quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:

I very much enjoyed Kitchen Confidential .

Yes, great read. Most people had no idea what kind of stuff went on behind closed doors in restaurants with chefs; the abuse both mental and physical, the drugs, the alcohol, the sex, just the sheer craziness of working 12-18 hours a day with few days off and no vacations.

He attended the same chef school as I did; the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) and really knew his stuff, but often came across as a jerk and snob which I can see turning a lot of people off.

It's sad to see someone with this kind of fame and money just toss it away in an instant.

I liked his shows but disliked his politics.
I stopped watching when he went to CNN.
If I remember correctly didn't he do a No Reservation episode with Ted Nugent?

Curiously he was ok with SOME people owning guns. He didn’t own any by his own admission but he liked shooting them. He was ok with Ted Nugent owning guns he even showed people hunting and cooking food that has been recently hunted on his show. I liked his sarcastic style and they way he narrated was just like how he wrote. RIP

I just read he left an 11 year old daughter behind.

Fucking shit. This kind of thing makes me so damn angry, suicide is SUCH a goddamned selfish act and a permanent solution to what is really a temporary problem that you can get help with.

He ate all that weird shit.

Well, maybe it wasn't a temporary problem. Maybe it was something that he couldn't get past.

I don't condemn people for suicide. Family or no family, selfish act or no, it is their life to do with as they wish. If we don't have this- if human beings cannot determine whether or not they wish to continue in this existence, then we have nothing and we are slaves.

quote:

Originally posted by rusbro:
One thing I can't wrap my head around is how people who seem to be quite successful in their careers, people who have lots of drive of some sort, can completely give up.

I know/knew a couple of folks, one who attempted suicide, and one who was successful at it, and they both had more drive than I do and were much more outgoing and engaging. I guess sometimes the adage about the candle that burns the brightest is true.

I think a lot of the people have manic personalities, if not a diagnosable mental illness. high highs and low lows. driven people can also be reliant on success and react very poorly to failure.

(this is not me blaming all of this stuff on mental illness, fwiw.)

The guy has stated many times he used drugs at an early age. People that indulge in that are more likely to commit suicide.

I have to admit that I wasn't a fan. I watched part of one episode of one of his shows (don't know which one) and he came across as arrogant and condescending. I never saw anything else he was in.

I did see someone post this anecdote about him today and read up on it. Nice gesture on his part.



Article from the time and Wikipedia entry on the columnist:
https://people.com/celebrity/o...ms-anthony-bourdain/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Hagerty

I feel bad for his daughter, that's a tough load for any 11 year old to bear.

Sad. I liked his show. I worked my way through college in restaurants in the 80s, and he told it like it was.

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:

quote:

Originally posted by Kevbo:
I don’t get the hangings

Maybe it’s because I’m not suicidal

But with the money people like Bourdain, Kate Spade or Robin Williams had, you’d think you could afford enough heroin or something to shuffle off this mortal coil in complete oblivion

Hanging is not high on my list of ways to go

I imagine that at the point you become suicidal, pleasure isn't a factor anymore...or else you would continue to do things to make you feel good, i.e. a buncha heroin or endless high end prostitutes, or a simple kiss for the wife.

The literature in this area suggests that suicides are largely driven by hopelessness. It's easy for most normal people to see how constantly struggling with the difficulties in everyday life can lead to hopelessness, but the fact that one is struggling suggests they have hope for a better outcome. The thing most people will never experience is the soul crushing hopelessness that can come when one has everything they could ever want but nothing brings them joy. They get to the top of the proverbial mountain and realize there's nothing there.

G.K.Chesterton put it this way: “Meaninglessness does not come from being weary of pain. Meaninglessness comes from being weary of pleasure.”

I like Bourdain. I've followed his career after reading his first book and enjoyed his shows. I don't think his work was groundbreaking but, he did pull-back the curtain and speak about life in the restaurant industry in terms that everyone could understand. His original program A Cook's Tour, which morphed into No Reservations, brought him stardom, and his move to CNN (Part's Unknown) allowed him to delve into more social/political commentary. He was a proud New Yorker, which turned-off a lot of people, I had no problem with it as I've dealt with folks like that and you have to shove it right back, something many people don't understand. He also understood there are more people out there that live differently then East coast urbanites and was willing to listen, the latest episode about West Virginia made this a point. At least one episode per season, he would be shooting guns...and enjoying it. He certainly was conflicted over an individuals right to self determination, and the need to be apart of a collective; I imagine the same angst for many New Yorkers who discover there's a big world out there and its not their oyster.

His commentary would venture to a dark side, occasionally interjecting some quip about torture or, some gruesome death. Watch enough of the episodes and you start to see a pattern, certain fears and reservations would develop. I met him once at a book signing, and know a number of friends that are acquaintances of his; I would hear he was both shy and talkative in private. What we saw on TV, my understanding is the guy from the kitchen, his personal life I hear was more toned-down and normal. Getting married and having a daughter seemed to straighten him out, ground him, he got into BJJ, which was his wife's passion. Separating from her, he started seeing Asia Argento, watch the last episode in Rome of season-8, no doubt things were blooming. That episode he started smoking again, who knows what other vices he returned to, Argento's life seems to have the twists n'turns of self destructive behavior...possibly rubbed-off on Bourdain. She was one of the victims of Harvey Weinstein and Bourdain used his platform to vocalize Weinstein's transgressions.

In the end, I enjoyed his contributions to the world of entertainment. He highlighted restaurants and food purveyors from around the world and that's what I liked about him.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Good grief. Take a look at CNN's website. The entire top half of the page is a black banner. You'd think a head of state died. Damn. Get a grip.

Bourdain's death is the lead item on The Times of Israel website as well.

The article about the arrest in Iraq by Kurdish security forces of the suspected killer of a 14-year-old German Jewish school girl is way down the page.

One had lived many years and apparently chose to end his own life. The other was a child who was brutally raped and murdered by someone who shouldn't even have been allowed into her country. Priorities.

You can be successful and have money without feeling accomplished or happy.

On one hand I feel bad for anyone who has got to the point in their life that they commit suicide. My guess is that his mind has been troubled for a long time. On the other hand he was pretty outspoken about his hatred for Trump and I’m not going to shed too many tears for someone who jokes about killing any President of the United States. Especially this one.

Here is a link to his foreword to the Marilyn Hagerty book Bourdain's intro

He may have been a bit abrasive, the NY in him was strong, but he was also in the real world and his intro shows that.

I disagree with him on things, and other things I know he was spot on with.

The little I watched of him made me think he was a lonely, self absorbed guy. In retrospect, his suicide makes sense.

Was taken aback by reading of his death this morning. I was not surprised when I learned it was by suicide. His raw personality was evident in his shows - brooding, melancholy, depressive, prone to alcohol and drugs, introspective - attributes that makes one highly vulnerable to thoughts of suicide.

Bourdain suicide fits in with people at the top of their life; I heard of stories of Frank Sinatra repeatedly smashing a wall with his fist at a party he threw in his own home decrying, "I am so fucking bored."

As someone said, suicide is driven by hopelessness. It is quite literally a feeling of a black heavy blanket that smothers your perception and your breathing. The thought of suicide beckons to you as an escape from being crushed by all that weight.

But the reality is, as often said, suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. One can look at Kate Spade and be at a loss as to what her problem could be or even, Bourdain, who was in the middle of filming an episode. Mental illness? We're all crazy to different degrees.

Now, he's definitely onto parts unknown. RIP.

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:
CNN is talking about it, and of course brought up a waiting period for firearms- I assume that’s how he did it.

Depression is a bitch I guess. I don’t have it, so it baffles me how anyone could take their own life.

He was in Paris at the time is what I heard. Isn’t their waiting time infinite?

quote:

Originally posted by Jimineer:

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:
CNN is talking about it, and of course brought up a waiting period for firearms- I assume that’s how he did it.

Depression is a bitch I guess. I don’t have it, so it baffles me how anyone could take their own life.

He was in Paris at the time is what I heard. Isn’t their waiting time infinite?

I have since been corrected in that he hung himself, but to hear the CNN shitbags bring up waiting periods and such, believed initially that he had to have shot himself.

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:

I have since been corrected in that he hung himself, but to hear the CNN shitbags bring up waiting periods and such, believed initially that he had to have shot himself.

Of course they convolute the message with their relentless gun confiscation politics.

Have they brought up a waiting period for buying rope, bed sheets, long winter scarfs?



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