methodwriter85

Oooh, if we're talking period hotties... The Abercrombie Carlson Twins God, they were SOOOOO hot.

Oh, right. Man, Billy's been dead for like 22 CAP years at this point.

I just realized that for a soap opera, we really haven't run into any identical twins that I can think of. Or even fraternal ones. Which is funny, because twins aren't even that rare. I knew at least four pairs of twins in high school.

Well, it depends on if you take the material seriously, or you're reading it with an "it's so bad it's good" mindset. I purely read it for the LOL's. I know people who watched Twilight purely to make fun of it.

So I'm not alone in thinking that Christian in the trailer sounds a lot like Edward, then? I thought it was hysterical that there was a character named Jose, Anastacia's swarthy dark-haired hot friend who is a rival for her affections. Gee, I wonder who E.L. based him off of.

Wow, I'm sure at 51 Mark must LOVE getting compared to elderly residents in a nursing home. Seriously though, age really is sometimes just a number. Dylan McDermott from American Horrory Story is in his 50's and he's smoking hot:

See, the thing is, I like Jamie Dornan from his short stint on Once Upon A Time, and I've liked Dakota Johnson from the small supporting roles she's played, so I wonder if they both have it in them to elevate the shitty material into something good. I doubt it will happen, but it's possible.

I think JJ can work as a guest POV who comes in every once in awhile, but at this point, JJ's too isolated and immature to work as a main narrator. I'm thinking we'll probably follow JJ when he gets to the 2005-2006 skating season.

I loved reading the 50 Shades of Grey book and laugh my ass off at it (it's so bad it's good), so I'm interested in seeing whether or not they can make a legitimate movie out of it. Is it just me or does Christian's line delivery sound incredibly similar to Edward Cullen's in the first Twilight movie? I kept expecting him to say, "I feel...very...protective...of...you." Which makes sense, because 50 Shades of Grey had it's origins as a Twilight erotic fanfiction, until it got so popular that she decided to publish it and had to change the names to avoid getting sued by Stephanie Meyer.

*deflates* Fine. No GED then. We'll just pretend that JJ eventually plans on taking that California. (I checked Massachusetts and they're apparently a GED state.) I'm just really curious. It's not really something I can see Mark covering because JJ's a pretty peripheral character as it is, but I'm curious to see if JJ's attitude has evolved from where it was when he was in 9th grade(and under the thrall of his coach) and didn't think he needed school because he'd be on the cover of a Wheaties box by the age of 20. Like maybe JJ is actually interested in things like writing and history or something. Or if JJ is still pretty apathetic about school and education because he's pinning everything on that Olympic Gold Medal. (Which we know he'll never get.)

JP is 66 in CAP world time. He's an academic. Most of them hang on until at least a few years past age 65. I had a professor that was a Korean War veteran, and this was in 2006 so he had to be at least in his very late 60's. Although with JP's plans for Claremont Tech, I can see him getting really into that and probably spending more time in Claremont after his retirement. He'll probably live a long life into his 80's like Tonto did, who had her own purpose such as making sure the next generation of Hayes boys didn't self-destruct like Jeff did.

So I posed this question to Mark, and he wasn't really sure, so I thought I'd pose this to you guys...since JJ is getting homeschooled by a tutor, how exactly does JJ get evaluated to see what grade level he's completed? How is he considered "graduated"? How is this different from what happens with a GED? Because I kind of figured that homeschool kids took some kind of standardized test similar to a GED (if not the GED) as their means of passing a grade or something. Mark's been telling me that GED's would have a stigma with the family, but I can't really see it being THAT much of an issue with the family, as long as JJ's proving he had the equivalent of a high school education. There are quite a few actors and actresses that did the GED path and it doesn't seem like something that would be unheard of for their socioeconomic circles, especially when it comes to the Hollywood kids that they probably hung out with. We do know that JJ has a tutor, but it doesn't seem like he's been enrolled in school since the 9th grade, so he'd have to be entirely homeschooled for most of his high school experience. It doesn't seem like JJ's enrolled in school and then using his tutor for the months that he has to take off.

I guess I mean JJ doesn't need to be around his family the bulk of his time the way Will needs to. To paraphrase what you said to me once, JJ could be content with once-a-month visits with his family and feel okay. I don't think that'd be enough for either Will or Darius- I'd be shocked if either moves out of California. I guess you could say JJ does need his family, but he doesn't need the constant communication and presence of them. I can also see JJ being willing to make and create his own support and family system, as like a home away from home. I always thought that could be a really good thing for JJ, to at some point in his life build a really tight group of friends that serve as a secondary family to him, and one where he doesn't have to deal with Will being the Golden Child that everyone fawns over and he has to jump up and down to get attention from. That's a pretty good difference between Will/Darius and JJ. Will can put in the work for things he wants to do, and we've seen him having a narrow-minded focus (re: the emancipation), but he generally prefers to keep his life balanced. He could sacrifice things to get what he wants if he was pushed to. JJ, meanwhile, has pretty much sacrificed a lot of stuff in order to make it to the senior level figure skating level that he's at right now. As for real life taking place...interestingly enough, a lot of JJ's athlete contemporaries haven't quite let go yet even though it's probably advisable they should. Evan Lysacek is trying to get back into competing. Michael Phelps is returning to competition even though he retired. And Jeremy Abbott is kinda heming and hawing, even though it really would make sense that he retire now because the Socchi Olympics pretty much proved that guy is never getting an individual Olympic medal because he's too much of a headcase.* I think it's the Brett Favre effect- you don't really want to let go of the sport and the adulation that goes with it, even though your time really has passed. In any event, I do think it'll be interesting to see how JJ handles his 20's and the waning of his career, and how he'd handle not being Jeremy Schluter the Skater. In any event...the pursuit of happiness is a path everyone deserves...but come on. This is CAP. We can't have everybody constantly happy or it'd be a boring story. I think Brad is pretty much destined for a life of trainwrecks punctuated every once in awhile with happy breaks. *"Headcase", best known for describing crazy people, is used by those who follow skating to describe skaters who are very inconsistent and who often tend to completely give up on a program after one mistake. Basically, they're known as a choke artist who crumbles under the pressure. Jeremy Abbott has the reputation of being one for international competitions, even though he's good at national comps.

The thing that you've set up about JJ, and has been pretty consistent, is that he's not really a homebody, "attached to family" type. Whereas family is HUGE for people like Will and Darius, it's not really that way for JJ. It could change, but I kind of think that if 9/11 didn't turn JJ into a type who was all about family like his brothers, nothing will. I can see JJ being pretty content to roam around the world, meeting new people and experiencing new things, and never really setting up "home" with any particular person. I can see it being pretty important to both Darius and Will for them to meet the person they can envision themselves setting up a family and home with, but never really for JJ. I can also see JJ being pretty gun-shy about the idea of settling down into a happy monogamous relationship that's marriage or the equivalent, considering that both Brad/Robbie and Jeanine/Tiffany fell apart pretty spectacularly when he was 13 and 14 years old. Aside from that, his career choice doesn't really lend itself well to having a happy, monogamous relationship considering the extensive amount of training and traveling he has to do.

Chapter 41 -When Matt tells Wade about his kinky sex room in the Chicago apartment that he made for them, and the two have some fun. "Down to U" by Ja Rule ft. Ashanti, Charli Baltimore, and Vita I got this off of the August 3, 2002 Top 10 Billboard chart. Interestingly enough, there were only 2 non-hip/hop songs in the Top 10 for that week- "Complicated" by Avril Lavigne, and "Hero" by Chad Kroeger, best known for Nickelback. Really does match up to my memory of the time of hip-hop being a hard thing to escape from if you were trying to listen to Top 40 radio. -When Matt and Alex have dirty, dirty sex with absolutely no emotional attachment. "My Neck, My Back" (Lick It) by Khia (NSFW) Damn, this decade had some really nasty as hell tunes. LOL. You can't deny that it fits, though.

True, but right now I think it kind of works that Mark is painting JJ as the virginal counterpoint to Will.

I know you're doing examples...but I'm not sure I see Jeremy Schluter being a slut. He's already bucked the pothead tendencies of his family; he might just buck the slutty tendencies as well.

Yeah, I think it's easy to admit that Brad was a pretty shitty, inconsistent parent.

Will REALLY seems to have a problem with hypocrisy, and I can't see him as a parent ever trying to disparage his own teenage kid somewhere in the 2030's from doing the same kind of stuff he did. I think the scene would go pretty much as you described. I get what you're saying, Blue, but I don't think JJ will ever doing anything that would tarnish his image. Image is absolutely everything in that sport, and for him to pull any of the kind of shit that Will did to be "free" wouldn't be good for it. He'll just suck it up and be glad that he's only got another 16 months to go before his 18th birthday.

It seems like the "primary family consisting of the two gay men and their breeder" for each generation always has around 3/4 kids, so I figured the third kid here would be inevitable. I'll admit I want it to be Matt's, as well. He strikes me as someone who will make a great dad, when he puts the effort into it. Will is probably going to make a great father some day, Darius as well probably. JJ will probably have a vasectomy before he's 25. LOL. (Which will be a smart idea, considering that he's from a line of VERY fertile men.) In any event, I can see Matt, Wade, and Tiffany figuring out parenting pretty well, and avoiding the major mistakes that Brad/Robbie/Jeanine did with their kids. For example, there's no way in fucking hell Tiffany would have EVER put up with the kind of attitude that Will gave Jeanine from one of her kids. JJ won't try this again on family members again, probably. Instead, he'll save that for whatever entourage he sets up when he's in his 20's and living on his own.

I did not know a beard wife can father kids. The things you learn... In any event, Wade's right that it's pretty doomed, but I like that he wants to at least enjoy it for a few years instead of planning out the next twenty years of his life, which guys like him tend to do.

For Scott, I picture either a blond-haired Josh Holloway from Lost: Or Jason Lewis from Sex and the City. Both have that sleazy hot con artist vibe to them. Jason Lewis wouldn't be a bad Cody, either. His eyes have a freakishly beautiful shade of blue to them which would make sense with Cody and how he's described as being able to bore into people's souls by looking into their eyes. Thoughts, Mark?

I think what I was trying to say, and apparently didn't really do a good job of saying, was that Queer as Folk represented and reflected a certain reality and created a perception that this was the main way gay men conducted themselves, even if that wasn't true for everybody. You gotta remember that as an impressionable 16-year old gay kid, this image imprinted on me. It was reinforced by the fact that my sister promoted Philly raves back in the 2001-2003 era, and the whole gay circuit raver boy with frosted hair tips and glitter clothing was the type of gay guy she knew, and introduced me to. You made me think about why I perceived things that way, and I think that's why- I really did buy into the whole Queer as Folk image being what gay guys were like, and it wasn't helped by the fact that the older men I was trying to hook up with online as a 16-year old reinforced that image. I think I knew exactly two low-key gay guys at this period in my life. Everyone else I knew ranted and raved about going off to hit the Philly gay clubs and wore a shit ton of glitter. It's why seeing two normal-looking college guys on a casual pizza date was eye-opening for me, when I was 17. I actually wrote about that here if you're interested in reading it: I'm From Newark, DE Funny enough, the illustrator pictured me as blond, like my namesake JJ. LOL. Although JJ would NEVER wear a t-shirt, unless it cost like 500 dollars and was made by Dior. I also would probably bet he hasn't touched a slice of pizza in months. I do think what's beyond debate here is that the rise in gay marriage and gay adoptions HAVE changed perceptions, and that we're seeing more different types of GLBT narratives on our screens than what we saw back in 2001, when it was either Will and Grace or Queer as Folk. Over on the Fosters, which features a married lesbian couple who foster teenaged kids, they're having a storyline where a middle school-aged kid is questioning his feelings for his best friend. That would have NEVER been on American t.v. when I was in middle school. The closest we had was a 27-year old man playing a 17-year old boy who chastely pecked a boy on the lips once a year. (If that.) I think what that helps to do is allow for the 12-year old boy who's questioning his sexuality to maybe not feel so alone, and feel more normal. Which is great and why I'm glad there's a lot more windows these days, as you put it.

Well, I'm not saying Queer as Folk was 100 percent accurate, but it did reflect something, as did the exchange between Andy and Kyle Kessler in Cross-Currents, which wasn't fictional. Anyway, I was actually trying to back up what you were saying about how it's more the reality for urban gay people to not be monogamous. I was agreeing with you there, man. Geez.

I found this Huffington Post article. It's by a guy who refuses to force his son to stop wearing dresses and bow down to societal norms, because in the end, he wants his son to be able to express who he is, whatever is it that he may be. My Son Wears Dresses, And That's OK With Me Pretty cool.I liked that Mr. Menachem wasn't all, "Yes, I put him in dresses to say fuck societal norms!" and it took him awhile to be okay with the judgemental comments he gets from people who think that he's going to raise a gay son because of this.