Left the house at 17:30 for limo ride to Toronto Pearson Airport. Sent to the wrong line for check in. The new system of checking in online then again checking in again at the airport is idiotic. What time does it save? After waiting in a massive line in the wrong check-in counter as directed by Air Canada personnel I complained and Air Canada sent us to priority check in. Seated differently as usual on Air Canada. A vile dinner of rice and chicken and gross soggy carrot salad. Breakfast was a Del Monte fruit cup. Canned fruit salad. You must be kidding. A unhealthy cake style muffin with at least some edible yogurt. Arrived in Munich at 10:00 and off in our B Class Mercedes with GPS. Two hours later in Passau at our hotel the Weiser Haus which is right in town. Parking the car was a nightmare. Inches on either side! A pathetic view from the hotel room looking at some garbage cans below but I was just too tired to fight. Germans, Mexicans and all hotels give you the worst rooms possible. Part of their creed. Up at 17:30 for a walk in the neighbourhood and a dark donkel beer. Bavaria is beer obsessed with the average consumption per person being 240 litres. Even the women drink beer here. At our dinner in the Hotel Konig we were the only patrons drinking wine (Muller Thurgau) as everyone else was drinking all different types of beer in huge mugs. We had a great view of the Donau River with steep cliffs on its banks all very steep and covered in greenery. Andrew and Fotini had schnitzel with cranberry jam and potatoes. I had a pork cutlet topped with melted cheese and pasta. Home to bed and slept like a rock until 08:00.
RKS Film: “Waking up Dead”: Rock Bottom to Death or Salvation?
If you have viewed the 1947 or 2021 version of “Nightmare Alley” you have a very vivid recollection of what rock bottom is. In that film there was rock bottom to start, then success and then a horrific nightmarish rock bottom. In “Waking Up Dead” there would be a linear line of a descent to rock bottom. Will it lead to death or salvation?
Yes we have all seen rock bottom films that lead to destruction or rebirth. So the plot here is hardly new and the rock bottom for an actor is also hardly brand new. Take for example “The Bad and the Beautiful” (1952) with Kirk Douglas as a ruthless manipulative movie director and Lana Turner as actress Georgia Lorrison who has taken to drink and ruination.
In “Waking up Dead” Danny Maldonado (Gabriel Sousa) is an actor in Los Angeles with some limited success but is in a dry spell. He is a self absorbed, promiscuous, callous and selfish man heading in a nasty downward spiral. His boyfriend leaves him, his agent dumps him, bill collectors are hounding him, he has been evicted from his apartment, his drug addict mother is dying and he loses a part in a Netflix series that could have reinvigorated his career. He has erectile dysfunction, runs out off toothpaste and soap in the bathroom and he can’t even succeed in hanging himself. He is also awfully stupid looking with his obsession with t-shirts assaulting the viewer with his armpit hair and doofus earrings.
But Lila (Judy Geeson) a former famous actress now a real estate agent is suffering the death of her son to a heroin overdose adds some levity to the film with her high-toned acting ability and tries to right the sinking Danny ship. He cruelly insults her and drives her off. Danny is a loser asshole no?
With a double-talking miserable wretch of an agent beautifully played by Traci Lords that exposes the shallow “fame for the moment agent”. Her motto is she only needs clients if they are successful and that is the closest they get to true friendship.
Is this a comedy? There are comedic moments but such moments do not propel the movie to comedic levels. The film is about desperation, infidelity, shallowness of Hollywood edifications with elements of LGBTQ satirization particularly Danny’s dress style. Crudely put it is payback time for a prick. Will the heroin in his veins be a fitting end or can miserable characters find salvation in hitting rock bottom? Give Hollywood rock bottom films he has a 50/50 chance of survival and lesser odds of being saved. Does Danny wake up dead or alive or does he wake up at all?
The director is Terracino.
You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuACQuz8jV8
The film is available on VOD and DVD, digital platforms including iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, Vudu, Vimeo and some local cable and satellite providers.
RKS Film Rating 78/100.
RKS True Story: My 13 Hours in a Maximum-Security Prison
Always game for a new experience I have moved on from acting as a golf marshal to an election official in Ontario. A few months ago it was for the Ontario provincial election. The polling station was in a condominium party room which was comfortable with a fridge and a microwave and immaculate bathrooms. Yesterday it was at Glenview Public Senior School in Toronto. A strait no stop 13-hour day in a school gym with harsh fluorescent lighting throughout used as a torture technique to disorient by interrogators throughout the world. The school was crumbling apart having been built in 1966. Classrooms looked like holding pens and offices looked more like secure guard outposts than anything else. Pity on these poor children. Pity on us poor election workers. If I work in the next federal election, I hope it will be a Ritz-Carlton. It is not easy working in a building that looks like a juvenile detention centre both in and out.
“Travels to a Different Time” : August 2006: Trip from Samos to Ephesus in Turkey
Fotini, Andrew and I took the trip from Samos to Ephesus 6 years ago so I suppose it is only fair that Alexandra see it so off we went on the “Samos Spirit” a bit of a rust bucket across a few kilometres to Turkey. We left the house at 07:15 and stopped at a bakery near the Port for a tahnitiropita, spanakopita and some juice and consumed our delicious breakfast waiting for the boat. We had to be processed at Greek immigration and ended up departing an hour late. Greek immigration was far from official looking with no uniforms and the custom’s officers smoking. The water was as clear as glass unlike our return years ago where a multitude of passengers were sickened by the swells. Again highly aggravated with Turkish customs at Kusadesi holding our passports which is against all my rules of travelling. I guard my passport like a ferocious lion. 3 tour buses for the Greeks and one for the non-Greeks. I have already described Ephesus so won’t repeat myself. Impressive but for some reason the restoration by the Turks of this Greco Roman ancient city seems “artificial”. Alexandra enjoyed it so that is what counts. A stupid stop again at a “Turkish artisanal” workshop which was a stop at a Turkish carpet retailer hustling the tourists relentlessly. The Turks are persistent and obnoxious selling their goods to tourists. Best friends initially but waning interest is dramatically converted into a deep wound to the Turkish soul. Some may find it exciting but having made several trips to Turkey it is obnoxious. As a last comment the Turks are quick to call Ephesus Turkish ruins. However the fact is they are Greco-Roman ruins. We stopped for a lunch at a tourist trap assembly line restaurant. I know Turkish cuisine can excel but in this case the food was mediocre. Back home at 20:00.
“Travels to a Different Time” : August 2006 The Death of a Neighbour in Samos
The day after the Samos Wine Festival we heard a man moaning very loudly in the middle of the night. It sounded like moans of pain or someone trying to communicate or perhaps a bit of both. It was Harry the grandfather just up the way next door who had suffered a stroke a few months before we arrived in Samos. The next day for most of the day the moaning continued with two daughters who were besides themselves. In the early afternoon an older man and a preteen arrived with a stretcher who carried down Harry some 50 steps to the main street and then to the hospital. The two daughters informed us in the early evening that Harry was not expected to make it through the night. Well the two daughters were crying next morning as Harry died in the hospital in the early morning. In a couple of days the relatives arrived and Harry was buried. We learnt that doctors neglected to inform the family that Harry was riddled with cancer. A very paternalistic attitude not seen in Canada since the 1950’s.
RKS Film: “Drinkwater”: Intelligent Teen Angst
Yes we have seen countless teen angst films such as “Rebel Without a Cause”, “Breakfast Club”, “Acid Test” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”. There may be a fine line between vapid teenploitation films and intelligent teen angst films.
“Drinkwater” falls into the intelligent teen angst genre. So expect some of usual plot lines;
- Conflict with parents
- High school romance
- Bullying
- Being in the in-crowd
- Bumbling school bureaucrats
- Surviving and learning from adversity
- Self doubt
- Ignored and misunderstood by parents
“Drinkwater” contains the essential elements of teen angst but what sets it apart is the maturity that conflict can generate. Most of the characters learn from their conflicts. The film also explores opposite sex obsession versus a relationship based on a real relationship as opposed to a fantasy.
There is also a boatload of Canadian rock many viewers will be too young to remember or if of the age of 1980’s Canadian rock but not Canadian. Bachman Turner Overdrive, Lover Boy, Trooper and April Wine propel the film with inspiration as opposed to pure nostalgia. Oh if only Carol Pope’s “High School Confidential” had been included!
Shot in beautiful Penticton which is located between Okanagan and Skaha Lakes and gateway to British Columbia Okanagan wine country. There are some beautiful shots of vineyards to boot.
The acting is solid throughout with an unrecognizable Eric McCormack as a self-absorbed insurance fraudster. Daniel Doheny as one of the teens is possessed with great acting potential with un unflappable delivery infused and oozing with charm. His wannabe girlfriend played by Louriza Franco delivers a low-key performance with occasional explosive edges.
As teen angst films go quite frankly in a Canadian way this just may be an answer to “Ferris Buellers Day Off”. It has made a limited Canadian theatrical run but it deserves international exposure.
You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO1bcDym2oo
RKS Film Rating 89/100.
“Travels to a Different Time” :August 2006 Samos Wine Festival
Samos had been famous in antiquity for its sweet wines made from the Muscat grape. Times change and very few North Americans know about this famous wine. A co-operative holds a monopoly on the production of wine in Samos. Each year there is a wine festival. This year it was held in a parking lot by the water overlooking the port in Vathi. There were both table and sweet wines. The sweet wine was the lowest echelon of sweet wines. The table wines are made from Muscat grapes and are bland and unexciting. For 3 Euros you bought a clay cup and filled it up at your will. It was hardly an exciting show of wines. Now the souvlaki, fries, tigantes and loukomis were stellar. Poor Alexandra was exhausted and falling asleep so as the rock band took the stage off home we went. The proximity to the port perhaps was not such a good idea with a funky smell permeating the air. It has been held in more scenic locations in the past. All of us crashed out for a decent sleep. This jet lag is nasty business.
RKS Film: “Shady Grove”: Misandrist Suspense
“Shady Grove” is not a horror film as I see it. It is in the misandrist suspense category. It is one of those films that drops a multitude of hints along its plot line but the hints only make sense after the closing credits roll. Sort of like a puzzle suddenly making sense.
Shaina (Niki McElroy), Mark (Todd Anthony) and their hyperactive friend Elijah (Juhan Jones) rent a cabin in the Catskills wanting to chill out for a day.
Some bad shit is going on around the cabin and in the Grove. Strangely masked animal characters steal a newborn and put it in a crate and nail it shut. Not a good sign. They also kill a teen (male) that was hanging around the cabin with a crossbow shot to his heart. OK so this has grabbed your interest.
Elijah off to get some beer and chips meets Chloe at a convenience store and invites her to a party at the cabin. Chloe shows up with gal pal Taylor and there is something about the two girls that is off kilter.
HINT: Is Shaina a closet lesbian?
HINT: Shania is pregnant. Remember the opening scene!
HINT: When Taylor says she hopes the child that Shania is carrying is a girl. How did Taylor know she was pregnant?
HINT: Taylor says we are all the same here in the town.
HINT: Why doesn’t the sheriff shoot the attacking masked crowd instead shooting in the air warning them.
HINT: Why the sex scene between Mark and Taylor?
You should be able to identify the bad guys here but predicting the ending will prove far more difficult but when you do reach that point these hints make sense.
Aside from an overdone and cheesy escape scene the acting works and Jones adds some spark with his zany self-absorbed sex crazed and obnoxious behavior (HINT).
No you won’t be quaking in your boots with this film but its ending adds a nice spin to a lumbering film.
You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18njbzzRIWs
The film will be released on digital platforms on 25October2022.
RKS Film Rating 67/100.
RKS True Story: Dancing in Hell with a Slight Problem
Years ago sitting with my father in law and my son my father in law seemed not to worry if he ended up in hell upon his demise. He could party nonstop, drink, smoke and dance . A true paradise of course until my son casually mentioned that perhaps it was true but you’ll be burning up in flames! That obvious fact had not registered but suddenly it did. I believe after that he abandoned the idea of a non-stop party. It seems shortly after that he attended church regularly!
RKS Wine: A Tidal Wave of Price Increases for Wine: Chile Remaining Affordable
If you have seen the latest Liquor Control Board of Ontario’s October 22 Vintages release catalogue you may say WTF has just happened! Prices are obscene. This makes the wines of Chile most compelling from a price and quality perspective. Most Chilean wines appear to be rated by James Suckling a hero it seems to the Liquor Control Board of Ontario so one has to discount his overly generous rating of Chilean wine. He gave the San Pedro 1865 Selected Vineyards Carmenére 2020 a 91 rating.
On the nose a tight wine with blackberry, blueberry, milk chocolate and a gentle tad of allspice. On the palate moderate tannins with elements of Christmas cake, pepper and spice.
Enough fruit to make this a decent sipper. Drink now or hold until the end of 2024. This would be a good match for so many foods but as we are in the death throes of local produce eggplants are a plenty so why not Eggplant Parmesan? My produce contact at Lady York in Toronto says from here on in expect peppers, Swiss Chard and Dandelion. With fires in California and a hurricane in Florida who knows what awaits us in Canada. I made loads of jam, pesto and tomato sauce.
(San Pedro 1865 Selected Vineyards Carmenére 2020, Valle de Maule, San Pedro S.A.Molina, Chile, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 249201, 750 mL, 14%, RKS Wine Rating 89/100).
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