Five years ago TODAY!

Five years ago tonight I was NOT watching Firefly. This is not strictly speaking my fault. I didn't really have television in the wild and woolly days of 2002.

I don't recall how I heard about ff. Probably because I had started watching buffy on DVD earlier that year. So thanks to DVD and Netflix (a new and exciting thing back in the day) I knew who Joe Sweedon was. (For those joining late, this is funny - cause, like, his name is really Joss Whedon, and if you run it together, it's Joe - oh, you got it? Good. I think it's funny and I keep using it...) Anyway - It was the Buffy guy doing spaceships! And it had Adam "I'm not a Baldwin" Baldwin and Ron "Harris from Barney Miller" Glass. Then I found out it was all westerny, which was just nifty. (Joe hadn't totally screwed with the way I talked yet - so it wasn't "SHINY". Note that I said things like "westerny" ALL on my own.)

So. Here's how it is: l'm going to recap these in broadcast order. Keep in mind that "Serenity (tv)" was shown LAST. There MAY be some ranting about The Powers That Be Fox. Maybe. I will leave any "future" spoilers to the end of each week.

The Train Job
Ahhh, the sonorous tones of Shepard Book. You DVD kiddies have no idea what I'm talking about. Each week opened with an into to the 'verse (that's Ff speak for universe of course). With clips from The Unaired Pilot, Book tells us of the war and how the edges of the System are a rough and tumble place. "Find a crew. Find a job. Keep flying." It bugs me to this day that these intros aren't on the DVDs. Especially since "Keep flying" became such an important part of Ff culture. (They ARE on iTunes along with the "Previously on...". This is the proper way of course.)



The Bar. Our intro to our Big Damm Heroes (ain't they just?). Note the western/Chinese fusion atmosphere. Very Casablanca with a Chinese accent. Did you see the covert and possibly criminal activity on the part of the dancer and the fellow in the brown coat?

"Your move." Whoa. This looks like a TOUGH game of Chinese checkers! The fellow that spoke seems gruff. "I live on the edge." Let's see how THAT works out. This is a Joss show and bravado is not usually rewarded in low stakes situations. See? So very quickly we establish one character as bold and brash, another as cool and competent, and a third as tough but dumb.

"A toast!" Hey! Exposition! More about this war. This big war they failed to win. Which is why Mr. Brown Coat might seem unhappy about it. Also our first Chinese as a co-spoken language. "Browncoats"! I get it!

"Captain." Oh yeah. We knew that from the intro that's not on the DVD.

Jayne. The man they call Jayne. I just saw a Q&A with Joe S. (hey - I'm still laughing) where he talked about how Adam B. kind of screwed things up. We weren't supposed to love Jayne. But we do.

Big Fight. Our Heroes are overwhelmed. Ah. These are THOSE kind of heroes. The lovable losers that are smart and scrappy.

Nice holo-window. Nice moon. It's SPACE!

Our first fiddles!

"We'll rise again." Subtle.

Annnnnd THERE'S our GIRL! She's still lovely, even in her pilot model shape. Guns blazing. Oh, wait... No guns? No space battles?

Wash! The Leaf on the Wind! More folk. Wash is married to the woman. Captain has a chip on his shoulder.

No sound in space!

You CAN'T take the sky! Just can't! Unless you're Fox.



I've always thought this ep was pretty masterful in it's own way. For us what watched it before Serenity TUAP (The UnAired Pilot - keep up) it had to do all the exposition. For you mugs that watched on DVD, it had to be a followup. I think it's grand as both. I never felt lost watching the first time through. A lot of the info from TUAP is doled out over this and other eps. It works as either exposition or recap. Of course this ep also marks a pretty big change in the flavor of the show. Mal wasn't near as funny in Serenity. Funny, but not AS funny. He was gruff and tortured. He'll get that way again, don't worry.

Ok, I wrote most of this on a flight a few weeks ago and forgot about it, so the rest won't be as shot-for-shot, Television Without Pity. (Sighs of relief, I know.) But The Train Job is a great yarn. It's got a TRAIN! In SPACE! And it's got SPACE gangsters! And a SPACE sheriff! It's still one of MY favorites. Even the people that weren't crazy for it when it aired loved it when Mal said "Darn." and kicked the fella through the engine. Wacky fun. I imagine if this really HAD been the second episode well and true, it wouldn't have changed much. They still would have recapped JUUUUUST enough in case you didn't watch last week or didn't remember none too well.

The scene that will be a recurring theme is when Mal is told that everybody sucks and that's just the way the 'verse is (more or less) by the sheriff. Mal essentially says "Oh no they don't either!" ("I do not hold to that," he might say.) He kind of wants it to be that way, because then his life would make sense. But it doesn't. And that's Mal. "You're welcome on my boat. God ain't." Book and Mal. MAN I wish they had had time to go somewhere with that!

Oh, and this ep introduces Adlai Niska. Not saying he'll be any trouble later on or anything...

Annnd we say good night with a shot of the Hands of Blue. As if airport security didn't make us jumpy enough! (Not a WHOLE lot of River in this ep. OR the UAP. She got brought on real slow.)

Next week: REAVERS!

No Kidding?

You know, I just spent the last few months looking for work. And now I have to go to a job to earn a living.

But somebody figured out a way to get paid for this!

Wow! How shocking! Because that wasn't what I was expecting to hear at all!

"It could also be due to the poor medical outlook for impoverished American ex-pop stars who have no health insurance, he said." So, doesn't that mean that he should take a sample of non-rock star impoverished Americans and find out? If this is the case then they're not really rock stars anymore, are they? I mean, that's not what's killing them, right?

Gorey Trek!

I love it when my favorite things come together. You know, bright copper kettles mixed with warm woolen mittens, like that?

Well here's a well meaning lunatic doing Star Trek Edward Gorey style!

"...altercation with some Klingons" might be my favorite.

Totally fake

But made with Blender. And I figured the Mac Zealots would like it.

And you thought YOU were busy!

Here's some time to kill...

Got us some crime to be done!

For those of you that cared and didn't know:



(Also, no Firefly today. Had to fix that. Have you donated to the Serenity II fund yet?)

Stay Healthy, Johnny

Good news this morning. John Towner Williams will be scoring the film of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Mind you, he's 75 NOW. HP:AtDH will be out in 2010. Indiana Jones and the Out of Reach Cane will be in 2008. Jerry Goldsmith didn't last this long, so let's hope Mr. W. is taking his vitamins.

I have all of the Potter scores (except Chamber of Secrets which they did a Superman II on: Re-tracked the film with Williams' Sorcerer's Stone score). When I was reading the last half of DH I was listening to Sorcerer's Stone and a little Prisoner of Azkaban. Goblet of fire never even showed up on the iPod. I like Patrick Doyle very much, but really.

I just noticed that iTunes lists the artist Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire Soundtrack. Doyle must be pleased.

Ship like that, be with you till the day you die

This blog is going to get really Firefly for a while. I know, you're all shocked.

Well, here's my next acquisition.

For those of you not REALLY paying attention: "forward written by Orson Scott Card (yes, that Orson Scott Card)"

Well. There we are then. Shiny. Mine.

(Yes, I contributed my $20.00 to the Serenity Sequel Campaign. Got a free DVD with the donation.)

Serenity DVD Update

For those of you that just had to know...

Places to Buy
Amazon - $18.89
Best Buy* - $17.99
Circuit City - $19.99
Deep Discount - $19.81
DVD Planet - $18.86

Best Buy it is! And you get a comic book! (I don't know what comic book. But since I don't have any Firefly / Serenity comics, I should be alright.)

Alas, my sky is STILL taken...

Well, Amazon knows that I like House, M.D. Which is good, because I do like House, M.D. I almost feel bad for watching it because of my track record of Great Killer of Shows. Maybe I'm just the Great Killer of Joss Whedon / Tim Minear Shows.

Which brings me to the new DVD out next week. Can you believe that it's been five years since Firefly aired? No? Maybe that's cause you DIDN'T WATCH THE SHOW! *sigh* Nobody ever listens to me. But you all saw Serenity in the theater after you saw the Firefly DVDs and knew how awesome it was right? RIGHT? Grrrrr. (Arrgh.) But hey, they're making High School Musical 2! And Rush Hour 3!

Anyway, here's your chance to redeem yourself. You've spent enough money on Star Wars, right? If you already bought the first one, you should get this one because the cover art isn't horrible. (I still haven't seen Serenity art that does the ship justice, but there we are.)

Now, you all know that I would have raved about this in some fashion. Heck, it's five years on and I still say things are "shiny" and I "fix to" do things. We wont even talk about what the Leaf on the Wind has done to my taste in shirts. (I know, I know, your days of not taking me seriously are certainly coming to a middle.)

BUT - I've been BRIBED. I've been bought! I'm like a publicity-- companion! Over at serenitystuff.com they're having some kind of excuse- CONTEST! Contest to get the new DVD LOTS of sales again and give our gallant crew another ride in Joss' shiny spaceship. Hey, could happen. Star Trek made The Motion Picture and THEY got a sequel. Everybody LOVED Serenity. Everyone that SAW it that is. In Star Trek time it's 1974. We should get more movies in five years. C'mon, don't you want to know what was up with Book? BTW, they have a breakdown of the old vs. the new DVD here.

I have to say, on the new Thomas Bigscreen, there is no movie that looks finer. Superman, Star Wars, Narnia, Casino Royale, all take a back seat.

Cause, as we all know, there's no place I can be since I found Serenity. Now where was that gorram sky again?

Sometimes I Love the 21st Century

So as Mr. Kurtz continues his Comic-Con Star Wars run today (think she'll say "Yes" this time?) I naturally got to thinking about "I'd just as soon kiss a wookie". So, with very little effort, and not far to go at all, I opened iTunes, punched up The Empire Strikes Back, dialed to about five minutes into the movie, MAGIC!

One day, my DVD (or whatever) player will be this easy to use. Aw, who am I kidding? They'll still figure out a way to put the FBI warning directly into my retina and disable my ability to blink or something. Can't skip those company logos, can we? Grrrr.

And they have a plan!

Suuuuuure they do.

PvP today proves yet again that either Lucas had NO idea what he was doing or he's a very disturbed man. I'm good either way, but make up your mind, George!

*squeaky Lucas voice* "Well, I realized that I had written enough material for nine *cough* three- er, six movies (and a cartoon and a mini-series and a few video games) so I decided that this would be the middle, er, I mean, last three chapters. And my hero would fall for this smoking hot babe in peril-- er, sorry, that was the old one-- my hero would find his lost SISTER and embark on a "Hero's Journey" (Joseph Campbell - TM) of monastic solitude. Yeah, that's how I meant it all along. And Han shot-- sometime..."

What an amazing world

It just struck me that today, on the 62nd anniversary of the United States bombing Nagasaki, that I received an email from a German friend of mine with an mp3 of music from a video game about World War II. Hmmm. Things get better after all. Eventually.

Attend the Tale!

Well. This is alarming looking...

I just saw that Christopher Lee is "Gentleman Ghost". So there are obviously some liberties. UPDATE!!!! Anthony "Giles" Head will also be one of the singing ghosts!

Ron Weasley's Rat (hey, he was in Chicken Run? Had no idea! - Also as a rat, btw) will be Beadle Bamford. There WILL be SINGING in this movie, no? So that's three Potter alumni. (But can any of them, well, make pleasant pitch changes with thier voices set to a tune?)

New Company

So, try and figure out what movie THIS website is for. (It's on my blog, that should narrow it down a little bit...)

TEEENY BSG News

Remember the note (in the mini-series) that told Adama (Wild Bill) that there are twelve cylon models? (Wow, I remember when that was interesting...) Well, Ron Moore recently said they won't have time on the show to tell us who did it. It was Baltar. Thanks, Ron. Heh. They still have a plan, right? RIGHT?

Spock!

Well, it's official. (It was a day or two ago, I think.) The Heroes guy is Mr. Spock in the new trek movie. Annnnnd they have a new poster. They're calling the movie Star Trek. Catchy name.

The new poster is cool. But not as cool as last year's teaser. And not nearly as cool as the iCorder.

(BTW, the San Diego Comicon is this weekend, so there will be News for Nerds coming out of our ears. There's a picture of Ms. Ravenwood in Indiana Jones and the Unreasonable Expectaions, fer instance. Go to the Indy site.)

Typography

This was up on Yahoo the other day.



I like it. Very sharp.

Here is a great article so that you to can get uppity when someone confuses font with typeface. I know *I* needed more things to get uppity about. (HT to Todd from a million years ago.)

I can't do this with the WORDS in front of me!!!

This is just insane. Really. I mean it.

WHEN did Han shoot?

You know it. I know it. And George is making sure that Han himself knows it. Maybe George will get senile enough that he thinks it's 1976 and he'll be cool again. Could happen...