methodwriter85

I honestly can't tell if you're being for real or snarky. I did read somewhere that upper-middle class WASP's do like clothes that last a long, long time.

Mark, I now have the mental image of you owning a pair of vintage Sperry size 12 topsiders from 1981 that have been lovingly maintained since you bought them as a cute 18-year old preppie. (I never owned boat Sperry or a cheaper knock-off...purely a flip-flop guy when I wasn't wearing New Balance sneakers or my lambskin mocks.) I wonder if Private Tim still posts to this board? I saw Spiderman and thought about how Tom Holland is totally his type- that cute but nerdy twink with a nice bod on him. And Peter Parker did look pretty cute in his relaxed version of the prep look.

I feel like Allistair will play a role again eventually. One thing that Mark has done, and what makes this story feel real, is that some of the supporting characters drop in and out and then back into the lives of the main characters. That's pretty much like real life- everybody has people that drop in and drop back out of their lives.

I've spent a lot of time looking at yearbooks from the early 1980's, and it's made me think a little bit about Be Rad. The notable thing about that time period is that it was very conservative prep, for the most part- the 80's as we think of them really don't show up until the mid-1980's. And the "hideous" 80's period is really about 1987 to 1992. Those of you who like the early 1980's time setting should watch Everybody Wants Some and Stranger Things- EWS is about tail end of the 70's with some hints of the 80's coming in, while Stranger Things is set at the end of the early 80's when the trends of that time period are firmly in place. I actually really like that preppy early 80's fashion look. They put an updated version of it on Tom Holland in Spiderman and he looked great in it. Transition years are always kind of interesting to me, at least in terms of evaluating trends. I loved Mark using his own memories in terms of filling out the period detail in this particular piece. (He also did it to a greater extent in Man in Motion.) If we were really being true to 1980 though, Brad should have worn chords and spent a lot more time with a blowdryer. LOL.

Daddy's back!

Those are actually falling out of favor with young guys. Shorts are now falling at the knee instead, and they tend to be a straighter, tighter fit. If you're preppie they might actually go above the knee. I get kick out of how much you tend to hate how young guys dress these days. You don't seem to be a big fan of this look, either:

We've got a new thing coming this summer...rompers for men! Men of this board...would you wear one? Pretty much, I think to pull this off, you need to have a flat stomach and nice, long legs with thick calves.

"Americana" by Hampton Sides. It's a series of writings that travel writer Hampton Sides wrote about various subcultures/events in modern America. Pretty interesting stuff with a wide range of interests and topics.

Currently crushing on Jughead and Archie from Riverdale: Twinks aren't my normal type, but Cole Sprouse has turned out pretty damn cute. And KJ Apa is just adorable.

I emailed Mark. He's doing fine, just pretty busy.

I figure soon enough we should be seeing a return to the metrosexual look. Probably within a few years.

Currently streaming on North American Netflix, Esteros is an Argentine drama about two childhood friends who reunite as adults and realize their mutual attraction hasn't faded. Nothing groundbreaking, but it's a sweet and pleasant way to spend 81 minutes.

In this episode of React, the elders of the show react to photos taken of them when they were young. I thought it was pretty touching, especially the guy who realized that all of the friends that were with him in the mountaintop photo were all passed on. And it was interesting watching them react to their 30's/40's photos and about how much energy they had...there's something I think is pretty cool about these particular decade's of one's life, and it kind of felt like they concurred to that theory I had. And it made me think, "Hey, I might not be 21 anymore, but I've still got some great decades ahead of me." I do a lot of interaction with older people in my life due to my volunteer work with the local history museum. I really do get such a kick out of hearing where they've been and what they've done in life- my favorite volunteer was a man in his late 80's/early 90's who was a local artist and also fought in World War II. It's also fun to picture what older people were like when they were young- some people have such a zest for life that it's really easy to picture them young, and some just seem eternally grumpy. Anyway...that's pretty cool of FineBros to give the elders a platform on a space that tends to skew pretty young. As much as I like Smosh or Jenna Marbles, it's nice to see people over a certain age sharing their viewpoints and stories on YouTube.

Anyone else watching Riverdale? Cole Sprouse is looking damn good. Him and his brother Dylan are pretty close to how I'm picturing JJ- they have a lithe body that can look good in a lot of different fashions, thick naturally blond hair (Cole dyed his hair dark for Jughead), blue eyes (which Mark made cannon), and youthful faces that are very good-looking, but not a "hunk" type. More pretty than hunk, I think. In general, a great twink look. I've always maintained that JJ needs to look like he escaped from a Disney Channel show, and looks like a little boy playing dress up when he goes full-on suit. His bitchiness would be funny for a guy who looks like he should be on the cover of TigerBeat magazine. Also Cole kind of gives off this ambiguous sexual vibe. I wouldn't immediately think "gay" or "straight" when it comes to him. He does have a metrosexual vibe to him.

Glad to see you're still writing. I always like seeing it when Adam gets shit from people for being so damn privileged. The guy was a dick but he did have a point about the bullshit closeted guys try to pull in order to fit in.

Freaky shit. Officer Shot, Killed at Convenience Store in Bear, DE This stuff happens, but there's something surreal about this one for me because I am very familiar with the store. I used to walk there all the time when I was a kid because I lived like a 10-minute walk there back then. I also pretty much always get my gas from that WaWa- I'm usually at that store at least once a week or two weeks. This very pro-NRA conservative type posted a video about witnessing the shooting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpy85ir4wcY I can't even imagine how I'd react in that kind of situation.

Wow, it's been awhile since I updated. I usually don't go that long with this blog. Hmm. Winter was alright; early spring has been as well. My life has a general pattern right now- work, watching YouTube videos a lot, strolling Netflix, using my employee pass at the movies. On the weekends I have off, I usually will go into the city of Wilmington to catch either a play or a movie at either Theater N or Penn Cinema on the Riverfront. Possibly a beer or two every weekly or bi-weekly. It's a big cry from my heady days as a young college student, but eh, it kind of works for me. I find lately that I really enjoying being solitary, and not having to expend the energy to be Fun Loveable College Slacker Party Boy anymore. (I can still be that guy every once in a blue moon, but I feel a lot more relaxed now.) I do think a lot about where I'm going to go next. I've spent almost 2 years at this crummy (but ultimately easy and sometimes even fun) job being a movie concessionaire. Funny that Day 3 I was ready to quit; now here I am two years later at the same place. It's soul-crushing at times, but hey, a boy's got to eat, right? I don't know what or where or how I'm going to go to that next place. I've gotten pretty comfortable treading water, and it all still kind of works for me. The 5th anniversary of my grad school graduation is in May. Crazy, right? Thankfully, I did do volunteer work to keep my degree relevant, but I do wonder if I might wind up getting a certificate or something and doing something else. I have to see where things go. I find I don't feel a rush to get there. In my late 20's, I was so full of anxiety about making things happen and breaking into my field. (I think that's why I had my breakdown when my internship fell apart 3 years ago.) I felt like I was on some kind of timeline. At my early 30's, I just kind of feel...cool. I guess. Things will happen when they happen. Life has a funny way of dragging you into where you need to go and what you need to do. Anyway, by some dumb mistake, I'm stuck watching a musical called Once at the DuPont Theater in Wilmington more than I planned on seeing it. I meant to get the Saturday matinee, but I accidentally bought the Sunday matinee. I then bought the Saturday matinee ticket and hoped I could get someone to buy the Sunday matinee ticket off me for twenty dollars off, but no dice. It kind of sucks because I was planning on going to the season opening of the museum I volunteer with, but if I blow this off, I'm throwing 63 credit card dollars down the drain. So yeah, it looks like I'll be seeing Once twice. ;-)

I'm 31 and still stuck in a minimum wage job, with no real clue about what I want to do next despite my massively indebted college education. The thing I've come to realize, at least for me, is that there's no real timeline for "adulthood". Do you want. See what feels right. Don't listen to other people's input on what you should be doing. That's a real big difference from what I thought when I was in my mid-20's like you are now. Is it kind of embarrassing when I serve old college or high school friends? Absolutely. But all you can really do is forge the path that feels right, even if it's not what people think you should be doing.

Man. Will misses Zach so much. I'm still kind of shocked he actually did get to have that high school relationship- I figured Will would only have boyfriends over the age of 20. You can tell he's trying to use Dally to fill that emotional void...not that he means to, just that it's happening that way. I can tell you had a pretty vivid music soundtrack playing when you wrote this chapter. Well-done.

Chapter 43 -Buzz's funeral. "When I'm Gone" by 3 Doors Down I really associate this song with the War on Terror/The Iraq War, probably because of the video being very military and this song hitting it when the wars were heating up. "I Hope You Dance" by LeeAnn Womack -When Will and Dally passionately kiss. "I've Been Waiting for A Girl Like You" by Foreigner -When Will hears the song that makes him think of Zach. "I Miss You" by Aaliyah Mark basically did my job for me this chapter. Cool.

"Chicks Dig It" seems like a Preston anthem.

Chapter 42 -When Will bitches about the music Preston is playing in his car. "Cowboys From Hell" by Pantera (Metal) "Chicks Dig It" by Chris Cagle (Country) -When Will and Preston get into a betting mood. "Theme From The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" -When Will rides the horse. "Theme From the Magnificent Seven" I have a distinct memory of my 2nd grade class doing a twirling baton ribbon dance to this song at a high school football game. 1994, I think? Thank god my family is poor and didn't have a camcorder back then. LOL.

Alexandra's youngest son is supposed to be fat. (Not the military one. The one who plotted with her against Brad.) I think it's been said that Ethan lost the extra weight, though.

Mark, so is this like a look yet where you are? Here, it's been around since about 2012-2013. You telling me that the whole shaggy hair thing didn't hit the Mid-West until like 2007 makes me wonder if they have this look yet where you are. The "hip" look seems to be an undercut haircut with a shaved-in part, a v-neck t-shirt, and cuffed jeans with Brogans. Although for younger guys (teenager to about mid-20's), I've noticed that the basic general look seems to be this: fitted button-down shirts(both solid color and patterned), slimfit khaki pants (cargo pants are seriously out) and canvas shoes. Also, Hollister and Abercrombie are so far out of the loop the only guys I see wearing that are my age or older, kind of like they're trapped in some kind of 2005 style loop. One thing I've noticed that's kind of weird- young guys don't wear ankle-length socks like my peers did when we were their age. Guys my age- we stuck with either flip-flops or we wore low-rise socks. Guys now seem to be longer length socks. Not calf-socks from the 1970's, but the socks are longer enough to actually be seen. Northface has definitely gotten replaced by Patagonia, and for the preppy crowd, LaCoste has been ditched for Vineyard Vines. We're definitely at the part of the decade where most fashion traces of the previous decade have faded out and the trends that this decade will be remembered for are around right now.

I got a kick out of Dally being fat. It really was a more innocent time where you could converse on a phone with someone and have no idea what they looked like. Yes, camera phones and social media were around, but it wasn't as pervasive yet. Had this taken place a year or two later, Will probably would have looked Dally up on Myspace and realized what he looked like. I wonder if their town stays a small place, or it gets caught up in the exploding population boom around Austin. It's supposed to be close to Austin, right? Austin's population since the time the story takes place has grown by almost 300k people, just within the city limits. That has to be spilling out into suburb sprawl and turning former small towns into busier places. Hmm. I wonder if Stefan would ever consider investing in Texas real estate.