Saturday, July 11, 2009

True Blood: Welcome to Dallas Sookie Stackhouse and True Blood ! Pt 1

Sookie Stackhouse ( Living Dead in Dallas )

...I'd forgotten the sprawl of Dallas, in the seven years since I'd graduated from high school. The lights of
the city were amazing, and the busyness. I stared out of the windows at everything we passed, and Bill smiled at me with an irritating indulgence.

The lovely Objectdesire and I using the Charlaine Harris book 'Living Dead in Dallas' last year came up with some actual Dallas locations that fit the places described in the book.
None of the places mentioned in the books are actual places in Dallas except DFW Airport and Dealey Plaza. ( which has to be mentioned in any thing set in Dallas)

These are also NOT filming locations, from what we understand all the "Dallas " True Blood scenes are being shot in California. But we might see a stock photo of the Dallas Skyline or Dealey plaza shot to authentically set the locations as being here ...but it's Hollywood magic.

So, what we had to do is use the distances and locations as described in the books and come up with real Dallas locations that kind of fit the descriptions of the locations.

There are 4 locations, I will post the first 3 today and the last 4 tomorrow.

1) DFW Airport
Where Sookie and Bill land ..

Bk 2: It was as hot as the six shades of hell in Dallas, especially on the pavement at the airport.

Our brief few days of fall had relapsed back into summer. Torch
-hot gusts of air bearing all the sounds and smells of the Dallas-Fort Worth airport—the workings of small vehicles and airplanes, their fuel and their cargo—seemed to accumulate around the foot of the ramp from the cargo bay of the plane I'd been waiting for.

I'd flown a regular commercial flight, but Bill had had to be shipped specially.

2) Silent Shores Hotel, Downtown Dallas ( it's called the Carmilla Hotel in True Blood)
our pick:
The Adolphus Hotel Dallas
1321 Commerce St
Dallas, TX 75202


Bk 2: The Silent Shore was the only hotel in the Dallas area that had undergone the extensive renovation necessary to accommodate vampire patrons. It was one of the grand old downtown hotels, the brochure had said, not that I'd ever seen downtown Dallas or any of its grand old hotels before.

..."Thank you," I said politely when we pulled under the porte cochere of the hotel. ...

The front of the hotel, with its heavy blank doors, was brilliantly lit in the dark night, and Eric looked remarkably pale.

They actually did film on the roof on the Adolphus in July
[info here ] and for the interior of the hotel they used the Sofitel in Los Angeles [info here ]



3) Dealey Plaza/ Texas School Depository Building : the site of the John Kennedy assassination.
Dealey Plaza : Wiki entry here
The Sixth Floor Museum HERE

We began a curve to the left. I could see some sort of grassy area, and a vague shape that would be some kind of historical marker, maybe. Isabel pointed to her right with a long bony finger.

"The Texas School Book Depository," she said, and I understood she felt obliged to inform me. That meant she had been ordered to do so, which was very interesting. I followed her finger eagerly, taking in as much of the brick building
as I could see. I was surprised it didn't look more notable. "That's the grassy knoll?" I breathed, excited and impressed.

It was like I'd happened upon the
Hindenburg or some other fabled artifact. Isabel nodded, a barely perceptible movement that I only caught because her braid jerked. "There is a museum in the old depository," she said.

Now, that was something I'd like to see in the daytime. If we were here long enough, I'd walk or maybe find out how to catch a cab while Bill was in his coffin.

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