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Best Charlaine
The redneck vampire novels written by Charlaine Harris of Magnolia became a hit TV mini-series, “True Blood,” on HBO in the summer and fall. (The bit part vampires, if you'll pardon the expression, carried the show, in B&W's opinion.)
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
“The Music of True Blood.” what does that mean ?
Again from tinycatpants:this time Aunt B and One of her commentors posted "My basic criteria for “Southern Music” is this - does it sound good riding a gravel back-road with the windows down" i think that sounds about right.
NM asked what kinds of music a person who didn’t watch True Blood should think of when she hears “The music of True Blood.” Here’s the True Blood Soundtrack I’ve compiled, based solely on songs that intrigued me from the show.
1. “Play with Fire”–Cobra Verde. This is a Rolling Stones cover, and it sticks with you, whether you like it or not; it’s damn catchy.
2. “Bones”–Little Big Town. Can Fleetwood Mac sue for impersonation? I’m not sure. Basically, if you like Fleetwood Mac, but you don’t like Stevie Nicks’ voice and wish it were a hair more country, this is your song.
3. “Stumble and Pain”–Joseph Arthur. I haven’t listened to this song enough to decide what I think of it. But it would seem as at home in the imaginary good sequel to The Lost Boys, so I’m calling it a good song for anything about vampires.
4. “The Dreaming Dead”–Jesse Sykes. I still can’t decide if I like this song, but it haunting. I don’t know if it makes me think “Southern,” exactly, though.
5. “Strange Love”–Slim Harpo. I love this song, but I love songs that make you say, “What the fuck is happening here?!” Can a person have a banjo voice? Slim Harpo has a tragic banjo voice.
6. “Y’all’d Think She’d Be Good 2 Me”–C.C. Adcock. This song is so generically southern that, if you didn’t listen to it too closely, you’d think you’d already heard it a million times.
7. “Good Times”–Charlie Robison. Ha, I love Charlie. I swear, he could fart at the table and I’d find it awesome. Anyway, the song delivers what it promises.
8. “Red Eyes and Tears”–Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. I always feel like I should like these guys better than I do, but I don’t. This song is like the alt.country version of Godsmack’s “Voodoo.”
9. “Jack Me Up”–jeff laine. I feel cheated by every day of my life that passed without this song in it. “But holding the love of a woman is like holding water in your hand.” That phrase right there is so beautiful that I sometimes just whisper it to myself to have the feel of the words fill up my whole mouth. It seems at first listen just a song that is an ode to getting laid, but holy shit, it’s the best poetry about getting laid. “Don’t worry about the rest of your life. It’s going to happen anyhow.”
If you knew about this song and didn’t tell me about it, you’re on my shit list.
10. “Brand New Cadillac”–I love Wayne Hancock so much. And this song is a good example of why. Hancock sings like he’s only got an inch-high slot to squeeze his voice through, or like you’re only going to hear him on a distant AM radio station and so he’s just given up on everything but the high whine. That and the boogie.
11.”Cold Ground”–Rusty Truck. This song is growing on me. It also has some kind of country/Fleetwood Mac harmonies, which kind of cracks me up.
12. “Sweet Jane”–Cowboy Junkies. I don’t guess I have to say anything about this.
13. “Everybody’s Got Somebody But Me”–Mildred Anderson. There’s an organ! And lovely organ playing.
14. “Walking the Dog”–Rufus Thomas. There’s clearly a dance you do to this. I don’t know it. But, if I did, I’d be obnoxious about doing it, so it’s probably for the best.
15. “Bad Things”–Jace Everett. You know the song. It’s like if Chris Issak and Dwight Youkum had a baby who inexplicibly decided mid-song to make it a poetry reading.
I think we can call this music more “Evoking a feeling of vaguely Southern foreboding” more than “Southern Vampire music.”
TV's brightest for 2008 - Philadelphia Inquirer
By Jonathan Storm -Inquirer Television Critic
6. Dead and undead. Vampires pass away more frequently than you think. While forlorn fans were still lamenting the demise of CBS's Moonlight, HBO was working feverishly to resurrect the genre.
Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer, and the fascinating actors who surround them, help make True Blood one of the premium network's best series in a werewolf's age. And the show is helping to revive HBO's fortunes, which have been sagging in the shadow of Showtime's more-than-10-percent growth the last two years.
After a slow start, True Blood viewership has grown consistently, topping six million a week and putting these vampire chronicles on the way to becoming HBO's third-most-popular show ever, after The Sopranos and Sex and the City.
Sookie Stackhouse Boxed Set selling today at 14th on Amazon Books list
The Sookie Stackhouse boxed set is still on the Amazon best seller list, it's ranked at #14 in overall book sales today by the Amazon book selling giant !
Sookie books in Italy
Morti Viventi-Living Dead in Dallas
La cameriera Sookie Stackhouse sta attraversando un periodo decisamente sfortunato. Innanzitutto, un suo collega viene assassinato e sembra che a nessuno importi della cosa, poi si viene a trovare faccia a faccia con una creatura bestiale che le assesta una sferzata dolorosa e velenosa. A questo punto, entrano in campo i vampiri, che le succhiano il veleno dalle vene (come se non aspettassero altro!) Il punto è che le hanno salvato la vita, quindi quando un vampiro le chiede un favore, lei deve accettare, e ben presto si ritrova a Dallas, impegnata a utilizzare le sue doti telepatiche alla ricerca di un vampiro scomparso, fingendo di essere là per intervistare alcuni umani coinvolti in quella sparizione. Sookie pone una sola condizione: i vampiri devono comportarsi bene e lasciar andare illesi gli umani coinvolti. Più facile a dirsi che a farsi: basta infatti abbinare una bionda deliziosa a un piccolo errore perché la situazione si faccia letale.
~~
The waitress Sookie Stackhouse is going through a period that is definitely unlucky. First, a colleague is murdered, and it seems that no amount of the thing, then you will find face to face with a beastly creature who's bite painful and poisonous. At this point, entering the field vampires that suck the poison from the veins but they saved her life, When a vampire then asks a favor, you must accept, and she soon is found in Dallas and pledged to use her telepathic talents to help look for a vampire that has disappeared. She will interview some people involved in the disappearance. Sookie puts only one condition: the vampires must behave well and let go unscathed humans involved. Easier said than done: simply match a pretty blond and a small error because the situation is deadly.
Christmas True Blood Music Video of the Day - Special Christmas edition
All I want for Christmas is you by Leann Rimes ( is this right ?)
Song Lyrics from HBO’s True Blood
If you are from the Kingdom of Texas, you already know this song. "Good Times " plays during the closing shot of Sookie screaming at finding Dawn dead in her bedroom. Episode 3.
While watching HBO’s True Blood series, I heard another song I wanted to learn for my Americana music songlist. Evidently I ‘m not the only one impressed with this series. I did recently purchase the whole Southern Vampire Series by Charlaine Harris and I’ve listened to two of them on audio CD. I dug a little on the Internet, and there’s a huge subculture of fanatical fans. Harris has changed the vocabulary of America with this series and altered the sensorium of an entire generation regarding the topics of the horror genre.
About Charlie Robison, whose song I wanted to post today: The native born Texan’s music is both brash and reflective. He has a ranch outside Bandera, and according to his website it’s a place “where Robison family has ranched for eight generations since the 1840s.” You can and should read more about this talented musician and songwriter here:
“Good Times” by Charlie Robison
Pick up a pizza, pineapple ham
And put it in the back of a Good Times van
Well go out and pick up the rest of the band
We’re gonna have a good time
Yeah Lilly of the valley, Lilly on a rug, Lilly drove here in a VW bug
Am I on the guest list, give her a shrug
We’re gonna have a good time
read on at A Southern Missive post by r. pittman
listen here
Monday, December 22, 2008
Behind the scenes with True Blood : Jason find out about Gran
This the morning after Gran was murdered this is Hoyt in the street and Rene is in the back of the truck ...so this would be Renard Parish Courthouse ? Episode 6
Think again ...here is it is below it's actually Mansfield Courthouse Mansfield, LA
Above is a photo we took January 2009
Interview with Alan Ball on True Blood and it's relationship to the source material
Great interview with Ball from September 8, 2008
The AV Club: with True Blood, what's taken from the Charlaine Harris series, and where does the show depart?
Alan Ball: The main storyline is taken from it. I would say like 80 percent, we're loyal to it, the story of Sookie and Bill and their relationship, and there being a serial killing, and Sookie fearing for her life. That's all taken from Charlaine's book. The characters of Jason [Sookie's brother] and Sam [Sookie's boss] really only exist in the book whenever they're in the same place Sookie is, and Tara [Sookie's best friend] doesn't even show up until the second book, and she's Caucasian. But if we stuck to the book exactly, Anna Paquin would be working 12 hours a day, and you can't do that to an actor. It would be a huge strain on the production. I'm not sure it would be as interesting as having a lot of other compelling characters in the show, and having their stories as well. So that's where we departed from the book, but we've tried really hard to remain true to the spirit of the books, in terms of creating Jason's story and Tara's story and Sam's story.
AVC: What is the spirit of the books? What attracted you to them?
AB: You know, it's kind of a dumb answer, but they were just so much fun. It was such an escape, and yet there were nuggets of really profound things that [Harris] said about existence and parts of the culture, but it's also wrapped up in a fun amusement-park, gothic, romantic, science-fiction slasher movie. [Laughs.] And for me, after five seasons of attempting to wrestle with the existential dilemma of being mortal [with Six Feet Under], I just felt like I'd like to have little more fun. It's the kind of book when you're reading, you can't stop. I was determined to only read one chapter, because I had to get up at 6 a.m., and the minute the book was done, I got the next one and the next one. Right around book four, I remember thinking, "This would make a good TV series. If this show was done right, this would be a show I would watch."
AVC: How far ahead have you plotted the show? Do you have a full arc in mind yet?
AB: Fortunately, she's written about eight books, and she's about to publish a ninth, though I'm sure we won't stick to them 100 percent. And I think the show will encourage a lot of people to read her books, and then everybody will know everything, and I think at that point, it will become less possible or even not advisable for us to stick too strongly to the books. But for now, I'd say books one through four are really strong, and there are storylines we would go toward. But I also see as we finish season one and we're talking about season two, there will be other areas we're going to delve into.
AVC: As a show-runner, do you feel you have to look pretty far ahead in a series?
AB: No, I'm not like J.K. Rowling, where I know there's going to be this number of seasons, and I know exactly what's going to happen. I would be so bored if that was the case. There would be no journey. There would be nothing to discover. I'm lucky in that I get to work with some really, really gifted writers that feel passionately about this world and this material. It is a bit of a melting pot, the writers' room, in terms of the synthesis that happens between all these different minds and perspectives, and I trust that I will know how to keep things from veering off course. But I don't know how it's going to end. I haven't really thought about it. I did always sort of know that Nate Fisher would die in Six Feet Under, because it was like, "Of course," but I don't know about this one.
AVC: In your capacity as show-runner, how would you describe your sphere of influence?
AB: Well, let's say I have veto power. I'm certainly the last word in casting. I do a pass on the script before it goes to the table, before it goes to the director. That being said, I'm not on the set when shows are being shot. The writer-producers I work with, whoever wrote the first draft of that script serves as the producer. I don't think each show has to be exactly like the other one. I like it when this one feels a little more like a documentary, and this one feels a little more like an old-fashioned romantic movie. I personally like that as a viewer. But I think probably the role of show-runner on a television series sort of equates to the role of either director of a film, or a producer who is really highly involved. I mean, I'm involved in editing, I re-cut episodes, and I'm definitely involved in scoring and sound mixing, but I do feel like the focus of my job is to keep the best possible scripts coming down the pipeline, so department heads and visiting actors and directors have them 10 days before we start shooting. That's the only way I know how to work.
AVC: How do you envision the use of vampires as a metaphor? There are times on the show when it seems a very clear metaphor for something, and then it shifts around.
AB: Obviously, it's very easy to see the vampires as a metaphor for—at this point in history—for gay and lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, just in the sense that equal rights and vampire marriage—that is to say, marriage between vampires and humans—is an issue in the show. But I think it's so easy to see them as that. It's just too easy. As a deeper metaphor, beyond the talking-head political sphere, I think they are, in some ways, a metaphor for a kind of shadowy group that is silently but very efficiently amassing and consolidating power. That's their goal, and anybody who gets in their way will be destroyed. There are certainly forces like that at work in the world. So for me, they were kind of a fluid metaphor, and I like that. Some of the vampires are like humans, some of them are very sympathetic, and some of them are just bad, and actively want to spread chaos throughout the world.
AVC: Given the show's backwoods Louisiana setting, how does the broader concerns of the vampires—their official fight for equal rights, their integration into society—figure into a locale where few have ever met a vampire? How do those two things integrate?
AB: I'm not sure they really do. It seems to integrate more in the marketing campaign than in the actual show. It integrates in the way that a presidential campaign is integrating in a small town, and it kind of filters down. But it does serve a purpose in the show as texture, as background. The story is not about how the vampires are going to get their rights. But those issues are coming back, and certainly as the season progresses, the anti-vampire church comes more into play, and you've got to keep the political dialogue going between the pro-vampire and anti-vampire forces. When that happens, it feels organic, so that it's not like all of the sudden, we're telling stories about the church. Because to me, that's really clumsy storytelling.
AVC: So what are you looking to evoke about the South in this show? Do you see it as straight Southern Gothic?
AB: I certainly don't want to belittle the South and do the typical Hollywood "Look at those clowns and idiots," or give the women silly hats and big flowery dresses. I'm from the South, so while I personally find it impossible to live there, I still have a fondness for it as a geographical region. I'm just trying to create a place that has a real taste of something non-generic. Certainly one of the aspects of setting the show in Louisiana that we love is the presence of nature, the humidity, the heat, the bugs, all of that stuff. And I try to keep that alive in every episode, because we decided to approach the supernatural as not something that occurs outside of nature, but something that's a deeper manifestation of nature than we are equipped to perceive. One of the other things I responded to in the book was how much I love that Southern dialect, the way people express themselves. It's like music, and so it's nice to go there.
read whole interview here: http://www.avclub.com/content/interview/alan_ball
True Blood Christmas Carols- The Magister Is Coming To Town
(sung to the tune of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town")
You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
The Magister is coming to town
He's making a list,
And checking it twice;
Gonna find out Who's naughty and nice.
The Magister is coming to town
He sees you in your coffin
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!
O! You better watch out!
You better not cry.
Better not pout, I'm telling you why.
The Magister is coming to town.
The Magister is coming to town.
True Blood in France part deux
another French article about True Blood starting on French cable TV
Stephen Moyer, who represents Bill Compton, has worked hard to become a worrying and be attractive to both: "Imagine how to be Bill, a vampire 173 years, is not obvious. To embody it, I chose to save my movements, even the most innocuous. Therefore, when acting as vampire, it seems more powerful, faster and more worrying ". With all the characters, even secondary, True Blood reveals, little by little, the real ambition of its author: "Of course, True Blood could be rightly regarded as a metaphor for minorities, a charge against the administration Bush, but, above all, a study of manners unbridled between different characters. "
This has convinced Stephen Moyer to accept the role of Bill: "Alan Ball, blood, sex, sweat, meaning and all on HBO, I would have been crazy to refuse! ".
Fixed12/22: And when Alan Ball is asked if Anna Paquin was as willing as her partner [Stephen Moyer] to appear in scenes featuring violence and nudity, he replies firmly: "There was no hesitation on her part. Anna insisted on doing all her scenes herself. Especially if, at the end she could be bitten by a vampire (laughs). Duly noted.
Thanks to one of my readers for fixing that last paragraph ! Wow, that does spice things up , huh ?
somebody help with a better translation of the last paragraph -what ??
C’est ce qui a convaincu Stephen Moyer d’accepter le rôle de Bill :«Alan Ball, du sang, du sexe, de la sueur, du sens et le tout sur HBO, j’aurais été fou de refuser ! ».Et lorsqu’on demande à Alan Ball si Anna Paquin a eu autant de facilité que son partenaire pour accepter la violence et ses scènes de nu, sa réponse est sans appel :«Aucune hésitation de sa part. Anna insiste pour faire ses cascades elle-même. Surtout si, à la fin, elle est mordue par un vampire (rire)». Dont acte.
Life On Mars' Philip Glenister takes on vampire Mackenzie Crook in modern-day fantasy
By Daily Mail Reporter
The Office star Mackenzie Crook is transformed into an evil vampire for a monster-packed ITV1 fantasy drama.
Crook sports a crooked beak to play Gladiolus Thrip alongside Life On Mars actor Philip Glenister in Demons, a modern-day version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula set in London.
Glenister plays American ex-CIA agent Rupert Galvin who sets about training his godson Luke (Christian Cooke), the last descendant of vampire killer Van Helsing, to destroy the creatures terrorising the capital.
Demons
Ghoulish: Mackenzie Crook dons a crooked beak to play Gladiolus Thrip in ITV1's fantasy drama Demons
The actor says he is glad to put Gene Hunt, the character he played in both Ashes To Ashes and Life On Mars, behind him and is relieved that Harvey Keitel is playing Hunt in the US version.
‘Can you imagine, six months playing him here, six months there.
'I'd be in the Priory by the end of the year wondering if I was really Gene Hunt after all!’ he told The Sun.
Demons
Phillip Glenister (top middle) and Crook (bottom middle) appear in the ITV1 six part series alongside Holliday Grainger (top left), Christian Cooke and Zoe Tapper (top right)
He admits that he struggled with his American accent for the six-part series which begins on January 3.
‘Galvin was written as a Texan but he is now from Ohio.
'They sent the writers to New York and an email came back about the accent saying: “We approve of his accent, we believe it to be around Cincinnati.”
‘I was worried about the accent at first, but now I've swapped 'Huntisms' for Americanisms.’
Thanks to wparkhom for sending me this article -always send me anything you think should be on the blog!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
Pop Wrap's 10 Best Fall TV Moments- NY Post
Funny it's the same scene I chose this morning for the other Nelsan post
"Tip your waitress !!" terrific
4. "True Blood" Lafayette Says 'You Got Served!'
As one of only three new shows I picked up during the Fall 2008 season, I became more obsessed with "True Blood." I am inordinately infatuated with the world, the mythology and the dialogue these crazy characters get to say.
I had an extremely difficult time picking one scene from this show -- Bill and Sookie having graveyard sex was a very close second -- but thanks to Lafayette's fabulous earring removal, I was incapable of ignoring his white trash smack down from episode five.
http://blogs.nypost.com/popwrap/archives/2008/12/pop_wraps_top_1_2.html
More fresh blood - Wes Brown cast for 6 shows
More fresh blood! Wes Brown (We Are Marshall) is the latest addition to True Blood's season 2 ensemble. He'll play Luke, a God-obsessed hunk that bonds with Jason (Ryan Kwanten) at a church camp, in at least six episodes.
Wes's IMBD http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1734202/
http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2008/12/casting-scoop-1.html
The gift that keeps on giving ..?
Who gave this gift and to whom ?
When ?
"The excellence of a gift lies in its appropriateness rather than in its value"
You know you've watched too much True Blood when:
You start categorizing your co-workers into groups: Fangbanger, Vampire, Fellowship of the Sun
Instead of saying, "well, I have things to do", you say "there are urgent matters to which I must attend"
You know it's really bad when you find yourself crossing out the days on the new 2009 calendar until May~ or Until it's August????
Or when you get an email reminding you to donate blood this season and the first thing that pops into your head is Bill saying "or I can get donor blood from a clinic in Monroe ..."
Thanks for these I need more !! send me yours : truebloodindallas@gmail
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