Hello…I am Tucker. I am a Maltese. I live with Gigi. Today I am introducing our novelist. Yesterday my novelist gave me a haircut…well, part of a haircut because she usually trims me a couple days in a row till it is finally finished. I look good now. I weigh less. I am not as warm. I got to be brushed too. I like being brushed. I did have to get a bath before she gave me the haircut and I do not like baths. Baths are wet. I do not like being wet. And I get cold waiting to dry. I shake the water off, but it does not seem to go away. My novelist dried me off and then she wrapped me up in a blanket. Then I got warmer. Here is my novelist.   

Rocktober is almost here and you know what that means! That’s right, Musicology: Volume Two, Kid! is about to be released! When I am getting ready to release a book there’s a few things I do to prepare.

Use the Read Aloud in Microsoft Word. This is my favorite new tool. Perhaps there are some of you out there who have used this for a long time, but it was only recently when I started preparing my Musicology book series that I found its great value. It is one thing to read through your writing as you go to polish your final draft. It is quite another to listen through it. This function is fantastic at catching mistakes and it is easy to find in Word. Simply open Word, go to the search at the top of Word above the ribbon and type in “Read Aloud”. Your stop and start button will be over to the right-hand side of your document. You can also change the voice by left-clicking the speaker icon by the fast forward button, clicking on the drop-down box, and choosing a voice. You can also choose the reading speed of the voice here as well by moving the level on the bar.

Choose a Good Photo to Make My Cover. If you publish on Amazon, you need to create a cover for your book. It is wisest from what I understand to use a photograph as opposed to a drawing for a cover design. I tend to be a frugal person and I think you should not be paying ridiculous amounts of money to produce a good cover for your book. I personally like to search for royalty-free images. I go to Pixabay and Pexels to find a bevy of choices and search for subjects that pertain to my book.

Prepare and Create a Cover. Again, being relatively frugal I like to get the best cover for the best price which is to do it myself. For the creation of my visual masterpiece I use Derek Murphy’s tool. He has a wonderful list of fonts and effects to choose from that help make the picture pop. For help I go through the tutorials on his site. I would have made a lot of mistakes with my cover had I not listened to him. And if you do create a cover of your own be patient. Take the time to make a great cover and be prepared to make over a dozen variations so you can choose the best one. If a writer has the patience to write a great book, they should have the patience to design a great cover. I did twenty covers for Musicology: Volume Two, Kid!  before I got it the way I wanted.

Write a Book Description. This is not as easy as it sounds but it is crucial. Be prepared to rewrite this little blurb several times to get it right. I like to think of it in the same way I would a movie pitch. Make it about one paragraph and make it interesting. Be sure the first sentence is an attention getter because some of the rest may not be immediately viewable to the reader looking for your book unless they click on read more.

Make it Available in Paperback. Yes, this one is a serious pain because you must format your Word doc a certain way. But if you do, you will be glad you did. Also, I have not done one yet, but it is not a bad idea to do an audio version of your book. If you look at the book How to Publish a Book on Amazon in 2020: Real Advice from Someone Who’s Doing It Well (Work from Home Series: Book 5 by Sam Kerns he gives some good basic advice.

MY BOOKS

You can check out my books Chicane and the first book in my Musicology book series Musicology: Volume One, Baby!  on Amazon both in Kindle and Paperback editions. You can also check out Musicology’s website at www.musicologyrocks.com The second book of the Musicology series, Musicology Volume Two, Kid! is releasing in October 2020!

STREAM OF THE WEEK: SELF/LESS-Netflix

If there are three things movie critics hate they are sex, science, and redemption. And this one has a little of all three. Sometimes critics do not get it right. But to have so many pan this one is odd. I’ve watched it twice on two separate occasions and I’ve liked it both times. I like the concept, the directing, and the acting. And I like the mood of the film. The story is a science fiction action thriller and it works like this. Seventy something Damien Hale (Ben Kinsley) is an extraordinarily successful New York real estate developer who failed in his personal life. He has an adult daughter named Claire (Michelle Dockery) who despises him and works for a non-profit organization. Finding out he has terminal cancer he decides to make things right the only way he knows how: by giving her a check. Claire rejects the check and sends him on his way. But Damien is not ready to quit yet. He has been looking into a process called “shedding” where one leaves one’s body in trade for one that’s “made in a lab”. After paying millions for the procedure Young Damien (Ryan Reynolds, who’s great here) finds himself living a whole new life…but whose life is he really living?

SMART MOVIES FOR SMART KIDS- A SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE: FARMAGEDDON-Netflix

I enjoy a lot of the Aardman films, and I am especially fond of Shaun the Sheep. Netflix released this one earlier this year that is quite cute. Shaun and his gang of sheep are hanging out on the farm getting into trouble with Bizer the dog who is always trying to please The Farmer. When a strange creature ends up in the barn, Shaun summons up the bravery to meet her. Half blue Christmas tree and half blue puppy dog she turns out to be an engaging little character who made a mistake and now needs to find her way back home to her parents. There is hardly any dialogue in the film, but the visuals are all you need. A great film for kids of all ages.

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Good afternoon. Gigi the parti poodle here and this week has been wet. Wet and dark. The dreadful Maltese and I have been out on a couple of walks when my novelist has managed to get us out when it is dry. But I must say I do not like getting wet. The word Poodle comes from Pudelhund, which means to splash about. Rubbish! I detest puddles and precipitation falling on me from the sky. I have often told my novelist she should consider finding a warmer dryer place for us to live. But every time I do, she pats me on the head and tells me I am a good dog. I do enjoy owning a novelist, but their condescending sense of humor disturbs me at times. That said, here is my novelist.

This week the premise is You Can’t Outrun Your Past. And a movie that shows this beautifully is one called The Town. The movie is based on the book Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan which received the Hammet Award. Ben Affleck directs, stars and co-wrote the script.  

The story is set in Charlestown in Boston where a group of four young men have made a career of robbing banks and armored cars. They work under a man named Fergus (Pete Postlethwaite) who worked with all their fathers setting up and carrying out bank robberies for years. Fergus is also rather fond of selling drugs and one of the four men, a psychopath named James (Jeremy Renner) has a sister named Krista (Blake Lively) who assists in that as well. Krista is also having an on-again off-again romance with one of the other four men, Doug (Ben Affleck) who is the brains of the group. When he was younger, Doug was drafted into professional hockey but his knack for getting into fights got him fired. Doug’s father Stephen (Chris Cooper) is serving time in prison. The other two young men are Desmond (Owen Burke) and Gloansy their driver (Slaine).

The story starts out with the four young men robbing a bank. They are all dressed in costumes and complete face covering masks. When they go to open the safe, they need the help of a bank manager named Claire (Rebecca Hall). When Claire is opening the safe, she panics and cannot turn the dial. Doug gently helps her calm down and tells her to take her time. She can now open the safe and the men are able to load their bags. On the way out the door James decides to take Claire as a hostage. They put Claire in their getaway van, blindfold her and leave her on a beach where terrified she does as they tell her and walks until her feet feel water.

After the robbery Doug finds he is attracted to Claire and follows her to a laundry mat where she serendipitously asks him for quarters. He asks her out on a date and becomes smitten. This is where he begins to consider starting a new life. But Claire is not part of his criminal world and to have a life with her he must find a way to outrun his past. This is not as simple as it seems. The FBI is on he and his gang’s tail, his best friend James is not on board with his choice to change careers and neither is Fergus. Not to mention Fergus, singlehandedly destroyed Stephen’s life when Stephen tried to leave his gang when Doug was a child.

One of the things that makes the movie so compelling is the more Doug tries to hide his past from Claire and forge a way out the more harrowing things become. The stakes continue to climb all the way to the satisfying conclusion of the story. It is not just that Doug can’t outrun his past it’s that his past is dangerous and grows more hazardous at every turn.

MY BOOKS

You can check out my books Chicane and the first book in my Musicology book series Musicology: Volume One, Baby!  on Amazon both in Kindle and Paperback editions. You can also check out Musicology’s website at www.musicologyrocks.com The second book of the Musicology series, Musicology Volume Two, Kid! is coming in Fall 2020!

STREAM OF THE WEEK: L7: PRETEND WE’RE DEAD-(Amazon)

L7 was one of the prominent bands in the grunge and punk movement and this unflinching documentary is their story. Starting in 1985 and reformed in 2014 these four feminists were a force to be reckoned with. Traveling around the country and across seas they made a profound impact on music and culture as true pioneers in their field. These extremely funny and incredibly talented artists are shown though interviews and home video footage and their journeys are absolutely electrifying. They are real, direct, gleefully controversial, and fearless. And I do mean fearless. The movie does an excellent job showing the highs and lows of their careers and their lives. An absolute must see for rock, grunge and punk fans everywhere.

SMART MOVIES FOR SMART KIDS: THE SPEED CUBERS-Netflix

Kids like documentaries too and this one is quite good. It the story of Feliks Zemdegs and Max Park. Feliks is Australian and Max is American, and they are both fierce rivals and great friends in the world of competitive Rubik’s Cube speedsolving competitions. Feliks held eight different world records, the 3x3x3, 2x2x2, 4x4x4, 5x5x5, 6x6x6, 7x7x7, 3x3x3 one handed and 4x4x4 blindfolded. This is no easy feat. And whatever Feliks can do Max can do as well. Max has also held the world record in 4x4x4, 5x5x5, 6x6x6, 7x7x7 and 3x3x3 one handed. This is a wonderful story about competition and what it means to be a gracious winner and a gracious loser. The cubing in the movie is riveting and I think many kids will find it fascinating.

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Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle and it has been a wretchedly dull week. The air here is so bad we have not been on a walk since Saturday. I am restless and bored. The Maltese is restless and boring. I listen to my novelist type away each day and long for the wide vast spaces of the open sidewalk. Today my novelist put on her shoes at the door and I was so certain she was going to put on our leashes and open the door. But alas, no matter how incessantly the Maltese barked our dreams of exploring the great outdoors were shattered. We are only allowed outside long enough to use the facilities and return. I am beginning to think there is no longer a sun. My novelist tells me to be patient, but my patience is far past the point of running out. Alas, all I can do is wait and introduce my novelist.

This is a movie you may not have seen yet. It is called Beast from 2017 and it makes a great choice for my premise series as its message is clear: It Takes One to Know One.

The movie starts out at a birthday party of the main character Moll (NT) played by Jessie Buckley. Moll has a wannabe boyfriend named Clifford (SJ) who is a detective. As a birthday gift he gives her prestigious police pin he earned on the job and pins it on her. This is a foreshadowing about who or perhaps what Moll is.

Moll’s effervescent sister upstages her at the party announcing she is pregnant with twins. Moll who is constantly berated by her controlling mother and underappreciated by her family goes to a bar and dances with a strange man named Leigh all night. In the morning, the two of them walk on the beach and Leigh attempts to force himself on her. That is when Moll meets Pascal (SP) a poacher who shoots at the guy, reloads, and attempts to fire again. The guy runs off leaving Moll and Pascal alone.

Now, normally this would be a typical boy saves girl scene. Except we need to know something about Moll: she, like Pascal is prone to violence. Her tendencies are originally shown in her reoccurring nightmares and more information about her proclivity comes out as the story continues. The question therefore is does Pascal save Moll or does Pascal save Leigh? And furthermore, why does Pascal offer to help Moll with her self-inflicted wound and drive her safely home? It is clear he’s been hunting rabbit illegally with pelts in his truck and has no problem taking a shot at a random stranger. Moll is aware this is a dangerous man but has no fear accepting his assistance.

Moll wants to see more and more of the earthy blue-collar Pascal but being from an upper-class family, this does not set right with her mother. And it is not helped by the fact that there is a serial killer on the loose in their area who likes to rape and murder young girls, one in fact the night Moll was dancing before she meets Pascal the following morning. And as far as Clifford and the other detectives he works with are concerned, Pascal is suspect number one. Especially since Pascal was arrested and served time when he was a teenager for statutory rape. But Moll though not naïve about these things is unfazed and the relationship between her and Pascal deepens so much so that she finds the courage to leave her mother’s house and move in with him.

Now the next question is how are an NT (Moll) and an STP (Pascal) the same? How does this serve the premise? They are the same in the same manner SJs and NFs end up teaching school together. NTs and SPs have common ground sensing if someone is dangerous and if they themselves are in danger. SPs and NT are acutely adept at gaging how much they can and cannot trust a person. They tend to be good at telling if someone is guilty or innocent.

This explains why student hearing boards in high schools and colleges fail. Most of them are made up of SJs and NFs because that’s what the staff mostly is. But the majority who end up in front of these boards are SPs and NTs. And by that rational most students who fall victim to guilty perpetrators are SJs and NFs as well. NFs in fact are notoriously attracted to narcissists. Thus, if It Takes One to Know One, why do schools put staff and students on their boards who have little in common with perpetrators and struggle to tell the difference between an innocent and a guilty party? Would it not be wiser to build a student disciplinary board out of the rarer members of staff and students who are NTs and SPs who are more gifted at recognizing whether a suspect is guilty or innocent?  Make it even with three NTs and three SPs with the sixth chair which moderates being either NT or SP.

Ironically, however, a lot of detectives are SJs like Clifford. So, when he pins the badge on Moll, the audience is subtly being told that these two are mirror characters. They are both detectives setting out to solve a series of crimes. And by the end of the film only one of them is going to be right.  

MY BOOKS

You can check out my books Chicane and the first book in my Musicology book series Musicology: Volume One, Baby!  on Amazon both in Kindle and Paperback editions. You can also check out Musicology’s website at www.musicologyrocks.com The second book of the Musicology series, Musicology Volume Two, Kid! is coming in Fall 2020!

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STREAM OF THE WEEK: THE PAUL SCHRADER DOUBLE FEATURE: TAXI DRIVER (1976)-Netflix & FIRST REFORMED (2017)-Amazon Prime

Out of the blue on Tuesday, September 15^th the AFI managed to get one of their films spot on and chose the brilliant Memento for their movie of the day which they showed as having released in 2019. The film is from 2000 and was released in 2001 which goes to show a blind squirrel can find a nut occasionally but still screw it up.

Paul Schrader has made two excellent bookend films in his career, one at the beginning and one recently. The first one he calls one of his “a man in a room” stories. It is his masterpiece Taxi Driver. If you can believe it, Taxi Driver was never nominated for Best Original Screenplay by the Oscar Academy. In fact, Paul Schrader did not receive his first academy award nomination for writing until First Reformed. Taxi Driver was nominated for Best Film, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Score. Unfortunately, being the best sometimes has an unfair price. And by the way, Martin Scorsese was not nominated for his direction for this film either which itself is mind blowing. The premise for the story could be interpreted as Idol Hands Are the Devil’s Playground. This is not just in reference to lead character Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro’s landmark performance) but rather New York City entire.

If you have never seen the film, it goes like this. It is 1976. Travis Bickle (Travis means “to cross over” and was a name for gatekeepers who collected tolls at bridges) is a young Vietnam Vet who moves to New York City and gets a job as a cab driver. He suffers from insomnia and has a fascination with driving to the unsavory areas of the city to pick up and drop off customers. He is attractive, intelligent, resourceful, and introverted with a rich inner life. He also possesses an unusually astute moral compass. However, he is socially inept. And because American society rewards the socially astute no matter how stupid and bungling, there is no worse crime than being socially inept. This of course leads to Travis’s loneliness.

Travis finds himself enamored with the beautiful, educated, socially adept Betsy (the wonderful Cybil Shephard) who is working on a presidential campaign for a man named Palatine (which ironically means “entitled”) alongside her equally educated co-worker Tom (the hilarious Albert Brooks). Tom is smitten with Betsy and able to converse with her but not as able to attract her. Travis, being an ISTP senses this quickly and can size up Betsy astutely as well. He charms her into a date and the two have a quick snack on her work break at a local café. Their second date does not fare as well as Travis makes the mistake of taking her to a porno film where she quickly rejects him.

Left to his devices he eventually befriends Iris (a young Jodi Foster who deservedly earned an Oscar nomination for the role) a child prostitute and decides to “rescue” her from her pimp. The name Iris, by the way means “rainbow”.

First Reformed was Paul Schrader’s first and only Academy Award nomination. It is the story of a minister named Reverend Toller (Ethan Hawke in a brilliant performance) a former military chaplain who heads the congregation of a small dwindling 250 year old traditional church called First Reformed in upstate New York overshadowed and run by the evangelical megachurch Abundant Life. First Reformed is a Dutch founded protestant church (much like the church Schrader was raised in which was Calvinist). Reverend Ernst Toller (the name means respectively a person who battles to the death and one who lures) is struggling with his faith, quite ill and drinks heavily. He has gone through an unspeakable horror in his life and is now quietly clinging onto his own as he composes a one-year journal. A young married couple have recently joined his church congregation instead of the flashy Abundant Life. They are aptly named Mary (Amanda Seyfried) and Michael. Michael is a radical environmentalist. Mary is pregnant and looks forward to bringing her child into the world but is becoming more and more concerned about Michael’s extremism. When Michael’s path takes a nefarious turn Reverend Toller slowly starts to take up his mission.

SMART MOVIES FOR SMART KIDS-BABE (1995)

Kid’s movies do not get much better than this. Nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture it’s the story of a little piglet who thinks big. Babe grows up on a farm and learns much to his horror that pigs are raised to be slaughtered. But Babe dreams of herding sheep and fights against all odds to prove his worth. This is a fantastic film and if you have never seen it whether you be a child or a bitter full-grown cynical adult this film is for you. The end is so moving you won’t know whether to smile or break down into tears. An absolute must see!  

Good morning. I Gigi the parti poodle must tell you I had one of the most traumatizing experiences of my life this past week. It occurred last Thursday after my novelist posted her previous blog. We had a lovely lunch and then she packed the Maltese and me in the car as if we were going for an outing. I expected it to be like our Mount St. Helens trip, but I was gravely mistaken. My novelist instead drove us to a place we had never been, and it turns out it was a veterinary clinic. Not my usual veterinary clinic mind you. I had been driven to that one a week or more ago, but we were never called inside which probably explains how we ended up here. You can imagine my horror when a nurse came out to the car wearing a mask and escorted the Maltese and I inside. We were alone in this wretched building with no means of escape. They pulled a lot of hair out of my ears and administered drops. I was also injected with horrifying needles. The evening was a blur. Sleepiness and grogginess haunted me. The next day I was better if not a tad sore. All my novelist did was complain about how warm it had been in the car. Have you ever heard of such callousness? Anyway, without further ado here is my malevolent novelist.

When I was studying acting in New York City many moons ago we had to do a one person show. But it was not a normal one person show. We had to do three pieces of our choice which could be anything from dance to song to performance art to monologue. All three parts put together had to support a premise.

A premise is a hypothesis presented at the beginning of a story and then proven by the end. It is the most distilled foundation on which the story is written. A popular choice of argument might be “Absolute power corrupts absolutely” like in Citizen Kane. Or “All paths lead to nowhere” like in Arkansas. The one person shows each of us students did had to show an arc which proved the premise we chose by cutting and pasting piece together from different sources.

Let’s say when I was constructing my show, I wanted to do use a simple premise like Money is The Root of All Evil. I could open with Gordon Gecko’s “Greed is good speech” from Wall Street (1987). Next, I might choose my middle piece to be Corky’s monologue where she plots the heist from Bound (1996) to show the enticement of money. And then I might finish with Marge’s “A Little Bit of Money” speech at the end of Fargo to show the utter destruction money brings about. 

A film which provides an obvious premise and then proceeds to argue it well is Dead Poets Society. Carpe Diem or Seize the Day is the argument which is uttered repeatedly throughout the film. Now, before I get too far let me give you a little-known fact about personality types in schools. If you look at page 155 in, Please Understand Me: Character & Temperament Types by David Keirsey and Marylin Bates you will see they did a study of school staffs. And their data showed educational jobs are dominantly held by Guardians or SJ types. 56% to be exact. And furthermore, because they are so overwhelmingly the majority, they see no reason to change their ways. Not to mention they are the most stubborn unmovable jackasses on the planet. And they always look to the past and tradition no matter how forward thinking they may claim to be.

Now the second most common group of the schoolteacher/administrator population is the Idealists or NFs at a whopping 33%. This is amazing as Idealists take up only 10% of the general population. These happy go lucky folks flock to schools like migrating birds. They are always wearing rose colored glasses and looking to change and the future. Rationals are the only group that can break up this mess if they are in administrative positions. However, they make up only 6% of the schoolteacher/administrator population. And finally, the Artisans who take up a whopping 40% of the world population only take up only 2% of the schoolteacher/administrator population.

So, when we are looking at Dead Poets Society, we are essentially watching a battle between the dominating SJs and the secondary NFs. The headmaster Mr. Nolan and Neil Perry’s father Mr. Perry are glaringly SJs. As are most of the teaching staff. John Keating the new English teacher (new=future), on the other hand, as well as his students Neil Perry, Todd Anderson, Knox Overstreet (young=future in this case) are idealists. Charlie Dalton is the one SP student who takes many tactical risks like bringing the girls to the cave, publishing an article in the school newspaper arguing girls should be admitted to the school and punching fellow student Richard Cameron (an SJ) in the face.

The story is essentially a battle between logistics and diplomacy. And while the futuristic thinking idealist students rebuild the Dead Poets Society club and idealistically attempt to live their lives to the fullest, the power in numbers of the stalwart guardians throw up roadblock after roadblock in their path to glory. And because the idealists are outnumbered whenever they try to seize the day the stakes of the battle rise until an unfixable devastation occurs and then at the very end of the film the student’s and Keating’s mantra of seize the day is put to the ultimate test.

MY BOOKS

You can check out my books Chicane and the first book in my Musicology book series Musicology: Volume One, Baby!  on Amazon both in Kindle and Paperback editions. You can also check out Musicology’s website at www.musicologyrocks.com The second book of the Musicology series, Musicology Volume Two, Kid! is coming in Fall 2020!

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STREAM OF THE WEEK: MY MAN GODFREY (Amazon Prime) & BLOOD FATHER (Netflix)

Granted these movies have little in common. But I wanted to feature them both anyway this week for different reasons.

The first movie My Man Godfrey is one of the best screwball comedies of all time. And it is one the AFI has not yet put on it’s list of Movies to Watch While We’re Apart. This brilliant black and white film stars William Powell and Carole Lombard who had been married in real life but divorced before making the film together. It is set in the depression era and is based on the 1935 short novel 1101 Park Avenue by Eric Hatch the story is about a “forgotten man” named Godfrey “Smith” Parke (William Powell) who may not be exactly who he seems. He lives in a city dump in New York City down by the East River in a Hooverville and by chance one night is “found” by two socialite sisters the older Cornelia Bullock (Gail Patrick) offers him five dollars to be an object to bring in for a scavenger hunt. Godfrey sees quickly what a brat Cornelia is and turns her down. The younger sister Irene who is a gentler but airheaded creature does persuade him to be the “forgotten man” for the scavenger hunt beating out Cornelia for the win. Irene is so taken with Godfrey she hires him to be their new butler in their house. The story is a wonderfully amusing meditation in how people value people for what they have as opposed to who they are. And it is an absolute must see.

Blood Father is one of those films that for some reason flew under the radar, but it is a riveting action/suspense story. It is based on the book of the same name, Blood Father written by Peter Craig who also wrote the screenplay and directed by Jean-François Richet . Link (Mel Gibson who is great here) is an ex-con and recovering alcoholic on parole living in a run-down trailer in the middle of nowhere where he runs his own tattoo parlor. He is highly skilled at his craft and knowledgeable about what tattoos mean what. This comes in handy when his teenage daughter Lydia (well played by Erin Moriarty II) who is a missing child (he has a whole wall dedicated to finding her) calls him out of the blue. She believes she has killed her boyfriend Jonah (Diego Luna) in a shootout. Her boyfriend just happens to be a member of a powerful drug cartel and she is desperate for help. Link drives to LA to pick her up and the chase begins. The always fantastic William H. Macy plays Kirby, Link’s AA sponsor. An absolute edge of your seat ride. Do not miss it.  

SMART MOVIES FOR SMART KIDS: PHANTOM BOY (Netflix)

This is a wonderful albeit serious suspense mystery about an extremely sick boy who is given a marvelous gift. Leo has a little sister who he likes to read children’s crime novels to. He reads her one last story the night before he must go stay at the hospital for chemotherapy. He tells her he has a secret talent he has acquired since his illness: the ability to leave his body and fly around the city. When he is in the hospital, he meets a real detective named Alex who is trying to stop an evil criminal named The Face who is trying to take over the city. The script was written by Alain Gagnol who along with Jean-Loup Felicioli direct the film. They are the directors for the fantastic A Cat in Paris which was nominated for the academy award for best animated film in 2011.  

Good afternoon. Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce my novelist once again. This week we…and that, unfortunately, includes the Maltese went on a day trip out to Mount St. Helens. Because of Covid-19 we had to remain in the car most of the time except for quick breaks which we took at quiet locations. I slept in the back of the car on two soft blankets while the Maltese took the front. It was a beautiful comfortably warm day and I enjoyed…

It was lots and lots and lots of fun! I liked going to the mountain too except they do not let dogs look at the mountain.

Tucker, you stupid cur! Do not interrupt me again! No, being canines, we were not allowed to look at the grandeur of the stratovolcano, but we were able to get to the glorious parking lot where we…

I wanted to see the volcano! I wanted to see the volcano! Why cannot dogs see the volcano?!

I DON’T KNOW!!! You know how I detest losing my temper! Pardon me. The Maltese can be a bit overzealous at times. Anyway, it was a lovely drive and my novelist took pictures and…

Pictures are not the same! Pictures are not the same! I want to see the volcano! I want to see the volcano!

You are insufferable! Anyway, here is my novelist.

The best new show on Netflix right now without question is Cobra Kai. I am not kidding. Rarely does a show come along that is as fresh, unique, fun, and outstanding as this one is. I was going to start a new series of blogs about a different subject this week but I am giving that the back burner to tell you to run, not walk to your television set and get ready to be hooked!!!

Cobra Kai originally came out in 2018 on YouTube and Netflix acquired it in June 2020. Netflix is set to launch the show’s third season in 2021. This is the best news in months.

The story takes place thirty-four years after The Karate Kid and we find Daniel LaRusso’s nemesis Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) grown up, drunk and scraping by. He lives in a meager apartment in Reseda, Los Angeles and works as a handyman. He shares a teenage son with his barfly ex-girlfriend Shannon Keene. The son lives with mom and though plucky is heading down criminal lane.  

After losing his handyman gig Johnny runs into his next-door neighbor, a likable mild-mannered teenager named Miguel (Xolo Marideuña) at a convenience store where he is sitting outside eating his food and being harassed by a homeless woman (who is a reoccurring character). Miguel has gone in to purchase some Pepto-Bismol for his grandmother when he is attacked by three of his high school classmates. Using his fine Karate skills, Johnny takes down the three creeps inspiring Miguel (much like the young Daniel LaRusso) to inquire if Johnny would teach him a few moves. Johnny reluctantly takes on the kid’s request and slowly with what meager funds he has begins rebuilding the Cobra Kai dojo of his youth.

Meanwhile Johnny’s son Robby (Tanner Buchanan) decides to get back at dad by dropping out of school and taking a job working at Daniel LaRusso’s car dealership. But he quickly realizes that Daniel (Ralph Macchio delightfully reprising his famous role) is both likable and honorable. Daniel takes a shine to the kid and starts teaching Robby Mr. Miyagi’s style of Karate while in the meantime Miguel becomes smitten with Daniel’s daughter Samantha (Mary Mouser) who is no slouch at Karate either.

This show is so beautifully written it is shocking. Who would have thunk a much later afterward of The Karate Kid film franchise could be so engaging and such pure unadulterated fun? All the characters are delightful especially William Zabka’s Johnny Lawrence who is fantastic as the fifty-something who rises like the phoenix and turns his life around in this comedy/drama yarn. In a quagmire of overly serious and politically correct yawn fests this one rises like cream and last week and today as well (surprise, surprise) is the #1 streamed series on Netflix. Streaming addicts get ready for a whole new batch of crack cause this one’s blue, baby!

What does this mean for writers? This means write something this good! Write a smart feel good script because the world is sitting under a ton of bricks broken and ticked off right now and it wants a massive dose of happy. The success of this show is a forecasting of what Hollywood is going to be looking for post pandemic. That does not mean write a karate movie. That means write a tale on a topic you can really sink your teeth into and elevate and lighten up the dark foreboding mood. Throw that stupid pandemic story of yours in the trash and change course! Write well my friends and stay healthy.  

My Books

You can check out my books Chicane and the first book in my Musicology book series Musicology: Volume One, Baby!  on Amazon both in Kindle and Paperback editions. You can also check out Musicology’s website at www.musicologyrocks.com The second book of the Musicology series, Musicology Volume Two, Kid! is coming in Fall 2020!

SCREENWRITINGU FREE CLASS FRIDAY: Profound Analysis of the movie 42:

You can sign up for the teleconference here which is at 12:00 Noon PST.

STREAM OF THE WEEK: THE APARTMENT (1960)-Prime Video

Obviously, the Stream of the Week is Cobra Kai. But it is good to take a break and get a movie in there as well. This is the second film the AFI Movies to Watch While We’re Apart missed. And I have no idea why.  Every weekday since March 31, 2020, no less, starting with The Wizard of Oz the AFI (American Film Institute) has offered up an outstanding film to watch each day. However, their list has quickly become hit and miss and at times mediocre and landmark cinema is showing up less and less. Last week I offered up the brilliant comedy/satire Harold and Maude and this week I’m offering up The Apartment, one of the finest films ever made about misused corporate power, sexism and open floor plan. The brilliant Billy Wilder tells his masterpiece with wit, charm, and a whole lot of smarm. It, like Cobra Kai is a Comedy/Drama, a genre of film and television which has been sorely lacking in the industry of late pushed aside to make room for superhero films, slasher movies and all-around dreck. If you have already seen The Aprartment watch it again and if you haven’t put it at the very top of your movie list.

The set up works like this: young ambitious C.C. Bud Baxter (Jack Lemon in his momentous roll) is a bachelor who works for an insurance company in New York City and is stuck out in open floor plan. He also happens to be in possession of a bachelor pad which he “graciously” lends to some of the darling middle management men who in turn use it to cheat on their wives by taking their girlfriends there to have sex with them…and occasionally drunk women they pick up in bars. Ironically, Baxter himself is a gentleman and naïve in viewing his exchanges for free motel rent as a harmless way to get a foot in the door and a wrung higher on the ladder…and an office of his own. And impress elevator operator Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine in one of her best performances) with whom he is smitten. His efforts pay off and his exemplary work is brought to the attention of executive Jeff D. Sheldrake (a tour de force performance by Fred MacMurray) a subclinical psychopath who despite being married for twelve years with two sons likes to use secretaries, elevator operators, phone operators and a myriad of other women at the insurance company as his personal Kleenex. As a note the name Jeff D. Sheldrake translates into Jeff the Male Duck. Sheldrake is a surname which is thought to have been a nickname for a vain or showy person. Baxter agrees to make a duplicate key to his apartment for Sheldrake until a dire incident rips the rose-colored glasses from his eyes. 

SMART MOVIES FOR SMART KIDS: MR. PEABODY AND SHERMAN (2014)-Netflix

Some of you may remember the delightful two-dimensional version of this animated classic about a dog, his boy, and their lessons in history. The newer 3-D version is also charming and a bit flashier. Mr. Peabody is the father of Sherman, a boy he found as a baby in an alley. Although he is a dog, he adopted the boy and raised him as a single parent. Mr. Peabody himself was too intellectual to be adopted and so he decides to take in an unwanted child because he understands what it is like to be rejected. Mr. Peabody teaches Sherman many valuable lessons about history by transporting them to different points in time with the Wayback machine he created. All goes well for dog and boy until a smart but maliciously jealous schoolmate of Sherman’s named Penny causes things to go awry. The movie is great family fun and a true favorite of Gigi’s.  

Good Afternoon. It is I Gigi the Parti Poodle here and it has been a most distressing week. I am a Canis Lupus Familiaris of champagne taste and the true horror of Covid-19 for me is not being able to go to Salon de Gommage Chiot for my grooming needs. My novelist took it upon herself this week to give me a bath, a brushing, and a haircut. She ignored my whimpers and protestations in the bathtub while she showered down water on me and doused me in soap. That was Day One. Day Two was even more horrifying. She brushed me which was barely tolerable. And then she took out that dreadful new mini Wahl Pet Clipper and went to town on me. When I fought her and refused to have my hair clipped by that wretched device, she pulled out the full-size Wahl Pet Clipper. I now have patches that are shorter than others and my front paws are clearly more shaved than my back ones. I look a wreck. She is a horrendous coiffeur. It will take a month for me to look vaguely normal again. That said, here is my novelist.

Thirty Things I’ve Learned Being an NT Writer

1. Feeling writers will pen page after page to tug at the heartstrings and not one sentence to tug at the mind.
2. Extroverts will never believe great things get accomplished in solitude.
3. Group projects accomplish nothing but misery and subpar work.
4. You will waste a lot of time in life being around people you never wanted to meet.
5. You are never allowed to say what is on your mind especially if you are right.
6. You will always be censored.
7. NTs do think different and often own PCs.
8. Most folks love like a ditch: wide and shallow. NTs love like a well: narrow and deep.
9. Most individuals would rather drink a 44 oz tanker of juice or not drink any juice at all and berate everyone who partakes than pour juice into a 4oz juice glass and enjoy it in moderation.
10. You cannot get to the truth without entertaining ideas you don’t like.
11. Very few persons look to the future.
12. People who change the world for the better are not always good.
13. Villains always look like villains, but most people can’t tell the difference.
14. SJs and NFs should never ever be members of a Student Disciplinary Board.
15. Folks are more likely to believe what they see than what they know.
16. Those who can’t do manage others.
17. NTs view time in cross sections. To everyone else time is linear.
18. Society is more likely to condemn someone for their words than their actions.
19. It is better to be banned than boring.
20. Donnie Darko makes complete sense.
21. Walter White is the smartest smart guy in the room.
22. Those who cannot think are doomed to mimic the words of those who can.
23. Social groups are often run by psychopaths and made up of suckers.
24. Parties are dumb.
25. Law enforcement takes classes to tell me apart from a psychopath.
26. Folks will believe a lie told by someone they like but smear the truth told by someone they don’t.
27. Characters who are in your books are your friends. Characters who are not are your enemies.
28. Always do your research even if someone tells you to make things up.
29. Writers who aren’t as imaginative as you will steal and are thieves.
30. Never join a writing group where people critique your work.

My Books

You can check out my books Chicane and the first book in my Musicology book series Musicology: Volume One, Baby!  on Amazon both in Kindle and Paperback editions. You can also check out Musicology’s website at www.musicologyrocks.com The second book of the Musicology series, Musicology Volume Two, Kid! is coming in Fall 2020!

SCREEENWRITINGU FREE FRIDAY CLASS: The Best One Character Movie?

You can sign up here for the free teleconference which occurs on Friday 8/28 @ Noon PST

STREAM OF THE WEEK: Harold and Maude-Amazon Prime

This film really should be a no-brainer but the AFI in their infinite wisdom has yet to put it up as their movie of the day, so I am going to beat them to the punch. Especially since it’s been available on Amazon Prime for a while now. Harold and Maude is one of the best and I mean the best satirical films ever made. It’s the story of wealthy cynical young Harold, a man in his early twenties who can’t seem to decide what to do with his life, so he kills himself…repeatedly. His snobbish aristocratic mother tries time and time again to hook him up with young women which he elaborately dies in front of. She even gives him a Jaguar and he turns it into a hearse. He enjoys attending funerals for fun and that is where he meets the plucky just shy of her eightieth birthday Maude. Maude is the fervor of life. She enjoys posing nude, stealing cars, and living by her own rules. Once they meet all is simpatico until a terrible secret comes to light. Harold and Maude was originally a critical and commercial failure when it was released in 1971. But it became a cult classic and turned it’s first profit in 1983 nearly twelve years after its initial release.

SMART MOVIES FOR SMART KIDS: WarGames-Amazon Prime

This one’s for older kids. Filmed primarily in the Pacific Northwest, WarGames the story of your typical teenage computer hacker David (Mathew Broderick) who thinks the computer with password Joshua he has hacked into wants to play a friendly game of chess. And “Joshua” does. But what he’s really playing is Thermo Nuclear War. And it’s not a game. David finds himself on a collision course with a nuclear attack as he races against time with the assistance of his classmate Jennifer (Ally Sheedy) to find the creator of Joshua a mysterious man named Falken (John Wood). Dabney Colemen is excellent as always as government man McKittrick.  

Good afternoon. Gigi the parti poodle here to announce that my novelist’s delightful web site www.musicologyrocks.com is now live. This is a most exciting event which my novelist shall discuss in further detail. I am most delighted about the way my picture turned out on the site. I am at present rather shaggy and need to resume my more groomed appearance. My novelist has invested in a pocket groomer which appears to be less intimidating than the full-sized variant of the contraption. She has also threatened to trim my nails with a sanding apparatus which I am most certainly not looking forwards to. This is what happens when novelists finish one manuscript and are preparing another. Ah, the little burdens one makes for one’s pet. Without further ado, here is my novelist.  

The Musicology website is alive and kicking! You can now go to www.musicologyrocks.com and vote for the contestant you think will win the whole shebang! On the site there are also links to my blog here at www.gigicatchesair.com as well as links to both my books Chicane and Musicology: Volume One, Baby! There is also a little blurb about Gigi and me there as well. I will be releasing the second book in the Musicology series Musicology: Volume Two, Kid! this fall. As there is a mystery which starts in volume two, I will put up a second list of people to vote on so you can try and guess who that individual is as well.

I hope you enjoy this comedic satirical book series that takes place over the course of one season on a reality TV show!

This week’s ScreenwritingU Free Class Friday is Analysis of Warrior Nun the Netflix television show. You can register for the class here.   

STREAM OF THE WEEK: ARKANSAS-Amazon Prime

I have spent a great deal of time this week trying to figure out why Arkansas is not getting better reception. This is an excellent independent film written (adapted from the book of the same name), directed and co-stared by Clark Duke. It is difficult finding any film these days that isn’t about a superhero, a dysfunctional family or both. This one was a breath of fresh air. I was more than impressed with Duke’s work in all three categories here and I look forward to seeing a lot more of his movies in the future.

The film is about drug runners whose lives are caught in circles. These are not hardened criminals. They are not psychopaths. They are inhabitants of Arkansas who for one reason or another cannot escape…Arkansas. And so, to make a decent living they run drugs. The lead character, Kyle (Liam Hemsworth) is a smart guy with no goals. Kyle is much like Alex Reiger from Taxi. He is a drug runner. Period. He has no ambitions or desires to be anything else and is satisfied to get drunk or not get drunk and survive. When he makes a wise albeit serendipitous move, he finds himself promoted by a boss he has never met named Frog (Vince Vaughn in one of his best performances). He is teamed up with the likeable and intelligent Swin (Clark Duke) and the two of them are to move drugs across state lines. But on the way they meet a park ranger named Bright (the excellent John Malkovich) who stops their truck and tells them they have been reassigned. They will be park rangers as their cover and live at the park each in their own trailer…which are exactly alike. As they begin their life under Bright’s chipper command and are running drugs to different places in the south, Swin chances to meet a nurse named Johnna (Eden Brolin) at the grocery store and is smitten. As the two begin their romance a lose cannon named Nick (Clark’s brother Chandler Duke) who is the grandson of one of their connections throws a nasty wrench into their well-planned out situation and all their lives begin to unravel.

SMART MOVIES FOR SMART KIDS: THE NEVERENDING STORY-Netflix

The Never-Ending Story is a wonderful imaginative fantasy film for kids. Based on the book of the same name by Michael Ende it is a tale about boy named Bastian who does not fit in. He is tormented by bullies at his school and longs for a place where he can be himself and test his mettle. He stumbles into a bookstore one day and the elderly shopkeeper recommends, with warning that is, a book about a place named Fantasia. Bastian begins secretly reading the book in the school attic and finds he must enter the book’s world to save Fantasia from destruction.

Good afternoon. Gigi the parti poodle here to tell you it has been a spectacular week. My novelist has, under my tutelage of course, published the first book in her Musicology book series which is a comedy satire about reality television. It was a large project this weekend making certain both the Kindle book and the paperback were ready for publication as well as launching the web site. I must tell you the whole experience was a bit trying on the Maltese. We have not been able to go on our walks because he has been a bit under the weather. But he seems to be on the mend now and I look forward to getting out in the sunshine and leading my novelist along with my leash. Without further ado, I am proud to say here is my novelist.

Musicology: Volume One, Baby! is Alive and Kicking on Amazon! My first book in the Musicology series went up on August 11^th and is ready to peruse. The book will have a web site that goes along with the book series which will be going live soon. You can preview the website at  http://www.musicologyrocks.wordpress.com/ You can vote for which character you think will win the Musicology crown and other fun things will be added as more of the books are released. The second book in the series Musicology: Volume Two, Kid! will be available this fall. Musicology: Volume One, Baby! is available both as a Kindle book and a paperback.

The Musicology series was a whole lot of fun to write. It takes place primarily in Burbank, California and follows the host, two mentors, three judges and the contestants through one season of a reality TV show. The main character Maximillian (Max) Buckner has recently gone through his second divorce and his record label Master Lab Records has filed for bankruptcy. His buddy Devon Daniels the sleazy host of the low rated show Musicology gives him an opportunity to save his label by signing him up to mentor the Circle of Ten, the top ten contestants vying for the prize. The catch is that Devon has also hired a second mentor successful rock and roll diva Ruby Diamonds. Ruby and Max have a lurid past and had a bad romantic breakup when she dumped Max, left his record company and became a huge star.

In addition, Devon has just fired all his judges and hired three new ones, Robbie Sexton, Bonnie Lake and Dick Dandy. Robbie and Bonnie are aging rock stars. Dick Dandy is a comedian who knows nothing about music but because of his sketchy reputation he makes for good television and has been hired on as a judge. Normally Devon would have his three judges tour the country in search of talent. But Devon’s show is in danger of being cancelled. And so, he must bring in a big gun who can recognize the most lucrative talent out there and that is Max. But Devon knows Max has his flaws and he needs someone to accompany him who has a big name who can draw audience and so he hires Ruby to go along for the ride.

The idea in writing an extensive book series about a television show was that movies on the subject only have about two hours to tell a story that includes all the ins and outs of what might happen over the course of a season. And the actual shows themselves like to show the squeaky-clean version of what goes on during the season’s run. In other words, they like to package a family friendly show. My thought was to show all the filthy dirty little secrets that go on both when the cameras are on and when the cameras are off. Everything on the stage and everything in the wings. Everything while it is live and everything that happens when the show is in rehearsal and the escapades that occur when everyone goes home at night. I wanted to get to know the real side of all the participants. I wanted the R rated version and at times the NC-17 version of the show. I wanted the sex, drugs and rock and roll version of reality TV. And so, Musicology was born. And now you can experience it too. Enjoy!

I’ll post every Thursday.  That’s the schedule.  While you’re waiting for my next post check out my novel Chicane currently available on Amazon.  

This week’s Free Class Friday from ScreenwritingU is The Best Screenwriting Opportunities During Covid-19. You can sign up for it here.

STREAM OF THE WEEK: AUDRIE AND DAISY & ROLL RED ROLL-Netflix

It is with heavy heart that I recommend the two documentaries Audrie and Daisy and Roll Red Roll. Daisy Coleman, the subject of the Netflix documentary Audrie and Daisy took her life this past week. As you may know rape victims suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder which can lead some victims to suicide.

One of the most telling things about repeat rapists is half of them are psychopathic. This does not apply exclusively to hardened criminals in prison. This applies to campus rapists as well. That means fifty percent of high school boys and college men/boys who repeatedly commit rape are psychopaths too. It is also thought that rapists whether they be the half who are psychopathic or the half that are not may all have abnormal cortical and subcortical white matter integrity in their brain. In other words, rapists may have white matter abnormalities in brain regions that are involved in reward/motivation and moral judgment and are driven by sexual reward.

A psychopathic rapist in addition to having brain abnormalities with white matter also has less gray matter in the prefrontal lobe of their brain and less gray matter in the paralimbic system than a non-psychopath. This brain damage can be seen on psychopaths and rapists using FMRI software when conducting an MRI.

So, what does that mean about how you should watch these two documentaries? Try this. Psychopaths talk differently than non-psychopaths. When you watch the all the boys in these films, pay close attention to their interviews with the police. In Audrie and Daisy listen especially close to Matthew Barnett as he talks to the detective. Listen for disfluencies when he talks such as “um” and “uh”. Also listen for doubled little words like “the…the”, “and…and” etc. and subordinate conjunctions (because, so that, therefore, etc.). Then listen to the other boys give their account of the rape to the detective. You will hear at least three disfluencies from Matthew. You will hear none from the other two boys.

In Roll Red Roll listen to all the students give their testimony to the police. One of the boys being interviewed is going to stand out like just like Trent Mays does. During his interviews with the police he has a minimum combination of twenty-seven disfluencies, subordinate conjunctions and doubled words in his dialogue. He is also squirmy and twitchy. Psychopaths have a condition called HSS (High Sensation Seeking) which has to do with Monoamine oxidase A which is an enzyme encoded by the MAO-A gene. Part of the issue with having a less active version of this enzyme (which shows up as a normal atrophy in the brain) is it causes a low resting heart rate which is linked to boredom, restlessness, high risk taking and sometimes criminal behavior. Not everyone who has HSS is a psychopath, but all psychopaths have HSS. And at the end of the film you’re going to find out why this boy stands out.

It is also important to pay attention to the difference between the way Trent Mays gives his statement in the courtroom scene and the way Ma’lik Richmond gives his statement.  Trent’s texts to Jane Doe are also telling. He has no problem lying and manipulating her when she involves the police. And listen carefully to how Lead Special Prosecutor Marianna Hemmeter describes Trent Mays and his actions.

Pay close attention to both Matthew and Trent’s eyebrows. Narcissists tend to have darker, thicker more distinctive eyebrows. Not all narcissists are psychopaths, but all psychopaths are narcissists. When you watch these films, you could see their eyebrows from outer space. If you want a good example of a rapist psychopath with prominent eyebrows look at Jeffery Epstein and Ted Bundy.

Also listen to what the boys talk about either verbally or through text messages. Do they seem to focus on food, sex, money or all three? Non-psychopathic people have two layers. The first one is food, sex, and money. The second is family, spirituality, and religion (also love.). Psychopaths only have the first layer. All they care about is sex, food, and money or in other words material things. And without science or divine intervention they will never ever care about anything else.

Smart Films for Smart Kids: WHERE THE LILIES BLOOM-Amazon Prime

I am proud to choose this film for kids this week. Where The Lilies Bloom is a wonderful story about an extraordinarily strong girl. Based on the novel by Bill and Vera Cleaver it’s the story of fourteen-year-old Mary Call (played beautifully by Julie Gholson), the second eldest child of four who lives with her father in the great Smokey Mountains. But after the death of their mother their father also falls ill. Before he dies Mary Call’s father makes her promise to keep the family together and not let the oldest child Devola (a young Jan Smithers of WKRP fame) marry their land owner Kiser Pease (the wonderful Harry Dean Stanton). Mary Call is determined to keep their father’s death a secret no matter how grueling the task becomes.  This film is more than a must see. It is required viewing.