methodwriter85

Damn, that was chicken soup for the soul. It says so much without saying anything at all- just two people falling in love and living a life together. That's what it's about more than anything.

I don't know if I'd call Will a brute, but that's how Alistair views him so it works for me. It would be a pretty cute story. It'd be nice if Will became an intellectual as a result of hanging out with Alistair- it really feels like the "Academic" part of the family has been missing since we got to Brad and Robbie's generation. They're well-educated guys, but I wouldn't call them academics and we haven't really had one since JP. As for Will and dating, I kinda like what's been set up here. Will gets his angst about teen dating and the like, whereas JJ gets his own teen angst about figure skating and balancing school, but won't be angsting over love interests because he's frankly pretty asexual and doesn't have the time to date. It's nice to get all sides covered here. Mark's already said that we're not done with the fall of 2000 by a long shot, so 9/11 is one more story away at this point.

Over at the reviews, I saw a review that stated this: With all due respect to the guy who posted that, I couldn't have disagreed more. Gathan's not gay. He's not straight, either. It might be easy to call him bisexual, but I'm not sure about that either. What has been interesting here is that you've got a guy who doesn't really put any label on himself because he's not really attracted to the gender of the person that he falls for. Gender doesn't play a role into who he's attracted to, and I feel like that's been pretty consistent all throughout the story. Which is reflective of his generation- Adam Phillips has written at length about masculine men who have an ambiguous sexual orientation, and how more and more guys are using terms like "straightish" to describe who they are, or refusing labels all together. He wrote a blog once that talked about how bi/straight guys seem to be getting dismissed by gay guys as being in denial. I thought it was interesting, and pertinent to the discussion of Gathan's murkier sexuality. http://willonething.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/135/#comments It makes me wonder- why exactly would Gathan need to declare himself as "gay", or as "straight", or any particular label? If Gathan was gay, he would have said so. Same if he were straight, but able to enjoy having sex with men. I liked that Mark went there with Gathan. We had that somewhat with Matt, who I actually would call basically gay, but enjoys sex with women every now and then. I think the reason why Matt seems to identify as gay would probably be because he doesn't seem to get that much of an emotional attraction there- it's only physical when it comes to women. Whereas with Gathan, it really does seem like gender just doesn't factor in at all. Which is pretty cool. I guess I'm going to wonder...why would it be important for Gathan to declare a concrete sexuality? It reminds me of the chapter in Millenium, where Brad ponders the sexuality of his children. "Bisexual" or "pansexual" never came up with Brad, and I remember Mark saying the reason it didn't was because there was a strict "gay" or "straight" binary that existed when Brad was coming of age as a teenager in the early 80's. That starts to shift in the 90's leading into the 2000's, and I'm glad we have Gathan reflecting that.

Now that was just funny. It'd be funny to see Zach and JJ form an unholy alliance, but why would Zach do that? Gathan is his "in" with the family and their billions of dollars. He stupidly burned those bridges with Will and John, so Gathan is his best way in.

So we've got a hockey player with anger issues and heartbreak, an amoral gay hustler, a bitchy diva with a secret heart of gold, a closeted soccer jock, a bi-curious lacrosse player from a preppy WASP family, a laidback stoner surfer who came out at the age of 12, and several guys who are practically screaming "Future Iraq War Veterans". This should be one interesting mix to watch unfold as the 2000's progress. Way to be different from the Be Rad generation, Mark. Good job on making a new mix of characters that feel "true" to the generation and place that they're coming out of. I'm really, really leaning towards the idea of Zach winding up in California after he graduates from high school, likely USC. At this point Stanford needs to get retired, and anyway USC would probably be more attractive to a guy who wanted to play football because they have a lot more titles than Stanford does. Zach's era of college(2003 to about 2007) would coincide with USC's unprecedented amount of PAC titles. Besides, the only guy that Zach could really mess with while in Stanford would be John Hobart, and I can't picture Claire not having her b.s. meter high on that one. Part of me thinks Mark would be setting up Zach to attend Harvard-Westlake with JJ and Will next year, but I can't really buy that- HW doesn't seem like it would be all that keen to take on a junior because 7th and 9th grade are the preferred entry points, and I can't picture a guy changing schools his junior year because that's when football does their heavy recruiting. It wouldn't be plausible- it'd be dramatic, but you already have Ryan and Mike as the school assholes so adding Zach in to the HW mix would feel redundant. So Zach going out California to attend college seems the most likely scenario, with him visiting Gathan at Stanford to squeeze some money- I mean keep in contact with his cousin.

Mark, I have to tell you that I really liked that you didn't go with the usual happy ending. At 11 stories in, it's great that you're shaking up the general formal. And really, having Gathan betrothed as a "happily ever after" half of a couple is a bit hard to swallow for a character who's only 18, and it kept the story field more open. It was much more realistic the way Gathan and Kristin ended. I liked that you set up conflicts that we're going to see the next generation dealing with, such as Zach. He is soooo going to end up messing with Will and JJ in '03 when he goes out to California to attend USC. LOL.

Chapter 46 -When Gathan gets picked up by his cousins at the airport, and they ride to Claremont. "Country Grammar" (Hot Shit) by Nelly -When they enter the party at Colson's house. -When Gathan finds Kristin blowing a football player. You guys didn't really think I'd go a story set in 2000 without using Britney Spear's biggest hit from that year, did you? -When Gathan and Zach have sex. I seriously thought this was by the Cardigans, when this was making the movie rounds in the late '90's. I miss the 90's. God, I miss them. I would have given anything to have been born in the 70's so I could have experienced the '90's as a twentysomething. Much better time for young adulthood, I think- the music, the clothes, god...what a great time. -When Gathan and Kristin have break-up sex. I gotta admit, I kinda like that we ended this on a sad song. Not what I usually get to do.

I came across this.... I was with you there, Blue, but then I thought about it. Think about the CAP modus operandi. Obviously, Will is going to have a threesome with Rainn and Tony when he's about college-aged, and that will result in a baby. Or two. Come on now, Mark's gotta build the next generation somehow. LOL. ;-) Nah, but seriously. It's funny how much I originally hated the idea of Wade and Matt becoming dads at 21. I'm still not thrilled with it, but if Mark does that with Will, it'll officially become a CAP Saga Rule- a gay man will become a daddy around college aged when he experiments having sex with a woman.

I really wanted to say Mark, that I really felt like things really came together in this chapter. I remember being 14-16 years old and thinking that the latest guy I had a crush on was my soulmate. In retrospect, you watch Will fawning over this guy he's only had a handful of meaningful interactions with like he's his boyfriend and you just cringe. That was where Will really felt his age. I also like Will's take on JJ. He gets the kid; doesn't excuse his crappy behavior, though. The sibling interaction between Will and JJ has felt really realistic for people who are that close in age. They're either the best of friends or just constantly antagonistic. I would like for Will at some point to get called on his own crappy behavior towards JJ; perhaps when they're seniors in high school and you start really taking stock of yourself as a person. I feel like senior year is kinda where people start really trying to make amends for past bad behavior, and get along with people they really couldn't before.

Victoria Grayson on Revenge is basically how I picture Elizabeth Danfield, just with a Southern accent. Couldn't you just picture La Danfield cutting someone down with a speech like that, delivered all smiles so that anyone looking at them would think it was just a friendly chat between friends? Madeline Stowe is killing it on Revenge! Here's another earlier clip...Victoria finds out that her friend Lydia has been sleeping with her husband at the Hamptons charity auction. To get revenge, she announces the sale of her friend's house as well as her "winning" a Van Gogh that had been a gift. Now, THAT is how you do diva bitch. God, I'm loving this show. I haven't been this excited about a nighttime soap in a long time.

Feather hair extensions is a 2011 trend, sparked off by Steven Tyler on American Idol wearing them. It's only really teenaged girls and twentysomething women wearing them, it seems like. Social media is around, but it really takes off in 2004-2005 during the rise of Myspace and Facebook.

He could always be Jason, Will's friend. We're got the core of generation 4 casted- Evan Wadle as Matt, Nico Tortorella as Wade, Sean Faris as Will, Lucas Till as JJ, and Colton Haynes as John Hobart, so I guess we can move to the supporting players.

The current "literally feathered hair" trend has me rolling. If we do manage to hit 2011, I'd laugh my ass off at Stefan and Claire reacting in horror to Courtney and Marie running around with feather hair extensions.

You are SO ocd.

I agree. The dual narrations in "Bloodlines" and in "The Box" worked well because the stories meshed well together. It also helped having Matt out of commission for the time that Wade took over, with Matt coming back in to finish out the story. It didn't work so well with "Poor Man's Son", and I think that might be the heart of why. Will's part seemed like it was going to be a nice B story about cute puppy summer love compared to the heavy angst of Gathan overcoming an abusive childhood, and then by Paris the Will story swallowed the entire story. I felt like I had signed on for one story, and then suddenly Mark had signed us up for another story instead. That was hard to get over. I like the story as well. I also realize that it's a transition/introduction- Mark's moving away from Robbie and Brad's generation to introduce Generation 4. There are a lot of things that go into it- he has to develop the background characters into main drivers of the story, and he also has to take into consideration how different Generation Y is from Brad and Robbie's Baby Boomer Generation. He's writing a generation that is not his own; too young to have been his peers, but too old to have been his kid's generation. Things might have gotten awkward, but I think everything's coming together nicely. I really feel like, barring Will's friend calling his brother a "space cadet" or an 18-year old in 2000 referencing the Six Million Dollar Man, Mark's been doing a damn good job recreating the mindset of the co-hort of people that were born in the mid/late-1980's as they were hitting the opening years of their adolescence at the turn of the new millenium. The Addies and the hoodie with the flip-flops really, really sold it for me. All we need now is a bleach blond Eminem wannabee. Things I loved- 1. The JJ and Will interplay. Jeanine thought JJ was an outcast because he was short. The reality was entirely different, and I thought the sibling bitchiness was spot-on for siblings that are that close in age and with interests that don't really mesh that well. 2. Darius giving up his spot at Annapolis to attend Santa Clara, and the scene where he tells JJ and Will why. I'd been dying for some sibling interaction between the three brothers, and that scene was great. 3. Stefan brutally laying it out to Will about his chances of having a serious relationship with John Hobart. He needed to heart that one, badly. 4. Wade's talk with Will. I loved how Matt took to JJ and Wade took to Will. 5. Will's geeky talk about sharks and the like. That was about a 1,000 times more interesting than Will's little striptease, and for me that was when Will finally started feeling like a real character.

Here's a movie trailer, done in the style of the J. Edgar trailer, about the Penn State scandal. Really well done. I'm thinking Al Pacino as Joe Paterno and Patrick Wilson as Jerry Sandusky.

Happy birthday!

Right. But it felt like Gathan got sidelined in favor of developing Will's character instead. I think the dual narration wasn't a bad idea, and at times it worked- but by the time we got around to the Paris trip, Gathan just started seeming like a distraction in the overall Will Schluter Show. I have to agree with you on that. On paper, I think Gathan is the more interesting character. But once he got put with Kristin, everything was focused on that instead of Gathan's underlying issues; when we weren't focusing on Will. Here are where the problems I had with Will as narrator, at least for most of the story.... 1. Mark essentially created a character with a perfect childhood- there is no emotional baggage there, and there's nothing this kid has ever been denied in his entire life. While I'm not saying that Will needed to have an effed up life to be interesting, you still have someone who's never struggled a day in his life, over anything. (Yes, I realize there was the Paris plot, but it doesn't seem to have affected him all that much.) 2. Because of that, his whining about love interests was just...I don't know. I mean, it was realistic for a 13-year old, but it just isn't that compelling to watch a 9th grade kid with a perfect life angst over his love interests. Will's interaction with his parents and with JJ were a lot more interesting, I think. As well as when we learned that Will's interests go beyond sex, pot, and surfing. That's when he started to feel more like a real character. 3. I feel like Mark wanted to write a 17-year old Will, but because Mark didn't want to jump the story to 2003, he instead decided to write Will as a 13-year old with a very 17-year old look who hung out with mostly college-aged guys. I liked Will more when he started hanging out with people who were his own age, and he was dealing with more of the typical 9th grade concerns. Overall, I think Will improved as narrator, but I still think Mark should have waited until circa 2003 to get over to Will's point-of-view. But since he didn't, I think the way the story is tying up now works pretty well, and we've definitely been on an uptick.

I think Will became an enjoyable narrator when Mark stepped away from just the sexual stuff and let us know about Will the person who likes marine biology and Jolly Ranchers, not Will the 13-year old sexpot who likes to surf and smoke pot. I have a friend who told me he stopped reading because it seemed like Will was turning into a Brad Redux, and I think Mark has in recent chapters really stressed the differences between Brad and Will, to the point where this doesn't feel like a Be Rad Redux. I do feel bad that Gathan essentially got eclipsed- I think Gathan had the potential to be a pretty interesting character. But the problem is, as someone pointed out, Gathan didn't really offer anything new as a narrator that we haven't already covered. I mean, Will was able to offer the viewpoint of an emerging generation of guys that were coming out at earlier and earlier ages, which hadn't been done yet- no protagonist had come out earlier than the age of 18 before Will. Having an abused Hayes boy from a poor background with temper and sexual issues has been done so many times, and done well. And Matt already covered the whole "hockey at Stanford University" deal. My other problem with the story is that the mid-point felt meandering- I think this would have worked better as a twentysomething or thirtysomething chapter story, due its nature as a transitional piece. I do think the story went on an uptick once we met Tony and Matt/Wade came back in, and there was more of a focus. Anyway, I really liked this chapter. I loved the details of Will's hoody, the Adderall, the flip-flops- you really made Will feel like a 2000's teenager. The only thing that would have made it better would have been that Will was wearing a DC hoody. Although he could have been- because Will isn't a fashion maven like Brad, it makes sense that he's not mentioning every single brand that he's wearing the Brad does. The epiphany at the end was great- great closure to Will's character arc in this story.

Right, but the most ardent supporters of his administration where the Christian religious whackos.

Thanks. It's a good song. I like "The Best I Ever Had" and "You're A God" better, but yeah. I thought it fit well. "Dreams" isn't really period. I was going to use a boyband song or a Faith Hill song, but then I thought, "What the hell" and went with something I really thought fit, damned it not being period. Will is totally the Angela Chase to Tony's Jordan Catalano. That's why I picked it. But with the exception of "Dreams", I think my picks were pretty reflective of the period once you got outside the boyband/blond teen queen pop area.

Right, but this is when things got really obvious, and the Religious Right yielded way more power than they had even during the Reagan administration. And Mark hates GWB, so I figure he's going to use the story to vent against the Bush administration, which would include going after the religious whackos that characterized his administration.

Chapter 45 -When Will and Tony talk on the beach about various things. -When Will and Tony make love in his new, pimped out room. "My So-Called Life"...I fell in love with that show when I was 8 years old, and god it held up well. -When Will comes to the realization that Tony is never going to admit that he's gay, and is never going to be a boyfriend to him because of it. This song. I've been dying for a place to put it. I hope I got it right. -When Robbie comforts his son, who comes to finally get that he can't fall in love with every guy he has sex with.

This really makes the USC scandal look like a picnic. Geez.

That's the thing, though. The kids rioting honestly believe that "JoePa" did what he could, and that he did what he was legally obligated to do, and that JoePa should be allowed to finish out his season in dignity. Alot of the anger seems to be directed at Mike McQueary because he didn't intervene during the alleged 2002 incident, and yet he's still on coaching staff. Although he will not attend the game, as he's been recieving multiple threats. http://www.freep.com/article/20111111/SPORTS08/111111008/Penn-State-s-Mike-McQueary-might-protected-whistle-blower-scandal-fallout-continues I seriously would get the hell out of dodge if I were Mike McQueary, die my hair black, and start all over in Canada or something.