Mark Arbour Posted December 17, 2009 Posted December 17, 2009 Mark - My two cents is for it to continue into the aughts. The next generation of kids coming into their own. JP having to deal with the fact he is being pressured to step down as chair of the Dept. when he turns 65. Maybe Mrs Danfield will be always just out of sight keeping an eye on her star pupil even though he has revolted. (Like Tiberius Ceasars mother) Someone should happen to be in NY on 9-11. Steph and JP are both republicans so they should have plenty to say about George after he gets elected. Matt and Wade should get married. Wade would make a great behind the scenes guy in politics! (Hint! Hint!) Matt gets an econ degree and a Masters and goes to work for The Fed in San Francisco. Robbie and Brad should branch out a bit and have something like a world vacation. Maybe rescue some homeless surfer guy trying to drown his despair because his family dumped him when he came out and now his gay buds dumped him because he is positive. (Yes that does happen) Maybe one of the kids joins the military and ends up in Iraq. That would disturb JP. Of course there has to be new people brought into the family... Well that's it for me. OK only for now... Dave What makes you think JP and Stef are Republicans? I can't see that from either one of them, especially now. Maybe they'd vote for a Republican now and again, like they did with Reagan, but I don't see it. And I think that JP would go absolutely apeshit over the Iraq War. He'd rightly see it as Vietnam all over again. Could be tough for him to deal with.
Tiger Posted December 17, 2009 Posted December 17, 2009 What makes you think JP and Stef are Republicans? I can't see that from either one of them, especially now. Maybe they'd vote for a Republican now and again, like they did with Reagan, but I don't see it. And I think that JP would go absolutely apeshit over the Iraq War. He'd rightly see it as Vietnam all over again. Could be tough for him to deal with. Well, I can see where someone might think that about Stef. He is a corporate tycoon type, and they are typically Republicans.
Mark Arbour Posted December 17, 2009 Posted December 17, 2009 Well, I can see where someone might think that about Stef. He is a corporate tycoon type, and they are typically Republicans. Really? Didn't Warren Buffet help out Barack Obama? George Soros is the bane of conservatives everywhere. The tycoons aren't always Republicans, it's the greedy executive types that are. Like the guys running AIG or Goldman Sachs.
Tiger Posted December 17, 2009 Posted December 17, 2009 Really? Didn't Warren Buffet help out Barack Obama? George Soros is the bane of conservatives everywhere. The tycoons aren't always Republicans, it's the greedy executive types that are. Like the guys running AIG or Goldman Sachs. There are exceptions to the rule, but most of them are. Ever heard of Haliburton?
methodwriter85 Posted December 18, 2009 Author Posted December 18, 2009 I think what will upset JP about the Iraq war besides the repeat of Vietnam is the near-total apathy that JJ & Will's generation will have about the war despite the fact that its their contemporaries fighting it. Though there will be protests, there is never any large student protest movement for this war like there was for Vietnam. I think that will bug JP's 60s idealism a lot. Also, it could be cool if Lou went Anderson Cooper and became a war correspondent in Iraq.
methodwriter85 Posted December 31, 2009 Author Posted December 31, 2009 After reading more of Bloodlines, I realized Robbie is a very emotional parent. He is going to be an absolute mess when his first "baby", Darius, goes off to college in 2000. I can see it now- Robbie will become a total helicopter parent, starting with Darius, and then getting absolutely horrible about it with JJ and Will when he and Brad become empty-nesters in '05. I bet Mark has run into enough helicopter parents as a professor that he'll be really good at depicting this. For those not familiar with the term, it refers to overprotective parents who "hover" over their children. They've been known to call up their child away at college to wake them up for classes, and even go so far as to confront professors over grades their children got. It's a pretty interesting look into how parenting has evolved.
Tiger Posted December 31, 2009 Posted December 31, 2009 Jeremy, I hope you're wrong about that. We like Robbie. We would be disappointed in him being so overbearing.
methodwriter85 Posted December 31, 2009 Author Posted December 31, 2009 Helicopter parents are normal for Darius/JJ/Will's generation- its related to empty-nester syndrome, and why Generation Y is considered to be so over-indulged. I can't see Brad becoming one, but I could see Robbie becoming one- especially with the last two kids who leave the house. He'll get over it, but not before driving Will and JJ crazy with constant cell phone calls. Such is the m.o. of Baby Boomer parents.
Tiger Posted January 3, 2010 Posted January 3, 2010 Helicopter parents are normal for Darius/JJ/Will's generation- its related to empty-nester syndrome, and why Generation Y is considered to be so over-indulged. I can't see Brad becoming one, but I could see Robbie becoming one- especially with the last two kids who leave the house. He'll get over it, but not before driving Will and JJ crazy with constant cell phone calls. Such is the m.o. of Baby Boomer parents. Still, that's a very bad habit, and it will make Robbie a lot less popular. I could be wrong, but I don't want to see him act like that much of a mother hen. It's very unbecoming. He also has a business to run.
Mark Arbour Posted January 3, 2010 Posted January 3, 2010 I don't see Robbie like that, although I can see where you could draw that conclusion. He's not really all that involved or overbearing unless it's important. Look at how he's handled Matt. He doesn't spend every waking minute in Palo Alto, but he sees him pretty often. Matt's health problems devastated him and made him irrational, but as a father, I can assure you that his reaction was probably muted. I think he's too absorbed in his own life to get overly involved in the minute details of the lives of his kids. When they're put in front of him, though, well, then he'll react.
methodwriter85 Posted January 3, 2010 Author Posted January 3, 2010 I don't see Robbie like that, although I can see where you could draw that conclusion. He's not really all that involved or overbearing unless it's important. Look at how he's handled Matt. He doesn't spend every waking minute in Palo Alto, but he sees him pretty often. I think he's too absorbed in his own life to get overly involved in the minute details of the lives of his kids. When they're put in front of him, though, well, then he'll react. That makes sense. I guess I've been influenced by seeing how parents actually friend their kids on Facebook, and how my mom kept calling me when I went away to college. Maybe JJ can have a roommate with a helicopter parent or something. I feel like the helicopter parent is too much of part of how my generation turned out for Mark to completely ignore, when he gets around to a Gen Y viewpoint in the story.
Enric Posted January 3, 2010 Posted January 3, 2010 (edited) That makes sense. I guess I've been influenced by seeing how parents actually friend their kids on Facebook, and how my mom kept calling me when I went away to college. Maybe JJ can have a roommate with a helicopter parent or something. I feel like the helicopter parent is too much of part of how my generation turned out for Mark to completely ignore, when he gets around to a Gen Y viewpoint in the story. oh, dear jeremy, but, you are in a sense just like your mother I see apples do not fall far... so, the helicoptering is seemingly mostly an outcome of genetical heritage and behavior models at home. by the way, Jeremy, has any of your acquaintances ever compared you with a stereotypical mother hen.... Edited January 3, 2010 by Enric
Tiger Posted January 3, 2010 Posted January 3, 2010 oh, dear jeremy, but, you are in a sense just like your mother I see apples do not fall far... so, the helicoptering is seemingly mostly an outcome of genetical heritage and behavior models at home. by the way, Jeremy, has any of your acquaintances ever compared you with a stereotypical mother hen.... I don't think he was saying that he fits into such a group. You know why you shouldn't assume? #1) You make an ass out of you and me. #2) It's the mother of all f**k-ups. 1
methodwriter85 Posted January 4, 2010 Author Posted January 4, 2010 Thanks for the defense, Tiger. No, I don't consider myself one. First of all, I don't have kids. Secondly, I am only 24 years old...for me to have had a kid who is old enough for college, I would have had to concieve the kid at the age of 5 or so. The point I was making is that helicopter parents are a significance presence among the present-day twentysomething crowd. Speaking of present-day twentysomethings...how do you guys think JJ and Will are going to turn out? In present-day, JJ and Will are 24 and 23 years old, respectively. I personally see Will ending up at M.I.T.- I see the guy becoming an engineer- he comes off as a very intelligent, highly shy person. JJ, I think, would go to some state party school because while he's intelligent, he's not about doing homework, so he's only got so-so grades. And I think he would want to go to a party school, because JJ SCREAMS future party kid. So I think he'd want a school that had a great party scene as opposed to really caring about their academic programs. Maybe Penn State? Or Arizona State?
Daisy Posted January 9, 2010 Posted January 9, 2010 you should come to europe. let one of them go travelling or be an international student
methodwriter85 Posted January 9, 2010 Author Posted January 9, 2010 It would have to be Will. JJ would never have the kind of grades that would enable him to get accepted as an international student at a good European university.
Mark Arbour Posted January 9, 2010 Posted January 9, 2010 you should come to europe. let one of them go travelling or be an international student Last time I sent a guy off to be an international student the Europeans threw him in jail and let a corrupt police department almost destroy his life.
Daisy Posted January 9, 2010 Posted January 9, 2010 Last time I sent a guy off to be an international student the Europeans threw him in jail and let a corrupt police department almost destroy his life. but think of the history. and all the exploring you can do .
methodwriter85 Posted February 8, 2010 Author Posted February 8, 2010 Matt and Wade getting married in 2010 D.C. That would make a perfect ending to the CAP series.
rjo Posted February 8, 2010 Posted February 8, 2010 Wedding preformed by Chief Justice Roberts in the White House with the President looking on
methodwriter85 Posted February 11, 2010 Author Posted February 11, 2010 Now that would be cool. J.J. into's skating- maybe he could wind up competing for the '02, '06, and '10 Olympics. If that happens, we likely won't see him in high school or at college, though. I could see Will becoming this well-known engineer. I sense Will as a future scientist type. What I wanna see though is how extremely-whitebread Claire and Jack, as well as Brad and Robbie, are going to deal with the "urban" stylings of their kids. JJ, Will, Marie, and John are going to grow up in a generation that is highly saturated with hip-hop fashion, clothes, slang, and music. It would be interesting to see how Mark explores the generation Gap- I already like how it did it for the Silent Generation vs. the Baby Boomers, and the Baby Boomers vs. Gen X. I can already picture this conversation between Claire and Marie.... 2002 Claire- Marie, you are NOT wearing sweat pants to school. I want you to wear a real outfit. What happened to the 400 dollars I gave you to buy a back-to-school-outfit at Neiman Marcus? 2002 Marie- Mom, I AM wearing my back-to-school outfit. This track suit was $250, and my Uggs were $150! 2002 Claire: You spent 400 dollars on that ugly montrosity of an outfit? And is that a thong I see? 2002 Marie: All the girls wear them. 2002 Claire: Not MY daughter. Now go and change into something else! God, I can just picture Claire recoiling in horror at what's going to be trendy for her daughter's generation, especially the whale tail and Juicy Couture. Or when her son or nephews decide to start wearing Timbalands and Fubu. The closest to preppy she'll see is Abercrombie Fitch and Tommy Hilfiger, and even that stuff is pretty baggy and not the sort of tailored preppy look Claire likes to dress everyone in. *Whale tails are an early/mid 2000's trend in which girls would wear thongs that would be shown off by their extremely low-cut jeans. It was a ubitious look at every high school and college.
zland666 Posted March 2, 2010 Posted March 2, 2010 So, in the Bloodlines thread Tiger brought up that we're running out of years. And unless Mark decides to do prequels, he's right. How should the CAP saga end, do you think? It looks like Mark intends to bring the CAP family to present-day, which should be somewhere in 2010 by the time he gets around to that last story. Mark has made clear his intentions to cover 9/11, so there will be at least one story in 2001. I think it might be interesting if before that, he also did a story set in 2000, about the dot-com bubble bursting. Since the Schluter family is big on the internet, it makes sense. And of course, the theatrics involving the 2000 Presidential Election might be interesting to cover, and the legalization of same-sex civil unions in Vermont. Then, I think, I'd like to see a 2004-2005 story. Gay marriage in Massachusetts, the nasty election campaign between Bush and Kerry with its "Swiftboat Veterans" for truth, the Indian ocean Tsunami, and Hurricane Katrina, which some started the chain of events that lead to disillusionment about Bush, and began the ball rolling for the Democratic victories in the 2006 mid-term election. What about you guys? It's going to be interesting to see how the CAP family enters the 21st century. It would be sad to see it end but I'm glad mark will keep it going to present day. I don't want it to end and i would like stef and jp to keep there charetors alive because it was sad to see tonto go but I also see if it steps into the 21st century that Brad will eventually take control over the family. but keep jp and stef because it just wouldn't be the same without them.
methodwriter85 Posted March 4, 2010 Author Posted March 4, 2010 Every story has an ending- and it looks there will be at least three more stories after the Box. Maybe even four. Mark Arbour is going to milk this last decade for every cent its worth. LOL. I think one of either Brad or Claire's kids should go into Iraq. Or maybe Ace- I could see Ace being someone motivated by 9/11 to join the army and fight in Aghanistan. Mark mentioned in another thread how much JP will be frustrated with the utter lack of anti-war activism. That will be interesting to watch. I'm really, really interested in how Will and JJ develop as they get into their teen years and eventual college years. They're contemporaries for me, so I'll be keeping a close on on Mark to make sure he gets things right. Like the Adderall stuff and the like.
Mark Arbour Posted March 4, 2010 Posted March 4, 2010 Every story has an ending- and it looks there will be at least three more stories after the Box. Maybe even four. Mark Arbour is going to milk this last decade for every cent its worth. LOL. I think one of either Brad or Claire's kids should go into Iraq. Or maybe Ace- I could see Ace being someone motivated by 9/11 to join the army and fight in Aghanistan. Mark mentioned in another thread how much JP will be frustrated with the utter lack of anti-war activism. That will be interesting to watch. I'm really, really interested in how Will and JJ develop as they get into their teen years and eventual college years. They're contemporaries for me, so I'll be keeping a close on on Mark to make sure he gets things right. Like the Adderall stuff and the like. Yeah, rich people going off to fight. That's realistic.
zland666 Posted March 4, 2010 Posted March 4, 2010 Yeah, rich people going off to fight. That's realistic. i think one of the kids could be kidnapped by brian and whist for revenge on jp.
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