Brainstorming

April 16, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here once again to introduce this week’s blog. We are all overjoyed to have our precious cats Edison the Manx and Madeline the British Shorthair back with our illustrious group after Artemis and I rescued them.

“I helped rescue them too.”

Yes, yes, Bernard D. Bunny also assisted in their liberation by bashing open the door with his remarkably strong hind legs.

“Thank you.”

Yes, of course. Apparently, even bunnies need validation. All of us, however, are dismayed that we still do not have our lovely friend Demeter the Persian, Artemis’s sister, home safe and sound. We know that Edison heard that the kidnapper is planning to do something with “the Persian” tonight and we all must hurry to put together a plan to thwart him before she is sold off to someone on the black market. Our biggest problem is when tonight the kidnapper is planning to meet his buyer or buyers and send our precious feline to some brutish monster keeping us from ever seeing her again.

There has been much debate among us as to how to go about our second feline rescue. Ruffles the Bulldog thinks we should park the van across the street as planned, wait until we see the buyer or buyers arrive, and then all of us should open the side door of the van and attack. Charlotte the Chow thinks we should stealthily position ourselves at all the entrances to the house and then wait for them to exit and attack. Bruiser the Jack Russell thinks we should sneak in the house and catch them by surprise. Titus and Tyler, the twin dachshunds, are chasing each other around the room.

I listened to all their proposals and said, “I think we should all stay together and whoever comes to the house we should follow in the van.”

“What if we follow the wrong automobile?”

“As long as it’s not a delivery truck coming to drop off a package, we will have the right vehicle.”

We all sat there for a moment and postulated the proposals. Then Bernard D. Bunny spoke up and said, “I think Gigi might be right. I think we need to stake out the house and see if a person or persons come to the house and if they leave with a cat.”

“But what if we cannot see well enough to know if they even have a cat in their possession,” Eddison said.

“I will bring a couple of pairs of my best binoculars.”

“You have binoculars?”

“I’m a bunny. Of course I have binoculars.”

Charlotte the Chow nodded. “I do think that waiting and following them may be the safest idea. We have all risked a great deal getting too close. Let’s see if we can make more progress at a distance.”

“Then we are agreed,” I said.

“But what do we do if we find Artemis and where she is being taken?” Bruiser the Jack Russell asked. “How will we get her back?”

We all thought deeply about this dilemma.

“I think I might have an idea of what to do when we find their destination,” Bernard D. Bunny said.

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!

CONGRATULATIONS, BILLY IDOL

Before I do my stream of the week, I just wanted to say congratulations to all the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees. Last week my stream of the week was Billy Idol Should Be Dead which is a terrific documentary about his life and music. I was delighted to find out this morning that he made it in and glad Gigi and I chose his documentary as our Stream of the Week last week.

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: PINBALL: THE MAN WHO SAVED THE GAME (2022)-HULU**

This week’s pick is a comedic biopic sleeper about how a down-on-his-luck recently divorced college graduate saved the game of pinball. The film was written and directed by brothers Austin and Meredith Bragg. The film is set to act like an interview with the present-day Mr. Sharp (Dennis Boutsikaris).

In 1975, Rodger Sharp (well-acted by Mike Faist), a 25-year-old college graduate from Chicago, decided to become a writer. His wife Judy (Olivia Koukol), whose father owns a furniture store, recently filed for divorce from him. After signing the papers, Rodger moves to New York City and gets an interview with the fledgling G.Q. Magazine. On the way up in the elevator, he meets a woman named Ellen (Crystal Reed) and is smitten. She gives him her business card and exits while he rides up to interview with Jack Haber (Mike Doyle). Rodger also meets fashion magazine co-workers Harry Coulianos (Bryan Batt), Deborah (Victoria Giler), and photographer James Hamilton (Toby Regbo). He is given an assignment to see if he is suited for the job. Shortly afterwards he goes in search of a pinball machine, his favorite pastime. But he quickly discovers the machines are hard to find. The only one he locates is in an XXX Rated adult store where an apprehensive man named Jimmy (Connor Ratliff) works the counter.

Rodger gets the job at GQ and works up the courage to call Ellen and ask her on a date. She agrees to go out to lunch with him. At lunch he discovers she is a secretary and has an eleven-year-old son named Seth (Christopher Convery) from her previous marriage. She tells him she is 32 years old and planning in the future to marry again and have more children. The two find they continue to have good chemistry and agree to meet again for lunch where he takes her to the XXX Rated adult store and shows her the pinball machine.

Shortly thereafter, the pinball machine was confiscated from the adult store by the New York City Police. Baffled as to why, Rodger finds out from Jimmy that pinball machines have been illegal in New York City for over thirty years thanks to a politician named Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia (Carlos Lopez). In 1942 LaGuardia convinced the public pinball machines were owned by the mob and encouraged children to gamble. Thus begins Mr. Sharp’s odyssey to write a book about pinball and hopefully overturn the unfounded laws in New York and other major cities to make pinball machines legal.

Exit and Plan

April 9, 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 last week Artemis the Persian and I had crept downstairs and found we were face-to-face with a locked door. But because Bernard D. Bunny could not resist executing his Easter Bunny rock performance, he jumped up and opened the door with the power of his hind legs.

When the door blew open the three of us were stunned to see our kidnapped friends Madeline the British Shorthair and Edison the Manx inside. They looked distressed to say the least and they both had lost weight. Bernard offered them a carrot. They munched it down quickly despite being carnivores.

“Where is my sister?” Artemis asked.

“We don’t know,” Edison said.

“You don’t know?”

“We don’t know,” Madeline echoed.

Artemis sobbed a long sorrowful sob as I have never heard a cat sob before.

“There, there,” Bernard said patting her on the back with his paw. “There, there.”

“I overheard the kidnapper say something about a Persian cat,” Edison said.

Suddenly, everyone went silent and looked at him. When he didn’t answer I said, “Well? What did he say?”

“He said he wanted to take the Persian to market.”

“To market? What does he mean by take her to market?”

“I do not know what he means by take her to market. I only know he said he was planning to do it tonight.”

“Tonight?” Artemis said. “When did you hear him declare tonight?”

“Today.”

“Today?” Madeline said. “I never heard him say anything of the sort.”

“It was when he took us outside this morning. He got a phone call and I overheard it.”

“My goodness! I am so glad you did. I must have been preoccupied with something else, like being incarcerated.”

“We must set a plan in place,” I said.

“I concur,” Bernard said.

“But first we must get Edison and Madeline out and returned home safely. Let’s head back up the stairs.”

Artemis, Bernard, Edison, Madeline and I all stepped out of the room. I could hear both Edison and Madeline breathe a collective sigh of relief. We ascended the stairs one step at a time. When we reached the top step, we all looked around to make sure no one had come home. We then trotted over to the front door and Artemis, and I pushed the chair over so Bernard could hop up, turn the knob and let us out. But after devising a plan, we will be back to rescue Demeter. Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: BILLY IDOL SHOULD BE DEAD (2026)-HULU**

So, how does a normal middleclass clean cut English boy who wears glasses named William Broad become a drug addled major punk rock icon named Billy Idol? That is the story presented in this engrossing documentary by Jonas Åkerlund. I must say off top I have seen Billy Idol perform twice and he and his band put on an exhilarating show. The first time I saw them play, woman after woman stormed the stage and were escorted out of the concert by security. The second time was tamer in that way and still a great show. I hope he gets inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year.

The documentary starts in England with the dawn of punk rock. Born into a middle-class family, the young Mr. Broad started to observe the scene. At the time he was not a drinker, smoker, or drug taker. In 1976 he joined a band named Chelsea and the lead singer told him he should wear contacts instead of glasses and bleach his hair blonde. He took the advice and shortly thereafter he and a couple of other musicians left the group and formed the band Generation X. William Broad then changed his name to Billy Idol. He chose the name based on his chemistry teacher referring to him as “idle” on his report card. The band had hits like “Ready Steady Go” and “Dancing with Myself” and appeared on British television. During this time, he met dancer Perri Lister and the two started a long-term relationship. It was also during this time drugs started to hit the punk scene, and Idol became acquainted with heroine.

When he was only two years old, his father, an English salesman also named William, moved William, William’s mother Joan and his little sister Jane to New York where the family lived for four years before returning to England. Because he was familiar with the city, when Idol realized the punk scene in England was waning in 1981, he saw an opportunity to head back to where he had spent his early childhood and become a solo artist.

At that time a new phenomenon was about to take place called MTV and in 1982, Idol became one of the earliest artists to perform on it. He wrote the mega hit “White Wedding” and working with his new guitarist Steve Stevens. They came up with a concept for the video with his girlfriend Perri playing the bride, shot it in a few short days, it aired and the rest is history.

But success brought pressure, and pressure made the drinking, drugs worse. Idol’s paralleling success and harrowing drug and sex spiral play out in both interviews, footage and animation over the course of the film.

The Bunny Cometh

April 3, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good evening. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. As you may remember Artemis and I headed downstairs to the basement where we heard a sound on the other side of the door. Artemis said, “I’d know that meow anywhere!” I leaned in and we both listened closely. She was correct. It was Madeline the British Shorthair’s meow.

“Madeline, are you alright?” Artemis said. “We’re here to rescue you.”

Then I heard a different familiar meow.

“Edison, is that you?”

He meowed again.

“We are coming to rescue you too, Edison. Artemis, we must find a chair to climb up on and pick the lock so that—”

“Hello.”

Artemis and I whipped around to find Bernard D. Bunny sitting behind us.

“Bernard!” I said surprised. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve come to tell you something.”

“Wait,” Artemis said, a perplexed look on her face. “This isn’t in the script. You aren’t supposed to be in this scene.”

“You say Easter. I say Bunny.”

“What?”

“Bernard,” I said with a huff. “This isn’t funny. We’re trying to tell a story here.”

“You say Easter. I say Bunny.”

Artemis turned to me and whispered. “I don’t understand. We didn’t rehearse this. She pulled out her script and showed it to me. “Do you see? Bernard is not in this scene and “You say Easter, I say Bunny” is not on the page.”

“You say Easter. I say Bunny.”

“Do I need to call my agent?”

“You say Easter. I say Bunny.”

“Easter!” Edison shouted from the other side of the door.

“Bunny!” Bernard shouted back. “You say Easter. I say Bunny.”

“Easter!” Madeline shouted from the other side of the door.

“Bunny! You say Easter, I say Bunny.”

“I am fed up with doing this every year,” I told him. “I am not going through this again.”

“Easter.”

“No.”

“Easter.”

“Bernard—”

“Bunny,” Artemis said.

I turned to her. “Seriously?”

She shrugged. “Sometimes it’s good to go off script.”

Bernard put on a pair of Ray Ban Wayfarers. “You say Easter, I say Bunny.”

“Easter!” Everyone said but I.

“Bunny!”

“Easter!”

“Bunny!”

“Easter!”

“Bunny!”

Bernard pointed at me with his front paw. “You say Easter, I say Bunny.”

“This is absurd! We’re in the middle of an important plot advancing scene here.”

“You say Easter, I say Bunny.”

“For crying out loud, Bernard.”

“You say Easter, I say Bunny.”

“No.”

“Bunny.”

“Not a chance.”

“Bunny.”

“Ugh! Fine. Easter.”

“Bunny!”

“Easter.”

“Bunny!”

“Easter!”

“Bunny! Stage Dive!”

It was at this point that Bernard jumped up, his back feet forwards, sailed through the air, and kicked in the door. Artemis and I stared in shock at what we saw before us. Until next week Happy Easter and I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: HIGH POTENTIAL (2024)-HULU**

As spring break season is in full gear, I thought this would be a good week to feature a fantastic streamer that’s as fun and smart as it is addictive. Based on the Franco Belgian series Haut Potentiel Intellectuel (HPI) which is also streaming on Hulu, is show is a whodunit comedy mystery about a mother of three with a 160 IQ and HIP or high intelligence potential, a condition found in people with an IQ over 130 where they have significantly enhanced cognitive abilities. Her name is Morgan Gillory (played by the always likable Kaitlin Olson) who cannot seem to find her place in the world due to her unusual gifts which sometimes affect her concentration. She had gone from dead end job to dead end job with her most recent being a janitor working at the L.A.P.D. police department.

One night, as she is cleaning, she happens to notice the department’s crime board. Upon studying it she quickly realizes the board needs to be changed to crack the case. She makes the necessary adjustments and goes back to cleaning.

The next day detectives Adam Karadec (Daniel Sunjata), Daphne Forrester (Javicia Leslie), Lev “Oz” Özdil (Deniz Akdeniz) and their head of department Selena Soto (Judy Reyes) find their case board has been tampered with. After reviewing the security footage, they found out their night janitor Morgan was the one responsible. Karadec and Özdil head over to Morgan’s house and bring her in for questioning and detain her. They tell her that tampering with a crime board is a serious offense. Karadec is skeptical but Soto is intrieged. They release Morgan after Forrester does a little research to find Morgan is correct on her reasoning of the evidence. The release Morgan who meets her ex-husband the sweet and unflappable Ludo Radovic (Taran Killam) who is the father or their whip-smart son Elliot (Matthew Lamb) and their newborn daughter. Morgan manages to get into an argument with a couple of officers on the way out of the precinct and ends up back in the holding cell.

Soto gets her out of the incident and asks her to work with the no nonsense Karadec as his partner, an arrangement Karadec is less than happy about. But as they begin to work together the two discover they make a better team than each of them originally envisioned.

Rounding out the cast is Amirah J as Ava Sinquerra, Morgan’s daughter from a previous marriage in which her artist husband Roman Sinquerra, who went missing when Ava was a baby.

Investigating the House

March 20, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good evening. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. As you may remember from last week, Artemis and I were perched on the catnapper’s kitchen counter looking down at the long drop to the Pergo floor. I turned my head towards the left and saw the glass topped stove and two kitchen towels hanging down from the bar handle. If we worked our way from the sink to the stove, we could each grab one of the kitchen towels and lower ourselves to the floor.

Artemis considers my idea and nods. She is, however, concerned about the slipperiness of the glass top stove. I agree with her but can see no other optimal way down. Except of course to jump which frightens me and my delicate poodle paws. We begin inching our way down the tan granite counter paw by paw until we arrive at the glass stovetop. Artemis deftly sinks her claws into both sides of the first towel and lowers herself to the Pergo. Unfortunately, my claws are not as deft. I slip and slide on top of the stove as I try to get my bearings. I reach down…grab the towel…and flip! I am dangling in midair about to slip! I could break my nails this way! Artemis quickly pushes a kitchen floor map under me and…plop! I land. Artemis looks at me shakes her head and licks her paw.

We look around at our surroundings and head towards the living room. Much like the kitchen, it is cleaner and neater than we expected. The place has cream-colored wall to wall carpet, a comfortable cloth couch and chair, an old-fashioned desk, a fireplace and a potted tree. I was stunned. Apparently, the catnapper vacuums.

Not noticing anything nefarious in the living room, we trotted on to the foyer. There were two flights of stairs. One that headed up and one that led down. And when you are trying to figure out where a catnapper might be up to something nefarious, down is the more likely choice. However, just to make certain this was indeed the case, we ascended the stairs to check out the rooms on the second floor first. After Artemis and I trotted to the top step, we found there was a narrow linen closet in front of us, and a door to a room. To the right there was one door and to the left there were two doors. We pushed open the first door to the left to find it was a bathroom. We trotted inside and saw it had grey walls and white tile with white fixtures with a dark brown fancy tile bathtub.

Next, we looked in the room to our right. It was set up to be an office. The room was painted mint green and had a computer desk, an office chair, a docking station, a printer, a bookshelf and a couple of file cabinets. Next to the file cabinet there was a wooden chair. I told Artemus there may be a clue in the file cabinet. She agreed. She hopped up on the wooden chair and was just about to open the cabinet when we both heard a car pull up in the driveway. Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: ALL THE EMPTY ROOMS (2025)-NETFLIX**

Stanford University is one of the leaders if not the leader in studying mass shootings and the individuals that commit them. It’s important I point this out because there are some films out there, let’s call them Problem Films, movies and television shows that get awards and accolades which present skewed information, missing information, and/or swaths of false information. They play on emotion over logic because the creators have an agenda. Or as the kids say, these films are rage bait. And being a writer, I’ve run across enough emotional artists to know sometimes they’re idiots. Seriously stupid empathic dolts. They will refuse to do their research and instead follow their misguided arrogance, write with their heart and not their head, and deeply and profoundly annoy those of us who take the time to look up facts.

That said, this movie is not a Problem Film. This movie is superb in delivering not only its message but the reality of the situation. Yes, the movie is emotional, but it is not irrational. And it absolutely without question deserved its Oscar win this past Sunday. But before I get into this must-see short documentary let’s look at some facts from Stanford’s studies:

Stanford researchers were able to study 35 mass shooters and determine a diagnosis on 32. Of the 32 diagnosed 28 met the diagnostic criteria of at least one psychiatric disorder. The most common diagnosis was schizophrenia, which affected 18 of the patients. https://med.stanford.edu/news/insights/2022/04/investigating-psychiatric-illnesses-of-mass-shooters.html
Other diagnoses included bipolar 1 disorder; delusional disorder, personality disorder, substance use disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.https://med.stanford.edu/news/insights/2022/04/investigating-psychiatric-illnesses-of-mass-shooters.html
The study also points out the following: “None of the assailants had received medication or other treatment before committing the crimes. Most had never been medically diagnosed using scientific criteria.” https://med.stanford.edu/news/insights/2022/04/investigating-psychiatric-illnesses-of-mass-shooters.html

You think maybe as a society we should make researching mental health a priority?

Moving on: in addition, it turns out, shock of shocks, it’s a very bad idea to have guns in a house where children live. Especially if their parents or siblings have any of the mental health issues listed above. In fact, it’s just a lousy idea to have guns and kids in the same house even if said parents, siblings, etc. are sane. Here’s why:

In 2020, gun violence surpassed car accidents as the No. 1 killer of children in the United States. https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2025/02/children-mass-shootings.html
Lo and behold, 59% of kids who died in mass shootings were at the hands of a family member. Over 22 million U.S. children live in a home with a gun. If a domestic disturbance arises in those homes, the risk of death dramatically increases. https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2025/02/children-mass-shootings.html
And most importantly, “…there may be opportunities to prevent incidents of domestic violence by removing firearms from homes where relationships between adults are deteriorating or mental health concerns are rising.” https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2025/02/children-mass-shootings.html

The point is there are essentially two problems involved in most mass shootings. Not all but most: mental health and easy access to firearms. It’s both mixed together like bleach and ammonia. It’s getting rid of lax gun laws and addressingthe urgent need to better advance psychology and neuroscience. That’s the bottom line. Some television and movies will often have you believe it’s a myriad of other fallacies from a person’s cultural background to visiting dark web online web sites to witnessing narwhals shooting confetti and glitter out their asses that invoke mass shootings. Where does this asinine stupidity come from? And even more befuddling, why do viewers believe these inane lies? Because they’re too lazy to fact check information? Because some filmmakers are too arrogant to get all the facts to make their film? Because a conglomerate of low-rent critics says said film is good? The last time I checked most critics and filmmakers weren’t scientists or professional researchers.

All that said, this is a profound short documentary about two very brave, and I do mean brave men, correspondent Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp. Hartman originally was given the job of going to schools where a mass shooting had occurred and present an upside story on the occurrence. These absurd missions took their toll and after a while Mr. Hartman concluded since he had a soul, he would rather do something useful and profound instead. Along with photographer Bopp, they decided to document and photograph all the bedrooms of children who lost their lives in school shootings. Bopp has an interesting ritual he does which is take what he and his daughter call “the morning picture”. Every day he takes a picture of her in the morning right at the time she is about to leave for school and has done so for years. He does it because you never know what might happen on any given day.

At the time of the filming, Hartman and Bopp had been doing this for seven years, which is remarkable, and they had three bedrooms to go. Looking at one of these rooms is brutal enough. Imagine what kind of courage and compassion it took to do this project for seven years. Their hope is to present their work on air. Everyone should see this short. There is no excuse. It should be required viewing as well as the short If Anything Happens, I Love You which I had as one of my streams of the week last year.

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

**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.

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.

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).

Happy New Year! One More Gift for You!

January 1, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Happy New Year! Since our weekly Thursday blog landed on Christmas this year, we put all five Musicology books up for free for three days. This was the first time we have ever offered all the Musicology books for free. As New Year’s Day has also landed on a Thursday, we are going to give out one more gift. From New Year’s Day until the end of Saturday 1/3/2026, we are offering our blog readers my short novel Chicane for free on Kindle. It is our way of saying thank you very much for reading and subscribing to our blog. We hope you enjoy it!

Here is the link for Chicane.

Good morning and Happy New Year. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to make my first spectacular appearance of 2026. As you know, the neighborhood pets and I have been distraught over the disappearance of two of our feline friends: Dimiter the Persian and Madeline the British Shorthair. Everyone has been on edge. It has been a terrifying holiday season as neither one has turned up. Dimiter’s heartbroken sister Artemus has been caterwauling every night because her sibling is missing. A haunting sound if I ever heard one. As there have been coyote sightings, I have started buying groceries for Bernard D. Bunny and his sister Belle. This is no easy task at this time of year. The stores are crowded, and it is most difficult for a toy parti poodle such as myself to navigate my way around the store. I finally managed to learn how to drive the scooter. It is a bit of a stretch, but I can turn it on and navigate my way down the aisles. However, I have somehow managed to upset some of the senior customers. One even had the audacity to tell me poodles are not allowed to ride their scooters. How rude.

All the pets in the neighborhood have decided to spend today comforting Artemis. We are all going to her house for appetizers and sparkling water. Tomorrow we will restart our search for her beloved sister. Next week my novelist will restart her stream of the week. Until then, I bid you Happy Holidays. Adieu.

Merry Christmas! Our Thank You to You!

December 25, 2025 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good morning and a very Merry Christmas to you all! This is the first time our blog has landed on Christmas Day, and we decided to do something different. We are grateful to everyone who has taken the time to subscribe and like us, and we wanted to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts and give something back. Starting today, Thursday, 12/25/2025 until one minute before midnight on Saturday, 12/27/2025 all five Musicology books are FREE on Amazon Kindle. This is the first time we have ever offered the entire series for free. The books are as follows:

Musicology: Volume One, Baby!

Musicology: Volume Two, Kid!

Musicology: Volume Three, Twist!

Musicology: Volume Four, Sweetie!

Musicology: The Epiquad

Now that my novelist has finished talking, it’s time to pay attention to me. Merry Christmas. I am Gigi the parti poodle and I too wish to thank you for all the support you have given our little blog. The first four books of my novelist’s dramedy satire are a behind-the-scenes look at what takes place over the course of one season of a floundering singing competition reality show. The Epiquad takes place during the four months following the show’s end.

Musicology is about a divorced record producer named Max Buckner whose record label is in chapter 13. Out of desperation, he agrees to be one of the off-stage mentors for the contestants of a TV show called Musicology hosted and produced by his long-time friend Devon Daniels. Devon surprises Max by also hiring a second mentor: the highly successful Ruby Diamonds. Ruby was Max’s first and best client and the love of his life who got away. Begrudgingly, Max and Ruby work together as they start traveling to five different locations across America and holding auditions. But when Ruby surprises Max by telling him one of the contestants is their child, Max finds himself trying to figure out if Ruby is telling the truth and if he really fathered a diva, a grunge rocker, a country singer, an Amish punk rocker or a white guy with guitar or if it’s all just a lie.

Thank you again for all your support and have a very Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noel!

Rain

December 11, 2025 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. With the onset of coyotes everyone has been on edge. Especially since Demeter is still missing. The rest of my neighboring pets are quite certain she was catnapped but still, there is concern a coyote may have snatched her up and run off with her. I visited Bernard who has been hiding in his warren with his sister Belle. They are quite afraid of coyotes as coyotes like them very much. I brought some tea and we sat in one of his tunnels enjoying our beverage. Bernard had French butter cookies which went scrumptiously with the tea. He was glad about the rain that came this week. He said it keeps the coyotes away as they like to find shelter during such weather.

We discussed the possibilities surrounding Demeter’s disappearance. It took most of the afternoon, but we decided the most likely scenario was Demeter had indeed been kidnapped. The only thing we couldn’t figure out was who and why. There must have been something we missed. Someone lurking around the neighborhood or perhaps at the park. Someone who had been watching her, plotting, planning, deciding her fate. But to what end? What would they want with a Persian cat? Bernard said he didn’t know. Perhaps to sell her or even something more nefarious. We both worried perhaps her sister Artemis could be at risk too. I thought we might go looking around the neighborhood during the daytime to see if we can find any place or anyone who might look suspicious.

I left Bernard’s just before dark and returned home. When I got home my novelist told me she had some bad news. Madeline the British Shorthair is missing too. I am too shocked to tell you anymore. Until next week I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: NOBODY WANTS THIS (2024)-NETFLIX**

Continuing with excellent streamers to watch over the holidays is this gem from Netflix. I am not usually a fan of romantic comedies that weren’t shot in black and white. But occasionally a sleeper will step into the spotlight and surprise me. Cleverly created for television by Erin Foster and well-acted by its cast, this witty and charming tale of mismatched sweethearts keeps you hooked.

A couple of thirty-something blonde gentile sisters named Joanne (Kristin Bell) and Morgan (Justine Lupe) do a successful frank and blunt podcast about dating. But neither one has had any long-term success whatsoever in relationships.

Then one night Joanne, who is an antagonist, attends a party and finds out one of the male attendees is a rabbi. However, she is mistaken as to exactly which man the rabbi is. She is shocked to find out he is an eligible young bachelor named Noah Roklov (Adam Broody) who has recently broken up with his fiancé Rebecca (Emily Arlook). Skeptical but curious, Joanne begins hanging out with him and they start to develop a budding friendship.

Everyone, except maybe Noah’s goofy but likable brother Sasha (Timothy Simons) do not want to see these two together in any capacity, especially Sasha’s wife Esther Roklov (Jackie Tohn). But the more Noah and Joanne get to know each other the more feelings start to develop between them. Not to mention there are quiet, subtle hints that maybe there is something not quite defined developing between Sasha and Morgan as well.