Music cut from 2023 Ursa Major Awards after 'squabbling'

Y'know, I deleted twitter off my phone the same day I posted that tweet. I didn't look at it again until like a few days later. It would be a very funny thing for someone to pay bots to like the tweet. Bravo to whoever did. But that's a stupid thing for me to do, it's sooooooo obvious. This is a fandom full of IT people.

Oh, and Helluva Boss apparently just won something called a Queerty, so good for them!

Honestly, I'm still like, "Okay, that's the one that got her canceled? Like, have you met her?"

We're still Internet friends, I don't give a shit, but she can be a little pill sometimes.

Preface this with this comment is also in reply to Sonious's comment upthread, I'm just combining my replies, so if you're reading this and think to yourself "what the fuck, I wasn't talking about that at all", well, yes, actually, I may not be talking to you at all specifically at the moment (alternatively, I may all just be rambling incoherently, that does happen).

I'm not sure if you're talking about "pulling the plug" on the Ursa Majors as a whole, or just the Music category. I mean, both seem possibilities. Following the "Carry On" drama two years back, yes, they may get sick of all the drama, but even if they just decide to "Carry On" themselves, well, they did note that funding has been an issue for a while. (I see Kathy Garrison has returned to her category after a year of absence, and she didn't get greedy this time so best of luck to her, genuinely, I mean, I don't really have a horse in that race, anyway.) I think the Leos shuttering this year (though they were smaller, more specific and younger, with less momentum behind them) kind of had a damning line in their final post with "there are more writers than readers" and though I think they meant "reader judges for our award" I think it's very possible they did not (I mean, I'm pretty well aware I write for an "organization" who's viewcounts sometimes reach high double digits on a good day).

But that also brings me to the actual Music category, which is, ironically, a category that neither the average voter nor the awards administrators either wanted or much cared about, they just got bullied into it by a couple of musicians (including definitely Cassidy, and given Klace's history with the awards, I'm sure he chimed in a bit). Like, that drama grew out of argument about what constitutes "furry music" is ironic, because to most furries, music isn't furry.

I've already said I'm Internet friends with Cassidy, but that mostly means reading reposted Tweets from musicians complaining they don't get any respect from furries, and honestly, no, you don't get any respect. Like, great, you did a DJ set for a dance or even a concert; well, I guess we had to do something after most of the main con events were done for the day but before the room parties really start, and karaoke and the stand up open mic were the other nights. The comedians aren't out here arguing for a "Best Stand Up" comedian at the Ursa Majors, because that's stupid. And, theoretically, if I had to pick a side in the "does furry music have to be about furry?" debate, I'd take Cassidy's side, at least she's trying to make it furry, but, once again, only theoretically, because practically, filk usually sucks.

And I kind of have to agree with Howie Mandel (who X-ed Cassidy off the Canada's Got Talent reality competition very quickly, Google it you missed that chapter in this saga), even if he was a jerk about it, asking "why the suit?" I don't get it, either. I get wanting to get up on a stage and sing a song for an audience, and I get wanting to show off your fursuit. But I don't get what they have to do with each other. Okay, I kind of get it, mixing your two major passions makes sense on paper, but not always in practice. But, on the other hand, I mean, if you want to be a "furry musician" but you can't even be bothered to wear the stupid suit or sing stupid songs about foxes, I mean, what's the point? It's like that time I lurked on the wrong thread on lulz.net and found myself looking at pictures taken at a unofficial room party orgy, and I was horrified to learn nobody was wearing suits. Like, if you're going to spend hundreds of dollars to pay the con fee, pay for a hotel room, travel expenses and copious amounts of lube and condoms, and then not get fucked in a fursuit, what are you even doing?

Okay, we have definitely entered "incoherent rambling" territory, let's try to get back on track.

My point it's a bad category, and reassurances to the contrary it will return, I will not miss it if it doesn't.

Now, as for Cassidy personally, well, like I said, kind of a pill, so you knew this day was coming. Doesn't make it any easier to watch, and also, once again, like, seriously, that's what finally sunk her. The Mark Merlino tweet, (which, I mean, nobody has ever used tragedy to grandstand on the Internet before, jeez), not the calling Klace white, which is actually kind of funny but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to laugh at that. But, anyway, the Merlino tweet was crass and stupid, but about a 3.5 on the "Stupid-Shit-Cassidy-Civet-Has-Tweeted" Scale. Like, I "met" her when she decided me being excited about Zootopia was a crime against furry, somehow. I was younger back in those days, more forgiving, so I decided to be the bigger man and ask her to post a trailer for some stupid documentary she thought mattered, and instead she posted an opinion piece that's pretty hard not to see as a personal attack, even if it really wasn't. Bitch.

Amusing note, but I see re-reading the piece that this is somehow, once again, all Rakuen Growlithe's fault.

Anyway, long story short, a few of the Fursonas documentary backers got it moved out of the movie category into a new "non-fiction" category so it wouldn't have to compete with Zootopia, only to have the documentary get its assed creamed by Zootopia's art book (that has very little bearing on anything, but I just like this part of the story), I forgave Cassidy anyway, even though she is still annoying (she complains about the corporate origins of Zootopia in the piece, which, fair enough, but the Venn diagram of people I follow on Twitter who complain about furries liking corporate properties and complain about furries liking independent success story Helluva Boss is a circle that can simply be labeled "Cassidy the Civet"), and I will still call her a bitch now, because I don't have her back, exactly, but I do still feel sorry for her.

I actually finally met her, for real, about two years ago, at the Tails and Tornadoes convention, and one of the things she told me was how excited she was for her upcoming collaboration with Klace, and I tried to act excited for her, like I really gave a shit, but looking back, I mean, ouch.

Not gonna. We're soldiering on. But, some of our committee are retiring after this year. They've been at this a while and they're, quite frankly, tired.

The link in question has been fixed to be https://twitter.com/CassidyTheCivet/status/1763577909053460868

When you want to be recognised within furry fandom for your music, perhaps in order to get placement at events, I imagine it is somewhat problematic to be excluded. In fairness, furries tend not to be fans of purely furry music at furry events, although perhaps that is because there is relatively little of it, or because the nature of some music does not particularly lend it to anthropomorphism (perhaps we will see more techno howls?).

I'm not sure why you're asking, because I thought I was pretty clear; The Boy and the Heron. But it would be second behind another nominated movie that should be obvious.

We won!

Actually I guess this is your list of potential winners? I got confused because voting has ended now but I guess not actually announced.

Furry MUCKs are in a strange half-life, with the largest still going but at reduced size with a few busy rooms, and a few others limping on with a handful of olayers. RP options are fragmented with e.g. F-list, and Wolfery doesn't exactly help there, but at the same time the tech needs to move forward as it's increasingly hard for people to even connect to an MUCK (they were never designed to be used in a connectionless way, despite it basically just needing a small buffer per connection).

Not sure what you mean by some of that, to be honest. Are you suggesting that the MUCKs need to change to using some kind of dedicated app with a push-notification system, or something? Because that seems like a horrible idea, seeing as how that would mean all of your MUCK activity now has to go through Apple or Google's servers to get to the intended recipients, the administrators of FurryMUCK, Tapestries, etc. would have to develop and maintain their own apps, etc.

What's so difficult about connecting to them as they are now? There are plenty of good MUCK clients out there for just about every platform already; the only difficulty I can see in attracting new people is that (A) there isn't a good "MUCKs For Dummies" resource to get them started; (B) they don't know about them because there's hardly any publicity for them; and (C), frankly, our education system has produced a couple of generations of functional illiterates who refuse to read anything longer than a Xwitter post and can't write a coherent sentence to save their lives. :-P

The first two are solvable problems; the third is probably the biggest barrier to bringing in new players, and I'm not sure how you'd overcome that one in an inherently text-based environment like a MUCK.

Well, anyway, glad you're ... alive and well ... ish? I mean, with friends like me, don't go making enemies, ha ha, but grousing aside, hope the rest of 2024 goes a little better.

This is probably what you're looking for - but remember, they're no longer officially recommended!