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

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: 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.

And Woof to That

March 13, 2025March 20, 2025 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to deliver my weekly blog. This week I have learned a new saying: “I don’t care what you think”. Although it is harder to say than one might realize, I find it to be liberating to not care what human beings think. Or dogs or cats or squirrels or bunnies for that matter. This means I say “I don’t care what you think” to other’s opinions about me. It also means I do not tell small lies or do things I do not wish to do to make others like me. I am fully aware that I am unlikeable and unlovable in the eyes of others. I am after all a 6.4-pound poodle typing a blog. How socially acceptable is that? In addition to this practice, I am trying to think differently about questioning my intuition. I am an intuitive thinking personality type. This is easier said than done because intuitive thinking poodles, from what I have learned recently, will negate their intuition before questioning someone else’s, even if most of the time said intuitive poodle’s intuition is more likely to be right. Thus, I have decided I must trust my intuition and all its glory. “I don’t care what you think” is not something I need to say out loud most of the time. It is something I say to myself when encountering various situations. However, there are times when it might come in handy to say the words aloud and let someone or some bunny know that the discussion is finished. And woof to that.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: BLACK BOX DIARIES (2024)-PARAMOUNT +**

This week’s pick is a powerful documentary that was rightly nominated for an Oscar this past year for Best Feature Documentary. It is written and directed by its subject Shiori Itô who was brutally raped by a real sweetheart of a guy, a journalist named Noriyuki Yamaguchi who is 23 years her senior. I might add here journalists are #6 on the list of jobs psychopaths have or aspire to according to Dr. Kevin Dutton who penned the marvelous book The Wisdom of Psychopaths. The list also ran in Fortune Magazine. If you listen to Yamaguchi being interviewed in the film, you will start to detect a lot of disfluencies and doubled words in his speech which is one of the red flags in determining psychopaths. Yes, Shiori Itô is a journalist as well, but clearly not a psychopath. Also, bear in mind that the percentage of male psychopaths worldwide is 1 in 150. In females it is 1 in 1050. Clearly, testosterone plays a part in psychopathy. And since lying is common amongst psychopaths and plays a part in this film, be aware that according to studies men lie more than women. Here is an example.

Like many documentaries, this movie is not for the faint of heart. The attack happened on April 4, 2015, when Itô went to interview Yamaguchi over dinner. At some point during the interview, she began to feel severely intoxicated. That’s just a polite way of saying Yamaguchi slipped her a date rape drug and it had started to take effect. Surveillance footage at a hotel caught him pulling her out of a cab and dragging her into the establishment. The footage shows she was clearly drugged, falling over and staggering. What followed the rape was a labyrinth of horror.

Shiori Itô filed a police report in July 2016, that was dropped by prosecutors because they told her she didn’t have sufficient DNA evidence. The policeman who was assigned to her case believed her, but he was taken off. Not long after that, the case was dropped. The problem with Noriyuki Yamaguchi was he wielded power. At the time he was the Washington, D.C. bureau chief of TBS, a major broadcaster in Japan. He also had connections to the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Being a wise reporter, Shiori Itô continued pursuing her case and as she did, she chronicled her journey by filming it, even in desperate moments. When the criminal case fell through, she sought a civil case which put her in contention with the government of Japan, its attitudes and its handling of sexual assault cases. Even at the risk of being sued, Itô published a successful memoir called Black Box which chronicled her experience of being raped and dismissed. To publish it she was able to get the policeman who worked on her case to sign off on it as well as the doorman who was present when Noriyuki Yamaguchi dragged her out of the cab and into the hotel.

Documenting

March 6, 2025March 6, 2025 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good morning. Gigi the parti poodle here to welcome you to another installment of my blog. As you know, I am continuing to take a break from my little stories I tell here while I continue to practice my writing and assist my novelist in penning her newest novel. This week, as is tradition, my novelist and I sat down and watched The Oscars. We have seen many of this year’s nominated films but not all and we are continuing to review them. This week we watched a couple of nominated documentaries together. I have come to find out that these are not comedies. I find myself rather disturbed after viewing them. Last night, for instance, I could not settle down to sleep. I had to shove and push my blanky in many directions. Nothing was comfortable. I also tried walking on my novelist. This did not help. She did not like it. I was finally able to settle down and listen to gentle music while I attempted to meditate and try and forget that the world is for lack of a better word, terrible. Which reminds me, I had a bath this week. I detest baths and yet I keep getting them. Perhaps I will film a documentary on that horror. Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: FLOW (2024) HBO MAX**

Hands down the best Oscar award of the night this past Sunday went to this absolute must see masterpiece. This was a tremendous year for animation with three powerhouse films, The Wild Robot, Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and Flow all competing for the prize. Honestly, all of them deserved the Oscar and if I had it my way it would have been a three-way tie with each of them taking home a statue. But if we were splitting hairs, Flow would have been my choice for the win. This visually stunning brilliantly told story became the first Oscar for the country of Latvia and a huge congratulations to them. If you see no other film this year, see this one.

Telling its tale with absolutely no dialogue at all, we find out that humans are gone. Empty houses, empty broken boats. Nothing. Animals, however, have survived. And one of them is a little charcoal cat with big bright gold eyes. The cat is suddenly startled by animals all running away in herds and it realizes something terrifying is coming. The cat runs into a friendly golden retriever who takes a shine to it, but the cat wants nothing to do with the dog. Especially since the dog appears to have other canine friends. The cat heads to its home, a beautiful place with cat statues all over the yard and a just finished sketch of it lies on a desk upstairs with no artist in sight. As the cat looks out the window, it finds the water is rising. Fast. It finds it must leave the house and climb up to the top of a gigantic stone cat structure much like climbing to the top of a large building. And yet the water continues to rise.

Much to the cat’s luck, a sailboat appears on the horizon. The cat struggles to swim to it and when it gets on board, it finds out it is inhabited…by a capybara. Turns out the capybara is kind as well as bright and resourceful. As they sail for awhile the golden retriever catches up to them as well as a meerkat obsessed with shiny things. The four begin to work together as they take a harrowing aquatic journey in search of food and dry land.

Happy Oscar Weekend!

February 27, 2025 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good morning. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to tell you yesterday was most horrifying. I was lying on my pillow in the office around nine-thirty in the morning when my novelist suddenly snatched me up and whisked me off into the car. Mind you, I had a comfortable blanket to lay on but that didn’t prepare me for one of my most strenuous mornings of this year. I was driven directly to the vet for a checkup. A checkup! I could not believe it. I thought my professional toothbrushing last summer was enough. But no. Apparently, I was due for my rabies shot. And another horrific shot. And then a blood-draw. At first, I thought all I had to do was look cute and stand on the scale. But the doctor came in and checked my heart which was beating like a mad drum. My novelist just stood there and let them paw me. I mean the nerve! Afterwards I was taken to the dreaded back room where the real horror befell me. There was no use in screaming for help. I was trapped. After the nightmarish ordeal I was whisked home as if the whole thing was perfectly normal. I am sore and traumatized and tired. It took everything I had just to get out of bed this morning. I am not speaking to my novelist right now. What happened yesterday was the most unforgivable affair. I shall have to spend the entire rest of the week and all weekend trying to recover. Until next Thursday, I bid you a most nerve-jangling adieu. And Happy Oscar Day on Sunday!

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: THE WILD ROBOT (2024)-PEACOCK**

One of the strongest Oscar categories this year, if not the strongest, is Best Animated Film, and this week’s pick is one of the finest of the five. Not only is this movie stunningly beautiful but the story is top notch as well. In addition to Best Animated Film, the movie is also nominated for Best Sound and Best Original Score for Kris Bowers.

Based on the beloved children’s book of the same name by Peter Brown who co-wrote the script this marvelous tale written and directed by Chris Sanders starts with a shipwreck. A humanoid style robot ROZZUM Unit 7134 or Roz for short (beautifully voiced by Lupita Amondi Nyong’o), wakes up and finds herself alone in the wilderness. She is factory programed to be a helper to her owner. She tries to assist the woodland creatures on the otherwise uninhabited island but finds them to be less than welcoming and injures herself in the process. Shortly after, she is chased by a grizzly bear named Thorn (Mark Hamill) and accidentally falls onto a goose nest crushing both parents and all but one of the eggs.

Determined to protect the one remaining egg she carries it with her but runs into an opportunist fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal) who tries to steal it from her. But Roz succeeds and the egg hatches. Roz suddenly finds herself a mother to a Canadian Goose and names it Brightbill (Kit Conner). Brightbill turns out to be the runt. But Roz is determined to make it a proud member of the island’s gaggle of geese.

Tripping

February 20, 2025 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good morning. It is I Gigi the parti poodle and today I have been whisked off to the great beyond. My novelist has decided to take me off on an adventure. I am terrified, of course, as I am terrible at traveling inside automobiles. However, it is better than being left with a babysitter. My novelist told me she was going to leave me with my usual guardian, but the guardian said they could not fit me into their schedule today. So, here I am, the fearless traveler on route to…somewhere. Perhaps to the mountains or the ocean. Maybe we shall hop on a train and have lunch as we watch the landscapes pass by. We could go shopping. I love to go shopping. I can always use a new chew toy…or a diamond studded collar. Maybe we’ll take in a movie or a museum. The world is my oyster today. I don’t think Bernard D. Bunny is happy about it though. He gave me that look when I was climbing into the car. I barked to him that I would try and bring him back a souvenir. I don’t even think that appeased him. When I get back, I’ll tell you how it went. Until next week, I wish you happy travels.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: A DIFFERENT MAN (2024)-HBO MAX**

This smart unique little film received well-deserved Best Makeup and Hairstyling Oscar nominations for Mike Marino, David Presto and Crystal Junado. It also won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy for Sebastian Stan’s fabulous performance. Sebastian Stan is having a much-deserved banner year and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor for the movie The Apprentice. It is a shame that A Different Man didn’t receive an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay as it is a terrific story from top to tail written by Aaron Schimberg who also directs this engaging cautionary tale.

Edward (Sebastion Stan) is a man who suffers from Neurofibromatosis which causes him a disfiguring facial condition. He works as an actor, getting jobs in corporate films for sensitivity workplace training. His new neighbor Ingrid Vold (Renate Reinsve), an aspiring playwright, befriends him and he starts to fall in love with her. One day he goes in to see his doctor who tells him about another doctor who is doing a study involving experimental medical treatment for Edward’s condition. Edward, who has always dreamed of being physically attractive, decides to take the risk. He is skeptical but holds out hope it might work, and Ingrid might develop feelings for him.

As he begins the treatment, strange things begin to happen to his body, and he becomes frightened wondering if it is working or not. But nothing prepares him for the nightmarish events which follow, including meeting his own doppelganger, a man named Oswald (Adam Pearson).

Roadblocks

February 13, 2025 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. Gigi the parti poodle here and I am delighted to announce most of our snow has melted and I am again going for walks. My novelist has been feverishly working on her novel which concerns me. As many of you writers out there know it is difficult to firstly choose a subject to write about and secondly after you’ve chosen one how to handle the many roadblocks which will inevitably arise. My novelist detests roadblocks. They keep her up at night, often trying to figure out every misstep she might have made. I try to convince her that all writers make mistakes and to “carry on” as our wise neighbors across the pond would say. And she does, but still, she remains concerned. She is a writer who embraces research as well. Even if it is research which may be a bit futuristic where you must follow the logical chain of science beyond what has already been discovered to where the trajectory of that discovery leads. Before she began writing her present novel, she had written a science fiction book which required her to do so and was debating on writing another one and the one she chose. She has confided in me it may have been easier to write the science fiction book. Pragmatism and logic come to her more readily than, dare I say, feelings. She is more comfortable writing a hero’s journey than a heroine’s. Solitude is her weapon as it were, not her enemy. But I have faith she will find her way to the end of the story. She has with all but one of the others. I, in the meantime, shall scribble away at my short stories and see what I can concoct. Until next week, I bid you a happy adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: CONCLAVE (2024)-PEACOCK**

Winner of the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay for its writer Peter Straughan and nominated for eight Academy Awards, this taut thriller based on the 2016 novel by Robert Harris takes a unique twist on the mystery/thriller genre. Set in the Vatican where the Pope (Bruno Novelli) has just passed away from a heart attack, Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (brilliantly played by Oscar Nominee Ralph Fiennes) finds himself tasked with the daunting job of leading a conclave to elect a new pope.

Lawrence is conflicted about the job as he is struggling with his faith, mostly with praying. And it doesn’t help as he tries to figure out which candidates are worthy of the position, and which are not. Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci) from the United States is a favorite liberal candidate who believes if Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto) a favorite conservative candidate from Italy is elected he could put the Church back decades. Cardinal Joshua Adeyemi of Nigeria (Lucian Msamati), a social conservative candidate is also a favorite. Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow), a moderate from Canada, another popular candidate, was the last person to speak to the Pope before he died. According to Janusz Woźniak (Jacek Koman) the prefecture of the papal household claims that on the night the Pope died of a heart attack, the Pope demanded Tremblay’s resignation all which Cardinal Tremblay denies. And then there is the mysterious last-minute arrival of Archbishop Vincent Benitez (Carlos Diehz) of Kabul, who after some investigation turns out to be a cardinal in pectore a position the deceased Pope secretly bestowed upon him one year prior.

Up to my Underbelly in Snow

February 6, 2025 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle and I am up to my underbelly in snow. It seems I have woken up most mornings this week to a blanket of white which melts away in the afternoon. I am not sure about today, however. It is the deepest it has gotten this winter. My novelist has a firm rule about not going for walks in the snow. I do romp in it a little. But I prefer to stay out of it as much as possible. Bernard D. Bunny sent me a text this morning. He said that he and his sister Belle are in their burrow right now keeping out of the weather and binge watching The Cuphead Show on Netflix. This is a visual experience I have never engaged in. Nor do I wish to. Although, as my novelist often tells me, you can’t judge a show you have not screened. Still, I must say I prefer more cerebral fare, such as Citizen Kane, The Seventh Seal, and Zombieland. But there it is. I partook of a few classic episodes of Fraiser yesterday during the afternoon and they perked me right up. I do not know how long I will stay housebound until I become stir-crazy. I will try to resort to my writing and perhaps read a chapter or two of Mrs. Frisby and The Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O’Brien.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: BAD MONKEY (2024) -APPLE TV+**

If you like wise cracking black comedy detective stories, this one is for you. It is based on the 2013 book by Carl Hiaasan of the same name. Starting in the Florida Keys we meet Andrew Yancy (Vince Vaughn), a Hawaiian shirt wearing Laissez-faire detective who lives on the beach. Yancy despises his real estate developer neighbor Evan Shook (Alex Moffat) who has built a garish mansion next to his humble house. And it doesn’t help that Yancy has just been demoted to the position of restaurant inspector after an incident involving dumping an elderly man out of his wheelchair into the water to help his free spirit on again, off again girlfriend Bonnie Witt (Michelle Lynn Monaghan).

One day Yancy gets a tip about a tourist finding a severed arm and decides to, against his better judgement, begin investigating. He discovers the missing arm belonged to a man named Nick Stripling (Rob Delaney). Yancy tracks down Christopher’s wife Eve Stripling (Meredith Hagner) whom he suspects had a hand in her husband’s death. Especially after he talks to Christopher’s daughter Caitlin (Charlotte Lawrence) who can’t stand her. Or the fact that Eve is getting to cash out a large insurance policy. Yancy soon meets Dr. Rosa Campasino (Natalie Martinez) who examines the arm and believes it was not bitten off by a shark but by a professional.

Meanwhile in the Bahamas, local’s land is getting bought up by developers which upsets a young fisherman named Neville Stafford (Ronald Peet) who has a pet capuchin monkey named Driggs (Crystal the Monkey). To stop the developers taking over the island he enlists the help of the Dragon Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith) to put a spell on the project much to the concern of the Dragon Queen’s grandmother Ya-Ya (L. Scott Caldwell).

Never Leave a Poodle With a Babysitter

January 31, 2025 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. I am Gigi the parti poodle and I am upset. Yesterday, without warning my novelist took off and left me home alone. I couldn’t believe it. I was entirely by myself. I detest being left by myself. I heard all sorts of strange noises outside that horrified me. I had to bark at Alexa to play soothing music for dogs.

I was all alone from 9:45AM until 2:20PM. That’s when the Dogsitter arrived. I was taken outside and then returned indoors. The Dogsitter then prepared my lunch. I of course refused to eat. My novelist was not home, and I was not about to dine until she was. This young person, this Dogsitter, was not going to make me dine either. And I went on a proper food strike. The Dogsitter soon grew tired of me and left me to my own devices. I spent most of my time lying on the couch thinking about a nice slice of roasted chicken. I would occasionally wander over to the front door and whine wishing for my novelist to return. I penned my sorrows in my notebook. I could think of nothing creative to say except how heartbroken I was over this unspeakable act of abandonment.

It was not until almost seven thirty in the evening that I saw my beloved novelist again. I ran to the door and jumped up and down and up and down catching magnificent air. Joy had returned to me once again. But not before I reprimanded her for abandoning me. How could she do such a horrific thing? She said, “But I had the Dogsitter come and make sure you were well.” How does that account for you leaving me on my own for over four hours and then not returning home until after seven in the evening? Outrageous! She told me she needed to go visit a relative. After this heated discussion she prepared my dinner, and I ate it voraciously. Next time she had better take me with her. Until next week, don’t let your novelist run amuck.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: A REAL PAIN (2024)-HULU**

This week’s pick is an excellent, sometimes humorous, sometimes sobering buddy road picture nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Kieran Culkin and Best Original Screenplay for Jesse Eisenberg who in addition to writing the script also stars in and directed the film. The story opens in a New York Airport where laid-back Benji Kaplan (Kieran Culkin) calmly waits for his high-strung cousin David Kaplan (Jesse Eisenberg) to arrive. David calls Benji on his cell phone multiple times asking if Benji is on his way to the airport, tells him about the traffic, all the while suspecting that Benji may be running late. David is surprised to see Benji is already there. The two of them are about to embark on a trip to Poland courtesy of their late grandmother who has given the money for them to travel there as part of her will. Her hope, it seems, is to both reunite the estranged cousins and have them take a Holocaust tour to see the Majdanek concentration camp where she was held captive and miraculously survived.

The two board the plane and fly to Poland where they meet the rest of the members of their tour which include James, the tour guide from England (Will Sharpe), Marcia (Jennifer Grey), Diane (Liza Sadovy), her husband Mark (Daniel Oreskes) and Rwanda genocide survivor Eloge (Kurt Egyiawan). As the tour commences Benji charms the members of the group while David, who suffers from OCD, largely remains on the outside. But here and there Benji acts irrationally both with David and around the other members of the tour as the two cousins face some of the darker aspects of their present and past relationship.