El Centro del Confinamiento del [redacted] en El Salvador

Cuando escribo en mi blog acerca de tópicos o películas/libres/etc. de España o Latinoamérica, me gusta tratar de escribirlo en español. Por eso, esta publicación es en español. Uso el sitio languagetool.org para chequear la ortografía y gramática. El sitio es muy útil. Es como Grammarly, pero en otros idiomas. 

En los últimos días, hay un tópico en las noticias, aun en los EEUU, que es tan interesante para mí. En El Salvador, hay una prisión nueva que es la más grande en las Américas. La prisión se llama el Centro de Confinamiento del [redacted] y es para encarcelar los pandilleros quien aterrorizan el país. El presidente de El Salvador publicó unos videos propagandísticos mostrando la prisión y los pandilleros cuando se trasladan a la prisión nueva. 

Los críticos de la prisión dicen que el presidente está creando un estado policial. En los videos, la prisión es muy impresionante. Las luces eléctricas son tan brillantes y hay tantas celdas. En los videos, los pandilleros corren entre líneas de guardas armadas y entran sus celdas apretadas. Sienten en el suelo concreto de la prisión con sus manos encima de sus cabezas. En cada celda hay 100 prisioneros. 

Los videos son un poco surrealista para ver. En los EEUU, no hay prisiones tan grandes o con 100 prisioneros en una celda. El presidente de los EEUU no visita prisiones nuevas para celebrar la construcción. Un estado policial no es bueno, pero en el otro mano, hay que hacer algo para controlar los pandilleros y la violencia de las pandillas. La prisión nueva es una solución posible. 

Book review: 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

This is a book I had been wanting to read, in the back of my mind, for many years. Probably ever since around the time it had been translated and published in English, which was 2011 or so. Only recently did I finally get around to it. 

I do tend to enjoy abstract things in artwork and other areas, so this book fits within that category. It is somewhat abstract and has surreal elements. The surreal elements aren't overboard in my opinion; the rest of the book seems realistic. The writing style is plain and matter-of-fact, but I didn't find it boring/unappealing. It's definitely not full of flowery language, though there are a series of interesting metaphors/analogies sprinkled throughout the book (ex: "we must move him to another world"). 

Though the book is close to 1000 pages in print, it goes by relatively quickly and doesn't feel overly dense/hard to read. I finished it within about a week of reading days (spread out over a period of two weeks). It doesn't really share many similarities with Orwell's 1984 despite the similar title. Apparently the title is supposed to be a pun/play on words in Japanese, as the letter Q and the number 9 are pronounced similarly. In English, the title more logically should have been 1?84, since in the book Q is explained as standing for "question [mark]" and the Japanese-language pun wouldn't have been evident to English-speaking people. 

It reminded me somewhat of Klara and the Sun (by Kazuo Ishiguro) since both books are somewhat surreal and hint at/allude to things in the plot rather than fully explain them outright. I would probably read more by Murakami in the future. 

Without spoiling the plot too much, 1Q84 is about two people who are thrust into an alternate universe and have to figure out what's going on with that, as well as trying to get back to the regular universe. The story switches between each character's perspective with each chapter, and there are various parallels interspersed in each of their storylines. I had very little idea of what exactly the premise of the book was when I started reading it. I only knew that it took place in Japan and was maybe somewhat surreal somehow. So I wasn't really sure what to expect from it, but in the end I did enjoy the book.

I'd like to read more (translated) books by Japanese authors in the future, including the ones mentioned here but possibly others as well.    

Movie review: Speed, 1994

I had recorded this one on DVR a few weeks ago after noticing it was scheduled to be on and seeing that it starred Keanu Reeves. I was unimpressed by the John Wick series (at least the two movies of it I've seen), but I figured I ought to give some of his other work a chance, him being a famous actor and all. And this movie presented itself. 

I have to say, this one did a much better job of showcasing Keanu's acting talents and range. (I also think he looks better clean shaven) He really doesn't talk much in the John Wick movies; he mostly just kills people and his character doesn't seem particularly developed or to have much depth, even though he is the main character. After awhile, I got to thinking, why didn't his character in John Wick just kill *himself* as opposed to all the other people? It is left unspecified. Those movies are pretty much only good for watching Keanu's character kill a bunch of people; there is very little depth to the plot, in my opinion. His character does get a fair amount of facial cuts, which reminded me of a post I did years ago analyzing facial cuts in various movies... I've digressed. 

The premise of Speed has to do with bombs and terrorism -- a bomber sets various bombs and is in a game of suspense against Keanu's character, a SWAT team member with the LAPD named Jack Traven, who is working to disarm the bombs and save civilians held hostage by them. At first, I assumed his last name would be pronounced rhyming with raven, but it actually rhymes more with haven('t). It is a very suspenseful and thrilling movie but it's also very well done, quite well-written. The scenarios presented in the movie happen to mean Keanu gets to express a wider range of emotions and tones in the character of Traven. The stakes in this movie feel more realistic and therefore more engaging compared to the John Wick series. 

Even though it's an action movie which you don't generally expect to have that much depth, it was somewhat surprisingly a bit thought-provoking. There's even a little bit of a media ethics angle in there you could contemplate. It made me wonder what it might be like to be in a situation like the one(s) depicted in Speed. It also kind of made me think my life isn't thrilling enough, but on the other hand, maybe that's actually a good thing. 

I was contemplating rewatching Shattered Glass today instead, but I don't know where my DVD copy of that is. That's a good one too though. Maybe Keanu is known for starring in action movies; I'm not entirely sure. I'd be willing to watch some of his other work beyond this, particularly anything that's a little more drama-based, not action. I do wish Keanu had more non-action movies in his filmography because I wouldn't mind watching more of him as an actor, but at a glance, it doesn't really look like it. 

In terms of the types of roles/movies an actor has been in aligning with my tastes in film genres, I'd say Jake Gyllenhaal or Peter Sarsgaard's filmographies fit fairly well. James D'Arcy too, but I haven't watched any of his movies that recently. Somewhere I have (had?) a list where I wrote out which films I'd seen starring specific actors, but I don't have that handy right now. It would be interesting to maybe track/analyze that a bit more closely. 

Movie review: John Wick Chapter 3 Parabellum

This movie review brought to you by: random movies that happen to air on cable channels. I saw this one happened to be on tonight and I was vaguely curious and bored enough that I started to watch it about 1/3 of the way in. I am completely unfamiliar with the series aside from the title being something I'd heard of at some point in the past.  

From what I can tell (and the brief summary shown in the channel guide), this is a movie about an assassin/hit man, John Wick. He did something, perhaps betrayed someone or his assassin cult/organization and now they want to kill him and his allies, while he is trying to escape being killed and kill his pursuers. Eventually in the movie, he makes a deal to spare his life and agrees to carry out the orders of the assassin cult/organization again, even though he had previously defected, and that's why they had now been trying to kill him. Essentially, he has to kill on their orders or they will kill him. Apparently there is some tragic backstory about his deceased wife, who I think was killed by the organization in retaliation for Wick's defection.  

There are plenty of extensive fight scenes; in fact, the movie is almost one long continuous fight scene with brief pauses for plot advancement. The fight scenes are action-packed, highly (perhaps gratuitously) violent and rather unrealistic, even for an action movie. They did seem to focus on showing John Wick reloading his weapons regularly, which adds a touch of realism. However, these fight scenes were so extensive and over-the-top that they kind of just seemed like silly filler. I suppose the plot of the movie doesn't necessarily have much meat to it, so I guess they have to go overboard with the fight scenes. I get that no action movie will be totally realistic, but at least the Daniel Craig era Bond movies (and semi-counterpart Jason Bourne series) keep fight scenes to a scale that seems realistic enough for suspension of disbelief. I don't really mind violence in movies overall (I watch plenty of movies with darker, grimmer themes), but in this one it was just so excessive it did not add much.

John Wick doesn't really talk that much in the film. He says "Yeah" blankly enough times that it was notable. Keanu Reeves played John Wick. This movie did not really showcase the depth of his acting skills, whatever that might be. It doesn't have much merit in terms of substance. 

The last part of the movie includes a long fight scene that takes place in a historic New York City hotel, the Continental. I assume this is a real place that actually exists. It would've been interesting to me if the architecture of this building had been showcased a bit more in the movie, but I get that wasn't the point of it. The scenes that occur in the hotel really aren't focused on the architecture at all, only the fighting and shooting. I was being too logical and disbelieving and was theoretically concerned about collateral damage to the interior of the hotel from all the gunshots. Imagine how much money and work it'd take to restore things after all that presumed damage. Anyways, I just looked it up and it is not a real place that exists. The exterior was filmed at one actual building and the interior shots were filmed in various different buildings to depict different parts of the fictional hotel. Additionally, some interior hotel scenes were shot on a set built in a studio.

Apparently this is the third movie in a series, so I assume there is useful context in the earlier two films that may have increased my understanding of this one. I'm not really sure what the point of the assassin cult/organization is and why it needs to exist -- are there really that many people that need to be assassinated? 

Overall it was a strange movie and just not that impressive to me. In one scene, John Wick is forced to chop one of his fingers off, which is mildly gruesome to think about. It's also vaguely reminiscent of something that occurs in Stephen King's novel "Misery." 

I had to look up the meaning of "parabellum" because at first I thought maybe it had something to do with a brain area, like a cerebellum. It is not a corresponding brain area; instead it comes from a Latin phrase. It is also the name of a type of ammunition or firearm, apparently. 

Movie review: Life

Interestingly, this marks a year to the date I last posted anything here and coincidentally, both these posts are about Jake Gyllenhaal movies. I just finished watching the last 45 minutes or so of the movie "Life" from 2017, in which Jake Gyllenhaal acts. 

It is a space movie; it seems that those were trendy in the 2010s and there are a number I'm aware of but haven't seen and don't really have much of a desire to: Interstellar, Gravity, The Martian, perhaps others. I actually wasn't really aware that Jake Gyllenhaal had been in a space movie; I possibly had been aware he was in a movie with this title but I didn't realize it was about space. He plays an astronaut on the space station. 

The premise of the movie is that life has been found on Mars and astronauts on the space station are studying it. The Martian lifeform evolves rapidly and becomes a threat to human life, both the astronauts' and potentially people back on Earth if the alien being manages to get there. The alien (it its later form towards the end of the movie) resembles a space squid-tick and appears to feed off of human flesh/blood (which gives me the tick portion of "space squid-tick") and oxygen. 

It's unclear how it survived on Mars without humans to feed on, or perhaps it evolved its taste for human flesh after the astronauts captured it. Maybe this was explained earlier in the movie. It's somewhat implied that it goes after humans since they contain oxygen in their bodies, but maybe it could also survive from other sources of oxygen, like an oxygen tank -- no human-devouring necessary? It's unclear if it absolutely needs to consume human flesh and blood or if it could survive off vegetarian oxygen, so to speak.     

Thematically, (the last 45 minutes of) this movie reminded me somewhat of the Doctor Who episode "The Waters of Mars" which was the closest thing I could think of because I haven't watched any of the other space movies. I thought the latter portion of the movie was fairly interesting, although apparently this one may be somewhat of a ripoff of a previous space/alien movie. Which I haven't seen, nor have I watched other space movies, so to me personally this was a fairly fresh concept. 

There's a bit of a twist to the ending, which I won't spoil too much here. It does make me contemplate what would happen in the real world if something like that ending were to happen -- the results/aftermath of the ending are not shown; the movie cuts off and leaves it up for imagination. There's an interesting discussion from the Verge about which parts of the movie are realistic and which are not. It features the lady who used to write a Jake Gyllenhaal newsletter. 

One of the smaller details of the movie is the existence of things called "oxygen candles," which are handheld torches (in the British sense of the word) or wands that emit light and apparently oxygen as well when activated. The mechanism of action re: how the oxygen is produced and emitted from these oxygen candles is unclear, but they are somewhat reminiscent of reverse dry ice, if dry ice gave off oxygen instead of CO2. 

If I ever get a chance I wouldn't mind watching the earlier part of the movie I missed, but I did rather enjoy the latter part even just by itself.    

Movie review: Brokeback Mountain

I finally watched this movie that I've been wanting to watch for... a couple of years at least? Since whenever I started caring to some extent about watching more of Jake Gyllenhaal's filmography. A couple of days ago I saw that it was going to be on Netflix until the end of the month (May) so I realized I needed to watch it within that time. If it ever previously was on Netflix, I never got around to watching it then.

My thoughts prior to watching it were that a) it's the famous gay cowboy movie and b) I had a feeling it might be kind of sad. Obviously it is indeed a gay cowboy movie, and the second point turned out to be correct as well. I have decided it's fine to cry about sad movies if they're sad enough, but if I start crying too often about stuff in my own life then that might indicate a problem, since I don't want to be a person who cries all the time. I set a (somewhat arbitrary, come to think of it -- I wonder what other people's ideas are about reasonable crying frequency) limit for how often, at most, it seems reasonable to occasionally cry about stuff in my own life, if applicable. Anyways, I digress. 

The movie kept my attention and didn't seem to lag in any portion, even though it's a bit on the longer side at over two hours. So it met or exceeded my expectations and I'd consider watching it again. There have been other famous/notable movies I've watched that were underwhelming, but this one was definitely good. 

I don't think the cinematography stood out as much as it sometimes does in certain other movies, but this movie definitely had a cohesive aesthetic in terms of clothing and set decoration/design and all that visual stuff. Not that the cinematography was bad, it just wasn't something I really noticed that much, aside from a single scene (the opening scene where one character is seen in the distance as a train passes by). 

The closest thing I'd compare it to thematically/etc, at least of movies I've watched, would be Boys Don't Cry, which I don't really want to watch again because it's a sad movie, even though I thought it was quite good. 

Brokeback Mountain seemed balanced in terms of the plot and pacing. The various different tendrils of the plot were effectively developed and were woven together cohesively across the story's time span of two decades. 

I'm glad I finally got around to watching this movie and now I can more fully understand why it's a famous movie. It was certainly better than No Country For Old Men which is also sort of a western-themed movie and somehow inexplicably is generally acclaimed, even though I personally found it boring and pointless, if I recall correctly. 

Postsecret review 31

 Getting another one of these done, finally. And quite late in the week. Here we go: 

"I read his fiance's blog to learn about the life I could have had... I made the right choice!" [over a Disney Cinderella card or something that has a pale monochrome drawing of the prince and princess with the words "Happily Ever After"] I wonder what sort of life this person has that the writer is glad to have avoided.

"Sometimes [even though I am VERY HAPPILY MARRIED]... I walk around naked with the windows open and hope my hot neighbor is watching." [with a drawing of a nude woman as seen from the front] I guess I can kind of understand this, that it could be exciting in a way even if someone had no desire for an affair.

"One month into our relationship I made a Gmail account to write you love letters/I can't wait to give you the account info/the night before our wedding/<3" At first I misunderstood this and thought the writer made an account for themself to write the emails from. Then I realized what made more sense is that they created a new email address to send emails to while writing from their regular email address, and the other person in the relationship only gets to read those emails the night before the wedding. I wonder what ended up being in the emails and if they actually ended up getting married? Also, I personally think a more romantic way of doing this would have been to write actual letters on paper and store them hidden away somewhere, but maybe this person either didn't think of that or has bad handwriting.

"I love drugs. That's why I don't do them. I'd rather have two houses and my dream car than an ADDICTION." What a wise choice! I don't recall noticing that many drug-related secrets recently. 

"I don't want to take my mask off/Does anyone else feel like they aged 100 years in 2020?" [over a photo of a somewhat older woman with a drawing of a mask shape collaged on top of it; the image on the mask is of a wrinkled old person's face] Personally, I can't really relate to feeling like I've aged 100 years in 2020. 

"I see pictures of him and his wife on FB and can only picture him between my legs February 2019" [written in an indecipherable way; there are comments from people who were able to decipher that it was the same sentence written over top of itself multiple times] At first I thought this was about an affair, but on second thought, perhaps it isn't necessarily about an affair and instead is from someone who was involved with this guy prior to his marriage. On the other hand, maybe it is indeed about an affair. 

Another secret written in a somewhat indecipherable way [typed in yellow-green font over an abstract-patterned background; there are also symbols of some sort behind the typed writing]: "If you paid attention you'd know I love you, when we were together I felt truly happy for the first time in my life. Did you ever really care about me. Now I'm miserable. I cry randomly not because I'm sad but because I'm overwhelmed with emotions. It look like goodbye. It coming soon. I wish you the best. I know you actually care about her." Kind of vague and definitely written in a chaotic, somewhat indecipherable manner. Ease of legibility matters, secret writers. The person who wrote this seems like a bit of a mess.

"I divorced him because I caught him cheating. But I cheated first" Secrets about cheating seem to be relatively common. I guess one way of interpreting this one is that upon realizing he cheated (too), the writer figured it was more worthwhile to divorce because they both had cheated on each other, instead of the cheating only being one-sided. Although I don't condone cheating, divorce seems like a reasonable choice in this situation.

"I'm secretly glad you got fired. Seriously, you sucked at your job." This seems like something a lot of people can probably relate to.

"To my fourth generation Harvard family/SORRY! NOT GOING! (P.S. We're not rich any more. Get over it.)" I wonder how this went over with the family? And yet, I can more or less understand the sentiment behindit. I wonder if the writer wanted to go to a different university or just none at all?

"I'm afraid I'll never find love because I'm an intellectual woman." Well, I'd hope this person's fear doesn't come true. 

"i had to have carpal tunnel surgery on my right arm. i told my friends & family that it was from typing incorrectly. ... really, it's because i'm addicted to GUITAR HERO!" [over a photo of a person with their arm in a cast and sling] I wonder how much Guitar Hero one has to play in order to need carpal tunnel surgery?!

"I ogle your penis when you dry your hair after our showers" [next to a drawing of a naked man with a towel over his head drying his hair; obviously the penis is included on this drawing] Honestly, I just find this rather perverted. Yikes. 

"I work as a counselor for people with mental illnesses, and it scares me at how much I can relate to them... I'm afraid of ending up like them..." [over a drawing of a man's face in profile; his face is colored in blue. There are the words "depression" and "panic disorder" over part of the drawing.] I wonder if the writer will end up or already has ended up like the aforementioned people with mental illnesses?

"I am an R.A. at my university. When a student gets locked out, we have to charge the a fee to let them back into their room. Students don't get locked out too often, but when they do...I keep the money." I wonder if the university keeps track of this well enough to realize that money is missing?

"Every day when I get dressed I think to myself, 'Would The Sartorialist photograph me wearing this?" This is not a thought I have ever had when getting dressed for the day. Mostly I just try to dress in a way that is comfortable and presentable at the minimum level of formality acceptable for a given situation. 

"Ever since we started getting married and buying houses, my girlfriends and I don't laugh much anymore. We mostly just complain." Maybe marriage wasn't such a good idea, in that case.