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

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!

Browncoats: Redemption - new interview with Michael C Dougherty

Are you excited yet?
I surely am! It's only a few months before "Browncoats: Redemption"is released and I can't wait. Co-creator Michael C Dougherty took some time out of his hectic schedule to answer some questions for me, and the interview is up on PinkRaygun.com now. This fan-made film is shaping up to be a huge success and that's great news for Browncoats and the charities they support - because all the money made after production costs have been met is going to charity.

Steven Fisher, the other co-creator, left a comment on the article thanking me for the support I've shown for the project. I replied saying it was my pleasure because it truly is. As a Browncoat I want to see more tales from the 'Verse. I used to role-play in a Virtual Firefly because I love the world that Joss created.

Oh, and tonight I'll be recording my #iamabrowncoat video, so watch out for that! If you're doing one or have done one let me know :)

More Extras Needed for new Fan-Made

Big Damn Fan Films, Inc. is in need of a handful of extras for their independent film, “BROWNCOATS: REDEMPTION,” at an undisclosed location near Washington, D.C. on April 25, 2009. PLEASE NOTE: anyone who has been accepted as an extra for the scenes filmed near Ocean City, MD is not eligible to participate this day.This is a nonpaid gig, but

read more | digg story

EXTRAS NEEDED: So you wanna be in a movie?

Have you ever wanted to hang out in an old western saloon? Would you like to walk down an old western street that has been decorated for the Chinese New Year? Would you like to possibly participate in a saloon-style brawl? Big Damn Fan Films, Inc. will be in need of several extras for their independent film, “BROWNCOATS: REDEMPTION”.

read more | digg story

Firefly/Serenity News and Blog Happenings

Firefly-fest on SciFi channel - plus more!
This Friday, May 16th, SciFi are showing the first eight episodes of Firefly, from 'Serenity, Part 1' to 'Jaynestown'. And then, if that wasn't enough, SciFi are later showing 'The Sarah Jane Adventures', 'Doctor Who Season 4' and 'Battlestar Galactica'. The DVD cannae take it Cap'n! Well, actually, it better had, or they'll be trouble....

New blog experiment
I've been blogging here now since 1oth February and hopefully posting my 100th blog later this week. It's been an exciting time for me, and I hope not too dismal for you. But you know how we geeks get. Blogger is great but...maybe WordPress is better. Felicia Day uses WordPress, and so do lots of other cool people...So a while ago I submitted to my completely imagined peer-pressure and started a WordPress account. I've posted my first 'real' article there today called 'Future Entertainment: Reviewing 'The Guild' and I would view it as a kindness if you stumbled over there and had a looky. If you told me what you think of it, that'd be even better. For now, though, I'm going to have a nice cup of tea.

Jayne's hat and other news

It's a pity you can't see me.
No, scratch that! It's always a good job you can't see me, but if you could , you would see that I am proudly wearing my lovely new Jayne's hat. Really! I picked it up yesterday from the Post Office. Where did I get it from? Well, I bid and won on the recent Kids Need To Read auction, and I couldn't be happier. Sorry to the other people who bid, but I promise it has a safe home here! My only dilemma now is whether I should frame it with the brilliant signed picture of Adam Baldwin that came with it or not. Decisions, decisions! I'm definitely going to be wearing it to the Vancouver Serenity Day on Sunday July 22nd.

More monkey business
And speaking of KNTR, I told you last time about the unsigned Terrify’n Space Monkeys you can now buy from Kids Need To Read on eBay. Well they now have a new auction for one signed by the incomparable Morena Baccarin, who played Inara Serra in Firefly and Serenity. You'd be bananas not to swing over to eBay and put a bid before the auction ends on April 27th....

Can't Stop The Serenity
Plans are going ahead for the charity screenings of Serenity. There was some distressing news earlier in the week when it was revealed on Whedonesque that US copies of the film had been destroyed accidentally at Universal. In his blog, The One True B!x emphasised that this was an error, not a deliberate act, and that Universal and the CSTS organisers were working hard to sort the problem out. Many people were obviously upset about the prospect of the US screenings not going ahead as planned. The Can't Stop The Serenity official website has now posted that Universal are going to ship (at their expense) extra copies over to the US and that the whole situation is being addressed and handled. I think that's excellent news, and all power to Universal for trying to rectify the error.

Later, on this blog
I reveal why time management is not my strong point at the moment, why the audiodrama Buffy: Between the Lines is now on YouTube, why writer and podcaster Scott Sigler has made me wary of triangles and more from Joss Whedon's Journal.

Serenity, Dollhouse and Buffy: Between the Lines (part 2)...

Dollhouse news
A quick glance on Whedonesque this morning brings news that Fox has not done a pilot for Dollhouse! But relax, that's only because they are spending the money on building a no-holds-barred life-sized set for the show. The Wall Street Journal article that broke this news is very interesting and looks at how things have changed since the Writer's Strike. Even more exciting (or is it?) for me is the news that 'Life on Mars' (a fantastic British series - I brought my boxsets with me!) is being adapted by ABC.

Buffy: Between the Lines
Now, after the April Madness of last week I mentioned the fact that Buffy: Between the Lines had run a front page saying they were recasting the whole Scooby gang. I also wondered if they had told the cast before the ran the headline. Well Tabz, Producer of Buffy Between the Lines commented on the blog saying that, in fact, the cast didn't know, but worked it out fast! Hehe. Now that's a real April Fool! And I would have mentioned this before and thanked Tabz for the comment, if it hadn't been such a busy extended weekend. But thanks, Tabz, for taking the time. And also on the Buffy: Between the Lines website is the news that Season 2 has now been cast, and the full list will be up soon. If you've never heard the audio-drama (which is set between Buffy seasons), then catch up with Season 1 now. Not sure when the crew list will be complete...

So back to Serenity...
After all the excitement, mudder's milk and boa has settled down, something was announced on Saturday that I forgot to mention. Unfortunately, they haven't announced a sequel yet, but this should keep us going until then. The Universal HD Moderators are now running a competition - 'Who's coat is the Brownest?' - and anyone can enter. There have already been some strong entries but I wouldn't let that put you off. This is a chance to show everyone what you've been doing (related to Firefly/Serenity!) and is a really great way to showcase your fandom. It's the Moderators (not Universal) who are running this and all credit to them for the idea.

Questions? Comments? Serenity, Dollhouse and Buffy: Between the Lines (part 1)...

Can't Stop The Serenity (CSTS)
How do you use your fandom for the power of good? Perhaps you read the blogs about 'Operation Full Burn' and were wondering "Well, that's really great and exciting. I love Firefly/Serenity too. But message boards and online campaigns don't do it for me. And there are lots of good causes that need my attention more." Good point. Should you be using your time differently? Well, I can't answer that for you! What, did you think I'd turned into Dear Margo?! Seriously though, it would be great to combine fandom and good works, wouldn't it?

Which is where CSTS comes in.
Can't Stop The Serenity is an organisation set up to hold charity events and Serenity screenings where the proceeds go to a charity - Equality Now. Since 2006 over $160, 000 has been raised by CSTS for Equality Now, and event planning is well under way for this year. The first events were charity screenings of Serenity on or around Joss Whedon's birthday (June 23rd) but in 2007 this expanded to other events. Many people never got to see Serenity as it was supposed to be seen - on the big screen - so if nothing else, it is a great opportunity to see a brilliant movie. And it's for charity, a charity that works hard to bring an end to violence and discrimination against women and girls, a charity that Joss himself supports with passion (see his YouTube speech).

2008 targets
So in 2008 will you help make a difference? This year CSTS has set itself the challenging task of raising $150,000 with 55 cities participating. I'm going to be at my local screening and all you need to do it check out what's going on near you on the CSTS website. If there is nothing near, you could always think about starting something...there is lots of information and support available so it won't hurt to look.

How long should a blog post be?
Ok, I'm going to split up my posts today because it's getting a bit long and I haven't even started on the other bits yet! Apparently a good blog should be about 150-200 words long, so I'll carry on shortly with news about Dollhouse and Buffy: Between the Lines.

Buffy Paley, Firefly/Serenity and Joss' Journal...

And there's more!
There have been so many reviews of the Buffy Reunion at the Paley that I thought I would do a list of some of the best ones for us all to use. If I've missed one out that you think should be there please let me know:

Thefutoncritic - the blog that was live, but not posted live (but was still really good)
TV guide - Matt Rousch introduced the panel at the Paley and this is the text version
Buzzsugar - some great quotes and a video clip
IGN.com - really in-depth with pictures, too
TV.com Forums - gives a snippet from each of the panel
MTV Review - good, if too brief, review
Mycelebrityencounters.com - includes a good review of the Buffy panel and pictures
Dreamwatch/Total Sci-fi - with some quotes from the Q&A
SuperJer.com - report from fan Andrew Kern includes an MP3

I wonder if they will all ever get together again?

Firefly/Serenity
Well, we had the news from Jewel Staite posted on Serenity2.net earlier this week saying that she was recording for a new release of Firefly (could this be Blu-ray?). There is all to play for and all these campaigns are still going:

Operation Full Burn - don't forget to join the Universal HD message boards this Saturday (the 5th)
Faces of Serenity - aimed to show Universal how much fans are committed to Firefly/Serenity by detailing every purchase
Serenity day 2008 - a fund-raiser for charities and a chance to show Universal that the people need a sequel. Lots of events including showings of Serenity, auctions and mass-purchases and chances to meet up with local Browncoats.
Youchoose.net - various campaigns for Serenity/Firefly
Richlabonte.net - Vote for top 5 TV shows. For a great breakdown of the results see the FireFly Fans.net messageboard

If you know of other campaigns let me know and I'll update the list.

Joss Whedon's Journal
In which the stress of the last few weeks is finally taking it's toll...

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Joss' Journal January 52nd 08

I'm guessing at the date. Let me see, seeing N today, F again tomorrow, was singing with Z on Thursday, something about a strike yesterday, slept last week, didn't use phone for 20 mins 3 (or was it 4?) days ago, finished last draft 25 secs ago. Yep. Must be the 52nd.

Needed coffee. And you know what? I made it myself. Minions all busy busy busy doing good good good deeds. I'm not sure I made it right, but I think I can now see the last 5 cylons....I can hear a Viper! Starbuck! Wait for me....!

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Doctor Horrible reveals his face...!

First official poster is unveiled
A late-night visit over to Doctorhorrible.net revealed a link to the new poster for Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog - and a link to the 'Official' website. There is only the new poster up on the 'official' site so far, but this is an indication that things are moving forward quickly! Check it out and see Neil Patrick Harris in full-on blue glory...is this the face of the crack team that foils my every plan...?

Later, on this blog...
We continue the follow-ups on the Buffy Renuion at the Paley, my battle with Battlestar Galactica and Firefly/Serenity updates/news. Plus more Joss Whedon's Journal.

Good morning Moonrise

The earth says hello
Ok, so it doesn't quite fit, but special mention to Moonrise/FollowMal for the great comment yesterday. Fair cheered me up! Just when you think it's just you and the 'bots...And up for grabs today is a special mention next time for anyone who can correctly identify which of the rest of the headings is NOT a line from the musical!


Gliddy glub gloopy
Still no word/sound/sight from of Star Wait, but that is somehow fitting, I guess. I'll send another email and we'll see how long it takes. And the blog is now official as it is currently listed in Google. Now I just have to find out why I have 33 'URLs restricted by robots.txt' errors. Life is never simple!

Sabba sibby sabba
And loving all things Joss I have found a new (!), great series. I mean, you probably hadn't heard but they have remade/reinvented Battlestar Galactica and Joss has said it's his favourite thing on TV at the moment (you can check it out for yourself in his journal, below). So I bought season 1 and guess what - it IS fantastic! That's not to say I like it better than Firefly/Serenity, it's really gripping but totally different. Different, too, from the original series that I watched as a kid (obviously I was very young then), but nice to see a familiar face from then popping up in an unexpected place! I'm glad this wasn't cancelled (though still ticked off Firefly was).

Eeny oony wana
And guess where the main Serenity Con is this year? Yep - England (London to be precise). Now we've moved over to Canada it isn't as convenient as it would have been this time last year, but c'est la vie. It's called 'Serenity Complete' at Starfury April 11-13. And Battlestar will be there too...I'm still hoping there might be a big Canadian shindig over Vancouver way some time, we'll just have to hope Jewel has a hankering after her home town.

Tooby ooby walla
If you're in the U.S. and you haven't already seen Firefly (shame on you, but nevermind) you can now access it using HULU. This is a great way to see what I've been going on about for yourself and it's absolutely free. And legal! Fireflyfans.net has posts about it and it appears that the residuals get paid to the writers/actors/etc so it's a win-win-win. If you've not seen it yet get on over there and try it. The only drawback is that I don't think it works if you're in another country, but if you try it and it works outside the U.S. please let me know.

Nibby nabby noopy
You ready for another excerpt from Joss' Journal? 'Course you are. Today we are looking Dec 07. Joss is in a pensive mood in the run up to Christmas. What could be bothering him....?

Joss' Journal Dec 07
I had that dream again last night. It started, as always, with Bruce and Cybill kissing in 'Moonlighting', thus ending the only reason to continue, segues into Daphne and Niles smooching and then, the horror, Buffy and Angel reunited for ever in some demonic plot-twist that allows them unending bliss. No wonder I wake in a cold sweat! I guess it's the strike plus fear over what Dollhouse romances might happen that fuelled it, I know that. But still. Scary. Hope Eliza'a birthday bash will take my mind off it - wonder if I should buy her a joint birthday/Christmas pressie? Better ask Minion #1 for advice....

Do the math

That coat looks kinda brown
Yes, I know on my last blog I promised you postulations on the Google search results 'tomorrow' but I've been ill and busy in the meantime. But I'm back now, with added phlegm. So straight into the stats. As you will see from the table in 'News from the 'Verse', Google shows a fair amount of pages devoted to Firefly, Buffy, etc. Now before we go any further, and because we are who we are, let me note the following:

1. The number of pages returned on a Google search does NOT necessarily represent the popularity or otherwise of anything
2. The shows and movies being compared differ in many respects not least the amount of time since release and numbers of follow-ups/sequels/prequels
3. Stats can be made to show anything
4. All the calculations are 'real' because I know you will check them

So you keep saying, Professor!
The first thing to note is - Star Wars TV series - who knew that was coming out next year? A new sci-fi series...interesting. But enough digressing, already! According to my calculations, Star Wars is only 4.5 times more popular than Serenity.
How do we get that figure? Well, the raw data shows that 'Star Wars Movie' vs 'Serenity Movie' gives:
1780000 / 66500 = 26.8

However, there have been six Star Wars movies released so we can divide the original Star Wars figure by 6 so now:
(1780000/6) / 66500 = 4.5

That is a stunning result! Star Wars is one of the most successful franchises of all time, netting altogether about US $4.3 billion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars ). And the first one was released 22 years ago, as opposed to 3 years ago for Serenity. Now the Internet has not been around in it's present form for all of the 22 years but you can bet you bottom dollar that some of the first web pages were about Star Wars. Certainly some of the first newsgroups were.

But what does it mean?
Of course, it means nothing. But if you can accept the dodgy premises of the calculations (come on - you can suspend your disbelief for Luke - use the Force!) it shows us that for every page written about Star Wars, there is almost a quarter of a page written about Serenity. And that gives me a new hope. With popularity like that, a new Star Wars TV series to come next year and Joss back with a new Fox show, things are looking better than they have for a long time. Probably.

Isn't it 'maths'?
I still can't quite get my head around saying 'math' instead of 'maths' - I'm from England so you'll just have to excuse me. I'm over the physical pain part when I say it, but it still doesn't seem right. But I'm in Canada now, so I must adjust. But however you say it, we mustn't be scared by the concept of math. I was for a long time (before I embraced my inner-geek), but now numbers are my friend. Just don't ask me to do any of Skytopia's impossible math questions http://www.skytopia.com/project/imath/imath.html.

Will Wheaton?
Wil hasn't updated his blog for a few days so we're going to have to assume he's taking his doctor's orders seriously and resting up. I haven't heard anymore re the Grauman's lineup and I'm still waiting for Star Wait, but all good things....

News from the 'Verse

I don't wanna explode!
Ok, so far not much about Firefly, Serenity, Buffy, Angel or even Joss. What's going on? Well lots, just I'm a little shy. If I tell you too much then that's like sticking your head (or other bodypart) over the top so it might get shot off. But then again, that one other person who read the blog that wasn't me might get upset if I don't write something soon. Probably.

A leaf on the wind.
Firefly was cancelled in 2002, 5 years before I saw it. There were differences in opinion between the show's creator Joss Whedon and Fox, the episodes were shown out of sequence and some of the completed episodes were never aired. Maybe you've never seen it or the film it eventually spawned, Serenity. That would be a real shame, because both are excellent. Really, really, on lots of levels and planes, excellent. Joss Whedon, who created Buffy and Angel (and so much more) was surprised by how vocal the fans were when the series was pulled. The fans were so active, in fact, that a follow-up film, Serenity, was released by Whedon and Universal Pictures in 2005.

I read a poem. Try not to faint.
So what? Weeell, it's hard to say. Mr Whedon has said that he would revisit the Firefly/Serenity 'Verse but that funding and timing are the major issues. Plus he has a new TV series in the pipeline with Eliza Dushku ('Faith' from Buffy) called 'Dollhouse' that's supposed to be out this September. But I really loved this series and I would really like to see it return to TV. Which it will be doing this Monday! The SciFi Channel are doing screening back to back episodes (spotted on the http://www.fireflyfans.net/ website). Not quite the same as a new series, but hopefully will attract some new converts.



You can't take the sky from me
So hope flies eternal. It would be a great shame if Firefly didn't have another TV or cinema outing, but stranger things have happened. And the fan sites are there and growing. And Steven Brust has just published a Firefly novel that's available to download from http://dreamcafe.com/firefly.html which I've just started to read and looks to be very promising. So in the interests of science (I am a nerd and a geek) I took a quick look at the Google search stats for Firefly, Buffy, Angel and, as a comparison, Star Wars.

Google search results

Search phrase	Type: all the words	Type: exact phrase
Firefly tv series	362, 000	16, 600
Buffy tv series	474, 000	12, 600
Angel tv series	2, 340, 000	26, 400
Star wars tv series	1, 040, 000	49, 000
Star wars movie	5, 930, 000	1, 780, 000
Serenity	39, 000, 000	39, 000, 000
Serenity movie	234, 000	66, 500

(thanks to Blogger tips and tricks for help on table formatting! http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com/2007/06/avoid-large-white-space-above-table-in.html)

Tomorrow, we will postulate on what the figures mean, but for now - not even 6 million pages for Star Wars movie? The shame!

numfar, do the dance of shame.........

Ever feel like you're out of step with, like, everything? Apparently, when I wasn't looking, the following happened:

Joss Whedon (bow, you dogs!) had a show murdered by Fox.

I bought the Firefly box for Xmas and was completely blown away by it. I knew Joss was Boss through Buffy and Angel, but I couldn't believe that this series had been killed. The worse part is that is was cancelled in 2002! How did I not know? 5 years? I had heard a few comments on other websites but being based in the UK until very recently it had slipped me by. So now I have got to become a Browncoat - but am I too late?

Wil Wheaton started blogging, then apparently stopped
Look, say what you will about the CHARACTER Wesley Crusher (and believe me, I hated that CHARACTER as much as the next geek), I hope I never really believed that the ACTOR was anything like that. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

And what a witty guy Will turned out to be when I saw his blog on Wil Wheaton dot NET. His description of Star Wars Ubernerds queueing outside the wrong cinema in protest of the non-screening of 'Revenge of the Sith' still has me laughing ( see http://www.wilwheaton.net/mt/archives/003246.php). But guess what? It looks like that site hasn't been updated since 2005.

Still, he was also working for suicidegirls apparently, so I looked that up and 'horror!' he got the boot in Dec 2007 sonogo there.

England are not playing in the World Cup this year
Actually, I was all too aware of that, but it still sucks anyway. And yes, they play FOOTBALL, not soccer. Except they haven't been playing it very well. At all.

What else have I missed?
Now I'm a bit worried. I used to know all about geekdom, what was cool (relatively speaking), what was good, what I shouldn't waste my time on. But I must have taken my eye off the ball at some stage because there is so much I don't know - and even worse - lots of it happened a long time ago.

I need help
That much is obvious, but not for the reasons you're thinking (come on now, I could hear you from here!). What don't I know that I should? Why didn't I know about it? How can I make sure that I do know about it in the future without chaining myself to the 'net 24/7 (not necessarily a bad thing, but I got other stuff to do, too)?

I don't want to miss the last geek bus home so this is my SOS.

I need you to tell me what I didn't know about what's going on in the world that matters most - cybergeekspace.