Summit with Crispin

September 24, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good morning. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. As you may remember, last week I considered holding a summit involving a bobcat sighting in our neighborhood. I had posted the warning on Nextdoor and all the cats and dogs in the neighborhood stayed inside and waited for the danger to pass. This week, considering the terrifying incident Belle and Bernard D. Bunny experienced, I decided to call a neighborhood summit to discuss the matter. I even invited Crispin Z. Coyote to the meeting. I thought he might be able to bring some insight into the matter.

“Oh,” he said. “You mean Bebe.”

“Bebe,” Edison the Manx said. “This thing has a name?”

“You have a name. I have a name. So, of course this bobcat has a name. Bebe.”

I cocked my head. “Have you had a run in with Bebe?”

“I would not call it a run in. I would call it a civil discussion.”

“You had a civil discussion with a bobcat,” Charlotte the Chow said.

“Yes. More than once.”

“How is that possible?”

“Bobcats and Coyotes coexist. We don’t necessarily go after the same prey, and we don’t necessarily hunt at the same time in the same place. But, yes, we have had some heated but civil conversations.”

Edison the Manx stopped licking his paw. “About what?”

“Hunting for one. We Canis latrans like to hunt in the open where Bebe and the other Lynx rufus like to hunt in the woods. I kept telling her hunting in the open is so much better. No roots to trip over, no thorns getting into your paws. But can I convince her of this? Not a chance.”

“The point at hand,” I said, “is why did she wander into our neighborhood?”

“I believe she often wanders into neighborhoods. Especially if there are a lot of rabbits around. No offence, Bernard.”

“None taken,” Bernard said stiffly.

“They like to hunt in neighborhoods like yours.”

“That is most unsettling,” Madeline the British Shorthair said.

Crispin shrugged. “It is the way of the carnivore.”

“You really should try grass,” Belle Bunny said.

“Yuck.”

“Well, I like it.”

“To each his own, little bunny.”

“The point,” I said, “is for you to instruct us on how to avoid being the prey of Bebe.”

“Well, Bebe hunts in neighborhoods when the wildlife is scarce. My guess is that is why she showed up.”

“You live around here. Is the wildlife scarce?”

“I wouldn’t know. You and your friends have provided my friends with dog food in an agreement that I won’t hunt the neighborhood pets or your bunnies and squirrels.”

“Here, here,” Sergio the squirrel said.

“Are you saying we should make a similar deal with Bebe?”

“I think she might be up for a cat food alliance,” Crispin said.

“And how would we arrange a meeting with her?”

“I could give her a call.”

“And how would we know we would be safe?” Ruffles the Bulldog said.

“I would have your meeting in a non-wooded area.”

“We could meet her at the playground at the park, I suppose.”

“Excellent. I’ll let her know about the matter and give her a ring. Or a text. Maybe an email.”

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!

JEANNE DIELMAN, 23, QUAI du COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES (1975)-HBO MAX

For the past week or two I have been searching for films that would be considered cinema as opposed to motion pictures designed to merely entertain. Movies that stand out and what I would call literary films. This one was named the greatest film of all time by the Sight and Sound poll. The members of the Sight and Sound poll are a mix of esteemed film critics, industry professionals, and filmmakers held every ten years to re-evaluate the very best of the artform. Each member submits a list of their top ten films of all time to determine the top position. I personally would not call it the movie the greatest film of all time. But I would call it one of the greatest films of all time. Cinematic masterpieces that have held the title in the past are Citizen Kane, Bicycle Thieves, 2001 A Space Odessey, Tokyo Story and Vertigo. Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles marks the first time a female director has taken the title. Her name is Chantal Akerman, and she was only twenty-five years old when she wrote and directed the film. She also made sure that her crew was 80% female, something that was unheard of at the time.

A note here: Jeanne Dielman will likely play better to a female audience than a male one, much like I think The Godfather plays better to a male audience than a female one. The reason for this is for a female audience, the story hits at a visceral level. A level that drives one to be both mesmerized and filled with fury. Women will find the film highly relatable today even though it takes place in the last quarter of last century because of the oppression it represents and the way women are, even to this day to some degree, considered second class citizens.

The story represents the grueling reality of what it has meant to be a woman for millennia. The boring, day-to-day nightmare of doing mundane yet necessary tasks the world takes for granted. And doing them mostly for indifferent thankless men. At times Jeanne is seen as a joke, in others an annoyance, yet others sexually objectified and worst of all being dismissed as irrelevant, unappreciated, and a mere shadow on the wall, out of sight. What Akerman does here is put the mundane on the screen like a horror story and quietly force the audience not to watch but to become immersed for no less than three hours and twenty-two minutes in Jeanne’s domestic prison like a ticking time bomb on the verge of explosion.

There is very little dialogue in the film. Mostly what we see is Jeanne doing her daily chores. The scenes in the apartment have a tight, claustrophobic effect. Usually there is some small item in the frame that is red like a thermos or a small glass bowl in the hutch, foreshadowing perhaps. We watch Jeanne (brilliantly played by Delphine Seyrig) get up out of bed, fix coffee and breakfast for her self-absorbed teenage son (not a daughter), Sylvain (Jan Decorte) polish his shoes, help him with his coat, and get him off to school. She then does housework, babysits a baby boy (not a baby girl) for a neighbor (voiced by Chantal Akerman herself) for free. She then goes shopping, not for herself per say but for food or a button her son needs for a sweater she’s knitting him. I might add she always wears a silk scarf when she leaves the apartment and it is also red, albeit a softer shade. When Jeanne goes out, she is always doing business with women who are shopkeepers, salesclerks, and waitresses. Except for one place: the bank. That worker is a young man. It is a man who stands between her and money. She deposits cash she keeps in a decorative ceramic pot on the dining room table.

Then she comes home and spends time preparing dinner. Right after she starts to cook the food, the doorbell rings. A man enters. She takes his coat and hat; they greet each other politely and then they go down the hall to Jeanne and her late husband’s bedroom and proceed to have sex. The hall changes from daylight to evening light quickly and the two emerge from the bedroom. Jeanne helps the man with his coat and hat, and he politely pays her and says he’ll see her next week. Every day brings a different steady client. Her oblivious son comes home from school where she serves him dinner and helps him with his schoolwork. During the rare moments when they do have a conversation, he often dismisses her or criticizes her offhandedly, like telling her there is a button undone on her housecoat. After dinner they go out for a walk, then they return home, pull out the couch bed, he goes to sleep, she goes to her bedroom and she goes to sleep. They get up the next day and do it all over again. And that drudgery is Jeanne’s hell. We follow her for three days through her unsatisfying life, moment to moment until …

Bobcat

September 17, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. I spent most of the week deeply concerned. After the bobcat, or rather the Lynx rufus sighting, I had not heard from either Bernard or his little sister Belle. I began to fear the worst. I went to meet them for tea every day, and they were not at home. I lay awake at night listening, trying to hear them moving about as poodles have exquisite hearing abilities. But it was all in vain. I could hear nothing but the breeze and occasional midnight rain.

My novelist noticed I was moping about and asked me what the matter was. I told her I was worried the bobcat might have harmed Bernard and his little sister Belle. My novelist told me brown bunnies are fast. Very fast. They can run at speeds of 30-45 miles per hour if necessary. Also, their fur helps them camouflage themselves, they have a keen sense of smell, 100 million scent receptors in their noses to be exact and have almost 360° vision. They also have a keen sense of hearing, up to around 20,000 hertz. And most importantly, they often have tunnels that they can hide in that a bobcat cannot crawl into. Also, if Bernard and Belle kept their nails well maintained, they can use them as a weapon.

Still, I was concerned that bobcats, being stealthy hunters, could also camouflage themselves so that Bernard and Belle might not see them. Bobcats can also leap ten feet if necessary and have terrifyingly sharp retractable claws. I imagined poor little Belle being snatched up by the cruel beast. What also concerned me was the fact that bunnies are crepuscular animals just like bobcats and are both out and about at dawn and dusk. Not to mention, bunnies are such high stress creatures if unexpectedly confronted with a predator, they can go into cardiac arrest. Hopefully neither of them saw the bobcat unannounced.

Then, yesterday morning, after the sun had risen, I saw them. Bernard and Belle came out from under a patch of ivy and greeted me. I was so excited I started jumping up and down in the air barking with utter delight. I asked them what happened and they told me, much like my novelist told me, they had hidden in their warren as the light was leaving that evening I ran into the bobcat. Bobcats don’t come around here too often, Bernard said, but Belle happened to catch the scent of one coming from about a quarter of a mile away and they ran and hid immediately. I was so delighted upon their return that I fixed up some Hibiscus tea and French butter cookies, and we sat and chatted until noon. Still, the concern of a bobcat around has made many of the animals in the neighborhood nervous and I am considering calling a summit. Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: STAR WARS: THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU (2026)-DISNEY+**

This week’s pick is a fun little ride for those of you out there who have watched and completed the Star Wars television series The Mandalorian. One of the fun parts about this installment is there is a long sequence of just Grogu and his exploits which you do not get much in the regular show. The movie is very watchable, very likable and has great pacing. I think kids and adults will both enjoy this next chapter in the life of a Mandalorian and his gifted little adopted child. The script was co-written by Dave Filoni, Noah Kloor and creator Jon Favreau who also directed and produced the film.

The story starts with Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), better known as Mando, and Grogu working for the New Republic. They report to Ward (Sigourney Weaver) a colonel and leader of the New Republic’s Adelphi Rangers. After finishing a job well, albeit unconventionally, Ward wants to send Mando on a new mission: to rescue Jabba the Hutt’s son and heir Rotta (voiced by Jeremy Allen White). Rotta has been kidnapped by the elusive Commander Coin (Jonny Coyne). Mando is reluctant at first, not being a big fan of Hutts. But after Ward offers him a new Razor Crest ship as forward payment for his assignment, he and Grogu agree to go to Shakari to rescue Rotta.

After landing on Shakari, they meet an Ardennian fry-cook street vendor, named Hugo Durant (voiced by Martin Scorsese). Hugo is most reluctant to provide them with information at first but with some persuasion he points them in the right direction to find Rotta who is working as a highly touted gladiator. Mando and Grogu slip into the prison and locate Rotta in his cell. But they are surprised when Rotta tells them he has no intention of quitting his new-found career, that he likes his independence, and that his Hutt siblings, the ones who enlisted the New Republic to find him, only did so to bring him in and kill him.

Epidog

August 27, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. Much has gone back to normal since last week’s apex. Artemis is delighted to be reunited with her sister Demeter. The two Persian cats have celebrated their reunion by cozying up on their climbing apparatus, each on their own tier. The twin Dachshunds Titus and Tyler have been chasing each other around in their front lawn, Charlotte has settled into reading the complete works of Shakespeare, Madeline and Edison meet at each other’s houses for a rousing game of checkers, Ruffles is working on getting his official driver’s license, and Bernard, Belle and I have gone back to having tea in the afternoons.

I had no idea how exhausted I was after all that kafuffle. But I am delighted to have everything back to normal before the summer is over. We are planning an Afternoon Tea celebration and in addition to our usual motley crew we are also inviting Sergio the Squirrel for his brave exploits in getting us the blueprints for the evil man’s house. And of course, our villain turned hero Crispin the Coyote and his coyote friends. They have promised to only eat cucumber sandwiches, scones and cakes and not the guests.

Unfortunately, my novelist took me in for a grooming and although I once again look spectacular the experience was torturous. But the result is stunning and I will look amazing at the soiree. I may even wear ribbons on my ears and my rhinestone collar around my neck. Not the diamond one I dream of, mind you, but a sparkly piece just the same. I was also delighted that yesterday was International Dog Day. The cats were sweet enough to gift me with a brand-new SPOT Skinneeez Dog Toy. These are of course my favorites. They said it was the least they could do since I spearheaded their rescues.

My novelist is glad to have me back to my usual self. She was quite concerned about my comings and goings during the whole ordeal. She wants me to return my focus to writing stories. I tried to tell her my adventure was indeed a story, but she dismissed the whole matter. She is, however, being gracious enough to take me to the Coyote vs Acme movie next week. And I do adore popcorn.

I think we have all learned to be a bit more vigilant in the neighborhood because of the kidnappings and have all promised to go out in pairs from now on. Apparently, one can never be too cautious. We have all had our owners (and novelists) purchase us whistles to take with us should we ever find ourselves in the company of nefarious creatures be they human or animal.

I do believe that wraps up the whole saga. But you never know when another rousing adventure might take place. I thank you all for being patient with me during this tense and tumultuous time. And thus, until next time, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

BEST OF THE EMMY NOMINATIONS

PLURIBUS (2026)-APPLE TV+

Of all the shows nominated for the Emmy this year, this one is the crème de la crème. And this best of breed sci-fi drama comes from none other than the best guy working in the television industry today, Vince Gilligan. When I saw the first episode, I was a bit iffy. My thought was, yet another end of the world story. But on further watch, Pluribus is anything but ordinary and easily the most original show on television right now.

Oddly, the most fascinating part of Pluribus is how some audience members cannot tell who the villain is until the last episode of the season…if they can even do it by then. To me, the identity of the villain was quite clear from the beginning but to others apparently it was not so cut and dry. Maybe this is a sly societal statement from our resident INFP about the present state of our world. Or perhaps it is merely an observation about the way people have always been.

The show is like a Milgram Obedience Experiment and a Stanford Prison Experiment rolled into one. I’m not certain if it is personality type, generational placement or exactly what it is that causes confusion around what is sinister and what is not in the show’s world. But it’s concerning to me that this confusion exists. Regardless, I am not going to give away any clues so that if you have never watched this mini masterpiece before, you can decide for yourself.

Pluribus received a whopping eighteen Emmy nominations including Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series, Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series, Outstanding Cinematography for a Series (One Hour), Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music, Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score), Outstanding Music Supervision, Outstanding Picture Editing for a Drama Series, Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Contemporary Program, Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One Hour), Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series, Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.

Carol Sturka (Rhea Seahorn in a brilliant Emmy nominated best of the year performance) is a highly successful misanthropic, alcoholic romance fantasy writer. Helen (Emmy nominee Miriam Shor) is her beloved spouse and manager. Carol dreams of writing the great American novel one day and give up her day job for good. After flying home from Houston to Albuquerque, the two women head out that evening to Silver Jack’s Saloon. Because of Carol’s drinking their SUV has a breathalyzer that must be blown into to start the car. As Helen doesn’t drink, she drives them to the bar and has a Coke while Carol sips on a Manhattan. After Carol finishes her drink, they go outside to smoke and look at the responses of the fans to Carol’s new book. While outside, Carol gazes up to see a group of planes

Don’t Head For the Freeway

May 21, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. As you may remember from last time, I came face to face with the dreaded Crispin Z. Coyote. I was, most fortunately, in Ruffles the bulldog’s owner’s van at the time which kept me safe from his sarcastic and sadistic jaws. He’s a genuinely vicious brute. He was attempting to devour my dear friend Bernard D. Bunny and his little sister Belle. They bounded onto the hood of the van and were begging us to let them inside. I defied my Canis Lupis Familiaris friends who wanted to drive off and allowed the bunnies into the van. I accomplished this just in time to give Crispin a stern talking to, before stealthily following the black-market buyers who have our dear Demeter locked in a crate inside their tasteless garish gas guzzling automobile.

“Faster,” Artemis the Persian told Ruffles. “They’re getting away!”

“I can’t go too fast or they’ll know we’re following them,” he said.

“We cannot lose them either. I cannot lose my dear sister.”

“Lost sister, lost sister,” the twin dachshunds barked in unison.

“Oh, do be quiet!” Artemis scolded.

“We must come up with a plan, so we know what to do when we catch them,” I said.

“Gigi is right,” Charlotte the Chow said. “Exactly what are we going to do when they stop?”

“I say we attack,” Edison the Manx said. “Nothing gets the point across better than a firm swipe of claws across the face.”

“A little barbaric, mind you,” Madeline the British Shorthair said. “But I do believe the Manx has a point. Sometimes the claws must come out.”

“I do not disagree,” Bruiser the Jack Russell Terrier said. “But they are humans and far bigger than we are.”

“True, but as a pack, we might be able to overrun them.”

The van headed down the hill to the street where we first found the melted Slurpee.

“Don’t head for the freeway,” Ruffles said panicked. “Don’t head for the freeway.”

We all looked out the windshield to see if the orange Hummer was going to turn right.

“I can’t drive on the freeway,” Ruffles said. “I can’t drive on the freeway.”

The Hummer turned right and headed in the direction of the freeway.

“They’re heading for the freeway! What if they go on the freeway?”

“You must follow them or we will never get Demeter back,” Artemis said.

Ruffles started to pant and whimper.

“Stay calm, Ruffles,” Charlotte said. “You can do this…”

We came to the light, and the orange Hummer got into the left turn lane. Ruffles breathed a huge sigh of relief before pulling into the lane behind them.

“Oh, goodie, goodie, goodie,” he said. “We are not getting on the freeway.”

“Where do you think they might be going?” Bernard D. Bunny asked me.

I looked out the window to the left. “I don’t know,” I said.

The van continued down the long suburban road. Large, elegant houses stood along the sides. We passed a church to our right and continued down the hill which was windy.

“This is scary,” Ruffles said. “I am scared.”

“Keep your eyes on the road,” Edison said. “We’ll go tumbling over the side if you don’t.”

“I am. I am keeping my eyes on the road.”

“They are turning left at the light down there,” Charlotte said pointing a paw.

Ruffles pulled into the lane behind the orange Hummer and the light turned green. We followed the van down the long road towards the next town.

Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

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

Nominated for nine Academy Awards, this week’s pick is a well-paced, well-written, seamlessly directed film with a spot on ending that has finally made it to streaming. Written by Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie and directed by Safdie, loosely based on the life of ping pong extraordinaire Marty Reiseman. It is the story of a little weasel named Marty Mauser (brilliantly acted by Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet who won both the Golden Globe and the Critic’s Choice Award) who has one dream and one dream only: to be the greatest ping pong player in the world. And he will do anything to see his dreams become reality.

Marty works in a shoe store owned by his Uncle Murray (Larry Sloman) when he isn’t competing in table tennis professionally. He wants to win the British Open to make table tennis an American household name. Everyone in his family is a hustler in one form or another including his mother Rebecca Mauser (Fran Drescher) who has a habit of calling him at tournaments feigning illness to get him to come home. Marty also has a married girlfriend named Rachel Mizler (Odessa A’zion), his childhood friend who is almost as good a grifter as he is. The two of them carry on a tryst in the back room of the store where the shoeboxes are stored. Uncle Murray promised to give Marty seven hundred dollars to fund his trip to the British Open but reneges. Desperate and determined, Marty robs the store’s safe and takes off with the money.

After reaching London, Marty plays magnificently. He cons the tournament heads to get him a room at the Ritz Hotel where the best players are staying. There he spies a beautiful older woman who turns out to be Kay Stone (Gweneth Paltrow) an aging movie star who is unhappily married to a wealthy businessman named Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary). The couple had a son who died fighting in WWII. Marty hustles both Milton for money and Kay for sex and urges them to watch him play in the tournament. Marty continues to play well beating defending champion Bela Kletzki (Géza Röhrig). But he loses in the final round to deaf Japanese player Koto Endo (real life deaf Japanese player Koto Kawaguchi). Marty loses his temper and pandemonium ensues. Marty returns to New York to even larger conflicts which escalate with each attempt he makes to return to Europe to get another chance to triumph over Endo.

Tyler Okonma also stars as taxi driver and close friend of Marty’s, Wally and Abel Ferrara plays career criminal as Ezra Mishkin who asks Marty to look after his dog. Look for Penn Jillette as a gun toting territorial farmer named Hoff.

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.

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.

Pandemonium

June 26, 2025 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to tell you pure pandemonium has broken out. My novelist has had her eyes glued to the computer since this morning because the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale Preview dropped today. This for me is one of the most heinous weeks of the year. It is a most dreadful event where she pays attention to the sale but not to me. Alas, I am left to fend for myself as she drills down page after page looking at clothing and bobbles until her eyes are bloodshot and she walks around like she is in a trance. I, in the meantime, have been working on my new story The Dog Doctor which I will be releasing chapter by chapter. But there she sits, absolutely addicted. There is something profoundly wrong with that. Anyway, I am now going to go fetch myself some tea and dog biscuits and stay out of her way until the fever breaks. Until next week I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: HITCHCOCK (2012)- NETFLIX**

Right now, Netflix has a fantastic array of Hitchcock films to watch including some of his very best work: Frenzy, Family Plot, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), The Birds, Rear Window, Vertigo and of course Psycho. And if you are a true cinephile you have seen them all, probably multiple times. If you have never seen these films, cinephile or no, all seven of these are required viewing. If you watch nothing else this summer watch all seven of these movies. Especially the last four as they are masterpieces. Movies don’t get much better than this. So, unless you are watching The Dekalog or all of Stanley Kubrick’s films, stop what you’re streaming right this minute and view every one of these.

Now to this underrated movie from 2012, which is about how Hitchcock went about bringing Psycho to life. One would think a director with as much success as he had would be able to make his next movie without much struggle. But alas, business jackasses are everywhere. Alfred Hitchcock (brilliantly played by Anthony Hopkins) reads the book Psycho by Robert Bloch and is immediately smitten. Not even his collaborator and wife Alma Reville (BAFTA nominee Helen Mirren) can convince him otherwise. He is so determined that no one knows anything about the book before he makes the film he sends his secretary Peggy (Toni Collette) out to purchase every copy.

Because he didn’t make enough money with Vertigo and the studio considered it a failure (If you can believe that. My favorite Hitchcock movie by the way.) they don’t want to finance the film. So, Hitchcock decides to put up his own money and goes to work hiring Joseph Stefano (Ralph Macchio) to write the script, Janet Leigh (Scarlet Johansson) and Anthony Perkins (James D’Arcy) to play the leads and Vera Miles (Jessica Biel) whom Hitchcock had a bitter past with to co-star. In the meantime, Alma Reville has gotten fed up with her husband’s dismissiveness of her contribution to his success and considers starting an affair with screenwriter Whitfield Cook (Danny Houston).

A Brand New Bunny

May 29, 2025 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good morning. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to joyously welcome a new member of the Bunny family brood, Brendan D. Bunny, cousin to Bernard D. Bunny and Belle D. Bunny. I met him for the first time this morning. He is a whopping six inches from his head to his cotton tail and possibly three inches tall. He was rather taken aback by suddenly seeing a gorgeous parti poodle for the first time. I know how much beauty can be stunning to one so young and he scampered off into the bushes. Bernard has invited me to the family celebration, and I have saved the date. I am not sure what type of gift to bring. What should one gift for a baby bunny? I am looking into Bunnies by the Bay to see if there is something his family might find cute or useful. Perhaps a Roly Poly Bunny. That is always a good choice. And a bunch of parsley. I hear bunnies like parsley. At any rate, the whole event is quite joyous, and I cannot wait to attend. I have also alerted my novelist, so she is extra careful when backing out the car. Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: DAZED AND CONFUSED (1993)- AMAZON PRIME**

If you have never seen this movie, you really, really should. And it’s the perfect time of year to do so. Set in Texas in May of 1976, the movie is simply one day and night on the last day of school for both high school and junior high school students in a small town. But what a great slice of life this is. Funny, honest and accurately depicted in both costume and setting, this is Richard Linklater’s small masterpiece that sports an unbelievably talented cast of young up and comers, some who would become Oscar winning writers and actors, Golden Globe nominees, huge TV stars, and famous Indi Film darlings. Why can’t all teenage films be this good? They do not cost that much to make and the payoff, if the script is good and it’s filmed right, is huge. There are not enough teenage films about…teenagers. No teen is a superhero. Most teens are not the banal subject of slasher films. And most of them are not much different through the eras whether it be Rebel Without a Cause, Breaking Away, Napoleon Dynamite, The Edge of Seventeen, or The Breakfast Club. I would like to see a lot more of these types of films come out of studios and then I might go back to the theatre.

On the last day of school in May 1976, high school quarterback Randall “Pink” Floyd (Jason London) has been given a paper to sign he must turn into his football coach before the end of the year. It denounces using drugs, sexual promiscuity and in general breaking the law. To say the least, Randall is not pleased. His fellow football players Benny O’Donnell (Cole Hauser) and Don Dawson (Sasha Jensen) encourage him to sign it. His stoner friends Ron Slater (Rory Cochrane), Michelle Burroughs (Milla Jovovich), and Kevin Pickford (Shawn Andrews) tell him its bull and his intellectual friends Mike Newhouse (Adam Goldberg), Tony Olson (Anthony Rapp) and Cynthia Dunn (Marissa Ribisi) are just happy to be invited to the afterschool party.

In the meantime, junior high school students Mitch Kramer (Wiley Wiggins), Sabrina Davis (Christin Hinojosa), John Hirschfelder (Jeremy Fox), and Carl Burnett (Esteban Powell) are getting ready to be hazed and not enjoying it. Darla Marks (Parker Posey) ruthlessly leads the hazing of the girls while paddle wielding Fred O’Bannion (Ben Affleck) brutishly leads the raid on the boys. Already graduated ex-football quarterback David Wooderson (Matthew McConaughey) hangs out with the teens kicking back, saving the party and shelling out good and bad worldly advice.

Rounding out this stellar cast are Randall’s would-be girlfriend Simone Kerr (Joey Lauren Adams), and Mitch Kramer’s older sister Jody Kramer (Michelle Burke).