Robert K Stephen (CSW)

RKS 2024 Wine: Burly Barossa?

Think Aussie Red Barossa think burly? Full bodied but not overly aggressive? Crowd friendly? Too much alcohol? Destination wine lake? Looking for a dainty red from Barossa? Are you hallucinating? Or are we here in Canada suffering with liquor monopoly purchases that are safe from a profit perspective. Is there more than “easy Barossa”? IContinue reading “RKS 2024 Wine: Burly Barossa?”

RKS 2024 Film: “Take Cover”: The Dangers of Retirement

I recently watched an episode of “The Sopranos” where a lower-level member of “the family” inherited two million dollars and wanted to retire to Florida with his wife and young children. You can’t retire from the Mafia. And the British film “Take Cover” starts with Sam Lorde (Scott Adkins) as a sniper for the “Company”Continue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “Take Cover”: The Dangers of Retirement”

RKS 2024 Film: “Space Cowboy”: Art in the Big Fall! Awesome! Spectacular! Addictive!

“Space Cowboy” is the perfect title for this American documentary. Joe Jennings is a cowboy of the air as a high-altitude camera flyer where air represents the Oregon Trail. His camera has caught sky diving stunts and sky surfing competitions. Sky surfing is an extreme sport were a parachutist jumps out of a plane onContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “Space Cowboy”: Art in the Big Fall! Awesome! Spectacular! Addictive!”

RKS Literature: Russians, Vodka and Strength (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)

“Pasha, vodka can’t make it any worse, you’ve got to realize that. Vodka is a cure for all illnesses. I’ll drink some pure spirit before the operation, what do you think? Here, I’ve got it in a little bottle. Why spirit? Because it gets absorbed right away, it doesn’t leave any surplus water. When theContinue reading “RKS Literature: Russians, Vodka and Strength (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)”

RKS 2024 Wine: The Great Gamay Comeback in Ontario?

Was it a decade or so ago that Gamay in Ontario looked like the next oenological prince of the Ontario wine kingdom? Then it faded like Harry and Meaghan and then made a comeback like Camilla? No discussions please on royalty who in Canada are seen as ready to meet the fate of Marie AntoinetteContinue reading “RKS 2024 Wine: The Great Gamay Comeback in Ontario?”

RKS Literature: The Never-Ending Imprisonment of Soviet Soldiers Who Fought in The Second World War: Seen as Spies! (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)

“Only a prisoner in his first years of sentence believes, every time he is summoned from his cell and told to collect his belongings, that he is being called to freedom. To him every whisper of an amnesty sounds like the trumpets of archangels. But they call him out of his cell, read him someContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Never-Ending Imprisonment of Soviet Soldiers Who Fought in The Second World War: Seen as Spies! (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)”

RKS 2024 Film: “Zombie Town”: Don’t Be Sucker Punched by Rent a Star

If you aren’t zombified by the time the final credits roll you are a superhuman and perhaps ready to star in the 467th Marvel movie. Not being attracted to zombie films I watched “Zombie Town” because Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase were featured actors. Their screen appearance was minimal all for the better as theContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “Zombie Town”: Don’t Be Sucker Punched by Rent a Star”

RKS Literature: Comrade Rusanov Once a Proletarian and Now a Party Bureaucrat Despises the Proletarian Kind (Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn)

“Gradually over the years he and Kapitolina developed an aversion to teeming human beings, to jostling crowds. The Rusanovs found streetcars, buses and trolley-buses quite disgusting. People were always pushing, especially when they were trying to get aboard. Insults were always flying around. Builders and other workers were always climbing in in dirty overalls, andContinue reading “RKS Literature: Comrade Rusanov Once a Proletarian and Now a Party Bureaucrat Despises the Proletarian Kind (Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn)”

RKS 2024 Wine: Boas Quintas Dão’s 2020 Gandarada

I had the pleasure of a recent visit to Boas Quintas in the Dão region of Portugal. After a hearty breakfast we headed off in a slight November fog to the winery. It was strangely North American in set up both in tasting room design and in marketing. Special Christmas combo packages were available ratherContinue reading “RKS 2024 Wine: Boas Quintas Dão’s 2020 Gandarada”

RKS 2024 Film: “Inedia”: A Deadly Convergence of Flummox and Eating Disorders

Cora’s aversion to eating spirals out of control to the point that she considers herself allergic to all foods even parsley. While at dinner at her sister’s she has a few bites of a bizarre vegetarian dish and runs to the toilet to induce vomiting. Her condition worsens. Her GP does not share her thoughtsContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “Inedia”: A Deadly Convergence of Flummox and Eating Disorders”