#103 - truly thicker than water.

ain't it just the most wonderful time of the year for tv premieres? last week, i got the weeds season premiere & then this sunday, hbo brought back true blood. to top it all off, next tuesday is the season two premiere of a&e's the cleaner! oh wait, i don't care about that show at all, but i do love alan ball's works & loved the first season of true blood, so i'd like to discuss it for a moment...& if you haven't seen it yet, maybe i can spoil a few things for you while i'm at it.

the second season picks up where we left off, with sookie stackhouse (anna paquin) & vampire bill compton (stephen moyer) as a couple & vampire bill now responsible for a young, hot, red-headed vampire who he was forced to turn into a vampire (as punishment for killing another vampire in sookie's defense). they're one of my fave on-screen couples, as sookie is totally cute & full of southern drawl and vampire bill is all "i'm a vampire from civil war times & i talk all properlike." they pretty much get it on in every episode, which is cool with me. in fact, they get it on so much that last season, there was even a scene where bill rose out of the cemetery mud & they did it right there.

as for other characters, other than the hot, young red-headed vampire, there's this vibrating chick who showed up near the end of last season & has taken in sookie's friend & co-worker tara. there's lafayette, sookie's gay, drug-dealing co-worker, who disappeared at the end of last season & who we discover is still alive & being held captive in a dark basement with three other people. sookie's brother jason is about to join the anti-vampire church (the fellowship of the sun) as the vampires & non-vampires continue to ratchet up the debate...& it's revealed that sookie's boss, sam (a shapeshifter), has a history with the vibrating chick. so yeah...a handful of captivating storylines going on.

the premiere ended with some serious hardcore shizz...& when i say "hardcore," i mean hardcore, because that's what we basically got in the scene when sookie & vampire bill finally got it on. there was some hardcore softcore porn side nakedness & from-behind sex going on there, which i guess was helped by the fact that anna paquin & stephen moyer are apparently getting it on off-screen too...& after they got it on, we see a scene where eric (one of the older/more powerful vampires, played by alexander skarsgard) finally appears, still dressed from putting highlights in his hair.  he enters the basement where lafayette's being held & tries to take away a dude lafayette's been talking to, but the dude slaps eric on the cheek with a crucifix.  eric doesn't take kindly to this & hurls the dude around a bit before violently feeding on him...end of episode...hardcore.

#103 - truly thicker than water.
snack: boulder canyon natural foods spinach & artichoke chips
drink: samuels smith's oatmeal stout



while i watched, i fed from a totally unbloody bag of boulder canyon natural foods spinach & artichoke chips. boulder canyon's been making chips out of the centennial state for fifteen years now using a "simple family recipe" made entirely of natural ingredients.  once i started eating them, it was hard to stop.  the spinach & artichoke flavor has a delicious saltiness to it that my tongue went absolutely nuts for...& it doesn't help that i'm a total glutton.

earlier in the day, i'd broken open the bag during lunch & this dude i work with who's famous for coming into the office & sampling whatever snack may be on your desk at the moment (see snack #1 of 2008) came in saw them sitting out on my desk. his reaction--"spinach & artichoke chips? really? that sounds weird." my reaction--"is it really all that weird?  haven't you ever had spinach artichoke dip? that stuff rules." anyway, he stayed away from my chips, so that was cool.

at first, i was going to get something blood-related to celebrate the premiere--a bloody mary, something containing blood orange juice--but in the end, those were, respectively, too much work & too hard to find, so i went with a pint or so of samuels smith's oatmeal stout. sam smith makes some of my favorite beers, beers like the nut brown ale, the taddy porter & the oatmeal stout. they're totally british & have been around since 1758, which means when the old brewery was founded, peeps in britain were all like "i do say, those bloody colonists are getting to be quite the rascally scamps. a good musketing would show them. tut tut. i'm feeling a wee bit peckish. tut tut. barkeep! bring me a pint of samuel smith post haste! tut tut!"...and scene.

the oatmeal stout's a solidly thick beer, brewed with oats instead of barley. like a guinness, it's dark as hell & has a rich taste & smooth flavor--all traits that i adore in a beer. according to the sam smith website, it was "originally a drink for lactating mothers." although my mammary glands are dry as the mojave, it's still one of my favorite beers.  in fact, i probably enjoy it even more than all those drunken breast-feeding brit babies.  i do say...it's bloody good!