Dogpatch Press

Fluff Pieces Every Week

Category: Mainstream

Paved with good intentions – Furry Newsdump (1/5/15)

by Patch O'Furr

Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag.  Story tips are always welcome.

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In the Media

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You Can’t Get Inside – a profile of the furry community from within. furries

Michael Arthur writes at The Hooded Utilitarian.  “Profiles written in good faith by outsiders are thin on the ground.  Accurate ones do not exist.  Do not feel discouraged.  If you really “got it” like we get it, you’d be one of us.”

The article doesn’t just verbalize getting it, it IS that.  Great essay!  (When I read it, I was glad it supports criticism I’d already written about the Buzzfeed article, below.)

Arthur writes about being “Zapped with that funny feeling” that is Furry… it reminds me of something from a while back, in the same post where I mentioned that President Obama hung out with a furry.  “The furriest thing ever”. Here’s being zapped:

Photos, Furries, and Photos of Furries.

Flavorwire makes a small notice that positively shares the below article.

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Edmonton Oil Kings hockey hosts fursuiter race. “It’s looking hairy at ice level!”

by Patch O'Furr

On video: “Louis the Lion battles for racing supremacy in the first ever Frantic Furry 500!”

Sometimes I joke about my low interest in sports. (Sorry, Canadians!) I’d love it if the teams were all mascots, while one sports guy runs around for laughs.

I imagine mascots worry about being upstaged by fursuiters. But the furries showed they’re good sports to Louis.

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$3 million sale raises furry auction topic. Now that’s an expensive fursuit!

by Patch O'Furr

WWXX3eM

1D274907295233-today-cowardly-lion-141125-03.blocks_desktop_mediumWearing big rugs for animal role-playing takes a lot of devotion and money.annex-lahr-bert-wizard-of-oz-the_02Bert-Lahr

In the above Anthrocon 2014 photo, 1,326 fursuiters broke the world record “Largest parade of people in fur suits,” set at Anthrocon in 2013.

For each fursuit in the photo, allow a generous but in-the-ballpark worth of $2,320.51.  It makes the whole crowd worth exactly what someone paid for The Cowardly Lion costume from the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, worn by Burt Lahr.  On 11/25/14, the original Cowardly Lion sold for $3,077,000.

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YELLOWBIRD is Flying Your Way: animated movie news from Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer, tells me:

A brand-new French animated very anthropomorphic movie, Yellowbird, that I’ve never heard of, is going to be shown in the USA. According to information mostly from Jerry Beck’s Animation Scoop website, Yellowbird is directed by Christian De Vita and produced by the TeamTO Studio in Paris.  It won’t even be released in France until February 18, 2015.  Wreckin Hill Entertainment, an American distributor, has bought the American rights and will give it a brief theatrical release in December, with a DVD release in April 2015.  From the poster and the trailer, the American voice dub has already been completed.  The Cartoon Brew says that the announced American release is in only five theaters in the Detroit area, and that the only American review so far says that it’s only for 4 to 7 year olds — which the trailer does not imply.


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Furry Merry Christmas, media relations, RISK!, animal blessing… Newsdump (12/22/14)

by Patch O'Furr

Headlines, links and little stories to make your tail wag.  Story tips are always welcome.

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Around Furry fandom and in the media:

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A Furry Merry Christmas To One and All – from Tom Broadbent, documentary photographer.

Tom takes us to the Londonfurs annual Christmas party.  “Retro gaming was the theme and it was hosted at the Amber Bar in Moorgate.” (More about his art.)

London Furries Winter Ball Read the rest of this entry »

“Alpha Chow:” Adult Swim’s furry parody infomercial, and comments from the fursuit actor.

by Patch O'Furr

Arrow is the furry star of this!  I got in touch with him for some casual questions:

“How did the video come about? Did you answer a casting call or did they contact you? Didn’t the suit already exist… do you think they specifically wrote it to fit you? Did you talk about the story to the writer? What was the production like, and where? How many takes did you do for the demonic voice?”

He answered with a blog post about the video:

Arrow Discusses: The Adult Swim Experience.

…a writer from a company that films shorts for Adult Swim contacted me because he wrote a script involving a buff mascot costume. He apparently found me from a fursuit parade video. After reading the script, I agreed, and flew down for a day-shoot. It was an amazing experience – I was treated as “talent” as much as any of the other actors in the short, and everyone was friendly and fun.

Then Arrow added answers to my questions that weren’t already on the blog:

  • “The script he wrote called for a muscular dog costume. They figured instead of making their own they’d hire someone who already had one. He told me they emailed a few other furries too.
  • The production space they rented, hilariously, is Lance Ikegawa’s studio in LA.
  • When it was time to shoot the scene they didn’t know if I was going to voice it, so I jumped in and said I could do a pseudo-demonic voice and showed it to them. They did two takes. Obviously it was further edited in post. I did more takes of the head reveal, which was the most “acting” I did – I had to hold my own fursuit head in front of my face to cover my head entirely, then act like I was trying to pull the head off. That took about 5-10 takes.
  • The eyes are digital because I refused to wear contacts cause I can’t get them in my eyes – if I could wear contacts, I wouldn’t have gotten LASIK!”

Find Arrow on Twitter: @arrowt.

Dinoverse series by Scott Ciencin – Fred Patten’s book review.

by Patch O'Furr

Here’s one for the scalies! Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.  This was originally written for Quentin Long’s Anthro Magazine.

9780375805448Dinoverse, by Scott Ciencin. Illustrated by Mike Fredericks.
NYC, Random House, March 1999, hardcover 0-679-88842-X $18.00 (282 [+ 8] pages).

Dinoverse: I Was a Teenage T. Rex, by Scott Ciencin. Illustrated by Mike Fredericks.
NYC, Random House, March 2000, paperback 0-679-88843-8 $4.99 (177 [+ 8] pages).

Dinoverse: The Teens Time Forgot, by Scott Ciencin. Illustrated by Mike Fredericks.
NYC, Random House, March 2000, paperback 0-679-88844-6 $4.99 (179 [+ 3] pages).

Dinoverse: Raptor Without a Cause, by Scott Ciencin. Illustrated by Mike Fredericks.
NYC, Random House, May 2000, paperback 0-679-88845-4 $4.99 (180 [+ 12] pages).

Dinoverse: Please Don’t Eat the Teacher!, by Scott Ciencin. Illustrated by Mike Fredericks.
NYC, Random House, July 2000, paperback 0-679-88846-2 $4.99 (194 [+ 12] pages).

Dinoverse: Beverly Hills Brontosaurus, by Scott Ciencin. Illustrated by Mike Fredericks.
NYC, Random House, September 2000, paperback 0-375-80595-8 $4.99 (173 [+ 11] pages).

Dinoverse: Dinosaurs Ate My Homework, by Scott Ciencin. Illustrated by Mike Fredericks.
NYC, Random House, November 2000, paperback 0-375-80596-6 $4.99 (192 [+ 8] pages).

If there is an expert in writing s-f Young Adult novels featuring dinosaurs, it is Scott Ciencin. He has written seven authorized Dinotopia novels, four authorized Godzilla novels, and four authorized Jurassic Park novels. (Not to mention a slew of Batman, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, The Elven Ways, Forgotten Realms, Kim Possible, Star Trek, Transformers, Zorro, and other authorized Young Adult series novels.) But there is one series that is all his own creation: Dinoverse. Read the rest of this entry »

Five 2015 Furry Features – by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Fred Patten, “Furry’s favorite historian”, submits:

Screen Shot 2014-12-11 at 4.27.40 AM27 theatrical animated features are coming in 2015, and most of them are furry, or at least anthropomorphic. Cartoon Brew covers them in an article by C. Edwards: “27 Animated Features To Look For In 2015”. My thanks to Edwards for telling us what to look for.

Of course, not all 27 feature anthropomorphic characters. Yet the majority of them do, from the definite animals (well, birds) of Animex Producciones’ El Americano: The Movie to the “are they furry or not?” alien Boovs of DreamWorks Animation’s Home. Some contain all-furry casts, like DreamWorks Animations’ Kung Fu Panda 3, while others contain only one anthro character amidst lots of humans, like Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur.

Are these all the animated features coming out during 2015? Probably not. But these are what have been announced so far. Also, some of these are foreign theatrical films that will probably not be released in North America. You may have to look for them on DVD in 2016 or 2017.

Here are five from the Cartoon Brew’s list of 27 that look definitely furry, and definitely worth looking at.

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Everyone knows the FurFest chlorine story – but did you see Tommy Bruce’s documentary blog?

by Patch O'Furr

Midwest FurFest was hit by poisonous gas. I rushed out a short notice, and had tips sent in by friends like Mordi. Soon, the news was everywhere.

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More coverage of San Francisco photo gallery show opening, “Furries & Despair”

by Patch O'Furr

Please help answer the question at the end of the story!

“Furries & Despair” happened on 11/7/14. It was super successful. It featured portraits of fursuiters from Further Confusion by Ron Lussier, and Bobby Pin’s urban decay photos from Detroit. The show was packed with people having fun in and out of costume. You don’t often see such energy at a gallery.

Courtesy of Bobby Pin:

Thank you again for everybody that came out and supported our work. We hope you guys had a great time. It was great seeing everyone.
BAMM did an amazing job filming the opening night. Please give them some love.
Check out the wonderful video they did for the Furries & Despair Show:

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