Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. As you may remember from last time, I came face to face with the dreaded Crispin Z. Coyote. I was, most fortunately, in Ruffles the bulldog’s owner’s van at the time which kept me safe from his sarcastic and sadistic jaws. He’s a genuinely vicious brute. He was attempting to devour my dear friend Bernard D. Bunny and his little sister Belle. They bounded onto the hood of the van and were begging us to let them inside. I defied my Canis Lupis Familiaris friends who wanted to drive off and allowed the bunnies into the van. I accomplished this just in time to give Crispin a stern talking to, before stealthily following the black-market buyers who have our dear Demeter locked in a crate inside their tasteless garish gas guzzling automobile.

“Faster,” Artemis the Persian told Ruffles. “They’re getting away!”

“I can’t go too fast or they’ll know we’re following them,” he said.

“We cannot lose them either. I cannot lose my dear sister.”

“Lost sister, lost sister,” the twin dachshunds barked in unison.

“Oh, do be quiet!” Artemis scolded.

“We must come up with a plan, so we know what to do when we catch them,” I said.

“Gigi is right,” Charlotte the Chow said. “Exactly what are we going to do when they stop?”

“I say we attack,” Edison the Manx said. “Nothing gets the point across better than a firm swipe of claws across the face.”

“A little barbaric, mind you,” Madeline the British Shorthair said. “But I do believe the Manx has a point. Sometimes the claws must come out.”

“I do not disagree,” Bruiser the Jack Russell Terrier said. “But they are humans and far bigger than we are.”

“True, but as a pack, we might be able to overrun them.”

The van headed down the hill to the street where we first found the melted Slurpee.

“Don’t head for the freeway,” Ruffles said panicked. “Don’t head for the freeway.”

We all looked out the windshield to see if the orange Hummer was going to turn right.

“I can’t drive on the freeway,” Ruffles said. “I can’t drive on the freeway.”

The Hummer turned right and headed in the direction of the freeway.

“They’re heading for the freeway! What if they go on the freeway?”

“You must follow them or we will never get Demeter back,” Artemis said.

Ruffles started to pant and whimper.

“Stay calm, Ruffles,” Charlotte said. “You can do this…”

We came to the light, and the orange Hummer got into the left turn lane. Ruffles breathed a huge sigh of relief before pulling into the lane behind them.

“Oh, goodie, goodie, goodie,” he said. “We are not getting on the freeway.”

“Where do you think they might be going?” Bernard D. Bunny asked me.

I looked out the window to the left. “I don’t know,” I said.

The van continued down the long suburban road. Large, elegant houses stood along the sides. We passed a church to our right and continued down the hill which was windy.

“This is scary,” Ruffles said. “I am scared.”

“Keep your eyes on the road,” Edison said. “We’ll go tumbling over the side if you don’t.”

“I am. I am keeping my eyes on the road.”

“They are turning left at the light down there,” Charlotte said pointing a paw.

Ruffles pulled into the lane behind the orange Hummer and the light turned green. We followed the van down the long road towards the next town.

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: MARTY SUPREME (2025)-HBO MAX

Nominated for nine Academy Awards, this week’s pick is a well-paced, well-written, seamlessly directed film with a spot on ending that has finally made it to streaming. Written by Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie and directed by Safdie, loosely based on the life of ping pong extraordinaire Marty Reiseman. It is the story of a little weasel named Marty Mauser (brilliantly acted by Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet who won both the Golden Globe and the Critic’s Choice Award) who has one dream and one dream only: to be the greatest ping pong player in the world. And he will do anything to see his dreams become reality.

Marty works in a shoe store owned by his Uncle Murray (Larry Sloman) when he isn’t competing in table tennis professionally. He wants to win the British Open to make table tennis an American household name. Everyone in his family is a hustler in one form or another including his mother Rebecca Mauser (Fran Drescher) who has a habit of calling him at tournaments feigning illness to get him to come home. Marty also has a married girlfriend named Rachel Mizler (Odessa A’zion), his childhood friend who is almost as good a grifter as he is. The two of them carry on a tryst in the back room of the store where the shoeboxes are stored. Uncle Murray promised to give Marty seven hundred dollars to fund his trip to the British Open but reneges. Desperate and determined, Marty robs the store’s safe and takes off with the money.

After reaching London, Marty plays magnificently. He cons the tournament heads to get him a room at the Ritz Hotel where the best players are staying. There he spies a beautiful older woman who turns out to be Kay Stone (Gweneth Paltrow) an aging movie star who is unhappily married to a wealthy businessman named Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary). The couple had a son who died fighting in WWII. Marty hustles both Milton for money and Kay for sex and urges them to watch him play in the tournament. Marty continues to play well beating defending champion Bela Kletzki (Géza Röhrig). But he loses in the final round to deaf Japanese player Koto Endo (real life deaf Japanese player Koto Kawaguchi). Marty loses his temper and pandemonium ensues. Marty returns to New York to even larger conflicts which escalate with each attempt he makes to return to Europe to get another chance to triumph over Endo.

Tyler Okonma also stars as taxi driver and close friend of Marty’s, Wally and Abel Ferrara plays career criminal as Ezra Mishkin who asks Marty to look after his dog. Look for Penn Jillette as a gun toting territorial farmer named Hoff.