Who would have thought, even a week ago, that Anthony Bourdain would write one of the most heartfelt tributes to Harvey Pekar?
“What went wrong here?” is an unpopular question with the type of city fathers and civic boosters for whom convention centers and pedestrian malls are the answers to all society’s ills but Harvey captured and chronicled every day what was—and will always be—beautiful about Cleveland: the still majestic gorgeousness of what once was—the uniquely quirky charm of what remains, the delightfully offbeat attitude of those who struggle to go on in a city they love and would never dream of leaving.
What a two minute overview might depict as a dying, post-industrial town, Harvey celebrated as a living, breathing, richly textured society.A place so incongruously and uniquely…seductive that I often fantasize about making my home there. Though I’ve made television all over the world, often in faraway and “exotic” places, it’s the Cleveland episode that is my favorite—and one about which I am most proud.
Thanks so much for linking to that magnificent essay, Paul.
I remember that episode and how I came to care about Harvey but the eatery they stopped at made me think he was clogging his heart shut.
Defend Cleveland!
That was gorgeous.
*snif*
When his sadness over Pekar’s death fades away, Bourdain will get over his delusion of making a home in Cleveland.
I just dug out the original American Splendor where Pekar meets Crumb and reread it. Wonderful. RIP, Harvey.