This con’s theme is “Summer Camp.” Yay for summer camp! How about sweaty, un-air-conditioned bunkhouses? Poison ivy? MOSQUITOS? Get ready to celebrate NONE of those things at the new Tiny Paws Con. They just have the parts that don’t suck: fun and games, getting together with old friends, and making new ones. If you’re itching for that in September, Tiny Paws has the cure.
TROLLING ANTHROCON
The infamous Confederate fursuit got a lot of views on social media. The issue started with complaints during Anthrocon and Midwest Furfest in 2015. By no coincidence, the symbol was pushed on the fandom at the same time as racist mass murder by Dylann Roof led to taking down Confederate flags across the USA. Then in 2017, during a huge amount of positive news about Anthrocon, the issue bubbled up again like a turd in a punchbowl.
The fursuiter is Magnus Diridian, AKA Rob Shokawsky. He was previously known for causing disturbances by copying the fursuit of Lemonade Coyote to exploit his death for attention. For several years, Magnus was reputedly banned from MWFF and Anthrocon. He came back to troll with the Confederate fursuit and a Trump sign that violated AC’s Code of Conduct:
Any action or behavior that causes significant interference with convention operations, excessive discomfort to other attendees, or adversely affects Anthrocon’s relationship with its guests, its venues or the public is strictly forbidden and may result in permanent suspension of membership.
Harassment includes … Conduct, dress, or speech that targets, threatens, intimidates, or is otherwise intended to cause distress to other attendees, or to members of protected classes (such as those based on race, age, religion, national origin, disability, gender, or sexual identity).
Magnus chose to bring that suit even though he has many others. There’s no pretending that it was anything but forcing politics on others, since he admits he did it because of “attack” on the flag. According to his helper, he was even “ghosting” the con to do it. He could have attended like anyone else if he didn’t set out to cause entirely predictable negativity. To be perfectly clear, Magnus was an antagonistic outsider who did not register or support Anthrocon.
Since 2001, the Ursa Major awards have promoted public choice for the best furry stuff in many categories (movies, art, books, magazines, and etc.) Since 2011, The Coyotl Awards have featured the Furry Writer’s Guild choice for best fiction – “an anthropomorphic Nebula equivalent to the Ursas’ Hugos.”
The Ursas are popular and the Coyotls are juried by merit. Both are an awesome way for fans to discover works by each other, and prove how furries are more than underdogs compared to other fandoms anchored on central media properties. They can help furries to Be The Media.
The Ursas will have a new Fursuit category next year. That has been demanded for many years but not added while there was debate about defining it. Designers, builders, wearers, and even photographers have some claims about inclusion – how do you award a team? Find out when voting starts for 2017.
The staff of Dogpatch Press (Fred, Pup Matthias, and I) are honored to win the 2016 Ursa for Best Magazine. That helps to keep cool stuff coming. Give yourselves pats for inspiring it. If you want more good stuff in the furry news niche, try these: Flayrah, Culturally F’d, Furry.Today, InFurNation, Fur Media, Furrymedia, [adjective][species], Furry News Network, Gaming Furever, Furryfandom.es, and Furry Stammtische.
Fred Patten tells more. (- Patch)
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Plowed, edited by Andres Cyanni Halden.
Dallas, TX, FurPlanet Productions, December 2014, trade paperback $19.95 (212 pages), e-book $9.95.
This is a mature content book. Please ensure that you are of legal age to purchase this material in your state or region. (publisher’s advisory)
The catchphrase for Plowed is “Ten Foxes – Ten Farms – Loads of Plowing”. This is an anthology of “ten saucy stories” all featuring foxes on farms with much explicit m/m sex.
The fox in “A Little Drop of Poison” by editor Andres Cyanni Halden is narrator Taslim Hajjar, a 20-year-old fennec. Since fennecs are North African foxes, it makes sense that Taslim is a Muslim. He’s the son of a rich Saudi father who is specializing in acquiring European vineyards and selling expensive wines to restaurants. (The Qur’an just says that Muslims shouldn’t drink alcohol; not that they can’t raise and sell it to unbelievers.) Tas is with his father inspecting a vineyard he intends to buy. The bored youth sneaks off to relax alone in the solitude of the vineyard’s wine cellars. He’s found there by one of the vineyard’s workers, “a very large, jet black bull setting down a wine cask beside one of the large racks.” The massive bull, Leeroy, can scent that the little fennec is very aroused by him. And Leeroy is a dom while Tas is a sub.
“‘Now,’ he said, his free paw trailing up my arm, across my shoulder, all the way up to lightly brush across one of my ears. ‘I’ve always been told fennec foxes like having their ears rubbed.’ He ran his rough finger along the edge, his touch surprisingly delicate. ‘Friend of mine told me it gets ‘em all hot and heavy.’” (p. 12)
That’s only the beginning of a very NSFW scene.
July 3, 9:30 PM – 2:30 AM
DNA Lounge, 375 11th St, San Francisco
“Bring a dead stiff squirrel and get in free!” Yes, that’s a real long-time promise by Death Guild. I can’t say what happens to the squirrels, but I can tell you about this legendary club night. It’s the longest running one for weird dark music in North America. That means gothic rock, industrial, darkwave, EBM and synthpop, with an ambiance like The Addams Family gone cyberpunk:
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer. 
Here’s the first original short story anthology from Goal Publications, Symbol of a Nation, edited by Fred Patten. It will be released at Anthrocon 2017 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania over the June 29-July 3 five-day weekend. Find Goal Publications there at F19 in the dealer’s room!
In front of millions at San Francisco Pride 2015! (Thanks: Chrisastro.com)
Bay Area Furries are marching in the 2017 San Francisco Pride Parade on Sunday, June 25. It’s one of the largest and most colorful events in San Francisco and will be on TV. There have been better and better responses each time, and 70 or more are signed up. Get ready for the best parade ever! (See previous announcement about how to join, and the Meetup page for RSVP and discussion.)
Here’s what you need to know:
Pic by Vincent.
Marchers: Arrive at 100-150 Main Street. Be no earlier than 9:30am and no later than 11:40.
Volunteers: Arrive at 100-150 Main Street. Be no earlier than 9:30am and no later than 11.
To arrive from BART, exit at Embarcadero Station. Go up on the Main St. / Beale St. side.
Watchers: Be anywhere along the Market Street parade route, and the parade starts at 10:30.
Parade start: 12:30pm-1pm. (Last time we were in the parade, starting was delayed by hours due to being way more busy than they planned. Do be patient, but don’t be late. The parade doesn’t wait for latecomers.)
Thanks to Lamar for submitting. His articles on Flayrah include this recommended one: “Furry, not an obscure little fandom any more” – it’s as relevant today as in 2011.
A couple of weeks ago I put out a call via Twitter, helpfully reposted by some high profile people, to see if I could get any first hand reports of how Convention and Security staff handled issues at Conventions.
I had exactly three replies in total. One saying that they had once reported someone vaping inside the convention space. One security staffer who was unable to discuss any details but expressed that incidents of harassment do happen, and have to be handled correctly and with care. And finally, another con staffer who accused me of being on a “fishing expedition” and using rumours to ascribe bad faith.
And outside of twitter I talked to a young member of the fandom, who continues to receive targeted convention related harassment. I’m going to call him Adrian, but that’s not his real name. Adrian shared copies of the messages. They include slurs and rants, including for instance “You ATTENTION seeking c***”. Adrian received this harassment, for speaking out about what happened to him at a convention some years ago. I ask him to talk about it.
Reptile Channel (UPDATE: 450,000+ subscribers in 2020, joined in 2016) — not the same as former The Reptile Channel (joined in 2014).
Love your pets. But don’t eat your pets. And definitely don’t stomp them to death for sadistic sexual pleasure. That’s known as crush fetish, a thankfully illegal practice that qualifies for the Internet Hall Of Shame because of kitten murder. Such animal abuse has earned news and legal bans, but corporations have a problem with keeping it off their platforms. (Gizmodo: YouTube Won’t Ban A Guy Who Crushes Animals to Death.)
We can talk about weird stuff here. If you have gone down some shady alleys on the internet, you might have seen vore fetish. (That’s the erotic fantasy for consuming others or being consumed, which might involve dragons.) It’s usually harmless and imaginary in fiction and role-play.
A tip came in about a story that blurs the lines between those things. Youtube’s Reptile Channel is a producer of videos that show small animals being fed to larger ones. They use a reasonable-sounding cover story about science, education and necessary feeding. But it’s tainted with a nasty secret: it was founded in vore fetishism, with a history of being protested.
A Burning Man art car will carry furries in the SF Pride parade… If a few furs step up to volunteer as safety monitors.
Just a few more are needed to qualify. Time is short to make it happen on 6/25/17. See info below and ACT NOW!
Here’s some cool art cars at Burning Man, and even more here. (Those are NOT FOR THE PARADE, the car will be a surprise.)
Furries are ready for a better parade than ever before. They got involved around 2002-2004, and returned with a float in 2014-2015, but relaxed with just a booth in 2016. The time is right for a big comeback. Before now they used plain rental trucks, but even modest effort got amazing feedback for putting 50+ members in front of crowds and media. (Take a look back at fursuiting in 2012, a float in 2015, and much more on the Pride tag.)
Capri, a fabulous transgender dragon, sent this memory:
In the last year we did the parade, I met a great friend who helped me to start transition. I managed to walk the entire way in fursuit, a feat I am quite proud of. I still use that video to show off my suit. I also really enjoyed passing by the judges and having one of them say awesome words of kindness to me. We went to a Korean barbeque place afterwords and mistakenly thought it was all you can eat. (Patch): sorry, I confused it with a different place I was at once before… (Capri): It was fine, I should be the sorry one, you took care of it and the bill was pretty staggering.
That’s the positive vibe that furries bring to Pride. But there’s an important ingredient they need to make it happen.
