BON ODORI

Bon Odori. Tacoma Buddhist Temple. 

 

Good food. Good friends. Brief worship. Dancing for the ancestors. Taiko drumming.

ANGINE de POITRINE

VOL. 1 (2024) and VOL. II (2026) by Angine de Poitrine.

Did you ever wonder what it sounds like when a Pokémon creature evolves through its various stages?

Angine de Poitrine is a Québécois math rock duo, consisting of Khn de Poitrine on microtonal guitar and bass and Klek de Poitrine on drums. Think progressive rock meets jazz meets klezmer music meets layered guitar loops, with a peppering of techno. It's wild. I've watched videos of them playing in their black-and-white polka-dotted costumes and makeup, and can't quite figure out how they do what they do. Obviously, they practice and practice and practice.

Recommended if you like Primus or Battles or King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard or Writhing Squares or instrumental Devo, but don't actually expect it to sound like any of those. This is its own unique thing, and I absolutely love it!

THE RETURN

The Return (2024) directed by Uberto Pasolini. There are no gods and no monsters in this version of The Odyssey. The narrative starts with Odysseus washing up on the shores of Ithaca. This is a family drama, a homecoming, that meditates upon how war and distance and absence and loss transform someone in ways, perhaps unimaginable and unreturnable. And there are others (the suitors) to get out of the way before intimacy can be revisited.

Ralph Fiennes as Odysseus and Juliette Binoche as Penelope carry the film. The rest of the cast doesn't really have much to do other than orbit around the couple at the center of the story., or doesn't know how to live into their roles, or both; they are caricatures and shadow puppets.

The colors of this film are rich, and the cinematography is scrumptious. The film is a slow burn with a satisfying scene of Odysseus slaying the suitors, although I actually wish it had been a bit more intense.

It's good and I would see it again, but this won't be everyone's goblet of wine.

Streamed on Kanopy, via the Pierce County Library System.

RAKUSU

Yin and yang. Washing, drying, and ironing fabrics for my upcoming sewing project.

THE ODYSSEY

The Odyssey (2026) directed by Christopher Nolan. I really wanted to like this, but I found it corny and preachy. Plus, Nolan's wish to make a "more realistic" Odyssey (whatever that means) waters down the mythological and magical elements of much of the story. We also spend too much time in texts other than The Odyssey—Homer's Iliad, Virgil's Aeneid, the plays of the Oresteia (choose your playwright).

Scenes on the various islands on Odysseus's journey back home are fragmentary and neutered of much of their power. The various monsters lack any real monstrousness, and barely appear on screen. Then we get long and boring stretches in the palace with Penelope and the suitors.

And don't get me started on the fight scenes, which feel overly chaotic and strangely shot. Plus the sound design of them was overly loud, filled with reverb and feedback. No thanks.

Polyphemus the Cyclops has some interesting facial design, but then he posed in imitation of Goya's (circa 1823) "black painting" Saturn Devouring His Children while eating one of the men traveling with Odysseus, which I found pretentious.

I also don't know what was going on with the character of Agamemnon. He doesn't really speak. He's just a giant suit of glossy black armor with gold vertebrae on the back of the helmet. Is he supposed to be another monster? A symbol of death?

All in all, this film feels unbalanced to me. It's 2½ hour running time weighed upon me, and toward the end I wished it would just conclude.

Meh.

Watched on the big screen at Regal Cinemas.

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I seriously hope that someone will make a version of The Odyssey filmed in the animated style of Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (2018) and live into the gods and monsters of Homer's epic poem.

ROBE of LIBERATION

"Robe of Liberation," book binding twine, permanent marker, and Montana BLACK spray paint on cardboard. 

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A record of my rakusu journey.

I purchased the fabric to start making and sewing my rakusu. This is going to be a months-long project, but the first "baby" steps have been taken.

HAMNET

Hamnet (2025) directed by Chloé Zhao. We move through the seasons of a family's life—from the vibrancy of spring and romantic love through the summer of a house filled with children into an autumn of plague, pestilence, and death and into the muted colors of winter of grieving. Emotions mirror the cinematic colors that adorn the screen. A punch of red drains into dull browns. The climax of the film takes place at the initial showing of Hamlet in the Globe Theatre, and is imbued with the gravity of life and death—the landscape of one family writ large and universal. Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal carry us along through their lives with a bittersweetness that reads as true, before visiting (a new) spring again. Highly recommended.

Streamed on Netflix.

LINEAGE

"Lineage," art marker and signature stamp on Montana BLACK spray paint on found cardboard.

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As part of my Buddhist journey toward possibly receiving the bodhisattva precepts, I'm capturing it in art. (I'm required to capture it in writing.)

This is an abstract representation of the lineage chart of buddhas and ancestors, with me at the bottom. My Troy chop mark peeks out of the spray paint haze, indistinct, which I really like.

I think my Mom's Feast Day, and reflecting on my personal lineage, helped solidify concepts that were bouncing around in my head for some time.

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lineage— 

winding blood dragon 

Buddha moon

SANDY FEST 9

Today is the ninth anniversary of my Mother's death, her Feast Day. Or, as I like to call it, Sandy Fest.

For number 9, I didn't originally have any art planned, but then an Instagram post that appeared in my feed provided inspiration. Modeling clay meets headstone. Modeling clay meets stamp pad. Modeling clay meets notecard. Modeling clay gets squished back to how it started. Repeat.

"Swim Free 2026" uses a tulip from a grave marker to serve as an octopus.

Mom, may you continue to rest in peace, as well as in God's embrace.

LONGLEGS

Longlegs (2024) directed by Osgood Perkins. I'm not quite sure what to think about this psychological horror film. It's a little bit Twin Peaks, a little bit Silence of the Lambs, a little bit 7even. It borrows some Annabelle and some Texas Chainsaw Massacre. In the midst of this are two stellar performances—"flat of all affect" (but we learn why) FBI agent Lee Barker, played by Maika Monroe; and the all-out "off his rocker" eponymous Longlegs, played by Nicholas Cage. The film takes place in 1990s semirural Oregon, and is beautifully captured on film in blues and ambers.

Kids, don't talk to strangers!

Streaming on Hulu.