Dogpatch Press

Fluff Pieces Every Week

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May 25, 2023

Join now! Nor Cal Furries call for volunteers for the San Francisco Pride Parade on June 25.

by Patch O'Furr

What does Pride mean to you?

If Pride means being authentically yourself and refusing to hide, the San Francisco Pride Parade is one of the best places in the world. It’s so real when you’re there with a group, in the moment when they say GO, then you turn the corner onto the main parade route and the crowd roars. That’s how to BE.

The Nor Cal Furries will march with a parade float on June 25. (Furry is an interest that harmonizes with LGBT members, and many other interest groups participate.) Meanwhile, some people just found out that furries exist and want to attack them; for example, anti-LGBT law has forced Megaplex to restrict attendance due to power abuse by the government. This shows ongoing history where simply existing is an undebatable political statement. But people who oppose LGBT existence and think this is new activism don’t know that furries have been award-winning Pride marchers for 21 years. And the founders of Pride knew that just being there is winning. We can look forward to another 21 years of being there… but it won’t happen by itself.

It’s up to us and YOU. Nor Cal Furries can’t go without volunteer staff, so please answer or spread the call. If you can’t volunteer, come attend and tell a friend.

CALL FOR STAFF – SIGN UP HERE > https://forms.gle/Pb8n1UXDCTLNKaW6A

Let’s meet some of the team you can join (in no special order). Dogpatch Press asked each one: What does Pride mean to you, and why make this event happen?

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December 16, 2019

The diversity of coverage on Dogpatch Press

by Patch O'Furr

Front page news sequencing is part of the art of informing the public. The previous news story and next story posting on the site make quite an awkward juxtaposition.  I’m talking about an article about positive G rated parents and kids stuff, with one about a sex crime story to post just above it. That could make a mixed message.

I usually pad these things but I’m too busy to have something prepped to post between them, so I thought this would make a nice opportunity to address the content and how it works with a certain contradiction built in to furry fandom.

It’s what I call “the big umbrella from Disney to Dirty.” It’s all that stuff under the same tent. Which obviously needs careful handling. AD panels kept near midnight. ID checking for room parties. The first thing to say about this isn’t that it makes risk of the night side mixing with the day side. It’s that every parent did those things before they had kids, and parents are the first ones to protect them. Adult supervision can mitigate most concerns. And I think this fandom is doing an OK job of handling concerns that exist everywhere, from private homes to the Catholic Church.

That’s all, and enjoy a little off the cuff talk here from a curious contact asking for opinions how to write content for furry news.

 

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October 29, 2019

On hiatus with a house move

by Patch O'Furr

Furry news, reviews, interviews and more will be back after a while. The site has been active since 2014 with 1115 articles published. It will be nice to get going again with cool plans in the works, and more than 100 possible story projects kept on file. Check back later and thanks for reading. – Patch

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August 30, 2019

San Diego Furries Show Their Pride

by Patch O'Furr

Better late than never, here’s a look at a cool happening from July.

I was reminded to put out the story by a writer from Vice, who just asked me for help to talk to members of the SoCal furry community in L.A. She’s happy to meet in person, and she was nominated for the fandom’s Ursa Major Award in the past. Please drop me a note to get in touch with her.

Dave Dutch (Dax Yeena) led the furry plans for San Diego Pride. I was tipped by Joe Bear, a fur I know to be as friendly as a whole parade by himself. I told Dave about organizing the furry float for S.F. Pride, and he mentioned interest in doing L.A. Pride. I thought it was a nice idea to bring furs from SoCal and NorCal. At this rate, parades will have to tell them to let humans have a chance!

I tipped Dave Dutch to talk to the ALSAOCC (Dogbomb’s charity) for a parade. And for S.F. Pride I even tried asking Margaret Cho (a prior Grand Marshal) to be a guest of the furries. It could happen — she did an interview with me. She was busy on tour this year, but there was an actual reply so asking again is smart.

Here’s Dave Dutch’s chat with me.

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August 22, 2019

Great accounts to follow: Shadow Raccoon

by Patch O'Furr

If you’re a talking animal on social media, Furry Twitter is the place to be. And if you aren’t on there yet, or if you’re new, it may seem like a perplexing jungle of stunning art, cute fursuits, drama, social commentary, memes, nature videos, hitting on corporate mascots, and crazy happenings with a huge fandom of friends who have fun like nobody else. Finding the good stuff could use a guide to bushwhack through the wilderness. Wouldn’t it be cool to get an article series about entertaining and well curated accounts? These ask the account owners just a few questions about what they do. Enjoy whether you’re new, or like learning more about stuff you already love.

Previous ones:

SHADOW RACCOON is the Certified Cuddly proof that anything is more adorable with a British accent. I’m sure that’s nothing special for his friends, but I’m in California and I just want to give him a hug until he goes “I can’t breathe” with it, OK? Shadow made it here because – He’s nice – He started tagging me (good idea!) – He does fun and wholesome videos – and I like giving notice for a smaller furry creator who is working hard to earn it. Saying to follow Adler Eagle (who is super nice and wholesome too) makes me happy to spread his good taste. Even if it comes out of a trash can.

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July 29, 2019

Frolic Party gets crepe-y news about a furry food tradition.

by Patch O'Furr

“Fast food meets slow news day”

San Francisco’s original furry dance party is a thirsty place. Besides for watching Fluke Husky and panting. (Or being pantsless… like an innocent toon character of course). Every first Saturday at The Eagle, I get sweaty from jumping around in a big rug with sweet tunes. It makes me need a Squirrel Pop or five to cool off.

Then it’s drunken feasting time. That’s when food tastes like it looks in cartoons, where mice dive into bowls of jello and eat cheese wheels from the inside out.

At 2 A.M. when you’re still bouncing out the door, if the booze in your belly needs a friend, Crepes A Go Go is the go-to place. (Or was.)

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July 22, 2019

Arrest of Growly brings feeling of vindication for furries with safety concerns.

by Patch O'Furr

A problematic record.

Growly, a long time Southern California furry fan (named Daniel Llamas in many public sources), was arrested on 7/10/2019.

(An update link was added to a section about him in a previous broadly-related article: R.C. Fox arrested for child pornography, furries question fandom connections.)

Little is open about what happened so far besides charges. It’s a little unusual to give a headline to an arrest, and people are presumed innocent in court. Summarizing Growly’s history is also hard to do with calm about laws and policies and incentive to rehabilitate. But there’s a lot of background making it worth sharing.

The main points start with a sex offense record from 2001, shared with another offender. Then in 2009, Growly was banned from FurAffinity following inappropriate messaging with a person claimed to be a minor (which left some facts murky, such as their identity.) Growly’s statement about it was posted to Wikifur.

The 2001 conviction led to serving over two years in jail, completing parole, and working to re-enter the furry fandom. A very active presence at events included volunteering as staff or running panels.

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May 6, 2019

Dogbomb: praise for a furry hero – from the ALS Association, Orange County Chapter.

by Patch O'Furr

ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) is a fatal disease that needs a cure. In a call with the Executive Director of the ALS Association of Orange County (California), I asked if they would like to join furries in the San Francisco Pride parade in June to represent their cause. Plans are in progress, but so far the answer was an enthusiastic “count us in!” This is the ongoing legacy of one inspiring man.

Dogbomb (Tony Barrett) was the reason for our call. He was a furry fan who some called “Mister Rogers with a beer,” and an ALS patient represented by the ALSAOCC. Thousands of fandom members united for his cause, bringing six figures in charity donations — (another story for another article this week.)

After Dogbomb passed away, Furry Twitter was filled with profile pics gone black with a rainbow lei to represent him. Hashtags, toasts, memories and plans were shared in his honor. There was hardly anywhere in the fandom where his presence wasn’t felt. But because his work directed this positive energy far outside of the group, here’s a story about effects that may not have been seen, as told by ALS patient advocates.

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February 27, 2019

Myre: The Chronicles of Yria volume 1, by Alectorfencer – review by Roz Gibson

by Dogpatch Press Staff

Welcome to Roz Gibson, furry artist and animator in Southern California. Roz was guest of honor at Confurence and created the Jack Salem comic character that first appeared in Rowrbrazzle in 1987. This is Roz’s furry graphic novel review part 1 of 6 on the way. Read in order as they post: 1) Myre 2) Angelic Book 1  3) Marney the Fox 4) Shanda the Panda  5) Cinderfrost 6) Tim’rous Beastie. See Roz’s tag for the rest. Roz is a community access guest and contents are hers.

Myre: The Chronicles of Yria volume 1 

Art and story by Claudya (Alectorfencer) Schmidt
Story and Dialogue by Matt (2 the Ranting Griffin) Davis

One of the most popular artists working in the furry genre, German Alectorfencer ran a very successful crowd funding campaign to produce her graphic novel magnum opus: Myre: the Chronicles of Yria #1. It was published in January 2017 as a hardcover and trade paperback. Sometime this year a spin-off graphic novel called Haunter of Dreams will be released, and in the autumn of 2019 production will begin on chapter 2 of Myre. 

Now I’ve pointed out many times that the fandom is littered with carcasses of epic multi-part graphic novels that fizzled out after 1 volume, when the artists realized what a huge amount of work it is for basically no money. (I will give props to Heathen City for actually lasting 3 issues before dying, which is 2 better than most of them). Even if Alectorfencer manages to get #2 done, I’m not sure how much momentum she or the public will be able to maintain if it takes 4 or 5 years between volumes. 

So how is Myre? The production values are great—rich color printing on heavy stock. Unfortunately it suffers from a very common problem with digital printing—everything is too dark. Art that looks good on the screen often prints dark. I’ve seen this in other color comics, particularly ones that use the fully painted technique. I assume there’s ways to avoid that issue, since most of the pro published books look OK, but that’s not my area of expertise. 

The story is a western with fantasy trappings. After a brief world-creation and downfall myth involving dragons at the beginning, the rest of Volume 1 is the protagonist Myre (dressed in a poncho, hat and perpetually dangling cigarette like Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name) wandering around a desolate landscape with her faithful dragon steed. When she runs out of ‘fuel’ for her cigarette lighter (I guess they don’t have matches here…) she ends up getting injured by some thugs while trying to buy more, taken to a wise old man for healing, sent on an errand to a distant city, runs into more trouble there, and that’s basically volume 1. 

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December 21, 2018

Furry movie lovers – what’s this (F3) thing coming to Utah?

by Patch O'Furr

If you find yourself in Utah and want fun in Salt Lake City, follow the secret furry scent trail to Fluff Party. And if you sniff a whiff of popcorn, it might be the newest coolest thing I’ve been wanting to see. This is an idea whose time has come.

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