a fanRAbid's thots...

2006-06-15T02:01:00.000-07:00

Absence HAS Made My Heart Grow Fonder...for RA!

RA = Richard Armitage, British Actor

Where on earth have I been?? You might ask…fearing for the worst. That somehow my RAdoration has waned.

I’m hear to tell ya that it just ain’t so! It is fervent as is my RAdmiration, and RAttraction for the god now known worldwide as Richard Armitage. I’m just been a tad busy visiting my own real life for the past month and a half. And writing chapters and chapters of my fanfic “Back Down (at) Fleece” which is loosely based upon his character John Standring from the beloved “Sparkhouse.” As well as loping off to dream up a few others based upon characters created so wonderfully by the talented and hunky Mister A (is for Armitage)!

Time flies, it appears, whether or not you’re having fun! LOL!

March came in like a lamb and went out like a lion! Was here and then gone in a nano second. But at least, I did manage to post here early in the lamb part.

April…but a distant memory…although the fervor did begin to heat up as “The Impressionists” starring said god RA as Claude “Moan…A” rapidly approached its air dates (30th April, 7th & 14th May). Once I again entered the 18th century but this time in France as a fly on Moan…A’s paint-splattered wall. Needless to say, one gander at those gorgeous blue eyes and I was a lost cause.

So many delicious smiles on screen…those gorgeous blue eyes…and said god RA using his deep, rich, chocolaty purr all interspersed throughout the three eps was definitely distracting…to say the least! Once again, I had my own ways of snatching the eps from somewhere and thoroughly and quickly enjoyed seeing him on screen, acting his tight, little butt off.

Oh…I nearly forgot…back up in the late March/early April portion of my excuse-making, I should have mentioned that we had a mini-blitz of RA goodies in the media. He was interviewed on the radio by someone who was clearly thrown by the level of fem support that RA has with his army of women fanRAbids. RA seems much better able to incorporate all of this RAdoration into his day2day but this radio git seemed to think we should have been writing essay questions instead of droogling emails! Silly git!!

Here’s one of the new yummerific shots that was on the cover of the The Sunday Times “Culture” magazine insert on 30 April 2006. The original had a wonderful little caption, “Move over, Darcy” which we all RAdored! A sweet Britster sent me a real copy of the magazine which I’ve added to my trove!

He looks so smolderingly broody…perfect shot for a brooder tracker comme moi!

Just because I totally believe in sharing the goodies, here’s the photo from inside spread deliciously across pages 6 & 7…

Good, little brooder gal…always thinking of others! LOL!

Plus, “Radio Times” did a multi-page thing about “TI” and RA himself with this marvelous shot…I call this one “Chesticle man” for obvious reasons! It’s obviously left over from his “Cold Feet” flirty, girty Lee Richards days when all actors seem to go through some of these beefcake shots. Thank the Lord for large favors!

“Aren’t they lovely…just feast your greedy eyes on than expanse of muscular skin…and my what long legs you have, Grandma!” saith Little Red Broodinghood!

What good children you’ve been…Momma Brooders is sharing THREE scrumptiously delicious screen caps this time!

Anyway, back to end of April et al. The first ep of “TI” was broadcast during the family hour on BBC 1 which is a bit of a coup. I loved every minute of it. First person on screen and first credit? RICHARD ARMITAGE! Totally kewl…
The production put faces, personalities, and paintings together in my brain in such a way that I can now actually tell the differences between the styles of Manet, Renoir, Degas, Cezanne, and of course, “Moan…A” himself. We met the very first Missus Moan…A, Camille, who was portrayed by a very lovely, tallish actress named Isobel Pravda. Such a beautiful face, this brooder gal almost thot SHE’d like to paint her in a green dress! It was a pleasant treat to see him bend his head only slightly to kiss her. His BEW gaze was unbelievably gorgeous to view and slobber over. Whoops! Meant to say, droogle over!

Episode 2 rolled along and the lovely Camille withers away into nothinghood while “Moan…A” discovers his second wife who is inconveniently already married to another. She’s not so tall and the actress portraying her has a bad habit of overusing her bug eyes to indicate emotional reactions a little bit too much for my taste. I understand that she’s actually a marvelous actress by the name of Amanda Root. I do admit that their initial scene together was very good but I could see her acting and I always hate to see it be so obvious. All of the artists had me believing that they had morphed into their characters so Missus Moan…A numero due to-be reminded me that there was acting involved and not morphing. Something said god RA is never guilty of displaying actual acting on-screen as he has perfected the art of morphing.

By the time episode 3 fell into my sticky brooder paws, I was thoroughly engaged and already mourning the end of the series even before I watched it. It should have been a longer series and I just don’t know why BBC doesn’t show some cojones* with innovative series like ‘TI.” But since it’s already a done deal, it’s neither here nor there…

For you see, in May we had one of those delightful little messages from RA directed to us droogling fanRAbids telling us that he was off being eaten alive by mosquitos in a forest outside Budapest. YES! Our guy landed yet another meaty role as Sir Guy of Gisbourne, henchman to that most notorious of sheriffs…the famed one of Nottingham in the new 13-part BBC series, “Robin Who?” Ehr…sorry for that intentional slip…”Robin Hood.” He teased us in his usual charming way as he mentioned hours of riding a mighty steed with his thunderous thighs grasping its flanks…swaggering and swaying with a broadsword building up even greater biceps…with just a hint of some possible lip locking with the lovely virgin of Sherwood Forest, that naughty lady of shady lane…WHOOPS! I meant to say, Maid Marian.

Well…actually, he didn’t mention that last part in his message. It was mentioned in some of the carefully leaked info. And our fertile imaginations took it and RAn with it heading for daylight!

Also in May, I celebrated another anniversary of the day I was born. Cleverly, for a change, I gave the chiles an actual wish list for both MommyMom’s Day and my birthday. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus and he is my TDH BEW son…I am now the proud owner of a new DVD-R burner for my PC (MM’s Day) and a new ALL REGIONS DVD player for my living room (Bday). I must also say that I did raise his TBB BEW sister right too as she came through with a legit DVD copy of my beloved “Sparkhouse” which has already come into close contact with the new all regions player.

Another surprise from boychick and his lovely bride was thoroughly appreciated. They gave me two very expensive tickets (from a scalper) for an Andrea Bocelli concert at the Hollywood Bowl. Tonight on the way to the Bowl, I weaseled the price out of my D-I-L and was shocked to realize that the price equaled the round trip cost of my plane ticket last autumn from LAX to LHR. She and I had fun though…AB was in fine fettle and sang a wonderful array of songs which included my beloved “Le Lucevan e stelle,” “Granada,” and believe it or not, a David Foster-arranged version of “Fools Rush In” (usually considered to be an Elvis Presley song). AB has a fantastic vocal range which he displayed excellently in tonight’s concert and several encores.

We sipped a very nice Merlot from our small glasses, ate a nice, mellow Brie cheese with assorted yummy crackers, and snarfed sushi as we sat under the starry sky, enjoying the ambiance and gorgeous music. Some surprises: The Donald (Trump) and his hair were there and went on stage at the end of the concert to present AB with his platinum record for his latest best-selling CD, “Amore.” The Donald did mention that its about to go DOUBLE Platinum which put a lovely smile on the handsome face of the world’s current fav Italian tenor.

Oh…let me also mention that May was the month where I was the happy recipient of the kindness of non-strangers when several Britsters from C19 sent me goody packages related to said god and his recent production. I am a very lucky brooder gal and enjoy looking at and savoring my goodies. And I must single out IslaJane because she also made me beautiful prints of the first two pictures I put up on this page. I may just finally have to get my ass in gear and send off draft letter numero 14 to said god and ask him to put his lovely “Love, Richard XXX” on one or both. After all, it’s been close to a year now that I’ve been a fervent member of his AACBT, MB and it would be nice to push aside my Doug Gilmour hockey autographed pics for RA’s.

Oh, dear! This is becoming very long…even for moi!

But I do have to mention that I’m now close to posting Ch 10 of “BDAF.” Once JS realized what his small head is really for, he’s been a very quick learner and is showing some real initiative between the flannel sheets of their Yorkshire bed.

I must confess that my typing fingers have now pushed my post total at C19 up to nearly 3700. Really seems remarkable unless one considers that I can use up more than a few on the semi-monthly quiz and the acronym thread. I’ve also been enthusiastically involved with a thread where we are writing a group story and can only add three words at a time. We see to be picking on poor Sir Ghee and there have been moments of skirting quite close to T&D standards.

Yes! As I approach my one year anny of being a droogling fanRAbid and Thorntonmaniac, I find that I’m definitely eager to see said god RA in anything he chooses to share with us cinemagraphically while the TDH BEW HCMO OBM JT still holds the distinction of being a tour de force performance.

Anyway, it’s 2:15 ayem out here on the western coast of the U S of A and my bed is calling. Unfortunately, my kitty boys gave up on snuggling with moi and have gone back outside.

Did I babble and droogle enough about said god RA?

I do hope so!

RA Rulez!

LDB
_______________________________________________
TDH BEW = Tall Dark Handsome Blue-Eyed Wonder
TBB = Tall Blonde Beautiful
D-I-L = Daughter-in-law
HCMO = Handsome Cotton Mill Owner
OBM = Overbearing Master
C19 = http://c19.proboards53.com
AACBT = Armitage Army Corps of Brooder Trackers
MB = Merrican Branch
Cojones = balls (those little dangly things hanging between a guy’s legs)

RA Rulez More & More of Known World These Days"

2006-03-03T16:16:00.000-08:00

“RA Rulez! ...More & More of  Known World These Days”

RA=Richard Armitage, British Actor, of course!

Once again, I’ve been neglecting my sweet fanRAbid blog and have been droogling my way into being a fanfic writer extra-ordinare!  Occasionally diverted by Winter Olympics from Torino, Italia!  And more recently, “Skating with Celebrities” which was just won last night by Lloyd Eisler and Kristy Swanson!  HOORAY!  They skated so beautifully together and really made the most of the whole man-woman thing!  They also posted the highest scores and went from last in the first show to first in the last show!

Back to the god now known worldwide as RA…as it should be!

A little treat from the “RA is the TDH* BEW* with killer smile and long, succulent, muscular legs eye candy” department...Oh, and in this cap, don’t forget that neck!

Mmmm...Nice!  V. nice!

Since last we droogled together, I started writing a continuation of “Down (at) Fleece,” which not so surprisingly is entitled, “Back Down (at) Fleece.”  This story I’m writing as chapters and it’s getting a very good response from the hungry readers.  They and I just love my JS* and even my Merrican CB*.

So far, I’ve posted 5 chapters of “BDAF” [short teasers at C19* and the full chapters at “AAAH”*] and have already written four and a half more so I’m ahead of the curve.  It’s fun to see the readers’ comments as they guess what’s going to happen next.  And I even have one reader who is quite prescient about my story development.

My proudest moments come when I read how well they think I’m writing his dialogue as a Yorkshireman and how much they think I’m keeping him true to his character.  I really was nervous about both of those things because JS is such an adored character and with the upcoming release of “SH”* on region 2 DVD {24th April 2006] I didn’t dare mess with him at all...well, except they spend a lot of quality time getting to “know” each other in the biblical sense between their lovely flannel sheets.  Her idea, of course, stolen from moi since I sleep on them year around here in SoCal.

BTW, Meg Wood* finally posted her “BOTW” RA write-up the first week of February and it was a total hit with the fanRAbids.  She had watched all of the stuff I sent her and fallen directly into drooglehood over the god now known worldwide as RA.  Also she gave him a very high rating:  99.295 on the MacGyver Scale.

A bit of brouhaha has erupted over the lack of updates on R-A.com* and over the general lameness of the site itself.  Especially since its webmistress was bragging that RA himself had finally decided to make it his “official” one.

All I could think was you poor, misguided schlump!  It’s the most dreadful excuse for a fansite I’ve ever seen.  Especially when contrasted with the magnificent one that Eli’s done for the “Armitage Army” site*.  Night and day!  R-A.com still has Christmas decorations up for God’s sake!

I was forced by my erupting reactions to the above news to post rather truthful thots on threads at both the C19 and on the Yahoo “AA” sites.  Made some friends of those who formerly viewed me with great suspicion.  Seems that everyone is afraid of saying that the Empress is naked!

Also, I was galvanized to write a thirteenth, yes fanRAbids, a thirteenth draft of a letter to RA because of this whole R-A.com maybe becoming his official site thing.  I just hate to see him dub it thus and then realize that it is a piece of doggy doo doo.  He deserves much better and between his awful page at his agency and the equally awfulness of R-A.com, I sadly fear that said god needs to re-think his potential “conference” of officialdomness on it.

I just think that he’s busy working at being the best RA, BA* that he can be and it’s awfully hard promoting yourself when you’re a one man show.  We fanRAbids do our best by spanning the web world with our droogling and fine analysis of his body parts and sensuality for the former and his acting abilities for the latter.

Just Saturday, I wandered onto the amazon.com “N&S”* page and was amazed to see that it now has 50 incredibly glowing reviews.  Back in August when I posted my “RA is an 11 on the Swoon-o-meter!” review, there were so few.  And these are coming from Merricans who’ve now seen it and have sunk into fanRAbidhood and Thorntonmania.  Many admitting that they bought it solely based upon our glowing reviews.

I’ve been so busy writing.  The story ideas have been seeping into my consciousness even when I’m doing mundane things like driving to the grocery store.  I just whipped off a 65-pager the other night called “Wellington Boots and Strapless Sandals” about yet another Yorkshireman named John who’s a cut above my fav one.  Plus, I have already written 15 pages of one I’m calling, “Reading Myself” about an “essence of said god RA” secretly getting up an online cybership with a woman who writes stories about him and his characters.  Hmmm...sounds familiar, n’est-ce pas?!

The difference being that I like the 5,439 air miles between LAX and LHR so it could never be moi.  But, I really love having him as my muse.  And those essence of him ones generally aren’t as adult as my other ones.  Something about messing around with him, or essence of him, in my stories seems creepy.  And very invasive of his personal privacy.  I don’t mind taking liberties with any of his characters because they have a lot more fun in my stories than they did in their original ones.  LOL!

Besides as a writer, I just RAdore being a voyeuress to the max as I set up my characters in various settings and storylines and then mess with ‘em to see what they do!

It worked quite well with my Bill Chatford* one, “My Christmas Wish.”  I had the loveliest PM* from a reader who’s read it a bunch of times and has fallen somewhat under his spell.  Since I fall under the spell of every guy in my stories, I could totally relate!  LOL!

It’s late right now...and as I greeted the dawn yesterday, I think that I will trundle off to slip between my own comfy, soft flannel sheets and go to snoozeville USA.  If I can persuade my kittyboy, Big TOM, to move from his place right in the middle of where my legs need to be.  Oh!  I just noticed that he’s been joined by his smaller brother, TOM Tigger, now.  Doubly difficult when those two gang up on moi.

I did all my laundry today and washed all my dishes at about four ayem yesterday.  Today, I finally put my Christmas tubs in the shed...big rain is supposedly coming later today...anywhere from 2” to 10” and high winds.  I had the tubs stacked on my patio and today I battened down the hatches on things outside.  I’ll do my grocery shopping early so I don’t have to actually wear my black wellies*.

It will be nice sitting inside my warm, dry little cottage, writing or watching my horrendous backlog of TIVO’d shows on the living room TV instead of fighting the elements outside.

Yesterday was boychick and his sister’s birthdays.  Yes, my darling chiles share a birthday sixteen years apart.  Boychick spent it at Disneyland and girlchick was in Miami with a friend.  So, it was one of those rare occasions where I didn’t have do even one Bday cake for a beloved child of mine.  I ate a Hershey’s Almond chocolate bar in their honor!  LOL!

See you on the other side of dawn…

RA Rulez!

LDB

_____________________________

TDH               =  Tall Dark Handsome
BEW               =  “Blue-Eyed Wonder”
JS               =  John Standring, RA’s character in “Sparkhouse”
CB               =  Carol(e) Boulton, his woman in “Sparkhouse”
C19          =  “N&S” & RA message boards
    (http://c19.proboards53.com/index.cgi)
AAAH               =   “ArmitageArmyAfterHours” Yahoo over 18 site
                    ( http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/armitagearmyafterhours/)
Meg Wood          =  megwood.com
R-A.com          =  Richard-armitage.com fan site
Armitage Army     =  The Armitage Army fan site
    (http://www.thearmitagearmy.co.uk/)
RA,BA          =  Richard Armitage, British Actor (as in Google searches)
“N&S”               =  “North & South” (2004 BBC production)
Bill Chatford          =  RA character in “Malice Aforethought” used shamelessly
     by moi
PM               =  Personal Message on C19 boards
Wellies          =  Real, honest to goodness rubber boots
                   (as opposed to skimpy Speedos)
Droogle          =  Drooling + ogling simultaneously

RA to be 1st 2006 "BOTW" on Meg Wood's Site!

2006-01-11T23:48:00.000-08:00

RA to be 1st 2006 “BOTW” on Meg Wood’s Site!

RA = Richard Armitage, British Actor

Who, you might ask, is Meg Wood?

Well, in my estimation, she is a brooder tracker extra-ordinaire!  She has a wonderful site located at:

http://megwood.com/

Even if she weren’t planning to honor the god now known worldwide as RA as her first 2006 “boyfriend of the week,” I’d have to recommend her site.  I just love her straight-forward and very humorous style of writing about all of those delicious brooder types that she’s discovered throughout the past six years or so.  She seems to peg exactly what it is that makes them all so appealing to us unabashed drooglers.*

Of course, she also displays more intellectual leanings by posting her thots about books and movies also.  Those are the plump, ripe cherries on her brooder sundaes!

So, as a dedicated, web-card carrying fanRAbid and brooder tracker of the first order, I immediately provided the lovely Meglet with the means of viewing various productions featuring/starring said god.

Unfortunately, as our dear sister is located in the wet and drippy Seattle, right here on the Merrican side of the pond, she had only seen him in “N&S.”*  While the TDH* HCMO* JT* certainly has more than sufficient appeal to peak the tracking abilities of any real brooder gal, there is something quite magical about seeing him in his various other roles in “SH,”* “BTS,”* “CF5,”* “TGH,”* “MA,”* and even “UF2,” “Casualty,” and “Doctors.”

And as of approximately 12:38 pm on the 4th day of January, Miz Wood has had that particular option within her purview.

Yes, these tracking fingers had a hand in honing that option.

So, it is now all in her hands...and in the eye of that beholder!

As a beholder myself, I wanted to share another droogleworthy cap of said god to behold!

RA being...well, RA!  And looking quite handsome as he does so!  Don’t you agree?!

Jeez!

It’s been over a month since I updated this blog!!

Christmas...darling dotter’s visit for the holidays... conniving about how and when to treat her and half-ensnared D-I-L* to first viewing ever of “N&S” and said god...New Years, de-decoration of house and yard, etc. all seemed to divert me from long patches of quality droogling!

Actually, the last sentence is somewhat dissembling, as I had plenty of occasions to droogle and chose to avail myself of most of those occasions.  Just last night, there was the lovely JS* on my TV-DVD combo, in Ep 3 of “SH” striding handsomely out of his front door at 44 Elizabeth Street, asking CB* “Is this a joke?” in response to her question at the end of Ep 2, “Do ya wanna marry me?”

Once his broad chesticles were measured for his new suit and his hair was cut so deliciously in the “Haircut” scene, I allowed my weary eyelashes to flutter downward to rest prettily against my flushed cheeks.  A moment later, I was snoring my way into dreamland with fond memories of just how well those snug jeans hugged his yummy thighs in that first “walking toward the camera” scene of Ep 3.

Of course, I also made note of his excellent interpretive abilities in all scenes and handsome factor was only incidental!

Yeah...right!

Once a droogler; always a droogler!!  And trust moi, said god has the amazing ability to whet those droogling ducts with just a look into the camera with his glorious liquid pools of blue, a purposeful stride to or away from the all-telling eye of the camera especially in well-cut garb, or even with a gentle, sweet smile at another character.

Golly gee!  How could I forget to mention that said god wrote to us again right before Christmas.  Very nice message which was posted to the www.richard-armitage.com site.

The gist of his message being...oh, well, he says it better than I could...” Just to wish you a Happy 1st Birthday, Merry Christmas and a great New Year, thanks for your continued love and support through 2005, I hope next year will be as much fun. I have been finishing off sound edits etc for 'The Impressionists' and have a couple of new potential projects for next year but will have to keep them under wraps for now! Sorry.”

Then he mentions something sweet about not sending him any more Christmas cards and gifts but sending them off to folks more in need than he.  Obviously, he’s being rather overwhelmed by the effusive fanRAbids amongst us!  LOL!

He goes on to say...”...An apology for missing 'The Milton Experience' I heard all about it, you lot are fast becoming Trekkies!!! And a final cheers (with a pint of best Yorkshire ale!) Have a great Christmas, see you next year.
Love
Richard
p.s Brilliant result with the Children in Need auction...you're the best X “

Not sure whether or not I mentioned that a group of us from C19 actually won the afore-mentioned auction on ebay.co.uk.  He had personally autographed both a DVD and a paperback version of “North and South.”  We bid 540 BPS so two of us lucky boogers will eventually win our own group lottery and claim said items for our very own.  Not thinking that there’s much chance of either one winging its merry way across the pond and into my hot, little hands but stranger things have happened.

Confession time!

I did NOT mail my twelfth draft of the letter to said god as I expected to on the 3rd  of November 2005.  I really did intend to mail it.  Had it already to go.  Even circled around the parking lot of the local post office on several occasions.

Then...I faltered.  It just creeped me out that I was writing to him so presumptively.  At this point, he must just be inundated with droogly, corny, effusive, simpering, gooey letters of RAdoration.  I mean does he really need a letter from moi to contend with?  It’s so yesterday for an email maven comme moi anyway.  I like the spontaneity of dashing off an email lickety split.  Writing a letter is so laborious and I can become so verbose in that milieu.  Perhaps, I’ll just print out all of my versions, bind them up, pen a dedication to him, and let him have a good laugh at the various stages of drooglehood elucidated therein.

Or perhaps I’ll do something a tad more constructive and finish one of the umpteen fanfic stories I’ve started.  Some are even clever and interesting unlike the letter that seems to be a mix between a slightly overage teen droogler and a serious film critic.

I don’t know...it’s now been six months since I first discovered both “N&S” and said god at the same moment.  The wine has mellowed into a savoring stage rather than a shouting it from the rooftops inclination.  The RAdmiration has not been dulled but become more personal.  The need is not there to froth to one and all but to the selected few who might just be seeking such a mature wine for their palates.

Although, I did shamelessly print out a one-page 2006 calendar which features a LARGE “Blue-Eyed Wonder” photo over twice the size of the teeny, weeny months’ portion.  And it doeth perch high atop the large, red binder of my insightful poetry...which is atop the combo fax/printer/copier machine that I bought months ago and have yet to set up.  Said machine being of just the right height to propel calendar up to a perfect position where the “BEW” can look benevolently, searchingly, and quite handsomely down into my averted gaze often and much.

Ahhh...did finally post my fanfic, “Down (at) Fleece” (teaser) at C19* and (full story) at “AAAD.”*  This little ditty does feature my ode to the one known as JS* in “SH” and a slightly different CB.*

I labored bloody ‘ard to get JS’ Yorkshire dialogue sounding like it should.  Luckily, my CB is a “Merrican” so she was easier to write.

And I’m proud to say that I managed to sneak in both “owt”* and “nowt”* naturally.

Thus far, the response seems to be favorable by the readers cum JS drooglers.  Now, it’s time to turn my eyes, my creativity, and my typing fingers to either Leigh Richards (“Cool Temps Rising”) or Doc Alec (“Doctor McDreamy”) and finish writing either one.

Of course, just as I reached for “CTR” earlier this afternoon, I had an idea for another one which is tentatively entitled, “Ultimate Ian,” based quite obviously on Capt. Ian MacElwaine from “UF2.”  God only knows where that handsome rogue will lead moi.  So far, it’s only been off into his story for two and a half pages of text.

Anyway...I’m feeling weary...too many late nights of reading and writing, followed by early mornings and afternoons glued to the TV watching the U.S. Senate confirmation hearings on Judge Alito for the U.S. Supreme Court position as an associate justice.

Yes, Virginia, this brooder fanRAbid does indeed have a real life also that does not include droogling over said god.  It being the more mundane part.  LOL!

Sighing...

Where’s my spark today?

I seem boring even to moi-meme!

Better go eat something...my tummy is rumbling for ground beef and French fries.  A Pepsi with clinking ice and lemon would go well.

One last thing...I totally forgot to mention that my darling TDH blue-eyed son and equally blue-eyed D-I-L gave me my very own DVD-R recorder for Christmas.

And yes, it has been used well as a tool of converting region 2 DVDs into region 1 DVDs which has expanded my ability to watch said god (and others...not other gods but other brooders) while lounging on my sofa as well as while snuggling in my cozy bed.

Now, if Cupid will only bring me a DVD-R for my PC for Valentine’s Day, he can just forget about delivering some rich, old duffer in person.  Especially since there’s a rat’s chance in Hell that he’d be delivering a 34-year-old TDH one with gorgeous blue eyes and a killer smile!  LOL!

Good golly, Miss Molly, this entry has really gotten quite lengthy!

Welcome to 2006!  And must I remind you...

RA Rulez!

LDB
_____________________________________
drooglers     = one who drools & ogles simultaneously
TDH          = Tall Dark Handsome
HCMO     = Handsome Cotton Mill Owner
JT          = John Thornton
N&S          = “North & South” [BBC 2004]
SH          = “Sparkhouse” [BBC 2002]
BTW          = “Between the Sheets” [2003]
CF5          = “Cold Feet” Series 5 [2003]
TGH          = “The Golden Hour” [ITV 2005]
MA          = “Malice Aforethought” [2005]
UF2          = “Ultimate Force” Series 2 [2003]
D-I-L          = Daughter-in-Law
C19          = C19 Message Boards [http://c19.proboards53.com]
AAAD          = “ArmitageArmyAfterDark” [Yahoo.com group]
JS          = John Standring [RA role in “SH”]
CB          = Carol Boulton [RA’s leading lady in “SH”]
owt          = Yorkshire slang for “anything”
nowt          = Yorkshire slang for “nothing”

What Can I Say? Its RA All The Way!

2005-12-03T21:28:00.000-08:00

“What Can I Say? It’s RA All The Way!

RA = Richard Armitage

“Ahhhh!  This is RA being a Greek god and displaying his fine chesticles!  Thanks to the photographer who captured this treasure!”

Lately, I’ve been working like a beaver typing my finger tips off on even more stories that have been inspired by characters portrayed by the living god now known worldwide as RA.

At last count there were at least eleven of those little boogers lying around in my “Pending” file in various stages of undress (meaning unfinished...I wasn’t being literal!)

Several of them have become quite long as I’ve fantasized my way through their adventures...somewhat droogly* too.  They are a tad racier than the previous endeavors but still not “R” rated...exactly.

On this batch, I may go the “email” route and just send them out to interested parties.  Wouldn’t want any of the prudes or underage to become sullied by my more adult literary fantasies.

Or...hmmm...even better, post a teaser on C19 in “Creative Writing” and then post the full story on “AAAD” to be picked up by interested parties via download.

There’s an interesting auction on ebay.co.uk featuring a DVD and paperback of “North and South” which were donated to a “Children in Need” auction by said god.  Even better, both were individually autographed by him.  Bidding as of a moment ago was up to 102.99 BPS which translates into about $176 Merrican* bucks. [Update as of early ayem hours of 12-3-05...bid has been uped to 520 BPS which translates into about $889.20 Merrican bucks.]

One of the C19 sisters did attempt to get up a group effort to bid it up so we could do an internal raffle to help raise even more money.  However, that seemed to fall like a lead balloon as some appeared to be more interested in individual bidding.  The result is that they are all bidding against each other and driving the price up to a point where their OHs* might truly question whether such a purchase was a necessary expense.  LOL!  [Update here also:  Such a group WAS formed and won the auction!  540 BPS ($923.40 Merrican bucks) and luckily I, the fanRAbid known as LuvDemBrooders, am part of that gaggle of winners.  I will have two (2) raffle tickets and thus two chances at winning these items in our own raffle amongst the gaggle.  Per one of the Britsters,* these items donated & autographed by said god were among the ones garnering the highest amounts.  This truly should warm the cockles of the handsome one’s heart, further demonstrating that his ever-burgeoning army is in for the long haul!

Real life intrudes...momentarily!

SDH* blue-eyed boy and I began decorating outside of house and lawn with Christmas things.  He’s beside himself, of course.  He solemnly informed me last week that his three fav holidays are:  Christmas, Chanukah (Sp?) and Easter.  Toys and candy seem to be driving that engine.  Every time he sees a new action toy on TV, he calls me over to say, “I want that, DiDi” or “DiDi, please buy me that.”  My response is always that Mommy and Daddy are the moneybags in his family.  Or I remind him of his ever-lengthening Christmas List which is currently hanging on the front of their fridge.

Every day when we discuss the whole Santa Claus factor, he becomes very excited.  And now that he can count, he’s more impressed with the actual countdown to the magic day itself.  He gets those little fingers right down to being an essential part of the whole counting proposition.  It’s interesting to see the light bulb clicking on in his small, sweet head as he better understands how counting is integrated into the scheme of things.

EEEEKKKKK!  Blathering on about darling grandson and nearly forgetting my real focus here is supposed to be on said god with no other humanly gods before him, including darling grandson.

This new website honoring RA (http://www.thearmitagearmy.co.uk/) which was created by one of the founders of the actual “Armitage Army” itself (EliCottonLover,) is coming along nicely.  It’s very well put together and pleasing to the eye.  Everything is easy to navigate and looks very professional too.

I like the way the news section is updated regularly with real news and tidbits.  I think it’s one of the better ones I’ve seen.  Most of them look like what they are; fan sites created by droolers with little web aesthetics and crude html graphics.

Hmmm...no messages from the handsome one since September which makes me wonder what he’s got in the project cooker now.  Plus, as he was busily signing photographs a month ago, I suspect that he has been, how they say, “between” projects!  Of course, since he seemed to go from project to project after filming “N&S,” perhaps he’s enjoying this respite! And “The Impressionists” for BBC will be airing in January 2006 (he’s Claude Monet) so let us not resent him his Christmas break.  After all, in the past year he went from shooting “MA,” “ILM:IDP,”* “Macbeth,”* “TGH,”* to “TI,”* all after several months of shooting the beloved and revered “N&S.”

His “cousin” Sharon did post a short message in the guest book of one fan site about how proud they all are of him.  And, she also mentioned that his MommyMom regularly reads his fan sites.  That gave a bit of a goose to some of the sisters on C19.  They immediately began to post sweet messages as though she were there with us right then, reading everything, and by posting fawning messages they would somehow convince her to introduce them to her lovely, TDH* son.  Pretty humorous!

Have become somewhat entranced by Bill Chatford character in “Malice Aforethought.”  Definitely like the look of RA with moustache, even though it be a pencil-thin one.  His eyes look alternately marvelously pale blue and darkly malevolent.  Some of said god’s best eye caps come from “MA.”  I was feeling that BC got a raw deal in his actual story so fertile imagination came into play...

The droogler [drool + ogler] in moi has become entranced by the TDH, well-dressed BC and thus, yet another RA-portrayed character comes racing to life in one of my fanfics.  It’s entitled “My Christmas Wish” and had been sent to selected persons for preview.  I’m just trying to decide whether or not to post it directly to “AAAD”* website or to post non-racy teaser portions on C19 first.  Or to chuck posting it entirely and go for email distribution as other C19 writers seem to prefer.  [See above...too lazy to revise so many different paragraphs...hurts creative flow]

Decisions!  Decisions!!  Decisions!!!

It the midst of fine tuning it tonight (actually last night at this point,) I had a flash of inspiration for yet another story (temp title: “Seeing With Only My Fingers”) and wrote about seven pages of it before I stopped myself and went back to editing “MCW” so I could email it to a believer who keeps me well fed with delicious screen caps to be RAppreciated as fine examples of great profile, liquid pools of blue, hind quarters of extreme droolworthyhood, long, lanky legs in action, chesticles of the highest order [see but one sample at top of this page but there are others, especially from “BTS,”* “CF,”* and “UF2,”*] as well as miscellaneous droolerific caps of a more general nature.

Hmmm...finding myself reluctant to post new blog comments because it means that a fav screen cap will no longer pop up quickly when I access this page...once new entry is posted will be forced to troll down through newest post to see beginning of old one with said cap.  This being the beloved “Blue-Eyed Wonder” shot.

Here is the question of the day...Does this droogler really drool as much as she says she does?  Or does she say she does so convincingly that others worry for her very sanity?  Said brooder tracker is, in fact, quite well-known for her humorous approach to this all and for her duplicitous blatherings.

It does make good copy to string together copious amounts of drool...or does it?

Anyway, there is only one thing left to say in this post...

RA Rulez!

LDB

________________________________________

droogly     =     permeation of my favs “drool” + “ogle”
Merrican     =     Slang for American
OH          =     Other Half (Brit expression for Hubby/
               Boyfriend)
Britster     =     British “sister(s)” in fanRAbidhood on C19
AAAD          =     Yahoo “Armitage Army After Dark” website
(http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/armitagearmyafterhours/
MA          =     “Malice Aforethought” (2005)
ILM:IDP     =     “Inspector Linley Mysteries: In Divine
Proportion” (series 5, 2005)
Macbeth     =     “Shakespeare Retold” series (BBC, 2005)
TGH          =     “The Golden Hour” (ITV, 2005)
BTS          =     “Between The Sheets” (BBC, 2003)
CF          =     “Cold Feet (series 5, 2003)
UF2          =     “Ultimate Force (series 2, 2004)
TI          =     “The Impressionists” (BBC, 2006)

RA Get Up Off of Your "MacDuff!"

2005-11-18T11:44:00.000-08:00

RA, Get Up Off of Your “MacDuff!”

RA = Richard Armitage

"

Just a little taste of the “Blue-Eyed Wonder” who is the god now known worldwide as RA!

Have been sitting here tapping my fingers while awaiting the first reviews of tonight’s (14th Nov 2005)BBC broadcast of “Macbeth” on C19.*  Am sure that there will be some moaning about pigs heads and blood from the squeamish.

The “not enough screen time of RA” whiners will soon follow.

Luckily, the thotful, insightful reviewers will be right on their heels to really give me some meat to chew on.

And a little later, when all of my British sisters lay slumbering peacefully in their beds, I will capture it myself for some late night SoCal* analysis of my own.

Be back then with my first hand impressions of it, and of course, the god now known worldwide as RA’s interpretation of MacDuff.  And, oh yes, his general swoon-ability factor which I am positive just has to be evident in this dark, moody, Shakespearean tragedy…

Later then…fanRAbids!

Later has now arrived!

I’ve seen it and swooned…over the TDH* Peter MacDuff himself.  He looks so slender and tall, dressed mostly in all black.  His hair is neatly parted and combed.  The quintessential Head Waiter for a three Star Michelin restaurant.

However, I must join the whiners in their earnest lament….”Not enough screen time of RA.”  Somehow and somewhere between the bard’s own language and this modern-day adaptation, poor MacDuff lost some of his “puff,” as in consequence.  It appeared to my laywoman’s eye that they decided to focus the camera’s lens on and most of the action around the Macbeths, Joe and Ella.

Unfortunately, this focus meant that most everyone else had diminished on-screen time and/or hunks of their dialogue cut so the Macbeths could blather on more.

Of the two, I felt Ella was more compelling to watch, especially in the beginning when she was such a seductive and cunning black widow spider lady, whispering in poor, dumb Joe’s ear about how he deserved the accolades being tossed Duncan’s way.  And wouldn’t he like to do something about it like quit as Head Chef and start his own restaurant…Whoops!  What she actually said was why not stab Duncan to death and blame it on some poor Serbian immigrants as a botched robbery.

Hmmm…sort of lost me about then, credibility wise.  And each successive murder by Macbeth and/or his lady seemed ill-planned and ill-executed.  By the time that Joe arranged for MacDuff’s wife and two daughters to be slain, I really had to suspend my belief  systems.  Everything seemed so rushed and ill-explained.

But, when it came time for MacDuff to deliver revenge served up cold; it was icy hot.  RA did a magnificent job at showing us MacDuff’s deep hatred for Joe in his last scene.  His eyes have never been such dark, icy shards before.  His whole body language was that of a man concurrently angry, hurt, and vengeful.

Joe, of course, was compelled to run off at the mouth as the Macbeth is wont to do in every scene while this MacDuff uttered not a word other than, “Macbeth!”  All of the emotion that RA conveyed was through his eye, facial, and body expressions.  Lots of good close-ups.  And, when he knifed Macbeth for the second and fatal wound, he appeared to lift his nemesis’ body upward and onto a table easily and decisively.  Reminded me a lot of when JS* was tossing the wanker (AL*) around so effortlessly in the fight scene in “SH.”*  Must be some fine power in those chesticles of his!

However, I didn’t find the scene where MacDuff learns of the murders of his family to be quite as moving as I had expected it to be.  A loud wailing sound was audible right before we saw him react.  Camera was off in Outer Mongolia so we only saw his silhouette collapsing to the floor.  Then he sobbed quietly but we were never given the supreme pleasure of seeing his facial reactions.  Cheat!  For my money, this director really blew it!  There is no actor around who shares his inner emotions through his facial and eye expressions like said god.  And subtly is his middle name…although his Mum might think its “Crispin.”  LOL!

There were, of course, a myriad of wonderful shots of said god’s face that were shared in C19 as screen caps almost immediately.  Some quintessential ones.  Handsome, smiling face.  Serious thinking Thorntonian* face.  Suspicious, sharp-eyed face.  And then a couple that would generally be classified as simply yummerific.  Those, of course, have now appeared here and there as brand new avatars in C19.  Claire’s* (yorkshirewoman) clips of the RA scenes magically appeared not too much later.

Back to Joe Macbeth pour un moment.  I was not as bowled over by his performance as were some of my British sisters.  This may be due to the fact that I have no acquaintance with his previous work.  But, and there is always a “but,” as we learned in “N&S,” I’d never heard of RA either before I saw him as JT.  And we know that he not only bowled me over, he rolled me up, and delivered me to the RAdoration Drool Pool by his performance in “N&S.”*  So, it could have been done by James McAvoy but it just wasn’t.

Joe seemed way too young to be the Head Chef of such a restaurant and very disheveled looking, almost to the point of being dirty,   In fact, all of the chefs and kitchen workers seemed very unkempt looking.  Long, stringy hair waving around as they sang out their dutiful song praising their head chef.  The rest of the time, they seemed to do nothing but stare meaningfully into the camera unless they had a line to deliver.

The whole production seemed way too stagy with a rather irritating fast pace that seemed unable to allow for real emotions to be shared.  Everything was delivered rather rapid fire in the short scenes.  It was almost like watching a play rehearsal in double time where the intent is make sure that everyone knows their lines and cues.  Scenes ended abruptly and then Macbeth was racing off to the next setting as though he were being timed.

JMcA never showed me any real hues and colors in his performance.  It started off at a high maintenance level and just seemed to get wilder.  I would have preferred seeing him raise his stakes more slowly as he descended into his madness.  Keeley Hawkes did a much better job of falling apart in front of the camera.  Her Ella was calm, cool, and collected in the beginning and gradually shared her emotional descent into suicidal mania.

The only character in the whole production who seemed like a real person the entire time was Billy Banquo.  Really nice, long, muscular legs also and gorgeous eyes.

I’m glad I saw it but I’m now wondering whether putting such a heavy drama in the schedule with three lighter productions was just a bit of an error in judgment.  Last week’s “MAAN”* was so enjoyable and flowed so much better.  “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Taming of the Shrew” portend to be of “MAAN’s” ilk rather than “Macbeth’s.”

Of course, I’ll watch the whole production again…most likely several times.  Hopefully, I will see nuances in the whole production that will cause me to re-evaluate some or all of my criticisms but I’m not inclined to think it will happen.  I keep comparing it to my reaction to “N&S” which needed no subsequent viewing to attract moi.  I was totally mesmerized from the gitgo by all of the elements of it.  Especially the acting and writing.

Onward and hopefully upward we charge toward “The Impressionists” and RA’s portrayal of the young Claude Monet.  Well, and we do have two more Shakespearean comedies upcoming in this series.

Wonder what RA has upcoming on his plate?  Although I appear to be in a minority at C19, I’d really like to see him do a second season of Doc Alec* on “TGH.”*  Being a lead character in a weekly series could do much for raising his visibility to the general viewing public which he needs in order to be considered for higher profile roles beyond TV.

Hopefully, “UF2”* is wending its merry way to moi as I type.  And I have every hope that his “ILM”* ep will be shown again, captured via DVD, and will find its way into my eager, greedy hands soon.

BTW, cold seems to be finally leaving my body!   HOORAY!!  It’s not really gone yet and I still have back pain from coughing so hard.  Did manage to finally wash dishes last night so now I can eat again and have already had two cups of tea!  LOL!  Now, if only laundry would sort, wash, dry, and put itself away, I would be a relatively happy woman.

Kitty boy, Tom Tigger, is just making that bed look way too comfy for a lazybones comme moi.  Guess, I’ll slip between the sheets and rest my weary eyes for a moment or two hundred.  All in the name of healing myself, you understand…wouldn’t have anything to do with being lazy!

Just had a lovely closing thot that I’d like to share…

RA Rulez!

LDB

________________________________

C19          =     http://c19.proboards53.com/(“N&S” and “RA” message boards)
SoCal          =     Southern California (as in the USA)
TDH          =     Tall, Dark, and Handsome (usually applied to RA or his character)
JS          =     John Standring (RA’s character in “SH”)
AL          =     Andrew Lawton (JS’ nemesis in “SH”)
SH          =     “Sparkhouse” (BBC, 2002}
Thorntonian     =     John Thornton (RA’s character in “N&S”)
N&S          =     “North & South” (BBC, 2004)
Claire          =     (aka “yorkshirewoman” on C19 and maker of fantastic clips, music and otherwise, of RA as well as of other performers)
MAAN     =     “Much Ado About Nothing” (BBC, 2005)

Doc Alec     =     Dr. Alec Track (RA’s character in “TGH”)
TGH          =     “The Golden Hour” (ITV, 2005)
UF2          =     “Ultimate Force – Series 2 (
ILM          =     “Inspector Linley Mysteries:  In Divine Proportion” (

Who's Your Momma, RA?

2005-11-10T12:35:00.000-08:00

“Who’s Your Momma, RA?”

How's a sicky gal like me supposed to get any writing done when said god sticks that massive bicep right into my line of vision? I ask you...could any sane woman have resisted drooling over it?

Finally coughed, spewed, hacked, and nose drooled through writing the rest of my new fanfic, “Matchmaking Momma” which I posted early yesterday ayem to the Yahoo “ArmitageArmyAfterDark.com” site.

It was inspired by the essences of various characters portrayed by a certain TDH actor with killer blue eyes and a gorgeous smile!  Hmmm…you might wonder…who on earth could this anon actor be?

The god now known worldwide as RA, naturellement!

Who else would still be inciting my “foolish passion” after all of these months?  Certainly not that pale imitation of a brooder, Fitzwillie Darcy, or for that matter, his fifth cousin removed on his father’s side, Mark Darcy.  Stand aside, Darcy men, Mr. Thornton strode masterfully onto the stage and captured my heart with one word, “STEPHENS!”

LOL!

But it was really true.  I was busy checking him out while he stood proud and tall on those cotton mill steps…thinking, to be truthful, that he didn’t look all that handsome in the traditional “pretty boy” way.  Did notice his majestic nose immediately and took to it.  But then, I like a good honker (conk) on a guy.  And once I caught sight of it in profile, I swooned.  Not a full-fledged swoon but one of those breath-catching, “Mmmm…v. nice, indeed” types.

Then, suddenly he shocked me to my core when he opened his mouth to bellow, “STEPHENS!”  His face was all scrunched up and mean-looking as he just went for it.  No holding back because he was worried about how he looked to us brooder trackers.  The next moment, there he was in full action, racing full board down the steps and running through the mill really trying to catch that foolish dweebhead he’d seen smoking a pipe midst all that lovely but highly flammable, white cotton fluff.

And he thrilled me beyond belief when he actually caught the guy and began, uh, disciplining him in the language of the day amongst people of a certain lower class.  No holding back, just a right and then a left and then a well-placed kick followed by some more one-two punches.  Shocking indeed to behold but pruriently pleasing also.  I gasped right along with the lovely Miss Hale at seeing this hard side of our hero right off the bat.  But, unlike that priggish miss, I saw him as being a man of action rather than just being a brute.  A real manly man!

Several scenes later when they were formally introduced and he turned around to run his eyes up and down her deliciousness, I was fully hooked.  This Mr T had a certain sensuality about him that I took to immediately.  He looked handsome and real and was unapologetic for his behavior in our first meeting.  “I was angry.  I ‘ave a temper.” He told her coolly with a direct gaze.  No mealy-mouthed, wishy washy, politically correct, limp-wristed brooder this guy.  No siree!  He just stepped right up to the plate and said, “Yeah.  I beat the crap out of him.  So?  Get over it.  And btw what are you doing later?  I’d really like to have a go at pressing my hot lips lightly against your cool ones.  That lush, full lower lip of yours has real potential for some world-class nibbling.”

He dragged me with little or no kicking or screaming right along with him through the rest of that episode and the successive 3 eps.  Couldn’t take my eyes off of the man…especially in the Masters Dinner scene where he was just so smolderingly handsome and confident in his own skin.  Every line delivery was spot-on and purred in deep, rich dulcet tones.  Eyes were magnificent and watchful.  He missed nothing at that dinner table.  Clearly the “top dog” amongst the litter gathered there.  Loved hearing him say, “My workers expect me to be hard…”

Later on, at the Thornton's Dinner Party, when he turned around in that cream-colored cravat to walk towards the lovely Miss H, I just wanted to taste him myself.  He smiled at her and I grinned back like a goon.  Then, their hands touched in that lingering handshake.  Camera work was such a good substitute for actually being there.  Captured every delicious moment of their fingers slooooooooooowly separating.  His fingers looked so long and expressive.  At the very end, as his long, middle finger reached for a last taste of hers, I did swoon.  Very erotic and sensual.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Hmmmmmmmm!

I do become easily diverted once I begin to blather on about either JT* or RA, n’est-ce pas?  And JS* and PA* and LR* and BC,* etc.  Reliving the moment is so diverting and delicious!

Anyway, this latest story is a whatif about what it might be like for said god if his very own, sweet MommyMom were to get a bug in her ear about getting him married off.  Just had fun pushing him up against a somewhat brash and uninterested Merrican miss.

It’s always hard to write dialogue for the god himself since I generally just want him to stand around looking gorgeous and smiling a lot!  LOL!

Or even better…pressing those lovely lips of his against the neck, arm, and eager lips of his leading lady of the moment.  Tasting and taunting.

It’s been a real struggle to keep these twosomes romantic and not porn-like.  Have resisted the urge to dive off into deeper waters.  I do so enjoy writing erotically-charged, “no holds barred” love scenes in my stories.  I finally started one called, “Between the Real Sheets” starring the actors portraying Paul and Alona from the series “BTS,” which will undoubtedly never see the light of day even on the “AAAD” site.  It is just so graphic as the two actors move from simulated into real sex for their, uh, “art.”  I will savor it by my lonesome.  Wouldn’t want to shock any British sensibilities.  Or any others for that matter.  It’s really tame stuff compared to what my regular readers of adult arousal fodder are used to reading from me but I’m tailoring my current fanfic to its probable market tastes.

Have even cleaned up the language for the most part.

Went trolling off to my anon story writing web page yesterday and saw that I have been v. lax about feeding my hungry readers some tasty bits.  Had some email messages begging for follow-ups to unfinished stories and even a few for ones that I finished years ago.  It may be time to fire up those engines and put some of this unrequited passion into pleasing my real and fervent fan base.  Hmmm…might post my P&A story there with some minor modifications!

Still dying to see the handsome Philip Turner in “Inspector Linley Mysteries: The Divine Proposition,” and masterful Capt Ian MacElwain in “Ultimate Force II.”  Both of them, as well as the darkly handsome Doc Alec in “TGH”* are totally untapped resource material for future fanfic stories.

Feeling better now…cold is really just down to some annoying hacking and head drainage problems.  Am finally able to smoke without hacking immediately.  Therefore, guilty feelings about dirty, smoky vice are beginning to absent themselves from my consciousness again.

BTW, next story on the assembly line will be one where someone with a remarkable resemblance to said god will hit Hollywood and finally be allowed to kiss a woman taller than 5’2”.  In fact, she is 5’10” which should make her stand lip to lip with him when she’s wearing heels.  Am really, really tired of seeing his head bent down, hiding those eyes somewhat, as he struggles to relate to a “widget”* so much shorter while still showing his face enough to act in front of the camera.  Luckily, directors and camerapersons seem to grasp the significance and desirability of showcasing his marvelous eye and facial expressions so camera dips low a lot to capture same.

Seems like it might be time to visit my real life.

However, although I may leave off being in here where the drool floweth ever copiously, this one thot remains constant…

RA Rulez!

LDB

_____________________________

JT          =   John Thornton (HCMO in “North & South”, BBC, 2004)
JS          =  John Standring (“Sparkhouse”, BBC, 2002)
PA          =  Paul Andrews (“Between the Sheets,” 2003)
LR          =  Lee Richards (“Cold Feet (Series 5,) 2003
BC          =  Bill Chatford (“Malice Aforethought,” 2005)
Doc A          =  Dr. Alec Track (“TGH”)
TGH          =  “The Golden Hour,” (ITV, 2005)
Widget          =  Short female co-star (usually around 5’2” to his 6’2”)

It is finally in the mail...My letter to RA!

2005-11-03T22:15:00.000-08:00

“It is finally in the mail…My letter to RA!”

I have finally written a letter to the god now known worldwide as RA that won’t shame me!  HOORAY!!  It’s only the TWELFTH draft.  How humiliating to admit.

It was beginning to become a yoke around my neck.  I had started it way back on 24th of July with such heartfelt enthusiasm.  As the months dragged along, I began to hate it.  Even thot that I shouldn’t send one and keep my record pristine.  Which record, you might ask.  Well, the “I don’t write fan letters” record, of course.  After all, it’s such a one-way street.  The letter-writer thinks that he/she knows so much about the letter-receiver based on a bunch of observed stuff from performances and impressions from interviews.

Once it’s been written then the doubts begin to rear their ugly, little, confidence-draining heads.  It’s so stupid!  He’s going to think you’re such a jerk when he reads this.  It’s so long; he probably won’t read it anyway.  It will get lost in the mail and you’ll never know because he wouldn’t answer it anyway.  Or even worse, he hated it because it was so BORING!

You know real encouraging things like that!  LOL!

Anyway, qui sait?

Communication only occurs when I transmit from my experience and the other party receives from his.

Let’s just hope that he receives it, is not morally offended by it, might even like it, decides I am worthy of an autographed pic, and has at least one lovely, pensive “manly man” shot of PT in “ILM” which he whisks off from a stack of gorgeous photographs, writes some lovely personalized message with a flourish, and signs it his usual, “Love, Richard XX.”

If no…well, I will survive.  It would just be fun to hear from him and to get a lovely signed photograph that I could put up on the wall with my others.  Oh, that’s right!  I don’t have any others.  My wall is completely blank.  Hmm…what a sorry creature I am!

Fanfic update…am now working on three stories concurrently.  And had another idea tonight but want to hold off starting it until I finish at least one of the others.  This dripping cold has really held back the wheels of progress this week.  Normally, I can whip these suckers off in no time, editing and all.  Especially with a hungry, reading public looking for them.

Guess maybe I’ll load up on watching “SH” and “CF” tonight for inspiration.  Usually does the trick.  Fill my greedy eyes with moving moments in time of the afore-mentioned god in a couple of fav roles.  Might throw in a bit of Doc Alec as an added inducement.

Actually almost had a real meal for dindin tonight for the first time since Saturday night.  Picked up boychick and Boo Boy and went to our fav deli.  Decided to order a yummily-described turkey dinner with stuffing and all the trimmings.  Service was atrocious.  The crabbies came upon me when they started out by giving me the wrong tea and NO lemon or honey.  Food was tepid at best when it finally served.  By the time the waiter got around to checking with me, I bitched and he quaked.  Told him to give me a hot dinner to go since the other two were practically finished with their meals.  He brought that one fast enough though so I relented and told boychick to give him a tip after all.

As we were leaving, my opened purse caught on booth, tipped over, and everything fell out all over the floor.  I picked up all my belongings and we came home.  Reached inside purse for a ciggy poo and NO ciggy pack.  And it was brand new pack too!  Obviously, the creepy, little booger hid itself under the booth.  Had to hotfoot it down to the gas station to get another pack, feeling guilty as this was second trip there today.  May appear to be a ciggy addict to cashiers.  Just wanted one!  Wasn’t even planning a marathon smoke fest due to residual cough from cold.  As this is my only known vice, I felt justified in that walk to ciggy Mecca for more.

Oh, and my dinner?  Still sitting on kitchen counter in its handy carry home bag.  Somehow lost my appetite for real food.  This, after eating nothing but chicken noodle soup for meal after meal, interspersed with an occasional ham sandwich for days.

Sounds childish when I read all that back.  Like I’m punishing the good food or something.  LOL!  Or perhaps am masochistic toward myself.

Time to lure kitty boys in for the night.  Luv to look over on my bed and see those furry boys lolling around in total relaxation, except for Fluffy Guy who walks around meowing for the first hour of enforced captivity.  Eventually, he perches somewhere and begins the licking and grooming process.

Can’t think of anything clever to say in closing…might have noticed that clever is absent throughout most of this entry.  Blame it on the cold.  It has taken down lesser women than I!

Here’s a pleasant, warming thot…

RA Rulez!

LDB

_____________________

PT          =      Philip Turner (RA character in “ILM:IDP”)
ILM          =     Inspector Linley Mysteries, 2005 (“In Divine Proportion” RA Ep)
SH          =     Sparkhouse (Red Productions, 2002)
CF          =     Cold Feet (Series 5)
Doc Alec     =     Dr Alec Track (RA character in “TGH”)
TGH          =     The Golden Hour (ITV, 2005)
Boychick     =     My blue-eyed TDH son
Boo Boy     =     His blue-eyed SDH son

RA Gets A Date & The Asylum Goes Bonkers!

2005-11-02T02:44:00.000-08:00

RA Gets A Date & The Asylum Goes Bonkers!

Well, it’s finally happened…someone posted a pic of the god now known worldwide as RA and a blonde at a charity function in London on the RA board at C19*and there are now at least NINE pages of frothing about the significance of that pic.

It’s so clearly a posed shot and most likely of him with either a friend or another actor but some of the sisters have just as clearly lost their minds.  They are so eager to bleat about anything RA [even I as Queen of the Droolers have my standards] that they have practically gotten RA and his date engaged.

They’ve gone on and on about how happy he looks.  The fact that he has his arm around her, etc.  Several of us have “gently” pointed out that this type of pic is so de rigueur for industry things of this sort.  I forget sometimes that most of these droolers have no experience with actors, industry functions, and especially staged photographs.  I guess my experience is showing and some of them didn’t like it at all.

To tell the truth, I thot that some of the posts were just a tad out of line with the “T&D”* guidelines which clearly state that we aren’t to speculate on RA’s personal life.  I also wondered out loud why the mods* weren’t showing any inclination to stop it.  Especially since a poster on another thread merely sighed that she couldn’t believe a hunk like him was single and there was a mod “Johnny-on-the-spot” to warn against such conjecturing about his personal life.  HUH!  Foolishly, I voiced my thots on a post and…

Well!  Did I become Typhoid Tillie or what!  WOWEE!  Nasty little PM* from a mod informing me that she had deleted a paragraph from my post and that perhaps I’d like to re-read the whole post AND re-think what I’d written.  Obviously, as she herself is a heavy drooler, she didn’t like it one bit that I was chiding the mods for ignoring the blatant and inappropriate speculation about the relationship between RA and his companion.  Appointed herself as “Queen of MoRAlity.”

Then, when I went back to the thread, I saw that she had taken the opportunity to wind herself up in a very self-righteous, and I might add, self-serving way about how under-appreciated the mods are in general.  Of course, her fav cronies, Frick and Frack, were right there to chime in.  The really tacky thing was that she chose one of my posts as the launching pad for her blathering.  I don’t know what I’ve ever done to this woman but she certainly has a poker up her butt about me for some reason.  This isn’t the first time she’s been preachy with me.

It may be that old “we had him first and we aren’t about to share him with you latecomers to the playground” attitude rearing its ugly, little head again.  Especially noticeable in the way they react to us Merricans and to our Ozzie sisters.  I don’t know.  I just know that there have been a lot of complaints about the uneven and somewhat arbitrary modding over the past month or so.  Some real flare-ups have occurred as a result of the sneaky weasels who whine to their buddy mods about posts and/or the mods themselves taking personal offense at comments and coming down on some posters while totally ignoring others.

It’s really turning me off to the whole website which is sad because I’ve met so many wonderful people there, had such fun reading about RA, drooling over some incredibly yummy screen caps, and learned a lot about the 19th Century in general.  That last part was thrown in to make me look like being on the boards is also for intellectual reasons and not just to drool over the various, exposed body parts of said god.

And having a dreadful head cold come upon me at the same time has NOT helped my general outlook at all.  Dripping nose, sneezing nearly nonstop, coughing, wheezing, feeling feverish and now a chest full of congestion have really dulled me and made me crabby.

Luckily, my sweet, special friends on the site have been bolstering me up in private PMs.  And even offering sane advice which I am currently heeding.  Of course, I wrote down my angry thots and put them aside, per usual.  It’s always good to get them out of me and down on cyber-paper.  But, like this cursed letter now on its ELEVENTH draft I’ve been writing to the god now known worldwide as RA, there is a strong possibility that my angry thots will never be seen by other than my blue eyes.

I should mention something about the god right now.  This whole entry has been about other things.  And I’d really much rather blather on about his loveliness.  Although, he did look extremely pale and very thin in this pic which caused me some concern.  Hopefully, he’s hasn’t turned Vegan on us or anything.  Those strict Veggie types always look so unhealthy.  Anyway, I had to seek out one of my buds who had seen him at London Bridge Station within the same time period to make sure that he was still TDH* IRL* as she savored him visually.  She assured me that he didn’t look like Dracula’s younger brother when she saw him so I settled comfortably back down into droolhood again.

One funny thing was that his gorgeous and usually totally engaged with the camera eyes did look just a tad unfocused in the pic so he might have been bending the elbow a bit during dinner.  LOL!

“Macbeth” is the next RA project on the menu.  He will be “Macduff” who has been transported into a head waiter in a 4 or 5 * restaurant.  It will be broadcast by the BBC in the U.K. on 14th of November.  Not that far away.  My source will be capturing it pour moi but I actually want to see the other productions in the series also.  Everyone is who is anyone in British TV is in one or another of the four plays.  Evidently, they are all being done in modern-day settings so that should be tres interessante.  Also, I believe that Brian Percival (Director, “N&S”*) will helm “Much Ado About Nothing.”

Also, I believe that the region 1 DVD of “N&S” will be released here in the States on the very same day.  How propitious!  I can’t wait to lounge around on my sofa again and watch our beloved John Thornton woo his lady fair in his own inimitable way instead of sitting here at my PC with the monitor tilted at a weird angle so I can catch sight of every lovely expression on his face.  And now that I think of it, the whole Shakespeare series will be released on DVD around that time.  Looks like we fanRAbids will have a plethora of DVD treats to savor visually as we study his acting techniques.  And drool just a little.

Oh, God!  Every time that I cough, my back aches.  It’s one of those deep, creepy chest colds now.  Hopefully, it will abandon me by week’s end as my boychick and D-I-L leave for their Cabo San Lucas trip with friends then.  The Boo Boy* and I will be having an extended date from Saturday to Wednesday so I hope to feel up to doing fun things with him.  He’s such a sweet and interesting little being.  Reminds me more and more of boychick when he was this age.

Boo Boy was beside himself over Halloween this year.  Costume was Buzz Lightyear.  He and I decorated the yard, front of house, my place, and inside of theirs.  It’s always fun to see the joy on a small child’s face over something like that.

Wondering about now what costume RA would have worn.  Hmm…did wear?

I’m now sinking into pathetic conjecturing about his personal life.  Slapping my typing fingers in shame.  Time to end this one, I fear…snot is clouding my ability to drool!

There is but one beacon of light and that is the secure knowledge that…

RA Rulez!

LDB

_____________________________________

C19          =     C19.proboards53.com [home of both N&S and RA boards]
T&D          =      Taste & Decency Guidelines on C19
Mod          =     Moderators on C19
PM          =     Private Messengering
TDH          =     Tall, Dark, and Handsome
IRL          =     In Real Life
D-I-L          =     Daughter-in-Law
Boo Boy     =     Grandson

RA...Duke of Swoon?"

2005-10-26T09:46:00.000-07:00

RA…”Duke of Swoon?”

Well, I did it!  Took the plunge into fanfichood.  I wrote a story called, “Cheron Space” and posted it as the first fanfic at the brand, spanking new site on Yahoo, “ArmitageArmyAfterHours.”

The title of my fanfic may sound a tad sucky but I tend to stick with my original thots when entitling stories.  I liked the sound of it and it is about Amy Cheron space.  LOL!

It isn’t really about the god now known worldwide as RA per se.  It’s more of an “essence of the man’s finer qualities” sort of thing.  Lots of description about the killer smile, liquid pools of blue, strong hands and long fingers, general gorgeousity, and especially the small, closed-mouth secret smiles that he has down to a tee!  Yes, chesticles, abs, long legs, and biceps do figure into it also!

Hello!  I’m alive, aren’t I?!

My eyes are still functioning as acute scanners!

And, of course, I have always had an appreciation of the finer things in life!  Except now it has become an RAppreciation!

Anyway, hope readers get a laugh out of my story.  It makes me smile when I read it which is the most important thing since I really write for myself first.

Time to go…I feel another little RA-inspired ditty tweaking my consciousness.  That “Duke of Swoon” is whispering my name.  Time to get those fingers busy tapping away at the keyboard.

RA Rulez!

LDB

RA was seamless as JT

2005-10-24T03:24:00.000-07:00

RA was seamless as JT in “N&S”

There’s an interesting and lively thread in C19.proboards53.com entitled, “JT – Other Actors” which elicited this response from moi. A comment was made about Timothy Dalton (TD) by a fervent fan of his. While I like TD and generally find him to be a brooder extra-ordinaire, I do NOT think he could have portrayed our beloved HCMO* .

Here then is my response to another member’s post:

I suspect that I will be drawn and quartered by GF but I don't think that TD would have done nearly as complete a job at "being" JT as RA did. Still does "be" him...since RA's JT lives on ad infinitum within the DVD. TD would have "acted" him more while RA just slid inside the character and closed up the entry point. There was never a moment in RA's portrayal where I noticed his acting. I just found myself accepting that JT had sprung to life on my screen. Every emotional response, physical action, and line delivery just rang out with a truthfulness that was (and still is) mind-boggling and spell-binding.

TD, OTOH, always reminds me of what a wonderful actor he is while I'm watching him. And, yes, I am one of those who adored him in "The Beautician and The Beast." He was very warm and funny in that flawed but fun film. I even liked him as James Bond. I tend to like him mostly in productions where his edge is visible. I guess that was why "TBATB" was such a surprise. I could even bear Fran Drescher's whiney voice because I laughed a lot at it.

Patrick Stewart has that same style of acting that TD has and I wouldn't really want to see his version of JT either. Too intense. And I don't think that I would have found the more tender side of JT as appealing in either PS or TD's portrayals. For me, RA just hit the floor running and never lost his stride once.

It's even hard for me to sustain thinking about another actor in this part. Unless RA has a younger version of himself stashed away somewhere, I don't think that we'll be seeing his likes in this part for many years...if ever.

Some actors just put their personal stamp on a part and it's hard to separate the actor from the part. RA did that with JT.

Other parts are interesting because they appeal to so many actors. Hamlet and Othello being two that readily come to mind. I never mind seeing a new version of either of these roles.

But, another JT? I don't think so!

RA Rulez!

LDB
____________________________________
HCMO = Handsome Cotton Mill Owner
N&S = “North and South” (2004 BBC Adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell novel)
JT = John Thornton (HCMO in “N&S”)

[See below for special RA/JT treats]

Just tell me if you’ve ever seen a more handsome face that this…

[SORRY...HAVEN'T QUITE FIGURED OUT HOW TO POST SCREEN CAPS...YET!]

Or this…

[SORRY AGAIN! SAME LAME EXCUSE AS ABOVE]

Enough drooling for now!

RA Rulez "The Golden Hour!"

2005-10-16T01:14:00.000-07:00

RA Rulez! “The Golden Hour!”

I’ve come and gone from Londontown.  I’ll save my impressions of all that for another post.  Right now while my impressions are somewhat fresh, I’m here to tell you that I really liked RA’s Doc Alec in “TGH.”

He was strong, mostly silent about his feelings, a solid and confident leader, somewhat vulnerable in his relationship with the unworthy Doc Jane (must have been slim pickin’s in his dating zone), caring and humane in his dealings with patients and their loved ones, and he managed to look deliciously handsome in the orange jump suit, a black leather jacket, a transparent green plastic surgical apron, as well as both black and white tee shirts.  Ahhhhh!  That white tee shirt showed some real promise with its short sleeves showing us inches of his tan line and all of his glorious biceps in straining action!

Those lovely lips.  The incredibly gorgeous eyes.  The “NT”* in its full profilish glory.  The hair style even looked great.  The beautiful hands and long, lean fingers.  The broad and yummerific muscular shoulders were fully present and accounted for.  Of course, the long, lanky legs were in full stride throughout.  And lots of nice long shots to show us just how T, D, and H* our fav docteur is.  Can’t say on this first run-through that his “peaches”* were acknowledged particularly well by the camera’s eye.  Will have to study that aspect on subsequent viewings.  Last but not least; upper arm muscles to die for!

Unfortunately, since the four-part series was written by men, the relationship aspect of the storyline sucked in a major way.  I should say written by “rock ‘em; sock ‘em” men.  The actions parts of the scripts seemed so much better written and realistic in tone.  While the relationship aspects were laughably bad soap opera.

There were lots of details that just didn’t ring true.  Mostly empty critical care hospital rooms seemed more like limited or bad budget choices.  Atmosphere in hospital seemed way too relaxed.  All four lead docs seemed to work on accident victims and then just forget about them while they talked to each other rather casually.  I didn’t pick up that urgency of the whole “golden hour” premise even though they were constantly reminding each other of how many minutes they were into it.

Also, I would have thot that they’d carry those heavy medical bags up closer to where their target patients were lying crushed, mangled, and writhing around in pain.  Instead, they’d just dump them off as soon as they got out of the helicopter or the car.

And they used handheld cell phones to communicate with each other.  Not an earphone in sight.  Ep 1 even had Doc Paul performing a chancy in-the-field operation while another emergency worker held the phone to his ear so Doc A could talk him through it.  Very unbelievable in today’s world when every teeny bopper walks around plugged into his phone.  Maybe it’s a British thing but I just felt like it was unbelievable.  Moments later, Doc P was holding it in his bloody hands thanking Doc A for his talking him through the messy procedure.

Okay!  I just realized that I managed to write nearly a whole bitch page about technical schmecknical dribble without a word of praise and nary a drool string for the TDHDIOJS* himself.

Sorry!  This oversight shall be immediately rectified.  Drool building as I type.

First sweet thrill comes in the opening credits…guess whose last name begins with the first letter of the alphabet?  Yup!  Doc Armitage…!  We are treated to some action shots of him right off the bat.  I found myself “yumming” as each ep opened with “Richard Armitage” superimposed over those shots.  Must have made both him and his loved ones proud to see it pop up week after week.   He looks so much taller than the rest of his team.  Mostly because in the overall shot of the four of them, they have for some unknown reason stuck the gidget* next to him.  It would have looked better if the blidget* were in that place instead.  Or at least Doc Naz.  Doc Jane is just way too short for that shot.

I promise not to dissect each and every screen moment of his.  I’ll just hit what for moi were the high points.  Synopsis:  Looks 10; Acting 10!

Overall…excellent small, closed smiles throughout the four eps.  Some really good teeth ones also.  Very tender and caring to the gidget.  She must be an incredible lay ‘cause I can’t really determine any other areas of compatibility between them.  There is only ONE kiss in the shadows of Ep 1 that is seen from a distance.  V. disappointing as our Bridget Jones would say.  Even Mark Darcy got some almost ones and then the final close-up and personal real ones at the end of her movie.  The writer and director sure missed the boat on that.  Kisses and feverish necking would have shown us that they had the hots for each other, despite their close working relationship.  It was all allegedly meaningful looks on his part and near sneers of semi-flirty lust on hers.

Back to the god now known worldwide as RA.  Gobs and gobs of long shots which display his long, lean, muscular, and leonine body and legs to fine advantage.  Also, his confident stride is sprinkled liberally throughout to set my heart pitty pattying..

I loved his hair style for some unknown reason.  It reminded me somewhat of how it looked in “N&S”* at times.  Conjured up the loverly HCMO* himself; JT*, in modern doc garb.  Unfortunately, Doc J sure ain’t no Margaret Hale!

Black tee shirt was on duty, peeking out of the collar of afore-mentioned OJS in all eps but the one where it was inexplicably replaced by a plain, white one instead.  No complaints from the peanut gallery though about this switch in Ep 3 since the sleeves were cut beautifully to display massively alluring biceps in full action as he strained and tugged to save his patient’s life.  This drooler would have preferred to see that black sleeve in action in same ep but will offer no squeak of complaint at what was served her in its place.

He was a delicious walking, sometimes talking, piece of visual eye candy throughout the series.  Only had to smile to make me wince and gasp inwardly.  Lighting was really perfect to accentuate his dark, brooding good looks.  His nose was marvelous in all shots, especially the side ones, of which there were many to savor.

Nearly forgot the teeny, weeny sideburns!  The man’s face was simply created for sideburns.  These have their own moments in the spotlight.  Several screen caps display them magnificently.  Had me itching to drag out a teeny, weeny little comb to brush them for about, uh, three years!

Fav mole on right side of neck was also on duty.  Caught glimpses of that little fella now and again and licked my lips in lust.  Shameful to admit that I have a crush on his sideburns and mole!

His acting, you say?  How about his acting?

Can there be any doubt that it was superb?  Not to this fanRAbid.  Very understated as he does so well.  Never once called attention to himself in a scene.  Reminded me a great deal of his JS* in “SH.”*  Very much the ensemble player.  Doc A is not a “MeMeMe” kind of guy so RA played him very much as a low key leader of the HEMS* medical team.  The other lead actors were always joking around with patients, or with each other, while Doc A was of a more serious and professional bent.  Seemed shy even.  Especially in dealing with the flirty girty Doc J who couldn’t seem to decided whether or not she was interested in Doc A or Doc P.  Most likely, had there been another ep or two, she’d have been making those cow eyes as Doc N also!  Shameless hussy!

Doc A’s character reminded me of ex-hubby who while brilliant mathematics graduate student when we met, had almost no experience at dating or with women.  He was great at goofing around with the guys but rather tongue-tied around the gals.  And definitely not a smooth operator when we first began dating.  Just a sweet, earnest fumbler.  Which, of course, was totally endearing to a somewhat shy gal comme moi.

The quiet, laidback demeanor of Doc A was perfectly captured by RA.  He seemed not to be tempted to engage in the byplay that the other docs displayed so easily.  He stood somewhat to the side and smiled benevolently at their antics when he got the jist of them and just looked on when he didn’t.  He never allowed himself to be baited either.  The other three were the world’s biggest blabbermouths.  Couldn’t keep a secret of their own let alone each other’s.

Our handsome doc also seemed to exist in a somewhat dreamy state when he was off duty.  Coma Girl’s condition was more compelling to him than meeting the crew for their Friday night drinking fests.  I think and hope it was a Friday night affair and that they weren’t carrying on like that during the work week.  V. unprofessional and rather alarming if it were the case.

Male fantasizing of this sort…the writer and director…never seems to progress beyond pre-adolescence.  I really didn’t like the way any of the other characters were shown.  No depth that was discernible.  Just real surfacey stuff.  Drinking, smoking, modified carousing, etc.  Only Doc A seemed like an adult that I would want dealing with my trauma.  He never cracked a joke or allowed himself to be distracted once he lay his lovely, healing hands on the bod of his patient.  All of his attention was focused on righting a wrong.

After watching all four eps tonight, I’m struck with the thot that the producers are seriously aiming at continuing the series of this show.  However, they need to go slightly Merrican in their approach.  More eps in each series.  More revelations about each character so we get to know and like them in a deeper, more satisfying way.  There was almost no real back story for any of them, especially Doc A and Doc P.  And they sure seemed to have an unrealistic degree of intimacy flowing between the docs J, N, and P, for only having worked together for three months!  Hello!  It should have been a longer period of time.  More believable!

I betcha the producers have signed contracts with all four actors that extend for several series.  It really wouldn’t work to introduce new characters each series.  No cohesiveness.

Oh!  Just thot of another scene that I enjoyed.  The toothbrush scene.  The expressions on Doc A’s face as it progressed were definitely spot-on for a guy like him.  He’s pleased with himself when he gives Doc J the package.  Confused when she misinterprets its significance.  Somewhat shocked that she thinks it means something other than what it does.  And puzzled and just a little hurt when she over-reacts.  Clearly, there is little if any real communication going on between these two characters.  It has to be just a sexual thing which seems odd given his personality and hers.  He’s the intense one but she’s the one pressing for a deeper relationship.  And then, she’s off making cow eyes back at Doc P in the next scene after whining to Doc A that she hates skulking around in the shadows with him.

Sorry…but it’s a rare male writer who can really accurately capture how a woman behaves in a situation like this and from the looks of this show, also how a real man would.  Even Doc P’s obsession with her is badly written soap stuff.  Skulking around in dark corners, beaming meaningful looks at her, etc.  Corny tripe!  And Doc A never even questions her about any of it in Ep 4, even after he’s heard Doc N talking about it with Doc P.  Double corny!  I hate loose ends like that.  Instead, he’s the warm, comforting shoulder for her to lean on and he shows no emotion about her possible tryst with Doc P.

Anyway, suffice to say, I liked watching the TDH brooding doc for 90 minutes x 4.  It was no JT up there on the screen but it was never intended to be.  It was clearly a “boys with toys” affair with some fake romance tossed in for us ladyfolk.  Hopefully, if it’s picked up for a second series, there will be some sand shifting and better writing.

If not…there’s always “Macbeth” and then “The Impressionists” where the bearded Claude Monet will fill the screen with new images of the god now known worldwide as RA.

Until then…I’ve got my “N&S” and “SH” and “BTS” and “CF” and now “TGH” to warm the cockles of my heart…and keep that drool a streamin’!

“UF” will most likely be a purchase item as it is out on DVD and I do so want to see him both authoritative and athletic.  The rugby leg and tight but clothed peaches shots alone should feed my fanRAbidhood quite nicely.  Plus, he has many handsome man scenes or so I’ve garnered from all of the screen caps.  However, I’d really like to see his acting in it also.  I’ve learned to ignore the whiners who only complain about the violence, facial hair, or the lack of RA screen time.  They are the ones who expect every role to be just like JT.  So, they are unable to realize that an actor takes roles like these to stretch his acting muscles and to be seen as versatile in diverse genres.

P.S.  Hoping with crossed fingers that “Doctors” and “Casualty” will also wend their merry ways to SoCal via the South Pacific.  And I keep dropping hints that I would like to see “ILM” and “MA” even though his parts in both are teeny, weeny.  Dying to see the handsome Philip Turner in full, living animation on my bedroom TV/DVD combo.  Especially when he purrs in that deep, velvety voice, “It’s an affair, Inspector.  You’re supposed to lie about it.”

Any previously unseen visuals will nicely feed my RAddiction!  Or should I call it my, RAdoration?

RA Rulez!

LDB
______________

NT          =  “National Treasure” (RA’s magnificent, classic “conk” ehr, nose)
TDH          =  Tall, Dark, and Handsome
Peaches     =  Tight, toned butt to us Merricans (tight, toned “arse” to the Brits)
TDHDIOJS     =  TDH Doctor In Orange Jump Suit
Gidget          =  Girl midget (Doc Jane…the usual full foot shorter than RA)
Blidget          =  Blond midget (although Doc P isn’t really a midget…he’s taller)
N&S          =  “North and South” (2004 BBC production)
HCMO     =  Handsome Cotton Mill Owner (endearing term from above production)
JT          =  John Thornton (HCMO from “N&S”)
JS          =  John Standring (his wonderful character in “Sparkhouse”)
SH          =  “Sparkhouse” (2002 Red ____ production shown on UKTV)
HEMS          =  Helicopter Emergency Medical Services
BTS          =  “Between The Sheets”
CF          =  “Cold Feet” (Series 5)
UF          =  “Ultimate Force” (Series 2)

Our Golden Richard Shines in "TGH"

2005-09-28T09:49:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-22T14:12:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-14T20:43:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-11T22:53:00.000-07:00

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