The world is a vamp
Coffee, Tea, or Blood?: Vamp Up Your Drink
Twilight
,
True Blood
, and
Vampire Diaries
are just three of the newest examples of how vampires refuse to go dustily into that good night. And they're also why I found myself researching and writing VampireSmarts ("The Question & Answer Game that makes learning about Vampires before dating them easy & fun!") and digging up some of the wildest information about vampires a few years ago.
According to Rosemary Ellen Guiley's book
The Complete Vampire Companion
, there is some guy named Damien Vanian who is living la vida muerte in London. Damien Vanian, aside from having a name that's the undead equivalent of Amelia Bedelia, is supposedly "London's most famous living vampire." I didn't learn a whole lot about the guy, but I did learn that he came up with a blood substitute recipe.
There Will NOT Be Blood*
1 part tomato juice
1 part orange juice
Additional tasting notes on this recipe are that you should drink this cocktail warm -- ideally 98.6°F, because that's body temperature. Also, Vanian believes this effectively mimics both the taste and appearance of clotting blood, so you get all the blood bang without th
Magnolia Park – ‘Vamp’
Magnolia Park have gone full Coheed and Cambria – a sentence which has probably never been written before, and no one ever expected to be written. Rather than stick to their skate punk roots or dip their toes back into the world of nu-metal, they’ve decided to write an album about robot vampires. No, really. The half-cyborg protagonist immortalised on the cover art, Aurora X1, seeks to free her cyberpunk world from the grip of a cult via a ritual that transforms her and her followers into vampires according to the first two chapters of her story shared online. Thankfully, much like Coheed, the world-building and narrative in ‘Vamp’ are implicit rather than full musical theatre. This is still a record that can be enjoyed without knowing anything about robots or vampires. Now we know where Josh Roberts and co were planning on heading with their sound, we can look back on their last album, 2023’s ‘Halloween Mixtape II’ as a turning point; the skatepark, Blink 182 whimsy which characterised the start of their career was already being pushed aside in favour of more darkness and a heavier slant. Magnolia Park are calling ‘Vamp’ a ‘neo-go
Vamp City
Fun Facts about Washington, D.C. circa 1870
I had a blast researching the D.C. of 1870 for this book. Vamp City was created in 1870, an exact replica of Washington, D.C. (or the portion duplicated) at the time. However, just as a copy of a computer file can be changed without altering the original, the real D.C. continued to grow and expand, the roads paved, while its Vamp City doppelganger changed in other ways—decaying, palaces built for the vamp masters, an arena built for the Games. Without sunlight, the plants all died. Nothing grows in Vamp City except for the 'dead' trees.
Fun Fact #1:
In 1870, the Washington Monument was only 1/3rd built. Construction of the Washington Monument began in 1848, but came to a standstill in 1854 when donations ran out. For more than twenty-five years, through the Civil War, it stood at less than a third of its final height until Congress appropriated the funds to complete it. Construction resumed in 1879 and the monument was finally formally dedicated on February 21, 1885.
Fun Fact #2:
In 1870, the National Mall (the strip of grass that runs between the U.S. Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial) ended halfway, just beyond the Was
Char’s Review Of Summer Vamp!
What’s better than making memories at camp? The camp has always been a highlight of my summer, but for Mia in
Summer Vamp
by Violet Chan Karim, it didn’t go as planned.
This book follows Mia, a culinary-obsessed girl whose father is in a new relationship. Mia has never been to summer camp before. It was always too expensive, but when her father’s girlfriend decides to move in and make the transition for her better, they decide that she should go to her dream culinary camp while they move his girlfriend in. Mia is more than excited and decides to pack basically her whole kitchen. The only problem is that she gets on the wrong bus and is headed to the wrong camp! Oh, the Horror! She later realizes it, but the problem is that she is the only human in a camp full of vampires! How will she survive? Will she make it to her culinary camp?
This book was fantastic! I loved the growth of their friendships, and I thought it felt so real. It would be an excellent read for any middle grader scared of going to camp. Mia was a fantastic character and did very well with what she was given. Was she scared? Well, yes, but by the end o