James Blunt is who I mean
On Twitter with quips so keen
To those watching he leaves no doubt
In exquisite style he puts his detractors to rout
But never so low as to demean (Thank you, James)
Just a few comebacks from the “most hated man in pop”:
Easy spelling mistake as K and L are right beside each other. RT @lizziea1: I want to kick James Blunt… repeatedly… I dont know why
I knew you were talented when I listened to Give Me Some Love. Phew. What a song. There are others I love as well, but that’s not the point of this letter.
There is nothing sexier than a guy who is smart. Just don’t ever spoil it by revealing you don’t man your account alone. No, I’m not implying you have help, but if you do, I don’t want to hear about it!
Keep it up, and I’ll see you on the Twitter timeline.
Sincerely,
A crazy fan of some guy named Richard Armitage and you of course.
P.S. Certainly I meant it when I said you’re good looking, but then you don’t need someone like me to tell you that. :D
For the Armitage fans, one of the best fan videos around, and if James Blunt (or his people; thinking of Warner Bros. mostly) were to come over here and look at this post, which I doubt but I’m covering my ass anyway, we need to make it clear that we (yes, I’m speaking for all or most of you) incessantly buy the music of these videos we love. *and the crowd all nodded in unison*
James’ new album Moon Landing comes out Tuesday in the U.S
With the advent of Thorin Oakenshield, there are some new Richard Armitage fans. Ohmygosh. I’ve had email and messages aplenty of people looking for his works. They are smitten, and of course I can empathize. After five years of being a fan and three years of blogging about the man, I am still smitten by something about him, and the Why Richard? question is continually near my lips when I encounter new fans. But lately I’ve been asking the question of those fans who have been around awhile, so recently, I asked Heather and love her response:
His face tells a story, and I respect that he applies artistry to achieve this. As someone who makes it a business to convey messages with pictures, I was immediately drawn to that, and it’s such a pleasure to highlight it and in some ways make it richer in a fan video.
If you have not seen Heather’s videos, you need to do yourself a favor and check them out. As for me, I am so glad she chose that medium for expressing her infatuation of Richard Armitage’s talent, since that’s how I even came to know anything about him, and many others have found him the same way. Her videos have become so notable that they have been mentioned a few times in articles about him, but ironically, her most notable fan video is one of her least favorite. It was done as a joke, but she never thought the joke would be on Richard Armitage, who has been teased about it on occasion, most recently in a Glamour UK article, which I had to razz her about. She was mortified too, and said, “Oh God! If I could, I would say to Richard Armitage, ‘I’m so sorry! I was just kidding, but I never meant to embarrass you!'” Oh yeah, right, I know you’re really on his payroll, Heather. ;-)
And I absolutely have to do this whether anyone ever sees it or not ’cause I’m still not going to write a real letter to Richard Armitage LOL!
Dear Richard:
When I read the Glamour article, I wanted to scream what I’m about to say, but I’ve subdued myself. It’s taken me all these months to do so, but I think I’m finally ready to say this to you in a normal tone. Ahem.
You said you weren’t sure what to call those people. They’re called PR people. :D Yep, and the best kind of PR people because they want nothing from you when they express their fan love, if you will.
And I hope you know that Heather has many more videos besides Sexy Back, which is not even close to her best. Maybe you’ll check them all out sometime. In the meantime, a treat:
Sincerely,
One of your crazy fans who hopes you are glad for the opportunity to blush and be mortified. :D
Since the video is so big, please let the video load completely before playing, or you will probably have it stopping and starting. It also helps if your flash player is up-to-date, and for the one on my site, you should hav Quicktime up-to-date.
note: I’m counting this post as an April A to Z post even though I skipped B through F. So yeah, this is G as well as another post in the Why Richard? series. Man, I love killing two birds. :D
Screencap courtesy of my stash, and making screencaps has never been so sweet with blu ray.
Has Richard Armitage arrived now that he’s been parodied on Saturday Night Live? Could be, but whatever the case, this skit is brilliant. Yeah, I said brilliant. I’m using it the way the Brits use it — referring to something cool or wonderful. You Brits, feel free to school me on its connotations.
But watch this first:
It doesn’t matter if you’ve already seen it. Watch it again. It gets funnier unless you’re a Peter Jackson fan who takes himself/herself too seriously. There are a few of those around, but thankfully, they’re in the minority.
And yes, I really do love Richard Armitage even though I am a conflicted fangirl. In case you don’t know that, I have a few posts lying around to prove it. Got one coming up soon that’s a doozy. :D
Maybe you’ve seen this unique take, but I hadn’t until today.
I can dig it. Especially Porter cum Thorin.
I’m having a flashback of Porter concealing a weapon and wondering how Thorin could do that. LOL!!
Please, please, please someone knock me silly. See how my mind works — sometimes. That’s why I try to exercise all sorts of discretion. I have not been successful today. :D
Into year three of this blog. Will I make it to the end? Who knows?! I surely don’t, but wherever I’m going, I hope you come along.
And I’m still having fun even when I look like a complete fool. Be sure to listen to this one to the end. :D
Are you grinning?
No statistics this year. Let’s just say that despite my near hiatus in the fall, I wrote some more posts, a lot more of you were kind enough to give me some love by reading, and I’m more addicted to the experience. Hope you are too. Let’s have some more fun!
One of my favorite performers died today. Etta James. Her tunes got under my skin when I was in second grade, and they’re still there. Even at that tender age, listening to her made me want to dig down inside myself and pull out whatever was in there and have it pour all over the piano. It was one of her songs that made me want to write music and somehow express all the hope in my seven year old heart, and that was what I loved so much about her tunes. They were hopeful. They were a celebration of what life could be despite the bluesy words and sound, despite Etta’s difficult life.
When I thought of her earlier today, I finally saw her as the kid she must have been when she became a singing sensation and being completely overwhelmed by it. I saw her as a kind of Lindsay Lohan and was sad at the thought of people using her and of her using herself. But she’s at peace now, and all we’ll remember are these:
I have to include this. How perfect — Etta James and Richard Armitage:
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.
I haven’t been on my YouTube account in a while, but I got a rash of requests which prompted me to go over and find out why. It seems that Richard Armitage now has his own channel compiled courtesy of YouTube. I wonder how many other celebrities have their own. I can’t seem to find out how you find these things. The notice was one of my in-box items.
If you’ve read this blog for more than a few pieces, you know how rabid I am about fan videos, which I’m defining as videos set to music and starring the object of a fan’s attention — someone or something. They got me started on Richard Armitage, and my love for them has become so intense that I’m wondering when these things will gain much more notoriety than they currently enjoy. For now they are not really acknowledged much by the mainstream media, and a good part of the reason is the history of their illicit nature. In my search on the web, I found one piece from a mainstream media source discussing the significance of fan videos, and that was from 2007. Maybe there are a few more, but the key word would be few. However, at some point soon I think fan videos will have more formal recognition. So far for most people who don’t peruse videos sites and are over the age of 25, there has been no awareness these things exist, but that’s changing as more and more people (even your grandmother) are starting to surf YouTube.
Heck, SO’s almost 80 year old parents get on YouTube regularly, and my mother, who by the way, is considerably younger :D, also gets on YouTube. So if you’re 60 and you don’t ever get on YouTube? What planet are you on? ;-)
Actually, I’m assuming most reading this are the choir. So why did I even say that? Maybe there is one out there among you who has not ventured onto a video site for fear it’s just stuff like this:
and you got your fill of this kind of thing on “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” Oh, you’ve never seen that show? LUCKY YOU. Really wrestling here with the temptation to go on a rant about why I hated that show when it was on, but one rant a week is enough. The show is still on?! God help us.
Of course this is a cute video, and it’s understandable why it’s in the top ten all-time watched videos on YouTube, but c’mon, after you’ve watched it 300 times, you would think it would get old. FYI: a few weeks ago this video passed its four year anniversary, and I can see its lasting effect with the eventual publication of How to Pay For College: The Advantages of Being a Mischievous Teether in the Digital Age by Charles Davies-Carr. ;-)
Okay, where was I? Oh, yeah, fan videos. Well, if you’re new to them, and I’m assuming you’re a Richard Armitage fan since you’re reading this blog, there is only one place to go, and my friends, it’s not YouTube. No, it’s a little place on the web hosted by one of the most intriguing fans, Elvira Sweeney. Here are some things I know about Elvira. She is artistic, prolific, a bit perfectionistic, and definitely industrious. Oh, and she likes RA. :D He was the inspiration for what I now think of as the RA Fan Video Empire, or just The Empire. So what is this place? It’s called RAfanvids, and if you have never been there, oh my are you in for a treat. Now the only proviso I will give you is that you must prep the storage on your computer so you can download to your heart’s content when you get there. You’re not sure about this downloading? No, you’ve got to change that notion. You can’t really enjoy some of these videos without watching a download. YouTube, Vimeo, et al will not give you the quality of a 1080 vid. You can only get the real impact of it by downloading and watching on your system or possibly your tv monitor.
Take this video for example:
You can watch it and love the music and the clips, but you can’t get the full effect of this unless you download and watch. It’s the eyes. You almost fall into them. Can’t get that from watching on YouTube — even in full screen mode. Oh, it’s better than the little window, but not nearly as good as watching your own copy.
Or consider this one:
Want to really feel like that leather is within arm’s reach, download! And of course the eyes are also compelling. By the way this video was done as part of Elvira’s “Vidding on the Cheap” series for all those people who think making videos with an old Mac isn’t possible. Guess again.
This is one of my favorite montage videos, and for good reason. I really feel I’m in the room with RA and he’s looking at me when I watch the download:
This was the video that convinced me I needed to watch everything I could from a download copy. Once I got this one on my computer and started watching, I realized that I had missed so much on YouTube, and if a video is not in a large format, putting the player in full screen doesn’t really cut it either. So I downloaded this one and was blown away. I also realized something about Elvira. She can read people. Anyone who puts as much emphasis on people’s eyes and expressions is focused on reading them. I would love to know what she really thinks of RA other than just liking him so damn much. LOL!
And the next two you haven’t really seen unless you’ve watched a download and especially in 1080. You watch these like that, and you will never be satisified with them on YouTube again.
If you still don’t want to download, you can just watch the videos on that site, and there are quite a few that are not on YouTube. So check it out.
One more thing. If you go over to RAfanvids, you may notice something is absent. But no worries, ’cause Elvira’s got it covered over here. :D (note: the link is an archive page and not all pages linked within it are available).
Two days ago someone posted this video on Twitter:
Pompeii by E.S. Posthumus from their Unearthed CD.
I’ve talked about this one before as it’s been one of my favorites since I first saw it almost a year ago. From its finely done editing to its music, this is one of the best Strike Back videos and all around fan videos. There is nothing awkward in it. No moments when the music sounds incidental to the scenes. Just a tightly knit casting of John Porter’s life coming at you. But mostly what draws me is the feeling he has a much greater destiny than the machinations of an MI-6 agent. The sounds of a celestial choir no doubt contribute to this sense.
After I was done watching that one, I moved onto some others that for two to three years I’ve gone back to again and again. Most of them were set to background or theme music and most of them had a sense of the epic, which is what first drew me to fan videos and eventually led me to discovering Richard Armitage. I’ve had an affinity for this musical genre since I was a little kid and dreamed of writing movie scores for a living. One of my fondest childhood memories is spending hours and hours at the piano picking out expansive tunes and trying to perfect them. It’s still one of my favorite pastimes, and I can spend considerable time doing it.
For years after I was grown, I thought this was something entirely frivolous and hoped I would eventually snap out of it. And I did for a couple of years. But I’m coming to understand in a way I didn’t even come close to doing before that this sense of the epic is part of who I am and part of everyone else, and we are all part of it. We’re all part of something epic going on. We were formed to be eternal people with a destiny, and I find myself reveling in this more and more. Although at some points in my life I have considered the antithesis — that we’re a pale mosaic of organisms which has no purpose other than forming some random picture, but I’m not tempted by that any longer and haven’t been for many years. It’s unsatisfying and frankly, boring. Whenever I did feel myself beginning to take the yoke of that thinking, the cells in my body would go into rebellion, and when I examined what was so disturbing, I realized the random picture doesn’t square with the need to seek out my story, our stories, the story.
And how interesting that stories are so important to most of us, and quite a few reading this blog are especially attuned to them. It’s what holds us together as people and more specifically what holds many of us together in our fascination with Richard Armitage. There are plenty of very good looking actors. Plenty of tall actors. Plenty with a wonderful timbre to their voices. Plenty with pleasing personalities. What sets him apart is his determination to get at the story. Of course just like most of us, he’s done things to ensure he didn’t starve, but it seems he’s trying to get at the story as much possible. Or perhaps I’m putting my own views on all of you and should say that I’m fascinated with dear ol’ Richard chiefly because of his infatuation with the story, and certainly by what it is that motivates him so much to get at it and in a way that’s true. I’ll talk more about this later. For now this will have to continue as one of those loose ends along with the others laying around this blog.
So I’ve spent a couple of days rewatching videos that have a sense of the epic, and of all the videographers I’ve watched, none does a better job of putting a finger on the pulse of the story and bringing it to life for others than Angela (aka Spikesbint or Angelfish69).
One of the first that comes to mind:
“Ashielf Pi” by E.S. Posthumus from Cartographer
One of the first I saw of hers:
“Intro” by Caliban from Small Boy and a Grey Heaven
One that does not involve Richard Armitage:
“Central Park” by James Newton Howard from King Kong Soundtrack
One of her birthday tributes to Richard. Be sure to check out her others, and I hope she does one this year. This one made me cry the first several times I saw it:
“Generations” by Immediate from Trailerhead and “The Loss of Yours” by Adrian Johnston from Becoming Jane Soundtrack
“End Music from Atonement” by X Ray Dog from The Vision
Here are some others who have done a superb job of capturing the story with epic music, but I’m only posting one video from each of them in the interest of not having this post go on and on.
JulietD001:
“The Wolsey Commits Suicide / Finale” by Trevor Morris on The Tudors Soundtrack
One of the first North and South videos that was my favorite, and I still love it. By PoleStar00:
“Lake Constance” by Mike Oldfield from Millennium Bell
One by PhoenixLupin, who has some wonderful Richard Armitage videos, but this happens to be about “The Fall”:
“Summoning of the Muse” by the Dead Can Dance from Within the Realm Of A Dying Sun
I’ve labeled all of the videos with their musical pieces, but unfortunately, not all of that music is easily available to the public. That is slowly changing. Some other theme composers who are used by quite a few videographers are Craig Armstrong, Dario Marianelli, Howard Shore of LOTR fame, Ennio Morricone, Jerry Goldsmith, Martin Phipps and Andy Price. There are also artists who frequently can sound epic but do not technically fall into the background or theme music genre. Some of those are Within Temptation, Secret Garden, Tarja, Linkin Park, Muse, and Coldplay.
Oh, and I swear James Newton Howard and Thomas Newman are the same guy, or is it just me who thinks they sound exactly alike? :D
And my mood is expectant as I’m listening to “Unbreakable” by James Newton Howard from the Unbreakable Soundtrack.
RAFrenzy 
