We went to see Frida last night, and it’s a lovely fillm, worthy of its’ subject. Every person who set foot in an art class for the past twenty years has developed at least a small crush on the original Ms. Kalho; as one of that innumerable herd I was somewhat concerned that such a more conventioinally beautiful woman as Salma Hayek would play the decidedly non-conventionally beautiful Frida Kalho.

I needn’t have worried, although the film Hollywoodizes much, including the physical appearance of the heroine, the Communism of her and her hubby, Diego Rivera, and I’m sure more. I’m basically unconcerned with that and gleefully recommend the movie to anyone; however if you hate it when Hollywood prettifies things, do me a favor (you’re not doing yourself one) and stay home with your Kenneth Anger DVD.

However, I do have a shank of film dweebery to satisfy. It boils down to this: how much like the real Kahlo did they make Ms. Hayek look? In the context of the film, I accepted Ms. Hayek with no difficulty whatsover. Let’s investigate!

From Nikolas Murray – Strip 19 at Eastman house. The second image is either the same as or nearly the same as the color image used as the cover of the November 2002 Smithsonian. I believe, but don’t have documentary evidence to hand, that these images were from the session or sessions that produced the Kahlo cover of Vogue during her and Rivera’s visit to New York.

The publicity for the film has included this poster, which is based on the Vogue cover as seen in the film.

Finally, a straight headshot of Ms. Hayek in full regalia.

Here is some linkage:

The official movie site (yes, one of those horrific flash-based monstrosities: it’s much like drinking ground glass in a decoction of molasses).

(I really want to do a journalistic investigation into the suffering and pain caused by the studios’ uniform embrace of this kind of site design. Isn’t the idea of marketing to entice your audience?)

Non-flash-based site, a semi-pro fansite, looks like.

PTA ex-president guilty in teens’ wayward party / Front Page -The Olympian: Did I say sometimes I’m proud to be from Bloomington?

This story, reflecting on the cultural values of Washington State’s capitol, Olympia, home of more great bands than you can shake a stick at, may tell observant readers a thing ot two about why I love Washington State, too.

Now, why do I live in Seattle, again?

A Switch ad. With a monkey.

So there.

Wait! I’m an IEEDJIT!

Professor Griff’s got one on offer here: Switch! Ho-OOH!

It’s the Liar’s Bunch!

My shim entry for November 5 is a pointer to my ol’ buddy Bill Weaver’s Liar’s Bunch website, which he just told me about and that I surmise is new.

I edited an unpublished novel of Bill’s, Gunrunning to Mars, and the mountain of Vinegaroon County looks a lot like Mons Olympus. He and I also worked on a four-panel comic strip, Octogon, for years and years.

In fact, he sent me some new scripts a long time ago that I really must draw.

‘Course, GRTM was set more in the Valles Marineris.

Anyhoo, Bill’s stories make me chuckle.

Washington state ferries eye Wi-Fi (at Computerworld). Eric Sinclair pointed this out from Glenn’s 80211blog.

Sounds like they’re anticipating a subscription-based service rather than a free access or hourly access service, which is too bad from my perspective – it’d be neat to be able to use the ferries as an ‘office’ at whim.

That pricing scheme revs me up about the outrageous fare increases on ferries over the past year, actually – it was about $40 to the San Juans this summer and $30 for the Kingston run when Eric was in town.

If you’re gonna run the services on a full for-proft unsubsidized basis, you have to provide competition, something which has not even entered the discussion here in the state. State-sponsored utility-style provisioning can’t work unless the underlying premise of universal access is aggressively defended and defined to mean, well, universal access. The ferries, like our power rates, are undergoing a betrayal of public interest which serves no-one.

On the other hand, if the state yanks the rug out on the ferries and electrical power, I’m surely willing to extend this basic destruction of the fabric of our economy by extending the practice to our freeways. After all, only by completely destroying modern industrial economics can we properly correct our accelerated environmental destruction, eh?

No more subsidies for roads! An end to freeloading by the demon auto!

Emergency is where MetaFilter user Stavros, whose real-world name is Chris, has chosen to archive his real-time experiences of dealing with, and offering community support for, the injury, hospital status, and eventual death of his friend Rick.

Rick was mortally injured in the terror bombing of that nightclub in Bali on October 12.

Rick’s loss, and the experience of his family and friends is unique and specific to him as an individual. Indeed, all our losses vary. But there is commonality in our experience as the bereaved, and I’m linking to Stavro’s site today for two reasons.

First, I suspect the organic, personal use of the web to document loss and grief is a natural, if previously unexpected outcome of blogs in specific. Second, my writing about the loss of my sister was specifically prompted by my emotional state around the anniversary of September 11, and therefore Stavros’ loss is directly connected in another way as well.

Halloween is coming soon, and then on November 2, our dead will join us for one night.

Happy 34th, little sister. I know you’ll love the show.

What Do I Know points out this direct-linked video at Fandango.net. It’s about 4 mb.

It made me laugh, and I still feel like this guy fairly frequently. Command-N means “new folder”, dammit, not “new window.”

Not to mention the ridiculous “slap the user silly” open and save dialogs which feature the patented “where the hell did my files go” user interface refinement.

But. Anyway.

Did I mention in part three of my unexpected geek celebrity interactions I will be interviewing William Shatner ths afternoon on the phone?

Lordy.

In the morning, when an IU graduate sees the headlines IU cops check on porn report and IU student saw actors, including one in a bear suit at Romenesko’s oddities and morons news page, it sorta makes a man homesick for the crunchy leaves and shrieking hormone addled midwestern youth of his hometown.

Oh you crazy kids. We all remember our first porn bust with fondness. So many more yet to come.

Good times. Good times.

Off to Vancouver for more X-Men stuff.

See you tomorrow. Here’s the first two stories from the press conference I went to on Friday.

McKellen on X-MEN, SPIDER-MAN, SUPERMAN

(he makes a kind of snarky remark about them other guys)

Stewart: Picard or Xavier could kick Kirk’s butt

One captain to another. Entertainingly, I was told I might get to do a quick interview with William Shatner soon. The initial statement Stewart made (concerning Achilles) was in response to a question from me.

I apologize for not offering more thoughtful material on these experiences and hope to be able to shortly. A major part of my hesitation is an uncertainty concerning how to draw a line between what’s appropriate for here and what’s best reserved for Cinescape.

Boing Boing links to a discussion of the TiBook’s realtive wimpitude in airport (WiFi, 80211b) range compared to the iBook, which has a nice antenna that extends range.

But the reason I’m linking is because of the acronym and explanation for laptop cards!

I’m just going to repeat it here, so, like, don’t bother.

PCMCIA: People Can’t Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms!

Ha ha ha ha.

Ha.

That’s hilarious!

What the hell do I know, I’m no Ken Goldstein!

Say it with me now: KEN GOLDSTEIN KNOWS FUNNY!