methodwriter85

I think you did a much better of saying what I was trying to say. Thanks.

I'm still really looking forward to Not to Touch the Earth and Remix. I'm a sucker for time travel/alternative dimension stuff.

Dude, for the love of God, PLEASE stop going back and tweaking Cross-Currents. It's a done story. It's finished. Let it stay there. It's not a perfect story but it's a damn good one that I think should finally get to rest. I get that you're a perfectionist but if you keep tweaking the story it'll never really be finished. Let it stand finished. It doesn't need to be continually tweaked with.

My view of MaryEllen has been Margot Robbie from the Wolf of Wall Street: Change out the accent to a Southern one and I think she's perfect. I can sooooo see her playing games like this with her husband. Margot's like a prettier, young Jamie Pressley, who always did bitchy roles just so well. She has that bleached blonde bombshell look down pat: Can't you just picture evil schemes and thoughts coming from that face?

Marissa Tomei, best known for her Oscar-winning turn in My Cousin Vinny, is set to take on the role of Aunt May against Tom Holland, who's playing the new Peter Parker. I'm excited. She's a great actress.

He's cute but I kind of wish they had gotten a more lithe model, instead of a bulky muscle guy. Some of that stuff looked really awkward on him, like 60's mod. Also, I'll say it again- if you do not have skinny legs, skinny jeans just look awkward as hell on you. I thought his most flattering outfit was 1995. He would have fit in well with that time period of bulky jeans, goatees, bowling shirts, and spiky hair.

Chapter 3 -When Will sees his various family members off on their various trips around the world. "Roam" by the B-52's -When JJ arrives in London. "There She Goes" from the Parent Trap R.I.P. Miranda Richardson. Also, Lindsay Lohan's career. (I'm telling you, it HURTS on that one. I feel like I grew up with her and Amanda Bynes. We're all the same age. At least the Olsen twins seem relatively together if very eccentric and old-looking as hell.) -When MaryEllen promises to ruin JJ's life. "Yoo Hoo" by Teen Imperial -When JJ and Alex resolve to handle whatever MaryEllen throws their way, and make love again. "The Tide Is High" From The Lizzie McGuire Movie Every straight teen boy I knew back that was in LOVE with Hilary Duff back then. Oh, my god. She annoyed the shit out of me back then but she was indeed a thing back in 2003. My high school cafeteria had a large Hilary Duff "Got Milk?" banner. The pounds of make-up they put on her just bothered the shit out of me given that she was supposed to be playing an unpopular middle-schooler. Hilary Duff kind of hit right when the former teen queens like Britney, Christina, Mandy, etc were doing more mature things...she was never really big outside of Disney Radio but man she was hyped hard. -When Will decides to start his plan to go against Brad by turning into a dedicated consumer, and opens up a twenty million dollar line of credit. "Intuition" by Jewel That really was an impressive piece of satire- it manages to pass as the real thing while still being critical.

I mean, I'd ask Tim, but it seems relatively new, and his college days were in the 1990's. Like I said, I didn't encounter "slapping the bag" until 2012 at Firefly. Most bro-types I know didn't touch boxed wine but this seems to be a way that those guys will consume it. It must have been some fringe thing that people were doing, enough so that it made Urban Dictionary, but it didn't become mainstream until this decade. UCSB sounds like an intense party school. Way more intense than UD ever was. I mean, we've never even had a concentrated frat row. (Or if we did, it all got broken up by the time I got there.) Of course, we're located in a NIMBY state where people bitch and moan about every possible little thing, especially when it comes to the students that allows Newark, DE to look like a Disney Town U.S.A. instead of a depressed rust belt town. I mean, a 1 a.m. last call? Seriously? And no actual bars allowed on Main Street? (They have to be restaurants that can only make 40 percent of their revenue from alcohol.) It sounds like Santa Barbara just lets it be. Will's going into his senior year...I wonder if Mark will send him to a party school. I can kind of see it, and I can kinda not see it.

Two Train Lines Connecting Azusa to Santa Monica Enters Final Testing Stage That sounds cool. I've always wanted to visit Southern California but 12-lane highways terrify me. I still can't get myself to drive on I-95.

Now that's just hot.

Damn, that soundtrack brought me back. Anyway, I foresee a drunken Patrick Manfind throwing himself at Adam later. That would be funny. I think Jordan is into Adam.

You're no fun, Mark.

On another note...I found this Let's Not Meet story on Reddit, and it made me think of you, Blue, and your bit about the rape culture of UCSB: Terrorized for Two Hours The story takes place at UCSB...I thought it was interesting that she talked about how the students often put themselves in danger there because that was the culture. Anyway, University of Delaware used to be a party school, way back in the 1990's, but they slammed down hard on it- all of the big drunken outdoor music fests were banned by the time I finished in 2010, and a lot of big frats were kicked off. It doesn't seem like UCSB has changed much. I kind of get why former party schools crack down it, but I also think that if you try and shelter young adults at the time they're supposed to be learning how to be an adult and what their limits are, you really short-change them. I wonder if Will would wind up going there. Honestly, while he's social and can throw a big rager, that doesn't really seem like his life, and I'm not sure he'd fit into a party school because of that. Will really doesn't strike me as a future frat boy the way John screams it.

Well, that, and there's a curious lack of minority love interest characters. The last significant one was Kai, wasn't it? He looks like BooBoo Stewart. Tet would probably like him. I'm rooting for John to wind up marrying a black woman so we can have more interacial characters aside from Darius. Anyway, I always figured that Maryellen would be like Tanya Turner from Footballer's Wives by her mid-30's: God, I miss Footballer's Wives. Tanya Turner was like an Alexis Carrington for the 2000's. (Although she really had absolutely no soul, while Alexis really did care in her own way for her children.) * Back in the mid/late 1990's, there used to be Dynasty reruns on the FX channel. That is how I know the show even though I was only born during the sixth season of it. I kind of wish Mark would borrow more from Dynasty, but he seems more about the Original Recipe Dallas influence. (Which I didn't watch.) An Dynasty-style catfight would have been fun, though. I could see Middle-Aged Joan Collins as the Evil Bitch Mother Alexandra Carmicheal, someone that even scared Elizabeth Danfield.

I think MaryEllen's features would be sharper than that but I love the Alex here.

Anyway, kind of crazy about Sergio/Kevin. He manages to be the small percentage of guys who don't respond to the new medicines?

Chapter 2 -When the house prepares for the wedding, and when Will and Zach make love. "Crazy in Love" by Beyonce Welcome to the Beyonce domination years. She pretty much owned this decade. I got so sick of her by the end of it. LOL. -As the family watches Isidore and Frank get married. "Forever and Always" by Shania Twain Shania Twain basically disappeared after the early 2000's. I think she's tried to mount a few comebacks but she was pretty much at the end of her reign right here. -The wedding reception as the gang dance in celebration. "Come On, Eilleen" by Dexy's Midnight Runners Way ahead of this time, but "Living Room Routine!" When I was like 15 I bought this "Top Hits of 1983" cd and I used to listen to this tune on it all the time. What a great tune to dance to. God, I love the oldies!

So...Fall '03/Winter '04 Burberry: I absolutely loved the outfits with the plaid at the beginning...not so sure about the rain slickers, though. It's kind of funny to look at this haute couture stuff, and pick out the stuff that eventually made its way over to the mainstream...the hoodies over coat look was HUGE by about 2005. The main thing I've noticed, while studying this stuff, is that there was a strong emphasis on deconstruction...clothes were often very loose-fitting, especially the pants and blazers/coats.

I always thought the Hayes guys ranged from blond, dark blond, to light brown. Hmm. If you want him with dark hair, though...

Let's celebrate by sharing our favorite tunes by Canadians!

Happy birthday!

Elizabeth Banks (Hunger Games, Pitch Perfect) as Claire? Claire is described as looking very youthful for her age, and Elizabeth is one damn youthful forty. If she's gotten any work it's been incredibly good. She's also got that Ivy League, WASP-vibe down pat.

Again, see: Billy Crampton. Also, I'm pretty sure Jeff Hayes celebrated his birthday in the original CAP story. Dear god, I hope the Hayes curse is finally over. LOL. Anyway, did anyone else catch that Lou is reporting in Iraq? That's pretty cool. I guess he's going to become a hunky version of Anderson Cooper. LOL. I also liked the bit about China- China's economic boom was in full-throttle in 2003, wasn't it? If the 80's were Japan's decade, it feels like the 2000's was China's. I kind of thought we missed an opportunity for JJ to note that he has a massive following in China. That would have been hilarious. I feel like he should have gone there at least once- for sure he's been to Japan. There are a lot of international skating events in Japan. Anyway, I just realized something bugging me- Darius, JJ, and Will calling Robbie "Robbie", and not "Pop". I thought he was Pop to them? Damn, I wish I had caught that earlier. Oh, well.

Billy got a birthdate (October 27, 1964) and Mark still killed him off. Just about a week shy of his 16th birthday, no less. I don't think Ricky got an actual birthdate, did he? Fully disclosure: My middle name is Richard. I have on occasion told people to call me Ricky or Rick when I didn't feel like giving them my first name. My family also calls me J.R. It's a really funny parallel to JJ. I still think R.C. would be a cool nickname for Bobby but we'll see on that. LOL. Anyway, the thing is, like in real life- people aren't really that gung-ho about birthdays once they get past the age of 21, with the exception of landmark birthdays like 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, etc. They stop really having much meaning. And when Mark introduces people, sometimes it's hard to know whether or not they'll be a long-term character or not. Max was originally intended to be a much bigger character than he wound up being, while Wade was originally just going to be a teammate that Matt messed around with. (And now his family has basically become a core CAP family.) Given the sheer volume of characters that Mark introduces, it would be silly to give every single one a birthdate and a full back-story...usually an approximate age will suffice. Of course, if the age has a plot point, we see them born or celebrating a birthdate, or they're narrating...then yeah, of course they can get a birthdate.

It's right, though. Beau was 15 in 1998...it's now 2003, so he should be 20, or getting ready to turn it. Robbie's birthday was never actually specified until the last story. There was just a reference in Be Rad that Robbie's 18th birthday was going to be March, 1981. I actually went through stories and found that March is a month that usually doesn't see a lot of action in CAP-world- the only two stories that did have a lot happen in March were If It Fits and Millennium. Anyway, I bitched to Mark that I thought Bobby was a really old-fashioned name for a little boy in the 2000's, but he swears its not. I don't know though- my one sister had kids and has ton of friends with kids- and they were running around with names like Aiden, Jayden, Avery, etc etc. Then again it's supposed to be a tribute to Robbie, so it's okay. I still get such a kick out of how much JJ can't stand kids. LOL. I like that JJ's going the Marcel route. Leave the breeding for this generation to Darius and Will. Although that could actually be for an interesting story down the road- what happens if JJ's with a partner who wants to raise a family, and realizes that JJ would be rather be dragged through a mud pit set in the middle of a Wal-Mart while wearing polyester clothing than become a father? That is actually a deal-breaker for most people, it seems like. I mean, it's different with Alex because Alex isn't really asking him to become a father figure to the kid, and it's doubtful that Alex is really going to be a gung-ho, active parent. It's just not the way those kids are brought up.