Tails and Tornadoes Fur Con 2021 a Dapper Success Over Labor Day Weekend!
The following is a Newsletter written by the Vice Chair for Tails and Tornadoes, Koori Kitty
After almost two years of uncertainty caused by the pandemic, Tails and Tornadoes Fur Con made its triumphant return to the Southern Hills Tulsa Marriott hotel over Labor Day weekend, September 3-5,2021. The convention, led by Koori Kitty (President / Vice Chair) and Mattew (Chair) provided a safe and fun atmosphere for furry convention goers during the weekend. During the event, TTFC raised more than $6000 for their charity, Safari's Sanctuary. In addition, TTFC welcomed more than 568 attendees and over 160 fursuiters in the parade.
This year's convention theme, "Rawring 20's" was originally intended for the event scheduled in 2020, which was to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the "Roaring 20's" era complete with art, dapper costumes and decor. However, due to the pandemic, TTFC along with many other events were forced to postpone. There were many challenges and difficult decisions to be made when planning for the return of furry conventions after what we experienced in 2020. We spent many long hours planning and meeting with various teams, government officials, and our hotel team to ensure attendees not only had the best experience but the safest experience possible
Like many conventions, TTFC implemented a variety of pandemic safety measures, including required mask wearing coupled with vaccine proof or negative test results. The convention took great care in making sure the health of their attendees, staff and guests were priority. Although challenging at first, TTFC's staff came together and sucessfully screened hundreds of guests.
Guests of Honor
This year, TTFC welcomed several Guests of Honor. Unfortunately due to the pandemic and scheduling conflicts, only two were able to physically be present (Pepper Coyote and Omnomnom Squirrel). However, in light of this, a third Guest of Honor Splat (Omnomnom's fiancé), joined attendees for live panels virtually via a creative conference-call setup in real panel rooms.
During the event, TTFC's Guests of Honor actively participated in many activities, including volunteering in the registration line (thank's Pepper!). In addition, Pepper and Omnom threw multiple amazing concerts together in front of hundreds of attendees. Pepper's show, which was acoustic only featured several tracks from his "Blast Radius" album. To give attendees the best experience, he hosted an all-ages (PG/PG-13) show, and then later on in the evening hosted his infamous "After Dark" show, featuring some of his more spicy, popular songs. In addition, Omnom performed a few songs from his rock band, "Run Definitely Run!" for convention goers.
TTFC's "virtual" guest of honor, Splat presented several panels pertaining to running a business, along with fursuit building and care. In addition, she joined her fiance along with Pepper in the popular "Guest of Honor Q&A" panel later during the convention.
Dealers and Art
This year, TTFC expanded its dealer program to include a new "artist alley" space, which expanded the ability of artists and creators to sell their product and build their businesses. 2021 showed an increase in dealer and artist revenue over 2019, leading many artists to announce their plans to return again in 2022.
Charity
This year's charity, Safari's Sanctuary based in Broken Arrow, OK is an exotic wildlife rescue supported and driven by local community volunteers. Due to the pandemic, the charity faced many challenges maintaining funding along with staffing required to operate the facility, which is not open to the public. Attendees however were excited to learn more about how they could contribute to this charity, whose sole mission is to give these animals a "forever home" after being rescued from situations where individuals tried to keep them as pets.
The sanctuary provides daily care and veteranary services to each of their 200+ animals, ranging from big cats, wolves, reptiles, birds, and other exotic creatures. Their outreach program, "Zoo2u" is intended to educate the public about the story of each animal, and also to raise awareness of the difficulty of having exotic species as a pet. The sanctuary operates every day of the year, starting at 8am, and is always looking for volunteers. This year, TTFC attendees raised over $6000 in support of this organization.
Planning for 2022
TTFC hopes to do even better than before, encouraging the feedback and input of their attendees and staff members. During closing ceremonies, TTFC announced their new theme for 2022, "Ren-Fur," a medieval / renaissance throwback of the ages. The convention will be held next Labor Day weekend, September 2-4, 2022 at the Southern Hills Tulsa Marriott Hotel. Booking information, and pre-registration details will be made available on the TTFC website sometime in December.
About the author
Koori Kitty — read stories — contact (login required)an IT manager and Tiger from Tulsa, OK, interested in djing, it, travel and art
Comments
I have received information from various anonymous sources that one of your staff started bad mouthing Pepper immediately after the con. Is this true and if so, why would you bad mouth one of your own Guests of Honor? I hope the information I received is wrong, but I need you all to check and confirm. If that's true, you could lose GOHs in the future as well.
-Anonymous Inari
Okay, assfuck; don't fucking come at us with "I really think, really, truly, guys, that the obvious fucking revenge con isn't actually a revenge con" and then instantly, and fucking without pause, start fucking beef with the con that the revenge con was started to combat. I mean, fucking Christ, how stupid do you think we are? Jesus.
Holy shit, we ran your crap article so you and your friends (and also Rakuen Growlithe) couldn't scream "cancelculturecancelculturecancelculture" at us and no other reason; now hurry up and disappear back into the fucking ether you suddenly appeared from like was always the plan from the beginning, and for fuck's sake, stop brown-nosing the editors, that's just gross.
You want to come back as an editor? I mean you're saying 'we' so. Why not make it official if you're going to be so invested :)
Just for anyone new 2Cross2Affliction was an editor up to 2017 and stepped down, the motivations of publication were not discussed with him. The fox is making an assumption here on publication motivations.
I would agree that this really does reveal the primary motivation quite intensely though. I guess that's one way to prove things. Always like doing things the long way around I suppose.
Yes, I am making an assumption, but if I recall the Ike the Dragon article, basically "Rakuen Growlithe would want me to" was a stated motivation for publishing it (which, of course, ended in Rakuen asking why we published it in the most infuriatingly Rakuen moment of all time; I see that he has commented, don't spoil where he stands this time, I want to experience this for myself). Also, 2cross2affliction never edited; that was some other guy, crassaddiction or something, I don't remember.
I don't know how Tails and Tornadoes became the one furry convention we somehow still have an actual working relationship with, but may they live forever.
It was more of a GreenReaper ideal of "Well you published your opinion on it, you should help them publish their side too" kind of thing.
Of which I had noted that it wouldn't quite help the bias thing because their article wasn't all that good and would be like putting Mohammad Ali in the ring with a baby in a carriage and calling it a fair fight.
To which he essentially shrugged.
Not direct quotes obviously but that was about the gist of it.
Guess a kangaroo will get to punch some babies... there's a 2 Gryphon joke in there somewhere.
Okay, I can believe that (and Green Reaper is right, and honestly, even Rakuen was right back in the day
until he then went changed his mind).
I didn't change my mind there. You had constructed a version of what I believed which was not the same as what I believed.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
Don't worry about it, but I will tease you forever. You know that, right?
We'd also received this newsletter by that time - which was solicited within the original opinion piece. I felt to publish both of those while demoting opposing views to the comments would be biased, or at least appear to be so, even if motivated by concerns over substance.
Of course, while we polish what's submitted, it is not our job to make an author's case for them, or to ensure there are good points to start with (which, after all, is a matter of opinion).
Ah, so you think this is about revenge. As a journalist, I have to follow on leads, even if they are on cons in the same hotel. Just because I wrote an article favoring one con, doesn't mean I'm not going to write another for the con that they were sharing a hotel with until recently. Also, if you look closely, I mention I want to register for TTFC, but the turbulence has been a bit much for me to commit to going to them for myself. Trust me, I wouldn't do things if I didn't need to follow up on things. Funny thing is that I have received reports that Koori claims to have written Sonious' article on TTFC meaning that he has in effect written 2 articles about TTFC on Flayrah. I would hope this isn't correct either as it shows a major bias towards one particular person. News and article publishing should always be as impartial as possible (granted you are right, I had a bias in my article about FFA). If TTFC runs next year, I may attend it in person to see everything for myself and give a review article then. And if FFA runs in 2023 (as I said in my article, we will see if it's actually going to happen or not soon), then I plan on attending there and giving a review on them as well. I'll also be attending TFF this year when they move to the Sheraton as well. I go wherever and pull news from various sources. I ask to get information and I don't care if that's viewed as biased or not. That's integrity to me.
-Anonymous Inari
The 2 articles you claim are about about TTFC are not about the convention itself.
One is about the convention that was announced to take place in the same hotel as TTFC, this one is about the actual event of TTFC 2021. If you have an issue with their proximity you can blame AWOO for announcing their convention a week before TTFC was held.
You aren't going to be a great journalist if you fail at basic reading comprehension. Perhaps you ought to work on that first.
Koori had no influence over my words in my article, if he did why would I have communicated to him through the article itself?
You aren't some hero in a Tom Clancy novel, just because you're caught in a web of manipulation doesn't mean the rest of us are, get over yourself.
Then why do insiders in TTFC say that Koori claimed to have written said article you posted? Mind clearing that up for me? I'm not trying to be a hero, I'm trying to get everything straight so there's no bull going around. Yes, I will mess up and some bull will slip through from time to time, but I will do my damnedest to not slip up and allow things to get completely out of hand.
-Anonymous Inari
How would he know why they claim that? And where is this claim?
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
For the record, I knew nothing about the FFA article until I found it on Twitter. The only articles published on Flayrah by me are the two recaps... One from 2019 and then 2021. :)
Buddy, you're just not very good at this. I mean, you talk about "integrity", but you've managed to start two, count'em two unsubstantiated rumors in this comment section alone.
You've claimed you have "information" saying "someone" bad mouthed a guest; well, share the information, asshole. Next, just a little "funny thing", but you've received "reports" that Koori wrote an article credited to Sonious (for some reason), but, you know, no need to share those reports at all. Funny thing, because, see, it's funny because it's not true.
You have no history here, your screenname is literally "anonymous", Google searches only bring up your Flayrah account (and some admittedly neat Japanese fox artwork, but I don't think you're responsible for that). Just setting aside that you seem to have gone to some effort to make sure we know nothing about you, which is kinda sus (do kids still say that?), the upshot of all that is the only two things we have ever seen you do are 1. enthusiastically endorse Free Fur All, and b. spread vicious and unsubstantiated rumors about Tails and Tornadoes.
Your "integrity" is doodoo.
Ah, so you know this is about revenge. As a journalist, I have to follow on revenge, even if they are on revenge in the same hotel. Just because I wrote an article favoring one revenge, doesn't mean I'm not going to write another for the revenge that they were sharing revenge with until recently. Also, if you look closely, I mention I want to register for revenge, but the revenge has been a bit much for me to commit to revenge for myself. Trust me, I wouldn't do revenge if I didn't need to follow up on revenge. Funny thing is that I have received reports that Koori claims to have written Sonious' article for revenge meaning that he has in effect written 2 articles about revenge on Flayrah. I would hope this isn't correct either as the revenge shows a major bias towards one particular revenge. News and article publishing revenge should always be vengeful as possible (granted you are right, I had a bias in my article about revenge). If revenge runs next year, I may attend it in person to see everything for myself and give a revenge article then. And if revenge runs in 2023 (as I said in my article, we will see if revenge is actually going to happen or not soon), then I plan on revenge there and giving revenge on them as well. I'll also be attending revenge this year when they revenge to the Sheraton as well. I go wherever and pull revenge from various sources. I ask to get revenge and I don't care if that's viewed as revenge or not. That's revenge to me.
Haha~~ Got a hard on to try to make me look bad just like you have a hard on to make anything look bad that doesn't follow y'alls groupthink, eh? Too bad that your life turned into one where you can only get hard raging at someone behind a computer who is trying to do their journalistic duty and job~
-Anonymous Inari
Haha~~ Got a hard on to deny to look denialist just like you have a hard on to make anything denialist that doesn't deny y'alls denial, eh? Too bad that your denial turned into one where you can only deny hard denying someone behind a computer who is denying to do their denialist duty and job~
I personally know Pepper and the other GoH's. We are great personal friends. Even in disagreements him and I share constructive criticism, which of course is the appropriate thing to do. I know that even sometimes others may disagree with things he did or said (which is completely healthy, right?) but at the end of the day, we all had a great time, and continue to pursue our friendships together. Pepper and the other guests we've had in the past are a part of our family, and we welcome them.
So, no answer to the question other than to claim all of the GOHs and yourself are friends. Got it. "Board member refused to answer question about staff dissing GOH directly. Instead claims GOHs are friends with them."
-Anonymous Inari
Let's see here... From a telegram user named Aloha Wolf in your staff chat? Interesting. "I love Pepper . . . but he's a rolling dumpster fire on social media." Which an Istanbul replied "He gave me headaches." This doesn't speak well that GOHs are your "friends".
-Anonymous Inari
In your article didn't you note that GOHs *shouldn't* be those that are simply popular with the staff or fandom at large?
Now you're saying they should be?
Which is it?
Twist my words some more? I'm not stating what you're trying to insinuate I'm stating. I'm stating that no matter the GOH (popular in the fandom or not), no one will bite at becoming a GOH if your staff bad mouths the GOHs that attended the con. Because this happened and no one (to this agency's knowledge) has been held accountable for said actions against their own GOH they had, they'll more than likely lose possible GOHs in the future.
-Anonymous Inari
You’re making extremely broad assumptions based on relatively few facts in evidence.
If they were talking about how much they hated the GOH and wanted him to die in a dumpster fire, you might be onto something, but you’re treating this like a major shocking revelation which will do incredible damage to the con and there’s just not a lot to this “controversy.”
And, you know, it’s probably not lost on any attentive audience member that you’ve burst onto the scene with an opinion piece arguing about how everyone should stop picking on FFA, which you’re sure isn’t a revenge con plotted by alienated former TTFC staffers (even though you’re completely unable to verify who any of the staff members are), and now you’re in the comments of a positive con report on TTFC expressing your shock and horror at how terribly they treated their GOH by (checks notes) saying “I love Pepper Coyote, but…” in a staff chat.
For the record, I too love Pepper Coyote, but he’s a rolling dumpster fire on social media.
— Chipotle
Let me turn that back around on you.
They will know about it if it's reported and not swept under the rug like so many issues today have been.
You call it mild criticism but if GOHs see their social media is going to be checked (and I will obviously make a hypothetical assumption here) as far back as let's say 2010, even if they were a "bad" person then people do change and thus their past statements do not reflect their present state.
Now, looking through his Twitter, Pepper has different view points on things than I do, yes. But does that make him a "dumpster fire"? No. I don't see anything where he could be labeled a "dumpster fire", at least not yet anyway (I will keep scrolling and see if I can find any tweets that make him a "dumpster fire").
Now while it is likely that some may shrug and move on, if others have any "controversial" or moderate conservative, not similar tweets to the rest of the fandom, or don't voice support X issue or Y issue, then they are a [insert insult/slur here]. No one should be forced to take a side, which is what we've done to people we love to see.
So say what you will but this is a disturbing trend that speaks of bias within the staff. And I guarantee you if FFA has this issue, I will call them out on it. That's a promise. As stated, The Anonymous Inari is an independent news agency doing research into various news articles. We've got articles that we're writing right now on various issues like the ability of sexual predators to hide from the fandom due to lack of background checks readily available, the change in the furry fandom over the past decade and a half, and the effect of COVID on Furry Conventions Worldwide.
-Anonymous Inari
Why are you scrolling through the guy's tweets? Do your criticisms suddenly go away if you personally agree with their "bad-mouthing"?
Nope. But at the same time people can agree to disagree.
-Anonymous Inari
So "unsubstantiated rumor no. 1" has been upgraded to "that's it?" Yay, we did it! Still no link! That would have been nice!
Okay, "unsubstantiate rumor no. 2" has ... not been addressed at all. So that one's still bullshit, then? Okay.
Also, really, stop calling yourself an "agency", that's just embarrassing.
Tbf, if I was going to be intimidated, having Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps as one's pfp, would not be the way to do it. Especially if you're going to use profanity to try to put someone down.
-Anonymous Inari
Okay, can I pretty please with cherries on top, see some evidence for your "Koori/Sonious" connection? Then, we can have ice cream and frolic in the park and be best friends forever!
Is that better?.
Well, anyway, while we're here ...
You know you someone who knows someone. That is some A+ sourcing right there.
Journalistic Achievement Unlocked: Double Anonymous - Use an anonymous source while reporting anonymously! -500 Journalistic Integrity Points!
So... If we reverse the consequences, since Chipotle just said something critical about Pepper Coyote, does that mean he qualifies for a con staff position?
That's barely a criticism. I'm pretty sure my friends have said worse of me and I've probably said worse of people that I like. Not everyone on the staff has to like or agree with every GOH and they should be free to say so without outside interference. It's not bad mouthing to discuss your views of an event in private with other event organisers. Just drop it because this is a complete non-issue.
"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."
~John Stuart Mill~
If he thinks such a small bemoaning disagreement is a huge slight, then it's no wonder he empathizes with those in power oustered because of meany meany faces disagreeing with them.
With friends like these, who needs Inari? 😼
Popular musicians are hardly an unusual source of drama... and most know it. Similarly, con staff tend to gripe - in private, to other staff - about issues which may impact their organization. (I wouldn't be surprised if this included Flayrah and/or myself from time to time.)
Istanbul's role is directly related to social media; he'd be expected to comment on a social media issue. That is, in part, his job. Given how guests reflect on cons, it might be useful information to the guest team to consider for next year. Social media postings are (usually) public, so they don't have to trust a private opinion. They can look at the tweets and judge for themselves.
I'm more curious as to why you're so persistent in trying to drive a wedge between this con and its future guests by unveiling what is, on the face of it, a relatively mild gripe about one. Could it be that you have a vested interest in another local con succeeding? Or perhaps, you're not a fan of the staff in question...
Because this isn't the first time they've done something like this (keep in mind I know someone who knows all the people who started this con)? Because some of the staff have a history of turning gripes into mob warfare? Because they can't hold themselves accountable? Take your pick.
-Anonymous Inari
Good work this year, and thanks again for providing the letter and taking the time to put it together for us.
Of course! I am happy you allow us to share our successes with your readers. We hope to continue this traditional newsletter. :)
I loved TTFC, I'd absolutely love to come back in 2022!
I'm a different furry with different opinions.
Debut Album out now go stream it plz
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/cassidycivet/double-take
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