methodwriter85

Will isn't a real person. If we were talking Andy Sharpe, who is based on a real person, it'd be one thing, but Will doesn't actually exist. I'm kinda having a hard time believing that Kyle and Tony were the only guys that Will had sex with between February 2001 to May 2001, but that's what creative liberty is for.

You're definitely right about that. A lot of New Jersey people went to U of Delaware, as well as Wesley College, where I went for my freshman year of college. We also get a lot of Long Island people, which is where a lot of that Benny hatred originates from. Weirdly enough, as small of a state as Delaware is, there's a North vs. South rivalry here, too. It's not as pronouced as the one between South Jersey and North Jersey, but it's there. There's this saying that if you go "below the Canal", you hit what we call Slower Lower. North Delaware is more urbanized and faster-paced (because we're basically suburban Philadelphia), but Slower Lower is more of a southern-tinged place where the bulk of our state's farms are. They even have a mild Southern accent, whereas we just talk like Philly people. I think Delaware's identity revolves around these things: The du Ponts, chicken farms, low taxes, and the beaches. Which is not much, but eh.

Instead of "typical", I'll say "stereotypical". It's a stereotype I met quite often when I went to U of D.

I met some very smart, very classy people when I attended this party school in the middle of nowhere called IUP, and I've talked to Ivy League-level people who display a stunning lack of class and intelligence. It all really does depend on the person. In looking at our unfortunate lawyer's Facebook page, I found this nugget of Wisdom: I gotta admit, this guy cracks me up. He really is that typical Italian-American Northern Delaware/Jersey type, but flamingly gay instead of being uber-straight. Also, I learned that I have 2 mutal friends with the guy. You gotta love Delaware and it's total lack of degrees of separation. He graduated from A.I. DuPont, which was like three miles away from where I went to high school. *under his breath * And he apparently went to University of Delaware for his undergrad. *glares at Yang Bang, daring for him to make a smart remark about UD*

Here's a pretty good interview I found with Steve Grand. Check it out! I came out of reading it feeling even more impressed by the guy. I found him very articulate about his journey in figuring himself out as an artist, as a gay man, and most of all, as a person. The video is currently standing at 1.8 million views and counting, so good on him.

Is it really possible to figure that out? I don't think we've been privy to every single sexual encounter Will has had, and it's possible that he could have messed around with other guys in between the time that Brad saw him messing with Drew, and between the start of Poor Man's Son, as well as during the gap between Paternity and 9.11.

i hate to be so anal-retentive, but the Law Grad guy was 30, so he's technically giving thirtysomethings a bad name.

This feels so appropriate:

Yeah, I don't think he's that hot either, but I did laugh my ass off at his Facebook page. You should check it out. It's pretty entertaining the clear amount of ego this guy has about himself.

Involved parenting by the affluent is a newer deal. Baby Boomers like Brad had more of a "hands off" kind of parenting style.

You're like the second person to comment on Villanova like that. Is their reputation really that bad? I know UD has an annual football game with them, and I was under the impression that it's a good school. If it's not, why the hell would you pay 50k a year to go there? Is it llike some reject school for rich kids?

And of course, even in present time, Will is only not-quite 27 years old. I know a fair amount of guys that are married and settled down at 27, but I also know a fair amount of guys at that age that are still totally playing the field.

I thought our back-and-forth about this was interesting. It did make me think. When you said that JJ had masculinity to lose, I thought, "What masculinity? The guy is clearly someone who relates more to females than he does to males." But then I thought about it, and I realized that the fact that JJ isn't a butch guy, the fact that his sexuality is kind of ambigious, and he's in a sport known for flaming gay guys, would probably make him insecure about whether or not he comes off as masculine enough(for figure skating). He'd probably be weary of coming off like Johnny Weir (when JJ gets to know who Johnny Weir is), and JJ would probably be told to "act straight" like Evan Lysacek was. Then there's the fact that his voice probably hasn't cracked yet, which means he's probably concious of trying to lower the pitch of his voice, etc etc. So while JJ isn't exactly someone I can picture doing keg stands with lacrosse bros, I also get that he's not exactly going to walk around in as effeminate manner as Johnny Weir. Those could be some interesting insecurities to cover at some point.

The truth of the matter is, CAP is always going to be a story where the viewpoints of gay/bisexual men are going to come first, and the viewpoints of straight men/women are going to come second. That's just the way the story is, since it is at heart an erotic story about sexual relationships between men.

I do agree with that. There's no doubt that Will has some pretty shitty behavior at times, but he's shown time and time again that he's capable of being a really good friend to people. I just think it's laughable that Brad is going to be shocked, SHOCKED that someone growing up in the kind of household that he provided for his kids is going to want things like a bar and a sex room. It's far too late to try and play the morality police with your kids when you're consistently shown through your example that you're allowed to do whatever the hell you want to do.

Well, he's gay, as I decided to see his Facebook page for myself. I love that his coverpage photo is him standing in a water fountain wile his white workshirt gets wet. This guy is so clearly in love with how he looks. So yeah, he's a prat, but not likely to breed. This guy reminds me of the typical North Delaware/Jersey over-privileged bro type, right down to over-benching on his arms while ignoring the rest of his body. I've met dozens of guys like him, although he stands out for being gay.

Here's a blog post about a Villanova grad (apparently from Delaware) who decided to blast a cover letter to law firms in the area...only there was a bit of a problem with it. Here's another article that goes a bit more in depth about it. It's pretty funny(and kind of sad) that this guy managed to go through 3 years of law school and pass the bar yet doesn't realize that it's inappropriate to direct perspective employers to a picture of him in boxers and making jokes about escorting. Still, I can relate to the whole not-being employed deal, and I get having to walk a line between what you should allow on a profile and what you shouldn't. I went through a whole deal a couple years ago where I had to remove certain references or photos of myself getting blasted drunk from my FB page. Sometimes you really just don't think when it comes to online profiles. I still have college party photos on my FB, but nothing too wild anymore. You might see me with a beer in my hand or friends with drinks in their hand, but you won't see me doing a beer bong or referencing the bathroom floor I passed out on for my 21st birthday, that's for sure. It's also crazy though how bad things are in the law profession...I really would've thought that it, along with nursing, would be recession-proof. Do any of you have any stories about online profile employment mishaps?

I hope so, too. I'm just excited they kept in the "Remember who the real enemy is" in the book. As well as the Sugarcube scene: His pecs could be more sculpted, but I'm loving the hair and shoulders. And of course, his dimples. With a smile like that, I can totally buy that people fell in love with Finnick during his Games.

Chapter 24 -When Will blows up at Brad for telling his mother about the sex room deal. "Pardon Me" by Incubus

Darius wouldn't, but JJ's never exactly been Mr. Macho. Didn't Darius pretty much say that it was JJ who was into girly shit? I think Daisy's point was that it was something particular to the skating community, not necessarily something that all California guys did. It depends on whether or not JJ is supposed to be along the lines of a Johnny Weir or more of an Evan Lysacek. I do see JJ as more of a Chic Euro type than someone who'd act like a typical SoCali boy. Man-purses were more socially acceptable in Europe, if I'm remembering correctly. I'm not saying that it's absolute sure that JJ would carry a purse, but him not carrying one around because it'd be too feminine seems a bit weird considering that he likely wears sequined costumes and the like for figure skating. In the U.S., I do remember messenger bags being big among guys, although it wasn't quite a purse. Finally, I think it's been pretty consistent throughout at least Poor Man's Son that JJ doesn't look up to Darius like Will and John do, so I think using Darius as an example for what JJ wouldn't do doesn't make a lot of sense. JJ doesn't model his behavior on Darius at all. He's probably much more influenced by what he sees in his figure skating friends, and JJ has never stuck me as caring about whether or not he comes off as masculine to people. I would imagine Darius, Will, and John care about having a masculine image, but JJ doesn't seem like he would.

That was pretty funny, and made me wish that we could've seen Will and JJ skip off Friday at Harvard-Westlake to attend Coachella, which would have been in it's second or so year in 2004. Maybe JJ will return to HW in time for his senior year? *gives hopeful, adorable puppy dog eyes at Mark* Anyway, I thought the bit about how much money SAT tutors are making seems to be pretty true to life on both sides of the coast, because college entrances got just that insanely competitive. Although it doesn't seem like stressing about academics or about getting into college are really ever going to be any kind of problem for Will. Maybe if we follow John, possibly. JJ doesn't even seem like he's interested in college. One thing I've noticed about CAP is that while they do spend excessively, they're kept at least somewhat grounded in some ways. No one doing's any crazy, trendy diets. No one's doing any crazy new exercise trends. And since girls don't really get a point of view in CAP, we haven't seen them spend 40k on dresses to wear to debutante balls in Paris. Although the purse thing made me wonder...have we had a bit yet where it's explicitly said that JJ carries around Louis Vuitton purses? I know that was a suggestion that Daisy made about JJ being into purses, and it would fit his characters, but I'm not sure yet if Mark incorporated that into JJ.It'd be funny if he did. I would think JJ probably has some insanely expensive overnight bags considering the amount of travel he has to do.

After 10 years, you're letting that 23-year old young man sitting on the beach during his final undergrad spring break finally go off into his future instead of ruminating on his past. What a wonderful thing.

Yeah, but let's be honest- she could pass for her late 50's/early 60's pretty easily, which would put her at Tonto's age for CAP.

I think that funny old lady from those Activia commericials would make a great Tonto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C09IONl-R5w Can't you guys just see her as that really cool old broad with lots of great things to say about life? She's like the hip grandmother you wished you had.

I found this really well-written blog post about Ronald Reagan's rise from B-movie stardom to the Republican President Idol he became. Ronald Reagan Plays the President The blog basically contends that Ronald Reagan mastered the art of looking sympathetic while simultaneously screwing over the people he was supposed to represent while he was SAG president. I gotta say, she makes her case pretty well. I can't believe the amount of actors he fucked over- no residuals for films that actors made before 1960? Damn, that's horrible. Here's my favorite passage about from the blog: I obviously love stars, and what stars can mean to different swaths of people. But what draws me and other scholars to study them isn't their glamour but their tremendous ideological potency — a potency that can be wielded, at the risk of sounding melodramatic, for good or for evil, for justice or for exploitation. Oftentimes, the star him- or herself has very little to do with what their image is made to represent, which, as so many of these columns have pointed out, can also be stardom's tragedy. Reagan was obviously manipulated by others, but he did not hesitate to manipulate in turn. What he did to the members of the Screen Actors Guild, he did again, only on a larger scale, to the people of the United States. And because he was a star, because his image of compassionate American goodness was so strong, it was easy to see what he appeared to represent instead of what he was actually doing. I don't remember the Reagan presidency, but I do think it's interesting how he seems to be one of the most polarizing presidents I've come across. People either idolize him to mythological proportions, or they hate everything he represented about America in the 1980's. (This AIDS documentary called We Were Here particularly crucifies him for his lack of action in the wake of the AIDS crisis.) The Reagan that this author tries to paint basically comes off as a middling actor with not much to commend him but a pretty face, who at middle-age and realizing his screen idol sell-by date had come to pass, made deals that made him insanely wealthy while simultaneously stabbing his fellow actors in the back. But because his deals had made him a mainstay on American television, the American public grew to like his wholesome, likeable image, which combined with said wealth would eventually help him ride his way into the White House. So not a nice guy, not quite a devil...but someone who looked out for himself, got rich doing it, and convinced people that he was a swell guy by looking pretty while saying the right lines written by other people along the way. As a result, Reagan grew more and more powerful, until he literally became the most powerful man in the Western Hempisphere for 8 years. What I find interesting about Reagan is that he represents the culmination of "star power" and "political power"...that was true of JFK to some extent, but it really gelled with him. Do you guys think that Reagan took his star power and yielded it to eventually screw over not just actors but the entire country, or was there some good that came out of his presidency?