RIP Anthony Bourdain

[vash]

when i went to Singapore. wife and i got to wandering and we got lost. i blame the oppressive humidity. we sought shelter. we found an indoor food court..big surprise. no AC!

what i did find was a guy chopping chicken. it was Hananiese chicken. (sorry, i just butchered the spelling). it was cheap. like a US dollar. it was exactly how i imagine it if i had a choir of angels singing in my mouth. just belting out a note in perfect harmony. that meal effed me up..i will never look at chicken the same again. i was over in SE asia for a month. i never passed up that chicken if i found it.

i saw a show with AB. he was walking around an enclosed food court..hmmm..looks like Singapore. hey! it is! he was gushing about the same guy that chopped up my chicken!! i wanted him to describe it as a choir of angels singing in his mouth..but he took it a different direction. he loved that meal as well!! i like to imagine it effed up chicken for him as well.

[drkshdw]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

He did a lot more than that.

True, he's had everything under the sun pulse through his veins but my understanding was he's been off the hard stuff since at least the 80's. And those are less likely to be a reason for a terminal cancer diagnosis this many years later.

[vash]

funny story.
i was in LA. Pasadena to be exact.

i was driving along and i saw the sign. Hanianese chicken! SCREECH! illegal u-turn..boom found parking. the wait was long, wife was super annoyed. we ended up eating sitting at a sidewalk table. chicken was okay. what did blow my mind was the chinese girl sitting next to me. there was no possible way her skirt could be any shorter. my wife was kicking me under the table. laughing at me. i politely kept my eyes on the chicken. (on my plate) that girls skirt was just riding the ragged edge..begging for some extra gravity to hold down the hem to keep the girl covered. she was with this super handsome rich dude..porsche GT3 just with the best parking spot.

LA is like bizarro land to me sometimes. that chicken..seriously. i need to move on.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by Crowbob

Well, Mr. Bourdain certainly showed us what's what eh, gentlemen. Apparently this old world just wasn't cool enough for him. Or perhaps having meaningful relationships are just too overwhelming for any mortal to deal with let alone your hero.

It could be he thought the world and all of it's treasures, explored and unexplored, were just too putrid for any insightful and wizened man to live in let alone the few billions or so struggling just to get by in it.

Who knows?

Whatever problem(s) he thought hanging himself would solve are still there, except his. Too bad he couldn't stick it out like the rest of us long enough to possibly see where it all goes or what it all means.

He also left us hanging, we not worthy enough for him to explain to us what the world had taught him.

Sure, gentlemen, go ahead and bring down onto me your ire. And no I won't wait for your apologies. Not because I am too busy galevanting all around, sampling all the world and bringing it to you all for your own vicarious pleasure, but because my time on this earth is already too limited and too compressed to fit in and deal with childish insults nor to cut it even shorter for whatever unbearable reason. My world, as tiny and protected and anonymous as it is is still worth living in, tasteless as I am.

Apparently his wasn't.

He made a choice. So be it. And yes, I am angry about it.

Bit of advice, let it go. This thread is all about praise for the guy (deserved or not).
Not worth winning the battle if it costs you the war.

Originally Posted by motion

I think Tony barely tolerated people, as you say. There's no place on earth for people like that.

Disagree, there are plenty of places for us.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by drkshdw

True, he's had everything under the sun pulse through his veins but my understanding was he's been off the hard stuff since at least the 80's. And those are less likely to be a reason for a terminal cancer diagnosis this many years later.

I've read a few articles about this suicide and none of them mention any terminal diagnosis.
Is that something they just aren't talking about or is it speculation?

I think I'm going to agree with Val Kilmer on this one.

[drkshdw]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

I've read a few articles about this suicide and none of them mention any terminal diagnosis.
Is that something they just aren't talking about or is it speculation?

I think I'm going to agree with Val Kilmer on this one.

I'm not saying he WAS diagnosed with anything, just saying it could be a reason someone would want to take their own life. Like I said, we don't know and we may never know. But being diagnosed with a terminal illness has caused more than one rational person to make a (seemingly) irrational decision.

[javadog]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

I think I'm going to agree with Val Kilmer on this one.

Val Kilmer is an idiot.

An excerpt from his inane rambling:

Those of us that knew you are shocked and angry and angry and angry selfishly angry, for what you just did to us. Millions I should think. At least a million people like me who imagine they know you.

For a guy who claims to have suffered from depression and studied it in detail, I think he still doesn't get it.

[john70t]

(no offense intended but)
Bourdain didn't really give a crap about anything and we loved him for it.
Years of heroin/etc took all the dopamine out of his brain and there was nothing left to give him pleasure.
Traveling to the most exotic lands, eating the greatest of foods, sitting with the most famous people? Meh.
He taught people how to go with the flow and be comfortable wherever.

The few shows I've watched, always thought he was being a bit pretentious and not interested in the food.
But maybe that was just the on-screen persona.

[javadog]

I don't know how you could've ever watched one of his shows and concluded that he didn't have any interest in the food.

[vash]

it's official. PPOT can and will debate anything.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by javadog

Val Kilmer is an idiot.

An excerpt from his inane rambling:

Those of us that knew you are shocked and angry and angry and angry selfishly angry, for what you just did to us. Millions I should think. At least a million people like me who imagine they know you.

For a guy who claims to have suffered from depression and studied it in detail, I think he still doesn't get it.

I haven’t seen VK’s comments on AB but I don’t think he’s an idiot so much as a very odd dude. I’ve crossed paths w him a few times, including dinner together but w several others, he was really surprisingly nice and polite. I was actually expecting more of a weirdo.

FWIW, he is recovering from some strange cancer right now himself. He was on a popular radio show last week and his voice was unrecognizable; I thought he was doing some strange impression or act but apparently his tongue is so swollen that he can barely talk.

FWIW, I’ve experienced suicide w someone very close to me recently and I think that we need to give people wide latitude w their reaction to it. It’s quite common for people to have varying responses to it, including responses that may seem inappropriate to you or me. It’s evident on this thread and others in the past when someone in the news does this. There is an absolute suicide epidemic happening in the U.S. right now w rates skyrocketing everywhere. Vet rates are bonkers but it’s also up by double digits over 10 years in 49 out of 50 states. We need to address it as a public health issue.

CDC stats on suicide:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/06/07/u-s-suicide-rates-rise-sharply-across-the-country-new-report-shows/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.2e4cca143722

[sand_man]

Originally Posted by javadog

I don't know how you could've ever watched one of his shows and concluded that he didn't have any interest in the food.

Originally Posted by vash

it's official. PPOT can and will debate anything.

Yes.
and
Yes.

[john70t]

I said that the wrong way java.

He didn't dive into every plate yum yum yum loving it stuff face more stuff face piggy loving it repeat repeat repeat every episode like cool punkrock camero dude.
He didn't over-analyze molecular structures like the square glasses german. (which I like)
He didn't over-dramatize and aggrandize himself as some living god personality on earth who can make anything 'better'.
He didn't buzz though recipes and get over with like most tv chefs.

He was more about the total experience iirc. About smelling the flowers and absorbing everything around instead of just doing it.

[Gretch]

Originally Posted by Crowbob

I just can't fathom a guy like AB hanging himself.

He presents a different question than simply the question of suicide. Suicide I sorta understand in certain circumstances. Despair, illness, whatever. I can see where sometimes suicide is actually the reasonable course.

But this man appeared to lust for life. He was living his dream, supposedly. OK. So he changed over time. Perhaps he grew weary of the hassles, the travels, the food, even.

Were he as open and communicative and unpretentious as he let on, why didn't he seek help? Maybe he did, who knows? There does not seem to be evidence of it.

Maybe AB was not so genuine a person as he let on. Maybe he got tired of playing the part of AB and had to finally come to grips with the ruse. Maybe he discovered he actually hated people because they were so easily hoodwinked. Maybe his life was a sick joke and he finally got the punchline.

Since he passed I, like speeder, did some research.

I'm not interested anymore, though. I'm thinking maybe he was a fraud. Maybe to him his life was nothing but a facade and the people in it mere props.

Maybe this gregarious and fun-loving, intelligent and warm explorer, traveler and writer was nothing but a sick ****.

I choose to no longer dwell on it.

I have weeds to pull.

Thanks for the honest, insightful quote............. took some self confidence given it goes against the whiny, forgiving, co-dependent, apologists here......

Guy was a douche and went out like a douche.

[sammyg2]

Caution, threat hijack ahead:


Through my 20's and into my 30's my best friend and I were inseparable.
We worked together, we hung out together, constantly.
Rarely did anyone see one of us without the other.

Then we were involved in an accident at work and we got burned. He got the worst of it with numerous skin grafts, I got out of it a little luckier than he did but it still sucked.
After that he changed and we started to drift apart. Someone said I changed. Dunno about that.

A few years later he killed himself and it makes me angry just thinking about it.
It was a horrible thing for him to do and I do not forgive him for it.
That's what I agree with Kilmer about. Suicide is selfish and a coward's way out and I do not entertain excuses for it or accept rationalization of it.
The act deserves contempt and those who do it or think about doing should be treated accordingly. It's wrong, all the way through. Wrong wrong wrong. There is no excuse for it, None. You suck it up and deal with it, you live life and that's all there is to it!

[Gogar]

Originally Posted by vash

it's official. PPOT can and will debate anything.

no they won't

[Eric at Pelican Parts]

Originally Posted by vash

funny story.
i was in LA. Pasadena to be exact.

i was driving along and i saw the sign. Hanianese chicken! SCREECH! illegal u-turn..boom found parking. the wait was long, wife was super annoyed. we ended up eating sitting at a sidewalk table. chicken was okay. what did blow my mind was the chinese girl sitting next to me. there was no possible way her skirt could be any shorter. my wife was kicking me under the table. laughing at me. i politely kept my eyes on the chicken. (on my plate) that girls skirt was just riding the ragged edge..begging for some extra gravity to hold down the hem to keep the girl covered. she was with this super handsome rich dude..porsche GT3 just with the best parking spot.

LA is like bizarro land to me sometimes. that chicken..seriously. i need to move on.

On the topic of Hainan chicken.....

Next time you're down in the San Gabriel Valley Come on down to Savoy, still one of my favorite places for hainan chicken. Their sauces are the best too!

[motion]

Originally Posted by vash

when i went to Singapore. wife and i got to wandering and we got lost. i blame the oppressive humidity. we sought shelter. we found an indoor food court..big surprise. no AC!

what i did find was a guy chopping chicken. it was Hananiese chicken. (sorry, i just butchered the spelling). it was cheap. like a US dollar. it was exactly how i imagine it if i had a choir of angels singing in my mouth. just belting out a note in perfect harmony. that meal effed me up..i will never look at chicken the same again. i was over in SE asia for a month. i never passed up that chicken if i found it.

i saw a show with AB. he was walking around an enclosed food court..hmmm..looks like Singapore. hey! it is! he was gushing about the same guy that chopped up my chicken!! i wanted him to describe it as a choir of angels singing in his mouth..but he took it a different direction. he loved that meal as well!! i like to imagine it effed up chicken for him as well.

LOL, I waited in line for 3 hours for that stall in Singapore. I thought the chicken was disgusting. All bones and no meat. I gave him a 1* on Tripadvisor, Lol!

[vash]

Originally Posted by motion

LOL, I waited in line for 3 hours for that stall in Singapore. I thought the chicken was disgusting. All bones and no meat. I gave him a 1* on Tripadvisor, Lol!

oh damn!!

i was there before Mr B..so he was still struggling and not all big in the britches..wife and i just walked up and ordered. there was nobody at his stall. my wife went elsewhere and got Laksa noodles or something.

[vash]

Originally Posted by motion

LOL, I waited in line for 3 hours for that stall in Singapore. I thought the chicken was disgusting. All bones and no meat. I gave him a 1* on Tripadvisor, Lol!

you bring up a goddamn great point. a celebrity person can bless something..(dont make me bring up Oprah) and PHOOSH..MIDAS TOUCH!!

kimball and some lady, named Dunlop blessed this freaking cheap-ass veggie cleaver and now they cost $80! i missed that boat. i think they have them in LA for $50..i'll look when i am there. i think the HongKong cleaver used to be $25.