True Blood from List UK: Dead good

With True Blood, Six Feet Under’s Alan Ball has found a series with depth, dark humour and bite in equal measure, as Suzanne Black discovers

The TV schedules have succumbed to a plague of bloodsucking parasites ever since Buffy staked her first vampire. But have vamps lost their bite? True Blood puts the allegorical power back into the fangs of the undead, and triumphs over the genre’s other offerings.

Starting life as a series of supernatural detective novels, True Blood hits UK screens this month. The second series is currently airing in the US, with its first episode hailed as the most watched programme on subscription channel HBO since the final episode of The Sopranos.

Published in 2004, Dead Until Dark was the first of Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampire Mystery novels. It supposed a contemporary world where vampires had gone public and, thanks to a synthetic O-substitute called Tru Blood, renounced that pesky bloodsucking habit in favour of campaigning for civil rights and a legitimate place in society. With an interesting concept but a disappointing delivery, it had definite screen potential. Alan Ball, well-known from his deadpan funeral parlour show Six Feet Under and also the scriptwriter of that haunting portrayal of suburban ennui, American Beauty, was perfectly placed to realise it.

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True Blood Digital Kitchen: Creativity in the Blood

Techy article from Apple pro blog about Digital Kitchen ( they did the opening sequence for True Blood)

How do you market to a vampire? That’s the challenge interactive agency Digital Kitchen faced as they created a series of fang-in-cheek ads to promote HBO’s smash show True Blood. Using applications such as Final Cut Studio and Adobe Creative Suite, the all-Mac shop produced billboards and print ads for brands like MINI and Gillette, and a collection of darkly humorous online viral videos revealing that, after all, vampires are people too.

"The True Blood campaign is done on software and hardware that you can get at the Apple Store," says Mark Bashore, Digital Kitchen’s creative head. "The tools are easily accessible, which allows us to focus on being creative. That's why we use the Mac."

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Leave 'Dallas' a message or just make a comment !

You can now call Dallas and leave me a voice message or make a comment about a story that you've read on the blog and I might use it on the radio show !

(214 ) 302-7080

'True Blood' Comic-Con: Details on the vampire invasion

The "True Blood" panel at San Diego Comic-Con is likely to be one of the hottest tickets of the convention, which takes place July 23-26. And we've finally got the details on who'll be there.

The panel will take place at 5:15 p.m. on Saturday, and here's the rundown of who will be appearing on the panel: Executive producer Alan Ball, Charlaine Harris (who wrote the novels on which the HBO show is based), Anna Paquin (Sookie), Stephen Moyer (Bill), Nelsan Ellis (Lafayette), Rutina Wesley (Tara), Sam Trammell (Sam), Alexander Skarskard (Eric), Michelle Forbes (Maryann) and Deborah Ann Woll (Jessica).

Ryan Kwanten (Jason) will be shooting a movie in Australia, so he and his abs will be unable to attend.

One thing I'm double checking on, so don't take this to the bank yet: I believe the panel is in Ballroom 20, but will update this post when I find out for sure.

Stephen Moyer's love life ...

It's going to be everywhere since it's coming out in the Star today..


It was love at first, um, bite for Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer after the British hunk aced his True Blood audition opposite the Oscar winner in early 2007, but they kept their instant attraction a secret from everyone, including his girlfriend of seven years — the mother of his young daughter, Lilac.

That September, Stephen told a British newspaper that his move from London to L.A. for the series had resulted in the end of his relationship with British journalist Lorien Haynes, saying: "Nobody has left anybody for anybody else." But those words ring hollow now that Stephen and Anna — who now live together — have admitted that sparks flew the moment they first met!

http://www.starmagazine.com/news/15816

Are Gays Driving the Tremendous DVD Sales for HBO’s True Blood?

I don't know about the premise but the article has some interesting information..

It’s Not TV, It’s GAY-ch-B-O?

I’m sure this is definitely a somewhat old theory and old thinking for anyone who began watching True Blood when it debuted last September. But I just started watching last week, so I was late to the game.

For weeks now, I’ve been marveling at the DVD sales for HBO’s True Blood. It’s sold more units and made more revenue than any other TV show this year. The accomplishment is pretty phenomenal, and I’m going to hit you with quite a few numbers to showcase just how phenomenal it is before furthering the speculation on why it has performed so phenomenally. If you’re not interested in the numeric comparisons, skip down to “Why is it selling so well?” section below.

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A Comparative Look at Recent TV Show DVD Sales:

In six weeks of release it has sold almost 1.2 million units and grossed almost $41 million in revenue. It’s closest competition in 2009 so far this year comes from 24 season seven, which has also been available for six weeks but has sold less than 600,000 units and grossed just over $19 million. On a revenue basis, True Blood is the only DVD for the year in the top 20, top 30 or top 40 of DVD sales (it is currently 16th through the week ending June 28). 24 season seven is 46th by revenue.

To compare to some of its cable brethren, in four weeks of release Weeds season four (admittedly, not its best effort) had sold 432,000 DVDs and grossed almost $11 million.

Some will say it’s not fair to compare this year’s numbers because most of the 2008-2009 TV seasons have not yet been made available on DVD. That’s true, but it doesn’t matter. We can compare to the full calendar year of 2008 DVD sales when with about 17 weeks of sales (released on 9/2/08) The Office season four was the number one TV show DVD for the year selling 1.06 million units and grossing over $32 million. Because of the way we see data it’s not easy (or even usually possible) to see combined sales across multiple calendar years, but a show like Lost’s season four which went on sale with only a few weeks left in 2008 tracked closely with, but not quite as well as True Blood. After five weeks in release, Lost season four had sold over 976,000 units and grossed over $36 million. After five weeks, True Blood had sold almost 1.1 million DVDs and grossed almost $38 million in revenue.

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True Blood Music Video of the Day:

Thanks, melodyofafallentree

News: Loving True Blood in Dallas Blogtalk change

I am going to put the Monday night Blogtalk show on hiatus during the rest of season 2.

We will be continuing our fabulous Sunday night show " Talk Blood" immediately following the Sunday night True Blood broadcasts.

On Sunday nights, I will continue to be joined by my fabulous cohost @Sookie BonTemps,the Twitter Sookie and we will have special guests, Buzz reports with reactions from the major fan sites and forums, callers and our unbelievably fun chatroom.

After the season is over we'll go back to our Monday night schedule.

Thanks for all your continued support!

Many Bloody Returns edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner

Nice review from Deep Thoughts blog

Vampires and Birthdays are the subjects of this collection of short stories by Charlaine Harris, Jim Butcher, Kelsey Armstrong, P.N. Elrod, Christopher Golden and Tanya Huff, among others.

Sookie Stackhouse, telepathic waitress, features in "Dracula Night" by Charlaine Harris- all over the world, Vampires celebrate the birthday of Dracula, and Vampire Bill's Boss Eric Northman is no exception. Sookie is invited to the celebration at Fangtasia- where she finds out it is rumored that Dracula makes an appearance at one of these parties- and Eric hopes it will be Fanstasia this time. But if Dracula really does show up, what could happen?

In "The Mournful Cry of Owls" by Christopher Golden, Donika, raised a normal teen in America, faces her sixteenth birthday, and a terrible tale of her true parentage from her mother...

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Kristen Bauer interview

Actress Kristen Bauer is best known for her role as Pam, the blood-thirsty diva on HBO's True Blood. Kristen is committed to her acting, but she is also deeply committed to working for great causes, including the International Fund for Animal Welfare. Kristen talked with TheCelebrityCafe.com's Ted Simmons about saving domestic and wild animals, preserving the planet, and life as a vampire.

Ted Simmons: You're on this wildly successful show, True Blood, and you play Pam. How would you describe Pam?

Kristen Bauer: Pam is just unremorseful. What's fun about her to play is she's a true vampire. How humans look at a Big Mac, that's how she looks at humans. They're just an entertainment and a food source. So she's endlessly fun to play. The costume people are amazing. Pam is just all about being immortal, powerful, and having an outfit for every occasion. It's such a blast.

TS: It really is fun trying to play those evil characters, the ones who are maybe a little unlike you.

KB: I know that's the thing. I don't know why it's so unbelievably fun to play someone who's just 100 percent evil, but it's a blast. There are no complicating feelings, there's no feeling bad for anybody. It's just 100 percent selfish.

TS: True Blood just started its second season. What's your schedule been like as the episodes are coming out?

KB: When we do work there's a huge cast and so many story lines going on, we only work a few days an episode. But when we do, we work long hours; especially last season. Whenever there are special effects or a lot of blood, it takes a long time. And because we're vampires, if the scene is outside we're shooting at night. So we're shooting 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Though the hours are really long, and half the time you're delirious, the fun part is once you get past the physical pain of either the clothing or the hours or the special effects, you get sort of giddy. And Alexander Skarsgard is so funny. And Stephen [Moyer] and Anna [Paquin] are so much fun, and they're also the ones I'm in scenes with. We just laugh and have such a ball. It's just a fun set to be on. And the directors are nice, and [show creator] Alan Ball is so lovely and gracious.

TS: You mentioned that you're a painter, and I saw some of the paintings you did and they look quite professional, at least to me. How did that avenue kind of come to be?

KB: I started drawing probably in junior high. My sister went to fine arts school, so I kind of was aware of it, and my school had a small art department. Then by high school, when I was trying to think about what I might want to do in college, I was so sick of academics. I couldn't imagine the pain of having to go to college to study math and science and history. It just made me want to hang myself. So I just started drawing a lot and got a portfolio together so I could get into fine art school, which is what I did.

I mainly drew, I didn't paint very much. And then one my first acting jobs was with Peter Falk I did a Colombo movie of the week. And he's a big art lover. So, he mentioned this art school in L.A. that was wonderful, that taught people how to really paint like they were masters.

So I enrolled and started painting for at least a decade, maybe less. And when you have been drawing as long as I have, painting is just sort of the logical next step. So I've been doing portraits and landscapes and drawing weekly for almost, what feels like 20 years, but I've taken a few breaks when I get busy.

TS: Is it nice to turn such a passion of yours into something you can really pursue and get out there, post on the Web and stuff like this

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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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True Blood S2 Episode 2 Subtitles " Keep this party going"

True Blood S2 Ep2 Subtitles

True Blood Sucker Punch: Episode Three

ooopps forgot to post Mark's episode 3 review last week

Welcome to Sucker Punch, the only blog post that ranks the gaudiest moments on this week's episode of True Blood.

To introduce this week's installment, "Scratches," let me quote my favorite line:

Sarah doesn't whip out her pudding for just anybody.

Yes, that's what Reverend Steve Newlin says after his wife gives Jason Stackhouse a dish of sweetness.

There's so much to unpack there. For one thing, the quote comes right after Sarah and Steve kiss in front of Jason for a really long time. Like... long enough that somebody should light a cigarette. And then there's the fact that earlier in the day, Jason and Sarah share a kneeling prayer over their mutual past as vampire sympathizers. It's very tender, and it wins Jason a dinner invitation. He's clearly the golden boy.

But when Steve praises Sarah's "pudding," he's not just talking dessert. Like... what does it mean to be chosen by the Fellowship? Does it mean Jason's been "chosen" to hold the camera or "chosen" to wear the costume?

The sexy shenanigans would be gauche enough if the Newlins were tax collectors, but since they're religious leaders, their come-ons are delicious. And I think the Newlins know how sexual they sound. In True Blood, power always comes with devious wisdom.

I can't declare Pudding Time this week's Sucker Punch, however, because it's clear the Newlins have something crazier in store.

Meanwhile, their dynamic with Jason parallels Maryann's relationship with Tara: In both cases, powerful figures are reaching out to guilty souls, and their succor has strings. Both Tara and Jason are so hungry to belong somewhere that they overlook warning signs.

Except that Tara's waking up. It's a relief to see her notice what a Bacchanal Maryann's party has become, and Sucker Punch Honorable Mention goes to the return of the witch's pig, relaxing in its own little playhouse. My quibble with this episode, however, is that Maryann's arc is repetitive. Yes, Tara gets suspicious and the carousing intensifies, but we saw the black-eyed boogie last week in Merlotte's. We need more information about what the revelry means.

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True Blood Recipe: Octavia Fant's No Nonsense Spaghetti Sauce recipe

Ingredients

* 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
* 1 large onion, chopped
* 1 green bell pepper, chopped
* 1 clove garlic, chopped
* 2 (6-ounce) cans tomato paste
* 1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
* 1 (14 1/2-ounce) can stewed tomatoes
* 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
* 1 tablespoon
* Worcestershire sauce
* 2 tablespoons sugar
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup water

Directions

Brown the beef in a large, heavy bottomed pot, then drain off the fat. Add the onion, green pepper, and garlic and saute until the onion is tender, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste, tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes, seasonings, and water. Simmer for 30 minutes. Let cool. The sauce will keep for several days covered and refrigerated. Serve with spaghetti or your favorite pasta.

New T-shirts and more at True Blood HBO store

I have always been a huge critic of the HBO store mostly because it completely failed to see the popularity of Eric and never properly merchandised him or the whole show ...well, I am happy to report they have gotten their shit together this season...

They also have a Eric poster, new V coffee cups and more and they all meet with Dallas's approval ;-)

Living Dead in Dallas published in Portugal

Our Friend Telma from Portugal ( you met her when I did the interenational show )

writes.....I'm writing to you because this week, July 10th, the Portuguese edition of "Living Dead in Dallas" is going to be released, and it's a great coincidence to be out on my birthday!

It's named "Dívida de Sangue" meaning "Blood Debt" and it's cover resembles the American Beauty poster. Huum, a strange coincidence?

Anyway, the book synopsis refers that "after Sookie being attacked by a strange creature on the woods, Eric helps to save her life. She stays in debt with him and when he request her a favor, she has to comply."
The translation of the first book was quite good and I'm happy to know the translator remains the same.

Telma

True Blood Music Video of the Day: "Poor Unfortunate Souls" from The LIttle Mermaid.

"Poor Unfortunate Souls" from The LIttle Mermaid.

Thanks, wickedspice83