Even though I’ve been ripping and burning MP3’s for years, it’s only been since I got my iPhone that I’ve been using my MP3’s for regular playback. Up until now, my MP3’s were simply an easier way to organize and store my music collection. I’ve mostly only used MP3’s as a platform to more easily burn songs to CD or minidisc for enjoyment in the truck, home, or at work. Of course for backyard barbecues and holidays like Halloween, I’d setup a playlist on the computer, and I once burned an MP3 DVD just to test out the feature on a new DVD player. But still, for regular listening I listened to music recorded on hard medium until the iPhone, so I’ve been playing a little catch up on the technology.

Excepting only a few recent album purchases, I’ve kept up with ripping all my CD’s and have every song encoded as an MP3 with artist, album, track, title information. Now recently, since using iTunes, I’ve been adding album art to all my MP3s. The album art displays on the iPhone when a song is played and appears in the album view display on both the phone and the desktop version of iTunes.  I think sliding through the album covers and selecting one to play is the most impressive example of the advantage of the touch navigation and the iPhone’s beautifully rendered graphics.  The Mac makes it easy to add the art because you can simply use a search engine’s, like AllTheWeb, image search function and drag the source image right to the album. It’s also great that if the source image has since been removed and is no longer available, you can just drag the thumnail representation right off the search engine’s results page.  Oddly enough, sometimes these thumbnails even look better than the source image for rare songs where few alternatives available.

I’ve always manually defined the artist’s name on compilation albums because I want the songs to appear when I sort by artist and not just when I search for an artist’s name. For example, I would want Sweet Jane to appear if I were browsing through the Cowboy Junkies, and not have it be sorted with the V’s under “Various Artists” just because it happens to be from the Natural Born Killers soundtrack. Storing the albums this way never seems to occur to programmers who write MP3 software and result in somewhat of a mess. For example, in any album view or sort, iTunes treats each song like its own album and separates it from the rest of the tracks. For these, I click select each of the songs on the album, use the Mac’s command-I function, and assign the album art to all the songs at once through the properties window that pops up.  You can also assign multiple art files to your songs, but I haven’t seen a need for that yet and have only assigned one per.

I found a nice widget that automatically looks up whatever song is playing if it doesn’t already have art and finds an image from one of several defined sites (e.g. Amazon).  It’s a good tool because it’s very simple and does exactly what it sets out to do, but I found that I could usually find much better, clearer images on my own.  I also found that it doesn’t like the way I name tracks from compilation albums any better than iTunes, and results in locating the art for the album on which the artist originally released the song and assigns it to the whole album, which is a nuisance.  Another album art tool I’m using is a screen saver that wallpapers the screen with rows and rows of artwork, then randomly flips each one and replaces it with a different album.  I don’t know if it’s new with OS X Leopard or had existed in Tiger too, but I’ve only just noticed it recently.

I also experimented with the iTunes’ store’s custom ringtones, but wasn’t satisfied with the results. To create a ringtone, you need to have purchased the song through the store, so I had to buy a single I already owned, then buy the ringtone made from the track.  I got to pick and adjust the sample of the song that I wanted to rip to a ringtone, but that was more of a curse than a blessing. What I thought sounded great on the Mac is a muted, delayed mess on the iPhone.  I left so much of a pause at the beginning that I might as well have selected dead air.  Now, whenever Maggie calls, the iPhone stops playing music and I hear absolutely nothing and realize it’s her before a note has played, which is not what I was looking for in a ringtone, at least not for $5. I’m going to start checking out some make-your-own ringtone tools and some of the free sites out there and report back what I find. Once I get some that I like, I’ll write how to load them on the iPhone.

"Art is making something out of nothing and selling it.”
Frank Zappa

I’ve often found that the best method for getting a life change to stick is to couple it with other, sometimes benign changes. You’ll be more apt to quit smoking if you also change your hairstyle, buy some new clothes, and start working out. Also, I’ve found that when you change something in one area of your life, you end up fixing other areas of your life. And, change is important. You have to constantly evolve, mature, grow to hope to experience even a fraction of life to its fullest. Some of the most profound changes in my life have occurred when I really shook things up: I moved out of my parents house, finally ended an on-again-off-again relationship, got a better job, all in the same summer - and what a wild summer it was.

Sometimes all you need is a little spark, just a simple change. So, here’s a few ideas of things you can change in your life that might kick-start some more important revisions.

1. Change cologne/perfume
Everytime I’ve switched to a new cologne, I’ve felt like a new man. I remember in Junior High School when I smartly splashed too much Polo over my Izod with the tucked-in-collar. Then there was the Drakkar Noir club-hopping summer. I recently switched to Nautica when I started back at the gym.

2. Change hairstyle/haircut
This is probably pretty good advice anyway. Hairstyles change each year, although some years the styles are so similiar it’s not easy to notice the subtle differences. But, there’s nothing worse than seeing someone with a hairstyle from two decades ago.

3. Change clothing/wardrobe
This is important whether you’re just updating an out-of-date wardrobe or getting clothes that fit. Of course when people lose weight, they go out and get new clothes to show off how much wieght they’ve lost, but they should also have fitting clothes when they gain weight. And don’t make the mistake of getting baggy, schlumpy clothes to hide yourself. Why add to the feelings of bulk?

4. Rearrange a room
After living in a room; bedroom, livingroom, bathroom, whatever, for a while you’ll usually discover that some things just aren’t right - like you keep banging your shin on the coffee table, or the sun is in your eyes in the morning. Or, you’ll just want a fresh room by moving the furniture, changing the curtains, or buying new bedding. Sheets don’t keep their crisp, cool feel after too many washes, bouncing around with jeans and sweatshirts. You should move the livingroom furnite at least every two years and the bedroom furniture every five.

5. Hang some new photos
A good idea is to change your desktop wallpaper with pictures of old friends, different times of your life, or the things you find the most important. It’s great to have new pictures of your kids to remind you of the reasons for all your hard work, and all the things you’ll continue to strive for. You can also move the photos around on your walls which can completely transform a room and call attention to important photographs that may have been overlooked for far too long.

"Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.”
by William James

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.