Sookie. Walter White. Quality.

I never thought I'd start favoring television shows over film but clearly it's happening.

This is what I'm talking about . . .

True Blood: I Wish I Was The Moon.








1. Woodland sex-capades under a full moon; Sookie finally hits it. Nicely done. 

2. Pam, to Eric. "You are a Viking Vampire GOD! You bow to NO ONE!"

3. Sam's brother is gross; kill that story line, now.

4. Arlene, GET RID OF THAT DOLL!

5. This isn't nice (to Hoyt), but I for one, really want Jason to hook up with Jessica. You know they both want to.

6. Andy Bellefleur getting hot over the blond witch was kind of sweet. Dude definitely needs to get laid.

7. I don't really enjoy the witches, as I've said before, but girl deserves her revenge on the vampire that raped her. Just leave Eric and Pam out of it, yeah?

Lab Notes, Hank! LAB NOTES!

Breaking Bad: Open House.

1. Everyone is in turmoil, granted, but I *hate* seeing Hank so unhappy. It's making me really sad.

2. There was a really beautiful production sequence that I loved, just after the real estate agent noticed that a spoon was missing from the framed collection on the wall (which Marie stole). It starts with a sort of low, pulsing bass melody and just kind of goes on from there as they cut to the next scene, which is Jess Pinkman looping around the go-cart track, clearly an emotional wreck. Next he goes home and finds people screwing in his living room, spray painting the walls, and generally tweaking out. He walks in, looks around, and takes a seat right on the couch. It's not happy by any stretch, but the way his pain is portrayed is genius.

This show is what little shows want to be when they grow up (around here we call it "quality.")

Gratitude. Sookie. Walter White.

Okay, first off, Blogger's new "stats" option? (hell, it might not even be new, but I clicked it today, and wow!) AMAZING! I was trying like hell to find Google AdSense, which I never really did, but I checked out my stats today? I learned a TON! Outside the USA, I have the most readers from Turkey, Argentina, Germany, Portugal, and Lithuania! The majority of my readers are seeing my stuff on Windows OS, the most common search phrases were "GANNICUS" and "Dr. Melfi Gets Raped." Networked Blogs really does drive traffic over here, (so does LYNXYMAMA, so Thanks, Lisha!) teşekkür ederim, Gracias, vielen Dank, muito Obrigada, Labai achiu! I love every last one of you.

See what I mean?

More good news: True Blood last night? Hand-holding, orchestral score, "Eric, please don't go!" I don't care if he was wearing a Jason Stackhouse outfit, daaaaaaaaamn! Loved Tommy's little change-up in the van, Jason's Jessica-fantasies, and Arlene and Terry *dressing up* for the little faux-exorcism. I don't trust Debbie Pelt, not one bit. And please, please, PLEASE help my girl Pam get her face right again! Although her closing scene was great, that makeup was almost like something out of The Twilight Zone.



And Breaking Bad? I don't really remember much other than Walter sitting in the chair, practicing his draw. Scenes like that, the closeup of him, then the gun, suddenly---get me extremely excited. Twenty million for the carwash, hey, Skylar? Sounds like you won't be laundering money there anytime soon. Better call Saul.

(I love the Heisenberg Walter White. A lot).

Books.

I didn't see anything in the theater this weekend so I get to hole up, make myself fun mixed drinks, write (this) with the pressure off and watch ST ELMO'S FIRE tonight. (Let's Rock! in conversational tone).

Dead to the World, 2004, by Charlaine Harris.

"Sookie aids vampires Eric and Pam in their struggle against a coven of witches seeking to take over control of their area, and takes care of Eric after the witches erase his memory." (wikipedia).

First off, I'm very much a fan of Ms. Harris and the Southern Vampire Series, so you kind of have to chill about what I'm about to say and let me say it without getting all pissy about it: I loved what happened in this book, but the writing unfortunately was not her best. It's a hard thing, balancing extreme and full plot lines with competent dialogue (that doesn't seem cheesy, forced, or redundant) and adequate spaces in between action parts, or resting points, if you will. I know it's hard. But because so much happened in this novel, much of it felt hurried, especially the dialogues. I needed a breaths or breaks that didn't come often enough, maybe. I loved the book, and was scrambling to read it every night, so it wasn't a huge problem, more of a nit-pick, I suppose.

The southern Sookie-colloquialisms were great, and the blunt and honest interior monologues from Sookie were right on:

"I wondered if I could get some witch to cast a truth spell on Debbie Pelt, whom I despised because she had been cruel to Alcide, insulted me grievously, burned a hole in my favorite wrap and---oh---tried to kill me by proxy. Also, she had stupid hair."

"I sighed. Jason could find potential bedmates anywhere. He was going to end up with some unpleasant disease (if he hadn't already) or slapped with a paternity suit, and there was nothing I could do about it except watch it happen."

Without ruining too much for anyone else, there is another plot line that happens, romantically, that I (and probably others) have been waiting three novels for, when it finally happened . . . damn. (SKOAL, SOOKIE!) Loved the ending. LOVED it. I can't wait to see how this plays out on True Blood.



Willa Cather, 24 Stories.

I got this at Half-Price and picked it up after Roger Ebert recommended Cather over Rand (not to me, personally, but in general). The stories included are: Peter (1892), Lou, The Prophet (1892), A Tale of the White Pyramid (1892), The Elopement of Allen Poole (1893), The Clemency of the Court (1893), On the Divide (1896), A Night at Greenway Court (1896), Tommy the Unsentimental (1896), The Burgler's Christmas (1896), Nanette: An Aside (1897), Eric Hermannson's Soul (1900), The Sentimentality of William Tavener (1900), A Singer's Romance (1900), The Professor's Commencement (1902), The Treasure of Far Island (1902), The Namesake (1907), The Profile (1907), The Willing Muse (1907), Eleanore's House (1907), On the Gulls' Road (1908), The Enchanted Bluff (1909), The Joy of Nelly Deane (1911), Behind the Singer Tower (1912), and The Bohemian Girl (1912).

They're all extremely good, and right up my alley, but the last one (The Bohemian Girl) got me. Big time.

"Nils looked sideways at her. He had never seen her head droop before. Resignation was the last thing he would have expected of her. "In your case, there wasn't something else?"
"Something else?"
"I mean, you didn't do it to spite somebody? Somebody who didn't come back?"
Clara drew herself up. "Oh, I never thought you'd come back. Not after I stopped writing to you, at least. That was all over long before I married Olaf."
"It never occurred to you, then, that the meanest you could do to me was to marry Olaf?"

and later, "What's become of your Bohemian blood? I used to think you had courage enough for anything. Where's your nerve---what are you waiting for?"
Clara drew back her head, and he saw the slumberous fire in her eyes. "For you to say one thing, Nils Ericson."
"I never say that thing to any woman, Clara Vavrika." He leaned back, lifted her gently from the ground, and whispered through his teeth, "But I'll never, never let you go, not to any man on Earth but me! Do you understand me?"

Skillfully written sentimentality and denied love. My favorites.

Sookie: You Smell Like Dinner

Oh Hell no . . .

(spoilers)
UGH! What a horribly frustrating episode! My girl Pam has got it all figured out, doesn't she? BILL KNEW IT WOULD HAPPEN! I mean, I am completely fine with Eric prancing around shirtless---for a while--- but this nice-guy sap has got to go! I am waiting for two things to happen: Pam to pull some crazy-vamp kick-ass "oh no you didn't just mess with my maker" business on those nasty witches, and for Sookie, having learned to identify more with Eric's softer side, to *finally* get up on that (after he's back to his naughty bad real self, of course).

also: After Sookie told Pam (last week) that she wasn't interested in being Eric's puppet, Pam said, "Shame for you; he pulls good string." Was Pam speaking from an observational standpoint, or have they, you know, done it? Is that allowed between maker and progeny? Because, damn.

And poor Jason; things just went from bad to worse. One of my favorite utterances on the show has become Andy Bellefleur's constant growling, "STACKHOUSE!" on the phone or in person, or sometimes, "GOD DAMMIT, STACKHOUSE!" It's like the best name ever to be yelled with a southern accent----Staackhaaawse!

Speaking of southern accents: don't forget to switch TNT on tonight during The Closer or Rizzoli and Isles to catch the DALLAS trailer! And for a bit more on True Blood, week to week (with better photographs and video) check out my Bites from Bon Temps updates on Examiner.

Vamp Literature.

Club Dead, 2003, by Charlaine Harris

"Sookie's boyfriend Bill disappears while working on a secret project, and Sookie heads out to Jackson, Mississippi in hopes of retrieving him alive. In this quest, she enlists the aid of a werewolf, Alcide Herveaux, and of vampire Eric." (wikipedia)

Dug it, dug it lots. But man, Bill is just kind of a dick in this one, isn't he? First the secretive nature with all the vampire database business and then the tomfoolery with Lorena (which was much more intense and detailed in the show) not to mention the (I suppose you could call it) date rape inside the trunk of the Lincoln? Jeez. Eric, Eric, ERIC! Who's a little sneaky, too, but at least less dickish and more helpful to Sookie in times of need (refinished driveway).

"When I woke, it was dark again, and Bill was in bed with me. Oh, thank God! Relief swept over me. Now all would be well. I felt his cool body behind me, and I rolled over, half asleep, and put my arms around him. He eased up my long nylon gown, and his hand stroked my leg. I put my head against his silent chest and nuzzled him. His arms tightened around me, he pressed firmly against me, and I sighed with joy, inserting a hand between us to unfasten his pants. Everything was back to normal. 


Except he smelled different. 


My eyes flew open, and I pushed back against rock hard shoulders. I let out a little squeak of horror.


"It's me," said a familiar voice. 


"Eric! What are you doing here?"

I think I was reading this passage in the bath and then whooped out a huge, "YES!" There were a few more of those moments throughout; reading about Eric is nearly as much fun as actually watching him . . . . Next up, Dead to the World.

Salem's Lot, 1975, by Stephen King.

"Ben Mears returns to the town where he lived as a boy between the ages of 9 through 13 (Jerusalem's Lot, or 'Salem's Lot for short) in Maine, New England, to discover that the residents are all becoming vampires." (wikipedia).

I think this might be my very favorite vampire book, although I Am Legend would be an extremely close second. I read this years ago and only remember something ominous about a stairway; it was a very unpleasant surprise reading it again, but evil and clever, too. I have to say that reading about King's writer characters is probably my favorite thing in the world because you know damned well he's filling them with literal business from his own life; I think he basically writes about himself and then adds scary shit just for filler, honestly. And I'm not saying it doesn't work, because it does----but that it's somehow more meaningful, maybe.

"He wrote quickly, without thinking: For Susan Norton, the prettiest girl in the park. Warm regards, Ben Mears. He added the date below his signature in slashed notation.


"Now you'll have to steal it," he said, handing it back. "Air Dance is out of print, alas." She hesitated, and this time her glance at his eyes was a little longer. "It's an awfully good book." 
"Thanks. When I take it down and look at it, I wonder how it ever got published."

or "All writers like to talk about their books. Sometimes when I'm lying in bed at night I make up a Playboy interview about me. Waste of time. They only do authors if their books are big on campus."

or "Kind of touchy, ain't you? For a man who means his books to be read?"
"When it's gone through three drafts, editorial correction, galley-proof corrections, final set and print, I'll personally see that you get four copies. Right now that comes under the heading of private papers."

But the scary stuff is pretty significant, too, and described in a way that I found to be pretty damned brilliant:

" . . . he found himself reflecting ---not for the first time--- on the peculiarity of adults. They took laxatives, liquor, or sleeping pills to drive away their terrors so that sleep would come, and their terrors were so tame and domestic: the job, the money, what the teacher will think if I can't get Jennie nicer clothes, does my wife still love me, who are my friends. They were pallid compared to the fears every child lies cheek and jowls with in his dark bed, with no one to confess to in hope of perfect understanding but another child. There is no group therapy or psychiatry or community social services for the child who must cope with the thing under the bed or in the cellar every night, the thing which leers and capers and threatens just beyond the point where vision will reach. The same lonely battle must be fought night after night and the only cure is the eventual ossification of the imaginary facilities, and this is called adulthood." 

But not necessarily everyone's adulthood. I'm well into my thirties and have slept with the light on halfway since the film list last October and full on since seeing Insidious and am not planning to turn it off anytime in the next ten years. . . .

True Blood, season 4 premiere.

Are you *kidding* me?

I tried extremely hard to clean something up for an Examiner article, but I really just don't have any room in a professional sort of capacity to "formally" discuss it; mostly I was trying as hard as I could not to squeal each time Eric came on. . . because DAMN. Yes, I realize I sound like I'm in high school.

Oh, and SPOILERS, a lot.

1. The fairies aren't what they seem. Sookie goes toward the light, gets transported to "the fairy plane," runs into the bellboy from Dallas and her long-gone Granddaddy (who is none other than Bill Lumberg from Office Space) and then doesn't eat the glow-fruit that all the other fairies are handing out to the civilian-clothed humans, which turns out to be a wise choice. They're harvesting human fairies and bringing them to the other side because the (extremely crazy-looking) Fairy Queen ain't having any more exposure; apparently the mass consumption of Sookie's blood (Russell, Bill, Eric) was enough to threaten the existence of the entire fairy race, and that's that. There were some nice effects during Sookie's escape, crazy explosions, harsh and gritty filmmaking, and a collapsing cliff----pretty intense!

2. Rip Van Stackhouse. What seemed like only minutes was actually just over a year in Sookie's life; when she returns she finds her house sold, her brother deputized (proper), and *AAACK,* Eric having to take orders from Bill? Something fishy is going on around here . . .

Looking good, Your Majesty

3. Enemies/Problems. Arlene's baby pulls the heads off Barbie dolls. Hoyt and Jessica's honeymoon is over. There's some crazy-ass witch in town (Fiona Shaw) that has her eye on Lafayette. Tara is an ultimate fighter. Jason makes little headway with the meth-orphans and then gets flung into a deep freeze. Sam seems angry and bitter. Andy Bellefleur is addicted to V.

4. Bill vs. Eric. I was caught completely off guard by what went down between these two; not until the "your majesty" business did I halfway know what end was up. Two shots I loved: Sookie's arrival back to Earth followed by the simultaneous awakening of both vampires in their coffins, and the juxtaposition of Eric's reassurance-inspiring "We're just like You!" video with Bill's ridiculous campaign speech with the elderly and the mayor. There always seemed to be something slippery about Bill, granted, but (call me crazy) there was something wonderfully sinister and alluring about him, now that he's King. Or maybe it was just the shorter hair, I don't know, but Bill was in fine form last night.

5. Final scene: Holeeeeeey shit. I almost don't know what to say. Maybe this: if you are taking your clothes off, and someone reacts the way Eric does to Sookie . . . wow. Just wow. And GOD, yes on the gratuitous bicep flex when he holds up the house key. . . (!)

Reviews, Living Dead in Dallas.

Here are some of my latest reviews posted on Examiner:
GREEN LANTERN and LOST: IT WASN'T PURGATORY, should you be interested.


And for the record, I so, SO wanted to title the Green Lantern review, "There's hope for Fuck-Ups Yet," but I thought that might be pushing it a little. Just thought you'd like to know, I occasionally show restraint.




Moving On:
Living Dead in Dallas, 2002, by Charlaine Harris.

"Bon Temps' Sookie Stackhouse is employed by Dallas vampires to use her telepathy to find one of their lost companions." (wikipedia).

I really enjoy these books. There's a certain honesty to them, in the dialogues and the characters, that I just dig, a lot. I actually think reading the novels made me like the show more although I do think getting inside Sookie's mind is necessary to love her, and in that, the books are definitely more personal and informative. And I suppose it would be kind of revisionist of me if I didn't admit that Anna Paquin's accent almost completely ruined my experience of the show (in the beginning) but after a while it just sort of grew on me and honestly, I am at the point where I'm so excited for the show I can hardly stand it.

LITERARY MOMENTS IN ERIC NORTHMAN (aka my favorite moments):

"I'll help you into the tub if you like, Sookie," Eric offered.
"Oh, I don't think so." A bath was what I wanted more than anything else in the world, that and to never put on these clothes again, but I sure wasn't taking a bath with Eric anywhere around.
"I'll bet you are a treat, naked, " Eric said, just to boost my spirits.
"You know it. I'm just as tasty as a big eclair," I said.

"Instinctively, I shut my eyes while the blasting lasted. Glass shattered, vampires roared, humans screamed. The noise battered at me, just as the tidal wave of scores of brains at high gear washed over me. When it began to taper off, I looked up into Eric's eyes. Incredibly, he was excited. He smiled at me. "I knew I'd get on top of you somehow."

June 26, people. JUNE 26.

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

"Eric is much better looking than I am," Bill said. "He is more powerful, and I understand that sex with him is unforgettable. He is so old he only needs to take a sip to maintain his strength. He almost never kills anymore. So, as vampires go, he's a good guy. You could still go with him. He is still looking at you."

(biggest mistake of Sookie Stackhouse's LIFE!)

This book was fun. I can't really say it's better or not better than the show True Blood because some things from the book are better (background info, for one thing) and some things from the show are better (Lafayette and Tara's characters, everyone's physical hotness, etc.) I think the liberties Alan Ball took with adapting everything were good ones, but character-wise, I honestly couldn't stand anyone from the show's first season; I was most interested in the then-minor characters of Lafayette, Eric, and Pam. How wonderful that they've taken a bigger role in things lately! I wouldn't have cared a bit about Sookie and Bill had I not read this, so I think for any fan of the show, this book is invaluable.

I didn't think I was going to go for this, but I am definitely a fan of Ms. Charlaine. Next windfall that hits, I'll be slamming my money down for the rest of the hopefully-just-as-fun Sookie Stackhouse novels. And dammit, PICK ERIC!

Finally: Let the Fright Nights Begin!

I'm more than a little worried about the nightmares this will bring, but it's October, and I'm going back to my roots, y'all! I never would have gone to school for film had it not been for many of these, which is not to say that I spent my time in class studying the ideology of Damian Omen and various tints of stage blood, far from it. I'm still trying to get away from a nagging tendency to drag my sentences on and on and on after reading years worth of French film theory translated into English. . .

ANYWAY.

Here are the films, *please* weigh in if you have anything to say both now and in the upcoming posts, I could talk about this shit all night, in fact, call me or FB me if you want to watch any. Matt has already said he's opting out, and he's the one that isn't bothered by any of this! Me, I'll probably be sleeping with the lights on, starting tonight.

1. The Exorcist
2. The Ring
3. House on Haunted Hill
4. Night of the Living Dead
5. Wait Until Dark
6. The Entity
7. Blink
8. Phantasm 2
9. It
10. The Shining
11. The Mist
12. Children of the Corn
13. Creepshow 1 and 2
14. Silence of the Lambs
15. Hannibal
16. Red Dragon
17. The Birds
18. Psycho
19. Psycho 2
20. Psycho 3 (JEFF FAHEY IS IN THIS, SO BACK OFF!)
21. Saw
22. Saw 2
23. Saw 3
24. Saw 4
25. 9mm
26. Jaws
27. The Omen
28. Close Your Eyes
29. The Blair Witch Project.

Gag. That whole photo collection is already giving me goosebumps. Anyway, hope you enjoy. This comes of course with the October book stack, as if I don't have enough stuff to make me crazy with fear, right? Well, Hunter Thompson said it best, anything worth doing is worth doing right. 

No annotations I'm afraid, I'm fast running out of time already.

1. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

2. Dracula by Bram Stoker

3. Danse Macabre by Stephen King

4. The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike

5. Collected Stories by Edgar Allen Poe

6. The Thomas Mann Reader

7. The Stephen King Companion

8. Tales of Terror by Alfred Hitchcock

True Blood

Also.

This was my favorite moment of True Blood this season. I still can't believe Sookie didn't hit that yet.

Cuz DAMN.

Sex, nakedness, divorce (and vampires).

FIRST OFF: Is anyone else watching True Blood, and is the sex not completely out of control? I don't mean to say it's a bad thing (see photo, hello?) but Daaaaaaaammmmmnn! HOT!

The first episode kind of bugged me because the sex was so obviously a gimmick and actually interrupted the flow of the narrative with how random it was. . . but the last two were much more on, in the run of things, if you ask me. I won't spoil anything in case people haven't seen it yet, but last night? Wowza.

Anyway, speaking of gimmicks. This isn't really a post about sex or vampires, it's about SHORT STORIES! I know, how exciting! But I really couldn't hold back anymore about True Blood. (team eric and how-the-crap-did-you-not-invite-him-immediately-into-your-house-after-he-said-that-bit-about-crazy-sex, SOOKIE?) p.s. The King of Mississippi's accent is the best one I've heard thus far. About time.

From the Heath arsenal: "White Dump" by Alice Munro.
also by Alice Munro: Love of a Good Woman.

This is a tale of three women, three different generations, and their struggles with doomed relationships. One a daughter, one the mother of the daughter, and one the mother-in-law of the mother of the daughter. It was wonderfully descriptive, smart, and interesting, and in a small way it succeeded in igniting my long since expired feminist rages. YOUR JOB IS TO BE A TROPHY WIFE, LOOK HOT, FLIRT WITH GUYS, SPREAD IT WHEN I DEMAND, and if you don't I'll take it out on the kids. Then you read about the mother-in-law's issues (therein lies the nakedness addressed by my title; some punks steal her robe and then she just strolls around naked in front of her adult son and grandchildren, not the worst thing ever, but you know, a little narcissistic and odd) and you pretty much have to blame her for turning out such a douche-bag of a son. Yuck. But an important yuck, I guess, as these issues are realistic.

"Separating" by John Updike.
also by John Updike: Rabbit Run, Couples, Rabbit is Rich, and Rabbit at Rest.

I read Couples, years ago, and thought it was fine. I was very young and dumb at the time though, so it's unlikely that I got much from it. This story, like everything else in the Heath anthology is very good, very intelligent, and very well done, but my thing with much of what I read is having issues with unlikable characters and not the actual mechanics of the story or storytelling. Like, do I or do I not want to read a story about an asshole (even if it's well written)? This is a story about an asshole. Maybe reading Munro just before put me a little on the defensive, but oh, you're leaving your wife and hoping to marry some other chick across town and your wife is making you tell your four children, one at a time before you can leave, and it's a little hard on you? Causing you some anxiety? PLEASE. I had not one drop of sympathy for this dude, although the way the story was written and described with a lot of metaphor and personification was beautiful. (an asshole's beautiful account of what it was like to tell his children he's leaving).

Yuck again. But, hey. Life is full of yucks.