Before I Really Get Rolling

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The first day of FanstRAvaganza is here! But I have to take timeout to give you a little insight into the struggle of getting ready. A few weeks ago I asked for recordings from fellow bloggers and some online buddies. I assumed this was going to be a fairly easy task but for the few who don’t like their voices. I was wrong. Oh, some took to it very well, but some had no clue how to record. That was fine since I love to teach. There were also some who had to find a microphone they had not used in awhile or never. Some did not find their microphones. Some had colds or other such maladies that rendered them mute. :D One even resorted to co-opting some two year olds to sing instead of recording her voice, and every day I would get multiple excuses in my in-box about why someone couldn’t send a file. Yet I kept reiterating it was voluntary! After awhile I began to think I was being stonewalled. Yes, I know some felt bad, but please, please, do not feel bad. I hate my voice too! LOL!

This exercise made me question if almost everyone hates her voice. I went in search of some data about this and found quite a bit. In particular I thought this was interesting. It seems almost no one likes his/her voice when they hear a recording of it! Although I’ve long known the difference was created by the amplification inside our heads versus outside of it, I did not know that we actually hear additional vibrations of our voices. All of this has me wondering how Richard Armitage must sound to himself. Since a person’s voice sounds higher pitched when recorded than it does in his/her head, what must it sound like in his head?! Oh my! And of course I wonder if he hates the sound of his voice as well. Yes, I’m still trying to get in his head, but I’ll stop this line of thought for now. :D

Thankfully, none of you gave up and eventually all came through despite the obstacles, and some of you didn’t realize you weren’t as bad as you originally thought. Natalie of ArmitageFanBlog was a trooper though.

First attempt from Nat:

Already trying to distance her name from it:

Really not sure about this:

Almost giving up:

I think I heard a “to hell with this!” No, I’m just kidding, Nat. :D

Aaah success!

By the way, Nat, you were doing good to get it in five takes although I thought the first one was just fine! I’m not even going to say how long it took me, and one friend said she had 400 files or what felt like it.

There will be more voices throughout the week not the least of which will be RA’s, and if someone would still like to send me a file of 2-3 minutes (more or less) of what you like about him and perhaps words of encouragement to him, I’ll be happy to take it. :D Would love to have them by March 20th or sooner.

But for now:

Voice brought to you by Phylly of PhyllysFaves. Be sure to check out her posts as she will be covering ‘The Impressionists’ and all things of an artistic bent relating to it. Can’t wait to see what she’s got!

March 14, 2011
Categories: Fandom, Voice Work . Tags: , , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 36 Comments

PSA for FanstRAvaganza!

A Richard Armitage worthy PSA:

For information on the event including participating bloggers, click on the FanstRAvaganza poster on the right sidebar at anytime or go here.

[note to my fellow bloggers: yes, it’s still, well, the day before where I am. :D]

March 13, 2011
Categories: Fandom, Voice Work . Tags: , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 42 Comments

Are You Sick of Hearing About FanstRAvaganza?!

Do you feel like the three time wife who was still a virgin? The first time her husband died at the altar, the second time her husband died en route to their honeymoon destination, and the third time she married a salesman who sat on the side of the bed every night and told her how great it was going to be. I promise I’m not going to keep you forever in suspense. It’s almost here. Almost, almost, almost. Sometimes I hate that word. It can strike such fear or generate a meltdown of anticipation and all the while remaining aloof. Damn! it’s amazing how something so nebulous can have such an effect, but there it is and so many other things in life as well. Someone slap me before this piece strays from the subject to all this philosophical crap (which all of us can relate to but would rather not think about) and of course digressing would justify you in thinking I’m merely messing with your head about FanstRAvaganza!

It’s really, really coming, but you don’t have to trust me. Just listen to this mesmerizing voice beckoning you to be there. Put it on repeat and I’m sure you’ll be with us on Monday. :D

Seductive voice brought to you by CDoart. But sure to check out her blog during FanstRAvaganza!

And there will be more to thrill your ears. My topic is Richard’s voice work, so I hope you will stay around to hear what’s coming, and I haven’t even talked about all of the other wonderful subjects that will be explored by the participating bloggers! More good stuff. Trust me.

From Strike Back, Episode 2 where Porter is trying to calm Katie Dartmouth and gain her trust:

By the way, if you think you’re sick of hearing about FanstRAvaganza, how do you think I feel typing that mother of a word over and over? The one who thought of this name is sadistic, and fortunately, I know who you are. :D

Note to my fellow bloggers: it’s very interesting to be in this group. There are times such as now when I’ve had an idea and then had to possibly rethink it a little or even can it because another blogger ran with it before I did. I do that so the repetition doesn’t bore everyone, but I left my picture selection, which is very similar to Servetus’ recent post, to make a point. I hope none of you get disheartened by these situations, because frankly, they just make us sharp and make for better posts, and I welcome the challenge. I remember learning to draw as a kid. My mother gave me a set of pencils with no erasers. She meant to get me a nice gum eraser but never did. So I learned how to draw without ever erasing. This was key to unlocking my creativity with a pencil, and it’s amazing the drawings that have come out of that exercise. Some of my best evolved from a seemingly out of place mark I could not erase but felt I had to change, so hallelujah! for changes.

Take care, and I hope everyone is still having a great time with this!

Screencap courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.Com

March 8, 2011
Categories: Fandom, Strike Back, Voice Work . Tags: , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 17 Comments

FanstRAvaganza — What’s the Big Deal?

FanstRAvaganza part deux is coming and some have asked: how is that different from any other week on the blogs? It’s different in a few ways. Most important is that it overtly promotes community and yet diversity in the RA blogosphere. Also, not everyone who is part of this event blogs about Richard Armitage almost non-stop. There are some who only blog about him occasionally and there are some who are new bloggers. This is a chance for their presence in the RA universe to become known or perhaps a little more known to you. But for me as an almost non-stop RA blogger, this is a chance to engage and highlight fans more than usual. As much as I love watching Richard Armitage and talking about his work, I wouldn’t be here if many of you were not interesting. Talking to a bunch of dullards wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying, and you are far from dullards. So I want to get you involved and highlight you at times during that week as I’m sure some other bloggers will be doing as well.

In that interest, I’m going to tell you the topic I’ve selected for that week and ask for some input. I’m covering his voice work. Not exhaustively but quite a bit, or an attempt to. I would love to hear from you about any subject or work concerning Richard Armitage’s voice that you’re interested in hearing about or even some obscure detail that you would love to learn or hear more about. If I don’t know about it, I’ll try to ferret it out — within reason. And no subject is too small. LOL! I did think about putting up a poll to get your input, but it would be limited to all the subjects I can think of, and much as I sometimes like to think of myself as all-seeing and all-knowing, well, the truth is I’m not. ;-) Plus, whatever you send would be better left as a surprise for the others, so the comments on this post have been disabled.

Yes, I would like for you to contact me directly. People do that all the time, and I really appreciate it. I’ve had some marvelous chats with people who have never commented on my blog. That’s just not their style. I understand. But of course we don’t have to chat, and you can still send me your idea. If you’re hesitant, please know I’ve never divulged information about anyone. Hey, I’m anonymous, so I’m certainly not going to out anyone else. LOL! Just know that I would love to hear from you about any idea. Again, no subject is too small. Contact info is on the upper left sidebar, “CONTACT ME.”

I also don’t care how old or how young you are. Wait. Actually, I do care how young you are. You don’t have to have reached your majority (18 in my parts), but I would like for you to be at least 16, please? I sometimes say choice words here and really don’t want young kids involved in that. My own kids don’t get to read this blog, so I’m not too hepped up about other kids reading it. If you want to fake me out, I guess you could try. I haven’t quite honed my people reading skills to always determine who is a kid simply from online communication. However, I can tell a lot of the time, so be wary if you’re a kid. For those merely a kid at heart, come ahead. :D

Hmmm. A deadline? I’m thinking the last day of February would be good.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Candid shots courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.Com

[note: Yes, the shirts he’s wearing are very similar but one zips and the other buttons, and yes, the collars are different. Servetus, I’m blaming you for this new found sartorial sensitivity. LOL!]

January 30, 2011
Categories: Fandom, Voice Work . Tags: , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 2 Comments

On Top of Your Game

If you are a frequent viewer of any of the triumviRAte sites (RichardArmitageNet.Com, RichardArmitageOnline, or RichardArmitageCentral), then you probably know about Richard’s reading of Wordsworth today on BBC 3. If you haven’t been reading as much lately, then know that it will be done here at 10:45pm London time.

If some of you are like me, you won’t be around to listen to this live. Don’t fear. You can listen to it on the BBC iPlayer at a later time, but usually only for a limited number of days. If you would like to do this, you can search the archives for this show. I’ve done the search on ‘Words and Music,’ which is the name of the program, and you can run this link to do your own search later. update: To listen on the iPlayer, go here. second update: but if you don’t want to listen to the whole thing, bccmee has provided only RA’s parts. I recommend listening to the entire broadcast the first time around.

But if you’re also like me, listening to it on the iPlayer will not be enough. You must also have a copy for your stash. Good news for those of you who have a PC and have not already read A Little Sweetner. There is a way. It’s called Radio Downloader, and if you read that post, it explains what it does. Just so you know it’s very easy to download the program, and it doesn’t take up much space. You can then browse the BBC for “programmes” and subscribe if you like. But beware of subscribing as this software will download dynamically to your system, i.e., you can start to fill up your storage if you’re not careful about your subscriptions. Other than that caution, this software has been wonderful to manage not to mention facilitating the enjoyment of several more performances of RA using that voice that is God’s gift to women.

And it’s been so much more than that. I’ve become a major fan of British radio, and ‘Words and Music’ is one of my favorites. I’m SO SORRY I didn’t listen to British radio sooner. I missed out on the Chekhov celebration earlier in the year. Blast! If anyone has any of those recordings, please let me know.

Now we just need to get a program this easy to manipulate that runs on a Mac!!

Not into radio? Well, next up is something you might find interesting.

September 12, 2010
Categories: Geek, Voice Work . Tags: , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 9 Comments

A Little Sweetner

I am changing courses in mid-stream. Maybe that language is too strong. I’m not changing courses, I’m changing how I’m going about the course. I am spending a little more time on the diary entries I wrote awhile back. Couple that with school starting and all the madness that goes along with that, and well, I’m being challenged to find time to get my blog pieces the way I want them.

Because I’ve been remiss in not publishing as often, I offer something to those of you who may not know some of the little goodies that us rabid fans have at our disposal. It’s a neat little program I acquired to listen to BBC Radio. When Clarissa came out earlier this year, I was looking for a way to listen to the broadcasts live or very shortly after the broadcast, and I found it in this program. (Yes, I’m going to tell you what it is — eventually. LOL!)

But since Clarissa aired, I’ve gone way beyond trying to listen to just broadcasts with or about RA or anything in which he’s involved. I have quite an array of subscriptions that are such a delight to me. One of them is the Afternoon Play on Radio 4, and Radio 4 has been such a treat that for months now I’ve been a member of a Facebook advocacy group called Speak up for Radio Drama Now! If you have read this blog for any length of time, you know I have no love for FB, so it’s quite something for me to even stay involved. But I support what they are trying to do with that Group. Not quite sure it’s going to accomplish the purpose, but someone, somewhere needs to know how much BBC Radio 4 is loved!!! Definitely worthy of three exclamations points at once.

I did chuckle to myself when I first heard RA’s crack about BBC Radio 4 listeners being part of his Army. Before Clarissa I could have said indignantly, “Oh, not me!” But I am so in the bag for Radio 4. Yes, I fit his demographic too well except that I’m not sure about the “quite well-educated” part. I still think of myself as a mutt and always will, and I’m fine with that. Mutts can usually go anywhere without much detection. Yeah, I’ll stick with being a mutt. :D

So without further ado here’s the sweetner:

RadioDownloader

I give this to you now because there are probably going to be broadcasts of interviews about Spooks 9, which if Ali at RichardArmitageNet.Com is correct, will more than likely air in September. Then again, there may be nothing broadcast. But I wanted you to be prepared if there were. Just more of my public service to you. ;-)

Oh, and I have never had a problem with this program, but I think it’s only available for PC users. If anyone knows of a good MAC program, then tell us about it.

August 31, 2010
Categories: Fandom, Geek, Voice Work . Tags: , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 20 Comments

404 Not Found?!!

Since you have landed here, that means you have probably clicked on a cache of a category or tag that I trashed. Before you get upset, you can always try the search function instead. It’s to your left on the sidebar unless you’re on a phone, and then it should be at the top right.

If you have read this far, I’ll grace you with a goodie (subject to change due to my mood). Today it’s an excerpt from RA’s most recent audio book:

Convenient Marriage excerpt

[note to regular readers of this blog: I could do this housekeeping under the covers, but this is much more fun. Proving that under the covers is not always more fun.] This is my continuing public service to all of Richard Armitage’s fans. See how good I am to you. I take care of you even when you hit a dead end. ;-)

Screencap courtesy of ArmitageDaily on Livejournal.

Audio courtesy of Naxos Audiobooks who released The Convenient Marriage and two other audio books by RA — Sylvester and Venetia.

August 3, 2010
Categories: Dorktastic, Housekeeping, Voice Work . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 2 Comments

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