RKS Literature: At the Devil’s Ball (Bulgakov) 

“And in general, may I be so bold as to offer you some advice, Margarita Nikolayevna, never ever be afraid of anything. That’s unwise. The ball will be lavish, that I won’t try to hide from you. We’ll see some people that wielded power in their day. But, truly, when one thinks how microscopically small their resources are compared with the resources of the one in whose retinue I have the honor, then it becomes ridiculous and, I would even say pathetic….And besides you yourself are of royal blood.”

“The Master and Margarita”, Mikhail Bulgakov, 1966.

RKS 2024 Wine: A Crustacean’s Best Friend? The Hermit Crab: Memories of The Singing Crabs on Pico Island!

When it is lobster, crab and shrimp on the plate simply prepared with lots of garlic and butter in the mix it could be The Hermit Crab, a Viognier and Marsanne blend from Australia, is your man in Havana. Over the years it has proven its worth for me and it has been consistently good.

You know on Pico Island in the Azorean Islands there is an expression saying you should plant vines where you can hear the crabs singing! Meaning plant close to the moderating influences of the Atlantic Ocean.

The author has discovered the moderating maritime influences on Pico Island

Aroma: Stone fruit, mango, pineapple, melon and Flemish pear.

Palate: A very “soft wine”. No harsh edges. Laid back and well integrated acidity. Apricot, peach and melon with a middling finish. The acidity gains steam as the wine warms so I prefer a good chill on it although if you prefer some noticeable acidity let it warm up a tad and it would suit mussels and oysters.

Personality: The Australians can do Viognier very well particularly Yalumba (O Series). Not being a Rhône Ranger blend a bit of this with a South Australian Shiraz and do we have a Cote Rôtie Aussie?  I am an Aussie blessing the French grapes here.

Food Match: Thai seafood curries. Pasta Vongole. Steamed lobster and crab in a garlic butter sauce. Grilled chicken breast in a tarragon cream sauce.

Cellarbility:  Best consume in 2024 and not to depress North American readers where summer has not yet arrived this would match a Thanksgiving turkey with gravy and not cranberries. Add cranberries (God forbid) then think Pinot Noir or Gamay.

Price: $18 CDN (Ontario).

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 89/100. 2022 New Zealand Wine Show 90.

(d’Arenberg The Hermit Crab 2022 Viognier Marsanne, McLaren Vale, d’Arenberg McLaren Vale, Australia, 750 mL, 14%).

RKS 2024 Wine: Canadians to the Pinot Noir Rescue?

Of late I have encountered dismal Pinot Noirs, primarily and surprisingly from New Zealand suffering from excess oak.

Canadian Pinot Noirs perform top rate in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley. Niagara Pinot Noirs are hit and miss. How about Pinot Noirs from the land of the lawyers, judges and well-heeled Torontonians cozying up at swank hotels and restaurants they thought they wistfully left behind in Toronto!? Yes that is Prince Edward County, picturesque farm land on the northeastern shore of Lake Ontario about a two hour drive east of Toronto. Somewhat the midpoint between Toronto and Montreal.

There is much limestone in “The County” as it is called and Chardonnay can do particularly well here. Climatic conditions can be harsh in the winter challenging the vines. A good part of the wine you purchase in Prince Edward County is not VQA Prince Edward County but made from Niagara grapes. If you are looking for true VQA Prince Edward County ensure it has that VQA designation on the label.

1,800 cases made.

I had this Closson Chase Vineyard Pinot Noir, proudly bearing its VQA destination on the label, with a pre–Blue Jays MLB dinner last summer and I recall it being good. In quieter surroundings it deserves a “double check”.

All the grapes were sourced entirely from their estate vineyards. Destemmed with no crushing and cold soaked for 3-5 days. 75% fermented in oak tonneau and 25% in stainless steel. Aged for 18 months French oak barrels 5% of which were new.

Aroma: Light if not delicate. Raspberry, strawberry and but a bit of milk chocolate. Impressive.

Palate: Light tannins being no surprise due to destemming of the grapes. The fruit, raspberry and strawberry is light perhaps too much so. Short undistinguished finish. Not impressive.

Personality: I smell mighty nice but body wise I am anemic.

Food Match: Mushroom soup and for goodness’s sake not from a can!

Cellarbility: Drink by 2024-year end.

Price: $38 CDN (Ontario).

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 90/100. David Lawrason 90.

(Closson Chase 2021 Vineyard Pinot Noir, VQA Prince Edward County, Closson Chase Vineyards Inc., Hillier, Ontario, 750 mL, 12.2%).

RKS 2024 Film: “Astronaut”: Forgetting Your Childhood a Crime? David Bowie has never been sweeter! Crazy8’s Shorts Challenge

Crazy8’s has been organizing 8-day filmmaking challenges since 1999. Those filmmakers selected after a successful pitch are given 8 days to produce a short. On 20April2024 all 6 selected finalists present their short in Vancouver followed by a gala evening.

“Astronaut” is a 12-minute film directed by Kevin Cheng. Tom (Tobi Wong) is a young Chinese lad recently having moved to British Columbia. His teachers at school note he has difficulty connecting with his peers perhaps worsened by the fact he is still learning English. Gordon (Victor Young) his father arrives from abroad for a two week stay. Gordon at first blush presents as a cold disciplinarian. The long-distance spousal relationship between Gordon and his spouse (Xiaoquing Ye) is unharmonious. Poor Tom appears to be falling by the wayside.

Be prepared for a wild emotional ride watching Tom take off in his spaceship and connecting with what have appeared to be so impossibly far away they are aliens. And who is the engineer on home base? And if you have ever heard David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” I guarantee it has never sounded or felt so splendid. “Astronaut” is a highwater mark for a “feel-good” short!

If you can’t make it to Vancouver for Crazy8’s I suspect this short will be blasting off to screens throughout the world.

RKS 2024 Film Rating 94/100.

RKS 2024 Film: “EARLYBIRD”: Theatre and Life Lessons

Mike (Joshua Koopman) owns a struggling small theatre playing it safe presenting “known plays” like “Romeo and Juliet” attracting small audiences but small is better than playing riskier productions that may fail to attract any patrons.

Jerry, the landlord of the theatre premises, advises Mike when his lease expires in two months he will have to raise rent by 35% income the theatre simply does not have hence its probable closure.

Mike decides to play the risky game presenting a different “out of the ordinary” play every night to mostly sold-out audiences. With success comes a new set of problems. Managing a theatre on the edge of financial collapse is far different than running a successful theatre. Actors, support staff, Mike and his wife are run off their feet. Success requires recognition for those who make any business successful a lesson learnt by Mike almost too late to be rectified. Mike is not a bad person just overwhelmed transitioning from managing a struggling theatre to a successful one. There are so many factors required for running a successful business and Mike is not doing a very good job at it. I can imagine after the success of the film it will be screening in organizational psychology classes for MBA students!

The public relations blurb accompanying the film refers to the film as “the hilarious live-theatre themed comedy”. Hilarious it wasn’t and neither was it much of comedy. The humour is mostly “big smile” as opposed to “big laugh” comedy. And I would more accurately describe it as a “romcom”.

While Koopman plays Mike as a distant and abstract character more of an intellectual than a businessman. Julie Pope playing Sarah dominates the screen a sheer master of facial acting! Her undying positive energy is a perfect foil to the distant and unfocused Mike. The acting throughout is immaculate.  It is evident director and co-writer Martin Kaszubowski has a love for live theatre making the film all the more “realistic”.

The film is the midst of a limited theatrical run in the United States and will be showing at the upcoming Beloit International Film Festival in Wisconsin.

Directed and written by Martin Kaszubowski.

Available digitally.

RKS 2024 Film Rating: 75/100.

RKS Literature: The Sovereignty of the American People (Vonnegut)

“The sovereignty of the United States resides in the people, not the machines, and it’s the people to take back if they so wish. The machines,” said Paul, “have exceeded the personal sovereignty willingly surrendered to them by the American people for good government. Machines and the pursuit of efficiency have robbed the American people of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Kurt Vonnegut Jr., “Player Piano”, 1952.

RKS 2024 Film: “All We Carry”: Fairytale, Fantasy and Playing the USA Migrant Game?

There are usually many sides to a story. The documentary “All We Carry” presents one side focusing on the suffering of thousands of migrants streaming towards the United States border somehow believing they are by rights entitled to entry and a life in the United States. Magdiel, Mirna and their child Joshua are self-described Evangelical Christians travelling on train and bus from the Honduras to (hopefully) Texas. Receiving “advice” it is easier to claim asylum in the United States for married couples they participate in a quickie group wedding at the border with other couples building a “winning resumé” to enter the United States with. Hundreds of Caravan migrants chant and sing at the United States Mexican border about their plight including insisting the United States has the capacity to take migrants as after all they say they are not criminals or terrorists!

Magdiel and Mirna’s story is gang harassment and murder in the Honduras affecting their families. If they can establish this gang violence against their families successfully in the United States judicial system it will be a Willy Wonka golden ticket to being recognized as a valid asylum ground for entry into the United States. After a short period of detention in San Diego, Mirna and Joshua are released and make the trip to Seattle where Mirna’s sister is living. Magdiel follows some three months later. An asylum hearing is scheduled some two years later! A progressive synagogue in Seattle has a family with a spare house that the Hondurans can stay in. It is a huge house on the ocean. The synagogue members have a migrant history themselves with parents and grandparents emigrating to the United States “legally”. Magdiel works at spare time jobs for synagogue members.

Mirna is so stressed by her brutalized past she enters therapy. Is Mirna building her resumé? Mirna then becomes pregnant and gives birth to a daughter?  More resumé building? Joshua attends a local school.

After two years of being held in limbo due to the massive amount of asylum cases in the United States judicial system Magdiel, Mirna and their two children are granted asylum by United States meaning in one year they can apply for permanent residency then in four years for citizenship.

A fairy tale story? How many will join the Caravan “inspired” by Magdiel and Mirna? As to whether these Hondurans were “playing the system” we will never know and neither do the filmmakers raise that possibility.

A good documentary can trigger discussion about asylum seeking in the United States. One may view the asylum process as subject to “gaming” by dishonest economic migrants. Another side may see the “right” to economic migrant admission in the United States. I prefer to see the process as determined by the legal system as overrun as it may be. All those seeking entry into a country must have a legal right to do so.

I have been in a migrant destination in Greece and saw the local health system crippled by the migrants. And almost all the migrants were young men in their twenties pining for entry into Germany. And the local population having their livings jeopardized by an aversion of tourists to visiting the destination worsened by the generous EU allowances paid to migrants.

On my last trip to New York City watching the local news there were cuts made to education, library hours and the police necessary to divert funds to migrant servicing including 22 hotels required to house migrants costing New York City billions of dollars.

As for my home city of Toronto a huge surge of migrants is taxing the housing supply and social services. Does a country have a right to control entry into it? Of course! Can the immigration system be gamed? Of course! How many migrants are gaming the system? Unknown but do not presume honesty. Desperation can breed ingenuity.

I suspect there will be discussion about this documentary. Americans are entitled to be concerned about migrants in caravans demanding entry into the United States as a matter of right.

The documentary will be showing at Fletcher Hall in Durham, North Carolina on 5April2024 as part of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. After that showing I have no details. It has previously played at film festivals.

RKS 2024 Film Rating: 78/100.

RKS Literature: The Fork on the Road (Vonnegut)

“Every child older than six knew the fork, and knew what the good guys did here, and what the bad guys did here. The fork was a familiar one in folk tales the world over, and the good guys and the bad guys, whether in chaps, breechclouts, serapes, leopardskins or banker’s grey pinstripes, all separated here.”

Kurt Vonnegut Jr., “Player Piano”, 1952.

RKS Literature: What Are Public Relations? (Vonnegut)

“Please, what are public relations?” said Kashdrahr.

“That profession, “said Haylard, quoting by memory from the Manual, “that profession specializing in the cultivation, by applied psychology in mass communication media, of favorable public opinion with regard to controversial issues and institutions, without being offensive to anyone of importance, and the continued stability of the economy and society as its primary goal.”

Kurt Vonnegut Jr., “Player Piano”, 1952.

RKS 2024 Film: “East Bay”: A Parade of the Mostly Lost

“East Bay” opens with 39-year-old Jack Lee (Daniel Yoon) lamenting his lack of life and filmmaking success from his childhood to the present day. As a child he desperately prayed to God to make him successful. We watch God, an elder bearded Caucasian, throughout the film snickering at the misguided humans and at one point taking a smoke break. God is very human indeed. At points the film becomes less of a comedy and an exploration of spirituality, its misuse and misinterpretation. Even those who have a relationship with God are no happier than those lacking spirituality. The evident message of the film, if there is serious one, is that spirituality is a belief in humanity and being the best person one can be.

Can we blame Jack’s parents for being “dragon parents” relentlessly driving their children to succeed which means financial success shunting aside any possibility of a mental health collapse unfortunately common amongst “driven children” in South Korea. Jack’s mother makes a comment in the film worthy of serious consideration saying our generation coming to the United States from Korea had to struggle for survival which was not so much an issue for their children today who have an equally hard time of trying to be successful and happy. Jack, making his film “The Only Thing Real”, muses that success is overcoming adversity and becoming happy and that is the point of the film he is making.

Jack’s previous films have focused on Asian ethnic stereotypes and have been failures and he only finds success in a film that delves into spirituality as he has witnessed it with his girlfriends, parents and friends.

The film is a combination of excellent acting, writing and casting. Yoon is perfectly cast as an unhappy self doubter. Kavi Ramachandrian Ladnier sparkles as a 1-800 credit card mystic-temptress with a short temper. His hockey buddies and roommates Tim (Edmund Sim) and Stuart (Destry Miller) are lost in their world one addicted to weed and the other gaming. Melissa Pond as Beth is a kooky two-timer Christian that is off the narrow path and convinced she is going to hell. Sara (Constance Wu) sparkles and saves Jack from perdition with her undying belief in the power of simply being a good person. Every actor in this film is a star a very rare observation on my part! And yes Canadians will identify with shinny hockey somewhat of a crucial component of the film.

A film that melds subtle and overt comedy with some serious and valid observations on the nature of spirituality and success.

Yoon in addition to his starring role is director and writer and excels in all these categories.

“East Bay” will be released in theatres in the United States on 26April2024 and as of 31May2024. Perhaps it is a bit too esoteric to be a commercial success as “Crazy Rich Asians” and that is a shame as a film it addresses spirituality in a nonthreatening and straightforward fashion.

RKS 2024 Film Rating 91/100.

You can watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUwSL7vuVT0