RKS Literature: Married Couples Gazing at the Sunset Will Not be Talking About it (Shen Fu)

“Yun said, ‘The world is so vast, but still everyone looks up at the same moon. I wonder if there is another couple in the world as much in love as we are.’

‘Naturally there are people everywhere who like to enjoy the night air and gaze at the moon,’ I said, “and there are more than a few women who enjoy discussing the sunset. But when a man and his wife look at it together, I don’t think it is the sunset they will wind up talking about.’ The candles soon burnt out and the moon set. We took the fruit inside and went to bed.”

Shen Fu, “The Old Man of the Moon”, 1809.

“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: I SENSE A NEW CHAPTER? A DAMN FINE DAY!

I SENSE A NEW CHAPTER? A DAMN FINE DAY!

We all woke up to an inch of snow on the on the way greening grass this morning. This is 6April! We are too weary in Toronto to give a damn anymore as after all Iran is to be decimated a few hours ago. Was it?

Has it been over a week since my “last indiscretion” in the house. OMG may be even two! What an enormous feat! I sense an Vesuvian deflation of stress.

Increasingly it is up to me to tell the family “when its time”. Puppies must think for themselves!

For no definable, logical and fully supported from an evidentiary perspective we are heading HUGELY OUT OF PUPPYHOOD.

I sense a fully natural integration with Bob and Fay.

RKS WINES OF PORTUGAL: Lagar da Ravasqueira from Alentejano

A blend of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Aragonez, Alicante Bouschet and Syrah.

Spent 8 months in American oak barrels.

Aroma: I am soon to watch James Dean’s last movie released in 1955, “Giant”. Speaking about giant there is giant blackberry in this. Secondary notes of blueberry and dark chocolate.

Palate: On the juicy side with high toned tannins. Rhubarb, pepper and some brackish black cherry. Chalky and fine tannins. Long peppery finish.

Personality: The palate can’t let my fruit shine more than it should. My advice to you is find the best food to match this. You know once upon a time wine was crafted with local food in mind. Bear in mind wine is not only about how it tastes but what food best suits it.

Food Match: Osso Buco.

Cellarbility: Consume by 2026-year end.

Price: $15 CDN.

RKS WINES OF PORTUGAL RATING: 87/100.

(Lagar da Ravasqueira 2022 V.R. Alentejano, Ravasqueira Vinhos, Portugal, 750 Ml, 14.5%).

Tasted 8April2026.

RKS CANADIAN Film: “The Thing Inside Her”: Who to Believe? Where is the Real Horror”

Harriet (Jacki Gunn) visits Doctor October (Jennifer Koenig) to have her IUD removed. In response to Dr. October’s questions Harriet explains she is experiencing nausea, insomnia, anxiety, low libido, depression and at times thoughts of suicide. Perhaps it is all just attributable to hormonal changes?

Her boyfriend Matt (Matthew Graham) in slug like fashion eats enormous amounts of greens, avoids salt and to retain his moisture bathes five times daily.

Is he exhibiting the classic characteristics of a garden slug or is Harriet suffering from delusions. That’s the fun of this short if in fact there can be “fun” in “creatively” describing mental illness.

The gloomy cinematography and exaggerated facial shots create a 1950’ish bizarro unreal film with elements of a governmental educational high school film, a B horror movie and a gardening instructional video.

Written by Jacki Gunn.

The film will be shown at an 11April2026 Gala Screening in Vancouver,

RKS CANADIAN Film Rating 91/100.

Crazy8s is an 8-day short filmmaking challenge and program that provides support and funding to emerging filmmakers to produce a short film and provides training opportunities to crew and cast. Each year, more than 100 teams apply to be part of Crazy8s.

Crazy8s is run by the Crazy8s Film Society, a registered British Columbia not-for-profit organization. Its mandate is to foster support for emerging and mid-career BC-based, Canadian short filmmakers who have limited access to resources or funding to produce professional-quality short-form content. Since 1999, Crazy8s has produced 151 short films that have gone on to win awards at film festivals worldwide.

RKS CANADIAN Film: “Gone Viral”: Never Take Candy from a Stranger

Didn’t your mother ever warn you never take candy from a stranger?

How about phishing warnings that if it’s too good to be true walk away?

Have you read the children’s story “Pied Piper”?

I wonder if in the beginning of the film if seemingly shallow minded influencer Nikki (Lilian Doucet-Roche) purveyor of anything and everything had not opened the package that was delivered to her front door containing three vials of Go-V juice and a recoded message stating that “we’ve” noticed your like count is low so try this Go-V juice and expect success.

Nikki’s friend Amelia (Felicia Simone) hosts a podcast about missing BIPOC’ers that have reached a dead end as far as police investigations go. With only 5,000 viewers to Nikki’s 300,000 she accepts Nikki’s invitation to visit Go-V’s head office. From that point on matters turn very chilling very quickly.

A thriller that is entertaining, provocative and slightly satirical about the quest for adoration and the price that may be paid to attain it. There are many Daniel Websters in the world but there is only one devil.

There may be an equally chilling undertone of racism.

Spot on acting. Imaginative writing by Kat Reynolds and Felicia Simone.

The film will be shown at an 11April2026 Gala Screening in Vancouver,

RKS CANADIAN Film Rating 86/100.

Crazy8s is an 8-day short filmmaking challenge and program that provides support and funding to emerging filmmakers to produce a short film and provides training opportunities to crew and cast. Each year, more than 100 teams apply to be part of Crazy8s.

Crazy8s is run by the Crazy8s Film Society, a registered British Columbia not-for-profit organization. Its mandate is to foster support for emerging and mid-career BC-based, Canadian short filmmakers who have limited access to resources or funding to produce professional-quality short-form content. Since 1999, Crazy8s has produced 151 short films that have gone on to win awards at film festivals worldwide.

RKS Literature: The Manufactured James Dean Legend (Truman Capote)

“James Dean, the young motion-picture actor killed in a car accident in 1955, was promoted throughout his phosphorescent career as the all-American ‘mixed up kid’ the symbol of misunderstood hot-rodding youth with a switchblade approach to life’s little problems. When he died, an expensive film in which he starred, Giant, had yet to be released, and the picture’s press agents, seeking to offset any ill effects that Dean’s demise might have on the commercial prospects of their product, succeeded by ‘glamourizing’ the tragedy, and in ironic consequence, created a Dean legend of rather necrophilic appeal.”

Truman Capote, “The Duke in His Domain”, 1957.

RKS Literature: Your One Chance When Being Charged by Elephants (Mary Kingsley)

“In the present case I remembered, hastily, that your one chance when charged by several elephants is to dodge them around trees, working downwind all the time, and go home. It was evident from the utter unconcern of these monsters that I was downwind now, so I had only attend to dodging, and I promptly dodged around a tree, thinking perhaps that a dodge in time saves nine-and I lay down.”

Mary Kingsley, “Five Gorillas, Travels in West Africa”, 1897.

RKS Literature: Smoked Meat Cannibal Style (Mary Kingsley)

“Moreover I fancy it safer not to have an overpowering percentage of Fans in the party, as I know  we shall have considerable stretches of uninhabited  forest to traverse; and the Ajuma say that the Fans will kill people, i.e. the black traders who venture into their country, and cut them up into neat pieces, eat what they want at the time, and smoke the rest of the bodies for future use. Now I do not want to arrive at the Rembwé in a smoked condition even should my fragments be neat…..”

Mary Kingsley, “A Hippo Banquet, Travels in West Africa”, 1897.

RKS Literature: West African Villagers See Their First White Person (Mary Kingsley)

“Every child in the place as soon as it saw my white face let a howl out of it as if it had seen his Satanic Majesty, horns, hoofs, tail and all, and fled into the nearest hut, headlong, and I fear, from the continuance of the screams, had fits. The town was exceedingly filthy-the remains of the crocodile they had been eating the week before last, and piles of fish offal, and remains of an elephant hippo or manatee-I can’t really say which, decomposition was far too advanced- united to form a most impressive stench.”

Mary Kingsley, “A Hippo Banquet, Travels in West Africa”, 1897.

RKS Literature: A Man Should Never Have a Wife (Yoshida Kenkō)

“The one thing a man should not have is a wife. It is depressing to watch her bear children and fuss over them, and things don’t end with his death, for then you have the shameful sight of her growing old and decrepit as a nun. No matter who the woman may be, you would grow to hate her if you lived with her and saw her day in and out and the woman must become dissatisfied too. But if you lived separately and sometimes visited her, your feelings for each other would surely remain unchanged through the years. It keeps the relationship fresh to just drop in from time to time on impulse and spend the night.”

Yoshida Kenkō, “A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees”, 1329-1331?