Figwit Lives Bygosh!

Richard Armitage’s involvement with ‘The Hobbit’ has me feeling a lot better about this blog. Yes, sometimes I get a bit self-conscious about it. Thankfully, I quickly wise up and realize how much fun I’m having. But with my entrance into the world of LOTR, I’m finding I’m a mere novice at obsession. I’m so small time compared to some of these people. Oh, I’ve got nothing on the LOTR fans as I said in a fake fan letter to Peter Jackson, and all the time I’m realizing their ardor just spills out everywhere. Take for example the three second scene of Bret McKenzie in LOTR that’s now spawned all sorts of obsession with his character not to mention obsession with him I’m sure. Reading this made me feel so much better about my repeated examination of RA’s three second spot in Cleopatra. LOL! It’s clear I have not crossed a very important line — starting a website to it. Although he looks hot in the Cleo pictures.

But I do want to make it clear that I’m happy for Bret McKenzie, and it will be interesting to see if he makes it into this latest movie. With the talk circulating about it, I feel confident he will. Whatever happens, he strikes me as an amiable and interesting fellow, and he plays a mean ukulele. :D

Of course all of this has me wondering what will be the fallout result of RA’s involvement in ‘The Hobbit’? Thoughts?

And on another level, is obsession always a bad thing? Surely doesn’t feel like it. :)

Another Ripple In the Pond

I’ve likened the words of Richard Armitage to pebbles going into a pond where we all ripple appropriately, and I’ve said more than once how much fun it is being a ripple in the RA universe. Hope the erudite among you will forgive me the mixing of those metaphors. With the recent hand wringing over RA’s grammatical homicide of the apostrophe (I won’t even go into his faux pas with double negatives), I feel compelled to ask for that concession.

Where was I?

Yeah, feeling the pond.

Being a ripple is never so keenly felt as when I float around on Twitter. Earlier, Sinjoor tweeted a link to a YouTube video, and I will admit I don’t always go over to look, but I did today. So glad I did, because I got to “meet” Allison, who I predict is going to make quite a splash among us fans. She has some guts, and hey, if RA sees her singing, who knows? He might call her. ;-) I adore your initiative Allison, and the song is a hoot!

Note: I wrote this piece earlier today and was going to post it on New Year’s, New Years’, New Years Eve, NYE (take your pick), but I wanted to speak to Allison first. So I sent her a note, and then I went off to do other things. It finally dawned on me a little while later that she put the video up to get a reaction, and there was no need to ask her permission to use it. Yes, sometimes I’m very, very slow on the uptake. So Allison, here I am reacting. :D

Oh, I just noticed right before I posted this that Skully already had it up. Aren’t we good little ripples? LOL!

Sometimes I Still Stop

And ask myself what am I doing?! I’ve now written almost 300 posts and published over 170. And most of that is about someone I don’t know and never will. Yes, I feel like a fool sometimes, but what alleviates my conscience is that I’m having such a good time writing. Oh, I know this blog is more than half bullshit, but it’s kept my hand in the writing, and I really do spend time writing other things, which has me asking another question even more frequently: why, why, why was I not writing sooner? Some of the answer is in my diary entries, but I’m not going to tell you everything because I do have to protect the guilty, and, I’m afraid the other stuff would bore the socks off of you.

Or maybe that’s me projecting on you how I feel. I can get bored very quickly, and it’s shocking that I’m still with this blog. I figured this was going to be a one note song — this talking about Richard Armitage all the time, but I never knew something seemingly one-dimensional could be this much fun. NO! I don’t mean Richard Armitage. Apparently he’s not one-dimensional or he wouldn’t have attracted so many interesting fans. Did I just compliment myself as well as all of you? Yeah, I think I did. Whatever, this is fun and you all are fun, and I thank you for giving me so much pleasure. Oh, and thanks to RA too. :D

I need a picture badly.

I honestly don’t know where this picture came from, but it’s too good not to use. I realize it came from the Children in Need clips; just not sure who made it. Whatever, looking at that makes it clear why I keep blogging. Of course, it’s not just how he looks, but that doesn’t hurt. Phew, that stance definitely demands a cold bucket of water on our collective heads. And if People Magazine doesn’t get with it in the next year or two, I may never read that rag again.

At least others get it.

Picture courtesy of Karima. Thank you, Karima! :D

The King May Have Been Dethroned

Or maybe a serious coup attempted.

I love this picture:

and I think it is the best picture of RA. King in my mind. I mean who could look at that and not have some reaction to it even if they have never seen him in any roles? Oh, someone dead? Yeah, that’s about it.

But I may have seen the one that can give it serious competition, and I wish someone who has something to do with the “Captain America” movie read my piddly blog. They could see how good RA looks in the picture below. Since the movie is being made by Hollywood, of course looks are the primary consideration. We know RA can act in anything, but does he have the look for a part in that movie? Oh, baby, yes!

A big thanks to Kaprekar for this photo. I was going to just add it to another post, but it deserves its own:

I need a new tag: PHWOAR!2

second edit: and I forgot to mark the jawline tag for this entry! Yes, you can click on that tag and look at all of the lovely profile shots in this blog, or most of them anyway. That’s my public service gene at work, so I just can’t help but think of these things for the edification of all of us. ;-) Thanks, fitzg for reminding me.

By the way, that second picture is an edit of a Robin Hood promo picture found on RichardArmitageNet.Com

I’m Officially Sick

Until now I’ve just been teasing. But that Sean Pruen video has me messed up in the head. LOL! Yes, I’m laughing, but it’s a kind of hysterical laugh that would creep you out if you heard it. LOL!

I don’t even want to analyze the video. Yes, I’ve analyzed others in minute detail, but I dare not tell you what I’m really thinking about some of the things I’ve looked at. Better to make it a joke. I’m having a hard time making something funny out of this:

And if that one doesn’t do it for you, then how ’bout one of these?

If you’re unmoved, then you are dead.

If Sean ever reads this entry, I hope he knows this is what happens when “viral” is a label. ;-)

Screencaps courtesy of my stash by way of Sean Pruen’s lovely video to be found here.

Ahem

June 21, 2010

Well, I’ve pondered the weekend activities, which consisted of reading some non-graphic real fic about Richard Armitage, and have decided that yes, I am a bit uncomfortable with examining Richard Armitage quite so much when it’s not obviously humorous hence my post of yesterday. I guess that’s the reason I put up that post. Whether any of you were uncomfortable with the real fic, I was. I would hate it if someone examined me that closely, and sadly, some people have tried. But I will not be examined like that unless I deign to drop my proverbial pants and bend over, which I probably am not going to do in this lifetime. And I’m not sure Rich’s real pants dropping qualifies as an invitation to exam him with such scrutiny, and even if I could rationalize that it does, I don’t want to take him up on it. Sometimes people think they want to almost completely expose themselves in the quest to be understood, but really, that’s not the best way, so I won’t be going down that path in trying to understand Richard Armitage, or candidly, I’ll try not to go there.

Oh, hey, I’ve probably had all kinds of thoughts about him like I read this weekend and more besides, but I’m not so sure I want to go there so deeply with this blog. Go there? Yes, I will go there, but not smacking quite so much of reality. This is supposed to be fluff with only a little serious thrown in. I keep telling myself it’s only fluff with a little serious thrown in. Check. I think I’ve got it.

So I might touch on some serious things here, but I spend plenty of time examining serious things to the nth degree in my real life (I don’t like that term “real life” because I consider messing about on the internet as part of my real life. I haven’t quite compartmentalized it to the point I can call it an alternate reality, not seriously anyway. I’ve got to change “real life” to something else; hmmm. “offline life”? no, that sounds dead, and that life is teeming with so many wonderful and yes, sometimes terrible things that would never allow it to be called dead. I will have to think about a good term since I just don’t have one this morning. My clever machine is on the fritz right now. I’ve been reading too much German, which is quite a feat since I don’t really understand much of it. Is there any wonder why my brain is fried? And isn’t this a helluva parenthetical statement? I’ve just placed it here to see how long I could make it. Of course I’m doing it for that reason), I don’t need to do that here. Having given you this sort of diatribe, I’d like to go back to my insane self even though it’s not an alternate reality. I really am partially insane in my “real life.” Besides, the insane me is much more fun. Trust me it’s more fun.

Before I get off of this, I have to say: People, you are nosey! I put up an article about RA, in the comments section no less, and my hit count goes nuts. Yes, I know it’s due to the article. I can see what you’re doing. MUHAHAHAHA. No, I can’t see that much of what you’re doing only some keys you might hit. Yes, I’m nosey too — mostly about this RA thing — and it’s such a puzzle to me. I ask myself why a lot, and I have no good answer except that shallowly, yes, I’m shallow, very shallow at times I’m afraid, I like looking at those pictures of RA in his articles, and like the rest of the drooling masses who hang on his words, I want to hear what he thinks.

This is what confounds me, and yes, it’s one of the big reasons I’m anonymous. It’s embarrassing for someone as circumspect as I am. I’m dripping with circumspection, and for most of my life, I haven’t given a rat’s ass about what a celebrity/actor thought. Not even John Lennon. Well maybe a little and maybe I did care a little about what Kurt Cobain thought and sometimes what Daniel Day-Lewis thought and yes, a little bit of Kevin Spacey. But with John Lennon I heard so much about what he thought that I didn’t have a chance to get curious. Oh, well, I’ll never know now, and truthfully, although I love biographies and absolutely love to hear what people think and why, I guess I’ve consigned most (not all but most) actors to the stupid file so they rarely merit much attention beyond their performances. I have done this because most of the time they say stupid things to the public, and no, I don’t think RA is stupid. For cryin’ out loud, isn’t it apparent from this blog that I don’t think that? If not, then I really am a horrible writer.

Certainly, I am curious about what he is going to do next in terms of roles and even more what makes him choose those roles. See I can’t help it. He really does fascinate me and especially his chameleon quality. He’s kind of a male Meryl Streep only better looking and certainly sexier because I have never been attracted to Meryl Streep. Oh, I love her as an actress and think she is the best female actor (no question in my mind about that!), but she’s not my type.

Note:

After successively posting two pieces alternating between bravado and self-consciousness (on several levels), I need a damn good picture, but I’m not sure which one would be better than in yesterday’s post or even equal it. That is still my favorite RA picture. PHWOAR! Can any top it?

Need to get back to my Diary because I really do think it will help me figure out what the hell has happened to me, and no, I don’t consider it dropping my pants. Hey, my fascination with Richard Armitage is just a small portion of my messed up thinking. Did I just admit it’s messed up thinking to be this fascinated with a celebrity? ;-)

Top Ten Fanvids

Okay, I should say these are MY top ten fanvids.

For anyone who’s been following this blog, you already know I lamented the difficulty of making this post and mainly because there are so many RA videos out there. But I had such a good time trying to watch as many as I could to be fair. These things are almost like my children. I didn’t realize I had it in me to love so many. All the more to make it difficult to highlight only ten. But what a great problem to have! And I scrapped my in-depth criteria. The post would have been too long, and it may be already! Quite simply the ones selected are the videos I find myself going back to again and again.

I put them in an order, but hey, this order could change tomorrow or maybe later today. LOL!

I’ve embedded all of them below which shouldn’t be a problem, but if enough people experience problems, I may change how I’ve configured this post.

#10 — the ethereal quality of the song and the editing make me accept this AU (Alternate Universe) story as canon! Very soothing on a lot of levels. LOL!

#9 — considering it’s Thornton’s longing we mostly see in North and South, I love this take on Margaret pining.

edit: this video is no longer on YouTube, so the creator of the video, ATFrancis, has given me permission to upload here, and if you would like your own copy, you can download at FoolishPassion, one of Elvira’s sites.

#8 — this was one of my first Guy videos, and it captures his angst over Marian perfectly. At one point it disappeared from YouTube, but then it came back. Yea! I’ve never gotten tired of watching it. I love the editing, and it was my introduction to Shinedown.

#7 — too much to write about why I love this one; maybe it should move up. No, I’ve got to stop somewhere. Thank you, DB for editing MJ’s song. It was way too long. Your timing is perfect.

#6 — this is a masterpiece and probably should be #1. It’s the shortest video on the list, but the impact of it is enormous. I’ll stop there or this post will be so long it won’t load.

#5 — the quality of this video is stunning. Please, please, please if you like it, download it in the 1080 format. It’s RA like you’ve never seen him. Oh, and it’s Shinedown again. Love it!

#4 — whatever “it” is, Nat has it. I’ll sum up this video in a word: brilliant. Also, great thanks to Heather for her wonderful inspiration!

#3 — this is one slick video. DB just gets better and better and she’s already great. Oh, I would love to go back and completely rewrite the post I did on this one!

#2 — it’s scary how many times I’ve watched this and not just at the normal speed but slowed down as well. I notice something new every time, so I can’t seem to stop analyzing it. The video is a feast.

#1 This video may be a 10.

Most of these are available for download. Check their YouTube descriptions to find out how.

Two Months of Insanity?

I have a confession to make. This blog was my bright idea to burn myself out on all things RA. I wanted to have fun while I was doing that and hoped all of you would have fun as well. But I was pretty sure I wouldn’t want to do this after a few weeks and figured when I got into my third month, it would begin to lose its appeal. Usually things begin to bore me pretty quickly, and I detest being bored. I refuse to be bored. But there’s no sign of that for me. That’s one of the things that’s fascinating about RA. He has never bored me. But then he’s not all there is to this.

Thankfully, all of you, the fans, come with him, and you also keep me plugged into this wonderful madness. I know we’ve had fun fangurling for a few days, and hopefully, we’ll all do that again sometime. But if that’s all we ever did, I would have been gone a long time ago, and I sure as hell wouldn’t have started a blog. Maybe all fandoms (hate that word by the way; can we come up with another one?) are as interesting as this one. I’m having a hard time believing that. Do I sound proud?

Earlier I read a comment about aversion therapy on Servetus’ blog and had to chuckle. What started out as a little aversion therapy for me has turned into immersion therapy. How could it be aversion therapy? I was the kid at school who would have rather been beaten with a big stick than write something. Give me a page of math problems any day over writing even a couple of paragraphs. Once I started writing the blog, I knew I would have to keep it up a bit, which of course meant writing. I figured that alone would turn me off. But now I look forward to writing. I can’t wait to get at it, and the ideas just won’t stop. Don’t worry. I’m not going to bore you with everything I’ve written or plan to write. But this exercise has served to really get me writing, which SO has literally begged me to do for years and may come to regret. LOL!

For now I’ve decided this blog is one of the sanest things I’ve ever done.

Richard Armitage attends the Philips British Academy Television Awards (BAFTA) at London Palladium on June 6, 2010 in London, England.

Yeah, I sort of know how you feel, Rich.

Candid shot courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.com

Ohcheemama!

For the uninitiated, that’s translated, “If I were single and within the vicinity of Richard Armitage, I might not be responsible for my actions.” If you look at this picture below, it becomes understandable. That is my idea of handsome!

That look trumps 2007 and 2009 combined! This is definitely a PHWOAR! post. Where’s SO?! LOL!

I’m rethinking this James Bond thing. Is that James Bond above or what?

Also, RA was without a co-presenter. YEA! I don’t know if the BAFTA people finally wised up or if RA was ready to reign in solitary splendor. LOL! Whatever the case, I love that he was alone:

Who got the award? I don’t think I even remember.

Yeah, I hope you have one of those too one day, Richard:

I’ll bet the Crinkle Zone is having a field day with this:

Once again I’m indebted to the ladies at RichardArmitageNet.com and to JJ (not sure who you are, but I could kiss you. :D). The top screencap is from the BAFTA 2010 page there, and I made the other screencaps from a clip so graciously linked on that page. It was clip #3 if anyone is curious.

Ahhh, that bit of fangurling felt good. When I get done drooling over these pictures, I’ll have to find out how Spooks fared.

I hope all of you are having a wonderful day!

edit: I see Spooks didn’t win. Have to look at those pictures again to cheer me up. ;-)

Wow. That is All — SPOILERS

More Spoilers for Strike Back.

I thought RA was so fantastic looking in this episode that I didn’t even care about the plot. I mean I completely ignored the plot for my first viewing of this one. Well, that and I could not understand but maybe three words this guy said:

I think Bruce Dern had a fling with someone in Scotland and this was the result.

Then there was Toby Stephens. Toby doing the American thang. He really sounded American. I didn’t hear one bobble, and I even played this show again in slower motion so I could understand the Scottish guy. Toby’s got the American accent down. My only complaint is do we always have to be the bad guys? Can’t the British come up with something more original? Maybe that is original for them. But to many of us here, I think we’re sick of it. [off soapbox]

Thankfully, I was so overcome with RA’s beauty that I didn’t care what the Scottish guy said and wasn’t that interested in Toby or the Americans.

It can’t just be me and some of the rest of you who think that is one fine looking man. Would someone PLEASE give him a great role!! It’s almost too much to think he looks like this AND he’s a great actor too. Oh, I’m a little biased. Yes, I’m biased! But he is a really fine actor and fine looking as well. I don’t think that’s unrealistic at all.

One other thing about the Americans. Why do we always sound dumber than everyone else? Or am I getting a complex about this? LOL!

Oh wait. A closeup.

Okay my fangirling got a little out of hand, but since I’ve gone anonymous, I’m trying to make the most of it.

Episode 6 coming up soon.

Screencaps courtesy of my stash.