A certain magic

Remember that song Rio by Duran Duran (one of my favorite 80s bands; I think I’ve done vids to at least three of their songs)? At one point, the lyrics say, “You make me feel alive, alive, alive!” I can say the same is true about Richard’s effect on me. He makes me feel alive.

Through Richard I see things through different eyes,  hear through different ears, as I take a journey with his characters. I get the opportunity to walk in someone else’s shoes. I cheer his characters on, I fear for them and I weep for them and I want to tell them, “No, don’t do that!”

It tears me up so much when one of RA’s characters meets a terrible fate (needless to say, Guy, Lucas and Porter led to a great deal of grief).

It seems as I am losing someone I know and it’s painful.  I have invested not only my time, but my intellect, my heart and my soul into those performances, which seem so real to me.

Richard has great talent, there is not doubt about it. And he’s worked hard to hone his craft, to put all that he was taught in his drama classes to good use. Method acting definitely works for him. He builds a history for his characters (which the scriptwriters occasionally throw major curveballs into) and I believe in each one, in their reality.

But I think Richard has something else, something almost–indefinable.  Call it that divine spark. It’s the difference between a person who is technically proficient in the arts and someone who brings something extra to a performance, who makes the music, the dance, the painting, the story come to life so that it touches us in an unforgettable way.  He uses every fiber of his physical being–face, body and voice–to craft his characters.

There are actors who are primarily “celebrities,” who more or less play themselves over and over again and are known more for what they wear and who they are dating.

Richard is a true artist.  He also happens to be exceptionally beautiful and charismatic with a mystique about him that continues to intrigue. And he’s such a sweetheart, it seems, this grounded, down-to-earth regular guy who is anything but “average.”

I think he’s simply got a certain magic.  And many of us have fallen under his beautiful and benign spell.

 

A lothario, a sexy knight, a shy sheep farmer and a TDHBEW with great thumbs walked in . . .

A spy, a soldier and a henchman walked into Photoshop . . .

In case y’all haven’t noticed . . .

I really, really like this Photoshop Elements thing. It’s something I have always wanted to do, but never delved into before.

I enjoy experimenting with the various tools and it’s been fun to not only play with Richard–strictly in the photo manipulation kind of way, of course–but to work with those old family photos, too. My background is in art education and I have always been a creative sort of soul–just slightly terrified of computers for a long time.  (Remember, I suffer from TIS (Technologically Impaired Syndrome.)

Now I wonder what I was so nervous about–fear of the unknown, lack of confidence in my own abilities, the belief I didn’t have time to devote to such a project on top of writing and vidding? It was a combination of these factors, I think.  Then, of course, I unexpectedly lost my job last year, followed by the unplanned offroading expedition on the Crown Victoria and the resulting damage to my tailbone–well, let’s just say I had a lot more time on my hands.

So figuring I might as well make some lemonade out of the situation, I started this blog and, with the encouragement of my dear hubby, took the Photoshop Elements class with him. I am really happy I did both. And there is still so much to explore . . .

 

And now for our regularly scheduled dose of Mr. Armitage: