Robert K Stephen (CSW)

RKS 2023 Wine: So What if the Wine You Bottled is Incredible? A Cave Spring Example of What Needs to be Done to Create a Buzz

Making a good wine these days is simply not enough. The distance from a winery to a consumer’s gullet may be a very long one and in most cases it, never happens. You must think of creating some “buzz”. Flies migrate to honey and certain other substances. Wine drinkers gravitate towards buzz. I recall manyContinue reading “RKS 2023 Wine: So What if the Wine You Bottled is Incredible? A Cave Spring Example of What Needs to be Done to Create a Buzz”

RKS Literature: Being Shamed for Being Different (Ken Kesey)

“I discovered at an early age that I was-shall we be kind and say different? It’s a better more general word than the other one. I indulged in certain practices that our society regards as shameful. And I got sick. It wasn’t the practices, I don’t think, it was the feeling that the great, deadlyContinue reading “RKS Literature: Being Shamed for Being Different (Ken Kesey)”

RKS Literature: Wandering Around in a Daze: Electric Shock Therapy (Ken Kesey)

“ There had been times when I wandered around in a daze for as long as two weeks after a shock treatment, living in that foggy jumbled blur which is a whole lot like the ragged edge of sleep, that grey zone between light and dark, or between sleeping and waking or living and dying,Continue reading “RKS Literature: Wandering Around in a Daze: Electric Shock Therapy (Ken Kesey)”

RKS 2023 Wine: California Cabernet Sauvignon and My Self Imposed $25 Guideline

I am not one that ordinarily judges a wine by its price but there are exceptions to the rule or is it rules to the exception? One RKS Wine guideline for Cali Cabernet Sauvignon is that don’t expect much under the $25 guidepost. I suppose given the latest increases in wine prices in our provinceContinue reading “RKS 2023 Wine: California Cabernet Sauvignon and My Self Imposed $25 Guideline”

RKS 2023 Film: “Fireline”: Global Warming and Wildfire are Good Bedfellows

This documentary follows a team of firefighters from the Cal Fire Lassen-Modoc unit battling the 2021 monstrous Dixie Wildfire in California that burned for 104 days destroying 963,309 acres of forest and 1,329 structures. 1,973 firefighters were involved. The cost of firefighting was $637 million USD. A combination of global warming, too dense of aContinue reading “RKS 2023 Film: “Fireline”: Global Warming and Wildfire are Good Bedfellows”

RKS 2023 Film: “Overtime”: Canada’s National Sport is Hockey and a Part of So Many Personal Histories!

Canada loves its hockey. If I may serve as a sorry example as I never reached the National Hockey League, I still have a deep reservoir of hockey memories. At five years of age in freezing winter pre global warming days I hit the outdoor natural ice in Montreal not knowing much more than shootContinue reading “RKS 2023 Film: “Overtime”: Canada’s National Sport is Hockey and a Part of So Many Personal Histories!”

RKS 2023 Wine: A Lighter Style of Australian Cabernet Sauvignon?

In the past 20 years Coonawarra has earned the reputation of producing less brutish Aussie Cabernet Sauvignon. On occasion a big jammy Aussie Shiraz or Cabernet Sauvignon hits the spot but risks the moniker of an overdone wine. In this case a 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon from Wynns Coonawarra Estate deserves a try. Aroma: Blueberry, blackContinue reading “RKS 2023 Wine: A Lighter Style of Australian Cabernet Sauvignon?”

RKS 2023 Film: “Making the Yuletide Gay: A Very Special Paul Lynde Christmas”: Groaning Through a Very Smutty Christmas

I will admit it. I simply can’t watch “It’s A Wonderful Life” yet another time as that squeaky clean piece of cinema is beginning to grate on the nerves. Diametrically opposed to that Ivory Soap piece of cinema is “Making the Yuletide Gay: A Very Special Paul Lynde Christmas” teeming with sacrilegious smut perhaps justContinue reading “RKS 2023 Film: “Making the Yuletide Gay: A Very Special Paul Lynde Christmas”: Groaning Through a Very Smutty Christmas”

RKS 2023 Wine: “Dough” Chardonnay: A Great Chardonnay on the Rise!

What a name for a winery…dough. Yes yeast is used in the fermentation of wine. It can be natural or added. Yeast is also used helping the bread dough to rise. However dough is not a taste you really want in a white wine although if you read reviews of sparkling wine you might encounterContinue reading “RKS 2023 Wine: “Dough” Chardonnay: A Great Chardonnay on the Rise!”

RKS Museums: The Met Presents “Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930’s” (Until 10December2023): Ben Shahn’s “Welders”

The 1930s was a decade of political and social upheaval in the United States, and the art and visual culture of the time reflected the unsettled environment. Americans searched for their cultural identity during the Great Depression, a period marked by divisive politics, threats to democracy, and intensified social activism, including a powerful labor movement.Continue reading “RKS Museums: The Met Presents “Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930’s” (Until 10December2023): Ben Shahn’s “Welders””