The Files on the Mayfair Witches Parlor Blog

Monday, May 22, 2023

Commentary on the Works of Anne Rice (and some updates)

Parlor Dumpster Fires...

For the last day or so, I have been going over each page of the Parlor, making sure all the code and hieroglyphics were correct, and found...

Some of the images on the Parlor pages were from their blog counterparts.  So that means I spent a fair amount of time making sure those links to images that were broken were fixed.  I don't have a software program I can do all of this in and I don't have access to FTP, so what I do on the Parlor, I do "by hand", so to speak.

I do occasionally perform a Google search of certain things to see if links and images have been indexed, and one thing I found, to my utter annoyance, is if you select an image on the site found in a Google Image search, you end up with no image, and a big triangle with an exclamation point in the middle of it.  I have been fixing those as well.  That happens because it's an image I had not yet supplied a new link to since moving the Parlor's images to their own Google house.  I've been fixing those as I go, as well.

Anne Rice Commentary page

There is a page on the site I have been meaning to add a little something more to for a long time.  Anne Rice Commentaries.  When I first read the books that are the Lives of the Mayfair Witches, there was so much included in the books that somehow, Anne Rice managed to fit together into these unforgettable books.  So when I found another book that I've talked about in more detail on the About Me page, The Witches' Companion, by Katherine Ramsland, that provided more information about these place, people and events, I had to have a copy of it!  

Katherine Ramsland has written several books on the works of Anne Rice.  One of them is Prism of the Night, a biography.  Another is, fittingly, The Vampire Companion.  There has always been a list of these books on the page linked above, but I wanted to do something more with it.  So, like I have throughout the site, I created some "mockup" covers for each book, and you'll see a row of the books at the top of the page.

I've done the same with the other books mentioned on this particular page of the site, and one, which is actually in audio, appears on an iPad screen.  

Several years ago, I ordered a VHS copy of the documentary, Anne Rice: Birth of the Vampire, by BBC.  It is an excellent documentary, and one I was thrilled to find a copy of on YouTube.  If you scroll down the page a bit, I've embedded the copy I found on YouTube.  You will also find it in the Anne Rice playlist on the Parlor's own YouTube channel.

Facebook

The Parlor has had a page on Facebook for a few months now.  I haven't done much with it yet, but more are noticing it's there, including Facebook!  I went to check Facebook one evening this week, and suddenly, I saw these streamers and confetti and stuff for it all over my screen!  So I thought, now would be a good time to do more with it.  

What, I'm not sure, but it is Facebook.  Perhaps it would be a place for discussion, a place to run ideas past you, feedback, commentary, critique, that sort of thing.  At the moment, I just know that means I will have to get back to the banner, which makes me wail dramatically.  

 "I have to go back in and figure out how to make it fit right and look right and OHHHHHH, this is gonna be a nightmare...!"  

I had to figure out how to do it on YouTube (that was fun), and I wasn't exactly technically inclined that way.  But I will figure it out!

The Parlor on Facebook 

Immortal Universe's Stunning Graphics

I'm also in the process of finding the music used in the little clips made by Immortal Universe (I assume) for AMC to advertise the show, Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches.  This was because not only do I find the music to be fantastic; I have seen comments that others who have left comments for Immortal Universe also would like to know what music they're hearing!

Immortal Universe has its own page on the Parlor site, where I go over the graphics made to promote the AMC series.  And I have an excuse to discuss the graphics, which I love.  The clips gallery on the site are all in GIF format with no sound, and I am working on adding to each one a little bitty version of the page divider I made for this page of the site as a kind of watermark.  

OMG, that is so cute...!

This little watermark is meant to indicate the source of the graphics.  I will probably do something similar with the divider made for the pages that discuss the show itself, the one that has the title graphics in it.  Though with AMC's logo added.  

Uh oh.  That means I'm gonna have to make one for anything from the Interview With the Vampire series, if for no other reason than I can't help myself.  Especially because red is actually my favorite color...

Also on this page is a section that gives a brief sampling of graphics by Orange Comet advertising the Mayfair Witches Pass via OpenSea.  Their video showing the Mayfair Emerald in the form of the key is not embedded on the site, but if you go to the Orange Comet and OpenSea sites, you will see that video and more graphics there.  However, you will find in the playlist the song used for their video.