“Travels to a Different Time” : 17/18 May 1975: New York City: Off to Vienna!

Again on the midnight bus from Montreal to New York City. Sitting next to a tubby guy with bad body odour who tried to strike up a conversation to no avail. Through customs was quick and at the Saratoga Springs rest stop I have never seen the restaurant so busy at 3 in the morning. The trip was smooth and I managed to get a few hours of sleep. I took a taxi to sister Barbara’s apartment. I sat up for an hour and went out to Grand Union to pick up some food and crashed until Nancy returned at 4. I talked with Barb’s room mate Nancy for awhile and went out to the corner deli to buy some beer, Cole Slaw, macaroni salad, chicken and roast beef a real feast! We sat and talked a bit and watched TV until 3 a.m. and crashed. Spin the roulette wheel and it stops at Vienna.

19May1975: New York City: A Spaghetti Bash and Shopping in The Big City! Eating For the Future

I woke up feeling like a bulldozer had been using me for a practice field. Nancy was still asleep at 10 so I went to Arbee’s Menswear a hole in the wall but cheap prices and I bought a corduroy jacket and socks. A small store crammed to the roof with clothes. Only 4-5 people at a time can move in the store. I stopped at Grand Union for breakfast and cooked up a late breakfast of ham, eggs, sweet buns, grapefruit, milk and toast. As I said to Nancy I am eating not for the present but the future. At 3 out with Nancy to the bank while I bought some shoelaces. Picked up some pasta and beer at Sloan’s and dinner was spaghetti and beer followed by watching a few Star Trek episodes. Then a great interview with student activist Abby Hoffman and an investigative report on nursing homes. Great PBS station here. After telly put sleeping bag on floor and nighty night.

RKS Film: “Holy Boom”: Intergenerational and Ethnic Explosion in Athens!

The Hellenic Film Society USA continues with its Greek Films on Demand programme where for the first ten days of the month two Greek films are available for streaming at a nominal cost.

One of the April films “Holy Boom” is a 2018 production that weaves together ethnic and intergenerational conflicts facing Greece.

On Palm Sunday three teens place a mini dynamite stick in a mailbox charring its contents and fundamentally changing and, in some cases, failing to change lives. The result going fast forward is a series of tragedies. Boyish prank that spirals in ways the little hoodlums could never expect?

What is significant is that Albanians, Filipinos and Africans are involved as characters in the film. I was in Greece in 1971, 1972 and 1973 where Greece was a more of less a mono-ethnic society. I returned in 2000 to Athens and I could scarcely believe the different ethnic groups. What a massive change in 30 years!

Let me briefly set the stage for what you are going to see without giving away the plot.

Adia (Luli Bitri) is an illegal Albanian immigrant who was waiting for a birth certificate to make her a legal immigrant but that is destroyed in the mailbox explosion. Her husband is killed in a traffic accident but going to the hospital is risky and the body can only be seen and identified by a person with identification. Adia is the personification of what being an illegal does to one’s life. It is a hard life and full of fear of being rounded up and deported.

Manu (Samuel Akinola) is an African living with Lena (Anastasia Rafaela Konidi) a young Greek musician. Manu had some LSD tabs in that mailbox that were charred a bit but all the contents of the mailbox are in the custody of the post office. The mob had advanced him money to get the drugs and now he has no merchandise so he is in a for a very rough ride.

Adia, Manu and Lena live in the same apartment complex and is watched “Rear Widow” style by an elderly spinster Thalia (Nena Menti). Initially Thalia detests Albanians, Africans and all immigrants for that matter. She represents Greece of the past. But her forced involvement with Manu and Adia transforms her ethnic hatred into acceptance of the New Greece. A very important document may not reach her and it is a massively important one.

One of the bombers Ige (Spyros Ballesteros) is a nasty piece of work and add on to his bombing he sexually assaults a classmate infuriating her boyfriend. For Ige justice is served on a huge platter.

As it is after Saturday mass and Sunday is Easter fireworks explode to celebrate Easter and tragedy explodes all around.

Very well acted with a shout out to brilliant performances by Menti and Bitri. The film was nominated for two Hellenic Film Academy Awards. Directed by Maria Lafi. You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuOAvgL4sLA

To order the film in the April 1-10 window go to https://hellenicfilmusa.org/past-events/2021-on-demand

RKS Film Rating 92/100.

RKS Film: “Tabija” (The White Fortress): Hoodlum Meets Girl from a “Good” Family

Faruk (Pavle Čemerkić) lives with his grandmother in one of those socialist tenements from the old Yugoslavian communist days in the infamous city of Sarajevo. He has a day job collecting scrap metal with his uncle. He also runs girls for the big boss Cedo who amongst his other businesses is a pimp. Faruk has been asked to gain the confidence of a girl so Cedo can pimp her out. Faruk is a hoodlum but not a violent one. Sort of a James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause”. He is close to twenty.

Mona (Sumeja Dardagan) is from a well to do family and her father is a politician. Mona is a bit younger than Faruk. Mona believes the relationship between her parents is a loveless one which disturbs her romantic nature. Mona’s parents wish to offload her to Toronto with relatives. Mona has no desire to move to Canada. Mona is unhappy living with her parents and like Natalie Wood in “Rebel Without a Cause” starts a relationship with Faruk from the other side of the tracks.

Faruk may be a hood but he has no intention of grooming Mona to be a hooker. He is warned by a fellow hood that he is a dead man for not recruiting a girl. Don’t mess with Cedo!

Faruk claims initially not to be a romantic but he falls for Mona. Yes there is teen trouble in Sarajevo which is far better than the shelling and bombing of years gone by. I have been in Sarajevo three times while Bosnia was a part of communist Yugoslavia so I am no stranger to its streets.

Faruk has a favourite television show which is a WW2 drama dealing with the Nazi occupation of Sarajevo. As Faruk points out to Mona, Sarajevo has been under all sorts of foreign rule and oppression. By analogy Faruk is a prisoner of his poverty and Mona of a miserable life with her parents. The relationship between Mona and Faruk in many facets is also perhaps an allegory for Sarajevo and that is what takes this film beyond a troubled teen film.

The question is whether true love can blossom? It certainly looks that way until something mysterious happens in the White Fortress up in the hills of Sarajevo. Having been there the view of Sarajevo below is spectacular and somewhat haunting when you hear the call to prayers from the minarets.

Čemerkić and Dardagan are well cast as regular looking teenagers and they deliver with strong performances.

You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjpGIFh2tqQ&t=21s

The film will be released on April 22. It is a Canadian and Bosnian co-production. It is directed by Igor Drljač.

RKS Film Rating 73/100.

“Travels To a Different Time”: 19August1974: Frankfurt, New York and Montreal: Wrapping up 1974

Woke up at 6:30 suffering from airport grunge and not feeling that well again. I went to the supermarket at the lower level and bought a roll, orange juice and milk. At 09:30 the line up for the 12:15 flight to New York began. There were 7 non-revenue passengers and only two spots so it was on the next flight and bathed in stress and tension. I walked on board. I wonder what it would be like to travel on a regularly scheduled airline as opposed to a charter company. But for a $25 round trip I can suffer! 8 hours later in New York’s Kennedy Airport where I split a taxi with a couple to Port Authority so we could catch buses. So on the midnight bus for an 8 hour trip to Montreal. I sat with a nice Swedish girl travelling in North America. I asked her to come pay a visit when she settles in. I find Montreal very strange upon returning. Strange architecture to name a few things. I have been living so long away from it I feel almost like a tourist seeing it for the first time. Good to be home to a 14-hour sleep. 1975 I think will see me in Eastern Europe. Cold showers, greasy goulash and goodness knows what else.

(Photo Aldo Bindini)

RKS Wine: An Organic Côtes-du-Rhônes-Villages; Clean, Vibrant and Pure

Perhaps I get thrown by the word “organic” but organic wines seem to have a clean streak running through them. They seem sharper. Am I imagining this?

So we try a 2019 Château Maucoil Côtes-du-Rhônes-Villages. The scent of super ripe strawberries is courtesy of the Grenache in the blend. A big blast of blueberries also greets the nose. Yes I get the sense of a clean and vibrant wine. On the palate the purity of the wine is unmistakeable. It is as if you and the wine make a connection. Black cherry and a hint of Tellicherry peppercorns most likely attributable to the Syrah. A high-toned medium length finish.

A blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mouvèdre grown in a mix of sand and pebbles. Hand harvested.You can drink as is or with food and I am thinking duck or lamb.

Best to drink in 2022.

(Château Maucoil Côtes-du-Rhônes-Villages 2019, Château Maucoil, Vauclause, France, $19.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 638502, 750 mL, 14.5%, RKS Wine Rating 93/100).  

RKS Film: “Good Life”: One Strange Film

Unfortunately for this film I have been travelling about Greece since the early 1970’s. So when I sat down and watched “Good Life” I was looking forward to a great film as after all what could be wrong about the dear protagonist Olive going to her mother’s ancestral home in Greece after a break up with her boyfriend in Cape Town.

The film for a Greekophile like me was a production that lacked authenticity. It seems it was shot in Cape Town South Africa in a recreated Greek Village where there are no Greek actors and supposed Greeks speak to each other mostly in English and when they speak Greek their lines are said in poor Greek. It may fool the uninitiated but not me. It rather reminds me of a hackneyed Harlequin Romance film. Now for those who don’t understand Greek the poorly spoken Greek may be irrelevant but to me it sunk the movie! South Africa had at one point a large Greek population so one might think get some actors that speak Greek!

Olive Papadopoulos (Erica Wessels) is a 35-year-old South African oral hygienist feeling the sting of a failed relationship who decides to return to the Greek ancestral home to escape sadness. But in this “recreated” Greek village the Greeks are not Greeks but actors pretending to be Greeks and they speak English to each other more than in poor Greek! You can’t fool me! They are in Cape Town on a set!

I do like the ripping satire of dealing with Greek bureaucrats as I have been there and done that. Smart filmmaking there. Then Olive’s relationship with Jet a young Albanian boy shunned by villagers is accurate. Albanians flooding into Greece after the fall of Enver Hoxha’s bizarre Albanian communist state were not greeted with open arms.

Yes the film does follow “Zorba the Greek” and “Never on a Sunday” in terms of Greece transforming those who visit it but in this case they are visiting Cape Town South Africa and not Greece.

The film will be showing in select theatres on April 15th and on demand.

You can fool many with this but not me. A disaster of a film for authenticity. Thank goodness for Wessels’ strong performance (language issues aside).

You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC5xG-NSuC4

RKS Film Rating 51/100.

“Travels to a Different Time” : 17August1974: Wuppertal, West Germany: Beer in the Morning?

Up at 08:00 for the usual breakfast of brot, schinken und kaise (bread, ham and cheese). I must have eaten an entire field of wheat on this trip! We took the Schwebebahn and then a bus out to countryside to a big pool. Beer started upon arrival. Little 4-ounce glasses of alt beer sort of nonstop. When in Germany do as the Germans do. We then went to a soccer game and Freddy kept buying beers. We took a tram and a bus home but the bus broke down and we walked the rest of the way.  Berndt had to work at Essen in the evening so while he ate his dinner I packed up. I walked him to the bus stop and said good-bye. Berndt’s friend was heading to Bonn at 06:30 in the morning so it was off to bed early. Beer at 11 a.m. That’s a first.

18August1974: Wuppertal and Frankfurt, West Germany: What a Nice Granny! Willy the Pimp

Granny was up at the crack of dawn waking me up and bringing ham, bread and cheese. I ate as much as I could and went downstairs ready to say good-bye. My goodness Granny had even packed lunch! My ride was twenty minutes late and he did not speak English but we got along well. He left me off at a good hitching spot in Bonn and in no time I was picked up by a German student in those weird tinny looking Citroens. It was chilly and drizzling which rather suited my mood. I got a lift to the airport and found the Overseas National Airline’s office and was told they had a flight leaving at noon to New York the next day. So I stored my bag and took the train at the airport lower level so I could check out Frankfurt. I recall the main station was in a sleazy part of town and my recollection was correct. Porno shops and cheap bars with ladies of the night outside beckoning for business. There were also pimps with their girls reminding me of Frank Zappa’s song “Willy the Pimp”. I went to Wimpys for a cheeseburger and fries and took a bus to another part of town. I ate dinner at the train station for $3 and took the train back to the airport. They have stores, restaurants, pubs and pool tables. I walked around discovering this huge airport. I had a beer and played a couple games of pool, washed my face and bushed my teeth and off to sleep on some seats in the airport.

RKS Wine: A Sparkler from Chile: Low on the Totem Pole?

For sparkling wine the kings of the castles are supposedly those made by the Traditional Method which involves secondary fermentation in the bottle. Sometimes the Traditional Method is referred to as the Champagne Method as that is how Champagne is made. The Charmat Method is far cheaper as it involves placing the wine in large pressurized tanks for its secondary fermentation. The bubbles are usually larger and the final product is thought of having less finesse that wines produced by the Champagne Method. To be fair perhaps you just want something cold and bubbly for refreshment purposes. Perhaps you are hot and steamy after gardening the Charmat Method may just do the trick! Plus it is usually $5 cheaper than let’s say a Crémant.

What says the Undurraga Royal Brut Sparkling Rosé from Chile? It is 100% Pinot Noir.

Friendly and approachable aroma of raspberry, strawberry, cherry and watermelon. It is like being on a summer picnic. On the palate it is crisp but not bone dry with cutting acidity you often experience with wines made by the Traditional Method. Loads of cherry and watermelon with a twist of ginger and tomato. Almost a spicy finish. Quite impressive for a Charmat. And yes great on a hot summer day after some intense gardening where a special reward is called for while you sit satisfied with your effort. I like this with an Italian Asian fusion dish. Sautee snow peas until vibrant green. Remove and throw in ginger, garlic, scallions and cashews with a drizzle of sesame seed oil. Then throw in some shrimp. Serve over spaghettini tossed in pesto. My invention of a couple of decades ago I recently revived to great acclaim. The pesto was from my own basil.

(Undurraga Royal Brut Sparkling Rosé (Non-Vintage) D.O. Valle de Leyda, Viña Undurraga, Talagante, Chile, $14.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 10580, 750 mL, 12.5%, RKS Wine Rating 91/100).

RKS Wine: Côtes du Rhône: Wines Above the Maddening Crowd:

There is a plenitude of wines on the market that are good but over the past years they are beginning to taste similar. Could it be they are made to please the marketplace? Predictability? Homogenization? Hegemony of blender consultants?

With many reds and whites from Côtes du Rhône you’ll get the impression they have not caved to the supermarket. They might be a bit rough on the edges and some are gravelly and scratchy on the throat which are enjoyable . And they are reasonably priced.

So what’s up with the 2017 Domaine Saint Michel Red? The grapes used in the blend 45% Grenache, 30% Carignan, 20% Syrah and 5% Mourvèdre may draw a puzzled look aside from Syrah. Do you run to or away from the unfamiliar?

On the nose the Grenache shows its hand lending an almost overripe strawberry identifier to the wine. There is hefty component of black cherry with a side of black cherry cola. The wine is not lush or dense but focused and lively but not high toned and flighty. On the palate some lightweight tannins and the acids are superbly well integrated so important for a red wine. The last characteristic I want is a red wine with some zippiness to it. As the wine hits the mouth there is a tiny tad of restrained and momentary sweetness. Lots of black cherry with some pomegranate and a minute bit of gravel and perhaps a bit of white pepper lingering on the finish courtesy of the Syrah.

This is one of those wines that is both good to quaff and match with food. I would pair it with roast lamb coated with pesto. No harm will come matching it with a striploin. Vegheads might like it with Umami Garlic Noodles With Mustard Greens (or Rapini).

I do not think this will improve in the bottle but keeping it around in the right temperature for a couple of years will do it no harm.

The wine is from a small estate of 20 hectares run by the Boyer family. Their 45-year-old vines are organically farmed and grown in stony soils. The grapes are hand picked and given the clarity and sharpness on the palate there has been no oak used.

The alcohol is well hidden at 14%. You can buy in Canada for a case of 12 for $231 ($19.25 a bottle) through The Small Winemakers at www.smallwinemakers.ca

RKS Wine Rating 93/100.

“Travels to a Different Time” : 16August1974: Dusseldorf & Wuppertal, West Germany: Beer at the Englishman’s Pub in Germany? Running on Empty

A decent sleep but woke up feeling crappy. I packed up and split to the train station and took a train to Wuppertal which was a 30-minute trip. I tried to call Alex who I had met in Skopje and who had invited me to visit him in Wuppertal. No answer so I headed to Bernd’s house who was a friend of Alex I had met in Vienna along with his pals and had also invited me to stay with him. It was a trek to find his house and only his grandfather was home. It was a cute house with a garden and a patio. Adjacent to the house was the Englishman’s Pub. An Englishman had married a German girl after WW2 and opened up a pub in Germany. What a weird world! Grandpa said Bernd wasn’t at home and that I should return at 4. He did not seem keen with the idea I would be staying there and said return at 4. He struck me a man who thinks his house is a castle and does not want anyone disturbing his little kingdom. Feeling like crap I had 6 hours to kill which wasn’t that hard walking around Wuppertal. A very beautiful shopping district closed to traffic. Too bad that doesn’t exist in Montreal. I headed back to Grandpa at five. He likes smoking big fat cigarettes. We went to the Englishman’s Pub and had a beer. It is a very comfy pub. The Germans like a big head of foam on their beer which reduces the carbonation. Poor grandpa went for a piss and returned forgetting to zip up his fly! After a couple of beers Bernd arrived at 7 and we went to phone his friend Siegfried who I had met in Vienna. Everyone calls him Ziggy. I was to sleep in a small room in the attic which was fine with me. We had dinner and visited Ziggy’s house listened to some music and went to a couple of pubs which are small not like the big taverns we have in Montreal. Then to an amusement park for a beer where we met another of the gang from Vienna. We had a couple more beers at the Englishman’s Pub and played some pool before heading home. Feeling so very weary I retired hoping some good German beer would be a health tonic. I have been on the road for three months and it takes a physical and mental toll on you. I feel I am running on empty. Feeling like shit doesn’t help. Unfortunately I am not on the Adriatic in the healing sun and surf.