Patch O'Furr

September 3, 2015

Camp Feral!: Fifteen Years, 1998 – 2012 (Part 2) – by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Article with Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

“Camp Feral! An all-inclusive furry summer camp where the registration fee covers your food, lodging and activities for the most unique and memorable furry experience of your life! Your fee covers all the coffee you can drink, [and] all the breakfast lunch or dinner you can eat.” (from the Camp Feral! 2012 website)

Camp Feral! is the oldest of the recorded outdoor furry conventions, going back to 1998. It is also Canada’s oldest furry event, and the fourth oldest continuing furry convention (after EuroFurence in 1995 and Anthrocon and Mephit FurMeet in 1997). It was started after the oldest furry annual convention, ConFurence in Southern California (1989), gave rise to U.S. East Coast furry conventions in 1995 to 1997 (Furtasticon, Confurence East, Albany Anthrocon), inspiring Canadian furry fans to start their own convention – but with a difference.

Camp Feral!: Fifteen Years, 1998 – 2012, Part 2

“The park had brought in a naturalist to lead a Wolf Howl. Apparently this is a regular event in Algonquin Park. First there was a very informative slide show and presentation, then the naturalist took us outside and tried to get the wolves to howl. What he does is that he howls three times, then waits to see if the wolves respond. If after a few rounds they do not, then several naturalists howl together as though it was a pack howling, sometimes that will get the wolves to howl back. Unfortunately, on this night they didn’t howl. Might have been the rain. I could imagine them sheltering themselves from the rain and laughing at the stupid humans out getting soaked and howling.

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September 2, 2015

Snow White vs. All Dogs Go To Heaven: A Look at How Kid’s Movies Encouraged the Founding of the Furry Fandom.

by Patch O'Furr

Here’s a fantastic guest post by Amanda Riesling. Her blog’s recent post about Furries is highly recommended. – Patch

Note: This article concerns itself exclusively with fully animated feature films produced in America and released prior to 2000. The article’s scope is limited so narrowly mainly because it is a blog post and therefore too short to cover a wide range of media. If you care why the parameters were chosen, there’s a note at the bottom of the article.

Cartoons are a fantastic storytelling medium because all you need to do is make sure your story can be translated into visual images. That’s it. Once you tick that box, you can cast off the confines of reality and tell whatever story you want.

However, despite the visual freedom, a good storyteller still needs to tell a story the audience can relate to. In my opinion, this is the real key to why anthropomorphic stories encouraged the furry fandom.

An audience needs to see themselves in the hero. They need to be able to project themselves and relate to that character. If they can’t bond with the main character somehow, they won’t enjoy the movie. If your main characters are human, half the battle is done for you. In fact, the blander, more generic your human hero is, the easier it will be for the audience to relate. You can have the goddamn Matrix going on, but as long as your main dude is an expressionless white guy with a vague backstory, people can pretend to be him. For a more pop-culture version of what I’m saying, watch Cracked.com’s video.

If your main character is a human, this is great news for your film. Your character can be bland, and your story can be as shallow as a Petri dish, and people will still relate because they see a human face. (Not that all human-centered movies are shallow. I said can be. They don’t have to be.)

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September 1, 2015

Theatrical Panto-animals, Part 3: History book reviews by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Part 1: “If there was a Museum of Furry, theatrical “Panto-Animals” would be a major exhibit.“
Part 2: Feedback, history and sources roundup.

These “Panto-animal” history articles share a discovery of amazing proto-Furry happenings, in an overlooked era of Pantomime theater in Victorian Britain. Stunning photos show why the topic is worth uncovering. From those scarce records, a handful of actor names stood out with wide publication in their time for “animal impersonation”. They were not necessarily playing specific “fursonas”, a difference from Furries today – but they earn fan author Phil Geusz’s general label, “paleo-furry.” Charles Lauri was mentioned in Part 1 – and Fred Conquest in Part 2.

Fred Patten reviews the Conquest biography, loaned by the LA public library.

The best Pantomime theater actors seemed highly diverse in their talents. That only included a small amount of animal costuming, although a few like Fred Conquest specialized in that. This biography was reviewed in hopes of picking out scarce Panto-animal details, which have been forgotten by time, because very little was ever printed about them.

This Amazon.co.uk review of the book earned a quote in Part 2:

Now that it has become respectable to admit enjoying popular entertainment, the story of the Conquest family deserves to be better known. They were one of those colourful theatrical dynasties who flourished from Victorian times until well into the twentieth century. Many of them were actors who, between them, took on everything from Shakespeare to pantomime; my favourite was the one who played the animals or “skin” roles.

Fred did find amazing costuming stories, even if most of it wasn’t of the animal kind. These shows must have been incredible spectacles, the “big budget movie” productions of their time. I’m very sad I couldn’t find any illustration for the giant floating demon head! Let Fred explain more. ( -Patch)

Conquest: The Story of a Theatre Family, by Frances Fleetwood; W. H. Allen, 1953; 282 pages.

(Fred:) The book includes many illustrations, both photographs of actors, and reproductions of 19th century engravings of fantastic stage plays of acrobatic actors in grotesque costumes cavorting about. The plays included many scenes of fairies and demons flying above the stage on wires, and there are many accounts of wires and ropes breaking and actors being seriously injured. Read the rest of this entry »

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August 31, 2015

There’s a persistent rumor that Furry fandom was perverted by a bad ad for ConFurence.

by Patch O'Furr

Was Furry fandom turned into a freakshow against it’s will in the 1990’s?
Did the founders of ConFurence, the first Furry convention, run an ad in a “gay lifestyle magazine” that ruined everything?

This rumor has circulated for 18 years, but nobody has ever shown a supposed ad. Now, one Furry made the effort to dig up an obscure, rare 1997 publication, to show what’s really in it!

For context, this incomplete history of 1980’s/90’s Furry fandom gives a great look at how freaky, adult content has always been around… and always provoked overheated reaction. And at Flayrah, a poorly-written, half-baked attempt at prudish revisionism shows the kind of reaction that caused the rumor. The same Flayrah author became a rumor source, in the first quote below.

yiff2

Here’s what the rumor always looked like:

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August 28, 2015

The Island of Dr. Moreau: A Possibility, by H. G. Wells – Book Review by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

The Island of Dr. Moreau: A Possibility, by H. G. Wells. Frontispiece by C.R.A. [Charles Robert Ashbee]. London, William Heinemann, April 1896, x + 219 [+ 1 + 34] pages, 6/-.

This is arguably the first “furry” adult novel, not counting the talking animals of children’s literature such as Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. (Or the adult Metamorphosis/The Golden Ass of Lucius of Apuleius, which was caused by a magic salve and the gods.) It was intended as an anti-vivisection polemic, and it made quite a stir when it was published, although not entirely for the reason that Wells intended. According to the introduction by Alan Lightman in a later edition (Bantam Classic, 2005), “Ranked among the classic novels of the English language and the inspiration for several unforgettable movies, this early work of H. G. Wells was greeted in 1896 by howls of protest from reviewers, who found it horrifying and blasphemous. They wanted to know more about the wondrous possibilities of science shown in his first book, The Time Machine, not its potential for misuse and terror.”

The public focused less upon the animal-men than upon Dr. Moreau’s callous vivisection experiments. In the novel, the physiologist comes across as an obsessed sociopath who cares only for his scientific research, and is oblivious to the pain he causes to his animal subjects. But to the public, he was a crazed monster. This image is clearly emphasized in the second motion picture adaptation, Island of Lost Souls (1932), in which Charles Laughton plays Dr. Moreau as a whip-cracking sadist who seems interested in his experiments only as a justification for his cruel tortures of his victims, and to create subjects whom he can rule as a god.

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August 27, 2015

Furries Among Us – two book reviews, from Vox Fox and Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Furries Among Us Book Review – By Vox Fox.

A disclaimer: I love this book. That said, I will try my best to give an unbiased review but the reader is hereby warned upfront of just where I’m coming from. Furries Among Us provides a very positive-minded, detailed and understanding look into what furry fandom is all about. It explains the deep meaningfulness and sense of camaraderie members typically derive from participating in this fascinating and unique community. The book is comprised of 16 separate essays, each detailing a different aspect of the furry world as experienced through each author’s eyes. Topics include: How furries socialize, furry publishing, fursuiting in the fandom, furry art and music, the ins and outs of fur cons and of course, dating and sexual aspects.

The book (from Thurston Howl Publications) delves deeply into the fundamental motivations that draw furries into the fandom and just why a fursuiter fursuits. Some may fursuit as an outlet for expressing certain (presumably fun-loving) personality traits they would be hesitant to attempt in human form (ah, the flirting you can get away with!). But I think one of the best reasons can be summed up nicely by one suiter’s explanation: “I suppose you could say that the reason I do it is to bask in the reflection of good feelings that I help create.” (Yep, close to the reason I give: to charm the socks off people.)

The last four chapters delve into the psychological and sociological aspects of the fandom, each one courtesy of four prominent members of the International Anthropomorphic Research Project (IARP), all holders of Ph.D.s. One consistent theme noted is that involvement in the fandom has the distinct tendency to contribute to a sense of well being, and that sense appears to intensify as the fan becomes even more engaged with fandom activities. Additionally, as mentioned above, the main incentive that seems to draw potential furries into the fold is the sense of community and belonging that the fandom provides. Finally another noteworthy passage discusses fursonas, and the role they play in creation of a more idealized self which is typically a “…more attractive, confident, friendly and playful” version of the self. (In another article I’ve read, the author of this chapter also suggested such role-playing can provide a means for ultimately incorporating these character enhancements into one’s own personality; see http://t.co/xcqSLIeL6u).

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August 26, 2015

Anthropomorphic Animated Features, 2015-2016 – by Fred Patten

by Patch O'Furr

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Yarst! This has gotten really complicated, so bear with us. These release dates are mostly useless.

Yes, the official American release date of Minions was July 10, 2015, but it was released in Indonesia on June 17 and in Australia (in English) on June 18, and in the United Kingdom on June 26.

Boonie Bears: A Mystical Winter (Xiong Chumo Zhi Xueling Xiongfeng) was released throughout China on January 30, 2015, but most Americans won’t see it until it is released by Warner Bros., dubbed in English, on January 17, 2016. Frog Kingdom – (“Princess Froglegs goes undercover to compete in her father’s Froglympics in order to avoid being married off to a male suitor,” from IMDB) – is a new movie as far as the U.S. is concerned, produced by Grindstone Entertainment in Santa Monica, California and distributed by Lionsgate Entertainment, also in Santa Monica, and released on June 30, 2015; but it was released first in China on December 28, 2013. A Mouse Tale premiered on February 10 as an American direct-to-DVD release; but its theatrical premiere was not until April 7 in Kuwait. (Interestingly, A Mouse Tale was first distributed on DVD in the U.S. by Lionsgate Entertainment, but it was co-produced by Red Post Animation Studio in Lima, Peru and Vista Sur Films in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was announced by Vista Sur as Rodencia y el Diente de la Princesa http://www.vistasurfilms.com.ar/) Japanese animated features are notoriously unofficially subtitled and available in America on video or DVD within a month or two of their Japanese theatrical release.

All that a release date usually means is that the movie has been released; e.g., is real and should be findable somewhere.

Titles, especially of non-English-language features, are also mostly useless. One theatrical feature about “the animals that DIDN’T make it onto the Ark” was produced in CGI animation by Ulysses Filmproduktion GmbH in Hamburg, and originally released theatrically in thirteen countries between April 9 and August 21, 2015. In the U.S., its release was July 17. In Germany its title is Ooops! Die Arche ist Weg …, in the U.K. it’s Two By Two; in America it was announced with trailers as both Ooops! Noah is Gone … and Two By Two before settling on All Creatures Big & Small. You shouldn’t need translations of its Dutch title (Beestenboot) or Spanish title (¡Upsss! ¿Dónde Está Noé…?). The Japanese feature listed as The Boy and the Beast is actually titled in Japanese Bakemono no Ko, which is literally The Beast’s Child or Son of the Beast (or Monster); who knows what it’ll be titled if it gets an American release? The Spring 2016 Russian feature Volkii i Ovtsi has been announced as coming to the U.S. as Sheep and Wolves. In case you don’t know any Russian, that’s a reversal of the Russian title. Read the rest of this entry »

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August 25, 2015

Furry documentary gold, and a Sex Drama Explosion – NEWSDUMP (8/25/15)

by Patch O'Furr

Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag. Guest posts welcome. Tips: patch.ofurr@gmail.com.

Anthropomorphics Reading List wants Dogpatch Press reader recommendations! (via Fred Patten:)

“The Anthropomorphic Literature and Arts Association (ALAA) has just updated the 2015 Anthropomorphics Reading List. It now includes all the 2015 anthro titles that anyone has recommended through August 8 as worth reading, seeing, or playing. The ALAA would love to get some recommendations from Dogpatch Press readers for the next update.” (- Fred). If you know of any 2015 Furry books, comics, movies, etc. to recommend, send them here: recommended@ursamajorawards.org

Houston Press – Furries in the Arts and Culture section.

“6 Modern Subcultures That Might Shock the Mainstream.” Clickbait with nothing new, except we get to be on the same list as Juggalos.

Culturally F’d on Furry gatherings: Why do we go to conventions, and why do we move in together?

Arrkey writes: “Hey Patch! The next episode is all lined up and it’s a doozy. All about con-culture, furry gatherings and all-furry housing situations:”

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August 24, 2015

Praise for creative expression, and a debate with bomb threats – NEWSDUMP (8/24/15)

by Patch O'Furr

Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag. Guest posts welcome. Tips: patch.ofurr@gmail.com.

“Anthrocon Convention steps out in full fursuits.”

The New Pittsburgh Courier revisits the con with a few nice photos.

Furry creative expression gets praise from an environmental, travel and style writer.

Why Do We Like To Dress Up Like Animals? This introduces furries with much more insight than the usual coughed-up hairball of stuff we’ve seen a million times. It’s better because author Starre Vartan puts her voice in it as a “furry sympathiser”. She gives more than boring “whats” and gets into interesting “whys”. Previously, she wrote about the fabulous trend of Merman Hair – “more proof that guys like flair too.” A+ for this writer’s sense of culture.

A cure for misunderstanding about Furries, gender and kink. Read the rest of this entry »

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August 21, 2015

Sunset of Furmankind, by Ted R. Blasingame – Book Review by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Sunset of Furmankind, by Ted R. Blasingame. (Revised & Expanded Edition.)
Raleigh, NC, Lulu.com, February 2015, trade paperback $32.99 (727 pages), Kindle $2.99.

When I reviewed the first edition (Lulu Press, September 2011) on Flayrah, it was “only” 510 pages. I said, “Ted Blasingame writes long Furry novels.” Little did I know …

Since I can’t tell just where Blasingame has expanded this novel, I have to read it all over again. That’s no chore. After over three years, I don’t remember it in detail, and Blasingame is a fine furry author. Sunset of Furmankind is worth a reread.

The setting is sometime in the 22^nd century. Humanity has almost simultaneously discovered faster-than-light travel and extrasolar planets that are barely fit for human colonization, and the means of genetically mutating humans into semi-animal forms. Due to the high mortality of humans on these harsh extrasolar planets, the Terran Colonization Coalition takes over the genetic mutation process to create four tougher new “races” of humans: the Canis (wolf- and dog-men), the Felis (big cats like lions and tigers), the Ursis (bears), and the Vulps (foxes). Predators and omnivores are deliberately chosen since it is felt that they are hardier than the herbivores. They are made the primary explorers who prepare the planets for human settlers. The Fur-men and –women who are converted by the Anthro Human Colonization Program are mostly volunteers to be sent out to the hostile new worlds to create starter colonies. However, criminals who face life imprisonment or the death penalty are given the chance to start a new life as a non-human in permanent exile on a new world if they will help to tame it for regular humans.

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