Grand plans and call for volunteers

Thanks to the wonderful generosity of our sponsors and the Calgary Expo team, we will be hosting a charity screening of Serenity (2005) as part of the official Calgary Expo programming on Friday, April 17, 2015.

If all goes as planned, this will be the first of three planned screenings taking part throughout Alberta (Edmonton in Sept, Lethbridge in Nov) to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the Alberta Browncoats Society and the 10th anniversary of the Big Damn Movie!

As with our screening at Edmonton Expo in 2014, this screening will be an un-ticketed event; your Calgary Expo ticket (Friday or Weekend pass) is all you need to come join in on the fun.

However, this is a charity screening so donations will be greatly appreciated. Donors will receive a draw ticket making them eligible for door prizes. Remember last year when we gave away Nathan Fillion autographed items as door prizes? Keep that in mind. This year’s donations are equally epic!

Of course, an event like this (and our charity booth) can’t run by itself. If you are attending Calgary Expo and are interested in volunteering to help at the screening or at our charity booth, please send us a wave by March 31, 2015 with your contact information.

2014 AGM Highlights

The 2014 Annual General Meeting has come and gone. If you missed it, here’s some highlights:

2015 Board of Directors
Chair: Sheelagh Semper
Vice Chair: Wendy McCormack
Secretary/Treasurer: Beverley Williams

Directors:
Dr. Doug Reid
Jeri Noyes
Drew Semper
Andy Dempsey

Social Committee (monthly shindig planners):
Jeri Noyes
Wendy McCormack

2015 Convention Schedule
April 16-19 Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo
May 30-31 EEK! Comic & Pop Culture Fest
June 20-21 CHAS Touch History Expo
Sept 25-27 Edmonton Comic & Entertainment Expo
Nov 14-15 Lethbridge Entertainment Expo

Shindigs
We had some great suggestions for Shindigs at the conventions.  Keep your eye on our Shindig calendar or our Facebook page for dates and activity details. Next up is Browncoat Bowling at Bonnie Doon Lanes on January 31st at 2pm.

Knitting
Ma Cobb’s knitting army starts back up in the new year. Beginning Thursday, February 5 2015, we’ll be meeting every 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month from 6:30 – 9:00 pm at the Carrot (9351 118 Ave, Edmonton).

Everyone is welcome. Our group includes many new and novice knitters. No experience required. However, experienced knitters may find themselves subject to adoration and acclaim!

Good Works: Edmonton Expo Results

Thanks to all the wonderful people who supported our charity booth this weekend we raised 2012$ (CAD) for our charity partners. We will be donating 1007$ to the Edmonton Women’s Emergency Accommodation Centre (WEAC), 503$ to Youth Empowerment and Support Services (YESS), 301$ to Kids Need to Read (KNTR), & 201$ to Equality Now.

Highlights of the weekend:

  1. Thanks to the shiny Edmonton Expo organizing team, we held our first charity Serenity screening at a convention. The screening raised 572.35$ and many a door prize was handed off to attendees. We’re hoping to repeat the success at the next Calgary Expo and make the Edmonton screening an annual tradition *quickly searches for wood to knock*
  2. Much plotting relating to the expansion of the AB Browncoats charity booth to the Lethbridge Expo (we’re shooting for 2015) happened. There were giggles. And far too many games of “Cunning Hat Punch-buggy” while the plot thickened.
  3. Custom Geekspot magnets, exclusive to the Alberta Browncoats, made their debut at our charity booth. They looked AMAZING; Kaylee eating a strawberry drool-worthy!
  4. Happy Harbor Comics swooped in to save the day when our Square reader refused to read anything…
  5. We’re trying not to name drop but… a ruggedly handsome elder brother of a certain Cap’t stopped by to say hello.
  6. Ahem, now we’re name dropping. Famed cos-player and convention guest, Jessica Nigri, stopped by our booth to pick out her own cunning hat. We think it looks great on her!

Click on photos to enlarge.

Serenity Charity Screening

Don your best flowery bonnet, grab your rain stick & join the Alberta Browncoats for a charity screening of Serenity (Universal, 2005). This is an un-ticketed event; your Friday or Weekend pass Edmonton Expo ticket is all you need to come join in on the fun on Friday from 5:30 – 8:00 pm in room 104.

This is a charity screening; donations will be greatly appreciated. Donors will be eligible for door prizes. Remember last year when we gave away six Nathan Fillion autographed items as door prizes? Keep that in mind 😉

Important points to remember:

  1. This is an un-ticketed event. If you have a ticket to get into Edmonton Expo on Friday (or a weekend pass), you have a ticket to attend our charity screening of “Serenity”.
  2. Since this is a charity screening, donations will be gleefully accepted at the door. In exchange for your cashy-money, we’ll give you a ticket for the door prize draws. We’re still gathering prizes, but to date we’ve already set aside 3 items autographed by the Captain!
  3. Even if you can’t make it, please share this event on FB, invite your friends/family/frenemies, and shout about it from the rooftops. The wonderful crew at Edmonton Expo has gifted us with screening space that fits up to 300 people and we’d LOVE to see it filled!

But wait! There’s more!
The Edmonton Expo team tells us that the room they’ve assigned for the screening holds up to 300 people. I know there’s at least that many Browncoats in Edmonton. Hope to see a packed room and lots of costumes from any genre.

Don’t forget to visit our charity booth (#1000)
As in previous years, we will have a charity booth at the Edmonton Expo in 2014. Come purchase our shiny wares & support women’s and children’s charities.  We’ve got some great new items debuting in Edmonton this month.

Profits from the booth & Serenity (Universal, 2005) charity screening will be split between Equality Now, Kids Need to Read, Youth Empowerment and Support Services, and Women’s Emergency Accommodation Centre.

Earth That Was: Interview with Adam Baldwin [June 22, 2014]

Event: Canadian Historical Arms Society’s Touch History Expo
Intrepid Reporter: Andy Dempsey

Andy’s note: A little while ago, I had the honor of interviewing an actual Firefly cast member; Adam Baldwin. He’s done big screen, little screen, and voice work for video games and cartoons, but he will forever be remembered as the man they call Jayne. I was extremely lucky to be allowed to interview him while he was at the Canadian Historical Arms Society 2014 Touch History Expo.

During one of his breaks, he was kind enough to grant me a quick interview. So being the guy I am, naturally I panicked not knowing what to ask. Trying to come up with questions that everybody would find interesting, and also not heard answered on several other occasions. Being as excited as I was, I knew that i wouldn’t be able to write fast enough, let alone remember any of it, he allowed me to tape it so that I can refer back to it. So, here it is, my interview with Adam.

How do you feel about what Browncoats have done for Firefly/ Serenity to keep it alive?

Obviously Browncoats have been a huge part of keeping Firefly in the air. Without their fan base, without their love, adoration for Joss Whedon, the cast and crew, we wouldn’t have had the success or the longevity, and the love is reciprocal. Everyone involved in the show has been amazing. The connections I’ve made, the friends that we’ve made have been really just lifelong and great.

How do you select your roles? You seem to be an actor that is constantly working. Do you personally go over what roles you choose?

I like what Nathan (Fillion) has to say. He says roles choose me more than I choose them these days. If there’s something available and I can go in and win that role, then I’m happy to play it. I try to steer away from roles that are morally reprehensible. If your doing stuff that’s hurting children or women, you try to stay away from that. Just fight against the bad guys. I’ve been blessed to be a part of that and being chosen for roles like that is pretty great.

Nathan has been known for referencing Firefly through Castle. In Chuck, you referred to a car as Shiny. Is that something you strive to do?

We try to sometimes. It’s just a question of whether the producers that are a part of it are on board and if they are fans of the show then they can sign off on it, as it were. If they give us a chance to improv it then we can throw in some of those suggestions.

What does your family think of Firefly? Are they fans of it?

Yeah. When we were first filming and the show was airing, we would rush home from dance class with our kids and watch it all together as a family, so that was very exciting. They would come and visit the set and we would sit around and they would play. The cast members would get to know my kids as they grew up. They still know them.

So, a family atmosphere?

Yeah it really was.

Looking back at your career, growing as an actor, how do you feel about your performance in My Bodyguard?

(Laughs) Green. I was a young kid.

You were fresh out of high school?

Yeah. I really didn’t know what the heck I was doing so much but fortunately we had Tony Bill who was an experienced actor at the helm directing us. A great guy named Don Devlin was the producer. They really took care to make sure the kids were comfortable in their skins and in their characters. I look back on it and see mistakes that I made and some things I wish I’d done differently. It was this sort of raw natural performance from a seventeen year old scared kid in a movie and it turned out great.

You do a lot of voice work for cartoons and such. All the voice work that you have done has been done through DC comics. Do you have a preference between DC and Marvel?

No preference. No.

Andy: You just enjoy doing the voice work?

Yeah, it’s fun. It’s fun to get in there and you can go in, in your pajamas basically and not have to shave. Work with talented voice actors.

strong>Ride to Recovery. Why did you start supporting that particular cause?

The founder, John Wordin, he reached out to me. He’s a former U.S. marine and he asked me if I wanted to go for a ride with some wounded warriors. I said,”Heck yah!” I got to ride across Texas. That first time was a whole week and it’s been a wonderful rehabilitative process for injured soldiers who have come back with lost limbs, PTSD, or traumatic brain injuries. It’s a low impact way of exercising and that’s what soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines need. They’re athletes and they want to stay strong. They want to feel like part of a unit and teamwork, and that’s what you have to do when you’re riding three to four hundred miles across the state. It’s not just a one day ride, it’s a full week of activities, camaraderie, and hard work on a bicycle. A lot of sweat, tears, and remembrances of fallen brothers and sisters. It’s just great and very humbling for me to be a part of that.

Is it something you thought you would get into at one point in your life?

It just seemed like something that was a good fit for me. I was a mountain biker. I still am. I never really experienced riding bicycles along the roadways. I can ride a road bike, but I don’t even own a road bike. I went for a practice ride with John and he said,” Oh yeah, you can make this no problem”. We would do forty to fifty miles a day. Some days were longer than others. It’s interesting how far fifty miles on a bicycle is to the layperson, someone who’s not really experienced riding that far. You’d think, “well, it’s not that far”, but it’s a good five, six hours in the saddle for us slowpokes. You have to be pretty fit to do it well. To see guys do it after having lost limbs, and they don’t quit. Lugs like me me don’t have any excuse.

Being soldiers, they’re trained not to quit aren’t they? It’s something that keeps them going?

Exactly right. For me to see that in person, again humbling and encouraging.

Thank you. I appreciate you taking the time to answer some questions for Alberta Browncoats.

You are welcome.

So there you have it. My interview with the talented Adam Baldwin. Until next time, stay shiny.

– Andy