methodwriter85

The wonderful old lady from the Notebook as Tonto? (This is going with the intel that Tonto was kind of round.) My one big bitch about The Notebook is that they really should have casted someone other than James Garner as Older Noah. Seriously, even though he's elderly, you can tell that James Garner was once a darkly handsome man, which is the exact opposite of Ryan Gosling's blond good looks. I would have put Paul Newman in there instead.

I think it's kind of funny that Will doesn't get that he's a major juicy gossip target. He looks like an 18-year old Abercrombie and Fitch model, he's gay, he's cool, he's genius-level smart, he's got a very active sex life, he doesn't have to answer to parents like the vast bulk of high school kids, and his Dads are pretty well-known not just in California, but the whole world. That Will isn't a major attention whore like JJ makes him all the more compelling. Will's going to be scewed when camera phones and Myspace become popular in a few years. He reminds me of the people in high school I knew who were pretty much rock stars but downplayed how talented and amazing they were, because they weren't insecure and because they want to be normal like the other people they go to school with.

Chapter 29 -When Will gets ready for his first official date. "First Date" by Blink 182 -When Erik and Will talk about Marie, and Will gets clued on him about the extra scrutiny being put on him due to his popularity. "Popular" by Nada Surf I remember when the video came out when I was 10, the ending scene interested me for reasons I couldn't quite understand until the Backstreet Boys came along when I was 11 and jumpstarted puberty for me. -When Will learns that Erik has HPV. "Tainted Love" by Marilyn Manson

Back to the guys...Ross Lynch (the new Disney It-Boy) as Van from On the Mark?

I used to find Louis Tomlinson so hot, but then he ruined it by getting that oh-so-trendy "writing across chest" tattoo that seems to be all the rage today.

Nashville isn't cancelled. The show's coming back on ABC on September 25th. And yeah, Chris Carmack still looks pretty damn good.

There's a sexy Gay Author from Texas who kind of aggrees with you. (Understatement of the decade.)

While you may have a point with that, I think it's really more of a function of the fact that the Carrswolds are much smaller and not as interesting than either the Danfields or the massively huge Schluters/Hayes/Crampton block. Plus, there isn't a "villain" in the Carrswolds that is as fun for Mark to write as La Danfield and MaryEllen, or numerous Danfield cousins and the like. Maybe there just aren't any cousins, uncles, aunts, etc etc for Matt to really interact with, which would support the idea that the Danfields adopted Matt as a last-ditch effort to save the family name because Matt's father was the end of the line, which can and does happen. Although Matt will probably have kids, so there will be Carrswolds-in-name-and-breeding running around at some point, most likely. I can't see Robbie trying to push Matt into naming any of his potential grandchildren as a Hayes- Robbie himself isn't all that connected to the family, either.

I'm with you on that. I don't care if it sounds like a rip-off of Man In Motion (which tells you how much I want this), I really hope we get a story detailing Matt's transition out of college in the spring/summer of 2002. Matt was SUCH a total bro in college, and bros don't let go of college all that easily. There are so many issues with Matt and Wade that still aren't settled yet- where do they go for post-grad, how do Tiffany and Riley fit in, etc etc etc.

True that. Although even rich people get nailed for infractions from time to time. I liked how Wade, Matt, and Tiffany were over at Goodwell. It was a nice reminder that even though Wade is fully enfolded into the family, he's got his own family obligations to attend to...it's in stark contrast to Matt, who doesn't even really seem to do much in terms of Carrswold stuff. Although that might be more of the fact that Matt has a much, much smaller family- I'm assuming Matt's father was an only child, because it seemed like adopting Matt was a last-ditch effort to save the family name. I can't even remember if Matt has living grandparents. The Carrswolds have been such a non-entity since they came around to Matt being gay in Bloodlines, whereas Mark seems to be slowly but surely working the Danfields into being a core family of the soap.

I listened to Blake Shelton and wasn't that impressed by him, either. He had a rather hilarious mullet, which was fine by 1992 standards but just a little weird for a guy in 2000/2001.

Yeah, I figured it had to be at 9:11 at night. I can't imagine anybody being willing to get up at 6 to 7 a.m. in the morning for a wedding. I do think it's stupid for Will to have a stocked bar...he's opening himself up to all kinds of legal ramifications if he gets caught since he can no longer play the "I'm a juvenile" card, and they really tried to crack down on underage drinking in this decade. I can't tell you how many people I know got "underage possession" or "providing alcohol to a minor" charges in college. Although because Will doesn't really throw a lot of parties the way Brad did in high school, I don't think the risk is high.

Good to know. I still think it's in character for JJ to not even want to take that chance, though. I actually think it'd be good for JJ to get stoned every once in awhile because he's so damned uptight, but it just wouldn't be him. He might use painkillers, but that's about it for downers. It's much more likely for him to wind up using "uppers" like Adderall or coke to keep himself perky and alert through long practices and travel days. Adderall will probably be especially important to keep his weight down. As for the Brad/Robbie stuff... You gotta remember that we're actually 7-8 months removed from the events of Paternity, and these people were "off stage" for 6 months their time. A lot of stuff can happen, and it looks like Robbie really learned his lessons from what happened when he decided to take it upon himself to become JJ's crutch, and Will/Robbie's relationship has developed in a really positive way during the off-time. As for Brad, I think that it's always one step forward, two steps back for him. As much as he wants to be positive and wants not to be such a control freak, it's really something that he can't help, especially when it comes to Will, who he on some levels sees as an exntension of himself.

I think it's a tradition to give the mother (or grandmother's) engagement ring to the eldest male child, so that he can give it to his future wife. Darius is the eldest male grandchild of Isidore's, so he gets the ring. And it works out well, because Darius is the most tradition-minded of the kids. How is Darius like Billy? Billy was an insecure follower with a lot of passive-aggressive action that ultimately lead to his downfall. The closest to Billy we have in the 3rd generation is JJ, and I think JJ is still more active than Billy was. Darius is more like a mix of Ace and Jack- he has Ace's love of the party life and women, but Jack's compassion and ability to get along with everybody.

That moment when reality shows become especially "real"... Big Brother Finds Out About 9/11 It was especially fascinating to watch this, because the Big Brother cast was isolated within the house and couldn't watch the endless news feed that was going on about 9/11...all they could get was what the producers decided to tell them.

Chapter 28 -When Will recieves his family ring back. "Who I Am" by Jessica Andrew -When Darius gets the 1963 diamond engagement ring from Isidore. "I Hope You Dance" by Lee Ann Womack Am I just hallucinating, or was this period of country just especially cheesy aside from the Dixie Chicks? Is this typical of pre-9/11 country music, Blue? I remember the hey day of Garth Brooks and Faith Hill in the early 1990's, but the late 90's/pre-9/11 is generally lost to me, unless you count Faith Hill and Shania Twain's extremely pop stuff. That's why it was such a big deal that the Dixie Chicks were bucking that cheesy kind of sound, right?

I remember I first thought it was ridiculous that Hank would force people to do a wedding ceremony on a Tuesday just to have the letters 9/11, but then I remembered how it was such a big deal for "matching" dates like 7/7/07 blah blah blah throughout this decade. Luckily the last match we have is 12/12/12 so now that's all over. Count on Ace to have a negative reaction. He's on the surface like Darius,but Ace is a much more judgemental and reactionary person. He strikes me as the kind who would to this day still defend the Dubya adminstration.

Well, it's pretty true. Pot stays in the blood system for two weeks instead of racing through like amphetamines do, so JJ really can't touch pot since he's subjected to random drug testing. As in someone can literally show up at his house and demand a drug test. Besides, JJ doesn't strike me as someone who wants to be mellowed out. JJ is much more likely to use amphetamines like Adderall or the "will be popular again soon" cocaine. (Anyone else think it's kind of funny that coke made its comeback during the Bush II administration?) So since Mark decided that JJ doesn't carry around female Louis Vuitton handbags, I'm assuming JJ is probably all 'bout the sunglasses, the luggage, possibly the backpack. I'm not sure about the clothes, though. Were LV clothes popular in 2001? I think JJ would probably carry around these kinds of bags...they look a bit like a briefcase and are made for men: I could see JJ carrying that around instead of a backpack. Messenger bags were pretty popular starting at this period, and it wasn't considered a femme thing to do. I can also see JJ being big into Burberry, which was a pretty hot label in the early 2000's. Anyway...so the other shoe drops. You guys realize that Windows on the World Trade Center was a pretty big hot spot for weddings, right?

Hey, I thought in honor of this, I'd track down our old correspondence from the Yahoo group: Title: The Final Chapter Approaches By: Mark Dated: September 19th, 2008 CAP will consist of 48 chapters unless my erstwhile editor demands changes. 47 should be posted within the next few days with the final chapter shortly thereafter. Then I'll have to think of something else to do in my spare time. Re: The Final Chapter Approaches By: Jeremy Dated: September 19th, 2008 How about a sequel that takes the characters to 1968? Re: The Final Chapter Approaches By: Mark Dated: September 19th, 2008 That's an interesting idea, Jeremy. Why 1968? Re: The Final Chapter Approaches By: Jeremy Dated: September 19th, 2008 Why not? That was the year that America fell apart... Soooo much was going on in 1968. Vietnam coming to a boil. Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luthor King. The National Convention riots of 1968 in Chicago. In terms of our characters, JP would either recieving his tenure at Northwestern or going somewhere else. Jeff, Stefan, and Sammy would be done with college. Ace would be five years old and starting school. Jason will hopefully be working on his doctorate...if he gets his act together, that is. I dunno, I think a sequel that jumped five years forward would be cool...especially since that would be 1968, which was one hell of a year. **** And with that, you hit the ground running on doing a sequel, and here we are 5 years and 11 stories later. It's pretty incredible that the series has spanned 39 years of American history. (If you don't count the Box.)

It wasn't the first time, either. I still wonder what things would have been like if you had gone through with the original version of Man in Motion. Holy crap. Everything would have been different. The Brad "man scorned" scenes, plus the Will "scorched Earth scenes" really make me wonder what it'd be like to be in a break-up with you. LOL.

Right. But it doesn't make her significantly better than Marie, which was the point that Miles seemed to be trying to make about the kindness that Claire extended to people like Mouse. I mean, at the end of the day...if you think pretty hard about it, everyone in CAP has some pretty shitty tendencies. The only people we've had that come close to being moral vanguards would be Tonto and Wade. I think it's just the nature of the fact that this is a dramatic story, as drama is fuled by the morally grey as opposed to people who always pick right over wrong. I feel like girls/women are put on a higher standard than guys are- there's this double standard that boys will be boys, but as soon as a girl steps out of bounds she's nearly condemned. I think it harkens back to the Republican Motherhood ideal, which holds the premise that women are morally superior towards men and thus it is up to her to install the values of republicanism in the next generation.

In terms of Clarie's kindness to Mouse...would she have even noticed him if Brad hadn't brought it to her attention? Does anyone honestly think that Claire would have talked to Mouse otherwise? High School Claire would have only hung out with other preppy people in high school, and if you noticed, part of her kindness to Mouse was giving him a preppy makeover so that he would look like the other people in her crowd.(Ala Alison's makeover in The Breakfast Club.) We at least know that Marie isn't a follower, and she's not someone who would take clothing labels as a prequisite for friendship, and we can't really say the same for High School Claire. I'm not saying Marie isn't a snob, but her mother had some pretty bitchy qualities at 15, too. It took the double whammy of having to get an abortion and losing her twin brother just shy of their 16th birthday to get Claire to where she is now. The other thing to think about...when exactly would Marie run into people like Mouse? Marie doesn't go to public school in 1980 California like Claire did- she goes to private school in Atherton, California, where the average household income is around 200k. The closest she's gotten to being around poor people was when Gathan's family visited. She hasn't even really had the opportunity yet to respond to people who are less fortunate than her. In any event, I'm not sure the Bitty comparison works here. Marie is being a bitch because she feels like Will took her friends and he's usurping her in the family. Bitty was always, relentlessly a bitch, much like MaryEllen. The one compassionate thing she did was giving Darius and JJ away to Brad to raise, and even that got ruined 9 years later.

I would seriously love to see you get into a debate with Private Tim over something you disagreed with. As for me, I'm going to retreat because I don't feel strongly enough to draw a line in the sand about this particular subject in CAP.

I'm saying that it stands to reason that if Marie was on some kind of MaryEllen trajectory, we would have seen no positive traits about her whatsoever. There hasn't been a single thing that MaryEllen has done that hasn't indicated that she's a sociopath who only cares about herself, whereas we have seen instances of Marie being a good person. As for the crowd thing, no it doesn't make her a saint. What it makes Marie is someone that didn't judge people based on how they dressed or how popular they were, because she's an eclectic person who likes what she likes without feeling the need to conform to what people tell her she should. It's in stark contrast to Claire at 15, who basically didn't deal with you unless you were in head-to-toe Lacoste preppy-wear, and Ella, who ignored that Carter was a homophobic ass towards Will because she wanted an "in" with his crowd. I think it is very much a positive trait, and that already puts her ahead of someone like MaryEllen or Alexandra Carmicheal. I mean, no one's perfect, and these characters are no exceptions. I remember it wasn't too long ago that people were wondering if JJ was going to wind up a villain, until they discovered why he was the way he was. I don't think Marie's gotten even close to being as much of an ass as JJ was to Will. And I'm not seeing where she's on a trajectory that leads her to MaryEllen-ville. Until she lets herself get beaten up in order to further her agenda (which is seriously sociopath), I'm not too worried. It's just typical teen high school bitch behavior, of which I saw quite often. It's the mindset of, "You're alllll against me and you all hate me, and you're runining my life!" , and she's lashing out with bitchy behavior. She'll get over it, probably by college.

But you're forgetting what we saw as the good side to Marie- the girl who didn't like Carter's crowd and didn't try to suck up to them like Ella did, and didn't try to conform that whole Abercrombie prepster ideal, and who had her crowd take in Will because Will clearly didn't want to play by the rules of the uber-popular crowd, either.