May I be the bearer of good news?
I like the glasses, I must say. If I still were a teacher, this could be my quiet but funny colleague from the physics department 😂
In other news: “The Martian Invasion of Earth”??? Well, I can only say that I welcome Mr Armitage pushing my boundaries and widening my horizons again. Not a *particular* fan of science fiction myself, but well, with RA’s stamp of approval, I might give it a shot.
You can pre-order the audio-dramatisation of the original HG Well’s novel here: Big Finish Classics. Good news: available as hard copy!
ETA: The Armitagean eyeglasses can be ordered here: Mykita Kjell Lite. #LongLiveThe80s
ETA: And the shirt here: Paul Smith Yeah, I definitely had nothing to do this afternoon 😂
Guylty Pleasure 
Brilliant! It’s going to be available on an actual CD! I love that very much!!! It’s now official, with him wearing glasses, isn’t it? 😍
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Lol – that was my first thought when I read that webpage: “Hooray, hard copy available”. Looks as if we have all been burnt completely by DT.
And yeah, the glasses seem to be official now. Bravo, RA, way to go. They suit him. But then again, there’s nothing that *doesn’t* suit that man…
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Ich mag dies Art von Brillen überhaupt nicht (mehr). Erinnert mich an sehr alte Zeiten. Aber er kann tatsächlich so ziemlich alles tragen. Grundsätzlich finde ich Brille gut, ein anderes Modell wäre mir aber lieber.
Das Hörspiel klingt sehr aufregend und die Tatsache, dass es ganz altmodisch auf einer CD zu kaufen sein wird, ist beruhigend.
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Och, ich find se wirklich sehr dezent, diese Brillen mit Metallrahmen. Ich freu mich ehrlich gesagt drauf, bald wieder darauf zurückzukommen und die dicke Hornbrille abzulegen. – Während ich finde, dass RA die Brille wirklich ausgezeichnet steht, muss ich mich trotzdem erstmal an den Anblick gewöhnen. Denn ja, ich finde es schon ungewohnt. Aber mir gefällt, dass er dank Brille etwas ‘menschelt’ – denn eines ist klar: Die Brille ist ein Ausdruck des Älterwerdens. Es handelt sich wohl vermutlich um eine Weitsicht, die da ausgeglichen werden muss – höhö, auch ‘Alterssicht’ genannt – denn ansonsten würde er wohl gleich Kontaktlinsen nehmen, wenn es um eine allgemeine Sehschwäche ginge… Ich meine das auch gar nicht schadenfroh (zudem ich selber auch mit Alterssichtigkeit zu kämpfen habe – hallo Gleitsichtgläser!), sondern nur in dem Sinne, das ich darin etwas wiedererkenne, was mir selber auch widerfährt. Und solche kleinen Anknüpfpunkte mag man ja immer gerne…
In der Tat, das Hörspiel klingt interessant. Ich freu mich diesmal richtig drauf!
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When you think you can’t swoon over him as much as one already does, there he goes again…. *plop* Love it, love it, love it! ❤
And another product goes on the already packed want list. I will go bankrupt, I swear!
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Indeed. Still has the power to surprise… I didn’t see those glasses coming…
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Me neither! nicer than the other ones we’ve seen. I’ve seen them before in shops since i a always on a lookout for a decent pair. Probably one of the very very few or the single ones i like in metallic frames which are usually totally not my thing. But these have a lovely shape. Too bad i can never wear anything like this :-S
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I used to wear gold metallic frames for years… way back when…
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i am sure they were very nice and comfortable 🙂 But not for me, the one version i will never ever wear , gold metallic frames brrrrr (sorry!)
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ah now i can see it much better than in small in the comments section 🙂 What a lovely photo Guylty!!! And they look really nice on you 🙂 I’l never be able to wear anything so thin as the optician says they won’t hold my heavy glass lenses 😦 So i have to go big and bold weather i want to or not
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😊 That was me in a b/w existentialist/philosophy phase. Can you see me arguing a very deep and meaningful point there? 😂
As for the glasses – I actually dug through my chest of drawers this morning, and I found the exact glasses among my things. I tried them on in front of my breakfast guests today. Reaction from daughter: “Oh mum, you look so hipster!!!” 😂 I feel very tempted to go full-circle and have them fitted with my current prescription. I always loved those glasses…
Oh, and I can’t believe how much I look like my son in that picture…
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that’s it, i was wondering what it reminded me off as well, it was your son ; he looks a lot like you in that photo 🙂 I only have 1 pair of older glasses and that is metal, used to be blue but all chipped and oxydised now LOL I always have to change frame because they eventually break because i forever forget to take them off when napping or some such. And yes those same glasses are very much back in fashion! 🙂
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Poor boy 😂
But yeah, all the glasses… I have so many old pairs of glasses in my cupboard. Since my eyesight changed at a fast rate, I had to replace my glasses every 2-3 years. That accounts for a whole optician’s shop worth of different frames through the years… However, I have long been waiting to be able to reuse some old frames and claim they are vintage. In truth, I am just a horrible cheapskate 🤣
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i wish i could! my eyesight has been the same since 18 and i ache for all the amazing quality Zeiss lenses that get wasted every time i break a frame.. the lenses never broke or scratched! which is why i stuck with glass even though it is heavier. Boots is weird as they only want to make me glasses with frames bought in their shops :-S i Could get more variety shopping round but i can’t as most opticians don’t offer the Zeiss lenses because they are more expensive than the plastic ones.
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Thanks for all the info. Any guess the designer of the shirt he’s wearing?
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I think that is a Gucci shirt. See inside of the button bar? Discolouration of the photo taken into account, that looks like the characteristic green-and-red Gucci ribbon to me.
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Ok, scrap Gucci. The colour of the button back is actually black and red, and the shirt is actually Paul Smith. https://www.paulsmith.com/us/men-s-light-grey-marl-merino-wool-long-sleeve-polo-shirt
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he doesn’t scrimp does he? LOL but i love Paul Smith and i really like that polo shirt.. merino wool.. can you imagine how soft and snuggly it is??? And it’s one of the few designer shops where i actually stop and look at the windows when i pass by, love their stuff.
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I think Paul Smith is way more fit for everyday use and application in life than any Gucci or D&G…
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well that polo shirt is £180.. glups… not for my everyday life 😉 But yeah once could imagine a special buy 😉 I actually have a bag, bought end of collection at TK Max and it’s very nice indeed. I think their stuff is very nice sort of more middle ground, good quality, a lot of it is still made here, a bit quirky but very wearable if your card permits it 🙂
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£180 is probably very little for him, though. Gucci et al would set him back twice that amount and more. – It’s all relative, I guess…
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Well this should be fun! I wonder who else is in the cast? I will probably still stick with digital though since the price of CD is nearly double plus shipping. (Good sleuthing on the glasses!)
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The glasses were pretty easy – since he was so enthusiastic about Mykita two years ago. Just logical thinking: He was in Berlin for the last 4 months Mykita. Bingo.
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My tits just twerked.
Dayum, he looks good!
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Well, that reaction needs to take some form of a prize.🏆
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LOL – I wish I had seen that.
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I do like me a good audio book. CD pre-ordered – thanks for the info.
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Fabulous!! I look forward to hearing more about that project. It sounded as if it was an audio play rather than an audiobook, so that’ll be really interesting.
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Ahh this was such a lovely surprise on a Saturday morning 🙂 I really really like it! That smile, the glasses, everything about it! totally awwww. And a new audiobook always nice! Too bad i can’t use my credits for this one (cheapskate that i am) but otoh it’s good audible it not monopolising the market completely. I’ll definitely buy and i will consider the CD version too once i’ve listened as better safe than sorry.
I’m curious about this one, i quite like SF, but i’ve seen more of it than i have read.
But the whole thing makes me happy, him sharing the news with us, the lovely selfie with him looking good, him being at work, wearing what he does etc 🙂
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It was a nice surprise. And a surprise that really kept me busy, finding out the brand he was wearing, both glasses and shirt. The glasses are interesting, especially in context of the recent public appearance with undyed hair, I thought. A slightly older-looking RA – yet as always with a smile that could light up any room. Very nice indeed.
As for the piece – well, not completely my genre, but that is exactly what I like about RA: He keeps it interesting with his choices, makes me explore things I hadn’t considered before. And since this is supposed to be an audio-play rather than an audio book, I am really really keen.
And yes, I thought it was a nice touch that he kept us informed of what he is currently working on. Nice to know that he is busy.
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i suspect it is also not really the kind of scifi i might like but it will only be 2h of our time from what it sounds like.. wish he’s do more radio theatre though, plenty interesting material out there.
As to older ehem 😉 I think it is mainly the bared as always, makes him look more mature. But also it is unavoidable, even for us, to recognise he does look older 🙂 What with Guy and Lucas pictures floating about nearly every day (which i don’t mind at all!) the difference is striking 🙂 He does look 10-15 years older, but i think in a natural and rather nice way 🙂 But he’s lost that boyish prettiness i think for good now and is more interestingly manly if i can put it that way. I still like looking at those old photos mind you, but he’s a different kind of handsome now. I wonder how he decided on it while in Berlin, wouldn’t you want to know his thoughts? 🙂 It would have been a faff after cutting his hair so short but not impossible, he’s had it v short for Hannibal too. But it’s the first time he decided he wouldn’t bother dying it. the beard either i might add.
I still like it, can’t imagine not doing so since it’s still him 😉 But yes, curious in some ways what brought it on since he resisted it for quite some time i think previously 🙂
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I think it’s one of those texts that has a lot of potential meanings. I really enjoyed my exposure to it in junior high school just on the event level of the text (Martians invade Earth!) but in high school we revisited it as a commentary on evolutionary theory / Social Darwinism. Just today I read that some critics see it as s commentary on British imperialism.
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Oh, 10 years older or not – he looks very attractive. But then again, that is always in the eye of the beholder. And while I am conscious of our world’s preoccupation with youth and beauty, I find the signs of being of an experienced, mature age, very attractive in their own right. They speak of life experience and history, of having seen and done things, of moving with the flow and finding a place where one is comfortable with one’s looks and life. Well, that is the ideal. Who knows, it could easily also just mean that the next film needs a slightly more mature look. After all, Julie Delpy is in her late forties, too…
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ah didn’t consider that 🙂 but totally with you on all the arguments in favour of life showing a bit in one’s appearance. And i agree also i think i’ll always find him attractive 🙂 I guess probably one of the reasons being that i find him interesting, attractive beyond the fashion on image of the day. Much more appealing to me than a model on TV or a magazine.
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and he’s more a history teacher for me.. maybe because i had a mini crush on mine in highschool
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not an American one — they’re all football and basketball coaches.
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Really??? Wow.. didn’t realise.. a bit if an odd combo Ours taught history and philosophy 😍
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I don’t know why it is that way, but it’s a fairly standard combo (unfortunately). I’ve actually heard students say, I want to be a high school football coach but I don’t want to major in history.
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Really interesting – I had no idea that history and PE were a typical combo in the US! Back in Germany, that would be very unusual. A typical PE combo would be Geography.
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There may be a misunderstanding here. In US public high schools many/most teachers supervise some kind of extra curricular activity as part of their contract. The football or basketball coach at a US high school thus may be, but is often not, the PE teacher. (In my high school, the girls’ PE teacher coached girls volleyball and the guys’ PE teacher coached … hmm. I don’t even remember. Boys golf, maybe? He was kind of a non-entity. I remember the girls golf coach, who taught business education / typing.) Football was coached by the teacher who taught all of 9th grade US history, and the teacher who taught all of 10th grade government coached varsity girls basketball. The teacher who taught geography coached frosh and JV girls basketball. The only social studies teacher who didn’t coach a sport was like, 70).
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Oh, I see. Yes, I was looking at it from a studies POV. When I was a history student, most Staatsexamen people studied it in combination with a foreign language or German. And PE students mostly chose a language or a social studies subject like geography and politics. But as you said in a different comment – the US situation is different because you have a lot of emphasis on sports and therefore the teaching staff has to double up for a sports class, too.
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Aha, so we were talking past each other. Yes, the other teachers have to take over sports, but sports teams aren’t classes; they’re after school activities. All of the students take PE anyway, although much less of it in high school.
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PE is mandatory in German schools, too, right until graduation, but it is a school subject, not extracurricular. Hence the qualified teachers for the subject. Most schools do have some sports teams for extracurricular sports, too, but not nearly as much choice as you have in the US. In my school they only had handball in my day. As you said – sports is done in Vereine outside of school.
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US schools have qualified PE teachers as well. They just may or not also coach a sport. PE is also mandatory in US high schools. In this state, anyway, two years everyday in 9th and 10th grade, and then two years everyday but for half the year (so three years total). The last two years tend to be electives (I took “lifetime sports” both times) but you have to take and pass them to graduate. People who play sports play on top of that. My niece was bragging to me she’s going to get an “A” in the volleyball unit of her PE class, and I said she and the rest of the team had an unfair advantage.
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Yep, definitely more sports in the US. I think I got away with two hours of badminton per week for the last year of school.
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aha… i’m so out of that area since school sports were never big in our schools so that would hardly be a choice career for anyone i know.. I our schools it was highly unusual for people to teach more than one subject in any case. With the revolution philosophy replace civic studies of the communist constitution ;-)) And it being a German speaking school narrowed down their choice extremely on who could teach the new subject. I think we were lucky as he was not at all a boring teacher and although it was a tough subject to take on i found it interesting. but i can see how it can be rather hard to find people who are equally into sports and history… although archaeology is quite a physical job 🙂 and i wouldn’t mind watching sports in Roman and Greek times 😉
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in general, athletics are much more important in US high schools than in European ones. In Germany anyway all of that stuff seems to be outsourced to a Sportsverein.
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As a history teacher by trade myself, I take that as a compliment 😁
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Great news I really loved the musical version by Jeff Wayne.
I have been wondering what he has been up to as he likes to keep busy, nice to have a CD
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I never knew there was a musical version of this!!!
Yeah, the hard copy solution is very much appreciated!
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Are you familiar with The War of the Worlds? It’s much more of a drama, than it is typical science fiction.
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I have only ever heard excerpts, but I do know what it is, Orson Welles and all. Will be interesting to see what it is like – whether it is updated to the 21st century or a play set in the past…
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Ooooooooh, I love the glasses on him too 👍 I must say I’m thrilled to bits that he’s narrating more than “classical lit” type books … please, no more Dickens 😏 I wonder if this is a one off or if he’ll do more work with Big Finish? And if he’ll continue to narrate for Audible? Anyway, I’m thrilled to be able to get my hands on a physical CD. Hmmmmmm, now if only we could get him to narrate the entire Saxon Tales series of books by Bernard Cornwell 🤔
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I am completely with you there re. the Saxon tales. I watched Vikings recently, and while I loved the whole series, I kept thinking that I would’ve loved RA in it. Ok, that’s a different kettle of fish than narrating the actual Cornwell books, but it just means that the books have come synonymous for me with RA…
And yes, I am all in favour of RA widening his narration scope a little bit and working on contemporary (audio) drama, too, not just the classics. Not a massive Dickens fan myself, and – dare I say it – to this day I have not listened to R&J at all…
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I don’t feel so bad now, LOL, I haven’t listened to R&J yet either … I plan to but haven’t had the chance yet, I keep getting sidetracked with other things. I’m loving Vikings (and The Last Kingdom) and agree that RA would be perfect on Vikings.
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Grah – I *knew* there was something wrong when I wrote “Vikings”. It was “The Last Kingdom” I meant… Sorry.
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He’d be perfect in both series 👍
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I’m trying to think what would have happened if Armitage had been part of the Orson Welles production back in the day — maybe the world really would have come to an end. This should be a really interesting project to think about. I hope the script adaptation is good.
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😂 Most likely. That velvet baritone? Rather than jump into the nuclear shelter, the lady listeners would probably have run out into the open in droves…
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