Blaye is where affordability and quality can happily co-exist. Aroma: Blackberry, blueberry, chocolate and licorice. Palate: The long finish is the first factor that meets your palate. Gentle tannins. Some chalkiness. Where’s the fruit? Personality: I am about as exciting as a day-old baguette. Food Match: Scrambled eggs with grilled tomatoes and Mennonite summer sausageContinue reading “RKS 2024 Wine: Château Calet Blaye Côtes de Bordeaux”
Author Archives: Robert K Stephen (CSW)
RKS Literature: Thoughts of a Convict (Aleksander Solzhenitsyn)
“A convict’s thoughts are no freer than he is: they come back to the same place, worry over the same thing continually. Will they poke around in my mattress and find my bread ration? Can I get off work if I report sick tonight. Will the captain be put in the hole, or won’t he?Continue reading “RKS Literature: Thoughts of a Convict (Aleksander Solzhenitsyn)”
RKS 2024 Film Reviews: The Vancouver Queer Film Festival Presents “Paradise Burning” (Pardiset Brinner)
The Swedish feature film “Paradise Burning” will be showing at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival running from 11-22September2024. Three sisters ranging from 6-16 survive in a Swedish working-class suburb without parental presence. Their drug addict mother is often absent abandoning her children. Social Services queries Laura (Bianca Delbravo) the oldest of the three sisters whenContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film Reviews: The Vancouver Queer Film Festival Presents “Paradise Burning” (Pardiset Brinner)”
RKS 2024 Wine: An Ontario Cabernet Franc from The Accidental Winery
Ever discovered an orphaned winery so far from its brothers and sisters? Well on my way from Toronto to Elora in the middle of cornfields there she lay….Cox Creek Cellars on the outer limits of Guelph, Ontario. Beautiful grounds and a simple tasting room and retail outlet and yes they host weddings too! We tryContinue reading “RKS 2024 Wine: An Ontario Cabernet Franc from The Accidental Winery”
RKS 2024 Film: “Guy Manley Super Spy”: Vacuous Spy Spoof
The Swedish film “Guy Manley Super Spy” is a 100% spoof of spy and espionage movies. It has a “Once Upon a Time in Uganda” flavour in that it revels in the absurd. Blood and guts in profusion replete with special effects and low on an intelligent plot. Guy Manley (Baltazar Ploteau) is a spyContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “Guy Manley Super Spy”: Vacuous Spy Spoof”
RKS 2024 Film: More Canadian Indigenous Misery in “I’ll Tell You When I’m Ready”
Documentaries are rarely uplifting preferring an endless stream of negativity and when the topic is Canadian indigenous life the negativity is often escalated to misery. Another plate of angry misery fills the screen in Hayley Morin’s documentary about jaye simpson a poet, activist and drag queen. Abandoned as a child her single mother died inContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: More Canadian Indigenous Misery in “I’ll Tell You When I’m Ready””
RKS 2024 Wine: What Batman, Robin and Alfred Drink After Hours
My sources tell me that although Bruce Wayne has lots of dough he prefers inexpensive wines. Of late apparently Batman, Robin and Alfred are drinking an Italian wine named “Dark Knight”. Alfred was seen unloading a case of it from the Batmobile. 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 20% Sangiovese. Aroma: Full of black cherry,Continue reading “RKS 2024 Wine: What Batman, Robin and Alfred Drink After Hours”
RKS 2024 Film: “Out Come the Wolves”: Human Horror Intertwined with Animal Horror
The Canadian feature film “Out Come the Wolves” presents a combination and intertwining of both animal and human horror set in the remote Canadian woods. Rugged and highly experienced hunter Kyle (Joris Jarsky) travels to a remote cabin in the woods to assist Nolan (Damon Runyan) in writing an article about “the hunting experience”. SophieContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “Out Come the Wolves”: Human Horror Intertwined with Animal Horror”
RKS 2024 Wine: Shuffling Around in the Bargain Bin: 2021 Carro from Yecla Region in Spain
For $14, at least in Canada, you most likely are shuffling around like my friend The Penniless Pensioner, in the bargain bin. And in the bargain bin you never know what you may discover. In this case it is a Carro 2021 from DOC Yecla in Spain. From 30-year-old plus vines this wine is aContinue reading “RKS 2024 Wine: Shuffling Around in the Bargain Bin: 2021 Carro from Yecla Region in Spain”
RKS Literature: In the Mood of Money (Kurt Vonnegut)
“Quinn sat down in the booth next to the bandmaster. He was a bachelor, a small, dark, humorless man. He wasn’t a well man. He couldn’t sleep, he couldn’t stop working, he couldn’t smile warmly. He had only two moods: one suspicious and self-pitying, the other arrogant and boastful. The first mood applied when heContinue reading “RKS Literature: In the Mood of Money (Kurt Vonnegut)”
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