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methodwriter85

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  1. methodwriter85
    Today, I spent time putting in job applications...a whole revamp of my CV and resume and cover letters...it's the first time in awhile I put in so many applications and the like. It felt nice.
     
    And then...something strange hit me. I felt inexplicably sad for some reason. Part of it had to be that I had just gotten through helping my mom do home loan modification papers, and that's kind of iffy and unpleasant.
     
    But the other thing...probably the main thing...it made me think about the fact that my friend, Steve, who died at 27...he doesn't get to send off job applications or go on interviews or make plans for the future. And it made me feel sad to think that. He's never going to turn 28, he's never going to have a career, and Steve now only exists as the past now. Which is crazy to me, because I've like said earlier- Steve was SUCH a "live for the present" kind of guy, while he mercilessly made fun of me because I'm so damn nostalgic for the past.
     
    It's so weird. My life for the past year and a half after graduation has been a parade of disappointment after disappointment, and keeping my head up in the face of a mounting realization that I perhaps will never get the museum curator or archivist job I want to have. But I have hope, every time I send off an application, that someone might say yes. Hope for a yes, and hope for a better tomorrow.
     
    Steve doesn't have that. He's never walking across the stage and accepting his master's degree in counseling. He's never becoming a counselor. And it just sucks, and it makes me sad and angry
     
    It's interesting how the grieving process goes. I feel fine for awhile, accept that Steve's gone, make my peace with it, and got through a couple of weeks in January with no crying at all. But then...I don't know. First up, I talked to my friend Josh, who all of you know is struggling with health issues. We hung out at his apartment one last time while he was getting ready to pack up, and I just had this really long talk to him, about his own mortality issues, as well as dealing with Steve's death. He was pretty understanding, which I knew he would be given that this guy has been facing mortality since the age of 10.
     
    The main thing I got out of that talk was accepting that I wasn't a shitty friend for not getting how fucked up Steve was, because even Steven probably either didn't get it, or tried his best to hide it. And there's only so much you can convey over phone or text, and I wanted to believe that my friend was doing great and therefore didn't try to probe him all that much about his issues. Maybe it was big denial on my part. I mean really, Steve was loaded every moment of the day in college, and I'm guessing that grad school wasn't all that different. I had hoped that Steve had grown out of it because I'm Mr. Pollyanna, but I was wrong.
     
    The talk helped, but then it also put Steve back on my mind. And then I got a letter from Steve's parents, where they thanked me for the condolence card that I sent Steve and told me that his service is scheduled for August 9th, and then it just hit me again, harder this time.
     
    I'm not constantly sobbing every day or anything like that, but I've been thinking about him again, more than I had until the past few weeks. Hence this whole "sad attack" that happened to me tonight.
  2. methodwriter85

    Life Is So Unfair

    By methodwriter85,

    My friend Josh. He's 23, and since he was about 10 or 11 years old, he's been dealing with the complications from his heart transplant. He should have graduated in 2013, but he had to drop out in fall 2012 to deal with hodgekin's disease. Then he couldn't come back for fall 2013. Now it looks like he can't come back at all, and he's planning on coming back down to pack up his apartment, because health-wise it's better for him to try and finish his degree closer to home. While he's not back-on with the lymphoma, he's apparently become some kind of medical mystery with his doctors, which means that they won't clear him to go back to University of Delaware.
     
    It's so fucking unfair. This is a guy who spent a night in a hospital with this dude who broke his neck after making an ill-advised late night dive in a pool. I stayed with them as well. Josh is a pretty easy and empathetic guy to talk to- and he has a large amount of people that really care about him as a result. He doesn't deserve this. He deserved to have graduated with his friends from college, not try and finish things up on online courses.
     
    And then on a selfish level, I'm really pissed off that he can't come back, because I really needed a friend like him around that I could talk to in person. Josh is one of those friends that you know bring out the best in you, and that you can talk deep shit with. I don't really have too many of these in person these days.
     
    It just sucks. This guy is 23- he shouldn't have to be constantly dealing with ailing health all the time.
  3. methodwriter85
    Alright...the Boyband Era. Let's get started.
     
    1.
     
    2.
     
    It's actually debatable if you can really call Hanson a boyband, because they actually played their own instruments and the like, but I'm including them because they had a big influence in bringing pop music back to the U.S.
     
    3.
     
    I call this, "The Video That Jumpstarted Puberty For Me." Brian Littrell was my first major celebrity crush.
     
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    5.
     
    6. "
     
    I crushed on Brian Littrell, but I was tooootttttttalllllyyyy obsessed with Nick Lachey once 98 Degrees hit. Totally. I had a picture of him in my diary and everything. I used to follow 98 Degrees fanfiction and everything.
     
    7.
     
    8.
     
    9. "
     
    10. "Misery" by The Moffats
     
    This one I'm hesitant about, because I don't know if I really consider the Moffats a boyband, but apparently they were, and this is a song that I used to have teenaged angst to, so I'm going with this.
     
    11. "
     
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    Again I was obsessed with Nick Lachey.
     
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    I have no idea where I heard this one from, but I remember it anyway. Kinda weird. And what it is with this era and spiky blond tips?
     
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    18. "Here We Go" by N'Sync
     
    19.
     
    Rich Cronin was such a beautiful guy before cancer ravaged him. R.I.P.
     
    20.
     
    Well, Aaron Carter was kind of a boyband in himself, wasn't he? Dear god I remember 8th grade girls who wouldn't shut up about him. Me? I thought he was too young and blond for me even when I was 14. LOL.
     
    21.
     
    When I was 16-ish and saw this video, the video was silly because they looked like middle schoolers. Now that I'm nearly 30 and watching this, I want to laugh my ass off because they all look about 10.
     
    Jesse McCartney...he sure did grow up nice though, didn't he?
     
    22.
     
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    God, Kristen Dunst was really everywhere when she was a teenager, wasn't she? No wonder she got "exhausted".
     
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    The double entendre of this song wasn't lost on me when I was 15.
     
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    I love the irony of this song- about how pop was never fading out, yet pop imploded in the following year of the 2002 in the U.S. Boybands and pop stuck around the U.K. and other countries, but it died in the U.S. until the Jonas Brothers came around circa 2006-2007...I think it's largely because 9/11 really changed the mood of the country. Also, likely because the people that supported the late 90's pop explosion had grown up and were more interested in hip-hop by the time they were in high school/college.
     
    Also, seriously, I loved Nick Lachey sooooo much.
     
    Finally...damn, check out how baggy all the pants are. Seriously, it's hilarious.
  4. methodwriter85
    Hey, guys, I just ran across this article about a young guy who became an urban pioneer in Detroit in Detroit when he was 23...check it out. It's shockingly good, because really, who expects to read something good from Buzzfeed?
     
    Why I Bought A House in Detroit for $500 by Drew Philp
     
    I thought the article was really fascinating- somewhere between the story of, "Look, Downtown Detroit has a Whole Foods now!" and "Ruins of Detroit." It's pretty honest- the guy came in with some very idealistic intentions, and things didn't pan out exactly how he wanted them to, but in the process Drew saw a lot of grit and kindness against a backdrop of overwhelming despair and ruin.
     
    I also think it's really interesting that Philp, after a few years of living there, seems to have developed a bit of disdain towards the "new" people that are moving to Detroit- the ones that are rebuilding Downtown Detroit and are part of the whole artsty Detroit crowd. His comment about Whole Foods, I thought, was interesting:
     
    My interpretation of that remark is that Drew Philp identifies with his neighbors, like the friend who told him the story about the Native Americans...like he's part of the down-and-gritty fabric of the community, and while he's glad to be able to a shop at Whole Foods, the broader implications of having a Whole Foods in Detroit means he's supporting a vision of the city that he doesn't necessarily agree in. Philp doesn't seem to have much use for the Hipster Vision of Downtown Detroit. He also seemed rather disdainful of the divesting plans, as well as the "farm" idea, but doesn't really offer up any solutions.
     
    I grew up in Suburban America...you can't get much more American Suburbia than Northern Delaware, where people have their developments listed on their licenses because there aren't that many incorporated towns, and new stripmalls pop up every year to try and lure out-of-state shoppers to take advantage of our sales-tax free status. The bulk of neighborhoods around here in my suburb were built around the 1970's to early 1990's. People don't talk to each other. There are no neighborhood schools or Mom and Pop stores. That's why I'm really fascinated by stories about "community"- because you don't really experience it that much when you're from a suburb.
     
    I definitely would love to visit Detroit someday- there's something very visceral about the photos of Detroit that makes me want to see for myself what it's really like.
  5. methodwriter85

    New Year's 2014

    By methodwriter85,

    Happy New Year's everybody.
    I've spent the day being massively hungover. For the most part, these days whenever I go out, I have at most 2 beers, because I'm my own designated driver. But last night, I went to a house party and they allowed us to crash there, so I went way harder than I normally do- two Yuenglings, 1 Negron Modelo, 2 Harvest ales, a double shot of Whiskey, and champagne.
    At 21 in college, I could have consumed all that plus smoke a joint and felt fine the next day.
     
    But 8 drinks apparently equals "completely wrecked the whole next day" for me now. Kinda funny. I can't remember the last time I had a hangover this bad.
     
    In any event, I did have fun. It's the house of a friend of a friend. He lives in the upper-middle class suburb of Pike Creek, so his parent's house was pretty nice. It wasn't a full-on rager, but still a decent amount of people. I wound up crashing on a couch sometime around 3 a.m., and woke up around 10 a.m.
     
    All in all, pretty nice way to ring in 2014. I kind of felt like, "So this is what it was like to go to parties thrown by upper middle-class kids in high school." LOL.
  6. methodwriter85
    I thought I was going to do this in three parts, but it looks like I'll probably have to do five parts. LOL.
     
    Part 4
     
    1. "Killing Me Softly" by the Fugees
     
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    5. "
     
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    7. "You Only Get What You Give" by The New Radicals
     
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    19. "Brimful of Asha" by Cornshop (Norman Cooke Remix)
     
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  7. methodwriter85
    1.
     
    2. "Sitting Up In My Room" by Brandy
     
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    4. "Scream" by Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson
     
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    8. "The Macarena" by Los Del Rios
     
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    22. "I Don't Want to Wait" by Paula Cole
     
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    Stephen Jenkens circa 1997. Goddman he was hot.
     
    29.
     
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    This song was hot when I was graduating from 5th grade, so for that reason, I associate this song with my elementary school graduation. Which is kind of weird, but there you go. Later on, I'd associate it with singing karoke at the end of the night at Spaghetti Benders, which makes way more sense.
  8. methodwriter85
    Friday I went to this alumni lunch deal at my old high school, where I get a free Bobbie hoagie and sit around and watch current students do a Holiday showcase.
     
    I talked to some people about my friend Steve's death...when I mentioned that he died a drug overdose, almost all of them asked me, "So did they rule out suicide?"
     
    I mean, I get the question, and on an intellectual level I get it, but a part of me just felt pissed off. Pissed off that my friend Steve is going to be dismissed by people who didn't know him as some druggie who took his own life, and pissed off that Steve for going out the way he did. I don't know. I almost feel like it would be easier if Steve had died of a car accident, but he left the way he left, and I feel like omitting how he died would kind of be like I'm shaming him for it. I refuse to do that.
     
    I got told by an e-friend that they think I'm idealizing him because as he put it, heroin is not a social drug and it's used by people who have a massive ability to cope with life., and I do wonder about that. I really want to believe that Steve's heroin use was a one-time thing, and he just accidentally overdosed. I absolutely refuse to believe that Steve did this intentionally- Steve had just 1 paper left before he was going to officially be Mr. Therapist. He was finally going to be done with college, after years of bitching about how much he hated school. There was some chick he planned to bang at Thanksgiving. There's no way he'd intentionally check out like this when he was so close to being done. I don't think Steve joined the 27 Club on purpose. I refuse to believe it.
     
    Anyway...tonight I went Christmas caroling. I have an awful voice, but it was fun. There some rinky dink Christmas parade at this nearby small town that I went to, and at times I just ran and shouted out, "Merry Christmas, Bedford Falls!" It just nice to laugh like that. Earlier I just looked out over the Delaware River...it was a really nice, unseasonably warm day, and nothing relaxes me more than being near the water. It was great.
  9. methodwriter85
    Sounds of A 90's Childhood Playlist, Part 1
     
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    3. Love Will Never Do - Janet Jackson
     
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    12. 2 Legit 2 Quit - MC Hammer
     
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    22. To Be With You - Mr. Big
     
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    28. Everything I Do (I Do It For You) - Bryan Adams
     
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    30. Losing My Religion - REM
     
    It pisses me off soooo much they didn't get the rights for "Losing My Religion" on the Beverly Hills, 90210 DVD. I'm sorry, that IS the song that defines the break-up and teenaged angst of Brenda and Dylan, damn it!
     
    Anyway, I did this all off the top of my head. Damn. I guess what they say about music imprinting really is true.
  10. methodwriter85
    It's been two weeks since my friend Stephen died. I checked out his FB page, and found a link to his obituary.
     
    It's so strange. I've actually had this habit since I was 11 or 12 years old of reading obituaries. This guy in high school said I was morbid for doing so, but I've always liked reading about the interesting and long lives of people who lived through things like World War II or the Great Depression. I also like to visit cemeteries, check out tombstones, read the dates, and imagine what sort of lives these people might have lived, especially the ones who lived a long time. I felt a bit of sadness for the ones who didn't get much of a lifetime...and now...now I'm dealing with reading an orbit of someone that I really loved and cared about, with so many memories of I can't possibly list them all out.
     
    1986 to 2013. Seriously. That's it. That's fucking it. It's all my friend Stephen got. It feels obscene. And his orbit just feels so generic, rose-colored, and stock-character. Not that I'm going to rail against his parents for that, of course.
     
    It's just a reminder that you can't fit a whole person's life in a couple of lines. It's impossible to convey that. It's impossible to cite specific memories like the time I listened to him bitch about this snobby resident who made fun of his clothes, or when we watched a squirrel eating a Chik-Fil-A waffle fry while perched on a garbage bin in front of Willard Hall. Or when we were in Dunkin Donuts and I told him that I wrote his name as "Stever" in my cell phone, and he just grabbed my phone and changed it because "Stever" was a nickname that he absolutely refused to go with.
     
    I keep being afraid that in thirty years, I'm going to forget what his voice sounds like, or not be able to remember little moments like the ones I listened above. Like I said, Steve and I didn't have a dramatic friendship- mainly just made up of little moments. I keep going in my head, trying to remember as much as I can about him, like how he moved and how he talked, so that he stays fresh and 3-d in my head, because I don't want him to fade into memories as some generic nice former college friend that died when we were just three years out of college. At 50-something, I want my memories of him to be as vibrant as they are now.
     
    I had an e-friend tell me that he was worried that I was idealizing the guy, but I think I'm actually actively trying NOT to do that, because I want to keep him in my mind as he was, not who I wanted him to be. I feel like if I do that, I'll be able to keep him "real", in a sense. So I want to remember the warts. There's this part of me that's so pissed off that Steve flushed away all of his potential to try out heroin, and I keep wondering if maybe I had called him that night something might have been different.
     
    But then there's the logical part of me that knows that there isn't anything I could have done. I know it and I accept it. Still.
     
    I'm past the intense grieving...still some cries now and then, but not the intense sobbing that I experienced in the first few days, sobbing so intense I needed to hold on to something to stay up. I can even laugh and feel happy about something now, although I'm still mostly just going through the motions, and not a day goes by that I don't think of him.
     
    I even managed to have fun on my 28th birthday, although a part of me just kept thinking about the fact that Steve will never have a 28th birthday. He'll never become the great counselor that I knew he was going to become, and all of the people that he was going to help...he can't now. It's such a colossal waste of a man that I knew was going to do great things with his life.
     
    It's weird. I was jealous of Steve. I thought he had it more together than I did, I knew the guy had far more of a superior brain than I did, and I was jealous that he pretty much had a job guaranteed for him as a grief counselor once he got his degree. Steve wasn't going to flail around post-Grad like I've been doing.
     
    But now that bright future has been wiped out. And I feel like I kind of lost my Quarterback, in a sense. Who am I going to call when I know I need a verbal bitchslap on all of my B.S.? Who is going to be brutally honest with me about where I might be going wrong? And who will have all of that backed up by the fact that we grew up with each other in college? No one. I'll never have that again. I'll make friends, but as someone once said to me...the friends who grew up with you understand you in a way that the friends that you made as an older person don't. The one person in this world that understood everything there was to know about 21 to 24 year old Jeremy...that guy's gone, and I can't ever replace that.
     
    I kind of feel like there's this part of me that is gone now, and I'll never be quite the same again. I know I'll recover, and I am recovering, but I can't ever go back entirely to who I was two weeks ago.
  11. methodwriter85

    My Friend Stephen

    By methodwriter85,

    In college, I had a friend named Stephen R. I actually had a lot of friends named Stephen, but he was honestly my favorite one. We met one afternoon in Kent Dining Hall at the University of Delaware at the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year. I was eating lunch, and this tall, lanky blond kid who was pale as fuck asked if he could eat lunch with me. We ate lunch, then we hung out in his room. Stephen had this small single at the top of Sussex/Squire Hall. We got high, then spent the day walking aimlessly around Newark, Delaware's Main Street, before we ate burgers in the Korner Diner, this greasy spoon that was a wonderful cross-section of humanity before it closed down in 2008. I laughed my ass off as we ate shitty burgers, and 21-year old me didn't know it then, but I had started what would become one of the most meaningful friendships I would ever have in my life.
     
    We spent that fall '07 semester building a friendship, just hanging out, getting high or drunk, and the typical shenanigans of 21-year old college students. Steve and I couldn't have been any more different- he was this laidback, genius but apathetic stoner from northern New Jersey who liked just hanging in his dorm and talking, while I was this perky, nerdy Delaware kid who worshiped at the altar of a good rager. We'd always have dinner together, and often lunch as well. I lived in Smyth, which was just a short walk over from his dorm, which made it easy for us to hang out all the time. One night, at a party, on Cleveland Avenue, I wound up coming out to him. I kept bugging him and this other guy to kiss, because I had become immensely fascinated with watching straight guys kiss in YouTube videos, and wanted to see it in real life. That's (no brainer) when Steve asked if I was gay, I said yeah, and he told me, "Alright then. That's cool." As we walked back home from the party, two guys walked up to us, and asked if the girl that was with them was fuckable. I said, "I wouldn't know, because I only fuck guys." The looks on their faces was hilarious, and Steve and I just laughed as we continued walking back to our dorms on South Green. Steve was the first straight guy friend I ever had that I was totally open with, and he'd have this habit of telling people that I was gay so I wouldn't have to, because as Stephen basically put it, "People won't have a problem with you being gay if you don't have one, man. It's not a big deal so don't treat it that way." That was the thing about Steve- he was entirely comfortable in his own skin, while I was this jumpy kid who felt like he had to flit from role to role in order to get people to like me. I learned to relax and become comfortable with myself because of him.
     
    When I got hospitalized for depression around my 22nd birthday, Steve was the only one who cared enough to try and call me in there. I'd never had that before- someone that I knew would always have my back no matter what. This was reiterated to me a few months later, when we had our first, and pretty much only fight- at 21/22 I had this habit of liking to call people drunk, otherwise known as "drunk dialing". I thought it was hilarious. But Steve didn't think so, especially when I did it at 2 or 3 a.m., and he called me back and said, "Don't call me anymore." I was pretty hurt, and I felt like I had screwed up a really good friendship, like I always did. Imagine my surprise when Steve called me up a day or two later, and we apologized to each other and the friendship continued.
     
    Don't get me wrong- Stephen wasn't perfect. Far from it. He could be a pretty arrogant son of a bitch at times. It often annoyed me how Steve wasn't into going to the big ragers at UD because he preferred smaller, more intimate crowds, which exasperated my wannabe "party king" self. Steve also had this really annoying habit of dictating what we did when we hung out. If Steve didn't want to do something or go somewhere, he flat out wouldn't do it. For example, I wanted to watch Waiting for a movie night, and Steve basically said "Fuck that" and we saw Alpha Dog instead. Steve could be brutally honest with you if you annoyed him, and if he didn't like you, he did very little to hide it. Steve was also very disdainful of school, and often talked about how he couldn't wait to get out, start his career, and make money. His general apathy about college could get me pretty annoyed, especially because I was of the "This is college, let's live college life to the fullest!" mindset, and hanging out with him watching TV in his Dorm while drinking didn't seem like it. But I also knew that I had a friend who would stand by me, and his brutal honesty had a way of keeping me on my toes and learning how to regulate my social behavior with people.
     
    In 2009, I came back to University of Delaware to finish out my last 3 semesters, and that's when I met Steve's group of residents- Ian, James, Justin, Anthony, and Tony. Ian was this chill as shit redhead stoner from Vermont- basically, Steve's brother from another mother. James was this pint-sized, bulked up conservative guy who was basically born to become a frat boy. (I was apparently the first gay friend he ever had.) Justin was the Jew from Rhode Island- this guy who was totally innocent at the start of college who had been corrupted by Steve with the copious amounts of weed they smoked. Anthony was this Long Island musician, while Tony was this quirky hipster type with a keen interest in working with university admissions as a student guide. We all became friends because of Steve. I had never had a tight group of friends like that before- I have always been more of a floater who hovers close by but never actually gets in. I remember watching St. Elmo's Fire when I was in 12th grade, and thinking, "Wow, I want a tight group of friends like that!" But that was a movie, and my over-eagerness to have a tight group of friends freshmen year actually had the opposite effect of turning off a lot of people. But my senior year of college, I did, and it just happened. It didn't look like what I had pictured- I had thought of big trips, big moments, high drama, big parties, and lots of maudlin, sentimental moments, like on Beverly Hills 90210 or something. It wasn't like that at all- mainly just college boys sitting around a dorm, drinking, and talking about our lives. Well, okay, there were some big ragers in there such as the '09 Skidfest Soapbox Puke Incident, too..And there was also swine flu, but luckily no major catastrophes.
     
    In the summer of '09, Steve and I were both taking summer session. He had this big-ass dorm on Ray Street to himself, and we spent that summer basically getting drunk in his dorm after class while watching re-runs of That 70's Show. We actually celebrated his 23rd birthday that summer...it was a fun summer. It was great not having to pass out on his floor since there was an extra bed, and I met more summer buddies through him. On weekend nights, we'd smoke pot and drink by this tree next to a basketball court by the dorm. By day, I'd drive home early in the morning with the beginning of a hangover. It was the perfect way to spend a college summer.
     
    Senior year came and went. I continued my friendships with Steve, as well as the Dickenson Hall Crew. I remember Halloween '09...I had dressed as a cop to hang out with them in Ian's North Green sophomore year dorm, and Steve joked, "Dude, you look like a gay stripper." He often liked to point out whenever he thought I was wearing something ridiculous, like my 1980's vintage Members Only Jacket. LOL. Because it was senior year, I kept trying to do "senior year bucket list" things, and Steve resisted me at every turn. Tried as I might, I could not get Steve to tailgate college football with me, because you were just not going to get that guy out of bed before 2 p.m. on a Saturday. (I was able to do that with Ian and James, though.) Our friendship that year basically continued over Happy Hour talks at Deer Park Tavern, at La Tonaltecca, at Buffalo Wild Wings, and of course, his R.A. dorm at Dickinson Hall B. Towards the end of senior year, Steve and I were at Skidfest 2010, this legendary University of Delaware music festival held for 20 years. (This would turn out to be the last one, as nearby Barnes and Noble basically put pressure on the city to deny the event any kind of permit.) I snapped this photo of Steve while we were hanging out on the porch of Skid Row:
     

     
    It was the only photo I ever took of him- Steve wasn't the sentimental type, and I didn't have a cell phone camera until mid-senior year. But I remember when I took it, I really loved the photo- for a crappy cell phone camera, I thought it captured exactly how I saw Steve. He was a guy who was thoughtful- not the happiest dude around, or someone you'd always see with a smile on his face, but someone you knew had a lot of insight to share. Smart as a whip, and keenly observant of every one and everything.
     
    True to form, Steve didn't stick around for graduation. We didn't have a "proper" good-bye, just a chat at Buffalo Wild Wings before hanging out a little bit at his dorm. There would be no "Look, we made it!" smiling graduation pictures with us, like I got with my high school friends or my grad school friends. That did actually piss me off, because damn it, I thought that you needed a sappy good-bye to the tune of
    when you graduated from college. I did get to see Steve in person one more time- around August of 2010, he came back to visit Tony, Ant, and Justin at their house on Cleveland Avenue. We all ate dinner at La Tonaltecca, Steve's favorite Mexican restaurant, and just talked about the next upcoming year. They were going to be juniors, while we were going off to grad school. I told them about how I was going to have a roommate from Alabama and how I was worried he'd be some conservative bible freak, and then Steve joked and said, "You could be wrong, though. Maybe you'll meet your husband instead." (I didn't, and my roommate was nice but REALLY unattractive and apparently a pathological liar, but I digress.) Then we went back to their house, watched Super Stone Me, and that was about it, really. No big blow out, but just a pleasant evening with a group of people that I had become really good friends with, largely because of my friend Stephen. 
    After graduation, we managed to keep in touch...the longest we'd go without any kind of contact would maybe 2-3 months or so. Our lives had gone in other directions, and I wasn't the same guy that I was in college. I always knew though that if I really wanted to talk to him, I could call him and he'd be there to listen. I mean, Stephen listened to me rant during my Habitat for Humanity Spring Break 2011 trip for an hour about an asshole parent chaperone while I was at some Rhodeway Inn in the middle of Georgia at 12 a.m. Our final talk was on Facebook November 20th...Steve was telling me about how he had just one paper left to finish his counseling degree, and I joked that he should specialize in rich guido teen cokeheads so he'd make bank. I knew that Steve was going to make one hell of a counselor, and I knew Steve was going to help a lot of people.
     
    From August of 2007 to November of 2013, I had a friend named Stephen Rose. He was my stoner buddy from New Jersey,. He liked drinking Rolling Rock and making joints out of his Black and Mild cigars. Steve liked driving around the Elkton, Maryland countryside while smoking with his friends in the car. He liked listening to classical music and hip-hop, and had a prominent poster of Snoop Dog in his dorm room. Steve preferred having CD's over MP3 players, because he liked to "feel" his music. He never failed to tell me how annoying he thought my nearly-pathological nostalgia streak was. He hated big crowds, fake preppy people, and wasn't keen on school despite his insanely high intelligence level.
     
    Steve was a guy who basically knew everything there was to know about me from the ages of 21 to 24. There is no one else in this world I can say that about.This friendship didn't resemble the melodramatic, epic friendships I'd see on T.V....no huge drama or big moments. No maudlin moments. No sappy good-byes. No jumping around in water fountains to the tune of
    . But it was real, it meant a lot to me, and I've been forever shaped by having known him. 
    So, Steve, wherever you are, I hope you've got a Yuengling set aside for me at the bar when I'm ready to join you. In the meantime, just know that I couldn't be more grateful for the time I did get with you, even though it wasn't the decades that I imagined it being.
     
    R.I.P.
    Stephen Rose
    July 8, 1986 - November 29, 2013
  12. methodwriter85
    The memorials have already started on Steve's Facebook page. My friend Ian told me that Steve was still on life support the last time he talked to his dad, but they were basically planning on taking him off it to let him pass in his own bed instead of a hospital. It's entirely possible that he passed after Ian talked to his dad, hence the memorials.
     
    I can't do the Facebook memorial just yet. Not until Ian confirms it to me on the phone.
     
    There are just so many memories that I'm running through my head. Meeting him in Kent Dining Hall over Move-In Weekend for the 2007-2008 school year. We got stoned and then laughed our asses off while eating burgers at the now-defunct Korner Diner. The time he listened to me on the phone while I told him about my mother's liver cancer scare. The many, many times myself and his residents would party in his room. Or the time he hung out at my house, and he bitched about his off/on girlfriend while we made fun of this awful horror movie called Tamara. The summer of '09, when he had a big ass dorm to himself and we'd hang out in his room and watch reruns of That 70's Show. Or the time at Buffalo Wild Wings where I told him about how I had been accepted into a grad school 5 hours away from home, and Steve told me that maybe it might end up being the best time of my life. (Which it was.)
     
    I hung out with a friend tonight at Homegrown...one crying jag happened, but I was able to get it together. I decided afterwards that I'd walk around University of Delaware at night, and walked up to Dickenson, which was the dorm he was an R.A. for:
     

     
     
    I walked up there, a very familiar path that I walked for the many, many times I hung out with him and the friends I made because of him at Dickenson Hall, and I got sad. Then I walked around the building, and saw this bench that was built in the back patio of the dorm...a memory hit me.
     
    It was the last week of college for us...Steve, myself, and some random residents were sitting on the bench at at night and just talking. I can't remember remember the particulars of the conversation, just that there was this talk about ghosts and a girl who looked like JWoww from Jersey Shore until she got hit with the Freshmen 15. It wasn't a deep, meaningful memory...but it was night where I was hanging out with my friend Steve, and I knew it would be one of the last ones. We were young, we were about to move on from each other, and while I was inclined to be a dramatic mess about it, Steve just had this attitude- we'd always be each other's boys. I wanted to have this big good-bye moment with him, as I was weaned on the teary good-byes that accompanied series finales and the like. But with Steve, as he basically put it- there's no need for a big good-bye, because we'll always be friends, and we'd see each other when we'd see each other.
     
    I just stared at that fucking bench, man, and then the sobbing started again. I couldn't stop. I circled around the building, and stood on the sidewalk in front of the entrance with glass windows that showed off the stairs that Steve would always come down from to let me in on the many nights that we hung out in his dorm. Some illogical, little kid part of me really wanted to see him bound down those stairs and open up the door for me. (Just like how earlier tonight I called Steve's number, wanting to hear his voice.) Futile hope, of course. This is 2013 and it's not 2010 and my friend Steve is never going to bound down those steps again to let me in so we could get faced with his residents in the dorm.
     
    So many memories, so fucking intense that I can barely stand it. So I started talking outloud to Steve...like the dorm was him. I told Steve that he was a brother to me, and it was a privilege being his friend for 6 years. I told Steve how fucking glad I was that he decided to walk up to me in that lunch room six years ago, and that he taught me so much about what being a friend is. I told him that I'd never forget him as long as I lived, and I'd miss him for the rest of my life. I tried to say as much as I could, like if I did, somewhere out there Steve would know how much I loved him and how much I feel like knowing him made me a better person.
     
    Then I walked back to my car, and got hit with yet another intense crying jag. It took me awhile to pull myself together, but I was able to get it together enough to drive home. Now I feel calm again. It's weird how that happens- I get hit with such forceful emotions that I can do little to stop, and a calm takes over. I don't know how long it's going to be like this- I've dealt with grief before but not as sustained and intense as this.
     
    It's just so weird, and surreal. Two or so months ago, I was sympathizing with the cast of Glee trying to deal with Cory Montieth's heroin overdose, and wondering how they got through it. I'm not so much in their shoes as I'm not an actor on a t.v. show, but I'm in their shoes now in terms of dealing with the fact that someone you loved died of an accidental drug overdose. The emotions I'm having are so fucking complicated- love for Steve, joy that I had him in my life, and just this underlying anger that he left in the way that he did.
     
    I just don't know how I'm getting through this. I really don't know.
  13. methodwriter85
    My friend of 6 years, Stoner Steve as I've referred to him over the years, is in a coma after overdosing on heroin. He's had brain hemorrhaging and things aren't looking good for him. Our friend Ian let me know in a post over Facebook.
     
    I'm in total shock. Complete and totally. I had just talked to him on Facebook chat November 20th. According to Ian, Steve's dad found him on the floor on Saturday morning. They took him to the hospital, put him in a medically induced coma, and things were looking okay. But now they're not, which is why Ian decided to contact me.
     
    I just can't wrap my head around it. Steve is the only person from college that I've kept any kind of regular contact with. The guy was about to finish his master's degree, and unlike most grads in this
    economy, he had a job waiting for him. He's had his up's and down's, butfor the most part Steve didn't come off as nearly as crazy as he did in college.
     
    This guy is fucking intelligent, man. Like, seriously, I was in awe of how incredibly smart he was....I consider myself bright, but Steve was on a whole 'nother level. I joke that Steve's the kind of guy that
    could've cured cancer, had Steve actually liked school. We were just talking on the 20th, and I was telling him that he would make a great counselor to adolescents, given the bang-up pro-bono job Steve did with
    me back in college. It's seriously going to be a massive waste if he dies, or he winds up a vegetable.
     
    Steve taught me how to be a friend to people- how to listen and how to be yourself and relax and not focus so much on trying to impress people into being your friend. I really, really thought that someday
    we'd be 50 years old, meeting up at some UD alumni reunion that I begged him to go to(because Steve was NOT big on that shit), and we'd have one of our typical chats where he calls me on all of my b.s. while I joked to him about how he was the most unethical R.A. that ever existed yet still got a commendation from the university president.
     
    I can say that I have two true friends in this world. He's one of them. I don't know what I'll do without having Steve as my friend.
  14. methodwriter85
    So, here's what happened to me. I worked a retail job for the
    Holidays last year. This year, I was told by the same retail job at the
    Holiday job fair that I would get to come back and do the seasonal job
    again. I came in a week later and asked to leave a message with the
    person who told me I was hired, but then they never got back to me.
     
    Lo and behold, I came in today to find out what was going on and they
    told me that (shocker) I wasn't hired. They told me some bullshit excuse
    about how they had me so far back in the line and they were so busy with
    background checks for others that I fell off. Which was bullshit,
    because I was told I was going to be hired on October 17th. My guess is
    that the person who wanted to hire me back got overruled, and they
    didn't have the guts to let me know that they didn't want me back. I
    would have been fine if they had told that they decided that I wasn't a
    fit for the job. I would have taken an email or a phone call, but I got
    neither.
     
    It definitely sucked and I spent two hours on the phone
    commiserating with my friend Seth, who's also going through unemployment
    blues. He's gearing up to do a doctorate (which I really think is the
    best idea for him)...meanwhile I'm giving myself another year while
    looking into jobs with the possibility of getting another master's
    degree. (An urban planning degree to compliment my public history
    degree, as I think I want to specialize in the history of urban
    renewal.) The hiring window for my field is strongest from about January
    to March, so I need to get myself up for this again.
     
    Like Seth said to me, there's no real way to make this feel better
    or comfort me, and all I can do is dust myself off and go back on the
    application trail. 2013 wasn't a total wash for me- I gained 6 months of
    field experience with my volunteering at the local museum, but I think
    it's safe to say I won't look back at my 27th year with any great
    fondness.
     
    Any of you got a "Blues" tale today? *orders a beer and listens
    expectantly*
  15. methodwriter85
    I'll start out with my disappointments.
     
    I really hated that they took out Johanna's "I don't care if you are knocked out, I'll rip your throat out" line, as well as the Second Quarter Quell. I was expecting that they would take them out, but I was hoping I was wrong. I think they should have kept in the foreshadowing about District 13 somewhere- I get why they cut out Bonnie and Twill, but they should have found another way to foreshadow them. I think they should've put in a little more about District 12- it's hard to feel that much loss about it considering we met very few District 12 people- we didn't even see Gale or Peeta's family. I also thought we should have seen more of the Careers- I mean, even a small scene where they discuss their plans would've worked.
     
    In terms of the positives, I absolutely loved the shot of the turkey turning into Marvel, in order to show Katniss's PSTD, as well as Katniss's nightmares.
     
    Jena Malone absolutely stole the show. I've liked Jena Malone since seeing Life as As A House and Saved and I'm glad she's getting a big spotlight. She was perfection in the part- the stripping scene was even more hilarious in the movie than it was in the book, and she was pitch-perfect. And the scene where she and Katniss go off to the jungle with Katniss clearly not wanting to had just the right amount of tension, leading up to Johanna ripping out the tracker.
     
    I did think their interpretation of Finnick was interesting- he was a bit more silent, and he didn't feel as much of a friend to Katniss, which is why it makes sense that she really thought about killing him. I do hope they bring back more of Katniss's great friendship banter with Finnick in the third movie. I also hope they tone down the make-up- he was far more attractive in the jungle scenes without the heavy make-up they had on him earlier in the movie. The thick bronzer made Finnick look like he had far more wrinkles than a 24-year old should have. (Although I'm wondering about the age thing, because apparently Annie Cresta's games were only 5 years ago, making her 23, but the woman they picked for Annie is clearly in her early/mid-30's. Eh, at least she's not playing a teenager.)
     
    I think Liam Hemsworth improved a lot from the first film, and I'm looking forward to seeing what he does with the plot of Mockingjay. Although I really didn't think they should have had them kiss more than once- one of the bits about Gale and Katniss's relationship is that there's an ambiguity to it- Gale clearly loves her, while Katniss is more ambiguous. She COULD love him as more than a brother, but can't entertain those feelings while they're stuck in such a harsh, brutal existence. I felt like they clearly played up the love triangle here more than the book did.
     
    Effie's character growth was so well-done by Elizabeth Banks- you can really feel the difference between the first reaping scene, and this second one. Effie was a bundle of joy in the Hunger Games and was excited at the action of having someone volunteer for the Games, but now that she's grown fond of Katniss, it's much harder for her to pull out the slip of paper. And the gold bracelet scene was so subtle but beautifully conveyed that Effie was now completely on their side.
     
    The Rue tribute and ensuing execution scene were so well-done. Really translated beautifully. Did you guys notice that Rue's family didn't have the father, which would suggest that he had been killed in the District 11 uprising from the first film? What a great detail. I was really also glad that they kept in Peeta's painting of Rue, which was one of my favorite bits from the book.
     
    Finally, I loved the last scene, of Katniss going through the shock, sadness, and then steely determination for revenge all playing out on her face.
     
    Overall, I thought the movie was a strong sequel- it lacked the cinema verite style that the first one had, but I was pleased. Bring on Mockinjay!
  16. methodwriter85
    The Grunge Era Playlist, Part II
     
    1.
     
    2.
     
    3. She Don't Use Jelly by the Flaming Lips
     
    4. Under the Bridge by The Red Hot Chilli Peppers
     
    5. Spin the Bottle by Juliana Hatfield
     
    6. Lump by The Presidents of the United States of America
     
    7.
     
    8.
     
    9.
     
    10.
     
    11.
     
    12.
     
    13.
     

     
    15.
     
    16.
     
    17.
     
    18.
     
    19.
     
    20.
     
    21. The Distance by Cake
     
    22.
     
    23.
     
    24. Ledbetter by Pearl Jam
     
    25.
     
    Someone in the comment section for "Sex Type Thing" called it the Blurred Lines of the 90's. Eh, I can kinda see it.
  17. methodwriter85
    So, grunge is something I remember and love from my childhood. Here are some great Grunge Era tunes. (I deem the Grunge Era as being about 1991 to 1996, with the Grunge Era officially over when Hanson and Spice Girls ruled the charts in 1997.)
     
    1.
     
    2.
     
    3.
     
    4.
     
    5.
     
    6.
     
    7.
     
    8.
    (I have gotten jokes about this since I was 5.) 
    9.
     
    10.
     
    11.
     
    12.
     
    13. Soul to Squeeze- Red Hot Chili Peppers
     
    14.
     
    15.
     
    16.
     
    17.
     
    18.
     
    19.
     
    20.
     
    21.
     
    22.
     
    23.
     
    24.
     
    25.
     
    Grunge is without a doubt my favorite Gen Xer contribution to the world. I really wish I could have been born in 1975 instead of 1985 so I could've experienced the Grunge Era as a college student instead of as an elementary school kid.
  18. methodwriter85
    This week marks the 5th anniversary of the passing of a very lovely online friend and member of the community, author Dan Kincaid/Sam. (He died, I believe, on either October 25th of 2008, or October 26th.) I only had the privilege of corresponding with him for a few months before he died, but I'm really glad we did. Back in those days, Adam and I were...well, let's just say that we had somewhat of a personality clash going on, and Sam was really good at being a mediator.
     
    He was a very sweet, caring person, which you felt while reading his bio story,It Started With Brian . Sam was also unbelievably smart, too, which is why I felt so honored whenever the guy would tell me that he found me to be a pretty bright person, if prone to being annoying to above-25 people. Sam had a way of making you feel like he cared a lot about you, and I definitely miss having the conversations we used to have. When I was 22, I was going through an extremely rough patch in my life (I'd say it was the lowest point of my life), and Sam would often call me out on my bullshit and try to encourage me to do better and feel better. He would constantly tell me that I'd turn out fine, when at 22 I was this big fucking neurotic mess with little to think about except my next college rager, and how bitter I was about my troubled upbringing. This, while the guy himself knew that he wouldn't live to see his 35th birthday. But that's the kind of guy Sam was, and why this world is a little bit sadder and a little bit darker without someone like him around doing his best to make things better for those around him.
     
    Strange to think he's been gone 5 years, and that Adam is now 34, the same age that Sam was when he passed. I really hope that Sam's life partner and his son (who should be about 17 now) are doing well. And I like to think that somewhere, Sam smiled when I got my graduate degree from IUP last year with a 3.75 G.P.A.
     
    Anyway...*throws back SoCo Lime shot over shoulder* Here's to you, Sam. Those who were privileged to have known you will never forget you.
  19. methodwriter85
    So, I've been re-watching Saturday Night Fever on Netflix (seriously, the R-rated version is soooo much better than the one that ran on TV), and I've been in the mood for some good disco.
     
    Here's my playlist:
     
    1.
     
    2.
     
    3. You Should Be Dancing - The BeeGees
     
    4.
     
    5.
     
    6. Night Fever- The BeeGees
     
    7.
     
    8. I Feel Love- Donna Summer
     
    9.
     
    10.
     
    11.
    (Disco didn't die in Europe 'til like '84, apparently.) 
    12.
     
    13.
     
    14.
     
    15.
     
    16.
     
    17.
     
    18.
     
    19.
     
    20.
  20. methodwriter85
    So, there's this Youtube vid that's already garned 183k views after being out for a day, and I thought it had some pretty thought-provoking material there:
     

     
    If I'm interepreting this video correctly, it seems to be saying: "Please do not denigrate our generation as being lazy and self-indulgent, because we're not as far along in established life goals as the Baby Boomers were. Our parents brought us all up to think that we were special, without having to really work much towards being special. Therefore, we were shocked when we graduated with an average 30k in college debt(which you guys are responsible for jacking up tuition, BTW) and no chance at a decent job (which is the fault of you Baby Boomers for gutting manufacturing in the 90's and creating the housing bubble), and we're facing a massive federal deficit to pay off because of the two quagmire wars that your generation began. Oh, and since you guys didn't save anything towards retirement, you're not retiring in droves like you should be, keeping the Gen Xers in middle-management and us either in entry-level or shut out completely. But yes, given that you guys are so awesome and did such wonderful things for our country, we'll try harder to model ourselves on you!"
     
    Pretty scathing, I thought. Is it valid criticism, or do you find it whining self-entitlement?
     
    I lean towards thinking that it'll be nice when the Baby Boomers finally start retiring more (the Baby Boom peaked in 1957, I believe, so the bulk of them should be retirement age by 2022), but I think the processes that they're talking about are far more complex than just the narrative of, "The Greedy Baby Boomers fucked us all over!"
     
    For example, with college tuition...my impression is that the reason why college tuition went up so high is based on several factors. The first is that there was an Echo Boom, so college populations expanded in the late 90's and 2000's after being dormant in the late 1970's through the early 90's, which seems like the last time period college was actually pretty affordable. (Seriously, I listen to Gen Xers tell me what they paid for tutition and I want to weep.) When college populations expanded after being dormant for so long, colleges had to scramble to keep up with the demand, leading to major college renovation/projects. Students had higher expectations for their dorms and general campus buildings, and since the 1960's/1970's era buildings that were put up to house the Baby Boomer College explosion were substandard, they were replaced with brand-new sparkling buildings. It made the colleges more competitive with the potential freshman giving tours, but those costs had to be passed on somewhere, right?
     
    I don't feel like I know enough about the gutting of the manufacturing, the gutting of unions, and the 90's housing bubble to try and explain the complexities, though...
     
    Although I will say...didn't the Silent Generation actually have a lot of power throughout the 80's and the 90's? I'm not really sure it's accurate to say that all of that happened under the Baby Boomer's watch- yes, we've had a Baby Boomer president since 1992 (Obama is borderline Baby Boomer/Generation X), but I don't really feel like the Baby Boomers had a monopoly of power since the 80's that they used to drive all the major direction of this country.
     
    What are your thoughts, if any, that you have any on this subject?
  21. methodwriter85
    So, history was made last night when the first Indian-American Miss America was crowned. And quite predictably, racist comments were made. Ugh. Here's this wonderful response video by a guy basically saying what I think about this:
     

     
    America is basically defined by the fact that it's a melting pot that has never had any kind of singular culture, given the fact that it's the size of a continent. Even before Columbus got here, you had a pretty big variety, from the Mohawks to theLenni Lenape to the Plains Indians.
     
    There was a time when the Irish weren't considered American. Being Italian was a taboo well into the 20th century. And if you proclaimed to be Catholic? Woo-wee.
     
    I guess this is the price we have to pay for the freedom of speech- having to listen to bigots spout off really horrid things.
  22. methodwriter85
    University of Delaware students rampage for "I'm Schmacked"
     
    Well, it could have been worse. It could have been like Penn State, who threw a hissy tantrum riot because Joe Paterno was fired for allowing Jerry Sandusky to live outside of prison walls for another 13 years and molest even more boys. Check out the party footage here:
     

     
    It's funny to watch this, considering that I've walked over that pedestrian bridge umpteen times. I also think it's hilarious because University of Delaware, since the mid-1990's, has been working hard to diminish it's state party school rep from the 1980's. This included banning organized outdoor charity concert festivals like ChapelFest and my personal fave, Skidfest. This incident just reinforced in my mind that college kids will be college kids, and for all the pearl-clutching of the establishment that wants to try and "protect the children from binge drinking!", they'll find their own ways to have fun.
     
    I'm guessing this means that President Harker's attempts to sell University of Delaware as the next University of Virginia has hit a snag?
  23. methodwriter85
    I wanted to post this in the lounge, but I thought the topic of Education in America could get political really quick. There's this video making the rounds on YouTube, where a students rants against what he deems a lazy teacher because she hands out work packets instead of actally teaching. Here's the video:
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQlPGK9wYkg
     
    And here's the Teens React episode:
     

     
    I do think Jeff Bliss hits a nerve- there is a deep fracture in how children are currently taught in much of the public school system of the United States. I was fortunate enough to attend a public high school where the bulk of teachers actually tried to teach instead of just handing out packets, but it did happen. But then you also get students who have teachers that try to "touch the heart", and they're just not having it either. It's a bit of a two way street- kids become apathetic and bored because they're put in large public schools that try to have a one-size-fits-all approach to education, and teachers become jaded from year after year of having to teach students with increasingly limited resources.
     
    I'm a believer in tailoring education to student needs and interests, which is why I believe that that the traditional public school system should be replaced with charter schools and magnet schools. I think that way, you get a much more engaged student body, because they actually want to be there because they're following an education plan that suits them. In turn, that encourages teachers to actually want to teach. I aso believe that tenure needs to be abolished, so that teachers are forced to evolve and adapt to new teaching methods instead of being allowed to stay stale because they have tenure.
     
    What do all of you think about what makes a good teacher? How have the good teachers stuck with you? What do you guys think makes a bad teacher? How do you think the system should be changed to create better teachers?
  24. methodwriter85
    The O.C.'s 10 Year Playlist
    1.
    - Phantom Planet2.
    - South3.
    - Fountains of Wayne4.
    - Finley Quaye5
    6.
    - Alexi Murdoch7.
    - The Dandy Warhols8.
    - Jeff Buckley9.
    - Placebo
    The O.C. really had such an incredible soundtrack. I'm glad they used indie music for the most part, so that the soundtrack hasn't been gutted on the DVD's.
  25. methodwriter85
    I found this really well-written blog post about Ronald Reagan's rise from B-movie stardom to the Republican President Idol he became.
     
    Ronald Reagan Plays the President
     
    The blog basically contends that Ronald Reagan mastered the art of looking sympathetic while simultaneously screwing over the people he was supposed to represent while he was SAG president. I gotta say, she makes her case pretty well. I can't believe the amount of actors he fucked over- no residuals for films that actors made before 1960? Damn, that's horrible.
     
    Here's my favorite passage about from the blog:
     
    I obviously love stars, and what stars can mean to different swaths of people. But what draws me and other scholars to study them isn't their glamour but their tremendous ideological potency — a potency that can be wielded, at the risk of sounding melodramatic, for good or for evil, for justice or for exploitation. Oftentimes, the star him- or herself has very little to do with what their image is made to represent, which, as so many of these columns have pointed out, can also be stardom's tragedy. Reagan was obviously manipulated by others, but he did not hesitate to manipulate in turn. What he did to the members of the Screen Actors Guild, he did again, only on a larger scale, to the people of the United States. And because he was a star, because his image of compassionate American goodness was so strong, it was easy to see what he appeared to represent instead of what he was actually doing.
     
    I don't remember the Reagan presidency, but I do think it's interesting how he seems to be one of the most polarizing presidents I've come across. People either idolize him to mythological proportions, or they hate everything he represented about America in the 1980's. (This AIDS documentary called We Were Here particularly crucifies him for his lack of action in the wake of the AIDS crisis.)
     
    The Reagan that this author tries to paint basically comes off as a middling actor with not much to commend him but a pretty face, who at middle-age and realizing his screen idol sell-by date had come to pass, made deals that made him insanely wealthy while simultaneously stabbing his fellow actors in the back. But because his deals had made him a mainstay on American television, the American public grew to like his wholesome, likeable image, which combined with said wealth would eventually help him ride his way into the White House.
     
    So not a nice guy, not quite a devil...but someone who looked out for himself, got rich doing it, and convinced people that he was a swell guy by looking pretty while saying the right lines written by other people along the way. As a result, Reagan grew more and more powerful, until he literally became the most powerful man in the Western Hempisphere for 8 years.
     
    What I find interesting about Reagan is that he represents the culmination of "star power" and "political power"...that was true of JFK to some extent, but it really gelled with him. Do you guys think that Reagan took his star power and yielded it to eventually screw over not just actors but the entire country, or was there some good that came out of his presidency?
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