CEDRIC

So last night my wife and I went into Austin to watch Fantastic Four, hoping that my wife would finally get to see the Serenity trailer. (Ah, the joys of living in the boondocks where we have only dial-up and can't download video like everyone else.) So, we ended up at the Highland 10 theater at I-35 and Middle Fiskville Road. I mention this because the shift manager, Tim O'Neil, was very helpful to us Browncoats. The Serenity Trailer was not showing before Fantastic Four, but it was showing before Star Wars and Land of the Dead. Tim was good enough to help us find a showing when we could catch the trailer, and he allowed us to sit in the theater and watch it. He also mentioned that Highland 10 is the only theater in Austin that has the digital Star Wars; he was very excited about it. I asked if he would have Serenity in digital, and he said he hoped they would, but he didn't want to make any promises. Anyway, I told him that I would pass the word along to other Browncoats in Austin--Highland 10 is a great place to catch the trailer. Oh, yeah, and the seats are really comfy, too. Keep flyin'!

CEDRIC

So tonight (July 12) I'm going down to Spider House Coffee of Guadalupe Street in Austin, Texas, to sing "The Ballad of Joss" after our good hostess shows "Our Mrs. Reynolds" and "Jaynestown" on the big screen TV. The showings start at 8:30, but the owner says to get there by 8:00 to get a good seat. I hope to see lots of Austin Browncoats there! Since Spider House staggers the episodes, they'll be showing "Jaynestown" again next Tuesday (July 19), so I'll most likely be there for a repeat performance.

CEDRIC

I was inspired by a thread with a similar name last week, so today I printed up a bunch of flyers from the11thhour.home.att.net and spread the word to my corner of small-town Texas. I actually had more success at general stores and feed stores than at the video rental chains. (They seem to believe they had to get permission from the Alliance--um, I mean, the corporate office--before they could post anything.) I worked extra hard to talk it up to the manager of the local theater (the only one in town). Not only did I put some posters up there, but the manager suggested he would circulate info amongst the staff so that they could talk it up. I stopped at the Wal-Mart for some supplies before I headed home (which is even more remote than the little town), and I noticed a "Wal-Mart Free Publications Rack" in the foyer. I think I may whip up some single sheets with an 11th Hour poster on the front and info about the show, relevant websites, local airing times for SciFi, an announcement about the series marathon in the nearest big town, and of course, the BDM release! I'm considering a much smaller version that I can print 9 to a page and hand out--people I talked to wanted to keep the miniature Mal Wanted posters. So--get out there and canvass, people! Make the BDM break all the records!

CEDRIC

Whew! It's less than 24 hours since I got the MP3 postcard of "The Ballad of Joss" circulating, and it's been a very busy day. Folks from all over have been emailing me to say they liked it, and/or to ask me about minor glitches. So I've spent all day responding, chatting, sorting glitches, and figuring out how to make the hi-fi version of the song available. And now it is. So if you got the postcard early in the day, consider going back to get it again. The 24 kbps version will still stream on the first page, but after you send to three friends (or skip that option if you must, you greedy hwoondan), you can download the 320kbps version on the third page.

CEDRIC

Since someone asked anonymously, I can't reply in person, but hopefully the poster will see this. You can hear an MP3 of my filk, "The Ballad of Joss", by clicking on

CEDRIC

I really wish I'd written the Ballad of Joss about 6-8 months earlier than I did. To tell the truth, one reason I put off writing it is that the idea seemed really obvious to me, so I figured someone had already done it. Now, I've got a filk song that people seem to like, and no time to get into a con to sing it. I mean, I could go to Dragon*Con as a fan, but I really can't afford the trip. The management is too busy to even say no, though I've been told unofficially that they're full up on concourse bands. The Browncoats there aren't interested in sponsoring my band. We're not famous enough yet. If only I'd written that song a few months earlier . . . Cons closer to home seem to have either no musical guests (and therefore probably no interest in musical guests) or a bunch of musical guests, including bands I watched form several years after mine started. Sure, Firefly fandom isn't going to go away after the movie comes out--but let's face it, the iron ain't gonna be quite so hot come October. How did this get so complicated?

CEDRIC

There's a line in a song by the Austin Lounge Lizards that goes: "Sometimes I wake up to find I've yodeled in my sleep!" I feel like that. So I was driving home from Austin last night, and this idea I had a week or two ago just started exploding in my head. It's a Class II Filk (meaning original tune and lyrics, but based on someone else's scifi). It's about Out of Gas. And it ain't funny. People mostly expect filk to be funny, but this ain't. If I did it right, it's gripping. And now I have to learn to play with a slide, because it's begging for a slide. I don't have a slide, so I started picking up random items from around the house to try. I commented to my wife that the most successful improvised slide seemed to be a double A battery. She asked if it was wise to rub a battery on my strings. I replied, "Nah, it's probably quang sh'duh." (My attempt at the Chinese-like sounds Wash made to describe the Reavers flying without core containment.) She said, "Are you speakin' Chinese at me, darlin'?" I denied that I was, and then I went for the sympaty plea. "Honey, I filked again." "Well, Babe," she said, "you'll have to clean it up." *sigh* I guess I'll have no choice but to record it, put it in an MP3 postcard, and send it around the 'net. Gosa!

CEDRIC

So my buddy (and fellow Browncoat) Tree was up on the roof attaching another tin roofing panel when he commented that the number of ridges on the new roofing panels made it harder for him to stagger the screws evenly. Then he said, "I miss the old ones. These new ones don't math out the same." I thought it sounded like something a Serenity crew member would have said. Then I had a sudden image of Tree in the Firefly-verse, and I had this idea to write a fanfic that placed my neighbors and circle of friends on an old ship in the Black. Then I decided to lie down until the urge to write fanfic went away.