methodwriter85

It was a 1980 tongue-in-cheek guide about WASPy Northeastern culture, written by Brown alum Lisa Birnbaum. Meant as a mocking satire, it managed to become a big bestseller and helped spread the preppy culture around the rest of the country, much like Frank Zappa's Valley Girl tune spread the San Fernando Valley slang terms across the country. I learned about The Official Preppy Handbook while I was watching I Love the 80's on VH1 as a kid. Why am I not surprised that Mark has read the book? I'm betting that it was the closest thing 18-year old Mark had to a Bible. They don't. Ella knows she's Rich's daughter, but JJ doesn't know he's Jim's son. It's been a closely guarded secret in Brad's generation, and no one in Will's generation knows. The only time it's been acknowledged was in Millennium, when Brad went off on Jim and said something along the lines about how he's been raising his son for 14 years. When I first read this chapter, I was honestly confused and didn't get what the CHO meant.

What an adorable young man!

Chapter 20 -As Will, JP, and Brad arrive into Hawaiian sky, with Will ultimately revealing his plans to create a family compound in Maui. "Dynasty" Theme Song Does anyone remember when FX used to run reruns of this back in the 90's? Pop TV has been running reruns recently, and it's been a kick catching them as an adult instead of as a little kid. To be honest, despite the fact that he's a total whackjob, I found Adam Carrington to be very attractive...I think his closest equivalent CAP character was Brian Parnell, although Brian wasn't nearly as smart. And his rival Jeff Colby totally looks like Armie Hammer, in my opinion. (Although more like regular handsome as opposed to unreal handsome/perfect physical specimen that Armie is.) -When JJ arrives at Mode Magazine. "Sex and the City" Theme Song I figure JJ has pretty much every episode of Sex and City on his Tivo, which should be gearing up to go into it's last season right now. I'm really bitter that the Carrie Diaries was a crappy show, because its Young Carrie and Young Samantha were actually really, really good. Unfortunately the show focused on a lot of lame characters like Carrie's younger sister and her insipid high school friends. -At the fashion show, where JJ makes his way into the good graces of Bellona Carter, while throwing Ella under the bus. "Work It" by Missy Elliot -When Will and Brad go surfing, and Will contemplates about how they're in a better place now. "Alive" by P.O.D.

You have this way of confounding and twisting expectations. Can Dally be an emo twink? We're at the period in time when they started to emerge, and it'd be funny as hell for someone like Buzz to have a slightly effeminate, emo son instead of the jock you'd be expecting.

I've been going through the 1995 Newark High School yearbook to find pictures that I can post to my museum's Facebook, and I found this wonderful photo from the class of 1995: I get such a kick out of going through the old yearbook photos...seeing how people looked, how they dressed, and getting a feel for the era and the area. Checking out all those baggy mid-90's clothes was pretty funny. (I tried going through an '03 yearbook to see if the clothes started to look funny to me yet, but they don't...probably will take another ten years before it does.) It's also got this amber effect, in a way- like this group of teenagers will always be 17/18 years old, looking towards the future...but their real-life counterparts are all about 37/38, likely with houses and families and all those grown-up concerns. Anyway, I think 1995 was a pretty cool time- the economy was booming, Clinton was in office, technology was about to leap forward in a big way with the rise of the internet, and it felt like America was emerging from it's early 90's Recession era funk. There was this bright air of optimism in the air during that time period, I think. And it was a GREAT period for music. So I thought I'd post some tunes from "their" time as a nod to the class of 1995, which is currently celebrating their 20-year! Pick 1- Rock I thought I'd go with something from another country for this slot. I know Silverchair better for their latter 90's tune, "Anthem for the Year 2000." Pick 2 - Dance Pick 3- British Pop You can pretty much see the blueprints for the Backstreet Boys being laid out in this video. LOL. Pick 4- Jam Band I love that this is basically a satire making fun of the fact that lyrics are effectively meaningless when it comes to popular music, because it relies on the hook. You can't get much more 90's than that. In any event, I still can't get over that 1995 was twenty years ago. It feels like yesterday, you know?

As a reminder, here's what Ryan Grafton looks like: Hunter Parrish. Goddamn, he's hot. I vote that JJ runs into Hunter sometime in the early 2010's when he's doing Godspell on Broadway and has some fun with him. LOL. Honestly, I'm kind of bitter he lost the role of Peeta to Josh Hutcherson. Physically, he was perfect for the part.

Chapter 19 -When Will cranks up some Good Charlotte. "The Anthem" by Good Charlotte When I started doing these music recs, they were for 1980 music. Now I'm doing music that came out when I was a sophomore or a rising junior in high school. Crazy. I'm kind of looking forward to using Taylor Swift in a few CAP years. I'm sure Will is going to get A LOT of mileage out of her shit, and Blue's going to enjoy all that early country music stuff she did. Can't you guys just picture 23-year old Blue looking forlornly at a picture of his ex-boyfriend while "Tim McGraw" plays? -When Will picks up Ryan, as they both express their optimism for their senior year at Menlo. "The Remedy" (I Wont Worry) by Jason Mraz Jason Mraz played at UD just a couple months after I graduated UD, while I was away at grad school. I was so pissed. God, he's cute. He seems like the ultimate California dude, you know? Just that great, laidback Californian attitude/vibe. -When Buzz and Brad go riding. "I Should've Been A Cowboy" by Toby Keith

I love that Buzz conveniently has a son who's the same age as the current CAP core teen group.

Young Nathan Hayes from the Box?

Simon LeBon. Now HE was pretty damned hot. They were trying to go for a Wall Street banker look. This is probably New York City, after all.

Here's a behind-the-scenes video of how they did it: I gotta admit, I loved the faux-hawk look. I guess because that's the time period I hit my late teens/early 20's? Although I'm kind of surprised they didn't cite David Beckham for that look. I'm really shocked the guy is only 23, though! Doesn't really look boyish to me, at all! What do you guys think of Sam's natural lumbersexual look?

The 60's hair was just hideous. I think manbuns can work on guys with long faces, but generally not a fan of guys with long hair.

Check out this model/musician as he tries out various styles popular for 10 different decades! I think he looked his hottest in the 1940's and 2000's. Although if they wanted to be truly accurate for 2005, he should've had a shaved chest. The hair was generally bang on, though. I kind of like that they basically didn't have to do anything for him to look 1970's or 1990's. LOL.

I'm going to admit, I kind of thought this was going to be like JWolf's The List, where the young college freshman goes through boy after boy. I'm a little disappointed that it's not, but I'm really enjoying the characters regardless. I do kind of want Adam to branch out from Kevin, but we'll see what happens.

I just realized that Maddie and Riley would be 15 right now. It'd be funny if Riley decides to get a tattoo sleeve and Elizabeth Danfield absolutely FREAKS out. (I know kids under 18 getting them.)

She even played a chick magazine editor in How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days: (which is actually a "current" movie right now in CAP-world) Anyway, I don't know if we're going to see her again...but Young Blake Lively Circa Gossip Girl as Kristin Hendrickson? She has that easy-going,friendly, blonde Golden Girl look to her that I picture Kristin having. As for Blake Lively, it'll be interesting to see if her career's going to go anywhere aside from being Mrs. Ryan Reynolds. (Who himself is going through a big career skid.) I did actually enjoy Age of Adaline, and it seems like she's working more again. She has this seriously hot brother Eric...I had SUCH a crush on him back when he was on a Disney show like a billion years ago. His career seems to have stalled much more than hers did.

Thank god you did. It is such a crazy, horrifying story that dozens of boys from the same neighborhood disappeared in a three-year time span, and NOBODY paid attention to it.

Awhile back, a fellow GA member told me the story of a party buddy he used to have, and a curiosity surrounding him late one summer that still gives him chills to this day. Here's the story: His Casual Acquaintance When Greg was in his teens, he went to high school in the South. It was the early 1970's, and his hair was long- all the way to the back. Back then, having long hair meant that you smoked pot. At least the old folks thought you did, anyway. It was a sign that you weren't willing to confirm to regular society. Greg had this friend Barry. Barry was this really hot guy, so effin' hot that as Greg put it, "The sidewalks just sizzled under his feet." As a popular hot guy, Barry would throw parties, and that was how Greg got to know David. David was a cute guy with long blond hair that came just off his shoulders. Greg described him as someone who was kind of easily led, though. He was friends with Barry, so Greg would see him a lot socially at various parties that were being thrown at various houses. They both had long hair, and back then it was a sign you were into smoking pot, or were sympathetic to those who did. Greg didn't smoke at that particular time (he had a couple years earlier), but David did, and they both had a few things in common that led to small talk while they partied. Mostly, Greg just remembers David would bale out of the parties at one point to take care of some business, whatever that was. Nothing too intense, really- just some regular party buddy talk and then David excusing himself for some reason or another. Except one night, Greg noticed David staring at him, hard. Like, that eyes-in-the-back-your-head kind of feeling came over Greg. You know that instinct thing? Well, Greg described the feeling as being there. He had that feeling once before- Greg was hitching a ride, and the guy who picked him up kept talking about going to a party. The whole thing kept getting weirder and weirder, so he excused himself when they hit a stoplight. So that feeling was back and Greg knew it'd be best if he didn't get too close to David. Anyway, Greg didn't spend his summers in Houston, where he lived at the time. Instead, he spent them in Portland with his godfather. So late one summer up in Portland, who does Greg see on his t.v. but his casual party buddy, David Owen Brooks. He and another teenager, Elmer Wayne Henley, had assisted a local Houston man named Dean Corll in murdering up to two dozen young boys over the past couple years. One night in August 1973, Elmer Wayne Henley finally put an end to it and shot the guy, and everything unraveled after that as they helped the police begin to dig up the bodies. It made national news, and every night another detail, another victim was revealed. They mostly buried their victims under a boat shed, or in various beaches around the area. Forty years later, they're still trying to identify victims, and it's believed that the true victim count is much higher than 28. Before you ask, Barry wasn't a victim, and Greg never met Corll or Henley. Brooks insisted that he only watched the murders but never participated. Didn't help him that much- he's still serving time in jail, likely for the rest of his life. Greg said of this this period of his life, "In some ways, it's better to not be drop-dead attractive. Any more attention from the guy, I coulda been in that boat shed." I don't think Greg gives himself enough credit though- I think Greg had strong "instinct", whatever that is, and that David likely knew that about him, which is why he never targeted him. In any event, Greg was lucky as hell that he was never invited to a private party with that particular trio of people and that David was never more than his casual acquaintance.

I don't think the tats work with his puppy dog face. It's kind of the same thing with Justin Bieber. Eh, in any event, he's a great-looking guy with great talent and the feeling of being totally free to be himself...can't be much better than that!

Gus Kenworthy, the U.S. Skier from the Socchi Olympics best remembered for adopting stray puppies, has come out of the closet. Good for him. He seemed like a very nice guy when those Olympics were going on. God though, I really hate that it seems like every guy in his early 20's wants to plaster their beautiful young skin with tattoos. Ugh.

Last night, I went on the Halloween Loop, which is something that Wilmington puts on every year as a way to entertain their residents and the people of the suburbs and making Wilmington a happening night spot, at least for that particular night. Anyway, dressed as a cowboy, I went to many different bars- Chelsea Tavern, Extreme Pizza, Shenaniganz, Firestone Roasting House, Kelly's Logan House, Satsuma Kitchen, Scratch Magoo's, and finally ended up at Rooney's/The Trolley Square Tap Room. It was so much- everybody milling about in their costumes, the bars that had live music going, and of course, running into old friends. I saw a couple of people I knew from my high school and college days, which really put a smile to my face. Lots of dancing, lots of drinking( although because I'm a lightweight I stopped myself around 7 drinks), and also catching up with a couple of people I hadn't seen in years. The best part though was just checking out the costumes and commenting on the ones that had costumes I thought were fun. I kept running into a couple of people at various times throughout the night. That becomes important, because after the bars left out, I was supposed to call up Uber (that's a ridesharing service in the US similar to Taxis, Nigel), but some girls thought it would be cool to let me ride with them in their Uber. (One of their male friends was dressed up as a cowboy as well and we kept making jokes about that.) However, some police started hassling their male friends who scattered, and one of those said dudes called his mother to pick him up in Trolley Square. So one girl cancelled their Uber, and I wound up riding with these random strangers to a home in Elsemere. I tried getting an Uber there, but the app never sent me an text. There was also this big fight that broke out between the girls and the guys- the girls felt pissed that the guys scattered and basically left them alone in the middle of Wilmington, DE at night, as we were standing out of the guy's house who's mother drove us there. So anyway, the girl who told me I could go with them wound up calling her mother. As it turned out, her brother was one of the guys who scattered, so he was left stranded in Trolley Square. The mother decided, since I was going south to Delaware Casino Park to meet up with my mother, to take me there first before going back around to pick up her son in Trolley Square.The whole time, I listened to these girls crying and being pissed off about what awful people their guy friends were. Anyway, I got back to Delaware Park, and then I got home, and now i'm safe and sound typing this up. Kind of cool to know that I still have crazy nights like this still left in me, no? The Halloween Loop was on my bucket list. I'm glad I can cross that off.

So, my movie theater ran the Back to the Future trilogy last night, in celebration of Back To the Future Day. I wasn't able to see the first two, but I did get to see the third movie...and I gotta tell you, after Doc Brown and his wife Clara fly off in their time travel train with a content Marty McFly and Jennifer Parker, I just felt like a happy little 9-year old kid again. I'd never gotten to see the movies in theater because I was either a baby or a toddler, and there was something just magical about seeing the whole thing on the big screen. For a couple of brief minutes, I had a big smile on my face and all my concerns and worries were gone for a moment. I also had a similar reaction to see Beauty and the Beast when they ran it in the theaters back in 2012. So what's that movie for you?

So,here in the mid-2010's, here are some new terms I've heard... Budget- The new way to say Poor Man's (blank). Poor Man's Ryan Gosling becomes Budget Ryan Gosling. Or Scott Eastwood in Taylor Swift's becomes Budget Chris Evans. Etc etc. Fuckboy- The new version of douchebag. (This one I had to google.) Hyped- It's being used as another way to say excited. That actually is getting thrown around a lot by current teenagers. It's always cool to see how language kind of evolves and changes.

It's pretty cool that for JJ, no matter what, he can say he was the national champion at the age of 17. Not too many guys can say that. That's something real and lasting. There are probably thousands if not tens of thousands of kids who gave up their childhood and didn't get to that point. Well, the whiny, isolated bitchy queen he was in Millennium through Paternity would have made a terrible protagonist, but I like how you've let this kid basically simmer and grow up on the periphery, until he was ready to be a protagonist. It's honestly felt like the growing up process with JJ- you can clearly see his progression as a person through the stories, and how JJ's gotten to the point where he's actually someone you might want to be around and get inside his head, but at the same time, he's still recognizable as the bitchy little kid who couldn't stand Gathan. I think the fact that you let JJ stay a background character until 9/11 really worked here. He just wasn't ready until then, and he's become a lot more fun now that he's kind of been pushed out of his isolated bubble.

If you took Lililth from Frasier and gave her a pixie cut, I could see her as Bellona Carter.