methodwriter85

Okay, NorCal people, settle something for me here... Were high school and college kids wearing North Face fleece jackets in NorCal in 2000? I've seen videos of Menlo School students from the 2010's wearing them, so I know that is a look that exists there, but was it around in 2000? I know the look was around in the early 2000's on the East Coast, and I could have sworn people posted in an old California-related thread I did that NorCal people wore North Face jackets as well, but I'd like it if people could either confirm or deny that it was a look here. (Except for you, PrivateTim. You somehow completely missed the popped collar trend revival of circa 2003-2006. )

Well, I think the stuff with Nana fits into Wade's story arc, because Wade's story arc has been coming into his own as a full-fledged man and taking care of people that depend on him. I do think Will's stuff with his mother fits into the Paternity theme as well, because this story has been about the parental bond, so I think that needs to get addressed. What would feel really extraneous would be if we got this full-on "Drama At Menlo School" storyline, because although Will going off to Menlo is a consequence of his breaking away from his parents, I don't think the school drama in itself fits into the actual theme. We've already had Will adjusting himself to high school, and we've learned that Will is a chamelon who can adjust himself well to his surrounding. Devoting 10 or so chapters to Will and his new Menlo friends wouldn't fit well into the story, and it would feel tacked-on.

See, in my case, I've had more than my fair share of crushes on straight guy friends, but in the end those feelings have faded out- mainly because I think that unrequited crushes, strong as they may be, are not a relationship and not based on a solid foundation as an actual relationship grounded in romantic love would be. So I can't imagine what that would be like. I mean, it is possible something could have happened(Adam Phillips has been writing for almost 10 years about straight guys having some quirks between what the body wants and what the heart loves), but Krista's right- the chance for anything to happen has passed. He's married, and if something happened now, would he really want to be the guy who chases after married men?

When it came to picking out the "physical models" for Matt and Wade...I liked the brute pretty boy jock look of Evan Wadle(who Matt looks like), contrasted with the refined yet stoner good looks of Nico Tortorella (who Wade looks like). The contrast would be pretty hot. I never get why people are into "clones"- why date someone who looks just like you? That's boring. Well, there's also settling Will down at Menlo, but I can't see that taking up a lot of chapters, either. Will's joining a club but he's not actually playing varsity water polo until his sophomore year, and Menlo is roughly similiar to HW, so I'm not seeing where it'd be this huge adjustment for Will to go there as opposed to where he leaped from Malibu Middle to HW. The only difference would be that he'd now be around 10th through 12th graders, but again- you can't play Will like the naive freshmen in awe and intimated by upperclassmen. The Menlo party pretty much confirmed that. Mark has pretty much written Will as a chamelon who can be comfortable around any group(when he wants to), so I'm not sure how much drama it'd be to adjust Will to a new school. There would be some, but not enough that I can see it driving anymore than a couple of chapters.

And the parodies... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJMnoX1R3eM&feature=my_liked_videos&list=LLX60i-Rd0Mgb7tCD7WuFfVg You gotta be impressed by the guy's committment to exactly recreating the video. It's pretty close.

It's pretty funny when you think about it- Wade orginally wasn't intended to be that large of a character...just another love interest/teammate of Matt's in Bloodlines that Mark called "Danfield". But he just really, really took off, and from there we've gotten a whole new rival family to have fun with. Mark's done the Mid-Western affluent family with the original CAP and with the Box, and he's done the West Coast Newly Rich with Robbie Hayes, so it'll be fun to explore Southern Gothic rich. We're also entering into the Dubya years, so having a Republican family dynasty around should be interesting.

RE: Tim's joke in reviews...it's a joke, but in my case, I think older men can be pretty fucking sexy. Case in point, Michael Fassbender: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WNvanwUH8w I'd take an older, seasoned guy like Fassbender over a wrinkle-free, blank-faced 20-year old twink any day. Another sexy older man? Ben Affleck. Woof. Watching Argo, I totally remembered why I had such a crush on Affleck back in the '90's. He aged great.

Over in reviews...Mark on the 2000 election... I was 14 during that election...it was kind of funny that it was taking so long, but other than that the election didn't register all that much with me. I'm guessing the same would be true with Will. With Wade, his main concern would his dad...his political viewpoint tends to be more about the state as opposed to the federal, which we saw when he chatised the GSA club for writing letters to the White House instead of writing them to the senators. 2004 is going to be a whooooolllleeee different story. If we follow these characters during the 2004 election, I really can't see it playing softly in the background. Will's going to be 18 and starting college, and realizing that people are rearing up to amend constituitions to take away his right to get married. And then there's the little war in Iraq and Aghanistan- even if Gathan doesn't go, it's inevitable there will be some Claremont kids going off there.There's no way the Tonto Incarnate is going to take a passive political role when the stakes start reveal themselves by ''03-'04. My first election was 2004, and when I think back on it I just can't get over how incredibly nasty the tone of it was. People were just so pissed about the Bush administration by that point. I remember reading posters likening Dubya to Hitler, and the chant "Fuck Fox News!" at the Republican National Convention Center protests. My jaw dropped watching this: "Drop Bush, not Bombs!" Damn, that takes me back. There was a student walk-out at my school to protest the coming Iraq War and that was one of our peace chants.

Do you know what kind of budget a CAP Primetime show would have to have? The car tab alone.... The last primetime soap I remember everyone watching and talking about that was season 1 of the O.C. It wasn't huge ratings-wise, but every teenaged girl and guy(and a lot of twentysomethings) were watching the show in 2003-2004. I think it helped that the show appealed to both guys and girls, and it was new and fresh when it came out. (Seth Cohen and his hatred of evil water polo players...lol.) It's a shame the show imploded in season 3...it massively improved by season 4, but by then the audience had left. The O.C. came at exactly the right time- Tommy Hilfiger and "urban" fashion was on it's way out(well, for white kids, anyway), and the Hollister/80's revival prep/ boho looks were on their way in in 2003. It definitely had a massive influence on teenaged fashion- Seth's striped polos over long-sleeved shirts especially, and the ruffled peasant skirts on the girls.

I wanted to like Revolution, but the lead can't act and the writing sucks.

I swear to god, I think they're trying to make her look sexy. Eww, eww, eww.

And Jack looks like this, so there's that, too. God, what I wouldn't give for a night in the sack with THAT. Anyway, there was this funny SNL skit from '02 with Kirsten Dunst. Rachel Dratch played a grandmother who was getting heavily medicated by her family. It made me think of this storyline.

Hey, I was going to take a moment here to promote GA's promising author, JWolf. I was a beta reader for him for his stories The List and The Funny Thing Is. He's a nice young man from the Dallas area, and has been a pleasure to do editing work with. I'm recomending him here because I think that if you're a fan of Mark's stories, you'll like JWolf's stuff as well. JWolf kind of reminds me of what I think a 24-year old Mark Arbour who grew up in a time where it was okay to be openly gay would write like. There's a certain similar sensiblity that they have in terms of the characters, and the fun soap opera plots. Of course, they're not exactly alike- Mark's stories tend to be set in more diverse worlds while JWolf's stories are more grounded in contemporary America, but I feel like you could set a lot of JWolf's characters into CAP-world and they'd fit in just fine. (Especially Cooper. God, especially Cooper.) I also really want to point out his story The English Year to Mark. Mark, this story NAILS what it was like to go to college during the second half of the 2000's. Absolutely and unequivocally recreates the mindset of that era. There's some quirky dialogue that isn't quite right, but other than that, I really feel like The English Year captures the feel of the 2008-2009 school year in college life. If we are going to see CAP-world hit Will's college years of 2004-2008(or John Hobart's college years of 2005-2009), I think this a great primer for you.

You nail the mid/late 2000's college experience. You NAIL it. The "Scotty Doesn't Know" reference had me rolling.

Susan Walters (Carol Lockwood on the Vampire Diaries among many other shows) as Elizabeth Danfield? She's got a lock on WASP-y mother roles on teen shows right now. Susan Walters also looks like she could concieveably have a child who looks like Nico Tortorella, who we have as Wade Danfield. BTW, she's married to that sexy Linden Ashby, that lucky broad. What a DILF. The cast of Teen Wolf really does give the Vampire Diaries a run for it's money in the "hunkiest men" department.

I'm watching for the Ravens. Flacco went to my alma mater, so there's that. And Aaron Rodgers does have a great set of eyes.

Since it doesn't look like Riley and Maddy are going to be raised as siblings, it'd be cute and classic soap for them to end up childhood sweethearts. It would also drive Elizabeth Danfield absolutely bat-shit crazy if her first-born grandson was showing interest in the daughter of a crazy lesbian from some no-name New Jersey Italian-Catholic family and a circuiit boi slut from some no-name Wisconsin family. Speaking of the latter...I wonder if these means that Will actually won't hook up with Cody like I'm assuming he's destined to once he hits 17 or 18. Will was okay with hooking up with a cousin, but I'm not sure his moral code would make it okay to hook up with his sister's father. That's kind of a murky line to try and cross. It's also going to be interesting, in terms of Will, to see how the emancipation affects him. Will can't really be the carefree teenager with no real responsiblities like his high school friends would be, or have his main concern be about topping the high school social ladder like it was with High School Brad. Some unchartered territory there. Anyway, to comment on the bit above...I'm glad Mark's giving the time and focus on letting the Danfield storyline play out, rather than trying to stick to the format of Wade/Will/Wade/Will chapters. I like Will as a narrator, but dayum that kid has burned through a hell of a lot of storylines. It's good for him to get some rest, because really- I'm not sure how much perspective Will could have on what is intensely a Danfield family issue.

That is an incredibly good point. It does seem like Wade and Matt will likely settle in California after graduation, which is why I don't think Wade will get that into politics like he would have if he had gone back to D.C. The impression that I get from CA politics is that all those damn referendums they're allowed to have gridlock a lot of things...correct me if I'm wrong, of course. I'm not sure Wade would want to deal with the frustration of California politics. Politics are never pretty, but they look really, really bad in California, especially by the time of the recall election that gave birth to the Governator. Of course, California is important for the fact that it's 55 electoral votes for the Democratic party, but it'd more exciting if Wade tried his political career in Virginia, which is more of a swing state. You know for damn sure that Elizabeth already has Riley registered for kindergarten at a choice school for the fall of 2005. I'm sure she probably transferred all of that onto Riley, which is why I want Riley to become childhood sweethearts with Maddy. That would horrify La Danfield- her grandson falling for the daughter of a crazy lesbian from trashy New Jersey? No way would Maddy ever be acceptable for the first-born of the new generation. Like I said though, if La Danfield can somehow get Gathan Hayes into her orbit, he would be pretty easy for her to mold. Gathan's political views don't seem strongly leftist or strongly right, and the kind of background he has appeals to the Rust Belt mindset. At the same time, if he does wind up with Kristin Hendrickson, he'll have a cache with the rich of Ohio as well. The one problem with this is Gathan's impulsive temper, but that can be easily taken care of with some Lexapro discretely administered by the same doctor who kept Nana on her meds. Having a future Ohio politician in her corner would be an incredibly good opportunity for her, especially as the Republican party begins to become desperate to win Ohio in subsequent elections. Mitt and co. dropped a lot of money there this year, right?

I'm still somewhat young (I'm turning 27 in a few weeks- yikes!!! ), and I can't stand any of the adults of the show, either. It's why I've only watched an episode or two- the one character I like is Manny, the precocious kid. I was incredibly precocious as a child (I was watching Dateline and 20/20 at 8 years old), so he kind of reminds me of myself when I was his age. I think Ty Burrell is pretty hot for his age, though. Nice DILF.

I was watching the Power Rangers up until the season where the rangers were all turned into children, and after that year I lost interest. By 1997, I had switched into being into shows like Daria, the Real World, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

See, I went to University of Delaware. It's not quite as richie-rich as say Duke, but you can tell the school has money and it attracted a certain type of person- upper middle class/affluent people from Long Island/North New Jersey. There was a certain uniform for girls- Northface fleece, LV or CC sunglasses, leggings, and a pair of Uggs. Most lived in the tanning booth. Guys tended to lean towards polo shirts, plaid shorts, and either flip-flops, boating shoes, or mocassins. Most kids get apartments or townhouses after freshmen year, paid for by Mommy and Daddy,. There's actually a current building boom of off-campus housing to take advantage of this- there's some nice-ass townhouses that were built solely for the affluent students who have nice allowances. Nearly every kid went off to study abroad or went to Mexico for spring break, and it kind of sucked not to have the kind of resources they had. That's why it was a shock when I went to Indiana University of Pennyslvania for grad school- the school is solidly working class/lower middle class, and it's just not that preppy there. I had never seen frat boys wearing construction work boots before as actual footwear and not part of a construction worker costume. Sometone explained to me that a lot of the people there are from rural areas, hence the work boots. It was eye-opening going there, for sure, and kind of nice. St. Patty's Day 2007...I'll never forget the time my bi-curious friend Steve(who I had a big crush on) made out with this cute Emo boy at a party. God, that was hot. I actually wound up coming out to my friend straight, stoner Steve(who I didn't crush on) when I tried to get him to make out with another guy at a party later in '07. He asked me if I was gay, and I just said yea. I think at another party, I wound up making out with a guy at a party, who was there with his ex-boyfriend, and some of the girls told me how cool that was. It's going to be so much fun when CAP gets to Will, JJ, and John's college years of the mid/late 2000's- there's so much fun for Mark to write about, like drunk dials and sexting and YouTube video postings. I'm not sure I see Wade becoming an actual politician- he seems more like someone who'd become an advisor and also rally for certain causes...gay marriage debates are about to heat up in the next few years, but actual office? I'm not sure he wants to play that kind of game. Here's what I think could be interesting- if Gathan Hayes somehow gets into the orbit of La Danfield...he'd be an incredibly useful puppet. If Gathan winds up settling down with Kristin or another woman and keeps mum on the fact that he's sucked dick, you've got a classic American can-do story of a guy from humble beginnings who rises above- which would be incredibly appealing to Middle America. And Gathan being from Ohio makes it even better- Ohio has proven time and time again that it's an important swing state and that Republicans can't win the big one without winning Ohio, so La Danfield having a politician from that state in her back pocket would be incredibly useful. If she could get over her snobbery of Gathan's dad being a trashman, it'd be a pretty strategic grooming. We've already seen that for someone of Gathan's background, Gathan is pretty damned naieve and trusting, so it wouldn't be hard. If fucking Zach Hayes could manipulate Gathan, I think someone like La Danfield could do it in her sleep.,

Ashi's giving late 90's/early 00's fashion advice, not 80's fashion advice. For that, we should all turn to Mark Arbour.

I had a Tamogotchi, a Dino Pet, and a Giga Pet. God, what a waste of money that was. I was 11/12 when those came out, so that was the last toy craze that I got into. The summer of 1995 I lived next door to a girl who had a Pogs machine, so we'd sit around and make pogs out of photos we found in Magazines. I remember clearly making a pog out of a photo of the Cast of Boy Meets World. A Boy Meets World pog- how more possibly 90's can you get? In 1997 or 1998 I got one of those "Countdown to the Millenium" clocks at Caldor...what was cool about it was that you could countdown to dates as far up as 2025, so I kept it for a pretty long time...I think the last significant event I remember counting down to on that clock was my 21st birthday in 2006. Speaking of Caldor...that reminds me of other things we'll never see again that we grew up with in the 90's... - Woolworth's...they closed down by the mid/late 90's. - Merry Go Round - 5*7*9* -Strawbridge and Clothier -Borders -Structure(it's now express, but still) - Waldenbooks -Blockbuster(it might have been on that one, but I'm too lazy to check) -FYE and major CD stores You will also never see indoor malls built like these anymore, either: I think the hallmark of growing up in the 1980's and 1990's surbubia was hanging out in the mall...kind of a shame malls are dying now. Or at least the traditional ones are. The last all-now indoor shopping mall was built in 2006, I think. You'll never see another Mall Of America built in our lifetime, I think...

Hey, I found this and thought it was pretty cool. It's an MTV segment from the 1980's on what was currently slang.Changing slang is pretty fascinating to me. "Dude" and "awesome" seem like terms that are here to stay. And hip-hop slang seems to have endured more intact than surfer/valley Cali speak. I like "scroned"...does anyone here remember using that one? Ashi complained in the 90's nostalgia thread that things were aimed for a younger generation, so I thought I'd aim a thread more on the 80's as a it of quid pro quo for his and Private Tim's generation. So this one's for you guys. I remember 1988 and 1989, so my main memories of the 80's was watching MTV when Madonna was going through her Like A Prayer phase. I also remember my sisters having Electric Youth perfume and the Paula Abdul craze, as well as hyper-color t-shirts. And of course, New Kids on the Block. What are your memories of the decade?

Don't forget she's like 11, and eye-fucking the shit out of the camera. Eww.