• To see the Equality Now video where Joss Whedon talks about "strong women characters," head to this YouTube page.

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See, I'm trying to let it all out of my head, even though I want very much to hold on to it. A paradox.

Photos From Our Flickr Set Marquee Treatment

A few of the 285

"...and that makes us mighty."

The first Big Damn Bag winners

I thought I knew what to expect from the screening. It would be a nice, comfortable shindig leading up to 11:00 pm or so, then everything would turn into a frenzy. At least I was right about that.

As our ticket efforts were entirely independent of the Studio Movie Grill's box office, we had to set up our own little kiosk in the Lounge. Kari and Tara were all over it. They repeatedly told me, "Relax. We've got this covered." And they did. They made sure the 110-seat theatre didn't get neglected, and the 250-seat theatre was balanced. In the end, it wasn't a sell-out, but the two rooms felt like they were full enough.

When we got everyone seated, it was time for the welcome, the "Happy Birthday Joss!" captured on video, announcing Alan Tudyk was confirmed for the Dallas Sci-Fi Expo in two weeks, handing out the door prizes. Fine enough. But the auction was what had given me a nightmare the previous night.

Born out of a concern that too many door prizes would drive the start time in both theatres back too far, the Big Damn Bag held one of every good door prize we had duplicates of: an Adam Baldwin autograph; a copy of 'Serenity'; an autographed copy of 'Finding Serenity'; the ultra-rare Can't Stop the Serenity t-shirt; and more. I had imagined the bags would go for $100 each.

When the bidding in the 250-seat theatre hit $150, I got hopeful.
When it hit $200, I was gleeful.
At $250, I was swooning.

And when the bidding closed, a lovely young lass walked away with the Big Damn Bag for an amazing $300.

I was a little disappointed, since I had meant to do the smaller room first and use their winning bid to drive the larger room's bid higher.

So, you'll understand why, as the SECOND Big Damn Bag closed for $300 as well, I just about fainted.

Once we got both rooms settled and did the math, we netted $3216 for Equality Now. I didn't hear anyone's reaction to Joss' "strong women characters" speech, but people came up afterwards asking about its location.

It was during the escape from the Reavers -- about 30 minutes in -- that I finally was able to calm down enough to sit and watch the movie with my friends. No one at my table had seen an episode of "Firefly," or 'Serenity' when it was in theatres the first time, so their reaction was important to me. (Do I have to tell you they loved it?)

I have mountains of gratitude for several people -- Kari and Tara, who turned a two-top cocktail table into a smoothly-running box office; Mike, Ali, and Thomas, for cranking the pre-show schedule into a reality, where it should have been a farce (and Ali, I really hope your ankle is feeling better); Marty, for videoing the pre-show schtuff (I'll have it edited and presentable by the first part of next week); Tim at Studio Movie Grill, for giving the event the green light (and lending us your Browncoat father as a flyer-passing assistant!); the managers (Kevin and Christian) and staff of Studio Movie Grill for staying up way past your bedtime so we could have this little shindig...

...and to the 285 people who attended the show. Every last one of them is a hero in my eyes.

As the credits started to roll, and I was heading from one room to another to scream to everyone our final total, people stopped me to thank me for organizing the event. Every time, I told them simply, "You're the one who should be thanked. If you didn't have the faith and desire to see this movie on the big screen one more time, and didnt tell all of your friends about it, it wouldn't have been nearly this successful, or this much fun."

--Devin Pike
Event Organizer