methodwriter85

Weezer was giving a free concert at the Christiana Mall today, which was pretty cool. They were there to celebrate the opening of the new Microsoft store at the mall. They closed it with Say It Ain't So, which was awesome.

That does make sense. I remember my transition to college was really emotional and hard to deal with and I did a lot of things I wish I hadn't, like riding around in cars with people who were drunk. It is a confusing time- to go from being a senior who understands everything about his high school world to then being a nameless face in a crowd of new people who don't know anything about you. Especially when you factor in that Darius did his education at Malibu Middle and High School, which means that he also went to high school with a lot of people he had gone to middle school with. It's got to be a shock to go from being around the same people for 6, 7 years and then switch to being around thousands of strangers. If we're going with how Will's being written, he's going to clash majorly with his water polo coach because sports teams don't exactly encourage independent "I'm doing my own thing" thought. Which actually would be pretty interesting. Although if Will's only an okay player and just doing it to get into the pants of other water polo players, he probably won't clash that much with his coach- coaches only really act like hardasses with the really good players. It depends on if Will's meant to be a star player like the way Matt is, or if Will's meant to be serviceable player like Wade is. As for JJ and his annoying ways, I can't help but cringe and remember that I could be equally that bitchy when I was 14/15. I think when JJ transitions into senior level figure skating and has to contend with the likes of Evengi Plushenko and Johnny Weir, I imagine that some humility will be made. Finally, I appreciated that we didn't get the obligatory "Let's have the past protagonists and main characters show up!" deal that we always get when Thanksgiving and Christmas hits in CAP. I mean, I mean, it's nice to see the past characters once in awhile, but to do it every time the story hits Thanksgiving or Christmas kind of gets gratuitous, especially since we haven't skipped a Holiday season in CAP since 1998. There's so much tension with this family that having past players like Marcel or Lou show up instead of the people that are really involved with the current story would have been really superfluous.

Happy birthday!

I'm starting to think that Darius is regretting that decision and tying himself so tightly to one girl. I always appreciated the fact that Mark DIDN'T have Brad and Robbie decide to go to the same colleges back during Be Rad- it always pisses me off when in real life and reel life people decide to give up the college of their dreams for a relationship. I knew a girl who turned down a full-ride at Columbia for a guy, and of course it didn't work out for her. If the bond is as tight as you think it is, it can stand being separated in college. That's why I love that JJ is a guy who's going to be completely focused on his career, not someone who goes crazy in romance or anything like that, like his brothers got. Anyway, I really loved the end conversation- Darius's estrangement from both of his brothers is completely believable, as well as the idea that Jeanine was just never as close to Will as she was to Darius and JJ. I loved the call-back to If It Fits- but it kind of make me think...what happened to the 13-year old Darius that had a way with words and could have argued his way with an attorney? He wasn't book smart but Darius was people smart...so where did that guy go?

One Direction's Live While We're Young.

You should secretly record them and put it on Youtube. Anyway...Minnesota Style.

The switch happened in the late 90's/early '00s, right? I could have sworn on an episode of the Mole from 2003 the lira was still being used in Italy.

I came across the video recently. I was pretty shocked- I crushed on Tom Bridegroom when I saw him in this Nintendo DS Jam Sessions commercial, and I followed him on Twitter. What an incredibly sad story. I hope his parents rot in hell.

Naming often reflects the mindset of a time period. It's social history, which I'm more interested in, as opposed to the more traditional historical school of thought that follows political and economic events. But you're right, there is a mix of sociology to it, which is why it's not quite the same kind of history that you're thinking of. It's a history that looks at the common people and why they did the things who did, rather than looking at big historical figures like FDR and the like.

I know this has been awhile, but dude, I'm a historian. I went to school for it and everything.That means that pondering things like this- historical trends over time- are the things I should be pondering.

There's now a music channel on Verizon Fios called "Retro Rock" that I heard playing , and it made me think of this. I guess the late 90's are retro now? I'm sure I probably used "Monkey Wrench" in Bloodlines. It was a lot of fun using songs from I was 12. And thanks to my sister, I knew Sublime, and you can't tell me someone like Matt Carrswold wouldn't have been a huuuuuggggggeeeee Sublime fan during the 90's. To me, Sublime kind of "captured" the mellow stoner mood of my sister's generation. (She was born in 1981, just a year younger than Matt.) The mid/late 90's were a fun time to work with- the United States was in a more upbeat, happier mood because of the economic boom, and the music reflected that. (Well, except for stuff like Korn and Marilyn Manson.) Anyway, I hope you guys don't mind that I took a break. I've been doing this for over three years- I started doing music recs for Mark with "Be Rad". Half-way through doing the Land Whore, Mark decided that coming up with music recs was holding up the chapters, and he broke that. Be Rad was pretty fucking challenging, because 1980 American music frankly sucked- it was a weird transition time between the disco era and the 80's synth pop era. There was sooooo much from 1981 that I wanted to use but couldn't because Be Rad stayed in '80 for the majority. I tended to look towards British music like , as well as the Ashes to Ashes soundtrack list. I had a lot more fun with Man In Motion- the mid-80's just had so much great music, both cheesy stuff like "Broken Wings" by Mister Mister and the great indie stuff from people like the Smiths. And of course, there was Madonna's ascendancy to the throne as Queen of Pop. With A Summer Love, I loved that it was in 1991- 1991 being the transition between the pop fun of the 1980's, and the dark grunge that would take over music during the first half of the the 1990's. I used mainly fun "tail-end-of-the-80's" pop songs like and when things were happy for Marcel, and then transitioned into stuff like the when the mood got darker. And then of course, using when Lark went cuckoo-for-Coca-puffs at the end of the story. That was probably one of my favorite music choices. I think I felt the most "on" for If It Fits- 1992-1995 was a great period for music, and luckily with Stefan he's not the kind of fuddy duddy types who refuses to listen to new music, so I could put in stuff like and Green Day without it being weird. So much great stuff going on at the time- , , etc etc. What's really fun about doing this is trying to re-create the mindset of a given time period through my music choices, because the music of the time often does that.

Will turns 18 in 2004, correct. 2004 should be a pretty interesting year for Mark to cover- the bulk of that generation starts college, JJ might be wrestling with the decision to go to college or not go to college and just train to make Torino '06. Gathan and Tony should be finishing up college by then(although it would be a sigh of the times if they did 5th years), and evil Zach should be in the middle of his college football career. Then there's the election and the Asian tsunami. 2004 was a pretty eventful year- of course it helps that I was 18 then and more aware of what was going on in the world than I had been at 14 in 2000. For the short term, it would make sense that the story shifts more to Wade's point-of-view, because other than settling down Will at Menlo School, Will's story arc is pretty much finished. He's gotten his parental freedom and as a result- he can't really go wild too much anymore, because he's not going to risk getting the emancipation revoked. Did you notice that Will turned down going to a college party? I think that's a portent of things to comes with Will. He can't be the crazy, carefree teenager who gets to go to crazy parties because he's responsible for himself now. If a party got raided by cops and he got caught underage drinking he'd be screwed.

So, this guy as a 12-year old in 1992 decides to make a tape where he asks his future self questions about his life. Twenty years later, the now-32 year old responds. Funny and pretty poignant, I thought. This was so cool that he did that. I have a cassette tape of myself talking about my thoughts on life from either 1999 or 2000, but I didn't have a video camera so I can't do something like this in 2020. Although...maybe I could set up a YouTube video where 33-year old me listens to my 13-year old self talk in his high little girl voice and make fun of myself? Either way, I'm really jealous this guy had the restraint and foresight to do something like this. Too cool.

That generally happens.

I love being an uncle, but kids are not in my future.

I wouldn't mind looking 35, actually...I think guys in their mid-30's are pretty hot. They're still a robust sense of virility and youth, but a bit of "seasoning" in terms of their emerging wrinkles which gives them an air of experience.

You should try reading JWolf's stuff. I think you'd like it.

Yeah, I saw your picture. I'm the same way- I can't pass for a teenager anymore...grad school aged me a little, but I could still pull off 23 or so. My family tends towards looking young for our age.

Intellectually, I know this. Emotionally, hitting my 27th birthday in December just seems surreal. I thought I'd be in my early 20's forever. Entering the late part of my 20's just seems crazy. I'm trying to embrace pushing 30, though. It'll probably change when I make friends who are no longer in college, and more in their 30's and 40's. I had a taste of this during my second year of graduate school, when I hung out with a bunch of 30-something townies I met from my favorite karaoke bar. It was fun to say that I graduated high school in 2005 and NOT get the, "Jeremy, you're old" comment I got from my undergrad friends.

Catching Fire started filming this week, and the first cast pictures on-set are arriving...Claflin is looking pretty good with the fake tan and bronzed hair: Catching Fire Set Pictures I think he just might pull it off. I really like how his Finnick look is shaping up- the haircolor they picked is great. Now they just need green contact lenses. I'm also really excited for Alan Ritchson playing Gloss...he was absolutely hysterical as Thad Castle on Blue Mountain State(you guys probably best know him as Aquaman on Smallville), and I'm glad to see him getting some high-profile work.

and

From Private Tim... Thanks again, Private Tim!

My oldies station does the 60's, 70's, and 80's, but I'm just jumping the gun a bit. You should have added these to my thread, man!

Well, my viewpoint has been shaped by being in college and grad school for 7 years, where I tended to be the oldest of my friends. By my second year of graduate school I had friends who were born in 1993 and it was freakin' weird. (I lived on campus during grad school and I hung out with a lot of undergrads.) I would make references to the Secret World of Alex Mack and Salute Your Shorts and they wouldn't get it. But the bit about Another Night by Real McCoy was a reference- in Whit Stillman's film Damsels in Distress, there's a scene where the college-aged characters are dancing to that song. At the end, one of the characters proclaimed, "I love dancing to the oldies!" That, in turn, made me think of Private Tim, because mid-90's club music was kind of his forte, apparently- that was Private Tim's "era", so to speak. So I'm hoping I can get Private Tim to contribute to my golden oldies thread with some "Another Night"-era tunes.

Hey, I'm old, too. It's okay. Apparently Nirvana has become "classic rock." I tend to define oldies as being at least 15 years old, if not twenty. That would be 1997, or 1992. Either way, grunge is now oldies rock. Of course, your mileage may vary. You wanna feel really old? This year's college freshmen were born on average in 1994. Which means they've never known a world where Kurt Cobain is alive.. My niece was born in 1994...she's a senior in high school instead of a freshman at college because she was born past the cut-off date. Anyway, I hope Tim takes me up and posts some of his favorite '95 tunes at my thread...class of '95, woo-hoo!