methodwriter85

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.

Hey, thanks for the illumination. Like this is a level of a wealth I don't understand- I've been around people who are merely affluent like the Carrswolds (nothing more fun than being a poor kid listening to his high school/college friends talk about their trips to Europe and the great private schools they attend), but 500 million dollar trust funds are beyond my frame of reference. As for the bit before...go to any frat party in the 2000's. Odds on chance you'll see girls making out. Mean Girls even parodied that trend in a party scene. They say Girls Gone Wild videos had a hand in that.

So, here's what I'm curious about- exactly how wealthy are the Danfields supposed to be? If they've got 500 million dollar trust funds per child, they've got to be hugely wealthy. The Cramptons and the Schluters are supposed to be billionaries, but the Danfields have to be billionaires with a capital B. Of course, the Danfield wealth is also a lot more concentrated than the Crampton/Schluter wealth because the CAPers give out 5 million dollar trust funds to people they even just care about(not to mention all the damn children), but the implication has been throughout that the Danfields are actually on a higher level than even the Cramptons/Schluters are. That's gotta be like oil, Bush-family level wealth. I love that Mark set up the rival family as being this internationally influential family that is even more powerful than the Cramptons/Schluters are, but of course much, much more dysfunctional. Finally, I loved the dinner talk, with one of the cousins talking about how hot it would be for MaryEllen to be with another woman. That's a great example of the generation divide. I remember back when Mark was writing Be Rad, I asked him why there weren't girls kissing each other in the party scenes to turn on guys, and he replied that girls didn't make out with each other at parties in 1980. But that's completely a different story by the time you get to the early 2000's, when attitudes were more relaxed about that kind of thing. Adam Phillips(of Cross-Currents fames), who's contemporaries with Wade and Matt, confirmed that girls were doing that at parties to get the guys going back in the late '90s. Around the mid-2000's, it became a thing for emo guys to make out with each other at parties and then post videos of it on YouTube, but we're getting ahead of ourselves here.

Chapter 69 -When Matt and Wade have a little fun with Father Paul. 1987 was a good year for music. Really great pop like George Michael, really good rock like U2, great arena rock with Bon Jovi, great adult contemporary in Peter Gabriel and the Bangles, great teen pop in Debbie Gibson/Tiffany, and great alternative stuff like The Cure. It's crazy to believe '87 was 25 years ago...man, time flies. It feels like just yesterday acid-washed pegged jeans and Hypercolor t-shirts were in.

If that did happen, it would be hilarious if Nana turned out to be as evil as her daughter is- but just much better at hiding it. I mean, Elizabeth did have to get it from somewhere.

Yeah, that was fun. Man, I miss Doritos 3'ds. I also made the unfortunate mistake of getting a Moto Razer. Ashi, I think this is mostly aimed at people who were born from about the early 1980's to the early 1990's.

From the same people who brought you Friday...this is...It's Thanksgiving. Remember the raging Thanksgiving dinner parties you threw at 13? LOL. There's something sad about society that parents are letting child make asses out of themselves in order to get their 15 minutes of fame. Or, more appropriately, four minutes of fame.

Hey, Mark....I think there's something you need to do over at Adam's group.... To be honest, I don't think it's THAT out of question for there to be an asshole in water polo. There's always a bad guy in every sport, right? I was in cross-country, which couldn't be more "laidback, chill people" if they tried, and there were a couple of jerky guys on there, too. Just have the suggestion that Carter's behavior is more of a exception the rule, he's two-faced with the coach, and I think it would work. Speaking of California culture, though...here's an audition of a band called Emblem 3 for the show X-Factor. It's 2012, so it's more contemporary, but I thought I'd post this because these guys encapsulate a lot of current trends I see on teenaged/college-aged guys right now. And they're from Huntington Beach, so that makes them prime SoCal specimens. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXiczowhdB8 I mean, these guys would be more Courtney's generation than Will's, but given that you like to introduce new protagonists, I wouldn't be shocked if there were future protagonist who would have been born somewhere around the early/mid-90's like these guys were. Noted the gauged ears, their sneakers, the skinny jeans that still somehow managed to be baggy, the tank tops, the flannel, and the hairstyles on the two brunets. It'd be funny if Stefan went on a rant in a circa 2010 story about all the young cute guys ruining their looks with gauged ears like Dan Savage did. LOL. Seriously though, there are a LOT of guys in the under 25 group going crazy on the tattoos and piercings right now, and not just punk/biker types. Frat boys are looking this now, too. It should have interesting ramifications on the white collar workplace.

It was a great show, Tim. Nice and wholesome clean 80's childhood fun, except every episode came with a lesson about things such as child prostitution, child pornography, teen suicide, eating disorders, being used as a tax shelter for your daddy,.etc etc. What do you think of my Maman and Brenda, Mark?

So, there's this film coming out in February that's an adaption of a book I really enjoyed, called Warm Bodies. Warm Bodies is the story of R, a young man going through an existential crisis- he's dead, and it's stuck him in a major rut. When R consumes the brain of one of the remaining humans, he finds himself falling for the guy's girlfriend, Julie. He saves her from a zombie attack, and the two form a friendship as they struggle to survive. This then leads to all sorts of complications, as one would imagine. The trailer came out: I like the sardonic comedy/satire edge to it. I'm a little wary about this being rated PG-13, because I think the source material really called for an R, but meh. Nicholas Hoult is a pretty damn good actor. You need someone in this part that can act without saying anything, and Hoult's great at that. Also, his voiceover/narration work here has just the right kind of wry sense of humor for this to not turn into Twilight: Zombie Edition. I'm pretty hopeful that this won't be anything like that. It's definitely a different kind of take on the zombie genre, in any event.

I see present-day Lisa Whelchel (The Facts of Life) and think, "Brenda Hayes." Man, did she age well or what? I guess being a bat-shit crazy clean-living Christian fundie can really pay off sometimes.