The good folks at Patches ‘n’ Pins, not satisified with having more sci-fi patches than anyone else already, have added another one to the mix: the “Lyndono” patch seen on Wash’s jumpsuit.

3 1/2″ across, just $7. Nice and bright, with crisp colors.

Don’t forget to check out all the other ‘versy patches and pins they have: Independent patches, Alliance patches, medical patches and more.

Got my hair cut yesterday — yes, there’s enough to bother, barely — and got to talking to the hairdresser who was a huge “Buffy” and “Angel” fan (she quoted me long passages during my shampoo) but she’d never seen “Firefly.” It was the first time I’d met her, but maybe after a few more visits I’ll know her well enough to loan her one of my loaner DVD sets to get her started. Too bad I can’t just hand her a disc.

Well, I could if I lived in Australia.

ezyDVD is now selling the first disc of the Firefly DVD set for an Aussie buck. That’s four episodes, “Serenity,” “The Train Job,” “Bushwhacked,” and “Our Mrs. Reynolds.” How cool is that? Just buy a pocketful and hand them out wherever you go. Here’s hoping this catches on over here, my poor hairdresser needs a cheap intro.

She certainly isn’t making much money from me…

Fans4Writers (disclosure: I’m one of the founders) is holding silent auctions to raise money for a Support the Writers ad during the Rose Bowl Parade. The idea is to get attention and get fans to the site. Flyers with more information will be handed out the same day.

First two items up are a signed poster of James Marsters and an 8″x10″ picture of the Serenity cast in casual wear, signed by Nathan Fillion, Summer Glau, and Sean Mahr (pictured without signatures). Just head to fans4writers.com/auction/ and click on Place a Bid to get started. Auction for these items ends midnight EST Friday, January 4th, but more items will be added soon.

And if you haven’t yet, head over to Fans4Writers.com to see how you can help support the writers during the Writers’ Strike.

Just posted at Diamond Comics, a preview of the first four pencilled pages of the new Serenity comic coming March 12, “Serenity: Better Days.”

Better Days revisits everyone’s favorite space cowboys in this thrilling, action-packed adventure, with Mal and his crew on a heist that promises a big payoff–what’s surprising is that this heist just might make good on that promise.

Covers by Adam Hughes, 40 pages. Preorder it at TFAW.

Just announced at the FX Show site, Nathan Fillion will be appearing at the 2008 FX con January 25-27 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL. I don’t generally mention all the con appearances of our BDHs but this is one of the rare ones I go to every year, so this is pretty much all about me.

UPDATED, AGAIN: As was pointed out in the comments, Nathan was already scheduled to appear at the Phoenix ComicCon the same weekend. Ninja MALi posted this at Whedonesque:

It is true that Nathan will not be attending the Phoenix Comicon. Due to a mix-up of dates, Nathan was double-booked for both cons. It is important to note that Nathan offered to keep the gentleman’s agreement he made with PJ Haarsma and Matt Solberg when he discovered the conflicting dates, but PJ refused to put his good friend in the position of breaking his signed contract with the FX Show. Everyone involved is deeply disappointed and we apologize for letting the convention attendees down.

PJ Haarsma and Kids Need to Read will still be attending the convention and we hope to meet all of you who are going. We’ll have auctions, give away free buttons and we’ll still have our panel without our star. We may not have an overflow audience, but we’ll have fun all the same. Please stop by to learn more about our organization’s efforts to help foster a love for reading among young children.

FX is a good con that has been very Firefly-friendly in previous years. You can read my review of the 2007 FX con here (with Adam Baldwin, Ron Glass, and Christina Hendricks) and the 2006 FX con review here with Alan Tudyk and Summer Glau.

Other guests include Greg Grunberg, Stephen Tobolowsky and George Takei (”Heroes”); Laura Vandervoort and Helen Slater (”Smallville”); Jake Lloyd, Ray Park and Orli Shoshan (”Star Wars”) and many more, including personal favorites Nicholas Brendon (”Buffy”), Elisabeth Rohm (”Angel”), Jeremy London (T.S. from “Mallrats”), Marilyn Ghigliotti (Veronica from “Clerks”), and William B. Davis (The Smoking Man from “X-Files”), and those are just the ones from shows I like. FX do get the celebs…

Also a few zillion comic writers and artists, lots of models, and if part history is any indication, maybe half the room to fit ‘em all.

See you there!

And please support Kids Need to Read by going to their site, checking their autographed books, or just donating.

Whedonesque has opened registration for a very limited time. So go!

Firefly is on sale at Best Buy and Amazon for $20.49. Just in time for that last-last-minute gift you needed!

And it’s not on the great sale it was last week, but Target has it for $24.99 in-store only. Something that amused me when I saw it there today was the new packaging. Friendlier, more excited text on the back, and a brand new label on the front: “Primetime EMMY Winner”. I love that it’s there, but it’s been four years since they won (for special effects, go ZOIC!) and they just thinking about advertising that now?

What are you getting for Christmas? I got a Companion…

Well, I did order one, from TFAW.com. It’s the “Inara Strikes” statue from Diamond Select Toys, and I’ve got pics.

Read the rest of this entry »

Jessica Melusine sent in these pics of a very unique item: a handmade Serenity hippy skirt from handmadekindness.com. Skirt’s on the left above, a closeup of a familair looking ship is on the right.

Ronda at Handmade Kindness did an awesome custom Firefly skirt for me–I’ve enclosed photos. I recommend her to any Browncoats looking for pretty things:)

Definitely stands out, and I’ll bet you could get some very ‘versy Kayleewear there.

UPDATED: Hulu, the joint venture from NBC and News Corp. that offers free streaming video (with embedded ads) and will be going public sometime in 2008, has all the episodes of Firefly available for viewing and for embedding in your own web pages and blogs. And they’re offering the pilot episode for free to everyone right now. Which would be cool.

Except that the writers of Firefly do not currently get anything for this service, which is the main thing the Writers Guild of America’s writers’ strike is about. Ordinarily writers get paid an upfront amount and the rest of their pay comes in the form of residuals, percentages of income from re-broadcast. But studios are putting shows and making money from advertising, claiming that playing an entire episode is “promotional” — which is, technically, true, they’re “promoting” Ford and Chevrolet and Bank of America and Johnson and…  What it means is that the studios have found a way to make money from reruns without paying the promised residuals to the writers (or actors or directors), and they’re fighting to keep it that way. The writers, seeing that more and more entertainment will be moving to the web, are fighting to keep their future income from being stolen away. And I kinda like the writers.

UPDATED AGAIN: After proudly posting the “pilot episode” of Firefly for free — although it was actually “Our Mrs. Reynolds,” which was neither the pilot episode or the first episode aired — they apparently listened to the comments and put the right one up, and the episodes in order. However, the numerous posts made by viewers expressing their polite regret that they cannot watch the episodes until writers are compensated fairly have not been approved by Hulu. Ah, well.

So I’d like to urge SerenityStuff readers to avoid Hulu completely, “free” Firefly or not. I flatly refuse to watch any licensed streaming video from Hulu or network websites until the strike is resolved and the writers get fair compensation, and I’d appreciate it if you joined me. Go buy the DVDs instead, at least the writers get something for those. Not much, not what they deserve to get, but something.