The Dude

The Dude

a.k.a. Jeff Lebowski, a.k.a. Jeff Dowd. Jeff Dowd is his real name. He was a member of the Seattle Seven, but I'll digress into talking about them later. He spent a long time in the Pacific Northwest, working for the Seven Gables theatres, a chain which ran from the Seattle area down into central Oregon. He is currently a writer and producer in Los Angeles; he met the Coen brothers there and is the basis for the character the Dude. Personal accounts describe him as being in the Northwestern student activist community only to be on the scene; his current hedonist-capitalist line of work including marketing such remarkably non-revolutionary movies as Ferngully and Hoosiers seems support this theory.

The Seattle Seven were tried for inciting riots in Seattle during the heated times immediately prior and after the death of four students in the riots at Kent University and the confirmation that the United States was in Cambodia all along. Through Jeff Dowd's contested claim to the Port Huron Statement and through it an affilation with Students for a Democratic Society, a front for the Communist Party, I can connect them to the Chicago Seven, but Dowd's name is not mentioned. Considering the major nature of the Chicago group's claim to fame - being tried for conspiracy to incite a riot at a 1968 Democratic party convention - and the fact that many activist groups met to discuss the convention and what to do about it, it makes sense that Dowd would have been connected but I can't come up with any concrete proof so far. Please /msg me if you have any more information!

Work Cited
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Chicago7/Account.html
http://normgregory.com/movies/lebowski/
http://www.farfromglory.com/jeffdowd.htm
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/centennial/october/photo/seattle_seven.html
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0847020.html
Personal Interview - Robert Finley, Jr.

Everyone has met The Dude at some point, or at least A Dude. He's the guy you can find at a party, the one who supplied the beer. He is most likely a stepfather of one of your aquaintances. Socializing with The Dude is always a treat.

On one run-in with A Dude, several underage drinkers were hanging out in a garage at a kegger. Dude comes in and, in jest, I say, "O shit. Hide it, we're fucking busted." Dude says, "Shit, what, you think I'm the wife?" Priceless moments such as these are why I go to otherwise disappointing parties.

Another Dude at another party, where kids really weren't having fun. Me and a friend were a bit away from the huddled masses, and A Dude comes up and says, "Get down on your knees and drink." My friend replied, "My mom doesn't want me to." Dude says, "I don't care what your mother says." So Dude pushes him down and makes him drink from the keg for about ten seconds. Later that evening, after Dude had spread his cheer, he got on his dirtbike and raced around a cul-de-sac in circles, woo-hooing.

Dudes are fun. Next time you see one, seize the opportunity to talk these care-free people. Very transcendental.