Thursday, April 2, 2009

"True Blood" panel at Paleyfest and True Blood-Suckers

Acollinsvamp at the blog musings says..( I hope to see her there )

On April 13, I'll be at the Arclight in Hollywood for the "True Blood" panel of the Paley Festival. Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin along with all the main cast will be present. That is a lot of beautiful people in one room. "True Blood" is an excellent show and I love how Alan Ball has made it his own. The "Stackhouse Books" aren't well written at all and tend to drag. The show is much more exciting and in depth.

I'm actually looking forward to seeing the Curator, David Bushman, of the museum and hoping to speak with him, too. He had a very interesting idea in an article he wrote sometime ago. With the Vampire genre coming back into the mainstream cinema, why not have a panel with a Legend and a devoted Fan seated side by side? Bushman in the last article hints at trying to set up a panel with Johnny Depp and Jonathan Frid.

Read on

The article by David Bushman that shes writing about is here :

True Blood's Stephen Moyer and Twilight's Edward Cullen may be the vampires of the moment, but if you ask me, no blood-sucking Nosferatu will ever hold a candle to the great Barnabas Collins, epicenter of the daytime soap Dark Shadows, which revolutionized/supernaturalized the genre in the sixties, casting a spell over hordes of young viewers. And if you don't believe me, you can ask Johnny Depp, who reportedly has been obsessed with the show since childhood, and whose production company is planning a theatrical film version, with Depp in the Barnabas role.

Born in the late 18th century, Barnabas (portrayed by Jonathan Frid) came from a family so rich and powerful that their entire seaside Maine town, Collinsport, was named after them. (Come to think of it, he reminds me of another scion from a privileged Maine family known to have committed a youthful transgression or two that he would come to regret, even if he did grow up to become president of the United States.) In Barnabas's case, the infraction was an impetuous dalliance with an exotic blonde maidservant named Angelique (so cool she needed only a single moniker, like Madonna and Beyonce), even as he was engaged to the Martinique heiress Josette du Pres.

Realizing Josette was his true love, Barnabas tried to end the affair with Angelique, with tragic results: Angelique, revealed as a witch, exacts revenge by inflicting Barnabas and his loved ones with a series of devastating curses, until Barnabas finally loses patience with the wench and shoots her dead (or so he thinks, as it's hard to keep a good witch down, especially on a daytime soap). Gasping for life, Angelique summoned a vampire bat from hell, who takes a nip out of Barnabas, cursing him to eternal damnation.

As a vampire, Barnabas could be a real son of a bitch—threatening people, kidnapping/imprisoning the women he covets, being really, really mean to the hired help—but at least he was a conflicted son of a bitch. Barnabas was a tortured soul decades before anyone even heard of Angel. Like all card-carrying vampires, he was an incurable romantic—after all, it was passion that got him into this mess to begin with. His taste in women was impeccable: in 1960s Collinsport, after being released from his 170-year-slumber by a poor schlub named Willie Loomis (John Karlen), he's constantly falling for the hottest babes, like sassy waitress Maggie Evans (Kathryn Leigh Scott) and virginal governess Victoria Winters (Alexandra Moltke), always oblivious to matronly Dr. Julia Hoffman's (Grayson Hall) wicked crush on him.

Curiously, one thing Barnabas never was was scary—how can you fear a vampire who's forever muffing his lines and who was once caught tiptoeing across the set carrying his black shoes as the end credits rolled? But he was bad, and what self-respecting youth wouldn't find that appealing, especially during the sixties?

Interestingly enough, I've twice moderated Dark Shadows-related public events at the Paley Center: one, in 2001, was a reunion of the show's cast and creative teams; the other, in 2004, was a tribute to Dark Shadows creator Dan Curtis. Unfortunately, Frid couldn't make either one. However, I refuse to give up. How's this for a dream panel: Frid and Depp side by side by side with Barnabas.

http://www.paleycenter.org/barnabas-collins-true-blood-sucker

HBO's 'True Blood' flows into Season 2


By Gary Levin, USA TODAY
HBO's True Blood returns June 14, picking up with the second book in Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series, Living Dead in Dallas.

Sookie (Anna Paquin) is "drafted into using her telepathic abilities to find a vampire in Dallas who's gone missing," says creator Alan Ball, while her brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten) gets involved with the Fellowship of the Sun, an anti-vampire group.

Fans can catch up with the first season, out May 19 on DVD and Blu-ray, to detect the blooming chemistry between Sookie and vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), now that Paquin and Moyer are a couple. Filming is "easier because they're so comfortable with each other," Ball says. "And they really do love each other in real life."

True Blood Episode One Crossword Puzzle

(click below and you will be able to print it out or same it in pdf)

Crossword Puzzle - Episide one

Google Friends Connect on Loving True Blood




You can now follow and sign in to this blog with Google Friend Connect it works if you have Google , Aim, Yahoo and OpenId.

Others can see you and connect with you ...


It's pretty cool check it out far right column

Charlaine Harris : The Anhinga Writers' Studio 2009 workshops

THE ANHINGA WRITERS' STUDIO 2009 SUMMER WORKSHOPS

Join us from July 29 - August 1 in Gainesville, Florida, for The Anhinga Writers' Studio 2009 Summer Workshops! Coursework in general fiction, romance, mystery, poetry, and narrative nonfiction.

Guest of Honor Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse mysteries on which the HBO series TRUE BLOOD is based. One-on-one agent, editor, and instructor meetings are available, as well as manuscript evaluations.

Full tuition: $395, $375 through May 15. Single-day rates available. E-mail info@anhingawriters.org or visit www.anhingawriters.org.

Loving True Blood in Dallas Blogtalk Radio is now on your cell phone

Did you know that you can listen to BlogTalkRadio on your mobile phone? Simply go HERE to to browse all the live shows and archived shows on our site. Our mobile site brings our technology to the palm of your hand, which means you can tune into live shows and participate in the conversations or just listen in.

Here are a few other important details about our mobile platform:

* iPhone users can stream both live and archived show to listen to anytime they like.

* BlackBerry users can stream archived shows and call in to listen to live broadcasts.

* All other smart phone owners can still listen to streams in our archives and dial in to listen live.

You can truly take BlogTalkRadio anywhere. Listen in the car, on the train, while you're taking your morning jog, and any other time at your convenience.

Just go Loving True Blood in Dallas Blogtalk Radio : full archive HERE

Vampire Hotels in the Sookieverse

We have mention of three special vampire hotels in the Sookie books and we have a Shreveport vampire motel, the Styx River Suites Motel which we see advertised below from True Blood / Blood Copy.

"Blood in the Quarter." New Orleans, LA
I'd read an article about this hotel, the first in the world that catered exclusively to vampires. It promised complete security, and so far it had delivered. It was right smack dab in the middle of the French Quarter, too.
And at dusk it was absolutely surrounded by fang-bangers and tourists waiting for the vampires to come out. Book1 DUD

"The Silent Shore Hotel." Dallas, TX
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. Book2 LDiD

"Pyramid of Gizeh hotel." Rhodes
We stared at the picture that popped up on the screen. Most of the vampire hotels were in large urban centers, like Rhodes, and they were also tourist attractions. Often called simply "the Pyramid," the hotel was shaped like one, of course, and it was faced with bronze-colored reflective glass. There was one band of lighter glass around one of the floors close to the base. Book 7 ATD



Here are some real hotel advertising slogans - can you think of some great vampire hotel names and slogans ?

Best Western: Across the street from the ordinary.

Ramada hotel: A very good place to be.

Sheraton Hotels: Who's taking care of you?

Hilton Hotels & Resorts: The places you'd rather be

Homewood Suites By Hilton: Make Yourself at Home

Days Inn Hotels :The Best Value Under the Sun

Hyatt Hotels and Resorts: Feel the Hyatt Touch

Hilton Garden Inn: Everything. Right where you need it

Hampton Inn & Hampton Inn and Suites: We Love Having You Here

Westin hotels and resorts: Choose your travel partner wisely.

Embassy Suites Hotels :See what a difference a stay makes

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

The Chick Manifesto write a review of 'Dead until Dark'. Yes, there still are people trying to decide whether to read the Sookie books.

Sookie Stackhouse was born with a peculiar disability: she can read minds. Her family never talks about it and everyone in town knows there's something strange about her. When she meets the handsome Bill Compton she's thrilled to finally be able to let her guard down around someone, as his is the only mind she can't hear. One slight problem, however: Bill is a vampire, who, thanks to the advent of synthetic blood, has finally been able to "come out of the coffin" along with the rest of his kind. Soon after his arrival in her small Louisiana town (he's Bon Temps' first vampire) several mysterious and incredibly violent murders start happening. As Sookie and Bill begin to fall in love, Bill is accused of committing the murders and Sookie is dragged into the affairs of some seriously scary vampires who aren't quite as adept at mainstreaming (i.e. not drinking human blood) as Bill. This is the first book in the Southern Vampire series.

If this book sounds familiar to you it's probably because the series is the basis for the HBO series True Blood, which will start its second season in mid June.

Read on

True Blood Music Video of the Day: 18 days by Saving Abel



18 Days by Saving Abel LYRICS
Thanks to thellou

Sookie and Eric shower scene: Dead to the World