The Anthony Bourdain thread

it is a sad state of affairs in the world of television that a David Simon/Anthony Bourdain series about the CIA can't find backing.

“I can read a fucking book. Same as the rest of you fucks.”

A couple of direct, unfussy pieces by 2 travel writers for the NY Times on what Bourdain meant to them:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/travel/anthony-bourdain-jada-yuan-lucas-peterson.html

<3 love those

i just watched the s4e5 ep in Hue, Vietnam & my
god it was beautiful. i cried. more and more I see the difference in episodes between the places he’s just sort of carried along by, and places he loves and/or where he connects with the people. when he really connects with place & ppl the way he does over and over again in vietnam, it’s like a magic spell. incredible tv.

Perfect:

When @MeredthSalenger and I honeymooned in Paris our friends & family put together lists of places to eat and things to do. Then I sent those lists to Anthony Bourdain for his input. This was his response. I love and miss him: pic.twitter.com/1YFI7zScz0

— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) June 10, 2018

sorry for shitposting

idk if this was posted upthread bit this 2016 interview covers some good ground & yielded the phrase “some fucking Mumford & Sons IPA” which will liive forever in my heart

https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/anthony-bourdain-interview-appetites-cookbook

I kind of remembered why I fell off on watching the show. Whatever dumb conservative hack made the point that he'd hook up with an American celebrity/musician/writer in another place was right. It's completely down to my own biases, but the new Berlin episode, he met with a local Berlin musician I really like (Ellen Allien) but the segment was really short. Then he met up with, and I'm not going to drop the name here, an American living in Berlin who was relatively affable that dropped this little rockist rant and admitted while he lives there, he's not playing shows in Berlin!

I might be projecting, but those moments always seemed like a mix of playing to type and bridge-building: here's this guy who is on the surface like me, but here's what he's doing that's more globally conscious. I just never really saw Bourdain as that guy anymore and those dudes are what I kind of left behind.

Not much to say other than this still makes me feel terribly sad and I think about AB a lot.

Netflix in the UK have recently thrown up most (if not all) of Parts Unknown which is great. On top of that, I've been catching later episodes of No Reservations on YouTube and they look great. I'm not a foodie, although I have a peripheral interest in cooking and the episodes don't all work for me especially the ones in the USA for some reason, but as travelogues when they get it right, it's sublime, compulsive. I realised that it's possibly because there's very little of the numbing repetition or redundancy within the episodes which, for a lifestyle channel show, I imagine they had to fight to resist.

I've had the last interview with Bourdain open for a week in a tab on my browser. I can't bring myself to read it yet.

oh jesus

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/19/us/asia-argento-assault-jimmy-bennett.html

Carrie Goldberg, her lawyer who handled the matter, read email messages from The Times, according to two people familiar with the case, but she has not responded.

As the NYT article notes, that's this Carrie Goldberg, feminist lawyer extraordinaire, who's made a big name for herself representing victims of revenge porn. That's a striking detail.

really curious who anonymously leaked this to the times...

http://www.grubstreet.com/2018/08/asia-argento-says-accuser-payoff-was-anthony-bourdains-idea.html

Watching the series finale, it’s clear that Bourdain drew a lot of cultural inspiration from the art and music produced on the Lower East Side during that era. Over the course of the episode, Tony chats with a number of influential musicians (Debbie Harry, Chris Stein, Richard Hell, Harley Flanagan), artists (Joe Coleman, Kembra Pfahler, John Lurie), and filmmakers (Jim Jarmusch, Amos Poe, Fab 5 Freddy). And he visits an array of East Village and Lower East Side institutions with these local legends, including Veselka, John’s of 12th Street, and Ray’s Candy Store. The Zero Point Zero Production crew did an amazing job paying homage to the punk and no wave scenes with the editing and musical cues in this episode, and the incorporation of archival footage.

That’s from Eater.com re the recently aired Parts Unknown final episode. I found it interesting to watch Tony and the others struggle with themes of nostalgia versus the present. He seemed very subdued . John Lurie making him two hard boiled eggs was a nice touch.

Elegiac Far West Texas episode is worth watching too (it aired just before the East Village finale). Without Boudain's v/o I'm seeing just how great the cinematography is.

Oh, missed that West Texas one. Will look for it.

i enjoyed this

https://www.gq.com/story/anthony-bourdain-men-of-the-year-tribute

Thanks for posting that. I teared up reading it.

more than a hint of klopp in this untrustworthy showy german in paraguay imo

I am very ok with today being Bourdain Day.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/tips/ways-celebrate-anthony-bourdain-bourdain-day/?utm_term=.58a857a41825

https://thetakeout.com/s/parts-unknown-anthony-bourdain

I still haven’t been able to watch the last season or any of his shows at all for that matters.

I watched a couple of random episodes earlier this year but also haven't watched the last season yet. I just read through that summary linked above of every episode and now have a list to make my way through.

Yeah, I couldn’t watch the last season until just recently. I enjoyed it very much even if it was bittersweet.

One of his graphic novels is getting adapted for TV, I'm a little bummed it's not Get Jiro (post-apocalyptic sushi chef revenge tale)

https://www.eater.com/2019/6/14/18678863/anthony-bourdain-hungry-ghosts-animated-series-joel-rose-sony-pictures

https://www.insidehook.com/article/food-and-drink/remembering-a-hero-and-eating-a-few-on-the-anthony-bourdain-food-trail-new-jersey

Similar article for SF: https://m.sfgate.com/food/article/restaurants-Anthony-Bourdain-San-Francisco-show-14029068.php

miss this dude a lot

He was kind of a dick

But my kind of a dick

otm

the fact that we lost him when he had just started really perfecting “mellow Bourdain” bums me out

i mean i love him in all forms but the last few years were real gold

BOURDAIN: Alright so tell me what this is.
CITIZEN: This is apple pie. It is a classic American food.
BOURDAIN: Okay, so-- wait, what are you doing?
CITIZEN: I am adding a small scoop of ice cream.
BOURDAIN: [chuckling skeptically] All right. All right. Fuck it. Let's do this.

— Brooks Otterlake (@i_zzzzzz) July 20, 2018

he met all the wrong people in dublin but i mean maybe everybody does and he did ok so he did

Yeah, somehow no culinary/eating shows ever get a place right for the ppl living in it.

And it's probably for the best, as the places featured would stop being good for locals after the shows air.

He did well in Chicago imo

Was watching this really good documentary about the Carlysle Hotel in NY last night and up he pops to my surprise, sounding/looking great and so centred and solid on screen, still hard to believe he's gone.

my god

https://youtu.be/RyUVNFBZ_X4

I miss this dude.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiZFH6_f0tg

don't now if Roadrunner got talked about elsewhere but seems like it should be discussed here. Finally watched this last night, it's very devastating. I know there was a hoo-haw about the use of AI on something that is spoken by him but it was, AFAICT, only in like two sentences in the middle of the doc; there was an email he sent to David Choe and asked him if he was happy, Choe reads it and it slowly morphs into Bourdain's voice, it's like, 20 seconds tops; the hoo-haw was over nothing, IMO.

There is clearly a feeling among his colleagues on the show that Argento played a huge role in things unraveling for him, I know the filmmaker said there was more but he didn't want to go over and over it. HIs brother does make it clear that he doesn't blame her but I def felt like some of the people from the show do. Argento has always struck me as a high-chaos type of individual, immensely charismatic, intelligent, sexy, who wouldn't get obsessed with her? I don't think anything is her fault. But it's sad to see how impactful this relationship became for him, he himself noted multiple times it was going to be bad.

the film was mostly good, but I think it was pretty unfair to make all these insinuations about Argento while not including her in the interviews

I thought it was interesting that they left out any mention of Argento having sex with a minor. I'm guessing they had to, for legal reasons

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2021/09/inside-anthony-bourdains-all-consuming-relationship

not interviewed: Argento

so? like I'm sure she was just waiting for the call

She's either going to confirm what many other people have said (unlikely) or deny it all and claim the others just don't understand or have the full picture (likely). Being that she denied having a sexual relationship with that teenager and then a pic came out of her topless in bed with him, and that nothing others have said about her seems out of character for her, I'm inclined to believe the others' version of things over hers.

Before this year I had only caught episodes of his shows here and there, but I watched every episode of Parts Unknown this year, ending with the finale today. seeing everything was pretty wonderful. He's just so good at picking character out of a place, and great at getting people to share their stories. I loved pretty much every episode where he traveled with a companion, the joy between them is infectious

There are a small handful of episodes where I don't think he uses the time well, like some of the self-indulgent interviews with his heroes, but hey I'd probably do the same thing if I had a show

The final season suffered a bit from his lack of involvement. Obv not much of his VO, and they spent way more time than I think he would have mocking backpackers in Bali. And he would have HATED the episode which is just people gushing about him. But as mentioned the West Texas episode was great, as was the Kenya one. Very sad to reach the end

anyway here's my POX:
Quebec
Libya
Jerusalem
Copenhagen
Detroit
Sichuan
Houston
Japan (season 8)
Lagos
Bhutan

Agree, i read the oral history bio recently published, and am now working through the series again. The book confirms your take on the final series, inasmuch as he was not as interested/engaged as he had been

that Quebec episode is my favorite for sure. something about watching him eat so many amazing meats in the freezing cold with cool people.

the Libya ep is so good. it also feels like its where the show really starts grow, exploring that somewhat journalistic niche for him.

the vietnam episode in s4 has always been a highlight for me, looking foward to revisiting

oh and i used to love the Vienna episode because he’s so sure he’ll hate it and he ends up having a lovely time

*final season, i meant, not series

Worst episode: the one with Joe Rogan

I love almost all of the rest of it but haven’t seen all of it yet. The Quebec episode was great, I liked the one in the Philippines a lot cause he obviously had such a personal connection there.