If you want a bit more control over the audio, try pointing your realplayer or other app that can handle real streams here http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/shows/rpms/6music/6m_andrew_sun.rpm .

herb | October 17, 02:24 CET

Here's a link to just the letter part

This is a download link

.http://rapidshare.de/files/6374743/Serenity_clip.wma.html

Just select the free option

[ edited by garda39 on 2005-10-17 01:25 ]

garda39 | October 17, 02:26 CET

BBC Radio 1 host Jo Whiley also read out a letter from a Serenity fan the other day, I forgot to post about it.

[ edited by gossi on 2005-10-17 00:49 ]

gossi | October 17, 02:49 CET

Is there a way to download this?

electricspacegirl | October 17, 02:56 CET

Doesn't he know that there's a special place in hell reserved for people who talk in the theater?

MissKittysMom | October 17, 02:58 CET

"Doesn't he know that there's a special place in hell reserved for people who talk in the theater?"
I certainly hope there is.

I have NOT enamored myself to folks in my local theater who talk on their cell phones...I actually got the audience to applaud around one "gentleman" who kept answering his phone and talking during a movie. I not so politely um, asked him to turn off his G*# D&@% phone. Actually, I yelled it from twenty feet away! How the people who were sitting right near him restrained themselves from lynching him is beyond me. Too often people just accept rude behavior. I know my own response was rude, but I'd been pushed beyond my own personal limits with that one because the phone KEPT ringing. It wasn't like it was a single, "oops, left my phone on!" moment. ALSO, he kept talking! SO, I'm all for knocking people about the head to get them to behave!

Doubly ironic to have a similar thing happen to someone in a movie entitled Serenity! The worst I experienced during my Serenity viewing was a very small group of totally intoit fans. Obviously, it wasn't their first viewing and they were just a little enthusiastic. It was actually kind of funny, without really disrupting my experience.

How did people ever survive pre-cell phone?

[ edited by Grace on 2005-10-17 01:36 ]

Grace | October 17, 03:28 CET

Speaking of "Veronica Mars," I became obsessed with that show over the weekend. I think I have a mancrush on Logan. Holy great show!

Knuckleball | October 17, 03:38 CET

Funny this comes up -- after enduring a completely laugh-free screening last night, a guy picked up a call during the last minute of the movie. Boy did he get a shushing!

I mean, I can understand forgetting to turn your cell phone off, but answering it! Worse than mere chit-chat. Geez. I say that's one for an extra-special hell.

bobster | October 17, 04:23 CET

And the studios wonder why theater attendance is in the decline! I hate going to the movies just for these very reasons. People are very inconsiderate and rude and just don't care if they are ruining the experience for others. A guy at the theater the last time I saw Serenity also had out his cell phone and the glowing screen was very distracting. I don't know if he was playing games with it or taking pictures of the screen but he had it face level extended away from his face so he wasn't talking on it.

Normally I'd wait for a movie to come out on DVD to see it but because it was Serenity I went to the theater. The first time seeing it the crowd was really good. The second time the crowd was noisier and more distracting. People getting up at the oddest times for bathroom breaks or more food (and of course it's the type of food that has noisy wrappers), and people talking loudly to each other.

So, who knows, maybe a lot of Firefly fans want to have their first experience seeing the movie as an enjoyable one without dealing with the rudeness of today's theater goers and are waiting for the dvd to come out.

If I wasn't a member of this board and wasn't aware of the importance of the Box office tally I most likely would have waited for the dvd myself.

Firefly Flanatic | October 17, 04:57 CET

I haven't had too may problems with cellphones in movie theatres - but our local theatre puts a notice up before the movie starts saying put cellphones on silent and no lighting up of screens, or else the staff will confiscate cellphones. Of course I dont go to many teenage aimed movies where this is the worst.

Three weeks till Serenity! (finally!) We're having a 'premiere' showing when it opens - a group of us booked out a small screen (65 seats). So I doubt there will be cellphones going off there!

My pet peeve is lazer pointers - mostly wielded by young teenage boys. There was one in use while we were waiting for the first screening of LOTR ROTK. A large guy in full regalia including sword got up, stalked down to the front row and had a quiet conversation with the culprit. The whole theatre cheered as he walked back to his seat, and needless to say, there were no lazers in use during the screening. :)

vera | October 17, 06:12 CET

I agree about the special hell for rude theater-goers, though I've never had anyone actually answer the phone during a movie. My worst exp was someone who was obviously drunk (he smelled of beer, which is impressive) who kept on laughing inappropriately all through the movie. But I love going to the movies, because you can't replicate the experience at home even with the best technology because a good audience influences things to the better. The pre-screening audiences are an example of this: they were into the movie and reacted beautifully, and movie-going becomes this communal experience. 300 people gasping and laughing with you enhances your preceptions. A good audience makes a good movie better.

My favorite non-Serenity movie this year was 40 Year Old Virgin, where the opening day afternoon audience was perfect. They got all the jokes, and communal laughter makes things funnier, which meant I was rolling with laughter by the end of the movie. At home, I would've cracked up a whole bunch of times, but it wouldn't have been the same experience at all. A bad audience member can destroy a movie, but a good one can make a movie even better.

dottikin | October 17, 06:31 CET

"People getting up at the oddest times for bathroom breaks or more food (and of course it's the type of food that has noisy wrappers), and people talking loudly to each other. "
Actually, I specifically noticed when I saw the movie, was that NO ONE, not even myself - who can't drink one of those big sodas without a pitstop - got up during the movie. I was very surprised, but it told me that people really enjoyed the show. Those noisy wrappers are one of my pet peeves aside from phones in theater and those were pretty quiet too.

"but our local theatre puts a notice up before the movie starts saying put cellphones on silent and no lighting up of screens, or else the staff will confiscate cellphones. Of course I dont go to many teenage aimed movies where this is the worst."
While our local theater puts up a notice, (I don't think there's a threat to taking the phones though) I have noticed that it's not necessarily the younger crowd. When we go to the cheap, afternoon shows with a lot of people our own age, Rude City. When we go late in the evening with what usually seems to be a younger crowd, I'm always amazed in that while they may check their phones - you can see the little screens now and then - they're a lot better about leaving if they DO get a call or turning them off to begin with. At least that's my experience in my area.

I was thrilled when there was not one cell phone during Serenity, no calls, no talking, no little screens lighting up. Again, at Serenity, everyone (it also looked to be an all ages crowd) was well behaved and mostly quiet, and for that I was very proud of the fans!

[ edited by Grace on 2005-10-17 04:36 ]

Grace | October 17, 06:35 CET

The first time we saw Serenity no one got up at all and the audience was great, it was the second time that we experienced the rudeness, wrapper crinkling and odd bathroom breaks. So I'm at least happy my first viewing was unmarred.

Firefly Flanatic | October 17, 06:44 CET

There's no way I can get this to work without my computer crashing. Is there a transcript anywhere - or at least a summary of what was said?

Nebula1400 | October 17, 15:53 CET

It is 10 seconds long or so and, basically, they say no more than what Polter-Cow indicated in the opening of this subject.

Le Comité | October 17, 16:51 CET

I went to see Serenity for the second time in Herne Bay (Kent). It's a small local one that was showing it, as Canterbury cinema wasn't and I had already amde the trek over to Ashford the day before.

Anyway, this place is chav central (maybe because it was bargain mondays where tickets are only £3), but I've never seen so mant baseball caps and tracksuit bottoms in the cinema.

The funniest / most annoying part was the chavette girls in front of me who said this many times:

Chavette 1 (addressed to Chavette 2): "D'ya understaaand wats goin on?"
Chavette 2: "Nah"

lol

brob1 | October 17, 17:48 CET

Grrrr. one of the top reasons why I've been increasingly annoyed in movie theaters this year. Still, as a couple people up above pointed out, there are still enough upsides to the theater (big screen, better sound, more infectious excitement when it's a great group of fans, and more of a memorable evening out) to keep me going. But I can't believe the number of horrible loud talking and ringing cellphone experiences I've had lately. I get plenty irritated when a phone rings, but can at least understand... sort of... despite the repeated reminders... someone forgetting to turn their phone off. But repeated ringing, unstopped ringing, or - god forbid! - answered ringing is inexcusable. Last night, a woman in the theater I was in kept having long text-message conversations during the movie. Every time she got a new one, her loud vibrate sound went off, and the illuminated screen was extremely irritating. A few comments and requests to stop had no effect.
And loud talking can be just as bad. At Cinderella Man earlier this year, I was sitting in front of a guy who seemed to feel the need to loudly give an uninspired running commentary on the movie, his feelings about it, and every play of the boxing matches. Nothing could shush him.

So far, thankfully, all my Serenity experiences have been great ones, though.

acp | October 17, 20:03 CET

The first time I saw Serenity at the advanced screening was totally perfect, as I'm sure Simon will agree. The audience was made up almost completely of Browncoats so there was a really positive atmopshere, and in the two times since I've seen it the reactions haven't been quite as strong as that time.

Obviously because everyone had seen Firefly and was looking forward to it, and hadn't seen it before, everyone was laughing even more in the right places, and the fact that other people are laughing makes you laugh even more. Whilst obviously I still loved the film on my two viewings since, it just isn't quite the same.

Add to that, no-one was talking loudly throughout, or talking on the phone, or throwing popcorn, and I had basically the perfect movie experience, both in terms of Serenity itself and the audience.

The third time I saw it, during the film a girl was going to the bathroom and on her way there, decided to slide down the bannister, as there weren't many people there. How annoying!

Razor | October 17, 22:23 CET

Last night was my 10th time (including previews) and I have found the audiences to be unusually quiet during the movie. Both Saturday night and last night, the theatre was mostly full and yet, except for laughter in appropriate places, only one or two people got up to go the bathroom, no one's cell phone went off, people didn't even seem to be eating loudly :). At one point in the movie when it was quiet on screen, you could have heard a pin drop in the theatre - not a rustle or a cough!

The best audience experiences I have had were the preview screenings, of course, where almost the entire audience was made up of Browncoats, and opening night when 110 members of our group went together, but I have enjoyed it every time.

samatwitch | October 17, 22:43 CET