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

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: 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).