Anthony Bourdain is Dead
- Thread starter jagu
- Start date
Anthony Bourdain Made Marginalized Communities Like Mine Feel
Worthy
Jelisa Castrodale
JUN 8 2018, 4:45PM
As a native West Virginian, I never thought I'd see my home state represented with respect and fairness—until Bourdain showed up.
Jelisa Castrodale
JUN 8 2018, 4:45PM
As a native West Virginian, I never thought I'd see my home state represented with respect and fairness—until Bourdain showed up.
- as men in Malawi. In the past few years, it has developed a heartbreaking kind of name recognition, becoming almost synonymous with words like ‘opioid’ and ‘overdose’ and ‘despair.’
In the months before the 2016 presidential election, journalists from seemingly everywhere landed in Welch, so they could film hours of B-roll of sagging roofs or rusted shopping carts overturned in the Tug Fork river, and interview would-be Donald Trump voters with accents that were often subtitled on even American television stations. “Why do those people stay there?” network anchors and newspaper columnists and armchair sociologists implied—or just asked outright.
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And then, Anthony Bourdain decided to go to West Virginia, and let West Virginians answer that question for themselves.
Bourdain died on Friday at age 61, and his passing has been marked with shock, disbelief, and deep sadness across America, as well as in the countless cities and countries that he visited during 15-plus years of traveling for the Food Network, the Travel Channel, and CNN. But it seems to especially resonate with this West Virginian, and for others around the state who appreciated his attempts to connect with a group of people that others have criticized, ridiculed, or flat-out exploited.
Ironically, it was some of that endless “poverty tourism” that contributed to Bourdain’s interest in filming an episode of Parts Unknown in West Virginia. “It doesn’t seem to be in anybody’s interest outside of the state to portray West Virginia as it is,” he told the Bluefield Daily Telegraph. “The coverage has been ignorant, condescending, and hateful.”
But he also realized his own preconceptions—and that’s one of the many things that made him a compelling storyteller, and an always-reliable narrator. “I’m comfortable in places that are different, so, I didn’t admire the intolerance, the sort of resistance in myself, to this place in my own country,” he continued. “How come I’m so comfortable in Vietnam and Lebanon but instinctively, like so many other New Yorkers, see West Virginia as a whole other land?”
So Bourdain went to West Virginia—he went to Welch, too—and that trip served as the premiere for Season 11 of Parts Unknown. In his Field Notes, he called the episode a “plea for understanding” for the state’s residents and their “daunting challenges,” urging his audience to treat it with the same compassion that they’ve treated episodes set in Vietnam and Nigeria. (And it’s kind of mindblowing to imagine putting that disclaimer on any other part of America.)
That episode illustrated so much of what made Bourdain such a wonderful host, tour guide, and dinner guest: his willingness to ask and listen in equal measure and his willingness to respect the person, even if you’re diametrically opposed to some of their opinions. But every episode was essentially his 30-minute reminder that the things that we fear, hate, or ridicule are almost always the ones we’ve never taken the time to understand.
“People of southern West Virginia feel for the first time someone from the outside media came in and told a story they were proud of,” chef Mike Costello said on Friday morning. “When someone comes here with the goal of being open-minded and learning about a place, it shows how encouraged and empowered people can be when they’re able to tell their own story.” (Costello’s Lost Creek Farm was featured in the episode).
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Shortly after Bourdain finished filming, someone tweeted to him to ask what he recommended as an “absolute must-do” for any visitor to West Virginia. “Forget where you came from,” he wrote. “Open your mind.”
On behalf of West Virginians, thank you for that.
Thank you for everything.
R.I.P. Wonder what he was going through.
If you find it easy to kill yourself, then you're the one that needs help. Nothing easy or healthy about wanting to take your own life.
You said there is no reason to cac mental behavior or lack of human nature or whatever
And I say there is, the reason is jealousy.
RIP
RIP.
Took me living long enough to see how much I didn't know about life.
When I was younger I was so quick to judge, spitting out callus comments that only showed my immaturity. Burying so many loved ones bearing scars seen and unseen. Eveyone won't die the same way but we all will die.
Learning to accept emotional support has been a blessing for me.
Wish all you brothers and sisters support , strength and love in your rough waters.
Took me living long enough to see how much I didn't know about life.
When I was younger I was so quick to judge, spitting out callus comments that only showed my immaturity. Burying so many loved ones bearing scars seen and unseen. Eveyone won't die the same way but we all will die.
Learning to accept emotional support has been a blessing for me.
Wish all you brothers and sisters support , strength and love in your rough waters.
I see what you're saying. And it certainly seems that their sickness is endemic of their race, after all, the shit they did to each other was equally heinous before they turned their attention to us. And I certainly do not endorse any of the things you mention. But the sickness IS real, wherever it comes from. It hurts my heart when my people suffer from it whether firsthand or incidentally.
It's real no matter who experiences it
But also
Think of the vastly different conditions we're under while suffering
And also look at the way they've made it so we feel ashamed to suffer in the first place
damn...never got too deep into his show but r.i.p. to the man
Might be Drake
..or Roseanne..
or maybe even Rose Mcgowan judging by this video(Bourdain was a friend of hers)
Heard the news this morning and even at the end of the day still having a hard time wrapping my head around it. The man used food "breaking bread" to connect, to share, and to encourage us to travel and experience new and/or unfamiliar places. It was way more than the food...it was the people. The depth at which he shared people's cultures is what kept many of us tuning in week after week. If he was organizing tour guides to the places he had gone or was going, he would have had many lining up. Incredible loss and I never met the man. But sure feels like it. He left an indelible mark on many around the world.
RIP
RIP
RIP. I been fuckin with Tony since he was on Food Network. Shit makes no sense.
Now that I think about it, that Hong Kong show had a really strange vibe to it.
He even did an interview with AC about the episode before it aired. Saying shit like this was the show that he had
always dreamed about because a couple of his heroes was doing the production.
The interview was kind of offsetting too. Weird shit.
Now that I think about it, that Hong Kong show had a really strange vibe to it.
He even did an interview with AC about the episode before it aired. Saying shit like this was the show that he had
always dreamed about because a couple of his heroes was doing the production.
The interview was kind of offsetting too. Weird shit.
I worked at his restaurant early in my culinary career. He was just starting on the Food Network. Was never around. But when he was... always a straight dude. I was interning with his butcher Pierre in the basement. He can down and kicked it. Showed me how to butcher pigs and lamb. With wit and caring. He will be missed.
RIP
When dude went to the hood in Miami to hang with Luke I was instantly a fan. Inspired.
Damn. I liked this dude and his programs a lot.... never a big food show guy but one of my exes lent me Kitchen Confidential and I fucking loved it. The episodes of his shows that I watched were uniformly entertaining, eye opening and world expanding. He seemed like a genuinely good dude. Fuck... go ahead and call one of your ppl tonight. Reach out. Folks are hurting out here silently watching social media highlight reels and shit. This is a good reminder to me that I need to be a better friend.
fuck
fuck
fuck
Dude actually cared for the people and cultures he visited. and was able to expertly articulate that. you dont find people with heart like that anymore. but his demons...damn...
fuck
fuck
Dude actually cared for the people and cultures he visited. and was able to expertly articulate that. you dont find people with heart like that anymore. but his demons...damn...
fuck
fuck
fuck
Dude actually cared for the people and cultures he visited. and was able to expertly articulate that. you dont find people with heart like that anymore. but his demons...damn...
fuck
fuck
Dude actually cared for the people and cultures he visited. and was able to expertly articulate that. you dont find people with heart like that anymore. but his demons...damn...
fuck
fuck
fuck
Dude actually cared for the people and cultures he visited. and was able to expertly articulate that. you dont find people with heart like that anymore. but his demons...damn...
fuck
fuck
Dude actually cared for the people and cultures he visited. and was able to expertly articulate that. you dont find people with heart like that anymore. but his demons...damn...
Food Network just did a brief tribute to him at the start of a commercial break..they just showed this onscreen w/ the network logo on the bottom
He traveled the world, he might have had heat on him like me. There are all kinds of weird shit to mentally degrade people. It is a tough lifestyle, where your every move is watched.
massa we sick syndrome
nothing could be worse than chattel slavery
yet we made it out
and we are still out here being fucked with by the same demographic
jails are filled with blacks for drugs
but white drug use deploys tax payer money without a complaint
some of us unfortunately don't understand context cause we are drunk on the white white perspectives leading to the same destination
when #liveyourbestlife can't measure up to preconceived notions of what life is about
I'll make a separate thread about anxiety and depression following white perceptions of what life is about........
mofos out here don't want to struggle AT ALL
As if life owes them shit
.
Loved this NR episode when he went to Jamaica
..or as the DirecTV description said,"Anthony Bourdain travels to the Jamaica."
..or as the DirecTV description said,"Anthony Bourdain travels to the Jamaica."
Tragic for him, yet telling of the demographic he represents, all at the same damn time.
When he was on the Food Network, my Dad and I bonded watching this dude!
Cold blooded government directed murder...he knew too much.
When he was on the Food Network, my Dad and I bonded watching this dude!
So, is it safe to say that Black Women are the most resilient humans ok n the planet?
Now, how many people do you know, committed suicide, but.........washed up in the river?
Cold blooded government directed murder...he knew too much.
He could have been a pedophile with 30,000 child porn images.
western civilization says the mind but it's deeper than that
The mind is a motor that will guide you to your beliefs, whatever your beliefs are
Your consciousness creates the world you experience, crafts the stories you internalize and your reaction to your perceptions.