Friends

Welcome to firefly_signal, wherein we hope to link fan activity and news from across the fandom in one location. We hope you find this newsletter useful and spread the word.

News:
Serenity reairing on SyFy Channel, Sunday, January 10, 2010, ahead of Jane Espenson's 'Battlestar Galactica: The Plan' and the return of Adam Baldwin's 'Chuck' on NBC
Chiewetel Ejiofor's film, '2012', coming to Blu-ray and DVD, March 9, 2010
Chiwetel Ejiofor talks about his film, 'Endgame'
The Bedlam Bards to perform at Washington Renaissance Fantasy Faire, August 2010

FanFiction:
[LiveJournal]
WIP/Series:
How Did He Get Like That? Ch 4/? by sagelondon Jayne [G]
serenity_santa gifts:
Crew of Serenity by slashmarks Gen [PG]

[FireflyFans]
WIP/Series:
Phoenix Feathers, Part 3 Ch 2/? by MirandaGhost Gen [Unrated] (ed: reposted to correct author link)
Fear Unchanged Ch 3/? by AngelleMarcs Mal/OFC [Unrated]

[FanFiction.net]
Standalones:
Santa Cobb by Iscariot Gen [K+]
Unapologize by KerryKHat (Crossover with Buffy: The Vampire Slayer) Mal/Buffy [T]

[Archive of Our Own]
She Speaks by Cheirth Gen [GA]
Five Times the Boys Sat Their Father Down to Tell Him About Their Gay, Incestuous Love by Kumquatix (Multi-Fandom Fic) Simon/River [M]

Graphics:
[LiveJournal]
5 icons by rogue_underdog MFP

[Internet]
Christina Hendricks fanart by Dave Stokes

Challenges:
[LiveJournal]
Challenge 35 Reminder and call for banner makers at firefly_is_epic
Challenge 5 Reminder at hendricksstills Needs entries
Theme of the Day: Parties/Celebrations at comment_fic

Miscellaneous:
ratsinmyboots is looking for a specific Jayne/Simon fic
Last call for volunteers at fandom_stocking
Lexophile42 is looking for a co-write to help with her story, A Matter of Life and Death
YellowJacket wants to know if there are any Cache Valley, Utah, Browncoats
QMx wants to know your favorite Firefly quote
Browncoats: Redemption fanfilm asks fans to nominate them as a character at the 140 Character Conference in New York, April 20-21, 2010
Chiwetel Ejiofor's upcoming film, 'Salt' makes two bloggers most anticipated list
Mark Sheppard and Jewel Staite with the Browncoats: Redemption t-shirt, via Browncoats: Redemption's Twitter
Jewel Staite at 2007 FedCon, photo at jstaite_daily

Community Spotlight:
Reccing of 2009 fanworks is going on at buffyversetop5, and in amongst all the Buffy recs there are a few Firefly ones. Why not head over and check them out, and maybe do some recommending of your own?
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If we missed anything, let us know, and we'll include it in tomorrow's edition. You can comment here, or email us at firefly[dot]signal[at]googlemail[dot]com.

firefly_signal is looking for more editors! Contact us at firefly[.]signal [@]googlemail[.]com if you can help out.

My end of 2009 / start of 2010 has, so far, been a really odd mix of pretty-damned-good and sucktastic.  Here's the breakdown:

Thursday, 12/31/2009: My brother was getting married on New Years Eve, and I was his best man.  The plan was to go to work in the morning, then to go pick up my brother, then my aunt, and then head to the courthouse and get him married.

Well, the best laid plans of mice and men...

After a bunch of issues in the morning which meant I didn't get to work, I got a call from Bill saying that he didn't need the ride from me after all, so I could straight to pick up my aunt, which I did.  Then I headed straight down Baltimore Pike to the Delaware Co. Courthouse for the wedding.  And things were going fine.  Until...

I blew my tire.  Completely.

I ended up riding on the rim for over an hour until I could get to a service place, where they were able to get the tire off for me and put the spare on (thankfully, as I wasn't able to get the damned lugnuts off the tire!).  Then I was able to get to the courthouse... after the wedding was over. :-(

So, my brother had to get married without his best man, and I didn't get to see him get married.  Oh, and I also had the rings, so I hope that his new wife forgives me at some point.

Thankfully, I was actually able to visit a few friends that evening for New Years.  And my brother did get married, and I had a good time with some of my family at the small reception he had after.  So overall, the day ended as a plus.  But, since the day was SUPPOSED to be absolutely fantastic, I don't know that it ending as a plus is really all that great.

Friday, January 1, 2010: I took the car to Sears Auto to get a new tire, as they were to only auto place open on New Years.  So, I had to get a new tire.  Oh, and another new tire (as the other front tire was ready to go).  And a new rim.  And an alignment.  Wallet go boom.  Also, what should have been a two hour job ended up taking the whole day, as they were the ONLY auto place open, and they were swamped.  So, that day was a minus.

Saturday and Sunday: tickly_girl  came to visit for the weekend, which was a very nice time, as she's a great person and I enjoy her company.  So the weekend was a big plus.  Saturday evening we met up with some very good friends in Philly for dinner, which also added to the plus column.

Monday: Back to work.  The project I'd been working on for the last 1/3rd of 2009 absolutely paid off, as our call volumes around the new IRA regs went THROUGH THE ROOF!  Still, we were over-swamped with calls, and it was the start of the year, which always carries issues, so all in all, a minus day.

Today:  Went out to take the car to work, and found that my battery had DIED.  Neighbor helped to give me a jump, and it wouldn't hold a charge.  Auto place will have my new battery in stock tomorrow.  So, unexpected days off today and tomorrow.  Which means that I'll have a BOATLOAD of work waiting for me on Thursday.  So, yeah... BIG minus!

So, over all I ended up with basically a slight plus for the last 5 days, but I was really hoping to start off the new year with a BIG plus... and I'm worried that the rest of my year will end up being a bit of a rollercoaster.  I'd rather have a year that starts OK, and gradually gets better as it goes on.  Ah, well... we'll see, I guess.

DO ANYTHING was mostly written in a Moleskine reporter’s notepad with a propelling pencil. The page reproduced below — cranked up in GIMP to make it visible, if not legible — appears to date from late May 2009. It’s written in block caps because I needed to be able to copy-type from it, and as we know from earlier posts, my handwriting is shitty.

Pretty much every page of DO ANYTHING in this notebook looks like this:

If you’ve read DO ANYTHING, you know a lot of it is pretty densely layered with connections. The column was written in a very specific way to maximise the information. It always, always started out as longhand, early in the day. The longhand was always about the forward thrust of the column — the column meanders a lot, but it doesn’t wander, it’s constantly following a channel. As I go, I’m signposting things I need to check later, or need to remember to tie in.

Later, I sit down and copy-type the thing into Notepad, with a browser open, because I’m fact-checking as I go. The longhand draft is all mental, and that includes working in information from memory. Since I often can’t remember what I did yesterday, it needs to be checked.

I’d write the longhand version in intense two-hour stretches, and usually had way too much for a single column. After 003, in fact, I just kept writing without thinking about column breaks, and found those breaks later after the copy-typing.

Once I’d typed the column up, the real draft started. Because I’d then spend an hour plugging names from the column into Google, looking for more connections, as well as following my signposts, and layering that stuff into the piece. The Notepad draft after an hour or so on Google was the actual first draft, and that’s what’d get pasted into OpenOffice to get edited and cleaned up.

Really, an incredibly complicated and time-devouring process for a column no-one read. But it was fun, and it taught me things.

(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)

A couple months ago, the moderators at fandompollgeek asked the readers of battlestar_blog to participate in a Fanfiction Readers/Writers Poll and we are pleased to announce that the results of our poll (complete with awesomely colorful pie charts) have finally been posted!

Which means it’s finally time to get your fannish geek on! So head on over to fandompollgeek and read! Ogle the pretty pie charts! Marvel at the excessive use of overly-scientific language to discuss the inner workings of BSG's fanfiction community!

And most importantly, take part in the discussion!

Is there any way of getting this film played at dragon con or the creators as guests?

I just saw it yesterday after hearing about it for months and it is the best film I have seen in 2009.

Its for free on Hulu.com



The films web site
http://www.DoubleEdgeFilms.com./

After checking around on line a bit it seems this film was really saved by the fans.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1071804/

My fiance is auctioning off the cheetah used in this video to raise money to buy toys for toys for tots... Let me know if you see yourself in this video, I'd love to compile a list of people in it!

If you don't know what Bam said the lady is... well, check this out http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Bam%2C%20said%20the%20lady&defid=4176617

Browncoats Unite!

My "Transistional Soundscapes" radio show on WPRB 103.3 every tuesday 9pm -- 11pm

DJ TM5 spins: Electronic, IDM, Industrial, Electro, Ambient, Darkwave, Goth, 80's, EBM, and Noize.

Listen online at wprb.com.

Playlist on the website.

Request line -- 609-258-1033

Send me online messages and song requests to the radio station during my show.


Screename is: wprbdj

Teaser


more here at my journal

Check out my new line of Items !! Steampunk , Victorian , Hand painted , I have it all .. come check it out !!

www.RustedBeauty.com

The serial version of the first DO ANYTHING book concluded today. It’ll be out in print in April, and it’ll look something like this:

(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)

Does anyone remember my Spock Clanger?

Well, as the latest in my 'what the hell am I going to do with all this blue yarn' series, I kinda made an Andorian Clanger to go with him. (If you don't know what Andorians are, go here, and if you don't know what Clangers are, go here.)



( More pictures... )

Xposted to fandomknit, fandom_knit, trekkies, startrek_tos, classic_trek, fandemonium_st & startrekart

• Charitable Front: Some Bay Area organizations appear to be part of a secretive group
  "Mysterious organizations in the Bay Area profess to be advocating for liberal causes. In truth, they appear to be part of a secretive group with a bizarre radical past."
  (tags:cult pol )
• Sikhs strive to keep language alive
  "The Sikh scriptures and the Punjabi language of many Sikhs were written in a script known as Gurmukhi. So to be fully initiated into the religion, you must know how to read it."
  (tags:cult culture language history social )
• U.S. Evangelicals? Role Seen in Uganda Anti-Gay Push
  "…the Americans, who were presented as experts on homosexuality. The visitors discussed how to make gay people straight, how gay men often sodomized teenage boys and how ?the gay movement is an evil institution? whose goal is ?to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity.? Now the three Americans are finding themselves on the defensive, saying they had no intention of helping stoke the kind of anger that could lead to what came next: a bill to impose a death sentence for homosexual behavior…"
  (tags:cult crime )
• Freescale promises bargain-price tablet this year
  "Freescale Semiconductor unveiled blueprints for a tablet computer to be priced at less than 200 dollars (US) when it debuts later this year."
  (tags:tech computing )

(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)

Curzon from Coming Anarchy took some photos of the opening of the Burj Khalifa, the new top medieval folly in Dubai. The thing about criminal lunatics who live like God’s just keeping their chairs warm is that, well, they do know how to put on a show:

More at the link.

(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)

I tossed a link about the Doyle estate having an issue with the idea of suggested homosexuality in the Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes movie. (Link here.)

I'm bringing the topic back here because while I thought it was a 'roll-your-eyes' kind of article, apparently it's not...as a quick perusal of the intarwebz will show. And, frankly, I was overthinking the topic last night while not sleeping, and I realized what's bothering me about the discussion.

There were murmurs previously in the media that the love fest being shown by RDJ and Jude Law for each other and the 'bromance' of the story was not going over well with the movie studio. So perhaps it's not a surprise that Ms Plunket, controller of the US copyright of the Holmes stories, is quoted as saying:

"I hope this is just an example of Mr Downey's black sense of humour. It would be drastic, but I would withdraw permission for more films to be made if they feel that is a theme they wish to bring out in the future. I am not hostile to homosexuals, but I am to anyone who is not true to the spirit of the books."(1)

So it's ok for the movie to introduce a non-canonical relationship between Holmes and Adler, which is absolutely NOT in 'the spirit of the books'(2) but it's not ok to peek inside the Holmes/Watson closet?

I cry foul.

One of Holmes' more famous quotes is, "Women are never to be entirely trusted ~ not the best of them." He shows a discomfort for emotion in general, and for feminine affection in particular. While he is not cruel to women, even when he is shown as being impressed by a woman, THE woman, it is more that he is impressed by her brain than anything else. (A Scandal in Bohemia - at the end, he asks to keep her photograph, but I read this as more of a desire for data/a visual reminder of having his assumptions about women challenged)(3)

The simple fact is that there is no evidence whatsoever in the novels or short stories for anything like the relationship between Holmes and Adler as depicted in the film(4), but there's apparently no issue with taking what is - let's face it - an asexual character and forcing him into some sort of relationship with THE woman, who is cast young enough here to almost make one question if she was of legal age during whatever assignation happened in the past.

If we look to the stories for evidence of a love between Holmes and Watson, however, there's this quote from "The Three Garridebs" that is..suggestive:

In an instant [Killer Evans] had whisked out a revolver from his breast and had fired two shots. I felt a sudden hot sear as if a red-hot iron had been pressed to my thigh. There was a crash as Holmes's pistol came down on the man's head. I had a vision of [Evans] sprawling upon the floor with blood running down his face while Holmes rummaged him for weapons. Then my friend's wiry arms were round me, and he was leading me to a chair.

"You’re not hurt, Watson? For God's sake, say that you are not hurt!"

It was worth a wound--it was worth many wounds--to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of revelation.

"It's nothing, Holmes. It's a mere scratch."

He ripped up my trousers with his pocket-knife.

I personally believe there are many such glimpses into a very powerful connection between these two characters, but if you're looking for evidence, the above passage is circumstantially damning.

Now, the questioning of Holmes' sexuality is certainly not a new one and has caused more than a few loud arguments at varied BSI meetings. Rex Stout went so far as to suggest that Watson was actually a woman. Others have suggested that Holmes not only interrupted Adler's wedding to Norton but then went on to marry Adler himself. And Samuel Rosenberg's Naked is the Best Disguise, suggesting Holmes was gay, inspired much shouting (or so I've read).

Again, personally, I believe that Sherlock Holmes was one of those fairly rare people who identify as asexual. I think that to a large degree this was by choice, as he stated over and over again that he saw emotion as a handicap, so while he's able to wax eloquent over a rose, he strives repeatedly to keep emotion safely bottled away.

Over on Facebook, I facetiously suggested that Doyle might not mind the idea of the possibility of a gay relationship being suggested between Holmes and Watson. I cited the fact that he did try to kill off Holmes because he didn't want to write the stories anymore, and - really - the lack of continuity suggests that Doyle wasn't putting nearly as much thought into his tales as his audience has, both then and now.(5) I actually suspect he'd be sitting up in his grave, looking around plaintively, and asking, "Has anyone read my OTHER stories..?"

His love of women was such that, yes, he may indeed twitch uncomfortably at the idea of Holmes being gay. We can't know. Doyle was a complicated Gemini..it's suggested he was behind the hoax of the Piltdown Man (which is pretty fascinating reading)..he went from being a man of science and reason to a man who believed whole-heartedly in fairies and mediums (causing the breakup of a friendship with Harry Houdini).(6) So. Who the heck knows WHAT he would have to say about the idea of Holmes being a 'butch homosexual'?

My point is this:
If Ms Plunket gave a rip about staying true to Doyle's characters, she would have insisted on cutting out the romance between Holmes and Adler. To be raising a fuss over something that is not actually in the script, let alone been promised as a plot point in the future, marks her as a homophobe. And that is what bothers me the most.

~~~
(1) I suppose this is why it's ok to suggest that Holmes is drugging himself by drinking meds meant for eye surgery rather than shooting up with cocaine..?

(2) ..And having Holmes HANDCUFFED NAKED TO A BED?? Talk about not being in the spirit of the novels!

(3) Let's not forget that women were BANNED from meetings of the Baker Street Irregulars, resulting in protests outside their meeting places and the formation of the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes.

(4) Indeed, Doyle expressly states that Holmes did not feel love for Adler.

(5) Was Watson married once or twice? Where exactly was he shot - arm or leg? If only Doyle had kept better track..!

(6) If you can find a copy of "The Doyle Diary," which is a reproduction of Doyle's father's diary and is full of sketches of fairies, this also makes for interesting reading.

I love Tastypies, and i have a very ritual like way of eating them.
I do not follow the directions on the box. Oh no. i would carefully peel back the cover of cellophane leaving the box intact making a tidy little boat for my pie to sit in while i ate it by breaking it into pieces.

No more. Now Tastypies come in an impenetrable coffin like box the only cellophane is a window on the top. i can tear off the cardboard top (still disobeying the directions) and the pie is resting in a little tin that is waaaaay too small to wrangle the crumbs. Not the same Tastykake. Not the same.

It has come to our attention that the 'Contact' button on the website Barataria Faire was nonfunctional for reasons the web-admin only knows.

As such, we have recieved no messages sent through this feature. If you used this feature to attempt to contact us in regards to auditions, vending, or performing, I do apologize for the inconvenience and beg you to go put a message through again.

Thank you very kindly, and we hope to see you in the future!

Of a 300-word column on comics for SFX. 300 poxy words. This usually means I’m going to have to scrap it and start again. It’s not due to file until the 11th, but I want to get it out of the way today, because I need to be producing some comics pages by the end of the week. Of course, at the end of the week, I’m planning to be in London to consult with a few people on a few things, so…

Provided London hasn’t been cut off by snow, of course. Extreme weather warnings are popping up all over the country today, and both London and Southend are pegged for "heavy snow" tonight — about a foot of it, by all accounts. People in other parts of the world are laughing their arses off at the very idea of that being "heavy snow," I know. But you can confidently expect this shambles of a country to fall over and play dead after a foot of snow.

Today I had a very, very strange job offer.

This turned up in my inbox the other day, from artist Sam Haney.

(Larger version)

You too can send me dirty pictures at my "dump" email address, which I check every day or two, at warrenellis [at] gmail dot com.

(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)

I was wondering if we ever got to see a gag reel for season 4 - I know there was one for every other season, and they were quite fun. Maybe it was shown at a convention? 

Sorry if the question's already been asked, but I did search around the comm and couldn't find anything. 

At my internet cave today:

* The Katie West Residency

* The Brian Wood Residency

Both here until end of Friday. Go and meet them.

* REMAKE/REMODEL: Ace Of Space – return of the artists’ challenge thread.

* Free Paper Science newspaper from We Are Words + Pictures – oh yes. We do free stuff now.

* Comics on Sale This Week (Jan 6) – For people with a local comics store.

* SHUDDERTOWN; March 2010 from Image/Shadowline

* GHOST PROJEKT: Coming in March from Oni Press

Preview material for two new comics by creators who visit Whitechapel

* DJs lets post some mixes thread!

(Automatically crossposted from warrenellis.com. Feel free to comment here or at my internet church at Whitechapel. If anything in this post looks weird, it's because LJ is run on steampipes and rubber bands -- please click through to the main site.)