Was in bed at 02:00 as a big yakfest. Up at 10 and we had a breakfast of eggs and bacon with stale bread and butter. It seems I have become a Polish university student taken under their wings. As I will be attending McGill University in Montreal in September I guess I have the credentials. We took the train to Gdynia the port city about 15 kms away. The fare was 7 cents. We went to City Market Hall the most impressive public market I have seen in Eastern Europe. The fresh fish stalls were incredible. I bought a kilo of mushrooms hoping to make my Tuscan poor man’s mushroom sauce to have over spaghetti but believe it or not no onions or tomatoes. Not in season. It is often difficult to find the right food in Poland. It seems they eat locally available produce. We headed back to the dormitory and had some delicious smoked sprats with a mushroom tomato sauce and vodka. We played some frisbee after. My Brazilian friend Ricardo was quite adept but another Polish guy was a spaz. A nice guy but a spaz. We then went to a tail end of a party. It was the end of the semester so there were parties everywhere. There was only some awful warm Polish beer and no one spoke much English or French so I felt out of place. Stayed for an hour and played Frisbee in the dark. Played some harmonica then washed my filthy feet and crawled into bed.
“Travels to a Different Time” : 20June1975: Gdansk, Poland: The Washing Machine that Blushed
Had a good sleep and up at 08:30 and went out in search of some goodies for breakfast. Bread and cheese are hardly goodies. I tanked up on mineral water at several places getting hydrated for my slog hitchhiking. They don’t seem to do a very good job of washing dishes and glasses in Poland. In fact throughout Eastern Europe but at least no bubonic plague yet. I returned to the youth hostel. A series of grueling walks and short lifts. There are lots of girls and boys hitching but they are Polish and I can’t recall seeing any Westerners. I arrived in Gdansk as the sun was setting and was directed by a cop to the youth hostel which was not open until July 1 but I looked so beat and forlorn they let me in! I ended up in a room with a student, his wife and child. I am thinking that many of the youth hostels I stayed at before tourist season were actually student residences that convert to youth hostels when the semester is ended. I actually found a washing machine so no hand washing. The rinse water was so filthy if the washing machine was human it would be blushing. What a treat! Supper of goulash over noodles with a Brazilian student whose parents were Polish so he spoke Polish.
Vladimir Pooping
the little low ranked KGB Vlad the Butcher of Bucha
murdered rivals and opposition while quaffing Sambuca
confused over idolatry of Stalin or Catherine the Great
and worried about his balding pate (and his beady eyes)
transforms his corruption into convenient Ukrainian hate
your time has come you tyrannical little murderous bureaucrat
honoured along Stalin and Hitler inexplicably intertwined
you talentless swine
your elegance has ushered in a nuclear time
as Russia suffers a nuclear decimation
history will remember you as fondly as your poo!
Robert K. Stephen
RKS Wine: On the Hunt for an Under $20 Cabernet Sauvignon: Santa Alicia 2018 Gran Reserva from Chile
Finding a 92 plus Cabernet Sauvignon for under $20 (CDN) is a chore. In 2022 the only one so far I have discovered is a 2018 Tapiz Alta Collection Cabernet Sauvignon from the Uco Valley in Argentina at $19.95. I note that COVID has ravaged local and international wine tastings restricting many professional palates to a shrivelled offering.
Chile is a good source for modestly priced wines and what says the 2018 Santa Alicia Cabernet Sauvignon from Valle del Maipo?
A friendly and highly welcoming and smooth bouquet of blueberry, cherry, raspberry and red plum. The aromas are high toned so I am expecting a taut body and not overly fruit laden. On the palate my guess is correct as this is a tight and lean wine. Notes of boysenberry, cherry and pomegranate. Unfortunately the finish is astringent and barren. I fail to see how ageing will help this wine. Drinkable but you and I deserve something better than that. James Suckling gives this an overly generous 93 rating. Suckling is no Luca Maroni but the point spread between him and I is widening these days and I query if he was a tougher nut to crack when he was with Wine Spectator. A 93 in my book is an exceptional wine. This is not in that category.
(Santa Alicia Gran Reserva de los Andes Cabernet Sauvignon 2018, Valle del Maipo, Chile, Viña Santa Alicia, Santiago, Chile, $18.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 60244, 750 mL, 14%, RKS Wine Rating 85/100).
“Andrij the Orphaned Ukrainian Rescue Dog” : Chapter 24: Bob and Andrij Ordered to Rest for 5 Days: Rock on For Ukraine!
The medical establishment has been baffled that Bob and I were pronounced dead at 12:04 but hopped out of our sick beds at 12:05. Thank you all you Buddhists who meditated us back from death and for God telling us it was not really our time to go to the world beyond. Now our doctors tell us we must rest for 5 days. I think they can’t grapple with the power of prayer.
CSIS and the CIA confirmed the Russian hitmen were Russian military. Everyone knows who sent them but there is no proof that beady eyed hoodlum ordered the hits. Unfortunately all Russian Buddhists have been rounded up as “enemy agents” and are working at Oligarch Corporation’s various coal mines in Murmansk and in North Korea.
The world is shocked about the lowness of this attack. I am not. I am a mortal enemy of the beady eyed man and I vow I will rip out his throat before I die. Do you hear me you evil beady eyed man. You’ll be riding bare chested on your stallion into hell. And Russian Orthodox hell probably has a senior executive position waiting for him. Why he might even overthrow the Devil and create a new hell!
My countrymen are now seething with revenge in their blood and have just pushed the Russians out of Kiev and the world has discovered the beady eyed man is now the “Butcher of Bucha”. Brave Russians executing civilians and raping and looting. A big Russian warship has been sunk by two Ukrainian missiles. To my great satisfaction the CIA has learnt the missiles had “A Gift From Andrij” written on them and a fragment of the missile with that inscription sits on the beady eyed man’s desk in the Kremlin. Screams of rage were heard for two days. We’ve royally pissed off the beady eyed man!
Bob, Dylan the Westie, Bosco, Reggie and I set up a meeting with Mr. Gordon Lightfoot and Drake who have volunteered to set up a global rock concert with venues in Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Sydney, London, Paris, Barcelona and Rome with the best musical talent. Bob’s Reggie’s Dog Foundation is covering all expenses. It is going to be called “Ukraine Rocks for Freedom”. I will be a guest of honour in Toronto, Dylan the Westie in London, Bosco in Sydney and Reggie will be at a live feed in a stadium in Washington where our friend Joe Biden will make a short speech with Reggie at his side.
Man we are going to rock. At each venue there will be a Ukrainian rock band. Mr. Gordon Lightfoot and Drake are working around the clock to get this up and running. The proceeds will be directed to fund humanitarian aid and for animal rescue in the Ukraine. The beady eyed man has miscalculated and a noose will be tightening around his neck.
“Travels to a Different Dimension” : Unknown Date in 1975: Warszawa and Treblinka, Poland: Was I In Treblinka and Why Can’t I Remember?
As I sit down and write this I don’t know what has happened to me. How can a day disappear? How is it I remember so little of it? I keep thinking it was a nightmare I had. It goes something like this. I am in a rail car, a box car with slats in it so there is a bit of light streaming in. There is a terrible sense of apprehension in the air. There are people behind me but I can’t see them. Shaking in fear I open the doors and see a brilliant blue sky and a forest. Beautiful pine trees in a sandy soil. The next thing I remember is an exhibition of children’s art. These children were in a concentration camp. A wave of sadness envelops me. I remember nothing more. How I got on the train, where I was going and how I returned. I think this is a nightmare as there are a couple of days that are fully accounted for and involved no train trip to a concentration camp if that is what it was. How is this possible a day has disappeared? This trip did not and could not have happened. That is until I see a train ticket stub in my pocket with “Malkinia” printed on it………..
“Travels to a Different Time” : 19June1975: Warszawa, Poland: Russian Champagne, Eggs, Babka and Mushrooms and the Shrieking Cleaning Lady
Had 5 hours of sleep woken up by the “secretariat” tapping late sleepers on the shoulder at 10:00 hours. Did morning ablutions then went out to eat with the Norwegians. The cafeteria at the Centrum department store was closed so we bought some bread and cheese and watched the people flow by. I went into Centrum with thoughts of buying a jacket. Full of seedy looking suits. Then went to the Kultur Palace a mini-Empire State Building given by big papa Stalin to the Polish people. We went to the top on an elevator and for 10 cents a great view of the city. We saw “Cabaret” with Liza Minelli and it was much better than I thought it would be. American capitalist films are Ok especially when they criticize the Nazis. We picked up supplies for a feast we prepared in the kitchen. Eggs, fried mushrooms, Russian champagne, babka and strawberries. Our meal was interrupted by a gorilla like cleaning lady shrieking at the top of her lungs. We weren’t the cause of the outburst and she walked on in a bitter argument with some people. We talked with a Norwegian girl who is going to work in Krakow as a geology teaching assistant. Off to bed in the stench of dirty socks.
RKS Film: “Silent Beauty”: A Monstrous Chain of Pedophilia
“Silent Beauty” has very few moments of beauty in it and what beauty there is displaced by a monstrous chain of pedophilia.
Director Jasmin Mara López is on Facebook one day and a picture of her grandfather with her niece explodes bringing to her the necessity of telling family members she was repeatedly abused by her Baptist preacher grandfather starting at age 10. As she tells her story a sordid history of her grandfather’s pedophilia expands to cover relatives and goodness knows who else. He denies it saying God will judge us and other anti-avoidance blather.
López spent 24 unsuccessful years trying to forget but when such a betrayal strikes forgetting is not a healthy option. She asks her grandfather for an apology but it does not come. As López recounts her story to family members she discovers she is not the only victim.
Pedophilia affects not only its direct victims but spawns destruction and pain in relationships. There is the fear of speaking out and destroying the status quo perhaps more relevant for a child as opposed to an adult. There is a feeling amongst victims there was no one there to support them. In some cases the young mind finds fault with itself as opposed to rightfully blaming the pedophile.
Once she unburdens herself López begins to find beauty in herself. She accepts what happened to her and that is the first step in her healing. Forgiveness is the next step but sometimes the evil is so overwhelming forgiveness is too much to ask. At the end of the day López understands why her grandfather was a pedophile and that may leave you with a wide-open mouth but thinking about that may lead you not to be surprised.
And her sister reveals her father sexually abused her. What dirty laundry starts spilling out of the hamper!
You may struggle to find any beauty in this horrific story other than in “coming out” López begins to discover her own beauty that her grandfather robbed her of. There is also beauty in the relationship she has with her niece Amelia as she says she wants to be there for her as no one was there for her for so many years. There is also the beauty of the undulating waves that appear throughout the documentary almost as part of the documentary’s need to present its painful web punctuated by breaks of calming waves lest the viewer be swept away in despair.
A very painful and personal journey taking courage to share and we should be glad she did share it.
The film is part of the Toronto Hot Docs Festival and shows in theatre May 3/7 and streams geoblocked in Canada from May 4-8.
RKS Film Rating 83/100.
You can see a trailer here https://www.silentbeautyfilm.com/sample
“Travels to a Different Time ” : 18June1975: Warszawa, Poland: There are only “Professional Class Girls” Here! The Spitting Polish Weightlifting Champion: Chicken Throat Soup
Woke up today in a very creaky bed. All seven beds in the room make loud creaks when you move in them. An American from Deerfield, Illinois crashed into the room at midnight. Along with my new Polish friend and the American we took the tram and went to another youth hostel that charged 25 cents a night. But no hot water or even showers. Getting stinky. The American and I walked around the city which is very spaced out and very clean. The architecture is not impressive as most of Warszawa was bombed out in WW2. We then went to see the movie “Joe Kidd” with Clint Eastwood for 45 cents. It was in English with Polski subtitles. After the movie we found a restaurant and had a repulsive soup which I can only say was chicken throat soup. On our way back to the hostel we met two Norwegian guys and we all ended up at the Hotel Bristol for a $3.50 cover charge. We bought a bottle of Vinjak for $17. The place was very high class but an equal amount of high-class decadence. The Norwegian guy said the girls at the Hotel Bristol were “professional class”. One of the Norwegian guys got hammered and the other one was sober as a nun. We took a taxi to a nightclub called Maxims with no cover charge. Someone bought me a grapefruit juice and I danced with a Polish chickadee. Just before closing at about 4 a.m. a huge Polish man who was drunk as a skunk approached our table. He said he was a Polish weightlifting champion. He bought us a bottle of Spanish Cava and kept saying “Viva Canada. Viva America” .Anytime we mentioned another country he spat on the floor with anger. This is a man you want to keep in a good mood. We walked back to the youth hostel in the light and tried to crawl into bed silently without much success.
“Travels to a Different Time” : 17June1975: Warzawa, Poland: On the Road to Warzawa
This is my third day in Poland and my first month anniversary in Europe. Thanks to the cleaning ladies making a huge racket and waking me up. I went out to buy breakfast of buns, cheese, babka and sok. All fuelled up walking my legs off to find a good spot to hitch. My first lift was with a guy in a Polski Fiat. At one point it started to rain and we almost slid off the road. He picked up and dropped people off on the way taking money for so doing. He bought me supper and we went to his house or better said I waited outside while he shaved and showered and shined his shoes. His house was dilapidated with broken windows. Poland so far seems a particularly poor country. We took the train into Warzawa and he showed me the hostel. Warzawa is spread out and is big and airy perhaps because it had to be rebuilt after the war. I met a Polish guy at the hostel and we went out for a Pepsi. What luck. The hostel is closing tomorrow. I think many of these hostels cater to school trips so when school is out they close. The room was spotless and has 7 beds in it. Despite the noise in the room out like a light at 22:30.
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