Thursday Thirteen - 229 - 13 Ways to Take it to the Mat - Vampire Smackdown 2011

Welcome to the pre-show of my Resistance is Futile Blog Tour of the Universe. In just over a month, my debut Dark Ages vampire novel Saint Sanguinus will be available for purchase.

Until then, let's find our ringside seats for the ultimate showdown between these fearsome vampires who have inspired me over the years.

Here's how the Smackdown works.

There are six bouts between twelve combatants. PLEASE VOTE on each bout in the comments section.

Come back next week to watch our six victors take on one another in a sudden death match.

*bell ringing*

In this corner...



1 - Dracula









versus



2 - Viktor (Underworld)







Voting is now closed.

~~~

Round 2













3 - Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles)

versus



4 - Eric Northman (True Blood)














Voting is now closed.

~~~

Round 3



5 - Jesse Hooker (Near Dark)




versus



6 - Bill Compton (True Blood)



Voting is now closed.

~~~

Round 4



7 - Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)









versus



8 - David (The Lost Boys)







Voting is now closed.

~~~

Round 4



9 - Angel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)





versus













10 - Barnabas Collins (Dark Shadows)


Voting is now closed.

~~~

Round 5













11 - Dean Winchester (for one episode of Supernatural)


versus



12 - Jerry (Fright Night)










Voting is now closed.

~~~

13 - Please join me next week for Vampire Smackdown 2011's qualifying round for the title of Ultimate Vampire.

Through the Opera Glasses - 69 - A Very Supernatural Christmas

Happy New Year!

My husband and I have just returned from a wonderful Christmas and New Year's holiday with his family in Toronto. More on that later in the week. I'll be putting my Eye Candy Thursday Thirteen series on hold for a few weeks in order to share our trip and other goodies with you, so do drop by on Thursday if you'd like to see what we got up to in the Big City.

Christmas money sent us dashing off to our favorite haunts, and because we're currently in the midst of a Supernatural obsession, we ended up with what you see here in our luggage:

















Gift cards for Chapters brought Supernatural companions for seasons 3, 4 and 5.

The Boxing Day blowout sale at Wal Mart got us the DVD box sets for seasons 1, 2 and 3.

And a last hurrah at HMV found the missing season 4 that was nowhere to be found at Wal Mart.










Now I can get my daily dose of Dean and Sam any time I want. My muse is currently very insistent on daily Dean and Sam.


















Did you indulge in any book/movie/TV/music obsessions this Christmas?

Announcing:

This year A Piece of My Mind will be changing up a few features. One of them is posting every second week for Poetry Train Monday, alternating with Through the Opera Glasses, which used to appear on Tuesday's.

Thursday Thirteen - 185 - 13 Ways to Admire Jensen Ackles

1 - A chiseled face with a beautiful mouth, eyes that don't miss a thing and reveal so much, and an attitude that can't be harnessed - Jensen Ackles was obviously born to share his many attributes with far more than the hometown crowd.


















2 - Jensen Ackles - currently appearing as Dean Winchester on Supernatural

6' 1"

Eyes - Hazel/green

Hair - Dark blonde

Type - Athletic / Early 30's

He works as an actor / Director / Producer

Works in television / Film / Stage


















3 - Jensen grew up in Richardson, Texas, the son of actor Alan Ackles. He modelled as a young boy and moved into acting for television after graduating from school.

He worked steadily, receiving Daytime Emmy nominations for his work on Days of Our Lives. Aside from appearances on Dawson's Creek, most of Jensen's work has been in the science fiction / paranormal genre:

Dark Angel
Smallville
Supernatural
My Bloody Valentine remake

Next photo is straying into Not Safe For Work territory...























4 - Jensen keeps in tiptop shape for the grueling stunt schedule required of his role on Supernatural. A strong sports background almost led to a career in sports medicine.

Luckily for us, the acting genes won out.



























5 - No matter how delicious Mr. Ackles may be, he's strictly eye candy, ladies - he belongs to Mrs. Ackles, Louisiana-born actress Danneel Harris.

Also a former model and gymnast, Danneel met Jensen on the set of Ten Inch Hero, an independent film they made in 2007.














6 - Jensen has appeared for the past six seasons as older Winchester brother Dean. Along with his younger brother Sam, he follows in the footsteps of his father, a hunter of the paranormal. When vengeful spirits, ghouls, angry pagan gods and all manner of gruesome beasts start taking down humans, the Winchesters step in and start taking down monsters.














7 - I have to admit I love Dean's stare-down-authority expression, whether he's challenging his own father (above) or a scary angel (below.)














8 - I also love Dean's serious relationship with his car, a black four-door hardtop 1967 Chevy Impala. I think it's the longest and most intimate relationship he's ever had, other than his relationship with Sam.













9 - Remember my soft spot for a man in chains?

...well...

Supernatural gives us a tied-up Dean with wonderful regularity.





















10 - I'm also quite fond of Dean's taking-the-shot expression.











11 - But it's his tormented hero expressions that really do the trick for me.

Since most of my own fictional characters wear this expression at some point in my stories, I adore discovering an actor who captures it so well.

CLICK HERE to watch clip











12 - And Jensen is an awesome crier.

CLICK HERE to watch clip



















13 - Sharing a laugh with Supernatural co-star Jared Padalecki


Here's a bit of levity from the Supernatural set:

During the shoot for the Yellow Fever episode in Season 4, one of the producers encouraged Jared to miss his cue on purpose. The producer let the cameras roll while the audio playback of Eye of the Tiger, needed for the scene, blared over the location. Jensen lay out of sight on the front seat of the Impala, waiting for Jared, assuming the scene was in progress.

Keep in mind that in the world of television and film production, the actors - once embarked on a scene - must continue until they hear the word 'cut', and only from the director. Because time is money - a lot of money - on a set, when a scene is somewhat bumpy, the director will often leave the cameras rolling and tell the actors to regroup into a second or even third take in a row without stopping, as it's less expensive than calling 'cut' and doing a new set-up for a new take.

TV actors in particular get used to this shake-it-off-and-keep-going mentality. It requires the quick thinking of improv skills and is highly-valued by the studios.

In the case of the Yellow Fever shoot, the producer made the call to spend money on preventing Jared from picking up his cue in order to see if Jensen would give them something for the gag reel.

Here is what happened:

CLICK HERE to watch the clip

I'm blogging at The Popculturedivas today

Please join me at Popculturedivas for my latest obsession.


Supernatural, which began airing its 6th season last week.


Want to see why I love it so much? Drop on by.