Be seeing you, Anthony. Read the rest

I’ve always felt the urge to leave. Any place. No matter how beautiful. I want to go. When I was 18 and finished with high school, I attended my graduation ceremony, for the sake of my family, but I skipped my prom – Canada’s east coast was calling. I’d never been there before. I didn’t know what I’d find. But I was going. I made a life for myself out there, with university, work and music. I traveled up and down the coast. Cape Breton feels like a second home to me. I love the people of Maine. New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island have a place in my heart.

But eventually, I left the east. Rage, the self-entitlement that sometimes comes from surviving a shitty childhood and a need for control left me very much out of control. I destroyed a fine long-term relationship looking for who I was. I burned bridges. I did terrible things to myself and others. It was time to move on. My travels took me back home to Ontario. My father was dying. I loved and hated him for who he was and what he had done to our family. Coming home was a terror.

Uneasily settled back into my hometown, I fought to push the dogs of my recent past down into the cellar of my soul where their bark did not seem so loud. I’d gone to university for journalism, but felt too shattered by life to write. I took on a job I despised and worked it for years. Read the rest

Anthony Bourdain died today. He was 61.

You may have seen his CNN program, or read a book, but you don't know all the world lost until you first read the New Yorker essay that set his career as a journalist, educator, and broadcast star into motion. Read the rest

Anthony Bourdain has some hard-hitting questions about the characters on Nickelodeon's tween favorite iCarly, and he asked them on Twitter last night. Among his inquiries: "Does Spencer have a job? Besides hanging out with underage girls?" and "[W]hat's Marvin Marvin's story?" Perfectly valid things for a renowned traveler/chef/middle-aged man to wonder in front of an audience of millions. I think he should consider live-tweeting an entire day of programming on The Hub, but that's just me. (via Warming Glow) Read the rest