Blitzkid, Genus Unknown

(I considered filing this under our old ‘Vampire Dance Party’ heading, but I’m not sure how many of y’all would dance to it )

If a picture is worth a thousand words (and in this case, it probably is)…

…I probably don’t need to quote the publisher’s summary, but what the Hell!

The Classic Regency Romance—Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!

Indeed. That’s pure, weapons-grade awesome in book form. Click on the photo for a link to the publisher’s site.

[link via Andrew Sullivan, title via Alien Sex Fiend]

So, um… talk like one. Or not. But for today, at least, the site’s been piratized…

edit @ 23:27 PDT – okay, close enough to midnight… putting this toy away until next year

I’d seen the True Blood web site and cryptic messages on different vampire sites and thought it looked extremely cheesy. Even as obsessed as I am with all things vampire, it didn’t hold or grab my interest. Which does not bode well, in my opinion for the television product behind it. From The New York Times:

HBO’s new vampire series from Alan Ball, the Oscar-winning writer behind “American Beauty” and the hit series “Six Feet Under,” will not start until September. But for a select group of horror film enthusiasts, the story has been under way for weeks.

On May 21, HBO and Campfire, a small independent agency founded by two of the creators of the 1999 film “The Blair Witch Project,” began sending cryptic letters in black envelopes sealed with red wax to people who might generously be described as pillars of the goth community: horror film bloggers, subscribers to the horror movie magazine Fangoria and the like.

The letters were written in dead languages like Babylonian and Ugaritic, but — to no one’s surprise — the recipients duly pitched in to translate them. The group effort, carried out on blogs and message boards, led to a macabre Web site guarded by a beautiful vampire, where visitors could view short prequel episodes to HBO’s new series and learn about a product called Tru Blood that obviates the need for vampires to feast on humans.

The campaign for the show, “True Blood,” based on a series of vampire books by Charlaine Harris, is shaping up to be the most extensive that HBO has ever undertaken.

By the time the program begins, the promotional effort will be four months old, having required the full-time attention of six Campfire employees who are monitoring message boards, maintaining a fake blog and coordinating the precisely timed release of new materials. In addition, 20 freelancers are working on other technical aspects of the campaign. HBO and Campfire began plotting the effort in February.

Hope the television series is much better than the marketing. The disappearances of the vampires in the ongoing online storyline seemed more campy than bloodstirring.

I’m surprised no one’s mentioned this here yet – Blair Witch Project director Daniel Myrick’s latest movie, The Objective (heavy Flash). The (as of this time) one comment on the YouTube trailer takes the obvious cheap shot: Predator meets Afghanistan. Personally, I think that’s a touch too glib – but we’ll see.

Looks pretty good to me! Wired (which is probably where I first learned of the film) has an interview with Myrick here.

Tentacles are serious business.” so sayeth the LatteTimes when alerting us to some visual wordplay fun at LOLTHULHU and “Lovecraftian” auditory pleasures….

GPod Audio Books – Call of the Cthulhu

Enjoy!

Seattle Children’s Theatre has just announced their 2008-2009 season lineup. In October, they’re presenting an adaptation of…

…George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead.

TEH AWESOME!

(*sigh* Unfortunately, there’s no way The Boy would sit through that…)

I imagine it went something like this:

“It’s Showgirls meets Day of the Dead.”

Yes folks, a friend of mine just sent me a link to Sony Pictures’ upcoming limited theatrical release; Robert Englund and Jenna Jameson star in…

wait for it…

Zombie Strippers

…

Zombie. Strippers. There really is nothing I can add.

I have a few wax cylinders I found in a wooden box years ago along with newspapers and other items from the 1890s. For a long time I have held the theory that vampires would be like most people when it comes to music. That is, the music they would listen to most is the music they grew up with in their formative years. As the decades come and go, they might find new musical interests to join their old ones but would still hold on to their favorite songs and performers from the past.

For the Victorian-era vampires out there – or those interested in them – here is a great collection of cylinder recordings from the 1890s through the early part of the 20th century.

Hat tip to jabonko.

After all the hype about absinthe, I wonder if it is worth it.

UPDATE: There is always wine.