Tell me about your relationship to "The Big Lebowski".
"Dammit, Donny!" (laughs). I'm a huge fan of the Coen brothers, and everybody can relate to The Dude in some shape or form. His best friends are making his life hard, but he just wants his rug back. There's all this stuff around him, but no matter what, he has his wants, his needs, his aspirations. It's simple -- "I just want my rug back." Especially as I get older ... I now know exactly how he's feeling.
So this isn't just another cake for you.
I have Lebowski Fest posters framed all over my house, from all over, New York, L.A. There's something about that movie that's very defining. Y'know, doing all this stuff, being on TV, people think it changes you -- but if you ask people who knew me 10 years ago, they'll tell you, I'm still the same guy. I haven't changed. I know the Coens make a lot of references to Shakespeare, but as far as The Dude goes, "to thine own self be true" says it all. He's trying to be himself. The Dude is a good guy. Maybe he doesn't have a job, he smokes pot, but he looks after his friends. Y'know, he goes to his landlord's weirdo performance art piece even though he's a weirdo Commie.
It's like our show. We don't claim to be the best, we don't put on a show, we don't put on personalities. We're just people like me and you. People can call the bakery anytime and get me on the phone eventually. Same thing for The Dude. He so reminds me of my cousin. You just gotta love him despite his faults, which are many but, y'know, he's trying. He's very human, he's very real.
Do you have any ideas about the cake that you're bringing to the fest that you can talk about now?
The rug is gonna be central. We're probably gonna do the marmot -- which is really a ferret -- a toe, a helmet, Larry's book report. We're gonna do a little of everything. We could do one massive Valkyrie helmet and everyone would get it, but … like, we could do a cassette tape of "Logjammin,' " but they might not be into porn.
Everyone will have a piece to work on -- "You make a toe, you do a white Russian, you make a coffee can full of ashes, you make a marmot."
We'll have the crew with us, filming all the craziness.
Goldman will bring the specially designed cake to Lebowski Fest on Saturday. As a bonus, his band, ... soihadto ..., will be playing the Lebowski Fest Garden Party.
c. 2008 Velocity Weekly
