A Bird's Eye View of Fashion, Food, Travel, Culture, Beverage and Curiosity

RKS 2025 Wine: More Token Romanians

A few Romanian wines have limped into Ontario of late. Should the Trump administration impose 25% tariffs on all Canadian goods flowing into the United States the Premier of Ontario has threatened to have the state liquor monopoly (Liquor Control Board of Ontario aka LCBO) refrain from selling United States wine in the province of Ontario. What will replace the over representation of California wines on LCBO shelves and warehouses? Romanian, Bulgarian, Slovenian and British Columbian wine will happily take their place and of course Ontario wines. What is good for the goose may be better for a whole bunch of ganders.

We try a Nomad Pinot Noir from the Dealu Mare appellation in Romania.

Aroma: The nose is greeted by a slight funk which often passes under the name “barnyardy” or “earthy”. These distracting fumes partially lift after aeration. A combination of red and black cherry with some minimalistic raspberry.

Palate: Husky rough and raw and golly is this really Pinot Noir? There is no mistaking this is wine but any resemblance, and there is not much, to Pinot Noir must be in the mind of its producers and some poor LCBO buyer.

Personality: This reviewer is humiliating me. A huge liquor monopoly bought many cases of me. Surely they have good taste and judgement? Or are they embarrassed and blushing up a storm caused by this wine?

Food Match: The LCBO suggests “try it with Moroccan-style foods or a simple meat lasagna”. I presume they mean you use it to cook these dishes but do not consume with the dishes.

Cellarbility: Not worth it.

Price: $13.

RKS 2025 Wine Rating: 59/100.

(Aurelia Visinescu Nomad 2022 Pinot Noir, DOC Dealu Mare, Romania, 750 mL, 13%).

The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version): Chapter 31: My One on One with Don Lupara (the Fat Fox): Invited to Join the “Family”

I knew Don Lupara wanted a private conversation with me. Hopefully it was not to slit my throat! After dinner one night at the “family compound” Don Lupara “invited” me for a chat, just him and me! We had yet another coffee and grappa. Boy those Italians drink coffee like water and just as fast!

Don Lupara got right to the point saying he had wanted to kill me after I “violated” his little “Sugar Cube” namely Ginevra his daughter. Yes sir that made me feel mighty comfortable. But it was clear to him Ginerva was mad about me and for that I would be spared a swim with the fishes.

He then told me about himself most of which Ginevra had already related to me. At a young age he was smuggling cigarettes making contraband runs around the Bay of Naples. As a young teen he was useful to the Camorra as authorities rarely pressed charges against minors. He moved on to starting his “new business” of importing and distributing hashish and cannabis. Then he dropped a bomb saying essentially, we were of the “same blood”? Don Lupara knew my father Paneer Gurdeep as he imported from him super premium hashish the Neapolitans loved. His rivals peddled inferior Moroccan hashish they sold at the identical price and subsequently lost almost all the hashish market. Did Lupara think I was a drug exporter? I made it clear I was not a narcotics exporter and treading on fragile ground I said narcotic importing and distribution were “honourable professions”. This pleased Lupara immensely. Why I said that as in my mind it was cowardly “self preservation” and a portent of fidelity to his little “Sugar Cube” and my sweet Italian plum.

Lupara asked me to join the “family”. Was this an offer I couldn’t refuse? Don Lupara had graduated from moving soft drugs such as hashish and cannabis to cocaine and heroin as the latter were easier to transport and conceal. If I was to join the family what would my role be? I am above all a businessman and not a killer nor a boiled sweets salesman.

Lupara “invited me” on a tour of his operations warning me if I ever double crossed him or his daughter. He would “dispose” of the problem that problem being me! With his track record of murder and assassination and remembering the goat head delivered to me in New York Don Lupara was not to be taken lightly.

The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 30: Meeting Don Lupara in Naples: Better Toasted than Being Toast!

Ginevra and I flew to Naples via Frankfurt in mid November. Naples was almost warm when we arrived at 11 a.m. We were met by two burly men in the arrivals area. And wouldn’t you know one of the men was that heavily tattooed man with a scar on his face and Iroquois haircut that had been watching us in New York. We were whisked way in a huge black Mercedes. There was a car behind ours and another one in front. Our driver had a pistol lying on this front seat. What did I get myself into! Not much to see on the drive but Mount Vesuvius in the distance was impressive if not a bit chilling considering its deadly history.

We pulled into the family compound and six heavily armed men stood in front with their hands folded This is the business model for a cocaine king? Don Lupara gave an enormous hug to Ginerva and to me a handshake accompanied by glowering eyes. Like it was I am gonna kill you for violating my daughter you swine was the stare I endured.

Her mother Malvagia was far more welcoming and effusive. She gave a look to her daughter as if she was expecting some momentous news.

What a mansion but the furniture was exceedingly gaudy. Leopard patterned furniture and television sets hanging on the wall encased in gaudy golden frames. Camorra decorative brilliance?

Expensive but gaudy Naples high fashion sofa?

After a nap, in separate rooms, we headed down to a “small family dinner” of 30 or so relatives. I can’t recall who all these people were but Ginevra seemed to know them all calling them “aunt” and “uncle”. They were a jovial bunch and many wanted to know me better. What a feast although served in very ornate vessels. The wine glasses had bands of gold around them. The food was delicious entirely seafood. A huge welcome home cake.

After cake and coffee with a few grappas Ginevra and I let it fly. We announced our engagement. There was stunned silence and the relatives all focused on Daddy who suddenly flashed a huge smile and ordered champagne be opened for a celebratory toast. I had the feeling of relief sweep over me. I would rather be saluted by a Don Lupara toast than be toast. The relatives thundered cheers and applause. Could Don Lupara (aka The Fat Fox) be a decent fellow?

RKS 2025 Documentary Film: “Mediha”: ISIL’s Genocidal DNA

ISIL is a genocidal force bent on the annihilation of “non- believers”. There is no middle ground for fanatics. They can’t destroy all non-believers so they pick away here and there whether that be New Orleans, Paris, Moscow and many other urban centres with easy civilian targets.

On 3August2014 ISIL commenced its attack on the Yazidi people of Sinjar in northwestern Iraq close to the Syrian border.

The United Nation’s Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic: ISIS Crimes Against the Yazidis has documented how ISIL committed genocide as well as multiple crimes against humanity and war crimes through mass executions, forced religious conversion to Islam and widespread sexual violence against women and girls. Following the Sinjar attack ISIL forcibly transferred thousands of captured Yazidis into Syria where girls as young as 9 were subject to sexual slavery and Yazidi boys as young as 7 were forcibly trained for combat roles and suicide missions.

In 2019 when ISIL lost its territorial hold in Syria thousands of people mostly women and young children were presumed to be family members of ISIL fighters many of which were Yazidi mothers and their children some the result of ISIL rapes were detained in internment camps including Al Hawl and Rawj in northeast Syria forced to live amongst their abductors and kidnappers. Commissioner Lynn Welchman has said, “The international community should be supporting their recovery and well being and pursuit of justice, not perpetuating the atrocities they have survived.”

I have given you a bit of background so you may more fully understand the documentary “Mediha” which is largely the story of teenager Mediha who was abducted at 10 from her quiet Sinjar home and sold as a slave numerous times. ISIL had a physical and internet-based slave trade selling many young girls to the “brave” ISIL fighters who are not only terrorists but pedophiles.

Living in a refugee camp in Iraq with her handheld camera Mediha weaves a horrific recounting of her abduction and very little about the details of her slavery because it is too painful to recall. Her mother, father and 3 brothers were also abducted and she assumes her father was executed like so many Yazidi men.

It was her uncle that rescued Mediha and professional rescuers search for her missing brother and mother including a visit to the Al Hawl internment camp where hostility and the burka rule.

Mediha agrees to appear before Commission representatives in an attempt to identify her abductor who sold her for $500 USD equivalent.

A compelling watch and deep dive into to genocidal bent of ISIL and its disregard and overwhelming hatred of non-believers. Whilst Mediha escaped she is riddled with PTSD triggered by planes flying overhead and calls to prayer. In one scene Mediha is in agony listening to the call to prayers.

Chilling, disgusting, vile, revolting and barbaric yet a testament to the power of a camera and of the human spirit.

You can watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8bvCpQNL_g

The director of this American documentary is Hasan Oswald.

RKS 2025 Documentary Film Rating 95/100.

The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 29: All Shook Up! The Fat Fox aka Don Lupara Backs Down

I mean how would you feel receiving a severed goat’s head via Fedex! Ginevra and I were all shook up. Ginerva requested we not talk about it until our Saturday “Discover New York Day”. She had a few calls to make and set somebody straight. And when Ginerva is mad, as I saw with her knife fight with the Puerto Ricans in Harlem, you don’t want to mess with my little plum who is transformed into a tigress!

Well Saturday came and I met Ginerva at our usual bench at the Central Park lagoon on a sweltering hot day. I stopped in at Whole Foods at Columbus Circle and picked up some organic pear juice and two carrot muffins for our breakfast prior to meeting up with her.

Lupara Cattivo enjoying his grappa and grey mullet roe

Ginerva told me a bit about her Daddy, Lupara Cattivo, with a warning that if I ever repeated to anyone what she was about to say she could not guarantee my safety. Daddy was a huge cocaine and heroin importer and “distributor” shipping in hundreds of kilos of cocaine from El Salvador and heroin from Afghanistan for distribution in the Scampia district of Naples. Daddy controlled the retail network operating like a fine-tuned machine. He had so many people working for him (267) they were referred to as the Cattivo Family and he was the don (boss) of that family. His nickname was the Fat Fox. In addition to his illegal activities he owned real estate, restaurants and a cheese factory selling to all the restaurants in Scampia and in Sorrento. Synthetic mozzarella was a big seller! Of course, in addition to restaurants in Scampia and Sorrento paying protection money to the Fat Fox they were “persuaded” to buy all their cheeses from the Fat Fox. Don Lupara was not fat but the enormous amount of money he generated made his pockets “fat”. And he required a constant flow of money to pay his “family members” and their funeral costs. Family members rarely lived a full life. Ginerva recounted the “wars” between rival families that Don Lupara survived unlike many other Naples family bosses.

Ginerva let Daddy have it between the eyes threatening never to talk to him again and should she have children that he would never see them. After all she was a grown woman and Daddy must not interfere with her life. After awhile she had Daddy whimpering on the phone like a naughty puppy she told him she and I were engaged! When did that happen? I could have blown up and walked back to Fifth Avenue and out of her life but I liked the idea. Oh those piercing green eyes set in that beautiful face had me saying yes when she asked if that was OK before slipping a ring on my finger.

There was a visit required to Naples, introduce myself and then I had to ask the Fat Fox for his daughter’s hand in marriage. God help me!

RKS 2025 Film: “Vermiglio”: Idyllic Decomposition

Pietro (Giuseppe De Domenico) a Sicilian deserter from the Italian Army assists a local fellow deserter, Attillo, to return to the latter’s mountainous home village Vermiglio.

It is 1944 and the Second World War is drawing to a close. Vermiglio appears untouched by the war with an occasional plane flying overhead being the only tangible evidence of a war. Initially there is a veneer of the simple and austere set to the beautiful topography.

Being a southern Italian, the alpine villagers nonetheless accept him due to his “rescue” of Attilo a fellow soldier and villager. Many of the villagers had family fighting in the war and most quickly understand the debilitating effect war can have on soldiers which we today call post traumatic stress disorder. The village children note how war has affected Attillo.

Cinematography beautifully captures the four seasons a viewer experiences with the film. Even though the movie starts with winter there is immediate warmth on the screen almost portrayed as a paradise.

Cesare (Tomasso Ragno) the village schoolteacher is a brusque character with a large family including a deeply religious daughter Ada (Rachele Potrich), a somewhat romantic Lucia (Martina Scrinzi) and the academic achiever Flavia (Anna Thaler).

A romance blossoms between Lucia and Pietro and a joyous springtime wedding is beautifully captured on screen with majestic mountains serving as a scenic backdrop for the wedding celebrations.

The war ends and Pietro leaves behind pregnant Lucia to return to Sicily “to let his mother know he is still alive”. Pietro had promised to write Lucia but no letters come. Pietro, gentle and kind you think and you may be correct. But as a cad times two he will never return to Vermiglio causing a bad psychological slide to a mental collapse by Lucia.

Paradise and the traditional way of life in village are altered by the development of a new postwar Italy. Cesare’s son Dino (Patrick Gardner) becomes surly and defiant with Cesare. His wife criticizes him about this coldness and record buying passion which Cesare considers as food for “his soul” but to his wife it deprives the family of food on the table. Ada is dashed with no educational advancement possible because of the family’s limited financial resources. Lucia is heartbroken and mentally crushed to the extent she sleeps with the cows in the barn and begins to stink like them. Family life has hit the skids. Paradise, as flimsy as it might have been has been destroyed. A family in decline symbolic of a nation in transition?

Throughout good and bad times there is a deep on-screen sense of naturalism and honesty. Of note are the conversations amongst the children usually when they are in their shared beds. A child’s view of circumstances subsisting with an adult view of those same circumstances adds different perspectives to “reality”.

Can we sum up and say the film is the compelling story of a family in an Italian mountain village initially cocooned in a web of dignity, pride but not without its small-town gossip, paternalism, scandal, infant mortality, poverty and sexism. Circumstances rip this façade to shreds and the veneer of the idyllic rapidly fades.

Watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=701RfY55ppQ

Directed and written by Maura Delpero.

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2024 Venice Film Festival.

Opens 3January2025 in Canadian theatres.

RKS 2025 Film Rating 93/100.

RKS 2025 Film: “Young Werther”: A Canadian Reverse Romcom Classic

Werther (Douglas Booth) a prepped out overconfident and shallow young man from the ritzy Anglo Montreal suburb of Westmount arrives in Toronto with geeky germaphobe buddy Paul (Jaouhar Ben Ayed) on a family errand. Once completed Werther will journey to Europe “to write his memoirs” but being so young what memoirs could this pompous ass have other than expounding on his self importance and fantasies.

While enjoying a gelato at the coolest (of course) new gelateria in Toronto he encounters Charlotte Buff (Alison Pill) and her younger sister Sissy (Iris Apatow). Full of bluster and self adoration he believes Charlotte is the love of his life. That evening he is invited to a birthday get together for Charlotte at a hotel and they hit it off spectacularly but poor infatuated Werther is told by Charlotte she is engaged to big law firm rising star Albert (Patrick J. Adams).

Charlotte, coping with the loss of her mother, assumed motherly duties for years with scant time to enjoy her life and Werther having no duties other than self satisfaction offers Charlotte a glimpse of the exciting life she never experienced. Albert is tangled up in his law practice ignoring, or taking for granted Charlotte and cunning Werther exploits that weakness.

Romance blossoms and it is looking like a traditional uninspiring romcom until Charlotte decides to take the straight and narrow, reject Werther and focus on her relationship with Albert. Albert and Charlotte wed. Post Carlotte wedding attending a law society gala Werther admits to Albert he loves Charlotte causing her to blast Werther to pieces full of vitriol and hatred labelling him juvenile and pretentious and suggests he return to Montreal where he can stroke his ego.

But wait! Werther visits Albert and Charlotte’s country home to apologize for his ill-timed romantic pronouncement and Charlotte, a bit saddened and vodka woozy laments Albert’s indifference and holding Werther’s hand glides off to the bedroom. The romcom is in full motion.

Wait again, the traditional romcom is shattered by Albert’s shotgun.

Apologies to Werther are in order here. He is more than a self-absorbed cad. The finale bolsters the creation of a classic Canadian reverse romcom. What a stratospheric finish as the credits roll watching the Crazy Dancer gyrate to Whilemine’s “ich gehör wieder mir”. Watch her video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq07an5DH8M . What guts to go with a German hit song. Bravo!

Douglas Booth is particularly well cast for his role.

You can watch a clip of the film here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/163JxofQd2A4tC8_4JrIN6S134c-P9NZQ

Directed by José Avelino Gilles Corbet Lourenço.

Theatrical release 10January2025.

RKS 2025 Film Rating 87/100.

RKS Literature: The Chinese as Inveterate Gamblers

“Over the centuries Chinese peasants have never had any control over the circumstances of their lives. Often acts of God, but more commonly acts of man, have completely disrupted any attempt to lead a rational and normal existence. Hard work seldom reaps its just rewards or even put sufficient rice into the family bowl to prevent them from starving. Luck is everything. The throw of the dice or the spinning of the wheel is a better bet in the peasant’s mind than a well contoured rice paddy and a reliable ox. It is for this reason that the Chinese are inveterate gamblers. It is not that they believe the odds will favour them, but that the odds against them are already insurmountable.”

Bryce Courtenay, “Brother Fish”, 2004

The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 28: Goat’s Head Special Delivery from Don Lupara?

Ginevra and I had earmarked Saturdays for an exploration of New York City. So many sites to see.

My favourite was Central Park an oasis from the urban frantic New York. No matter the mood or weather we had frequent walks there. I liked the lagoon with its ducks and benches to observe the world float by. Frequently I popped into Whole Foods at Columbus Circle and pick up lunch or breakfast from their huge deli section. New Yorkers were obsessed with eating out so Whole Foods deli was for many New Yorkers a “home cooked meal”.

Ginerva’s favourite was The Met Cloisters at the tip of Manhattan. It was always quiet and although the installations were in my opinion somewhat boring the calmness and serenity was so anti-New York. I discovered something fascinating about Ginevra on one of our trips to The Cloisters. We took the bus up through Harlem to get there and the bus broke down and we were thrust out in the street awaiting a replacement bus. Four Puerto Rican hoodlums approached us making jokes about Ginerva’s ass and one of them tried to pinch it. My little plum took out a stiletto knife and slashed the buttons off the aggressor’s leather jacket. They took their knives out and in thirty seconds they were on the pavement bleeding. My little plum! My sweet little plum! She bellowed in what she later told me was in Neapolitan dialect, “Want more sons of a whore. Come and meet your end!” Those scratched up hoods ran off in terror. What a tough bird my little plum was although she was shaking like a leaf. I asked her about her knife wielding talents and she told me Daddy had taught her how to knife fight! In Naples he had said a girl is not safe with men unless she knew how to cut. My my. It was time to meet Don Lupara.

After our visit to The Cloisters we headed to a safer part of Harlem to one of our favourite restaurants “The Red Rooster” where we split a Charleston Boil and some shrimp grits. Ginerva had to calm herself down with two Tito’s Vodka martinis. She loved her martinis.

Speaking of love she insisted we return to my pad at the Dakota. She looked me in the eyes when we arrived and attacked me like a savage animal. Too many months of good behaviour she said. It was a pleasurable attack but damn Wuhan Wet Market Publishing. I am not going to soil my reputation and that of my little plum by giving any salacious details. In the morning exhausted by our “cavorting” and numbed out and a bit shy about our amorous explosion she left back to her place to finish some research.

Within 24 hours I received a special delivery package and upon opening, I could do nothing but scream and then vomit. There was a severed goat’s head and a message, “The next time you fool with Ginerva it will be your head and balls in this package.” I had the feeling it was time to talk with Daddy or get the hell out of New York and return Bombay!

How did anyone know of our romantic liaison. That man with the scar on his face with the Iroquois haircut? No. Professional debuggers from the United Mutations discovered my unit had been bugged!!!!!

The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version) :Chapter 27: Getting to Know My Sweet Italian Plum: Are Matters Getting Serious? Yoko Ono and Ginerva Hit it Off

My assignment with the United Mutations in New York had concluded but I received a call from Squid asking if I was wiling to address world leaders at a United Nation’s General Assembly meeting to determine if the United Mutations should be granted observer status at the United Nations. You can imagine the preparation that this involved! So aside from getting to know Ginerva I had my hands full. I did manage to meet her after her classes at Columbia where in true fashion she’d down an espresso in three seconds and we chatted about many things except her family which she said we would discuss later “when appropriate”. Every now and then I noticed a heavily tattooed man with an Iroquois haircut and a big scar on his face watching us. It wasn’t an isolated incident. Ginerva brushed it all off saying it was just a fellow student. Hmmmmm. I managed to sneak in a few hugs and smooches which I felt Ginerva was willing to further but always that sense of reluctance on her part like she was surveying her surroundings before succumbing to our romantic antics. She just kept saying all in good time.

Who is this man with the Iroquois and why has he been watching Ginevra and me?

For an independent opinion and sanity check I invited Yoko and John Lennon to tea at my Dakota unit needing John to assess Ginerva. I didn’t require his approval but rather his assessment. So Yoko and John joined us for tea. John loved loose leaf tea that I made. He always used damn tea bags lacking confidence to make loose leaf tea! A man who had conquered the music world afraid to make loose leaf tea! But a man suffering from panic attacks perhaps has a proclivity for many fears. He was deathly afraid of eating sushi fearing someone may have substituted albacore with blowfish. Ginerva wore her vintage leopard dress which wowed Yoko who as I knew had a passion for Vintage clothing. Ginerva and Yoko were deeply engrossed in conversation ignoring John and me. After the last cucumber sandwich and last drop was drained from the samovar John and Yoko departed with Yoko inviting Ginerva (and not me) to a charitable event for the New Yorker Society of Panic Attacks. John had cornered me just before he and Yoko departed and gave Ginerva the thumbs up.

That was a relief. I had to gear up the courtship with Ginerva.