Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. As you may have discerned, everyone is most upset about Edison’s kidnapping. Luckily, he was wearing a collar with a tracker. Our attack on the villain threw the beast off and Charlotte the Chow was able to watch their movements with an app on her phone.

 At first the van headed out of the neighborhood towards the 7-11. Perhaps the rogue was thirsty and in need of a Slurpee. They hardly seemed like the type to opt for the finer things in life. After that the van appeared to return to the neighborhood and parked. Charlotte the chow was quite delighted as she knew exactly where the location was.

“We need to hurry,” she said. “We might be able to rescue Demeter and Madeline as well.”

And so, Bruiser the Jack Russell, Ruffles the bulldog, the twin dachshunds Tyler and Titus and I all followed Charlotte down the trail that led to the short wooden bridge over the creek and out to the sidewalk on the other side of the park. But as we were heading towards the street that led out to the main arterial, the signal on Charlotte’s device vanished.

“It’s gone!” Charlotte barked. We all crowded around to look, and the signal had indeed disappeared.

“That scamp!” I barked. “He found the tracker.”

“What do we do?” Ruffles arffed. “What do we do?”

Tyler and Titus, tongues hanging out, looked at each other.

“Do you know approximately where the signal came from, Charlotte?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said. “I suppose we could still go there and see if there’s any clues.”

Our merry band of canines headed out to the long straight road that meets one of the main arterials. When we got there it was nothing but an empty street aglow with streetlights. We walked up one side of the street and down the other but could find no sign of our dear Edison.

“There must be something,” Charlotte said. “Some sort of sign or clue or…oh, dear.” At this point, she lifted her head and howled.

“There, There,” Ruffles said giving her a lick on the face. “There, there.”

Suddenly, Tyler and Titus ran over towards something and started licking the ground.

“Good heavens, what on earth are you doing?” I barked. The three of us hurried over to find a splash of what must have been a large splash of Cherry Slurpee. Lying beside the discarded beverage was a receipt. “Could it be?” I asked.

We all looked at each other…or rather Charlotte, Ruffles and I looked at each other. The twins were still lapping up the spilled Slurpee. But the rest of us thought maybe, just maybe. Ruffles picked up the receipt in his teeth and carefully slipped it under my collar.

“Come on,” Charlotte said. “Let’s go find out.”

Until next week, I bid you adieu.  

MY BOOKS

You can check out my books Chicane and all five installments of the Musicology book series Musicology: Volume One, Baby!, Musicology: Volume Two, Kid!, Musicology: Volume Three, Twist!, Musicology: Volume Four, Sweetie! and Musicology: The Epiquad on Amazon in Kindle and Paperback editions. You can also check out Musicology’s web site at www.musicologyrocks.com and vote for who you think will win Musicology!

STREAM OF THE WEEK: ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (2025)-HBO MAX

If you look at Paul Thomas Anderson’s cannon of films, it is more than a little impressive. His first full length film, Hard Eight, is amongst my most favorite independent films. He followed this up with Boogie Nights, Magnolia,Punch Drunk Love, and There Will Be Blood. That right there is incredible. And what you will notice in all these films is not only is Mr. Anderson a very good writer and director, but he can also get amazing performances out of just about any actor he puts in front of his camera. And he gets them Oscar nominations. Burt Reynolds, Tom Cruise, and the win for Daniel Day Lewis for example. The real shock for me was when I saw at the time one of my least favorite actors Adam Sandler, give a fantastic performance. From that point forwards, he was no longer one of my least favorite actors and he went on to do a lot of good work. Paul Thomas Anderson can change an actor’s career for the better. The saddest part of this is he couldn’t make more films with Philip Seymour Hoffman, whom he used in four of those five films. The two only made one more movie together after that.  

Anderson then went on to do The Master, Phantom Thread, Licorice Pizza (which stars Alana Haim (who has a small part in One Battle After Another and Hoffman’s son Cooper both whom I hope to see in more movies)amongst others and now One Battle After Another. His most recent effort is loosely based on a Thomas Pynchon book called Vineland and at the time of the book’s release it was polarizing to both critics and readers. Anderson’s film is also polarizing though much less so for the critics who rave about it and more so for the audience. Some viewers love it and some hate it. Pynchon’s books are not easy to read as it is and so when a movie like this one is in the limelight, moviegoers who are used to watching superhero films and are incapable of having a long attention span may not do well with such material.

That said I have not seen all the movies this year, but I would not be surprised if this is the best of the bunch. Hollywood is not making good films at all and is more interested in producing vapid video games and parading them out as cinema…which they are not. One Battle After Another is a very good film and has one of the best and most intense car-chases I’ve ever seen. It is well written and well directed and is easily one of Anderson’s best films to date. It is also well-acted especially by Sean Penn. Sean Penn, though a fine actor, is not one of my favorite performers, though he is superb in the film 21 Grams. But here he not only gives what should be an Oscar-winning performance but is also a landmark iconic performance as well. I was stunned, absolutely stunned he didn’t receive the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor. He absolutely hands down should have. And he should sweep all the award shows with this outstanding work as should Anderson for his adapted screenplay and fantastic direction.

The story starts out in the past where a group of idealistic far-left revolutionaries called the French 75 decide to break into the Otay Mesa Detention Center and release detained immigrants. Amongst the members are “Ghetto” Pat Calhoun (Leonardo DiCaprio who turns in an Oscar worthy performance) and Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) who have a romantic relationship. While in the detention center, Perdifia finds the head military officer Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn) and both tantalizes and demeans him. Lockjaw considers this foreplay and zealously stalks her. He finally catches her trying to plant a bomb in a bathroom, and blackmails her into a rendezvous at a hotel. She agrees and the two have a brief affair.

Perfidia becomes pregnant and gives birth to a daughter named Charlene (later played by Chase Infiniti). Pat believes that since they now have a child, they should abandon their revolutionary way of life, but Perfidia thinks otherwise. Pat stays home with the baby while Perfidia and the other French 75 rob a bank. But when the robbery goes horrifically wrong, Lockjaw returns with a plan which sends everything into chaos.

Rounding out the cast are Benicio del Toro as Sergio St. Carlos, Regina Hall as Deandra / “Lady Champagne”, and Tony Goldwyn as Virgil Throckmorton.