Misinformation
The Spanish Inquisition had heretics
The Salem Witch trials had witches
Mao had capitalist roaders
McCarthy had communism
Trump had election stealers
CNN had Trump
The Canadian politico-medico ruling class has “misinformation”
about you know what
The enemy within all shown (apart from the Donald) in time to be overdone and hysterically convenient to crush opposition
don’t engage and have the media whip up the rage
Robert K. Stephen
Yes a sequel to 2016’s “City of Vultures” itself perhaps a classic film of the “urban crime genre”.
The plot is simple. Richard Steele known as “G” (Marcus Carothers) is a nasty Chicago gangster who starts a war by staging a heist on another gang scoring drugs and $300,000. Several members of the rival gang are executed by G’s crew. Well the rival gang strikes back and then G retaliates and so forth. A never-ending stream of violence without remorse. Bang Bang Pop Pop and they are dropping like flies. This is no 1950’s Film Noir but a gritty and nasty film full of very bad men who think little of killing other than it is a way of amassing wealth and surviving for another day. It is far more ruthless and bloodier than the classic film noir.
The plot as I noted is simple but it is perhaps the imagery of violence that is more important than plot. And it is shocking and disturbing. It is not glorifying violence nor is it criticizing violence: it simply presents a slice of Chicago gangster existence and lets you wade in with your own value judgements on the film.
Just about everyone portrayed in the film is bad except for Maliq (Harper Anthony) who is G’s 8-year-old son. He is G’s only connection with what life could be like had he not gone astray. With his son he loses his viciousness and tries to impart an ethical framework which is somewhat ironical considering G’s rottenness. G is clever and has some witticisms he spreads about but he is pure bad. Even his “bitch” (Dee Marie) Kay pops a rival gang member in self defence. She is over the top and gaudy but look at her face and she is nothing more than a little girl.
Vultures pick at carrion to survive just like G and all the other gangs but G has a death wish ripping off a rival and killing his “bitch” which his companion notes with great compassion she was from the street and is easily replaceable. His death wish increases with a planned rip off a Latino heroin dealer which no doubt we’ll have to wait until City of Vultures 3 to see how that rip-off fares. As well we will need to see how long G can survive in the deadly hell he lives in.
Here in Toronto in 2021 the murder tally was 85 and in Chicago it was 797. The film makes no attempt to explain why but is a lens into life in the hood. As director Carothers sates, “City of Vultures 2 is inspired by true events, particularly those stemming from a dark culture of crime plaguing the streets of Chicago. Major media outlets have tried to learn and diagnose what’s behind Chicago’s heightened murder rate for decades, and with the City of Vultures films I try to present inside stories from those that have yet to escape that way of life.”
There are a couple of memorable scenes. One is a mother confronting a son who is part of G’s gang and saying that she had done drug raps and before she sees her soon swallowed by the street she’ll kill him first. And I believe her! Then Maliq’s detention by the police shows just how clever his father has raised him to be. It also shows how unethical some Chicago police can be.
The acting is solid throughout with Carothers doing vey well portraying G. Kay played by Dee Marie is almost childlike but she is a killer nonetheless. At times one wonders if her infantile nature is due to some mental disability. Marie’s performance adds some complexity to her character.
The cinematography is in colour but with dark hues to it. It’s sombreness just adds more grit and desperation to the film.
Perhaps I am just a Canadian not used to the sordid nature of gangsterism in Chicago? With a mere 85 murders, many gang related, in Toronto I’ll cherish my innocence.
You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFLk8BETeAM
“City of Vultures 2” will be released on February 1 on iTunes/Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, Xbox, Vudu, Vimeo and through some cable and satellite providers. City of Vultures is available on Tubi for no charge https://tubitv.com/movies/417685/city-of-vultures?start=true .
RKS Film Rating 91/100
Up early and to the store to buy some of that Fructal juice, bread and ham. They are big eaters of ham in Dubrovnik and it sure beats mackerel and sardines! I tried out my new fins at the beach and they were perfect. We met an English couple at the beach today and the man had such a raspy voice he sounded like a bee when he was talking. When you travel meeting new and different people is part of the adventure. After the beach we headed back into the walled city and I bought a Russian speargun. The spear was propelled by a blank and there were no springs. You load it by snapping the barrel down like a shotgun. It is very compact. With the blanks it was $10. We ran into bee man and his wife and went with them to a restaurant they said locals eat at. The food was excellent so I had two meals. It is not easy being hungry all the time but I swim and walk most of the day and am growing. We walked with bee man and his wife to a pastry shop for some local pastry. They were going to a concert but we were short on dinars so did not go with them. Our cost in Dubrovnik for room and food is $4.50 a day.
June 23, 1971: Perspirey Bus Ride and the Retired Crowd
We are taking the boat to the island of Korcula so it will be goodbye to Dubrovnik. Mom had set the water heater on at 6 am. So, at 7 there was plenty of hot water for two showers. We walked to the Number 2 bus and headed towards the port and I bought some buns and ham and that great Fructal juice. I discovered they have pear, apricot and cherry nectar. I wish we could have such delicious juices in Montreal! We took the BO express to the port. What a stink! We were on the boat at 9 and set up some deck chairs. We were amongst a group of retired people. Every time one of them saw something of interest all of them would rush over and take pictures. When we arrived in Korcula we went to the Marco Polo Tourist Agency and they sent us to Dr. Girol’s house which had a beautiful and very clean room and bathroom. It is at $2 a night.
Photo: Samantha Train
Up at 7:30 on our Russian cruise ship and after breakfast hung around on the upper deck and relaxed until our lunch of Pepper Steak. My appetite has retuned as after that nasty sunstroke I am back to normal so I appreciated those extra two Pepper Steaks. We breezed through customs and grabbed a taxi into the town to wander around for several hours to find a room and we found a nice one but the bathroom was dirty and there is no hot water but later we discovered there was a hot water heater you had to drop coins into if you wanted a hot shower. It seems Greece and Yugoslavia have the same water problem. After a terribly frigid shower off into the walled city. What a tourist trap. Mom decided to increase my education and taught me the naughty women across the way leaning on the wall were prostitutes. Will the adventures end? Having never seen a prostitute perhaps next time I can point them out? We had a lousy and greasy supper of Goulash and took the Number 2 bus back to our room.
June 21, 1971, Dubrovnik: We had a great sleep and were up at 10:30. I went out to buy some orange juice in a foil pouch with a straw attached to it made by a company called Fructal. It was delicious. The owner of the pension we were saying at offered us breakfast for $1 each. A bit expensive for bread and fried eggs. Instead we decided to go to a nearby beach where there was an entry fee of 14 cents. I bought some bread and ham for lunch at a nearby store which we had at the beach. More cold water! We were back at the room at 3:30, changed and went to a café on the roof of a department store. The quality of the goods at the department store were poor. A clerk was rude to Mom. She does not like the people of Dubrovnik and finds them rude. We headed out to a café and someone tossed a cigarette butt out of a window that landed on my lap and burnt a hole in my pants before I noticed it. Maybe Mom is right about the people here? In a way they did me a favour as I hated those pants.
Photo: Samantha Train
Spain is the third largest wine producer in the world and with all that wine there can be quality in the lower price levels. The past is the past but I recall discovering a superb low-priced rosé from Spain a few years ago and it was selling for $7. It never reappeared.
We pare down the wallet with a $13.95 wine from Valencia called El Angosto La Tribuna 2019.
There are some wine drinkers who appreciate a tiny bit of brett in their wines saying it makes them charming and rustic. Brett is yeast spoilage and often has a barnyard or leathery smell. On the nose when just uncorked with this wine you’ll get a blast of barnyard and this is not a good introduction to any red wine! But newly opened wine can present challenges that can be overcome by decanting and letting the wine breathe.
Letting this wine breathe knocks out a good deal of the barnyard but not all. Is it drinkable?
On the nose the barnyard has largely dissipated but it is still hanging around. There is much blueberry on the nose, blackberry waffles and some black cherry. On the palate plenty of tannins and mucho cork but no fruit. Two successive bottles tried tonight that must be returned. Please not a third!
Golly has COVID wreaked havoc on my tastebuds tonight?
One more try and we move to a Rioja Lopez de Haro in one of those downward spirals that face a wine reviewer. If this one is a bust I’ll have to run a COVID rapid test. Two returnable wines in one night!
On the nose I think we are safe with that traditional Rioja nose of bright red cherry cradled in some older oak. If you really strain that sense of smell there are bits of raspberry and strawberry but there is no doubt that cheerful cherry rules the roost. Are you mumbling this aroma is too simplistic and one dimensional for me? Perhaps it is but it is a trustworthy hallmark of comfort for me and Rioja. After two bottles of botched wine I’ll settle for trustworthy at the moment unlike a Syrian migrant leaving the shores of Turkey in an attempt by Turkey to use migrants as a weapon against the Greeks.
The wine is a blend of 90% Tempranillo, 7% Grenache and 3% Graciano and has spent 18 months in oak barrels.
On the palate the tannins are reticent allowing that cherry to jump out at you. And that’s it folks lots of cherry to save the day. Not a complex wine but in informal family tastings Rioja seems to go over well with the younger palate. Although Thanksgiving is so far away this Rioja is family approved for turkey with cranberry sauce. Some great pairings with food are discoverable by accident or convenience. You have some leftovers and why you have a glass of wine or less in a bottle so you pair it with food not expecting much. I have a Japanese curried cod experience (try Japanese SK Curry Blocks) that this wine would suit! Also a lighter red wine like this would match with most recipes for Portuguese Bachalau (salt cod casserole). I say most as there over 300 recipes for that dish!
(Hacienda López de Haro DOC Rioja Crianza 2018, López de Haro, San Vicente de la Sonsierra, Spain, $15.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 377481, 13.5%, 750 mL, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 89/100).
Ontario does Cabernet Franc so well. I can’t say I have had a bum bottle yet. But Ontario wineries who can’t get it right may consider just packing up and calling its quits. A poor Cabernet Franc runs against the tide of “it’s hard to botch”.
So should Marynissen pack it up? We try their 2019 Cabernet Franc.
On the nose very reluctant black cherry, coffee and some blackberry with hints of cork. Coffee often scares me with red wine aromas. The aroma is stale and lacking in life. I get the impression of depleted soil. On the palate my first impression is some corkiness I was tempted to overlook on the nose but on the palate that spells double trouble. On the palate more lifelessness. You best avoid this wine. Are those moving trucks I see at Marynissen? This wine is an extreme disappointment. Two different bottles sampled.
(Marynissen Cabernet Franc 2019, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Marynissen Estates Limited, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, $17.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 23973, 750 mL, 13.5, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 64/100).
Welcome to the New Cold War
When I was a younger man the threat to democracy
was not the North American political autocracy
but the Reds
Churchill wanted them after the war to be dead
But cooler heads prevailed
to create the communist threat
McCarthy in the US House Committee on Un American activities
went on a commie clean up and rant
your democratic rights
were trampled
in the name of democracy yet is it happening again with the primitive beating of the political drum
the unvaccinated being the new Red Scum
the politicos quiver and call unvaccinated truckers a threat to all democracy loving Canadians
it’s always easy to crush the minority
as the politicians flip flop and foam at the mouth
heaping venom on the “lunatic fringe” that don’t represent apple pie and poutine
sound routine?
and who represents the minority?
Why don’t you politicians have the guts to listen and engage
but instead you go for the sound bite rage
Robert K. Stephen
Woken up at 5 in the morning with Russian radio over the speakers! We had breakfast chugging along a canal and at 9 a.m. we docked in Venice. We grabbed a water taxi on the shore to take us to a bank where Fritz could change some money. After that we took a number 1 boat. No cars here! Boats! We went to the railway station so Fritz could buy his ticket for Basel and he checked his suitcase in at the train station. We then hired a taxi for a canal tour of Venice at a hair-raising price of 5,500 lira. So much interesting architecture and we even went under the most famous bridge in the Grand Canal. We had a long and interesting walk around Venice. How cool sitting down in Italy to a lunch of spaghetti! I have really lived now having Italian spaghetti which was not as good as Mom’s but how many people have spaghetti in Venice! Fritz was leaving the next day so he had checked into a hotel to stay the night. We went up with him to look at the room and the manager had a fit for what reason I do not know. Mom had a teary good-bye with Fritz. Mom used to say to me if your head wasn’t screwed on to your body it would fall off. I am thinking there is a bit of romance in the air. Why did it take me so long to catch on? Dummy! We arrived back at the ship for dinner and met the weirdest British couple. We went to the nightclub after without Fritz.
Margaret Mary Stephen entry in diary: I am sorry the shipboard romance was over. It was fun but we will see Fritz in Germany.
Photo: Fotini Stephen
June 17, 1971, Letter From Margaret Mary Stephen to Diane and Gerald Frank: We left Athens yesterday on a beautiful Russian luxury ship. We will be onboard 4 days and our first stop is Corfu right near Jackie O’s Island. Then to Venice and Dubrovnik in Yugoslavia where we will get off and stay for 2-3 weeks. They say it is something. I met a handsome German six foot two on the ship. He is fun and we have been swimming and dancing every night. He has two sons but I have not heard about a wife. That will come later. He leaves the ship at Venice. I assure you I am getting more than my fair share of attention from the best-looking man on the ship.
The Greek food is as grim as ever. They still poach eggs in oil. I don’t think I have put on weight but that will come later. The Russian food is good. They don’t use much seasoning. The meals have lots of courses with several things I have not eaten before.
Robert has a bit of sunstroke as he stayed out too long in the sun. June 18, 1971: After dinner Fritz and I took a carriage ride in Corfu. The Russians would not give us our passports. Robert was still feverish when we returned. He is not drinking enough fluids. We met a couple from Moscow and have become friends with them. They are charming people but I will say they look different than us. Their clothes and shoes are so poorly made of cheap materials but their smiles and laughter make up for anything lacking in the clothes they wear. I would like to go to Russia one day.
When I do things like this it makes me realize how lonely my life is. If it wasn’t for you and my children I would wish to die.
Photo: Fotini Stephen
I woke up today like a new person with no temperature and my skin is no longer on fire. I went to the upper deck to get some fresh air and luckily no sun at least for today so far! I saw Fritz having a swim in the pool so I joined him after getting my swimsuit. Mom calls me a water rat as I was sitting in water at our Lake Champlain cottage as soon as I was old enough to walk. In fact, I obtained my Royal Life Saving Society certification this year at 15 years of age and that was not easy especially having to write a two-hour exam and a rigorous half day pool evaluation. Can you imagine having to swim two lengths of a pool underwater on one breath. I have already saved an old lady who was panicking in our apartment pool in Montreal. I love water and I love the ocean and if I am a water rat I am proud of that.
After our swim Fritz and I went for breakfast. I felt a bit queasy smelling the food and I have lost my appetite so a light breakfast of three boiled eggs and some toast. I like the Russian food but recovering from sun stroke the heavy Russian cuisine is a bit much for me at least for now. We ate with Fritz and a French lady. I just felt like going back to the cabin and sleeping.
Margaret Mary Stephen diary entry: A happy day for me as Robert is much better. I had a dreadful experience in the shower putting the hot water on full and I had to run for help. Each shower in Europe is different and it is so confusing. There was so much steam in the hallway it looked like the ship was on fire but a steward rushed in and with a big but polite laugh showed me how to regulate the flow of hot water and work the shower. He was so kind and understanding and the whole crew knows about Robert being sick and many ask me with concern in their eyes if he is doing better. I am thinking now the Russian people are good souls no matter how bad their government is. Robert has seen so much of different people and I think this is good for him. How many boys his age have seen what he has! And we purposely travel as much as possible as the local people do. This is why we take the bus with the local people as much as we can. We can afford a taxi but as this a luxury for the common people it will a luxury for us.
Robert had a light dinner. He is bothered by the heavy food at dinner some chicken and potatoes in cream sauce. He just had a bite and could eat no more. The serving staff are concerned about him and asked if they could deliver some light chicken broth and sparkling mineral water to our cabin. Robert said no and wanted a good sleep as he has a bit of the shivers. God bless these Russians!
I checked on Robert who was sleeping and his forehead was just a bit warm instead of raging hot. I danced with Fritz and had vodka and caviar with the band. They down a big glass of vodka and then have spoons of caviar like it is candy. In bed at 2. When has that happened since 1964 when my dear husband Jack died of bladder cancer. Tomorrow, VENICE! Tonight, I say a prayer of thanks to God for taking care of Robert and for these kindhearted and fun loving Russians. If I could only tell the world how wonderful these Russians are. No it is not the vodka talking. Why can’t we live with the Russians like sisters and brothers? Politics? Politicians?
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