Random
I lectured today, and am out of practice, so tired. Rather strangely, I fell up the stairs walking out my lecture today. Have to rehearse walking and talking at the same time. I’ve had a lot of news today on both ends of the spectrum. Head is spinning. Thus only fragments here. Tomorrow is a dedicated writing day, though! I’m looking forward.
H/t imdb Richard Armitage discussion board. In the current atmosphere of uncertainty over the future of the James Bond franchise, odds on Mr. Armitage to play the next Bond are at 16/1. Interesting. [ETA: Servetus misread. The article reports they are at 50 to 1.]
H/t facebook updates for Armitage Army @ Richard Armitage Central: Armitage is not currently scheduled to do any more audiobooks for Naxos. Unfortunate. Though that same Q & A reports an eight hour work-day for reading an audiobook. That would be hard on the voice, one would think. And on the emotional energy, if you had to do a lot of voices.
Watched Cold Feet 5.3 last night and am still really enjoying it a great deal, although the treatment of its subject is getting darker. I just love watching Lee smile, even if I disapprove of him and know (cough) that he’s a schmuck. I can’t help but thinking this goofy smile is the ancestor of the goofy smile that Harry Kennedy gives Geraldine at their first meeting. Look at how the smile blossoms, and the way that the musculature that pulls down the nose is gradually engaged!
Lee’s (Richard Armitage) reaction as Ramona (Jacey Selles) invites him in for “coffee” to be served at breakfast the following day in Cold Feet 5.3. My caps. I’m a sucker for a man in a jeans jacket anyway.
Compare morphologically the top three smiles to this goofy, almost chipmunky, smile:
Harry Kennedy (Richard Armitage) opens the door of his new home in Dibley to discover Geraldine and Alice in Vicar of Dibley (“The Handsome Stranger”). “Woolly jumpers” (American: fuzzy sweaters) are right up there with jeans jackets. Source: Richard Armitage Central Gallery
And then I watched North & South 1 again. I can basically recite the piece by heart now. I wonder if he still knows these scenes? How long do you remember something like that? Some things I memorized as a child I can still recite word perfect, other things I learned only a few years ago I can no longer remember. How do you dump your memory if you’re an actor?
Mr. Thornton asks Mr. Hale not to tell him how to do his business in North & South 1. This man is emphatically not smiling. Source: Richard Armitage Central Gallery
So I will leave you with this.
Lee (Richard Armitage) talking up female members at the health club in Cold Feet 5.3. My cap. I just love to look at this smile. Maybe Lee is just talking the chicks up, but he really looks sincere.
We all need more smiles in our lives.
Me + Richard Armitage 
I could definitely use that smile today. Have to say that crinkled cotton shirt got a bit of usage. It’s the one they used for his promoshot as well. I’ve come up with a theory on memory, particularly longterm in my personal context. I’m forgetting things of my youth because being removed from family there are less occasions to rehash them and hence refresh and refile them. I also think in discussing them they might get altered those memories due to others input.
Just think how people with different languages process the memories and usage of those. If a language is not being used one forgets but with enough exposure it will come back. Of course that is depending the extend of the language input.
So I presume doing a theatre piece gets more embedded on the brain versus a movie script where sometimes people only learn their lines the night/day before.
But hey, good question what DOES he do when he wants to turn of his brain and give it a rest ??? LOL
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It is soo true about languages. My whole school time (from kindergarden to the end of highschool) I went to an italian school with 70% of the subjects in italian (italian teachers/textbooks…) and 7 years later (out of school) I can’t speak as fluently as I did once, even if every summer I commit myself to read books or watch movies in italian. To keep a language takes a lot of effort if you don’t get enough exposure.
The irony is that at school I barely could write a decent sentence in english much less speak or watch shows/movies.
Sorry for the rant *sigh*
OML
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I guess you’d have to spend a lot of time keeping up the Italian. I try to play German radio in my office regularly when I am not in German in order to stay in practice, but it’s not the same as being there.
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Also, apparently, if you learn a language as an adult and get Alzheimers disease, you forget the language, and then you become unable to speak about things that happened to you in that language — I have read this a few times in magazine articles.
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I have heard stories where elderly revert to their native language and caretakers unable to understand them.
Having raised kids here my parenting terminology (for example) is English and I have often to think hard how to explain myself. But it does provide a lot of amusement for my relatives!
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I adore Lee, even though he is clearly a bad boy. Those smiles, and the puppy-dog eyes, batting those long lashes . . . it’s easy to imagine women being drawn to him in that above scene, even if he does have a reputation as an incorrigible flirty-girty. I love him in that white shirt *sigh* And he could seem oh so sincere when he wanted to . . . guess that is how he pulled the wool over so many women’s eyes, the silver-tongued devil.
[edited]
Yes, we very much do need more smiles and laughter in this world, Dr. S.
Also, I enjoyed watching “Cold Feet” in the earlier seasons.
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Any reason to smile is a good thing.
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I haven’t seen Cold Feet except for clips on Youtube but that Lee is certainly a naughty boy! He deserves a spanking! ;P
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and I know just the woman to give it to him 🙂
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Well, the smile, but the blue shirt helps.
Fell up the stairs? Well, I can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. New semester, back into the groove. Courage, ma soeur –
iz4blue, I keep practicing my French here; having worked mostly in English, and always learned French from Anglos like me, have always had to think think before writing/speaking French. 😦
The imprint of memory is also fascinating. On posting to England, at the age of 12-15, I was in boarding school, and my class performed the whole (probably a wee bit abridged version) of Much Ago. We spent all free time learning/rehearsing, – I was Claudio, a REALLY lame character, but we could all recite each other’s lines, and I still can recite Claudio – 😦 And a favourite line: “And there was a star danced, and under that was I born” (Beatrice).
But for actors, especially in TV, the training of the memory, even the last minute changes – that is a horse of a different colour. Training and experience?
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Hey you went to boarding school in England fitzg – me too!
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I know the scripts of the musicals I accompanied in high school passively by heart — when I see those musicals now I can tell if they are cutting or changing lines from the original scripts. I was 14-18 then. I wonder if I had continued adding to that info if I’d have forgotten more of it?
Most of the things I remember / learn now are not important to know word for word. A different kind of memory?
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proofing, as usual – Much Ado About Nothing.
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I enjoyed oogling …ahem…watching Lee, although I wouldn’t rewatch it, because it a very simple character (RA has me used to a little more complex ones, it is his fault) and has so little screen time.
When I watched it (a few weeks ago), I couldn’t help grinning when RA and HN had a scene together, especially when her character finds Lee and Ramona on the couch (lucky, lucky girl!!!), in my head it went like this : -Ros: Lucas what are you doing here? Does this mean you’re finally over Sarah?
OML 😀
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LOL if only Lucas had never had to endure the horrors of Caulfield!!
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LOL!
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Our brains are more elastic when we are younger. Children learn foreign languages much more easily, as their brains haven’t become hard-wired yet.
Things I learned as a child and teen through rote memorization stick with me until this day: I can recite word for word Spanish dialogues I learned when I was 14, reel off scientific classifications, poetry and so forth. But I am bothered by how much of my French has eroded since I left teaching. I don’t have the opportunity to use it much, except when I run into our mayor pro-tem, who is a retired French teacher. Much to the bemusement of those in our presence, we proceed to toss French phrases at each other, which is quite fun. If you don’t use it, you do tend to lose it.
Now, as to where I put my keys 10 minutes ago, well . . . my mind works distressingly poorly in some situations. However, they say misplacing your keys is not such an ominous sign. It’s when you can’t remind what you are supposed to do with them that you should start worrying . . .
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I have a friend who had to get a clapper (a device that responds to sound) for her key for that reason. My Short-term can be a killer too: to remedy that I have careful routines to put things always in the same places or in the case of my iPod in several routine places. At least a cellphone one can call…but I have made the mistake not to do that and taken awhile going through the house, my routines and such in a tizzy.
Geneology is a factor too, my mother’s memory is a vault in that she remember dates and events clearly and the family stories with dates too.
@Fitz Ever read that text where the letters within the words are juggled but beginning and end the same? The brain still manages to decipher it. It is quite dumbfounding. Although I’m a stickler for spelling & punctuation typos do happen. My father drilled propper language use and to this day I still like the charm of dialect or slang and the occasional teentalk.
@Kaprekar & @fitz my mother used to threaten me with boarding school which was counter productive me as I read a bookserie with a spunky girl having adventures at boarding school!
@OML I would think you can still understand Italian and understand Opera! (as if u like it) and that makes me envious of Dr.S as she can understand The Magic Flute.
Italian school in Peru? And Peru has a native tongue besides Spanish and I believe the Spanish varies from the one used in Spain.
@Ang I’m bothered that I don’t remember those poems my sister and I learned at a voice class whereas she does!
Thanks for making me laugh even more
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I have a handy strap on my keys now that I snap onto my purse strap. Helps me immensely.
I sometimes think there are just too many distractions in our modern world making attacks on our ability to retain information . . . trying to concentrate on writing an article at work is really tricky some days with the landline and people’s cell phones all ringing, walk-in customers to deal with . . . we are a big, open office so you can hear everybody’s conversation and a couple of my co-workers have very loud voices.
It’s enough to make me lose track of what I am doing! And I have had a mad desire to toss a couple of my co-workers’ cell phones in the toilet and flush them because they swan off somewhere and leave them to ring–and the ring tones!! I think some of them could be used as torture devices, frankly.
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yeah, all of the beeping machines are a real problem. I turn the beeps off in my own house, but when I visit my parents I almost go crazy. They leave the audio settings on so they don’t forget things, but when the tv, answering machine, cell phones, coffee maker, etc., etc., are all beeping from time to time I want to scream.
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Thankfully I still understand it but I have lost fluency/vocabulary and it really bothers me.
Besides Spanish, Quechua is considered a main language too, in theory is the language that was spoken before Spanish conquerors came but now it is only spoken in a some provinces and most of them speak spanish too.
The difference between our spanish with the one spoken in Spain is like the diferences between american english and british english (tomato-tomatoe, elevator-lift) that gives me the more ‘trouble’ now that I’m living here. They give slight different pronounciation to the C, S and Z which in latinamerican we don’t (we pronounce everything like an S, why complicate things, right? 😉 )and the congiugation of the third person in plural is also different, those difference are almost unnoticeable though.
OML 🙂
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I leave my keys in the door if possible. I learned this in Germany where there is often a keyhole on the backside of the lock. Handy — although it disturbs people who walk past and see it.
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OMG that reminds me: my second apartment here had one of those locks you could turn and pull shut and it was locked. It’s a kind of lock I never encountered before and I think it should be banned!! Luckily my landlord (a friendly elderly italian couple) lived a few houses down and even more luckily often home. LOL
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You all just brought smiles to my face – which I believe was one of the points of servetus’ post – Thanks because this week has been a long month!! 🙂
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Yes. Smiles for everyone. I hope September is a better month for you!!
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@Kaprekar & Iz4blue – Boarding school was a seminal experience: a fair amount of bullying went on, and yes, I was a “victim” once; but mostly really good (And we did have midnight feasts and other “adventures)!
Being a rotten typist is the main problem, and being too quick to press “send”. Plus, it’s so much easier to proof-read others’ work.
@OML – “Does this mean you’re finally over Sarah?” Still giggling…
@Angiek – Yes, what is this key supposed to do?
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Yeah, we had midnight feasts but they were only tolerated on the last night of each term. I found boarding a trial but it was (and still is) a top public school in the UK and I was very lucky to go. It was tough to be away from ones parents so much though but you got used to it. I boarded for 6 years total. And afterwards it was university and work so in a way I feel I left home when I was 12.
I used to read girls’s comics and Enid Blyton books that had stories about boarding. These days I think that Harry Potter has made boarding seem more exciting.
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I went to boarding school, too, and received an excellent education, learnt resiliance and fortitude and how to get on with different types of people from an early age, but lost the feeling of being part of a proper family and having an ordinary childhood. Midnight feasts never made up for it 🙂 Enid Blyton’s Mallory Towers and St Trinians certainly glamourised the experience. I stopped very early on telling Norwegians that I boarded as they have no real concept of that system. They always ask what you did to get sent away, thinking of it as a Borstal. When I had kids myself, it was never an option I would have ever have considered!
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Boarding school is something of an alien concept for the average American, I suspect.
For me, it is hard to envision spending so much time away from my parents. I grew up in a very close-knit family, and due to my mother’s experiences as a child, I don’t think she would have ever wanted us to be at a boarding school.
She attended a private school, Pleasant Hill Academy, in her native Tennessee in the 1930s. Students from well-to-do families around the country boarded there; Mama was one of the local youngsters who attended for free and by all accounts, she got an excellent education.
However, the locals were expected to do work to “earn their keep.”
The boys had to do custodial types of chores and the girls were required to do domestic chores, such as laundering and ironing the boarding students’ clothing.
My mother was assigned the task of ironing, and she didn’t enjoy the snippy remarks and withering glances she received. “You could tell those paying students thought they were better than us; they were such snobs,” she would say.(Tto be honest, I suspect some of the girls were jealous of my mother; she may not have had the nice clothing or well-heeled background of the boarding students, but she was lovely and personable, things you can’t buy.)
Ever after, the task of ironing left a very bad taste in Mama’s mouth.
Once Perma-Press fabrics came into vogue, Mama was absolutely thrilled. Much less time at the ironing board, recalling those snobbish boarding students of her youth!
“They thought they were better than us, but we thought it was sad because their parents had sent them away from home,” she said. Each group thought they were superior to the other, apparently.
My parents thought at one time they would have to send my older sister, whose vision was damaged at birth by toxoplasmosis, to the state school for the blind, a two-and-a-half-hour drive from our home.
Needless to say, that prospect tore at my mother’s heart.
Fortunately, Sara was able to attend regular public school and graduate with honors from high school and college (her vision was damaged, but not a thing wrong with that brain of hers).
In a twist of fate, I ended up teaching for three years at the Alabama School for the Blind. We had a few day students, but most resided on the campus. Until the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind put into place a policy where the students were bused home for the weekend about once a month, some of those children never saw their families except at Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving, and of course, during the summer. It was as if they were out of sight, out of mind for their families, which troubled me greatly.
We became very attached to one another; the staff really was another family for them. I took some of them shopping and also brought them to my apartment for a pizza party once.
I can see both the pros and cons of boarding school.
Developing those qualities you mentioned above, @MillyMe are definitely a positive; but I would have hated missing out on the camaraderie and nurturing of my close relationships with my family, especially the afore-mentioned sister. Although she was six years my senior, she was my very best friend as a child and we are still so close.
I’m sure there are good, bad and indifferent experiences to be had in every type of school situation. But if I had had children, I know I would have wanted to rear them at home.
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There were a few Americans at my school, also English girls who lived in the US or Canada, and indeed all over the world – it was very cosmopolitan. Did I mention it was an all girls school? And my sister went there too!
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Well, as I said, the average American doesn’t really experience it.
I know a few families in this area who have sent their sons to prep schools in the northeast, but I can’t think of any girls who have gone . . . interesting.
We do have a K4-12 private school here in town where many of the more well-off citizens send their children (and some just average folks, too) where I actually taught for a few years.
Now, if my sister could have been at such a school with me, I think I would have managed OK. But I was such a shy and sensitive child, I fear I might have been eaten alive in such a situation!!
It would be good to get to meet people from all over the world, though. As a child, I just relied on books to take me on such adventures . . . later, marrying a military officer gave me a chance to make friends and acquaintances from many places.
And now I am meeting all of you! (-:
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The average Briton doesn’t experience it either!
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Must have been nice to have a sister there — yes?
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Well sort of – we only overlapped two years due to the age difference.
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I was fascinated to read this, because that would have been my guess. The successful child becomes independent but loses the sense of closeness to family? Or is that the family develops a different kind of closeness?
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I’ve always thought this was a fairly big British – U.S. cultural difference — that at least some British parents don’t seem to have a problem with letting their kids essentially leave home at such a young age. My parents were very encouraging of getting me out of the nest — sending me to sleep away camp in the summer for increasingly long periods — but I don’t think we’d have borne years of separation.
How does this affect family relations, if at all?
It’s also interesting with regard to Mr. Armitage because if I understand correctly he began attending boarding school in Coventry at age 14 — and then apparently left school at 17 and never looked back. It’s a narrative that makes me admire his grit and jealous of his apparent independence.
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It’s not really that British parents are more unfeeling than others, it’s more that this society supports the independent school system for any number of reasons. Partly it’s a tradition in the upper classes for educational purposes, partly because the vast number of British people working abroad where schooling might be inadequate, or those who frequently have to change posts, are interested in providing a stable environment for their children. The alternative is a constant changing of schools with consequent breaks in routine and friendships. It’s swings and roundabouts, a heart-wrenching decision for all concerned, but with benefits, too!
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Although Richard left school early, he did later attend a three year course at the renowned Lamda, London School of Music and Dramatic Art, . A list of Lamda alumni reveals many very talented and well-known British actors working today. Hermione Norris (Ros) is one.
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Right, but he didn’t go back home again, right? (I assume if you go to LAMDA you live in London?)
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Coming to this thread late Servetus – but like you I’ve been curious about Richard and boarding school.
Most young people who go to boarding school are sent there by their parents, for the sake of their education. It’s an adult deciding what’s best for them, since younger children don’t generally want to be separated from their mum and dad. (I read somewhere that Harry Potter had inspired a generation of kids to want to board, but that’s a special case!).
It seems unlikely that Richard’s parents would have decreed, at age 14, that he must go to theatre school – I assume he badgered them to let him go, and being supportive parents they agreed. Coventry was only 20-odd miles away from his home, after all, which may have been a factor for them. But it’s interesting that he felt he could handle that separation at what is a difficult age – or maybe he needed it? I’d love to hear him say more about that time in his life.
Yes, he would have moved to London to attend LAMDA. But from theatre school he seems to have gone straight to Budapest, then gone back into musicals in London and on tour for 7 years before attending LAMDA. That’s a lot of independence.
He sounds as if he had a secure and loving childhood and maybe that’s what gave him the confidence to go his own way so young. And I guess he was driven, even then.
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One of the newspaper articles that narrates this journey for him says that he attended Pattison’s with the help of a “Local Authority grant.” What exactly does that mean, do you know?
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The city of Leicester would have had some funding available to send students to establishments outside the state education system, like Pattison’s. Without that his parents may not have been able to afford to let him go there.
What the criteria would have been for selecting suitable candidates I don’t know. Maybe there was competition, maybe not.
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Thanks — helpful information.
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I think that the Bond odds are actually 50/1 according to that article.
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You’re right. Fast reading is seldom good reading. Will fix. Thanks for the correction!
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Still to have his name associated with the Bond franchise is a big coo for him. I do love Daniel Graig as “Bond.”
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@Rob,
It might even be a big coup *wink*
Yes, to even be considered for such an iconic role shows how much better known he is becoming . . .
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Good to have his name mentioned in the article, I suppose.
I wonder if anyone is actually laying a wager on him.
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I think just reading this site, raises my IO level. 🙂
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IQ I meant IQ…
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it’s so true. I’m now waiting for an Armitage fan to log in and tell us all about how betting works!
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That is something I imagine his friends doing.
Btw isn’t betting a sin?
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Yup. Definitely a sin.
I’m wondering if all of the Armitage fans organized a campaign and started betting on him, if that would have any effect. The problem is that there’s no general consensus on whether we want him to play Bond or not. And of course he keeps saying he’s not interested. Though that may be modesty.
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I think I’d prefer him playing a bad-a** character which would still help launch his movie career.
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I think the issue with Bond is that he’d have to add something to the character or provide a characterization that previous actors have not — the inevitable comparisons and “who’s the best Bond?” questions would limit his independence in creating a strong independent characterization in the role. And I’m not sure that the core Bond audience wants to see Bond in the cast that many Armitage characters have been poured — the dualist “killing machine with a heart” figure. Bond is cruel and they like him that way. Not that Armitage couldn’t do that — I just think he wouldn’t find it very interesting or challenging.
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I can’t tell how my vocabulary has expanded and hopefully I can add a little eloquence to my words. So I’m hoping it’s aiding to raising my IQ level too. In any case we’re often provided with lots of food for thought which sets those gears in motion and I truely enjoy pondering what to say. Wauw that was an awfully long sentence. In the same token to be allowed tofangurl and throw out your thoughts unthinkingly is just as refreshing!
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I’m currently thinking about reading a Twilight fic in Dutch, so this blog is definitely impacting my linguistic comptency as well. 🙂
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Hilarious! Oh I have to read along with you. My sisters might enjoy it too and one of them will be pleased she’s reading a fic in dutch versus English!
I’m guilty of suggesting the series to them but proud it got my youngest S to actually go to the library! Shock!
My mother read them too and 2 nieces. For us it definitely was an inter-generational experience. Their audiobooks turned me on to narration, I think in some ways they are even better than the books. Particularly the last volume is better listened to.
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It doesn’t necessarily impair the family relationship, in my experience. When posted to England at 12, I WANTED to go to boarding school. Growing up on much British lit, including girls’ boarding school and Girl Guides’ stuff, ready for adventure. But there was always the firm sense of family only not many miles away, and half-terms, and long holidays back, where one was just absorbed into the family, notwithstanding the pubertal and developmentmental changes – they were just taken in stride. School was not all roses; but somehow, the ups did outweighed the downs. (And I am not an extravert, nor an introvert, nor a natural bullying victim)
But obviously, our actor was driven, and certain, from early adolescence, and there were parents, who (according to early RA reports, sent him for tap-dancing to correct “pigeon-feet” , (haven’t a credible interview source for this) So, possibly very strong and wise family connections and support, with the wisdom to know when to trust an individual and determined son way out there.
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[…] I saw another report (I’ve seen a few in the last few weeks; odd that the press apparently considers this a slow newsweek because I sure don’t — or is Daniel Craig quitting?) about odds to play the next James Bond. 1 will get you ten, now, if I understand this correctly. I don’t always click when I see that headline now, but sometimes I do. How times change — when I first wrote about this perennial discussion, Armitage’s odds in London were 50 to 1. […]
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That Richard Armitage / James Bond chestnut | Me + Richard Armitage said this on December 23, 2014 at 1:16 am |