Anthony Bourdain was in town today promoting his new Les Halles Cookbook at the Borders on Michigan Avenue. I wouldn’t have even known this if it weren’t for Josh, who called me at work, excitedly telling me that Mr. Bourdain was a guest on Mancow and he got to ask him a question — “Could you tell us about the film adaptation of Kitchen Confidential?” Apparently, it’s no longer going to be a film but a series on Fox — a fictional one, not a reality show, which is a shame, since we could use something to counteract that horribly contrived restaurant reality show last year, The Restaurant, which I personally think was a ripoff of Jamie Oliver‘s restaurant documentary, Jamie’s Kitchen. Then again, I’m biased since I’m a huge Jamie O fan.

(As it turns out, Bourdain totally ridicules Jamie in Kitchen Confidential, saying he wants to go back in time and beat him up in the schoolyard or something characteristically ornery like that.)

Anyway, his book signing was at 7:00 PM, just when we were supposed to see Rufus Wainwright at the Vic! Bad timing. But I figured the signing would start late and Rufus wouldn’t go on till around 8:00, so I decided to take a chance and head on over to Borders.

I got there around 7:30, no thanks to the northbound red line el being 15 minutes late, just in time to catch the end of Mr. Bourdain’s Q&A. He was saying, “…and that’s why vegetarians so piss me off!” My kind of guy.

After he finished his intelligent, well-informed rant about the self-indulgence of American vegetarians and vegans and the utmost reverence he has for animals and centuries-old culinary traditions that have always involved meat eating, he started signing books. The line was at least 70 deep, and there was no way I’d be able to get my book signed and get to the show on time, so I left for the Vic. Fortunately Josh happened to be in the area so he picked me up and we drove over there.

Rufus was amazing. Just him and a grand piano, and occassionally he’d step over to a barstool and sing with the acoustic guitar. It was so refreshing and inspiring to see someone with real talent, musical skills, and excellent songwriting who doesn’t hide behind three bar chords/distortion/effects/antares auto-tune. When it’s just you and an unplugged instrument, you either have it or you don’t.

For me, the highlight of the evening was when he told a story about meeting Jeff Buckley for the first time, and Rufus was struck at how sad and vulnerable and delicate he really was — kind of stripping away the envy/jealously he’d previously felt towards him. Rufus performed “Memphis Skyline”, a lovely, melancholy song about Jeff Buckley, and then he transitioned directly into “Hallelujah”. o h m y g o d . There was something transcendent about it — so beautiful and heartbreaking and joyful all at the same time. (It actually made me cry, and if you know me, you know I allow this to happen in public about as often as I hang out with goth chicks at Nocturna.)

Needless to say, it was a cathartic, wow-i-don’t-know-what-to-do-with-myself cry. The only other time that’s happened, musically, was the first time I heard “Exit Music (for a Film)”. This is a good thing, when music touches you in a way you can’t understand or express in words. Anytime an artist does that, I’m a fan for life.