Anthony Bourdain, RIP

[Dave James]

Suicide at 61.  Go figure.  

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/08/business/media/anthony-bourdain-dead.html?

[paul secor]

I don't think that there's any way to understand these kinds of things.

[clifford_thornton]

As a friend of mine who has dealt with major depression said, "these are tough times for a sad person." 

RIP. He was something else.

[JSngry]

whoa...I was a fan...RIP.

[soulpope]

His books covering the good and ugly of  international cousine were definitely a good read .... R.I.P ....

[Brad]

A real shock.  Some big losses in the last few days due to suicide. 

[Hardbopjazz]

RIP, Anthony. Too bad you didn't get the proper help for your depression. 

[JSngry]

26 minutes ago, Brad said:

A real shock.  Some big losses in the last few days due to suicide. 

We as a world are being self-raptured. Hang tight....

[paul secor]

When Kate Spade's suicide was reported, my wife commented that there are often copycat events. Sadly, she was prescient.

[clifford_thornton]

Yes, my high school had a couple rashes of same when I was a student.

[Brad]

In today’s New Yorker:

Travels with Anthony Bourdain

[Justin V]

I haven't read his books or seen his more popular shows, but I did enjoy The Taste, which had teams comprised of professional chefs and home cooks being mentored by the likes of Bourdain and other respected chefs.  He seemed to enjoy life so much, so his suicide comes as a shock.  Rest in peace, Mr. Bourdain.  

[catesta]

I was a fan and I always thought he was a stronger person, but he fooled me. As it turns out, he was just another dude that couldn't cope and took the most selfish of selfish routes out. No RIP from me, at least not yet. If there is something after death, maybe he should have to deal with some shit before having peace.

[Brad]

That seems a little strong for someone who obviously had problems he couldn’t cope with. 

[catesta]

Maybe he should have tried harder. I struggle like many but I have a lot of people that depend on me and want me around and I'm not about to say they give me reason to live and then renege on that shit. I was sympathetic to Robin Williams because he was facing a living hell but this guy was in the middle of filming a show episode. What, he just couldn't take another bite?

I'm not trying to be an asshole about it and you're probably right, it may be a little strong. I was/am a fan and found Bourdain to be both entertaining and educating. He was a quitter though and I'm getting tired of celebrating the lives of those that took their own. His choice, I know.

[mjazzg]

Good to see the milk of human kindness runneths over. Such empathy bowls me over

You obviously knew him very well to be able to make such insightful comments on his psyche or maybe you're  being exactly what you say you're trying not to be. No two people's challenges and problems are alike.

 

Edited June 11, 2018 by mjazzg

[Larry Kart]

A post from a retired military man in his late 70s:

"We stopped watching Bourdain about a year ago.  He was always entertaining and informative, but the pain and desolation in his heart became so evident that I, for one, could not bear it any longer. 

"His account of his teen years as a kitchen assistant in a seaside resort was particularly hard to watch.  I worked in such places during high school summers in coastal Maine as bus boy, dish washer, baker's assistant, soda fountain ice cream guy, fry cook, short order cook and breakfast cook.  The drugs, sex and rock and roll that he described in one program saturated the atmosphere with their seasonal people blend of professional restaurant workers, local kids, tourists and college girls on the loose for the summer.  That atmosphere ate him alive and I do not think he ever recovered from it.  A profound sense of ennui settled over him that he never shook off.  He may well have had a genetic disposition toward clinical depression but the cocaine, heroin and massive amounts of alcohol did not make it any better.

"We still have recordings of some of his best shows.  One was in Lyons and two were in Quebec where he was entertained by two zany Qubecois restaurateurs.  Their feast, cooked up in  a  nice little building sitting on a frozen lake, was memorable.  There were a lot of courses but I particularly liked the 'bit' in which they grilled foie gras on the flat top of a wood burning stove.

"For me, his saddest show was focused on a trip to what had once been a laird's hunting lodge in the Scottish Highlands.  It is now a place of amusement for fat-assed City of London bankers and the like.  There he was walked up into the hills, loaned an expensive rifle and pointed at a majestic stag.  He dutifully shot the beast and was escorted down to the corpse where his keepers painted his face with the animals arterial blood in a ceremony that once had an animistic meaning but now has none.  I shot a lot of deer in my youth but was always just a pot hunter going to the woods to stay with my friends and uncles.  I have always been strongly affected by the logo from the film "The Deerhunter," in which the wings on the Army parachute badge are replaced with the antlers of a stag.   Bourdain's face smeared with the elk's blood brought that to mind.”

[clifford_thornton]

Bleak.

[Brad]

Bleak indeed.  I couldn't claim to be an inveterate watcher of his show. If something grabbed my interest like his shows in Vietnam, I'd watch.  I thought one of his funniest spots was his appearance in The Big Short, where he explained collateralized debt obligations in cooking terms.

As Mjazzg said, no problems are the same and I wouldn't try to guess at them. 

[Clunky]

21 minutes ago, mjazzg said:

Good to see the milk of human kindness runneths over. Such empathy bowls me over

You obviously knew him very well to be able to make such insightful comments on his psyche or maybe you're  being exactly what you say you're trying not to be. No two people's challenges and problems are alike.

 

Well put. In my experience people don’t recover from depression by “trying harder”. 

[catesta]

1 hour ago, mjazzg said:

Good to see the milk of human kindness runneths over. Such empathy bowls me over

You obviously knew him very well to be able to make such insightful comments on his psyche or maybe you're  being exactly what you say you're trying not to be. No two people's challenges and problems are alike.

 

Oh please. You're right on this, no two people's challenges and problems are alike so how do you know my life is not a world of shit much deeper and darker than Bourdain, absent the celebrity part? Yet, it's okay for you to imply I'm being an asshole and lack empathy? Fuck that. It's not bullshit to say he took the selfish way out, he himself would cop to that. And it's not bullshit to say he could have kept trying or tried harder to get past it. Exactly how do we recover from anything negative or debilitating without working at it?

Dude had options for help and he ignored them, that comes from people that knew him, not me.

So yeah, it's sad but I'll hold my tears for the person I have to visit every day I can in a hospital bed that is trying to hold on to this life and will eventually lose the battle.

Edited June 11, 2018 by catesta

[JSngry]

He had options for help, and this was one of them. I'll not argue that it's not kind to those left behind, but unless you're a loved one - and I'm not - no sweat off my back.

Is suicide the ultimate surrender or the ultimate empowerment? I'd say it's both.

oh, one more thing - when I first saw this thread I thought it said Anthony Braxton (not wearing my glasses) . I was relieved that it wasn't. Nothing against Bourdain, I was - and remain - a huge fan. But Braxton, that's a whole other level for me, so year, better Bourdain than Braxton, if it had to be one or the other.

[mjazzg]

12 minutes ago, catesta said:

Oh please. You're right on this, no two people's challenges and problems are alike so how do you know my life is not a world of shit much deeper and darker than Bourdain, absent the celebrity part? Yet, it's okay for you to imply I'm being an asshole and lack empathy? Fuck that. It's not bullshit to say he took the selfish way out, he himself would cop to that. And it's not bullshit to say he could have kept trying or tried harder to get past it. Exactly how do we recover from anything negative or debilitating without working at it?

Dude had options for help and he ignored them, that comes from people that knew him, not me.

So yeah, it's sad but I'll hold my tears for the person I have to visit every day I can in a hospital bed that is trying to hold on to this life and will eventually lose the battle.

But I'm not judging you or your life. I wouldn't be able to as I know not the first thing about it. I am judging your judgemental reaction to someone's suicide and by implication to their mental ill-health and I hold by that judgement. We'll disagree on that and so be it. I'm comfortable there.

Edited June 11, 2018 by mjazzg

[catesta]

Fair enough.

[gmonahan]

I'm with Larry on this one. He always struck me as a particularly melancholy man. I did love his shows on Vietnam, but that profound sadness was always either just below the surface or ON the surface.

 

gregmo