Author Archives: Robert K Stephen (CSW)

RKS 2023 Wine: A Steady Flow of Bordeaux at Reasonable Prices: A Burly Bordeaux

“Lower echelon” Bordeaux continues immigrating to Canada holding its own against “value” reds from Argentina, Chile and Spain. Bordeaux has a grand reputation and huge prices for its top “first growth” wines that has a few wine consumers running merely hearing the word “Bordeaux”. Most of the “lower echelon” wines are fairly good to excellent.Continue reading “RKS 2023 Wine: A Steady Flow of Bordeaux at Reasonable Prices: A Burly Bordeaux”

RKS Museums: The Met Presents “Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930’s” (Until 10December2023): Guglielmi’s “One Third of a Nation”

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): Guglielmi’s “One Third of a Nation””

RKS 2023 Film: “Nisei”: An American Short Film That is Far From Sweet

Inspired by stories by the writer and director’s grandfather the award winning “Nisei” follows the journey of two Japanese American brothers during World War II, John and Minoru Miyasaki. Although many Japanese Americans were interned in “segregation camps” John and Minoru volunteered to join the 442nd Regimental Combat Team an all Japanese American unit thatContinue reading “RKS 2023 Film: “Nisei”: An American Short Film That is Far From Sweet”

RKS 2023 Wine: What is Going on at the Second Annual Wine and Travel Week in Porto?

What is the annual Wine and Travel Week? A conference and a key wine tourism event bringing together influential professionals and decision makers from around the world. It is a week of intense networking for vendors seeking to sell wine tourism products and buyers that are in the market to buy wine tourism products. ItContinue reading “RKS 2023 Wine: What is Going on at the Second Annual Wine and Travel Week in Porto?”

RKS 2023 Wine: Canadian Wine Tourism Falling Behind the Pack: Inattentive Guys Finish Last

The concept of wine tourism involves more than simply visiting a winery sampling wines and perhaps taking a tour of the vineyard and the cellars. Pardon my triteness but if you visited a few wineries have you visited them all? Terribly boring and repetitive after a time. Wine tourism necessitates businesses, tourist authorities, restaurants, wineries,Continue reading “RKS 2023 Wine: Canadian Wine Tourism Falling Behind the Pack: Inattentive Guys Finish Last”

RKS 2023 Film: “The Job of Songs”: A Beautifully Layered Documentary

Seeing the promo material for “The Job of Songs” and the words “traditional Irish music” I experienced very Canadian flashbacks of television shows “Don Messer’s Jubilee” and “The Pig and Whistle”. Teen PTSD! Forcing myself to watch this Irish documentary was not easy. It took me three days of “yes watch” and “no watch”. AsContinue reading “RKS 2023 Film: “The Job of Songs”: A Beautifully Layered Documentary”

RKS Literature: Pain and Humour (Ken Kesey)

“Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy. He knows there is a painful side: he knows my thumb smarts and his girlfriend has a bruised breast and the doctor is losing his glasses,Continue reading “RKS Literature: Pain and Humour (Ken Kesey)”

RKS 2023 Film: “Rose”: Danish Epic Film Exhausts: Travels with a Schizophrenic

The Danish film “Rose” is an epic physical and spiritual journey of Inger (Sofie Gråbøl) on a bus trip from Denmark to Paris. Inger is institutionalized with schizophrenia but she is sufficiently functional (if not driven) to travel with her sister Ellen (Lene Marie Christensen) and husband Vagn (Anders W. Berthelsen) on a group coachContinue reading “RKS 2023 Film: “Rose”: Danish Epic Film Exhausts: Travels with a Schizophrenic”

RKS Literature: Aggravate Your Adversaries (Ken Kesey)

“Even McMurphy doesn’t seem to know he has been fogged in. If he does, he makes sure not to let on that he’s bothered by it. He’s making sure none of the staff see him bothered by anything: he knows that there’s no better way in the world to aggravate somebody who’s trying to makeContinue reading “RKS Literature: Aggravate Your Adversaries (Ken Kesey)”