The Many Modes of Richard Armitage Fans

I lied — again. I’m getting to the phantom Diary entry after this post.

I understand Servetus has now coined Armitage Objectification Mode (AOM). Why didn’t we think of this before?! It should have been coined years ago, but I’m glad we have it now. :D I mean c’mon, we’ve all objectified Richard Armitage in one form or another. And even though I’ve said I haven’t fantasized about him, I never said I didn’t want to. LOL! I just said I chose not to do it. I’d be a big fat liar if I said I never had the yen. But as to AOM, I’m sure we’re all going to have a field day defining its various levels.

Of course I have to cover Armitage Protection Mode (APM). Posts about it are found here and here if you’re not familiar. It’s to be avoided unless you want to be a killjoy, and there are certainly various levels of APM which deserve their own modes. Armitage Correction Mode, or what I think of as APM Light. This is when someone continually feels the need to correct other fans about Armitage lore, e.g., making sure everyone knows that Guy’s horse is Richie and not Ritchie when no one else (or few; wish I could say no one else) gives a rat’s ass how the name is spelled. Did the show’s creators ever specify? Or APM Exreme which I fondly think of as Armitage Sanctimonious Syndrome (ASS). That’s when someone not only wants to protect Richard Armitage but is utterly self-righteous about it. Utterly here means the person may end up calling the authorities in an attempt to ensure dear Richard’s safety and most important that they (the person and not the authorities) can never be wrong! LOL! Yes, I laughed. I used to pity these people but have come to find them a great source of humor.

Oh, yeah, they’re funny, Rich. As if you need protecting. LOL!

rh205_021

There is also Armitage Denial Mode (ADM), and its various levels go something like the following. Armitage Denial Mode Extreme — when you’re so far in the closet you won’t even breathe Richard Armitage’s name to another human being and certainly never comment on him in cyber world, yet you may be the first to look at anything posted about our guy. ;-) Armitage Denial Mode (no frills; it just is) — you think Richard Armitage is great and sometimes you deign to express it to another human being with an occasional comment in cyber world. But then you step back and wonder what has come over you?!! Armitage Denial Mode Light — you are very chatty about Richard Armitage and frequently give and take on his abilities and are recognized as a commenter but swear up and down you’re just a casual fan. Of course the remedy to all of these is called Freedom from Armitage Denial Mode — that’s when you finally say to hell with all of this and get yourself a blog! LOL!

note: all of this is predicated on the idea that almost everyone reading this blog is an addict. D

Screencap courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.com

May 5, 2013
Categories: Fandom, Robin Hood . Tags: , , , , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: Comments Off

Conflicted Fangirl

Yes, it’s my quarterly bout of circumspection. It started last week when I posted something sane for a change. But I cannot be completely sane if pictures like this are still floating around:

GuyofGisborne-and-his-sideburns

Before I submerge my sanity again, I want to make it clear that my wish to take Richard out of his box is also a wish for myself. I do not want to be in continual fangirl mode. Sometimes it bores me. There I said it. No, it’s not the first time I’ve said, and it won’t be the last. And I don’t want to get into a debate about desire nor diagram this photo although it begs for diagramming. I acknowledge that readily, and that the man is walking desire. But I also see something far beyond that. Much beyond that, and the sane part of me doesn’t want to lose sight of it.

However, today when I was sifting photos, this one knocked me silly again. LOL! That might be a maniacal laugh. I’m not sure yet.

And actually, this is a public service post for the new fans. Yes, indeed that’s what it is! They’re still dazed by Thorin Oakenshield, but when they’re done, they now have something else to drool over. :D

I’ve had this picture for so long that I have no clue if it’s one of my screencaps or someone else’s.

December 29, 2012
Categories: PHWOAR!, Robin Hood . Tags: , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 39 Comments

Surveying the Landscape

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks thinking about whether or not I should continue this blog. Yeah, I know I’ve said this before. Part of it is my circumspect gene pestering me. Always pestering me. Always putting me in check, and then years go by, and I regret I got in the box, that my creativity was so squelched it’s a miracle it survived. But why do I listen? Very simple answer. I don’t want to be a fool. I do not want to be a fool. Yes, I said that twice. And the reality is I’m not a fool. I have been sensible almost from the time I exited the hatch. Sensible is my frigging middle name. At least according to my family and all who have known me with more than a passing acquaintance. But back there in childhood I was able to be sensible and creative.

The other part I’ve been mulling is my longing to do something else in cyber world, and I am going to do something else. Not now, but it’s coming, and sometimes I have a hard time not talking about it. I get excited while I’m working on it and want to start gabbing, but it’s not time. Some of you know, but keep it to yourself please since I’m not ready yet.

For now I’m continuing this blog for too many reasons to explain. Suffice to say Richard Armitage is just a small part of it. No offense, Rich.

And thanks to all of you for listening to my stuff or at least some of it.

Screencap courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.com

May 5, 2012
Categories: Fandom, Robin Hood . Tags: , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 9 Comments

Telling Stories

This is actually my day 6 post!

As with the other days, please remember this is part of a much larger conversation about Richard Armitage, and again, you would be pleased by checking out the rest of it here.

Yesterday, I was away from home and had several hours of uninterrupted time while I waited for the high school track team to finish their meet. This time was to be used for finally getting a video completed which was to go with this post. The thing had me in its grip all week, and my hard head was determined to conquer, so the first few hours yesterday were spent in my hotel room continuing to wrestle with it. Check out time came, and I had to move my tussle to a reliable wifi spot — the local McDonald’s. I did eat something while I was there; free food is always an enticement (such is the “perk” of a school bus driver), and as I was wiping my hands of the last bits of my Filet-o-fish sandwich, so I wouldn’t smudge my laptop’s keyboard, a rough looking couple sat down near me. They had a laptop too and were aware that my seat was next to the only electrical outlet in the dining area. The man asked if he could plug in, and then he started quizzing me about my computer. Knowing I had to get that damn video done, but being a people person and being someone who can be easily distracted, it was beyond my power to ignore these people who were continually trying to talk to me. Oh, I mentally berated myself for choosing McDonald’s as a place to work, berated myself for committing to post every day, and berated myself for not wanting to listen to these people.

So I finally closed the WordPress session and turned to take a full look at these two. The man had on dirty clothes, was unshaven, and some of his front teeth were missing, but it did nothing to keep the twinkle in his eye from drawing me. The woman, who was a tall, painfully thin, dark eyed beauty with almost a regal presence, looked a bit wistful for something. This is where I cut to the chase to ensure this post doesn’t run to near 3,000 words. These people were homeless, and the man is probably a genius and the woman supposedly a former wife and mother with four children, which ended when she became a meth addict. Now, this is far from my first in-depth encounter with someone who is homeless, and it’s not going to be my last, but it is the most fascinating. I spent the rest of the day with them, and I won’t bore you with all the details as they’re considerable, but I did end up taping them with their consent, and I’ve already verified some of their information as accurate and will continue to try to verify some more. From what I know so far, these two need their story told. What a privilege it would be to tell it!

This morning when the story just wouldn’t leave me alone, I thought of ‘West of Memphis,’ which I plan to see, and I wondered at the considerable power Peter Jackson has to get a story told. And now Richard Armitage is in his camp, and if he is as quick a study as he appears, he will leave that place much different with almost none of it the result of new found fame. Richard is a storyteller. He has continually revealed in his interviews that he insinuates himself into the storytelling process. Sometimes the writers have talked about it:

One of our great casting coups is Richard Armitage (who plays Sir Guy of Gisborne, the Sheriff’s right-hand man), modest man of sharp intellect…Today, he knocks on my door with a pencil and pad. Can he ask me some questions about his character? I tell him, truthfully, that I can’t believe he is here – an actor of his talent, sitting on my sofa, talking to me about playing this part. I feel so lucky. Suddenly I stop myself – do I destroy what little (gamma-male) authority I have by being so candid? I glance at him. My concerns are unfounded. He is blushing. A man of his talent. I remind myself that the only folk more insecure than writers are actors. — Dominic Minghella on the set of Robin Hood, 2006

Article here

And Richard is aware that he may sometimes be a pain with his need, but he can’t help it:

I don’t think I’ve gone anywhere near the high point. It may not even be in front of the camera. The older you get, the more critical you become. Whoever writes the stuff I’m in must think I’m a complete pain in the backside, because I will question them about every word the character utters.

And I’m excited about where that might lead:

I suppose I’m a bit too curious, but I think I probably will have a crack at directing at some point.

The rest of the article here

He must be in heaven right about now, and all because someone saw more than his ability to look adoringly at a female. What a shame it would be if he were consigned to nothing but that, nothing but our drooling and gushing over his sexual appeal. Oh, I’ve done my share, but that is not what brings me back again and again to see what he’s doing. Since the Vulpes Libris interview, I have been firm in my belief that he wants to tell a story. Richard III? He has talked about it a lot. So obviously, it’s a story he wants to tell, but is it his passion? Some of his fans think so, and eventually, we’ll find out.

Before I finish this post, I must say a hearty thanks to people and places on the web that make this blog possible. Yes, I’m saying that if they didn’t exist, I would not be able to run this place. LibraryGirl and the ladies who maintain the lovely database at Richard Armitage Central, Ali and her cohort Wendy at RichardArmitagenet.Com, Annette at RichardArmitageOnline, and all of the ladies at C19. If it weren’t for all of these people and their propensity to discuss and archive, I know I would never have started this blog nor have delved this deeply into what I believe is the most fascinating part of Richard Armitage. Thank you all for the great pleasure of doing that!

Edit: updated the Conversations page, so no more cheating. :D And I did not forget about Bertold Brecht. More on him after FanstRA.

March 18, 2012
Categories: Interviews, Movies, Robin Hood, The Hobbit . Tags: , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 12 Comments

Flying

As with the other days, please remember this is part of a much larger conversation about Richard Armitage, and you would be pleased by checking out the rest of it here.

My apologies for the delay in posting, and no, today is not about Richard Armitage and Peter Jackson. It was supposed to be today, but I’m a day behind. Sometime I might tell you why.

This piece was originally titled ‘I Think Therefore I Am a Great Actor II,’ but my need for cuteness has waned, and in its place is an overwhelming desire to be understood. The need is so great that it’s also contributed to this post being tardy, and I began drafting it a couple of months ago! Actually, the post has been brewing from the day I started this blog. No, before that.

I knew fairly early on what overwhelmed me about RA’s portrayals, but the language to explain it has eluded me; otherwise, I would have explained already. My stumbling block is not in finding some words so much as it is in wishing to use words that have an inflammatory nature. If my ability to handle words were better, then I could deal with the dangerous ones while curtailing the seemingly endless qualifiers.

In case it wasn’t obvious in the last post, the drug I keep taking is the reality created by Richard Armitage’s characters. I would say truth, but people trip on the word truth. Maybe because it’s often assumed to be the sum of all truth instead of just a truth. That does seem to be the inference from a significant number of people when the word appears. And perhaps it is such an important aspect of our lives, it rightly deserves that reaction. To be clear, I do have a definite view of the source of the truth, but it has such a richness and depth, I could never sum it up. It’s not that simple.

And people aren’t simple. It doesn’t matter who. Everyone has myriad emotions for myriad reasons with myriad manifestations of them. For another person to portray this authentically, and I don’t necessarily mean realistically but rather a portrayal that gets to the heart of a person, certainly can’t be simple. It requires what Stanislavski called “the magic if” which is an actor accessing his imagination to give a character thoughts and feelings, and in turn mannerisms and personal habits in order to convey the inner man. When I first heard Richard Armitage wrote back stories for his characters, I wondered if he was a devotee’ of Stanislavski’s method, but it wasn’t until I read the Vulpes Libris interview in July 2009, that I was sure. Oh, what a wonderful piece. For all of the supposed intellectual resources of the major media outlets, an interview on a fairly unknown blog remains my favorite, because he shared in more detail, before or since, how his mind works with respect to his craft. Thank you again, Lovely Book Foxes! I think many of us would love to read those diaries. Maybe one day.

From that interview, something else began to be clear. This tapping into the imagination and using it to make a real point of connection is Richard Armitage’s obsession, and thankfully for us, his genius. When I was reading Craig, he made an illustration of a young man wanting to become an actor and how it wasn’t really about wanting to be an actor but something else:

Perhaps you quarrelled with your parents when you were eighteen, because you wished to go on the stage, and they would not let you. They perhaps asked why you wanted to go on the stage, and you could give no reasonable answer because you wanted to do that which no reasonable answer could explain; in other words, you wanted to fly. And had you said to your parents, “I want to fly,” I think that you would have probably got further than had you alarmed them with the terrible words, “I want to go on the stage.

Millions of such men have had the same desire, this desire for movement, this desire to fly, this desire to be merged in some other creature’s being, and not knowing that it was the desire to live in the imagination, some have answered their parents, “I want to be an actor; I want to go on the stage. — Edward Gordon Craig, from On the Art of the Theatre

I saw Richard Armitage in that. Oh, not the quarrel although there could have been a quarrel, but in the desire to merge with another creature’s being. And it occurred to me that for all its appearances, this is not flying:

The heart of these characters was never revealed in any way that was terribly meaningful to me. The entire time I was watching I felt like an outsider who didn’t understand the intense relationship between these two people but was aware on some level of the writers whispering into my ear, “This is the scene where you should care.” But oh, what do you think this part would have been in the hands of Richard? And I’ll bet Kate Winslet’s performance would have been world’s better as well. I could get faint if I think about all the possibilities, and especially as I’ve been learning what flying really looks like:

It’s made me want to fly too. It’s made me want to tell stories and express some things I never have or felt I could. A few months before I knew RA existed, I did start a journal, which was something to relieve tension and rant where it could do no harm to anyone — except perhaps me. It was never for me to be a writer. But as I watched his performances, I got so stirred up and eventually knew I wanted to do in written form what he is doing. Mostly, I want to create another world in which to reveal a reality. Isn’t that what Tolkien is all about? More on that later. :D

The next post is about Richard Armitage stretching himself creatively.

March 16, 2012
Categories: Interviews, Movies, Robin Hood . Tags: , , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 20 Comments

A Hot Spur, If You Will


[click to enlarge]

FanstRAvaganza continues!

Please remember this is all part of a large conversation. Today’s Conversation found here.

Back later (yes, today) to continue my part of it.

March 15, 2012
Categories: Robin Hood . Tags: , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 6 Comments

I Think Therefore I Am a Great Actor

Continuing on with my contribution to FanstRAvaganza 3:

I’m not going to pretend I understand all there is to know about Richard Armitage. Someone said earlier it would take at least a “40 parter” for that. May I suggest the parts would be infinite. I believe that’s the case for all of us. We are all complex. Some just make themselves look simple and in the doing of that lose our interest. Just know that this series is my attempt to shed a little light on what I’ve learned about this fascination with Richard and his characters. Also, there is no way I can do justice to Constantin Stanislavski, Bertold Brecht or Edward Gordon Craig within the confines of a blog post nor even a week of blogging on them. But I can highlight some salient points with respect to our guy.

When I first became aware of Richard Armitage, I just let myself enjoy the sensations his performances created in me. My greed for those feelings had me watching some of his shows over and over and over, and it wasn’t uncommon for me to feel like I was taking a drug. I’m fairly sure I appeared slack jawed to anyone who might have observed me in the process or shortly thereafter. And each time I came down from the high, I would intensely question myself about it. A common question was: how old am I? Never mind. :D The point is that I was old enough to know better than to be silly about some actor.

After I passed the initial euphoria, I had to explain (at least to myself) what had created it. A good looking guy with a great voice in a romantic role? That was it? I’m not quite so air headed or needy for male affirmation that it would generate this reaction. So I went in search of others who had a similar reaction. I lurked the forums for months, and there were some wonderful fan writings about the impressions Richard Armitage had made. Many others were overwhelmed by what they were seeing, but none of them (at least that I read) captured what was niggling in my brain, and candidly, I became frustrated by some of the rhapsodizing. I wanted it to answer me, and it just seemed like some were the same things said about every other good looking or compelling actor. I did watch other actors I appreciate for comparison — Edward Norton in ‘American History X,’ Gary Oldman in ‘My Immortal Beloved,’ Sean Penn in ‘Dead Man Walking,’ Russell Crow in ‘The Insider,’ Daniel Day-Lewis in ‘My Left Foot,’ ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being,’ and ‘In the Name of the Father’ and even Jimmy Stewart in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’ All great performances, but it was abundantly clear they all had great writing and/or stories to propel them. Even with that, none of them had quite the same effect on me as Richard Armitage in much lesser roles and with less adept writing.

And what was the effect? An identification with something so real it made me feel I was there with the character and seeing the situation through his eyes. Some of those roles above had moments of that, but none were able to make me almost continuously see the story through their eyes — feeling their pain or frustration or joy or elation — as I have watching Richard Armitage. The only thing that has frequently had this effect on me is reading a well crafted book where a character or a scene has gotten inside my head, and I’m with them and in them, and sometimes I have to read books or parts of books again and again to experience the thrill of that moment of connection.

The scene in The Sun Also Rises where Jake is in the church trying to pray and then steps out into the sunlight is one of them. If there was ever a scene that I consider orgasmic, it’s that one. It nearly took my head off. There are others which come close, but that one I can barely speak of without almost having a meltdown, and I even got misty eyed typing these last few sentences. But with Richard Armitage, I was taken to that place of connection with almost no words. It was in his action:

Action or rather movement was integral to Craig, “theatre has sprung from movement.” Notice he doesn’t say words were the impetus. He does give deference to writing as the body of a play but movement was so important that he suggested the need for an Uber Marionette (sometimes described as inhuman) as the perfect actor who could be controlled by the director of a piece in order to achieve its vision. Richard Armitage has spoken several times of the importance of movement and his body to his craft, and he’s even spoken of smoldering with his back. Anyone who has seen the first episode of Robin Hood Series 3 knows how effectively he can use it:

But it is Stanislavski who explains how he is able to use his body to such great effect:

“if actors really mean to hold the attention of a large audience they must make every effort to maintain an uninterrupted exchange of feelings, thoughts, and actions among themselves. And the inner material for this exchange should be sufficiently interesting to hold spectators. The exceptional importance of this process makes me urge you to devote special attention to it and to study with care its various outstanding phases.”

Through Tortsov the Director he goes onto explain about self-communion, which is a way of facilitating intercourse within yourself and specifically between your brain and feelings, and communion between individuals, which requires you to first seek out the other person’s soul and inner world. At the train station when John Thornton looked at Margaret Hale, I felt he was looking at her soul, her inner world, and mine too. He was getting in my head.

I’m tired, and I’ve still got more to say, but I bid you adieu for now. More of this later. And hey, I got some pictures in this one. :D

Today’s Conversation found here.

March 14, 2012
Categories: North and South, Robin Hood . Tags: , , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 25 Comments

Lovely Facilitator

I’ve been talking about the wonders of technology, and specifically what it can do for us. This invention has me thinking all sorts of possibilities for keeping my Richard Armitage obsession well fed but not in plain sight:



Facial Recognition Billboard Only Lets Women See The Full Ad
By Yi Chen on February 21, 2012

A new kind of outdoor advertisement is being trialled on Oxford Street in London’s West End. The interactive advertisement uses a high-definition camera to scan pedestrians and identify their gender before showing a specific ad. The built-in system has a 90 per cent accuracy rate in analyzing a person’s facial features and determining if they’re a male or female.

Read the rest here

I need one of these devices in several rooms of my home, and when I walk near, I see something like this:

But it would have to be sophisticated enough that when SO walks near, he would see this:

which would ensure he asks no questions about the awkward looking contraptions spread throughout the house.

And maybe there’s a workaround for Servetus’ difficulty:

The sensing unit mounted on the lectern with the display on the back wall behind the students? And perhaps with rotating images of Richard Armitage so she would not become dazed by her ogling. But of course if the students happen to look, they would see this:

The only downside I foresee is the students becoming confused by her spontaneous diagramming of Luther’s pants?

RA screencap courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.Com. Other images in the public domain.

February 29, 2012
Categories: Robin Hood, SO . Tags: , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 12 Comments

Widows on the Web

One of the ways I’ve connected to other Richard Armitage fans is through their fan fiction, and when I stumbled onto the GuyxMarian community at Livejournal in late 2008, a new addiction was born. :D I found a treasure trove of stories to keep me well occupied with the continuing saga of Guy and Marian, and the first Gisborne fiction I read was by Spikesbint (some of you may know her as Angelfish69 or the Admin of Armitage Daily or simply Angela). Little did I know how high she would set the bar with “Prisoners of Circumstance.” It is a tightly written story that resolves GxM in a way that left such a warm feeling when I first read it. Still feeling it after three plus years. LOL! But it was a story that became even more satisfying because it’s complete. Thank you, Angela.

Another one I read early on was “Fallout”*. Bookishy, the author, has done a great job capturing the Guy and Marian characters and potentially making them something else, and I would love to see how she develops them further, but the piece remains incomplete. It has not been updated since 2009. Maybe her imagination got distracted by something. I do give her credit for that possibly being the case. But dammit! I want the ending of that story, and I hope she’ll come back and take mercy on all of us and finish it. I’ve been waiting to say that for almost three years! :D

I wish “Fallout” were the only story left dangling or at least one of just a few fan fictions that remain unfinished, but there are many stories waiting for an ending. That frustrates me, and I’m not alone. A couple of years ago a friend of mine, who is also a fan fiction writer, posted her frustration about it on IMDb. I told her when I was starting this blog that I was going to save what she wrote and post it at some point. She was fine with that, and I’m not only posting it, but making it a permanent page on my blog. Not because I have an ax to grind with fan fiction authors. Not at all. I’ve loved witnessing people trying their hands at writing and have marveled at the imaginations and abilities of many of you. In fact, your efforts were part of the impetus for this blog. Which brings me to the real point of this piece.

I do not want my Diary of an RA Fan to be a widow on the web — something that starts but eventually goes nowhere. At one point in the life of this blog, I was thinking about scrapping my diary entries as they are not really conducive to publication and have to be heavily edited. I’ve pondered for a long time about finishing, and several of you have counseled me about that and several of you have sent me notes asking me for more entries. I thank all of you for your input. I started and I’m going to finish! But I need the fan fiction page to keep me focused.

As to fan fiction, I plan to say a lot more about it this year. In the meantime, some words of wisdom from broughps.

Graphic by Angela.

January 22, 2012
Categories: Fandom, Robin Hood . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 6 Comments

Vidders to Watch

Richard Armitage is now a channel on YouTube and boasting a few thousand videos. I was scanning the ones at the top, and there are a lot of great ones in the popular category; however, there are some you may not see unless you go through all 3,000+. I’m here to help. :D With this post I’m beginning a series called “Vidders to Watch”. It will be a periodic feature of videographers who often stand out either with their vision of a video, pushing the envelope with a technique, clean and sharp editing, or all of these. The series was born out of fans’ requests for lists of the best vidders. I’ve emailed lists numerous times and love doing it, but these posts will be for those who wonder yet never ask.

When I was deciding to run this series, one of the first vidders who came to mind was JulietD001. Her videos are usually clean and highly stylized. She also takes chances and is not afraid to provoke and possibly offend. One of her videos is on my Top 10. It’s in color, but I’ve become partial to her black and white pieces. Enjoy!

Be sure to check out her Robin Hood videos and all the others as well, and for more information about her, see Maria Grazia’s blog, Fly High.

I have more of these posts planned, but feel free to make suggestions.

January 16, 2012
Categories: Fanvids, Robin Hood, Spooks, Vidders to Watch . Tags: , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 7 Comments

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