Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Sleuthing in TrueBloodville- The travelogue of our trip to Louisiana

TrueBloodinDallas (Dallas) and ObjectDesire (Object)

Sunday, December 28th: Hush, Hush planning meeting to coordinate details of super secret expedition to TBville. Meet and recruit bookstore employee for future missions. Chai latte is involved –yummy.

Monday, December 29th, bright and early: Check supplies, pack gear, kiss cats/dogs/children/spouses goodbye. Dallas leaves a cryptic clue on the blog with a picture of the Louisiana state bird , the brown Pelican ( no one gets the clue!) Depart Dallas.

10:00am "ish": Cross Louisiana state line. Cheer loudly. Funny that the state line sign does not say “Welcome to the Kingdom of Louisiana “

10:45 to 11:30: Discover that Object is not as good a navigator as she claims. See many parts of Shreveport that would have remained undiscovered otherwise, however.

11:30 Arrive at first destination, the "Blind Tiger" restaurant on historic Shreve Square, downtown Shreveport. This restaurant was selected in advance as an homage to Quinn (the weretiger). We consume excellent Cajun cuisine
(Dallas: shrimp po'boy; Object: blackened red snapper). Object tips cute young waiter generously because he graciously brings pitchers of both sweetened and unsweetened iced tea to the table to refill her glass exactly half and half as she requested (honest, that is the only reason).

Afternoon: Using Dallas' research and trusty map, we quickly find Lucky Liquors, the site where Monroe vamps house was burned, the Strand Theatre (where Quinn takes Sookie to see "The Producers"), and the Ogilvie-Wierner house that can be seen in True Blood opening credits. Quite exciting!

We leave Shreveport and head south. Armed with clues and extensive research by Dallas, at 1:54pm, we round a bend on a country road, and there is Bill's house!!! Object's daughter is unfortunate enough to have called at that moment and is still complaining about the ringing in her ears from all the jubilant screaming--oops. Dallas parks on road to take pictures. Temptation is too great and she swipes a handful of gravel from the drive. Construction foreman (the house is under renovation) drives his Jason's pickup truck down the drive to ask us what the heck we are doing. Dallas glamours foreman and he reveals that the owners of the house are renovating the property for personal use (not for a B&B as we had hoped).

Drove to nearby small town that stands in for scenes of downtown Bon Temp. Get pictures of square with courthouse where Jason learns of Gran's death, then find location where Jason saves large oak tree from the clutches of Rene's jackhammer. Discover to our delight that there is an establishment on the property named "Bubba's." How perfect is that! Dallas refuses to allow Object to enter local beauty shop to find out where in the world Jason's house is located. She does not believe that Object is sufficiently skilled at glamouring techniques and it would just be plain embarrassing.

Our eerie luck runs out and we drive around beautiful countryside for another hour and half looking for Jason's house (Dallas threatens to hit Object's portable gps system with a hammer when it provides instructions for a third u-turn in the same 2 mile stretch of highway). We stop for banana splits to console ourselves, then head to Keatchie to see if any restaurant similar to MawMaw's Mud Bugs (where Tara and Lettie Mae dine) exists. Find a "Crawdaddy's" convenience store in a nearby town, but discover that no mud bugs are for sale.

Happy but somewhat exhausted, we head back to Shreveport. Portable gps system redeems itself by leading us quickly to Superior Bar & Grill for one last fabulous meal (Mexican food). This was a recommendation by posters on the Charlaine Harris chat board. Dallas has fish tacos and Object has grilled bacon-wrapped shrimp stuffed with Monterrey jack cheese and poblano peppers. Because we are driving back to Dallas, we sadly forego the excellent looking margaritas that are served in large Styrofoam tumblers.

Spend trip back to Dallas planning our next adventure. Stay tuned!





Charlaine Harris’ 3 favorite books

Thanks to Matt from Robots and Vamps for posting these, I am working on a full list which is coming soon.

Barnes & Noble asked several notable authors what their 3 favorite books are…some are interesting, some are strange and some explain alot.

Melusine by Sarah Monette

melusineDust jacket summary: Mélusine-a city of secrets and lies, pleasure and pain, magic and corruption. It is here that wizard Felix Harrowgate and cat-burglar Mildmay the Fox will find their destinies intertwined in a world of sensuality and savagery.

From Publishers Weekly - Starred Review. Set in the wondrous city of Mélusine, Monette’s extraordinary first fantasy novel focuses on two captivating characters from two very different worlds: Felix Harrowgate, a powerful magician at the court of Lord Steven Teverius, and Mildmay the Fox, a cat burglar who has been trained as an assassin. When Felix falls prey to the unscrupulous machinations of a man who’s plotting to destroy Mélusine, he’s left nearly mad, unable to clear his name or explain his actions.
Mildmay, on the other hand, undertakes a simple burglary, thinking it will lead to a bit of extra flash that will keep him going for more than a few days. Instead, the burglary opens the way to a series of unfortunate events that force Felix and Mildmay into a partnership neither of them could have anticipated or desired. Jacqueline Carey provides a blurb, but those readers expecting a knock-off of that author’s Kushiel series will be happily surprised. Monette resembles Carey only insofar as she, too, is a highly original writer with her own unique voice.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

world-war-zDust jack summary: “The end was near.” -Voices from the Zombie War

The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.

Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War.

Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, “By excluding the human factor, aren’t we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn’t the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as ‘the living dead’?”

A Dangerous Man by Charlie Huston

a-dangerous-manDust jacket summary: Reluctant hitman Henry Thompson has fallen on hard times. His grip on life is disintegrating, his pistol hand shaking, his body pinned to his living room couch by painkillers-and his boss, Russian mobster David Dolokhov, isn’t happy about any of it. So Henry is surprised when he’s handed a new assignment: keep tabs on a minor league baseball star named Miguel Arenas.

Henry has no pity for the slugger and the wicked gambling problem that got him in trouble, but he can’t help liking the guy. After all, Henry used to be just like him: a natural-born ball player with a bright future. But hell, that was long ago. Before Henry did some guy a favor and ended up running for his life. Before his girlfriend and buddies got gunned down by someone on his tail. Before he agreed to buy his parents’ safety with a life of violence.

And when Miguel gets drafted by the Mets and is sent to the Brooklyn Cyclones, Henry must head back to New York, back to the place where all his problems began-and where Henry might find a real reason to keep living, a reason that may just cost him his life.

Check out their other great reviews and the great site here : http://robotsandvamps.com

True Blood Music Video of the Day


Chop Suey by System of a Down

Happy New Year's Eve From LTBiD !

Dead Until Dark is Very Much Alive


I liked that this little review because it was posted to an Allstate Insurance Company business (dot com) site and that she called the Sookie and Bill' relationship a June - December one, which made me giggle.

HBO is showing a new series this year titled "True Blood." The TV show is based on Charlaine Harris's book Dead Until Dark.
Based on is perhaps not true. The series follows the book almost exactly. I suspect that the first season is the first book in Ms. Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries staring Sookie Stackhouse and the second season, I do hope there will be one, will be the second book.
The modern Ms. Stackhouse finds love with a Civil War veteran, Bill Compton, some 170 years her senior. Talk about a June-December relationship! Of course her friends, neighbors and some family members don't approve of the relationship. Not because of the age difference, rather because Mr. Compton is a vampire.
The Japanese have developed a synthetic blood allowing vampires to come out of the coffin and mainstream in normal Louisiana society. Gory murders galore happen and the vampires are, of course, accused. Sookie uses her ability to read minds to help solve the crimes.
http://look-allstate-insurance.co.cc/2008/12/29/allstate-term-life-insurance/Dead Until Dark (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 1)

When the Hero You Want Isn’t the Hero She Gets- the Eric Factor

Sandy at All about Romance writes...

I'm thinking of calling it The Eric Factor.
For those of you who don't read Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire series, Eric is a 6' 4" thousand year-old Viking vampire who - and I don't think I'm giving away much here - isn't likely to get the girl.
Yep, it's true. No matter how much I keep wishing and deluding myself into finding "hopeful" clues in the books, it's crystal clear that telepath heroine Sookie isn't going to hook up on a permanent basis with the devilishly sexy Eric.
It's a situation I should be used to since it's not the first time I've found myself in the position of rooting for a hero the author.well, obviously isn't. (And, gee, something tells me it won't be the last either.) But this time out, it hurts bad, baby. And I blame HBO and True Blood, the series loosely (and by that I mean really loosely) based on Dead Until Dark, the first book in the series.
Whatever else I found disappointing about the show's first season - and this isn't the post to get into the depths of my displeasure - the casting was perfect and quite simply the best I've ever come across when something I've loved was made into a TV show or film. Stephen Moyer's vampire Bill was hot
- hotter than I ever imagined him. Heroine Sookie as played by Anna Paquin was perfect. And Sam Trammell's adorable Sam was exactly how I pictured him
- only cuter.
And then there's Eric. Oh yeah. Not only did Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgard physically embody my vision of Eric to the peak of stupendous perfection, it's also clear that he totally "got" the character: Eric's charm, humor, lethal menace, and imperious nature - all were perfectly realized. In short, he was as devastatingly, bone-meltingly sexy as I ever imagined Eric the Viking to be. (And my imagination? Let's just say it was pretty freakin' hot.) But despite the heap 'o melted bones into which he turned me - and no doubt tens of thousands of other women, too - Eric just isn't going to get the girl. (Nor, for that matter, much screen time either.) Frustrated by developments (or, more appropriately, the lack thereof), I found myself wondering if creating a fantasy-inducing character the writer knew she wasn't going to let the heroine - or readers - ever really have wasn't some kind of Big Authorial Tease. I decided to investigate. (Tough job, I know.) Since I hadn't read the series from the start in several years, I began revisiting the books in order to determine if my Eric fixation was the result of my own shallow fascination with a smokin' hot Bad Boy. The good news? It's not. Charlaine Harris makes it perfectly clear that Eric really and truly cares about Sookie - at times even more than Sookie's first lover Bill - in his own uniquely powerful and vampiric way.
And he re-gravels her driveway. (Nothing like giving a woman exactly what she needs, right?) ................... And you know what I think that means? That sometimes the best hero for a good girl heroine really is a semi-reformed Bad Boy. Maybe even a semi-reformed Bad Boy vampire.

read full article http://www.likesbooks.com/blog/?p=407

April makes the big jump from reading book 1 in the Southern Vampire Mysteries to book 7


April on her walkingonthedarkside blog read the Sookie books out of order and I thought you'd think it was funny to hear how confusing it can be to go from book 1 to book 7! I've emailed her and asked her for a report when she caught up with all the excitement in between! Yes, yes I also reminded here about the short stories.


Alright, I know I have done a big jump from reading book 1 in the Southern Vampire Mysteries to book 7, but I couldn't help myself.

Being an avid fan of the HBO show True Blood, I couldn't wait to start reading the books that they were based on.

I just recently read Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. I'd been on a waiting list at the local library for it. Ok well, I've been on the waiting list for all the books that they carry in the series. Which is only two or three.

After reading Dead Until Dark, I decided to purchase more of the series from Ebay. I am waiting on books 2, 3, and 4 to get here. Anyhow, I got the chance to pick up All Together Dead today at the library.

I'm on page 242 right now, and I can say I must have missed a lot in the other books. I'm enjoying it, but it's hard to imagine Sookie without Bill.
Eric is a dish though!

Spoiler Alert for those that haven't read the books. I'm shocked that the whole reason that Bill and Sookie hooked up was because he was on a secret mission for the queen. Yet it all makes sense. How he strolled into the bar and kept asking her, "What are you?" Up until this point, I always thought it was just a fateful meeting.

I really wish I would have discovered these books years ago. They are great.
If you haven't read them yet, I would run, not walk, to your local library and start with book one.

Head Up!! New Year's Eve True Blood Marathon !!!!


I came late to the "True Blood" party, but I caught up as the first season of this new HBO drama ended this fall. If you've missed the boat so far, your chance is today; HBO2 is running the whole first season starting at 6pm ET. (If you get both east and west coast HBO feeds, you may have more than once chance to grab each episode.)

Set in a small Louisiana town, "True Blood" imagines a universe where vampires are real -- and "came out of the closet" two years ago. They don't want people to be afraid; they've switched from drinking peo ple's blood to a new synthetic that's available commercially and is almost as good as the real thing.

Vampire stories are often thinly veiled stories about romance, or at least sex, and there's a fair amount of both in "True Blood." Anna Paquin as the small-town waitress, and Stephen Moyer as the newly arrived vampire she falls for, have a great on-screen chemistry, and do a fine job with their respective roles. There's also lots of anti-vampire prejudice, complete with parallels to the real world. (The "God Hates Fangs" sign is hard to miss.)

Season one is coming out on DVD soon (or just record it all tonight), and season two will air on HBO next year.

http://www.21tvcast.com/21TVcast/Blog/Entries/2008/12/31_Heads_up!_New_Years_Eve_%22True_Blood%22_marathon!.html

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Behind the scenes with True Blood : Vampire in your cleavage


Our friend Robiart just emailed us with some great photos she took tonight at Fangtasia in the ladies bathroom ( that's really Alex's Bar in Long Beach, CA) . You can see the vampire cupie doll and other images in episode 9 -that's when Sookie is cleaning up after Bill has staked Longshadow. These are by the fabulous artist Nicole Welke. More here
You will also find a Youtube video below of Pam saying " ...there's vampire in your cleavage "
Love it!






























Thanks again, Robiart - we love hearing from readers and fans !
truebloodindallas@gmail.com

What Girls Want



A series of vampire novels illuminates the complexities of female adolescent desire- Atlantic Magazine by Caitlin Flanagan

Children’s books about divorce—which are unanimously dedicated to bucking up those unfortunate little nippers whose families have gone belly-up—ask a lot of their authors. Their very premise, however laudable, so defies the nature of modern children’s literature (which, since the Victorian age, has centered on a sentimental portrayal of the happy, intact family) that the enterprise seems doomed from the title. Since the 1950s, children have delighted in the Little Bear books (Mother Bear: “I never did forget your birthday, and I never will”)—but who wants to find a copy of Cornelia Maude Spelman’s Mama and Daddy Bear’s Divorce wedged onto the shelf? Still, the volumes fill a need: helping children understand that life on the other side of the custody hearing can still be happy and hopeful, that a broken family is not a ruined one.

read on http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200812/twilight-vampires

Vampires want more than just blood

By DEIRDRE FULTON | December 30, 2008
090102_vampires3_main4
FIGHTING LONELINESS: Lina Leandersson in Let the Right One In.

2008 might have been the year of the nerd (according to us at the Phoenix), the rat (Chinese astrology), and the potato (United Nations), but there's no question that it was also the year of the undead. In these trying times, we've shunned wizards for vampires, in effect exchanging hopeful, magical fantasy for something much darker, much bleaker — and much more romantic. Three pop-culture elements of this phenomenon — the blockbuster popcorn movie Twilight, HBO's True Blood, and the indie flick Let the Right One In — are evidence of our embrace of the undead. Watching all three back-to-back leads to some interesting comparisons, as well as insights into the vampiric world.

ATTRACTIVENESS OF LEADING ACTORS I have to give this one to True Blood. I've thought Anna Paquin was strangely hot, with her toothy smile and too-big eyes, since she Rogued it up in X-Men. And Stephen Moyer, who plays "Vampire Bill," is just about perfect — like a cross between Viggo in LOTR and Hugh Jackman (god, I sound like such a fangirl), only slightly more effeminate. That's the thing about vampire movies: the aesthetic leans toward androgyny. Consider the boyish attractiveness of Let the Right One In's main vampiress, Lina Leandersson, which is both striking and disturbing, given her age (12). And Robert Pattinson, the much-worshipped actor who portrays vampiric Edward Cullen in Twilight, is more beautiful than brutish — delicate, pale, and glittering in the sun. (Kristen Stewart, who plays Bella, is somewhat less arresting, but certainly not your typical blond ingûnue.)

SOUNDTRACKTwilight's will appeal to tweens and teens (representative artist: Paramore); Let the Right One In's will draw in hipsters (the eerie soundtrack was composed by Swede Johan Söderqvist); True Blood's will attract country/rockabilly types (the first episode features Lucinda Williams, Josh Ritter, and Little Big Town). More music-related trivia: the title of Let the Right One In is taken from a Morrissey song!

SPECIAL EFFECTS/GORE FACTOR There's a fantastic scene in Let the Right One In that involves severed body parts and a swimming pool. Another shows crazed felines attacking a recently bitten vampire. Both scenes are so obviously fake (the cats look like something from a sinister version of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood), yet so totally enjoyable. There's other bloody deliciousness (including a particularly grotesque scene in which blood squeezes from all of Eli's facial orifices) sprinkled throughout. The special bits in Twilight and True Blood are slightly slicker, but also slightly more predictable. What's amazing about all three of these artistic endeavors — and this speaks to the extent of their pop-culture penetration — is that the special-effects type stuff for which vampires are known (um, sucking people's blood, as well as possessing uncanny strength, and being vulnerable to sunlight) is presented as secondary to their emotions. Never mind that they can fly; vampires have feelings. (Jason Segel sang movingly about vampire feelings in Forgetting Sarah Marshall's vampire-puppet-musical "Dracula's Lament." I'm serious.)

ROMANCE/SEX Much has been written about what the successes of the Twilight books and movie say about modern (particularly female) adolescent sexuality; Caitlin Flanagan explores that theme in this month's issue of The Atlantic.

"The Twilight series is not based on a true story, of course, but within it is the true story, the original one," she writes. "Twilight centers on a boy who loves a girl so much that he refuses to defile her, and on a girl who loves him so dearly that she is desperate for him to do just that, even if the wages of the act are expulsion from her family and from everything she has ever known. We haven't seen that tale in a girls' book in a very long time. And it's selling through the roof."

Indeed, while Twilight (the movie) and Let the Right One In are on the surface very chaste, there's a terrific current of desire and want that runs through their veins. Their plots depend on newly discovered, unfulfilled wants.

True Blood, on the other hand, tackles these cravings head-on; as if to symbolize the lack of control that comes along with human-vampire interactions, show creator Alan Ball gleefully inserts wanton lust throughout his episodes.

"Certainly, sexuality, I think, is a real window into somebody's psyche, so I'm not as freaked out by characters being depicted in sexual situations [as] maybe some other people are," Ball said in a recent interview. As opposed to Ball's other famous HBO series, Six Feet Under (which he says was "all about repression"), True Blood "seems to me to be something that's about abandon."

But even more important than sex, in vampire movies, is love. The main couples here — Edward and Bella, Oskar and Eli, and Sookie and Bill — are shockingly, intensely drawn to each other. Perhaps these forbidden, confusing loves are even scarier than the whole blood-sucking thing. After all, love is the emotion of the heart, and the heart pumps blood, and vampires can't live without blood. Like us, vampires just wish everyone would try a little tenderness.

Year in Review: 10 Best Newcomers " Rutine Wesley


True Blood - Rutina Wesley as Tara Thornton

True Blood is packed with some excellent acting, but the newbie here who has really caught our attention is Rutina Wesley as the saucy, tough, hilarious, and very troubled Tara. Seemingly set up as Sookie's only girlfriend in town to lean on, she evolved into a full character of her own as we delved into Tara's very troubled home life with her alcoholic mom - but of course, True Blood couldn't stop there! We saw Tara struggle with her mother's demons, then the tough-as-nails Tara giving in to her own demons, plus more of her own drama being in love with the sexy but disastrous Jason, and her intriguing relationship with Sam. Wesley is more than a strong newbie to this show as she brought a huge amount of flavor and intrigue to this addicting show and we hope she doesn't get snuffed out anytime soon!

http://www.sidereel.com/_post/114067

Great Sam Trammell interview



TV Guide

True Blood New Year's Resolutions


I will not send Sookie a note from Jessica that says "Bill says you are more annoying than me!"

I will not borrow clothes from Pam.

I will not taste Tru:blood

I will not cook Jason anything with eggplant in it.

I will not be patient waiting for the sun to go down

I will stop calling Detective Bellefleur by his first name.

I will stop calling Sam a "sick puppy".

Loving True Blood in Dallas book suggestion: The New Annotated Dracula


"Dracula" was not the first vampire novel, nor was it Bram Stoker's first book.

But after years of research, Stoker managed to craft the ultimate vampire novel, which has spawned countless movies, spinoffs, and books that follow the blueprint of the Transylvanian count. Eerie, horrifying and genuinely mysterious, this is a book that was crying out for the kind of loving annotation that "The New Annotated Dracula" graces it with.

First we have an eloquent introduction by dark fantasy master Neil Gaiman, which serves as the gateway to a longer, densely informative foreword by Leslie S. Klinger. Klinger does some pretty extensive exploration of the origins of vampire literature, the impact of the Dracula character, and his presence in mass media ever since Stoker whipped together this book. It's a nice, meaty intro to the story:

And on to that story: Real estate agent Jonathan Harker arrives in Transylvania, to arrange a London house sale to Count Dracula. But as the days go by, Harker witnesses increasingly horrific events, leading him to believe that Dracula is not actually human. His fiancee Mina arrives in Transylvania, and finds that he has been feverish. Meanwhile the count has vanished -- along with countless boxes filled with dirt.

And soon afterwards, strange things happen: a ship piloted by a dead man crashes on the shore, after a mysterious thing killed the crew. A lunatic talks about "Him" coming. And Mina's pal Lucy dies of mysterious blood loss, only to come back as an undead seductress. Dracula has arrived in England -- then the center of the Western world -- and intends to make it his own...

The entire text is reworked into columns, with EXTENSIVE footnoting off to each side -- Klinger loads the text down with literary interpretations, historical explanations, places, attitudes of the time, clarification (the old woman who gave Harker the rosary, says Klinger, was probably a Hungarian immigrant) and even a bit of nitpicking. At times it gets a bit long-winded, but for sheer volume of explanatory information those footnotes can't be beat. It's a big thick chunk of a book though, so not advises for casual walking-around reading.

"Dracula" is the grandaddy of Lestat and other elegantly alluring bloodsuckers, but that isn't the sole reason why this novel is a classic. It's also incredibly atmospheric, and very well-written. Not only is it very freaky, in an ornate Victorian style, but it is also full of restrained, quiet horror and creepy eroticism. What's more, it's shaped the portrayal of vampires in movies and books, even to this day.

Despite already knowing what's going on for the first half of the book, it's actually kind of creepy to see these people whose lives are being disrupted by Dracula, but don't know about vampires. It's a bit tempting to yell "It's a vampire, you idiots!" every now and then, but you can't really blame them. Then the second half kicks in, with accented professor Van Helsing taking our heroes on a quest to save Mina from Dracula.

And along the way, while our heroes try to figure stuff out, Stoker spins up all these creepy hints of Dracula's arrival. Though he wrote in the late 19th-century manner, very verbose and a bit stuffy, his skill shines through. The book is crammed with intense, evocative language, with moments like Dracula creeping down a wall, or the dead captain found tied to the wheel. Once read, they stick in your mind throughout the book.

It's also a credit to Stoker that he keeps his characters from seeming like idiots or freaks, which they could have easily seemed like. Instead, he puts little moments of humanity in them, like Van Helsing admitting that his wife is in an asylum. Even the letters and diaries are written in different styles; for example, Seward's is restrained and analytical, while Mina's is exuberant and bright.

Even Dracula himself is an overpowering presence despite his small amount of actual screen time, and not just as a vampire -- Stoker presents him as passionate, intense, malignant, and probably the smartest person in the entire book. If Van Helsing hadn't thwarted him, he probably would have taken over the world -- not the Victorian audience's ideal ending.

Intelligent, frightening and very well-written, "Dracula" is the well-deserved godfather of all modern vampire books and movies -- and "The New Annotated Dracula" is a worthy exploration of that book.

The Text of Dracula [Author's Preface, Chapters 1-27] - with copious annotations on each page [the text is `chopped' into columns with the notes to the side]
Appendix 1: "Dracula's Guest"
Appendix 2: The Dating of Dracula
Appendix 3: The Chronology of Dracula
Appendix 4: A Whitby Glossary
Part II : Considering the Count [examines fictional accounts, Dracula in academia, on stage and screen, his family tree, and friends] and finally Klinger provides a comprehensive bibliography and textual sources.

To further enhance this glorious work - besides the 1500 or so annotations , there are about 400 illustrations [B&W and full-color] of photographs, playbills, diagrams, maps, advertisements, pictures of cinematic stills etc.


Amazon here

True Blood Fan Art




by vegadawn ( i love this )

The scene where the DotGD logo is visible here :

Suggestions are being sought for HBO True Blood merchandise ..

Here are some bumper sticker or t-sirt ideas from the wiki-do you have ideas ?
what merchandise would you like to see for sale ?

"Yikes. Yahoo. Yum!" (Know this is from bk4"You're safe with me."
"Shut the eff up"
"What are you?"
"You are something more than human"
"Mainstreaming is for pussies"
"You should try it sometime. It's nice"
"You have vampire in your cleavage"
"If I still had feelings, I'd have the chills right about now.""
Yo, Mr. Mainstream
I'll always be able to feel you, I'll be able to find you fast.
Honey, if we can't kill people , what's the point in being a vampire?
Don't say Uh Oh, Vampires are not supposed to say Uh Oh.
I am a vampire and you are mortal
May I call on you sometime?
I think Merlotte's just got it's first Vampire.
Coffee. Sounds Delightful.
Oh, my stars.
Oh, no doubt.
Sookie is Mine
Aren't you afraid to be out here with a hungry vampire?
Who said anything about sex?
Whoo Hoo, I'm a Vampire.
So, who's good to eat around here?
You're something more than human.
What are you?
Oh Bill, won't you please come in.
I can bring you back to life.
You're in my vault.
Can you feel my influence?
I can smell the sunlight on your skin.
There are urgent matters to which I must attend.
I wanna do bad things with you.
Don't ever sneak up on a Vampire.
Bring it on Hookah
You look like Vampire Bait
It's Tuvan Throat singing.
We vampires are always in some kind of trouble. I'd prefer to be in it with you.
Do it. I want you to.
You ain't living unless you are crossing somebody's line
I am thirsty (with a pic of Trueblood)
If I remembered what feelings were, mine might be hurt.
True Blood...it keeps you alive but it will bore you to death.

New Sookie Stackhouse - first ever hardcover edition of Living Dead in Dallas to be released next week !!


Amazon’s list of “Popular Pre-Orders” is a good indicator of books that are “highly anticipated” (which is why we link to it, under “Books Coming Next Month,” to the right).

The current list is dominated by titles coming out in January and February, but at #9 is a book that won’t be out until May, Charlaine Harris’s 9th title in the Sookie Stackhouse series, Dead and Gone. Hennepin is one of the few libraries that has it on order. At this point, they are showing 83 holds on 16 copies.

On her Web site, Harris says she is not finished with the series and doesn’t know how many more there will be.

HBO’s True Blood series brought the books back to bestseller lists this year. The series was recently received two Golden Globe nominations, for best dramatic series and for best actress (Anna Paquin). True Blood will return for a second season this coming summer.

Dead and Gone (#9)

In Berkley Trade catalog, pgs 6&7

  • Hardcover: $25.95; 336 pages
  • Publisher: Ace Hardcover (May 5, 2009)
  • ISBN-10: 0441017150
  • ISBN-13: 978-0441017157

The series began as original paperbacks, but started coming out in hardcover with #4 (Dead to the World).

Harris’s publisher is in the midst of reissuing the first three titles in hard cover.

Charlaine Harris

Dead until Dark (#1)

  • Hardcover: $23.95; 320 pages
  • Publisher: Ace Hardcover (January 2, 2008)
  • ISBN-10: 0441015972
  • ISBN-13: 978-0441015979

Charlaine Harris

Living Dead in Dallas, #2

  • Hardcover: $24.95; 304 pages
  • Publisher: Ace Hardcover (January 6, 2009)
  • ISBN-10: 0441016731
  • ISBN-13: 978-0441016730

Club Dead (#3 ) is scheduled for hardcover reprint in January 2010.

from http://www.earlyword.com/2008/12/30/new-sookie-stackhouse/

Sookie is a Fantasy Hero for 2008

I was glad to see Sookie listed in Oliver's Fantasy Hero Llist for 2008. I think she is more of a hero in the books than she is portrayed in the TV series

Sookie Stackhouse
The telepathic waitress is a simple young woman who occasionally does the gutsy thing. She saved a helpless vampire from human muggers, and sometimes helps out strangers with her unusual gift.

http://saintvladymir.blogspot.com/2008/12/fantasy-heroism-2008-heroes-big-small.html

Charlaine Harris talks about Alan Ball

Book Binge - Seven books in seven days

I thoroughly enjoyed Erv's shear pleasure at reading 7 sookie books in 7 days

An unfortunate side effect of grad school is that I have had zero spare time for reading. I mean, sure Ive got several hours a day to read papers, but I mean fun reading.

Well this past week I took a nice break from work/school/writing and I totally binged.

Seven books in seven days.

I read the entire Sookie Stackhouse box-set (still havent read the newest one), since I got drawn into the HBO series it was based on, True Blood (LUV ANNA PAQUIN!).

Holy crap you guys.

So good.

Sooooo friggen good!

They arent *just* vampire books-- theyre mystery novels that just happen to include vampires. And theyre good mysteries! Not the deus deux machina crap mysteries-- ones that actually give you clues the entire book so you can feel smart when you figure it out by yourself, or feel like an idiot when the clues dont make sense till the end. The resolution to 'Definitely Dead' was so unexpected had me literally ROFL it was so awesome.

Agh and the characters! Guys the vampires are mean. Theyre assholes! But they arent really even the 'bad guys'! The 'bad guys' are Christian Fundies, and they are so awful! Their actions in 'Living Dead in Dallas' had me shaking, and 'All Together Dead' had me sobbing. All the characters are wonderfully gray (are they good? are they bad? what are their motives??) except for the Fundies. heh.

Gawd I feel like a tick, Im so bloated on fun reading right now ;)

http://scienceblogs.com/erv/2008/12/book_binge.php

Best of New Orleans - 2008 Year In Review: High Notes

Louisiana musicians were at their best in 2008. Lil Wayne put Hollygrove on the map with he Recording Academy finally recognized Cajun and zydeco music with its own Grammy Award category and Preservation Hall started an excellent series of recordings on its own label. Below are some of the past year's standout moments.

Best apparently undead Louisiana artist: C.C. Adcock. The guitarist played in a vampire wedding band on an episode of the bayou-based vampire soap opera True Blood. It was unclear whether he was supposed to be a vampire or not, but he looked pretty sinister.


True Blood Music Video of the Day



"I want you to want me" by Cheap Trick

( sam and sookie video - nice )

Horror Happenings of 2008

LisaBee at Horror Happenings noticed vamps this year in her Horror Happenings of 2008 post

Moonlight
was canceled, but vampires returned to TV on True Blood. After a slow start, the new HBO series picked up in a big way and became a perfect combination of horror, mystery, romance and small town soap opera. Plus, it's got a great cast of characters including Sam the shapeshifter, Sookie the telepath and her vampire lover Bill. When the first season ended last month, True Blood had developed into one of the best shows on television.


Vampires left their mark in the world of film, too. Twilight became a monster hit not only on the book shelves but also on the big screen. Although Stephenie Meyer’s series of young adult novels came to an unfortunate end with the poorly written Breaking Dawn, the film versions are just getting started. The first sequel New Moon is already in the works with a brand-new director attached and a release date set for next November.

Meanwhile, Let the Right One In proved to be not only the best horror film of the year, but one of the best films period. In fact, it topped David Ansen’s list in Newsweek.


read on here http://horrorhappenings.blogspot.com/2008/12/horror-happenings-in-2008.html

Review of Generation Kill Dvds

Alethialia does a great review of the Generation Kill Dvd set

But really. What was the point of asking for suggestions of DVD extras if they were only going to include promo materials they'd already made? And I know that people suggested more than this because the_grynne organized a list over at generation_kill. (We're fans; we know how to organize. And tell people what we want.)

- Round-table between Wright and the 1st Recon Marines (Got it, thankfully the full version)
- Director/writer/cast commentaries (Got 'em)
- Featurettes (Got 'em)
- Map of the route (Got it, though it's vastly inferior to the original, imo)
- Bloopers
- Behind the scenes of bootcamp (Not unless we count the brief section in the featurettes, I guess)
- Photo galleries
- Songs from an Iraqi Road Trip
- Glossary (Got it)
- Actors' screen tests
- Donation of a portion of proceeds to a Marine Corps charity
- Video on recon training
- Scripts

At the very least, I know I asked for the scripts (and yeah, I'm probably the only one who cared). Scripts are already done! They require zero extra effort!

Much like this DVD set, it seems.

Read on

http://community.livejournal.com/generation_kill/

Top 20 TV Moments Of 2008- True Blood

Io9list best TV moments of 2008-
This year the TV was jam-packed with climactic kisses, deaths and waffles. Here's our video roundup of our favorite moments, silly and serious, from 2008 TV.True Blood - How To Kill A Vampire - "Plaisir d'amour

Didn't know that the rule of "if you throw up, then I'm going to throw up" applies to vampires.

True Blood - Sad Dancing For Drugs - "Escape from Dragon House"

Sparked a whole revolution of sad underwear dancing.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Dallas is on Special Assignment Today ...


I will be posting some later .....
Clue:The Brown Pelican

~~~~

So was that too hard of a clue ?
If I had put this as a clue ( below) would you have know where I was on special assignment yesterday ?


Does this help ?

I think you will be like what I've brought back with me ...

True Blood New Year's Resolutions

I would not make Trublood Popsicle

I would not suggest silver for an anniversary gift

I would not set Jessica up on a date

I will not call Andy 'Detective Bellefluer' ...he really doesn't deserve the title.

I will not paint my toenails red.

I will not walk into Fangtasia with a bag full of empty vials and a syringe.

True Blood Music Video of the Day



Somewhere out there byOur Lady Peace

Sunday, December 28, 2008

True Blood Music Video of the Day



Happy Endings by Mika- thanks ObjectDesire !

Send me your favorite TB Youtube video: truebloodindallas@gmail.com

USA Today Pop-culture IQ test !



















Check out question# 4 (I will post answer in comments )

http://www.usatoday.com/life/2008-12-26-pop-culture-quiz_N.htm

Also Vampires made the list at #2 in the San Diego Union Tribune Pop Quizz

2. Vampires

Vampires were the hands-down No. 1 sex symbol of 2008. Thanks to the making of “Twilight,” a movie based on Stephenie Meyers' young adult vampire series, tweens and their mothers became crazed over all things immortal – specifically Edward Cullen. And for those looking for something sexier than the chaste Cullen clan, HBO delivered Bill Compton from its more mature “True Blood” series.

HERE

Meet the Writers : Charlaine Harris ( with audio interview)


Charlaine Harris



Biography


A native of the Mississippi Delta, Charlaine Harris grew up in a family of avid readers (her father was a teacher; her mother a librarian). She attended Rhodes College in Memphis, TN, graduating in 1973 with a degree in English and Communication Arts. Although she penned poetry and plays in school, her first serious foray into fiction was with two standalone novels, Sweet and Deadly and A Secret Rage, published (effortlessly!) in the early 1980s.

After her early success, Harris released the first installment in a series of lighthearted mysteries starring spunky, small-town Georgia librarian, true crime enthusiast, and amateur sleuth Aurora Teagarden. When Aurora debuted in Real Murders (1990), Publishers Weekly welcomed "a heroine as capable and potentially complex as P. D. James's Cordelia Gray." The book went on to receive an Agatha Award nomination.

Anxious for another challenge, Harris began a second series in 1996. Darker and edgier than the Teagarden novels, these mysteries featured taciturn, 30-something housecleaner Lily Bard, a woman with a complicated past who has moved to the small town of Shakespeare, Arkansas, to find peace and solitude. The first novel, Shakespeare's Landlord, was well-received. BookList raved: "Harris has created an intriguing new character in this solidly plotted story." [Much to the disappointment of her fans, Harris concluded the Lilly Bard sequence in 2001 with Shakespeare's Counselor.]

Although Harris achieved moderate success with these two series (which she laughingly describes as "cozies with teeth"), she would hit the jackpot in 2001 with Dead Until Dark, a sly, spoofy paranormal mystery starring a telepathic Louisiana cocktail waitress named Sookie Stackhouse, who falls in love with a vampire named Bill. The novel, a delightful hybrid of mystery, science fiction, and romance, was an instant hit with critics. ("Harris' Sookie has the potential to attract more readers than Hamilton's Anita Blake," raved the dark fantasy magazine Cemetery Dance.) Readers, too, adored the Southern Vampire Series and have rewarded the author with bestseller after bestseller. (In 2008, the Sookie saga came to HBO in a top-rated television adaptation, True Blood, starring Anna Paquin.)

With 2006's Grave Sight, Harris added yet another fascinating character to her stable -- a young woman named Harper Connelly whose youthful encounter with a lightning bolt has left her with the ability to find corpses and determine how they died. In addition to juggling characters and plots for her popular series, Harris has also contributed short stories and novellas to several anthologies of paranormal fantasy fiction.

Good to Know

In our interview, Harris confesses:

"I'm really a boring person. My family (my husband and three children) is the most important thing in my life. I go to bed early, I get up early. I love to go to the movies with my husband. My favorite things about finally making some money as a writer are (a) I can buy as many books as I want, and (b) I can hire a maid. The first job I had was working in an offset darkroom at a very small newspaper. I stood on a concrete floor all day and made minimum wage -- which then was $1.60 an hour. I hated it, and I learned a lot, though not necessarily about working in a darkroom. So being a writer is much better."

Interview (Audio here )

In the summer of 2005, Charlaine Harris took some time out to answer some of our questions.

What was the book that most influenced your life or your career as a writer?

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte. This book has everything: mystery, unrequited love, class war, illicit sex, madness, and a woman with an unswerving sense of moral rectitude. Jane is no beauty, she never twittered in her life, and she's devoted to thinking things over carefully before arriving at a rational decision. And yet she's a passionate woman underneath that drab dress that she's decided is suitable for her station. Jane is extremely conventional, and at the same time unconventional; a prime example of still waters running very deep. She rises above adversity every time, and she has a lot of adversity to rise above. Jane Eyre is the basic blueprint for thousands of books that followed.

favorite books (see separate post
)

What are some of your favorite films, and what makes them unforgettable to you?

Lawrence of Arabia -- Peter O'Toole is just great in this beautiful film about an incredibly complex man.

The Last of the Mohicans -- The music, the scenery, a good script, and Daniel Day-Lewis. You can't go wrong with this much-changed version of the James Fenimore Cooper book.

The Pink Panther -- I always laugh, no matter how many times I've seen it. All the Peter Sellers Panther movies are funny, and I love to laugh.

Blazing Saddles -- This is just a funny movie, and it set the pattern for many to follow. "The Piano" A feminist fable with an awful lesson.

Saving Private Ryan -- A heartstopping depiction of war and the test it lays on men

The Birds -- Way to be scared!

What types of music do you like? Is there any particular kind you like to listen to when you're writing?

I love to listen to Yo Yo Ma playing anything. Mostly, I listen to movie soundtracks and bagpipe music, and Annie Lennox.

What are your favorite kinds of books to give -- and get -- as gifts?

I think the book has to match the giftee. If I don't know exactly what the person wants, I'd give them a gift card to a bookstore. But it's always fun to get someone to read a book he/she might not otherwise have read.

Do you have any special writing rituals? For example, what do you have on your desk when you're writing?
Some stuffed or ceramic vampires that people have given me as gifts; piles of papers, some quite irrelevant; a stack of CDs; a big glass of water; some dried flowers, one arrangement from the banquet where I won the Anthony, and one sent by a friend when I made the New York Times bestseller list; a mug full of pencils; and copies of the past Sookie books, for easy reference.

Many writers are hardly "overnight success" stories. How long did it take for you to get where you are today? Any rejection-slip horror stories or inspirational anecdotes?

It took me 25 years. That proves that success doesn't always come easily, or when you're young, but it can sure sneak up on you.

What tips or advice do you have for writers still looking to be discovered?

Read, read, read and then write, write, write. Persevere.

Read on and listen here
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writer.asp?cid=1021786

Dead Until Dark...... Book 1 in the Southern Vampires series

From April at Walking on the Dark Side - we are hearing from so many True Blood fans (yes, even the ones that said they'd never read the books ) that are now reading the books and loving them

Just in case you couldn't tell from looking at my blog, I am a True Blood fan. Season 2 can't come fast enough for me.

Up until this point, I hadn't read any of the Sookie Stackhouse books. That all changed yesterday. Let's just say I couldn't put the book down.

Dead Until Dark is book 1 in the series. It's written by Charlaine Harris. I wanted to start at the beginning and read it in the order they were written.
I can also tell from reading this book that season 1 of True Blood was based on it.

This book was great. A lot of season 1 of True Blood was really and truly based on the book. I can see that the producer made an effort to really not change it. The changes he made are phenomenal though.

In Dead Until Dark, Lafayette really didn't have much of a role. He was mentioned in the book as the cook. It was mentioned that he painted his fingernails (or something like that) and that he dressed brightly. Basically none of his wild and crazy scenes in True Blood were in the book.

Alan Ball did an amazing job developing LaFayette's character from the book.

I really think it's an act of fate that this show was even made. I was reading an interview tonight with Alan Ball about True Blood. You can read the interview here. Anyhow when asked, "How did you discover these books and decide they'd make a great HBO series?", his response was; "I was early for a dentist appointment, and I had some time to kill. I went into Barnes and Noble, and I just bought this book on impulse. It was just a little paperback, and on the cover, the tagline said, ''Maybe having a vampire for a boyfriend wasn't such a good idea.'' I thought it was kind of funny. I started reading it that night, and I couldn't put it down. And the minute I was done with it, I wanted to read the next one. And I really got addicted."

All I can say is I'm very glad he decided to check this book out.

I've already been checking Ebay out tonight in attempts of getting affordable copies of the rest of the series. I can't wait to read them. I'm sure the next one I get will be received and read all in one day.

http://walkingonthedarkside.blogspot.com/2008/12/dead-until-dark-book-1-in-s
outhern.html

Vampire Bill (Stephen Moyer) and sweet waitress Sookie (Anna Paquin) became the new Romeo and Juliet


From mySan Antonio ( here in the Kingdom of Texas) from their Best of TV 2008 list

"True Blood" and "In Treatment" (HBO): Leave it to HBO to give us not one but two of the year's most addictive and innovative new dramas. In the biting and stylishly executed "Blood," vampire Bill (Stephen Moyer) and sweet waitress Sookie (Anna Paquin) became the new Romeo and Juliet. Creator Alan Ball cleverly made the vampire's entrance into human society a metaphor for racism, gay-bashing and, in general, a world eaten up by hatred for those who were different.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/entertainment/36799559.html

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Defining Dracula: A Century Of Vampire Evolution

by Eric Nuzum NPR.org, October 30, 2008 .

Dracula can't see his own reflection in the mirror because he is a reflection of the culture around him. Ever since Bram Stoker penned Dracula in 1897, the vampire's image has been a work in progress.
In the 43 sequels, remakes and adaptations of Stoker's novel, Transylvania's most famous son rarely appears the same way twice. He has evolved with the society around him. His physical traits, powers and weaknesses have morphed to suit cultural and political climates from the Victorian era to the Cold War.
Read on to see how the "Son of the Devil" has changed over time:

1450: The Real-Life Dracula
The original, real-life Dracula was not a vampire, did not drink blood, and didn't worship the devil, either. But he did do many terrible things (i.e., murder thousands of his countrymen) that would make "actual" vampires pale in comparison.

Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia or "Vlad the Impaler" is Count Dracula's historical namesake. His chosen last name "Dracula" translates to "son of the devil," or "son of the dragon" - a reference to a religious order founded by his father (Vlad Dracul).

Despite his famed ruthlessness, it is most likely that his name - chosen randomly out of a Transylvanian history book - was all that Dracula author Bram Stoker ever knew of him.

1897: Modeled After Walt Whitman?
Today, Dracula often conjures up images of a sexy, mysterious, debonair aristocrat, but Bram Stoker's 1897 Count Dracula was none of those things.
There are many theories about how Stoker crafted Dracula's look; some have speculated that the Irish author modeled him after his personal hero, Walt Whitman. (Stoker once confided in a fan letter that Whitman could be "father, and brother and wife to his soul.")

Stoker writes that Dracula had a thick mustache, a large nose and white hair that "grew scantily round the temples but profusely elsewhere." (See how those rumors about Whitman - pictured above - got started?) He describes the Count's general look as "one of extraordinary pallor." Dracula had sharp teeth, pointy ears, squat fingers and hair in the palms of his hands. The sexy, debonair vampire was a creation of later generations.

A lot was going on when Stoker was working on Dracula at the turn of the 19th century: Victorian ideals of repressed sexuality and subservient women's roles were going out of style; Darwinism was just taking hold; and Jack the Ripper was on a murder spree.

Stoker's villain channeled all that - and a lot more - into one super bad guy who resonated with readers for decades. Dracula gradually became the most significant work of Gothic horror literature because it was the perfect vessel for the fears and desires of the era.

1931: Dracula As European Aristocrat
As an evil intruder who disrupted innocent lives, Dracula personified all that was threatening, powerful, alluring and evil. In the 1920s and '30s, this translated into an Eastern aristocrat with slicked-back hair, a top coat and a medallion - a look that became the enduring standard for all vampires to come.

Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi became the quintessential Count Dracula in Tod Browning's film adaptation of Stoker's novel. Lugosi refused to wear any makeup that would obscure his face (he declined to play the original Frankenstein for the same reason), and so Lugosi's version of the Count never had fangs.

Lugosi made less than $3,000 for his work in the role, but nearly 80 years later, he is still considered the definitive Dracula.

1958: Dracula As Cold War Enemy

During the Cold War era, Count Dracula became superbad. His motives were unimportant - he was distilled into a vicious troublemaker with an appetite for destruction. Just as the U.S. viewed Cold War enemies as purely evil, Dracula became a character with whom it was impossible to empathize.

Christopher Lee's 1958 depiction of the Count had red eyes and huge fangs, often with some virginal gore hanging off them. Lee was a pro; he played the Count a total of six times - more than any other actor.

Lee's Count was so inherently menacing, that in one 1966 sequel, Dracula:
Prince of Darkness, he had no lines at all - he just hissed at the camera throughout the film.

1979: Disco Dracula
In the 1979 remake of the original Dracula, the vampire was updated for the disco era with chiseled good looks and severely blow-dried hair. Forget politics or world views with this Count. He represented a sexual creature free of moral anchors - able to do whatever (or whomever) he pleased.

It's probably no coincidence that this manifestation of the Transylvanian bad boy debuted less than two years after Saturday Night Fever. Frank Langella looks as if he plans to do "The Hustle" with Tony Manero right after he drains the blood from a few virgins.

2004: Dracula Goes Goth
Goth, gaunt and hip, today's vampires look like roadies for the Smashing Pumpkins. They exude absolute freedom and irreverent power - and they're handsome to boot.

Aussie Richard Roxburgh played the Count in Van Helsing in 2004. Despite his Johnny Depp good looks, he transforms into a bat-like orthodontic nightmare when provoked.

In HBO's True Blood and author Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, modern vampires disguise ugly evil below sexy allure. Today's Dracula reflects 21st century fears about people who are not what they seem.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96282132