Well, this year has been an interesting one…. Especially after the recession hit and all so I’m sure everyone had some worries when they were going to get gifts for their loved ones. The holidays are an interesting time of year for me, they’re fun and interesting but I don’t exactly feel loved around this time of year. I HAVE family and I’m sure they love me, but I don’t exactly feel like I have someone to cuddle with at this time of year. I’m sure tons of people say they want to find that special someone, but I’m looking for somebody who understands where I’m coming from and just wants to be around me and there for me. The holidays just are that one time of year where the absence of that person you want to be with is most evident. I mentioned in an earlier post one very specific guy. He’s the one I miss the most. I mean, if you had to choose one person to spend the next four years living with, it would either be him or my best friends Gianna, Bridget, and Joss. Because of where I live, I’m not quite around all my friends most of the time and it sucks. It makes life that much more miserable. See, I celebrate my holiday (Channukah) before my winter break so I have all this time to spend and no one to spend it with. It totally blows. Well, that’s enough of me ranting for now, go off and live WordPress users! Be thankful for the loved ones you have and happy holidays!

One joke before I go: What’s the difference between Tiger Woods and Santa? Santa stops after 3 Hos. Haha there you go. I know it sucks, but hey, it’s still funny.

Peace, Liebe, Tokio Hotel,

Graciee ♥

everyday i say to myself.. ‘i will blog today.’ but that today somehow only arrive today. oh wells, better late than never eh?

i’ve got tons of photos! but i guess i’ll just pick a few to summarize what happened.
well, i was too carried away blogging about flaky’s wedding.

flaky’s wedding ceremony..

this is the first thing i did that day when mummy woke me up.. even before brushing my teeth! mama: ‘ 快点帮我快点帮我!’ LOL.

daddy’s side.. damn candid cos i dont have the one from the cameraman.

no idea what pokpok is doing. if you cannot spot him.. extreme back on the left in white shirt. apparently, we spoil the sofa while climbing on it.. if it’s 10 years ago, daddy prolly give me the red card. haha!

mummy’s side.

that’s not pokpok’s gf on his leg.. it’s my aunt. LOL. sibei nonsense.

then it was their wedding dinner..

daddy down drinks like no one business that night!

then again.. everyone was drinking crazily that night. LOL.

aunt (almost) walk around with martell in hand..
more unglam was.. *look at background of picture* i really did walked the ballroom with 2 bottles of stout and a glass, pouring and drinking pouring and drinking. but, never did i knew that stout wasn’t that awful..

that night, 3/4, or at least 1/2 of my drinks were stout. i have never drank so much stout in my years of drinking. all thanks to daddy.

initially he was walking around and doing the ‘drink drink drink’ stun in stout with his friends.. and one of my uncles came to us, telling us to watch him.. then i said ‘aiya, later papa abit high liao then we (pokpok and me) take over lor.. if not he always ask us don’t drink so much. haha, small case lah!’ and daddy overheard that.

that instance he looked at me.. ‘妹, 来来来’ then it all started from there. ‘this is my daughter, she will help me drink..’ ‘my daughther challenge you drink leh, how can you not drink?!’ ‘my daughter want drink with you’ ‘go ask that uncle drink..’  (all in mixture of mandarin and hokkien, that is.)

wah! daddy sibei happening that night lor! his friends also.. one of them is the mp for *******, shan’t name names here lah. but everyone prolly recognise him at the dinner and i was drinking with him most of the time, because he sibei damn siao on! really! (i think i wanna join daddy and mummy for their gathering next time. LOL.) when i tah the first glass with him, all my relatives clapped.. that was when i realise mr *** and me stole the whole limelight in the ballroom. all these happen when the couple was walking around taking pictures with every table. hahaha! even the table flaky was at were looking at us.. including flaky and bombibi of cos. LOL.

besides that, there’s also the relative ‘drinking game’..

cousin bully cousin.. while uncle watch?

no..

tio summon by uncle liao lor! HAHAHA!

then come pokpok challenging someone to drink.. i think..

at least it seems like it lah. LOL.

then he down part/half the jug of beer and challenge bernice.. our younger cousin, if you are wondering.

then me..

that night, i think i had too many unwanted attention.. look at the number of eyes behind. i wished i wasn’t that unglam with all the crazy drinking. any guy would be scare off the chair. =.=”

then bernice’s dad..

before binghong finish the last part.. *burp*

there’s alot more.. like with flaky and pokpok’s soccer + secondary school friends, mummy & daddy’s working friends.. but there’s no pictures. HENG NO PICTURES! hope cameraman never capture any too.

and lucky daddy and mummy are from the same school, so school mates are the same.. work also know same people.. at least that way won’t have to drink with 2 group of schoolmate, 2 group of friends, etc. lol!

but whatever the case.. 1 group also unglam enough. and i declare, i am so gonna wear flats for pokpok’s wedding and i told mama that i think i need to wear shorts/pants for my wedding, in case too many challenge me to drink till i pek chek then i do the ah lian style and pull my gown up, put my one leg on chair and drink with people. LOL. okay, i didn’t do that on that night k! i would kill myself if i did. if it’s my wedding, it’s a different thing mah! unless my husband change his mind after that night. HAHAHHAAH.

overall, it was a damn good night.. with ktv after everything. though it was only..

4 of them with pokpok and me. (actually you can see pokpok’s hands in the pic. lol!)

daddy went home high and mummy msg me ‘your pa zzz zzz already’ LOL. damn cute lah!

fuck, it’s 1 am. i should really stop..

shall end with..

their nonsensical picture?

or..

classic expression after drinking the neat martel, instead of tea, from either pokpok or me.. i can’t remember whose was it, but we both serve them that. oh, they both don’t drink fyi. that explains why eh.

or..

flaky’s ‘fuck up shit’ expression when i pulled a impromptu speech on them?

alright.. a proper one..

them with little nicole and little qiqi.

they should go in there..

and make little flaky and bombibi soon!

p/s: what a long entry.. zzz. and i realise, mummy’s damn good at siam-ing camera eh?

——————————————-

i really salute daddy’s friend/schoolmate mr ***. i went to google and read a little about him and watch his speech! wah! so happening yet his speech also powderful! don’t everyone need this kind of mp? hahaha. okok, pure joke.. no political intention here!

I was watching E!’s show 10 Vampires We Love shortly after I came home from watching New Moon. The show was a countdown of the vampires that the people of E! like. I’ll include the list at the end of this post. Anyway, I have a bone to pick with who they chose to be on the list. I noticed that the list didn’t include, in my opinion, a variety of vampires, and the fact that all, except one, of the vampires are from movies or tv shows that came out within the last ten years. Anyway, what I mean by the lack of variety is that four of the vampires came from two different sources. I find it biased like how this post is. The reason that I have a problem is that they didn’t include other vampires like Henry Fitzpatrick from Blood Ties, Mick St. John from Moonlight or any of the vampires from the Vampire Chronicles or The Lost Boys. I don’t think it’s right to put a relatively unknown vampire like Santinico Pandemonium or Dracula from Dracula 2000 on a list like 10 Vampires We Love when there are better qualified vampires out there.

10. Ian Somerhalder as Damon Salvatore
9. Ashley Greene as Alice Cullen
8. David Boreanaz as Angel
7. Stephen Moyer as Bill Compton
6. Selma Hayek as Santanico Pandemonium
5. Gerard Butler as Dracula in Dracula 2000
4. Wesley Snipes as Blade
3. Kate Beckinsale as Selene
2. Alexander Skarsgaard as Eric Northman
1. Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen

In early 2001 I began seriously considering a series of vampire films. 

Initially, I wanted to write a spec script based on the 1954 science fiction/horror novel I Am Legend by American author Richard Matheson.  I had always been a fan of Charlton Heston, even the slow 1971 The Omega Man, adapted from Matheson’s novel.

Quickly expanding beyond Matheson’s original narrative, I ruminated on the project passively for the nex two years.   Then in late September 2003 I saw vampire movie that despite its impeccable direction and surreal cinematography, was crippled by a maundering narrative that reduced the  film to a boring mess.

That night I went home and had a fantastic dream: K N I G H T S I L V E R.

Waking, I quickly jotted down the first script in The Knightsilver Trilogy:  Knightsilver (“Apostasy“).

Previously, in early 2002, shortly after The Mummy Returns (2002) hit theaters, I contacted a Hollywood producer and began a dialog about several properties I had.  This producer expressed great interest in many of my scripts, but eventually proved too unsophisticated to manage my ideas.  During one conversation, he actually said “Vampires are tapped out, kid. Nobody cares about vampires anymore.”

Wow, really?  Ignoring Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise and its spinoffs, here are some major properties that involved vampires green-lit during and after his insipid statement:

• Blade 2 (2002)
• Underworld (2003)
• Blade: Trinity (2004)
• Nightwatch (2004)
• Van Helsing (2004)
• BloodRayne (2005)
• Underworld: Evolution (2006)
• Blood Ties (2007)
• BloodRayne II: Deliverance (2007)
• I Am Legend (2007)
• True Blood (2008)
• Twilight (2008)
• Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
• Twilight: New Moon (2009)

Now, if you expand his stupidity to all undead (ghosts, etc.) you miss out principally on:

• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

And by extension:

• The Ring (2002)
• The Grudge (2004)
• The Ring Two (2005)
• The Grudge 2 (2006)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007)
• The Orphanage (2007)
• The Grudge 3 (2009)
• The Unborn (2009)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)

 and not that anyone would miss it…

•  The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)
•  …And all the flesh eating zombies movies and remakes (ad infinitum)

and need I mention the small-budget indie hit Paranormal Activity?

So, the  moral of this story is don’t listen to small-minded people.  Find your story, write it, and keep promoting it until someone recognizes it for what it is worth.

My modest Knightsilver has since been retrofitted to skirt the vampire theme and has grown into a robust, imaginative trilogy that so far has no thematic equal.

I so look forward to talking to Jerry Bruckheimer about this one.

David Jetre
Writer | Producer | Director | Designer
www.ghostsofsaarke.com | www.studio930.com | www.jetrefilm.com

Saw New Moon, the latest instalment in the Twilight saga.

The dysfunctional Cullen Family is back…. yay….kill me….

Werewolf Male: Whine, I’ve got muscles now, why don’t you love me, whine, vampires are poopy heads, whine.

Vampire Male: Whine, whine, I can’t be with you because I love you. Whine, my angst is reaching critical mass, I’m going to kill myself. Whine, now I can be with you because I failed to kill myself and I figure you’ll be able to nag me to death.

Human Female: Whine, make me a vampire. Whine, I like dry humping dead guys, whine. Pay attention to me you buff young Indian dude, but not too much attention cause I want to be a vampire, whine. You’re not here to make me a vampire, whine. Now you are here my angst has reached critical mass and unless you make me a vampire I’ll whine some more. Whine ad nauseam.

Vampire Female: I’m the only thing that makes this travesty of a movie watchable, and I know it.

Alice / Ashley Greene

Movie Synopsis:
The main character whines till she gets what she wants, then freaks out and thus the movie then ends. The werewolves were well done (CGI speaking), yet completely crap (character development speaking). There was less of Edward Cullen (which is a GOOD thing) and the female lead remains a weak, whiny, disgrace that single handedly sets the feminist movement back about 40 years…… and I still want to falcon punch her.

Falcon Punch, how to

Robert ‘the nose job’ Pattinson’s performance as this courageous mentally challenged vampire is an inspiration to gothic vampire wannabe’s everywhere. His tragic bout of anaemia induced impotence, and the look of erectile frustration on his face, was heart-wrenching. (extra points if you can spot where I stole/butchered that from)

• Vampire on Vampire violence was pretty cool.
• Werewolf on Vampire violence was pretty cool.
• The ‘big bad’ (Victoria) gets about 2 minutes on screen time the whole movie.
• Ashley Greene is still smoking hot.
• Oh, Laurent, EAT THE BITCH ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Normally I’d blame the actors for such dreadful performances, however having read the first novel… well I can’t…. the writing is really this crap. Off to try Nightlight instead.

Do yourself, and your wallet, a favour. Watch Dog Soldiers and Queen of the Damned instead. Download (Disclaimer: not that I would encourage downloading) True Blood instead, or Blood Ties free off the website.

Mit Stolz darf ich euch verkünden, dass wir nun ein eigenes Forum besitzen! Dieses könnt ihr im Menüpunkt Forum oder unter den Links aufrufen.

Was euch dort erwartet? Infos zu Stars, Serien, Musikern… Ihr könnt euch untereinander austauschen oder einfach nur die von uns zusammengetragenen Inhalte durchstöbern.

Ihr könnt mit anderen Mitgliedern chatten oder euch Privatnachrichten schicken.

Wer interesse hat, im Forum als Moderator auszuhelfen kann sich gern bei uns melden! Wir freuen uns über jede Hilfe!

Livraria Porto das Letras na Internet, acesse:

www.estantevirtual.com.br/acervo/livrariaportodasletras

     Ontem assisti ao primeiro episódio de Vampire Diaries (Warner, 5as.feiras, 21 h) e foi o esperado em série capitaneada por Kevin Williamson: na linha de “Dawson´s Creek” e de várias temporadas da não-williamsoniana na produção, porém bem parecida proposta, “Smalville”, temos esses jovens velhos, essas mensagenzinhas caretinhas (a irmã vai atrás do irmão viciado no banheiro dos homens para conferir se ele está “chapado” e lhe passar um sermão).  Tivemos o cemitério de praxe do livro, a floresta onde jovens incautas penetram à noite, a ausência dos adultos, a melhor amiga da heroína branca (agora, sempre uma negra), que são figuras de fundo geralmente chatas e empatadoras…

       Fell´s Church do livro se transformou em Mystic Falls. Achei bem inteligente nos pouparem do ridículo de fazer com que Stefan e Damon fossem oriundos da Florença Renascentistas. Não, dessa vez, eles são da época colonial dos EUA, e talvez a guerra de secessão substitua a Renascença, o que é uma perspectiva muito mais convincente. Eles também não perderam tempo em tentar fazer com que a aparência dos vampiros fosse muito marcada ou marcada: são dois mauricinhos e pronto (Stefan agora mora com um suposto “tio” e não mais numa pensão, como no livro).

      O que estraga é que os dois atores são de lascar: em meio a todos os bonitinhos insípidos, escolheram justamente um ápice de insipidez: Paul Wesley, que é literalmente um “cara de nada”. Triste, preocupado, apaixonado, apavorado, em luta, em repouso, ele mantém impávido a mesma expressão. Chega a ser cômico que as jovens do lugar se digladiem por ele, tanto que nem insistiram muito nesse aspecto (bem acentuado no livro). Quanto a Ian Somerhalder, quando ele apareceu em alguns episódios de “Smalville”, sem se destacar exatamente pelo talento, chamou atenção pela sua beleza, digamos “pura”, irretocável. Depois, ele participou da primeira temporada de “Lost” e de lá para cá o que aconteceu? Acho que não vão cair no ridículo de colocá-lo como jovem de ensino médio (não é a linha de Damon), como aconteceu com o Duda Nagle, em “Caminho das Índias”. Só que ele está com cara de plástico, parece embotocado, ou maquiado demais, comprometendo toda a sua beleza, ou seja, sua maior qualidade, já que no quesito carisma, personalidade ou talento…

      Apesar do escândalo que é a cara sambada do elenco (Paul Wesley interpretar um jovem no ensino médio é uma piada, e não só ele; pelo menos poderiam adaptar a trama para alguma universidade provinciana), gostei da heroína Nina Dobrey, que no meio da insipidez geral, da inexistência de Wesley e da canastrice de Somerhalder, conseguiu o tom exato de sua Elena. Não sei o que vai ser da série, se ela vai vingar,ou o que vai ser da carreira de Nina Dobreý. Só sei que ela é a  melhor coisa de Vampires Diaries até agora. Ou a única coisa.

           O DESPERTAR, GENÉRICO DE CREPÚSCULO?

    De quando em quando, os vampiros ressurgem dos seus túmulos e assolam a indústria cultural, abocanhando um suculento lucro. O tremendo sucesso dos romances de Stephenie Meyer (Crepúsculo, Lua Nova, Eclipse, Amanhecer), agora prolongado no cinema, é certamente o marco da nova aparição daquelas figuras que nunca morrem. E dia 22, quinta-feira, estréia na Warner, o seriado Vampire Diaries, baseado em outra série de sucesso.                           

    Confesso que não consegui encarar a empreitada de ler Meyer (só Crepúsculo tem 416 páginas, na edição brasileira), contentando-me com seu genérico: O Despertar, primeiro volume de Diários do Vampiro, tem apenas 236 páginas. Curiosamente, embora pareça vir na esteira do sucesso da rival, a série de L.J. Smith é muito anterior. Os livros iniciais foram lançados em 1991. Mas ainda que apresentassem alguma inovação impactante (não apresentam), Smith nunca mais vai poder se livrar da sombra de Meyer.

      O único detalhe que diferencia O Despertar das histórias similares é que seus vampiros sobrevivem ao amanhecer e à luz solar, desde que usem um amuleto protetor, de tal forma que um deles pode freqüentar a escola e se tornar um elemento importante no time local.  Os irmãos Stefan e Damon (um, bonzinho; o outro, malvado) foram transformados no século XV, em Florença, pela menina que os dois amavam e que acirrara a rivalidade entre ambos. Reaparecem em Fell´s Church, na Virginia, como pretendentes de outra garota, Elena, a qual se parece com  a primeira amada. Original, não?  E, como já se convencionou, a figura dos vampiros  é sempre a de um dândi, cavalheiresco e meio lânguido (Damon  é perverso, mas charmoso e atraente).

      É claro que com toda a vivência de séculos dos dois vampiros, e ainda mais tendo vivido na Renascença, eles acham o máximo encanto da vida e da existência se enterrar em cidadezinhas provincianas dos EUA, e viver toda a magia única da vida do ensino médio, com sua obsessão pela popularidade, pela identificação dos “perdedores”, pelos bailes de formatura, pela rainha da festa, e toda aquela avalanche de estereótipos e figuras carimbadas que já vimos em milhares de filmes. O curioso é que Smith tenta nos mostrar que os estudantes que estão no topo da popularidade, os belos, os atléticos, são o equivalente da nobreza de outros tempos.

     As jovens do livro acreditam no “amor eterno”, quando encontrarem o “cara certo”, vão ao cemitério (que estão sempre abertos a qualquer hora) para conversar com  os pais mortos (a protagonista inevitavelmente tem um histórico de tragédia familiar, já notaram?), sempre têm pressentimentos certeiros e  conseguem conciliar todas essas emoções avassaladoras e experiências aterrorizantes (presença de vampiros, sepulcros abertos, assassinatos, etc) com trabalhos escolares, futricas e rivalidades comezinhas. Vampiros com séculos de experiências são abalados pela força de personalidade de jovenzinhas provincianas.    

      Por falar em experiência, só alguém muito jovem pode ler um livro desses e levá-lo minimamente a sério, até como fabulação. Não há nenhum momento em que O Despertar não seja absolutamente previsível: Elena vê um corvo meio ameaçador, e, é claro, descobre no final que se tratava de Damon., o irmão mau. Há um baile de Halloween e qualquer um percebe que um antipático professor de história, com o qual Stefan teve um entrevero, e que está fazendo o papel de uma vítima sacrificial druida, será realmente morto –por Damon—e que herói levará a culpa; há até aquele momento em que, ainda não sabendo que Stefan a ama, e sentindo-se desprezada por ele, Elena vai a um lugar ermo com um boçal da escola e  é quase surrada e estuprada e… é salva por Stefan.

     Smith nos dá a era high school da temática vampiresca (não à toa, o criador da série televisiva é Kevin Williamson, de Dawson´s Creek, aquele seriado com jovens que pareciam velhos, jovens com corações,mentes e almas já senis). Enfim, é o mundo reduzido à visão adolescente. Só falta a aparição do Zach Efron e a trilha sonora do Jonas Brothers. Não há nada de errado em alguém se iniciar na leitura através dessa série de L.J. Smith. Mas qualquer pessoa com mais de 16 anos que se encantar com essa história levantará as mais sérias suspeitas…

_________________________

Serviço: Diários do Vampiro: O Despertar, de  L.J. Smith (EUA, 1991) Tradução de  Ryta Vinagre. Ed. Record, Selo Galera. 236 páginas. R$ 24,90.

(resenha publicada em 20 de outubro de 2009)

INTRODUÇÃO (18.10.09)

      Na época da minha adolescência (estou falando aqui do final dos anos 70), após alguns anos de ostracismo, a figura do vampiro voltava: foi a  época dos antípodas Drácula, de John Badham, e Nosferatu, de Werner Herzog. Este, um belo filme; aquele, uma breguice (embora fosse uma produção “A”, que resgatava Drácula das sub-produções da Hammer inglesa, o filme envelheceu bastante) que trazia Frank Langella posando de vampiro-galã, numa composição que parece hoje meio cômica ou, no mínimo, equívoca, apesar de que o objetivo, na época, era deixar explícito o conteúdo erótico das investidas do vampiro e que as donzelas mordíveis e mordidas no fundo ansiavam por aquilo. Já o vampiro de Herzog era mais na linha da figura patética, quase de dar pena, com sua aparência verdadeiramente de morto-vivo (uma genial encarnação de Klaus Kinski), que Murnau imprimira à tradição pós-Bram Stoker.

     A partir daí, volta e meia surgem ondas vampirescas, algumas avassaladoras (como a série de Anne Rice, uma gay fantasy, que fez sucesso também em filme. Gosto muito do livro Entrevista com o Vampiro e o filme é bom, mas o resto da série me deixa impaciente; o Drácula de Coppola, que uniu com rara felicidade, o conteúdo erótico, o patético, e o aterrorizante, com ênfase nos três, o que o torna a mais ampla abordagem do tema; os vampiros de  de John Carpenter), algumas nem deixando marola (como a série (primeiro no cinema e depois na tevê) Blade. Só não posso deixar de dizer que Anjos da Noite, que está nesse sub-patamar, pelo menos tem a mais bela das vampiras: Kate Beckinsale (que teve, aliás, uma overdose  do gênero, pois participou também do péssimo Van Helsing).

      Hoje novamente estamos em pleno vampirismo. Nos últimos anos, alguns seriados também abraçaram o tema: tivemos, entre outros, Blood Ties (exibido pelos canais AXN e Animax), com um vampiro-dândi, Henry Fitzroy, filho de Henrique VIII, vejam só, e que era companheiro de investigações sobrenaturais da detetive Vickie Nelson. Baseado em livros de Tanya Huff, o seriado tinha como atrativo a deliciosamente sedutora, fugindo de qualquer modismo de sensualidade, Christina Cox, uma das mulheres mais atraentes já vistas em qualquer série, capaz de ser gostosa utilizando comportado coque, cabelo preso e óculos. Tanto que quando vi um episódio pela primeira vez, não botando muita fé, não consegui desgrudar os olhos, não pela trama, pelos personagens (que até não são dos piores), mas pelo incrível magnetismo e pela presença de La Cox.

      O ousado e afrontoso True Blood talvez seja o mais original, ou pelo menos, o mais alternativo entre as releituras do vampirismo no cenário atual. E tem o correspondente masculino de Christina Cox no sentido de explosão de sensualidade e talento: Ryan Kwanten, o desajustado  irmão de Anna Paquin, a protagonista. Que diferença dos aguados Zach Efron e Robert Pattinson, que são bonitos, mas parecem virtuais, bonequinhos de bolo de noiva.

I am so pissed off with myself right now.  I made the mistake of going on to the MySpace page of an old “friend”.  Frenemy, more like.  I haven’t spoken to the guy in nearly two years, and I thought I was over him, but apparently I can’t even view his album covers on MySpace without feeling like I’ve been stabbed.  It’s vile.

I’m now sitting here eating Haagen Dazs and wanting to slap myself.

I really need a hug

Viele kennen Ihn als Henry Fitzroy, den charmanten Vampir aus Blood Ties: Kyle Schmid.

Die ehemalige Polizistin Vicki Nelson verlor ihren Job, nachdem bei ihr Retinopathia pigmentosa, eine
Krankheit die langsam zum Verlust der Sehkraftführt, diagnostiziert wird. Sie zieht sich darauf in das
Privatdetektiv-Business zurück und jagt vorerst Betrüger oder Ehebrecher. Als sie dann auf Henry, einen
Vampir stößt, verändert sich ihr Arbeitsschwerpunkt. Henry Fitzroy ist ein knapp 500 Jahre alter Vampir
aus dem 16. Jahrhundert und trifft Vicky das erste Mal auf einer gemeinsamen Verbrecherjagd. Nachdem
Vicki ihre Angst und Vorbehalte gegenüber Henry verloren hat, ermittelt sie nun im Team nach irdischen,
wie übernatürlichen Lebewesen. Weiter spielt ihr Ex-Partner Mike Celluci eine wichtige Rolle. Anfangs
glaubt er nicht an übernatürliche Kräfte und Wesen. Er meint, dass Vicki mit ihrem Augenlicht auch ihren
Verstand verloren habe. Das Team wird durch Vicki's Assistentin Coreen komplettiert.

(Quelle: www.wikipedia.de)

Auf der RingCon 2009 stand er dem Publikum Rede und Antwort, brachte zahlreiche Frauen zum schwärmen und erzählte uns von seinen aktuellen Filmprojekten: ” My pants are so tight in this movie… it really does not need much imagination” (Anmerkung: Diesen Film müssen wir sehen!)

Außerdem sang er einem Fan ein Geburtstagsständchen und feierte, gemeinsam mit den Con-Besuchern, ausgelassene After-Convention-Partys.

Forks Bloodbank hatte das Glück, ein Einzelinterview mit Kyle zu ergattern. Wir wollen euch das Video natürlich nicht vorenthalten:

In a week, FAR too much has happened for my liking:

- Moron at Mosh hit on my friend
- My nan’s been taken ill
- My dad offered to buy me a pair of jeans (yes, my father, a total twatface, offered to pay for something!)
- One of our flatmates (the hobo) has started to piss us all off by calling the flat a “shithole” and leaving his shit lying around everywhere
- I finally booked my hair in to get cut…which reminds me; I need to find some photos of how I want it…
- My friend went for a bloody test (needles = yum = NOT)
- Things with the aforementioned moron at Mosh are pretty much over, because he is indeed a MORON
- I got into a fight with a petrol pump…they seem to like anyone but me filling my car up…

I can’t think of anything else, but lots more happened, and lots more quite possibly will.  I seem to attract drama quite well…grr…

Ready for a fight - Henry Fitzroy (Kyle Schmid) in Blood Ties. Photo copyright of Lifetime TV

In show business it is not unusual to wish someone good luck before a performance by telling him or her to “break a leg,” metaphorically speaking, of course. Ironically, Kyle Schmid did just that many years ago, and while it meant the end of one potential career, it led to him pursuing a very different line of work.

“I played very high-level soccer in high school and during that time my mom also got me interested in the acting industry,” says Schmid. “However, it was something I did for fun and never really thought it would take off or lead to anything serious. Then when I was 17 years old I broke my leg, which more or less ended my chances of a soccer career, but at the same time they say that everything happens for a reason.

“When I was working on a movie, [producer] Debra Martin Chase, who has since become a dear friend of mine, took me aside one day and said she would like to take me out to lunch. Debra had this look in her eye and told me, ‘This [acting] is probably something you might way to pursue.’ I laughed and said, ‘This is a hobby. It’s a way for me to make a little money to save for university.’ She said, ‘No, you’re good. You’ve got something.’ Debra had me go to Los Angeles where she introduced me to a great acting coach who taught me just how far you can go with exploring your craft. Since then, this [acting] is something I’ve fallen in love with and been very passionate about.”

Henry gets a little long in the tooth. Photo copyright of Lifetime TV

Schmid made his debut in the 1996 feature film Spill (a.k.a. Virus), in which the lives of everyone visiting a U.S. National Park are threatened by an out-of-control truck filled with biological weapons. “My character got to fire a double-barreled shotgun, became infected with a virus, was given a tracheotomy, died and was subsequently carried down a hill by [football player-turned-actor] Brian Bosworth,” recalls the actor. “He actually carried me on one shoulder and a 220-pound guy over the other shoulder while going down a 45-degree slope at a full sprint. As a 13-year-old boy I was thinking, ‘Holy crap, this is pretty neat!’”

Fast Food High, The Pacifier and The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants are among the actor’s other movie credits. On the small screen, he has appeared in several made-for-TV movies as well as guest-spots on such TV programs as I Was a Sixth Grade Alien, Odyssey 5, 1-800-Missing and CSI: Miami. In 2007, Schmid was cast in his first series regular role as Henry Fitzroy, a vampire with a conscience in the short-lived Lifetime TV series Blood Ties.

“Creating a character like that was an interesting challenge because you look at all the portrayals of vampires in movies, but don’t want to copy them,” he notes. “You get an idea of what a vampire is, but the last thing you want to do is play, for example, Tom Cruise in Interview with a Vampire. Quite the opposite; you want to create something new, especially for someone like me who, at 22 years old, was portraying a 450-year-old.

Henry takes on yet another demon of the night in Blood Ties. Photo copyright of Lifetime TV

“Working on Blood Ties and having the audience enjoy what we did was one of my coolest experiences so far as an actor. The fan base is very dear to me and I’m extremely appreciative of all the support they’ve given our cast as well as the writers, directors, etc. Without them there wouldn’t have been a show. It was a ton of hard work on everyone’s part, but it was a situation where we all arrived onset with smiles on our faces. We had a real family and the chemistry among the cast and crew made the series something special.”

This month, the actor can be seen in the Sci-Fi/Horror movie The Thaw (released October 6th, 2009 on DVD) playing Federico Fulce, one of four ecology students who accompany Dr. David Krupien (Val Kilmer) to a remote Arctic research station to examine a thawed out Wooly Mammoth. Unknown to them, the animal is host to a deadly parasite and, after being infected, they must figure out a way to destroy it before it is unleashed on the rest of humanity. The real-world issue of global warming is behind the discovery of the Mammoth in the film and is what initially attracted Schmid to the project.

“I found the whole global warming aspect really interesting because it’s a subject that is becoming increasingly prominent on everybody’s mind nowadays, and the fact that it’s examined within a Sci-Fi type of movie was something that I thought was quite clever,” says the actor.

Federico (Schmid) uses anything at his disposal to stay alive in The Thaw. Photo by Diyah Pera and copyright of Anagram Pictures

“As for my character, I’m always attracted to those that start in one place and end up in a completely different one,” continues Schmid. “With Federico, he goes through quite a journey during the film, from a levelheaded top student in his class, to dealing with the loss of a loved one and, ultimately, the Sci-Fi elements of our story. Our characters’ situation becomes one of fight or flight, a kind of natural instinct to survive and realistically what a person would do under such extreme circumstances.

“We shot the first half of the movie in a great location [in British Columbia] called Williams Lake. It’s absolutely amazing country and we actually filmed on a native [Indian] reserve, which allowed us to meet some of the most generous and fascinating people. Their history and culture are beautiful and the stories that they told us on the drives to set were just incredible. At one point, some of us got to go into a ’sweat,’ which is a big thatched hut that is in total darkness. It has these hot coals in the middle of it that cause you to sweat, while people around you are playing drums and humming. It’s a very interesting out-of-body experience. They treated us so kindly and were wonderful to us. At the end of it all I think everyone had a very spiritual experience in the sense of them taking us in and allowing us to become part of their culture.”

When asked about his Thaw co-stars, Schmid has nothing but good things to share. “Val Kilmer is a fascinating individual and it’s clear to see where his talent lies,” he says. “He plays a major part at the end of the film with my character and it was cool having the chance to work with him. Martha MacIsaac [Evelyn Krupien] is a terrific actress and someone who has been in the industry for a long time but our paths had never crossed before this. Viv Leacock [Bart] always had such an amazing and positive outlook. He’s a family man and he brought his children – a baby boy and three-year-old daughter -to set.

Federico and Ling Chen (Steph Song) in The Thaw. Photo by Diyah Pera and copyright of Anagram Pictures

“Coincidentally, prior to this movie, Aaron Ashmore [Atom Galen] and I finished shooting Deep Cove [a.k.a. Fear Island], so between the two projects we got to hang out together for basically two-and-a-half months. We went from that movie, which was a fun but gruelling project to shoot as well, to this one, and to work with someone who you know is going to be right there with you is like going to war with someone who you’ve already been to war with. You want this person by your side, so it was fantastic.”

The actor is equally complimentary of Thaw director Mark A. Lewis, who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Michael. “Mark and I got together during the audition process and were able to chat and toss ideas back and forth to each other,” says the actor. “I think we both realized we were on the same page with a number of things, so when it came to working on the film, he was very open to, if necessary, rewriting a scene. And because he wrote the script with his brother, it was like being directed by someone who’d already envisioned the entire process, which he had. So everything flowed. We’d look at each other during a scene and I would know exactly what Mark was thinking, which was great.”

Federico finds himself in a tight spot in The Thaw. Photo by Diyah Pera and copyright of Anagram Pictures

As the actor mentioned, before starting work on The Thaw, he and Aaron Ashmore (Jimmy Olsen in Smallville) were in front of the cameras filming the upcoming horror thriller Deep Cove. In it, five college students spend spring break marooned on an island where they are stalked by a crazed killer.

“Like Federico in The Thaw, my character of Tyler in Deep Cove is someone who also has a great story arc,” enthuses Schmid. “He’s completely different from Federico in that Tyler is a spoiled little jerk who has had everything handed to him and gets away with everything he does wrong, which is probably every adolescent’s dream. It’s tough to describe his arc without giving away the entire plot of the movie, but basically he goes from realizing that having everything handed to him without being penalized for what he might have done wrong is a very ignorant way to live life. I mean, without any real-life experience of knowing what’s right and wrong, you’re never sure how far the consequences might go.”

No matter what character he is playing, Schmid is all about turning in his best performance and having a good time along the way. “When it comes right down to it, the most rewarding part of acting is walking off a set every day knowing you left your best work on the dance floor, so to speak, and smiling while you’re doing it,” he muses. “For me, it’s about taking it all in as well as appreciating the fact that I get to do a job that any number of people would love to do and that at the same time I’m enjoying myself.”

For more info on The Thaw, check out the following Facebook link – http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Thaw/44321861106

Steve Eramo

As noted above, Blood Ties photos copyright of Lifetime TV and The Thaw photos by Diyah Pera and copyright of Anagram Pictures, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Langsam wächst die Vorfreude auf DAS Highlight für jeden Fantasyfan:  Die Ringcon 2009 im schönen Bonn. Vom 2.-4.10. wird den Fans im Maritim Hotel so manches geboten. Auf gehts in den Vorbereitungs-Endspurt: Koffer packen, Akkus aufladen und Fragen übersetzen.

Da sich seit unserem letzten Bericht einiges geändert hat, hier noch einmal die wichtigesten Facts:

- Stargäste aus “Twilight” in diesem Jahr:

• Christian Serratos, Edi Gathegi, Daniel Cudmore und Alex Meraz

- Stargäste aus “Harry Potter”:

• Tom Felton, Matthew Lewis

+ viele weitere Stars z.B. aus den “Herr der Ringe” Filmen oder der Vampirserie “Blood Ties”

-  Bobby Long sowie Maite Itoiz und John Kelly geben ein Konzert auf dem Vampirball am Freitag Abend

- Es wird Autogrammstunden und Fotosessions mit den Stars geben.

- Neben den üblichen Merchandise Artikeln wird es dieses Jahr auch brandneue Artikel zu Twilight, Harry Potter und co. geben.

weitere Infos findet ihr auf: www.ringcon.de

Will vampires ever die?  Technically, no they won’t, depending on who you’re reading—unless they get staked, or decapitated.  Sometimes even that’s not enough to kill them.  And that appears to be part of their charm.

Something draws us to them, that’s for sure.  Vampires in popular fiction are like weeds in my backyard.  An unstoppable force that has nothing to do with nature.  It came together due to a magical number of coincidences and now look at it!

Vampires weren’t always so sexy and hard to look away from.  As little as fifteen years ago, they were the ugly bad guys of horror and fantasy fiction, and had nothing to do with romance, except in a few rare cases.  Bella Lugosi was the clichéd, overweight, pasty Dracula, and there was nothing remotely sexy about him at all.  The idea of Lugosi licking your neck and sharing your blood, a la Sookie Stackhouse, is nauseating.

But that was the function of vampires back then.  They were creatures of fear.  The blood drinking was supposed to incite disgust.  Any sexual overtones about their habits was supposed to send women reeling in horror at the very idea.

What changed?

Well, Anne Rice came along with her vampires with a conscience, and that was the first pebble to begin to fall.

And in 1992 Bram Stoker’s Dracula was turned into a movie that concentrated on the sexy, hip aspects of the old myth and in that same year a silly little movie called Buffy the Vampire Slayer was made and pretty much promptly ignored.

Two years later, Anne Rice’s wonderful book, Interview with the Vampire, was turned into a movie with sexy actors, and the trickle become a flood.  Suddenly everyone was looking at vampires in a new way.

Three years latter, Buffy rose to prominence again.  Buffy the Vampire Slayer started life as a television series in 1997 and would become one of the most popular series ever, lasting until 2003.  No matter what you say about the series’ shortcomings, it popularized vampires in a way that turned the flood into a thundering Niagara torrent.  Vampires were no longer just popular.  They were now sexy romantic lovers with a dark side that romance readers couldn’t get enough of.

But Buffy was just the beginning.  Suddenly, vampires were everywhere.  Charlaine Harris’s first Sookie Stackhouse book, Dead Until Dark, was released in 2001.  Ellora’s Cave opened its doors in 2000 and has been continuously publishing erotic vampire romances since they started business.  JR Ward’s Dark Lover came out in 2005.  I’m not going to begin to try and list even the most popular vampire romances in print.  It isn’t possible.  There’s far too many, and there are review sites devoted purely to vampire romances, which proves how popular they are.

At the recent Romance Writers of America national conference, a poll was taken amongst acquisition editors of the major New York publishing houses.  All but one of them are still keen to acquire paranormal romances, including vampire tales.  As they are currently buying manuscripts for release dates anywhere up to two years ahead, it’s fair to say that vampire romances aren’t going to dematerialize any time soon.

Then there’s the TV shows that feature vampires, including Angel, the spin off from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which ran from 1999 to 2004.  Blade, that was based on the original movie.  Blood Ties, with the gorgeous Henry Fitzroy.  Forever Knight, Kindred: The Embraced, Moonlight and now, True Blood.

Why are vampires now so hot and sexy and so damned popular?

So what makes vampires so hot and sexy?  Why are they so popular?  Why won’t they die?

I thought I had a good idea about that, as I write books featuring vampires.  But I did some research into it anyway, and came up with some really interesting answers to supplement my own.

Suite 101 attempted to answer the question in an article that cited a lot of sources, that basically came down to the theory that love these days is too free and easy, and doesn’t have any conflict any more.  Vampires, on the other hand, provide a type of conflict that makes them attractive to readers – they’re a “no you shouldn’t!” source of romantic hero.

Well, I suppose…  But are women really that naive anymore?  I’d like to think we’ve all collectively learned to process our thought patterns a bit better than that.

A group of romance readers tried to nut it out for themselves on Yahoo Canada Answers, and their collective conclusions were that vampires were so attractive as romantic mates because of their innate sexuality and because you got to live forever when you fell in love with one.

The last point is actually open to debate.  Although I suspect the vast majority of human partners are “turned” by their vampire mates in paranormals, just because the vampire doesn’t want to be left alone, why does it always have to be that way?  ~Spoiler Alert~ The Sookie Stackhouse series certainly hasn’t so far concluded with Sookie being converted to a vampire.  In fact, she has vehemently argued against it.  In fact, it would make a different and rather delicious romance if the couple argued for the “death together” option.

One of the more thoughtful and in-depth articles I came across, at Associated Content, provided these suggestions for reasons why we just can’t get enough of the fanged heroes:  Their immortality, their strength and speed, their beauty, the fact that they bonded to their soulmates forever, and their very useful telepathy.

I have to argue with at least a few of those points, because not every fictional version of vampire has those traits.  Some vampires are bloody ugly — being turned isn’t an automatic pass into the halls of godlike beauty.  Bonding with soulmates isn’t always a trait, and neither is telepathy.  It changes from author to author and fictional universe to fictional universe, although so far nearly every universe and vampire I’ve met has extraordinary strength and speed.

But one of the most interesting points that Brodgesell made in the article was that today’s vampires are generally domesticated.  No more human bloodfeasts.  Harris’s vamps drink True Blood; in Underworld, the vampires developed their own synthetic blood.  JW Ward’s Brotherhood fed off each other.  This is one trait that would make romance audiences recoil, and it has been tamped down and minimized.

Blake Thompson pointed out on his blog that every culture has a vampire myth of some sort, and that it was probably the allure of the forbidden, the immortal and the bloodlust that drew people to this myth.  That, and the sex and seduction.

He went on to observe that today’s goths have adopted the vampire myth for themselves, along with the sex-and-seduction mythology that imbibes it.  The 1960’s had a direct parrallel:  the hippies, and their free love philosophy.  Goths are today’s version of hippies.

Which is interesting, but doesn’t exactly answer the question.

I think the New York Daily News got closer when they said of the vampire that “He’s got a terrible reputation, he’s gorgeous, he’s dangerous and most importantly, he’s vulnerable. He lives on the fringe of society.”  Their theory is that vampires need to be close to other humans.  Their allure to human lovers is their danger:  They could lose control and bite…and that could either be fatal, or could turn you, or have other unpleasant outcomes.

All in all, that makes vampires lonely, mildly dangerous outcasts, and somewhat pathetic, which doesn’t jibe with the obsessive popularity they have with romance readers.  If that was all there was to them, readers would soon get sick of them.  You can put up with so much of a stray dog’s company before it starts to wear.

I think the best answer I came across was on Harlequin’s paranormal romance blog. They proposed that vampires are so sexy because a) they’re the ultimate bad boy — after all, they’re actually soulless, and they drink blood.  b)  They’re frightening, yet vulnerable (see the New York Daily News article for more on that one), c) they’re usually immortal and d) they can usually be reformed.

The last one, (d), was one I haven’t seen anywhere else in my research, yet it’s so blindingly obvious in hindsight, I wanted to smack my forehead.  This is one of the key ingredients of a damn good romance.  A bad boy hero that is reformed by love is what makes those romances work so well.  In the case of vampires, name any of the vampire romances you’ve read that you love and adore, and I guarantee that somewhere along the line the heroine has managed to bring the hero to heel in some way.  It doesn’t have to be a complete reformation, but in some way she will have changed him.

In Summary

There were a lot of suggestions out there for what makes a vampire a great romantic hero, and for why they’re so sexy.  I had to discard those reasons that were author-specific — for example, telepathy, which doesn’t apply to every vampire in every authors’ novel.

So here are all the reasons that make vampires sexy and popular in romance novels, and why they’ll be around for a good while yet.

– They’re frightening, yet vulnerable

– Their blood-drinking habits are sexually oriented.

– They’re usually immortal

– They usually have extraordinary strength and speed

– They can usually be reformed

- They’re the Ultimate Bad Boy

The gauntlet has been thrown down at Grown in My Heart. What adoption issues have touched you that no one told you about?

Neat question. How can I begin.

Nobody explained about the baby patch. Comes from nowhere. Makes no sense. Sure, we knew about the one-child policy and abandonment, and how traditional cultural values and the policy clashed for whoosh—a whole bunch of abandoned girls, but no one really cared that they had parents. Eighty percent of them married according to Kay Johnson, author of Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son. No one put a face on them and told us this was something we should start thinking about right away, because our kids would. See next point.

No one explained that people don’t just get adopted and have amnesia. They remember stuff. They have questions. They have connections and feelings you are not a part of. All you have to do is watch your child grow to be aware of that.

No one explained that this was a transaction. But that’s OK. That much I sort of knew. But stupid as I was in thinking the money was going for burcaucratic perqs, I never imagined the orphan manufacturing chain.

No one explained that hundreds of thousands of Chinese families would quietly take in abandoned children, largely girls. In fact, the agencies proclaimed the opposite—that the Chinese would never adopt anyone, that blood ties were simply too important to allow it. Bullshit.

No one explained that original families, especially moms, would think about their kids every day. Hard to believe I fell for it. I did. And I am so sorry. I can never feel that way again and experience outrage whenever anyone attacks birthparents. Please let me quote Michelle: Are our children’s parents family to us? Or are they those people? Unless we know different–really different, not hearsay different–they have to be family. What else would they be? It’s sad to hear adoptive parents gloating over the fact that their kids have blown the other family away. “To my inexpressible relief” was the way one person put it when she found out her kid didn’t want anything to do with his first mom. Huh?

No one explained to me how much I would love my daughter, completely and hopelessly. Perhaps the biggest lesson of all.

Please participate in this important carousel and tell us what you think here or on your blog.