Thursday, November 5, 2009

How you can help Fort Hood

Thanks LadyJane TX for suggesting this ....Please help if you can

Twelve people are dead and 31 are wounded after a horrific shooting Thursday at Fort Hood's soldier processing center. The slain gunman is Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a psychiatrist who was recently practicing at Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood and previously worked at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

If you're in Central Texas, you can donate blood to help the victims tomorrow, Friday, beginning at 8 a.m.:
Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas, has received 10 adult gunshot victims from Fort Hood, and is urgently seeking blood donations. Contact the hospital at 254-724-4376 and donate to the Scott & White Blood Center in Room 115 next to the McLane Dining Room. The hospital is located at:
2401 S. 31st St.
Temple, TX 76508

Follow the Scott & White Twitter account to stay updated on blood donation center needs.
The American Red Cross is working to ensure that there is enough blood supply to support the Fort Hood tragedy. The blood drive will continue at 8 a.m. on Friday next to the National Guard Armory:
4224 Cobbs Drive
Wacos, TX 76710

You can also check the Red Cross Safe and Well directory to see if loved ones are safe.
Burnt Orange Report has gathered a comprehensive list of Austin and Central Texas hospitals and centers accepting blood donations.

links at HUFF PO

Bubba comes out on Halloween -hide your cats


Who is this?
Anyone who has listened to my radio show or read my blog - knows this person...

Blood-Sucking Fiend Ian Somerhalder breathes new life into the undead on 'The Vampire Diaries.'

From Backstage

In prepping to audition for "The Vampire Diaries," Ian Somerhalder employed an unusual approach. "I found out about the meeting at 9 o'clock the night before, and I was in Vegas, a five-hour drive away from L.A.," he recalls. "I taped my sides together in the car and drove across the desert in the morning. That's how I worked on my script."

While this may not be the method most recommended by in-the-know acting coaches, it appears to have worked: Somerhalder nabbed the role of nefarious Damon Salvatore, a devilish bloodsucker who spends most of his time tormenting his younger, more earnest sibling (Paul Wesley). Somerhalder brings a wicked sense of fun to the role; with his well-timed smirks and smooth line delivery, he steals nearly every scene he's in. In a way, he makes it all too easy to root for the bad guy.

read on

True Blood: best characters, best lines? It's a vampire series - but for my money the best characters are non-bloodsuckers

from Guardian UK

There are many reasons to love the mighty True Blood and my colleague Grace Dent has already nailed many of them in this brilliant piece. But as the first season of the sexy vampire thriller reaches its midpoint on C4, giving those of us who devoured its premiere on FX and followed our blog another chance to relish it, it's interesting to reassess its best characters – and who gets the best lines.

My first thought was Tara, the stroppy but sensitive best friend of heroine Sookie Stackhouse, and she remains my vote, although I have wavered. Certainly none of the vampires has ever really staked a claim to the title. Bill Compton has revealed an undead-like passion and sensitivity, and is given to moments of torment that are almost human, but he is a bit of a bore for a bloodsucker, isn't he? Sookie, the telepathic waitress, has her feisty moments but she's really just there to hold the whole thing together - in Charlaine Harris's book, which inspired Alan Ball's adaptation, she is the narrator.

Sam Merlotte, the owner of Bon Temps' most jumping nightspot, gets interesting towards the ends of the series (I won't spoil it if you're watching for the first time on Channel 4), but he's not why you're recording the show. Ryan Kwanten, who plays Sookie's buff but dim-bulb brother Jason, is a joy: he shows a real commitment to providing weekly eye candy, and it's not easy to play stupid so winningly. ("First I get hauled in by the cops. Then I gotta let a dude drain my Johnson. That's a fuck of a day.") Nelsan Ellis plays the part of Lafayette, the swishy chef and V dealer, with gusto. The faceoff with a redneck customer in Merlotte's bar ("Who ordered the hamburger with Aids?") is probably his finest moment. I particularly like that he unclips his earrings like Alexis Colby before delivering the line, but keeps on what appears to a metallic silk showercap. He has more subtle moments too - the gentle eyeroll when an indignant Jason demands: "Do I look stupid?"

read on

Blood, sex and fears: the making of vampire mania

From ABC online

As vampire-mania heats up around the globe, there are two book series on our screens going head to head for everyone's attention - Twilight and True Blood.

We've always had a place for the sinister and sexy world of vampires, but it now seems to have reached a point of obsession.

Suburban mother-of-three Charlaine Harris is the unlikely author of the raunchy Sookie Stackhouse books about a telepathic waitress, which has spawned Alan Ball's award-winning TV series, True Blood (which screens on pay TV in Australia).

Set in the deep south, vampires announce their existence after the creation of a synthetic blood - True Blood - which means they (theoretically) don't have to feed on humans - or "fang bangers" - as those with a fetish for having sex with vampires are called.

read on

questions answered by Charlaine here

The Hook interviews Alan Ball

When Alan Ball wrote the satirical screenplay American Beauty, he didn't specifically mean it as a scathing commentary on suburban life.

"I happen to live in suburbia," Ball, 52, told the Hook recently. "And I like it."

His script dealt more with the zeitgeist of suburbia, and he intended his account of middle-class dad Lester Burnham's dissolution "to be an indictment of the shallowness of American values that [Americans] are basically conditioned from birth to accept as gospel," he explains.

"In that regard," he says, "I don't know if there is any more scathing indictment of American culture than American culture itself."

Ball's targets seem peculiarly ironic— but not illogical-- considering that his prior writing background was mainly in pure Americana: sitcoms. But his days of unrewarding toil on shows like Grace Under Fire soon ended: American Beauty won him the 1999 Academy Award for best original screenplay, among numerous other laurels.

read on
http://www.readthehook.com/stories/2009/11/05/FILM-alan-ball-A.aspx

Queen of Louisiana Charlaine Harris !



True Blood vampires and the explicit TV sucking the innocence out of our children

yow! Daily Mail Uk is very concerned

Any parent with a teenager will be painfully aware that for impressionable young TV viewers, there's nothing sexier than a vampire - and it's got nothing to do with Halloween.

Channel 4's latest attempt to seduce us with a mixture of swearing and sex comes in the form of True Blood, the latest in the long line of sexually explicit, violent and vulgar programmes that have, sadly, become the norm on British television.

True Blood is a shocking tale of depravity, explicit sexuality (bordering on pornography) and vile language.

Even before the opening credits have rolled in the first episode, we see a young woman pleasuring a young man while driving her car.

read on

True Blood Music Video of the Day: Forgotten people by the Thievery Corporation



Forgotten people by the Thievery Corporation

Thanks, AnullAlaniss