Archive for Vampire Trivia
Are Vampires for Real?
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I know this is going to sound really strange to many of you, but I do get this question now and again because of the work I do reviewing vampire books both here and elsewhere. Every now and then I get a reader asking me if vampires are real.
Now vampire bats are real, and the idea of a living dead creature we now call a vampire has been around for quite some time. Does that mean that there are real honest-to-goodness vampires walking around the earth? My initial answer, of course, is no. But then there are some interpretations of what exactly a vampire is.
A Site for Vampires to “Come Out”
That was when I got curious and discovered this site for “real vampires”. It tries to explain that there are vampires, and even gives some more or less scientific explanations for why they do exist even if we can’t prove it. I wouldn’t have spent two minutes on it if it weren’t for my curiosity in how much information they had gathered on this site.
They even list clubs that meet in various cities to party down, vampire style. Now, to my mind these are simply “goth clubs” and I know they have been around for a while. It is probably fun to go to one, dressed all in goth rags and pretend you are a vampire for the night. I have actually been to one for fun, and they are very atmospheric. But does anyone who go really think they are a vampire? I don’t buy it.
But heck, check them out. The site lists quite a few clubs, talks about how to “come out” as a vampire and why you should, and even has a letter from “a real slayer”. Now, until Buffy I had not even heard much about slayers, but now I guess they are just part of the lore.
So if you are at all curious about vampires, think you might be one, or want to hang out with vampires or people who think they are or want to be vampires, this here site is just the ticket! It just goes to prove that there is a place for everyone on the web – even vampires.
A Visual Guide to Vampire Hunters
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Okay, I ran across the infographic and found it so funny I just had to share it even though it isn’t something we generally do here at Vampire Librarian. Infographics have become the new cool way to get information across to people in a fast visual way and I would guess that is was only a matter of time before someone decided to take the top vampire hunters in genre literature and make an infographic about them.
Now the basic categories like their strengths and weaknesses I could have predicted since that is always a big part in any story that features vampire hunters. And of course, if you are a fan of reading vampire hunters novels you know that each of them tends to have their own favorite weapon of choice. But the option that really cracked me up for this vampire hunters infographic was how long it would take each individual vampire hunter to kill Edward Cullen. You have to admit that this has got to be a great way to express how lethal they are, and I can’t think of a better vamp to offer up than old Edward.
My thanks to the folks at i-am-bored.com for putting this up on their site so I could find it. If there was ever a pictorial we needed here at vampire librarian on how our favorite vampire hunter would fare against the likes of Twilight vamp Edward, we now have it in spades! And it is too cute for words!
All About Vampires and Advertising
Posted by:So you think you know all about vampires, don’t you? You know they drink blood and you know they can look pretty cool in television shows like True Blood or movies like Dark Shadows (okay, Depp looks good at least). But if you were someone who truly knows all about vampires, you would know that there are some pretty cool vampire ads out there that take advantage of our current love affair with the fanged ones. The one below is a great example, using the old 50′s orange juice ads as a starting point.
Don’t you just love that vampire graphic? I saw this one on a blogpost and thought, what if there are other vampire ads? I think that because I write about vampires pretty much every day I must know all about vampires and pop culture, but that ad made me wonder. So I did a search and found out an interesting piece of information about our favorite horror creature.
Namely that True Blood did this very clever sub-promotion thing when they started their second season. The ads were clever and once I found one I had to look for more. To refresh the memory of those of us who like to believe we know all about vampires, including the ads, here is a look at them again:
I don’t recall this one, but love Monster’s take on the ad campaign.
Since I really have no trouble at all seeing Bill and especially Erik on one of these bad boys this ad almost makes sense!
But do vampires really need insurance with their ability to heal and being the undead and all? I wasn’t sure how this one really played into the whole vampire ad campaign concept.
Okay, for all you purists that really want to show off that you know all about vampire culture and the ads that go with it, here is an ad that was run in New Zealand when they were just getting ready to start running the first season of True Blood. I think it is pretty clever, and hey – if you don’t need those stakes for your friendly neighborhood vampire, you can always use them to stir up a can of paint!
And who can forget that very fun superbowl ad they ran last year that came complete with a group of partiers who certainly knew how to have a good time. For those of us in the know when it comes to anything all about vampires, the case on the floor of the geek with the nasty headlights was the big clue.
And finally, there is the very fun dating service ad that True Blood did a while back. I had to laugh when I read the comments on YouTube asking if this was a real dating service. I love my vamps – but I do know fiction when I see it! Or maybe that was just wishful thinking on the part of a true fan.
So you can see, there are some that love to brag that we know all about vampires, right down to what season of True Blood exposed that vampires can eat food so long as it has blood in it (Season 2), like the blood soup or blood ice cream shown in the TV show. For us there will always be some fun little inside jokes to pick up on like these ads that just make our little vampire-filled lives that much more of a picnic.
Those Wealthy Vampires in Fiction
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Did you know that every year Forbes Magazine, that publication darling of the Wall Street Set, puts together a list of the top 15 wealthiest fictional characters? It is true, and this year one of our vampires in fiction made it in the top ten. How that for the strangest of vampire facts yet?
We all know how it works for the regular list they do – the top 20 or top 50 wealthiest people that seems to always have Microsoft Prez Bill Gates on it. I would imagine that putting that list together is fairly straight-forward since we tend to know individual wealth for people like this.
Well here is some Twilight trivia for you. How do you calculate how wealthy someone like Carlisle Cullen is? I mean, this isn’t even a real person. They say that to even be considered, the character has to be known to be rich. We can see how that makes Clan leader Cullen an obvious choice. But calculating his wealth, even with the best facts for vampires in fiction, they don’t actually give us anything to work on for this. My money is on this being just someone at Forbes deciding to have some fun.
But Cullen did place third on the list with a worth listed at $36.3 billion based on the savings he started in 1670 and building it from there. At least someone at Forbes has their facts for vampires in fiction straight. Forbes says they based the net value on source material on the character that told them things like probable investments. They then valued that investment against real-world commodities and share price movements. And my knowledge of Twilight trivia says that Cullen has had lots of time to recover from any losses along the way.
So who placed first, you ask? Well, that would be Smaug, the dragon in Lord of the Rings. The movie prequel isn’t even out yet and the guy is worth $62 billion.
Twilight: A Few Fun Facts
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Well, now that the shouting and craziness has finally died down about the movie, I thought it would be fun to share a few notes I found recently from when they were out here in Vancouver shooting the film.
These are in no particular order of importance, but they are fun to think about:
- The make-up took over two hours every day for all the principle actors, including those hand-painted contacts.
- They may have looked cool, but with the freezing temps we were having in Vancouver, as soon as a shot was done, Taylor would make a bee-line for the heaters and grab a blanket. Man- that guy just couldn’t stay warm!
- Stephanie Meyer didn’t care for the look of the original engagement ring, so she sketched out what she thought it should look like. Lucky for her there are some incredibly talented designers there and they had a new one, made to order, in time for the shoot.
- To make the vampires look like they are running incredibly fast, a harness is used to practically drag the actors along when they are running in the forest. Doesn’t sound scary, but you try it!
- They had to re-shoot the original “tent scene” because the first time around they didn’t feel it was erotic enough. Yup- needed more steamy thoughts – I guess.
And finally- this just in:
At a chat with an un-named blogger there was much talk about the casting for The Hunger Games and Kellen Lutz admitted that he really wanted to read for it but was told no. Apparently there is a rule that if you are involved in the Twilight Franchise you cannot cross over and act on what is expected to be the next big one – The Huger Game. Too bad – cause Kellen would have been great!
That’s it for now – more chit chat on all our favorite vamps soon!
Title: Love You to Death: The Unofficial Companion to the Vampire Diaries
Author: Crissy Calhoun
Release: September 2010
Pages: 240
If you watch Vampire Diaries, then you know what a great show it is. It is so much more than just another Gothic retelling of vampires, and because it is there is so much more to it then what you see on the surface of the show.
This unofficial companion to the series will give you more insight into the characters, the background on the development of the original book series as well as on the author L.J. Smith and why she decided to write The Vampire Diaries. It is also packed with info on all the actors in the series, explorations of the different themes in the first season and of course episode by episode discussions.
In Love You to Death you will also get a look at the thinking behind the adaptation of the books into the show with great in-depth interviews with show creators Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec. There is even a section where they interview some of the biggest fans and bloggers of the show, and of course plenty of great photos.
Vampires in My Headlights!
Posted by:Okay, you know that vampires have become just another part of the culture, and in some ways an accepted part of the culture, when a superbowl ad is made that features them. That’s right, you heard me – this year we are gonna see an ad running on the superbowl that features our favorite creatures – vampires!
It is not the scariest depiction of vampires, that’s for sure. In fact, the first time I saw it I had to laugh out loud. But hey – Audi makes some pretty cool cars and I love that they used vampires as a way to show that their latest headlights are just like daylight. In fact, for a bunch of vampires who just like to party, a bit too much like sunlight.
Check it out!
Help Fund a Vampire Film!
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Now is your chance to be part of Hollywood. Well, not really but at least be a part of an indie vampire film and help to make it happen. Our pals over at Suburban Vampire let us in on this fun little opportunity. Check this out-
There is an indie company that is making a film about Dracula, but set in modern times. It is going to be called Solid Venom (catchy title, don’t you think?). They are looking for fans of the vampire genre to help them raise the funds for things like insurance, makeup, catering, set design and other production goodies. Even the little guys need this kind of stuff. Having worked (briefly) at a horror film company myself called Full Moon Entertainment, I can tell you that everything costs money. Way more money than it should.
So if you have ever wanted to get in on the ground floor of a little indie horror film, especially one that is going to be doing vampires, here is your chance! If this sounds like something you’d like a piece of the action on, then head on out to their site
In the meantime, here is a bit of a trailer to let you know your money would not go to waste, that these guys really mean to make a vampire film:
