I’ve written about the Firefly/Serenity fan phenomeon before. Never having been an official fan of anyone or anything (I was married with a child when the Beatles hit town — although I do still play their music), I’ve never been caught up in the shared excitement of fandom. But I can understand the attraction, the compulsion. I have, after all, been a part of large-scale political protests. The comaraderie, I imagine, is pretty similar.
It can be pretty amazing to be a part of a world-wide bunch of individuals all of whom share an uplifting passion for the same combination of creativity, individualism, anti-establishmentariansm (if that’s even a word), and vicarious adventure (not necessarily in that order).
So, it’s been so very satisfying to watch as a fan convention, organized by supposedly professional organizers, falls through 24 hours before it’s scheduled to begin, and the fans themselves pool their various resources to put together a “backup bash” that has become even better because many of the performers and other creative staff involved in that Firefly/Serenity film phenomenon showed up without being paid for doing so.
The super artists who portrayed the brilliant super characters that did so much to make the tv show and movie so spectaculary original, and who showed up for their fans (although I’m sure they’d have liked some honorarium as well) deserve all the credit they can possibly get. As actors, they are charismatic; as human beings, they are, indeed, super.
And just imagine if those “fan”atic Browncoats, who rescued an event that brought in fellow fans from as far away as Australia and Great Britain, could be motivated to feel that passionately about rescuing an America in dire need of the kinds of passionate yet pragmatic visionaries who are the focus of what the fans call the ‘verse — the universe that gave birth to the crew of the Serenity.
We surely do need some big damned super heroes in this universe as well.
Meanwhile, those who can, at that Serenity fan festival in Burbank, are blogging and posting photos like crazy. Seems to me that this phenomenon is a hell of a lot more interesting “Entertainment” news than the other sappy stuff Keith Olbermann highlights on his Countdown show. What about it, Keith?
ADDENDUM: AND THE BASH GOES ON
Cnet reports: ‘Firefly’ fans resurrect canceled convention
And on Whedonesque.com, where there are 71 comments already:

On the back of the canceled Flanvention, the Browncoats headed to Claire Kramer’s restraunt La Cantina in West Hollywood last night, and were joined by Nathan Fillion, Ron Glass, Morena Baccarin, Michael Fairman (Niska), Mark Sheppard (Badger), Jonathan Woodward (Tracey), Yan Feldman (Mingo and/or Fanty [Mingo -ed.]), Christina Hendricks (YoSafBridge), Claire (Glory), James Leary (Buffy – Clem), Camden Toy (Buffy – all sorts), Michael Muhney (VM) and Greg Edmonson (Firefly score). This has an awesome scale of 11 out of 10.

A phone report from b!X, who is right there in the middle of things, said:

Now, there’s this actress (Claire Kramer) who played in Buffy who owns a restaurant in Hollywood that wasn’t scheduled to open for another 2 weeks, still under construction work. A “Firefly” actor goes to her and says they have to do something for the flans’ dinner. She goes to the contractor building the deck out back and tells him he’s got to finish it cuz they’re opening that night for a special party. So here’s this brand new restaurant in Hollywood opening, and people wondering what’s going on and not able to get in cuz the only ones who can are the flans with their special id bracelets. For FREE food. Only had to buy drinks.

One of the commenters on the Whedonesque post explains the fans’ passion for the Joss Whedon-created ‘verse very aptly with:

And another commenter quotes another Joss Whedon character: