“Travels to a Different Time” 8July1975: Muonio, Finland: 100 Miles North of the Arctic Circle and Freezing Cold

Pelting rain last night but no leakage into my tent. It was raining when I woke up and it looked as if I’d be pinned down in my tent. A wonderful breakfast of tuna fish and rock-hard bread. Finally a bit of sun so I packed up and split. A 2 km walk to the main road with a milk break on the way. It was freezing cold. The fourth lift was with a guy my age and his sister. We stopped at his house and had some coffee. I mentioned I liked milk and he went down to the cold cellar and brought a can of milk fresh from the cow and it was delicious. We continued North to Kolari and I was left off there. It was so cold I wrapped myself in my Greek blanket. I ended up in Muonio which is 100 kms north of the Arctic Circle. $3.00 a night at the youth hostel. There were only two other people there an Aussie and a Swede. We went out to drink some beer. The conversation and the beer were excellent. We returned and continued chatting finishing my bottle of vodka I brought over from Poland.

Photo Tehri Touvinen

RKS Wine: An Odd Bird from Tuscany: Fattoria Le Pupille Poggio Argentato

I say this wine is a bit of a Tuscan odd bird with a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Petit Manseng, Traminer and Semillon. The Petit Manseng constitutes 25% of the blend and has been fermented in oak and the other grapes in stainless steel.

On the nose there is Orri tangerine, marzipan, ruby red grapefruit and pear galette. On the palate initial impressions are that it is a “soft wine” with a faint creaminess to it. Additional notes of musk melon, guava and Bosc pear. Somewhat bland. Grilled white fleshed ocean fish basted with oregano, lemon and olive oil with Swiss Chard as a side drizzled with the basting sauce would be a good match. Drink this year.

(Fattoria Le Pupille Poggio Argentato 2019, IGT Toscana, Poggio del Maiano, Grosetto, Italy, $19.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 23040, 750 mL, 13.5%, RKS Wine Rating 88/100).

RKS Film: “Les bienveillants” (The Benevolents)

“Les bienveillants” is a thoughtful short documentary by Montreal’s Sarah Baril Gaudet. The viewer will have the opportunity to understand the volunteer recruitment process of Tele-Aide a Montreal call centre that specializes in listening to telephone calls from people in mental distress or simply listening to anyone that needs someone to talk to. Tel-Aide was founded in 1971 and since that time has listened to over two million calls.

Volunteers attend an initial screening interview which is followed by some training sessions with actual and simulated calls. What are the most important skills? Good listening skills and being non judgemental are key.

Want to be a fly on the wall at a call centre taking a range of calls from suicidals, callers dealing with drug addiction and loneliness. Perhaps their skills are all what we need in our everyday life.

You can see the trailer here for “Les bienveillants” https://www.sarahbgaudet.com/les-bienveillants

Showing at Toronto Hot Docs Festival 2022 as part of “The Canadian Spectrum Shorts: Stronger Together”. The shorts may be streamed but are geoblocked to Canada.

“Travels to a Different Time” : 7July1975: Pello, Finland: Good Riddance to the Annoying Germans: Finnish Motorcycle Mania

I woke up today and loved my hot shower. The Germans split without saying good-bye. A case of mutual annoyance? Good riddance. It was nice to have a 700 km ride though. But I was fed up with them. On the road on my own again. First some great Finnish milk. After 15 minutes trying to snag a lift it began to rain and just then a lift in a Ford Taurus for 70 kms heading North. Then a short lift with a Mercedes then three guys in a Volvo. All had poor complexions. We stopped at one of their friend’s place for coffee cake. Then a lift in a motorcycle. There are so many motorcycles in Finland. Three hours waiting for a lift which was with another bad complexioned Finn. He virtually begged me to stay so he dropped me off at the campground and said he would pick me up in an hour. We went to a disco and I stayed for a couple of hours and his cousin drive me back to the campground.

“Travels to a Different Time” : 5July1975: Haparanda, Sweden: Air Traffic Controller Goes Nutso: Walking into Finland from Sweden

I talked to a former air traffic controller who quit because it was too stressful. This morning he woke up at 07:00 and was ready to depart but the front door was locked making me think what would happen if there was ever a fire. We’d fry to death. The poor guy was yelling and bashing against the door waking everyone up. Finally someone came and let him out. I am glad he is not landing my flight! Out with the Germans who were snaping their cameras like crazy. They are a bit older than me but very conservative. They’ll get married in three years, live in the suburbs having beer belles and each summer they will load up and take their children to Yugoslavia. After breakfast on the move again but the German was tailgating and we bashed into the car ahead of us busting our headlight and damaging the other car’s fender. We had to go to the police station and fill out an accident report. We reached Haparanda after lunch. Cool as there is a Haparanda just over the bridge in Finland. We checked into a youth hostel. I did a big wash and had a glorious hot shower. After dinner I walked into Finland to a disco and entered with my press pass and had a couple of beers on the house. I talked with a Dane and a Frenchman. I stayed until the club closed and in the midnight sun walked back to the youth hostel.

RKS Film: “Box of Rain”: Rock n Roll Salvation Thanks to Deadheads

Lonnie Frazier as a 17-year-old accepted a lift from two high school boys that she knew but a lift to her car turned into a violent rape. Not having a trusting and loving home environment to heal in she accepted free tickets to a Grateful Dead concert in Colorado and headed off there with two friends on a journey that transformed her life in a Deadhead family from a life of fear into an accepting and trusting community.

She found salvation in the Deadhead community a travelling community of Grateful Dead fans that had their own lifestyle and community that resembled a caravan of gypsies following the band on their tour which became their own blueprint for life.

The documentary gives a perspective of the Deadheads as a trusting and safe community that saved Lonnie from a possible tragic end. Blind faith? Desperation? Hey if it isn’t broke no need to fix it.

Hear from Deadheads about how it was a unique community.

From a personal perspective I saw the Grateful Dead in I think 1973 at the PNE in Vancouver. I had a press pass so was invited to a backstage barbeque but I can’t recall much about that other than groupies, roadies and radio personalities. The concert was opened by Captain Beefheart and then the Grateful Dead for a nonstop awesome three-hour concert. The best live rock performance I have seen.

The question I ask was there real magic to this Deadhead community or was Lonnie at the right place at the right time? I suppose you as the viewer will have to decide that. But her involvement with the Deadheads was her salvation so who are we to criticize that?

A fascinating journey into the Deadhead community. You might call it a travelling Woodstock or Watkins Glen. An unconventional part of American history. An obsessive journey of a wounded soul or a movement with broader implications? Your choice.

Given the commentary of Deadheads the Deadhead community extends beyond Lonnie’s pain.

If only there was some Grateful Dead music in this documentary!

The film will be released on digital platforms as of May 3, 2022.

You can catch the trailer here https://vimeo.com/698791950/f29570d154

Directed by Lonnie Frazier.

RKS Film Rating 83/100.

RKS Film: “The Quiet Epidemic”: Sadness, Rage and Disgust

Ostensibly the American documentary “The Quiet Epidemic” chronicles the steamrolling Lyme Disease (LD) epidemic in the United States but it is far more than that. It is an exposé on the self-destructive greed and failure of the for-profit underpinnings of the American medical system and the moral and ethical corruption if not gross negligence of medical practitioners tied to Big Pharma. “Gross negligence” is so well described in the Civil Code of France, Quebec and Louisiana as something not even the stupidest man would do.

On a personal level “ The Quiet Epidemic” has been released at precisely the right moment as North America tries to crawl out of the COVID pandemic. It is in COVID times that we see a medical establishment somewhat divided amongst those that tow the party line of the CDC and NHI about vaccines, masking and the majority of the media that obediently props them up and those that dare question the “science”. Do you notice that CNN seems funded by Big Pharma with incessant and mindless pharmaceutical ads? Do you also notice the admonishments from those towing along with vaccine imperialism we must follow the science. Who controls this science that we must follow? If an analogy can be drawn to following the science in Lyme Disease you and I ought to be terrified.

“The Quiet Epidemic” doesn’t proselytize with narration as it lets those with CDC, NIH and the IDSA (Infectious Disease Society of America) embarrass themselves to the extent they are not following the science but rather ignoring it. Yes medicine has become politicized long before COVID. And the closed-minded supporters of the status quo are championing iatrogenic behaviour effectively letting thousands suffer and eventually die. It is always interesting to dig into “studies” supporting pharmaceuticals especially when the studies are conducted by those with ties to Big Pharma. Moral corruption.

Perhaps you can see how I think how on point this documentary is? I perhaps should stop here and say watch it now that I have unloaded the COVID medical debacle off my chest? No. Let’s start all over.

It was in 1975 that Lyme Disease (LD) was identified as a result of a huge spike of arthritis cases in Lyme, Connecticut which primarily affected children. LD is a tick-borne disease one of some 16 tick borne diseases. It is found in wooded areas and now it could be in your backyard throughout North America infecting some 500,000 Americans each year. It operates through a spirochete organism that resembles a corkscrew (the same type or organism is found in syphilis) that like a corkscrew bores into organs and destroys them. 80% of victims recover but 20% do not and they face a likelihood of suffering and death.

For many years and in fact still in present days a good part of the medical establishment thought or tried to have the public believe the course of treatment was antibiotics. Prominent medical organizations such as the CDC, NHI and IDSA treated the rise of LD and its physicians who contested their views as Lyme Loonies. They who worship “science” conveniently and hypocritically ignored any science that challenged their treatment guidelines.

Indeed LD is no game as we encounter some of its victims who die and suffer terribly as certain elements of the medical establishment, Big Pharma and insurance companies have so many vested interests, usually profit. Suffering and death should have been eliminated but stubbornness and the profit motive in the American medical system have precedence over the well-being of patients.

The sad fact is that some 50 years after the recognition of LD very little has changed including suffering and death.

Can you say that this documentary makes me sad? You are right but it infuriates me and brings me close to rage that the pig-headed medical establishment is little better than accessory to murder.

As an investigate journalist in the documentary notes why is it that my dogs can take meds for tick borne diseases but no such treatment is available for humans. This is criminal.

On a last note in the course of researching for a book I acted as a golf marshal last year. I was asked many times why I was not wearing shorts. I replied “Lyme Disease”. Little recognition registered.

You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8pBkzUwb88

It will be in theatre at Hot Docs on May 2/6 and can be streamed (geoblocked to Canada) for 5 days from May 3.

The co-directors Lindsay Keys and Winslow Crane-Murdoch met through their Lyme doctor’s office in 2015.

RKS Film Rating 92/100.

RKS Film: “African Moot”: A Dual Personality Review: Toronto Hot Docs

Ok, what is a “moot”? It is an experience just about all law students suffer or enjoy. It is a mock trial in front of judges based on a fictional case. The judges may be actual judges or legal practitioners. It involves hours of preparation added on to a crushing workload of everyday lectures. So in addition to simulating litigation it also imparts what it is like balancing a heavy workload which many lawyers suffer from.

Having practiced law for 33 years I still remember my moot with my partner Nina at McGill University in Montreal. We had a case of a young man convicted of drug dealing. He was tricked by police to make a drug deal so the issue was if there was “entrapment” which might result in the charge being dismissed. Talk about stress and pressure!

In this documentary law students throughout Africa participate in an annual  pan-African moot competition. So I have been there and done that and have an inside track few viewers will have. So I will assume a dual personality in this review.

My View as a Lawyer

This documentary captures the anxiety, terror and joy of a moot. The preparation. The rehearsal. The exhilaration. The challenges. It also gives a snapshot that however much you prepare a question or two from a judge can cause you to stumble and falter no matter how well you have prepared your oral argumentation. At times acting and improvisation can save your butt. It also may determine your appetite to become a litigation lawyer or as they say in the United Kingdom a barrister. As a lawyer I thought this an accurate and entertaining if not a nail biting documentary.

My View as a Film Critic

I worry that the intricacies of a moot and legal argumentation may be lost on the average viewer. What I identify with and smile about may not have the same effect on the non lawyer viewer. For the non-lawyer this may be but a foggy “game”. It may be too complicated to digest and for the filmmakers I say a principle in tort law that you take the victim as the victim was. In other words you take the viewer as they are.

You will see the stress and the tension. Emotions are flying all over the place but will the viewer be able to really connect with the emotional roller coaster faced by these students? Has the documentary become too obscure and complicated?

The End Result

As a lawyer viewer I can closely identify with the preparation, rehearsal and final performances and it resonates with me. As a lawyer I give it a 90/100.

As a non lawyer I see this as complicated and difficult to digest for the non lawyer viewer. I would give it a 79/100 rating.

It is more than simply a moot but an examination of African society and how it views the future of African justice. But are these intricacies apparent to the viewer?

You can see trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93ZDZBnfbnA

The film can be seen in theatre at Hot Docs on April 30 as a world premiere and on Wednesday May 4. As of May 1 it can be streamed for 5 days geoblocked to Canada.

A film by Shameela Seedat.

RKS Poetry: “The Beady Eyed Man and Concentration Camps”

The Beady Eyed Man and Ukrainian Concentration Camps

The beady eyed Russian man
or perhaps the Messiah according to the Grand Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church
fond of $30,000 watches
establishes “filtration camps”
bolstered by mobile crematoriums on wheels
the bells of Adolph Eichmann the final solution ring a final peal
mass graves full of a killing zeal
forgetting beady eyed man all the Russians liquidated in Nazi “filtration camps”

RKS Wine: Croix de Bonpas Côtes-du-Rhône Villages

The Croix de Bonpas Côtes-du-Rhône Villages 2019 is a blend of 60% Grenache, 30% Syrah and 10% Mourvedre.

Bonpas Chateau

On the aromatic side notes of big fat almost overly ripe strawberries, blueberries, cactus pear and a tad of black licorice.

On the palate moderate tannins, rhubarb pie, white pepper, blackberry and blueberry clafouti. Moderately long finish. Match with duck breast with cherry preserves, steak tartare or Greek Keftedes.

(Croix de Bonpas, AOC Côtes-du-Rhône Villages 2019, Bonpas, Caumont-sur-Durance, France, $17.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 22283, 750 mL, 14%, RKS Wine Rating 89/100)