The bald and beady eyed man and the fascists
The bald and beady eyed man
works relentlessly to “save” Mother Russia from the fascists
who is saving Russia from the beady eyed fascist?
Robert K. Stephen
RKS Wine: Ontario Sparklers A Trio
- Konzelman Méthode Cuve Close Sparkling Rosé
Produced by the tank method. On the nose loads of strawberry, raspberry with BC cherry. On the palate a nice acidic bite but more than a bite it also has fruit with a strong undercurrent, brief as it may be, of Niagara cherries that bring a tiny hit of sweetness before it snaps back into a dry mode with a barely discernible wave of freshly squeezed Orri tangerine juice. This may match a Thanksgiving and Christmas turkey.
Drink by the end of 2023.
(Konzleman Méthode Cuve Close Sparkling Rosé, VQA Ontario, $19.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 184176, 750 mL,12%, RKS Wine Rating 89/100).
- Nomad Sparkling Firefly II 2019 Rosé
From Hinterbrook Estate Winery in Niagara we have this wine which is produced by the tank method and has a blend of 90% Cabernet Franc and 10% late harvest Cabernet Sauvignon.
On the nose cherry, watermelon and a touch of banana. On the palate there is some gentle acidity and fizz. So many sparkling wines are so dry and acidic they burn which many wine writers call “palate cleansing”. The addition of the late harvest Cabernet Sauvignon hustles this from a brut to a demi-sec. You’ll pick up a bit of residual sugar here. Notes of apricot, peach and mango. A good sipper as opposed to a rip snorter palate cleanser. Again a great match with turkey and also with a roast ham and mashed potatoes and carrots. Keep it simple.
(Nomad Firefly II Sparkling 2019, VQA Ontario, Hinterbrook Estate Winery, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, $17.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 20377. 750 mL, 12.5%, RKS Wine Rating 88/100).
- Trius Brut (NV)
Made by the traditional method, just like Champagne, from Ontario we have a Trius Brut.
Light gold in color with a very slight greenish hue.
A lively and frisky nose. Big updraft of muskmelon, pear, apple and mango. On the palate a cutting sharpness with a tangy boundary of tartness. Loads of wet stone and a tad of grapefruit. A blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Oysters with this one!
(Trius Brut, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Trius Winery, Niagara-on-the-Lake, $27.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 284539, 750mL, 12%, RKS Wine Rating 90/100.
“Travels to a Different Time” : 10September2022: Thessaloniki Greece: Arthritis Attack
For whatever reason one knee started flaring up in the middle of the night with intense pain and throbbing. I applied some anti-inflammatory cream I had prescribed at a special compounding pharmacy in Toronto. It supposedly takes two days to kick in. Had a delicious breakfast of smoked salmon, watermelon, fresh country bead, poached eggs and two cups of green tea. Headed up to the beautiful Agia St. Sophia where I made the mistake of sitting down as getting up after a rest was painful. Walking at downward and upward angles is not great for the knee. Any visions of a long walk were dashed so read on the expansive balcony and had a Hellas Pils beer certainly not a great beer but a good thirst quencher. I noted the marketplace has decreased over the years in terms of size and vendors. What a shame this market is shrivelling.
As our meal last night at Kafenion Restaurant was so good we returned for a repeat visit. It has been in business since 1945 which is about the average age of the patrons. Had ouzo, 500 mls of Moschofilero, cuttlefish, octopus with bread and a Cretan salad for 52 Euros.
Limped home to watch the incessant coverage of the death of England’s Queen Elizabeth II. Irrelevant to me as she is not my queen. The Brits on the telly have fallen hook line and sinker for an undemocratic institution. The monarchy are tabloid royalty! There was a small demonstration on the boardwalk apparently wanting the release of imprisoned far right New Dawn leaders. New Dawn was wiped out in the last general election. The are virulently anti-immigrant
“The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous: Chapter 8: Minah My 140 Kilo Sweetheart
You may recall Minah by little hummingbird of a sweetheart in Montreal. Well I had been accepted to McGill University in Montreal with a full Claire and Warren Quimby Scholarship For the Disadvantaged in the Third World. I didn’t need the tuition money but seeing the bastards the First World can produce, particularly the Brit colonialists at the Kings College for Young Men in Bombay out of a matter of revenge I decided to accept it. So a few months in advance of term starting I decided to scope out Montreal a bit and of course take advantage of Schwartz’s smoked meat and kosher dill pickles.
And it was time to see Minah my delicate sweet bird of love …my precious dainty hummingbird. Well that hummingbird had swelled into a penguin with a very large plus size girth close to 140 kilos with a very bad case of acne and an ominous cloud of depression. Of course, I was taken aback! The vile terrorist action of her brother Abdul bombing my mother Juanita’s airplane out of the sky wreaked havoc with both her body and brain. Her mother and father lamented I was not on board that plane referring to me as an infidel devil! Seems I had become their Lawrence of Arabia. They were still pressuring her to be what she referred to as a “Burka Babe”. The relentless pressure and horrific act of her brother was too much to bear. She needed psychiatric help not me. So we parted our ways. I recall walking away seeing Minah laughing as if possessed like Linda Blair in “The Exorcist”.
My main mission was to secure accommodation in Montreal. I lived a very swank life in Bombay so the thrill of a fleabag apartment on Durocher Street in the McGill Student Ghetto with all the liberated from home middle class students did not appeal to me. Both the Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons hotels were more or less across the street from McGill and I chose the Four Seasons Presidential suite. Living at the Ritz-Carlton would be just a bit flashy so I settled for the Four Seasons. I am a man of discretion.
“The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned But Marvellous” :Chapter 7: That Bastard Montreal Murderer Killed My Mom Juanita!
I was somewhat roused by several visits the American Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Chief of the Bombay Police Inspector Suri Saleem paid to me. Did my mother have any enemies I was aware of they repeatedly queried. I knew of no enemies. They returned to ask me if I had any enemies. Me! I am just an unknown teenager. They spilt the beans. The crash of the airplane that killed Juanita was not due to metal fatigue but due to a plastic explosive commonly used by Albanian security forces. Traces were identified in an FBI laboratory. Wait a minute! My dearest Iraqi sweetheart in Montreal’s brother, Abdul, had been in the Iraqi military as an explosive expert Minah had told me. Well it wasn’t that long before a trail led to Abdul as the perpetrator. Sensing he was being closed in he fled to Albania and from there he took a Juginthehead Airlines flight to Pyongyang in North Korea. The investigators were puzzled why the explosives that brought down my mom’s Sobranj Airlines flight originated in Albania and why Abdul had fled to North Korea. As Inspector Saleem said this case was a tough nut to crack. I vowed to hunt down that bastard and stick a wad of plastic explosives up his ass. When would that be was a question but it was not a question. It was an imperative!
RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: The Safety of Marriage
“I do not know if the pimp’s album may not have been another link in the daisy-chain; but soon after, for my own safety, I decided to marry. It occurred to me that regular hours, home cooked meals, all the conventions of marriage, the prophylactic routine of its bedroom activities and, who knows, the eventual flowering of certain moral values, of certain spiritual substitutes might help me, if not to purge myself of my degrading and dangerous desires, at least keep them under pacific control. “
“Lolita” Vladimir Nabokov
RKS Wine: Nyarai Cellars 2020 Folklore Sparkling Wine: Festive Tinged with Gratitude
Champagne producers have done an impeccable job making Champagne seemingly mandatory for celebrations. However, after chatting with Sharon Little the Director of Marketing and Promotions for Nyarai Cellars in St. Davids, Ontario she advised me that the wine was crafted in gratitude of the struggle, sacrifices and hardships endured by our ancestors. It is a “tribute wine” there to remind us celebrations can have a serious side to them and Nyarai Cellars 2020 Folklore Sparkling Wine might be a wine of gratitude, contemplation and reflection.
The Nyarai Cellars 2020 Folklore Sparkling Wine is a multi-blend wine of Riesling, Vidal Blanc, Muscat Ottonel, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Gewurztraminer. A ferocious congregation of bubbles in this light gold coloured wine. Lemon, lime, honey and apricot on the nose. On the palate there is good acidic bite as one expects in so many sparkling white wines that places us under the tyranny of Brut and Extra Brut. Yes that sharp bite of Brut and Extra Brut often is accompanied by a wave of harshness on the palate. No that is not bad but frankly it can be boring experiencing it time and time again. In this case the palate presents us with crispness but there is honey, apricot, tangerine with a bit of ginger.
Thank goodness there are winemakers like Steve Byfield at Nyarai to mix up and jostle snooty wine drinkers who scoff at anything less than Champagne. Yes we all like Champagne but its price range seems to warrant its consumption on the most special occasions. At $22.95 I’d rather take it over entry level Champagnes at $49.95 and let the Houston Astros celebrate their 2022 World Series with $388,000 worth of Chemin du Roi Champagne a label owned by rapper 50 Cent.
You will have to go online to order this wine (www.nyaraicellars.ca). 153 cases were made. The tech sheet states the wine pairs well with green salads with fresh herbs and goat cheese, steamed shellfish and asparagus risotto. Sharon added that it also pairs with nachos and oysters too! Moving ahead to Christmas considering it is not bone dry it just might pair well with turkey, capon or Cornish Hen.
(Nyarai Cellars 2020 Folklore Sparkling Wine, Nayari Cellars under license by West Avenue Cider House, $22.95, 750 mL, 11%, RKS Wine Rating 88/100).
RKS Film: “Riotsville USA”
Documentaries are rarely “neutral” and often can be political statements as is “Riotsville USA”. Given the degree of civil unrest in the United States between 1965-70 such as witnessed in Watts (1965), Chicago (1966) and Newark/Detroit (1967) the United States government constructed two simulated main streets in army bases in Virginia and Georgia. In these simulated towns soldiers and law enforcement officers learnt the techniques of crowd control in the face of simulated riots and civil disturbances.
This sounds reasonable but putting a political spin on this at the time it was perceived by the U.S. government and its white population that the “negroes were rioting. As blacks were subject to many forms of racism and discrimination was all this training really a question of “political repression”. That is the tone the narration establishes. There is no attempt to be “neutral”.
The documentary true to the times through archival footage shows a frightened and often racist white America and a frustrated and often angry black America. This anger and frustration of black America is seething again in our times but supported by many of all races in the face of police atrocities.
The documentary explains that in July 1967 President Lyndon Johnson established The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders chaired by Governor Otto Kerner. LBJ’s view was that riots were most often caused by “agitators” whereas the reality is that maybe they were caused by poverty and discrimination. The Kerner Commission, as it was known, made 4 key recommendations. It called for more jobs to be created, more affordable housing, more education and so very relevant today the establishment of a minimum income. The black community was given some hope but the only measure implemented by the US Congress based on a Supplement to the Kerner Commission Report was an increase in federal funding to police. Again given today’s calls in the United States for “defunding the police” asserts more historical relevance.
Some importance in the documentary is given to the 1968 disturbances at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the 1969 Republican National Convention in Miami Beach.
There is an underlying theme to the documentary and that is America acts as a colonial power towards its poor people. It warns that the camera footage of the burning police car is only a moment in time and that the causes of that police car being set on fire may be a continuum of past oppression and abuse. There are two scenes of military and law enforcement in the stands watching the simulated riots in Riotsville. I did not see a single black face watching the simulation. That was not mentioned in the documentary but it speaks volumes to me of the isolation of American blacks from the power structure!
Once again given the recent events in the United States indicative of some elements of the police forces out of control “Riotsville USA” becomes more than a forage into unpleasant disturbance of the past.
RKS Film Rating 75/100.
The director is Sierra Pettengill
You can see the trailer here https://vimeo.com/753020230 .
The film begins its theatrical run in Canada on November 25.
RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: Messing with a Psychiatrist
“I discovered there was an endless source of robust enjoyment in trifling with psychiatrists: cunningly leading them on: never letting them see you know all the tricks of the trade: inventing for them elaborate dreams, pure classics in style (which make them the dream-extortionists, dream and wake up shrieking); teasing them with fake “primal scenes”; and never allowing them the slightest glimpse of one’s real sexual predicament.”
(“Lolita”, Vladimir Nabokov)
RKS Wine: Malivoire Analog Demo Series 2021 Gamay and Cabernet Franc
Somewhat like a West Highland terrier busily digging in the garden for goodness knows what Malivoire is busily digging about in the Gamay wine world experimenting with discovering Ontario’s Gamays. I think at present they have 8 different Gamays in the bottle. It would be interesting to line them all up for a tasting but that might be a subject for another article. While Gamay in Ontario seems to come and go with Malivoire it is a steady flow. The Demo Series looks experimental as far as its label speaks with handwriting found on both the front and back label. The back label states, “This series of rare demos is imbued with our winemaker’s intent to explore, investigate and experiment.” Experiments can go terribly wrong but we all trust Malivoire not to unleash a failed experiment on its customers.
65% Gamay from the Genova Vineyard and 35% Cabernet Franc from the Cascade Vineyard.
With this trust one goes forward and samples the wine knowing that Gamay and Cabernet Franc in Ontario are two red signature grapes! On the nose there is attractive fruit of raspberry, black cherry, sweet red cherry, blueberry and Croatian mocha wafer cookies. There is a tad of earthiness to the wine which adds to its mystique. Like many Beaujolais from France there is a light fruitiness to the wine which perhaps we can describe as freshness. There is the raspberry and sweet red cherry on the palate with light weight tannins and acidity completely under control. You might venture to say it is a happy light weight. It is a perfect sipping wine yet it can suit some bistro food like a Croque Monsieur. Serve chilled it might very well suit a Japanese Cod Curry or Cauliflower Curry. There are some broad-based tannins perhaps enough to justify holding until the end of 2023. This is not an ager.
This experiment has certainly not gone awry!
Malivoire Gamay and Cabernet Franc were respectively picked on October 21 and 28 . Carbonic Maceration for the Gamay which means whole clusters are subject to fermentation and then its fermented with Cabernet Franc in old oak barrels.
This is not a big assertive wine but more on the delicate and fragile side.
This vegan and certified sustainable wine saw 295 cases made.
You may order online at https://malivoire.com/
(Malivoire Analog Demo Series 2021 Gamay & Cabernet Franc, VQA Niagara Peninsula, $29.95, The Malivoire Wine Company Limited, Beamsville, Ontario, 750 mL, 12%, RKS Wine Rating 90/100).
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