RIP Anthony Bourdain

Celebrity chef and tv personality Anthony Bourdain, took his own life by hanging himself while on location filming for his CNN show "Parts Unknown" in Paris.  He was 61.


Bourdain was had a checkered past as he worked his way through the New York luxury restaurant scene. Bourdain had to overcome addiction to cocaine, LSD and heroin.  Bourdain quipped that before his first book, Kitchen Confidential, was published in 2000, he was a guy in his 40s who had never paid rent on time, owed ten years of taxes and did not own a piece of furniture. Between his books and food shows, Bourdain's fortunes changed and he amassed a personal wealth of $16 million.

Bourdain's books, Kitchen Confidential (2000) led to a Food TV series A Cooks Tour in 2002 that vaulted him into celebrity chef status.  Bourdain then jumped to the Travel Network for his iconic series No Reservations in 2005, which included a warning for graphic language. 

In 2013, Bourdain began his series "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown" which linked culture with cuisine.  The show won the Peabody Award in 2013 as judges noted that Bourdain expanded our palates and horizons in equal measure. 

While Bourdain traveled the world in search of a good meal, he appreciated how Asian American influence was shaping contemporary American cuisine.  Bourdain also noted that the fact that 50% of Toronto's residents are not from Canada gives it strength for interesting food. 

One can intuit that Bourdain agreed with his observations about Italian, Spanish, Vietnamese and Chinese food culture:  "[They] see food as part of a larger, more essential and pleasurable part of daily life. Not as an experience to be collected or bragged about- or as a ritual like filling up a car - but as something else that gives pleasure, like sex or music, or a good nap in the afternoon." 

Despite his prominence on the culinary circuit, Bourdain was not reticent to criticize fellow celebrity chefs such as Paula Dean, Rachel Ray and Bobby Flay. The Smithsonian dubbed Bourdain a rock star of the culinary world and the Elvis of bad boy chefs.    Notwithstanding that articulated antipathy, many celebrity chefs had no reservations in expressing stunned condolences at Bourdain's passing.

Sadly, Bourdain's apparent suicide moots his daydream of retirement: "I'm definitely looking forward to the day when I stop working - if I ever stop working.  I like the idea of kneeling over in my tomato vines in Sardinia or northern Italy." 

On the Death of Billy Graham

Paying Tribute to Quality-- RIP Robert M. Pirsig

Author Robert M. Pirsig died at the age of 88 in South Berwick, Maine after a period of failing health.  Pirsig was renowned for writing Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance-- An Inquiry Into Values (1974), a loosely autobiographical travelogue of a 17 day cross country road trip in 1968 with his 11 year old son and two friends during which he pondered weighty philosophical problems to discern the metaphysics of quality,  

Pirsig had served in the Army in the Far East before the Korean War.  During a trip on leave to Japan, Pirsig became fascinated by Zen Buddhism. After his military service, Pirsig received graduate degrees in Philosophy from the University of Chicago and Banaras Hindu University.

Like the unnamed protagonist in the novel, who sometimes referred to himself as Phaedrus (a name inspired by Plato's Dialogues),  Pirsig was a brilliant thinker with a high IQ who eventually suffered a mental breakdown which was treated by electro-shock therapy that altered his personality. By delving deeply into undercurrents of thought, the novel can be seen as a detective story of a man in search of himself.

Robert M. Pirsig, 1975

The title of the book was a play on another popular tome Zen and the Art of Archery (1971). Pirsig's playfulness was also evident in the forward in which the author wrote:

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance should in no way be associated with that great body of factual information relating to orthodox Zen Buddhist practice. It’s not very factual on motorcycles either.”

But the book contemplated how man relates to machines, the roots of our culture and what inspires madness.

Plato & Aristotle "The School of Athens" Raphael (1510)

Phaedrus ordered existence between "classic" values (like rational problem solving in fixing motorcycles) and "romantic values" (like beauty and the arts). This philosophical chautauqua ("circus of ideas) which Phaedrus grappled with in his deep thoughts was how the Western mind had separated ordinary experiences from transcendent experiences because Plato and Aristotle had done so. Moreover, the mind-body dualism championed by the Greeks stoked a mental civil war which stripped rationality from its spiritual underpinnings and spirituality of its reason.

What man really ought to strive for is quality.  As Pirsig contemplated:

"Quality . . . you know what it is, yet you don't know what it is. But that's self-contradictory. But some things are better than others, that is, they have more quality. But when you try to say what the quality is, apart from the things that have it, it all goes poof! There's nothing to talk about. But if you can't say what Quality is, how do you know what it is, or how do you know that it even exists? If no one knows what it is, then for all practical purposes it doesn't exist at all. But for all practical purposes it really does exist."

The book became a phenomenon which the author later described as a “kulturbarer" (Swedish for culture bearer), which developed a near cult popularity amongst hippies.  Pirsig mused: “I expressed what I thought were my prime thoughts and they turned out to be the prime thoughts of everybody else." Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance truly appealed to Baby Boomers. When the novel was first published, New York Times reviewer Christopher Lehmann-Haupt wrote: 

"[H]owever impressive are the seductive powers with which Mr. Pirsig engages us in his motorcycle trip, they are nothing compared to the skill with which he interests us in his philosophic trip... when [Pirsig] comes to grips with the hard philosophical conundrums raised by the 1960's, he can be electrifying." 

 When reflecting on the impact of ZAMM, Todd Gitlin, a counter cultural sociologist speculated that by blending the deep thoughts with the drudgery of daily life, such as motorcycle maintenance:  "Pirsig provided a kind of soft landing from the euphoric stratosphere of the late ’60s into the real world of adult life.”

The counter cultural novel sold over one million books in the first year of its publication and sold several million more since then.  Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance became  the biggest selling philosophy book of all times and remained on the best sellers list for over a decade. This is remarkable for a manuscript which was rejected by 121 different publishers before William Morrow signed hi for a small $3,000 advance.

After the unexpected success of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Pirsig won a Guggenheim fellowship, some fortune and unwanted fame. Pirsig got so freaked out by what his neighbors called "Pirsig Pilgrims" to his Minneapolis home that he eventually packed his bags and would live in a camper or a sailboat for months.  Pirsig spent the last 30 years of his life in a small town in Southern Maine

Pirsig wrote one other book, Lila- An Inquiry into Morals (1991), which achieved neither the same success nor cultural impact.  But sometimes one oeuvre is enough to make one's mark on the world. 

Personally, I found Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance to be a highly influential book. Believe it or not, it served as a textbook for an Advanced Placement American History course in high school. Despite the unorthodox textbook, I achieved highest marks on the exam as it honed in me an incredible analytical inclination which remains with me to this day (sometimes to the consternation of those close to me).  

While I may not be an adherent to Zen Buddhism, nor will anyone catch me fixing motor scooters or the ilk, I am graced by the idea that there is a nexus between the simply joys and drudgery of daily life and the transcendent. More than a quarter century later, I am still inspired by a quest for quality. To be so deeply impacted by a book demonstrates its importance. 

H/T: New York Times
        NPR

R.I.P John Glenn Ad Astra

Friendship 7  orbiting capsule

The United States was behind in the Space Race against the Soviet Union. Three of the four Atlas rockets test rockets blew up before achieving orbit. The orbiting vehicle  was space capsule which  had the leg room of a Volkswagon Beetle with the aesthetic of a garbage can.  

Still NASA astronaut John Glenn braved the dangers of flying an prototype space vehicle in Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962 and orbited the Earth three times.





Mission Control believed that there was a problem with the heat shield which might cause Glenn to burn up on re-entry. Thus the flight protocol was changed on the fly and Glenn would have to make a manual splashdown. As it turned out, it was merely a malfunctioning gauge. The only harm to Glenn was that the pressure from blowing the hatch slightly cut the astronaut's knuckles through his gloves.

Despite the harried re-entry, the experienced NASA test pilot was poetic in recalling his time in space, harkening to the joy of seeing four sunsets in one day. Later, Glenn was received as a hero in Wall Street with a massive ticker-tape parade, larger than the celebration for Charles Lindberg's flight across the Atlantic. 

Glenn had intended to run for the US Senate in 1964 but had a withdraw due to a concussion. Glenn served as a Senator from Ohio from 1974 to 1999. 

In 1998, Glenn again flew into space on the Discovery Space Shuttle at age 77 to serve as a human guinea pig on geriatrics in space. Glenn is the oldest person to go into space.

Senator John Glenn died at age 95  on December 8, 2016 at Ohio State University's James Cancer Center.

Requiem in pacem ad astra 

Farewell Arnold Palmer

R.I.P. David Bowie (1947-2016)

David Bowie turned 69 years old on Friday January 8, 2016.  Bowie marked the occasion by releasing his 25th studio album Blackstar.  This was the Bowie album which did not feature his ever changing visage (as illustrated by Helen Green for the rock star's 68th birthday).



 
 But a video Lazarus was simultaneously released to promote Blackstar, which depicted Bowie in a hospital bed with bandages covering his face and buttons over his his eyes.

Two  days later, the world was shocked when Bowie's death was announced.  Unbeknownst to the general public Bowie had be suffering from cancer for eighteen month which he knew was incurable.  Bowie's longtime music producer Tony Visconti opined that Blackstar was a parting gift from Bowie. Visconti followed with the observation: "His death was no different than his life-- a work of art."

The lyrics to Lazarus paired with the haunting images from the video lend credence to the perception that Blackstar was a deliberate swan song. 

Look up here, I'm in heaven

I've got scars that can't be seen

I've got drama, can't be stolen

Everybody knows me now

Look up here, man, I'm in danger

I've got nothing left to lose

I'm so high it makes my brain whirl

Dropped my cell phone down below

Ain't that just like me

By the time I got to New York

I was living like a king

Then I used up all my money

I was looking for your ass

This way or no way

You know, I'll be free

Just like that bluebird

Now ain't that just like me

Oh I'll be free

Just like that bluebird

Oh I'll be free

Ain't that just like me

h/t: Helen Green

Eulogy for Meadowlark Lemon, the Clown Prince of Basketball

Basketball legend Meadowlark Lemon died at age 83 in Scottdale, Arizona on December 27, 2015.  Lemon was the court jester of the Harlem Globetrotters for 22 seasons before venturing off to play for the Bucketeers, then later with the Shooting Stars and in 1988 starting "Meadowlark Lemon's All Stars".  In 1994, Lemon played 50 games for the Harlem Globetrotters while still playing for his own touring team.

In Meadowlark Lemon's prime, he played 325 games a year. After missing one game in Germany after a bad meal of goulash in 1955,  Lemon played  7,500 consecutive games for the Harlem Globetrotters, which was the equivalent of 92 NBA seasons. But Lemon was known for more than his perfect attendance on the courts.

   

Wilt Chamberlain played with Meadowlark Lemon for the 1958-59 season on the Harlem Globetrotters.  Wilt Chamberlain lauded Lemom shortly before his Wilt's death in 1999:  “Meadowlark was the most sensational, awesome, incredible basketball player I've ever seen.  People would say it would be Dr. J or even [Michael] Jordan. For me it would be Meadowlark Lemon.”  Lemon could make unbelievable behind the back half-court baskets and was known for his long range hook shot. 

Supplementing his superior skill set at basketball fundamentals, Meadowlark Lemon was a showman.  He enthusiastically embraced being the "Clown Prince" of basketball, by doing a regular shtick of throwing a bucket-full of confetti and pulling down the pants of referees.  Meadowlark Lemon was inducted into both the Basketball Hall of Fame and the International Clown Hall of Fame. 

Aside from being an athlete and an entertainer, Meadowlark Lemon had a spiritual side.  Lemon became an ordained minister in 1986 and a Doctor of Divinity in 1988 from Vision International University.  Along with his second wife Dr. Cynthia Lemon, he founded  Meadowlark Lemon Ministries with a mission "Changing lives to change the world" by   leveraging his books, media, evangelical outreach along with Camp Meadowlark basketball camp as inspiration to stay focused and finish strong message aimed at keep kids away from the path of substance abuse. 

Meadowlark Lemon Ministries has a special outreach to youths in detention facilities and prisons.  Meadowlark's message to these troubled souls is that you are not alone, you are uniquely special, God has great plans for you and you are forgiven. 

Through his excellence on the courts and comedy, Meadowlark Lemon could entertain and elevate his fans.  Parlaying his successes on the court to his ministry, Meadowlark Lemon helped elevate himself and others to a higher level. Rest In Peace Clown Prince of Basketball. 

R.I.P. Jim Traficant--Beam Me Up?

Former Representative Jim Traficant (D-OH 17th) was critically injured in a tractor mishap on his daughter's farm in northeastern Ohio.  The 73 year old Traficant was believe to be pulling a vintage tractor which tipped over him inside the barn and trapped Traficant underneath the machinery. Paramedics found Traficant unconscious and eventually medivaced him to a hospital in Youngstown, Ohio where he was kept in a medically induced coma to try to stabilize him before he expired.

In a case of sad irony, the accident occurred on the farm which became the focal point of  the two month trial in which Traficant represented himself and was convicted on ten counts which included bribery, racketeering, and tax evasion.  Thus, the House of Representatives expelled  the eight term Congressman on a vote of 420-1 in 2002.

Traficant served seven years in federal prison before being paroled in 2009. While in prison, Traficant turned to art as therapy, which he would sell online to pay for more art supplies.  But being in "Club Fed" did not deter Traficant from running for office.  In fact, Traficant ran for his old Congressional seat while behind bars and won 15% of the vote vying against his former aide Rep. Jim Ryan (D OH-17th now 13th)

Traficant was a flamboyant figure on Capitol Hill.  Traficant insisted on styling a pompadour which Traficant himself called "the weed whacker" but a hairdo which others likened to muskrats mating.  In prison, it was became evident that Traficant just sported a bad toupe.  Traficant also insisted on wearing out of style clothing in the well of the House, like denim suits and wide lapel sports jackets.

What drew great notoriety for Cong. Traficant was his eccentric, amusing and "earthy" One Minute Speeches.





Traficant would often punctuate his political rant by saying "Beam me up!", thereby repopularizing the Star Trek catch phrase.  Assuredly, Traficant's quip of "Beam me up" sounds much better than supporters trying to sing it in a polka honoring the paroled Congressman.

These attention grabbing speeches would generate publicity as light hearted news for the low information voter, but these epic rants reflected the blue collar, common sense sentiments of his Mahoning Valley constituents. Traficant had a 97% anti-abortion voting record, which is certainly an anomaly among Democrats today.

In some ways, Traficant was a precursor of the Tea Party.  Traficant loudly spoke out against illegal immigration and advocated immigration reduction.  Traficant opposed Ukrainian Nazi John Demjanjuk's deportation, insisting that there already had been a fair trial. Railing against wasteful government spending, opposing open immigration, insisting on the rule of law and defying the Cocktail Party in the District of Calamity (sic) sound much like a proto-Tea Party type.

 Generally, Traficant spoke his mind, tried to represent his constituents political sentiments rather than reflect the will of party leaders.  That conviction (sic) cost him.  Traficant  was voting mostly along GOP party lines (but voted against President Clinton's impeachment).  So much, Traficant crossed party lines and voted for Denny Hastert (R-IL 14th) for Speaker.  Democrats punished Traficant by stripping him of his seniority and committee appointments.  Republicans did not reward him with anything for his on-the-limb leadership vote.  Thus Traficant found himself without a committee assignment for his last term in Congress, which had not happened in 100 years.

One might conclude that Traficant's comedic Congressional One Minute speeches, his out of fashion styling, crossing over party lines for Speaker and deciding to represent himself in court and Congress indicates that he was not so smart.  Well, Mr. Traficant earned two Masters degrees.  Moreover, Traficant defended himself in 1983 and beat a RICO charge, being one of the few to ever do so.  

James Traficant was a flawed but faithful fellow.  May the heavens beam him up and he yields back whatever is left.

h/t:  WFJM

Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez on Dying

Ray Manzerek Breaks on Through to the Other Side RIP (1939-2013)

[L} Ray Manzarek, [R] Jim Morrison of The Doors

Ray Manzarek, the iconic keyboardist who co-founded The Doors in 1965 died after a long bout with cancer in Rosenheim, Germany.

Manzarek  attended film school at UCLA, where he became acquainted with fellow film student Jim Morrison.  Manzarek met met drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robbie Krieger at Transcendental Meditation. The foursome was the house band for the London Fog and later the prestigious Whiskey A Go Go on L.A.'s Sunset Strip.

Although The Doors were known for the unpredictable antics o iconic but erratic performances of  lead singer Morrison, Manzarek was the musical backbone, as he played both keyboard and bass.  Manzarek's importance is evident in the bluesy organ which is the hallmark of the infamous 1967 "Light My Fire" performance on the Ed Sullivan Show.





Manzarek also occasionally sang on Doors' songs, which took more prominence on the two albums released after the Lizard King's death in Paris in 1971.

After the end of The Doors, Manzarek continued to play professionally until his death.  In 1984, Manzarek released an album of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana which was produced by Philip Glass.



Manzarek also dabbled in literature.  His memoirs "Light My Fire: My Life with the Doors" was published in 1998.  Manzarek also wrote The Poet In Exile (2001), which was a novel that explored the urban myth that Jim Morrison faked his death.

As Manzarek shakes his mortal coil, it might be worthwhile to contemplate the inspiration of The Door's moniker.  It is based off of a quote from William Blake's "On Heaven and Hell" which Aldous Huxley reinterpreted in "The Doors of Perception".

"If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite"

May transcending the physical clear Ray Manzarek's doors of perception.  Rest In Peace.