Dylan the Westie from the Land Beyond: On the Concept of Closure: Dylan Has a Good Chuckle!

Hello. You may remember me. I am a West Highland Terrier who died on July 13 just short of 15 years of age. I spent 40 days on earth before my soul or whatever you want to call it went to The Land Beyond.

You humans talk about “closure” after the death of a pet. From what I can see the term closure simply does not exist if you cared for the pet you have lost. You can’t close off shared memories between your pet and you. The best that can be done is recollect with humour and happiness on the good memories. And I think you call that “healing”. Grief traps many memories. There is a focus on the last moments of pain and suffering of both pets and humans. That is an understandable affront to the joys, trials and tribulations you have had with your pet over the years. Hopefully time will help with healing but it simply can’t close memories.

Before I go let me tell you what I witnessed a couple of days ago while Master Robert and, Mistress Fotini went to Niagara-on-the-Lake to spread some of my ashes. Of course I had nothing to do any of this! On the big day Master Robert and Mistress Fotini went on a walk along the waterfront at Queen’s Royal Park and they met a West High Land Terrier T-Shuk and chatted up a storm. West Highland Terrier owners are a bit cultish! Then on their walk they see a canvas bag with “Dillie” printed on it. That is one of my nicknames! Then off they go to spread ashes at my favourite Niagara-on-the-Lake haunts. The last spread was at Fort George. And there was a Volvo XC 90 parked in the lot in the same place Mistress Fotini and Master Robert parked their Volvo XC 90 on my last trip to Fort George. So while Master Robert is ruminating about this an acorn falls on his head from above. Not that I was behind that but finally Master Robert cracks a smile for the first time since I departed Earth. They’ll be no “closure” about me my friends. Oh yes I have a mischievous streak about me!

RKS 2023 Film: Toronto International Film Festival: “Summer Qamp”

The Canadian documentary “Summer Qamp” delves into a summer camp for LGBTQ youth. Camp fYrefly in Alberta, Canada. Here is a comforting and safe space for the bullied, insecure, confused and unsure seeking to establish their queer identity in this Alberta camp.

This is no “Meatballs” and diametrically opposed to the conversion camp in the Canadian film “The Miseducation of Cameron Pope”.

Hear from the campers in a haven finally living in an accepting environment. Yes, it is a “traditional “summer camp” as far as most of the activities. Hear the stress and anxiety of these LGBTQ children bullied and demeaned in the heterosexual mainstream. So what if there are 14 terms/phrases in this documentary the straight community may have glazed and confused eyes about like “CIS People” or “neuro diversities”. The documentary makes its point quickly and an LGBTQ dictionary is not required for most of the foreign terms.

Directed by Jen Markovitz this film has its TIFF world premiere on September 9 and repeats itself on September 10th.

Final impressions are perhaps in The Who song “The Kids Are Alright”….. at least in the accepting environment of Camp fYrefly.

RKS 2023 Film Rating 83/100.

RKS 2023 Wine: The Man with the Big Head Releases Big Head Red # 8

The Big Red at Big Head Wines, about 15 minutes from St Davids, Ontario (on 823 Line 6 Road) in the Niagara-on-the-Lake region was sold out of Big Red # 7 when I last visited the winery in November 2022 but they had a half bottle left and poured a glass for me. It left a positive impression. Apparently, area restaurants snap up Big Red as it was reasonably priced and good. I managed to squeak in a quick visit to Big Head wines a few days ago and was delighted that son of Big Red # 7 otherwise known as Big Red # 8 was in ample supply and it has increased in price a few dollars to $25 CDN.

The 49% Merlot and 48% Cabernet Franc were dried for 12 weeks and then crushed (appassimento) and 3% Petit Verdot was added. The wine is non vintage.

Owner Andrezj Lipinski is proud of his big head hence the name of the winery Big Head! As the label states, “Big Wine We Drink. Big Family We Love. Big Head We Have.”

Aroma: Big black cherry attack enveloped in a smoky frame accented by a bit of cola. A melange of spices it being hard to identify the individual spices.

Palate: The smoke continues with brackish black cherry and a touch of dark chocolate which intensifies on the long finish. A bit of višnja maraska. More than a mere hint of Valpolicella Ripasso here.

Personality: I am told by RKS Wine that Ontario Merlot is a lost cause but, in this case, appassimento has given Ontario Merlot a new lease on life. Wine snobs stop shivering and quivering about this being a non-vintage and a non-VQA wine. It is a combination of 2019 and 2021 harvests. Yes I am a mixie! Perhaps the big head reference is due the size of Andrezj’s clever brain and not his head.

Cellarbility: With its moderate tannins will cellar nicely until 2026.

Price: $25 CDN possibly remarkable due to its 97% appassimento pedigree.

Food Match: Lake Erie perch filets in a spicy mesquite tomato sauce over jasmine rice.

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 91/100.

(Big Head Red # 8, Big Head Wines, Niagara-on-the-Lake, 13.5%, 750 mL).

RKS 2023 Wine: Tiring of Argentinian Malbec Yet?

How long has Argentinian Malbec been a darling of the wine drinking masses? When you have a good thing going well then keep it going! But on occasion when there is “too much of a good thing” selling so well there is overproduction and cutting corners sacrificing quality for profit. Pinot Grigio, Chianti, Lambrusco and Soave may serve as painful examples. What fate awaits Argentinian Malbec?

Until that seminal question is answered we delve into a Wapisa Malbec and golly gee it is not from Mendoza! It is from the Patagonia region. “Wapisa” means whale in indigenous Patagonian.

Aroma: There are wafts of blackberry, blueberry and juicy black cherries with secondary notes of chocolate and licorice. But there is also high alcohol.

Palate: High test and full bodied. Rough edged and aggressive without and soft and sensual characteristics. Chocolate covered blueberries and spice are present with dark brooding cherries. This Blazing Saddle is well structured but requires until 2024 end to settle into its shoes.

Personality: I swing a big bat but need a year or so more in Triple AAA before I become an MLB heavy hitter.

Food Match: Octopus or chicken in Merquén with cilantro Adobo.

Cellarbility: Drink until 2028.

Price: $19.95 CDN.

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 91/100.jamessuckling.com 95.

(Wapisa 2020 Malbec, Rio Negro, Patagonia, Argentina, Fincas Patagonica, Rio Negro, Patagonia, 14.5%, 750 mL).

RKS 2023 Film: “Once Upon a Time in Uganda”: Hollywood, Bollywood and Now Wakaliwood!

A documentary about an African country that very well may put a smile on your face instead of a sigh. The last documentary I watched on Uganda, “Theatre of Violence” was about a civil war and child soldiers. Not exactly cheerful.

“Once Upon a Time in Uganda” follows the struggle of Ugandan director Issac Nabwana to have his mega low budget films recognized both domestically and internationally. His Ramon Film Productions is basically headquartered in a hut in the Wakaliga slum of Kampala. No one is paid. Props are homemade.

Ugandan audiences at one point were obsessed with actors Bruce Lee, Stallone and Chuck Norris and Nabwana’s films while low on plot are high on action. Martial arts fights and lots of firepower have blood splattering ubiquitously and body parts flying in the air. Special effects are so cheaply done and the action overdone interlaced with a wild narration by a VJ (Video Joker). Love those helicopters!

Given the reaction of Nabwana’s “Crazy World” at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Nabwana’s comic violence style of film has the audience holding their gut not to keep their intestines intact like actors in Nabwana’s film but to prevent wetting their pants from laughing uncontrollably.

Are the films so bad they are good or is Nabwana’s comic violence a new genre of film. I suspect it is a combination of the two.

Despite growing international recognition and exposure there are no investors and even producing a television series on Ugandan television based on his film “Who Killed Captain Alex” Nabwana is stuck in the Wakaliga slum broke and dispirited not even able to pay his children’s school fees.

But hard-working burnt-out former film festival manager Alan a muzunga (white man) from New York quits his job and heads to Kampala to work with Nabwana for some 6 years attempting to have his work recognized and finally there are several festival screenings in France, Spain, United States, Kazakhstan and Belgium and interest in world premiering his film “Crazy World” at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. Toronto audiences loved “Crazy World”.

Finally a feel good film about Uganda and you may understand why Nabwana’s films may have reached cult status.

Directed by Cathryne Czubek.

You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0mgSZLSzFI

Released on VOD/Digital on September 5th.

RKS 2023 Film Rating 86/100.

RKS Literature: Snubbed by the Parisian Aristocracy (Balzac)

“It was one thing to be despised by the country families of Angoulême, quite another by the aristocracy of Paris; by going out of their way on insult Lucien, the booby-squires had admitted his importance and treated him as a man: but for Mme d’Espard he simply did not exist. This was not a sentence, it was the refusal of justice. A deadly chill seized the poor poet when he saw that de Marsay was eyeing him from his glass, this lion of Paris let his eyeglass drop in such a way that to Lucien it suggested the blade of a guillotine.”

Honoré de Balzac, “Lost Illusions”

RKS Poetry: “We the Nothing”

We The Nothing

We the nothing make our febrile donations to the noble causes
not receiving any notable media recognition pauses

Our dollars and euros fall into the bottomless charitable pit
but those charitable foundations governed by the “foundation board of directors” kneel in front of the capitalist big buck…Branson…Musk…crypto kings..entertainment idols (not fleeced by their accountants)
For the little guys like you and I they treat us no better than annoying flies
instead a wing of a hospital is named after the bulging wallet friends of those charitable vertical mosaic souls on the foundation board!
the monied touted in every situation
having that wing named after the big families shelling out the cash
and what about a wing of the hospital named after the penniless chumps like you and me?
We count for nothing in the big scheme
but when the charitable begging comes again all we get is a smiley meme asking for more and paying blackmail rates at hospital parking lots “with gracious thanks to pay for research costs”
Not good being treated like meaningless turds
laughing when the hospital cardiologists warns about  eating too many poutine cheese curds
and the accounting nerds
beg and shout we need more and more
what are foundations nothing but a heat seeking bed sore!

Robert K. Stephen

RKS 2023 Wine: My 25 Cent Spanish Cava Memory?

I recall being in Torremolinos, Spain in 1972 and Spanish Cava at the Supermercado was 25 cents a bottle. I was too young to consume alcohol then but for some reason I remember the price perhaps I was travelling my late mother and we had rented a fully equipped apartment for a couple of weeks so we shopped for ingredients to prepare most of our meals and that included some Cava. I recall tremendous seafood and enormous steaks.

Fast forward to 2023 to try a Spanish Cava by the name of Faustino and rest assured it didn’t cost 25 cents!

It is a blend of Chardonnay and Macabeo.

Aroma: Rather to be expected from Cava there is apple, pear and citrus.

Palate: A good bite of acidity with lemon, sweet white grapefruit and a short crisp finish. Cava is much closer to Champagne than Prosecco and has less identifiable fruit on the palate.

Food Match: Cava is pleasant to drink on its own. Suits a wide range of foods although I’d steer clear of beef. How about a mushroom and zucchini frittata cooked with a big dollop of basil pesto?

Personality: Ebullient and friendly and at this price you should get to know me and my Cava amigos. Hola!

Cellarbility: Consume in 2023.

Price: $17.95

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 88/100. Jamessuckling.com 88.

(Faustino Cava Brut Reserva, Bodegas Faustino, Spain, 750 mL, 11.5%)

RKS Literature: The Warm Glow of Paris (Balzac)

“I will pick you up in my carriage, and we shall soon be in Paris. There, my dear, is the only life for superior people. We are only at ease among our peers; in any other society one suffers. Besides, Paris is the intellectual capital of the world, the stage of your success: cover quickly the distance that divides you from it. Do not let your ideas stagnate in a country town, get in touch at once with the great men who represent the nineteenth century. Approach the Court and power. Neither distinctions nor honours come in search of talent whose star shines only in a little town.”

Honoré de Balzac, “Lost Illusions”

RKS Literature: The Peculiarities of Society (Balzac)

“Among the peculiarities of society, have you not noted the capriciousness of its judgements and the inconsistency of its demands? There are people to whom everything is permitted. They can be guilty of the most outrageous things, and nothing they do is wrong; people hasten to find excuses for their conduct. But there are others on whom the world is inexplicably severe: such people must do everything well, never make a mistake, never show any weakness, not even permit themselves a foolish action; they are like statutes that everyone admires, but which are taken down from their pedestals the moment that winter chips off a finger or cracks a nose; no human weakness is permitted them, they are obliged to remain for ever divine and faultless.”

Honoré de Balzac, “Lost Illusions”