Aren’t you supposed to cringe in terror watching a horror movie? “Bad Ben Benign” is the ninth film in the Bad Ben Series. I come to it initially with installment 9 so I may be missing some deep contextual concept. But on the other hand as a newbie I may bring a fresh and unbiased perspective.
I don’t think you’ll be cringing in terror while watching this film. You’ll meet Tom Riley who is not terrorized by ghouls and demons but refreshingly treats them as annoyances. He would rather drink pickle juice and eat a newly opened bag of potato chips than chase around ghosts in his house. In fact he is a cantankerous and overweight human. It is this a reality horror show! I like Tom as a far less perfect character. His somewhat bumbling and fearless attitude makes him a horror anti-hero. In closer analysis the film verges on comedy with the audience waiting for some big horror moments which never come except for the last few moments of the film which put any of the out of place items throughout the house make sense. One wonders is Tom a new ghost in town?
The film will be released on October 26th on iTunes/Apple TV, Google Play Xbox, VUDU, DVD and through some local cable and satellite providers. This American film is work of director Nigel Bach who faced years of rejection from producers and finally decided to go out on his own and like Frank Sinatra did it his way! You don’t go and create 9 installments without having success. I am looking forward to #10 already. Nigel Bach renders an immaculate performance as a very likeable and human Tom Riley.
If you have been following Penniless Pensioner you’ll know he has gone from more or less rags to riches as his Bitcoin investment made him a wealthy man so he is no longer penniless but he insists upon drinking wine under $20 and stocking his wine cellar with wines carrying that price limit so he has a bit of “penniless” about him.
PP is going a bit nuts with his Wild Tuscan Boar Stew. You may recall he learnt how to make this dish at a progressive Roman prison from a well-known Italian chef while he was waiting for extradition to Canada for tax evasion. He is eating this dish and serving it to his friends loading them up with gout! He is also packing some pounds with all that pasta he is serving the stew over. Well I have been invited over for dinner for you know what! He bought an $18.95 Italian Aglianico Del Vulture which I assumed was from the Campanian region but it is from Basilicata.
So we start off with a Negroni and his delicacy comes served over his own home made pasta. We have a special guest Stanley Tucci a well-known actor and host of a popular CNN series “Searching for Italy”. Tucci has been travelling through Italy trying to find its soul in Italian food. He has come to Toronto as PP’s stew is talked about all over Rome. I mean he is such a big name the Italian state television network RAI has booked him on its top culinary show to teach the nation how he makes it. Tucci has brought a very high-end Super Tuscan wine but we will have that with a cheese plate after dinner.
We will have the $18.95 wine with dinner and save the $399.95 wine with our cheese. On the nose it’s a bit brambly and earthy which matches the heavy stew quite well. Black cherry rules the roost but there is a hint of chocolate and espresso. Not complicated but as aroma goes that permeate the room it suits the atmosphere nicely. On the palate its moderately heavy tannins cut into the fatty boar and the acidity of the rich tomato sauce made with San Marzano tomatoes of course. There are notes of blackberry, cassis and Cactus Pear. This wine cuts through and somehow compliments the essence of the dish. Tucci remarks with sincerity this simple wine compliments what is essentially a peasant dish far better than his smooth and elegant super Tuscan. Tucci calls the wine rustic and hearty and listens to PP wax about the low budget wine collection he is building. Actually while low budget PP says Wine Spectator gave this wine a 90 rating.
Tucci’s Super Tuscan goes well with the semi soft Italian cheeses PP has served. This Tucci is a charming fellow and looks forward to watching PP’s RAI show. Although plans are still in the basic stage Tucci and CNN are planning a series relating to Greek cuisine highly ignored in the gourmet world perhaps due to its “complex simplicity”. I mention to Tucci I make some awesome stuffed Greek vegetables and invite him and PP over next fall when local vegetables are in full swing. There is no way I am making Greek stuffed vegetables with winter Mexican produce! Tucci accepts! What a night despite my heated discussion with Tucci that his perfect Martini recipe doesn’t fly with me. Stirred Martini’s! I will bruise the hell out of my vodka by shaking it!
(Aglianico del Vulture DOC 2016, Casa Vinicola D’Angelo, Rioncro in Vulture, Italy, $18.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 97189, 750 mL, 13.5%, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 91/100).
A colleague in my pro shop told me when he was acting as a Marshall he met a woman who was a beginner and he helped her out by answering her questions about golf. Then he gets numerous calls for several days from this woman which he did not answer. A student working at the Pro-Shop gave her his number! So much for privacy! He never saw this woman again. Didn’t I tell you golf can be like life! Now what she was stalking is not certain!
A $84.80 Merlot from Niagara. Is somebody on a psychedelic trip or simply trying to hoodwink the public? Merlots from Niagara rarely impress so what makes Two Sisters confident an $84.80 price for a 2015 Merlot is justified. Putting this honestly this must be an awesome wine or a wine that is floating around in a fool’s paradise.
A great Merlot in my opinion should take you back to 1960’s Las Vegas with Sinatra, Dean Martin or Sammy Davis crooning in a smoke-filled room. Silky and sultry?
On the nose this portrays itself as a concentrated and rich wine. Full of decadent black cherry, blackberry and a smooth vanilla overlay. On the palate this will take you back in time to The Sands as you wait for Frank to hit the stage. It is rich. It is lush. It is a heavyweight. On the palate there is a richness that takes you aback somewhat. Really you must be joking? Is this Merlot from Rutherford in California? The fruit is so seamlessly integrated with the oak it is as if it has its own identity incapable of categorization. I can try my best and say cassis, black cherry but this may be a wine that goes beyond simple descriptive terms. The finish is short but decadently delish.
If I was blind testing this I would never ever say this is from Niagara. It makes a mockery of Ontario Merlots and is in a league of its own. I mean I can try and spread the word but for Joe Q Public and even for those who can afford $84.80 a bottle is this sellable? As only 250 cases were produced it is not focusing on mass distribution. I can picture the elite (former wealthy Torontonians) of Niagara-on-the-Lake being able to afford this but what a shame this effort is priced beyond the reach of us poor plebs. But as Christmas is coming dear relatives bring me a bottle for a Prime Rib New Year’s dinner and you and I will be saying where in the hell did this wine come from? Certainly not from Ontario!
Now it helped that the 2015 Vintage in Niagara was warm and dry and 2021 is both hot and extremely dry and should be a very good year for red wines.
(Two Sisters 2015 Merlot, VQA Niagara River, Two Sisters Vineyards, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, $84.80 (available from the winery only), 750 mL, 14%, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 94/100).
I heard this story from my favourite groundskeeper at my golf course who is a thirty-year veteran of groundskeeping including stints at some of the top golf courses in Ontario. We get along very well as I always am trying to learn and understand what he does and he senses my interest in him and his function. According to him the golfers at the snootiest clubs seem to be very entitled pricks who are not expected to replace divots or ball marks on greens. The denizens of industry and you can only imagine how they treat their “low life” employees. According to him the captains of industry are some of the most self entitled and arrogant pricks around.
So he tells me a few years ago at another golf course he was working at a tree branch had been broken and was hanging over a green. The supervisor told a groundskeeper to get a ladder and chainsaw and cut the branch down. Ladders and chainsaws don’t mix and that is a no brainer said my groundskeeper pal. Well the branch was cut off and came tumbling down hitting the bottom half of the ladder sending the poor man hurtling to the ground with the chainsaw still on. He lands on the ground with the chainsaw roaring away inches from his head! Although he was not decapitated the groundskeeper’s supervisor lifts the injured man into a cart further aggravating a serious injury which became the subject to litigation with the golf club losing a $250,000 judgement. Talking about losing your head over golf!
Depending on the amount of shifts you have as a Marshall your personal life schedule is somewhat diminished. I have retired as a lawyer but this is a new job indeed. Now it takes me 7 minutes to get to the golf course for an opening Saturday shift and 15 for a Sunday afternoon shift which is a fraction of time I spent commuting downtown when I worked there. A big plus!
Consider my typical Marshall shifts which are two a week and for me as the newbie I get the shit shifts being Saturday 7-12 and Sunday 12-4. Sunday is the absolute worst with the hackers and drinkers and dope smokers. The weekends are difficult as what energy do you have for socializing on a Saturday night if you are up at the crack of dawn and subject to horrific humidity or bone chilling cold. But it is the July and August shifts that suck the life out of you. You then may be greeted by a spouse who says cheerfully let’s take out the dog for a long walk. Saturday afternoon I fight nodding off and if I am expected to go out for a BBQ afterwards I am toast! Sunday is better as I can sleep in. Then my “free golf “on Friday and Monday at 8 a.m. so as not to take up the entire day as I am home for lunch or a long dog walk. Quite frankly I am in a state of perpetual exhaustion. But I smile and say sure let’s go on a live a normal life but my hours are not normal. I feel like a nighttime shift worker compounded by an elderly dog that barks to go out and pee at 5:15 a.m. What is the use of going back to sleep? My shit shifts screws up my week-end. And this gig is lasting 7 months! I suppose this is the price one must pay to be a Marshall?
Given that I am at the golf course 4 days a week trying to fit in a personal life is difficult and positively prohibitive as for vacation time which in these days of COVID is about nil. My career as a Marshall might be limited to a year and when COVID restrictions lift it may be time to retire!
Reviewing documentary films can be a chore as the topics are not always exactly cheerful and uplifting. Decimation of aboriginal populations, destruction of the environment, drug abuse, discrimination etc.
So when I was offered the chance to review “The Mustangs: America’s Wild Horses” I took a deep breath expecting to see a sad extinction tale. This is not the case with this documentary.
It offers hope and provides evidence that the Mustang in the United States isn’t quite done yet. What may set the Mustang apart is its symbolism of American freedom and fighting spirit that almost all Americans hold dear.
I really tuned in when one of the individuals in the film said that she was of the view, in the past, that it is best to leave these magnificent animals alone. I had the same view initially but the reality is there is only so much land and forage for the Mustangs to survive if they breed uncontrollably. And there are the cattle ranchers that would rather see no Mustangs so their cattle can graze. So what is the answer?
In the past before 1971 when there was no legislation in place protecting the Mustangs they were heading toward extinction being used as fertilizer and dog food. Remember Alpo dog food! In 1971 after a brilliant campaign led by “Wild Horse Annie” and thousands of children legislation was finally passed in the United States to protect the Mustang.
By the late 1960’s there were some 10,000 Mustangs left and today that number is around 80,000 in the wild and 50,000 in government corrals.
The key is controlling their breeding through “darting” which is the shooting of a dart loaded with drugs that prevent conception. This is run by volunteers who only get the darts provided by the federal government. They contribute everything else.
Then there are certain adoption organizations that train Mustangs like “Extreme Mustang Makeovers” then auction them off to the public that appreciate these magnificent animals.
Then there is “Operation Wild Horses” for United States veterans suffering from PTSD. While drugs and talk therapy have often failed there is something that inspires veterans dealing and caring for Mustangs. The horses can pick up when the veterans are having a good or a bad day. Is the healing because Mustangs are outcasts like veterans? Is the healing because the veterans must respect the Mustang so the Mustangs can return that respect?
So the documentary is one of inspiration and hope that Mustangs are resilient, proud and very useful to Americans. They are not out of the woods quite yet but the documentary gives hope that through the grit and determination of many Americans the Mustangs are going to be fine.
A great historical explanation about Mustangs is an essential part of understanding the Mustangs of today and is thoughtfully provided in the documentary.
The film was produced by Robert Redford, Patti Sciafa Springsteen and USA Olympic Equestrian Silver medalist Jessica Springsteen. There are songs by Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Bruce Springsteen and Blanco Brown on the soundtrack.
The film opened up in mid-October in the United States and was seen in October at the Newport Beach Film Festival, the Heartland International Film Festival and the Edmonton International Film Festival.
With so much divisiveness and hostility in American society the Mustangs offer something beyond meanness and nasty politics. They remind you of what America once was and as one veteran says, “Mustangs can look into your soul.”
“The one great principle of English law is to make business for itself. There is no other principle distinctly, certainly, and consistently maintained through all its narrow turnings. Viewed by this light it becomes a coherent scheme and not the monstrous maze the laity are apt to think. Let them but once clearly perceive that its grand principle is to make business for itself at their expense, and surely they will cease to grumble.”
Austrians drink approximately 30 litres of wine per person a year which is twice as much as Canadians drink. More white is produced than red.
As for red wine Zweigelt is a popular red and is a cross between Blaufränkisch and St. Laurent and as stated in Karen MacNeil’s “The Wine Bible” the wine is “reminiscent of California’s Zinfandel; inky, fruity, with a briary edge.”
We try a Zantho Zweigelt Reserve 2017. It has a black cherry colour. On the nose smoky black cherry predominates. On the palate the tannins are fine and thin. The flavour profile is a bit of brackish infused cherry although there is a tad of date and the tiniest amount of cinnamon. The finish is short. Immaculately constructed it comes across as a pure, clean and simple wine. Its simplicity sets it apart from so many red wines one encounters these days. It is simply not making any attempt to be what it isn’t. I am afraid Karen I do not see any Zinfandel comparison. I would call it more of a lean Gamay.
I have not been to the winery and talked with the winemaker nor I have I been invited to Austria to do some extensive tastings so the memory bank may not be as full as I would like it to be for Austrian wines.
It has been some 30 years since I was in Austria so my knowledge of Austrian cuisine is bereft. What I would venture to say the gentle and fine tannic structure means avoid beef or any dish that is too rich. I’ll take the lunge and say go with a well-made vegetarian pizza with artichokes, green olives and Oyster Mushrooms. You can easily treat this as a sipping wine but with those that appreciate a pure and true wine not desperately trying to be a wine everyone likes because it is like the last wine and the wine before that they tried.
You can try and twist my arm and get me to say that this is an elegant wine and given that I am increasingly fed up with wines that taste like each other I am leaning towards a wine that is true to itself and not fouled by excessive winemaker manipulation and calling that wine pure and simple is what this wine deserves. If I could make a comparison to wine and film (which I also review) I would say it is Audrey Hepburn in the 1954 film “Sabrina” which must mean it is elegant.
(Zantho Reserve Zweigelt 2017, Burgenland, Austria, Burgenland, Qualitätswein Trocken, 15784, Andau, Austria, $ 24.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 21141, 750 mL, 13.5%, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 90/100).
Premier Poorassa of Quebec held his press conference and laced into both the MSQ and René Hecklevesque claiming they had been a thorn in the side of Canadian unity and Quebec’s integrity. He accused Hecklevesque of inciting populist riots and asserted the “frog politician” Affliction had referred to in his transcript was none other than Hecklevesque. Many Quebeckers were wavering about support for Hecklevesque. His supporters were desperately trying to manufacture a martyr sort of like a Lady Fatima in the church of Quebec politics.
Hecklevesque’s popularity started its plunge after the kidnappings of James Dentalfloss and Pierre Laflirte and his subsequent murder. He was associated with the bad times haunting Quebec. The province was tired of his criticism and vague solutions to problems. Hecklevesque (aka Jiber) suffered from a total lack of confidence and the rare time he was asked to speak he mumbled and stuttered and looked the fool. When his contacts returned from Washington and advised him that Affliction was on the edge of losing it he started drinking vast quantities of Screech. And when Affliction resigned he knew his dreams of assembling a conquering army of Quebec zombies was now only a dream no longer a plan. Forget ever making a pact with any President of the United States. Could the Soviets help and they were so much like the American in their lust for colonies and profits but as for them ever invading Quebec that was impossible. It simply was time to give up and rip up his brain and liver with another bottle of Screech.
While the Jiber looked like a defeated enemy Squid, Ergot, Montenez, Foonbean and Reseudo were ready to celebrate and party however when desperation strikes desperate measures could be undertaken. The silence of the Canadian government’s silence was disconcerting. At the time of the release of the transcript the Canadian government was in the midst of negotiating an auto pact with the United Sates and any governmental criticism of the United States was a matter of very bad timing. The crusade for a few thousand auto manufacturing jobs took precedence over national unity. The electoral life of a politician was so short why waste it contemplating the long run. Political glory was a now and not a later. There were too many benefits to the politicians and their cronies to selling out Canada.
Jointly in the United Mutations International Herald Reseudo and Squid published the following;
Canada’s Worst Enemy
The federal politicians, bloated by their fat salaries, pension benefits and subsidized meals in the Parliamentary cafeteria, are oblivious to the grim realities of the country. They incessantly harp on the value of national unity and it is quite ironic they focus on the nationalists of Quebec as the great disrupters. Quite frankly the great peril to national unity lies within the federal government and its policy of sellouts to the United States. Quebec is a French speaking province. Why is hashing out a solution so difficult? The federal politicians might learn something if they listened to the Quebec nationalists. Ottawa likes to create an IMAGE of national unity. National unity is impossible however peaceful co-existence is not. The only reason Canada exists is because of historical fears of an expansionist United Sates and the clever salesmanship of railroad tycoons and Canadian politicians. This is a unity based on a fantasy. Canada has had numerous opportunities to rally the country behind it but it failed, just as it did now with the revelations contained in the Affliction tape, to stand up and challenge the Yankees. The silence of the Canadian government to this afront to national unity clarifies whose side they are really on…their own.
In many countries with such an insult staring them in the face they would be rioting and burning down American embassies. This is an impossibility in Canada thanks to federal government fear of the Yankees. One prominent Canadian politician once said living next to the United Sates is like a mouse sleeping beside an elephant.
Quebec politicians really aren’t much better welcoming enormous American investment thinking they were creating a great industrial power base. Well they were correct but they omitted to advise the population who was really controlling this power base. They were the leading auctioneers in the selling of Quebec. Of course the Catholic church helped to keep the population in line by creating a workers syndicate! Imagine the Catholic Church in Quebec fighting for the rights of workers! What happens to Quebec when there is nothing left to sell?
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