuse.

Please let us know when your photos are up.

So I still haven't gotten around to putting things up on my music blog, but here are a few of my brother's pictures (for the purposes of this forum, my brother's name will be Jostalettel Motaim).

http://www.geocities.com/misterplug/pictures/LebowskiFest2008.html

Enjoy!

I'll be back with links to other things soon, if luck is with me.

Mark AKA Juan

Brilliant! Let us know if you pop up more pics.

And here's my first music blog post:

http://shellgrowback.blogspot.com/2008/08/long-overdue-mike-doughty-post.html

(You can scroll down some to see my previous LebowskiFest post, with a lovely ukulele cover of "Dead Flowers" from YouTube.)

I'll tell my brother you like the photos.

Mark AKA Juan

http://shellgrowback.blogspot.com/2008/08/multiple-mondays-dead-flowers.html
is my final Lebowski-related blogpost of the year.

Mark AKA Juan