methodwriter85

I watched a couple of documentaries on Duran Duran. They really were gorgeous. Still look pretty damn good for men in their 50's: It's pretty cool they're still going for it after all these decades. They're touring the U.S. this summer...they should be in California this July if you want to see them, Mr. M. Here's a video about it:

Aww. I thought you guys would like this story... Tony Dow of Leave It To Beaver Is Reunited With His First Car After 51 Years So sweet. I like to picture that this is what Frank is like- a sweet old grandpa who will occasionally regale you with stories of his youth in the 1960's. (Well, more like 1950's for him. Frank is about 9 years older than Tony Dow.) And yeah, that's one "cherry" car, to use old Californian slang. (Per the commentary for Fast Times At Ridgemont High.) Cars play SUCH a big part in this story, and I think it's kind of sweet to see a story happen with one of the CAP "faces" that could totally be a story on CAP. (And pretty much is- J.P. has Steven's old car, and Brent or Trent is restoring Jeff's 1968 El Dorado.) I wonder if we'll ever see one of the 1980's cars show up, although they don't seem to be as loved as 60's cars. Ace would get SO much love at a car show if he still somehow had his Delorean.

At the end of the day though...you really think Stefan would have turned down young Ashton Kutcher (or another hot young guy) just because he was wearing a trucker hat? I mean, Stefan lived through the 1970's. If he could survive that era, he'd be able to tolerate anything.

JP strikes me as someone who'd still be pretty spry at 80. I would be guessing by this point, he's moved back to Claremont on at least a part-time basis and is busy with forming good committees with good people to continue Claremont's revival, as well as Claremont Tech's expansion. I wonder if Jim would still be around at this point. He should be about 90, right? Him and Steven were about 17 when Pearl Harbor hit, and I think he was always supposed to be about a decade older than J.P. Weird to think of a guy in his 90's having an illicit son who's barely in his 30's. But really, I do think most of JP's contemporaries would be dying off now, right? I don't think Frank would be alive in 2016. I think he'd make it to his early 70's, but not his 80's. JP I can see living to 100, but not Frank.

Starting the "Song A Day" challenge...picking one song that represents each year from your life. 1985 is "In-Between Days" by the Cure:

Yeah, I had a crush on him from when he did Alpha Dog back when he was a kid. Man, this sucks. I honestly thought he was set to become one of the leading character actors of his generation.

Oh my god, I loved seeing dkstories and Private Tim going at it in the political forum. Like, just get a room, you know? Do Over was a wonderful piece of time travel fiction, but I thought it started being overkill when he made like 3 sequels. How the HELL did a topic this old get revived in the Lounge? I thought the archive only went back 4 pages.

I think Van and Matt (On the Mark Matt) both kind of inspired the Hayes ideal, because there is a bit of variety with them. I think Matt kind of adds in that mid-western Alpha Guy act. I think in personality, Matt seems closer to someone like Tony, i.e. He Who Shall Not Be Named. Mark has said that the Hayes face is basically based on Wally Cleaver from Leave It To Beaver, especially the eyes. I'm assuming that means he had a friend who resembled young Tony Dow. LOL. Anyway, I recently discovered a Scottish 1970's pop band called The Bay City Rollers after watching this great BBC documentary called Rollermania on them. I thought they were just a one-hit wonder who did the song called "Saturday Night" but apparently they were absolutely huge worldwide from 1974-1977, but then dropped off big time by 1978. I gotta admit, there's some kind of inexplicable appeal to them. Here's some Bay City Roller songs I probably would have tried adding in as the (early) part of the story was contemporary to when they were big: "Give A Little Love" "I Only Want to Be With You" "Money Honey" "Rock N Roll Love Letter" "You Made Me Believe In Magic" "Strangers in the Wind" Do any of you guys remember them? They had a pretty fascinating, trainwreck kind of history. They wound up being completely ripped off by their manager and their record company, and they all wound up having a pretty tough time of it after their days as teen idol pin-ups were over. Anyway, you gotta love unabashed 70's pop. I can't see Mark being into them, though.

Aww, how can you not like the Four Seasons? They're a wonderful oldies group. "Big Girls Don't Cry" in Dirty Dancing and "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You" from Ten Things I Hate About You were just wonderful music choices. But yeah, Jersey Boys sucked. At least the movie version did. I can't speak to the musical version. I did think Erich Bergen was cute, though. Here's an interesting fact though- "Saturday Night" by the Bay City Rollers inspired the Ramones to make "Blitzkrieg Bop."

There was. It was called The Boy From Oz, starring Hugh Jackman as gay songwriter Peter Allen. There was also a musical on Boy George called Taboo, although it wasn't a jukebox musical. I think the Bay City Rollers would actually make a pretty good musical. You've got the crazy, tacky costumes, the exuberant pop music, and the big downfall that befalls the group. You also have a gay manager who may or may not be evil, a lead singer who may or may not be interested in men, a member who may or may not be interested in looking at little kids, a member who becomes addicted to amphetamines, a member who can't stand playing a teen idol when he's pushing 30, and a forty year battle to reclaim royalties that the band says are due to them. And of course, you get the reunion when they're in their 50's/60's. (Well, semi-reunion.) It would also have inherent late Baby Boomer/early Gen Xer nostalgia appeal to it.

Chapter 34 -When Marc and Brad have a lunch date that seems to suggest that they're finally over the drama of their break-up. "We Are Going To Be Friends" by The White Stripes -When JJ contemplates art and life. (And death.) "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" by The Dream Academy

Aww. I loved the Paul Walker reference. He really was such a handsome guy. I'll always remember him as the 1950's hottie from Pleasantville. Anyway, Mark liked this male model I picked for Patrick Christian, Ella's designer boyfriend: His name is Heath Hutchins...former Southern college football player turned model. He underwent a big transformation in order to become a fashion model as well...it's funny watching this interview of him from when he was a college football player. You can barely tell it's the same guy. He had to drop about 50 pounds of muscle mass to do this.

University of Delaware has something we call Alumni Weekend, where hordes of former Blue Hens come back and visit campus to relive their past, including and up to staying in the dorms. I wound up spending a nice afternoon with a couple that I knew in passing at UD, Johanna and Chris. Johanna was an R.A. with my friend Stephen, and we wound up connecting at his memorial two years ago. Jo and Chris live in Queens, and had ridden the bus down here. This was their first time at Alumni Weekend. (They were class of 2009, a year ahead of me.) I met them at a gaming store. We hit Duck Donuts, then sampled beer at Growler's, and then made a trek over to the shuttered Dickinson Hall, where she and Steve were R.A.'s at. Along the way, we talked about our lives- where we've been, where we want to go, and all the angst in between. Jo also has the angst of getting a master's degree and realizing that she can't use it. (She's switched over to education- I believe she was originally trying to do media.) Chris is an urban planner, which is something I've been interested in. And we're all in a shitload of student loan debt, which Jo is about to add more to as she's going back to school for an education degree. I also talked to them about all the changes in Newark, which have been pretty numerous as building after building gets knocked down in order to create yet more student housing apartments with retail (that often goes unused) on the first floor is getting pretty different from the Newark of today. When we got to Dickinson Hall, I told them about how I used to process my grieving process by standing outside this dorm, and just remembering. Then we all just talked about the memories we had of this place. Pretty crazy to think of all of the thousands and thousands of people that lived in that complex for over 40 years. All these stories that we'll never know took place within those walls, and the whole thing is going to be gone soon. Depressing, but that place gave me some great memories, even though I never lived there. Then we walked over to Elkton Rd. (or South Main Street), then went up Amstel, then cut through the Ewing Kirkbride Complex to get back to Main Street. We sat down on the brick borders surrounding Kirkbride to share our memories of the Kirkbride Jesus Guy, a c and how we're all going to hell. I wound up having dinner at Homegrown with them and another couple...it was nice. Seriously nice. I love my buddies at work, but I really, really needed conversation with people my own age who understand my Millennial angst bullshit. We part ways after a second trip to Duck Donuts, and I felt really good. There's some really dumb shit going on in my life (the worry about bills, the worry about my future, my lack of a car of my own), but it was nice to remember that excited young college kid that I once was, and how much fun that period in my life brought me. Not to say that there wasn't plenty of angst to go around during my early 20's, but there was so much to experience then. It also just felt nice to talk to people that *get* what it's like to have gone through college and then ended up in a menial job, and struggling with the thought of going back to school to try and get a more marketable degree. Not to mention being able to talk about my grieving of Stephen, because as I've said, all of my mutual friends with him left the area, and I didn't really get to be around his memorial two years ago. Anyway, it was a nice day and made me happy.

Given that Stanford plays a HUGE part in this story, I thought I'd post this: All-American Stanford Swimmer Found Guilty of Raping Unconscious Woman Wow. That statistic is eye-opening: of 175 reported sexual assaults on campus between 1997 to 2009, only FOUR of them were formally adjudicated by Stanford. That is just mind-boggling to me. You would figure that would be the case at some party school like WVU, not one of the most prestigious academic universities in the country that has near-Ivy League status. I can just picture JP reading this article and shaking his head. It's absolutely crazy to me that this is somehow being treated like some "grey" area rape- there were freaking witnesses that saw this poor, unconscious girl getting raped behind a dumpster and the guy RAN because he was afraid of being caught. It's unbelievable that he's getting six months in county jail for what he did.

I'm posting this picture I found on Reddit, because I laughed at how this former emo kid is basically cringing at how he dressed at 16, without realizing that he's still following a very prevalent trend in his 20's: Emo boys should be showing up at this point, but we really hit the peak emo thing circa 2005-2006, which contrasted against the Retro 80's preppie look that other guys were doing. I like to picture Stefan and JJ reacting in horror when they see one of these creatures. As for the current stuff...I'm kind of getting sick of the scraggly beard and buzzcut look right now, but what can you do? I find myself longing for the days of sideswept surfer boy Zac Efron hair that I was never, ever able to do.

JJ said at one point that he had only made out with other skaters, like with Evan Lyscaek, but otherwise, Alex is the first person he went beyond 2nd base with. (I can't remember if he had actual oral sex with John after 9/11, or just a handjob.)

If Darius has ever had any interest in having sex with another dude, he would have done it at 14 at some Hollywood party and he would have told Robbie. So, anyway. JJ. If we go by what he's said, he's had sexual encounters (including jerking off and blowing) with John, Alex, Mary Ellen, and Buzz. He may or may not have hooked up with Susannah, but I honestly don't think he would have gone beyond making out with her- JJ probably knew that Mary Ellen was trying to set him up with her so he'd stop sniffing around Alex. So that gives him about four sexual partners- pretty low for CAP but in normal ranges for a 17-year old in the real world. LOL. I'm hoping Carullo makes that five. LOL. Mark has said the one thing about JJ is that sex doesn't really control him the way it does sometimes for the other characters. He's pretty controlled about it, interestingly enough. It's there and he can enjoy it if the opportunity is there, but other than Alex (and barely then), he doesn't really chase it. That does really make him very different from the other characters in this story.

If I were JJ, I'd start dating effeminate theater guys from Broadway. I can't see Will ever being interested in those types.

Well, now that JJ doesn't have to worry about image anymore, I wonder if he'll start racking up numbers. Although he does still seem a bit cautious.

Chapter 33 -When Will and Dalby have a "get to know you" talk. "New Slang" by The Shins

This is more "Cali during the Fast Times At Ridgemont High era", but check out this cool old #ThrowbackThursday picture of a teacher at Dana Hills High School teaching math: Pretty funny. Any of you guys familiar with Dana Hills High? The teacher apparently retired this year. You gotta love the teachers that are a little unorthodox and crazy. I had one like him, although I was never able to do better than a C in his class. LOL. I think these students are roughly Mark Arbour's contemporaries. Did you feather your hair like that when you were that age, Mark? LOL. Anyway, this is making the rounds on Reddit.

You gotta love 70's guilty pleasure music.

I like him for Alex, but I definitely prefer Margot Robbie as Mary Ellen: I can so picture Mary Ellen having a beauty routine that involved. In any event, that was an AWESOME shout-out to American Psycho. What really sold me on her for Mary Ellen was her big scene from Wolf Of Wall Street. Swap out the Brooklyn accent for Southern Virginia, and tell me you can't see Mary Ellen playing games with Alex exactly like this one. (Although I don't think Alex would have the balls to get back at her the way Leo gets back at Naomi in this scene.) In any event, I can just buy someone like Mary Ellen working a face like Margot Robbie's to full advantage, all-heart shaped and big-blue eyed.(Which stands to reasons Mary would have them, because blue eyes seem like a Danfield trait.) So many people in the story basically admit that Mary Ellen wouldn't get away with half of the shit she gets away with if she weren't exceptionally pretty.

I found a documentary on the Bay City Rollers, a Scottish boy band that skyrocketed to fame during the mid-1970's, and then crashed spectacularly when the ride was over. Look them up- they were a total train-wreck. Anyway, here's a tune from them: Fluffy 70's stuff...so much fun. I used to party at a college house, and somehow there was a poster of the Bay City rollers there. In 2008. I have no clue how, but I thought was kind of neat. I wonder if it was a poster that people just kept up over the years, until it had become ironic. Didn't know they weren't actually a one-hit wonder, because it seems like Saturday Night is all that is remembered. Three of the former members have reunited, and it's kind of cool to see all these people in their 50's and 60's re-living their 70's youth. Time hasn't been the kindest to the guys, but you know what? More power to them. I hope they're having a ball with this. Do you remember the band? Did you ever try wearing tartan plaid to show your appreciation for them?

Chapter 32 -When Brad goes home in the plane, and reunites with Will. "Girls" by Death In Vegas -When the grown-ups, plus Will, reunite at Escorial, determined to get down to the bottom of it. "The Weight" by the Band -When everybody learns that Buzz fucked his way through the non-straight male half of the Schluter family. "The Girl Gets Around" from Footloose the Musical