Wednesday, April 1, 2009

True Blood behind the scenes : Bill and Jessica sample True Blood


OK , Here's an interesting tidbit with the photos

Here is that photo of Bill and Jessica and what caught my eye was that goblet on the table ....
then I remember those set photos we got last month






see below ...

Good catch, Dallas !
That would be a shot for this set ....







Sookie Stackhouse book's dedications, acknowledgments and prologues for Book 8 From Dead to Worse


DEDICATION

Though she can’t walk or see quite as well as she used to, my mother, Jean Harris, remains the most complete person I have ever met. She’s been the bulwark of my existence, the foundation I was built on, and the best mother a woman could have.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A tip of the hat to Anastasia Luettecke, who was a perfectionist in supplying me with Octavia’s Latin. And thanks to Murv Sellars for being the go between. As always, I owe a great debt of thanks to Toni L. P. Kelner and Dana Cameron for their valuable comments and the gift of their time. My one and only minion, Debi Murray, assisted me with her encyclopedic knowledge of the Sookie universe. The group of enthusiastic readers known as Charlaine’s Charlatans gave me moral (and morale) support, and I hope this book will serve as their reward.

~~~~~~
(I would cal this a prologue but it isn't called one in the book )
If this was The Lord of the Rings and I had a smart British voice like Cate Blanchett, I could tell you the background of the events of that fall in a really suspenseful way. And you’d be straining to hear the rest. But what happened in my little corner of northwest Louisiana wasn’t an epic story. The vampire war was more of the nature of a small-country takeover, and the Were war was like a border skirmish. Even in the annals of supernatural America—I guess they exist somewhere—they were minor chapters . . . unless you were actively involved in the takeovers and skirmishes.

Then they became pretty damn major.
And everything was due to Katrina, the disaster that just kept on spreading Before Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana had a flourishing vampire community.In fact, the vampire population of New Orleans had burgeoned, making it the place to go if you wanted to see vampires; and lots of Americans did.The undead jazz clubs, featuring musicians no one had seen playing in public in decades, were special draws. Vamp strip clubs, vamp psychics,vamp sex acts; secret and not-so-secret places where you could get bitten and have an orgasm on the spot: all this was available in southern Louisiana.

In the northern part of the state . . . not so much. I live in the northern part in a small town called Bon Temps. But even in my area, where vamps are relatively thin on the ground, the undead were making economic and social strides.All in all, vampire business in the Pelican State was booming. But then came the death of the King of Arkansas while his wife, the Queen of Louisiana, was entertaining him soon after their wedding. Since the corpse vanished and all the witnesses— except me—were supernaturals, humanlaw took no notice. But the other vampires did, and the queen, Sophie-Anne Leclerq, landed in a very dicey legal position. Then came Katrina,which wiped out the financial base of Sophie-Anne’s empire. Still, the queen was floundering back from those disasters, when another one followed hard on their heels. Sophie-Anne and some of her strongest adherents—and me, Sookie Stackhouse, telepath and human—were caught in a terrible explosion in Rhodes, the destruction of the vampire
hotel called the Pyramid of Gizeh. A splinter group of the Fellowship of theSun claimed responsibility, and while the leaders of that anti-vampire“church” decried the hate crime, everyone knew that the Fellowship washardly agonizing over those who were terribly wounded in the blast, much less over the (finally, absolutely) dead vampires or the humans who served
them.

Sophie-Anne lost her legs, several members of her entourage, and herdearest companion. Her life was saved by her half-demon lawyer, Mr.Cataliades. But her recuperation time was going to be lengthy, and shewas in a position of terrible vulnerability.What part did I play in all this?
I’d helped save lives after the pyramid went down, and I was terrified I was now on the radar of people who might want me to spend my time in their service, using my telepathy for their purposes. Some of those purposes were good, and I wouldn’t mind lending a hand in rescue services from time to time, but I wanted to keep my life to myself. I was alive; my boyfriend,
Quinn, was alive; and the vampires most important to me had survived, too.As far as the troubles Sophie-Anne faced, the political consequences of the attack and the fact that supernatural groups were circling the weakened state of Louisiana like hyenas around a dying gazelle ... I didn’t think about it at all.

I had other stuff on my mind, personal stuff. I’m not used to thinking much further than the end of my fingertips; that’s my only excuse. Not only was I not thinking about the vampire situation, there was another supernatural situation I didn’t ponder that turned out to be just as crucial to my future.Close to Bon Temps, in Shreveport, there’s a Were pack whose ranks are
swollen by the men and women from Barksdale Air Force Base. During the past year, this Were pack had become sharply divided between two factions. I’d learned in American History what Abraham Lincoln, quoting the Bible, had to say about houses divided.
To assume that these two situations would work themselves out, to fail toforesee that their resolution would involve me, well ... that was where I wasalmost fatally blind. I’m telepathic, not psychic. Vampire minds are bigrelaxing blanks to me. Weres are difficult to read, though not impossible.That’s my only excuse for being unaware of the trouble brewing all around
me.

What was I so busy thinking about? Weddings—and my missing boyfriend.

True Blood Hair Afair : What up with Eric's hair ?



Gimme head with hair
Long beautiful hair
Shining, gleaming,
Streaming, flaxen, waxen

Give me down to there hair
Shoulder length or longer
Here baby, there mama
Everywhere daddy daddy

Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair
Flow it, show it
Long as God can grow it
My hair





This image from the recent leaked Season 2 photographs ( you can see them all here ) has caused quite a stir ...

I guess I don't really get it, as it looks like to me that Alex's hair is just pulled back here as it's growing out.
We had quite a roller coaster ride with Alex's hair last season, we had some great episodes where he had his own hair and then we had some episode when he was wearing a not very becoming wig...

I think he had to cut his hair for other roles and just couldn't grow it back in time for the Eric role. This season of TB hopefully he will have his own hair.

However in Charlaine's vampire lore, a vampire looks like he looked when he is turned from a human into a vampire. So, once they set Eric's hair length in Season 1, he should look the same way throughout the run of the series.

See natural hair, below left and right wig...









Hello. My name is Daisy, and I'm a vampoholic.

hahahha great and funny post from Dreaming up Daisy

You see this lady. She looks innocent. Sweet. Grandmotherly. Right?

Well BEWARE!!! She's a smack-pusher. A tease. And I gladly shell out $3-$6.99 for her junk (depending whether I can find it at the used bookstore or not).

For those of you who don't know her face, this is Charlaine Harris, author of the Southern Vampire Mysteries, aka Sookie Stackhouse Series, aka the books on which the HBO show True Blood was based.

I started out watching the show, as I am a lover of most things vampire: The Lost Boys, Buffy, Angel, and even Saturday the 14th. I say "most" because I still can't force myself to read the Twilight series, as my well-trusted book friends tell me that *I* personally would not enjoy the book due to the poor writing style of the author. I trust those friends (and Stephen King). But this blog isn't about Twilight, it's about Ms. Harris.

Read on here

Vanity Plates seen in Bon Temp

Vanity Plates for Eric ..Ideas for more ?












GRCSPLNT

MAN UP

LMEBYTU

YIELD2ME

2ORGWEGO

VKNGLUV

New Orleans and Sookie Stackhouse: Hadley's apartment

Sookie's main connection in the books to New Orleans happens because the death of her cousin Hadley. Hadley as it turns out had become a vampire and was romantically involved with Queen Sophie Anne at he time of her final death.

Sookie travels to New Orleans in the book, Definitely Dead to close out Hadley's apartment after she learns of her death and goes to settle the estate.

In yet another one of the many charming mistakes in the Sookie books, we get 2 different stories about Sookie's previous visits to New Orleans.

In Club Dead , Book Three: Sookie visits with family as a young girl.

The newer tourists were the ones who wanted to rub elbows with the undead; patronize a vampire bar, visit a vampire prostitute, watch a vampire sex show. This was what I'd heard; I hadn't been to New Orleans since I was little. My mother and father had taken my brother, Jason, and me. That would have been before I was seven, because that's when they died.Mama and Daddy died nearly twenty years before vampires had appeared on network television to announce the fact that they were actually present among us, an announcement that had followed on the Japanese development of synthetic blood that actually maintained a vampire's life without the necessity of drinking from humans.

In Definitely Dead, Book Six: Sookie visits in high school and says it's her first and only visit to New Orleans.

It was raining, and it was four in the morning. I wondered if there was an IHOP anywhere nearby. I'd been to one, once. It had been wonderful. That had been on my only previous trip to New Orleans, when I'd been in high school. We'd been to the aquarium and the slave museum and the church on Jackson Square, the St. Louis Cathedral. It had been wonderful to see something new, to think about all the people who had passed through the same area, what they must have looked like in the clothes of their time.

While we were recently in New Orleans, we took some walks in the French Quarter to try to find some of the locations Sookie might have visited in the books. We took some of the location descriptions from the book and just for fun tried to find something in real life that is similar.

The first thing was to find a home that was close to what Charlaine describes as Amelia and Hadley's duplex in NOLA.

From Definitely Dead

We were on a quiet residential street when the limousine pulled to a curb and stopped.
"Your cousin's apartment," Mr. Cataliades said as Diantha opened the door.

I was facing a six-foot wall with an opening for the driveway. It was hard to tell, in the uncertain glow of a streetlight, what lay within, but it seemed to be a small courtyard with a very tight circular drive. In the middle of the drive was an explosion of greenery, though I couldn't discern the individual plants. In the right front corner was a tool shed. There was a two-story building forming an L. To take advantage of the depth of the lot, the building was oriented with the L inverted. Right next door was a similar building, at least as far as I could tell. Hadley's was painted white, with dark green shutters....

There was a broad roofed gallery running below the windows and doors of the second floor, which would provide shade for people sitting inside on the ground floor.

We also believe that the apartment is located in the French Quarter as Sookie says she can hear jazz music from Bourbon Street and she say's it is located on Chloe Street.

Now the style , design and description is JUST exactly right for the more residential streets of the Quarter, the one thing that was a problem was finding a house with a courtyard big enough for a circular drive, above you'll see a photo of one of my favorite or all the homes we saw and very close to the description.

Now, there is no Chloe street in the French Quarter but there is a Conti street and matter of fact the house in this picture is located newar Conti and Burgundy street.

I'll have a few more New Orleans sites for you later this week.

True Blood behind the scenes: Host of Fangphile Stephanie McVay

Do you remember the TV show that Eddie ( Lafayette's vampire boyfriend) is watching on TV in Episode 8? The show was called Fangphiles and had that great lady host ? I loved her right away and that "Dark shadow-esque" studio she sitting in -ha!

The host was played by the actress, Stephanie McVay.

The show is on the Vampire TV network She is listed as vampire talk show host in the credits. She is a human who loves vampires and doesn't care much for the the Fellowship of the Sun. It's great to know that vampires even have their own cable channel.

You can find out more about McVay :
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0574668/

http://resumes.actorsaccess.com/320567-756263

She is presently starring in the play , Mending fences in San Francisco.

Bio: Stephanie is thrilled to be again on the B Street Theatre stage after her roles as Toots in Hear the Grass Grow, Maryjohnny Rafferty in A Skull In Connemara and as Sister Elizabeth in The Book of Liz. Previously she was seen in Juno and the Paycock, and has had the pleasure of performing in several other B Street Theatre productions: The Underpants, Canterville
Ghost, Red Herring and Wonderful World.

Since moving to Los Angeles in 2005, she has landed two great agents and is auditioning for great projects. In the meantime, she just wrapped the indie film "Say Hello to Stan Talmadge" starring Gary Cole and Jennifer Coolidge. "Passions," the soap opera, was her Los Angeles debut in television. Stephanie can be seen in HBO's "True Blood," ABC's "Greek," and "In the Motherhood" with Jenny McCarthy. This fall she will be part of Todd Stephen's film "Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild," the sequel to "Another Gay Movie" in which she will play Bonnie, the Mom.

You can see her in this clip ( 7:30)

Blood Copy Volume 5: Tru Blood Throughout the World

We are revisiting the Blood Copy videos which were part of the HBO true Blood viral marketing campaign that helped introduce the True Blood television series in the summer of 2008. We will be doing a radio show on this topic soon.
Previously we have see the mysterious packages were being received, the gatekeeper awakened on a mysterious website, .... HERE

The blog and videos not only were a marketing ploy but they also served as a prologue to the series ...

Here is the blog entry for that time period HERE ( July 6, 2008)

It's great to watch these videos but you also must read the blog entry for that day

All Fools' Day

April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day, although not a holiday in its own right, is a notable day celebrated in many countries on April 1. The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, family members, enemies, and neighbours, or sending them on fool's errand, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible. Traditionally, in some countries, the jokes only last until noon: like UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa, someone who plays a trick after noon is called an "April Fool". Elsewhere, such as in Ireland, France, and the USA, the jokes last all day.

The origin of April Fools' Day is obscure. One likely theory is that the modern holiday was first celebrated soon after the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar; the term referred to someone still adhering to the Julian Calendar, which it replaced.In many pre-Christian cultures May Day (May 1) was celebrated as the first day of summer, and signalled the start of the spring planting season. An April Fool was someone who did this prematurely. Another origin is that April 1 was counted the first day of the year in France. When King Charles IX changed that to January 1, some people stayed with April 1. Those who did were called "April Fools" and were taunted by their neighbors.In the eighteenth century the festival was often posited as going back to the times of Noah. An English newspaper article published on April 13th, 1789 said that the day had its origins when he sent the raven off too early, before the waters had receded. He did this on the first day of the Hebrew month that corresponds with April. A possible reference to April Fools' Day can be seen in the Canterbury Tales (ca 1400) in the Nun's Priest's tale, a tale of two fools: Chanticleer and the fox, which took place on March 32nd. Wikipedia

The Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of All Time

True Blood Music Video of the Day: Find your way back home by Dishwalla



Find your way back home by Dishwalla LYRICS

Thanks, Lovins24