Tonight, I did this for someone. We were at a going away party [1] for Christine & James as they prepare for their move to Savannah, GA. Through other friends we have in common, we were introduced to Cedric, who “knew something about me that I didn’t know he knew” right as E was joining us. What a great conversation starter! And, since he’s (Cedric, not E) a hypnotist, I figured anything was fair game.
Cedric started off with, “If I said to you…” and then quoted something faintly familiar and then something I recognized. I said, “Oh, we’re both Browncoats!” and we bonded. I told him how we didn’t see the show as it aired, but we saw the first syndication, that we owned the short-lived series, and the movie which we’d seen a bunch…and then said that we even owned a CD of music that fans made. I paused as I tried to think…..and then it came to me slowly, “trinity, trinity…..no, that’s not it…Trilogy, Trilogy, I want my Trilogy …” to which he picked up and carried the whole tune with correct lyrics and…get this: the same voice we’ve heard sing it. He wrote and sings the biggest fan-created song in the entire story line; it’s arguably one of the biggest reasons that Serenity came to be a movie. (Fans seriously revolted when Firefly was not picked up for a second season after the network had screwed it out of having any chance at being seen in an early-DVR time of television when timeslots still mattered.) Hat Tip to the Bedlam Bards…and if the song is not your thing, at least listen at 1:40. LOL!
We chatted a bit about their experiences with various renaissance fairs, specifically the Sherwood Forrest Faire about 45 minutes outside of Austin. He joked that we had to have seen them, but I didn’t remember. 😉 I was certain we’d passed by, but I didn’t remember any particularly “dirty” songs at the faire.
On the way to the car, I told E, if he’d quoted the episode, “Out of Gas”, I could have finished it right away:
Wash: When your miracle gets here, you just pound this button once, it’ll call back both shuttles.
[Movie trivia: When the series was cancelled, Alan Tudyk gave the prop button to Joss Whedon and repeated ~that line to him….and then we got Serenity.]
On the way home, E had an Ah Ha! moment and realized we had seen them at this year’s Sherwood Forrest Faire. They were “dirty bards” at the front and center of the faire. We even heard them sining one of their Firefly-fan songs and remarked how that didn’t exactly fit with the faire, but seemed just perfect, anyway. As soon as E said a little about them, it all came flooding back to me, and I remembered standing close to “back” stage and dancing along to the dirty. 🙂
Turns out, there are some Firefly/Serenity themed shows this weekend that he’s in and we’re going to try to go. wow! He also turned us onto the show Portlandia, which could just as easily be about Austin as it is Portland; they even have a “Keep Portland Weird” sign. wow! Thank you, Christine and Judy for making sure we met Cedric! #OnlyInAustin #WhyAustin
I realize this shows off what giant nerds/geeks we can be, but I was pleased and proud to be the one who made his day.
[1] It sure is easier to attend these once every ~3 years instead of 3x per year. Again, #WhyAustin!