Richard Armitage With Earphones

/ March 11, 2019

I bet that headline was irresistible.

I love b/w. But there is something to the angle at which RA has lately been shooting his selfies, that distorts his face. And not to his advantage. But well, including it here for completeness’ sake, right?

And because I need a reason to post and complain. I have been mostly absent over the weekend – and very late in replying to comments – because of my visitor. She is off this lunchtime, though, so expect me to be back to my usual mo soon. Talking of ‘off’ – my bandages will finally come off my leg this afternoon. My leg has been bandaged and encased in a medical support stocking day and night for the past 7 days. Which meant that I was not allowed or able to take a shower. I can’t tell you how much I am hankering for that bathtime later today – followed by a shower.

In other news: I finished The Daughter of Time and thought that the last quarter of the book was much better than the three quarters prior to that. An original premise – and a convincing case. But for an insight into the life and times of RIII, I’d recommend The Sunne in Splendour. Yes, fully fictionalised (and thus to be taken with a grain of salt), but wow, Richard is a bit of a dreamboat… Plus: The Sunne in Splendour convinces with Sir Guy on the cover.

 

ETA: UM, more importantly to silly earphone photos, RA tweeted a RIP for his cast mate Michael Thomas.

 

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86 thoughts on “Richard Armitage With Earphones”

  1. Yeah, I agree. I mean, I’m terrible at selfies, so I should shut up and it’s wonderful of him to give us something to look at, but the angle throws off both me and his lovely proportions. 😢

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      • I will generally take any new photo of our beautiful man that I can get, but even I am not 100 with this one. 70 maybe? I do like the crisp white shirt though. And as you say, any proof that he’s still alive and working is welcome.

        I know well that delicious feeling of the first shower after surgery. It’s even better than the first night in one’s own bed after a trip, especially an unpleasant/uncomfortable one. I hope that you enjoy! Maybe a bonfire with your surgical stocking?

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        • LOL – I can see you have experience with post-surgery lack of showers/surgical stocking removal. The bonfire sounds a treat. Except I am told I have to wear this contraption of evil daytime for another 5 weeks *arrrrrrgh*
          Angle and perspective aside – definitely always nice to receive a picture because it means he is thinking of “the public” and wants to share something with us. 😍

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  2. Guylty,
    Some of the comments on the IG post are sweet; “breathlessly waiting too”, “what is in your playlist? “OOOHHH stubble”, “please don’t die in The Stranger”, “say hi to Siobhan for me”, and my favorite “thank you for this lovely wakeup on time change Monday” since I had no idea Daylights Savings time was on Saturday night/Sunday morning.
    Egads!!
    I thought Adam would be a bit more clean shaven than this but he is dashing as always.
    I’m waiting for SiS to come in from Amazon so anxious to read it now.

    Hope your leg feels better!

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    • IG has more sense than Twitter 😂. Or more variety due to more reach.
      Maybe Adam is spiralling out of control after the devastating secrets have been passed on to him, and he now doesn’t care anymore about shaving?

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  3. I have to say Im in the minority and think it’s gorgeous but I’ve not seen him in the flesh-so nothing to really compare it to!
    Love how he’s got elf ears there. And the stubble and the hairs on the back of his neck. And the black and white.
    Glad you had a good weekend and bandages off!
    And thanks for the Guy pic!
    All round good Monday morning!
    Anyway, got to get back to work!

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  4. I love B&W photos of him, but I agree with you, the angle in this one distorts his face. The Instagram selfie previous to this one was the same – however he’s taking them, the end result is that his chin looks elongated. At least, that’s how it appears to me. But having said that, any and all selfies are very welcome, I miss him when he goes off the radar!
    The Sunne in Splendour is a fabulous read, taking a much more positive view of Richard III than some. While in NZ I read a book (can’t remember the title) about Lady Katherine Grey (sister of Lady Jane Grey) and Katherine Plantangent (Richard’s illegitimate daughter). It told their stories in parallel, seventy-two years apart, with the conflicting points of view of Richard III – and his part in the deaths of the Princes in the Tower – weaving a thread through their stories. No real conclusion in this book either, and we will probably never fully know, but I’m inclined to take the view, like his namesake, that his character was besmirched by Tudor propaganda. I really should read Daughter of Time, it’s been sitting in the bedside pile for a year or more now.
    Glad to hear that your leg is improving. 🤗

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    • I am just flabberghasted that he posts these images of himself. Is that how he sees himself – and how likes to look? Interesting – ist’s different from what *I* find attractive. But hell, whatever he wants to post, I am happy to receive 😉
      I really enjoyed TSIS – might have been because of the environment (read it while lying on a sun lounger in a small beach club on the island of Crete), but I just totally got sucked into the whole thing. Of course it is all conjecture, heavily embellished and written to appeal to an audience of readers who know nothing about the time, but heck, it was perfect holiday reading. The Daughter of Time – not so much. I thought it was terribly slow and a bit tedious for the most part. There was a “frustrated Poirot” vibe to the book. But it got a bit more exciting at the end, so I stuck with it.

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  6. I won’t say I hated Sunne in Splendour (after all, I blogged my way to its bitter end after the people who started the readalong had mostly quit) but its relationship with reality is tenuous at best. I found it a fairly tedious read because in every chapter you read things that make you go, huh, can that possibly be true? This would bother me less if it weren’t masquerading as a historical novel. Tey is much more sober and holds up better (even if there’s been a lot of research since both of those novels were written).

    Enjoy your shower!

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  7. I loved The Daughter of Time and seem to remember I didn’t finish The Sunne in Splendour. I see what you mean about Guy on the cover though! I might have to try again with that in mind 😂

    Enjoy your bath and shower! Bummer that you still have to wear the stocking during the day, though. Mind you, they are so difficult to get on and off it’s the equivalent of doing a mini workout 😉

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    • Nah, don’t bother TSIS, Helen. I know you disliked the Philippa Gregory audio book, and TSIS is a similarly elaborate tome…
      Oh, nice idea to see getting the stocking on and off as exercise. I so badly need some of that… I am really feeling horrid at this point, lack of bath as bad as lack of exercise.

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  8. After all the lovely candid shots we’ve seen recently, this selfie was a bit artificial looking tbh. Maybe it’s just the angle but there’s something about his lips that look a bit off. I do appreciate that he was thinking of us and wanted to share a bit of his workday. It’s always lovely to see him pop in with a photo greeting. I hope he’s having great fun shooting this series and being back in the UK.
    While I enjoyed The Daughter of Time I think The Sunne in Splendour is still my all time favorite (even though mine lacks the swoony Guy-like cover yours has) historical fiction about RIII. Like you say, to be taken with a grain of salt, but I feel both novels are way more sympathetic to the good character of the man rather than the vilification he gets at the hands of Tudor “historians”.
    Ah yes, you forget the simple joy of a bath/shower until you are restricted from taking one for a few days. I’m happy that you are on the mend and seem to be coming along quite well even with the nuisance of having to wear one of those horrible stockings for the coming weeks.

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    • I don’t think it’s his lips – it’s his mouth. He’s pulling some sort of kiss me kiss me mouth… Which would definitely work on me in private, but doesn’t quite work in a public selfie…
      But yes, I really hope that he is enjoying being back in his home country. And only 100 miles away from home…
      I think TSIS was easier to read than Daughter of Time – maybe because it was definitely adapted to modern tastes. Both books really made me want to find out more about the real RIII.
      And hooray, I took my bath last night (which unfortunately only came up to my hips… our boiler is unable to fill a whole bathtub…) and had a glorious shower this morning. I put on a new stocking and it was less difficult than I had worried. Feeling much better now.

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  9. Hope you put a lot of bubbles in your bath. I agree this selfie is no bueno. I am grateful he shared something, but the photo itself, not so much. Maybe that’s his strategy. Make his selfies rare enough that we are happy with anything. Strategy seem to work for him. Any photo is better than no photo.

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      • It was ruinous. That’s a joke. We got home late Sun. from Jordan. It was a great trip. Very educational and fascinating ancient sites. Thanks for asking, Michele..I did not learn how t o walk like an Egyptian, but I did learn the difference between Queens Nefertiti and Neferterri.

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        • Cool so I’m gonna ask here now Kathy since I learn so much here besides Richard’s fav flavor of ice cream what is the difference between the two?
          Even in my dance heydey I couldn’t walk like an Egyptian “all the school kids so sick of books “🤣👍👏

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          • Here is some information you will never need. Nefertiti is the one with the famous bust (not chest). Nefertiri was the favorite wife of Ramses II. She has a famous temple relocated to the shores of Lake Nasser close to her husband’s temple.

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            • Kathy thanks! Did you guys always want to go to Egypt and finally did? Seems such an exotic place fascinating though. Did you go to Alexandria also?
              Sorry for all the questions I love hearing about others travels and I’m a geography buff.

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              • Sorry for the late reply. The blog has moved on to another topic so quickly I can’t keep up. Yes, this was a trip we wanted to take for many years. We didn’t want to wait too long because you have to be mobile. Getting on and off boats, climbing steep stairs and walking on uneven surfaces is a challenge. No elevators outside of Cairo. At least I didn’t see any. No ,we didn’t see Alexandria. It would have been lovely, but we ran out of time. Concentrated on Cairo, Nile from Luxor to Aswan, Lake Nasser, Red Sea and in Jordan, dead sea, and Petra. I hope you have the opportunity to visit there someday. Very fascinating.

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          • Petra, yes. What a amazing place. The best part is a mile long approach through a very narrow twisting path between eroded red sandstone cliffs that cut off the sky in certain places. then it opens up, and there it is. Of course, there are camels, horses and many tourists as well. But it is very beautiful and many more carved facades than the famous one.

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              • It was, and as we were making our way through the twisting canyon, I told my husband you would have loved it. So many amazing photo ops. There were plenty of Germans there too. Most people travel in groups with a guide, so it’s easy to pick out nationalities by language. Most groups were from
                Spain. But Germans were right up there. I hope you can go sometime, you would love it.

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                • Oh, it’s the perfect mixture for me. I love antiquity and archeology, and I am sure Petra would be amazing to photograph… One of these days I might go… It’s just unfortunate that the husband doesn’t travel well in hot climates…

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    • No bubbles for fear of irritating the wounds on my leg, Kathy. I had to take off all those paper stitches, that’s why I was in the bath at all. (I don’t like taking baths – I prefer the shower.)
      And I think you have totally put your finger onto it, Kathy. He keeps the value of his selfies high by controlling the market with sub par imagery *hahaha*.

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  11. Yeah, i’m not too fond of this photo either. Though i am happy he updates time to time. I’m hypothesizing it might be a little more discreet to take it at a lower angle, though not too flattering haha.

    I also do wonder if that’s what he looks like/the angle i’ll see if i ever get to see him face to face 😝 i’m so short i’ll probably get up to him mid torso.

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    • But why more discreet, Nix? What do you think he is hiding?
      As for the angle of seeing him in RL – well, I’ve stood in front of him a couple of times, and I should really reach about as high as his shoulder but he has this thing of making himself really small. I never felt I was looking up to him. Which is actually nice, when you think of it…

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      • Hmm, i was thinking just not to draw attention to himself taking a selfie in public? Though he has taken a selfie in a low angle in what seemed to be a private setting (the one with the skull shirt?)

        Aww that does sound nice of him! I always imagined if we ever meet face to to face i’d probably have to ask him to sit down so his back won’t hurt from crouching 😂

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        • Oh, I see what you mean… So, like, he is shooting from the hip so no one notices he is actually taking a selfie? That could actually be the explanation, Nix. That would make sense to me. (The skull shirt one – Halloween – was taken from really low down. He is practically leaning over the phone in that one, I think.)
          You know, a sit-down meeting would be preferable for me too – not least because it implies that it is longer than just a fleeting second…

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  12. I made rarely selfies of me alone and if so I take fifty pictures to select one. In this picture I don’t like the nose-mouth- form. The elf ears are funny, and I think he doesn’t realised how his ears look like in this picture.
    I wish you all the best with your leg. I am glad to hear that you are allowed now to take a bath or a shower

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    • You are absolutely right, Bea – something is wrong with the middle of his face… Some kind of distortion is making his face look funny.
      Yep, my leg is getting better. The pain is definitely much less now, but the bruises are really impressive. I think my husband was quite impressed when I took off the surgical stocking on Monday evening… he has been very nice to me since then *lol*

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  13. RIP Michael Thomas!

    He does that weird smile again in the earphone selfie, besides the angle. Nope, not a selfie I like at all, but hey, we’re all human, I still love him. 🙂

    The Sunne in Splendour, I actually bought the book a while ago after reading you praise of it once before, but I still haven’t attempted it.

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    • Esther, I just got TSIS from Amazon finally this week after all the praise and talk and I am curious about RIII too. I am going to read Their Lost Daughters first which is much much shorter than TSIS so I’ll be curious if you dive into it what you think!

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    • Oh, please do attempt it, Esther… If you like historical novels, it won’t disappoint. It’s long but an easy read.
      And yes, I think he is the hottest 47-year-old anywhere – despite this selfie 😁

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