She Likes to Watch

“The Big Lebowski” celebrates 10 years: Hardly a lightweight

Aficionados of “The Big Lebowski” have to be some of the most feverish fans known to filmdom.

They quote the Coen brothers’ comedy incessantly. They attend conventions held at bars and bowling alleys. They proudly identify themselves as “Achievers” and wear T-shirts emphasizing the fact.

In fact, “The Big Lebowski” — first released in theaters on March 6, 1998 — seems to inspire the kind of fierce loyalty usually awarded to cult leaders and the dictators of Third World countries. Maybe it’s the movie’s vintage vibe — a blend of private eye caper and stoner comedy. Maybe it’s the offbeat humor. Or maybe it’s the fact that, deep inside every one of us, there’s a bit of the laidback slacker known as The Dude.

Achievers will gather this weekend in San Francisco for Lebowski Fest, a two-day celebration of all things Lebowski.

The fun starts tonight with a screening of the film and music by the Extra Action Marching Band, The Dead Hensons (a Muppets tribute band) and Meshugga Beach Party (a Jewish surf band). Then there’s a bowling party and costume contest on Saturday.

Jeff Dowd, the curly-haired inspiration for The Dude, plans to attend.

Meanwhile, two 10th anniversary editions of “The Big Lebowski” come out on DVD on Tuesday, Sept. 9. One drool-worthy set features two discs in a miniature red-and black bowling ball. Be still my beating heart!

Rolling Stone magazine has also rolled out the red carpet for “The Big Lebowski,” dedicating a big chunk of its latest issue to “The Decade of the Dude.”

Available online now is Andy Greene’s well-written paen to the Coen brothers’ masterpiece, as well as Q-and-A sessions with Jeff Bridges (The Dude), Steve Buscemi (Donny) and John Goodman (Walter).

There’s also a video interview with Bridges, a feature on the movie’s awesome soundtrack, Lebowski-related links and a gallery of sweet pics.

This Aug. 22 issue is now on newsstands, so you can bet I’ll be picking up a copy.

Why, it’s enough to make any cat switch his workday duds for a robe, jellies and a White Russian. The Dude abides.

The Dude Abides: “Big Lebowski” tonight

It’s kinda like a cult. Or a pyramid scheme.

First one friend watches it, then another. Before you know it, your best friend from high school is pinning you to the couch with a feverish gleam in his/her eyes and saying, “Dude, you gotta watch ‘The Big Lebowski.’”

So you pop it in, and you watch it, and you laugh a few times. You put “Lebowski” back on the shelf. A few days, weeks, years later, you pick it up again, watch it. And you rewind it and watch it. And you watch it again.

Finally you realize: “The Big Lebowski” is brilliant.

It’s a private eye caper with a White Russian-drinking, pot-smoking bathrobe-wearing slacker as its reluctant hero. A case of mistaken identities and missing toes. It’s got ‘Nam vets. Nihilists. Porn. Paraplegics.

And bowling. Lots of bowling.

You’re converted.

Before you know it, you’re telling college roommates, co-workers, random people on street corners. You’re reading blogs and buying books with titles like “I’m a Lebowski, You’re a Lebowski.” You’re attending a convention at a bowling alley, dressed up like Maude or Walter or “the Jesus.” Chatting with all of your fellow freaks.

The cult of Lebowski? It’s your cult now.

And you’ve never felt so right.

***

For a movie that’s smart, funny and oh-so-Coen Brothers, catch “The Big Lebowski” tonight at the Palm Theatre, 817 Palm St. in San Luis Obispo.

Showtimes are 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. Tickets are $7.50.

* Photo courtesy of MovieWeb.

“I won’t say a hero, ’cause, what’s a hero? Sometimes, there’s a man. And I’m talkin’ about the Dude here — the Dude from Los Angeles. Sometimes, there’s a man, well, he’s the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that’s the Dude.”
— The Stranger, in “The Big Lebowski”

A few weeks ago, “Mutts” comic author Patrick McDonnell devoted a week’s worth of strips to the cult movie “The Big Lebowski.”

This is the 10th anniversary of the film by Ethan and Joel Cohen, whose “No Country for Old Men” is up for eight Oscars, including Best Picture, during Sunday’s Academy Awards.

“The Big Lebowski” tanked at the box office in 1998, but has since found an audience through video and DVDs, which has spawned a festival, a fan book, T-shirts, posters, bobbleheads and action figures. Fans proudly call themselves “Achievers,” a reference to the “Little Lebowski Urban Acheivers” mentioned in the movie.

The plot, a play on Raymond Chandler’s “The Big Sleep,” concerns a soiled rug, bowling, nihlists, a kidnapping and a severed toe. The lead character is a slacker named Lebowski (played by Jeff Bridges) who goes by the moniker “the Dude.”

He is assisted by his friends and bowling partners Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) and the hapless Donny (Steve Buscemi).

The Dude is confused with another man named Lebowski — a millionaire whose wife owes money to a known pornographer. One of the thugs who comes to collect on the debt pees on the Dude’s rug, which the Dude laments “really tied the room together,” and sets the story in motion.

Along the way we learn a lot about the Dude and his world, which includes Walter, an obnoxious Vietnam vet who runs his own security business.

McDonnell’s strip “Mutts,” which appears in more than 700 newspapers — including The Tribune — in 20 countries, struck a chord with Lebowski fans. We liked McDonnell’s style, so we sought him out to find out his rationale for the comic tribute to the cult classic “The Big Lebowski.”

It took more than a week to get our questions to him and for him to e-mail the responses. Here they are:

What prompted you to devote a weeks worth of Mutts to “The Big Lebowski”?

Of all the characters in your strip, why did you choose Mooch (the cat) to mimic the Dude?

I’ll answer the first two questions together. I’m an admirer of the Coen brothers’ work, and of “The Big Lebowski” in particular. While watching it again recently I was thinking how cat-like the Dude is. I saw similarities with my Mooch character. So I thought it might be fun to do Mooch as the Dude. A bathrobe is the perfect garment for a house cat.

What has the reaction of fans of the strip or movie been to the strips?

I just came back from a Midwest book tour, and met quite a few “Achievers” who picked up on the reference. Of course there are other “Mutts” readers who are “amateurs” but, hopefully, they enjoyed the strips as well.

So, are you, Patrick McDonnell, an “Achiever”?

Yesh.

The film turns 10 years old this year. When did you first discover it? Did someone turn you on to it?

I don’t go to the movies much. I first saw it when it came out on video, and it blew me away.

How many times have you watched it?

I’m not sure, but probably a half-dozen times.

There is only one pet in the movie; in Walter’s parlance, a “Pomeranian” with papers. What else about the film appeals or speaks to you?

Actually, you are forgetting the nice marmot. I just think the movie is great on all levels. It has amazing characters and dialogue, and a Zen quality that appeals to me.

Who’s your favorite Lebowski character?

The Stranger. He ties the movie together.

How has being a fan of “Lebowski” made you a better person and/or cartoonist?

“The Big Lebowski” has helped me along on my artistic and spiritual journey across the sands of time.

There have been numerous Lebowski Festivals held throughout the country — New York, Louisville, Ky., Las Vegas, Los Angeles and, next month, a sold-out event in Chicago. Have you ever been to one?

No, but it would be fun to roll and have a sarsaparilla.

During these festivals there are costume contests where people dress up as characters or objects from the movie, such as Larry Seller’s homework or Larry’s social studies teacher. What character would you be and why?

I’d probably be the Dude. I know that’s not very original, but as a cartoonist who works at home, I already have a similar wardrobe.

What’s your favorite Lebowski movie line?

“The Dude abides.” That just about sums it all up.

• • •

“The Dude abides. I don’t know about you but I take comfort in that. It’s good knowin’ he’s out there. The Dude. Takin’ ’er easy for all us sinners.”
— The Stranger, in “The Big Lebowski”

Check out this link to the official site for “Mutts” comics.

“Mutts” is distributed by King Features Syndicate.

Photo of Patrick McDonnell and his dog Earl is by Kim Levin.

— Jay Thompson

I may be a dork of great magnitude. Because I recently became pretty excited when I learned that Jeff Bridges was a surfer.

I mean, it just seemed so right: The guy who played The Dude in “The Big Lebowski” – and a penguin named Big Z in “Surf’s Up” — just had to surf.

An avid surfer in high school, the Santa Barbara resident apparently dropped out of the sport for about 25 years before recently returning to the lineup.

“It’s a wonderful metaphor, catching a wave, for how you look at other challenges in life,” he told moviesonline.com.

Right on, Dude.

So that got me thinking about other celebrities who surf. Back in the 30s, Jackie Coogan – a famous child actor who later gained fame as Uncle Fester in “The Addams Family” – was frequently found surfing Malibu. More recently, celebs like Paris Hilton, Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck and David Beckham have flirted with The Stoke. But Paris Hilton probably just wanted to be seen on a surf board. And Beckham’s insurance companies usually won’t permit him to play anything but soccer.

Still, there are plenty of celebrities who have really surfed. Here are a few:

• Chris Isaak. Isaak took up surfing later in life (his early 30s), but he got the fever in a big way. A friend of big wave surfer Doc Rennecker, he has often been spotted paddling out at the notoriously treacherous Nor-Cal spot, Maverick’s, on 15-foot days. “Surfing, if anything, helps me be relaxed enough so I can want to go back and write,” Isaak told the Tribune in 2003. “It just keeps you kind of mellow and balanced.”

• Ben Harper. Another surfing musician, Harper grew up a skater. But like Isaak, he gets musically inspired by the waves. “The ocean is extremely melodic,” he told Surfing Magazine. “Whenever I am in the ocean and paddling out, ideas come to me in a way that they don’t in other places. I think anybody who surfs will tell you, you hear music when you surf; it’s a weird phenomenon.”

• Adam Sandler. A regular in the Malibu line-up (when he’s not making gazillions on a movie), he’s known to be a decent surfer and a down-to-earth guy, even when guys in the lineup pitch movie ideas to him.

• Aaron Carter. The ‘tween heartthrob was hospitalized after a “minor surf accident” that required brief hospitalization in San Diego last year.

• Bruce Springsteen. Springsteen was known to surf the Jersey shores as a kid. I’m not sure if he still does surf, but in the book “Springsteen: Songs,” there’s a photo of an adult Springsteen sitting in front of three surfboards at his home.

• Cameron Diaz. (That’s her at the top in a still photo from “Charlie’s Angels”) A good friend of surf legend Kelly Slater, she told Self Magazine: “Surfing is a religious experience for me. You get to be a part of Mother Nature and experience its power. I have great respect for the ocean. It’s full of life and its energy is constant. When you ride a wave, it comes from across the ocean, from 1,500 miles away, and you get on it and ride it to shore, where its journey ends.”

• Jack Johnson. During my surf trip to San Onofre last summer, the campground was alive with the music of Jack Johnson, whose mellow tunes provide the soundtrack for many surfers. A former pro surfer, he frequently writes music on surf trips.

• Minnie Driver. According to various accounts, Driver, seen surfing in this video, once nearly got pounded by another surfer in the lineup. She was about to yell at the surfer when, upon a closer look, she saw it was Bruce Willis.

* Orlando Bloom. Well, I don’t know a whole lot about Bloom’s surfing abilities. But here’s a shot of him on a decent-looking wave in Hawaii.

• Eddie Vedder. With all his dark and moody Pearl Jam lyrics, you might be surprised to learn that Vedder is a ukulele-playing surfer. But he turned to the waves, in part, as a reaction to a tumultuous childhood. When asked the difference between performing for a packed house and riding big waves, he told Outside Magazine: “With a packed house, unless you say something incredibly offensive to God or country, a crowd of 15,000 people will not kill you. I guess they could if they wanted to, but they will not all jump on you at the same time and hold you down for two minutes. That’s the difference between a big crowd and a big wave. When Kelly (Slater) takes me to Waimea Bay, that wave does not give a sh– who I am.”
–Pat P.

I swear I’m not one of those movie quote people.

You know what I mean, right? I’m talking about those folks who seem to have no original thoughts of their own. Instead, everything they say is a line from John Travolta in “Pulp Fiction,” an impression of Billy Murray talking about gophers or some obscure monologue from a Monty Python flick they’ve seen 146 times.

Well, that’s just not me. For one thing, I can’t remember quotes from a movie I saw 30 minutes earlier. Secondly, people who incessantly recite movie lines tend to be —how shall I put this . . .

Dorks.

I mean, yeah, I appreciate good dialogue like everyone else. But if the guy in the cubicle next to you can’t seem to avoid the Luke Skywalker lines, well . . . Houston, we’ve got a problem, if you know what I mean.

Now, okay — here’s the thing, though. I do find myself often reciting lines like, “You’re out of your element!” “That rug really tied the room together, did it not?” and “I can get you a toe by 3 o’clock this afternoon.”

Which could — in theory — qualify me for dork status. But I think this is an exception. After all, “The Big Lebowski” is no ordinary movie. Heck, nearly a decade after the film was made, even the actors recite lines from it.

That’s one of the many things I’ve gleaned from “I’m a Lebowski, You’re a Lebowski,” a new book from the guys who created Lebowski Fest. If you don’t know what the title refers to, you might as well stop reading this blog entry (as if you haven’t already). Because this book is pretty much for the Lebowski faithful, those who simply can’t see Jeff Bridges in an movie without saying, “Hey — it’s The Dude!”

“The Big Lebowski” is, of course, the Coen brothers’ classic noir comedy that somehow tanked at the box office but has taken on a huge life as a cult classic. The Lebowski Fest has taken place in several states and is now prepared to cross the ocean.

The book is great because it features interviews with many of the actors in the movie and the people who inspired the characters.

Some interesting tidbits:

· Much of the Dude’s wardrobe — including the jelly shoes — came from Bridges’ own closet. “Lebowski” is his favorite movie.
· John Turturro has pitched a spin-off to the Coen brothers that would spotlight his character, Jesus. (Don’t count on it, though. The Coen brothers aren’t into sequels.)
· Larry, the kid who stole the Dude’s car, was inspired by a real-life teen car thief who now works in the film industry.
· Jerry Haleva, the guy who played Saddam, had a career working at the California legislature and is now a lobbyist. He has appeared as Saddam in every movie he has appeared in — six total.
· The Coen brothers were very particular about their lines, inserting “uh’s” and “ah’s” to mimic real language. Julianne Moore, who played Maude Lebowski, said she filmed one really long sequence, which the Coen brothers liked, but then made her redo because she added one word: “really.”
· One of the inspirations for Walter is John Milius, who wrote “Apocalypse Now.” Milius describes himself as a militaristic Republican — sort of a fish out of water in Hollywood. He is also one of the original founders of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

— Pat P.

NOTE: Today’s blog is presented Larry King-style, with bolded names and entries that have no connection to each other.

***
OK, I have a confession to make.

I went to the movie “Surf’s Up” over the weekend on the premise that I thought our 3-year-old daughter would like it. But in reality I just really wanted to see it myself.

And wow. How fun. If you’re a fan of surfing or “The Big Lebowski” — or even if you’re one of those weird, into-penguins people — you’ll get a huge kick out of this.

I’ve seen quite a few surf movies, and I have to say “Surf’s Up” is better than many. First of all, it has a story. And secondly, believe it or not, I think it captures the surfing experience far better than, say, “Blue Crush.” (Don’t laugh – it was work-related!) You really sense this as Cody — a surfing penguin — barely paddles over his first big wave in the “Big Z Memorial” contest. But beyond that it captures the vibe so well, the writers have to be surfers themselves.

Maybe I’ll look it up sometime. But not now.

Also noteworthy was Jeff Bridges, whose character is basically The Dude from “Big Lebowski” — that is, if the Dude was a big fat penguin who can charge giant waves like Laird Hamilton, except that he doesn’t have the nice tan Laird has.

I wasn’t surprised to see lots of kids in the crowd. But I figured there’d be more surfers. The film features several nods to popular surf movies like “Step Into Liquid” and “Riding Giants.” And it’s definitely not all kid humor.

Besides, that surfing chicken? HILARIOUS!

And, yeah — my daughter liked it, too.

***

Speaking of my daughter, getting a 3-year-old ready for a musical is quite a challenge. On Sunday, Sunny performed in “Peter Pan,” put on by the Pacific Dance Center, at the Spanos Theater. It was a small part, of course — she’s only three — but I think it’s important for her to experience being in front of a crowd. And I want to support the studio.

The problem is, the play started around 3 p.m., which is pretty much smack in the middle of Sunny’s nap time. In fact, it’s pretty much smack in the middle of every 3-year-old’s nap time, which is why you don’t want to be in a dressing room full of 3-year-olds at 3 p.m. By the time they went on stage, I was ready for a nap.

But they pulled it off. And, unlike in last winter’s “A Nightmare Before Christmas,” Sunny didn’t hit anyone in the head with a shoe this time.

***

The new album by Wilco is pretty great, by the way. Jeff Tweedy’s voice often sounds like John Lennon’s on this one, and there are some terrific, but not overdone guitar solos. This is a mellow album with insightful lyrics. That it was atop the Billboard charts recently restores a little faith in the music industry, even though I still think it’s awful.
***

I was happy to see in our recent online poll that no one thought The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band” was “vastly overrated” or “the worst album ever.” (55% thought it was the best ever.)

Granted, 40 responses doesn’t exactly meet Gallup Poll standards. Still, I would’ve been discouraged if anyone didn’t like this Beatles masterpiece.

***

If you want to talk about overrated albums, though, I’d like to nominate Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.” I mean, I dig the concept, and I can appreciate innovation in sound. But the album just . . . bores me.

In fact, rumor has it that if you play the film “Wizard of Oz” to “Dark Side of the Moon,” the album still really sucks.

Yet, classic rock stations just can‘t get enough Floyd.

So, at the risk of upsetting stoners with Floyd flags hanging from their ceiling, I’d like to propose a 5-year radio moratorium on Pink Floyd.

And as soon as it comes out on DVD, I’m going to recommend you play “Surf’s Up” to the Beach Boys’s “Pet Sounds.” Now that’s trippy.

— Pat P.