PHWOAR! | RAFrenzy

Who Wants Some Candy? The Ethical Question

I don’t have any. Will this do?

Is it possible to be good looking and have some depth and perhaps above average intelligence? Of course it’s a stupid question since we all know the answer. But somehow people who are good looking can be very self-conscious about being considered beyond their looks. Wonder why that is? Could it be that society treats good looks and depth as mutually exclusive? And makes nice looking people feel that way by not taking them seriously? By making them work a little harder to be heard with respect to anything truly thoughtful? While most or all of you answered yes to the question of depth, the truth is that it’s not uncommon for people who are very appealing physically to struggle with being marginalized about their other attributes, and often the result of what they pick up from others around them.

Then there’s the jealousy that comes with looks. Many know that looks can open doors. But anyone nice looking who has any sensitivity is aware there is an envy that is potentially waiting to bite them. If they really are smart and thoughtful, they will walk the chalk line and never broach the subject of physical appeal. They will effect an oblivious demeanor about others’ reactions unless it’s to downplay them. Because if they ever give any indication they’re aware of it, they will be despised by most.

So what brought this post on? There is a hesitancy among some Richard Armitage fans to formally acknowledge that he is a hunk, and I believe it’s because they are fearful of society’s narrow view about looks. Never mind all of the drooling in forums and blogs about RA’s stunning appeal; to actually generate a moniker of Hunkie of the Year is offensive. Give me a break. LOL!! Let’s not embrace the general view that beauty and depth can’t reside in the same person, which only facilitates the belief. How about we embrace both? Now go vote in the Hunkie of the Year Poll. :D

As for RA’S possible reaction:

Dear Richard,

Perhaps you can just ignore us? Or better yet just enjoy this and realize it takes nothing away from you? As a phenomenal performer, you have a way of making us see way beyond your exterior.

If it’s any consolation, you seem to handle all of the attention with grace, but I hope when the looks fade, that you do not look back in regret about being uncomfortable.

Sincerely,
One of your crazy fans who can’t wait for the rest of the world to catch onto your abilities, and I’m not talking about your looks.

P.S. You were not my cup of tea at first, but I got past it. LOL!

Screencap courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.Com

December 30, 2011
Categories: Fandom, PHWOAR!, Robin Hood . Tags: beauty, contests, fake fan letters, Guy of Gisborne, Hunkie of the Year, jealousy, marginalizing, narrow minds, objectification, Richard Armitage, The Hunkies . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 22 Comments

Something’s Happened

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.

December 22, 2011
Categories: Fandom, PHWOAR!, Robin Hood . Tags: blogging, candid shots, fun, Karima, Ohcheemama, Richard Armitage, screencaps, Thorin Oakenshield . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 38 Comments

Just When I Was Getting Bored

One of my lovely, wonderful, incredible fellow Richard Armitage fans has treated us all by unearthing a couple of photos that are in the public domain (fingers crossed here) that many have not seen:

He went from this:

to this:

Damn!

That incredible looking man with the sweet boy hopefully still inside him.

Photo find courtesy of Wendy. Top one supposedly associated with 42nd Street. Bottom one supposedly taken in the Twin Towers after a New York performance of Macbeth.

Thank you, Wendy. I’m wonderfully refreshed in the middle of this terrible drought. :D

edit: Did I just compromise my principles? I’m not sure. If I did, then I’ll run backwards. It’s my understanding that these pictures are in the public domain, or I would not have posted them. Sadly, some may be there unintentionally. I have no way of knowing that, so I posted.

December 16, 2011
Categories: Dorktastic, PHWOAR!, Stage Productions . Tags: 42nd Street, behind the scenes, candid shots, Richard Armitage . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 25 Comments

Yes, I Am On a Caffeine High

Phew! When the family finally lets me have some coffee, they just leave the house.

Karima just popped up with one of her amazing pics. I’ve already posted this scene today, but you have to see her work. Go ahead and click it to enlarge:

It seems to have a 3-D quality as well as looking like a painting.

Screencaps courtesy of the amazing Karima.

December 9, 2011
Categories: PHWOAR!, Robin Hood . Tags: bicep, Guy of Gisborne, Karima, screencaps . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 19 Comments

So Fine He Missed It

Ali over at RichardArmitageNet.Com just put up some screencaps of RA in ‘Doctors’ (c. 2001). Yes, I’ve seen these before, but I’ll bet some of you haven’t:

A few thoughts about these. First, he is drop dead gorgeous by almost anyone’s standards. Second, I know a few childhood experiences can damn near eclipse a profusion of experiences in adulthood, but my gosh! this man has to have some awareness that he’s not ugly. Third, I look at those two pictures and get hacked all over again at that godawful cover of ‘North and South.’ I’ve said it before and I can’t help repeating: whoever did that cover must have been jealous!

edit: Yes, I’m going get back to Lucas North, but I’m still struggling with my blog pieces.

December 9, 2011
Categories: Miscellaneous works, North and South, PHWOAR! . Tags: Doctors, John Thornton, perspective, Richard Armitage, screencaps, Tom Steele . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 9 Comments

The Next Post

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!!

November 23, 2011
Categories: PHWOAR!, Spooks . Tags: behind the scenes, candid shots, Celebrity Worship Scale, Celebrity Worship Syndrome, CWS, Lucas North, Ohcheemama, Richard Armitage . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 23 Comments

Felled By The Sexy Back

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.

More candid shots coming, but no more backs.

October 5, 2011
Categories: PHWOAR!, SO, Spooks . Tags: behind the scenes, blogging, candid shots, Celebrity Worship Syndrome, CWS, Facebook, Facebook hate, frustration, Lucas North, mobile blogging -- a real bitch, Ohcheemama, Riohard Armitage, the Sexy Back, Twitter . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 24 Comments

Thorin Oakenshield as You’ve Never Seen Him

Okay, the title is for the new fans as I’m sure many of you others (that sounds better than ‘old fans’) have already seen these pictures. For the new fans, you can see him animated at Who is Richard Armitage? If you are feeling the hunger to investigate further, there are lots of good Places to Get a Fix. If you are already into full blown addiction and need to “commiserate,” of course you can get plenty of that here, but I’m far from the only place as there are many blogs on The Addict List. And if you’re on a phone and can’t easily access my About page, then go here — might make you feel better if you’re feeling a little funny right now.

But onto really important matters. :D

If I were single and there were someone like this who is intelligent and doesn’t just look the part?

It would be a serious temptation to my good sense. Oh heck, I would be addled, and I remember when I was addled by someone.

As if that’s not enough, consider the physical Richard Armitage:

Watching the workout segment in the recent Hobbit production video from Peter Jackson created a powerful flash back of seeing SO for the first time. He was in a ragged golf shirt and jeans. Although he could afford better clothes, he was on the go so much of the time that he loved how those ragged clothes “breathed.” The golf shirt was truly awful, but I was still dazed by him. He has always been very fit looking, and he was quite the athlete. He walked around our college campus, and I seriously did swoon. Before we started dating, I would squirrel myself in a seat unseen on the football field/track and watch him work out. He didn’t know I was already in love with him. Then after we were together, I used to run stands with him and much later told him, “You had to know it was love, baby, since no one in her right mind would do that unless they were training for the Olympics.” I loved looking at him, and especially his legs. He’s always had the most beautifully muscled legs and back and shoulders, and I’ll stop. But one last thing. The most compelling part of SO is his mind. He is clever and after all of our years together, he is still interesting; still keeps me on my toes. Yes, there have been times I have wanted to wring his neck, but it was never enough to eclipse the force that he is and remains, and seriously, I marvel at that. I’ve said this before on this blog, and I couldn’t help saying it again. Today, I was looking at SO at a task, and I was addled again. Sadly, I see so many people bored with their SOs, and I feel for them.

Still have that golf shirt.

Dear Richard,

Thank you for just being you, and thanks for serving as a catalyst for such lovely memories. Hope you don’t mind that I used you that way, but hey, if you’re going to be objectified, I can’t think of a better way.

Sincerely,
One of your crazy fans gone to look for her SO. :)

P.S. I have never understood why so many fans refer to you as slim. Oh, you are fine (more than fine), but you are not a little guy such that words like ‘slim’ are apt descriptions. Far from it.

Promo still for Captain America from Life and screencaps from “The Hobbit” set are mine.

July 22, 2011
Categories: Captain America, Movies, PHWOAR!, SO, The Hobbit . Tags: behind the scenes, being fit, fake fan letters, Heinz Kruger, red carpet, Richard Armitage, screencaps, Thorin Oakenshield . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 4 Comments

On the Red Capet with Richard Armitage

I’ve now watched several clips of Richard Armitage on the red carpet for various events, and I love that he is still so thoughtful. That just makes him even more appealing. Phew, a thinking man who looks like this: