On Sunday evening, Ken and I enjoyed attending Dale Chihuly’s birthday party at The Big Picture, just below El Gaucho restaurant downtown. In addition to great hors d’oeuvres and a light supper by talented Lisa Dupar Catering, Leslie and Dale had arranged to have his friend and movie star, Jeff Bridges, introduce the film he had selected to entertain us. There was a fun group of people there and over cocktails and supper, we had a chance to connect with Allen Shoup, Dan & Pam Baty, Susan & Jeff Brotman, Carl & Renee Behnke, Becky & Jack Benaroya, JJ McKay, Jerry & Jody Schwarz, newlyweds Jessica & Tim Blixseth, Betty Tong and Joe Miner, Kim Richter, Scott Rabinski, Barbara Malone, Ginny Ruffner, Billy O’Neill, Detra Segar, Toni & Rod Hoffman, plus many others. To my surprise, I saw several people drinking White Russians (which seemed an odd pre-dinner cocktail choice) which I didn’t understand until later in the evening once the film began.
The movie was Ethan and Joel Coen’s “The Big Lebowski”. The plotline: "Dude" Lebowski, mistaken for a millionaire Lebowski, seeks restitution for his ruined rug and enlists his bowling buddies to help get it. Jeff Bridges played the starring role of “The Dude”, endlessly smoking joints and drinking White Russian cocktails on the rocks. (At last, the earlier cocktail choices at the party made sense!)
It was fun to have Jeff introduce the movie and talk about filming it in 1998 and bringing his wife and daughters on the set just in time to see the filming of the acid flashback sequence with all the dancing girls in the bowling alley. He ended the intro with a toast to Dale’s birthday and a large birthday cake was presented. Dale had no trouble extinguishing all the candles in one breath. Obviously, he has great lungs after all the hot shop work he has done in his life! Happy Birthday, Dale!
No comments:
Post a Comment