You never know what Halloween will bring in San Francisco. You can tour an Erotic Haunted House based on “Dante’s Inferno”, at a landmark castle (used as a BDSM porn studio), full of circus performers ready to give an amazing show. That’s Hell In The Armory. It’s the only place around that has great job opportunities for evil masturbating clowns. I guess it’s a living in a dog-eat-dog economy, where workplaces are literally Hell.
It’s part of San Francisco’s lively scene of subcultural circus theater, avant-cabaret, and burlesque, that crosses over with comedy and music. If you’re bold enough to get a taste – soon you might be throwing your own ingredients into this strange, sexy mix of alternative media and shows.
That’s how I ended up in this rap video, wearing bling and drinking from the potty like a happy puppy dog. There’s no excuse, it just tasted so refreshing… Mmm! Here’s the story of MC Crumbsnatcher and his Nerdcore comedy rap with furries. (The naughty potty part is at 3:09). NSFW:
Now I’m inside the CD. Thanks, Crumby for this super classy opportunity.
Actually a guy dancing in a potty suit – a Toiletsona.
Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag. Guest posts welcome. Tips: patch.ofurr@gmail.com.
“Bonnie Hunt provides the voice of Bonnie Hopps. Judy’s mother. Don Lake voices Judy’s father, Stu Hopps, a carrot farmer from Bunnyburrow. (Disney)”
USA Today shares a lot of new Zootopia images and story hints.
Are you excited for Disney’s new furriest movie? Mrs. Otterton’s missing husband spurs the action on. There’s “Duke Weaselton, a small-time weasel crook with a big-time mouth”. Judy Hopps is “a ground-breaking rabbit trying to make it as a cop” – it sounds like bunnies usually aren’t cops, so we get a nice hint about what species means in the Zootopia world. Enjoy more from USA Today’s exclusive Facebook gallery.
You know furries everywhere are getting ready for the 2016 Furmageddon*… in the SF Bay area, dozens are already signed up to go fursuiting to the opening in March. (*I’ve been reminded that Furpocalypse is a convention happening this weekend.)
Go to 18:00 in the link. The important part starts at around 19:00. It goes for about a minute, with one more remark before the scene cuts at 21:00. It’s lightly humorous, maybe flirty banter between the two characters. They joke about how furry conventions can “go off the rails”, but that’s the worst judgement. They discuss fursonas and share appreciation, making a nice, innocuous minute in the pop culture spotlight. Isn’t that a relief?
Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag. Guest posts welcome. Tips: patch.ofurr@gmail.com.
“Being a Furry can change your life”
It’s a feature for The Stranger in Seattle, sharing some touching personal stories from Rainfurrest. (That’s a nice change from drama…) Writer Matt Baume previously wrote a pretty good piece about puppy play, including one standard poodle who “presents as fluffy and effeminate”. (Elsewhere, I really enjoyed getting to know about poodle fursuiter Edward Fuzzypaws, and agree that they are super fancy and should be less rare in the furry scene.) It’s not furry, but the SEA-PAH (Seattle Pups And Handlers) monthly social meet at The Cuff draws at least a few fursuiters.
Matt posted a video with more content at Reddit’s r/furry (it’s special to see a writer post their own news directly there.) It also came in as a tip from Vox Fox.
Dogpatch Press added to Furry Writer’s Guild as Associate Member.
Already on the “recommended reading” list, now granted the fearsome power to nominate and vote in the Coyotl Awards. This is partly thanks to hosting Fred Patten’s “What the Well-Read Furry Should Read”. (Gratitude to Poppa Bookworm for adding and formatting all those book covers!)
“At the Soda City Comic Con, who’s your alter ego?”
News announcement at The State shares a video they made with local furries. “Soda City Comic Con is the premiere pop culture event in South Carolina, bringing together the best in comics, toys, cosplay, gaming and artists that Columbia has ever seen!”
In the 90’s, ConFurence was THE convention for all furries worldwide. 26 years after ConFurence 0 broke ground, the subculture has gained enough steam for some local populations to get multiple cons. It’s a sign of a healthy community. Areas or cities like that make great examples to learn from. Do they succeed? What does it say about fan support, and competition or cooperation to grow our awesome fandom?
Five places came to mind:
San Jose, CA (Further Confusion and PAWcon, since 2014)
Columbus, OH (Morphicon and Furlaxation, in 2012-2014)
Toronto (Camp Feral! and Furnal Equinox, since 2010)
Boston, MA (Maltese Fur Con and Anthro New England, in 2014)
Pittsburgh, PA (Anthrocon and Western Pennsylvania Furry Weekend)
Healthy growth can bring a downside. Cons are growing large and well-attended enough to have critical security concerns. This month, Oklacon and Rainfurrest both announced dramatic cancelations due to misbehavior. Bad faith can get between organizers and their venues, and that gets bigger than internal fandom drama. However, it’s also natural for problems to grow when a population does. Be optimistic with a con every week, some place in the world.
Consider the hard work it takes to organize a con, and draw people to fly in from far away. Organizing could be a paid profession. Furries are lucky and loveable because theirs come from volunteering. This brings a risk of burnout and decline. It’s important to understand how and why. The decline of ConFurence coincided with the start of Further Confusion, which may have unintentionally divided the pool of supporters. 16 years after ConFurence 10 ended, multi-con locations can show examples for how to sustain what we love.
There’s much more than conventions in the hard-to-measure Furry subculture. They can only draw some members. But they can be considered to lead it’s growth. Con-goers, fursuiters, and fursuiting con-goers may be the most committed members of furry social life. They spend the tourist dollars that float Furry’s best public profile. Anthrocon’s $7 million tourism draw has earned more and more enthusiastic coverage. In 2015, it achieved a new benchmark, with their first public parade that was cheered on by 5,000 regular people of Pittsburgh. This is what the public sees.
Let’s look for insight from organizers. Dogpatch Press sent questions to ten cons in five locations:
Discussion of the history of furry fandom with Fred Patten, at ConFURence 9.
Fred Patten is the most valued contributor at Dogpatch Press. He came here during editor down time at Flayrah, seeking a stable place for his reviews and history articles. (For those who aren’t acquainted with Fred’s impressive resume as a fan historian and curator, he has spent a lot of the recent decade in a convalescent hospital. Writing is a major benefit to his life and a good cause to support.)
Without Fred’s guest posts, there would be no five day a week schedule here. Assisting and formatting his articles takes a lot of work, and five days a week makes a very demanding pace. But I think the promise of regular content should inspire anyone who contributes. It makes this the most active “Furry News” source. It’s all non-profit, so thank Fred for doing what few people can do without being paid – and volunteer helper Poppa Bookworm – and (ahem) anyone else who helps, reads, shares or comments to make this a community thing.
Fred recently shared a bibliography listing an incredible abundance of his book reviews. It covers years of writing and hundreds of posts. At the very least, it’s worth browsing to get an idea about the variety of Furry published work.
The list doesn’t include Fred’s other amazing articles that aren’t book reviews. Here’s everything else. You don’t want to miss these, if you’re interested in learning about anthropomorphic art, how furries came to be, and what they do and like.
Oklahoma Department of Recreation and Tourism: 405-230-8303 Direct line to Dick Dutton – Executive Director: 405-230-8414
Oklacon sounded like a fantastic event. (Here’s interesting coverage from an independent Oklahoma City news blog.)
Now comes sad news that Oklacon is canceled permanently. The reason appears to involve a tangle of prejudice and bad faith, coinciding with a misbehavior incident. It came to my attention via Reddit. More info went out in a final statement that replaces the front page of the con’s official website. I have heard statements from attendees that lead me to share the story, and report their anger and frustration about it. (Editorial comments here don’t speak for the con.)
Here are points and open questions that stood out to me.
This year, it seems like more great press attention went to Anthrocon than ever before. Take a look! (Here’s everything I could find in July.)
Why was there rising attention? One of the big reasons was the fursuit parade. For the first time in an almost two-decade history, the con took an amazing spectacle seen in private out to a public street. A lot of the locals must wonder what goes on behind the doors of the con. Getting to see it drew an enthusiastic crowd of “normals” almost as large as the convention itself. Apart from the furry/crowd interaction, this was a big deal because of all the logistics and relationship building behind the scenes. It promises great things to come.
SFGate looked at a map of the “most embarrassing Google searches” in the USA and found me.
(Appeared in photo #9.) “Furries” is supposedly searched a lot in Wyoming. The map also shows who searched for: Bronies, Nickelback Lyrics, Dog Clothes, Meth Recipe… Who knows if it’s really real data, but you can tell they had fun. But not as much as I did in the pic. Sorry guys, not embarassed in the slightest!
Playwright fictionalizes the 2014 MWFF chlorine attack, for a story exploring identity.
“The sixth Chicago Fringe Festival, opening tonight, brings zombies, victims, and furries to town.” Here’s the festival page dedicated to the play. I confess I only had a minute to look into this and the play’s Indiegogo page. I have a rule – I assume that any “furry” story that uses cheap halloween costumes is probably bad storytelling. Misinformed exploitation pieces often aim for humor at our expense, and they fail because they lack authenticity. Well, in this case, I may be proven wrong. I think this festival is prestigious, and: ‘He’s worked to keep it balanced—”not other-ing the community”‘ – says Corbeau at Furstarter. (It’s so great to have more than one eye on this stuff – please furries, make more blogs!)
Furry Migration gets a nice feature.
“…Where being weird is a good thing.” The article’s just a standard introduction, but the video lets several fursuiters speak and dance in a charming way.
Furries at Bubonicon in New Mexico.
A nice exploration by a columnist who investigates the con and meets a lot of different sci fi fan characters, including a few extra fuzzy ones.
A film maker was commissioned to make a documentary for Seeker network- and he started at reddit’s r/furry.
In March 2015, Discovery launched a new network, Seeker. Their programming goes for the mysterious and wonderful fringes of nature and culture. Now that means Furries. Their piece is called “Furries Aren’t As Weird As You Think.”
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.
