Turns out that in the future, we're not limited to just guitar, fiddle, and whatever else was playing in the background. The future will also include punk rock.

Rock and roll, mudder's milk and shindigs. The Browncoats is a rock group that wallows in singing about outer space, flying miscellaneous aircraft, and places and people that just do not exist… yet.

They've had great success with their raucous version of "The Hero of Canton" (see video above) and now they have a whole CD to abuse people with. Captain Paul Moerke, Air Marshall Bailey and Co-Pilot Gary Miller use guitars, drums, cigarettes, and lots and lots of beer to produce hard rockin' mudder goodness.

Register at their website to get a free copy of the CD's title song "Space Age Loser," buy a few tracks from Amazon or iTunes, go check out their upcoming performance at Dragon*Con, or stop out their MySpace page for more videos like this one with SNL actor Bill Chott, "Make Mudder Milkshakes" (not for the squeamish).

Fans of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" have marched forward on his behalf many times before. All he has to do is casually mention how nice it would be to have something — or, more accurately, everything — named after him to get hundreds of thousands of his eager followers swinging into vote-box-stuffing action. Colbert has already had his name slapped on a minor league hockey team mascot (Steagle Colbeagle, for the Saginaw Spirit), a trapdoor spider (Aptostichus stephencolberti), a Ben & Jerry's flavor ("Americone Dream"), any number of animals in zoos and scientific studies, and even a Virgin America jet ("Air Colbert").

His latest conquest? Node 3 on the International Space Station, thanks to the naming contest for it that NASA just held which included a write-in option, something they now may be regretting. The first two nodes are named "Unity" and "Harmony" and until very recently it was assumed that the third would become "Serenity." Not only does it fit the theme, but "Serenity" is the name of a spaceship in Joss Whedon's beloved-but-canceled TV show Firefly and the subsequent movie Serenity. And the early voting numbers confirmed overwhelmingly that no one is better at organizing online campaigns than Joss Whedon fans.

Except for the Colbert Nation.

"Colbert" won with over 230,000, beating "Serenity" by over 40,000 votes. Another write-in suggestion took third ("Myyearbook," with 147,637) and "Gaia" came in fourth with 114,427. But NASA may not be a democracy. NASA's human space flight chief, Bill Gerstenmaier, appeared evasive about Colbert's ascendency on Colbert's show on March 10. "Well, we're going to have to go think about that," he said.

"That's NASA's problem," Colbert said to him. "You guys think too much."

The poll's rules stated from the beginning that NASA would not be bound by the winning votes. And early responses from the agency imply that they're leaning away from it, possibly even naming one of the station's new space toilet after Colbert instead.

Now, there are few more loyal "Firefly" fans (also known as "Browncoats") than me. I've supported the show and the movie and the fan initiatives and the annual "Can't Stop the Serenity" charity showings.

But, NASA, the people have spoken. If you wanted "Serenity" you should have named it "Serenity" and announced it, maybe brought Whedon and some of the Firefly actors down to smack it with a bottle of Cristal and a nice photo op. When you hold a contest in the hopes of getting public attention, you really can't complain when you actually get some.

And, frankly, you need it. It's all well and good to bond with fans who already support you but you could really use the shot in the arm this would give you with the non-science-fiction-fan public, which is most of it. You bring Colbert down for the naming ceremony, you'll get more positive attention than you've gotten for 30 years.

"Unity," "Harmony" and "Colbert." Suck it up NASA, and paint it on. You can make it up to the Browncoats by giving us one of the new Orion spacecraft in 2014.

They have learned a vital lesson, though. Monday NASA began the final stage of their "Name the Mars Rover" contest. There is no write-in option.

Or it would be. The organizers cancelled it. On Thursday.

There were some worries this would happen, after Nathan ("Mal") Fillion idly mentioned on his MySpace page a few weeks ago that he had yet to hear from the organizers about it. There was a brief outcry from fans, things were seemingly cleared up, all was shakily well. Then about two weeks ago the organizers announced the con might not go on due to financial difficulties. To the 500 people who paid hundreds of dollars for tickets (and, in some cases, thousands of dollars for lifetime memberships, since Booster Events does other cons throughout the year for other cult-favorite franchises) this was a huge slap in the face. Outraged fans made their voices heard before the organizers came back a few days later to say they got a loan and all was, again, well.

Then they cancelled it this week, after people around the world were already on their planes and in their cars and on their way. To say that the Firefly fan community (known as Browncoats) was staggered would be an understatement.

As stunned and betrayed fans began to arrive the California Browncoats jumped up to meet the frantic challenge of organizing a convention during, you know, the actual convention. Fans settled in to party among themselves anyway, mutter dark things about Booster Events, and make the best of it of the newly formed Browncoat Backup Bash.

Then the stars started showing up.

Adam "Jayne" Baldwin showed up Thursday night, knowing the con was cancelled and fans were left hanging. He hung around chatting with fans for hours and mentioned others would probably show up.

Friday Nathan "Mal" Fillion, Alan "Wash" Tudyk, Mark "Badger" Sheppard, Jonathan "Dead Guy From 'The Message'" Woodward, and Christina "Saffron" Hendricks came by for autographs and pictures and mainly just to say hi. Without appearance fees or the autograph cash that usually get stars to show up, they came anyway. Alan Tudyk wan't even supposed to be at the event due to prior commitments, and he came anyway. They knew their fans had been shafted and they stepped up to make it worthwhile. Fillion brought a box full of Firefly memorabilia and other personal loot and started passing it out to fans who had come from Australia, the UK and other far-off places

By Saturday morning the emergency organizers had received $4500 in PayPal donations from fans around the world who had donated to help out their less-fortunate compatriots. Multiverse, an MMORPG gaming platform company that announced last week they had the license to create a multi-player Firefly game, paid for buses to move the fans and crew to a secret, undisclosed location to convene in private. There were Q and As from various companies announcing new merchandise, a talk from Greg Edmondson (the man responsible for the music from the show), a musical performance from fan favorite group The Bedlam Bards, and appearances by many of the stars already mentioned plus Michael "Niska" Fairman, Ron "Book" Glass, and Morena "Inara" Baccarin, none of whom were originally scheduled. Even Michael Muhney from "Veronica Mars," who was supposed to run the charity auction planned for Sunday, showed up to hang.

Saturday night the whole mess moved to the new restaurant owned by Claire ("Glorificus" from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") and her husband, which isn't due to open for another couple of weeks, and for a time this betrayed, ripped-off, and let-down group of fans who had come hoping to get a few autographs and a fleeting word were suddenly partying with the stars at the hottest secret nightspot in Hollywood. If they liked these actors before it's going to border on worship now, deservedly so.

Me, over the last few days I've cycled from "Wish I could go" to "Whew, glad I didn't go" to "Man! I wish I'd went!" Just shows you shouldn't underestimate a group of people defined by their ability to pull victory out of crushing defeat…

Head here for the ongoing reports and links to photo galleries

SerenityStuff.com focuses specifically on merchandise, whether official or fan-made, with availability and personal reviews and photos whenever possible. News on new stuff (like the Zippo lighter and Serenity ornament coming out soon, or the

Nathan_Fillion
Serenity Cast/Crew

Joined: 09 Jul 2004
Posts: 9

Posted: 27 Jul 2005 11:44 pm
Post subject: Captain Outraged! Edmonton, fall in!

It is times like these that I feel like Malcolm Reynolds. This is something that would surely get you kicked into an engine. I just went to a comic store to purchase the Serenity comic for my mom. The sweetheart that she is, gave her issues (with her favorite character on the front) to relatives who were having trouble tracking one down. Please bear in mind that Canada is a wonderous place where the service industry is polite and helpful, and that this experience is not the norm. The store I chose, which shall remain nameless (Warp 1 Comics), at an undisclosed location (just off Whyte Ave), has the singlemost sanctimonious, condescending, dishonest a$$hole I've had the misfortune of meeting. My brother and I called ahead to find out they had one issue left, but upon arriving, found out they are gouging people $20 bucks for the damned thing! "That's what they're worth." he sneered at me. I asked him to show me a listing of some sort to back it up. "Well, I just know what I paid Dark Horse for it." He wouldn't show me that, either. I am aware that Dark Horse wasn't expecting these books to sell as well as they are, and that they are going into a second printing, but I just picked up three of them two days ago at cover price at another store. My brother piped up with a, "What an interesting attitude you have." Let me tell you folks, this fella had an attitude, and a smirk that you wanted to knock off his face with a baseball bat dipped in dog poop. Of course, my brother couldn't help letting this guy know who he was trying to hose by holding the issue next to my face. "This guy look familliar? This isn't some JoJo off the street! He knows what he's talking about!" Check this out- the reply of this one-eyed crap-catcher, who shall remain nameless (Darryl) was, (and imagine a dullards voice- how we make people we don't like sound in a story) "Well, then you can call Joss Whedon and ask him."
Wouldn't a smart business man ask me to sign an issue and sell me one at a fair price? Wouldn't that fetch a prettier penny than ripping me off for one issue? Congratulations, dude! You are now on the Browncoat $hitlist.
Never have I tried to wield power in this way, but if being Malcolm Reynolds has taught me anything, it's to follow my over-developed sense of vengeance. BOYCOTT WARP ONE COMICS! If you are in the neighborhood, drop by to tell "Patchy" that Browncoats don't take $hit from anyone. Tell your friends not to shop there, and lock 'em in the airlock if they do. Copy this post and e-mail it to fellow Edmontonians. Bump it to keep it alive.
Thank you. Thank you for letting me rant. If you feel I'm overboard, please feel free to, as Joss would say, contemplate silently.

The Captain