Okay, Who’s the Guilty Party?

No spoilers (that I know of) in this article linked below. Well there was one comment that some may consider a spoiler, but then again, it’s one you may want to know and possibly fantasize about before it happens.

But I have a question for all of our British cohorts. Is it the norm for British actors to talk about food this much? Or am I imagining that Richard talks about food a lot? Yes, that’s two questions. Oh, I’m not down on RA if he’s into food. I’m a huge, a big, uh an enthusiastic fan of food myself, so maybe it’s just me who thinks there is incessant talk of food. When I first came into this fandom, I remember hearing about him watching Nigella Lawson and fantasizing about kissing her after she had eaten a chunk of chocolate cake. I used to think it was because she was voluptuous………..excuse me, that thought still makes me dizzy. So I used to think it was Nigella’s figure that generated the fantasy, but now I’m wondering if that chunk of cake may have been a big part of it.

And speaking of chocolate, it seems that our Richard was once again asked about his fans. You’re wondering what chocolate has to do with his fans? You must be new. Aside from his voice being like chocolate if chocolate made a sound, can I see a show of hands of those who want to be schooled in the history of the chocolate pants? Never mind; I’m not quite sure of the history myself. I’ll just share with you that somewhere along the way some fans sent him some pants made of chocolate, or maybe that was just a crack from a reporter (see tenth paragraph). Whatever the case, it seems that Richard and pants of varying kinds go together as topics of discussion. Recently someone sent him a pair of pants “that don’t ride up your bum.” The good news is that I’ve put my bs detector away while reading some of these interviews, so I can go happily along wherever Richard leads. But damn I wish my imagination weren’t so vivid. Truly, I sometimes curse it. I won’t share all of my thoughts, but I must admit that I saw him on the floor in a Bridget Jones’ position when he mentioned these corrective pants.

In the meantime, I’m feverishly reading Blake by Peter Ackroyd. Phew, Blake would’ve had a field day with chocolate pants.

“Closer” article courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.Com

edit: okay, I was wrong; it’s the eleventh paragraph.

September 17, 2010
Categories: Fandom, Interviews, Spooks . Tags: , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 15 Comments

This is How It’s Done

To keep from putting a dissertation in my comments section, I come with this post. LOL!

Here is how teasers can be done without giving away too much:

IT begins with a funeral. Most Spooks fans will know who for. And ends with…

Spooks series nine, episode one. BBC1, 9pm next Monday.

There is much to report about the return of Sir Harry Pearce in a terrific opening hour.

And yet most of it will have to remain unsaid to avoid spoiling the episode.

You want answers about Harry (Peter Firth) and Ruth Evershed (Nicola Walker)?

You’ll get them.

Just don’t be late for the first four minutes.

Swiftly followed by an all-time classic Harry scene, which confirms Spooks is back on top form.

Events of last year are still fresh in the mind as we learn the identity of one of the Nightingale conspirators.

Before heading off to join Lucas North (Richard Armitage) about to board a ship in Morocco and meeting Beth Bailey, played by Sophia Myles, together with Dimitri Levendes (Max Brown).

With The Grid in danger of turning into the Marie Celeste, the introduction of two new characters is nicely done.

Read the rest here.

This post is to also thank Ian Wylie for knowing his business.

Yes, I am like a dog with a bone, but on Monday, I will happily leave it behind. Until then, I am trying to stay on my spoiler fast, and I’m very grateful to Mr. Wylie for not helping me cheat.

And for those who don’t mind more information in teasers, I guess there is something for all of us to digest. :D

September 16, 2010
Categories: Spooks . Tags: , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 5 Comments

Aargh! SPOILERS

“Spoilers are the bane of my world.”

I’m beginning to understand how that feels. I just read RA’s interview on Digital Spy, and if you have a problem with spoilers, DO NOT read the interview at that link. If they don’t bother you, then click away.

Why didn’t they put a spoiler warning on that? I don’t want to know that much about the plot. I would rather watch it unfold than be told what’s going to unfold.

“I just don’t get why one would want to spoil the ending.”

Hmmm. Not sure what I think of that comment. The DS interview did not actually give away the ending, but it’s going to take some tension away from it. Dammit! I now know so much about the impetus of the characters that there will be much less wonder about them which has the potential to make it boring. This really frustrates me. Am I the only one who feels this way? Or do I just sound spoiled? ;-) Actually, that’s a sincere question.

If you do not recognize the quotes, they are from Richard Armitage in his interview with the foxes over at Vulpes Libris in July 2009. I would put the exact link, but I get irritated at the infernal ping backs. I guess I’m just irritated today.

Off to disable some Google alerts.

September 14, 2010
Categories: Interviews, Spoilers, Spooks . Tags: , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 15 Comments

I’d Have to Shoot Them

Ali’s done it again, God love ‘er. RA’s latest interview, ‘A Life in the Day’ is up on RichardArmitageNet.Com. You can find the interview on this page. See I didn’t even make you wait to read all of my stuff before giving you the goods. LOL!

Random or not so random thoughts about this interview:

More talk about food. Lots of it. Yep, RA and I are kindred spirits. I love food too, and my mother also hates anything processed. She would have fainted if anyone had suggested she serve the processed food of the 70s. Thank you, Mom, I’m now the same, and I’ve still not eaten Hamburger Helper or instant potatoes (at least not that I’m aware of), but one of the kids bought some Hamburger Helper recently, and we have almost never heard the end of how terrible and expensive it is. Oh, where was I? Digressing as usual, but I really don’t want to do that, and I certainly don’t want to spend time talking about Hamburger Helper. Someone slap me for even bringing it up!

He has no ‘cleaner.’ I can’t help but imagine the underwear strewn on the floor. Cursing my vivid imagination, or maybe not. Oh, and not sure I like that word ‘cleaner’ since it sounds inhuman, like a device with a face on the front and a pair of big lips sucking up everything in its path. Of course my imagination is wondering what it would be like to be his ‘cleaner.’ And yes, he would probably have to shoot me, ’cause I would definitely read the scripts. But I wouldn’t tell anyone about them. Yes, I can keep a secret!! I’m also wondering how all of you are imagining it, well, about yourselves — if you’re wondering that at all. Oh, you’re not? What is wrong with you!! RA is not stupid. The whole ‘interview’ was designed to titillate us AGAIN, and it has. Well, I readily admit it has me. See how easy I am to manipulate, and damn, it feels good.

I’m also wondering if he did have a ‘cleaner’ if he would do what most of us have done who have had one and clean up before hand to keep from being embarrassed, and since he can’t do that, he doesn’t have a ‘cleaner?’ I need another slap because I also don’t want to talk about housework in this post. Back to wondering about being his ‘cleaner.’

I’ve always found it interesting that he is so cerebral compared to a lot of other actors and yet he is continually in very physical roles. Perhaps opportunity has dictated this or he really has wanted to stretch himself (no pun intended). Much more to mine with this later, and I’m sure I’m not the first, but that’s never stopped me.

I could make a lewd remark about him working out at the gym, but so far I’ve refrained from being lewd on this blog, and I intend to keep it that way.

Oh, he quoted one of my favorites! Macbeth! I would love to see him as Macbeth! I did catch him as Macduff in Shakespeare Retold and as Angus in the filmed version of it, which can be seen here. But I’m not sure I’m going to be satisfied until I can see him as the title role! Yes, I’m spoiled.

But as I leave the reading of this article, I wonder what’s on his iPod. That is my burning question. I damned near have a love affair with my iPod, and so I can only be curious about his. What does he listen to?! Yeah, I know about the affinity for Coldplay and Mahler. What else does he listen to? Since he’s being so open, maybe he’ll tell us in another interview? Or maybe he’ll shoot me if I keep being so demanding. ;-)

Note to self: must create a ‘food’ tag.

September 12, 2010
Categories: Interviews, Spooks . Tags: , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 54 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

Where’s the Bunny?

September 10, 2010

It’s been almost two years since I first read the blog piece about good fans going bad and the referenced Wikipedia page about CWS (Celebrity Worship Syndrome). My cursory reading of the wiki page left me thinking there were huge gaps in the scale; I certainly knew I didn’t quite fit the descriptions. I was so disturbed by my own behavior, I didn’t want to pursue any further information about CWS. Nevertheless, when I was getting ready to start this blog, I reviewed the page, and it seems that others have taken exception to the scale. I’ve been hesitant to highlight this because it might be the ultimate rationalization for fleeing treatment of Richard Armitage addiction, but when did that ever stop me? Plus, my public service gene demands that I bring it to your attention. ;-) That way you will be prepared if someone slaps you with this.

Earlier this year someone updated that wiki page to add a section called “Critical reflection on celebrity worship and mental health.” God Bless ‘Em. (Or maybe I was so addled I missed it the first time around?) It seems the methods of research for this “syndrome” may not have been scientifically applied and the researchers biased. If I were not so busy, I might read more, but maybe someone who is inclined will take it up. All I know is that I got a little antsy when I read that one of the CWS researchers is from the University of Leicester. Uh oh. Could that be one of RA’s relatives who is exasperated with all of us? Or is he someone on the town council who’s sick of hearing that maps of H___________ need to be printed after every tour bus of Radio 4 listeners comes through, or perhaps he read about the building permit needed for the 12 foot fence around the Armitage’s backyard. I don’t know. I don’t know. But then I wondered if this professor heard about the chocolate pants. That would make me wonder about someone’s sanity, and I fleetingly wondered if I might become so far gone I would send RA some chocolate pants. Oh, hell no! Well, not if I were in my right mind. Then I realized I could devise my own scale and make it sound scientific. I did have a thing for Fred Demara. Not quite sure he was my soul mate (but maybe), so I’m certain I can figure out something that sounds scientific.

In the great tradition of the Web playing doctor, I’ve devised a scale and below it is a poll for you to assure yourself honestly assess your situation:

Entertainment-social

This comprises attitudes of fans who gain great pleasure from laughing about chocolate pants sent to a celebrity when they’re not nauseous at the thought. Sometimes they even get sick laughing as they imagine the expression on the celebrity’s face when he receives the chocolate pants. But these fans have no desire to ever send the celebrity (or anyone else) some chocolate pants as actually doing that is sickening to them and they don’t know where in hell anyone would buy them anyway. Well, maybe they wouldn’t send their own chocolate pants if they ever did know where to buy them, but maybe send them as someone else’s just to see what happens, er, rather to embrace the humor of the perceived reaction of the celebrity upon receipt of the chocolate pants as long as they are sent through the post and not by using them as a missile during an interview of the celebrity, which would require being somewhere nearby and possibly being caught out as a nut.

Intense-personal

Intense-personal aspect of celebrity worship reflects intensive and compulsive feelings about sending chocolate pants to the celebrity, akin to the obsessional tendencies of fans often referred to in literature; for example “I share with my favorite celebrity a need to touch chocolate pants — a feeling that cannot be described in words” and “When something bad happens, I know my favorite celebrity would be refreshed by seeing some chocolate pants from me.”

Borderline-pathological

This dimension is typified by uncontrollable behaviors and fantasies regarding how the chocolate pants will be presented to their celebrities, such as “I have frequent thoughts about wearing chocolate pants while standing in front of my favorite celebrity, even when I don’t want to” and “my favorite celebrity would immediately come to my rescue if something were to happen to my chocolate pants.”

Disclaimer for idiots who think this is serious: NO, nothing I’ve said about anyone in Leicester or the Armitage family is real. Well, except that one of the CWS researchers really is a professor from the University of Leicester — according to Wikipedia.

I ran across this in my uh research for this post: Inkblot Test. If you have some time, take the test. Trust me you’ll like it. And many thanks to the creators of it for the title of this piece. [Note: the title of this piece was taken from this “test”]

edit:

I HATE it when I make a horrible typo or when I realize I made a horrible typo. Will I ever get over that? LOL!

September 10, 2010
Categories: Fandom . Tags: , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 22 Comments

Persona Ex Nihilo

A couple of days ago I perused Servetus’ last(?) post in the Ugly American series. Lots to digest there. The list of “binaries” is interesting. It pretty much describes most people, which I assume was part of her intent as well as highlighting the contradiction of several. Stereotyping is so wearying. Not that I don’t think we should talk about it. It might be very productive to talk about it.

For most of my life, I’ve been on the receiving end of some very pronounced stereotyping. It has to do with where I’m from and how I speak. A significant number of people just can’t get past it. Thankfully, I don’t hold it against people when they shove me in a slot, but I did when I was a kid. In fact, it frustrated me terribly when people could only hear my accent and didn’t really listen to what I was saying. I was determined to work through this frustration and not respond in kind to others but will admit that I sometimes have to fight the impulse not to think someone is dull who immediately makes fun of my accent upon hearing me speak for the first time. For the most part, I have worked through any angst I had as a kid, and now it’s pretty much a non-issue for me.

Several things helped me work through it. I’ve stereotyped others and probably will again. This is not a defense of slotting people but rather an admission that it’s very easy to do, and this knowledge helps me be on guard not to do it and to be forgiving of others who do. Traveling quite a bit since I was a kid has been wonderful for giving me a broader point of reference when considering others and has also helped me to not stereotype as much. No matter where I go people are people. No matter which culture they are steeped in they have the same basic needs. But most important, I love people, and I want to hear what they are saying. This helps me move beyond someone’s cultural layers to the human being beneath.

And therein lies the problem with Sarah Caulfield. There was no human being there. What was it that Lucas fell for? I would love to hear the answer to that from the writers — or anyone. With almost no character development, Lucas met Sarah on the street and sort of grabbed her and kissed her. Maybe I’m too jaded, but there just wasn’t enough to make the bigger than both of us plot device work. The female would need to be drop dead gorgeous and oozing with femme fatale or a sexual game player for it to have worked. No offense to the actress who played Sarah, but she doesn’t fit that description, and in fairness to her, she had very little to work with. Some writing would have helped, but where was that? Not in this show. It’s a shame that there wasn’t more of a sexual dance between her and Lucas. There was only her Americanism, which is not enough to make someone sexual dynamite. But perhaps those in the UK see it differently. Perhaps just being an American woman is perceived as sexual dynamite? I doubt that, but then I’m not sure how American women are perceived by the British. However she was perceived, thankfully, she was put out of our misery by a bullet to the brain.

Despite feeling like my head was messed with in the last series, I’m still enjoying the PR machine for Spooks 9. At least the one that puts out yummy pictures of our guy. Surely many of you have seen this picture, but it’s too good not to repost:

It’s his eyes, and his mouth, and that he’s tall, and perhaps that he looks like a kid playing a grown up — more about this later, or this will turn into to two posts in one.

Candid shot courtesy of Digital Spy by way of RichardArmitageNet.com

September 10, 2010
Categories: Spooks . Tags: , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 10 Comments

Bring North & South to PBS (via Me + Richard Armitage)

Please participate in this wonderful campaign! See details at Servetus’ Blog (link below).

The only gotcha I see is some people keeping the beautiful postcards. LOL!

Seriously, if you receive a postcard, please send it.

I received a request from a lurker this morning to share this appeal. And no, I'm not just posting it because my correspondent said she liked what I had to say about the thumbs. (Grin). As a newbie I didn't realize that North & South hadn't been broadcast on a public network in the United States. (And I understand that The Impressionists — a work of much less historical fidelity — has been.) I agree that PBS would be the perfect place for i … Read More

via Me + Richard Armitage

September 4, 2010
Categories: North and South . Tags: , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: Leave a comment

Here We Go — Spooks (MI-5) Returns Early

For those who are new to Spooks (MI-5) in America or if you have been living under a rock somewhere in the UK, the BBC has finally told us it is going to air in September (sometime the week of the 18th) as opposed to October or November as it has the last two years. I can barely wait. Not because Lucas North is my favorite character. He’s not, but I just love watching RA in action, and I usually love to read/hear his interviews.

The latest one on the BBC site is very interesting as it seems to say something by what it doesn’t say. When RA has been interviewed about an upcoming series, he oftentimes gives something away in how he talks about his character. This particular interview makes me think Lucas survives. There is absolutely no language implying he will be no more. If anything, there is language to the effect that he will survive as head of section D. The talk of him being under the microscope is mere plot summary. What’s interesting is when he speaks of Lucas’ bittersweet receipt of the job and of having to acquire Beth. There is everything in this language to suggest it will be difficult but nothing to suggest he will not succeed. Then there is the telling comment about Lucas’ past and new revelations taking him to the “very edge” but nothing in those comments to suggest he might go over it.

I have a confession. I’ve found myself wanting RA not to be quite so talkative about the characters and plots in these interviews and sometimes find myself wanting to say, “Richard, shut up. I love you, but shut up.” And of course I can’t help but think of him having talked in past interviews about spoilers being the bane of his existence, so then I want to ask: what are you doing? I realize these interviews are done in advance of the series wrapping, and with a show like Spooks, the actors can give something away without realizing it, so I’m not really down on RA.

Am I the only one who feels this way? Maybe I should read the Spooks Forum to find out what others think; however, for a while now I haven’t been inclined to read such places for fear the exposure will have a chance of making my voice stale. That is nothing against the forum. It is me. I’m weak and need to stay away so I can form my own conclusions, put my own spin on things. But sometimes I need a little confirmation of what I’m thinking. Hence this post. And certainly it’s fine to disagree with me.

Honestly, I hope that once again RA’s character has a fantastic death or end where we are still talking about it years later ala Tom Quinn. So I would love to be wrong in what I’m thinking about his survival. Unfortunately, I’m almost never surprised by endings and don’t need any help understanding what’s coming. I hate that about myself, and I probably am being a little harsh on RA in resignation that once again the end will be a foregone conclusion. But oh, how great if Richard really has thrown us a red herring.

For the regular readers of this blog:

I’m struggling with my diary entry on BTS. That entry is very personal, and no, it’s not what you may be thinking. I write about my family a lot in my journal entries, but it’s one thing for me to write about them and obviously another to publish. I want to leave in enough that it has some energy but don’t want to compromise anyone, and again, it’s not what you may be thinking. Hope you understand and will bear with me, and I hope the wait is worth it.

Screencap courtesy of the BBC website. That’s not exactly a capture, but it does appear to be RA in character for Lucas.

September 3, 2010
Categories: Interviews, Spooks . Tags: , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 16 Comments

Yes, I’m Going to Talk about Between the Sheets

But I’ll be back tomorrow to talk about it. It will be in all its stimulating detail. Well, maybe not all of its detail but enough.

And I haven’t forgotten about my review of Strike Back, which I mentioned to Servetus. But logically it has to come behind a couple of diary entries, so it will be this weekend before I post it. If I can do it sooner, I will.

Thanks for being patient. :D

A pic in the meantime:

I’m not sure how to categorize this post. Maybe housekeeping. Certainly not a tangent although the thought of ‘Between the Sheets’ makes me feel one coming on. I’ll spare you. Hopefully.

edit:

Oops! I was moving too fast and forgot the picture. I don’t remember where this picture is from. It’s one of the few that has no tags in my photo album. If someone knows where it came from, let me know. Until then, I adore this picture. It’s one I’ve never posted anywhere or commented on, yet it might truly be my favorite.

One more edit:

Just to be clear. I know where the picture was taken. I’m just not sure whom to credit with it.

September 1, 2010
Categories: Uncategorized . Tags: , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 4 Comments

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