Tag: The Big Lebowski

Lebowski Influence: The Foxes Go Bowling!

This was my poorest bowling experience since I was a little kid! When your wife offers encouragement that it’s still possible for you to break 100 you know things are bad!

Helaine and I might not have found “The Big Lebowski” the best movie we’d ever seen, but it did leave an impression! That’s why Helaine’s New Years Eve afternoon question seemed reasonable.

“Want to go bowling?”

The Foxes come well prepared. We each have a bag, ball and shoes! In the garage since our last bowling foray they were covered with whatever it is that makes a garage so esthetically unique.

Helaine in her role as family archivist noted it had been a year and a half since we last bowled. In that time the lanes closest to us had closed. Off to Google for helping finding a place.

I’m sure this is my screw-up, but 600 South Colony somehow became 800 North Colony when I entered it into MapQuest4Mobil on my iPhone. That brought us to stores and people, but no bowling alley.

I asked the guy moving shopping carts toward the grocery if he knew where it was.

“You know where the tattoo place is?” he asked.

I said yes though the answer was no. We drove toward the presumed location.

This was my poorest bowling experience since I was a little kid! When your wife offers encouragement that it’s still possible for you to break 100 you know things are bad!

On the other hand the company was spectacular. I had a great time being with Helaine.

She beat me three-for-three!

The Big Lebowski: One Weird Movie

The movie is quirky, interesting, off the wall and more than a little unfocused. “Imagine a young screenwriter came in with this script?” Helaine asked.

I took tonight off as a trade for working Sunday. It was a day at rest around the house. I asked Helaine if she wanted to see a movie and so began our search through the channels.

HBO – nothing. Actually a handful of nothings. We have multiple HBOs.

Comcast On Demand – not working! Then after a support call, working. Still nothing.

“I can bring the Roku box downstairs,” I said.

I’ll write more about my so-so Roku thoughts later.

I unplugged the tiny Roku box in my office, plugged it in downstairs and turned on the TV. A few minutes later we were searching Netflix.

How can there be so much stuff and nothing you want to see?

We settled on “The Big Lebowski.” It’s a late 90s Coen Brothers movie starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Julianne Moore. That’s a helluva pedigree!

Jeff Bridges is Jeffrey Lebowski, aka The Dude. He drinks White Russians (nine during the film), smokes enough pot to have lived in my freshman dorm, and says “dude,” “man,” and the “f” word in most sentences. He is detached, often nonplussed and always charming.

John Goodman as Walter Sobchak is tightly wound, loud and intense as a presumed Vietnam vet who brought a little too much of the war home with him. Think Fred Willard, but bigger, more boisterous and very macho.

Walter Sobchak: You want a toe? I can get you a toe, believe me. There are ways, Dude. You don’t wanna know about it, believe me.
The Dude: Yeah, but Walter…
Walter Sobchak: Hell, I can get you a toe by 3 o’clock this afternoon… with nail polish.

I like Goodman as an actor. I’m not saying he’s never been in a hit film, but he has made some ‘interesting’ career choices.

The movie is quirky, interesting, off the wall and more than a little unfocused.

“Imagine a young screenwriter came in with this script?” Helaine asked. The implication was he’d be laughed off the lot… but these were the Coen Brothers and they were hot off Fargo. They were indulged.

I’m glad I saw it, but confused and a little disappointed.