GRIZZLY PEAR

written snapshots

Category: Artifacts

  • Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Studio Trigger, 2022

    Whoohooo!! Fast, non-stop action!

    Actually, it could have used an an extra three episodes (for a traditional 13 show season) to add breathers and character development. I slot this next to Arcane — a fun show that doesn’t reach the stratosphere of top-line classics.

    Be forewarned, this is a dystopic, gritty world with lots of gratuitous blood and cyborg babe cheesecake. It might be fun, but it’s beyond extra.

    Someone on Reddit compared the women in the series against the ladies in Neon Genesis Evangelion. The comparison was dead on. Cultural tropes live a long time.

    The difference is that Neon Genesis Evangelion went truly fucking bonkers as Hideaki Anno suffered a mental breakdown, which gives that classic an edge.

    Studio Trigger is merely wild.

    ~

    PS: One minor gripe that applies to many TV shows. The characters would have all landed in a better place if they just sat down and talked it out. I guess their refusal is why they suffer exciting lives while we enjoy our mundane existences.

  • Listening the murmurs of strangers, faint memories of a burgeoning practice kept his eye alight.


    white gold disc
    rising between freeway signs
    through the blue-beige haze
    shrinking above orange dawn dust

    ~

    turning up Buffalo
    hills stand flat in the twilight
    layers of vertical geography
    under an inverted terrain of clouds

    ~

    two men in the rain
    chatting on the embankment
    homes swept away
    from the culvert below

    ䷫䷿

    berry wrapped melon
    words fall from the sky
    hidden lines

  • An architect’s perk is endless rolls of paper at home.


    Ten sheets,
    Tightly rolled,
    Five rings,
    Blue tape.

    Monster battles
    Two heros!
    On bed,
    And room.

    Bong! Bong!
    Against each,
    My reach
    Would prevail.

    With two,
    Sibling courage,
    Rush in,
    Skewer Monster!

    ䷛

    Great load
    Ridgepole sags
    Keep moving
    Find plenty

  • He kept irrigating the kale even though she never came to harvest.


    Watering blue skies,
    Showering umbrellas,
    Floating diamonds,
    Dancing on the lawn.


    ䷥䷿

    skip chase
    stray horse
    shall return

  • Adventure got his name from the pattern of ships sailing into the high seas on his shirt.

    Bear Bear and Adventure are going to school!
    Sister made tiny books with scraps of paper

    Studied at small cardboard tables,
    Homemade easels by Mama, tilted flat.

    Pored over their assignments,
    Sitting on yoga block chairs.

    Bear Bear did her homework,
    She got to watch us play in the sandbox.

    Adventure wouldn’t pay attention,
    He had to stay in their bedroom school.

    Study Harder!
    Study Harder!

    ䷿䷏

    Fun feast,
    Dry head.
    Wet mind,
    Truth spilled.

  • After reading on the toilet, my leg fell asleep; she said “Good! Unless you like that feeling.”

    He saw the turtle sandbox,
    Two years dormant.
    Mama removed the green cover —
    Aired it out,
    Moistened the sand.

    Apple and strawberry sand pies.
    Big sand jellies!
    They made sand smoothies —
    Large or small?
    Flat, round, square, or twirly top?

    I was the sand customer,
    Again and again.
    I played the plastic ukulele, badly —
    Neglected practice,
    Long fingernails.

    She showered first.
    We made more sand goodies.
    He sprayed the hose —
    Peed in his pants.
    In twilight he kept playing.

    When Mama came out,
    He ran up to her,
    Suddenly started sobbing —
    我不要姐姐先进去!
    (I don’t want Sister to go in first!)

    ䷶䷲

    abundance
    midday foam
    broken arm
    no blame

  • Greasy grebes greedily grabbed gilded German gerbils gaudily galloping to glorious Greece.

    An outline handsketch of a hand shaping the ASL American manual letter “G”, in red ink on a yellow spiral bound steno notebook.

    Bear-Bear took a nap in a cozy bed of stuffed slippers with arctic seals and bears in overalls. They novelties came from our cousin in China when they were roped into an ill-fated retail venture. It’s not great to find shoes on your bed (I suspect the boy), but it’s impossible to get peeved over this!

  • It took a long process to earn an evening’s read.

    We borrowed them Saturday;
    Mama wanted to wait for a week.

    Six days later;
    Is Friday close enough?

    I spread out the books on the patio;
    Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

    The sun set;
    Bring them in tomorrow.

    Mama wants to flip them over;
    Wipe them down.

    Saturday we visited to Costco;
    The kids hugged stuffies while shopping.

    The sun set;
    A full week gone.

    We went back to the library;
    Sunday Taiko drum concert!

    Got more books;
    Shopped for groceries.

    The sun set;
    Another day.

    Monday breakfast came with wailing;
    Way past a week!

    Mama flipped them over;
    Wiped them down.

    The sun set;
    I brought them in.

    Two kids, sprawled out;
    Reading in their room.

    ䷟

    wait
    no blame
    push on
    gain

  • In music, he wandered — sometimes he dreamt, sometimes he poemed.

    Standing between opposite rivers
    Toothpicks holding high four discs
    Lighting the freeway
    Snaking into the busy desert

    Turning west
    Facing the setting sun
    One orange button seering my eyes
    Sliding behind our serrated valley rim

    Asphalt blending into the sky,
    Early golden hour.
    Twenty minutes further,
    The hills blending into the road.

    ䷃䷆

    a fool
    assaults
    a bandit
    agony

  • We sat at the edge of the bed and jump-bounced on the mattress with extreme giggling.

    “Spaceship Walk!”
    I squatted and he climbed onto my back.

    “Swing!”
    I grabbed his arms and swung him between my legs

    “Jump!”
    I loosely cradled him in my arms and hopped a few times

    “Roll over!”
    I stood over the bed and dropped him onto a pile of blankets.

    “Should I tell Mama about the fun we’re having?”
    “Never!”

    ䷳䷁

    don’t move
    real self
    best luck