I'm sure most of you have no idea who Alisha is, so that's why I'm pointing her out today. I consider her a compeer in several ways. Besides being an IT person and working in the world of higher ed academia, Alisha also happens to be an Achiever - and not exactly a lightweight.

Loueyville.com

• Alisha has been to almost every single Lebowski Fest in Louisville
• She studied Lebowski Fest for her Masters thesis
• She made an appearance in Eddy Chung's Lebowski Fest documentary, The Achievers
• She has been in one or two of our Lebowski Fest interviews and has always had something thought provoking to say

Like I said - she's not exactly a lightweight. Last week I came across an article featuring Alisha at Loueyville.com. You should check it out.

There's a Big Lebowski themed party happening this Sunday (8/29/10) in Sacremento, California sponsored by the West Sacramento Chamber of Commerce.  Looks like local government is getting involved.  They're modeling this after Lebowski Fest, so you'll have the usual, uh, uh bowling, movie watching, contests, and what have you.  Apparently this is the 3rd annual, so they must know what they're doing.

Click here for more info - http://www.westsacramentochamber.com/

I recently got an email from http://riptapparel.com/ about their t-shirt for today.  It features The Dude!

This site is based out of Chicago and has a new t-shirt design every day.  I'm also a big fan of the modest price of $10.  Click here to get one for yourself.

For all of you who enjoyed Adam Bertocci's Shakespearean form of The Big Lebowski, you'll be happy to know he finally got his book deal.

The book will be available on October 26th and you can pre-order for the modest price of $8.76. Congratulations to Adam. I know this whole book process was filled with many roadblocks and crotch-rocket-riding-Nihilists.

Two Gentlemen of Lebowski - http://www.runleiarun.com/lebowski/

Next month, on Sept 29th 2010, you'll have a chance to purchase your very own set of Lebowski playing cards.  They are modestly priced at $4.99, but I'm not sure if this is a full set of 52 cards or not.  Your standard "deck" would include face-cards, jacks, queens, kings, aces, etc.  Hopefully it's a complete deck you could use to play any standard card game.

Click here for details - http://www.tfaw.com/Games/Profile/Big-Lebowski-Playing-Cards___368941

Some, including myself, think The Dude spends his days bowling, drinking caucasians, driving around, and occasionally having one of those acid flashbacks.  Once in a while he even solves a case or two with the help of a brother shamus.  Well today I found out ol Duder is more complex then we thought.  Did you know he likes to go to the library?  Water the plants?  Color and go to dance class?

Check this out - http://208.106.140.27/The%20Dude_5yrold.htm

I've been seeing more and more Lebowski-related tattoos lately.  Some of them are pretty cool.  If you haven't seen pictures of the guy from Lebowski Fest last month, definitely check out our pictures on our Facebook page, or check out the official Fest picts.

Here's a great Walter tattoo I came across on the web.

http://www.ratemyink.com/?action=ssp&pid=114363

If you hadn't heard yet, Jeff Bridges faces his younger self in the sequel to TRON. I know some of you have been wondering how this was done. Here's some audio with The Dude explaining how this effect was achieved.

Paul Rudd recently made a trip with his family to Ireland to spread his father's ashes. They went to a lighthouse, where they had worked something out with the owner, to spread the ashes from there. Afterward they had some left so the group decided to spread the rest from some cliffs. Unfortunately with all the wind, they got a few blown back into their faces. I know this sounds terrible, but this is what Paul says in an interview with David Letterman, and Paul makes this out to be a funny story. His exacts words were, "we Lebowski'd ourselves." Check out the video below.

I always find it interesting to ask someone what their top 5 or 10 things are in their own field. For example, asking musicians and recording artists what their top 5 bands or albums are. One thing I don't see too often though is asking actors, or those involved in the film industry, what their top 5 films are. Matt Atchity from RottenTomatoes.com went one step further and asked Jeff Bridges what his top 5 films were out of his own list of acting credits.

Five Favorite Films With Jeff Bridges - http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/san_diego_comic_con_2010/news/1920207/five-favorite-films-with-jeff-bridges/

You might be surprised to see the five that Bridges picked.

The Amateurs (2005) - This film came out in 2005, but it was originally a limited release to the United Kingdom under the title The Moguls. It was probably best to change the name for the US release because how many really know what a mogul is? Unfortunately even with the name change, it never really took off here in the states. Jeff even did a release tour of sorts where they traveled to five or so cities do a Q&A session afterward. I know in Dallas this was at the local Angelika theater. A friend of ours, Dan Prall, was in attendance dressed as Walter and recorded himself asking a question. You can find it here - Dallas Angelika.  We even did an episode (Episode 14 - The Amateurs) on the film and gave our thoughts.  We really loved the film and highly suggest you watch it.

Tideland (2005) - Terry Gilliam is one of those film directors with amazing artistic talents and ideas.  I just have no clue what he's doing half the time.  I really enjoy what he did with Monty Python, and some of his films really resonate with me.  Tideland, unfortunately, was not one of them.  I know Bridges really enjoys working with Gilliam.  Along with this film, they also collaborated on The Fisher King.  That's a film I enjoy.  Maybe I just need to watch Tideland again, but it'd really help if someone explained a few things and helped me along.

The Last Picture Show (1971) - I don't think I've ever seen this film, but everyone raves about it.  I believe this is the first film where Jeff received a Best Actor nomination for an Academy Award.  This is also the first of two films Bridges has been involved with a sequel.  Texasville was the follow up to this.  The other sequel pair would be TRON and TRON: Legacy.

Crazy Heart (2009) - I don't think I can think of a single bad thing to say about this flick.  It's just simply amazing.  Many compared this to Mickey Rourke's comeback in The Wrestler (2008), but Crazy Heart is so much more than that.  Jeff Bridges embodies characters and sells the part.  When watching this film you believe he is Bad Blake.  If you haven't seen this you must watch it - like this week.  You need to watch it this week.

Bad Company (1972) - No, this isn't the 2002 film with Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock.  It's the Civil War film from 1972 with Jeff Bridges.  This is another film I have not seen yet, but I'm more interested now that I've seen it on this list.  When seeing the cover, it has always reminded me of Wild Bill, the Western where Bridges plays Wild Bill Hickok.

So there you have it - Jeff Bridges top five films in which he acted.  This may seem kind of weird, and would be for some actors, but Jeff Bridges currently has76 acting credits to his name on IMDB.  There's definitely some material to be choosing from.  What do you think of this list?  Do you agree?  Have you seen any of them?  Which five would you pick?  I think my top five would include: King Kong, White Squall, The Contender, The Amateurs, and Crazy Heart.  My list is top heavy on the later part of his career but that's mostly because I've seen just about everything he's done since the time of our first conflict with Saddam and the Iraqis.

Big thanks to Mike from the Filmjitsu podcast for bringing this article to our attention.