The fight for
It’s called survival
Apologize
Prostitute mind and body for THEM
And you just might make the suburbs and that second car
I hope you like kissing asses
And if you don’t kick em in and rot
With the rats
Robert K. Stephen
Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom: “RORY ADMITS TO SLEEPING AROUND AND IS PROUD OF IT”
RORY ADMITS TO SLEEPING AROUND AND IS PROUD OF IT
I have been sleeping around and I’m proud of it!
It can’t be a macho thing as some of you may be snickering about as you may recall I lost my “manhood” one month ago. Some of you should be ashamed of yourself with your “mind in the gutter” insinuations.
When I say I am sleeping around I am napping increasingly out of my crate. I love conking out on a towel by the sliding door where I can keep a sleepy eye on the squirrels and on the sofa in the basement listening to jazz. Dylan the Westie’s favourite napping spot was the sofa so I feel somewhat honoured snoozing there. All said and done my enforced naps are on the wane and symbolically perhaps my puppyhood.
“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: “ARE THERE ANY DOGS IN FILM I ADMIRE, PERHAPS EVEN MYSELF!”
ARE THERE ANY DOGS IN FILM I ADMIRE, PERHAPS EVEN MYSELF!
There can be no doubt Bob’s classic novel “Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog” adapted into two Walt Disney films of the same name is at the pinnacle of canine film perfection. I mean the film is a favorite of children and their parents throughout the world. Reggie and Dylan the Westie were best friends and their exploits are legendary. And who can forget Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog and Dylan the Westie with Nicole Kidman in “A Dog Who Saved My Life” especially the scene where Dylan and Reggie fight off a croc in the Northern Territories..a canine golden cinema treasure!
Forget “The Littlest Hobo” and “Rin Tin Tin” with those German Sheps. After Dylan and Bob were attacked by Layla the vicious neighbourhood Shep I hate those creatures! Puppy prejudice.
Lassie films are OK with me as after all she’s a Scot just like the origins of West Highland Terriers.
And Uggi the Jack Russell Terrier in “The Artist”. Not having any bias, I say Terriers RULE!!!
Oh……not sure if I should mention this but the heck with NDA’s. Bob is currently in Burbank at Disney Studios discussing another animated feature involving a certain West Highland Terrier puppy. I wonder who that puppy might be!!!
RKS Poetry Anthology (All We Get Are The Coffee Grinds): “statistics”
statistics
Tangled in the jagged streel
They lie on the highway pavement
And a cold winter air wafts the steamy mess
Further on down the road
Where a crowd stands gawking
Pondering how to exaggerate the gristle and guts before them so a to create
Interesting dinner conversation
Robert K. Stephen
RKS 2026 EURO Film: “The Forbidden City”: A Sino Italian Spaghetti Kung Fu Roman Holiday?
A brilliant approach in Gabriele Mainetti’s martial arts film “The Forbidden City” filmed in Rome. One lead character Marcello (Enrico Borello) speaks in Italian and co-lead Mei (Yaxi Liu) speaks Mandarin. Their limited inter-personal dialogue is through a Google translation app on Mei’s phone. The dual language technique opens possibilities of commercial success in both the Chinese and Italian markets and adds authenticity to the film.
At a budget of close to 17,000,000 Euros one can surmise the producers of the film had hopes for a dual market success and they should obtain that with a superbly shot film in Rome. Not quite as puerile as the Film “Roman Holiday” with Peck and Hepburn but wonderful, if not too brief, views of Rome.
Pardon my audacity but could this be a spaghetti martial arts film? The bad guys a la Clint Eastwood nouveau Western are extremely bad just the deserving Kung Fu fodder for Mei. The usual 50 bad guys to 1 righteous Kung Fu’er Mei. If there are memorable martial arts scenes to be recorded in history, it would be the kitchen fight at the film’s beginning with hot noodles flying in air, faces pressed on hot grills and bad guys slipping through pools of hot oil on the floor.
I am uncertain what benefit you will derive from a detailed explanation of the plot other than comforting yourself with the simplicity of good versus evil.
But beyond the pugilistic expect coverage of certain issues and emotions such as:
- Human trafficking
- Abuse and exploitation of undocumented workers
- Racism
- Murder
- Betrayal
- Romance
- Suicide
- Poetic justice
- Cruelty of China’s 1979-2015 One Child Policy
- Revenge
- Sino-Italian Fusion cuisine!
You can teeter back and forth on the too much plot-too little martial arts see-saw but that is a fine balancing act.
You may watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E02CbJ9dCQY&t=3s
Runtime is 139 minutes with English subtitles.
Digital release 17March2026 and DVD/Blu-Ray & 4K 21April2026.
RKS 2026 EURO Film Rating: 86/100.
RKS Literature: Sleeping with a Cannibal (Herman Melville)
“Ye gettee in’ he added, motioning to me with his tomahawk, and throwing the clothes to one side. He really did this in not only a civil but a really kind and charitable way. I stood looking at him a moment. For all his tattooing he was on the whole a clean, comely looking cannibal. What’s all this fuss I have been making about, thought I to myself-the man’s a human being just as I am: he has just as much reason to fear me, as I have to be afraid of him. Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.
Herman Melville, “Moby Dick”, 1851.
PORTHEAD ALERT: Fonseca Terra Firma Organic Reserve Ruby Port: And You Thought You Broke the Bank?
Aroma: ATTACK OF THE BLACKBERRIES! No this is not the latest science fiction movie to be made in Portugal’s Douro region but rather a down-to-earth Ruby Port. There are plenty of blueberries, hot chocolate sauce and cooked dates.
Palate: Smooth. Creamy. Unctuous. Blueberry pie. Cherry clafouti. With red table wine great attention is paid to tannins and acidity but with Port they are seamlessly intertwined as this Port serves as a fine example of.
Personality: Ruby Port is somewhere down on the Port quality scale they say. Could have fooled me!
Cellarbility: Can’t see much improvement in the bottle. Drink by end of 2027.
Food Match: Black Forest cake.
Music Match: Ruby Tuesday (Rolling Stones).
Price: $25 CDN.
RKS PORTHEAD ALERT RATING: 93/100. Wine Spectator 90.
(Fonseca Terra Lima Organic Reserve Ruby Port, Fonseca Guimaraes. V.N. Gaia, Portugal 750 mL. 19.5%).
Comments from the Peanut Gallery: And you thought when you tasted this you’ll have to break the bank. Absolutely not. Port is an affordable luxury!
RKS Poetry Anthology (All We Get Are The Coffee Grinds): “Mama Bravo Strikes Again”
Mama Bravo Strikes Again
(You know that lady on the can of tomatoes)
Laughing gaily they take their seats
Out of the hostile freeze into the cheap wine and sun of Spain
Spanair #612 hurtles down the runway eager passengers await free bar service
But!
LURCH CRACKLE SNAP AND POP
Like Steel Rice Krispies
No time for a scream
What’s left of the bodies
Lies steaming on the runway
And looks like stewed tomatoes dropped from the Empire State Building
On a cold winter day
Robert K. Stephen
RKS Literature: No Reason for a Sailor to Sleep in a Bed for Two (Herman Melville)
“No man prefers to sleep two in a bed, In fact, you would a good deal rather not sleep with your own brother. I don’t know how it is, but people like to be private when they are sleeping. And when it comes to sleeping with an unknown stranger, in a strange inn, in a strange town, and that stranger a harpooner, then your objections indefinitely multiply. Nor was there any earthly reason why I as a sailor should sleep two in a bed, more than anybody else; for sailors no more sleep two in a bed at sea than bachelor Kings do ashore.
Herman Melville, “Moby Dick”, 1851.
RKS Literature: “Tooth Money Thievery” (William S. Burroughs)
“She was constantly saving money to have teeth out, but somehow she always spent the money on something else. Either she got drunk on it, or she gave it to someone in a in irrational fit of generosity. She was a mark for every con artist in Tangier because she was known to have money she was always saving to have her teeth out. But putting the touch on her was not without danger. She would suddenly turn vicious and maul some mooch with all the strength of her Junoesque limbs shouting,’ You lousy bastard! Trying to con me out of my teeth money.’
William S. Burroughs, “Lee and the Boys”, 1989.
