Sunday, January 18, 2009

Ask Dallas : What is your personal preference?

Someone asked a great question on the wiki recently "Does anyone have a theory on why bill likes to drink from Sookie’s neck, whereas Eric would do it in more ... discrete places, like her thigh/breast?"

The one thing I had to say was that at 1000 years old Eric needs very little blood and Bill at only 170 years old still needs much more blood.

I don’t know what effects the location of bite. I guess it might just be a personal preference. The groin is discussed by Bill and used by Eric in the book and TV show.
Bill bites Sookie in both a very public place and in an easily concealed place, unless you have to adjust your ponytail in front of a police officer.

*Note on the show Eric bites Dawn in the collarbone area and Liam bit Maudette in the groin. Bill bites Sookie on the neck and the under arm.

I have a whole series of posts called “If you don’t like it, you can just bite me” posts on the blog...

http://lovingtruebloodindallas.blogspot.com/search/label/Bite%20me

What else do we know about bite location?

Episode one :

Bill: Oh, but you have other very juicy arteries. There’s one in the groin that’s a particular favorite of mine.
Sookie: Hey, you just shut your nasty mouth, mister. You might be a vampire, but when you talk to me, you will talk to me like the lady that I am.

He says this in Book One:

"But there's a juicy artery in your groin," he said after a pause to regroup, his voice as slithery as a snake on a slide.

Episode Four:

Bill says to the cop that stops them leaving Fangtasia:

Bill: Vampires sometimes like to feed from the femoral artery. The blood flows more freely down there so one doesn't have to suck as hard...
(Bill turns to face the state trooper, who is still shining his flashlight into Bill's car. The flashlight illuminates the lower half of Bill's face. His fangs are still exposed as he looks directly at the state trooper.)
Bill: ...or so I've been told. (The state trooper is motionless and silent.)

This is all that was said in this scene in Book One:

"We will." I nodded eagerly, and Bill managed a stiff inclination of his head.
"We're raiding a bar a few blocks back," the patrolman said casually. I could see only a little of his face, but he seemed burly and middle-aged. "You two coming from there, by any chance?"
"No," I said.
"Vampire bar," the cop remarked.
"Nope. Not us."
"Let me just shine this light on your neck, miss, if you don't mind."
"Not at all."
And by golly, he shone that old flashlight on my neck and then on Bill's.
"Okay, just checking. You two move on now."
"Yes, we will."

Blood and lore

Kaleem Aftab

The director FW Murnau's 1922 film Nosferatu established conventions that are still found in vampire movies. Rex Features

It’s official: vampires are cool. The record-breaking success of Twilight at the American box office let the cat out of the coffin that the bloodsuckers are not to be feared. Indeed, movies about vampires are no longer guaranteed to belong to the horror genre. It’s enough to make Bela Lugosi turn in his grave.

The first on-screen depiction of these creatures of the night was in 1915, with the director Louis Feuillade’s legendary opus Les Vampires. The 10-part serial about a flamboyant gang of Parisian criminals contains many of the mainstays of vampire folklore, most notably that the bloodsuckers operate within the highest echelons of society. They are masters of disguise, carrying out criminal activities with glee. The series also saw the first appearance of a female vampire, Irma Vep (an anagram of vampire), a seductive creature at the centre of the group who became a template for feline incarnations of the evil spirits.

It was 1922’s Nosferatu, a Symphony of Terror that established many of the vampire’s monstrous conventions. FW Murnau’s unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker’s classic text Dracula contained a masterly gothic aesthetic, with dark shadows and cold castles. Max Schreck played the vampire Graf Orlok, who was evil incarnate, a savagely simple being who would lurch instinctively toward blood with barely disguised lust. He had bat ears and fangs in the middle rather than the sides of his mouth. Orlok would keep odd hours and lock up his prey. His nemesis, Hutter, finds a book of vampire lore that details salient vampire rules such as the need to sleep in the day. The key to killing Orlok is to expose him to the first rays of morning sunshine.

The more enduring image of the suave, cunning and sophisticated vampire with human qualities was created in 1931 in Tod Browning’s official adaptation of Dracula. The film gave birth to the horror genre as we know it today, and made a star out of Bela Lugosi, who had played Dracula on the stage. His creation came not from the pages of Stoker’s novel, but the exaggerated, theatrical style of the day. It was the first sound adaptation of Dracula and Browning made particular use of Lugosi’s Hungarian accent – his affected English became the trademark of vampires for a generation. Lugosi emphasised the ghoulish carnal human traits rather than an animalistic craving. A string of sequels, including Dracula’s Daughter, and Son of Dracula, followed in the 1930s as vampire films became a staple of Hollywood.

Lugosi’s performance had a particularly big influence on Christopher Lee, who appeared as Dracula in seven horror films by the production company Hammer. In 1958, Hammer and the director Terrence Fisher made a version of Dracula that shocked audiences by emphasising the physical horror. The count did not just devour his prey in the shadows; his feral eyes and fangs seem to be continually dripping with blood. Hammer horror films were all about the number of kills.

The physical side of the undead also has caught directors’ imaginations, such as in 1942’s vampire-inspired Cat People. Mario Bava and Lee Kresel’s 1960 Italian gore-fest Revenge of the Vampire contained the usual mix of secret passages, family curses and surprising deaths.

The lore around vampires continues to grow. The 1957 Mexican movie El Vampiro showed fangs and introduced other clichés such as spelling a name backwards as a pseudonym. The famed American comedians Abbott and Costello spotted that the horror genre and its characters – especially vampires – were ripe for parody and, in 1948, released Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein. The director Roman Polanski got in on the parody act with The Fearless Vampire Killers in 1967, which took its lead from Dracula’s famous slayer, Van Helsing. So did spoofs such as Mel Brook’s Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995). But others, such as the racially charged Blacula (1972), picked up on the fact that vampires could be seen as the stereotypical outsiders: creatures on the margins of society desperate to be accepted by the in-crowd.

This hankering after a sense of belonging was the central pillar in Werner Herzog’s 1979 art-house film Nosferatu the Vampyre, which emphasises not just the lust for love but also a lust for life.

From the spoofs, it was clear that the vampire had to evolve if films were to continue to resonate with audiences. The genre began to move away from horror and towards science fiction in titles such as The Last Man on Earth (1964) starring Vincent Price, The Omega Man (1971) starring Charlton Heston, and Rabid (1977) directed by David Cronenberg. Vampires also learned new tricks such as flying and having supernatural strength.

They also became adept at finding ingenious ways to operate in the mainstream and their link with aristocracy became increasingly benign. In films such as Queen of the Damned, vampires started to have cool jobs, such as being rock stars. Joel Schumacher made a massive effort to link vampires to society’s hip outsiders in 1986’s The Lost Boys when he hung a poster of the musician Jim Morrison in the vampires’ lair. The film also highlighted the age-old appeal of vampire hunters, the popularity of which reached its height with Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), the tale of an American cheerleader destined to defend the world. In the later television series, the character Angel, a vampire with a soul, exemplified a new spin being put on vampires: that they were not all evil by nature.

The most famous vampire to cure his bloodlust was Louis in the 1994 adaptation of Anne Rice’s novel Interview With the Vampire in which Tom Cruise comes up against Brad Pitt. The theme of vampire against vampire was also popular in the Blade trilogy and the Underworld trilogy (the third part of which is about to be released in cinemas).

As geeks have become increasingly celebrated in society, the bloodsucking outsiders have followed suit. Indeed, in Vampire’s Kiss Nicolas Cage convinces himself that he is a vampire. Recently, the HBO drama True Blood – in which vampires campaign for their civil rights after a Japanese firm manages to manufacture synthetic blood that can be sold in stores – has turned the joke in Blacula on its head.

Twilight simply takes the next logical step in vampire evolution. Vampires, with their supernatural abilities and overpowering need for love, combined with their dorky erratic behaviour, have become the ultimate cool kids in a pop culture where everyone loves a weirdo.

http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090119/ART/754792500/1007

If you don't like it you can just bite me ! ( 9)


This is the bite marks from one of the characters in True Blood.

Do you know who this is ?

Do you know who the vampire was that did the biting ?

Sorry about the size ...

yes, it is Jessica ...

Anna and who ??






























We saw all those great photos of Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer at the Golden Globes and even Anna and Stephen shopping ...but who if this handsome gent that she was see Anna out with with so many times in 2007 ?

*** Some of you guys that know everything give others a chance to guess ...
Email me with the answer if you just must tell the answer immediately
Email: True Blood in Dallas

Is True Blood Actor's Bark Worse Than Vampire Bites?


By Tara Bennett 16 October 2008

There’s a whole lot of crazy going on in the fictional Louisiana town of Bon Temps, which serves as epicenter of Southern style weird in HBO’s cult vampire hit, True Blood. Murder, telepaths, “outed” vampires that want equal rights with humans, and seedy underground clubs that appeal to humans with a fetish for fangs. Creator Alan Ball (Six Feet Under) is pulling out all the stops when it comes to exploring small-town secrets and sexy decadence in his small screen adaptation of Charlaine Harris’ bestselling, contemporary vampire series.

And it’s obviously working as week after week, Ball continues to woo audiences with his audacious mix of explicit sexuality, startling gore and genteel Southern gothic romance. After only two episodes, HBO renewed True Blood for a second season giving genre fans the rare opportunity to safely allow themselves the chance to invest in a quirky show like this.

Anna Paquin (X-Men) stars in the series as Sookie Stackhouse, a sweet, well-mannered waitress at Merlotte’s Bar, and who just happens to be damned with the ability to hear people’s innermost thoughts. Her “gift” creeps out the residents of tiny Bon Temps which has just distanced her from the majority of the colorful townsfolk. All she’s got in life is her small circle of family and friends, including her understanding Gran Stackhouse (Lois Smith), her horn-dog brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten), loud-mouth best friend Tara (Rutina Wesley), and her besotted boss, Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell). That is until the vampire Bill Compton steps into Merlotte’s and changes Sookie’s life forever.

Bill is the first vampire to take up residence in Bon Temps, and Sookie is immediately intrigued. She’s drawn to his similar outsider status, dark intensity and mostly, his very silent brain. A refuge from the din of human thoughts, Sookie is quickly enamored by Bill to the chagrin of everyone – especially her protective boss, Sam.

But True Blood quickly exposes that everyone has a secret in Bon Temps, including good guy Sam Merlotte, who pines for Sookie and assuages his loneliness by sleeping with Tara. And then there’s some really weird stuff Sam does like writhing and sniffing a murder victim’s bed and barking in his sleep. Yup, this show is weird; but that’s exactly why actor Sam Trammell loves his role on True Blood because everything about the show is out there.

“I think people respond to the show because it’s such an escape,” Trammell tells Newsarama in an exclusive interview. “It’s like an alternate world where vampires exist but the geography feels so specific and mysterious and mystical. A lot of it takes place at night with the bayou, the trees and the sounds of the insects. There’s something sexy and romantic about that.”

In the hands of Alan Ball, True Blood is also fearless in exploring different tones, from the farcical to the downright scary.

“Alan kind of blows me away,” Trammell enthuses. “I read the pilot and thought it was interesting but I also thought how are you going to be able to do this? I don’t know how he does it, maybe it’s just his talent, but he rides such a fine line between genres. And the show mixes genres so well. Its part gothic romance, part mystery, part horror film and part black comedy and it just works. It’s so hard to make entertainment on the screen good. He’s done it. I have total trust in his vision. He’s really smart with story and writing complex characters.”

Trammell says he came to the series by way of standard auditions for the part of Sam Merlotte.

“It’s never easy,” the actor smiles about the process. “Sometimes you have to go through ten auditions to get a part but this was just a couple of auditions. It happened all in a week, so it was a quick process. It can sometimes drag on for weeks. So I auditioned on tape for the casting director and Alan saw it and liked it. I met with Alan and I was really excited. We worked on some scenes and he gave me some notes. Five days later, I went into HBO for a network test in front of the president and sign contracts and whatever. I found out I got the part five hours after auditioned. I was screaming in my car I was so excited,” he laughs.

Before production began, Trammell says he dove into the Charlaine Harris books the series is based on to get some context on his character.

“Sam is such mysterious character in the first book,” he details. “You don’t’ get a lot of him in terms of his past. I read all of the books and they are amazing and entertaining. But I wanted to see if there were any big revelations in like book six because I wanted to be faithful to Charlaine Harris and her fans. If there was some weird secret that happens later on, I at least wanted to know about it because it might effect how I play things.”

As fans of the eight book Dead series will know, Harris has kept Sam Merlotte close to her vest, with little of his history being revealed aside from his deep friendship with Sookie. Much to the delight of the actor, Ball has taken the opportunity in the TV series to flesh out Sam’s story in much more detail.

“There’s a lot of freedom there,” Trammell explains. “I even think I pitched some ideas to Alan at the very beginning because it’s open for creation. Sam is a good guy. He’s the stable good guy and that’s a little weird. It’s good though because Alan doesn’t give you the two-dimensional, cliché, good and bad characters. We definitely get a decent amount of satisfaction in finding out about who Sam is in the first season.

"And I know it will continue in the second because I talked to Alan about it. It’s going to be pretty cool when stuff about Sam gets revealed. He is a really mysterious character because nobody knows about his history before he came to Bon Temps. He lives alone. He is the center of town life as the owner of the bar and a couple of apartments, so people see him and know him but they don’t know him.”

A storyline in the show that differs from the book for Sam is his sexual relationship with Sookie’s best friend, Tara Thornton. As two heartsick loners, they pair up for solace and understanding as they watch their true loves (Sookie and Jason Stackhouse, respectively) mix it up with others.

“Rutina and I have a great time working together,” Trammell says of on screen partner. “The writers liked a lot of what was happening between us so they end up going with it.”

But the actor confirms that Sookie will remain his soul mate. “He obviously empathizes with Sookie because she is different and he’s different.”

Different how? Well, Trammell won’t spill but he says there’s been plenty of fan speculation about his canine behavior that will soon come to fruition in episode ten, "I Don't Wanna Know.”

“Sam is a great character. He’s as interesting, in my opinion, as anyone else. And he’s got this big secret, so he has to put out a certain image of himself in town that isn’t always who he is. He has to hide and he has to lie about things and that’s always fun! You’ll see in scenes later on, he has to lie about things and that’s when things get really cool. My part really kicks in from episode five ("Sparks Fly Out”) and then I’m in the show a lot more. My stuff gets more interesting as the show goes on. And then there is some major interesting stuff that happens at the very end – some amazing cliffhangers as far as my character is concerned so I’m very psyched for what we explore in season two.”

Production begins on True Blood’s second season in January of 2009, and in the meantime Trammell is just enjoying watching the fireworks of the show play out.

“It’s obviously a really intense world,” the actor muses. “I’m sure you could do academic papers on the episodes. Alan and Charlaine Harris set it up so that vampires can be looked at as metaphors for minority groups and that’s all really interesting, but the great thing about the show is that it’s a lot of fun and has a great sense of humor. I think for most pieces of entertainment to be successful, you have to find that sense of humor and this show does.”

http://www.newsarama.com/tv/081016-sam-trammell-true-blood.html

True Blood Music Video of the Day

Gots To Get Her by Blake Edwards