So, this is the story of why the relative silence here

Without links, without pictures, without a lot of proofreading. I thought I owed readers here and fellow Richard Armitage fans some sort of explanation.

So, here’s what happened ( I think)  because I’m not sure my conclusions are correct – to the extent I’ve been able to come to conclusions.

Oh, and this is not a “Farewell, I’m Closing this Blog” post. It’s just a recitation of a series of happenings and not happenings that have caused the silence. I think.

Just prior to learning that that,Richard Armitage was going to appear on stage in Love, Love, Love in New York City, I found myself cooling off with the whole Richard Armitage fandom thing. It had nothing to do with Richard Armitage, with any decisions he made, with anything he wrote, and certainly there is not another fandom crush I have or want to write about. But, for reasons, some I could identify and some I couldn’t,  I was on the fence. I will say that some of the reasons have to do with segments of the fandom which annoy me. But that wasn’t it in full. (Although really, do you read his Twitter feed? I could go on for paragraphs about some of the nonsense I read there. I mean, could it be any clearer by now that he uses Twitter mostly only when he has to? And when he veers from that, he usually, in my opinion, the minority opinion, screws it up)

 

Still,  when the #LLLPlay became a reality, I had a fangirl boost, and began making plans to go to NY to see the play.  This was a good sign. The fact is, I was getting ready to schedule some surgery – not serious – but I was paying for it. Instead, I put the surgery off and went to New York. I wrote a few posts about the trip – before, during and after.  I never got around to an actual review of the play or much detail about my #LLLPlay experience.

Once I was in New York, visiting with family and friends and exploring my city, I experienced this cross-over syndrome, and it confused me. Have you ever been in a situation, maybe some event, a party, a funeral, where folks from different parts of your life meet for the first time? It can be unsettling even when you love them all.

That’s a little bit of what I was going through in NY. I basically chose to “get the play out of the way” at the beginning of my visit, and move on to other things.  Except, Berlin Station was also a factor, and I would have the opportunity to see the newest episodes without worrying about its availability in Mexico. ( I drove my poor brother nuts in East Hampton playing around with his Time Warner account and EPIX and all the rest of it) So this was just another example of that cross-over syndrome. Now he was involved in Armitagemania.

I went to the play two different nights with different friends – but they were (a) friends with whom I had gone to the theater with on a regular basis for years usually together – that is, we all went together, and, (b) in one instance I went with a friend – a good friend – who is or was completely unsupportive, even hostile, to my fandom activities once she learned about it. I had tried to explain it a number of times, both before and after she learned what the blog was about, but I don’t think I made any headway. To her, it was just ridiculous. And for that reason, on the second night, I found myself anxious and distracted before and in the theater – not to mention after the play when we discussed it.  (First night companion, Positive Friend, is completely non-judgmental, or anyway, has never said anything negative about my blogging. She liked the play and we had lots to talk about afterwards. In fact, she lived in London or just outside it – could’ve been Reading for all I know, and was raising her sons during some of the  time  covered in the play.

I’m so tempted to go off track here and tell you that Negative Friend and her husband bought their son an apartment in the village ( that would be Greenwich Village) when he came home from college, and that his career decisions made about as much sense as Rose’s, so one would think parts of the play would have resonated more than it did, ( or more than she let on that it did) but that discussion will just get me off track. Suffice it to say that she, as a mother, is the absolute polar opposite of Sandra and Kenneth.

But I digress. My point was that unlike other fans who either lived in NY or travelled to NY for a short time just to see the play, meet up with friends and explore the city – for me it was different. I couldn’t really concentrate of fandom too much. I didn’t want to.

I was fortunate enough to introduce myself to Claudia Ludwig, who I recognized both nights, and to meet up with Guylty and Linda60 for a lovely afternoon on my last day in NY.  And I did have fun, in my own way, observing the fandom from afar, although not all my observations were warm and fuzzy.  I should say that at the last minute I booked a third performance at the very end of my visit to New York, and I should also say that I walked out of the play after Act II, never to return. Twice  turned out to be enough. And anyway, I hated my seat.

I’ll also admit that I was a bit bummed out when I learned, after the fact, that some of my favorite bloggers were in the audience that very night, and I didn’t know it or meet any of them. I knew some were there, like Guylty, Zan and Judi, and one or two others who I thought I recognized – but I thought it was a missed opportunity not to have met or sought out the rest. But that was part of it – I didn’t seek them out and only one or two fellow fans knew I was there.

I’ll also confess that one of the reasons Guylty and I decided to meet up when we learned we would be in NYC at the same time, was that I was the winning bidder for the Empire Magazine, Thorin Oakenshield cover  that Guylty auctioned off, and it seemed safer for her to hand it to me than for her to try and send it either directly to me in  Mexico or to a Texas address for which I pay a service to a Mexican company that schleps mail back and forth across the border. ( I think I told the story previously of my  unsuccessful efforts, in sub-freezing NYC winter weather to find the magazine in New York). I’ve yet to crack it open.

Anyway, long story a little shorter, Richard Armitage, even live, shirtless and figuratively, maybe even literally spitting in my face, took a backseat.

But, I decided that I would address those feelings, sort them out, back in Mexico.

I said this was a recitation of happening and non-happenings.

The key non-happening? President Hillary Clinton.

You see, I returned to Mexico early in the morning on the day of the presidential election.

And nothing has been the same since. Nothing. The world hasn’t been the same. My country hasn’t been the same. Probably you haven’t been the same.

I always took  a lot of inspiration for posts from scrolling Twitter and Facebook for articles and news – but ever since the election, I find that most of the time, I skim the Richard Armitage stuff and go right for the news. I can spend an hour or more on Twitter just retweeting with comments some of the upsetting, incredible, harmful, even humorous stuff I read. I want to be heard about this, but who’s going to hear me? Well, there are a few Richard Armitage fans who respond to my  political tweets or Like or RT. And oddly enough, even though I have hardly posted anything of note on this blog in months – I keep getting new followers, and I’m damned if I know why. But this is what I want to write about right now – and not Richard Armitage.

For a minute there, I got really excited about Pilgrimage being shown at the Tribeca Film Festival and thought I would go back to New York to see the film. Of everything on Richard Armitage’s horizon, Pilgrimage was the film I was most excited about because I like that genre. I will probably buy a ticket to the film, just in case, but I’m pretty sure I don’t want to go back to New York right now. If I did go, I wouldn’t want to stay more than a few days – less than a week would be my choice. But, there is only one airline that flies direct to New York from Guadalajara, and only twice a week, and not the right days and not the right times.  I would have to stay longer than I wanted to, or choose a more expensive and less convenient flight with layovers. A 5 hour trip would morph into a 9 hour or longer trip at several more hundreds of dollars. I don’t want to do it. ( I still might do it)

There’s also the possibility that Richard Armitage will be on the London stage in 2018. I joked that I had to start saving – and then I thought about it and realized that, if I were to travel to Europe, I’d rather go to Italy than London. But why worry about that now?

I’m also mindful of something Obscura wrote on her blog about some of the reasons she hasn’t been posting as much – and she threw out the idea that maybe it has to with the roles Richard Armitage is taking – that what first attracted her and still attracts her may be the John Porter/Lucas North action hero roles. This could be true for me as well.

I was enormously disappointed in Berlin Station. Just gutted. I’m hoping that the writers and show runners took something from what fans and critics had to say and will do a better job for season 2. Daniel Miller was not engaging. I thought that character was almost a prop.

And BTW, have you noticed how little has been written about Romeo and Juliet? I haven’t written a word about it after having a listen.

So there you go. I’ll happily explain to you in 3,000 word posts, the details of every lawsuit challenging anything the Trump administration does, but beyond that, for now, I just don’t feel like writing much else. The hours I used to spend searching and reading about Richard Armitage are spent on the state of the union.

But P.S. Not sure what this means, but over the weekend I watched season 5 of Cold Feet. It did nothing for me ( well, embarrassment by proxy), so maybe I’ll move on to Moving On. That one always cheers me up.