June is busting out all over

B2Keno = 12.5

So where the heck has the year gone already - it's June! Muggy weather for biking, though.

So, we have been seeing these superhero-type movies lately, like X-Men 3 and V for Vendetta, and it got me to thinking about the "Mo Movie Measure."

This measure, from the great Alison Bechtel's great comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, is a character's explanation that she only watches movies in which:

• 1) there are at least two female characters with names,
  
• 2) who talk to each other sometime in the course of the movie,
  
• 3) about something other than a man.

It seems a fairly simple standard, one that would reflect the breadth of human experience and some variety of characters and plot. It turns out the very few movies, even those with strong female characters, "mo measure" up.

Take those last two films. X-Men 3? If you count the brief exhortation from Storm to Rogue about "nothing being wrong with any of them," I guess so. V for Vendetta? Natalie Portman's Evey hardly talks to anyone besides V; can we count her being told to go get coffee by her boss in the TV station, or did we even get that woman's name?

Other recent films:

Princess and the Warrior (the Tom Twyker film) has some plot-advancing conversations between Franka Potente's Sissi and her female. co-worker at the asylum. Solid yes.

I guess there's a woman or two in Mountain Patrol Kekexili (the girlfriend, the daughter) the first serves only to reflect the character of one of the patrolman and the other doesn't speak. Nope.

I can't recall specifically if Odgoo, the main female chacter in Weeping Camel, ever talks to another woman - I guess maybe her mother, for a little bit, but most of the interactions are with the male family members. Maybe.

Transamerica works if you consider pre-operative Bree as female (which we should). Yes.

Team America World Police: Two of the puppet-ladies talk to each other, but IIRC, it's only about the man-puppets. Nope.

In 16 Blocks, there's Diane (the sister) and A.D.A. MacDonald, but they never talk to other women. This is a nope.

Try this measure on some of your favorite movies. It's surprising.

One TV show that has always met this measure in Otis's late and unlamented guilty pleasure, Charmed, in which the three witchy sisters often had conversations about fighting demons of all stripes. In the series "climax," the sisters are up against The Ultimate Power, which happens to reside in Billie, a typical WB hootchie-teen. In the penultimate episode, elder sister Piper puts the smackdown (both magical and physical) on Billie. All of which is a long preamble to today's

Annoying Animated Gif:

(Billie was such a hated character on the show that the Television without Pity discusssion boards celebrated her defeat and a poster compiled this "tribute" gif.
I actually dig it.)

LATE night

B2Keno 12.7

So, yesterday was more like it, weather-wise. I had my meeting on Phinney Ridge in the morning and biked a little bit going to and fro; when I got home, Otis was already back from her doctor's appointment, so we loaded up the scooter and headed over to Carkeek Park with a little lunch. There was a spectacular veiw of the Olympics to be had, the sky was clear, the sun was warm - it couldn't have been better.

In the afternoon, Otis gave a massage to the woman who bid on her services at the Phinney Neighborhood Auction; the visits will hopefully result in some future business.

Scotty Tuxedo came over in the early evening and we all went up to the Crest to see V for Vendetta. At the theatre, we hooked up with Soapy and Slim Pickens *(I could never get straight who was Slim and who was Pickens), busker pals of Scotty. (It seems Jimbo-5 was in the audience as well, but had to flee back to real-estate woes and never met up with us.)

For afters, we headed to the grand Lake City Starbucks to meet Johnbai and Dingo for lies and reminiscences. At about 11:00, Slim Pickens and Soapy bailed out, but the rest of us soldiered on, winding up at A Pizza in the U-District, where we held court until about 1:00 am. (They close at 4:00!) Yowza!

Withal, I was still up at 6:30 this morning to take care of business. Sheesh.

Now, as promised: Annoying Animated Gif Week continues, highlighting one of the chorus boys from yesterday's feature in his very own solo:

Yes, it's Spider-man, doing, the... the.. the whatever-the-heck-that-is!

*Slim Pickens is actually the delightful Annie and Jake, who perform in the Pike Place Market and elsewhere. Check them out and look for them at the market or at shows.