THE FREEZE-FRAME REVOLUTION

The Freeze-Frame Revolution (2018) by Peter Watts. This novella is told from the perspective of Sunday, a young woman who has been genetically-engineered to serve on an asteroid-ship as it circles the galaxy building wormhole gates for the rest of humanity to use as they navigate the universe. Most of the builds are completed by the mission's artificial intelligence, Chimp. Humans are necessary on certain builds, though, so various mission members are thawed out for a few days or few weeks, complete their tasks, and then head back to cryogenic slumber. They've been functioning this way for about 65 million years, when a revolution takes place amongst the human crew, hoping to release themselves from the bonds of serving Chimp. I found the story strange and compelling. I don't think I completely understand the "hard" science fiction, but I don't need to entirely comprehend the (quantum) mechanics to enjoy the narrative. Recommended.

There are also (currently) seven related short stories on Watts's website. They comprise his Sunflower cycle of stories.

Checked out from the Puyallup Public Library.

GLOSS

I am studying the sixteen bodhisattva precepts.

In the program in which I'm enrolled, we have to write glosses on each of the precepts. "[P]ut your reflections into a gloss, usually a paragraph on each precept, though it can become a creative project, as well." So I created "dharma gates" to represent each of the precepts. 

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The Three Treasures are in blue. The Three Tenets (Pure Precepts) are in red. The Ten Mindfulness Practices are in yellow.

Marks-A-Lot permanent marker on Montana Black spray paint on cardboard. Japanese kanji on labels.

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Dharma gates are boundless; I vow to master them.

Dharmas are boundless; I vow to comprehend them.

Reality is boundless; I vow to perceive it.

 
The third of the four Bodhisattva/All-Embracing Vows, in three translations/expressions: (1) Sonoma Mountain Zen Center; (2) Kazuaki Tanahashi; (3) Upaya Zen Center.

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I don't regard my life
as insufficient.
Inside the brushwood gate
there is a moon;
there are flowers.
 
—the poet Ryōkan, translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi

LOVING VINCENT

Loving Vincent (2017) directed by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman. Imagine the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh meet Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly (2006). The film was shot with live actors against a green screen, then the resulting film was projected onto canvases and painted in oil paints, in the style of Van Gogh, by more than 100 artists. Then the paintings were filmed again (maybe?) and rotoscoped and whatnot. Anyway, it's a visually stunning and wild animated film that took six years to make. It wrestles with the notion of identity and the truth (or truths) surrounding Van Gogh's attempted suicide by gunshot (or was it murder?) that was indeed fatal two days later. Is the story accurate and strictly biographical? No and no, but the speculation and competing truths is what lends the film some of its gravitas. Recommended.

Streaming on Netflix.

OBSESSION

Obsession (2025) directed by Curry Barker. There are some wild Generation Z and Millennial horror films being made right now, and this is one of them. "It's not a romance, but a love story." It nods to plenty of predecessors—Single White Female, The Exorcist, Weapons—while navigating its own path. If you liked It Follows, this will provide the same intensity and unstoppable pursuit. If you liked Fatal Attraction, this will provide the same off-kilter (and stomach-churning) madness. If you liked Big, then this is the horror version. (This was The Wife's observation.) There were some classic jump scares that caught the entire audience off guard, even when they almost announced themselves. Recommended.

Watched at the Grand Cinema in Tacoma.

TRON: ARES

Tron: Ares (2025) directed by Joachim Rønning. Corny and contrived, this movie tries way too hard. It borrows concepts from Bladerunner and The Matrix that were done better there. Beautiful, but hollow. The soundtrack is initially interesting, but becomes repetitive. Jared Leto: what the hell? Can you even try to act? This isn't a modeling gig. It feels, and is filmed, like a standard MCU film. If it wasn't Tron-related, I would have thought it was an Avengers installment. Somewhere between meh and thumbs down.

Streaming on Disney+.

SEND HELP

Send Help (2026) directed by Sam Raimi. Imagine Castaway and Misery have a baby. Also, its raised in a household that encourages the watching of "forced buddies" movies and the "ugly duckling right in front of your face" films. And here we are. It's not a bad film, but it's also nothing special. It's billed as a dark comedy horror film, but the horror is just a couple of gratuitous scenes of gore. And the funny is more camp than anything. I think there may be a better film hiding somewhere in this gathering of overused film tropes. Meh.

Streamed on Hulu.

BACKROOMS

Backrooms (2026) directed by Kane Parsons. I am unfamiliar with the original creepypasta or the short videos by Parsons that it relies upon as foundations, so I can only explore other echoes I see in the film. First, the "backrooms" feel like some of the landscapes in the Portal 2 videogame. Literature-wise, I get vibes of The Yellow Wallpaper (Charlotte Perkins Gilman), Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (Lewis Carroll), Slade House (David Mitchell), The Fall of the House of Usher (Edgar Allan Poe). Are there nods to fellow contemporary horror filmmakers? Maybe. If so, then especially Barbarians and Weapons (both by Zack Cregger). It's a psychological horror film, but I found it more weird than scary. It even has its moments of absurd humor, at which I found myself laughing out loud. A couple of segments of "found footage" remind me of The Blair Witch Project. It may sound like a bunch of parts of things smashed together, much like the backrooms themselves, but I think it works as its own thing, too. I liked it.

(I think it may also take a few jabs at "artificial intelligence," but that may just be my own bias coming through.)

((It is also a meditation on memory and mental illness, while remaining fairly neutral on the latter; it lets the characters be who they are, for good or ill.))

Viewed at The Grand Cinema, Tacoma.

THE HEART SUTRA

I finished reading The Heart Sutra: A Comprehensive Guide to the Classic of Mahayana Buddhism (2014) by Kazuaki Tanahashi. This is one of my favorite types of books: one that tackles a single subject and explores it in depth. ("Comprehensive" is in the subtitle.) Tanahashi explores the provenance of The Heart Sutra in its Sanskrit and Chinese forms, and in various translations and renderings into other languages—Japanese, Tibetan, Nepalese, English, and others. He looks at modern and recent scholarship, and provides his own translation with co-authorship by Roshi Joan Halifax. But one of the most important sections is 70 pages of examining terms and concepts in the Sanskrit and Chinese versions and explaining them in detail. This is a book I will be returning to again and again.

LIVING SANCTUARIES

Living Sanctuaries: Monasteries of Zanskar (2025) by Tenzin Tsetan Choklay. Studio Nyandak, an architectural firm with offices in New York and Dharamshala, is measuring monasteries in the Zanskar Valley, a remote area in the Himalayas, in the hope of protecting them from the advancing forces of progress. These monasteries, built between the 2nd and 14th centuries, have been damaged by earthquakes, and are being threatened by climate change, declining numbers of monks, increasing exposure due to roads being built nearby, and populations moving to cities because of poverty and opportunities. Studio Nyandak's work involves young Tibetan architects and engineers making sure that monks are involved in the preservation work, the monasteries remain "living buildings" and not museums, and that local and traditional materials are used as much as possible. It's a beautiful documentary; I only wish it were longer.

Viewed as the May 2026 entry in the Tricycle Film Club.

SITTING and SWORDS

A beautiful evening in the backyard dojo. First, swords. Then, sitting. Zen threaded through it all.