PrivateTim

Hmmm someone's career just came to a grinding halt.

Oh yeah, I have no doubt you like woodies in college at UCSB......

I like Round Table too, but there just ain't any in the Bu. People forget how isolated the Colony is. The Colony is popular with the glitterati precisely because it is isolated. Oh and despite the fact that I do like Round Table (King Arthur Supreme WITH anchovies) I'd never choose it over Johnny's..... but maybe over D'Amore's.

Exactly.

D'Amore's Pizza..... or Johnny's NY Pizza and screw the pizza at Johnny's, just send me 10 orders of garlic knots.

The "bare minimum" to get into the US Naval Academy would be 3.4 or thereabouts, The Naval Academy or any academy isn't like a regular college that lets in marginal academic students, the curriculum is so heavily science and math based they can’t afford the marginal students. The kids that drop out of the academies are not dropping out because of the academic load usually but the military routine and discipline is too much. Trust me, when you are a US skater and you are involved at the national level and you travel on national teams, a dominating presence like Michelle Kwan would be who all the younger US skaters looked up to. JJ might have admired the Russian skaters, but when you are wrapped in the cacoon of USFSA it is flag waving and "USA, USA". Johnny Weir tried to buck the organization and it bit him in the ass a couple of times.

Interesting chapter. A couple of chapters ago I would have thought Robbie would have startet to the corner by now, but with everything piling up (JJ's bad grade, fights with Brad, the board meeting, etc) he still seems clueless. It seems a little out of character for him that he hasn't come to his senses yet, but I am willing to be patient and see where it leads. This book has been about Will and Wade so we've only seen Brad and Robbie as side characters in the story, but if had been more of Brad & Robbie, what would we have seen? Brad's more bicoastal than ever so he is gone more than when he was doing the short hauls to the Bay Area, Robbie has workered hard to keep things on track at Hayes-Anders, they may have had troubles coming anyway. And JJ is heading to a rocky time, but I do think H-W would have been more proactive with JJ when his work wasn't getting done and his grades were failing, H-W is pretty good about early identification on problems. I really don't Robbie's enabling of JJ to get bad grades. Robbie understands the value of education and that even if JJ were to get to the pinnacle of skating, your career is done by 30 tops, and you need something else in your life. I guess we just have to trust Mark in where he is taking the story.

I think you've done a pretty good job actually at showing how academically oriented Will is, even when he was running away he made sure his school work was done. I also think Brad and Robbie were pretty serious students too. You didn't get into the schools they did unless you were a serious student. It wasn't the early 60's and before when family connections could get you in a bit easier at a Princeton or Yale. By the time B&R went off to college, it was more merit based or AA based. Just because we haven't seen a lot of talk about their college or alumni lives in CAP doesn't mean that Robbie and Brad are not still connected. LA has very strong alumni groups from all the Ivy colleges. The mere fact that the boys went to H-W over the other elite prep schools like Crossroads or Brentwood says that Brad and Robbie take the academics seriously. It would have been much easier to send them to the closer, more "progressive" schools over traditionalist H-W, but they didn't. They also live in the virtual shadow of Pepperdine University ( http://goo.gl/maps/BkbEy ) and it would be hard to ignore the university and its heavy influence in that area, especially as close as they are. Darius had the grades to get into a service academy and dummies don't get in there and Santa Clara is no slouch university either so obviously he did some studying along the way too. As to JJ, there is a lot of down time at skating competitions and a lot of the younger skaters used that time to study. Michelle Kwan, who was the queen of JJ's era was very academically oriented and that kind of atmosphere filters down and sets the tone.

but a 13th place finish there doesn't seem to showcase a future tip-of-the-top contender, now does it? It does when it is an international competition of younger competitors. Just being selected to the US team speaks of the promise he shows.

I still don't like Tony. Like Nana a lot. Noah even more.

Hey Matt, sorry I missed the actual day, I didn't get a chance to sign in yesterday. Hope the day and dinner were great, looks like you had teppanyaki? Hope it was a blast! Vegas awaits.

The chapter is good as it moves the story forward and lays the ground work for some nice future plotlines. I tend to fast forward through the sex scenes, but that isn't why I read Mark Arbour stories, I read for the incredible character development, the attention to detail, the believability and more. If sex was what I was my prime interest in stories I'd have never found GA as I'd still be at Nifty reading bad stories with none of the above attributes. I have hope that Will seems to be clued in on Tony and that he has already relegated him to FB status.

Metropolitan Community Church, groups at The Center in NYC and just about any coffee house (especially Joe, McNulty's, Angelique, Mojo and Starbucks) in Greenwich Village. You don't even necessarily believe in God to go to the MCC, but it is a good social environment. Here are other churches/temples in NYC. I'd also look into the GLB clubs at NYU, CUNY , Columbia and the rest of the universities in NYC. Being a student isn't a requirement for any of these clubs usually. PS Grindr, so 2010, Jack'd is where it is at.......

Will didn't keep him at an arms length. When they hung out, something Will was looking forward to, there was an awkwardness and from the one sentence about their time we don't really know the cause of the awkwardness. And yes, it was Lark I was thinking of, but couldn't come up with his name.

It can be depending on the club because you have gay scene mashing with the entertainment and modeling world and sometimes get the worst of both worlds. I think the Abbey is as snobby and pretentious and image obsessed as the media makes it out to be and then some, but spots like The Mother Lode is where guys who just want ice cold beer, a game of pool and some conversation and no attitude go. For even less attitude you go to Silverlake (an area, not a club).

We have no idea how long Will will stay at Menlo, nor where Ryan might wind up..... if his mother remarried Nor do we know where Ryan might wind up for college or hell..... we don't even know where he might be by the end of this story or in the next that only moves ahead a number of months.

There aren't any 18+ clubs where you live Matt? I was a senior in high school and it wasn't well known I was swinging from both sides of the plate. Another swimmer/water polo player I knew from a rival school (and knew like Adam knew Steve) invited me to Axis Nightclub in West Hollywood on a Thursday night during Spring Break since Thursdays was an 18+ club called Varsity (how appropriate for Blake and I). We parked and walked to the club. As we got to the outside you could hear the music thumping through the walls and actually shaking them. They were corrugated metal like old Army buildings and in fact it had been a bomb factory during WWII. There was a line and I was nervous as hell since I had no idea what to expect. We showed our IDs, but didn't get the cool, "hey I'm 21" wrist bands, just the bare wrists with a stamp that marked us as "kids". Walking upstairs the music got louder (of course) and my anxiety soared. The first room was a bar and pool table, but Blake the veteran kept on walking through to one of the two opening where the music was coming from. We stepped through the door and my life was never the same. Here in front of me were probably 400 men from 18-28, half or more were shirtless, sweating and gyrating to "Another Night" by Real McCoy. It wasn't just the fact that there were more gay guys than I'd ever seen in my life, more than I believed existed in Southern California, but the fact they all looked completely "normal" and completely happy. It was the first time it ever occurred to me that I could actually be happy as a guy who liked guys. It was the first time I thought, "I can do this". Now obviously Matt you've had the chance to grow up in a slightly different time, a bit more progressive and were dating openly (I think you and Camy were open) in high school so the club may not impact you the same way, but for me it was a turning point. I always enjoyed clubbing in WeHo and San Francisco, but never got into the "club scene" and even though I raved, would never have called myself a raver especially since I still wore my beachy attire whether it was a rave, club or whatever. I just liked dancing and still do. I wasn't much of a drinker ever so I drove a lot and don't have any cool stories about throwing up on people or waking up in strange beds and places that seemed to accentuate the club experience of so many of my friends. It also kept me alive. I have a lot of sad stories about dead friends that are the dark underbelly of the gay scene and club scene and all that the "club scene" implies. I dunno, maybe the clubs in Philly and NYC are different, but when I've been back there and visited them, they all seem the same, ditto for Dallas, Atlanta, Vegas, etc. Different cities, same scene. Hopefully you are going with Camy, but don't be afraid to flirt and enjoy yourself, ain't no harm in teasing the boys.

I love the Rocking R. It is one of my favorite brands. But my all time favorite brand is the John B. Kendrick Cattle Co.

Anders-Hayes would NOT have a pension plan (defined benefit). they would have a 401k plan (defined contribution) and that would be run by a Vanguard, FIdelity, etc. Very few companies have defined benefit programs unless they are unionized and there are far fewer union companies out there. Hollywood is unionized, but not the production companies like Anders-Hayes. Brad and Stef ARE responsibly exercising their duties as directors, they have Robbie in charge and they've done well by him. Even if they had Robbie in charge and the company tanked, an employee could not sue just because the company went under. Companies fail. Being incompetant is not actionable, fraud is. If Brad and Stef decided to pitch their shares to Wendy Finerman or Jon Felthheimer, there is no gurantee either would fire Robbie, it would just diminish his autonomy. It certainly wouldn't be actionableby by the employees.

While technically there isn't a legal difference in private and public companies, there is a huge difference in how it is enforced. The only person who could complain about benign neglect by Stef and Brad is the only other shareholder, Robbie. And what is the basis of his complaint? They left me in charge and I'm an idiot? Even if someone tried to make such an argument, neglect isn't the same as willfully making poor choices. Then given that the company has been performing okay against relative benchmarks there just isn't much there there. Brad and Stef are not motivated to sell, they are threatening to sell to someone, anyone, besides Robbie in order to shake up Robbie. Whether or not when push came to shove they would is another topic. We'll see how this episode intrudes into Robbie's psyche and makes him see the big picture of losing a kid, losing your partner, losing your family and losing your company.

All interesting stuff Westie, but isn't the same as a public company. You don't have the same leverage in making an unsoliscitated bid. And since it is a family business fiduciary responsibilities are entirely different than they would be in a public company. Even at that boards are seldom called to account except in cases of outright criminal fraud. I don't think we've seen the last of Ryan. In fact I can see a point where Ryan would reach out to Will because of a crisis in his life involving his parents or girlfriend. I mean he is tight with his GF now, but how long does a freshman romanca last? Especially so when they move to the "big school" next year. The upper classmen are on the new arrivals from the Lower Campus like stink on doo doo every fall and Ryan might find himself on the outs..... or he could get a new step daddy or mama that upsets the apple cart.... or what ever, I just don't think we've seen the last of Ryan and I hope not Alistair either. They are two of the more interesting characters and friends of Will that could pop up in the same sense that Brad's sufer dewd friend did (but hopefully in better circumstances).

It is always such a pleasure to open GA and see a new Paternity chapter. Sometimes I click on GA two or three times a day and more often than not I am disappointed, which makes the arrival of a new chapter that much more pleasurable. Kind of like "edging with literature". I don't find Stef's giving Will half his Anders-Hayes a big deal. As a percent of his portfolio it is certainly small bananas and when you are ungodly rich you can make dramatic, expensive gestures just because you can. Dang, where is Jeff Gillooly when you really need him? In my current frame of mind I am thinking JJ and Robbie having breakfast at Windows on the World with Tony as a waiter could end several irritants for me, but that is too easy. Maybe better would be having Will have a breakfast scheduled there that he misses, but no one knows that for several hours. Tragedy can clearly focus the mind on what is really important. But I really don't want the Robbie/Brad/Will drama to run for another 11 months and I don't think it will. I think this meeting opened the eyes of several people. Tony is being Tony and I hope Will relegates him to good FB status and moves on. I am really hoping we can find out more about Noah in the next Will chapter and maybe a little Alistair too. I think Alistair is too strong willed and independent to let JJ's whinings sway him.

Robbie, like everybody else, is the sum of his experiences. What he went through with his mother, Neil, Carter and Brad all have roles, but so did his time at Princeton, his job in Hollywood, the general zeitgeist of the industry, what he has gone through with his kids.... they all make up who he is. On balance Stef has been pretty darn good to him personally and professionally. Robbie's character is a bit overboard right now, but he'll come around. Maybe his assistant quitting to go to work for Harvey Weinstein (that is a funnier comment than you know) because she was so appalled that Will was banned from the building would cause the nickel to drop.

Really liked the chapter a lot. I do think that Robbie's character is a bit over done, I think he'd have figured out by now that he has done fucked up, since that is his plodding way, but the drama and tension makes good reading. Even Shakespeare went overboard with his characters sometimes to make a point emphatic, so I figure if Bill can do it, so can Mark. Love Nana's untainted view as well. That is what Robbie should ponder the most, the view from someone outside the family. Happy New Year dewd, thanks for the chapter.

Geeze, I'm starting to hope Robbie is NYC in Sept 2011. And intercourse Granger.... he died 150 years ago, he can wait...... the Crampton Hayes Schulters Danfields are still with us and much more interesting! Happy New Year Mark!