365 Days with Damian Lewis

Hello, everyone!

Fan Fun with Damian Lewis is 1 year old today! We’ve taken our first baby steps and now we are ready to run!

1stbirthday

And, this is happening thanks to you! It is all YOU, great Damian Lewis fans and our readers, that make us keep going and going! Thank you!

Damianista

I will not lie to you. I dreamt about a blog post with this exact title 365 days ago when I published the first post on this blog. I didn’t know what to expect other than desperately wishing to have people read the blog…

We, a few inspired fans, are now here 365 days, 259 blog posts, and over 148K views from 140 countries later… We are a bit surprised, certainly psyched, and totally beaming about how far we have come! And, yes, watching the world map is now a favorite pastime, too! 🙂 Thanks for visiting us, you make our day every day!

source: Google Analytics
source: Google Analytics

A year may not be a very long time in a  blog’s life, but it is a real milestone in its own right — at least a very good excuse to thank YOU, our readers, for the overwhelming support and feedback you have given us over the past year! As we are collectively sharing Damian Lewis FUN, you all are making our dream come true! A BIG thank you to each and every one of you for reading us, giving us feedback on the blog, and following us on Facebook, Twitter and Tmblr. Damian Lewis inspires us in so many different ways that we just love turning the inspiration into words… Hope you are enjoying the blog as much as we love writing it!

source: Daily Mail
source: Daily Mail

And could you please bear with us as we need to make a few personal thanks?

The first one goes to the team! We absolutely have the best chemistry ever as partners in crime and you cannot imagine how many blog posts just come out of our casual conversations. I will liberally steal a quote from Damian Lewis to describe my partners because I could not put it into better words: “Everyone is smart, witty, and a little bit better than the last person.” 🙂

Special thanks go to Lady Trader — yes, we are proud to have our very own Wall Street “insider” consultant for Billions — for taking the time to meet with me to go over concepts and answer all my questions! Lady Trader, you rock, and I know we will have lots of fun with Billions. See you Saturday 😉

Damian Lewis has an army of fans but only a handful of crazy women that volunteer to build a site/blog for him. So we also want to take this opportunity to thank all fellow fans that do fan work, in particular Sabrina at Damian-Lewis.com with whom we have a very cooperative relationship! And early congratulations for the site’s 10th year — fantastic!

There are also a number of sites/pages that have been very generous in supporting us, and I sincerely hope I am not leaving anyone out: Linda who is running Friends of Major Dick Winters Facebook page, Damians Gal Tumblr page, Christine who is running Wolf Hall and Historical Fiction Facebook Group, and Emina, Jaimie and Jamie-Jay running Billions Facebook group. Thank you so much for all your support, it’s a real pleasure to know you! And these are all very cool pages and groups, check them out!

The next one goes to Lewisto, my husband, who is a constant supporter of this blog… Hey he has even guest-blogged for us and Bookworm insists he needs to chair a panel on Damian being pretty pretty good looking! 🙂 I would never ever have started a blog about my favorite actor should Lewisto have not encouraged me to do so. I will never forget him saying: “Some people love golf. You love Damian Lewis. What’s the difference?”

The last but definitely not the least, one goes to the man for whom we write this blog. Damian Lewis triggers something (I call it “something” just because I cannot put my finger on what it is!) in us that make us pour our hearts out and turn the love into words almost every day. So, thank you, Damian, for making us the fans that we are, sometimes “frolicking” sometimes “fanning” and sometimes “forensic” 🙂 And we are honored to hear you saying “I read you” and describing the work we do using the words “creative”, “journalistic”, and “in-depth.” THANK YOU.

Damian is here to stay for a long long time, and so are we, and we will keep doing the best we can to showcase our favorite actor and his brilliant work! Thank you again for making Fan Fun with Damian Lewis a FUN part of your life and we deeply hope you continue to do so! Please don’t be a stranger, write to us, leave comments on the blog; we love it when you make requests about topics you want to see us write about — please keep them coming!

TBkwrm

Did you ever sit in class and complain about the book a teacher has just handed to you to do a book report on?  I know that I did which, given my chosen screen name, you may find a tad ironic. However, as youngsters we are told what to learn. It is all set out for us which inevitably leads to work landing on your desk with a pile of homework you have no motivation or desire to put your best effort in to.  This is something which will infuriate a teacher especially if they know you have the ability and a teenager will only further infuriate their teacher by a dismissive shrug of the shoulders. Also, telling your English teacher that you had a ton of Maths homework as an excuse for lack of homework or poorly executed homework is generally not a good idea…let the dick swinging between the English and Maths department commence.  As Damianista points out  we all use game theory in our every day lives whether we realise it or not.

The older you get there is more emphasis on being responsible for your own education. Generally, a school will bend over backwards to help students pass as they wouldn’t want to affect their national statistics….damn number again.  Sorry, English department, but the numbers are taking over! That being said, the last two years at high school are about emphasising to you that the responsibility is now yours and not your teachers’ because they are not coming with you when you leave for higher education.

The difference between high school and college is night and day.  You have chosen your area of study and it is therefore expected that you have the motivation and desire to study it.  Lecturers are passionate about their subject and happy to help anyone who may be struggling if they are showing the desire and effort to learn the curriculum, but this isn’t high school. If you are late or don’t do your work (without genuine reason which you can discuss with them), it doubtless annoys them, but they aren’t going to mollycoddle you, hold your hand and nag at you the way a teacher in school would. You don’t do the work? You fail. Simple.

What has this got to do with blogging on a Damian Lewis fan site? Plenty. We are here to cover Damian’s work. We do so because we appreciate Damian’s work and think the effort he puts in himself deserves some recognition.

Our readers provide motivation by letting us know there are other Damian Lewis fans out there and reading and commenting on what we are doing. There is motivation to make sure we are keeping as up-to-date as possible and covering topics as accurately as we can.

We thank Damian very much for being the source of such inspiration and we thank Damian and our readers for the motivation to keep going.

Now, there is a scene in the Billions pilot (don’t worry no major spoilers here) where Damian churns out jargon like a boss. I have no idea what he said. I have re-watched the scene a few times and even written a transcript of what is said in that scene and I still haven’t a clue what he said. Luckily, it is not actually essential to understand it, as I’m pretty sure the rest of the episode tells us in laymen’s terms even if we don’t quite realise it at first.

In the spirit of on-going fanfun growth, I’m off to try and work out what Bobby from Hofstra was babbling on about…if you told me 365 days ago I’d be trying to wrap my head around stock market jargon, I would have laughed at you. Before enlightenment there is ignorance!

Thank you Damian and thank you all.

A special thanks to Damianista, JaniaJania and Missfit because we have had some serious discussions wrapped up in a bubble of hilarity, which always makes the learning more fun.

Jania Jania

Indeed, the discussions we have had “off camera”, so to speak, could fill a library of blogs many times over. And I cannot express how fortunate I feel and grateful I am to have met Damianista, lo, so many months ago and to come across Bookworm and LisMisFit’s work in other venues. We picked a bunch of winners to be on this team, that’s for darn shore. Before we met I was a reader, a consumer, now I feel like I’m settling into being a writer, a producer. It has been an education is many many ways, and I am thankful as heck!

I tend to take work very seriously, often so seriously that obsessing over work becomes the work itself, and the work on this blog has been no exception. I never wanted to just phone it in, and, naturally, there have been cases where I’ve done just that. There have been times when I didn’t feel like writing, even when I knew how good I would feel after I got it done. Just like any exercise! But, eventually the reward in getting it done, getting ideas and observations out there, communicating bits of inspiration, like stars in a galaxy with Damian at its center, has been so invigorating! Inspiration breeds inspiration. And because I am committed to riding the wave of inspiration provided by Damian and his work for perpetuity, I look forward to many more years, yes, I said YEARS, of this blog.

Happy Anniversary everyone!!

Author: Damianista

Academic, Traveler, Blogger, Runner, Theatre Lover, Wine Snob, Part-time New Yorker, and Walking Damian Lewis Encyclopedia :D Procrastinated about a fan's diary on Damian Lewis for a while and the rest is history!

18 thoughts on “365 Days with Damian Lewis”

  1. Happy Birthday you guys! I think I can speak for all of your readers when I say “Thank you!” for all your great, hard work, dedication, and amazing writing and insights into the work of an amazing actor. When I think of this blog, the first word that comes to mind is “smart”, and that is exactly why I enjoy reading it! You guys have done an amazing (am I over-using that word?) job these last 365 days, and I can’t wait for the next 365, especially since we now have Billions (figuratively and literally) to discuss! Congratulations!!

    1. Thank you so much, Lisa, for visiting and reading us, and for your very kind words! By using the word “smart” (I have such a soft spot for the word) and over-using “amazing” you just make our day! I can’t imagine the fun we will have altogether with Billions – there is so much to think about, talk about and write about and we just can’t wait <3 Thanks for everything!!!!

    2. Thank you, Lisa. I can hardly believe it is a year. Damianista, Jania Jania and Missfit make me laugh so much, time seems to have flown in.

    3. Music to our ears Lisa!!! Thank you for your encouraging words and for continuing to read us, for Billions and beyond! 🙂

  2. Happy Anniversary, and thank you for running this blog, Damianista! When I re-watched the Forsyte Saga over the summer and early fall I was so moved by the story and performances that I took to the Internet to share thoughts and found your blog–such a perfect place to seek and air opinions on the star, Damian Lewis. Further, you very graciously responded to my post regarding my take on the character of Soames and the pathos that Damian instilled in that character. I was very flattered by your kind appreciation of my little literary theory speech. So hail to fanfun, and thanks and happy new year to you, Damianista, from Cheryl in America.

    1. Hi Cheryl, thanks so much for your kind words and for visiting and reading us! Please keep your feedback coming, we are so happy to have you and everyone here! Happy new year! <3

    2. Thank you from me too for your comment Cheryl! Soames is a great character, one for the ages. I’m sure we’re not done with him yet on the blog, so stay tuned!
      Like you, I found Damianista and this blog thanks to an insatiable urge to talk about Damian Lewis and his performances. He’s brought all of us together and there’s no turning back now! Cheers!

  3. Happy First Anniversary to all of you who write this blog!! I found you only a few short weeks ago, but I love to read your thoughts and views on my favorite actor, Damian Lewis!
    Congratulations!!

    Cindee

    1. Hi Cindee! Thanks so much for your kind words, for visiting and reading us – we are very happy to have you here, please keep your feedback coming! Damian Lewis rocks 😀

    2. Thank you so much. I stumbled across Damianista on twitter while Wolfhall was on TV last January and now she can’t get rid of me!!! It was great to find someone to talk to about Damian. We know there are other fans who feel the same.

  4. Happy birthday to your blog, it is a marvel to read every day, just like damian – lewis.com!

    I only regret that you did not knew, Damian in the years 2005,2007, you we would have talked about Damian, of his talent in Keane, Life and others! and I know that you would have done brilliantly, as always!
    Fortunately, that many times you mentioned, main characters played by Damian,merçi pour tout

    1. Thank you, Monique! It’s like yesterday that I shared the first post – time flies! We’re so happy to be here with all of you and cheers to many many years altogether following Damian’s bright career – let’s see what surprises he has in store for us! <3

    2. Thank you Monique for being such a constantly great commentor here. This blog may only be a year old, but we definitely do a lot of writing on Damian’s projects prior to 2015! Have you checked out our posts on Keane and Life, not to mention the epic Forsyte Saga? Granted we all came together over Homeland, but we still have much MUCH love and lots of things to say for the rest of Damian’s oeuvre (hope I used that French word correctly:)) Bien merci!!

  5. Happy birthday, everyone! This blog is so much fun and I really enjoy reading it.

    Thank you for all the work that goes into this site. I am an entertainer and show producer, so I know all about the unsung heroes of the “behind the scenes” stuff that goes into fun things like this.

    Here’s to another great trip around the sun as we dote on our favorite* ginger 🙂

    -Holly
    (*well ok my second favorite-I am married to one….)

    1. Thank you so much for your kind words, Holly, we really appreciate you visiting and reading us! True, there is a lot of time and effort going into this, and add to it a few (in fact, more than a few) sleepless nights, too, trying to finish a post, but I admit I have never done anything more FUN in my life. So looking forward to the next chapter in the journey and hey I just LOVE this: “Here’s to another great trip around the sun as we dote on our favorite* ginger” (* my favorite since hubby is not ginger) 😀

  6. Happy Birthday to this blog and a big congrats to the ladies who run the show! You ladies do such a great job and it’s thanks to your hard work that we get the latest info on our man Damian.

    Thank you for mentioning my Tumblr page.

    All the best for 2016 ladies and to Damian!

    1. Thank you so much! Your Tumblr Page Rocks and YOU ROCK — thanks for reblogging our posts! We will do our best to keep doing what we’ve been doing – cheers to a lot of Damian FUN shared altogether for long, long years <3 All the best!!!!

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