The Austin Cortex
November 2009 Issue

Lone Star Shindig 2009

A Weekend at Southdown Abbey
December 4-6, 2009

Come visit Austin, Texas as we transform our town into Southdown Abbey from the Firefly and Serenity 'Verse.

Join us as we celebrate Shepherd Book's journey before becoming a crew member on Serenity. We'll start on Friday, December 4th with an Abbey Fashion Show showcasing Asian-inspired designs, while offering Sereniteas blended teas as well as homemade hors d'oeuvres. We'll have a costume picnic on Saturday, December 5th on the Abbey grounds, and then we’ll dance in the Fellowship Hall with music by The Bedlam Bards and enjoy food made primarily from produce grown at the Abbey! On Sunday, December 6th, we'll end this shiny shindig with Serenity on the Big Screen at our local Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek.

The best part - all proceeds from this event will go to support The Al Wooten Jr. Heritage Center of which Ron Glass, our Shepherd Book, is a Board Member.

We are looking for volunteers to help plan and run the Lone Star Shindig.  We need assistance in the following areas: cooking and picnic prep, decorations to turn Grace Methodist Church into Shepherd Book's Southdown Abbey on Persephone, clean up crew after the events on Saturday night, street and e-street team to spread the word about the event, and publications help to provide printed materials.  For more details about these positions, visit http://www.lonestarshindig.com/volunteer.php.  If you want to volunteer but don't see the perfect position available, please contact us at volunteer@austinbrowncoats.com so we can find a place that best suites your skills.  Help us save the world, one shindig at a time.

Want to spend a weekend at Southdown Abbey? Get your tickets now. Space is extremely limited for this event, so don't miss out! Tickets are available at our website, www.lonestarshindig.com.  Tickets are $25/person if paid via check or money order.  You can also buy your tickets online via Paypal for $26/person.  Tickets for the Friday night fashion show only are $5.

As a subscriber to The Austin Cortex, you can enjoy a special discounted ticket price of $20 ($21 via Paypal). Just mention in the ticket purchase form (Notes / Comments) that you heard about the event via The Austin Cortex.

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Jayne Hat Knit-a-Thon Raffle

In September, our treasurer Claudia Drinovsky held her 2nd Annual Knit-A-Thon at Dragon*Con, which was another great success. The Austin Browncoats raised $2148.00 for Kids Need to Read Foundation.

This year there’s a new perk for our Donors – a raffle with items donated to us by several Browncoat friendly organizations. Kids Need to Read donated to us a Terrifying Space Monkey and a signed book 3 from the Softwire series. Quantum Mechanix gave us a Jayne Maquette and a Money Pack. Dark Horse Comics provided us with a PVC set and two graphic novels. We appreciate the generosity of these sponsors in providing such a fabulous array of prizes for our Donor Raffle.

We will be drawing for these prices at the end of this month. We will contact the winners via email and publish their names in our next newsletter.

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The Big Damn Convention in November!

In other exciting news this November, Creation Entertainment’s Salute to Serenity and Firefly is just around the corner! The convention will be running November 21-22, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. Anticipated guests this year include Nathan Fillion, Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, Alan Tudyk and more. Excitement is building as the date draws near!

The Austin Browncoats will have a booth again this year, and we are looking forward to seeing everyone again that we met last year. We had tremendous support for the charity last year and are excited to see what this year’s salute has in store. Make sure you stop by to see all the shiny goods!

QMx will have a booth again this year and will also be sponsoring the event. They will even be holding their own panel to discuss some of their products. Make sure you stop by their booth to see their unique product line and what is up and coming with the company.

The special events this year include the 2009 Serenity/Firefly music video competition, which is always a blast to watch whether you enter or not. There are sure to be some serious and emotional videos as well as some comedic ones. Other events will include a costume parade with the winner receiving $250 and a dessert party centerpiece contest.

This year promises to be an exhilarating convention with plenty to do over two short days. Don’t miss your chance to come see the stars, get autographs and pictures, and of course support your Browncoats the way only you can. We look forward to seeing you there!

For more information on this event and for tickets you can visit: http://www.creationent.com/cal/serenity.htm#events.

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Whedon Wares News

Want to know what’s on the horizon for Whedon Wares?  We’re preparing the goods for our new store front.  That’s right – you heard correctly. Austin Browncoats will have a store front.

For six weekends a year, we’ll have a booth at the new renaissance festival near Austin, TX – Sherwood Forest Faire.  We’ve been busy getting ready for the faire, so you’ll be able to see the new items like leather bracelets, soaps and new Ma Cobb goodies that we’ve added to the mix.

If you have any suggestions for items you’d like us to carry, shoot us an email at whedonwares@austinbrowncoats.com.

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