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 :)

Joss was ahead of his time...Serenityday and Google Waves!

[Edit: This is already been discussed on Whedonesque (in May) and the feeling is that yes, Google is full of Firefly fans. Shiny! - thanks to Dani for the link)]

We all knew Joss was a visionary
But this is different - this is....technology!!! More proof that art imitates life imitating art (or something) has been occurring all over my interwebs yesterday and today, and probably yours, too. But you don't need to take my word for it - Google Wave made the front page of slashdot and my good friend, Louis Gray gave his first impressions on his blog (interesting but noisy. Google wave, not Louis. Although....) So, what's the the hubbub about? Louis explains:


"...Google released a waterfall of 100,000 invites to the Google Wave preview over the last day or so, giving bleeding-edge early adopter and information addicts a new playground to exchange conversations in real time..."


Er, so what?
Yes, good question! It's okay, I am not about to launch a new techblog - the market is pretty much tapped and I prefer to read what other, more thrusting people, have to say. No, the interesting thing for me is that this is real-time communication over a network and it's called a wave. Any Browncoat will tell you this is only a (webcam) step away from that envisioned by Joss in the Firefly/Serenity 'Verse. Which means nothing, of course, because most people could predict that at that stage in our future such technology would exist. And the fact that Google released it on and around Serenityday (Serenity was released in US cinemas on September 30th, 2005) is a pure coincidence. Unless Google is inhabited by Browncoats...What? Nerds loving Joss Whedon?? What are the odds....

But - a wave? Seriously?
That doesn't stop me from smirking to myself over the choice of terminology, though, particularly because Joss is such is technophobe that he will likely never know about it, or even care if he did. It isn't ironic, but it made me smile. We all remember he recent comment on Whedonesque where he exhorted people to buy 'Date my Avatar' and spread the word:


"And I'm hobbled here, peeps. I don't twitter (I occasionally Glitter and Be Gay, but that's it), can't digg, or favorite, or friend... In fact I don't understand why my typewriter has a TV on it. I'M NOT SAVVY."


All this gives me a great opportunity to post a clip from Serenity. And I would have done that if I could have found a decent one (like Mal/Inara and the trap), but my YouTube foo gave up on me. But you know the drill. Can't stop the Signal. Just pop in the DVD instead and enjoy. Meet you on the Cortex.


And perhaps watch this video from Browncoats: Redemption, too. Yes! Our first glimpse of the crew!

Do You Want To Date My Avatar? is #1 (just like Joss said!)

(The Guild "Do You Want To Date My Avatar" graphic from datemyavatar.com)

Phew - what a day Monday was!

If you were on Twitter yesterday you would have seen that #datemyavatar was on the trending topics most of the day, and with good reason. While the video was available on iTunes in the US and Canada late Sunday night, it rolled over the whole globe yesterday, crushing all in it's path. Twitter was again a-buzz with news and comments about The Guild. And I'd like to point out I started writing this last night but more news came in, then some more and then....well, it didn't get done. So, to make it easy on me (and perhaps you, too) here's a brief list of the highlights.

• Before 9:00 AM I check and "..Avatar.." is #13 in iTunes, Canada for music videos
• 10:08 AM @theguild tweets: "#datemyavatar is #6 in top 100 iTunes pop music videos & #19 in all music videos (US). Let's get #1."
• 10:44 AM @theguild tweets: "Contest time! Please tweet an "avatar pickup line" with#datemyavatar and a link http://bit.ly/datemyavatar" Prizes include shirts, autographed cast photo and SDCC goodies
• 1:17 PM @theguild tweets: "Wow - #datemyavatar is almost #1 on iTunes for all music videos... Guildies rule http://bit.ly/itunesvideo"
• 23:02 CET Joss Whedon posts this comment on a thread about the video on Whedonesque:

"Okay, usually I stay above such matters. But this video must be number one!!! Who is this Taylor Swift? Some evil robot, PROBABLY. (Although an evil robot vid would also potentially be cool.) (But fine! She can be number two!) The point is, I love this video to distraction (and inevitable procrastination). It has Felicia -- and money! Felicia LYING IN money! Combo-ed! Plus Vork, turkey legs, and the Solid Guild dancers! I care!

And I'm hobbled here, peeps. I don't twitter (I occasionally Glitter and Be Gay, but that's it), can't digg, or favorite, or friend... In fact I don't understand why my typewriter has a TV on it. I'M NOT SAVVY. But I really want this to be big. It's indie (which is the most important part), it's awesome, and it's made by people that I friended in the old-fashioned way of being friends with them. (Okay, technically, I brothered Jed before I friended him, but he's still super-talented.) So help me out. Let's go the extra mile here and DESTROY THE SWIFTBOT! Then I can get back to the business of making Dollhouse stranger.

Digg deep, people.

Smoochez! -joss."

• 3:09 PM @feliciaday tweets: "LOL Joss Whedon just posted a hilarious comment in this thread http://bit.ly/10jDv9 supporting us getting to #1 iTunes. #datemyavatar"
• 3:17 PM @feliciaday tweets: "Whoops, I just broke Whedonesque. Eep? AMAZON MP3:http://bit.ly/avatarsong ITUNES VIDEO:http://bit.ly/itunesvideo #datemyavatar"
• 3:37 PM @feliciaday tweets: "OMG you guys we're #1 in US (and Canada) now!http://bit.ly/itunesvideo Joss' call to arms against the "Swiftbot" worked, LOL! #datemyavatar"
• 4:09 PM @theguild tweets:"iTunes screen shot #datemyavatar hitting no. 1 - thanks Guildies for the support http://www.twitpic.com/eagb1"
• 7:33 PM @sandeepparikh tweets: "just watched it again and am SO DAMN proud of @feliciaday@kimevey @drhorrible & @theguild so i'm posting it again:http://bit.ly/avatarsong"
• 8:42 PM @feliciaday tweets: "Thx you guys, what a day, I'm blown away by all the support. Still can't believe we got to #1 over all the mainstream stuff :)#datemyavatar"

Now, I could go on. Seriously, yesterday was a real shift in paradigms and we were part of it. Those paradigms - all changed (and one day I'll learn what that word actually means!). Dani tweeted yesterday: "Is it weird that I, being just a fan, am so so so SO proud of @theguild right now? @feliciadayshould rule the world. Really. #datemyavatar" If it's weird then I'm weird too, because that's how I felt - proud.

And as a consequence of The Guild conquering all there is a metric crapload of blog posts from all over the interwebs. Luckily there's a neat way to view them all by looking at Friendfeed.

So many great posts...but I'll leave the last word to the one true b!x who posted this lovely little video this evening. The future is here, and you saw it first on an iPhone:

Browncoats honoured and Dr Horrible update

Kids Need To Read new Endowment 

A wonderful announcement on the KNTR website this week:

"All of us at The Kids Need to Read Foundation sincerely thank the Browncoat community for its ongoing support of our efforts to not only provide books for children, but to encourage a life-long love of reading in the kids our books touch. To permanently demonstrate our gratitude, Kids Need to Read is establishing The Kids Need to Read Browncoat Endowment. This fund is being started from a donation by the California Browncoats and expanded by donations from the Austin Browncoats, Mid-South Browncoats and NoVA Browncoats Meetup Group..."

KNTR have already donated to many schools and organisations and this endowment will ensure that carries on in perpetuity. Many, many congratulations to KNTR and all Browncoats for the wonderful work you do.

What is a Browncoat?

Whedonesque posed this question today. What's your take on that?

Dr Horrible - top ten lists 

The Applications for the Evil League of Evil closed last week and since then there has been mounting excitement. Lists of people's favourites are popping up all over the place, and Pink Raygun are starting to interview some of the applicants and their creators. I can't possibly comment on any of the entries for the obvious reasons, but here some lists if you want to look for ourselves:

Pensees Admiratives

Tilzy TV

i09.com

And theonetruebix has set up a playlist of all the YouTube applications he has found:

YouTube Playlist

One thing that has struck me (apart from the obvious fact that neither Evil WorldofHiglet's or Felicia Day's entries aren't on any of the lists!) is that people are going for the  more highly-produced entries. My preferences don't swing that way, but that's only me. And no, I won't be publishing a list of favourites....

Dr Horrible slays Whedonesque!

It isn't World Domination - yet...

With over 5 times the maximum traffic allowed for the website hitting it already today, Whedonesque is temporarily out of service as notified on MySpace this afternoon:

Dr Horrible slays Whedonesque

Hey guys,

Whedonesque.com is down due to the overwhelming interest in Dr Horrible. Our host has disabled the database and says our traffic is 5x the maximum allowed. So we're working very hard to move to another server. This will hopefully not take too long, within the next 48 hours.

Meanwhile, feel free to join whedonesque.org, our forum.

Such is the power of Doctor Horrible... As the world has come online today the overwhelming numbers of fans first brought the Official Site down and now it has claimed Whedonesque. But fear not. Whedonesque.com will be back in the next couple of days, and drhorrible.com will be back up and running today, once their 'monster server' is online. Check out the Official fansite at doctorhorrible.net for all the latest information.

The Power of Whedon-esque!

So how's that new Blog doing, then?
You have to laugh, and I was laughing this morning. Last night I posted the new article "Future Entertainment Part 1: Reviewing 'The Guild'" on my Wordpress Blog (the new one I told you about yesterday) thinking, well I might get a few kind souls from this Blog clicking on to check it out. So imagine my surprise when I checked the Wordpress Stats this morning and found that in the 10 hours since I'd posted I'd had over 100 hits....well over 100. Obviously my first thought was that WordPress had confused the stats with another site but then a quick look at the traffic source showed the reason - there's a link on Whedonesque front page and people were clicking through. And they still are! So thank you, 'Garim' (the poster), you've made my day.

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.

Paley Buffy Reunion reports start coming in...

So, it's all over
Yes, the Reunion has happened and everyone has gone their separate ways again. Even, presumably, the people who lined up outside the Paley (some reportedly from the night before) waiting, against all hope, for a last minute cancellation. And according to the comments and first-hand reports on Whedonesque at least a couple did make it in from the line. The comments and fake event blogs here are very funny and well worth a read. Whedonesque has a comprehensive set of links to all the Reunion reports on today's front page, as is fitting for such a great Joss Whedon resource site. Please note that all the reports may contain spoilers about Buffy Season 8 comics but I haven't put any here.

Who said what to whom?
There isn't a full transcript of the evening available anywhere at the moment (and there may never be), and each of the reports has broadly the same comments, but seen from different angles. The Futon Critic has the 'live blog' that was not posted live (as some of us thought it might be), but is presented in time-order. It seems very comprehensive and does try to capture the spirit of what undoubtedly was an incredible evening. The TV Guide report is shorter and views things from a different angle, and the great thing about this is that it promises to have a video report from the Reunion up on their site by the end of the day. I wonder if it will have any of the Buffy stars in it?!

New things we might not have known before:

• Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt used to refer to Sarah Michelle Gellar as 'Jimmy Stewart'. This appears to have been a surprise to Sarah but she was reassured that it was a compliment because James Stewart is renown for his ability to convey strong emotion and tears so convincingly.
• Joss has thought about a 'Buffy - the musical' stageshow, but no plans other than daydreaming about that. Sarah appeared to count herself out of that one.
• Joss likes to ask people to go for a walk with him. This can lead to 'you're fired - ha, ha, that's a joke, have a great new opportunity on my next big thing'. He also like to do this on the phone (this happened to Charisma Carpenter and Marti Noxon, respectively). I guess that's better than a text...!
• Sarah Michelle Gellar likes the South Park movie and soundtrack.

Did Doctor Horrible's Sing-along Blog get a mention? Indeed it got the tiniest of mentions. Joss was reportedly a little late because he had just come from wrapping the shoot of Dr Horrible. Joss said he didn't know when/where it was coming out but that it was 'awesome'. And Marti Noxon has a small part (it wasn't mentioned whether she would be with or sans underwear...!)

Phew!
Reading all these reports has left me feeling a little tired and emotional. Getting all those people together, even if Alyson Hannigan and Eliza Dushku (who were both expected) couldn't make it, was a great achievement. The anticipation of the event was real and exciting for me even if I wasn't there myself, but now it's over. It feels almost as bad as starting to watch Buffy Season 7 knowing it is the end of it all. But then again, it wasn't the end, was it? We have the comics. And Reunions. And, who knows - the musical!? And with all the new work Joss is doing/has plans for, we can be reassured that we will be well-served with intelligent and emotion-wringing fare for a good long while to come.

Post Script
Notice how I didn't try to wedge a plug for Serenity in the above? Don't you think that shows a great deal of restraint?