[boyscout]

I first "met" Anthony Bourdain through his book Kitchen Confidential when it was published in 2000. Worth reading; for a taste of it read at the following link which is one of his first published articles.

Don’€™t Eat Before Reading This

The fame and resources that came with Kitchen Confidential brought Bourdain to television, with which he "took" me around the world, revealing interesting (sometimes horrifying!) food ideas and nearly always including thoughtful insights into what made the places and people he was visiting tick. I spent many hours "with" him through television, and envied his life.

It's stunning to me that he decided to end that life. (He committed suicide in France this week.) It's harder to understand depression and demons in those who seem easily able to do things that we (I) wish we could do. Would that we understood these things better.

It's even harder to understand in Bourdain's case because - while obviously and reportedly exhausted from a punishing schedule of travel and work - he still had the passion for his work that made him so very good at it. Look at the following article he published just days before his death, in which he burbles with delight about the show he had just taped in Hong Kong with people he revered.

Anthony Bourdain: My "Cinematic Dream" Filming With Asia Argento and Christopher Doyle in Hong Kong (Guest Column)

A mystery, a tragedy, a real loss. I'll miss the places we were going to visit "together", and will feel sadness as I "return" in reruns to the places we've been.

 

[butterknucket]

It just goes to show that you never know what's going on on the inside.

 

[Adcandour]

I called in to the Covino & Rich show the day it happened, because they were trying to understand why anyone would choose to choke themselves instead of shooting or something else seemingly easier to handle. I just wanted to clarify it all for them, since it was very obvious to me.

I didn't realize this at the time, but apparently Anthony was obsessed with Ju Jitsu (I noticed after Joe Rogan posted a pic of him on instagram as a 'zero-tip' blue belt). A blue belt has probably experienced at least 100 chokes during training and sparring.

I've experienced at least 150 or so over the last couple of years, and I have to be honest, it would be the best way to go. Applied correctly, it's about the most comfortable way to slip into unconsciousness in under 4 seconds. At 8 seconds you're pretty much dead. If you're woken up just right, you'll feel like a million bucks.

 

[Diablo]

I called in to the Covino & Rich show the day it happened, because they were trying to understand why anyone would choose to choke themselves instead of shooting or something else seemingly easier to handle. I just wanted to clarify it all for them, since it was very obvious to me.

I didn't realize this at the time, but apparently Anthony was obsessed with Ju Jitsu (I noticed after Joe Rogan posted a pic of him on instagram as a 'zero-tip' blue belt). A blue belt has probably experienced at least 100 chokes during training and sparring.

I've experienced at least 150 or so over the last couple of years, and I have to be honest, it would be the best way to go. Applied correctly, it's about the most comfortable way to slip into unconsciousness in under 4 seconds. At 8 seconds you're pretty much dead. If you're woken up just right, you'll feel like a million bucks.

I dunno. For a guy who carried himself like he was some kind of “man’s man”, it sure looks like a bitches way to go out. Like, Marilyn Manson level bitch.

His show had its moments....in the end he was a guy who ate weird food and dropped f-bombs cuz he was so hardcore.

I liked and quoted his comments last year that took shots at liberals condescending attitudes to conservative voters.
But going out the way he did, he needs to be called out as a bitch for it.
For some reason, I think if he were alive he’d be the first to say it too.

We’re conscientious about not glorifying mass murderers. We should strive to do the same with suicides.

 

[Adcandour]

I dunno. For a guy who carried himself like he was some kind of “man’s man”, it sure looks like a bitches way to go out. Like, Marilyn Manson level bitch.

His show had its moments....in the end he was a guy who ate weird food and dropped f-bombs cuz he was so hardcore.

I liked and quoted his comments last year that took shots at liberals condescending attitudes to conservative voters.
But going out the way he did, he needs to be called out as a bitch for it.
For some reason, I think if he were alive he’d be the first to say it too.

We’re conscientious about not glorifying mass murderers. We should strive to do the same with suicides.

I'm not sure I was making my point properly.

I'll admit that I've never watched an episode of any show he's been a part. I really know nothing about him. I'm simply commenting on how choking to death via 'blood choke' to the brain would be a comfortable way to go, and that he'd know how to set it up because of his level of ju-jitsu. It's my understanding that is how he killed himself.

Now, if I'm talking about suicides, I would have to take it case by case. Who knows if he was a bitch? He may have been. If you're going to hang a bunch of people out to dry, then you're a bit of a bitch. Leaving kids, wife, etc. I'd be tying up all loose ends and then get my choke on, if my life didn't feel worth living and I knew there wouldn't be eternal repercussions for certain.

 

[Ship of fools]

While later in life he had great success he had his demons that he battled before his fame not sure about fortune though. He was a drinker and had a serious drug addiction which he managed to get over thank goodness and from all words from friends and even some of his rival cooks he was a great guy and had this great passion for foods.
He gave us great stories and shared some wonderful places and stories from folks all over the world and was passionate about many things and would expect nothing but the best from the cooks who he visited and shared meals with ( what better way to know people but through food ). I know I will miss his show and his experiences that we got to see from countries that we may never get to.
The truly sad part is his 11 year old daughter growing up with a father and all the joys of having him in her life now and later can't imagine what it would be like not to have your dad walk you down the aisle and his recent girlfriend who made him very happy but we shall never know the why he did what he did and let us hope that through his mis-fortunate way of going out inspires other to seek help and not take their own lives, life can be real hard but living isn't easy either and some how one must find courage to seek that help that is out there and to understand while their pain is a terrible thing what they leave behind is even worse.
I have had to many in my own family kill themselfs and the pain left behind well you just don't get over it and some of it was 50+ years ago and it just breaks my heart .

 

[NB_Terry]

After watching a few recent interviews where he's talking about how proud he is of his daughter and his tv show, I think there must be more to the story.

I'm thinking auto erotic Asphyxiation (ala InXS singer and the great Kevin Gilbert), or maybe he found out he was terminal with something and took himself out.

I guess if the family doesn't want that info to come out, we'll never know.

 

[Lola]

For all of the wealth this man had he could of sought the best help that $ could buy.

Suicide is a selfish cowards way out.

A permanent solution to a temporary problem.

Do we really know if he was clean? Heroin, cocaine and booze. He obviously had a lot of inner demons that he tried in vain to put to sleep but there are options, suicide not being one of them.

He was apparently a recovering alcoholic but I saw him drink booze in many of his shows.

 

[boyscout]

Sharon Kirkey writes in the National Post about an increasing suicide rate, and about several high-profile suicides including Anthony Bourdain's.

http://nationalpost.com/news/world/...ty-of-mental-illnesses-that-dont-discriminate

For more than four decades Antoon Leenaars has tried to construct a theory to explain why people kill themselves. Among his findings, that those who die by suicide are often tragically gifted at concealing their true intentions, even from themselves.

“We find it in the suicide notes and in the psychological autopsies,” said Leenaars, a Windsor psychologist whose archive of more than 2,000 suicide notes is believed the largest collection of its kind in the world. “There’s both a conscious and unconscious intent to be deceptive, to hide, to mask,” he said.

“People don’t want to have a mental disorder.”

 

[boyscout]

After watching a few recent interviews where he's talking about how proud he is of his daughter and his tv show, I think there must be more to the story.

Check out the second link in my OP... an article he wrote just before he died in which he seems on top of his world. Then this. The "more to the story" is very likely illness - not physical but mental.

I'm thinking auto erotic Asphyxiation (ala InXS singer and the great Kevin Gilbert), or maybe he found out he was terminal with something and took himself out.

I'd bet against both, but it's an easy bet because we'll probably never know.

 

[mhammer]

Suicide is generally an impulsive act. Unless we're talking about planned medically-assisted end-of-life, it's the sort of thing one does in a brief private moment, because you can't complete it if someone else is going to barge in and stop you.

So the question I perenially raise is the extent to which the entertainment, and "celebrity", industry disproportionately attracts and spotlights those with impulse-control difficulties. There will be folks who become celebrities not of their own choosing, such as royalty, or children of celebrities, and there will be people who are absolutely pivotal to the entertainment industry but work in the background (e.g., film editors, cinematographers, mixers, sound engineers, etc.) . But the people who end up in the spotlight, because they fascinate us, often have an impulsive quality. They surprise us, and we are attracted to them because of it. Robin Williams is probably the poster-child for this. And because we are attracted to them because of it, NO ONE connected to them in the industry is going to step in and stop them, or tell them they're making poor decisions, or view them as "needing help".

A text on psychiatric diagnosis we had to read in grad school contained a phrase that has always stuck with me, thirty years on. The author noted that if you (the clinician) find yourself being "charmed" by a client, you should always suspect bipolar disorder. Not that it is any sort of litmus test (people ARE "charming" for a great many nonclinical reasons), but the author notes that the sort of social engagement we are attracted to is often found at the start of an episode of mania, so keep one eye open for further symptoms.

I don't raise this to suggest Bourdain was bipolar. Rather, I mention it because even trained clinicians can find themselves attracted to people with underlying problems, because those problems accompany other behaviour that appeals to us. It's also hard to see how anyone could become a celebrity without any skill in putting up a good front and seeming like they have it all together.

 

[butterknucket]

Suicide is generally an impulsive act. Unless we're talking about planned medically-assisted end-of-life, it's the sort of thing one does in a brief private moment, because you can't complete it if someone else is going to barge in and stop you.

I'd disagree with that. I think a lot of people ruminate about it for a long time before they successfully act on it.

 

[Ship of fools]

Mhammer I am going to disagree about it being impulsive most folks that I have know had thought about it for some time hell even me at times when breathing is almost impossible or the pain is so intense that I think about running full steam into a wall and let me tell you no one person should ever be in this much pain and nope I dont do narcotics to control it because I always worry that I am 1 pill away from being on the street and with so many addictions in my family well its just to great a risk.
And I doubt that it was auto erotic A he was having a great relationship with a new girlfriend and his ju jitsu was extremely important to him but we may never know or even if we do understand why

 

[butterknucket]

I'll be the last person to judge, but maybe he got back into drugs and knew what he was up against.

 

[mhammer]

Mhammer I am going to disagree about it being impulsive most folks that I have know had thought about it for some time hell even me at times when breathing is almost impossible or the pain is so intense that I think about running full steam into a wall and let me tell you no one person should ever be in this much pain and nope I dont do narcotics to control it because I always worry that I am 1 pill away from being on the street and with so many addictions in my family well its just to great a risk.
And I doubt that it was auto erotic A he was having a great relationship with a new girlfriend and his ju jitsu was extremely important to him but we may never know or even if we do understand why

Oh it's absolutely clear that plenty of people have what are referred to as "suicidal ideation" well ahead of time, and sometimes for years. That's why it can be treated as a symptom of depression ("Do you ever think about dying or killing yourself?"). But it's a bit like saying "Y'know, one of these days, I'm just gonna do it. I'm gonna open up the top three shirt buttons, put my bass up against the amp, grab that mic stand and belt out 'It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World', while I do the splits." or "One of these days, I'm just gonna march right in there and tell my supervisor what a P.O.S. he is." Something can be pondered and even planned out or mentally rehearsed for a long time, but never carried out....until the person decides to act on impulse right now. The thing one always needs to consider is why, if something has been pondered for a while, it hasn't been acted upon. People make snap decisions about things all the time. The prisons are full of folks who did just that.

 

[Lola]

Three words: sadness, emptiness and despair.

 

[boyscout]

Colby Cosh: Anthony Bourdain’s magnetism had little to do with food

But we knew instinctively that Bourdain was as serious as a razor about all of it. His emphatic insistence that social customs are important, and that superstitions and prejudices are not, was not just a lesson in eating: it was a lesson in being. His real subject matter was pleasure and fear and courage and wisdom. Food was only the occasion.

 

[mhammer]

Colby Cosh: Anthony Bourdain’s magnetism had little to do with food

But we knew instinctively that Bourdain was as serious as a razor about all of it. His emphatic insistence that social customs are important, and that superstitions and prejudices are not, was not just a lesson in eating: it was a lesson in being. His real subject matter was pleasure and fear and courage and wisdom. Food was only the occasion.

That's a nice summation. Again, I encourage folks to give a listen to the WTF podcast interview with him from 2011, that I linked to in the In Memorium sub-forum. It was 7 years closer to his "demon years", but the sense that comes across is precisely that: food is an occsion for people to come together, and pretty much secondary to the coming together.

 

[bolero]

I just found out about who he was, started watching some of his TV material

a real shame: seemed like a bright, energetic, positive person

excellent shows too; content, camera work, and editing are all top notch

RIP