Taylor Swift Finally Pulled Me In

Taylor Swift and her eyebrowsFor a few years now, I’ve groaned when I heard a Taylor Swift song. I have a 14 year old, and she and her friends like Taylor and have played her a lot. Since she isn’t my usual taste, I didn’t give her a fair shake. I had also read the Rolling Stone treatment of her a few years ago, and came away impressed with her business acumen but not inclined to listen to someone’s music who lived such a “white bread” existence.

But one of her latest hits became an anthem among teens and maybe some not so teen, and I started listening. Yep, it’s true teen angst has been her stock and trade, but not just to whine. She tries to encourage, and I’m learning to appreciate that about her. I tend to be a critic, but I would like to think I’m changing. I hope you watch this to the end. Love the end:

I’ve also thought about the fact she writes most of her songs and has been doing this for years, and with this change away from her country roots and given her youth, she will continue to experiment way beyond Shake It Off. The song seems like an announcement of just that. And I look forward to that, because eventually it’s going to be something like a fine wine.

This one features a favorite of many in this fandom:

December 21, 2014
Categories: Musicilove . Tags: , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 6 Comments

I Have a Smile on My Face

Richard-Armitage-and-Marlise-Boland-iChat
Armitage Besotted called me several nights ago to say, “Get out of your sickbed and look at Marlise Boland’s interview with Richard Armitage!” I could hear a grin in Besotted’s voice, but I couldn’t watch the interview ’cause I was that sick. But the next day I loaded up the two videos, and then sat there with a smile growing on my face while I watched. It seems Marlise has figured out how to get our guy to be very at ease, and I base that on my impressions and some Besotted also pointed out:

  • He accepted her compliments about his performance in The Crucible without protest or deflection: “It’s the moment when you realize that you’re an actor.” “It makes you vibrate, and the audience feels it, too.” “It’s sort of the bit that happens between the writer and the actor channeling it, and it’s sort of somewhere in mid- air between you and the audience, and they catch it. It’s really the ___ (mumbles an indecipherable word).”

  • He spoke on his career and his recent film and theater choices as if he were sitting with a friend: “I’m an ensemble player, and I know it. I’m not a big entertainer, and I’m not somebody who likes to put their head above the parapet, above everybody else.” “I feel quite fulfilled actually.” “I feel like my career’s always been a slow burn. I’m a slow developer. I went to drama school very late. I’m not an impatient person. I’m very, very patient. Id rather have it when it’s right than too soon. As long as I’m fulfilled and it’s inspiring me, I’m very happy.”

  • He made a willing admission that he’s changing his behavior after visiting Brazil: “Show your emotions.” “Show how happy and excited you are.” “Show you have a feeling. I’ve got to say, it felt good.”

  • His voice and expression were soft and incredulous and intimate when he revealed the highlight of his year: “…the opening night of The Crucible.” Pause. “…it’s an amazing feeling when an audience gets to their feet.” (The smile on my face at this point was huge, and it thrilled me Meg was able to in some respects capture his reaction.)

  • He trusted her enough to flirt with her and give her openings:
    A: “Do you think you have one question that no one, no one would have asked?” M: “Thorin: boxers or briefs?” A: “Neither.” Pause, louder: “Neither.” Both giggle.
    A: “Thorin’s Box of Joy — sounds a bit rude,” said with a bit of a leer.

Besotted and I went on to talk about how proud we are of Marlise. Like her we are both women entrepreneurs who have run successful businesses and know how incredibly hard that is. It’s always hard to start with nothing or almost nothing and make something. Then to be out there on your own doing it over and over again without an institution or a machine is one helluva piece of work and requires someone to be sharp almost 24/7. Mostly it requires someone to have a personality that can inspire trust and confidence. I would say Marlise Boland has done that very well with Richard Armitage.

If I’m being really candid, I would say she’s done what some of us have longed to do — sit down and have a chat with Richard and one where he’s not just rattling off the standard responses. Oh sure, some of the things he said in this interview he has said before, but there was an ease and sincerity and a type of intimacy with Marlise that was striking.

And it should come as no surprise that I had a favorable reaction to Marlise’s interview considering what I’ve said earlier.

Marlise,

Thank you, and keep it up. You Go, Girl!

Signed,
A new fan

P.S. I should have written something about your first interviews with RA which I also liked, and these new ones are even better.

For those who may not know, I call these cyber letters of mine “fake fan letters” because when I write them, I usually have no expectation the addressees will see them. It’s merely another way to express what I’m thinking, and yes, sometimes they’re done for a laugh. This one is very sincere.

Note: very often in this fandom, I have refrained from reading or hearing what others think before I can take my own impressions of something. Of course nothing is ever assessed without any influence from elsewhere in my life, but I try to remain free for a time of other fans’ thoughts. I was tempted to read the take others had on this interview given the angst from quite a few months ago. I even momentarily clicked on some links and then immediately backed out. Now that I’ve said what I think, I will take some time to peruse other posts, and if our group is anything like in the past, I’ll agree with some, disagree with others, but I’m sure all of it will make me think.

I hope all of you are doing well, and I want you to know that I am grateful to those of you who kept reading my neglected blog and to those of you who sent me prayers and words of encouragement. It did encourage me. Thank you again!

edit:

For those who haven’t seen the interview, there you go:

and:

December 19, 2014
Categories: Interviews . Tags: , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 22 Comments

I’m Not Sure How I’m Typing This, But I Am, Thank God

Got some bad news today, and now I am really wondering what’s going to happen next. I hate to involve all of you in a crisis. I never have before, and believe me I’ve had legions of them since I started this blog. Too many to even remember. That was another thing that’s happened in the last few years to wear down my immune system — stress. I’m not good at showing stress. I take it as a personal failure when I do. Grace under pressure is the aspiration. But sometimes my definition of that is dumb, because people who don’t release the stress, internalize it and usually die younger than most. I don’t want to die hence this post. LOL! Okay, that was a lousy joke, but at least I can still joke.

The news I got today is that the virus I have and SO has and now I understand his elderly parents also have is called EV-D68. Let me put this in perspective. It’s an airborne disease, and the medical community in my country is way more worried about it than Ebola. Good reason why is that it can paralyze limbs in children. It’s already happened in my state and others, and if someone is someone is impaired or elderly, it can kill them. SO and his parents fit those respectively. As for me, I’m recovering and more likely to die from internalizing the stress. But with the publication of this piece, I’m letting it go. I’m sending it into the wind. I’m also releasing it to the Lord. He’ll hear the cry.

I covet your prayers.

November 27, 2014
Categories: Uncategorized . . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 32 Comments

Yes, I’ve Been Somewhat Silent

My lack of commentary isn’t because I don’t have any or don’t care although some things in RA Universe I don’t care about. But rather it’s because I’ve been sick. I’ve gotten sick more times in the last almost two years than I did the entire, uh, I’d rather not say, but it’s decades. I simply have seldom gotten sick. My mother kept me home from school one time for sickness in the 7th grade. That’s when I got the Hong Kong flu. It lasted for two weeks. I also got a case of walking pneumonia in college that took about a month to get over. I’ve had the flu one other time since then, but it didn’t last but a few days. I’ve had a few ailments along the way but nothing major.

In fact, I’m one of those people who if I feel myself getting sick, I say to myself, “I will not be sick.” I just refuse to cave into it! This almost always works. But lately, it’s not working, and part of the reason is that I have not been taking care of myself. I stopped taking vitamins and drinking enough liquids and it’s caught up with me. So yeah, I’m to blame for the state of affairs.

But back to commentary. I almost always have commentary. It’s a curse that I’m so full of opinions. SO’s take on that is why does anyone want to hear everyone’s opinions all the time almost non-stop including mine? Don’t people get tired of incessant editorializing? He’s right to some degree, but he’s wrong that you can run a blog and not come with opinions and come with them a lot. It’s the nature of the beast, and I’m still full of opinions about Mr. Richard Armitage and associated people, etc. I can’t help it. If I’ve spent this much time paying attention, dammit, I’m going to have some opinions. :D

Yep, that’s right, Rich, I’m still going to give my cussed opinions about some of your moves. To which SO says, “That poor guy. I hope he doesn’t read all that stuff.”

Now for a picture:

Richard Armitage in Strike Back

This is an expression of my opinion about the virus I have. I would like to shoot it in the ass.

Other than all of that, I need to get my dwarf pieces done, but I’ve got time. I have 12, and they just need to be done by the wide release of Battle of the Five Armies. Then again, if that doesn’t happen, I’m not too worried. Researching these guys has been such a pleasure, I think you will enjoy hearing what I found no matter when I put them up.

November 25, 2014
Categories: Strike Back, Tangents . Tags: , , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 15 Comments

Relax, It’s SOP

1500x500

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

November 23, 2014
Categories: Fandom . Tags: , , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 8 Comments

Life is Quite a Ride

For those who may not know it, a few years ago I started driving a school bus so I could easily go to my kids’ sports activities which happened to be scattered across the state and in some cases contiguous states. Despite the fact my children are no longer in high school, somehow I’m still driving. Actually, it’s quite easy to explain. I became very attached to the kids who ride my bus route. I live in a rural area, and most of the kids live “out of town” and have to ride a long time to get to and from school. Some of them up to two hours each way. Many of these students have been riding with me for years and have now spent much more time with me than they have any of their teachers. For the most part, we have had a wonderful time, and I have some fond memories of my time as a bus driver.

Of course there is the occasional misbehavior by some of the kids, but I usually deal with it and move on pretty quickly. Not so for the last day or so when I had an incident on my bus that could have been disastrous. A kid brought a shotgun shell on the bus. Then he and another boy were messing with it, and they managed to make it go off. Miraculously, no one was hurt. The boys are both in elementary school, and one of them is in serious need of some discipline. He’s the one who brought the shell. He’s also become quite the liar. Let me be plain. He’s become a bold faced liar, and it is painful for me to even process that since he’s so young and yet already heading down such a dangerous path. I’ve been patient with him because I consider he has a very bad home situation. But the incident with the shell has me livid at what he could have done to himself and others.

Since two boys are involved in this, that means two sets of parents to deal with. One set is great. I’ve spoken to them, the principal has spoken to them, and they accept that their son messed up. I’m confident they will make a believer out of him, as it were. The other set of parents I have not spoken to yet but the principal has. I’m about to get the call to tell me what’s happening. Here’s what I know about this second set of parents. Everything is someone else’s fault no matter the situation. Their kid is never wrong. Guess which boy has these parents.

Is there any wonder why some kids are little shits? Parents like this boy certainly facilitate it, and they make me ill at times. They posture as if they care, but really, they don’t. They don’t care enough to discipline their kid for his own good. They are the parents who want to be their kid’s friend, and that means the kid’s well being will be sacrificed to how these parents feel about themselves, which means they would never dream of giving this kid consequences.

Of course I’m probably a throwback in how I see discipline because quite frankly, if a kid needs an ass busting, he ought to have one. This kid will get little or nothing done to get his attention. The parents will feel sorry for him that he’s in trouble with the school. Are you ill yet at this scenario I’m describing? I could go on about the willful and selfish blindness of these parents, but I’ll stop. For the record, my kids did get their asses busted when it was warranted, but that didn’t happen often because they were taught early to take responsibility for something they had done, and they realized they didn’t want the negative consequences of their actions.

That’s the end of my rant. I’m not sure when I will be done being pissed off about this. What does help mitigate my anger is my gratitude that no one was hurt.

Here’s a picture of a bus like mine:

schoolbus

November 18, 2014
Categories: Uncategorized . Tags: , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 14 Comments

Is It Too Much to Ask?

I’ve had an electronics free weekend. Not by choice, but does it matter? I still had to do without. Yep, that’s right, I’ve had virtually no contact with the outside world. My friends staged an intervention on me, so I could not use my phone or the Net for most of the weekend. Before you ask, yes! I had withdrawal. This pretty much sums up how I felt at first:

ns3-006

But I’ll be home later tonight and will definitely be able to post something salient to our guy. For now, I’m doing another quick post so you know I didn’t fall off the face of the earth. But I could have. My lodge room is up pretty high. About 9,000 ft elevation and probably 1,000 feet from the ground. This was about 6:45 this morning:

012
Click to enlarge

Hey, if I’m going to have electronics withdrawal, this is the way to do it!

note: the title was going to be a lead-in for the notion that it’s not too much to ask for just a few minutes of Internet time. As it is, I’m sneaking this. :D

November 16, 2014
Categories: Tangents . Tags: , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 11 Comments

The Day is Far From Done

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:

North_and_South_Richard_Armitage

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.

November 14, 2014
Categories: Fandom, North and South . Tags: , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 4 Comments

Keepin’ It Real

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:

richard armitage bafta 2007

to this:

BAFTA Los Angeles TV Tea 2013

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

November 12, 2014
Categories: Fandom . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 9 Comments

That was Interesting or maybe not

vlcsnap-2014-11-06-14h35m57s239Moving on from thoughts of Time Warner’s state of affairs, since it’s not much fun to talk finance or economics. No, that’s not a true statement. I love to talk finance and economics, but I know most people hate it. See why I stay on fluff subjects most of the time here? The serious me is not that much fun and likes to talk about things like the Time Warner/Comcast merger, why Facebook’s IPO was lousy, or about my fascination with Elon Musk and Tesla and renewable energy, or the health care sector or other fun subjects like Quantitative Easing. I really love to talk about Quantitative Easing. Don’t get me started on that one.

Yes, I’m really going to stop all this talk that makes your eyes glaze over and go back to talking about the dwarf actors, which was my initial plan but did not include talking about the snubbing of the Kiwi dwarves. I was more or less going to ignore that until, well, I couldn’t.

Speaking of which, I’ve noticed something about that situation. It’s not a situation to a significant number of fans of the Hobbit movies. It seems the Richard Armitage fans are mostly the ones who were offended if the current chatter is anything to go by. The Tolkien fans, or more specifically the Ringers (fans of Peter Jackson’s Tolkien movies and not to be confused with Tolkienists who are not fans of the movies for the most part) are pretty quiet. This issue doesn’t seem to be a big deal to them. Yep, I’m saying it appears they really don’t care if the Kiwi actors make it to the premiere or not. And that surprises me. It really does. Oh sure, we know the TheOneRing.net got shut down on this issue, but are they the only voice for the Ringers? Maybe so. Maybe the Ringers aren’t as prevalent as I thought.

I could be so wrong about all of this, but that’s how it seems.

Further, it’s made me wonder if perhaps I’ve given the Ringers too much credence as something truly organic and principled instead of something manufactured by someone who had a vested financial interest. Okay, yes, I’m being disingenuous. I’ve known for the last few years that there is an effort to market to and through the Ringers. Because I was taught not to say anything if I couldn’t say something nice and encouraging, I haven’t said anything about this. But the incident with the Kiwi actors bugs me enough to break that rule.

Someone slap me ’cause if I really get rolling here, I may get so candid that I say something I really regret.

So am I just a fan bitching? Maybe, but then again, I have been cultivated to be a fan of the actors in this movie, and so it’s natural I would be unhappy with some of them being left out of the world premiere. Yep, I’m saying that if anyone is to blame for my feelings about that, it’s the powers that be who drew my attention to these guys in the first place– Richard Armitage excepted of course.

No worries that I’ll go further than this post. This is the last of my venting about it. I think it’s all off my chest now, and I can move on to more fun topics. Like my piece on Graham McTavish. But I’m going to do McTavish a favor and not put his piece right up against these rants.

November 7, 2014
Categories: Fandom, Movies, The Hobbit . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 14 Comments

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