Could things look any better for Anthony Bourdain in the above video? By the optics of it (hence "look") probably not. Making money by meeting Coppola at the heel of the Italian boot while tasting the crème de la crème of this region is far from an undesirable job. Even better if you do the above with your almost 20 years younger girlfriend. Or maybe even worse?
Only recently I learned details about Bourdain's death. I read he had killed himself back in the day but didn't dive into it. I guess the political turmoil of Greece back then sucked all my attention. I looked up all that stuff after watching the above episode. To get an idea about my ignorance (though I watched some of his episodes back in the day the Greek TV was broadcasting them and I really liked his job and his cool persona), when I saw his girlfriend showing up in that episode I thought it was Coppola's daughter as Coppola was talking about Sofia right before this scene. And I was like "hmm, did Sofia look like that? Not sure that's how I remember her...".
That's Asia Argento instead. First thing that impressed me on her was not her looks (later I find out that she was 40(ish) then so definitely looked much younger) but her "truck driver" voice. That bothered me but sure didn't bother Anthony as she was deeply in love with her. Her on the other hand, definitely not as much with him (if any at all). Pictures of her with another guy at their favourite hotel in Rome leaked at some point which was the beginning of the end of their relationship and (one could say consequently) Bourdain's life.
Looking at them at first glance (speaking of Asia that's the only glance I can spare) the only thing in common I can see between them is hedonism. Bourdain is the sentimental vulnerable side of this coin, Asia the opposite. Consider at this point that to his fragile last messages she replied with the infamous "stop busting my balls". And he really did but unfortunately stopped busting anyone's balls by hanging himself at his hotel during the shootings for one more episode of his "Parts Unknown" series. Not that he looked like the guy who would bust anyone's balls anyway.
I resonated a lot with Bourdain although I was born 2 decades after him. A rock guy with plain straight speech, mesmerized by the pleasures of life. Fortunately I never went as far as him with drugs and all. But I totally connected with his plain good intentions and his so intoxicating, for both eyes and (virtually) tongue, episodes. I still keep questioning myself "will I be as vulnerable as him at the dawn of my 60s to someone like Asia?".
Good question...Sometime ago while I was already beyond mentally exhausted from my career with the opposite sex (imagine a book titled "how to stay single after a million girls"), I met my best match ever. Sex wise. Or let's say hedonistic wise in general. She loved my taste in food and wine, my cooking and especially my homemade zero sugar Nutella, in general she blindly trusted my tongue on everything and on/in her. And our sex. Which I found perfect. Like she did. And when two non native English speakers comment this magic in the absence of the burden of their mother tongue it can lead to her saying "Orestis, I love the way you fuck me" as we kissed before I waved her goodbye at the airport. And those were the last words I heard coming out of her mouth. Why? Because when I told her I love her in one of our later messages she left me at "read" 🙂
Fun fact: the L word comes extremely rarely from my mouth or keyboard. Only because I find it pointless when you truly act as someone who really loves. But we had enough kms between us and enough perfect sex to override my usual habits. OK, you know I didn't hang myself, although she wouldn't be the sole reason if I did. And maybe Asia wasn't the sole one for Bourdain. I won't rush to judge him on how an experienced guy like him ignored the "trucker's voice" in Asia (and all that can come with it attitude wise).
I also ignored other non attractive stuff in my case as for example her neutral opinion on putin (yep, I am one of those guys), but at least her voice was far from "trucker's" and her manners were not even close to a "gold digger's" while we were together. I just saw some future in this because I believe a lot in the natural flow and if things can work in unprecedented harmony on sex then two animals that happen to be humans can find a way to co exist with the rest of their differences.
That's the pros of not being wealthy and famous my dear friends. I got away with this drama with some scars (which as they say - and rightly so - "only apply character") but poor Anthony had to battle with the fact that not only he couldn't brag anymore about his luck with his much younger GF but he had to see pictures of her with her new date on the news and comments about himself. Under this pressure he tried to wash out some of his sadness in top notch dishes with some friends before leaving this troubled world behind for good.
Again, there's two sides on this. One can skip the "poor Anthony" and flip the coin to see the idiot or even cruel Bourdain who ignored the drama his suicide would give to his friends, ex wife and kid as he focused on his lack of pleasure. Ironically, both sides of the story have a good amount of truth. Not rare at all.
How relative things are...Asia Argento was among the first to speak out about Weinstein assaulting her sexually. Bourdain supported her 100% on this. Only for poor Bourdain to find out later that she was also accused for something like that by a 17 year old with whom she had sex when she was 37...
We're all in a way paper light and thin creatures hence we'd better not take ourselves too seriously. Just think about the fact that our hormones alone define so much our behaviour and drastically affect our lives and the way we see things, destined to develop wiser tensions only when they fade away due to aging.
The harmonious couples I managed to meet during my far from uneventful life over 3 continents so far are so few that I can count them all single handedly and still be able to count in new ones. A dreamy life of wonderful sex, in absence of power games but with excess of love, making every cell of your body happier than happy and strong enough to kill death, was never the easiest thing to achieve. The way people's priorities evolve it can only get even worse. Fall follows Rise. You can't skip History.
Dear A.B., I hope you found peace on the other side. Chances are you went to a better place, even though your episodes look to us like you have already been to the best of the best ones, for all senses and by all means. Gotta hand this to you, this episode of yours that I posted above is the most tragically attractive thing ever. Only a guy like you could achieve this despite this was partially unintended. You captured the The Claustrophobic Proximity of Heaven & Hell in an unparalleled way. Cheers man!
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