Press And Blog Mentions, Etc.

[salonor]

What's "Firefly"?

Is this an existential question or are you suddenly suffering from amnesia?

[The One True b!X]

Who am I, and why am I here?

[salonor]

A little bit of both then . . . . interesting.

[pyratejack]

Funniest answer I got telling someone about Firefly, and that it's playing at the Mission was:

"Firefly? You mean like the insect?"

[CulturePulp]

Brian Moon tells a terrific line story from the July 24 screening:

I sat on the sidewalk, pulled my new sexy thing out of my bag, and tried to find some free wireless to connect to. Had another 75 minutes, at least, to wait until "Firefly" at the Mission Theater started. Got here early and the line was already around the corner....

And the Portland Mercury declares the July 31 lineup the "Best Firefly Night at the Mission Yet." Comment #1 is a keeper:

PLEASE STOP PROMOTING THIS!

I got there at 8:45 last week and there was STILL a line!

It's already popular enough, thankyouverymuch!

Sheesh.

Also, Chris Walsh prepares for "Jaynestown" in the only sensible manner.

[The One True b!X]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theonetruebix/969701743/

[CulturePulp]

"Firefly at the Mission" is linked off the front page of the Web site of a t-shirt screen-printing company (!):

If you are reading this, you probably already know that we are huge nerds for Battlestar. But the love for innovative sci-fi tv doesn't end there, so I thought I would take the opportunity to mention yet another reason that Portland is better than not-Portland: screenings of "Firefly" at McMenamin's Mission Theater. Tomorrow night at 10, and Tuesday's thereafter until they run out. Why wouldn't you be there?

[CulturePulp]

Chris Walsh brings it yet again, with a super-detailed precis of Week 4:

I again geek out over Firefly at the Mission

Another happy night of big-screen Firefly appreciation! Woo hoo!

(Notice right off: Others must grab the mantle of chronicling next week's show for posterity. I'll be preparing to go back to work after a vacation, and I need to be especially bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at the office Wednesday morning. Thus I'll miss "Out of Gas" and "Ariel." Phoo. But YOU can see it!)

Oy: Passing the Mission at 8:20 p.m. Tuesday, earliest I've ever shown up at these screenings, and people already were waiting, two hours before doors would open. Yet more proof we're dedicated! I walked over to the Nob Hill Old Pharmacy Cafe to get my drink of choice: a hazelnut Italian soda with half-and-half, which was both sweet and nutty. Which led to me and a guy in line to discussing what Firefly character is truly "sweet and nutty." His idea: maybe Badger, in his weird way ("he does seem to care about what's going on in their lives," he said); Kaylee's totally sweet, of course, but not really nutty enough to qualify. We also wondered who else could sing the Firefly theme song: I suggested Nick Cave, he suggested Joan Jett. He then said, "Lou Reed?" And we both imitated Reed (surprisingly easy). We also decided that an opera rendition is Right Out.

More people showed up dressed in Firefly-ish gear this time. Some of the ensembles were actually pretty...I first wrote "fancy," but "fancy" ain't the right word for great chunks of the Firefly 'verse, so maybe "elaborate." The shirt-and-vest ensemble the especially enthusiastic Mike Russell wore wasn't fancy, but it was right. Do this more, people!

We got in even more efficiently this time: the Mission staff checked ID and stamped lots of people outside before they entered. The radio station redshirts (not that way!) also passed out KUFO stickers and the lyrics to "The Hero of Canton" -- wait, does that song have an official title? Dark Horse Comics people, two people this time, also passed out stickers ("I <3 Dark Horse") to the line people.

Festivities included guitarist Christopher Wallace ("Not the Notorious B.I.G.," I said to myself), who sang both "The Hero of Canton" and the Firefly theme; makes sense, as group singing is worthwhile and to be encouraged (he encouraged, encouragingly), and prepared us a little more for the night's airings.

There also were trivia questions, with such prizes as rare-ish comic books, a Serenity PVC set, a Serenity ornament, and a Serenity-disguised-as-a-Reaver-ship ornament as winnable swag (thanks, Dark Horse and Things From Another World). I could have -- could have, I tell you! -- answered the Titan A.E. question (that was the film whose screenwriters included Joss Whedon and Ben Edlund), but I'm sure the prize went to a worthy winner (he grumbled, grumble-ingly... I kid! I kid!). That's because I also know and can share this story: Whedon mentioned once that he and his wife attended Titan A.E.'s world premiere, and -- how to put this delicately? -- neither of them were happy with how the film turned out. As they drove home, his wife said to him, "Say something funny, to remind me you are."

(That didn't put Whedon off writing, obviously: why, he'll be doing an online comic for Dark Horse! And once I have an actual link about said comic, I'll post it and delete this awkward aside...)

Then the intros came back! Cort and Fatboy pimped their show before "Our Mrs. Reynolds." Then before "Jaynestown," Rick Emerson ranted about the lack of broadcast intros last week, saying he had filmed one relating to Belloq from Raiders of the Lost Ark (HOW is his name spelled? HOW is it pronounced? DID he eat the fly? And other rants in his special style) and it had not been shown, implying that someone or something had FAILED. So he attempted to broadcast those thoughts directly into the audience's minds, Jedi-style. (Except, shoot. He's not a Jedi. Points for effort, though...)

I had to duck out of the showing early, halfway through "Jaynestown," because I needed to get an early start the next day. But I saw what I could, and lots of you good people saw all of the Firefly entertainment provided that night. I'm pretty fond of "Our Mrs. Reynolds," not just due to its Saffron nudity but also due to its (I think) especially good moment for Wash: his reaction to Saffron attempting to hit on him. You really see how much he loves Zoe, on general principles, not just because he and Zoe get to make wild passionate love. It's a genuine moment in an episode full of genuine moments...all spurred by someone lying. Elegant.

Enjoy next week, y'all!

If you read Chris' original post, there are hotlinks.

Also, in my last post, I neglected to link the t-shirt company that pimped F@TM. Rectified!

[CulturePulp]

Chris Walsh (who may not be able to make it to Week 5) nevertheless offers a preview in the guise of a discussion of Peter David and the sexiness of Jewel Staite.

[CulturePulp]

F@tM super-blogger Chris Walsh previews Week 6:

Tuesday's two shows are "War Stories" (the capture of Mal and Wash and the latest surprise proffered by River) and "Trash" (Saffron finally gets Mal naked; I know, I'm known to note the nudity). The Wikis on these two are helpfully linked at both the main "Firefly at the Mission" page above, and, hey!, rights here in my here journal. I've read them finally. I didn't know you can see Jubal Early's vessel in "Trash"... Interesting...

[The One True b!X]

Hey, he gave away our secret trick of going to the prior show. Heh.

[CulturePulp]

"mlerules" plans to return.

Cooter Davis gets multiple-punctuation-mark excited over at the Cloud City Garrison message boards.

And blog tornado Chris Walsh is back with another granular-yet-monolithic screening report, this time on Week 6:

He's Joss Whedon and he approves this shindig (Firefly at the Mission, Week 6)

Joss knows.

Feel good about Firefly at the Mission, folks: Joss Whedon knows about it, and he’s glad to know it’s happening.

That was a tidbit I learned last night while the lot of us (Mike Russell guessed 225 to 250) gathered once again for two more episodes, the life-death-and-marriage drama of “War Stories” and the more comic, robbery-makes-strange-bedfellows story of “Trash.”

Once again the Dark Horse Comics reps (at least one of whom works with Joss directly) were among us, experiencing our energy and helping to feed it. They showed some of the event organizers inked pages from Serenity: Better Days, the upcoming Firefly miniseries that Whedon and Brett Matthews are writing. I just barely glimpsed the pages; The One True b!x completely missed seeing them. (Russell told me to mention that. He used the phrase “kicking himself afterward.” Mr. b!x, you have a chance to respond…) The Dark Horse people (Dark Horsers? Certainly not the Dark Horsies…OK, I’ll stop) also provided further prizes for the trivia contest. I’d like to say that I had NOTHING to do with choosing the trivia questions this time, though in my last Firefly entry I inadvertently provided an answer to one…

Cort and Fatboy provided both of the intros (Rick Emerson was unavailable to pimp himself, but we still love him), being themselves in the first and sort-of-kind-of imitating Emerson in the second. (“Coffee…coffee…movie reference…Viso…Scotty J. sucks…”)

Maybe it was a combo of my missing last week plus my being especially tired, but our responses seemed more explosive last night. The laugh lines got (I thought) louder laughs; the moments where Serenity’s crew rub each other the wrong way got (I thought) especially loud “Oooooo”s. Whatever happened, the energy was there and the energy was good. Keep it up.

Other quick tidbits:

- Music! A stereo played songs, both fan-penned filks and official soundtrack stuff (the “Fruity Oaty Bar” jingle!), and some stuff somewhere in between, like Adam “Jayne” Baldwin singing “The Hero of Canton.” (Russell posted a page of links to those songs here.) I won’t yet analyze it, but I like that much of fandom expresses its fan-love through music, and I like that Firefly has had lots of worthwhile music (I keep going back to how terrific I find David Newman’s score for the film).

- Dancing! Mike Russell finally dance the promised dance from last week, and the dance was something very Oktoberfest-ery. He has made it abundantly clear he won’t do that again, which means if there is to be dancing again, we must do it. (Ahem: WE MUST DO IT!) (Yes, I’m suggestin’…We could even do a conga line entering the theatre one of these nights…)

- Newbies! We’ve had Firefly semi-virgins among us, people making their first pass through this story. I hope they’re liking it. And I hope we’re not scaring them. We have a welcoming fandom here, people; keep it open and welcome and good stuff like that!

- Arriving early! It works. I bought a ticket to Live Free or Die Hard – yep, I’m fond of the Die Hard flicks, I make no apologies, not even for the more cartoonish Die Harder – and I wasn’t the only one. More time to relax, more time to eat, more support to the Mission…but it still felt a little like cheating, to get in early like that.

Next week we get a flashback to the war (“The Message”) and the crew of Serenity defending the embattled brothel (“Heart of Gold”) – an episode that brought Melinda Clarke into the Firefly ’verse, which probably delighted several friends of mine…

As usual, Chris' original post is rife with hotlinks.

[CulturePulp]

Chris Walsh puts on some mood music as he previews Week 7:

Death: The High Cost of Living (More "Firefly at the Mission" Tuesday night)

This entry likely will be closer to "darkly philosophical" than "Jewel Staite: so sexy it's scary?" I'm in a kind of mood; I apologize in advance.

But in a way, both episodes of Firefly that we'll show Tuesday night at the Mission Theatre -- "The Message" and "Heart of Gold" -- are about death.

A death figures in "The Message." The threat of death looms in "Heart of Gold": that's what happens in battle, to state an obviousness so obvious it screams obviousness. The Whedon-and-Co. humor is there -- the infamous cap, Kaylee and Jayne's reactions to the prostitutes -- but the dangers of the colonized solar system where the crewmembers of Serenity live hang over our beloved spacefarers. And when there's loss, the show doesn't shy away from showing how strongly that loss affects them.

And there is another end looming: the end of Firefly itself. A particular music cue for a particular scene (I'll be vague, but the Browncoats know what I refer to) was written not just about the loss of a character, but about the loss of the show; the cast and crew had learned Firefly was cancelled. In fact, composer Greg Edmondson worried the resulting cue was too emotional, too demonstrative; but he had summed up in music exactly what his colleagues were feeling. This stark, lovely, eccentric 'verse, with its possibilities as well as its dangers, was going away.

I'm glad that didn't happen. The show's DVD set sold in a way Hollywood didn't expect. The fandom developed further, and friendships began that would never had happened without the Firefly connection. The movie happened; the fan comics Serenity Tales happened, giving us (and letting us imagine) more stories in the Firefly 'verse; Serenity Now happened, and keeps happening.

Death happens. Ends happen. We deal with this, one way or another, well or badly, depending. Or we don't deal with this; that's possible, as well. But we have, at some level, the urge to make what happens before death, before an end, matter. We work. We love: platonically, sexually, paternally/maternally, or many other ways. We make friends. We eat good food. We make jokes. We travel. We cheer what deserves cheering, we boo what deserves booing. We imagine what -- if anything -- happens next.

In this specific case, the specific "What's Next" is "The Mission" and "Heart of Gold." The week after that, it's "Objects in Space" and, if all goes well, some sort of bonus footage (of which I know nothing, so don't ask me). The first Tuesday in September, it's the free screening of the movie Serenity, giving us the finale we didn't quite get with the TV series.

And then there's...what's next.

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end...

Hey, philosophy can come from many places.

See you tomorrow at the Mission.

[CulturePulp]

In his Week 7 screening report, unofficial F@tM historian Chris Walsh remains existential:

Back to Life, after talk of death (Firefly at the Mission Week 7)

(A request: If anyone wants to add to or clarify this Firefly at the Mission entry, e-mail me. I’m reachable via comments here and at d00d.srsly @ gmail.com, and I want to be especially sure I didn’t say too much or get details wrong.)

As the Joss Whedon fans reading this know, his work features many examples of the Bad Death. I think the concept needs a name like that, and that almost sounds like a Whedonism, like “the Big Bad.” He knows how to make fictional characters die in a way that hurts, the way real-life death does.

(Which reminds me: Douglas Adams created the “death of the sperm whale” scene in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy because he was bothered by the American TV series Cannon, where passerby would get shot and killed by bad guys and there was no dramatic impact, no sadness that someone’s life had ended, even fictionally. Adams decided to create a character that would die solely for a plot point, and make the audience feel sad that said character did die.)

Think of the woman who dies trying to get off the bus in Speed (which Whedon rewrote). When that happens, Dennis Hopper makes a joke; Sandra Bullock cries, and Keanu gives her what counsel he can while they barrel down the freeway. A wild-ride action film takes time to deal with the emotional impact of that kind of loss. And think of the Bad Deaths in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Buffy and Dawn’s mother Joyce. Willow’s partner Tara. Or think of Fred, on the Angel episode “A Hole in the World.” All were deaths that could’ve been purely plot elements, part of the simple movement from Start of the Story to End of the Story…but they had an awful verisimilitude in the hands of Joss Whedon and his fellow writers. Their deaths weren’t dramatic cheats, the equivalent of the “cop partner gets killed as he tells the star cop about his retirement plans” death you sometimes see in action films; their deaths were gut-punches. They hurt. Bad Death.

And Whedon and Tim Minear pulled off a Bad Death in Firefly’s “The Message” with a character we only met in “The Message.” Think of all the dramatic turns in just those 44 minutes: meeting that man in the coffin, seeing the flashback to the war, being surprised by his waking up, seeing him threaten the lives of Serenity’s crew when he’s threatened, watching him die, experiencing his funeral…that’s a lot of dramatic and emotional heavy-lifting. It’s a packed episode. And of course, it was the episode the cast and crew were making when they learned the show was going away after “Objects in Space,” so there’s that extra-textual touch of emotion. (I always thought that “The Masterpiece Society,” the first Star Trek: TNG episode filmed after Gene Roddenberry’s death, felt drained of energy, with the cast and crew still working through their loss.)

It’s a strong episode, and it had a strong impact on our Tuesday night screening crowd, I’d say. So did “Heart of Gold.”

Before all that, there was the waiting. We were lucky that the weather had cleared and that the skies were dry, so it wouldn’t be an uncomfortable wait. I waited near two people who played Scrabble, the board set in an especially bright pool of light. I once again saw the depth and breadth of Firefly fandom, how interesting the people attracted to the show are: people I spoke with included a man who collects vintage guns – he described a seven-barrel model of his that was used (for a third of a second!) in the film Master and Commander – and a woman who’d once worked as an escort and who appreciated how Firefly presented companions in an intelligent, nuanced, non-hysterical manner. And we had our usual collection of readers, adult-beverage aficionados (my group discussed whether it was possible to make a Red Bull-based beer), photo-takers, and generally happy-to-be-there people. Maybe we even had people dressed as Firefly characters again, but I didn’t see anyone like that this time.

And while I’m not sure if copies of it were on-hand, many of us spoke of the special edition DVD of Serenity, finally available that very same day, with extra-y goodness pressed onto those discs and giving us another way to demonstrate our fondness for all things Firefly and Serenity. I’ll be buying it. (LJ’s kradical – Keith R. A. DeCandido of the Serenity novelization – will likely be buying it because he gets mentioned positively on the cast commentary! And his mom definitely will buy it…)

Live Free or Die Hard started and ended earlier than it had the week before, and after it finished we all filed in, making the Mission Theatre reasonably close to full. The pre-show music this time included an inspired song about Jayne, to the tune of “A Boy Named Sue”; I applauded that song. I wasn’t the only one. This week’s trivia questions dealt with several episodes, not just that night’s, so as to avoid too many spoilers. (By the way, Mike, there wasn’t a “that” in “I swear by my pretty floral bonnet I will end you.” Yes, I proofread.)

And we also learned the News What Is Good:

Last June’s “Serenity Now” screenings at the Hollywood raised $13,000 for Equality Now (think about it: as the 2007 worldwide total is $108,000, Portland was responsible for 12% of that!) and over $1,000 for the Women’s Film Initiative.

That deserves its own paragraph.

Like that one.

Episodes then unspooled (I know, DVDs don’t “unspool,” but you still get what I’m saying, so the term works in context). Cort and Fatboy introduced “The Message” with talk of the special meaning of that episode’s funeral; Rick Emerson (apparently in a bunker; oy, radio stations are poorly lit) briefly referenced the possible good future for Futurama (DVD movies, yo!) as he introduced “Heart of Gold.” Ah: another show Fox handled poorly (aye, even hobblingly) that found extended life thanks to fans. I sense a pattern. I’m not the only one.

Two more Tuesdays to go: “Objects in Space” next week, the movie for free (hey, perhaps from the new DVD) the Tuesday after Labor Day. Make sure these are well-attended, people. Let’s go out with a bang. Don’t let a Bad Death happen to Firefly at the Mission. OK, that was a reach…

[Jecca]

Cool.  Great review.  One minor "set the record straight":  the man with the gun in "Master and Commander" is Scott.  He didn't collect it.  He built it.  But I'm with Chris on the "interesting people met in line".  I've had a tremendous amount of fun just waiting in line for F@tM.