I worry that Anthony Bourdain’s literary conceit of asking in interviews about one’s Last Meal will get distorted, especially since he won’t get that sushi meal or any of the other possible ones. He wrote these short pieces because he was hopeful, as we should be hopeful in the face of a world constantly assailing humanity.
(2017) Anthony Bourdain, host of “Parts Unknown” on CNN, said last week that he would poison Donald Trump if the celebrity chef was asked to cater a peace summit between the President and Kim Jong Un. “Hemlock,” Bourdain simply replied when asked by TMZ what he would serve Trump and the North Korean dictator.
(2017) nypost.com/...
Suicide Warning Signs
Something to look out for when concerned that a person may be suicidal is a change in behavior or the presence of entirely new behaviors. This is of sharpest concern if the new or changed behavior is related to a painful event, loss, or change. Most people who take their lives exhibit one or more warning signs, either through what they say or what they do.
afsp.org/...
Originally I had written something on the recent suicide of Kate Spade, but thought better of it especially after the news of Anthony Bourdain’s death, and decided to be more life-affirming. We still have a world to win.
More interesting is that an entire revolutionary faction could take its name from a song whose author would receive the Nobel Prize.
It is equally important for rightists that the usual RW dog whistles (Bill Ayers) from the 1960s-1970s demons remained lively throughout the Obama administration, even as history and age overtook a generation that was clearly a revolutionary vanguard, unlike those who would indulge certain sectarian, anti-revisionist tendencies.
Like the Trumpist attempt to erase the history of the Obama years, the inability of average(sic) Americans to appreciate ideological differences remains sadly constant. Hence the crushing ignorance of those who would proclaim a ‘culture war’ already lost to 4/8Chan and Orange Twitler.
Much like the word ‘socialist’ making some people reach for their revolvers, perhaps we can reach for our copies of Melville. Because the vandals took the handle, and change will still occur and persist despite all these reactionaries.
Bob Dylan's Nobel Lecture
When I received this Nobel Prize for Literature, I got to wondering exactly how my songs related to literature. I wanted to reflect on it and see where the connection was. I’m going to try to articulate that to you. And most likely it will go in a roundabout way, but I hope what I say will be worthwhile and purposeful.
[...]
We see only the surface of things. We can interpret what lies below any way we see fit. Crewmen walk around on deck listening for mermaids, and sharks and vultures follow the ship. Reading skulls and faces like you read a book. Here’s a face. I’ll put it in front of you. Read it if you can.
[...]
Ishmael survives. He’s in the sea floating on a coffin. And that’s about it. That’s the whole story. That theme and all that it implies would work its way into more than a few of my songs.
[...]
So what does it all mean? Myself and a lot of other songwriters have been influenced by these very same themes. And they can mean a lot of different things. If a song moves you, that’s all that’s important. I don’t have to know what a song means. I’ve written all kinds of things into my songs. And I’m not going to worry about it – what it all means. When Melville put all his old testament, biblical references, scientific theories, Protestant doctrines, and all that knowledge of the sea and sailing ships and whales into one story, I don’t think he would have worried about it either – what it all means.
[...]
When Odysseus in The Odyssey visits the famed warrior Achilles in the underworld – Achilles, who traded a long life full of peace and contentment for a short one full of honor and glory – tells Odysseus it was all a mistake. “I just died, that’s all.” There was no honor. No immortality. And that if he could, he would choose to go back and be a lowly slave to a tenant farmer on Earth rather than be what he is – a king in the land of the dead – that whatever his struggles of life were, they were preferable to being here in this dead place.
That’s what songs are too. Our songs are alive in the land of the living. But songs are unlike literature. They’re meant to be sung, not read. The words in Shakespeare’s plays were meant to be acted on the stage. Just as lyrics in songs are meant to be sung, not read on a page. And I hope some of you get the chance to listen to these lyrics the way they were intended to be heard: in concert or on record or however people are listening to songs these days. I return once again to Homer, who says, “Sing in me, oh Muse, and through me tell the story.”
Remember to clean and cook your squid thoroughly
Not exactly throwing squid on the ice, but perhaps someone will kneel for Trump.