Spooks | RAFrenzy

A Leisurely Stroll Through FanstRA

I didn’t have time last week to read much, so I’m making up for it this week and maybe some next week when I’ll be sharing what I find.

Christine at ‘A is for Armitage’ has a hilarious action figure of RA, but it was the history of beards that I found myself reading several times. She also has a poll about what we prefer on a man’s face. I haven’t voted yet, but it will be interesting to see if we are in keeping with the norm.

Guy’s stubble is hard to ignore not to mention Lucas’

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Looking forward to ‘C’.

Then there’s Antonia! Mwah! :D

I haven’t read any of her posts yet. Be back later…

They all have a decided air of celebration, which is so like Antonia! and of course there is food. And Antonia who is really focused on being understood and RA being understood shared the crime that is the dubbing of The Hobbit Trailers. I could barely watch, and definitely needed something scrumptious to eat afterward.

I understand Jo at Cerridwen Speaks treated us to a story. Gone to read….Okay, I have never thought of RA as an American Cavalry officer. Now I’m going to have a hard time thinking of anything else. That’s all for now as I’m sucked into this story and need to finish! :D Oh, and be sure to become her fan on Wattpad!

More tomorrow.

Screencap courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.com

March 21, 2012
Categories: Spooks . Tags: A is for Armitage, Antonia, beard me, being understood, Cerridwen Speaks, continuing the goodness, fan fiction, Fanstra, FanstRAvaganza, Lucas North, Richard Armitage, stubble love . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 1 Comment

Where To Next?

That really is a question I need to answer. With 396 posts in draft mode, and assuming only 10% of those are worth finishing, I’ve got plenty to draw from. But sometimes that’s the problem. Yeah, I know too much is a good problem, but it is a problem. And I really need to finish my diary entries even if they bore some of you. They’re cathartic for me, and as much as I love interacting with all of you (have I told you how much I enjoy that?! ‘Cause I do!), this blog is for me to let my hair down and maybe flex my creative muscle at times. Yeah, can you believe it, this is supposed to be creative. LOL!

I do have more interviews coming, and from fans some of you haven’t heard of. Are you interested in more of that? :D Or would you rather hear me wax on about my issues with Spooks?

Okay, a picture to explain why I have trouble continuing my rant about it:

[oh yeah, you can click to enlarge]

Candid shot courtesy of KuchingGirl

March 20, 2012
Categories: Spooks . Tags: behind the scenes, blogging, candid shots, indecisive, Lucas North, Richard Armitage, whining . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 11 Comments

So Where Was I?

Oh yeah, I’ve committed to blogging 365 days this year, and amazingly, I’m still excited about that. What day is this? It’s the 35th day. Never mind. I’ll manage the other 331 posts somehow.

Or since food seems to be such a hot topic for me, I guess I could talk about my trip to Jack in the Box when I was in Denver the other day.

I love their tacos. Here’s one of the babies in all of its greasy glory:

Yep, they’re terrible for you, but if I were stuck somewhere outside the U.S. (oh maybe held as a hostage in a Russian prison), that’s what I would want when I came home. :D

Back on topic tomorrow. A picture until then:

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Screencap courtesy of Richard Armitage Central

edit: Wait a minute! That should be 330 posts.

February 4, 2012
Categories: Spooks . Tags: blogging, food, hunger, Lucas North, Project 365, Richard Armitage . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 9 Comments

A Do Over

About twenty minutes ago, it occurred to me I hadn’t posted a blog piece today, and once midnight was here, I couldn’t turn back the clock and keep on track with the Project 365 ~~bondage~~ commitment. But even if I had skipped today, it wouldn’t make me lose sleep. I’ve neglected or just plain screwed up so many things during my life that missing a day of posting is probably 100,396th on the list.

It would take me a couple of years to list all of the things on which I placed too much emphasis, but most of it was on being responsible and mature, doing the right thing. I spent so much time trying to get things right and scared to death of messing up that I didn’t let myself be a kid. And I still messed up!

This blog is a bit of an attempt to manifest the childhood I’ve been recapturing, and as with any child, I’m going to cross a boundary at times. Such as saying the word fuck. I don’t mean actually saying the word. I’ve said it many times in my life. I mean typing it on this blog for anyone in the world to read. Perhaps that sounds a lame excuse to be crass. Yeah, I know some of you think that, and I can’t really do much about you thinking it, but I am aware that you do, and it’s really not my intent to offend you. But I also know even if I walked on water, there would be some of you who wouldn’t like the angle of the video clip.

If it’s not clear by this point in the post, then let me make it crystal. I’m trying to work something out. You can come along with me or not. I hope you stay and continue the ride. And no, I don’t intend to parade a sting of profanity to prove that I can be carefree, but there has been something freeing in saying pretty much what I think. I said “pretty much” because I’m not quite sure the world is ready to hear all of my (or anyone’s) reckless thoughts. There is such a thing as discretion.

So what does this have to do with Richard Armitage? Stick around and you’ll find out. :D

For now a little peek at the man who wanted a do over:

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Candid shot courtesy of KuchingGirl

edit: I canned the 365 program several weeks into this year. It was a good experience but not necessary to continue.

February 2, 2012
Categories: Spooks . Tags: behind the scenes, Bill Murray, blogging, candid shots, creativity, fun, Groundhog Day, John Bateman, Lucas North, Project 365, Richard Armitage, second childhood, Series 9 . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 15 Comments

Diary of an RA Fan — Part 28 Battling the Free Fall

See Diary Part 27 here, or to access all entries, hit “The Diary” tab above.

Entry — a few weeks later, November 2008:

All of this reflection is wearing me out. I knew instinctively why I didn’t ever want to write my thoughts. But SO said I would benefit?! Oh yeah, I can see that. What was the point again? To wallow in all the things that dissatisfy me? A few weeks ago I did think it was a good thing. Now I’ll have to eventually burn this so the kids won’t see it. And I had thought this might be something for them. LOL! No way in hell.

Later:

I’m still watching Spooks. Five shows in, and this last was one of the best. Richard Armitage, you are something else. And I just thought you couldn’t top your sexiness as Guy of Gisborne. Wrong. Still so sexy while in all that lovely turmoil. Oh, that turmoil looked that good. I’m also still trying to figure out how you can look so weak and yet masculine at the same time.

Still amazed that no one I know has ever heard of him! No, I’m wrong. Pat had heard of him. She immediately responded when I put the Guy video on my Facebook wall, but then she asked me not to talk about it on FB. What is she so afraid of? Tammi just laughed when I put up the video. She’s just like SO who laughs at most things. But the truth is she thinks I’m nuts and frequently, gently tells me I’m having a little mid-life breakdown. I don’t appear to listen, but I think she’s right. I sound like an idiot, and my mind is kicked into overdrive, and that’s saying something since I’ve always had difficulty falling asleep because my mind WILL NOT SLOW DOWN! The doctors keep trying to hang me with bi-polar, but I refuse to accept it. If they were ever successful in labeling me, it would be a bit of hell to ever again be taken seriously. But something is wrong, and I can’t ignore the fact there are several in my family who are diagnosed with it.

Mom has never been diagnosed, but if she’s not bi-polar, I’m wondering what makes her so “eccentric.” Oh heck, she’s classic. Super, super highs and then terrible, terrible lows. Last summer she was too sick to be anything but a nice, steady calm, and it allowed me to con myself into believing some fantasy about how she is. Usually she is such a roller coaster ride, I don’t think I was bored once as a child. There was a buzz always permeating the house. I used to drown it out with tv. Mom used something else to make it stop.

What was I thinking to get excited about a long trip with her to a place far, faraway. Auntie Mame on the set of Spooks? I need to be afraid, and I would be, but I really do want to go to England, and I swear it has nothing to do with Richard Armitage. I want to see all of the “family” places Mom wants to show me. Yeah, I’m itching to hear about Great Grandfather Abraham and all he achieved. Somehow that will edify.

But I’m not going to stop with this Richard Armitage thing; it soothes me. I’m going to keep at it. And I think I’m over my concern about objectifying him too much ’cause I know I am objectifying him — some. When I think of really objectifying a man, I don’t think of someone like him. I think of someone like Hrithik Roshan. He is an object waiting happen. No, even him I can’t fully objectify. I saw an interview, and he was so earnest about making it as a serious actor that my heart went out to him. He is beautiful, and I’m sure no one can get around that in his presence, but how do you make it as a serious actor when you look like that?! I hope he’s successful. What am I saying? I don’t even know these people, but it’s much easier for me to say something like that than to examine what I want.

I watched Dhoom2 again the other night. What a crazy movie. The old phrase about a kaleidoscope is apt. And as with everything else, it piqued my curiosity. I’m now intensely wondering what the Indian people are really like.

Present day:

I have come to really appreciate Hrithik Roshan but have to admit his extreme good looks did make me assume something about him that was unfair. More on this in another post.

RA screencaps courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.com

Hrithik Roshan screencap is mine.

January 28, 2012
Categories: SO, Spooks . Tags: crazy people, Hrithik Roshan, Lucas North, objectification, rationalizing, Richard Armitage, screencaps . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 18 Comments

Encounters of the Misty Kind

It has to be apparent I love technology and have a special fondness for the Web. But it’s not just because it feeds this info junkie’s habit, it’s also for the people I’ve met. From the first time I participated in a bulletin board using 80 byte files that were appended and all in lovely monochrome display, I’ve been hooked on communicating with people who had a shared interest and wanted to talk about it, to offer some knowledge or glean some knowledge from others. For those who have never participated in something like that, they usually don’t get it. They usually don’t understand that it’s possible to form relationships where you are edified by others whom you never see or hear. I do hate that I can’t hear your voices, and that’s the chief reason I wanted to do voice as my subject for last year’s FanstRAvaganza. I’m deeply affected by what I hear. Much more than by what I see.

But even if I have never heard your voice, I am affected by what many of you have typed into your keyboards, and I’ve come to know some of you and know you’re real people with real lives which have highs and lows. I never forget that when I’m online. So when one of you goes away and there’s no clue as to where you went, it leaves a hole where you used to be. I’m never quite sure what to do with that. Part of me thinks I should adopt society’s demeanor and throw you away and move on, but I’ll never be able to do that, because I don’t want to do that.

Years ago I participated in a forum and one of the members who became an online buddy was a gentleman named Fred. He was a delight and had such wisdom. Everyone on that site loved him, and then one day Fred stopped talking, and for months we wondered what happened. Only one of the forum members had ever talked to Fred offline, and he offered to find out what he could. It was a long time before that member got a response and came back to tell us that Fred had died and his family sent us a message. I’m so glad they did that, and whether Fred really died or not (I’ll never know the truth of that), he was dead to us, and we could mourn him and not just throw him away in our minds.

That incident had such an effect on me that I’ve left instructions with my will that in the event anything happens to me, SO is to get online and say goodbye. When I told him about that, I thought he would laugh, but to his credit, he understands relationships whether online or not and knows how very important it is to gain closure. I’ve now worked with countless people who have experienced death of a loved one, and closure is imperative. If someone can’t say goodbye, they’re never over it. In the case of being online, I think it’s as important for the one leaving cyber space to say goodbye as it is for those left behind. So I hope our friend will at least give herself a chance to say it’s been fun, but I’ve got to go, and take care.

More thoughts on this later and in regard to Richard Armitage and his relationship with fans in cyber space and beyond. For now a close up of a fan’s encounter with RA:

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Spooks behind the scenes candid shot courtesy of KuchingGirl

January 21, 2012
Categories: Fandom, SO, Spooks . Tags: behind the scenes, being online, blogging, candid shots, closure, cyber space, friendship, Lucas North, relationships, Richard Armitage . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 20 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: Guy of Gisborne, JulietD001, Lucas North, Richard Armitage, YouTub . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 7 Comments

Diary of an RA Fan — Part 27 The Unbroken Line

See Diary Part 26 here, or to access all entries, hit “The Diary” tab above.

Entry — October 28, 2008:

Finally finished the Stanislavski book, and I also watched the first episode of Spooks 7 last night. It was good, but then I’m so in the bag for Richard Armitage. Can he do something mediocre? Probably, but I haven’t seen it yet. And I was so curious about this character after watching one of his promo interviews:

When he talked about being water boarded, I kept thinking of Stanislavski’s point about the unbroken line:

‘The life of a person or of a part’, explained the Director, ‘consists of an unending change of objects, circles of attention, either on the plane of reality or of the imagination, in the realm of memories of the past or dreams about the future. The unbroken quality of this line is of utmost importance to an artist, and you should learn to establish it in yourselves…

‘Tell me: does it seem normal to you that an actor’s mind and feelings should wander away, for long spaces of time, into the audience and beyond the premises of the theatre? When they come back to the stage it is only for a brief moment, then they fade away again.

‘In that sort of acting the actor and his part only occasionally belong to each other. To avoid that use all your inner force to build an unbroken line.’ — From An Actor Prepares

It seems all of my life I’ve been trying to establish this unbroken line, but I’ve been too distracted by what I think is supposed to happen instead of letting things happen and embracing them for what they are. Too impatient, but then I, well, I don’t know what I think anymore.

I talked to Mom today, and she still has yet to get a clean bill of health, but if she gets it, I hope we can make our trip. It would be so much fun to maybe get on the set of Spooks and see how it’s filmed. Still think it would be cool if she met Richard Armitage. I can’t buy her anything she can’t buy herself, so if I could pull that off, it would be wonderful. As for me, certainly, I would love to watch him at work. Probably won’t happen, but it’s fun to ponder.

Diary Part 28 here

Behind the scenes photo courtesy of KuchingGirl, and as usual it can be enlarged by clicking on it, and then clicking again for a larger format.

December 18, 2011
Categories: Interviews, Spooks . Tags: behind the scenes, candid shots, candid video, Lucas North, Richard Armitage, St . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 19 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

Tangent — Does It Matter? Really?

I readily admit I might be a bit jaded. When I see something like this, it’s hard not to think it’s a bunch of people who are in need of meaning in their lives, seek out a “noble” cause toward that end but are drawn mostly in a visceral fashion and often ignorant of how the situation came to be. And in their ignorance, they are vulnerable to being manipulated by forces beyond their kin. Yes, this can describe all of us at one time or another. LOL!

Okay, I’m going on the record that Washington shafted us with the bank bailout and was done by both parties. Those guys aren’t up there for you and me. Maybe half dozen are really up there as advocates for the people. The rest are up there for their own asses, and I doubt these protests are going to do much to change that. The protests will serve little more than to move another group into power.

When I see a real grassroots movement of Americans that is not politically motivated, I might sing another tune. I would so love to sing another tune.

Until then it’s a shame the bad guys on Wall Street usually look like this: