If Zan’s blog name was ever apropos, it is on this piece. LOL! Thank you, Zan for making sure we have a place to quickly get a fix!
Reblogged from Well, There You Go …
Sad, sad, sad … Netflix is cleaning house on February 1, 2015. Among the many changes coming, we’ll be losing access to some of our favorites …
-snip-
Right then … so what to do when needing a Richard fix and the DVD player is just not convenient? Not to despair, dear friends!
Read the rest here
It’s interesting to review old posts and realize the fundamental impetus and tone of this blog is the same. I still feel as I did when I wrote this post in 2010 with only a few changes. One of them is I can no longer keep up with the press on Richard Armitage. Part of that is due to my situation and part of it is due to there being so much more. This a good thing for him in more ways than one. LOL! (unfortunately, I have never kicked the LOL habit. Every time I’ve tried, something I’ve said in jest was misconstrued as serious). The other thing that’s changed is I almost feel like Richard Armitage is an old friend. Before anyone starts becoming worried about my having descended into the depths of some serious CW, remember this often happens when we like a particular entertainer over a long period of time. Can you say Tom Hanks? Sure you can. Okay, so there’s the odd person out there who doesn’t like Tom, and no, I’m not fully comparing Richard Armitage to Tom Hanks although I do think Rich could be more of an everyman than he is currently. But I’m not going to chase that rabbit today.
Perhaps the only other thing that’s changed is I regret a few more things than I did in that linked piece above. I mourn any part I have ever played in quenching the spirit of community. The only salve to my conscience is that anything I have done was not done to create a divide. That’s not my style. Oh, I’m not about keeping peace at the cost of my principles, but I do not thrive on conflict. Not afraid of it either, but I don’t go out looking for it. Somehow that doesn’t matter, ’cause in fandom it tends to find those who manifest themselves very overtly in cyber world. Yep, this just goes with the territory. I also mourn the loss of some friendships. Thankfully, that’s been minimal, but I still feel the loss. A post coming next or soon on these things and some other fallout in fandom. It is not a rant but hopefully some encouragement.
So why am I posting this? I have definitely changed during the time I’ve been running this site but not as much as I thought. It’s true I don’t drool as much these days, but how long can someone drool? Whatever the case with fans, obviously, I just couldn’t keep that up. Occasional drooling is all I’m good for these days, and that should take nothing away from Richard Armitage. He is a fine actor from whom I believe we have not seen his best work.
And that’s why I’m hanging around. One of the reasons anyway. I’m waiting for the day he is again in a fine role — meaning one worthy of his talent.
Forgotten this?
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, probably not since I can’t seem to let that tweet die. John Obert got it, and I’m still basking in that and realize that we still ain’t seen nothing yet. And it may well come from behind the camera when we do.
In the meantime, it’s been fun going some of the distance with Richard Armitage. I’ve never watched an actor’s career so closely and doubt I ever will again. This is an anomaly for me, and I’d like to keep it that way. :D
And speaking of going the distance, I’m going to brag about something, and if you hate it when I talk about my kids, stop reading now. LOL!
I’ve talked about all of my children on this blog including my youngest who is underage but being the least mentioned and not pictured. My older kids have pictures of themselves plastered all over the Net, so it would be pointless to try to keep their photos under wraps. They’re part of that generation who doesn’t think about those things as being a problem. At such time as my youngest reaches majority, she can do the same, but while she’s underage, no way I’m going to put her photo out to be easily snagged.
Onto the bragging.
When I started this blog, I had been a fan of Richard Armitage for over two years, and my son was nearing the end of his junior year of high school and already getting heavily recruited by college athletic directors and coaches. It was quite the learning curve for our family, and I remember SO telling our son, “If you get a scholarship, consider it a job, because they will be paying for your education or most of it.” Mercenary as that sounds, that’s a reality, and it’s good to let a kid know so they don’t go into a college sport with idealistic visions of coaches being their friends. They’re employers first and foremost.
Son is now a senior in college, and he’s done his job and then some. He’s busted his backside with a work ethic that most people only dream about, and it has served him well. He has a GPA hovering around 3.75 and he is an All-American athlete not once but three times with the last time being last November.
For those not familiar, this is a very small group of college athletes in the U.S. Thousands and thousands compete every year, but only a handful in each sport make All-American. The ones who do are at the top of their game, which means they are not only talented but have worked incredibly hard. Just thinking about the training is enough to wear me out. My son trains 48 weeks out of the year. He takes off two weeks after the fall season and two weeks after the spring season. The rest of the time he’s eating a rigid diet, only drinks water, runs 12-15 miles most days, lifts weights, does calisthenics and plyometrics, and oh heck, I don’t know what all. And there are lots of athletes who do this and never make All-American. Some of it is also due to luck. They can’t get sick on the wrong day or have an off day at the wrong time.
But the little bit of luck aside, I’m proud of my son, and I don’t mind talking about it here. He’s done a helluva thing, and it needs to be talked about and talked about, and thankfully, SO and I are not the only ones who will, but we still have to stifle ourselves because we stink with pride about what this boy has done.
Yes, I have a segue to Richard Armitage. It’s coming in the second part of this post.
This is just a first pass at answers to some of the questions about a blogging event (go here for more information). I’m sure there will be more questions as we go. Also, I am basing these answers on what has happened in the past and feel any committee formed will embrace these answers as well.
Do I have to be a Richard Armitage Blogger to participate? No, you do not. The more the merrier!
If I post for the event, do I have to participate every day of the event? Absolutely not. Do as much as you want.
Do I have to run a blog to participate? It’s not necessary. Many bloggers who participate will be willing to host guest bloggers for a post or more than one. It’s up to the bloggers, but I would be surprised if a guest blogger could not find a place to publish.
If I don’t know any bloggers personally and want to write a guest piece, what do I do? Contact a blogger you like; I would be shocked if they don’t listen to you. If you’re still not sure, let me know, and I’ll bet I can put you in touch with someone who would be happy to host a piece.
Do I have to participate on certain social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook if I post a piece for the event? It’s completely optional to participate on those sites, but you’re missing out on some fun. :D
Can I contribute artwork or video instead of writing? Yes! a picture is worth a thousand words.
If you have any further questions, post a comment here or send me an email.
No more than 30 minutes after I published my last post on this subject I had over a dozen communications from people who are interested in this event. Wow. That’s a good sign.
With those communications have come questions and comments. Mostly people are wanting to know how it was done in the past and how it should go in the future. I can speak to the past as much as I remember, but all I can say about the future are just my opinions.
How this went in the past is there was one person who coordinated, but a committee (don’t let your eyes glaze over when I say that) came up with a theme and a framework for how the event would proceed in a given year. This seemed to work well. What was really helpful was various people brought various skill sets to the event and everyone working together was the key to success. The coordinator of the event kept track of that, so there was not duplication of effort or no efforts in a given area. All of that sounds like work, but I think it really is up to the committee to decide how elaborate or how free form an event can be and thereby how much coordination is needed.
Now my two cents.
As I said in the last post on this subject, I would love to see the spirit of community manifesting in this event. For me, this is the biggest consideration in being involved. In order to see that happening, it’s imperative that the many facets of the fandom be included. This was the aspiration in the past, and today, seems to be more warranted than ever. In order to achieve it, this means bloggers and guest bloggers who cover subjects from vanilla to blue should be part of the event. The truth is we have a diverse fan community. Why hide that? I say let the truth will out that we’re not all in lock step on who we are and what we like. This should not be a problem to embrace unless one group wants to eclipse the others. Surely we can rise above that kind of behavior.
One consideration with respect to making it an open community is possibly having a policy statement. I’m thinking something along the lines of “the community is open but discourages the promotion of self-harm.” A committee could come up with something much more thought out than this, but I hope any statement would remain broad enough to be inclusive and restrictive enough to head off some potentially explosive situations. Another consideration is providing a courtesy to readers possibly in the form of tagging posts so the reader knows if he/she is about to click on something he/she would rather not. There are ways to handle this so it’s clear, and a committee could easily hash this out as well.
But the first order of business is to merely find out how much interest there is, what time of year is best for most, and perhaps getting an idea of how long to run the event. Most important: when pondering these items and envisioning the event as you would like to see it, please remember we do not have to do this as it’s been done in the past. It can be changed, but if you want to keep it the same, that’s fine too. There is no law that says it has to be done this way or that. It’s really up to all of you to figure out how you want it.
In that interest, I have a poll here.
EDIT: Some Qs&As are here.
For four years the Richard Armitage blogosphere held an event in March called FanstRAvaganza, and many of us had a really great time participating. But last year there was no FanstRAvaganza. Hopefully that was just a respite and the blogosphere can and will do something in future. And perhaps it doesn’t have to be in March or be called FanstRAvaganza but can be another blogging event. It would just be great to do something as a community if possible. I hope the spirit of community that was originally in the FanstRA event doesn’t pass away completely and someone can breathe some life into it in the near future.
In the meantime, there is a Facebook page, a Twitter id and a website called FanstRAvaganza if someone is inclined to take it on. That will mean the parties who set up those three accounts will have to be approached, Luckily, I set up two of them, and I’m really easy to deal with because I don’t want to control anything other than to see us come together as community in a way that would be fun and appealing to a large cross-section of fans.
The only advice I would give in order to effect this is that there probably should be a group to run things instead of one person running all of it. It’s a drain on a single individual. It’s also difficult for the vision of one person to facilitate community since we have such a multifaceted fandom. I could be wrong about this and there’s a dynamo out there who’s all seeing and all knowing, but I doubt it. LOL! It’s also been my experience that someone who does have a knack for managing people and events will welcome a group’s input to the process.
Whatever happens, I would love to see us all come together.
edit: I’m getting all sorts of comments and questions, and it’s good stuff. I’m in the process of writing a post to cover what’s being said. I will also put the link here when I’m done.
second edit: follow-on post is here.
Yeah, this was a winner. I’ve gotten a bit of email and messages with lots of swooning over the gorgeous blue eyes and the stubble.
Frankly, if you saw that coming at you on the slopes, you would probably wind up in the hospital. But would you care? :D
note: click the photo for Richard’s New Year’s message on Twitter.
edit: I forgot the ohcheemama tag; added.
I’m not ready for 2015 yet. Did I just type 2015? WTH?! 1985 still sounds modern. Man, I am really giving something away about myself. Yep, I’m ancient, but I don’t feel ancient. I did for a few weeks, but I’m feeling less ancient as the day goes on. That’s what happens when you can BREATHE AGAIN.
And I’ve really not been myself due to some mind altering medications and a hot toddy here or there — hence my tardiness on the New Year’s festivities and a few other things. Then again, I never have been a fan of New Year’s. I wax on about that here, so I’ll spare you a repeat.
I guess 2014 was…I’m not sure exactly what it was. I remember I worked my ass off, and I got sick a lot. I also remember how we Richard Armitage fans were vindicated in our obsession when Richard took the stage at the Old Vic. I base that on quite a bit of feedback, but this was my favorite. Rich also joined the chaos on Twitter as a permanent member, and the jury is still out on that move. I do hope the best for Rich, and being me, I’m sure I’ll come with some more advice for him as this year rolls on. I haven’t been a big sister for decades for nothing, and he is a younger brother, so it’s the logical conclusion for my voice here, and I’m sure he listens to me (rolls eyes). By the way, I think he may have unfollowed me, so you all can rest easy now. :D
However, I do want to thank those of you who do read. I have not kept up as much this year and yet I got over 200,000 hits with only a little over 150 posts. That blew me away, and I still have the Google bot inhibited. Unreal. Despite this good result, I promise to do better with my number of posts this year. It all depends on how busy I become with work. Whether I can keep the promise or not, I figure it’s a win for me either way. Selfish that may sound, but I do have to make a living.
And since I get questions about previous posts, I’m going to continue on with my archive. 2012 should be coming soon. I’m also adding a yearly favorites page beginning with 2014.
Sobriety test courtesy of the Phantom Professor.
Since Richard Armitage joined Twitter, I’ve heard a lot of gasps about the tweets that are directed to him. People are truly offended on his behalf, and I totally get it. There are some things said to and about him that are just flat out mean, but you need to remember it’s part of fame and/or accomplishment. I’ve said this before, and it’s just profoundly true. If you forge ahead, someone is going to come with something negative no matter how unjust it may be.
Dear Rich,
I hope you take a page out of James Blunt’s book on these negative tweets, and I hope you know that you and he are far from alone:
Sincerely,
A crazy fan who has a skin like steel on this (most of the time) and hope you do too.
note: SOP is the acronym for standard operating procedure
I got a ginormous curve ball today, and I’m in the middle of grappling with it. But I will be back in RA Universe later today (at least today by American time). Wow, spell check thinks ginormous is a word; imagine that. Here I thought it was slang. Sorry to digress, and I really can’t type much longer as I’m off to finish something vital, Afterwards, I’ll be back to talk North and South.
For now, one of my favorite screencaps from that series:
Yeah, that’s right, we’re going to talk about you, Rich, and probably a few others.
I also have to start pumping out my dwarf posts. Had to get my head out of the premiere debacle and back on the fun. I’ve done that now, so look for more on that.
I heard something the other day that means i will never feel self-conscious about my fan odyssey again, or maybe not as often. It seems Beyonce has a religion of her own. It’s called Beysim. What the heck?! I knew there was a reason I don’t keep up with popular culture too closely.
Of course Beyonce is a great singer, but I’m never gonna be a member of her church after watching this video. :D
When I was watching that for the first time a few years ago, I started looking around to see if someone could see what I was watching. But I could have saved myself the stress if I had known she would have her own religion.
Still felt like I lost a few brain cells.
Richard,
So you’re on Twitter now, and your style has improved. It’s true. You went from this:
to this:
But man, please don’t become too hip. If you get too slick, I may find myself in the midst of some real groupies. AS it is, I did hear about some shrines laying around, and there is some sort of mark worn by really RAbid fans and recognized by same. Of course that’s just scuttlebutt, so I’m not really sure it’s true.
Whatever is going on, I like to keep my obsessions real. KWIM?
Signed,
A Crazy Fan who is NOT in denial. Nope. ;-)P.S. I like the new you, but I also love the guy who went to the 2007 BAFTAs. :)
And now for the story I’ve been saving since I came back from NYC a month ago. I was in the airport waiting for my plane, and a woman saw one of Guylty’s badges on my coat. She actually stared at it intently, and then she started talking to me and eventually mentioned how much she enjoys BBC programs. I chimed in with my enthusiasm, and then she said, “I especially love one that I’ve never seen on any networks here in the states.” My ears pricked up, and I almost felt what she was going to say next. “It stars an actor I have come to adore. Perhaps you’ve heard of him. Richard Armitage?” Then she looked at my badge again. I felt like we were two spies having an encounter.
More on Beyism here if you don’t believe it’s real.
Candid shots courtesy of Richard Armitage Central and my stash
RAFrenzy 