Dogpatch Press

Fluff Pieces Every Week

Baltimore Furry Weekend and #FurUpBmore – the coolest party yet for the Furclub Survey.

by Patch O'Furr

Furclub: A repeat/regular nightlife event by furries for furries. The linked survey may be the only complete list for independent furry parties around the world. The concept has been spreading since the late 2000’s – it builds on the growth of cons, but it takes things farther. It’s more ambitious than informal or one-time events. It brings partnership with new venues, and crosses into public space, so a stranger can walk in and find their new favorite thing. It encourages new blood and crossover. It makes a subculture thrive – it’s a movement!  There’s many one-night events, but Baltimore has the first all-weekend one yet: 

  • FRIDAY 11/10 – FUR-FRIENDLY DRAG SHOW (FUZZY PARTICIPATION ENCOURAGED)
  • SATURDAY 11/11 – PROTOCOLLIE & ABLE (DJ SET WITH LIVE DRUMS), BEARS DOING MURDER (LIVE BAR ROCK), I’VE MADE TOO MUCH PASTA (SCURROW’S ACOUSTIC SET), DANCE PARTY FROM 10PM TO 2AM THE NEXT MORNING
  • SUNDAY 11/12 – ALL-DAY FURRY HAPPY HOUR

See the website for more info – (they have a hotel block!) – or follow the hashtag #FurUpBmore

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“We Want Politics Out of Furry Fandom” is a political statement, and here’s a good response.

by Patch O'Furr

“We Want Politics Out” is politics.

It’s a popular complaint. This fan group is supposed to be for interest in anthropomorphic animal media and nothing more. That boils down to lowest-common-denominator consumerism. It’s like everyone is a bottom-feeding plecostamus in their own fish tank, and what they consume is just random scum growing on the bottom. Who cares where it comes from? Just be a dumb fish.

An unpopular fursona.

The problem is, reductionism doesn’t tell the whole story. There’s a community attached to the way members consume things. And the complaint often comes with attacking care about how things work there. (Stop asking questions about the delicious scum!)

Everyone who’s here in good faith has some kind of care beyond themselves. It can range from management of websites or cons, to health and safety, or being a loose support network. You see it whenever a member gets help with money or a place to live, or even with complaints about FA’s management. When it’s time to talk about bigger stuff, complaining against politics is half-baked activism for the status quo. Here’s why.

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Itching for a furry dance party? The first Scritch Detroit is coming on 11/11/17.

by Patch O'Furr

Furclubbing: “A repeat/regular nightclub event by furries for furries.The concept has been spreading since the late 2000’s. It’s a dance party independent from cons. It builds on their growth but takes things farther. It’s more ambitious than informal meets and events that happen once. Those can stay inner-focused, but this brings partnership with new kinds of venues, and new support for what they host. It crosses a line to public space, so a stranger can walk in and discover their new favorite thing. It encourages new blood and crossover to other scenes. It makes subculture thrive. It’s a movement!

See the list of parties at The Furclub survey.  Any party that gives a Q&A will get a featured article. Featured here is a new event in Detroit, Michigan.  Here’s what the organizer sent:

SCRITCH DETROIT (2017)

Follow: Twitter and Facebook

 

The party launch: Scritch Detroit’s first event starts on 11/11, and plans to be hosted on the second Saturday of every month – as long as the turnout keeps us going. Please join us to make a big impression with our first event!

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Furry Drama(tic Arts) – The Forgotten History of the Furry Musical, Part 2: Furry Tales

by Patch O'Furr

Patch here, with Part 2 of the story submitted by guest writer Duncan R. Piasecki.

In Part 1, we mentioned the theatrical nature of anthropomorphism: how fursuiting is related to a world-wide love for humans performing as animals. In the mainstream, it’s in musicals like the stage version of The Lion King or Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats. Then, as we discovered, there was even a small, overlooked chapter of fandom history with not one, but at least two musicals focusing on the furry subculture.

One of these unique projects was Yiff!/<furReality>, which was fading from memory until we rescued documentation from the director.  It can make you wonder… while the mainstream celebrates anthropomorphic performance, why haven’t such ambitions carried forward as fandom has grown?

Perhaps the ideas may get tried again, with bigger and better resources, stages and audiences this time. Looking into that may get you excited for a certain con in 2018.  More on that at the end. (-Patch)

Duncan R. Piasecki continues with the story of the other musical:

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Support Furry Nation by Joe Strike, out October 10 – with exclusive offer here for a free comic!

by Patch O'Furr

Previously posted – Review – Furry Nation: The true story of America’s most misunderstood subculture, by Joe Strike.

Finally, there’s a formally published book about furry fandom and its history. I think it’s overdue by a decade. It comes with excellent cred, being written by long time insider Joe Strike (who joined the fandom in 1989) and published by Cleis Press. Find out more from furrynation.com.

To support the book: sign up to their Thunderclap campaign. Join fast, the launch is approaching!

Signing up concentrates support with one blast on social media.  Why help? Success of the book will support more and better plans. One commenter asked why the book says “America’s most misunderstood subculture.” It has to do with an American publisher focused on domestic readers, and much of the early history is tied to a few American places.  The book had to be kept inside a certain length, leaving wider topics out, but if it does well…

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Pacific Anthropomorphics Weekend blasts off on November 3-5.

by Patch O'Furr

EXTENDED PRE-REGISTRATION: Sign up by the end of day on October 10!

Register here to join the fun and support this young con.

San Jose, CA has two furry cons. Look at special places like that for ideas about how the fandom is growing. (See my article: One Town, Two Cons.) Do two cons show healthy demand and raise the bar for both?  Do they split the community?  Or are they just on different paths with one trying an out-of-the-box concept?  Well, it looks like win-win positivity in San Jose. The cons are so friendly that they share staff.

Pacific Anthropomorphics Weekend (PAWcon) is the upstart “relax-a-con” at the DoubleTree, previous home of Further Confusion.  400 or so furs went last year, making a just-right sized party on the shared balcony connecting the whole party floor. (You can bounce from room to room without traffic jams, and spend time with everyone – it’s the best party ever.) The con has grown by 100 furs-per-year, so expect more and better for 2017, their fourth year.

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Furry Drama(tic Arts) – The Forgotten History of the Furry Musical, Part 1: Yiff!/< furReality >

by Patch O'Furr

Article submitted by guest writer Duncan R. Piasecki. (Part 2 is here).

Let’s face it: we furries are a pretty theatrical bunch. Fursuiting is, in itself, a form of performance art, dramatic and striking, and probably the most visible aspect of our culture to anyone looking in from the outside. (It’s certainly what is talked about the most in the media).

None of this should surprise anyone here, even those of you who stumbled into the furry internet after straying off the normal path. In fact, it’s not even that surprising to the outside world. One need only look at, say, ultra-successful Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats, or the stage musical version of The Lion King, to see that the visceral drama of humans performing as animals is widely acknowledged the world over.

But that’s not what we’re here to talk about today. No, actually, we’re going into a deeper rabbit hole (har), one that many of you probably didn’t even know about: the furry musical.

No, not the ones with furries as the characters in focus. One with furries in focus. As in, us. As in, fursuiting, going to conventions, role-play, yelling at people online, and that sort of thing. More surprising to all of you, perhaps, is that there wasn’t one, but actually at least two musicals about furries being our regular old selves… both written by people not entirely within the fandom.

In Part 1, we’ll look at a musical where our request for documentation yielded a generous response by the director.  In Part 2, we’ll look at one that seems to be a fading memory with no record to be found – as well as an exciting happening to come in 2018.

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A furry’s brush with fascism – authorities “don’t understand the seriousness of the threat.”

by Patch O'Furr

(Comment from blog linked below.)

Sugar-coating helps fascism worm its way inside a community. Even with cartoon animals when Altfurry brings Trojan-horse hate to furry fandom. See tagged stories here.

A regional furry organizer shared this story.  ID is withheld so their job can be discussed. They’re an airport terminal worker.

“Just encountered something that I never expected to see.

A line of badged, patched, and uniformed fascists just came through my airport. Like any other passenger group, I was assisting them. Noticing their crossed hammer imagery in red and white, I thought… maybe I was mistaken.

I asked them if they were Pink Floyd fans (imagery from The Wall). I got blank stares, followed by laughter.

“No” one of them said, “We’re humanitarians, on our way to go clean up Puerto Rico!”

Laughter from the others.

“We’re plumbers too, and carpenters, gonna rebuild this place!”

More chuckles.

Noticing the very particular tattoos a few of them bore, I knew. Still, I asked. “Oh cool, glad you’re reaching out, what organization are you with?”

One of them winked at me. Pointed at his patch. “How about you look this up. We’re doing great work”.

Fair enough. Finished helping him and the five others. And then researched the image they bore.

Hammerskins. A white supremacist group that’s been planning a rally in the area.

I just came face to face with hate. And. I still feel uneasy inside. Especially as they found it amusing that I politely pretended not to recognize what they represented.

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“Suburban Jungle: Rough Housing” – Comic review by Ace.

by Patch O'Furr

Review: Suburban Jungle: Rough Housing
Guest review by Ace

Suburban Jungle was a web comic done by John “The Gneech” Robey that started on February 1, 1999. It starred a young tigress, named Tiffany, who is trying to make a career of acting and modeling while holding down numerous temp jobs. Along the way she meets the Kurt Russell-esque Leonard Lion, Leona Lioness (no relation to Leonard), and many others such as Drezzer Wolf and Conrad Tiger. It was slice of life with the characters residing in the fictional city. It was light, campy and a general good read.

It was the web comic that made me become a furry.

When Suburban Jungle ended in November 6, 2009 it felt like a giant punch to the gut. I had only been in the fandom ten years in the fandom because of Suburban Jungle. I loved the characters, especially Tiffany, Leona, as well as Leonard, Conrad and everyone’s favorite gay uncle, Drezzer. It was hard to fill those holes. I had never gotten to the opportunity to read Never, Never (which I found out actually came before SJ in terms of production) and while I liked other web comics, they didn’t hold my attention like SJ did.

So imagine my surprise when found out that The Gneech did another SJ comic starting in 2016. This one was a sequel but didn’t feature the same characters. Instead, the main character was a cheeger (the hybrid result of a tiger and a cheetah, in this case Comfort Tiger the sister of Suburban Jungle star Tiffany and her husband the code speaking Dover Cheetah), named Charity Cheeger.

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Good news from Tiny Paws con, and a look at Spalding’s furry art.

by Patch O'Furr

Two furry things happened in Connecticut the other week. One was sad – a politician lost a job for being too open minded about furry stuff. And one was happy: Tiny Paws con happened, giving love to that very same politician and raising money for the Humane Society too.  Whenever there’s a setback, look for how this cool fandom keeps moving forward.

Tiny Paws is made by former staffers of Furfright, and you’ll definitely hear more about it here.  It’s very special to me, because oh my gosh, they invited me to be Guest of Honor in 2018!

I’ll have to work hard to earn that. Meanwhile, let me tell you about a hard working artist.  When the con started talking to me, they asked if I wanted an ad in the con book. That’s why Spalding lent a paw to draw this fabulous cartoon ad:

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