Dogpatch Press

Fluff Pieces Every Week

Category: Society and culture

August 20, 2015

Don Oriolo’s Felix the Cat Art Available Nationally – announcement by Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

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

Exclusive Felix the Cat Fine Artwork from Don Oriolo Coming Soon from Soho Prints (PRNewsFoto/Soho Art International/Soho Prin)We get mail. In this case, a press release with a cover letter.

Hi Fred:

Saw that you covered my client Don Oriolo’s Felix Art last year and thought you might like to see our press release from today and possibly cover that?  Let me know if you need anything on this.

Best, Scott

He must be referring to my book review on Flayrah last year, of Don Oriolo’s Felix the Cat Paintings.

And here is the press release. Felix was the first star of anthropomorphic animal animated cartoons in the 1920s, so it’s pertinent even if limited to modern art.

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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

Mr. President, why are they so sexy?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. 

projectq-pride-parade-cp-180__largeCORRECTION: 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 »

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August 4, 2015

Theatrical Panto-animals, Part 2: Feedback, history and sources roundup.

by Patch O'Furr

Update to Part 1:  “If there was a Museum of Furry, theatrical “Panto-Animals” would be a major exhibit.“

My first Panto-animal history article shared 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 these scarce records, a handful of actor names stood out with wide publication in their time for “animal impersonation”.  Charles Lauri was covered in Part 1 – and here is Fred Conquest:

FredConquestHubbard2

Pantomime plays were popular entertainment, considered beneath the “high arts” realm of British theater.  They were not treated as equally worthy to record or remember, so these photos are all the more special because of it.  These pre-movie live happenings seem forgotten today, compared to the era of cinema that came shortly afterwards – where popular artists like Charlie Chaplin (the first international movie star) gained high respect as subjects to study and remember.

In our time, popular culture has gained respect it never had.  What used to be “nerd culture” is now the biggest Hollywood industry.  The tiny niche of Furries is one of few areas still looked down on, but that seems to be changing as it grows.  I think it’s a great time to rediscover and connect old, forgotten traditions such as Panto-Animal performance – what esteemed Furry fan author Phil Geusz calls “paleo-furry.”

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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.”

KFC-Cosplaying-Colonels

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July 29, 2015

Furry internet history, tragic accident takes RedSavage and Milofox. NEWSDUMP (7/29/15)

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. 

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Media and Fandom news.

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New from “Culturally F’d”: how the 1990’s internet made a Furry phenomenon.

I highly endorse this Youtube series, which investigates everything this blog is for!  Host blackbird, Arrkay, sent this.

(Arrkay:) “This week we are “Ctrl:F’d.” Culturally F’d looks at furries and the history of the internet.

The episode was later than expected for 2 reasons: 1) I was hosting a Drag Party (Howl Toronto‘s “Fierceness Party”,) where I recorded footage to feature soon where we discuss the commonalities of fursuiting and drag queens. 2) It’s our longest episode so far, and will probably be the longest of the season!

As Michael from VSauce recently pointed out, on the internet, no one know’s if you’re a dog. This meme was originally from the July 5, 1993 edition of the New Yorker. No group on the internet holds this adage more closely than furries.

MUDs, MUCKs, and early chat rooms made Furry visible in the first online communities of the 1980’s and 90’s. That happened before computers were widely accessible, and even before the mega-infrastructure of the internet was built.  This aspect of the fandom grew largely from colleges and universities, equipped with online connections and computers that were still far too expensive for home-use.

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July 28, 2015

Fursuiters were kings at Andrew WK’s Pizza Party in San Francisco.

by Patch O'Furr

Of course this happened in San Francisco – “Furry Mecca”. (Sorry, Pittsburgh… you can borrow that title for one weekend a year, but you have to give it back.)

Andrew WK’s Pizza Party was planned for July 3.  Furries called up the venue, 1015 Folsom, and arranged to be part of the show.  The show managers went out of their way to accommodate fursuiters and help them change. There was a strong turnout for such an awesome happening.

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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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