“We die containing a richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up as if rivers of wisdom, characters we have climbed into as if trees, fears we have hidden as if in caves. I wish for all of this to be marked on my body whenContinue reading “RKS Literature: Death and Cartography (Michael Ondaatje)”
Tag Archives: Robert K. Stephen
RKS Literature: The Human Element and Burglary (Michael Ondaatje)
“Caravaggio was constantly diverted by the human element during burglaries. Breaking into a house during Christmas, he would become annoyed if he noted the Advent calendar had not been opened up to the date to which it should have been. He often had conversations with the various pets left alone in houses, rhetorically discussing mealsContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Human Element and Burglary (Michael Ondaatje)”
RKS 2025 CANADIAN Film: “Clan of the Painted Lady”: Back to Your Roots
Why do some search to find their “roots” while others don’t give a damn? Director/writer of “Clan of the Painted Lady” Jennifer Chiu, a British Columbian, delves into her Hakka culture and her own family history to determine where it originated and where it is travelling to. Like the Painted Lady butterfly that embarks onContinue reading “RKS 2025 CANADIAN Film: “Clan of the Painted Lady”: Back to Your Roots”
RKS 2025 CANADIAN Film: “Akashi”: Wisdom of the Cuckolds
Kana Yamamoto (Mayuma Yoshida) returns from Vancouver to her Tokyo home, for the first time in a decade, for her grandmother’s funeral. Kana is a struggling artist yet to find success like her late artist grandfather. As well she has yet to find success in love after being “dumped” by her Tokyo boyfriend Hiro (RyoContinue reading “RKS 2025 CANADIAN Film: “Akashi”: Wisdom of the Cuckolds”
RKS 2025 CANADIAN Documentary: “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue”: Horror and Revenge Understandable: Will it Ever End?
October 7, 2023 saw brutal Hamas attacks in Southern Israel at the Nova Music Festival where 378 people were murdered and 7 communities including the Nahal Oz Kibbutz where 60 civilians and IDF soldiers were killed. Close to 1,200 Israeli’s died in these attacks. Israeli retribution attacks have resulted in some 69,000 deaths in Gaza,Continue reading “RKS 2025 CANADIAN Documentary: “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue”: Horror and Revenge Understandable: Will it Ever End?”
RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine: Isle of View from Lake Erie North Shore’s CREW
Colchester Ridge Estate Winery, perhaps better known as CREW, crafts a decent Riesling but what about its sparkling version? The label for Isle of View is hardly inspiring but we are always more interested in the contents of a bottle more than its label. A fine seam of bubbles is promising. Aroma: Citrus rules theContinue reading “RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine: Isle of View from Lake Erie North Shore’s CREW”
RKS Literature: Unbalanced by War (Michael Ondaatje)
“Caravaggio sits there in silence, thoughts lost among the floating notes. War has unbalanced him and he can return to no other world as he is, wearing these false limbs that morphine promises. He is a man of middle age who has never become accustomed to families. All his life he has avoided permanent intimacy.Continue reading “RKS Literature: Unbalanced by War (Michael Ondaatje)”
RKS 2025 CANADIAN Documentary: Three Legends: Bateman, Bristol and a Land Rover “Grizzly Torque”
The documentary is both an adventure and biography of legendary Canadian wildlife artist Robert Bateman and Bristol Foster photographer, cinematographer and environmental activist and of course their Land Rover “Grizzly Torque” (GT) that between May 1957 and November 1958 transported them on a 50,000-mile adventure travelling through 19 countries including Ghana, Congo, Uganda, Keyna, India,Continue reading “RKS 2025 CANADIAN Documentary: Three Legends: Bateman, Bristol and a Land Rover “Grizzly Torque””
RKS 2025 Wine: Moving Beyond the Tyranny of Argentinian Malbec: Bonarda!
The El Enemigo 2021 El Barranco Single Vineyard Bonarda is 85% Bonarda and 15% Cabernet Franc aged for 15 months in old French foudres. Aroma: Huge black and red fruit particularly blueberry and blackberry complimented by blueberry pie and a smidge of dark chocolate. Palate: With such mega fruit is the wine jammy? No spinContinue reading “RKS 2025 Wine: Moving Beyond the Tyranny of Argentinian Malbec: Bonarda!”
RKS CANADIAN Literature: What a Love Story is Not About (Michael Ondaatje)
“A love story is not about those who lose their heart but about those who, when it is stumbled upon, means the body can fool no one, can fool nothing-not the wisdom of sleep or the habit of social graces. It is a consuming of oneself and the past.” Michael Ondaatje, “The English Patient”, 1969.
