Ali sent me a note and mentioned a swoon worthy new picture of Richard Armitage. “Aren’t they all?” I thought.
I was wrong. I’ve not seen many like this where he looks like such a guy. I mean just a guy. Did I say just a guy? Someone slap me.
We haven’t really seen a pic like this since Strike Back:
This is from an interview in Spanish magazine Accion, which Ali has up at RichardArmitageNet.Com. My only complaint: we need a bigger copy stat!
Also, don’t miss Richard’s FOUR PAGE interview in French magazine L’Ecran Fantastique. April has a copy here.
If you don’t speak French, no worries, Ali will have up a translation soon!
I’m sure we’re all going to learn a few words in other languages before this is over. :D
And I have a new tag for these kinds of pictures, “arrow worthy”. No, I won’t be drawing any arrows. I leave that to others who are more adept. But the tag is perhaps a suggestion?
edit: I put up a larger format picture. Thanks, Ali!
second edit: Servetus now has a translation of the Accion piece.
TheOneRingNet (TORn) has confirmed the Brits don’t have to wait until the day after Christmas to see ‘The Hobbit.’ It had been erroneously reported by a news site and a blog in the UK that the release would not occur until Boxing Day, which was of course upsetting, and how patently unfair it would have been since most of the cast is British.
Some of you know that I have thrown in with the TORn staff to help report and write stories. I thank you for your support of me and hope you give support to TORn as well if you’re not already doing it. I also want to take this opportunity to confirm they are an extremely nice bunch with a great sense of humor and hard working as well. They are working feverishly on this Comic-Con event and will keep you posted in great detail as they will with all the news that’s coming in regard to ‘The Hobbit,’ and yes, Richard Armitage. :D
[click to enlarge]
Okay, so I published that picture again. Do you mind?
What was I saying about getting bored staring at the same picture? I lied. Richard Armitage is Thorin so deliciously in this picture, and you know I’m strongly affected when I use language like that. When have I ever used words like deliciously? Yep, I thought so. Never. And this might be the only time. ;-)
[click to enlarge]
But then I guess this isn’t exactly the same picture is it. Daria has done some magic on it! And for more of her magic, check out her DeviantArt profile or her tumblr.
The highlights on his face and hair make me think I could find him on a beach somewhere but obviously without all the leather. :D
Original scan provided from Ali’s wonderful iPad. :D And can be seen in a larger format at RichardArmitageNet.Com
When I first started this site, I submitted an instruction to the Google bot to crawl (aka poll) my site only occasionally. Google sent a canned response that they didn’t have to abide by it. Mostly they have respected my request, but something changed about two weeks ago. For the first time ‘rafrenzy’ was not the top search string, and that string being at the top made it obvious I was mostly found by word of mouth. But now the search engines are running about four to one compared to my other referrals and ‘rafrenzy’ is far down the list. If you could see my stats list, it would be obvious more and more are curious about this Richard Armitage who is playing Thorin Oakenshield. What else am I to conclude if a piddly blog like mine and one that has tried to remain under the radar can be generating so many hits lately? Let me put it this way. If I keep going at this rate, I will be getting what amounts to 45,000 to 60,000 hits a month. And I know Nat and Servetus generate much more not to mention all of the other blogs in RA Universe (see the ‘Addict List’ or ‘Tumblr’). Yeah, something has happened.
If you’re new and wanting to know what Richard Armitage really looks like under that beard and armor, a little treat for you so you don’t have to scour this site for such goodness, and you can click to enlarge or snaffle. :D
oh heck! another one,
Usually I say something like Ohcheemama! when I see this. Some people say PHWOAR! or maybe Squeee! If you’re not sure, you’ll have to come along and learn the fine art of appreciating Richard in all his glory. Well, maybe not all of his glory. I do keep this blog safe for work.
I wonder when I’ll tire of publishing these pictures?
Screencap courtesy of the amazing Karima and candid shot courtesy of JJ via RichardArmitageNet.Com.
Didn’t I say this was the upcoming post? Yes, I’m feeling a bit cheesy, which is good for this blog. It’s when I don’t feel cheesy that I can’t really get into it.
So where was I? Oh yeah, I wanted to talk about Lucas North. No, it doesn’t matter that you’ve put that unpleasantness behind you, I haven’t. For about a year now I’ve been crafting posts to deal with my “issues” with Spooks. The problem is that more than half of them are rants, but bear with me as I decide which ones to inflict on you and give Lucas his due. I owe that to Richard Armitage and his wonderful ability to develop a character.
In the meantime, a little teaser from the Spooks 7 set:
For those who have been following this blog for quite a while, this isn’t a new one, but I had to post it again for someone, somewhere who is an Armitage lover and might have missed it the first time ’round. This picture about takes my head off. Seriously, I think I would swoon if I saw someone that good looking standing in front of me. If you don’t feel the effect, click on it to zoom in, and click again to really zoom in. Go ahead; you’ll be glad you did. :D
Okay, onto a new teaser for the rest of you:
How interesting to observe him at work and that closely. If I’m being honest, and I like to think I’m very honest, I would love that. It would be much more rewarding than having him sign an autograph for me that I would merely place in a box somewhere and probably never look at again. But these pictures? These are fascinating. And do I have to make the disclaimer that I would not post anything that was in a private setting? Apparently I feel compelled hence the question. :D Obviously, these aren’t private, and I appreciate Richard Armitage allowing himself to be photographed at work. He could have precluded that, but he didn’t. I know it might even have been irritating since he is a hyper-sensitive person. As a graduate of the Institute for Advanced Armitage Studies, I believe I’m qualified to make that assessment of him, and it’s immaterial if this is a manifestation of CW. It feels good. :D
Off to figure out how to get closure on Lucas.
Behind the scenes photos of Spooks 7 courtesy of Kuchinggirl. More of her lovely work coming up.
P.S. My boy got All-American. Sorry, I couldn’t help but sneak that in since I’m so proud of him!!
The best laid schemes… Oh how they can blow up in our faces. Thankfully, since I’m not a man, I must be a mouse. Not sure yet, but for a few minutes a couple of nights ago, I could have put my fist through a wall. This morning I’m still a little unsure of myself but less so as the clock ticks. And the clock ticking is what started all of this here. You thought it was Richard Armitage? Hang around, and I’ll disabuse you of that notion although there might be some confusion when posts like this appear.
I still can’t look at that picture without blinking my eyes and shaking my head to clear it. Ironically, that really might be his sexiest picture.
And since I usually muddle up the paragraph breaks in my posts not to mention all of my other grammatical sins, I might as well do it up right and just place them wherever I want and hope you understand my convoluted mind. Honestly, I never have known the best way to place paragraph breaks; topic sentences mystify me. So glad that hasn’t stopped me. Now for the awkward transition.
Sometime last weekend an item from RAFrenzy inadvertently posted on my personal Facebook wall, and if you need to heat some coffee or tea, you can place it next to my head where the steam is coming out. Previously I just disliked Facebook, now I despise it. This has jeopardized my anonymity to a degree it has never happened during the life of the blog. Yeah, I know some of you know who I am because I’ve let you know, and for all of you other RA fans who may have guessed, I’m not concerned about you. It’s the family I don’t want reading. SO and the kids are not so much the problem. I mean the extended family. They would not get it, so I don’t want them reading and possibly giving input. If I did, they would already know about it. Wait! Some of them now do. Damn Facebook.
So how did this happen? Oh, I’m going to tell you so I can give this rant full vent and also give you a heads up. It happened on my phone where I haven’t mastered the ability to control scripts so I only have running the ones I want. For the uninitiated, scripts drive the web page you’re on, and sometimes scripts include all sorts of nasty things that you don’t really want running. For me Facebook is nasty, and especially so when the Facebook mobile app will not let me log out, and I have to clear my data every time I want to make sure it’s not logged in, and even then it’s not a sure thing. Can you see that steam now?! Let me make this really plain. If you’re logged into Facebook, and you are on a site that has a link to Facebook, you can inadvertently post a “Like” to your wall. Given that links to Facebook have wormed their way onto virtually every site on the web, there is a vulnerability you might be posting things to your FB wall that you never intended [waves hand vigorously in the air while saying 'choice' words]. Same thing with Twitter, which I still like, but I may ended up despising for the same reason.
And I wouldn’t have been on my phone if I hadn’t been determined to work on my blog post about Richard’s back. Okay, enough of that rant, but just know that despite my irritation, I’m not letting this keep me from blogging. On to the good stuff.
I did promise some more pictures, which I really was about to post a couple of nights ago before I got rattled.
His size and vantage point scream masculinity, but that’s not enough to make these pictures so compelling. His attentive nature is still evident. Man, I really have a bad case of CWS. Who woulda thunk a set of pictures of his back would bring on such a bout?
This one really does make me think I can reach out and hug him:
This one almost looks like a kid trying to get the lay of the land:
It is amazing to me how he can still convey a purity without using his facial expressions. Yep, I have a raging case of CWS.
Usually I hate housekeeping. I have not been kidding when I’ve said I get bored very easily. That’s why I was such a good fit for IT and new product placement. But it means I hate maintenance, and housekeeping is maintenance. When I first started the blog, I knew there would be maintenance, and so I’ve tried to make it fun, but this time around, I’m really enjoying it. Oh gosh, I cannot believe Richard Armitage has also made me enjoy this. If he could bottle that, he would be a trillionaire.
So what the heck am I talking about? Well, I thought I would group my FanstRAvaganza posts in one place and do a few other things while I was at it. Of course when I do something like that, it means I have to pull up the post, and I sometimes will read them again. Not always as I don’t have the time, but I’ve been listening to the recordings again. What a treat, and I’m certainly not limiting that to Richard Armitage. All of you who have sent me recordings have been such a pleasure to listen to, and there will be more for readers in the following days. I plan to wrap up sometime this weekend if not sooner, but the way things are going, it will probably be this weekend. LOL!
I’m placing all of my FanstRAvaganza posts here so they will be much easier to find and hopefully enjoy.
Until next time, a picture:
Click to enlarge
I thought this one might get your attention, and you can click on it to enlarge. Ohcheemama!! See what I mean about Richard Armitage making housekeeping fun? :D And I received an alert this morning about RA being discussed on a student site. It was rather interesting to “hear” the college girls talking about him and the guys. *smirk* I couldn’t help but think of two college girls near and dear to me. One thinks he’s the hottest thing she has ever seen, and the other one is scared of him but thinks he is very handsome. They’ve never seen this picture. I’m not sure what they would think, but I know if I had a been a college student and happened to see that standing off in front of me, I would be in a daze. Truly. He is that good looking in this picture. Hell, I’m almost in a daze now.
Oh, I have to stop. This picture is probably worthy of another post. Um, yeah, I’ll have to talk about this one again later, and if this is your picture, please let me know. I’ve been saving this one for a long time (couple of years), but I would really like to use it (well, I guess I have). I just like to give proper credit. So let me know!
edit:
Photo courtesy of @kuchinggirl on Twitter, and what a photo it is!
I am so digging Richard Armitage in a beard. But then I love beards on men. SO has a beard, and I’ve never gotten tired of it. It took me a few years to convince him to grow one, but after he did, his reaction was, “Wow, you really like my beard!! What happened to that other woman? … Yeah, maybe I’ll keep the beard. LOL!” Of course not all women like facial hair on men, and some are actually turned off by it, but c’mon, doesn’t RA in a beard challenge that notion for some of you? It’s hard to believe that some who have hated beards aren’t now saying, “Yowza!” and some, “Ocheemama!”
I know I want to touch it, and this is coming from someone who has yet to have a dream or fantasy about RA. This might change things. LOL! No, it probably won’t. I’m just that much of a control freak and head over heels in love with SO to the point I can’t even bring myself to fantasize about another man, but Richard’s beard is a strong temptation. I’m sure everything in its vicinity is feeling the same. :D
Honestly, I’m hoping he wears his own hair for the Hobbit. Somehow I doubt that’s going to happen, but he may be more into method acting than I think he is. The only downside for him is he really would not be able to hide behind his beard in public. But then can this guy hide? Oh, maybe he’s been able to do so up ’til now, but it’s going to get harder and harder, and if I know anything about the American public, he really won’t be able to do it if he spends much time here. We’re just absurd that way. Plus, women here have an absolute love affair with the English accent from a man, and when it’s someone like RA, oh man, Colin Firth is going to be a pup compared to this guy. Even Gerard Butler, who I have to admit is mighty fine and has a wonderful Scottish accent, will not be able to hold RA a candle if the women of the American public ever catch onto him.
Earlier I said to someone that he is a sexy beast in this press conference, and I’m sticking by those words. None of that negates the sensitive artist. I just see it as another facet of the same wonderfully complex person. If he were just the artist with the sensitive mouth, frankly, I would become bored. Just as if he were nothing but a sexy beast in a beard. Too much of any of it is BORING. Thankfully, RA is both and so much more. And of course my current infatuation is not just about the beard because I have no inclination to touch Aidan Turner’s! :D
The question of whether or not Richard Armitage would make a good James Bond has come up countless times in the fandom, and it happened again the other day with DEZMOND’S poll. I didn’t vote because I’m conflicted, but I want to go on record as saying that he would make a marvelous James Bond. I’ve never doubted it. The question for me is whether or not he should indeed play Bond. I know I would love whatever he chooses, but from the first time I heard the suggestion of him being Bond, I’ve had my reservations.
The character is fairly one-dimensional. At least he is in all the Bond movies I’ve seen, which is all of them except Daniel Craig’s Bond (need to rectify that in the near future). Maybe Craig has changed things up? Somehow I doubt it, and that’s no aspersion on him. It would take a mega star to change up the Broccoli Machine, and then maybe even that wouldn’t happen because the Broccolis are not going to hire anyone who is going to mess with their cash cow. I’m sure their thinking is “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” That’s a good rule of thumb if it’s only about money. If it’s about art, then there’s no such thing. Well, money is still involved, but hopefully it doesn’t dictate everything. Last time I checked, and again, I haven’t seen Craig’s portrayal, Bond was not about art, and certainly not about any real thought. About as deep as Bond usually gets is sexual innuendo via the liberal use of double entendre. I can watch Sean Connery for that ’cause he does it so well, and really, I don’t want to see RA being a Sean Connery retread although I’m sure he could pull off some great stuff.
But let’s say RA did play Bond. What would that mean for his career? I’m inclined to think it would not bode well. All of the actors who have played Bond including Connery have not done much of note. One reason is most of the actors chosen for the part are not the best actors or even close, and I would bet it’s almost an admission that an actor is second tier to be chosen. I could be wrong about that, but my common sense says this is not considered a plum role if someone thinks of himself as a serious actor. I would hate to see RA in that group. Another reason for my hesitance is Bond is such a larger than life character (bigger than any actor’s portrayal) that the typecasting which comes with it makes accepting the part maybe a bit daunting later, and especially if the actor plays the part really well as Connery did. Is there any doubt RA would play this well? Ohmygosh, just thinking about him being Bond, well, I need to keep this blog safe for work. Suffice to say that PHWOAR! would probably roll off my tongue so often it would be sore.
All of that aside, the only thing that really gets me excited about RA being this character is imagining how he would deal with the back story, and yes, of course some gratuitous shots for objectification edification. Speaking of which, here is a shot that in my opinion screams James Bond:
And just for comparison purposes:
Oh, heck a few more.
When I saw this…
I quite naturally thought of this:
And when I think of this:
It’s easy to think of this:
Definitely need a cool drink, and maybe I need to speak to Hunkess. I could do with a little celebration of masculinity of this historic Hunkie.
That Sean Connery has got to be one of the sexiest ever! The dude is even sexy as a graying, balding man. Phew!
What woman could resist someone that manly looking and with that beautiful, deep burr? Oh yeah, Connery has ‘it’, and obviously, so does RA. I think I’ve just convinced myself that Richard should NEVER play Bond. He is the only one I’ve ever thought could eclipse Connery. RA doesn’t need that baggage!
Side note: I think it’s a hoot that Ian Fleming based the “sophisticated persona” of Bond on Hoagy Carmichael. I love Hoagy! Love to play Hoagy, and yeah, his music is sophisticated. But his persona? I’m not seeing it. LOL!
Then again, Wikipedia could just be having us on. I’m not a Bond aficionado so I wouldn’t really know, and I don’t have time nor inclination to become one. I’m doing well to write this blog. Better stop now since I feel a strong urge to go on a tangent about Hoagy.
Oh, what the hell!
One of the all-time great songs, and a real pleasure to play as well as hear:
Another one I love to play:
And by the way, I love 7notemode. He is a helluva player, but then this is my kind of music. If you ever think of me playing anything, this would be it! And maybe a little Brubeck and Duke Ellington as well. :D
Oh, and as much as I love 7notemode, I wanted to post Oscar Peterson playing Skylark but couldn’t find it. Oscar is fantastic. If you’ve never heard him, you’re missing out!
