My Hero Comes to Town, a Justopia.com Plug and Checking in on Bradman

Lot of Writing

It’s been a while since Piglet’s logged on

Yesterday’s post marked the 185th since I began publishing Living the Justopian Life. Over the course of 190 days, I have published on all but 5 of them. Wow, no wonder I am so damn tired and forget things all the time … like which public garage I parked in when I went into DC tonight to see my hero —  Celebrity Chef, Tony Bourdain! As I was leaving the parking structure, I made sure to take in the buildings around me and to make a mental note of where I was so that I could find my way back without a problem and wouldn’t you know it, I walked around for 30 minutes after the event was over and checked two other garages before I finally found my car!

It was a beautiful fall day out in our nation’s capital, so that was not an issue, but feeling like I am 90 with a failing memory is a clear sign that I have to work on getting more sleep — 4 – 5 hours a day just isn’t cutting it, is it?

Even with the parking incident, the evening was just what I was expecting. The wit and irreverence of, Anthony Bourdain was just what we see on his Travel Channel shows. He says it like it is … no sugar coating anything. He takes care to be polite and respectful to the people hosting him on his world travels and it carried over to the retelling of stories to the group in the Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University in Washington, DC. The crowd was a mix of baby boomer types like me and younger fans of Bourdain from the school itself, or from elsewhere in the community.

We were treated to short clips of three of the shows that aired in the most recent season of No Reservations projected onto a screen on the stage and in full stereo sound. He chatted with us about each video clip. It was not rehearsed, not practiced, it was true Bourdain style. The first clip was his trip to Korea and the making of kimchi with one of his production assistants in the rural countryside of Korea which brought up the subject of food … rotting food to be exact. It led to a brief oral essay about the way we came to eat or not eat fermenting — rotting food. That all culinary preparations really stemmed from the same thing. 1. We were trying to find ways to prevent food from rotting and then we tried to find ways to use rotting food. Thus the kimchi or Philippine bagoong (fermented shrimp). I’ll bet if we stepped back and thought about it, we could come up with countless food items that are either rotted food, or on their way. I mean, what is Limburger cheese anyway?! It stinks, but it tastes great.

Then he took us to the episode in Brazil where he sat down for some good local food and drink and then went on to show us a scene in Hong Kong which I actually saw when I tuned into The Amazing Race a few months ago. There are 2 -3 noodle makers such as the one he put on camera and to watch this dying craft being done was remarkable. tony spoke of all of these things interjecting humor and humanity throughout.

Freedom conveyed above in the US Capital shot, not so FREEdom shown here on Tianneman Square, Beijing, China

At the end, the he took questions from the audience. While often these Q&A sessions can leave you with nothing more than embarrassment for some of the people asking uselss questions, this was different. People got up to the mic as though they’d done this many times before, one woman professing her love for the 50 year old new father. Some simply gave complements on the show, or his books. The one question that stands out was from a guy that looked to be in his late 20’s or early 30’s. He told Bourdain that he is passionate about food and that he wants to take up a culinary career, that he’s sick of his desk job and asked for advice from the “master.” I’m not sure the guy with the question expected to hear the answer he recieved. Bourdain told him to step away — not to do it, that he’s past his prime in the food industry. He said that it’s meant for young guys/gals that can hold up the toe stresses and strains of restaurant work, but offered this suggestion; he told the questioner to go knock on doors of restaurants and to offer to wash their dishes — for low wages or … for free to get the experience and to live the restaurant and that if after a couple of months, it’s time to taste the rotting cabbage, peppers, and more.

Foodie Nerds!

Then he touched on something that is very close to my heart. Someone asked how to find the best restaurants in a city that a traveler is not familar with, noting that Bourdain has a team of people that do advance work for him, but that people that are not in the same situation have to cull the information on a new city and hope that the research you’ve done is accurate. Well, he said that the best way to do this is to use what’s at our fingertips — the WWW and to go in and do a Google search and start posting comments in the blog or message boards. He gave an interesting trick he uses … go to a city you are traveling to, pick out a restaurant, then go to one of the restaurant and hotel review sites and post a very positive comment about a few of the restaurants in the area, even though you have not been there before. There are some people that will see your comment and totally disagree with your review of the establishment and most likely, before all is said and done, you will hear about the best local place for dinner — a place you would not have considered if you were going it alone, without having done research. Some will be bitter with their replies, but who cares, that’s not what this exercise was all about. It was about using your resources, and with the internet at hand and he has a term for people that write and blog and do all things internet with regards to food — he calls us Food Nerds. I don’t take offense to that. It’s a perfectly good and descriptive term for some people i MAY know.

That’s Entertainment

I popped into Bradman’s channel tonight and am happy that I did. The last time I looked in on him he appeared sad and lamenting a failed relationship or friendship or something … I’m not sure, but I didn’t stay around long that time. Tonigth was different. He was doing his TWB show and I thought it was very well done. It had a broadcast television late night show look and feel minus the guests and it was entertaining. I will have to check out the channel more often. Bradman, thanks for the entertainment.

Shameless Plug

Justopia In the Kitchen

And then ECV called me to discuss the all new Justopia.com launch on Tuesday at 9pm EST. I had the floor and gave all the details I could think of to entice people to come check it out. Such as … how Justopia.com will be a totally interactive Justopian experience in a lifecasting environment that no one has seen before. This new totally interactive Justopian experience in a lifecasting environment that has not been seen on any network yet will have features such as:

• Real time trivia challenges with giveaways
• An Episode Guide – TiVo Style
• Split screen technology with guest chefs and hosts
• Fail safe redundant back up technology for instances of video and/or audio failures which will require no manual refreshing for recovery
• Audio chat and message boards
• The ability to private message others
• Resizeable video and chat windows and font sizess
• Broadcasting alerts via Twitter, SMS or email to announce when I am online
• Screen shot capabilities
• Real time polls
• Enhanced user/moderator/producer/channel operator tools
• And coming soon, a multi-cam solution for better video quality

So, there was a lot to talk about and get people excited about, and I appreciate ECV giving me the time to talk about it. It’s innovative, it’s new and it will be a fun experience for all that come to check out Justopia.com.

Now, before I fall asleep on the keyboard, I am going to head to bed. I’ve got miles to go before I sleep, but I am going to take a few hour break and will be back surfing the network, cooking and blogging tomorrow.