Tag: firefly Page 1 of 2

Long Haul

On November 11, 2013

Long Haul
by Rob Wynne
TTTO: “Kenworth Of My Dreams” by Richard Shindell

Sold my army rifle
Kept my long brown coat
My best friend said she’d follow me
Wherever I might roam
So I looked around until I found
A ship within my means
I put fifteen thousand credits down
On the Firefly of my dreams

A farmer’s daughter joined the crew
And she took the thing apart
And every coil and grav link
She came to know by heart
Our pilot, he’s a little strange
And Jayne is plenty mean
But I know they’ll stand behind me
In the Firefly of my dreams

But sometimes, late out on some shipping lane
I think of all the war had cost
Bad guys won, the good guys lost
I just wrote the whole damn system off

I think Inara likes me
But she won’t take me to bed
The doctor and his sister
Are running from the Feds
Shepherd says I’m running too;
I don’t know what he means
I’m just flying out into the black
In the Firefly of my dreams

But sometimes late out on some shipping lane
I think of all the war had cost
Bad guys won, the good guys lost
I just wrote the whole damn system off

Lately, life’s been pretty odd;
I’ve reasons to complain.
My character’s been questioned
So I’d like to make this plain:
From Ariel to Higgins Moon
And all points in between
I’ll do the job and then get paid
In the Firefly of my dreams

Yes, I’ll do the job and then get paid
In the Firefly of my dreams

There are many Firefly songs. This one is mine.

Richard Shindell writes amazing songs, and I listen to him a lot and cover a lot of his work. And a long time ago, it occurred to me that the long-haul trucker in his song “The Kenworth of my Dreams”, who sells everything he owns to buy a sort of freedom, was a spiritual ancestor to Malcolm Reynolds.

This is another song where the idea came to me and stalled halfway through, and then sat in a folder for a long time. I finished it a couple of years ago, but looking back over my blog, it appears I never actually posted it. I know I’ve performed this a couple of times out and about, once in a circle at Conflikt and once on a panel at Dragon*Con.

Browncoat’s Independance Day Celebration

By autographedcat

On July 3, 2011

In Blog

Reposing from kitanzi. Feel free to RSVP here or there.

We still haven’t decided a date for movie night, but we are gonna do a Firefly marathon tomorrow for anyone interested. Not Serenity, Firefly – Wash Lives!

Show up around 11 and we’ll keep running them until everyone’s sick and tired of it! (One cat, no indoor smoking, bring snacks if you want but we will have food – no one’s going hungry in this house if I can help it! 🙂 )

[If you need directions, just drop a note here or email me at autographedcat at gmail dot com.]

A Month of TV Commentary: A Meme in 30 Parts: Day 9

By autographedcat

On August 23, 2010

In Blog

A while back, I started on an ambitious thirty-day meme about television. I had every intention to follow it through to the bitter end, but then Jenna got sick, and I got distracted, and never got myself tracted again. But I didn’t forget about it, and I figure I’ll pick it up where I left off. If you missed the beginning of this, there’s links to the previous entries behind the cut-tag at the end of the post.

Day 09 – Best scene ever

This is insanely difficult to pin down. There are scenes that are great because they’re funny, and scenes that are great because they’re poignant or profound.

But I if I have to pick just one, I’m going to go with the scene between Mal and Simon at the end of the Firefly pilot, “Serenity” (not to be confused with the Fireflymovie of the same title):

SIMON You need me to look at that?
MAL Just a graze.
SIMON (a beat, then) So where do you plan on dumping us?
MAL There’s places you might be safe. You want the truth, though, you’re probably safer on the move. (turns to him) And we never stop moving.
SIMON I’m confused. No wait — I think maybe you’re confused.
MAL It may have become apparent to you, the ship could use a medic. You ain’t weak. I don’t know how bright you are, top three percent, but you ain’t weak and that’s not nothing. You live by my rule, keep your sister from doing anything crazy, you could maybe find a place here. ‘Til you find a better.
SIMON I’m trying to put this as delicately as I can… How do I know you won’t kill me in my sleep?
MAL You don’t know me, son. So let me explain this to you once: If I ever kill you, you’ll be awake, you’ll be facing me, and you’ll be armed.
SIMON (smiles) Are you always this sentimental?
MAL I had a good day.
SIMON You had the law on you, criminals and savages… half the people on the ship have been shot or wounded including yourself, and you’re harbouring known fugitives.
MAL (looks out at the black sky) We’re still flying.
SIMON That’s not much.
MAL (almost to himself) It’s enough.

LMAO

By autographedcat

On October 29, 2006

In Blog

I bow to no one as a fan of the late, lamented Firefly, but this video made me laugh hard enough to wake the neighbors

Mosquito

God bless the Internet. (And thanks to filkerdave for the link.)

There’s always room for puppets…

By autographedcat

On December 1, 2005

In Blog

Thanks to lysana, I just wasted a perfectly good half-hour reading The Hand Puppet Movie Theatre’s presentation of Serenity.

I am amused, verily.

You can’t take the sky from me…

By autographedcat

On September 28, 2005

In Blog

The meme du jour asks me to post a Firefly quote in my LJ. So, here it is:

Simon: Are you always this sentimental?

Mal: Had a good day.

Simon: You had the Alliance on you, criminals and savages… half the people on the ship have been shot or wounded–including yourself–and you’re harboring known fugitives.

Mal: We’re still flying.

Simon: That’s not much.

Mal: It’s enough.

Perspective

By autographedcat

On October 14, 2004

In Blog

Simon: Are you always this sentimental?

Mal: Had a good day.

Simon: You had the Alliance on you, criminals and savages… half the people on the ship have been shot or wounded–including yourself–and you’re harboring known fugitives.

Mal: We’re still flying.

Simon: That’s not much.

Mal: It’s enough.

(from Firefly)

Weekend update

By autographedcat

On May 18, 2004

In Blog

Terence flew off to the UK on Friday afternoon while kitanzi and I were at work, so we didn’t really get to see him off properly, but his flight did manage to leave on time, and he’s arrived safely on the other end, so I feel we haven’t done too badly as hosts there. 🙂

telynor had a rough day and sounded really down when I spoke with her that day, so I suggested she and G. come over to our house to chill, eat dinner, and watch the new Coupling episode. Unfortunately, a little bit after she set out, she called me from a payphone, as her car had conked out. I drove out to where she was to retrieve her and bring her home for dinner, and Kit offered her the use of her car for the weekend.

Saturday, I woke up in a funk. Nothing identifiable, just a bad “i don’t wanna go anywhere or do anything” mood. I probably would have sat around feeling all sorry for myself too, except that telynor told us that Three Weird Sisters were playing at this years version of the Atlanta Celtic Festival. Seems that the ACF wasn’t happening this year, so it’s organizers put on a mini-version of it at a pub in Alpharetta. So I muttered and grumbled and allowed myself to be dragged outdoors.

I’m glad I did. Once I actually got some fresh air and sunshine, the day didn’t seem so bad. We declared it an off-diet day, had some good pub food and drinks, listened to the music and browsed the vendors. I found a nice inexpensive sword at the weapons dealer which I brought home, and we ogled jewelry and admired the eye-candy that was wandering around. This was much more fun than the Indian pow-wow we attended the weekend before.

Once done with the festival, we went to a late lunch/early dinner at Garrison’s, and then dropped by Micro Centre so I could return something I’d bought the week before and browse about a bit. G. asked me If I thought the computer I built for him would be able to play Unreal Tournament 2004. After looking at the box, I said “Probably not”, but suggested the original UT likely would. So we hunted down a copy, and since it was only $10, I bought it for him.

Sunday was hang around the house day. telynor and G. came over to watch movies and a couple of more episodes of Firefly. G. spent a large part of the time borrowing kitanzi‘s computer to play his new game. 🙂

All in all, a fun weekend, despite my bad mood on Saturday morning.

Quiet Weekend

By autographedcat

On March 29, 2004

In Blog

It was a pretty quiet weekend here, mostly spent hanging out with telynor and her son G.

Friday night, telynor called and asked if we’d like to have dinner with her and her son. We thought this was a fine idea, and decided to head over to TGI Fridays for a relaxing meal. We had shrimp and ribs and steak and all kinds of goodness, then came back to our place to watch Blazing Saddles, which telynor had never seen.

Saturday, kitanzi and I went over to the Alpharetta YMCA to see what their prices looked like. Definitely reasonable for a family membership, but the setup cost was more than we wanted to do today. They have some nice facilities, though, including a new outdoor pool with a water slide that looks like it’ll be a lot of fun when it’s completed.

Having checked out the amenities, we decided to take a look at the Alpharetta Big Creek Greenway, which is a six mile long nature trail that follows down the flood plain of Big Creek. We entered the trail right around the 5.5 mile mark, and decided to walk to the 4 mile mark and back. This turned out to be just at the limit of our endurance on a bright sunny day, but it was a very pleasant stroll and there was a lot of, er, mobile scenery to appreciate, as lots of folks were out in their shorts on bikes and roller blades. This is definitely a place we intend to revisit often.

We came home and took a nap, then telynor and G. came over again and she prepared us a wonderful dinner of beef Stroganoff. We had intended to go to the Atlanta housefilk, but we were all feeling a bit bushed, so we decided to veg out and watch a few hours of Firefly instead, since telynor and her son haven’t seen it yet. We watched four episodes before deciding that bed was the better part of valour. telynor and G. elected to stay the night, so we all toddled off to dreamland.

The next morning was a lazy day, which consisted mostly of more Firefly, laundry, and conversation. Don’t really have anything more exciting to report, I’m afraid.

Weekend Update

By autographedcat

On December 16, 2002

In Blog

Busy weekend, but very productive.

Friday night was our traditional viewing of Firefly. Another fantastic episode, making it hurt even more that Fox is taking it off the air. Joss Whedon is trying to sell the show to another network, with UPN being the most likely spot. I hope very much that UPN decides to pick it up.

Saturday morning, we got up bright and early and drove to the Forsyth County State Patrol Office to get kitanzi‘s drivers license transferred, since we’d never gotten around to it previously. When we showed up at 8:30, half an hour before the doors opened, there were already 35 people standing in line. Luckily, this particular location has a take-a-number-and-sit-in-the-waiting-room setup, so it wasn’t as bad as it might have been if yo had to stand in line the whole time. We managed to get done there at 11, just in time to drive all the way down to the airport for a GaFilk concom meeting. Had a nice lunch at the hotel, discussed many last minute con details, and left the hotel somewhere around 3pm.

Next up was shopping, to pick up some last minute gifts that needed to be mailed. I also bought the holiday cards so we could try and actually get them mailed this year BEFORE Christmas (last year, I mailed them on Dec. 27th). The mall was, as usual, crowded and insane, but we were able to get in, get what we needed, and get out without suffering major injuries.

Sunday was a nice lazy day, by contrast. We got all the cards addressed and stamped and I dropped them off at the post office, then we went grocery shopping. After dinner, we sat down and watched the episode of Firefly we had missed while I was having the surgery done back in November, since I had finally managed to download it off the internet and burn it to a VCD.

All in all, a productive weekend.