And it's for a good cause. Proceeds from a raffle and auction of "Firefly" memorabilia will go to Equality Now, a worldwide women's rights group (www.equalitynow.org).
"Firefly," a sort of anti-"Star Trek" set 500 years in the future, pits the cowboy-like crewmembers of the freighter Serenity against an evil government called the Alliance. The show, created by Joss Whedon of "Buffy" fame, has rabid fans called browncoats — a reference to the garb worn by Capt. Malcolm Reynolds and others who hate the Alliance.
Christine Kanada of Shaffer, Minn., is one "Firefly" fan. The waitress seems an unlikely candidate for browncoat status. She doesn't have cable and watches little TV. But she was drawn to "Serenity" when it was released in September and then tracked down the 14 "Firefly" episodes on DVD.
Now, she uses such words as "shiny" (as in "good" or "fantastic"), "gorram" (a made-up swear word) and "shindig" (how the roughneck Reynolds refers to a fancy ball on the episode of the same name) when she socializes with other "Firefly" fans. The members of Minnesota Firefly (www.mnfirefly.com) are often in costume and spouting Mandarin Chinese — something "Firefly" characters also do, typically when cursing.
It was Kanada's idea to contact the Prop Store of London (www.propstore.com) for movie-prop donations to use in the charity sale. "Firefly" goodies include clothing and weaponry used by the dreaded Reaver cannibals in "Serenity."
Kanada, like other browncoats, hopes for more shows or movies. Fan fervor, after all, helped put "Firefly" on the big screen, much as "Scaper" fans of the prematurely canceled "Farscape" sci-fi show got it revived as a miniseries. "Serenity" did poorly at the box office, though.
That won't stop the browncoat shindigs. The Serenity crew always faces stiff odds, after all.
Thanks twincities.com |
