Enter Through the Window

March 12, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. Artemis and I had to sneak behind the fiend’s yellow house to get to the back door. Artemis, being a Persian cat, is more surefooted than I. However, I am a bold and clever poodle. After we sat in the van with Charlotte, Bruiser, Ruffles and the twins and watched the man pull his white Corvette out of the garage and drive off to whatever nefarious thing he does for work, Artemis and I looked both ways, crossed the street, and headed up to the house.

We had to go around the outdoor catwalk that sticks out at the front of the residence. A rickety disturbing thing if you ask me. I have not once seen a feline walk down it the entire time that we have been scoping out the house. In fact, we have not seen anyone, human or beast, enter or exit the fiend’s abode except the fiend himself. Artemis and I had to jump up and climb a wood fence to reach the rear side. My back foot slipped a little, but I regained my balance and followed Artemis. We tiptoed along the back of the house, surprised to find a rather lovely red wood composite deck. It was rather opulent and looked down a hill. Not the horror house we originally expected. We looked over at a window that according to the blueprints was the rec room. When we climbed up on a deck chair to get a better vantage point into the room, we realized it had blackout curtains which hung across the glass. I looked along the building to my right and saw the sliding glass door. I pointed it out to Artemis and said, “We could see if he left it unlocked.”

“Or possibly try the window,” she said. “He may have cracked it, and we could push it open and crawl inside.”

“Brilliant,” I said and we headed towards the door. We wanted to peer into the house but only saw the slats of Hunter Douglas blinds. I got down as low as I could and attempted to look under them but all I saw was darkness. Artemis and I saw a folding chair standing against the side of the house. It was light enough that the two of us were able to scoot it over. Artemis leaned her weight on one of the legs and I jumped up onto the seat to see if the door was open. I pushed against the handle and tried to get it to move. But my efforts were to no avail.

“We should try the window,” Artemis said. “Humans can be more careless with windows than they are with doors.”

“I indeed hope you are right.”

“Demeter used to talk about slipping into windows of houses at night all the time.”

“Did she get caught?”

“Not…usually.”

“Right. Let’s try it again.”

Artemis and I nudged the chair along till it was under the window. I climbed up on the chair and gave it a shove. Much to our delight it opened… to blinds. I pushed them forwards as I climbed in…and found myself in a kitchen sink. This petrified me because kitchen sinks are slippery and I did not want to be trapped. I put both my forepaws on the counter and hopped up. Suddenly, I noticed it was a long way down to the floor. Artemis scampered up the chair and into the window. She too found herself in the kitchen sink. She hopped up on the counter and looked down.

“It is rather high,” she said.

“We’re going to have to get down from here somehow.”

Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

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

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: SONG SUNG BLUE (2025)-PEACOCK**

Sometimes the critics get it wrong. And they certainly failed to give enough appreciation to this underrated sleeper, about a couple of real-life down-on-their-luck musicians, who teamed up to create a sensational Neil Diamond tribute band. The film was directed by Craig Brewer who co-wrote the script with Greg Kohs based on Kohs’ 2008 documentary film of the same name. One of the most heartbreaking things about the movie is Hugh Jackman not receiving an Oscar nod for Best Actor for his electric performance.

Mike (Hugh Jackman) is a Vietnam veteran and 20 years sober alcoholic who has grown weary of performing covers of famous singers. One night he tells his boss Mark Shurilla (Michael Imperioli), a Buddy Holly impersonator, he’s not going to perform as Don Ho at the Wisconsin State Fair but rather wants to create his own persona and call himself Lightning. On that fateful night he meets Claire (Kate Hudson in a well-deserved Oscar-nominated performance), a versatile singer and musician who happens to be performing as Patsy Cline. They chat and flirt a little and then he watches her perform. He is informed by Sex Machine, a James Brown impersonator (Mustafa Shakir) that she is a very versatile performer who can sing just about anything from country to rock and even opera.

The two meet again a year later and Claire tells him he would make a terrific Neil Diamond. Mike thinks over her suggestion, contacts her again, and says he likes the idea provided she performs with him. The two begin to rehearse together and start to put together a Neil Diamond experience show all the while falling in love. Claire introduces Mike to her teenage daughter Rachel (Ella Anderson) and son Dana Cartwright (Hudson Hensley). Mike in turn introduces her family to his teenage daughter Angelina (King Princess) who lives with her mother.

Mike gets in touch with his agent and dentist Dr. Dave Watson (Fisher Stevens), who introduces him to Tom D’Amato (Jim Belushi), a bus driver for a hotel that can get them gigs. Shurilla swallows his pride and offers to be lead guitar for the band. But the road to success is rocky and just as the band starts to take off, the unthinkable happens.

Perusing the Plans

March 5, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. After Sergio bravely retrieved the blueprints for the layout of the yellow house with the catwalk, we gathered at Artemis’s place. We laid the plans out on a table and studied them carefully. I noted it might be difficult to get into the house from the back, but the front seemed too conspicuous.

“I agree with Gigi,” Charlotte the Chow said. “The back of the house may be more difficult to enter but the front faces a cul-de-sac and a pack of dogs entering a residence would appear peculiar.”

“Entering from the back could be dangerous,” Bruiser the Jack Russell said. “But according to these plans we seem to only have two ways in.”

“What about the garage?” Ruffles the Bulldog asked. “It’s in the front but maybe if we time it just right a couple of us could sneak inside, maybe when he’s backing his sports car or van out. Then we could wait for the guy to come home and follow him into the house.”

“That sounds dangerous,” Charlotte said. “I think it would be difficult to slip inside unnoticed with him opening the door.”

“How do we even get to the back door?” Ruffles asked. “There’s a whole bunch of foliage there.”

Artemis sat up from her curled up position. “I am a cat. I can do it.”

“Are you sure?” Charlotte asked.

“Absolutely. If Gigi will go with me. She’s small and nimble. I think she could accomplish the task.”

“I will go with you,” I replied with great poodle dignity.

She put her paw on my shoulder. “Thank you. I believe it is safer to go in pairs.”

The twin dachshunds Titus and Tyler barked, “Better in pairs, better in pairs!” Then they started chasing each other’s tails again.

“When should we attempt this break in?” Bruiser asked.

“Soon,” Artemis said. “I want to find out what happened to my sister Demeter.”

“Saturday night,” I said. “Bernard D. Bunny has been watching the house, and he found out the brute goes out on Saturday nights. It will give us enough time to relook over the designs and hatch the best plan.”

“Agreed,” Charlotte said. “We will park the van just outside the cul-de-sac where we will have a strait view of the house.”

Then we all put our right forepaws out and set them one on top of the other. “We’re going in,” we all said in unison.

Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: BLUE MOON (2025)-NETFLIX**

Every so often, though I think perhaps less these days, a movie comes along that is more of a filmed stage play than a movie. These films are less for the average audience and more for the cinephile. They tend to have very few sets and well-crafted monologues. This week’s pick is one of those films. The script is eloquently written by Oscar Nominee Robert Kaplow and directed by Richard Linklater.

The story takes place on the opening night of what would turn out to be the first blockbuster musical, Oklahoma written by Richard Rodgers (Andrew Scott) and Oscar Hammerstein (Simon Delaney). But before the existence of this powerhouse musical duo, Rodgers’ professional partner was Lorenz Hart (Oscar Nominee Ethan Hawke). The two of them wrote about twenty plays together and many great American standards such as “Isn’t it Romantic?”, “My Funny Valentine”, “Ten Cents a Dance”, “The Lady is a Tramp”, “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World”, and of course “Blue Moon”.

Disenchanted after watching the opening night of the show, Hart goes directly to his favorite bar where the cast will be gathering. Being quite savvy and forward thinking he realizes, somewhat to his dismay, that the show will be a huge hit and have a very long run. He also realizes, on some level, his place in the musical theatre world is waning. He sits down and discusses this with his favorite bartender Eddie (Bobby Cannavale) as well as a soldier/piano player named Morty Rifkin (Jonah Lees). In addition, Lorenz starts to discuss the intense infatuation he has with a college co-ed and actress named Elizabeth Weiland (Margaret Qualley). Also privy to the conversation is writer E.B. White (Patrick Kennedy). Eddie is a little surprised by Lorenz’s passion for Weiland as he knows Lorenz discretely lives his life as a homosexual. But Hart’s fixation on the young woman is indeed real.

As the night progresses, Hart, who suffers from alcoholism, tries to stay on the wagon as he watches the accolades roll in for Rodgers and Hammerstein. But each small pitfall he encounters over the course of the night makes him drink a little more and a little more.

The Squirrel and the Blueprints

February 27, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good evening. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. This week Artemis, Bruiser, Charlotte, the twins Titus and Tyler, Ruffles, and I all called on Sergio Squirrel’s assistance once again. He’d done such a spectacular job getting pictures off the surveillance tape at the 7-Eleven we asked if he could get us the blueprints of the layout of the yellow house with the catwalk. He scampered down to the planning and building department at city hall late in the afternoon. He returned with photos the next day but told us it was a harrowing experience.

He said he had arrived at city hall at four forty-five P.M. just as they were about to close. As a man and a woman who were in a heated argument were coming out, he darted inside without being noticed. He found a place to hide under a vending machine and waited until five o’clock when the place closed.

After that Sergio told us he crawled out from under the machine and headed down the slippery tile hall to find the room where the blueprints are kept. He almost skidded into a copy machine but regained his footing and pressed forwards. He entered what looked like the right place, but found it was only a generic conference room. Someone had left a plate of crackers on the boardroom table and he snatched one. One cannot feel peckish when one is on a mission, he said. He continued down the hall and darted into a couple of rooms he found out were only offices. He was, however, delighted to discover a small bowl of peanut M&M candies on one of the desks and stopped briefly to enjoy the confection.

Finally, he came to a room at the end of a hallway with a double door, but it was locked shut. He didn’t know how he was going to get inside. He scampered back to one of the offices and hopped up on the desk chair. This was no easy feat as the chair had casters on it and rolled around as he climbed to the top of the back of the chair. He almost lost his balance and narrowly missed falling into a round metal trash can.

Once on the top of the backrest, though, he was able to study the window. He noticed it had the ability to open. If he could push the glass forwards, he could escape out the bottom, head outside and then scurry back inside the window of the room with the double door if it also had a window that opened out. Sergio said opening the window was no small feat. He had to push a lever down with all his might. But it worked and the window swung out from the bottom. He crawled onto the window frame and hopped out onto a nearby tree.

He skuttled along the branch and sat studying the position where he believed the double door room was located. It indeed came equipped with a window that opened but said window was closed. Disheartened, he headed back to the other office. Once inside he snatched a couple more M&M candies and munched them down to deal with the stress.

As he was leaving the office, he happened to see a maintenance guy rolling a garbage can down the hall, wearing a pair of headsets and singing off key. Sergio hid in the doorway of the office and when the man moved past him. Sergio jumped onto the rolling garbage can and held on. The man rolled the can all the way down to the double doored room at the end of the hall. He unlocked it with his badge and inadvertently rolled Sergio inside.

Sergio realized immediately this was the place where the blueprints were kept. As the man began cleaning and sweeping the room, Sergio scampered under a plush desk chair and lay low. It took a while, but the man finished cleaning the room. Sergio crawled out thinking he was gone when the man turned around. Sergio stepped back and hid behind a table leg. The man narrowed his eyes and stared straight at him. Our poor squirrel said his heart was beating so fast he could hear pulsing in his ears.

Then the man shut off the lights and left the room, rolling his garbage can down the hall. Sergio waited and then he headed over to a vault at the wall. He knew that under one of the keyboards on one of the desks there must be the code. Humans were always a little careless. He of course was right. He entered the code into the vault, and it unlocked. He scampered inside and found hard copies of the blueprints of houses. After several minutes of figuring out how the blueprints were organized, he found the ones to the yellow house with the catwalk. He took pictures on his phone and carefully put the blueprints away. He went to leave the vault when he heard a terrifying sound.

A guard-dog entered the room. Sergio’s heart nearly stopped beating. Somehow the security guard realized the vault was open and now said security guard and guard-dog were entering the vault. He would have to hide again. He hopped up onto one of the racks and crawled into one of the rolled-up blueprints. He tried not to shiver. He tried not to make a sound. But a guard-dog’s ears are sensitive.

The dog turned towards him and barked and growled viciously at the blueprints where he hid. The security guard turned and told the dog to calm down. Sergio knew he was trapped, cornered, doomed. What choice did he have but to use his talents. Just as the security guard shined his bright flashlight into the rolled-up documents, Sergio drew in a breath and sprung out into the security guard’s face. This stunned the security guard and his horror hound enough to allow him enough time to dash out of the vault, out the open door, back down the hall, into the room with the still open window, leap into the tree, scurry down the trunk and dash for freedom. He was so shaken by the experience he hid in his drey cuddling his acorns until the next day when he mustered up his courage and brought the pictures to us. Thank you, dear Sergio. Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

STREAM OF THE WEEK: IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU (2025)-HBO MAX

Easily one of the best films of the year, this excellent piece of independent cinema fabulously written and directed by Mary Bronstein is an all-out attack on parenting and the medical system. Loaded with symbolism and metaphor, it is an original wonder. Some viewers have found it difficult to watch. I did not. Maybe because I’m an INTJ. I could easily rewatch the film and look for more clever layers in this story. Honestly, I’m baffled as to why it was not nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

Linda (Rose Byrn in a phenomenal Oscar nominated performance) is a psychotherapist who has a daughter known only as the Child (Delany Quinn). As viewers we barely get a look at the girl’s face. This is because Bronstein wants the audience to focus on the mother who in other films is often relegated to the background. This is Linda’s story. Not her husband’s nor her daughter’s. The Child has a rare pediatric eating disorder and must be fed through a tube (likely a phallic symbol) in her stomach at night which Linda must always attend to.

One day, after Linda and the Child come home from an appointment with Dr. Spring (Mary Bronstein), the Child’s passive aggressive medical doctor, carrying a cheese pizza for which the Child will only eat the crust, the Child heads into the bathroom of their upper middle-class Montauk apartment. The kid starts crying out that there is water all over the floor. When Linda goes to check out the situation she finds a crack in the ceiling. The crack gives way, and water rushes everywhere leaving her with a large hole in the ceiling.

Finding herself looking directly into womanhood she calls her husband Charles (Christian Slater who, like the daughter we rarely see) and he says he cannot come home because he is busy with his career. Take notice when you do see Charles, he is dressed in white, a wink and nudge to him being a “white knight come to rescue her”.

Linda then takes the Child to a motel near the water. During her stay she will find herself confronting Dr. Spring, Charles, a Parking Attendant (Mark Stolzenberg), a sardonic desk clerk named Diana (Ivy Wolk), sexist contractors who find reasons to stall on fixing her ceiling, and her own psychotherapist (creepily played by Conan O’Brien) a covert narcissistic jerk who makes the Crane brothers look like selfless saints. Her only comfort is escaping from their motel room at night clutching a receiver in one hand and marijuana paraphernalia in the other.

During their stay she meets James (ASAP Rocky), the motel’s superintendent, who provides some comfort and grounding. But this becomes short lived as one of her patients Caroline (Danielle Macdonald) who is struggling with being a new mother does something drastic.

Pedigree Certificates

February 19, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good morning. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. Artemus the Persian, Bruiser the Jack Russel, Ruffles the Bulldog, Titus and Tyler the twin dachshunds and of course yours truly sat around this past week trying to come up with a plan. But before we did that, we had to consider how this evil catnapper found himself able to afford a white Corvette.

We called a tea party. The twins insisted on something with caffeine being served. This was concerning to the rest of us what with their difficulty keeping focus. We were stunned to find out that Earl Grey calmed them down. Shocking. The rest of us had a lovely fruity herbal. It was most scrumptious.

But getting back to the task at hand. Bernard D. Bunny joined our convention and helped us think about what could be going on. After drinking tea and deliberating the matter, it occurred to me that the villain may have acquired his car money by way of selling cats on the black market. When I spoke the words, I suddenly felt ludicrous. But Bernard after pondering the possibility for a moment said, “I think that sounds plausible.” The others agreed. “Yes,” Charlotte said. “Artemus and Demeter have pedigree certificates. So do Madeline and Edison.” But, I said, they would need the papers along with them to be valuable. We all thought about this dilemma. “Maybe,” Ruffles said, “he was able to hack into the computers and get an electronic copy.”

“Or possibly,” Bernard said, “he counterfeits them.”

This initiated a unified gasp.

“Counterfeit! Counterfeit!” the twins barked and ran around chasing each other’s tails.

“Do you think it’s too late?” Charlotte said. “Do you think he’s already sold our dear feline friends to evil conglomerates?”

“Maybe he hasn’t sold all of them off yet,” I said.

“Either way, we’re going to have to hurry. We must go investigate that brute’s house.

Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: THE LOST BUS (2025)-APPLE TV+**

One of the more underrated films this year is this survival drama gem. Deservedly nominated for an Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects for Charlie Noble, David Zaretti, Russell Bowen, and Brandon K. McLaughlin who provide a truly harrowing atmosphere. The story is based on the book Paradise by Lizzie Johnson about the 2018 Camp Fire which occurred in Paradise, California. It was the deadliest and most damaging wildfire in the history of California.

The story starts on Thursday morning November 8, 2018, in which badly maintained hardware belonging to the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) was hit by Katabatic wind. This caused a line to fail in the Feather River Canyon and fire ignited. A truck driver saw it and called the fire department to report it. Because of the difficult terrain of the area, Ray Martinez, CAL FIRE Division chief (Yul Vazquez) was told by his crew they could not reach the location of the blaze. Listening to the advice of Jen Kissoon, CAL FIRE battalion chief (Kate Wharton) he realizes the fire is going to spread into a runaway wildfire. He attempts to send out an order to evacuate the area but runs into computer failure.

School Bus Driver Kevin McKay (well-acted by Matthew McConaughey) is struggling with financial and family issues. He has returned to Paradise to care for his aging mother Sherry (Kay McCabe McConaughey, McConaughey’s real life mother) and presently has custody of his son Shaun McKay (Levi McConaughey, McConaughey’s real life son). There is a lot of friction between Kevin and Shaun. Shaun is not doing as well in school as his father hoped, and he wants to leave Paradise and return to live with his mother. Not to mention Kevin is forced to take his beloved dog to the vet to have him put down. He asks his boss transportation director Ruby Bishop (Ashlie Atkinson) for extra hours. But she is reluctant to provide them as he has delayed returning his bus to the depot for maintenance several times (an interesting parallel with the badly maintained electrical lines).

After dropping off the kids at school that morning, Kevin gets a call from his mother that Shaun has a fever. Kevin tells her he needs to get gas for the bus and turn it in for maintenance, but he will stop at the pharmacy and get medicine after ending his shift. He fills the bus with gas, purchases Tylenol, and is on route home when a message is sent out to all the drivers that a wildfire is in effect. And Kevin is the only driver near enough to pick up 22 children stranded at Ponderosa Elementary School with their teacher Mary Ludwig (well-acted by America Ferrera) in the Paradise evacuation zone.

Sports Car

February 12, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. Before I begin, I would just like to alert you to my unbelievably romantic new photo on the front page of our site. Am I not the cutest thing ever? Of course, I am. Feel free to bathe in my adorableness.

My novelist’s illness worsened some this week but has since improved. And so, I returned to assist my fellow Canis lupis familiaris and our dear Persian cat Artemus. At the meeting concerning the yellow house with the catwalk we decided to stage a stake out. Ruffles somehow talked his owner into driving over and parking his van on the opposite side of the cul-de-sac so we could run surveillance on the place. We watched the house diligently all through the afternoon. It was most boring. Nothing happened except the twin dachshunds decided to play slap jack which was most annoying.

Around four-thirty in the afternoon when we’d all eaten through our treat bags and were quite tired, a car pulled up. A rather stylish car if I do say so myself. A sports car of some sort in stark white that looked like a Stormtrooper’s uniform. We all put our paws on the tinted windows and watched. A villain matching the photos Sergio got for us from the 7-Eleven pulled his girth from the car.

“He’s not driving his van,” Charlotte the Chow said.

“Likely he has more than one car,” Bruiser the Jack Russel replied.

Artemis narrowed her eyes and studied the sloppy figure in his baggy circus pants, Gargoyle sunglasses, and wrinkled Hawaiian shirt. “It’s him. It must be him. No one who dresses like that could be a good person.”

We watched the sadist take a long sloppy drink from his Slurpee and gasped.

“The brute has our cats,” I said. “We must take action!”

“Right now?” Ruffles said.

“No. We must hatch a plan.”

Until next week, I bid you a very Happy Valentine’s Day and adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: KPOP DEMON HUNTERS (2025)-NETFLIX**

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, I thought this might be an off-beat somewhat romantic film to feature as this week’s stream of the week. This is a gorgeous-looking movie with a terrific script that’s not just for tweeners. Deservedly nominated for two Oscars for Best Original Song “Golden” by EJAE and Mark Sonnenblick and for Best Animated Film it is more than a solid contender for both honors. It is also proof that like last year’s outstanding animated films, animation is getting more unique and stronger.

At first, the concept of this film sounds bizarre. A female K-pop group is really three demon hunters who come to find their toughest enemy is a new male K-pop group made up of demons. Logically this should warrant a confused look followed by an eyeroll. But it works and it works well. The songstresses are Rumi (Arden Cho), Mira (May Hong), and Zoey (Ji-young Yoo) of the K-pop band Huntrix managed by their agent Bobby (Ken Jeong). They have gifted voices that allow them to create a magic barrier called Honmoon to hold back the demons. They are racing against time to create the Golden Honmoon which will permanently bar the demons from the human world.

But Gwi-Ma (Lee Byung-hun), leader of the soul-stealing demons, finds amongst his minions Jinu (Ahn Hyo-seop), a human-turned-demon, has a plan. Jinu and four other demons have formed a boy band called the Saja Boys. Their plan: to steal Huntrix’s fans and weaken the Honmoon.

As the Saja Boys start to set their plan in motion, one of the Huntrix singers finds she must come to terms with a secret she has been keeping for years…that is if she can thwart the scene stealing tiger and magpie.

Truth

February 5, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. It started late last week, my novelist feeling a little off and later feeling off turned into a full-blown cold. This greatly irritated her has she had both her flu and covid shots this year. I told my dear canine friends I would have to let them work on the missing cat dilemma whilst I nursed my novelist back to health. I was rather bored with the task since she slept a great deal and decided to go on the internet to see what was going on in the world. It is rather disturbing out there as there is a list of people who apparently went to an island and willingly hurt children. I was most distressed about this. My cups of tea did not settle me down. When my novelist woke up in the late afternoon, I confided in her what I’d been reading. She nodded her head and said, “I’m going to tell you two stories about two different people. Both stories are true and both people in them are real. I am going to call these two people B and C. I’m going to start with C.

“C was someone who worked at a place they called a video rental store. He was in his twenties, was a likeable man and he had a wife. One day he came into the video store to start work, and he went up to the counter and set a video or DVD down in front of his fellow employee. The video was a pornographic movie. He admitted he took it home and watched it and some other sordid details. He told his co-worker he was wrong, that he’d disrespected his wife, felt great guilt in doing it, and he apologized. His other co-workers thought this was hysterical. They laughed at him and made fun of him for quite a while. And then eventually life went back to normal and they left him alone.

“B was someone I met in kindergarten. The first time I saw him I said to myself, “I feel sorry for him. I don’t know why.” When B entered middle school, he became an underhanded bully. He got his friends to pick on other students and make them feel low and frightened and humiliated. He and his friends wrote mean things on students’ locker in permanent ink and made up cruel nicknames for them and got other students to call them those names. He never apologized to the people he hurt or tried to make amends.

Years passed and one day I was sitting in my room reading a book. My phone rang. I was surprised to find it was a friend I’d grown up and went to school with calling. They sounded distressed. They said, “Last night B stuck a shot gun in his mouth and blew the back of his head off.” I must tell you at that moment I felt stunned and then as if a great weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I was filled with elation. I felt guilty feeling good about his demise, but it is what I actually felt.

I looked at my novelist with confusion. What does all this mean? I asked.

She said, “It means that some people on that list are B and some are C, dead, alive or otherwise. Some of them are going to take one road and some are going to take the other. In the present world people have come to believe in the illusion that truth is what you decide it is. But that is not so. Truth is reality. Not your reality, not my reality, not anyone else’s reality, but Truth’s reality. You can try and buy your way out of it, you can lie about it, you can run. But you’re only going to get so far. Because Truth is the house. And the house always wins. It may take a very long time for Truth to win but Truth never loses, and it always comes to collect its debt.”

I pondered her words and they gave me renewed hope for our missing cats. Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: SINNERS (2025)-HBO MAX**

Nominated for sixteen Academy Awards including Best Picture, comes this period piece/vampire movie written and directed by Oscar nominee Ryan Coogler. The film is stylish and intriguing with excellent performances throughout. It blends the power of blues music with racial tensions during 1932 in Clarkston, Mississippi. I do think the film goes on a scene or two too long, but overall, it is a solid story.

Identical twin brothers World War I veterans Elijah “Smoke” and Elias “Stack” (both well-played by Oscar nominee Michael B. Jordan) return home from Chicago after working for the mob for several years. They have steadily siphoned money from their employers and have amassed enough to open a juke joint for which they employ their talented younger cousin Samuel or “Sammie” (Miles Caton), the son of a preacher named Jedidiah Moore (Saul Williams) to sing and play guitar. Jedidiah is not happy about Sammie’s musical talents, considers them tools of the devil, and does not want him to play at the juke joint. But Sammie is determined to perform.

The twins purchase an old sawmill from a landowner and local KKK leader named Hogwood (David Maldonado). They then enlist several locals to assist them including pianist and harmonica player Delta Slim (Oscar Nominee Delroy Lindo), a married singer named Pearline (Jayme Lawson) whom Sammie has a crush on, shopkeepers Grace and Bo Chow (Helena Hu and Yao) to be suppliers, a field worker named Cornbread (Omar Benson Miller) to be their bouncer, and Smoke’s estranged wife Annie (Oscar Nominee Wunmi Mosaku) who practices Hoodoo, to be a cook. Smoke and Annie have a difficult past because their daughter died in infancy. During their recruitments, Stack runs into his old girlfriend Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) who is mixed race. Because she passes as white, Stack left her in order to protect her.

Meanwhile, an Irish-immigrant vampire named Remmick (Jack O’Connell) hides away from Choctaw vampire hunters looking for victims.

Other Oscar nominations for the film went to Autumn Durald Arkapaw for Cinematography, Ruth E. Carter for Costume Design, Michael P. Shawver for Film Editing, Ken Diaz, Mike Fontaine and Shunika Terry for Makeup and Hairstyling, and Ludwig Göransson for Original Score.

Catwalk

January 29, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. Charlotte, Ruffles, Titus, Tyler, Bruiser and I have all been on the lookout for a burly fellow with mean eyes. The surveillance footage photos Sergio the Squirrel took at 7-Eleven remind me of a grizzly bear with a buzz cut and terrible taste in clothing. Not to mention his neck tattoo of an eagle with a kitten in its talons. I do believe I have seen circus clowns with better taste. Utterly gauche.

Artemus the Persian has become stronger and braver as of late. She is still missing her sister Demeter and has joined our merry band of sleuths to actively look for her. Since we have already lost our other three cats, we do not want to put her at risk. But she told us she can no longer sit around hoping for Demeter to come home. She must act.

And so, this week we, Artemus included, have scoured the neighborhood for this hoodlum. You think someone who looked like a grizzly bear with a buzz cut and a neck tattoo of an eagle with a kitten in its claws would be impossible to miss. But none of us know him and we are getting increasingly discouraged. We’ve spent our mornings going up one street and down another. We look like members of a walking group out to get exercise.

What we have noticed, however, is a yellow house with an outdoor catwalk. We are suspicious of this apparatus but have no proof it belongs to our villain. The house always appears very quiet, and we never see anyone going in or out of the residence. We called a council meeting and invited Sergio the Squirrel and Bernard D. Bunny who brought along his little sister Belle. We discussed what are next steps should be. Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: BUGONIA (2025)-PEACOCK**

One of the weirdest films of the year certainly, yet entirely watchable, this week’s pick comes from the always bizarre director Yorgos Lanthimos. Based on the 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet! by Jang Joon-hwan with adapted screenplay by Oscar Nominee Will Tracy it is the story of a beekeeper named Teddy (Jesse Plemons who probably deserved an Oscar nomination for Best Actor) and his autistic cousin Don (newcomer Aidan Delbis). Teddy believes the CEO of a drug company named Michelle (Oscar Nominee Emma Stone) is an alien out to end the world. He has done extensive study on the internet about her and believes his plan is not a conspiracy theory but a fact. Teddy is suffering from some mental issues after his mother Sandy (Alicia Silverstone) ended up in a coma after participating in one of the company’s drug trials. His former babysitter now police officer Casey (Stavros Halkias) sexually molested him while his mother was incapacitated. Which might explain Teddy’s decision to chemically castrate himself and his cousin Don, despite his argument that it is to keep them focused on their goal.

Teddy devises a plan to kidnap Michelle at her estate, bring her to their house, and get her to help him talk to her ruler so he can present to the aliens an argument for saving planet Earth. The two cousins are successful in capturing Michelle and they tie her up in their basement where Teddy uses all means at his disposal to get her to admit she is an alien. But Don becomes increasingly concerned with Teddy’s methods. In addition to Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay nominations the film also received nods for Best Original Score by Jerskin Fendrix and Best Picture.

Happy Oscar Nominations Day

January 22, 2026January 22, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good morning. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to bring you the latest update on our catnapping situation. But first, my novelist wanted me to wish you Happy Oscar Nominations Day. Clearly, she thinks this is more important than what happened to Demeter, Edison and Madeline. Apparently, all the big holidays and events are happening on Thursdays these days. I might add it is also the first day of the Sundance Film Festival, making it a movie day all around. So, there it is, Happy Oscar Nominations Day. You can watch the announcement here. Let’s get to business.

As you know, last week we put a tracking collar on the last remaining feline member of our little motley crew. Edison put up a valiant fight in the park but still our dear Manx was carried off into the night by the evil catnapper. Charlotte the Chow followed the trail to one of the streets that leads to the main arterial with the rest of us in hot pursuit. The only clue we found was spilled Cherry Slurpee, which the twins Titus and Tyler lapped most of. The rest of us focused on the receipt that lay nearby. We now have a concrete clue to the identification of our predator.

We took the receipt back to the van and studied it. We found the villain paid with a debit card. We know there must be footage of this wretch on the camera at the 7-Eleven. But how would we get our hands on such precious information? Then it occurred to me that Wednesday was Squirrel Appreciation Day. Sergio! I told the others a dog could not sneak into a store without being noticed. But someone as small and as dodgy as a squirrel just might. My compadres agreed it was worth a shot and we all scampered home.

The next morning, and it was a cold and frosty morning, I went out and found Sergio up on a fence munching on a nut. I told him about the predicament and our precious Sciurus carolinensis was sympathetic to our plight. He said he would go to the 7-Eleven and view the previous night’s footage. He scampered off and I went back inside to brew a delicious cup of tea and await his return.

It took the better part of the morning but as I was perusing the comics in last Sunday’s newspaper I was delighted to look up and see the familiar furry grey face at the window. I hurried out and he showed me his phone. He had taken a picture of the brute: a burly fellow with mean eyes. Sergio sent the pictures he’d taken of the surveillance footage to all the other dogs, and we are studying the pictures as we speak. Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: TRAIN DREAMS (2025)-NETFLIX**

This week’s movie was nominated for two Golden Globe awards and should have made a solid showing at the Oscars as well. It is gorgeously directed by Clint Bentley with cinematography by Oscar Nominee Adolpho Veloso. Though it is a profound and well-told story you’ve been forewarned, this is not for the faint of heart. It is a movie for grown-ups, and it may haunt you for days after seeing it. If you can’t handle that, go sit at the kid’s table and play on your phone.

Brilliantly adapted by Oscar Nominee Greg Kwedar from the 2011 novella by Denis Johnson, it is the story of a logger named Robert Grainier (another homerun performance by Joel Edgerton who clearly should have also received an Oscar nomination for his work here). We know at the beginning of the movie, he will live into his 80’s. The story opens at the turn of the 20th century where Robert starts out building the railroad in the pacific northwest. He headed out that way as a child and worked to survive ever since. After witnessing a shocking event he believes he might have been able to prevent, he turns to logging and floats through life without meaning. That is until he meets the luminous Gladys Olding (beautifully acted by Felicity Jones) at church. Throughout his life, Robert is haunted by dreams of things that are real and things that are not. Determining what is real and what is not real will become a harrowing challenge for him as the story unfolds.

Amazingly, the film was shot in the Pacific Northwest in Washington State in Colville, Spokane, Metaline Falls, Snoqualmie Falls, and Tekoa. This is marvelous and sadly shocking as Washington State has been a royal pain in the ass to film in thanks to its reputation of being too expensive and not lucrative enough. So, filmmakers have had to go to Oregon, Montana and Vancouver BC to get films made and I don’t blame them. It’s starting to get better but despite all it’s good points, Washington, though being the birthplace of companies like Amazon, Costco, Starbucks, and Microsoft is the ass clown of states when it comes to knowing how to make money.

Rounding out the cast is William H. Macy as explosives expert Arn Peeples, Nathaniel Arcand as storekeeper Ignatius Jack, Kerry Condon as forestry services worker Clare Thompson and Will Patton as the Narrator. The film also received an Oscar nod for Best Song for the title track “Train Dreams” by Nick Cave and the film’s composer, Bryce Dessner.

Cherry Slurpee

January 15, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Scuffle at the Park

January 9, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here and after searching for the past two weeks our beloved neighborhood cats Demeter the Persian and Madeline the British Short Hair remain at large. We held a meeting this week to decide what to do next because we had no idea what to do next. It was decided that Edison the Manx should be used as bait. It was a nearly unanimous decision…except for Edison who was none too fond of the idea. He protested vehemently. But in the end, we convinced him to go to the park and wait to be kidnapped.

For Christmas my novelist had given me a GPS tracking collar which we attached to Edison. We put Charlotte the Chow in charge of surveillance. The dachshund twins Tyler and Titus were on the ground at the park, one at one side and one at the other hidden in the foliage. Charlotte, Ruffles the Bulldog, Bruiser the Jack Russell, and I were all staked out in Ruffle’s owner’s van which was stationed just across the park in front of Ruffle’s house. I made sure we all had ample dog treats on hand and a large bowl of water.

Around eleven o’clock that night, as Edison sat perfectly still in the middle of the grass, a van pulled up on the park side of the street right in front of Ruffle’s owner’s van. We all heard the door open, and a large figure emerged dressed entirely in black. We watched from the window as he crept stealthily around the front of the van.

“He’s going for Edison!” Charlotte said.

“Is this good or bad?” Ruffles asked.

“Do you think the twins see him?”

“I don’t know but we can’t just sit here and let Edison get stolen.”

“Time for operation deux,” I said.

I hopped on Ruffle’s back, and he pushed the back doors of the van open. We stopped to look both ways before crossing the dark street and then dashed towards the nefarious figure looming over our precious feline. The dachshund twins heard us and each dashed towards the villain, one from the right and one from the left. By this time the monster had scooped Edison into his arms. Edison, not liking to be held by anyone but his owner swiped the beast across the face with his left claw. But this proved to be an act in futility. I leaped off Ruffles back as Ruffles barked bounded around the kidnapper. I barked louder and growled viciously. But the thing of evil was not to be overcome. With Edison slashing and clawing the villain hurried to the van, put our precious feline inside and hit the gas. But this time the criminal made one outstanding flaw: not removing the tracking device we’d planted on Edison. Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: THE APPRENTICE (2024)-AMAZON PRIME**

Regardless of your take on the subject matter, this is a superb film about a father and son relationship. Not a normal father and son relationship but a relationship between a young ambitious would-be real estate developer named Donald and a ruthless lawyer named Roy. The movie was written by Gabriel Sherman and directed by Ali Abbasi. Be forewarned this is not a movie of caricatures, or humor, or lampooning. This is not a Saturday Night Live sketch. This is a straightforward well-told, well-directed movie based on a true story about two men who form a relationship that is somewhat like Walter White and Jesse Pinkman. Especially if you have also seen El Camino. And yes, you may find it surprising, despite where you stand on the political spectrum, that in this story there is compassion and respect extended to both characters. This is less a film about debasing two polarizing psychopathic men but rather a respectful one that helps the audience develop a deeper understanding of who they are, good, evil or otherwise.

Donald (brilliantly played by Sebastian Stan who very much deserved his Oscar nomination) is a young man in New York City in the seventies who dreams of advancing himself and strengthening his father Fred’s (the always fantastic Martin Donovan) real estate business. Donald has grown tired of going door to door in his father’s apartment buildings and demanding the rent. He envisions a bigger brighter New York made up of his own properties. But he needs help because his father is in trouble with the government for discriminating against African American tenants. He meets Roy (brilliantly played by Jeremy Strong who also very much deserved his Oscar nomination) at an exclusive club and the two begin to work together to help solve Donald’s problem.

Roy is a ruthless closeted homosexual lawyer who will tromp across anyone or anything to win his battles. He also throws decadent Romanesque parties which Donald finds himself having to navigate. But Donald is not a drinker due to his older brother Freddy (Charlie Carrick), despite being a successful airline pilot is also an alcoholic. This condition is further agitated by their father’s tyranny and dad’s complete inability to see the future. And staying sober helps Donald stay focused on his goals.

Along the way Donald meets a smart and beautiful model named Ivana (well played by Maria Bakalova) whom he falls in love with, and a controversial political consultant and lobbyist named Roger (Mark Rendall).