Saturday, January 31, 2009

Ask Dallas: What is that big star on the wall in Merlotte's ?

I love getting email and some of the most fun I've had has been trying to solve mysteries proposed by readers ...you might remember one of my favorites. Someone asked " Who is the Canine actor that plays Dean ( Sam's alter ego ) ?'

If you missed it the answer is HERE

OD has been on me to solve another question -it's the big star on the wall at one end of Merlotte's bar - you can see it behind Bill in the big "Bill walks back into the bar scene" but we could never make it out...

It is of course, a John Deere sign now the big stamped metal star makes me think it may have once been from a Texas John Deere Tractor dealership but you can see it clearly in this shot ...

Email: True Blood in Dallas

True Blood Behind the Scenes : Food Stylist

Very amazing post from starfoodstylist about all the work that goes into creating the food being served and the kitchen scenes in True Blood, Bonus Cajun recipe!

True Blood" Makes a Splash

So did you watch the premiere of True Blood on HBO created by Allan Ball on Sunday night? Wasn’t it wonderful?! It was everything from fabulous and clever to creepy and bizarre. And I loved every minute of it! If you didn’t get a chance to watch the series premiere, it follows Sookie Sackhouse, played by Anna Paquin, who is a telepathic waitress in post-Katrina Louisiana. Meanwhile, a Japanese company has created and marketed synthetic blood that now allows vampires to come out from the shadows and mix and mingle with regular folk. Everything is hunky-dory in Sookie’s life until a vampire walks into her restaurant and she begins to delve into his world.

So where do I come in? Well, I do all of the food in Sookie’s diner and at Sookie’s home of course! If you watch the premiere, you can see several great “hero” shots of the food as waitresses walk by carrying some down home cooking. In the first episode we mainly prepared diner food like burgers and fries an

d we also dressed the kitchen with a lot of food so it looked beautiful. But, just wait for some of the episodes to come! I’ve designed and created some elegant buffets fit for royalty as well as a huge outdoor BBQ scene. YUM!
Here are a couple of great pictures on the set at Melotte’s Diner:
And there’s even a little kitchen-area at the studio where we can set up all of our stuff:
And here is a glimpse at the kitchen set of Merlotte's:
Here’s a super simple and great Cajun-style recipe that I like to make at home when I want to mix things up a bit:

Crabmeat Au Gratin:

½ yellow onion, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, peeled and chopped
8 tbsp. butter
½ cup flour
1 can evaporated milk (13 oz)
2 egg yolks
1 tsp red pepper
1 lb. crabmeat
½ pound cheddar cheese, finely grated
salt, pepper

1) In a large sauté pan, melt butter and then add onions and celery. Sauté until wilted.
2) Add flower and slowly pour in condensed milk, continually stirring. Add yolks, salt, and pepper and stir continually and let cook for about five minutes until the flour is cooked.
3) Add the crabmeat to the mixture and then pour into a greased casserole dish. Sprinkle the cheese on top.
4) Bake at 375ºF for 10-15 minutes until golden brown in color.

This scene shows the kitchen



http://starfoodstylist.blogspot.com/

The Making of an Urban Fantasy Cover: Part I

How cool is this? .... how do they create book covers like this ? Man, talk about behind the scenes...

The Art Department of a book publisher is a mysterious thing to a lot of people. Sure, you know what we do, we’re the ones who make the pretty bookcovers. But friends and family are always kind of mystified about the process of designing a cover. How do we find art? Who decides what the cover is going to look like? How can you possibly have memorized 5,000 fonts and yet still bemoan that you just can’t find the right one? (This is not unlike a teenager looking into a full fridge and complaining that there’s nothing to eat). So I thought I’d take you, loyal readers, through the process of a cover, start to finish.

http://www.orbitbooks.net/2009/01/28/the-making-of-an-urban-fantasy-cover-part-i/#more-1286

Tweet , Tweet , Tweet we are all a twitter !


I'm seeing lots more folks twittering about True Blood and about the Sookie books !

The 'character bloggers' or folks that twitter as a True Blood character can be also be found on twitter. There is the amazing @SookieBonTemps and we interviewed her ( wait, we 'twinterviewed')'here on our radio show last week and here is a great article about character blogging.

Some of Sookies other friends are :
@merlottesbar @ericnorthman @claudine_claude @ameliabroadway @alcideherveaux @jessicahamby @quinnthetiger @vampirebill

and of course you can find us here
@trueblooddallas

If you twitter about True Blood post you twitter name in the comments.

Vanity Plates seen in Bon Temp











Jessica - WNT2KIL
Pam - VAULT
Sam - NEKKID
Mary Ann - WILGETU
Colonel Flood PAKMSTR
Claudine FARYDST



Who has been here ?

Things we know about Anubis Airlines


They fly to DFW from Shreveport

They fly to Jackson, MS from Shreveport

They fly to Rhodes from Shreveport ( 3 hour flight )

The planes have a black Jackal's head design on tail.

Employees wear black and silver jumpsuits with jackal heads on left breast

Sookie doesn't fly Anubis to Dallas , she flies a commercial plane.

They have been infiltrated by FotS, at least at DFW airport.

Someone started a fire under one of the planes and infiltrated Anubis security and stole Bill's coffin from the airport in Jackson (working for Lorena ?)

You can charter a special flight as Eric does.

Delta and Northwest have very lax security for vampire passengers and have allowed fanatics access to vampire coffins which has resulted in some being hacked open with axes.

Sookie does fly on Anubis Air to Rhodes.

They have flight attendants and the do provide snacks and drinks during flights.

The front section of the plane seats 15 (humans, those in human form or others ...) it has 3 rows of seats, 3 on the right 2 on the left.

In the rear it has coffin bays along the windows and the plane can hold at least 7 coffins

Anubis airline also provide secure transportation to and from the airport as well as delivery to vamp hotels which is guaranteed within 3 hours or you are given a free flight.

I will be posting more the next few days ....

True Blood Crossword: Season 1 Episode 2 ' The First Taste'

LTB in Dallas Crossword Ep 2




Answer key is here

Anubis really did come to DFW airport ...

OK , sorry - I was teasing you guys a little bit ... ( except Keyse) with the plane image and the clue that it was a tease was that THERE IS NO Dallas International Airport. You guys all know it's DFW or Dallas/ Ft. Worth airport!

I may have been kidding you about that Anubis ( Egyptian God of the Dead, and guide to the afterlife) coming to the airport but one really has come ...

They have erected a huge 26 foot Anubis statue at the airport, it is part of the exhibit, "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs."at the Dallas Museum of art.

I just thought it was so strange that there was really an Anubis at DFW ! (I think it's now moved to the next city but you can read some more here or watch a video ) Read here

Weird video of Santa Claus and elves with Anubis from the Ft. Worth Star Telegram....remember, this is Texas !

True Blood Music Video of the Day



Sex Bomb ( I remember Tom Jones singing this song but who is singing this version ?)

Friday, January 30, 2009

WOW !! Anubis Air arrives in Dallas


Wow , checkout what landed at Dallas International Airport !

We love Bubba : Elvis Has Left the Planet

Io9 does a great article on what may have happened to Elvis and why we keep seeing him show up in film and in literature ...

Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries by Charlaine Harris: Elvis hasn’t made it into True Blood yet, but in the source material, the King was discovered very slightly alive by a vampiric morgue attendant. The misguided vamp decides to make the overdosed Elvis undead, but the resulting creature, answering only to “Bubba,” is somehow brain damaged by the process. The other vampires treat him as a dimwitted errand boy, and try to keep him clear of any household pets.

http://io9.com/5142601/elvis-has-left-the-planet

True Blood goes to the movies: Alexander Skarsgard in 'Kill Your Darling's'

Kill Your Darlings (2006)

A desperate young writer is lured on a wild ride through the desert by a mysterious woman in this darkly comic take on the all-American road trip. Along the way they cross paths with a hapless mobster, a 6 foot transvestite and a lovesick housewife, all on the way to their celebrity TV shrink in Las Vegas... Things quickly spiral out of control into a dangerous cat-and-mouse game... a writer's frantic search for inspiration becomes intertwined with a motley crew of quirky characters seeking love and adventure at any cost

Cast (in credits order)

Lolita Davidovich ... Lola

Andreas Wilson ... Erik

Fares Fares ... Omar

Alexander Skarsgård ... Geert

Julie Benz ... Katherine

John Larroquette ... Dr. Bangley

Greg Germann ... Stevens

Things I've learned while watching True Blood (4)

I learned that 4 ex-husbands are considered "fixer-uppers" while the fifth one is a keeper.

I learned that men are not self-conscious to stand completely naked in front of Sookie.

I learned that Maxine Fortenberry's dress looks like someone threw up a flower garden .

I learned that staking vampires with a fence picket works just as well as a beer tap.

I learned that Ms. Jeanette is a multi-tasker. She has a son in jail, son in Iraq, diabetic daughter, two grandbabies and with all that going on she can still work in a drug store during the day and practice her con artist voodoo priestess at night.

What else besides Sookie Stackhouse mysteries has Charlaine written ?

Aurora Teagarden Series
Real Murders (1990)
A Bone to Pick (1992) ]
Three Bedrooms, One Corpse (1994)
The Julius House (1995)
Dead Over Heels. (1996)
"Deeply Dead" in Murder, They Wrote (1997)
A Fool And His Honey
Last Scene Alive (2002),
Poppy Done to Death (2003)

Lily Bard (Shakespeare) Series
Shakespeare's Landlord (1996)
Shakespeare's Champion (1997)
Shakespeare's Christmas (1998)
Shakespeare's Trollop (2000)
Shakespeare's Counselor (2001)
"Dead Giveaway" published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (December 2001)

Harper Connelly Series
Grave Sight (September 2006)
Grave Surprise (September 2007)
An Ice Cold Grave (October 2008)

Other/Non-Series
Sweet and Deadly (1981), republished in UK as Dead Dog
A Secret Rage (1984)

Find her other books at your local library -search here: http://www.worldcat.org/

More here: Library Thing

New and used from Amazon

According to Worldcat( these are old statistics) she has written Works: 62 works in 197 publications in 7 languages and 36,273 library holdings

Who's your Daddy?



Who's Daddy is this ?

No not Mork the other guy ?

Vamp Meals on Wheels : Fangbanger room service from Living Dead in Dallas


"I am Isabel Beaumont," she said, "and after you take your luggage to your room and take care of your needs, you are to come with me."

Bill said, "I have to feed."

Isabel swiveled an eye toward me thoughtfully, no doubt wondering why I wasn't supplying blood for my escort, but it was none of her business. She said, "Just punch the telephone button for room service."

Measly old mortal me would just have to order from the menu. But as I considered the time frame, I realized I'd feel much better if I waited to eat after this evening's business was finished.

After our bags had been put in the bedroom (big enough for the coffin and a bed), the silence in the little living room became uncomfortable. There was a little refrigerator well stocked with PureBlood, but this evening Bill would want the real thing.

"I have to call, Sookie," Bill said. We'd gone over this before the trip.

"Of course." Without looking at him, I retreated into the bedroom and shut the door. He might have to feed off someone else so I could keep my strength up for coming events, but I didn't have to watch it or like it. After a few minutes, I heard a knock on the corridor door and I heard Bill admit someone—his Meal onWheels.

There was a little murmur of voices and then a low moan.

Unfortunately for my tension level, I had too much common sense to do something like throw my hairbrush or one of the damn high heels across the room. Maybe retaining some dignity figured in there, too, and a healthy sense of how much temperament Bill would put up with. .....

Soon I heard the outer door open and close again, and Bill knocked lightly before coming into the bedroom. He looked rosy and his face was fuller.close again, and

True Blood Gets Even Sluttier. No, Really.


From i09.com I must admit the "barely legal " room service is what jumped out at me too. Now, in the book, Living Dead in Dallas Bill does call for 'room service' in the Silent Shore but no we will see Jessica doing it.

The promiscuous vampires of Alan Ball's True Blood series will be taking a road trip, according to some newly leaked plot details. Sounds like the vamps are about to get a whole lot skankier. Spoilers!

A casting call for an episode in season two calls for Jason to become a soldier! Ooh, Jason in uniform — nice. Also Bill, Sookie and annoying baby vamp Jessica go on a road trip to Texas where they find another mind-reader and pick up some hookers.

Check out the casting details from Spoiler TV:

[DRIVER]
30 to 45, this suspiciously pushy driver, whose thoughts are violent and dark, is sent by Fellowship of the Sun to abduct Sookie when she arrives at the airport. Instead, he is glamored (hypnotized) by Bill and Jessica, and experiences a wide spectrum of emotions and outbursts, from fear, to relief, to embarrassment as his will is usurped and his behavior is dictated. He is ultimately released to return to his superiors and tell them that Sookie "never showed up" (which is what he now believes)...GUEST STAR (33)

[BELLBOY / BARRY]
This uniformed, 19-year-old bellboy at a Texas hotel brings Sookie and Jessica room service (a handsome guy to feed off of). To Sookie's surprise, Barry can read her mind, and he grows increasingly freaked out as they communicate silently sptv050769...CO-STAR / RECUR(?) (54)

[YOUNG MAN / TRAVIS]
21 years old and very handsome in his hotel bathrobe, he is Jessica's polite, barely legal "room service" (B negative blood)...CO-STAR (54)

So does this mean Jessica and Sookie become friends? Because I can't see anyone tolerating her incessant whining, but then again they both like to be painted the martyr. I can't wait for the hot hooker room service blood-letting!

http://io9.com/5142555/true-blood-gets-even-sluttier-no-really

True Blood Nominated for 2009 Golden Reel Award Nominees: Television

Best Sound Editing: Short Form Dialogue and ADR in Television

CALIFORNICATION “The Raw and the Cooked”

CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION “Bull”

CSI: NY “Hostage #421”

FRINGE “Safe”

LOST “Confirmed Dead #402”

MAD MEN “The Jet Set”

THE TUDORS “Episode 210”

TRUE BLOOD “The Fourth Man in the Fire”


The Motion Picture Sound Editors 56th GOLDEN REEL AWARDS

will be held February 21, 2009

http://www.mpse.org/goldenreels/2009awards/2009tvnominees.html

True Blood Music Video of the Day



Haunted by Evanescence

Thursday, January 29, 2009

From Dead to Worse to be released in paperback March 31st


Sookie Stackhouse / Southern Vampire Series #8


Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Pub. Date: March 31, 2009
ISBN-13: 9780441017010

*note them have the HBO medallion, CH said they are embedded in the covers not stickers

True Blood fan mail: May I please have your autograph?

You can definitely send fan mail to your favorite True Blood actors and you can even ask for an autograph.

Alexander Skarsgård ( Eric)
Principal Entertainment
1964 Westwood Blvd.
Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90025
Alex’s Principal Entertainment webpage :
http://www.principalent.net/actors/alexander_skarsgard.html

Stephen Moyer ( Bill )
Luber Roklin Entertainment
8530 Wilshire Blvd., 5th Floor
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
Phone: 310.855.2214

You can also receive an autographed certificate from Stephen for donating to his hometown theatre more info here: http://www.brentwood-theatre.org/

Anna Paquin ( Sookie )
1503 Ventura Blvd #710
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
or
William Morris Agency
One William Morris Place
Beverly Hills, California 90212

Kristin Bauer ( Pam)
Paul Kohner, Inc.
9300 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 555
Beverly Hills CA 90212
Kristin’s own official web page : http://www.kristinbauer.com

Alan Ball ( Writer, Producer, Director)
United Talent Agency
9560 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 500
Beverly Hills, Ca 90212-2401
Main Phone: 310.273.6700

Happy V-Day from HBO Store


Hurry !

Great Valentines Day stuff !

Yippee new t-shirts!

For the t -shirts in the graphic use the special newsletter subscriber link

If you don't see the t-shirt you want ...( ie. like no 'I heart Eric ' ) let the store know what you'd like to see.

Contact : HERE

Genres and Subgenres and Memes, Oh My!

Varkat over at her blog does an excellent job of breaking down the different types fiction genres and subgenres

Every convention I've been to in the past year has had at least one panel dedicated to the defining and blending of various genres and subgenres. Where are the lines drawn between urban fantasy and paranormal romance? Is it possible to have urban fantasy in a rural setting? When does suspense become romantic suspense? Can I get fries with that? (The answer is yes, but this is somewhat trickier if you're writing historicals.)

My belief is that all fiction is more or less on a continuum…more than one really. One graph might extend from love stories to novels completely lacking in romance, though it's hard (but not impossible), to find books in any genre completely without romance. When determining what goes on the spine, what matters is the focus of the story. Another continuum might be magic versus non-magic with magical realism falling somewhere in the middle. Or maybe that same continuum extends into the science fiction field so that magic is on one end facing off with technology on the other. In that case urban fantasy might be the median. Anyway, without a bunch of charts and graphs, let me see if I can shed some light on various genres and subgenres and how they're defined.

Read on here http://varkat.livejournal.com/62631.html
(she also includes recommended authors in each area - fascinating and lots of work)

Tasting New Blood with Anna Paquin

Excellent interview from last September with Anna by hMonthly but the photo layout is really spectacular see it here

Anna sits down with us at h and tells us a little about, among other things, her leading role as Sookie Stackhouse.

Anna: Sookie’s your typical perky, happy, young, Southern gal, and also a waitress in a somewhat dingy truck stop-ish bar restaurant. She’s tough and strong; if she sees someone else in trouble, she’ll go and stick herself in harm’s way. She doesn’t fear much of anything, and therefore she ends up being caught in some bad spots occasionally. That being said, she’s only getting roughed up in the course of doing what she thinks is the right thing to do. That, and she’s telepathic (laughs). When the story begins, she meets and falls for the first vampire who walks into her small town. He comes into her bar one night, sits in her section, and orders a bottle of Tru Blood.
She has an affinity for him because, for the first time, she’s not able to read someone’s mind.

h: How did you get involved with the show?
Anna: I was sent a pilot script about two Christmas’ ago, and I was absolutely enthralled with the idea of working with Alan Ball and HBO, and so I went in and auditioned as many times as they would let me until they finally agreed to cast me.

h: You were you a big fan of Six Feet Under I assume?
Anna: Absolutely, my God yes. I’ve been a big fan of Alan since American Beauty, so it was one of those things that when it showed up I thought, ‘There’s gotta be some catch here, right?’ It was too perfect. Obviously the catch in my mind was they’re not gonna cast me, it was calling for blond, tan, Southern, and perky. You know, people are generally hesitant to cast you in a part when they’ve never seen you play a similar role before. I’m pale with dark hair and from New Zealand. So I was so shocked, excited, and thrilled when Alan and HBO took that leap of faith and said, ‘Well, you know, she can act it…let’s do the make over.’ And it worked.

h: How was the makeover?
Anna: Well, for one thing, I spent eight hours in a hair salon with incredibly talented colorists turning my waist length, absolutely untouched, brown hair into blond hair. And then there’s a lot of spray tanning, it’s the easiest thing in the world. Then they add costumes, and it’s done. It’s quite easy as it turns out, minus the hair maintenance. I don’t know why women do that as an option; to keep my hair blond is hard work. It’s a lot of people having to go back and do all my hair as it grows in, it’s very, very high maintenance. I’ve had it for a year and a half and it’s great, I like it. But, I think if I switched hair color between seasons, my hair would fall out. You can’t mess with science that much without suffering major repercussions.

h: What was your first meeting with Alan like? Were you nervous in your audition?
Anna: Yes, but no more so than with anything that you really want. I’d actually met him, sort of, years ago. I was more surprised that he remembered me. That’s always my thing, ‘Really, you remember meeting me?’
But, he’s incredibly lovely and he makes everyone feel really comfortable.
He’s probably the least scary person I’ve ever auditioned for because he makes it feel easy. He’s smart and funny, just sort of charming and normal.
It almost takes the
pressure off, in a way.

h: How is Alan different than other directors you’ve worked with?
Anna: He has this sort of joy about him, and this sort of love about what he’s doing no matter what. Over the course of our entire season, a year of shooting, I never saw him lose that. Most people, there’ll be times when they’re tired or less into it, they’re just worn out. But it’s very important to him to always make sure that everyone is having a good time. I don’t know if I’ve worked with anyone who’s still all about whether or not people are still having fun by episode 11. And that’s an amazing quality.
And because he’s so talented and so good to everyone, everyone wants to work extra hard for him.

h: Did you do any research for your part? Obviously you can’t try out telepathy, but was there anything else?
Anna: I had all these really elaborate plans to (laughs) get a job somewhere waitressing, or to go spend time in Louisiana, but then, honestly, I ran out of time.

h: How did you go about creating your Southern accent?
Anna: We all had a dialect coach, everyone had to do it. But after the first few episodes we really didn’t need it any more. It becomes how that person speaks, and you get used to it, and when everyone around you is doing it, it’s not actually that hard.
I’ve been technically working in accents my entire career. But as for the process, you listen to tapes and do phonetics, listening is a big part of it. I load those things onto my iPod and get into the music of it, and watch films that have accents that are similar. h: How much did you actually shoot in the South?
Anna: We shoot a ton on set, but we’ve gone down to Louisiana four times. We shoot in Shreveport, mostly exteriors, obviously locations that you really just can’t find in Los Angeles like plantation houses and such.

h: What was the most challenging part of the shoot?
Anna: My character is very good at getting herself into scrapes, (laughs) unfortunate type situations, where her life is in danger. There’s a fair amount of prosthetic elements and blood, but I love that stuff, the physical stuff, the prosthetics, the other-worldly elements that we get to incorporate. Honestly the hardest part was waiting to hear if our show was going to be picked up for a whole season after we shot the pilot, it was a couple months before we found out. It was kind of nerve-wracking. In my head, it was kind of all on my back, whether the show was going to get picked up or not, and everybody would get to work for a whole season or not.

h: What did you think when you first saw the pilot?
Anna: (laughs) I didn’t see it until they showed it to the cast after the table read for episode two when we’d already been picked up and were about to start shooting. But I find it very difficult to be objective and detached when I watch myself. I was happy, obviously, but what I cared about most was the fact that we were going for more episodes. I was like, ‘Well, it doesn’t matter that I’m on some weird morose-ish trip about my own performance, because HBO likes it and we get to do more.’

h: Were you a big fan of vampires before True Blood?
Anna: No, not really.
h: Do you like horror movies?
Anna: Mmm, they kinda scare me, I’m a big baby (laughs).

h: What movie has scared you the most?
Anna: Well, it’s not a horror movie, but Silence of the Lambs. For most horror movies, I just can’t watch people being tortured, it’s upsetting, violence for the sake of violence.

h: You seem to have an unusual ability to maintain a normal life, you even went to Columbia College for a bit.
Anna: Yeah, but I didn’t finish though (laughs).

h: Did you get too busy with acting?
Anna: Turns out I liked my job (laughs). I didn’t even get around to picking a major.

h: Would you say that you were still able to get the full college experience?
Anna: Oh my God, I definitely did during my freshman year, my first year out of high school. I lived in the dorms and had an amazing time. I loved it.
Some of my closest friends are the ones I met in college. It was the first time I hadn’t been working non-stop since I was 11, so I had the best time ever. No parents, no work. (laughs) I mean New York, come on.

h: Was it hard for people in college to separate you from your work?
Anna: Well, I’m not incredibly high profile in that sense. I mean, I work, I do my thing, but there were a few other kids who were also actors, so I feel like the freak show factor was spread around. Julia Stiles was in my year, and she’d done a lot of films that were kinda teen-oriented, so she was actually a lot more famous, frankly (laughs). I think she took a lot more of the circus freak, intrigue factor. I snuck in a little more under the radar.

h: How were your grades?
Anna: I’m a good student. (laughs) I didn’t get into Columbia by accident, let me just put it that way.

h: So, it didn’t take long before you decided to go back to work.
Anna: I started reading plays because I hadn’t done any theatre. I ended up reading something that I absolutely fell in love with and Philip Seymour Hoffman was directing it. It was going to go for the run of what would have been my first semester of sophomore year and I auditioned and auditioned and auditioned until he said yes and that led to another play which led to…I was originally just going to take one semester off and then three years later I was at my friends’ graduation.

h: Do you know where your Oscar is right now?
Anna: Honestly, I don’t know where it is, it’s somewhere in my brother’s house. I left it there with a bunch of my stuff when I moved to Los Angeles.
So, I don’t know, it’s probably somewhere out of the way.

h: I’m a big fan of The Squid and the Whale. Was it weird playing Jeff Daniels’ love interest in that movie after having played his daughter in Fly Away Home?
Anna: Probably for him (laughs). I mean for me, it was a different lifetime, you know what I mean? It wasn’t weird for me, but I think a lot weirder for him because I think he has kids close-ish to my age (laughs) and he’s a good, stand up guy. It’s also probably a lot weirder for him because he can probably remember what I looked like as a 12-year-old and I’m not really conscious of that, so it’s kinda funny.

h: What’s the character you’ve most enjoyed playing to date?
Anna: I love my True Blood character, Sookie. I get to do so much stuff that’s so much fun, and it’s so different from anything I’ve ever done, which is not a slight on anything else I’ve already done, it’s just a fun show. It’s intense and it’s funny, it’s dark and it’s twisted, and it’s sexy and violent. Kinda otherworldly too. With episodic television, I’m loving the process of continually figuring out who these people are and working on them with each episode, that’s just so much more to do as an actor and I love that. So, I guess right now, I have my dream job.

h: Was there anything spooky that happened on the set?
Anna: Well, I mean…no. (laughs) I’m not a real big believer in that stuff.

h: Well, it is about vampires.
Anna: (Laughs) The only spooky thing is being asked by people when they hear you are doing a show about vampires, ‘Oh, so is it fiction, or non-fiction?’
Uh, it’s about vampires…what do you think? But, that’s just spooky in an entirely different way. People being stupid I think is incredibly spooky.

True Blood premiers on HBO Romania (also Transylvania !)

You just have to LOVE that True Blood is now playing on HBO in Transylvania ! You can figure out most of the announcement below or HERE is what Google translate did to it.

Serialul "True blood", in premiera la HBO Romania

HBO Romania anunta premiera noului serial original, TRUE BLOOD, vineri, 6 februarie, de la ora 22.00.
Serialul debuteaza cu un sezon de 12 episoade, din distributie facand parte Anna Paquin, castigatoare a premiilor Oscar si Globul de Aur, Stephen Moyer si Alexander Skarsgard.
TRUE BLOOD este creat si produs de Alan Ball (realizatorul serialului HBO "Sub Pamant SRL" castigator al premiului Emmy), care a scris, de asemenea, primele trei episoade si a regizat doua episoade ale serialului, bazat pe romanul "The Sookie Stackhouse novels" scris de Charlaine Harris.

Best New Shows of 2008 -TV World

TV World lists their best new shows ...guess what was # on their list ?

Every year there are loads of new television shows released and, with only so many hours in the day for TV viewing, the competition for viewers is cutthroat. Many shows are canceled if they fail to bring in the predicted ratings. Conversely if a show does well it can end up running, well for what seems like eternity, even if the original concept wasn’t meant to last for several series the networks will pressure them to continue regardless (I’m looking at you Lost).

With so much good television already out there it is tough for a new show to break in and find a regular and loyal audience. So what were the shows released in 2008 that caught your imagination? Here are the ones that made it onto my TV watching schedule.

True BloodTrue Blood
My favourite new show by a distance is True Blood which first aired in September. HBO have a knack for creating brilliant television and this is no exception. It centres on a waitress in the Deep South called Sookie Stackhouse who can read minds, her moronic brother and her lover Bill who just happens to be a vampire. In fact True Blood is set in a kind of alternative world where vampires have been outed and campaigned for civil rights to live along side humans. They can buy blood substitute in bars but the truce is less than comfortable and there are plenty of twists and turns in this exciting tale. It was slow to build an audience but as word of mouth spread it became more and more popular and it will be coming back for a second season.

Read whole list

http://tvworld.us/2009/01/28/best-new-shows-of-2008/

'Dead as a Doornail' is what inspired me to begin the [writing] process

Fascinating how grabbing a Sookie book before a long flight changed Nicole Peeler 's life and how she now has a 3 book deal to write stories about a young woman from Maine dealing with the supernatural; she has also landed a teaching job, in of all places Shreveport , LA.

Little did she know that a visit to her hometown of Aurora following completion of a doctoral program in Scotland would change the focus of her writing.

While visiting a local bookstore in search of something to read on her flight back to Scotland, Peeler turned to her 6-year-old niece for help. Her niece who pointed to New York Times' best-selling author Charlaine Harris' "Dead as a Doornail" in the fantasy section.

"Next thing I know, I'm on my way back to Scotland reading the book about a waitress from Bon Temps, La., who is about to drive into Shreveport to visit the local vampire bar," she said.

Ironically, as part of her visit back to the states, she was to complete the interview process for her current job as assistant professor of English at Louisiana State University in Shreveport.

Whole artcle here

True Blood Music Video of the Day




Skeleton low [Low ] by Mark Lanegan

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Arlene (Carrie Preston) will be at the Macon Film Festival

The Macon Film and Video Festival will be Feb 18-22 in Macon, Ga. and one of the special guests will be actress Karen Black who won Golden Globes for her performances in the movies "Five Easy Pieces" and "The Great Gatsby."

Other special guests include actress Carrie Preston, a regular on the HBO comedy "True Blood" and former University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley.

The festival will be at the Cox Capitol Theatre.

More than 60 hours of original, independent film will be shown.

To find out more go to www.maconfilmfestival.com.

Give HBO Some Credit

From Newsweek September 2008

We know lots about the opening credits, I have even just recently visited many of the places featured in them ..more here

Even as American TV has evolved, one of its most charming aspects—the title sequence—has become scarce. To save precious seconds, many shows have jettisoned opening credits in favor of a brief flash of a logo, à la "Lost." It's a shame. A great title sequence is a gilded invitation to join the show's universe.

The credits for the new HBO series "True Blood" (from Alan Ball of "Six Feet Under" ) are the perfect amuse-bouche. The show is about vampires assimilating into rural Louisiana, and the credits are a flip book of Deep South postcards: images of hungry gators and modest homes, neon crosses and dirt roads. In the final shot, a woman is dunked for a river baptism and appears to emerge in hysterics. Either she's in rapture, or just a hairbreadth from drowning. This is the world of "True Blood," where quaint, romantic notions of the South are recast with dread.

The package was made by Digital Kitchen, the agency behind "Six Feet Under's" Emmy-winning sequence. By hiring it again, Ball proves he understands that the slower the curtain is raised, the more intrigued his audience becomes.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/158744

Do you need a little fix ? Here ya go ...


True Blood" Hunk -- Bite Me, I Ain't Him!


He may be hard to recognize with clothes on -- but we're 110% sure this dude outside Coco de Ville last night is oft-naked "True Blood" hottie Ryan Kwanten, no matter how hard he denied it.

http://www.tmz.com/2009/01/28/true-blood-hunk-dont-blow-my-cover/

True Blood filming in Baton Rouge : HBO and others jump on La. bandwagon

By Joshua Davidson in Tiger Weekly

Fresh off of a record setting year in which Louisiana saw its highest movie payout to date with Brad Pitt’s, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the state has a promising year ahead in 2009.

Louisiana’s tax incentives are continuing to entice new film ventures to the state with new projects set to film in the coming months around the region including sites around Baton Rouge.

Since the Louisiana Film incentive and Tax Credit Program began in 2002, the state has shown numbers second only to California, thus earning the nickname “Hollywood South.” Currently, the program gives producers a 25 percent tax credit on shooting films in Louisiana as well as an additional 10 percent credit on all payroll used on Louisiana residents in connection with the production.

HBO is currently in the Baton Rouge area working on pre-production efforts for the second season of its hit series, True Blood, starring Anna Paquin. Filming is slated to begin in February. Along with True Blood, HBO is also set to start filming the pilot for a new series, titled Treme, starting March 9, and is still casting roles that call for all ages, ethnicities and types.

The tax incentives have encouraged producers to take a second look at the many historic locations in Louisiana including swamps, plantations and, of course, the famous French Quarter. One producer was especially eager to take advantage of the locations surrounding a Louisiana swamp for the filming of the upcoming bayou thriller, Beard’s Creek.

“The tax incentives in Louisiana are great,” said Beard Creek producer, Ilan Arboleda. “The great locations are an added bonus. It makes choosing Louisiana a no-brainer when it comes to choosing a place to film.”

The movies aren’t the only player finding financial success in Louisiana. The Motion Picture Association of America estimates that major studios bring about $225,000 per day to their shooting locations, which in turn, can become very lucrative to all parties involved in the project both directly and indirectly.

Some notable stars set to make appearances in Louisiana films this year include Val Kilmer, Justin Timberlake, 50 Cent, Sharon Stone, Megan Good and John Cena, among others.

“I’m excited to see so many opportunities in movies here,” says university student Jessica Holman. “I’m trying to get a job on the crew with an upcoming independent movie called, ‘The Chameleon,’ here in Baton Rouge.”

The window for these endeavors could be closing up quick with roughly 40 other states offering similar incentives and subsidies that Louisiana offers according to the Incentives Office, a consulting firm located in California. One state that is gaining ground on Louisiana rather quickly is New Mexico, which has a similar 25 percent tax credit.

Regardless of what happens with the other states vying for Louisiana’s position as one of the premier destinations for filming, this year is sure to be a great success for the state. Much of the films slated for 2009 are still looking for both cast and crew and could make for a great experience for one looking to get into the business, so be sure to keep an eye out for what’s going on in the coming months.

For more information, visit Parental Advisory, Tiger Weekly’s entertainment blog at www.tigerweekly.com/theblogs.

Charlaine Harris interviewed in this month's BUST magazine


Charlaine Harris tells Sookie Stackhouse’s secrets

on newstands now

http://www.bust.com/Magazine/On-Newsstands-Now.html

Baby, you can drive my car (9)



Who drives this car ?

How do they get it ?






Yep, this would have been the Malibu that Tara gave Sookie

From Definitely Dead

I hadn't seen Tara in a while. She'd gone on a vacation to visit an aunt in south Texas, and since she'd returned she'd been working long hours at the store. At least, that's what she'd said when I'd called her to thank her for the car. When my kitchen had burned, my car had burned with it, and Tara had loaned me her old car, a two-year-old Malibu. She'd acquired a brand-new car (never mind how) and hadn't gotten around to selling the Malibu.

To my astonishment, about a month ago, Tara had mailed me the title and the bill of sale, with a letter telling me the car was now mine. I'd called to protest, but she had stonewalled me, and in the end, there didn't seem to be anything to do but accept the gift graciously.
She intended it as payment, since I'd extricated her from a terrible situation. But to help her, I'd had to indebt myself to Eric. I hadn't minded. Tara had been my friend all my life. Now she was safe, if she was smart enough to stay away from the supernatural world.

All Weres are Shifters but not all Shifters are Weres

"Do not call me a werewolf " Sam in True Blood

from Book 6

And to confuse the issue, all those who can change from human form to animal form call themselves shape-shifters, though very few possess Sam's versatility. Shifters who can change to only one animal are were-animals: weretigers (like Quinn), werebears, werewolves. The wolves are the only ones who call themselves simply Weres, and they consider themselves superior in toughness and culture to any of the other shape-shifters.

Weres are also the most numerous subset of shifters, though compared to the total vampire population, there are mighty few of them. There are several reasons for this. The Were birthrate is low, infant mortality is higher than in the general population of humans, and only the first child born of a pure Were couple becomes a full Were.

True Blood Fan Art














Dpauley - thanks

Stephen Moyer: True Blood's Vampire Hunk

A Stephen interview from TeenTelevision from last September

Mystery, horror, romance and humor combine in HBO's new vampire series "True Blood" based upon the Sookie Stackhouse novels. Sookie, played by Anna Paquin, is a telepathic waitress who is fascinated by vampires. In Sookie's world, they live among us and most drink a blood-like concoction called Tru-Blood rather than chowing down on humans. Sookie has her eye on Bill Compton. Almost 200 years old, the handsome "vamp" was roaming the South when there were plantations and Scarlett O'Hara belles.
Handsome, of course, brooding Bill is played by Brit born Stephen Moyer who co-starred with Debra Messing in "The Starter Wife". Picture tall, dark and, yeah, cute.

TeenTelevision: How did you get this job? Was it just a normal audition that your agent sent you to?
Stephen: I had come back from Australia, where I had been doing 'The Starter Wife', and, at the time, I was tan and blonde.

TeenTelevision: Whoa, not a good look for a vampire.
Stephen: I'd been away for a long time and I didn't want to come to America, straight away. But then, I saw 'True Blood'. I read it and I put myself on tape the next morning. They'd had trouble finding Bill. They'd been looking for about five months. Alan [Ball, series creator] saw it that afternoon, and I flew in the next morning. When Anna and I met and first had those initial meetings with Alan, I was tan and blonde, and she was white with black hair. We've kind of reversed [looks] completely.

TeenTelevision: Weird! Did you know the books?
Stephen: I hadn't heard of it ever before. But, as soon as I got the job, I started doing the research and reading the books. My character is from the American Civil War, so I went back to the Civil War and started reading about that.

TeenTelevision: Had you been a fan of the vampire genre before this?
Stephen: It's not the genre that I would have jumped at, to be honest. I'd read Anne Rice, but that is about it. I did play a vampire in '98, in a series called 'Ultraviolet'. I have these sharp canines [naturally], so we decided, in that show, not to even give me vampire teeth. But, in this, we have different teeth. I read the book and I could totally understand what Alan saw in it. Sookie is amazing, Bill is a fantastic character, and the world that [author] Charlaine [Harris] sets up is just unbelievable.

TeenTelevision: Can you talk about wearing the vampire teeth and how that works for you?
Stephen: As a kid, I had to wear a retainer to push my teeth straight, and it's kind of like having a retainer. You have to learn to talk with them in.

TeenTelevision: Ah, lisping vampires.
Stephen: [laughing] There's this hilarious thing where there's four vampires [actors] and we're all sitting around, chatting, and then there's a moment where we all have to have our teeth in, so everybody reaches down and sticks their teeth in and they start talking funny, and it's really not very cool at all. It's quite difficult, but we've all gotten much, much better at talking with them in. And, we've reduced the back plate on the teeth a little bit, so people have gotten better at talking with them.

TeenTelevision: Bill has a rival for Sookie, Eric played by Alexander Skarsgard. What is that relationship like?
Stephen: The relationship is one of respect, but mutual dislike. His character is 1,000 years old and my character is 170 years old and, in our story, the older you are, the stronger you are. So, Eric is very strong. Even though Bill can stand up to Eric and fight him, he ultimately has to kow-tow to what Eric wants him to do but, when a vampire has a partner, another vampire is not allowed to encroach on that turf. So, as much as Eric would like to, perhaps, he can't because it's against vampire law. That, of course, is a great lure to Eric and he wants to fight that.

TeenTelevision: Sounds juicy! Are you going to be doing any flashbacks through Bill's life?
Stephen: Yes. We go back to the American Civil War. It's in the books, so I'm not revealing anything. But, we go back to Bill, when he was turned. So, 140 years ago, in 1862, he went off to fight in the American Civil War and, three years later, he came back and that's when his life changed. He had a family, he had a wife, and we see him revisit that in his mind. And, that was a beautiful thing to do. It was very moving. And, it was amazing for me, doing the research into that period of time. I didn't really know that much about it. It's obviously not something that's taught in British schools. So, for me, coming here, it was great to use that as a reason to go and do research.

TeenTelevision: What about more flashbacks, to show other time periods?
Stephen: Not in the first season, but it's something that we're talking about.

TeenTelevision: What about the backstory of Bill since he became a vampire? Did anybody give you any info on that?
Stephen: I've got ideas. I know that the character who turns him is somebody that he's attached to. In our world, when you're turned from a human into a vampire, the person who turns you has power over you. You're linked to them and they're linked to you. There's nothing you can do about it. I know that my history totally goes with that character, all the way through until just recently, where I broke away from her.

TeenTelevision: Oooo, her, huh? Interesting. How hard was it to learn the Louisiana accent?
Stephen: It's one of the best things about the job. We went for something that was a very specific sound, that's different from everybody else's, and I hope that comes across. I wanted to make him 100 years different from everybody else. But, instead of being a very Reese Witherspoon sound, that is very modern Southern, he's the only one who's got a different sound. It's Scarlett O'Hara-ish.

TeenTelevision: Perfect. Did you do much vampire research, like watching movies or reading
books?
Stephen: No. I knew of stuff. I read the books. Bill is such a complex character and he's so unlike any other vampire because he's got morals. He's a very ethical man and he wants to be a decent undead being. I think that's a fantastic thing, and so, I didn't feel like I needed to do the research. I wanted to make him precise and still and slow and different from how you would ordinarily perceive a vampire.

TeenTelevision: Other than the fact that she's hot, what is Bill's attraction to Sookie?
Stephen: She's naive, yet she's spunky, she's courageous, she's so open-minded, she's intelligent, she's funny. She is other. There is something about her that is different from everybody else that he's ever met. That's why he likes her. He can't work out what it is that's different about her, and he's just compelled by her 'otherness'.
***
Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.

http://www.teentelevision.com/d.asp?r=184663&c=1002

True Blood Music Video of the Day



Beautiful disaster by Kelly Clarkson

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Vampire romance (but not a lovelorn teen in sight)

ChristchurchCity Library in Christchurch, New Zealand has posted a nice review of the Sookie books - they seem to be very proud of their own little kiwi, Miss Anna.

You’d have to be living in a box (or a coffin?) not to realise that vampires are hot right now. First there was the release of the first Twilight film (based on the Stephenie Meyer book), and more recently HBO series True Blood has garnered ex-pat Anna Paquin a Golden Globe for best actress in a TV series.

The show is based on Charlaine Harris’s Southern vampire series of novels and is less well know than the phenomenally successful Twilight but is much more to my tastes, being a bit more “adult” in nature. The man responsible for bringing True Blood to the TV screen is Alan Ball (better known as the creative force behind another death fixated series, namely Six Feet Under) and in doing so he has provided all those things that HBO does so well, sex, violence, swearing, substance abuse, dark humour, oh, and did I mention sex?

I’ve been reading the books upon which the series is based and they are saucy, humorous, seductive and are a fast, well-paced read. No delusions of literary grandeur here just good, old-fashioned blood-sucking fun. The books revolve around the character of Louisiana native Sookie Stackhouse: waitress, telepath, and one half of a pretty sexy human/vampire couple. The other half is one Civil War-vintage Bill Compton, who I’m pretty sure could kick Edward Cullen’s sulky butt (if he felt so inclined). The novels all take place in a world where the invention of synthetic blood (by the Japanese, natch) means that vampires no longer need to hide, but can “come out of the coffin” mainstreaming into human society, voting, buying blood at bars, etc. Though of course there is still deep-seated prejudice and suspicion from much of the human populace and Sookie finds that having a “pale and interesting” boyfriend isn’t without its complications (and dangers).

Read On http://cclblog.wordpress.com/2009/01/28/vampire-romance-but-not-a-lovelorn-teen-in-sight/

True Blood Season 2 Possible Title Song: Ep. 4a "Let's Take a Trip Together "

THIS IS NO LONGER THE TITLE OF EP 4 -go here

Episode 2.01 - Nothing but the Blood
Episode 2.02 - Keep this Party Going
Episode 2.03 - Changed to Scratches from Scratch My Back

All we know about Season 2 spoilers/casting calls etc can be found here

We know the amazing Gary Calamar puts great effort into musically curating True Blood !

Episode 2.04 - Let's Take a Trip Together , by the band, Morphine on the album Cure for Pain.

Morphine was an alternative rock group formed by Mark Sandman and Dana Colley in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1989. The band ceased to be in 1999 after frontman Mark Sandman died of a heart attack.

Morphine combined blues and jazz elements with more traditional rock arrangements, giving the band a very unusual sound. Sandman's distinctive singing was described as a "deep, laid-back croon,"and his songwriting featured a prominent beat influence. Wikipedia

Cure For Pain was the second album released by Morphine, put out on the Rykodisc label in 1993. The tracks "Sheila" and "In Spite of Me" were prominently featured on the soundtrack of the 1994 independent film Spanking the Monkey. The video for "Thursday" also appeared on an episode of 'Beavis and Butt-head.'

Here is the band's MySpace and they include many audio and video clips to other songs but i dont see " Lets Take "

http://www.myspace.com/morphinejazz

Two of the member are now: http://www.twinemen.com/

Another member is : http://www.akacod.com/

If anyone know of a link to the song send it to me ! here is 30 seconds

Lyrics

Let's take a trip together
Headlong into the irresistible orbit
Breathing the cold black space
With the glistening edges
Let's take a trip me and you
Let's go the scenic route
Get to finally (x3)
Get to know each other
Just to be alone (x2)
Just to be alone with thee
Somewhere there's no distracting breeze of information
Leaking through the windows dripping from the trees
Somewhere there's no earthquakes
Of other people's anxious questions
No nervous wrecks going down (x2)
Let's take a trip together
Headlong into the irresistible orbit

Here is another song from the album