Hello
again to all my friends, HERE ON PBS KIDZ.
Being terrible at the act of blogging feels more unatural than being the frequent,
angry and hormonal teenager that blogged daily. When did I stop
writing about every day like it was nessecary. When did I stop being
so mad about everything when it didn't fall exactly in agreement with
my young adult opinions. Or have I not become less mad but just more
quiet? More censored. If I remember correctly, 2006 was a time in
which we all loosely threw around the n-word because it seemed cool,
and very heavily relied on dubbing everyone dumb and misguided. And
of course when I look back, and read that loud and manic writing I
cringe, even gag perhaps. But I also feel terribly less creative. I
don't want to eventually come to the moronic realization that the
most productive and imaginative time of my life was before I turned
20. Not that it was that productive at all, but every week was
littered with a new dream that marched each day into some childlike
frenzy in which the next moment had the potential to be the moment
that changed our lives.
It
seems that everything I am angry about has become something everyone
is angry about? And maybe thats the initial ritual of adulthood, to
be joint in our hatred of this 'terrible' society rather than get
upset over how it hasn't offered us our own version of greatness.
Don't get me wrong, I am not at all less interested in achieving a
title, getting a whiff of being dubbed 'great', having my ego
gloriously stroked. But I'm less inclined to believe that i'm
entitled to have this delivered to me. Unfortunatley, this
realization does not exactly translate immediatley into the logical
conclusion of 'working harder'.
Right
now, right this minute, I want to be Anthony Bourdain. Look I know, I
am neither an accomplished chef , well known writer or a seasoned
traveller, but for the past two weeks I have been having a repeated
fantasy of being exactly that (throw into that mix a musical genius
and political leader). There is something profound about Anthony
Bourdain's No Reservations. Hear me out fuckers. Just slow down
before you LOL at my face.
No
Reservations follows Bourdain around the world as he eats a variety
of culturally relevant food, drinks a generous emount of
nation-specific alcohol and does a bunch of shit in between eating
and drinking that is also unique to each country visited. Obviously
this sounds like several combo travel-food shows. No. Noooope. You're
entirley wrong. I'm not sure what makes No Reservations particularly
unique, but it probably has something to do with Bourdain's
personality – an unabashed, curious, funny and inherently bitter
amalgamation of a man. This goes togther with the idea of a “crew”
of people who are evidently now Bourdain's friends, his “team”
who move with him from place to place experiencing what each culture
has to offer through food and its relevance through history. There is
a genuine effort to dive headfirst into each culture but also a
severe honesty that comes through Bourdain's background narration.
There is a sincerity to no reservations that isn't desperate to “show
a new culture” but rather it is eager to experience it and weigh
out its beauty and ugliness and then taste it. Bourdain finds himself
in post-colonial Asia, Africa and South America and drinks away his
days in old grand hotels, he comments on the movement of time, the
progression of ideology and the attatchment to identity over the
culinary arts. At times, his remarks are biting – blunt and
judgmental of some strange cultural oddity. At other times he is
fasinated, sypmathetic and observant. In Europe Bourdain is more
familiar, he slips into Italian and French cuisine with ease but
still maintains the same balance of abrasive commentary and genuine
love of all things new and strange. There is a certain integrity to
the No Reservations team and it comes through in their footage, in
their accidents and in how Bourdain acts as a center piece to how
this entire group of people swim through a large assortment of food,
people and places.
So,
with that said. Earlier today, immediatley after waking up I watched
Bourdain's NR episode in “Rome”. Shot entirly in black and white
to project Bourdain's own dream of an old filmy Italy where men walk
in suits and the streets are as still as paintings at night time.
Theres a moment in the episode where the freshest of fresh cheese is
being cut for the first time and Bourdain gets to taste it. And its
only in the first 10-15 minutes after cutting the cheese will it ever
truly taste as perfect it does in that moment. I'm not sure why this
had such an insane effect on me, but my longtime thirst for travel
and adventure which quite frankly had been uneasily dormant in my
life for the last little bit, once again reignited. I want to travel
the world in the very same way and taste food and hear music and
re-live history through people in the same Bourdain like stlye. It is
awfully familiar and extremley provoking. A little bit of exhaustion,
intruigue, excitment and awareness. And it truly has nothing to do
with “fun”. I think it is much more rooted in learning,
understanding what people really value and going back in time by
moving through the world like it is a quite wonderful textbook.
I
only wish I hadn't discovered this show so late.
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