a wolf angel is not a good angel

Why is downtown Montreal full of cops? (Mostly cadets.) So far their main use seems to be making me paranoid when I cross the street. It’s nerve-wracking when I cannot jaywalk.

I watched the Belmont yesterday, where the first filly in however many years won! Hurray! Girl power! (Seriously, did anyone other than the male newscasters think girl power?)

But why has it been over a century? Well, the race is about 140 years old. I think I saw 8 horses race. Even if we assume fewer than that, we can say there have been 1000 instances of horses racing. 22 of them have been fillies, for 3 wins, which looks like very much the same ratio to me. (I’m assuming I am correct that 7 or 8 horses run, on average. The Kentucky Derby and the Preakness have much worse ratios for fillies, though. Not knowing anything about horses I can’t say what it means.)

Some sportscaster said that in Europe, where they race fillies more often, they see more fillies win, so this wouldn’t be as surprising there. Do people even listen to themselves?

It’s not Monday, and I haven’t done a people I hate Monday in ages even if it were, but one day I am going to find the people who return library books stinking of smoke so badly that it makes me ill and kill them all.

Also, whoever is dumping so many cats at the shelter that they don’t have room for all the healthy ones, including my foster cats which I cannot return because they are out of space.

I am lying on my bed and I notice that the annoying black and white cat (to be distinguished from the many other b&w cats in the neighbourhood) is in my window. What are you doing in my house, cat? And then I look and see that my back door is shut, which means that the cat has been here for, at the very least, 8 hours. May still be here, because I have no idea where the irritating thing got to, because I figured he wandered in through an open door. Which, granted, he did, but not recently.

I am distinctly more annoyed by this than any of the other cats.

To not getting my paper again. I have no idea what the hell the problem is, but I am really pissed.

Last night I went to see Fracture. It’s a genre I much like — clever criminal outsmarts cop/lawyer, sometimes to be hoist by his own petard.

I use his carefully there, because the clever criminal is always a guy. So is the cop or lawyer. Sure, sometimes there are women around — in Se7en, or the Usual Suspects, they’re there to be killed. In Matchpoint, they’re there to be mocked and killed. In Ocean’s Eleven, to be fought over. In Fracture, to be a sex object? I don’t know, the character was absurd. In Inside Man, Jodie Foster was there so they could advertise that it was a movie with Jodie Foster; she didn’t have all that much to do. And so on. Everyone knows this genre.

After the movie, on the way home, the person I saw the movie with and I were talking about it. I thought the setup was too obvious, as did he; the female character was put in for no good reason and was nonsensical. We disagreed on whether we wanted Anthony Hopkins to have been caught at the end, or Ryan Gosling to have a job at the end.

Until I complained that, yet again, it was a movie all about the guys. There was no need for it to be about the guys — Anthony Hopkins could have been Antonia Hopkins, shooting her husband because he cheated on her. Ryan Gosling could have been Ryanne Gosling. The tension between the two was not because they were both male and RG reminded AH of himself. It was because they were both arrogant assholes who looked down on the other. For minor characters, too. The DA could have been a woman — we didn’t need a Sam Waterson impersonation. The cop could have been a woman. But they weren’t.

He said he’d've preferred the female character not be in the movie. I agreed, but other characters could have been women. He said that gender balance didn’t affect his enjoyment of films, and that, indeed, he didn’t even notice it. Well, of course not. Because he sees lots of men who look like him. I make a conscious effort to notice lack of visible minorities, and people with disabilities. (I don’t complain about them as much, but I do keep it in mind.)

I tried to explain that of course he didn’t notice it, because he’s a white guy. No, no, it’s just because it’s not important to him. Yes, because you’re a white guy, and you see movies all about more white guys. If you were a woman, or not white, or not straight, you would notice this. Would it ruin your enjoyment of shows? Not necessarily. I still enjoy Heroes. But I have noticed the gender problems. I am choosing to ignore them, for this season, because all the word is that this is something the producers have noticed and intend to fix next season. So I can notice things, and think it’s a problem, and still like the show.

In a show with a large ensemble cast, it’s easier to want balance. In a movie with two characters, can you really ask for any given movie to be balanced? Perhaps not. But there’s a huge overall trend, and if you can’t poitn to individual movies where there was a conscious or unconscious choice to have male leads instead of female where it makes no difference to the plot, because hey, it’s just one movie, you’ve cut out all the ways to talk about this.

Are there any movies in this genre (essentially, moves about cons) that have more than token women? Maybe The Spanish Prisoner, but that is a 10 year old movie. Movies that use women as intelligent agents, not just the sexy distraction? I would love to watch those.

I will get over the irritation with this friend, and complain about this aspect of movies to people who are more willing to engage in argument. “Well, I just don’t notice, and it’s not because I’m a guy” leaves no room for discussion, or for the idea that perhaps this matters to other people. I’ll also look a bit into what movies I see with him, because otherwise it will drive me *nuts* after every movie.

Yet again, a visiting raccoon on my balcony. Those things can fit through some tight places, and probably I need to chicken wire a little bit of the balcony, because though I don’t mind the cat visitors, raccoons are a little too much. Especially the ones living here, which are impossible to scare away. I get somewhat worried that they will open my screen door and come inside while I am sleeping.

I also have all sorts of visiting and biting bugs. Ugh.

For my birthday, I elected to get cabinetmaking lessons. I am making a secretary. I am having lots of fun with this, though I find that lots of sawdust really makes me sneeze. That is not really a complaint. I’ve done about a third of the hours, having cut all the pieces to size, but not sanded them yet. (Excluding the pieces that will make the actual drawers.)

After today, the place is shut for two weeks, so tonight is my only chance to sand. I have in the past not enjoyed sanding, though that was a long time ago, so maybe it will be more fun this time. (Ha. Sanding technology, it has not changed. A rotary sander is a rotary sander.)

So the question is, do I go tonight, or do I watch Heroes? I have a DVR, I can of course just watch Heroes at 10 instead of at 8, but that’s somehow less fun. I could just go until 9, and watch the American time.

My better nature vying with my lazier one: will laziness finally lose out?

I didn’t get my paper again today! Seriously piss me off.

Then when I was looking at the online version, I accidentally saw the answers for yesterday’s puzzle, and it was a theme that is now spoiled for me.

Should never have gotten out of bed.

Unfortunately, Matilda escaped, and of course the weather is so beautiful, I have no idea where she got to. The back door is open, but she has a thing against leaving the balcony, and it also means she’s unwilling to come onto the balcony from the stairs. The front door isn’t open, but I check periodically. Usually she only goes away for an hour or so, but I would love her to be back very soon. It’s too trafficky here.