video: Peter Murphy sings with NIN on "Reptile"

You cannot see much:


Or watch this.

video: Charlie Rose Interview with Guillermo del Toro

If you are nearly through with reading The Strain, by Chuck Hogan and Guillermo del Toro then watch the Charlie Rose Interview with Guillermo del Toro. It won't spoil it.

I really loved so many passages in this book. It's not as dense as I have seen some horror stories. The Strain makes for a great summer read if you just want some meaty vampire fiction.

Del Toro and Hogan's shrewdly chosen details of each scene is filmlike. You see the landscape, the toy that the child is touching and the food that they're eating as part of the physical setting and then, WHAM!, their entire fate comes into question in seconds and then its over.

Taking a slower pace at the beginning helps the reader grasp a sense of the characters whom are genuine humans they would personally know. The intro is a contrast to the faster paced action towards the middle and end of the book by its careful unfolding mysterious occurrence on a TransAtlantic Flight, following a planetary event, when suddenly chaos begins to develop on the tiny island of Manhattan. The beginning takes a little too long, for my short-attention mind wanting instant action. At first I became increasingly concerned I would not find it unpredictable, but it actually kept me really surprised and I loved even what I knew was about to happen.

"It's as sexy as rectal cancer," del Toro says to Charlie Rose. Yeah, there were definitely parts of the story that made me question if I should be reading during the part of lunch where I enjoy a snack. Somehow the gory images got to me. Milk is definitely a metaphor... pretty cool, too.

I hope it does have a sequel. Del Toro hints at it in the interview.

Caution, if you check out the book's trailer, you should have already gotten to the chapter titled "The Second Night" or what you see could dampen your own imagination from adding more to the image of the "beast" in the book.

True Blood Paper Dolls!

True Blood paper dolls!. Designer and cartoonist Andy Swist has debuted a printable paper-doll collection based on characters from the series. There's a contest, too, and a hilarious video explaining their plans to do more paper dolls.