RBOG [g=goodness]: The catchup edition

Notional caption, pronounced with bewilderment: “I can’t believe you’re still paying all this attention to me!” Richard Armitage scratches his brow during a MSN-TV interview from September 2010 during promotional period for Spooks 9. Source: RichardArmitageNet.com

Before I say anything else: if I’ve missed something important, or you have a favorite post from the last few months that I haven’t linked below or discussed above, please leave a link in the comments so I can add it to this overview.

I think that these aggregating posts are somewhat less important for readers now than they were a year ago, as information about Richard Armitage seems to be being aggregated ever more carefully. The big things always hit Richard Armitage Online, of course, which continues to be my favorite overall Armitage reference, but RichardArmitageNet.com catches many more incidental things, particularly the appearance of new photos — they’re updating the format of their screencap galleries, and the effect is worth the effort–, as well as aggregating fan art in both digital and traditional media, and the Armitage Army at RA Central’s facebook updates now also allow for a very quick info. I recently discovered a paper put together by Traxy that aggregates everything that appears on Twitter. The discussion sites — Armitage Army and C19 — are still there, too, and offer lots of opportunities for ongoing musings.

When I started this blog I decided I wasn’t going to be doing what I was doing in my professional life at the time: always straining to be the first, most original person on the scene. Instead, I was going to be myself, for better or for worse. So what follows is really impressionistic, involving mostly my own thoughts. I lost track of what was happening in much of Armitageworld during Fanstravaganza, and this is part of my attempt to catch up. Probably most of you have read much of this already. Servetus is all about the meta. So here’s some meta.

• Still sad about time outs for Mulubinba and Nat, the grandes dames of Armitage blogging. If you haven’t gone over to their pages to give them some cheer, thank them for everything they’ve written in the last years, and urge them to come back occasionally, please do so before you read the rest of this post.
• Opportunities / developments! Calexora is organizing a birthday wishes book for Mr. Armitage’s 40th birthday late this summer — you can send a message along BEFORE JULY 8. She’s looking for a hundred contributors.
• Also, do not neglect her hosting of the Armitage Retroactive on June 29: this time it’s “North & South.”
• Opportunities / developments! Darlingdarling (a newer blogger who’s pursuing an MFA in creative writing and writes about many things she loves at her blog), supported by CDoart, is organizing a campaign for Richard Armitage to play Richard III.
• Opportunities / developments! Judiang is currently away from her desk, but she’s created a chatroom on her site and already hosted one six-hour Armitage chat! A plan for a regular chat is in the works.
• A post of Frenz’s I really liked that profiles fanvids by elvirasweeney but also reflects a bit on the way to watch them: by downloading them to your own machine rather than streaming from the web. I totally agree. I just wish I had disk space for everything I’d like to download. Armitagemania has really altered my relationship to my computer. Before I was using perhaps ten percent of its capacity and capabilities. If nothing else I’ll get some improved tech skills out of all of this.
• Interesting discussion on fantasy, Skully’s theory about Armitage as the “character of desire,” and Armitage fans’ dislike of the Spooks 9 Lucas / John Bateman storyline. I say this not just because she’s kind to me in the post, but because the discussion is really fascinating. How much of our fantasies are we willing to admit to, how susceptible are they to alteration, and how will we react if we don’t see what our fantasies demand?
• Lady Rose has been slowed in blogging by a recalcitrant computer and a marriage proposal (!), but her costume studies of Marian are really worth reading. She’s succeeded in interesting me in something that I at most thought about tangentially before. I hope she continues.
• Love the graphic in Alfie’s sidebar about her current relationship status.
• Violet offers some news relating to the important distinction between dwarves and gnomes. AND: applying the multiplier effect to the Recognise mag pic: a whole chorus line of preening, tie-adjusting Armitages! Squeee! Seriously, this is the funniest blog and I don’t look at it near enough.
• Shavuot / Pentecost is over (feeling a bit guilty that I didn’t write about Easter / Passover at all this round), but I loved, even from this distance, this John Porter Easter card by Teena.
• Sign up for the Ice Pack Training Academy! Turns out Armitage is not the only actor who needs auxiliary ice pack support.
• Someone whose courage I envy: Sarah manages not only to update her “Lady Gisbourne” story regularly, her next novel has just come out (review here by Traxy; Servetus’s review of her earlier novel can be found here). She really succeeds at pursuing her dream.
• Ruth points out that the DVD release of Jane Eyre is not far off! After my mixed reaction to this Jane Eyre adaptation, I went so far as to going to the cinema a second time to see if I would change my mind. I didn’t, though I realized a bit more clearly what was bugging me about it — and then never had time to write about it further. There’s  a new verb: “Fassbendered.” She’s clearly under the spell. I really fell under the spell of Mia Wasikowska, and began watching “In Treatment,” in which she is simply amazing. Astounding how she inhabits that character. Tip: if you watch it, just skip the episodes with Jonathan Blair; they are really uninteresting — and you might also consider skipping the pieces with the patient who’s fallen in love with the therapist.
• CDoart has started a story, Intrigue, that is, well, really intriguing! I’ve just started reading it, but I really recommend the pieces I have read. I’m also (cough) intrigued that she’s cutting video to go along with it (which I apologize for not being able to find at the moment). A really creative project that deserves our attention.
• jazzbaby1, a frequent commentator on this blog, has started her own, and there’s an intriguing post asking which historical figures you squee over. It’s not an Armitage blog per se, but it will be worth following, I’m sure!
• MariaGrazia discontinued RA Fridays — too much pressure, I guess –, but she continues to write about Armitage-related things. Here an informative post about North & South that’s really worth your time.
• I didn’t realize that Jonia is also a big Pilsner Urquell fan! She also loves the beard. We have so much in common. She posts a lot of cool stuff, but I think my favorite was this summary of the CATS video research. Because I am just exactly of the right age to have developed a severe allergy to that musical, and I got just what I needed without having to risk developing a rash or anything (grin).
• Frenz is really the queen of video profiling, but here’s one by DarkAngel66a that I suspect might not make her list, but which I really liked. Warning: implication of slash and violent sexual / homoerotic undertones. The vidder really sees a lot of undertones in the body language between Guy / the Sheriff, and brings them forcefully to our attention.
• Kadamanja has a new wallpaper, and bccmee is just putting out stuff like there’s no tomorrow! I really love bccmee’s explanations of what she’s doing. I suspect that eventually I won’t be able to keep myself from trying some of them out, just as I learned from what elvirasweeney has said about fanvidding.
• Mesmered is rewriting “Gisborne” to become a book, and you can see the edits she made to the first chapter. I found interesting how different commentators perceived them.
• I don’t have a favorite recent post to point to at Phylly’s Faves, except to say that I continue to enjoy these erudite, associational musings.
• An observation more than anything: I know many readers have been excited about Game of Thrones, and I’ve read about it on several Armitage blogs. I got a chance to see a few episodes during my hotel sojourn of the last weeks, and I didn’t quite get it. I loved the novel I read in the series, but the tv show didn’t thrill me. Is that heresy? What’s great about Game of Thrones? Please sell me on it.
• “The Lady and the Panther” has a third chapter!

~ by Servetus on June 25, 2011.