methodwriter85

Interesting insight here. I'm fascinated by tales of PSTD from war. I'll never forget this moment from an episode of True Life that I watched, where this guy is trying to show his girlfriend pictures from Iraq, and she clearly gets uncomfortable and he apologizes. I felt really bad for him- he was this big, buff, good-looking handsome guy that 20-year old Me would have envied, and he's clearly so fucked up on the inside, but he can't show that to his girlfriend because she doesn't understand. (And didn't seem to want to.) I had this acquaintance from high school, Matt. Matt was Mr. Jokester in high school, willing to do anything for a laugh. He went off to Iraq, while the physical damage was minimal- Matt lost a pinky- clearly the war had changed him. I'll never forget running into him at a bar in 2008 or 2009. His eyes were dead. Dead. This was a guy that LIVED to make make people laugh and always had an outrageous comment up his sleeve to make people laugh and that was gone. Matt ran into some addiction issues but seems to have turned his life around, which I'm glad about. Oh, totally. He's either that, or a corporate attorney- something that makes lot of money without having much in terms of actual ethics.

I don't think Ace has ever been important enough for Mark to give him a specific area of law, as opposed to Jack, who we've seen work as an oncology surgeon as well as pull strings at the hospital where JP had his surgery and JJ and Marie were put on a 72-hour hold at. (I'm guessing it's Stanford Medical?) He could have made Ace a family law attorney in 1995 for If It Fits for Brad and Robbie's custody fight, but we didn't have a trial for that. Claire's a fund-raiser type socialite, right? I can totally see a bitchy mother/daughter moment where Marie tells Claire that she wants to be more than just another bored rich housewife like her. I see a "generation skip theme" here- Isidore was the trailblazer, who ran a top construction company in the 1970's and 1980's, Claire is the traditional socialite, and Marie will also be a trailblazer. I like how that worked out. Too bad mother/daughter moments aren't really a theme here.

Hey, Mark, as an aside, I watched former Senator Jeff Smith (D-Mo) on CNN or something. He was talking about how he, as an avid basketball player, was told that he needed to set up soccer games so that the white people in his district could relate to him. Pretty crazy, but yeah- you aren't kidding about the racism of that area. Have you ever met the guy? He used to teach in St. Louis. Dude came off gay as fuck, although I wik'd him and he's apparently married to a woman and has a son. My first impression watching him was that he and other guest Josh Barro were a couple. LOL. More on the map, there's some shading of the racism around the Elkton, MD area, which makes sense- in the 1980's and 1990's, the area was a hotbed for the KKK. I remember finding a swatiska written on the bathroom stall of the libRary there when I was 11. It figures there would be some tinges of it. And there's very little homophobic shading in Delaware. Go, us!

Right. Western Pennsylvania is shaded as well, which jibes with my own experience. It was an eye-opening experience to go from an area where my high school principal was an open lesbian and the bulk of gay people I knew were open as teenagers, to meeting and learning people who've actually been gaybashed

Right, but like I said, the problem with doing an empirical study of non-violent and non-blatant racism is that you're not going to have police reports or discriminatory memos to work with. The KKK stuff is easy to sport, and easy to analyze- you can get estimates of KKK members in a given area and try to see if you can correspond them to reports of hate crimes in that target area. Or you could look at property records/real estate records of a realtor company, and try and analyze if they used red-line policies. In this case, the kind of racism employed is subtle- no one's going to report it to the police, and turn it into a manner of record. Although interestingly enough, Twitter is getting analyzed in terms of gauging hate speech. It's an interesting method. Humboldt State University released what they term as a Hate Map of the United States.

Do you realize what a bad taste it leaves in people's mouths when you tell someone that their experience is a basically meaningless, isolated incident not indicative of something larger at work, and that you as a white person know everything there is to know about being brown in Southern California? Are you listening to yourself? Because that's basically what you are saying here. I don't know what it's like to be a bisexual white affluent lawyer guy from California. Why do you think it's okay for you to tell someone who has walked in the shoes of being "clocked" as Middle Eastern that you know all about what that's like you clearly haven't? Subtle racism is subtle because it's not KKK marches, lynches, and hate graffiti. You can't take someone to court for asking for another server, or making comments about towelheads, or someone telling you that they feel uncomfortable being around you because of 9/11. That's where you almost have to rely on anecdotal evidence, because you don't have the reported crime statistics and the like to properly analyze how often (or not) subtle racism was directed towards people of Middle-Eastern descent. Was it the Rodney King riots or the Japanese internment? No, but to say that rich Los Angeles mid-Eastern people never got any rude comments in the manly daily interactions they've had, when you cannot possibly have been with every single Persian-looking person at every single moment, just doesn't make any sense to me. And I'm sorry, but the racist Twitter backlash against the current Miss America does speak to the idea that prejudice based on 9/11 fears have lingered on even a decade later. She's literally Miss America, beautiful, educated, and likely affluent, and she's being called a terrorist. Do you honestly think that because Darius is rich and beautiful and living in a big city that he's not going to encounter racism? His own uncle called him a "half n-word." Every single time someone has met Darius, they've commented on him being "exotic", i.e. not-white, so he's not a Wentworth Miller type that passes as white. I highly doubt that Nick's comment is the only racist comment that has ever been made about Darius. We've only seen a very miniscule amount of Darius's life, and only when he's around family, and we've never seen his thoughts and how he feels when someone mentions how exotic he is. I was already corrected on my misconception, thank you.

I am so glad I'm never having kids. Knowing my luck, I'd get a sociopath.

Thanks for the correction. Hmm, now I really like Private Tim's idea.

please delete

Indian-American Mindy Khaling made a joke about profiling on her sitcom, The Mindy Khaling Project, where she's in romantic comedy mode and wondering if she's going to meet the man she's destined to be with on the flight, and then the flight attendant takes a picture of her because she used the red-code term "flight of destiny." You got interesting things going on with the older generation, as well as the youth generation. You've got Will, a Tonto-like guy likely to become an agitator for change in a decade where the fight for marriage equality is going to heat up, JJ a guy trying to get ahead in a sport that demands a pristine image, Gathan a guy who wants to get into politics in a decade where moderate Bill Clinton-era politics gives way to Blue State/Red State mentalities, and Zach, a closeted guy clearly aiming himself towards getting far in a sport where homosexuality isn't all that acceptable. And I'm assuming that Marie is meant to become the only defined archtype for the decade, the Hipster. I mean, come on, she's a rich girl interested in edgy, alternative fashion growing up in the Bay Area. She's destined to help gentrify the Mission Area in the City. I also hope we get to see John's reaction to the Duke Lacrosse case- I'm not sure I can see John actually at Duke...if he wants to follow Daddy in the medical career and he's serious about playing college level lacrosse, I could see Johns Hopkins. That would actually be really interesting, but why would someone who went to the Navy Academy end up in Afghanistan or Iraq? I thought that branch of the military didn't fight in the war.

Have a good one!

There's this cool photo set, making the rounds on the net, which depict a day in the America Mall in 1989. Taken by a then-college student, years later the photos have taken on a nostalgic look at the bygone era of the late 1980's/pre-Grunge '90s, when malls were the undisputed king of American retail commerce. I thought it was cool to look at, especially given that we're about to go into the Holiday shopping season. Spotted! People Find Loved Ones in Amazing 1989 Mall Photos! For me, I really like looking at them because they evoke a sense of when I was 6 years old in 1991-1992, and I'd go to the Monmouth Mall in New Jersey with my family. (The grunge era didn't really hit hard in New Jersey 'til like '93.) It's funny seeing that 1980's aesthetic in here- they really were the last decade to have a strong, defined "look" to them. An awful one to be sure, but still pretty defined. It seems like the general rule of thumb was to have short hair in the front and a party in the back if you were a guy, and to have the biggest hair with the highest bangs possible if you were a girl. Looking at the photos, I feel like New Kids on The Block is blaring on the speakers: *Looks at Tet's and other sub-24 year old posters' confused faces* Yeah, you had to have been there.

Alright, so here's the official, full-length trailer: They are seriously selling the hell out of the chemistry between Tris and Four. I love that they went with an older, more rugged, more experienced guy with Theo James instead of a fresh-faced pretty boy like Lucas Till. And here's the movie poster:

Entertainment Weekly is running promo images for 50 Shades of Grey: I totally find Jamie Dornan hot, so I'm into it. I can't wait to see him handle a whip.

Another girl I can see as MaryEllen...Emma Roberts from American Horror Story and We're the Millers. She does "Bitch" so extremely well. Emma was a nepotism case (her aunt was basically the female movie star that defined the 90's and her father is a solid B-lister who plays villains in everything) that had an awful show on Nickelodeon when she was a teenager, but I'm rapidly becoming a fan now that she's doing edgy Alpha Bitch roles. I can very easily see Emma playing someone who got her ass kicked as a manipulative ploy. Hell, in Scream 4, Emma played a serial killer who fucked herself up so she'd look like the final girl victim.

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.