methodwriter85

I came of age in the 2000's, and I thought it'd been interesting to talk about upcoming trends, slang, movies, pop culture, etc etc that's coming up for the CAP characters. One thing about Mark's writing is that he really likes incorporating contemporary touches into the pieces, because he likes caputuring the "feel" of the period. So what are some things you'd like to see Mark incorporate into CAP? (This thread is different from the other one, as the "How Should The CAP World End" one is more about world events and character events you'd like to see in the story.) Here are some touches I'd like to see Mark bring into the story... 1. Emo kids. Seriously, they' WERE the 2000's, in my opinion. Straight-edge kids were closely related. For whatever reason, circa 2001 the goth kids were replaced by the emo kids, who were all about wearing Buddy Holly glasses and shopping at Hot Topic. They blogged about their angst on Livejournal until Myspace rose circa 2004. Which brings me to... 2. Social networking sites. Tim's right, it's somewhat weird that none of the main characters are on the internet or social networking sites. It's going to be completely unavoidable for when Mark gets around to documenting the class of 2004 with JJ, Marie, and Will. First it was LiveJournal, then it was Myspace, and then Facebook...although you gotta remember that Facebook only allowed college kids until about 2006, 2007. Some kids were on Friendster as well. There really weren't that many kids from JJ's cohort who weren't on the internet, chatting online and using social networking sites. 3. Mean Girls. I think Mean Girls is probably the closest movie I've ever seen to getting that generation right. It's also the one chick flick I remember guys were able to admit they liked. 4. The O.C. EVERYONE was talking about this show circa 2003-2004. It was huge with girls, but it was also big with guys because, as they said, "The girls were hot". 5. Grand Theft Auto at this point (2000), Halo by 2004-2005, and then Guitar Hero by 2006-2007. Dance Dance Revolution and Lazer Tag are also big. 6. Brad's probably going to get an IPod within a year...most techie-adults started carrying those around early in the decade. By about 2003, that's when IPods started showing up at an average high school. 7. Camera cell phones start showing up in common teenaged usage around 2003 as well. 8. Hipsters. They were the yuppies of the 2000's, just dressed badly and drinking PBR for the irony. I didn't start seeing them until about 2006, but I'm assuming that hipsters were around well before that on the West Coast. I think Marie Hobart will wind up a hipster after spending high school and college as a hippie vegan war protestor. 9. Some early 2000's clothing trends: short-sleeved shirts over long sleeved-shirts over a pair of cargo shorts and flip-flops for guys, peasant skirts/blouses on girls. Another girl trend would be low-rider jeans to show a girl's thong, i.e. the whale tail. That's big starting around 2001-ish, and lasts until about 2006/2007. I can see Jack flipping out about Marie wearing thongs when she's in 9th grade. 10. Livestrong bracelets, starting around 2004. They were EVERYWHERE. You literally couldn't walk without seeing a teenager/college-aged guy wearing a Livestrong bracelet. Any trends for this past decade you'd like for Mark to incorporate into CAP?

If it was 2011 in CAP world, he would be. However, since it's only 2000 in CAP world, Will's only 13, so you're a major perve, you perve. I'm going to tell the whole school you wanna date an 8th grader!

Will's only 13, you perve.;-)

It's a topic I find fascinating, and with urban renewal being a theme of "Millenium", I thought I'd share with you guys this article about the latest attempt to jumpstart the city of Wilmington, Delwaware into becoming a bustling city once again.Wilmington Pins Its Hopes on the Queen Theater Here's some background: Wilmington was your typical East Coast industrial city throughout the 19th and into the 20th century. When its industries- such as shipbuilding- started becoming obsolete, the city became less attractive to people. New industries that popped up only came to the perimeter and only supported the white-collar suburbanites. People started fleeing for the suburbs in the mid-20th century. The population peaked in 1940 at about 112k, and dropped in population until it stabilized at about 70k in 1990- that's about where it's remained. The inner-city gained a reputation for being unsafe, and with suburban malls such as the Christiana Mall, once-prosperous Market Street just got gutted. They're trying hard to revive that area. They've had varying degrees of success over the years in trying to revive the inner-city Wilmington- there have been some major blunders(like an outlet shopping center that became a dead mall), but there have been some successes, like the Delaware Theatre Company. It's been pretty fascinating to watch the progress. Anyway, I thought that since we're reading about a ficiticious urban renewal process, it'd be interesting to read about a real one in a real city.

Colton Haynes for John Hobart-at-16-ish?

Wouldn't they divide their time there? They're both social guys. It would make sense they'd spend at least part of their time living on campus and in the dorms, or in a house/apartment that was right off campus.

Neither is Mark. He was just a gleam in his daddy's eye when Dion and the Bellmont's lived at the top of the charts in 1961.

Well, if I remember high school correctly, most 16-year old girls don't go for 14-year old boys who look like they're 11 or 12. If they're going to go for a 14-year old, it's a boy like Andy who Cross-Currents who was almost six foot tall at 14. So we should be safe on that for awhile. I've fanwanked that Drew was interested in Will because Will looked older than his age and not like a middle-school boy.

Someone is in desperate need of a life.

This has been a monster of a story, I've gotta say. Damn. There's really that much left to cover in February and March 2000, Mark? It's a good story. And I guess Darius is going to end up dating his little brother's niece. (Not that they realize that yet.)

Chapter 60 -When the gang is all abuzz with wedding plans. "Going to the Chapel" by the Dixie Cups -When Brad and Isidore talk, and try come to terms with Billy's death twenty years ago. "Trouble" by Coldplay God, I love this song. I'm glad I can finally start using Coldplay.

In the chapter of Man in Motion where Darius enters Brad's life, Brad notes that Nick was engaged to a nice girl named Linda. He should have already been married with a son named Harry and another kid on the way by March 1985, to correspond with Harry being 16 and Barry being 14 in 1999. It's a relatively easy fix, like the one about Robbie already being on the way in CAP when he shouldn't have been concieved yet.

I decided to come up with birthdates for Ella, Gathan, and Zach...I feel like they're going to be important characters. If they aren't- eh, I can always take it out later. I had to work out their ages because of the whole high school grade thing, and see where they stood against the Schluter boys and the Hobarts. We're going with June 25th, 1982 as Gathan's birthday. He'll graduate high school in 2000. August 8th, 1983 is Ella's birthday. And she'll graduate high school in 2001. Finally Zach's birthday is May 30th, 1985, and he'll graduate high school in 2003, a year ahead of the trifecta of JJ/Marie/Will. We still need a birthday for Wade. Does anyone feel like going back over Bloodlines to see if there was any mention of Wade turning 19 that spring semester like Matt did? Mark, aren't you glad I keep track of this stuff?

I gotta admit, I'm really leaning toward Tiffany being a van den Boss. The babies could be named Danfield van den Boss-Graves and Gail van den Boss-Graves. No need for middle names. LOL. I don't think Darius or Robbie have middle names.

I would have said that, but then I realized that Andy and I would have killed each other about three minutes into the date. Actually, from Cross-Currents, I'd want a date with Trey. He just comes off as such a chill, laidback guy that'd be fun to go on a casual date with.

Matt Carrswold from the CAP series.

Mark, I think you have a hard time taking criticism against Brad, because you relate to him the most. It's similiar to how Adam Phillips really doesn't take to kindly to criticism of his literary creation, Andy Sharpe.

25 years ago today, seven men and women "slipped the surly bounds of Earth and touched the face of God." Ronald Reagan's Tribute Speech From what I understand, this is one of those cultural touchstones for people who were schoolchildren at the time. (I was only seven weeks old.) Mainly because of Christa McAuliffe, who was going to be the first teacher in space, and because many schoolchildren were watching it live. I was curious to hear any personal memories of this event. I don't have any- although I did see the episode of .

It'd be cool if the babies came on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

Okay, well...the other issue is that I'm kinda sucking at the dish and pasta shifts they have me on. I'm fine with the Dining Hall cleaning shift, but yeah... I'll probably tough it out for a few more weeks. When we get to just before Spring Break, I'll ask to cut back on my hours because of my workload. That seems more diplomatic.

No. Roberta is a not a pretty name.

Jeanine's going to have a girl, I think. How about Gail van den Boss-Graves? It's old-fashioned, but old-fashioned names became vogue during this decade, and it's a lovely little tribute to Tonto. Jeanine was around Tonto enough to go for that. And I'm going with either Carrswold or Danfield as the first name for Tiffany's son. It's pretty common for someone to have a surname as a first name, like Taylor.

I never thought Carullo was supposed to be gay. I read him more as a bi guy who leaned more toward girls, but liked messing around with men as well.

Dutch would work for Tiffany, but aren't Dutch women usually tall? Tiffany is short.

Unfortunately that post doesn't exist anymore. The group owner, who I will call Aaron Dallas, has a thing for freakiing out and deleting his groups. Then he re-starts another. It was pretty epic, though. Mark absolutely blew his top.