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'Food Fight
Battle of the Bands
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"Björn Again: The ABBA
Experience" comes to Centennial
Hall tonight. It's a stage show
that goes beyond the music of
the 1970s-'80s super group to
explore the egos and
relationships of the Swedish
foursome - Benny Andersson,
Björn Ulvaeus, Anni-Frid
Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog.

The origin of ABBA's name has
two stories: One, they used the
initials of their first names; and
two, the name is a play on a
popular Swedish company
named Abba.

Both are true. The band was
originally named after the
Swedish company, but when
their career was booming
internationally - they went on to
become one of the most
successful international pop acts
ever - they realized no one
outside their native Sweden
would get the name play. So they
held a contest with fans to come
up with a name before settling
on ABBA. They eventually had to
negotiate with the company to
use the name ABBA.

Here's our question: In what
business was the Swedish
company?

Those who answer correctly will
have a chance to win a cookbook.

Click here to submit your
answer.

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Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) has a taste for blood. Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) is the town telepath.
Courtesy of HBO
On TV
"True Blood" premieres at 10:30 p.m. Sunday on HBO.
In Sunday's ¡Vamos!.
Read Gerald M. Gay's interview with character actor William Sanderson, who plays the local sheriff on "True Blood."
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REMOTE CONTROLLED

Kinder, gentler vampires

By Gerald M. Gay
Ggay@azstarnet.com
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 09.04.2008
Life sucks for the characters in Alan Ball's new series, "True Blood," debuting Sunday on HBO.
The show is set in the sleepy town of Bon Temps, La., where vampires have "come out of the coffin" and made it known that they've lived among humans for centuries.
Thanks to a synthetic blood substitute called Tru Blood, created by the Japanese, they no longer have to feed off the living and therefore don't need to hide all the time.
But not everyone warms to the kinder, gentler vampires. Prejudice is rampant, and hate groups and the religious right are screaming bloody murder.
Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a telepathic waitress at a Bon Temps watering hole, seems to be the only one who trusts the area's first vampire resident, Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer).
Suspicions build when townspeople, some known for fraternizing with the undead in other parts of the state, begin turning up dead themselves.
HBO, post-"Sopranos," has struggled to nurse its original programming back to health. Judging from the first five episodes, "True Blood" might be just what the doctor ordered.
The tone is surprisingly light, given that it was created by Ball, who wrote the dark film "American Beauty" and the even darker HBO series "Six Feet Under." Based on a series of novels by Charlaine Harris, "True Blood" is more about acceptance than about death and the macabre (there's some of that, too, of course).
And it goes out of its way to avoid clichés. Vampires don't run around in capes, nor do they fear crosses. They wear trucker caps and business suits. They enjoy a bottle or two of Tru Blood with friends after a hard night's work and, in Compton's case, occasionally show an emotional interest in humans.
Paquin's strong-Southern-woman appeal is convincing, and Moyer bounces between sincere and downright creepy as her 173-year-old suitor.
Bringing vampires into the modern world isn't a novel concept. But "True Blood" packs enough bite that it will be hard to resist on Sunday nights.

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