Dogpatch Press

Fluff Pieces Every Week

Category: Media

May 9, 2017

Ponyville Confidential: The History and Culture of My Little Pony – review by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

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

Ponyville Confidential: The History and Culture of My Little Pony, 1981-2016, by Sherilyn Connelly
Jefferson, NC, McFarland & Co., March 2017, trade paperback $18.99 (x + 254 pages), Kindle $8.99.
Order at McFarland’s Website – order line 800-253-2187

Ponyville Confidential doesn’t contain any artwork. That’s a tipoff that this book has not been authorized or approved by Hasbro, the copyright holder of the My Little Pony franchise.

Connelly emphasizes and re-emphasizes in her Introduction that although she is a fan of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic TV program and the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls movies, she is not a My Little Pony (note the lack of italics) fan. As a child in the 1980s, she hated being talked down to, particularly as a girl-child, and this included all of the girls’ TV cartoons of the time; Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake and especially My Little Pony ‘n’ Friends. She didn’t watch it. She didn’t start watching My Little Pony until Friendship Is Magic in mid-2011 (after Season 1 had finished its initial broadcast), when friends had told her, “Hey, it’s a girl’s toy commercial, but there’s something here.” By then Connelly was a film critic for The Village Voice and SF Weekly (an alternate newspaper for the San Francisco Bay Region, not science-fiction), so she was prepared to study the entire My Little Pony phenomenon, including the Bronies, as both a professional outsider and as a fan – of the post-2010 MLP:FIM, anyhow.

“This book is divided into five parts. Part 1, ‘Family Appreciation Day,’ looks at the history of the franchise from the release of Generation 1 in the early 1980s through the late 1990s, showing how long after both the toys and cartoons had ceased production, My Little Pony continued to be criticized in the media as the worst of children’s entertainment in a way that similar brands marketed toward boys were not.” (p. 4)

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May 8, 2017

Nova Seed movie review- a rare find of sci fi animation.

by Patch O'Furr

Gonzo, trippy, visionary sci-fi is a rich mine for cult movies. A new gem has come to light.

Nova Seed is a great hand-drawn cartoon. You can’t tell from the high quality, but it was animated to feature length (63 minutes) by just one guy in 4 years. (There were a few helpers for stuff like music).  I’m writing for furry fans, and furries love art that’s not mainstream but is full of guts and talent. That’s how this movie works inside limits to exceed expectations.  If your animation gold standard is a blockbuster like Zootopia, gold is common compared to a gem like this.

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May 5, 2017

Civilized Beasts Poetry Anthology, 2015 Edition – book review by Fred Patten

by Patch O'Furr

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

Civilized Beasts, Poetry Anthology, 2015 Edition, editor-in-chief Laura Govednik.
Manvil, TX, Weasel Press, December 2015, trade paperback $8.99 (86 pages), Kindle $2.99.

This small, slim volume has four Editors and an Editor-In-Chief. Editor Jason Huitt (Lunostophiles) explains in his Foreword that poetry has an image problem; that it “is hard to sell to the masses.” (The other three Editors are Altivo Overo, Televassi, and George Squares.) I agree with his reason that it has a cultural stereotype of being ‘for the elite’. I would also say that it’s too short and plotless.

Civilized Beasts, 2015 Edition contains 55 poems by 33 authors. Most are a single page or less long. That makes Civilized Beasts best for reading in short bursts, a few poems at a time. The anthology is a charity for the Wildlife Conservation Society. “All proceeds from this anthology go towards the Wildlife Conservation Society.”

It is hard to get really “furry” in one page. Only a couple have what might be called a furry plot; notably “Two Thieves on a Bluff” by George Squares, and “Why the Coyote Is: A Legend I Mostly Made Up But Is Undeniably True” by David Andrew Cowan. Most poems are about the beauty of nature; wild animals fleetingly glimpsed, animals frozen at night by a car’s headlights, animals’ eyes glowing at night, and so on. There are several about “trickster coyote”, but almost all are about real coyotes:

“Brown and gray

Sand in a desert sunset

Golden eyes laughing at and with you

Here and gone”

from God’s Dog by BanWynn Oakshadow

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May 4, 2017

Call for help with the Fullerton Murder story; and The Furry Code Of Silence.

by Patch O'Furr

Furry reached new heights in 2016. Disney came to our party.  There was a low point of a chemical attack on Midwest FurFest that turned into a high quality Vice News story.  Notice the title, “CSI Fur Fest” – I’d like to think it was chosen to make up for the other CSI, who did us a disservice. But this time “the media” earned a nomination for a 2016 Ursa Major award.

It was cool that Vice did that story. The media was on our side.  That’s the theme of this post.

In 2017, there was the unreal experience of Furry Nazis grabbing the wheel for a minute and making us swerve into no-man’s land.  Maybe we’re getting back on track, but don’t relax.  Those headlines were rough, but rougher ones are coming.

Look at California, where you might say Furry Fandom really got started. In SoCal, the Skiltaire House is where you can hang out with the founders of the first convention and have a friendly night of fursuiting or watching animation.  That’s where Jennifer Yost was known as a mom to others, including her daughter Daydreamer Fox. They went together.

One day in the fall of 2016, Daydreamer went missing. The Skiltaire put out an alert. I shared it and got contact from a reporter. Then Daydreamer was found. It wasn’t a missing person alert any more. The Yost parents and a family friend were dead and two other kids were orphaned.

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May 4, 2017

The Earth Tigers, by Frances Pauli – book review by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

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

The Earth Tigers, by Frances Pauli
Moses Lake, WA, Gastropod Press, February 2017, trade paperback $7.99 (165 pages), Kindle $0.99.

The Earth Tigers is Star Spiders, Volume One. Pauli considers it to be s-f, not furry, but it has talking spiders in it. Volume Two, tentatively titled Sky Fires, will be published in 2018.

The Earth Tigers is dedicated:
For all the eight-legged beauties, big and small.
Without them, we’d live in a much less friendly
environment.

Unfortunately for reviewing, The Earth Tigers begins in the midst of deliberate confusion and only gradually reveals what is going on. So any traditional plot synopsis would be full of spoilers.

It starts with a spider, Horatch, who is looking for a human to become a “candidate”. He (there is a reason for him to be a male rather than a female spider) choses Milyi, a young girl alone in a forest.

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May 3, 2017

Call for artists! Fur Con teams up with Artsplosion in San Jose, CA on May 13.

by Patch O'Furr

Ellegy Q. Betea, event mascot by Grey White

May 13, 2017

The Billy DeFrank LGBTQ Community Center
938 The Alameda, San Jose, CA 95126
Art show 1 to 5 PM
Masquerade 5 to 7 PM
Dance 7 to 9 PM ($10 suggested donation)

Calling all Bay Area Queer Artists! • Musicians • Zinesters • Independent game devs • Painters • Crafters • Illustrators • Digital Artists • Photographers •

Come join us for the seventh #Artsplosion. Hurry, Signups close May 9th! Sign up here, and find out more here.  The Artsplosion is a bi-monthly local arts and crafts exhibition intended to serve the Bay Area Queer arts community.

Fan art by Yamavu

Hello Dogpatch Press,

I was asked to tell you about my upcoming art event that’s furry focused. It’s called #Artsplosion, this is the 7th event, and this time we’re collaborating with San Jose Further Confusion (FurCon).

It’s going to be an art show, costume masquerade, and evening dance! It’s free to attend (though we have a $10 suggested donation at the door for the dance), and free to show work at (though we ask 20% of sales go back to the center as a donation).

So join us on May 13th, starting at 1 PM. We have a great community center in San Jose, easy to get to from public transportation and lots of parking, so I’d love it if everyone came and checked it out!

More information can be found here, or follow the #artsplosion hashtag.

Thank you,
Danger “Dana” Kipnis (organizer)

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May 3, 2017

Wild Things: Cinco De Mayo – furry fetish party in San Francisco, May 5.

by Patch O'Furr

Friday, May 05, 2017.  8PM – 1AM.

SF Citadel, 181 Eddy St., San Francisco.  

Cost: $25. Dress code: Animal-themed, fetish, creative, etc.

Visit the Fetlife event page for info. Many volunteer positions available.

WILD THINGS is an 18+ party for furries, petplayers, pups, primals, littles, and everyone who accepts them, but the furry community is the heart of it.  The first event was in 2014 (see WILD THINGS tag.)  In 2016 it became quarterly by support of the SF Citadel club.

For March’s Mardi Gras event, organizer Mark explained:

Wild Things wants to be inclusive to anyone who is new, making them feel welcome, unpressured, and free to learn and explore at their own pace, if they wish.  We advocate tolerance and respect for others, so people can live and let live, and let adults be adults however they choose to do so… come without judgements and see for yourselves.

What’s happening this time?  Perhaps sexy party games and pinatas, human/furry pinata suspensions, wrestling/Lucha masks… all that and a taco bar! Previous features continue:

– Music by DJ’s AuralIncarnation (Bent) and Gretchen Weeners (Death Guild, House of Nox)
– Suspensions by Naturalturn (Naughty Knotty)
– Vacuum bed & waxplay demos by Spottacus
– Petplay, puppyplay, and furry demos
– Fursuit gear demos
– The cuddle zone
– Petplay / puppyplay romp!

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May 2, 2017

April summary for Rune’s Furry Blog – monthly guest feature.

by Rune AngelDragon

Rune’s Furry Blog showcases “people within the Furry Community…their characters, life, thoughts, and beliefs”. It also covers furry issues and media, with a sprinkle of personal blogging for the character Rune the Angel Dragon.  It’s the kind of furry stuff I like to support.  It came to attention by covering #FemaleFursuiterMonth. Fursuiter profiles are a cool thing I wanted more of.  She joins other syndicated guests like Andre Kon (What’s Yiffin’?) and Arrkay (Culturally F’d) to share her month of writing. Welcome Rune! – Patch

So here we are…entering May. It seems that 2017 has been just zooming by, and so many amazing things have been happening in the Furry Fandom! It’s what I like to refer to as “convention season”! A lot of the more popular Furry conventions are already taking place or happen shortly at the beginning of summer.

But not only that – the Furry fandom is always buzzing with something new. So, this April Summary exists just to fill you in on what you might have missed on this ever-expanding group. Not to mention it’s a chance for myself as a blogger to share with you some posts from my own blog – because I am sure there is something that might just catch your fancy. Let the April Summary get underway!

The Furry Nerdcore band known as “Run, Definitely Run!” decided that it was DISBANDING After Texas Furry Fiesta (Dallas Convention 2017).

The post was made by lead-singer Omnom on April 7th, 2017. He posted on his facebook HERE that their visions for the band were just too different, and, while they would have one last performance, they would not be playing at BLFC as scheduled. There was not much else to be said. It was made pretty clear and people were heartbroken. Fans were trying to see if maybe this was just a late April-Fools joke, but, band members came in and told them that it was indeed true…

Theories of what might have happened at TFF started to circulate, and, for awhile, people were even blaming the Con. While most things have been cleared up in one way or another, people seemed to have now settled on the idea that the band continuing was just not meant to be. We can only wish the bandmates the best in all their future endeavors.
But, the group is still close friends with each other…and that should be one of the most important things.

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April 28, 2017

Spirit Hunters Book 4: Shadow of the Oni, by Paul Kidd – review by Fred Patten

by Patch O'Furr

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

Spirit Hunters. Book 4: Shadow of the Oni, by Paul Kidd . Illustrated.
Morrisville, NC, Lulu.com/Perth, Western Australia, Kitsune Press, February 2017, trade paperback $22.31 (310 pages), Kindle $6.99.

Paul Kidd began his Spirit Hunters novels with Book 1: The Way of the Fox in September 2014. He has followed it up with Book 2: The Open Road in May 2016, and Book 3: Tails High in September 2016. Now here is Book 4: Shadow of the Oni. Like the last two books, this has a cover by R. H. Potter and interior art by Voracious Fescue.

The Spirit Hunters series is set in the Sacred Isles, a fantasy world of traditional Japanese mythology roughly in the Heian era, about 900 or 1000 A.D., with all the yōkai (supernatural spirits) of that world: obake, kappa, oni, tengu, and so on. The Spirit Hunters are four freelance ghostbusters who wander throughout this realm, slaying or otherwise exorcising the evil yōkai: Lady Kitsune nō Sura, a fox woman, and her companion Tsunetomo Tonbo, a huge human samurai, who hope to be paid for their services; Asodo Kuno, a young low-ranking human samurai who has joined them to gain a reputation and higher status; and Nezumi nō Chiri, a shy rat-spirit who Sura has invited to join them. Chiri’s two familiars, Daitanishi the air elemental and Bifuuko the rock elemental, accompany them.

Sura and Chiri, and any other animal-people who the quartet meet, are what make these books worth reading by furry fans. They can shift among three forms: human except for animal ears and tail; anthropomorphic, looking human but with an animal head, full fur or feathers, and tail; and fully animal but still able to talk.

While the first three books are basically light adventures, Book 4 is the darkest yet. It begins with “Twelfth Encounter: Shackles of Honour”, which opens with thirteen straight pages of grim battle, slaughter, blood, and death. A decade later, the four Spirit Hunters take refuge from a rainstorm in a long-abandoned shrine:

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April 27, 2017

Foxhunt!, by Rich Hanes – book review by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

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

Foxhunt!, by Rich Hanes. [2nd edition]
Everett, WA, Arkham Bridge Publishing, January 2014, trade paperback $19.95 (337 pages), Kindle $6.99.

This is the 2nd edition. The first edition was published by Arkham Bridge Publishing in June 2009 with the same cover illustration by Minna Sundberg. I don’t know how the two editions may differ.

This is furry space opera, the first novel in the Wildstar Universe of genetically-engineered human-like animals. (According to Amazon, Hanes only has one other Wildstar Universe work so far, and it’s just a 15-page short story, “Duel of Honor: The Way of the Wolf Warrior”, published in April 2015. Hanes has asked for comments on his works-in-progress on the Furry Writers’ Group forum, although he is not a member.)

The interstellar peoples of the galaxy are all modified Earth mammals based upon dogs, foxes, raccoons, wolves, and more, although humans do exist. And the animals don’t like each other. Interstellar warfare is strictly regulated through a Mercenary Command, and restricted to small mercenary companies rather than large national armies. Captain Sebastian Valentino, a humanoid fox, is the leader of the Star Rangers, the most successful mercenary company in the galaxy; 300+ mostly canids such as his Senior Lieutenant Corey Delzano, a jackal, and Junior Lieutenant Patricia Darling, a painted dog. The Star Rangers usually are hired by the government of Valentino’s own Star Alliance, and their target is usually the Alliance’s traditional rival, the Canis Dominion.

All this is background that the reader will pick up in the first thirty or forty pages. The story is that Captain Sebastian Valentino is having an extremely bad day. Or bad week. Or bad months. First, his Assistant Captain and best friend Adrian Miller is killed in a botched raid that Sebastian blames himself for. Second, Adrian’s extremely formal Rite of Passage (funeral) is also botched, which Sebastian (who is having a brief nervous breakdown) also blames himself for. Sebastian’s new Assistant Captain, Corey Delzano, talks him out of it, incidentally giving the reader a smooth background course in Volpa history, language, and religion.

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