Do you see what happens, Larry?

Our excursion to Lebowski Fest was a success. Benji, Greg, and I drank many White Russians, Miller High Lifes, some Wild Turkey, Bloody Marys, a few black and tans, and some Kahlua brand chocolate milk advertised as White Russinas. Yes, we stumbled upon a magical recipe and drank the exact right proportion of each one. The result was drunkenness.


At left, I am posing serruptitiously with James G. Hoosier who played Liam, Jesus's partner, in the movie. He was the featured celebrity guest of the weekend. He seemed quite willing to throw his arm around a stranger to have his picture taken, but I thought this would be less intrusive and more funny.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that Greg overshot the mark, shall we say, on Friday night and got so drunk that we thought it best that we leave before we were thrown out. In a nutshell, acute intoxication and bowling bowls do not mix well.

The next day, "we" resolved to pace "ourselves" a little better (below right). There were many bands, they showed the movie on Friday night around midnight, many people dressed in costume on Saturday, many more dressed in t-shirts with lines from the movie, and, most importantly, there was much alcohol and bowling.

There was also a booth where you paid to have the Derby City Roller Girls spank you with a studded paddle (below left). Another booth had a marmot toss, and yet another booth had draft beer and a policewoman checking IDs.



After the outside milling around, drinking draft beer, and looking at costumes, we made our way to the bowling alley in anticipation of the bowling. The line was quite long, but we had draft beers and nearby portajohns to while away the time. In the distance of the picture of the line, you can see one of the many Walter Sobchaks that attended. I smuggled in a pint of vodka to spike our White Russians. I wish I had smuggled in more.

Once inside we grabbed a lane and started inviting others to join (each lane was supposed to get 12 people for each game). And we bowled, drank, met some young bucks from Chicago and several locals.




More bowling, drinking, meeting people in some pretty elaborate Lebowski costumes (left), and a midnight cab ride through the McDonald's drive thru, that haunted me for many hours.

And to close, I can't help but retell for about the fifth time the story of the ride home. I'll just give you the dialog...

Benji (to Paul the cab driver): I bet you've seen some pretty crazy stuff in this cab.
Paul: If you can imagine it, it's happened in this cab.
One of us (maybe me): Has anyone had sex in the backseat?
Paul: No.
Lou: Any drug use in the cab?
Paul: No. If I let that go on, I'd lose my job real fast.
Lou: How about two girls making out?
Paul: No.
[...long pause...]
Lou: How about a person in a costume?
Paul: Yes. That's happened.