One of the Quirkiest

PARADE magazine has just named Slayage Conference 3-at which I presented this summer-as one of its quirkiest news stories of the year.

It's cool that the conference made the news and that I got to be a part of it, but quirky?! I'm more inclined to call SC3 awesome and one-of-the-best-times-of-my-life!

Thanks to David Lavery for the link.

And thanks to Ryan and Nikki-to the right and left of the picture respectively-for helping make the conference so great in the first place!


Good times!

After The Fall(s)

I knew this would happen, when my experience watching Buffy and Angel for the first time would come to a bittersweet end. Fortunately, it only makes me want to go back and watch it all again.

Even though I came to Buffy late in the game, I was excited not only because I had finally become witness to one of our generations greatest television shows or because I had found a thrilling new venue for exploring my academic pursuits, but because I still had 143 more episodes left after “Welcome to the Hellmouth” over seven entire seasons to watch. “The Chosen Collection” was there next to my television or its individual folios were strewn about my desk by my computer just waiting to be watched and re-watched. When Buffy came to an end for me in early 2008, I was on a high and there was little time between the time I finished Buffy and when I began watching Angel.

Slayage Conference 3 came as I was nearing the end of Angel’s third season. Despite the numerous exclamations directed at me of “What?! You haven’t seen all of Angel?” and Nikki Stafford’s oft-voiced exuberance over the glorious manner in which Angel bowed out to television audiences at the end of its fifth and final season, I was still happy to hold on to the fact that I had not finished it, always looking forward to the fact that I knew I could still return to a world that was familiar and unfamiliar all at once-where anything could happen and it would still manage to surprise me, even four or five years after the show originally aired.

A few weeks ago, I finally finished Angel.

What next? I had already begun collecting the fantastic Season 8 of Buffy-how ‘bout that reveal at the end of Issue 16?-and however pleased I was at the way the television series of Angel ended, I knew I would inevitably check out Angel: After The Fall which is essentially Angel: Season Six. In fact, I figured I would be in need of an Angel-fix that I actually purchased the bound edition of After The Fall’s first story arc in a hardcover which collects the first five issues before I even finished the last few episodes so I would have it at my fingertips when the screen went dark. Does anyone else think that Angel looks a hell-of-a-lot like Nathan Fillion in this illustration? The association is interesting taking into account Nathan Fillion auditioned for the role of Angel on Buffy, but was told he was too old.

It happens with vacations, it happens with movies, it happens with television shows-sooner or later, these things come to an end and we are forced not to forget what we have experienced but reminisce fondly about them and reestablish them within a new context in our lives. Instead of watching a show faithfully week to week, we have marathons and in the case of Buffy, sing-a-longs, we have our friends watch these works of art, we write about them, we instruct by them. We use these cultural products in new ways and we re-experience them which can be just as enjoyable. I may have finished watching Buffy and Angel as an initial pass-through, but now I can experience them upon again in a different way.

Thankfully, Whedon and Co.—IDW Publishing, Dark Horse, the writers, illustrators and inkers of the comics-are a benevolent people who will allow me the pleasure of continuing my foray into the Buffyverse and I don’t quite have to go through a painful lamenting process since I finished the shows.

Yesterday's purchases at Zanadu, the comic book store downtown, are evidence that the world I cherish is still in motion. A well-spent $20 bill garnered me Angel: After The Fall, issues 7 through 11. And a sidenote: while I understand the monetary motivation to have variant covers with comic books, it is still immensely frustrating, but I think I picked the pretty ones.

On a shelf in my humble apartment, looked over by a mean statuette of Darth Vader, “The Chosen Collection” stands beside the collector's set of Angel and Firefly: The Complete Series in a kind of holy trio, a Joss Whedon shrine of sorts. Above that the first sixteen and counting issues Buffy Season 8 and the first eleven of Angel: After The Fall.

If my shelf or the sales numbers serve any amount of proof, I don’t think there will ever come a time when we live in a Buffyless world.

Buffy lives...again.

Thank Whedon (and yourselves) for that.

Kind of Empty

ANGEL
You. You're the—

HIGH PRIEST
High priest, guardian of the word, caretaker of her most blessed temple.

ANGEL
Well, blessed temple's kind of empty, padre.

"Peace Out" Angel 4.21

When I watched this episode of "Angel" today I could not help but think of the many references that were made to "God's House" in Arkadelphia, Arkansas during Slayage 3: Conference on the Whedonverses back in the beginning of June.

Ryan and I first discovered God's House as we were eating at one of Arkadelphia's finest dining establishments, Sonic. God's House is conveniently located across the street from Sonic, so if you are ever running late for a meeting with the Almighty, you can always grab a snack beforehand and bring it over to share. If you need to look it up on a map, it's on the corner of 10th & McNutt. God's House, as you can see in the above picture, is comprised of a dilapidated, boarded up structure. Regarding its appearance, Ryan-just as Angel does in this scene in "Peace Out"-made the eerie comment, "There doesn't seem to be anyone there." I replied, "That's quite a statement."

In a later conversations with some local Arkadelphites, I asked what purpose God's House might serve and no one could give us an answer. Was it a church? A Bible study center? A meeting place for a youth group? No one knew what went down there-so we automatically assumed that a building called God's House would be a perfect front for illicit activities in Arkadelphia, AR and the students of Henderson State University. It is in a dry county after all.

I'll Be Your Captain

I came across this particular image about a month and a half ago and I immediately questioned the legitimacy of the image I was seeing. Was this some fan reinterpretation or reimagining of a revered American hero? Was this actually a licensed image from Marvel comics? Here we have Captain America, former foe of the Nazi regime at his inception, resurrected from a cryogenic state after a few decades, killed during what I believe was the Marvel Civil War series of comics over the last couple years-now very well alive, in the flesh on the cover of a new comic book and looking very…uh…virile.

From the second I saw this picture I knew I had to write about it at some point. I have been meaning to lay out my thoughts in written form for quite some time. I mentioned it to some of my fellow conference goers at SC3 last month and while it generated some interest, I knew that without seeing it, my commentary thereon could only go so far! This proved to me that a new wave was breaking in the comic industry. I was very much taken aback at the image if for the sole reason that this drawing of Captain America has to be one of the most if not the most blatant instances of borrowed cultural imagery in comics from an overtly sexualized source-the pornography industry.

I have seen more than a few pornographic DVD box covers, not at all necessarily the material included therein-in particular through browsing the independent/peculiar/foreign porn section of the much respected Scarecrow Video here in Seattle. Said room is quite an interesting foray into the dusty corners of sex culture—H.P. Lovecraft-ian tentacles? Secret women of the Nazi forces? Not to mention my old roommate worked at a video store and made it a habit of bringing home the oddest pornographic videos which he liked to have as "background" visuals for our various dance parties in college—I tended to stick to the balcony or the kitchen making drinks during those "creative" decisions. Also, a fellow student in my honors English program in University wrote her Senior Thesis on some of the hard issues concerning depictions of blacks in interracial pornography. She was a tough act to follow when we had our group discussions about our topics. All in all, I'm certainly aware of some of the more common imagery propagated throughout such media. Thus, being faced with this pose that is clearly rooted in pornography in this seemingly different context, began a small revelation of sorts in how I think about popular culture imagery.

You don't have to take my word for it that this pose is extremely common for the pornography industry, especially gay pornography-a few minutes perusing through video covers will garner images with the same framing, the same dark, sultry eyes and more. You hardly have to take away the references to Americana in the background and on Captain America's shoulder before the association is made. Take away his costume entirely and no one would ever assume that this was the figure that fought for the United States America for over 50 years in comic books. I would argue that this image in particular is even more sexualized than even some covers of gay porn. It is complete with straps resembling bondage gear, he is holding what might be taken as a phallic object, and can we talk about his perfectly-unreal-yet-altogether-incredible ass?

After a while thinking about the very existence of such a piece of art makes sense. Women have been objectified in comics for decades upon decades and in much the same way as Captain America is here. While watching a recent, and might I say, quite excellent, documentary on the evolution of comics in Western culture over the last century on the History Channel, the narrator spoke extensively about the very evocative imagery in Wonder Woman comics, dating back as long as the character has been in print. Female on female bondage, lesbian undertones-Wonder Woman is perhaps the most mainstream dominatrix figure America has ever seen. Women in tight-fitting, revealing superhero garb are likely taken for granted in the 21st century. The women of the X-Men universe-regardless of their artists, mutant abilities or authors, all have one thing in common-sexy crime-fitting spandex and/or leather outfits. The time for men to be painted in a similar fashion has certainly arrived and I have yet to determine how I feel about it-at least in the grand scheme of things. Do I mind seeing Captain America in this outfit? Well, yes and no. I'm not sure how to view it in a larger cultural context, but I certainly appreciate his...assets. Is it a marketing ploy? A chance to broaden their audience? Is it a natural consequence of the growing acceptance of gay content in mainstream art? As a man, how should I feel about the exploitation of the male form in this fashion? Whatever the reason for the drawing's inception, it is fascinating to me and I look forward to hearing what other individuals investigated in popular culture have to say and investigating the phenomenon further on my own. I have issues #94 and #95 of Ultimate X-Men on my shelf which include a story-line that deserves some commentary as well.

Gay imagery-though I would not say overtly homoerotic as it is here-is also present in Ultimate X-Men, but it is surrounded by a viable context-Colossus, the metallic mutant is gay in the Ultimate X-Men series and his lover, Northstar has been kidnapped by a team of rogue mutants. The imagery in these comics never looks like the artists slapped a patriotic costume a pornstar.

Slaying in Pictures

Our Mrs. Reynolds, Nikki Stafford herself-why the "Firefly" reference, I'm not sure exactly, it just sounds cool-has posted some pictures of the Slayage Conference we attended at the beginning of June. She includes some great commentary thereon as well!


Isn't she adorable? Behind her is the "podium" aka food service table from which she gave her excellent keynote address.

There are a couple great pictures of our little "posse" which included Nikki, Sue, Ryan and I. I think all of these pictures are courtesy of Sue, so we definitely all appreciate her proclivity toward taking pictures.

I love Nikki's anecdote in this post about Sue and her miniature rebellion against this unusual-for us-legislation:

I also mentioned numerous times that Henderson was in a dry county, which shocked everyone. Here is Sue's contraband bottle of wine, hidden so cleverly in this brown paper bag. (She carried it around all weekend and would occasionally lean down under one of the conference tables to take a slug. She's such a boozer. She says that because I don't drink it always makes her feel MORE like one. Oh, Sue... the first step to overcoming your problem is taking responsibility for it...) I reassured her it was well-masked in the bag, and everyone would assume it was her laptop.

I had so much fun with these people its uncanny. I'd love to plan a reunion, like a "Laverne & Shirley" or "Brady Bunch" reunion but longer, without a laugh track and far more "Buffy." There's always Slayage Conference 4 to look forward to in 2010, but I certainly don't think I can wait til then.


It's really impossible to pick a favorite moment from the conference. I loved every second of it-well, maybe except for the hangover the morning after Ryan and I finished over half a bottle of Absolut vodka. Seriously, we had so much fruit punch and vodka, watching everything from Brenda Dickson videos to behind-the-scenes Buffy vids.

Ryan and I agreed that despite our criticisms of the county we were in being a dry one perhaps alcohol "had the last laugh" after all.

"Did I Fall Asleep?"

Echo: Did I fall asleep?
Topher: For a little while...

Based on the little teaser in the last post, I think a “Dollhouse” post is in order. I certainly don’t think it’s too early to start spreading the news about Joss Whedon’s new show set to premiere as a mid-season show beginning in January 2009.

Earlier this June, I submitted my senior thesis which was entitled “New Lines: The Fan and Textual Poaching in the Work of Joss Whedon,” a version of which I was privileged to be able to present at the recent Slayage Conference 3 in Arkadelphia, AR. The following section occurs in the conclusion of my paper:

New Echoes

Building on the success generated by "Buffy," "Angel" and "Firefly," Whedon is on track to once again sit in the creator’s chair and bring a new universe into being with the development of a new television series set to premiere in January on Fox called "Dollhouse." To the delight of fans, the Fox network, formerly a target of much fan derision for its cancellation of Firefly, has green lighted thirteen episodes. As of April, production on "Dollhouse" had already begun. The pilot episode is completed and the trailer has just hit the Internet. Excitement builds as fans wonder what kind of world Whedon will offer them. As an expansion of the Whedonverse, the Dollverse will probably seem a bit familiar. The show’s description already contains recognizable elements—horror and science fiction tropes as well as echoes of Whedon’s own creations.

In a recent conversation between the Sci-Fi Channel, and Whedon the interviewer comments, “People will compare this show to loads of other things...” Whedon responds in his typical candid fashion, “People would come to me with ‘It’s just like...It’s just like...It’s just like’ I always feel a little guilty, if you have enough of those, I feel that’s what makes it original” (Spelling). These words seem to encompass what textual poaching is all about. "Dollhouse" reunites Whedon with "Buffy" alum, Eliza Dushku. Dushku plays a member of a team of agents programmed to accomplish certain assignments, who then have their memory wiped at the completion of these missions. Dushku’s character begins to remember what she should not. Her character is appropriately named Echo—a conscious nod to the revisionist nature that such a premise denotes as well as a fitting term for Whedon’s own creative process.

*End Passage*

Naturally, due to the cancellation of Firefly, there are already “Save Dollhouse Campaigns” across the internet, pre-empting any possible negative action by Fox. However, I agree with this article in that it would seem hype and fan-promotion in general would probably do more good in the long run. Whedon has voiced his newfound faith-no pun intended-in Fox; apparently they’ve undergone an administration change. In addition, it seems clear that Fox is already very confident with the series, foregoing a pilot episode in exchange for a beautiful, feng shui-inspired, multi-million dollar set designed by “Buffy” and “Angel” production designer, Stuart Blatt. And as I already mentioned, thirteen episodes are already in the works. The first trailer for the series was released several weeks ago.



I’m definitely excited about the series, and even though I know a number of Whedon fans would see anything he produced, even if it involved a guy on a park bench reading a newspaper as I once heard, “Dollhouse” really does show great promise and I look forward to the promotional campaigns that are yet to come!

Fellow blogger and author of two of the best guides on “Buffy” and “Angel,” Nikki Stafford, also has a couple of posts relating to the show that are worth checking out.

Echo: Did I fall asleep?
Topher: For a little while...

Querying the Buffy Queer-y

I am finally getting around to posting on some of my fantastic experiences and intellectual joyrides from Slayage 3: Conference on the Whedonverses which took place a couple weeks ago in good ol' Arkadelphia, Arkansas. I still want to write about some of my best moments at the conference, though so far, my musings after the fact, have been prompted by articles about Buffy that I've stumbled on since amidst the interwebs.

This post is in part, in honor of the beginning of Pride Season-I love that it happens during summer-and what better way to celebrate or illuminate any discourse than to tie it in to Buffy? One particular article is probably old news to some people as it was published in April of last year, but I found "What makes Buffy a gay icon?" on AfterElton.com to be a worthwhile pop culture article on the queer themes addressed in Buffy. Some of the talkbacks contain some interesting commentary as well.

In the same session as I mentioned in my last post, Sarah Thomas from the University of Nebraska , the only other undergraduate-though I was and still am, to an extent at one of these in between undergraduate/grad students since I just finished a four year degree-presented a paper called "'This is a witch symbol': Willow's Queer Identity." Sarah went in to how Willow's development of her witchcraft was a metaphor for queer identity, but what was even more interesting was her assertion regarding Buffy's closeted identity as a Slayer.

Buffy's confession to her mother during the episode "Becoming, Part Two", reminded me (as I saw it after the following) of Bobby Drake's own "coming out" as the mutant, Iceman in X2, which stands as an even more heavy handed approach to broaching the issue of queer identities-stay tuned for an upcoming post on the comic book series, Ultimate X-Men and its own treatment of gay characters and themes.



Buffy's masqued "coming out" is, of course, a matter that is further complicated by the events that take place in Season 8 of Buffy. *Spoiler Alert* Buffy wakes up in bed with a "naked Asian girl"-as Andrew puts it-a fellow Slayer named Satsu *End Spoiler*. The full implications of this happening have not yet been fully realized of course, as Season 8 continues onward, but the development is certainly stirring.

The Philosophy of Hair

As I was perusing Whedonesque the other day, like you do, I came across an amusing little piece on the narrative implications of Buffy's hair throughout all seven seasons of Buffy. It's a quick read.

I immediately recalled the paper presented at Slayage Conference 3 at Henderson State University by Jane Martin of the University of Saint Francis. Her paper was titled, "The Dark Redhead: Willow and Her Fury, or ‘Are you kidding. She’s like Dark Phoenix up there.’" Jane's paper came under the heading "Willow," the last session of the day on Saturday June 7th. How could I not attend a session focusing explicitly on Willow? As with many other sessions during the conference, mine included, the other presenter(s) did not show up, which provided for ample discussion time, but more than a few of the papers were on topics I would have been interested in hearing more about. Jane's fellow speaker would have been Lisa M. Vetere from Monmouth University. Her paper had a great title: “The Rage of Willow: A Kleinian Perspective on Witchcraft Performances.”

Jane's paper was very well constructed and well argued. I took loads of notes on this one and others. Jane had a great presentation with plenty of pictures and a lively style of speech. I particularly remember Jane's comments on how the decision to alter Willow's hair color to black when she became Dark Willow actually undermined the usual associations we have with the "fiery redheads" from an analytic perspective, an association never lost within the progression of the X-Men's Jean Grey character becoming one with the Pheonix entity as she maintains her red locks throughout her transformation to the Dark Pheonix. Willow's change to a "brunette" was most likely brought on as a way of visual shorthand, immediately associating darkness/black with evil.

After Jane's talk I remember Ryan and I had a brief discussion about the merits of a paper on Sarah Michelle Gellar's hair transformation throughout the series. I recall an interview or article explaining how SMG was the one who prompted her drastic haircut in the 6th series that was written into the narrative of the episode, "Gone" a point further discussed in the hair article mentioned above. It looks like someone has beat us to it, Ryan! Although, I'm sure a more thorough investigation of the phenomenon, Willow and Buffy included, is still in order...

Welcome to Arkadelphia, Mr. Klein

After a long day of traveling I am finally sitting in my hotel room on one of two beds—two?—yes, for some reason I have a room with two double beds. I just returned from dinner at Ta Mally’s—“Fine Mexican Food” it declares proudly on the side of the building, located just next to the Hilton operated Hampton Inn—where I was supposed to be staying. More on this later. Ta Mally’s—well, first there is the obvious issue with the name. I am trying to imagine the individual who thought this was a clever business decision for a restaurant that has spawned across several southern states. That mental picture is not clear. However, I imagine his or her thought process went something like this:

1) People who are coming to this “Mexican” restaurant would probably butcher the actual Spanish word “Tamale.” Alright, I suppose this is a legitimate argument all things considered.
2) Perhaps said professional nomenclaturist thought of some cute little backstory that envisioned the origins of the tamale. A woman named Molly in the middle of Mexico started to make small meals for her children by stuffing corn husks with beef and cornmeal during the Great Tortilla Crisis of 1859. Word quickly spread across rural Mexico of this ingenious and delicious dish. Molly’s cooking became so popular that people came from far and wide “To Molly’s.” Eventually began to refer to this almost religious journey as “TaMolly’s.”
3) This brings me to my third and final point on the naming of this “Fine Mexican” restaurant. Should I have said “we are going to TaMolly’s” or the simplified “we are going TaMolly’s?” This is the kind of deep questions pondered in Arkadelphia, Arkansas.

TaMolly’s highlights include a closing time of 9:00PM, incredibly bright lighting, tacky Mexican décor, quick but not “fast-food” type service, food that is drowned in Sour Cream sauce and fake cheese dressing making the entire dish, refried beans, rice and enchiladas all take on the same generic, bland Tex-Mex flavor and no alcohol. Wait, no alcohol? No margheritas, no beer, no nothing? Rewind.

We had been forewarned of this dire situation almost immediately after my introduction to one of the conference volunteers at the airport prior to boarding the shuttle that would take us to the hotels in the vicinity of Henderson State University. Arkadelphia is a completely dry county, he said. Yes, I thought, I knew it would be pretty hot down in southern Arkansas. He continued, would I care to make a stop at the liquor store before we crossed the county line? Word was that none of the other passengers had made a decision on that stop. 10 minutes into the drive, after being informed that not only was the upcoming county ‘dry,’ five adjacent counties were as well, I made the executive decision. We would be making a stop at the liquor store, and with taxes much less and a store far more extensive than anything in Washington, it was well worth it one bottle of Svedka Vodka later—time of opening to be determined. In the event that anyone asks, the others in the van made purchases too.

The day began at 4:45AM, taxi down to Sea-Tac and the first flight to Dallas/Fort Worth which other than some turbulence toward the end, was uneventful. At Dallas, I had a scheduled two hour layover. A trip on the Skyline across two terminals, a plane undergoing maintenance, two gate changes, an open plane door, and two hours more later, I was in the air again heading to Little Rock, Arkansas. The latter flight lasted a mere 45 minutes. I was met by said representative of Slayage Conference 3: Conference on the Whedonverses and a group of other attendees: Ryan, Sonja, Sue and Jen-who then changed her name to Nikki-still confused on that one.

A side note about the Dallas/Fort Worth airport: I have never felt that I was in such close proximity to the war in Iraq than I was walking through the terminals of that airport. A United Service Organization counter is situated squarely in each terminal. (See accompanying tweet). Soldiers in full gear walked up and down the hallways, crowding the restaurants. I overheard several conversations between civilians asking about the war, their homes, their positions and their stations. One woman beamed when she sat down next to a man in the US Army. “Where are you stationed?” “Where’s home?” “Are you on leave?” He answered kindly and she said “Thank you.” “I just bought one of your buddies lunch at Chili’s,” she said. “Thank you” he replied.” I had this overwhelming feeling that I have been and am so detached from the war efforts abroad. I simply look at the war as a movement, a group, an entity. As trite as it may seem to say, these are people with families, some of which have never seen their kid. I am ignorant of the war, yes, I’ll be the first to admit it and perhaps part of me chooses to be. It’s such a hard position to be in. How can I thank someone that is doing something I never decided for him to undergo? What is soldier Harding, Shaw or Pilkington doing for me? What makes these other people so proud—treating soldiers like celebrities as they come home on leave? I don’t know exactly. It was a new and unique experience.

In between flights, the general manager of Hampton Inn & Suites, Hannah Marion called about an “unfortunate situation” that had arisen. They had oversold, so I was moved to the Comfort Inn down the street. After visiting the Hampton Inn & Suites, I am a bit frustrated at being moved, but it really is not so bad—it’s your typical middle-of-the-country hotel room—again with two double beds. Hampton Inn is paying for my first night as well and has offered me the use of all their amenities, including their indoor pool. Ryan is across the street at the Super 8 and the aforementioned women are back at the Hampton.

Did I mention it’s 10:00 at night and it is a cool 75 degrees and extremely humid? After leaving the restaurant a breeze began, but I only wish that temperature sustained itself as the forecast includes highs of 96 degrees through the weekend. I’m fairly certain I’m going to have to change clothes every 15 minutes.