August 18, 2015

Swat Kats creator gives an interview about the show, with a few days left on Kickstarter!

by Patch O'Furr

Enjoy Christian Tremblay’s interview with Dogpatch Press below, and help make a cool show happen here:

The campaign ends 8/22/15: SWAT-KATS REVOLUTION, by TREMBLAY BROS STUDIOS.

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Demand from devoted fans is bringing back the Swat Kats TV series for the first time in 20 years. Fandom kept the show alive since it was canceled in 1994 with only two seasons. If you missed it, here’s the lowdown from Swatkats.info:

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August 17, 2015

President Obama’s fur meet – The “Celebrifurry” List, PART 1: Politicians and VIP’s.

by Patch O'Furr

Obama hangs out with furries! The proof is below. Mr. President, why are they so sexy?

This tiny subculture has more influence than many members even realize. The topic grew from a furry influence article that drew extra high traffic: (Mainstream advertising: “More and more, Furries are being hinted at in marketing media.”) Advertisers covet “street cred”, and subcultures have it. Even tiny notices show a subculture on the rise.

Now, many people want to know: Are there any secret furry celebrities? Who likes furries in the mainstream? Here’s a Buzzfeed-esque topic that will fluff your fur, or raise your hackles!

PART 1) – Politicians and VIP’s.
PART 2) – Actors, comedians, and media personalities.
PART 3) – Musicians.

This is a non-fandom list. And OK, “celebrifurry” is exaggerating. Almost none have “come out of the kennel” as BEING furry. Keep low expectations. This is “15 seconds of fame” encounters, coincidences, and near-rumors. Celebrity confessions of cartoon crushes can make the list (because getting hot for Robin Hood is a Thing.) The list also has some animal costuming that hints about association. But let’s avoid lazy exploitation (like talk shows or Howard Stern), because they’d exploit any group with little recognition beyond stereotypes – and you’ve seen all that hype before. Many of these items are overlooked or ambiguous, so it makes a short, incomplete list. This is as good as it gets so far… but wait until there’s a fursuit political campaign.

Politicians and VIP’s

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August 13, 2015

Praise from Cracked, Mattress company winks at us, nazi teddybears – NEWSDUMP (8/13/15)

by Patch O'Furr

Tips: patch.ofurr@gmail.com.

Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag. Guest posts welcome. “Local correspondents” wanted to talk about your local networks.

CORRECTION: Fangcon was NOT the first con to sponsor a float in a Pride parade – FWA was earlier.

Tip from Slickkat: “FWA has had a float in the Atlanta Pride parade for the last two years.” It corrects this week’s headline calling Fangcon the first. Queer media outlet Project Q wrote about the FWA sponsorship: Furries cuddle up and show their Atlanta Pride. The active Georgiafurs site organizes the Pride float since 2013.

Florida Times-Union: Meet the Furries.

Nothing new here, but nicely written.

Guess who’s #5 on the CRACKED list of “6 Groups Who Shouldn’t Be Sexual Punchlines.”

This article gets a Hallelujah. It has comedy and sexy furries, but they aren’t the target. Instead, it makes fun of judgemental assholes. That’s refreshing, after a tendency for media to be sadistic to innocent people, who happen to have richer than usual fantasy lives.

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August 11, 2015

Silicon Valley Pride invites furs – Fangcon makes history with Pride parade sponsorship.

by Patch O'Furr

“Furry Pride” is redundant when you’re a talking animal. There’s no way you can’t strut your stuff, turn heads and light up a crowd with smiles. But when furries AT Pride join other groups with a bigger mission, it puts the magic where it most belongs – in a fabulous show – and makes a good cause better.

Furries invited for August 30, 2015:

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Tip from Neonbunny, builder of influential events like Frolic:

“Silicon Valley Pride has reached out to me as they would love to have fursuiters at the pride festival, August 30th. They will have a changing tent available, and can offer free admission for suiters that RSVP in advance.

The other person who they reached out to, who’s coordinating things right now, is Lani B. She’s pretty active in the South Bay cosplay scene, and they’ve reached out to her to get cosplayers to go as well. (Anime/comic type costuming stuff). Her email is dynamiccosplaycouple@gmail.com and she’s on facebook here.

This is the link for the pride event, and Lani has also created a facebook page to get cosplayers motivated to go (and hopefully fursuiters as well.) If anyone is interested in coordinating fursuiters for this, please get in touch!” – NeonBunny

The San Francisco Pride parade may be the premiere event for LGBT culture. It’s popular among the SF Bay Area Furries, so in 2015, their show-stealing presence in front of a million viewers made a standout event for the whole furry subculture. But it was far from the only one. (Expect a chat soon with Uncle Kage, about Anthrocon’s awesome accomplishments in 2015.) In fact, theirs wasn’t even the only Furry statement at Pride events around the world. Competition came from an unexpected place – Knoxville, Tennessee. Read the rest of this entry »

5 comments

August 3, 2015

Colonel Sanders is a Furry, more Bojack Horseman for 2016. NEWSDUMP (8/3/15)

by Patch O'Furr

Tips: patch.ofurr@gmail.com.

Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag. Guest posts welcome. “Local correspondents” wanted to talk about your local networks.

Injured furry fan who faced 90% odds against him is recovering.

Here’s a good fan item to start… Alex is a Furry fan who was severely injured in an explosion in Taiwan last month. He had 90% chance of dying from the injuries. The latest update says he’s doing very well in recovery. It’s still a heck of a scary situation so he can use any help you can give.

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Pop Culture and Further Fun.

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For no reason at all, click for a pinup of Mr. Peanutbutter's fabulous ass, which doesn't actually appear in the series.

Click for Mr. Peanutbutter’s fabulous ass, just because.

Bojack Horseman renewed for 2016 – anyone want to interview the creator?

Just renewed for a third season… and read a great interview with the creator about the recent second season. A while back, I got an invite from the creator to do an interview! Would anyone who’s caught up with the series like to take charge of it for a guest post? (Raphael Bob-Waksberg says:)

…early on we decided that all the animals are animal-people. No one has pets. There’s no little birds flying from tree to tree — it’s a world full of Goofys, not Plutos, to use a Disney analogy. In season one I was really hesitant to depict meat-eating in any way. But then someone pitched a joke with a cow waitress serving steak and being really offended.

Swat Kats ask crowd funders to aid renewal.

(Tip from David P:) “The team that made the original Swat Kats just launched a kickstarter to bring them back.”

Colonel Sanders dressed as a Furry at Comic Con.

(Tip from Fred Patten:) “Dear Patch; Note the Col. Sanders statue at Comic-Con dressed as a furry. This indicates that furries have become as pop-culture respectable as vampires, werewolves, Martians, and anime characters.”

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6 comments

July 20, 2015

Anthrocon Anthrocon Anthrocon! Fluffsplosion of hype. NEWSDUMP (7/20/15)

by Patch O'Furr

Tips: patch.ofurr@gmail.com.

Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag. Guest posts welcome. “Local correspondents” wanted to talk about your local networks.

This week’s Newsdump: Everything Anthrocon! There was SO MUCH of this news, and it was such a busy month, that I will be playing catch-up for a while with it… I’m not able to read all of these links. Good job catching all this attention, AC! Has there ever been this much? Some of it is national (the Onion A.V. Club and NPR notice seems particularly cool.) It was quite a coup to parade outside on the Pittsburgh street for the first time. 5,000 regular public watchers came out to see the furries, and they went nuts for it. I hope the crowd doubles in the future. I’d love to interview Uncle Kage about the planning and reception. (Official Anthrocon wrapup report.)

Onion A.V. Club: Watch almost 1500 furries strut their stuff at this year’s Anthrocon.

The official count of members in the Anthrocon 2015 Fursuit Parade Group Photo is 1,460. This reminded me of a neat aspect of the con. All that show value! These costumes represent so much investment… we could do a few estimates to figure out how much. In a previous post, “$3 million sale raises furry auction topic”, I came up with an arbitrary $2,320.51 per fursuit represented in Anthrocon’s parade. Multiply by the count of 1,460 members this year to reach a (rough guesstimate) value of $3,387,944.60 in fursuits.

NPR: The Furries Have Landed — And Pittsburgh Is Giving Them A Bear Hug.

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July 15, 2015

French animation and the César Awards, by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer. This article is a companion to Fred’s series on French anthropomorphic animal movies.

The César Awards, presented by the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma (Academy of Arts and Techniques of Cinema) since 1976, were frankly designed to be French cinema’s answer to the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science’s Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars. The trophy of “l’Académie” was designed by the sculptor César Baldaccini (1921-1998) and is named after him.

The Césars are presented at a posh televised “Nuit de César” dinner and ceremony each February, by l’Académie but endorsed by the French Ministry of Culture; currently held at the 19^th-century Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. Technically all films distributed in France during the previous calendar year, not just those produced in France, are eligible for nomination, but the winners are usually French-made. See the Wikipedia article for the details on how the nominees are selected and on who votes for the Awards.

The first César Awards were presented in 1976 in 13 categories. There are 22 categories today. The César for “Mellieur Film d’Animation” (Best Animated Film) is a newcomer, only created in 2011. Significantly for furry fandom, all of the winners except for the first have been anthropomorphic films.

2011 (36^th Césars), for 2010 films – L’Illusionniste; Sylvain Chomet
2012 (37^th Césars), for 2011 films – Le Chat du Rabbin; Joann Sfar and Antoine Delesvaux
2013 (38^th Césars), for 2012 films – Ernest & Célestine; Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner
2014 (39^th Césars), for 2013 films – Loulou, l’Incroyable Secret; Éric Omond
2015 (40^th Césars), for 2014 films — Miniscule, Hélène Giraud and Thomas Szabo

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July 13, 2015

If you visit New Orleans, see the anthropomorphic sculptures at Mardi Gras World.

by Patch O'Furr

New Orleans is a renowned party town. In the French Quarter, on Bourbon Street, you can get potent drinks like a Hand Grenade or a Resurrection in to-go cups, and walk around the neighborhood as boldly as you dare. A walk into some of the restaurants can make you sneeze, because the crawfish boils have so much seasoning, that it pervades the air like a whiff of pepper spray at a crime scene. Signs on murkier streets warn you to walk with friends, and be vigilant. Petty crime seems taken for granted in a place scarred by hurricane Katrina a decade ago. People party to forget woes or live life to the fullest with reminders of mortality all around. (At least that’s an excuse for barfing out the door of a taxi.) There’s many stories about long ago lives held in above-ground mausoleums of famous cemetaries. A tour is a nice calm way to walk off too many drinks, even if guides will tell you any kind of silly ghost story for tourist bucks.

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July 6, 2015

San Francisco Pride, gay marriage, and historic happenings in Furry Mecca.

by Patch O'Furr

Billet Sheltie – pic by Eric Campbell.

Gay marriage just became legal across the USA. Even if you have no plan to get one, it’s a big deal. People of a few generations ago thought we’d have flying cars before this happened. The writer of “Furry Force” says:

In San Francisco, the news hit right at “gay christmas”. The city was getting ready for Pride, “the largest gathering of LGBT people and allies in the nation.”

It was already going to be one whopper of a party. But with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry fresh off the presses, Sunday’s Pride Parade in San Francisco became a rainbow-colored, joyous celebration for the ages.

The whole country was involved. The Chief of Police called it “the largest Pride celebration ever.” Being mainstream was a big topic. On a subcultural level, the excitement spread among “the world’s greatest concentration of furries per square mile.” Furries were in the parade in 2005, returning in 2014 and 2015.

Pic by Vincent

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July 1, 2015

It’s the “Idea Channel” for furries – Culturally F’d on Youtube.

by Patch O'Furr

Sometimes the Dogpatch Press tip account gets extra cool messages. Here’s what new friend Arrkay sent:

We here love what you guys post online and what your content does for the fandom, so we hope you’ll take some time to check out what we’re doing!

Where does the love of anthropomorphics come from? How far back can we dig in history and mass media to really get to the bottom of it? Why does every culture across the face of the earth have a fascination with animal-people?

Arrkay got me excited to know more. The show summaries are gold… (everything I’d love to expose here.) Let him explain it in his words:

An all new Furry YouTube show has come on the scene: Culturally F’d.

Culturally F’d explores the furries of the past and present, climbing the ladder of history through mass media in all the different ways humans have blended the properties of man and animal, and why. From Cave Paintings to Comic Books, and everything in between. Culturally F’d is an exploration of what makes everyone just a little bit furry, and what makes furries especially furry.

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Category: Mainstream

by Patch O'Furr

The campaign ends 8/22/15: SWAT-KATS REVOLUTION, by TREMBLAY BROS STUDIOS.

by Patch O'Furr

Politicians and VIP’s

by Patch O'Furr

by Patch O'Furr

Furries invited for August 30, 2015:

by Patch O'Furr

Pop Culture and Further Fun.

by Patch O'Furr

by Patch O'Furr

by Patch O'Furr

by Patch O'Furr

by Patch O'Furr