Speed of Sound West Coast ends in San Diego. 9 more cities in September. Denver, Minny, Chicago, Toronto, Boston, NY, Philly, DC, Austin.

In-N-Out Burger with Liam and The Dude to finish up the West Coast. Conrad (middle) asked us if we'd ever seen The Big Lebowski to which Dude replied "what the fuck are you talking about?"

Private Residence waits to bowl in San Diego

Terry the bus driver (with the upset stomach) bids the Speed of Sound tour adieu in San Diego. Last event of the West Coast leg is tonight!

That ain't legal either, Dude

The Fox tonight

Speed of Sound Tour Pics! (so far) Click here for pics!

Har Mar Superstar performs his dance quintet tonight at The Fox in Oakland. Hopefully you can give him notes.

The family that bowls together, Achieves together

Liam and The Jesus in San Francisco

Portland Dudes

Achievers on CNN! CNN.com

San Francisco is ready to ABIDE http://ping.fm/NaGIB

Itty Bitty Bang Bang's Lebowski Burlesqe show in Portland was marvelous!

Portland Achievers: See you at The Aladdin tonight!

The Stranger fires one up outside the tour bus in Seattle. Photo: Justin Dylan Renney / Seattle Weekly

More Seattle Weekly Movie Party Photos here

Not exactly a lightweight: Seattle costume winner

RT @thebrianposehn http://ping.fm/hJV6k - @lebowskifest Achiever shirt sighting on the HBO Show "funny people " The Dude Abides

Speed of Sound Tour kicked off with Terry the tour bus driver vomiting on the venue floor during load-in, not saying anything and walking away. We had met him less than an hour prior to this incident. Photo credit: Tom

That creep can roll man

@HarMarSuperstar prepares for the Landlords Dance Cycle for tonight @outdoormovies

Pin suits: check

Backstage in Seattle. Check your Pin Head.

Is this, uh.. what city is this?

The Seattle 3 have landed. In search of 4 other guys to kick off the Speed of Sound Tour tomorrow!

Underappreicated Costumes Part 1

Not everyone can be a "Best Costume" finalist at a Lebowski Fest.
It's very easy, say if you're on a far bowling lane or the the judges are otherwise distracted, to fly under the radar.
There is so much going on at a Lebowski Fest, you need the After Fest Debrief Photo Share to see what you missed.

For example, I missed all the times the Chief of Police of Malibu flung a Dude backwards on a chair (and by the looks of the pictures it happened to more than one Dude). I also missed the wonderful Bunny, very free-spirited, offering her toes for the blowing.

In case you missed it, here is one of my favorite costumes form this past Annual Fest in Louisville:



I was behind her in line getting into the bowling party.
For longer than I'd like to admit, I couldn't figure out the costume.
My mind was not limber enough.
She looked like somewhat of a dog - was guessing she might be Thurston.
(That's the correct answer for who Walter "didn't" bring bowling for those of you that got tripped up in the first round of Trivia)

I asked her for help and she eagerly turned around and said,
"This is a fucking show dog with fucking papers."

And when she turned around I saw what was pinned to her shirt:


The Fucking Papers (literal connection)

That's marvelous. Also brilliant.

Then the story got a tad better. She told me her husband got into the costume finals last year.
This the husband of the FSDw/FP:

"Not on the rug man"
(Top photo from me, bottom photo by LF Fisheye expert Greg, The Mayor)

It really pulls at my romantic heart strings and gives me my own hope that my special lady friend may be out there when I see an example of a Marriage featuturing two overAchievers when it comes to costume creativity. (The Louisville couple of The Dude and Mrs. Jamtoss also fall into this category)

Sadly, it looked like her husband was slightly injured and was hobbling a tad.
I was polite and didn't ask him if he got hurt by some Chinaman in Korea or when Taking the Hill.

Everyone who was not in Louisville, instead waiting for the Speed of Sound Tour to roll into their town are at a great advantage:
-You can see the level of Achiever creativity.
-You know how high the bar is set.

I kindly ask for you to achieve, in the following modest task which is your charge:
-Take a lot of pictures, Especially of people you don't know or don't understand.

I won't be at any of the West Coast locations, but will be eagerly waiting to see which pictures are posted.[TQ]

Lebowski Fest Speed of Sound Tour starts Monday in Seattle + Portland, San Francisco, San Diego.

Achievers on NPR http://ping.fm/ygwAS

Quintana Child Care

You had to have seen it to have believed it.




What creative costume can you and your friends invent?[TQ]

8th Annual Lebowski Fest Photos http://ping.fm/5qWEI

A video that doesn't have any cosutmes in it?

On a personal level, I'm still reeling from the 8th Annual Lebowski Fest.
There are many, many topics I am hoping to discuss.

But I found this video on YouTube today - and it was refreshing in a way.

It's a like a video pallet cleanser... I'll be sure to get back on point and mention topics such as Fucking Papers and Achiever Footwear shortly.[TQ]

(More) video, dude

Thanks to "Meph" from the Forum who prefaced his video with the following message:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkiRVJXRTPI

I know that next time I want to do it a little different. Namely not entrust a drunk friend to do the camera work. But I want to get a lot of footage next time, this is my concern. I was stuck w/ a battery that didn't take a charge though it's supposed to last for 5 hours, so I was forced to limit what I could take down to about 1/2 hour worth of tape sadly. Because it'd been nice to have a full video of both days all day long with much more people involved. Oh well, I'll make damned sure that the next Fest I go to that I can make this happen, yes yes.



Last year was my first Fest, and learned that I need to bring my camera battery charger.
This year was my second Fest, and learned that I need to bring my tickets (and not leave them in Chicago).[TQ]

It's video, Dude.

The Courier-Journal posted a perfectly concise (understanding the attention span of the web viewer) video story for the Movie Night from last Friday's 8th Annual Lebowski Fest.

I'm hoping they can make the royalty checks out to cash because, and I've gotta check with, my accountant, but that this might bump me up into a higher tax uh (I'm the guy who won't stop talking in the green shirt) [TQ]

White Russian Prep - 80 Gallons of Milk

Uh, Dude, uh, tomorrow's already the tenth.

Tomorrow: July 10, 2009 is the start of the 8th Annual Lebowski Fest

I'm probably looking forward to meeting new people more than I'm looking forward to seeing people again that I've met at prior Fests. And that's saying a lot for me, because it's going to be fun to reconnect with people who love The Big Lebowski even more than I do.

You probably won't have any idea who I am, but if you see a tallish guy who people are calling "TQ" it would make my day if you told me you read this.[TQ]

Costumes, Competitiveness & Cunning

Are you ready for the Costume Contest?



The below Dude is not exactly a lightweight.



There are three burning questions in my mind when I think ahead to this Saturday's costume contest:
-Will an unknown contender challenge the above pictured Dude ("Mullethead" of Forum fame) and stop his Tiger Woods (click here if you're obviously not a golfer) type of domination in the "Best Dude" contest competition?
-How will the 7:11 Crew defend their "Best Group Costume" title? (all I know is the level of secrecy around it, which is ample)
-What will Vaughn, also known as "logjammin" of Forum fame, come up with next?

For those that don't know, and technically I'm one of them (never met the man), Vaughn's reputation precedes himself as far as all Lebowski Fest costume makers are concerned. He doesn't just build a costume for himself, he practically builds set pieces.

This man has won this title in multiple cities (most recently San Francisco) and was sadly unable to attend the 7th Annual...

He is also featured in The Achievers.

Saturday, July 11th, the legend returns.[TQ]

The Garden Party is FREE!

In case you haven't seen it on your social network of choice:

Lebowski Fest "Speed of Sound" Tour video from Lebowski Fest on Vimeo.

Does everybody realize that The Garden Party, this Saturday at the Executive Lawn (located outside the Executive Strike and Spare - 911 Phillips Lane in Louisville), is FREE!

It is, in my humble opinion, our Achiever Bailout.
Sit in a car with rust coloration
Throw the Ringer
Meet Jesus
All for no cost at all

That's marvelous

You might want to keep that in mind when you evaluate the $8 cost to see the screening of The Achievers hours prior to the start of the Garden Party.[TQ]

That Rug Really Tied The Fest Together

1 Rug for Woo to pee on: $15

Woo re-enacting the pee scene at Lebowski Fest before the movie: priceless



July 10th - Actor Philip Moon (aka Woo the carpet pisser) to appear in Louisville at The Movie Party.

Mark it.

The Dude's answer for everything

ONE WEEK TO GO!

In my last post I offered the following Sample Lebowski Fest Trivia Question:

QUESTION: What is The Dude's answer for everything?

If you answered "Bowling" you're a fuckin' amateur.
If you answered "Fuck it" you are very close*, but I'd have to say you're wrong.
If you answered "Just take it easy" I would say you are correct.

The key is in the preposition in my question.
If I had asked, "What is the Dude's answer TO everything?"
(as was stated by Jeffrey 'The Big' Lebowski)

*Then "Fuck it" would be the apt reply.

However, just minutes later Walter stated that "Take it easy" was The Dude's answer FOR everything."



If you want to ask me if there's really difference, I'd first say:
"Are we gonna split hairs here?"
Then I'd insist that the Coen Brothers were precise in how they wanted their actors to speak.
For example: as noted in I'm a Lebowski, You're a Lebowski, the famous "...a lot more uh, uh, uh, uh, complex..." was carefully scripted out.

Which is why I contend that there is a difference in the answer depending on which preposition is used in the question.

The point of this exercise is to illustrate that the Trivia Contest can be tricky, and it has to be in order to filter out the lightweights.

Dragon, of the Achiever Forum notoriety, told me a wonderful story of how a past Triva Contest was awarded in the final round. The Founding Dudes asked the finalists to list as many songs by The Eagles as possible...

They deducted one point for every Eagles song written because the true Trivia Champ would also hate the fuckin' Eagles...

Hearing that story blew my mind.

You all have one week left to cram for the best, most fun, quiz you'll ever take.[TQ]

Are you a master at Lebowski Trivia?

I remember being very excited to participate in the Trivia Contest at my first Lebowski Fest (Chicago 2008).
I also remember being completely overwhelmed by the questions.
I thought, wrongly, that I knew the film very well.

Since that moment, in the four or so months until the next Fest I attended (Louisville 2008), I watched the movie more closely and listened more intently.
It still didn't matter.
Although I did score better, I didn't make it past the first round.

I would like to pose the following trivia question to Achiever Nation.
Specifically, the people about to embark on their first foray into the trivia competition.
It will give you a good baseline...

QUESTION: What is The Dude's answer for everything?
ANSWER: (next blog post... scheduled for Friday)

Of course you are reading this on an Internet page, so you can easily click over to find the answer for yourself, but the point of this exercise is to see if you can get it right without cheating.

The trivia contest plays an important role in one of the story arcs in The Achievers: The Story of Lebowski Fans, a documentary by Eddie Chung.

Which, as been written before, will screen in Louisville at the 8th Annual Lebowski Fest on July 11th at the Crowne Plaza Hotel!

$8 at the door
3pm
Crowne Plaza Hotel
830 Phillips Ln
Coronet Room

Click back to get the answer, however I'm very confident anybody that reads LeBlogski this quickly already knows it.[TQ]