Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Calling all VAMPIRES


Get Bitten in New Orleans!

The Vampire Film Series and Festival (aka Vampire Fest) will start taking film submissions on Saturday, March 21, 2009 Vampire Fest will to come home to New Orleans in late Autumn 2009 to present our festival and help in the effort to rebuild this beautiful city. Vampire Fest accepts all films that could be classified in the context of vampire, supernatural and the bizarre. A filmmaker can even submit a documentary about Goth people or about Gothic architecture. Vampire Fest will accept any narrative or experimental film that emphasizes the grotesque, mysterious or desolate. The legend of the werewolf and other supernatural creatures are interconnected with that of vampire and Vampire Fest is open to films of the Goth, zombie and werewolf, witch or ghost genre.
The categories are:
Vampire Feature
Vampire Short
International Vampire Film (not English language, vampires with foreign
passports!)
Vampire Documentary
Vampire Mixed Media (less live action, more anime, animation, CGI, puppets or claymation) Gothic Feature Gothic Short Werewolf/ Ghost/Witch/Ghoul Feature or Short Filmmakers can submit on line at www.vampirefilmfestival.com or at www.withoutabox.com If you have questions or need more information, please visit our site at www.vampirefilmfestival.com or contact Reel Energy at (626) 449-1902.
Get bitten at Vampire Fest in New Orleans!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT:
Francesca Miller
Reel Energy Entertainment
626-449-1902
www.VampireFilmFestival.com

True Blood: Bloody Good Vampires haunt every Thursdays

In Manila they just think True Blood is great too....

TRUE Blood, the red hot new HBO vampire series that has both “fang girls,” “fang boys” and critics excited will finally premiere on local cable on April 9 at the Max channel (formerly Cinemax).

Robert Lyons, HBO’s senior vice president for Programming and Presentation is very enthusiastic about promoting the show. He says for the premiere, “you’re not getting one but four episodes back to back. It’s the second episode that really gets you hooked.” I begged to disagree; this series had me at hello. Vampires, Southern Goth, slick opening credits with a Chris Isaak-esque country blue glass blues tune and wicked sense of humor. Not to mention I had read Dead After Dark a few years ago. What was not to like?

Comparisons between True Blood and Twilight are inevitable. Both have a key human-vampire love story. However, in this case it’s the human who can read everyone else’s thoughts except the vampire’s. Besides being set in a world where vampires and all manner of other mythical creatures exist, the sensibilities of both properties are quite different. True Blood attracts a very different demographic—a more mature audience and certainly more men. As a TV series it’s racy, sexy, suspenseful, often irreverent and darkly funny. The first set of fans that encouraged me to take my first taste of True Blood were men.

Read on

True Blood: Something to get your teeth into

...And now comes the HBO telly drama True Blood (Prime, Wednesdays, 9.30pm), an adaptation of Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels by none other than the illustrious and highly original talent Alan Ball (creator of Six Feet Under, and Oscar winner for American Beauty).

True Blood arrives here with its credentials well established; a second series commissioned after just one episode; and a best actress Golden Globe for its Kiwi lead, Anna Paquin, who really does dominate the show.

Ball certainly can take a script and run with it; so what kind of spin does True Blood put on the hoary old story of the feisty babe who's a sucker for a bat man?

It imagines a world where, thanks to the invention of synthetic blood, vampires are coming out of the closet and claiming their rights - only at night, of course - to live free from human discrimination and intimidation. They even have an attractive, sober-suited woman fronting their cause who, rather than fanged and blood-stained, looks reassuringly like a "moms for teen sexual abstinence" campaigner.

Add a strong helping of southern American gothic, with its setting of a Louisiana backwater town where intrigue and prejudices breed like mosquitoes in the bayou. Inject with humour - roadside signs proclaim "God hates fangs" and women who sleep with vampires are dubbed "fang-bangers" - and a bit of graphic sex, although for sexual out-there-ness it's no match for the likes of Californication.

Read on NZHearald

Sookie Stackhouse aka Southern Vampire Mysteries by Sheri

Sheri of 'Sherri's World' does a great job reviewing all the Sookie Stackhouse books

Dead Until DarkDead Until Dark, the first book in the series was really quite good. I liked it anyways. The main character Sookie Stackhouse is great but also kind of annoys me. She is a telepathic barmaid who is quite nice, though every human thinks she is a bit crazy. Also, much of the book seemed like I was reading another version of Twilight with more sex and Southern slang. I think this book was written first though. Maybe Stephanie Meyer read it and that is how she dreamt up Twilight. Regardless though, it is a good book. I really liked Vampire Bill. Plus, having vampires “out of the coffin” and legal was a fun twist to vampire stories. I read this book in a night.

I started reading the second book, Living Dead in Dallas after a paranormal investigation. So, I only got in about an hour or so of reading. I finished the rest of it the following day. It was good but not really as good as the first. The most memorable thing that happens in this is the escape from being held captive at the Fellowship of the Sun headquarters there.

Living Dead In DallasAfter this book, I decided to read the back covers of the rest of the books that came in the set. I regretted doing so. Why? Well, I found out Bill cheats on Sookie! Also, somehow she might end up with Eric (Bill’s boss and the sheriff of Area 5 in Louisiana)? Then her brother becomes a shape-shifter? Then she ends up with a shape-shifter? What is going on? Why can’t my vampire reading be satiated with her just ending up with Bill and her turning into a vampire and then they live happily ever after? Oh, right for that I guess I can just re-read Breaking Dawn (again).

Also, the bookset doesn’t have all of the books. Yeah when I bought the set I thought they were all there but it is missing one that is out now and one that comes out in May. Now that I’ve started reading it, I’ll have to buy those too. Damn my OCD and getting sucked into this series!

Read on http://xsherix.blogspot.com/2009/03/sookie-stackhouse-aka-southern-vampire.html

Vampires' charm intrigues


OPINION Just when you thought movies and TV had pretty much sucked the life out of the old vampire schtick, along comes True Blood, last night on Prime, and injects a bit of PC tenderness into the old legend.

Now it's pity the hounded, despised minority. Just because they vant to drrrink your blaaarrrrd, "It's not their fault," says the plucky heroine of this ingenious, sparky new series.

Sure, they're not human, so it's a bit off-beam to talk about their human rights. Sure, they're already dead, so it's a bit iffy to talk about their lifestyles.

Yes, they haven't exactly done mankind any favours, with all that blood sucking, leering and B-movie carry on over the centuries. But, hey, they didn't ask to be born undead.

On the contrary, in the world of True Blood, vampires have been "normalised" into society as an underprivileged minority.

Following the invention of a viable synthetic blood, with which vampires can nourish themselves instead of predating upon humans, the vampire race decided to "come out of the coffin" and integrate openly with the Earth's dominant species.

Alas, so far there has been no Rosa Parks-style breakthrough in the vampire equality drive, and in the Louisiana town that's True Blood's setting, the V-word has about the same effect as the N-word used to a few decades ago.

Not only are vampires feared and despised, but the tables have been turned, with vampires being exploited by humans who make a fetish of having sex with them, and by more sicko humans who have a fetish for drinking vampires' blood, in which there is a gruesome trade.

Our heroine, Sookie - played Golden Globe-winningly by Hutt Valley exile Anna Paquin - is not prejudiced against vampires - especially not when a good-looking one comes into the bar where she waits tables.

His name is Bill - which is a bit of disappointment. "I was expecting Antoine, or something," she giggles.

Bill - sultry Stephen Moyer - is chiselled and moody, and makes Dirty Harry seem garrulous - although dispiritingly, he has the pallor we normally associate with the men from Coronation Street. Sookie overlooks this.

Most importantly, she saves him from exsanguination when he is captured by some V-juice traffickers. She finds these baddies siphoning him of blood in the car park, as if nicking the 95 from the tank of a Subaru.

It's a touching scene, but also a disconcerting one, as clearly, Bill is not the only one here with a supernatural riff going on.

Sookie can read people's minds, which is how she knew the couple in the bar were about to drain Bill. And judging from the way she dispatched the baddies - causing a hefty chain to boa-constrict round a guy's neck all by itself - Sookie herself seems to be not entirely human.

"What are you?" Bill keeps asking her."Ah'm a waitress!" she purrs in her Southern drawl.

Yes, but the kind of waitress to whom it would pay to give a stonking big tip, just to be safe.

If last night was any guide to the show's quality, it'll be well worth sticking with the series to find out what Sookie is and why, and how her romance goes with the 170-year- old undead, pasty dreamboat.

There's also the inevitable serial-killing mystery, which claimed its first body last night, and for which Sookie's hunky but thick brother Jason is the prime suspect.

There's the love triangle - or possibly quadrangle - involving Sam, the nice, non-fanged but possibly still supernatural bar owner, who unrequitedly loves Sookie, and Sookie's hilarious best friend Tara, who is quite mortal, but also mortally rude and offensive, and who unrequitedly loves dopey Jason.

Quite as compulsory as a serial- killing plot in such (otherwise original) American shows, is the cute dog. In this case it's a noble-looking collie that suddenly appears whenever Sookie is in trouble.

In short, this is Buffy or Charmed, only the X-rated grown- ups-only version - and much, much cleverer and funnier.

Even this reviewer, who is easily icked-out by exsanguination scenes, and bored to tears with the vampire idyll, has been won over by the ingenuity and subtlety of this show.

It's not just that the dialogue is sassy and the characters are likeably eccentric. All that is bog- standard with quality American programmes these days, and is the least you'd expect.

The brilliant thing about True Blood is its understated ambience. The story arcs and much of the action are seriously florid, yet somehow it's mostly handled insouciantly.

Weird things happen, and the characters are so matter-of-fact about it, you sometimes wonder if you've heard right. They-at cyewwl Ser-th'n accey-ent shirr hey-ulps.

On the downside, the sex scenes are lurid and protracted, and the inevitable ambience of gore takes a bit of getting used to.

Those who blanch at bad language will find this show at the serious end of offending. But for viewers with the stomach, this is one of the freshest shows we're likely to see this year.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/2276357/Vampires-charm-intrigues

It's a nice place to visit but it's good to be home and a plea for New Orleans !

Thanks to Object Desire's fabulous driving, we zipped our way home today- we had a great time listening to the audio book of Definitely Dead.

We ate beignets one last time at Cafe Du Monde, packed up the car, spent an hour or so touring the still devastated 9th ward and then visited St. Louis Cemetery.

We then made our way home and we were back in Area 6, Kingdom of Texas by 7:30 pm.

I have been to New Orleans many, many times and I love it each and every time...but I had not been back since Katrina and what I saw made my heart ache.

I would like to ask everyone that loves the Sookie books and Louisiana to consider making a donation to one of the great organizations that are working to rebuild the massive devastated areas of NOLA. There is NO city in America like New Orleans and we must continue to care and help them to rebuild ...

I would recommend Habitat for Humanity to help rebuild the great city and/or Make it right, which is building fabulous new green( solar) homes in the 9th. (this is the organization Brad Pitt is involved in ) My family is fighting over the t-shirt I brought home, so maybe you guys support them by buying a t-shirt or other merchandise. buy one here

We saw Habitat Spring Break student volunteers there this morning raking and cleaning ..and they are also involved int he Musician 's Village.
( I took photo above left this morning of one of the fabulous new homes being built !)

If we all just send $10 bucks it would help..

on the road..to Dallas

we are saying good bye to the french quarter..I'll
twitter more later...

yes, Cafe Du Monde was excellent ..:)

Anna Paquin and others on realizing multiple talents

Many people make use of their abilities and achieve satisfaction in life by becoming focused pros or even experts in one area. But many others keep exploring multiple talents, interests and passions.

In her article Are You a Scanner?, Barbara Sher identifies people with “intense curiosity about numerous unrelated subjects” who are “endlessly inquisitive and interested in everything.”

Filmmaking may be one of the most ideal arenas for such multitalented people.

Anna Paquin (who won an Oscar at age 11 for The Piano) acted in and also executive produced her upcoming film Blue State, getting involved in casting and location scouting among other aspects.

In a new interview article, she notes she was “unconsciously” trained to produce while working as an actor for many years. “Maybe I’m weird, but I was always interested in things like insurance and how the weather would affect a shoot,” she says.

“Ultimately, even if I’m just the actor, it’s my movie too, and those things trickle down and affect you. I’ve worked on jobs where literally everything but frogs fell from the sky. And you have to be aware of those things. Because the more pressure you’re under to turn in the performance, you know it all comes down to you being able to do your job well and quickly.” [From Having Their Say, By Jenelle Riley, Back Stage May 21, 2007.]

http://talentdevelop.com/44/anna-paquin-and-others-on-realizing-multiple-talents/

True Blood Music Video of the Day


Night runner by Duran Duran Lyrics

thanks Fairygalo1