Guest post by Arrkay from Culturally F’d, the furry youtube channel. See their tag on Dogpatch Press for more.
It’s #FursuitFriday which means twitter floods with pictures of our fluffy creations. It’s also the time for us at Culturally F’d and Dogpatch to look back at some Fursuit History. Make sure to catch up on Part 1: Masks and start your own exploration of animal costume performance with Culturally F’d.
Good afternoon, Dogpatch Press readers. Last month was pretty big for us – it had our news satire show What’s Yiffin’? debut on this website. Nobody tried to kill us or call us mean names or whatever, so I guess that means it was well received. If that’s the case, then today ought to be a great day for some of you, because we’ve got the March edition of the series ready to go. Thank you for making What’s Yiffin’? a part of your entertainment routine.
AND NOW THE NEWS
More details and some additional insight from the show’s writers:
Beware of costumed bandits.
I’d like to see a lurid midnight movie that crosses a criminal heist plot with a furry convention. The bandits use fursuits to go under cover. But their plans get messed up when they become accidental popufurs.
There would be unexpected coming-outs, geek tests and rave drugs, awkward costume switches, and a gauntlet of hugs and dance comps.
Is that an SPH, or is that how you keep a gun in a fursuit? Who switched the bulletproof vest with the EZ-cooldown? Is that an undercover cop, or just an extremely amorous admirer? What happened to the gold and why is the briefcase full of Bad Dragon toys? There might be reluctant yiffing to avoid blowing their cover.
What would you put in the movie?
VICE magazine is reputed to be some kind of a “hipster” bible, earning love or hate, depending on your perspective. Actually, their news documentaries have earned plenty of respect. Even when they mess with readers, it can be surprisingly informative. You can see it in their “Furries” tag. (Notice the coverage of furries and the adult-crowdfunding site Offbeatr, a topic that can’t be left out of any discussion of a “furry economy”. You won’t find many journalists covering that.)
Fashion “do’s and don’ts” is one of their well-known features. (I’m told these are actually decided by a coin flip.) Today’s “Don’t” may disappoint a few costumers, and inspire others (like me): if you’re going to dress furry, don’t give it weak effort. Yiffy Sparkledogs or nothing!
I don’t follow VICE, but I’m checking in this week to see when they post my photo. One of their photographers got me to pose this weekend outside a show. I won’t post it here because my outfit wasn’t a fursuit- just a glitter-bedazzled nightmare. But it was an ensemble I did build to match a partial suit, for the right furry occasion. I’ll rock it elsewhere.
Dressing a character in endless wardrobe options is an under-appreciated partial-fursuit performance tactic, I think. The more cartoonish, the better. I have an article sitting in drafts about the fun of furry fashion experimenting. It concerns topics like ridiculous thrift store finds, that couldn’t have a better match than a fursuit.
“Patch’s fursuit fashion tips” is coming whenever I get the inspiration to finish it.
MC Crumbsnatcher‘s recently released first music video is set to be followed by a second video shoot on October 15, timed to benefit from Halloween season. The video is themed “S&M gay bar in hell”, and is meant to cross over with leather/animal costuming popular among a subset of the San Francisco furry community. It will feature a story about witches who abduct Crumbsnatcher’s love interest, a penguin.
A series of videos are set to follow, including a shoot in Las Vegas for a wedding scene of a unique nature.
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On io9, Ron Miller posted a gallery of his photos of Cosplayers from 1970’s science fiction conventions. (NSFW)
