True Blood New Year's Resolutions

I will not send Sookie a note from Jessica that says "Bill says you are more annoying than me!"

I will not borrow clothes from Pam.

I will not taste Tru:blood

I will not cook Jason anything with eggplant in it.

I will not be patient waiting for the sun to go down

I will stop calling Detective Bellefleur by his first name.

I will stop calling Sam a "sick puppy".

Loving True Blood in Dallas book suggestion: The New Annotated Dracula

"Dracula" was not the first vampire novel, nor was it Bram Stoker's first book.

But after years of research, Stoker managed to craft the ultimate vampire novel, which has spawned countless movies, spinoffs, and books that follow the blueprint of the Transylvanian count. Eerie, horrifying and genuinely mysterious, this is a book that was crying out for the kind of loving annotation that "The New Annotated Dracula" graces it with.

First we have an eloquent introduction by dark fantasy master Neil Gaiman, which serves as the gateway to a longer, densely informative foreword by Leslie S. Klinger. Klinger does some pretty extensive exploration of the origins of vampire literature, the impact of the Dracula character, and his presence in mass media ever since Stoker whipped together this book. It's a nice, meaty intro to the story:

And on to that story: Real estate agent Jonathan Harker arrives in Transylvania, to arrange a London house sale to Count Dracula. But as the days go by, Harker witnesses increasingly horrific events, leading him to believe that Dracula is not actually human. His fiancee Mina arrives in Transylvania, and finds that he has been feverish. Meanwhile the count has vanished -- along with countless boxes filled with dirt.

And soon afterwards, strange things happen: a ship piloted by a dead man crashes on the shore, after a mysterious thing killed the crew. A lunatic talks about "Him" coming. And Mina's pal Lucy dies of mysterious blood loss, only to come back as an undead seductress. Dracula has arrived in England -- then the center of the Western world -- and intends to make it his own...

The entire text is reworked into columns, with EXTENSIVE footnoting off to each side -- Klinger loads the text down with literary interpretations, historical explanations, places, attitudes of the time, clarification (the old woman who gave Harker the rosary, says Klinger, was probably a Hungarian immigrant) and even a bit of nitpicking. At times it gets a bit long-winded, but for sheer volume of explanatory information those footnotes can't be beat. It's a big thick chunk of a book though, so not advises for casual walking-around reading.

"Dracula" is the grandaddy of Lestat and other elegantly alluring bloodsuckers, but that isn't the sole reason why this novel is a classic. It's also incredibly atmospheric, and very well-written. Not only is it very freaky, in an ornate Victorian style, but it is also full of restrained, quiet horror and creepy eroticism. What's more, it's shaped the portrayal of vampires in movies and books, even to this day.

Despite already knowing what's going on for the first half of the book, it's actually kind of creepy to see these people whose lives are being disrupted by Dracula, but don't know about vampires. It's a bit tempting to yell "It's a vampire, you idiots!" every now and then, but you can't really blame them. Then the second half kicks in, with accented professor Van Helsing taking our heroes on a quest to save Mina from Dracula.

And along the way, while our heroes try to figure stuff out, Stoker spins up all these creepy hints of Dracula's arrival. Though he wrote in the late 19th-century manner, very verbose and a bit stuffy, his skill shines through. The book is crammed with intense, evocative language, with moments like Dracula creeping down a wall, or the dead captain found tied to the wheel. Once read, they stick in your mind throughout the book.

It's also a credit to Stoker that he keeps his characters from seeming like idiots or freaks, which they could have easily seemed like. Instead, he puts little moments of humanity in them, like Van Helsing admitting that his wife is in an asylum. Even the letters and diaries are written in different styles; for example, Seward's is restrained and analytical, while Mina's is exuberant and bright.

Even Dracula himself is an overpowering presence despite his small amount of actual screen time, and not just as a vampire -- Stoker presents him as passionate, intense, malignant, and probably the smartest person in the entire book. If Van Helsing hadn't thwarted him, he probably would have taken over the world -- not the Victorian audience's ideal ending.

Intelligent, frightening and very well-written, "Dracula" is the well-deserved godfather of all modern vampire books and movies -- and "The New Annotated Dracula" is a worthy exploration of that book.

The Text of Dracula [Author's Preface, Chapters 1-27] - with copious annotations on each page [the text is `chopped' into columns with the notes to the side]
Appendix 1: "Dracula's Guest"
Appendix 2: The Dating of Dracula
Appendix 3: The Chronology of Dracula
Appendix 4: A Whitby Glossary
Part II : Considering the Count [examines fictional accounts, Dracula in academia, on stage and screen, his family tree, and friends] and finally Klinger provides a comprehensive bibliography and textual sources.

To further enhance this glorious work - besides the 1500 or so annotations , there are about 400 illustrations [B&W and full-color] of photographs, playbills, diagrams, maps, advertisements, pictures of cinematic stills etc.


Amazon here

True Blood Fan Art

by vegadawn ( i love this )

The scene where the DotGD logo is visible here :

Suggestions are being sought for HBO True Blood merchandise ..

Here are some bumper sticker or t-sirt ideas from the wiki-do you have ideas ?
what merchandise would you like to see for sale ?

"Yikes. Yahoo. Yum!" (Know this is from bk4"You're safe with me."
"Shut the eff up"
"What are you?"
"You are something more than human"
"Mainstreaming is for pussies"
"You should try it sometime. It's nice"
"You have vampire in your cleavage"
"If I still had feelings, I'd have the chills right about now.""
Yo, Mr. Mainstream
I'll always be able to feel you, I'll be able to find you fast.
Honey, if we can't kill people , what's the point in being a vampire?
Don't say Uh Oh, Vampires are not supposed to say Uh Oh.
I am a vampire and you are mortal
May I call on you sometime?
I think Merlotte's just got it's first Vampire.
Coffee. Sounds Delightful.
Oh, my stars.
Oh, no doubt.
Sookie is Mine
Aren't you afraid to be out here with a hungry vampire?
Who said anything about sex?
Whoo Hoo, I'm a Vampire.
So, who's good to eat around here?
You're something more than human.
What are you?
Oh Bill, won't you please come in.
I can bring you back to life.
You're in my vault.
Can you feel my influence?
I can smell the sunlight on your skin.
There are urgent matters to which I must attend.
I wanna do bad things with you.
Don't ever sneak up on a Vampire.
Bring it on Hookah
You look like Vampire Bait
It's Tuvan Throat singing.
We vampires are always in some kind of trouble. I'd prefer to be in it with you.
Do it. I want you to.
You ain't living unless you are crossing somebody's line
I am thirsty (with a pic of Trueblood)
If I remembered what feelings were, mine might be hurt.
True Blood...it keeps you alive but it will bore you to death.

New Sookie Stackhouse - first ever hardcover edition of Living Dead in Dallas to be released next week !!

Amazon’s list of “Popular Pre-Orders” is a good indicator of books that are “highly anticipated” (which is why we link to it, under “Books Coming Next Month,” to the right).

The current list is dominated by titles coming out in January and February, but at #9 is a book that won’t be out until May, Charlaine Harris’s 9th title in the Sookie Stackhouse series, Dead and Gone. Hennepin is one of the few libraries that has it on order. At this point, they are showing 83 holds on 16 copies.

On her Web site, Harris says she is not finished with the series and doesn’t know how many more there will be.

HBO’s True Blood series brought the books back to bestseller lists this year. The series was recently received two Golden Globe nominations, for best dramatic series and for best actress (Anna Paquin). True Blood will return for a second season this coming summer.

Dead and Gone (#9)

In Berkley Trade catalog, pgs 6&7

• Hardcover: $25.95; 336 pages
• Publisher: Ace Hardcover (May 5, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0441017150
• ISBN-13: 978-0441017157

The series began as original paperbacks, but started coming out in hardcover with #4 (Dead to the World).

Harris’s publisher is in the midst of reissuing the first three titles in hard cover.

Charlaine Harris

Dead until Dark (#1)

• Hardcover: $23.95; 320 pages
• Publisher: Ace Hardcover (January 2, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0441015972
• ISBN-13: 978-0441015979

Charlaine Harris

Living Dead in Dallas, #2

• Hardcover: $24.95; 304 pages
• Publisher: Ace Hardcover (January 6, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0441016731
• ISBN-13: 978-0441016730

Club Dead (#3 ) is scheduled for hardcover reprint in January 2010.

from http://www.earlyword.com/2008/12/30/new-sookie-stackhouse/

Sookie is a Fantasy Hero for 2008

I was glad to see Sookie listed in Oliver's Fantasy Hero Llist for 2008. I think she is more of a hero in the books than she is portrayed in the TV series

Sookie Stackhouse
The telepathic waitress is a simple young woman who occasionally does the gutsy thing. She saved a helpless vampire from human muggers, and sometimes helps out strangers with her unusual gift.

http://saintvladymir.blogspot.com/2008/12/fantasy-heroism-2008-heroes-big-small.html

Charlaine Harris talks about Alan Ball

Book Binge - Seven books in seven days

I thoroughly enjoyed Erv's shear pleasure at reading 7 sookie books in 7 days

An unfortunate side effect of grad school is that I have had zero spare time for reading. I mean, sure Ive got several hours a day to read papers, but I mean fun reading.

Well this past week I took a nice break from work/school/writing and I totally binged.

Seven books in seven days.

I read the entire Sookie Stackhouse box-set (still havent read the newest one), since I got drawn into the HBO series it was based on, True Blood (LUV ANNA PAQUIN!).

Holy crap you guys.

So good.

Sooooo friggen good!

They arent *just* vampire books-- theyre mystery novels that just happen to include vampires. And theyre good mysteries! Not the deus deux machina crap mysteries-- ones that actually give you clues the entire book so you can feel smart when you figure it out by yourself, or feel like an idiot when the clues dont make sense till the end. The resolution to 'Definitely Dead' was so unexpected had me literally ROFL it was so awesome.

Agh and the characters! Guys the vampires are mean. Theyre assholes! But they arent really even the 'bad guys'! The 'bad guys' are Christian Fundies, and they are so awful! Their actions in 'Living Dead in Dallas' had me shaking, and 'All Together Dead' had me sobbing. All the characters are wonderfully gray (are they good? are they bad? what are their motives??) except for the Fundies. heh.

Gawd I feel like a tick, Im so bloated on fun reading right now ;)

http://scienceblogs.com/erv/2008/12/book_binge.php

Best of New Orleans - 2008 Year In Review: High Notes

Louisiana musicians were at their best in 2008. Lil Wayne put Hollygrove on the map with he Recording Academy finally recognized Cajun and zydeco music with its own Grammy Award category and Preservation Hall started an excellent series of recordings on its own label. Below are some of the past year's standout moments.

Best apparently undead Louisiana artist: C.C. Adcock. The guitarist played in a vampire wedding band on an episode of the bayou-based vampire soap opera True Blood. It was unclear whether he was supposed to be a vampire or not, but he looked pretty sinister.

True Blood Music Video of the Day

"I want you to want me" by Cheap Trick

( sam and sookie video - nice )

Horror Happenings of 2008

LisaBee at Horror Happenings noticed vamps this year in her Horror Happenings of 2008 post

Moonlight was canceled, but vampires returned to TV on True Blood. After a slow start, the new HBO series picked up in a big way and became a perfect combination of horror, mystery, romance and small town soap opera. Plus, it's got a great cast of characters including Sam the shapeshifter, Sookie the telepath and her vampire lover Bill. When the first season ended last month, True Blood had developed into one of the best shows on television.

Vampires left their mark in the world of film, too. Twilight became a monster hit not only on the book shelves but also on the big screen. Although Stephenie Meyer’s series of young adult novels came to an unfortunate end with the poorly written Breaking Dawn, the film versions are just getting started. The first sequel New Moon is already in the works with a brand-new director attached and a release date set for next November.

Meanwhile, Let the Right One In proved to be not only the best horror film of the year, but one of the best films period. In fact, it topped David Ansen’s list in Newsweek.

read on here http://horrorhappenings.blogspot.com/2008/12/horror-happenings-in-2008.html

Review of Generation Kill Dvds

Alethialia does a great review of the Generation Kill Dvd set

But really. What was the point of asking for suggestions of DVD extras if they were only going to include promo materials they'd already made? And I know that people suggested more than this because the_grynne organized a list over at generation_kill. (We're fans; we know how to organize. And tell people what we want.)

- Round-table between Wright and the 1st Recon Marines (Got it, thankfully the full version)
- Director/writer/cast commentaries (Got 'em)
- Featurettes (Got 'em)
- Map of the route (Got it, though it's vastly inferior to the original, imo)
- Bloopers
- Behind the scenes of bootcamp (Not unless we count the brief section in the featurettes, I guess)
- Photo galleries
- Songs from an Iraqi Road Trip
- Glossary (Got it)
- Actors' screen tests
- Donation of a portion of proceeds to a Marine Corps charity
- Video on recon training
- Scripts

At the very least, I know I asked for the scripts (and yeah, I'm probably the only one who cared). Scripts are already done! They require zero extra effort!

Much like this DVD set, it seems.

Read on

http://community.livejournal.com/generation_kill/

Top 20 TV Moments Of 2008- True Blood

Io9list best TV moments of 2008-
This year the TV was jam-packed with climactic kisses, deaths and waffles. Here's our video roundup of our favorite moments, silly and serious, from 2008 TV.True Blood - How To Kill A Vampire - "Plaisir d'amour

Didn't know that the rule of "if you throw up, then I'm going to throw up" applies to vampires.

True Blood - Sad Dancing For Drugs - "Escape from Dragon House"

Sparked a whole revolution of sad underwear dancing.

Dallas is on Special Assignment Today ...

I will be posting some later .....
Clue:The Brown Pelican

~~~~

So was that too hard of a clue ?
If I had put this as a clue ( below) would you have know where I was on special assignment yesterday ?


Does this help ?

I think you will be like what I've brought back with me ...

True Blood New Year's Resolutions

I would not make Trublood Popsicle

I would not suggest silver for an anniversary gift

I would not set Jessica up on a date

I will not call Andy 'Detective Bellefluer' ...he really doesn't deserve the title.

I will not paint my toenails red.

I will not walk into Fangtasia with a bag full of empty vials and a syringe.

True Blood Music Video of the Day

Somewhere out there byOur Lady Peace

True Blood Music Video of the Day

Happy Endings by Mika- thanks ObjectDesire !

Send me your favorite TB Youtube video: truebloodindallas@gmail.com