tragabigzanda wrote:Yeah, what was his sobriety course like? When did he stop drinking (if ever)? And when did he start again? Or was it more about the heroin and other hard drugs?
My understanding from his memoirs and essays is that he quit the hard stuff but never stopped drinking or smoking weed.
After he had his daughter he said he rarely ever drank and never smoked when he wasn't on the road. And I believe that. The one time my wife waited on him he had a glass of wine but that was it.
He mostly wanted to stay open to experiences abroad.
Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Sun January 11, 2026 1:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
Steve Albini wrote:Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.
Last edited by tragabigzanda on Sun January 11, 2026 1:54 am, edited 1 time in total.
wease wrote:I just read Kitchen Confidential last week. Fantastic book.
It's wonderful. And since you liked that, I highly recommend Medium Raw. It's not quite as "scandalous" but the writing is so much better. He really found his voice in that book. I think it's my favorite of his non-fic/memoirs.
wease wrote:I just read Kitchen Confidential last week. Fantastic book.
It's wonderful. And since you liked that, I highly recommend Medium Raw. It's not quite as "scandalous" but the writing is so much better. He really found his voice in that book. I think it's my favorite of his non-fic/memoirs.
In preparation for our upcoming Vietnam trip, my wife and I have been watching all of the Bourdain Vietnam episodes over his career.
Last night we watched No Reservations S5E10 "Vietnam: There's No Place Like Home", most of which takes place in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City.
I almost didn't make it through the whole thing. It's an amazing episode and I'm so glad I watched it. But it was emotional as fuck. He talks so much about taking year off and moving to Vietnam with his wife and child... just the way he talks about his daughter... and an old friend of his had passed away before he made it back to see her. And it was just so raw and emotional.
VinylGuy wrote:Both of his and Chris Cornell suicides still resonate with me.
I feel you there. Cornell was another gut punch.
Bourdain's is another level for me though. I realized last night that I'm still very much in the morning/grieving process regarding his death. Which kinda surprised me. It's never taken me this long to work through something like this. Which is crazy.
I don't think I every fully, consciously, processed the depth and breadth of his impact. Some days it almost feels like it's getting harder, not easier.
I realize is like this to me too because i try to avoid watching him. I was describing his show to a friend the other day and thought fuuuuck, i really want to view a whole season of his shows.
With Chris im still baffled and angry. I really want more stuff of him, a SG album, a new Temple album.
The news of his death broke the morning after I saw the Slayer retirement tour, making one of the worst days ever follow one of the best days ever for me.
My laptop's hard drive crashed about 3 weeks ago and I lost all of his books I had saved on it. I only read Kitchen Confidential all the way though and read some of the recipes in Appetites: A Cookbook. Now I need to get all those back. I even had his weird 90's novels he was writing before Kitchen Confidential.
Jammer XCI wrote:The news of his death broke the morning after I saw the Slayer retirement tour, making one of the worst days ever follow one of the best days ever for me.
My laptop's hard drive crashed about 3 weeks ago and I lost all of his books I had saved on it. I only read Kitchen Confidential all the way though and read some of the recipes in Appetites: A Cookbook. Now I need to get all those back. I even had his weird 90's novels he was writing before Kitchen Confidential.
I have no idea if they were any good. I was probably going to read Medium Raw next, but now I need to track it down. I'll probably just use my library card now, I know they have it at my local one.
Jammer XCI wrote:I have no idea if they were any good. I was probably going to read Medium Raw next, but now I need to track it down. I'll probably just use my library card now, I know they have it at my local one.
Medium Raw is my favorite of his books. He really honed his voice in that book. The writing just pops.
