Friday, March 27, 2009

Alpha Dog Round Four : Vote for Eric Northman !

I am terrible with other TV shows but come on ....these guys against a fabulous 1,000 year old Viking Vampire sheriff ? I just think NOT!

VOTE **VOTE **VOTE **VOTE
The Viking is not winning right now !
Grrrr ...Bark , Bark !






These last two rounds have been brutal! First we lost McSteamy, McDreamy, Peter Bishop, Jack Shephard and Michael Scofield, and this time around we had to say goodbye to Michael Westen, Coach, Sawyer and House. And that means your final four are a Viking vampire, two Winchester boys and Sayid Jarrah.

This is going to be quite a battle.

We'll be waiting out here in the safe zone with comfort, succor and an extremely well-stocked first-aid kit.

Ready? Grab the bracket to see what it took for your boys to get this far in the first place, and then jump into the last round before the big championship match...

Vampire Legends Linger for Centuries : ABC


Vampire Legends Linger for Centuries
Many Believe Vampires Serve as Powerful Metaphors for Our Psyches
By CLAIRE SHIPMAN

March 26, 2009 —

The legend of the vampire actually goes back centuries and exists in some form or another in almost every culture.

In fact, some people believe the first vampire story was in the Bible.

Why did people believe they had so much power and did they really exist?

Vampires move under the cloak of darkness, the undead rising from their graves to prey on the innocent by sucking their blood, according to the image of vampires that has captured our imaginations and been reinvented in stories, legends and films for centuries. Many imagine vampires lurking in the woods, preying on small towns and villages in the hours between dusk and sunrise.

Vampires are back again in "Twilight," but now they've been reinvented as lovesick, romantic and only slightly dangerous.

The "Twilight" series has created an almost cultish following among tweens.

"They want the vampire to be glamorous and romantic now," said Anne Rice, best-selling author of vampire novels. "They don't want a monster that they can't relate to. They want to see that human side of the vampire."

Rice said the notion of vampires is almost irresistable to the human psyche.

"The vampire is just a powerful metaphor for the outcast in all of us, for the monster in all of us, for the predator in all of us," she said.

Vampires often are equated with Romania and Count Dracula, but in fact, Bohemia, in today's Czech Republic, was critical to the rise of the vampire legend. Almost every cemetery in Prague is teeming with stories.

A favorite story is about the no-name vampire buried in one cemetery who lured victims with his music.

"He begins to gather a crowd and over time, people would notice neighbors were still disappearing and they never knew if the sounds were of the accordion or the victims' screams," said Ty McGee, a guide of ghost tours in Prague.

Small towns and villages struck by disease and death were breeding grounds for vampire lore.

"Everything from a crop failture to the plague to infant mortality would be explained away by one of these tales, something like, 'The vampire did it,'" said Thomas J. Garza, a professor at the University of Texas who teaches about Slavic and Eastern European cultures, among others.

While no empirical evidence exists, the legends live on in part to explain a subconscious fear of death.

"The vampire will always be a character with whom we identify in our own mortality and in his or her own immortality," Garza said.

Rice agrees.

"The vampire is never going to go away," she said. "There will be more and more revivals. We're going to have continued romance with the vampire."

It's that romance and fascination that also helps fuel tourism, and not just in the graveyard tours and the dark forests of Eastern Europe. The small town of Forks, Wash., the setting for the "Twilight" book series and movie now sees 100 tourists a day.

Copyright © 2009 ABC News Internet Ventures

Vampire slide show here

True Blood Goes to the Movies: Ryan Kwanten stars in Dead Silence

Dead Silence (originally titled Shhhh) with alternate title suggestions such as The Doll and Mary Shaw is a 2007 horror film from James Wan and Leigh Whannell, the creators of Saw.

The film stars Ryan Kwanten as the main protagonist, Jamie Ashen, Donnie Wahlberg as Detective Jim Lipton and Judith Roberts as Mary Shaw. It was released nationwide on March 16, 2007, and was released on DVD and HD DVD on June 26, 2007. Altogether, there are three versions of the movie: the edited, R rated movie, and an uncut version. The movie took 6 months and 17 days to film.

Plot summary : Every town has it's own ghost story, and a local folktale around Ravens Fair is about a ventriloquist named Mary Shaw. After she went mad in the 1940s, she was accused of kidnapping a young boy who yelled out in one of her performances that she was a fraud. Because of this she was hunted down by townspeople who in the ultimate act of revenge, cut out her tongue and then killed her. They buried her along with her "children," a handmade collection of vaudeville dolls, and assumed they had silenced her forever. However, Ravens Fair has been plagued by mysterious deaths around them after Mary Shaws collection has returned from their graves and have come to seek revenge on people that killed her and their families. Far from the pall of their cursed hometown, newlyweds Jamie and Lisa Ashen thought they had established a fresh start, until Jamie's wife is grotesquely killed in their apartment.

Jamie returns to Ravens Fair for the funeral, intent on unraveling the mystery of Lisa's death. Once reunited with his ill father, Edward, and his father's new young bride, Ella, Jamie must dig into the town's bloody past to find out who killed his wife and why. All the while, he is doggedly pursued by a detective who doesn't believe a word he says. As he uncovers the legend of Mary Shaw, he will unlock the story of her curse and the truth behind the threat from a rhyme in his childhood: if you see Mary Shaw and scream, she'll take your tongue. And the last thing you will hear before you die...is your own voice speaking back to you. Written by Christopher Hernandez

The IMDb site here
The Wikpedia entry here
Ryan interviewed here

Vampires Go Evil In "Elevator Men"

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Elevator Men," a screenplay that takes an unfashionably unromanticized look at vampires, is being scooped up by Summit Entertainment.

The dark thriller, by former DreamWorks executive Marc Haimes, approaches human-vampire interactions from a different angle than such recent movies and series as Summit's "Twilight" and HBO's "True Blood."

"It's a reaction to all of these stories now -- TV shows and movies -- that play this kind of romantic, fantastical, sexy aspect of getting involved with monsters," Haimes said. "This is the dark, sinister version of what really happens when you decide you're going to get close to really bad things."

The creatures in the script -- which likely will change titles -- play diabolical mind games with people, including one that involves an elevator.

Haimes was an executive at DreamWorks for more than 13 years until the studio split from parent Paramount last year. While there, he developed such thrillers as "Collateral," "Red Eye" and "Disturbia," as well as "Hotel for Dogs" and "Transformers."

The creatures in the script -- which likely will change titles -- play diabolical mind games with people, including one that involves an elevator.

Haimes was an executive at DreamWorks for more than 13 years until the studio split from parent Paramount last year. While there, he developed such thrillers as "Collateral," "Red Eye" and "Disturbia," as well as "Hotel for Dogs" and "Transformers."

When Stars Twitter, a Ghost Writer May Be Lurking

Fascinating article from the New York Times

In its short history, Twitter has become an important marketing tool for celebrities, politicians, and businesses, promising a level of intimacy never before approached online. But in many cases, celebrities and their handlers have turned to outside writers -- ghost Twitterers, if you will.

The rapper 50 Cent is among the legion of stars who have recently embraced Twitter to reach fans who crave near-continuous access to their lives and thoughts. On March 1, he shared this insight with the more than 200,000 people who follow him: “My ambition leads me through a tunnel that never ends.”

Read on HERE

Vampire rumors spur alert at Boston Latin

This is hard news from the Boston Globe !

Boston Latin School headmaster Lynne Mooney Teta issued a notice to parents and students yesterday quashing rumors of vampires at the school. An odd move for the head of a historic elite preparatory school, but Teta and Boston public school officials declined to elaborate on what triggered the unusual message.

They did, however, adamantly offer assurances that no one at the school has been hurt, arrested - or bitten.

"The headmaster believes that the outrageous rumors had reached a point where she had to say something to families to ensure that all students felt safe and respected," said Chris Horan, School Department spokesman.

While the episode sounds like something out of "Twilight," last year's hit film about a high school girl who falls in love with a vampire, it may be closer to the movie "Mean Girls."

Read on

Baltimore Sun weighs in HERE

True Blood Music Video of the Day: Alone by Heart



Alone by Heart LYRICS

Thanks, Withering sage

True Blood Tourism : Spotlight 3 shines on vampires in Northwest Louisiana : ABC Shreveport

**Sorry, KTBS seems to have the video linked incorrectly I saw it once last night -keep trying back !

Vampires have become the rage these days on the big screen and on TV. "True Blood" has become HBOs latest hit series. It's based on the books written by Magnolia, Arkansas author Charlaine Harris. It all takes place in a fictional community near Shreveport. The series has put Shreveport on the radar of "True Blood" fans. Arlena Acree heads up Shreveport's film department. She says interest in the show has pumped new blood into the area's tourism industry. KTBS 3's Ed Walsh has more in this Spotlight 3 report.


http://www.ktbs.com/news/Spotlight-3-shines-on-vampires-in-Northwest-Louisiana-28631/#