Dogpatch Press

Fluff Pieces Every Week

Tag: furry

January 12, 2015

FURRY GOOD IDEAS: Fursuit of the Year award and fashion show, and more.

by Patch O'Furr

One of the few search results for "fursuit fashion show."

One of the few search results for “fursuit fashion show.”

Read to bottom for Fred Patten’s informative comment that inspired this.  

In 2014, fun hobby blogging exposed me to many new ideas that could use more development.  This blog is for underexposed, underrated topics.  That’s subculture, and it’s about fan love.  I love sharing it!

Looking back at some articles about new ideas and opportunities, I think they could use a feature.  FURRY GOOD IDEAS joins previous special features here.  

I was going to call this “What Furry needs”.  But nobody really NEEDS these. This isn’t preaching what’s best for you.   It’s just observation from one enthusiastic fan, inspired by other fans.  It comes from a thriving subculture that ‘s expanding with a convention every weekend, somewhere in the world.  That makes a lot of room for ambitious proposals.  This is an attempt to highlight ideas with popular demand, appeal, or opportunity to make real.  Share yours too!

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January 7, 2015

Happy Furry New Year! A look back and what’s coming soon from Patch and Fred Patten.

by Patch O'Furr

Furry New Year from Spottacus, Majik, Maczyn, Dakota, Bakr, Cassie, Stormy, Relaxing Dragon, Cyclone, Scoob, Chairo, Trail Horse, Zarafa, Kalu, Patch, and all the Bay Area Furries. (Pic by Amenophis.)  At the San Francisco Bay Bridge, the crowd was super excited to hang out with us before the fireworks.

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It was a great year, and it’s a huge honor to host Fred Patten’s articles.

 

The blog got active in May 2014. It’s had around 3 posts and a few thousand views per week.  (All relative to focus of topics, for a small niche of fans.)

The top article of 2014 was about November’s “Wild Things” party (NSFW), with 7,000 views.  The second was about John Waters and furries. Third was about a photo art gallery show.  It’s interesting that these three involved local, live events in San Francisco.  Fourth top article was Talking with the directors of College Humor’s “Furry Force” – associated with a many-millions-viewed Youtube animation that I submitted to the Ursa Majors recommended anthropomorphics list.

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December 30, 2014

Moth and Rust, by Eddie Drueding – Fred Patten’s book review.

by Patch O'Furr

sbibb-marcoverblogSubmitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Moth and Rust, by Eddie Drueding.
White Bear Lake, MN, Melange Books, August 2014, trade paperback $13.95 ([4] + 190 [+ 5] pages).

This is Arraborough Book 3, following the 2012 Book 1, The Unimaginable Road and the 2013 Book 2, The Darkness. It will be followed by Book 4, Revelation.

Eddie Drueding’s Arraborough series, featuring his idealistic anthropomorphized animal community and the mysterious and ominous forces that oppose it, moves on to its third annual volume. If you have read the first two, get it! If you haven’t, try The Unimaginable Road first. Arraborough is not for everyone.

The comments that I made on Book 2 are even more true for Book 3. There is a two-page “The Story So Far …” that is so brief as to be more confusing than enlightening. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with all the large cast. Drueding’s habit of writing in the present tense (the story begins abruptly, “Pimlico bends down, gathers Dovan’s dead body in his arms, and rises. They remain in that position for a long moment, the cat simply too stunned to move, stunned not least of all by the very weight of Dovan in his arms, a lightness he can only feel unfitting to being the only remaining testimony to all that Dovan had been in life.”) is offputting at first. The reader may still be caught in a “Wait a minute; WHAT!?” moment from the discovery of the ancient spaceship at the climax of Book 2. Even readers familiar with the story may want to  refresh their memories- it’s been a year since Book 2 was published. What animals, again, are Tust and Fespin?

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December 24, 2014

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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December 18, 2014

“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.

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December 17, 2014

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 »

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December 16, 2014

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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December 15, 2014

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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December 11, 2014

“This Furry Life” podcast seeks storytelling contributors.

by Patch O'Furr

Flayrah reports Roo’s story:

Potoroo, host of the Fuzzy Notes podcast, is developing a new podcast that models itself after NPR’s This American Life with a focus on the stories of the furry fandom.

Roo’s blog has a call for producers/correspondents.  He wants to find a group “interested in telling stories about furry”, teach them what he knows about podcasting, hold idea meetings, divide each story between a correspondent and a producer, and be the group’s consultant to release one per month.

Interested contributors are asked to email him here:

  • Let me know what interests you about the project.
  • Let me know how much time you think you could devote in a month.
  • Tell me a few ideas you have for stories you’d like to pursue.
  • If you have already done some podcasting or writing, link me so I can see your work.

I told him it was a great idea, whose time has come.  I think story content can be more “furry” than music.  To be honest, furry talk podcasts I have heard seem unfocused with chat and filler, like “you have to know the hosts” to sustain interest.  Let’s hear some solid storytelling!

There are some excellent storytelling podcasts that have considered animating episodes using their audio.  It’s a smart way to piggyback new stuff on top of existing content.  They can take a popular story and turn it into a short film for Youtube.  Consider that for furry stories… a unique match of content and medium.  This idea REALLY needs to happen!

Potoroo was 2014 Guest of Honor at Wild Nights in Oklahoma.  See his bio there.

 

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December 9, 2014

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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