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You know you've watched too much True Blood when you want to travel to Sweden
You hear a song on the radio and think "this would make a good Loving True Blood in Dallas "True blood video of the day song."
Every time I do something really stupid I think "Jason Stackhouse, you is one stupid bitch."
Sookie all of a sudden sounds like a good name for your firstborn. Or Bill, if it's a boy.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
You've watched too much True Blood if
Sookie Stackhouse book's dedications, acknowledgments and prologues for Book 7 All together Dead
This book is dedicated to a few of the women I'm proud to call "friend":
Jodi Dabson Bollendorf, Kate Buker, Toni Kelner, Dana Cameron, Joan Hess, Eve Sandstrom, Paula Woldan, and Betty Epley. All of you have meant something different to me, and I feel grateful to know you.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There are a few people I've thanked before and need to thank again: Robin Burcell, former cop and present writer, and FBI Agent George Fong, who were great about answering my questions about security and bomb disposal. I appreciate the input of Sam Saucedo, the former newscaster and now writer, who explained a few things about border politics to me.
I also need to thank S. J. Rozan, who was happy to answer my questions about architecture, though the vampire part was a distinct shock. I may have misused the information given me, but it was in a good cause. As always, I owe a great debt to my friend Toni L. P. Kelner, who read my first draft without laughing in my face. And my new continuity person, Debi Murray, gets a tip of the hat; from now on if I make mistakes, I have someone to blame. I owe a lot to the many wonderful readers who visit my website
(www.charlaineharris.com)
and leave messages of encouragement and interest. Beverly Batillo, my fan club president, has given me a boost many a time when I was down in the dumps.
California dreamin': True Blood Paleyfest Los Angeles- will you be there ?
OK, my bags are packed and I'm ready to go ... ( see note below)
We really are all ready: we have tickets to the True Blood Paleyfest panel discussion, airline reservations, our hotel and car rented ... YIPPEE! The lovely Nocturnalinnc and my traveling buddy, ObjectDesire will be traveling in "Team Dallas "
I have been in contact with about 15 others who I know from wiki, the blog or the radio show who will also be there and I am collecting contact info for the various teams and individuals who'd like to maybe meetup with some other fans.
We are planning at least 2 meetups while there, if you are going and want to know about the meetups send me an email !
Put "True Blood Paley" in the subject please .
Email: True Blood in Dallas
This first line in this email is actually a line from a Sookie book, I got this wonderful email recently from RFlatstone.
Hey Dallas,
I noticed this ...
“My bags are packed…” I sang.
“Well, I’m not so lonesome, I could cry,” Amelia said.
All Together Dead, chapter 8
These are a reference to the first and last line, respectively, of the first verse of the Peter, Paul and Mary song “Leaving on a Jet Plane.
Thanks Flat ! Well, it's a song popularized by Peter, Paul & Mary and from their 1969 album called, Album 1700. It was however, written by John Denver in 1967.
The stanza is:
All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go
I'm standing here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin, its early morn
The taxis waiting, hes blowin his horn
Already I'm so lonesome I could cry.
Fascinating videos
Peter, Paul and Mary and umm John
1972
California Dreaming by the Mamas and Papas 1965
Earth Hour 09 : Vampires must just LOVE energy saving darkness world wide
8:30-9:30 pm tonight wherever you live !
The darkness will do you and the whole world some good ( Thank God, our iPhones and BlackBerrys will still work!)
For the first time in history, people of all ages, nationalities, race and background have the opportunity to use their light switch as their vote – Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming. WWF are urging the world to VOTE EARTH and reach the target of 1 billion votes, which will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009.
Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome’s Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness.
In 2009, Earth Hour is being taken to the next level, with the goal of 1 billion people switching off their lights as part of a global vote. Unlike any election in history, it is not about what country you’re from, but instead, what planet you’re from. VOTE EARTH is a global call to action for every individual, every business, and every community. A call to stand up and take control over the future of our planet. Over 74 countries and territories have pledged their support to VOTE EARTH during Earth Hour 2009, and this number is growing everyday.
VOTE EARTH by simply switching off your lights for one hour, and join the world for Earth Hour.
Saturday, March 28, 8:30-9:30pm. Find our MORE HERE
Here is Dallas from last night
True Blood: bloody Gothic camp with psychological depth
Spatula blog in New Zealand nails it with his descritpon of True Blood ...
This week in television shows: We've finally gotten the HBO TV series "True Blood" on the air down here, starring New Zealand's very own Oscar-winning Anna Paquin, whom I must say has, er, filled out since "The Piano." I've only seen two episodes so far but I rather dig this new spin on the vampire mythology by "Six Feet Under" creator Alan Ball. Brief synopsis: thanks to the invention of a "blood substitute" drink, vamps have come out of the closet and are trying to integrate into human society, and "True Blood" focuses on one small Louisiana town's reaction to the vampires in their midst. Paquin is quite good, doing a decent Southern accent, and I like the way the very adults-only show straddles bloody Gothic camp and psychological depth. The satire of other minority movements is great ("God hates fangs" reads one sign). It really captures the relaxed, sultry yet tense feeling of the American South without descending into caricature. (The South is frequently larger than life, and "True Blood" is honest there.)
http://spatulaforum.blogspot.com/2009/03/this-week-in-assortment-of-random.html
Vampire cupcake
Maybe I'll make some of these for our local True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse book club meeting the night after Book 9, 'Dead and Gone 'comes out...
I knew I wanted a white cupcake (vampires are pale, after all) and had a recipe in mind to use already. The question that remained to be answered was how I was going to decorate it. There are a ton of articles, primarily in family-oriented magazines, that describe how to make a cartoony vampire faceon top of a cupcake. I rifled through them feeling unsatisfied. Then I found a picture of some cupcakes on a blog called horror gourmet that really struck a chord with me and I decided to make a cupcake that not only looked like it had been bitten into by a vampire, but that would bleed when you bit into it.
I baked my cupcakes, used the cupcake-filling technique I used on my devil’s food cupcakes to fill the cakes up with pureed cherry pie filling (canned or homemade) and topped them off with white icing to best accentuate the red bite marks. I made the marks using a skewer dipped in leftover cherry filling, making sure to leave a clear impression of a fang bite, rather than just a red streak on top of the cake.
The result was even better than I could have hoped for. They looked fantastic and tasted even better. The cherry filling worked surprisingly well in the vanilla cupcake and didn’t get absorbed by the cake at all, so it stayed nice a runny even after two days (how long the batch lasted before being devoured). The recipe makes 18 cupcakes, but you will probably have leftover filling and frosting, especially if you opt for canned cherry pie filling, so feel free to bake up a second batch to use everything up.
Vampire cupcake:
You know, this listed a scratch white cake mix recipe ( you can find it at link below) but Dallas says : use a good quality boxed white cake mix ! Sorry I'm sure i"m not DIY enough....
Turn cupcakes out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes 18 cupcakes.
Filling
1 can cherry pie filling
Puree cherry pie filling - a syrupy mix of sugar and cherries, usually - in a food processor until fairly smooth. Very small pieces of cherries are ok.
(A photo how-to of the assembly method can be found on page link below ) Take a cooled cupcake and, using a small pairing knife, cut a cone of cake (1-inch across by 1-inch deep) out of the top. Trim off the pointy end of the cone, leaving a flat circle of cake. Set aside and repeat this process for all the cupcakes.
Take the cherry filling and spoon about tablespoon or so into each cupcake cavity, filling it almost to the top with filling. Top off with the flat circle of cake you just removed to seal the hole and hold the “blood” filling in place.
Marshmallow Frosting
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large egg whites, room temperature
1/3 cup water
2 tsp light corn syrup
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Whisk sugar, egg whites, 1/3 cup water, light corn syrup, and cream of tartar in large metal bowl to blend. Set bowl over saucepan of barely simmering water (do not allow bottom of bowl to touch simmering water). Using handheld electric mixer, beat on medium speed until mixture resembles soft marshmallow fluff, about 5-7 minutes.
Increase mixer speed to high and beat until mixture is very smooth and thick, about 3 minutes longer. Remove bowl from over simmering water. Add vanilla extract and continue beating until marshmallow frosting is completely cool, about 5-7 minutes longer.
Assembly
Using a butter knife or a small offset spatula, frost each cupcake with a layer of the cooled marshmallow frosting by placing a dollop of icing in the center of the cupcake (on top of the cut out circle of cake) and spreading from the center to the sides of the cupcake.
Dip a wooden toothpick or skewer into some leftover cherry pie filling and poke two fang-holes, about 3/4 inch apart, in the frosting on one side of the cupcake. Dribble a little extra filling from the holes for effect.
Repeat until all cupcakes are frosted and decorated. You will probably have frosting leftover for another batch if you are baking more.
Makes 18 vampire cupcakes.
http://bakingbites.com/2007/10/vampire-cupcakes/
Food for the dead : Michael Bell
Michael Bell: Folklorist and Vampire Hunter
Michael Bell has spent the past twenty years tracking down vampires in the cemeteries of southern Rhode Island, northern Connecticut, and Vermont. His book, Food for the Dead: On the Trail of New England's Vampires (2001) documents his journey into the dimly lit world of nineteenth-century vampire practice, where, when one's children began to die from a mysterious, crippling disease, it sometimes became necessary to exhume the bodies of the dead, find out which one was possessed, cut out the heart of the corpse, burn it to ashes, and feed it to the living in order to put an end to the vampire's reign. Although Bell's vampires never wore capes, hissed, or even bothered to leave the grave, he maintains that they were much more terrifying than the monster we've become familiar with through movies and television. "They killed their kin while still lying, apparently dead, inside their coffins," he says. "How can you escape from something like that?"
More terrifying, perhaps, is that when I met Bell at a small restaurant around the corner from my house, he looked so much like a vampire hunter-at least, the way a proper vampire hunter should look-that I hesitated to call him over to my table. He is a narrow, handsome man who radiates a vehemence not unlike Christopher Plummer in his turn as Dr. Van Helsing in Wes Craven's Dracula 2000. It is so easy to picture him, wooden stake in hand, struggling atop a mound of freshly dug soil with a shrieking, reanimated corpse, that I found it difficult to focus on the interview at all. But some two hours later, I know a few things I did not know before. The good news:
The golden age of the vampire seems to be over. The bad news: You may be alive today only because a distant relative ate the charred remains of a possessed family member.
Read on HERE
House of Night series:Never let patriarchy get in the way of a good vampire book
P.C. I think vampire teen fiction is especially hot right now because teenagers identify with vampires. Vampires think they are immortal; teenagers think they are immortal ... A blood lust could equate to the flooding of hormones that teenagers get. Teenagers really identify with them. They identify with having to overcome these huge emotional obstacles and these desires – and they think they are immortal.
http://www.nationalpost.com/arts/story.html?id=1436265
Portland's 7th Annual Vampire's Masquerade Ball
http://www.vampireballpdx.com/
7th Annual VMB Tickets Available online now!
Prices are as follows:
Mar 23rd - Mar 28th $30
Tickets are also available at:
Alteration Nation
3341 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland
503-234-2045
What is the VMB . . .
It's a night of elegance, decadence, and prestige that is exclusively held one night a year in the city of Portland, OR. It's our local goth/industrial community's night to shine! Complete with regional vendors, dj's, performers, professional event photographers, and catering (cheeses, breads, meats, desserts, chocolate fountains, etc). The success of the prior six years with attendance now exceeding 800 will ensure the 7th Annual Vampire's Masquerade Ball will be sure to impress.
Using "vampire" in the name is meant to touch on dark romanticism, having an appreciation for all that we find beautiful in the gothic community. While this event is not put on by the vampire community itself, to date they have been very supportive and are very welcome to attend.
Being that this is a formal gothic/industrial event (and not to be confused for a costume party) the majority of attendees are of that subculture. The diversity this night encourages can be easily seen in the attire of those who attend. You will encounter individuals from such genres as romantic goth, death rock, fetish, corporate goth, industrial, victorian, edwardian, steam punk, etc. Although masks are encouraged, they are not required.
Darkest Regards,
Friday, March 27, 2009
Alpha Dog Round Four : Vote for Eric Northman !
I am terrible with other TV shows but come on ....these guys against a fabulous 1,000 year old Viking Vampire sheriff ? I just think NOT!
These last two rounds have been brutal! First we lost McSteamy, McDreamy, Peter Bishop, Jack Shephard and Michael Scofield, and this time around we had to say goodbye to Michael Westen, Coach, Sawyer and House. And that means your final four are a Viking vampire, two Winchester boys and Sayid Jarrah.
This is going to be quite a battle.
We'll be waiting out here in the safe zone with comfort, succor and an extremely well-stocked first-aid kit.
Ready? Grab the bracket to see what it took for your boys to get this far in the first place, and then jump into the last round before the big championship match...
Vampire Legends Linger for Centuries : ABC
Vampire Legends Linger for Centuries
Many Believe Vampires Serve as Powerful Metaphors for Our Psyches
By CLAIRE SHIPMAN
March 26, 2009 —
The legend of the vampire actually goes back centuries and exists in some form or another in almost every culture.
In fact, some people believe the first vampire story was in the Bible.
Why did people believe they had so much power and did they really exist?
Vampires move under the cloak of darkness, the undead rising from their graves to prey on the innocent by sucking their blood, according to the image of vampires that has captured our imaginations and been reinvented in stories, legends and films for centuries. Many imagine vampires lurking in the woods, preying on small towns and villages in the hours between dusk and sunrise.
Vampires are back again in "Twilight," but now they've been reinvented as lovesick, romantic and only slightly dangerous.
The "Twilight" series has created an almost cultish following among tweens.
"They want the vampire to be glamorous and romantic now," said Anne Rice, best-selling author of vampire novels. "They don't want a monster that they can't relate to. They want to see that human side of the vampire."
Rice said the notion of vampires is almost irresistable to the human psyche.
"The vampire is just a powerful metaphor for the outcast in all of us, for the monster in all of us, for the predator in all of us," she said.
Vampires often are equated with Romania and Count Dracula, but in fact, Bohemia, in today's Czech Republic, was critical to the rise of the vampire legend. Almost every cemetery in Prague is teeming with stories.
A favorite story is about the no-name vampire buried in one cemetery who lured victims with his music.
"He begins to gather a crowd and over time, people would notice neighbors were still disappearing and they never knew if the sounds were of the accordion or the victims' screams," said Ty McGee, a guide of ghost tours in Prague.
Small towns and villages struck by disease and death were breeding grounds for vampire lore.
"Everything from a crop failture to the plague to infant mortality would be explained away by one of these tales, something like, 'The vampire did it,'" said Thomas J. Garza, a professor at the University of Texas who teaches about Slavic and Eastern European cultures, among others.
While no empirical evidence exists, the legends live on in part to explain a subconscious fear of death.
"The vampire will always be a character with whom we identify in our own mortality and in his or her own immortality," Garza said.
Rice agrees.
"The vampire is never going to go away," she said. "There will be more and more revivals. We're going to have continued romance with the vampire."
It's that romance and fascination that also helps fuel tourism, and not just in the graveyard tours and the dark forests of Eastern Europe. The small town of Forks, Wash., the setting for the "Twilight" book series and movie now sees 100 tourists a day.
Copyright © 2009 ABC News Internet Ventures
Vampire slide show here
True Blood Goes to the Movies: Ryan Kwanten stars in Dead Silence
Dead Silence (originally titled Shhhh) with alternate title suggestions such as The Doll and Mary Shaw is a 2007 horror film from James Wan and Leigh Whannell, the creators of Saw.
The film stars Ryan Kwanten as the main protagonist, Jamie Ashen, Donnie Wahlberg as Detective Jim Lipton and Judith Roberts as Mary Shaw. It was released nationwide on March 16, 2007, and was released on DVD and HD DVD on June 26, 2007. Altogether, there are three versions of the movie: the edited, R rated movie, and an uncut version. The movie took 6 months and 17 days to film.
Plot summary : Every town has it's own ghost story, and a local folktale around Ravens Fair is about a ventriloquist named Mary Shaw. After she went mad in the 1940s, she was accused of kidnapping a young boy who yelled out in one of her performances that she was a fraud. Because of this she was hunted down by townspeople who in the ultimate act of revenge, cut out her tongue and then killed her. They buried her along with her "children," a handmade collection of vaudeville dolls, and assumed they had silenced her forever. However, Ravens Fair has been plagued by mysterious deaths around them after Mary Shaws collection has returned from their graves and have come to seek revenge on people that killed her and their families. Far from the pall of their cursed hometown, newlyweds Jamie and Lisa Ashen thought they had established a fresh start, until Jamie's wife is grotesquely killed in their apartment.
Jamie returns to Ravens Fair for the funeral, intent on unraveling the mystery of Lisa's death. Once reunited with his ill father, Edward, and his father's new young bride, Ella, Jamie must dig into the town's bloody past to find out who killed his wife and why. All the while, he is doggedly pursued by a detective who doesn't believe a word he says. As he uncovers the legend of Mary Shaw, he will unlock the story of her curse and the truth behind the threat from a rhyme in his childhood: if you see Mary Shaw and scream, she'll take your tongue. And the last thing you will hear before you die...is your own voice speaking back to you. Written by Christopher Hernandez
The IMDb site here
The Wikpedia entry here
Ryan interviewed here
Vampires Go Evil In "Elevator Men"
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Elevator Men," a screenplay that takes an unfashionably unromanticized look at vampires, is being scooped up by Summit Entertainment.
The dark thriller, by former DreamWorks executive Marc Haimes, approaches human-vampire interactions from a different angle than such recent movies and series as Summit's "Twilight" and HBO's "True Blood."
"It's a reaction to all of these stories now -- TV shows and movies -- that play this kind of romantic, fantastical, sexy aspect of getting involved with monsters," Haimes said. "This is the dark, sinister version of what really happens when you decide you're going to get close to really bad things."
The creatures in the script -- which likely will change titles -- play diabolical mind games with people, including one that involves an elevator.
Haimes was an executive at DreamWorks for more than 13 years until the studio split from parent Paramount last year. While there, he developed such thrillers as "Collateral," "Red Eye" and "Disturbia," as well as "Hotel for Dogs" and "Transformers."
The creatures in the script -- which likely will change titles -- play diabolical mind games with people, including one that involves an elevator.
Haimes was an executive at DreamWorks for more than 13 years until the studio split from parent Paramount last year. While there, he developed such thrillers as "Collateral," "Red Eye" and "Disturbia," as well as "Hotel for Dogs" and "Transformers."
When Stars Twitter, a Ghost Writer May Be Lurking
Fascinating article from the New York Times
In its short history, Twitter has become an important marketing tool for celebrities, politicians, and businesses, promising a level of intimacy never before approached online. But in many cases, celebrities and their handlers have turned to outside writers -- ghost Twitterers, if you will.
The rapper 50 Cent is among the legion of stars who have recently embraced Twitter to reach fans who crave near-continuous access to their lives and thoughts. On March 1, he shared this insight with the more than 200,000 people who follow him: “My ambition leads me through a tunnel that never ends.”
Read on HERE
Vampire rumors spur alert at Boston Latin
This is hard news from the Boston Globe !
Boston Latin School headmaster Lynne Mooney Teta issued a notice to parents and students yesterday quashing rumors of vampires at the school. An odd move for the head of a historic elite preparatory school, but Teta and Boston public school officials declined to elaborate on what triggered the unusual message.
They did, however, adamantly offer assurances that no one at the school has been hurt, arrested - or bitten.
"The headmaster believes that the outrageous rumors had reached a point where she had to say something to families to ensure that all students felt safe and respected," said Chris Horan, School Department spokesman.
While the episode sounds like something out of "Twilight," last year's hit film about a high school girl who falls in love with a vampire, it may be closer to the movie "Mean Girls."
Read onBaltimore Sun weighs in HERE
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