Vancouver Can't Stop The Serenity 2013: Fun and Fundraising! Plus Joss Update.

CSTS Vancouver, 2013

JOSS UPDATE AT THE END
Yesterday I had a wonderful time at the Vancouver Can't Stop The Serenity 2013. Gayle and her team of helpers had prepared a fun-packed day and the atmosphere was welcoming and happy.

There was a packed schedule of events:

Saturday's Schedule - subject to change without notice (but probably not)
Noon     Doors open
12:30     Welcome then Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog sing-along
  1:20     Evil Laugh Contest
  1:40     Live Auction
  2:15     Costume Parade & Prizes
  2:30     Whedon Trivia Bingo
  3:00     Silent Auction ends; doors close. Prize draws. Special videos & introduction to movie 

  3:30     SERENITY

  5:30     Silent Auction winners announced. Closing remarks and acknowledgements

The sing-along Sing-Along was a traditional way to start everything off and if you've never had the experience of singing "..It's a brand new day, and the sun is high. All the birds are singing that you're gonna die.." with a bunch of other people, then I highly recommend it.

Straight after that was the Evil Laugh Contest, and there were some incredibly strong contenders this year. After each had demonstrated their prowess we were treated to mass laugh-off, which can only be described as a Macabre of Evil Laughs.

A Macabre of Evil Laughs

It came down to the Final Four. Unfortunately I didn't get my iPhone set up quick enough to record 'Inaru', but you can see (and hear) for yourself the high standards of the entries:

After that excitement came the Live Auction. The inaugural auction last year was a huge success, and this year it was MC Alan Douglas (a.k.a. @alalcoolj, The Masked Roger and Father Aloysius Rambo) who whipped up the crowd into a bidding frenzy. With many cries of "Signed by Jewel Staite, you say?" the magnificent prizes were snapped up by an eager mob.

If that wasn't excitement enough, next was the costume competition. Another very strong field this year, and we had quite a time of it trying to decide who should take the prizes:

Firefly and Whedonverse Costume Competition

In the end Kaylee, Malinda and Inaru all claimed prizes.

I had neglected to buy my Bingo cards in time (and not just because I was lining up to sample the sweet treats from C & C Cakery which were, as it happens, delicious), so I could sit back and enjoy the Alan Douglas challenging and delighting the audience with some well-thought-out Whedon Trivia Bingo. The tension in the room was palpable, and after a couple of false dawns, there was a clutch of Bingos all at once. 

Then it was rush to get out to the Silent Auction:

Once time was called, it was on to the Main Event. A screening of Joss' Equality Now speech, the CSTS 2013 Equality Now introduction, and then on to Serenity. And, again, if you've never watched Serenity with a crowd of Browncoats you are missing a rare treat.

Joss Whedon's Equality Now speech

I can't thank Gayle and her team enough for such a wonderful day out and I hope everyone enjoyed a well-earned rest today!

JOSS UPDATE
A couple of weeks ago I blogged about the fact that Joss is now on Twitter, and how conflicted I felt about that. Well, sad to say that the @JossActual account has now been made private (I'm sure it wasn't anything to do with that post...).

But - fear not! There is now the @JossWhedon account! So all is good with the world. Just don't be tempted to do something like this:

I'm glad I didn't :)

Not content with doubling his presence on Twitter, Mr Whedon has been busy IRL, including making the 2013 Wesleyan Commencement Speech (surprisingly, nothing to do with Wesley Crusher). He was also made an honorary Doctor Of Letters:

I AM A-SMARTI AM A-SMARTS-M-R-T -- I mean S-M-A-R-T... twitter.com/josswhedon/sta…
— Joss Whedon (@josswhedon) May 27, 2013

Can't Stop The Serenity Vancouver 2013 - This Saturday! #CSTS

CSTS Vancouver, 2013

We've been attending the Vancouver CSTS event since 2008, and every year we have a ton of fun with costumes, auctions, sing-alongs and, of couse, seeing Serenity on the big screen one more time with the BC Browncoats and friends.

The 8th Annual Vancouver CSTS is on Saturday May 25, 12:30 - 5:30 PM at the MacMillan Space Centre, and promises to be another awesome event.

Check out the awesome auction items on the CSTS Vancouver blog - and find out how you can take part! Keep up to date with all the excitement by following @CSTSVancouver on Twitter, too.

All proceeds go to the following charities:

• Equality Now
• BC Women's Hospital 
• Avalon Women's Centres

Come and join us on Saturday!

CSTS 2012 slideshow



CSTS 2011 slideshow

LA Can't Stop The Serenity - watch Joss Whedon et al at CSTS

Watch the recorded livecast from LA

In case you (like me) missed the livecast from the LA CSTS today with Joss Whedon, Tim Minnear, Felicia Day, Jane Espenson and many more - you can watch it on GeekWeek on Justin.tv:


Watch live video from GeekWeek on Justin.tv

Joss Whedon to speak at the LA Can't Stop The Serenity (CSTS) event!

I'm already counting down the days until I attend the 6th Annual Vancouver Can't Stop The Serenity day at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, 1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver, BC, on June 25th (11 am until 6 pm). It will my fourth year and I look forward to it for weeks in advance! CSTS is a global sci-fi charity event all about raising money and awareness for Equality Now and other charities.

Last year we had a great time and we made these videos:





We had a wonderful time, met friends old and new, and more importantly the BC Browncoats raised lots of money for Equality Now and the BC Women's Hospital and Health Centre Foundation. Because that is what CSTS is all about - communities coming together to raise money causes we believe in - all while enjoying some high class entertainment with friends.

From the CSTS Press Release:
"Whedon has been outspoken in his support of the organization and gender equality. In 2006, Whedon was honored with a special recognition award from Equality Now. In his acceptance speech, he told a story of how he’s often questioned as to why he writes strong women characters such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. His response:

“Because equality is not a concept. It's not something we should be striving for. It's a necessity. Equality is like gravity. We need it to stand on this earth as men and women. And the misogyny that is in every culture is not a true part of the human condition. It is life out of balance, and that imbalance is sucking something out of the soul of every man and woman who is confronted with it.
We need equality. Kinda now.”

A very special announcement for the 2011 season is that Joss Whedon himself will be attending and speaking at one of the events: Can’t Stop The Serenity in Los Angeles on June 25th, hosted by the California Browncoats. Taking the excitement one step further, the event will be broadcast live via the web so people can enjoy the night from around the world. Using multiple cameras, the feed will show the live events from the stage, interviews with attendees and general footage to capture every moment from this unprecedented event. 

Now in its 6th year, Can’t Stop the Serenity has become a worldwide benefit movement in the name of Whedon’s beloved works. Browncoats are part of a global family that believes doing the impossible makes one mighty. The fight for basic human decency will continue for as long as there are people in need and those willing to answer that call. In trying to raise awareness for that call, Mr. Universe said it best, ”Can’t stop the signal.”

The last time I saw Joss speaking live over the Internet - at the 2009 Streamys

LA is about to be star-struck
Yes, you fall over stars and starlets on every corner in LA, but this year Joss Whedon himself will attend the LA CSTS. This is wonderful news and should mean even more money can be raised. I predict that tickets for the LA CSTS will be selling out right about now....[Edit: they are sold out in LA but check out all the CSTS events on the CSTS website] But that's ok, because we'll all be able to join in, live!

Not quite Joss...
We might not have Joss Whedon, but I know the Gayle and all the team have worked out a magnificent day for us all in Vancouver and will be putting on another brilliant day. We'll be there - and we have a very special announcement to make about what we will be doing there soon. But it might have something to do with our new webseries "Mind My Brains, Darling!"....More soon!

CSTS Vancouver 2010 report. Summary: shiny!

On June 26th 2010 the 5th Annual Can’t Stop The Serenity was held in Vancouver, BC to raise money for Equality Now and the BC Women's Hospital. The BC Browncoats put on a great day’s entertainment and both Hubby and me had an awesome time. We made a short video:



Since we couldn't capture everything on the video, here's some highlights from the day:


Introduction and Joss videos
Gayle and Serena spoke about why we were all there for the 5th year of CSTS, the money that has been raised so far and the power of the Browncoats. We then watched some videos including Joss' Equality Now acceptance speech and his Serendipity Speech, which really got everyone in the mood for the day.

Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, sing-along
I missed the beginning because of costume competition duties, but as soon as slipped in I was singing along.  It was a heart-warming experience and I thoroughly enjoyed singing, laughing and gasping along with everyone else. ("..The hammer is my penis." and "...I meant Ghandi.." were among the favourite lines!).


Evil Laugh Contest
I was surprised at how many of my fellow Browncoats possess evil laughs! There must be a coach in the area…. The competition was fierce and it went to a laugh-off between the last three.

The Masked Roger - unmasked?

The Masked Roger Marathon
This was definitely a highlight. The Masked Roger webseries is funny, smart and full of cool effects. Alan has a great sense of humour and it’s worth watching them a few times to make sure you get all the jokes. It was great to see it on the big screen and it went down extremely well with the crowd. Alan also gave a very good speech about the inspiration behind The Masked Roger and how he came to make a webseries. I wish I had managed to record it. He talked about how Dr Horrible and the ELE competitions started it off, how Felicia Day and The Guild spurred him along and how the feedback and encouragement from the BC Browncoats helped to keep him going. Now, Alan, when can we expect the next episode…?

 The Costume Parade (and Hubby's bare knee :))

Costume Contest Parade and Prizes
Hubby had his knees on display, dressed as he was as Fawkes (from The Guild Season 3 and soon-to-be 4). There was an array of costumes from Firefly and the Whedonverse, with the Bad Horse Chorus also putting on a great display (and yes, they did the song, too!). It was very hard to do the judging but there were some very worthy winners.

Browncoats: Redemption Screening
Vancouver was one of the few CSTS events to see the full rough cut of Browncoats: Redemption. I’ve been following progress of the film for a long time now. I’m writing up some detailed feedback for the producers but I can tell you that even though the screening was of a rough cut, I can’t wait to see the finished film. Hubby and I were both impressed with it, and the solid base of the film looks really good. The full premiere at Dragon:Con will be a packed event, I’m sure! I will be writing more about Browncoats: Redemption soon, so look out for that.

I didn’t manage to get a ticket for the Whedon-Works Trivia Bingo but there were some happy winners and some tricky questions, so I took the opportunity to check out the bids on the Silent Auction. There were some amazing items, from signed photos of Jewel Staite, a signed copy of The Guild DVD, genre books, games, models, a knitted dalek….The bidding was pretty fierce for some of the items!

Serenity
What can you say about this film? It represents so many things but, at its heart, it is simply an excellent film full of laughter, tears, action, adventure and a passion that runs through everything. A passion for life, friends and doing what is right. If you’ve never seen the films in the company of fellow Browncoats then I heartily recommend that you do. It is a moving experience.

 Cowboy!

Door Prizes and Silent Auction winners
The winning didn’t stop, and there were some amazing door prizes given out after the screening. We didn’t win a door prize but we did win an item on the Silent Auction which has been a very welcome addition.

To Gayle, Serena and everyone else who worked so hard to make the event run smoothly – thank you for making it such an enjoyable day!

Shock news!!! Fans make Felicia Day cry on her Birthday!

(Felicia celebrating her brithday, from @georgeruiz)

Happy Birthday, Felicia - now weep!

In an effort to show their appreciation for Felicia Day, fans worked for months to prepare a birthday surprise she would never forget - but it seemed like it had backfired when Felicia turned up on Guild Chat:

You can see for yourself why:

Breaking News: Felicia LOVED the Video!
After checking sources it has been revealed that, in fact, Felicia was crying tears of JOY at the video, not despair!

(Taken from The Guild Chat this morning)

And to confirm this, Felicia also left this comment on the video:

"OMG thanks all of you for making my birthday a fantastic day, you are all amazing! :) I'm so happy to be a part of your community! :)" (From YouTube)

Congratulations to everyone involved - it was a wonderful way to celebrate someone special!

EDIT: Dani has created a new topic for Felicia's Birthday with more details about the video :)

More Birthday Greetings!

We couldn't let Felicia have a birthday without doing something ourselves, so we recruited a few helpers in the shape of the BC Browncoats at the Can't Stop The Serenity in Vancouver on Saturday:

Thank you to everyone involved :) (you can see a longer video from CSTS Vancouver here)

Have a BRILLIANT BIRTHDAY, FELICIA!!!

Happy Jossmas!

 Joss is so lucky he even met Dani at SDCC 2009! (from maxsummer's Flickr account)

June 23rd, 1963
And so it came to pass, in those balmy days of summer, that a pink, squirming babe - fair of skin and sparse of hair - burst into the world of man. Swaddled in cloths of brown, he was laid in a crib of finest unicorn bone, his head resting on the softest panda fur available to man. After his first taste of the world, Joseph Hill Whedon slept and dreamed...

June 23rd, 2010
And so it came to pass, in those balmy days of summer, that a pink, bearded man - fair of skin and sparse of hair - still resided in the world of man. His followers swaddled in coats of brown, he was laid back in his crib. The finest unicorn bone resting on his head and the softest panda fur was always available to this man. After so many years spent tasting the world, Joss was ready.....

How do you celebrate a guy like Joss?
It's hard to know, isn't it? He has everything - a glittering career, a wonderful family and a list of friends as long as your arm. AND he's met Felicia Day! He is a lucky, lucky man. Forget the years of work, the disappointments and rejections. Joss has it easy. He is Mr Easy of 125 Easy Street. Wherever he goes people flock to him, asking for autographs, eager to hear his tales of working with people like Neil Patrick Harris and that Canadian dude. And not a day goes by without his name being linked to a film, comic book or sequel - how exciting that must be!

Luckily he has a blog to keep him straight. Updated by faithful minions, Joss never needs a fancy phone or planner because all he needs do is check in one site. If he's ever unsure as to whether he's supposed to be dismissing rumours of a Serenity sequel or ignoring claims that his latest project has been cancelled all he needs to do is log onto the Internet and go to Whedonesque.com. And one day soon he'll be able to manage that himself without Jed. Exciting times indeed.

The other white meat
Of course, you could celebrate Joss' birthday in a more traditional way and join in your local Can't Stop The Serenity (CSTS) event. Now in its FIFTH YEAR, this celebratory screening Joss' masterpiece, Serenity, is a great way to meet new people and raise money for charity. And today I have an interview on PinkRayun.com with the person who started CSTS in 2006 - The One True b!X. It's an insight into how the whole thing started and is very interesting. B!X didn't sit around wondering how to celebrate, and now neither do you. Check out where your nearest CSTS is and buy a ticket or three. Hope to see you there.

No cake?
Last year I did a "Gratuitous Cake Post" for Joss' birthday - there's lots there so knock yourself out :)

Can't Stop The Serenity (CSTS) 2010: where are YOU celebrating?

 

CSTS 2010 poster

It's that time of year again!
Time to dust off your Jayne hat, polish up your space boots, and don your Browncoat - 'tis the season to be mighty! This year marks the FIFTH annual Can't Stop The Serenity global sci-fi charity event. If you've never heard of it before then 1) Where have you BEEN for the last 5 years??? 2) It is an annual charity screening of Joss Whedon's film, Serenity, in multiple cities across the globe which raises money for the charity, Equality Now. 3) It's a great way to get out and meet new folks.

Why?
Good question. There are many answers but the overriding one is to raise funds for Equality Now because the work they do is more relevant now than ever. Their mission statement:


"Equality Now works to end violence and discrimination against women and girls around the world through the mobilization of public pressure." (from their website)
Joss Whedon tells us why it's important:




"...Equality is not a concept. It's not something we should be striving for. It's a necessity. Equality is like gravity. We need it to stand on this Earth as men and women. And the misogyny that is in every culture is not a true part if the human condition, it's life out of balance and that imbalance is sucking something out of the soul of every man and woman confronted with it. We need equality. Kinda now...." (Joss Whedon, Equality Now awards ceremony, 2006).

VANCOUVER CSTS!
This Saturday, 26th June, Vancouver is holding its charity screening of Serenity event and what a fun-packed day it will be! There is a silent auction will amazing items from signed DVDs of The Guild, knitted Daleks, signed photos of Jewel Staite and many, many awesome items! There is also a costume competition, a screening of Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog AND an exclusive screening of first part of Browncoats: Redemption film. If that wasn't enough there is also the world premiere screening of the lastest episode of The Masked Roger, a comedy webseries by our awesome friend @alalcoolj. I hear the voiceover is amazing... :) Oh - and we get to watch Serenity, too. It will be shiny.

If you live in Vancouver or the Lower Mainland (or Bellingham, Seattle, West coast...) then pick up your tickets now at Happy Bats Theatre or buy them online. I'll see you at the MacMillan Space Centre on Saturday!

If you are not within reach then check on the CSTS website to see if there is a screening near you. There are 42 cities across the globe celebrating in one way or another in the coming weeks, so make sure you don't miss out.

Here are two videos from last year's event:



And Joss...



Y'all have your pretty floral bonnets ready, now don't you?


PS
How did CSTS come about anyway? For that we can thank @theonetruebix, since it was all his idea in the first place. I guess that's why we should never accept substitutes.

HOT NEWS JUST IN: I will be interviewing the one and only b!X about CSTS soon for PinkRaygun.com, so look out for that! In the meantime you can check out his rather fantastic photography site and maybe snag yourself a competitively-priced print. Or two.

Happy Birthday, Joss! Gratuitous cake post...

Will he have a cake? 

As we once again thank the 'Verse for Joss, thought turn towards how he might celebrate this, his *cough* birthday. I'd like to think that Joss will be eating cake and perhaps imbibing a glass or two of his favourite tipple. He's had an incredibly busy year or so and deserves a day to relax and reflect. And so, I present for you a selection of cakes fit for the Master:

A stake-cake?

Cake Nouveau have this brilliant Buffy Cake:

And this was baked by one talented lad for his lucky girlfriend:

I pretty sure he won't be getting this from Cake Wrecks...

A Horrible Cake (or five...)

CakeNoveau has this medley of Dr Horrible-themed goodies:

Or, to celebrate all the Can't Stop The Serenity screenings...

...how about a Serenity cake?

Now there are some pictures of Serenity cakes floating around (!) according to Whedonesque which I couldn't find and also there's apparently one on greatwhitesnark.com but the site appears to be down at the moment. I have sent a couple of emails so if I hear anything I will get back to you.

Are you going to a CSTS screening?

The Vancouver screening is this Saturday, June 27th and I can't wait! Last year was a great event and not only will I be able to meet up with some great BC Browncoats, some special friends are flying in that I can't wait to meet, too. If you want to know more about CSTS, why people organise and attend these charity events each year, and where the money goes, there is all the information on the Can't Stop the Serenity website.

Happy Birthday, Joss!