I've always loved Anthony Bourdain's passion for food. He dropped out of Vassar College to follow his dream of being a world-class chef. Even through all the drugs and drink, his passion never wavered. It was always about the food. But...actually, it's not all about the food for Bourdain. It's also about people, places, cultures, and the stories food tells about each. And he's a hell of a writer, his writing going from the profane to the right-out poetic within a sentence. The few clips I've assembled here are mostly from the CNN youtube channel, but I picked each because of Bourdain himself and the things he exhibits in each that make me such a fan. He's a rock star chef now, but he's still humble, self-deprecating, appreciative, open and giving, gracious, sneakily funny, and sometimes just bad-ass.
Anthony Bourdain's Wikipedia Page
Anthony Bourdain's Author Page on Amazon
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p.s. Hey. D.l., writer, and mastermind of that which can be masterminded, i.e. Misanthrope spends this realm of today paying blog-shaped tribute to what I'm guessing is his favorite televised chef. Me, I plan to spend part of my day finding out who this famous food-making fellow is, and maybe you would like to join me. Or maybe you know precisely who this guy is already and would like to spend some time in his company. Either way, that would be cool. Thank you numerous times over, M. ** L@rstonovich, Larsty! My Portland-based buddy! Sebadoh! It's true! Love ya too, elaborately! ** Bollo, Hey there, Jonathan. Super good to see you here and about. Yeah, Efteling is heavily into trolls and fairies and stuff. And they have several coasters, one of them a fucking killer, insane, heavily themed indoor/ outdoor partly water-based coaster that's ... whoa. No, haven't heard the Diamond Version EP yet. I will dig into it today, though, you bet. You good over there where you are? ** Thomas Moronic, Thank you, T-ster. Nice to be back. I love the Var album. It was heavily employed during the longer stretches of the driving portions of my recent northern trip. Maybe I'll see Kiddiepunk today. I'm gonna try him, and, if so, prying a pre-release copy of your woo-book-hoo is a top priority. A Carla Bozulich Day would awesomeness incarnate, yes, indeed, thank you muchly if that building job would be no problem. ** David Ehrenstein, A fine LA morning to you, sir. ** MANCY, Really, really liked/loved your new Vimeo piece a whole lot, man. You're so fired up of late. So nice. ** Tosh, Hi, Tosh. I'll get in touch with your friend this week. Oh, and I might very well hit you up for advice, if that's okay. I'm very excited and quite intimidated too. Oh, that's a strange and unpleasant story about the book and about your dealings with the Vian estate. Man, they should be so fucking grateful and deferential to you. That sucks. ** Sypha, Trips, trips, everywhere trips, yeah. Nice, I think. Interesting that you also had a bad encounter with that FB troublemaker. I defriended him. I so incredibly rarely have ever done that, but he got the honor or whatever. Real glad that the test results were clean, and of course heavily crossed fingers if necessary about the biopsy. Your reading jaunt featuring West and McCullers creates such nice vibes and imagery. Stellar pair, those two. American fiction at its oddest and best. ** David Saä V. Estornell, Well, hi there, David! So very good to see you! I don't have Alex Rose's current email address. He seems to change locations a lot, and, at the moment, I'm in a situation where I just anxiously await signs and news from him on the blog. Sorry I can't help. Everyone, does anyone have Alex Rose's email address that you could tell to the honorable David Saä V. Estornell, either privately or here or something? Thanks. All the best to you, my friend. ** Paul Curran, You leave for Japan today? Shit, okay, I'll get in touch with you after you've gotten there and settled. We get to Tokyo on Tuesday night, and we'll be there for ten days, I think, before heading into other parts of Japan. We're staying at some place called Hotel Claska. I'm not sure what area it's in, but I think it's central-ish. I'll find out. Yes, let's meet up for absolute sure. Have an incredibly safe trip if you see this pre-departure. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. Oh, you get here today. You're probably even on your way as I type. Near the Pompidou: locations don't get much better. Yeah, maybe we can all meet up on Thursday. I'll probably be a bit swamped and nervous until the premiere night tomorrow night, but then, barring disaster, I should be freeish and okay. ** Chris Goode, Hi, Chris! It's so intensely lovely to have you back (here) too! I hadn't listened much to Sebadoh in a long time until I decided to make that post, and, wow, it still sounds so good. Up through 'Bakesale'. After that, not so much except for this and that stretch of sonics here and there. 'The Freed Pig', I know. I think, apart from the song's general excellence, maybe it's how it leaps/starts that starts that charge you mentioned, I don't know. My favorite sing of theirs, and probably one of my top 5 all-time songs period, is 'Brand New Love'. I still get the weirdest, darkest, saddest feeling whenever I hear it. Wait, you just had your 40th birthday! Happy in extreme measures, man! I'm totally like you. I don't get the aging thing at all. I guess maybe the transitions are really subtle as you go along or maybe your body does this magic trick thing that makes the horizon seem to inch further along, or I don't know. Anyway, you're not being defensive, if you ask me. Attentive, more like. That's what I tell myself. 40 was weird in the waning days of my 30s, but then the actual change was so nothing that I was, like, 'whatever' within about a day of turning 40, and I think back on my 40s as being a pretty great decade, so, I don't know, I wouldn't sweat it. 50 is weird but okay. I've been 60 for a bit now, and I still don't like it at all for no particular reason other than, I guess, the ominousness of the number or something. So, enjoy! Fully! Sweet day, it sounds like. You spun the sweetness sweetly. Lots to tell? Do tell when telling feels sweet to you. Lots of love and its myriad offshoots to you! ** Steevee, Hey. Oh, you know, it's weird. France has an image abroad that's so romantic, and it's an image which I, after living here for so long, I still mostly believe in, but, you know, France is all over the place, and it doesn't seem like the foreign press, or that in/for the US at least, is capable of giving a true and even-handed account of things going on here. As big as the protests were, society is not being shaken by them. People protest all the time. Add religious fervor and the adrenaline effect caused by irrational fear, and you end up with a lot of people on the fringes marching together at the same time. The protests are being treated overseas like they're apocalyptic or something because large numbers of people marching in the streets is such a rarity in the US these days, but it's not like that here. That anonymous journalist is a weirdo. No one here would take that seriously if they even paid attention, which they aren't. The US press, in its fashion, grabs what he says and makes it seem like it means something larger than the words of some far right homophobe, and I would just try to remember that you're getting a heavily tweaked translation of, say, the anti-gay marriage protests when you read about them over there. ** Unknown, Hi, Pascal. I'm so sorry to hear that about your mom. Hugs, my friend. But that is wonderful news about your pamphlet! Let me know when and how I can get myself one. Cool! ** Cobaltfram, Thanks, man. You too. Oh, Legoland was shit partly because it bills/hypes itself as something special due to the Lego context, but it's just a third rate and surprisingly run-down looking amusement park with mediocre rides that you can find in any theme park anywhere. The only difference is they half-heartedly make everything look vaguely like it's made of legos, which it is not. I don't know. It was just blah. Mm, I think I sometimes read the interpolations in 'GFoL' and sometimes I didn't, depending on my mood and concentration or something. I can't remember precisely. I leave for Japan a week from today in the late evening hours. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff! Japan itinerary at this point: Tokyo (10 days), Hakone (2 days), Kyoto (5 days), Osaka (2 days), Naoshima (2 days), Hiroshima (1 day), Miyajima Island (1 day), Tokyo (2 days). I think we'll be there for just over three weeks or thereabouts. My favorite Sebadoh album is kind of the obvious choice -- 'Sebadoh III' -- but it really is really great. I'm obviously really sorry to hear about your having to negotiate with so much drama. I hope your stint at the artists colony fades all of that away. You go today. Wow, cool. I got your guest-post! Thank you so much! I'll set it up and write to you very soon. Have a safe trip to Georgia, man. ** Rigby, House arrest, yikes, okay, mysterious, sorry to hear that, buddy. You're fully ensconced in Missydom. And Special K-dom, whoever that is. His niece? That sounds trippy. I'm kind of having a total whale of a time of late, yeah, it's kind of wild and massively gratitude-making, I must say. I'll try to enunciate the right echoes. ** Chris Dankland, Hi, Chris. Thanks a lot for talking to Pilgarlic about your process. And it was, of course, very interesting to read from the sidelines. You're most welcome re: the Sebadoh gig. Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean about their stuff. They were kind of a big influence on my writing for a while. I wanted to scrunch what they did into a language carpet. Hard to do, but a very interesting challenge and model to try to use. 'Truly Great Thing' is amazing. Such an incredible song. Ha ha, yeah, like I said, my friend Zac and I are going to make a book together about the Scandinavian trip. Could be really good. Zac's super brilliant with visuals. Talk to you soon! ** Statictick, Hi! Long time no see! How the heck are you? Did you go see the Mike Klley house piece yet? I think it just 'opened' or whatever. Say what you will and like at your leisure and at my pleasure, man. Love to you. ** Armando, Hi, Armando. Really nice to see you, pal. I missed you too. My day should be okay -- involving heavy theater-related work/stress since 'The Pyre' premieres tomorrow night, gulp. I guess that doesn't sound 'okay', but it should be. You have a very fine day, whatever you do. ** Okay. Go do what you're going to do with Misanthrope's choice of chef, thank you, and I'll see you tomorrow.