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26/06/08
- Convention News
17/06/08
- Have you installed the flood
barriers?
23/05/08
- Rantopia
11/05/08
- In the name of bewildered teenagers, how did he get into Dublin?
24/04/08
- You came back, how marvellous!
Introductory
Blog - I’m 18 and from Dublin, which automatically
entitles me to call Jonas “mine”
June 26th 2008
I
made my final adjustments to my university course choices during the
week. My mind has been made up for a long while what I want to do and
my course list reflects that I suppose. It is pretty much computer
science the whole way down with a little hiccough around the middle
where I put in a history course which is a sort of separator between
the courses I would get down on my hands and knees and beg the Minister
for Education to let me have, and the courses that are a bit like the
coffee creams in the Quality Street box – sure it’s
chocolate, and love you chocolate, but deep down you know they
aren’t all that great. You know after Christmas when everyone
has eaten their way through the truffles and the strawberry creams and
the caramels, and all that’s left are the coffee creams, well
those courses are my coffee creams.
Anyway
to cut what could have been a complete and utter unashamedly obvious
tangent short, it got me thinking about Jonas starting off as an actor.
It really is those chance meeting and conversations that take our lives
into a completely different direction. It is completely mad that, had
Jonas not been told by people that he was really good at impressions,
then he may have been something completely random and would have
continued on unbeknownst to us, his (what is a group of angels?
– a flock? A heaven? A Philadelphia advert?) of angels would
be rotating on our various axes and would never have collided so
spectacularly in some sort of end-of-the-universe kind of way over the
last few years. It is one of those Doctor Who/parallel universe notions
I suppose, and who knows if he had not taken the first steps into RADA,
how different it all might have been. But I’m not going to
describe that world because it is a world I have no interest in living
in and I think I’ve rambled quite enough on it. You can blame
the various philosophy essays that I’ve had to revise for my
exams for thinking so “outside the box”. But it has
crossed my mind several times, most of those after losing horrifically
in a table quiz or floundering in the “One Pic of the
Day” section on JAF, so I just thought I’d put it
out there. And you can now lower your eyebrows now I’ve
stopped being (quite so) random.
Taking
my thoughts out of the insane and into the marvellous, the JAF
convention seems to have gone down like a house on fire (or a hotel,
judging by the amount of times the fire alarm went off lol).The part
that made my heart actually skip a beat, and then pound madly in my
chest, was the recounting of THE telephone call to end all telephone
calls. Dara O’Briain was talking about the I Am Legend film
once and he said that it was such a typically Irish thing to say and he
always imagined Will Smith on the top of a building in New York
shouting “I am legend!” Well that’s
pretty much where I stand with Jonas at this point in time, except
I’m the one shouting “He is legend!” on
top of the GPO. What other actor would have such a thoughtful nature
and complete regard for how his fans would feel. The phone call was one
amazing and considerate thing he did, acknowledging the people who
travelled to see the place he grew up, but I think more (more in the
sense of infinity +1 – because nothing can really top that
phonecall) than that, the thing that made me adore him even more is
that he asked his mam to meet the angels with his baby pictures. That
is the height of generosity. It is extremely difficult to put into
words how amazing a man he truly is and I know everyone who had the
opportunity of seeing the pictures and talking to his mam, and those
who read about their experiences, cannot but be moved by such an
extraordinary gesture. My respect and admiration for Jonas has reached
new heights.
In
short I’m glad Jonas was given the strawberry creams because
he really is legend. I hope it continues that way because as a Jonas
fan and chocolate enthusiast, I would hate him to be left with the
coffee creams.
Footnote
for the bewildered: I don’t know how far Quality Street has
spread, but it’s a big tin of assorted chocolates that
surfaces around Christmas and the coffee creams are the most reviled of
the bunch.
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June 17th 2008
In
my first blog, I ventured hesitantly into a discussion of the Jonas
fandom and it was quite general. It’s still on my mind hat
this part of my life that I can’t touch or feel, but which
takes up so much of my time through posting, squeeing, thudding, etc.,
should be developed a little bit more in a more personal way. Note:
this blog is liable to gush from time to time. Have you installed the
flood barriers? Called the Emergency Services and brought in the cat? I
can’t be held responsible for anyone swept away in a flow of
tears and drool. Incidentally, all this talk of flood warnings has made
me think of the government booklet that was sent to my house telling us
to do in emergencies. The “What to do in a Nuclear
Emergency” is quite amusing. We’re told to stay
inside and keep an eye on news reports, right? Well only if
you’re still alive to watch them. I live in Dublin
(It’s on the east coast, right across the sea from a massive
nuclear power station). Now I’ll be nuked first if anything
happens so I don’t really see why they bothered with that
section.
This
leads me in a very roundabout way to the Armstrong Angels. I already
said how I found my way into their clutches and forever more had my own
little group of people to squee with, to cry with and just to giggle
and rant – I don’t know if my rant-o-meter has
decreased somewhat over at JAF because I have this blog to vent and
fume but I doubt it somehow! In a way the Armstrong Angels have become
my own sort of “What to do” group of advisors. The
last year I had a really tough time coping in school. It was 5th year
and for people unfamiliar with the Irish educational system it is like
climbing a small hill with daisies and some pebbles but nothing too
trying, and then seeing the snow-tipped mountain with gale-force winds
and vultures hovering. It is a considerable step up from what I had
been used to and between juggling 8 subjects, piano practice and hockey
training, I was often up until late at night and up early just to keep
up with the workload for an entire year. But I was always able to talk
to the Angels and find a few minutes where I could just breathe a sigh
of relief and know that how ever much I felt like I was looking over an
increasing stack of books, there was someone there to give me a virtual
hug, chat to me or to induce me into ranting about tea or anachronisms,
for which I’m grateful. It is a very rare and special thing
to find on the internet where things can be so anonymous and
impersonal. It feels like I have a home from home, where I can just
step into another world and know that I have so many people to help and
guide me. I have mentioned in some JAF posts through the last 18 months
that I was a member of other message boards which weren’t
Jonas or even Robin Hood-related (yes I do have other interests!) but I
left because I just couldn’t cope with the angst and abuse
being hurled from one fan to another. It didn’t feel like the
unified entity that JAF is. I used to be weary of constantly having to
defend my views, something that doesn’t happen on JAF. I
mean, one little post in one little blog is not near enough to express
how grateful I am to Katie and Lucky for making JAF what it is, but
they deserve massive kudos for the atmosphere of caring and
understanding that was able to develop there.
So
after what feels like a therapeutic session, I would like to thank you
for reading. Until next time, take care.
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May 23rd 2008
Hi
again and welcome to Rantopia, otherwise known as my blog. First of
all, I just want to make reference to something Judy put in her blog
(18/05/08), when she mentioned the policeman being car-bombed in
Castlederg. And all I really want to say is that the very few people
who want to keep this hassle going are not representative of the views
of most people on this island. And the sooner they stop and cop on, the
better.
I
thought I would diverge from the path of Robin Hood for a brief spell
and dwell a little bit on his other roles, well okay Ghost Squad. I
joined the Armstrong Angels during Robin Hood Series 1 so unfortunately
I missed all a lot of his other roles, except Ghost Squad of which I
have seen each episode only once when I was perusing places of dubious
legality – we’re only young once! So if there are
any glaring inaccuracies or things that only my imagination wished
happened just pat me on the shoulder patronisingly, I mean no harm.
Well
Ghost Squad, which I saw during that cold and bitter time when Robin
Hood was between series, kind of like now actually, was really
enjoyable. It’s all crime fighting and putting the bad guys
away (a very basic version of what happens!) but with attitude and
Elaine Cassidy with her thirst for justice. Ever so slightly like Robin
Hood there. The drug dealers and barons being the Sheriff and his men,
and Robin and Much fighting the evils of the world. Albeit with guns
and fake names. Jonas had only a very small supporting role in the
production, but his presence was felt. I sat through Elaine
Cassidy’s scenes (however brilliant they were) with a bit of
impatience, looking forward to Pete Maitland (Jonas’s)
reappearance. It was a great shame the programme only lasted for one
series (8 episodes in total) because I thought there was plenty of
scope for maybe a romance between the two, but at least a development
of Jonas’s character which often didn’t get a lot
to do. I think this is an unfortunate trend in his roles. In Robin
Hood, his character is often neglected in favour of Guy of Gisbourne
and in Ghost Squad, it is Amy (her surname escapes me) with whom the
series follows for the most part. Not to deny what a brilliant actress
she is, but I do think there was more scope for a team aspect. It was
so very often Amy on her own, and a little glimpse of Pete being
knocked out for being a grass and getting drawn on in permanent marker
(watch out for his killer smile when they’re all sitting in
the armchairs – it’s to die for!).
I
wonder when Robin Hood is done and dusted (and hopefully ended after
next series – think of “Friends” dragging
on for a decade) what genre we will see him in next. I had to confess I
did suppress a shudder when I heard Jonas was going to be in a
horror/supernatural thriller. Whatever it is anyway that requires him
to lose his skin at some point. I did think that of all the genres he
could chose from, he had to chose the one that I would never in a
million years go to only I adore the man and that’s my only
motivation. I don’t know whether to keep up with every little
grain of news trickling through and the promotional photos or to avoid
all those threads and then get the biggest shock of my life when I drag
some of my friends to go with me. Because I am absolutely terrified. I
100% support Jonas’s acting career, I honestly do, and I
believe this is a great opportunity to extend his acting credentials,
but how I wish he hadn’t chosen horror.
I
wonder which genre he will go for next. He’s already done:
School, Police, Legend ( in a ballad sense), Travel, and now
Supernatural. I still think he’s got time to visit us in the
old country and appear in Fair City. How magnificent and surreal would
that be? Fair City is Dublin’s answer to Coronation Street. I
don’t know how you all feel about English soaps but they look
like philosophical discussions on cosmology when you compare them to
Fair City. Fair City is the most inadvertently hilarious
“serious” drama you’ll ever see in your
lives and for once I’d love a reason to watch it other than
to get a laugh at the truly woeful writing. For once there would be a
proper actor with proper acting ability who could probably do a better
characterisation of a Dubliner than the cardboard cut-outs that
currently reside in Carrigstown. And then I wake up.
I
mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I emailed TV3 asking them if they
had any footage of the TV Now awards 2008. They very kindly replied in
strangely paragraphed purple letters (I have taken out the paragraphs
and the letters will not appear purple – but it looks lovely
in hotmail format J ).
“Apologies
for the delay in getting back to you. Unfortunately at present it is
not possible to view any footage online. However the list of winners
should be on www.tvnowmagazine.ie . Hope this helps.”
-
the list is not there, unless by some magical phenomenon that page is
visible to them and not to me, still it was nice to hear back from them
even if nothing came from it.
Until
next time, take care.
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May 11th 2008
In
my last act as a sane, rant-less person, I thought you’d
probably like to know, or at least tolerate hearing that I had a blog
prepared already on a completely different topic. I multi-task in
ranting too. But with the excitement of a new Taoiseach from Offaly
with a really bad singing voice and the news I’m about to
share with you, I thought I’d go for it regardless. Well
it’s not so much news in the sense that most people seem to
already be aware of it, but when I innocently clicked on a topic on JAF
earlier in the week, I got the fright of my life.
Shock
followed by disbelief, followed by more shock, then denial –
“There are some Dublins in America, aren’t
there?” And then amazement that I had never even heard of the
award itself. Much less that The Man Himself would be there. I am
talking of course about the TV Now 2008 awards that till a few days
ago, I didn’t know existed. Much less that they were
occurring last April and it took a whole heaven full of angels to find
that out. And the worst part is that it happened under my nose and I
didn’t even realise. How was he able to get through customs
at Dublin airport without my spidey senses tingling? Or even the port?
I’m not a million miles away from that either. If he
didn’t come by boat or plane then how in the name of
bewildered teenagers did he get here at all?
I’ve
done some terribly strenuous research on the precise reason for Jonas
gracing us (albeit completely unbeknownst to his adoring fans) with a
visit to the Mansion House - no really typing into Google is a tough
job but someone has to do it! Anyway it so transpires that
Jonas’s other half’s character
“Katie” was nominated for Favourite Female Soap
Star. I have no idea if she won. What I have found out –
looking up anything on a specifically Irish topic is impossible
– it’s almost as bad as the BBC’s Public
Relations department – is that it seems to have been
broadcast at around 8:00 pm on TV3. I have emailed said television
station with a plea for video/pictures/or even results but I
don’t expect a reply because I sent emails to RTÉ
which broadcast Robin Hood Series 1 last Autumn and they
haven’t answered my query on whether or not they mean to do
the same for Series 2.
On
an aside, I saw an interview with Lucy Griffiths on JAF posted in the
“In The Press” section that leaves me with so
little hope for Marian’s amazing return that it has gone into
minus numbers. I didn’t know it was possible to be
–hope (hopeless is equal to 0).
“But,
anything that may or may not happen would have been a decision made by
the producers and myself. Whatever happens is for the good of the show.
That’s all I can say.”
The
dull thudding you may or may not have heard was my heart sinking in my
chest. I know I am occupying the dubious position of floating along the
River Styx (i.e. Marian is dead, really dead, so dead that it
isn’t even possible to bring her back dead. As opposed to:
she’ll get over it with a bit of Saracen medical aid and a
few apples). I know all the time I’ve been the one who has
come to accept she’s probably gone, but I don’t
want her to be gone. And reading interviews like this one just kill the
hope.
I
also noticed this ambiguous comment at the end of her interview in
which she says: five years ago, I never would have said, “Oh,
I’d like to play Maid Marian for three years.”
Which immediately gets me clutching blindly at straws and trying to
square my –hope (squaring a minus number makes a plus
number!). What a mad, mad world, it is for fans.
Until
next time, take care.
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April 24th 2008
First
of all, I think I should start this entry by saying
“Hi” and “You came back. How
marvellous!” and then I should say that I will probably tend
to discuss Robin Hood more than Jonas’s other work because
it’s the series I fell in love with, which introduced me to
Jonas Armstrong. Also, I can’t get my hands on the other
series (although I have seen all of Ghost Squad once). And when his
horror film comes out I’ll be able to factor that in too
– if I ever make it out of the cinema alive! My hands may be
permanently clasped in horror, but I’ll jump off that bridge
when I get to it. (Metaphorical. Not literal! – You would not
jump into a lot of rivers I know! – see the River Liffey for
a suitable example). Also if anyone does want me to rant on a different
Jonas-related topic, my email address is up on your top left somewhere.
I
had my French oral exam last week and in a fit of logic
didn’t talk about Robin Hood as my favourite programme
(Pantomime gasp of horror!). I talked about the IT Crowd instead. I had
a piece on Robin Hood prepared but I just couldn’t bring
myself to limit my discussion to “and then he came home from
the crusades and then Guy took his house and then the Sheriff liked
killing peasants and then Robin liked saving them and then Robin went
into the forest and robbed rich people with his band of
outlaws”. I just couldn’t put two years of TV
watching – laughing, crying, rolling my eyes at anachronisms,
into a brief summary and a description of Robin as brave and
good-looking (which he is, but I didn’t have time for an in
depth character summary).
I’m
reminded of a Dara O’Briain sketch in “Stop
You’re Killing Me” in which he talks about his
granny being involved in the War of Independence and he has to explain
to a man from Liverpool how she had nothing to do with Northern Ireland
where his friends died and he gives a quick and comical run down of the
history of the state.
I
mean I could just imagine the situation sitting there with a bewildered
examiner as I rant (quite rightly too) about how Robin’s
flawed character makes him a more 3 dimensional human being, which
makes the situation completely farcical when some Guy/Marian shipper
amongst the producers decides to overlook the title glaring back at
them in golden neon letters at the beginning of every episode lest we
forget “Robin Hood” – or maybe I imagined
that big fat reminder of what the show’s supposed to be
about. I mean the Fellowship of the Ring goes off on some strange and
wonderful tangents – see dancing on tables and pipe weed, but
it is always about Fellowship and it is always about the Ring. I mean
if the series of Robin Hood was called “An Interesting
Discussion of Anachronisms and Misguided Character
Development” fair enough. I don’t think anyone
would be complaining. But it’s not, and I am.
Anyway
I imagined myself, as the examiner asks me about this series I seem so
interested in, getting progressively angrier at certain aspects of the
“Hey what the heck just happened to my show”
collection of events (I’m leaving THAT one to another day
when I have sole use of the kettle and the packet of Jaffa Cakes). But
I’m talking about the Land of Leather show. Or
that’s what it seemed like some of the time. I’ve
read Nikki’s and Judy’s wonderful discussions on
this subject and head over there if you haven’t seen them
already, but excuse me while I air my own personal grievances with this
aspect of my beloved show. It’s like a child who does
something wrong: you’re annoyed that it decided to take that
path but you do still love it dearly and want to see it do well in
life. What you do not want, is the child to suddenly start wearing
black leather and stabbing people with pointy objects, when
it’s supposed to be in school or the like. In a very
confusing and roundabout way I’m trying to say that
everything has its place. Guy of Gisbourne is a very interesting
character that I do feel could be saved but chose not to be. I do feel
he deserves screen time, a good deal of screen time, but what I do not
like is when Robin Hood is pushed out of the series entirely.
Take
the completely, unashamedly Guy-centric episode 11: Battle for Helms
Deep – Sorry I meant Nottingham. I mean Guy was the hero. The
hero! I’m sorry, but the legend that I was expecting to watch
usually has some fella in green. At what point did the hero start
wearing black leather and killing all the poor people? And Robin had
barely 5 minutes in that episode. I know there are a lot of Guy fans,
but even Aragorn knew that Frodo was the head honcho – and he
was on Team Fellowship. You couldn’t even imagine Saruman
strutting around saving all the little Gondorians. Robin is the whole
point. I don’t want him to be an omniscient spiritual
presence. He has to be on screen otherwise the whole title has no
purpose other than to make me pace angrily and rant in my kitchen
(which I have been known to do).
This
is precisely what I want: Definitely on screen for a reasonable amount
of time, Guy should be more black hat than white (I will accept a VERY
dark grey), should Marian return she should know her place in TV-land
and not continue the whole Guy/Marian thing, I want Robin not just to
be Episode-8-Unreasonable-Monster but I want him to be a fully
developed-at-least-on-for-15-entire-minutes-character who is
experiencing a normal set of emotions. What I absolutely do not want is
another 13 episodes of Oh Poor Guy, How Will You Ever Get Through The
Emotional Agony of Stabbing Someone Because They Did Not Love You. I
will be writing very angry letters to anyone with an email address to
tell them that I want them all to march back to Hungary with a hand
held camera and Jonas Armstrong and film the thing with the hero having
a decent amount of screen time.
Just
read Lucky’s blog before I sent this out. What’s
this about being inbred? I don’t know whether to send her an
angry pm about insulting my beloved nation and watch her squirm while
giggling at my monitor, or to look up my own family tree. [I squirmed
and then I cried with laughter Jen - Lucky] Although it’s far
more likely that I would be related to Jonas, rather than Lucky, seeing
as I’m from Dublin and I have family in the North. But unless
we’re talking 150 + years ago his ancestor married mine, then
it’s pretty unlikely and probably preferable. Drooling over a
5th cousin 6 times removed isn’t a good look.
I’m
off to have two cups of tea for all that emotional exertion. Have one
yourself and I’ll see you in a fortnight.
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Introductory Blog
Hi,
my name is Jenny, and I have a problem. You see there’s this
guy…
I
suppose I should start my venture into blogdom by introducing myself.
I’m 18 and from Dublin, which automatically entitles me to
call Jonas “mine”.
An
important thing that people reading this blog need to know is that my
middle name should be “avid”. I don’t do
things by halves. If something catches my attention it consumes my
thoughts during the day and I have Kylie Minogue syndrome. It just
won’t get out of my head.
My
run in with Robin Hood began in 2006 when I saw the closing credits for
episode 5. I thought the music sounded nice but I heard it was some
Robin Hood adaptation and the Big Bad Control was only trying to get a
new actor to wear the green tights and prance around on tables. It went
out of my head and that was that. The next week I wandered into the
kitchen and there was this TV programme on. Didn’t know what
it was but I had nothing better to do and sat down and watched it to
the end. I didn’t know it then, but when I switched off the
TV and went to finish some maths homework the seeds of addiction were
already sprouting. It’s a nice addiction, by the way. I can
stop when ever I want, except I don’t want to. So the next
week I set the Sky reminders and sat down for a full episode. The great
Series 1 turning point episode 7 was on and I remember my heart
absolutely breaking for the man on the outside of the window who looked
like someone had pulled out his heart, kicked it around the floor and
threw it in the dustbin. I didn’t know who any of these
actors were except Richard Armitage (I’m into the classics)
so I set out to find out more about these people because I just
couldn’t forget what I’d seen on screen.
I
couldn’t get that sandy haired man with the soulful blue eyes
out of my head so I looked him up. I found my way onto a general Robin
Hood fan site and then onto a message board that was only starting out.
I was too shy to post for the most part but the series finished and it
was like something that was so important and fantastic and amazing that
had made the last few weeks seem like they were skating by was suddenly
over and I had a year to wait for something to watch again. In the
meantime, I found my feet and posted on the Jonas dedicated web site
(JAF – shameless plug) and I found people who were just as
interested in Robin Hood and in particular, with Jonas himself. It was
a great feeling to have a group of people to share your highs and your
lows with. We were like the Fellowship of the Ring. We bonded over
something small and precious, such a little thing, that suddenly burst
out and became an important part of our lives. Not a bad analogy
considering a certain Helm’s Deep-themed episode in a later
series of Robin Hood, but more on that another time.
Through
JAF and other places I found, I was able to see interviews with the man
himself (our Frodo, if you will) and it struck me, as he fidgeted
about, crossed his legs, and ran his fingers through his hair, not
quite at ease, that here finally was a person who didn’t care
about the money on its own, he was there to promote something
he’d clearly wanted to be a part in, something he’d
seemed to really enjoy making. And it was so refreshing. He seemed so
genuine, that, in a world of appearances and artificiality, was
something that really went in his favour. Obviously, I’m only
human, and being only human I checked where he was from to suss out his
origins. I was really surprised to find out that he was Irish and from
Dublin. And naturally, as a countrywoman of a nation that is proud of
anyone whose granny holidayed here in 1964, I felt immensely proud of
Jonas and all he’d achieved. And I was proud that an Irishman
was leading a very ambitious project, and, despite a few begrudgers,
winning over the UK and Ireland and doing the country proud. And that
part of me punches the air whenever I see him doing Save Sherwood
campaigns, or lending his name and his time to the Brian House hospice
which is something I admire him hugely for.
In
addition to being a class individual in his own right, the fandom that
he has inspired would knock the socks off your feet if you could see
every thing that they do, be it help out in times of trouble,
fundraise, organise conventions, or simply chat away to each other. I
really feel that Jonas would be proud that his career is inspiring a
fan base to compare with more established actors. A fanbase which,
everyday, I’m glad I googled because obsessing with people
who soon become your friends is a billion times better than obsessing
on your own.
I’m
really left with nothing other than to say thank you for reading and I
hope I’m not too random. If I’m not random enough,
feel free to contact me on the link which is located somewhere on this
page and have a cup of tea. You’ve earned it!
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