Maggie and I watched The Big Chill the other day on cable.  I’ve never really been able to get into The Big Chill the way that some people, like my sister, Ellen, seem to.  I don’t know if it’s a difference in age or experiences, but I just don’t find the characters all that appealing.  They seem vapid and shallow as they reexamine their lives under the light of missed opportunities and lingering regrets ignited by the sudden, inexplicable death of a shared friend.  The couples just seemed too, I don’t know, Hollywood?

For the most part, the acting was fine, but I just didn’t comprehend the lack of emotions in some instances or believe the emotions attempted in others.  I thought Kevin Kline did a particularly poor job performing a sorrowful breakdown during his character’s eulogy for their departed friend.  Seeing it made me appreciate all the more, those actors who can cry and cue and convince us that they’re truly feeling the emotions lying under the script.  In honor of this, I’m choosing the Top Ten Best Crying Scenes – Male.

10. Emilio Estevez in The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club is the epitomical John Hughes film in that it fulfills both needs to laugh and to cry.  The movie starts with the comedic awkwardness of a group of dissimilar high schoolers who are thrust together in detention on a Saturday morning.  As the day progresses, we learn more about each character and start to see them as similarly lost, confused, and just barely getting by.  No moment brings this clearer to the screen than when Emilio Estevez’s character, Andrew Clark, relates the tale of what deed earned him detention that day.  Clark had been spurred on by his father to become a champion at all cost, even at the humiliation of those around him, like the poor boy he attacked in the locker room with a roll of duct tape, mimicking a prank Clark’s father had committed when he was his age.  The story quickly turns from one of a harmless prank to one of remorse for the sheer embarrassment Estevez caused Larry Lester when he was faced with telling his own father what had happened to him that day.  Estevez’s emotional breakdown reveals Clark to be a deeper person than his “jock” title would dictate.

9. Anthony Michael Hall in The Breakfast Club

Anthony Michael Hall has his own opportunity for tears when he, too, reveals what got him into detention.  Hall’s character, Brian Johnson, is “a parent’s wet dream,” in the words of Judd Nelson’s Bender character.  However, we learn that Brian’s academic perfection comes from the need for perfection in every area to satisfy his own overbearing parents.  Brian’s lot isn’t much different than that of Andrew’s, only that Andrew is left with regret for having dominated another whereas Brian’s regret is for failure, failure at constructing a simple elephant lamp in shop class.  When Hall sobs while telling the tale of the lamp, we, and the rest of the Breakfast Club, learn that his lack of tolerance for failure had led him to pursue suicide.  Both Hall’s and Estevez’s performances drive the morality of the film home, but I felt Hall put on the more convincing performance.

8. Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting

Matt Damon delivered a career-defining performance in the movie he co-wrote with Ben Affleck, Good Will Hunting.  Damon plays young Will Hunting, a mathematical genius working as a custodian, sweeping the halls of MIT in Boston.  The film attempts to highlight the difference between what Hunting’s life could have been if only he had realized his potential as opposed to what he had become.  Considering the salary a custodian in academia earns, it’s possible that the young Hunting would have been better off had he not been discovered for his scientific prowess.  After all, Damon, himself a student at Harvard University, left the university life twelve credits short of graduation to seek fame and fortune as an actor.  In the film, Robin Williams plays Sean Maguire, a professor of psychology who helps young Will Hunting come to grips with his past in order to clear the way for his future.  Maguire has a seminal moment with Hunting where the student reveals that in addition to being bounced from foster home after foster home, he had been abused as a child.  Williams opens his arms to the boy and consoles him with the words he needed to hear: “It wasn’t your fault.  It wasn’t your fault.” At first Damon brushes it off as unnecessary, but with Williams persistence he finally succumbs and sheds the emotional baggage that had been weighing him down his whole life.

7. Mickey Rourke in The Pledge

I’ve never been a big fan of Mickey Rourke.  He makes a menacing villain, but I think that’s in large part because he’s a menacing man.  His choices in film evoke images of brutality, unpredictability, and sexuality.  So, it was as a complete surprise when I saw him outshine Jack Nicholson in the small role he was given in The Pledge.  Rourke plays Jim Olstad, the father of a missing girl who may be the victim of the same killer Nicholson’s Detective Jerry Black is pursuing.  When Black visits Olstad in the psychiatric unit to investigate similarities in the cases, Rourke performs a brilliant, sniveling, sobbing, frantic, and determined performance as he retells the circumstances of the singular moment that caused his character’s life to unwind.  The conflicting emotions that play out in Rourke’s eyes as he attempts to regain his composure should earn this singular moment a defining role in Rourke’s misunderstood, enigmatic career.

6. Harrison Young in Saving Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan is a profound look at World War II and the men who fought and died for its sake.  From the opening scene to the last, you can’t help but feel tragically tied to the fate of the small company led by Tom Hanks as Captain Miller.  However, the shock and awe throughout the film doesn’t leave time for much introspection until the final, tearful salute of Harrison Young as a fully grown Private Ryan visiting the graveside of Hanks’ Captain Miller.  When Ryan pleads with his wife to tell him he’s “a good man,” we want to believe that Ryan earned the honor afforded him and that we, too, can earn the sacrifice of the men and women who fought so that we and others could live long, happy lives.

5. Rick Schroder in The Champ

Rich Schroder plays T. J. Flynn, the 8-year-old son of former boxing champ turned horse trainer, Billy Flynn, played by Jon Voight.  T. J. idolizes his father even though the years since Billy’s days in the ring have been less the honorable and filled with booze and gambling.  After T. J.’s mother, played with grace by Faye Dunaway, returns and jeopardizes their relationship, Billy decides to return to the ring in order to make a better life for his son.  While training for the fight, he faces questions of whether he can be ready, whether he can still fight and win, and how many punishment can his body take.  Ultimately the Champ does well in the ring, but the price turns out to be too high and he dies on the table in his dressing room with young T. J. looking on.  Schroder, himself 8 years old during the filming, sobs uncontrollably and hollers “Get up Champ!  Champ!  Get up!” The scene earned Schroder a Golden Globe for Best New Male Actor in 1980.

4. Forest Whitaker in Smoke

Smoke is an often-overlooked, classical character study starring Harvey Keitel as the owner of a cigar shop, Auggie Wren.  From his corner vantage Auggie has keen insight into the live of those who come into his shop or merely pass by.  One of the many sideline stories revolves around “Rashid,” a boy from the neighborhood who flees to the country, hiding from a thug menace that he upset.  Rashid is just one of the names that the character, Thomas Cole, uses to hide his identity.  Another is Paul Benjamin, borrowed from a cigar shop customer, played by William Hurt.  Thomas uses the name Paul when he seeks out and finds his father, Cyrus Cole, a poor country mechanic with one arm, played by Forest Whitaker.  Whitaker earns his Best Crying Scene award for the scene where he explodes at the realization that the young border, Paul Benjamin, whom he had taken in, is really the son he had left behind after having killed his wife and Thomas’s mother in a drunk driving accident.  Cyrus’s bitter pain and regret are too much to handle and he quickly turns on the boy, accusing him of playing an awful prank with his feelings.  Whitaker nails the part perfectly, being at one intimidating and pathetic as Cyrus slowly accepts the reality of the situation and is forced to deal with the more significant reminder that he can be a “stupid, selfish man.”

3. Brad Pitt in Se7en (Seven)

Seven transcends other films in the horror genre with its careful pacing, refined ambience, and stellar performances.  Both Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt deliver star-quality executions but only Pitt’s could qualify for an award for the Best Crying scene.  Pitt plays Detective Mills, a young hot shot homicide detective learning the ways from an experienced veteran detective, Somerset played by Freeman.  Mills is impulsive where Somerset is careful.  Mills is just starting his life where Somerset is on the verge of retirement.  And Mills is pulled into the path of a homicidal psychopath while Somerset is left to watch the results.  When Mills learns the horror that has befallen his new bride, a rosy Gwyneth Paltrow, his face gnarls in anguish and erupts in tears.  But it is when Mills learns that his wife was with child, that Pitt truly performs a tour de force.  He shifts back and forth from deep sadness to physical pain until a calm coldness breaks across his person and he summarily executes the man responsible, played by Kevin Spacey.  Pitt has delivered many fine performances in his young career, but this is certainly one of his best.

2. Denzel Washingon in Glory

Private Trip, played by Denzel Washington, is a runaway slave who had enlisted in the Union Army ostensibly to fight back against the system that would have him back in shackles.  But, as the movie progresses we learn that life in the army isn’t much better than the life of a slave.  The men of the 54th aren’t considered equals even by soldiers of the same rank, they’re constantly ordered about, restricted and forced to perform the menial jobs, and the punishments meted out are often just as harsh.  At no point in the film is this clearer than when Pvt. Trip is caught AWOL and charged with desertion.  Colonel Shaw, played Matthew Broderick, orders the deserter to be whipped in front of the company.  Even the Sergeant Major, an often overbearing and seemingly cruel man, John Finn of TV’s Cold Case, seems to think the punishment unfair or at least unwise.  When Trip removes his shirt, his back is revealed as a jumble of scar tissue from the whippings at the hands of past masters in his life as a slave.  Washington takes his position at the post and glares contemptuously at Shaw, as the whip cracks over and over again and the onlookers murmur their distaste.  Washington looks as if he can will the pain away by sheer pride and determination when a single tear breaks free and runs down his cheek.  Washington’s ability to be at once scornful and brazen, and yet still humbled and innocent in this one scene epitomizes the complexity of the Trip character and earned him the Best Supporting Actor award for 1990.

1. Kevin Bacon in She’s Having a Baby

Throughout the film, Bacon’s character, Jefferson, had difficulty accepting the direction his life was heading: settling down, owning a home, holding a steady job, and beginning a family.  He seemed to be a disinterested party urged on by his wife, Kristy played by Elizabeth McGovern, and her overbearing parents who urgently want a grandchild.  By the time Kristy is ready to deliver their baby we begin to feel that Jefferson has accepted his role as father and appears eager to start a family.  But, any lingering doubts are wiped away when things go awry in the delivery room and Jefferson is ushered outside.  Bacon’s face contorts in anguish as tears explode from his eyes as the gravity of the situation comes home.  Even more compelling than the tears brought on by this immediate onrush of emotions are those that continue to stream as Bacon reexamines the joyful times he’d shared with his wife as they prepared their home and their lives for the expectant child.  Kate Bush’s mournful ballad, Apron Strings, plays over the montage that concludes with Kristy’s father, played by TV veteran William Windom, giving Jefferson a “thumbs up,” at once forgiving Jefferson’s past transgressions and acknowledging his own secondary role in the couple’s affairs.

I did a lot of reading over the summer and burned through a lot of money on new books. At one point, I read three novels in about a week and a half and then had to force myself to slow down the pace with a couple non-fiction books. Not that reading a a novel every three days is a particularly fantastical feat. I remember reading Shane in one sitting for a school assignment when I was in about the fifth grade.

I have a friend whose wife is a competetive speed reader. These aren’t body-sanctioned contests, mind you, but a competitve habit of finding out what book a person is reading, getting it, and having it finished for the next time she sees them. I don’t think she’d be impressed by three books in ten days, either. But, for me it was pretty above average. I usually don’t make time to read and never read before sleep.

I also hold on to books. When I finish a hard-cover, I remove the dust jacket and toss it before retiring the book to a shelf. Sometimes I debate whether I shouldn’t have held on to the dust covers because they protect the book and help it retain its value. Or so I’ve heard. I just liked the way a natural hard-cover looked, so I started doing it one day and habits can be hard to break. Whenever I think of breaking this one, I remember all the covers of great books I tossed and talk myself out of dishonoring that sacrifice by saving the cover of something I read in half a week during lunch and bathroom breaks.

For me, books add up pretty quickly and take up a lot of space in an already cluttered living room. If I had a library, made of mahogany and with a fireplace, leather chairs and a wet bar with scotch in a crystal decanter no less, I’d happily tuck my past reads into it for future McMahon generations. But, I don’t. Instead, my books are stacked, stuffed, and piled onto a book case in our livingroom. Fortunately, there’s a solution that satisfies my problem of having too many books and also quenches my thirst for the written word.

Bookmooch.com is a book sharing community where members accrue credits from sharing books with other members. The credits are then used to get other books. Each book you give earns you a credit and every book you receive costs you a credit. It’s basically a book-for-book system, although you can earn additional credits for shipping to a foreign country and adding books to your list. When I ran a BBS, we used the same concept for sharing software: a game was a game, it didn’t matter if it was a 3-level version of Tank, it was still worth the same as the latest release. Sometimes to promote uploads, I’d give some people 2-for-1 credits on the latest releases. Bookmooch.com handles their credits well and keeps a user from stacking the deck by capping the send-to-receive ratio at 1:5 which is fair and still encourages good use.

The list of available titles is exhaustive and there are lots of quality books that would still retail very high. I’m going to go through my bookshelf tonight and post all the books I wouldn’t mind going. Not that I didn’t enjoy reading them, but there aren’t a lot of books that I read multiple times and only certain collections that I want to preserve and hand down. I’ll have to check with Maggie and see which James Patterson books can go and which she hasn’t read yet. Some of them Patterson just gave up naming and just started numbering. I think Maggie made it up to 4. She also has a bunch of Sue Grafton’s; Grafton lettered hers. If you see me on Bookmooch.com, pick out a book. Just don’t expect a dust jacket.

http://bookmooch.com/

I checked out Playwithyourmind.com tonight, a neat site with flash games, puzzles, and IQ tests. They boast over 100 mind games including intelligence tests like color or pattern recognition, numbers, multitasking, logic puzzles, and even card games. The site is arranged cleanly and simply and doesn’t bog down with advertisements. It’s really well organized.

Whenever I come across one of these kinds of sites, I always have to test my typing skills. My typing method is kind of a hybrid style between touch typing and mashing the keyboard. My fingers tend to hover in the traditional home position, but after years of coding, I’ve become accustomed to various home positions depending on the task at hand: over the numeric keypad, over the numeric keys, over the arrows, or over the WASDX keys. Sometimes, I preoccupy my left hand with handling Control, Shift, and Alt while the right has to do the work of two. Plus, I strike keys with the heel of the palm, side of the thumb, and the side of the hand in ways that I don’t think you’ll learn in the Mavis Beacon typing course. I use whatever is most convenient to the key. I also get into grooves when coding, especially if I’m doing a lot of code cleanup, where I sort of roll the keys and listen to the clicks to tell if I’ve made a typo.

I fly when I’m coding. It’s not the same as secretarial skills in typing because the vocabulary is significantly curtailed and you’re typing your own thoughts and not transcribing the thoughts of others. Even still, I’m also pretty quick typing letters.  So, I like to test myself every once in a while and see how I do in these tests.  PlayWithYourMind.com has a couple typing games so I went directly to the most obvious of them, The Typing Test.  In the practice game I scored 136,781 with 0 typos and 18 seconds left. I thought that was pretty good, so I went on to the next game, the first being only a practice. Unfortunately the game then reports an error and only after digging around the typing section could I manually select the other games and find that it requires me to register and compete for the real games to load fully. It’s a bit disappointing and not obvious from the outset, but the registration requirement isn’t really out of line. Although I didn’t register myself, I can still recommend the site as something worth checking out. If you find something you like here and register, post a comment and let me know your experience. At least it didn’t just close out my browser window like another typing site did.