Anna Paquin named as one of the Hottest On-Screen Comic Book Character from CBS sports ?

Following the success of Spider-Man in 2002, it was pretty obvious that fans of comic books were more than ready for their childhood heroes to appear on the silver screen.

Movies like X-Men, Iron Man and the newly released Watchmen, have millions of fan boys lining up for tickets and flooding internet message boards with "inside info" about the film.

At SPiN, we feel it's important to address the popularity of any such medium -- especially one with so many beautiful women.

Also being SPiN, it's important to address this month's biggest event. At CBSSports.com, home of March Madness, a bracket battle seems like a perfect match.

Therefore, we introduce Urbs' March Madness Bracket: Comic Book Hottie Edition.

In order to keep things from getting out of hand, we'll limit the field to eight.

Read on

http://www.cbssports.com/spin/story/11474692

Louisiana and our visit to Bon Temps was just wonderful !!!

We thoroughly enjoyed our day trip to North Western Louisiana. We visited many of the True Blood filming locations, some we had visited before and 3 new ones!

We went to the actual geographic location of Charlaine Harris's Bon Temps as well as the Alan Ball'S True Blood location...

If you follow me on Twitter, I am actually still there ( as "Dallas" role playing with the True Blood twitter gang) and staying at Sookie's house. When we got there late last night, we seemed to have disturbed Eric and Sookie's game of Scrabble. If you follow them on Twitter you know exactly what Scrabble is an euphemism for. :) When we felt like we were possibly disturbing them , we left and went to theBon Temp Sonic for milkshakes.

When we came back later, we were greeted by both Sookie and Eric. Eric was very gracious and even kissed us all on the cheek when we arrived. The ladies who accompanied me on the trip all swooned and vowed they would not wash that side of their faces in the morning.

We all spent the night @ SookieBonTemps house and the other girls headed back to Dallas this morning, I am staying to do some more interviews for the blog. We have more twitter goodies brewing, so stayed tuned to @trueblooddallas and @SookieBonTemps for more excitement.

Thanks (as always) to the wonderful ObjectDesire and our out-of-town guests this weekend
(who flew all the way in specially from North Carolina and Ohio) our friends from the HBO True Blood Fan Wiki, Arianwyn and Nocturnalnnc.

The weather was gorgeous, the company was so much fun and a great time was had by all...

More photos coming, as well as another one of Object Desire's hilarious road trip travelogues ...

If you don't twitter you need to ...I tweeted all along yesterday. You can set up a free twitter account here : http://twitter.com/

and find me here: http://twitter.com/trueblooddallas

(*note Sookie's house as it appears in True Blood is in California not in Bon Temps, LA but you can pretend ;D)

Louisiana Book News: Stackhouse releases paperback

Good new for Sookie Stackhouse lovers. The paperback version of From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris, the No. 8 book in the Southern Vampire Series and the literary origins of the HBO series True Blood, will be released in paperback at the end of March.
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Hot on its tail will be the hardback release of Dead and Gone, the ninth book of the series.

From Dead to Worse finds Sookie back in Bon Temps, Louisiana, after the terrorized attack on a vampire convention. The small town has its own problems, however, with a political split in the werewolf pack of Shreveport, the Louisiana vampires regrouping after Hurricane Katrina devastated the queen's home in New Orleans and an old and beautiful fairy with streaks of the frightening visiting Sookie. Jason, Sookie's brother, is up to his usual irresponsible antics, Sookie's boss Sam shifts into something besides a dog this time and another witch joins Sookie's roommate to add to the mix.

If this all sounds convoluted, you haven't read a Sookie Stackhouse book. Harris throws at this poor telepathic girl every paranormal being in mythology and fiction, placing us in her shoes and being equally astonished at what she sees, yet provides us with good laughs and endless entertaining suspense.

http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20090308/LIFESTYLE/903080325

HBO releases wonderful True Blood set photos!

We need to look carefully into some of these...
I can also tell you I was at Bill's house( the real one) yesterday...

Sheriff Bud Dearborn William Sanderson, The Actor, The Legend

** note and the second season begins airing in June!!

Catching up with an old friend is a popular thing to do. Recently, I caught up with actor William Sanderson, whom I am not only friends with, but a huge fan of his great career. Sanderson is unlike most stars in Hollywood. He’s a well-read, highly educated man who chose a career in acting after filling his life and mind with education and many amazing life experiences. That’s what makes him one of the best actors of all time. He’s filled with rich life experiences which he’s able to convey in his many varied roles over a long and distinguished career. One that, after decades, shows no signs of slowing down at all

His wife Sharon seems to be a grounding force in his life, which is probably why Bill is able to go from one incredible run on a series, like he did recently on “Deadwood,” to an amazing turn of a totally different type of show and character, which he now plays on HBO’s “True Blood.” That’s right, the man now is part of a vampire television series and he’s winning over critics and fans all over again. He seems incapable of getting anything in his career wrong. The prolific actor is the most versatile actor today.It requires a performer of tremendous ability to make an indelible impression in a supporting role, but actor William Sanderson has made a career out of creating characters who are seared in memory. From hit sitcoms to the hottest dramas on HBO, his work spans a wide variety of genres and styles in which he renders his often simple-minded, small-town characters with precision.

Currently Sanderson can be seen as Sheriff Bud Dearborne on the award-winning HBO series “True Blood,” created by Alan Ball, a part which critics say he performs as a “master of understated comic delivery.” The show’s award-winning first season will be released on DVD in May, and the second season begins airing in June. The role follows his three seasons as the skittery hotel proprietor E.B. Farnum on HBO’s epic “Deadwood,” which saw him starring opposite Ian McShane. Later this spring, Sanderson will also guest star in the blockbuster series “Lost,” playing a Hunter S. Thompson-type character. He can also be seen in the recently released DVD of the Emmy-Award winning 1997 miniseries “George Wallace,” sharing the screen with no less than Gary Sinise and Angelina Jolie.

Read on Canyon News

The 2009 Vampire Film Series & Festival returns home. New Orleans - Autumn 2009

Home is Where the HEART Is... The 2009 Vampire Film Series & Festival

Welcome to the official site of Vampire Film Series & Festival, an international film festival dedicated to advancing the vampire film genre and vampire culture.

Vampire movies have been part of the movie going experience since the era of Nickelodeons and the earliest days of silent films. From Nosferatu to the current Twilight series, vampire movies have an enduring place in popular culture that is as timeless as the vampire itself.

Whether the allure for generations of movie goers with the vampire is based on the universal fear of death or a sexual fascination with these suave creatures of the night, the vampire continues to be a dominant character on both the small and large screen. Great vampire films are immortal and like the vampire itself, will never die.

Our first two festivals were in the City of Angels, Los Angeles, but now Vampire Film Festival returns home to New Orleans and takes place this autumn in the city most attached to the American vampire myth, New Orleans, Louisiana.

New Orleans and all those those who love this magnificent city have suffered greatly. The producers of Vampire Film Festival have made it our mission to help rebuild this magical city, educate the world about vampire culture and present a movie experience with a real bite.

http://www.vampirefilmfestival.com/Home.html

True Blood Music Video of the Day: Behind Blue Eyes by The Who

Behind blue eyes ( originally ) by The Who LYRICS

OK --correction: Oh goodness, you guys really keep me honest. Thanks Lou

OK, it's "Behind Blue Eyes" written by Pete Townshend of The Who for his Lifehouse project. It first appeared on The Who's 1971 Who's Next album.

This version is by the band Limp Bizkit."Behind Blue Eyes" is covered by Limp Bizkit on their album Results May Vary, released in 2003. The song was released for the film Gothika starring Halle Berry.

OK, here is live The Who in 1979- you tell me which is the best version!

You know you've watched too much True Blood when...

You start calling all your friends "hooker!" and go about wondering if so and so has a demon...

You sign up and post on a message board for the first time in your life just so you can communicate with other people who are as obsessed as you are. ( dedicated today to new friends)

...someone at work points out that you dropped some of your lunch on your sweater, you immediately breathe a sigh of relief that it's veggie soup and not vampire in your cleavage.

...you consider getting a Wii just to see if you can beat Bill's score.

Please post yours....

Blood Copy Volume 3: A Vampire named Sampson

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 ( June 23 2008)

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

Dallas is on special assignment today..

I will be on special assignment today in, as Malcolm would say, " the Great State of Loozianna " ( Louisiana)

I will be twittering and you can follow my tweets below (on the right) in the black box or here:

http://twitter.com/trueblooddallas


Dallasis accompanied by ObjectDesire, Arianwyn and Nocturnalnnc ....

We will be staying the night in Bon Temps with @SookieBonTemps and there should be some twitter fun to follow ..http://twitter.com/SookieBonTemps

What? They've finally dug up a vampire?

Oh, what would Buffy say to this? They've finally dug up a vampire.

A skeleton of a woman with a substantial brick wedged between her jaws has been exhumed by Italian scientists.

Matteo Borrini of the University of Florence came across this sad and lonely woman when he was digging up plague victims on the island of Lazzaretto Nuovo in Venice. The woman probably died in the Middle Ages, a time when it was believed that 'vampires' were the actual cause of the plague.

These so-called vampires did not sup on the blood of their fellow man and woman. They spread disease by gnawing at their shrouds after dying. The brick in the mouth was invented to create something of a disincentive.

Many scientists believe that the vampire myth came to life because blood emerges from the mouths of dead people. This blood causes the corpse's shroud to dip and tear.

Dr. Borrini unveiled his 'vampire' at a meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in Denver last week. He made the bold claim that this could be the first vampire ever examined so intimately.

However, Professor Peer Moore-Jansen of Wichita State University in Kansas seems ready to bite Dr. Borrini's head off. Or at least to take a chunk out of his neck. He insists he has found similar vampires in Poland (I have lived there and I find his claim to be entirely plausible).

Ah, countered Dr. Borrini, but this is the first time we have seen "exorcism evidence against vampires."

So there we have it. I blame the early Van Helsing family myself. I believe they performed a large number of these mouth-brickings for many centuries before they decided that a stake through the heart was far more commercial.
Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126985.200-vampire-discovered-in-mass-grave.html

'Escape from the Dragon House' the title song for True Blood Season One Episode Four

I recently did a Season 2 Spoiler show for my Blogtalk radio show, where we looked at what we might know about the upcoming episode by examining the title song for that episode.

I can't tell you how many emails I received from folks saying they felt so stupid for not realizing that the True Blood episodes were named for songs. It's OK but I thought it might be a good idea to look back at the song, the artist and the lyrics for each of last season's episode title songs.

So let's look back to Season 1, Ep 4: Escape From Dragon House Aired: 9/28/2008.

Escape from the Dragon House is a song featured on an album of the same name by the band, Dengue Fever.

Dengue Fever is a six-member band from Los Angeles who combine Cambodian pop music and lyrics with psychedelic rock. They were formed in 2001 by Ethan Holtzman and his brother Zac after Ethan was inspired by a trip to Cambodia. As Ethan and Zac were searching for a vocalist to sing in Khmer, lead singer Chhom Nimol was discovered in a nightclub in Little Phnom Penh area of Long Beach. She was already a well-known karaoke singer from Cambodia, but decided to move to US after visiting her sister, and thought it was a good chance to make more money to send to her family back home. [1] Zac performs vocals and guitar, while Ethan plays the Farfisa organ. Rounding out the band are bassist Senon Williams (who also plays in Radar Bros), drummer Paul Smith, and David Ralicke on brass.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dengue_Fever_(band)

http://www.myspace.com/denguefevermusic

The scene from True Blood where we hear Dengue Fever

Pretty cool to see them performing live another song from the same album “ Escape from the Dragon house”

True Blood Music Video of the Day: Chosen Family by Loena Maess

Chosen family by Leona Naess LYRICS
Thanks Thellou

Armed to the teeth- True Blood review from the Sydney Herald

March 7, 2009

A daring, sexy import shows up the flaws in a home-grown drama, writes Ruth Ritchie.

Sexual tension … Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer star in True Blood.

THERE'S something reassuring about the black-and-white glow, the dissonant static hum of the HBO logo. It mostly heralds great things, or at least bold things. Sadly, that buzzing logo appears less on free-to-air television than it did in the early days of Sex And The City, The Sopranos and Six Feet Under.

So non-payers may wince at the mention of Alan Ball's (SFU) recent thrilling offering to the pigs who devour Showcase. True Blood is a witty, sexy, smartly written vampire show for people who really don't like vampire shows.

Set in Louisiana, in the modern parallel universe where Japanese synthetic blood has made it possible for vamps to "come out of the coffin", we are asked to see them as just another misunderstood, much-maligned minority. In this post-September 11, fear-fuelled society, True Blood's vampires are Muslims, homosexuals wanting to marry, or women running for president. They are a curiosity likely to divide a community.

This is yet another wonderful US production peopled by foreigners, including New Zealand's Anna Paquin (Golden Globe winner this year for her role here as Sookie Stackhouse), Britain's Stephen Moyer (hot as Bill Compton, with or without the fangs) and our very own Ryan Kwanten, a long way from Summer Bay, with a torso cut like GI Joe's.

There's plenty of sex and humour to break up the blood and, well, blood. Tiny details are perfection: we only glimpse in a wide shot a newspaper headline reading "Angelina Adopts Baby Vampire". Mostly we have the taut, believable sexual tension between telepathic Sookie and dead-since-the-Civil War Bill. Sookie finds Bill sexy, not just because he prowls like an alley cat but because he is the one person upon whose thoughts she cannot eavesdrop. I get that we all know what men are thinking all the time but to actively seek out the company of one who cannot be understood … well, that probably is fairly sexy.

I presumed this was teen fodder and then sat through four episodes in one session. True Blood is nearly as unpredictable as it is entertaining.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/tv--radio/armed-to-the-teeth/2009/03/06/1235842638130.html

Charlaine Harris's books: Pre -Order the next three today!

These are the next three Charlaine Harris ' book you can ore- order today!

Dead and Gone : Book 9 of the Sookie Stackhouse series Pre Order

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Ace Hardcover (May 5, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441017150
• ISBN-13: 978-0441017157
  

Strange Brew : Short story anthology Pre Order

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (July 7, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312383363
• ISBN-13: 978-0312383367

Charlaine on her blog, describedit as Pat Elrod's witch anthology. Short story collection about witches and witchcraft.STRANGE BREW, a witchly urban fantasy anthology with nine new stories by Jim Butcher, Charlaine Harris, Patricia Briggs, Karen Chance and others,

Must Love Hellhounds : SciFi novella Pre Order

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade (September 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425229599
• ISBN-13: 978-0425229590

Charlaine has said this one will contain a science fiction novella based on the Britlingens. "I've already written a novella that's a sort of spinoff from the Sookie series, about the two female bodyguards that appear in All Together Dead . It'll appear in a three-in-one book called Must Love Hellhounds"

Sookie Stackhouse loves Car Talk and listens on Red River Radio, the local Public Radio Station

Yes, everyone got it right, it was Sookie who loves listening to Click and Clack on Car Talk radio.

What's also interesting to note is that she listens on Red River Radio which is REALLY the public radio station for the Bon Temps area. In Shreveport area, Sookie's radio is tuned to 89.9 FM.






From Book 6 -Definitely Dead

The birds were tweeting and chirping, the bugs were buzzing, and the pollen-heavy air was full of peace as if it were yet another plant emission. I was sitting on the front porch in my pink robe, sipping my coffee, listening to Car Talk on Red River Radio, and feeling really good, when a little Dodge Dart chugged up my driveway. I didn't recognize the car, but I did recognize the driver. All my peacefulness vanished in a puff of suspicion. Now that I knew about the proximity of a new Fellowship conclave, Tanya's inquisitive presence seemed even more suspicious. I was not happy to see her at my home.

Common courtesy forbade me from warning her off, with no more provocation than I'd had, but I wasn't giving her any welcoming smile when I lowered my feet to the porch and stood.
"Good morning, Sookie!" she called as she got out of her car.
"Tanya," I said, just to acknowledge the greeting.

Thanks TES , Rita, Naomi, Tracie.

The Red River Radio Network is a community-supported service of LSU-Shreveport and is the non-commercial source for NPR News, classical music, and more for East Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and parts of Mississippi
Support it HERE

New Charlaine Harris anthology Cover Art released - "Must Love Hellhounds" Anthology

Our friends at SciFiGuy.ca posted the cover art for Must love Hellhounds and gives us a shout out...

Cover Art - "Must Love Hellhounds" Anthology

Ilona Andrews posted on her blog this shiny new cover for Must Love Hellhounds featuring novellas by of course Ilona Andrews, Charlaine Harris , Nalini Singh and Meljean Brook. Due in the bookstores September 1, 2009.

At the Loving True Blood in Dallas blog they had this bit of news about the Charlaine Harris piece.

Charlaine has said this one will contain a science fiction novella based on the Britlingens.

"I've already written a novella that's a sort of spinoff from the Sookie series, about the two female bodyguards that appear in All Together Dead . It'll appear in a three-in-one book called Must Love Hellhounds"

Ilona Andrews had this to say abour her entry - "The novella Magic Mourns features Andrea and a big ass hell dog."

Meljean Brook had this on her story Blind Spot -

The job was simple: find her boss’s niece, bring her home safely, and hand out a whole lot of pain to whoever had abducted her. But Maggie hadn’t counted on her boss’s nephew, the hellhound who loved to make her life difficult, or her own past rearing its complicated and ugly head.

Nalini Singh's novella is titled Angels' Judgment.

http://www.scifiguy.ca/2009/03/cover-art-must-love-hellhounds.html