2019 at “me + richard”

For comparison purposes, 2018 is here.

This was my “picture of the year” for 2019. Richard Armitage at the premiere of The Stranger, the Soho Hotel, London, December 10, 2019.

Keeping in mind that the blog came very close to falling apart completely this year (I published only 424 posts, the fewest of any year ever), the top ten posts published in 2019 by number of page views are listed below. You will notice a theme.

1. Berlin Station 3.2, first impressions [spoilers] #richardarmitage. What it says on the can — potentially the most popular because of the debate over whether Daniel had survived the episode.

2. Berlin Station 3.9, first impressions [spoilers!] #richardarmitage. Another aptly labeled post — this is the episode in which Daniel reappeared.

3. Berlin Station 3.8, first impressions [spoilers!] #richardarmitage. I think this was the one where they teased Daniel’s reappearance?

4. As promised, more thoughts about The Lodge [includes all the spoilers] #richardarmitage. Another content-heavy post.

5. Berlin Station 3.10, first impressions [spoilers] #richardarmitage. The final episode of the season and Daniel’s fate is sealed.

6. Berlin Station 3.7, first impressions [spoilers] #richardarmitage. Don’t know why.

7. Richard Armitage loves Korea. Richard Armitage praises Korea.

8. Berlin Station 3.5, first impressions [spoilers] #richardarmitage. Don’t know why.

9. Richard Armitage’s Ford Fiesta. A link to an announcement of a new role for Armitage.

10. Richard Armitage livens up our Friday afternoon. The only post in the top ten that really would have merited further discussion on my part that it didn’t get: tweets about the controversy in the UK about gender / family education for elementary students.

So — for some reason people were interested in discussing Berlin Station here, despite my intense level of snark about the show.

There are some other gaps. No discussion of audiobooks because I didn’t talk about them. I only made it halfway through the second Wolverine podcast, and those posts did not attract much interest (most fans not listening?). I was not able to live blog as much this year, so the main things relating to that (Armitage’s arrivals in Korea, RDC 5, and Sundance 2019) did not figure either. In general, I suspect, consumption and discussion of those things are staying native to Instagram and Twitter and not spilling over, as they might have done some time ago. Comparatively little discussion of Armitage’s tweets, probably for the same reason, and because I stopped reading them in real time sometime in the fall.

This is a kind of uninspired discussion. Sorry — dad and I had another huge confrontation this morning, and my energy is gone and I just want to write this down. (That should be the current subtitle of the blog — I just want to write this down before another storm breaks on the home front.) The blog remains, and I continue to plan to blog, and, as I have stated, with the goal of self-exploration. I’m proudly self-referential and that was the main thing of interest in the blog for me as a writer. I imagine that my lack of interest in current Armitage news is the main reason for falling readership (I am not blogging as much because I don’t discuss news; people discuss the news elsewhere), along with my focus on dealing with my current life experiences, but I’ve been really happy with the approach I took in the last quarter of the year, i.e., staying away from the instant disgratification of Twitter. I’m uncertain about whether I’ll be blogging The Stranger serially or not (it’s a bad time of year, and I’m teaching five classes this spring) and how I will approach Uncle Vanya blogging. I really hope Armitage has something new to announce to us for after Uncle Vanya, otherwise the upcoming eleventh year of the blog may become even more sparse.

Until this morning, my new years’ resolution was going to be to try to disable the creeping anxiety I feel almost all the time now. Now, I’m wondering if anger would be a better target for my efforts. I’m not sure it matters; I have so little emotional energy anyway, and my students should really get it. I guess I’ll take 2020 day by day, because I don’t think I have any other options.

~ by Servetus on January 1, 2020.