Kenji (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and Jane (Gwei Lun-Mei) live in a New York City borough with their son Kai (Everest Talde). Kenji and Jane are on the precipice of physical and mental collapse. Kenji is desperate to receive tenure as a professor of architecture specializing in ruins. Jane is a director of a puppet theatre andContinue reading “RKS 2025 Film: “Dear Stranger”: Wreckage and Ruin: Emotional, Architectural and Physical”
Author Archives: Robert K Stephen (CSW)
RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine: Palatine Hills 2023 Viognier
Viognier is a rare grape in Ontario! So with great interest Viognier from Palatine Hills. Aroma: Apricot, peach, Seville marmalade, mango and talcum powder. Palate: Guava, banana and Orri tangerine. Firm. Dry. Big mouthfeel. Long finish. Personality: Don’t be timid about giving me a try. You will not find much of me as a singleContinue reading “RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine: Palatine Hills 2023 Viognier”
RKS Vintage Film: Yugoslav Black Wave Films: “Love Affair: or the case of the Missing Switchboard Operator” (1967)
A complex seemingly discombobulated and incomprehensible movie you might think. Initially a few moments into this film had me both enthralled and somewhat confused. But understanding a director of a film has message(s) in the film to be conveyed to a viewer I was drawn in hook line and sinker determined to discover the message(s).Continue reading “RKS Vintage Film: Yugoslav Black Wave Films: “Love Affair: or the case of the Missing Switchboard Operator” (1967)”
RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine: Adamo’s 2021 Bistro Wine
Adamo’s 2021 Bistro red wine is a blend of 52% Cabernet Franc, 27.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13.9% Merlot, 4.6% Malbec and 2.3% Petit Verdot. The grapes were purchased in the Niagara Peninsula region of Ontario. 20% of the wine was aged in oak. 920 cases made. What is a bistro wine? Simple French food such asContinue reading “RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine: Adamo’s 2021 Bistro Wine”
RKS CANADIAN Literature: (Michael Ondaatje)Thermometer of Blood
“She never looked at herself in mirrors again. As the war got darker she received reports about how certain people she had known died. She feared the day she would remove blood from a patient’s face and discover her father or someone who had served her food across a counter on Danforth Avenue. She grewContinue reading “RKS CANADIAN Literature: (Michael Ondaatje)Thermometer of Blood”
RKS CANADIAN Literature: Shell Shocked Nurses (Michael Ondaatje)
“Nurses too became shell-shocked from the dying around them. Or from something as small as a letter. They would carry a severed arm down the hall, or swab at blood that never stopped, as if the wound were a well, and they began to believe in nothing, trusted nothing. They broke the way a manContinue reading “RKS CANADIAN Literature: Shell Shocked Nurses (Michael Ondaatje)”
RKS 2025 Film: “Trains”: Dreamlike and Savage
“Trains”, a Polish film directed by Maciej J. Drygas, is more reflective about humanity than trains. Trains can move humanity in adventuresome and joyful spirits but in this film more towards the unspeakable horrors of war on soldiers and civilians alike. 46 film archives were utilized crafting a black and white film without dialogue onlyContinue reading “RKS 2025 Film: “Trains”: Dreamlike and Savage”
RKS 2025 Film: “Filip”: Revenge and Retribution Misogynist Style
The film begins with Polish Jew Filip (Eryk Kulm) beginning his performance in a Warsaw Ghetto cabaret with his fiancé Sara. The audience and performers all wear armbands with a Star of David. Germans enter the cabaret massacring the audience including Sara. Filip escapes and through a Polish manager/black marketeer, Staszeki, of a compulsory labourContinue reading “RKS 2025 Film: “Filip”: Revenge and Retribution Misogynist Style”
RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine: Henry of Pelham 2023 Lost Boys Baco Noir: Not a Wine for Cider House Rules Orphanage: Confessions of a Turkey Gravy Man!
Baco Noir is a French Hybrid grape produced in 1894 and planted in days of yore in Ontario and the Eastern United States. Perhaps a low life or roustabout grape for the unsophisticated decades ago? A “90 Day Fiancé” or a” Below the Deck” type of grape? Like South African Pinotage it can be dreadfulContinue reading “RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine: Henry of Pelham 2023 Lost Boys Baco Noir: Not a Wine for Cider House Rules Orphanage: Confessions of a Turkey Gravy Man!”
RKS 2025 Film: “Green Border”: Trials and Tribulations of Refugees and Migrants Crossing Belarusian Border into Poland
This Polish feature film opens with a Syrian refugee family flying from Turkey into Belarus where a taxi arranged by a family member living in Sweden will transport them to the Polish border where they will “illegally” cross into Poland the assumption being the trip from Poland to Sweden can be made without any difficultyContinue reading “RKS 2025 Film: “Green Border”: Trials and Tribulations of Refugees and Migrants Crossing Belarusian Border into Poland”
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