methodwriter85

And my argument is that the renewed commitment to Claremont makes it much more likely that characters, no matter how background they are, are very likely to go off. Claremont is a town that every time there's been a war has sent off a good portion of their youth, and with military history going back, you're much more likely to see future generations go. JP also lost a friend named Fritz, a cute German-American stocky type who killed himself after getting castrated by a bomb. I do think that given the general CAP modus operandi, that's not going to happen. We lost someone to 9.11. KristIn almost died on the Concorde jet crash. Matt knew Matthew Shepherd. Marcel and JP were in Russia for the fall of communism. Our key players were witnesses to the Paris student riots of 1968, and they met JFK and Jackie O. I do think that the War On Terror/The Iraq War has to be one of the most visible, long-term fall-out effects from 9/11, and I figure at least some personal stakes are going to be brought into it as a result. The history has taken a bit of a backseat to the character's stories, but there's so much about the 2000's decade that was crazy and shocking, and it's going to provide so much great fodder for Mark. As we've already seen with 9.11.

When I was in college and playing ultimate frisbee, we had a guy who would freak out every time the other team scored a point. In ultimate frisbee. In college. Sometimes good sportsmanship passes over people. But that's the thing- Matt's a Hayes in biology only; he's a Carrswold through and through. He doesn't even seem all that interested in getting to know his cousins and such. Matt's like Wade- his real family are the Schluters and the Cramptons. Robbie's gone. We've uncovered the reasons why the Hayes family became what they became, and gotten closure on that. Now there's hope for a better tomorrow. Brent, Trent, and Zeke barely seem consequential and are likely to go to Ohio State or open up a garage in Claremont, with it being unlikely that they'll interact much with the Cali contingent. (I could see Zeke at Oberlin, though.) I can't see Gathan getting another shot at narrator. There's Zach, who has potential but is clearly getting himself the hell out of Claremont. You basically have one bio Hayes, who isn't all that involved with his biological family, and another Hayes who's already left his hometown/family in the dust on his way to football glory. Well, after Westie and others went on about how it's so unlikely that any of the Schluter boys would either go off to war or know people that did, I've been trying to think of plausible ways to introduce the Iraq War to CAP World. Perhaps not as a focus, but as something in the background. I realize I'm obsessed, and I think it's because of two things- when I was in 10th grade, I took part in this naive student walk-out where we walked out of class at 9:11 a.m. a couple of days before the war started, and in 12th grade, the school I ran track for was rocked by the death of an English teacher's son, Stephen McGowan, who was killed by a roadside bomb. Your heart is so open when you're a teenager. My teenaged heart ached for the losses, and I just cared. Probably more than a lot of my peers did, because they didn't have to worry about getting drafted. That the war took so many lives, and people seem largely indifferent to it (we were more concerned with Britney Spears' 48-hour marriage, and my state in general is very politically apathetic) still bothers me to this day. By 2007, every time I took part in an anti-Iraq War protest the turn-out was pathetic. I'm just hoping that event gets it due, and I know that if/when you cover it, the Iraq War and the 4,486 soldiers killed there will be respected and honored in a poignant way, like you did with the people who died in 9/11.

I came to that realization at around 24 or so. Best one ever.

Pretty cool. It's officially been declared taller than the Sears Tower. It seems like NYC in general is going through a skyscraper building boom.

I really appreciate the detail that Mark puts into making people "feel" like it's the period the story is set in. For example, the bit in Be Rad, where Brad remembers how a couple a years ago, he would have had an afro comb in the back of his pocket. Or the bit in Paternity (or Poor Man's Son), where Will puts on a hoodie, his flip-flops, and pops an Adderall. Little things like that which re-create the time period for the readers.

That was my thought, too. My other idea, if Ethan winds up going the "ugly ducking to swan" route, would be a Latino version of Josh Peck from the 2000's Nickelodeon show, Drake and Josh. Before Matthew Lewis, Josh Peck was definitely my favorite, "Wow, puberty was really kind to him!" case.

Yeah, it's subtle but it's definitely there- Ella is not really considered much by the family. The fact that she pissed off Darius AND Will doesn't speak well to her status in the family. That is a good question. You really did throw off everyone's expectations about Ethan. I totally thought Ethan was going to wind up transferring to Menlo and become schoolmates with Will, Marie, and John. Of course, I can't imagine that Ethan is a total rube- it's not like he would have been completely ignorant of etiquette given that he's going to a private boarding school. Still, as Matt pointed out, Ethan did not grow up like Wade. Right. I think Brad is basically planning on helping to lead the Hayes family while Gathan, the presumed heir, matures more. That Gathan assumes leadership of the trust when he turns 25 pretty much says it all. It'll be interesting to see if this is the Hayes family "send off", so to speak, where we know they're going to be okay, or if the Hayes family will continue to serve as a core CAP family. Given that they're the Hayes and it's in their blood, I'm going to imagine at least a few will wind up joining the War on Terror/Iraq, so that could be interesting.

Chapter 52 - When Gathan's family members all learn that they're going to receive a million dollar trust, but in a graduated way that Zach doesn't care for. "Money" by The Flying Lizards -When Wade sees the guy that he thinks is his brother. "Moonage Daydream" by David Bowie -When Wade plays a soccer game with his actual brother, and Matt reminds him that he can't force Ethan to change into a proper Danfield. "Make Your Own Kind of Music" by Mama Cass

Some thoughts: 1. I liked how the will was drawn up according to Robbie and Brad. I think they clearly had Gathan's little 100k+ Las Vegas adventure in mind. I also liked how Zach is clearly bothered by the fact that he doesn't get the 500k until 2010, and the other 500k in 2015. I did look into it- Zeke should be 18 and in his first year of college, but I'm not sure about Brent and Trent's ages. I think Trent is a year older than Zach, because when Gathan left his car to Trent which pissed off Zach even though he was only 15 when Gathan left for Stanford. Eh. Brent, Trent, and Zeke don't really seem to matter. 2. Ooh, burn on Ella. I think if Robbie actually liked Ella and had good feelings towards her, it might have been different, but she hasn't really done much to be liked. It also seems like Gathan's "do no wrong" status with the family has lost a bit of its luster. 3. So Robbie has a 19-year old niece and a 16-year old nephew, with said 16-year old nephew being raised by a religious whacko. Hmm. Also, Robbie's sister disappeared to the excesses of the 1980's similar to Bitty and it's not known whether or not she has any offspring, right? 4. I LOVED that Mark made Ethan a Person of Size, and not some gorgeous 15-year old model. Wade was clearly expecting that, because the Danfields are a gorgeous family aka to the Kennedys, and it bothered him that Ethan didn't look like a caramel-dipped version of him and Jeff. Given Ethan's body type, he could also be into wrestling, rugby, an offensive lineman for football, or a shot-put on track. It made Wade seem human for that moment, instead of the calm, rational guy that he usually is. It made me think about a friend I had, who had gotten his mother to pay for him to go on a liquid diet after he, in his own words, "gave up and started living on Oreos." Derek told me that his family was known for their good looks, therefore it wasn't acceptable for him to be fat.

I really loved how clearly Wade is bugged by the fact that Ethan's not the gorgeous 15-year old model he pictured him as being, and is instead an average looking, gawky 15-year old. That makes him so much more human. I also thought, reading this scene, that Ella's status within the family is edging towards persona non-grata, and they don't seem all that fond of Gathan anymore, either. I guess it doesn't pay to piss off the second-favorite grandson of JP and Stefan.It'd be funny if Zach actually winds up ingratiating himself more to the Schluters/Cramptons.

Since I'm watching Grease 2 right now, I figured I'd go ahead and take some time to appreciate our Stefan model, Tab Hunter. The dude was just hot, even going into his 50's. Kind of a shame that he couldn't come out of the closet until long after his career was over. I can easily imagine a guy who looks like this would be able to get as much play as Stefan does. Shame the guy didn't have a son and leave us a hot copy like Clint Eastwood did: Scott Eastwood...god, the things I'd wanna do...

And my point is that while JJ is probably curious, he's not at that point where he wants to nail everything cute in sight. Not yet, anyway.

Hunger Games: The Theme Park Wow, talk about completely missing the point of the book. It's like when they made an amusement park ride of the Titanic. How exactly would a Hunger Games theme park work? Would there be a fake forest where people can throw fake weapons at each other? A fake beach where people can run from deadly fog? Or a fake bombed out city where you have to rescue victims?

You're mistaking my intent. I'm not saying JJ is an ice queen. JJ IS curious about being intimate, and we know he masturbates, but my point is that he's not at the point where sex is on his mind 24/7. He's at the point where the hormones are starting to go, but they're not at full gallop yet, which is why I don't agree with your joke about how JJ needs to lose his virginity by the end of this story, which I'm assuming will close out in December 2001 or January 2002. My guess is that it'll happen when JJ's about 17 or 18, in either 2003 or 2004. I feel like that was the point Mark was making with this chapter, about how people have different rates of maturity. Will has the body of a fully grown adult male, about the age of 18-19, which is when men are at their sexual peak and everything is screaming, "Fuck something! Fuck something now!" JJ's body is not that mature, probably still lagging behind a year or two his chronological age- he's curious about doing sexual things, but he's not quite ready for going all the way just yet.

I like the idea of Zach being morally grey- not really a good guy, but not a sociopath like Brian or Alexandra Carmichael. (I'm on the fence over whether or not I think MaryEllen and Elizabeth are sociopaths.) I think when JJ wants to, he can read people well- he clearly has both Matt and Will's number about how easily they'll grab their ankles for any handsome guy that wants to play. But because he's generally a loner and doesn't want to let people in, JJ just stays in his own little world. When I was in my early 20's someone once referred to me as "willfully obtuse", and I think that term could apply to JJ- you see these little flashes of insight with him, which makes his general self-absorption and reticence to see beyond his front door all the more frustrating. What I think has been interesting about his trajectory is that Mark slowly and methodically destroyed the safe little bubble that JJ existed in- first the troubles with Tiffany and Jeanine, then Jeanine going nuts, then it turning out that his coach was molesting him, and finally killing off Jeanine and Robbie. JJ can't really hide behind anything now, except his bitchy diva act. Will, and I suppose John now, really seem like they refuse to let JJ just slip through the cracks. The Trevor here was Trevor Morgan, a child actor from the late 90's and early 00's that appeared in such films as The Sixth Sense, The Patriot, and Jurassic Park 3. It's actually pretty funny that Mark's having him cameo, because I had a mild crush on him- although nowhere near the level of obsession I had for Josh Hartnett and Nick Lachey. What I liked about the scene is how much of a parallel there is between child actors and child athletes- just because you do well as a child athlete does not mean that you'll do well as an adult one, and the same goes for actors. JJ's transitioning to adult-level competition and the whole ball game is different. Evan Lysacek didn't even leave junior level entirely until he was aged out of it, at 19- he had some difficulty with getting that competitive. Then he wound up becoming one of the best figure skaters for that decade. I thought more seriously on this, and I think the point of seeing inside JJ's mindset vs. Will's mindset for this chapter was to show the differences between how a person who's libido is going at full-blast thinks, vs. someone who's libido is starting to heat up but hasn't really switched on to "Must fuck something NOW!" yet thinks. JJ will probably be ready in another year or two, but he's not there yet. JJ thinks in terms of people being "cute" that he'd want to make out with and possibly get to second base with, but he's not thinking in terms of, "God, I want to fuck every cute person in sight!" Which is hard to imagine, especially from guys who were "developed" at 14/15 like Will was.They have a man's body, which tells them to screw everything in sight. JJ doesn't quite have one yet even though he's almost 16, which explains the difference in perspective with that chapter.

You're really a 35-year old virgin, Ashi? In 5 years, you can star in your own movie.

Now that we're in the waning days of 2001 in CAP, here's a look at the music that will dominate the United States in 2002: Eminem hits his creative and commercial peak, Nelly continues his ride, Avril Lavigne pops up as the anti-Britney Spears "Punk" goddess, and Nickelback begin their reign as the Gods of Soft Rock. I also remember 2002 as being the year that John Mayer started getting notice, Maroon 5 was a hot new band, and boybands were officially dunzo. Some 2002 songs I can't wait to use (assuming that Mark doesn't skip to 2003) : 1. "Lose Yourself" by Eminem 2. "Til I Collapse" by Eminem 3. "Your Body Is A Wonderland" by John Mayer I feel like almost every single acoustic guitar player I saw in college sounded like John Mayer. 4. "Sk8er Boi" by Avril Lavigne I am laughing my ass watching this, and remembering all the hate Avril seemed to inspire from people back when she hit it big in '02. She was the lazy, go-to Halloween costume for girls that year, much like Miley Cyrus is for this year. Oh, the days of Hot Topic and studded bracelets and black cargo pants matched with ironic retro band t-shirts. 5. "Head On Collision" by New Found Glory Poppy punk at its finest. God, I must have listened to this album on repeat the summer I bought it at Hot Topic. 6. "Screaming Infidelities" by Dashboard Confessional Welcome to the indie emo era of the early/mid-2000's. It was an easy song to play, so it was easy to get your friend who had a guitar to sing the song.

The 10 US Cities With the Worst Commutes Average amount of hours people spend in stalled traffic every year : 1. Washington, D.C. - 67 2. Los Angeles/Long Beach/Santa Ana - 61 3. San Francisco-Oakland - 61 4. New York City/Newark - 59 5. Boston - 53 6. Houston - 52 7. Atlanta - 51 8. Chicago - 51 9. Philadelphia - 48 10. Seattle - 48

Not really my type but if you're into arty hipster twink types he'll do fine.

James, I got into a True Crime kick over Halloween weekend because of the article, and read about the "Candy Man" case. There's a documentary on YouTube. The chilling thing about the case was that they often lured people they knew- most of the victims weren't random strangers. They were people that that his bird dogs had been friends with and had grown up with. The basic impression I got was the public didn't care as much because these were blue-collar kids, and at the time, it was much easier to just dismiss them as teenage boys who had run away because they didn't come "from good families." Going back to the Randy Kraft case, it's pretty incredible that the guy killed at least 50 people, but it's not that well-known of a case- certainly not to the level of Dahmer. I wonder if that's because his targets were military guys who were probably transient and didn't have roots in the area, so it felt like less of and "this is our town and our people" kind of case like Jeffrey Dahmer. Learning about this made me really glad that there's more awareness now about safety...although that's not always a given. One time I picked up a guy who paid me twenty dollars to give him a ride to his friends house. Probably not the smartest thing I've ever done, but he didn't really give me a bad vibe.

Good point. Remember when Tony was introduced as the too-good-to-true, loving Italian stallion jock? Then Mark revealed that Tony isn't a dick because he hates being gay- Tony's a dick because he's a dick. I love how the characters tend to evolve in ways you didn't predict- I remember that Mark didn't really intend for Wade to be anything more than a passing fling for Matt, but the character clicked and now he's anchoring the newest CAP core family. That would probably be why Mark wrote that a New Jersey private school went through the trouble of recruiting someone from Ohio off the strength of his freshman and sophomore years- Zach has to be somebody that's getting national, "he's in the Top 10" kind of notice. I don't think even Jeff or Robbie were getting that kind of notice. Speaking of USC though...did you guys hear the story about a middle school kid that gave a committment to play at USC but quite predictably, isn't quite the phenom at 17 that he was at 13? I'll be shocked if David Sills actually does play at USC, but we'll see what happens. David Sills went to Red Lion Christian Academy in Delaware, and the school had some shady dealings going on with the football program, which got the kibosh so he left for a football team affilated with an online Christian academy.

Gay men are more vulnerable to serial killers because you're more likely to try and hook up and go off with complete and total strangers than you would be if you were a straight man meeting women. That's just the nature of the fact that you're a very small minority. Although it seems like Randy Kraft, by the late 1970's, seemed to target mostly just Marines that were straight- like he got out his first kills with easy gay bar targets, and then moved on to prey that were harder to bag- the challenge of getting straight guys to come back to a hotel room with him.

I loved the subtle foreshadowing that Kyle isn't meant to be the boyfriend, because Kyle's good-looking but he has a crooked nose. The soon-to-realize-he's-gay jock always has perfect features.

I remember someone told me once that it's a sore spot for certain Californians to say that football takes a backseat to basketball in their state, and that there's a bitterness over Los Angeles not having an NFL team. (I do remember when Los Angeles had the Raiders, but that was almost 20 years ago.) And thanks for the Cal Berkeley note. Although Mark can throw us a left curve and send him to LSU or Michigan or Alabama. I'm not sure if I can see it happening because they're too alike physically. You ever notice how skinny nerdy twink types almost invariably go after the big buff jock types and never other short skinny nerdy twinks? Especially at that age. Personality-wise, I don't think Alistair would be good for JJ. JJ needs someone who will call him on his bullshit constantly. Alistair is too nice to do that. JJ's best bet is with someone who will tell him to his face he's being a diva bitch, and to knock it off. If I recall initial plans correctly, 9.11 was going to be a shorter story but then Mark changed his mind. I do like your idea of going back to the shorter book format for future stories, especially because I feel like the groundwork really has been set for this new generation of characters. Mark took a much longer time developing the characters for Will's generation than he did for Brad's. I kinda wonder if that's why Ace feels like such an afterthought, while his Gen Y counterpart, Darius, doesn't feel that way. Now back to Zach...I'm pretty sure he's a classic narcissistic type who lacks empathy for other people but wants to be admired by others. He realizes that he fucked up by angering the family Golden Boy a year and a half ago so this is his attempt to get back into the good graces of the Cali kids. Zach probably figures that he's not going to get any kind of trust fund from Robbie's estate like Gathan did, but what he does have is a promise that his college will be covered. Since Zach is probably eyeing USC right now, he wants to see if he can make peace with them, and eventually charm one of them enough that he'll start to get showered with cars and the like. I'm sure Zach will have success, as this is what he looks like: God, does Liam Hemsworth look the part of the cocky American football jock or what? Chris has the prettier face, but there's this Teddy bear quality to Liam that I'm really into, which is why he reminds me of a Hayes guy. (Well, that, plus the blue eyes, the wide-flat nose, and the short curly dark blond hair.) Anyway, I'm not sure Zach would make a good narrator because of his lack of empathy for other people, but he does make a pretty fun character.

With his 200+ million salary, A-Rod's delivered exactly 1 World Series. I'm just saying.