Ernest Alba's Blog

Movie Review: The Libertine

The Libertine stars Johnny Depp in a departure from his typical roles...wait. No, it doesn't. Johnny Depp has no typical role. The only typical thing about Johnny is playing atypical roles. And his role in The Libertine is just that. The Libertine is a story of the Earl of Rochester, a poet and seducer of women who eventually succumbs to syphilis and a host of other STD's. It's told in a brooding, dark, intense manner, filled with shadows and flickering light. The grainy quality of the film and the score by Michael Nyman add to the desperate, somber mood created by the powerful performances, detailed costuming and make-up, and intimate, close-up direction by Laurence Dunmore.

The Libertine is the kind of movie a critic hates to review. It's an admirable film, but one I detested. You will detest it, too. I don't want to get too descriptive, the movie does enough of that, but I'll just say that anyone who thinks of having unprotected sex would think twice after seeing what happens to this poor wretch who screwed wenches every day all day. This movie is centered around the sexual life of the Earl of Rochester, and it ain't a pretty sight to see. We get to see the slow degeneration of his body and mind as he is consumed by the many diseases plaguing his body. This movie is intensely graphic and horrific. But, if you can get past the horror, you will find that this movie is excellent at what it does - creating a fascinating character study. Apparently, many movie critics can't get past it. This movie was generally poorly reviewed by critics. I read their reasons, and I read their sentiments. How could they have gotten it so wrong? One of the few people I know who got it right was Ebert. He said, "You will not like the Second Earl of Rochester. But you will not be able to take your eyes from him." That is absolutely correct. As The Earl himself says in the movie "Allow me to be frank. You will not like me." But we can look on with fascination at the horror he becomes. And we can do so, first, because Depp is such a good actor that he completely envelopes us in his performance and second because of the spot-on direction by Dunmore which creates a dim, murky atmosphere totally in-line with the wretched life The Earl lived. Many critics didn't get it, saying "Such a torturous mess that it winds up doing something I hadn't thought possible: It renders Johnny Depp charmless," and "Depp is stuck playing a witty rake who isn't remarkably witty or even all that sexy," and "Sadly, this is a movie about the consequences of debauchery, and about Johnny Depp making long-winded Oscar-bait speeches while slathered in nasty pancake makeup," and "Stinkers this rapturously self-assured don't come along often, and when they do, they deserve to be honored with the proper giggling disbelief." Can you sense the anger and the fear? These critics, many of whom watch it privately in personal screening rooms, came out of this movie the way I did, terrified. They were terrified and angry. I felt that way, too. But that intense emotion gave way to admiration for the film for making me feel that way. And I refuse to take out my feelings on the movie, the way several critics did. If you were to continue reading, they blame the film's "failure" on everything under the sun - the direction, the cinematography, the score, Depp's performance, the supporting actors' performances, and even the subject matter. But what they ultimately can't admit is that this movie made them hate it, exactly the way it intended them to. And they can't admit that they admire it for being able to do that. Or maybe they don't even realize that it did that.

As it is, I can't recommend this movie. It sickens me to my soul and I don't want you or anyone to go through that grief. Perhaps a wikipedia search for the life of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, would suffice to replace the film adaptation of this particular tale in history.

How Rich is Bill Gates?

If we took all of Bill Gates' money and made it into a denomination called a "Bill," then a little over 1200 Bills would equal the total GDP of all the countries in the world combined.

Review - V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta was originally a graphic novel by Alan Moore. The screenplay was written by the Wachowski Brothers, household names after the Matrix Trilogy. It tells the story of a Britain similar to Nazi Germany, including the red insignia, the Hitler-esque leader, complete government control over the media, and strict militaristic control over all citizens. This Britain exists sometime in the near future, when Dell LCD panels are still around, but now even the poorest people can afford to have one in their homes. Before discussing the merits of the movie, I'd like to mention something important, in my opinion. This novel adapted to screenplay adapted to film is extremely similar if not exactly like George Orwell's 1984. I mean, there are scenes that are carbon copies of scenes that took place in 1984. (SPOILER WARNING) For example, there is a scene where we see V's scarred hands. There is a similar scene in 1984 where we read about Winston's varicose veins. Both of those scenes take place in the beginning of the story, as we are introduced to the characters. The Evey character has characteristics similar to Julia's in 1984, not to mention the obvious fact that they are the counterparts of the male leads in each story. There is a scene, quite famous in 1984, where Winston is taken in by the police and interrogated over several days. The same thing happens to Evey. The same emotional tension, the same purpose, and the same treatment. It's the same! Then, there's the supreme prime chancellor, or whatever his title is. He is always seen on a huge screen shouting at everyone. If that ain't 1984, I don't know what is. So, this movie is a blatant retread of the type of philosophies, social doctrines, moral evaluations we've seen over and over before. Does this keep the movie, or any movie, from being great? Absolutely not.

This movie is great. It's exciting, it's fast-paced, it's intelligent, it's visually stunning, it's finely acted, and creatively directed. The music is unbelievable. It's used well in several scenes, like the opening scene where the statue explodes, the scene where V catches the politician in his greenhouse, and the scene where V shows Evey his jukebox. The finale is spectacular. The director, someone I have never heard of, uses a great deal of different techniques that work well in the context of the movie. One I caught, and smilingly acknowledged, was a direct copy of a shot used in the first Matrix movie - the old knife to the head trick where the guy falls back revealing a knife in his head and the killer in the distance. Another was the effective use of dominoes. The fireworks worked well. The montages worked well. The parallelism between V's rebirth and Evey's rebirth, one out of fire, and one out of rain, were too obvious and kind of silly. But, overall, the direction worked. Hugo Weaving, who was Agent Smith in the Matrix movies, is V this time around. He plays him well. Though we never see him (or do we?), he becomes a fascinating character. Natalie Portman, too, despite a lacking British accent, plays the role straight and does her job well. I especially commend the actors who played the "Voice of London" and the Supreme Chancellor. They were delightfully evil.

This movie has restored my confidence in the Wachowski Brothers. This time, the formula worked right for them. This movie is odd, but fun to watch. Though it is an extreme depiction of government-gone-wrong, it's interesting to see the blatant correlations between the plight of that Britain and this U.S. Watch it and listen carefully - you won't be able to miss it. And don't miss V for Vendetta. It's worth the trip to the theatre.

Have a Happy Pi Day!

Is it coincidence that Albert Einstein's birthday is also on March 14? Of course, but still. It's cool.

So many nicknames!

It's odd how many nicknames I've had in the past. The one that's stuck the most to me is Ernie. Nearly everyone back home calls me that. My aunt Antonia, Marc's mom, calls me "Orny." When I went to Kansas for the TIP program, one of my best friends there, a guy named Eric Lu who is now a freshman at Harvard called me simply "Er" - sounds like the guttural grunt "Urrr." Now that I'm here at MIT, Andrea usually calls me "Reenest." Adrian calls me "Neste" - sounds like the tea. And Hugo calls me "Hernia," which oddly enough my cousin Vicente called me when we were younger. Now, Vicente just calls me "E-dog." Sarah and Marc towards the end of our high school year called me "Neto," which is the common Mexican nickname for Ernesto. Do I mind all these names? Nah, what's in a name, anyway?

Great Teachers

Being a freshman at MIT, you get a lot of classes where you sit in a lecture hall or in a classroom with 100 other students. The responsibility to succeed in those types of classes falls squarely on your shoulders. Certainly, the professor can't follow your academic record and decide how to help you. Chances are she doesn't even know you. The TA's have a greater potential to help you, but sadly TA's don't really care about freshmen students learning introductory physics, chemistry, calculus, etc. To them, and to MIT, in general, this is basic stuff you have to get out of the way before you can actually start learning something worthwhile. As there is little opportunity for a student to set himself apart in these types of classes, so there is little opportunity for professors to become great teachers. They can become great lecturers and orators, but the burden is on the student to listen and absorb the material. The professor is not going to help the student.

There are other types of classes at MIT. Each year, one must take at least two writing-based classes. These can range from literature classes to rhetoric to linguistics to history and anything else that isn't strictly math and science (and even then, some writing-based classes still involve a lot of science like Discussing Bio-Ethics). The sizes of these classes are considerably smaller. They are the perfect opportunity for freshmen to have more intensive learning experiences. In these classes, one can set oneself apart from the others and become a great student. Similarly, teachers can become great teachers.

Case in point, Japanese 2. The Japanese language program at MIT is large, considering the dearth of knowledge of Japanese culture in America. The percentage of students at MIT who are Japanese is small in comparison to other Asian nationalities and, of course, the majority composed of white Americans. Despite this, the Japanese Department has several professors on staff. I know, at least, for first year classes, each level has several periods during each semester, all with at least 15 students. In Japanese 1 and now Japanese 2, we have three professors: Nagaya-sensei, Nagatomi-sensei, and Shingu-sensei - all women. They rotate among the classes, so, for example, on Monday I might see Shingu-sensei and on Tuesday I might see Nagatomi-sensei. The following week might be different - I'd see Shingu-sensei on Thursday, but not on Monday or Tuesday, and I'd see Nagaya-sensei on both Monday and Tuesday.

Their class is instruction at its finest. Being there makes me realize that classroom instruction is an art. Not everyone can do it or do it well. It takes patience and strictness in a fine balance. It takes intense knowledge of human nature and character and the ability to understand the students. I've never seen a more oiled, sleek, efficient machine than the MIT Japanese program. An example, coming back from winter break, we were rather rusty on our skills. Of course, we reviewed. For the next few weeks, we were fine. (I say "we" and I mean the 12:00 class this spring semester.) This past week, however, the teachers have stepped it up. They've begun speaking much more quickly and expecting more complex sentences out of us. We do the best we can. Some are exceptional students and can keep up. I struggle. But lately, even the exceptional students have been struggling. Yesterday was an unholy mess. For the past week, we'd only been seeing Nagatomi-sensei and occasionally Shingu-sensei. Yesterday, she decided to really test us. She spoke faster than she ever had. Indeed, it probably sounded natural to her or any native speaker. To many of us, it was a blur, and we had to think hard before knowing what she was saying and how to respond. By the end, she knew that we were deficient. At the end, I felt sorry for her. I mean, what do you do when your class can't perform? What can you do? Silly me, they know exactly what to do.

Nagaya-sensei came in today. Unusual already. She took us through the stuff we had learned this week - slowly. Easily. Lightly. With humor and grace. As the minutes passed, and we answered her questions succinctly and somewhat quickly, we became more and more confident as a class. By the end, we had reached the pinnacle of yesterday's difficulty. Today, it seemed much easier to understand and to respond to. I realized that we were in an emergency recovery session. And oh how it worked. You could feel the energy in the room. You could feel the exuberance with which we spoke the words. And when we left, I'm sure we all felt determination and hope for the future. I'm sure I know how the teachers felt: non-chalant - it's all part of the job.

International Women's Day

Congratulations to all of you who are celebrating International Women's Day as we speak. Today, March 8 marks the 95th anniversary of this special day where individuals from around the world connect to inspire themselves and other to work progressively for women's equality. So where are we globally on the issue of women's rights? Is it really an issue?

At least 70% of global refugees are women.
2/3 of children who are illiterate are girls.
2/3 of poor people are women.

The list goes on and on. Atrocious acts of murder, rape, and violence against women occur every day around the world. But what can you do? Be aware. That is exactly what you can do. Know that this happens. You don't even have to support feminism and women's rights, as long as you know that these things happen around the world, including in the United States.

Initial Quick Response

Initial Response to Academy Awards: great job picking Crash as Best Picture. More worthy of getting it than Brokeback Mountain. Excellent job picking It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp, though the performance was not as great. I still wish Felicity Huffman won for TransAmerica over Witherspoon - a more spirited choice she would have been. I'm excited for Phil Seymour Hoffman. Good guy. Jon Stewart was held back from his full potential, I think. Could have done a better job. What is with the Awards show cutting people off? It's so rude. I'm glad the winner for Tsotsi made it clear that it was not only a nuisance but greatly disrespectful.

Finally, my Oscar predictions were 76% correct.

The Pressure Applied

MIT has a dubious distinction among colleges. We have the highest rate of suicide of any college in the U.S. In the decade spanning from 1990 to 1999, there were ten suicides, one for each year. In 2000, Elizabeth Shin set herself on fire, spurring a greater commitment by MIT to ensure that its health services are capable of helping MIT students. The suicidal trend continues, however. Indeed, a grad student was found dead in his apartment last Tuesday by his girlfriend. Though the cause of death has not been released to the public, it has been speculated that the cause of death was suicide. Another MIT grad student was found dead in his apartment on the exact same day last year.

Why would students at MIT want to kill themselves? In general, it seems that there is enormous pressure for the average MIT student. For the above average MIT student, the pressure must be much more incredible. I consider myself an average MIT student. I take the normal courseload, consisting of mostly regular classes and then, perhaps, an intensive course now and then. I'm involved in one or two extracurricular activities. Even with this average amount of work, there are some weeks when I have no spare time. I rush from one place to another to complete one task before moving onto another. This past week was the worst one since I've been here. At one point, on Thursday afternoon, I had to calculate my schedule down to the minute. I really had to think to myself, "Do I have time to go to the bathroom?" "Do I have time to eat a bowl of cereal after my sandwich?" By the time Friday evening came around, I had finished everything that was supposed to be done that week, but I was tired and at my wit's end. I spent that night at LSC's presentation of Proof with Jose, Hugo, and Hector.

Watching movies is usually relaxing, and since I'd seen Proof before, I expected to be relaxed while I enjoyed the show. Not so. Proof is about many things, but, in particular, it is about the pressure to do valuable research. At one point, the main character completely describes the life of a typical graduate student. It's not a pretty picture. That made me think, it must be horrible to spend so many years working and working, being stressed and hurried all the time, and all that time knowing deep inside that you will not make the significant contibution you wish desperately to make. It's no wonder some people want it to stop, and the way they find to stop it is to kill themselves.

That realization can lead to serious depression. Moreover, the atmosphere in which that realization takes place is already strenuous. The daily and weekly routines of MIT students can become overwhelming. If you aren't careful, they can make you question your sanity. There needs to be time off, release, relaxation. I suppose that is what weekends are for, but sometimes they aren't enough. To continue with my previous example of this past week, I finally arrived at this weekend and found time to relax. Friday night I did absolutely nothing constructive, and it felt great. But Saturday morning I woke up and started thinking about this coming week. I started remembering what I had to do. I had a major physics exam. I had a six page paper due. I had an i3 video due. I had a math pset due. I had Japanese quizzes and daily performance evaluations. The coming week was going to be harder than the previous one. And I realized, this weekend isn't enough. In fact, what the heck am I doing typing this post and wasting thirty or forty perfectly good minutes? I'm outta here.

Kidding. I've got time. Not a lot, but enough to write this down. MIT life can be dangerous for people prone to emotional instability. I can't say that I've ever been emotionally unstable. It's just not my style. And I'm healthily scared enough of death to do everything in my power to make sure it doesn't get me until it absolutely says I must go. So no jumping off of buildings, as that is detrimental to my health. But I rue the day, and I know it will come, when I have to hear the horrible news of someone who didn't care that much about his or her health and jumped off Building 54.

Penny Arcade modded

Penny Arcade is one of the most popular webcomics on the Internet. They came to MIT last October to give a lecture. Of course, being a great PA! fan, I attended. Here's a funny comic strip of theirs, slightly modified to appeal to Tech students.

And while we're on the topic of comic strips, here's one by Spanish House Member Juan Pablo Medienta and published in The Tech. It was inspired by true events which took place last August.

About Pop: Alizee and Hikaru

Before reading this post, I want you to watch the following video on google video.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5009207270086582589&q=alizee+compilation

Then come back and finish reading this.
......
done?
ok. What is it about foreign pop that is so wonderful? If an American girl was doing all that on stage, I'd change the channel in a minute. But French girls like that - i love that stuff. My favorite French pop singer is a Star Academie graduate called Jenifer Bartoli. I also like a pop star who goes by the name of Lorie. And I now like Alizee. I suppose my infatuation with foreign pop is because I can't stand to listen to American pop. It's so shallow. I'm glad I can't understand the lyrics of foreign pop because it probably is just as shallow. But the music itself is wicked awesome. It's so full of emotion and purpose. It's like candy - it's full of so many things bad for you - all these synthesized sounds and backup vocals. Nothing is natural about what transpires in a pop song. It's all for show - but it's so tasty. Can you tell from the song that you just heard? Cause it is the perfect example of what I just talked about. This hot girl wearing a short skirt does some simple choreographed moves and barely makes herself heard over the several different sounds coming from keyboards and backup singers. It's shallow and silly, but somehow it takes itself completely seriously and stirs our emotions without actually giving any real substance to those emotions.

To be sure, there is thoughtful, intelligent, beautiful pop music. Some of you who know me also know that I think Utada Hikaru is a goddess among song composers. She has an innate talent for writing not only lyrics but melodies. Her broad range of style has ensured the freshness of each new song she writes. She turned only twenty-three years old this January. In the ten years she has been writing music, she has penned several best-selling songs, and she shows no sign of running out of ideas. Her newest songs, "Be My Last," "Passion," and "Keep Tryin'" are some of her most promising works, yet. Her newest full album, "Exodus," is a good example of her ability to use a myriad of styles to make great music.

Here is an example from google video of her chops at work.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3663177149320568883&q=utada+hikaru

And something lighter:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5400030028113307015&q=utada+hikaru

Spanish House, what is it?

Exciting news! The Spanish House website is now up and running! Same old link, brand new style!

http://web.mit.edu/la_casa/www

What is Spanish House? Spanish House is a community within New House, a dormitory at MIT. We are composed of about 30 freshmen through seniors, all who live in Spanish House. We have social members that go to Spanish House events, attend Spanish House dinners, and are even Spanish House officers. Social members are fully a part of Spanish House, except they don't live in Spanish House. Some may simply like living in another dorm more, but at the same time enjoy the company of Spanish House members more. Does it seem like I'm saying Spanish House an awful lot? There's a reason...can you guess why?

Comments will be back

The few comments I get are important to me because I love hearing feedback. I've recently obtained the removed comments and will try my best to put them back up. We'll see how that goes....