Baby, you can drive my car (4)

Who drives this car ?

Anyone know model or year ?

A Review: Dead as a Doornail - Charlaine Harris

What a nice review of book five, Dead as a Doornail by Bela Lee at Life as a Convicted Bibliophile blog and she has reviewed other Sookie Stackhouse books !

Dead as a Doornail is the fifth installment in the fantastic "Southern Vampire Mystery" series by Charlaine Harris.

After participating in the Witch War Sookie tries to settle down into her normal life, but it seems the vampires, weres and shifters have other ideas. While Sookie waits to see if her brother turns into a were-panther as the full moon approaches, she also has to deal with a sniper that seems to be attacking the shifters of Bon Temps.

I particularly enjoyed this one. There is a lot of action to be fitted within the pages of Dead as a Doornail. Just when you think the action is over, there is something else to cause some danger in Sookie's life.

More than the action, what is most interesting is the changing relationships in Sookie's life. Her close relationship with Alcide changes when more details surrounding his ex-girlfriend, Debbie Pelt's disappearance arise. Calvin, the were-panther, and Sookie become closer as a result of the sniper attacks. Thing seem to be heating up between Sookie and her boss, Sam. And, there is a new supernatural on the scene, the mysterious Quinn. Then there is of course Eric and Bill, our favourite vampires. It seems a lot for one telepath waitress to handle at one time.

This one is one of my favourites in the series. There is definitely a turning point for Sookie, as she tries to take on more than she can handle. I have to give a lot of credit to Charlaine Harris, who keeps this series alive with interesting plots and even more interesting characters.

One of her best, yet!

http://convicted-bibliophile.blogspot.com/2008/12/review-dead-as-doornail-charlaine.html

"True Blood" od lutego w HBO Polska - True Blood HBO Poland

We love True Blood international stuff and HBO Poland announces that True Blood will begin airing in Poland in Febrary 2009.


Już w lutym 2009 roku w HBO Polska zadebiutuje nowy serial "True Blood".

Serial opowiada historię Sookie Stackhouse, barmanki żyjącej w Louisianie, która potrafi czytać w ludzkich myślach. Jej życie ulega zmianie, gdy w barze, w którym pracuje, pojawia się wampir Bill

http://www.filmweb.pl/%22True+Blood%22+od+lutego+na+HBO+Polska,News,id=48414

BookSprouts, A Social Network For Book Worms And Clubs

I don't think there is a Sookie book club yet...

http://www.booksprouts.com/

Reading books is usually a solitary experience, but it triggers social activity as well, as the ongoing success of real-life book clubs shows. BookSprouts is a fairly new online community dedicated to book readers who love discussing books over a nice cup of virtual coffee. The social network is designed to make it easy to start an online book club, discuss books with other individuals, organize meetings and write up reviews.

First of all: the website looks and feels great. Signing up was quick and easy, and the lay-out of the website as well as the copy all make it very clear what to do after you’ve registered. There’s a powerful search behind the community layer so it’s very easy to add books you’ve read, or books you haven’t read yet but would like to. Creating and joining a book club on BookSprouts is done in a heartbeat, and you can look for book clubs by book (surprise!), subject, author, or geographic location. Based on the search results, the social network currently counts about 275 virtual book clubs, but some of them are invite-only.

BookSprouts faces the same hurdle most online community websites do when they launch: the inevitable ‘chicken and egg’ problem. I added a couple of books I read to my virtual bookshelf, but none were being discussed in any book clubs, nor were there any reviews. That means there’s not much social about this particular network for me so far. I could start my own book club of course and recruit members from the site or my own friends, and start writing reviews like crazy, but we all know only a small percentage of users actually gets around to being an active creator on these types of services, so only time will tell if BookSprouts can turn enough visitors into online book club ‘leaders’.

I also don’t see the business model behind BookSprouts. You have to dig very hard to find ads on the site and users don’t get charged for anything. What I see are affiliate links for buying books you’ve added to your profile on Amazon or AbeBooks (which recently became part of the Amazon family), but that seems rather pointless as I’m likely to already own books I’m declaring myself a fan of.

BookSprouts will find itself competing with Shelfari (recently acquired by Amazon) and the AbeBooks-backed LibraryThing, both of which are social networks centered around books.

From Techcrunch

The only Southern Vampire Mysteries book/story I havent read ..

I must admit I'm a bit obsessed with reading it - if you have a copy you'd loan me I would appreciate it !

'Dancer's in the Dark' published in 2004 in the anthology, Nights Edge

The collection standout, is Charlaine Harris's Dancers in the Dark. Set in the same universe as her Southern Vampire Mysteries series, Dancers focuses on Rue May, a young college student whose financial circumstances force her to apply for a job with the Blue Moon dancers -- a dance troupe whose members partner up in human/vampire couples, and culminate each performance in "the bite." When Rue's abusive past comes back to haunt her, she's finally in good company.

truebloodindallas@gmail.com

isbn 0373770103
Published :HQN

HBO store additional 20% off sale stuff

that means 50% + off on Generation Kill stuff
Hats $7
Mugs $5
Aluminum water $8

Here

True Blood New Year's Resolutions (2)

I will not tell Tara "if it seems too good to be true, it usually is"
I will not ask Eric if I can sit on his lap.
I will not try to set up Arlene with anyone.
I will not ask Bill who he fed on after the 'sun'.


Please send me your True Blood New Year's Resolution:
truebloodindallas@gmail.com

Thanks to everyone for their creativity!

True Blood Music Video of the Day

Snake in the grass by Vallejo

Vampires. Again

Patinagreen writes about one of the favorite fan topics of discussion : The Sookieverse on screen and in the pages.

Book to Film? Book to TV Series? Movie to TV Series? Adaptation has been on my mind lately.

I just read the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris. The first thing I thought? This author is *country*. I say that with all of the admiration, amusement, and pride(ish?) of living in a Southern US state for most of my life. There are incredible metaphors and imagery in that book and the country-flavored ones are the most delightful. The second thing I thought? The TV Show is better. This is when I paused. When - When!? is the media version better than the written? Hardly ever, that's when.

LJ's homepage and writer's block question is all a-flutter with Twilight talk. (Well, so was USA Today for that matter) The writer's block question was about the translation of the book to the movie. I think I would say that 9 times out of 10 I prefer the book for the experience of the story but I'm a huge fan of media in all its forms so I never automatically hate the movie. Life's too short to be a hater. (However, after seeing "The Seeker" I wished, not for the first time in my life, that I could unsee things.)

Back to True Blood and the Sookie Stackhouse novels - how exactly is the book less enjoyable than the series? I've only read the first but it seems pretty clear that there are aspects of atmosphere and moment building that Charlaine Harris just doesn't (consistently) care for. I don't know how many times I read a scene and thought "oooh! Slow down lady! That part is good. Tell me more...wait!" Sookie's voice carries you on in this perky little clip most of the time and sometimes you wish you could jump out of her head and take a break. This is not to say that I won't get the next book in the series but that I'll be sad I don't have Alan Ball's second season of True Blood to accompany it.

Media, and dramatic television in particular, love drawing out little moments of tension. It's just built into the genre. So when Sookie and Bill kiss for the first time in True Blood it's a *thing* and not a stepping stone to the next thing. There are other examples I could give but you get the gist. The writers and, I'm assuming, Alan Ball have done an incredible job condensing and collapsing the characters and scenes to improve the flow of the story. How often does that happen!? I mean, they took Charlaine Harris' somewhat clunky moments and smoothed them out like rolled dough, into a cohesive story. WTF.

Also, they beefed up some characters and, as far as I can see, crafted Tara outta thin air. That explains why some of her scenes seem awkward...I think. You know, this could just be a matter of length. A TV Show at 55 mins an episode is a completely different deal than a 2 hour movie.

Afterall, the 2000 televised miniseries of Frank Herbert's Dune and the entire epic reality that is Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy has taught us that length, and outrageous production values, do count when pulling from a book.

I do have to wonder if, after seeing True Blood, Charlaine Harris' next book in the series will be any different. (She's still writing new ones as far as I can tell) Does she see her characters differently? Can she get Anna Paquin's face out of her mind? Now that's what I would call a authorial mindfuck. Woowee.

Read Swaying Text blog here http://patina-green.livejournal.com/4373.html?view=4629#t4629

Anna Paquin stars in Hallmark Hall of Fame "The Irene Sendler Story"

Oscar winner Anna Paquin will play a Holocaust heroine in "The Irena Sendler Story," a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation for CBS.
Sendler, a Polish woman credited with saving the lives of thousands of Jewish children during World War II, died in May at age 98.
The film has been in production in Latvia, for an April premiere.
It is based on the book "Mother of the Children of the Holocaust: The Irena Sendler Story," by Anna Mieszkowska.
Riga Old Town with its cobblestone streets and courtyards was chosen in the competition of eight cities as the most appropriate one for shooting the film about the events, which took place during World War II.
It is the first time that a U.S. film studio shoots a film in Latvia.
Academy Award winner Anna Paquin will play the lead role – Irena Sendler – the young Polish woman, who rescued the lives of thousands of Jewish children during WWII.
In 2007 Irena Sendler was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. She died in May of this year, at the age of 98.

'Female Schindler' Irene Sendler, who saved thousands of Jewish children, dies '
A Polish woman who helped save 2,500 Jewish children from the Nazis has died aged 98.
Read BBC article here

Irena's list: Holocaust heroine's untold story
This week, a 97-year-old Polish woman was finally honoured for saving thousands of Jewish children from extermination in Nazi death camps. Claire Soares tells her extraordinary tale Bottom of Form Behind the doors of a Polish nursing home sits a woman who might be described as the female Oskar Schindler.

Read Independent UK article here

True Blood Fan Art

from realms60

Season two - what would you like to see ?

I wrote this as a post on the wiki today, we were generally talking about what we thought needed to happen in season 2

These were some of my thoughts - what are yours ?


The books are all written from the Sookie fist person POV -the TV series is not, which does allow for Alan Ball to fill in the Sookieverse outside of what Sookie sees, hears and knows, that will mean multiple storylines (like Lorena and Jessica which we either don't have or don't know as much about in the books) and Amy and Tara's mom (which again we don't either have as the same character in the books or they aren't in them at all ) - and that's all OK we want him to expand the universe.

I do want to see Ball and his creative team fully develops the Sookieverse and Anna might have to work a little overtime because we do need to see her a lot , after all he is what the series (book and TV) is all about.

1. They need to spend more time writing for the main characters and give them more screen time.

2. They need to spend more time developing the ' Supe' story lines, Jessica is a good 'Supe' story line and we are all scratching our heads as to how it will effect the main Sookie/Bill relationship. (and I think that's the desired effect)

3. They need a very strong story editor to oversee the entire series, so there are NO MORE writing mistakes from episode to episode like the one we saw from Episode 9-11 with why Bill was gone and where and why Sam was "taking care ' of Sookie. I believe Alan Ball wrote and directed 1, 2 and 12 and then every Episode in-between was written and directed by a different person and they seemed to stray off the over all story arc.

4. They need to utilize the excellent actor they have in Alexander Skarsgard. His character, Eric was not utilized much in season one (nor was Eric really that important in Book one) but Eric plays an increasingly important role as the series progresses and everyone is excited to have Alex as Eric.

5. Memo to all writers: Sookie is not helpless, weak, petty, nitpicky, bitchy or screechy -she is smart, fair, loving, brave, loyal, open minded, independent, trustworthy and very socially adept in very unusual social situations. She has led a sheltered life and has not had much experience with men, but the events in her young life after meeting Bill make her grow ( and grow- up) quickly.
So don't write for her like she is anything less than all of the above!

6. Continue to bring True Blood stories, characters and issues to the forefront of our real political and social life - that is what Charlaine has always done it with the books -I believe she said once she was "on a mission with Sookie"

I think she has accomplished that in the books and Ball needs to in the show. He can continue to create a world where we can talk about social injustice, prejudice, inequality, race, sexual orientation, "otherness", politics, justice, freedom, bigotry, civil rights, love and friendship in the context of fiction and allow the fiction to lead us toward discussing these vital social issues and human complexities in the real (mainstreaming) world outside of Bon Temp and therefore hopefully work to make things better.

Great art and literature has always led progressive thinking in societies.
Yes, I am saying True Blood and the Sookie books can truly be great when they make us THINK !

If you don't like it - you can just bite me ! (4)

This is the bite marks from one of the character in True Blood.

Do you know who this is ?

Do you know who the vampire was that did the biting ?

Yes this is Maudette Pickens and the vamp would have been Liam !

You can see the other "bite me " posts and answers here !

Sookie's bedroom ..

My good friend Keyse on her Crocodile Tears blog has a great post about Sookie's bedroom

Sookie Stackhouse's bedroom in True Blood looks very much like what I pictured while reading the books by Charlaine Harris. While re-watching the show last night I noticed Sookie has a doll house in her bedroom (it's the room she grew up in after to moved to her grans house).

Read on here http://crocodiletears-keyse.blogspot.com/2008/12/sookie-sookie.html

So you want to be as cool as Alexander Skargard ?

Ok, this is what Alex said were a few of his favorites things from 2008 in his latest interview !
So you better know about all this stuff if you want to be as cool as he is ....

Favorite CD - Glasvegas a great Scottish band from Glasgow.

Best Movie - 'Let the right One In' ( Swedish vampire movie -this is still playing in US movie theaters- I LOVED it) more info HERE and HERE

Best to Read "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar WAO" by Junot Diaz- The titular Oscar is a 300-pound-plus "lovesick ghetto nerd" with zero game (except for Dungeons & Dragons) who cranks out pages of fantasy fiction with the hopes of becoming a Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien. The book is also the story of a multi-generational family curse that courses through the book, leaving troubles and tragedy in its wake. This was the most dynamic, entertaining, and achingly heartfelt novel I've read in a long time.

Favorite to Watch on TV - Mad Men ( I guess you can't say your own award nominated TV shows: ie True Blood and Operation Kill)

Best Concert: Vampire Weekend, are an American indie pop band from New York, formed in 2006.


Daddy's Gone from Glasvegas ( Geraldine is also great !)


Oxford Comma from Vampire Weekend (my favorite)

"When I got the role, I was a little scared" Alexander Skarsgard talking about his role in Generation Kill

An interview with Alex Skarsgard from Swedish web site aftonbladet.se , I'm still cleaning it up from Swedish translation but you'll get the gist

NEW YORK. If someone able to nod assent to Marit Bergman feel good-hit "This is the year" in 2008, it is Alexander Skarsgård.

After "Generation Kill" and "True Blood", he now stars in the movie "13"
with, among others, Ray Liotta and 50 Cent.

-" It is of course really good to release it. But I have always believed in my talent, "he says in Entertainment Bladet meet him in New York.

Actually started well Alexander Skarsgård lives go in harmony with "This is the year" in 2007.

That was when he towed the role of Officer Brad "The Iceman" Colbert in the HBO series "Generation Kill" and also went to Africa for a nearly year-long filming.

But it was this year a realistic, intrusive drama about a Marine platoon in the mission in Iraq was sent - and was a success.

"Incredibly proud, I had very high expectations and they met. I am incredibly proud of "Generation Kill," he says over a late breakfast in a mess got in Soho in southern Manhattan.

The filming was not easy for 32-year-old Stockholm native .

"First, I would be a tough Marine soldier and an American. And I had the supporting role. I had never done anything like that before, "he says - I was nervous. While they were setting up the roles, I thought not so much on it, and then I had to have confidence. But once I landed the job, I was a little scared. Suddenly, I had a budget of 500 Millar on my shoulders, "

"But I was excited too. That is why I have been here for four years, to get that kind of opportunity that I received."

To play vampire in 'True blood' which is also an HBO project - seems to be less complicated.

- "Generation Kill" is the closest to the heart of everything I do, I love the project, but that after a yesterday passed around in camouflage clothes and been this laconic, Torre Marine soldier, it was incredibly liberating to put on the Eric wig (?)And just play” smiles Skarsgård.

- "Generation Kill" documentary and was extremely dry and genuine, while "True blood" is ... much sexier, with soundtracks and songs and Cliffhangers and i love it . I can take turns out a lot more. It is of course a benefit to work with the contrasts.

And now Skarsgårds is working "13" - a re-make of a French film about a collection of cynical billionaires who invests money in Russian roulette.

"I have a small role, but I liked the script and because it was possible to squeeze in before we start recording second season of "True blood" "I am grateful and I felt this was a movie I wanted to be in."

He has choices now

It is the reward for four years of working in Hollywood and all other than the hottest stars in principle which consist of long series of meetings and auditions and disappointments. "It is of course really good to forget the problems, I was actually never particularly busy, he says.

"As a pyramid"
- I have always believed in my talent and knowledge that it will sooner or later a project would come along that was right for me.

The project came ... yes, it can happens !
"My life has changed some. This world is built like a pyramid and I have taken a step up. I do not have to prove what I can anymore. Now the target is to reach a level where I may direct offers and can live where I want, for example, with the family at home in Stockholm. Or anywhere."

It sounds like a certain Marit Bergman-hit may be the soundtrack to many years in Alexander Skarsgård life
-----
This year ...

... CD: I think Glasvegas CD is really good.

... FILM: "Let the right to enter". ( let the right on in )

... reading: "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar WAO" by Junot Diaz.

... TV: I have not seen so much TV, but I watch "Mad Men " sometimes. It is good.

... concert: I saw Vampire Weekend last week, it was really good.

... moment: It was probably the beginning of the year, in a taxi on the way home from the airport to the south after I had been in Africa on the recording in one year. It was a real pissdag. You know, one plus degree and sleeting. The Taxi cab driver sat and complained that he had not seen the sun in three months. And in the back, I was so happy. I thought every little thing was great. Just to see Ica Maxi was wonderful. Registration plates on an old Saab made me cry. Unbelievably strong ... I am so fucking hemmakär (
homesick???) when I come home ...


http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/article4030612.ab

True Blood Episode one: Strange Love recap from HBO site

I'm going to start posting the episode recaps from the HBO site. I think we should have them in our archive; they are really long so I will also post them in their entirety as a word document to our scribd site. I think they are worth carefully re-examining for clues!

At night on a rural Louisiana highway, a frat boy driving his girlfriend's SUV - while her hand works busily in his lap - notices a neon convenience store sign for Tru Blood and pulls into the lot. Inside, an evil-looking clerk watches Bill Maher interview American Vampire League spokeswoman Nan Flanagan, who deftly parries his questions about vampires' historical violence. "We never owned slaves," she says, "or detonated nuclear weapons.
Since the Japanese perfected synthetic blood, which satisfies all our nutritional needs, there is no reason for anyone to fear us."
The frat boy steps up to the counter and smarts off about the vampires of New Orleans drowning during Hurricane Katrina, and the pale, angular clerk replies that vampires can't drown "because we don't breathe." Frozen in terror, the frat boy mumbles an apology, but a moment later the clerk breaks into a goofy cackle, dropping the act and saying how he "totally had them."
A camo-clad good ole boy in the back of the store isn't amused, however, and when the frat boy asks the clerk about scoring some drug-like vampire blood, the real vampire in their midst reveals himself - and his fangs. As the frat boy flees with his girlfriend, the good ole boy steps up to the counter, slams down a four-pack of Tru Blood and tells the clerk, "You ever pretend to be one of us again, and I'll kill you. Got it?"

Read on here :

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