Digging Up Positivity August 2023

Welcome to the August edition of Digging Up Positivity! with:

• Various conventions and charities around the world
• New Irish convention starting out strong
• Lion cubs born in Dutch safaripark
• A long overdue classic animated movie finally being released on Blueray and more animation news.
• A walk through the British furry fandom’s memory lane with GamePopper’s Furtannia, and afterwards I am announcing the winner.

But first, the conventions:

CanFURence

In Ontario, Canada we had 1,107 critters raising $8,648.30 US for the Ottawa Paw Pantry. A food bank for low income pet owners that fell upon hard times.

AnthroIrish

As the furry fandom keeps on growing, more and more furry conventions are being founded. Where in Ireland we already had some excellent furmeets, it was just a matter of time before their first full fledged furry convention! From August 5th through the 6th there was AnthroIrish with 131 visitors, and their guest of honour was CaseyExplosion, who's known for her amazing charity streams!

Speaking of which: They were raising funds for the Irish Blood Transfusion Services. The amount will be announced at a later date.

DEFCON Furs

It is well known furries are everywhere, especially in IT, so it comes to no surprise that there was a furry party at the oldest continuously running hacker convention around: Enter the DEFCON furs. Who raised $5,000 (US) for Equality Florida Institute Inc.

Wild Prairie Fur Con

In Canada we had Wild Prairie Fur Con where 326 wonderful attendees raised $3,937.16 (US) for the D’Arcy’s Animal Rescue Center. A shelter devoted to cats and dogs from situations of abandonment, homeless, neglect and abuse.

Four lions cubs born in Safaripark Beekse Bergen (NL)

Earlier this month, 4 new lion cubs were born in Dutch Safaripark De Beekse Bergen. This is for the first time in 6 years! Initially 5 were born, but unfortunately one little one did not make it because mostly because a lioness can ideally only feed 4 cubs at a time. So a 5th contender surviving is very rare, as it often goes in nature, according to the staff. For the time being, the proud momma and her cubs won’t be venturing out for the public for the time being. But who knows, in the near future they might.

I like turtles

The new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is out! Mutant Mayhem. While I still have to see it for myself, the hype is real! And one of the publicity stunts they pulled was to get the kid from the ancient but famous meme ‘I like turtles’ for their campaign! He has returned, in the same costume as from old, saying the famous line, as covered by IGN.

Cat’s Don’t Dance coming to BluRay

I still remember it fondly, seeing Cat’s Don’t Dance on Eurofurence 4 in 1998. To this day it remains one of my favourite animations of all time. The seamless 2D and 3D integration, the fluid animation, the story and the great songs never quite left my heart.

However, it is one with a tragic backstory. While the animators delivered a true passion project, the movie itself never got the chance it deserved thanks to studio politics. But! In September the Blueray is finally coming out! Finally we can see the lovely adventures of Danny the dancing cat in glorious 4k.

Mr.Blue Sky

One catchy and lovely tune, Mr.Blue Sky which I would LOVE to have in the background but well, copyright, Youtube and stuff.

Inspira Stop Motion made a really cool stop motion video clip for it, including a ‘Behind the scene!’, I really recommend to check it out. You can find the link to the song and the behind the scene in the description or in the top right corner!

Take a break Bro!

Animator Toniko Pantoja released an interesting video about when an animation is done, including a short animation called Take a Break Bro! He raises a few key points that I have been struggling with myself. When is a project done? What makes a project feel unfinished? Is it true that art is never finished, but is abandoned?

Questions I have been struggling with myself. The animated short he released with this is where 2 pups are playing ball, and accidentally get across a working husky animator. How will they convince him to take a break? Go check it out!

Postybirb / Bluesky

Speaking of BlueSky, the social media site with the same name seems to gain quite some traction now! Unfortunately it's still only accessible with an invite code, which is becoming less difficult to get by the day as more and more furs come on board, it still feels a lot like the USS Enterprise in the movie Star Trek: Generations. Where the ship looks amazing, but some of the features are not installed just yet.

On the other hand we have Mastodon, where quite some furs are finding their new home as well, but with its different philosophy and federated nature, it does not have the traction of BlueSky. But one thing is for sure! A lot of people are bidding the blue bird, or we will say the formally blue bird, farewell due to the new managements’ decisions that, I must admit, I find quite counterproductive myself.

However, both myself, many artists, and other furry entrepreneurs, we go where our audience is, and we have found ourselves having to post to many websites at once, which can be quite a chore. So in come PostyBirb! Which is an open source project where you can schedule posts for many networks, including quite some furry destinations! Such as FurAffinity, The Furry Network, SoFurry, Deviantart, but also Twitter, Mastodon, and since the last update, BlueSky. Check out the link in the
description!

They sure made my life a lot easier.

Featurette: Game Popper

[Interview]

Thank You

Thank you so much for staying with us till the very end! As promised, the winner of the Furtannia book is: Blaze The Fire Wolf!

Please do contact me through either the form, or other social media before the next episode on September 30th.

Of course, for more Thabo stuff, check out my Twitch, Artwork Tee store, and if you are feeling extra generous, drop a coin and support this lovely channel through Youtube, Subscribestar or Patreon like the following critters: Cosmik with a K, Els Deckers, Falconeo, Hanzana, Ishnula, Manick, Tantroo McNally, Taross, and Score Chaser.

Thank you all for your love and support. Remember! You are loved, and all the hugs.