Category: atpo

Season Ate

~ Nancy E. Shaffer ~ 14 Comments

The other day, another person wrote asking if I was going to do ATPo analyses of the Season 8 comics. With the usual argument–“Joss says they’re canon!” Yeah. Uh. Joss also once said spatulas were haunting him.

Anyway, leaving aside the fact that a great deal of what’s going on in the comics is just recycling of old villians (and not even the most interesting ones), in a medium (comics) where the sky *ought* to be the limit with new and interesting stuff from the master’s imagination,

one of the main points of ATPo analyses was to explain what the frig is going on in an episode (or issue) and I can’t for the life of me figure it out! Every panel, I’m like…”*Now* where are we?!” “Who’s that?!” “How’d we get from what was just going on to *this*?” “What are they *talking* about!?”

If I can’t understand it, I can’t explain it, and…

I suppose there’s a part of me that wants Season 8 up at ATPo for completeness’ sake, and that’s why I’m even bothering to mention it. ‘Cause, not impressed with it (the paranoid military story line’s kinda cool, but still feels a bit recycled….) for the most part, and, I guess I’m one of those fans who was satisfied with season 7 being the end of the story.

What it’s all about (a guided tour)

~ Nancy E. Shaffer ~ 10 Comments

Eight and a half years ago (Jan 1, 1999), I got arm-twisted by some friends at the Bronze Posting Board into creating a website for my thoughts on the tv show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I called it “All Things Philosophical on BtVS.”

I got email. People wanted to talk to me (for some reason), and people wanted to talk to other visitors to the site. So seven years ago this Thursday (June 14th, 2000), I created a discussion board for the site.

Cool people came to the board. They had really cool thoughts* on the show, and on the spin-off, Angel. The board grew and grew. Small groups of ATPoers (or Existential Scoobies, as we sometimes called ourselves) who lived close to each other or were visiting towns where other ATPoers lived got together in person for food, laughs, and conversation.

And then, in 2003, the television show that brought us together was to come to an end. ladystarlightsj wrote me an email suggesting that perhaps we should all get together as a big group to celebrate the finale. We decided on a location: Vancouver, British Columbia, and a date (alas, not May 20th, 2003, but later that summer). ATPoers came from far and wide to that picturesque city. There was food! There was drink (spilled on the carpet)! There was singing! There were BtVS and Angel DVD-viewing sessions! There was much laughter and discussion and silliness.

It was so much fun, we decided to do it again the next year. We gathered in Chicago (2004)
We gathered in New York City (2005)
We gathered in Lake Tahoe (2006)

And this year, we are gathering in Toronto.

So you’ll understand if I’m excited!!1!

*It’s called discussion people, DISCUSSION. For some of us, that is the whole *point* of fandom. The term “meta” is a derogatory misnomer. Ptui! We shall speak of it no more!

ATPo

~ Nancy E. Shaffer ~ 11 Comments

How spoiled rotten am I that I’m pouting over the fact that, as of this month, the ATPo home page is finally averaging less than 100 hits a day? People drift away, that’s a fact of life. But I think the “drift quotient” is a function of how much you invested in a fandom to begin with (directly correlated with your passion for said fandom), and I invested a LOT in BtVS/Angel. It’s my only “true” fandom, technically speaking, because I never spent much time actively talking to people about other shows I’ve watched/liked.

I should really get over it (the pouting). After all, the returns on my investment were awesome. I still have my core ATPo friends, and they are interesting and wonderful enough to be entertaining in and of themselves. I still have my DVDs, should I choose to pull them down from the shelf. I still have AtS Season 6 (which we need to finish!!), The Destroyer, and the readers thereof. Having people read my work, whether it’s fiction or philosophical analysis, is Gold, people, Gold.

It’s just…that was my 15 minutes of fame, seeing my website on television, getting fan mail. Hard to adjust, especially if you’re like me, and you don’t shift loyalties/fall in love easily.

ETA: It’s official. I’m just a spoiled wanker. The minute after I made my pouting public, I got this in my inbox todays fan mail

Tahoe in pictures

~ Nancy E. Shaffer ~ 4 Comments

OMG, I don’t remember there being *half* as many pictures taken of previous gatherings as there were this year! All those people, all their digital cameras with 100’s of shots. It was really hard selecting and choosing for the atpobtvs.com collection, and I have a feeling I’m not near done. My priority was to show the range of activities we engaged in and get close-ups of everyone, rather than pick my favorites per se.

So here’s what I have so far:

http://atpobtvs.com/existentialscoobies/images/Tahoe/

Today’s ATPo email

~ Nancy E. Shaffer ~ 41 Comments

Thoughts? Volunteers? ; )

===
Dear Buffy Fan:

By way of introducing myself, my name is Jennifer and I’m the production coordinator on an upcoming Canadian television series called FANatical. FANatical is a new television series about the world’s most obsessive television fans.

As the host of the popular http://www.atpobtvs.com/ Buffy site, I was hoping that you may be able to point me in the direction of the ultimate Buffy Fan. We’re looking for 2-3 fans from Canada and the US. They should be obsessed: have collections, know all the words to any given episode, have their walls covered in posters and pictures, etc.

There exists all levels of fandom out there… but we only want the most passionate, the most serious, and above all the ones who have the most fun with it. We can’t wait to laugh with them and join in their extreme enthusiasm.

I’m also looking on information on festivals, conventions, and other Buffy get togethers- are there any out there you could point me too?

If you have any suggestions as to who might be the most extreme Buffy fan around or would like more information, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line.

Thanks in advance,
Jennifer Saull.

New York pics!

~ Nancy E. Shaffer ~ 24 Comments

I’ve set up a folder over at Existential Scoobies in the same place we keep Vancouver and Chicago pictures for NYC. If you want your pictures (or some of your pictures) uploaded there, just let me or ladystarlightsj or atpolittlebit know.

See my pics!:

http://www.atpobtvs.com/existentialscoobies/images/New_York/

http://www.atpobtvs.com/existentialscoobies/images/Chicago/
http://www.atpobtvs.com/existentialscoobies/images/Vancouver/

Pictures of the SF mini-meet: