Serenity panel at the Farpoint convention...

POSTED BY: xenocide
UPDATED: Wednesday, February 16, 2005 15:39
VIEWED: 10582
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ANOTHERFIREFLYFAN

Tuesday, February 15, 2005 6:04 AM

As posted on the OB ( http://forums.prospero.com/foxfirefly/messages?msg=21366.1 )

Hello, I've just returned from a *terrific* weekend at Farpoint, a lovely con in Baltimore. I had been asked to be on a panel called Browncoats Unite! Also on the panel, Keith DeCandido (author), Radegund, AlienZooKeeper (who I met at the PA Shindig), and Xenocide (posts on FFF, he moderated).

I was a bit nervous at first, but I ended up loving it. I got to discuss my favorite thing in the world, with other people just as much in love with it. We started out with only 3 people in the audience, which was smaller than the panel, but thankfully it grew. We joked around a lot, we talked about the characters and the show and the upcoming movie (no spoilers), Keith told us about the essay collection and how he wrote the novelization (he said Joss didn't make any changes, so he hopes that means he approved), we just generally had a lot of fun. Keith talked most of the time, which was fine because he was very cool and had interesting things to say. We had great discussions with the audience (which in the end finally about doubled the panel size). In short, I loved it and would love to sit on a Firefly panel at future conventions.

The rest of the convention was a lot of fun, but oddly the Firefly finds Serenity panel on Sunday had a larger audience to start with than ours did - but no panelists showed up. We ended up hijacking the panel and just talking about Firefly (it got a bit chaotic in the end though, with a few audience members dominating the discussion and debating how realistic it was to have old technology, or transport cattle when eating vegetarian would be more feasible, or devolve socially into witch-burning superstitious hill-folk).

I volunteered to help out with the masquerade, so I was a 'runner' - one of a few volunteers that lead the entrants from the stage, through the doors in the back of the room, to the photo-area. Some of them had limited visibility, etc - so it was a challenging job.

During the judging-time, they had the Great Luke Ski perform several of his hi-larious filks and original songs. I shouted out that he should play his Firefly song, and he did. It was so perfect! He sang about the show, and the evils of Fox, and all the cancelled shows getting together to destroy Fox... very cool. I later found out that he had premiered the song at the Browncoat Ball, shiny!

Finally, at the Farpoint committee open meeting, I made several suggestions - notably to get Firefly guests. I was informed that this time they were unable to due to budget and schedule constraints, but would try their best to get some next year! I even talked to the Con Chair personally on the matter, and it sounds like they are going to do what they can. The convention is already a lot of fun, but if they follow just a few of the suggestions made (including Firefly guests), then it would be even better next time!

I love conventions. I love meeting other people with similar interests. I love seeing the events scheduled. I love looking at the wonderful artwork, I love looking through the dealer's room, I love meeting actors and writers, I love just hanging out in the con suite and enjoying free food while chatting with the great people there. I had a wonderful time.

Oh, and btw, I bought this really great Firefly shirt from a dealer. She had hand stitched the Firefly logo into the shirt in gold thread, it looked great! :-)

~Another Firefly fan

Keep flying

RADEGUND

Tuesday, February 15, 2005 6:55 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Highway234:
okay, sorta off topic but -- so anybody who happened to be at the firefly panel, the one where the actual panelists didn't show up and we just improvised -- somebody mentioned that george lucas was going to rerelease thx-1138 retouched star wars style with CGI. at first i didn't believe it but now i'm starting to think it's just crazy enough to be true. does anyone know anything about this?

I have the THX1138 DVD. They did put in some CGI. For example, in the scene when THX has reached the outer levels of the dome and is being attacked by the mutant people, the mutants were replaced by CGI critters. Also I think they touched up some of the car race scenes to add him smacking into more things while driving.

I had a great time on the panel! As I mentioned on the OB, it would be neat to host panels on more specific topics like whether the technology on rim worlds makes sense (beef vs. bean protien, horses vs. machines, etc.). Of course we know the ultimate reason for any decision is that Joss thought it would look cool on screen, but that doesn't stop us from nitpicking and overanalyzing!

HIGHWAY234

Tuesday, February 15, 2005 7:09 PM

oh wow! which panelist were you? i remember the whole discussion about cattle-vs.-beans getting really into it and serious -- the funny thing is yes, cattle is totally inefficient and yet we use cattle for food here on Earth even though yes, per acre it's the most wasteful way to make food, so there's something about human nature that seems to forgive inefficiency. (have you ever read any jared diamond?) anyway, the thing i kept thinking about is that the whole setup for shipping things through space for profit is kinda fakey. just because the price you have to pay to heft this enormous starship around has GOT to me more than the 25 clams you get per head for your scrawny cattle once you transport it over all those light years. i guess that's true of all these movies -- alien to outland to star wars.

anyway, THX 1138. i can't tell you how upsetting that is to me. i'd rather see every copy of Citizen Kane get colorized than allow george lucas to do further violence to his own work. George! take a time out from trashing your own legacy! jeez.

RADEGUND

Tuesday, February 15, 2005 7:19 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Highway234:
oh wow! which panelist were you?

The female one.

No, I haven't read Jared Diamond.

HIGHWAY234

Tuesday, February 15, 2005 7:30 PM

you moderated the cross-dressing panel also, yes? i was the guy sitting in the audience asking persnickety questions. like about how the long-legged guy taking up all the space on the metro might just be real tall.

yes, jared diamond is awesome. although he has very little to do with firefly per se. i thought about him during the cattle conversation because he says that a lot of times people do daft, inefficient things out of habit or because of their religion or what have you, and will often keep being inefficient even if they know full well it will make them run out of resources and die. he think he mentions cattle specifically, and how bad and yet popular a means of food production it is.

RADEGUND

Tuesday, February 15, 2005 10:43 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Highway234:
you moderated the cross-dressing panel also, yes?

No, that was someone else, though I was in the audience.

HIGHWAY234

Tuesday, February 15, 2005 11:08 PM

oops! case of mistaken identity. oh, well, as long as you were there in the firefly-meets-serenity forum for the cattle conversation. and thx-1138. do you remember who that was who brought that up? i thought it was one of the "moderators." (i use quotes because the planned moderators didn't show up and some folks just hopped up and did a very nice job just making some stuff up on the, er, fly.)

RADEGUND

Tuesday, February 15, 2005 11:49 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Highway234:
oops! case of mistaken identity. oh, well, as long as you were there in the firefly-meets-serenity forum for the cattle conversation. and thx-1138. do you remember who that was who brought that up? i thought it was one of the "moderators." (i use quotes because the planned moderators didn't show up and some folks just hopped up and did a very nice job just making some stuff up on the, er, fly.)

The "some folks" were me, AlienZooKeeper, and AnotherFireflyFan.

I am not sure who brought up THX1138.

ANOTHERFIREFLYFAN

Wednesday, February 16, 2005 12:55 AM

You musta missed our Browncoats Unite! panel from the previous day - it was terrific! Actually a lot more organised, with a moderator and panelists and everything. And Keith DeCandido, author of the novelization and one of the essays in the upcoming collection. It was a lot of fun. :)

Keep flying

HIGHWAY234

Wednesday, February 16, 2005 3:37 PM

i DID miss the browncoats unite panel! what a drag. i had motivation problems and didn't get to the con until like mid-afternoon. here's delightful news: i was goign through my firefly dvd and there was this making-of doc i haven't seeen yet! i'm totally excited. but then i had to go to work so i could only catch a couple minutes of it.

so yes, here's a thought i had yesterday: kaylee and jayne! that would be a totally wacky coupling that they could spring on us while we're all waiting for kaylee and simon to get together, even though they're so obviously ill-suited. but meanwhile kaylee and jayne both have this sorta tough aspect to them and it would just be funny and surprising to see the two of them hook up.

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