S12.E07: Lower East Side

[ElectricBoogaloo]

SERIES FINALE!

Quote

Bourdain takes a personal journey through this formerly bohemian New York City neighborhood, as he meets, shares meals and reflects with music, film and art trailblazers including Richard Hell, Deborah Harry and Chris Stein, Lydia Lunch, Fab 5 Freddy, Danny Fields, Amos Poe, Jim Jarmusch, Kembra Pfahler, John Lurie, Clayton Patterson and Harley Flanagan, whose collective cultural impact in the 1970’s and ’80’s has sustained through the decades.

Original air date: 11/11/18

[Yeah No]

So sad and still hard to believe that this was the final episode.  It somehow felt very anticlimactic, especially at the end when the screen went black.  I thought that touch might be intentional.  I felt like other episodes this season would have given more of a sense of closure, but I suppose they showed them in order and that's just where it ended.  Perhaps it's appropriate that Tony should end back in NYC, on "home turf" anyway.  Rest in peace, Tony.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I saw this very sweet post about the finale earlier today:

[theschnauzers]

No question in my mind that this is a fitting final episode to the series. When Deborah Harry came onscreen it brought back a memory of driving back home on a weekend night after spending an afternoon and evening with friends and hearing Blondie’s “Call Me” on the fm radio in my car. Hearing that song on those drives (about 50 miles or so) went on for quite a while.

But this episode was the essence of Parts Unknown— having conversations over food and often not about the food. But you learn a lot about people, places, cultures as well as their food. Which has made this series so wonderful. We’ll always have these episodes from Myanmar to the Lower East Side.  RIP Tony.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Some reviews of the final episode:

Anthony Bourdain’s final episode of “Parts Unknown” is no-bullshit, just like him

Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown is a love letter to New York, the city he called home

The final episode of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown explores the gritty past that made the world's greatest traveler

[Hana Chan]

I hadn't been able to watch the show since Anthony's death. He inspired me so much in my love of travel and taught me to be a much braver traveler than I might have been otherwise. Since I first watched him way back on "A Cook's Tour" back on the Food Network, I've been all around the USA, Ireland, Spain, Japan, Thailand, Mexico, and I just returned from Budapest and Prague a few weeks ago. I've got plans to hopefully visit Vietnam next year and I've got my list of other countries that I want to see. Many of them were places that I might not have considered had I not seen a bit of them through Anthony's eyes. He taught me about food and culture and people in a way that no one else was ever able to consider.

I watched last night and when the final scene ended, I cried. There will be no more journeys with Mr. Bourdain and I still feel positively bereft. He blazed a trail for a lot of us, but now we have to find out own paths.

[Yeah No]

I have probably watched every episode of every show Tony did, right from the very beginning of "Cook's Tour" in 2002. That's a big chunk of my life.  I was unable to watch some of these last episodes right away, then I did with tears.  It still amazes me how many people were touched by him since I tend to see this in very subjective, personal terms.  My husband and I were both born in the same hospital in Manhattan as Tony, in my husband's case, in the same year only a few months apart.  We shared a certain outlook with Tony that comes from being from a certain place and time, so we always thought it was "just us' that "got it" with him.  We got all of his snarky, ironic, funny references in a way we were sure no one else could.  But since his death I have realized that Tony resonated on many levels with many people in universal ways that didn't just come out of that one place and time.  There will never be another like him.

[bad things are bad]

I'm still devastated about Tony's death. And angry. I never felt like he was my friend, but I'd love to sit and listen to him talk about whatever, he seemed like a mensch. 

[StevedeMena]

Who was the narrator at the beginning of the show? I didn't recognize the voice and it didn't seem to match any of the people interviewed on camera during the rest of the show.

Wonder episode.  

[wknt3]

On 11/12/2018 at 1:42 AM, Yeah No said:

So sad and still hard to believe that this was the final episode.  It somehow felt very anticlimactic, especially at the end when the screen went black.  I thought that touch might be intentional.  I felt like other episodes this season would have given more of a sense of closure, but I suppose they showed them in order and that's just where it ended.  Perhaps it's appropriate that Tony should end back in NYC, on "home turf" anyway.  Rest in peace, Tony.

I'm not sure if they were going for anticlimactic, but I'm sure the ending was a deliberate choice. In Tony's words sometimes “silence is the highest compliment.”

[kirklandia]

We hear the song "You can't put your arms around a memory".  Fade to black.  Point made.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Bourdain's field notes on the Lower East Side

Parts Unknown links for the Lowe East Side

[oakville]

I hope CNN releases a DVD of all the episodes of Parts Unknown. I loved all of Bourdain's shows. It was like reading a National Geographic magazine. 

I admired how he analyzed countries by meeting up with locals for food. I am sad that the show has ended.