methodwriter85

Chapter 44 -MaryEllen's theme song.

So we finally meet Mary Ellen. God, I'm getting Bitty flashbacks. I kind of wondered though...wouldn't a politician's daughter know how to fake being nice in order to get people to love her, a la Kathryn in Cruel Intentions or Regina George in Mean Girl's? I'm kind of surprised that it seems like she doesn't have a group of people who worship her. Teenaged girls who want to be popular and adored are incredibly good at making it seem like they're nice while being complete bitches. No one in college is ever that openly bitchy.

I'm liking the Wanted, a lot. Such a club beat to them.

According to other copies of that video, it was for the Spring 2012 Sociology 167 class. So it was actually a class project.

[media=]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCP2oGdl-c4[/media] Rue...*sobs* Seriously though, if Mark sends any of Gen 4 to Cal, he's going to need to add a lot of Asian characters. Cool.

I enjoyed this cover.

He would actually make a pretty woman, it seems like. Crazy story..

So...it looks like we're going with Kristin? Good choice, Mark.

Good point. I wonder if we're going to see how JJ is handling the work load at the school as balanced with his training...it'll be interesting if HW calls in Brad and Robbie to tell them that JJ might be better suited elsewhere. I don't think JJ's a dumb kid, but he doesn't strike me as all that concerned with anything else but skating. It wouldn't surprise me if his grades weren't good. Norway does seem like a good opportunity for us to get to know JJ better...I wonder if we're going to cover how JJ deals with school(and if he's actually doing well) on that trip. I was thinking about how Mark is depicting Will's friendships vs. how he depicted Brad's friendships as a teenager...here's a quote from Tim in the archived Be Rad thread that made me think about something... The thought that I have, and the main difference that I'm seeing...it seemed like Teenaged Brad treated his friends more like they were accessories in his awesome life as the Prince of Gunn High School instead of actually treating them like friends. Brad enjoyed the power that being on the top of the popular heap of kids gave him more than he seemed to enjoy being friends with these people, and it was very much a "you're either with me or you're not" deal with Brad. Brad's popularity seemed entirely based on his good looks, preppy 80's wardrobe, and the fact that he threw gnarly parties at his mansion, rather than people actually liking him as a person. Will seems more along the line of the popular kids who were popular because they were genuinely well-liked and knew how to be a good friend. Will doesn't come off as calculating or power-hungry as Brad was...sure, Will wants to be seen as the cool guy, but he doesn't make friends with people purely as a power move to maintain some top power position in the social hierarchy of Harvard-Westlake. I really like the difference here.

Right. That all makes sense. Like I've said before, I tend to put myself in the shoes of a 14-year old me whenever I get to Will's parts, because I relate to Will as a peer. That's why I tend to react that way - I don't put myself in the shoes of an adult for these parts. I've been working my way through why exactly this chapter bugged me so much, and I came to the basic realization that it pissed me off so much that this kid gets rules bended for him because of his family's money and influence. The adult part of me realizes that connections are important, and that considering the field I'm getting into, soliciting donations from well-heeled patrons with an interest in history will be something I'll eventually need to do. After all, I grew up in a state that was essentially built on the noblesse oblige of the du Pont family. But the teenaged part of me, the part that gets brought out because we're in 2000 in the story, really hates the unfairness of it. The logical, mature part of myself gets it. The whiny, jealous brat who doesn't understand why his friends can go off to Europe and have brand-new shiny Ipods while he can't doesn't get it. Plus, I also had a steady diet of getting to hear about the viewpoint of Appalachian coal miners for the past two years while living in Western PA, so I've taken on a proletariat viewpoint lately. In any event, this was a pretty good chapter, and a nice development of Ryan and Will's friendship. You've actually done a pretty damn good job of developing that friendship- it comes off as deeper than the one that Brad had with Lark in Be Rad.

"Baba O'Riley" is just one of those tracks that never age. I remember it being used so well back in the 1990's with a montage in Summer of Sam and the trailer for American Beauty. There was also this funny scene with Michelle Williams on Dawson's Creek just rocking out to this song.

I was fully prepared for you to tell me I'm wrong. I'm cool with it. I've just been on a proletariat kick lately- I must have absorbed the rantings of my Occupy! buddy Steve and my Early American Labor professor than I thought I had. Rich kids getting special treatment bothers me more than it used- UD was a pretty affluent school...IUP wasn't...and I think that changed my viewpoint a lot. I really find myself identifying with blue-collar Appalachian folks these days. In any sense, it does set up a quid-pro-quo for Ryan and Will's friendship. I really have enjoyed seeing Will in the school atmosphere, as opposed to Poor Man's Son when he was leading the life of a 20-year old guy.

Right, I thought that meant the extra lunch duty they were likely going to give to Will, not the actual required service amount as required under the SQUID program because you want to avoid the thought of Golden Boy in a hairnet doing lunch duty. You can't just have Will get out of doing something that every 9th grader at the school is supposed to do. I can see him getting out of a punishment, but not an actual requirement. I can't see a school that went through the bother of setting up lunch duty as a service requirement for their kids as a means towards building a sense of humility and social duty actually letting people get out of it...if one kid did it, other kids would do it, and that would defeat the entire purpose of having SQUID there in the first place. Julian, you wanna weigh in on this? I'm curious what you thought. The other question I was wondering about...is Will in any other extracurricular activities aside from the tutoring? I was thinking Environmental Club and Surf Club.

Well, Will doesn't have to do lunch duty for a month but you will have to do it three periods in the year. So he's not entirely dodging the bullet here...all of the students have to do it.

I wasn't thrilled with Will getting his get-out-of-jail-free card, but then again, everyone's entitled to one in high school. I don't think Will is going to make a habit out of testing what he can get away with at Harvard-Westlake. Since Will is actually supposed to do lunch duty as a 9th grader for three service periods, as outlined here: Do you think we'll see him do one with Ryan at some point? A Malibu Colony prince wearing a hairnet and cleaning tables is a pretty hilarious thought. I like that Harvard-Westlake really tries to keep their impossibly wealthy kids as grounded as possible.

Chapter 43 -When Brad recounts the time that he and Robbie decided to be life partners, back in 1986. "Leather and Lace" by Stevie Nicks and Don Henley -When Ryan makes it up to Will. In a really fun way. -When Will gets his "get free out of jail card" with the headmaster, and feigns being horribly punished to his friends.

Now I'm off to picture Ryan Reynolds with another man...

Life went on, but it did change. I remember on 9/11, one woman posted at this message board we were on that the government surplus we had, which was FINALLY able to start going towards education and health care, was all going to go to fighting this new war we were in. Damned if she wasn't right. We went from being raised during an amazing economic boom with no wars to coming of age in a hit-or-miss economy with spiraling government debt and a 10-year war.

Well, that's good to know. Thanks for the illumination.

Mark is re-writing figure skating history somewhat to accommodate for JJ, just not in terms of who gets Olympic Gold in '06 and '10. At least, that's what I'm assuming. Mark will bend things a little bit in order to fit the fictional characters into real-life events, but he won't change major things like the fact that Evengi Plushenko won gold in '06 and Evan Lysacek got the gold in '10. Which makes it all the more interesting- we KNOW going into JJ's career that he'll never reach the pinnacle. How he deals with that will be something to see. I agree that the 9/11 story doesn't for the protagonist to be going through some major stuff- there's enough drama without needing to pile stuff on.

On the other hand, losing a legacy character for the drama of having Claire go through losing a child could be pretty short-sighted. Legacy characters, and legacy characters that actually got to grow up on canvas instead of being introduced as long-lost as a teenager, tend to be hard to come by. We've got Will, Darius, JJ, John, and Marie. Courtney also counts, but she's mentioned very, very sparingly. We need this generation to drive the next wave of stories, so killing them off might not be a good idea. That was one of the (many) mistakes that General Hospital made- they kept having legacy characters like Georgie Jones die off and you lost the continuity of generations that used to characterize soaps. Of course, Mark could always come up with long-lost sons like he did with Matt to replace whatever gets lost(Marcel replacing Billy as Jeff's living son is the most glaring example), but killing off legacy characters should never be taken lightly. Especially since, barring Aaron Hayes, dead characters do not come back. I could see Mark narrating the story from different points of view- from the parents to the kids. And I was 15 when 9/11 happened, and it really did effect the hell out of me. The moment I remember so clearly about that day was this look a guy gave me when I asked him if any people survived the plane crash into the Tower. I just couldn't comprehend it. In terms of actual character effects...JJ might be in Bulgaria, and 9/11 affected junior figure skaters because they couldn't participate in the Junior Grand Prix per decision of the United States Figure Skating Association. And there's no conceivable way that Zach and Gathan wouldn't know people that join in on the War on Terror. Gathan's Claremont friends are practically screaming future veterans. Right, Wade said at the beginning that Beau isn't as close to him anymore because he's caught up into the senior year deal. That's why I'm wondering if Riley might serve to bring the family closer together, because that can happen when you add in a new grandkid/nephew, because the family starts getting together more often to get to know the new blood. Not so sure with the Danfields, but I really just can't see Beau as he came off in Bloodlines being totally disinterested in getting to know his nephew, stress over college aps or no. MaryEllen is a completely different ballgame, however- I'm pretty sure she's thinking in terms of how the inheritances are getting divided up because of the new addition, from a brother she probably assumed wasn't going to have kids anyway. A Danfield Family Christmas would probably be even more explosive than the last one we saw with them.

Noah's actually a bi character, but I love the guy.

I hope not. Claire's teenaged pregnancy storyline was pretty touching, because she and Jack really cared about each other and they COULD have raised the baby if they had decided to keep it. Claire was also a pretty naive Daddy's girl who didn't seem to see much beyond Stanford Shopping Center- having an abortion and then losing her twin brother was all the more poignant because of that. I'd hate to see a watered-down repeat between two people who didn't even make love. They just had sex. And Raine doesn't seem like a naive little girl who doesn't know what her options are- she comes off as a lot more savvy than Claire did. Which is true of the generation- it's much more sexualized and knowledgeable than Brad's generation was. Lewinskygate happened when they were 12. I get the feeling that, going by what Harvard-Westlake seems like, they'd force Raine to leave the school as soon as she started showing because "pregnant teenager" does not seem to jibe with the image of the school. Correct me if I'm wrong. Although if she does get an abortion, man...the drama would be intense, because this is 2000 and the anti-choice advocates were really rearing up. A girl could get a discreet abortion like Claire did in 1980. In 2000, it's entirely possible she could be faced with a picket line. It'd be cool to see a female narrator, but I can't see that ever happening. We tried going with a semi-straight male narrator and that didn't even work. Anyway, I do really hope we see Beau at some point. Wade does seem to miss the guy, to the point that some of his bond with Will is based in part on the fact that he needs to fill the little brother void that Beau kind of left.

Alright. So, it's (unofficially) summer, and I got the idea in my head to highlight a song from a particular summer every Monday and encourage people to share songs/memories from that year. I'm starting with the summer of 1995...this is my choice: Kiss From A Rose by Seal Kiss From A Rose. God, what a classic 90's pop track. Summer '95 was the summer I moved to Delaware from Texas. I was 9 years old. My sisters were 12 and 13, and those lucky bitches got to spend the summer on the Jersey Shore with a family friend. They were supposedly getting watched by him, but it was basically, "Hi Bob, we're hanging out at the pier. Bye!" They got to do whatever they wanted- my older sister apparently learned to appreciate a cup of Joe that summer as late-night diners are big in Jersey. I was stuck hanging out with my mother's boyfriend's crazy children and playing with pogs, but on the other hand...being 9 years old and getting to walk around neighborhoods with no supervision...I feel like kids don't really get to do that now. I think that summer was the first inkling of independence I had...the first summer where I wasn't constantly being watched or babysat. That was pretty cool.

Word.