Personally I like to go sailing. Not really in a big yacht or racing dinghy kind of way. i have a really cool micro yacht. She's over thirty years old and has a great character. i go out on the Med' with my friends, chuck a mackerel line over the side and all the troubles of the world melt away. Now when i go down to the boat to work on her or take her out i say I'm going 'bowling' because I'm talking about the vibe not the specific activity.
What do you think? Does bowling go beyond bowling?
Yeah man, it is a metaphor, but not always, I suck at bowling, but I find the Zen in it, what ever brings Zen/Dude into your life is "bowling".
That said I would dig going "bowling" with ya on your watery lanes.
I am 100% inconsistent when bowling, I either hit strikes or nothing.
Which in itself is a great skill.
I've come to the conclusion that bowling being the passion of the Dude is an important choice.
The relative disregard that most people feel for the sport is the point.
The Dude chooses to channel his passions into something that most people couldn't less about.
That they even malign.
Slack on the big issue and big on the slack issues sort of thing.
Quote from: revgms on June 22, 2011, 07:27:07 AM
Yeah man, it is a metaphor, but not always, I suck at bowling, but I find the Zen in it, what ever brings Zen/Dude into your life is "bowling".
That said I would dig going "bowling" with ya on your watery lanes.
Any time you or any other dude is in the South of France you are totally welcome to come water bowling. We are having a party at the yoga centre next week. 20 miles south of Perpignan, just north of the spanish border. Just PM me for details. We normally eat BBQed burgers, then jump into the stream from the waterfall (only a couple of metre drop!).
Great question Dude.
I have wondered myself, and come to a resounding YES. Bowling represents the philosophy of action in dudeism. Along with the rebel shrug, bowling makes the unsteady two legged stool that is dudeism. Bowling means, enjoy the pleasures of the flesh in a way that does no harm. Enlightened hedonism.
its doing what you love, dude. No matter the stigmas or opinions others throw around about it. You like sailing dude, fucking sail and fucking love it. You like bowling, roll them balls. you like haberdashery, Haberdash your ass off.
get into the zen of it, like it sounds that it does for you Boston and freakin abide with a wide ass stupid grin on your soul
I'd agree bowling could be anything you do to get out of yourself for a while but it should be an activity with no purpose, done for the sake of enjoying it only.
but that's just like my opinion
Quote from: banjodude on October 09, 2012, 07:44:59 AM
I'd agree bowling could be anything you do to get out of yourself for a while but it should be an activity with no purpose, done for the sake of enjoying it only.
but that's just like my opinion
I can see the Zen of your intent here.
When bowling one should just bowl.
I play a lot of video games to loose myself. it doesn't help with the stress because I get pretty wound up if a certain mission causes me to re-spawn too often.
Video games and cycling for me. I love bowling but I haven't yet found a bowling alley round here that doesnt play awful dancepop that harshes my mellow.
But as said above, it's about how you're doing it. In my case it's playing games without getting tied down by objectives, riding the bike without any concern for distance, speed or destination.
For a dude with bad back and hips, do you know of any bowling alternatives?
I think the main idea behind bowling isn't bowling itself. For me, it's more of an activity that you enjoy (hopefully with friends) no matter what others think.
Quote from: Masked Dude on December 24, 2013, 05:35:07 PM
I think the main idea behind bowling isn't bowling itself. For me, it's more of an activity that you enjoy (hopefully with friends) no matter what others think.
Drinking?
I hope so. I've had more drinking soirées than bowling parties. ;)
Well, as I said elsewhere on the forum, I recently took a lady friend bowling.
Turned out it was just bowling.
We'll go again soon though, so who knows?
Quote from: Stumblin Stumbleweed on March 15, 2014, 09:13:53 AM
Well, as I said elsewhere on the forum, I recently took a lady friend bowling.
Turned out it was just bowling.
We'll go again soon though, so who knows?
Well dude, we just don't know...
Quote from: Boston Rockbury on June 22, 2011, 06:55:29 AM
Personally I like to go sailing. Not really in a big yacht or racing dinghy kind of way. i have a really cool micro yacht. She's over thirty years old and has a great character. i go out on the Med' with my friends, chuck a mackerel line over the side and all the troubles of the world melt away. Now when i go down to the boat to work on her or take her out i say I'm going 'bowling' because I'm talking about the vibe not the specific activity.
What do you think? Does bowling go beyond bowling?
I think in the film it means just bowling, but that just happens to be the Dude's outlet that he enjoys immersing himself in. In Dudeism, I think it can be anything that sets one's mind at ease or fully distracts one from the stresses and mundanities of daily life.
I too like to go boating, and find it hard to care about much when I'm floating listening to the water crash against the boat's hull. I also enjoy motorcycling, and being alone on the open road with the bike, heading to wherever, yeah it's a pretty good feeling too man.
Whatever sets you free man!
[Walter Mode]
Goddamit! This thread just gave me a headache.
Study the history of the movie. Peter Exline, one of the two real-life inspirations for The Dude, was obsessed with his softball league - neither he nor Jeff Dowd actually bowled on a regular basis. The Coen Brothers changed softball to bowling in the movie not for some grand symbolic or philosophical reason, but because bowling would be easier to shoot indoors at all hours of the day or night in a climate-controlled location (they could bowl at night, for instance after they threw a ringer over a bridge), it required fewer ancillary characters and complex action shots, and it allowed for the actors to sit and talk to each other for extended periods. Here's a relevant quote from Wikipedia:
QuoteExline also belonged to an amateur softball league but the Coens changed it to bowling in the movie because "it's a very social sport where you can sit around and drink and smoke while engaging in inane conversation", Ethan said in an interview.
If you're obsessed with bowling simply because it was in the movie, you're missing the point and being un-Dude. Your bowling can be softball, or fishing, or pool, or pinball, or video games, or swinging, or LSD, or a thousand other casual pastimes that help you relax and reassess the condition your condition is in. Just like your drink doesn't have to be a Caucasian, bowling doesn't have to be your sport unless you dig bowling.
[/Walter Mode]