This week's "True Blood" - lucky number...eight?

Maybe, or maybe not. It depends on the things you hold important in the show.

Oh, and in case it doesn't go without saying, HERE THERE BE SPOILERS! Proceed at your own risk if you aren't current through this week's episode.

If you're a diehard fan of Sookie Stackhouse and Bill Compton's intense, romantic relationship and want nothing other than a happily ever after for a human girl and her vampire beau (come on, we all watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer at some point during its airing and cheered for Buffy and Angel to just get with it already). then you might think everything is just absurdly wonderful in the universe. But if you've been reading Charlaine Harris's series, if the Southern Vampire novels have sucked you in and are now lining your bookshelf, you might have raised your eyebrows more than once in the span of that hour of blessed HBO programming.

I'm caught in the middle, but leaning towards the latter. I haven't finished the entire series of books but I'm going to get started shortly on the fifth, and because of that I'm nice and caught up with what should have, in theory, happened in this episode and how things should (possibly?) progress in the future of the show. And yes, being the holder of a college degree in media production I fully understand the creative freedom that the directors of programs have, and consequently need in order to make something suitable for a network, time slot, viewing audience, etc. I'm sensitive to it, too.

But I also think there are enough sappy romance stories on television at the present time. I don't have anything against a good, strong partnership in a good, strong story, and if it were to be asked of anyone who knows me, I'd probably be classified as one of the biggest romantics and/or girly girls known. The sweeter and more tender moments in life can be gorgeous and poetic, and the shows that depict them can have the same qualities.

However, answer me this. Since when has True Blood been known for being gorgeous and poetic?

That's about what I thought.

True Blood has the qualities that television has been thirsting (ha, ha) to have on its broadcast waves for years. It's sharp, new, sexy, fierce, and - come on, you know it's true - just dirty enough to make the viewers' skin crawl, yet keep them impossibly glued to the TV set each week. And yes, romance and relationships are an important component of that formula, but they don't need to be the central focus. Sure, the viewing audience might not mind some generous nudity (I know I have nothing against Stephen Moyer, thank you very much), but there doesn't need to be a desperate focus on Sookie and Bill's happily ever after.

Charlaine Harris had so many fantastic plot twists in the first four books of Sookie's series that I couldn't put them down. I went through four in the span of a week, itching to know what was coming next, and eventually caving in to buy a huge box set so the following one would be ready once I had finished the one I was currently reading. And while there was, of course, romance in those, I promise that the hiss-and-spit cat fight between Sookie and Lorena didn't show up. Nor did Eric call Lorena with jealousy as the pretense, and the list of inconsistencies goes on and on. Again, I'm not expecting the show to be a verbatim compliment to the books, but I did find that Dead Until Dark was very, very close to the first season of True Blood.

And did that season make the show take off in popularity?

Why yes, I believe it did. And I believe that first season was the reason thousands of fans gathered at Comic Con this past July, and so forth. There's a good, strong thing going with this show, and I would hate to see it lost because the fans want a happy ending for our favorite Southern blonde and her vampire beau.

However, Alan Ball has made promises in his panels and interviews, and I'm hopeful for those. Fingers are crossed, and I shall remain an optimist.

Until next week.

Music Review - Tamar Kaprelian

If you were one of the millions who turned on MTV to see Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt have yet another wedding (third time's the charm, right) as well as Lauren Conrad's departure from the Hills, then chances are you've heard of Tamar Kaprelian. The song "New Day" marked Lauren's final scene as she left the church and made her exit in the back seat of a black car and quickly rose to popularity on YouTube as fans attempted to decipher the lyrics and learn more about the songstress herself.

Those who have done the research earned themselves an unexpected treat. Twenty-two year old Tamar Kaprelian moved from her Arizona home to both Georgia and California in turn, but always had a piano by her side. In her MySpace biography Tamar describes her music as "thought-provoking, hopeful, playful and honest," and those four traits ring very true. There is a purity found in her crystal clear, brilliant voice, and when paired with a piano's gentle tune it's very hard not to fall in love with both lyrics and melody alike.

With influences ranging from classic Disney to Billy Joel and Paul McCartney, Tamar Kaprelian is an artist to watch. I can't say enough good things about New Day (yes, I was one of the first to rush to iTunes as soon as the track became available) and her upcoming EP by the same title, with a release date set in the beginning of September. Tour dates are on the horizon and this artist's star is on the rise.

My own personal draw to New Day comes from the message in the lyrics. So many songs these days are about love - about finding it, losing it, trying to get it back, or what life is like with or without it. New Day is about finding yourself, even when you thought you had completely lost your way. It's rare to find songs like that, who reach out to a person as an individual instead of the magical power of two people together. There's so much to say about the self, and I think a lot of it is said in this song. Finding your way after being hopelessly lost is one of the experiences in life that no one recognizes enough, and yet happens to every single person at least once in their lives.

Tamar Kaprelian is my artist to watch for 2009, hands down. If her coming album yields more tracks like New Day and Transcend, then I'll be needing a digital copy to take with me as well as one to leave in my car's CD player at all times. With music like this playing in the world, it becomes increasingly difficult to not appreciate how brightly the sun is shining.

Tamar Kaprelian's MySpace with streaming audio of several songs.

Official Website.

Book Review - the Time Traveler's Wife

The idea of one true, constant and unwavering love to last a lifetime isn't a foreign and unknown concept to the literary world. Trials and tribulations come hand in hand along with tears and catastrophe, everything that would try to tear two people apart. But for Henry DeTamble and Clare Abshire, whose relationship is anything but conventional, what would try to tear them apart only serves to bring them closer together, not only across distance but through the breaches of time.

Audrey Niffenegger's first novel is stunning, not only because it is her first published book but for the unique and exquisite story it presents. The traditional and conventional love story of timeless devotion is still there in a way any reader would appreciate, but put to impossible and at times exquisite tests. Where Clare is anchored into the consistency of her daily life, Henry is unwillingly thrust into time periods and settings of which he has no control, and no say over when he can return. But as Henry moves from time and place without a foot on the ground it is Clare who continues to be his unwavering, promising constant.

Their love affair is anything but ordinary, and it would be hard to say too much about it without giving away what makes the book as special as it is. Shifting back and forth between one time period and another with no promise of returning to where it had been before, the importance of making the most of the present while savoring the past and daring to hope for what the future could hold. I want to say so many good, wonderful things about this book, but I really feel it needs to be read to be experienced and understood. This is the kind of love that I think most people search for, and when it's found it should be held onto with both hands.

I didn't know what to expect when I started The Time Traveler's Wife, but what I got was far greater than those potential expectations. The style of writing was consistent to the story, the flow of time moving end over end without hesitation or pause.

The Time Traveler's Wife is available for purchase on Amazon and will be released August 14th, 2009 worldwide as a motion picture starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams.

Amazon.com page for the Time Traveler's Wife

IMDB page for The Time Traveler's Wife

Introduction, Welcome, Etc!

To anyone who's come to this blog, thanks for stopping by! Online I go by the alias of Roseclear, and this is Writings and Dreamscapes where I'll be posting my write ups and reviews of things I read, write, play, and experience. I've been wanting to do something like this for awhile, and after some support from my sister and the idea for the name from my dear Lauren, I felt that there was no time like the present to see where this could go.

I won't make a promise about how often I'll be able to post reviews, but I'm going to try for two or three times a month. My education has been in media and production and editing, so don't be surprised if a great deal of the movie and television reviews focus on that element. It's a different way to look at things, but I enjoy it. I like seeing the way pieces come together, and how a story can change in such different ways just by how it's edited.

So I hope that you like what you read here! This will be a lot of fun for me to update, and I hope it's fun for the readers as well.