Farewell to Anthony Bourdain
It’s been a sucker punch of a week with news of the loss of celebrities.
Three days ago, on June 5, Kate Spade passed away. Today, news broke that Anthony Bourdain has also passed away. Kate Spade’s has been ruled suicide and Bourdain’s passing is apparent suicide as of now.
In a Bing search, when you search a celebrity, their Twitter account and feed are shown on the first page and I was drawn to what I initially thought were tweets about Bourdain only to realize it was his most recent (his last) tweets. That is somewhat chilling as you try to read into the possible meaning when he passed the way he did.
Especially if the text reads as, “THIS song from the score from tonight’s HONG KONG @PartsUnknownCNN is gonna stay with me”
THIS song from the score from tonight’s HONG KONG @PartsUnknownCNN is gonna stay with me https://t.co/GgaSAndyXs
— Anthony Bourdain (@Bourdain) June 3, 2018
The song is – as far as I know – a new Cantonese cover of The House of the Rising Sun (aka Rising Sun Blues) made famous as a rock tune by The Animals. Who is the singer? I have no idea yet.
The June 3 Parts Unknown Hong Kong episode is the last one aired during Bourdain’s lifetime. He was working on another one in France at the time of his passing but his last tweets were about his experience in Hong Kong. In fact, his experience in Hong Kong, the resulting production, is a highlight in Bourdain’s career, he shared with Anderson Cooper.
Anthony @Bourdain sits down with @AndersonCooper to talk about why his recent visit to Hong Kong was the professional highlight of his career. @PartsUnknownCNN Sundays at 9PM ET/PT on CNN https://t.co/SODk1ia25A pic.twitter.com/Qs1tJru4be
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) June 2, 2018
And since I knew this is a social-media heavy post, I also read celebrities’ reaction to Boudain’s death, in tweets.
I have only read most of Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly a long time ago (it was a library book so I had to return it pages from finishing it) and never watched Parts Unknown but needless to say, I will be making sure to watch the Hong Kong episode.