Anthony Bourdain dead at 61

I hung out with Anthony a few years ago when he came to Miami Beach.  A truly nice guy, down to earth and humble.  To have everything, yet not enough . . . RIP Anthony.

Mental anguish is worse than physical pain.

Never put off a friend or acquaintance who says ... "I need to talk." 

Frank

@tpreaves thank you for initiating this thread.

@moto_man you are very fortunate to have met him.

This one hit me particularly hard.  An incredible person, now sadly gone... Anthony's shows will forever remain successful because he was entertaining and compelling, while bringing the rest of the world to us. Anthony allowed us to travel and see the world without having to go anywhere. He made us feel like we were close friends though never having met. Now sadly gone. Prayers to his ex-wife and daughter, hope they can get through this and find some degree of comfort. May he rest in peace

Hit me hard this morning too.  His show is one of our regularly watched shows.  They are timeless and entertaining.  We actually visited places that Anthony had been to after seeing his show.

Despite the outward appearances, he must have had some serious darkness weighing him down, especially while filming with a good friend, so he wasn't alone off-camera.  I suppose we'll never really know, but . . . a sad day . . .

This is all sad, indeed. Suicide, and those who attempt it, is a very hard thing to get your head around. It's generally not understood. 

I met a tattoo artist who took his life and he seemed to be one of the nicest people I ever met. Later, I was told he tried a few times earlier in his life and had some of the best counseling and seems to turn his life around. He had a great girlfriend and job but he succumbed to it for reasons we'll never know.

All the best,
Nonoise

wolf_garcia"A cowardly and insulting way for an absolute egomaniac to check out.."

That is an ignorant, stupid insensitive remark and insult about someone who just died why don't you get a life and STFU about things you don't know anything about.

There are some truly sick people here. 👎

^^^ Yep, and if nothing else, WG is consistent. 


 

RIP....I will forever appreciate the entertaining way he made the world a smaller place by bringing cultures closer through his travels.  The world could use surely more of that these days.

Sad to hear this about Mr. Bourdain! And sad to hear about Kate Spade a few days earlier! Both millionaires! Certainly proves that inner peace and happiness can be elusive, despite having more wealth than most people! Let us pray for their souls!

He needed to listen to music to get him through the hard times. Sad.

Anthony was good for the planet. By bringing us along to places many of us would dare go, he introduced us to other cultures and invited us to understand and appreciate others...“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
- Mark Twain

It is amazing how true Mark Twain’s words resonate today as the days they were first penned, thanks for that! Yes, Anthony really brought that realization to all of us through his travels and great gift of tying things together to give us a sense of our human commonality. This guy is going to be sorely missed, particularly in that respect in a country and world that needs more of it.

A real bummer.  Seemed to be a real guy, demons and all, that loved others but not himself enough.  Mental illness in all it's forms, and suicide are so misunderstood.  Huge loss IMO.

Bill

A victim of suicide. Unlike most in media he showed ordinary people like all of us just trying to get through life and enjoying the things we all have in common. 

What disturbed me most was that with all the people he was surrounded by, no one was deep enough in his life to see the pain. Lets get out of the shallow end of the pool. Go deep. With empathy and compassion. 

amg56
 You carry a heavy load every day and every night. Your daughter is I am sure the last thing you think about when you go to bed and the first thing you think about when you wake up. 

@mickeyb surprised you say that about Anthony, or anyone else for that matter.  Isn't that part of the many reasons why music is such a powerful, visceral art form - precisely because it has the power to heal and comfort? At least is does for me.  

Which reminds me....after my beloved father's own suicide over 20 years ago, I was sitting in my office at Festival Productions, and I remember putting on the song Dear Lord by John Coltrane, which has always been one of my favorite tracks.  I cried uncontrollably.  Every time I hear it, it brings me back to that time and I am grateful, because it reminds me at that very moment why I'm so lucky to be alive and well.  

Bourdain had showed signs of his pain.  Watch the Berlin episode that just recently aired.  His mental state is pretty apparent.  Suicide is a horrible thing because of what it leaves behind.

I wish that his family and all families of this horrible disease known as deep depression find suitable ways to cope.  ~LG

To hear  about Anthony Bourdain was a real shock! So sad!! I watch is shows wondering how it must have been Anthony Bourdain?  He was a very interesting guy to watch and to  listen to.
Im regular guy with less then regular job so somtimes I felt i just traveled for a hour? Im also very happy to see people took their time out to post somthing about Anthony Bourdain ,not just hifi!

RIP Anthony !!

wolf_garcia"A cowardly and insulting way for an absolute egomaniac to check out.."

Yes, coward way.
Plus, being a killer will put him in a completely different league.
Entertaining guy he was...what else he would’ve been.

I though this was a good blog from madinamerica  dot com


As “When Noel Hunter said, 45,000 people a year would rather die than live in this world any longer, it might behoove us all to consider what is happening in the world to cause this.” What is happening in the world. One of the main stories we repeat to ourselves is that mental illness causes suicide. We perpetuate this idea that people who take their own lives are sick, perhaps as an unconscious way of attempting to avoid feelings of guilt or regret about what we could have done or who we could have been for the people we’re losing to this public health crisis. It’s almost like neuroscience hasn’t shown us how harmful isolation is for human beings. We then turn right around and express shock that Kate Spade, Anthony Bourdain, Robin Williams, etc., were feeling so awful — “they were always so happy” say the people “closest” to them……………..

This from (mad in america .com)

Yes Igolar, his mental state during the Berlin episode is evident. It is probably the darkest episode of this series. The silences after the comments of these troubled/depressed individuals is deafening. I can’t imagine how much it might have contributed to an increasingly, isolated and lonely person away from loved ones dealing with his own personal demons . In any case quite dark and sad.

Most telling a quote at the end of the episode by Samuel Beckett "You must go on, I can’t go on, I’ll go on".

My comment in the NY Times on the passing of Anthony Bourdain:

If we're lucky, once or twice in our lifetimes we are exposed to the words and ideas of someone who, for whatever reason, speaks to our souls. For me, one of those few voices was that of Anthony Bourdain.

He was witty, flippant yet sincere, and in many ways, more adventurous than we normal mortals. His hard living drug use as a younger man morphed into him becoming a chain smoking alcohol consuming curmudgeon that surprisingly became a father at 50.

His appreciation of everyday people and what they ate led him around the globe on a seemingly unending journey of food and drink almost beyond what one man alone could consume and live very long to talk about. A simple meal of noodles and a cold beer with Barack Obama meant as much to him as any meal offered to him by the lowliest of home cooks in the dozens of countries he visited, many more than once.

And ironically, for someone who literally worshipped the Asian continent and its cuisine and cultures, the last true love of his life was also named Asia - the #metoo icon Asia Argento.

But what spoke to me was the one thing that would describe him: he was no bullshit, no spin, nothing hidden - Anthony Bourdain was real, which is rare these days. And he would never tell you he deserved to be on that pedestal we put celebrities on - instead he would tell you how lucky he was to get to do what he did.

Soul/R&B singer & saxophonist Jeff Hendrick perhaps said it best: "At a time when dark forces want to divide us, he showed us how food, fellowship, and culture unite us... he took us to places most of us will never get to see in our lifetimes, and he showed us the love & humanity the world offers."

^^^ Indeed. I know that I will miss Anthony.