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!

Billions on Showtime, Season 2, Episode 3: Optimal Play

source: Showtime

I could not be happier that a game theory term makes it to the title of this week’s episode: Optimal Play. Optimal Play, also known as Best Response, is the strategy that produces the most favorable outcome for a player, taking the strategies of other players in the game as given.

Given that the entire hedge-fund industry is under siege and that he needs to adapt, Axe’s optimal play is to venture out of the city walls and straight into the NFL. We learn from his chat with NY Giants chairman Steve Tisch that Axe grew up with football on a “24-inch Trinitron knock-off” and his first ever football game in a stadium was in Tisch’s box. As Tisch shares with him that he needs to jump through quite a few hoops to impress the NFL, Axe is pretty confident about his bid and already trying to figure out where his seat will be at the stadium. Not here at MetLife Stadium, of course. NY Giants is not for sale 😀 Continue reading “Billions on Showtime, Season 2, Episode 3: Optimal Play”

Joining the Band: Paige’s Story

Hello all! Damianista welcomes you to a NEW fan story!

One of the most rewarding things about doing this fan blog is meeting fellow fans with whom you hit it off immediately. And, Paige is certainly one of them. We first met online but then in person at Damian’s Times Talks in New York last summer and have been in regular touch since then. Damian made Times Talks a special treat for the audience with his delightful stories and brilliant sense of humor. There was a lot of laughter in the room and I believe Paige and I provide concrete evidence in the picture below 🙂

Paige is not only a great Damian Lewis fan, she is also a brilliant blogger. You should definitely check out her blog Maximum Tuneage and read about how she almost did anything for Damian Lewis and why I am her walking .gif 😀

Without further ado, here is Paige sharing her fan story: Continue reading “Joining the Band: Paige’s Story”

Billions on Showtime, Season 2, Episode 2: Dead Cat Bounce

That is what you get when you try to poach Axe’s most valuable employee, Todd.

Axe starts picking on Todd’s obviously scripted speech at Spartan-Ives “Global Thought Leaders” panel moderated by Lawrence Boyd. While Krakow’s choice of poet is Pindar, Axe’s seems to be Walt Whitman (who can forget the “barbaric yawp” scene from Dead Poets Society?). Is it just me or does Wags’ smile turn to concern as Axe leaves the room saying Krakow’s “party cocktail tutor” owes him a refund?

source: Showtime

Axe apologizes to Boyd for being a bad boy but Boyd cannot be happier about what just happened. It seems he picked the panel for its entertainment value. The street will talk about this for weeks and whoever was not in the room will make Spartan-Ives their prime broker to be able to attend next year. Axe is not happy about playing “the bull” to Boyd’s “red sash” every time. Continue reading “Billions on Showtime, Season 2, Episode 2: Dead Cat Bounce”

Damian Lewis on Stage: Five Gold Rings or When Damian Met Helen :D

Matt Wolf, a theater critic who interviews Damian Lewis at Times Talks London in May 2014, spends quite some time talking to Damian about each and every play he has done to date at length, well, except for one: When it comes to Five Gold Rings, Wolf mentions it briefly and as more of a personal highlight than a professional one for Damian!

Matt Wolf: “One production at The Almeida called Five Gold Rings was perhaps not that successful except that it has the woman whom you ended up marrying so I would assume it was a success in that way.”

Damian laughs: “Yeah.”

source: Getty Images

Sweet! And it goes without saying that today’s walk in memory lane will be as much about Five Gold Rings as about When Damian Met Helen 😀 Continue reading “Damian Lewis on Stage: Five Gold Rings or When Damian Met Helen :D”

Finding Damian Lewis in the Least
Expected Places: June’s Story

Hello all, Damianista here! It’s Fan Stories day!

Many found out about Damian in Band of Brothers in early 2000s. Many more joined the fandom with Homeland. As we saw in Krista’s story last week, Damian is still gaining new fans with Billions. But then there are fans who “discovered” Damian in the least expected places.

June is one of them.

June is a published author under the name Struben Clinton and I believe you may want to read her Red Crocodile series once you read her fan story. Big thanks go to her for this unique contribution to our Fan Stories series and for the lovely pics she provided to go with the story!

I’d been writing my great romance for nearly a year but while looking for an image to help me visualize my hero I changed him a number of times, never satisfied I had the right one. Then I happened to see “Have I got News for You” and the chairman there was this red-head who seemed exactly what I was looking for.

source: dailymotion.com screencap

Continue reading “Finding Damian Lewis in the Least
Expected Places: June’s Story”