methodwriter85

Well, that, and it seems like it's in Will's genectic make-up not to lock the door when he's having sex.

Luke Thomas, aka Mippey5, is pretty funny. He's like what I imagine the typical mid-Western boy-next-door to be like.

That's a damn good question. Sure, Tony is gay, but a lot of gay men can have sex with and enjoy women. Matt apparently still does. It wouldn't be emotionally satifisying for him, and he probably would wind up cheating on his wife on the side, but at the same time, Tony can take the easy way out and never come out. They've got until September 2004 before they can even openly be in a relationship, as Tony is 19 and Will is not-quite 15. It's going to be a long time before they can even entertain the notion of an committed, everybody-knows relationship. So yeah, really good question. In any event...Tony's mother and sister TOTTTTTALLLLLYYYYY know he's gay, and that Will's his boyfriend.

Chapter 11 -When Tony takes Will on a tour of St. Louis, which is a pretty quirky city. "Barely Legal" by The Strokes British music is like always ahead of the curve as opposed to the U.S. God, the Strokes were awesome. -When Tony and Will talk about the Dana situation. I pretty much had Wheatus on endless repeat that year. This is one of my favorites by them. -When Dana comes to St. Louis and brings the romance to a screeching halt. "Case of the Ex" by Mya I've been wating for a good moment to use that one. Mya really did just disapear, didn't she? -When Will drives off with Tony's friend for the float trip, and watches the agony on Tony's face as they drive away. I gotta admit, I like how Will is reacting. He gets it, but he doesn't REALLY get it because he's never been closeted in his life. I'm like that, too- I get Tony, but I don't REALLY get Tony because other than some half-hearted attempts at saying how hot Jennifer Love Hewitt and Katherine Heigl are back in 2001, I've never really tried to cover up being gay. Will is really representative of the "new"generation of gays who grew up in a time and a place they weren't shamed for being gay.

Alright, here's another idea I have for Tony...a young Joe Manganiello. (He's best known for being on True Blood and was in Magic Mike.) The only thing I've really gotten in terms of a description of Tony is that he's got typical Italian good looks, and he's very masculine-looking and not a pretty boy, so I figure his face would have to be somewhat rough. So with a "rough" idea in mind, my other idea for Tony would be a young Bobby Cannavale, who's probably best known for being Will's boyfriend on Will and Grace. I'm seriously going through pictures of a lot of hunky Italian-looking guys here. Not that it's a chore. LOL.

Here are some 80's tunes I really love: , 1980 "Angel of the Morning" by Juice Newton, 1981 , 1982 , 1983 "Shout" by Tears for Fears, 1985 "Manic Monday" by The Bangles, 1986 by Crowded House, 1987 , 1989

I had a major "I'm old" moment, when I was trying to sing "Let's Talk About Sex" by Salt N Peppa at a college karoke show in 2012, and the kids had no clue about the song. Like, at all.

I think it also helps that Tony is only a sporadic presence in his life. Tony's not around Will day in and day out to annoy him with his not-so-good traits. If Tony was 16 and going to Menlo, I think it'd be another thing entirely. The way things are, Will gets to enjoy Tony's skills in the sack, but he doesn't really have to deal with the day-to-day issues that come from being in a committed relationship. Remember when Brad and Robbie were on the outs in Millenium, and Brad kept noting all the annoying little things about Robbie? Will and Tony aren't together nearly enough for that kind of a familiarity, so everything stays fresh and interesting and hot with them. I remember one point Will made to Brad was that he has friends who roll on X down at the Pier and other such stuff, and he hasn't gotten into that when he very much could. Someone like Will could have access to some pretty hardcore drugs at his age, and that he's stuck to pot does say something about the amount of control that Will does have. Although it would be hilarious to see what a control freak like Will would be like on X. I remember that was the big drug at the time...I had classmates in 9th grade who were into the rave scene and they'd talk about doing it.

What I like about Jenna Marbles is that she's packaged as a Kelly Bundy-style bimbo in how she dresses...but in actuality she's pretty shrewd and witty, and very good at pointing out the b.s. that goes on in American society.

It's weird that he's such a pushover, because he's also supposed to be an Alpha Male jock, who's so masculine that Will finds him irrestible. Interesting dichtomy there. When I've met Alpha Male jocks, "push over" was usually the last thing you could ascribe to them. Here's the thing about Will, though. He's proven, time and time again, that he's got a good "bullshit" meter when it comes to people that want to take advantage of him. People who look at him and think, "Wow, dumb young rich kid that I can con into giving me shit" have been proven very wrong. I can't see Will ever being manipulated into doing things he doesn't want to do, and I also can't see him getting blindly caught up in the kind of things that happened to Pat and the like. He also does not have an addictive personality- yes, he has his fun and does edgy things, but I can't see him going over the edge. I don't think Stefan would have let Will into the club if he didn't think, on some level, Will can handle himself pretty well. I mean, JJ's the same age as well, but I can't see Stefan in a million years letting JJ into a club, because JJ is much more naieve and it's much easier to take advantage of him.

From reviews: Another thing to remember is that this is BEFORE clubs starting using computer scanners with facial recognition to check I.D.'s, so it was easy to get into a club as long as you had a good fake. That started changing by the late 2000's when the computer scanners started becoming commonplace, but by then Will is already going to be past needing a fake. (He'll be 21 in 2007.) Will, JJ,and John are part of that last generation of kids who had a fairly easy time sneaking into bars and clubs. I know a couple of people who were still able to do that now, but they usually had to stick to a dive bars that don't use the computer scanners. Riley and Madison will probably not have as easy of a time sneaking into bars when they're 14 like Will does. Things got a lot stricter, especially if they find themselves in a big college town. I really do like how Will's representing that first generation of young gay men who were born post-Gay Rights movements, and who are too young to remember the AIDS epidemic. I really relate to that- I was never really closeted, and I never really felt like I was losing anything by being gay. And even though Tony does kind of bore me, I get why he's there- to represent the classic closet case and contrast against Will's. I don't quite get why it has to be suuuuccchhh a big deal for him to be gay- I get the Dad deal, but it's not like Tony's going to Jerry Falwell's Liberty University or anything. Stanford seems like it'd be a great place for anybody to come out. I mean, Will gets it on a mental level why it's hard for Tony to come out, but he doesn't get it on an emotional level, because he's never had to deal with the internal homophobia. I feel the same way- my mind gets it, but my heart just doesn't understand why it has to be such a big deal, because I never really tried to fight against being gay, or felt like being gay was wrong.

Chapter 10 -When Will complains to Gathan about how boring Claremont is. -When Will and Random Blond Claremont dude get massively high together. "Clint Eastwood" by Gorillaz Why does Claremont have so many blondes? Was it originally a Swedish settlement? -When Stefan and Will enter the gay club. I remember that song was EVERYWHERE that summer. -When Will grinds with his random trick and has fun in the V.I.P. room. "Rock DJ" by Robbie Williams Robbie Williams...I always liked him and thought it was a shame that his career in the US never quite took off. Bad case of timing- to be a sustained male hitmaker in the US during the 2000's, you needed to be either a version of Usher, a version of Linkin Park, or a soft rocker like John Mayer. Male dance pop vocalists like Robbie were pretty much passe in the U.S. for most of this decade, save for some one-hit wonders. (I'm not counting Justin Timberlake, because his music was pretty much R&B post-N'Sync.)

So, I was at dinner tonight with my family, and we were talking about my 18-year old niece's senior prom. They then talked about a schoolmate named Regina Reynolds who took a calculator to the prom. Apparently, the guy who was going to ask this girl decided to ask my niece instead. So Regina decided to say, "What the hell", and went to prom with a calculator that she dressed up in a little tux while drawing a flower on the screen. Her Tumblr post about the whole deal went viral, to the point where she skyped with Jimmy Kimmel on his show to talk about it. It was funny to hear about, because this took place at Charter School of Wilmington. CSW is the math/science school that was upstairs from my own performing arts high school, so it's not my alma mater, but I was there pretty much every day. The school was/is incredibly intense, and the school mascot is a calculator. Seriously, I'm not kidding. Students there are incredibly dependent on TI-80something calculators because of massive amount of math they do there. I think what's awesome about the story is that this girl could have easily felt sorry for herself and not shown up to prom, but this girl clearly had a great sense of humor and must have been pretty comfortable in her skin. I think back to when I was in high school and early college when I wanted so badly to be "cool", and I don't think I could have done that. I really wish more teenagers would be okay with letting their "dork" flag fly, and not so concerned about fitting in and wanting to be seen as cool. Seriously though, if any of you are still in that phase of your life, just remember this- boring, shallow, cookie-cutter "cool kids" are sheep, and their "coolness" means jack shit in terms of life beyond their big weekend rager. Embrace being diffent and embrace those who are different without being afraid of getting called a "dork"- you'll have much more fun in life than if you tried to conform to what the Abercrombie clones think is cool.

Anyone check out Jenna Marbles? She's basically a suburban stoner Boston chick who's exploded on YouTube over the past couple years. Her profanity-laced observations on life, and being a woman in the post-feminist 21st century, are pretty funny satire and on-point. Jenna recently got a write up on the New York Times: The Woman With 1 Billion Clicks. Here are some of my favorite videos by her: What a great, funny broad. She's got this brutal honesty to her, juxtaposed against her highly made-up, bleach blonde looks. Beneath the piles of make-up and Forever 21 wardrobe, Jenna's a socially astute observer of the social mores of the twentysomething life- she gets on a soap box, but does it in a way that doesn't feel preachy because of the way she presents herself. Definitely check out her stuff, if you have the time. I feel like I'm getting an incredible window into the mindset of a young woman in contemporary American society. You guys have any internet stars you're adoring right now?

That's a good point. My region was hit hard by the current recession because Delaware based it's post-industrial economy on the credit card industry, but this area didn't have a whole lot of tech companies. Other than government and banking, our big state employers are pharmecutical/chemical companies, the University of Delaware, and Dover Air Force Base, all of which were doing fine in 2001. We also had a real estate boom from the 1990's into the mid-'00s as people fleeing the high property taxes of New Jersey and PA came here. We're a podunk state but it tends to lean more towards affluence. (Although there's a major income disparity here- it's almost comedic how you can hit one block in Wilmington that's nice and rich, and just a couple blocks later you hit the ghetto.) In any event, Brad and Stefan weren't whacked hard by the dot-com bust, because Brad and Stefan realized there was a bubble and got out before it burst- that was a whole storyline thread in Millenium. Brad and Stefan got out of the tech market, and moved more into defense contracting, which of course is going to be huge for the upcoming decade. It also looks like they're getting into real estate, which was the other big economic boom for the Bush II administration. Mark's written Stefan as someone who's basically able to judge the herd, and because of this he always makes sound economic decisions. I imagine that Stefan and Brad will be one of the few people to come out of the Great Recession even richer than they were before. I'm betting anything come 2006, Stefan will start to get an "itchy" feeling about real estate and decide to get out. This speaks to rule number 5 of the CAP Saga:

I've felt old since I was about 24, so I'm the opposite. It's just weird to me that 1993 was really twenty years ago. It just feels so recent to me. It's weird to think there are twentysomethings now for whom the early/mid-90's means nothing to them. It was such a formulative time for me.

I remember watching a news special that followed a family who had a lot of members that carried the gene. One woman basically said, "I have had my two children and nursed them. My breasts have served their purpose, and they're going." I liked her attitude about it.

Yeah, the pace at which it happened was a little unrealistic, but I think the plan itself was pretty workable. One of the biggest problems with the shopping center/outlets revival plan attempts in the Rust Belt was that they'd build a shopping center, but not have the right demographics and critical mass of people to shop there. (I wrote an artlcle on Wilmington, Delaware's failed attempt at an urban outlet shopping center here.) Getting Triton Electronics, and all these new white collar people living in all the new apartments, really helps answer those problems.

I ran across this photo randomly, and it made me laugh. As much as I've dedicated this thread to changing fashion and trends, there are some things that are eternal... Like how frat guys dress. Seriously, with the exception of hair (I think in Private Tim's mid-90's day, the hair was floppier ala Leo's 1996 hair), the preppy frat boy look never really changes. I bet Mark remembers frat boys dressing like this even back in 1982 at his college campus. Although I will say that pastels and colored shorts seemed to have made a big comeback around 2007, as the ubiquitous cargo shorts of the late 90's/early 00's started to lose ground to them. The subdued tones of men's wardrobes in the 90's really started brightening up with pastels around '03, and neons started coming back in around '07, usually paired with 80's throwback sunglasses. With teenagers/college kids, it became cool in the early/mid-'00s. The whole metrosexual craze of '03 definitely helped.

I find Joel pretty cute, in that thirtysomething lanky stoner kind of way.

From reviews: It's interesting- JJ marches to the beat of his own drum, but at the same time doesn't try to upset the status quo. If Will is about upsetting the apple cart to reveal the rotten apples, JJ leaves the apple cart alone while figuring out how to make the rotten ones still work for what he wants/needs. I do think JJ's not bound as much as Will and Darius are to upholding the family name and traditions- he kind of went off and did his own performance diva thing while figuring that Will and Darius could be the upstanding Schluters. Anyway... 1. I loved JP's dedication to Claremont. It makes so much sense- he's now 65, he's basically achieved all of his career goals, he's raised his children, and now he wants to give back to his hometown. That's generally about the age where you see that kind of civic involvement. 2. I like how you laid out the Claremont Mills. (I'm assuming the shops are outlets?) It sounded very "of the time"- a lot of developments were built like this in 1990's to early/mid-2000's to boost sagging downtowns. Part of New Urbanist ideals, which gained traction in the 2000's. 3. It was also extremely fitting that the new ampitheater was named after Marie Crampton, and the Performing Arts Center was named after Tonto. I could see the idea that Marie's first namesake, Claire's daughter, not even being there for the dedication really bugging and disapointing JP. 4. I liked JP's talk about education in the city. Is Zane State College supposed to be the model of Claremont Institute of Technology? Again, that felt very "of the time"-a fair amount of schools that were basically either tech institutes, community colleges, commuter schools, etc etc expanded and morphed into 4-year residential public research colleges, or at least tried to move towards that. Georgia State University is a good example of that - I think JP would have an eye on getting college students living and working in Claremont(and wanting to stay there after graduation), because despite their b.s., college students are always good for a town's economy. Maybe Claremont Institute of Technology was like a commuter 2-year technical school with some four year programs, and JP's got it on a 30-year plan to get it to where Georgia Institute of Technology is now? 5. Most of all, you did a good job at capturing the hope and optimism of people at the end of the Clinton Years/early Bush II admistration- I remember there was a small recession going on in 2001, but it almost seemed like we completely ignored it because America was that confident. It also reminded me of how people felt- the idea that with our debts paid off, America was finally going to start investing into education and our future. I remember a biiiggg part of Bush II's platform was "No Child Left Behind" and I think JP's speech tapped into that mindset.

It seems incredible that Marie's first namesake isn't at the dedication ceremony, but that tends to be the kind of thing that goes by the wayside when you're 15 and your friends and your high school world are above everything. It'd be interesting if Will does wind up developing an attachment to Claremont...I can't see that being likely, but it seems like JP does want to install a sense of responsibility towards Claremont in the family, because that town launched the family. I find JP's dedication towards the town, and wanting to re-establish a ittle bit of homebase there, pretty realistic.

I saw them play at Firefly Music Festival last year, when "It's Time" was at abut 80-something on the music Billboad charts and it was their first radio hit. It was soooooo awesome when everyone started singing along to this. It's such a same they aren't playing this year at Firefly- they were supposed to, but had to back out. In any event Matt, if you're going to be in the Philly area this summer, you should try and hit it up Firefly Music Festival. The three day passes are sold out (unless you go to the ticket scalpers), but they still have one-day passes. Sunday looks like a really good night, with Vampire Weekend and Foster the People headlining.

Chapter 9 -When J.P. observes the new Claremont Mills development, which is the centerpiece of the Claremont revival plans. "Only In America" by Brooks and Dunn -When JP and Stefan met up with the young ones, and show off how Stefan pimped their crib. And with this song, Gwen Stefani officially jumped on the 2000's hip-hop bandwagon. Not that I can blame her- hip-hop was REALLY dominant for this decade. -When J.P. lays out his hopeful plans for the city of Claremont to the townspeople, not knowing that a portion of its youth will be heading off to war in a few months. -When J.P. talks to his daughter on the phone, who can't believe that he won't yield. This is totally my favorite number from the movie.

Safety Board: Legally Drunk Should be .05 instead of .08 I'm pretty against this. When I was in college, I had a system of having four drinks within an hour, which created a nice little buzz, and then waiting two hours while eating before driving myself home, and I never at any time felt like I was impaired. Four drinks + two hours of waiting around was perfectly responsible and safe. I think the recomendation as written would mean that a typical male could only have 3 drinks before being legally drunk, and a typical woman couldn't have more than two drinks. This would really affect the casual drinker- people who show up for Happy Hour after work and have just a few drinks, who now face being criminals. In my case, I don't really have more than two or three drinks when I go out now because I just drink to take the edge off as opposed to getting a real buzz like I used to, so I should still be fine if the new rules are implemented, but I'm still worried that this could criminalize perfectly responsible behavior. I'm fine the idea of stiffer penalities for people driving at .08 and higher, and the BAC ignition locks for repeat DUI offenders. This is lurdicrous, however. I totally figured this was coming- has anyone noticed those "Buzzed Driving Is Still Drunk Driving" PSA's? I did remember my professor, back in '08, saying that he thinks the Nanny Police will try and get the BAC lowered again, and lo and behold...