Dogpatch Press

Here’s links, headlines and little bites of news to make your tail wag.  Story tips are always welcome.

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Movies and video

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New updates from Dawgtown, animated movie featuring sympathetic fighting dogs.

It’s an ambitious, traditionally hand-drawn animated drama about captive dogs fighting for freedom.  It has voice acting by George Foreman, and the indie spirit of a Ralph Bakshi movie.  The  director was super cool about providing a great interview to this blog.  Storyboard progress is just posted, and he reports “Getting close to half the film (40 min) complete.”  The new scene shows Max, the hero, lost on the dangerous streets of New York City.  

See a rough animatic of Dawgtown storyboards in motion. 

Here’s the next fursuit music video you were expecting.  NOA NEAL – FULL MOON PARTY.

Call it a modest trend. Here’s a “sexy video full of crazy Cosplayers, playful cheerleaders and a band of exuberant dancers.” It’s from Noa Neal, a Dutch-born, Belgian pop singer since 2003.  In 2009 she had a career boost from a talent show.  Since 2012, she’s known for presenting kid’s content on Euro TV.  In 2013 she moved to the US to write and record with a producer associated with Katy Perry, Carly Rae Jepsen & Miley Cyrus.  Her new single was recorded in London and produced in Finland.  It might not be an Ylvis-style novelty hit, (let’s hope fursuiters don’t have to hear another song yelled at them), but it’s fluffy, harmless fun.

Texas film festival screens “Wastelander Panda”, Australian furry sci-fi movie.

Fantastic Fest screened the movie about “a giant panda who wanders an apocalyptic wasteland“.  The not-so-great review does a good job of explaining how the story falls into a “cool furries” trap – but personally, I think it makes it sound like a worthy watch anyways for a hard core fan.

Too $hort is a dirty dog. Released today: the rapper from Oakland, CA turns up the raunch with an ode to outscoring Wilt Chamberlain.

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Media and art

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Philadelphia Daily News advice: “Could new girlfriend be furever love?”

Hold onto that weird girl, dude.  A whole convention of cool people would take your place. Meow!

Design treat: An Illustrated Guide To Every Animal In Rock Music.

“Rock ‘N Roll Zoo”

(Tip from Higgs Raccoon of Furrymedia:) “The anthro content is minimal, but it’s rather fun to stare at these animals and try to work out which songs they are from.” Illustrator Tracy Worrall’s work is for sale in large prints, and smaller detail ones in 12″ record sleeves. More images here.

Hipster gallery shows unimpressive “fetish” art in Oakland, CA.

Bold trash can be loveable.  (It might depend on your thoughts about Too $hort).  But these NSFW drawings seem like tired, lazy imitation of “furries” cliches, that a trashy tabloid show would reject as boring.  There are also some sculptures that remind me of leftover toothpaste.  I’ll bet neither the art gallery or fetish party recently posted here would bother with it.  It makes as little effort for rendering backgrounds as it does for inspiring feeling (except for hints of disdain at buyers, with $200 asking prices).  If it’s meant to mock fetish art, it should take drawing lessons from it.  Is it trying to make a personal statement about lack of passion in Pittsburgh, where the artist went to college, home of Anthrocon?  That’s the only connection I can guess from artist to subject.  I didn’t even notice the show until a week or two after it came down, and that’s the best thing I can say about it.   (MOCO gallery, 9/19-10/3.)

Clowns and furries bristle at “creepy” stereotypes against their hobbies.

Creepy? Misunderstood.  Coulrophobia means ‘clown fear’.  It’s an easy, cheesy short cut for horror-comedy.  (“We all float down here!”)  I don’t think you need a new word for furry-bashing, but it’s worn out in a similar way.  (Even more than that Ylvis song).

If you will give candy to kids next week for Halloween, join me in dislike for hysteria about friendly activities. Candy tampering is considered mostly a myth.  Tropes like that are related to ones about Santas and clowns being bad to kids.  It started a discussion: “Why Does Hollywood Love The Scary Clown Trope?”

Clowns of America International, a real club for amateur and professional clowns, is speaking out against “American Horror Story: Freak Show” for perpetuating an evil clown stereotype.

Appreciation from photographer Arthur Drooker. 

Clowns and furries were both covered in Drooker’s project, “Conventional Wisdom”.  It treats human conventions as animal flock behavior. He noticed the clown community’s sensitivity while shooting them, Santas, Lincolns, and others.  His Anthrocon photoshoot put him on my list of pro photographers worth knowing.  He responded:

Hi Patch:

Thanks for including me in your blog. Interesting and different approaches by all the photographers you mentioned. Just goes to show how diverse and photogenic the furry community is.

Best,
Arthur