Monday, April 23, 2007

Turns Out This IS My Kind of Party!

I just adore serendipity, which has been described as the art of finding things you didn't know were lost. While Scott was visiting from the glittering lights of the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area (and experiencing a certain level of culture shock in the way we do things in a little ol' NC town where you can't go to Starbucks but where people you don't know say "Good morning" to you), the Charlotte Browncoats were throwing a shindig.

Now, for those of you who don't already know, a vocabulary lesson. "Browncoats" are fans of Joss Whedon's FIREFLY and SERENITY 'verses and are a rather rabid fanbase. (It's a long story, but a gripping tale, full of thwarted love and high adventure.) Browncoats get together on a somewhat regular basis for parties, known as "shindigs."

With that in mind, I'd gotten tickets in advance and yesterday, off we went from the Rim world of Shelby to the slightly-closer-to-the-Core world of Charlotte. (I think Charlotte's the equivalent of Persephone, but that's just me. Again, if you don't get the reference, go back and watch your box set of FIREFLY again. It'll come to you eventually.) Great fun! The Bedlam Bards provided music that was both poignant and bawdy (not in the same song, thank heavens - it's hard to switch gears that quickly!) and I even won a prize at the raffle. It's always nice to be reminded that you're not the lone voice howling in the wilderness about the things you have a passion for. Sports fans understand this - they can get together, wear goofy clothes and even adorn themselves with bright (and quite possibly toxic) body paint and no one says much. It's harder for the rest of us, so when we find one another, we tend to hang on tightly. It's almost like knowing a code or a secret handshake.

So I'm off to practice my gosling-juggling.

5 comments:

Librarian Who said...

The sports fan analogy was great. It really sums the experience up and makes us seem less strange when placed in the context. Finding like-minded individuals is always a pleasure, especially in places you never would have thought you would.

Beth said...

You are lucky to be so close! I may get to the Raleigh shindig. Or not--because I'm shy. But it does sound like fun!

Dale Guffey said...

Thanks! It's been so nutty here that I haven't been able to add comments - something I plan on rectifying. It was a fun party and I hope to join the group and help out with their "Joss Day" screening of SERENITY in June. Go, go, go! We're a friendly and industrious people.

syrion said...

The fandom scares me.

Dale Guffey said...

Do you mean this particular fandom or fandoms in general? Either way, I don't think you've any need to be scared, syrion. "Fans" are different from a "mob." Not to mention that it's a good thing to be part of something a little bigger than the individual. Although some fans of anything can get out of control (I never have understood why a few crazed fans start fires after their team has won [or lost, for that matter] a championship of some type), it's fun to meet people you don't know who share a common interest with you.

And I spend so much of my time in control that it's good to get a little less so from time to time.