Fannish Ramblings

Back in August I gave my brother a copy of the Firefly box set. He’d heard of the show, but having no great interest in it, promptly put the discs to one side with plans to watch them “someday.”

“Someday” arrived last weekend.

During a phone conversation on Saturday, Dave told me he and his wife had watched the first several episodes. After some thought he agreed that it made sense for a frontier planet to have horses instead of cars (after all building new horses doesn’t require as much manufacturing infrastructure) but overall he was skeptical of the whole “spaghetti western” motif.

By Wednesday they had watched the first three discs and found themselves in agreement with those who feel that the Fox network executives who cancelled the show deserve to be consigned to “the special hell.” (The one normally reserved for child molesters and people who talk in theater.)

I got another email from him this evening. His daughters aren’t old enough to watch the show, but he’s taught them to sing “The Hero of Canton.”

(more…)

Technorati is loaded with blog entries about what happened when Flanvention was cancelled at the last moment.

Not only did the California and San Francisco Browncoats put together their backup event in a mere 24 hours, a number of Firefly cast members (including Alan Tudyk who had previously cancelled his Flanvention appearance) also showed up to show support for the fans.

An attendee going by the moniker of “TheOneTrueB!x” posted a Flickr stream with a number of good photos including Christina Hendricks (Saffron/Yolanda/Bridget), Alan Tudyk (Wash), Mark Sheppard (Badger), Adam Baldwin (Jayne) and, of course, Cap’n Reynolds himself, Nathan Fillion.

So despite the lack of the convention everyone had been planning to attend, it appears as though something shiny may have happened after all.

On Friday, December 1, after several days of uncertainty about whether the Big Damn Flanvention would take place, Booster Events announced that they had resolved their financial difficulties and would be going forward with their event.

The California Browncoats and the San Francisco Browncoats report that on Thursday, December 7, with 24 hours before the event was to take place, and with people starting to arrive, Booster Events reversed themselves and pulled the plug on the Big Damn Flanvention.

The Booster Events web site is currently blank save for a notice that “Booster Entertainment apologizes for the great inconvenience, but due to unforeseen circumstances, Flanvention is cancelled. An official notice will be posted within 10 days.” (December 17)

At this point in time, lacking evidence to the contrary, Fanboy’s Convention List is treating all future Booster Events conventions as cancelled.

Details are scarce right now, but there’s a notice on the Booster Events site that due to “financial difficulties,” it’s possible that the Big Damned Flanvention 2 may be cancelled. Please note that the event has not been cancelled and if it is, you’ll most likely find out through Booster Events’ official channels sooner than you will here.

None of that is particularly newsworthy. Sad to say, convention cancellations are not altogether uncommon.

What’s interesting about this one though is how the attendees are reacting. As a contingency plan, the California Browncoats are organizing an event which has been dubbed, the “Browncoats’ Backup Bash.” In the event that the Flanvention does fall through, and attendees are unable to cancel their hotel/airplane/other reservations, there will still be an event to attend.

Kudos to the California Browncoats for their efforts. That’s shiny.

Battlestar Galactica is due to start its third season on October 6 and one group of fans is looking to start the season with a party!

Organizers of the Frak Party have created a web site where local organizers can advertise their season premiere parties and where fans without a party can look for one in their area. Combined, the local parties will form the nationwide Frak Party.

That could be pretty frak’n cool.