Ordinary Day

My fellow Browncoats, most if not all of you will know about this already. But for those of you who didn’t, be advised that Dark Horse Comics loves us and wants us to be happy.

Because behold: the first issue of the new Serenity: Leaves on the Wind series is out!

It should surprise exactly ZERO persons reading this that I bought the hell out of that as soon as I saw the link show up in my email. And when I got home tonight, I happily slurped the issue itself down onto my iPad. Picoreview: gorram hell it’s deeply, deeply shiny to see these characters again.

The art’s acceptable, by which I mean everyone is recognizable. The overall style is nicely gritty without being blatant and distracting me from the actual story. And the story–well! It’s kicking in not long after the events of the movie, and we’re seeing straight out of the gate that the revelation of what happened on Miranda is NOT going over well to the general public. The Alliance is now looking very, VERY hard for the crew of our favorite Firefly-class freighter. And so is the ragtag brand new resistance group forming, who’ve gotten it into their heads that Malcolm Reynolds should be their leader. I can hear Mal facepalming from here, you guys.

Which is all I’m going to say about it, at least in this main post. I call open season on spoilers in the comments, though–so if you’ve read it and you want to squee, COME RIGHT IN and let your Browncoat flags fly!

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.

I’ve been total Scattershot Girl when it comes to blogging for some time–like many, I’ve found most of my day to day online communication shunted over to Twitter and Facebook. But that said, I’ve had several recent lovely things happen that are worth sharing with you all in longer, blog-based form. So! In no particular order:

• Finally saw The King’s Speech, since spazzkat got it via Netflix. That was a very satisfying film, and I’m not at all surprised that it’s spawned so much fanfic across my various Friends lists and such. Everyone in that film did an amazing job, and I have much increased respect for Mr. Colin Firth now. Also, mad love for the scene where the speech therapist’s wife comes home and discovers the King and Queen in her dining room. :D

• Also, as of today, finally saw Source Code with solarbird. Mad, mad props to mamishka for recommending that! It’s a nice, tight little SF flick, and if you like alternate-reality type plots, try to catch this before it vanishes entirely. If you’re local to Seattle, it’s still playing at the Meridian 16 downtown, and it’s running at the Crest as well.
• I have finally found a way I might actually read more comic books: the Dark Horse comics app for the iPad. I installed this on the grounds that a couple weekends back, Dark Horse had a sale of all its digital versions of Serenity and Firefly comics. Since I didn’t have Shepherd’s Tale yet, I thought what the hey, I’d buy ‘em all. The iPad is definitely more suited to digital comics reading than the iPhone, that’s for sure, although the iPhone does actually talk to this app as well.

Also on the iPad, I have a shiny new app called TunePal, recommended to me by Marilyn, one of the fiddle players who attends the weekly session solarbird and I have been going to. Those of you who know the Shazam app will find the way this works familiar; it basically identifies songs. But in this case, it identifies traditional Irish tunes! You can play them at the app on an actual instrument, or, it’ll identify ‘em if you’re playing them in iTunes as well. Then it goes out and hits up a big ol’ database and yoinks back several guesses as to what it thinks you just played it. It’ll show you sheet music for its guesses, and it’ll play the sheet music for you as well. And, you can add tunes out of the database manually by searching for them as well. You can’t import your own tunes, which is my only complaint about the app, but it’s otherwise very, very cool. Any of my fellow music geeks out there who are interested in trad tunes, you should be checking this out.

• Speaking of the iPhone, my coworker Joe pointed me at my new favorite iPhone game: Tiny Wings. You play a birdie with, of course, tiny tiny wings, and the object of the game is to get the birdie to fly as far as possible by tapping. It’s super-cute and only 99 cents, so check it out.
• FOLKLIFE! Well, that deserves a whole separate post, but I’m noting it here anyway.
• And while I am still technically on book buying hiatus, I’ve picked up a few freebies. And I will unrepentantly, UNREPENTANTLY I TELL YOU, break hiatus wide open to buy seanan_mcguire/Mira Grant’s Deadline this week. Because GIMME. Seriously.
• My friend ravyngyngvar is sending me a Blu-Ray of a-ha’s last concert in Oslo! Thank you, Yngvar!
• I am sorely behind on Doctor Who posts, and will shortly be doing a catchup post. It’s an indicator of how much I’ve not been paying attention to the net lately that I totally missed that BBC America did NOT air the second half of the two-parter on Saturday, to wit, bah. I did not however give enough of a damn about this to actually try to find and download the episode; it’ll air next week as far as I know, and I can wait that long. Especially given that we’re about to have the mid-season hiatus anyway. Just nobody spoil me, mmkay, those of you who’ve already caved and downloaded the ep anyway?
• And because it’s always worth saying, mmmmm blackberries of my marketboys mmmmmm.

Mirrored from annathepiper.org.

Friday night mamishka, jennygriffee, kathrynt, llachglin, and Q & Erik’s little girl Lillian all came over to the Murk to play Beatles Rock Band. This was great fun, and I can say this even despite the fact that I never actually participated–since Lillian kept me busy babywrangling. I had enough of a delightful time just periodically popping to see what everyone else was doing, and I gotta admit, the music was awesome. Meanwhile, as always, Lily was a delight. This time around the kid pulled every object in her mother’s backpack out and explained to me very earnestly what each thing was and what it was for. She made particular note of how the “special drink” had strawberries in it, and the juice boxes had apples. Good choices, kid. ;)

I am in fact thoroughly songvirused now by various Beatles songs, and expressed my interest in not only checking out the game but in giving Beatles albums a proper listen. This amused spazzkat, who pointed out that, as an Elvis fan, am I not contractually obligated to dislike the Beatles? I replied that he had invited them to be the second, third, fourth, and fifth Elvises, after they’d offered to make him the honorary fifth Beatle. ;> (And apparently they actually visited him at Graceland, back in the day, and they hung out and jammed for about an hour. God, if only recordings had been made of what they were doing. Those recordings could be worth the price of a small country!)

More seriously, though–I actually haven’t ever given a proper listen to any Beatles albums. I know of various songs of theirs, sure; you can’t have grown up in the Western hemisphere and not know of most Beatles songs. But I’ve got to rectify this deficit in my musical experience. Commentary on favorite albums is therefore welcome.

Saturday evening, solarbird and I ambled over to the Wayward to listen to vixyish, tfabris, and solcita perform for the Sereniversary, and that was fun. I actually had to sit at the front of the cafe and couldn’t see anything from back there, but it was all good; I could still hear plenty well, and I had the opportunity for some lovely conversation about phones and other portable devices, not to mention Patricia Briggs’ books. Bonus points as well for getting a chance to make Sunnie squeal at the picture of The Doyle With Beard on my iPhone.

Sunday by comparison was comparatively quiet, aside from the whole getting a sneak peek of the cover art for the forthcoming anthology I’m going to be in (and I did I mention, AWESOME?). And it’ll probably surprise none of you that I picked up quite a few more ebooks. It’s all Fictionwise’s fault! This is what happens when they offer me a big ol’ rebate on a book that pretty much means I get four books for the price of a hardcover. And then they go and extend a coupon I’d previously used. They keep this up, they’re definitely going to keep on getting my business.

And here’s what I’ve picked up from them now, bringing my total purchased books for the year up to 95:

• Dead and Gone, by Charlaine Harris, pre-empting my need to read it as a library book
• Staying Dead, by suricattus, replacing the paperback I’d re-sold to Third Place
• First Truth, by Dawn Cook, ditto
• Norse Code, by Greg Van Eekhout, since I’d heard a lot of good things about this
• Folly, by Laurie King, since I’d wanted to read this for a while
• Touchstone, by Laurie King, since I like her work in general

And last but not least, pre-ordered to be downloaded tomorrow, Heat Wave. By Richard Castle. Because I am still laughing and laughing and laughing that ABC is actually putting out a book with Castle’s name on it, and doubly so that whoever’s writing the Twitter feed has urged followers to help the book beat Dan Brown on the bestseller list.

For that cause alone, they could have written 400 pages of “badger badger badger badger mushroom”, and I’d have leapt right on it! I’m going to look forward to reviewing this one, entirely in-character. They’re going to pull this joke, I’m going to play along!

Mirrored from annathepiper.org.

So! Having recently been introduced to the music of tfabris and vixyish, and having finally heard "Mal's Song" all the way through, I decided it was my solemn duty as a Browncoat to learn that song.

technoshaman pointed me at the chords posted on Vixy and Tony's site, and I played around with them this afternoon. Discovered much to my satisfaction that the chord set is very easy, and much of the character of the song is dependent upon just putting some suitable ornamentation on the strumming.

Vixy's kicking the song up a few steps from the original theme of the key, I noted. It's up a step, I think...? (Vix, if you're reading this, can you enlighten me?) I'd originally thought it was a fifth, but that didn't sound right at all--so I went looking for what other folks out there had done for the chords for the original theme, and it looks like they're in C. Only played as A chords, capoed up three. So, clearly I need to work on successfully identifying the distances between relative keys. I could tell Vixy was kicking it up higher, but not by how much, not immediately.

The other fun part is that "Mal's Song" is lacking an extra strum right after "take me where I cannot stand", so it kicks over into "I don't care..." earlier than the original theme does. Which throws me off every time I try to play through it. *^_^*;; (Though I'm getting the hang of it playing along with the recording; that way I can much better hear what Tony's actually doing with the guitar part there, and that helps my hands get the idea.)

But I can otherwise totally play this thing. Go me!

To steal an idea from technosage, I thought that in honor of International Blog Against Racism Week, I would take some time to squee about favorite characters of color in my various fandoms.

In Elfquest, Rayek and Ember. Rayek because I spent several years roleplaying him on Two Moons MUSH--I in fact still have a lot of the roleplay logs. (I play Rayek in those up through 1998 or so.) I loved Rayek a lot for starting off an arrogant jerk and maturing eventually into a humbler yet still highly motivated elf. As for Ember, I really liked her storylines trying to grow up in the shadow of her famous chieftain father, not to mention her brother packing more magical power than anyone in their tribe had ever seen. Some of the best RP I ever did on Two Moons, in fact, was as Rayek--in no small part due to eveshka and mizkit.

In Firefly, Zoe. Because, well, duh. I loved every deadpan line she had playing off of Mal, as well as her loving and vigorous relationship with her husband.

In Doctor Who, Martha. Out of respect for those of you who have not yet seen the full third season of New Who featuring Martha as Tenth Doctor's Companion, I will simply say that she is made entirely of awesome.

In Battlestar Galactica, Sharon Agathon, a.k.a. Athena, the cooler iteration of the Boomer series of characters.

And, of course, in classic Star Trek we have Uhura, the voice of the Enterprise. Because she is a musician, because I loved the old Trek novel Uhura's Song (and the feline sentient who took on the name Another StarFreedom in Uhura's honor), and because, let's face it, her hottest moment ever was whipping out that knife on evil!Sulu in "Mirror, Mirror". ;)

Since it needed doing, today I burned my recently purchased Casino Royale soundtrack down to disc, along with the single "You Know My Name" (which I had to buy separately, but hey, it wasn't hard to find in the iTunes store), down to CD. I mention this partly just as a general PSA that if you purchase music online, it's always best to burn backup CD copies in case your computer is smashed by a meteor or something.

But mostly I mention it because I also figured out how to get iTunes to print me a CD insert, using the album artwork. It took me a little finagling with playlists, but I got it to print! It would have printed in full color, too, if I'd bothered to go downstairs and turn on the color printer. The black-and-white album art I printed off was fine, though, and certainly enough to let me slip that into the jewel case along with the burned discs. At some point I'll now have to print off album artwork for the other things I've bought off of iTunes as well, now that I know how to do that.

Does anyone know if it's possible to make iTunes print off the part of the artwork that would go on the spine and back of the jewel case? That'd be even cooler, if I could make it do that. Then the jewel case would look almost like I bought it in a store.

In other news, it is well worth mentioning that according to CNN.com, 'truthiness' is the word of the year. Stephen Colbert is amusingly proud.

And I have been noting the rumblings going around about how Flanvention down in CA was cancelled this weekend. I'm very sympathetic to all the pissed-off Browncoats who had this as well as their hard-earned money yanked out from under them. I did also note the one silver lining, though, of several Firefly and Serenity cast members showing up at the hotel where the thing was supposed to have been held, and partying at the bar with the fans. That is so very cool of the lot of them.

I am one week shy of Faerie Blood being in Baen's e-slush queue for three months. By all estimates this should mean that I have another six months to go. Hopefully by the time I get an answer one way or another, I'll have Queen of Souls and Lament of the Dove out there too!

I have still not yet watched last week's BSG, or last night's for that matter. The writing has kept me from last week's episode, and last night's was postponed in favor of playing with the shiny new Wii that has joined our household. Hopefully we shall catch up on both episodes tonight!

Monday through Friday miles: 17.1
Miles out of Hobbiton: 1597.5
Miles out of Rauros Falls: 288.5
Miles to Isengard: 195.5

Want to see Serenity on the big screen again? Looks like we might have a chance.

This just in from whedonesque: it seems that in June, there are going to be screenings of Serenity--in the US, Canada, and Australia!--as part of an effort to raise money for Equality Now, one of Joss Whedon's favorite charities. Prweb.com has a press release posted here, and the effort has an official page at cantstoptheserenity.com.

I think this is a whole bunch of Big Damned Neat, myself. :) Not only for the chance to see Serenity on a big screen again, but also because of the cause this set of screenings supports. I am delighted to see that there is a burgeoning effort already to include Seattle in the list of showings! Go check the site, folks, and see if the Big Damned Movie will be coming back to a town near you.

Browncoats on my Friends list will be familiar with my contention that the lovely Captain Mal in Firefly and Serenity is Han Solo's long-lost twin brother. With that in mind, it should be a surprise to none of you that I had me a dream that was a three-way crossover between real life, Serenity, and Star Wars.

Here are the things I remember about it. I was clearly "me", though I am not entirely sure what function I played in this mutated dream universe. The dream-'Verse, as it were, seemed to be Firefly's setting, only with the Empire replacing the Alliance as the overall Bad Guys. Darth Vader was there and there was a scene where he had solarbird, two others, and me all in a line before him and he ordered that my hands should be chopped off because I didn't salute him fast enough--I remember my left elbow drooping and my having to hastily snap it back up again--and that moreover, I should be put in charge of an attack upon what was presumably a rebel planet, with a severely undergunned ship. And I remember thinking this was bullshit and making my exit, with what seemed to be Force-assistance or perhaps just super-speed (thanks to all that Superman I've been watching lately; I'm not sure which it was). All I know is, I got out of there very hastily.

And Nathan Fillion was there, except I'm not sure if he was Nathan Fillion or Mal. I remember cuddling up against him but in a mostly platonic kind of way, a comfort thing maybe. And I remember making a getaway with him in what seemed to be a cross between the front seat of a car and the cockpit of Serenity, except that we were both clearly Earth denizens because he had something that might have been a Beatles song playing on the radio. And I was getting maudlin about the Empire overrunning the solar system, and apologizing for being maudlin, and he was in the process of telling me it was okay because it happened to him too when I woke up.

And this is how my Friday got started!

Meanwhile, I went as previously mentioned to the Polyclinic and got my blood draw. The lab tech chick was kind of sloppy about it; I've still got a little bruise in the crook of my elbow. Also, it was irritating to swipe my pass through the reader when I got on the bus going over thattaway, only to have the driver tell me I had to pay AGAIN when I got off the bus. I'm not sure what the heck was up with that, unless it was some sort of crossing through the Ride Free area thing and shifting over from "pay when you get on" to "pay when you leave". It would have been more irritating, I suppose, if I didn't have a bus pass. But.

Zzzzzz. Definitely ready for a weekend, and Sunday's Jam!

Thursday evening miles: 2.1
Friday morning miles: 1.6
Miles out of Hobbiton: 820.5
Miles out of Rivendell: 362.5
Miles to Lothlórien: 101.5

Whedonesque.com has a followup thread about the Fireflyseason2.com guy, Ace Underhill, here. That thread also references a new article that's appeared on scifi.com, to the effect of "Joss Whedon has no idea who this guy is."

The story makes Slashdot here, and Digital Spy here.

Fireflyfans.net weighs in on the matter here and here.

Serenitymovie.org, which seems to be the forum where all the folks who were posting on the official movie site before it got shut down went, has threads on the matter here, here, and here. The second of these is the thread where Mr. Underhill says and I quote: "Yes, I have contacted Joss' management. I have not received a reply from Joss personally yet, but now is not the time for him to be bothered with this. The obstacle lies with Fox, not with Joss. Once the rights are cleared, everything will fall into place. If Joss declines to be involved once the rights are secured, I will abandon the project." The third includes a transcript of a live Browncoat chat where Underhill showed up and tried to answer questions about his intentions.

Long story short? The guy may be legit, but the reading I'm getting off all the people posting on these various threads is that they think he's in over his head. I am inclined to agree with that. I also still think he's doing things kind of bass-ackwards if he's trying to go around and buy the rights to the show before he's even gotten Joss' official blessing.

If any of the Browncoats on my Friends list have enough faith in the guy to support his effort, more power to you. But I do recommend that you read the various threads and inform yourselves as best you can about what he's up to. Supporting efforts to resurrect the show that's near and dear to all our hearts is laudable; if we didn't love it so much, we wouldn't have gotten Serenity in the first place. Just make sure you're putting your support behind the right person. I'm not sure this guy is it.

Okay, I've seen the Firefly Season 2 site mentioned twice now on my Friends list, so I thought I'd mention for the benefit of anybody interested: Whedonesque.com, a high-traffic, popular blog for all things Joss Whedon, has a thread about this thing here.

The gist of what's there is that while the guy trying to do this may be well-intentioned, he does not have the blessing of Joss Whedon, and in fact seems to be deliberately trying to NOT talk to Joss yet for reasons that are beyond me. Posters on the thread mention that this guy has been quoted as saying things like "Joss can't be bothered with this right now", on the theory that if he himself goes around and does all the legwork to try to convince a network to take Firefly on, he could then have everything "fall into place" and Joss will start making more Firefly episodes.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm as loyal a Browncoat as the next girl. But since Joss himself has been quoted as saying that there will be no more Firefly, a fan effort to resurrect it--no matter how well-intentioned--isn't exactly useful. And without Joss at the helm, it wouldn't really be Firefly anyway. Nor would it be Firefly without all the cast members--some of whom, if I understand it correctly, are already moving on to other committments. (Nathan Fillion is in a forthcoming movie, for example, and imdb.com lists him as being in another movie that's now filming.) Joss himself is of course working on other committments, such as the Wonder Woman movie, so he's going to be busy for a while too.

If you want to keep the Signal going, folks, let me recommend that you slurp up anything at all related to Firefly that we can get, whether that be the RPG, novels (there is another novel coming out next July by Keith R.A. DeCandido, the guy who wrote the novelization of Serenity), comics, what have you. Make costumes and wear them at cons. Write fanfic. Play on the Firefly-themed MU*'s. There are plenty of ways to satisfy our yens. ;)

But Firefly, the TV show, is just gone. The article I link to above (thanks to gamera_spinning for the link) does also say that Joss wants to tell more stories in the 'Verse--but it won't be in the form of the show.