Dogpatch Press

Fluff Pieces Every Week

“Nerd culture” debate reveals agendas

by Patch O'Furr

A spiky debate! – Us vs. “Women” – Princesses to save – “Nigerian princes” who represent us – Yes Virginia, Santa Claus has problems too – Please put down the clipboards

Us vs. “Women”

The always dependable writer for [adjective][species], JM Horse, has a point/counterpoint about “Furry Fandom: All Humans Welcome”. His answer, “Dogpatch Press on Women,” rolls out dishonest agendas in the title. It’s nicely written mischaracterization. It divides us into opposing camps of arbitrary identity, rather than self-chosen participation. It pushes “white knighting” for a subset of us, presuming to speak for that one, with misguided intentions that condescend to ALL of us. (Sorry for that term I’d rather not use. It’s no more respectful than “sexist”, but no other fits.)

“All Humans Welcome” isn’t about women, but everyone who makes a culture. (It also doesn’t respond to specific sources, as much as address “nerd culture” in general.) It’s about how we choose to be. Nobody’s passive, when we’re glued together by interest and DIY creativity. We’re accused of being “inherently sexist”, but is it true? Not any more than we’re inherently evil. Sexism is just one human state of mind… like greed, self-serving protectionism, or tolerance. Whatever you are, speak for yourself.

Read the rest of this entry »

John Waters, Furries and “Plushies”- how valid is the term?

by Patch O'Furr

johnwatersJohn Waters is a great character and his interviews always make me laugh. He has a place in San Francisco. He says his movie Pink Flamingos paid for it. He hangs at a certain dive bar here, and rides a certain bus line. My buddy who lives across from Yoshi’s knows which one. We went there to see him perform This Filthy World. (“His one-man show concerning his origins in the trash genre and his successful career navigating Hollywood.”)

Despite the content of John’s movies, the crowd was quite unfabulously dressed for good taste. My buddy’s Clownface drag outfit stood out like we were at a square dance.

At the end, John took a few questions from the stage. Thanks to the outfit, he couldn’t avoid noticing my hand up. I yelled out to the theater: “When are you going to come hang with the furries?”
Read the rest of this entry »

Pet food graphics – furry ads to feed your friends

by Patch O'Furr

cat-and-dog-covers

The Furry Meter is easy to activate with cereal commercial mascots, or saturday morning cartoons. This may be a little more subliminal, but add pet food advertising. Read about it in Cartoon Kittens and Big-Eyed Puppies: How We Bought Into Processed Pet Food.

When they first started canning the stuff, it was enough to just put a big DOG or CAT on the label. (I guess people just got FOOD. These days, the FDA has slightly more complicated guidelines.) Marketing matured, and turned anthropomorphic –

In the 1950s and beginning of the ’60s, the designers working in the lithography shops that produced can labels continued the visual traditions established on fruit- and vegetable-crate labels, often depicting realistic-looking cats and dogs. Artists at ad agencies developed the campaigns for pet food packaged in boxes and bags. Eventually, both began to be influenced by the culture of the mid-20th century, from comic books, to Walt Disney, to television, especially Saturday-morning cartoons, which were sponsored, in no small part, by breakfast-cereal brands.

For psychology, they say shapes of pet food (bones, fish, etc.) appeal to pet owners because cats and dogs don’t usually do their own shopping. (Mine just barks out a list of what to get. I’m obedient like that.) It inspires how to market anything “when the users of a product aren’t the decision makers.” As an $11 billion a year industry, you know they invest a lot of thought into how this works.

That’s just a nibble of the stuff you can find in the just-published “Cat Food for Thought: Pet Food Label Art, Wit & Wisdom.”

Did Ke$ha rip off the Furry video of this indie rapper?

by Patch O'Furr

In 2012, I helped MC Crumbsnatcher and crew from San Francisco’s local art scene make his Furry music video for his song, Let’s Get to Humpin’. I’m the Husky fursuit dancer, and I hooked up some of the background dancers with Bunnywarez costumes on a shoestring budget. (Paying a costume maker in strings isn’t easy, let me tell you.)

Crumbsnatcher met Ke$ha, and gave her some of his work. A few months later, her own “Furry” video was released… and Crumbsnatcher claims it’s suspiciously influenced by his work. At the 3:40 mark, you get a minute of comparison. This is NSFW for dirty gay lyrics and sexy dancing.

Read the rest of this entry »

Talking with the directors of College Humor’s “Furry Force”

by Patch O'Furr

Interview series:  Artists, animation directors, DJ’s and event organizers, superfans, and more…

Furry Force just released it’s second episode. It stars super gross furry heroes, who bring sexy justice to villains like Victor Vivisector. Here’s Rich, the talented animation director at it’s Toronto studio. (It’s written by Brian Murphy and Adam Conover, who says “This video shouldn’t even be legal”.)
victor
Read the rest of this entry »

How furries helped Jei Cheetah reach an impossible goal

by Patch O'Furr

Amazing… I saw Jei share that 3 years ago, he was 300 lbs and could only watch others dance. If you can’t dance, you can still watch and learn from videos. Now this cheetah is a dancer. Because of you furries! What a story. This is why I love furries so much. <3 After I saw his video, I asked him to tell his story.


Read the rest of this entry »

BLFC’s little snags and big success

by Patch O'Furr

Part 3 of 3

Reno, NV used to be the Wild West. It reminds me of bison, cowboys, cattlemen and sheepmen. Freedom had a lot to do with animals and boundary fights.

On frontiers of culture, furries have a colorful little corner where lines are pushed between normal and weird.

(Pic by PictureNV)

(Pic by PictureNV)

When I started to write about BLFC, I felt sorry about including some gossip in my last year’s con report. I’d love to balance it with pure positivity. It mostly related to locals from Reno, and the way they looked at the con. It was mild conflict between grey conservatism, and colorful, younger, wilder furries.

Unfortunately I saw reminders of the same issues this year. Oh well, let’s be honest, and talk about security. But don’t worry. The con was wonderful.
Read the rest of this entry »

More from Reno – Biggest Little Fireside Chat

by Patch O'Furr

Part 2 of 3

(Pic from Hahul.)

(Pic from Hahul.)

You’re at a smarty-pants club that smells of leather bound books and rich mahogany. The wisest animals are here. On a perch, Archimedes Owl thinks egghead thoughts. In a corner, The Great Mouse Detective gives him an eyeball and orates about the rat race. By the bar, a beatnik goat sips espresso and beardily strokes his beard. A sniffy elephant waiter serves a snifter of spirits. Your armchair is waiting. Bring your favorite tweed jacket, and rest your elbow-pads and paw-pads. Have a chess game by the fire and let’s converse.

Now switch the scene to a con hotel room. There’s cartoons everywhere, fursuiters chugging Monster energy drinks, and party music thumping thru the wall. Ooontz oontz oontz. Shove some stuff off the bed, play video games and hang out.

There wasn’t actual fire in the hotel, but when you hang out with furries… you never know…
After Part 1, here’s how smarty-pants it got with Dane, a fur con newcomer.
Read the rest of this entry »

Biggest Little Fur Con brings new wave of furs for a second record-breaking year

by Patch O'Furr

(Pic: EmptySetArt and Trip Collie.)

(Pic: EmptySetArt and Trip Collie.)

Part 1 of 3

On March 28-30, 2014, fur met hair band style, for the radical 1980’s-themed Biggest Little Fur Con.

In 2013, I really enjoyed attending the first BLFC in Reno, NV. It had a healthy attendance of 704. At the second BLFC, attendance shot up to 1442 (including 465 costumers in the parade). It broke the 2nd, 3rd, AND 4th year furry convention attendance record. With 105% growth, it became the 7th largest con by attendance at this time. Whoah, dude!

This is a sign of burgeoning subculture. It was a super positive experience. I loved dancing with the 80’s theme, representing it in costume, and playing retro video games in a nicely hooked up game room. (I heard high praise from another con’s game room organizer.) My favorite part was fursuiters on go-karts.

I’d love to give a well-rounded review about the programming, the hard work of the organizers, and charity benefit results. But I didn’t actually DO a lot more than bounce around like an escapee from the Bubble Bobble machine. So… What was your favorite part, fuzzies?
Read the rest of this entry »

College Humor’s Furry Superheroes Get Even Grosser

by Patch O'Furr

Yay! There’s a sequel to the hilarious animated series, Furry Force! Furry Superheroes Get Even Grosser:


Read the rest of this entry »