methodwriter85

One more attempt at a Palisades cast photo. This vibe feels like the cast is promoting a fall American Eagle line. LOL

Using Grok to create a cast photo for Palisades has been fun but a bit frustrating. Still, I like how this one turned out.

Alright, here's another attempt at my Palisades cast photo. God, this was fun. LOL

I do think it's telling that aside from the beginning of the story, we really haven't seen Travis have all that much interaction with his castmates aside from Kendo. Kendo is pretty much aways on Travis, which probably turns off the cast. Travis is singled out as the star; Travis is doing movies on his hiatus; Travis comes from a rich family and therefore he might be pretty intimidating to those who meet him. Not to mention that Travis is desperately trying to stay closeted because he wants the A-list and he doesn't trust anyone on the cast. I did think he was going to befriend the girl playing Maya but that seems to have completely not happened at all. Sometimes you get t.v. shows where the cast is the best of best friends (the Riverdale cast), and sometimes you get a t.v. show where the set is extremely toxic and everyone is off on their own entourage and nobody talks to each other. This show seems to be the latter. Anyway, Mark, I decided to have some fun with Grok and did a cast photo. Grok was able to get Paul Walker and Olivia Wilde fairly close but the other fancasts didn't quite turn out right. Still, I think it looks great. LOL

Ryan Murphy is dropping a new show that's set in 1981 Los Angeles. This one (he's the lead) makes me think of Cary, who later showed up as a villain in a later story. (Right? That was Cary who teamed up with Brad's evil half brother and evil ABC?)

What I do find interesting is that the Danfields are pretty much the opposite of that. In no way are Elizabeth Danfield or Mary Ellen Granger (?) on a pedestal, and both are more than capable of scorched earth tactics. Riley Danfield and Bobby Carrswold are being raised by Tiffany, as well, and I can't see her nurturing the patriarchal Crampton/Schluter example with her kids. I don't see her getting bowed over like Jeanine was by Brad and Robbie. I'm really hoping that Tiffany gets back into coaching soon. Riley and Maddie are currently 5 years old, which means they should be in school. Bobbie should be 3 years old, which means school is coming in soon. Of course, it helps that I believe Tiffany has her own inheritance money from her grandparents. I mean, not billions, obviously, but as she put it, her grandparents "did alright."

I remember feeling outraged during the events of Paternity (that was the emancipation storyline, right?) at how it seems like Will gets away with murder but I've since mellowed on him. Will won me over during his Zach/Will romance storyline. I think it helps a lot that Mark has had characters in the story actually pointing out Will's Golden Child status and how much that seems to annoy Will when they do. More of that please, Mark. I was kind of hoping that Mark would take a cue from Love Story and have Will fall in love with a beautiful scholarship student who called him "Preppie" and played hard to get, but so far no dice. I'm like Private Tim longing for the Alisdair/Will storyline that will never come. LOL Speaking of Alisdair...hello, 30-year old Alisdair! I've also got Jamie Bell as a 40-year old Alisdair because they really do look like they could be the same person at two different points in their lives. LOL

Chapter 39 -When Will walks with Travis on campus, and he notes how much more popular Travis is now that Palisades is airing. "Fame" by David Bowie -When Will and Travis have reunion sex, but something is just somewhat off, and Will can't figure out why. "The Shoop Shoop Song" by Cher (It's In His Kiss) -When Travis and Will have an afterglow discussion where he talks about the difficulty he's having in acting out his scenes on Palisades, but it's worth it because of how good his performance is. "Sleepwalker" by Santo & Johnny -When Will brushes aside his suspicions about Travis to engage in another session of energetic love-making. "SOS" by Rihanna SOS. Feels really apt, right? -When Will and his volleyball team win their game. "Poppin' My Collar" by Three 6 Mafia -When Will gently tries to ask Travis about his pill popping in the middle of their after-glow, and gets shut down pretty quickly. "Sweet Jane" by the Cowboys Junkies

Llama or broccoli or Roman curls.

It's a consequence of fancasting with current hot young studs, Mark. A lot of them roll around with curly hair these days, to the point of some of them even getting perms. In the 2000's guys tended to wear shorter straighter hair, unless they were feathering (think Zac Efron who is currently the It Boy as High School Musical just came out) or spiky bedhead.

Niko fancast, Mark? Thoughts?

It reminded me that we can now start to use the term "hipster." Although I don't think either Will or Jeremy have run into that species just yet. They really begin to flourish once the Great Recession starts to set in. Joy Division was your time, but I get the feeling that they didn't really take off until the mid-80's after the remnants of the group made it big as New Order. I'm really fascinated by child star/teen idol stories. That is why I was so excited when Mark told me what the plot of this book was. It's been a thing for one hundred years at this point and there are still so many throughlines and similarities in all of the stories. It really comes down to that you need to have someone guiding you who actually gives a shit about you and not what you can give them. I have noticed that if someone comes into fame later (say the age of 25 or older), you tend to see better outcomes. Austin Butler took a loooonnnngggg time to break through as a star but it's probably going to be much better for him in the end that he became famous at 30 rather than at 19. KJ Apa is technically not a child star (he started acting at 17 and got his big breakthrough at 19 with Riverdale) but he's been sharing his story with a podcast co-hosted by Dylan Sprouse and it's been a wild ride. Dude came to America from Australia all by himself to become a star and it sounds like things got wild for a bit. At one point KJ crashed his car after he fell asleep at the wheel and it was blamed on a long work day but now I'm wondering if that may have been a cover up.

Chapter 37 -When Travis is starting season 2 filming of Palisades and is having an anxiety attack about his upcoming scene. "Transmission" by Joy Division -When Travis is reluctantly convinced by Kendo to add Xanax to go along with Ambien. "The Killing Moon" by Echo and the Bunnymen -When Will talks to Marie about how Caroline is trashing her behind her back over the Fab of it all. "Stupid Girls" by Pink -When Kendo hangs out with Travis at his house, the two go surfing, and Travis manages to sleep like a baby with some chemical help. "There She Goes" by the La's

It is funny though because I remember at the time Mark was shaping Will as a character during Poor Man's Son/Paternity, I totally pictured him ending up as a hippie dippie trustfaraian who was low-key and you would never really realize was rich until you went home with him or something. I think Brad's alpha male genes are just too strong for that, though.

Brad Renfro. Man, that one hurt. I'm really glad that Wes Bentley (who I ABSOLUTELY LOVED in American Beauty) was able to get out of it.