methodwriter85

JJ's not around because he's in the middle of figure skating season. Early October was the Central Pacific Regionals, right now he's at Skate America in Colorado, and next up would be the Pacific Coast Sectionals in early November. He has at least one more Grand Prix to go to, possibly the Grand Prix final, as well as the U.S. championships- which keeps him busy until at least January. That's probably keeping him sane more than anything else. I also kind of figure that, as it's been said by Will and by JP, JJ generally keeps to himself these days, which makes sense. He doesn't want to get himself in the middle of family drama again- he's leaving all that to Will. I think JJ's just doing his skating thing and biding his time until he's 18 and able to move far, far away from the dramatics of his family and hoping he doesn't get sucked into another big drama before that happens. Although I can see JJ moving away before he turns 18...I can't see Brad kicking up much fuss about it if JJ were to decide to move to another region to work with a coach, and have Tiffany serve as his guardian/coach. He's almost 16 anyway. It's probably a good thing that Tony is at Stanford and Zach is, for the most part, way on the other side of the country. As for Brad, it's interesting to see where he's at- since 1986, he probably has defined himself as being a businessman, being Robbie's partner, and raising kids with his partner and Jeanine. Now Robbie's gone, Jeanine's gone, and his kids are mostly grown. It's interesting to see how Brad rebuilds his identity after losing such a big piece of it, especially considering that he's approaching 40.

Chapter 64 - When Brad grieves for Robbie while looking at where the Twin Towers used to be. "Fields of Gold" by Sting -When the gang goes to Johnny Rockets and watches the staff dance. "Night Fever" by the Bee Gees They used to have one in Delaware, at Christiana Mall, circa the late 90's/very early '00s. It was pretty fun- part of that whole 50's theme restaurant deal that was popular back then. The malted shakes were insane. And it was fun to watch them dance to 70's music. - When Zach and Will discuss what this new bond they have means to them, and Zach confesses his fears that Gathan will try to turn Will against him. "How Deep Is Your Love?" by the Bee Gees

So, the year's over, and we're starting a new year...what was your playlist for 2013? Here was mine... 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. It seems like for 2013, there were two trends- electronic-based, and folksy inspired stuff. Kinda diametrically opposed, but it makes sense that there'd be two trends that were pretty opposite of each other. Like back in the late 90's, when you had boyband pop on one side and the Limp Bizkit/Korn rap-metal stuff on the other. I kind of wonder if that's why Blurred Lines was such a huge hit- there wasn't anything like it coming out because it was a 70's R&B throwback. In any event, I'm definitely enjoying this decade for music, as opposed to back in the 2000's when it was pretty much hip-hop 24/7/365 in the Top 40.

Just don't do that to random strangers. You will get your ass kicked. Philly fans are fucking insane.

I'm allergic to nickel, so that's good to know.

I remember reading this story my friend had written about the tattoos that 1D got at a tattoo parlor when they were on tour in Maryland, and I just kept thinking how dumb it is to get on-the-whim tattoos like the ones they got. (Although Zayn does actually put some thought into them- Louis Tomlinson just seemed like he was doing them just to do it.) Although, of course, if they ever regret it they can afford the laser sessions to take them off. I did think, when I saw the chest tattoos that Harry Styles got, that he really should have bulked up first, because they emphasize his lack of chest muscle. As for myself, I've never gotten a tattoo. Mainly because I have skin that's highly sensitive (I have to use unscented, hypoallegenic soap), and I had a sister who had a pretty bad reaction to a tattoo of the zodiac sun that she tried to get back in the 1990's. I know my other sisters have tattoos, but I also know that with my luck, I'd have a bad allergic reaction. I also can't really think of anything I'd want to have on my body for the rest of my life. My taste at 28 isn't the same as it was at even 23, and at 33 I can see it being different again.

Chapter 63 -When Will sees the 2001-2002 Ironmen team in action. -At the celebratory dinner, when Will gets annoyed at Wally. "Glory Days" by Bruce Springsteen -When Will and Zach have sex, and get a little kinky. "What's Your Fantasy" by Ludacris

I think it's the interesting thing about Will- he's fully capable of getting ruthless and driven to a goal like his father and Stefan, and he's certainly got the brains and acumen where you could see him leading a Fortune 500 company...but I can't see it suiting him. (I remember reading the end of chapter 62 and thinking, "You're way too compassionate to lead Corporate America like your father does, kid.") He wants more of a balance in his life, which you can't really have if you live a life that's driven by complete and total ambition to get ahead in one area of his life. Will could do it, he totally could, but I can't see him actually doing it because it's not his style. Will is the guy who wants a career, but he also wants a good relationship and be the kind of dad that could play with his kids on the front lawn early in the evening. At the same time though, like you said, he understands that mindset. And I'm really enjoying the total honesty between Zach and Will- I think Will pretty saw in Zach an underdog who had been forced by his family squabbles to go and strike out on his own on the East Coast...but the truth was a lot more complicated and cynical than that- that Zach pretty much didn't want his father to crowd around him and play the awful stage dad that embarrassed him with scouts. For Will, with whom "family" is synonymous with "breathing", it had to be pretty counter to his instincts. I wonder if JJ is that ruthlessly ambitious...I think he probably comes close. I think there's very little JJ wouldn't sacrifice, even if he has mellowed out a bit. I think there are some interesting parallels with Zach and JJ that could be cool to explore at some point. Yeah. The truth of the matter is, even at the start of 2014 when we're 10 years into Massachusetts having gay marriage, there still hasn't been an active, openly gay American football player. Zach would be 28/29 right now- if he's a pro, he probably won't wind up retiring until he's more like 33/34 circa 2019. Would a 27-year old Will be cool with that arrangement, especially when he's got friends announcing their gay weddings on Facebook and showing off the new families they've started?

I just realized that pick should have been for Chapter 63. Oops.

Happy birthday!

Happy New Year's everybody. I've spent the day being massively hungover. For the most part, these days whenever I go out, I have at most 2 beers, because I'm my own designated driver. But last night, I went to a house party and they allowed us to crash there, so I went way harder than I normally do- two Yuenglings, 1 Negron Modelo, 2 Harvest ales, a double shot of Whiskey, and champagne. At 21 in college, I could have consumed all that plus smoke a joint and felt fine the next day. But 8 drinks apparently equals "completely wrecked the whole next day" for me now. Kinda funny. I can't remember the last time I had a hangover this bad. In any event, I did have fun. It's the house of a friend of a friend. He lives in the upper-middle class suburb of Pike Creek, so his parent's house was pretty nice. It wasn't a full-on rager, but still a decent amount of people. I wound up crashing on a couch sometime around 3 a.m., and woke up around 10 a.m. All in all, pretty nice way to ring in 2014. I kind of felt like, "So this is what it was like to go to parties thrown by upper middle-class kids in high school." LOL.

If Will were a guy who did everything right all the time, he'd be extremely boring to read about, wouldn't he?

I worked at a dining hall that was across from the school gym, so I saw lots of college jocks wearing tank tops and gym shorts, and most of them had some kind of ink. I didn't notice it nearly as much in 2005, when I started college, as opposed to 2011-2012, where it seems really present. The difference is that frat boys usually kept to tattoos that could be easily covered up, because most of them were destined for white-collar jobs. Frat boys in this decade seem much more covered up in tattoos than they were in the mid-2000's. As for trend tattoos, it's funny because they easily date somebody. Anytime I see a guy with a barbed wire tattoo or a celtic cross, you can guarantee that he got it sometime in the late 90's/early 2000's.

I really hate those "writing on chest" tattoos that are currently all the rage right now, because they obscure the pecs and I really like a guy's chest. It's getting really hard though now to find people under 30 who don't have tattoos, a portion of them going a bit overboard. Zayn Malik from 1D verges on "too much" for me.

So, at the stroke of midnight, we'll be entering a new part of the decade. What songs did you enjoy listening to in the early 2010's? (Songs from 2009 are allowed.) Music of the Early 2010's- My Playlist 1. "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift 2. "California Gurls" by Katy Perry 3. "Say Aah" by Trey Songz ft. Fabulous 4. "Paparazzi" by Lady Gaga 5. "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz 6. "Fireflies" by OwlCities 7. "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus 8. "Stuck Like Glue" by Sugarland 9. "Fuck You" by Cee-Lo 10. "Last Friday Night" by Katy Perry 11. "Lonely Boy" by The Black Keys 12. "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster the People 13. "Fucking Pefect" by Pink 14. "Animal" by Neon Trees 15. "Good Life" by OneRepublic 16. "Sexy and I Know It" by LMFAO 17. "Some Like You" by Adele 18. "Back To December" by Taylor Swift 19. "Set Fire To The Rain" by Adele 20. "We Are Young" by Fun ft. Janelle Monae 21. "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye 22. "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen 23. "Brokenhearted" by Karmin 24. "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction 25. "Glad You Came" by The Wanted 26. "Tongue Tied" by GroupLove 27. "It's Time" by Imagine Dragons 28. "Gold on the Ceiling" by The Black Keys 29. "Carried Away" by Passion Pit 30. "Thift Shop" by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis 31. "Royals" by Lorde 32. "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke I'd definitely have to say that of this part of the decade, 2011-2012 were my favorite music years. Let's see what the mid-2010's bring!

Chapter 62 -When Will sees the 2001-2002 Don Bosco Prep Football Team in action. "The Rockafeller Skank" by Fatboy Slim -When Zach admits to Will that he's the first true friend he's ever had. "You've Got A Friend" by James Taylor

It's fun when Mark adds "local" (to myself) touches in the story...like in CAP, when he had Peter Gordon and JP Crampton spending a weekend down in the Nor'Easter ravaged Rehoboth Beach. Or in Be Rad, when he added in the 1980 World Series that the Phillies won, or the having Robbie be an Eagles fan. I definitely hope we'll meet Johnny Weir at some point, who was trained at the University of Delaware Skating Club. It was quite a big deal when he went to the Olympics. Him and JJ should have the fur flying. It'd also be cool to see them react to Philadelphia, which does have a bit of a renaissance in this decade. It'd also be cool to have a character rooting for the Baltimore Ravens at the 2012 Super Bowl against the 49ers, but I'm not sure that's likely because Mark was pretty unhappy about the outcome of that game.

I have to disagree with that- Ella got into either NYU or FIT (I think it's FIT, but it could be NYU), and I doubt she could have gotten there if her grades from the first three years of high school weren't good, Zeke is knocking out his general requirements at Claremont Institute of Technology (I'm assuming they're a junior college), and either Brent or Trent has plans to start a garage. (One of them is like only 12 or something, right?) Zach was troubled and they're not perfect, but given the environment and the depressed opportunities of 1990's Claremont, they all come off as doing pretty well. None of them seem like they're in gangs or anything like that. I think you're approaching "solid track" with a white-collar mindset view of success...the idea of skipping college and doing a trade instead seems like a failure, but I don't really agree with that. Not everyone is suited for college, and high-skilled mechanics can make pretty good money. As for the other stuff...I'll admit something: Mark and I have come to blows sometimes over character development and direction, especially when he was writing Paternity. The lesson? I learned to relax a bit and let Mark write the story. I was NOT happy with the JJ Story, to the point I couldn't sleep, but you know what? The story turned out way better than the suggestion I had for it, and that definitely underscored the point that you need to let the author write the story and the characters. Finally, a random note- I freakin' love that Zach has a Dodge Durango. His car was produced at the Chrysler Plant in Newark, Delaware when I was a teenager. Pretty funny. It's cool having these characters in New Jersey and closer to my neck of the woods.

Alright, this tune goes out to the 2013 NFC Northeast Champs, the Philadelphia Eagles. Woo-hoo! "Always Alright" by The Alabama Shakes From 4-12 last season, to 10-6 and getting the chance to play in the play-offs this year...to fucking awesome! I'm sure the Saints will crush us at home because the Philadelphia narrative is always one of disappointment and dashed hopes, so I really want to enjoy this one.

Good point. So question...what is the most regrettable hairstyle any of you have ever had? In my case...I shaved off all my hair except for my bangs when I was 14...bleached those bangs, and then dyed them red. It looked hideous, but it was fun to do it. '

Interesting. I associate 2006-2007 with the Faux Hawk, but sometimes this stuff is hard to pin down. Anyway, Blue and Tim, I really have enjoyed reading about your insight on California culture. I think it's great, and very illuminating. I had this viewpoint of Californians- I thought they either were Beach Bunnies, Napa Valley types, South Central L.A. types, Valley Girls, Hollyweird types, San Francisco Hipsters, Silicon Valley Tycoons, Orange County Rich Republicans, or Beverly Hills Rich People...it's been cool learning about the nuances of the culture. I mean, really though- think about T.V.- all the shows set in California are like always in San Francisco or Los Angeles...the closest people get to rural life there would be Nappa Valley. It's been cool learning about the nuances.

I'm pretty sure it did, but I haven't seen the book in awhile.

So, this year, the Macklemore Haircut, otherwise known as the undercut, has become pretty popular. Here's an example of the look: The basic idea of the haircut is that the sides are shaved down, the hair is left long on the top, and you usually part the hair on the side, adding hair height through gell. Do you guys find the haircut hot or not? Here's a fashion article that discusses the trend. In my cases, I want to try it out, but I think it's a look that works best on guys with long, oval faces and not round faces like mine. I tend to stick with a fade or a Roman Caesar. It does seem like a pretty popular haircut right now, though.

I really like how the start of Zach and Will's whatever-this-is has been essentially the inverse of the start of Tony and Will's whatever-this-is. Tony talked a really good game about honor and family, but turned out to be a totally untrue. Zach has basically been talking about what a total using shit he is/has been, but Will's finding redeemable things about him. I think it's the honesty- Zach isn't a white knight and he's not pretending to be. I can see that being really attractive to Will after dealing with Tony's shit. Also, Zach has a Dodge Durango. That made me smile, as Dodge Durangos were produced at the Chrysler Plant in Newark, Delaware...I passed by that plant all the time. It closed in 2008 or 2009 and is now being turned into a technology/health sciences campus for the University of Delaware. Finally, I liked the peek into how Will views the world. Right now, I see him being way too compassionate to lead a global corporation...it'll be interesting to see if that changes.

Hey, Blue, curious...when did the "Undercut" haircut become popular in California? I first started noticing it in 2010-2011, and then Macklemore exemplified the extreme version of the look: David Beckham also has a version of it. Now it seems like a lot of guys are doing the look. It's reminiscent of the Zack Morris surfer haircut from the early 90's, I think, only that style was courtesy of mouse rather than pomade. And the sides weren't shaved as high up. Did you wear that hairstyle, Tim? I've always pictured you as having blond hair for some reason, and you're about the same age as Zack Morris (the gang was the class of 1993), so I kinda figured you dressed like Zack Morris/Saved By The Bell in high school. (I sure as hell can't picture you doing the flannel grunge Jordan Catalano look when you were 17.) I do remember Mark having a bit about the early/mid-90's surfer haircut in If It Fits...that look seemed to go out circa 1998, when guys started spiking their hair instead, which stays popular at least to 2003-2004. The mid/late part of the 2000's, it seemed like guys were leaning towards longer hair, like Zac Efron hair, as what I referred to as the 'winged look.' Now it seems like guys are going back towards shorter hair again, or at least shorter hair on the sides. I can definitely see JJ doing the David Beckham version of the undercut, not so sure about Will.