Nothing is effed? Lebowski & Paley & OIMBY

A couple of years ago, I 'fessed up to the fact that I was less interested in Lebowski Fest now that it has become something of a nationwide franchise. I called it the opposite of NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard)-- OIMBY (ONLY In My Back Yard), the desire for something super-duper cool about Louisville to stay Louisville weird.

As Lebowski Fest has spread to bigger cities, most of the choice musical and performance acts have been appearing in places like LA and Miami-- not in Louisville.

That being said, this year's musical line-up of Mucca Pazza, Todd Snider, and the Deloreans is nothing to sneeze at.

And in that blog post, I expressed concern that the spread of Lebowski Fests might mark a similar path for the (then-just-announced) spread of our beloved 21C's.

And what did we find out this morning? Our equally beloved Chef Michael Paley of 21C's Proof is leaving us for the new Cincinnati 21C's restaurant, Metropole.

Read my 2010 blog post about my predictions for Best Case/Worst Case scenarios for 21C's expansion. Note that under "Best Case Scenario," I list "Michael Paley stays at Proof."

This is kind of a kick to the gut. Now I have to admit, I was helping the Guy pull together his summer residency for Tourism Honors Academy last night, so I got all of three hours of sleep and may be a little more melodramatic than necessary... but I'm feeling a little "The goddamn plane has crashed into the mountain" about this.

Maybe I need a good nap and some Octopus Bagna Cauda to center myself.