Obama a fan of Louisiana Mysteries ?? " The Bayou Trilogy " on his vacation reading list !

The New York Times this morning ran an article entitled "Obama Summer Reading List Leans Toward Fiction " HERE and it talked about what books President Obama had taken with him on his vacation and I found his choice of  " The Bayou Trilogy " an interesting choice and wondered if he loves Louisiana based mysteries,  if he might be a fan of True Blood ? Or maybe Michelle is?  Ha!

Starred Review. Collected in a single volume for the first time, Woodrell's three stellar novels featuring Det. Rene Shade, an ex-boxer turned cop, provide entrée into the Louisiana swamp town of Saint Bruno, a place where "tempers went on the prowl and relief was driving a hard bargain." Woodrell (Winter's Bone) injects Shade's life and various cases with both humor and brutal violence. In Bright Lights (1986), the investigation into a city councilman's murder mushrooms into a corruption scandal, with Shade feeling pressure from above for a quick—and predetermined—result. Muscle for the Wing (1988) finds Shade up against a gang of ex-cons, hell-bent on wrestling control of Saint Bruno's less-than-legal action. Shade and his two brothers—bar owner Tip and district attorney Francois—are reunited with their long-absent paterfamilias, John X., in The Ones You Do (1992), in which John X. returns to Saint Bruno with a 10-year-old daughter and a killer on his trail. There's poetry in Woodrell's mayhem, each novel—and scene—full of gritty and memorable Cajun details.

True Blood's Stephen Moyer to be filming in July and August in Baton Rouge ! Can you say hot and steamy ?

"True Blood" hottie Stephen Moyer is joining Jessica Lange in the big-screen version of "The Big Valley."

Moyer will play Jarrod Barkley alongside Lange's matriarch Victoria Barkley in the silver-screen adaptation of the 1960s TV series about a wealthy ranching family and its conflicts.

Production starts on July 26th on location in Baton Rouge.

http://www.etonline.com/news/2010/06/88048/

Troux Blood -Sucking up the vampire craze

When a young girl named Howard Allen O’Brien walked into the former Grenada Theatre on Baronne Street many years ago, she was immediately transfixed by what she saw on the silver screen. The black and white film, Dracula’s Daughter, starred Gloria Holden as the lead character: “a beautiful, doomed countess who hated herself because she was a vampire and fought her desire for blood. I thought: How glamorous, how tragic, how beautiful.” The woman of mystique changed O’Brien’s life: Today O’Brien is better known as Anne Rice, the bestselling author of Interview with the Vampire, its sequels in “The Vampire Chronicles,” and multiple other cult classics involving the supernatural, a few of which have also been translated onto film (Interview with the Vampire, Exit to Eden and Queen of the Damned).

Now, in the humid summer of 2010, 34 years after Rice published Interview, vampires are experiencing blazing popularity. The current bunch of bloodsuckers is a far cry from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and even Dracula 2000, the campy “sequel” set here 10 years ago.

Our interest in the eternally undead is an addiction, seemingly insatiable. The pre-teen, pre-“Gossip Girl” sector swoons for CW’s “The Vampire Diaries,” based on the eponymous book series by L.J. Smith. And older TV viewers are anxiously counting down to June 13, when they’ll suck up to their friends with premium cable to catch the third season of HBO’s “True Blood,” based on the bestselling “Sookie Stackhouse Novels” by Charlaine Harris. On June 30, movie theater revenues will defy the recession during the third installment of the “Twilight” movies, Eclipse, based on the also-bestselling novels by Stephenie Meyer. While Meyer’s characters have been especially embraced by teenage girls, and often their older sisters and mothers (after all, her vampires sparkle when sunlight hits them, a glamorous departure from the popular belief that they crumble to ash), it’s undeniable that this genre is experiencing a new heyday.

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Twilight To Invade True Blood's Territory?!

Sources are speculating that unlike the first three Twilight films, Breaking Dawn won't be shot in the Pacific Northwest, but rather in the bayous of Louisiana.

Sound familiar, Sookie Stackhouse?

A production notice was uncovered by sources when it was filed last week at the Louisiana Secretary of State's office. An agent for Summit Entertainment allegedly established a new corporate entity called "TSBD LOUISIANA, L.L.C.," which could very well stand for Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn.

Read More: Twilight To Invade True Blood's Territory?! | PerezHilton.com http://perezhilton.com/2010-05-18-twilight-to-invade-true-bloods-territory#ixzz0oKlw7c9Z
Celebrity Juice, Not from Concentrate

Viewers seek out Sookie's haunts

For a tiny pocket of a place, Bon Temps is a mighty interesting corner of Louisiana.

It's got a country bar, old farmhouses and at least one sweet telepathic barmaid with Southern manners and a sense of hospitality no matter how strange the company.

And it's got vampires.

At least it does in the mind of author Charlaine Harris and the producers of HBO's "True Blood."

But Bon Temps can't be located on any Louisiana map, despite how familiar the place seems to fans of the show and Harris' Southern Vampire Series and waitress Sookie Stackhouse.

That doesn't keep some folks from seeking it out.

In their quest, many have inquired in Shreveport and Monroe, two cities that have seen their share of action for our heroine and telepathic waitress.

Shreveport, for example, has the distinction of being home to the fictional Fangtasia, a vampire bar that has seen its share of danger in nine books and two television seasons.

"Everybody wants to know about the 'True Blood' bar," said Brandy Evans of the Shreveport-Bossier Convention & Tourist Bureau.

"We don't have a vampire bar, but we do have lots of other bars."

Here are some places in Shreveport and Monroe that might offer a taste of the landscape that inspired Bon Temps. Shreveport

About 15 miles from the Texas border, Shreveport and Bossier City straddle the Red River.

Sookie fans know Shreveport as the home of Fangtasia, a bar run by handsome but not-to-be-trusted vampire Eric Northman. It is also the workplace of Alcide Herveaux, one of Sookie's werewolf friends.

The two cities and surround? ing areas have many attractions for human visitors.

Louisiana Boardwalk: A trolley runs through the collection of shops nestled by the Red River. The area also has multiple restaurants and a movie theater. You can board the Spirit of the Red River Cruise here.

Film Trail: Shreveport has been a stand-in for places as diverse as Paris, New York and Kodiak, Alaska. In addition to "True Blood," "The Guardian" and "Mr. Brooks" have filmed there. Check out www.shreve?port-bossierfilm.com for a guide to Shreveport in the movies.

Casinos: Five riverfront casinos and one casino/racetrack lure the betting kind. But the casinos also offer restaurants, entertainment, spas and pools. www.shreveport-bossier.org/casinos.

R.W. Norton Art Gallery: The museum sits on 47 acres in a residential neighborhood near downtown. The museum's collection includes 19th-century American and European art, antique dolls dressed in the Louisiana fashions of 1720-1920 and antique firearms. The grounds feature more than 20,000 azaleas that bloom in late March or early April. Admission is free. www.rwnaf.org.

Dorcheat Bayou: Mark Norris fell in love with the bayou and its moss-draped cypress and tupelo trees when he took a canoe trip as a child. Now he runs Norris Canoe Outfitters, which offers guided half-day to weeklong tours of the waterway.

Depending on the day, paddlers may see any of up to 50 species of birds, "some native and some not so native," Norris said. And alligators. Plenty of alligators. His office is at 731 Main in Minden, about 30 miles east of Shreveport. (318) 588-0166.

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Authors put Louisiana in the spotlight in 2009

The year brought dozens of wonderful books from Louisiana authors — and those outside the state writing about Louisiana. Here are a few of the year's literary highlights:Self-taught writer Louis Maistros created a dark, fascinating tale of death and rebirth in the Crescent City during the Jazz Age in The Sound of Building Coffins.

Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse paranormal mystery series set in the town of Bon Temps in northern Louisiana, which gave birth to the HBO series True Blood, gave us an update on Sookie in May with Dead and Gone.

New Orleans author Nevada Barr, who spent years in the National Park System, now spins mysteries around a park ranger named Anna Pigeon. Barr's latest novel in the series, Borderline, took Pigeon to Big Bend Park in Texas.

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The Etruscan Roots of The Twilight Saga

hmm... Tuscany or Shreveport....? Hard decision ;-)
From Independent UK

Were there vampires in Volterra? Probably not, but the Etruscans had their own brigade of gods and demons representing night, death and resurrection.

'The Twilight Saga: New Moon' release fuels vampire mania around the world. While teenagers go completely nuts over the film's hunky vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson) – one wrote 'bite me' on her face as she queued with 5,000 others to see him in London last week – other die-hard fans of the Twilight books, written by Stephenie Meyers, are also descending on the small hill-top town of Volterra, in Tuscany, where some of the action of the film is set (even though filming actually took place in Montepulciano, 70 miles away). As a result, hoards of teenagers have been visiting Volterra – a town with Etruscan roots and its own heritage of Etruscan demons, gods and goddesses associated with death, resurrection and the night.

The Twilight Saga isn't the only vampire story to grace our screens lately. The popular US series True Blood – about a young woman in Louisiana who also falls in love with a vampire – based on the The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris, also gathered cult status, adding to the growing body of vampire fiction on our bookshelves and on our screens. The nineties saw the likes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Interview with a Vampire, Bram Stoker's Dracula as well as From Dusk Till Dawn. The 21st century has seen vampire fever take over with Van Helsing, more Buffy and now Twilight and True Blood.

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Twilight-themed restaurant planned for Wash. town

Won't be long until we see a Merlotte's in Shreveport, huh ?

FORKS, Wash. — A new restaurant set to open next year in Washington state will be called Volterra after a city in the popular Twilight vampire novels, which are set in the town of Forks.

Owners Annette and Tim Root told The Peninsula Daily News it will be a family restaurant, and they have applied for a liquor license.

Forks already has the Twilight Lounge that features concerts and other events for fans.

The Twilight books and movies have brought vampire tourism to the remote former logging town on Washington's Olympic Peninsula.

The Chamber of Commerce says thousands of visitors come asking questions, such as whether it's safe to go camping with the vampire problems in the area.

Information from: Peninsula Daily News, http://www.peninsuladailynews.com

Alexander Skarsgård: “Where I am now, I am by my own force.”

Alexander Skarsgård has gotten his final breakthrough in the States by playing a Viking vampire in the TV-series “True blood” DNs Erik Ohlsson has met the new born Hollywood star that is still picking up his own laundry.

“There are 600 churches here,” Alexander Skarsgård informs us, while folding his long body into a purple-red Toyota Prius and taking us sightseeing in the town that will be his home for the next seven weeks.

Shreveport’s central parts are strange. The town, which is situated in northern Louisiana and is the size of Malmö, has a central core where decayed store houses are mixed with shiny polished sky scrapers. In addition the town consists mainly of churches and casinos. A merciless sun is burning the dusty roads. We see some occasional cars but not one single pedestrian.

This part of Louisiana is heavily struck by unemployment. To improve the economy, the state rulers have decided to give movie companies big reductions in taxes if they record in Louisiana.

Alexander Skarsgård has one of the leading roles in a new version of Sam Peckinpahs drama “Straw Dogs,” that right now is being recorded in and outside of Shreveport. The original movie came out in 1971 and was heavily debated due to its content of heavy violence. The new version of “Straw Dogs” will also turn bloody, Alexander lets us know.

Alex, as everyone calls him, wants to eat lunch and we drive towards the town’s house blocks where green gardens mix with strip malls.

On the radio, tuned into the local country station KXKS, Justin Moore sings about the benefits of living in an American small town, “Smalltown USA.”

Translation here

Original article here

Straw Dogs filming invades Louisiana

Stephen Moyer of HBO's 'True Blood' studies pace of Louisiana life

from Times Picayune

Stephen Moyer worked with dialect coach Elizabeth Himelstein to craft his accent for "True Blood," a more formal take (befitting a 173-year-old vampire) on the slang-y, slippery accents employed by some of the other characters.

But his two visits to Louisiana for location production - Clinton, La., last month; the Shreveport area for the show's first season - have informed Moyer's overall approach to being Bill Compton as much as vowel-sound drills.

"When we went down to shoot the stuff for the pilot last year and we hit Shreveport ... it was great for me, it was a real opportunity to see the south in a way that I had only ever imagined it -- the landscape and how enormous it is, and how lush," Moyer said during a break in production on the Clinton episodes. "It's very English in its lushness. When you come into London, you're expecting this grey concrete thing, but it's green predominately, and it's the same here.

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HBO's chillingly good series 'True Blood' comes to Louisiana, and the cast and crew taste and feel the real thing

from the Times Picayune [Nola.com]

CLINTON -- It was a characteristically steamy July day, and the grounds surrounding the East Feliciana Parish Courthouse were strewn with trash and clothing as if the town's residents had gone crazy from the heat.

Jeans and blouses in the trees. Lingerie draped on the stone Confederate officer stationed in front of the same courthouse that previously served, appropriately enough, as a location setting for the 1958 film "The Long Hot Summer." "Bacchus Rocks" graffiti scrawled on the base of the 1909 United Daughters of the Confederacy statue.

The lascivious litter was the work of spell-casting party girl Maryann Forrester, a character in the hit HBO vampire drama "True Blood," which came to the Clinton area late in its second season for several days of location shooting.

"Sorry, people of Clinton," said Adam Davidson, director of the episode for which the streets of Clinton had been strategically messed up. "Forgive us."

Not a problem.

Clinton was officially delighted to become the physical manifestation of Bon Temps, the show's fictional small-town Louisiana setting, and not just for the midsummer entertainment the production provided townsfolk, several dozen of whom toted lawn chairs to watch the action from off-camera.

Baton Rouge was the production base for the long-weekend shoot, so much of the food-, beverage- and hotel-room budget for the cast and crew of about 110 wasn't spent in Clinton. But the town did well, and may do very well in the future, by "True Blood."

During filming, traffic had to be routed around Clinton's downtown, creating a minor nuisance for cross-parish travelers, but more than 50 Louisiana residents were employed by the show, including Audrey Faciane, executive director of the parish's Chamber of Commerce and a parish tourism commissioner, who got a small part as one of the Bon Temps residents turned crazy by Maryann's mood magic

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True Blood filming in Clinton, LA

Thanks to everyone for the great photos

HBO’s “True Blood” comes to Clinton, La., to film

From LSUReveille

Trash lined the streets, panties hung from the statues and graffiti stained the walls of downtown Clinton on Friday afternoon.

Mardi Gras didn’t come early — the cast and crew of HBO’s hit show “True Blood” were in town, filming scenes for the 10th episode of the show’s second season.

At sunrise, crew members transformed Clinton’s quaint town center into Bon Temps, the fictional Louisiana town where the series is set. Its littered, disruptive look was for a yet-to-be-revealed plot twist.

“True Blood” follows feisty, mind-reading waitress Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) and her relationship with the dashing Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) — a 173-year-old vampire.

In Sookie’s world, vampires have “come out of the coffin” thanks to a newly developed synthetic blood drink that allows them to survive without human blood.

But not all vampires choose to give up humans cold turkey — making Bon Temps a dangerous place to live.

This isn’t “Twilight” — the violence is brutal, and the sex is explicit. A creepy gumbo of mystery, dark humor, romance and Louisiana culture, the season premiere of “True Blood” on June 14 attracted more viewers than any other HBO show since the series finale of “The Sopranos” two years ago.

“True Blood” was created by Alan Ball, the man behind HBO’s popular, Emmy Award-winning series “Six Feet Under” and the Academy Award-winning film “American Beauty,” and is based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris.

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'True Blood' season 2 film crew takes over Clinton, La., then heads for New Orleans

From Times- Picayune

Clinton, La. -- Standing in for fictional downtown Bon Temps, La., the blocks surrounding the East Feliciana Parish Courthouse looked like they'd been hit by a lusty tornado over the weekend.

The steamy HBO drama "True Blood" came to Clinton for several days of location shooting, and the town's streets (and trees) were strategically strewn with trash but mostly clothing, for a saucy storyline to play out in a few weeks on the show's 10th episode of the current season.

Saturday, shooting started at about noon and concluded after 2 a.m. Sunday. Wilting heat and humidity prevailed, broken occasionally by light rain.

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True Blood in Louisiana

HBO, is making Clinton, the final resting place, for it's popular series, True Blood.

The cast and crew, spent the last week, in Clinton, filming for the current season.

The producers, announced the town of Clinton will be the center of all the action, as the fictional town of Bon Temps.

"Well, we were looking for a town that had a nice small town feel like our town of Bon Temps is supposed to have and Clinton fit the bill very closely",says executive producer, Gregg Fienberg.

"The locals they come up, they talk and you get that real authentic accent and that Louisiana swagger and you just sort of incorporate it, said Nelsan Ellis. Ellis plays the character "Lafayette", a short-order grill cook at Merlotte's.

Producers say they plan on shooting in Clinton as long as the town will have them.

True Blood comes to Louisiana

Clinton, La. — Cast members of the hit HBO show True Blood spent some time near Baton Rouge today, shooting scenes for the steamy vampire drama.

Set in the fictional Louisiana town of Bon Temps, the series follows waitress Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) and her relationship with the dashing Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) — a 174-year-old vampire.

Paquin and other cast members — including Ryan Kwanten, who plays Sookie’s wild brother Jason, and Nelsan Ellis, who plays the eccentric short order cook and drug dealer Lafayette Reynolds — were in Clinton today filming scenes for the tenth episode of the show’s second season, which premiered June 14.

“It’s beautiful down here,” Paquin said. “Nothing really looks like the South except the South ... It’s really important to come down here and capture it.”

The cast and crew spent some time filming in Shreveport for True Blood’s first season and are hopeful to return to filming in Clinton if the show is picked up for a third season.

True Blood was created by Alan Ball, the man behind HBO’s popular series Six Feet Under and the Academy Award-winning film “American Beauty,” and is based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris.

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HBO's "True Blood" Behind the Scenes in Clinton, Louisiana

Vampire-basher in ‘True Blood’ has ties to Houma

From Houma Today

Every week when Wes Brown morphs into Luke McDonald, a competitive ex-football player hell-bent on oppressing Louisiana vampires as part of HBO’s sultry hit series, “True Blood.” It’s such an original show,” Brown said. “It’s by far the most original thing I’ve ever worked on. There’s nothing like ‘True Blood’ on television right now.”

Protesting vampires could be new turf for the young actor, but the show’s mystical Louisiana setting is familiar ground.

The 27-year-old Brown was born in Fort Worth, Texas, but grew up in Baton Rouge, where he lived from infancy through his college graduation from Louisiana State University.

Brown moved to Los Angeles in 2005, but his family ties remain in south Louisiana. He has relatives in Baton Rouge, Gonzales, Raceland and Houma, including his uncle, Houma lawyer Paul Brown.

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Photos of Loving True Blood Shreveport Trip to See Charlaine Harris June 12-14