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

I got to watch New Moon on the day after the premiere, and I’m telling you, the whole experience was nuts. As soon as I sat down to watch the movie, and the New Moon title screen came up, the rest of the audience started to scream. I thought to myself, jeez, what a bunch of crazy fan girls. Now keep in mind that while I like the books and the movies, I will forever be a Vampire Chronicles fan. Anyway, again, everybody screamed when Edward and Jacob came on, as well as when Jacob took off his shirt for the first time. Now, I can understand why everybody was screaming when Jacob took his shirt off for the first time, but why for Edward? I’m sorry, but I think that Edward is a pasty-ass pansy. Anyway, overall, I think that the movie was ok. There were quite a bit of funny parts but I think the movie is just a bunch of notable scenes from the book that was just pieced together and made into a movie. I gotta admit though, it’s very Chris Weitz. I say that because it reminded me of the movie that he did before, The Golden Compass. Both The Golden Compass and New Moon were edited very similarly. Anyway, don’t let my opinion deter you from watching the movie.

In my Lestat vs. Edward pictures post, one of the pictures that I mentioned had a reaction from Armand. It made me think. There’s a similarity between Armand/Marius and Bella/Edward relationships. The similarity is that Armand and Bella were both humans that were turned into vampires by their respective vampire lovers, Marius and Edward. I didn’t really realize that until I saw Armand’s reaction in that picture. I just thought that was interesting.

The Dark Goddess, Self Portrait

To go into the dark with a light is to know the light

To know the dark, go dark, without sight,

And find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,

And is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.

– Wendell Berry, To Know the Dark

This photo is from a shapeshifting series that I am currently working on.  This series is loosely based on the legend of the Valkyries, but it is inspired by the iconography and energy of the all of the dark goddesses. Lilith, Inanna, Pele, Medusa, Kali, Sekhmet, Hecate and all of the goddess archetypes that move in and through the shadows. I am especially interested in the dark goddesses and their relationship to shapeshifting and ravens, so the Valkyrie archetype was an apt choice, since the Valkyries are most closely associated with ravens. Other images from this series will show the goddess shapeshifting into a raven.

In the image above, I wanted to portray the goddess as she was portrayed in ancient art. In particular, I was attracted to the Ancient Egyptian Nile Goddess (or, “Bird Goddess”) since this statue typifies the exaggerated female form that is often seen in depictions of the goddess (and it also follows the woman-as-bird idea). It also is reminiscent of a wasp or bee form.   This is a very difficult series to work on from a technical standpoint, because the technique I am using to achieve this effect  is very unusual and physically difficult. Like all of my series, all of these effects are done in-camera, and even though the background looks like a Photoshop “texture” it is actually a cement wall that I am projecting my shadow onto. Of the hundreds of photos I shot in order to capture the essence of the archaic goddess form, this one ended up being a perfect match for what I had envisioned. Her hips are overly exaggerated in contrast to the rest of her form, and her arms are in the morphing stage (in other photos they will become wings). There are also ghostly remnants of facial features- an effect which was a happy accident.

This is a very interesting series for me to execute, because it literally feels like shape-shifting to me-more than any of the other work I have done. I have been tapping into the very dark, shadowy, primal places lately. This series is a result of my own journey into the realm of the dark goddess.

I was looking up Edward Cullen on Wikipedia and I saw that it said that Edward was a Byronic hero. Because of that, I clicked on the link that explained what a Byronic hero was. Anyway, as I was reading the characteristics, it did sounds like Edward As I continued down the website, it mentioned that Lestat from the Vampire Chronicles and the Phantom from the Phantom of the Opera were Byronic heros as well, but I digress with the Phantom. That made me think about how much Lestat and Edward were alike in the sense that they are both Byronic heros. I think that’s the reason why I don’t like either character. I mean, it’s not that I hate them, but it’s just that they’re not my favorites characters from their respective series. Anyway, I think that’s the reason why I don’t like Lestat and Edward is the fact that they’re Byronic heros.

In my search for any Lestat vs. Edward stuff, I found quite a few pictures that made fun of Edward and the Twilight series or making fun of the fact the Twilight series “outshines” the Vampire Chronicles. The one that I found to be the most funny was the one where it showed Edward and Bella together in the first box, and the following three boxes showing Louis, Lestat, and Armand telling their opinions on the series. I found that Lestat’s and Armand’s reactions to be the most funny. Their reactions were classic Lestat and Armand. Anyway, the next one that I thought was funny was the one where Lestat as picking on Edward. I just found those funny. By the way, you can find the originals at this site.

I was bored recently and was on my computer I don’t know why but I typed Lestat vs. Edward into Google to see what I would get. Anyway, a lot of stuff that popped up were drawings of people making fun of Edward through Lestat’s point of view, and videos and articles asking who would win in a no-holds bar fight. I immediately thought that Lestat would definitely win. I say that because, after looking up their powers as a refresher, while Edward has super strength, super speed, and can read minds, Lestat can do or has all of that, plus so much more. Lestat also has pyrokinesis, the ability to fly, and he’s telekinetic. Plus, he killed an entire wolf pack by himself, albeit with the help of his two mastiff dogs. Anyway, I really think that Lestat would definitely win the fight against Edward, and that’s assuming Lestat doesn’t fall in love with Edward first, which I doubt would actually happen, and that Lestat doesn’t hurt Bella.