BIG BAMBU + A VIDEO

Anthony Bourdain would have been 62 on June 25, 2018. News of his suicide hit our family hard. Nicholas and I are huge fans of his television shows, and Nicholas owns several of his books, including a copy of one of his early novels. As a writer, a chef, a visionary and a traveler, Bourdain is a huge inspiration to us both. We watch his shows dreaming about new worlds to explore, but also know how important it is to explore our own backyard. Houston always has something new and wonderful to view, and Mike and Doug Starn's Big Bambu project at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts truly is a vision. 3,000 bamboo poles lashed together with nylon cords, the project fills Cullinan Hall and part of the Upper Brown Pavilion with a chaotic, crisscrossing structure that looks as fragile as a house of cards and as sturdy as an iron skyscraper. You can walk along an elevated pathway that takes you from the pavilion to the base floor, looking on to crowds gathering for a peek inside the tangled bamboo. It was absolutely breathtaking, and it reminded us how important it is to get out, get walking and explore.