For those who missed the mention in the "Serenity" discussion thread:

If you haven't seen this great SF movie (or have only seen it on the small screen), you may have a chance to catch it in a theater this week.

Fans of the movie and its precursor TV series Firefly have arranged charity screenings at some 50 locations worldwide. Most showings are this Friday, June 23. Some are a day or two on either side of that.

Check the listing at www.cantstoptheserenity.com to see if there's a showing in your area. It's worth a drive, and it's for a good cause.

If you don't know anything about the movie, here's a link to its IMDB listing:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379786/

I predict that if you miss this opportunity, a few years from now you'll be telling all your friends how you were there on Serenity Day, while silently kicking yourself for having to fib about it!

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Bring back Firefly!

"It is quite clear that Occam's razor does not sharpen in your pyramid." (Nicolas)

"Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." (Paul Simon)

I can't wait! *bounces in anticipation*

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"All of this will be for nothing, unless we go to the stars." Cmdr. Sinclair, Babylon 5

So who actually attended one of these? The timing was really bad for me, but I'd be interested in hearing reports from those who could make it. Attending a sci-fi film with a lot of kindred spirits sounds like a lot of fun.

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

I did (big shock, huh?). Here's what I posted to one of the Firefly fan sites about it, with a couple edits for clarity:


We had an absolutely swai event! Big kudos to the folks at New England Browncoats who organized it.

The Coolidge Corner theater sold out well ahead of showtime. I'm gonna estimate the crowd at about 500 Browncoats... well, somewhat less than that before the movie started, but all 500 were 'coats by the end!

My group of 'coats arrived an hour before showtime. Already by that time, there was a "Sold Out" sign up, and folks were being turned away -- thank Buddha we got our tix in advance! -- and a huge line of fans was standing in the "Serenity Ticket Holders" line. Outside. Down the block and around the corner. In the rain. And all were in great spirits! The line doubled in size before the doors opened. Someone passed a couple giant birthday cards down the line for the fans to sign for Joss (Whedon). Sorry about the water drip spots!

As the crowd filed in, we got a sneak peek at the upcoming "Done the Impossible" fan documentary. We also got to see a short feature in which Joss was presented an award from Equality Now. He gave an amazing and hi-larious acceptance speech.

NE Browncoats had arranged a bunch of door prizes, ranging from theater passes to actual props from the movie set. My good friend won a framed piece of Alliance currency from the bank vault scene! 500 Credits. It's a beautiful thing. It's just amazing the attention to detail that went into our Big Damn Movie. (IIRC there's a picture of this bill, or an identical one, in the Visual Companion.)

And then, of course, came the screening of some strange little movie called "Serenitance", or something like that. It was so fantastic to see it in a theater packed with 'coats! We laughed, we cried, we applauded... well, you know. The theater was great, with excellent sound and a big (though not gigantic) screen.

There was no announcement of the amount raised for EN, but based on my guess at the size of the crowd I'll estimate it at somewhere around $4000 on ticket sales alone. (Don't know whether the theater took a cut of that for the film rental.) Add to that some direct contributions and T-shirt sales and, well, let's just say I'm proud of my fellow NE 'coats -- I think we held up our end.

Hooray for Serenity Day! Yay Serenity Day!



So I guess you can see I had a great time. Hope some other BAUTers had a chance to attend one.

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Bring back Firefly!

"It is quite clear that Occam's razor does not sharpen in your pyramid." (Nicolas)

"Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." (Paul Simon)

Unfortunately, I live WAAAAY too far away from any theater doing Serenity Day. Montreal was the closest one. But, I had a little Serenity Day in my own home.

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In Fallout 3, 'happiness' is a warm junkyard dog and a loaded gun. It's mostly the loaded gun.
- Moose's one-line review.

"your going to regret that one. You are now a colonoscope...
- Chrissy, corrupting PraedSt's wish.

I went to the Arlington Cinema and Drafthouse with my fiance to see it. I had just seen Serenity for the first time a week before, so I was excited to see it on the big screen!

The theater was also a restaurant--every seat had access to a table, and there was a full menu and waitstaff. That made it a little distracting; people walking up and down the stairs over and over, and they had to leave some lights on. But still, it was a great experience! I had a fun time watching River's fights on the big screen, and laughing at Jayne every time he spoke.

I was a "fangirl" for the night, wearing my Serenity t-shirt. There were quite a few others with various shirts, and a couple women dressed up like Inara. A staff member announced the groups in attendance--such as a Browncoat society, and other meet-up groups.

Donnie B., and anyone else who might know, what exactly does a Browncoat society do? (I do know the origin of the term.) Do you meet and discuss the film? In person, or online? What else?

It was worth it to drive down to DC from Baltimore on a Friday night. :^)

Pumpkinpie, I'm so glad you enjoyed your outing! I'm not sure I'd have liked the distractions you described, but it's great you got the chance to see the film with a bunch of other Browncoats.

While I've not heard the exact phrase "Browncoat society" before, I can tell you that there are a lot of fan groups around the country. For example, the New England Browncoats are active in my area. They plan various get-togethers (usually called "shindigs"), keep each other apprised of news, and sometimes participate in charity events. They were the driving force in the Boston and Concord, NH, screenings of Serenity which, like the others around the country, raised funds for the "Equality Now" organization. Some of the fan groups also get involved in the various conventions that bring fans together with the actors and other principals of Firefly/Serenity (and, obviously, each other).


So, you have watched the Firefly TV series, right? If not, you really need to get hold of it. Many fans like it even better than the movie.

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Bring back Firefly!

"It is quite clear that Occam's razor does not sharpen in your pyramid." (Nicolas)

"Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." (Paul Simon)

*grin* Do they keep enough swords on hand for these things?

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In Fallout 3, 'happiness' is a warm junkyard dog and a loaded gun. It's mostly the loaded gun.
- Moose's one-line review.

"your going to regret that one. You are now a colonoscope...
- Chrissy, corrupting PraedSt's wish.

S-whats?

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Bring back Firefly!

"It is quite clear that Occam's razor does not sharpen in your pyramid." (Nicolas)

"Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." (Paul Simon)

I'm sorry I missed that!

I need to keep an eye out for Firefly conventions. I'd love to see what some of the actors are like in person.

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

You know what happens whenever Mal shows up for one of these things. Someone makes an indelicate crack about Inara choice of vocation, Mal takes a swing, and then it's all "fun and games" until someone loses a spleen.

[Edited for humor enhancement.]

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In Fallout 3, 'happiness' is a warm junkyard dog and a loaded gun. It's mostly the loaded gun.
- Moose's one-line review.

"your going to regret that one. You are now a colonoscope...
- Chrissy, corrupting PraedSt's wish.

Oh yes. I got the series in January and took my time watching it, finally finishing two weeks ago and then moving on to the movie. As soon as I saw it and loved it, I was so disappointed that I didn't see it on the big screen. The next day I found out about the screening! What great timing!

I went to a generic sci-fi/fantasy con in April that had a ton of girls dressed as Kaylee, but I don't remember any Inaras. I'm thinking of dressing up as River next year. (My face looks a lot more like Kaylee, but I can't pull off the attitude.)

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

I attended last year's Flanvention. I was pretty impressed with the Firefly cast. They all seemed very straightforward and un-Hollywoodized. No ego problems at all (well, Nathan's the world's biggest ham, but in a good way) and the chemistry between them was amazing. I shared a dinner table with Morena and Christina Hendricks (Saffron), and a lunch table with Alan and Summer. Very much fun.

I'll be returning for Flanvention 2 this year. Info at www.boosterevents.com if you're interested. There's also a Serenity-specific con in England in the fall, plus various subsets of the Firefly crew often appear at the more general scifi and comic cons.

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Bring back Firefly!

"It is quite clear that Occam's razor does not sharpen in your pyramid." (Nicolas)

"Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." (Paul Simon)

None that I go to (yet). I'll have to keep an eye out - Burbank in December two weeks after one of the two big Doctor Who conventions of the year is a bit of a reach.

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

I was hoping that there'd be someone from the Firefly cast at GenCon Indy this summer, but no luck. I wanted more autographs on the cast pic I had Ron Glass sign last year. The only celeb there of possible interest if Gigi Edgely (Chiana from Farscape). There's others from that show who I'd rather see there, but I still might have to go get Pip's autograph. [/hijack]

I'll be there too. This will be my first convention ever, but everyone I know who has been has said they are a blast.

It was! In Albany, we only had about 202 people, but it impressed the director of the theater. They don't usually get that many people for movies even though this place is fantastic. The screen is 41 feet by 21 feet and the sound system was amazing! You didn't just hear everything, you felt it too. So that made any scene with Serenity taking off or landing, and especially the Reaver/Alliance guantlet scene just amazing. Really put you into the film. I wanted to do it again as soon as it was over. There is already talk of doing the screenings again next year. I found another theater that might be more suited to the numbers that will come, but I'd really like to see it again at the Palace. It's like if Inara's shuttle and the ballroom in the episode 'Shindig' were able to spawn, this place would be it's offspring.

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"All of this will be for nothing, unless we go to the stars." Cmdr. Sinclair, Babylon 5

I missed the one in my hometown since I was out of town, but my friend attended and said it was really cool. She wore the Jayne hat I made for her. My fiance and I would have gone in our Halloween costumes (Mal and Inara) if we'd been in town.

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[Astronomy's] one of those things that makes us more than just well-fed cows. It satisfies a really deep hunger to know, to go someplace, to explore ...a hunger that is as basic to human beings as food and shelter... -Br. Guy Consolmagno, Ph.D.

Finally finished my Firefly DVD set (I've previously seen them on TV) and then rewatched Serenity. I can't wait for Serenity 2, but I did get the feeling when watching the ending again that Josh was hedging his bets and wrapped things up quite a bit just incase it doesn't happen.

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Howling from the Shadows

It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. --- JayUtah

You can't reason an irrational person out of an irrational belief. --- Noclevername