Susan Clark

Dog Gone Trouble (Netflix Animated Movie) — Fun, Silly, Heartwarming

A little dog named Trouble, the cute character in the center of the above photo, is the hero of this animated film. Netflix acquired the rights to this film made in 2019.

Trouble lives in a beautiful spacious mansion with his elderly mistress, Sarah Vanderwhoosie, voiced by Betty White. He lives a rather spoiled life where he’s kept sparkling clean, accompanies his mistress to the spa and even has a servant to spritz his behind after he relieves himself outside.

One day, his mistress dies, and a couple, her only relatives, are set to inherit the mansion and all her riches on one condition, that they take care of Trouble and first prove themselves to be good caretakers for him for a week. The selfish couple are excited about inheriting riches but show no feeling at the passing of their relative and plan to pass Trouble onto the pound as soon as they pass the test.

In the meantime, Trouble gets himself lost and finds he has to find a way to survive on the streets. He meets up with a female pit bull named Rousey who has street smarts and knows how to survive and scrounge for food. She tolerates Trouble but is not overly friendly to him at first.

Trouble also gets into some, well — trouble — with some comical squirrels who preface their gang-like threats with synchronized dance moves. Inspired by West Side Story? Perhaps. At one point, their leader steals Trouble’s jewel-studded collar and uses it as a belt. At this point, the dancing squirrels reminded me of a disco group like the Jackson 5 or the Osmond Brothers.

Eventually, Trouble runs into Zoe, a pizza delivery girl and aspiring singer, who takes him in.

Meanwhile, the mean couple who understand that Trouble is the key to their inheritance, hire a tracker to go after him. The way this character is drawn somehow reminds me of Jim Carrey the way he appears in several of his movies. His motions are strange and animal-like as he gets on all fours to sniff the ground, hops from tree to ground and practically slithers like a snake. He also picks up the most detailed information from the tiniest of clues. The character is, obviously, very exaggerated from reality but imaginatively presented.

A couple of celebrities are presented in the movie as animated characters, voiced by themselves. These include Cesar Millan, the dog whisperer, and Jason Mraz. Cesar acts like a personal attendant and almost therapist to Trouble while he is in the mansion (and later to other dog characters.) Jason Mraz hosts a singing contest that Zoe wants to enter.

I won’t disclose the whole plot, but I will say that everything ends happily. In spite of a lot of goofiness and exaggerated fantasy elements, there is a down-to-earth message that gets across about kindness to animals, adopting strays and how even humans might feel like lost strays sometimes. Overall, I found the movie enjoyable.

As a warning for parents watching with children, there’s a little bit of vulgarity in some places. The dancing squirrels talk to Trouble about “disturbing their nuts,” “stepping on their nuts” and similar phrases. The dialogue makes perfect sense in referring to actual nuts that they have stored in a tree, but there is a suggestion of a double meaning. Even Trouble, the dog, says several times that “this sounds inappropriate.” There is also a very brief scene where a random dog — not one of the main characters — is seen humping first a person’s leg and then a dog toy.

Creative Life, Poetry

For Love of My Characters #Paint Chip Terza Rima

Blank canvas is my laptop screen,

Where seedlings of ideas might grow,

Unfolding action to be seen.

My characters act out a show,

On a different sort of screen,

And to the cliff’s edge sometimes go.

Though they dangle close to danger

And sometimes they fall into it,

To complete demise, they’re strangers.

This, my love for them, won’t permit,

A happily ever after

Must resolve every conflict.

This was written for Linda Kruschke’s Paint Chip Poetry challenge where we were challenged to use three of the words or phrases below in a terza rima form poem. I found quite a few of these worked perfectly for a poem on storytelling.

Here is an explanation of the terza rima from Linda’s page and the poetry dictionary.

TERZA RIMA (tare’-tsuh ree’-muh; Italian, “third rhyme”) Tercets with an interwoven rhyme scheme, invented by Dante Alighieri for The Divine Comedy: aba bcb cdc ded efe fgf, etc. The poem (or individual section, called a canto by Dante) usually ends with a single line or a couplet, rhyming with the previous tercet’s middle line. But it may also end with a tercet, it’s middle line rhyming with the opening tercet’s first and third lines, making the form circular.

Action Men with Duct Tape, Suspense Serial

Action Men with Duct Tape, Part 3 (Mystery Comedy Serial)

With links to previous episodes

As Bronwyn and I walked over to join the end of the line at Starbucks, I couldn’t help feeling that the eyes of the superfan we’d just met were still following our every move. I resisted the urge to turn around and confirm my suspicions. Besides, if I was wrong, wouldn’t I be the one being the creepy creeper dude by staring at him?

(Ahem.) We interrupt this programming to say that, if you missed parts 1 and 2 of this series, it’s very understandable. The flow of this series was interrupted for a long time. You can find Part 2 here and Part 1 here. You should “start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.”

“So, should I get you one of those Pokemon Go frappuccinos?” I asked Bronwyn.

“I want a mocha frappuccino,” said Bronwyn.

“Aren’t you too young for coffee?”

“It’s a frappuccino. It’s practically a milkshake. Uncle Jack lets me have coffee flavored ice cream.”

“Ye-ah,” I said, my voice sliding from a high to low note. “But actual coffee has too much caffeine. It’s my duty as your uncle by proxy to protect you from drugs.”

“Drugs?” said Bronwyn. “It’s caffeine, not crack.”

At the mention of crack, my protective instincts turned up a notch … or twenty. “Crack? Who’s been talking to you about crack?” I asked.

“The police.”

“The police!”

Bronwyn rolled her blue eyes at me. “I’m in the D.A.R.E. program … you know where they teach about drug prevention.”

“Right,” I said.

“Plus,” she said. “I watch TV. I don’t live in a cave.”

“Right,” I said. “Well, caffeine is still a drug … albeit a socially acceptable one.”

In the process of this whole, interesting discussion on drugs, we had worked our way to the front of the line.

“Hi,” I told the barista. “I’d like a cold brew for myself, and she’d like a …”

“I want a mocha …” Bronwyn put in.

At this point, I took Bronwyn into a loving chokehold. Let me rephrase that. I gave Bronwyn a sideways hug that strongly resembled a chokehold. “She’d like one of those unicorn drinks or whatever you have that’s pink and girly and non-caffeinated,” I said. “With a big smiley face on the cup, please.” I myself don’t know why I felt the need to add the last part.

“Okay,” said the barista. “I could do a cotton candy frappuccino. That’s pink. The unicorn one is more colorful.”

I shrugged a shoulder. “I leave it to you.”

“What’s the name?”

“Andy.”

“Her name?”

“Bronwyn.”

“Donna-Lynn?”

“Bronwyn.”

“Brooklyn?”

“Bronwyn.”

Finally, she nodded, and I paid for our drinks. I was pleased with our results. Mine was dark and beautiful, though I almost questioned my adults-only gateway-to-crack choice of beverage, by way of example. Bronwyn’s was bright purple-pink with swirls of blue and a fairy dusting of pink and blue sugar on top of the whipped cream. The barista had indulged my stupidity with a huge smiley face on the cup right next to the name, “Brooklyn.” I tossed a tip in the tip jar.

We meandered over to a table in the food court then, and I still had this eerie feeling that Mr. Superfan was looking our way. When was I going to let that go? “I suppose I should text Uncle Jack to tell him and Dec to meet us here,” I said. Just as I said that, I spotted Jack and Declan coming through the food court entrance, carrying bags from Best Buy. It was as if Jack and I were so close we could communicate by telepathy, either that or the smell of Cinnabon was like the call of sirens to Ulysses.

I waved them over, and they joined us at a table. Best Buy bags mingled with pastel bags from Forever 13 (or wherever it was) on a spare chair.

“Don’t look now,” I said, “but we met this guy in the food court earlier who’s a mega-fan of our Blaze comic series. He strikes me a bit creepy, but he’s sitting there in the corner. Blondish-brown hair, receding hairline, rectangular-framed glasses …”

“Don’t look now” had the same effect as saying, “Don’t think about zebras in bikinis.” Do you see what I mean? What image just popped into your head? Jack looked to the corner.

“I see him,” Jack said.

“Is he staring at us?”

“I’m staring at him,” said Jack. “Oh, now, he’s looking.”

“Look away,” I said.

Jack did. I thought that our guy might walk over to chat with Jack, now that he had joined us. It wouldn’t be too unreasonable considering our earlier business discussion, but I now had mixed and strange feelings about it.

I fished in my shirt pocket and pulled out the pen he’d given us earlier. “He gave us a pen,” I said. “Apparently, he runs a comic book store and suggested we could go there for a signing some time.”

“Not a bad idea,” said Jack. He looked hard at the pen, at the business name on the side, at first. Then, he began to twist and turn the pen in different angles and stare at it some more. He was so mesmerized you’d think it was one with spinning lighted fiber optics (one of our own products.) I was mostly accustomed to Jack’s quirks by now, the way he would study ordinary things from an engineer’s perspective, but this was seeming ridiculous. It seemed like a pretty run-of-the-mill pen to me.

“Is there something special about that pen?” I asked.

“Maybe not,” said Jack. “It just seemed … well, never mind …” He set it down on the table. “Going to his store for a signing might not be a bad idea, for our writer and artist.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I think he wants you … the big brains, the concept guy. The superfan’s as fruity as a pebble, if you ask me.”

“As fruity as a pebble?” Jack raised his eyebrows. “Pebbles aren’t generally fruity.”

“Some of them are, when they come in boxes labelled Fruity Pebbles.”

Photo by Haley Owens on Unsplash, This is not exactly Fruity Pebbles but was the best stock photo I could find. It has the right idea perhaps.

“The breakfast cereal isn’t made of literal pebbles,” said Jack.

“I’ve known that since I was five,” I said. I sighed. “Don’t be so literal when I am trying to be clever.” I paused. “Is he still there?”

Jack glanced back in the direction of the corner. “No, he’s gone now.”

To be continued …

Creative Life, Dog poetry, It's a Doggy Dog World, Poetry

Rest Now, Little Doggies, And Sleep, #Poem, #Quatern

Rest now, little doggies, and sleep,

Find a nook that is safe and warm,

Perhaps in the crook of my arm,

Your furry head on my shoulder.

Silly doggies like to burrow,

Rest now, little doggies, and sleep,

Underneath the warm bed covers,

In the hollow between my shins.

Who will claim the favorite spot,

Snuggled next to your dear Susie?

Rest now, little doggies, and sleep,

You both should find a cozy nook.

Theo lies down along my legs,

Remy rests her bum against me,

Then moves to lean against my foot,

Rest now, little doggies, and sleep.

This was written for Go Dog Go’s challenge to write a quatern poem.

This poem has 16 lines broken up into 4 quatrains (or 4-line stanzas).
Each line is comprised of eight syllables.
The first line is the refrain. In the second stanza, the refrain appears in the second line; in the third stanza, the third line; in the fourth stanza, the fourth (and final) line.
There are no rules for rhyming or iambics.

I wrote another poem recently about sleeping dogs, The Dreamers, but that one is more fantasy. This one is more reality-based, inspired by Theo and Remy, two French bulldogs I take care of from time to time. They are accustomed to sleeping with people, with their owners and then with me, when I am with them. Their sleeping positions amuse me. I am surprised Theo and I both slept with his head on my shoulder.

Explorations, Food Adventures

Il Laboratorio del Gelato Review

Carrot and fresh mint gelato with orange hibiscus sorbet at Il Laboratorio del Gelato

Il Laboratorio del Gelato offers a variety of surprising flavors in light European style gelato and sorbet.

I noticed the lines of people outside the Montclair, New Jersey location before I even noticed the name of the business on the awning. It piqued my curiosity. When I noticed it was a gelato place, I thought I’d try it out.

What is gelato? The establishment’s website offers an explanation. Gelato is Italian for ice cream, but that can mean different things in different regions of Italy. Southern Italy developed an icier version, partly because eggs and cream were less affordable and partly because an icier version was more refreshing. Northern Italy developed a creamier, custardy ice cream. Even so, gelato is generally lighter than American style ice cream.

The place offers more than twice the 31 flavors of Baskin Robbins, and some very surprising ones too. As a first timer, I decided to go for novelty, choosing flavors I had not seen elsewhere. They did offer me some samples on a spoon, to help me with my flavor decisions.

a sideview of the Montclair, New Jersey location

I went for fresh mint and carrot gelato, a scoop of each, that is. Maybe, mint is not so unusual for an ice cream flavor, but the carrot certainly seemed different. I asked if it was like carrot cake, and the girl behind the counter said, “No,” as she offered me a spoonful. It doesn’t have the cinnamon or spice flavor of carrot cake. It might seem odd to many American minds, but when you consider that carrots have a lot of natural sweetness and that we already make a dessert from them with carrot cake, it isn’t quite so strange. My third flavor choice was an orange hibiscus sorbet, which, instead of being an orange color, was more of a deep burgundy.

Serving sizes were conservative to say the least, by American standards. I ordered three scoops in a cup. The photo, with all its zoom, might not give you much of an idea of size, but it is small. I would say it is less than half the size of what would be considered “a cup” at American ice cream chains like Baskin Robbins or Carvel. It was also $6 for that small serving, so this is high end gourmet fare.

I don’t know if this is more of a European sense of sizing or something else. I was reminded of two things. I was reminded of this kind of cliché we have about fine dining where there is a tiny serving beautifully presented on a large plate like below.

I was also reminded of an incident from when I was teaching English in Hungary one summer in the ’90s. With my very, very limited Hungarian and, holding one thumb up for “one,” I ordered a single scoop of ice cream in a cone. The girl behind the counter put in one scoop, and it didn’t even come past the edge of the cone. Hugely disappointed, I held up two fingers and asked for two scoops. That was definitely not an American concept of a scoop of ice cream, even if it was a literal scoopful. It’s not a scoop of ice cream until it is at least a mound on top of the cone.

So, the sizing was interesting, but read on. It was not an altogether disappointing experience.

The fresh mint was very refreshing and subtle without being overwhelming or seeming like candy cane. (They do have a candy cane flavor also, it turns out.) The carrot was sweet and carrot-like, but when I was eating absent-mindedly, I would forget it was a carrot flavor. It just seemed like a light, fresh and sweet dessert. The sorbet was icy and a nice, tangy sweet orange flavor with just a hint of the hibiscus.

In spite of the smaller size, I was also eating with a tiny spoon and savoring every bite. It wasn’t gone in an instant. When I was finished, it felt like just enough, and I didn’t feel guilty about my indulgence. It felt refreshing and satisfying.

There are only two more locations of Il Laboratorio del Gelato, and they are both in New York City, one in Greenwich Village and one in the lower east side.

I thought I would name a few more of the interesting flavors. The gelato flavors come in several categories such as cheese/savory, chocolate, fruit, grain/cereal, nut, spice, spirits/liqueur/beer, sweet, tangy and vegetal/herbal. Would you try a Grape Nuts flavored ice cream? How about cucumber, beet, basil, olive oil, cheddar cheese, pink peppercorn or wasabi? How adventurous are you?