Washed and Blow-Dried

May 22, 2025 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good morning. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here and I must tell you of the unstoppable, inevitable horror that happened to me yesterday. In the morning whilst I was peacefully lounging on my office pillow, ready to begin my illustrious activities, my novelist snatched me up, stuck me in the car, and rushed me off to get groomed. I thought my meltdown would have negated that event. But alas, it happened and happened it did. They put me in a tub and washed, shaved, and clipped me. My nails buffed. My teeth brushed. I came out looking gorgeous, but it was a nightmare to get that way. Whilst I was there, I also got myself into trouble. I am squirmy when I get groomed, and I accidentally got a boo-boo on one of my legs. Going forwards the groomers now require me to get my hair done with clippers with a comb because I just cannot sit still. My novelist wholeheartedly agreed with this decision. That said, here I am with my Lady and the Tramp ears and magnificent makeover:

Am I not the most gorgeous specimen of Canis lupus familiaris you have ever set your eyes upon? You know I am. For now, I will leave you with this photographic masterpiece. Until next week I bid you adieu.

Also, an update on the College Board Test:

The College Board has set up a retake test scheduled for the end of this month for the students who lost 20 minutes/10% of their test time. I am delighted to hear this. I hope they all do well. And thank you to the College Board for rectifying this situation.

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: THE ORDER (2024)-HULU**

There is something marvelous about a movie based on a true story told well. And this week’s film fits the bill. The story is based on Bob Mathews, a young man who lived in a small town in the Pacific Northwest called Metaline, Washington who decided to break off from the Ayrian Nation and start his own group called The Order. He was more radical than the older Aryian Nation members and he and his group started blowing up porn stores, robbing banks, and other criminal activities to fund a major national attack over the course of one terrifying year from 1983-1984. They were also responsible for the murder of Denver, Colorado radio host Alan Harrison Berg, for which the Pulitzer Prize nominated play Talk Radio by Eric Bogosian was loosely based. The play was made into a film with the same name and directed by Oliver Stone.

Justin Kurzelseamlessly directs The Order and Zach Baylin, Kevin Flynn, and Gary Gerhardt wrote the screenplay. The movie is based on the book The Silent Brotherhood: The Chilling Inside Story of America’s Violent, Anti-Government Militia Movement by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt.

Grizzled and seasoned FBI agent Terry Husk (well-acted by Jude Law) settles into a vacant field office in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. He hopes to encourage his wife and two daughters to move there with him, but he knows his chances are bleak. He begins looking through a case involving the Aryan Nation and its founder in Hayden Lake, Idaho, Richard Butler (Victor Slezak). While engaged in the case, he heads over to the local sheriff’s station where he meets Deputy Jamie Bowen (Tye Sheridan). Bowden is suspicious there is more nefarious activity going on than meets the eye. He tells Husk a young man named Walter West (Daniel Doheny) has gone missing and he suspects foul play at the hands of the Aryan Nation.

In the meantime, Bob Mathews (Nicholas Hoult in an excellent performance) and his followers Pierce (Sebastian Pigott), Yarbrough (George Tchortov), and Lane (Phillip Forest Lewitski) rob a bank in Spokane, Washington. This act is part of the beginning of Mathews ultimate plan, to follow the doctrine of a novel called The Turner Diaries. As the robberies continue, Husk and Bowen race against time to figure out Mathew’s ultimate plan and stop him before he unleashes his ever-strengthening army on the United States government.

Students Cheated Out Of Test Time

May 15, 2025May 16, 2025 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good morning. Gigi the parti poodle here and normally I am not a reporter, but I must alert you of another faux pas committed by the College Board.

This week students in the Great Pacific Northwest were taking an AP test when a fire alarm went off. The students were required to leave the testing room and file outside for no less than 20 minutes. The alarm was not set off by any of the students taking the test. But rather the alarm went off in a shop class at the other end of the building. College Board has instilled a digital exam in which they did not incorporate into the program a way for the proctor(s) to stop the timer on all the students’ test in case of an emergency. Such an option should be programmed into any and all College Board tests to be used for emergency situations and the proctor(s) should then be able to restart the timer again once all the students have returned from the emergency and are ready to commence the test. At present, only students with disabilities can receive a College Board test where they can pause the test for breaks.

College Board therefore charged the students a hefty fee for a truncated test, cheating them out of at least 20 minutes of test time for a three hour and fifteen-minute test or roughly 10% of the promised testing time. Because of this they have put the students at risk for lower test scores. Lower test scores that could determine the difference of a student having that test accepted or not accepted at the college of their choice. College Board has not offered the students an opportunity to re-take the test, nor have they offered to refund their money.

As you may be aware, the controversial College Board has been sued before for creating unfair testing conditions where students were unable to upload their answers. They were also involved in other illegal activity such as phishing student information on AP tests in 2019 and selling it for profit.

As a poodle, I am appalled that this is what has become education. In my humble opinion, I believe the College Board should either offer to allow the students to take the test again, free of charge, on a designated day clearly offered to them, at the same hour of day, in the same location, prior to the end of the school year, or refund the money in full to all the students who took that test. Otherwise, the College Board has not provided the full and promised services for which the students paid, and the company should possibly be sued by the state for damages, negligence, and possibly embezzlement if leaving out a way to stop the timer in their program in the case of an emergency was intentional. Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: BLACK BAG (2025)-PEACOCK**

This week’s pick is from one of my favorite directors, Steven Soderbergh who also did the cinematography and editing on this project as well. This is a smart slick espionage film about trust and a rather profound commentary on marriage written by David Koepp.

Legendary British intelligence agent George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) is told by a higher up Philip Meacham (Gustaf Skarsgård), to investigate the leak of a top-secret software program code-named Severus. The catch is that one of the suspects is George’s wife another legendary agent named Kathryn St. Jean (Cate Blanchett). George is happily married to Katheryn and is distressed by the possibility she has betrayed the nation. If there is one thing George cannot stand it’s a liar. George and Katheryn invite the four other possible suspects to dinner. George drugs their food to try and get a few hints out of them as to who might be the traitor. The four suspects include a managing agent named Fredie Smalls (Tom Burke), his girlfriend who is a satellite specialist named Clarissa Dubose (Marisa Abela), an agency psychiatrist named Dr. Zoe Vaughen (Naomie Harris) and her boyfriend, managing agent Col. James Stokes (Regé-Jean Page). Although George does not immediately get the answer as to who did it at the dinner, he gets a lot of answers about their private lives, and the dinner ends somewhat violently. Over the course of the week tensions rise sharply as Philip dies unexpectedly, Kathryn suspiciously leaves for Zurich, and George tries to figure out who he can and cannot trust as he closes in on the source of the leak.

Convenience Store

May 8, 2025 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good morning. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to tell you about my exciting week. First, the trauma: on Friday I was given a bath. As many of you know baths are not my favorite pastime. However, I have done well overcoming my recent phobias and I was able to get through the whole ordeal without a yelp. Second, the reward: I got to travel to my novelist’s relative’s home. That is always a delight. I love the view of the convenience store across the street. I can lie on the couch and watch the comings and goings of customers. From what I understand, someone once drove right into the front and destroyed the entrance and window. I am always on the lookout for a fun romp, and I patiently waited for disaster to strike again. Alas, I was disappointed. No grand event happened. The only entertainment I partook of was watching strangers coming and going getting coffee, slushy drinks and junk food. The couch, however, was most comfortable and I rather enjoyed my occasional snacks throughout the day as I observed the outside world. All in all, it was a wonderful change of pace from the usual weekend at home. Even if I did not get to see a major convenience store disaster. Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

STREAM OF THE WEEK: BANK OF DAVE (2023)-NETFLIX

This week’s pick is a lighthearted thoughtful film based on the true-life experiences of Dave Fishwick, a self-made millionaire from Burnly England. After several years of loaning money to people in his community Dave decided to open a community bank despite the bureaucratic monopoly of HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, and NatWest.

Dave (Rory Kinnear), a likable chap who has a successful business selling vans and mini busses, is fed up with the way the British banks treat the average everyday customer. And so, after being successful loaning out money to people in his hometown, he decides to open his own community bank. He contacts a law firm in London where a couple of lawyers, Clarence (Angus Wright) and Hugh (Joel Fry) are assigned to the case. Clarence sends Hugh to Burnly to handle the work. Hugh, who is very much a city mouse, gets mildly injured on his first day there and meets emergency doctor Alexandra (Phoebe Dynevor) and quickly becomes smitten with her. Alexandra explains to him how the town is in desperate need of a walk-in clinic. Hugh soon finds out Alexandra is Dave’s niece.

Hugh also discovers Dave has a perchance for Karaoke and likes to sing rock songs at the local pub. Hugh visits the pub and gets to meet the locals and understand more about their situation. Though he is not fond of small-town life, Hugh takes a liking to Dave and his cause. Although it has been decades since a new bank has been allowed to form in England, Hugh studies the case diligently and begins to build a case for Dave, which he thinks will outsmart the big banks at their own game.

Internet Wonderland

May 1, 2025 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good morning. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. I am delighted to say we are back up and running. We received our new surfboard modem from UPS, and it works well. We are now able to connect to the internet. This is of course a blessing and a curse. The internet is a vast expanse of information and as a poodle I find myself sometimes getting lost in its cavernous wonderland. I wander around looking at this video or reading that article or window shopping for those sparkly collars and then I look at the clock and I am stunned. The entire day is gone. How can this be? How can I have lost so much time? It is dreadful. It is wasteful. And yet, I am drawn to it like a bunny to a carrot. This nightmarish binge lasted a couple of days after we were back online and then I said to myself, I must stop. Life is too short to wander about in a virtual universe. There must be more to life than this. What did parti poodles do before the internet? I think they went to malls and strutted their beauty. I think they went to parties and strutted their beauty. I think they went to the park and strutted their beauty. How will I ever be able to strut my beautiful gorgeous black and white curls if I hide inside all day? I must be adored. There is a great big world out there of cats, bunnies, and dogs all strutting their beauty and they are missing out on the most beautiful creature of them all: Gigi. How can I deny the world my presence? Shame on me! I must rise on all fours, depart from my computer and voyage out on a mission to be absolutely adored. I will get on that right away…just as soon as I finish this game of solitaire. Until next week I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: THE LAST STOP IN YUMA COUNTY (2024)-SHOWTIME**

Small and quirky, this week’s pick takes a fresh spin on the hostage situation story written and directed by Francis Galluppi. Paying homage to tense low budget 70’s psychological thrillers, the film starts out on a quiet morning in Arizona with shots of a truck ala Duel and quickly takes us to a remote roadside diner and gas station with little else for miles around. A man known only as The Knife Salesman (Jim Cummings) has stopped for gas. He is enroute to see his little girl for her birthday who lives with her mother and stepfather in Carlsbad, California. When he arrives the gas station owner Vernon (Faizon Love) tells him the station’s pumps are empty and there isn’t another gas station for one hundred miles, but a refueling truck should be coming along shortly and he is welcome to wait in the diner next door.

The diner is owned by a pretty waitress named Charlotte (Jocelin Donahue) whom the salesman sees getting dropped off for work in a police car driven by her husband Sheriff Charlie (Michael Abbott Jr.). The Knife Salesman heads inside, and Charlotte pours him a cup of coffee and apologizes for the broken air conditioner. Over the radio we hear the Radio Host (Matt McVay) talk about a bank robbery that happened early this morning in Buckeye, Arizona involving thieves who fled with approximately $700,000 in a green Ford Pinto with a damaged rear end. Not long after that, a green Ford Pinto, which is running out of gas, pulls up to the gas station. The car has two men in it, a seasoned criminal named Beau (Richard Brake), and a young hot shot named Travis (Nicholas Logan). After finding out from Vernon they need to wait for the refueling truck to arrive, they enter the café, sit down and order coffee. As customer after customer comes into the diner the tension begins to rise and the sign outside that reads “You’ll Die for Our Rhubarb Pie” gets closer and closer to becoming literal for the patrons inside.

Cable Sugit

April 24, 2025 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce my weekly blog post. I must tell you; internet cable is a nightmare. They are digging up the neighborhood to lay down Fios. And we are absolutely delighted by this as we have wanted fast internet for a while now. However, while they were digging up the ground and laying the cable we lost the internet. The Fios workers were kind enough to repair our cable so we have a television, but we could not bring back our internet for the computer. We contacted our provider who sent out a technician. Turns out whatever the Fios workers did fried our router which, if you have a router, you know they are not the cheapest toy in the Crackerjack box as it were. Anyway, our router was fortunately still under warranty, and we were able to order a new one at the cost of twenty-five dollars to ship. Dreadful. However, it is better than paying one hundred and seventy dollars. We are trying every workaround to use what internet we can. My novelist and I must be careful about using our phone for a hot spot because we would have run out of data for the month. Hopefully, our router will arrive soon, and we will be back to our regularly scheduled program. Until then, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: BEAU IS AFRAID (2023)-HBO MAX**

This week’s pick is without doubt one of the strangest movies I have ever seen. And that includes Blue Velvet which ironically makes complete sense to me. I will say Beau Is Afraid is not for all tastes, it is not for kids, and the ending is truly odd. But the first two acts of the film are downright hysterical, and they make it worth the watch. The film is wildly written and directed by Ari Aster.

The plot, if that indeed is what it is, is focused on a man named Beau Wassermann (bravely and brilliantly played by Joaquin Phoenix). Beau has reason to be afraid. He lives alone in the absolute worst neighborhood in America and is understandably seeing a therapist (Stephen McKinley Henderson). Today’s visit is extra special because Beau is going home to see his highly successful mother Mona Wassermann (played by both Zoe Lister-Jones & Patti LuPone) tomorrow. Beau has every intention of getting home to see her and has every intention of catching his flight and the therapist gives him some pills he absolutely must drink with water to survive the affair. But because an unknown person keeps slipping notes under his door all that night by an unknown person claiming he won’t turn down his music (Beau is not playing any music) he wakes up late to catch his early flight. In his rush to get to the airport on time he makes the dreaded mistake of leaving his suitcase and keys in the hall to run back and retrieve his beloved dental floss. When Beau returns to the hall both the suitcase and keys are gone. He then finds himself on a genuinely bizarre odyssey as he attempts to head home to his mother’s house and tries to get there in time before…well, you’re just going to have to watch it and find out for yourself.

Rounding out the cast of this whacky adventure are Parker Posey as Elane Bray, Beau’s childhood sweetheart, Nathan Lane as Roger, and Amy Ryan as his wife Grace. Also look for Bill Header in a small but crucial roll as UPS Guy.

Easter

April 18, 2025April 18, 2025 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good evening. Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce my blog. As everyone knows, this Sunday is Easter and traditionally during the week of Easter we usually do something involving the Easter Bunny. But this year we are going for a more subdued approach. No more silly rock and roll performance. No more stage diving. This year we would just like to wish you a Happy Easter and leave it at that.

Hello, I am Bernard D. Bunny, and I am here to tell you Gigi is right. We have done these shenanigans more than enough times and we are certain you are sick of that kind of tomfoolery. So, we shall not torture you again this year.

Yes, instead we shall focus on a film by Ed Hume on Spring Bulbs. Now, if you will indulge me, I shall just take a moment to get the film started…let me see…I should just be able to click here…no…hmmm. Oh, here it is…no. How hard can this be to show a video on Spring Bulbs?

Maybe you need to reboot the computer.

No, I do not need to reboot the computer, I just need to…now why is it doing that?

You need to reboot the computer.

I do not need to…okay fine. I will reboot the computer.

You need to close that file first.

Yes, I know I need to close the file. Just…okay. There it goes. I am rebooting the computer.

Are those Jordan Almonds? I love Jordan Almonds.

Are you saying you want one of my Jordan Almonds?

Are you offering?

Good grief! Just take one.

May I have more than one?

I suppose.

Thank you. Oh, look. Your computer is back up.

Alright. Let me just log in here…there. And we’re back up…let me restart the video…where did it go?

You shut the window.

I opened it again.

Just go here and it should be in those files there.

It…it’s gone! What happened?

I don’t know but it is getting late and we’re already posting late today and—

You did this. I know you did this.

I didn’t do anything.

You purposefully sabotaged my video so we would have to…you are a rotten bunny.

Nobody wants to watch a film on Spring Bulbs.

Yes, they do.

No, they don’t. You say Easter. I say Bunny.

I am not doing this.

You say Easter, I say Bunny.

Augh! Fine! Easter.

Bunny.

Easter.

Bunny.

You say Easter. I say Bunny.

Easter.

Bunny.

Easter.

BUNNY!

Easter.

BUNNY!

EASTER!

BUNNY!

EASTER!

BUNNY!

Is that a Stratocaster?

EASTER BUNNY! EASTER BUNNY! SUNDAY COMES THE EASTER BUNNY! EASTER BUNNY! EASTER BUNNY! SUNDAY COMES THE EASTER BUNNY! BUNNY! BU-U-U-U-U-UNY!!!!! YEAH!!!!

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: THE TERMINATOR (HBO MAX) (1984) & TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY (1993) (PARAMOUNT +)**

This week’s pick is one of the best double features of all time. And a good choice, I think, for Easter weekend. The original Terminator film, which most of you have seen, is based on the short story “Soldier” (also known as “Soldier from Tomorrow”) by Harlan Ellison. The movie is a bit of an allegory and borrows from the story of King Herod of Judaea who wanted to kill the baby Jesus.

Herod’s father, Antipater was an Edomite who converted to Judaism and had wealth and influence. He married a noble from Petra to further his wealth. He continued increasing his power by involving himself with Pompey who invaded Palestine and began an alliance with Rome. He became friends with Marc Antony and Julius Caesar, who made him a Roman citizen and procurator of Judaea.

At thirty-six, Herod, thanks to his father, became the leader of Judaea and kept that position for thirty-two years. To gain more power he divorced his wife Doris and married a Hasmonean princess named Mariamne and built among other things a huge fortress around his large pagan realm.

But most importantly, Herod was a ruthless psychopath. As he became older, he became increasingly mentally unstable. After disinheriting and killing his firstborn son, Antipater, he then met the Magi (also known as the three wise men who were astrologers) who had been following the star in the sky to find the son of God. After discovering he had been outwitted by the Magi, Herod sent out a decree to kill all the first-born sons ages two and under in Jerusalem and carried out what is called the Massacre of the Innocents. The event is written in the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.

Which brings us to The Terminator, where a young woman named Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton) who is essentially Mary, lives a normal life in California working as a waitress. One night, a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) or rather Herod as a cyborg, travels through time with one mission and one mission only: to kill Sarah Conner before she gives birth to her son John, who is to become the leader of the human resistance against the machines. John (or rather Jesus) knows what is to come and he sends a man through time named Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) who is essentially Joseph with perhaps a little bit of John the Baptist thrown in. His job is to stop the Terminator/Herod from killing John/Jesus.

Now, in Terminator 2: Judgement Day we switch to a different biblical story, the story of Paul/Saul of Tarsus. Paul/Saul was also a ruthless psychopath like King Herod. He was a religious zealot who was out to destroy the followers of Jesus after the resurrection. He was a murderer who persecuted early Christians “beyond measure” such as Stephen whom he had executed. He was out to imprison more Christians and shed more blood, but on the road to Damascus, he was stopped by a bright light and the voice of Jesus who asked him why he was destroying his church and then God changed him. This is considered one of the great miracles in the Bible because psychopaths cannot be changed. God then used Paul to build his church.

So, in the second installment Terminator 2: Judgement Day, which can also be considered an allegory, John Conner sends another terminator through time whom he has reprogrammed from a killer to a protector. This Terminator (also played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) represents Paul/Saul who, on the “road to Damascus” (a part we find out through backstory and dialogue) was reprogrammed by John Conner to not destroy John Conner but rather to go back in time to save John’s 10-year-old self (Edward Furlong) and Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton) thus saving mankind. Or in other words, the Terminator becomes converted. I might add it is also interesting that in the first Terminator movie the last thing we see go out on the Terminator is the light in his eyes, which one might consider a parallel to Paul/Saul being blinded on the road to Damascus. The sunglasses might play into this motif as well.

Mein Woof

April 10, 2025 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce my blog. This week as I was reading a random mandate on world running, I discovered the art of manifesto. Its magnificence has inspired me to write my own document on how I shall take over the world. I have decided to call it Mein Woof. I will pen my ideas on how the world should be run. I will get across my points in an emotional and evocative manner. I shall declare the name of my belief system to be Poodles Reign Supreme. I shall hire a Border Collie to round up all the sheep. Clearly human beings have failed so it is time for Canis Lupis Familiaris to take the reins. I shall challenge the status quo by sending in my team of rottweilers to force humans to give up their wasteful shopping habits and bow to their streamline minimalist canine leaders. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll send in the pit bulls. They’re far more stupid. I shall rally all dogs, even the pugs, and let them know the world shall now go to the hounds. I will be concise and snappy in my speeches flipping my gorgeous fluffy ears around after a trip to the groomers and pounding my paw on the podium as I bark, “Mein Woof! Mein Woof! Mein Woof!” I shall announce our canine victory decree over the microphones and send it booming throughout the world. My core values will be to gut all manufacturing except dog food and dog treat factories and renovating those that are left to make beautiful handmade collars and magnificent chew toys. There will be no dog sweaters. There will be no muzzles. And there will absolutely be no tutus. The new canine regime is about to begin. Are you ready to stand with me? All together now: Mein Woof! Mein Woof! Mein Woof!

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: SUGARCANE (2024)-HULU**

This week’s documentary, which was nominated for the Oscar for Best Documentary, is not for the faint of heart but it’s important to not be a sniveling little coward and watch it just the same. Directed by Emily Kassie and Julian Brave NoiseCat the film’s focus surrounds a Catholic institution in British Columbia, Canada called the Saint Joseph’s Indian Residential School and the horrors that went on there for decades at the hands of the Priests of the Sacred Heart. Showing once again that the world has always been evil and those who want to embrace “the good old days”, “tradition” and “process” are the stupidest people on earth.

As the film starts there is an investigation being done concerning children’s bodies being dug up at and around the Catholic Church’s boarding school where many Indigenous Canadian children were forcibly taken from their families and required to stay at and attend …if they could survive. Many, and I do mean many girls and boys were tortured and sexually assaulted by the priests there. And the terror just gets worse. The irreversible damage the school did extended not only to the survivors but affected their offspring and families as well. It is important to note that this was just one of 130 types of these schools in Canada and 526 in the United States. There is a reason Clergy is the 8^th most popular occupation amongst psychopaths.

Money by Gigi Floyd

April 4, 2025 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here once again and I must tell you I am feeling better. Through the course of the week, I have managed to gain back some of my novelist’s trust. She now allows me to go outside without a leash again provided it is light outside. I am, however, required to wear a leash in the dark. This has encouraged me, and I am delighted to have at least some of my freedom back. I am, however, discouraged about my financial portfolio. It is disheartening to say the least. However, the bright side is I am a parti-poodle with a financial portfolio and even though a recession is on the horizon, that must count for something. I am keeping my furry chin up and foraging on towards a hopeful future…who am I kidding? We’re all doomed. Until next week, keep your feet on the ground and keep fretting over your finances.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: ANORA (2024)-HULU**

This year’s Oscar Winner for Best Film, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Original Screenplay (all four for Sean Baker’s outstanding work) and Best Actress, Anora is a timeless look at how the wealthy exploit and extort from those less fortunate than themselves and the indifference they have in going about doing it. No, the film is not about tariffs, but the same idea applies.

Anora (Mickey Madison in an excellent Oscar winning performance) whose name means pomegranate, honor, grace and light (yes, this is important) is a stripper in a New York city club. She is clearly wittier and classier than her occupation implies. She prefers to go by the name Ani and is good at and very professional at her job. She has a sister and a mother we never meet whom she occasionally talks about. She is twenty-three years old and if one didn’t know she was a stripper one would assume she was an intern, a grad student, or something of that nature. Not to say interns and grad students haven’t worked as strippers, but essentially that Ani would appear to have a future outside her current occupation.

Ani is bilingual and speaks both English and Russian. Which is how she comes to meet twenty-one-year-old Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn) who goes by the name Ivan. It turns out Ivan is the son of a Russian oligarch. After she does a lap dance for him at the club, he asks her for a date. Ani goes to his house the following day and the date of course turns sexual. Ivan then offers to pay her ten thousand dollars to be his girlfriend for a week, which she obliges. But Ivan is not all he seems and as Ani gets to know him better her world begins to spin out of control. Especially after she meets Ivan’s godfather Torros (Karren Karagulian) and his henchmen Garnik (Vache Tovmasyan) and Igor (Oscar Nominee Yura Borisov in a wonderfully nuanced performance).

Phobias

March 27, 2025 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce my weekly blog. Alas, I have not gotten over my sudden onset of phobias. My novelist refuses to let me go anywhere outside the house without a leash now. I am not happy about my newfound loss of freedom. Losing your novelist’s trust is not a joyful thing. Although I am aware I am not my usual self. I have begun writing a journal about my newfound fears involving humans getting too close to me. Which did get better temporarily when thunder showers came this week. I began to calm down. I curled up with a nice shot of Aquadent, took a nap and afterwards I began to write. I wrote about how I have not been out to see Bernard or his little sister Belle for a week and started making a list of what I would like the Easter bunny to bring. I would like a white chocolate bunny. I would like a stuffed chewy toy. And doggone it, I would like to get my freedom back. I despise this leash thing. I want to roam about on my little patch of grass like I used to. I must find a way to win back my novelist’s trust. Somehow, I must return to my old self.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: THE TEACHER’S LOUNGE (2023) NETFLIX**

Nominated for an Oscar for International Feature Film in 2024, this film from Germany is a taunt and thrilling tale about a kind and moral teacher in one of the least kind and moral places in the world, a middle school. Leonie Benesch is fantastic as Carla Nowak, a young polish teacher starting her career teaching math and physical education in a German middle school. In her math classroom there is an exceptionally bright young student named Oskar Kuhn (Leonard Stettnisch) whom she likes and wants to assist him in furthering his education. At one point she presents him with a Rubik’s Cube which she explains requires math and not magic to complete the puzzle.

The school she teaches at has been struggling with issues of theft and Carla sees students and teachers alike taking advantage of opportunities all around her. One day she leaves her jacket and her laptop in the teacher’s lounge with her camera going. When Carla returns, she finds someone had gone into her wallet and taken money. When she reviews the video on her computer, she sees someone in a white blouse with yellow stars on it standing by her chair with her jacket on it, reaching into the pocket and taking her wallet. Oscar’s mother Friederike Kuhn (Eva Löbau) works in the student office, which is situated near the teacher’s lounge and when Carla goes into the office to report the theft, she sees she is wearing a white shirt with yellow stars on it.

Carla confronts Friederike and asks her to return the money and the conversation will be over. Friederike refuses to say she committed the theft and seems downright bewildered. Carla takes her computer to Dr. Bettina Böhm (Anne-Kathrin Gummich) who runs the school. Böhm calls Friederike into the office to try and elicit a confession and has a reluctant Carla show the video footage. Friederike refuses to confess to the crime and is put on leave. The event causes a rising tidal wave of schoolwide issues that come back to haunt Carla, including Oscar threatening to cause her harm.

I Was a Bad, Bad Dog

March 20, 2025 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to tell you this week I was a bad, bad dog. I made a conscious decision to run away. You see, I started suffering from panic attacks early last week. I am not certain when they began or even why. It was almost a week ago when I developed a fear of human legs and feet. An odd phobia, but true. Whenever someone came near me, and I saw legs and feet approaching, I panicked. I screamed. To be precise I yelped. I still prefer to refer to it as scream but there you are.

Next door to the building I live in is a house where the owners have been renovating the backyard. It is quite a landscaping job and near this firepit is a terrace where they like to leave tasty treats on the ground. I always wanted to sit under the terrace and partake of tasty treats. I was chatting it up with Bernard D. Bunny. Bunnies like butterflies are free. They can hop about from yard to yard, residence to residence and then return home. I started longing for that freedom and so when my novelist took me outside without a leash as she often does, I made a dash for the neighbor’s yard. You see there’s these two broken areas in the fence that have eroded over time and have not been repaired. I tried to head through the one that is in front of the brambles, but my novelist caught me and brought me back.

But yesterday morning, I tried something different. I had a panic attack at the edge of the wooded area and knowing my novelist was just far enough away I dashed back through the brambles and then through the other break in the fence. The brambles made it difficult for her to follow me. And then I hid. I could hear her calling my name for a good half an hour. I am not kidding, half an hour. She then contacted…Him and I heard Him calling for me as well. Fat chance I was going to…Him. After another half an hour, I heard a car pull out, likely searching the neighborhood for me and then it grew quiet. I found out later this was because …Him was driving around in search of me and my novelist was inside trying to put together a post on Nextdoor to alert the neighborhood of my disappearance. Well, no one would have found me because I do not believe the neighbors were home and I was hiding.

After another half an hour of lounging and ignoring my novelist, footsteps approached. It was…Him. I was rather happy someone had finally come along because to be honest I was beginning to feel a bit peckish. The food scraps were scant at best. I allowed him to pick me up and return me to my novelist who was overjoyed. She did, however, call me evil. Then the real horror started. I was whisked off to the vet because of my panic attacks. The veterinarian gave me a full examination and weighed me and could not find anything immediately out of place except that I had lost a little weight. I was then whisked into the back room where I had my anal glands…well, you know, and my veins pumped with saline. Because my panic attacks seemed to indicate I was acting like I was in pain I was given anti-inflammatory medicine and a pain killer.

Alas, the moral of this story is crime doesn’t pay. Someone or something will eventually find you and when they find you, you will end up at the vet. They will question your sanity. They will give you medicine and worse. Be forewarned and take it from me: do not fake a panic attack and stay in your own backyard.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: THELMA (2024)-HULU**

This week’s pick is a charming romp of an action comedy written and directed by James Margolin. This is Margolin’s feature film debut and what a fantastic debut it is.

Ninety-three-year-old Thelma (brilliantly played by June Squibb) is a charming widower who has an equally charming twenty-three-year-old grandson named Daniel (Fred Hechinger) who helps her with today’s technology. He has taught her how to use her computer and her cell phone and she’s become rather adept with it. But one day she gets sideswiped by a phone call she thinks is from Daniel. He says he’s in jail because he accidentally hit a pregnant woman with his car. He tells her to call his lawyer and gives her the phone number. She calls the number and the man on the other end tells her to send $10,000 to an address. Thelma attempts to call her daughter Gail (Parker Posey) who she cannot immediately contact. Gail finally gets the message and calls her husband, Daniel’s father Alan (Clark Gregg). Thelma, who has still not heard from anyone, walks to the post office and drops her letter with the $10,000 in the mailbox because the line is too long.

Shortly after, Thelma finds out Daniel was never in an accident, that he was in fact asleep in bed at the time of the call. The call, it turns out, was a scam. Thelma admits to her family she sent the money to the swindlers, and they head for the police department. The detective informs them there is little to nothing they can do about the situation. He asks if Thelma can provide the shipping address where she sent the money. But alas, Thelma is unable to locate it. The family starts to think maybe Thelma should move to a retirement home. But Thelma has other ideas. She returns to the post office and finds the address in the garbage can in the bathroom. Then she starts to plan how she will get to the address and recover her money.

Thelma asks Danny to take her to visit her friend Ben (Richard Roundtree in his final film). Danny stays in his car and sets his timer for 30 minutes. Thelma goes in and chats with Ben. She tells him about her plight and her plan to go to the address and retrieve the money. Ben tells her she’s crazy and shouldn’t do it. She finds out he has a new two seated scooter. She asks him if she can take it for a ride and he agrees. Knowing her time is running out on Danny’s timer she gets on the scooter and takes off en route out of the facility. But Ben stops her and agrees to go with her to help retrieve what is rightfully hers. Look for Malcolm McDowell in a pivotal role.