The beach is highly recommended by a few gringos I have encountered. It is home to too many vendors hawking trinkets of coral, amber and onyx not to mention all sorts of food, beer and cheap mass-produced junk. Express any sort of interest in anything and you are immediately besieged by corny lines such as “Name your price, wholesale liquidation prices. Best prices in town.” Most are not willing to bargain. The beach touted by so many as fantastic is mediocre and the sand is not clean littered with garbage and seaweed. Our hotel beach is tiny in comparison but superior.
RKS Film: “Nude Tuesday”: The Film That Could Have Easily Been a Different Film
“Nude Tuesday” is a film that is completely gibberish! But you may be guaranteed a constant smile from a film that borders on the absurd. Cut out the subtitles from gibberish to English and replace them with a new set of subtitles and you could be watching a different film. You see the dialogue and the nine songs in it are in gibberish. Gibberish is nothing but a steam of words and sounds that make no sense because gibberish is not a language. Yet Julia Davis crafted subtitles based on the gibberish laden movie. The result is a movie that makes total sense although it could have been a totally different film and a plausible one with many possible subtitles.
If there is any absurdity it is developed through the subtitles. Some of the subtitles contribute to the hilarity of the film while others make perfect sense. The soundtrack in gibberish highlights the film’s streak of absurdity.
While almost all the fun is wondering how the subtitles suit particular scenes watching the actors babbling away is also a source of merriment.
Laura (Jackie Van Beek) and Bruno (Damon Herriman) are a middle-aged suburban couple in a drifting and crumbling marriage that as mother-in-law notes is “lacking a rumble in the jungle”. The feisty old bird gives Laura and Bruno a gift certificate to “Wonderla Retreat” a sexual rejuvenation retreat in the beautiful New Zealand mountains. It is a zany place full of odd stereotypical couples. Bjorg Rasmussen (Jemaine Clement) is the eccentric spooner of palaver and his latest book is the “Toothy Vulva”.
In the midst of frothy pandemonium which viciously cuts through the Tony Robbins method somehow Laura and Bruno snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Yes the subtitles turn the film into a lampooning of self help gurus who have answers to mend the trainwrecks of life.
Welcome to the “Gibberish Genre”. Give us a Gibberish film and let us create! Get your “tingly” tingling!
“Nude Tuesday” screens virtually at the New York Tribeca Film Festival on June 11th. If you wish to purchase the film contact Cornerstone Films for further details https://cornerstonefilm.com/
Feel free to check out the trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoRFDK6iI-g .
Written by Jackie Van Beek and directed by Armağan Ballantyne.
RKS Film Rating 89/100.
RKS Wine: A Red Wine Clunker from Tejo in Portugal: Memories of Mahatma Gandhi
When I saw this wine called Babu from the Tejo in Portugal it invoked memories of Gandhi. Gandhi had a nickname of Bapu which is so close to Babu. While not an exact match with Babu it is close enough to trigger a smile and toast to the great Indian statesman. The Portuguese set up a settlement in Goa in present day India in 1510 and there they remained until driven out by Indian forces in 1961.
The Babu is a red blend of Alicante Bouschet and Touriga Nacional.
The palate is indicative of a red wine a little long on the tooth. Roger Voss of Wine Enthusiast gave it a 92 when he tried it over two years ago. Unfortunately, it bears the hallmarks of a red wine on the decline. Prune, coffee and juice in its last throes. On the palate notes of molasses, burnt rubber, cement and cherries sitting on the counter for two days. Who on earth bought this wine or agreed to put it on the shelves of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario?
You know I read an article about wine writing by a wine writer that prattled about integrity of wine writers yet in the same breath stated he rarely releases reviews about clunker wines. My view is that a rogue wine deserves to be shouted down to have purchasers start thinking about caveat emptor. Again how did this burnt out wine reach the shelves of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario? It strikes me this is a conspiracy! The LCBO as ultimate purchaser, the winery with its reputation on the line and the agent that brought into the LCBO. But my finger points to the LCBO as they decide what goes on their shelves and is sold to the public. Tsk Tsk!
I would suggest you not purchase but if you have a retailer with decent return policies buy, have a glass and see what spent wine tastes like and then return it.
(Babu Reserva 2018, Vinho Regional Tejo, Fiuza & Bright, Portugal, $14.95, 750 mL, 13.5%, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 617175, RKS Wine Rating Purchase at Your Own Risk)
“Travels to a Different Time” : September 1988: Sosua, Dominican Republic: Suspect Shrimp
It was either too much sun or last night’s shrimp but whatever it was a fever, headaches and the chills. To bed at 19:00 but the pounding rain made sleep difficult. The rooster started crowing at 05:00. Felt a bit better.
The Trip to Puerto Plata: Lunch at Uncle Ricks Café
A few of us chartered Rafael and his 1977 Caprice for a trip into Puerto Plata which included 2 hours of waiting time. Not exactly an exciting 45-minute drive as mostly flat with sugar cane fields. Small shanty towns for the sugar cane workers. Puerto Plata was more or less a hole in the wall with so many children wanting to be your “secretary” for the day. Keep moving as if you stop you’ll be swarmed. We had a brief stop at Uncle Rick’s Café for a Coke and a grilled cheese sandwich. It was a ramshackle building and the clientele scruffy and greasy looking Americans. They looked out of touch with reality. Dopesters? The television screen was playing videos when we arrived then Conan the Barbarian movie followed by a Charles Bronson shoot em up film. Our waitress was called Mama Juanita and like the establishment and its clients looked very seedy. All we need is Sam playing the piano and Claude Rains raiding the joint.
“Travels to a Different Time” : 4September1988: Sosua, Dominican Republic: The Way into Town
It is about a 20-minute walk into Sosua and a taxi trip is about $1.75. The road is in terrible shape with huge potholes. The taxi must swerve or stop and bypass these craters. There are what seems to be a few middle-class homes and also some villas on the road but almost all lower levels have steel bars on the windows and there are security guards outside some of the homes and many signs warning of guard dogs. There are horses and cows on the road not to mention chickens! There are few cars on the road but mostly mopeds and minibuses. There is a huge amount of construction. Looks as if tourism is getting into gear.
RKS Film: “An Act of Worship”: United States as a Deeply Fractured Country
“An Act of Worship” is an attempt to have the viewer experience the Islamophobia faced by some Muslims in the United States. It is not a pretty picture and accentuates the hate and phobia fracturing America where hatred and distrust seems prevalent. Most of this hatred was not created by former President Trump and that man simply harnessed it and hitched a ride on it to political power and once there he augmented it.
The documentary does an excellent job of chronicling the extent of Islamophobia but only does a partial job in explaining why it exists. There is some connection of Islamophobia with the Iran Hostage Crisis, 9/11 and the various wars the United Sates has waged in Muslim countries but I felt the film could have gone deeper in dissecting the roots of Islamic hatred. For example is it the melting pot theory of immigrants prevalent in the United States to blame as Muslims don’t dress like “Americans”. Is it because they have a different religion or come from some societies that have honour killings? Yet the fact is that there are American Muslims who refuse to embrace the melting pot. Does this single them out? As a Canadian we are used to the concept of co-existence as opposed to the assimilationist melting pot yet last year three generations of a Muslim family were killed in London, Ontario as a deranged young man intentionally ran the family down on an evening walk. Chinese have been assaulted during the height of COVID. Black men and people of colour have been assaulted and killed by police. Canada may be only marginally better than the United States.
The story of these mostly young American Muslims deserves to be told but again I wish it had been more fully explained with a why. It is also very singular and negative as is often the case with so many documentaries. Surely the American population as a whole are not Muslim haters but one may say this documentary ignores the voice of their support of the Muslim community. One may also conclude that while there is Islamophobia in this world is there a streak of Americaphobia on the part of the Muslim community or would this be a politically incorrect statement? Phobias feed on phobias.
“An Act of Worship” is part of the 2022 New York Tribeca Film Festival. It has its world premiere on June 9th. It also screens on June 10/12. Unfortunately it is not available on line as part of the Tribeca offering.
You can catch the trailer here https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gsfcf7lez5r4q9t/AACzVqcnKpsEMmzsK4xifbSka?dl=0&preview=AAOW_TRAILER_4K_june5_2022.mov
It is directed by Nausheen Dadabhoy.
RKS Film Rating 81/100.
“Travels to a Different Time” : 3September1988: Sosua, Dominican Republic: Sick with the Shakes! Armed Guards and Barred Windows
Bad start to a trip with a fever of 102 and the shakes compounded by waking up at 04:30 for a 06:50 flight from Toronto to Sosua. The limo arrived 10 minutes early upsetting my rhythm and was not appreciated. The airport was hopping at 05:30 and most of the passengers had checked in so a shitty seat for me. The plane was a WorldWays ancient DC-8. Aside from its age it is a solid plane and I have taken it to and from Europe in the 1970s without any complaints. Had a screwdriver to start the morning and being a charter flight peanuts instead of smoked almonds. Breakfast was a cheese omelette and a bran muffin with pathetic coffee. Surrounded by suburbanites from WASP central Oakville excited about downing pina coladas. The airport in Sosua is small and the first thing you see is a burnt-out plane just off the runway. Super humid. Hopped on bus and at hotel in 10 minutes.
Hotel called Playa Chiquita and is 10 minutes from town. It is a low rise and right on the beach. It faces a Dominican general’s villa on a cliff facing the ocean. The room is simple and well air conditioned. A television with international stations. The hotel beach is small but sandy and beautiful warm water and is encircled by rocky cliffs. The entrance to the beach is protected by a guard with a Billy club. All the houses have metal bars on their windows and some have armed guards. You get that feeling this is a dangerous country.
To dinner in town. Taxi was $2 and the roads are atrocious and the diver constantly swerving to avoid potholes. Dinner was a seabass in a white wine sauce for $3.75.
RKS Film: “End of The Line”: New York City Transportation System Teeters on Dysfunctionality
The documentary “End of The Line” presents the City of New York’s transportation system under the control of the MTA. The subway system is teetering on the edge unable to complete capital spending projects, political infighting and suffering from huge COVID ridership decline.
Having visited so many times over the past 5 decades the subway and to a lesser extent the bus system in New York walking and public transport are the way to get around although certain subway stations are crumbling and most are rather dingy to the extent they make Toronto’s subway stations look pristine. What a joy to be in the MTA subway stations when it is a hot and humid above ground and twice as bad below! The New York City experience!
But you can’t deny that New York City (NYC) subways are a jugular vein running through the city. Who needs a car in NYC?
NYC subways carry 6 million passengers a day and when you add bus ridership it is 9 million. There is lack of maintenance of equipment and stations. Its signal system is state of the art for the 1930’s. On time performance began to plummet frustrating riders. And then there is political infighting over transportation in NYC between the mayor and governor.
Then things begin to look hopeful with the appointment of Andy Byford the whiz kid behind the Toronto Transit Commission as President of the MTA in 2017. He launches a Fast Forward Plan to modernize the MTA but he is undercut if not back stabbed by then Governor Cuomo to the point he saw no option but to resign. And just after that COVID sweeps into NYC killing 131 MTA workers and decimating ridership.
Obama, Trump and now Biden pump up ambitious plans to hike American infrastructure spending to little avail or benefit to the MTA. Then Trump delays Congestion Tolls (used in London and Singapore) cutting off projected revenue to the MTA. At the end of 2019 more than 2/3 of projects in the MTA’s 2015-19 capital programme were not completed.
An interesting study that highlights the necessity to properly fund urban transportation systems before they crumble. It is all rather unglamourous but to avoid a collapse and an economic disaster a necessity.
“End of the Line” is already a bit outdated as Cuomo has resigned, there is new NYC mayor and Biden has replaced Trump. But still a canary in the coalmine documentary. If China has created 25 subway systems since 1990 why on earth is NYC’s subway system is in danger of obsolescence? Watch this documentary and hopefully you walk away with some insight.
“End of the Line” will be available in the United States on June 14 including Apple/iTunes, Amazon, GooglePlay, VUDU and Microsoft.
You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR0VSSWQX04
Directed, produced and edited by Emmet Adler.
RKS Film Rating 87/100.
RKS Wine: Memories of Pilfered Gewurztraminer
Back in my rebel rebel period my pal would come over for a couple of glasses of wine before we headed out to our hangout in Montreal “The Rainbow Bar and Grill” on Stanley Street where my friend used to drink Tequila Sunrises like they were water and pine over a beautiful waitress Liz who, despite enormous tips he left her, paid no attention to him. Back to the wine. He smuggled Gewurztraminer for our pre downtown Montreal visit which he pilfered from his father’s wine cellar. It was rebel rebel behavior because so few people our age consumed wine. And it was good Alsatian Gewurtz so I have a soft spot in my heart for Gewurtz. Problem these days is that so few dare to drink this strange sounding wine. Alsace makes great Gewurtz but Ontario can match Alsace e.g. Cave Spring or Colchester Ridge Estate Winery and British Columbia too e.g. Mayhem Wines and Meyer Family Vineyards. Gewurtz has a definite taste profile that doesn’t beat around the bush with notes of apricot, peach, rose petal Turkish Delight and mango and it flirts between dry and off dry. It suits Asian food well particularly curries.
Going back to my roots mon we try an old reliable Alsatian Pierre Sparr Gewurztraminer. Aromas of freshly cut peach, apricot, mango, guava and Turkish delight. As far the palate this is a full-bodied white that hides its acidity so very well and it borders up to the off dry frontier. The finish is medium length which then takes a controlled skid into a bit of spicy brackishness. Lots of mango and pineapple swilling about. And yes curry is calling or Pad Thai with shrimp or tofu. An excellent sipping wine. If your mind is thinking barbeque halibut skewers marinated in a peanut sauce.
I don’t want to eat my shirt but if you don’t like this Gewurtz but I am tempted.
Fondest Gewurtz experience post rebel rebel was pre COVID on the patio of Cave Spring Vineyard in Niagara, Ontario having some cheese and superb herbed fries and Cave Spring Gewurtz on a patio on a glorious fall afternoon.
(Pierre Sparr Grand Réserve 2020 Gewurztraminer, AC Alsace, Pierre Sparr Bebleheim, France, $19.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 747600, 750 mL, 14%, RKS Wine Rating 92/100).
“Travels to a Different Time” : 8September1983: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico: Will That Texan be Found in a Back Alley with a Knife in His Back? The Corruptive Force of Tourism
More delicious eggs Mexicana for breakfast. Had a swim at the pool and watched the hawkers on the beach selling blankets, carvings, dresses and jewelry. Hotel security watches them like a hawk to give the gringos some unmolested time lest they be swarmed. They are not permitted on hotel property. Does the hotel own the beach or have they greased the palms of local officials to deprive the locals access to public property? If you venture outside of this protective custody they do swarm you saying “ Hey Meester…you wanna buy?” Some are skillfully funny asking you as a big spender if you want to buy some of the best junk on the beach. Dinner was another snapper filet but I noticed a couple of young Mexican guys very raunchy and sleazy looking fawning over a very drunk Texan saying “Don’t worry. We’ll get you back to the Sheraton”. He was so far gone I wonder if they had drugged his drink. He was so out of it he couldn’t lift the coffee cup to his mouth. Hopefully this poor Texan will not be found robbed next morning in a back alley with a knife in his back. Tourists in Puerto Vallarta seem to be fair game. Tourism in a dirt-poor country corrupts both locals and gringos absolutely.
A Bird's Eye View of Fashion, Food, Travel, Culture, Beverage and Curiosity 