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Saturday, March 7, 2009
7:30am ObjectDesire (OD) picks up Nocturnalinnc and Arianwyn (henceforth NC and Aria) at their hotel then drives to Dallas' house. This is a bit early as we had a late night drinking margaritas and listening to Latin Jazz the previous evening (whoosh, Dallas can boogy, especially after a couple of drinks; NC and Aria not too bad either!).
8:30am Depart the metroplex with Dallas behind the wheel. Have many road snacks, but Dallas is peeved that OD forgot Cheezits.
9:00am Stop at Starbucks. Need coffee...
10:30am Stop to buy Cheezits.
11:00am Cross into Area 5, Lousiana (we have previously obtained permission from Sheriff Eric Northman). Visiting wiki girls are required to "raise the roof" and "woot, woot" as we cross the border. They comply.
11:30am Pass FotS church. Double-take then note location for later reconnoiter.
11:50am Yippeeee! Bill's house is still fabulous and beautiful. No construction foreman is present today so we can loiter a bit longer taking pics of house and each other in front of house. Dallas leaves gravel on driveway, but NC swipes a rock.
12:15pm Enter Mansfield--visit courthouse and magic tree (Bubba's establishment is still there). Park near Mansfield Police Station trying to decide if it stood in for BonTemps station in TrueBlood. It is a close call, so we then debate whether it is against the law to take pictures of a police station. Sneek a few shots with much anxiety. Dallas pulls out in path of only other car on road in Mansfield and we narrowly miss a collision. Now we are really rattled and fear arrest at any moment. ( Oh-- it wasn't that bad, but it was the only other car in Mansfield and it was right in front of the police station-"D")
12:45pm Having avoided arrest, we decide sustenance is in order. In honor of Sookie, we eat footlong chili cheese dogs at Sonic (Sookie likes Sonic doesn't she?). Dallas whips out iphone and begins Twitter roleplay with @SookieBonTemps.( Dallas also DID NOT have a footlong chili cheese dog!)
Afternoon: *Times now blurry to protect secret location of Jason's house and Rattray's trailer*
YES, WE FOUND JASON'S HOUSE! No glamouring was involved, unless you count Dallas glamouring her computer. We are able to identify the various outbuildings and the picnic spot from Stackhouse family flashbacks.
A short way down the road, we find the spot where the Rattray's trailer was upended by our Bill.
2ish: Much pleased with ourselves, we head back toward Shreveport.
Sneak stealthily up on FotS Church. Jump out and "snap, snap, snap" take photos. Drive around back...even creepier back there. Hold breath until we finally make it out of parking lot and back on the road.
2:45pm Take NC and Aria past the Shreveport filming locations--site of Monroe vamp house, Lucky's Liquors and Ogilvie-Werner House seen in opening credits, and the Strand theatre.
3:30pm Drive to Lake Bistineau to see if we can find where Terry and Andy fished and Sam ran nekkid through the trees. Lake is beautiful and we find some likely spots. Take more photos.
We take a good look around on drive to and from Lake Bistineau because this is the route Sookie, et. al. would take to Shreveport from Bon Temps.
5:00pm Arrive at Ralph & Kacoos for dinner (this is where Sookie and Quinn dine on their date). 
See stuffed tiger in lobby--hope it is no one we know. Order way too much food, attempt to eat as much of it as possible.
6:30 Back on the road home. Twitter role-play is heating up. Aria has had instructions in iPhone and Twitter and reads tweets to the rest of us. Much hilarity ensues, with Dallas having to pull over to tweet responses. Aria given new instructions on iphone keypad after we pull over in one too many dark spots and (I swear this is true) a coyote stares us down. We are laughing so hard, OD (who has a cold, stops breathing--okay, okay just gasping for breath).
We laugh hysterically all the way back to Dallas. Plans are made for a June trip to Los Angeles. Sookie is invited via Twitter.
Stay tuned :-)
haha -this is great thanks so much OD!
Yes, we can't disclose the location of the Jason house or the Rattray trailer ( known as Four Corners ) as they are located at private homes and the owners have not disclosed the location in any other interviews. Bill's house has been written up many times so that's not disclosing any secrets. I love this area more and more every time we go back.
I can't disclose who this is in the photo at least one person is one of the 3 other people on the trip and I took the photo.
**We did do the radio show last Monday night with @SookieBonTemps and all the girls called in and talked about the trip and the twitter hilarity if you missed the show you can listen here
** OD writes these great travelogues for all our trips others are here ( Houston to meet Charlaine and our first trip to Bon Temps http://lovingtruebloodindallas.blogspot.com/search/label/travelogue
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Travelogue to Louisiana Part Deaux : Dallas and friends tweet their way through Northern Louisiana
Love bites for Anna Paquin : Initially Alan Ball wasn't pleased
When news broke that Kiwi Anna Paquin and her True Blood co-star were dating, writer-director Alan Ball was not best pleased.
"I'll be honest when it first happened, I was like: Uh oh," he told the Sunday Star-Times.
But he quickly came round, as the romance between Paquin and Englishman Stephen Moyer blossomed.
"It's the real deal. They really fell in love, and you can see that in the show. You can see the attraction and chemistry. It's all good."
In the show, which screens on Prime from Wednesday, Moyer plays 173-year-old vampire Bill Compton, who returns to live in a small Louisiana town and falls in love with Paquin's Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress who can read people's minds.
The two now live together in LA, though Moyer travels regularly to London where he has two children from a previous relationship.
In an interview with US TV Guide Moyer, 37, admitted the sparks flew with Paquin, 26, at the first audition for the series last year, but they deliberately kept it quiet.
"The show is the star, not the two people having a relationship."
In an interview with the Star-Times in today's Focus section, Ball said Paquin had "aggressively" pursued the role. "When my casting director said, would you be interested in Anna Paquin, I said, uh, yeah, would she be interested in this?"
Even though she has a glittering career in movies such as X-Men, Ball realised True Blood could allow Paquin to do things she mightn't on the big screen.
He was right - it won her the 2008 Golden Globe award for best TV actress in a drama, to add to her 1993 Oscar for The Piano.
"She is the tent pole that this show hangs on. She is delightful in this role. She's charming, she's innocent, she's pretty, she's fiery, she's romantic, and you just really, really love her."
And she's just the same in real life, he says down to earth, professional, fun to be around.
But one of the big topics Ball had to canvass during casting was asking the pale and dark New Zealander a crucial question for her to truly become Sookie, the sassy and tanned southerner in the short shorts of Charlaine Harris's books: Are you willing to go blonde?
"She was like, 'Of course. This is something I would never do just on my own because it seems so superficial. But now I have an excuse to do it."'
* True Blood, Prime, 9.30pm, Wednesdays.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/2263444/Love-bites-for-Anna-Paquin
Things I've learned from True Blood
A real vampire will kick Bill's ass.
Lafayette paints his toenails.
Terry gets seizures from watching politics.
Shape shifters want what every man wants.
Terry likes HGTV.
Hoyt's Mom is night-blind.
Loving True Blood in Dallas Blogtalk Radio : True Blood Twitter craze with @SookieBonTemps (Episode 14)
Chatroom opens with all the twitter gang at 9oo pm and we go live from Bon Temps at 930 pm !
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/True-Blood-in-Dallas/2009/03/10/Twitter-star-SookieBonTemps
The Twitter craze and our exclusive interview with @SookieBonTemps: Loving True Blood in Dallas Blogtalk Radio show
TONIGHT : March 9, 2009 Monday 9pm central
You won't want to miss this interview with @SookieBonTemps who will be "lettin' down the ponytail" and talking about what it's really like to be a twitter star!
We will be broadcasting live from Sookie Stackhouse's kitchen table in Bon Temps Louisiana. "Dallas" from the blog Loving True Blood in Dallas talks to @SookieBonTemps both in and out of character!
We want your questions! You can call in (646) 929-0825 or you can post you questions here. Please leave your wiki or other online name when you post your question because we are going to have a drawing for prizes.
To the grand prize winner, we will be giving away a Scrabble game! You folks that follow the True Blood twitters know all about that ..*wink, wink* and a fantastic sheriff's pin that we brought back from Louisiana!
We also will have some special guest's call- in, Arianwyn and Nocturnalnnc and Object Desire from the HBO True Blood FanWiki. Ari and NC just got back home after spending the weekend in Dallas and Louisiana and we'll talk to them about their impression, of spending Saturday in an around Bon Temps, in the not so fictional area of Northwestern Louisiana.
Television: True Blood
DESPITE THE rich scope of vampire mythology in literature and culture, few TV series have ever veered from the Dracula cliche.
Most, despite the runaway success of more quirky shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, were hit-and-miss.
Think Forever Knight, based on an 800-year-old vampire detective that was more CSI than supernatural or Kindred: The Embraced, clearly aimed at role-playing geeks. Then there was the spectacular failure of Blade when they tried to make it into a series and replaced Wesley Snipes with American rapper Sticky Fingaz. It was canned after one season.
So my hopes weren't high as I approached the new US TV series True Blood, which starts here this week, adapted from the best-selling Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris.
On the surface, it didn't promise much beyond tired old cliches the main character is Sookie, a mind-reading white-trash waitress from deepest darkest Louisiana who falls in love with a vampire.
To make matters worse, I found out that the lead actress was none other than our own Anna Paquin. She may have won a Golden Globe this year for her role in True Blood, but my first and most lasting impression of her is as a whining nine-year-old in The Piano.
Call me unimaginative, but I just couldn't picture her out of braids and in what promises to be the sauciest vampire show on TV so far. But happily, Paquin proves her mettle from the first episode, with a Southern accent so thick you couldn't cut it with a stake.
Read on from the Sunday Star Times in New Zealand http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/entertainment/2259340/Television-True-Blood
Go Ask Dallas: What's the deal with the book of Charlaine Harris's to be published in Oct. 09 'A Touch of Dead' ? Is it Sookie #10 or short stories?
Elisha writes to ask "Hey Dallas, Do you have any information on the book that's going to be released in October '09 called ' A Touch of Dead'? "
No a Touch of Dead is NOT Sookie Book # 10 and Yes, it is a compilation of Sookie short stories but not all of them!
This is how Charlaine Harris describes the book :
Yes, a compilation of the Sookie short stories will be released in October. It's called A TOUCH OF DEAD and it has a charming cover by Lisa Desimini, my favorite cover artist.
These are not all the stories set in the Sookieverse (the rights to those have not reverted), but since I write Sookie only for Penguin Putnam, I didn't need to reclaim the rights.
Charlaine Harris
Now, I would have you note that Night's Edge is also being republished this fall and my guess would be that one of the stories not included would be 'Dancer's in the Dark' which appears in this anthology. 'Dancer's' is the 2004 Sookieverse novella about the dancing vampires, Leyla and Sean and a MUST read.
Night's Edge was originally published by Harlequin and they are notorious for holding on to publishing rights ...so you may have to buy the republished edition of Night's Edge and A Touch of Dead to get all the Sookie (and Sookieverse) short stories.
Personally, I wouldn't wait until November there are used copies available and I think 'Dancer's' holds all important clues to Dead and Gone, Book 9.
You can also get all the short stories ( yes, even the one 's that are out-of-print ) for free HERE
Kind of cryptically CH might also be saying that A Touch of Dead might not include 'Tacky' from My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding which is a Sookieverse story but published by St. Martin's Griffin.
I will post more when we know more ... I can't wait to see the cover!
You can read past 'Question and Answers' from "Go Ask Dallas" Here and thanks, Elisha!
Questions are always welcome, I don't always know the answers but sometimes I can find the answers Email: True Blood in Dallas
Thanks, "Dallas"
Sookie sipping Swiss Miss...
Everyone got the Swiss Miss question from yesterday right ...thanks to Tes, Dee, Kim and Rita.
It's just such a strange little scene, with Sookie sitting at the kitchen table sipping hot chocolate with Eric, Pam and Chow and being told that Bill has been kidnapped
Book 3, Club Dead
"Are you the king of Louisiana?" I asked Eric, giddy with all my mental effort to keep varying stories straight. I was laughing so hard that it was all 
I could do to keep upright in the chair. Possibly there was a note of hysteria. "Oh, no," he said. "I am the sheriff of Area 5." That really set me off. I had tears running down my face, and Chow was looking uneasy. I got up, made myself some Swiss Miss microwave hot chocolate, and stirred it with a spoon so it would cool off. I was calming down as I performed the little task, and by the time I returned to the table, I was almost sober.
**psssttt I think this scene might happen in Season 2 of True Blood, as a think the Bill kidnapping will be the end of season cliffhanger.
Robert Pattinson Does GQ to Talk Vampires and His Looks
I don't post much about Twilight because I haven't read the books, nor have I seen the movie. ( I know, gasp!)
I know someone of you are fans so this might be of interest
Robert Pattinson is, for millions of girls around the world, the perfect hottie. With his piercing blue eyes and always messy hair, and given the part that has brought him to the attention of the fans, that of a vampire in “Twilight,” it’s no wonder he’s the object of adoration for so many. Yet, as he tells in the latest issue of GQ magazine, this kind of attention was the last thing on his mind when he set out to become an actor.
Speaking with the magazine, whose cover and pages he graces, Pattinson reveals that the whole fame game rather frightens him – so much so that he’s the type of guy who is in the habit of hunching in the hope that he’ll pass unnoticed. This is rarely the case, though, especially after the immense success that “Twilight” has enjoyed. And, with two other movies from the franchise coming along (“New Moon” and “Eclipse”), chances are that things are only going to get worse from this perspective......
All in all, Robert Pattinson makes both for a wonderful appearance and an intelligent conversationalist. For the full GQ interview, please go here
True Blood Music Video of the Day:More human than human by White Zombie
I frequently save the really graphically sexy videos to post on the weekends so that readers don't accidentally play the TB Music Video of the Day at work. This week I saved this video until the weekend because it is graphically violent and bloody one ..after all True Blood is not a warm a fuzzy TV show it's a murder mystery involving vampires and other deadly supernatural creatures.
It's a little much to see all the scenes at once, so wait until after breakfast ...
More human than human by White Zombie LYRICS
Thanks ( I think ) phenomenal173
Friday, March 13, 2009
True Blood Season 2 : What Will Happen in Season Two of True Blood?
Could Bon Temps Be Loosing a Great Cook? Could We Be Gaining a Psychotic Fairy?
By Sarah Wood
True Blood , HBO's breakout series on vampires, has garnered a whole legion of blood sucking fans. A Season 2 was green lit very quickly after the network saw how ratings were progressing. Season 2 of True Blood is currently being filmed, and tid bits of information on what to expect from
Bill, Sookie, and Eric are making their way out!
Season one of True Blood left us with the mystery: who's manicured toes were hanging out of Andy Bellfleur's car? While at first sight it looks like it could be a woman's foot, many fans agree that it most likely is our sassy Lafayette. In the season one finale of True Blood we see Lafayette encounter something behind Merlotte's Bar that has him horrified. Putting two and two together, we can kiss Lafayette good bye!
Loosing Nelsen Ellis from the True Blood cast is a huge loss, he is an amazing actor and really does justice for Lafayette's character. (Lafayette wouldn't make a very good vampire, unfortunately!) But, no fear, with loss comes new cast members. Last month HBO announced that Todd Lowe, Deborah Ann Woll , Michelle Forbes and Mehcad Brooks would be joining the cast of True Blood as series regulars.
While most of the casting is straight forward, we do have one character who is considered the mysterious casting. Maryann is the social worker who takes in Tara at the end of season one, and has an odd little conversation with Sam Merlotte. What could she be doing in Bon Temps, and what does it mean for our True Blood world? It is widely accepted that Maryann is most likely the Maenad, a other worldly being who feeds of drunkenness and mayhem. This can't bode well for anyone who lives in her general vicinity!
Read on http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1536057/true_blood_season_2_what_will_happen.html?cat=9
It's drip, drip, dripping that Alex is in for Thor and maybe his Dad will play Odin
The source also confirms that Alexander Skarsgård is Kenneth Branagh's choice to play Thor, and that Josh Hartnett will likely play Thor's adversary Loki. Stellan Skarsgård is a strong possibility to play Odin, Thor's father.
http://www.reelzchannel.com/person/189911/alexander-skarsgard
True Blood Gets a New Supernatural Creature
I'm not quite sure why this is making the rounds today as news ..it's stuff we already know and of course, the new creature is Maryann, ( Callisto ) the maenad from Book 2, Living Dead in Dallas. From EOnline.
A new villain is coming to True Blood’s blood-loving, fictional Louisiana town of Bon Temps, and the vampires are not happy campers.
“There's a new supernatural creature in town, one I've never seen on TV,” says a source on the set of the HBO series. “Even vampires are scared of this thing. We'll be seeing a lot more of Eric (Alexander Skarsgård) this year. Romance is in the air for most of our main characters, but as always with our show, nothing is ever what it seems.”
Drama also ensues when Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) and Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) take a business trip out of Bon Temps and find themselves in the middle of some sticky vampire politics, according to our source.
Want more scoop? OK, the dead person in the car is...
Just kidding. The source can’t tell us that! But we were told that episode five is being shot now, and 12 episodes are planned to start airing in either late June or early July. Also, there are a few new exciting actors on the show, including Valerie Cruz (Dexter), Anna Camp (Cashmere Mafia) and Ashley Jones (The Bold and the Beautiful). They join the previously confirmed Michelle Forbes, Mehcad Brooks and Deborah Ann Woll.
A few more surprises are set for down the line, but they're surprises—'nuff said.
What kind of supernatural creature do you think it'll be? Are you going to tune in this summer for its reveal?
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b103349_true_blood_gets_new_supernatural.html
Friday the 13th: No, not the movie it's the date today !
Yes, it's Friday the 13th!
Yes, we also just had one in February too.. ( more on Gregorian calendar)
So why is this day unlucky ..would you believe a Norse myth ??
Read on from National Geographic :
Friday the 13th Phobia Rooted in Ancient History
Ominous Number
So how did Friday the 13th become such an unlucky day?
Dossey, also a folklore historian and author of Holiday Folklore, Phobias and Fun, said fear of Friday the 13th is rooted in ancient, separate bad-luck associations with the number 13 and the day Friday. The two unlucky entities ultimately combined to make one super unlucky day.
Dossey traces the fear of 13 to a Norse myth about 12 gods having a dinner party at Valhalla, their heaven. In walked the uninvited 13th guest, the mischievous Loki. Once there, Loki arranged for Hoder, the blind god of darkness, to shoot Balder the Beautiful, the god of joy and gladness, with a mistletoe-tipped arrow.
"Balder died and the whole Earth got dark. The whole Earth mourned. It was a bad, unlucky day," said Dossey. From that moment on, the number 13 has been considered ominous and foreboding.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/02/0212_040212_friday13.htmlTrue Blood and Sophie-Anne Leclerq, Queen of Louisiana
Remember the first time we see Sophie Anne is NOT in the books it's in the ALL IMPORTANT short story " One Word Answer' , in that story she comes to Sookie's house to tell her of her cousin's Hadley's death.
You can find the short story in this anthology: 
One Word Answer : Bite (contains short story "One Word Answer") Jove 2005, ISBN 0-515-13970-X
Here is her description when we first meet her.
In Bite
She was beautiful, of course, but not in a fairy-tale princess sort of way. I don't know what I expected, but she wasn't it. While Bill and Bubba scrambled to their feet and then bowed deeply, I gave her a good once-over. She was wearing a very expensive midnight-blue suit and high heels. Her hair was a rich reddish brown. Of course she was pale as milk, but her eyes were large, tilted, and almost the same brown as her hair. Her fingernails were polished red, and somehow that seemed very weird. She wore no jewelry.
From Book 6 Definitely Dead
Sophie-Anne Leclerq, Queen of Louisiana, and a male vampire were sitting at a round table piled with papers. I'd met the queen once before, when she'd come to my place to tell me about my cousin's death. I hadn't noticed then how young she must have been when she died, maybe no more than fifteen. She was an elegant woman, perhaps four inches shorter than my height of five foot six, and she was groomed down to the last eyelash. Makeup, dress, hair, stockings, jewelry—the whole nine yards.
True Blood - Casting Call for Queen Sophie Anne
[QUEEN SOPHIE ANNE]
Vampire Queen of Louisiana. Originally from France (no accent necessary), Sophie-Anne has been a vampire for almost five hundred years. She is charming, wily, ruthless and wise. With one foot in the old world and one in the new, she rules all vampires in the state of Louisiana, engages with Kings and Queens from other states. Brilliant and far-sighted, she is a consummate diplomat, politician and adversary. Incredibly cultured, has known many of history's most famous people personally -- as well as had affairs with many of them -- she is entertaining, funny, dangerous and delightful. Scheduled for one appearance in season 2, she will figure in future seasons. sptv050769 PLEASE SUBMIT STAR NAMES ONLY.
Source: SpoilerTV
Burgers Lafayette recipe from Charlaine Harris
Sauce for Burgers Lafayette
1/4 c vinegar
1/2 c water
1/2 t salt
a dash of cayenne
1 medium onion, chopped
2 T Worcestershire sauce
2 T brown sugar
1 T prepared mustard
1/2 t pepper
1/2 c ketchup
2 T margarine
l lemon, sliced extra thin (optional)
Saute the onion (and lemon, if you choose to use it) in the margarine. Then add all the other ingredients. Simmer about 20 minutes. Then place the broiled hamburgers (or leftover roast slices) in the skillet and steep them in the sauce over very low heat for a few minutes. Serve with extra sauce spooned on top when you're ready.
Charlaine Harris
From Book 8 From Dead to Worse
I stuck my head through the hatch to wave at the kitchen staff. The current cook at Merlotte’s was an ex-army guy named Carson. Short-order cooks come and go. Carson was one of the better ones. He’d mastered burgers Lafayette right away (hamburgers steeped in a former cook’s special sauce), and he got the chicken strips and fries done exactly right, and he didn’t have tantrums or try to stab the busboy
It isn't burgers Lafayette like in the books but we just have to watch the brilliant 'Aids burger' scene from True Blood
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