Bram Stoker is the author of "Dracula", the famous novel that inspired so many movies, comics and theatrical interpretations. It is thought that the character that inspired Bram Stoker was Vlad Tepes. There's another version that says that Stoker felt a big fascination for Erzsebet Bathory, that used to drink blood and take baths in it, seeing blood as a potion of Eternal Youth. But let us center in the figure of Vlad Tepes. Vlad Tepes was born in 1431 in Transylvania (Romania). He was son of Vlad Dracu, from whom comes the word Dracula (son of Dracu). The source of his power was his cruelty. It was so enormous that gave origin to many legends. His enemies were really terrified of him. When they saw him, many ran away horrified. In numerous times, he won battles that were impossible to win. In his last battle he commanded 200 men against 20,000. Vlad Tepes was also known as Vlad the Impaler. He used to lunch watching his victims, and used to take walks through the landscapes populated with impaled people. I prefer not to talk about his horrible tortures, created by a demonic and diseased mind. The Prince Vlad III the Impaler had all his people frightened, subdued to the most absurd whims. To go against his will could suppose to loose an arm, a leg, an eye... or their lives or the life of their most loved relatives or friends. He used to burn all that was in his way, poison the enemies' water, and throw people sick of tuberculosis as a kind of biological warfare. The origin of his castle: he invited some noblemen to a ceremonial dinner in the Easter. After the dinner, he impaled the old ones, and the young ones were condemned to rebuild a castle that was in ruins. That would be the castle of Dracula. Bram Stoker takes these elements of Vlad Yepes: the name Dracula, the image of his castle with everything devastated around it, and his superhuman strength. Vlad Tepes was the main figure of horrible stories of human cruelty. He was a much more terrifying being than the fiction character. Maybe one of the biggest sadists of all History. So he has not much to do with the sophisticated, polite and seductive fiction character of Count Dracula that movies showed us so many times. Marvel Comics published in the 70s "Tomb of Dracula", where Count Dracula is chased by Doctor Van Helsing. The origin of the so called vampirism is present in so ancient cultures like the Egyptian or Sumerian. I will write about it in the next part of "Vampirism and the real Dracula".

As a professional of design, I know how hard is to find good free tools. I think it's very important that the applications you use are easy to use. Most of the people don't have the time and patience to read many tutorials to understand how a program works. Here you are 50 of the best. I hope you like them. Color Selectors: ColorJack, let's you select color palettes by dragging on a color wheel. Color Palette Generator, creates a palette of colors that predominate in a pic that you choose. Color Scheme Generator, lets you make color patterns in a visual and easy way. Kuler, a free Adobe tool that lets you create your colors or choose the most popular and rated by the public. Colour Lovers, choose between the most rated palettes. Names of colors in html, Do you want to know the name of your favorite color? Here you will know the name and you'll be able to pick it for your web. Color Blender, you choose two colors and the program gives you the intermediate ones. Logo Makers: Cool Text, generates awesome logos in a fast and easy way. Logo Maker, reflects your logo like in water. Button Generators: Web 2.0 Badges, fun badges with the colors, fonts, shapes, that you want. My Cool Button, easy button generator. With shade and reflection effects, and rounded borders. Brilliant Button Maker, make those small two colors buttons that so many people like. The Original I Love Your Image Generator, really fun and original, and you will surprise everyone. Rounded Corner Generators: RoundedCornr, helps to create rounded corners with gradients. Spanky Corners, creates rounded corners through CSS, really easy. Background Makers: BestAnimation's Backgrounds, allows to make really amazing backgrounds. All Free Backgrounds, you can choose a background by color, texture... bgMaker, has a gallery of designs and you can pick a background color that you like. Custom Games For Blogs: Pictogame, surprise your visitors with a fun game based on your photo or someone else's. Imagine your boss, teacher, with his face full of spots, or kick'em... LOL & LOL PlayMyGame, another game creator that allows you to have fun sending your game through email, or publishing it in your blog, website or MySpace. Avatars: Zwinky, enjoy creating avatars with clothes and personalized accessory. Very fun and entertaining. Mr.Picassohead, make picassian faces and then use them in forums, profiles, etc. and surprise everyone with your artistic talent. WhyRobbieRocks, custom avatars similar to Yahoo style. DollzMania, they are avatars very similar to the famous Bratz dolls. Free Scripts: Dynamic Drive, awesome scripts for your site, from mouse pointer effects like moving stars to slide shows, scroll effects... They just give you the code, and you have only to copy and paste. DHTML and Javascript. Hot Scripts, has any kind of scripts, from easy ones to those that require a bit more of knowledge. The PHP Resource Index, are applications in PHP that you can include in your website. Visitor Maps: Frappr, gives a visitor map that also includes guestbook and hit counter. MyGuestMap, uses Google Maps and you can integrate it with Flickr. Public Domain Photos: Morguefile, big size pics, organized by topics, of high quality. They are copyright free, and with very original content. ImageAfter, all kind of pics. You can find textures, nature... Free High Resolution Photos, very original photos that you can use freely. Copyright Free Photos, maybe they are not too big, but they are useful and nice. Free Fonts: 1001FreeFonts, more than 6,000 fonts classified by categories: retro, graffiti, comic, medieval... Absolute Fonts Archive, free fonts classified by name. Remember that if you are going to use them commercially you should look the readme file. Widgets: Chatango, put a chat in your site with voice, emoticons, avatars, public or private... Popuri, show how popular is your site in a widget. Statistics: PHPMyVisites, is a system to count your visitors with very good graphics. It has a very interesting option that is to see where your visitors click on your page more often with colors. AWStats, a very popular statistics system. Firefox Extensions: Xinha Here!, if you have no idea of HTML and you need to edit something online, you can use this plugin to do it visually. You can also use it in forum posts or in your profile. Save as Image, lets you save a website like a big image. It is useful to see your website shape and color as a whole. Inspiration: Fantasy Name Generator, sometimes your nicknames are already taken everywhere. If you don't know what nickname to choose, maybe this generator may help you to find fun and original names. It is useful even to choose your dog's name!!! Instant Blog Post, if you have to publish a new post today and you don't know what to write, maybe this can help. Really fun. Flickr Color Selectr, you choose a color and it shows you photos with these colors. Maybe this can inspire you. Great tool for a graphics designer. Crayola Coloring Application, allows you to make drawings and print them later. For your moments of inspiration. Optimization Tools: Browsershots, your page's design can be a little different in other operative systems and browsers. Browsershots is a site that makes a pic of your website as it is seen in many different computers. That way you can be sure that your web has no errors and has the same aspect for all the people. PPC Ad Center, a search engine optimization (SEO) tool. It helps you to choose keywords for your site, see the speed it loads, see your rank in search engines... Easy tools to make your web more often found by visitors. Image Tools: ImproveYourImages, do you have an image that needs improvement? You can do it there for free. Gallery, a photo gallery that you can use in your website. Ajaxload, customize a image to show while something in your web is being loaded.

Once upon a time, in the medieval times of Cordoba, a nobleman and his servant were in the flea market when they meet the Death. When they saw the Death, both stayed paralyzed by fear. And the Death made a strange grimace, pointed to them and said: "When the night comes, the Death awaits you in Cordoba", and vanished into the air. The servant, very nervous, said to his master: "My Lord, Death pointed to me! Master, I've been always loyal to you... the Death pointed to me! I don't wanna die! I am too young, and have a wife and children..." And the nobleman stare at him with compassion, and said: "Let's go home. Take my fastest steed, and ride, ride as far as you can before the night comes. Go far away from Cordoba, so the Death can't take you." "Thanks, my Lord", replied the servant, "I will always be loyal to you and I will never forget this kind gesture". When the night came, the Death knocked on the nobleman's door. And he went out and said to the Death: "You arrive too late. My servant is by this time far from Cordoba". And the Death answered: "Your... servant? ... I was not here for your servant... I came to take you with me." In that precise moment, the nobleman felt a strong pain in his chest, and drop dead to the floor. In conclusion, nobody can fool the Death. And let's remember what the vikings used to say: "Nobody dies the day before". To frame this tale, nobody is better than the Spanish Gothic artist Victoria Frances.

Yellowstone National Park is located in the USA, in the Rocky Mountains, in the northeast of Wyoming and bordering with Montana and Idaho. It was the first place in the world that received the treatment of National Park. It was named this way by Theodor Roosevelt in 1872. Under the Yellowstone Park there's a geological phenomenon called supervolcano. A supervolcano is a kind of volcano that produces bigger and more devastating eruptions. A simple volcano, when erupts, becomes a great danger that can destroy with its rivers of lava and sulfuric vapours all that encounters in its way. A supervolcano is thousands times more dangerous. It can destroy everything in hundreds of miles around it, alter the global climate of the planet, and become a cataclysm for all the Earth, similar to a nuclear winter. The supervolcano located in Yellowstone is the biggest in the world. This supervolcano had 3 big known eruptions. The last one was 640,000 years ago. The time between those eruptions was from 600,000 to 900,000 years. So if the last one was 640,000 years ago, the next one can happen now or in a very distant future. One of the biggest eruptions of a supervolcano was the Lake Toba eruption (Sumatra, Indonesia). It made planet Earth enter into an Ice Age, that lasted for 1,000 years, and 60% of human population died. The Lake Toba supervolcano was much smaller than the Yellowstone one. The Yellowstone supervolcano is the biggest in the world. It must be said that who best senses the natural phenomenons are animals. So if you find yourself in Yellowstone Park and you notice strange behaviors on animals like stampedes... run, run as fast as you can, and pray all that you know. With all these data, it's not strange that Yellowstone National Park has so much geothermal activity: geysers, thermal waters, small mud volcanoes... In the Yellowstone fauna it can be found bears, deers, buffaloes, elks, coyotes, and wolves. Wolves were extinct in 1926, but they were reintroducted in 1973. Yellowstone inspired the Jellystone Park, where the adventures of Yogi Bear happen. Here's a fun video of a real Yogi as greedy as in the cartoon. This is an Alaskan bear (Kodiak) and you must never forget that bears are big wild animals and as all wild animals, they are unpredictable. So "don't do this at home" :) Its dream landscape makes of Yellowstone Park a mythical place that everybody would like to visit. Even me, as I must confess that since my childhood I wish to visit Yellowstone Park. Enjoy this video about this National Park.

Auguste Rodin is the author of The Kiss, probably the most famous kiss in the world. In an origin, this artwork was a small sculpture, part of a bronze portal made by Rodin called "The Gates of Hell". So we can tell that the most famous kiss was given at the gates of Hell. The statue is based in the character of Francesca da Rimini, who appears in the book "Dante's Inferno". Francesca was in love with the brother of her husband, Paolo. When they were reading a book about Lancelot and Ginebra, Francesca's husband discovered the lovers and killed them. So, in the statue, Paolo has a book in his hand. When they saw it, the French Government liked so much The Kiss that asked Rodin for a big size version in marble. The statue was so popular and people liked it so much, that Auguste Rodin was asked to make as much small statues of bronze as he could make. Private collectors even asked for big size versions of the Kiss for themselves. "The Thinker" was another statue that was in "The Gates of Hell", and also very much liked by the big public. So it was made a version in bigger size. These gates (The Gates of Hell) were going to be for an art museum in Paris. But the project was canceled and these gates remained in Rodin's studio until the death of the artist. The Gates of Hell were modified by Rodin during all his life. Someone said that this artwork was used by Rodin to make reflections about the human essence. The Kiss is a really enchanting sculpture. It's an statue that is difficult to stop watching to. Thanks to its beauty and to the favour of the public, we can tell that lovers finally were freed and stayed kissing far away from Hell, and for all eternity.

Fairies are fantastic and ethereal creatures. They are depicted like beautiful women, glowing, with wings (but not in all cultures fairies have wings), and sometimes carrying a wand that emits sparks. And always in the deep forests. Their origin is mainly based on Celtic legends. But the belief in the existence of fantastic creatures from the woods maybe is as ancient like the world. In the Middle Ages, it wasn't estrange to see fairies depicted in coat of arms, and some aristocrats said that they came from a fairy lineage. It was said that fairies took advantage of their beauty to have relationships with knights, and this way create a intermediate race between humans and fairies. In the Middle Ages, when someone saw a pale and weak child, it was said that was a fairy child. According to the ancient lore, fairies approached the baby's cribs to give them blessings or curses, depending on the good or bad nature of the fairy. The bad fairies ended being called witches. There are several theories about the origin of fairies. One of them is that they are angels that were unable to go back to the Heavens. So they stayed in the forests to protect God's creation. It explains why they were protectors of nature. It was said that sometimes they punished women for causing damage to nature, and they turned them into fairies too. And the only moment they might be set free was in Saint John's night. The saying was that only the noblest and gold hearted can see fairies. It is also said that they live in a parallel world and that they can intercede in the life of humans. Amongst the most popular legends there is the one which tells that King Arthur was healed by the four most powerful fairies from Avalon (a mythical isle inhabited by fairies). The belief in fairies was the origin of the so called "fairy tales". They reached their highest splendor in 17Th and 18Th centuries. The greatest writers of this genre were Charles Perrault ("Sleeping Beauty"), the Grimm Brothers ("Snow White", "Cinderella"), Madame Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont ("Beauty and the Beast"), and Hans Christian Andersen ("The Little Mermaid", "The Snow Queen"). Without doubt, who best depicts the world of fairies is Josephine Wall. And you? Do you believe in fairies? ...

Luciano Pavarotti was born in Modena on Octover 12th /1935. The doctor told her mother: "With this powerful voice, he will be tenor", and was true, one of the best tenors of all times. He had humble origins, his father was a baker and his mother a factory worker. Always heard bel canto in his home, because his father was a real fan of opera. Pavarotti sometimes commented that his father could have been a good singer. But his father said that to be a good singer it was necessary not only to have a good voice, but to control one's nerves. Pavarotti always said that his childhood was happy, but with economical shortages. During the second world war, he and his family went to live to the country. All his family were living in a rented room. By this time Pavarotti was interested in agriculture. He was fan of Beniaminogigly and Enrico Caruso. His father always encouraged him to take music lessons. When 9 years old, he was singing in the church chorus with his father. Another interest of Pavarotti was the football, and for some time he thought to devote himself to it. But his mother advised him to study teaching. And he did. Luciano worked as a teacher during two years. But his real vocation was to be a tenor, and made an agreement with his father. He would receive accommodation and meal until age 30; after this, if he couldn't dedicate to be a tenor, he would have to find a work and win his own money. In 1961 made an interpretation as Rodolpho in the opera "La Boheme" of Puccini, in a local competition in the Italian city Reggio Emilia. And this year he marries Adua Veroni, with whom he will be married for 34 years and with whom he will have 3 daughters. In 2003 he will marry his personal assistant Nicoleta, who was 30 years old less than him, and he will have his fourth daughter: Alice. Some time after wining that prize, he met the orchestra director Richard Bonynge, who was married with the famous soprano Joan Sutherland. They invited to Pavarotti to make an international tour. Luciano performed Donizetti's "La fille du regiment", a difficult piece. He reached 9 high Cs in the same aria. With this work, he got a cover in the New York Times and a worldwide fame. He used his fame to take part in many charity works. He made a popular trio (the Three Tenors) with Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras. He also performed with many singers of popular music: Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Brian Adams, Bono from U2... That helped to give a new dimension to opera, to make it more familiar to all kinds of people. He won many Grammy awards, and platinum and gold discs. He was going to do a tour to say goodbye to performing, but he was detected a pancreatic cancer in July 2006. In 6 September 2007 he left us in his home near Modena, surrounded by his wife, his sister, and all his daughters. Luciano Pavarotti was a really charismatic man. His robust look, his wide smile, his eternal handkerchief in his hand... His voice will never have a rival. When we may think in a tenor, we will always imagine his figure, and that's what Luciano has left for us all. What you have seen is "Vesti la Giubba", a famous aria of the opera "Pagliacci" by Ruggiero Leoncavallo. This is the end of the 1st act, where the clown (Pagliaccio) discovers the infidelity of his wife. But the show must start, and he has to appear dressed like a clown and make them laugh, although he is crying deep inside. Even though "Caruso" or "Nessus Dorma" are more famous, this piece is the one that I like most of Luciano Pavarotti. I wanted to share it with you.

Fantasy Movies show us marvelous creatures, incredible beings, sorcerers, heroes, princess and magic worlds where in little time oneself is immersed in a fantasy background. They are films that you never get tired of seeing, little jewels of cinema. Here you are a list of the best fantasy films: 1- The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy: The Fellowship Of The Ring/The Two Towers/The Return Of The King 2- The Chronicles Of Narnia 3- Willow 4- Ladyhawke 5- The Princess Bride 6- Harry Potter 7- Dragonheart 8- Legend 9- The Dark Crystal 10- The Neverending Story The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, shows the fantastic world of Tolkien. The director made some changes. It's logical, but I miss the dialog of Eowyn where she explains why she must go to war. I'd never had removed the full original dialog of the novel. But the films are very long and despite some changes, Peter Jackson followed the book quite well. The Chronicles of Narnia, four children are sent by their mother far away from war. They arrive to the house of a mysterious teacher. The most little child comes into an wardrobe and discovers Narnia, a damned world. And she and her brothers will have to save Narnia from a terrible witch. A charming film, full of fantasy, magic and mythological beings. Willow is fun, full of adventures and really entertaining. Willow is an dwarf who finds a baby princess, who according to the legend will finish with the terrible witch Bavmorda. Willow finds also a very funny character: Madmartigan (Val Kilmer), an antihero. But finally he keeps with his obligation. Ladyhawke, a cruel curse condemns two lovers to live separate forever. She is a lady in the night and a hawk at day, and he is a knight at day and wolf in the night. But a little thief will try to help the couple. The Princess Bride, a sick boy is visited by his grandfather who wants to read him a special book. The boy, in the beginning, don't wants to hear the story, but his grandfather is Peter Falk (Columbo) so finally he gets to read it to him. A story with a big sense of humor, with dialogs so unforgettable like: "My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!". Another great scene is starring by Peter Cook: the wedding ("mawwage"). Harry Potter, Joanne K. Rowling created Harry Potter while she was suffering a depression. Today children (and not so children) enjoy with her books all around the world. Harry lives with his horrible uncles and his cousin. He seems not to belong to that detestable family. His destiny will be to become the biggest wizard of all times, but he will have to discover it. Dragonheart, what happens when only a dragon lasts in the world? What happens when you discover that this only dragon is a marvelous being? What happens when that who you must kill becomes your best friend? The result: in "Dragonheart". Legend, Lord of Darkness orders to kill the most pure and guileless beings: unicorns. Because when he exterminates all the unicorns, the Earth will be his. Jack and the princess Lily will have to protect the last of the unicorns. The Dark Crystal, when the Dark Crystal breaks, the harmony of universe is lost. There's only one hope: to repair the dark crystal and restore the order. This must be done by the last one of the Gelflings, Jen. In his travel he will meet other Gelfling, and with it he meets love too. The Neverending Story. The worst of this movie was its horrible soundtrack. Despite of this, it's a very entertaining story and full of fantasy. Bastian finds a book with all its pages in blank. This is a magical book that opens the door to a world that grows with the imagination of the humans. As people are loosing imagination, the Childlike Empress is ill, and the Nothing threatens their existence. Each one of us have his/her favorite list. I am sure I forgot some important movies. Tell me which.

The author of "Women in art", Philip Scott Johnson, gets to amaze us again with another surprising work: "Women in film", where he makes a travel through time and shows us some important actress since the white and black films until our days. Enjoy this great video: With this video I want to celebrate a award that was given to me. The award is: I am very happy because the person that has given me this award is the excellent photographer, Susanne Van Hulst. When an award comes from such a woman like she, one can be proud of it. http://sues-daily-photos.blogspot.com/ As it is tradition I give the award Rockin' Blogger to: - Expressions In Color: A dreaming site full of magic and poetry. This blog is like a good wine, to be tasted slowly. http://miragechopper.blogspot.com/ - The Crazy News: Sometimes it makes you laugh, sometimes amazes you, or even worry, but it never leaves you indifferent. http://thecrazynewsblog.com/ - Hippocampus Hi-Jinx: Julian Bennett has a sane craziness that makes him to be a different and true character. http://julianbennett.blogspot.com/ - Cariboo Ponderer: Vic Grace transports you where she lives, and you can travel through her eyes. http://caribooponderer.blogspot.com/ - Incurable Insomniac: Steph Waller has a captivating, interesting and intelligent blog. But the best of it is her perfect style of writing. http://incurable-insomniac.blogspot.com/ Congratulations to these bloggers. They do a very outstanding work, and I think that they deserve this award.

It's not strange to see in any shop of the world an object with the image of Betty Boop. She is synonym of glamour. Her sexy and retro image captivates many people. Betty Boop was born in 1929. In the beginning, she wasn't like is known today. Grim Natwich, the creator of Betty, draw 2 dogs. One of them was Bimbo (that stayed as a dog forever), the other was Bimbo's girlfriend, a french poodle (in the future will be Betty) . Natwitch, not pleased with the result of the Bimbo girlfriend (he thought that was quite ugly) , made some changes. The dog ears were replaced for a hoop earrings and her poodle fur became a bob haircut and her body was changed to a sexy woman. The Betty surname came from "Boop oop a Doop" a film who converted Betty in a star. Max Fleyser saw in Betty a real gold mine. Her innocence and sensuality turned Betty in one of the first characters of a sexy woman in cartoons. Betty was an independent and sexy woman, and that was a novelty. Before Betty, when a sexy woman appeared in a cartoon, it was in reality a man in disguise. The sensual voice of Betty was of the actress Mae Quest. Betty Boop cartoons included big stars of Jazz as the bands of Louis Armstrong or Rudy Vallee. In 1940 the members of USA armed forces used to read her cartoons, and watched her films in their barracks. There were a big amount of planes with the name and face of Betty Boop painted over them. So Betty Boop became the bride of America. Betty Boop is the origin of many sexy stereotypes like the waitress, baby-sitter, teacher... But the best of Betty is her wit and tenderness, that makes her to be remembered until our days.

"I could stay awake just to hear you breathing Watch you smile while you are sleeping While you're far away dreaming I could spend my life in this sweet surrender I could stay lost in this moment forever Every moment spent with you is a moment I treasure Don't want to close my eyes I don't want to fall asleep Cause Id miss you baby And I don't want to miss a thing Cause even when I dream of you The sweetest dream will never do Id still miss you baby And I don't want to miss a thing Lying close to you feeling your heart beating And I'm wondering what you're dreaming Wondering if its me you're seeing Then I kiss your eyes And thank God were together I just want to stay with you in this moment forever Forever and ever Don't want to close my eyes I don't want to fall asleep Cause Id miss you baby And I don't want to miss a thing Cause even when I dream of you The sweetest dream will never do Id still miss you baby And I don't want to miss a thing I don't want to miss one smile I don't want to miss one kiss I just want to be with you Right here with you, just like this I just want to hold you close Feel your heart so close to mine And just stay here in this moment For all the rest of time Don't want to close my eyes I don't want to fall asleep Cause Id miss you baby And I don't want to miss a thing Cause even when I dream of you The sweetest dream will never do Id still miss you baby And I don't want to miss a thing Don't want to close my eyes I don't want to fall asleep I don't want to miss a thing" -lyrics of the original song- This song is by Aerosmith, and you can find it in their live album "Rockin' the Joint". It was part of the soundtrack of the movie Armageddon. When Liv Tyler, the daughter of Steven Tyler (the Aerosmith singer), got a part in the film, Aerosmith decided to record this song. The movie is starring Bruce Willis (where he saves the world one more time!!!) .