Friday, May 18, 2007

ANTHONY BOURDAIN!!!



Look! Damn! Anthony Bourdain spoke in Rockford, and I went to see him with Gina, Judy, and Joan, three wickedly fun grrrlfriends. But in our giddy fluster I got my digital camera stuck on some strange mode and half my pictures came out blurry! Shoot, Sh*t, Triple Shat. I am SO going to have Brady photoshop him out of Gina's pic and paste him into some photo of me where I'm doing the Oh-Anthony-really-now pose and flash it around like we're old pals. You wait - it'll appear here one of these days.


Notice Joan with the tuck-of-the-hair move, and Gina with the smile so bright we had to hose her off afterward. And notice Judy, of the "He ain't all that" shrug, is conspicuously absent in the twittery line-up. If you haven't read his book Kitchen Confidential yet, it is a hoot. He tells of his life as a chef in New York City, and doesn't go light on the debauchery and survival-of-the-fittest-and-least-sane details. It's not for the fainthearted - it's at times lewd and crass and shocking and no-way-that-doesn't-really-happen-does-it?!? kind of storytelling that reminds one that her life is way too mauve-colored, berber-carpeted, cul-de-sac-located, pre-fabbed, cookie-cuttered, and mac-and-cheesed to stand in the presence of one who has really lived and came out the other side to tell about it.

After the talk and book signing, we tried out Kuma, the new Asian Bistro downtown, and had a delightful meal even if it was served by an adorable automaton waitress whose description of menu items resembled a ticker tape of figures being systematically spewed forth from an adding machine. THAT was strange. But we told stories of getting noses pierced in India and daughters showing up for school pictures in lacy girly dresses and hot pink cowboy boots and irritable bowel symptoms and the babbling alley guy who didn't scare Judy. We don't do this enough - 'twas way too fun.

3 comments:

Gina in the Cucina said...

That WAS fun! So fun I've come out of lurkerdom to post about how fun it was. And you are right about that face-distorting smile I'm sporting. What a dork! I was just giddy with excitement because, as you know, I think Tony rocks! And Judy IS in a pic--I can see her blonde reflection in Joan's shot. :) Thanks for the fun night (you too, Joan & Judy) and for finding it blog-worthy. More fun soon, okay?
Gina

piscesgrrl said...

I'm pretty sure I didn't say 'face-distorting' - LOL! - but your smile does give away just how excited you were to be there! Too bad we couldn't have found him hanging around Cliffbreakers, huh? Ah well, we had much better food at Kuma.

I'm glad Judy is represented, even if only in a reflection - I didn't like leaving her unrepresented! Next time, we'll pose with him all together.

L

joanieji said...

after the triple Tanqueray martini, and Korean beer (no, really, I didn't order a triple--the bartender must have been influenced by the Bourdain-bad-boy mystique and poured REAL heavy) and all the wickedly barbed chatter by Tony and us of course it was the most fun you can possibly imagine---in Rockford. I had a bit of a time driving home...next time we go out I'll curl up in the back Sabaru.