methodwriter85

See: Nu90210, NuMelrose Place, NuDallas (although that show started off promising it lost steam when Larry Haman died), etc etc. I do think this can work, though. The world is just as into the paranormal and sci-fi conspiracies as they were back in the 1990's. Did you write any fanfiction? That was a fun fandom.

One of my favorite childhood shows is coming back! Woo-hoo! X-Files Set to Return As Limited Series Pretty exciting. I remember watching the show pretty faithfully back in 1995-1998...then the show just started losing steam for me. I remember the reruns constantly being shown on FX. Anyway... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbBX6aEzEz8 What were some of your favorite episodes? The one I remember the best were these cheerleaders, who because they were born on this particular date in 1979, become bat-shit evil for the day. Another really good one was a family that was...well...very, very close. There was a lot of fanfic for this show, particular quite a few surrounding Krycek and Mulder. LOL. Anyone wanna admit being an X-files fanfic writer?

The irony is that Anthony Michael Hall got HUGE when he entered his 20's. It's always kind of funny to see that.

Matthew Del Negro (Teen Wolf, Scandal) as Andre, had Andre lived to middle age? If I recall correctly, Andre was supposed to have a distinctive nose that is like Matthew Del Negro's. That's why I thought of him. He's also somehow retained his boyishly good looks/charm into middle age, which is how I think Andre would have been. The face shape and general coloring also seem right, and in general he exudes a sense of joie de vivre which is how I've always pictured Andre. Matthew was a former lacrosse player. Mmm, lax players. Is anyone else into finding older guys hot now? I'm really into looking at great-looking guys in their late 30's/early 40's right now. Don't get me wrong, I still have no problem checking out cute 19-year old college guys, but there's something pretty sexy about a guy who's aged well.

It's kind of sad that no one in that movie ever really topped their performances there.

Aww. Zayn Malik Leaving One Direction, group continues as 4 piece I mean, it was inevitable, but I'll definitely miss the great group chemistry they had. And I enjoyed that they brought back the boy band thing. So song of the moment... "Night Changes"

I'm going to admit I kind of wanted Connor to admit he's bisexual, not gay. It's weird, I'm gay, but I really root for male characters who are not straight to end up bisexual. There are so few examples of bisexual men on T.V. and film. Still, the fact that they're showing kids in like 8th/9th grade (being played by actual teenagers) having boyfriends and such is pretty damn cool. Back in my day, the best we had was a 27-year old guy pretending to be 16 and giving a quick peck on the lips with little to no physical chemistry:

JJ's not really a San Francisco Boy. He's more L.A./Boston, but in general he's kind of this Continental worldly traveler type. We're ABOUT to enter 2003, which means we're about to see the big fashion shift that occured then, when guys started wearing brighter colors and started letting go of spiky hair. The Bo-ho look started in the early 2000's, but it really took off circa 2004. Suddenly every girl I knew was wearing peasant skrits with tank tops. And yeah, there should be lots of puka shell necklaces and hemp anklets on guys. I didn't quit the puka shell look until 2006 or so. LOL. I thought this fashion show from 2003 evoked a lot of memories for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXROdmBmQFA I don't think EVERYTHING was in common place (I really don't ever remember seeing guys wearing white pants or leather vests), but in generally this is a good summary of what was hip during the time period. A lot of military and 80's influences.

A Canada Goose coat is 700 dollars. What the fuck? I guess JJ will be rocking this when he's 30.

I think 2010's guys in more general are likely to buy cheap shirts and the like from places like Target or H&M so they can afford cool gadgets or higher quality jeans, shoes, etc etc. I think the guys who would have bought Abercrombie if they had been 19 in 2005 instead of in 2015 have either moved on to more of a classic Ralph Lauren preppy look, or they're doing the aforementioned cheap stuff/mixed with expensive stuff. Guys don't seem to want to wear their brand names like splashed big accross their chest anymore. However, girls seem to be very into Pink. Anyway, check out these high fashion shows from 2003. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x49QFP8r1o Contrasted with this more "accessible" fashion show: DSquared Spring Summer 2003 Layers. Lots of layers. Sleeves rolled up. Also, again with military colors. Collar-less leather jackets (usually layered over a hoodie) became cool during this time period. This generally jibes with how I remember 2003-2006-ish. Kinda. If you were someone who was trying as opposed to just wearing polo shirts and cargo shorts. Although yeah, I don't remember ever seeing any guys in speedos. (That I would want to see in a speedo. Yay for Italty.) As for the suits, this was the "deconstructured" era, right? Like that's why the suits seem to be flopping around. I don't think that's going to look good on a short, skinny guy like JJ but he's probably doing that look. He'll be better served by the more tailored, slim-cut suits that come in style at the end of the decade. Finally...it's almost 2003, which means the spiky haired look is going to start fading out for guys. I remember that was the year that I started seeing guys letting their hair get longer and kind of.,.feathering it. I called it the early 80's winged hair revival, as seen here by a young Dave Franco: The idea is that their hair is kind of fluffed up and curled up, with minimal product. They didn't call it feathering but it totally was. The 80's revival was in full swing. Guys were rocking hair from 1982. Girls, strangely enough, didn't feather their hair. It was either soft curls, or long, straight, and parted in the middle:

Yeah. Another thing- I don't think I've seen a young hot college guy wearing Abercrombie in a loooonnnnggg time. That look feels truly over.

So I thought I'd try something a little different than my "music playlist" stuff. I thought it might be interesting to highlight a particular song that brings back a very vivid memory. So first up... "Sweet Jane" by the Cowboy Junkies It's mid-March, 2012. I'm 26 years old. I'm in some non-descript, beat up car from the 1990's(I think blue, maybe black), traveling with two or three other guys as we were coming back from our Spring Break. We had spent the week in Tennessee, building trails in the Appalachia mountains, while staying at some lodge in some backwater place called Soddy-Daisy, close to Chattanooga. It was a great week. Probably one of the best weeks in my life- Chattanooga was beautiful, the scenery was beautiful, I was falling in love with the "Hunger Games" book, which was enhanced by actually being kinda isolated in the middle of nowhere, and I was getting over my fear of heights by working on this trail in the mountains. I had even managed to come close to the edge of a cliff to take a group picture with friends. Our lodge was filled of cool, interesting people from all over the country. And we basically flouted the "no drinking" rule, because our particular group was not held as strictly to the rules as the other groups were. (The Boston University kids actually had some 35-year old babysitter/faculty member.) The year previous, someone had crashed a school-owned van during a trip to New Orleans, so our chapter of Alternative Spring Break did not use school vans that year, which meant that we did not have to follow the same rules as we did last year. The girls from our own group got to have their own cabin, which meant that we basically got to throw parties almost every night. It basically felt to me that I was getting the sleepaway summer camp experience, which I had never had. The theme from Salute Your Shorts kept playing in my head. Not everything was perfect- I had this bad earache the first day or two, some of the kids I didn't get along with, and I didn't really get to do as much as I wanted to because they had too many people working on the trail, but still. It was fantastic. Wednesday night, we were in Chattanooga and walked the pedestrian bridge over the Tennessee river...it was an absolutely beautiful, clear night, and the lights of the city and the sound of the river below was just beautiful. I felt really lucky to be alive and part of the world that night. Of course, all good things have to come to an end, and this week did.The song came on the radio on our way back up....I had never heard of it before. I asked my driver about it, and he said that it was a tune from the movie Natural Born Killers...I had seen it when I was little, but I didn't really remember the soundtrack. I loved the tune. It was just the right kind of mellow and reflective...a perfect song to come down to while leaving an amazing vacation and coming back to the grind of school, my job, and my internship. We were flowing along the road close to the Virginia Tech as we went towards West Virginia...which was pretty much open country, strikingly different from the heavily-developed scenery that I'm used to seeing on the East Coast along 95. It matched the general feeling that I had- I felt real, and earthy. I didn't feel like some mallrat from suburbia, which is how I grew up seeing myself. I wasn't surrounded by the airy artificiality and conformity and congestion of where I had grown up. There was just this all this wide open country around me, and this song lulling me to a wistful, reflective state. I was happy/confused/sad/accomplished/scared etc about what came next...grad school was getting ready to end, and they were the best years of my life. But at that moment, I felt wide open and hopeful, and loved that I had gotten to experience things I had never done before, like standing on a mountain or checking out the coolness that was Chattanooga. I have never felt more free or full of possibility than I did at that moment. I think that above anything else is why I consider that the best week of my life. I hope I have other, better years/times/weeks than that one, but for now, three years later, this moment still sticks to me.

Not surprisingly, San Francisco invented the whole "parklet" craze about a decade ago. It's hitting Philadelphia right now and trickling down to Newark and Wilmington, DE as well. (They did a display of the concept at a community day event here in Newark last summer, and apparently did a temp one in Wilmington.) Have you seen the parklets in Los Angeles, Blue? I think it's kinda cool, but I'd also be terrified of someone running me over while I'm sitting down on some park bench. For those of you who haven't seen them, it's basically when a parallel parking spot in front of a business gets turned into a mini-park:

Oooh, two Daddies slapping me around for the price of one! One former Marine Daddy and a Daddy from Australia This just keeps getting better! If you're both bearded Daddy bears, even better! Okay, in all seriousness...let's move on. Where do you guys see the story going? Did De La Salle already have their high school football championship? It'd be nice to see that one.

*pictures being slapped by a forty-something former marine type* Please Daddy, may I have another? No, in all seriousness, I get that it's annoying and stupid but sometimes you get some really neat portmanteaus. Nuke (Luke and Noah of As the World Turns) and Kish (Kyle Lewis and Oliver Fish on One Life to Live) are two of my favorites. Just saying that at about this time period in the story, people started using that. Before that, 'ships on fan message boards were given names that weren't smash-ups or just Person/Person. Which made it really annoying that an episode of the Carrie Diaries, set in 1985, had people trying to say a couple portmanteu nickname. That was such a jarringly anachronistic moment- no one in the mid-1980's talked like that, and it wasn't being done until Bennifer came around in 2002. Anyway, I'll admit certain things will set my teeth on edge. I can't STAND "totes" (totally), "adorbs" (adorable) or "jelly" (jealous). Although that was inflicted on us by TetRefine's cohort, not mine. Yolo surprisingly doesn't bother me that much, though. And I'm down with #Hashtag.

So while we wait for the story to resume...I thought we could have some interesting conversations about the popular culture of the time period this is set in. It's late 2002/early 2003, which means we're at the height of Bennifer. (Ben Affleck and J-Lo.) That portmanteau popularized the use of such things, so it makes me wonder...what would you use for our favorite CAP couples? Will and Zach...Zill? Wach? Zwill? Alex and JJ...Jalex? Jander? I kinda like Jalex. Brad and Robbie...Brobbie? Claire and Jack...Jaire? It's kind of funny when you think there was a time when such things were never heard of.

Someone told me that apparently Patogonia is really popular with the college kids these days, and have apparently usurped Northface:

There's this MLB prospect for the Blue Jays, Daniel Norris, who likes to rock a lumbersexual beard during the off-season: Pretty impressive beard for a 21-year old. It even got a Twitter account. I usually tend to prefer guys with just stubble as opposed to a full-on bushy beard, but this guy rocks the hell out of it.

I came across this pretty neat story about a Blue Jays prospect, who despite having a 2 million dollar signing bonus, lives in a van at a Florida Wal-Mart and leads a spartan lifestyle by choice. The Man in the Van by Eli Saslow I really do admire people who live such free, minimalist lifestyles like that. I find the guy a throwback to the 1970's, when some people rejected the materialism of American society and went off to try and live off the land in nature. He's not quite doing that, but I do think Daniel is practicing a lot of those same values- being self-sufficient, not having much beyond the bare minimum, and a lot of self-reflection. Whether or not the guy gets into the Major Leagues or not, he's already won at life because he's figured out the way to lead a life that makes him happy. Way too much about the life we're told we should have is about acquiring stuff. I like that Daniel Norris decided that it was not the life for him, and he's gone for it despite his teammates who probably think he's absolutely off his rocker. I'm glad he's being celebrated for his eccentricity, rather than being mocked for it. I also have to admit, I have this fantasy of what it might be like to lead that kind of lifestyle...living in a van (probably more like a Winnebago), traveling around the United States, and being a free-spirit with nothing tying him down. I don't actually think I could do it, but more power to this guy for being able to do so.

Well, PrivateTim, if you're offering....I'm sure Mark would take it.

Philadelphia magazine just wrote an article about what they're calling Philly's New Boom: Philadelphia New Boom It really is exciting to see all the changes that are happening. I'll be interested in seeing whether or not they can FINALLY make the Gallery at Market East more than just a 1980's food court and a handful of discount stores. I also think it's pretty cool they want to add Times Square-like advertising to certain parts of town. Pretty cool. Finally...Kensington as a neighborhood everyone wants to move to. Man, that'll be interesting if that actually happens, because I still hear Kensington and think, "Crack epidemic."

Hey, for those of you that were interesting in following the story about my friend Tim who got arrested during an Unfortunate Sidetrack, I talked to him on Facebook recently. Tim is generally doing okay. He told me that Nassau County (New York) is still dragging their feet on giving him a plea bargain so he can avoid being charged with a misdemeanor, but he can put things off for awhile now. Tim's still hopeful they'll give him the plea bargain, and he doesn't think this will go to trial- most likely to a hearing. I did hope this would have been resolved by now, but eh, the system can be a pretty lengthy process. I do hope he can get the no contest plea bargain or something, but at the very least, he doesn't have to worry about a felony.

Well, it's leveled off and his Twitter followers are now down to about 711k. As an update, he's apparently quit his Target job and will pursue acting and/or singing. It'll be interesting to see what this guy is like at 25. Seriously, how can you possibly go back to being a normal guy living a normal life after the whirlwind he got? He'll be chasing that for the rest of his life.

So this is more 1978 than 2000,but check out this really cool/funny picture of Cali rock climbers from the 1970's: It's currently trending on Reddit's OldSchoolCool. Check out the shorts! I really do love looking at photos from that depict bygone eras and times. I love imagining what it might have been like to live in those times. According to people in the thread, they're guessing that these are Yosemite climbers from the 1970's.

I don't personally get it, but I can totally see JJ getting into the whole Benedict Cumberbatch thing: A Brief Guide to Benedict Cumberbatch Hysteria JJ likes his guys (and probably women) to seem posh and refined. I can totally see JJ getting into it. It's still pretty funny that such a weird-looking guy is a sex symbol, but then eh...whatever floats your boat, Cumberbitches. There's actually a teenage boy who got all these Chinese Followers on social media just for looking like him. I also think JJ will be an early adopter of skinny jeans sometime around 2005-2006 (They seemed to go mainstream around 2007-2008.) He's not going to go near the hipster look, though.That's probably going to be for Marie.