Richard Armitage | RAFrenzy

Going the Distance — Part 1

It’s interesting to review old posts and realize the fundamental impetus and tone of this blog is the same. I still feel as I did when I wrote this post in 2010 with only a few changes. One of them is I can no longer keep up with the press on Richard Armitage. Part of that is due to my situation and part of it is due to there being so much more. This a good thing for him in more ways than one. LOL! (unfortunately, I have never kicked the LOL habit. Every time I’ve tried, something I’ve said in jest was misconstrued as serious). The other thing that’s changed is I almost feel like Richard Armitage is an old friend. Before anyone starts becoming worried about my having descended into the depths of some serious CW, remember this often happens when we like a particular entertainer over a long period of time. Can you say Tom Hanks? Sure you can. Okay, so there’s the odd person out there who doesn’t like Tom, and no, I’m not fully comparing Richard Armitage to Tom Hanks although I do think Rich could be more of an everyman than he is currently. But I’m not going to chase that rabbit today.

Perhaps the only other thing that’s changed is I regret a few more things than I did in that linked piece above. I mourn any part I have ever played in quenching the spirit of community. The only salve to my conscience is that anything I have done was not done to create a divide. That’s not my style. Oh, I’m not about keeping peace at the cost of my principles, but I do not thrive on conflict. Not afraid of it either, but I don’t go out looking for it. Somehow that doesn’t matter, ’cause in fandom it tends to find those who manifest themselves very overtly in cyber world. Yep, this just goes with the territory. I also mourn the loss of some friendships. Thankfully, that’s been minimal, but I still feel the loss. A post coming next or soon on these things and some other fallout in fandom. It is not a rant but hopefully some encouragement.

So why am I posting this? I have definitely changed during the time I’ve been running this site but not as much as I thought. It’s true I don’t drool as much these days, but how long can someone drool? Whatever the case with fans, obviously, I just couldn’t keep that up. Occasional drooling is all I’m good for these days, and that should take nothing away from Richard Armitage. He is a fine actor from whom I believe we have not seen his best work.

And that’s why I’m hanging around. One of the reasons anyway. I’m waiting for the day he is again in a fine role — meaning one worthy of his talent.

Forgotten this?

Also, Richard Armitage's talent has been woefully undervalued in film. Give that man a role with a real script.

— ʙᴀᴋᴇʀ (@John_Baker_IV) June 22, 2014

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, probably not since I can’t seem to let that tweet die. John Obert got it, and I’m still basking in that and realize that we still ain’t seen nothing yet. And it may well come from behind the camera when we do.

In the meantime, it’s been fun going some of the distance with Richard Armitage. I’ve never watched an actor’s career so closely and doubt I ever will again. This is an anomaly for me, and I’d like to keep it that way. :D

And speaking of going the distance, I’m going to brag about something, and if you hate it when I talk about my kids, stop reading now. LOL!

I’ve talked about all of my children on this blog including my youngest who is underage but being the least mentioned and not pictured. My older kids have pictures of themselves plastered all over the Net, so it would be pointless to try to keep their photos under wraps. They’re part of that generation who doesn’t think about those things as being a problem. At such time as my youngest reaches majority, she can do the same, but while she’s underage, no way I’m going to put her photo out to be easily snagged.

Onto the bragging.

When I started this blog, I had been a fan of Richard Armitage for over two years, and my son was nearing the end of his junior year of high school and already getting heavily recruited by college athletic directors and coaches. It was quite the learning curve for our family, and I remember SO telling our son, “If you get a scholarship, consider it a job, because they will be paying for your education or most of it.” Mercenary as that sounds, that’s a reality, and it’s good to let a kid know so they don’t go into a college sport with idealistic visions of coaches being their friends. They’re employers first and foremost.

Son is now a senior in college, and he’s done his job and then some. He’s busted his backside with a work ethic that most people only dream about, and it has served him well. He has a GPA hovering around 3.75 and he is an All-American athlete not once but three times with the last time being last November.

For those not familiar, this is a very small group of college athletes in the U.S. Thousands and thousands compete every year, but only a handful in each sport make All-American. The ones who do are at the top of their game, which means they are not only talented but have worked incredibly hard. Just thinking about the training is enough to wear me out. My son trains 48 weeks out of the year. He takes off two weeks after the fall season and two weeks after the spring season. The rest of the time he’s eating a rigid diet, only drinks water, runs 12-15 miles most days, lifts weights, does calisthenics and plyometrics, and oh heck, I don’t know what all. And there are lots of athletes who do this and never make All-American. Some of it is also due to luck. They can’t get sick on the wrong day or have an off day at the wrong time.

But the little bit of luck aside, I’m proud of my son, and I don’t mind talking about it here. He’s done a helluva thing, and it needs to be talked about and talked about, and thankfully, SO and I are not the only ones who will, but we still have to stifle ourselves because we stink with pride about what this boy has done.

Yes, I have a segue to Richard Armitage. It’s coming in the second part of this post.

January 6, 2015
Categories: Fandom, Strike Back . Tags: John Porter, Richard Armitage, screencaps . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 7 Comments

Further Thoughts on a Richard Armitage Blogging Event in 2015

No more than 30 minutes after I published my last post on this subject I had over a dozen communications from people who are interested in this event. Wow. That’s a good sign.

With those communications have come questions and comments. Mostly people are wanting to know how it was done in the past and how it should go in the future. I can speak to the past as much as I remember, but all I can say about the future are just my opinions.

How this went in the past is there was one person who coordinated, but a committee (don’t let your eyes glaze over when I say that) came up with a theme and a framework for how the event would proceed in a given year. This seemed to work well. What was really helpful was various people brought various skill sets to the event and everyone working together was the key to success. The coordinator of the event kept track of that, so there was not duplication of effort or no efforts in a given area. All of that sounds like work, but I think it really is up to the committee to decide how elaborate or how free form an event can be and thereby how much coordination is needed.

Now my two cents.

As I said in the last post on this subject, I would love to see the spirit of community manifesting in this event. For me, this is the biggest consideration in being involved. In order to see that happening, it’s imperative that the many facets of the fandom be included. This was the aspiration in the past, and today, seems to be more warranted than ever. In order to achieve it, this means bloggers and guest bloggers who cover subjects from vanilla to blue should be part of the event. The truth is we have a diverse fan community. Why hide that? I say let the truth will out that we’re not all in lock step on who we are and what we like. This should not be a problem to embrace unless one group wants to eclipse the others. Surely we can rise above that kind of behavior.

One consideration with respect to making it an open community is possibly having a policy statement. I’m thinking something along the lines of “the community is open but discourages the promotion of self-harm.” A committee could come up with something much more thought out than this, but I hope any statement would remain broad enough to be inclusive and restrictive enough to head off some potentially explosive situations. Another consideration is providing a courtesy to readers possibly in the form of tagging posts so the reader knows if he/she is about to click on something he/she would rather not. There are ways to handle this so it’s clear, and a committee could easily hash this out as well.

But the first order of business is to merely find out how much interest there is, what time of year is best for most, and perhaps getting an idea of how long to run the event. Most important: when pondering these items and envisioning the event as you would like to see it, please remember we do not have to do this as it’s been done in the past. It can be changed, but if you want to keep it the same, that’s fine too. There is no law that says it has to be done this way or that. It’s really up to all of you to figure out how you want it.

In that interest, I have a poll here.

EDIT: Some Qs&As are here.

January 3, 2015
Categories: Fandom . Tags: blogging, blogging event, Fanstra, FanstRAvaganza, Richard Armitage . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 11 Comments

So is FanstRAvaganza Still Alive?

For four years the Richard Armitage blogosphere held an event in March called FanstRAvaganza, and many of us had a really great time participating. But last year there was no FanstRAvaganza. Hopefully that was just a respite and the blogosphere can and will do something in future. And perhaps it doesn’t have to be in March or be called FanstRAvaganza but can be another blogging event. It would just be great to do something as a community if possible. I hope the spirit of community that was originally in the FanstRA event doesn’t pass away completely and someone can breathe some life into it in the near future.

In the meantime, there is a Facebook page, a Twitter id and a website called FanstRAvaganza if someone is inclined to take it on. That will mean the parties who set up those three accounts will have to be approached, Luckily, I set up two of them, and I’m really easy to deal with because I don’t want to control anything other than to see us come together as community in a way that would be fun and appealing to a large cross-section of fans.

The only advice I would give in order to effect this is that there probably should be a group to run things instead of one person running all of it. It’s a drain on a single individual. It’s also difficult for the vision of one person to facilitate community since we have such a multifaceted fandom. I could be wrong about this and there’s a dynamo out there who’s all seeing and all knowing, but I doubt it. LOL! It’s also been my experience that someone who does have a knack for managing people and events will welcome a group’s input to the process.

Whatever happens, I would love to see us all come together.

edit: I’m getting all sorts of comments and questions, and it’s good stuff. I’m in the process of writing a post to cover what’s being said. I will also put the link here when I’m done.

second edit: follow-on post is here.

January 3, 2015
Categories: Fandom . Tags: blogging, blogging event, community, Fanstra, FanstRAvaganza, Richard Armitage . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 20 Comments

Some Blue Eyes With That Snow?

Yeah, this was a winner. I’ve gotten a bit of email and messages with lots of swooning over the gorgeous blue eyes and the stubble.

Frankly, if you saw that coming at you on the slopes, you would probably wind up in the hospital. But would you care? :D

note: click the photo for Richard’s New Year’s message on Twitter.

edit: I forgot the ohcheemama tag; added.

January 2, 2015
Categories: Fandom . Tags: candid shots, Ohcheemama, RA's messages, Richard Armitage, skiing . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 14 Comments

Goodbye, 2014

I’m not ready for 2015 yet. Did I just type 2015? WTH?! 1985 still sounds modern. Man, I am really giving something away about myself. Yep, I’m ancient, but I don’t feel ancient. I did for a few weeks, but I’m feeling less ancient as the day goes on. That’s what happens when you can BREATHE AGAIN.

And I’ve really not been myself due to some mind altering medications and a hot toddy here or there — hence my tardiness on the New Year’s festivities and a few other things. Then again, I never have been a fan of New Year’s. I wax on about that here, so I’ll spare you a repeat.

I guess 2014 was…I’m not sure exactly what it was. I remember I worked my ass off, and I got sick a lot. I also remember how we Richard Armitage fans were vindicated in our obsession when Richard took the stage at the Old Vic. I base that on quite a bit of feedback, but this was my favorite. Rich also joined the chaos on Twitter as a permanent member, and the jury is still out on that move. I do hope the best for Rich, and being me, I’m sure I’ll come with some more advice for him as this year rolls on. I haven’t been a big sister for decades for nothing, and he is a younger brother, so it’s the logical conclusion for my voice here, and I’m sure he listens to me (rolls eyes). By the way, I think he may have unfollowed me, so you all can rest easy now. :D

However, I do want to thank those of you who do read. I have not kept up as much this year and yet I got over 200,000 hits with only a little over 150 posts. That blew me away, and I still have the Google bot inhibited. Unreal. Despite this good result, I promise to do better with my number of posts this year. It all depends on how busy I become with work. Whether I can keep the promise or not, I figure it’s a win for me either way. Selfish that may sound, but I do have to make a living.

And since I get questions about previous posts, I’m going to continue on with my archive. 2012 should be coming soon. I’m also adding a yearly favorites page beginning with 2014.

Sobriety test courtesy of the Phantom Professor.

January 2, 2015
Categories: Fandom . Tags: blogging, crazy people, fun, mobile blogging is still a bitch, New Year's, Richard Armitage . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 11 Comments

I Have a Smile on My Face

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: Anglo, Anglophile Channel, Armitage Besotted, candid shots, fake fan letters, Marlise Boland, Richard Armitage . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 22 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:

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: blogging, fake fan letters, I'm blaming my sickness, John Porter, more bellyaching, Richard Armitage, running my head, screencaps . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 15 Comments

Relax, It’s SOP

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.