methodwriter85

Good point. Anyway: Mark, this is what I would consider "The Essential JJ Playlist". If you need to get into his headspace, consult this playlist. The Essential JJ Playlist 1.) "Art is Calling For Me" (The Prima Donna Song) from Enchantress 2.) "Circus" by Britney Spears 3.) "The Fame" by Lady Gaga 4.) "The Glamorous Life" by Fergie 5.) "What A Feeling" by Irene Cara 6.) "At the Ballet" from A Chorus Line 7.) "The Distance" by Cake 8.) "White Houses" by Vanessa Carlton 9.) "Lose Yourself" by Eminem 10.) "Disarm" by Smashing Pumpkins 11.) "Last Resort" by Papa Roach 12.) "Wounded" by Third Eye Blind 13.) "Who Will Love Me As I Am?" from Sideshow 14.) "Scar Tissue" by The Red Hot Chili Peppers 15.) "What I Did For Love" from A Chorus Line 16.) "One" (Finale) from A Chorus Line

I think Ethan rightfully decided that he wanted nothing to do with MaryEllen and declined to be part of the wedding. It's not like Wade could force him into it- he's not Ethan's guardian. I'm just wondering where Beau is, though. I kind of assumed Beau would be the one sibling that MaryEllen wouldn't be a total bitch to.

I actually disagree with that one. Remember, JJ is playing the "virgin" to MaryEllen's "whore." It doesn't make sense for him to use Susannah just to make Alex jealous. And MaryEllen is trying to convince Alex that JJ is pretty much straight, and he won't be satisfied with Alex in the long run. That's not to say that JJ won't hook up with her, but I don't think it makes sense for him to do it just to make Alex jealous.

Emily Blunt as Susannah?

Yeah, that makes sense for his character. Wasn't Europe booming at this time? There should be lots of new buildings going up. I can also see him loving Dubai, which gets truly outrageously chic, trendy, and daring. I liked that he figured his escort was some choreographed plan but didn't care because she was cute and he hated the place. The kid deserves a fun roll in the sack in any event, which will probably play into MaryEllen's plans, but somehow, I think JJ will be smart about it. I tend to zone out during Brad stories now, but I did enjoy Will giving him shit about being so self-absorbed into this new relationship that he's ignoring his family. It was nice to see Darius giving the tour of UCLA. College is such a fun time; I cant wait for this current teen scene to transition over to college, which starts with Zach in '03, and then Will/Marie/Ethan in '04. (I do not think JJ will head to college until sometime in 2007.) I really do enjoy how much JJ absolutely hates kids. Sometimes people just can't stand them, and I like that JJ is one of them, given that he comes from such a fertile and "Oooh, we all want kids!" family. Somehow I don't think he'll be interested in coaching after he retires sometime in the early 2010's. That really makes him stand out from Darius and Will, both of whom I would be shocked if they make it to 25 without becoming daddies.

So much for my hope that JJ would really be keen on European ways of life, read: his bitching about the manor. I wonder if he would have preferred a chateau?

I'm watching the t.v. film adaption of Seeds of Yesterday. All of the Dollanger family incest makes me think of the Hayes family. I wonder if there are any actual incest babies from the Hayes? (Well, JJ is the resident incest baby right now, but I figure there had to be some from the Hayes famly.)

I posted this in the lounge, but it also fits here..."Average Joe" Buzzfeed writer Sam Stryker decides to try modeling for a day, at LAFW. I wish he could have worn cooler-looking clothes, but I loved how much fun he had with it. I figure Blue and Tim know model types...that world has to be crazy.

Buzzfeed put out this pretty neat article, from the perspective of an average Joe type, who does a modeling runway gig and lives to talk about it. Here's What Happens When An Average Guy Tries Modeling For A Day I liked his pretty positive attitude throughout the whole deal, as well as the gained respect he had for the people for whom this is a day job. All in all, a pretty fun, frothy look at a world most of us don''t get to see.

I had forgotten that Dunkin Donuts originated around Boston. I don't think Chipotle's is bad, but for the money you pay for it, I don't think it's that good. It's the same reason I stopped going to Five Guys. Five Guys just stopped being worth it. I'd rather go to Jake's Wayback Burgers. (Or I guess it's just Wayback Burgers now.) Waybacks are making their way to Los Angeles now, although to be honest, from what I've heard of In & Out, they really have nothing to fear. I love Jake's but they're not as legendary as In & Out sounds.

It's not enough for you that Will realized he basically wanted nothing to do with Tony? In any event, I couldn't stand Tony, but I didn't hate him THAT much. I'm just glad that the character has run its course. He wasn't even hot enough for me to get over how much of an ass he was. (Mark's vision of Tony was Jason Cerbone from the Sopranos- good-looking, but in my opinion...for Tony to be THAT much of an ass, he needed to look like Young Antonio Sabato Junior or something. LOL.) On the other hand...we've all been there, when we look back and go, "I was so hung up on THAT guy? Really?"

Krispy Kreme is fantastic. However, I really like apple fritters, pumpkin donuts, Munchkins and the coffee that you get from Dunkin. Not surprised to hear that donuts went out because of the health kick. Krispy Kreme disappeared from Delaware for 7 or so years because of the Atkins diet craze. It finally came back last year. It'll be interesting to see if the Hawthorne revival plan works. Of course, it might just be a pipe dream. I like following the stories of dead malls, and how some dying malls are able to re-invent themselves. Christiana Mall in Delaware was kind of getting ready to die, but then they did an ambitious facelift and the mall has been going gangbusters since. The key seems to be having retail at different price points, as well as good restaurants and entertainment options. Yeah, I thought you would get kick out of that video for that reason. Bummer to hear that you haven't really found any American restaurants that have faithfully recreated Mexican food. Chipotle was a big disappointment for me. If I'm paying 8 dollars for a burrito, I want it to taste amazing, god damn it! Have you heard of Capriotti's? They were founded in Delaware, are based in Las Vegas, and they're now trying to move into California. The Bobbie. My god, so good. I don't know what it'd taste like on the West Coast, though. They can't use Amoroso rolls, I think.

Well, they're now trying to take over California as well. Like I said, try the pumpkin donuts in the fall. They're bangin'. Anyway, in this episode of Tom Explores Los Angeles, we get to explore the dead Hawthorne Mall in Hawthorne, CA, which closed in the 1990's after the middle class imploded due to the collapse of the aerospace sector. I've always imagined that Southern California had the best malls, after New Jersey and Texas. I still wish desperately that I could hang out in 1983 Sherman Oaks Galleria. Anyway, this mall was recently featured in Gone Girl...there's talk about reviving it, but given the demographics in the area...it doesn't seem likely. Were any of you guys ever there in its hey-day?

I have this close friend, Jack, who relayed to me a pretty terrifying tale of something that happened to his friend a long time ago. My mentor, Jack, is now a retired former HR community college guy in his mid- 60's. Thirty years ago, however, Jack was working as a bartender in a bar in Portland's gay community. That's how Jack met Randy. Randy was a good-looking, well-spoken customer in his mid-20's...pretty attractive 80's preppy type. Randy lived close to Jack, and the two went on a couple of dates for a few weeks. Randy was relatively new to Portland, having moved there a few years ago after his parents in small-town Connecticut flipped out about him being gay and tried to commit him to an institution. They were dating casually- just hanging out at Jack's apartment, going to brunch at a local cafe, seeing movies together...that type of deal. About a month into this, Jack was shocked when he discovered that this clean-shaven college graduate was working the streets of Portland as a hustler. You see, while we think of Portland as being a hipster haven now, back in the 1980's, there were a lot of seedy elements to the town, and that included the gay underground prostitution scene. The revelation about Randy's "career" happened this way- Randy called Jack one night and asked him if he could come over. He showed up at Jack's apartment, pretty distressed. Randy confessed to Jack that he was a prostitute, and then relayed a wild tale about something that had happened to him the night before with a client. He refused to name who it was, but told Jack that it was a very prominent local businessmen- someone that was very high-profile in mid-1980's Portland. The client was into S&M/bondage stuff, and Randy had seen him about once a month for a year. The previous night, after they concluded their scene, the client said to Randy, "I had a fantasy that I kidnapped you and kept you forever." He asked Randy if he wanted to live here with him. Of course, Randy said,"No way", and the guy got angry. The chauffeur drove Randy home, which was in hindsight a huge mistake. The client now knew where he lived. Earlier that evening Randy was headed home, but before he got to his apartment, Randy noticed his client's limo parked down the street from his building. Randy noped the fuck of there and ate dinner elsewhere. But when he went home, the limo was still there with the chauffeur sitting in the car. That's when he decided to go over to Jack's place and confess everything. Randy was completely terrified now- he tried to laugh it off as some dumb joke, but the fact that the chauffeur had spent hours parked in the same spot a few blocks from his apartment building was scary as hell. Randy begged if he could stay in Jack's place for a few days so this could die down. Even though Jack was totally surprised and pretty confused about all this, he let him stay at his place until a few days later Randy called him at work and told Jack he'd decided to go back to his apartment. Randy said he'd call Jack later in the week about a movie they were planning to see that weekend. Jack never heard from him again. When Jack went to his apartment building a few days later to check on Randy, the building manager said that Randy had moved out. After that, there wasn't much Jack could do- Randy didn't tell him who the guy was, and he didn't know much about Randy's background except for some vague idea of where he came from. And this was, again, the 1980's- policemen were not going to make a big deal about some male prostitute that went missing. Jack kept hoping that he'd get a call from Randy at some exotic locale, but as days turned into weeks turned into years turned into a quarter-century, he's stopped expecting that call. Hopefully, Randy just skipped town...maybe he ran all the back to Connecticut, found some sympathetic family member who helped get him on his feet, and he's put all of this behind him, and he's just some regular 50-something guy now with a regular career and regular concerns. Or maybe he's not. And Jack will never know.

Modern-day teens react to the late 1990's fad, JNCO Jeans. It's pretty hilarious watching young people react to fads from your own youth like they're the craziest things. I was slightly young for this trend- it really hit more with the people that were in high school in the late 1990's and it was done by the time I started high school in 2001. I remember going to Goodwill in the early 2000's and seeing a TON of these jeans there. I do remember the fad, though- it was very popular with skater and raver types. I think the only guys who could pull this off were tall and skinny rave and skater guys, wearing them with wifebeaters.

If you guys wanna have at it, Mark's Yahoo Group keeps track of when he started uploading the stories to his Yahoo group from CAP through to Paternity, which is usually about when he uploaded them to Gay Authors, give or take a few hours. You won't have the time but you would have the date from 2008 through to 2011. He stopped uploading the files to his Yahoo group in 2012 and just started giving us the links to his GA site instead. Some of the dates are going to be a bit hinky, though, because some chapters were revised. He redid the first five chapters of CAP in 2010, although the chapters were originally posted in August 2008. Here's an interesting factoid- the first 9 stories of CAP were published in a two-year period. Mark covered the years 1962 through to November 1999 in two years.

Now that Candice Bergen is happily fat....Tonto? Mark said that Tonto was supposed to be kind of round. I can toooottttttallllllyyyy see Murphy Brown and Tonto getting along. Did anyone else watch Murphy Brown? I loved that show.

Can I make a request? Since we never described Alex's mother, can she be Elizabeth Hurley a.k.a. Queen Helena from The Royals? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFmJce1xQ2Q I'm personally rooting for MaryEllen to have a complete and total nightmare bitch for a mother-in-law, who completely looks down on her for being "common." I'd also figured Mark would like William Mosely (Prince Liam; also Peter Pevensie from the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) for someone, because he really likes 'em cute blondes. (Not Alex...Mark already has his Alex.)

Guys, check out this obscure, forgotten oldie from the 1980's. If I had known this song when I was doing the recs for Man in Motion, I TOTALLY would have used it. Simple Minds was not a one-hit wonder. Who knew? Anyway, it was a tune that I had heard on this show called Glory Daze, and I really liked it, but I couldn't place the tune at all. I found it a little while ago while it was being played on the radio. Lovely tune, I think. It would have been a great tune to use with the AIDS storyline, or a good Brad theme in general. Do any of you were young adults back then know the tune?

Everybody knows Simple Minds for their big single, "Don't You Forget About Me" from the Breakfast Club, but did you know they had another hit single and were not actually one-hit wonders? Yup, they had a tune released in the fall of 1985 and it was a hit- not as big as their signature tune, but still successful. It's been largely forgotten, but I heard this tune many years ago on a show called Glory Daze, which was set in 1986 and followed guys pledging a frat. I heard a snippet on the show, but had no clue what the name of it was or who played it. It wasn't until like recently that I heard it played on the radio, and the announcer said it was a tune by the Simple Minds. Color me shocked, because again, I was under the impression they were a 1985 one-hit wonder. Anyway, check it out: I think it's a lovely tune...it's not as soaring as their big hit, but it has its own charms. Kind of a shame it seems like nobody remembers it and it's completely overshadowed by "Don't You Forget About Me". Were any of you guys familiar with this forgotten oldie?

She might be practicing the old adage, "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." I do think as much as JJ might want to go into full-on nuclear mode with her, he probably can't- knowing MaryEllen, she probably filmed all of their sexual encounters or found other ways to get dirt on him, which is nothing something you want to have when your career is based on being a Disney sweetheart. So I imagine them having a frenemies-like relationship- hatred thinly-veiled with a layer of civility. Anyway, it's going to be interesting having Zach in UCLA. I did want him to be part of the Reggie Bush era at USC, but alas you can't always get what you want. It sounds like this era of UCLA football was kind of "meh", which might actually be interesting. They weren't laughably bad but they weren't as good as USC was at the same time period. How would Zach handle that? Would he be bothered by that?

Chapter 43 -At the championship game, when Zach does the Starwalk play, wins the game, and makes up with his father. "No Such Thing" by John Mayer I remember when John Mayer was considered the best new voice in music, until his dating life started to overshadow his work. Oh, well.

Not necessarily California culture (though I'm pretty sure Buzzfeed films at YouTube studios in Los Angeles), but I thought Blue would get a kick out of it: I love Taco Bell, but yeah, I doubt they're all that authentic. I lived in Spain when I was really little, and according to my sister, Spanish burritos were fried/grilled. Which is something that Taco Bell has imitated in the past few years. Currently, I'm digging the beefy frito burrito. Anyway, back to California culture... It wasn't until I lived in Western P.A. that I realized that Dunkin Donuts wasn't as widespread as like McDonald's or Burger King. It was a big deal that the town I was living in was getting their first Dunkin Donuts, which was strange to me as a guy for whom Dunkin Donuts were almost as common as like 7/11. If you ever go there in the fall, Blue, please get the pumpkin donuts. They are bangin'.

Buzzfeed posted this surprisingly good article about a guy who realized his stolen IPhone was taken to China. He wrote an article about it, and it went viral in China, turning him into a minor celebrity there. Matt then went on an eye-opening trip to China to meet the man who received his stolen IPhone, and found fame, exotic locales, and friendship as a result. I Followed My Stolen IPhone to China, Became A Celebrity, and Made A Friend For Life It's long but worth it. I love the strange twists and turns life takes sometimes, and the connections we make that surprise us.That has to be such a strange and insane experience. It also makes me really curious about Chinese fandom culture, and internet fame in general. Anybody who has a story that becomes viral can get their 15 minutes of fame.

Typo. Anyway, really funny to see all the juggling Corbin is doing. The Nick Persons stuff was very Jane Austen-like.