Our Golden Richard Shines in "TGH"

Our Golden Richard…Shines Brightly!


Just happened to see Ep 1 of “The Golden Hour” last night.  It definitely held my attention thoroughly.

After all of the negativity posted on the C19 MBs “TGH” threads about this ep, I was expecting it to be really lame.  I was quite pleasantly surprised at the overall slick look of the show and I really liked the way that they used increasingly updated flashbacks to tell the back stories.  Much more interesting than regular ones.

Of course, RA looked incredibly handsome in every shot.  Especially when he was trolling around in a black tee shirt with his OJS around his hips.  But that’s to be expected.

Lots of those small, secret smiles that I luv.

Even liked the other characters all right.  Although, they seemed to be acting while RA was just being.  His character is calm, assured, sensitive, and it seems almost somewhat shy.  He does shy superbly.  Lots of profile shots of his left side.  He must prefer that side but I really like his right side better at times.

He looks soooooooooo tall in this series!  And even the OJS isn’t as obnoxious as I thot it would be.  I luv seeing his over-sized name tag and emblazoned on his back is a huge “DOCTOR” patch.

It just seems so odd to see him in this new role.  I’m so used to seeing him at JT and JS.

Especially since I watch the 3rd ep of “SH” nearly every night.  I luv seeing him all scruffy-haired at the beginning and then the whole transformation before and after the haircut scene.  It is just such a physical actor.  But, it’s almost like he crawls right inside his characters and closes up the entry point.  He inhabits JS so thoroughly and makes me believe that he’s real while I’m watching “SH.”

He did the same thing with JT…in fact, he does it with all of his characters.   And each one is very different.  I really like him as Paul in “BTS” also.  He finds the truth of his characters and brings them to life so appealingly.

Damn!  I ‘m listening to a Keith Urban album right now and it’s just making me way too mellow!

Plus, I’m thinking about that sinkful of dirty dishes that keeps whispering my name!  “LBD…come wash us…the maid comes tomorrow!”  I always tidy up before she gets here and wash all the dishes because she doesn’t know where they go.  Also, I’m just a tad anal about someone else washing my dishes.  What a goofball I am!


Hmmm…back to Ricardo!  I wonder what he’s like IRL.  What he thinks of all of this fervor.  All of us seem to be in the same type of befuddled state.  Not really understanding why we’ve become such teeny swooners over an actor.  More precisely, over the characters he’s created, especially JT.

I can’t even let myself watch “N&S” that much because it is just too powerful emotionally.

Huh!  Did I just type those dumb-sounding words?  Moi?  See, that’s what I mean.  He’s even stripped pride away from us.  LOL!

Better head off to pre-clean before the cleaning lady arrives!

Later and never forget…

RA Rulez!

LDB

RA Luvs Us Still

RA Luvs Us Still…Luvs Us All!

Well, on the 16th September, the lovely boy posted another message for his personal droolers on www.richard-armitage.com.

It’s a teaser…as usual.  He can obviously read us like a well-read book!

Or perhaps, it’s more like the old Pavlov’s dog routine.  He shows us a bit of himself and we salivate right on schedule!   Operant conditioning at its prime…

Lordy…I can hardly believe some of the things my fingers type!  [Keeping up the pretence that they are somehow infused with a life and will of their own]

SIX DAYS and I’ll be on my plane winging away from LAX to LHR (L.A. to London) and my two weeks in the Mother Country.  Am still hoping that I manage to spend a few days trolling around Paris also.  Would dearly luv to see Napoleon’s Tomb and Pere la Chaise Cimitiere [final resting spot of Edith Piaf, Frederic Chopin, and of course, the bard of SoCal 60’s music scene, Jim Morrison, late of “The Doors,” as well as many other famous people.]

Hmmm…seemed to be a little dry of drooling about the usual object of my drools.

Guess it’s because I’m in high gear about this upcoming trip.

Got my passport!

EEEEEEEEEKKKKKK!  Who is that monstrous creature on my photo?  Definitely needs a good haircut before she ventures onto the plane.  I just get sooooooo lazy lounging around in my little Paradise here in the midst of Hollywood.  Birds chirping, squirrels scampering, fingers clicking, music trilling, and kitty boys purring.  The hair grows, the dishes pile up, discarded clothing gathers in heaps, food in frige turns into strange beings, and hair grows long.

Getting Merrican bucks converted into British Pound Sterling…not all of it…just some ready cash.

Looking forward to two meet-ups in London with sisters from the C19proboards.  It should be fun to put faces to posts.  So many interesting and smart women on those message boards.  Even though many of us alternate between analyzing the acting talents of RA and simply letting our tongues hang way out over his other more obvious attributes, I’ve learned all kinds of interesting and historical things from the long timers.

Also, the kind and generous among them have shared insights and screen caps that are of the extreme droolworthy nature.  I’ll tell you that tall, lanky lad can certainly generate some heat.

Speaking of he who is now known world wide as the god RA, I’m beginning to wonder what it’s like for him to be the object of all of this fervor.  It must be really strange on some levels.  But, very heady stuff, indeed.  At times, it almost feels like he dangles himself to see us drool.  Hmmm…I may be right!

Sometimes, I imagine him sitting in his home in South London, listening to some pleasant music while he reads the blatherings of normally sane women.  I’m sure are of the “wham, bam, thank you, ma’am” ilk.  As in, awkward and to the point, “I liked you in “N&S”.  Please send me an autographed photo.  Love, Affectionately, Sincerely, Yours, Fan Gal.”  While others might be slightly more revealing and/or probing.  He definitely affects most of us in the same way.

For a quick and facile writer like me, it’s been like pulling my fingernails out torturously one by one to get my thots down on paper.  I started writing on 28 July and just polished off my latest draft a couple of days ago.

They always sound really stilted when I do a read-back.  It’s almost as though I have an inability to explain myself.  Or I seem to think that its my personal responsibility to provide him with an incredibly in-depth and/or definitive assessment of every aspect of his performances.

With a fair amount of honest drool over his droolworthiness.

“Why?”  She asks herself.  [She being, of course, moi!]

After all, I’m not his mother or his sister or his wife or even his lover.  I’m his fanRAbid which means I get to drool but I also get to appreciate his acting.  As I gaze at the list of the big 4 up there, I’m sure that I wouldn’t want to be any of those.  I like those 5,439 air miles that separate us.  

I really like watching him on-screen.  He goes where lesser men are feared to go in his performances.  Each character he creates is infused with his special energy and life.  They become very real to me.  I wonder if he feels the same way when he watches them.  Or whether he gets into that critical part of himself where he simply evaluates how he could have done them better.  I bet he can be a real nitpicker in some ways.

When I used to watch my sweet little “L A People,”  I learned not to watch it with others who were “ooooing” and “ahhhing” because I was generally studying it to see where it worked and where it didn’t.  I was never content with the technical side of it all.  I wanted better close-ups and things like that.  I liked doing the pre-interviews to determine which aspects of my guests were the most appealing…a moi, that is!

Also, I’d be looking to see if the interview questions were doing their little tasks in the right way.  Sometimes the guests would try too hard and they would be deadly wooden.

Jesus!  I just sound so boring today that I’ve got to stop writing right now.

The drool well seems to be distracted right now and it was so prevalent when I first read his post.

Later, when the sun goes down, and I’ve trolled through some of those yummy “TGH” shots of our TDHDIOJS brooder, I’ll be myself again.

Sighing…he truly is the most handsome man in the entire universe and I can’t believe that he’s sensitive about his nose.  I find it to be so Barrymore-esque in some caps.  Guess it’s my love of classical or Romanesque nose thing coming alive again.

Perhaps, the lovely JS will stare out at me with his pale pools of liquid blue in a couple of scenes from “SH.”  Ep 3 has nearly its own groove from so many stand-alone viewings.  LOL!

BTW, did notice that in “Cleopatra” his calves are as excellent as I suspected that they would be.  Nice meaty thighs and well-developed calves are a godsend to a “leg” aficionado comme moi.  Pretty good butt action also.  Happened to catch some clothed shots of it in the rugby scenes in “UF,” fight scene in “SH,” and of course, the “peaches” being stroked in “BTS” is the quintessential bare bones at their soft and lovely but taut best.

RA Rulez!


LuvDemBrooders


__________________________
“BTS”          = “Between The Sheets”
“JS”          =  John Standring
“SH”          = “Sparkhouse”
“UF”          =  “Ultimate Force” (Series 2)
“TGH”          =  “The Golden Hour”
“TDHDIOJS  = Tall, Dark, Handsome Doctor in Orange Jump Suite
(“The Golden Hour”)

“peaches”     =  butt cheeks  

RA is the TDHDIOJS o

RA is the TDHDIOJS on ITV1’s “The Golden Hour”


The day has finally arrived that RA returns to our TV screens.  Well, not to mine since it’s located in Los Angeles which is approximately 5,439 air miles from LHR.  But, his character, Dr. Alec Track, should be appearing momentarily in screen caps from the first episode.  On the C19proboards53.com “N&S” message boards, that is.  I’m only sitting here tapping away to kill time!  Otherwise, I might become a pest posting nudgy whinefests about the caps to the tune of “Where’s the beef?” [kind of an inside thing that Merricans would understand best].

The reviews have mostly been too much gore, too many flash-backs, bad dialogue, and many gorgeous shots of the black tee shirt-clad swooner himself.  Also, comments have been made that he wears a leather jacket!  Hope it’s black!!

I’m expecting gobs and gobs of lovely liquid chocolatey-voiced clips also.  I’m sure that some of the more techie-minded sisters in the RAdoration society will come through for us Merricans, Aussies, Greek, and now Egyptian droolers.

Hmmm….perhaps, I’ll just go back and take a teeny, weeny peek to see if we have any yet…

Darn!  Nothing yet!

Uh, I hate to really start thotspeaking about RA in general right now since Dr. Alec might call me away to emergency viewing of his screen caps at any moment.

Hmmm….another quick peek!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Guess I better go check on dinner…wouldn’t want my boychile all in a dither because I’d burned the stew!

Oh, gosh, I just popped away for FIVE minutes to add the potatoes to my stew and there THEY WERE!  OJS and black leather jacket shots!  Be still my pounding heart!  He looks very Thorntonian in some of these caps…but a JT with a contemporary hairstyle.  I do see just the slightest hint of a sideburn in one.  And RA’s face is so perfect for sideburns of any type.  I just know that RA will age well…his face looks much more manly mannish now than he did just a couple of years ago in “BTS” and “CF.”

I’ll be off now to drool and swoon for awhile.

TA!


It is now some hours later…I’ve been a busy bee perusing 27 different screen caps pretty much nonstop.  Fine tuning my appreciation of them.

“MMMMPHF!”  

That Doc Alec sure is a…hunk and a half…WHOOPS!  Meant to say, “wonderful and dedicated physician!”

And in the black tee shirt caps, you can see that dedication just oozing from his…uh, well…to be honest…his upper arms and chesticles!  The guy takes excellent care of his body.  Recognizes it as another valuable tool in his acting arsenal.

Have I mentioned his incredible eyes?  Probably.  I tend to drone on about them every time they are showcased in a great shot.  They even sparkle at times.  And also there’s the matter of his beautifully formed mouth in repose.  His lips just fit together like peanut butter and honey.  He has this sweet, secret, close-mouthed smile that tugs at my sensibilities.  Nothing like a good-looking guy with secrets to get the females a twittering, n’est ce pas?!

Okay, I’m off then…got places to go, people to see, things to do!

The places:  My subfolders of RA screen caps and mini clips.
The people:  Well, actually it’s pretty much confined to one particular TDH person.
The things:   I’m not a complete blabber-mouth.  It just seems like I am!

BTW, it was black…the leather jacket…looks great with his dark hair.

RA Rulez!

LDB




_____________
TDHDIOJS  =  Tall, Dark, Handsome Doctor in Orange Jump Suit
BTS =  “Between The Sheets” TV series
CF =  “Cold Feet” TV series
SH = “Sparkhouse” TV mini-series (BBC)
Chesticles =  Shorthand for well-defined chest muscles

Richard Armitage made me a fanRAbid!


I've just come from reading the "Bearded Ladies" blog, generally, and was drawn to it by Oriane's comments about Richard Armitage, specifically.

There is a certain type of increased heartbeat whenever one's eyes catch sight of that blessed name.

I don't know why.
I don't know how.

But, as "they" [whoever they are] say very graphically,
"Stuff happens!" [They aren’t as ladylike as I]

Only a little over two months ago, I was a normal woman, living a pretty nice, peaceful life right in the heart of Los Angeles, between Hollywood and West Hollywood. I had never heard of either Richard Armitage or even "North and South" by Elizabeth Gaskell.

All of that changed on the evening of 4 July 2005 when I sat down to watch episode 1 of "N&S."

Now, I’ve practically memorized many of the lines from the BBC production and just finished my fifth reading of the novel itself!

It wasn't as though I was prepared for the impeding thunderbolt known affectionately by us droolers as "RA." No, indeedy, curiosity had stricken but ever so slightly. After all, the promo pics I'd seen of this unfamiliar swain hardly rivaled Colin Firth's swoon-worthy looks as Darcy. HA! Little did I know what lay ahead.

My first look at him was through the gentle, floating cotton "fluff." He stood tall, dark, and proudly surveying his working mill. If I had to attach a first impression of him, it would have been that his look was predatory and somewhat watchful. Certainly, not a curly-haired, handsome Darcy!

Seconds later, I was shocked to my core as his face contorted suddenly. I jumped when his voice bellowed, "STEPHENS!" Both the lovely Margaret Hale and I shared our dismay as the apparent "hero" of this Victorian Drama, one John Thornton, rushed down the stairs and began to run through the mill chasing a miscreant. A foolish mill-worker who had dared to smoke on premises despite previous warnings by this ever-vigilant employer.

It was unexpected and exciting to watch the chase which conveniently ended quite close to where the stricken Miss Hale stood with her mouth gaping open in a most unladylike manner.

There was some rather sharp and to-the-point...uh, discipline administered to the smoker by the HCMO [Handsome Cotton Mill Owner] which thrilled me in some pruriently, primal way.

Once again,
don't know how.
Don't know why.
Suffice it to say, it did!

There were angry words over this harsh discipline exchanged by "JT" and Miss Hale. It was interesting to note that he did not feel inclined to "clean up his act" by the presence of an obviously luscious-lipped babe of the first order. Instead, he yelled at his foreman, "GET THAT WOMAN OUTTA 'ERE!" and went right back to disciplining his now whining, cowering smoker.

Fade to black briefly...Scene changes.

When next we met, JT et moi, it was once again in the presence of the heroine of our story, "MH." Seems he was actually inside her home, being feted and whooed by her father as his very first pupil of classical literature.

She was all smiles until he turned around to gaze assessingly at her loveliness. The smile may have faded quickly from her face but not from mine! I took one look at him and totally revised my earlier estimation. He began to rise rapidly on that Darcy swoon-o-meter. Once he said those lines, "I was angry. I have a temper," as he quickly attempted to refurbish his "bad boy" impression on the one with the full lips, he had ME! I was reeled in hook, line, and sinker. MH wasn't quite as easy as I though. She glowered at him for the rest of the scene.

I won't quote every line of his from all four hours but I could! This man of a 1,000 facial expressions totally captivated me with his passion, his principles, his travails, and his whole personna. Of course, along the way, I realized that he was clothed in RA's TDH [tall, dark, and handsome] body as his outer wear.

Somehow, during the course of watching this wonderful tale unfold, I began to adore his small, closed-mouth smiles [infrequent as they were], his gorgeous blue eyes which could transform from meltingly soft pools of blue liquid into hard, piercing shards of ice instantaneously, his incredible profile and classically beautiful nose, those long, muscular legs that seemed to go on forever, his leonine carriage, and his obvious broad chesticles supposedly hidden beneath that black, undertaker's garb.

In other words, I had been smitten by the god now known worldwide as RA!

At first I felt foolish and confused. How could I, a sane and logical woman of some years and experience, a mother, an ex-wife, a woman with marketable skills, have a goony crush on a 150-year-old character from a novel...dressed up in a costume from the Victorian Era and, of course, the physical characteristics of the afore-mentioned god. It just wasn't to be borne, as the snobby Lady Katherine de Bourghe explained quite succinctly in "Pride and Prejudice."I began to make secretive and sly searches through "Google" for his name.

There was a rush of anticipation as hundreds of hits were registered. Some time later, after I had culled out all of the ones pertaining to the former deputy secretary of state for the USA, I was left with a small gaggle of real ones pertaining to the ACTOR, RA.

Still feeling slightly foolish, I nevertheless began to methodically search through the brush, seeking shiny objects. I read everything I could find on the BBC web site about "N&S" and again, RA himself. A website [www.richard-armitage.com] devoted entirely to RA and his projects appeared under my diligent scrutiny.

Finally, I happened upon the C19proboards message boards [www.c19probards53.com] where I found kazillions of threads pertaining to both "N&S" and "RA" himself. Side visits to various Yahoo groups revealed the existence of something called, the "Armitage Army." Mmmmm....sounded quite yummy! The drool began to collect noticeably in the corners of my mouth.

The RAddiction had begun to feed itself. I was merely the conduit for it's passions as I gathered more and more info on this yummy actor.

It became, dare I admit, an RAobsession?

My own TDH son began to make occasional comments about "that man" within my hearing. But, still I drove myself on hunting and gathering.

Once I settled into the C19 boards, I felt as though I had come home. For there I found sane, sensible women from all over the world who were just like me and seemingly also encased in varying degrees of drooldom.

My pulse quickened dangerously once I discovered the hundreds and hundreds of screen captures of him from other TV projects. I nearly squealed as I realized that he was certainly well-known and RAppreciated by these women of the British Isles. They had patiently captured nearly every moment of RA screen time and posted them for the rest of us newbie droolers from Australia, Greece, and finally the USA.

Then came the video and music clips, the radio interviews,...scanned copies of print interviews, newspaper and magazine articles.

Each treasure I downloaded made me greedier for more. A lovely screen cap found its way onto my desktop. A pensive, handsome manly man shot of RA from an episode of the "Inspector Linley Mysteries" enticingly called, "In Divine Proportion." My son tried a new tactic; humoring me. But he was clearly worried about his MommyMom. He quickly passed through humor and into mild annoyance as he found a large version of this same RA screen cap prominently displayed on his own monitor when he transferred the contents of my old computer system onto my new one.

Now, mind you, my new hotshot system had been lounging around since last Christmas like a guardsman called to active duty but not given a real assignment until I had been galvanized by this feeding frenzy within me to actually view the clips and listen to the interviews on the various media already installed.

Six weeks ago I began writing a letter to RA. Nine drafts later, it has still not been sent. Although, I have worked in all facets of the entertainment industry for many years, I found sending a piece of fanmail with my signature attached was just sticking in my throat. Some last vestige of pride or something. Plus, I've never sent a fan letter to anyone in my life. I've fired off some pretty pointed epistles to politicians before. But, never even contemplated writing to the object of some fervor like this.

And now here we are at today...just inches from the launch of his new TV series, "The Golden Hour" on ITV1. The frenzy has sprung forth again with renewed and somewhat amazing vigor on the message boards. I've now been the happy recipient of the kindness of relative strangers who've sent me DVDs of "Sparkhouse," "Cold Feet," and "Between the Sheets." I'm even teaching myself new net skills like peer2peer file-sharing and how to update all of my various media (i.e., QuickTime, RealPlayer, WinDVD, WinAmp, et al.)

My upcoming trip at the end of this month to London, Paris, and Rome has been altered to...well, the U.K. with a side trip to Paris...maybe! Now, my focus has shifted to meeting other RA droolers, uh, I mean, Rappreciators rather than climbing the steps to the la Tour d’Eiffel or tossing my for-tune into the Trevi Fountain!

IRL, I don't wash my dishes until I have used all 8 short glasses, 6 mugs, 5 larger glasses, and all flatware. One of my poor kitty boys tries to sneak slowly onto the keyboard in a desperate attempt to touch my hands which are always clicking along rapidly on the keyboard. Mostly posting kazillions of RA-related comments on the various boards. The fur boys huddle forlornly together on my comforter hoping to lure me away.

Their hopes are dashed once I press the play button my DVD player and "SH" jumps into action on the TV screen. As I settle myself under the covers and kitty boy bodies, I know all of his scenes and fast forward through the unimportant others. Those being any which do not feature RA's character, the adorable John Standring!

I'm laughing at myself right now...writing this all down is very cathartic! Anyone reading this blattering would quickly come to the conclusion that I had lost my senses.

Unless, SHE [seriously doubt that any “he’s”] had been similarly struck by this RAdoration and Thorntonmania. Much worse than Darcymania which was really concentrated on a few scenes in "P&P" as well as some localized drooling over CF himself. Subsequent research on CF revealed to me that it was really only Darcy that elicited such a response.

Since I don't know what lay ahead for a "fanRAbid" comme moi, I must close for now as I have a bit of studying up on the importance of bit torrents and why I don't want to be recognized as a "leech" of a certain type.

Later...and remember...

RA Rulez!

LDB